Masks of Nyarlathotep: Session 6

The party consisted of:

Lillian Fogg- Museum Curator

Lydia Lisbon- Drug Dealer using Photographer as a cover

Chomden Tsomo- Mountaineer

Curtis Flanagan- Author

Violet Adair- Dancer/Occultist

Warning: If you’re planning on playing the campaign and not running it for others, you should stop reading now.

The investigators returned to Lillian’s home after their day in Harlem to get some rest before the funeral the next day. After getting settled, Lillian realized that her stuff has been gone through. Mail moved, drawers she hasn’t used in weeks opened. The others immediately checked through their belongings to find that they had been rifled through at all. Nothing stolen, but thoroughly searched. Lillian had hidden Elias’ briefcase under a bed, and thankfully it had not been found. The crew decides nothing more can be done that night, but set up guard shifts for the night anyway.

The next day, they go to Evergreens Cemetery in Brooklyn to pay their respects to their friend. They meet both Carlton Ramsay and Jonah Kensington, Elias’ publisher and long-time friend. Ramsay reconfirms their meeting the next day, and Kensington invites them to visit him at Prospero House Publishing as he has something he wishes to show the group.

The service was quiet and small. Afterwards, a man is noticed standing furtively a little distance away, watching the group. Nobody recognizes him. Violet goes to talk to him, being the most charming of the group. The guy is twitchy when she starts a conversation with him. He says that he’s here for the next service, but Violet knows that the next service doesn’t start for many hours. She calls him on it, causing him to quickly leave and get into the back seat of a black car. As the car takes off, she sees another car take off in the other direction.

When Violet got back to the group, a dark-haired woman approached them. She introduced herself as Rebecca Shosenburg, a reporter from the New York Times. She wanted to talk to some friends of Jackson Elias. She had heard about the carving on his head, and believed that an innocent man was in prison awaiting the death penalty for similar murders.  

Violet mentions the indelicacy of talking about such matters now, but arranges for a meeting later the next day at Violet’s apartment. The day being long and draining, the investigators go home to rest up for what is sure to be another long day.

The next morning, they got ready and went to Carlton Ramsay’s office in Harlem. Once they were comfortable, he got straight to business. The investigators, simply put, were not only the beneficiaries of Elias’ will, but also burdened with his final wish. Ramsay explains that Jackson had visited him a couple days before his death, obviously scared that was not his style.

Ramsay read a letter than Elias had written only for them. Jackson had been following the story of the Carlyle expedition, a group of wealthy upper crust who travelled to Egypt for an unknown reason, and according to the newspapers had been slaughtered by raiders there. Elias believed that not only were at least some of the expedition still alive, but linked somehow to a worldwide conspiracy of darkness the likes of which had never been seen before. Elias made the investigators the beneficiaries of his will mostly because they were crazy enough to continue the search.

The investigators, of course, unblinkingly choose to continue their friend’s work. They get Carlton’s contact info, as he will be holding the pursestrings on the sizable funds that Elias amassed to fund the explorations, and left.

Seeing as they had some time to kill before meeting with Ms. Shosenburg, they decided to go by Prospero House and see what Kensington had to say.  When they got there, Kensington was delighted to see them, but as they chatted more and asked what he had to show them he got reticent and almost hesitant about showing them anything.

Kensington showed them letters from Elias, his state of mind getting more and more erratic. The letters mentioned things he found or knew of in London, Australia, Hong Kong, and Kenya. Ramblings about world-wide conspiracies, gates being opened, strange dreams, and many shapes and forms. None answering any questions and only creating more. All they know is something big is going down, and it terrified Elias. They thanks Kensington for his time, told him they’d try to make sense of it, and took their leave.

 They went to Violet’s place for their appointment with Rebecca. When she got there, she explained to them why she was so adamant about meeting them. She said there was a man in prison by the name of Hilton Adams who had been found standing over the last murder victim awhile back, and had been charged with all eight murders. She felt that Captain Robson, the Harlem precinct head, was as corrupt as the day is long and had framed Adams. 

She felt this was even more the case after Elias’ murder the same way the other murders had happened except Adams was in Singh Singh. She told the investigators that she could arrange a meeting with Hilton’s wife, who may be able to help them with information if they could help her. The group was left to make some decisions…