Mrs Esme Clarke's grand niece lived with her in a good sized two story cottage with a beautiful and lovingly cared for garden. The niece informed us that her great aunt was resting, but agreed to fetch her. She installed us in the parlor, and, after we declined refreshments, went upstairs where she promptly screamed. Rushing upstairs we found the elderly woman unwakable. What with the niece screaming, it took me way longer than it should have for me to determine that she was irretrievably dead. In fact I was eventually able to determine that she had been dead for between one and two hours before we arrived, and that she had been smothered to death by a pillow left laying on the floor nearby. My companions soothed the niece somewhat, and sent a child passing outside to fetch the constabulary. Investigations of the house and room determined that it would have been fairly easy for somebody to slip in ether from the back door and back stairway, or the window. The window showed signs of having been jimmied. The climb up to the window would not have been difficult, but other than the marks on the window latch, we found no evidence that anybody had done so.
The constables, when they arrived, did not clarify the situation in the time we were there. Some of them spent a good deal of time interrogating Captain Barnes on suspicion of being a Snark with an Attitude. I felt fortunate that they did not hassle me as well, but apparently on that day it fell out that being a British Snark was more suspicious than being a Human Foreigner (for you know I was still base human back then). Other days the peelers were less forgiving of dark skin. The constables barely mentioned the attack on the road, though they did confirm that it had been reported to them.
Reasoning that the spirit of Mrs Clarke might still be lingering about her body, I attempted to bring it forth and speak with it. This was the first time I had ever attempted to contact a human spirit (or at least the first attempt since I had awoken in my powers) and the first time I attempted to contact a human spirit who was not an ancestor of mine. I had mixed results. I was able to establish communication with the spirit, but the spirit was in such a state of uproar that I got little from it. The spirit was continually reviewing her own murder, but with a pillow over her face, she had apparently sensed nothing useful. The only question of mine she answered was one that had apparently vexed her greatly these last few years and caused her to briefly exclaim that "The Arsenic had gone missing! Lord Powys had been in good health. I have treated him since he was a boy and he was in excellent health! And the Arsenic had gone missing!", but then I could feel her returning to reviewing her own murder again, but not speaking any clues. The niece denied that any such suspicions had every been voiced in her hearing. Upon offering our deepest condolences to the grieving niece and taking our leave of her and the police, we returned to the manor.
The theory we were starting to develop, is that 2 years ago, Lord Powys, was murdered by Arsenic poisoning for reasons unknown by persons unknown. The Apothecary suspected it, but did not share her suspicions widely. When we broadcast her name earlier in the day, somebody decided she was a loose end that needed to be tied up, and killed her. The same group, or a different group ambush us on our way to meet her, The ambushers yell incoherent warnings. We still have no idea how any of this ties in with the missing hall of statuary. In short, we know next to nothing.
Before dinner, we briefly discuss what in our investigation to share with Lady Jane and her other guests. We decide that since we have nothing other than a suspicions that her Husband was murdered, and way more new questions than answers, that we will wait until we have more answers. We do mention that we now have a list of engine-run security doors, and that we have only located 6 of the 8 engine-run doors. We ask if anybody knows of the other two, and Lady Jane and Mssr Niece think they can lead us to at least one more. We agree that they shall do so after dinner.
Durring dinner Professor Grundal started acting more and more agitated. He complained that his food tasteless. Finally he made a huge scene by throwing his dishes against the wall and storming out. Everybody was mortified. In hindsight I wish that I had used Astral Sight to view him, for I fear his agitation was not of natural origin.
After dinner, Lady Jane and Mssr Niece lead us, as promised, to a ground floor door with a security terminal that Mrs Montague opened using her new security card. It opened into a Long Hall, but our hope that it contained the missing statuary was dashed as it contained nothing but paintings. I wondered if maybe the statues used to be there, but the dust and decor indicated that it had always been a gallery of paintings. We did however decide that the most likely place for a gallery of statues was ether immediately above, or immediately below this hall. At the other end of long hall was an old abandoned conservatory. Rather than attempt the maze-like qualities of the house, we unlatched the conservatories gardeners entrance and looking immediately above it found a porch. I fetched a ladder from a gardeners shed I had noticed on my initial inspection of the grounds the day previous, and we all climbed onto the porch. There we were confronted by some beautiful french doors. The doors were, alas, locked. Lady Jane kindly gave permission for some moderate breakage, but I decided that the least destructive method was summon a small earth spirit that could manipulate metal to flip the leavers to unlock it. This actually did work, but the spirit manifested inside a bit of decorative grill-work, and when it de-manifested, it chose to leave one section of the grill-work with a different, discordant pattern than the rest. I am afraid it looks quite wrong.
We were all anxious to look inside. The 6 of us (for Lady Jane's Ladies Maid had also accompanied us) entered the dark hall. We all felt great tension and more than one person checked to see that whatever weapons they carried were loose in their scabbards. Those of us with low-light vision saw movement about halfway down the hall. Mssr Niece strode forth boldly, and I decided to keep pace with him. The hall was crowded with statuary, most of it under dust-cover sheets. The dust was thick upon the sheets and other surfaces and the air was musty. Because of the many sheet clad statues, it was not until we were quite close to the center of the hall that the scene there resolved itself.
Two shapes right in the center were not covered with dust-sheets. One was a statue that had one arm held far forward from it's body. From this arm dangled the hung corpse of professor Grundal, whom had stormed out of the dining room less than an hour previously. The other was not a statue per-say, but a huge stone box or sarcophagus. Mssr niece did not hesitate in the slightest but walked right up to the sarcophagus, whipped out a knife and pricked his palm deeply. then held it over the box. I was so shocked by this action that I did nothing but watch amazed as 7 distinct drops of blood fell from his hand into the sarcophagus. After the 7th drop fell he closed his hand upon a handkerchief as he excitedly watched a huge, huge desiccated corpse step from the box!
The corpse could have been nothing but a troll, but it was so old and desiccated that it could not possibly have died after the rabbit hole opened. So what we were seeing could only have been a pre-rabbit-hole troll corpse. But of course there were no pre-rabbit-hole trolls, even as corpses! What we were seeing was impossible, unless of course this sarcophagus was from the OTHER side of the rabbit hole. Could this troll be a Samsut corpse? What was it doing here? The Troll stepped out of it's box and grasped the corpse of the dwarf hanging by his neck next to him. Instantly the corpse of the small spiritualist also began to move, but it did not struggle as someone needing air would struggle if hung, it struggled merely as somebody who wanted down would struggle.
The horrible realization stole upon me that we were facing Samsut zombie magic! And two zombies! And that Mssr Niece was a traitor and a murderer.Statistics:Posted by ChrisDDickey — Thu May 09, 2019 6:38 pm
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