IC: CH2 - LONDON - Back at the Ritz

[Raiko]

This thread continues directly on from the end of the “A Reunion?” and “Johnny Stakes Out the Penhew Foundation” threads.

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The Ritz Hotel - Piccadilly, London
10:05pm - Wednesday 28th January, 1925

Maksim drives the overcrowded Bentley back to the Ritz, he keeps one eye on the rear view mirror the whole time, but no-one seems to be following them. As they pass close by Leicester Square, Nathaniel can’t help wondering whether his beloved shop Dodgy Pages is still intact.

Inside the famous luxury hotel it is business as usual, nightmare extra-dimensional alien entities may prowl the foggy streets of London, but inside the glittering Ritz Hotel guests still enjoy English snobbery at it’s finest!

Nobody expects to see Johnny back from his reconnaissance mission until the morning, but as they walk into the hotel’s foyer they notice the Chinese detective sitting quietly by one the Ritz’s well stocked bars.

[imme]

Elizabeth makes eye contact with Johnny, inclines her head toward the lifts, and heads straight up to their suites. "I'll have room service bring us some booze," she announces to no one and everyone.

[Grafster]

Johnny takes ten minutes to carefully watch the front doors after the group's arrival. Then he slips out of his seat and makes his way to the rooms through a circuitous route he mapped during his ealier "security inspection" of the hotel.

Once up in the room he nods to Miss D, tips his hat to the newcomers and plants himself by the window watching the outside of the hotel through a curtain.

[Decrepit]

Caroline starts examining her hands.

[coffee demon]

Andrei bustles into the lobby ahead of everyone else. He calls out, "What's your room number, I'll meet you up there!"

The barrel-chested Russian pulls out his thick wallet and books a third room as quickly as possible, then gallops up the stairs to meet the others.

- - - - - - -

Once everyone is gathered in the room, he triumphantly produces a cluster of wafer-thin black fragments from his pocket and presents them to the others. It appears to be the shattered remains of an egg shell, or an empty seed pod.

"Look! This is what that creature came from! I followed the sorcerer that conjured the creature, the miserable bastard was hiding in an alley. I almost had him, but he ran away."

Anyone who knows Andrei well would think he's putting on a show - he's never been so exuberant, his eyes rarely glitter with such delight. He uses the term "sorcerer" as though meeting was a common occurance. One would think he's making fun of the situation, but he keeps acting the same way without breaking into his usual moody, dark self.

"I think we all have a lot to discuss. We've learned a lot. Lets hear what you've all discovered, in great detail, please. Information is our best weapon!"

He sits down and leans forward expectantly.

[Decrepit]

"Um ..." says Caroline. With the andrenaline gone, she doesn't quite know what to do with herself, let alone Andrei.

[imme]

Elizabeth pours herself a glass of scotch and takes a sip, eying Andrei with a look that's hard to read. "Why don't you start?"

[coffee demon]

"Well, like I said, I found these fragments! There was a man in the alley watching us at the Bentley. He was the sorcerer, and this is what the Chimera came from!" He looks at everyone for a moment. "Come on, cheer up, this is a sign that its a material thing, it follows a logic that we can eventually understand, and conquer! This is where the esteemed Jackson Elias failed, and we will succeed."

"You see, I've scoured Jackson's documents, and other writings, and I now realise that Mr. Elias refused to let his mind accept certain metaphysical logics. There are other things afoot in this world, Elizabeth, I know what you're thinking, you think I've gone mad, I can tell by the way you're looking at me, but I'm not! I simply understand what is required of us! Of me! You'll see! We can find these bastards! We have the tools!"

He taps his temple excitedly and grins.

"First thing tommorrow I'll have someone inspect these fragments, so we can ascertain their origin. That will be a good first step, don't you think?"

"But, please, lets hear what the rest of you have discovered. It's a fascinating puzzle, and we need to inspect every piece in detail."

[Decrepit]

"Um ..." says Caroline. "I think I need to go wash up again." She exits.

[DSIGFUSS]

Nethaniel sits down and listens carefully to Andrei, bting his nails and watching Caroline. The idea of a sorceror summoning this creature waas not out of the realm of possibility. He had certainly read material on the subject but nothing specific.

A Sorceror? Bolocks! Perhaps a cultist found the egg and placed it in our immediate vicinity, but I certainly doubt that it was summoned through what.... magic?

Nethaniel looks down at Caroline's hands...

You missed a spot dear!

On second thought... I won't rule magic out quite yet. With the discovery of the painting containing clear divinitory properties, the violent dreams you lot have been having and that thing we met in the alley...

Nethaniel shivers and begins to scrub at his trousers again.

We have to get our hands on that text at all costs. It could shed a great deal of light on our current conundrum.

[Grafster]

Johnny splits his attention between the window and the discussion. He looks.... wary.

[Timour Rukov]

OC Timour would've taken the painting in from the car, wrapped under a large blanket or whatever he could get his hands on.

Timour laughs raucously and walks behind Andrei, slapping him on the back.

"Hahahah!!!! Andrei.....you think we were all born yesterday! Hahahaha!!!! You don't really think we'd believe you do you? This monster was not a youngling hatched from an egg! Hahahahaaa!!!!"

Timour continues snickering, walking over to the bar and pouring himself a drink. He turns around, smiling broadly at Andrei's animated show. He raises his glass in the air, "To Andrei! And his good love of jokes! Hahahhaa!!!"

[Decrepit]

"Oh, dear," Caroline, looking at her hands again, says to Nathaniel. "I have? I must confess, I don't see anything. Perhaps you'd better come into the washroom and show me."

[imme]

Elizabeth ignores the others in the room and speaks directly to Andrei, anger beginning to color her words. "After you left us at the train station we came here to plan together. Caroline and I went to the Penhew Foundation to speak with Mr. Gavigan. He told us some about the exhibition and seemed to think the negro woman was behind their demise. He began to grow suspicious of our questioning, and we left. Johnny has just returned from his own investigation.

"Then we went to see this crazy painter. He was insane and his mother ..." Elizabeth is uncharacteristically lost for words for a moment and loses some of the color in her face. "I do not know what to think of what we saw there. He had painted gruesome scenes. There was one of those cultists in their masks worshiping their horrible beast. There was another of you all at the museum. We bought it and left."

Elizabeth seems as if she's about to say more, but bites her tongue.

[Decrepit]

"Oh, and there was that lovely painting of the pale woman," Caroline calls out from the washroom over the sound of running water. "Don't forget about that, Beth. We should've bought that one too."

[DSIGFUSS]

Nathaniel smiles at Caroline..

Certainly.

He follows her to the bathroom and turns on the lights. Nethaniel then proceeds to wash his own hands thoroughly, instructing Caroline on the proper method for cleaning your hands.

Wash... rinse... and repeat!

He makes polite friendly English conversation with Caroline as she they wash their hands together.

So Caroline.. You don't mind if I call you Caroline do you luv? What part of the States do you call home. I once attended a conference on Native American spiritual practices in New York but I'm afraid I didn't have much time for traveling. I hear the west coast is lovely now isn't it?

[coffee demon]

Andrei leans back in his chair and folds his arms protectively when Timour laughs at him. His rapid change in mood is as noticeable as a dark cloud passing over the sun.

Elizabeth might occasionally catch Andrei watching her during the conversation, but he always looks away quickly, avoiding eye contact with her.

"What about you, Johnny?"

[Decrepit]

Nathaniel smiles at Caroline..

Certainly.

He follows her to the bathroom and turns on the lights. Nethaniel then proceeds to wash his own hands thoroughly, instructing Caroline on the proper method for cleaning your hands.

Wash... rinse... and repeat!

He makes polite friendly English conversation with Caroline as she they wash their hands together.

So Caroline.. You don't mind if I call you Caroline do you luv? What part of the States do you call home. I once attended a conference on Native American spiritual practices in New York but I'm afraid I didn't have much time for traveling. I hear the west coast is lovely now isn't it?

"Well, we are washing our hands together, so I suppose you may call me Caroline rather than Dr. Ward. Though it's true, I barely know you. No, I'm not originally from New York; I'm from Baltimore and then came to New York." Looking at her hands again, she asks, "How do they look now?" She's talking at a rather manic pace.

OOC: Flooding is knocking out Internet around town. I'll post tomorrow at work, anyway, assuming we're still "up" there.

[Grafster]

"What about you, Johnny?"

Johnny looks around the room, pausing to look more intently at Gwen and Nathaniel (or in the direction of the bathroom if Nathaniel isn't in the room).

Yes. Well. Seeing as how he's not going to get out of talking he goes on.

The Penhew Foundation is, or at least employees of it are, involved with a multi-racial criminal gang. The gang controls at least one the warehouse in the Limehouse, the Chinese district of the city, where they store and ship military hardware. The sort of items Maksim seems to favor. From the way the items were packed I am certain they are doing this illicitly.

A criminal syndicate, much of the sort as we postulated was at the heart of the matter. Johnny seems oddly pleased.

As he adjusts his seat to get his rolling papers and tobacco out of his pocket something heavy slides around, bumping against the windowsill.

The Chinese man lets out a vaguely irritated sigh. They also ship.... other things. Several crates left the Penhew Foundation today shortly after closing time, the destined for Shang-hai. They arrived at the warehouse under extremely tight guard, a man named Punji was supervising. They were only at the warehouse a few hours before they were picked up by another group and taken to a nearby ship. They didn't contain guns....

Johnny removes several heavy mechanical and electrical components from his pockets and puts them on the table. As he returns to the windowsill he absentmindedly wipes his hands as if they're dirtied somehow.

[imme]

Elizabeth walks over to the table to look at what Johnny put there. "What are they? What are they for?"

"That is very interesting, Johnny. Perhaps Jackson also stumbled across the Foundation's illegal activities. Is this the link to that photograph we found? Perhaps Caroline can give us her opinion," Elizabeth raises an eyebrow at the strange hand-washing activities, "but my instinct is to think that Mr. Gavigan is not aware of these dealings. If these criminal activities are related to the cult, and they in turn were responsible for whatever happened to the Expedition ... I just do not see how he would be involved. He really did seem upset by what happened to them."

Elizabeth pauses for a moment. "And I know that we had that strange experience with our dreams and, well, what happened to Timour," she looks embarrassed to be mentioning it, "but I think after tonight we have no choice but to admit that there is something ... I am not sure what to call it, but something supernatural or magical at work here." She turns to speak directly to Johnny. "After Caroline, Timour and I found the others at the museum, we were attacked by some strange kind of creature." She shivers and crosses her arms protectively. "It was like fog, but it had tentacles, and it tried to strangle ... Anyway, it was something supernatural, and luckily we managed to drive it away with light, but at least some of these strange things are real."