IC: Prologue

[OrionUK]

James is stood in the lobby with the key, once Callum & Bill join him he will head up to Lawrences room. He sees Callum & the reporter heading towards him and informs them he has been sucessful in obtaining the room key.

[Steerpike]

McRaven gave his statement, downplaying his own involvement. He was just there to back the Inuits play, and make sure that when lawrence went down, he stayed down and the gun taken out of the equation.
All through this, he keeps an eye on the others as they get ready to check the mans room. He's not sure what they'll find, but something drove him over the edge, pushed him to an act of madness.

In the state the man was after the fracas, McRaven doubted anyone would get any sense out him anytime soon. The mans bedroom may be the best bet.

When the statement was finished, he heads over towards James, seeing that the man has been able to obtain the Key.

[Raiko]

@James, Callum, McRaven & Jack

The four investigators push their way across the packed lobby and manage to get into the elevator without being accompanied by any of the press.

The bellboy takes the elevator up to the fourth floor, one of two floors reserved for the SM Expedition, and they soon locate the door to room 412. Lucy was right, the police are long gone and the door is closed and locked. Crime levels within prohibition New York don’t allow too long to be spent on room searches in such an open and shut case.

@Graves & Clark

Clark and the professor squeeze into the back of the small radio car, the latest in crime fighting technology, behind the dour Sergeant O’Rouke and his somewhat friendlier partner Patrolman Maguire.

As they set off for the NYPD’s impressive headquarters at 240 Central Street, in the heart of Lower Manhattan, O’Rouke turns and says with an evil grin, “Doctor you should have said that you wished to accompany us the headquarters, I could have let you attend to your other business and interviewed you at the HQ.” He laughs to himself at his ‘humour’ and turns back to the front.

@Olof Dark Red text = non-english speech

As expected Olof finds that he can easily converse with the two Norwegian explorers, both seem delighted to meet their fellow Scandinavian, even the surly Nils nods in greeting, as his younger brother greets the engineer, “It’s good to meet another fellow northerner, that makes five of us. You are the only Swede I think, but Enke and Olav over there are both from Norway, they’ll be handling the dog-teams. Enke, Olav! Come say hello to Olof!”

Nils doesn’t look to happy at the growing crowd, but nonetheless remains as his brother continues talking, “Where abouts in Sweden are you from? We hail from Skjervøy in Troms, deep into the Land of the Midnight Sun.”

@Kitt & Isugtag

Leaving the Sorensen brothers to talk to Olof, Professor Moore walks over to table two where Kitt and Isugtag still sit.

He smiles and says, “Isugtag, I notice that you didn’t appreciate the attention of James’ pet reporter earlier. Unfortunately I fear that word of your quick actions is already out. The New York press are a tenacious bunch I’m afraid, they’ll hound you until someone gets their excusive with ‘The Hero.’ Better to have a quiet word with Mr Wilson I think, than be chased by the pack.”

He turns to Kitt, “I glad you made it tonight Miss Knight, I was worried that the your remote location may have prevented you joining us. How was your journey? I’m afraid that you too will be plagued by New York’s finest; the first lady to the South-Pole and all that. Also your timely plate throwing hasn’t gone unnoticed, it’s ironic that your quick reactions possibly saved James’ life! I think he’s quite glad to have you along, don’t tell him I said so though.”

“Perhaps you’d both like to meet some of the others? It will keep you away from the journalists packing the lobby. Some are probably chasing James to the police headquarters by now anyway.”

[OrionUK]

James unlocks the door and steps inside, holding the door open for his companions to enter, and closes the door quietly behind them to avoid any unwanted attention. He glances around the room and takes in his surroundings and looks for anything which might jump out as unusual to the first glance.

[Steerpike]

McRaven steps into the room and takes in the scene. He notices the phone in the room.

"I wonder if it would be possible to find out if he made any calls before he came down?" He stops, realising that he has spoken out loud.
"I guess I've seen a few cops and robbers movies" He says smiling briefly.

He then heads over to the phone, looking to see if a pad lies there with some numbers on it, hell even if it hasn't he could try rubbing a pencil lightly over it to see if anything was there.

[Decrepit]

Jack steps into the room and looks around, looking for anything out of place--though, in truth, he'd never been all that good as a sleuth. In one hand, he clutches his camera, which he retrieved from his room on the way over here. He figures the coppers won't mind; after all, they never said not to come up here. He starts peeking in drawers and the closet, seeing if any skeletons come out.

[Henrik]

"From Stockholm. Troms you say? That is far north. My father once visited Narvik, but I have never been that far north. I have never seen the midnight sun myself. I have been told it is a marvellous sight. Well I would like to propose a toast. For the well of the brother people."

Olof hoped that the Norwegians would appreciate the joke. His toast was refering to the motto of the old Swedish king Oscar II, who before 1905 also was the king of Norway. In 1905 the Swedish-Norwegian union was disolved peacefully and without any feeling of hostility between the two countries.

[Raiko]

Amherst Hotel – The Washington Room
Olof

Gunnar laughs at Olof’s joke, and even Nils smiles, “ For the well of the brother people.”

Two more expedition members approach the trio, Gunnar introduces them to Olof, “Meet Enke Fiskarson and Olav Snåbjorn, they will be looking after our sledge dog teams. Enke is from Bogen in Evenes, it’s quite near to Narvik.”

“Olav though is from the soft south, he hails from Trondheim, but as long as he sticks with us he’ll be ok, eh Olav!”

Gunnar claps Olav on the back and the pair both laugh.


Olav Snåbjorn and Enke Fiskarson


Kitt & Isugtag

Moore leads the two across the Washington Room to introduce Kitt to the other two pilots, “Kitt Knight meet Ralph DeWitt and Douglas Halperin, it’s a shame William has gone, you four could have had a swell time talking about propellers.”


Ralph DeWitt and Douglas Halperin

Halperin is bookish in appearance, slim and well groomed, with small round spectacles, Kitt had taken him to be one of the expedition’s academics when she’d first spotted him. Ralph DeWitt on the other hand is rugged looking, his short wild hair and self-confident eyes typical of a Barnstorming Great War veteran flyer. Both pilots greet Kitt, and neither seem surprised that a female pilot is on the team.

“I’ll leave you to it, Isugtag, maybe you’d like to meet some more of the exploration team?” Moore sets off across the room again. Peter Sykes also joins them, keen to continue discussing the wilds of Canada with Isutag. “We’ve got a real good team here Isugtag, lots of experience. Should put your mind at rest again after tonight’s incident.”

“I don’t know what came over that Lawrence guy, but glad it happened here. That guy would have been a real danger out on the ice.”

Amherst Hotel – The Fourth Floor
James, Callum, Jim & McRaven

Lawrence’s room is no different than those of Callum, Jim, and McRaven, also on the Fourth floor. James’ suite is of course up on the Eighth floor.
A search through the contents of the room’s drawers reveals nothing of interest just Lawrence’s spare cloths, the drawer also show obvious signs of having been searched by the cops earlier. McRaven’s rubbings of the notepad produce part of a phone number either 3719 or 2719, but nothing else.
Inside the wardrobe Callum discovers a large kit bag. Searching through it he thinks at first that it contains only a selection of Lawrence’s tools. However as he is about to give up he notices a pocket dairy wrapped inside an oily rag.

NYPD Headquarters – 240 Centre Street


New York Police Headquarters 240 Centre Street: The new police headquarters opened in 1910 after nearly five years of construction. From its great copper dome and rooftop observation deck to its basement pistol range, the five-story limestone structure was meant "to impress both the officer and the prisoner with the majesty of the law."

Charles & Clark


Professor Graves & Dr Michaels arrive at the NYPD Headquarters

Sergeant O’Rouke’s police radio car pulls up outside the impressive headquarters of the NYPD, and he and his partner lead the two doctors inside.

“Take a seat guys, I’ll need to let the Commissioner know you’re here.”

O’Rouke indicates a bench in the foyer, then walks off to find his boss.

They don’t have long to wait, a few minutes later they spot Commissioner Bolan approaching, accompanied by James Starkweather.

Bolan offers to shake hands with each doctor and says, “Thank you for coming, Longfellow is in a cell for now, but I think he’ll be moved to an institution in the morning. So any help you two can give would really be appreciated.”


Early 1930s NYPD Patrol Car

[Ghost_1971]

Callum carefully unwraps the diary, and studies it quietly, to see if anything interesting is hidden within the text it contains.

[OrionUK]

James pops his head around the door to make sure the corridor is still clear.

[Decrepit]

Jack snaps a few frames. Might be good to have some shots of a madman's room in case there's more to this story.

[Steerpike]

McRaven takes the piece of paper, and heads over to the wardrobe. Opening it he looks to see if there any coats or suit jackets, and quickly goes through the pockets.

As he does this he looks over to James saying, "I think you need to work that charm on the front desk, see who this guy was calling"

[Charles Graves]

"Glad to be of assistance Commisioner, we'd like to see Mr Longfellow right away please." Graves picks up his medical bag and waits to be accompanied to the cell.

[Ghost_1971]

"I've found a diary. Not a great deal of information in it, but here's a brief summary" Callum proceeds to read out the points of interest.

Most of the dairy seems perfectly normal, appointments, day to day routine, etc.

Lawrence was delighted to hear that he was joining the expedition. He’d worked with Starkweather before, and so was recruited during April (before the public recruitment began in May/June). The nightmares began in May…

Lawrence has been plagued with nightmares about the expedition since shortly after the public announcements / press coverage began. His diary becomes less and less coherent as time goes by, but it is easy to see that the dreams became more and more vivid with each passing night. Lawrence’s sanity appears to have declined as the nightmares got worse, until about a week ago, it becomes obvious that Lawrence was no longer able to distinguish his dreams from reality.

He became convinced that his dreams were visions of the future, each night the dreams took him closer and closer to something dreaded on the other side of the Miskatonic Mountains, when they finally took him there a week ago his sanity finally snapped.

Whatever he thinks he saw there convinced him that Starkweather’s expedition would lead to not only the deaths of everybody in the expedition, but also the destruction of the world.

Certain that only by killing Starkweather could he save the world, Lawrence purchased a gun.

[Decrepit]

"Sounds to me like poor Lawrence just lost his marbles," Jack muses as he snaps a picture of the outside of Lawrence's diary. "Not exactly enough to make a federal case out of, really. Still, the public will want to know."

Heading toward the door, Jack says, "Let me know if you learn anything about the 'phone call, won't you? Unless you need me, I'm going to go to my room and call my editor with all of this." He is already imagining the lurid headlines ...

[OrionUK]

James replies to McRaven "No problem as soon as we are finished here I will see what I can do"

[Henrik]

Olof greeted the two newcommers. "Nice to meet you. By the way have anyone of you been to Antarctica before?"

OOC: Are these NPCs something the writers of the scenario cooked up? Snåbjorn does sound Norwegian, but I don't think it's a genuine Norwegian name! It reminds me of the fact that 90% of all Swedish girls seem to be named Inga if you are to believe Hollywood. That name has not been fashionable for at least 40 years or so...

[Raiko]

NYPD Headquarter - 240 Centre Street

@ Charles and Clark

Accompanied by the Commissioner and James Starkweather the doctors make their way down into the basement of the police headquarters. On the way they pass the large firing range where many officers stand honing their skills, ironically most are firing the exact same type of pistol that Lawrence used.

Commissioner Bolan talks during the walk, "That Lawrence looks like a real nutcase I'm afraid gentlemen, he's just been staring at the cell walls since he arrived. We had a guard watching him for the first hour, but he's not moved or done anything under his own power since your Eskimo guy decked him."

When they eventually arrive at the detection area, they find a bored sergeant slouched at his desk outside, he stands up smartly when he sees the Commissioner approaching and opens the sliding barred door to the cells.

The commissioner and the three explorers walk along the row of cells until they come into view of Lawrence's, Starkweather gets out a gasp of horror.

Lawrence hangs from the ceiling of his cell suspended by a makeshift noose fashioned from his blanket. Blood still trips from his wrists where he bit through to expose the arteries. Scrawled on the floor, written roughly in his own blood are poor mad Lawrence's last words:

You're all doomed but not me

[Charles Graves]

Graves swallows hard and checks the body for any small sign of life, knowing it is just a formality. "Not so sure about that old chap," he whispers to the cadaver, "pretty big mortal sin that one."

He turns to the policeman, "I'd very much appreciate a copy of the pathologists report to be delivered to me at the hotel before we leave Commisioner. Please would one of you assist me in cutting him down."

[GaryTheNerd]

Clark watched as Graves examined Lawrence's body. "I'm pretty sure he's dead, Charlie."

He turned to Bolan. "Who was in charge of watching him? This man was willing to kill in order to stop us from going to Antarctica, and now we'll never know why? And you," turning to Starkweather, "let me get this straight: We're following the footsteps of the Miskatonic group in which several people died, and the dying words of the man who tried to shoot you were that we're all doomed."

Clark pulled the flask out of his jacket and drank its remaining contents. "I'd really like the whole story between you and Lawrence, if you don't mind."