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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nebulous" data-source="post: 4395234" data-attributes="member: 31465">Adventure #32:  Jack “Brass” Brady     Part 2: Kidnapped        And the investigators decide to follow up the next clue:  the warehouse for Firm Action.     All that Isoje Taro told them is that these guys are militant anarchists that the Emperor is having watched because they might be building a superweapon.  There are many political factions vying for control in China, and everyone seems to have a private army. If Brady is involved with this group, the investigators need to find him.     And then there's that whole business of someone named "Mei Ling" to be killed within three days as the Seven Gates of Heaven if Brady doesn't comply.     They walk down the docks, and it's night now so Chang is getting jumpy.  But along the way Hans spots a docked boat in the harbor that gives him pause.  There are English letters stenciled on the side:  DARK MISTRESS.     The words burn in his brain, but he can't remember where he saw them.  He quizzes the others, but they can't remember either. It's not until Hans pulls out his crib sheet of Huston's journal that he sees a small scribbled reference to something called "Dark Mistress in Shanghai." So it's a boat!   They are immediately torn between two options: investigate this boat, or try to find Brady.  There's even the option of just tossing a few sticks of dynamite aboard and sort the mess out later. There's nothing explosives can't fix.     The boat is dark and possibly unmanned, but they decide to find the warehouse.  Later, they might check out the boat in more detail.  Within half an hour they've found the street, and there is a heavily boarded warehouse next to a loud, steaming metal foundry. Chad sneaks down an alley, but has just barely turned the corner when he sees guards at the end:     Three of them in front of a padlocked door, all bearing automatic weapons.     Chad slowly steps back into the shadows.  He's tough, but three machine guns would cut him to ribbons, and he hasn't recovered from Gavigan's magic spell yet. So the investigators devise a clever plan. [GM Note: And Dave wasn't there to object to Chang between thrown into danger!] Using Chang as a courier, the investigators whip up a letter as if it was written by Jackson Elias to his old acquaintance Jack Brady.  They sign it J.E. which seems fashionable to do, and send Chang down the alleyway--unarmed!-- to deliver the note. Hopefully the note will somehow reach Brady who will contact them.  They really don't know any other way to find the man.     So, while Lester, Hans and Chad hang back out of sight,  Chang approaches the guards, who immediately raise their machine guns.  "STOP!"  Chang stops and hands them the letter, which is immediately ripped open and scanned.  One guard nods at the door.  A second guard unlocks the padlock.  The third keeps his gun trained on Chang.  Chang swallows.  They motion him inside, and Chang's too scared to squeal, "But i'm just the delivery guy!  This wasn't part of the plan!"     A guard follows him inside, and Chang's nearly releases his bowels when TWENTY armed men and women swing their pistols, shotguns, and automatic rifles in his directions.  "ON YOUR KNEES!" the guard bellows, and kicks Chang down.  He's smacked a few times, bound with rope and gagged and thrown into a very, very dark room.     Just as dark as the Great City beneath the Outback, and Chang's phobia kicks into high gear, piss squirting hotly down his leg.      Ten minutes after Chang's departure, the others still haven't heard from him.  They wait a half hour and start to get very worried. They heard and saw nothing.  He was supposed to come straight back.  Chad sneaks up again and sees two guards.  They wait a full two hours, and still no Chang, and they realize that something bad has happened.  They're thrown Chang to the wolves with no clue how to rescue him! They debate killing the guards, but a little metagame knowledge of the army inside deters them.  Chang could easily be killed.     Frustrated now, they work their way back to their hostel, but instead of going inside, they find a place to stay nearby: a ramshackle two-story building with squeaking stairs and even squeakier rats, but it serves as a lookout point.  Hans takes first watch, and they observe their hostel across the street to see if anyone is coming or going.  Much later that night they do see movement and hear harsh drunken voices in the street, but more importantly, they find a sheet of paper slipped under the door to their hideout:     "9 am.  Autumn Cafe."     Someone knew where they were anyway, and they realize that Shanghai is full of deception and subterfuge. The next morning they arrive at the cafe as instructed and order green tea and sweet cakes.  Twenty minutes later, a Caucasian man casually sits down with them.     <img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/brady.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />     "My name is Jack Brady," he says quietly, "and I think you've been looking for me.  We got your friend too, but don't worry, he's alive.  For now anyway, if you stay on the level with me. Now keep seated! I'm sure you got questions, but i got some talkin' to do, so you listen up and you listen good."     He is in disguise and only looks vaguely familiar to the picture they possess. Jack Brady launches into an extensive story with hardly a hitch, and the investigators are drawn further into the web of lies and malice that have plagued them and the Carlyle Expedition for such a long, long time. It is a tale of terror.     WHAT BRADY KNOWS IN A NUTSHELL     1) He was with the Carlyle Expedition from the beginning and always considered Roger a good friend. He was Roger's bodyguard.  2) Sorry to hear that Jackson Elias is dead.  He told Jackson EVERYTHING he knew in hopes that people would read his book and destroy the cult  3) He knew that Roger's black girlfriend M'Weru was trouble. Roger foolishly followed her without question.  4) Roger had bad dreams about becoming a god, especially in Egypt.  5) In Cairo, Roger talked about "destroying the eye to open the path"  6) Roger climbed the Red Pyramid in Dhashur and worked terrible magic.  It broke the seal in half.  Brady took one half of the seal.  The other was never found.  7) Brady knows what happened; the seal kept evil things out of the world, and Roger broke it on purpose  8) The whole Carlyle gang, except Brady, disappeared inside the Bent Pyramid for days [this is where Neville turned into an elephant and stomped Nephren-Ka]  9) They eventually came out, but looked younger and acted different.  10) They went to Kenya, where Roger told Brady that they had found a true god who would help them rule the earth.  11) Patricia was sick a lot [the PC's know that she was host to the Spawn of Nyarlathotep in the Black Mountain five years later, another "Bloated Woman"]  12) Before they left Nairobi for the Black Mountain, Brady decided to kidnap Roger.  He drugged Carlyle, stole the money box, and headed to Mombasa  13) Roger regains some composure, but upon realizing what he has done, goes even more insane.  Brady finally leaves him in an asylum in Hong Kong.  14) Brady had friends in Shanghai and planned to stay there...until he saw Aubrey Penhew aboard the Dark Mistress, and knew the evil would never end.  15) Brady knows that there are cults scattered across the globe under different names, infiltrating every culture, continent and social class.  16) Firm Action is a militant branch of quasi-terrorists who Brady has convinced to attack Gray  Dragon Island.      a. Firm Study, Belief, Practice, Action  17) Mr. Mu, an ally and scholar from the Chinese Museum is translating the Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan      a.  Brady learned that this Mythos item was coming to China via boat and hijacked it.  Ho Fong found out, and has been trying to get it back.      b. With the book translated in the next few days, they can create The Eye of Light & Darkness and place a ward on Gray  Dragon Island  18) Evil beings cannot approach or be summoned near the eye, although without the second half, the power is greatly weakened.  19) If successful, Brady wants to place similar wards in Australia, Kenya, and the Bent Pyramid.  20) The partial Eye will not be invisible, and Nyarlathotep will know how to destroy it. But it's better than nothing.  21) He's not sure what the superweapon is, but Ho Fong has been importing parts from around the world for a long time.  Spare parts are in other warehouses.  22) Brady doesn't know what to expect on Gray Dragon  Island, and that greatly frightens him.     The investigators have a turn to ask their own questions, but one thing they DON'T mention is Mei-Ling! This is quite possibly Jack Brady's girlfriend in Shanghai, a cheap little street whore perhaps, who knows?  But if Brady finds out that Ho Fong and Gavigan have kidnapped her, that could very well jeopardize the entire mission.      Assuming, anyway, that Brady doesn't already know.  After all, someone named Chin Chang has been crying, pissing and pooping himself all night, begging for release from a dark, dark room...</blockquote>

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