London, Anglia. Spring.
The mail brought Mr. Andrew Forester his Letter of Acceptance into Trinity College, Cambridge. It included the directions to his lodgings there at Wallis House. The excited young pedagogue started packing his belongings.
The shell.
Surrounded by her solicitous companions, Voronika Costorari was ensconced in a comfy chair in the parlour of Mrs. Oliver's Boarding House. The druidess handed her the shell, a gift from the earliest stages of the formation of the mountains of Tibet. The gypsy immediately rolled to her side out of the chair, crashing into the table. She continued rolling violently on the floor, between the table and chair. Steele picked her up to prevent her from hurting herself and the shell dropped from her grasp. Quickly the druidess scooped it up.
"I was being tossed in water, violently by the waves," gasped the gypsy. "My eyes stung and I couldn't breathe. Suddenly, as I was lifted from the water, I could see the scene Sister Sunshine described of the sandy beach. And that smell," she looked at the druidess. "I can't describe it but I would know it again." Sunshine nodded.
Voronika: "This means that no other people have touched that shell and that its removal from the water was a most emotional moment. It also means that Something - the shell, the water, the planet," she shrugged expressively. "Something there was alive. I do not receive visions that do not have emotional context."
Penrington said, "Most of your visions show people.."
The gypsy refused to touch the shell again.
Sunset over London found the men of the Party disembarking from a cab in front of the Bentley Private Hotel. A tweeny opened the door. [Tweeny is a term for a servant (invariably female) who works both Upstairs and Downstairs in an establishment not wealthy enough to keep strict hierarchies in its household staff.]
Ramsey: "My uncle? Mr. Ramsey, please."
Tweeny: "Buh-uh-What is that!?" [Inadvertent PRE attack by the mechanical man.]
Ramsey: "My friend, Mr. Steele."
Steele: "Pleased to meet you."
Tweeny: "Uh, ah, uh won't you wait in here?" And she fled upstairs.
Five minutes later, Herman Ramsey strode downstairs looking puzzled. "Nephew, what brings you here at this hour?"
Ramsey: "News, speculation and further questions which we did not want to hold until tomorrow." He proceeded to introduce his companions.
Capt. Ramsey, to Steele: "You're a mechanism of some sort. Steam powered?"
Steele: "That is correct."
The captain sat down with his back to the window. Penrington indicated to the mechanical man that he should keep watch for danger from out that window.
Ramsey: "Do you remember much about the reporter? His movements the night of Weatherby's murder?"
Capt. Ramsey: "He was in his room in 2nd class, close to most of the archaeologists."
Ramsey proceeded to distill the Party's suspicions about the reporter.
Capt. Ramsey: "Mummies are dead. Why would a wrapping make them have eternal life?"
Steele: "Wrappings were used to preserve the body for bringing back to life later. The reporter did not seem to wonder why the ancient Egyptians never seem to have gotten around to that 'later'."
Capt. Ramsey: "You're a memory machine. Do you know navigation tables." [This came about because Mr. Ramsey did not remember the particulars of something he had said, which Mr. Steele repeated for him. I can't recall precisely what, perhaps a memory machine could help...]
Ramsey: "Mr. Steele once served as an airship engineer."
Capt. Ramsey: "What ship?"
Steele: "The Wings of Cardiff."
Capt. Ramsey, nodding: "That was a great tragedy. You are rather advanced to have been built that long ago." The menfolk stumbled around further explanations of Mr. Steele's origins.
Capt. Ramsey: "What are you suggesting, nephew?"
Ramsey: "We want to get [the reporter] to betray his knowledge." He went on to explain the shape-shifter theory.
Steele: "He might not be working alone but with an accomplice with such power."
Ramsey: "He thinks that I know more about the ancient Egyptians. He does not know my address, but he can easily find yours. If he comes to you looking for me, please give him my card."
Capt. Ramsey: "I'd like to catch him and strangle him myself."
Ramsey: "We have no proof. We need to draw him out further."
Steele: "And we should rather not be in trouble with Scotland Yard about taking justice into our own hands."
Forester: "He might be innocent."
Ramsey: "Nonetheless, consider yourself at some risk if he shows up here."
Capt. Ramsey: "I will keep a blade near me at all times."
As the group of men left the hotel, everyone but Ramsey noticed a man hiding in the bushes near the edge of the building.
Penrington: "Walk on as if you don't see him," and the hunter headed around the building in the opposite direction. Steele pretended to fiddle with components while Ramsey and Forester tried to add verisimilitude to the distraction.
Rounding the back of the building, Penrington saw no sign of the skulker, but spotted a bobby across the street. Suddenly, he heard a shout muffled by the width of the hotel. He tried the back door just as someone raced around the opposite corner of the building. The figure seemed to pause at also seeing the constable and then headed straight for the hunter. Penrington clearly saw the face of the Times reporter Travis. The hunter drew his sword and the flash caught the attention of the police officer. The whistle sounded as Penrington dropped the sword and grabbed the fugitive.
Penrington found himself quickly surrounded by 6 bobbies and a police detective who hustled the pair off to the local precinct, delighted to have found Penrington's collection of murder weapons: his rifle and his sword.
Forester and Steele stayed on guard outside the building. The radiologist thought, for a moment, he saw a face peering down from the roof. Shortly he saw a bird flying across the gap between building roofs; a possibly suspicious occurrence given the late hour.
Ramsey followed his uncle upstairs and noted that the room had, indeed, been tossed, and not in a very systematic manner. Nothing was obviously missing, but the mess was considerable.
After awhile, Penrington's absence became noticeable, and the three companions started searching for him. A bobby was able to say, from their description: "Ah, the attempted murderer!" and provide them with directions. At the police station, Ramsey surprised himself by negotiating the bureaucracy and reaching the detective in charge of the Penrington-Travis case. Penrington's release was obtained and Ramsey recounted the Party's deductions regarding the reporter. The detective had Travis searched; strips of resin-impregnated cloth were found in the reporter's pocket. With that, Scotland Yard considered the Mummy Murders solved.
Mr. Homme proceeded to show Mr. Forester around campus, en route to the telegraph office. They parted at the gates of the university, as the former had to return to his writing. Having found the telegraph service and sent his message, Mr. Forester started to stroll around town to get his bearings. To his surprise, he recognized a group of people advancing up the street from the train station: Mr. Ramsey, Sister Sunshine and her pony, the gypsy, the steel man, and Penrington.
Mr. Ramsey had a familiar bag in hand. "I couldn't help but notice that I had some of your books."
Forester: "I just cabled."
Ramsey: "We left before your cable came."
Sunshine, softly: "Lungta wanted to come here."
At Wallis, Forester left his friends in the greeting rooms and ran upstairs to fetch Ramsey's bag. He returned pale, ill-looking, and stuttering. "Th-there's a b-body all over m-my room." The radiologist took off to notify the authorities while the others, Steele in the rear, started up. The stair up from the third floor collapsed under the mechanical man's weight but Steele managed to catch himself and not do further damage in falling.
Penrington raced ahead, opening door after door (and startling one student at home). The third door revealed a scene of carnage, blood painting the room red and brown, and guts plastered to the ceiling. An intestine dangled down, moving gently in the breeze from the open window. The hunter blocked the door, surveying the room keenly. He could see a bloody paw print on the windowsill and, between the mangled body on the floor and some books knocked from their case, a smudged footprint, probably a human shoe print. On the bed lay Ramsey's bag, torn open, contents scattered. "They were looking for Forester's room, for something that wasn't there," he grated.
Looking around the hunter's shoulder, Voronika saw a young man standing in the room.
Voronika: "Hi. I'd like to know your name."
Man: "I'm Mortimer Homme. Who are you?"
Voronika: "Voronika."
Homme: "What are you doing in my room?" He looked around at the mess and shook his head. "Well, that's not right. That's really not right."
Voronika: "Tell me what happened."
Homme, watching Penrington start to step into the room for a closer look at the bag: "Don't touch that! Everyone, out of the room!" The pre-law student realized that a crime scene needed to be preserved. Penrington did not enter the room (even though he could not hear or see the student).
Having decided that the window was the culprit's escape route, Penrington headed back to the small landing, seeking access to the roof, which a service closet with a ladder eventually provided.
Sister Sunshine carefully entered the room to apply her forensic medical skills to the body of the young man lying there. He was incontrovertibly dead although not by more than 30 minutes. His face was set in an expression of wide-eyed panic. His torso had been torn open lengthwise by claws, and great strength had been exerted to force apart the rib cage. The internal organs thereupon had been removed (and splattered across the room). At odds with the animal violence otherwise indicated, the druidess noted two puncture wounds above the carotid artery, only an inch apart from each other.
Voronika to Homme: "Tell me the last thing you remember."
Homme: "I finished my paper." He looked around. "I should go get someone. This person's been murdered in my room."
Voronika: "You can't. Mr. Forester has gone to tell the authorities."
Homme: "I must have gone out. I don't remember."
Voronika: "Who came into the room - No! Don't answer that!"
Homme: "Why? While I was gone, someone must have come into my room and died. Messily."
Voronika: "This is very important. If I ask you a question, don't answer it. Do Not Answer Any Question I Ask!" (She was to repeat this admonishment several times during the course of conversation.)
At the local morgue, Sister Sunshine managed to persuade the attendant to allow herself, the gypsy, and the pony to enter the storage room. Voronika felt uneasy at the several other ghosts in the room.
Homme: "Do you know if they've called my uncle? He's with Scotland Yard."
Voronika translated the request to the druidess, providing the uncle's name, _________________.
Sunshine: "The university will certainly notify Mr. Homme's next of kin. Would that be his uncle?" At that moment, she saw that the pony had its nose pressed against the drawer containing Moritimer Homme's mortal remains. To the morgue attendant's startled protests, she pulled the drawer open and bent over the body. The pony, too, moved closer, pressing its muzzle against the still figure. To Voronika's consternation, the spirit to whom she had been speaking disappeared.
Sunshine saw the corpse lift its hand to its eyes and immediately started her largest healing spell. Mortimer Homme opened his eyes to see the beautiful druidess wreathed in magical light. He sat up. The morgue attendant abruptly fainted.
Sunshine's eyes met the gypsy's and she nodded. Then she said softly to Homme, "How do you feel?"
Voronika: "The reason that I didn't want you to answer any questions is that when a spirit answers my question, he then moves on, out of this world. I didn't want you to go. It's alright now."
Homme scratched at the back of his neck and then, puzzled, pulled a strip of stiffened linen from where it had snagged on his collar. Both women could not help but say to themselves, "The Mummy Murders." Sunshine placed the discarded length of cloth in her capacious sleeve.
Gathering her aplomb, the druidess requested permission to examine the young man. Quietly she noted to herself that his body seemed to be at only room temperature, there was no pulse, no heart beat, and the chest cavity sounded hollow - too hollow. There was, however, no scar from the torso wound. To the other two, Sunshine said, "I think that we should be careful in being too cavalier about this -- resurrection. And Mr. Homme may still be in danger. There is still something -- unusual -- going on here. I do not think that this is a case of the regeneration of someone almost dead." To the man, "You have no pulse."
As Homme tried to feel for his pulse himself, Voronika checked the bottles in which the police had placed his vandalized internal organs. The gory guts were still there. She swallowed - hard.
Homme looked at the druidess with a hard-to-read expression. "Does this mean.... If I wander too far from you, will I fall over dead?"
Sunshine, flabbergasted at the implications, could only stare back at the young man.
Having assured themselves that the morgue attendant had taken no serious injury in his faint, the group left him sleeping and made their way back to the university. The old gate attendant fell off his chair when given the name Mortimer Homme. "Kids," he muttered, "always finding ways to sneak out without checking out. But usually after dark; not during the day."
Taking Homme's direction, the Party found a quiet place in which to discuss this odd turn of events.
Homme to Sunshine: "How long before a corpse starts - smelling."
Sunshine: "On a warm day, not very long."
Homme, to himself: "Then it's good that we're inside where it's cooler."
After the gypsy and druidess told their tale, Penrington said, "That's one powerful spell, lady!" The druidess disclaimed direct powers to raise the dead.
[Query: What is Society's position on the notion of Undead? Are they inherently evil? To be shunned? To be 'laid to rest'? Is Steele considered Undead? Did the druidess sleep through that part of druid school? Howshould we be reacting.][GM: Pitchforks against a mechanical man? Preposterous! All the stories I can think of have undead being unnatural, eerie. In many cases, they seek to kill, but often they are haunts that attempt to get revenge, sometimes against the wrong persons. Necromancy is forbidden; so forbidden that it wasn't allowed as a PC choice, but has been reserved for bad guys. Yes, necromancy has been outlawed, so....
So: if Mort is a necromancer, or a result of a necromancy spell, he is evil or a tool of evil. If he is a ghost, seeking revenge, he is...unpleasant. Something to be avoided, lest he confuse you with the person he wants revenge on. The clerics of Anglia do not have an automatic ability to turn undead. Undead are extremely rare.]
With some precautions, the gypsy took the piece of mummy wrapping in hand. She immediately had the sensation of boiling hot fluid being poured over her body. From without, human eyes with red pupils stared at her and through her. Voronika immediately broke contact.
Sunshine: "I take it that it was uncomfortable?"
Voronika nodded, then said hoarsely, "We're being watched from behind me."
Steele stared at the solid wall behind the gypsy. "I see nothing."
Forester: "May I look at the bandage?" Without a lab, however, he could see only that it was resin-impregnated linen.
Homme to the gypsy: "Exactly what happened there?"
Voronika: "I have the ability to pick up objects and, if something emotionally strong happened in that object's past, I can sense it."
Penrington: "If the Mummy Murderer is still loose, we should get that reporter released."
Forester: "He may be safest if left in police custody for now." The hunter nodded.
Voronika: "Maybe the source of this really is Egyptian." She turned to Ramsey, "Perhaps it has something to do with your wife...?"
Ramsey: "I led the reporter to think I knew the Egyptian secret of eternal life," his mouth twisted wryly. "And I do. At least one Egyptian's."
Sunshine: "There was no record of anyone unusual entering the hall before we did. No one seemed to have noticed anyone odd - or any odd animal - going up the stairs. So, either the murderer was one of the regulars already there, or it came through the window."
Homme: "Was it supernatural?"
Sunshine: "There was the paw print. And the use of claws by something very strong. But an animal that big would have been noticed on the stairs. And no natural animal with paws is likely able to reach a fourth story window."
Steele: "Penrington did observe a paw print on the windowsill."
Sunshine: "But many normal animals -- such as a large dog -- with a tendency to curiousity might place a paw on the sill to look out. It's not necessarily a point of entry or exit simply because the print was there."
Penrington: "Umm, I thought the print was in blood, and on the third floor."
Steele: "Right, but given the assumption a beast was in the room, it could have looked out a third floor window as easily as any other. The point that the print was in blood merely implies it was made after the beast had done its vile deed, and therefore does not indicate the direction of exit."
Penrington: "But if it left the room via the corridor after stepping in the blood, there would be traces. So either it flew out, or it left the room by a mode other than (walking, corridor)."
Homme: "The police will put it down to an animal attack."
Steele: "Or two."
Sunshine nodded: "The puncture wounds would not have been made by an animal with claws like that. The big predators, when they go for the throat, rip it out."
Homme: "At an inch apart, that would have been an animal with a narrow snout."
Penrington: "The bag really seems to be the object of the criminals interest."
Sunshine, quietly objecting: "Mr. Homme's murder is not insignificant."
Penrington, dismissively: "He got in the way. Or, perhaps, they were after Forester. But the bag seems the most pivotal clue, as they clearly did not follow after Forester when he left this room. But - did they want Forester's bag or Ramsey's?"
Steele: "There really are only two possibilities here concerning the bag. One, the criminal can sense at a distance that for which he searches and so followed Ramsey's bag. Two, the criminal wanted Forester's bag."
Penrington: "What was in those bags."
Ramsey: "Mine had my travel kit - and my cigarettes. The special blend I like when I can afford them."
Forester: "You brought my bag." They went through it:
The group found a different lodging house for the night and set watches. In the darkness, they all heard the howl of a wolf in the distance.
Next Run: Hunting for a thread to follow.
(a) Cumulative (b) Cumulative since Volume II (c) Cumulative since Volume III
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