Episode 1 Episode 2

(Steve McIntyre)

Has IsaiahJenkin risen from his grave to demand his descendants atone for his misdeeds? There have been ghostly goings-on in town, with reports of ghosts rising and the JenkinMausoleum being broken open. (See Unity Reporter Articles April 1923 and Unity Times Chronicle Articles April 1923 for more of the gory details.)

Guest starring John Hurt as MrFlanagan

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

Episode 1: "Tomb Breaker"

The 100th anniversary dinner of TheUnitySociety was a grand affair at ChezHenri. All members of the Society were invited for a slap-up meal. Even the police were happy - they had been paid off so that the meal could include lots of grape juice. And the grape juice was flowing freely that night. Snowy white linen abounded, along with very expensive silver cutlery. Wonderful French food was on the menu, along with local specialties - Henri's Lobster Bisque is to die for.

Almost the entire restaurant was filled with Society members; the only other patrons were Alexander Isaiah Jenkin II and his family at one table, and GilCobbett and a floozy at another. Early in the evening Cobbett and his date had a noisy disagreement and they left separately.

The meal and after-dinner speeches eventually finished (including a particularly erudite, if not quite vertical, one from ThePresident), and a surprise birthday cake was brought in to the dining room.

Shortly afterwards, all the lights in the room suddenly went out and a wailing sound could be heard from the front of the building. A ghostly apparition looking very much like IsaiahJenkin was floating in front of the window. It pointed at Alexander and told him that he had to help. Isaiah had done some very bad things during his life, and so he could not rest in peace. As head of the Jenkin family, Alexander needed to make amends for him. Eric and others tried to touch the ghost, but could not - physical objects seemed to pass straight through it. Then, as suddenly as he appeared, the ghost disappeared. There was a flash and a loud bang as though from a lightning strike and the ghost was gone. People ran outside to see what had happened. There was no sign of a strike, and the weather was still fair, as it had been all day.

Alexander (along with many others present) did not take the incident well - he was obviously petrified. JuliusErlich tended to the man. BenitoTorelli examined the broken window and found traces of gunpowder on the shards of glass. He had to restrain the maitre d', WilliamSweet, from cleaning up the evidence too quickly - Sweet seemed suspiciously anxious about the mess.

The police turned up to investigate but were convinced by Tony Da Vinci to leave after a very brief look around the restaurant. Elizabeth Jenkin asked Julius to help her get Alexander and the children home; he asked Tony, and he graciously offered to provide transport. This seemed to make Lisa happy, as she wandered across the street to the UnityPublicLibrary to join the others. Eric had found an upstairs window open, and was keen to enter and see if it was related to the ghost. Several people were convinced that the apparition must be a practical joke of some kind, and so they were keen to find out how it was done.

The group managed to gain entry to the upstairs storeroom (or is that book depository?) via a rope, while HayesWebster nonchalantly stood guard on the street. His skills were soon needed, however. There were footprints in the dust of the storeroom leading to the locked door at the far side of the room. Hayes picked the lock and opened the door to find that it opened onto a landing above the main hall of the library. The footprints stopped here - the carpet just outside the door was full of the dust (as though someone had turned to lock the door), but no further trail could be found. The group returned to the restaurant at this point, unfortunately leaving the lock on the storeroom door broken. All retired for the evening.

Next morning, people met up at 122.

Both the local newspapers contained stories about the evening's events - see Unity Reporter Articles May 1923 and Unity Times Chronicle Articles May 1923.

Eric visited the JenkinMausoleum to see what had happened there. The lovely old stone building had been nearly destroyed by the ghosts (or vandals - depends on which newspaper you subscribe to). Now, the two columns either side of the entrance were toppled outwards and cracked on the floor. The roof above them had fallen in, and where there used to be a doorway there was now a gaping hole in the side of the tomb. Inside, similar damage was visible. The lids from the two sarcophagi (Isaiah and Margaret) had been removed and smashed into many pieces on the floor. The remains of the bodies were gone. Eric decided to ask Rebecca to come back later to take photographs.

Lisa visited the town library to find out more about stage magic - the apparition last night was exactly the kind of display that illusionists were famous for. She found that of the three books on the subject owned by UnityPublicLibrary, two were on the shelves and had not been borrowed for a long time. The third, The Art of the Magician, was listed in the card catalogue as on the shelves but was missing. Possibly stolen? She inquired at HucksBooks for a copy, but the old man could not help. TheLibrary at 122 also does not have a copy. Meanwhile, in the latter library, JackProctor managed to determine a chronological coincidence - April 30 (the night of the vandalism at the Mausoleum) was exactly 100 years from the day that Isaiah died.

Julius researched the newspaper archives and found out that Sweet had a criminal record. 15 years previously. he had been convicted of banking fraud (at the FirstNationalBankOfUnity) and had served 18 months in LincolnDistrictPenitentiary for his trouble. When he related this to Hayes later, Hayes confirmed that Sweet was not an angel - he often deals with JonathanGray and, he suspects, GilCobbett too.

Julius spent some time and confirmed that he could break window glass using a carbide lamp and the powder he picked up at the restaurant the previous evening. He and Lisa visited the Jenkins at home, where they found that Alexander was abed, recovering from the ill effects of last night's events. Elizabeth was less affected, but still clearly confused. Neither could think of any parties who might have any grudges or reasons to set up such a shocking spectacle. Alexander was still utterly convinced that the ghost was real, and was trying desperately to think of anything he could do to assuage his ancestor's guilt.

Eric and Hayes tailed Sweet for the afternoon to see if he was doing anything suspicious, but found nothing - he simply went to work in the early afternoon.

Alsoud and Rebecca revisited the Mausoleum and sifted through the wreckage. They found much the same as Eric earlier in the day, until by some divine inspiration they each discovered something interesting. Rebecca found a secret compartment in the rear wall that contained wedding rings and some other jewellery belonging to Isaiah and Margaret. Alsoud spotted that the two sarcophagi showed suspicious marks along their outer edges, as though somebody had been breaking in with a crowbar. Perhaps the ghosts needed help to escape???

Episode 2: "The Magic Lantern"

Back at 122 on the Monday evening, a sudden flash of inspiration came to Jack and Lisa. They recognised the voice (and then the face) of the ghost - it was an actor from New York called JamesVincent. They struggled to find the number, then called his agent, who reported that Vincent had deen missing for several weeks.

Next came a loud banging on the front door of the Society. MrFlanagan opened the door and in rushed Elizabeth Jenkin, clearly flustered. She explained that the ghost had been seen again, this time appearing to her husband in his own sick bed. The party rushed round to investigate.

At the Jenkin mansion, the group split. Directly in front of the master bedroom window was a huge oak. Eric climbed it and found a clockwork-powered projector hidden in the tree. He and Jack decided to lay in wait for whoever came to collect it. Most of the others went upstairs. In the bedroom, Alexander was rambling like a madman, repeating something about a wedding and some land and a man named Vernon. He was clearly struggling to retain his sanity. Once Alexander was removed, it was possible to search the room. On the back of the window was the same powder found on the window at ChezHenri, so it seemed the same method was in use to project a ghostly image into the room.

Downstairs in the drawing room, the lamp in the projector was refilled by the maid HattieBrown, and the film reloaded. The image on the film was definitely the same ghost. Unfortunately at this point Hattie knocked over the jug of oil she had used. It went all over the film and caught fire. Quick reactions meant that most of the film was saved. Hattie was distraught from her mistake, and ran from the room in tears.

Outside, Eric and Jack spotted a dark figure sneaking up to the tree, clearly about to retrieve the projector from its hiding place. Jack tried to sneak up on him, but was not quiet enough. The trespasser turned and started to run, but at this point Eric's superior war-earned skill with the rifle came into play and he shot the man in the shoulder. Jack tackled him to the ground and they both identified him as WilliamSweet, the maitre d'.

Sweet was dragged (maybe carried, in fact) into the drawing room, where he proceeded to bleed profusely all over the carpet. A doctor was called, but in the mean time Benito performed a stunning feat of first aid and removed the bullet in no time at all. After some threats Sweet was eventually convinced to spill the beans. Elizabeth and Rebecca went in search of Hattie to get help in cleaning up.

Meanwhile, Alsoud and Hayes were heading upstairs to check on Alexander. They spotted Hattie watching the melee outside; when she saw the two coming up the stairs, she ran into the master bedroom "to check on the master". Alsoud sent her downstairs while he and Hayes checked the bedroom again. This time (possibly something to do with his innate ability to hide things in a sneaky manner) Hayes found a gramophone hidden under the bed. He ran downstairs with it to play the record to the others.

Just at the point that Hayes was proudly displaying his find, Rebecca found Elizabeth in the dining room, unconscious underneath an open window. After some judicious use of smelling salts, she found out what had happened. Elizabeth had found Hattie and was returning with her to the drawing room. As she turned to leave, she was knocked out, clearly by Hattie. Jack and others (Alsoud, Ethan, Eric?) went out into the grounds to find the maid. Jack was the first to find her - her dead body was floating in the river at the back of the estate; she had been stabbed in the chest by some unknown assailant. Jack and Alsoud carried the body back to the house, which caused even more mess and Elizabeth fainted at the sight.

Alsoud went to go and search Hattie's room and found a bottle of opium pills. She had been administering them to Alexander.

Hayes and the others listened to the gramophone record. It contained the same ghostly voice from the previous night, but this time the message was clearer - Isaiah was sorry for the bad things he had done to the Vernon family (in the early 1800s) after AlfredVernon and Louisa's wedding was stopped. He had persecuted the family and driven them to ruin. He wanted Alexander to make amends by doing a land deal with the latest member of the family, SamuelVernon. The recording was quite transparently a con job, but the drugs given to Alexander in parallel confused him enough that he was accepting it. The drugs were also believed to be responsible for his lack of <ahem> control.

Sweet broke down with all the events to this point, and confessed his part in the scam. He also implicated GilCobbett and JamesVincent. He had never met SamuelVernon, but he was clearly involved too. Sweet demanded protection from the others, as he was in fear of his life. The police were called in to take him away. Lisa was spirited away by Benito to avoid involving her and angering Tony, but it was too late - when questioned Alsoud mentioned she had been present. No real trouble caused. Yet...

At the trial, Sweet was quickly found guilty and sentenced to a long term in HellsCauldron for his part in the affair. GilCobbett was questioned but released due to lack of evidence against him. JamesVincent remains at large, as does the mysterious SamuelVernon.

Later on, digging through the newspapers of the period found mention of a failed wedding between Louisa Jenkin and Alfred Vernon in 1803 - she apparently fled from the altar.

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