Session Ten - 05/16/2021

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The woman who was referred by Lord Carter Phillips as "Ms. Dorn" stares at Delia like she's just seen a ghost. Delia, just as dumbfounded, is able to utter one word: "...Mom?" before the woman snaps out of it and bolts out of the exhibit. Delia pushes past everyone and gives chase. Ophelia regains her balance and attempts to give chase, with Detective McQuaid also in pursuit. Ophelia and McQuaid enter the hallway in time to see Delia and her mother disappear into the growing crowd of attendees queueing in the lobby for the dinosaur exhibit. Ophelia and McQuaid push through the crowd and make it to the entrance, seeing Delia and her mother already down the steps and crossing the street. A lone police cruiser pulls up just in front of the entrance to the museum, as if blocking Ophelia and McQuaid's pursuit. Captain Franklins and Elijah Tanner exit the cruiser and call on both Ophelia and McQuaid to halt what they're doing. He calms them down and states that he will have trusted officers track down both Delia and her mother, but that he needs to speak to this group immediately and in a safe place.

With Captain Franklins leading the way and parting the crowd with his badge, they make their way back to Lord Carter Phillips at the Egypt exhibit. Vincent is nowhere to be seen, having immediately ran off to the dinosaur exhibit. Vincent is wandering through the dinosaur exhibit, having animated discussion with a museum employee who is just as excited as Vincent is about the dinosaurs. Vincent tells him he has to go do work stuff but wants to come back. The employee stamps both of Vincent's hands and says if he's quick enough, he can press the second stamp against a friend's hand so they can skip the lines too. Vincent leaves, running into Captain Franklins in the lobby. Vincent apologizes for not getting the body like Franklins had ordered. Franklins asked rhetorically if the orders were written on a napkin again, then steered Vincent back toward the Egypt exhibit.

Lord Phillips reveals the puzzle box doesn't have a name, however it is known historically as being in the possession of the lost pharaoh Nephren-Ka. Franklins asks how the group came across the item, they reveal it was hidden in Monte's room at the Landing Tree Inn. After grilling the group on how they tracked Monte down, they recount the events that led them from the Corbitt house to the Landing Tree Inn. Phillips proceeds to tell them of the puzzle box. He state its a marvelous piece of engineering that rivaled that of the later Roman empire in sophistication, though he was surprised to hear that it still had an active internal mechanism that ticked. He mentions that as impressive as the box itself is, the real prize was the jewel inside, as it supposedly allowed Nephren-Ka to commune with the dark gods of the Egyptian pantheon, specifically Set. He reveals that the puzzle box itself hasn't been seen since its discovery in 1843 in the Tomb of Nephren-Ka. He mentions that Enoch Bowen, one of the discovers, took the box from the tomb and brought it back to Providence, RI.

McQuaid pauses this part of the conversation to address Franklins about the phone call he and Vincent overheard. Franklins revealed that any phone call they may have overheard that pertained to them would have been to Lieutenant Richards, whom he had personally assigned to run the unofficial task force to locate the investigators. He states that one of the officers had noticed Elijah at the station when the group had been there briefly, and pulled him aside for questioning. Franklins and Elijah tell the group that basically Franklins had been instrumental in stamping out the Church of Contemplation in 1912 and taking down many of its members, including his predecessor in the department. His investigation of the remaining cultists, especially the ones on the city council, was still ongoing but necessarily off the books until enough evidence had been amassed. Franklins states that the reason the police had been actively searching for the investigators was because of the nature of their investigation, he thought they were trying to resurrect the Church of Contemplation. McQuaid recounts what they found at the Corbitt house, including the wraith of Corbitt himself. Franklins states that the officers he had sent there found no ritual room, secret staircase, nothing that corroborates McQuaid's account, aside from a strange soldier action figure with angel wings, and red ball.

After some discussion, they come to the bottom line, that after all is said and done, they have no concrete evidence to use to take down Councilor Ellsworth or any of the other corrupt members of the city. Franklins mentions that without the items Monte stole, they cannot move forward with the investigation. He asks about the man who hired them, the landlord Mr. Steven Knott. They state they left him at the Landing Tree Inn just before coming to the museum. Franklins reveals that Steven Knott had been missing for two months and his body had just been found only two days ago, washed up on the shore just north of Boston, near the Landing Tree Inn. They briefly discuss the similarities of the rituals that the Church of Contemplation and Walter Corbitt used to those of another known cult, the Temple of the Wizened Youth. He shares that their information on the Temple of the Wizened is a bit scarce, only that it was a smaller affair than the Church of Contemplation, operating primarily out of an orphanage and when the children there would hit a certain age, the cultists would harvest a specific organ from the base of the skull, the amygdala. He shares that all of these cults are connected and likely offshoots of an older, defunct cult that operated out of Providence, RI last century, the Church of Starry Wisdom. Franklins theorizes that Corbitt was most likely a member and was responsible for bringing their teachings to Boston, possibly triggering the upsurge in "alternate spiritualism" of the past few decades. He states that they've attempted to investigate where else the members of the former Church of Starry Wisdom may have gone after the cult's dissolution, and shares that many of the trails end in Arkham, MA. Lord Phillips postulates that the puzzle box's appearance in Providence at the time of the founding of the Church of Starry Wisdom is probably not a coincidence.

Franklins pulls McQuaid out of the room to speak in private. Franklins states that, due to the state of the city after the investigations and pressure from city hall, McQuaid is being put on indefinite paid suspension effective tomorrow morning. Franklins hope is that this will cause the corrupt cult members on the council to relax and start making mistakes again. He tells McQuaid that the Egyptian exhibit is packing up tomorrow to return to its home in Berlin, and that he has evidence that the Church of Starry Wisdom has ties to something that is going on there, something that could affect all of these cults and, by extension, the cities and countries they infest. Franklins states they been approached by a government satellite agency called Sagittarius that specializes in looking into phenomena and dangerous unnatural things that exist outside the realms of normal knowledge (and normal legal systems). He wants McQuaid, and any willing members of the investigators to go to Berlin and work with Sagittarius in what is being called Operation Zodiac. He says that due to the organization's unofficial status, it is able to exist with a nearly unlimited budget and therefore they would be supported with lodgings, food, per diems, contacts, leads, everything. He tells McQuaid that once this investigation is over, there is a sizable promotion awaiting him in federal law enforcement. The reason he is wanting the other investigators to go as well is to keep them from being targeted now that they are known to the city council.

Franklins leaves and McQuaid fills the rest of the group in on their invitation to join Operation Zodiac in Berlin. The group agrees as long as Delia is found and given the same opportunity. After some discussion on what to do next, Vincent and Elijah decide to go see the dinosaur exhibit, while Ophelia and McQuaid take Vincent's vehicle back to the Wish Doctor's to see if Delia might be there, and to pack for the upcoming journey. They pull up a block away from the Wish Doctors, out of caution, and see a plainclothes detective, Lieutenant Richards, loitering at the shop's entrance, with McQuaid's cruiser parked right in front of the store as well. They notice that St. Mary's Church across the street has been vandalized. Some of the windows have been broken and there is graffiti sloppily painted all over the front, one of which is the symbol of the Church of Contemplation. Ophelia decides to try to enter the shop the back way, so she ducks into the back alley to try to access the fire escape. She drags an old metal trash can under the fire escape's ladder and attempts to climb up. After slipping on a banana peel hanging out of the trash can and falling flat on her backside, Ophelia tries again and makes it up the fire escape and into her room window.

Elijah and Vincent are walking through the dinosaur exhibit, in awe at the various skeletons of the extinct beasts. The same museum employee from earlier guides them, giving them unintentionally false information on the creatures and their features. After they've had their fill of dinosaurs and acquired some cheap souvenirs, Elijah and Vincent exit the museum and wonder how long they still have until the others come back. They decide to get some ice cream at the nearby shop, the Frozen Pudding Wagon.

Ophelia packs her things, and a few things for Delia as well, moving cautiously around and listening for any possible intruders. She moves a hidden board in Delia's room and leaves a note explaining things, just in case Delia returns while they're gone. After briefly poking around and seeing if there are any possible secrets she may have missed previously, Ophelia exits out the front door and brazenly checks her dead drop location not five feet away from where Lieutenant Richards is standing. Richards asks if she's looking for the booze and then reveals that it was already found and confiscated by the police. He then points out the church across the street and asks if either of them know anything about what happened. They decide to go talk to Father Cunningham to find out themselves. Father Cunningham confesses that he believes he may have inadvertently caused the vandalism. He reveals that Monte visited a few days back and asked him to translate more passages from the Liber Ivonis. He did so, but grew uncomfortable with the nature of the things he was translating. He destroyed the translations and sent Monte away. McQuaid asks what the passages were, Father Cunningham reveals they were pertaining to using an artifact to summon and commune with a dark spirit of some sort. When asked, he reveals that he still has the ripped up pieces of the translated passage. He reluctantly hands the pieces over, eventually agreeing that if anyone were to have the information it would best be with the investigators.

After briefly stopping off at McQuaid's for him to pack for the journey, Ophelia and McQuaid head back to the museum to find Vincent and Elijah waiting for them. Vincent takes over the driver's seat and they make their way to his place south of central Boston so he can pack as well. They then head to Elijah's small apartment over a machinist shop near the east docks. Ophelia asks McQuaid if there's any chance he could stop by the evidence locker and retrieve her confiscated booze. McQuaid doesn't think so, but is reminded of the book McQuaid confiscated from Ophelia back before the investigation began, the Capite Placemus Deos. Unsure what power it may have, or relevance to current events, they decide its best to retrieve it before it falls into the hands of someone more malevolent. They stop by Central and McQuaid goes in by himself. He passes by the desk of the secretary, Kim DeBrune, whom he takes a moment to chat with. She mentions that the background check he had previously requested had some discrepancies and that he should take another look. He does so, finding that he's not looking at the file of Steven Knott, but instead Pastor Michael Thomas of the Church of Contemplation. The photo inside matches that of the person who hired them as Steven Knott. McQuaid takes the Capite Placemus Deos from evidence, along with a few bottles of booze and the large jug of moonshine as well. Kim notices and winks but doesn't report anything. When he gets back to the vehicle, he passes the booze to Ophelia and a few of them notice a white sticker on the bottom of the big jug of moonshine that says "Wish Doctors". Ophelia realizes this is her missing booze and is overjoyed.

The group returns to the Wish Doctors to go over the translated passages and plan for the trip to Berlin. McQuaid takes a moment to berate the new officer, Stanets, that is supposed to be watching over the store who was instead hotboxing reefer in McQuaid's cruiser. After telling McQuaid that it was Richards' car now, McQuaid grabs a knife and carves his own name into the back bumper. McQuaid meets the rest of the group in the store, where they all comb through the shop looking for either anything suspicious or anything that could possibly pertain to their investigation. After some searching, Elijah finds Madam Wizzies's Astronomology Guide to the Greater Cosmos. Vincent finds a picture of a galaxy and points at the bright white center, saying that's where he and Ophelia went in their vision. Nodding appreciatively, the rest of the group focuses on piecing together the scraps of translation and figuring out what it says. The passage reveals the ritual to contact something called the "Haunter of the Dark". A scribbled drawing next to the spell matches the puzzle box they have, as well. They debate the merits of learning the spell and possibly using it, knowing that it could take the rest of the night and cost them potentially a lot more than just a few hours of time.

At this time, they hear faint footsteps from the apartments above. Quietly making their way up, the door to Delia's room opens and Delia emerges, shocked to see everyone. She tells them that she's pretty sure that was her mom, but she wasn't able to catch up to her. She then says she's not quite ready to talk about it at the moment. They invite her to help them go over learning the spell, to which she cautiously agrees, as long as its done responsibly. She said its better to have the knowledge and not need it then the other way around. After several hours of study, the group feels they know enough about the spell to cast it, if need be. They discuss whether or not they should cast the spell, and wonder if they would even know what questions to ask the creature if they were successful in the casting. As they discuss, Delia suddenly runs over the bookshelves and grabs a book. She brings it back to the table and shows it to the group. Its called The Haunter of the Dark, by H.P. Lovecraft. She shows them the cover, with a black winged demon thing. She points out that this book is supposed to be fictional, but the similarities to the spell are too great to ignore. She points out that the single burning eye the creature has gives her the same dread feeling that the burning eyes from the shadow at the Corbitt house gave before it changed into the Dark Pharaoh. Delia changes tact and asks Ophelia and Vincent about the thing they saw in the galaxy in their vision. She said it matches the descriptions of things she's read about, a gnawing horror at the center of creation. She doesn't know what its called, but she got a shuddering feeling of connection when McQuaid mentioned the name of the Sagittarius group.

McQuaid asks the group point blank if they should cast the spell. He points out that this is much bigger than a simple investigation into a house of ill repute, and that the things they are all starting to experience cannot be stopped by mundane means like gunshots. He states that knowledge that this thing could impart would help level the playing field against other horrors they're likely to encounter. The group reluctantly agrees to cast the spell, each sacrificing a small part of their willpower and sanity. Using the puzzle box as a focus, they each take turns reading lines from the spell. They notice the darkness in the room growing in power. The light above the table is still putting out the same amount of light, but it just feels weaker and weaker. Outside the shop is pure darkness. Eventually, the inside of the shop is almost completely dark. After the spell is finished, they realize they can see, but only strange purple outlines, like sonar. Elijah takes his loss of sanity a little harder than the others and develops a spontaneous bout of scotophobia, fear of darkness. He realizes he is surrounded by his worst fear, and feels flickers of movement on his peripheries. He is certain there are terrible unseen things there, just waiting to tear him apart. He stumbles back from the table and into the bookshelves. McQuaid slaps some sense into him, bringing him back to some of his senses and allowing him to function. McQuaid hands Elijah his torch to try to make him feel better. Elijah turns it on and sees something in the shadows behind everyone, making a horribly clicking sound.