Session 21 Notes
Recorded November 23, 2024
Our thanks to Ben for his extra effort with the notes.
General Summary
- Jon describes the assailants and he tells Cillian what happens.
- Cillian collects them both and starts to hear the sounds of whistles.
- He pushes Boris to go collect the doc from the room and Cillian goes to the desk to report what has happened.
- Jon catches Cillian up on what happened in the room as they wait for the police to arrive.
- Doc realizes the bottle of clear liquid smells like citrus. He sees a lot of newspapers from all over from the 13-15 of January. There also a bunch of blank papers that are scattered all over the floor. Nothing has been circled or torn out of the newspapers.
- Jackson Elias is strangley wearing only one glove on his left hand.
- Doc specifically checks the left hand and finds the skin underneath is disturbingly old and palsied. Very pale and covered in liver spots. It looks like the hand has actually shrunken.
- It looks like the hand of an extremely elderly man.
- Boris goes to check the bathroom as Doc draws the Symbol Carved into Jackson's Forehead.
- There are a few things belonging to Jackson in the bathroom, but he does notice there is a puddle of water with some snow in it.
- Down in the lobby an officer comes running into the lobby.
- Cillian tells him what happened and he immediately goes upstairs to the room.
- The officer rushes into the hotel room, sees whats going on, and then rushes back down to the lobby and out of the hotel.
- A few moments later he returns with another officer who stands to watch Cillian and Jon.
- Doc continues to examine the room he finds that the bloody print on the floor was of Jackson's right hand.
- Doc walks the officer through the room. He tells the officer that he was at one point a coroner but now works for Miskatonic.
- Boris provides his ID and the officer asks him to wait outside.
- Some time passes and eventually a detective shows up in the lobby.
- A little older, heavy set that used to be nothing but muscle. Clean suit, trench coat, sharp eyes.
- He engages with Cillian briefly but then heads directly upstairs.
- Doc provides the Detective with a run down of what happened and what they saw.
- Doc mentions that he believes it is a ritual killing and he can tell that the the detectives attention shifts to him.
- The detective is way more interested in the Doc and the hostility disappears.
- The detective is really keyed into the ritualistic nature of the killings.
- Doc asks who would take the time to carve the symbol
- Detective responds the NYPD believes that it is "Hilton Adams"
- This guy is in prison for murder.
- Doc tells the Detective all of the names of the people involved and gives him the details on how we know Jackson.
- The detective does however, ask them to come back to the precinct.
- Back in the lobby the Detective gets off the elevator with Doc and Boris in tow.
- Asks us to head to the precinct. We agree.
- We find out that his name is Martin Poole, a Lieutenant who investigates homicides. He is a specialist detective.
- He interviews all of us. We tell him what we know without hedging anything other than the reason why we were meeting with Jackson.
- He asks all of us how to get in touch with us. We tell him.
- He shows some interest in the Doc and reveals that this is the 9th murder of this kind to have happened in the last couple of years.
- They all had the same mark carved into their forehead.
- He asks if we know a Doctor Mordecai Lemming and we did run into a man by the that name in New Orlean's at the Symposium.
- The detective said that this Dr. claimed to be working with the 43rd precinct and he claimed the killings were the work of some sort of African Death Cult.
- Apparently they caught Adams in the act of committing the last of his murders.
- The victims were of all different races, ages, and sexes, but mostly in Harlem.
- Some were visitors to New York, but some were residents.
- He said the arrest happened near the public library.
- Lt. Poole said that he was transferred out of Harlem, for an unknown reason.
- Cillian gets the impression that he is avoiding talking about certain aspects of the Adams case. He gets the impression that this most recent murder is making him question the other murders.
- It seems he may believe that Adams was not what seems.
- He says that he can drop a line to the Doc if they learn anything.
- We leave the precinct well past midnight.
- We head back to the Hotel Chelsea and there is no one to chase us out.
- There is also a funeral announcement. The funeral has already been arranged at the Cyprus Hills cemetery in Brooklyn at 2pm tomorrow.
- We start to talk about the stuff that the Doc found and Boris remembers that the lecturer, Anthony Cowles, has a very attractive daughter named Ewa so his movements are noticed.
- He hangs out in the liberal arts building on Miskatonic Campus or in the Grafton Diner.
- We fast forward to the funeral the next afternoon.
- We arrive a bit early and find there is a very large crowd at the gate.
- There is a significant press presence and inside the cemetery there is a small group of 4 people by an open grave on a hill.
- We enter the cemetery and find that the four attendees include a reverend.
- The other three people are : an older pudgy gentleman a well dressed white male, the other two are african american, a slim gentlemen with oiled hair with a lot of energy and a younger woman very well dressed trying to fit in.
- They look at us with curiosity that we are there. The woman does not make eye contact with us.
- Non-denominational service, but at one point the minister asks if anyone wants to say anything, the other attendees do speak.
- The older white guy talks about working with Jackson was a treat and makes us believe that he is part of Jackson's publishing company.
- The young lady talks about how he never forgot about people back home who cared about him.
- The older black man talked about what a good friend Jackson was and he talks about a time in their childhood.
- John talks about how Jackson was a good dude, but the rest of us remain silent.
- But we do help bury the casket.
- As the funeral comes to the end and the other attendees leave the press mobs them asking questions.
- The other guy appears to be a lawyer.
- One of the reporters approaches the Doc as he is listening into the mix.
- She tries to get some separation from the rest of the group and asks the Doc about the Hilton Adams murders.
- She wants to know if there was any connection between Jackson's murder and Hilton Adams.
- Doc claims not to know anything and puts her off.
- As we are working the lawyer approaches us and immediately calls Floyd out by name.
- And then Boris, John, and Cillian in turn. He says we are invited to the reading of the will, we are all named in the will.
- He says we should go to his, Carlton Ramsey, office at 1 pm on Monday for the reading. 124th street and Lennox in Harlem. Been Jackson's attorney for nearly 20 years.
- Says the woman's name is Willa.
- We ended the session there.
Session 21:
Four Men and a Funeral
To be bitter is to attribute intent and personality to the formless, infinite, unchanging and unchangeable void. We drift on a chartless, resistless sea. Let us sing when we can, and forget the rest.
~H. P. Lovecraft
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