The Masks of Nyarlathotep pt2

A report on the Paris Investigation by Barbara Smythe

 

Wednesday July 23rd

My pager went off during Timothy's Birthday Party. So for once I put my family first.

 

Thursday July 24th

Arrived at HQ to be informed that a man called Elton Jackson had been found dead on the Eurostar as it arrived in London. The victim’s body had been killed in an occultist manner - we later found out that this was to be the cult of the bloody tongue. This was a real shock as Elton Jackson I had met on behalf of EH, whilst he had been researching his book “Witch cults in Britain”. We at EH didn't like his book but here with my other hat on we’re amazed at how spot on he had been about the Children of Light not being pleasant.

 

Elton Jackson had been out of the country trying to research the truth behind the deaths of Aubrey Penhew and Roger Carlyle. The team went to visit his publisher, Jonathan Kensington, who fills us in on Elton's travels. After his stay in Hong Kong Elton Jackson started referring to “air demons” and didn't take a plane again.

 

Back at HQ it’s decided that Alex and I are to liaise with the Parisian police, or should I say Alex liaise and maybe I get to practice my French skills. No going home tonight as we have a very early start in the morning so I ring home and chat with my darlings. Michael is getting very short as he hasn't forgiven me for my decoration of the house; little does he know that they are wardings.

 

Friday July 25th

Early morning flight to Paris, where we are met by Inspector Georges Duquesne. For some reason I let him give me a submachine gun for use if needed at “Ju-Ju House”. We get to do some practising first - let's just say I've been clocked for the novice I am.

 

We sit outside the Ju-Ju House until the sting has gone down. When Joe Public are all out the way Alex, Georges and I get to enter the property. In what looks like the sitting room we soon realise that the TV is regularly moved. So we moved the TV to find a trapdoor in the floor. Alex, then Claude and myself descend the staircase.

 

We discover that there are two curtains and an altar. Alex moves the first curtain nearest the stairs and finds two zombies, which Claude and Alex engage. Unfortunately these are not alone as I spot two more as they come out from behind the other curtain. I managed to shoot an arm off one of these zombies and it keeps coming. The other zombie I shot the legs completely off the body but it just pulls itself along.

 

I don't remember much more as I had a black out.

 

The blackout comes to an end when I come round in Centre Hospitalier, Sainte Anne, Paris - feeling very sore, especially my stomach, and groggy. Alex is present when the Doctor releases me and says not to eat anything in the next 24 hours and just drink water.

 

As we leave the hospital Alex says that he has a dinner appointment with a man called Mercredi who was a specialist at the Louvre who looked at the things that were recovered. After hearing this I decided to go with Alex for dinner (I think that this because I had been looking for a distraction and hadn't particularly wanted to be on my own).

 

On the way there Alex tells me the priest is dead and that he had the following items: a robe made out of Flamingo and Kingfisher feathers; Lion claw gauntlet; a metal coronet; the mask he had been wearing was tribal; 3ft long sceptre/club; bowl from the alcove made out of burnished copper with rune signs on the outside; the missing book from Harvard “Africa's Dark Sects”. These are all in the hands of Georges' team.

 

No sooner as I am digesting this information than we arrive at a lovely looking restaurant where I am introduced to the man Mercredi. Through the meal it becomes apparent that if he was British he would be apart of MI13. He appears to have an extremely in-depth knowledge of occult and mythos experience. I can't believe my ears when he starts to offer to teach us some spells “sense life”, “talking to dead”, “open the way”, “detect life” and “dreaming” which sounds similar to what we have already experienced. In my delicate state I decline to take him up on this offer but really feel that I would like to spend more time with him as his experience could prove to be very useful.