Dark Deeds in Durham

Durham Cathedral

1st - 3rd July 1929

That evening the Investigators were looking for something to occupy themselves. Billy and Jimmy decided to hang out in the hotel’s bar, which had a piano player entertaining the patrons. Billy overheard people in the bar talking about large birds, possibly eagles, being seen in the surrounding area. Max and Carl decided to head out to explore the local hostelries, while Basil and Paul chose to check out the meeting of the local Music Society after finding a flier for it in the hotel reception.

The Music Society was meeting in a church opposite the cathedral, and they seemed to be playing some kind of strange mix of modern classical music and jazz. To their surprise, Basil recognised a young woman who had been with the obnoxious Ashton Brown in the Flask Inn. He followed the young woman back to her digs in the Durham Castle part of the university.
Durham Cathedral

The next morning they went to see Professor Graham, who was affable enough, but wasn’t really able to add much about the Cult of Azathoth other than confirm what they already knew. Somewhat at a loss about what to do, they spotted a flier for a meeting of something called “The Azazel” in the Buffalo Head Pub that evening. Max commented on the similarity of the name to “Azathoth,” and they decided to check it out.
The Azazel turned out to be some kind of historical society, that evening hosting Professor Mark Hooke, who was giving a talk on the Sacred Geometry of British Cathedrals. Interesting though the talk was, more interesting was the presence of the obnoxious student they had met at the Flask Inn, Ashton Brown. Ashton seemed particularly friendly with the president of the Azazel, Amelia Carter. After the talk, the Professor advised that he would be giving a guided tour of the cathedral the next day, and the Investigators signed up. In the bar after the discussion, somewhat oddly, Amelia made a point of speaking to each of the Investigators. This aroused Billy’s suspicions, and he tried to keep an eye on her through the evening, but lost her when she went to the Ladies and did not return. Ashton Brown also managed to slip out unnoticed at some point. As things broke up, Paul escorted a somewhat inebriated Professor Hooke back to the hotel.

The next day they all assembled for the tour, noting that Amelia, Ashton, and a small group of students who had been at the talk the previous night were all present. The tour took them around the upper levels, up spiral staircases, through doors to walkways high above the ground, under the stained glass, and finally down into a part of the undercroft. They were repeatedly warned to be careful, as some of the walkways were narrow and had no safety barriers. Billy was keeping a close eye on Amelia and Ashton, only to discover, as they walked around a pillar, that Amelia had vanished.

Billy confronted Ashton, who denied that Amelia had even been there and walked on. Billy was still trying to digest that when someone barged into him from behind, almost knocking him off the walkway. Whirling angrily, he saw one of the young students smirking. Billy angrily confronted the young man, opening his jacket to display his holstered revolver. The young man suddenly lunged forward and pushed Billy off the walkway. To horrified screams from the onlookers, Billy slammed into the ground thirty feet below.

Everyone rushed down to Billy. First Aid was administered and an ambulance summoned. Basil questioned the young student, who maintained that Billy had stumbled and fallen. Still suspicious, though he could not detect any overt lies, he reported his concerns to the constable who arrived with the ambulance. Paul accompanied Billy to the hospital to ensure nothing else happened to him.
Billy, badly bruised and with a broken leg, was discharged later that night. Returning to the hotel, he informed the others exactly what had happened.

Choir Practice

4th-5th July 1929

Next morning once the laudanum had worn off Billy used the Healing spell to repair his broken leg. Going down to breakfast with the others he picked up a copy of the Durham Chronicle to read. A story immediately caught his attention. The body of a young student had been found in the river Wear, badly mangled by what was presumed to be a propeller strike from a boat. Billy immediately pointed out the report to the others, suspecting that the unfortunate victim was the young man who had pushed him yesterday, particularly as there was a reference to the events at the cathedral in the article. Jimmy and Carl decided to check the story out with the Chronicle and the police respectively, the others decided to try and locate Amelia. They waited outside the castle till Amelia appeared and followed her. Unfortunately the young woman seemed intent on doing nothing more suspicious than clothes shopping and the investigators grew bored and decided to check out the riverside where the body had been found.

Durham Castle from the River

Carl and Jimmy continued to dig into the student death, finding out little more that what was in the article other than the Inspector in charge of the investigation was a bit of an idiot and had no interest whatsoever in treating the death as anything other than a tragic accident. Billy, Max and Paul headed to the riverside, where Max was immediately diverted into a quaint riverside pub, deciding an early lunch was just the ticket! Paul and Jimmy decided to continue up the riverbank and discovered a mysterious cave. Unfortunately for them the cave was guarded by two shantaks and the intrepid investigators beat a hasty retreat, battered bruised and bloody with their clothes ripped to shreds. Max met up with them out side the pub and headed off to a nearby charity shop to procure replacement clothing. They returned to the hotel and after a judicious use of the Healing spell collected heavier weapons, and returned to the riverbank cave. The cave this time was empty, but there was a strange static electricity like aura in the place that made their hair stand on end. After a thorough search and finding nothing, they returned to the hotel and met up with Carl and a slightly inebriated Jimmy who had consumed an extensive liquid lunch with his new best friend on the Durham Chronicle!

Next morning, they resolved to search Amelia’s rooms, Max volunteering that he had some experience with locks. They managed to break in easily, finding the room neatly arranged. Paul made a bee-line for the bookcases which with filled with feminist tracts, volumes of history and anthropological text related to witchcraft, which though interesting were not particularly helpful. Billy found Amelia’s diary which had an entry for Friday 5th, that evening, “Choir Practice” at the cathedral. Jimmy also found, hidden under the mattress a scrap of paper with the spell Summon Shantak. Billy immediately transcribed the spell into his notebook and they returned the room to order.

That evening the Investigators resolved to investigate "choir practice", but found their entry to the cathedral barred. They waiting some time, Jimmy periodically walking round the building. On one expedition he noticed a side door left ajar, though it had not been so earlier. Calling the others they entered the cathedral, immediately hearing voices. Peering into the dimly lit building they could see a small group of people heading to the far side. The group suddenly began chanting in an eerie inhuman tone, which made the investigator’s flesh creep. They were about to follow when Max fortunately spotted two shantaks lurking near the vaulted roof of the cathedral. The chanting group stopped near the spiral staircase that led to the organ. The chant reaching a crescendo, as it did the staircase began to rotate counter-clockwise, descending into the under croft. One by one the “choir” descended. The Instigators were at a loss what to do, the shantaks perched above them were obviously acting a guardians. However they eventually screwed up their courage and dashed towards the stairway. The shantaks reacted immediately, swooping down to attack! Fortunately the attacks all missed ad the investigators made it to the stairway safely. As they began their descent however, the staircase began another slow rotation, this time clockwise! The Investigators managed to get to the floor before the stairway finally disappeared above them, sealing them below.

The Investigators found themselves in a large room, they air heavy with that strange static-electricity feeling. The room had a strangely marked square-patterned floor black stone wall either side. On the far side of the room were what appeared to be two exits, one a tunnel mouth, the other an old oak door. As they looked at the blank walls, each began to see strange sigils, inscriptions and murals. As their minds struggled to interpret what they were perceiving they found themselves moving forward across the patterned floor heading towards one or other of the exits. As he came close Billy could see that passageway exit led to a cave where he could see the beady eyes of what could only be a shantak watching. Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity, their minds reeling from the attempts to perceive and understand the content on the walls, they all found themselves standing outside the aged oak door.

The Undercroft

5th-7th July 1929

Billy reached towards the oak door and felt a strange, disconcerting, wave of static sweep through his body. A strange panel lit up in the apparently ancient door and it soundlessly swung open. He stepped through. The other Investigators dashed in after him. The a room seemed far to big, yet simultaneously far too small, for a huge black pyramid dominated the far end of the room. Clustered in front of the pyramid, people in robes stood chanting. “’Round the world, round the world, Take it take it, Round the world.” Hovering next to one of the people at the front, a weird-looking large insectoid form hovered, a shan! The sight of it made the Investigators feel uncomfortable and vaguely queasy.

Billy immediately charged forward, firing a shot at one of the two near the front, the cultist immediately cried out clutching at his arm, and fell to the floor! The other cultists turned and charged towards them each bore a small cylindrical object that suddenly projected a a chattering line of pallid light, which was swung towards them like a whip. Battle was joined as Billy took a hit form one of the whips and collapsed to the ground, dropping his pistol as intense agony flooded his body. Fists and kicks flew from Basil and Jimmy as as the strange whip-like devices flailed at them, Jimmy taking a near miss, that nonetheless still felt extremely painful. Max attempted to butt-stroke one of his assailants with his shotgun, but only managed to discharge it into the ceiling. Paul rushed from the back launching an impressive roundhouse kick at one of the attackers catching him square on the jaw. Carl calmly drew his pistol and shot one, then a second and then a third of the cultists and then in what seemed like a moment the battle was over. Cultists lying unconscious or bleeding on the floor all over the place.

Unfortunately the cult leaders, Amelia and Paul, who had been the one Billy shot, had escaped and the pyramid vanished, presumably taking the shan with it. Max and Billy, partially recovered from the pain wracking his body, patched up the wounded cultists. They then roused one of the unconscious ones, and quickly discovered that he remembered nothing more recent than attending choir practice the month before! All of the others told the same story!

Searching the areas they Investigators found the exit the cult leaders had taken. It was a spiral staircase up which they sent the dazed, confused and disoriented members of the choir. With everyone else gone, they searched the area near where the pyramid had been, discovering several strange technological devices including a screen that displayed large hangers that seemed somehow familiar, and an aerial view of a village with a single house highlighted. They also discovered another exit that led to what looked like a pub cellar, judging by the barrels and bottles on the shelves. It was indeed a pub, the very one Amelia had somehow managed to vanish from a few days go. After stopping off for a swift half, as it was just before closing time, the weary investigators returned to their hotel.

Next day Basil did some research on the large hangers that had now seen two separate images of, and discovered they were at the Royal Airship Works at RAF Cardington. The Investigators quickly made arrangements to travel to Bedford, the nearest large town. They arrived in Cardington just after lunch on Sunday, and took rooms at The Swan, an 18th Century building on the banks of the Ouse. After they had booked in, they took a stroll out to Cardington and explored the village, finding the street that contained the house they were looking for and the perimeter of the Royal Airship Works - as well as sampling the delights of local hostelry, The King's Arms!