Episode 20 - The End of the Beast - June 1, 2025

Cast of Characters

Present

Player	Character	Background
John	Keeper	Bringer of torment and delights
Todd	Lawrence “Skinny Larry” Simons	Inventor, saxophonist, and engineer
Eli	Dr. Kenneth Filmore	Wealthy medical doctor and neurosurgeon
Eric	Father Gerald “Gentleman Jerry” O’Shea	Catholic priest, former bare-knuckles boxer

Sleeping it Off

Player	Character	Background
Cyle	Aaron Winters	Occultist
Scott	Ritter Gunter “Stig” von Stiglitz	Former German POW

Journal

From the journal of Lawrence Simons

Thursday, February 12th, 1925

Kenny, Larry, and Aaron found some clues at the top of the hill, then descended in the borrowed truck. The gunshots alerted Jerry, who met us outside the town pub.

The four of us searched Lesser Eadale by lantern and headlight, but spotted nothing until we heard glass breaking at a nearby house. We set to investigate, and found Eloise in beast form trying to enter by a back window.

Jerry confronted her first, and tried to talk some sense into the horror, but none of Eloise’s human sense remained, and she struck at Jerry with dangerous claws. Kenny and I shortly came around the house. I grabbed Jerry’s manacles that he had dropped on the ground, while he was attacking the beast with an axe.

I had hoped to be able to cuff the beast by foot and hand, immobilizing it and maybe finding some way for Eloise to live. But the beast moved inhumanly fast, and I was unable. The beast struck Jerry and knocked him to the ground. It also knocked the shotgun out of my hands. But fortunately, Aaron’s aim was true. He shot the beast square on with a solid shot to the vital organs with his rifle. That snuffed out her life force, and Eloise started to slowly convert back from beast form to human before our very eyes.

I took some photos of the transition, something nobody would believe otherwise. At the end, it was just a human girl, badly damaged. Hard to believe she could become strong and fast as a bear on cocaine. Kenny was able to get Jerry back up to his feet, but he looked worse than I’d ever seen. He’s going to need a long recovery in the hospital, I think.

Shortly after, the constable arrived, and took the body of Eloise away, presumably for a closed-casket burial.

Friday, February 13, 1925

It’s not lost on any of us that Gentleman Jerry nearly met his maker in the early hours of Friday the 13th. But Dr. Kenny bandanged him up like the professional he is, and Jerry is now resting at the inn we’ve rented.

The rest of us met with Lord Vane in his office. He wants us to stay quiet about the whole incident, and not drag the family name through the mud, and all that. In return, if we ever need him in the future, he could put in a good word for us. Since he is part of the English aristocracy, that does hold some weight. And so we agreed.

Wednesday, February 18, 1925

It’s been a few days since I wrote in the journal. Good Doctor Kenny thought some fresh Irish air would be good for Jerry, so we got a wheelchair for him and we all traveled to his home county in Ireland. It was a nice mix of relaxing travel, rest, Irish whiskey (they don’t have the Prohibition laws here, I learned!), and so on.

Along the way, we burned that evil animated painting with the lizard man, and tossed the ashes off the rocky coast into the ocean. Jerry visited some of his old family, which I’m sure was good for his spirits.

Today we returned to London. We have letters of reference from both the Vane family and from Constable Turnwell, which I’m sure will come in handy. I think Jerry’s probably back to good enough health now, but he’s taken a fancy to his wheelchair, and continues to use it.

Our first visit once we settled back into our London hotel was to visit The Scoop. We filled in Mahoney on most of the details of our adventures, but left out some key parts in keeping with our agreement with Lord Vane. Even without those, it’ll make for a great story.

We decided our next effort will be to pursue The Egyptian Murders. So we met with Scotland Yard Inspector James Barrington. He admitted he has made no progress on the case, which is unfortunate but not surprising. Elias had said the murderers were from the Brotherhood of the Black Pharoah, and we’re inclined to believe him.

However, we also heard the Brotherhood of the Black Pharoah has no modern version. So maybe it has either gone completely underground or transformed into something else.

One clue we did get from Gavigan is to follow up with the Blue Pyramid Club in Soho. Many of the victims had been there. Also, there’s a spice dealer woman named Zahra Shafik, who seems to be hiding something. So we should meet up with her, too.

Our next stop was the Penhew Foundation. It’s a big fancy building with an Egyptian theme and a doorman. We entered, and met with Mr. Kinnery, who is Mr. Gavigan’s private secretary. He will call us when Mr. Gavigan is available.

Meanwhile, we decided to visit the exhibit hall. The Penhew Foundation building has a large museum of Egyptian artifacts, and we spent hours there learning what we could. We didn’t note anything in the exhibit that seemed cultish or supernatural. Everything seems normal and above board, just a very scientific display of the history of the region, as gathered by the dozen-or-so Penhew expeditions.

While there, we also gathered some basic intelligence on how we might sneak in or out of the hall, should such a thing become necessary in the future. It doesn’t seem unusually well guarded.

After everyone had enough of the museum, we headed for Empire Spices. That is the spice trading company run by Zahra Shafik in the Soho district of London. Once there, we met with the owner. She is a slender Egyptian in a black dress, quite stunning in appearance. We told her our business is International Supernatural Investigations. It has a nice ring.

Miss Shafik has no clues about the Egyptian Murders, she said. She wishes them to stop, since much of her clientele are the Egyptians being targeted, but beyond that she didn’t seem deeply interested in the topic. She had time to give us a fascinating overview of the international spice trade, including the basics of some of the most popular spices.

It turns out she is a regular at the Blue Pyramid, and so we asked her about it. She said they do have a dress code. Attendees must either be a member or a guest of a member, or purchase a membership. As she spoke, I felt her accent was exotic; maybe she learned English in Egypt. She doesn’t sound British to any of us.

She will meet us at the Blue Pyramid tonight between 6:30 and 7:00 and I can be her guest.

After that we returned to the hotel. I need to get cleaned up for tonight!

Gentleman Jerry’s Conjectures and Musings

Thursday, February 12th, 1925

While my pals were out looking for rumors and information up around the Tor and the Castle where the Plums resided, I decided I was about due for a cleansing of my soul from my recent ungodly activities and confessed to Vicar Jeremy Stratton, who professed that he had seen the beast. It was more “ghoulish” than “lupine”, with a cadaverous appearance, a loud cry, and glowing red eyes.

There was a bit o’ work to be done on the Church grounds, so I got to it straight-away. I made friends … I think ? … with Jed Rainwright, the taciturn groundskeeper, who admitted it was he who had placed the crosses upon the tombstones of the two deceased.

After I cleaned up, I decided to head to the pub to see if my success at darts was a fluke. It was pretty empty, due to the full moon and all the howling that echoed throughout the village. I happened to be stretching between rounds (of Bourbon, and darts) outside beneath the creaking hotel sign when my friends came a’rollin up in that old truck.

Of course I jumped up into the back, with Skinny Larry, as Kenny drove in wide circles, our eyes peeled for something amiss. Because when others run away from trouble, we tend to run straight towards it.

Tonight was no exception.

We spotted the beastie near a house at the edge of town, and selected the two different paths around the house where the gangly … whatever it was … had headed. We heard the sound of breaking glass, and I came upon it with its hand inside a broken pane of a door, scrabbling and trying to get it open.

Didn’t know it at the time but it was the Constable’s home.

The beastie set upon me with fury, after I foolishly gave it the opportunity to stand down. Iron talons scratched my chest damned near to my ribs, while a second nearly gutted me like a fish. I passed out, either from shock or the rapid blood loss.

I hear Aaron blew its head off with his gun. While Kenny tried to call me back from the light I was walking towards, to my final reward (at least I hope it isn’t eternal damnation), I understand Skinny Larry secured the mostly headless ghoul with my manacles and retrieved my flashlight for me. Thoughtful!

The Constable came out of the home and witnessed the cadaver turning back to the form of a young woman. That fop, Lawrence, showed up to take the body of his sister back to the castle.

We also headed to the castle the next morning, me in a chair on wheels. I tried to stand up but kept keeling over. That elder Plum fellow gave us a writ we could present telling us to be men of good character, and we promised the story stayed with us. I think the first introduction to this guy wasn’t all that pleasant, but we do tend to make poor first impressions.

Oh, and because I didn’t feel like getting stabbed again by a seven foot tall walking Lizard brandishing knitting needles, I burned that accursed swamp picture.

During my convalescence, my friends took me to my homeland, Eire. I met several of my cousins and other extended family members. If I retire, I can see myself happy in Lesser Edon or one of the idyllic villages we have visited.

Wednesday, February 18, 1925

We decided to look into these so-called “Egyptian Murders”, and uncovered that there had once been a cult called the “Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh”. We visited the Penhew Foundation, to see if we could meet with Edward Gavigan, finding it to be a regular-looking two story building surrounded by an iron fence. It sported really large windows and we climbed the front stairs to meet with the Doorman, then to an Admissions person sitting at a fancy, carved front desk.

The whole interior was decorated with Egyptian artifacts, carvings, and artwork. There was a large collection on display which we could view at noon. Mr Kinnery, Gavigan’s private secretary, gave us an appointment on the following day. He sat in a very crowded office with a typewriter.

Of course we stayed for the exhibit. Learning about History is great mental exercise! I watched Larry testing building security, pressing on windows and looking for other entrances. I was absorbed in taking in all the Mummies, Placards, a painting of Penhew, lots (!) of Ankhs, and more. I continued to enjoy my chair on wheels. Of course I often had to carry it up flights of stairs.

What else did we discover? There’s a guy named Barrington involved in all this but I forget what role he played. Oh yeah, he’s the Scotland Yard guy - we let him know we were on the case! The deaths were from blunt force trauma, followed by a knife to the heart. Ritualistic. Similar to the cult 100 years ago. We were in an area where Egyptians were not concentrated - we decided we’d go to the Blue Pyramid in Soho, where there were more of that ethnicity.

Interviews had been conducted, and a Spice Dealer named Zahra Shafik figured prominently. “Empire Spices” was near the lounge in Soho. Convenient! Barrington thought her answers were a bit … evasive.

Entering the Spice Shop to the gentle tinkling of the door chime, the pleasant aroma of a mixture of a hundred seeds and powders greeted us. Shelves and barrels and boxes of jars and plants were in view, and I purchased folded papers containing two of the hottest from Miss Shafik. The Lass was most fetching, slender, with dark hair and green eyes. She related that one could buy a pass to the Blue Pyramid, or attend with a current member. She seemed amenable to escorting us in, and Skinny Larry tried to turn on the charm for her.