ENTRY 19: THE DARING
--------------------

We join our friends where we left them- in a frenzy outside the Penhew
Foundation.

They made it out of the fog, and back to Elizabeth's place. Elizabeth
lets out that she recognized the creature that attacked people as
something akin to things from the book she was reading; a thing from
another plane, called to this one. Such things discussed in _The Key
to Wisdom_ tend to be called for a specific purpose. Katya, too,
recognized it- she had a feeling that it had *no* physical
existance. [Don would like it known that he thinks we all suffered a
delusion, and that nothing supernatural happened at all. He was rather
vehement.]

Adrian told the rest of the group some information he had about Mickey
Mahoney and _The Scoop_. Jackson's articles had been published in The
Scoop before, and Mahoney ran a lengthy article on Jackson's death
within 24 hours of its occurance. Kayta and Smythe decided to check
out The Scoop again, after which they were going to meet Don at
Tewfik's place, to do some not-so-legal reconaissance.

Adrian left for the British Museum, to look for the Miskatonic Trio on
the Rare Books sign-out sheet.

After everyone had left Elizabeth's house, she received notice from
her butler that the Count was downstairs. He let her know that he was
leaving for Zurich the next day, gave her an address, and asked that
she visit him there. She invited him to dinner that night.

After the Count left, Elizabeth went to Oxford to try and analyze the
mysterious black powder. It wouldn't burn, had no smell, was not
organic, was not water-soluble, and contained no blood. It was *very*
sticky, and she eventually left a sample of it with a close professor
friend for analyzation. Results should be back in about a week.

She also asked some friends about Gavigan, and how he was perceived in
social circles. Though old, and not big on the social scene, he is
deemed an eligible bachelor because of his holdings and position. The
only notable thing about Gavigan is that he owns an estate up in "The
Naze". Before he bought it, it was owned by the Order of the Golden
Dawn. Interesting......

Adrian found out the Fuda had signed in every day for five days
following his arrival, and not since. The librarian told Adrian that
he had mentioned he was leaving the Friday previous.

Meanwhile, at The Scoop......

Mahoney persuaded Katya to pose provocatively for page 2 of the coming
issue while Smythe searched for back issues on Elias. He found that
Mahoney had been printing excerpts from one of his books, _The Witch
Cults of England_.

After the photo shoot, Katya asked Mahoney about Jackson. It turns out
that they were good friends, and Mahoney talked a bit about how
Jackson behaved while he was in London. (More cagey than usual, very
nervous, left without telling anyone...) Mahoney found what Jackson
was looking at when he did research at The Scoop: an article on an
artist, Miles Shipley, who painted extremely realistic scenes of
cults. He also found a note scratched in Elias' handwriting which read
"Warehouse 22 Coyleston Street Limehouse / Chabout".

Later on that evening, Katya, Smythe, and Don went to check out
Tewfik's shop. Katya saw Tewfik leaving for dinner, and noticed the
same nimbus or aura around Tewfik that she had around Magonga in New
York.

They broke in without too much difficulty (Smythe waiting outside)
after Tewfik left for dinner, and found some interesting things in his
apartment (nothing interesting in the spice shop itself). First, there
was a large mirror with a strange frame. It appeared subtly twisted to
the eye, and there were strange hieroglyphic figures carved into
it. Second, Katya located a false drawer in the desk, and in it found
loot:

- A necklace: a metal chain with an inverted ankh-like figure made of
  black stone hanging on it

- Cloth: Black, which turned out to be matching set of silk skullcap
  and robe, both with the ankh embroidered on it

- A box: A velvet case with places holding 2 rods, topped with
  symbols: one of the ankh, and another of a crook

- Another box: containing two vials, one of which was filled with the
  black powder we've seen, another of which was filled with red powder

- Scroll: with hieroglyphics written on it

Katya and Don grabbed all of the loot, shut the drawer, and left
Tewfik's shop.

[This is the night of the 19th.]

Everyone but Elizabeth and Don gather at Adrian's flat and talk about
the loot.

The next day.......

Elizabeth and Don got a safety-deposit box at the Bank of England for
the new loot. They then went to SoHo, looking for the artist Miles
Shipley. They found him, and his mother, in their house. The mother is
kind. Perhaps too kind. (But I ramble...) Anyway, she showed them to
the loft upstairs, where Miles, a shirtless and crazed looking man,
was working on a canvas. There were 11 completed canvases around the
room, and the mother told them to look at them. They are all
shockingly realistic, almost like photographs. They all show horrible,
horrible scenes from complete nightmares. Sacrifices, an octopus/squid
in a subterranean chamber, a horse/dragon/reptile being ridden, a worm
of unimaginable size, a dog coming towards the viewer from a corner of
a bedroom, his long tonghe ending in a spike, and..... the picture
that's on the cover of the game, which Adrian recognized from his
dream. This freaked Adrian out quite severely.

Miles' kindly mother pointed out one called "The Sacrifice" as being
appropriate for a Christmas gift. It depicted a woman being
sacrificed. Among others, the hieroglyphic for "Nyarlathotep" is
etched into the altar. Elizabeth inquired about a price, and without
looking from his painting, Miles quoted 150 pounds. They left,
promising to come back. As they walked away, they realized that the
house smelled like the reptile house at the zoo.

Katya and (Smythe?) shadowed the warehouse while this was
happening. It was run by indian men, all dangerous looking. At around
1:30, a truck came to drop something off. Katya was able to see the
word 'Fong' written on the box before the door closed on the full
warehouse.

Later that night, feeling great because of the successes of the past
two days, the group decided to break into the warehouse scratched out
on Jackson's note. They rented a truck and drove it to the warehouse,
which was in a BAD PART OF TOWN. Elizabeth, Adrian, and Don waited
inside the truck while Katya and Smythe went inside. They saw light
inside, but heard nothing, so decided to investigate.

The office door was slightly ajar, and Katya saw someone alseep at the
desk. The rest of the warehouse was pitch dark, so nobody was warned
of the following:

As Katya sneaked up behind the sleeping person with chloroform to
knock them out, Smythe felt something cold and metal enter his
back. Twice. He turned around, and saw two swarthy, dangerous looking
indian men with knives. They nicked Smythe a couple more times before
Smythe (who was quite badly hurt at this point) managed to get out of
the way and play dead, leaving Katya (who had knocked out the sleeping
person) to fight Smythe's assailants.

All went rather well until Katya heard ever-increasingly loud shouts
from further in the warehouse (at least 3 more people). At that point,
she took out her gun and shot the only one between her and the door,
and she and Smythe ran out. Into the path of the truck Adrian was
driving to the door to rescue them.

Adrian chose to crash the truck rather than hit Katya and
Smythe. Katya got in and drove everyone away into the night.....