ENTRY 18: THE TRAP
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We join our friends at breakfast, as usual. Katya let everyone know
that Elizabeth (and probably everyone else) is being followed, and
everyone talked about that for a good long while, eventually deciding
just to be careful about where they go.

Someone found out {note: sorry, didn't write down who} that the
previous night, rather than following his usual routine, Gavigan went
to Tewfik's Spice Shop, and stayed around for about 5 hours after
closing before going home. Tewfik's has one apartment above the
store.

Someone {I think Adrian?} found out that the Penhew Foundation is
guarded by only one guard, who makes rounds of the building only once
an hour.

Smythe and Don went to check out Tewfik's Spice Shop. Tewfik was a
very gregarious man, and became moreso after Smythe bought 2 pounds
(yes, you read that correctly) of tumeric. After some small talk, he
let out that he lived upstairs, and he was around pretty much all the
time. (Either tending the shop, or upstairs studying the Koran).

That night, Vincent followed the night watchman home after his shift,
discreetly following him into the Boar and Goat bar, where he had a
lovely conversation with the friendly guard. The guard lets Vincent
know that Gavigan had given him the next night off.

That night, Don asked his prostitue friend about The Van, and she lied
and said she knew nothing.

The next day, Don and Elizabeth went to the countryside to see the
Captain. On the way, Don mentioned that he had his lawyers in America
get the books from Erica Carlyle, who sold them to his lawyers for
much less money than she had quoted Elizabeth. This saved the group
time and money.

Once there, the Captain was happy to see them, until they started
hinting at blackmail, at which point he got pissy. Fortunately, his
mood brightened when he realized they didn't intend to blackmail him
and gave him his letters back. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to tell
them much more than they already knew; that Pinkham had met with black
people in New York and Egyptians in London.

That night, Katya accompanied Don and his hooker to the Blue
Pyramid. They waited in the car hoping to see the van, but were
denied.

The rest of the group went to the Penhew Foundation. They staked the
place out: Elizabeth and Adrian watching from a nicely located window
in the British Museum, Smythe and Vincent watching from opposite sides
of the rear alley. At around midnight, Vincent and Smythe saw the
night watchman leave, and then a cleaning woman. At around 1am,
Vincent walked up to the gate, picked the lock, and went to the back
door. This lock was tougher.

Fortunately, at about this time, Katya and Don showed up. Don started
watching from the front, while Katya aided Vincent with the back door
lock. They went inside. They found papers and an envelope inside the
open safe. {Yes, that read OPEN SAFE. Does anyone else sense a trap?}
In the envelope, there were about 5000 marked pounds. (They were very
fresh and numbered consecutively.)

Katya, being Katya, immediately discovered the false wall in the
closet, which led to a storage room. In the middle of the storage room
was a large sarcophagus, with scratch marks around the floor. Being
smart, Vincent and Katya pushed it open (with difficulty), breaking
the locking mechanism that had made it so difficult. There was a
staircase going down, and the smell of cooked meat wafted up. They
decided to investigate.

They lit a torch, and Katya made a SAN roll! The reason she had to
roll was a panting on masonry that had been cut out of a building and
hung on the wall. It depicted a reptilian, feathered serpent-like
thing.

They found themselves in a gallery of similar artwork, and decided to
check out another part of the secret basement room. Aside from the
gallery, there was a work area (a little table with a covered tray on
it, and some boxes, and some other stuff). There was a sitting area,
with comfy chairs and a sofa, and a bookshelf. They found a 3 day
supply of food and water, a revolver, rope, a kerosene lamp with extra
kerosene, tools, etc.

The bookshelf contained a lot of scrolls, and books in many
languages. Most of them had scary cult names, though Katya picked up a
Russian book called _Deleriums of the Czar_. (Which was
about.... deleriums of the czar. Very dull.) The scrolls seemed to be
latin poems of praise to the dark god, Nyarlathotep. Inside an orate
chest were two ornate silver daggers. Inside some boxes were spell
components (frog legs, bat wings, etc). They decided to open the
larger box (which is marked as being from Fong Imports in Shanghai),
and discover a large and disturbing bronze statue. They replace it and
re-nail the box shut.

Vincent noted a small jar containing black powder that doesn't smell
organic. He packages a little up and takes it with him.

The two decided that their SAN could stand the sight of the gallery
now, and so checked it out. They saw a pickture of a chicota, and
Katya regained her memories of that episode. After poking around a
little more, they fixed the broken lock on the sarchophagus, and
leave.

They joined the rest of the group at the British Museum, where Vincent
explained what went on. Nyarlathotep means "There is no rest at the
gateway / doorway". Don examined the black powder, and discovered that
there were rubbery crystals in it.

The group, after discussing how it was probably a trap, decided to
watch the Foundation, hoping that someone was supposed to pick up the
money. At around 5 am, someone came to the building and let themselves
in. They did not leave by the time the rest of the staff showed up at
8:30. The party decided they needed to sleep, and did so.

On the 18th...........

At around 6pm, when everyone woke up, Don and Smythe did some
reconaissance of Tewfik's place. They tried to get him to talk about
the occult unsuccessfully, and wound up buying spell components for a
love spell. Tewfik either knew nothing about the occult, or did a good
job pretending.

Elizabeth and Vincent put into action their plan at the Blue Pyramid,
by renting a private room. As they were waiting for the dancer,
Vincent got extremely embarrassed and wanted Elizabeth (who spoke
arabic) to wait outside while he (who didn't speak arabic) talked to
the dancer. He was obviously a little shaken up, and got more so when
the dancer came into the room. He hid in a corner.

While making appropriate sounds, Elizabeth bribed the dancer with 5
pounds (which turned out to be uneccessary) to talk about the van. The
dancer was more than happy to provide them with information; her
boyfriend had been killed by the van people. She said that the van
should show up 5 or 6 days from now; that it was hard to pinpoint the
exact day. She said that most of the regulars went on the van, and the
ones who asked questions were the ones who didn't come back. She said
that they were led by Tewfik, and left London at around 2pm.

Meanwhile, Katya and Adrian were watching the Penhew Foundation. Katya
decided to try and sneak out back, where something very strange
happened to her. She made it back to Adrian, where she told him what
had happened; the air around her had suddenly become solid, and she
couldn't breathe. She tried to run away, but it held her. She
eventually broke free, and although she still couldn't see anything,
the should feel it tear away from her face. (It should be noted that
the night was very foggy; it seemed to Katya that the fog was
strangling her.)

At around this time, Elizabeth and Vincent showed up. Katya and Adrian
related the events to them, and Vincent and Adrian decide to check it
out. (To discern whether or not it they had somehow been able to
detect who broke in the last night, or if the thing was attacking
anyone who went through the alley.) They walked through the alley
safely, and were talking on the far side when it grabbed
Vincent. Adrian tried unsuccessfully to haul Vincent out into the
light. In a moment of inspiration, Adrian picked up a handful of dust
and threw it around Vincent, revealing around 6 tentacles coming out
from the fog, wrapped around Vincent's head.

At around this time, Vincent passed out, dropping the lamp he was
carrying. It exploded; the ignition casted a glow, and everyone saw: a
large, amporphous mass, with around 6 tentacles reaching for
Vincent. They rolled back and fled as the light reached them. Everyone
was one fire, and Vincent went insane. We ended here.

Pleasant Dreams!
Katya tried to track the houseboy when he got off work. She discovered
his name was Godfrey, and followed him back to Peter Henley's
flat. She watched the apartment from the roof of the apartment
building across the street, and saw Emma Reeve through the window {the
KGB agent that nobody but Katya knows about}. Their eyes locked, and
night started to fall. She decided to just go down and knock on the
door.....
 

...and that's where we stopped.