allicorn

Soooo, let's see...

Having heard from locals down in the town that there'd been a grisly murder at the very asylum around a year ago, the rest of the party's interest was finally piqued and Sam and Blott asked Howe to see if they could get in an interview Lucious Harriwell, a madman who witnessed in the gory death of a nurse a year previous.

The interview with Harriwell was quite hilarious. The guy is a card-carrying loon. Having overheard (through the tiny pencil-sized hole in the wall leading to Roby's adjacent cell) a number of Roby's ramblings about Carcosa and Hastur mythos, Harriwell pontificated at great and baffling length about those things once the party name-dropped Carcosa. The murder itself, he described, was committed by the Devil himself - with hands made of blades - upon the unlucky nurse who'd been tending to his room at the time. Eventually, they realised that Harriwell would have pretty much claimed to have been the Pope if they'd started talking Catholicism, and off they went, none the wiser.

There's a clue here in the asylum about Roby getting his hands on pencils repeatedly, though they are forbidden. I've dropped this clue in front of them over and over with and tried to draw ever more attention to it (stopping just short of handing it to them) but, you know how it is, sometimes players just resolutely will not make the connection. The pencil clue doesn't lead them far as such, but it's worthy of note because it strongly indicates an insider at the institution with access to Roby.

Never mind. So, back to London they went...

Fascinated by the familiar words in Roby's margin scribblings and in Der Wanderer, Ringford looked up the playwright Talbot Estus and schmoozed him a bit to get some copies of the script. In fact, he may have schmoozed overboard just a touch, having promised the excitable artist a new venue and a musical arrangement to accompany the Queen and the Stranger. I don't think he's planning to fulfil his promise, but his player has decided that - after all this additional reading - Ringford has finally caught the King in Yellow bug himself and is now busy composing a new masterpiece heavily influenced by the play and the associated writings.

A mysterious dark, slender man is encountered by Howe's maid. He asks for confirmation that the Dr lives at the address and seems to go away contented once he receives it.

A few days later, the morning paper reveals the murder of the Roby family doctor, that Howe had spoken to before the Herefordshire visit, Dr Trollope. Murdered in St James' park by a tall, dark, slender assailant.

Later still, a letter from Trollope arrives - penned before his death of course - where the doctor reveals a lot of information he'd previously withheld during his interview with Howe. The players receive the names of a number of Roby's former associates, including Lawrence Bacon, and Delia Morrison, Malcolm Quarrie and also that Grahame - Alex's brother - had apparently hired a private detective to gather information about Alex's activities and associates - some time ago - by the name of Vincent Tuck.

Briskly, the investigators moved to arrange a meeting with Mr Tuck. With a bit of verbal wrestling, Mr Tuck revealed information and names of Alex's associates during the period he'd watched him several years ago. This gave the players the home address of Lawrence Bacon, further linked Quarrie back to the Oxford college they'd already identified by looking up Quarrie as an author and gave them descriptions of the men and their comings and goings during that brief period.

Under a little monetary duress, Tuck also revealed a disturbing canalside event involving Bacon one late night. He's observed Bacon apparently towering over but not striking some screaming vagrant. When Bacon left the scene, Tuck investigated and found that what he'd thought was a living man was actually a dessicated corpse which must have lain there for many weeks. In his description, Tuck clearly indicates that he doubts his own description but cannot bring himself to detail what he really feels happened.

On the Trollope angle, the party meet the newspaper boy who'd apparently witnessed the Trollope murder from his stand at the gate of St James'. Plying him with coins he admits to taking a strange black whistle from the hands of the murdered doctor. He gives it to the party. He also describes the dark, tall, slender man he believes to be the murderer. Making the party somewhat more nervous about this figure.

That night, Blott carefully gains access to the dead doctor's house and has a subtle rummage around for interesting papers but finds little of interest.

Finally, the party visit Oxford and briefly interview Quarrie's former professor, Tolkien. Lots of fun to play this. I've run countless games in Tolkien's worlds but I've never actually played the man himself before.

I think that's about it. Going on in the background is the reading of various books and of the play itself. There have also been some unsettling dreams preying upon Sam and Victor. Talking to the players, I feel they're a bit lost at the moment, with very little idea of what the big picture is. I think that's probably about right, and things are going to start to move into more confrontational events shortly, which may make them feel a bit more invested. I've encouraged them to continue making notes, checking them, and following up on people and places. To remember their mission from Dr Highsmith is to provide as much information as possible about Alex's background, family and the events that led up to the deaths of his father and sister and to his internment.

The next session is tonight.