ENTRY 12: THE BOAT (PART TWO)
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We join our friends as they begin day eight on the Marutania. No,
literally as day eight begins. Jim, having just had a little run-in
with the Miskatonic folks outside the room of the now-dead Patterson,
decided it would be a good idea to wake up Elizabeth, Adrian, and
Katya.

The group chatted for a while, and then Elizabeth decided to be very,
very brave and tell Katya about the group's new Russian friend. Katya
very kindly decided to refrain both from killing the group and the
Count. The group decided to go back to sleep, crises averted.

In the morning, the group found a sign outside the door of the dining
room, stating that there would be an Inquest about the death of
Professor Patterson at 9am, and that all relevant parties should
attend.

Katya, being a servant in disguise on this ship, decided to clean some
rooms.  Elizabeth received a very nice invitation from the Count to
use the Turkish Baths between the hours of two and four.

The inquisition passed rather uneventfully. The Miskatonic crew looked
nervous and sickly; it did not go well for them. All parties had a
chance to tell their story of the night before; those present included
Fuda, Thorpe, Blocke, our friends, the purser, the captain, and the
cheif engineer, as well as the ship doctor. The doctor gave his
report, and then Thorpe talked for the Miskatonic folks. He said
something very interesting: that he had last seen Patterson at around
10pm, when he had convinced Patterson to put artifacts into the ship
safe so that they would not be taken by anyone. The purser said that
there were no records in the safe log book. Our friends got a chance
to tell their stories.

Our friends were asked to leave; the Miskatonic folks were asked to
stay. Elizabeth decided to swim, Jim to exercise, and Dapper Don to
fence. As they were standing in the hall, they saw the purser come
out, talk to a steward, and then go back in. Jim decided to go back to
the party's rooms, thinking that there may be some funny business
going on; he saw the aforementioned steward enter the suspects' room.

Meanwhile........

Katya went to search M3's room. While she was poking around, she
discovered quite a bewildering array of stuff:

 - ammunition, but no guns
 - sewing equipment
 - pottery clay
 - a book in latin, and one in english: Key of Wisdom

She surmised that they had packed in quite a hurry; they were lacking
in any winter clothing. She then heard someone at the door, so she hid
in a closet.  She heard one person enter, lock the door behind them,
and ransack the room with nowhere near as much skill as she
possessed. She luckily looked up and saw the hatchway in the ceiling
of the closet before the person got too close to her, and managed to
get up and out through it. Having managed to get the latin book, she
cleaned herself up in a convenient water closet and made it to Jim's
room.  Katya hands over the book she got 'wandering around the ship',
and then cleaned herself up for real while Adrian and Jim examined
it. It's title is "Clavis Selamanis", and is an approximately 300 year
old grimoire.

At around this time, a general announcement was made to the public of
the ship that Dr. Patterson was killed in a robbery for some expensive
items, and that all who had taken out jewels or other valuables for
the ball should return them immediately. Elizabeth, falling in this
category, decided to return her jewels.  Don and Jim accompanied her,
and it was while she was signing her jewels back in that she noticed
the log sheet had been falsified; a signature (supposedly hers)
earlier in the page had not been signed by her. She remailed silent,
though she did ask the purser if he would have time to answer a
private question for her later (she wanted to ask if he thought that
she or her friends were in any danger with the M3 out and around). He
promised that he would talk to her after that evening's supper.

While that was happening, Katya happened to see a steward emerging
from M3's rooms and decided to see what he was after. She discovered,
much to her surprise, that the steward had ransacked the room and then
made an ameteurish attempt to neaten up afterward. She decided to
search Patterson's room as well, and brought back Patterson's latest
work to Adrian.

Elizabeth had a fantastic idea and invented superglue. It is a shame
that nobody would listen to her because of her gender.

On the way back to his room, Don noticed something very strange: an
ill-kempt steward in an ill-fitting uniform. He called to the steward,
but the man evaded Don. Don enlisted the help of a legitimate steward,
but to no avail.

After lunch, Jim stayed in the group's rooms and tried to read the
latin book, and instead took a nap. Don managed to get himself shown
to the captain, where he further managed to get himself an appointment
talking to the captain in private later that night.

Elizabeth enjoyed the turkish baths.

Meanwhile......

Katya decided to break into the purser's quarters, the purser looking
more and more nefarious. Not surprisingly, the wastebasket was full of
practice session pages for the logbook. Katya grabbed a few. She
nicely brought them to a startled Don, and then went back to
Elizabeth's quarters.

Meanwhile.......

Jim played billiards and tended a flock of young attractive girls with
large diamonds.

Later that evening, Katya shadowed the safe box area. Elizabeth and
Don went to the Captain's quarters and shared their concerns about the
purser. The captain left for a few minutes, came back, and informed
them that he would handle it.

The purser did not stop by that night as promised.

On day 10, Don got a message that the affair had been handled; the
purser had been found in the bowels of the ship, shot, and
killed. Katya, wanting to check out the validity of this claim, headed
down to the meat locker in the bowels of the ship, and found Pinkham's
body. He had been shot from behind. She also found Patterson's body
and some guards.

That afternoon......

Smythe had a good conversation with Fuda.

Adrian out-drank Blocke, and a good time was had. Blocke actually
witnessed a crew member kill Patterson with a tire iron, then got
pushed out of the way by the same crew member.

Don spoke with some crew members and found out that the captain
himself had killed Pinkham (down in the engine rooms), which confused
the crew members since they were apparently best buddies.

Jim talked with some more menial members of the crew and discovered
that the purser would every so often wander around the engine
rooms. He was also told that the purser and the captain were best
friends. He managed to get a tour of the engine rooms, and when asked
where the purser hung around, was led to a store room. Jim saw a door
in the back of the store-room, outlined with faint writing in an
alphabet he didn't recognize. Jim drew a quick map of how to get back
to the store room, and got the nice man who took him there very, very
drunk on good liquor.

Elizabeth visited the Count, and had a good time, but learned nothing
other than that Thorpe had pretended to be a student of Russian
History to get close to the Count.

Katya tried to out-drink Thorpe, and had less success than Adrian. She
traded information with him, and got the following:

 - M3 is going to Jerusalem to study books that can only be
   found there, and to study an ancient group.

 - The group seems quite large and far reaching.....

After even more liquor, and information trading......

 - They are actually on the run from a cult that turned out to
   be much more powerful than they had originally thought, and
   they desperately hope that the information they need is in
   Jerusalem. The cult actually came from Jerusalem, and they
   are a brotherhood of *very* old wizards.

Thorpe seemed crestfallen that the two groups were fighting different
evil cults, but still hoped that some sort of alliance could be
made. The conversation was left with each party promising to talk to
their friends about such an alliance.