Wait, is that Oscar?

Monday, Feb. 2, 1925

The intrepid investigators decide to spend their first full day in London by splitting up and checking out two of their leads--some to the Penhew Foundation and the home of Miles Shipley.

Miles Shipley lives in a two-story brick house where he paints pictures that have attracted attention because of their horrifying and mesmerizing nature. Oscar, Sullie, Pancho, & Pyle all approach the house, posing as art collectors.

The door is answered by a sweet old lady carrying her knitting. It's the mother of Miles Shipley, and once she hears how much money the investigators are ready to pay for a painting, she allows them up to see Miles' paintings up in the garret.

The paintings are all horrifying, and each tests the sanity of whomever is looking at it. One depicts a weird little bleeding statue of a boy. Another shows a group of bull-headed men ravaging a group of women. Another seems to be just full of shapes, but the shapes are impossible, and cause great mental discomfort. The one painting that attracts the attention of the investigators the most shows a group of cultists in front of a mountain wearing intestine headbands and worshiping a giant monstrosity: it's vaguely humanoid, standing on three legs, and has a tremendous red tentacle instead of a face.

The investigators want to check out the rest of the house, but the feisty Mrs. Shipley won't let them, and eventually, with some prodding, the feisty Mrs. Shipley moves to a corner of the room and shape-shifts into her real form--a lizard creature, who had eaten Mrs. Shipley. It attacks. It manages to bite Oscar before being shot to death.

Miles is insane and keeps babbling about the stuff in the basement that he's addicted to. The group, maybe not so comfortable with basements these days, decides to leave the basement alone for now. But as Miles keeps babbling, he says emphatically that they should not bother the painting in the closet upstairs. Oscar goes immediately to the painting.

After shooting the lock off the closet door, he unveils a painting of a swamp with a stone altar. But the painting is sucking him in, and despite his amazing level of magical mojo, he loses the psychic battle. Oscar finds himself in a swamp. He hears strange, loud animal noises in the distance. The stone altar is in front of him. A lizard creature comes out of a patch of trees and rushes him, but he blows its head off in short order. He climbs onto the altar. In the distance he sees a flash of light, but really nothing else besides endless swamp. At least for now, Oscar Marin lives in a swamp.

Back in the garret, Pyle sees that Oscar has been sucked into the painting, but can't determine any way to get him back. Pyle takes the painting. Sullie knocks out Miles Shipley. The group returns to the hotel with Miles and the painting.

                                                              *        *       *

At the Penhew Foundation, Mickey, Babe, and Dr. I present themselves as the posse of Babe Ruth, rich American celebrity who wants to start learning about and investing money into Egyptian exploration. The front-desk secretary, and then eventually the current director, Mr. Edward Gavigan, welcome Babe and his friends.

Mr. Gavigan discusses a number of things with the group: Egypt, the Foundation's collection of artifacts, and then even the Carlyle expedition. And yes, Jackson Elias was here, asking about the Carlyle expedition, just last month. Mr. Gavigan is happy to share with you all that he shared with Elias.

He says that Sir Aubrey Penhew was indeed looking for more artifacts for his collection, but more than that he was researching the idea that a powerful sorcerer once ruled in the ancient days of Egypt. According to Gavigan, they discovered that the idea was false--there really was no ruling sorcerer. And then the mysterious African woman of the Carlyle expedition made off with 3,500 pounds, never to be seen again. The expedition then decided to take a vacation from their Egyptian work in the cooler climate of Kenya, where they finally met their horrible fate.

Gavigan happily shows the group all of the artifacts that they have up in their second-floor showroom. He lectures about pyramids and dynasties. Nothing among the artifacts seems to be connected with the dark cultist events that have pervaded the investigators' recent lives. They decide to leave for now, agreeing on a later day for Babe to come back and start the process for sponsoring an Egyptian expedition of their own.

Boat to London

Sunday, Feb. 1, 1925

Ready to leave New York City behind, the investigators decide what to bring with them to London, shop, pack, and catch the S.S. Resolute across the Atlantic on Tex's dime.

Speaking of Tex's dime...the gang is also now joined by James Monroe Pyle, an honest law man, whose work in solving murders in Osage County caught the attention of the government, and he's now been sent (by both Tex and J. Edgar Hoover) along with the investigators to help in any way he can. He has a huge wad of British pounds that Tex entrusted to him.

Almost the whole gang spends the duration of this boat ride to Southampton absorbed in evil books. Each comes away with horrible, arcane knowledge, and a strange, new awareness of the universe which makes their guts tighten a little more.

In London, Tex's secretary has set the investigator's up at the Ritz, on the west side of town, just north of Buckingham Palace, across Green Park. Tex also sent along a car and driver--a very capable woman from Boston named Suzie.


Once settled in, the investigators go first to see a certain Mickey Mahoney, the Irish cigar-chomping editor of a cheap London paper called The Scoop. Mickey knew Elias Jackson, and is very saddened to hear about his death. Mickey does not entirely know why Elias left London in such a hurry, but he says that Elias was interested in three specific stories that The Scoop published.

Mickey digs up the three stories and hands them over. He thinks he might have written all these, but also might have just borrowed some from other London rags, and maybe even embellished a few. He does so many stories like this that he honestly can't remember. Mickey says that he will help the gang however he can.

Meanwhile, Suzie drove several of the investigators past the Penhew Foundation for a first look. The Penhew Foundation for Egyptian research occupies a Victorian building just north of Soho, so it only has two floors (fewer than the others around it), but each floor is tall and covered in ornate detail, even on the outside. There's a tall black gate that closes off the sides and back of the building from the public. A delivery truck is parked outside the front, and Sullie tries persuading the delivery man that he works there, but the delivery guy doesn't buy it. The investigators drive away, deciding to form some plans before making another move.