16th Session

Back from Adua

Folks returned from Adua, and we moved to the next day. it was July 29, 1937. There was some comment about Joyce's fictional male alter-ego, Josh Winters.

Joyce: Hey! Josh isn't that fictional -- I have a passport for him in four separate countries!

Lillian was carrying around Savitree Sirikhan's pickled arm in a box. Martin, a Nectar addict, wondered if the mouth on that arm might produce Nectar. Of course, he had plenty of Nectar, in a puzzle box which he'd entrusted to Joyce. Perhaps he could get some of that?

Martin: -So- much easier to get it from pickled arm.

Of course, if that arm's mouth produced Nectar, it was likely to be the Bangkok variety.

Martin: The horrible Nectar.

Everyone else: It's -all- horrible Nectar!

Martin's Player: From Martin's point of view, there's delicious Nectar and horrible Nectar.

I forget the context of this next bit, but it had something to do with Lillian being utterly willing to manipulate Martin via his feelings for Jeremiah:

Joyce to Lillian: You're one cold-hearted bitch. You know that?

Lillian: Yes. Thanks.

Joyce suggested Martin read Seven Pillars of Wisdom,handing him a copy.

Joyce to Martin: It's by T. E. Lawrence. Get some culture, d*mn it! Yes, I am aware of the irony of it.

Folks discussed whether they wanted to wait to see if Luc Fauche would walk into their trap in Massaua some time in the next week and whether they had time to go to Dallol and the 1926 dig site. The latter had been destroyed by a volcano.

Martin: Is there any reason we feel the need to go to volcanoland right away?

Joyce noted the dangers of traveling in the desert.

Martin: What, they're going to booby trap volcanoland?

Joyce: Or ambush us in the desert and leave our bones to bleach in the sand as so many travelers have gone.

Martin noted that this did not make him any more eager to go to "volcanoland".

Lillian liked the idea of ambushing Luc Fauche and "beetle guy".

Lillian: Let's see if we can pull a Pizner on them.

Martin: I like the idea of people who aren't me getting hurt.

Lillian and Joyce agreed with that.

Folks decided that Joyce and Lillian would go to Mersa Fatma, the next logical step on the way to Dallol, while Vito and Martin would stay in Massaua, in case Luc Fauche arrived.

In Mersa Fatma, Joyce decided that there was no need to visit Renzo Segni the head of the Compagnia Mineraria Coloniale, aka the CMC, or his right hand man who was the distant cousin of the man she'd greeted in Massaua. But, that didn't mean she couldn't find out all about the town by talking to plenty of other people.

The head of the CMC was Italian and had 3 wives. The townsfolk disapproved, but, except for the Church, did so silently, as he was the most powerful man in town. However, while the CMC had caused a population boom in the 1920s because it transported potash. But, by 1929, other sources of potash which were cheaper to exploit were discovered, and the company largely withdrew from Mersa Fatma, leaving six people: Renzo, Sinuhe, and four local men (Bilali, Hawaryat, Nadiope, and Zenami).

The company built and owned a rail line that went from Mersa Fatma to Iron Point, near Dallol. But, no trains had run along it for years, although I did point out that the company had the cars and locomotives in storage in one of their warehouses in town, and that the book has rules for borrowing and stealing a locomotive and attempting to drive it. Alas, something resembling sanity prevailed, and Joyce decided to go with camels and a native guide.

An Afar man named Jerome was willing to be heir guide and translator. He was from the village of Kolluli, which was about a day before Dallol and the dig site. He also spoke some Arabic, Italian, and English. And,, Lillian was pleased to note, he was quite easy on the eyes.

Joyce / Josh explained that there would be three people who knew how to take care of themselves, more or less, and one who really didn't. She added that Lillian was tougher than she seemed. Jerome said that it made the most sense to start from Mersa Fatma, go to Kolluli, restock and get a couple of extra men, and go on from there. But, he asked, why did they want to go to those places?

Joyce and Lillian explained that Lillian and at least one of the others were somewhat crazy-enthusiastic, interested in archaeological digs. Jerome talked privately with "Josh" about how Dallol was not a good place these days. Joyce / Josh let on enough about the group's purpose that Jerome let on that folks should definitely go to Kolluli first and talk with him and perhaps others, privately. He agreed to wait for the group in Mersac Fatma.

The next day, Joyce and Lillian returned to Massaua and had breakfast with one of Joyce's friends, Guido Renato. Joyce / Josh asked this former member of the Condor legion what he was doing flying for the Fascists and whether he could loan a sea plane. She promised to bring it back.

Captain Renato: Intact?

Joyce / Josh: In no more than two pieces.

He agreed. I asked whether it was at all likely they'd have the plane that day or whether it would be the next, July 31. Joyce's played said that the Italian army of the time was not a model of efficiency, so it would be the latter.

Joyce and Lillian returned at noon to their hotel suite and a sudden foreboding that Vito and Martin had been up to no good. They were, of course, correct.

Their evening had started quietly enough, with Martin reading the book Joyce gave him. At Vito's request, he moved into the common room of the suite to read, so that Vito could keep him in his sight and make sure he was all right.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, Martin saw a figure in the doorway of his room. He quietly alerted Vito, and the mobster moved to protect Martin and to cover the intruder with his gun. They asked who the figure was.

Stranger: I was invited.

Martin was chagrined as he realized that the Stranger was an emissary from Hastur, responding to the message he had sent via Amelia Burroughs.

Vito realized that this was the Stranger from the play The King in Yellow. He also realized that the Stranger's voice, coming from behind the mask that was no mask, was familiar; it was the voice of his other lost companion, Geoffrey Whitcombe.

The King, the Stranger explained, wanted Martin to continue fighting the Liar until the Liar was either dead or banished. The King understood that Martin needed Jeremiah, so was willing to give Jeremiah a new body (basically as per Martin's letter, a body that was Jeremiah-as-he-was before getting stabbed, and definitely not a decaying corpse on which a partial or full autopsy had been performed), and to do it in advance, although if Martin were to break an agreement, Jeremiah would die.

Vito did not veto this idea, but rather, offered his skills as a lawyer to draft a contract. He wanted something more; he wanted those of his companions who had come with him to Carcosa and never returned to be permitted to return, if they wished. The king was willing to agree to this, for the obvious reason.

The King either could not or would not reveal the name of the Liar, but the Stranger (also called the Phantom of Truth) was willing to confirm that Nyarlathotep was -not- the Liar. Further, even without a contract, the Stranger gave them some information: Malta would teach them when access to the Liar's body is possible. The Yucatan would give them the final piece of the puzzle.

Vito's take on the whole potential agreement was that the King wanted a good show. As with other statements he's made, it's on target.

And so, Joyce and Lillian returned to find the men looking entirely too pleased with themselves. When Lillian demanded to know what was going on, Martin, thoroughly drunk, started laughing, a somewhat frightening mix of nervous and naughty, although nothing had yet been finalized.

The women asked Martin if he were on Nectar.

Martin: If I were on Nectar, I'd be having sex with Lillian right now

Lillian: No, you'd be too exhausted from having sex with Vito.

Martin: True.

Vito: He's not my type.

Martin: That doesn't matter when you're on Nectar. I had sex with a woman.

Lillian told him he was not going to duck the subject. What had he and Vito been doing?

Martin: Making deals with bad gods.

Joyce leveled one of her shotgun, which was incidentally, the same shotgun she used the last time she shot a party member for making deals with the dark gods.

Martin: If you want to shoot me, it's -real- easy.

Joyce: I kinda do... and I kinda don't.

I'm not sure I have the vocabulary to explain why, but it's a great Joyce line. It's straightforward and remarkably complex at the same time, rather like Joyce herself.

I forget what Vito said, but it annoyed Lillian enough to reach for her kukri.

Martin: I'm not insane, and if you're going to kill me, could you please not do it with a knife?

Lillian: Oh, this is for Vito's gun hand.

As Vito explained, nothing had been finalized. He wanted to talk things over with everyone, which I was fine with, and to make the agreement contingent on all four people in the group signing the contract with the King, which I vetoed. This isn't that kind of group.

Vito also wanted the King to agree that even if the contract were broken, Jeremiah would stay alive and embodied, and any of Vito's people who chose to return from Carcosa would not have to go back. I vetoed this and reminded him that losing Jeremiah and the other was explicitly the penalty for breaking the contract.

Lillian did find a loophole that she wanted to plug, and I said she could talk to the Stranger about it, as it wasn't something I was leaving on purpose. After some more discussion, I noted that I did want to move on. I don't want to get into fiddly details and actual lawyerese, and I have the broad terms of what's been established written down.

My notes say:

Joyce: Almost 2 -- 1.82 or so.

We think this was part of a discussion of how many sane people were in the room, or possibly how many adults.

Flyover With Appreciative Audience

Joyce and Lillian decided that Lillian would stay with Vito in Massaua while Martin went in the sea plane with Joyce to draw maps by hand.

Martin: Why hand drawn maps?

Lillian: Because I don't want to leave the two of you together again.

Martin: All right. That's what I thought.

Joyce's player spent 5 points on a Pilot roll, and I figured that this would cover the entire sequence of however many flights she made in the day or two she was using the sea plane, given that she wasn't doing anything fancy. She wasn't trying to land in the desert. Lillian had suggested leaving a cache, but Joyce vetoed that, noting that caches might be found by other people.

Joyce flew by Kolluli, where folks watched, a bit nervously, since this was a plane attached to the Italians. I think Joyce waved or gave them a thumbs up or otherwise indicated that she was not hostile. The kids rushed over, waving.

Then, she turned towards Dallol. Martin was not enjoying himself.

Martin: This is your revenge, isn't it?

Joyce looked down at Dallol, where, she'd been told by folks in Mersa Fatma, perhaps two dozen folks lived. But, there were that many -tents-, not people, which meant that there were that many -households-.

Joyce: Wait a minute -- Martin?

Martin: Yeah?

Joyce: Count the camels! It's important!

Based on the number of tents and the number of camels, Joyce estimated about 80 people in Dallol. This did include women and children, but it was still three to four times the estimated number.

Folks came out of their tents and saw the airplane. They started bowing.

Joyce: Wait -- are they bowing to the airplane? I'll do another pass. A girl could get used to this. Now, why can't I get everyone else to do that?

After another pass or two, she flew to the dig site, which, from above, was basically a small crater next to a bigger one, probably with the amazing colors of a lot of the Dallol area.

Martin tuned out Joyce for a moment to listen to the wind, which sounded almost like it was trying to say something, almost like... almost like it was speaking the Tongue of Lies.

Joyce (noticing he's stopped drawing): Problem, Martin?

Martin: Heat stroke, but I'm over it now.

Joyce: Well, we've come to a decision point. i could hang around fifteen minutes more. Of course, that'd eat into my reserve.

Martin's Player: Martin draws a little faster.

Joyce: Thank you, Martin!

Meanwhile, the Stranger came again and Lillian explained the loophole she wanted plugged. So, if Martin and Vito took the deal, they had to keep on task until the Liar was banished or killed. If either went off task, the deal was nullified. All right. What if one of them died?

This was a valid concern, and had not occurred to me. The Stranger said that if one of them died, the King would bring them back to life for so long as it took them to finish the job.

Martin's player said that it was a good thing that Martin wasn't there, as he'd probably have accepted on the spot. Martin's currently of the opinion that there is no fate worse than death, and that there is nothing after death.

When Joyce and Martin returned, Martin said something I no longer recall all of.

Martin: Is Lillian on the [WHAT WAS THE QUESTION]? If so, have a scotch. If not, have a scotch.

Folks discussed the current proposed version of the contract. Vito wanted to add a clause that being brought back to life wouldn't make them shambling undead horrors, and I vetoed that, the others pointing out that, definitionally, it does.

Martin: I'm not selling my soul. I'm just selling my time.

Joyce: Oh, honey, it's cute how naive you are.

She talked to Martin while Lillian talked to Vito. I think Lillian talked Vito out of signing the contract, but perhaps he talked himself out of it.

Now, it was still possible for Martin to make the contract himself. Lillian tried to talk him out of doing so, saying that it wasn't as if Martin would actually have Jeremiah if he had to go on fighting the Liar. I noted that given that the King was restoring Jeremiah because Martin needed him, while Hastur likely wouldn't want Martin taking a year off, taking a week here and there to be with Jeremiah would be just fine.

Martin tried to convince Lillian that he was neither a good person nor a strong one, and that he couldn't do what he needed to do to fight the Liar without Jeremiah. Lillian tried to convince him that he was indeed good and strong, or at least, not as selfish as he thought he was. Lillian's player described Lillian's logic as being corkscrewy and said that the conversation went something like this:

Martin: I'm only a good person when I'm in love with (a living) Jeremiah.

Lillian: Does it feel better when you are a good person for him?

Martin: Yes.

Lillian: Then you could be a good person whenever you want, and give yourself pleasure. But you won't do it for yourself, you'll only do it for Jeremiah, to give him pleasure, to make him happy. That's not how a selfish person acts.

Lillian changed tactics, urging Martin to talk to Jeremiah first and make sure that Jeremiah agreed. After all, if Jeremiah suddenly found himself embodied, he was going to know that something was up, and just how would he feel if he found out that Martin had made this agreement without even talking to him about it?

Martin agreed that he'd talk to Jeremiah first, and he also decided that when he met with the Stranger for the final discussion of the contract, he wanted Lillian by his side. He was, however, terrified that the offer would be withdrawn before he had a chance to talk to Jeremiah.

While her companions were discussing making terrible deals with terrible beings, Joyce went o the hotel bar. It would, she thought, be so simple to just blow them all away. Really, it would solve so many problems, no doubt including the one that involved caring for them.

In the bar, she saw an old companion from her fight against Nyarlathotep, Vi Bishop. Vi approached her, addressing her as Josh Winters. Joyce answered in French, pretending to have no idea who Vi was talking about. Vi pretended to believe this, and said that if the man she had clearly mistaken for Josh should happen to run into the actual Josh Winters, he should please tell the actual Mr. Winters that she had a message for a Mr. Martin Locksley from a Mr. Luc Fauche.

That got Joyce's attention and got her to drop the mistaken identity act. Vi said that she'd last seen Luc Fauche -- and his team, whose members she described and named -- in Malta, along with Daniel Lowman. Luc's message was: "Martin Locksley must go to Dallol."

Vi also let Joyce know that she was interested in keeping intimate company with Joyce. Joyce let Vi know that she was entirely uninterested in this. Vi wisely did not press her luck and moved to another part of the bar, loudly and profusely apologizing to the strange man for mistaking him for someone else.

Martin and Lillian joined Joyce at the bar. Joyce filled them in, noting that Luc's people were almost their counterparts. (Heck, the book calls them the "Anti-Investigators".) Joyce (I think) said something about wanting to burn Dallol to the ground or perhaps about wanting to burn Luc and his friends to the ground.

Martin: See, that's what -you- want. -I- want to know how brain fluid works!

The three of them mused about Martin getting marching orders from Luc Fauche.

Joyce: Even the black hats know better than to let Marty wander around on his own.

Lillian: No, -we- do that!

I think Joyce may have said something about how she was not capable of love (which is not true, but she may think it is).

Joyce pointed out Vi Bishop. It was clear to her that Lillian was thinking of trying to seduce Vi, whom Joyce was pretty sure was a Nectar addict, given that Vi was an occultist, a psychiatrist, a pharmacist, and very interested in self-medicating.

At one point, Lillian said something about how no alien-god-monsters had made any offers to buy her soul or the equivalent.

Lillian: It's enough to make one feel positively unattractive. All I'm saying is that a girl likes to be asked. It makes her feel appreciated.

Vi overheard this, which wasn't hard given that this wasn't something Lillian was being quiet about, it not having anything to do with plans for fighting the Liar. Vi sent a drink to Lillian by way of the bar tender and smiled at her.

Lillian (some time later, standing up and looking at Vi): All right, think of England.

Martin: Don't. England's rainy and awful.

Lillian: Don't worry. I'll be thinking of you and Joyce the entire time.

Martin: That can be arranged.

Lillian went to Vi's table, and the two of them chatted briefly before they agreed that the conversation should take place somewhere more private. Vi told Lillian her room number and left the door unlocked. Lillian made her way up there, and, in addition to having sex, quizzed Vi about being a psychaiatrist (as she was pretending to be a groupie of psychiatrists) and about Luc Fauche's team.

Meanwhile, Martin and Joyce continued to drink in the bar.

Joyce: Put it on Miss Avery's account.

Martin: I'm going to f*ck over this entire party -- f*ck over -- f*ck.

Joyce: We need a h*ll of a lot more Nectar.

My notes say something that looks like "Misery dictes" at this point -- ANYONE KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS?

Eventually, Lillian returned.

Joyce: Did you enjoy screwing my girlfriend? (throws drink in Lillian's face)

I gather Lillian had expected a reaction like that. By now, everyone was drunk, and getting drunker, and Martin and perhaps Lillian as well got maudlin.

Joyce: Jesus Christ, a bunch of crybabies! Y'know, Tommy never cried on my shoulder even when he lost his eyes.

Eventually, they returned to their suite. Vito was asleep, snoring. Martin tried to call Johns Hopkins, but hung up after someone answered, given that Cecil and Jeremiah were still on their way back to the USA and Jeremiah wasn't officially there and anyway, "Mr. Rhodes" was Martin, as that was the name he used when he visited Joy Grove. Joyce chided Martin for calling just as some administrative type was probably about to head home.

Lillian's player decided to give Lillian a far more effective nightmare than anything I might have come up with: Lillian dreamed that she was trying keep her friends from setting fire to parks (at least, I think my notes say "parks"). Then, she realized that her friends were all attached to strings, like puppets. She looked up and saw strings from her own wrists, and the puppeteer was the King in Yellow. She drew her kukri and cut her friends' strings. Her friends slumped to the ground.

Martin saw the Stranger in his room and begged the Stranger not to take back the offer, saying he needed to talk to Jeremiah first. The next day, Martin didn't know whether the Stranger had really been in his room or whether he had dreamed that, and the Stranger had said nothing, so Martin had no idea whether the offer did or did not still stand.

Into the Desert

The next day, August 2, folks went to Mersa Fatma, where Jerome was waiting.

Martin: Oh, hello! He's cute!

Lillian: He's mine!

Joyce: I don't see it.

Lillian suggested that they speak to Renzo and Sinuhe at the CMC, so long as they were in Mersa Fatma anyway. Most of what the company men knew they had already found out, but there was a bit of new information. Renzo, who would likely be going all Heart of Darkness over the next few years, said that it wasn't just the change in the potash trade that had hurt the company in CMC. There had also been trouble with the Afar workers. He put this down to the wives making trouble -- if not the wives of the workers, then the wives of the kinfolk of the workers. Meddling native women, you know.

He also thought that Bartolo Acuna was unbalanced and that George Ayers was an addict. While he might have been correct about Ayers, he was unknowingly being unfair to Acuna. Where Acuna had complained about the unreliable and sloppy way the CMC answered the requests of the 1926 dig, Renzo complained that payment from the dig had been sporadic, and instructions from the dig had been not only sporadic, but often contradictory, an order from one week being cancelled the next, and then Bartolo Acuna arriving in Mersa Fatma in full dudgeon because the order had not been filled.

Sinuhe was reluctant to talk without Renzo's permission, but this was easily obtained, as Lillian was perfectly wiling to flatter the CMC man. And really, flattery was all he wanted. (Joyce's player noted that the authors seemed to have a highly inflated idea of the honesty of the Italians in the country at this time, but I think that was partly me. Yes, Renzo was uninterested in money, genuinely so, as he had been a company man from the time he was 15, and the company took care of him. But, I'm not sure if the entry officer was intended to be as disinterested in bribes as I made him -- or at least, as disinterested in bribes from the Right Sorts of people. He's certainly ready, willing, and eager to throw his weight around the Wrong Sorts, both to demonstrate his power to them and to demonstrate his loyalty to his superiors, but there's nothing in the text to indicate he wouldn't accept a cash consideration from obviously upright fellow Italians.)

Sinuhe confirmed Renzo's facts, but his interpretation was more even. Yes, it was certainly possible that Afar women had advised their relatives against cooperating with the CMC, but there had also been the usual misunderstandings and culture clashes one gets in such situations, and he did not consider his boss or the CMC blameless, although he would never speak an official word of blame. There were many things he did not approve of (including his boss's three wives), but he did not want to lose his job, and he was well aware of his own flaws as a human being, which made him relatively tolerant of others' (at least, to a point).

Folks set out from Mersa Fatma on camels. Joyce had her footlocker of weapons. Martin had his footlocker of books, which I'd argue was the more dangerous of the two. The Locksley Overcoat was folded into one saddle bag, while the puzzle box of Nectar was in another. The Sirikhan Arm was either with Lillian or in a third saddle bag.

And it was hot. Very, very hot. Joyce kept Martin from drinking too much water and gave him a frilly pink parasol she had packed for just this occasion.

Martin carried this for a short time. As soon as he started to complain about the weight, Joyce took it and attached it to his saddle. Lillian also brought out desert-appropriate clothing for Martin as well as for herself, which I allowed for a 1 point Preparedness Spend. That was for Martin's clothing -- she had Outdoorsman, as did Joyce and Vito, so they were handling the heat marginally better than Martin, at least at the moment.

Then, bandits attacked. Well, more precisely, bandits surrounded them and rode towards them, rifles out. The bandits hoped the group would surrender, putting their hands in the air so that they might be relieved of their wealth, but they were also willing to shoot people and loot their corpses.

Sadly for them, Joyce's player knows the rules of Gumshoe combat. She knows them far better than I do, and I cannot think of a better time for this knowledge to pay off. While the bandits can be a serious threat, I was hoping for them to be more of a nuisance, allowing the players to show their characters being cool in combat (or cowering, in Martin's case, though the payoff for that was also cool). This pretty much guaranteed that result while giving me a heads up about just what one can do with the firearms rules. Specifically, one can spend 2 points to double one's range.

Vito, Joyce, and Lillian all fired, though I'm not sure how many people had a high enough firearms skill to double their range the first round. Martin cowered, I think getting behind his camel or moving his camel to hide as best he could in the open desert with bandits approaching from all sides. Martin's player rolled for Jerome, who had his own rifle.

There were five bandits, and they did manage to wound people. However, at least three, maybe four of them wound up dead.

I think the fifth bandit was the one who had his camel shot out from under him while he was trying to flee. Joyce / Josh decided to have a little talk with him, and the player came up with a name for him for me: Wazem.

(I had also come up with a name for the doorman in Bangkok: Deng, which means "frog".)

Joyce / Josh asked why Wazem and his fellow bandits had been shooting at them. He said that they'd been shooting only in response to Joyce and her friends shooting at -them-, which Joyce admitted was technically true. She gave him a thousand lira as blood money for his fellow bandits and I think let him reclaim one of the still living camels. He was wise enough not to press his luck and quickly went away.

Joyce: No d*mn man kills me and lives.

This was a quote from Nathan Bedford Forrest.

Lillian: Martin, this was clearly a case of self defense.

Martin: I understand. There's a reason I prefer to run away.

This is the line that was payoff, as far as I'm concerned. Is it evil of me to wonder under what circumstances Martin would actually kill someone?

(Martin's Player: it's probably evil to wonder when Martin would actually kill someone (it would be hard, but you could get him there).

Vito's Player: I think that Martin would commit any manner of horror for Jeremiah. So does Vito.)

The rest of the journey to Koluli was without incident, though everyone was worn down by the heat by the time they arrived.

The people of Kolluli were nomadic, with a couple of buildings made of salt blocks and many tents. The children were excited to see the strangers. The adults send a group of men who were relieved to learn that the newcomers were not from the war, though sorry to learn that they were not from the CMC.

Folks looked after those who had been injured by the bandits. Qustions about Dallol made the folk of Kolluli uncomfortable. The people of Dallol were strange and perverse: They had given up nomadic ways, something morally and logically suspect. They no longer seemed to be part of the salt trade, and the Afar of Kolluli had made it clear that the Dallol Afar were no longee welcome in Kolluli.

Somewhere around this point, one of the women of Kolluli approached to ask if any of the visitors had medical training. Her son was burned, perhaps not badly, but she wanted to be surehe would be all right.

Joyce / Josh went with her and helped bandage the boy, who was soon running around with"Yeshua", currently his favorite person in the world. Meanwhile, Martin and Lillian managed to coax one of the men to speak to them privately. He said that the Dallol villagers seemed to have taken to injuring and maiming themselves. Wise travelers gave Dallol a wide berth, and those who approaxhed too closely heard disturbing sounds on the wind and had nightmares. He himself had had nightmares of chewing his own limbs off when he traveled near Dallol. Awaking from one such nightmare, he discovered that he had bitten himself deeply, and he showed them the scars from this ion his arm.

Jerome and one of the women brought Lillian, Martin, and Vito to where Joyce / Josh, the boy, and the boy's mother were. The boy was sent away so folks could talk.

Jerome and the two women, Maathai and Muhoho, were the last of a group that had kept an eye on what used to be a Mouth in Ethiopia in the fourth century BC. It has no name per se, but they call themselves the guardians, as they have to call themselves something.

They fought against the evil of the Mouths, and they thought that the visitors also did, but they weren't yet sure they could trust the visitors.

Lillian: Shall we tell them about Los Angeles?

Martin: Might as well. I have the sketches.

Martin told the tale of their struggles against the Liar, although he did leave out certain details, such as Vito's extra mouth, his own Nectar addiction, and I think the Locksley Overcoat and his odd relationship with Samson Trammel.

The book considers this a) to be the correct tactic and b) to be a use of Bargain. I'm not sure about b), and I certainly consider Reassure a reasonable tactic. Flattery and Oral History are also viable. a) works for me, and it didn't hurt that they showed the guardians the Sirikhan Arm. I like the idea from Masks of Nyarlathotep that one way to prove one isn't a cultist is to show artifacts that the cultists would hide away for secret veneration.

Thus reassured, the guardians shared their history. In the fourth century BC, the guardians helped their king calcify the Mouth. Some centuries later, they learned a method that they thought would destroy it utterly, but held off on doing so, as they feared that this might attract the attention of the god behind the Mouth, and the Mouth was not an active threat, sealed safely away.

All was well until 1923, when Bartolo Acuna reinterpreted certain passages in the Revelations of Glaaki and came to Dallol to excavate the temple where the calcified Mouth resided, behind ancient wards. George Ayers came with him, hoping to learn the truth about the Liar and to advance in Ramon Echevarria's favor. He sent Echevarria the rock that Douglas Henslowe stole, the one that Henslowe believed could ward against the Liar's scrying powers.

The guardians did what they could to oppose the dig, deliberately sending contradictions to the orders that Acuna and Ayers sent to the CMC in Mersa Fatma and causing what trouble they could between the CMC and the Afar, so Renzo wasn't entirely wrong in his beliefs.

But, despite the guardians' best efforts, Acuna and Ayers penetrated into the inner sanctum, where the calcified Mouth was. So, the guardians used their desperation tactic and "ended the shrine in fire".

Joyce (I think) (impressed, I think): You dropped a volcano on it!

Well, more precisely, other guardians did this. A much younger Jerome was with them when they captured George Ayers on his return to the dig site after hearing about the eruption. Ayers had a set of "small jaws" in his torso, and the guardians took pity on him. Jerome admitted that he was not sure whether or not Ayers's apparent repentance was genuine at first, but after over a decade, he thought it had become genuine.

Ayers had been taught Rituals of Self-Denial so that his "small jaws" would stop being a problem for him. These rituals involved a great deal of asceticism, meditation, and dedication, which is why Jerome was confident that, whatever Ayers's original state of mind, he was now sincere. He added that Ayers had seemed to him almost as if ensorcelled by someone named Ramon Echevarria. (To be clear: This was purely the effect of Echevarria's non-magical charisma, and Jerome probably understood that.)

(Also, just fyi, the book describes Ayers's conversion as a combination of a multipoint interpersonal Spend on his part to keep the guardians from killing him, and deprogramming on their part.)

Ayers had since gone into the desert to be alone, and the three guardians did not wish to tell anyone where he went. (Well, roughly where he went.)

All of this was the good news. The bad news was that these three guardians were quite possibly the last. Their numbers had never been large. Three tribes of Afar had guardians among their numbers, and two of those tribes were away fighting in the Italians' war.

Worse still, the three guardians of Kolluli did not have full knowledge of the Rituals of Self Denial, nor could they do anything like making a volcano erupt. But, they did want to work with the visitors.

I think folks asked the guardians whether there was some connection between the volcano erupting and possibly alerting the god behind the Mouths, and the strange behavior of the Afar in Dallol. The guardians denied this, but Maathai and Muhoho weren't entirely sure of themselves here. They asked if the group would go to Dallol and see what was happening, and folks agreed, although they said they wanted to go to the Dallol dig site first.

Jerome arranged for two more guides, Richard and Charles. These men are not guardians and know nothing of their secrets. He also plans to accompany the group.

The plan, as I understand it, to the degree there is a plan:

• Go to the dig site. Look around, but the idea is not so much to see what's there, as folks aren't expecting much to be there, but rather, to be seen by people from Dallol.
• Get Martin to Dallol on the grounds that getting Martin alone inside with the enemy seems to be a surprisingly effective tactic.

At that point, I gather most folks want to burn Dallol to the ground, after getting Martin out, but Martin wants to make sure that he gets a chance to find out about brain fluid from anyone in Dallol who knows about it.

Savitree Sirikhan's Anti-Investigators

• Luc Fauche: The leader and face guy.
• Alex Kramer, aka Beetle Tattoo guy: The muscle.
• Phajol Khadpo: The mystic.
• Husain Soliman: The book guy.

History of the Desert Mouth, the guardians, and the Dig

• c.400 BC: Dallol/Ethiopia: Cult destroyed by local king. Mouth calcified by the devotions of the king's wise men.

• c. -1BC/1AD: The guardians learn a ritual to "end the shrine in fire" but hold off on using it, lest they attract unwanted attention.

• 1923: Bartolo Acuna reinterprets passages in the Revelations of Glaaki, correctly deducing where the shrine is.

• 1924: June: Expedition arrives. August: Ayers is there. He sends stone to Echevarria. Henslowe steals it. Echevarria's ritual disrupted by Walter Winston's group.

• 1925: December: Access to sanctum with calcified mouth. Pictures taken.

• 1926: Dallol volcano erupts while Ayers and Acuna are away in Mersa Fatma, negotiating with CMC. Acuna returns to Spain. Ayers goes to eruption site, where he is taken by the guardians and taught the Rituals of Self Denial to keep the small jaws dormant. He goes into the desert to become a hermit

• 1929: Potash discovered elsewhere. Afar alliance with CMC breaks down.

• 1937: 2 of 3 Afar tribes with guardians fighting in the war. The third is stretched way too thin, the only guardians being Jerome, Muhoho, and Maathai. Acuna back in Africa.

• August 5, 1937: Current date.

The Current Hastur Contract Situation

• No agreement has been made.
• Martin is the only person considering making one.
• He plans to talk to Jeremiah first and have Lillian with him when he either finalizes or calls off the deal.
• IF Martin agrees:
  • What he gets: Jeremiah. If Martin dies, he gets brought back until he's fulfilled his end of the bargain. If Amelia and Geoffrey want to come back from Carcosa, they can. All of this is up front, and it gets undone if Martin breaks his end of the bargain. Also, such hints as Hastur gives him about how to do his part.
    • I see that Vito was talking about the folks who chose to return from Carcosa doing so "in full mental and physical health" -- NO. The King cannot guarantee that. This is not "won't" -- it's a "can't". (You try partying in Carcosa for a decade and then see how sane you are.)
  • What he has to do: See this through to the end: Get the Liar banished or destroyed. He is totally allowed to get help.

Other notes:

• Martin solicited Hastur, so Hastur may not be as good natured as Nyarlathotep was if Martin decides not to accept the offer.
• The GM does not want to get bogged down in fiddly details.
• The Stranger passed on two hints, and these can't be taken back. Malta will teach you when access to the Liar's body is possible. The Yucatan will give you the final piece of the puzzle.
• Note also that Samson Trammel pretty much begged Martin to leave him Malta as the last source of Nectar and has said, more than once, that Martin should forget the Yucatan because the men whom Jonathan Brooks sent there are doomed and are never coming back.

The delights of having a Mouth

From the text:

Investigators who inadvertently bring their Mouths close to their living flesh
(bringing an arm close to a Mouth manifesting on his stomach, for example, or
vice versa) suffer an attack. These are the normal biting attacks of Minor Mouths.
That is, they are +0 bites that attack from a Scuffling pool of 3 that refreshes
daily. Investigators who actively take pains to keep their manifested Mouths away
from their healthy flesh must make a 1-point Sense Trouble spend each time they make
any General ability test. Investigators who don’t go to these lengths (or can’t, in
the event that their Sense Trouble pools are depleted) suffer one attack in the course
of each General ability test they make.

• Also, these Mouths are "capable of hissing, spitting, drooling, howling, screaming, and speaking in the Tongue of Lies". This makes being stealthy or working on "delicate tasks" complicated, to put it mildly.
• There is one upside, if you choose to look at it that way: When Vito rolls a natural 6 (i.e., on the die, before any modifications) while attacking in close combat, the Mouth will also attack his target.
• All of this presumes the Mouth is at liberty to act. You can keep gagging it, of course, replacing the gag whenever it chews through...

Roll Your Own Ritual

Assuming someone wishes to make a 1 point Occult or Theology spend and spend a week of time (this CAN be done on the road), one can cobble together a sort of genericized version of the rituals the guardians taught George Ayers. Sadly, the three guardians folks actually have access to don't know the rituals.

So, this cobbled together version includes

• a very simple diet
• a lot of meditation
• refraining from sex and violence
• speaking no more than a few words per day

In mechanical terms, this means:

• cannot use abilities (collectively) more than once per day (NOT once per day per ability)
• No Spends
• No more than one or two sentences per day (and no Henry James lengthy sentences)
• No points of General Abilities to attack or defend
• Everything else must be within the spirit of this

IF these practices are successfully maintained, they prevent the extra mouths on one's body from

• speaking
• moving
• exhorting
• attacking
• causing further stability losses.
• Additionally, the mouths become scabrous, dull, and emaciated.

Whether Vito wants to try this or have his arm amputated or continue to gag the extra mouth and hope that works is up to him.