The Seance

Beverly Kincaid had barely left the office of Cannon, Doctorow & Lockwood, Private Investigators, before Doctorow and Lockwood returned. They had been having a liquid lunch, but they nevertheless noticed the lingering perfume in the otherwise smoky office. "Ok, what's going on?" Doctorow pulled up a chair close Cannon while Lockwood lit a cigarette and simply asked "who's the broad?". Cannon explained the case for Doctorow and Lockwood, and they all agreed that there seemed to enough compensation in the case for three P.I.s. "Might as well get to work right away." Cannon suggested taking a look at the Pawtuxet Hotel and the Metropolitan restaurant. Perhaps there might be a chance to talk to members of the Ascension Club, or perhaps to Madame Alberta von Schanz (pronounced "Chance") herself?

As it were, Madame von Schanz was sitting with a young female author and having a couple of publicity shots taken by a photographer. As the photographer left, Frank Cannon found a reason to introduce himself while hinting at "unmentionable experiences" and such in an attempt to pique the interest of von Schanz. That really wasn't necessary since von Schanz found the trio to be somewhat entertaining, and oddly comedic. They were promptly invited to the Ascension Club for their next meeting that very Tuesday.

  
Madame LaVerne                         Elijah Kincaid

 
Madame Alberta von Schanz                      Gilbert Marsden

Jarvis Montaigne (Theodore Nero)

 
Mrs. Eliza Carvel                                                 Jacqueline DuPlessis

Professor Ferdinand C. Ashley

The Ascension Club was packed with Arkham's literati and other luminaries. Von Schanz was holding court, and Madame LaVerne, the medium that Elija Kincaid had paid so well, was pointed out to the investigators. Madame LaVerne was sitting in the company of a mustached gentleman, Gilbert Marsden, who apparently arranged the practicalities of the much-vaunted seances. After some stumbling around, which included insulting Madame LaVerne, it turned out that Madame LaVerne seemed to take a liking to the Doctorow and his dandy-like appearance. Seances were held every Friday at 144 Proctor Street in a house owned by Mrs. Eliza Carvel. The grand event was to commence at nine o'clock.

The private investigators spent most of the reminder of the work week placing calls, searching archives and sending telegrams. The hard work resulted in some findings, for example that Gilbert Marsden was a sideshow manager and carnival barker from Pittsburgh, and that he seemed to have partnered up with Madame LaVerne in the early 1920s. Mrs. Carvel was indeed the owner of her house, being widowed several years ago, and prominent member of the Arkham society. 

                                                            Mrs. Carvel's house

That Friday, October 22, was as dreary as only a New England fall Friday can be, but the private investigators did make their way to 144 Proctor Street in the outskirts of Arkham in Lockwood's huge car. While Doctorow was an esteemed paying guest, Cannon and Lockwood decided to dress up in heavy overalls, masks, and observe Mrs. Carvel's house from the outside. After paying quite the fee to participate in the seance, Doctorow was introduced to the other participants:

- Madame LaVerne

- Eliza Carvel

- Gilbert Marsden (on a stool next to Madame LaVerne, giving her water, tea, etcetera)

- Jarvis Montaigne, a mustached person of unclear background

- Alberta von Schanz

- Elijah Kincaid

- Jacqueline DuPlessis, a somewhat well known actress and a French person

- Professor Ferdinand C. Ashley of the Department of Ancient studies, at the Miskatonic University.

The seance was quite the spectacle, with gusts of wind, foul stenches, flashing images, glowing apparitions, and ghost writing. As a matter of fact, Doctorow became entirely entranced by Madame LaVerne's communication with spirits and entities outside our world. Elija Kincaid was very engaged, and so was the inconsolable and bereft Professor Ashley, but most of the other participants were simple awestruck. Meanwhile, Cannon and Lockwood were trying to find out how these various metaphysical stunts were performed, but to no avail. Despite skills fueled by a hefty dose of skepticism, they could not rule out that Madame LaVerne's performance actually was the real deal. Many things stood out to Doctorow during the seance, but especially the odd behavior of Jarvis Montaigne, who seemed to be mimicking the incantations of Madame LaVerne. The evening was quite exhausting, but the private investigators did not spend the morning being idle. On the contrary, they were more than a bit curious about the backgrounds of the participants, especially since Madame LaVerne had promised a spectacular pre-Walpurgis seance for the following Friday. 

The following week was once again spent on the telephone, in archives, and talking to contacts. And yes, using the telegraph. This time the efforts were even more fruitful, and the combination of Cannon, Doctorow & Lockwood turned out to be quite fruitful. Madame LaVerne was actually born Penelope Hart, and she had met Gilbert Marsden some five years ago. They had left Pittsburgh after being accused of some minor crimes and suspected of fraud. Jacqueline DuPlessis was indeed a French actress who had enjoyed some minor success in the cinema. Frank Cannon had apparently rather enjoyed several of her on-screen performances. She was supposedly spending time in bucolic Arkham to get sober, but with very limited success. Madame Alberta von Schanz was indeed a widower, and her late husband was a war hero from the Argonne Forest. Poor Professor Ashley was indeed mourning his dear wife.

Now, Jarvis Montaigne's background did raise one or two questions. He was from Boston, where he'd graduated from Boston University with a Ph.D. in ancient languages and anthropology. He had transferred in from Miskatonic University, but there was no Jarvis Montaigne at Miskatonic. Further research and a stroke of luck did reveal a Theodore Nero, who had been expelled from Miskatonic for "unethical student behavior" involving the Orne Library. Montaigne was also in possession of a big limousine, and he was protected or at least assisted by at least two henchmen. 

Friday, October 29, and Doctorow was preparing for the next seance. He had managed to convince Madame LaVerne to invite Frank Cannon as well, and the suggested donation made up for any old grievances. Besides Cannon, this Friday saw an encore of last Friday's invitees, and with Lockwood taking cover outside the living room where the seance was going to take place. The participants held hands to form a circle around the large table, the lights were dimmed, candles were lit, and the seance commenced. Professor Ashley once again sought out the ghost of his dead wife, and the effects were even more remarkable. Lockwood did not remain idle, though. He scurried around the house, despite the fould weather, and made it in through a bedroom window. He had actually managed to see a boy or young man rigging lines and placing props outside the living room where the seance was taking place. Lockwood was more than ready to expose the charlatans!

After the sobbing Professor Ashley had been in contact with his deceased wife, Madame LaVerne turned to Jarvis Montaigne. He claimed that he wanted to seek out his dead uncle Herbert from Manassas, and he gave a letter to Madame LaVerne. The letter initially seemed harmless enough, but as Madame LaVerne read the letter, her face became contorted, the words sounded harsher and harsher, and the English language was reduced to an unearthly rumbling with screeching overtones. The candles started flickering, the room became cold, and there was an unpleasant sensation of being exposed to high pressure as the participant's ears started to pop. Lockwood realized that something was amiss, and he yelled to Elijah Kincaid, telling him to leave the premises. This may have caused Madame LaVerne to lose control over the incantation as two horrifying creatures appeared in what seemed to be a most enraged state. One grabbed hold of a terrified Professor Ashley, dragging him towards what seemed to be a rift in a space-time continuum! The other one advanced towards Madame Alberta von Schanz. Doctorow fainted, while there was plenty of shrieking combined with the snarls of the strange and horrible creatures. Frank Cannon ran across the table in an attempt to tackle the remaining creature, while Lockwood charged across the living room, his revolver drawn. Cannon probably saved Madame von Schanz with his tackle, but the creature was now focused on Cannon. It grabbed the rotund private investigator with immensely strong claws, and Frank Cannon was terrified to see a new rift opening into black, cold nothingness. Fortunately, Lockwood's aim was true, and as Doctorow came to, he also managed to place several rounds in the weird monster. An animated attack from a chair-wielding Jacqueline DuPlessis sealed the fate of the creature, and it slowly turned into a pool of sickly blueish ichor.

Unfortunately, the tumult enabled Montaigne to flee the scene after using a paralyzing powder in a small tube on the participants, and not even Lockwood could catch up with him as he left in his black limousine, a wild, cackling laughter conveying his true feelings regarding the situation. Lockwood eventually became less frustrated when Jacqueline DuPlessis asked him to scrub her back in the shower after the horrible ordeal.

The Arkham Police did eventually arrive, and "Madame LaVerne" was arrested together with Gilbert Marsden, but only after Frank Cannon picked up the incantation that Madame LaVerne had started reading. His heart sank as he recognized a name that suggested unnamed horrors: Iog-Sothoth.

As for Elijah Kincaid, he would never attend a seance again, Doctorow's photographs of the scam and the unearthly events of the evening made him take up golf.

The Solution of Liao

 

Several of the Intrepid Investigators had spent quite a bit of time in New York, but Berlin was something... else. The train from Leipzig pulled in to the Anhalter Bahnhof, releasing Alter, Pollack, MacNamara, Jeremiah and Lake into a cacophony of sound from hundreds of travelers, station staff, beggars, police officers and many more, all their voices reverberating from the girders high above the train tracks. Herr Abalbert Schulz was waiting for Franz Alter, and the old lawyer made sure that the investigators' luggage ended at their final destination, in this case the sizeable mid-nineteenth century building that Franz Alter had inherited in the fashionable, yet quiet, Grunewald section in southwestern Berlin.

                                                               Herr Adalbert Schultz

The Willa Alter.

The house had belonged to Franz Alter's uncle, Alexander Scharff (originally Lipinsky, a man of rather exotic tastes. He performed in various shows and cabarets as well as in his house in various outlandish attires, and the house also contained a basement only suitable for certain very liberal types of adult play or entertainment. The house was also tended to by the dour Frau Claire Bonhofer, who had made sure that the weary travelers could look forward to a hot meal and generous libations from Uncle Alexander's full-sized bar. There was much merriment, and especially so from Mackie, who was looking forward to meeting her old colleagues, professor Gerhard Opitz and Reinhard von Kleist of the Aegyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung next day, which would be Monday, November 1.

                                               The late Alexander Scharff a. k. a. Lydia Lamour.

November 1 turned out to be a gorgeous fall day, and the Intrepid investigators piled into a taxi for a relatively short ride to the Neues Museum. The Museum is almost entirely devoted to Egyptology, and its collections are the finest outside the Bristish Museum. The most known piece is arguably the bust of Queen Nefertiti. Professor Opitz and von Kleist were incredibly happy to see Mackie, and they were fully prepared to entertain her friends as well. As a matter of fact, the professors had managed to secure tickets to enjoy the Milanese Nightingale. Bianca Castafiore, at the Berlin Staatsoper Unter dem Linden. The performance was, of course, spectacular, and in included meeting Madame Castafiore in her dressing room, where The Milanese Nightingale struck up conversation with an amused Howard Lake. More culture was to follow, and the next stop was the Romanishes Cafe, one of the number one spots to see and be seen in Berlin.

 

Professor Von Kleist                                         Professor Opitz

Bianca Castafiore

Das Neues Museum

Romanisches Cafe (song: https://romanisches-cafe.berlin/en/launch-home/#iLightbox[fe68745e3555d07d582]/0)

This being Berlin, Professor Opitz secured a small amount of a recreational illegal substance, a black powder that the referred to as the Solution of Liao, and the invited all the investigators over to Professor von Kleist's apartment, which was conveniently located next to KaDeWe to try out some of this supposedly amazing compound. "It is for people who have both great imagination and knowledge, and the visions are truly remarkable. Here! I have some for everyone!" Both von Kleist and Opitz were clearly looking forward to enjoying the Solution of Liao.

Professor von Kleist's apartment was huge, and decorated with utmost taste. There was also generous amounts of champagne to be had, and after toasting Mackie and her friends, Professor Opitz produced a pipe and added the black Solution of Liao to regular pipe tobacco. Opitz inhaled deeply, and passed another pipe to Mackie, who seemed more than a little eager to try out this drug. So did Jules Pollack and Howard Lake, and they were transported to incredibly realistic visions out of history. Lake found himself riding towards medieval Canterbury, while Jules Pollack find himself floating over a primeval landscape consisting of a thick ocean underneath a methane-orange sky of weird proportions and angles. This is when Mackie started convulsing. Something was incredibly wrong, and Lake saw his pastoral ride being disturbed by a hysterically shrieking Professor Opitz. He also darted into Jules' primeval world, apparently being chased by something while wailing for help. Meanwhile, Professor von Kleist, Franz Alter and Felix Jeremiah were terrified to see Professor Opitz being torn to pieces in his Chesterfield chair. Mercifully, it took mere seconds for whatever ungodly entity attacking Opitz to finish its work, but now it became apparent to the still tripping Jules Pollack that this creature had statred chasing Mackie through what seemed to be an endless corridor in an Egyptian temple. As soon as Jules managed to somehow enter Mackie's hallucination, he saw what was chasing Mackie:

Meanwhile, Lake (back from his trip, but still under the influence) and Franz Alter were dealing with the cramping and hyperventilating Mackie and the other distressed investigators. Franz needed to stay on top of things, and his pharmacist's bag contained just the right thing: amphetamine. Franz Alter was soon at work at breakneck speed, while Lake attempted to call an ambulance with his very limited knowledge of German. He did, however, manage to somehow order another couple of bottles of champagne.

Jules and Felix were trying to help Mackie, and she kept on stuttering about some form of incantation. Franz Alter was also trying to bring Mackie back from her drug-induced state by administrating various chemicals. He did succeed after several attempts, but in a most spectacular fashion. Mackie was partially back, and so was the beast following her. But Mackie did manage to have both Jules and Felix help her with the incantation and the necessary signs, and this apparently cut off the creature from reality as the investigators knew it. By now, von Kleist's apartment was almost entirely destroyed by the creature, while there was still the remains of Opitz to deal with. Von Kleist was most distraught after having lost his dear and friend and colleague, but he assured the investigators that he'd deal with, well, everything. Everything, except how to make sure that use of the Solution of Liao wouldn't summon more of these hideous creatures.

The Intrepid Investigators retreated to Gruenewald, but only after having a late-night sausage and Felix finding a wedding ring in the sausage meat, almost turning him into a vegetarian.

Next day would be spent in the Willa Alter, with Jules Pollack taking lessons with fencing master Willifred Haber, and Howard Lake taking German lessons with the adorable young Adele Christo.

 

Dienstag, November 2, 1926

_____________________________________________________

Professor Missing!

Professor Gerhard Opitz of the Aegyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung is reported missing since November 1. He was last seen leaving the Romanischen Cafe shortly after nine o'clock in the evening. The Berlin Police is looking for witnesses and any leads regarding the whereabouts of Professor Opitz.

                                 THE ARKHAM ADVERTISER

Monday, November 1, 1926

______________________________________________________

Arkham Academic Given Position in Germany

Moira Baker, M.D., has been given a scholarship from the Republic of Germany to study in Berlin. Dr. Baker will have visiting rights at the Institut fuer Sexualwissenschaft, which is headed by renown Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld.

A Dreadful Crossing

 The Liverpool Echo

An Evening Newspaper for Lancashire, Lincolnshire and North Wales   _________________________________________________________

             Second Edition                                SATURDAY, October 30, 1926                       PRICE: ONE SHILLING   _________________________________________________________

   

A DREADFUL CROSSING

Liner Carries Deadly Cargo - Passengers at Peril

One Dead, Many Injured

_____

It was not to be the the leisurely Atlantic crossing the passengers had expected. This was instead a crossing of horrors, as passengers ran amok on the cruise liner S/S Athenia, one of the most modern vessels of the Scottish Anchor-Donaldson line under command of Captain William Gerard, this being his second crossing as Captain of the Athenia. "It all started with random passengers behaving erraticly", claimed First Mate Harry Stimms, "They seemed to be in a state of panic, and wanting to get off the Athenia, although we were far off the coast of Canada".

The first victim seems to have been Mr. Reginald "Reggie" Howard, a retired railway worker travelling in third class. He was confined to the ship's doctor's cabin after being examined by Walther Krauss, M.D., with assistance of several vigilant passengers. This initially seemed to be an isolated case of paranoia and insanity, but several more cases were to follow: Mrs. Rose Greene, a schoolteacher, displayed even more violent symptoms, and a group of Lithuanian passengers were found to be attacking the machine room in an attempt to stop the engines so that lifeboats could be lowered. This act was fortunately stopped by Mr. Jules Pollack, an American, who was armed and ready to support the crew of the Athenia. A Lithuanian male was unfortunately killed during this intervention.

According to Captain Gerard, this prompted a Mr. Donald Coombes to raise a mob amongst the passengers in an attempt to seal of the third class decks to avert the spread of what was feared to be a disease. Fortunately, another passenger, Mr. Franz Alter of New York, bludgeoned the rabble-rouser, and a mutiny was averted. Mr. Coombes remains at St. Joseph's Hospital in Liverpool for observation while facing criminal charges.  

Mr. Alter, a pharmacist by profession, cooperated with Dr. Krauss, while more and more cases of panicked third class passengers were noted all over the Athenia. On the verge of panic, and fighting against the clock, Mr. Alter and Dr. Krauss managed to find out that the cause of mass panic was not a disease, but leaking gas canisters that were part of an illegal shipment from the United States to Great Britain. Thanks to several ingenious passengers, most notably renown Egyptologist Mackenzie MacNamara, Mr. Jules Pollack, Mr. Howard Lake, and young master Felix Jeremiah, the gas canisters were disposed of into the ocean as crazed hordes of third class passengers were careening all over the Athenia. The situation on board was normalized within a couple of hours, and S/S Athenia made it safely to Liverpool. Liverpool police is cooperating with the Admiralty and the Home Office in an inquiry regarding the matters at hand.

From the diary of Howard Lake:

This may have been the most stupid idea I have ever encountered, and by now I have experienced quite a few. What in the name of all that is sane prompted Felix to dress up in a clown suit and go and visit Mackie's hotel room in Halifax to "cheer her up" without any previous notification? Does Felix have a death wish? Mackie's shouts of "monkey! monkey!" ("Singe! Singe", to accomodate the Francophones) were heard all over the hotel, and she apparently did a quite a number number on Felix with her shoe. Half of the hotel staff were sent scampering through the building looking for monkeys, a chase that woke up most guests and kept the staff busy for several hours. Jesus!

Preparing for a Trans-Atlantic Crossing

From the diary of Franz Alter, October 15, 1926:

Relative in Berlin, Germany, has left me an inheritance. That is interesting. I am going by ship. The legal office of Adabert Schulz has provided me with several first-class passages. I cannot sell them, so I suppose I can bring my compatriots. The ship is S/S Athenia. It sails for the Anchor-Donaldson Line from Halifax, Nova Scotia. I hope the ship is clean. I hope Halifax is clean. I fear that Berlin is not.

A late-night conversation at between Professor Mackenzie MacNamara, and Professor Tyler M. Freeborn of the Miskatonic University Department of Anthropology on October 17, 1926. Dinner had been enjoyed at the Metropolitan Restaurant, which is located in the swanky Pawtuxet Hotel:

- Really? You're going to Berlin, just like that? Fan-tastic! I assume that there must me some interesting academic connections worth pursuing, yes?

- Quite so, dear Freeborn. The Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung is rather impressive, and I do have one or two contacts there. I have, as a matter of fact, telegraphed professors Opitz and von Kleist already, and I even have some suggestions as to joint academic endeavors.

- Outstanding, by Jove! I assume you'll be travelling via liner from Boston or New York?

- No, I'm afraid not. We'll be going via (gasp) Halifax, Nova Scotia, in fall weather.

- Oh dear. You know that Halifax has struggled since that enormous explosion back in '17? The end of the Great War also really led to a downturn in business. Speaking of the Halifax Explosion, I assume you've heard Professor Lake's rants about the explosion? You know, Professor Marcus Lake of the Biology Department?

- No, can't say I have...

- Ever since the explosion, Professor Lake has been very secretive about some of the finds that he was privy to. You may recall that the explosion was caused by a fire on board a French munitions vessel, and the ensuing explosion killed as many as 2,000 people in norther Halifax?

- Hm, I was only vaguely aware of this at the time, since I was in Egypt together with my father, dear professor MacNamara.

- OK. The explosion threw fragments of the ship, the SS Mont-Blanc, as far as four miles from the explosions, and if you ask professor Lake, especially after a couple of generous pours of brandy, he'll tell you about the weird, fleshy...thing that he claims landed in the back yard of a Mrs. Hazel Underwood. She found this so fascinating - and repelling - that she kept it on ice. She called the police, and they were clueless, so they in turn called the McGill University in Montreal, where Professor Lake was attending a seminar. So, Lake claimed that he saw the specimen in the ice cellar of Mrs. Underwood, and he described it as "big as a bison, both sort of scaly and with thick, coarse hairs protruding from between some of the scales. Interestingly, there were also vestigal eyes along what might have been a dorsal ridge". Well, something like that. Pictures were taken, but the cellar of Mts. Underwood was way too dark to allow for anything to be seen upon exposing the plates, and the specimen itself dissoled in a matter of days. Strange, considering that Professor Marcus Lake tends to be quite well-founded in reality. A true man of science.

- Let's have one more for the road, shall we?    

The Halifax explosion

S/S Athenia

Howard Lake was carefully packing hus suitcases as well as a trunk. He was excited, but not without a slight feeling of trepidation. The previous sea journey, as part of the MacNamara Expedition of last year, had been terrifuing, and he sincerely hoped that a fall trip to Liverpool, and then Calais, and finally a train ride to Berlin. Lake had never travelled this far, and he was more than a little cyrious about Europe, and the trip over the Atlantic! S/S Atenia was a modern vessel, built in 1924, and equipped with all kinds of modernities. 

''

From the diary of Jules Pollack, October 18, 1926:

The tuxedo is packed. I am all ready to leave for Europe. However, I am not looking forward to the train trip up to Halifax. Why couldn't we leave from New York or Boston. Well, the Atlantic cold can be beat with some nice Scotch, right? Seems proper for Nova Scotia. S/S Athenia? Wasn't an S/S Athenia sunk by the Kaiser's u-boats in the Great War? Good thing we're at peace. Come to think of it, my old friend Werner Faust was forced to leave for Germany couple of years ago. I should look him up.

He finally picked up his trusty revolver, weighing it in his hand. To pack or not to pack? Hm, what a vapid question. He placed the (still unloaded) revolver in his briefcase.

From the diary of Felix Jeremiah, October 19, 1926:

I am going to Germany. I really do not know what to expect, And we're going on a Scottish ocean liner! Will there be bagpipes, kilts and haggis? Highland games? 

A visit in October

 From the diary of Frank Cannon, Saturday, October 23, 1926.

A dame. It's always a dame. I had actually managed to become rather comfortable in my new office on Hyde Street, just a few blocks away from  the train station, and still close to my favorite lunch spot, the Fulton Inn. It was just after two P.M. and I was dozing after a visit to Fulton's when there was a knock on the door. I actually lefgt my desk to open the door, and there she was, all five foot six of stunning female. "Good efternoon. You must be mr. Cannon, the private investigator?" I ssured her that this was the case and asked her to take a seat. "I´m mrs. Beverly Kincaid. You may have heard of me?" I looked at her, from her expensive shoes to her equally expensive hat, and told her "of course". I was clueless. I'd never heard of her".

"You see, mr. Cannon, my husband is Elijah Kincaid, the son of shipping magnate Ulysses Kincaid." Ah, yes, the Kincaids of Boston. I did know of them. "Mr. Kincaid, well, Elijah, has been picking up some unhealthy habits." I was expecting the usual: booze, drugs, women, gambling... but no. "Seances. Elijah has been attending seances and squandering quite a bit of money on them, not to mention time he should have been spending with me. The seances are apparently rather popular affairs, mostly run by a few members of the Ascension Club, and with a certain Madame LaVerne officiating. The seances are, of course, just humbug, smoke, and mirrors, but these kinds of distractions are, as you know, quite popular these days. Mr. Cannon, I will pay you a handsome sum to ensure that Elijah becomes aware of the buffonery of this ridiculous stagecraft, and that he simply stops attending, these 'seances'. I am really quite clueless as to what attracts him to this vapid silliness, but I am certain that you can find out." She leaned forward from the edge of her chair, placing her perfectly dolled-up face a mere foot from mine. "Am I right, Mr. Cannon?"

Beverly Kincaid

All this was interesting, and I came to the conclusion that I might involve my fellow P.I.'s Lockwood and Doctorow in some research as well. Especially Doctorow was short on cash, and some company might be good to have. Three pairs of eyes might be better than two if we were to expose parlor magic and sleight of hand.  

The Horrors of Shaft Z

Monday, September 10, 1926, and the day started in a most unexpected fashion at Jules Polack Fine Antiques even before the store opened. The doorbell at the entrance up to Jules' apartment rang, and when Jules opened, he was greeted by a strange, or even grotesque, sight: a muffled individual, all wrapped up in scarves, wearing a dirty overcoat and an equally dirty hat. The person moaned monotonously, and despite these strange accoutrements, Jules all of a sudden that he was standing in front of Burlington Jones! He ushered in Burlington, locked the door, and relieved Burlington of his garments. And what a shock that was! Burlington Jones had turned into a misshapen lump of flesh, a mere parody of his former handsome self.

Mrs. O'Flaherty did provide Burlington with a breakfast and a bath, and although she was startled, she claimed to have seen worse. Meanwhile, Jules called over his old friends for breakfast to discuss what had happened. It was to become something of a reunion, since they had all been busy with various projects and activities, from studying to well-needed recuperation. Once breakfast had been served, the intrepid investigators went through a knapsack that Burlington had been carrying. The contents were, to say the least, varied: 

  

The intrepid investigators also decided to get in touch with Burlington's mother, both for closure and clarity. The young man had, after all, been missing for quite some time. 

The contents of the knapsack did not give away any immediate leads, but both Moira Baker and Dr. Emmet Brown were asked to provide a more thorough analysis on a molecular level. Both Baker and Brown were their, well, usual selves, and they promised that they would get back to the investigators next day or so after being handed samples of Burlington's belongings. 

The investigators continued to discuss the case of Burlington Jones throughout that dreary Monday. There were trips to the Miskatonic University Library, including a confrontation with the notorious potato chip lady that guarded the stacks, and there was some discussion with the Arkham PD. Polish newspapers? A rosary? A key that (after asking a locksmith) seemed to be for some sort of security door? A government issue canteen? Everything came together next afternoon, when Dr. Brown could report that he had found traces of kobolttorium-G. Pleasantville and the polish mining community that had provided kobolttorium-G to the Topsville power plant where the Mi-Go were building some form of intra-dimensional portal. The mine had subsequently been closed, and the population re-located.

Moira Baker had more grave news, though. Poor Burlington Jones would probably not last long, since his mutation rate was increasing at an unforeseen rate. It was just a question of making sure that he didn't suffer, and taking care of mrs. Jones. Mrs. O'Flaherty would take care of the latter, while Franz Alter addressed the former.

So, what was really going on up in Pleasantville, and what was the "Shaft Z' that the Polish miners had whispered about? The intrepid investigators decided to take a road trip up to Pleasantville in two cars filled with of a plethora of equipment. However, Howard Lake did not show up, and although he picked up the telephone, he claimed to be ill. There was some concern that he might have been contaminated by Burlington Jones, but Mackie simply rolled her eyes and hinted at some nameless V.D.

Pleasantville was reached late that Wednesday afternoon, September 12. The small, wretched village was indeed deserted, but the mine itself seems to have been guarded by the U.S. Army. The buildings did seem to have been deserted in some haste, and the rooms were in a sad state.

Now, were the intrepid investigators actually going to venture into the mine itself? There was some discussion regarding that question, but eventually they all decided to venture into the dark unknown. There was initially very little of interest: a mine with some structural issues and a few dangerous sink holes.

This passage did, however, end in a much more exotic, or even alien, setting. There were hints at something weird, pillars with inexplicable angles and functions, a weird greenish shimmer from luminescent discs that didn't give off any heat, and disturbing mists hovering a foot or so over the ground. The intrepid investigators saw some similarities with both the forbidden factory in Central America and the Topsfield Power Plant, so the investigators checked their weapons an extra time.

One of the passages led deep into the mountain, and the presence of alien characters and inscriptions became increasingly prevalent. That particular passage ended in a bizarre laboratory, a nightmarish parody of science in which humanoid shapes seem to have been grown in tanks that by now seemed have to had fallen into disrepair. There were conventional signs in English mixed with alien displays, and whatever experiments the government might have been conducting seemed to be revolting at best. An ample amount of emergency signs, levers, and buttons seemed to indicate that the experiments were far from harmless.

Any sane individual would have left this unearthly setting in utmost haste, but the intrepid investigators decided to press on, perhaps with some aid from Jules' hip flask. They arranged themselves with Felix Jeremiah taking point, and then after height, so as to provide as much firepower as possible. This would indeed be needed, as a locked door further down into the complex seemed to contain the fruits of the unethical experiments. But what were they? Mere biological debris? Scientific castoffs? It could not be determined, but their aggressiveness and wailing clearly indicated that conversation wasn't an option.

The human detritus was intent on chasing down and utterly destroying the investigators, that was clear. A fierce melee followed, shots were fired, and sticks of dynamite were flung. The investigators finally managed to break free and flee for their lives in a running fight that took them all the way up to the surface while being pursued by a very loud and terrifying horde of what once had been men. An incendiary device was improvised and thrown down the shaft, while investigators desperately battled a few of the obscenities that had made it to the surface. 

Shaft Z did seem to have been disabled in a flaming pyre, but was there any guarantee that the man-made horrors would remain in the strange tunnels around Pleasantville?