1879: The Expendables

Tell us about your campaign!
Psitanium
Posts:39
Joined:Mon Jul 22, 2019 8:01 pm
Re: 1879: The Expendables - McFly's Journal

Post by Psitanium » Thu Apr 15, 2021 11:06 pm

We have taken to interviewing ladies at a house of ill-repute, but only if you’re doing it wrong. I can attest that I have never had that problem as the situation had never presented itself to me. In order to approach the ladies at this establishment, our mustache inspector posed as a true crime novelist, although I might have that the other way around. The rest of us were supposed to be his assistants. I was obviously the muscle. A very talkative woman who apparently ran the show gave us the room number where it all happened… the murder I mean. This was not before the inspector bought some serial killer paraphernalia for a discounted price. Who knew this was such a lucrative investment opportunity.
We proceeded up to the room. I would consider the décor something akin to a fixer upper for psychopaths. Still, there was little evidence worth examining here. I, however, can access astral sight, with the proper medium. I looked for mirrors on the wall, as I figured the décor leant itself to such things, but no such luck. Luck is probably the wrong word.
The inspector offered me his magnifying glass and I thanked him while explaining there was a better than average chance it would be returned to him irrevocably damaged. He explained to me that if that happened I would need to purchase a new one. I explained that indeed he would need to purchase a new one. My science was strong on this day and the astral force glowed bright through his lens, which looked quite expensive before I started. Once I peered through the lens, I noticed a few odd things. Unfortunately, the room still had the same interior decorator. Also, a spirit with no eyes was running towards me and another was rolling around in a pool of blood. Strange, but just another day at the office for me. That wallpaper though…
Since I knew he wanted it so badly, I handed the magnifying glass back to the inspector so he could see the same horrible wallpaper up close. What slipped my mind is that mustache inspector, trolldier and photo hunter had not seen into the astral plane before. After looking into that strange new world for the first time, there were less than grounded in their reactions. I think the hunter went off to church to rediscover his religion. The soldier took a hard pass to this vision, but the inspector tried several times to engage with the spirits. I should have warned him this was a bad idea, as spirits often want blood, possibly other fluids depending on the spirit. None of these options is particularly desirable. In order to get more information from the one spirit enjoying a roll in a blood-soaked floor, the others considered giving it blood. It was at this point I realized having the untrained look into the astral plane was funny, but dangerous. I will have to explain in stronger terms that spirits rarely have the corporeal’s best interests in mind.

ChrisDDickey
Posts:1011
Joined:Sun Nov 27, 2016 10:02 pm

Re: 1879: The Expendables

Post by ChrisDDickey » Fri Apr 16, 2021 8:23 am

An excerpt from Lord Bentley Bootle's journal. 

We went to the seedy hotel and talked to Abbigale Foster, the desk clerk and several ladies of ill repute hanging around the lobby. We pretended to be researching a true crime novel. They  confirmed some of the things we already knew, and corrected us on others. They all claimed that another man visited Pearl and Jackson several times. The man was human, not quite 6ft  dark hair,  the same age as Jackson and dressed in the same type of clothes as college students. He came the 1st night with a bag of stuff, that was the day Jackson tried to abort the baby with cocaine, maybe this man brought it? The 2nd night the man was also there, in fact it was this 2nd man who called the taxi, but he did not depart in it. They said that after Pearl's dress was ruined by blood, they bought a new dress from a streetwalker named Shandra. Their story was mixed as to who bought it, some said it was Jackson, but others said it was the other man. The ones who said it was the visitor said that the other man seemed to already know Shandra. We might need to go looking for this Shandra person, she is a green eyed blond snark, about 5'6", curvy. She had an accent, probably british or a colony. She is now working in a more upscale area, but her coworkers gave us a few places to try. 

Paul, posing as the true crime writer, bought from the clerk the page where Jackson signed the registry (using a fake name). We went up (room 210), not expecting to find any clues, but only to familiarize ourselves with the scene. So dear journal reader, if, going through my photo negatives, you wonder why I have two photos of a seedy hotel room, they are "for the true crime book". 

McFly, did something weird (though scientific) with the inspectors magnifying glass, allowing the wielder to see into astral space. We all looked, but the strangeness and horror of the situation overwhelmed most of us. We all saw up to three images through the glass. They looked like spirits or demons. One was rolling around on the floor where we had spotted a faint bloodstain, crooning about how lovely blood is. Another looked like a sad, eyeless woman. She said it was very sad what they did to babies. She said she wanted to leave, so I asked her to follow me to a church. I left and asked the desk clerk where the nearest church was, and walked to it and stayed a few minutes, but the others tell me that the eyeless woman looked like she tried to follow me, but was unable to pass the doorway. 

The inspector managed to talk to the spirit who wanted blood (named Smoke), and it said it would tell us all about that night for several drops of blood. This sparked quite a debate, and I was rather glad that it was over by the time I came back. 

In addition to other ToDo, 
Deal with the spirit
track down Shandra, ask about the "other guy" who bought her dress. 
Exorcisms?  Can we find anyone who can do those here?

ChrisDDickey
Posts:1011
Joined:Sun Nov 27, 2016 10:02 pm

Re: 1879: The Expendables

Post by ChrisDDickey » Thu Apr 29, 2021 10:24 pm

We talked about giving "Smoke" blood. Everybody was against it except for Smyth. I voted to find an Anglican Vicar and try an exorcism. We finally decided to table the whole "Spirits in the hotel room" topic with the understanding that after our investigations were over we might come back and attempt to find somebody to do an exorcism. We decided to go to the Pinkerton Agency to see if agent Mark DeAngilo (Pinkerton who worked Pearl Briant's case) was available. He was not, but the receptionist told us that when he was free he would contact us at our hotel. Smyth made a date with the Troll Receptionist, and they went to a bar for barbecue and drinks. There he learned that Janet Grant was the Pinkerton agent who really did the detective work, Mark DeAngilo just took the credit. Grant is recently married. 

In the meantime I went to the brothel where Shandra is now working and negotiated a price with the madam, In the room I informed Shandra that I desired just conversation. I promised a very heavy tip for the story. She confirmed that Jackson had an accomplice. She was not certain what name he was using, other than that it was fake. She thinks it was Don, Shawn, or John or some such. She gave a good description of the accomplice.Dark hair and eyes, mediteranian complexion, foriegn accent (indeterminate). She had seen him and Jackson together at a party at the school. She thinks they were best friends and/or lived in the same dorms. She did not think he was studying dentistry or medicine, but thought he was studying something more bookish. Engineer, Architecture, or Accountancy maybe.

She said that Peril was drugged when she first arrived, flying higher than the clouds. Jackson was acting like a nervous twit, panicked. The other guy was cold and creepy. Kept saying it would all be fine, and to just follow the plan. He said that he had friends that would make sure it all worked out. She said he was an evil little F***, and that she would  not go into a room alone with him. She did not know if it was police laziness that made the police so uninterested in hearing  about an accomplice, or whether the guy really did have enough pull not to have to worry about a murder charge. She was certain t hat the guy came from serious money, Gave her $10 for her dress dress that was not worth 1/10th that. 

She said that Peril's case was notable mainly due to Peril's good family name. She was able to list 10 names of girls who simply disappeared in the last 3 years, and 6 more dead in particularly nasty ways. 
Meeting with DeAngilo was a waste of time. We learned nothing. Later that night we checked and found that the ghost had reformed. We kept our distance and did not engage. The ghost would arise from where the body was found, and seem to be reliving the end of her life. After falling to the ground where her body was found, it would get up and appear to search the area, maybe looking for something.before appearing to suffer her death again. We speculated as to what she was searching for, and had agreed it was probably her head, when Paul suddenly wondered if in addition to the head being missing, the baby might also have been taken from the scene. 

ToDo, meat packing plant. Check out school and dorm.  Find out who Jackson's friend was. 400 ap, plus 200, plus journals. 

Psitanium
Posts:39
Joined:Mon Jul 22, 2019 8:01 pm

Re: 1879: The Expendables - McFly's Journal

Post by Psitanium » Thu Apr 29, 2021 10:40 pm

Investigation continued in the case of a headless ghost, a missing baby and a blood-thirsty spirit. The latter issue was tabled when my objections to giving hostile spirits blood were noted. I would not be surprised if we returned to this dingy room before the end, but for now we can enjoy nicer surrounding talking to prostitutes.

Basically this day was a good opportunity for party to talk to women while I stood in a corner. The detective talked to the blood spirit, the troll went on a date with a nice troll lady he met and the hunter spent some, ahem, quality time with the prostitute in question. Just to rub in the obvious sleight to my prowess with females living, dead or scientifically improbable, they plan on heading to a meat packing plant later today.

So what have we learned so far? Well, there is a headless ghost lady who was dressed like the lady of the night we questioned. She was apparently pregnant, but we have no idea where the baby is. At least 16 women have gone missing in the last few years. Pinkertons are not actually pink. You need a whole district to pack meat. I can shoot ghosts. Licking rivers is not as enjoyable as advertised. Farmers hate it when you throw their eggs at their windows. Everyone in this town has blessed my heart… twice. Although, that last one may have something to do with the number of ghosts here.

Psitanium
Posts:39
Joined:Mon Jul 22, 2019 8:01 pm

Re: 1879: The Expendables - McFly's Journal

Post by Psitanium » Thu May 27, 2021 11:22 pm

We interviewed the coroner, who seemed really into dead people. We let the detective person ask questions, as that is sort of his job. It appears he did not get the most satisfactory of answers, which means we shall annoyingly continue our investigation at the school. I did inquire if I could bring some of the cadavers to the school for show and tell, but apparently that is frowned upon. So much so that the rest of my group decided to look up murder records rather than take me there.

We headed to the Sin Sin Atti (sounds untoward) courthouse to get ahold of the coroner’s report. After juggling record books for a few minutes, an epiphany hit me. Actually, that was one of the books. However, getting hit on the head with a weighty tome made me realize I could open it up and read the words inside. Perhaps the smell of the records room had gotten to me.
These records started to paint an intriguing picture. All the women were murdered on holidays. Also, many of the female parts had been removed or damaged. There was enough skill used that we would narrow our search to hunters, surgeons, butchers, possibly a fencer. At least this keeps our search more contained.

Finally, we could head back to school. The great mustache made us forged credentials, a skill he just recently remembered he could perform. He made me a mellitologist, a researcher of bees. I am scared he has learned far too much about me already.
While mustache detective led the records lady away to the law section and photo hunter used all the diplomacy to allow me into the records room. Using my acute eidetic memory, I was able to remember Jackson’s student records, as well as the records of his roommate Alonso Walling and the entire membership of something called the Black Tie Association. Ah yes, this new Professor Boaty McBoatface persona is truly a marvel. Perhaps I will make the change official so people will take me seriously.

ChrisDDickey
Posts:1011
Joined:Sun Nov 27, 2016 10:02 pm

Re: 1879: The Expendables

Post by ChrisDDickey » Fri May 28, 2021 8:51 am

Lord Bentleys Journal continues.

We went back to talk to Dr Henry Conly to ask about the whereabouts of the fetus, but our direct inquiries into such a touchy subject offended him, I fear we will get no more information from him. We stopped by the Cincinnati courthouse to look up the records of the Cincinnati coroner's inquests. We started with the 6 murders that Shandra had told us about, and found a pattern that they had all taken place on Christian Holy days (All Saints day, Christmas day, Advent, etc.). When we used this pattern to search for other related victims, we over a dozen more. females from 15 years of age up to their late 20s. All lower class, ether street walkers, or in orphanages, or from lower class families. The murders started more than 3 years ago, and have grown steadily more gruesome. The original victims were often simply gutted, but others had their wombs extracted, and/or ovaries harvested. And all occurred on Christian holy days. In the more recent cases the butchery appears more expert. So far it appears that neither the police nor the press have tied these murders together. 

We decided to visit the univercity next. Paul forged up some documents for us. Mine was a letter of introduction on what appeared to be Cambridge University letterhead stating that I was a doctoral student in French Literature and requesting that I be given access to the papers (stored in the university of Cincinati archives) of a minor American poet of the last century, who is known to have corresponded with several French poets. 

Paul managed to draw the administrator off by asking her to show him the archives personally, and I guarded the door to the records rooms while McFly went into the student records and looked up Jacksons records, which he quickly memorized. This gave us all of his classes, his professors, and his grades.He was a member of the Rowing club, and the Dentistry club.  Most importantly, we learned that all three years of his attendance he was roommates with one Allonzo M Walling. McFly looked up Walling's records and found he graduated last May from the school of Business with a Bachelors in Business and a minor in Accounting. He was in the Chess Club, Honors list, and something called the Black Tie Association. He also looked up the Black Tie Association (a social club) and got a copy of their membership running back several years. 

In the meantime, Smyth was at a nearby pub to see what he could turn up, and observed somebody called "Al" exchange secret handshakes with two other guys. (James Wright  and Lazlo) 

Next stop, the library and the yearbooks!
No AP awarded.  

Post Reply