Chapter 9: Loose Ends

Arkham, Massachusetts, 1928. The last dying plea of an old friend and mentor leads to an encounter with a horror beyond description. Unwittingly released into the world nearly fifty years before, it is now time to finally confront the mistakes of the past. But it will come at great cost...

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Re: Chapter 9: Loose Ends

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OOC,The luck rolls are insurance against a possible outcome...
The investigators return to Arkham and their regular lives, and in the days that follow try to make sense of what they witnessed. It is a difficult time, and nightmares are a regular occurrence. The sight of the creature, its inhuman voice and the memory of mutilated corpses of its victims, who so easily could have been them, are sufficient to leave our heroes frightened and paranoid. The creature is gone though, and in time they will be able to rest easily.

But the next week, they begin to receive visitors, beginning with Alice. The Massachusetts State Police, at the request of Pa Peters, are seeking information about the bodies discovered at the farmhouse.

From autopsies it is obvious that the cause of death is massive tissue damage, resulting from what seems to be an animal bite, but pathologists and naturalists alike are confounded as to what kind of animal could have inflicted such wounds.

Although the investigators are not therefore believed to be behind the killings, they need to answer questions about what happened that night.
OOC:   Did you all prepare for this eventuality? The police want to know what you know. There are a lot of strange things that went on,and if you can't give a convincing enough explanation, you might find yourselves in trouble.  
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Re: Chapter 9: Loose Ends

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OOC,[b]Balzac's[/b] [i]Luck[/i] is 65% and he rolls... [dice]0[/dice]
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Re: Chapter 9: Loose Ends

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OOC:   If he's able to, Balzac will check himself into whatever qualifies as the most reputable asylum Boston (or all Massachusetts) has to offer for a month of first aid for the soul.  
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Re: Chapter 9: Loose Ends

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Each investigator gets the same question; "What happened that night?"
OOC:   Would you all like to roleplay your police interviews? You're welcome to, but if it's too bothersome you can just provide a summary of why your character was there and what they think happened outside. The police will want to determine exactly what your role in all this is.  
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Re: Chapter 9: Loose Ends

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OOC,We'll need to get our stories straight and make sure they are consistent. We can say that the noises we heard could very well have been animal noises, though none of us saw anything. This would confirm what the police believe. The way we can make it appear is that the hobo was trying to get inside the house because the animal was chasing him, but we were too frightened to let him inside because he attacked us earlier, and we thought he was trying to get in to do us further harm. Unable to get inside, he was slaughtered by the animal, as was the missing woman. That makes us look a little bad, as we effectively left him to die, though it's quite understandable with the limited information we had. However, by admitting to this, we give it the ring of truth and prevent the police from suspecting something more sinister.
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Re: Chapter 9: Loose Ends

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OOC:   Sounds good to me. Balzac is planning on playing the crazy (mentally unresilient foreigner) card for all she's worth and so will generally be giggling and/or crying and/or drooling in his dressing gown in the asylum, and on the whole barely able to remember or talk about the experience. "Mlle Nursey, may I have the next morphine now, s'il vous plait?"  
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Re: Chapter 9: Loose Ends

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OOC:   Yes, that sounds like a good plan.  
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Re: Chapter 9: Loose Ends

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OOC:   Would you like to role play these scenes, or just take them to a logical conclusion?  
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Re: Chapter 9: Loose Ends

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OOC:   Happy for you to take the police investigation to a logical conclusion, with us all sticking to that story.  
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Re: Chapter 9: Loose Ends

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Mr. Handy wrote:
OOC,We'll need to get our stories straight and make sure they are consistent. We can say that the noises we heard could very well have been animal noises, though none of us saw anything. This would confirm what the police believe. The way we can make it appear is that the hobo was trying to get inside the house because the animal was chasing him, but we were too frightened to let him inside because he attacked us earlier, and we thought he was trying to get in to do us further harm. Unable to get inside, he was slaughtered by the animal, as was the missing woman. That makes us look a little bad, as we effectively left him to die, though it's quite understandable with the limited information we had. However, by admitting to this, we give it the ring of truth and prevent the police from suspecting something more sinister.
OOC:   Sounds like a plan! I think the investigators gathered to agree upon the story before the police visit. Let's take it to a logical conclusion. I hope Isadora won't attract more attention because of her former problems with the law...  
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Re: Chapter 9: Loose Ends

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“So you’re saying that the missing woman, Maggie McPhirter, was killed by the animal too? She was there, with the hobo?”
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Re: Chapter 9: Loose Ends

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Image

"She must have been, if you found her there," says Alice. "Maybe she ran off with him, or maybe he kidnapped her. I guess we'll never know. They both must have been fleeing from that beast."
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Re: Chapter 9: Loose Ends

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This is not the most satisfying of answers, however lacking any physical evidence which incriminates the companions, there is little the police can do.

There is another question though. Isadora and Alice, being female and therefore the 'weaker' sex, are not expected to be able to answer, and Balzac has been confirmed by his psychiatrists as suffering from acute stress (which actually counts in his favour somewhat). But it is a question Henry is expected to answer.

“Why, when you were armed with a rifle and a shotgun, did you not go outside to offer any help or assistance?”
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Re: Chapter 9: Loose Ends

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Henry Glynn

"The weapons belong to Dr Balzac. I barely know how to use the things. I'm an author not a hunter Sir."
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Re: Chapter 9: Loose Ends

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OOC:   Ah, the sweet bliss of opioid based medication...  
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Re: Chapter 9: Loose Ends

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The detectives have no further questions. Although they feel that there is more to the companion's involvement than they state, there is no physical evidence to connect them. The heroes are free from arrest, although Balzac and Henry are unlikely to forget the stinging criticism regarding their courage and manhood, regarding their failure to come to the victims aid, and which luckily is not a criminal offense.

Equally luckily , although the Arkham Gazette picks up the story, the reporter is either too incompetent or disinterested to investigate the companions involvement, and so their reputations are unsullied. The deaths are declared to be the result of an animal attack, and the case is closed. The heroes had better stay away from Ross's Corners though.

What of the heroes though? Their courage and bravery undoubtedly stopped further deaths, and rid from this world a presence which we can only hope will never return. They kept their promise to their friend, and vindicated his faith in them. But will their lives ever be the same? Knowing that monsters and demons are real, can they go back to the familiar world of daily life? Only time will tell...
OOC,I think we're finished! Would you all like to write an epilogue for your characters? We can discuss their rewards in the ooc chat.
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Re: Chapter 9: Loose Ends

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Isadora Carmichael - epilogue

Image

The meeting with her loving husband is, if possible, even harder for Isadora than the police investigation. George Auden is worried to death, especially after this second "adventure". She believes Isadora's story, and is intrigued by it, but his curiosity is overshadowed by fear and worry. They argue, make up, start arguing again, until Isadora cannot take it anymore and faints. She spends two days in medication-induced deep sleep, hoping to restore her mental balance. In her dreams she is taken to bleak, illogical spaces, where dimensions slip and collide. She is pursued by an invisible beast through angular corridors, then there is a dead end. She screams, clawing on the walls, trying to form protective runes in the stone with her fingernails.

Isadora wakes up and sees George sitting next to her - he dozed off while guarding her. She wakes him up, and their friendship is restored: although, deep inside, George doesn't believe that Isadora won't pursue a new opportunity to delve into the supernatural...
"I feel as if my soul would be torn out of my body," she gasped. "I am being drawn into a whirlpool. What is happening? What does it mean?" - The Secrets of Dr. Taverner
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Re: Chapter 9: Loose Ends

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Henry Glynn - epilogue

The events at Ross’s Corners have cured Henry of his writers block and he begins work on a new novel, the follow up to The Ghastly Chamber. The Curse of the Gold Sarcophagus has a strange and indefinable peculiarity not found in his previous work, although it has yet to be seen whether it will meet the approval of his Boston based publisher. Henry asks Alice Stanton for her assistance in typing up the manuscript using the excuse that his shoulder still hurts from the Hobo attack, but in truth he is slightly smitten with her and is looking for an excuse to enjoy her company. Henry visits Balzac when he can and even sends a lunch invitation to Artur Vivar.

He makes sure to call on Dr Armitage and drop off the copy of The Ghastly Chamber which he promised him.
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Re: Chapter 9: Loose Ends

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innsmouth wrote:The Curse of the Gold Sarcophagus has a strange and indefinable peculiarity not found in his previous work, although it has yet to be seen whether it will meet the approval of his Boston based publisher.
If the publishing project gets underway, Henry would get an invitation to read a chapter at the Boston Theosophic Society's monthly literary meeting.
"I feel as if my soul would be torn out of my body," she gasped. "I am being drawn into a whirlpool. What is happening? What does it mean?" - The Secrets of Dr. Taverner
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Re: Chapter 9: Loose Ends

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Balzac whiles away his days in the up-market asylum in a "medicated" haze. Initially, he is content to gaze out a big window at some pretty winter garden, smoke French cigarettes, and to know he has survived. Occasionally, he plays some jazz on his trumpet, badly. His botanical instincts gradually kick in and he starts mentally classifying the flora he sees, then in the bigger biological picture the winged or furry or insectoid animals he also spies.

Perhaps it is the morphine talking but an idea starts to form. Clearly, that creature at the farm belongs to a world still wholly unknown to science. What other such creatures exist? Maybe the legends told by the many Canadian and American indigenous peoples he had met on expeditions had deeper meaning than hitherto suspected? Perhaps the professor was on to something immense?

The scientist who was able to publicly prove the existence of this unknown world, to explain the rules that ordered it, would become justly famous. Maybe even Nobel prize winning.

And beyond fame, the rules that governed the existence of such creatures, once learnt, might lead to their being tamed and put to use for the good of society. Or perhaps if the good nations of the world could yoke such animals as weapons, there would be no danger of another ghastly Great War.

Balzac finds his enthusiasm renewed and starts to ponder where he can turn to first in his researches...
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