What did awaken her was a nightmare in which she thought herself at the dentist, with the dentist’s drill boring through the top of her mouth into her brain. Waking with a fright, she found her husband’s decapitated head staring up at her. Her screams brought the servants, who had to break down the door since it was locked (which was not usual).

The local police examined the room for signs of forced entry, and found that the windows had been screwed down. The chimney was blocked, with a modern gas fire in front of it. Forensic reports on the body are due within 24 hours. The obvious and likely cause of death is severe beheading. The only other unusual thing in the room was that the certificate which Sir James had been awarded the night before was folded into an origami box and placed on the windowsill.

Lady Ann is currently in police custody as the prime suspect, although no murder weapon has yet been discovered. Her family solicitor has approached Augustin Hamble about retaining the Monster Hunters Club to investigate the case.

What do the Monster Hunters do?

Thanks for a significant response to the scenario E-mail. For those worried about the continuity issues (i.e. what character are they playing) either assume you are playing your current or most recent character, or simply guide the current team along, at your preference. The law of conservation of death counts, however. If you are not playing a character, this means you die instead. There will however be the opportunity to earn into three figuresworth of experience points (for your character or you).

Twenty four hours into investigating the Case of the Awful Origami, the Monster Hunters have had an opportunity to investigate the scene of the discovery of Sir James Bressingham’s body, contact the police, and talk to some of the people involved in the case. The current Club membership includes enchantress Aurora D’Aosta, who is quite able to charm the police officer in charge of the case to co-operate as far as allowing access to evidence is concerned. This plus the involvement of Monster Hunters solicitor Augustin Hamble is quite sufficient to get the Club where they need to be to investigate further. Tony Janes, currently playing Club treasurer (and thief/mu) Patrick Revell, rightly points out that there is a retainer in this for the MHC.

So to the facts of the case. First, about the bedroom where Lady Anne had such a rude awakening:

Phil Harris (and several others after him) asks whether the room was locked from the inside or the outside. The only key is actually missing (the butler had to break the door down to reply to Lady Anne’s screams). It is usually kept on the inside of the bedroom door, but seldom used. In answer to other questions, the windows are not only screwed down but the screws are painted over (and have been since an attempted burglary in 1947). The gas fire vents into the old chimney breast. It could have been moved by an expert engineer from inside the room (but it is an extreme improbability), and there is no soot on the carpet to indicate entrance via the chimney. Neither Revell nor Felix Brockenby (Phil’s current character who also has some thief abilities) can find any evidence of tampering with either the door lock or the windowframe. Nick Robinson’s character, architect mage Richard Selkirk, cannot find any concealed doors or suchlike.

The bed is still covered in bloodstained and damaged sheets which indicate that somebody was probably beheaded right there next to Lady Anne. Certainly she managed to get blood all over the back of her nightdress. One curious detail of the crime scene is that one of the retaining cords which hold back the curtains on the four-poster bed has been cut short, with three feet of rope and the end tassel removed.

From an arcane point of view, the room does not detect as magical, good, or evil. Ian Clark’s character Club President Giles Meridian (Mage specialising in dimensional spells) cannot discern any current conduit or portal to any other plane, nor any activity on the astral or ethereal planes.

Phil was suspicious about the chimney generally. Felix Brockenby insists on opening up the chimney to check for signs of activity. He finds out the hard way that the chimney is very sooty. However, a normal intruder would undoubtedly have disturbed the soot in much the way that Brockenby now has.

Like the paranoid roleplayers you are, a number of you asked about the sherry. The sherry in the decanter is not poisoned. Sir James drained his own glass dry and handed it to the butler, Lumley who washed it before retiring himself. In answer to Chris Mortimer’s enquiry about the nature of the conversation before Bressingham went to bed, Lumley reports that Sir James was in quite good spirits after his night out. Sir James enquired if Lady Anne was now sleeping and then said goodnight.

The forensic report on the death is now available. The biggest shock is that the body in the bed was not that of Sir James Bressingham (although the head undoubtedly is). It is of a male caucasian of roughly the same age and build as Sir James (late forties, five foot ten, brown hair, no tan, running to fat, no significant hand calluses, blood group O, no head). He is dressed in Sir James’ pyjamas. Both the unidentified corpse and Sir James appear to have been beheaded with a single blow from a sharp, curved, bladed weapon. Clearly, this requires a significant but not supernatural strength (say 17+ in AD&D terms). The copious blood on the sheets is sufficient to suggest that somebody died there. It is type A, Sir James’ group. Time of death of both bits of body was between 10pm and 2am on the night of the incident. Lady Anne awoke and began screaming at 2.45am.

Tony and Phil both proposed more research on the origami sculpture. Chris suggested it would be as well to watch out for the glyph. The sculpture was made out of the award certificate Sir James had just received. As such the paper was foolscap sized, and when made up would be about 2 cubic inches inside. Traditionally origami is done on square paper. Somebody was sufficiently expert to adapt a traditional box design for a different paper shape. The design had legs and a lid. If anyone wants a big attachment to their E-mail I can scan in the actual instructions for making such a box if you want to construct one for yourselves. The box cannot be refolded into something else without changing the creases. There are no magical dweomers upon the paper, but a sample of paper and ink has been forwarded to the Club’s on-retainer arcane forensic expert J. Teeromoyle Mallory (or Zany as long as I can sort out the, um, little problem set me by the Club’s recent encounter with her at a forthcoming session) just in case. In answer to points from Mike and Maj, there are at least four sets of discernible fingerprints on the paper, including Sir James’ and the unidentified corpse’s. A search of old Club records for origami box connections proves negative.

Selkirk, Nick’s architect/mathematician, can undoubtedly rearrange the words on the certificate into several spells. This is not a guarantee that there is anything strange here however, as he can also do that given virtually any page of text and enough time. The actual text reads, "The Pickwick Trust Award for Philanthropic Endeavour with Young People 1950, awarded to Sir James Bressingham for services to the community. Presented by Lord Applewick of Holme, January 9^th 1950."

A general background check into Sir James and Lady Anne reveal that he was knighted for services to industry during the war, and still owns significant munitions interests. He is a well known philanthropist, actively supporting several boys’ clubs and a governor of a home for fallen women. Most recently he has been sponsoring a camp in the country where young offenders are sent on character-building holidays. It is for this work that he received an award from the Pickwick Memorial Trust, at a dinner given for the purpose with around sixty people present. Sir James drove himself to the award ceremony in London, some thirty-five miles from his country house. So far his route has not been corroborated. Tony wants to get a list of other possible candidates for the award but so far there has been no reply from the Trust’s secretary. So far a Bressingham/far east connection has not turned up – no oriental object d’art for example.

Several correspondents were interested in the "disturbed young people". Phil wanted to know if any of the young people involved with Sir James practised origami. So far the Club have not identified anyone. Mike wondered if any were connected with poltergeist activity. Most of them were around things that disappeared at one time or another, but the police took a (justifiedly) rather more sceptical view and sent them to juvenile court for petty thievery, shoplifting, etc.

Phil also asked who benefits from Sir James’ will. The majority of his £5.2 million estate goes to Lady Anne, although there are significant bequests to the charities he supported, £500 to the butler, and lesser sums and small momentos to servants and friends.

Dr Dorian Aveyard, the psychiatrist/mu Vice President of the current Club, will undoubtedly spend some time with Lady Anne (who is still in police custody). Using his hypnotic skills he will determine the detail of her disturbing dentist dream. The unusual thing about this was that the dentist was a woman (very rare in 1950), and only her slanted eyes were visible above a rubber mask. Aveyard is convinced that the dream is a subconscious interpretation of some other event but cannot yet determine what that might be. She does not remember any similar dream before, even under hypnosis, and has not had a recent dentist’s visit or any other experience which might obviously lead to the dream. Lady Anne does not detect as charmed, possessed, or anything else to make the Club pull out guns and start shooting her.

Charlotte Baden asks for a full physical exam of Lady Anne, with special reference to her mouth. In actual fact there is a blister on the roof of her mouth (Lady Anne’s that is, I couldn’t speak for Charlotte), and her eyes are unaccountably bloodshot (Lady Anne again). Mike asks if Lady Anne was drugged. There is no evidence that she was. She often slept through her husband coming to bed, and had begged off going with him to the awards ceremony that night because of a headache and had gone to bed early.

And finally a few random answers:

The Shadow Ninjas in the war were sent as part of Geheimnis’ Trube Bezaubunkommandos. The good news is they are definitely not coming back after what you did to them. That particular source of oriental nastiness is well mopped up.

According to Albrecht Arnheim, Chris’ elementalist cleric character, Smoke Mephits would usually require rare incenses to be burned as part of the summoning. No evidence of this can be found.

Griffin-style invisibility does indeed keep an attacker invisible whatever they do. It is even immune to detect invisible spells (which really annoyed Qualius the Lych).

Nicky Saunders suggests checking under the bed for vampires; the Club do not see any at the moment, so that is probably good news. A vampire could doubtless gain access to the room if once invited into the house.

Chris speculates on an Invisible Stalker. This could get more or less anywhere that air can flow.

Shadows and Shadow Demons could certainly enter a locked room but rarely behead people. Revell cannot detect any shadow presence in the room now. There still remains the problem of how Shadow creatures brought and extracted bits of corpse from a locked room if they did it. This problem also besets the invisible stalker, invisible man, and mephit theories.

The lastlight spell which creates an image of the last thing in an area before it was plunged into darkness has not been available to the MHC since Loxley left. Even if you had it the police have already unwrapped the origami box.

The 9^th of January was a Monday. The next full moon is on January 16^th.

Declarations about what you do next should be forthcoming by 10pm Sunday 15^th November 1998. If you really don’t want to receive this stuff just tell me. I promise not to be offended.

Tony asks for a listing of Orientals from the Rogues Gallery. Discounting the long-vanquished adversaries such as the insidious Fu Manchu and the degenerate Lin Tang-Yu, the current batch of vaguely far Eastern enemies includes:

Mistress Millenium, a.k.a. Episuko the Outcast: an ogre mage geisha ninja mercenary, previously seen working for devil Chia Caranques los Llanos and Black Operations. Episuko was once mistress to the Emperor of Japan. She is one of the few villains to breach Chillwater Street security and she actually murdered Bobbi Brookes, fiancée of Jimmy Maxtible (Dave Spence’s bard) whilst the girl was under Club protection on site. Her new modus operandi appears to be impersonating a denizen of a flying saucer. Episuko was last seen in the mop-up scenario when the Club stopped Chia taking over Richard Ease’s South American criminal empire circa 1946.

Shung Ta’lang: a werefox last seen in the service of the wu-jen Ssu Chen. This beautiful silver-haired charmer is adept at illusions. There are other powers attributed to werefoxes in some notes from former MHC President Alexander Griffin which the Club did not see Shung Ta’lang demonstrate in their one encounter with her, such as passing without trace, infecting high-charisma females with lycanthropy, and elf-like resistance to sleep etc.

The wu-jen Ssu Chen: I include him for completeness, even though he was last seen on the receiving end of a 30 hit dice fireball. A wu-jen is an oriental wizard. Ssu-Chen appeared as an ancient scholar with nine-inch fingernails. He demonstrated some knowledge of the Cthulhu Mythos and was able to cast Spiritwrack. The MHC foiled his plot to breed Angherad ap Griffeths (Liz Cullerton’s character) and Qui Tzu (Ken Flatters’ character) to release an elder god. Angherad’s Servitor of the Elder Gods guardian comes from this adventure.

The Maharani Vasuki: Not really Oriental, this royal Rakshasa comes from the Indian sub-continent but I was trying to be comprehensive. She is technically a Rakshasa ghul, which means not only is she the last of the tiger-headed demons of Aryan myth but she is also an undead pretender. No wonder she annihilated the rest of the Rakshasi and stole all their power. Too bad the MHC freed all those Rakshasi spirits in her mind, eh? She was last seen hopelessly insane off-plane. For those puzzled by the reference in Tony’s e-mail to the Rakshasa rukh (noble warrior) Amazur (Vasuki’s former husband) occasionally possessing Felix Brockenby, Phil’s character, suffice to say that you are in the same state as the rest of the players.

To complete the current Oriental cast, don’t forget Ken’s hengeyokai (cat spirit in human form) Qui Tzu, a former emissary of the wu-jen Ssu-Chen and source of the fireball previously mentioned, or honorary member old Kageo Muraoka, the spirit-chaser of old Hong Kong, a shukenja (oriental priest – those who have seen the film Mr Vampire will understand his abilities).

I’ll respond to the rest of Tony’s queries along with all the rest of your questions after 10pm on Sunday 15^th November.

Sally has kindly pointed out that it was not Ken’s character Qui Tsu whom the wu-jen Ssu-Chen attempted to breed with Liz’s character Angherad ap Griffeths, it was Paul Glover’s character Mark Panlung. Qui Tsu was the source of the fireball, however. Many apologies for this slur on the integrity of the Morrigan’s current herald.

It is now the morning of Wednesday 11^th January (as a matter of interest, the longest and worst blizzard of the century is just beginning). The police have reluctantly released Lady Anne Bressingham, although they have cautioned her to remain available for further questioning. Their investigations are now centred upon Lumley the butler, working on the theory that he had access to keys and that he served nightcaps to both Lord and Lady Bressingham. Apart from method and opportunity they are having a hard time pinning him to the crime.

One fascinating detail of the close questioning of Lumley is that he claims that the pyjamas found on the unidentified corpse were not Sir James’ after all, merely identical to Sir James’ pair. He indicates the lack of lavender smell – Sir James’ night things were always kept in a drawer with lavender bags. On the reminiscence of Sir James’ return from the awards, Lumley felt that everything was perfectly normal.

Jo Morton wants her character Magda Maledicta (witch) to question the other servants as well. Magda proceeds from the perspective that if she can’t detect magic (and she is the most sensitive of the current Club to such things) then there is probably a mundane method to the murders. The servants are unaware of any strangers recently at or near the house. The police have taken a list of recent callers but all are friends of the family.

Dr Dorian Aveyard’s work with Lady Anne continues. She now recalls a dream from the night before in which she was running about the house because her head had turned inside out and she was trying to pick up the pieces of her brain before someone trod on them. One of the bits got stuck in the bedroom gas fire until she turned the tap full on when it shot out at her.

The physical exam of Lady Anne is inconclusive (on a 78% roll). It can include an x-ray. There is no evidence of drugs in her blood. Her eye irritation has now gone. Her headache started the day before the murder and got progressively worse over 24 hours. Lady Anne is prone to migraines. She has a strength of about 10 in AD&D terms, which would make it possible for her to drag but not to carry the body very far. She is a smoker but the blister on the roof of her mouth is not a burn from a cigarette filter. Aveyard thinks the blister is psychosomatic. An injected drug into her mouth would be unlikely to raise a blister. She does not have a Mind Parasite attachment as recently favoured by the Dreamlands Mind Flayers. Neither does Aveyard (how could you suspect that? Illithids are cold, ruthless scientists, using mind probing techniques to dominate and terrorise their victims, whilst Aveyard is… hmm, next question please).

Tony asked a few questions about details. The fingerprints which folded the origami box are neither Sir James’ nor the unidentified corpse’s. They are probably female, with relatively small hands for a human. A rope trick cannot usually be moved from where it was cast. I can’t remember if anyone in the MHC can do locate object, but giving the benefits of the doubt because it makes no difference, the key cannot be found. There is no standard psionic discipline which changes rope to steel or completely disintegrates matter. At Lady Anne’s death the estate is split between eleven family members; there are no children to her marriage with Sir James. There is no sign of the four mysterious investigators dubbed the "famous four" by the MHC.

Charlotte wanted a more thorough examination of the house. There are no telltale signs of bloody headless bodies being dragged anywhere in the building. There are no fingerprints for the stranger except on the bedposts. There is nothing concealed in the framework of the bed. The cord was cut with a sharp bladed instrument.

Mike posits the use of item to transport a corpse. This is feasible since item would shrink it to 1/12 of its normal size and make it as flexible as cloth.

The register of dentists does not list a Mr N.Y.Arlathotep or anything like that. A more specific criteria for search would need to be specified. There are very few female dentists in 1950. None have Oriental-sounding names.

Jo is suspicious regarding fingerprints. However, there is no indication that gloves have been used to conceal prints or that prints have been cleaned from surfaces. Regarding the room, the key could not easily have been passed beneath the bedroom door, and there is no indication of tampering with locks (although a really good thief would not leave signs). There is no sign of forced entry elsewhere in the house.

Full forensics on the ink and paper of the award certificate and other details on the origami box are due 11^th January. The origami box did not look like Baba Yaga’s hut. It had four stands at the corners, not two chicken legs for a start. There is no particular religious connotation to origami, although it was one of the possible arts which marked a true warrior (in the same way that a samurai who could not compose a haiku had no Orient-cred).

On the corpse problem: A corpse which has been animated usually detects as evil. One which has been animated then killed detects as residually evil unless it is death prayered or similar. However bearing in mind Mike’s Flaxton character can spot clues quite well, and that Che and others wanted to check the bed very thoroughly for prints and stains you can probably work out that:

1. Sir James got the chop on the bed. The angle of the blow was typical of someone standing to the side of the bed and striking a neck laid just where a sleeper would be positioned. There is no way that the curtain cord could have been accidentally cut with the same blow. The blood sprayed Lady Anne’s back but did not wake her. The weapon was a sharp, curved, long blade (Jo suggests a katana, cutlass, scythe or scimitar).

2. The other body did not bleed on the bed. From the prints on the bedposts, the body did climb onto the bed – but was probably not beheaded there!

3. This suggests that the body was already beheaded before it got onto the bed, which suggests animation, which in turn contradicts divinatory evidence. Given the accumulation of clerics and mages in the current team you can probably remember that an animated corpse can be automatically negated by dispel magic cast by its animator. This would remove any residual magic traces on the corpse or anywhere within the area of effect.

4. Both men died within a relatively short time of each other, a maximum of four hours apart (times of death estimated at 10pm-2am; note that Sir James was seen after 11pm). There was no sherry in the unidentified corpse’s stomach, but plenty of champagne and a partly-digested three course meal.

So far there has been no match for the missing man’s fingerprints. The police and several Monster Hunters are keen to trace the people at the awards dinner since somehow the corpse’s fingerprints got onto the award certificate.

About Demdyke Young People’s Reformatory Camp: Set in the heart of rural Derbyshire, this former farm is divided into two dormitories, one for boys and one for girls. Young people with juvenile offending records go there for two weeks on a sort of outward bound/survival type course. The sessions are overlapped so that the youngsters on the second week can assist the ones starting their first week. The project is run by Mr and Mrs Angus Glanth. After almost a year of operating, only one young person has gone back to offending and he absconded from the course on day two.

It would be possible given the right preparation to get one or more of the "peanut squad", the under-20 MHC members – laid back elementalist Albrecht Arnheim (Chris Mortimer), witch Magda Maledicta (Jo Morton) or enchantress Aurora D’Aosta (NPC) – onto the courses starting 12^th January. In the former two cases I think I would need the agreement of the player to such a potentially dangerous mission. In the latter case there might be a problem because Aurora swops places with her identical twin weather priestess Dawn every full moon – which is on 16^th January.

Bressingham Munitions: built up from a firm started by Sir James’ late father, this company is the larger part of Sir James’ £5 million plus assets. There is no discernible connection with the government’s shadowy Black Operations. Kelso Chemicals, where the MHC recently thwarted the not-yet-seen villain Sylvester Skartheim, is not a direct competitor. There are undoubtedly some far Eastern contracts, but nothing Sir James was directly dealing with, or that ring alarm bells at the moment.

The Pickwick Memorial Trust: founded in 1886 and named after the character from Dickens’ Pickwick Papers, this organisation exists to recognise exemplary humanitarian acts. The board is a matter of public record and is chaired by Lord Applewick. The Dower Duchess of Penge, a former monster Hunter, was once a board member. It has relatively few assets, with current investments amounting to about £72,000. However, it is generally felt that receiving a Pickwick award is a good way of getting noticed by His Majesty’s Honours Board so the awards are sought after. Calling it the 1950 award is just good PR. It’s the same way that commentators could tell you that this was the groovy seventies in 1971.

The Awards Dinner started at 7pm, with the awards at 7.45pm and the meal served around 8.30pm. Sir James left around 9.40pm, anxious to check that his wife was alright. The drive time home is not atypical.

Since Mr Walter Waters, the honorary secretary of the trust, is not answering telephone calls or telegrams the Club will undoubtedly contact Applewick direct. After expressing surprise that Walters is not at home (he nurses his housebound mother), Applewick will happily discuss the work of the Trust, especially with any possible donors. He is reluctant to name the other candidates for the award this year, but with Aveyard’s ESP spell the Club can learn that the Bishop of Durham, Roger Hartley MP, and NHS pioneer Dr Shandley were all considered (but did not know they were).

What about Walter Waters? The MHC visit Waters’ home (as suggested in Tony’s correspondence). There is no reply to knocking. Neighbours have not seen Walter since the morning of the day of the awards ceremony. Revell (Tony’s shadow mage thief) announces that the back door is fortunately unlocked (on a roll of 32%). There is an unpleasant smell from inside the house.

Entering carefully, the MHC find old mother Waters smothered under a pillow on her bed. She has been dead for a couple of days, hence the unpleasant odour.

A quick check of Walter’s desk reveals an award certificate made out to Sir James, identical to the one that was folded into the origami box (but unfolded). There are also notes of interviews with young people from the Sun Street Mission who have been on the Demdyke Outdoor Programme and say how much it changed their lives; presumably these notes were generated as part of the process of deciding on the award. Finally, the desk contains Waters’ chequebook which has three recent cheque stubs (Dec 30^th, Jan 3^rd, Jan 7^th) to the Barbury Coaching Inn, a reasonably posh guest-house about twenty miles up the Great North Road.

What do the MHC do at the Waters house? Specifically, what if anything do they report to the police?

Nikki writes with some useful points, but is understandably puzzled about the current line-up of Monster Hunters. Hence, for the out-of-touch, a brief run-down of the current team:

Giles Meridian (Mage) President [Ian Clark]: astronomer trained in dimensional magics by a pair of Astral Dragons who are observing our multiverse; the last good-aligned president before it all went wrong.

"Professor" Angharad ap Griffeths (Academic) [Liz Cullerton]: feisty archaeologist and anthropologist with two distinctive characteristics - she is a part-time herald for the terrible Morrigan, and she is occasionally protected by a sanity-mangling Servitor of the Outer Gods.

James "Jimmy Max" Maxtible (Gallant - Bard subclass)[David Spence]: high-spirited bard sworn to uphold true love and beauty, grandson of two founder Monster Hunters; a trouble magnet.

Maraud Jean Kerim min Qayrawan (Genie-summoner – Mage subclass)[Clive Duerden]: North African genie summoner, amusingly served by his two gens (minor genies); Qayrawun currently has the misfortune to owe the Seelie Court a favour.

Dr Dorian Aveyard, (Mage) Vice president [occasionally Pete Smyth]: brilliant, arrogant, sarcastic psychiatrist graduate of Thoresby College School of Occult Studies; an accomplished button-pusher specialising in mind magics and irritating the opposition.

Richard Selkirk (Mage) [Nick Robinson]: absent minded genius architect (yes, he is versed in non-Euclidian geometry) from Thoresby College; specialising in magics of dimension and diagram; Aveyard's best (some say only) friend.

Patrick Revell (Thief Mage) Treasurer [Tony Janes]: a quiet Irishman with hidden talents; he has had a piece of fundamental shadow planted within him by minions of the sinister Shadow Empress which has aided his development as a Shadow Mage.

Genevieve Fauçonburg (Spelldancer - Mage subclass) [Sally Watson]: elegant ballerina trained as a spelldancer by the Muses of legend; in serious trouble because her immortal wizard husband has a lien on her soul and will be quite cross when he gets over what the MHC did to him last time.

M. Anthony Flaxton (Cleric) Secretary [Mike Cook]: Red cross missionary, a cleric in ability although he was expelled from theological college; the son of an old member.

Albrecht Arnheim (Elementalist – Cleric subclass)[Chris Mortimer]: easy-going Caribbean island hopper who has inherited his Monster Hunter father's gifts as an Elementalist; his taste for ganja is all his own.

Malgazarta Maledicta (Witch – mage subclass) [Jo Morton]: apprentice witch (although she slew her master) and attitude-on-legs; youngest of the informal group aged around sixteen now.

Dawn and Aurora D'Aosta (Weather Priestess – Cleric Subclass & Enchantress – Mage subclass) [NPCs]: the D'Aosta twins have been raised in faerie, tutored by the Russian fairy-tale figure Baba Yaga, and have developed skills as a weather priest and an enchantress (of the charming type) respectively. Dawn is serious, Aurora is fun. Their faerie heritage means that only one of them is present on Earth at once, exchanging at midnight every full moon.

Felix Brockenby (Uncertain) [Phil Harris]: a wastrel hanging around the Club until he can pay off his debt to Qayrawun of four elephants; recently modified in an as yet unexplained way by a life-sucking undead faerie creature (Jimmy Max rescued him) and again when 70% of his life force was replaced with something else’s (the club suspect a Rakshasa’s).

Tanzania Quilp (Alchemist Thief) [Charlotte Baden]: homunculus alchemist, was last seen being blown to bits by the MHC as she was a possessed evil version of herself. However, the DM remains convinced that continuity can be reconciled so don’t worry Charlotte, just play Zany.

Emanuelle LeClair (Thief Acrobat) [Nikki Saunders]: former ballet star and sometimes associate of the Club. At a party recently the resemblance between Emanuelle and Genevieve Fauçonburg was noted.

Warren "Miracle" Morgan (Thief) [AJ Saunders]: transportation specialist, expert at running goods and people across borders. If he is not involved in this scenario he is probably accompanying a BBC camera crew through Persia as they search for the Eastern Mystical tradition.

Eve Adamson (Sceptic – Psionic subclass) [Louise Robinson]: former victim of Wexford the Dissected Man, the new personality inhabiting this body is much nicer than the original and has gained the psionic ability to suppress magic. Eve has recently been associating with the Club.

Other missing (but still in play) Monster Hunters are either lost in time, trapped in the Web of Time, or scattered across other planes. Since their players are not on the holiday, they have not been listed here.

Adele Walker: Former research assistant for the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the shy young woman with a massive memory for useful data was hired by the MHC just before Caradoc took over. She is now based at the Edward Endelby Memorial Library in Harrogate, the Club’s current base of operations (since Chillwater Street started draining levels).

Augustin Hamble: Honorary member in recognition of more than fifty years' service to the MHC, the Club's legal advisor.

Sorry to disagree with my learned colleague Tony, but as I remember it the Club did actually blow away Zany's body at the denouement of the Plague Golem Case. It was actually occupied by the spirit of an insane rat-lover follower of occultist Anton Caradoc, but somehow had access to Zany's alchemical knowledge. If other people have a different memory of the outcome, let me know.

Still, don't despair. Zany's spirit was actually nowhere near her Mark V body at the time of its passing, and has yet to be located. Fortunately I do know where it is and will be addressing the issue at the next regular session.

Tony is quite correct that Mistress Millenium (the ogre mage) has turned up since 1946 however. She was active in the recent case where Gaston LeClair (Emanuelle's father) pulled off his masterstroke and managed to grant every thief in existence 5% + 5% per level (I think it was) magic resistance to detection spells. During that case she claimed to be hired by the wu-jen Ssu-Chen, but as we all know he was fireballed into oblivion, wasn't he?

I'm fascinated by the debate between players on the police informing and camp infiltration issues. Final answers before 10pm Thursday please.

We left the Club faced with a murdered mother and a missing secretary to the Pickwick Foundation. After a struggle between melting away and anonymously tipping-off the police or boldly declaring things to charmed police officers, you eventually decided to involve the (charmed) police and share the joy of discovery with them.

The search of the Waters house was pretty much described last time. There are no dweomers of magic, and the missing key is not found there.

Well done those of you who suggested that the mystery corpse in Lady Anne’s bed might be poor Walter Waters – it is [5 xps]. Hence the dinner in the corpse’s stomach was the award banquet. Waters left the awards ceremony around 10.15pm, uncharacteristically hurrying off (he was usually the last to leave). Nobody observed any suspicious pinpricks on his neck (although the club came across a very clever vampire once who made the wounds vanish by placing a drop of his own blood over the wounds, but that’s another scenario…)

The Barbury Coaching Inn: The receptionist here recognises a photograph of Waters. He and "Mrs Waters" enjoyed three romantic candlelit meals here (on the dates matching the cheques), but did not stay the night. "Mrs Waters" is described as a tall, elegant woman perhaps in her late twenties, with black hair coiled in an elaborate bun. She wore expensive silk clothes. She did not resemble Lady Anne. The waiters remember that she chided Walter for being so cautious in his menu ordering, always encouraging him to choose something more exotic that he had not tried before. The staff felt that Walter was besotted with his wife.

On the two Award Certificates: Arcane forensic results are now back on the origami-folded certificate. Visually the two certificates are identical, both signed by Waters and Lord Applewick on behalf of the Foundation. However, the ink on the origami version is of the same kind used to write scrolls or spellbooks. Since different inks are used for different scrolls it is even possible to work out that the spell was some kind of variation on dimension door, but requiring a two-way transfer between similar objects. With this information, Richard Selkirk (Nick’s architect/mathematician mage) speculates that folding the document into a particular set of angles might serve as a somatic instead of a verbal component for the "scroll".

This established, it seems likely that the origami certificate was a cunning forgery as Nikki suggests, although the question of the veracity of the signatures remains to be pursued. Nikki suggests checking the other guests at the dinner for residual magic, but any such dweomer will have long faded by now. The certificate was not presented in a case. The certificate from Waters’ house has only Walter’s fingerprints on it.

The Reprobate "Slashman" Skinner: Tony wanted his character Patrick Revell to track down the one Demdyke Course attendee who did not reform. This proves possible since the young man is currently in police custody pending assault with a deadly weapon charges (he tried to stab a police officer). Revell, Albrecht, and Aveyard go to see this nasty piece of work. Aveyard is outside the cell casting ESP and Albrecht is casting detect evil when Revell senses some kind of shadow activity (he is very sensitive to shadows, having a tiny portal to the demiplane of shadow lodged within him). He is just in time to get Aveyard out of the way as a black silhouette peels itself from the cell wall and goes for the psychiatrist. There is then a melee with the sinister creature, which is of a kind that Revell has not seen before. Albrecht reckons that it is evil, and finds that it takes 3d6 damage from a light spell. Finally Revell manages to use his Pin Shadow spell, and the entity seems to shatter like glass before melting away. Aveyard (who got his ESP up anyway) sensed that the entity had been told to trail Slashman but to take no action unless a spell was cast in the vicinity.

So to Slashman’s description of the Demdyke Camp – aided by some understated intimidation from Revell. The first two days were not to his taste, comprising campfire sing-songs, early mornings, cold baths, and long hikes. The second week students were all really into this, and were especially interested in the caving every weekend. Slashman speaks with contempt of how everybody just seemed to do everything that Mrs Glanth told them to. On the second night he slipped away before anyone could hold him responsible for the nineteen stitches his bunkmate was going to need the next morning.

Angels with Dirty Faces: By using the notes from Waters place, the Club can also track down some of the "disturbed young people" who have benefited from the Demdyke project. Waters did indeed do the research on behalf of the Pickwick Trust, following up a nomination from a business acquaintance of Sir James’, Sir Rodney Cloves. He received the names of Demdyke boys and girls from Mrs Glanth in written correspondence.

The MHC can follow up these interviews. The young people all seem calm, if somewhat quiet, young men and women, all now starting to play a proper role in society. Several are back at school or taking on apprenticeships. Others are completing probationary service with exemplary diligence. None of them detect as magic, evil, or extraplanar. However, Aurora D’Aosta and Jimmy Maxtible both find it impossible to charm any of them!

The graduates of the Demdyke Camp speak of it with polite admiration. Mrs Glanth is particularly praised for her "patience and discipline". There is a network for former campers, some of whom go back occasionally to assist at the weekends.

The Club can get this much information without blowing their cover and indicating that they are investigating Demdyke Camp. Any more detailed interviewing would need to be very devious to avoid announcing the investigation to the Demdyke alumni.

Lady Anne is not yet "off the hook", she has merely been released on her own recognisance pending further investigation.

On the question of protecting the other candidates, the MHC do not have the manpower to cover them all, but perhaps the police might be prevailed upon to keep out a watchful eye.

Mike came up with a clever thought about tracing the pyjamas on the corpse. Since Sir James ordered his silk night attire from Bond Street and had them made up specially it is a relatively easy matter to find out who has ordered trousers in that pattern and size. Club ears perk up when they find that an Oriental lady ordered a pair for her husband, whose specifications she brought, on 3^rd January 1950. The Oriental lady spoke perfect English and paid cash. She was graceful and very attractive despite having prematurely silver hair. On 7^th January she collected the finished items and left in a taxi. Tony had Revell sniffing the pyjama drawer. He smelled lavender.

Nicky asked whether more information could be gleaned from the fingerprints. Whilst there is no way of telling whether some one is caucasian or not from fingerprints, it is possible sometimes to get the idea of fingernail size. Sadly, on a 68% roll, it is not possible in this case. Nicky also wanted to check up on male dentists and female dental nurses with Oriental names. Since there are around 400 possibilities this may take some time to get a result.

Tony wanted to check Lady Anne’s cigarettes. As Albrecht Arnheim (Chris’ ganja-toking Caribbean elementalist) will disappointedly tell you, they are nothing but Benson & hedges tobacco. Lady Anne’s x-ray showed no anomalies. According to Lady Anne (and verified by others) the relationship between Sir James and Walters was cordial but formal. They had only met on a dozen occasions or so. Sir James has a number of numbered foreign bank accounts but none depend on fingerprints. However, she does remember her husband being extraordinarily put out by a scratch to his palm he received trimming roses about a year back. Lady Anne’s solicitor knowing Hamble seems to be a fortuitous co-incidence. So far the Club cannot implicate Lady Anne in any adulterous sleaze, even using ESP.

Mike wondered why Sir James was anxious about his wife. She was actually due to accompany him to the dinner but had to stay home because of her headache.

Sir James drove himself home on the night of the murder.

The awards panel do not appear to be dead yet.

Charlotte wanted the pipework of the gas fire checked. Chris was also a bit worried about the hearth. It all seems OK, with no ectoplasmic gunge or similar infesting the pipes. However, there is a newly laid patch of tarmac thirty yards down the road from the gates of the Bressingham estate. A little unauthorised (and literal for once) digging reveals a gas main, with a bright and shiny new connecting coupler.

Chris is back in the game with a vengeance. Yes, it is solely blood of the same group as Sir James, and not of Walter Waters. It did get on the carpet. The curtain cord appears to have been deliberately cut with a very sharp (but not supernaturally so) blade. Lumley did not notice the certificate when Sir James came home, so presumably it was rolled (not folded) in his dinner jacket pocket. The cuts on the two bits of body are close but do not match perfectly. The extensive pub research has at least two volunteers, Albrecht and Jimmy Max (Dave Spence). Aveyard thinks Lady Anne’s blister is psychosomatic because she had the very intense dream about being injured there, and because there are no signs of an actual puncture or other injury on the flesh of the blister. The Club have yet to find anyone who was at the dinner who has suffered any ill effects other than Sir James and Waters. The food was considered excellent.

Chris also suggests checking some of the guests at the dinner. This has come up a few times from different players. The timings previously given seem accurate. Sir James was in good spirits when he left the dinner. Waters seemed in a hurry to get away.

Louise (or Nick in disguise) enters the fray by dredging up complications from a recent scenario against Kelso Chemicals in Australia, with a plague golem (and the evil Zany). Relax, Louise (or Nick), the plague golem is fairly comprehensively splatted. The only dangling plot threads were the chap running Kelso the mysterious Sylvester Skatheim, his client Anton Caradoc, and how to put Zany back together again in time for this scenario…

Nick & Louise join the "suspicious of the worthy Mr & Mrs Angus Glanth and Demdyke Camp" brigade. A check on the available records (without approaching Demdyke) suggests that this is the second best reform programme in the history of the world (the first was a French prison which sucked evil from the minds of psychopaths, but the MHC blew that up around 1913). Demdyke camp was opened on September 28^th 1948, funded by Sir James Bressingham. All the staff have been in post since that date. Adele Walker, the Club’s researcher, cannot find any professional qualifications or previous work record registered in the name of Glanth. - which sounds suspiciously like an anagram to her. The DM use an anagram? Surely not.

The feng-shui situation of Demdyke camp is difficult to assess without a site visit, but from a map there does not appear to be anything significant to the fairly sketchy knowledge of the Club. Selkirk is probably best able to make an assessment (in the absence of honorary member Kageo Muraoka) but on a 59% roll he shuffles off and chalks a new idea for a cantilever on the wall. He can have another go if the MHC ever get to the site itself.

Tony wonders about a police visit to the Glanths, but so far the officers of the law see little value in examining a very tenuous link in the case.

None of the police officers detect as charmed or possessed except those that Aurora has got to. One or two of them will be getting additional saving throws any day now.

There are sufficiently few female dentists for the police to check them out.

On the Mistress Millenium Ogre Mage theory, an ogre mage has the following granted powers, usable at will: fly, invisibility, darkness, polymorph to humanoid; and the following once per day: charm person, sleep, gaseous form, and cone of cold. They also regenerate 1 hit point per round. Millenium has not been known to possess stoneskin before, although she has been seen to use magic-user scrolls.

On the Sarah Casterbridge theory (Sarah is one of the Ordo Templis Exemplii, Anton Caradoc’s coven), this mage is currently wielding the Zombie Staff with the JuJu Starstone from #5. It has a number of powers around zombie making and control, but no known abilities for concealment or transportation. You’re determine to pin this one on Caradoc, aren’t you?

Monsters which require body parts are fairly rare, although the flesh golem, juju zombie, and living wall have all been encountered by the MHC. In addition they met a strange extraplanar entity which hollowed out its victims heads then drove them as vehicles.

Methods of animating dead are varied but by far the most common is Animate Dead, a third level clerical or fifth level magic-user spell. The casting times are one and five rounds respectively. Dragotha the Dracolich (another villain tragically slaughtered by the MHC) had a spell which combined slay living with animate dead.

Magical transportations are also pretty varied, starting with Blink which has an undirected range of about ten feet and Dimension Door with a range of around two hundred yards or so, through teleportation magics to top range spells like Teleport without Error. In 1937 Qualius the Lych modified the arcanosphere of the planet (the world’s magical field) to impede long-range teleporting, so only really powerful entities can now teleport more than a few miles. The Club have fairly extensive experience of shadow shift, a spell which transports via the demiplane of shadow, but usually requires a vehicle as a material component (such as the London Necropolis Co’s Coach of Night). There are also psionic disciplines such as probability travel. Finally, students of Elder God magics (and Selkirk) can use constitution-draining, sanity mangling gateways which may be temporary or permanent.

A smoke mephit is one of a range of imp-like creatures dwelling on the elemental planes, each species named after an element or combination of elements e.g. fire, steam, vapour, ash, etc.

Finally a few helpful thoughts from Dave Spence, who detailed how Jimmy Max will be doing research in the local taverns. Dave pointed out that the chap who created and drew Rupert Bear was an origami expert, and posited a plot to corrupt the nation’s youth through check trousers bent into Satanic shapes. He further explained that the Lindburgh kidnapping case was brought to a conviction on a paper fold. More details on these are available from Dave as soon a people can work out his e-mail address.

If the Club want to put somebody on the next Demdyke course, they have to do it tomorrow game time. That means a specific e-mail from the player concerned saying they want to risk it, or a consensus from the players that it would be OK to send the D’Aosta twins in (one at a time of course, because of their rather unique problem), by the next deadline. Jo has already told me that Magda’s all for it and is raring to go in there.

We left our fearless heroes intending to interview a few of the personalities appearing on the periphery of the case, and possibly contemplating a visit to Demdyke Camp. And so, the results:

Interviewing Lord Applewick: Applewick remembers signing two certificates. Waters brought back the original with an ink blot on the upper right hand corner, and apologetically asked that another certificate be signed, In each case Waters had them laid on a desk and he only had to sign them. Lord Applewick cannot recall whether he actually touched them or not. Curiously, neither of the certificates in MHC possession actually has a blot on them. Applewick’s fingerprints are not on the origami-folded certificate.

Applewick is of little help with information about Sir James. He hardly knew the man until the committee considered him for an award.

ESP indicates that Lord Applewick is genuinely baffled and hopes that someone can get to the bottom of the grisly awful business.

Interviewing Sir Rodney Clover: Clover was an old friend and occasional business partner of Sir James’. He was best man at Sir James’ wedding (in 1938) and has called several times to take care of Lady Anne since. ESP suggests he would like to take care of her in a rather more physical way than has currently been possible, and that his ambitions are rising. He is fairly cagey about discussing business matters, perhaps because there are defence contracts involved.

However, one interesting thing he does reveal is that Demdyke Camp started life as a munitions manufactury during the war. It was built partly into the side of a hill and it was intended to make use of the natural cave systems running down through the limestone as storage bunkers (the cave Slashman talked about is one of these caverns). The contract was never completed because the war came to an end. Sir James therefore passed the camp on to the Glanths when he was sold on the reform project idea.

The letter from Sir Rodney recommending Sir James for the Pickwick Award is in Waters’ files.

On the Hunt for the Impostor Pyjamas: A beautiful woman with blonde-silver hair sticks in the minds of London cabbies. On a 89% roll the taxi which transported this female from Bond Street with her purchases cannot be found. However, on a 03% roll (obviously by Jimmy Max) the Club stumble across a cabbie who mentions having driven such a woman to a performance of Madame Butterfly at the National Opera House. Her address was 11 Mornington Crescent. The taxi driver recalls that she was a good tipper (note to treasurer Revell: this info costs £5).

A check with the neighbours is unrevealing. Nobody knows who owns the house and nobody has seen much coming and going there, although they do recognise the description of the silver-haired woman. Nobody has seen her entering or leaving in anybody’s company.

After twenty-four hours of observation there is no sign of activity at the house – no lights for example. The house is equipped with net curtains preventing observation in through the windows. No milk is delivered and no mail arrives.

The players need to tell me if they want to enter the house, and if so whether the police know about it / are present.

Horrible black shadowy beasties: It doesn’t take Revell long to find a monster description which matches that of the thing that attacked him: the Shadowgrim. These undead servitors were originally created by the Grand Thane Samoath (alas yet another villain gone from the Rogues Gallery). The Thane had the ability to make them look human until they entered combat, but the few left since his time have not exhibited that ability. Samantha Sinclair (former Monster Hunter cleric played by Sally c#1050-1400) noted them as being about as difficult to turn as ghasts or ghouls. They paralysed their prey, and sometimes that effect was permanent. In darkness or shadow they were immune to all weapons, but they took double damage from fire, energy, or magical attacks.

After the Thane fell, some two dozen of these creatures fell under the control of expelled Monster Hunter Richard Ease (Pete Smythe). When his criminal empire faltered after his permanent exile in time they were annexed by Episuko the Outcast (Mistress Millenium) on behalf of her then employer Chia Caranques los Llanos (a previously described devil). Nineteen were known to remain in 1947.

Thinking about the nasty feeling he got just before the attack, Revell recalls the same discomfort last time he paid a prison visit to his old college chum, manslaughterer Vlastimil Gabcik (scenario details from Tony, Gabcik’s player in the School of Occult Studies adventures).

Walter Waters’ Little Secret: A little detective work from Flaxton and Jimmy Max places Waters on the 10.31pm train to London on the night of the murders. At that point he was alone. The time from the awards hall to the station is consistent with his travelling there directly by foot. It is impossible to track his movements after embarking on the train.

Waters arrived by taxi to the Barbury Coaching Inn. His ladyfriend arrived and left by separate taxi.

The mysterious "Mrs Waters" does not match the descriptions of either Mrs Glanth or Mistress Millenium. However, all the players have missed a fairly easy clue to her identity from an earlier bulletin.

Arcane transportation methods: Given the known information and about two days without sleep, Selkirk is able to reconstruct the nature of the transportation magics used in Sir James’ bedroom. The magic appeared to swap two near-identical non-living objects. The focii were two identical scrolls, one at each end of the transfer. These would have had to be activated (by the somatic act of folding) simultaneously, then placed in contact with the object to be transported. The range of the swap could be up to twenty-five miles or so depending upon the level of the spell. Certainly, a search of the area outside the house which Tony suggests does not come up with nay tracks or clues, although that may be due to the shocking lack of rangers in the current Club (as noted by Chris). There are no houses which directly overlook the Bressinghams’ bedroom window, as they are blocked by elm trees. There are no houses for rent in this rather exclusive suburb.

The gas coupling appears to have been undone and then resealed. Charlotte’s speculation about it as a means of entrance for a creature in gaseous form is certainly feasible. The fire had been on earlier in the evening, but it was turned off by Lady Ann (whose fingerprints appear on the knob). Creatures that can assume gaseous form take all their clothing and equipment with them, to the limits of their encumbrance only.

There are no records of the Gas Corporation doing any maintenance work on that stretch of road.

Welcome to the Demdyke Reform Camp: The MHC decided to send an undercover team into the Camp (by a split decision). Revell is able to provide suitable cover stories allow Magdazata Maledicta (Jo’s witch) and Aurora D’Aosta (NPC enchantress) to be admitted to the course, part of the half-dozen boys and half-dozen girls of this week’s intake. Albrecht refuses to go on the basis that he is not in the mood for suicide or cold early morning runs. Aurora insists on going despite Revell’s doubts, pointing out that Dawn (her twin with whom she will exchange places at full moon in four days time) actually likes communal singing and freezing showers.

In terms of back-up, Magda intends to use the spell whispering wind as a means of summoning help. I will assume that an operating team of at least three Monster Hunters is within five miles and ready to rush to the resuce.

Mr and Mrs Angus Glanth welcome the new arrivals to the bleak Derbyshire hillside where a series of blockhouses form the facility. Mr Glanth is an affable man in his middle forties, complete with head. He is therefore not Sir James (sorry, Tony). Slashman described Angus Glanth in terms of obscene scorn as being under the domination of his wife. A few moments observation reveal this to be the absolute truth. Magda detects Mrs Glanth as evil and Mr Glanth and the four other staff as magical. Aurora determines this latter to be a charm spell. None of the perfectly-behaved second week campers detect as magical, evil, or charmed. Magda is aware that there are spirits about the place but is never allowed to be alone enough to try and commune with them.

So begins a routine of early mornings, brisk walks in deep snow, hearty sings, Magda planning to kill someone, and Aurora praying for the full moon so that Dawn can take over please. The second weekers tell the less-than-impressed first weekers that they will change their minds after the caving at the end of the first week.

I am assuming that the MHC may have come up with means of backing-up this party in addition to the precautions outlined above. You will need to tell me what this is by the next deadline. If you want to set up Tony’s police raid plan I need to know when it will be, specifically before or after the first weekend, and how you are arranging it.

A subject can only be under one charm at a time. In the Monster Hunters campaign, a second charm has a chance to replace the existing one of 50% + or - 5% per level of second charm caster above or below level of the first charm caster. The subject would also have to fail a saving throw vs the second charm. By the way, as I recall both Magda and Aurora have really good saves against charm magics.

Aurora can detect charm. None of the Demdyke proteges appear to be charmed.

The current rogues gallery of oriental types was listed in my e-mail of 13^th November.

Ogre magi can assume any humanoid form, although all have one preferred shape. Mistress Millennium either favours appearing as a vision of ethereal and unearthly beauty bringing wisdom from beyond the stars, or as a demure geisha with downcast eyes. One minor snag with the ogre mage theory is that they can only assume gaseous form once per day.

I am sure that there are plenty of medical conditions which Zany could list (but I can’t) which require special care of the hands. Sir James was not haemophilic. He did often wear gloves to protect his hands. In recalling the rose-cut incident, Lady Anne does remember an irate visitor shortly afterwards whom Sir James hurried into his study. The description matches that of Angus Glanth.

In answer to quite a list from Jo, Lady Anne’s gas-fire dream was on the night of the murder, although she only recalled it after Aveyard had worked on her quite a bit. There was no blister similar to that on Lady Anne’s mouth on Sir James’. A gaseous form potion could be prepared by a 1^st level alchemist if they had the formula in their notes (1^st level alchemists know 1d4 potions) and access to the material components and a lab. No poachers have yet come forward with evidence of movements on the night of the murder. No standard spell creates human body parts, although it would be an interesting variant of create food and drink for a ghoul to research (actually I suppose the high level create any item or wish would probably do it). The entity which rode inside people’s brain-pans was some sort of insect as I recall. It is not coming back from what the MHC did to it.

Chris asks about the Marquis de Sade’s hand. I know you all yearn for the return of such fine old villains, but sadly this last vestige of the old b*stard was destroyed during its last outing whilst merged with Wexford the Dissected Man. Greyhame and Co, the Monster Hunters at the time, were relatively thorough in ensuring that neither of these bad guys was coming back for an encore.

Edward Endelby, the undead trustee of the Edward Endelby Memorial Library which is the Club’s current research base, frivolously notes after dinner one evening that the Eastern peoples tie their corpses’ ankles together to stop them walking (the hopping vampire phenomenon).

Regarding the Vlastimil Gabchik visit, Aveyard points out that if Gabchik is a Shadowgrim and decides to attack, and if the MHC have to kill it, it will evaporate leaving the Club to explain where the prisoner they were visiting has vanished to. Please give me more specific instructions about how the MHC want to approach this investigation.

Gabchik’s previous affiliation was as a contracted researcher for a cartel developing the magical drug mjal. The cartel included Black Operations, the (late) Money grubber, mafia godfather Sterling Ferroni, and (the late) antipaladin Gialcomo di Terlizzi.

The raid on Mornington Crescent: It’s nice to know that the MHC still have a few favours they can pull in; like Justice the Right Hon. Wallingford King, one-time partner at Hamble, Hamble, Hamble, Durham, Hamble, and King (the Club’s solicitors), who is probably the only magistrate around who will sign a search warrant at the club’s behest on the grounds that an ogre mage might be hiding out in the house.

The MHC check the building for magic but don’t find any. Brockenby (Phil’s character) does find a rather nasty mechanical trap with a little sticky paste which Zany will eventually identify as an lethal Oriental contact poison. The officers of the law are understandably happy to allow the MHC into the house first after that.

This is a dawn raid. The MHC have heard of midnight raids but tend to disapprove of them if undead may be involved. Interestingly because of the extraordinary snow it is possible to tell that nobody who leaves tracks has entered or left the building for at least 24 hours. Revell gets the door open and the Club cautiously enter.

This is just as well as a headless zombie body attacks them, hopping forward because its feet are tied together (a somatic necessity of the Eastern animate dead spell). Like the well-practised Monster Hunters they are they deal with the undead in a single round – before it gets a hit in. That’s when Zany might notice that it is covered in the same sticky substance from the trap. The now-inanimate corpse is wearing familiar pyjamas, and will later prove to be the missing bit of Sir James Bressingham. The missing bedroom key is looped onto his pyjama cord.

Whilst the police are convincing themselves that this moving corpse was a grotesque joke perpetrated by the murderer with hidden wires, the Club do a quick check of the rest of the site. The house is largely unfurnished, but there are a few interesting points. There is an identical origami-folded certificate here. There is Wallace Waters’ rather surprised looking head. Near it there is a large spray of blood over one wall denoting the place where he seems to have been beheaded. There is a collection of empty bottles of the kind we might nowadays associate with aromatherapy. There is a mah jongg set. Fingerprints on these items and around the house match those of the female who folded the other origami certificate. There is a different set of fingerprints from whoever folded the certificate here, which the police interpret as somebody wearing mohair gloves.

Detect magic senses a fading necromantic aura on the body of Sir James and a rather unique invocation magic. Identify on this (still functioning) spell suggests that it is a fairly high-level (5^th or 6^th) variant of wizard mark. Although it might be possible to duplicate the spell, it would be very difficult to duplicate the exact signature of the particular casting. Detect evil finds a remnant aura around Sir James consistent with a neutralised undead. Identify on the origami certificate learns a few more details from the vestigial dweomer. The swap location spell transports two similar non-living objects to each other’s location. Surmises that the origami boxes had to be folded in the same way at the same time in two locations are confirmed. Nothing invisible or shadowy is detected.

Forensic analysis of Sir James’ body will be available shortly (in time for the next mailing). Some mud on his feet and under his fingernails indicate he has been out somewhere. His palms have been wiped clean.

Origami certificate summary: There appear to have been three certificates, prepared through the co-operation of Walter Waters. The first, a non-magical original, was found at Waters’ house unused. The second and third were the components of the transportation spell. The Club have now discovered both of these.

As a matter of interest, retired Police Commissioner Lancett recalls a case in Stockholm about three years back where a scholar was found strangled to death in an Indian rug clutching an origami bird.

So what happened at Sir James’ on the night of the murder? So far the MHC have pieced together the following:

1. Lady Anne retired early with a headache and subsequently has her two dreams, one which included turning on a gas fire.

2. Sir James came in and went to bed. Somehow the key to the door got attached to his pyjama trousers cord.

3. The murderer may well have entered via gaseous form through the gas pipes.

4. The murderer killed Sir James on the bed by beheading him. Lady Anne slept on despite being splashed with blood.

5. At some point Sir James’ corpse was animated. It was probably whilst he was still in the bed in his bedroom, since a piece of curtain cord was cut to bind his legs together as a prerequisite to the oriental animate dead spell.

6. The murderer completed the swap location spell, substituting Sir James’ body for a different animated headless corpse – Waters’. Sir James’ body ended up at Mornington Crescent, which is just at the limit of what Selkirk reckons is the range for a transfer spell.

Someone else must have been present there to activate the other end of the transportation spell.

7. The murderer (or someone) dispelled magic upon Waters corpse, undoing the animation and erasing all traces of magical dweomer.

8. The murderer somehow departed.

Verifying Vlastimil: The DM is unable to confirm that Gabchik, Tony’s erstwhile scholar from the School of Occult Studies campaign mini-series who was imprisoned for manslaughter, is not associated with this scenario. An interview without magic use suggests – as previously – that Vlastimil Gabchik or his double is using ESP to make the proper responses, rather as some doppelgangers do. Aveyard (who is not present) suggests a few ways to trip up Gabchik on this, such as asking a question which Aveyard knows the answer to but none of the interviewers present do. Revell now gets a rather itchy feeling near Vlastimil.

Detect spells from a distance suggest that Gabchik is evil, magical (illusion/phantasm), and shadowy only after Flaxton (on a roll under ½ wisdom) thinks to disbelieve the negative results.

Before you all ask, this is not true of any of the other people you have detected on in this scenario so far.

On the identity of Mrs Angus Glanth: Tony points out that this lady’s name is an anagram of Shung Ta’lang (not Shun Ta’lang, the engineers’ version), the silver-haired werefox last encountered in the service of the wu-jen Ssu Chen. Mrs Glanth has coiffeured brown hair, but this could well be a wig. Also, the physical description of "Mrs Waters" and the pyjama-buying woman match that of Shung Ta’lang. Apart from shapechanging, werefoxes are adept at charm and can infect high charisma females (such as Magda, Aurora, and Dawn) with lycanthropy. Shung Ta’lang also had some mage spellcasting ability, including colour spray and improved phantasmal force. Her only known associate apart from the wu-jen Ssu-Chen was Qui Tsu, Ken Flatters’ hengeyokai (cat-man oriental shapechanger) – who is of course absent at the moment as he is needed. Shung Ta’lang was last seen in 1947, when the wu-jen sucked up a fireball the hard way.

Tony enquires if the silver-haired Mrs Walters was the oriental woman from Lady Anne’s dream. Lady Anne does not recognise a picture of Shung Ta’lang. The Club have not yet acquired anything with Shung Ta’lang’s fingerprints on it.

Jo raises a question about Shung Ta’lang at the Opera. She took a box for the performance, and was met there by a semetic-looking gentleman who matches the description of Vlastimil Gabchik.

At Demdyke Camp: By day four it is Aurora’s opinion that everybody except her and Magda are charmed by Mrs Angus Glanth – and she should know having detect charm. The two girls are doing a jolly good job of pretending to be charmed along with everyone else. Strangely, the week two kids do not detect as charmed.

From close observation it is almost as if the week two campers have a sort of built-in inhibitor. Every time they are about to do something wrong, a sort of neutral, bland personality kicks in and reigns them back. They are observed to eat, however, although their meat is served fairly raw. None of them appear affected by Magda’s spells.

I don’t think Magda could have taken in her talismans. They would show up under a detect magic and might give the game away. They would certainly increase the risk considerably. Spell components, on the other hand, are only magical as they are being cast. Know alignment only works in areas of spiritual sanctuary, thanks to a convincing case made by Steve Thatcher long ago that the spell destroyed mystery in the campaign (and a revision of the planetary magical field by Qualius the Lych), and would therefore be useless in the current situation. Do other players agree with Jo that Aurora should try to charm some of the campers?

Magda is quite uncomfortable at the Camp. It is as if there is something just outside her range of perception which she does not like and which does not like her. All she can sense is that it is very, very old.

Finally, players everywhere will be delighted to hear that all the campers are warned never to go into the old cottage at the edge of the estate. At night there are strange lights there and some of the first week campers claim to have heard screams and wild animal noises coming from its shuttered interior….

The police questioning will take place tomorrow, the last day after the midnight changeover of Aurora and Dawn (as I understand the plan). Plans to exfiltrate the two Monster Hunters need to be detailed for the next deadline. The requirement for foxhounds has been noted. Jimmy Max can probably come up with some, and Brockenby can spend happy hours trying to teach them to sit.

Nicki raises the interesting possibility of a "star" visit to Demdyke Camp from her character Emmanuelle LeClair. This is feasible though potentially dangerous. The Club may wish to use this either to communicate with Magda and Aurora/Dawn, or to have another body on site at the time of any police visit. Let me know what you want to do.

Charlotte posits getting into the Demdyke Caves without going through the camp. This might be possible given a good caving expert. I’m not sure who the Club knows that they could turn to at the moment, but they could presumably hire somebody. There is a modicum of hardship and risk involved. Albrecht believes that there are "small waters" running through the caves. He believes them to have magical potential, the sort of waters that one might find aggregating underground around a stone circle. This may mean that the caves have some ancient mystical significance. Which characters want to go spelunking to try and be in the caves in time for the camping trip?

There are no known followers of Richard Ease at large. The only known significant minion of Chia still active that has not been previously mentioned in this correspondence is satyr movie-mogul Osgood Chessard, who is currently refitting Chia’s yacht for his own use.

Mistress Millenium claimed to be working for the wu-jen Ssu Chen at the Club’s last meeting with her (December 1949 – less than a month ago).

Mike asks about some other female villains (with all these villainesses about it’s a real shame that Phil’s not on-line, isn’t it? He so likes lady villains!). Chia is due back in about five months, I think (so that’s all right, Chris!). The Maharani Vasuki was described in my listing of eastern adversaries, and was last seen off plane and insane around 1947. Madame Symmetry of Synchronicity is always possible, I suppose, since she has been known to time travel if she really has to, but she was usually far too nasty to simply behead someone. Swords are such crude instruments.

Sir Rodney Cloves is an independently wealthy jetsetter who dabbles in business. He is taking care of Lady Anne because she is devastated by the death of her husband and the police suspicions about her. When all this is over he has offered her a trip to his place in Ibiza to recover.

Sir James visited the camp every fifth weekend. Lady Anne never accompanied him. It is not yet clear how he met the Glanths. How do the Club want to research this?

Sir James appears to have been protective only of his hands.

Charlotte asks for a detect life upon the Demdyke graduates. They do not detect as alive. They do not appear different after a disbelieve roll. They do not detect as diseased. So far they have not detected as anything. The current club do not have access to detect illusion or detect poison. Clive Duerden’s character genie-summoner Maraud Jean Kerim Quayrawun, who might have a small chance of acquiring such spells, is not currently with the Club.

Nobody saw anyone interfering with the gas main. If it happened fairly late at night it would have probably passed unnoticed. Chemical analysis of the pipes reveals nothing remarkable.

Jo asks about pacts and "blood magic". The wu-jen Ssu Chen is not known as a pact maker unless you count his pact with Nyartathotep the Crawling Chaos to use Angherad ap Griffeths and Mark Panlung as the vehicles for two elder beasts to mate and spawn through. Magda does know that the "older" the magic gets, the more likely that blood is a potent catalyst. The magic at Demdyke camp feels very old.

For Magda’s satisfaction, mjal is an Atlantean drug distilled from the brains of humans who died by torture. Their death agonies and dying thoughts are transmitted to the drug user. It is highly addictive. Q takes a very dim view of it. Gabchik was employed to research and reconstruct the mjal formula, which he did as an academic exercise because he needed the money, without really working out that it was going to be used. The MHC had a few words with him about this. Sterling Ferroni is a mafia godfather based in Italy whose daughter eloped with Clive’s last character Timothy Blair. Gialcomo di Terlizzi was an African freedom fighter/terrorist (perspective) who was secretly an antipaladin. The MHC first met young Flaxton on the case where di Terlizzi was finally eliminated. Black Operations – the Men in Black – are a shadowy quasi-government transatlantic agency into mind control, conspiracy, and suppression, for the public good. Their current agenda is not well understood.

More than Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Maharani Vasuki, the Ultimate Rakshasa: The Rakshasas are a race of flesh-devouring demons from Indian myth, where they occupy the same sort of legendary niche as the frost giants in Norse tales or the Titans in Greek mythology – the opposition to the gods, personifications of old chaos from before time. In the most famous of the stories about them from the Vedas (specifically the Ramayana), Rama, the hero of the story, rescues his wife Sita from Ravana, king of the Rakshasas, by slaying the demon with an arrow blessed with vedic mantras – hence the AD&D fixation that blessed crossbow quarrels kill rakshasas.

Amazur was a rakshasha Rukh (warrior noble). He was sent to the Monster Hunters as an emissary of the rakshasha Maharajah Sisupala at the time the Club were hosting the Gathering of the Clans of Darkness. Like many other visitors to Chillwater Street at that time, the Rukh was tasked with presenting a case for the MHC to use the Great Key of Atlantis, the artefact of power which Qualius had helpfully left in their charge at the time. Amazur got involved in tabletop wargaming with Tony’s then character Nicholas Wilton, and Phil’s then character Boffer Scatterhorn, and had a relatively friendly relationship with the Club thereafter.

This cordial entente between the Club and the rakshasas came to an end during the wedding of Maharajah Sisupala to his new bride. The Maharajah was murdered and the Club framed for it. Amazur kept them alive long enough to investigate the crime (a locked room whodunnit with a dozen or more supernatural entity suspects including the Eyeless Artist and the Morrigan’s herald), and they eventually deduced the killer was Sisupala’s senior wife, the Maharani Vasuki.

Vasuki was actually a ghul, an undead rakshasa with all the abilities of a noble of her race plus massive necromantic abilities (she has been known to cast ninth level necromantic spells). Her spellcasting is always accompanied by a distinctive sinister whispering from myriad dead voices. She required constant sacrifices to prevent her losing strength and charisma.

Once revealed as the culprit, Vasuki proclaimed Amazur her champion and helped him defeat the reincarnated Sispala to become the new Maharajah. The MHC were thanked for their help and got out of the City of the rakshasa’s as soon as possible.

But Vasuki’s plans were only just beginning. In her forbidden quest for knowledge she had summoned the Black Rakshasa, an avatar of Nyarlathotep the Crawling Chaos, messenger of the terrible elder gods. Learning that the rakshasas were the result of an elder god curse, Vasuki prepared a way to drain all the power of the curse into herself, effectively absorbing all rakshasas into her. Amazur attempted to stop her and died to allow the Monster Hunters a chance to disrupt her ceremony. Vasuki completed her absorbtion but before she could profit from her victory the Club managed to catapult her off to the same distant plane of exile where they and the Lych had previously dumped Dragotha the Dracolich, the Zodar, and the Wasting.

Vasuki next appeared as an ally of Dragotha during the Dracolich’s final plot (leading up to #2000). The Monster Hunters rather cleverly managed to end up battling her inside her subconscious (don’t ask how) and succeeded in releasing all the personalities of the rakshasa’s she had absorbed, including Amazur, thus giving her a rather severe multiple personality disorder. She was last seen spinning away screaming into the Astral plane, a thousand rakshasas struggling for domination of her body.

Of the various retainers and minions Vasuki has used over her career, the only one not accounted for in the Dead Villains File is her handmaiden Safana bint Nehru, a mageweaver, or sorceress of the thread, who crafts spells into material in a sort of cross between a scroll and a glyph – it is triggered by a certain set of pre-programmed circumstances.

The final chapter of the rakshasa saga to date is that Phil’s current character, Felix Brockenby, appears to take on the characteristics and character of Rukh Amazur when he loses more than ten hit points. This is due to an unfortunate incident where the Club had to find some random planar matter to replace the 70% of Brockenby which had just been expunged. There is a growing view amongst the players that Amazur is actually a better Monster Hunter than Brockenby.

Regular update as planned, but by Sunday I still need to know whether Emmanuelle LeClair’s visit to Demdyke Camp is authorised, and if so who goes with her if anybody, and who has an urge to go with Revell into the spelunking part of the scenario.

We left our intrepid investigators with Magda and Aurora inside Demdyke Camp, investigating the rather effective reform methods of Mr and Mrs Angus Glanth. Another operating team has found the Mornington Crescent base from which Sir James Bressingham’s murder was accomplished – and has neutralised the undead and headless Sir James.

The MHC are quite well advanced on the how of the murders but less clear on the why. Speculation that two or more of the eastern contingent of the rogues gallery may be involved increases. Now the Club ponder the escape of their two undercover agents and the possible infiltration of the mysterious Demdyke Caves.

History of the Demdyke Caves: Part of the extensive limestone underground networks of Derbyshire, the Demdyke caves have never been full explored. Water passage suggests that there must be connections with the rest of the chain, but it remains to be seen whether there is actually a way for humans to get through.

That said, the Victorian naturalist Rev. Duncan Pettinghouse actually found some neolithic bones in there, as well as fossilised remains of horse, ox, and deer. His journal described his descent down a steep tunnel into a cavern with a central pool of still water and old pictures scratched on the walls. There were many bones on the floor of the cave, some of which he retrieved. Later he was unable to find his way back to the place.

The locals still scare children with the bogeyman threat, "If you’re not good, the Bonewalker’ll come from Demdyke Deep an’ take you!" if there is any story associated with this caution it has long since been lost. However, Demdyke Caves have a bad reputation locally, and sheep will not drink from the waters coming from the nearby spring.

Unfortunately, Old Tom Clutterbuck, the best source of local myth and legend, disappeared a few days ago and has not been seen since.

Coroner’s report on Sir James Bressingham: The time of death is confirmed for the night of Lady Anne’s rude awakening. The coroner is puzzled by abrasions on the corpse’s feet which appear to have been incurred after death – but that makes no sense, does it? The clay and mud deposits on his feet, his pyjamas, and under his nails suggest that Sir James has actually been outdoors. Again the coroner is puzzled. No soil within fifty miles of London has such high levels of lime in it.

Nikki is still interested in Sir James’ hands. It may be that the unusual wizard mark variant dweomer on Sir James made him a sort of living key. Is that any help? It is not really possible to know how long the dweomer has been upon him, since this spell has a permanent effect.

On the Unknown Dentist: A breakthrough at last! Tony suggested showing the rogues gallery females pictures to Lady Anne to see if she could identify the oriental woman from her dreams. The Club have a rather good picture of Mistress Millenium from her arrest for murder in the States back in ’41, and Lady Anne affirms it as her tormentor. Those who sussed Episuko the Outcast as the murderer of Sir James may bask in the glow of 5xps.

Once this is established, Dr Dorian Aveyard can have another go at his mind tricks. Given a fresh percentile roll, Aveyard gets the rest of the truth. Mistress Millenium approached Lady Anne whilst she was sleeping and used sleep to keep her down, then played a musical instrument (Jimmy Max IDs it as a shamisen – so does Dave Spence probably) which gave her very specific dreams and used ESP to probe them. What Lady Anne perceived in her dreams was actually a very sophisticated process of mind-pumping. The blister really was a psychosomatic manifestation of the way Lady Anne’s dreaming mind interpreted the psionic invasion.

On Rakshasa research: Dave and Charlotte ask what someone possessed by a Rakshasa spirit might detect of. Rakshahas cannot usually possess others. That said, Felix Brockenby appears to have managed to be possessed by Rukh Amazur, so who knows? Rakshasas are relatively weak magically unless they actually bother to study as mages or priests. However, they are resistant to all spells of eight level or lower, and that includes all the standard detection magics. A person possessed by a Rakshasa would therefore probably not detect as anything at all – a bit like the Demdyke graduates. Hmmm. Perhaps Dave, Charlotte and Tony would like 3 xps each?

The Stockholm Mystery: On 13^th September 1947, Professor Jan Sweyever of the University of Stockholm’s Indian Studies Department, was found dead in his locked study (the key was on the inside of the door this time), strangled by thirteen threads from a newly-arrived Indian rug. In his hand was an origami bird. On the floor was an envelope addressed to him in a neat hand, from which the police reasonably assumed he had taken the folded paper. Strangely the origin of the rug, which had not been seen before, was never discovered. The file on the murder remains open.

Bits and Pieces: The correspondence from Mrs Glanth to Mr Waters cannot be located. Sir Rodney’s ambitions for Lady Anne have been somewhat stymied at the moment due to the close companionship of Genevieve Fauçonburg (Sally’s character), who takes a dim view of opportunistic older men.

Nicky asks about werefox repellants. Silver is good, as are blessed weapons. Some sources state that the werefox will desist from shredding you whilst you perform an original and beautiful haiku. Lycanthropy is sometimes treatable in its early stages with wolfsbane and clerical magics. Of course, wolfsbane is poisonous, but its better than becoming a were-beast isn’t it?

Jo enquires about the contents of the perfume jars from Mornington Crescent. Whilst these will certainly keep Zany busy in the labs, there is nothing remarkable about them. They are not mass-produced, however, and form the ingredients were probably made in the orient. The mah jongg set is a fairly inexpensive copy made in Britain. The blood spray on the wall is of Wallace Waters’ group.

The origami trigger does not travel as part of the teleportation spell. The oriental animate dead is the same as the Western version in terms of casting times. Dispel magic has a range of 60 yards for a priest or 120 yards for a mage.

Jo asks a series of questions about Emmanuelle LeClaire’s abilities. She is not especially resistant to charm. Jimmy Max could probably charm her very easily. Since he is good looking, artistic, and rich, he probably wouldn’t have that much trouble, to be honest. Jimmy Max is a subclass of bard called a Gallant, sworn to nurture and cherish all women but never to settle with any one. The Club may have to prise him off Emmanuelle with a crowbar. But that’s a matter for correspondence from Dave and Nikki.

The Monster Hunters have not yet encountered fingerprint magic. Nice idea for a scenario, though…

Meanwhile at Demdyke Camp: Magda and Dawn await rescue. Dawn has no problem finding herself changing over from Aurora at midnight on a full moon under a freezing shower in an enemy camp. She points out that this is actually one of the better situations her sister has left her in. She is more than willing to be in the camp if it means Smiting Evil. Dawn is safe from Mrs Glanth’s charm because Mrs Glanth now assumes that she already has everybody under her control by now. Physically, Dawn and Aurora are identical.

Dawn’s observations are that the weather systems around the camp are undoubtedly influenced by the existence of the caves (which "breathe" like many formations do), and that there is a faint miasma of evil around the mists which rise from the limestone passages. Magda has been watching Mrs Glanth to see whether her charm is a spell or a granted ability. This is quite hard because charm spells are not easy to spot, having no material component and fairly "normal-looking" verbal and somatic components. However, Magda (and Aurora) have concluded that this is probably a natural ability of Mrs Glanth’s. None of the girls have observed the second week campers being especially careful of their hands. Know Alignment has not given consistent results, so this is not a spiritual "sanctuary" area.

Magda’s plan to poison a camper and detect poison goes well. However, the camper (a second week student, does not detect as poisoned despite the stomach cramps.

Magda, Aurora, and Dawn have not been able to get near the old cottage at the edge of the site.

The students begin their caving expedition on Friday afternoon, and will be gone all weekend with Mr and Mrs Angus Glanth.

Adventures in Spelunking: Exploring to find a route to the Demdyke Caves begins on Thursday 19^th January. The party take five days provisions with them as well as underwater gear since their hired expert, Sidney Georgenstone, believes they will have to make their way through the underground waterways. Unless the players involved tell me differently as soon as possible, I am assuming that this party is fairly hefty and consists of Meridian, Revell, Emmanuelle, Flaxton, Selkirk, and Albrecht. The players concerned are very welcome to roll a percentile and a dexterity roll for their general fortunes in caving. Low is good on the percentile roll. Tell me if you got over 90% or under 6%. Those failing the dexterity roll take 2d4 damage during the descent, but Flaxton has both first aid and clerical healing abilities.

Progress is slow. Georgenstone cheers the party by speculating what will happen to the caves if all that snow up above thaws whilst they are down here. Towards the end of the second day, the explorers can see a twinkle of torchlight ahead, and carefully crawl towards it…

The Raid on Demdyke Camp: Tony’s plan was for officers of the law (accompanied by a couple of plain-clothes advisors, I’m sure) to go to the Camp and take Magda and Dawn (the full moon switch has now taken place) into custody regarding further alleged offences they may have committed. Since there was no overwhelming support for Nikki’s offer of going in on a "star" visit, perhaps because there are no beefy rangers or fighters in the club at the moment to accompany her, I have assumed that her plan is being held in reserve for a future possible visit.

It is now Friday 20^th January. A police visit planned for Thursday has had to be delayed because of the worst road conditions of the century and the isolated position of Demdyke Camp. However, urged by an increasingly ascorbic Aveyard, the police eventually do struggle through to get to the girls. Aveyard, Jimmy Max, and Brockenby also go along.

On a 41% roll the exfiltration starts fairly smoothly. Because of the nature of this visit there is no opportunity to nose about the more interesting bits of camp such as the hut or the caves. Anyway, Dawn and Magda are brought to the officers of the law, and are very relieved about it.

Whilst in the compound, Aveyard used ESP on Angus Glanth, and is of the opinion that he is (a) not really human, and (b) charmed. He was able to pick up that at the forefront of Glanth’s brain were tactical considerations about how the policemen could be most efficiently rended "should the lady command it".

This is when things go rather wrong. One of the second-week young men, William Bowby, growls something in a guttural foreign tongue and pulls a flick-knife on Brockenby. Two slashes later and Brockenby is suddenly fighting a lot better. Bowby goes down, and Brockenby appears to reach into the lad’s chest, rip something out and eat it. There is however no wound and Bowby seems merely unconscious. The police arrest this young man.

However, Mrs Glanth pleads that he should be left here. She is certain that Brockenby will not want to press charges. She is sadly disappointed as Brockenby – or the thing in him, rakshasa spirit Rukh Amazur – completely ignores any charm. The police seem impervious as well, perhaps because Jimmy Max is blathering on about something in the background (bards can protect their companions against sound and voice based magics whilst they orate), and the party retreats with the three young people.

Rukh Amazur is convinced that the reason William Bowby attacked him was that the rakshasa spirit within the lad recognised an enemy within Brockenby. The "lesser rakshasa" is now destroyed. Aveyard convinces Amazur to allow Dawn to heal Brockenby, and the wastrel regains control of himself.

The journey back is slow and dangerous, trying to navigate a police van over Derbyshire peak roads. Dawn the weather priestess proves very useful here, working to mitigate the worst of the elements. However, as the vehicle rounds a tight cliff-edge bend something dark and fast and furious slams into the side of the van, sending it careering towards the cliff’s edge…

To be continued after 10pm on Wednesday 2^nd December 1998, by which time all strategies, questions, excuses, and instructions must have been received.

The next instalment is in the next e-mail. In the meantime, Nick definitely deserves 2xp for his list of Selkirk kit.

Ian Clarke has now managed to sort his e-mail jam and mailed me three copies of his previous contributions by three apparently entirely different routes. Ian was thinking along the same lines as many of you, with particular paranoias about what Sir James and Waters ate and drank at the Pickwick Dinner and or course about libraries. He also asked about Maladraviil technology. The resident expert on this, Zany, is fairly sure that it was not involved in this scenario, after all the trouble it caused in the previous scenario (see forthcoming MHC weekend for details, Albrecht).

Mike has made up for his recent absence by hitting me with six e-mails all at one. I don’t think Flaxton has resist cold, but I’m pretty sure Albrecht does. Please tell me if my memory is at fault.

Roll credits. Theme tune fades out. Onto recap of last episode: The journey back is slow and dangerous, trying to navigate a police van over Derbyshire peak roads. Dawn the weather priestess proves very useful here, working to mitigate the worst of the elements. However, as the vehicle rounds a tight cliff-edge bend something dark and fast and furious slams into the side of the van, sending it careering towards the cliff’s edge…

The Monster Hunters leap from the teetering vehicle. Magda has cast good fortune which keeps the van on the cliff edge for just long enough. Only Dawn lands heavily, taking significant injury. Jimmy Max remembers the unconscious William Bowby and drags him away from the van, chanting something very lyrical as he does so. The two policemen dive aside as the attacker slams into the vehicle, sending it over the precipice.

Somewhere between a crow and a dark warrior, the tengu – an oriental warrior monster - casually rips its claw across the chest of the first constable. Its terrible squawk would have incapacitated its victims except for young Maxtible’s melodious plainsong. Magda lashes out with her athame (witch’s knife), but misses. Brockenby tries to help the constable but is grabbed and hurled overarm over the cliff.

Suddenly the monster is baffled by the thick clinging fog which envelops it. Dawn limps across to help pull the wounded policeman to safety. After a few moments he shudders and regains a little colour, although he remains unconscious. Magda screams something vile at the tengu as it bounds free of the mist and orients on its quarries again. Aveyard completely misses with a vial of holy water. Jimmy Max gestures and catches it on its beaky nose with three shining magic missiles.

Then Brockenby pulls himself up over the cliff edge. This is not a kinder, gentler Brockenby. This is a possessed-by-a-tiger-demon-that-has-just-been-irritated-by-a-bird-demon Brockenby. You call those claws? These are claws!

Around round three of the combat the tengu polymorphs into Angus Glanth and begs for mercy. Then Brockeby rips its head off and hurls it over the precipice. Finally, he stalks off into the snowstorm without another word – back towards Demdyke Camp.

Meanwhile, back at the nice safe warm research end: At long last the correspondence from honorary Monster Hunter Kageo Muraoka is received. He has encountered origami magics before, from students of Hoshino Edo, a rather unpleasant cult leader who worshipped a deity called The King in Yellow. Their motto was "blessed are the tainted". Regrettably they are no more, as Kageo felt the need to eradicate them back in 1947. Only the master himself escaped, presumably protected by a powerful patron. Kageo also lists the base ingredients of the inks required for the origami "folding scrolls", and suggests that an investigation into who might be interested in peacock’s blood, powdered agate, and desiccated lotus buds might be suggestive.

By the way, Magda can indeed use any scrolls. It would be interesting for her to try and use the origami magics, probably requiring a percentile die roll. Jo can have 2xps, but I refuse to say what for at the moment.

Several Monster Hunters have noted the connection between a man killed by a rug and Safana bint Nehru, the Maharani Vasuki’s maidservant. This is probably worth 3xp to those characters. In terms of timeline, it seems that the good Professor was murdered just after Vasuki was sent screaming away into the astral. He was never paid for the work he was commissioned to do on Aryan myth cycles by a mysterious sponsor.

Jo asks about the time of disappearance of Old Tom Clutterbuck. Strangely, he has not been seen since the night of Sir James’ murder.

Penultimately, an inspired thought from researcher Adele Walker sent her down to Cornwall to visit Dame Edith Chanterness, one of the patrons of the Edward Endelby Memorial Library and an old associate of Monster Hunters sage Nathan Rumbustle. In the current weather this took her quite some time, although when she finally arrived the flowers were blooming in Chanterness’ garden. Dame Edith made a connection with the "Bonewalker" reference from the Demdyke caves, remembering that ancient Pictish shaman were said to be able to walk their spirits from one set of bones to another, i.e. one body to another, effectively gaining immortality at the cost of someone else’s spiritual death. This was a complicated ritual magic which required a specific place, a specific person prepared by appropriate "signature" spells, and appropriate blood sacrifices. However, Chanterness points out that the last such Bonewalker became dormant with the rise of Christianity in these isles.

And finally, a haiku is a Japanese lyric verse form having three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables, traditionally invoking an aspect of nature or the seasons.

And so to the Demdyke Caves: The young people are camping in the caves, with Mrs Glanth and the four other staff. Mr Glanth is missing (the other team know why).

The main cave which the Club is now looking down into is rather reminiscent of the Lascoux caves in Europe. It is covered with primitive, vibrant painting, some obviously recent, some perhaps undisturbed since Neolithic times. Prominent amongst them is a large phallic figure with bone antlers. On this figure’s chest are two white hand imprints. Whilst the cave as a whole detects as magical and evil, this painting detects as very magical and very evil. The dweomer of magic is necromancy and alteration in nature. In addition, there is the same wizard mark variant on this figure as upon Sir James’ corpse.

Flaxton’s sense spirit spell gives him a headache. There are many spirits here, few of them human. He senses hot bloodthirst and joy of the hunt from a horde of waiting – anticipating – sentiences, clamouring for new homes. There is also a powerful undead presence, which seems to be able to interact with the sentiences, perhaps even shift them from place to place.

It would be hard to stop a fascinated Selkirk from identifying the cave, even though this is going to effectively incapacitate him for eight hours. This spell helps him to determine that the cave requires a keeper, and that keeper is marked by a very distinctive spell of the sort found upon Sir James.

The Club speculate that Sir James stumbled upon this cave whilst quarrying out what he intended to be a munitions dump and was adopted by the cave as its keeper. No ritual would work here without his presence. When others needed to exploit the cave they needed Sir James’ co-operation. Charmed or otherwise magically coerced his arcane signature would not be effective, so he had to be cosseted by those who needed the cave for their plans – at least until some other keeper could be found, and the power transferred.

Albrecht has managed to isolate the watercourse which pours down into the pool on the cave-floor below. After a percentile roll of 16 he believes that he could bless the water for one round only at an appropriate instant.

I have noted the various preparations and instructions from Tony, Mike, Nikki, and Chris in case the scenario should degenerate to anything as vulgar as combat.

As midnight arrives, Mrs Glanth rises from her sleeping bag and shimmers into a beautiful, silver-furred fox-woman. Her howl echoes around the caves, waking the sleepers. The staff and the second week students howl in response, shedding their clothing in the flickering red lantern-light. The ten remaining first week students mill about, scared and puzzled, but still under Shung Ta’lang’s charm. The painting on the wall flickers and a gaunt, antlered figure steps from it, ancient malevolence oozing from every pale, chalk-rimed pore.

And so boys and girls, we come to the vital questions in what is probably the penultimate mailing of the scenario. Note that I wrote these questions out at the start of the game so some may seem rather easy and others impossible based on where your research has got you:

1. Who killed Sir James Bressingham and why?

2. Who killed Walter Waters and why?

3. How did the murderer get in and out of Sir James’ bedroom?

4. What is the secret of the lonely cottage at the edge of Demdyke Camp?

5. What became of Old Tom Clutterbuck?

6. What happens to the disturbed young people during their stay at Demdyke Caves?

7. What is the thing with antlers and what is its unique role in the proceedings?

8. Who is the arch villain behind all this?

9. What does the arch villain hope to gain through the plot?

To which we should add:

10. What are Magda, Dawn, Jimmy Max, and Aveyard going to do next? They have a wounded copper, an unconscious juvenile delinquent, and a missing Brockenby, in a freezing snowstorm. Dawn has three endure cold spells available. Demdyke camp is a mile and a half away.

11. What are Revell, Meridian, Flaxton, Albrecht, Emmanuelle, and Selkirk going to do next? They have a nasty thing just peeled itself off the wall, growly second week nudists, a shiny werefox, and ten terrified victims. Could be time for a Plan F.

And now/ the end is near/ and I must face/ the final curtain… Well done to those of you who made it all the way through, and especially to the six of you who dared to go on record with your answers to the mystery.

Here are the answers to questions 1-9 from last time’s mailings. Give yourself marks out of ten for your answer to each one, then translate that into 1 mark = 1.5xp.

1. Who killed Sir James Bressingham and why?

Sir James was killed by Episuko the Outcast, otherwise known as Mistress Millenium. This was effectively a "contract hit" by the mercenary ogre mage. Bressingham’s body was required for a ritual which would transfer guardianship of the Demdyke Caves from the increasingly difficult to manipulate businessman to the far more willing spirit called the Bonewalker. This is why the body was removed and where it picked up the mud and scratches. Lady Anne was deep ESP’ed in the hopes of finding some other way of controlling or blackmailing Sir James, causing her strange dreams, but when that failed Sir James just had to go.

2. Who killed Walter Waters and why?

Poor Waters was first charmed by the werefox Shung Ta’lang (aka Mrs Angus Glanth) to set up the origami transfer using duplicate award certificates, then used as easy body parts for the swap transfer spell after being killed by Mistress Millenium at the Mornington Crescent house just before her departure for the Bressingham residence. He was animated before he was swapped and then rendered fully dead again by a dispel magic scroll read by Episuko and written by the same mage who had provided the animate dead scroll. Waters’ mother was killed by Shung Ta’lang to cover Waters’ disappearance.

3. How did the murderer get in and out of Sir James’ bedroom?

Using gaseous form, Mistress Millenium entered the bedroom via the gas main, after a pre-planted hypnosis worked on Lady Anne to get up and turn on the gas fire. The only hitch in the plan to leave invisibly took place when Sir James’ body was swapped with the bedroom key in his pocket. Evidently Sir James had been a little extra cautious knowing that his sinister allies were becoming impatient with him and had thus pocketed the key. Episuko had to wait for the door to be broken open when Lady Anne began screaming then exit invisibly using her ninja move silently skills.

4. What is the secret of the lonely cottage at the edge of Demdyke Camp?

The Demdyke Caves were the site of the Neolithic Bonewalker cult, which has been resurrected after the caves’ rediscovery by Sir James during excavations for a munitions shelter. The soul transference properties of the site were of particular use in stripping away the multiple Rakshasa personalities infesting Maharani Vasuki by placing them dormant inside delinquent young people until it was time for the Rakshasa race to live again. Clearly, Vasuki and her minions would then owe somebody a BIG favour. The mad Maharani herself is in the cottage, attended by her faithful maidservant Safana bint Nehru. She has to be nearby for the soul transfer to work.

5. What became of Old Tom Clutterbuck?

Nikki and Chris got this one dead right. Old Tom knew too much, and has become the body donor for the Bonewalker to live (or at least undead) again, reinstated as the guardian of the caves after a little ritual using the animated Sir James on the night of the murder.

6. What happens to the disturbed young people during their stay at Demdyke Caves?

They become hosts to dormant Rakshasas, as described above. These indwelling spirits are the "restraining factors" which prevent the youngsters reoffending. After all, the Rakshasas do not want to draw attention to themselves until the time is right. The indwelling Rakshasas imbue their hosts with the immunity to spells which they themselves possess.

7. What is the thing with antlers and what is its unique role in the proceedings?

The thing with antlers is the Bonewalker, an ancient shaman with the gift to steal news bodies and transfer spirits from one body to another, etc. He requires the use of Demdyke Caves to do this. The Bonewalker is co-operating with Shung Ta’lang and co. because they have freed him and because he expects further favours from Vasuki and the mastermind of the plot.

8. Who is the arch villain behind all this?

Shung Ta’lang, the tengu Angus Glanth, and Hoshino Edo (the absent origamist) are all minions of none other than the wu jen Ssu Chen. Mistress Millenium was contracted by Ssu-Chen for this job. Reports of his demise may have been exaggerated, although doubtless the Club will seek to rectify this at their earliest opportunity.

It was Ssu-Chen who scooped the Maharani from the astral at the behest of the Black Rakshasa (an avatar of Nyarlathotep the Crawling Chaos, Herald of the Elder Gods). He found her through the scholarship of Professor Jan Sweyever, whom he later had murdered (through a carpet woven by Safana bint Nehru). He was the first to understand the significance of Sir James’ discovery of the Demdyke Caves, and contacted the businessman through Shung Ta’lang to form an alliance. Only when Sir James got greedy and nervy did he decide it was time to terminate the partnership.

9. What does the arch villain hope to gain through the plot?

The wu-jen Ssu Chen seeks an alliance with the Maharani Vasuki, domination through her of the Rakshasa race, and the praise of Nyarlathotep whom he worships. The MHC really will have to pay this chap a visit before too long.

All clear? If not, please e-mail me on any particular points. So to the denouement of the drama, as two different sets of Monster Hunters face mortal danger:

Down Amongst the Dead Men: The Club in the Demdyke caves cannot allow even the young thugs of the first week at Camp to be possessed and abused by the Bonewalker and Shung Ta’Lang. They therefore spring into action like the well-oiled thinking machine they are.

A dance from Genevieve Fauçonburg would provide protection equivalent to the psionic Tower of iron Will. Sadly she is not present. A dance from Emanuelle LeClair, whilst very jolly and inspiring in its own way, has no effect whatsoever in combat. She does have a fighting style a bit like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, though. Ah well. Perhaps later in private?

In the round before combat, the NPC caver is sent away down the corridor to relative safety, Meridian set up an Unseen Servant, and Flaxton blesses the party. Eerily the Bonewalker swings around and starts to peer up into the darkness of the upper cave walls. Flaxton therefore follows through by boldly presenting a cross and inviting the vile spawn of evil to begone. The Bonewalker does not turn but does take visible damage.

The excitement starts with an Emotional Tempest from Giles Meridian. This unique spell sends a random emotion through the whole party on the cave floor – in this case fear. Considering the circumstances this gives the young people significant modifiers on a second save vs Shung Ta’Lang’s charm, and six of the ten race screaming from the cave. Two of the staff similarly depart. Since the Bonewalker didn’t like turning last round, Flaxton contributes a vial of holy water this time. Interestingly it explodes five feet from the Bonewalker, and he still takes damage. Albrecht’s experiment with acid on the chalky figure is equally useful, with the fiend screeching in pain as its physical form is seared.

Meanwhile shots from the darker corner of the cave ledge whizz towards Shung Ta’Lang. One shot impacts but she glides aside from the others. A second set of attacks from Emmanuelle also cause slight damage. Selkirk has not yet noticed that combat has begun, but is chalking out a few interesting thoughts on the cave’s geometry on the rock face where he is resting.

Then the Bonewalker gestures and the entire party feel a tug upon their spirits. After a momentary weakness the feeling passes – this time. The Bonewalker has failed to drag their essences from their bodies on his first attempt. Shung Ta’Lang gestures and the terrible blast of an eight hit dice fireball fills the cavern, blossoming up the corridor where the Club are sheltering.

Good job the players specified they were disbelieving this kind of thing, isn’t it? The improved phantasmal force takes down the remaining first week campers and the remaining Shung Ta’Lang minions, all unconscious for the rest of the combat. The second week students are unaffected and each targets a single Magic Missile at one of the party (except Revell and Selkirk).

Shung Ta’Lang springs up to the ledge with an impossible bound and prepares to engage Emmanuelle LeClair in combat. As the werefox moves forward, Emmanuelle delivers her previously-described haiku. This halts the werefox just long enough for Revell to ripple out of the darkness behind her for a classic backstab with a silver weapon. The injured werefox changes her mind about infecting Emmanuelle, shifts to fox form and prepares to flee.

Selkirk glances up from his calculations and makes a feeble gesture. Timespace seems to ripple through an odd angle and for one round only the Bonewalker is standing in the stream. Albrecht therefore obligingly blesses it. Old Tom’s body gruesomely splits in two as a dark wizened shape claws out from it. Inspired by divine guidance Flaxton slithers down the cave wall, sustaining minor injuries, and boldly presents his holy symbol through its chest. With a terrible scream the Bonewalker discorporates. Selkirk notices fracture lines forming in the cave. The second week group stalk towards Flaxton, growling.

Revell is quite preoccupied however. Tony was quite clear that he intended to frag at Shung Ta’Lang until she was an ex-werefox. He gets a final round of attacks in before she disappears a little way up the tunnel (towards the caver). Meridian drops another emotional tempest in that direction. Shung Ta’Lang stops for a round as she wrestles with apathy (shifting back to werefox form) but then overcomes it and turns to leave. She takes more damage from a Selkirk’s Angle and yet more from an Albrecht Ice Storm.

Meanwhile Emmanuelle is dropping a rope for Flaxton. Just when it appears that the Rakshasa possessed kiddies are going to rip him to bits they all fall over and start yowling. A few moments later they seem to wake up from a strange sort of nightmare. Unfortunately they all failed against Meridian’s earlier fear and run out of the cave in all directions.

A few grains of dust fall from the ceiling.

Shung Ta’Lang prepares to make her getaway. With a gesture she fills the tunnel with colour spray, taking down the entire party except Emmanuelle and Flaxton, who are occupied, and Revell (I rolled this) who was not there. The quiet Irishman is reduced to a basic frontal attack, but his desperate manoeuvre pays off and the hacked werefox goes down to his desperate blow (that bless really paid off this round).

Flaxton is busy pulling unconscious bodies out of the painted cave. Emmanuelle drops down to help him and the two of them just manage to pull the last student (but not yet the tutors) out of the way when the ceiling comes down, separating them from the remainder of the party.

The score at the end: down one werefox and one undead, mysterious departure of nine Rakshasa spirits, sad loss of two more polymorphed tengu henchpeople, two more somewhere out there in the caves; party pretty hacked and two trapped behind rockfall that will need emergency services to get them out (which takes three days – the same services can locate the missing young people who ran off in fear).

Meanwhile, up above, where the snow swirls ever thicker like white death: Dawn D’Aosta casts her cold protections upon the wounded policeman, the unconscious thug, and Magda. Jimmy Max hefts the young reprobate over his shoulder. The shocked policeman and Aveyard struggle with the wounded constable. Dawn leads the way through the nil-visibility tempest, guided by some strange weather sense.

The team lose all track of time. Numbness sets in, and even Maxtible’s morale-boosting repertoire dwindles out as his voice fails him. Dawn forces people onwards, revealing a hard, determined edge previously exposed only when dealing with Albrecht’s illicit foliage. Aveyard stumbles a few times but refuses help. In the blizzard Magda finds herself aware of the psychic tempest as well as the meteorological one. The spirits of Demdyke freeze her soul even as the sleet freezes her body.

At last the dark silhouette of Demdyke Camp looms before them. The exhausted team take refuge in the deserted main building. Dawn then collects more cold weather gear and insists on looking for Brockenby: "He may be an idiot, but he’s our idiot." Aveyard stays with the two policeman and the now wakening William Bowby. He is determined to get some insight into the villains’ plans from the young man. Jimmy Max, Magda, and Dawn set out into the snow again. Now it is Magda who navigates. She can feel the cottage from here.

By the time the trio arrive at the cottage there is no piece of furniture left intact, and Brockenby is picking up the smaller pieces and mulching them. Rukh Amazur is in a foul mood, because (a) he is currently on three hit points after encountering many traps from Safana bint Nehru and scrapping with the insane Maharani Vasuki, and (b) watching the wu jen Ssu Chen’s contingency spirit them safely away to another scenario. Unlike the Monster Hunters may have, Amazur never considered checking to neutralise any useful origami sculptures around the place. Hence Amazur’s significant redecoration attempts.

In round five of the fight, mad Vasuki recalled all her missing Rakshasa spirits, thereby undoing all the attempts over more than two years to cure her and to seed a new rakshasa nation. This was why Flaxton’s attackers suddenly lost interest.

By the time Flaxton and Emmanuelle are rescued, Aveyard and Jimmy Max might just have calmed the rakshasa down enough to get Brockenby back. Possibly.

From the evidence of the young people, the police conclude that this was some kind of cultish brainwashing camp with ritual child abuse and so on. Clearly Sir James learned too much and had to be done away with. Convinced that the Glanths are the guilty parties, all charges against Lady Anne are dropped. The Club gets paid.

This scenario has some other consequences though. Jimmy Maxtible is reminded again that the murderer of his fiancée is still out there somewhere, and yet another two murders can be added to here tally. He may well take a leave of absence to follow her trail through Stockholm to the far east (especially if Dave might be missing a few MHC sessions during his Cornish sojourn). The Club have a pretty fair idea that the wu-jen Ssu Chen should be re-filed from Deceased villains to Current Rogues Gallery. When Qui Tsu turns up again and find this out it is not going to make his day. You will be able to coax him out from under the table eventually. Finally, the Club cannot help but notice once again how similar in profile and figure ate Emmanuelle and Genevieve. But that, my children, is a tale for another time.

Revell, Zany, Flaxton, Emmanuelle, Albrecht, and Magda all get an additional 35xp on top of whatever they got for the answers above. Meridian, Jimmy Max, and Selkirk get an extra 20xp. Somebody tell Phil that Brockenby also gets 100xp total. For the record, Dawn and Aurora also get 100 xp, and Genevieve 50xp.

And far away, in a darkened room filled with candles floating in bowls of scented water, and ancient wizard with foot long fingernails gestures at a tome where a swan’s quill writes without any mortal hand touching it. Familiar names are noted in a lurid red ink. The ancient creature puffs on a long stemmed pipe, listens to the comforting sound of the sobs of the flayed tengu servitors who failed him, and begins to formulate his cruel plan…