Rise of the Red God

From Lexicanum

A Most Unusual Garden Party 

About a month later, our disparate group of accidental heroes found themselves at a garden party on the banks of the Thames. Algiyset about demolishing the buffet, the drinks cabinet and the reputations of every woman present as the others circulated a little more peacefully. As evening began to fall, there was a shout from the river and they noticed something odd in the water – except for Algy, who was a little preoccupied at the time. As the river brought the floating bundle closer to the shore, it became apparent that it appeared to be body parts, which soon drifted out of sight. At this point, most of the ladies were escorted indoors, together with an enthusiastic Algy, as screams rent the air.

The others charged off down the bank to find a man being attacked by animated arms and a zombie moving towards them. Gideon moved to aid the man, using his walking cane to knock the arms away as Phillamena and Richard moved to engage the zombie, which proved tougher than one might think, particularly when attacking with a parasol. After some effort, they rescued the man and returned to the house with him, where they sent for the police. The police duly arrived and there was much toing and froing, as well as a shotgun blast from somewhere downstream, as others dealt with what was left of the gruesome flotsam.

The next day, after Richard had duly reported the events to his friend the bishop, they were interviewed by the police (except for Algy) and thanked for their intervention together with a request not to spread knowledge of the event for fear of causing panic and disrupting trades along the river. Outside, the press proved an irritation which they all avoided.

Peregrinations in the Egyptian Hall 

Later that day, they gathered for  lunch at Phillomenas. As they settled down and began to discuss what to do next, Alfred (the butler) appeared to advise Phillamena that she had a visitor, a young lady called Ellen Hawthorne. Phillamena saw her and, hearing her request, brought her through to the party. The young lady had a tale of woe, of her brother visiting a lecture in Piccadilly and never returning. According to the police, he boarded a merchant vessel called the Atlantia the following day, bound for Port Said. Despite her efforts, the consulate in Cairo have as yet not responded and seeing the heroes in the press, she had resolved to ask their aid, partly as she has had nightmares of being buried alive and believes this is due to her sensate abilities and bond with her brother. The heroes readily agreed to help, with Algy offering to escort the lady home while the others started the investigation.

The others set out on the investigation in their own ways, with the doctor visiting Limehouse morgue to see if the brother was among the bodies from the previous evening, Richard setting about the shipping office, using the Ellen's solicitor as his blunt tool, together with his good name and all of them going to see their old friend Dr Reginald Cantrell.

Algy walked the good lady home and remained for some time in pleasant conversation with her until the others turned up. At the morgue, after some hasty fast talking and the aid of the inspector, Gideon met the ME, an eccentric but seemingly capable gentleman who seemed quite baffled by the case before him. The bodies appeared to have been mummified in some form of ritual involving many different Egyptian charms. At the shipping offices, Richard discovered that the brothers name appeared to have been added hurriedly to the ships manifest but could glean nothing further from his travails. As he was about this business, he found a card from a newspaper man in his pocket and threw it away. From Cantrell, they learned much of Egypt and the mummification process and the advice that the experts on the subject were the Aegyptus Society.

They also visited the Egyptian Hall where the brother had attended his fateful lecture, finding a splendid diorama of the Temple of Karnak and the curator, Stapleton who could not remember Ellen's brother being at the lecture and was generally unhelpful.

Investigations Under London

Getting frustrated with Stapleton (and knowing him to be a villain, since he was the namesake of the Baskervilles murderer), Gideon used a distraction provided by Phillamena and Richard to hop over the red rope and search the rest of the hall.

Downstairs, he found scattered sarcophagi, with one propped against the wall. Opening this one, he found a tunnel leading down. Choosing not to investigate alone, he re-joined the others and they went for tea at Claridges to plan a break in. The biggest issue they had was getting into the hall at night, so Gideon went to the slums to hire a petty criminal (with no regard for whatever was left of his reputation). That night, at ten o’clock, they met at the hall with a shifty man in a tatty cloth cap who opened the side entrance and departed to drink himself insensible on gin with his ill-gotten gains.

They moved swiftly to the hidden entrance in the basement and entered the sewers, as is traditional in all investigations in London. After a run-in with the local inhabitants  (zombies with a resemblance to those found in the river), they found a strange spider shaped device covered with Russian script, which Algie decided to bring with them in case it was important. Shortly after, they found a ladder leading up and followed it into a warehouse, full of bolts of cloth and parts for sewing machines.

A swift search revealed very little apart from the establishments name, Garrick Tailors.

Further Investigations Under London

After considerable discussion and prevarication (during which tie they learnt that the device Algy had recovered from the sewers was some sort of Russian steam powered thing), they headed back into the sewers, to further check out the sweatshop.

This time, they went into the offices, where they found some powder  which Richard identified as natron, used in some rituals with the dead. As they left, they heard strange sounds up ahead in the sewers and discovered a small nest of Ghouls which they swiftly cleared out.

On the Discovery of Curious Hieroglyphs

After the encounter with the ghouls, they decided to see where they came from and, a little further up the sewer, they were rewarded with an arch, covered with Egyptian hieroglyphs. They tried to pass but found the hieroglyphs glowed red and rebuffed them. Algy pressed the three of them that were similar and the strange force disappeared, allowing them to traverse the sewer following an upward path that rose above the sewers depth.

Soon they reached a basin of standing water, where they noticed something odd in the water, which surged towards them - a Nile crocodile, which they soon despatched.

In the next chamber , there were two statues, with a hieroglyph similar to those on the entry way on their chests. Algy pressed forward, depressing  the hieroglyph to no effect before the party retreated, feeling the need to learn more.

The Temple Beneath

After spending some time with their Egyptian friend, and learning the marks on the statues spelt out Hanu Setekh, which Archie took as a pass phrase, they returned to the secret complex they had found. After some initial difficulties with pronunciation, they got pass the statues and into a warm study, which was totally at odds with the rest of their surroundings. The study contained Simon Hawthorne, the man whose disappearance had started this chain of events. Despite their protestations, he seemed totally unsympathetic to his sisters worries, and wanted to stay where he was. They noticed what appeared to be ritual scarring upon him, and came to the conclusion that he had been mummified and so left him there.
 
Moving on they found a sentry post stocked with lazy sentries,and had a corridor fight, which was fun. They moved on through a storage are, where the tools of mummification were kept and a vault which showed signs of natron storage, before coming  to an artisans workshop, the smell of opium heavy in the air.

Eventually they found a cell block, guarded by two Shas. who the determinedly made short work of. In the cells, they found two people, a decrepit old man and a  withered Eldren lass, who they took to the surface.