• RevengeIsSweet

Is anybody safe from an angry man?

guest starring Tom Wilkinson as MrFlanagan

Session 1

Monday, 6th July 1931

A grand new hotel is being built in OldUnity, the Roosevelt. It's on the NE corner of 2nd Avenue and 5th Street, just opposite Jack Proctor's apartment. Work has been going on for a couple of months, and the hole that's being excavated for the foundations is immense. However, this morning the building site is abandoned after historical remains are found at the bottom of the pit. 100 feet down, workmen have found what appears to be a temple. A small team of people from the University come and take a look: ProfessorBottoms and a couple of his students. Looks plausibly Mayan, of all things. This perplexes people a lot. There's so much interest that of course the members of TheSociety go and take a look!

Rebecca is quickly invited to take lots of pictures for ProfessorBottoms, and she and Jack also work on a combination of story and pictures for the newspapers. There's scope for some real fame here. Lisa and Selwyn inspect the site with Bottoms, hoping to work out how on earth a Mayan temple could be in Unity. Everything looks authentic enough, right down to the altar and sacrificial daggers found inside the temple building.

Meanwhile, Benny talks to the construction workers who are now stood around looking unhappy that they're not going to get paid while work is stopped. He introduces them to the idea of union labour and they quickly take an interest. They're still worried what might happen, though - the boss (ReginaldParker) is known to be gambling heavily on the success of the project for his financial future.

The group head back to 122 and start looking things up in the library, for more background on the Mayans and their mythology. Not a huge amount of detail to be found at 122, unfortunately. Rebecca contacts her agent in New York to talk about possibly selling her pictures. He's very interested in them, especially with Jack's story as an accompaniment. She develops the pictures and then Jack, Selwyn and Benny quickly head down to New York to get things in print.

Tuesday, 7th July 1931

Next morning, there are stories in the papers about animal thefts and killings at farms near Unity, going back a few nights. Animals found with throats slit, almost ritually?

Selwyn does some research via his father to find out more about the hotel building project, and mentions that it might be a good investment opportunity.

Rebecca and others visit the dig site again. It looks like more artifacts have been found, maybe - there are more things than she remembers taking photos of the previous day. Talk some more with Bottoms, more discussion about what's going on.

Later that evening, TheCharacters stage a late-night stakeout at a farm on the outskirts of town, working from the pattern of animal thefts and deaths. Lo and behold, in the small hours they observe two cars full of shadowy figures sneak into the farm. Unfortunately, they fail to be stealthy and warn the sheep rustlers. Quick fire-fight, then the thieves escape. Selwyn destroys the gearbox on Benny's car in his haste to give chase, leaving the PCs stranded. A farmer comes out to investigate the noise of gunfire and holds the PCs until the police turn up. They convince the police that they're not the evildoers and they're towed back into town.

Next morning, there is a shock at the pit. ProfessorBottoms has been asking his students to stay overnight at the site for security, but it hasn't worked. One of them is found dead on the altar in the temple, throat slit as though sacrificed! A sheep is also found around the back of the temple building, also dead. Its markings show it came from another farm on the opposite side of Unity to the stakeout last night.

Session 2

Wednesday, 8th July 1931

Horrendous wet weather.

ReginaldParker turns up to see what all the fuss is about, only to find the police cordon. He's complaining about going broke due to the holdup, but then faints on sight of the bodies. He's helped back to 122 for some strong tea and the PCs try to find out what he knows. They're a bit too enthusiastic and he leaves quite quickly, proclaiming most of them to be "weird". What they do find out is that he is financially right on the edge, and if work doesn't resume shortly then the bank are likely to foreclose on his loans. He knows nothing about the Mayan stuff going on at all.

Ambrose heads to the University library to do some research on the Mayans, and finds a number of books. Lots of stories about their mythology and rituals. Blood-letting and sacrifices abound for many of their celebrations and acts of worship. The artifacts that have been found so far and the carvings and decoration at the temple all look authentic.

The police decide that they need to guard the dig site to stop anybody getting in while they investigate. Three officers are left overnight, but the weather is dire and they don't stay in the cold and the rain. Finally, the last of them slopes off home at about 3am.

The also stake out the site, from both a car in the street and from JackProctor's front room which conveniently overlooks the area. Shortly after the last policeman disappears, Ambrose sees a figure sweep straight over the surrounding wall and enter the pit. The PCs rush to see what's there, in time to hear a sheep cry out in fear and then go silent. They swarm down into the pit and find the sheep dead on the altar, but no sign of its killer. A trail of footprints in the mud behind the temple simply stop as though the killer simply flew away or vanished into thin air.

Thursday, 9th July 1931

Continuing awful wet weather.

Selwyn hears from his father that the loans for the building project have been bought from the bank and foreclosed immediately, by a holding company in Providence: NortheastVentures. Only details are a company address at a lawyer's office in Providence. ReginaldParker is now no longer involved.

As the police were no use last night, the PCs resolve to hold another stakeout themselves. They head down to the site again and meet with ProfessorBottoms and OfficerDown. Rebecca offers to set up a trap with a camera in the temple to see who if they can get some pictures of the killer if he returns again.

Benny talks to the (now unionised!) construction workers again and they mention the new owner. A lawyer has already been on site this morning and told them the news, and the owner of NortheastVentures will be around this evening to take a look for himself. The workers are being pressured to get back to work despite recent events, and they're not happy about that at all.

In the early evening, the new owner does turn up and he meets the foreman at the site. They head down into the pit, quickly followed by one of the other construction workers who is carrying a large bag. Most of the PCs follow, leaving Stanley at the top as a lookout. It turns out that the owner is one SamuelVernon, a name that some of the PCs recognise from TheGoldenYears. Just as he and Selwyn are getting into a discussion about finance, the un-named construction worker speaks up. As the PCs turn to look at him, they recognise him too, through a disguise he has been wearing. He's WilliamSweet, also from TheGoldenYears.

Sweet went to jail 8 years ago because of the "meddling" of the PCs, and he did hard time for the killing of HattieBrown. He vowed that he would get revenge at the time, and this is it. He pulls a tommy gun out of his bag and threatens Vernon and the PCs with it. Monologue time!

He has been in prison for 8 years, and by pure chance was sharing a cell with a "madman" CorneliusWebster who had some lovely mad stories about evil spirits and curses, with a Mayan background. He had travelled throughout Central America and been converted. He was jailed for ritual blood-letting. Sweet lapped up the stories, planning to use them as a basis for a plot to get Vernon and the people from 122 interested so he could get his revenge on them.

Once Sweet and Webster were released, he paid Webster and some of his friends to plant a fake temple and artifacts in the dig, knowing full well that the Unity Society people would be sure to take an interest. He also sent an anonymous tipoff to Vernon about the potential profit. And everything has come together perfectly for him - he can now wipe out all of his past enemies in one go. All he'll have left to clean up afterwards is the half-wit Webster, and he'll be easy.

However... While Sweet is cackling about how he's fooled them all with his hoax, an impossibly huge and dark serpent rises from the rubble behind him (SAN roll!). As it opens its mouth, an ancient-looking warrior figure emerges and reaches for Sweet. It picks him up and carries him back inside the serpent's mouth. He screams briefly, then the noise is cut short. As the serpent slides back into the rubble, the earth shakes and the site starts to collapse in on itself. Several of the PCs and Vernon nearly fall down the fissures that appear, but they just about escape. Vernon and Selwyn are scared half to death by the sight of the serpent god/monster/whatever and need to be taken to the Asylum for treatment.