In reply to Dr. Leonardo Elias (msg # 288):

"It looked the same to me, Leo. Those people were monsters." He sets aside his cup and saucer.

"But now we have to figure out where it all originates. N'Kwane was African apparently, so Africa might be the place we ultimately have to go. But there may be some other nest of these basterds closer to hand. Beg pardon, Rosalie, Annabel."

Tommy had sat in dark silence, exhausted from the events of the night before.
As Leo seemed to doubt what they had seen he added quietly "Bishop and Bo are telling it straight. What we saw was not natural.".

Leo tipped his face forward into the palms of his hands and rubbed at his eyes. He was expecting that everyone would wake this morning refreshed. But it seemed to be the opposite. And they had all seen walking corpses with that symbol carved in their heads. What had Huston's notes said about Roger Carlyle? Something about dreams haunting him? But his were about that woman.

Leo picked his head back up. "I'm not disputing it." There was a lot of strange stuff in Huston's notes. And now some of the strangeness was happening to them. He turned his head toward Walter. "I don't know about closer, but my dream said something about going to London. I wonder if that's a suggestion?" This was all very irregular. Professional Detachment, Leo.

Bishop looked around at the others "Africa .. London? We are getting ahead of ourselves. We still have some things to take care of here."

"First is making sure none of what has happened comes back to haunt us." Bishop said, instantly regretting his choice of words.

"Second, we uncovered some of there ritual items and even a book. Perhaps we can learn something from those items."

In reply to Stanley Bishop (msg # 293):

Bo turns a flat gaze on Stanley: "Maybe our best bet is to get out of town. Once we've exhausted any leads here, of course."

  Annabel gave a small smile at Walter's politeness. "No worries Mr. Brandon, a little crass, but a description well deserved by them."

 She stopped writing in surprise when leaving the country was mentioned. London? Africa? Two very different places indeed. If she had to pick, London was certainly the more civilized of the two. And wasn't Africa the place where that horrible book came from? Or was that Australia; she could not remember.

"Will we really leave the city," Annabel asked. "If so, for how long do you think? An overseas voyage requires much preparation," and since she was the assistant, Annabel knew she would end up being quite busy.

Moretti nodded in agreement with Brandon. "People in my line never have a problem with leaving town," he said, "It's always a good time to visit the old country."

Leo nodded at Stanley's suggestions. "Can you describe where you found the ritual items and the book?" Perhaps there were still a few things that needed to be done before they left town.

"Most of them in a small room off the main room where their hedonistic ritual was being carried out." Stanley said. He had looked for a more proper way to say orgy because of the ladies being present.

"A couple of items came from the dead." Stanley added.

"The people we killed down there will have family. At least some of 'em anyway....soon enough the police will be looking for them and with that many missing there will be leads to Harlem for sure. We gotta blow the tunnel under the place so what's down there is never dug out. And then yes, get out of town.". He nodded to Bo in agreement.

"But we have a reason for that right. Erika Carlyle and Jackson Elias. They both want to know what happened to Roger-wouldn't Kenya be a good place for us to start?".

He shifted in weight, trying to keep the muscle of his wounded shoulder moving.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:21, Wed 28 Oct 2015.

In reply to Thomas Cotton (msg # 299):

Bo smiled slightly and placed a hand on the young scribe's good shoulder.

"This is New York, kid. Even in Harlem, someone's going to build on a vacant lot sooner rather than later. Reducing it to rubble will just speed up the process.

"I doubt any of those people told friends or family where they were going last night. Let sleeping dogs lie."

"One of the dead men had a scepter which was covered in Egyptian Hieroglyphics. Another was wearing a cloak, fashioned from feathers. I took a few of them, hoping we could have them identified."

Moretti glanced at Rosalie. "Rosalie took a look at the scepter last night."

  "I agree," Annabel said. "I really doubt those people would have told anyone about that little party of theirs. They either said nothing or gave some excuse to get them out of the house that late. If we were going to stick around long enough, it may be interesting to see how many missing persons reports turn up at the police."

  As the others talk about the various that saw, Annabel wrote the descriptions down with as most detail as they were willing to offer about them.

  "I'm curious, did you actually take any of them, well for research, help with finding out more about this cult, stuff like that? It might have been some help to get a better understanding about all this."

"Yes, but I'm afraid I had no luck with it.  I was hoping to have another look today when I was better rested and had access to reference materials.  It isn't the easiest language to translate."  She reached for the box containing their findings and pulled the scepter out to inspect it in the light of day, turning it over in her hands.


21:19, Today: Rosalie Elias rolled 36 using 1d100 with rolls of 36.  Egyptian Hieroglyphics (41).

Now better rested, Rosalie seemed to understand something among the complex maze of symbols and glyphs carved into the scepter.

Leo walked over to take a look at what Rosalie held, though he couldn't really help with the translation. He also looked at the other items they brought back to see if any sense could be made from them.

Bishop was not much in the mood to talk. They needed to tidy up the mess and see if anything else could be done.

The others were far more likely to understand the bric a brac they had found.



13:04, Today: Stanley Bishop rolled 48 using 1d100 with rolls of 48.  Anthropology 30


This message was last edited by the player at 20:06, Thu 29 Oct 2015.

As the others discussed some of the strange items they had collected, Moretti retrieved the copy of Africa's Dark Sects. Still listening to the conversation with half an ear, he began to page through the book, attempting to get a sense of its contents.

"Hmm... this seems to refer to the African god of creation that seems to pop up in the western and southern parts of that continent.  The translation is roughly 'Nyambe, Thy Power Mine'.  Perhaps they think it grants the bearer god-like powers.  I didn't see him do anything with it except point it at us while he yelled in some foreign language."  She looked briefly at her uncle.  "It wasn't any language I'd ever heard or could even fathom hearing.  Very difficult to describe."

In reply to Rosalie Elias (msg # 308):

Having finally gotten a plate of eggs and ham from the sideboard, Bo puts in: "I'm familiar with Swahili and it didn't sound like that to me."

Then he goes back to devouring his breakfast.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:38, Sun 01 Nov 2015.

After Rosie took a look at the reporter, Leo spent some time taking a look at the wound. "Excellent work, Rosie." She was quite skilled at keeping people healthy and alive as well, and Leo was proud of her whenever he got the chance to see her work.

He did a little more cleaning around the wound, but mostly he noted the damage and what the wound looked like so that he could care for it in the coming days.


07:27, Today: Dr. Leonardo Elias rolled 24 using 1d100 with rolls of 24.  Medicine (75).
This message was last edited by the player at 18:23, Mon 02 Nov 2015.

OOC:

Both Rosalie and Leo's rolls are successes. Check the tick boxes on your character sheets if they are not already checked.

Tommy, in a week in character you'll receive 2d3 health back, and 2d3 health per week until fully healed.

The copy of Africa's Dark Sects held by Vincent was bound in green cloth over paperboard, with the title stamped on the spine. Though the date of publication was listed as being only four years previous, this book was in very poor condition. The spine was broken, the back cover cracked, and multiple pages were dog-eared. There were also some marginal notes in pencil. The end paper inside the cover bore a bookplate indicating it belonged to Harvard University’s Widener Library.

"So, you've got a staff, some feathers, a copper bowl, a metallic band, a mask, and a book to add to the collection of things you've already accumulated," he said with a frown, surveying the items that they were looking over.

"I suppose the best that can be done with these is deciphering the symbols on them somehow," he said.

Leo nodded at Averey's astute observation. "Yes, though I'm afraid I'm not much of a help with that. Unless anything is written in Latin."