Play@YSDC

"Group Commander Frye isn't my commanding officer," said Angus when Phyllis spoke to him. "That would be Platoon Commander Deering. Technically I'm a Squad Commander in the Home Guard, they've got different ranks than the regular Army, but I was a sergeant in the last war. Frye was the one what debriefed me after...it happened. That was back at Home Guard headquarters." He gave her the telephone number.

“Well, I shall try my best.” Phyllis takes the number and heads outside to find a public phone box.

Phyllis looks round on the street outside the sanitarium.

Luck,65,[dice]0[/dice]

The woman who answered the phone put Phyllis on hold, but after a few minutes a man answered her: "Group Commander Frye," said his gruff voice. "How can I help you, ma'am?"

persuade,70,[dice]0[/dice],

Phyllis senses the officer bristling at the other end of the line and her resolve, for once, fails her,
“Oh, er, Commander Frye, I’m Angus’ aunt, Angus MacDonald; he’s staying at the sanitarium. He’s not very happy there and Id like to offer to take him home with me for a few days to recuperate from his horrible experience. There’s nothing better than a few home cooked meals to straighten a person out, I always say...” She listens for the response.

"I'm sorry, ma'am," replied Frye. "I'm afraid that is simply out of the question."

“Well, thank you for your time.” Phyllis hangs the phone up and walks back into the sanitarium to find the others.
“I’m afraid it’s back to Operation Great Escape as soon as Mr Klein returns with the alterations. I wasn’t able to persuade Sergeant MacDonld’s superior to let him go.” She whispers.

"I suppose there's nothing left to do but wait," says a slightly deflated Eugene.

Everyone ate lunch while waiting for the others to return, but it was still hours before they did. Around teatime, Story, Elizabeth, and Brook came back. "We've discovered some interesting things about our foe," said Story.

Before he could elaborate, Benjamin also rejoined them with the orderly uniforms. "I'm afraid this was the best I could do," he said. "The material is quite frankly inferior. I couldn't make all the necessary alterations, or I'd have risked tearing it. Hopefully nobody will look too closely."

OOC,[b]Story[/b]'s Library Use roll (90% skill): [dice]0[/dice] [b]Elizabeth[/b]'s Library Use roll (75% skill): [dice]1[/dice] [b]Brook[/b]'s Library Use roll (25% base skill): [dice]2[/dice] [b]Benjamin[/b]'s Craft(Tailor) roll (65% skill): [dice]3[/dice]

“I’m sure they’ll do marvellously, Mr Klein. Now, Mr Storey, tell us about the villain and then we’d best be getting these two gentlemen ready. We have to get to the church before it gets dark. Thank goodness it’s summer time.” Remarks Phyllis.

"Our true foe is not the Steadmans," began Story. "The real enemy is the entity they so foolishly unleashed upon the world: the Father of All Bats. He is one of many guises for a powerful being known as Nyarlathotep. My companions and I have had a run-in with him before, in the form of the Black Pharaoh. The Jaegerschrecks are merely his servants, and while they and the Father of All Bats both share a vulnerability to light, their power is nothing compared to their master's. The Steadmans thought they were protecting Britain from the Nazis, but they've exposed it to a far greater danger. If this being is not stopped, and soon, I fear for the whole world.

After a dramatic pause to let this sink in, he continued. "The Father of All Bats is vulnerable to light in its current form, as my young companion so cleverly proved." He smiled at Brook. "However, he has the power to take over someone as a host, an avatar if you will. It must be someone that the Father of All Bats has marked, someone who has gazed into its tri-lobed red eye - for he has looked back. He will call his prey to him. The call is weak at first, but it will grow stronger over time until it is irresistible. Once the victim is lured to his lair, he can merge with the hapless person. Once in human form, the Father of All Bats will be even more powerful than he is already. He will be as immune to light as any of us, he will look just like one of us, but he will have godlike powers and no limitations. This cannot be permitted to happen, or the entire human race is in terrible danger." He let out a breath. "Please, share what you've discovered, Elizabeth."

"I researched the stone that the Steadmans have got," said Elizabeth. "It's called the Shining Trapezohedron, and it's a very ancient artifact from Egypt. An American named Enoch Bowen discovered it in the last century in the tomb of the Black Pharaoh, Nephren-Ka, and brought it back home to Providence, where he established a cult based around it called The Church of Starry Wisdom. An author named Robert Blake discovered it in the ruins of the church in 1935, and he accidentally summoned The Father of All Bats with it. It couldn't leave the church due to the streetlights outside, but a power failure allowed it to roam freely. Blake was found dead in his home. The official cause of death was a heart attack, and it appears that he must have died from fright when it came after him. The Shining Trapezohedron was cast into the sea, but Captain Travers hauled it up with his fishing boat in 1938 and sold it to Steadman. The artifact itself is seemingly indestructible, always resurfacing even after being hidden. It is not of this world. It is believed to come from a planet called Yuggoth, which we know better as Pluto."

“We need to get hold of that shining trapa-wotsit,” Eugene declares. “You should’ve taken it from the Steadmans when you had the chance. I’ve felt it’s power; without it they can’t summon that monster.” He slumps onto a seat. “I-I don’t know how we can stop them without it.”

Phyllis looks kindly at Eugene and then frowns. “Then Eugene and Angus wont be safe until- until when? What do we have to do to stop it?” She wonders about asking them how they stopped the Black Pharaoh but then couldn’t fathom how that could be the case. She shakes her head. Here and now was the important thing.

'So we need to confront this bat-thing where we have access to bright lights?' asks Anna.

"That's the problem," said Story. "Its lair is that warehouse, and we know that it has some dark chambers underground where it can hide. We'd only have the lights we can carry with us, but light is our only effective weapon. During the day it will have to take shelter, but at night it can travel freely thanks to the blackout."

"I did hit it with that searchlight when it first appeared," said Brook. "That was very effective, but that only works outside."

"Yes, and we can't count on it going out if it doesn't have to. It could just lurk in the warehouse until it takes control of a host. After that, light won't hurt it."

"The stone is connected to it somehow," said Elizabeth. "That was its gateway into this world. But there's no evidence that it can banish it."

"Maybe if we had that dagger," said Brook, "the one that was used to summon the Black Pharaoh. You said it has power over Nyarlathotep."

"Yes, but I don't know how it's meant to be used, and we don't know what became of it. That was years ago. I imagine it was taken by the police as evidence at the time, but it's a priceless artifact, so it would have been returned to the British Museum eventually. It must have been evacuated with all the other treasures, but there's no telling where. Maybe it's in the vault under Aldwych, if we're lucky, but I can't imagine Carole Siddons allowing us to take it out even if it is."

"There are two things we must do to stop the threat," said Story. "We must defeat the Father of All Bats with light, and we must retrieve the Shining Trapezohedron. Without that, it can just return to the world."

"We know that the Steadmans are meeting at Liverpool Street Station at six o'clock," said Benjamin. "That's less than two hours from now. They'll have the stone with them. But the sun sets around seven. We don't have a whole lot of daylight."

“And how close does this monster need to be to its victim to turn it into a host? Phyllis asks, struggling a bit with all these alien concepts. “I suppose the dagger would be catalogued carefully if it is priceless. You might be able to track it down.”

"It requires physical contact to take someone over," said Story. "My companions and I can stop by the British Museum and see if we can talk to Carole Siddons before she leaves for the day. She was around at the time the incident with the dagger happened, and we all know her."

Archie:

Archie looks at the orderly uniforms in confusion. "Ah, why are there orderly uniforms?"

Phyllis smiles conspiratorially, “Well, Archie, we didn’t think it was age enough here for Eugene and Sergeant McDonald so they are going to escape in disguise!” She says in a low voice.

“And we are going to hide them while everyone else searches for that stone and the dagger, hopefully. We’ll head to the church unless you think somewhere else would be better to avoid that monster. As long as they stay away from it they’ll be okay.”