The Circle of Seven: Session Nine

Up Close with Maude Collins

Dr. Miller interrupts Maude as she’s about to get into her car (the same one containing three very large, angry-looking men). Val follows Dr. Miller while the rest of the investigators watch from the house. Val intentionally antagonizes Maude and the men in the car. When one of the men tries to get out to pound Val into the pavement, Maude brings him to heel with a wave of her hand.

Dr. Miller asks Maude the following questions and receives the following answers.

Are you related to Ellie Dunn? No, who’s that. She’s in Kendrick? Poor dear.

Why have you given up asking us about the book? Well, you’ve searched the whole house and it’s not here, so I though I’d pursue other avenues. Give me a call if it turns up.

What do you know about Hylmunder? It’s some kind of pagan god, I think. Has to do with light and energy? How curious that you’d ask me about that.

Okay, what do you know about Adaru? I’ve…hm…I’ve never heard of that. (She’s lying)

How about Tiovvoru? Well, he's a fire deity. The rage of fire, specifically. They call him "The Consumer" and they say that every fire is a portal to his domain. He's often confused with Hylmunder, for obvious reasons. But really, doctor, are you going to ask me about every pagan deity you’ve ever heard of? I must be going.

The Monsignor

Monsignor Gregory Montag

After Maude leaves, the rest of the investigators decide to take a little break and plan their next move. Father Wilk takes this opportunity to visit Saint Dymphna’s church (also the site of the hospital and Catholic school of the same name), so that he can talk to Monsignor Montag, the highest-ranked Catholic in Port Harbor.

Saul drives but does not go with him into the meeting. Instead, he takes out a pack of cards and starts playing a unique, Germanic form of solitar on the car hood.

Father Wilk discusses his concerns with the Heartfire Church, including their bizarre faith, the fact that they may be a cult, the fact that they may be a con, and their likely hand in the disappearance of Molly Scott. The monsignor agrees that the church is a problem, but he can’t do anything without evidence of wrongdoing. Father Wilk recalls something that Val told him about Alpha Solaris Maxima Est—namely that she’s a former confidence woman whose real name is Ruth Green.

The monsignor is delighted to hear this. He writes Ruth’s name on a piece of paper and prepares to visit the police station to tell someone all about it. As the monsignor is halfway out the door, Father Wilk asks him about the religious affiliation of Chief Murphy. The monsignor replies that the chief is a Catholic (albeit a lapsed one), and that he has been trying to get Murphy to come to church for the last several years.

Moishe Danziger

A friendly, older man notices that Saul is playing a Germanic solitare variant and strikes up a conversation. Saul soon realizes that the man is, like him, a German immigrant, and so switches to German. This makes their conversation quite a bit easier.

The man introduces himself as Moishe Danziger. He lives with his wife in Altergarten, relatively near the Fresno house. He invites Saul to Temple Tephareth Israel for the religious services and community and listens to Saul’s recollections of the very strange few days he’s had in Port Harbor.

The two men laugh about, “that’s what you get, hanging around with Gentiles,” just as Father Wilk emerges from the church and hops into the car. With a wink and a smile, Moishe toddles off.

Moishe Danzinger

The Hot Dog Man

Once the car is back at the house, Dale takes it over to the train station to talk to Charlie (of the Charlie Dogs). Several others, including Saul, go with him. Dale asks Charlie about the bank robbery, but Charlie admits he hasn’t heard or seen anything. The investigators depart without any new information, but with bellies full of hot dog.

Back to the Bank

By the time Dale and company return to the house, the others have hatched a new plan. They want to talk to one of the bank tellers—specifically, the one who insisted he was out sick the day before, but who another teller claimed was in all day.

Fortunately, the bank is still open for a few more minutes, so the investigators head over there post haste. Mr. Letty, the bank manager, apologizes once again for the robbery and asks if they have other questions or concerns. The investigators reassure him that they are only there to take some money out of their account.

During the transaction, Dr. Miller is able to talk to the bank teller in question, Wilton MacKnight. Dr. Miller’s friendly and persuasive demeanor wins Wilton over, and he admits to Dr. Miller that he has been having quite a few headaches and health issues. He arranges for Dr. Miller to come by his apartment at 6:00 later that evening to do a house call.

Visiting Wilton

Wilton MacKnight at Work

Promptly at 6:00 pm, Dr. Miller goes to Wilton’s apartment. He is accompanied by Val, who has disguised herself as a nurse, and by Ada. Wilton welcomes them into his tidy, but sparsely furnished apartment, and offers them either tap water or the half-full bottle of milk that was delivered earlier in the day. The trio declines.

Dr. Miller gives Wilton a physical, while Val assists and Ada looks over the apartment. Wilton turns out to be in good condition, though he complains of the occasional headache and of being laid up in bed for a couple of days every month. This has occurred for the past six months or so.

Dr. Miller also learns that Wilton’s usual doctor, Dr. Gardener, hasn’t seen him in several months. It turns out that Wilton is self-medicating with some cough syrup that Dr. Gardener gave him about a year ago. This is unfortunate, but not necessarily untoward.

Val leaves Dr. Miller’s side to help Ada search. She discovers a curious occult symbol that has been carved in an unobtrusive place on Wilton’s bed. She then steps out into the hall to get a good look at the immediate surroundings.

While there, she notices one of Wilton’s neighbors—a very large man shaped roughly like a refrigerator—has come out of his apartment to take the trash out. Val lays in wait for the man to come back. When he does, she realizes he is one of the three men who was in Maude’s car earlier in the day.

Thanks to her disguise, the man doesn’t recognize Val. She pretends to be a poor, lost nurse looking in vain for Wilton MacKnight’s apartment. The man grunts and points at Wilton’s door, before trying to escape into his own apartment. Val tries to continue the conversation, but the man proves to be not at all chatty. She manages to learn that his name might be Al before he leaves her alone in the hall.

Meanwhile, inside the apartment, Dr. Miller searches Wilton’s bedroom. Vall has not yet told him or Ada about the occult symbol, which proves to be disastrous. Dr. Miller accidentally touches the symbol and immediately loses consciousness.

Panic ensues. Ada and Val carry Dr. Miller out to the couch while Wilton frets and stammers apologies. Once Dr. Miller is situated, Val runs outside and uses the hall phone to call the Fresno house. Val maintains her vocal disguise (something akin to a Southern belle) and speaks in code, so as not to arouse the attention of Al, who might be able to hear her talking on the phone from his apartment.

After a bit of confusion, Father Wilk realizes that it’s Val who’s calling, and that Dr. Miller is in trouble. The cavalry bundles into the car and drives over to Wilton’s apartment.

A Voice and a Discovery

The others arrive and use gentle percussion to bring Dr. Miller around.

As he regains consciousness, he hears a woman’s voice speaking. It says, “oh, Doctor Miller. It seems that I have you now. How unfortunate for you.”

He awakens on Wilton’s lumpy couch, with the rest of the investigators staring down at him.

A frantic Wilton offers the new arrivals some tap water or the half-bottle of milk from earlier in the day. The investigators refuse, until Val gets an idea and insists that someone get the milk—and the bottle. Martin asks and is given the bottle of milk. When Wilton fetches it for him, Val notices that there is a second, empty milk bottle in Wilton’s ice box. She takes it when no one is looking.

Father Wilk searches the apartment, using the pretext that he is “saying blessings” to move around unimpeded. He also notices the occult symbol carved into Wilton’s bed.

This information is shared with Dr. Miller, who, fearing that he has been woken up too soon, runs back into the bedroom and vigorously grasps the symbol. Once again, he goes unconscious.

Once again, he hears the voice, “Dr. Miller, here you are again. What on earth are you doing? Is this how a psychiatrist typically deals with things? No wonder there’s so many patients in Kendrick that seem to be beyond hel—”

Once again, Dr. Miller awakens. As he does, he sees Val scraping away the symbol with a knife she has acquired from somewhere.

“Yes, this might be the culprit,” Val says, enthusiastically. “This is a certain type of varnish that has toxins in it that cause hallucinations. Where did you get this bed?”

“Secondhand, from a store in Old Town,” says Wilton, baffled.

“Ah, okay, well, you have to be careful getting things second hand. We’ll analyze a sample of this later, back at the office, but I wouldn’t sleep in your bed for…oh, at least a week? Right, doctor?”

Dr. Miller agrees as he gets up off the floor. The investigators depart a short time later, with a baffled Wilton wishing them a good night.

Thursday, November 20, 1924

Read All About It!

The investigators get some rest. The next morning, Saul goes out to get some food for breakfast and also picks up a child’s chemistry set. He puts the set and his pharmaceutical skills to good use to see if Wilton’s milk has anything unusual in it.

The half-full bottle of milk is entirely normal, but the residue in the empty milk bottle is thoroughly laced with some powerful barbiturates. This leads the group to suspect that Maude Collins and her band of merry men have been periodically drugging Wilton MacKnight in order to impersonate him and get access to the Second National Bank.

On the heels of this discovery, the morning newspaper arrives. The story about the house fire bears startling similarities to the circumstances of Nicholas Fresno’s death.

Alarmed, Dr. Miller makes a call to one of the people in his underground doctor’s network. He learns that the fire did indeed happen at the house where Zebulon Davis was being treated, and that Zebulon “checked himself out of the hospital” at about the same time that the fire started.

The Circle of Seven: Session Eight

Content Warning: Descriptions of mental illness. I have tried to be sensitive in portraying the individuals described below, but I may have made mistakes in places.

 

Wednesday, November 19, 1924

Dr. Miller, Father Wilk, and Dale meet with Dr. Neumann, FMD of Kendrick Sanitarium, in his office. The trio notice that, in addition to the de rigueur brain in a glass jar of formaldehyde, Dr. Neumann has several other grisly medical samples. Most of these are eyes and teeth, preserved in their own glass jars. A few amputated fingers are also visible. 

Dr. Neumann says that he is happy to have Father Wilk pray over the patients while Dr. Miller consults on the more interesting ones for a case study. He says that Dr. Miller will have full run of the hospital except for the more troublesome patients in the High Conflict Ward.

Dr. Miller, assuming that the patients in the High Conflict Ward probably know the most about Mythos goings-on, insists that he and Father Wilk be allowed to see these patients in particular. After a heated discussion, Dr. Neumann agrees, but insists on having three burly orderlies shadow the trio for their safety.

Before the trio are allowed in the locked ward, they are asked to turn out their pockets for anything sharp, pointy, or dangerous. Dr. Miller is given a stick of charcoal to record notes. Dale surrenders all of his belongings and the others are quite surprised to discover that he has been carrying a pistol since his arrival in Port Harbor. After some commentary, the trio’s personal items are locked away and they are escorted onto the ward.

Martin

Martin’s aimless, shellshocked wanderings bring him and his horse, Lincoln, to Chester, Connecticut. Despite having sent a letter to the Fresno house explaining his actions, he decides to stop at the post office and asks to use their phone. The desk clerk obliges and Martin calls the house.

Ada answers the phone and is bewildered when she realizes that Martin is on the other end. In the short conversation, Martin explains that Zebulon shot at him first and that he merely defended himself. He also mentions that, where he comes from, when there’s a gunfight, the guy who’s left standing gets the rope. Ada is baffled by this and asks Martin when he’s coming home. Martin replies that he doesn’t know. He just wants to lay low for a while until the heat’s off.

Martin Craven, Who Finally Has Character Art

After Martin hangs up, he notices the postal clerk seems to be paying him an undue amount of attention. He suddenly realizes that the postal clerk likely heard his half of the phone conversation, including the key detail that Martin shot someone. Martin tries to play it cool as he leaves the post office, saddles up Lincoln, and rides out of town.

Fifteen minutes later, he rounds a corner to find a police car waiting for him. He is manhandled, searched, and taken into custody. The cops, upon seeing Martin’s hat and finding his .44 handgun, start calling him Wyatt Earp. They antagonize him, likely in an attempt to get him to do something stupid, but Martin doesn’t fall for it.

The High Conflict Ward

There are perhaps twenty or so patients on the ward, all gathered into a common area that opens out onto a fenced in yard. A phonograph plays classical music to soothe the patients. Its actual effect on the patients is debatable.

They are briefly acquainted with Dr. Samuel Timmons, the police department’s somewhat frantic and unpleasant medical examiner. Dr. Miller dislikes him and his use of pretentious words immediataely.

Father Wilk consults his Bible and says a few prayers for the sick. In between his prayers, he whispers “Hylmunder” and “Tourmaline” to see if they get any response. At least one patient seems to notice this.
The trio meet three patients of particular interest. They are as follows:

Paul Jamison

Paul

An excitable man asks Dale for a smoke and a light. Dale apologizes, saying that he left his lighter and his cigarettes at the watch station. The man introduces himself as Paul Jamison and asks Dale if he could maybe go out, grab cigarettes, and come back in again. He becomes increasingly agitated but remains friendly. 

One of the orderlies mentions that Paul isn’t allowed to have cigarettes or lighters. Especially lighters. When Paul starts to whine, Dr. Miller produces a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from his jacket pockets. Dr. Miller suggests that Paul accompany him out to the yard for a smoke and a private chat.

The orderly condemns this in strong terms. Dr. Miller replies that that if the orderly refuses to let him proceed with his therapeutic techniques, he will have the orderly brought to Dr. Neumann’s office to be disciplined. Dr. Miller also mentions the strange “trophies” of eyes and teeth in the FMD’s office.
The orderly immediately backs down, terrified. 

Dr. Miller escorts Paul out into the yard. Dale goes to a barred window to watch the encounter Paul gets his cigarette, but barely smokes it. Instead, he stares into the embers and starts talking to “his friend” that he hasn’t seen in a while. Dr. Miller asks the name of this friend and is told that he is known as “Tiovvoru”. 

Paul encourages Tiovvoru to visit him at the sanitarium, which disturbs Dr. Miller. He says that Paul’s smoke break is over, and that he needs to put out his cigarette. Paul crouches down on all fours to stub out the cigarette, but in doing so, draws a curious sigil in the dirt. As Paul happily heads back inside, Dr. Miller scuffs out the sigil with his heel.

Dale goes outside to confer with Dr. Miller. After hearing about the encounter with Paul, Dale says that “Tiovvoru” is the thing that destroyed the foundry where he used to work. After hearing that Paul drew something on the ground, Dale goes to great lengths to obliterate any possible remnants of the sigil.

Daniel Heideckker

Daniel

A haggard man hails Dr. Miller and asks for his medical advice. He says that he was once a sailor until midsummer the previous year. One June night, a freak storm blew in out of nowhere, churning up the waters of Long Island Sound. His ship was headed for shore when the Port Harbor lighthouse went out. As Daniel’s ship tried to get its bearings, the crew received a distress call from another ship, the Dionysus. 

Daniel’s ship sped to the Dionysus’ rescue. They found it half-sunk in the middle of the sound.  Daniel helped with the rescue efforts, he saw what he is sure was a huge creature looming beneath the water, peering up with gigantic, lantern-like eyes. 

He says that, since that day, he has been unable to return to work or even look at sound or sea. He confides that even murky puddles are troublesome for him sometimes.

Dr. Miller asks why Daniel hasn’t discussed this with Dr. Neumann or the other staff. Daniel replies, somewhat obliquely, that he wants to keep all of his teeth. Dr. Miller ignores Daniel’s response and says that he promises to come back to treat Daniel’s phobia with some exposure therapy.

Ellie Dunn

Ellie

A woman who sits huddled in the corner, with her hands over her ears. She relaxes her posture and removes her hands any time Father Wilk starts praying. Once he stops, she returns to her fugue state. The trio notice that she immediately returns to her fugue state when Father Wilk whispers, “Tourmaline” under his breath. 

They have as private a conversation they can manage with the woman, whose name is Ellie Dunn. She tells them that she hears horrible whispers and secrets all the time, except for when certain music plays or when Father Wilk prays. When asked when this started, she cryptically informs them that it happened, “when I learned too many secrets in the house with the strange angles. One night, I woke up to see a blind woman standing at the foot of my bed. She read secrets of the universe, a list of all my sins, it went on forever. Ever since then, I hear her voice. She never stops.”

This disturbs Father Wilk and Dr. Miller, who both had dreams of a similar experience after reading from the Book of Black Tourmaline. The two men quickly rally, and Dr. Miller asks Ellie for the Queen of Tourmaline’s name. Ellie warns them against learning the Queen’s name, which is hidden in the Book of Black Tourmaline, before immediately regressing into her fugue state.

The Bank

Floor Plan of the 2nd National Bank of Port Harbor

Father Wilk, Dr. Miller, and Dale conclude their business at Kendrick Sanitarium and return home. Ada breathlessly recounts her phone conversation with Martin. After that, Saul says that they all need to go down to the bank to check on their safety deposit box.

At the bank, they meet with Neil Letty, the bank manager. He apologizes for the theft and breach of security and hopes that the thieves left their safety deposit box alone. Despite his hopes, the investigators are not surprised when they open their box and find the Book of Black Tourmaline missing. 

Mr. Letty escorts them to his office so that they can fill out some paperwork for legal and insurance purposes. On the way, Ada overhears a whispered conversation between two bank tellers. One of them insists that they were out sick the previous day. The other insists that they were at work all day. Ada suspects that this may have something to do with the robbery, and files it away.

Dale breaks off from the group and looks over the vault and the bank’s other security measures. Everything seems in order, with no sign of breakage or tampering. It seems to Dale that whoever broke into the bank had all the necessary keys and combinations and did not need to resort to force.

A Busy Afternoon

The investigators return to the Fresno house and share what they have learned. Ada recounts the conversation between the two bank tellers and the investigators begin to wonder if one of the robbers sneaked into the bank disguised as the sick teller.

Dr. Miller has a sudden, very loud, eureka moment and runs upstairs to consult Nicholas Fresno’s journals. He returns triumphant and points out a passage in one of the journals that reads:

“The followers of Adaru are becoming very troublesome. It’s because of all the Masks they wear. I don’t know that I can trust anyone from town anymore. There’s no telling if any of these people are who they say they are. I wish there was a reliable way to tell who is a Mask and who isn’t.”

The investigators discuss the implications of this when the phone rings. The person on the line is Millicent, the secretary from Dr. Williamson’s office in Providence, RI. Millicent isn’t sure why, but Dr. Miller is on Dr. Williamson’s list to cover for him at the hospital during emergencies. Apparently, Dr. Williamson’s home on Cape Cod burned down, and he needs to go out of town to take care of all the paperwork.

Dr. Miller is baffled by this but begins to suspect that Dr. Williamson is one of the doctors in his private network. He suspects that he has just received a coded message telling him that something has happened to Zebulon Davis.

Before he can pursue the matter further, the phone rings again. This time it’s Mabel Ohlmsted from Mr. Sebastian’s office. She’s calling to let the investigators know that Martin has been arrested, and that Mr. Sebastian has gone down to the police station to serve as his counsel. 

Back at the Police Station

Before he can pursue the matter further, the phone rings again. This time it’s Mabel Ohlmsted from Mr. Sebastian’s office. She’s calling to let the investigators know that Martin has been arrested, and that Mr. Sebastian has gone down to the police station to serve as his counsel.

The investigators go to the police station to support Martin. They are met by Mr. Sebastian, who says that the allegation is based on the account of someone overhearing a conversation in which Martin said he shot someone. Since there’s no corroborating evidence (of a shooting or anything else), Mr. Sebastian suspects that Martin will be let go within the hour.

Val pipes up to say that she was the one that Martin shot at. The rest of the investigators, and Mr. Sebastian, watch in confusion as Val goes over to the side table in the police department’s conference room. She laboriously tears most of the paper off of the straw, leaving only the bit at the tip, which she cheekily blows into Mr. Sebastian’s chest.

Mr. Sebastian chuckles and leaves to go inform the police. Martin is released ten minutes later.

Catching Up

The investigators return to the Fresno house, where they learn about Martin’s walkabout and fill him in on what’s been happening while he was away. They once again start to plan their next move, only to be interrupted by a knock on the front door.

This time it is Maude Collins, who has once again come by to ask after Mr. Fresno’s rare book. The investigators tell her that they haven’t found it yet, and Dr. Miller notices that Ms. Collins looks particularly smug as she turns to leave.

Dr. Miller also notices that there is something…oddly familiar…about Ms. Collins. This prompts him to follow her as she walks across the street to a car in which three very large men sit.