Play@YSDC

Christopher Fontana

"Please be assured that we have no intention of disturbing Ms. Henslowe; we will look in the study..." Christopher says while wondering why Currothers would leave the group, five strangers alone .. alone with a frail old woman. He has no plans to raise his concerns whilst within earshot of Currothers though. "It's this way you say...?" he adds pointing up the stairs.

Christopher and Holly climb the stairs to the upper floor and quickly finds Henslowe's study. It's not a big room, or perhaps it seems smaller because it's cluttered with objects out of place. On a desk, near the door, there's a camera, a flashlight, a ball of twine, a jar of blue ink and a brush stained with blue ink. A shovel rests leaning on a wall. Both the shovel and the flashlight are caked with dried mud. There's a map on the floor, near an armchair in the corner of the room. A large library covers one of the walls, but there are also many books on the floor, some piled together, some alone, some even open.


At the ground floor, Currothers is nervously shifting from one foot to the other. "Don't cause trouble with the old lady, all right? Mr. Henslowe wanted you to look around, and I respect that, but don't cause trouble." He nods to himself, as if satisfied with what he just said. "I'll be in my cottage if you need me", he adds, then heads outside.

Clarence starts looking through the books and map on the floor, hoping to find something of note.

"Carrothers seems genuine to me," says Holly. "He really doesn't recognize the name Frank Hickering." She looks at the map first, picking it up off of the floor. "This might lead us to where Henslowe hid the journal. Judging from the muddy shovel and flashlight, he may have buried it, probably inside a container to protect it. We'd better bring them with us if we have to go outside."

While Holly and Christopher are searching the study, Father Flanagan begins looking around the ground floor, starting in the parlor. I may as well try to make myself useful, he thinks. If nothing else, perhaps I'll find out Henslowe's preferred cigar brand or something, and someone with more experience can turn that into something useful.

Holly picks up the map from the floor and discovers that it's not a map of the estate grounds, not even a local map. It's a map of the world, with some signs and notes in red. The city of Los Angeles is circled, with a note written nearby: "Where did it go?". A little to the south, Mexico is also circled. Then Ethiopia is circled as well, with a short note: "A.?".

Clarence picks up the books, reading each title patiently, searching for something that might ring a bell. After a couple of minutes, his efforts are rewarded: the next book he picks up is titled Communion Rites of Victorian Death Cults, but it's the author that is most interesting - Francis J. Hickering.

Father Flanagan walks through the ground floor, looking around. The house was clearly beautiful once, but now it's in full decadence. Paint is peeling, rugs are worn flat, the rooms smell of damp plaster and stale flowers, plus the smell coming in from the swamp. One thing catches his eyes as he looks around: in the parlor, inside an open barrel-top desk, there's a ledger, full with numbers and notes. Father Flanagan can't make much of it, but perhaps the other can.

Christopher examines the items on the desk. The camera is in good working order, but needs film. The jar of ink is empty, and the brush is dried to the point of uselessness. The ball of twine is particularly interesting. It is marked throughout its length with blue ink marks in little clusters a foot or more apart, with each cluster separated by several feet of clean twine. Each stretch of clean twine is marked by a bit of tightly knotted twine well past the halfway point between ink stains. This divides the twine either into five clusters of ink marks or into four lengths of clean twine, with each length marked by a knot.

Holly shows the map to Christopher. "It looks like it's pointing to things further afield," she says. "Right now it gives us more questions than answers." She looks at the book he has found. "Ah, I see you've found Frank Hickering. The location of the journal must be in that book - if the book is not the journal in disguise. Let's take a look inside."

Christopher Fontana

Christopher looks at the map, "Los Angeles makes sense, after what we've already discovered but Africa... this is getting more and more perplexing." he says. "Victorian Death Cults... could be some tie-in with whatever this Echavarria was up to and .. as I said earlier I am confident that human sacrifices were used in rites used to worship Gol-Goroth that book could be useful for reference the map too."

Christopher turns his attention back to the room and the contents of the desk; Henslowe's diary ought to be here or clues to it's whereabouts. "This twine has been deliberately marked with this ink and I think it's safe to assume that it was Henslowe that did it... so it's not too hard to imagine that Henslowe in his deteriorating state decides that he has to hide his diary... and it's probably one of the last things he does before returning to the Sanatorium. So the twine, that mud covered spade and flash-light must be important.. they haven't been cleaned or disposed of.." Christoper picks up the twine, trying to work things out."

"Are there any photographs? he asks.

There is, in fact, a photo. It's inside the book that Clarence has found, and it falls to the floor as soon as you open it. When you pick it up, you can see that it's a photo of the mansion itself. On the back, there are a few handwritten lines.

Clarence sees something fall to the floor from the book. He picks it, " I think I may have found something of significance here. Its a photo of the mansion and a written note on the back."

Clarence looks at the items perplexed, and trying to make connections between the items.

Christopher Fontana

Christopher reads the words on the back of the photograph "A riddle? As if things needed to be more complicated... I suppose these numbers and name combinations point or lead to locations. 'Back to one' but there is no start, a circular route? Hmm, perhaps the caretaker knows who or what the names refer to?"

"Remember that graveyard we passed on the way in?" says Holly, a thought occurring to her as she examines the photo. "I bet these are names on the tombstones!"

While the others enter the house, followed by Currothers, Ian decides to finish his cigarette. His heart is slowly coming back to the normal pace, and he's enjoying the view, looking at nothing in particular.

After some minutes, he goes into the house, finding Fr. Flanagan in the parlor, with a book in his hands. "Have you found anything, Father?"

OOC,[ooc]Numbers and notes? I have Accounting 1. Does it help?[/ooc]

Father Flanagan shows Ian the ledger. "Can't make heads or tails of it, myself. Maybe you'll have better luck.' Father Flanagan hands Ian the ledger. "Do you have a head for numbers?"