Missing Artists in NY
Briefing
We’re labelled as G-cell.
Marcus briefs us. He appears unnecessarily jumpy, almost paranoid.
FBI clearance to investigate a woman’s kidnapping. Use code names. Some have FBI clearance, the rest of us have been hired as unspecified “experts”.
There has been a symbol linked with demonology in the evidence.
Document everything. Check if it’s real. If it is, stop and/or destroy.
POI is Abigail Wright. Kips Bay co-op, NY. Detective Lieutenant Graham Giuradanda is our contact.
Abigail Laura Wright (Caucasian woman, age 26), a successful fine artist, is missing from her apartment in Manhattan. She was last seen four days before she was reported missing on 4 FEB 1995 by her father, Nassau County police officer Thomas Wright (Caucasian man, age 50). He pulled strings to get the NYPD immediately involved.
Abigail Wright lived in Manhattan for seven and a half years. In that time, she only went to the police once, to report a mugging in 1994 (unsolved). She had a distinguished academic record and an impressive list of credentials and former clients. Late last year, her first show was held at the Mercury, a trendy art gallery downtown on Franklin Street. She managed to sell 15 pieces, and with this money she took a half-year off to paint. Six months later, she disappeared on, as best the authorities can guess, 1 JUN 1995. Police entered her studio in the Macallistar Building at East 32nd Street, in the Kips Bay neighborhood of Manhattan, on 4 FEB 1995. They found a baffling tableau. What once was a modest apartment had become an obsessive- compulsive’s dream.
The Apartment
Every available surface was covered in junk, glued or taped to the walls. Only the floor remained clear, the rug yanked up to reveal a battered linoleum surface. Among the junk were sets of dentures, partial dentures, a 1940s wheelchair, modern and antique artificial limbs, dozens of shirts, shoes, and briefcases, assorted radios spanning several decades (some still operational, but mundane), all manner of jewelry, earrings, rings, and necklaces, and thousands of papers of all designs and ages, some in Spanish, some in Mandarin, and even a college economics report in Farsi. Almost all these items were glued to the wall with a fast-setting, cheap, full-bond epoxy.
Prior to this, Wright had been a fastidious young woman not given to accumulating odds and ends. There were no obvious signs of a struggle or any sort of violence, and the neighbors offered no useful testimony. Detectives investigated several leads but uncovered nothing. The apartment remained a crime scene and was visited four times by the NYPD, but only twice by detectives due to backlog.
Abigail’s shrine is somewhat confusing and a mess. However, it appears to be an attempt to map a supernal dimension and contains a real Yellow Sign in the mix. Whatever is going on she is mixed up in some real shit.
There’s a microphone in Abigail’s room that has a wire leading across the hall into the neighbour’s. He is a fellow artist but his apartment is oddly empty. He claims all his art supplies are in the basement: the night manager lets him work down there. But he’s guarded about letting people see it. However, Samson persuaded him. Neighbour is Thomas Manuel. Night Manager is Mr. Castaigne.
I find meticulous plan for a machine in ball-point with the initials GBR in gold on the corner (they’re on napkins or similar). One diagram is labeled “LEÃO” (“THE LION” in Portuguese). The other is labeled “ESCRIBA” (“THE SCRIBE” in Portuguese).
The diagrams are subtly wrong, a bit like an Escher picture.
Hibiki finds headed paper for Hotel Broadalbin with a sketch map of the elevator in the basement and something marked WL and a JL Bottle. Hotel Broadalbin does not exist in NYC, and is not in the records at all.
Camilla searches Thomas’ apartment quickly while he and Samson are in the basement and finds an old photo (from around 1900) and something with the name Ambrose on it.
The basement has no signs or recent work. There is a picture of the dancing child clown, a weird house and the like. There’s a blank canvas labelled “my great work” and so on.
The Macallistar Map shows each closet. There are no obvious irregularities, but the signs and additions are not obvious.
The play seems to be set around the people in the building? We find multiple pages of this
The receipt seems standard? However, the receipt is a style not used for 50 years but has a date from about 4 months ago! (January 3rd 1995)
The sheet music has a weird song. The lyrics are from a poem “Songs of the Sea Children” by Bliss Carman (1861–1929), once a poet laureate of Canada.
The symbol is demonology, it’s for Purson, a demon involved in knowledge of past, present and future.
Airline ticket for Las Vegas, a 2015 date. Name of the passenger is Michael Witwer. Michael WItwer is a 15 year old high school student in Lancing, Michigan.
Photo of Thomas and Ellen Wright, parents of the missing ?victim. Ellen is deceased. THere’s a harlequin arm behind them, and their eyes are scratched out.
SCR300 Walkie Talkie (used by allied forces in WWII). It says random seeming words, usually alone, such as “India,” “Moon,” “Dallan,” “Exeter,” “Daimonion,” and “Seere.” The radio was issued to Pvt. Rouvin G. Labolas in the U.S. 4th Armored Division in September 1944. Labolas was KIA on 17 DEC 1944 at Reims, France, during the Battle of the Bulge. The words from the radio are code words for parts of the Battle of the Bulge.
After the time working on this, both the photos and the originals of the machines Leão and Escriba are missing.
A paper forensics expert reveals that the heavy bonded paper for the hotel page is from the 1933. And that matches the rest of the paper stapled to the Macallister sketch map.
It’s pretty obvious we’re in a time-warp situation of some kind.
Plans for next time:
- Talk to Thomas the Painter about his paintings? Where did he get the inspiration?
- Phone Thomas Wright, father of Abigail
Session Two
There is no sign of an on-site building manager, but there’s a nearby address and company name, plus a phone number.
We split up the tasks. Daniel and Abraham pretend to be journalists and interview Thomas Manuel again. They don’t learn anything new from him.
Secretary at Art Life, the Management Agency, is Cynthia Lechance, an African American woman and the only manager. Mostly she answers the phone and then calls contractors to do maintenance work. She did not let anyone directly use the basement but she lets them run a bit looser than normal tenants because it’s an artists commune.
They purchased it from the Star Corporation, and they’ve never had a live in manager since they purchased it in 67. She doesn’t know if they’re still in business. She appeared nervous but it appeared to be simply the caution of an African American woman to the authorities. I ask Detective Giuradanda to get his people to look up the Star Corporation at City Hall and report back to us.
Camilla rings Thomas Wright and asked about his daughter
- No strange behaviour
- No new names
- He spoke to her frequently
- Infrequent visits (he lives in NJ)
- He would knock on the door rather than having his own set of keys
- He found out she was missing when he showed up to visit
People currently still in the building: Roger Carun, Thomas Manuel, Michelle Vanfitz and Louis Post.
Harriet scares the NY State tax offices into rustling up the names of the previous tenants in the building going back to WWII. They revealed that all of the current tenants are going to be evicted soon for non-payment of rent.
Camilla interviewed the remaining tenants in the building
Roger Carun lives more or less next to Abigail Wright’s apartment, but there’s a stairwell between them. He is an author. He looks a bit of a mess. He says he works odd hours but says he’s ok. He’s close to a deadline and working odd hours. He said that Abigail used to party a bit last year but she was basically ok. He saw her a few days before she disappeared but they weren’t close. He saw her about the same as Thomas Manuel, just because they all lived on the same floor. He doesn’t know anything about the basement, he hasn’t been down there. He doesn’t know if there’s a night manager or not. He’s working on the next book in the Night Sea series, Camilla doesn’t know what that is. Carun thinks that the play is decent. He recognises it as “The King in Yellow” but he’s not sure who wrote it. Abigail found the play and shared it around because it’s so inspirational. He doesn’t know where she found the script, but they weren’t particularly close. He doesn’t know if they were planning to perform it. He claims not to know where there’s a full copy (Camilla thinks he’s lying). She presses him and Carun admits that he’s adapting the foreword into something he’s calling Night Floors. She persuades him to let her take a copy of his adaptation. His computer password is NIGHTSEA.
Michelle Vanfitz is next. She lives on the top (third floor). She’s a young woman, and seems unhappy about being questioned. She said she barely knew Abigail and this seems to be true, but she’s an arsey bitch. Ms Vanfitz writes feminist literature. She thinks that she’s been paying her rent on time and things are fine financially. She correctly calls that the building manager is a woman and quite distant. Michelle has read The King in Yellow too, says it’s very empowering. She denies having a copy in the apartment but she’s lying.
Louis Post lives on the top floor too, over Abigail’s apartment. He appears to be in his 30’s. He hits on Camilla, even after he knows she’s FBI. He’s an illustrator, covers for comic books and novels. He says he’s seen Abigail around occasionally but doesn’t have a chance with her, she’s too pretty. He tries to come off as a joker, but it comes over as more of a creep. He says there are several versions of The King in Yellow, with different titles, and it seems to be incomplete, but it’s pretty cool. He hasn’t seen one though. He hints that they were working towards a performance. Abigail handed him a copy, that’s how he came across the play, but he’s seen other people handing copies around. He said he handed his copy to Ms Vanfitz to try and get her “to loosen up a bit” but “that didn’t impress her much”. Can’t think why. (He is probably telling the truth about not having a copy, he might be making up a story about who he hadn’t it over to, but more because he’s forgotten who than anything else. Note that, for someone who said he hadn’t seen a copy, he’s had one, seen several being passed around…) Camilla tried to draw a yellow sign to show him, but zoned out and drew it all over the paper he gave her. He then asked her is she’d seen the yellow sign? He can’t remember when he first saw it, maybe around the time he read the book? He has a few doodles of current work, and some comic books of that bear his covers too, but there’s nothing particularly recent. He knows there’s no night manager. He posts a cheque for his rent into the box where he’s supposed to every month.
(Note: certainly the visual artists seem to not be creating. Probably for some time. Manuel has all his dried out, dusty stuff in the basement, Post's place is a mess and he only has a few doodles and some old comic book covers. It’s probably harder to check on the authors, but are they missing deadlines? What date do they think it is?)
Camilla gets contact information for all of these every people.
Cynthia at Art Life confirms how the tenants are meant to pay rent, that they’re in arrears at the end of the month and that they’re at risk of being evicted. There’s a process where they are chased if they don’t pay and have to be 8 weeks in arrears, although her boss has told her not to chase too hard because they want to evict everyone and renovate the building. This means everyone has missed payments at the end of Feb and Mar. Given the time hijinks, do they still think it’s January? She has been out to visit them and they wouldn’t answer the door, which seemed odd to us.
We checked out the box where they’re meant to post the checks, it seems odd, like a TV set platonic ideal of the concept rather than a real one.
Daniel spent the day reading the copy of The King in Yellow that Camilla found in Manuel's apartment.
Things to carry forward
- Camilla reckons we should stake out Ms Vanfitz’s apartment.
- Harriet (at least) has connoisseur (literature), do the names Roger Carun, Night Sea and Michelle Vanfitz ring any bells for her (or anyone else with the skill)?
- Double-check Post’s story (was it a slip of the tongue by Sojourner or an possibly significant mistake in his interview about not having seen the text, then having seen multiple copies under multiple names?)
- We will hopefully hear back from NY State Tax offices with residents names and can chase that down.
- We will also hopefully hear back from NYPD chasing things down at City Hall about The Star Corporation.
- It might be worth asking them what date the tenants think it is maybe they think it’s still January?
- The sketch map of the McAllister Building has a Mr. Castaigne (the name of the night manager Manuel said gave him permission to use the basement) shown in one apartment. Maybe we should check with Cynthia if he is a tenant who is not currently in residence and if she’s got a forwarding address.
- Does The King in Yellow have any occult, mythos or thaumatological significance?
Session Three
Answering lingering questions about the game from last week:
- Roger Carun is a relatively famous author, Night Sea is the first book in a well known horror series, published in 1977. Michelle Vanfitz is a radical feminist author, not really well known but is published.
- Oliver Post really did fumble and lie.
- The King in Yellow is a powerful Mythos entity who has been known to influence people in various ways through media.
- Mr Castaigne is not a current or recent past tenant. Cynthia is going to ask records to look into whether he’s an older tenant and ring Harriet back.
This week's play
Staking out Michelle Vanfitz, there’s suddenly a burst of party sounds, but we haven’t seen anyone go in (or out). We can hear talking but don’t hear anyone else we recognise. We scribble down what we can pick out.
We notice Carun sneaking up the stairs. He lives on the floor below Vanfitz and is heading up to the roof. We split up (we can do more damage that way!) I head to Abigail’s room, grab a bottle, refill it with water, and head back to the party.
Meanwhile, Camilla starts shadowing Carun. Expecting to find the roof she finds herself in a room that looks like a turn of the century men’s club velvet-covered furniture, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves with a rolling ladder. There’s a bar in the corner. There is a man sitting here with a wig on (in retrospect Camilla thinks it’s probably part of a masquerade costume) and a drink, he looks up as Camilla enters but just looks back down. There are many exits. Carun is not here.
Camillia carried on and talked to the gentleman, Mark Rourke. He said it was a good party and that he had been invited by the superintendent. He can’t remember tomorrow’s date. He didn’t really pay attention to Roger Carun. The supervisor is called Castaigne. Rourke starts telling a story about bootlegging. Camilla tries to leave, taking a picture before she goes. She opens the door but it isn’t the hallway she was expecting! She closes the door and turns back to confront Mr Rourke and finds she’s in the hallway.
There is a B&W photo of people in the hallway. There are names under most of them, A. DARIBONDI, E. LOSETTE, J. LINZ, E. MOSEBY, D. CAR but the last picture has her (Camilla's) name under it. Something whispered in her ear and creeped her out a little. There was no response to a radio call.
When she tries to remove her picture, there is a handle, which she opens. There is a stairway behind it, which she goes down, many flights. Behind the first door, there is corridor and the sound of a music box. Camilla records some of the music, a clockwork child comes out and gives her an invitation to dine and dance with the king:
IAN FREDERICK DECRAIG, PRISONER 125101.
The note reads:
JOIN US AT THE PALACE. A MASQUERADE TO CELEBRATE THE NEW KING. COME TO DINE. COME TO DANCE. COME.
Camilla carries on down the stairs and finds a horde of dancing marionettes at the bottom. She returns to the top and opens what she believes to the correct door. There is the sound of automatic gunfire and “Get ‘em boys!” She recognises the sounds as .45 calibre, and this continues for some time, ending in a blood-curdling scream and then silence. Another door - people in gas masks with shotguns. There were no real markings, but the hotel corridor seemed dated. Another door. Nothing obvious, but it looked ok, but more like a hotel than the apartment building. Camilla stepped in, looking for a way out. She looked for a window. She found a solid gold sculpture of a goldfish in the corridor. The craftsmanship was exquisite. Further on there was a bunch of .45 casings on the grounds on some mannequins with red tissue paper coming out of bullet holes. It looked like a spray and pray job, Chicago-land mob murder style. The casings look and smell like they’re recently fired and are still warm to the touch.
Further down the hall… and into a bar room. More casings and blood stains. These blood stains look real. Camilla draws her weapon and bumps into someone carrying a tray of hors d’oeuvres. They are all jellied… something. There’s a small golden shape in the middle of each one. The other person speaks in a language that is frustratingly almost comprehensible but not quite. With gestures and maybe some crossed words, Camilla finds out that the boss might be upstairs. She heads up, and finds the same goldfish from earlier.
Listening at doors, Camilla finds one where there’s humming coming from the other side. There’s a sign on the door that says “Night Manager.” Peering through the peephole there is an old man sweeping a hotel-type room.
Henri de Calvados Castaigne. Somehow he has a faint E. European accent. He seems willing to show Camilla to the exit. He recognises all the names of the current tenants, he thinks they’re in the lower floors, but the Wright girl moved up to the sixth floor with some salesman. Castaigne can’t remember his name. He has seen the King in Yellow. Castaigne seems to find is funny in a kind of sadistic but not hostile way.
Camilla asks to be shown the way to Miss Wright’s room. Castaigne refuses - it’s not appropriate to be showing people to tenant’s rooms. He does have a map that he gives to Camilla, it looks like a high-rise hotel, and bears no resemblance to the route she’s experienced. However, Camilla persuades him. They arrive at the place he says is her apartment but it’s empty, he seems genuinely surprised by this.
Camilla asks to be shown to the boss, but he refuses because of she doesn’t have an invitation and he doesn’t want to bother with the doorman. She asks to be shown to the way out and he takes her as far as he can and gives her instructions. These seem odd to her but she sucks up her courage and keeps going, even when she emerges into a library instead of directly into the lobby. She presses on and eventually emerges into the third floor. She emerges just about as Harriet comes out of the Vanfitz apartment.
Other track
No one answers the door when Harriet knocks, but it’s unlocked so Harriet goes in. The room looks like a part of a huge villa, obviously bigger than the building allows. There’s no one here, but there are exits off to other rooms and voices come from them. This looks like a penthouse suite maybe? There are cigars still smoking, drink bottles are empty, lying on their side and the like. Harriet moved towards the nearest voices, straight ahead, took a photo of the books cases to either side of the doorway and poked her head through. More of the same. It felt far too much like a trap so she grabbed the first book that seemed interesting and retreated. The was A History of the Russo-Germanic Hegemony 1911-1921. Published 1924. Ebon Publishers. Alar, Caracosa. Sadly Caracaso didn’t ring any bells.
The book is full of black and white photos and will take some time to study properly. Harriet puts it aside, tells Tristan what she saw and they settle down to try and find anything useful in the chatter.
Harriet treats Camilla for shock when she realises that she’s been gone for 5 minutes, her watch agrees, but to her it feels like a day. Her recording of the music box plays back at normal speed though. We can see, albeit at bad resolution, the pictures she took on her digital camera.
We need to research the names Mark Rourke, A. Darbibondi, E. Losette, J. Linz, E. Moseby, D. Car, Ian Fredrick Decraig and Caracosa.
A History of the Russo-Germanic Hegemony 1911-1921. A slim, hardcover history book filled with black-and-white photographs. The book is overly wordy but does not list an author. It discusses a Russian-German alliance (which never occurred) fighting the Black Wind, an enemy force which appears to have invaded Europe through Turkey in 1910 (perhaps coming from North Africa before that). The book focuses mostly on the forces arrayed under the “Russo-Germanic” pact and not the Black Wind. One of the chapters concerns “the Siege of the Yhtill,” (sometimes spelled Yihitel) and shows black-and-white photographs of the Palace in Carcosa. The book was published in 1924 by Ebon Publishers of Alar, Carcosa. No such location exists in the real world.
The tax records come back and nothing seems immediately relevant. It’s a long list of names that haven’t cropped up so far.
We research the names in the library. Ian Fredrick Decraig is a missing prisoner from the 1940’s. He was a multiple murderer. There is a book about mysterious disappearances of people. All of the names of the people in the photos are in the book. They are generally not nice people, e.g. child murderers. They have all gone missing in the last century. We get their FBI records.
Caracosa is a fictional city referenced in some books, such as the King in Yellow. The library doesn’t have a copy.
Are we going to build down the building? It seems like a way to stop the gate linking it to the other building under the control of the King in Yellow. Are we going to try and rescue the current residents if we burn down the building?
We question the tenants. None of them have a memory of a party. They don’t have any obvious signs of anything suspicious and appear to believe they’re telling the truth. They all seem confused about the date. They are all reluctant but willing/able to leave the building if pressured. Vanfitz reacts to us as the fascist pigs and tells us to get bent, but that seems in character for her rather than an inability to leave the building.
We reached out to Delta Green, who sent specialists to burn the place down and, hopefully, destroy the link between the building and the King in Yellow’s realm. The tenants all go missing, presumed dead. Sadly all of the evidence is destroyed.
Job done.
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