Silver

Les Personnes Présentes: Cooper (Ian), Gazala (Richard), Hubert aka Lard-arse (Kevin), Jacob (Chris), Jean (Jeff), Mesmer (Shane), Wonton (Darryl)

Introducing: Felix le Pen (Kevin)

Marmalading – Bernard (Jamie), Fleur (Steven)

When last we observed the group known as Bernard's mob, they had just stormed the basement cellar of Herschel's city mansion and encountered unspeakable horrors that had been the death of Hubert. Jean's machine gun fire had eventually dropped the second tentacled and barrel-shaped creature, and Hubert's head had tumbled forward from its chest and lay at Jean's feet, its blue eyes staring up towards the ceiling, with a wry grin his final expression.

As we now look in upon their exploits, we see that Bernard has slumped to the floor of the basement cellar, no doubt overcome by the unexpected shock of Hubert's passing. Jean is standing at the base of the spiral stair, smoke wafting up from the barrel of his machine gun, his sharp eyes peering into the gloom ahead in search of further targets for his gun. Without thinking or taking his eyes off the gloom, he discards his empty clip and slaps in a fresh load.

"It seems clear" he yells back up the stairs, "bring down some decent torches"

Jean steps aside as everyone piles down the stairs and exits out into the space, the gloom pushing further and further towards the back of the room as each person arrives and shines their torch forwards. The room is about five metres wide by about twenty deep, partly full of old boxes and barrels. Two wooden cupboards stand in the far-right corner of the room, surrounded by a cluster of boxes. 

Five metres in front of the party lies the shot-up corpse of a barrel shaped thing, a ring of green tentacles flopping from its top edge and a head shaped cavity in the centre of its "chest".

A grenade is tossed

Mesmer utters a girly scream and yanks the pin from one of his grenades. With a quick toss he sends the grenade sailing out over the dead thing and towards the back of the room. Everyone flees back up the stairs yelling, except for Jacob who starts muttering to himself, and ignoring the impending explosion, starts to throw boxes and other rubbish over the top of the dead creature.

"Fire" he mutters, "Fire will fix it"

[Everyone had to roll against their Sanity. Jacob, Mesmer, and Wonton failed their rolls and were subject to a temporary insanity. Wonton's rolled insanity was to disbelieve the strange creature situation and so was free to act rationally, but Jacob and Mesmer were both required to act irrationally, to the detriment of their party. Jacob chose fire as a method to remove the horrible creature from existence, while Mesmer chose the grenade. Mesmer isn't very good at grenade throwing though, and fortunately for Jacob, totally missed his target]

The group, excepting Jacob and Mesmer, spread out in the cellar around the top of the spiral stairs, guns and torches trained on the stairwell, as a loud explosion echoed up from below, shortly followed by the shark crack of rifle fire, and a billowing cloud of smoke and muffled coughing.

Then came the sound of feet, rushing up from below. Gazala's finger trembled over the trigger of her gun, and she started to apply pressure, poised to fire at whatever was approaching. As a shadowy figure burst from the stairwell amid a wave of black smoke ... Gazala realised it was just Mesmer and held her fire.

"I don't know what came over me" he stammered, looking back over his shoulder to the dark stairwell.
"Jacob is still down there, feeding his stupid fire"

The smoke billowing out of the stairwell started to dissipate, and then Jacob emerged from below, soot stained, couching fit to burst, and bleeding from a shallow scratch across his cheek. [One point of damage from the grenade burst, but was a D6 roll so could have been much worse]

As the group were waiting for the smoke to dissipate further so they could get down again and explore, the faint sounds of sporadic coughing could be heard from below.

"R yoo sur Hubert deed?" inquired Wonton
"Oh yes" stated Jean, "His head is now football. Very dead"
"Too bad" whispered Gazala.
"So, what is coughing?" wondered Mesmer.
"Nothing good I'm sure" grunted Cooper, "Let's go see"

The very handy MAS 38 SMG

Led by Jean clutching his machine gun, the group cautiously descended the spiral staircase back into the basement cellar and spread out across the end of the room. Their torches lit the near half of the room well but cast odd shadows that appeared to jump and flicker across the far end of the room. Wafts of smoke still curled up from the small pile of charred rubbish laid over the dead thing, and Hurbert's head still lay on the floor at the foot of the stairs.

Bits of slimy green tentacle lay on the floor next to Hubert's head, like they were reaching out for it.

"It's still trying to claim him!" stated Mesmer, "maybe burning isn't such a bad idea"
"I told you", exclaimed Jacob.

The group slowly advance down the room towards the shadowy far end, checking each and every possible hiding spot on the way. Wonton stares eagerly towards the back left of the room, his eyes bright.

"Dere" he mutters, "Pentagram devinity dere"

But before they even get close to the far end of the room, a muffled cough sounds from somewhere at the back right corner. As previously mentioned, the back right of the room had two large cupboards and a collection of boxes.

From the front centre of the group Jean immediately opened fire, spraying a full magazine of bullets into the cupboards and boxes. Boxes and cupboards alike shred under the barrage, and a small cascade of shattered glass rains down from the cupboards. They were full of chemistry glassware equipment like beakers, burettes, condensers, flasks, and retorts. All useless now though.

"That should do it" states Jean confidently.

A large metal box

After the barrage of gunfire, the group continues to tentatively advance, poking at every bit of junk and box. In the far-right corner of the room they find a large metal chest, about a one-meter cube with a solid lid clasped down. Three or four indentations from the machine gun fire pit the near side and the faint sounds of movement can be heard from inside it.

"Shoot it" yells Mesmer.
"Burn it" yells Jacob.
"Don't open it" yells Cooper.
"Da pentagram!" yells Wonton, who has drifted over to the left-hand corner of the room.

Jean steps up to the metal box, gives the lid a prod with his machine gun barrel, makes sure the clasps are secure, and steps back. He keeps his gun trained on the box. 

"I'll watch it" he states, "you lot check out the place"

Wonton is already down on the floor with his chisel and cleaning rags happily dealing to the pentagram. 
Cooper and Gazala drifted off to search through the rubble.
Jacob rushed back to the bits of tentacle flesh and was gathering them into sacks, "for burning" he said.
Mesmer was trying to keep the three talking heads from casting unknown summoning spells. [This Mythos tainted artifact was purchased by Herschel in the Mythos auction some months ago, and we had just "recovered" them from his locked drawers upstairs. Mesmer had dropped them into his backpack, but as soon as they were left alone for more than twenty minutes, they started up some strange chant that Mesmer suspected was some form of Mythos summoning spell, and no one wants that to happen!]

As the first chunk of Wonton's chisel on the pentagram etched into the stone floor sounds, Jean "hears" one half of a strange radio conversation in his head. Amid bursts of crackling static, he makes out the voice of the Bretagne's radio officer.

"Crackle ... confirming ... artillery strike sss ... sss ...36° 49' 51'' N sss 10° 10' 06'' E "

Keeping his attention on the strange metal box, Jean calls over to the others.

"Um, something weird is happening" he states.
"You think?" laughs Mesmer.
"No, well yes. I mean, I can hear stuff in my head. I think the battleship is going to shoot at us"
"No problem" suggests Mesmer, "we are in a tiny cellar, underground. What could go wrong"
"Wuse" suggests Wonton from the floor, "Dey no vant me kill pentagram, so rick us"

A muffled "... help me ...." sounds from the metal box.
"Crackle ... confirmed ... sss ... firing sss" echos inside Jean's head.

A high-pitched whine, closely followed by a muffled whump, and the ground shaking follows.

"Crap", exclaims Jacob.
"See, no problem" states Mesmer.
"No wuse, weal message" mutters Wonton.

"S'il vous plaît laissez-moi sortir, je suis Félix" sounds from the metal box.
"Stuff that" says Jean, finger slowly tightening on the trigger of his gun.

Jean kept a very close eye on the metal box and all its rattles, clanks, and muffled words, while Wonton carefully removed the rest of the pentagram from the floor. Once it was all removed to Wonton's satisfaction, he cast a Detect Mythos spell to verify the pentagram effects were also gone.

"Oh" he exclaimed, "Mythos here. But not vorry, only vhat expect. Not the floor, not the box"

Introducing Felix le Pen

The box is cautiously unclasped, and slowly unfolding out from the box appears a dishevelled looking French gendarme. He introduces himself as Felix le Pen, the only survivor of his patrol captured by a group of Brown-Shirts about a week ago. He explained that they stuffed him into the box and told him he would be sacrificed for the greater good of the motherland.

[Welcome to Kevin's new character, nearly killed before he even joined the party.
Despite the near fatal start, we are sure he will fit right in]

The group promise to return Felix to his commanding officer, Inspector Heroux coincidently, and then they return up the stairs, through the basement and then the kitchen, and back into the main part of the house. Gazala and Mesmer break off to retrieve Maria, the saucy maid, while everyone heads out into the yard to get the car ready for departure.

"Are you sure we should take this Maria with us?" asks Mesmer.
"Of course." replies Gazala, "The poor women must have suffered horribly working here"
"But she has been here for these past few weeks and no ghouls have bothered her" notes Mesmer, "she is most likely as deeply involved as Madame Herschel herself!"
"Mmmm" reconsiders Gazala, "You are right, she could indeed be in league with them"

They find Maria still tied up in the room she was left in, and Gazala leans down and rapidly deploys her Mythos blade, cleanly slicing Maria's throat from ear to ear. Mesmer gasps in shock.

"This will also save a space in the car" Gazala calmly explains, looking Mesmer in the eye.

Meanwhile, out in the yard, the rest of the group find that the artillery shell fired from the Bretagne was in fact totally real, the coordinates were in fact targeted right there in Herschel's yard, and the Mercedes was now a crumpled and burnt-out pile of scrap metal. 

Of the two Legionnaire guards and the skeleton's coffin box, there was no sign.

"Mon Dieu" gasped Jean.
"My God" gasped Cooper.
"Wǒ de shàngdì" gasped Wonton.

But do not be too worried by this apparent disaster. After just a few minutes of extreme panic, the coffin box turned up, lodged into the boundary fence on the far side of the yard and undamaged, and a French military transport rumbled into the yard and a squad of legionnaires tumbled out and dispersed around the yard. Although they were all pointing their guns at the group! 

Their corporal explained that they were investigating the explosion and he just wanted to clarify who this group was, who was in charge, who the group was working for, and "what the hell happened to that car?"

Mesmer took point on these requests and the group was soon offered a ride back to Heroux's camp.

"No touch vox" commanded Wonton, "And must put on voof"

Two of the soldiers immediately slung their guns over their shoulders, grabbed the box by its two handles and start to carry it across towards the truck.

"Nooo" yelled Wonton, "I say no touch vox"

The two soldiers stopped, carefully put the box down, unslung their guns, and opened fire. Their eyes had glazed over and rolled back in their heads, and they fired indiscriminately at everyone. The one with the rifle killed one of his companions while the one with the SMG missed with his first burst. To their credit, the rest of the legionnaires were quick to return fire, and the party were quick to dive for cover.

After a few bursts of gunfire, the two possessed legionnaires were down, along with four of the main squad. Fortunately, none of the group were even scratched.

The legionnaire corporal refused any more of his men to handle the box, and loaded his survivors into the truck, along with poor Bernard [suffering from the dreaded marmalade and just a dead weight to the group] and Felix who was very keen to get cleaned up and report to Inspector Heroux, and they all rumbled off towards the camp.

Gazala and Jean stood guard over the box, from a healthy distance of around fifteen meters. In fact, they sheltered inside the mansion, at the waiting room window, where they could see the box, but were the farthest from it they could get.

An old Citroen is found

Cooper and Mesmer led the rest of the group out into the city to "commandeer" a replacement vehicle, and eventually returned with a dinged up old Citroën. Pickings were slim, but Cooper managed to get the wheel straightened and the engine started.

Wonton led the efforts to manoeuvre the box into the boot and then the group all clambered aboard. They wisely avoided using the rear seat, so no one was too close to the influence of the box, and to achieve that they had to have two standing on each running board as they slowly and carefully made their way back to camp.

Four silver ingots have been sourced

Back at camp, the group find that Inspector Heroux has assigned Felix to their team to support the ongoing investigations with his excellent knowledge of the city and its less salubrious underbelly. Heroux has also managed to obtain four ingots of silver as per the request to obtain such, to line the various containers that had been commissioned for storing the Coffin and Censure. Heroux also reported that one of the guards on watch over the Censer a night ago had gone all glassy eyed and tried to open the box containing the Censer. He had a pile of cloves and other spices with him. He was shot dead.

The group were generally feeling rather battered, with party members suffering major wounds and much damage from their recent battles. A dose of medicine and overnight rest in the camp sick bay was ordered, and everyone tucked in for the night.

Jean woke in the morning feeling slightly improved, but reported to the group regarding his strange dream, in which the Bretagne had fired another barrage of artillery, right at the camp! It was decided that Jean should immediately radio back to the Bretagne and cancel any firing authority he currently held, for a period of 72 hours. No exceptions.

Mesmer woke in the morning having not had much rest. His three-heads relic tried their chanting spell every thirty minutes or so, and Mesmer had to keep half an ear open all night, and repeatedly put a stop to their magical shenanigans. Wonton confirmed that the three heads should not be separated from each other, so Mesmer would just have to keep at it while they were with him.

Over breakfast, the group discussed the plans for the next few days. Injuries still abounded, and healing was one of the priorities. The stone sarcophagus commission was expected to be completed tomorrow, and the Censer needed to be dealt with. Silver was available!

The first plan of action was to embed the Censer within one of the silver ingots. Cooper scavenged up an appropriate furnace and melted down one of the silver ingots. Wonton cautiously lowered the Censer into the molten silver, and it was set aside to cool. Later in the day, once it had cooled sufficiently to potentially handle, both Wonton and Mesmer cast their Detect Mythos spell to check the effectiveness of the silver encasement.

"Nufing" reports Wonton. [He failed his spell roll]
"Definitely much weaker" contradicted Mesmer. [He made his spell roll]

Throughout the rest of the day there were no reports of additional cloves, caraway, or harissa appearing anywhere around the camp. An apparent success from the silver encasement.

More rest and healing overnight (except for Mesmer, who was now looking very weary indeed).

Jean woke in the morning feeling slightly improved, and again reported to the group regarding another strange dream, in which the Bretagne had fired another barrage of artillery, directly impacting the skeleton coffin box and blowing it open! The group rushed out to the heavily guarded tent where the coffin box was being held. Fortunately, not a prophetic dream, as nothing had happened. 24 hours had now passed since Jean's firing authority had been cancelled for 72 hours.

Today was another rest day for the group.

That evening the stone sarcophagus was delivered, and that night Jean had another dream of shells from the Bretagne exploding in the camp, blowing the group to pieces. In the morning, 48 hours had passed since Jean's firing authority had been cancelled for 72 hours.

Cooper reheated the makeshift furnace and the remaining three silver ingots were melted down and poured into the stone sarcophagus's cavity. Wonton led the careful relocation of the coffin box (without anyone touching it or even coming within one meter of it) to the workshop, and the box was carefully and slowly lowered into the molten silver. As the box settled onto the small packers placed into the bottom of the stone cavity, the molten silver just overflowed the top of the box, perfectly filling the cavity. The stone lid was lowered on and sealed shut.

"Tiny Mythos only" smiled Wonton, "much tiny"

Jean woke the next morning feeling fully well, and happily reported to the group that there had been no strange dreams of artillery shells or explosions.

But Felix did have a dream! 

The Left-Hand relic

You may not recall, but when Mesmer took the three heads relic from Herschel's locked drawer, he also retrieved a skeletal left hand. This was another relic that Herschel had purchased from the infamous auction and stashed away in his collection. Felix related that he had dreamed a dream regarding his left hand. He had found a nice sharp knife and chopped his own left hand clean off. There was no pain, and he had pushed the skeletal left hand onto the fresh stump where it smoothly attached itself.

"It was really cool" Felix related, "And I had sooo much strength. It was awesome"
"Oh, for goodness sakes" grunted Mesmer, "And no, you can't have it"

72 hours had now passed since Jean's firing authority had been cancelled, for 72 hours. Theoretically, Jean could now call in an artillery barrage. Time for the group to move off and not remain stationary for too long. There were no recent reports of ghoul activity from the city, and the residents were beginning to return. Wonton desperately wanted to go to the research library, but that had not yet been opened. Other options were discussed. 

The silver sealed sarcophagus was loaded up onto a French truck, commandeered from the motor pool, complete with radio equipment, and the group piled on board and headed into the Medina. They were going to talk to Madame Peltier, the proprietor of the mystic shop located there. She had proven somewhat helpful previously and the hope was she would prove helpful again.

Nope, she wasn't. But she did say that Tariq (the nasty) was the other purchaser of relics at the auction, and it could be dangerous to approach his desert compound. Apparently, he had hundreds of deadly Arab guards stationed there.

"That's us then" said Mesmer, "let's go"

Using the trucks fancy radio, Jean made contact with the Bretagne and confirmed that his firing authority was only to be reinstated for 48 hours, then rescinded for a further 72 hours. No exceptions. And then they headed back to the camp to drop some of the magic, before heading into the desert to visit Tariq. We left Tala's Mirror, the Censer, the Sarcophagus, and the Hand under guard at the camp, and took Mesmer's Three Heads, Gazala's knife, and Cooper's soapstone Amulet.

"He hates me" noted Gazala, "I had better pretend to be betrothed to one of you"
Gazala looked around the party and decided that Jean would be the best option of a bad bunch.
"You" she commanded, "You will be my betrothed"