The Circle of Seven: Session Twenty-One

Estelle LePage

Desperate for a change of pace, Alfie calls up Estelle LePage and asks if he (and his six friends) can meet her for coffee. She suggests the nearby, and unusually named, Flat Cat Café.

Business at the café seems a little slow at the moment, which works out well for the investigators’ plans. Estelle (“call me ‘Stella.’”) arrives a short time after they do, with her two tiny fluff dogs (Daphne and Lucy) in tow. The conversation is animated, albeit a touch awkward, as Estelle and Alfie reminisce about old experiences at Port Harbor High, people they once knew in town, and similar. The rest of the investigators drink their coffee in relative silence. Several of them are convinced that that Estelle is eerily familiar.

Estelle "call me 'Stella'" LePage

Investigators observing Estelle find her to be witty, charming, urbane, and also deeply frustrated. Since her family fortunes have fallen and she is no longer able to play the role of Port Harbor socialite, Estelle is at a point in her life where she doesn’t know what to do next. She mentions that she is working on establishing a charity, but it is clear from the discussion that all she has are vague ideas at the moment, with no idea how to implement them.

Alfie, hoping to get more information from Estelle, plays up the concerned childhood friend role. This overture of sympathy (complete with laying his hand atop hers), causes Estelle’s carefully constructed façade to shatter. She bursts into tears, leading to another prolonged moment of silence. This is only alleviated when Ada gently shepherds Estelle outside to calm down and talk.

One Estelle is out of earshot, the investigators quickly compare notes. Alfie is disturbed to learn that his childhood friend might be associated with Maude Collins and her associates. The investigators conjecture why such disparate people as Estelle, Maude, Kent, and others are working together. This spirals into a conspiratorial conversation of how many unique members of Maude’s group there are, who is secretly whom, and whether Estelle’s dogs may, in fact, be two of Maude’s “heavies” in disguise. Alfie makes a careful study of both dogs, who are behaving themselves at the table, and assures everyone that Daphne and Lucy are just dogs.

Outside, Ada tries to calm Estelle while at the same time trying to get more information from her. She doesn’t get much—just enough to confirm that Estelle’s concerns, frustrations, and fears seem to be entirely genuine.

Estelle and Ada return a few minutes later, but it is clear that the coffee klatch is at an end. Estelle says her goodbyes and leaves Alfie with the check. This leads to Ms. Delacroix and Val fleeing the scene before they have to pay. A baffled Alfie notes that he was perfectly content to get the bill, and wonders what everyone else is on about.

Adaru

Upon returning to the Fresno House, Ada suggests having another look through the Fresno journals and going over their old notes to see if they can learn anything else regarding Maude Collins’ group. Ada, Dale, and others eventually compile the following:

• Adaru is an entity similar in power/scope to Hylmunder.
• She is most commonly referred to with feminine pronouns and by the epithet, “The Lady of the Seven Faces.”
• She lives in a realm called the Panoptica Solopsistica, a vault covered with inward-facing mirrors.
• She rules over physical appearance and emotion and rewards her most loyal followers with the ability to control both.
• Fresno mentions that he knows the “Masks of Adaru” are in Port Harbor and are up to something, and that he laments being unable to easily identify them.

Dale points out that Clayon Kent did seem to be able to control emotions, reminding everyone of Kent’s recent rally/riot. Dale also mentions almost succumbing to rage and bloodlust at the beginning of the riot that he was just barely able to control.

The investigators ponder what exactly the Masks are after, and how the Book of Black Tourmaline fits into their plans. It seems clear that Kent, at least, wants political power, though his ultimate goals are currently unclear.

They discuss performing their ritual to speak with the deceased (which they previously used to contact Molly Scott) but ultimately decide against it.

The Return to the Sanitarium

Instead of performing another ritual, the investigators decide to try and seek out the “monster” in Kendrick Sanitarium. At Val’s urging, Alfie purchases several uniforms so that the investigators can disguise themselves as kitchen crew.

For the second time in as many days, the investigators wait until nightfall and drive up to the sanitarium. As they arm themselves in the parking lot and undergo a final inspection from Val, several of them notice a small car tearing up the icy road to the sanitarium. Concerned that they have been spotted, the investigators quickly hide out in their cars—all except for Martin Craven, that is, who steps out of the car and draws his gun in preparation of confronting the oncoming driver.

The mystery car comes skidding to a halt in front of the sanitarium. It’s driver, a furious, middle-aged woman, leaps out, marches up to main entrance and begins pounding on the front door. Martin, somewhat relieved that the woman didn’t notice him, holsters his gun and listens as the woman shouts at whatever luckless individual happens to be on night duty.

The Angry Lady

“…then you will telephone Dr. Neumann and get him out of bed this very minute. I have, as previously requested, received an injunction from the court in Middletown, and I refuse to be delayed any longer. I do not care who you have to inconvenience, but I will not be leaving the premises without my aunt’s remains!”

The investigators take advantage of this distraction to slip onto the sanitarium grounds and make their way to the back entrance of the kitchens. As luck would have it, their arrival coincides with a large delivery of flour from a nearby mill. They join the kitchen employees who are bringing in the delivery and manage to enter the sanitarium without being challenged.

The Attack

From here, the investigators retrace their steps to the isolation rooms in the sanitarium basement and begin to conduct their search. They soon arrive at a junction in the labyrinthine hallways where a sloped corridor leads back up to surface level.

Pooling at the base of the ramp is a puddle of viscous, black fluid that smells strongly of burned wood. Droplets of fluid lead off down one of the hallways for a short distance. Dale also happens to notice a twisted bit of rebar sticking of a damaged wall, whose rusted, jagged edge is also coated in the black fluid.

Although they lack expertise in most scientific and medical disciplines, the investigators take turns trying to identify the fluid. They don’t learn anything definitive, but they all suspect that the fluid is blood of some kind, and that they probably shouldn’t touch it with their bare hands.

Any further inquiry is interrupted by the appearance of a hideous, hunched shape that flashes across the far end of one of the connecting hallways. Martin and Ms. Delacroix ready their guns and shout warnings as the distant sound of a flipping switch echoes up the hallway. As the banks of hallway lights are extinguished one after the other, a tall, slender, slimy creature races out of the darkness toward them, letting out an earsplitting, inhuman cry and reaching out with several pairs of long, taloned fingers.

The Circle of Seven: Session Twenty

A Look in the Mirror

The players suggested a slight retcon. During the dinner with Mr. Kent, Ada excused herself, got the mysterious mirror that Dr. Miller had found in “Al’s” apartment, and hung it up in the Fresno House living room.

Toward the end of dinner, Mr. Kent excuses himself to use the bathroom. He is taken aback when he sees the mirror hanging up. Dale tries to get a good look at Kent’s reflection, hoping that the mirror will show him Kent’s true form. It doesn’t.

While Ms. Delacroix challenges Father Wilk to a game of hearts—during which she happily cheats—most of the rest of the investigators take positions around the house to watch Kent. Dale goes out to smoke on the porch. Alfie hides in the laundry room across from the bathroom. Ada walks into the kitchen and is mildly scolded by Mr. Carruthers for getting underfoot. Martin watches Dale from the front room windows.

Val, who is still in disguise as a cook and is posing as a caterer, cleans up.

Kent leaves the bathroom and does not see Alfie. Alfie startles Kent when he comes out of the laundry room. They have a chat before Kent excuses himself. Rather than go back into the house to say his goodbyes, Kent slips out the front door, only to be startled by Dale. After a somewhat tense interaction, the two men shake hands. During this, Dale casts Thermal Mastery and lowers Kent’s body temperature to somewhat dangerous levels. With teeth chattering, Kent excuses himself and disappears into the night.

Alfie suspects that Kent has done something to the bathroom and goes to investigate. In addition to finding nothing, he also whacks his head on the corner of the sink. The noise brings Ada, who also had intentions of searching the bathroom. After she helps Alfie up, they both search and notice that the mirror above the sink is currently crooked.

Alfie closes the bathroom door while Ada runs water from the hot tap. Moments later, the mirror steams, revealing a strange symbol. Ada recognizes it as being similar to the one carved into Wilton MacKnight’s bed frame. She obliterates it with a towel.

Clayton Kent, When He Was Warmer

Put Up For the Night

Mr. Carruthers and his caterers clean up and leave, but not before Mr. Carruthers pays Val for her excellent service. This attracts eyerolls from the other two caterers.

Once they’re alone again, the investigators discuss plans. Some want to visit the cannery to talk to Mr. Kent’s coworkers. Others want to visit Mr. Kent’s home to look for clues. Some of them become rueful that they are once again engaging in, “a little B&E.” They decide to table any plans to investigate Kent until the next day.

Besides, they have a more pressing matter to attend to. They need to find a place to hide Dan Heidecker. They talk to Dan about this and find him extremely grateful for all of their help and also happy to do whatever they think is best. He is, however, somewhat insistent that the investigators go back and, “free everyone else from that monster!”

Father Wilk sits with Dan and presents him with the book on introductory small boat boating that he bought at Stolas Books. Dan is charmed by the purchase and starts going over it with Father Wilk. In the meantime, the others decide to put Dan up in the Sutter Root Inn, where some of them stayed on their initial arrival to Port Harbor.

Dan is fine with this. The investigators give him some supplies and some money and drop him off. They ask him to lay low for a while and go out as little as possible.

Since the inn is near the train station, Dale swings by to see if he can get an evening hot dog from his friend Charlie. Alas, Charlie seems to have closed up his cart for the day and is nowhere in sight.

Upon returning home, Ada decides to do some research in Fresno’s journals. Exhausted by the previous day and night’s exertions, she passes out on one of the books. When she awakens in the morning, she discovers some information in her book pillow that suggests a link between the Shaper of Flesh and the thing in the sanitarium.

Mental Patient Menace! From the Port Harbor News-Reader

December 16, 1924

The investigators go through their morning routines. Alfie, who has gone back home to sleep, is awakened by the news that he has received a calling card. The card turns out to have been dropped off by Estelle LePage, who indicated her desire to meet up with Alfie some time.

Alfie arrives at the Fresno House to find his companions worrying over an article in the Port Harbor News-Reader. Apparently two people went missing from the sanitarium the previous evening—Dan Heidecker and another fellow named Abner Foote. The police and sanitarium staff are searching for both men and have warned that people should be cautious going out of doors. They also insist that women not go unaccompanied.

Discussing the matter over breakfast, the investigators decide to speak to the gravediggers in the tunnels beneath Port Harbor. Ada thinks that the gravetenders are somehow related to the monster in the sanitarium, and wonders if the monster was made by their patron, The Shaper of Flesh.

A small party ventures forth from the house to buy the meat and spices needed for the ritual. Prior to departure, Father Wilk borrows a pair of Dale’s overalls, shaves off much of his hair, and walks with a limp. He does this to disguise himself as Abner Foote, in the hopes of either confusing the man’s pursuers or forcing them into error. Father Wilk is gratified when several people on the street stare at him nervously, before hurriedly crossing the street.

Martin insists that the investigators don’t need to purchase good meat—skirt steak is fine. This does not stop Ms. Delacroix from insisting on seeing the butcher’s finest cuts of meat. This laborious process takes a half hour, after which time Ms. Delacroix decides to buy the first cut of meat the butcher showed her.

With packages in tow, the investigators return home to complete the ritual.

A Friendly Message from Estelle

Treating with the Gravetenders

Everyone but Dale and Alfie make the trek down into the tunnels and down to the crossroads. Once there, Ada performs the ritual and then orders everyone to turn off their lights.

The gravetenders arrive moments later and greedily feast. Ada allows the others to turn their lights on only when their guests have finished their meal. She then begins to question them, and learns the following:

• The Shaper of Flesh lives in a cavern “at the center of the earth,” but sometimes his essence “comes up” and shapes whatever life it finds.
• There is a connection with the Shaper of Flesh and the monster in the sanitarium.
• The gravediggers imply, but do not directly state, that there are tunnels beneath the sanitarium.
• There are tunnels that connect the underground areas in East and West Port Harbor, but they run beneath the Abanasse Rivert. The gravetenders say that traveling these tunnels takes a long time, and suggest the investigators bring plenty of snacks.

Ada terminates the questioning before too long, as the gravetenders keep mentioning food and still seem keenly hungry. Once they depart, Ada leads the others back to the access shaft leading to the Fresno basement.

Officer Robinson

Alfie and Dale spot one of Port Harbor’s finest wandering around the neighborhood. The officer eventually comes up to the Fresno House and knocks on the door.

They let him in and are introduced to Officer Robinson, who tells them that he is following up on leads regarding the escaped mental patients mentioned in the paper. He tells the two men that there have been credible reports that Abner Foote has been seen in the area, and he’s been asking locals if they’ve seen anything.

Dale, for unclear reasons, immediately explains that Father Wilk had an accident, which he is still recovering from, which has caused him to limp. He also says that Father Wilk has borrowed his coveralls. This inadvertently foils whatever plans Father Wilk had for dressing like Abner Foote, and also baffles Officer Robinson.

At the same time, both men hear their companions calling up from the basement to ask if the coast is clear. It’s not, and the two men do not handle the situation terribly well. Fortunately, by the time a curious Officer Robinson ventures down into the basement, everyone has climbed up the shaft.

Ms. Delacroix questions Officer Robinson, suspecting that the man is lying about visiting every house in the neighborhood. She asks him what the neighbors said, and Robinson dutifully reads back their responses, which he recorded in his notebook. Ms. Delacroix, realizing Robinson is telling the truth, immediately loses interest in him.

Shortly thereafter, a frankly bewildered and overstimulated Robinson makes his goodbyes. The investigators share what the learned from the gravetenders and plan their next move.