Session 20 Notes
Recorded November 9, 2024
Our thanks to Ben for his extra effort with the notes.
General Summary
- Between 1923 and 1925 Boris and the Doc did a bunch of Research on Nephren-Ka-Ka. Those documents are also in the Prints & Papers section of the notes.
- We start in January of 1925 and it is cold. Snow has been blanketing the northeast. Doc and Boris start in Arkham.
- Cillian and John are both arriving in different places, John by train and Cillian by ocean liner.
- Jackson calls Floyd and is a bit paranoid. Jackson demands answers to questions only he can answer. He tells Floyd to meet him at the Hotel Chelsea, room 410, 8 pm. Says to not trust anyone, but that it is very important.
- John gets off the train and meets up with Boris and the Doc. He has a canvas bag that has his rifle in it.
- There is a brief reunion that includes John getting a sandwich at a nearby bodega.
- They head to the harbor and it takes them a while to find out that Cillian will not arrive until 5-6 pm.
- However, Cillian eventually gets off the boat and the Doc fills us all in.
- We decide to head directly to the Chelsea hotel to get there as soon as we can.
- As we enter the Hotel Cillian tries to keep an eye out for possible lurkers and tails, but he finds that the traffic is pretty sparse. He doesn't see anyone that seems unusually interested in us.
- The lobby is casual, the clientele if very diverse for the day and age.
- Boris knows that The Hotel Chelsea is very popular with artists, musicians, and performers. It is very bohemian.
- Cillian and John wait in the lobby to see if Jackson shows up
- Boris and Doc head upstairs to scope out the fourth floor, the location of the meeting.
- Getting off on the fourth floor it is jarringly quiet.
- Doc slowly walks down the hall and in front of 410 he tries to listen and see if there is any noise coming the room.
- He doesn't hear anything.
- The quiet is almost oppressive. Boris does not see any light coming out from under any of the doors in the hallway.
- Room 410 is at the end of the hall.
- At 8 Boris, John, and Doc go up to knock on the door and Cillian stays in the lobby to watch for Jackson.
- Walking down the hallway they see someone locking up a door at the opposite end of the hallway from Jackson's.
- The guy avoids making eye contact and disappears downstairs. Once he is gone Doc knocks on the door.
- They don't hear anything and John tries to rattle the handle and finds that it is locked. He knocks on the door again.
- There is no response, there seems to be nothing coming from inside.
- Doc leans down to grab something out of his bag and sees that there is a shadow that moves across the light underneath the door.
- Doc calls out to whoever might be inside and there is no response.
- Doc looks through the keyhole, however, he cant see much other than there is a light on inside the room.
- John tries to boot the door and is able to do so.
- The door bangs open and they are looking into a hallway that goes to the right.
- He hears as this happens a voice calls out in a strange language that they don't recognize.
- John runs in and sees that there is another couple of doors that lead off a room containing furniture, the sounds are coming through the open door.
- He rushes in that direction and as he moves he sees that it is really cold in the room and the sounds of the city sound very close. He sees that there is a smeared red handprint on the floor leading into the room.
- He sees a man climbing through the window onto the fire escape.
- The room is trashed and there and Jackson's body is lying on the bed, on his back, his head lolling off the side of the bed, and his intestines are spilling out of his midsection.
- The party gives chase, trying to catch the assassins as they flee.
- Boris tries to rush toward the stairs but in the process he stumbles and is not able to get out of the hotel room quickly.
- Doc realizes that what was happening to Jackson was likely happening to him while they were upstairs the first time.
- John tried to dive out the window and fails, and falls out onto the fire escape. The impact also causes the fire escape to wobble and pull away from the wall.
- Boris continues running out into the hall.
- Doc goes to check Jackson and he is just barely alive. He is able to hold on long enough to mumble out, "I'm sorry." Doc doesn't feel like there is anything he can do for him.
- Aside from the obvious wounds to his abdomen, it looks like what happened was done for torture purposes. There is also a wound on his forehead that is bleeding significantly.
- Doc uses the bedsheets to wipe away the blood on Jackson's forehead and he sees there is some sort of symbol that looks like the bat signal.
- John notices that all of the guys that are running away are wearing a red bandana, there are three of them.
- two of them look African, the third is Caucasian.
- The guy on the fire escape jumps down with John in hot pursuit. The guy has made the street level and is still in the alley. other two have made it out of the alley and onto the street.
- John leaps down and has managed to hit ground level to continue to give chase.
- John catches up with the last assassin and tries to knock the guy out with the pommel of his knife.
- This guy creates a disruption in the crowd as he bursts out on to the street.
- Boris bursts into the lobby and Cillian catches sight of him panicked and disheveled.
- Cillian jumps up and runs to him where he relays that they need to get outside to the fire escape outside of Jackson's room.
- Back in the room Floyd is searching around and finds an empty matchbook in one of his jacket pockets.
- He also finds a letter from John among the debris in the room along with two fountain pens, a bottle of blue ink, and a bottle of clear liquid that had spilled out.
- He also finds a flyer near the window stuck in a book laying on the floor. It is the Flyer for a Lecture being given by Prof. Anthony Cowles at NY University titled the Cult of Darkness in Polynesia & the Southwest Pacific. It was sticking out of a book which is the second volume of Andrew Dickson White’s A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom, it marks the beginning of Chapter XIV, “From Fetish to Hygiene.”
- John continues to chase the men with red bandanas but his shouting is confusing people.
- He is able to see the guy jumping into a car that is already driving away.
- Both Boris and John are able to see the license plate (NYL7) and it is an old vehicle black Hudson.
- We ended the session there.
- For next time:
- Ask if the mark on Jackson's head in any way resembles Larkin's tattoos.
- Follow up on suspicions about the spilled ink bottle.
Session 20:
A Call to Action
I do not recall distinctly when it began, but it was months ago. The general tension was horrible. To a season of political and social upheaval was added a strange and brooding apprehension of hideous physical danger; a danger widespread and all-embracing, such a danger as may be imagined only in the most terrible phantasms of the night.
~H. P. Lovecraft
Comments