Call of Cthulhu Part Eight: October 15-17, 1925

October 15, 1925

The group took the 15th to plan on who was going to Ashby and how they were going to get there. They also took some time out to work on some other projects.

Vivian researched the jade sphinx, and learned that it was, "one of the nine treasures of Nephrum-Keh, a pharaoh so despised by his people that his name has, in all but the most remote places, been eradicated from stone carvings." She also learned that there was a tile puzzle in its base, and that there was a theory that the sphinx was actually a container for something. 

Ron took the money he had gotten from Nathan Torpley and treated himself to a spa day, a watch, and a new suit. He also took the time to acquire the uniform and credentials he thought he might need to get inside the Silver Twilight Lodge.

Mikhail went down to a slaughterhouse in the meatpacking district and managed to convince one of the knackers there to let him slaughter a cow. As he did so, he cast the Bless Blade spell over his Masonic sword. The sword is now enchanted. Mikhail is now a vegan.

Johnny studied the book he had stolen from the Silver Twilight Lodge (which the Lodge believed was in the hands of one James Clark), and learned the Gate Box spell from it. He then used this spell (heavily handwaved by the Keeper), so that he could make a set of Gate Boxes for the group's use. He cast the spell on two identical luggage boxes that can be used with the judge's car. He keeps one on the car, the other on the floor of the carriage house garage on the judge's property.

October 16, 1925

The group reconvened to catch one another up and to talk about their future plans. They decided that Judge Putnam, Dr. Black, Kane, and Johnny would travel to Ashby. They hoped that this would make the Silver Twilight Lodge think hey were acting in good faith, as well as give them a chance to learn more about the situation.

Once this was agreed upon, Judge Putnam noted that the group kept coming together to deal with strange situations, and, as a result, were becoming much better friends. The judge suggested that the group might want to make this official, even going so far as to suggest some team names. The group half-jokingly decided on one of the judge's suggested names, "The London Group." They would have discussed this further, except...

At about this time, several members of the group noticed something white streaking through the backyard. After several minutes of maneuvering, equipping weapons, shouting, and Ron accidentally falling into the judge’s ornamental pond, the group was able to corner what they now realized was a man in white pajamas. This was none other than James Clark. The young lawyer was alert for the first time and seemed to have recovered, though he had absolutely no memory of his recent imprisonment or of the Silver Twilight Lodge.

While the group running around the judge's backyard, Johnny happened to notice a strange car parked out on the judge's street. A quick investigation determined that this car belonged to the group's new friend, Max Reed, who had resumed his surveillance. 

Numerous options were floated for dealing with Mr. Reed, but these were all shot down when Johnny just decided to call the cops. Mr. Reed was arrested, giving Johnny and Kane the opportunity to go through his car, which was left at the scene. They found numerous false credentials, disguises, and an arsenal of firearms (from which Johnny removed all the firing pins). Johnny also discovered a strange black stone with a star carved on it tucked in the wheel well with the spare tire.

October 17, 1925

The group splits into three teams, each with their own plans.

Mikhail

Mrs. Dimathias, Mikhail's Very Loud Mother

Mikhail wanted to take James somewhere where he could be safe and where they could both lay low for a while, and decided that that place was his mother's house in Bayonne, NJ. Mikhail’s mom turned out to be a New Jersey stereotype, who quickly became beloved by all. She was oblivious to the weirdness in her son’s life, but was happy to have him (and his single, lawyer friend) visiting for the afternoon. Mikhail and James were immediately impressed into fixing Mrs. Dimathias' furnace.

While trying, and failing, to fix the furnace, Mikhail pressed James on what had happened to him at the hands of the Order of Silver Twilight. This caused James no little emotional and mental distress, but it also seemed to be triggering some long-buried memories. James excused himself to use the restroom, where he suffered a case of Temporary Insanity. He smashed out the bathroom window and escaped Mrs. Dimathias' house, fleeing across the neighborhood. Mikhail realizing what had happened, attempted to follow James, but tripped, fell, and lost James as he fled to the next street.

After a fruitless attempt to find James by car, Mikhail returned to the house, forced his mom to hang up on the window repairman she had called, and called Angie. Mikhail told Angie that they had found James (but not where they had found him), but that they had lost him again and that they needed her help to locate him. Angie doesn't drive so, unbeknownst to Mikhail, she had Deb pick her up in her car and bring her over to Bayonne.

Angie and Deb arrive and meet Mikhail outside of his mother's house. Mikhail is a little perplexed, as he's not sure how much to trust either of these ladies, but especially Deb. He tries as best as he can to answer Angie's questions without giving too much away, leaving Angie slightly frustrated, but also determined to find James. 

A moment later, a cop car, with full lights and sirens, tore past the Dimathias residence and up a side street. Suspecting that the cops had been called to deal with a currently mad James, Angie, Deb, and Mikhail follow after them in Mikhail's car. 

The cops arrive at a quaint New Jersey bungalow, where the inhabitant (a middle-aged woman in a housecoat), standing in her yard and repeatedly blasting a ranting, filthy, and half-dressed James with the spray from her garden hose. James was screaming all manner of unintelligible things, including something nonsensical about a person or being called, "Yog-Sothoth".

Mikhail pulled the “I am actually a lawyer” card, and had the police release James into his custody. He took James, Angie, and Deb back to his mother's house, where his mother was very excited to meet more of Mikhail’s city friends.

Ron and Viv

The Third Floor of the Lodge. The Sphinx was Found in the W Room

Johnny had recently told Viv and Ron about staking out James Clark's place and seeing Max Reed there. He told them that Max had broke in, but had left frustrated. Suspecting that there might be something at James' apartment that Max Reed couldn't find, Ron and Viv went over to search it.

They found that the apartment had been thoroughly and professionally tossed. They resolved to search anyway, and Vivian eventually found a small journal that had been fastidiously wrapped in layers of wax paper and stuffed into the toilet tank.

They returned to stately Bernouse manor, where they unwrapped and read the journal. Much of it was water damaged, but the parts that weren’t were clearly written by James Clark. He mentioned discovering something untoward about the Order of Silver Twilight, and of their desire to gather two items called the Arc of Vlactos and the Disc of R’lyeh. He wrote that the Order wanted these things to “hasten the coming of the Herald,” and to “awaken the Elder Gods.”

Perhaps reminded of his promise by all this talk of arcane objects, Ron took this opportunity to try and steal the jade sphinx from the Silver Twilight Lodge. Using his connections, he disguised himself as a member of the New York City Water Works. He then bluffed his way into the lodge, claiming that the neighbors were complaining of localized flooding, and that he was here to check the pipes.

The Order’s serving staff were none too keen on Ron’s presence, but Ron made some threats about calling the cops and turning the water off, so they relented. One of the staff members escorted Ron around, protesting all the while as Ron went up to the second floor and began investigating the main ceremonial room of the lodge.

The moment Ron started poking around the drapery in the back (which covered the door leading to the third floor), the staff member grabbed Ron to wrestle him out the door. Ron decked him in the face. The staff member reached for some sort of weapon, and so Ron slipped on his brass knuckles and laid him out. He stuffed the now unconscious and bleeding man underneath the dais of John Scott, Noble Philosopher, snuck behind the drape, and went upstairs.

Ron walked around the third floor, opening doors and peeking into various rooms. He found several meeting rooms (all of which had drapes on the walls), but nothing that looked even remotely like a library. The very last door that he opened led to a room that was seemingly unfinished, and that had plaster smeared on the corners of the walls to make the room appear more or less spherical. In this room, on a shelf of other occult bric-a-brac, sat the jade sphinx. Ron took it and beat a hasty retreat.

Upon returning to Bernouse manor, Ron called Nathan Torpley and arranged for him to pick up the sphinx. In the meantime, Viv was able to solve the sliding tile puzzle on the sphinx’s belly. When solved, the tiles formed the shape of a rather sinister-looking symbol, and also allowed the puzzle box to open. Nestled within was an ovoid, black stone with a curious inscription carved around its equator. Viv took a rubbing and replaced the stone, just in time to turn over the sphinx to Mr. Torpley. Mr. Torpley paid Ron, promised his services in helping Ron fix his marriage, and left.

 Judge Putnam, Dr. Black, Kane, Johnny

Ashby, MA, as of 1899. "When We Sell Out of These Maps, We'll Print More!"

The quartet drove the judge's car up to Massachusetts. Posing first as people interested in local ghost lore, and then as reporters for a Boston-area newspaper, they tried to learn about weird or interesting happenings in the area. They learned that Ashby was not an exciting place, but that there was one old, abandoned sawmill in “Mill Ville,” which was a part of Asbhy, that was reputed to be haunted.

While getting their bearings and checking into Ruth-Anne’s Boarding House, the quartet once again spied Max Reed as he drove his now familiar car into town. Refusing to play any more cat and mouse games, Johnny waved him over to the boarding house. There followed a very frosty conversation between the group and Max Reed, after which Max booked a room at the boarding house and had dinner with Ruth-Anne, her husband, and the quartet. Mr. Reed was very terse and refused to speak very much about himself. He eventually agreed with the Ruth-Anne’s assumptions that he was also from the paper, also interested in ghosts, and also from Boston.

During dinner, Johnny slipped away and used his newly created Gate Box to travel back to Staten Island, visit the judge's neighbors, and ask to use their phone. He called Viv to let her know that Max Reed was in Ashby, but refused to answer any questions about how or why he was in Staten Island. When Viv pressed him for more details, he hung up.

Following dinner, Max Reed informed the group that they were to accompany him to a piece of property behind the abandoned mill. The now quintet took the judge's car, at Johnny's insistence, and drove out to Mill Ville. Johnny took his shotgun out from under the front seat of the car, Mr. Reed drew his pistol, and the quintet walked past the mill and up the side of a large hill.

Atop the hill, in a field surrounded by trees, sat a small cabin. At Max Reed's request, the group searched the area, but discovered that no one apart from themselves had been up there in a very long time. During the search, Kane and Johnny entered the cabin. There, they discovered that its single room featured, among other things, a free-standing wardrobe that was identical to the one in the basement of the Silver Twilight Lodge. 

Kane and Johnny quickly, and wordlessly, realized that this wardrobe must be the far end of a Gate Box created by the Order. They also now understood that Stanford, baffled as to how James Clark escaped, the Lodge's basement, must have assumed that James had fled through the Gate Box and was now hiding somewhere in Ashby. From this, they deduced that the Order had no idea where James really was, and that the group is, therefore, likely not suspects in either his disappearance or the loss of the book. They do, however, believe that Max Reed may be hounding them for his own reasons.

Finding no sign of James or the book, the quintet returned to the boarding house for the night. Max Reed informed them that they would resume the search tomorrow, after breakfast.