5 years passed since our adventures in Peru. We all kept in contact with each other and Jackson Elias, but lived our own separate lives. Lucy attended university, and carried on with her search for her father, accompanied by faithful Amos during her expeditions. Archibald returned to a life of crime. Karl was replaced by Prof. Sanchez, who felt the need to escape the university in Lima. We all received a telegram, asking us to reconvene our investigative group.
We met up at the Chelsea hotel and the designated day and hour, and walked up to Jackson's room 410. With no-one answering the knock on the door, Archie first tried to pick the lock, then kicked the door in. 3 masked men with machetes were standing around, having executed Jackson. They jumped out the window, down the fire escape. Archie went after them, followed by Amos. By the time I tried to step out, the entire structure collapsed. We rushed down to help Archie, pinned in place by a piece of iron ladder. Amos barely registered the killers' escape car, license plate NYL7.
By the time we got Archie out, the cops arrived as well.
Insert a month or so gaming hiatus during the summer holidays. However, we took it up quite smoothly next time.
First, we retconned a few actions. Sanchez and Lucy headed back to the room to search it, finding quite some clues, including a symbol carved into Jackson's forehead.
We were missing Archie, so the cops only found Amos downstairs. He lied about just having a smoke outside, and was left alone in the lobby. On second thought, we still had the unconscious Archie, so Amos took him to St. Bartholomew's, where they accepted blacks as well.[1]
While rummaging around, we posted Chang in front of the door, but he did not notice the policemen in time to warn us. He was immediately assaulted and handcuffed[2]. Hearing the noises, I decided to break cover, and screamed for help. Thus we came face to face with the two policemen, who immediately trained guns on us. Thankfully, they did not want to mess with a white lady too much[3], but we still had to wait for Lt. Poole.
I talked the lieutenant down, given that we obviously did not kill Jackson, seeing as we weren't covered head to toe in blood. I really had him talking, finding out about 9 previous similar murders, a certain Dr. Mordecai Leming who believes them to be the work of an African death cult, and superficial details regarding the Carlyle expedition mentioned in Jackson's telegram.
It was at this point that Sanchez mentioned Amos and him going through the room and crashing down. We were immediately taken into custody and interrogated one by one. Then at some point, his superior arrived, shouted him down and let us go.
We reconvened in a hotel room, checked our clues and got to work.
Our first trip took us to the library, where we read up on the Carlyle expedition. With my extreme success and a full day, we learned about a group of rich people traveling to Africa, possibly on the trail of King Solomon's mines, only to be brutally murdered by the natives. Or, that is the narrative told by the heiress, Carlyle's sister. Nothing suspicious at all.
We then researched the Harlem murders, starting with the day's newspaper about Jackson's death. I pushed and failed my Library use, having to take out the library boy to a date the day after. Sanchez had more luck flirting with the old librarian cat lady[4], finding out about a string of murders, all with the symbol carved into their forehead, and a suspect on death row.
We started the day after at Emerson Imports. Arthur Emerson, the proprietor, was fond of Jackson, and gladly helped us out. Apparently, they did imports from Africa, getting their goods from someone called Ahya Singh, living in Mambosa. With no idea what the goods actually are, they are passed to Silas [tongue click] in the Juju house. That was the name Jackson noted on the back of the business card, so it checked out. Arthur was not fond of Silas, however, and we got no further details.
At noon, we attended Jackson's funeral in Brooklyn, Cypress Hill cemetery. It was a small crowd, but we made sure to introduce ourselves with both Amos and Sanchez saying words about Jackson's murder awaiting resolution and/or revenge. I merely noted our adventures in Peru and our ongoing friendship. All that was enough for both Jackson's editor and attorney to approach us - the only other attendees, bar the reporters.
Jonah Kensington, Jackson's editor, invited us to discuss some affairs at Prospero publishing house. Carlton Ramsey, Jackson's attorney, told us about Jackson's will, which included us, apparently. We scheduled both for the following days. But first...
Lucy went on her date, spending the rest of her day in pleasant company. As revenge, I decided to screw up the boy's perception and expectations of women by giving him "what he would never again get in life". A hard success on a Credit Rating roll earned me the reward of picking whatever skill I wanted to improve, as long as I could argue for it. I picked Ride, so we went to a riding hall next, planting a very specific fetish in the guy.
Meanwhile, the guys decided to contact a female reporter from the crowd, as she was the only one not intimidated by Amos when I told him to shoo them away. Rebecca Shosenburg even tried to hit on him for her chance at a story.[5] The guys visited her at her office, finding several more leads, such as Cpt. Robson, who really wants to just execute the suspect on death row and have Lt. Poole stop his investigation; Adams, who could be innocent despite some evidence, and his African wife; and Dr. Leming, a professor of folklore, living in Murray Hill Hotel.
With our brains close to bursting, we halted the session and wound down.
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