Without a Whimper

The entire band, Wonton [Darryl], Bernard [Jamie], Cooper [Ian], Hubert [Kevin], Gunter [Jeff], Mezmer [Shane], Jacob [Chris], Fleur [Steven], and Reinhold [Tim], were cowering up the top of the lighthouse on Plane Island. Mezmer and Hubert were unconscious.

Gazala got out the Tala mirror (Mirror of the Ghost) carefully stored in her backpack, and pointed Tala's face facing down the spiral stairs. She had better vision than the group, and she could see shadows and flickering wispy things moving below.

Fleur and Jacob worked on the unconscious two, and with smelling salts and dexterous tongue licks got them both awake.

Some time passed and nothing happened, so Cooper decided to go for a scout. Plus, the group had seen a blow-torch in the generator shed earlier and Cooper would need to retrieve it. They had decided that a blow-torch would be a viable way to melt the silver ingot that they carried, so that they could pour the molten silver over the head of the shadow creature. Well, that was the plan. 

There was a lightning rod on the outside of the lighthouse tower. Cooper used this to climb down. He was roped up for safety.

When he was down, Tala indicated to Gazala that the Shadow had moved from the base of the stairs, so they warned Cooper, with a shout. In a panic, he tried to scramble back up the rod, but he failed to climb, so he ran off to find some rough rock to hide behind.

There was a half moon and it was a clear night, so it wasn't all dark even with the lighthouse lamp off. From the lighthouse balcony, they spotted a figure sprint out in a shambling dash, so guessed it was the fourth ghoul. They shot at with the submachine guns, scored some tenuous hits, and it withdrew (CR submachine guns are not very accurate at this range).

Cooper returned after an hour, and went to the generator room. The generator was well-broken. Something had clawed at it and had broken pipes and wires. 

But there was a white-spirit blow-torch here in the shed, so he grabbed that and returned.

He returned to the base of the lighthouse, roped himself up, and managed to climb up again with the help of the group yanking on the rope.

He had just got up, when suddenly, the ghoul came rushing up the stairs, in perfect narrative timing. There was a hail of gunfire, and it closed on Cooper (!) and clawed at him. 

bandage

Reinhold yelled something at it in Carthaginian, but there was no reaction.

Since the ghoul was clawing at Cooper, they had to shoot him and the ghoul. It was eventually dropped, and Cooper was severely wounded. But the doctors, Jacob and Fleur, tended his wounds and managed to patch the bullet holes and shattered bones with plasters and crepe bandages.

The party now had the blow-torch which ran on white spirits (paraffin), but they needed more white spirits. They knew there was a jerry can in the kitchen below. 

 

But before they could mount a retrieval mission to get the jerry can, Gazala and Bernard started to act strange and paranoid. They kept seeing strange things out of the corners of their eyes. Gazala saw Hubert furtively reach for his gun. Bernard saw Mezmer's face fester and peel, but when he looked at the skin closely, there was no change.

And Tala started to say strange things that only Gazala could hear: "Can you trust them?" "Mezmer is planning to sacrifice you to his dark gods", "Wonton wants to boil you to make dumplings from your flesh, and a stylish peignoir from your flayed skin.", "Va te faire foutre avec le bout rugueux d'un ananas."

Mezmer tried to cast Sanctify on Gazala in the hope that it would fix this. As far as Gazala was concerned, he was summoning a demon and this was the last straw, so she kicked him in the head. He was still pretty wounded, so collapsed, unconscious again. Fleur had to tend him with more band aids and camomile lotion.

The rest of the group pounced on Gazala, and tied her up. 

"Je t'avais prévenu !" gloated Tala. "Maintenant, ils vont vous écorcher vif."

Gazala bit Cooper when he tried to remove her knife.

With Gazala tied down, Cooper took over the holding of Tala's mirror. Which was a good thing because the shadow then came up the stairs.

Bernard had his camera ready for exactly this, and he took a picture with the bright flash. This was enough to scare it away, but Cooper, Gunter and Hubert saw it in all its horrendous glory.

Cooper's soap-stone eskimo started to hum. Hubert saw he had some creeping malaise on his skin, and now he was seeing Mezmer and Wonton with their skin hanging in tatters. Gunter was starting to see things too. He saw the party weapons as snakes. He dropped his own submachine gun in disgust.

____________

The final hour of the night passed, and it was morning.

 There were two more snakes on the lighthouse balcony, so he kicked them off the tower. He was too scared to go down the stairs into the darkness, so he climbed down the outside, down the lightning rod.

 

The others all just barrelled down the staircase into the dark kitchen, Mezmer first. Luckily, the shadow was not here.

Mezmer did not tarry. He was still worried about being attacked by Gazala - the others had finally freed her - so he fled to the generator room, and locked himself inside.

Wonton got a cast iron pot from kitchen and the others recovered the jerry can of white spirits.

It took a bit of wheedling and whining to get Mezmer to come out of the shed.

Silver ingots

Then they all headed for the crashed plane, the Junkers 31.

Fleur wore the medallion again, and confirmed that the skull gem now pointed to the inside of the plane's fuselage.

As it was day, there wasn't any dark spots in the fuselage, but Gunter, Bernard, Gazala and Hubert (not Cooper) could see flitting shadows, like bats, but unnatural and misshapen. They could also hear a high-pitched whining too. The others of the group saw and heard nothing.

Wonton started to heat the silver ingot, in the pot, using the blow-torch. Silver melts at 962C, so the blow-torch flame could supply this heat. 

[ Silver's specific heat is 0.235 kJ/kg/deg (c.f. water is 4.1).

Silver's latent heat of fusion is 105 kJ/kg (c.f. water is 334).

So, to melt a 1 kg ingot of silver requires ( 962 - 20 ) * 0.235 + 105 = 326 kJ of energy. 

But at those temperatures, you'd be lucky to get 1% of the blow-torch flame energy into the silver. Still, 1.5 litres of white spirits is enough to do this.  ]

The crashed Junkers was ferrying the three stone slabs that the German's had removed from the dig site and the annex. They had the Baal words of power carved into them. These 200kg stone slabs (2m x 2m x 0.19m) happened to be lying on their backs in the fuselage, with the carved symbols face up. 

So, Wonton planned to pour the molten silver into the carved indentations of each of the words of power. 

After consulting Reinhold and Mezmer, he decided to do it in the least-to-most order: Tanit, Hammon, Baal. So, he gingerly poured the yellow-hot flowing silver into the carved channels, and then he said those words loud and clear.

There was no mighty explosion, or great tremor, or even a whine. Not even a whimper. But Gunter, Bernard, Gazala and Hubert saw that the flitting shadows had suddenly vanished. The noises they could hear suddenly stopped too.

Mezmer did a Detect Mythos. It revealed nothing significant, apart from the various items that the group was carrying.

"I wonder if the fisherman can fit these slabs on his boat," someone mused despondently. "We need to drop them in deep water, far away from land."

"Alors Gazala peut être écorché vif," Gazala heard Tala say, even though it was day. "Mezmer peut faire la première incision."

Plane Island

Trip north with regular bearings

The next morning, Bernard [Jamie], Cooper [Ian], Gazala [Richard], Hubert [Kevin], Wonton [Darryl], Jacob [Chris], Reinhold [Tim], Gunter [Jeff], and Mezmer [Shane] were rearing to go.

Fleur marmaladed in a slovenly coma.

Using the skull containing the gem and the medallion, worn by Jacob this time, it gave a direction bearing: roughly north.

So, they loaded up the car and hooked up the trailer (already loaded up with supplies). Gazala put Tala's mirror (Mirror of the Ghost) in her backpack. 

They headed north, up the A4.

They drove northward for a couple of hours, towards the north coast. During the whole trip north, the skull-gem direction bearing veered more and more east-heading. Eventually, they left the A4 road and headed east towards Cape Farina. 

About 11am, at the end of the cape, the gem pointed out to sea to a small island in the hazy distance. This was Plane Island (Jaziret el-Monbasta in Arabic).

Plane Island

There was a small fishing village nearby called Njila. They found a fisherman, Pedro, who was willing to ferry them out to Plane Island, for a substantial sum. After all, he claimed, Plane Island was haunted by ghouls and genies. He would drop them on the western end and then leave. 

The four kilometre boat trip took them about an hour. Plane Island was a tiny island of rock, 500m by 150m, which had a lighthouse in the centre.

They asked Pedro to return in two days at the same time (noon).

Ju 31

On Plane Island, as they walked westward, they passed a rusting wreck of a ship. It was Belgium vessel SS Scheldepas, (a 5000 ton steam ship wrecked only last year in 1929). They headed toward the lighthouse in the very centre. As they approached it, down the eastern end of the island, they could see a crashed plane: a Junkers 31.

But before they could take the scene in, a figure in robes emerged from one of the lighthouse buildings. It started to run, then sprint, then move unnaturally fast. Like the creatures from the dig, it was a ghoul.

CR submachine gun

They had their Chauchat-Ribeyrolles submachine guns out, and they brought it down in a hail of bullets.

Then two more figures emerged from the lighthouse buildings, and these two were brought down as well. They were presumably the former lighthouse keepers. Gazala beheaded them all.

Down by the crashed plane, two hundred metres away, a large see-through shadowy figure stood up. Was it three metres tall? Five metres? Ten? It was hard to tell. It was merging eerily in and out of focus.  And there were four human-sized figures near it, dressed as German aviators. These fellows just milled about aimlessly. The group suspected they were ghouls too, but it was hard to see.

Rather than take them on immediately, they went to the two lighthouse buildings, accommodation and generator, and did a quick search. There were no other people here, and no more ghouls.

To try to lure the four figures from the plane, Cooper took a long-range rifle shot to get them to move close enough, so that everyone else could blast them with the submachine guns. Sure enough, the four aviators started to sprint immediately. But they only covered 50m, before they all stopped suddenly, in lock-step, then rushed back into the plane's fuselage, as if summoned.

If the mountain won't come to Mohammed...  So the group headed towards the plane. They covered half the distance but then made some salient calculations in their heads. These things move fast... maybe this is not such a good idea to take on four at once.

So, they bravely skulked back to the lighthouse.

"We will wait here until dark. What could be safer?"

...

They blocked up all the windows of the accommodation block, and strung ropes across the room to make barricades. The lighthouse tower (with spiral staircase) was joined to one end of the building. It would be here, by the door, they could squeeze in five of them, standing next to each other, with submachine guns, to make a killing zone.

Around sunset, a mechanical timer automatically started the diesel generator and the main lighthouse light came on. There was a system of rotating mirrors and lenses around the main lamp, and that gave the light a 10 second cycle. But the party didn't want this, so they turned the main light off, and just left the accommodation building's electric lighting running.

So, that night, lighthouse Admiralty E6416 did not shine.  The last time this happened was last year. The Belgium shipwreck they had passed earlier that day was the result of that.

It was a clear night and there was a half moon. Gazala was positioned right up the top of the light house, outside on the walkway, with the rifle and binoculars. Part-way down the spiral stairs lurked Wonton, Reinhold and Dr Jacob, to relay messages to and from the group below. The brave five, Gunter, Hubert, Mezmer, Cooper and Bernard, stood in a line by the stairway door, with their CR submachine guns. Bernard had his speed graphics camera handy too, with eight flash charges, in case bright flashes were needed.  They had 10 grenades spread amongst them too.

And they waited.

About 10pm, Gazala saw a shadow slowly stretch from the crashed plane towards the lighthouse, as if a giant light behind it was moving downwards to lengthen its shadow. She took aim with the rifle and fired. There was a splutter and tepid bang. The bullet cartridge had discharged, but the bullet was now jammed tight halfway down the barrel [such are the joys of a double 1 fumble]. This is not something that can be fixed in the field. 

She passed the message to the Wonton and Jacob who relayed it down the tower.

The power suddenly went off. The generator had gone quiet. And at that same time, the wood barricade blocking one of the side windows suddenly exploded inward, as a German aviator sprang inside. Well, former German aviator - now a ghoul dressed as one.

The small room was filled with the thunderous noise of five submachine guns firing, and it quickly filled with gun-cotton smoke and dust. The light from the muzzle flashes lit up the room, and in a hail of bullets the creature went down. But it was quickly followed by two more aviator ghouls.

They blasted away at these two too. One managed to get to Mezmer, and one got to Hubert. Mezmer's ghoul went down, but it still managed to claw his throat and his fat belly with its cigarette-long iron claws, and Mezmer dropped gurgling blood. 

Hubert was even less lucky; the creature clawed and bit at him, and the others had no choice but to blast away at that ghoul and at Hubert. [ If you fire into melee combat, your damage gets spread. ] Hubert and the ghoul both went down in a hail of bullets.

Field dressings and band aids were applied to both unconscious figures. Hubert's weary heart stopped a brief time, before Dr Jacob got to him and applied CPR. 

Then Cooper hefted the unconscious Mezmer over his shoulder, and Jacob and Gunter lifted the unconscious Hubert, and all ascended the spiral stairs.

Gazala and Reinhold had come down to help, so they and Bernard guarded the doorway of the stairs. There was one more ghoul unaccounted for, something had stopped the generator, and there was still that shadow figure. They kept guard down here with frantic waving torchlight.

Suddenly, they saw a shadow loom through broken barricades of the side window: "Mon Dieu!"

Bernard had his camera ready and shot the shadow with the camera flash, and Gazala lunged at it with her long mythos knife, Reinhold didn't risk a shot. In the brief instant of the flash, they all saw into the "face" of the shadow figure. It was an enlarged version of the three-eyed baby-skull face they had seen a few days ago in the baby coffin. But now it had flesh; papery greasy flesh, which moved, crawling and slithering slug-like, over the surface of the skull. The protruding over-size sharp teeth of the baby skull were now long glinting protruding teeth made of iron. The three eye sockets now had eyes in them, and Bernard, Reinhold and Gazala drank in the insane awful depths of those eyes. 

Luckily, the bright flash was enough to cause the hideous shadow to pause, and drift back through the broken window.

Bernard, Reinhold and Gazala's skin crawled at the horrendous thing they had seen. They all shuddered and gasped in revulsion, then slammed the stairway door, and retreated back up the spiral stairs.

Just then, a grenade bounced down the stairs and past them, thrown by Wonton. All three snapped out of their stunned reverie, and quickly crouched down behind the central pillar of the spiral stairs. The grenade went off and blew open the lower door.

"Ah, non! Encore, non!"

Revisit the Dig

The next morning Cooper [Ian], Gazala [Richard], Bernard [Jamie], Mezmer [Shane], Hubert [Kevin], Wonton [Darryl], Gunter [Jeff] and Fleur [Steven] dragged themselves out if bed, after an evening with the German Antiquarian Augustus Herschel at the posh Le Délicieux Lavement (the delicious enema).

Dr Jacob lay in his bed, marmalading.

Ring "of wishes" (to Triad)

The group spent the morning in their apartment and made a list of their loose ends :

1. Triad & ring ("of wishes")
2. Desert dig site and Annex
3. Crypt under church
4. Tariq and the Scolds' Bridle
5. Herschel's Compound
   

Wonton went off to the Bibliothèque Nationale de Tunisie to do some research: Nyarlathotep is a "Mighty Messenger" of the insane elder gods. A lesser elder god himself, he/it can not be harmed.

Mezmer went to the Bibliothèque too, and he had a look at Wonton's research. His conclusion over the same material was a little different: Nyarlathotep can be harmed by molten silver. It should be poured on his head while certain incantations are voiced.

While the two were researching, Bernard, Gunter and Cooper went to the velodrome, across the road from Herschel's Compound, and spent the day watching the compound. There were lots of men dressed in SA brown shirts marching around accompanied by a jolly brass band. 

___________________________

The next morning, the group packed up the Mercedes, loaded up a trailer with supplies, and headed south to the desert, to the Baal dig site. The Mirror of the Ghost was put in the bank vault to keep it safe.

They went straight to the Annex. To their surprise, it had a Légion Étrangère flag flying above it, and there were trucks and vehicles there, as well as moving troops. 

They stopped the car well back. Mezmer got out and stepped behind a rock. He said his jiniri poem, and turned invisible. Then he headed to the Annex. 

Baal

The Légion Étrangère soldiers numbered about thirty (a platoon), and they had two trucks and two staff cars. But, these "LE" soldiers were speaking German. Mezmer made his way into the tunnels, deftly avoiding any soldiers.

Deep inside, the power symbol ("Baal") was being carefully cut from Annex tomb wall, and then man-handled outside. Here it was loaded onto a truck. Mezmer watched them work, and he could not help but notice that they were very careful not to touch the actual symbol. They seemed to know what they were doing, rather than gung-ho explorers throwing caution to the wind.

As the trucks and cars left the site, and headed down the dirt track to the main road, the party carefully hid their car (and trailer). The trucks then headed on the road back in the Tunis direction.

After the Germans were gone, the party drove to the main dig site to check that too. It was deserted, but there were signs of recent activity and recent truck and car tyre tracks all around. So, the group made their way carefully down the ladder, and checked down the tunnels. The two symbols of power  ("Tanit" & "Hammon") were gone. The entire wall sections where they had been, were cut out, like in the Annex.

Someone did some envelope calculations, and it was estimated that each of these slabs would weigh 200 kg.

So, the party headed back to Tunis, and arrived after dark. Assuming that the slabs would need to be shipped out by sea,  Bernard went to the Tunis docks to reconnoitre. There were two ships bound for Venice, one for Athens, one for Naples and one for Rotterdam.

The rest of the party went to check on Herschel's compound. As it was night, there were lots of electric lights illuminating the compound. Sure enough, the two trucks and staff cars were here. And many men.

Not sure what to do, the group went back to their apartment.

___________________________

Ju G31

Next morning, they visited Inspector Heroux.

They eventually managed to get him to phone the aerodrome. A Junkers G31 had taken off a few hours ago. Heroux was told what was on board, and it was suggested that maybe fighter aircraft from Corsica or Marseilles could be scrambled to shoot it down. But he would have none of this.

"Mais des rochers ? Antiquités? Ce n'est pas une excuse suffisante pour attaquer un avion !"

(Rocks? Antiquities? That's not enough excuse to attack a plane!)

When they got back at the apartment, they noticed a German staff car with two men across the road - now watching the Calomnie de Tunis (and probably the party) unabashedly.

Bernard and Gazala confronted them. 

Gazala tried to stab one of the car's tyres. One guy just stepped out of the car, in broad daylight, and shot her. Then they drove off. Gazala was unconscious. Bernard tended her.

Bernard recognized them as two gentlemen from the docks from last night. He even knew their names: Sinbad and Ahmed. [Ah, the joy of an appalling Perception roll. ] But now they were dressed in smart German dress uniforms.

But at least they did get the registration plates of the car.

They decided that they wanted to do some more experimenting with the items. So, Bernard and Gazala went to the bank vault and retrieved the skull, medallion and the Tala Mirror. 

Then they waited until dark

They all chatted, experimented and wheedled with Tala.

They played around with gem in the skull and the medallion. As usual, the gem would always point at the medallion.

Tala suggested for Wonton to try wearing the medallion and to pick up the skull at the same time. When he did this, the gem pointed in a different direction. What was it pointing at?

Streak of Fire

Gunter [Jeff], Cooper [Ian], Hubert [Kevin], Jacob [Chris], Gazala [Richard], and Mezmer [Shane] were rushing down the stairs with the crated baby creature, as it bounced violently off the insides of the box. Bernard [Jamie] and Wonton [Darryl], having woken from their marmalade dreams, joined them. Fleur kept marmalading peacefully.

They threw the crate into the boot of their Mercedes, and tied it down. Then Cooper and Bernard clambered into the front seat, Hubert the next row, and Gunter and Mezmer in the back, to watch the boot lid best they could.

Cooper floored the accelerator and the car tore off with a screech of tyres. It was around midnight, so the streets of Tunis were not too busy.

Wonton, Gazala and Jacob stayed behind and made their way back upstairs to the apartment.

The Mercedes reached country-side about 40 minutes later. Cooper and Bernard searched around for a reasonable spot; they found a deep ditch at the side of the road. The nearest farm house was about half a kilometer away.

The box by now was jerking side to side as the occupant whacked into each wall of the crate, and it was starting to splinter. So, they man-handled the bucking crate and wedged it into the ditch. They had four sticks of dynamite and six F1 grenades, so they made a pile with these under the shaking box. During the trip out here, on the stretches of straight road, Mezmer had deftly cored a stick of dynamite and put a detonator in it; an impressive feat in a moving car. It had a long blasting fuse

Since he had built it, Mezmer would light it. He yelled "Mettez-vous à l'abri !" (take cover!). Then he lit the fuse, and ran "Feu feu feu!" (fire in the hole).

Bernard had his camera at the ready, as he couched in his ditch, safe across the road and down some. Since it was night, he simply opened the shutter and let the light from the explosion illuminate the scene.

Sure enough, there was a mighty blast, and something glowing and fiery, the size of a cat, streaked skyward.

At the same time, there was a solid thump in the ditch right next to Bernard. He shone his torch on it. It was a grenade. 'Oh no, not again,' he thought miserably. And he scrabbled out of the ditch to get away from it. And, just like last time (in the fox-hole during the attack on the German marquee), he slipped badly and fell, literally, onto the grenade. He tensed up, waiting for the blast...

... which never came. The dynamite didn't detonate the grenades, and just blew them all out of the ditch. The same could not be said of the crate. It was blown to match-wood, and there was no sign of the inner box, the delicate coffin or the baby creature.

It was just after 1am.

Back in town, Wonton, Gazala and Jacob felt a shudder. It was a jolting spasm, like a myoclonic jerk ("sleep start": jerk as you fall asleep). They were too far away to see anything, of course.

The crate group spend the next hour searching the area for any signs of anything suspicious. They manage to retrieve all of their six grenades. All intact.

At 2am, Mezmer and Bernard took the car back into town; Bernard driving. 

Cooper, Gunter and Hubert volunteered to spend the rest of the night at the site. And then intended to search until noon the next day.

Gunter suggested they check out the local farmhouses for anything strange, but no one else though that was sensible.

Back at Calomnie de Tunis, Bernard took his Speed Graphic camera down to the dark room and developed the recent photograph negatives. 

The photograph of the imp (that Gazala took) showed a small man-like creature, stabbed and sliced, dead in the jar. There was no mystical movement of the image on the negative. 

The negative of the photograph of the explosion showed a streak of fire moving skyward from the explosion. If Bernard stared at the negative, the streaking flame would actually move, in an endless repeat, starting at the (stationary) explosion and moving upwards until it left the frame. Then it would reset again (like an animated GIF).

Censer

He showed the moving negative to Wonton, Gazala and Jacob, then he burned it.

_________________

At first light, Bernard and Gazala took all the "dangerous" items back to the bank vault: censer, gem skull, and medallion. They were happy with the mirror left in the apartment.

Wonton went with Mezmer to the Bibliothèque Nationale de Tunisie so that he could have a go at the restricted books too. Mezmer convinced Cassandra the librarian that, though Wonton was a chinetoque, he was an honest one and not one of the white slavers. So, she authorized access to the Sealed section.

Skull (with gem)

He tried book ONE, but didn't make any progress with that one. 

About noon, Cooper, Gunter and Hubert made their own way back into to Tunis and to the Calomnie de Tunis.

In the afternoon, Wonton took on book TWO. He made progress on this one. This book covered the Elder gods - which were powerful beings in another dimension, that made their way occasionally to this world to cause strife and destruction. Wonton found an old passage mentioning that Baal was an "aspect" (sometimes "avatar") of one of these elder gods. And it mentioned that Baal had three "daughters" (or "assistants")  Pidray, Tallay and Arsay in the human tongue.

____________________

The next day, Wonton returned and tackled book THREE, but made no progress.

Medallion

After noon, he managed book FOUR. Baal's daughter Tallay had another name which was "Nyarlathotep". And the baby skeleton may have been a "resting spore" of such.

While Wonton was at the Bibliothèque the others returned to the Saint Croix ancient church to check it out.

They spoke to the priest and deacons there, whom they knew quite well from the previous visit many weeks ago (during Umar adventure). 

The clerics said, yes, that they had heard noises down in the undercroft and crypt. These began two nights ago - about the night of the crate explosion. They had telephoned the Gendarmes and got through to Inspector Heroux. He told them to lock the door. Maybe the busy Inspector had not yet got around to telling the group. [Or maybe the DM just forgot.]

So, with torches out, the group went down to the crypt. Nothing had changed here since they were here weeks ago. Cooper's Eskimo buzzed intensely. They poked around a bit, but found nothing else. Someone opened a sarcophagus and peered inside; it looked normal. There were no noises.

"Peut-être devriez-vous être ici la nuit, n'est pas?" (you ought to be here at night, no?) mused the priest wryly.

No-one was game.

________________

The next day, Wonton took on book FIVE, but didn't make any progress.

After lunch, Wonton looked back at book ONE wistfully. The way the mythos worked, he could technically try the books he failed, but with extra risk. He would have to "put a bit of himself" into the research. Failure at this level meant annihilation of the soul.

So, he set to it [and rolled lucky]. 

This time he found out about the resting spore. Rather than summon an elder god, a piece or aspect or "inferior avatar" of one could be summoned. This was a spore. After (or before) use, it could be imprisoned or contained in an item or area with mythos. Some spores could not be unsummoned, or destroyed, so containment was the best solution.

Bernard arranged for the group to meet up, for a meal that night, with the souk-owner Mademoiselle Marie-Pierre Pelletier and librarian Cassandra le Belle. He chose one of the posher Tunis restaurants Le Délicieux Lavement. 

Both ladies turned up, and seemed to know each other. They both reported that they, too, had felt the myoclonic jerk of the explosion.

After a bit of small talk [and confirmation from the DM], the party decided to lay their cards on the table and told the two women everything. After that session, there was nothing that the party knew that the ladies did not know. 

The women expressed big concerns about the ancient baby. 

After Wonton's research, the group knew more about Nyarlathotep than the ladies. Cassandra knew of that name, but not Marie-Pierre. Cassandra warned that one should not say that word out loud; the dreaded N-word.

Mademoiselle Pelletier commented that maybe the items that the group already had could be used. Maybe they were linked. For example, the skull gem, medallion and the delicate coffin were found in the Annex. But the censor was in the central part of the complex - completely separate.

Cassandra added that she didn't think there would be anything useful in the library to help here. 

"Ce que je vous ai dit aux experts la dernière fois n'a pas changé," she said. "Les objets mythiques dangereux sont uniques. Il n'y aura pas d'indices dans la bibliothèque."

__________________________

The next day, Bernard arranged a meeting with Augustus Herschel. They had his telephone number on a card from the auction, so he used that. He was very gracious and was happy to meet up with them that evening, also at the Le Délicieux Lavement. 

Half an hour before the meeting, Mezmer tried to go invisible. He undressed, said his little jiniri poem, and then proudly walked in to the group's living room, naked. But he was just naked and not invisible. 

They raucously laughed him out of the kitchen. So, he sulked and refused to go to the meeting [Shane had to leave early].

At the restaurant, Herschel turned up with his lady and three bodyguards. The guards stood quietly behind his chair.

He was very chatty about the political situation back in Germany. War-hero, vegetarian, philanthropist and artist Herr Hitler was an excellent leader and better than that wet-eared pepper chap.

Herschel didn't mention the myoclonic jerk.

 

They got the feeling that Herschel knew about the censer as an item, but not that the group had it. But if they did have it, hypothetically, it would be worth "millions" (marks, franks, dollars or pounds? who knows?).

He knew all about the “archaeological” expeditions in the desert. Deutschland had a keen interest in furthering world historical knowledge.

Hypothetical end of world

Talk came around to the shrunken heads that he had got at the auction. He thanked the party again for the help he received from Mezmer regarding these items. Sadly, he and his "experts" had not made much progress with them since.

The group talked about a hypothetical release of an ancient baby skeleton and how it might bring about the end of the world. But Herschel said that was just hypothetical hyperbole.

But a hypothetical censer would be far more use where it could provide unlimited energy to fuel growth and industry to the betterment and purity of mankind! If such an item was in the hands of top men (like me) it could be put to good use! Top Men!

"Eine schöne neue Welt wird aus der Asche auferstehen. Und dann werde ich auf einem mächtigen Felsen einen riesigen Schatten über die ganze Welt werfen!

Und nie wieder werden sie es wagen, mich anzurufen: einen gesprenkelten, vieräugigen, schmächtigen kleinen Widerling!!"

Herschel paid for the meal. Then he said his good-byes and he left with his entourage. 

Gunter flagged down a taxi and followed him. 

Herschel was staying at a compound on the outskirts of Tunis, near the Belvedere Park velodrome.

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. 

______________________

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.

____________________________

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.

___________________

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.

_____________________

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.

_____________________________

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

_______________________________

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!"

______________________________

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.

 

_____________________________

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.

________________________________

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.

___________________________

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.

__________________________________

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.

.

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?"

The Auction

The group arrived back in Tunis in the Mercedes 770 staff car. Cooper was driving, but he began to marmalade, so Bernard [Jamie] quickly took the wheel. Dr Jacob [Chris] woke up on the roof rack, so he was put into the car, like a normal person. This turned out lucky because the roof-top space was needed for Mezmer [Shane] who was unconscious. The rest, Gunter [Jeff], Hubert [Kevin], Wonton [Darryl], Reinhold [Tim], And Gazala [Richard] rode in the car. Fleur was now marmalading too, so she just slumped in the back seat and drooled.

Hammon

Why was Mezmer unconscious? Let us go back in time a little, to the dig site.

Mezmer and Wonton had decided to deface the words of power down in the tunnels. With the rest of the group safely up the ladder in the marquee, Mezmer did a Sanctify on  the "Hammon" power word symbol in the altar room. 

There was a loud bang. Smoke and dust billowed ominously out of the shaft. Jacob and Gunter rushed back down the ladder, and into the altar room. Mezmer and Wonton were sitting, stunned, on the floor, blood running from their ears and noses. But they were otherwise unharmed.

After a few "there there's", Mezmer caught his breath and was up again. He then bravely decided to take a hammer & cold chisel to the now-sanctified "Hammon" symbol. Jacob and Gunter fled in terror. 

This time there was a fiery explosion. This time when Jacob and Gunter rushed back, they found Mezmer charred and unconscious, and at death's door. Wonton was lying charred and groaning nearby. [Mezmer was 1 hp away from death]. Jacob stabilized Mezmer. 

 

They both decided, wisely, to maybe leave the other Power words alone.

___________________

When the group arrived back in Tunis at the end of the long day of driving, they reported back to the Calomnie de Tunis newspaper.  The Editor wanted them to write up their exploits and adventures for the newspaper. With plenty of photographs, of course.

There was a card left for Wonton at the Calomnie Reception. It was written in Mandarin, from a Mr Fong. He requested Wonton's presence at the Hotel Plonger. Wonton had no idea who this was.

Unconscious Mezmer was checked in to the hospital Hopital Militaire. Dr Jacob got him a good room. His dreams were full of dark things, and tentacles, and death, but there was a kinder one about a soapstone carving of an Eskimo, hidden in a cave, in the desert.

______________________________

In the morning, Wonton went to Hotel Plonger.

The Chinese gentleman Mr Fong, out of Peking, wanted the party - he seemed to know all their (pre-desert trip) identities - to go to a private antiquities auction at a place called the Conservatoire on the Avenue de Paris. He was interested in a golden ring that was being auctioned in three night's time. "Obtain it in any way you can. Or else..."

[ Wonton did a Connections roll many (real) months ago which he failed badly with a 2 on 2D6. This was the chickens coming home to roost. ]

Mr Fong had one bully-boy and a young lady with him. He sent her, Miss Wu, to stick to the group. She had the "Rare Antiquities Private Auction" catalogue and some money:

1. Silver Dagger "of Venom"
2. Gold Ring "Ring of Wishes"
3. Shrunken Heads, 3
4. Bridal gown
5. Lady's Riding-Boots
6. Silver Mirror "of the Ghost"
7. Scold's Bridle
   

Bernard went to the Tunisia Lands Office and claimed the oasis (where they freed the jiniri) under his name. The clerk said that there may be a lien on the property, so the paperwork had to go back via Paris; this would take nine months. But the clerk granted Bernard a temporary occupation permit (after a substantial bribe).

Bernard and Gazala went to the Banque de Tunisie (on Rue de Turquie) with the boxes of looted grave goods from the tomb (the golden Baal censor, the delicate coffin found in the Annex, the gold medallion, and the skull with the gem). After the power word affair, no-one was brave enough to examine (or even touch) these things, and the group was happier to have them stored away somewhere safe. The items were well boxed-up and secure, until the group could find some "top men" to examine them. Top men.

They hired a miniature bank vault [$1K per year], under Bernard Lapin's name. And used the newspaper's address: c/o Calomnie de Tunis. The bank did not allow human remains to be stored in their vaults, of course, but the bank staff inspection was cursory at best, and Gazala distracted him at the right time, so the "baby" coffin and skull were successfully stowed in the vault without being noticed. Both Bernard and Gazala were given a key each. Both keys, plus a third from the bank, were needed to open the vault.

Inspector Heroux

Dr Jacob checked in with Inspector Heroux of the Gendarmes. Heroux had the Legal-Carry licences inked-up and ready for those party members who passed the training with the Légion Étrangère. Each licence would allow a pistol to be carried or concealed. And if an "Incident de Gendarmerie" was declared in a neighbourhood, they could carry a submachine gun or rifle too.  Hubert got Mario's licence - he would have to pose as such. Gunter took Miriam's licence and wondered if he could pass as a lady. (Transferral of firearms licences was forbidden; it was another capital crime).

Jacob asked Heroux about Mr Fong. There were not many Chinese in Tunis; Heroux could list them on the fingers of one hand. He knew of Fong and of a Mr Lee, and knew Fong was a Triad member.

Wonton & party researched up Fong. He was a member of the Peking Triad gangsters, and they had recent links into Tunis in order to kidnap French girls for a burgeoning white slavery market. 

Gazala quizzed Miss Wu about the Triad too. Miss Wu was an indentured servant and "paramour" herself, so her loyalty was forced ("they hurt my family if I stray"). She didn't mind talking and telling the group what she knew. Currently, Fong employed five dangerous liúmáng (流氓, gangsters) - three Fus and two Lees - in his "Le gang des coquins" here in Tunis. 

Mezmer in his
finery

___________________________

The auction was tonight.

Gazala and Miss Wu tarted up. Wonton bought himself an expensive and immaculate pristine white suit and hat. Gunther and Herbert put on their best. Bernard found a sharp jacket and plus fours. Mezmer got himself a turban, a colourful robe, and delightful red boots. And they all headed to the Conservatoire.

The place was decked out in finery, and had servants and no-neck security aplenty. The guests were served champagne and finger-food, vol-au-vents and pastries.

The seven auction items were brought out for inspection at 6pm, and the auction would begin at 10pm. 

There were several important groups of guests, and the party mingled with them. The organizers, the Moretzs allowed Bernard to use his Speed Graphics camera - but no flash. Hence, in the artificially-lit auction room, his exposures would need a full second. This was not a problem for the items, but it meant people had to keep very still.

Nevertheless, Bernard got photographs of all the figures of import.

• Austin and Chloe Moretz - the organizers of the auction. They didn't own the items (except for the wedding dress), but were selling them on behalf of others. They were very tight-lipped as to whom. 
• Mademoiselle Marie-Pierre Pelletier. Several of the group knew this lady already. She owned a souk in the Medina which sold antiques and occult things. She was alone.
• Herr Augustus Herschel - A German gentleman. He was dressed in a German military uniform and had a lady on his arm, Fraulein Blucher. Plus two batmen.
• Tariq Nadir - He was a landed Arab Berber, like Gazala, and spoke the same Berber dialect. He was accompanied by two veiled ladies in niqabs (his wives), two servants, and two no-necks. Gazala had a word with him, but the conversation went down-hill fast when Tariq asked how her husband (she pointed at Dr Jacob) would tolerate his unveiled wife dressing like a whore. The party had to physically keep her from stabbing him there and then. 
• Some other randos who were just for the scenery.

Wonton threw caution to the wind and cast a Detect Mythos on the items (bold is mythos-tainted). This involved him dancing around the table and shouting mythos words. To the uninformed, it looked like he was doing an interpretive dance crossed with having a grand mal epileptic seizure, as if he was possessed by demons with neural-tube defects and broken ankles. The party carefully scanned all the guests to see if anyone recognized the spell. Most of the faces showed expressions of disgust, distain, pity, and utter embarrassment. Any dignity or sophistication Wonton had with his smart white suit was lost in this display of socially-inept cringe. The shouted words didn't help either - mythos words are not nice; lots of harsh guttural consonants and voiceless uvular fricatives (c.f. swearing in Klingon), and whining high-pitched vowels.

Bernard was the only one who noticed two people in the crowd who were faking their emotions of utter disgust: Miss Pelletier (no surprises there) and Tariq Nadir. 

The auction began.

1. 

   Scold's Bridle

   The Dagger of Venom - Wonton encouraged aggressive bidding, so Miss Wu ended up paying 5K for it. Herschel was interested.
2. Ring of Wishes - Miss Wu got this in the end for 16K. She had exhausted her money so the group funds paid the rest. She had to fight with Tariq and Miss Pelletier. Gazala, Gunter, and Herbert did well-timed distractions to annoy the other bidders.
3. The three shrunken heads went to Herschel.
4. The bridal dress had little interest shown by anyone. Gazala bid for it (1K) as a joke, and got it.
5. The riding boots went to Miss Pelletier. She seemed very pleased. Maybe Wonton's spell missed them. 
6. Ghost Mirror - Bernard got this (8K) but that used up all the party funds. Tariq was not pleased that he lost.
7. Scold's Bridle - Tariq got this. That helped lessen his anger.
   

The group wanted Tariq followed. So, Mezmer went into a side room, undressed naked, and then said his little Invisibility poem taught to him by the jiniri.

Mezmer invisible

When all around intend me woe,

To shoot and stab and fight.

I pucker up my little mouth,

And vanish from their sight !

Then, invisible, he ran after Tariq and his entourage catching them up as they were getting into their car. Mezmer grabbed hold of it and stood on the running board, as it drove off into the night. He lasted half an hour. Tariq's chauffer was a rather enthusiastic driver, and during a particularly tight swerve, Mezmer fell off and rolled down the street, and got badly wounded and bleeding.

[ Mezmer took heavy damage down to 4 hp. ]

So, Mezmer limped back to the Calomnie to meet up with the rest of the group who had returned home.

Even though it was midnight, Miss Wu pestered Wonton to get the ring back to Fong this very evening. So they gave the ring to her to deliver him. The plan was for Mezmer to follow her invisibly.

So, the exhausted and wounded Mezmer went invisible again (note the spell lasts an hour), and followed Miss Wu to the Hotel Plonger.  Fong's room was on level five - no lift - so Mezmer carefully followed her up the stairs, keeping quiet. She knocked on the door, it opened, and she slipped inside. Mezmer tried to follow, but he was too slow and bashed into the door, then fell back in the corridor. He heard raised voices, in Chinese, inside, then the unmistakable words of a Detect Mythos.

Then there was a shout of alarm, followed immediately by the staccato blast of submachine gun fire, and bullets flew through the plywood door into the corridor.

Mezmer was hobbling away, but he was grazed by a shot.

[ Mezmer was on 4 hp. The bullets through the door still did 2D6, but lucky for him I rolled a 3 (public). His third close call with death that evening!  ] 

Mezmer limped home.