Session Report - Played Monday 7th August, 2006

Audio Recording- TBC

(During this session, almost the entirety of the year 1929 passed by. This link contains detailed coverage of the news and cultural events of that year)

Inverness, the morning after…

Bartlett is hospitalised and sedated, his wife hurries to be by his side. Saunders, though critically hurt, is conscious, and Jennifer and the rest of his family flock to his side.

Meanwhile, Nathaniel Browne and Captain Withers, more or less intact, use their experience of such things to spin a tale to the Scottish police which convinces them that their attacker was Alexander Roby, who killed Edwards with some kind of acid then stabbed Saunders before fleeing. Though there are many holes in the story, it's the best the police have, and the investigators are released.

On the 14th, Browne returns to London, where he is inspired to start turning his experiences into short stories. He is joined a couple of days later by Withers. They still want to find Malcolm Quarrie and Wilfred Gresty.

Browne sends a letter, by hand, to 'Occult Magazine', offering a book of Bacon's to the author of the dead occultist's obituary. The next day he receives a call from a man claiming to be the writer, and an invitation to meet that evening by Karl Marx's Tomb in Highgate Cemetery.

Browne arrives early, and Withers hides behind a nearby gravestone. It is a chill evening. A middle-aged man arrives and introduces himself, though Browne instantly recognises Aleister Crowley, the self-styled 'wickedest man alive'.

Crowley thought little of Bacon, and is disappointed that the book on offer is merely a copy of 'Le Roi en Jeune' (Browne having a spare one of these and unwilling to risk The Turner Codex), but he's much more interested in Edwards and Malcolm Quarrie and attempts to trade for information. He reveals that Quarrie went to Italy to seek 'Il Fratelli di Signo Giallo' (the Brothers of the Yellow Sign), a society which performs a version of 'The King in Yellow' annually.

Shortly after this, Browne realises Crowley is attempting to use mesmerism, or some other form of mental domination on him. When Crowley realises his attempts have failed he says that he must leave, but invites Browne to a party he is holding the next week. As he leaves the cemetery, Crowley tells Withers 'you can come out now'.

Browne goes to the party - from which Crowley is sadly absent, and learns many things about the appetites of the rich and bored. He bathes in sin for a few hours, and returns to write more stories.

Over the next week or so, in the run up the Christmas, Withers is busy with duty and Browne with writing, so no further leads are uncovered.

Bartlett wakes from his induced coma, screaming about 'the eyes', and has a nervous breakdown.

Christmas comes. Bartlett is under sedation, Browne at his niece's, Withers is at the Windsor Castle celebrations, with the King himself present, and Saunders, though hospitalised, has a family Christmas as far as is possible.

On Hogmanay, Saunders is spirited out of the hospital by his cousin and has so much fun he sets his recovery back by a month.

Nathaniel Browne finishes his book of short stories and submits them to his publisher. With Captain George Withers he visits Tewkesbury, but can trace no living relative of Malcolm Quarrie.

All leads reach dead ends.

Andrew Saunders is released from hospital, returns to London and dines with his friends. Nathaniel Browne is delighted to reveal that his book is to be published!

George Withers and Delia Hartston see more and more of each other and drift ever closer. However. as expected by social convention, their obvious attraction can not be taken any further.

Doctor Frederick Bartlett, physically mended (though badly scarred) is transferred to a private hospital in London, and his friends visit him. He starts therapy for his mental injuries, under some of the best care in the world. As a leading doctor quotes “My god, man - this is Doctor Frederick Bartlett of the Tavistock Institute! We can't have him stark raving mad and screaming about eyes!”.

As the season begins to turn, Saunders returns to work.

The Hyades dip below the horizon and with that the influence of Hastur ceases. The dreams stop - those artists, like Browne filled with inspiration based on the Carcosa mythos suddenly feel themselves bereft of ideas - though slowly their more sane, everyday muses return.

The long cold winter ends.

Browne's book, 'The Tatters of the King' is published, and sells in truckloads to all those whose dreams of Carcosa have just left them. He is a great success, and starts to enjoy this new experience.

Bartlett is released to the care of his wife. A combination of medication and psychotherapy is slowly returning him to mental health.

Spring is in full bloom, and, in the absence of further leads, the investigators forget about Malcolm Quarrie and Wilfred Gresty and begin to once more entertain more mundane lives.

There is talk of a US publication for Browne's stories.

The events of the previous year sink ever further into memory, and the investigators meet less frequently. All seems right with the world until the middle of June.

On the 17th, the Hyades rise, and the dreams return with a vengeance. Both Nathaniel Browne and Andrew Saunders find their dreams of the previous year extended to dark, disturbing conclusions. Once more the Yellow Sign and the King in Yellow start to appear in graffiti, art and whispered rumour.

On October 29th, the American Stock Market crashes dramatically. It seems to mark the end of the good times.

The investigators meet and decide to start looking for clues all over again, but November is a frustrating, fruitless time.

Suddenly, a breakthrough. The papers report the arrest of a 'Wilfred Gresty' for an assault on a priest in a London Church, and reveal the location and time of his appearance before the magistrate, later that very day.

At long last, the game is, once more, afoot!

Continue to Session 10 - Nug's Farm, or "Are You Local?".