MoN 051: Run Away! Run Away!

On the morning of the 5th of May, the investigators arose to lay their plans for the assault on Misr House. Kirk, Gilbert, Dr George and Jacob were in one hotel while Charles Collins and his devoted servants rested in a considerably more upscale establishment. 

The morning papers caught everyone's attention. It seemed the police were getting closer to apprehending the gang behind the "Penhew Job". Several of the group, Alice, Jacob and George, were mentioned by name, as was Charles Collings, who was listed as the "shadowy mastermind" behind the heist. Ikil Lit and Dudley also got a mention, but they were safely back in New York.

Charles Collings called his companions, and the two groups fell to discussing this new development. Clearly, the group had to act quickly before the police caught up with them and get to Misr House as quickly as possible. If only, some of them mused, they had a powerful and influential friend in British society who could shield them from the worst of Edward Gavigan's machinations and manipulations.

However, the assault on Misr House was not to be. 

As Kirk, Gilbert, Dr George and Jacob were discussing the matter, something happened. A darkness formed in the corner of the room behind Kirk and Andy, and a hideous creature of nightmare stepped through. It was gaunt, easily 15-foot tall and had long arms that ended in sharp claws. It savagely attacked the group. Jacob instantly fled, explaining later he was going to seek help, while Kirk was horribly gored and collapsed. Only George and Gilbert—stout Englishmen of good heart and upstanding character—stood firm. The creature was slain, repeatedly shot by George and hacked into pieces by Gilbert's axe.

The aftermath of the attack was chaos. As Jacob continued to flee (he would eventually return) Gilbert tended Kirk's wounds while George related events to Charles—who had heard the whole attack over the telephone. Charles panicked—perhaps surmising he might be next. Slamming down the phone, he ordered his servants to pack up his things—they were leaving.

As Charles commandeered the hotel car and fled London for the English coast, the other group piled into Kirk's Rolls Royce and Ikil's Model T to escape the hotel before the police arrived to investigate the sounds of gunfire. They fled westwards toward Dartmoor and George's parents' pub. For the next few days, George and Jacob laid low in the pub while Kirk and Gilbert booked passage for the four to Australia aboard the *Ineluctable*—for that was where the recent clues led them. Boarding in Southampton on the 8th, they wondered if they would ever see Charles again.

Meanwhile, Charles and his entourage worked their way across France to Paris, having hired a fisherman to convey them across the channel with haste and secrecy, there to enjoy a night of wild debauchery to settle Charles' nerves. 

Learning that a ship—the Ineluctable—was due in Brest on the 9th heading to Australia, Charles and his entourage headed west to the Atlantic coast. In Brest, they spent a final night, but it was to be a fateful, near-fatal, night. 

As they rested in a plush hotel suite, a horrible darkness gathered in one part of the room. Another thing—tall, gaunt and alien—stepped from the darkness and attacked the group. It seemed fixated on Charles. The creature was powerful and savage. Vincenzo went insane at the mere sight of it, and Charles fell—horribly slashed—by its claws. As the thing, clutching Charles, began to fade out of existence, Jeffrey—faithful Jeffrey—blew a huge hole in the thing's chest with a shotgun. Charles was saved, and although he hovered near death until the next morning, his redoubtable constitution saw him through—he was even conscious when he was conveyed on a stretcher to the Ineluctable.

Imagine Kirk's, Gilbert's, George's and Jacob's surprise to see Charles and his faithful servants boarding the ship. Perhaps the group's luck was turning! Perhaps answers would be found in Australia. 

As the Ineluctable slipped out of Brest's harbour, the horrors of the last few weeks began to fade from the investigators' minds. To Australia!

This post is a session summary for my weekly 7th edition Call of Cthulhu Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign.

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