Chapter 10: November 1st

[aine]

Isolde sits quietly (she filled Crozier in with what had happened while they ate.) but then has a thought.
“I wonder what the doctor injected to cause such a reaction?” She whispers.

[Mephistophilis]

'What were those drawings on the victims?' asks Harry. Keen to find out her motives for the murders.

[HoneyDog]

“The symbols? I… I left them for the dog-thing. It can only move through angles, not curves.”

Joan is becoming more agitated.

“I can’t hold it for long though! I know it’s coming for me!”

Her voice is shrill and she is clearly beginning to panic. Blessing quickly brings her out of the trance. Once awake, she is calm again, though she looks tired.

“Come now” says Blessing gently. “You should rest. I’ll take you to your room, and we can try again later.”

Taking her arm, he nods to the companions and they leave the room.

[Philulhu]

”She looked terrified!” said Vic quietly, once she judged Joan and Dr. Blessing we’re out of earshot.

“What do you think she meant by a dog-thing?” she asked.

[Mr. Handy]

"Ancestral memory?" says Alexander. "I didn't know it was possible, but there's a lot we don't know about how the brain works."

OOC,I had wanted to make a reference to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde earlier, so I looked up when it was published, and I believe it was 1886, which is still five years away.

[Snapper]

Crozier:

The Captain seems to be having a hard time gathering his wits, or shaking off the lingering after-effects of the drug. He keeps forgetting why the party are there, looking around happily but rather groggily, and asking, "Did we win?"

[Philulhu]

OOC,The perils of playing in multiple games in multiple time periods. It’s easy to forget which one you’re in... I even checked when it was published... :roll:

[Mephistophilis]

Harry is clearly confused by the whole affair, this isn't the sort of spiritualism he thought he was seeking. It's all a bit beyond me but d'you reckon Vandorff could tell us more? Maybe he has some books or something on it?'

[Mr. Handy]

"Aye, I saw some of those of those books in the waiting room," says Alexander. "They're probably in German."

OOC,I play in so many games, and I've gotten mixed up between this one and the Pulp Cthulhu game. In this one I play a character named [b]Alexander[/b] and Mephistophilis plays a character named [b]Harry[/b]. In the other one, it's the other way around. I've mistakenly posted as "[b]Harry[/b]" in this one.

[HoneyDog]

Blessing returns.

“Miss Bayldon is sleeping now. She’s quite exhausted.”

He looks confused.

“I’m confident I should be able to restore her personality over time. Though I cannot make sense of her claims while under the influence of that drug she spoke of. Vandorff of course knows more, but getting him to talk could be difficult. Knowing him though, he has probably made records, which would be in his laboratory. He’s very private about it, and rarely admits anyone.”

Blessing clears his throat.

“Before that though, I must thank all of you again, and ask as to what you plan to do. I want to inform the authorities – obviously I cannot keep Vandorff and his thugs confined forever – but I want proof of his misdeeds first. I’m sure that you can see that although Miss Bayldon has committed awful crimes, it was because of the experiment that Vandorff was conducting on her, and she cannot be held responsible.”

He looks around at the investigators, hoping for their agreement.

[Mr. Handy]

"Aye, she was clearly not herself," says Alexander. "We are happy to help, and once Miss Bayldon can be cleansed of that drug, hopefully she will be back to normal. The murders are now stopped as well. Let us look for Vandorff's notes then. If they are in German, one of us knows it."

[Snapper]

Crozier:

The Captain gingerly scratches his ear and his hands comes away with dried blood. "I say, did I get my head in front of the ball? The old ear seems a bit of a mess. It wouldn't be the first time..."

OOC,Hey, I'm currently playing Crozier, Crowley, and Conroy. I named them all and I actually didn't mean to do that!! Old age and exposure to avgas has cooked my brain.

[HoneyDog]

Blessing looks worried for a moment.

“Actually, I wouldn’t be too sure about that” he says to Alexander. “Until Miss Bayldon is herself again, there’s no guarantee that her compunction to kill has faded. The ‘dog-thing’ that concerns her so is still in her thoughts. We can treat her further this evening, but it’s probably best if we lock her door tonight.”

[Philulhu]

”Do you want to make a start on Vandorff’s journals?” asked Vic. “My German is rusty but I’m willing to give it a try.”

[Mephistophilis]

Looking uncomfortable, Harry mutters to himself before saying, 'I suppose a very short delay in going to the police will not cause any harm. Sergeant Craig knows we have been investigating the asylum but not found anything concrete, perhaps if we tell him we were looking for incriminating evidence until we were drugged and then managed to escape, which is all true, that would account for the delay in informing the authorities.' He pauses, 'And we don't know for sure Miss Bayldon was the murderer, given the strength required, if they stop this might be the evidence we need to prove it.'

[HoneyDog]

Blessing nods. “I hope we will find our answers soon.”

As the Doctor leads the group back upstairs, he says,

“I’m afraid I must impose on you all further. As you can imagine, we are now very short-staffed, and I will need help in caring for my charges. They will need their evening meal, and I will have to administer medicines to some. I would be most grateful for your assistance.”

The party reaches the second floor, this time heading to a room opposite Dr. Vandorff’s bedroom, directly under the tower. Blessing unlocks the door with a key he took from Vandorff, and they enter.

It is large and well-illuminated by the large windows. Two large workbenches crowd the center of the room, each littered and stacked with beakers, candles, test-tube racks, retorts, scales, flasks, crucibles, and intricate networks of glass, rubber, and copper tubing.

In the south wall is a door, next to which is a fireplace with pokers and firewood alongside.

On the north wall are several shelves holding many old books and hundreds of sealed jars and vials of every size; most seem to be labeled, and a cursory glance shows that they are mostly substances such as chemicals, acids, compounds, and drugs.

The books are mostly in Latin and German. Almost all are large, old and fragile. Among the titles are the Mesnard edition of Hermes Trismegistus, the Turba Philosophurum, Alchimia Vera, Salomon Trismosin’s Splendor Solis, Roger Bacon’s Thesaurus Chemicus, De Lapide Philisphico by Johannes Trithemius, Raymond Lully’s Ars Magna et Ultima, Cabala Mineralis, Tractatus Aureus, Artephius’ Key of Wisdom, Robert Fludd’s Clavis Alchimiae, Ludvig Prinn’s The Mysteries of the Worm, and Geber’s Liber Investigationis. The are also other books by or about Roger Bacon, Philippus Aureolus Paracelsus, Albertus Magnus, Johann Glauber, Zosimus, and Jabir ibn-Hayyan.

Near the shelves is a small cabinet.

OOC,Looking at the books, you can make an Occult roll and a Cthulhu Mythos roll.

[Mephistophilis]

Looking blankly at the various books and instruments Harry says 'I think I might be most use helping out as an orderly.'

Occult 5%,0

[Philulhu]

OOC,Having zero Cthulhu Mythos, Vic will opt for Occult (05%) - 0

Vic is used to Lord Armstrong’s well-ordered library at Cragside. The plethora of titles and jumble of languages leaves her aghast. ”Where would one even start?!” she murmurs.

[aine]

Isolde is about to offer her help with the inmates, after all, how different can they be from unruly children. But then she sees the books and is drawn to the wonderful and mysterious titles,

Occult,48 0

[Snapper]

Crozier:

Occult 5%,0

The Captain wanders along amiably with the party but is still trying to gather his wits.