Episode 12 - Lots About Books - November 17, 2024
Cast of Characters
| Player | Character | Background |
|---|---|---|
| John | Keeper | Bringer of torment and delights |
| Todd | Lawrence “Skinny Larry” Simons | Inventor, saxophonist, and engineer |
| Eric | Father Gerald “Gentleman Jerry” O’Shea | Catholic priest, former bare-knuckles boxer |
| Eli | Dr. Kenneth Filmore | Wealthy medical doctor and neurosurgeon |
| Cyle | Aaron Winters | Occultist |
Not Present
| Player | Character | Background |
|---|---|---|
| Scott | Ritter Gunter “Stig” von Stiglitz | Former German POW |
Journal
Wednesday January 21, 1925
From the journal of Lawrence Simons
Hard to believe it’s only been 6 days since Jackson Elias died. It feels like we’ve been in the Carlyle Library half that time, but it’s only been a few hours. Of the 4 books Erica has been holding on to for Roger, 3 are in English and 1 is in French. Since I can’t read French, I decided to browse through The Pnakotic Manuscript. It had a couple of rituals described - some might call them “spells” - Contact Winged One and Contact Mind of the Observer. Skimming this book made me think about some things I’m not sure are good for normal folks to know about.
I think with good light, I could take a photograph of the pages of the rituals, but I don’t believe I will. It’s just as well that knowledge stay here in the Carlyle Library. My comrades also read through one book each. We didn’t really find any great clues, but we all agree Robert had unusual reading interests.
Making a list of loose ends we ought to follow up on:
- the upcoming eclipse party
- Miss Bunay, the mysterious African companion of Roger Carlyle who doesn’t appear in any photos and has some sort of East African accent
- personal backgrounds of the other principals of the Carlyle Expedition
- Jack Brady was Roger’s bodyguard and friend; he served in the US Marines in Shanghai during the Great War
After leaving the Carlyle Estate, we visited a bookstore to try to learn the value of Robert’s book. We think we’d like to make Erica an offer for them. Pricing the books was hard to do, though, because they’re so unusual. To the right person, they could be worth a fortune, but to most people they’re just crazy pulp.
In the end, we telephoned the Carlyles and made a verbal offer to Mr. Gray that we could pay Miss Carlyle $2500 for the books, and keep their transfer a secret. We think she’ll go for it, but don’t know. That’s all the money we can afford, according to Mr. Carlton Ramsey, the keeper of our funds.
Gentleman Jerry’s Conjectures and Musings
As we helped ourselves to the finger sandwiches proffered by Erica’s servants, we translated portions of the French tome. We also did a pretty thorough search for the book that was missing from the Harvard Library - “African Dark Sects” - to no avail. I made it a point to riffle most of the books in the private collection, hoping to find a hidden sheaf of looseleaf paper. Again, we came up empty.
All the while we sat beneath the steady eyes of Bradley Gray, as Erica was off preparing for the upcoming Eclipse Party.
We discovered a pair of Rituals - described to me as similar to a recipe you would find in a cookbook.
- “Contact Winged One” (five pages)
- “Contact Mind of the Observer” (four pages)
Oh, one of the books was actually named, “Pnakotic Manuscripts”.
Some information about another book: “Life as a God” - authored by Montgomery Crompton. Psychotic Ravings from Egypt, 1805 - he considered himself a Minor Priest of the Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh.
“Among the Stones” - a book of Poetry in English. Eh - I didn’t care much for it.
“Libre Ebonis” - this seems to be a complete book (in French) where we had found a badly burned copy in English (in the haunted Rental home with the corpse in the basement, where Aaron stabbed me). That one was called “Livre ‘d Ebon” or something. It was in pretty poor condition. It described a thing called, “Tsathoggueque”, worshipped as a deity, and was full of spells and depictions of an upside-down Ankh.
The party was at nine in the morning on Saturday. Huh. I thought since it was an ECLIPSE PARTY, that it would be at night with the moon in view. Anyway, I hid my pistol behind a grate in the swimming pool’s dusty pumphouse.
- Erica described certain of the failed expedition. Miss Bunny’s first name was Nichonga, from East Africa.
- Jack Brady, the bodyguard, an American, was stationed in Shanghai while in the military.
- Hypatia Masters, the photographer.
- Justin Jeffrey wrote an early version of “Life as a God” - named “People of the Monolith”
We offered a tidy sum of $2500 for these volumes, with a promise to keep them secret and hidden from nihilists and cult members. This stretched Elias’ funds pretty thin.