Jiangshi!

From the diary of Henry Chester:

(unintelligible)


Some notes from Jules Pollack:

Poor Henry! He was truly upset to hear of the death of his old friend and Mentor, Moishe Golansky. I felt more than obliged to support him by travelling to New York and attending the funeral, and fortunately so did Mackie. Moira was still recovering from our Egyptian excursion, and she was, of course, excused. We were staying at the Savoy, and despite the tragic circumstances, we were a tad curious about the Golansky inheritance.

The funeral service was held at Temple B'nei Avraham, which is located in Manhattan's Chinatown, The service coincided with the Chinese Harvest Moon Festival, Zhongqui Jié. The raucous celebrations contrasted starkly to the somber mood in the temple. The executor of the will, attorney Robert Winthorpe, who was quite hard of hearing and therefore incredibly loud, passed a small chest or coffer to Henry, and I decided to safeguard the chest in the office of the temple during the service. I could not have anticipated the subsequent course of events, but I was, as usual, very happy to be armed with my excellent and well-maintained .38 revolver, a most lethal and pleasant gun to own, fire, maintain, and keep close, because I had not anticipated to run into Herr Mayer and his menagerie.

Herr Mayer

A letter from Lao Wan:

Dear Miss MacKenzie, Mr. Chester and Mr. Pollack,

I am writing to you from a position of sincere debt, since I dare say that I would be with my ancestors if it was not for your resourcefulness, wisdom, and martial skills. I did not expect an attack by what seemed to be Jiangshi, undead creatures of Chinese legend, upon a peaceful funeral, but seeing Miss MacKenzie and Mr. Chester wrestling one to the ground and tearing off its head was truly remarkable. Miss MacKenzie is indeed a woman of many skills! Mr. Pollack disptached a female jiangshi with his handgun, and we sought our refuge to the dismal sewers under our city together with Father Ignatius P. O'Reilly and the escapist Harry Houdini. They were subsequently separated from our small group, but we did battle with many a jiangshi, and I tried to contribute to the best of my abilities. As we reached one of the many festive gatherings for Zhongqui Jié, I did witness the skillful exchange between the villainous Herr Meyer, Mr. Chester and Mr. Pollack that saved Mr. Pollack's life: a bottle of antidote was traded for an old book in the middle of the festivities, and by using most able pyrotechnics, we managed to escape from the Herr Mayer and his cronies. 

I am indeed most grateful for saving my life. I will remain a true friend, and I will provide any assistance in the days head, since I feel that we are facing turbulent times with great disharmony.

Sincerely,

Lao Wan
   

From the diary of "Mackie" MacKenzie:

With the benefit of hindsight, I cannot believe that we were so naive as to let that despicable Herr Mayer place his filthy Teutonic paws on the legendary Liver Ivonis, the Book of Eibon. I just wish we could have figured out some other way to make sure that Jules wasn't poisoned from the ungodly walking dead that stalked us down the hellish sewers of New York's Chinatown! And now the book is presumably on its way to Europe, and equally presumably to Dietrich Eckhardt and the Black Sun. I fear for the consequences of this, since the Liber Ivonis contains truly disturbing formulae and incantations to contact weird and disturbing entities from outside our cosmos, including the blasphemous gaggle of insanity Yog-Sothoth, the being that seems to be of such importance to Herr Mayer and his ilk. Considering what the Black Sun attempted to accomplish in Egypt with the Raven Horus as well as previously with the Arumbaya fetish, I fear the worst, and I have an increasingly difficult time sleeping well at night. What have we done?