IC: Prologue

[Charles Graves]

Folding his stethoscope and placing it back in the bag Graves walks over to the Police Chief. "I would very much like to speak to Lawrence before I leave the States. I am a Dr of psychology and am sure that I can help him if you would tell me where he is being taken."

[OrionUK]

"Of course I dont mind old chap, happy if I can help. If we can get through to reception I will try to obtain the room number if he is staying here" James replies to Callum. He then turns to head towards the door with Callum.

[Raiko]

@Clark
Moore turns to Clark, “That’s a good idea, but I think we should let the cops do their job first, after all we don’t have anything to hide.”
“The cops are likely to check his room themselves soon, but we could probably take a look after. Lawrence’s room is 412, I think.”

@Callum & James
Two police officers stand by the Washington Room’s entrance, one speaks as the two Brits approach, “I’m sorry gentlemen, but I can’t allow you to leave until you have given a statement. Mr Starkweather has asked permission to continue with the presentation, and the commissioner has allowed that before statements are taken, but if you leave you have to give your statement now.”

@Charles Graves
Commisioner Balon replies, “He’s being taken to a cell at the Police Headquarters until we decide what to do with him, I appreciate the offer of help, perhaps you could go to the headquarters later.

@Everyone

The rest of the evening is obviously spoiled by the incident, with several of the guests deciding to leave as soon as the police allow them to. Starkweather however seems to be determined not to allow the incident to totally ruin the evening. Although he was obviously affected by Lawrence’s actions, he returns to his lectern once the mess has been tidied, and spends thirty minutes presenting an overview of the expedition’s objectives and route. Once he gets into the swing of his presentation his obvious enthusiasm for the expedition returns.

“Ladies and Gentlemen after that unfortunate and unforeseen incident, I hope that you will still be able to enjoy your evening here. Without further delay I shall return to the task at hand.”

“We shall be departing from New York aboard our vessel the SS Gabrielle on the 14th of September, all of our equipment and supplies have been ordered, and the Gabrielle herself will be in port two weeks before departure.”

Starkweather waits while a large map of the Pacific is unveiled on his presentation board before continuing.

“As you can see from this map, we shall travel via the Panama Canal and cross the Pacific Ocean to Melbourne, Australia. We will stay briefly in the city while the ship is refuelled, and its stores are replenished. Then we shall depart again bound for Antarctica, we will be heading into the Ross Sea and, depending on whether the the ice pack permits, we hope to make landfall on the Ross Ice Shelf close to Ross Island as early as November the 1st.”

A second map is unveiled, this one showing what is known of the continent of Antarctica

“We will be making our first camp here,” Starkweather points to the map, “on the shore of the Ross Sea. This will act as the base camp for the expedition’s aeroplanes, and will also be used to relay communications to the Gabrielle, which will remain a safe distance offshore once all our equipment and personnel have been safely unloaded.”

“Once we have located the site of Lake’s camp at the foot of the Miskatonic Range, we shall be establishing our second camp. This camp will be used as a base for examining the Lake expedition site, particularly the fossil remains in the cave system discovered by the 1930 expedition. We shall also launch flights from this camp searching for a pass through the Miskatonic Mountain range, to the high plateau on the opposite side, that Professor Dyer mentioned in his report.”

“The high plateau will be the site of our third and final camp. We will be conducting a large number of exploratory flights from the plateau, in order to fully map and document this plateau.”

“For the expedition we will be making use of the excellent new Boeing 247 aircraft, we have purchased three and had them specially modified for operation in the Antarctic. We also have a fourth smaller aeroplane, a Fairchild FC-2, aircraft of this type have been used by several previous expeditions to the Arctic and the Antarctic. This shorter range aircraft will mostly be used for mapping and exploration of the Ross Ice Shelf.”

“In order to support these extensive air operations the Gabrielle will be carrying an enormous amount of fuel for the aeroplanes, enough to fly each of the planes around the world!”

“We hope to leave Antarctica by Feburary the 1st 1934. By which time we hope to have located and recovered the remains of the deceased Miskatonic Expedition members, and as many of the bones, fossil remains, and artefacts that they discovered as possible. All of these will be safely recovered to the United States.”

“Well that’s all from me, I’ll hand you all over now to Professor Moore.”

[Decrepit]

Jack dutifully takes notes, realizing all the while that this flap and the resulting delay may have made him too late to make the early-edition deadline, which will no doubt infuriate his editor--and with good reason. As much as he'd still like to get a quote from the woman in the party, he knew that he'd better try to use a hotel telephone to pass on his information to his editor. It wouldn't be as good as if he himself had written the story, what with the rewrite man probably making a hash of it, but at least the Daily News wouldn't be caught flat-footed on a story that one of its own reporters was, in some small way, a part of.

Jack hurredly finishes up his story notes, waiting for Moore to fill in the final details. Then he'd have to see about getting out of that room, at least long enough to make the call. Maybe he could slip a word or two in from the adventuress for the late edition ...

[Henrik]

Olof listens with great interest. He now begins to appreciate how much planning and how much effort lie behind this undertaking. They will be at sea for forty-five days at least! Olof looks at the map of Antarctica with great interest. The continent looks so desolate, so lonely.

"How far I have come from Stockholm..."

[OrionUK]

James accepts the police officers request to give his statement before leaving the room and returns to the table in order to listen to the rest of the presentation. He turns to Callum "maybe we can try having a look later"

[Steerpike]

McRaven now sat back at the table, listens to the speech. It all seems interesting, but the events of this evening had taken the shine off things.
The atmosphere was so think you could cut it with a knife.

He then picks up something that Callum said to James as they returned to their seats.

"Have a look at what later?"

[Ghost_1971]

"We are going to try to get a look at Lawrences room. Maybe we can find out a bit more about what makes him tick."

"You want to come along? All are welcome."

[Steerpike]

McRaven does not need long to think about the offer. The crazed look on that mans face, matched by the shock on Starkweather. Whatever had tipped Lawrence into madness, was a fairly recent event at best.

"Yeah, I'm in...as soon as the talks finished and we get our statements taken. A quick rummage might throw some light on this evening...maybe put peoples minds at rest"

[Raiko]

As William Moore steps up onto the small stage, there is muted applause from those who are determined not to let events spoil the evening.

“Thank you, ladies and gentlemen for attending tonight, especially in light of tonight’s events.”

“Firstly I’d like to offer a few thank you’s, starting with the Miskatonic University board of trusties. Many people both within the university and outside, stated the foolishness of launching this expedition after the disaster that befell the first in 1930. Yet these men have stood by the expedition since the beginning.”

“But for illness I would have been a part of the 1930 expedition, possibly a member of Charles Lake’s ill fated party. So I offer my thanks to the board, for their part in assuring that my friends did not die in vain, and that their work will be completed.”

“I think that a special mention should also go to one of our pilots, Miss Kitt Knight, she will become the first woman to set foot in Antarctica.” This is the queue for another round of applause, and all eyes turn toward Kitt for a second.

"Also I offer my thanks to James Seymour, without his help the expedition may have stalled as funds dried up."

Moore then goes into more detail about the makeup of the expedition, spending some time discussing the capabilities of both types of aircraft used by the expedition, the Boeing 247, and the Fairchild FC2

He also explains the operation of the Pabodie drilling machine, a lightweight drill which can be carried (together with it’s generator) aboard three seven-dog sleds, and when assembled can be used to drill over one thousand feet into the ice and rock of Antarctica.

“We have only three weeks to go now before departure, and much to do. The work will begin in earnest once our ship the SS Gabrielle arrives on the first, until then I hope that our team spend their time wisely making final personal preparations. Once the Gabrielle arrives, it will require the help of all the team to prepare her for departure.”

“To all our guests tonight, thank you for your interest in this momentous expedition, I hope to be stood here again in several months celebrating our safe and successful return, thank you.”

The professor waves and steps down from the stage.

[Decrepit]

Well, that was a little less than scintillating, Jack thinks, as he scibbles down the last few notes. Now to see if I can get out of here and go use a 'phone ...

Jack has no problem offering a statement, but he knows he needs a few minutes to get this story filed.

On his way to try to persuade the officers to let him out, he notices a knot of some of the expedition men gathering and seemingly planning something. Jack's curious but also preoccupied. Have to check that out later, he thinks.

[Charles Graves]

Graves tries to pay attention to the speach, but finds his mind wondering back to the traumatized Lawrence.

After giving his statement to the police, he asks one of the Officers if he can accompany him back to Police HQ in order to see the prisoner. He resolves to analyse Lawrence as much as possible before their departure to discover what pushed him over the edge.

[Ghost_1971]

Callum listens, with interest to Moores' speech. Once done he gives his statement to a police officer, and makes his way to the lobby to meet the others.

[Raiko]

@Clark

Attempting to postpone his statement until tomorrow, Clark finds himself face to face with Sergeant O’Rourke, an Irish-American policeman who takes his job very seriously. He is totally unmoved by Clark’s claims of nausea, “I’m sorry sir, but nobody’s leaving this room before they give their statement, Commissioner’s orders.”

Unfortunately the sergeant seems to have taken offence and delights in taking a very long and detailed statement from the doctor, he eventually gets out of the Washington Room just in time to notice a small group of expedition member gathered around James in the lobby.


@Graves

“Sure thing sir, we appreciate the help. It’ll be a little while until we’ve taken everybody’s statements, but I’ll be heading straight back to the headquarters.”

“If you’d like to return to your seat, I’ll give let you know when we’re ready to leave.”

Once the statements have been taken the officer walks over the professor with Sergeant O’Rourke, “Professor Graves, we’re ready to go now.”


@James, Callum, McRaven

Heading straight to reception after giving his statement isn’t as easy as James expected, the lobby is packed full of journalists fighting to get a exclusive. When he eventually makes it to the reception desk though he easily obtains both room number and key, the attractive young receptionist Lucy seems quite taken by the rich Englishman.

“Mr Longfellow was staying in room 412 sir, the police have already checked the room and they’re gone now.”

James meets the others in the lobby with the key.


@Jack

Jack manages to talk his way past the police officers on the door, providing he returns quickly.

Jack calls the Daily News from the lobby and is immediately put through to his angry editor Joseph Medill Patterson, “Where the hell have you been Wilson! We’re holding the front page for your story!”

Patterson has calmed down considerably the next time he speaks to Jack, after the story has seen dictated to an office worker, “Good work Jack, nice idea about the girl, and you say she threw a plate at the guy? See if you can get her story for the later editions. We need to get an exclusive before the rest get to her.”

Jack returns to the Washington Room and quickly gives his statement. He reemerges into the lobby just ahead of Clark, and immediately notices the same group of explorers that he’d spotted earlier.


@Everybody Else?

It takes a long time for the police to take everybody’s statements, when they are finally done it is getting late into the evening. Most of the guests are leaving, and quite a few of the expedition members are heading for their rooms, but a few remain in the Washington Room talking amongst themselves, including William Moore and the Sorensen brothers.

Starkweather leaves the room with Commissioner Bolan immediately after giving his statement.

[Henrik]

Having heard about the Sorensen brothers earlier this evening, Olof decides to introduce himself. He was not sure if they were genuine Norwegians or just Americans with Norwegian names though. He decides to introduce himself and if they really are Norwegians take the opportunity to continue the conversation in his own native language Swedish. Perhaps they can tell him some news from Scandinavia.

OOC: For you that don't know my guess is that Norwegian would default to half Olof's Swedish skill. That's from my own experiences of understanding Norwegian. The languages are really, really closely related.

[Decrepit]

Jack is a bit torn. Having just rushed back in after filing his story, he notices again the knot of expedition members. They look intent on something, and whatever it is, he figures, it's got something to do with the night's events.

On the other hand, Jack's editor had told him in no uncertain terms to get some information from the young plate-thrower. Maybe if he could just introduce himself and convince her to hold off on talking to the press before he could interview her, he could join up with the others. He can see one of them has a room key, and the others are looking at him intently. Hell, as far as he knew she'd want to come along; if so, that'd kill two birds with one stone. He scans the area, looking for her, at the same time calling to the men, "Gentlemen, if you'd be so good as to wait just a moment ..."

[GaryTheNerd]

After an exhasuting interview with Sergeant O'Rourke, including an almost obscene amount of detail regarding exactly where he was during the incident and a five minute socratic dialogue concerning the distinctions between a "feral warcry" and "girlish screaming," Clark was convinced that if there was anything of interest in Lawrence's room, it was already in the possession of the police. He decided that it would ultimately be more fruitful to accompany Graves to the police station. There he would be able to speak with Lawrence, determine what the police had found in his room and, God-willing, find someone to help him do something unpleasant to O'Rourke.

"Hey Charles, wait up!"

[Ghost_1971]

"Yes Mr. Wilson? What can we do for you?" Callum enquires of Jack.

"Perhaps you would like to accompany us. We are going to check out Lawrences room. Maybe a keen journalists eye is just what we need!"

[Charles Graves]

"Ah Dr Michaels, I was just about to come looking for you."

"I'm going to see Lawrence and would appreciate your professional opinion of the poor chap."

[Decrepit]

Addressing Callum, Jack replies, "That sounds like a good idea, only ..." He whips around, still not seeing the young woman. Oh, well, Jack thinks. This could be a much bigger story--the secret, if there is one, behind the attack ...

"Gentlemen, I'm ready whenever you are."