• TheHistoricalRe-enactmentSociety

Episode 1 Episode 2 Episode 3 Episode 4

(AldenSpiess)

The door to the past, once opened, cannot easily be closed... locked, bricked up and whitewashed.

guest starring Tony Hadley as MrFlanagan

Episode 1

On Sunday 19th October Lisa DaVinci, RobertJohnson and DavidSchreiber turn up at 122 after church (or, in David's case, a leisurely breakfast) to find a note on the noticeboard inviting members of the society to attend a film showing in the tea room, at 3PM.

The film is entitled "Cultures of the East", and is to be presented by Mrs ElizabethEmai, widow of the noted Orientologist Dr Frankus Emai, using her own equipment. All society members are invited to attend, and DrJackson has left a note for RobertJohnson, asking if he can make it as DrJackson himself is interested, but unable to attend.

The name 'Emai' causes some concern to Lisa and Robert, remembering the trouble occasioned by TheAnathemaDevice, but concluding that it may be a grand-daughter of that Emai, they decide to attend.

Mrs Emai turns out to be a a lady in her middle years, of moderate height and light build, with European features, and a distinct tan giving her skin a slightly sepia or yellowish tint. She wears stiffy proper clothes of the fashion 10 years ago. She speaks with a slight accent that is very difficult to place. Robert attempts to draw her into conversation about the Burkes, but he is adroitly brushed off.

The film begins, and the audience, which includes JuliusErlich, stares in rapt attention. Robert and Lisa, however, are unable to concentrate on the subject of the film. As they watch, they find it harder to focus on the moving images, recieving an increasingly strong impression instead of of the rippling surface of a yellow river. The ripples slowly become increasingly pronouced, until a dull ochre tentacle breaks the surface, appearing to ooze out of the screen towards the audience. More tentacles follow until the screen is a threshing mass of tentacles reaching towards and caressing the heads of the motionless watchers. The flickering yellow light from the screen bathes on Elizbath Emai's face, turning her expression indescribably demonic.

Lisa immediately runs from the room. Robert, hardened by horror, holds his nerve, and first attempts to grapple with the tentacles, but they are intangible. He then wrestles an unresisting David to the ground, but David's eyes remain focused on the screen, and the tentacle remains attached to his forehead. At this point the film stops, and the tentacles disappear. Robert uses the opportunity to leave, and David clambers back into his seat, returning to his normal senses with the memory of a fascinating film, and an unexplained bump on the arm.

Emai answers a few questions, and leaves, walking past Lisa, who is waiting at the top of the stairs. Robert, meanwhile, has raced to his car and pulled his gun from the glove compartment. Lisa follows Emai outside, to find that she has vanished in the few seconds she was out of Lisa's view. The party returns indoors, to find an appreciative audience earnestly discussing Emai's points on the integration of Daoist religious techniques - particularly the large prayer wheels characteristic of the area - into Buddhist ritual as it spreads into the Shangdong province around the Huang He river.

Robert and Lisa extract David, give him a very different intrepretation of the film's subtexts, and fill him in on some of the history of the HistoryMachine. They agree to try to find Emai and have a chat with her, and finding from a committee member that she's staying at StanmountHouse, head there directly.

The group is informed by the helpfully unhelpful staff that Mrs Emai has just left, but that it would be possible to leave a message for her. They do so, but are unable to bribe the staff to give them a call when she returns. Lisa stays to keep an eye on the hotel, while David goes back to 122 with the other part of the radio set, and Robert goes to Jenkin University to find out some more about the sadly deceased Dr Frankus Emai - who rapidly turns out to be no more than a morbid mote in Emai's imagination.

However, investigation takes time, and it is not until 7:30 that Robert returns to 122, by which time David is missing. This occasions some concern and several strong drinks, but little of practical benefit, and David is left to come to his senses on his own as he wanders down of VillersHill, chattering happily about trees with JuliusErlich. Being of a senstive nature when it comes to mysterious memory loss and VillersHill, David bolts back to 122 and immediately arranges secure overnight accomodation courtesy of DrJackson's special clinic.

The night passes with no untoward occurrences, and Monday morning brings an advert in TheUnityGazette and TheUnityTimesChronicle for a free showing of a film on the "Cultures of the East", by one Elizabeth Emai, to take place in the Seminar Room, Jenkin University on Tuesday at 5PM. Robert turns to his stalwart secretary, Agnes, for answers, and determines that the Seminar room in question is the history faculty's seminar room, volunteered by Professor Bottoms (American Archeology) and organised by his overworked admin, Claire. Professor Bottoms was approached by Emai, and is of sufficient standing that any official disruption to the showing would be difficult indeed.

David, meanwhile, having ascertained that he is sane and arranged a few repeat visits to DrJackson to make sure he stays that way, returns to VillersHill. He gets half-way up before he returns to the land of memory loss. Robert returns to 122 (where Lisa has found that there is a yellow river in China called the Huang He, which has an irritating habit of changing course and drowning people, but little else of value), finds David missing, and immediately heads to VillersHill to find him.

Robert heads to a clearing at the top of the hill, to find David neatly digging a hole - a number of others have been dug, enough for the base of a building maybe 30' to 40' square, and cut timber has been stacked neatly under a tarp, with more wood beside it waiting to be cut. With his fantastic strength - or rather David's fantastic lack of it - Robert is able to restrain David, or take his spade, but when released, David simply gets on with another job. Eventually David heads back down hill, and Robert follows. As they get back to Unity, David comes round, and Robert talks him into going back up to see what he was doing. Cue another round of hole digging. Both of them are so tired the next time David decides to go back down the hill that they head back to 122 for a rest.

Rejoining Lisa, the decide to give StanmountHouse another try. This time, Lisa goes in by herself, leaving the boys waiting outside. The staff are far more courteous to Lisa, and she's invited to wait for Emai's return in the lounge. A couple of hours pass, with no Emai, and Lisa checks again - to be told that Emai did come in, but she left again immediately, and the staff forgot to call Lisa. Frustrated, Lisa asks to book a room.

The tension in the room behind Reception is almost palpable as the hotel manager calls Toni DaVinci to ask whether he knows his wife is trying to book a hotel room in town, and what he would like done about it.

Lisa gets her keys, and is happily strolling back to the guys as Toni turns up a few seconds later, having broken the speed limit and very nearly the speed of sound on the way. Robert takes the arrival of a carful of very possessive mobsters as his cue to sit outside the Police station for the rest of the evening, and quite probably the rest of his life, as Lisa kindly waves him off, and accepts a lift back to 122 from her Husband, explaining happily en-route that she expects to meet Robert there.

To make the perfect situation complete, the clock ticks round to 7 PM, and David gets out the car and heads in the direction of VillersHill, explaining that "he has some work to do".

Episode 2

At 9 o-clock, EricColigny and RebeccaSwarovski found themselves chatting idly as they walked down from VillersHill. This disturbed them slightly, as it was the second night it had happened, and they still couldn't remember what they were doing there. At the bottom of the hill they ran into JuliusErlich, and AlexanderGreystone, who were also heading down the hill.

Eric was immediately in favour of heading back up the hill to see exactly what was going on there, but he was argued out of it by the others as it was now fully dark, and they were all tired and dirty. They decided to head back to 122 to pick up carbide lamps and gear - and ideally, see if any of others had got wind of something strange going on.

RobertJohnson, meanwhile, had spend a fruitless couple of hours driving round Unity looking for DavidSchreiber, and increasingly, looking at the sinister black car providing him with a discreet escort. Desparing, he decided to head back to 122. The group fortuitously all arrived at about the same time, meeting up with Lisa DaVinci, who had been waiting there. Robert and Lisa explained the significance of the sinister Mrs ElizabethEmai, and told the others what they'd seen when they watched the film.

It was decided that Emai needed to be found. Lisa wanted to try the hotel again, but Robert wasn't keen to accompany her, Eric was too common and a lady of Rebecca's reputation would not be welcome at an establishment that snooty. Alexander, on the other hand, whilst the owner of a modern bank, would not disgrace the other guests, and was quickly volunteered as Lisa's companion for the evening. The others decided to head back to VillersHill, this time with a camera and binoculars, so Eric and Rebecca could see what they'd been up to.

Lisa, oblivious to the large black car discretely parked outside 122, headed off to StanmountHouse with Alexander in tow. Alexander had written an innocuous note for Mrs Emai, and Lisa dropped it off, carefully noting which room's pigeonhole it was put in: number 18, on the 4th floor, the same as Lisa's (room 20, naturally, the best suite in the house). Lisa and Alexander immediately discussed tactics in the hotel lounge, with Alexander desperately trying to find any option that didn't involve him being observed going upstairs with Mrs DaVinci. He failed to come up with a convincing excuse, but delayed just long enough that when Tony stormed though the door he caught them in the act of standing in the lounge.

Alexander muttered a feeble excuse of needing to make a telephone call, stood by the phone for a few minutes, and bolted - leaving Lisa to face the music. Lisa, of course, calmly invited Tony along to go meet Mrs Emai with her. Room 18, unfortunately, appeared unoccupied and Tony gently led her to room 20 for a little chat, a mild but grave expression on his face. That expression slowly deepened as Lisa explain why she needed to talk to Emai, and what was going on, until he silenced her with a quiet wave of his hand, and calmly called for DrJackson.

Robert, meanwhile, was well on the way to VillersHill, black car in tow. We'll not dwell on the loose end of Mr Greystone's inglorious exit from StanmountHouse: suffice to say that a number of large gentlemen in a black car were delighted by the opportunity to give him a lift to his destination, and the benefit of their advice on the proprieties to be observed when dealing with ladies of a certain station. Delivered at the point of a rather heavy boot.

Robert, Eric and Rebecca were half-way up VillersHill when the predictable occurred, and as Eric and Rebecca were both faster and more robust walkers than Dr Johnson (as, indeed, is a rhuematic half-dead donkey), Robert was left to climb most of the hill himself, in darkness - in which it was all to easy to make out the flickering of another light some distance behind.

Robert reached the top of the hill to find Eric and Rebecca fitting and working wood. Most of 13 frames had now been made, and construction was beginning on the base of a large tower. The absent DavidSchreiber was also to be found, tucked neatly under a tarpaulin, unconscious, and breathing badly - clearly exhausted, and rapidly succumbing to exposure.

Robert spent some time taking photographs of the rather bizzare scene, and was eventually interrupted by JudeTheGoon, a heavily-built henchman, who wanted to know what was going on. Reasoning in his neolithic way that he could just as easily watch Robert from the comfort of his car as in the rain near weird people, Jude talked Robert into heading back down the hill to wait, and kindly offered to bring the unconscious David with him.

Eventually Eric and Rebecca came back down, and everyone heading back to 122, Jude included - although he declined the proffered glass of 'tea', as his employer takes a dim view of thugs who drink on duty, and he likes his legs the way they are. Alexander returned to 122 at about this time as well, and somewhat disconcerted to see Jude there, quickly returned home.

Eric and Rebecca volunteered for a night with DrJackson, and JuliusErlich took charge of poor DavidSchreiber. No further incidents occurred overnight, and DrJackson was inclined rather to believe Lisa's version of events the following morning: between them, DrJackson and Lisa were able to compose an interpretation that would quiet Tony's fears, and leave Lisa free to spend time at 122. <<< AldenSpiess: I can't quite remember what this story was >>>.Lisa, it seemed, had been driven to distraction by the desire to have a child like her friend Jackie and was, as a result, mentally quite fragile... so fragile in fact that it could do her great emotional harm if she was to be asked to give up her friends and social activities. <<< HTH -- BenChalmers >>>

Robert headed up to VillersHill with a company of burly chaps hired from the railway to carry petrol for him, and torched the progress on the tower, finding Eric's missing binoculars under the tarpaulin. Meanwhile the others reconvened at 122 and decided to spend some time in the library.

They noticed a dark patch on one of the shelves <<< AldenSpiess: Hey, guys, the plot's OVER HERE >>>, and found that a book that used to be LouiseBurke's diary of her travels in the East had become rather more interesting, as the original letters welled up off the page, becoming blobs of ink, and revealed a rather more interesting story...

The text revealed is a diary of Robert and Louise's journey to the East. The diary details their journey through Borneo, Hong Kong and South China, finally reaching the Shangdong province. It records that after staying in the area some time, they became friends with a small group of monks belonging to the 'Yu Me' family.

The final entry in the diary before the bleeding begins is

"The monks have invited us to join them in one of the family's sacred rituals.
The ritual is performed once every 20 years, and binds the family's familiar 
spirit to another 20 years of service. We are both deeply honoured to be 
invited to something so important to the family's primitive beliefs"

"I am watching now as the monks prepare the ritual. We are in a roughly hewn 
man-made cave carved beneath a house - one of their homes, I think, and they 
have set up what looks like a giant prayer-wheel, only with a 13-spoked wheel 
perpendicular to the usual frame. I will attempt to sketch it."

Here there is an annotated sketch. There is a diagram of the markings on the device, that no-one in the room recognises as chinese writing.

"The monks were happy for me to draw the device: I think I have got it all 
down. They are gesturing to me now. It is time for the ritual to start. It 
looks like they want to borrow this book - there's a place in the centre for it 
to go. I shall let them have it. I hope it is not damaged."

As the ink bleeds off after this point, only blank paper is revealed.

Near the book was also the paper cuttings the group had found before, and a locket given to the party by LouiseBurke's now elderly maid in the curious incident of the TheAnathemaDevice, which contains a picture of Louise, and a lock of her hair.

Episode 3

The episode started with a plan to attack Mrs Emai has she held the film showing in the lecture room of the history faculty. The group waited for Emai to enter, and just as she was about to start the film, Mrs Swarovski legged it up one floor, and started ringing the fire alarm.

The head of the History Faculty, ProfessorBottoms, ushered the assembled masses out (including Lisa and Tony), and Alexander, Robert and Eric hung back. As ProfessorBottoms left (after being assured by Emai that she was fine, just packing up her projector), Alexander attempted to take her by the arm to lead her away, and Mrs Emai glanced at him, and he fainted.

Eric and Emai picked up Alex's unconscious body, and started carrying him out, but Emai saw Robert and asked him to help with Alex so Emai could grab her projector. As Emai and Eric were now away from the projector, Eric took the opportunity to attack her, and the moment she looked at him he went crazy, and ran screaming from the building. Robert took his life in his hands, closed his eyes, and dashed for the projector. He grabbed it, legged it for the back entrance to the hall and found himself on a teetering sheet of heavy ice drifting on the surface of a vast yellow river. The ice tipped, and Robert went under.

Eric came round at the back of the hall, and headed outside to find the rest leaving. Rebecca had deflected a couple of porters who asked about the fire, then dragged the 3rd one down to the lecture room to find Alex and Robert apparently overcome by fumes. There was no sign of Emai or the projector. Robert had got out the back door before collapsing, and Alex could remember nothing except the image of a woman's face. The group picked up Lisa, and heard ProfessorBottoms tell the audience that the film was off due to the fire alarm, but that Emai had told him she'd show it again tomorrow, even though there was clearly no point at which this conversation could have occurred.

The group repaired to 122 to lick their wounds, and Mrs Swarovski sketched the face Alex had seen as he described it. It turned out to be LouiseBurke. Resolutely ignoring this clue, the group decided that the next step was a frontal assault on Emai's room at StanmountHouse, as the attack on her at the film showing had gone so well. It was agreed that Lisa would book into StanmountHouse, with Rebecca accompanying her as her lady's companion. They got a few looks, but the hotel was too scared to call the hotel again, and they headed up.

After dumping their shopping in Lisa's room, they wrapped a revolver in a pillow, and Lisa defly shot the lock off - at least, she deftly shot the bolt of the lock, bending it nearly in half, and ripping the lock end out of the mechanism. The bullet, after hitting a half-inch thick piece of steel from a range of almost a centimeter, leap back towards the girls with murder in its heart, and planted itself in the wall behind them. Which disturbed them not the least. This being past suppertime, the other occupants of the hotel very sensibly stayed in their rooms and called the police, and the girls searched the room.

The plan was that the Lisa and Rebecca would throw the projector out the window, and the guys, who were waiting below, would grab it, drive off, and destroy it. The plan was hampered by the total absence of the projector, and any sign that anyone other than the cleaning staff had ever been in there. Lisa and Rebecca headed back to their room, and were prevented from leaving by the manager who informed them that the police would like to take statements. These were taken by Lloyd McDonall, who, being a practical, pragmatic, and above-all non-suicidal police chief, was very happy with the statement "I was in my room when I heard a shot".

The plan having failed, the group decided to resort to the HistoryMachine for clues. Robert and Lisa went to VillersHill to get a piece of wood, and burn what they could. They found that contruction had started on a metal fence around the site, and they also Julius' spare pair of glasses. The rest picked up Louise's InkStainedBook, and they went to 12 Devon Lane.

The machine appeared to be undisturbed. Robert Burke's bones and Louise Burke's discarded clothes were still on the floor of the chamber. Eric was used to power the device, and the group took it in turns to guard him - first Rebecca then Robert, with a shotgun.

The group decided to study the book. They saw:

• Louise and Robert Burke in a cellar with a complicated machine. The book was placed in the machine by a monk, the machine started, and a stream of ink came down, overwritting the contents.
• Louise and Emai in a train. They were talking of inconsequential matters, but Emai was looking intently at Louise in a very uncomfortable way, and delicately stroking the book.
• A vast mass of stinking dead and rotting corpses heaped in a the centre of a misty outdoors area that could be Jenkin Common. As they approach, the bodies slid apart to become a great eye, and a wet and gaping maw, which screamed.

• ElizabethEmai in 122's library (after it was re-arranged, following the events in Stray), delicately stroking the cupboard holding the book.

• A boat out at sea, fishing firefly squid by the light of the moon. The fishermen argued, and one killed the other, in what could have been an accident (but clearly wasn't). In the light of the moon, the survivor's shadow wasn't human.

<<< AldenSpiess: I can't remember which scene was through which door. Which isn't to say it doesn't matter. Oh deary me no. >>>

The group studied the piece of wood. They saw:

• A great wooden tower, holding a 13-spoked wheel, with a 4' by 9' wooden frame at the end of each spoke. The tower was on the top of VillersHill, and through the bottom frame could be seen a vast dead desert, above which great shadows flew. There was no fence around the tower.

The group decided not to study Julius' glasses, the locket Louise gave to her maid, or any of the other books the Burkes had written. Fatigued, and in Robert's case, thoroughly disturbed by they things they'd seen, they retired to their respective beds.

Episode 4

The group awoke the following morning refreshed, invigorated, and ready for any horrors the day could bring. With that in mind they headed directly to 12 Devon Lane whacked Eric in the HistoryMachine, and powered up. Rebecca decided to hang back and look after Eric, and the others put the lock of hair from the locket on the pedestal, and opened the door indicated in the BurkeLabJournal.

Inside the door was the perfect image of the room they had left, with the gears grinding and the weird light from the globe playing over the bridge and the marble well containing the pedastal. Opposite them, on the bridge stood a figure the size and shape of a man, seeming built from chunks of razor-edged yellowish ice, roughly stacked. From the midst of the group a naked woman in her early forties - recognisable as Louise Burke - walked forward, and the ice-figure walked forward to meet her.

The figures met in the middle of the bridge, and the ice-figure raised its hand, and pushed the sharp edges of the ice into Louise's shoulder. Her screams were shockingly loud as the figure slowly walked forward, shredding and dicing Louise's flesh from her bones. Eventually the screams stopped, and there was just soft wet noises, and the sound of blood running down the spiral steps into the well.

The red-slicked figure stopped, leaving a terrible red mess behind it, and looked at the group, and then the cycle repeated. To their left, Lisa and Alexander heard crying.

To the left of the bridge, apparently in mid-air above the cogs of the machine, a naked huddled shape was shaking with sobbing, its head averted from the horrible sights on the bridge, and its ears covered to block the sounds. Going closer, Alex and Lisa found LouiseBurke, her eyes wild with madness. She had spent 80 years watching her own terrible death once a minute.

The wracked figure that had once been Louise stared into Lisa's eyes, and said "Kept it safe. Every 20 years, she told me. Every 20 years. Took Robert, took them all. Drove me mad. Made me watch... horrible things.". Louise's fist was clenched tightly on an object, and she lept forward, pressed it into Lisa's hand, closing her hand over it, and whispered quietly in her ear "Roger Bacons Other Head".

Louise began rocking back and forwards, muttering "every 20 years", then lept up, and with the madness wild in her eyes rushed to the door. Robert grappled her, and ruthlessly held her as she writhed and screamed "OVER AND OVER I DIED! I CANNOT STAND IT ANY MORE!". She wrenched herself free before Lisa and Alex could help to hold her, and dashed through the door, shutting it behind her.

Down in the well, Rebecca heard terrible screams, and turned to see blood fountaining down the steps. She rushed up them, but found only a red and scattered mess littering the bridge. It wasn't even recognisable as the remains of a person.

Lisa opened her hand. It contained an Emerald, equisitely carved in the likeness of a human eye.

It was clear that Emai was something not human, and that the machine outlined in Louise's diary of her travels in the East was the machine used to summon or control her. The group decided to try to build the machine, and see if they could use it to stop whatever she was doing to Unity.

Alexander and Robert figured out the basic principles of the design, and called in a carpenter and his mates (as recommended by Flannagan) to do the legwork. The others, meanwhile, decided to try the university and see if they could get the chinese inscriptions translated. They picked up Robert, and headed over. They had no luck with the Oriental Studies department, but were recommended one DrShu, in the Languages faculty.

DrShu was not welcoming. The beautiful silk hanging depicting a 3-petaled flower, and the ornate sword beneath it created a very oriental, but not particularly friendly atmosphere, and DrShu was distictly frosty. He unwound slightly when he saw the book, but seemed far more interested in keeping hold of it than providing translations. The group extracted themselves, and the book, and Rebecca, Lisa and Eric left Robert to try and find one of DrShu's students.

Rebecca, Lisa and Eric were trailed back to 122, and watched there by a dirty old chinese tramp. They tried to get the police to scare him off, but he came back the moment the police left. Robert had more luck, in some ways... a 'student' of DrShu definitely found him, and 'invited' him to meet DrShu's master. He was driven to an Asian part of the slums, and when he refused to hand over the book, his arm was savagely slashed with a knife. He was pushed into a cell, and left.

Eventually Alex, Rebecca, Lisa and Eric grew worried that Robert had been gone too long. They called his Secretary to see if she knew where he was, and when she said she couldn't find him, they took Henry to the university and set him on the trail.

Henry tracked Robert to the alley where the car carried him away, and lost the trail, but DrShu's friends fortunately them there, and handed them a card asking them to meet "Sifu".

The group were brought to an ornate room behind ThreePetalLaundry. Robert was brought in and thrown roughly into a chair, and "Sifu", an elegant elder chinese man, explained in excellent English (with due deference to Lisa, whom he had no wish to offend), that many risks accompanied meddling in chinese magic, and some things are best left forgotten. When the group explained that they came effectively 'pre-meddled', "Sifu" explained further.

Several hundred years ago, at the start of the Ming dynasty, raiders from the North entered the Shangdong province, burning and looting. The Yu-Me family used a great prayer wheel to bind the spirit of the Yellow River, the Huang He to them, and forced it to freeze the river so they could escape across it, destroying the ice behind them to kill the raiders.

The Yellow River is known in China as "A blessing from Heaven and a devil from Hell", and the spirit did not take kindly to 20 years enforced servitude. It cursed the Yu-Me family with the "Four Unluck Deaths of the Yellow River", to take effect when the contract expired. Since then, the family have taken great pains to ensure the contract never expires and the spirit is never freed to take revenge on the inheritors of the debt.

"Sifu" was not eager to become involved in the mess. He promised to lend DrShu's help to construct the device to bind Emai for another 20 years, but refused further involvement, other than hinting that he would be holding the group accountable for the use to which they put her.

The machine was built (this took until Thursday morning. Any further showings of Emai's films were delayed by the Mob, thanks to a debt Eric called in). As the last piece of timber was fixed into position, DrShu asked "Who will it be bound to? The machine requires a piece of paper, written by the subject, to serve as the contract. The subject will be assured the Yellow River's service for the next 20 years. Who will it be?"

Lisa immediately volunteered, but the others were not prepared to let her face the risk. While the group argued, AlexanderGreystone wrote his name on a piece of paper and signed it, slipped it into the machine and turned the handle. Un-noticed in the confusion that followed, DrShu slipped out, taking the InkStainedBook with him.

The machine transformed the paper into an open letter to The Providence Gazzette, recommending a particularly exciting form of investment loan for farming concerns (authored by AlexanderGreystone), and Emai coughed lightly, in the doorway. Alex commanded her to undo all she had done in Unity, and leave. She bowed slightly, with a subtle smile, and did.

On Thursday afternoon, Eric and Rebecca walked to the top of VillersHill, and burnt the rest of the tower.

Next: DeadInTheWater