08/03/2020 - Strange Cults (3)

Tiger sees Prospero House locked up and Jonah Kensington head home, but there is nothing suspicious. So he heads back home.

Thursday 17 January 1935

Meeting with Erica Carlisle

Jeziah invites the other Investigators to Astor Manor to discuss the situation further. Alex and Tiger drive there, while the Great Zalkador takes a taxi, billing it to Aston Motors.

Erica and Cassandra chat in the morning, but social etiquette dictates that they avoid discussing business until the others arrive.

Jeziah has the household staff lay out a hot and cold spread for 10am brunch and they eat and talk. Jeziah summarises the clues they have obtained so far and Erica is shocked when she learns there were not white people amongst the dead bodies in Kenya and that Jack Brady had been seen a few years later in Hong Kong.

Roger’s Strange Dreams

Erica shows them a document she obtained from Dr Robert Huston’s medical practice which has notes about the strange dreams that Roger was having. The dreams involve a figure with an inverted ankh on its head, a picture of Roger on the palm of one hand and a misshapen pyramid in the other. The figure then joins the two palms together.

The Great Zalkador has a feeling the meaning is that Roger should go to the misshapen pyramid.

Eric also shows them a note that Roger wrote, with crazy talk about pyramids and gods and wanting to slash his wrists. Clearly Roger was becoming unhinged at some point.

“That Negro Woman”

Erica tells them what she knows about the members of the Carlisle Expedition and she singles out “That Negro Woman”, the queen / priestess M’Weru as the person who corrupted Roger and made him do what she wanted.

If Jack Brady is still alive then Roger could be still alive. She speculates if the Negro Woman has him a prisoner in some cave in Kenya even now.

Eric does not wish to be involved in the investigation or go to that ghastly place Kenya again. She offers instead to fund their investigation and will pay $2000 (£500) up front and a further payment of the same if they need it She would then like to return to New York. They should telegram her with regular updates.

It is now around 1pm and Jeziah agrees to take Erica to the bank to open an Expedition Account with a joint deposit of £500 from Erica and £500 from Cassandra. He can then drop her off at the railway station for the journey back to Liverpool and then New York.

Questions at the British Museum

Cassandra, Zalkador and Alex go to the British Museum in Alex’s automobile. They ask about Egyptian inverted ankhs and learn that the ankh was the symbol of life and inverting it was not the done thing, rather like inverted crosses in Christian literature.

They discover that Kenya is a British run colony in Africa, but there is no Mountain of the Black Wind in the official encyclopaedia of Kenya.

Tiger goes to the London docks with the photograph of the ship, but he is a little confused thinking it is in the London docks. He is told that looks like a port in China.

Jeziah calls his army contact to ask him if he has any Police contacts that could help him find out more about the Police investigation into Jackson Elias’s death. He agrees to ask around.

Jeziah also has him provide an introduction to his personal gunsmiths in London.

That evening they meet up at Astor Manor to exchange information and Jeziah suggests that he makes up rooms for everyone so that they can stay here from now on, speeding up communication and travelling time.

Friday 18 January 1935

The Great Zalkador Investigates

In the morning, Zalkador decides to go to the docks with the photograph and use his charm to find out more information. He is able to find out from a sailor that the place in the background in the photograph looks like the British Concession in the port of Shanghai, China.

Zalkador then returns to Ju-Ju House to speak to Silas N’Kwane. They talk about Dark Gods and Silas tells him that there is no protection again the terrible Dark Gods and even following them will not protect you. They do not care. He advises Zalkador no to go to Kenya, but Zalkador says he has no choice. Zalkador buys something that would impress a local and some hand-woven African fabric.

Tiger asks his contacts in Whitehall who have been to Kenya, but none of them have heard of the Mountain of the Black Wind. Sounds like a local name.

Miriam Arkwright

Jeziah, Cassandra and Alex go to see Miriam Arkwright at the British Museum Library. She tells them Jackson Elias was trying to find a copy of the book “Dark African Cults” but the book has been removed without permission from the Library. Its card is still there. The book was published in the 19th century, but was considered heretical and all but 13 copies were burnt.

She tells them there was a strange smell reported in the area where the book was missing.

She also tells them that Jackson was investigating an unnamed cult that was driven out of Egyptian in dynastic times, as well as the Cult of the Bloody Tongue in Kenya. Jeziah wonders if the two cults are actually the same.

Mariam is sceptical as the unnamed cult dates back to 4000 BC and Africans would not follow an Egyptian God. Jeziah points out from Jackson’s notes that the God of the Black Wind is acknowledged as not an African God. She accepts that it is a possibility but does not think so herself.

The G’Harne Fragments

She was able to find a reference to the Cult of the Bloody Tongue for Jackson in a book called the G’Harne Fragments, but it’s hardly a great source of information, being mostly the insane ramblings of mad people. “We have all sorts of odd books here.”

The Library do not have a copy of that book, but the Penhew Foundation does and the Library has an arrangement with them.

End of Episode Three