Resurrection City 1: The Adventure of the Sealed Room

[Andrew D. Gable]

Pellgraine Manor: Pastor Andrew Miller and Aiolos Shaw

Pastor Miller gathers up the cypher manuscript, and he and Aiolos sit down on the davenport, looking over the paper, extra sheets of paper from the sketches Trevor made earlier on the table. After nearly half an hour of figuring and thinking, the two come up with what seems a passable translation. Pastor Miller takes especial interest in it, as the paper seems to be a pseudo-Biblical revelation.

*****

Thus follows one of the scriptures penned by the visionary of the Order of the Brazen Midnight, Frater EIECET:

And so it was that I stood on the precipice of the watery Abyss of Knowledge, which is called Da’ath; and I came to the gates of the Veil of Paroketh, which must be rent so that one might pass over the Abyss. And at those gates stood a figure, tall and like a giant; and he sayeth unto me, "I am he called Amazarach by men, though they know me not; my duty it is to watch over these gates.

For across the Abyss which stretches below ye stands Heaven; but know ye that thou must have received upon thy person the Seal, or ye shall be accosted by that one who dwells below, that one whose name is Dionysus, or Pan, or Nodens, or Apollyon, or Prometheus, or Choronzon, or Tuchulcha. Lucifer, also, is one of his guises; he is the one known as Legion, for he is the Many. For though this is the upper branches of the Tree of Life, at the bottom of the chasm are found the roots of the tree, and the earth, and the Beast which is the lord of the earth.

Then I saw coming up out of the Abyss a dreadful apparition. Scarlet it was, and shaped like a dragon; seven heads it had, and on each of these was written one of the names Amazarach hath spake. For this, then, was the Beast, which is named Lucifer, the worm which lurketh always in Knowledge.

Just FYI, in gametime it's now about 1:15 AM.

 

[Jarval]

"I will admit, and I wish to offer no offence by this, I'm rather skeptical about what you gentlemen have told me. That creature does go quite some way towards convincing me, however." Richard hangs up his coat, before putting his bag down beside a chair.

"I've never seen anything quite like it, although my field of expertise is more the workings of the human body that zoology. Hopefully the night in the icebox will keep it in pristine condition."

 

[Old Fezziwig]

"So, what are your opinions on Arthur's... situation?" he asks as he unlocks the door to the suite.

Diggory thinks for a moment. "I think it's remarkable that even the most outlandish situations occur because of normal human emotions. I've always been prone to believe that the extraordinary happened for extraordinary reasons, but the situation here is mostly rooted in the mundane. It's all jealousy.

"I've found two interesting things in the diaries of the principles. In Andrea's journal, I found that Thomas used some sort of magickal attack to cause a servant with whom Andrea was having an affair to disappear. Andrea attempted to use another spell she found within Thomas' notes to bring her lover back and failed. This creature killed Thomas. She then attempted to use another spell and block the creature's entry to the house, which apparently failed as well. After that, she walled over the study, which, given the state of it, is hardly objectionable behavior. More on that in a moment.

"As for Thomas, his journal corroborates that story and Arthur's. He spends a lot of time talking about the Astral plane and notes that the servant was 'given to the Thief of Forms.' I guess, having not had a chance to read further in his journal, that my initial concern is this 'Thief of Forms' could somehow access our world through Thomas's study.

"The wall in the study, which I mentioned earlier, has a tear of some sort. A hole in the fabric of our reality, which leads to some other place. Perhaps the Astral. In any case, I'd assume that the little beast that came through before came through that tear. I'd be concerned about this 'Thief of Forms' or something worse coming through sooner rather than later. I'm still a little concerned with Arthur himself, but that's more intuitive than anything else. I feel like there's something there that we're not being told. There's probably more answers to our questions and thoughts in that journal, and I intend to give it a look through before we return in the morning."

Diggory takes off his jacket, hangs it, and removes the holster for his revolver and the sheath for the Bowie knife, placing the two weapons on the table nearest to where he sits down.

 

[Karl Green]

Pastor Andrew Miller

Just FYI, in gametime it's now about 1:15 AM.

Andrew stands and stretches his arms and back as best he can. He then rubs his eyes and says "I think that we need some sleep… these translations are fascinating but they can wait for morning. Good night to you and God Bless." With that Andrew will arrange some of the pillows and one of the blankets and try and get comfortable in one of the chairs.

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

King's Arms Hotel

DEDI/Yeats hangs up his coat as well, drawing out Thomas' journal, which he had brought with him, and handing it to Inspector Diggory as he takes a seat. "Make no mistake, Baron Walsingham, the majority of the claptrap these Theosophist charlatans and others pass off as occult is pure rubbish, fit only to provide the hopeless with idle fantasies. 'Can such things be?' our American author friend asks us. Yes, as you have seen, such things can - but not all of them folk say."

He looks at Dr. Hewitt. "No offence is taken at your skepticism, doctor. It is what is healthy, and expected of one in a scientific profession. I will be honest with you, I never in my wildest dreams expected to be able to procure an actual concrete specimen of an Astral creature, yet here it is."

And finally, he turns to the inspector. "Your feelings are the same as mine, inspector. All this affair is rooted in simple emotions. I feel that this situation validates the Golden Dawn's belief that magic - true magicks - are things to be used only with the utmost care, and never in the heat of the moment. In our belief, the simple fact that it was done in the name of mere jealousy would explain why it went so wrong.

"And your concerns match mine. I was, I confess, wary of leaving anyone in the house overnight, for just the reasons you stated. Arthur was insistent that he stay in the house, however, and I was content to let him stay, though I was not without misgivings. I was even more wary of allowing Pastor Miller and Mr. Shaw to stay the night, but Arthur seemed equally insistent. That is another reason I wish for you to get to the house as early as possible tomorrow morning.

"As for Arthur himself, I believe there is no cause for concern, beyond those stated already. The Dionysians, this group to which he belongs, are merely dabblers and fakers who like to clothe their misdeeds in a veneer of 'evil', rather like the Hell-Fire Club of yesteryear. I personally find them quite despicable, but they are harmless.

"And I have a concern of my own, one which I shall have to make inquiries about when I telegram the chiefs of the Golden Dawn tomorrow. That encrypted paper Miller and Shaw were going to translate - the manuscript containing the teachings of our Order was in the same cypher."

FYI 2: You guys are slightly behind the two at the manor timewise, as they spent time on the translation. In gametime, it's about 12:40 am.

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

Pellgraine Manor

Pastor Miller yawns and gradually falls asleep, and looks over before doing so to find that Shaw is drifting towards sleep as well, stretched out on the davenport. Miller runs through the events of the evening in his mind.

Karl - check the OOC thread.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

Diggory nods in response to Yeats's thoughts, raising an eyebrow at the mention of the cypher. Making a mental note to pay attention to any mention of such things in Thomas's journal, Jamison begins to get comfortable reading. Before he's a page into the journal, however, he turns to Yeats, Walsingham, and Hewitt and says quietly. "Could the Dionysians become more than dabblers and fakers with the knowledge available in that study? I'm probably being a wee bit paranoid, but a healthy bit of paranoia has kept me alive more than once. Also," he turns to Yeats, "if he is a Dionysian, why did he contact you and not them?"

OOC: Diggory will read for an hour or two after the end of the conversation before turning into bed. Instead of reading from front to back, he'll work his way back from the last entries into the earlier sections of the journal, hoping that he'll be able to trace threads of thought and experience more easily in that manner.

 

[Karl Green]

Pastor Andrew Miller

Andrew tosses in his sleep, muttering 'no' or something similar and then drifts off...

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

King's Arms Hotel

"Could the Dionysians become more than dabblers and fakers with the knowledge available in that study?...if he is a Dionysian, why did he contact you and not them?"

Yeats nods. "Undoubtedly. In answer to your other question, it is my understanding that the Dionysians have little in the way of a central command structure, each lodge or club being more or less independent. Perhaps Arthur shares your suspicions about them, and that is why he contacted me instead."

OOC: Diggory will read for an hour or two after the end of the conversation before turning into bed. Instead of reading from front to back, he'll work his way back from the last entries into the earlier sections of the journal, hoping that he'll be able to trace threads of thought and experience more easily in that manner.

Upon a closer read of the journal, it appears that Thomas' earliest concern was solely astral perception. Dr. Serge Verdain, who several of the letters were from, is mentioned several times, and though they refer to the mysterious project, they do little to shed any light on what it is, merely something about the betterment of humanity.

Thomas also mentions his receipt of the Devil's Foot Root, and if that plant was involved in his fate in any way, it came slowly. There are nearly two year's worth of entries after his first experiments with the root. He proclaims that the root heightened his perception. It is around this time that his personality changes, and he seems to have become overconfident in his abilities. He records that he opened the 'tear' in the study and that he often stepped back and forth between the real world and the astral through it. Most trips were made to spy on his wife - now, two years into it, is the first Andrea is mentioned at all. The rest of the story, you know already.

There is no mention of a cypher, though several references are made to the Dionysians. Evidently, Thomas was one as well, as was Andrea, apparently, at least once they became married. There are vague references to the Order of the Brazen Midnight, but these aren't elaborated on.

Spoiler

You also learn the spell Aether Portal, which was the one Thomas used to open the rift - and it could presumably be used to close it as well.

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

Pellgraine Manor

Andrew awakes with a start, sweat pouring down his face. He has a very strange feeling about something... he looks around the room. Shaw still sleeps on the davenport, and through the window he sees the thin grey light of dawn. He shrugs, and begins to settle back down to sleep.

Almost as soon as he closes his eyes, however, he hears it. A loud crash from upstairs, a horrible chopping sound, more loud crashes. Then all is quiet once more. Andrew hears the sound of glass shattering, and a girl's scream. Then the scream of a man...