Big Trouble in Little Soho [Spoilers]
Posted: Tue Sep 17, 2019 7:55 am
It was a rainy evening, and a good portion of the children had congregated within the village school, not for lessons, but hoping that Old Cusa would be inclined to tell a story of his youth, he did not disappoint.
Our next real adventure was about a month later. Carnavon and I had gotten fairly well acquainted as we worked to decipher Professor Nices papers. Miss Catherine Montgomery had been leading that project, but unfortunately her family felt it politic to disassociate herself from us, so that was the last time she worked with us for a while. We had managed to decrypt some interesting magical writings that described (in hermetic terms that were pretty alien to me) a spell that he called "Gilded Mask" that allowed a person to change their face such that they looked like a different person. We had also translated some journal sections that told a very little about a horrible organization called "the Sons of Thoth", and how they had arranged to get Professor Grundel addicted to Spithy so that they could force him to do stuff. There were a few hints about the Sons of Thoth's maneuvers vs another criminal organization.
Anyway, we had kept quite busy working on those journals and were not the 10th part of the way though them when a messenger boy arrived from the Fairiday Law firm asking us to stop by immediately. We had a meeting with Mr Greer and Mr Willliams which Mrs Kippling was there to transcribe. Our team for this meeting was myself, plus Lord Carnavon and a new acquaintance, named McGraph. He was an American chemist from Ohio. They explained the problem, and we agreed to take it on for 5 pounds per day, plus expenses.
The problem was a new drug that was being abused by the lowlifes of the city. It's street name was "Bang Snuff", and it makes the user very aggressive and violent. Several users had been killed by police or others trying to stop their rampage. The London police are not generally not given to shooting people without reason, but from all accounts, the madmen were very dangerous and could not be stopped with anything less than a killing blow. A few others had been delivered to local asylums as "burned out". These burned out ones were incapable of rational communication. The police were extremely concerned, but had been unable to find out who was making the drug, nor who was distributing them.
We were given a contact within the police that we could coordinate with. It was Police Constable Wesley Campbell, who worked out of the Southward station. We talked to him, and he gave us what little the police already knew and agreed to let us look at his files. Plotting the incidents on a map, we agreed that there seemed to be two epicenters, one in Wapping, and one in Bethnal Green. He knew that some of the victims from Bethnal Green had been known to frequent a low-class tavern called the Inverness Titan.
The next morning we used a letter of introduction to visit the Wapping Coroner, Dr. Sulivin. McGrath did some chemical tests upon a recent drug users blood, and upon a vial the victim had. He found traces of a yellow snuff, that appeared to be organic of sort, Most of seemed to possibly be an Animal byproduct, though there were signs of other chemicals as well. I did an autopsy and found the person had been killed by 5 bullets from a pistol (any two of which should have been more than sufficient to lay out a normal person), but his heart showed heavy damage, and there were clear signs of liver damage as well. Absent the bullets, he would have been unlikely to live more than a few weeks more if he continued to take the drug. I also spoke to a Hearth Spirit that resided in the coroner's office, but while it was a very fun conversation, it was ultimately unhelpful.
We questioned the Wapping coroners receptionist, and he mentioned that a snark called The Roseman was the sort of person who knew what might be happening.
We went to the Inverness Titan for lunch. It was a thoroughly disreputable pub. We had a plan. Carravin sat alone, while McGrath and I sat together. As we talked, McGrath loudly mentioned that we had just come from visiting a relative of his who had been assaulted, and been told that his assailant had been high on Bang Stuff. As soon as the drug was mentioned a little fellow in a green jacket came up and kicked us out of the pub. We later learned that his name was Scanty, and had been arrested prior for smuggling and violence associated with smuggling. After McGrath and I were kicked out, we left and I summoned a spirit to follow the green jacketed man. When the man left, Carravin tried to follow him, but was spotted and Scanty shook him off his tail, but Scanty was not able to shake off the spirit I had following him in Astral Space, so the spirit reported that he had eventually gone to an abandoned factory with huge smokestacks of brick very near the lime-house peer.
Our next real adventure was about a month later. Carnavon and I had gotten fairly well acquainted as we worked to decipher Professor Nices papers. Miss Catherine Montgomery had been leading that project, but unfortunately her family felt it politic to disassociate herself from us, so that was the last time she worked with us for a while. We had managed to decrypt some interesting magical writings that described (in hermetic terms that were pretty alien to me) a spell that he called "Gilded Mask" that allowed a person to change their face such that they looked like a different person. We had also translated some journal sections that told a very little about a horrible organization called "the Sons of Thoth", and how they had arranged to get Professor Grundel addicted to Spithy so that they could force him to do stuff. There were a few hints about the Sons of Thoth's maneuvers vs another criminal organization.
Anyway, we had kept quite busy working on those journals and were not the 10th part of the way though them when a messenger boy arrived from the Fairiday Law firm asking us to stop by immediately. We had a meeting with Mr Greer and Mr Willliams which Mrs Kippling was there to transcribe. Our team for this meeting was myself, plus Lord Carnavon and a new acquaintance, named McGraph. He was an American chemist from Ohio. They explained the problem, and we agreed to take it on for 5 pounds per day, plus expenses.
The problem was a new drug that was being abused by the lowlifes of the city. It's street name was "Bang Snuff", and it makes the user very aggressive and violent. Several users had been killed by police or others trying to stop their rampage. The London police are not generally not given to shooting people without reason, but from all accounts, the madmen were very dangerous and could not be stopped with anything less than a killing blow. A few others had been delivered to local asylums as "burned out". These burned out ones were incapable of rational communication. The police were extremely concerned, but had been unable to find out who was making the drug, nor who was distributing them.
We were given a contact within the police that we could coordinate with. It was Police Constable Wesley Campbell, who worked out of the Southward station. We talked to him, and he gave us what little the police already knew and agreed to let us look at his files. Plotting the incidents on a map, we agreed that there seemed to be two epicenters, one in Wapping, and one in Bethnal Green. He knew that some of the victims from Bethnal Green had been known to frequent a low-class tavern called the Inverness Titan.
The next morning we used a letter of introduction to visit the Wapping Coroner, Dr. Sulivin. McGrath did some chemical tests upon a recent drug users blood, and upon a vial the victim had. He found traces of a yellow snuff, that appeared to be organic of sort, Most of seemed to possibly be an Animal byproduct, though there were signs of other chemicals as well. I did an autopsy and found the person had been killed by 5 bullets from a pistol (any two of which should have been more than sufficient to lay out a normal person), but his heart showed heavy damage, and there were clear signs of liver damage as well. Absent the bullets, he would have been unlikely to live more than a few weeks more if he continued to take the drug. I also spoke to a Hearth Spirit that resided in the coroner's office, but while it was a very fun conversation, it was ultimately unhelpful.
We questioned the Wapping coroners receptionist, and he mentioned that a snark called The Roseman was the sort of person who knew what might be happening.
We went to the Inverness Titan for lunch. It was a thoroughly disreputable pub. We had a plan. Carravin sat alone, while McGrath and I sat together. As we talked, McGrath loudly mentioned that we had just come from visiting a relative of his who had been assaulted, and been told that his assailant had been high on Bang Stuff. As soon as the drug was mentioned a little fellow in a green jacket came up and kicked us out of the pub. We later learned that his name was Scanty, and had been arrested prior for smuggling and violence associated with smuggling. After McGrath and I were kicked out, we left and I summoned a spirit to follow the green jacketed man. When the man left, Carravin tried to follow him, but was spotted and Scanty shook him off his tail, but Scanty was not able to shake off the spirit I had following him in Astral Space, so the spirit reported that he had eventually gone to an abandoned factory with huge smokestacks of brick very near the lime-house peer.