The House of Edwin, Part Seven: June 18, 1926

Ron’s Vision

Ron, still unconscious following his explosive stunt in the tower, finds himself in a strange dream or hallucination. He is backstage at a theater, where he is accosted by an elderly violinist. The violinist takes Ron to the stage, where several dozen musicians caper and prance around a wheelchair thickly stacked with blankets. Underneath the blankets, something snores fitfully. The violinist escorts Ron to the piano and demands that he start playing, “or else He might wake up.”

Ron, who is not a pianist, bangs on the keys for a bit until Brother Theodore appears and directs him backstage. Ron follows Brother Theodore through a dark expanse toward a growing light in the distance, then watches in horror as Brother Theodore is torn apart for seemingly no reason. Ron continues running toward the light and, as he reaches it, awakens.

Annie Chantraine and Her Forces Press the Attack!

The Battle Continues

Ron wakes up on the floor of the entrance hall of the Edwin mansion, with Dr. Black sitting on top of him. For a moment, Ron thinks that the doctor is attempting to administer first aid, however it soon becomes evident that Dr. Black, still possessed, by Khad Vishtu, has been frantically searching Ron’s pockets for the Ouroboros Ring. Khad demands the ring from Ron, screaming that he is the true high priest of the Crawling Chaos. Ron punches him.

While Ron and Dr. Black wrestle on the floor, Annie Chantraine, who has phased into the room on the wings of dark sorcery, directs a devastating magical attack against Papa Doc Horus. Horus responds with his own sorcerous power, and the battle between them is so intense that the edges of Horus’ protective salt circle begin to melt.

Johnny, fearing that the cultists will overrun the back of the house, lights one of the remaining sticks of dynamite and throws it. His aim is badly off, unfortunately. While he does kill most of the cultists and the deep ones in the ensuing blast, he also destroys the back of the house and critically injures himself, Dr. Black, and Ron. Judge Putnam manages to escape the explosion with minor injuries.

Mikhail, hearing the explosion, continues to rush downstairs to the first floor to aid his companions. He reaches the entrance hall, where he sees Anne Chantraine and Papa Doc Horus locked in their magical duel. Mikhail, desperate to turn the tide of battle, draws his blessed Masonic sword and stabs Anne in the side, weakening her attack and saving Papa Doc’s life.

Vivian and Kane also hear the explosion but are unable to disengage from the cultists and deep ones to go and help their friends. Vivian makes several savage attacks with Ron’s blessed knife, mortally wounding a deep one, while Kane, kept conscious by a desperate bump of cocaine, empties his gun into the others. The cultists in the rear continue to lash at them with magic and mock them for their defiance as the deep ones with the red glass sphere move to join them.

But then!

Johnny on the Brink

In his dying dream, Johnny travels to a desert land, where he meets a figure, whose obscuring cloak is coated with dust, sitting on the edge of a dry well. Though the two do not exchange words, Johnny somehow knows that the figure, whatever they are, is making an offer to aid Johnny and his friends in their hour of need.

Johnny, knowing that the battle at the Edwin house is going very badly, agrees to accept the figure’s offer, and says that he will pay any price.

Rain pours down from the heavens, soaking the ground, but doing nothing to disturb the dust on the figure’s robe. The figure laughs, tips themselves back into the well, and vanishes.

The Tide Turns!

The group of deep ones with the glass sphere fall on the cultists in the front yard and begin tearing them to pieces. Kane and Vivian watch, in stunned horror, as the leader of the deep ones holds aloft the sphere and says, in halting English, “promise…returned…pact…came…protect…egg…Dagon…EGG!”

Vivian realizes that the red glass sphere is Mikhail’s witch ball and guesses that Mikhail’s prayer to the local “spirits of the water” have been answered. 

With all their enemies dead, Kane and Viviane back into the house to help their companions.

As this happens, Ron and Dr. Black awaken, dazed but somehow miraculously healed from the explosion damage. Dr. Black is also extremely grateful to discover that he is no longer possessed, though he does definitely feel Khad Vishtu’s presence lingering in the back of his mind.

There is, disturbingly, no sign of Johnny, but the group soldiers on despite his absence, turning all of their remaining strength to defeating Anne Chantraine. She screams in fury as Ron and Mikhail stab her with their blessed weapons and responds with devastating magical attacks.

At this moment, everyone fighting in the entrance hall sees a sparkling cloud of dense smoke pouring out of one of the corners of the room. Anne Chantraine shrieks as a large beast that looks like a hairless tiger on too-slender legs leaps from the cloud and effortlessly tears out her abdomen. The Lady of the Silver Twilight crashes to the floor in two cauterized pieces as the creature jumps toward another corner of the room and vanishes from sight.

Vivian, watching this, smiles a very hard, very terrifying smile.

The Hound

Aftermath

The deep ones with the sphere enter the house and, with broken English, attempt to convince Mikhail that they have answered his prayer. Mikhail understands enough of their meaning to thank them profusely and asks them to return to the ocean in peace, which they do.

Off in a corner of the entrance hall, Kane Eastman’s cocaine high and adrenaline rush ends abruptly, and he collapses.

Dr. Black, now fully in control of his faculties, tends to everyone’s injuries and manages to stabilize Brother Theodore and Tommy Hayes, who were critically wounded in the fighting.

The rest of the group pulls Johnny out of the wreckage of the back of the house. They are disturbed to find that, while he is alive and only slightly injured, his body seems to have been horribly wasted by some otherworldly force. He now looks as old as Judge Putnam, and his once blond hair has turned a stark white.

Vivian recovers the mi-go brain cylinder containing Christopher Edwin from the library fireplace. She quickly fills him in on the battle that has just occurred. Edwin congratulates them on a job very well done.

Giddy and exhausted, the group attempts to get some sleep. Their rest is undisturbed until morning.

Returning to Portland

The London Group is jolted awake by a knock at the front door. They answer it and find that their visitor is one of the men from the ferry company. He tells them that the ferry is fixed and has just come over from Portland, and that it can take them back over to the mainland whenever they’re ready.

Just before he departs, the man from the ferry company says, “I hear you had quite a wild solstice night up here with Mr. Edwin, what with all the fireworks and shouting! Didn’t think Mr. Edwin would be keen on inviting over such a rowdy bunch. Never can tell with people, I suppose!”

The London Group packs up their belongings and, with the mi-go brain cylinder nestled safely in Vivian’s lap, drives down to the dock and onto the ferry. There, they meet the Clarks, who have returned to Chebeague Island to help them. They are relieved to see that everyone survived the night on the island.

Thus reunited, the London Group and their allies return to civilization.

FERRYMAN: Johnny, do you have anything to declare?
JOHNNY: Yeah. Don’t go to Maine.

Several Weeks Later

The group has returned to New York to rest and recover from their island excursion, as well as to make plans to travel to Easter Island to stop the Order of the Silver Twilight.

Upon his return home, Judge Putnam learned that his hired security thwarted a robbery. Several men had been able to enter the judge’s property undetected and were in the process of loading up numerous crates in the judge’s garage into the Army surplus truck that Johnny had purchased some time ago. A brief gun battle ensued, in which one of the thieves was killed and one of the security men was injured. The surviving thieves were arrested, and nothing was taken.

The London Group suspect that the robbers were members of the order, who had jaunted into the judge’s garage via the stolen gate box to steal their magical and mundane arsenal. They keep this information from the police.

Sometime later, Christopher Edwin, through various proxies, signs over the remainder of his fortune to the London Group, who promise to use it to hire a ship to take them to the South Seas.

The group meets again at the judge’s house to finalize their plans. During this meeting, Christopher Edwin tells the group that the nutrient fluid that keeps his brain alive is slowly degrading, and he doesn’t know how much time he has left. He says that he wants to devote any time he has left to aiding the group in vanquishing the Silver Twilight and Carl Stanford once and for all.

The group graciously accepts his help. Privately, a few of them try to think of ways to either rejuvenate the nutrient fluid in the mi-go cylinder or find a way to get Christopher Edwin a new body…

The House of Edwin, Part Six: June 18, 1926

The Sleepers Have Awakened

Mikhail wishes to make sure that Smith is truly dead, and so begins the bloody work of hacking off his head and cutting his heart out of his ribcage. Johnny manages to interrupt Mikhail’s dismemberment of Smith just long enough to peel the dead man’s cultist robe and mask off of his body.

Moments later, the sleeping islanders, who have been unconscious on Mr. Edwin’s front lawn for several hours, begin to stir and awaken. Their confusion at what happened to them turns into screams of panic and terror once they realize what Mikhail is doing to Smith’s body. Several of the islanders turn and flee down the steps to the sea, while the rest scream, cluster together for protection, and yell at Mikhail and the others.

Kane Eastman attempts to interpose himself between Mikhail and the crowd, but this does not go very well. Judge Putnam, realizing that the islanders might hurt Kane or Mikhail in their panicked frenzy, also tries to sooth them. His attempt is briefly (and almost catastrophically) interrupted when Dr. Black opts to get the crowd’s attention by drawing his gun and firing a single shot into the air.

If You Can't Trust the Warm and Honest Face of Judge Putnam...

Dr. Black’s gunplay drives the crowd into further panic, but Judge Putnam is quickly able to reassert himself as a person of good breeding and reasonable authority. He tells the remaining islanders that the London Group is simply practicing their own bizarre, pagan ritual to celebrate midsummer. The judge further explains that what Mikhail is cutting up is not actually the remains of a human being, but the representation of one. Dr. Black, trying to help the judge in his endeavors, performs a deft slight of hand, replacing his handgun with the flare gun that he had picked up earlier. He shows it off to the crowd and smiles at them, disarmingly.

This somehow works.

The remaining islanders are either wholly taken in by the judge’s story, or are only too happy to leave these other, seemingly crazier, revelers to their own devices. They retreat back down to the village, leaving the London Group alone at the Edwin estate. Dr. Black quickly finds a shovel to bury Smith’s remains.

The Hound of Nephrem-Ka

While this is going on, Vivian has shut herself up in her bedroom inside of the old mansion. Ignoring the sounds of screams and gunfire from outside, she draws a ritual circle around her on the floor with a piece of chalk, hefts the stone that she took out of the Jade Sphinx, and begins to chant the Valusian inscription carved around its equator.

The Return of the Jade Sphinx

The light in the room dims perceptibly. The gem becomes heavy and ice cold in her hands. From the angle in between the room’s free-standing wardrobe and the wall, a cloud of thick, sparkling smoke begins to form. It pours out into the room, turned back only when it touches the invisible barrier created by Vivian’s summoning circle. In the corner, where the fog is thickest, Vivian sees a pair of large, luminescent eyes open.

“Hunt the sorceress Annie Chantraine,” says Vivian, giving the blessedly obscured beast its single command.

With that, the glowing eyes close, the fog reverses its flow and sucks itself back into the corner, and the room returns to normal.

Vivian, exhausted and lightheaded from the summoning, erases the circle and goes downstairs to tell the others what has transpired. The rest of the group, having gotten rid of the remaining islanders, have returned to the house to talk about their next moves. Vivian informs them that she has used the gem inside the Jade Sphinx to call the Hound of Nephrem-Ka down on Annie Chantraine.

Papa Doc Horus, upon hearing this, excoriates Vivian for her hubris and indiscretion. When he runs out of words, Vivian tells him, in a voice of icy, calm hatred, that she is ridding the world of the woman who tried to hurt her father and her godfather. She further states that if she could use the threat to exterminate every threat to her family, friends, and business interests, she absolutely would. Papa Doc, thoroughly cowed by her words, gives up and returns to the entrance hall to finish the preparations on his ritual salt circle.

Kevin Would be Proud

As its stands right now, Ron Deluca is still unconscious and being prayed over/magically healed in the entrance hall by Brother Theodore. Papa Doc Horus, also in the entrance hall, gives instructions to Johnny and the others about how to enter the ritual circle should the worst happen.

It now becomes clear that the group plans to make their final stand in the house. Realizing this, they attempt to booby trap the entrances to the house in the kitchen, library, and main hallway. They will then split their attention between watching the front entrance and the back terrace, attacking any cultists that come into view. In order to ensure their safety, the group turns off the house’s gaslight pipes at the source. This will limit explosions and also give them the cover of darkness.

A Most Unlikely Battleground

After some final preparations, the group arrays themselves in the following way:

Judge Putnam: In the billiards room, with his shotgun cane, overlooking the terrace. The judge also employs his drone, and the camera mounted on it, to watch the perimeter.

Tommy Hayes: Stationed atop the roof of the loggia, providing a lookout.

Johnny: In  the morning room, with his shotgun and the remaining sticks of dynamite he grabbed out of Ron’s pockets, watching the terrace.

Kane: Stationed in the butler’s pantry, watching the front. Unbeknownst to the others, he takes a small hit of cocaine out of his jacket pocket and snorts it just as the party gets started.

Dr. Black: In the entrance hall, watching out for Ron, Horus, and Brother Theodore.

Vivian: In the library. She previously stowed the mi-go cylinder that carries Christopher Edwin’s brain inside of the fireplace. This gives her flashbacks to her experiences in Cannich, but also will, hopefully provide the cylinder with some manner of protection. Vivian wields Ron’s magic knife, which she took off of his unconscious body.

Mikhail and Pushok: In the music room.

Once they are situated, there is little for the group to do but watch and wait. The sun finally begins to set in the west, over the sea, on the longest day of the year. The air in the house becomes taught and hot. At the judge’s command, the drone makes widening loops around the house, seeing nothing, until…

Rear Assault

Just as the sun vanishes over the horizon, Tommy Hayes and Judge Putnam (via his drone) spy a large group of cultists and deep ones coming out of the forest to the north of the estate and converging on the terrace. One cultist, who is also masked and cloaked, but smaller than the rest, appears to be leading them.

At about the same time, Kane and the judge’s drone spots a smaller group of cultists and deep ones clambering up the steps from the sea. Kane and Vivian overhear the cultists complaining that, “none of the others are here,” and suspect that this means that the cult planned to enslave the islanders and use them to assault the house.

In the back of the house, the cultists and the deep ones split up into two groups and charge up the back steps leading up to the terrace. While this happens, the smaller cultist remains standing down behind the terrace. Loudly, in a familiar voice, she calls out to the house.

“Johnny! You in there?”

Johnny and Judge Putnam recognize the voice as that of Annie Chantraine.  Johnny calls out to her.

“Yeah?”

“You dropped this!”

With that, Annie opens her cloak and hefts something up with both hands. Johnny recognizes the familiar silhouette of his future gun as Annie opens fire, cackling madly as she indiscriminately sprays down the back of the mansion. Windows shatter. Judge Putnam crouches down and avoids taking any fire. Johnny gets winged in the shoulder. Brother Theodore, still praying over Ron, takes several rounds to the chest and collapses in a bloody heap, gasping and dying.

The Future Gun Returns (Fire)

Annie reloads as the cultists and the deep ones close the gap between the edge of the terrace and the back of the patio. Judge Putnam unloads his shotgun into the nearest deep one, killing it.

Johnny, meanwhile, uses a candle he had lit earlier to ignite one of the sticks of dynamite. He fumbles his first throw, bouncing the stick of dynamite off the windowsill and back into the room. He recovers it and, with the fuse burning dangerously short, hurls it out toward the nearest group of cultists. The explosion shakes the house, kills the deep ones in that group, and routs the cultists.

In the meantime, the other group of cultists at the back of the house rush forward, seize Judge Putnam, and try to drag him bodily through the shattered billiards room window. Judge Putnam fights them off and retreats into the loggia.

Annie, still cackling, slaps another magazine into the future gun.

Khad Vishtu

Dr. Black panics. He knows that he has to help Brother Theodore, but he also fears that Ron will quickly die now that Brother Theodore has abruptly stopped his ritual chant. Realizing that he has a second person inside his head, Dr. Black pleads with Khad Vishtu to help him in his hour of need. He tells Khad that if can keep up the chant over Ron’s body, that will give Dr. Black the chance to treat Brother Theodore.

Khad agrees. However, once the doctor becomes absorbed with trying to help Brother Theodore, the ancient, dead priest sees his chance. He forces his will on Dr. Black and briefly possesses him, standing up just as Annie Chantraine opens fire on the house for a second time.

As if from a very long distance, Dr. Black watches a spray of bullets tearing through the air toward him. Then he watches himself raise his hand in a dismissive gesture. The bullets slow to a stop and clatter to the floor, doing no harm to him or to anyone else in the room.

Dr. Black renews his inner strength and forces Khad Vishtu out of his mind. He takes control of his body again just in time to hear Horus screaming at him in Haitian Creole. He also just happens to notice something that looks very much like Tommy Hayes lifeless arm draped over the roof of the loggia.

Knowing that he has to perform life saving medicine on Brother Theodore, Dr. Black orders Mikhail to go upstairs and tend to Tommy Hayes. Mikhail complies while Dr. Black staunches Brother Theodore’s bleeding and binds the wound.

Frontal Assault

The four cultists who came of the front stairs, still cursing their lack of numerical support, join together in a horrible chant. Between them, they summon up a massive tendril of energy, which they send lashing into the library’s window. Vivian ducks, watching in horror as the tendril shatters the windowsill before withdrawing again. She takes a few shots at the cultists before retreating to the front hallway to support Kane.

Kane, pumped up on drugs, fires at the deep ones before moving into the front hallway to prevent them from getting into the house. He is pleased to see that one of the deep ones blunders into booby traps that Johnny prepared earlier. Kane watches in satisfaction as the deep one stomps on the bottom of a rake, causing the top handle (which has a knife tied to it), to snap up and stab it in the head. It roars.

Kane again opens fire, to limited effect. The rest of the deep ones plow through the other booby traps, and one of them gets close enough to rake Kane’s chest with its claws. It is only due to the chemical additives in Kane’s system that he remains conscious. He lets out a defiant cry.

Vivian rushes to Kane’s side and, with a deft slice of Ron’s knife, critically injures one of the other deep ones. However, there are still too many of them, and it looks like they’re going to be overwhelmed.

Dr. Black, rather heroically/foolishly, once again overtaxes himself to attempt to harm the deep ones with greater magical power than he is normally capable of. This, once again, weakens his focus sufficiently so that Khad Vishtu can take over his body. Khad mocks the skills of the cultists before pointing a finger at one of the deep ones and extinguishing it with a word.

On Other Fronts

A Deep One

By this point, Mikhail has reached the third floor and the side of the dying Tommy Hayes. Mikhail is able to stabilize Tommy, but realizes that the British policeman’s condition is so fragile that he doesn’t dare move him, Mikhail runs downstairs to find Dr. Black, unaware that the doctor is no longer himself.

At the rear of the house, Judge Putnam escapes to the loggia. Several cultists and deep ones who remained outside follow him to the loggia, while the rest pour through the billiards room window to attack him on a second front.

Johnny, crouching in the morning room, prepares to go to the judge’s aid when he sees Annie Chantraine cast a magic spell. He watches as Annie transforms into smoke before flashing across the terrace and through the entry hall’s broken windows. She rematerializes in the entrance hallway, with only Horus and a now possessed Dr. Black in any position to offer resistance.

Out in the front of the house, Kane and Vivian watch, with growing horror, as a huge group of deep ones come slapping up the sea steps. As the reinforcements rush across the mansion’s front yard to the main entrance, both Kane and Vivian notice that the deep one in the lead is holding a sphere of red glass in its hands.

The House of Edwin, Part Five: June 18, 1926

A Long Solstice Nap

As the sound of the winded conch shells die down, the London Group leaves the safety of the Edwin estate to check on the islanders. They are relieved to find that the folk of Chebeague Island are merely deeply asleep and not dead. Assuming that the islanders are relatively safe where they are, the group leaves them to their slumber and makes some desperate plans to deal with their enemies.

The group unanimously decides to seek the missing Gate box, which they hope is still on the island somewhere. Johnny and Dr. Black work together, using a folk magic ritual that Dr. Black found in the Edwin library, to create a dowsing rod. Johnny hopes that, with this rod, the group will be able to track down the box.

They all bundle into the Judge’s car and begin a tour of the island. They find it eerily quiet and deserted. In several places, there are strong fishy smells. Near the tower, there is an awful, buzzing hum.

They first visit the north ferry dock. Though the ferry is still gone, the London Group does manage to find three boats moored nearby that might be able to get them and their companions safely away from Chebeague Island. All of them are just large enough to accommodate the whole party (assuming cramped quarters and a judicious selection of luggage). Two of them are sailboats. The third is powered by sail and outboard motor.

While at the dock, Johnny uses the dowsing rod to search for the luggage Gate box. It points roughly along the ley line in the direction of the tower. At his urging, the group gets back into the car, drives to the southern side of the island, and repeat the dowsing rod process. It again points directly at the tower.

The Assault on the Tower of Yog-Sothoth

The Tower of Yog-Sothoth

The group plan to approach the tower from two directions, thereby getting the element of surprise on any defenders. Vivian, Mikhail, Pushok, and Ron drop the others off near the entrance to the path that goes to Sentinel Hill. They then drive around to the hill behind the tower and bushwack their way up the side of the hill.

Judge Putnam, Johnny, Kane, and Dr. Black climb up Sentinel Hill, pass through the amphitheater, and head down the path to make a frontal assault of the tower.

The judge’s group sees six fish-like humanoids standing around the base of the tower, holding spears and tridents. Judge Putnam and the doctor both attempt diplomacy, hailing the creatures in English and Valusian. The creatures whirl around aggressively and move to attack them, but at least they tried.

The creatures get into range and hurl their weapons. One of them catches the judge in the leg. The doctor grabs one of the thrown tridents and plans to use it as a melee weapon to engage the creatures more quietly.

Meanwhile, Ron and company hear the sounds of battle as they climb up behind the back of the tower. They are horrified by the creatures, but the creatures do not see them. Ron decides to even the odds by lighting one of his sticks of dynamite and tossing it in the middle of the group of creatures. The explosion is deafening. Several of the creatures are killed outright. The rest are wounded.

The judge’s group closes with the creatures. Dr. Black is nearly disemboweled and collapses unconscious. The rest of the creatures are swiftly dealt with. Johnny performs life-saving surgery on the doctor, bandaging his wounds and bringing him back to consciousness. He tells the now conscious Dr. Black to stay where he is, goddamn it, while the group investigates the tower.

Johnny attempts to climb the interior of the tower, but his maimed arm betrays him and he is forced to descend. After some hemming and hawing, Ron decides to climb up to the top of the tower. He is a bit more successful.

While Ron climbs, the group notices that the darkness has begun to descend from the top of the tower, enveloping the interior in utter blackness. Dr. Black sees the darkness filling the tower from the outside and, fearing for his friends, ignores Johnny’s warning, gets up, and staggers toward the tower. This once again proves that doctors make the absolute worst patients.

Ron, who is nearly at the trapdoor, screams in panic as the door opens and a fungus-like winged thing with a brain for a head “stares” down at him. The others scream in panic as Ron is pulled up bodily through the trapdoor and is instantly lost in the darkness.

Ron is thrown onto the upper floor of the tower, amidst some very strange machinery.

Johnny calls upon his bond with Yog-Sothoth to try to banish the darkness from the interior of the tower. He has minimal success, but his attempt at magic gets the attention of the apparently psychic thing at the top of the tower. The fungus thing contacts Johnny telepathically and they start to have a tense conversation about who Johnny is and what he and is friends are doing here. This is cut short, because…

Boom Goes the Dynamite

Ron, fearing for his life and the lives of his friends, and seemingly having no other options, lights one of his remaining sticks of dynamite. The fungus creature, realizing what is about to happen tries to grab the dynamite out of Ron’s hands. When that fails, it retreats to the far side of the room and engages a mechanism that causes the roof to start to open. It unfurls its dragonfly-like wings and tries to take flight but…

Ron throws the dynamite, and it goes off.

What Ron Exploded

The explosion rocks the tower and sends shards of masonry and machinery down to the bottom floor below. The rest of the London Group manages to escape with only superficial injuries. When the smoke clears, they peek inside and see a charnel mass of fungus and other unidentifiable goop splattered amidst the fallen masonry.

Kane notices that part of the upper ledge is still intact. The group grabs rope from the car, gives it to Kane, and watch in anticipation as he climbs. Kane reaches the ledge, ties off the rope, and lowers it. He then peeks over the ledge to see that Ron Deluca—mostly intact and somehow still alive—is slumped against the wall.

Dr. Black, with the help of the rope sent down by Kane, painfully ascends to the ledge. He has to switch places with Kane, as the ledge will likely not support both of their weight. Kane descends safely and goes to the car to get a tarp and some other equipment. While he is gone, Dr. Black stabilizes Ron, but is unable to revive him.

The group sets up a rescue stretcher with the tarp and some of the other supplies and, after quite a lot of gentle maneuvering, manages to get Ron’s unconscious and broken body back down to the ground. The healthier members of the group opt to carry Ron’s stretcher overland from the now ruined tower to the Edwin estate, while the rest bundle into the judge’s car and drive back that way.

The Grace of an Old Enemy

Papa Doc Horus, Brother Theodore, and Tommy Hayes greet the group and explain that they heard the multiple explosions and were really worried. They are horrified to hear what happened at the tower and about what happened to Ron. Brother Theodore asks the group to bring Ron into the entrance hall, where Papa Doc is putting the finishing touches on his salt circle. Brother Theodore stays with Ron’s unconscious body, praying to Nodens to send a miracle for Ron’s recovery.

The group becomes aware of a large group of robed cultists walking up the steps from the sea to the front lawn of the Edwin estate. As the London Group prepares for what they believe is a final standoff, Mikhail, who is watching from the roof, notices that the cultists stop a hundred feet or so down the staircase. A cultist who seems to be misshapen, and favoring the right side of his body, ascends alone, reaching the yard and calling out.

“Hello the house.”

Johnny and several of the others come out, weapons drawn, to treat with the cultist, who pulls his mask off and reveals that he is Smith—a Master of the Silver Twilight that they had last encountered on the Orient Express.

The Return of Mister Smith

Smith informs the group that there is no way for them to survive the night and that they will die on Chebeague Island. He tells the group that he respects them, and indicates with several nods of his head that he believe that Johnny and Judge Putnam, especially, are people he considers his equals.  Smith says that “the other one wants to sacrifice you and torture you forever,” but that he is willing, out of respect for the group’s efforts, to give them quick, clean, painless deaths. “No muss, no fuss.”

Johnny and the others take the opportunity to question Smith. They learn that Carl Stanford is alive again and appears to be running the show from another location. They also learn that Smith’s injuries were caused by the judge during their last encounter, and that Stanford has not permitted Smith to repair them as punishment for his failure. Smith goes on to say that the Order of the Silver Twilight has badly underestimated the London Group multiple times, and seems to indicate some dissatisfaction with the group’s leaders and his colleagues.

He is also happy to reveal that the “other one” on the island is none other than Annie Chantraine, recently arrived from New York City.

Smith once again makes his offer to the London Group, saying that they are running out of time and that Annie will offer them no such quarter. At this point, Mikhail, who is standing on the roof, takes aim at Smith with his .45 and shoots him through the heart.

Smith salutes the London Group as he silently collapses onto Christopher Edwin’s lawn. While the group looks down at his body, stunned, Mikhail shouts from the rooftop that Johnny should give Smith a coup-de-grace, to keep him from reviving. Cursing under his breath, Johnny fires his shotgun point blank into Smith’s head.