The place is starting to get crowded.

Harry sees the professor already over at the bar...
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:49, Thu 12 Apr 2018.

Harry looks for somewhere she can see the whole place and keep her back to a wall, then orders whiskey at the bar. She nods to the Professor in passing and moves to the spot she has chosen.

The Professor stops next to Harry. He is holding two glasses of whiskey.

"Mind if I sit down here?"

Harry grunts and nudges the chair beside her away from the table with her foot by way of affirmation.

The Prof. places one of the glasses before Harry, and takes a seat.

"So, how is your evening off? Have you been to see our friend, the doctor?"

Harry nods. "Asked him about the woman who was attacked. Assailant was someone she'd never seen before," she says in a low voice. "Beat her with a walking stick. Locals are spooked, steeling themselves for dark times." She raises her glass to her lips. "Always been like that. Collinsport. Cursed. Haunted. Strange troubles every couple generations. God-forsaken they are, them Collinses."

"Sounds lurid," the Professor says, and shifts his walking stick from his right to the left, to hide it from casual onlookers.

"Collinsport indeed attracts all the dark elements.

"Do you think we should ask around for some more rumors? Our own Collins patron wants to know what's the word in town."

Harry downs the drink the Professor brought her and starts on the one she acquired herself. "Let folk put a few more drinks in themselves," she observes quietly, "and someone's bound to feel talkative eventually." She nods in the direction of the bar. "Who's that you were talking with? Learn anything interesting?"

"A man, travelling through these parts. He was looking for company; the locals weren't too friendly towards him."

The Prof. agrees that it is the best to wait some more, until the inn patrons become more inebriated and open.

The two of you sit there, quietly listening what talk around you that you can hear, but you hear nothing more of interest.

After several minutes, a well-dressed man of perhaps 26 years of age walks into The Blue Whale, whom the professor has seen a couple of times around the Collins estate at a distance... The professor believes it is Daniel Collins.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals...4f5a79f2d7da47ff.jpg

"Well, well," the Professor says. "A young Collins appears. I want to talk to him."

He takes his drink, and walks over to Daniel Collins.

"Good evening, I'm sorry to bother you, but I thought I would come over and introduce myself. My name is Professor Everett Willoughby. I work at the Collins estate as a private tutor."

"Yes, I believe I've seen you around the estate... Nice to meet you... Young Leo's new mentor."

Harry scrutinizes the fellow who the Professor had been speaking to when she came in. It came as no surprise to her that he had not been welcomed by the locals, especially after the prior night's attack. Even in 1966, people from Collinsport looked askance at strangers. She orders herself another round of drinks and instructs the waitress to send the man one of whatever he was drinking.

"Yes --- among many other things. I have to admit, tutoring the child is important, but for me, personally, excruciating. But I was also given permission to pursue my own interests, and do research in the Collins library and archive.

"I'm fascinated with the obscure, the occult, the hidden parts of history and knowledge, you know."

Daniel Collins' face lights up like a kid who discovered they just moved Christmas from the end of the year to today. "Really! How fascinating! I have a great deal of interest in such fields of study myself...! In what sort of occult knowledge are you most interested...?"

"Wonderful! It is always a pleasure to meet a fellow seeker, an aficionado of hidden truths!

"As for my interests... they can be summed up by the phrase 'mind over matter'. I think the capabilities of the human mind are vast, and that with the right mindset, one can re-arrange the world to one's own liking!"

He smiles, then takes a sip of whiskey.

"But if my current, episodic research is concerned, it is more of a historical venue. I'm looking into a certain group of practitioners, initiates, who operated in Collinsport about a hundred years ago."

"Oh? What sort of... group of... practitioners...?"

"I don't have much information yet, my study is still in its early phase. Witches and warlocks. According to the meager sources, they were led by a man called Jonah Zachery," the Prof says, mispronouncing the name on purpose, to gauge Daniel's reaction.

Silas Rumson nods, finishes the last of his beer, gets up from Harry's table, and leaves. He seems slightly eager to get to wherever he's going.

The Professor walks over to Harry's table, and nods to Silas.

"I'm thinking of heading back to the house," he says to Harry. "What about you?"

Harry shrugs and replies to the Professor. "Can't have you wandering off in the fog all alone. You ain't likely to end up where you intend. Besides, the widow Morgan won't much care for me strolling in smelling of whiskey. May as well get some fresh air first." She leaves a coin on the table for the serving girl as she stands. "Carry yourself a lantern if you're gonna be out after dark. Only light you can trust is the one in your own hand." Harry reaches down for the oil lantern that she had stowed by her chair when she came in, sets it on the table, lights its wick, and returns its chimney to its proper place. "Fish oil is so abundant here, no sense using anything else. Better light too, if ye can abide the smell." With that she laughs and heads for the door.

The Prof. appreciates Harry's practical thinking.

"Thanks. Let us walk, then!"