Episode 21 - Americans in London - June 15, 2025

Cast of Characters

Present

Player	Character	Background
John	Keeper	Dreamer of dreams
Todd	Lawrence “Skinny Larry” Simons	Dynamite fanatic, saxophonist, inventor, ladies man
Eric	Father Gerald “Gentleman Jerry” O’Shea	Catholic priest, pugilist
Scott	Ritter Gunter “Stig” von Stiglitz	Wealthy German confronting shell shock

Sleeping it Off

Player	Character	Background
Cyle	Aaron Winters	Occultist, child of occultists, sharpshooter
Eli	Dr. Kenneth Filmore	Wealthy doctor and automobile enthusiast

Journal

From the journal of Lawrence Simons

Wednesday, February 18th, 1925

Jerry, Larry, and Stig went to the Blue Pyramid club to meet Zahra. We learned about 2/3 of the clientele are Egyptian, as are the wait staff. Miss Zahra filled us in on some details about Egypt. They had a revolution recently, in 1919, and is partially an English colony at the moment. The English control the canal and all the good parts of the country, but leave the locals to run the bad parts. There was a female dancer at the Blue Pyramid, dancing for tips, as well as a house band, and bouncers. Zahra turned us on to Turkish coffee, and then left after about an hour.

The three of us checked out the rest of the area. There’s a drawing room, and a coffee room used for playing chess. We spotted a few other ex-military patrons, but in the end there was nothing too unusual about the place. So after a few drinks, we peacefully returned to our hotel.

Thursday, February 19, 1925

Early in the day, we received a telephone call from the Penhew Foundation. Our request for a meeting with Mr. Gavigan will be granted at three o’clock this afternoon.

The rest of the morning we spent doing some shopping. During a stop at a top notch haberdasher, I purchased an authentic red fez. I think it’s fetching.

We then proceeded to meet Gavigan. He explained that he met Elias only one time as part of researching his book on the Carlyle Expedition. We asked several questions about Africa, cults, the Egyptian Murders, and so on. But on every front, Mr. Gavigan had no useful leads for us. So we said our good-bye and left.

Friday, February 20, 1925

We briefly reviewed our pile of documents to see if there were other leads here in London that we should be following up on. Nothing stood out at first, so we decided it’s time to move on. We bought tickets for our group - now known as International Supernatural Investigations - to Nairobi. We will be traveling by ship, and the whole journey should take roughly two weeks.

On the way back from the travel agency, we realized we’re being followed. Jerry confronted the tail, and fortunately the tail survived. I don’t think we learned who sent him or why, however. We then stopped at a book store so I could get a recent printing of Tourist Guide to Kenya. This should keep me occupied on the steam ship journey, which will be good because I don’t know a damn thing about the country. This will be my first time in Africa, and I think the same goes for most of the rest of our group. Kenny, of course, has a home in Cairo. And I’m embarrassed to say I don’t know whether we will go through Cairo or not. But I’m sure there’s a full itinerary in the travel plan documents we purchased.

Later, as if by divine insight, we remembered several clues we had completely forgotten about. Since we have four more days before departure, we’re going to pursue some of those.

Larry’s List of Clues to Investigate

• [LONDON] We have 4 days to look more into the Egyptian Murders - cause of death, locations, talk to families, etc. (see below)
• [LONDON] We never really figured out why Jackson Elias felt that Zahra Shafik (the spice lady) was hiding something from him when they met. What was she hiding? We didn’t get a sense that she’s hiding anything, but we didn’t have anything juicy to bait her with.
• [NEW YORK] The “psychoanalyst’s files” that Jackson Elias mentioned, was he referring to Roger Carlyle’s psychoanalyst? Roger was on the one having the ghastly dreams (same as Jackson). Maybe it’s too late now, since I assume if Roger Carlyle had a psychoanalyst, he would be in New York, and we already left there weeks ago. Though we could send him a cable, I suppose.
• [NAIROBI and CAIRO] And then there’s a lot of clues in Nairobi and a few in Egypt

Gentleman Jerry’s Conjectures and Musings

Wednesday, February 18th, 1925

Ach, my torso is feeling better after a week travelling to Eire, my homeland. But back to business, in other words finding trouble at each and every turn.

Except this day.

We met the black-haired beauty outside the Blue Pyramid, a building with a grocery store on the ground floor and the bar up on the second. Good thing there was a rickety old lift, as I’m tired of carrying my chair on wheels up flights of stairs.

Zahra Shafik was excited to relate much of current Egyptian history and the political state, and Stig seemed somewhat versed in this topic as well. Taking a few seats (I brought mine!) around a small round table, we enjoyed some strong black Turkish coffee. If this is what awaits us in Egypt, I simply cannot wait.

A dancing girl, scantily clad, performed then made her rounds looking for tips. A small band played some equally exotic music, and I ordered a local drink (When in Rome, …), but to be truthful, I enjoy my Whiskey more. It must’ve had a sugar cube or syrup, too sweet for my taste.

Zahra left after a short time. She must rise fairly early in the morning to open her shop. We enjoyed some sweet meats and other delicacies, and I noted the bouncers were big and burly and at least one had a sap concealed in the pocket of his slacks. Good enough, we weren’t here to stir things up (just yet).

After a few of the instrument’s sets we headed back to our hotel. I tried to keep a keen eye out, but no one seemed to be following us.

Thursday, February 19, 1925

We received a call from Gavigan’s secretary, Thomas Kittering, over at the Penhew foundation. We scheduled a meeting at 3 PM.

To kill a little bit of time, Larry bought an honest-to-goodness real Fez. I might even say that donning it gave him a certain air of … aristocracy ?

As we are wont to do, I convinced my friends to stop with me into a couple of antique shoppes and used book stores. Sure enough, I found a book that had been pushed and slipped behind the shelf, dog-eared and full of all sorts of forbidden knowledge. I seem to have a nose for this sort of thing. I also picked up an Egyptian Newspaper, a few days old, but in English, just to get a feel for our likely next destination. I didn’t realize it at the time but my friends wanted to go straight to Nairobi next. This is because our meeting with Gavigan (slender, dark, well-dressed) was a waste of time for all parties concerned. His mood swung from bemused to quizzical, as we discussed Sir Aubrey Penhew’s involvement in the doomed expedition.

Was it my imagination, or did Gavigan stare at me with barely concealed malice when I mentioned the Spice Dealer? Maybe it was because I called the Blue Pyramid the Blue Sapphire (today felt like a Gin and Tonic day). He related that she had been involved in granting funding and acquiring travel documents for the Carlysle Expedition.

Some of the items we considered as factual, Gavigan spoke confidently that the opposite was true. I told him I hoped some of the expedition were still alive, in a fever in some hut or hospital and could snap back to life some day. We mentioned the Egyptian Murders but he steered the conversation back to the expedition and claimed he had no details to add, to help us join together some of the pieces of information we had accumulated.

We politely thanked him for his time and headed back to the hotel. I grabbed Larry’s satchel and dumped its contents on the bed, and we spent the afternoon sifting and sorting through stuff. No whites found dead. Strange corpses that didn’t decompose. This, from Sellkirk’s letters and notes. Nails Nelson in Nairobi, Jack Brady was sighted in Hong Kong.

What a jumble.

We purchased passage by sea to Nairobi, figuring it was sound reasoning to jump to the beginning of Elias’ journey and work backward. Or maybe forward, depending upon one’s perspective. Four days hence (on the 24th), so we listed the loose ends; picking up a travel guide, saying goodbye to Barrington (ashamed of our apparent failure), and maybe planning to circle back to Mahooney at that gossipy newspaper (The Scream or Source or something).

I did spot a tail at one point, a low-IQ individual that tried to say he was “just walking”. Evidently we piqued someone’s interest, but didn’t know who. Since I’d guess we were spotted buying our ocean liner tickets, maybe we could sneak into the museum or exotic bar and snoop around.

Because there was trouble and we weren’t in it.

Jerry’s List of Leads

Here is a list of things Jerry realized later we should follow up on:

I am not sure I am ready to give up on these Egyptian murders “just yet”.

• We never circled back to Mahooney at the small, independent newspaper.
• We never looked into the victims beyond cause of death (BFT + knife to heart).
• We never interview victims’ families (unless they had none in London, i.e. a political attache stationed here).
• We never visited the sites of any of the murders.

A Longer List of Clues

As if by divine intervention, the stalwart but forgetful fellows of International Supernatural Investigations assembled this list of clues late one night in the hotel, reviewing all their past notes.

Edited and reformatted for easier reading

Some handouts are marked with (( )) around them, those are ones the group has followed to a logical end.

The Carlyle Expedition Members

• Roger Carlyle, Rich dilettante and party animal
• Sir Aubrey Penhew (assistant leader, former director of the Penhew Foundation)
• Dr. Robert Huston, a fasionable “Freudian” psychologist
• Miss. Hypatia Masters, Photographer and archivist
• Mr. Jack Brady, friend and bodygard of Roger.
• “That Negro Woman Bunay” - Erica Carlyle mentioned her. Jerry’s notes say that the first name of the woman was “Nichonga”, and she was from East Africa.

Interview with Erica revealed

• Unknown Bunay member of expedition
• Erica believed that Bunay gave Roger the idea for the expedition.
• Roger was having strange dreams, waking up screaming from them.
• Erica suggested Roger to contact Dr. Robert Huston for help with dreams.
• “Roger said that Bunay was queenly, a priestess, and that she held secrets which he must have.”
• Erica mentioned that Jack Brady was fanatically loyal to Roger.

From the Jackson Elias Apartment

• Letter from M Warren Besart to Mr. Carlyle, from Cairo, Egypt, mentioning a “Faraz Najjar”, in the Street of Jackals, who claims to be in posession of “Singular Curios” of great interest [CAIRO]
• Business card of Edward Gavigan, Directory of the Penhew Foundation [ENGLAND]
• Stumbling Tiger Bar matchbook. “Shanghai Fun & Friends” [SHANGHAI]
• Blurry photograph of a ship, with oriental looking ships occuluding the name. [UNKNOWN]
• (( Emerson Imports business card, with ‘Silas N’Kwane’ noted on the back. )) [NEW YORK]
• (( Letter from Miriam Atwright, Harvard Librarian, discussing missing book )) [NEW YORK]
• Handbill, “The CULT of DARKNESS” lecture about Polynesia & the Southwest Pacific [NEW YORK?]
• (( Photograph of forehead of Jackson Elias and the mark left there. )) [NEW YORK]
• Newspaper Article: AUTHOR MURDERED BY BRUTAL KILLERS [NEW YORK]

Letter from Jackson Elias

Greetings from beyond the grave!

  By now you know that all I've really left you is a 
whole heap of trouble. If I were still around to have an
opinion on the matter, I would understand if you decided 
to walk away from it all. Hell, if I'm dead right now,
that's a good indication I should have done the same.
But you know me too well, and I know you too well. If
you were the kind of person who always did the sensible
thing we wouldn't be such good friends.

  You have been there when I needed you in the past
and I hope you will be again, even if it's too late to
save me. I've been pulling threads all over the world
and while most of them are still unravelling I think
I'm onto something big.  Carlton and Jonah can fill in
more of the details for you - I've left some of my papers 
and notes with them which should help you work out
which hornets' nests you need to poke next.

  I trust you to bring my killers to justice. Of course, I'm
assuming I was murdered - it will be just plain embarassing
if I was run over by a trolly car! Follow my
investigation to it's bloody end, and seek out the truth.
I'm not asking you to finish my book - none of you
can write worth a damn.

  Your friend, always,
    Jackson

Elias’ Initial Letter to Kensington [NAIROBI]

												August 8, 1924
												Nairobi
Dear Jonah,
  Big news! There is a possibility
that not all of the members of the Carlyle Expedition died.
I have a lead. Though the authorities here deny the cult angle,
the natives sing a different tune. You wouldn't believe the stories!
Some juicy notes coming your way!
  This one may make us all rich!
  Blood and kisses,
    J

Elias’ London Notes

Many names, many forms, but all the same and toward one end...

Need help...

Too big, too ghastly these Dreams... dreams like Carlyle's?

Check that psychoanalyst's files... All of them survived!

They'll open the gate. Why?... so the power
and the danger is real They...

Many threads beginning...

The books are in Carlyle's Safe...

Coming for me. Will the ocean protect?

Ho ho, no quitting now.  Must tell and make readers BELIEVE. Should I scream for them?
Let's scream together....

Nairobi Notes of Jackson Elias [NAIROBI]

• Mentions God of the Black Wind
• Interviews Johnstone Kenyatta, who mentions Cult of the Bloody Tongue.
• Confirmed cult by checking “Sam Mariga, railway station”, Neville Jermyn, Dr. Starret, Lt. Selkirk, Col. Endicott
• Notes that the reason for going to Nairobi may be from Egypt.
• Long interview tih Lt. Mark Selkirk, saying bodies were undecayed, no caucasions found
• Jackson ran into “Nails” Nelson at the Victoria Bar in Nairobi. He claims to have seen Jack Brady alive in Hong Kong, long after the massacre.

‘Life as a God’ fragment, reproduced here

Its external angles were magnificent 
and most strange; by their hideous
beauty I was enraptured and
enthralled, and I thought myself 
of the daylight fools who adjudged
the housing of this room as mistaken.
I laughed for the glory they missed.
Through the twisted door to the
jewelled throne of Darkness, I came
with all reverence and humility,
to gaze upon scenes of celestial 
majesty and rebirth. When the six lights
were lit and the great words said,
the He came, in all the grace
and splendour of the Higher
Planes, and I longed to sever my
veins so that my life might flow 
into his being, and make part of
me a god!

• Newspaper Clipping [ENGLAND] - Slaughter Continues! Reward offered! - this was the news piece in The Scoop (the London rag edited by Mickey Mahoney) about the “Egyptial Murders”

Interview with Inspector Barrington

• Elias said the murders were ritual killings conducted by the Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh, which Elias described as an Egyptian Death cult.
• Barrington talked to the Penhew Foundation, meeting with Edward Gavington, who contradicted everything Elias said, saying that they had died out hundreds of years ago. Gavington described Elias as a sensation-seeking profiteer and unlikely to be a reliable source of information.
• A total of 19 murders have been carried out over the last three years, with the same modus operandi.
• So alled “Egyptian Murders” because 17 of them were Egyptian Nationals.
• Blue Pyramid Club in Soho is often frequented by resident and visiting Egyptian businessmen, and many of the victims had frequented the club.
• He interviewed many people with connections to Egypt, mostly to no result, although a spice dealers named Zahra Shafik interested him, and she gave him the feeling there was a lot she wasn’t saying.