Session Eleven - 05/30/2021

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The beam from Elijah's flashlight sweeps across the darkness, revealing flashes of a winged, insectile thing with a glowing red, three-lobed eye. Ophelia and Vincent are facing away from whatever it is, but they can feel a malevolent pressure in the air, and its terrifying clicking in their ears. They turn around to face it, backing further into the bookshelf away from it. Every time the flashlight moves across the being, the number of wings and limbs it has seems to change. Ophelia attempts to fire her gun, but the bullet disappears into the darkness without any discernible effect.

The being dips its vaguely triangular head into view in the dimness, its mouth opening vertically and its eye blazing. It inquires why it was summoned. They can see the creature looks similar to the depiction from the cover of Haunter of the Dark, but only vaguely. Ophelia attempts to convince it to come sit at the table with them, prompting it to reveal it barely fits in the shop as it is, and therefore they will converse where they are now. It shakes a few books down into a stack for Ophelia to sit on, however. Ophelia asks it for information on the Sagittarius group, however it asks her to be more specific. Vincent holds up his crude drawing of the Dark Pharaoh and asks the being if its seen that man. It grins but says nothing. Ophelia tries to detail her concern about things regarding violent cults and kidnapping, to which it rhetorically asks why it would want to stop any of those activities. She then asks if there's anything happening in Berlin, prompting the creature's irritation at the lack of specific questioning. She asks if there's anything trying to break through into our world through Berlin. It leans forward, clearly blocking any escape from the bookshelf aisle, and tells them all that there are always things trying to break through, and they will eventually succeed when the stars are right. Ophelia asks the being to help them stop the process, it repeats that it will happen when the stars are right, no sooner and no later. Vincent asks it for any knowledge it could provide to help them, it tells them to read the book in their possession. Ophelia thanks it for its time, but instead of leaving it steps forward menacingly. Ophelia takes the ritual dagger from Vincent's waistband and attempts to stab the creature's eye. One of its limbs stops the dagger inches from the eye.

Lotte Rosencranz opens the shop's entrance door and flips the light switch, instantly dismissing the creature. The dagger falls to the ground and, aside from a pool of drool and a damaged piece of the floor where its taloned feet stood, its as if the Haunter had never been there at all. She asks them what they were doing, prompting a somewhat embarrassed explanation about summoning the Haunter of the Dark using the spell they received from Father Cunningham in conjunction with the puzzle box. Lotte sees how shaken the investigators are and offers to give them an impromptu therapy session to try to calm them down. Ophelia fills Lotte in on all of the events she's missed, including Monte's betrayal and theft of the evidence related to their investigation into the Corbitt house. Lotte asks them if they are going to Berlin as well, since she had been approached by Captain Franklins to work with the Sagittarius group. McQuaid corroborates Lotte's information with his own and provides some more context. Lotte checks on Elijah, who reveals in his state of temporary insanity he had blacked out and only remembers darkness. Delia notes that its glowing red eye gave her the same feeling as the burning red eyes from the shadow at the Corbitt house.

Delia brings up the book they had found prior to the summoning, The Haunter of the Dark by H.P. Lovecraft. Lotte takes a look and discovers that the book itself was published in 1936, which is 16 years in the future. They assume its a typographical error, but are uneasy regardless. They see that the book was published by Arkham Press, most likely based just north of Boston in the town of Arkham. They briefly discuss if this is the book the creature was referring to, or if it had meant the Necronomicon ex Mortis also in their possession. Ophelia runs over to the Necronomicon and attempts to read it, however not knowing any Latin, isn't able to discern any of its secrets. She peruses the pictures though, attempting to memorize the drawings but finding them slipping away from her mind immediately, before experiencing a pulsing headache. Vincent scans through the Haunter of the Dark book, attempting to find anything regarding the stars aligning and instead finds mention of an artifact called the Shining Trapezohedron that is used to summon the creature. Every time he sees the phrase, he feels a strange mental pulse from the puzzle box. He also sees mention of Enoch Bowen, who helped discover the box and is the one who brought it to Providence in the 1840's.

They see the darkness outside beginning to brighten and realize its nearly sunrise. Delia decides to stay at the shop instead of going on the boat, at least for a few days. She doesn't feel right leaving Boston right now, especially with her mother still out there and so close. Lotte encourages her decision, with Delia nodding wordlessly. Elijah decides to stay with Delia for the time being as well, until she is ready to join the rest of the group in Berlin. McQuaid, Lotte, Vincent, and Ophelia however decide to stick to the plan and rendezvous with the boat for the long journey across the Atlantic.

The four travelers pile into Vincent's jalopy and, after the usual navigational errors, they are able to make it to the east side docks. Vincent pulls into the dock and finds some makeshift long-term parking. They all go into the Harbormaster's office and approach Harbormaster Dickens, with whom McQuaid had spoken with previously. They tell Dickens the "operation is a go" to his initial confusion. He puffs his corncob pipe, with some bubbles coming out, before remembering a "police guy" setting up passage to Hamburg for some investigators. He directs them to find the S.S. Worcestershire and Captain Farthing, normally out of Arkham but currently docked in port. During the conversation, Lotte suspects Dickens to have his hands in smuggling, which is why he probably agreed to the group's off-the-books passage in the first place. Vincent attempts to haggle long-term parking rates with Dickens, who offers extremely high daily prices or an insultingly low buy-out price for the vehicle itself. McQuaid gives the Harbormaster $50 from their payment from "Mr. Knott" and tells Dickens they will be back for the vehicle and that he is to keep it safe, and if there are any further issues regarding its storage then Dickens is to contact Captain Franklins directly. As they leave, the Harbormaster remembers he finally procured a phone for McQuaid, a trashy device unconnected to any phone line and most likely nonfunctional. McQuaid awkwardly thanks him and then leaves.

The group finds the S.S. Worcestershire and boards, speaking with first mate Longfellow and getting Captain Farthing's whereabouts. They find him in on the bridge, which is also the captain's quarters. He warns McQuaid that the U.S. jurisdiction is nonexistent out on the open sea and to operate accordingly. He then tells them that Longfellow will show them to their quarters. They follow Longfellow down two decks through a labyrinth of corridors to their room, which has three cots bolted to each side walls. Ophelia climbs into one and passes out immediately. The others decide to return to the top deck and watch Boston recede into the distance. Lotte offers to teach the group a smattering of German during their journey, and in return McQuaid offers to teach her how to use a handgun. The group returns to their room and spend the rest of the day catching up on their sleep.

After waking up in the early evening, the group has their first lesson in German. They then gain Captain Farthing's permission for handgun training, as long as its at the bow and out of the crew's way. Farthing has a brief conversation with Lotte over his reading material, Moby Dick, and then the group goes to attempt some handgun training. As they finish, they do some stargazing, looking for familiar constellations. McQuaid finds his eyes drawn to a certain point, and he believes he sees a familiar broken crescent shape that ends with a large green star. They ask Captain Farthing about the strange constellation and the green star. The captain says he's seen those stars before but never noticed the constellation the group is describing. He tells them the green star should be Sirius, but he's never seen it glow green before. Lotte looks at the star through a spyglass, noting that the glow seems to pulse with a strange, unearthly rhythm. Captain Farthing notes that the ancient Egyptians used to refer to the star as Sothis. Sensing their interest in astronomy, Farthing points out Polaris and tells them of a time just a few months ago he saw the star Aldebaran approaching Polaris on a nightly basis over the course of a week, with both stars getting brighter and brighter, until one night Aldebaran disappeared entirely. Ever since, Polaris has given him unsettling feelings and he's had strange recurring dreams. The dreams all seem to involve a strange and beautiful city underneath a starry sky, of strange constellations, aside from the familiar Polaris, with a glow on the horizon as if the sun is perpetually on the verge of rising or setting. He says the city gives him an odd feeling of comfort however, and every time he sleeps he yearns to return to the city. He describes that occasionally he can remember seeing its inhabitants, and a tall tower in the center of the city, itself dwarfed by impossibly tall mountains in the distance. He said the tower often has a guardian, a man dressed like a pharaoh, but all in black and gold. He tells them a strange jumble of letters always comes into his mind when he dreams of this city, though he has no idea what it means: Kadath. He's asked others about Kadath, and found that it is known in the same circles as other lost cities such as Irem and Atlantis. He's been told its located on the Plateau of Leng, though no one seems to know where Leng is either, with various reports putting it in Asia and others putting it in Antarctica. The group stares up at the stars in silence, feeling the edges of the unknown pressing in on them.