Book Two - The Psychogeography of Terror

[Mant72]

Dr. Morgan:

"Thank you for procuring such fine quarters for us, Dr. Clarke. Yes, it has been a trying evening for us all, and I too am ready to retire. The coming day will surely lead to clearer heads."

Dr. Morgan is also extremely interested in the Pnakotic Manuscripts to see if any information on the crystal can be gleaned.

[Grognardsw]

The investigators retire, with Dr. Clarke paging through the Pnakotic Manuscripts. It is a thick tome in Greek accompanied by a stack of English translation. Dr. Clarke realizes he will need days of serious study to understand what the book is generally about, and perhaps come across references to the trapezohedron crystal. It is not very well organized like a science textbook, lacking a proper table of context and index. The Miskatonic professor-on-sabbatical will need to spend more time with the tome; perhaps the train trip will provide needed hours of study.

That night Reginald dreams he plunges through limitless abysses of inexplicably coloured twilight and bafflingly disordered sound; abysses whose material and gravitational properties, and whose relation to his own entity, he could not even begin to explain. He did not walk or climb, fly or swim, crawl or wriggle; yet always experienced a mode of motion partly voluntary and partly involuntary. Of his own condition he could not well judge, for sight of his arms, legs, and torso seemed always cut off by some odd disarrangement of perspective; but he felt that his physical organisation and faculties were somehow marvellously transmuted and obliquely projected—though not without a certain grotesque relationship to his normal proportions and properties.

Dream text by H.P.L.

[makken123Tabs]

Eddie Sharpe as Horace Whately

"You're right, Mr. Lovecraft," says Eddie, "my story title is too dull! So, what is your's?" he indicates Lovecraft's handwritten work in its folder.

[Grognardsw]

Manhattan, New York
Sept. 16, 1925
Reginald Wilkins, Marius Albertoni, Dr. Morgan, Dr. Clark, BOI Agent William Mulder



The elevated train rattles through New York before being swallowed in tunnel darkness on its way to Brooklyn. The consulting investigators and BOI Agent Mulder have spent the morning in transit, traveling from Providence, RI, to New York City's Grand Central station, where they switched to a local train for the trip across to Brooklyn.

Agent Mulder briefs the men along the way...

"This cult - we've been puzzling together clues with the help of you consulting investigators, what we found at Carcosa's and Club Zothique. We have several real leads of activity in Brooklyn, New Orleans and Phoenix. This cult has drug connections, ritualistic murder ceremonies and a pseudo-language. Just what these nut-cases want and why is still unknown. In Red Hook we hope to find out more about Chertovski, the Shunned House, his part in the cult and relation to Carcosa. Maybe we'll find the bastard here."

"Carcosa's letters reveal other tentacles of the cult beast, figuratively speaking, in Brooklyn at the mysteriously named Shunned House, London at the Church of Starry Wisdom, and locations in New Orleans and Phoenix. The deceased Agent Baines' office and rooming house room contained missing letters of Carcosa. Why Agent Baines purloined those letters, we're not sure, though Isaiah Bartlett claims Baines was under the influence of the cult."

"Now there is no local police file on Konstantin Chertovskii. That means he hasn't been convicted or connected to any crimes. Chertovskii is a retired man in his early 50s, alledgedly a philosopher and supporter of the arts. The "Shunned House" is an old sprawling Victorian known as the site of a double murder 25 years ago. Chertovskii is the current owner of the house."

"At minimum, we suspect Chertovski to be involved in the movement of stolen goods across state and international lines. From a Konstantin Chertovskii letter to Ubaid Hazrabad (found by Sam Archer on The White Ship):
"Received the goods and will distribute as discussed. Sources tell us it has been found. Get to Mt. Latmos and secure. Give greetings to our colleagues, they shoukd go if necessary.
Cthulhu fthagn brother,
Konstantin"

"Given the evidence of a letter from Konstantin Chertovski letter found in Carcosa's apartment, on letterhead from the Shunned House (16 Shady Lane, Brooklyn, NY), we suspect Chertovski to be involved in Carcosa's operation. From there, we could assume the cult, though we have no proof of murders by anyone other than Timothy Carver, a wino in Boston, and an unknown assailant in Arkham."

"Anyway, Chertovski's letter to Carcisa references import and export of unspecified goods in the U.S. (Boston, New York, New Orleans, Phoenix) and abroad (Amsterdam, London, Brugue/Belgium, Instanbul/Turkey). Discussion of museum collections. The Russian cites particular museums and collections that match those that were victims of thefts. There is only one museum and item mentioned that has not been victim: Harvard's Peabody Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and their fragment of the Codex Beltran-Escavy."

"In Brooklyn we'll be met by New York Police Detective Tom Malone, who'll give us the local perspective and show us around. While we have the cooperation of the local police, this is a BOI matter."

"Any questions or comments?"

[Grognardsw]

The Konstantin Chertovski investigation in Red Hook will continue in...

Book Two - Undertows of Disbelief

viewtopic.php?f=168&t=5002&p=218374#p218374

[Grognardsw]

Eddie Sharpe as Horace Whately

"You're right, Mr. Lovecraft," says Eddie, "my story title is too dull! So, what is your's?" he indicates Lovecraft's handwritten work in its folder.

"Ah yes, the early draft of my latest story," says Mr. Lovecraft. "You had wanted to read it if I recall. I have not decided on a final title, but I am considering The Terror, or Horror, in Red Hook."

He slides the folder to Eddie / Horace. "As my only copy, you appreciate why I cannot let you borrow it though you are welcome to peruse it here."

[makken123Tabs]

Eddie Sharpe as Horace Whately

" 'Horror' I think. Yes, to read it would be a treat for me! Sir, why one draft only? Surely something one has put so much care in creating deserves a copy?"

[Grognardsw]

"I haven't had cause to copy my manuscripts," continues Lovecraft. "When I submit a manuscript, I have it typed up. This is an early draft."

The Providence writer shifts in his armchair. "Are you readers of the pulp magazines?"

[makken123Tabs]

Eddie Sharpe as Horace Whately

"Not especially, Mr. Lovecraft," says Eddie. "I read collected short stories, though many of them did first appear in magazines. So, in a roundabout way, my answer should be 'Yes.' I'm itching to read your story--" he holds out his hand.

What else do we want to find out?

[Grognardsw]

You can look back in posts. The stress of the charade is putting pressure on Eddie. A Know. roll to remember properly.

Eddie / Horace begins to read the manuscript, distracted in his mind trying to remember all the questions Sam Archer wanted him to press Lovecraft on.

Isaiah Bartlett watches the situation.

The opening page of the story:

Red Hook is a maze of hybrid squalor near the ancient waterfront opposite Governor’s Island, with dirty highways climbing the hill from the wharves to that higher ground where the decayed lengths of Clinton and Court Streets lead off toward the Borough Hall. Its houses are mostly of brick, dating from the first quarter to the middle of the nineteenth century, and some of the obscurer alleys and byways have that alluring antique flavour which conventional reading leads us to call “Dickensian”. The population is a hopeless tangle and enigma; Syrian, Spanish, Italian, and negro elements impinging upon one another, and fragments of Scandinavian and American belts lying not far distant. It is a babel of sound and filth, and sends out strange cries to answer the lapping of oily waves at its grimy piers and the monstrous organ litanies of the harbour whistles. Here long ago a brighter picture dwelt, with clear-eyed mariners on the lower streets and homes of taste and substance where the larger houses line the hill. One can trace the relics of this former happiness in the trim shapes of the buildings, the occasional graceful churches, and the evidences of original art and background in bits of detail here and there—a worn flight of steps, a battered doorway, a wormy pair of decorative columns or pilasters, or a fragment of once green space with bent and rusted iron railing. The houses are generally in solid blocks, and now and then a many-windowed cupola arises to tell of days when the households of captains and ship-owners watched the sea.

[Grognardsw]

Eddie / Horace spends the next hour reading the draft story, with Isaiah peeking over his shoulder.

During this time Mr. Lovecraft does research in an encyclopedia and takes copious notes. He smiles on occasion.

"Well gentlemen it was a pleasure meeting you," says Mr. Lovecraft. "Best of luck in your writing endeveors."

He gets up to leave.

Unless there are other questions, we'll part with H.P.L. You can take other actions here in Providence, follow other of the many leads, or board the train to New York to catch up with your colleagues.

[Fulci]

Isaiah Bartlett, wise old man

Isaiah Bartlett feels guilty for tricking the writer into believing he was about to get money, and in the long run, they didn't get much useful information from him. On the other hand, these are all just tiny-tiny matters "as the blind cosmos grinds aimlessly on from nothing to something and from something back to nothing again, neither heeding nor knowing the wishes or existence of the minds that flicker for a second now and then in the darkness".

He says goodbye to Lovecraft and, if Eddie/Horace has no more questions, heads off to get ready for their New York trip.

[makken123Tabs]

Eddie Sharpe as Horace Whately

Has Eddie avoided the Know roll?

"Thank you, sir," replies Eddie,"a pleasure to meet you, too." He shakes Mr. Lovecraft's hand.

To Isaiah when Lovecraft has gone: "That new story of his, it mentions many locations in New York, which we must visit. Now, Providence, since we are here . . ."

Fulci, what else can we do here?

[Grognardsw]

I didn't see a Know. roll from Eddie so I moved ahead.

[makken123Tabs]

Eddie Sharpe, journalist

He tries to remember . . .

Know roll, leads in Providence [1d100] = 80

[Grognardsw]

Eddie can't think of anything else to ask the macabre writer from Providence, so the men say their goodbyes and depart the John Hay Library. It is gray and drizzling out. Eddie and Isaiah stop for lunch at Elsie's, an inexpensive diner on River Street catering to Brown students.

Eddie wonders how much life imitates art, or vice versa. For Lovecraft's draft story was set in Red Hook, the area of Brooklyn that his fellow investigators are currently in.

[makken123Tabs]

Eddie Sharpe, journalist

"There's several locations mentioned in Lovecraft's new story," he says to Isaiah. "Can we make contact with the others and fill them in? Let's go to New York anyway?"

Lovecraft's story added to the clues thread.

[Fulci]

Isaiah Bartlett, wise old man

"There's several locations mentioned in Lovecraft's new story," he says to Isaiah. "Can we make contact with the others and fill them in? Let's go to New York anyway?"

"We can go to the BOI headquarters and ask them to telegraph their New York colleagues. And then go to New York on the earliest train available," says Isaiah over his meal (mashed potatoes and some kind of stew).

[makken123Tabs]

"Excellent idea," says Eddie.

[Grognardsw]

Eddie and Isaiah return to BOI headquarters. Agent Holmes listens to their report about the Lovecraft meeting.

"So do you think this guy is part of the cult?" asks Agent Holmes. "Is is passing messages along as one of your colleagues suggested?"

"The investigators are in-transit in Brooklyn. We know they arrived at Grand Central and took a local train into Brooklyn to meet with local police detective Tom Malone. The next train is at 1:00 pm, which will get you in by 6:30 pm."

An agent prepares the telegraph machine. "Okay, what do you want to say?" he asks Eddie and Isaiah.