Masks of Nyarlathotep 13

We are in Misr House, standing in the hallway at the stairs. Lefty is feeling a bit shaken after what he found in the basement, so he stays behind to guard the staircase, whilst we head up the stairs to the first floor. We head right from the stairs, opening doors to some cupboards and a dusty storage room. The bathroom is relatively clean, so it looks like it has been in use recently.

The towel in the bathroom looks has rusty stains on it, and is still slightly damp. It’s probably been used in the last few days. Moving ino the master bedroom, it is well kept. Curtains surround the bed, obscuring anything that might be on it.

However, what catches my eye is that on the dressing table is a wooden mannequin head with an ornate headdress with beads like eyes hanging down around it. There is a painting of a black skinned pharaoh hanging on the wall.

There is also a large chronometer, which is similar to the one we saw in New York in the JuJu House. There is also a hooked club, similar to the one we found in the Penhew Foundation. There is nobody on the bed, but there is a letter on the bedside table.

The letter has an address of Cairo.

In the dressing room, there are 6 sets of red and black dressing gowns, each marked in occult symbols including inverted ankhs. There are also silver or gold necklace chains with huge bejewelled ankhs.

There is also a pair of crossed, and rather ornate, sceptres.

There is a second bedroom, not as well kept, with women’s toiletries in the bathroom. It looks less recently used.

The other rooms are less looked after. Going to the attic, and it seems even less recently used or cleaned.

We head back down to the ground floor, and over to where the secret rooms were. We head back to the ‘torture’ room. This time Monty finds the light switch, which helps illuminate an open doorway that leads to a set of cells.

There are some rather sickly looking plants in pots, which I don’t recognise. Despite the poor conditions down in the basement, they do however seem to be growing.

Going into the backroom, there are cells with wooden doors, with little barred windows on them. In one cell, is a single badly beaten Egyptian man. We leave him for now.

In another cell, we find a warrant card for Inspector Gregory London. We know the name, because he went missing whilst investigating the Egyptian Murders.

There is a small (15cm tall) bust of the painting from upstairs, a larger (30cm) one of the same, another of a crocodile headed man, and a 60cm tall stela. Clayton suggests taking a rubbing, which I do.

We find a ledger, which mentions items coming from Cairo, Egypt and possibly other places. They seem to be being sent up to Derby which is where we know a safe was being delivered. There is mention of machine parts and various occult artefact.

There is also a partially written letter mentioning that Jack Brady may be in Shanghai, and is a thorn in their side. They also mention that Elias was dealt with in New York.

Lefty takes photo of all of these.

There are two little vials engraved with star shaped designs. It is the Elder Sign. Inside the vials are pale slimy gelatinous foggy maggots. There is a piece of paper that says “keep in darkness, feed with blood”.

We head back up, and then down into the other basement. There is a strange sound, which eventually resolves itself into snoring. It seems to be the servants quarters, with lots of dismal little rooms with no natural light. Not the part of a house that I normally have to visit. I’m sure bathrobes with upside down ankhs aren’t normally features of servant quarters though. There are about 30 of these, white with black symbols, and much less ostentatious than the ones we found upstairs.

We try not to wake anyone, and sneak back upstairs. We rescue the Egyptian, who has a head injury but is not in danger of his life. We take the headdress, the sceptres and the busts, and head back out of the house.

We take the Egyptian to a hospital, and Monty phones the Inspector in London who we were talking to previously, to let him know that the ID of his colleague has been found, and that he might want to investigate a certain house.

Lefty and Clayton head out to destroy the artefacts, whilst Monty and myself stay with the Egyptian and wait for Inspector Barrington to turn up. We explain how we “got lost”, stumbled into a house and found these things and rescued the Egyptian. He doesn’t believe us of course, but doesn’t push the issue.

A set of trucks turns up, and Barrington comments that the “Warrant” has arrived. He requests that we stay here whilst investigations are in progress. We are escorted to our hotel.

Wednesday, 11th February

The next morning, we have a solid breakfast of porridge and a good view of the thick fog. The Inspector joins us.

The police thought to look in the furnace, where they found the remains of at least three skulls. There is now a warrant out for Gavigan’s arrest. He wants to know if we have any other plans in the UK. We do state that we want to take a holiday to Derbyshire. He asks us to contact him if anything unusual is encountered. He tells us that his interests are slightly wider than the usual police officers, especially when it comes to dodgy foreigners.

The Inspector asks us to keep him updated with our whereabouts, in case he needs to contact us. Then he leaves to talk to some military man that he seemed to have been expecting.

Later, we take the train back into London, and from there up to Derby, where we arrive late afternoon.

We book into a hotel.

We head over to Henson Manufacturing, which isn’t far from the city centre. Checking it out, there is a walled enclosure, with a single guard doing the rounds. I stay out, and Monty and Clayton clamber over the walls. When the guard notices, Monty brandishes a gun and tells him to not try anything.

Instead, the guard says “In His Name We Serve”, and charges with a knife. Monty knocks him out.

They let me in.

We open the door to the workshop, and head inside. There is a filing cabinet, and the others point me at it, and expect me to go through it. Seems fair I guess. Meanwhile, the others find the safe, which is locked. Whilst they worry about that, I’m puzzled by the plans of what look like a bomb based on radioactive Radium. I wasn’t aware that Radium was explosive, so I have no idea what they are trying to do. It involves some core of Radium and Boron, and some ‘bullet’ of Radium designed to fire into it. The name on the design says “SKYRENDER”, though this is crossed out with “Eye of Our God” written above it.

My colleagues fail to open the safe. The backup plan is to find the address of the officer manager (not too difficult – his home address is just a few streets away), and go and see if he has the key. So Lefty and myself stay to look after the Workshop, whilst Monty and Clayton heads off.

Some time later, they return with a half conscious man in his pyjamas and a white cultist robe. They also have a key to the safe.

In the safe, there are a number of shelves. The upper couple hold machinery made out of a strange brassy like metal which looks weirdly old. It looks like it has undergone conservation.

The machinery on the lower shelves looks similar, but made of modern brass. It looks like they are ready to be shipped to a warehouse in Limehouse. Monty thinks that some of the mechanism looks like the guidance mechanism for a torpedo.

The address in Limehouse is for Puneet Chaudhry on Ropemakers Field, Limehouse, the Ivory Wind Regeant’s Canal Dock.

We make a phone call to Inspector Barrington, and then catch the mail train back to London, where we are met by Special Branch who wish to ask us some questions.