Mirror of the Ghost

It was the next day. Jacob (Chris), Hubert (Kevin), Gunter (Jeff), Mezmer (Shane), Cooper (Ian),  Gazala (Richard) were around. Fleur, Bernard, and Wonton marmaladed in their beds.

Jacob tended Mezmer's wounds after his dangerous exploits of the previous day. Gazala's wedding dress and the Mirror of the Ghost were placed in the party's bank vault (in Banque de Tunisie). 

Then Mezmer and Gazala headed off to the Bibliothèque Nationale de Tunisie to do some research on the Mirror of the Ghost.

Cassandra la Belle, librarian
Bibliothèque Nationale de Tunisie

Cassandra, the librarian, recognized Mezmer as friend of that other chinetoque fellow (Wonton). She showed him the library's "Special Section", behind the half-metre thick steel doors. There were shelves of dusty tomes down here and five metal-bound books. The librarian told Mezmer the rumours that those books were not at all "safe", and it was alleged that they had driven other scholars mad with their unseemly knowledge. 

Mezmer spent the day researching everything he could on the Mirror of the Ghost. But there was very little.

That seemed to be a common case with mythos items - often unique, extremely deadly or did nothing, and no-one knows anything about them.

"Ce n'est pas un magasin de magie de donjons et dragons," said the librarian scathingly. "Et vous ne pouvez pas simplement lancer le sort 'Identify'." (You can't just cast the D&D "Identify" spell)

During that day, Dr Jacob went and spoke with Inspector Heroux about Tariq Nadir. Nadir didn't have a criminal record in Tunis. He was a landed noble from Algeria, and often visited Tunis. 

That evening, when Mezmer and Gazala got into the Mercedes, Gazala thought she saw a shadow, out of the corner of her eye, enter the car too. She got out her mythos knife (from Umar) and suddenly stabbed all around the back seat. She didn't see or feel anything, but could have sworn that she heard a distant scream. 

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Mezmer and Gazala did several days of Bibliothèque visits. Each day Dr Jacob would tend Mezmer's wounds. He was eventually brought up to full health.

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Not making any progress, it was decided to retrieve the Mirror of the Ghost to do some "hands on" work. So it was collected from the vault and brought to their apartment (at the newspaper).

Tala

That night, during Second Watch (they had decided to post a watch every night since Gazala's shadow incident), someone heard a woman's singing. Then, they noticed movement in the mirror. There was a woman's face in there. She was shy at first, but eventually, over a few nights, she got braver. They managed to coax her to stay in the mirror, and not vanish when she saw any movement. 

She could speak, but it was a language no-one could understand. Reinhold thought it was ancient Greek. 

They kept talking to her and managed to teach her simple words of French. Everyone in each of the three night-time watches conversed with her, and her French got better and better. She was called Tala and had lived in ancient Sparta (480BC). She had been cursed and placed in the mirror by a "un méchant sorcier" (wicked wizard) because she had spurned his advances.

She was a bright girl, and after only a three nights, her French was good enough to handle participle subordinate clauses, gerunds and the subjunctive (Devrais-je être menacé, me sauverez-vous?).

She had heard of Baal but did not know anything about him. She could sort of "see" Mythos. She loudly proclaimed that both Mezmer and Wonton were "cursed".  And that their shadows did not match their bodies.

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The next day, they all (sans the marmaladers) got into their Mercedes, and went for a trip south to the desert. They took the Ghost Mirror. 

That night, they camped in a ravine.

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Eskimo fetish

The next morning, they headed down a dry valley and passed the oasis that they recognized. This was the oasis where they camped on the first night of the hike with the Légion Étrangère. It was here that Mezmer had stolen the Eskimo fetish (that belonged to Sergent-Chef Branleur - who later died) and hid it in a cave. 

With Mezmer's eidetic memory, he soon located the same cave, and then he retrieved the soapstone Eskimo.

It hummed in the vicinity of the Ghost Mirror and Mezmer's Shoggoth Medallion and Gazala's knife, so Cooper held on to it.

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They spent the next day walking back to to the car, and then stayed the night there.

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On the way back to Tunis, they dropped in at "Bernard's Oasis" (the cursed oasis with the jiniri). There were now soldiers there, and there was recent construction - some huts and a canteen. And there was a Légion Étrangère flag flying over the place. They spoke to a Sergent-Chef Racoult. The Légion Étrangère had claimed this oasis under orders of Capitane le Beau.

Cooper was enjoying the Eskimo. It made him feel good, just holding it and stroking its smooth comforting surface. He did not want to put it down: "Mon précieux!"

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Back in Tunis, the next day, Mezmer wanted to take the Eskimo to the Bibliothèque to find out more about. Cooper point-blank refused to give it up. But they did manage to convince him to accompany  Mezmer and Gazala on the library trip today.  

As luck would have it, this was the first item that they had successfully managed to research at the Bibliothèque. It was a healing fetish. It bonds with the owner over a week, and then will do extra healing during the day, and cure toxins (like alcohol and drugs). But, on the down side, once it is fully bonded, if separated, the owner will die in a day or two.

It also hummed when near mythos things.

 

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The next day at the Bibliothèque, Mezmer did some more forbidden-book work. 

That night, when Mezmer and Gazala got back to the apartment, Cooper said his Eskimo was vibrating when near Mezmer - more so than usual. Suspicious, Mezmer talked to Tala, and she peered out, then matter-of-factly commented "Il y a un petit homoncule perché sur ton épaule" - she could see an imp-like creature perched on Mezmer's shoulder, drinking blood from his ear. 

So, Gazala surreptitiously got out her mythos knife, and, using Tala to direct her, she suddenly stabbed at the spot where the imp sat. She felt nothing, and didn't harm Mezmer, but Tala reported that she had impaled it and it had fallen on the floor, now unmoving, in a pool of imp blood. Gazala, using Tala's directions, scraped the corpse into a jar (still invisible and still no feeling).

Cooper picked-up the newspaper's camera and photographed the jar, on the off-chance that the photograph would see something [yet to develop].

Later that evening, Cooper and Gunter went into the medina's twisty alley-ways and visited Miss Pelletier's in her candle souk. With the Eskimo, Cooper wandered around. He didn't feel any vibrating in the shop, except near the counter and on Miss Pelletier herself.

She was wearing the boots she won in the auction; perhaps they were mythos after all! Or she had another item on her person.

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Herschel's heads

The next day, in the Bibliothèque, Herschel (the German from the auction) was there. He also had the librarian's favour and he, too, was allowed in the Sealed Section.

Mezmer and Herschel got chatting. Herschel was very pleased. In Germany, Franz von Pfeffer had resigned from the leadership of S.A., and Adolph Hitler had taken command as Oberster SA-Führer. (As it was 1930, this was not significant world news at the time.)

Herschel wanted to do some research on the shrunken heads that he got in the auction. Mezmer was interested, so agreed to help him. They both searched through the tomes. But no luck; they could find nothing significant about the heads.

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On one of the trips to and fro Calomnie de Tunis, they spotted a suspicious car across the road, with two men in it. 

Hubert went to confront them. Gunter joined him but stayed hidden.  Hubert recognized them as some German soldiers that he knew. They recognized him back, and they slyly commented in bad French "Is sehr gut you haf embedded yourself mit ze group. Der boss vill be very pleased." 

Hubert saw Cooper approaching so he hissed to the two men "Ve must keep ze secret. I vill make a commotion and ihr pretend to be scared." Hubert waved his arms and made threatening gestures. The two occupants looked terrified and drove off in a screech of tyres.

"They won't be back," Hubert remarked to the impressed Cooper.

"Well done!" said Cooper.

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They decided that it was time for Tala to examine the "big" items. So, they did a special trip to the vault and retrieved the four Baal items: The baby coffin, the skull with gem, the medallion, and the censer.

That night, when Tala appeared, they got  them out one at a time.

First was the medallion. That was pretty "meh". No more powerful or dangerous than Mezmer's Shoggoth medallion.

Next was the skull with the gem in it. Tala's eyes went wide and she muttered something in Spartan. Then French "C'est très puissant. Il remplit la pièce de son ombre." ( Very powerful. Fills the room with shadow).

Baal censer

Next, they got out the censer. Tala just screamed and vanished.

They put the censer away, and then worked to coax her back. When she finally returned, after a good hour of entreaties, she cried "Un nouveau monde courageux renaîtra de ses cendres. Et alors, sur une montagne géante, Baal projettera son ombre puissante sur le monde entier. Et il y aura des sanglots et des gémissements et la mort et le désespoir ! Armageddon !" (dreadful evil, powerful, end of the world, armageddon.)

Hook and Eye

Finally, they brought in the delicate baby coffin. Everyone vacated the room except for Gazala, Cooper and Gunter. Gazala opened the little bronze hook which held the lid closed (hooked into a little bronze eye). Then Cooper opened the lid. It was hinged with little bronze hinges.

Gunter stood guard with his machine gun, but well back from the other two.

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Fascinated what was actually in here, all three peered into the little coffin, that had not been opened for thousands of years.

There was an ancient skeleton of a baby. But this was no normal baby. It had a large misshapen skull (woe betide the woman who gave birth to that), and it had a third eye in the middle. It's teeth were nasty long and spikey, so big that it could not close its mouth. And too-long limbs. With claws... 

Tala just started to scream and scream in a hysterical fit. Her keening wails filled the room. The three in the room were deafened. The rest of the group outside the room held their hands to their ears. Even the three marmaladers stirred in their haunted sleeps.  And then Tala suddenly went silent.

Cooper decided it might be a good idea to close the lid, which he managed, but the hook and eye no longer fitted. Almost as if the hook had grown or the eye had shrunk. Gazala tried to use a hairclip, but that failed.

Then, there was movement in the little coffin and scratching on the delicate lid.

Cooper quickly put the coffin back into the storage box, and then placed that box into the transport crate, and then he nailed it shut.

Something was moving around inside, scratching and jumping side to side, getting louder and faster. They were expecting the weight to change but that didn't happen.

"Get it outside!" someone screamed. So, they all clambered downstairs and out into the street and across the road to the park, angry scratching box in hand. 

They had some dynamite left. "Do we use that?"