• TheCasket

Episode 1 Episode 2 Episode 3

(RobHague)

Eminent archaeologist ProfessorMontgomeryScott returns from Egypt with an ancient casket - but when he opens it, he finds... his doom!

Personal accounts of the events may be found in LisasJournal and HayesJournal.

Episode 1: "X is for X-rays"

29/10/22 - The characters attend the black tie lecture. Beforehand, they talk to Dr EwanGoldman, a colleague of AlsoudHassam. After the lecture, ProfessorMontgomeryScott mentions the X-Rays, and says that he'll call at 122 with the results.

<<< I think JackProctor and MarthaLandsmann were at the lecture, but left for New York before all the real action. However, I'm not sure I'm remembering it right; can anyone else confirm this? -- RobHague >>>

30/10/22 - ProfessorMontgomeryScott bursts in with the X-Rays, clearly excited. When shown them, everyone but LisaDaVinci notices that the figures in the casket have seven digits. He says he'll return to the hospital and arrange for the casket to be returned to the archaeology department.

31/10/22 - ProfessorMontgomeryScott, with the help of his lab assistant MrHughes and the characters, open the casket in the basement of the archaeology department. It is empty. Various theories - fake x-rays, theft and so on, are bandied about.

1/11/22 - AlsoudHassam arrives at work to find police all over the Archaeology Department; after brief conversations with several UniformedOfficers, Lloyd McDonall and other university staff, he finds that ProfessorMontgomeryScott has been murdered some unspecified, gruesome manner, and his office ransacked. Shaken, he goes to 122 where HayesWebster pours him a stiff RhodeIslandIcedTea, and he relates the events to the others. One theory that emerges is that an intruder, possibly someone trying to discredit ProfessorMontgomeryScott, was after the x-rays. Hence, AlsoudHassam returned to the department and managed to convince Lloyd McDonall to allow him to check the room to see if anything had been taken (under supervision by a UniformedOfficer). The x-rays had not been taken, although they were in plain view. AlsoudHassam returned to 122 to report this. The characters decided to dine at 122 to discuss matters; just after they finished dessert, the evening papers arrived, both carrying the headline "DOUBLE MURDER"; in addition to ProfessorMontgomeryScott, one JacobMarks, a janitor at the hospital, had been murdered; TheUnityReporter carries a description from the janitor who discovered the body; "his head was twisted right the way round".

Episode 2: "You could just put his suit on backwards"

1/11/22 (Cont.) - During the discussion RobertJohnson arrives at 122. There is much discussion about whether or not to phone the police and inform them that the group was with ProfessorMontgomeryScott on the day before the murder. In the end, LisaDaVinci decides that this is the best course of action, and speaks to Lloyd McDonall.

After dinner, JuliusErlich tries unsuccessfully to find information about x-rays in the library at 122. He then goes with RobertJohnson to JenkinUniversity to try their library., where he finds out more. He concludes that the x-rays they saw where not fakes. It occurs to both that there may well have been an x-ray source in the second chamber, explaining why there were no photographs of it.

They return to 122 and report their findings. There is a long discussion about what to do. A major conclusion of this discussion is to acquire a Geiger Counter and see if the artifacts are radioactive.

2/11/22 - AlsoudHassam goes to the physics department and arranged to have a Geiger counter built. He then returns to his office, where he learns that JamesLewis, Deputy Head (now acting Head) of the department has some of ProfessorMontgomeryScott's effects for him. These include some notebooks detailing various digs, some small artifacts, both Egyptian and those from the recent dig, and a collection of manuscripts, partly in Arabic, partly in Latin, and partly in English, ProfessorMontgomeryScott's own hand.

AlsoudHassam invites the other members of 122 to the university to have a look at these. They notice that the facts in the dig journal confirm that the photographs of the second chamber were all fogged, and the second chamber fits the casket exactly.

Episode 3

<<< I'm doing this from memory; if I get anything wrong, feel free to correct it -- RobHague >>>

3-9/11/22 - AlsoudHassam and RobertJohnson spend their time holed up in the library at Jenkin, poring over TheMontgomeryScottManuscript, trying to decipher this. The Latin turns out to be a little obscure for Robert, but Alsoud manages to decipher the Arabic sections well enough to learn of a DesertPeople, and their bizarre rituals. One of the rituals involves inducing a state of hibernation in an individual, and placing them in a casket, to be resurected later in by placing them in a specially sanctified chamber in a specific type of underground location. Another describes a gesture that may be performed to render oneself invisible. The Latin translator has provided a translation of the gesture usable by five-fingered individuals, "as an exercise".

HayesWebster tried to find out more about the circumstances of ProfessorMontgomeryScott's demise. He had to bribe the undertaker, ArnoldIngraham, but he eventually got to see sketches of marks on the body's head and shoulders. These surprised JuliusErlich, as they were not consistent with someone breaking his neck in any normal fashion.

10/11/22 - AlsoudHassam rushes into 122, closely followed by RobertJohnson. He relates the information that they have found from the manuscript, and, after a little discussion on the feasability of there being millenia-old desert dwellers running around Rhode Island, demonstrates the gesture. To everyone's surprise, not least his own, he disappears from sight. His vision also seems to be enhanced; as he looks around, he sees a child-like, deathly pale figure staring through the winow. The figure runs off, and the assembled party quickly calls MrFlanaghan to ensure that all of the doors and windows are locked.

<<< It's been a while, so this is a little hazy, but... -- RobHague >>>

There is a phone call; it is FrankShort, saying that there is something that the members of 122, and in particular Alsoud and Robert, may want to see down at the hospital. They duly troop off there (Alsoud is still invisible), and are shown into a section of the crawlspace above the janitor's closet by a UniformedOfficer. Here they see some of the artefacts that were stolen from Alsoud's office, along with papers covered in the strange writing from the casket. With his enhanced vision, Alsoud notices three emaciated, pale figures lurking in the shadows. Realising that they've been spotted, the Desert People attack. There is a brief gun battle, and one of the creatures was shot dead. The other two escaped.

When a couple of UniformedOfficers went up to collect the body, it wasn't there. Frank suspects that a group of madmen had holed up in the hospital, and were murdering people at random. TheUnitySociety has a different interpretation of events...