After a 6 months hiatus, the players reconvene to continue their investigation. Buckle up! Also, here's a picture with all the new props our Keeper provided: cards for any relevant people we meet with a portrait and space for notes.
As expected, we spent a lot of time trying to remember what we actually did, how the investigation went, and who did we meet. Notes and blog posts to the rescue!
Investigators
- Amos
- Archie
- Lucy MacLean
- Nemesio Sanchez
Wednesday, January 21st, 1925
We skipped the day due to a snowstorm.
Thursday, January 22nd, 1925
In the first part of the day, we visited the Juju House, one of our last leads mentioned by multiple people. This was Sanchez's show, due to all the archaeology/anthropology checks to be made. Silas, the proprietor, sold religious/magical ritual objects in his shop, all imported from Africa. So not just regular handcrafted items - this rang our first alarm bell. He had some weapons, of interest to Amos, and a back door, of interest to all of us. Sanchez bought a tribal drum allegedly with human skin covering, while I noticed that Silas is slightly insane. He did not react to Jackson Elias' name, so we had no further ideas.
In the evening, we followed up on our scheduled meeting with Millie Addams[1] at Lafayette theater. Archie was missing, due to a private meeting.[2] She was somewhat fearful, but I managed to calm her, and reassured her about us wanting to help. Unfortunately at this point, Amos and Sanchez both noticed people listening to our conversation, and they immediately gave chase. Millie panicked and ran out the back door. Sighing and remembering all the advice about not splitting the party, I followed.
With the party now split into 3 groups - yikes! - we followed up on the chase. Amos and Sanchez caught the guy just outside the theater and pinned him to the ground. Well, he shouted about white people wanting to kill him. On a crowded street. In Bronx. A mob immediately formed, and ignored all warnings about police and such. We had a long discussion related to chase rules[3], but in the end, we ended with the mob chasing the guys who retreated into the theater and left their would-be victim on the street.
I quickly caught up to Millie on a different street.
Archie later came around the theater, learning from the locals that they "really showed it to a couple of white guys".
Sigh.
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We continued next time right in the middle of the chase. The guys successfully got away after a few riveting minutes running through the theater, out the back door, unto the streets, and quickly flagged down a cab, back to the hotel. Archie showed up there as well, after not finding any of us around the theater.
I had the long scene here. A couple of psychology checks were needed to calm Millie, but she did agree to join me for tea and, well, spill the tea. Nothing actually new, but everything she said shored up our investigation. For starters, Hilton was innocent. He simply noticed the murders, called up on his old buddies from the Harlem Hellfighters[4] and started patrolling the streets. Not only were the murders ignored by the police, but, after Dr. Leming proclaimed the existence of a death cult, the local leaders tried to suppress the news as well. After he stopped a murder by chasing away a would-be assassin, he was soon arrested for a different murder, of a middle aged white guy. Apparently they found him near the corpse, bloody, with his old war-time bolo knife. This was a rock solid case, and the community tried in vain to free him through crowdfunded legal means. Millie swore his husband never took the knife out their home. However, after the police came searching, they took Hilton's notebook, and the knife disappeared as well.
And one more thing: Hilton once mentioned the Juju House, but Millie had no context for that.
I proposed she come with me to our hotel if she feared for her life, but Millie refused.
Friday, January 23rd, 1925
With a couple of hours to spend before our scheduled visit at Sing Sing, we met Rebecca to ask about Hilton's alleged murder. The victim was a local baker, with no relation to anything.
We visited Hilton, but not before being searched by an unfriendly prison guard called Bronton.[5] Now Hilton was a veritable wellspring of information. He told us about people disappearing every month on the darkest day of the month, never to be found again. The murders were seemingly reactionary whenever somebody got close to the facts. We asked about the murder he stopped, and he described a guy dressed in a funny headdress - matching the murderers of Jackson Elias.
The murder he is accused of smelled like an obvious setup. During his patrols, he heard shouting and found the dead guy in an alley. As he leaned down to investigate, the police immediately showed up to arrest him - highly unlikely.
All this was well and good, but nothing to help us in our investigation. But there was the Juju House lead. Hilton said the place was the only shop selling things from Kenya, relating to what Dr. Leming said about a death cult. Hilton himself never got inside the place, but he did tail a suspect looking black guy from there to a local speakeasy, and nobody wanted to talk about him. And finally, nobody ever disappeared in the immediate vicinity of the Juju House, although the place was like the center point of a circle for the disappearances.
That was our time with Hilton, and we drove back to NYC. We were stopped by a police car, and the cops drew guns on us and beat us up, with further threats if we don't stop meddling around. They even punched Lucy in the face and stole her memento pistol. I was fuming.[6]
Well obviously we did not stop meddling around. We visited the speakeasy mentioned by Hilton. Unfortunately, the locals recognized Amos and Sanchez, and we rolled all social interactions with disadvantage. No new info about anything, and nobody wanted to talk about the Juju House.
At least a new moon was coming up in 3 days according to the Keeper. Coincidence? I think not.
With nothing else to do (except possibly break into the Carlyle mansion), we decided on investigating the Juju House. Archie booked a room in the vicinity, and we did a 48 hour stakeout. We noticed Silas coming and going, as well as one of the cops who beat us up, and the funny looking other guy. We decided to go in on the third day at dinner time, when nobody should be at home.
Archie lockpicked the front door, and we quickly looked into Silas' living quarters behind the other door. Nothing unusual, except the trap door under the rug. We descended into a deep basement, meeting another door. This one Archie couldn't lockpick, but he and Amos broke it down.
In the basement, we found a large ritual altar with unknown script on it. I drew the curtains on a side chamber, where the sight of four standing corpses greeted me, along with a plethora of items hanging on the walls. One of the corpses, with her guts hanging out, was Millie. And then she turned towards me.
CLIFFHANGER ENDING!!!
[1] Hilton's wife, who is the guy convicted for murder and on death row in Sing Sing
[2] The Keeper kept calling the player out of the room for these things
[3] I tuned out after a while
[4] Relevant music video here
[5] Archie being a local, the Keeper leant into him knowing how many black people were convicted and executed here using Old Sparky, the electric chair
[6] Thanks to Archie, the Keeper rolled that in 3 days, the pistol will surface in a local pawnshop.
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