Play@YSDC

Father Mason looks up at the flare shot by Henry. "I hope help is on its way, but we should also take into account the possibility that no one will see the signal and that we will have to save ourselves. We should keep firing flares regularly, though, maybe one every ten minutes or so. How many do we have?"

"Good thinking. Lead on."

Henry responds to Father Mason, "We only have five left. That young man, Tommy, he suggested saving them to use as a weapon, and I'm inclined to agree. There is something very wrong here."

"We should only fire off a flare into the distance if we know there's someone out there to see it." says Cynthia. "If there was nobody to see the first flare, there probably wouldn't be anyone to see the second. But if there was, and they get close enough, it could help them find and rescue us. Let's get to the Captain's cabin and see what we can find." She heads back that way with the others.

Henry will follow Cynthia's lead. "Thats a good point. I just hope this fog lets up soon."

Father Mason follows the rest of the group back inside.

You all reach the outside of the Captain's cabin which is still open as you had left it. On the bed lies a locked iron box which was under the bed, it can be opened with one of the keys off Blunden's corpse.

Inside is a handgun (a loaded Enfield Mk1 with twelve rounds of spare ammunition; 1D10+2)

"I've already got the pistol we found earlier," says Cynthia. "Someone who knows how to use it should take this one. Then we can check out those other locked cabins."

"I can't say I've had much experience", says Henry "but I'll take the pistol just in case." If there are no objections, Henry will grab the revolver and pocket the spare ammunition. He hopes not to have to use it.

There is nothing else of interest in the Captain's cabin. Where are you going next?

Mr. Handy wrote:]OOC,Which of the cabins that we've already tried are locked?

OOC:   You all woke up in Cabin A, Went into Cabin B and the Captain's cabin. Tommy searched cabin 9 on the deck below while everyone else was busy with Yvonne Forbes-Pennington on the Lower Viewing Deck. All the others you have tried were locked.

"Let's try the cabin across the hall from the captain's," says Cynthia, pointing at cabin E. "It's right here, and it's a big one, so there may be something important in there. I'll try the key."

The door is locked but opens easily with the key. The room is tidy and organised. The scant personal effects of James Blunden, Albert Colyer and George Thornton, are stowed in the two wardrobes. A copy of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Gods of Mars (A. C. McClurg, 1918) is on one of the bunks.

Seven robes bearing the same embroidery as those in Crew Cabin A are folded in two piles at the bottom of one of the wardrobes. Four are of similar quality to those you have already found. Three are much richer, however, and the finer embroidery makes it clear that it is a mouth, and not a lidless eye, in the palm of each scarlet hand.

As the investigators search the wardrobes they will find a worn pea coat. Inside is a letter from Cunliffe to Blunden (see below), explaining the need to assemble a crew for The Louisiana Lady from among the ‘Disciples’.
[Blunden – 19th June, 1920
It’s done. Dawson and his men will be too sick to crew the riverboat. I need you to assemble the Disciples. Only those you trust, mind, especially those with river experience. Grant’s crew is fifteen strong. We could run the ship with a dozen at the least. Try and get fifteen. No one else is to know of this. These men will be my Chosen. They will go out to our acolytes across the city and tell them of the great work I have done. Transformed, she will be magnificent. Our lord will – must – answer this time. There will be no more ignominy. I will rise, and you will rise with me, Blunden. I will return to Liverpool and I will sweep him from his perch and the Disciples of the Scarlet Palm will writhe and lust and scream before me. There will be no atrocity left unknown to us.

I will meet you and your ‘crew’ in the usual place on the 20th. Tell Gough to bring the mandrake. Remind him that there must be enough for twenty-five: the perfect symbolic square, the square of the sum of man and woman.
William]

OOC:   Any investigator in the room, make a Spot Hidden roll.

Cynthia notices something else in the cabin.

OOC,Spot Hidden roll (55% skill) in the cabin: [dice]0[/dice]

Henry carefully searches the room for more clues.

spot hidden: 55%
[dice]0[/dice]

While the others look around the room, Father Mason focuses his attention on the letter. As he reads, he feels a chill down his spine. They have fallen right into the madness of a group of deranged lunatics.

Occult,63: a success http://orokos.com/roll/501983 I'll see if anything in the letter rings a bell.

Albert, after a rather lengthy watch, slowly goes back down the stairs and continues listening.

"A ship full of madmen and none to be found," Tommy says. "We've got to find out where they are, or" -- pausing to gulp a bit -- "where more victims are. Let's try that key on the other cabins, one by one, standing by with weapons. If the key doesn't work, I've got this crowbar."