In reply to Count Sigismund Bathony (msg #179):

London

Lacking contrary instructions, the cab drove them back to the hotel. It was time for lunch, and they could have a better look at the painting if they wanted.

Howard was waiting for them there.

Ralph and Dr. Weston were continuing their research in the London city and county archives.

Lympne

While the others were having lunch, JM brought the Brisfit back safe to Lympne Aerodrome. Circling the field, he could see a man and a car waiting for them below, along with Karlheinz. It looked like Darlington, the police detective.

Indeed, Cynthia will 'enjoy' a more 'leisurely' examination of her acquisitions.

Do we know where Crowley is currently? Would it be possible to steal a quick interview with him?

JM circled the aerodrome once to make sure everything was set up right, calling to the Major "Get a good look down there for hazards before we land!"  Then once he was satisfied he lined up and tapped down, landing and taxiing to his hangar.

Likely, Karlheinz was there to help direct and wave them in, if he was not drunk already.

In reply to John-Marc Falcon (msg #182):

Smiling, Karlheinz walked over to help Storm out, then roll the plane into the hangar. "Did you haff a gut flight, my friend? A bit cold, ya, but otherwise fine weather!"

In reply to Karlheinz Bergmann (msg #183):

Once the plane was in the hanger, Storm staggered in after it and helped close the door.

"G-g-g-g-Goddamn! I'm freezing!" Storm's teeth were chattering a little. "I'm-muh-muh not getting up in one of those blasted things until they develop heating! Only one cure, of course." Setting down his satchel with the sketchbook, maps and field glasses Storm took a swig from a silver flask.

"Ah, can already feel the warmth returning. Anyone care for a nip?"

In reply to Major Charles Storm (msg #184):

Detective Sergeant Darlington was smoking a cigarette as they landed, he declined to assist with the aircraft. He was dressed in a thick coat, bowler hat and paisley tie.

Once in the hangar he accepted the offered drink, passing the flask along to whoever wanted it. "Naow, I trust you gents 'ad a wunnderful flight? Oi was talkin' t' your friend Karl'einz 'ere abaout them guns you was talkin' abaot. Got them written down, all nice 'n propa', Oi did."

"So what of interest did you see on your little excursion, do tell?"

In reply to Cynthia Jane Holloway (msg #181):

"Well, anything useful to be learned from the mad artist?" is Howard's greeting to his friends, "Ah! You bought some of his work, eh? I'll have Simmons order up luncheon, shall I?"

At Cynthia's question about Crowley, he chuckles, "Well, y'know Mussolini chucked him out of his abbey about a year ago, out of Italy, too, for that matter. I see brief notices in the press from time to time; seems he's traveling on the continent: Paris, Berlin, Antwerp last I heard. I met him once. Strangely compelling crackpot."

In reply to Howard Lampton (msg #186):

The painting was of a primitive scene, some sort of night ritual at a temple, lit by torches and a bonfire. A mountain loomed in the background. The setting was African, as evidenced by the thick jungle off to the sides and tiny dark-skinned worshipers with arms raised imploringly towards the sky, or perhaps the temple, or perhaps the mountain behind the temple.

In reply to Howard Lampton (msg #186):

The Count gives and accurate account of their time with the Shipleys.

"Mad... possibly dangerously so. There where instances where if cercumstances had been different there may have been violence. I believe the girl if she has been detained by them is in serious danger."

"I think we should notify Mr Darlington as soon as possible."

He then thinks for a minute or two.

"As for Mr Crowley well our interests do overlap in several areas especially in books. I had heard many stories before meeting him in person and I think they where all true. He seems to have a magnetic personality for attracting waifs and strays and the idol rich. I have done business with him and my shop does have standing orders through his library agent."

"If he was in England I believe a meeting would be possible as it is. Neither the less I will endeavourer to gain a better understanding of the relationship with the artist."

At the mention of lunch he turns to Mr Simmons;

"A bottle of scotch as well. To settle the nerves...Macallan, Glenburgie, actually see if they have a bottle of Ardbeg 25 years should do. Thank you."

"Crowley was the buyer of the painting. He may have more. Or if he's away, perhaps we can forge a note as to where the product should be delivered.

"As for Miss Molly ... Indeed, if she's there, she's in extreme danger, or possibly already dead. I didn't hear anything, and I'm sure she heard us, tromping around on those creaky old floor boards. Unfortunately, if she's not there, charging in might just result in us all becoming a little more familiar with Mr. Darlington's jail cells."

"It certainly felt as if we had exhausted all avenues in trying to get a look around their house. So unless we restrained them while we looked there was nothing more we could have done."

"I think Mr Darlington is our only legal means of entry and if the painting was to be taken as evidence at least we could get a look at it."

"I suspect they don't go out much, It would be good to know if they got visitors. Another possibility, perhaps a little aggressive, if one of the neighboring houses are vacant or agreeable, we might even be able to dig through a wall. A little crazy, I know, but at least it's a thought."

The Count thought for a moment;

"I suspect that Mr Darlington will be able to gain lawful entry on the information we provide. If not then the opposite house is a good idea, through the basement maybe."

" I could have my man Perkins watch the house tonight and tomorrow if that helps ?"

In reply to Howard Lampton (msg #186):

"You got it, sir!"

Simmons went about serving a late lunch.

Singh sees to the paintings, making sure that they are safe and out of the way.

2 O'clock

London

The paintings were secured, tea was served. Fulty and Dr. Weston called from the archives, checking in via telephone. They had picked up a package sent from Jonas in New York, with some interesting article. Also, they dug up some information on the principals of the Carlyle expedition.

Lympne

Leaving Karlheinz to deal with the Brisfit, Storm, Darlington and JM took the train back to London. Storm took the time to update Darlington on what they saw.

The Count was about to say his goodbyes after lunch, but on hearing that additional information on the Carlyle expedition had been unearthed he decided to stay.

Any mention of the expedition irked him no end. He poured himself and any one else a scotch and topped it off slightly with spring water from the jug. He then retired to the terrace reaching into his Jacket to retrieve a well worn cigar case and taking a seat on a wrought-iron chair.

He opens the case and after a second or two of thought retrieves the Partagás Serie D No. 4 leaving the H. Upmann and El Rey del Mundo. Lighting it with a long match he strikes off the side of the chair, he sits in quiet contemplation mostly to do with the books Mrs Shipley mentioned and how he might acquire them.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:26, Sat 06 June 2015.

5 O'clock

Park Lane Hotel, London

Everyone was together at the hotel.

The various stories were related: the odd meeting and purchase of a painting from Miles Shipley and his wife, the air reconnaissance of el Misr House, and the information unearthed at the archives, as well as the floor plans for the Penhew Foundation.

"We found these blueprints. They're for the Penhew Institute."

---

---

This message was last updated by the GM at 08:42, Wed 25 Jan 2012.

In reply to Doctor Phillip Weston (msg #198):

"And, we found out about the principals of the Carlyle expedition from various sources. Not just the main members, but some others associated with them."

"No information, I'm afraid, on anyone that seems to be the man that swindled you, Count."

---

The Carlyle Family History

The first Carlyle, Abner Vane Carel, was transported to Virginia in 1714, having been convicted of "unwholesome and desperative activitie" not otherwise characterized by Derbyshire authorities. Abner was the illegitimate and discredited son of an undistinguished Midlands nobleman. Abner's son Ephraim moved to New England, adopted "Carlyle" as a more gallant surname, and made sound investments in lumber and textiles, the basis of the family fortune to come. The Carlyle interests amassed huge profits during the American Civil War, and far-sighted management further expanded the financial empire in the half-century thereafter.

Roger Vane Worthington Carlyle

Always wealthy, always neglected and ignored by his father. Young Carlyle craved attention. His lawyers evaded a paternity suit when he was 17. Roger underwent short treatments for alcoholism when he was 18, and again at 20. Miraculously, he graduated from Groton, but was allowed gentlemen's resignations from a succession of excellent universities (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Miskatonic, Cornell, and USC) in the next three years.

When his parents died in a car crash, Carlyle seemed to take stock of himself and for the next year gained the general approval of his peers, retainers, and relatives. But he slipped back into his old ways when his sprightly sister (who had not neglected her studies) showed a better grasp of family affairs.

His lack of character seemed confirmed when Carlyle fell under the influence of a mysterious East African woman, a self-styled poetess with the nom de plume of Nichonka Bunay. Rumors of debaucheries and worse circulated among the police, journalists, and others whose business it is to know the backgrounds of public personalities. Roger Carlyle began to drain great sums of money from family interests, which prompted vicious arguments between himself, Erica, and their executives. In person Carlyle remained forthright and friendly, and was a popular figure at glittering New York night spots.

In the months before he left for Egypt, Carlyle seemed to withdraw and become more serious. But though Carlyle might have been maturing, the goals of the expedition remained nebulous and secretive.

Dr. Robert Ellington Huston

No police record; no military service. The youngest of three sons, his father was a Chicago M.D. who as a young man was reputed to have been caught up in the utopianism of the early plains, and to have belonged to several deviant sects.

Robert Huston graduated with honors from Johns Hopkins. After three years he threw his circuitory-ailments practice (and his wife), and went to Vienna to study first under Freud and then under Jung. Huston was among the first Americans to undertake this esoteric and controversial study of the mind, which dealt so much with sexual behaviour that no respectable person could talk about it. Huston's seemingly salacious and dangerous past, along with his elegant manners and sardonic wit, made him in much demand when he returned to New York City. There he established a practice in psychoanalysis catering to the very wealthy.

Huston enjoyed fame and notoriety. His fees were whispered to be $50-$60 per visit (bearing in mind that a college professor might make $4000 a year). Women found him suave, handsome, sensitive, perceptive, and sexy. Among his patients was Roger Carlyle. Though Huston supposedly went on the expedition with Carlyle to continue his treatment, Huston had just broken off an affair with Miss Imelda Bosch, who had then committed suicide. Roger Carlyle helped hush up the scandal, perhaps in return for Huston's company on the expedition.

Imelda Bosch (former affair of Dr. Huston)

Imelda was a much publicised torch singer and actress, her last film being the American version of Henrik Ibsen's 'A Doll's House'. There was talk among the community whether her death in 1919 was suicide or was murdered at the hands of Dr Huston. There was an investigation, but in the end Huston was cleared of any wrong-doing.

Miss Hypatia Celestine Masters

She has no poice record or record of public service. She is heiress to the Masters armaments fortune, the dark antecedents of which have been chronicled in the muckracking Masters of Corruption by Nikolai Steinberg. Miss Masters' grandfather, Aldington Masters, held onto and increased the holdings by leaving most decisions to a series of chief executives who uniformly made intelligent, far-ranging, and profitable moves. George, her father, also adopted this relaxing way of life, spending his time doting on his daughter.

Hypatia attended Swiss and French academics, showing facility for langauges. Her great interest proved to be photography. Several of her shows earned good reviews and enthusiastic attendance. A daring streak in her led to an incautious affair with a Catholic Marxist, one Raoul Luis Maria Pinera, at City College of New York.

Miss Masters dated Roger Carlyle several times, but apparently only as a friend. Her presence on the expedition might have been Carlyle's gallant whim. No one actually knows why she was invited or why she was accepted.

Jack Oriel "Brass" Brady

An Australian veteran of the Great War. His police record (in Australia, New Zealand, the USA and UK) lists assaults and barroom brawls, petty theft, loitering, gambling, mopery, public drunkeness on both sides of the pond, and an acquitted murder charge in California.

As a corporal in the ANZAC, Jack Brady served in Egypt, Palestine and then the Gallipoli campaign.

He is rumored to have been a mercenary in Turkey just after the war, and to know Turkish and Arabic as well as several Chinese dialects. In Oilfield, California he was in a barroom brawl where he struck his opponent, causing him to collapse and expire in a fit, all in front of horrified witnesses.

The Oilfield murder piqued the curiosity of Roger Carlyle, who just then was being expelled from USC. After an hour long interview, the two forged an intimate alliance, amazing everyone who knew Roger, for the youth had never made any strong friendships. Carlyle summoned the best legal minds in the country for the defense, who proceeded to blow to pieces the seemingly open-and-shut case offered by the county prosecutor and eclipsing the tesimony of seven eye-witnesses. Brady was acquitted on a variety of technical grounds. From that time, Jack Brady was Roger Carlyle's bodyguard, and at other times was his spokesman. For the expedition, Brady acted as general foreman and manager, and by all accounts performed well.

Brady's nickname comes from a brass plate about four inches square which he carries over his heart. The plate is described as covered with strange signs and inscirptions. Bullets twice have denied it. Brady has said that his mother, a recluse in Queensland, had The Eye, and that she made this plate to guard her impetuous son.

"A theme of violence and inappropriate intimiacies. I may decide I prefer the company of Director Gavigan.

Should we assume that 'Nichonka Bunay' is M'Weru'? And is there any more information on Penhew, or why he fell in with this rather sullied company?"

With little to add, Phil examined the floor plans as he munched a sandwich leftover from tea time. "I got a feeling there's maybe an answer to that here, at this here fine institute."

"Major, I saw what looked like some kind of odd rock or monument behind the mansion.  Did you get a good look?  Can you draw it for me?"

The Count studied the plans with interest they seemed to be in order, but the basement detail was somewhat odd. It did seem to be the easiest way in if the need arouse.

He was disappointed that the con-artist who cheated him was not in the group;

"Not to worry, I am sure the rogue shall present himself in due course."

"Inspector Darlington I think that there may be a girl missing and the Shipleys maybe involved. I believe she was a reporter for the Scoop sent for an interview but has not been seen since. Would you be able to bring them both in for questioning or are you able to obtain a warrant to search ?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:47, Thu 19 Jan 2012.

In reply to Cynthia Jane Holloway (msg #200):

"I should think you are correct, Miss Holloway. She is likely the infamous "M'Weru". An assumed name, to be sure. It seems like Penhew sought these people out to staff and back the expedition, to me. Perhaps he didn't know what he was getting into, or perhaps he did?"

"Oh! speaking of motivations, an interesting package arrived from New York in the mails. Jonas sent it about a week after we left, on a fast steamer. Just arrived today."

"Huston, the psychoanalyst, had several files detailing of Roger Carlyle, and Erica as well. They were released to his sister, Erica, whom we met back in New York and was most helpful."

The investigators had indeed met Erica, and the thick packet of information was there for anyone who wished to read the files.

---

Huston's Files from the Medical Affairs Board

The files contain only a few relevant excerpts, though through reading them you perceive that the more Huston grew to know Carlyle, the less he was willing to put pen on paper about him.

Huston's file for Erica Carlyle

Her file notes a few innocuous consultations for which he charged her an outrageous $90 each, and establishes that she was troubled by her relations with her brother, Roger. Huston believed Erica to be of remarkably fine character, and notes that he saw such capable adjustment to the problems of living. He suggested that he would be glad to talk to Roger.

Huston's file for Roger Carlyle

Dr Huston's file for Roger Carlyle contains minor interview notes for about twenty sessions over the span of a year.

quote:

CARLYLE, ROGER VANE WORTHINGTON
First Meeting: Jan. 11, 1918
Reference: Erica Carlyle
Closest Relative: Erica Carlyle

At his sister's insistence, Mr. Roger Carlyle visited me this morning. He deprecates the importance of his state of mind, but concedes that he has had some trouble sleeping due to a recurring dream in which he hears a distant voice calling his name. (interestingly the voice uses Mr. Carlyle's second given name, Vane, by which Mr. Carlyle admits he always thinks of himself.) Carlyle moves towards the voice, and has to struggle through a web-like mist in which the caller is understood to stand.

The caller is a man - tall, gaunt, dark. An inverted ankh blazes in his forehead. Following the Egyptian theme (C. has no conscious interest in things Egyptian, he says), the man extends his hands to C., his palms hold upward. Pictured on his left palm C. discovers his own face, on the right palm C. sees an unusual, asymmetric pyramid.

The caller then brings his hands together, and C. feels himself float off the ground into space. He halts before an assemblage of monstrous figures, figures of humans with animal limbs, with fangs and talons, or no particular shape at all. All of them circle a pulsating ball of yellow energy, which C. recognizes as another aspect of the calling man. The ball draws him in; he become part of it, and sees through eyes not his own. A great triangle appears in the void, asymmetric in the same fashion as the vision of the pyramid. C. then hears the caller say, "And become with me a god." As millions of odd shapes and forms rush into the triangle, C. wakes.

C. does not consider this dream a nightmare, although it upsets his sleep. He says that he revels in it and that it is a genuine calling, although my strong impression is that he actually is undecided about it. An inability to choose seems to characterize much of his life.

September 18, 1918. He calls her M'Weru, Anastasia, and My Priestess. He is quite obsessive about her, as well he might be - exterior devotion is certainly one way to ease the tension of megalomaniacal contradictions. She is certainly a rival to my authority....

December 3, 1918. If I do not go C. threatens exposure. If I do go, all pretense of analysis surely will be lost. What then will be my role?