Episode 22 - Americans Still In London - June 29, 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
Cyle	Aaron Winters	Occultist, child of occultists, sharpshooter

Sleeping it Off

Player	Character	Background
Eli	Dr. Kenneth Filmore	Wealthy doctor and automobile enthusiast
Scott	Ritter Gunter “Stig” von Stiglitz	Wealthy German confronting shell shock

Journal

From the journal of Lawrence Simons

Saturday, February 21st, 1925

• Today, we decided, would be a great day to visit the grocer beneath the Blue Pyramid Club. There’s a loading dock in the alley, and we found that the grocery store was open, so we went in. I learned that the stockers and other employees of the store were not mostly Egyptial. I expected them to be. We picked up a few treats at the store, and then left since it seemed like there wasn’t much to learn there.
• We then took a cab to the Scoop, and met with Mickey Mahoney. We brought him up to speed, and asked if he had any information to help in our last few days of investigation before leaving for Africa. He reminded us that the last murder was a couple months ago. And then most important, we got a list of a dozen or so names and addresses of victims.
• The next day and a half passed quickly, as if in an investigative montage. We found that some of the victims’ families didn’t want to talk to us. We found that some of them had moved. But we did find a small number of families to talk to.
• Generally, the victims of the Egyptian Murders were men. And they were all at the Blue Pyramid. They were all killed in public at night, all over Soho. But otherwise there was nothing special about the locations where the bodies were found.
• We also got some hints that the victims were people who tried to break into the spice shop.
• Not surpiringly, some of the next-of-kin are bitter that the police have done nothing.

Sunday, February 22nd, 1925

• In the late afternoon, we cased Empire Spices, looking for things out of the ordinary. The first floor of the building is the spice shop itself. The second floor is an apartment. There’s an alley between the spice building and the adjacent building, and a gate in the wall that seals the alley off. From the outside of the building, we can see that there’s a shed-like structure and a coal chute. We later learned the shed is actually the water closet. It seems that about half of the first floor is the public part of the show room, and half is for storage.
• We went inside the explore some more. We quickly learned Zahra was there, so we talked to her about spices used in mummification. She said she doesn’t know much about that. So we asked about the spices used in Egypt. I was hoping the questions would cause her to slip up and reveal some clue we wouldn’t hear about otherwise. But all we learned was about the spices of Egypt. Oh, and we learned that her Egyptian helper’s name is Edjo (did I spell that right?).
• So, after not having learned anything useful from the visit to Empire Spices, we decided to go back to the Blue Pyramid that night. After a stop by the hotel to get cleaned up, we took a taxi to the Blue Pyramid. Most of the night was uneventful. I took my sax and sat in with the house band for a set.
• A funny thing happened at the bar. Jerry got a note to meet at midnight at the arches, a local landmark we know is not far from here.
• When we got there, we met a young Egyptian woman who was there to talk to us. Her name, we later learned, is Yaleasha Ersan. Her boyfriend was murdered, and she - of course - wants justice.
• Yaleasha told us there are members of the Brotherhood of the Black Pharoah alive today and involved in the Blue Pyramid Club. I gave a little inner chuckle, since she seems so certain that the Brotherhood still exists. But Jackson Elias agrees! The young woman also said there is a trap door upstairs in the bar that leads downstairs somewhere. Also, Zahra is the true power behind the Blue Pyramid, even though she was acting to us as if she was just an occasional patron. Something sounds fishy!
• Yaleasha told us that once a month, at midnight, a truck arrives and people get out. This includes Zahra. The last time this happened was when her boyfriend Badru disappeared.
• About this time, I spotted six Egyptian men (all with fezzes on their heads) approaching to attack Jerry, despite an invalid in a wheelchair. So I alerted him by playing the start of The Star Spangled Banner on my sax. He got the message. It looked like this was going to become a brawl. But there were only three of us, one girl, and six thugs. It felt like we were outnumbered, and I didn’t want to put Yaleasha in danger. Fortunately, there was a taxi cab nearby, and I told everyone to pile in. We got away with only minor injuries, and the girl survived. We are putting her up in a room in the same hotel we’re in until we can figure out some better long term arrangements that keep her safe from fezzy retaliation.
• While we’re away and Yaleasha is locked in her room, we said to not open the door for anyone except us. The code word is “pineapple”.

Monday, February 23, 1925

• The next morning, we learned from Aaron that he spotted one of the thugs from yesterday watching us through binoculars. But the guy was scared off, for better or worse.
• We then met with Inspector Barrington, along with Yaleasha. He’s much more engaged now, given that he has a witness. He said he would position an officer to keep an eye out for that mysterious truck.
• Our plan is to break into the Blue Pyramid this afternoon, and explore the trap door. We don’t expect many people to be there, since the club is not open this early.

Gentleman Jerry’s Conjectures and Musings

Saturday, January 21st

Now, me laddies, you might recall the Blue Pyramid Club was up on the second floor of a building, and the ground floor was what was called a “Green Grocers”. Thinking we might go shopping there and snoop around a bit, looking for sliding walls and the like. It was unremarkable, but did sell tins of sardines for a reasonable price.

We popped into “The Scoop” to find out more about these “Egyptian Murders”, names, patterns and so forth. We acquired a list of names and addresses from Mahooney (truthfully, his secretary). Many / most were temporary in nature (hotels, etc). Victims were mostly men; not fathers of families, but generally an uncle, eldest son, … the police had made little progress solving these murders. All had been customers at the Blue Pyramid Club, though.

The pretty lass, the Spice Merchant, had been investigated and interviewed. Gavigan and the Penhew Facility figured prominently in the discourse as well.

Sunday, January 22nd

We visited “Empire Spices” a second time, and got a lay ‘o the land. A back alley led to a courtyard, blocked by a gate built into a wall that could be “climbed over”. What appeared to be a shed, we found out later, was an outhouse. There was some rubbish strewn about, broken furniture and stacks of empty crates.

A young Egyptian man, Edjo, worked at the Spice Shop and helped me to the latrine out back. I noted three doors that seemed to go to storage rooms, stairs up (to the lassie’s apartment), and down to a basement (an exterior coal chute from the courtyard supported this).

Edjo appeared to have had a broken nose, if anyone would know about that, it’d be me !!

When I returned, I thanked Edjo and overheard Skinny Larry talking to Zahra about Mummies and Oils and Pyramids and archeological digs and stuff. Still trying to score with the raven-haired beauty, I guess.

The last death occurred a couple of months ago. We visited some of the sites but they proved uninteresting. So, we cleaned up, dressed up, and headed to the club !

This time, my second (or was it me third? Second, I think) drink was served with a square paper napkin upon which was scribed a request to meet at “The Arches” (down on Mierd Street, I think) at midnight.

Finally, a lead! I surreptitiously palmed the note and whispered the notes’ contents in low tones. I saw one of the dancing girls / cocktail waitresses glance at me, and look away.

Off to Mierd Street, in my chair on wheels … I heard a voice from the shadows, but I kept mostly out under the streetlights, so Larry and Aaron could see me from half a dozen doors down.

The wee bairn’s name was Yalesha Essan, and told me her boyfriend, “Badrew”, got into a fight with a thug and disappeared. The thug was a member of the Cult of the Black Pharaoh, which operated out of the Blue Pyramid (so it WAS still active!) and guess who was the leader ?

Zahra, the Spice Merchant !!

Now, a man named Abdul Lawisha owned the club, but was just the “face” of the establishment. The trap door that we spotted in the floor behind the bar led to some secret meeting room, and once a month, a truck pulled up with Zahra in the passenger seat, loaded up more men, and took off. Me bet is they have a shrine somewhere outside the city where they can create Mummies and summon spirits and chant and stuff.

We were then assaulted by six thugs, and Larry hailed a taxi cab and we piled in; and while I wrapped myself around the cocktail waitress to protect her, I had to leave me poor chair on wheels behind. It had served its purpose, though !!

Overnight, Aaron spotted a thug watching our room from a hotel room across the street. I think he should’ve given the spy a lead injection, but he had slipped back into the shadows of his room once he realized he’d been “made”.

We trundled off to visit Barrington, “Scotland Yard’s Finest” (!) and he interviewed Yalesha. Happy to at last have a witness, he took her into protective custody, and had an officer collect some of her belongings from her shared flat.

He also said he now had enough evidence to put a watch out for the mysterious truck.

And said he didn’t have authorization to investigate the club nudge, nudge, wink, wink, and could not condone unauthorized entry.

So that is, of course, what we decided to do next.