September 26 - Oct 22, 1921 - (Skullhouse Date February 2, 2016) Part 1

Loot From Drood –
Copy of “The Black Book”
 A large bell jar containing dead rats.
A dozen small numbered jars containing what appears to be ordinary earth, a veritable spice rack of common and exotic herbs and spices, mostly in similar glass jars.
Several bundles of small bones and half a mummified human foot (probably Egyptian – certainly partly ground up to provide “mummy dust” for some spell or other).
There’s a “toolkit” containing small knives, files, chisels and hammers as well as tongs and a number of metal rods between six inches and a foot in length. There is also what may be a thousand dollars worth of fine platinum wire… (A lot more of this is part of the floor symbol and was left behind when the sanctum was dynamited).
One box (an ordinary wooden cigar box) contains pens, pencils and a number of bottles of variously colored ink.
There are also an assortment of amulets. Ankhs, serpents, symbols of every sort in wood, bone, metal... Some may be of considerable monetary value.
The jars and boxes include a number of pieces of remarkable workmanship and value:
•    A small ivory box of African workmanship with delicate carvings of elephants and trees (contains a mysterious white powder).
•    An ebony box about the size of a cigar box with intricate abstract carvings (Malasia?) - contains a quantity of dried vegetable matter or fungus).
•    A Chinese porcelain urn of considerable antiquity and great beauty – but rather chipped and discolored - half full of some sort of leaves.
•    A small pottery container in the shape of a crouching toad; ?Meso-American? and very ancient – contains a gravely grey substance.
  The papers recovered are a muddle, mostly the diary or ravings of Drood – They are not in any sensible order although some sheaves appear to be bound intentionally together.
Some of the papers appear to contain notes on “The Black Book” and may reward study.  The hand varies from the familiar hand of Drood to a wilder, more difficult to read, scrawl, which, while it is definitely still Drood’s,  is much harder to decipher. The sheets scattered nearer the nasty goo-covered chair in the center of the symbol on the floor seem to be the most recent and the most incoherent: Lots of phonetic gibberish “Phataghn! I’a! I’a! Tsathoggua!” AND “I am BECOMING! On the great day when I am one with the LORD TOAD. I’a! I’a! SAINT TOAD! The spirals are nearing completion…” “Children are such tasty morsels… Food for the soul. My power grows.”   Etc. etc….

The memorial service for the police officers killed at the Blue Fox and for Joseph Linehan occurs and the whole Drood affair is carefully covered up.

In the next week a Catholic priest named Father LeClerque appraches the investigators individually; questioning them about the death of Father Kolvenbach.

On October 10th Jessie Cook and detective Gregory contact the investigators as quickly as possible to inform them that Harry Gray has managed to slip out of town despite ordinary police surveillance. As a result of this the investigators take precautions - generally by leaving their known lodgings.

Pictures from 1906 News Coverage of the Excavation of the "New Spur"

The Black Book - As Discovered by the Investigators.

Prominent among the items recovered from the sanctum of Drood was a copy of the 1939 "Das Buch von den Unaussprechlichen Kulten" by Friedrich Wilhelm von Junzt. The scattered, and often difficult to read, notes of Drood, found at the same time, often seem to refer to that volume and there appear to be a lot of pages of his own translation of it... But... very much scattered and out of sequence.

The Black Book

SPOILERS BELOW - SPOILERS BELOW 

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  I chanced to recall the inclusion of this book in the background of the (now presumably defeated) sorcerer, Charles Aaron Drood and thought I ought to go a ways beyond what was included in the Call of Cthulhu game materials.  I have been going through the horror stories of Robert Howard, whence the book originates, and was looking for pictures and other peoples ideas on the web... When I found this trove of material ready to be used. 

Wewelsberg Castle - fictively important in the background of the author of "The Black Book" - Actually used in the real world as a sort of metaphysical heart of Himmler's SS.

  I usually don't bother to cite the sources I have plundered for game material... But I was very inspired by the quantity and quality of material relating to "The Black Book" (Von Unausspreclichen Kulten OR Of Unspeakable Cults)which was researched and invented (with a seamless combination of the two) by the creator of this site: http://www.rehtwogunraconteur.com/
  I am an an occasional visitor to the site, which is all about Robert Howard, but had somehow missed the six part series on Jon Junzt and Von Unausspreclichen Kulten.

Naturally, I'll be reinterpreting things to suit my campaign...

Three News Items in the Examiner Monday, September 26, 1921

                 Shootout at Lake Merced
                                                     Two Men Dead
 Late Sunday afternoon police officers found two men dead beside an automobile along the coastal road near Lake Merced. A shootout had occurred with each man having fired several shots from weapons which were found, still in their hands. The time of the shooting is uncertain as firing by police officers at the nearby coastal shooting range probably covered the sound.

  According to Detective Walter Gregory, who was among the officers who discovered the bodies, one of the dead is a local man named Jake Luzinsky, until recently employed by the United Service Detective Agency. The other man is unknown to local police but is identified by papers in his possession as Clarence Dobbs of San Jose.
 
The automobile, belonging to Mr. Dobbs, was found to be carrying 144 bottles of bootleg liquor and an illicit business deal gone wrong is believed to be the cause of the killings.


                   Gunfire on Red Rock Hill
                           Actually Blank Cartridges

                                     Weekend Emergency Work By The  DPW
  Gunshots and an explosion heard by citizens in the vicinity of 16th and Castro were a result of an emergency job undertaken by members of the Department of Public Works.
  A charge of dynamite was used to collapse a tunnel beneath the  old Gray Brothers brick works high on the east face of Red Rock Hill. This tunnel presented a very grave and immediate danger to houses downslope and its destruction in a prompt and safe manner will ensure that no landslides occur, such as those which are a subject of litigation, elsewhere on the hill.
  The gunshots heard by members of the public were blanks fired to warn the members of the crew of the impending explosion.

                                       Obituaries

                   Joseph P. Linehan Dead at Age 44
                                     Tragic Automotive Mishap
  On Sunday afternoon one of San Franciscos finest civil servants died in a tragic accident.
  Joseph P. Linehan, whose dedication and perspicacity were responsible for the demolition of a dangerous structure on Red Rock Hill earlier in the day, was killed when his car ran off the road on Skyline Boulevard in Daly City.
  Mr. Linehan’s car suffered a flat tire on a curve and plunged to destruction far below. The accident was witnessed by Leland Court, secretary to Mayor Rolph, who was driving the same stretch of road. Mr. Court states that the car was being driven at a reasonable speed and that the accident appeared to be completely unforeseeable and unavoidable.
  Joseph Linehan is survived by a wife, Heloise, and two  children, Joseph Jr., 7,  and Amanda 9.

September 24-25, 1921 - (Skullhouse Date February 2, 2016)

SPOILERS BELOW - SPOILERS BELOW 

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Saturday, Sept. 24
The investigators make short work of digesting the contents of Harold Gray’s Little Red Book:
The contents are clear and easy to read, consisting of three sections with some useful hints or warnings and help with pronunciation.
1) A ritual for protection against domination of the mind - Detailed and relatively simple, with some tips on pronunciation. Accompanying is an illustration depicting the iron cage apparatus, found in the secret room. It requires also a ritual knife, and some of the blood of the “operator” the effect is claimed to extend to a ten foot radius and to last for “some hours”.
George Gray suggests that the ritual be done in the pre-dawn hours and contact with Drood be made only during daylight.

2) The Voorish Sign. A simple set of instructions for a set of thirteen hand gestures and an incantation to produce what appears to be a spell for rendering other spells more effective. It is stated that this ritual would improve the previous protective spell against mental domination by extending the effect for a full day and “enhance the potency”.

3) The Sigil - There is a spell for making one of the triskelion symbols “active”... It requires an incantation and a bit of blood.

With the Voorish sign and a careful study of the ritual for protection, the investigators are ready to go. Plans are made to cast the pair of spells early Sunday morning and to move on the old brick works by daylight.

Sunday, September 25
  The spell casting seems to work and the “cage” becomes suffused with a shadowy sort of darkness which is mildly disturbing to look at…
  The RCV support consists of Jessie Cook, Inspector Gregory, a new recruit from the shotgun squad named Tom Malloy, a detective the investigators do not know named Neil Corcoran and Joseph Linehan from the Department of Public Works. Shotguns are carried by just about everyone.
Lights, tools and dynamite are also carried.
  Sarah makes a point of cautioning everyone to stay within the ten foot radius of the ritual cage device, which may be its limit of protection.
  By daylight on Sunday the group approaches the brick works. They are attacked by Jake Luzinsky and another United Service operative and a gun battle ensues. A third attacker with a rifle opens fire from near the summit of the hill and Dr. Marsh is badly wounded. Joseph Linehan is killed… Dr. Marsh is carrying special ammunition for his shotgun and he brings down the rifleman with a slug.
  After first dropping a stick of dynamite down the  shaft the investigators make their way down the nearly thirty foot ladder – being careful to remain within the influence of the “cage”. Around this point Gregory nearly panics but is brought round by Sarah.
  Drood is seen first as a black sihouette with redly glowing eyes and his hollow voice is heard as, from the far end of a twenty-five foot chamber, he invokes another of the, previously encountered “demons”.
  Massed gunfire has an effect and the demon is vanquished. Drood escapes down a stairway while the investigators are briefly beset by hordes of rats.
  As the investigators move down the steps there is a commotion as Drood is seen by Cook and the other RCV detective behind them. This causes the detective to panic and flee but no further harm is done.
  At the bottom of the concrete stairs Dr. Marsh is in the lead when they emerge into a larger, roughly circular, chamber carved in the red rock – some sixty feet across. The doctor is nearly caught by the hypnotic effect of a corruscating light ball set in the wall just at the foot of the steps. He fires his shotgun into the ball and it shatters…
  Drood confronts the investigator from roughly the center of the chamber immediately before a twenty-five foot triskelion which appears carved into the floor of the chamber. Drood is fully revealed as a tall humanoid form, much of his body glistening blackly but with pallid fleshy bits which seem to be in motion – flowing across his form. Dr. Marsh throws dynamite which lands just behind Drood. The explosion stops whatever spell Drood had been attempting and lands him more or less at the investigators feet.
  Hector Gonzalez runs shrieking towards the investigators, being attacked by a horde of rats and he is shot down.
  The dead or dying Drood, with bits of pale human flesh showing intermittently, is blasted in the head with a shotgun and black sludge flows out the neck-stump… The whole of the body seems to flow out, leaving nothing but a puddle of nastiness.
  There’s a chair in the center of the large triskelion, dripping more black goo. The triskelion is elaborately worked with fine lines apparently engraved on most of its surface. It is damaged from the dynamite blast…  Two apparent Gate circles are found on the walls of the chamber, one of them entirely intact. Not for long…
  A shelf with papers and many small jars and bottles is found and looted. – Details of the material will be forthcoming… (I forget what I actually described and have lost track of the list… But I hope I will find it.)
The chamber is set with all the remaining dynamite and the investigators and RCV leave,. blowing the whole thing up behind them. The effect outside is underwhelming… A deep but muffled roar and a brief plume of dust shoots up from the shaft.

September 18-23, 1921 - (Skullhouse Date January 26, 2016)

 

SPOILERS BELOW - SPOILERS BELOW 

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Sunday, Sept. 18
  After the morning interview with Eric Ralston, the maimed survivor of the 1914 Chapel Raid, the investigators lunch and plan a shopping expedition.
The investigators purchase gasoline in a can, carbide lamps and extra flashlights, as well as shovels and other digging tools…
  Research continues but an expedition up Red Rock Hill is put off till Dr. Marsh can obtain dynamite.

Monday, Sept. 19
  Dr. Marsh obtains half a case of dynamite which he is assured is of good quality (apparently there were some “sweating” sticks, but the artillery Sgt. Got rid of those by tossing them over the Presidio cliffs into the sea). Included are blasting caps and all that is needed.
  Sarah and Sophie have gotten more information out of their mound of books and notes.The two are attempting to figure out what Father Kolvenbach tried to use as a spell of Dismissal. It seems that the Father was placing faith born of desperation in his use of the Elder Sign, which does appear in some of the Dismissal and protective spells. The Elder Sign is occasionally referred to in the text in terms which suggest that it has great significance as a protective symbol. However – the  Cultus Maleficarum (A translation or derivative work of the Necronomicon), which Kolvenbach did not have access to, presents what appears to be a spell to “render puissant” or“activate” “Ye Sign of the Elder Ones”. And the inescapable meaning is that the Elder Sign, absent a rather involved spell, may be no more potent than a copy of the Chapel’s triskelion as drawn by one of the investigators.
  Unfortunately the language of the Cultus Maleficarum is elliptical, contains annoying apparent omissions… It’s not a bit like reading instructions translated and arranged by Father Kolvenbach.
Example from the text -

Capitulum xxxvi

Now, O Acolyte, ye friend of darknesse who have learnt ye these sekrets off our holie Order that ye may seek perfekt knowing of things forgot and forbade, may ye know the armour that shielde the seeker. Herewith Ye Signe of ye Elder Ones, howe it be mayde puissant.

With ye well known words of the Sage shalt thou begin. Thereafter, make certain purgations lest thy inward and outward meine make affront unto those forces needfully channeled. Next with beeswax, most pure, though there are sundry alternate material, render a solide yet malleable forme  of fiste  size to shew ye signe as drawne below.   [A familiar image of the Elder Sign accompanies the text – this one the star with branchy thing in an ellipse] … Or, as maye be, this simpler forme shale suffice.  [A drawing of the Elder Sign as a a simple seven branched “twig”]. A true Acolyte will knowe the better of the two or a third which must be found in the Booke known to hym.

  In the afternoon Tom stakes out the workplace of Jiman Gonzalez and follows him. Jiman turns out to be heading for home and he apparently spots Tom and returns back down the hill towards Market and Castro. Shortly thereafter, a car full of what must be United Service dicks show up, one of them walking up 16th towards the shack. Tom leaves.
  That evening the investigators speak with Jessie Cook at the hospital. Cook tells them that he is going to have Det. Sgt. Gregory go back to the Gonzalez shack later in the evening and look for Hector. He has asked Gregory to cooperate with the investigators…
When the investigators contact Gregory, Sophie manages to use her charm to get him, more or less, on their side and they are allowed to follow along. Gregory has gotten a couple of young uniformed cops from the shotgun squad and the plan is for them to walk in from the west and be at the back door of the shack when he drives up and enter the front. The time is set for 9 o’clock exactly.
  Everything goes as planned. The two shotgun squad officers are somewhat disturbed by the “devil worship” evidenced by the altar in the back room they enter through and there are signs that somesort of magic circle was being created in the main room. Jiman is cuffed, having apparently been engaged in carving a new stone disc . Tom and Dr. Marsh out back of the shack hear something. The pair and Gregory split up, going after someone who is moving about on the hill overlooking their position.
Meanwhile Sophie tries to question Jiman who is handcuffed in Det. Gregory’s car. This prompts responses, partly in Spanish and partly in English to the effect that his father is with Drood and that Drood will be back in a month… Jiman winds up by bitting his tongue or his lip and bleeding profusely.
  Up on the hill, by the old brick works Marsh and Tom hunt an armed man wearing a trench coat… Inspector Gregory catches the man, who turns out to be a United Service op. assigned to bodyguard Jiman…
  Jiman, bleeding all over himself, has been muttering something suspiciously like an incantation and Sophie is relieved when one of the shotgun squad officers whacks him in the head with his gun-butt.
  It’s around this time that the tingling sensation, known to arise from an active triskelion symbol is felt on the hill and by Sarah, and later Sophie on the road. …Then Marsh finds himself unable to resist an influence which makes him try to shoot Tom. He is stopped by Gregory … Gregory recognizes the effect from the Chapel raid. As Gregory escorts the handcuffed PI down the path, Tom and Dr. Marsh discard their firearms and attempt to examine three large cylindrical constructions set in the ground as part of the brick making or quarrying apparatus. They discover a suspicious lock holding a lid on one of the… bins…
  Everything is abandoned when Gregory shoots his prisoner dead –apparently against his will.
The retreat turns hasty. Sarah has already driven away to make a call to Jessie and she noted the dropping off, gradually, of the tingling effect… Now some minutes later the effect simply vanishes, as mysteriously as it began. Walter Gregory seems a bit distressed but the investigators agree to go along with his story that the prisoner got loose with a handcuff key secreted on his person and pulled a concealed gun (Gregory is carrying a second gun which seems well suited to this purpose…).

Tuesday, Sept. 20
  A call from Walter Gregory brings the news that Jiman has been discovered to have triskelion tattoo on his chest… covered in the blood from the previous evening. Gregory, not any kind of fool, has checked the records on Hector Gonzalez. Since Gregory was not present when the elder Gonzalez was searched, he was unaware of the fact that he too had a triskelion tattoo on his chest… This may, somehow explain the mysterious escape of Hector Gonzalez
  Tom and Dr. Marsh go up the hill during the day and manage to open the lid of the center bin in the old brick-works/quarry. The moving patch of black twenty-five feet down the shaft, thus revealed is merely rats… The creepy hollow voice barely audible from below is… unsettling…   The fact that Tom is impelled, simultaneous with a renewal of the tingling, to attempt to brain Dr. Marsh with a crowbar, causes the two to abandon the investigation and leave… discussing, as they go, the certain danger of bringing dynamite near the place.
  Bits of information suggest that Gray… (Well, the dead George Gray, anyway) had a means of protection from the mind controlling effect which the mysterious “D” was able to use. The effect seems to have been a spell of some sort, known also to a few of the other Chapel members.
 
Wednesday, Sept. 21
  The investigators research the Gray Mansion at the corner of Pacific and Laguna. It turns out that the plans are available but, probably as a result of three separate renovations or modifications since the turn of the century, the basement plan is missing.
  Surveillance of the house shows that Gray does come and go - not every day but in normal business hours when he does so. He has servants, including someone who appears to be a butler and they leave at night. Two United Service operatives patrol the property twenty-four hours a day… but with some degree of regularity.
  Tom manages to pick the pocket of the butler for what seems to be the single important house key and the key is copied and returned without arousing suspicion.
 
Thursday, Sept. 22
  Gray stays home. Plans are made…

Friday, Sept. 23
  Gray is watched and that night, all proceeds as expected. Gray retires. The servants depart. The United Service men patrol.
  And at 4Am on the morning of September 24, Tom slips in through the garage and into the basement.
  The basement is clean and nicely wood paneled. Tom discovers a locked room which tturns out to contain, scrap wood , old furniture and some locked metal boxes, two of which seems to contain something heavy --- papers or (clink) gold coins. Another opens to reveal a fumbled shower of gems and jewelry… But this is not what Tom is looking for.
Tom discovers that the central bulk of the basement is inaccessible and searches out a secret door in, hidden by the paneling. Through considerable luck, Tom finds a key and enters the secret room.
  The secret room contains:
•    An unadorned altar
•    A  gong
•    A floor painted with a very traditional looking magic circle
•    A large bas relief of a squat toad-like, somewhat anthropomorphic figure
•    A curtained wall featuring the familiar circle of symbols which appear to be a Gate – This one intentionally damaged.
  No triskelion is in evidence.
There is a yellow draped table on which are found a number of objects:
•    A large (pewter?) cup like the one found at the Gonzalez shack. This is also stained within and carries the stench of blood.
•    A dagger, a small bell with what seems to be a plasticine handle and more plasticine within and a curious abstract-looking plaque of gold wires – about palm size.
•    Various small pots of what might be sand or moss or ash… One vial is definitely that same Black Lotus powder which has turned up before.
•    A small, red leather book. It is handwritten, and begins: “This book holds some of the works most likely of success for one of limited ability. If ever needful, Harold, do not seek to use any others. For needs not covered, speak with Drood. But never trust him fully.” Next Page”A sovereign protection against domination of the mind may be had through use of the device….” There are drawings of hand gestures, magic circles, and a figure which looks just like an odd, spherical iron cage.
•    There is an artifact just like the one described above. The cage is about 6-8” in diameter and Tom removes from it and damages another of those small (1 ½”) stones with a triskelion etched into one face
•    Under the table is a small wooden sea chest containing a hank of black hair and some oriental tissue paper which appears to have wrapped a missing object smaller than a shoe. There is also a sheet of paper dated Feb3 – 1881 or 2 on which is a drawing of a simple figure of an inverted L or broken C with a circle in it’s open end over a triangle. The circle is described in text as being “…a faceted semi-precious stone – green in color”  The remaining text states: “This is the key to contacting those that are able to provide us access to almost unlimited knowledge and, therefore, almost  unlimited power. The purchase or other acquisition of this artifact is paramount for with it D. may well be able to attain his purpose, and we, ours.”
  Heavily burdened, Tom makes his escape