Expedition 1x03 - Rising Flames

General Summary

Departure

September 8, 1933

The day has arrived at last. The eve of the Expedition's departure. Starkweather gathers the members of the expedition, gives a rousing speech, and bids everyone to enjoy a final evening of liberty. "But don't enjoy yourselves TOO much. After all," he says with a smile, "we have an early day ahead of us."
Before the Explorers can make plans for an evening of corousing, they recieve a note from Nicholas Roerich. He is largely recovered from his ordeal, and wishes to speak with them at his suite at the Netherlands Hotel, at the corner of 5th Avenue and 57th Street, overlooking Central Park.
Hoping to tie up a few loose ends, the Explorers decide to accept Nicholas Roerich's invitation. Arriving, they are granted entry to Roerich's suite on the 4th floor. Greeted by his son, they are offered refreshments, and then let into a room where Roerich awaits anong several of his works in progress.

Speaking with Roerich

Nikolai Konstantinovich Rerikh, aka Nicholas Roerich, is a Russian painter, writer, archaeologist, theosophist, philosopher, and public figure. A few weeks ago, he recieved a bundle of letters from his old friend William Dyer. Dyer bade Roerich to go to New York on his behalf, and to speak with the organizers of the Starkweather-Moore Expedition, in order to convince them to abandon their plans to the south of the world. Among the effects Dyer sent was a bound manuscript, which he emplored Roerich not to read. It contains, as Dyer said, "a true accounting of all that happened during my expedition to those damnable mountains in 1931." Only if no other means could convince Starkweather and Moore to abandon their quest was the manuscript to be turned over to them.
Unfortunately, in the hustle of the media circus surrounding the Expedition in recent days, Roerich was unable to meet with either man. Hearing of Acacia Lexington's planned expedition, and having known the Lexignton family for some years, he made an appointment to speak with her. He arrived, the manuscript tucked under one arm, but was intercepted by the mysterious German agents.
"The rest of the story," he said, gesturing at his bruised face, "you know."
His kidnappers had asked Roerich about the location of "Herr Professor Dyer". Roerich told him all he knew - that of late, Dyer had been somewhere in South America. Where excatly, and what exactly he is doing, Roerich does not know. He only knows that Dyer had been distraught after returning from Antarctica, and had take an indefinate leave from his position at the Miskatonic University. They took the Dyer text from Roerich, and one of them had left with it in his possession - this was the man fleeing in the small boat just as the Explorers had arrived at the warehouse.
Roerich hands the Explorers a sketch he made of the man with the gun who had kidnapped him, the only one whose face he had seen. It is the same German "Man in Black" that Brick confronted - the one who nearly shot Frank Mossberg.

His captors has also asked about "Pym's Book", which initially Roerich understood nothing about. However, in the days since, as he recovered, he wonders if it might not be related to another theft of a document involving the Lexingtons..
He recalls that ten years or so ago his friend P.B. Lexington - Acacia Lexington's father - had been excited to own a copy of "The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym", a manuscript by Edgar Allen Poe. P.B. had bought the tome from a private collector, and was immensley proud of his acquisition, which he believed to be the original draft. Roerich himself had never read the manuscript himself, but according to P.B. this was the complete work, including the final chapters never originally published by Poe. Furthermore, P.B. had believe this to be non-fiction - a true account of travels in the Antarctic.
Roerich and Lexington hqd a falling out in the early part of 1920, which halted their friendship. It was "a matter of little consequence, looking back", Roerich says, with some sadness. In 1921, P.B. Lexington was dead, having taken his own life.
"Or so the papers said," Roerich adds. "But I never believed it. No one who knew P.B. well did - he just wasn't the kind of man to take the easy road out." Roerich mentions all of this because, just prior to his death, P.B. had put a number of items up for auction - including the Pym manuscript. After his death, the manuscript could not be located, and Acacia Lexington herself had suggested in the papers that her father had been murdered.
While Roerich can't be sure Acacia was involved in any way with his abduction, the coincidence is shocking. He wonders if perhaps she hasn't fallen in with a bad crowd - German National Socialists, perhaps. Her flirtation with the socialism movement is well known, after all.
Roerich believes that Lexington will endeavor to team up with the Barsmeir-Falken Expedition, which Roerich has read about in European newspapers. A German led endeavor, he recalls they plan to tow a Graf Zepplin to the southernmost continent, in order to use it for surveying and explooration purposes.
Nicholas implores the group to find Acacia on the ice if they can, to speak with her, and to keep her from harm. He isn't sure what exactly she might be entangled in, but he has known her since she was a child, and fears for her safety.
With night now upon them, the explorers return to the SS Gabrielle, bring their luggage aboard, and settle in to await their morning departure.

Alarm

Around 11pm, all aboard the Gabrielle are awoken by the ships alarm, and a sudden "boom" that shakes the ship. The smell of smoke is in the air.
Reaching the deck, the party sees that there is a blaze enveloping one of the dockside warehouses - and that several barrels of aircraft gasoline has already rupture and caught flame.
Starkweather is there, attempting to marshal the stevedoors into action to fight the blaze, but they pay him no heed, and flee the ship. One of the men slugs Starkweather when he attepts to recruit the man to "help me fight this blaze, damn you!".
Maeve sees a number of barrels that were still in the process of being loaded by the ships crane. They are suspsended just 20 feet or so above a sea of burning gasoline, and if they were to explode, the would likely detonate the similar barrels in the ships hold - which would likely destroy the Gabrille, and all aboard. Thinking quickly, she heads to the winch and begins to move the barrels away from the blaze. Seeing her efforts, Starkweather grabs a nearby firehouse, and aims it at the barrels, hoping to keep them cool enough to prevent them from exploding. Brick assists Maeve, and together they manage to move the barrels away from danger, saving the ship.
Meanwhile, Monty and Mossberg decend the gang-bridge to the dockside in order to render air to men caught up by the blaze. Frank manages to grab a man who has been incapcitated by smoke and pull him to safety, while Monty notices another man, wearing a mask over his face, and fleeing the burning wearhouse with a can of gasoline in tow.
Believe him to be an arsonist, Monty calls out for Frank, and together the two men manage to entrap the firebug. Frank fires a shot into the man's leg, and they take him prisoner, pulling him away from the blaze he started.
A moment later, some clever soul cuts loose a pair of train cars, which roll down the dock and into the river, causing a wave of water to wash over the entire burning area, extinguishing most of the flames.
The ship is saved, but Starkweather is preoccupied on the ship's deck. He is looking off the seaboard facing side, at distant lights. Seeing the party approach, he says despondantly, "We are delayed. Some of the cargo burned in the fire will need to be replaced here, in New York. And that," he says, gesturing at the receeding lights, "is the Tallahasse. Acacia Lexington's ship."
His mood brightens a bit when the explorer's reveal they caught the arsonist. And a bit more when they suggest that - if they can radio ahead to Panama or Melbourne, where the Gabrille already plans to stop - they might be able to purchase additional supplies en route, to save time.
Interviewing the arsonist, the man reveals himself to be quite the fool. He sings like a canary when tricked into it. His name is Jerry Polk, and he was hired by a mysterious redheaded man to sabotage both the Gabrielle and the Tallahasse for the sum of $100. He collected the first half of his money, and is due to collect the remainder tonight, in Central Park.
The investigators hide themselves away at the rendevouz location, but the redheaded man never shows - either he learned of Polk's capture, or simply never intended to make good on the second half of the man's payment.

Following Up

September 9th, 1933

With two additional days in New York ahead of them, and little else to do, the group decides to split up to follow up on a few leads.
Using Roerich's connections within New York polite society, Maeve bluffs her way into a private (and posh) speakeasy for the young elite of the city. There, she speaks with a few particularly gossipy socialites, who are more than happy to tell her about Acacia Lexington.
Initially, Acacia had been enamoured with famed explorer Starkweather, and was excited for the expedition to the forbidden continent her father had arranged for her on the occasion of her 20th birthday.

Contrary to the public story of Starkweather's fabled 'rescue of the heiress', the socialites say that, according to Acacia, she had little interest in the 'damn giraffes'. She had noted stormclouds earlier in the day, and warned Starkweather against proceeding onto the easily flooded plains. When they became stranded, while Starkweather "wasted time trying to build a raft out of scrub brush", she had bargained with a nearby village for canoes, which they were then able to use to get their party to safety. She had been furious after the paper has cast her as a damsel in distress, saved by the very buffoon who she had recently had a severe change of heart about.
One member of the socialites had suggested that, in addition to the 'trouble in Africa', Starkweather had also gotten the young Acacia in to "another kind of trouble altogether, if you know what I mean."

Meanwhile, at the New York Public Library, Frank Mossberg, who speaks a little German due to his time with Navel Intelligence during the War, review microfiche impressions of the last few months of European newspapers, looking for more information on the Barsmeir-Falken Expedition, the fate of PB Lexington, and Acacia's feud with Starkweather. He finds several articles on each subject.
Not much new information is revealed on the BFE, but Mossberg does determine that thier expedition leaves from Europe on September 15th. On the death of PB Lexington, Mossberg finds several articles of interest, which confirms much of the information already gained from Nicholas Roerich.

Just as Roerich had mentioned, while Acacia herself had initially insisted to the press that her father had been murdered, a few days later she recanted that claim, siting the findings of the NYPD. As for the Pym Manuscript, its location and exact contents remain unknown.
Brick, following up with the auction house at which P.B. Lexington's effects were to be sold, intimidated his way to one useful clue; a letter from Edward Fuchs, the collector from whom P.B. Lexington had originally purchased the Pym document.
The owner of the auction house has sought to obtain additional information regarding the authenticity of the manuscript, in the interest of either inflating the asking price, or protecting his business from being accused of selling a forgery. Based on the letter he recieved back, Bosley planned to sell the document, but only after amending the item's description to advise any potential buyers that its authenticity was the subject of debate.

Report Date

24 Mar 2022