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.

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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.