If anyone in the group thinks I missed something, let me know!
IF YOU ARE NOT A MEMBER OF THE MERRIWEATHER SOCIETY
AND PLAN ON PLAYING THIS GAME, STOP NOW.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
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YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED...
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED...
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| The Carlyle Expedition M'Weru Huston | Brady Penhew | Carlyle Masters |
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THE MERRIWEATHER SOCIETY
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| Our Founder |
The Investigators are members of a loose fraternity of friends and acquaintances of the late Oswald Merriweather (1838-1922), who brought them together to undo a terrible wrong perpetrated in his youth. Merriweather left a modest bequest to the fraternity, which was used to establish a society dedicated to the investigation of the uncanny, and the thwarting thereof.
In the years since, the Merriweather Society has slowly grown, developing into a loose international network of those who have touched upon the darkness between the shadows.
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Tilly Tillebrooke: New York Society Maven and notorious flapper. Tillie's flippant attitude masks a compassionate nature and a ruthless determination. Her antics may have endangered the Society at times, but her resourcefulness has saved many an investigation.
Current whereabouts: A slow boat to China. Status: Active
"Crackin'" Jack Fallows: Popular second Goalie with a bright future with Manchester United, before injury put paid to his prospects in that regards. Luckily, a small legacy and some shrewd investing has meant that Jack can indulge his taste for adventure.
Current whereabouts: A slow boat to China. Status: Active
MEMBERSHIP ROSTER
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| Tilly Tillebrook, 1923 |
Tilly Tillebrooke: New York Society Maven and notorious flapper. Tillie's flippant attitude masks a compassionate nature and a ruthless determination. Her antics may have endangered the Society at times, but her resourcefulness has saved many an investigation.
Current whereabouts: A slow boat to China. Status: Active
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| Jack Fallows, 1924 |
"Crackin'" Jack Fallows: Popular second Goalie with a bright future with Manchester United, before injury put paid to his prospects in that regards. Luckily, a small legacy and some shrewd investing has meant that Jack can indulge his taste for adventure.
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| Minerva Gorey, 1921 |
Minerva Gorey: Hailing from the newly founded Czechoslovakia, Minerva seems to have fled Prague and a bright future in Academia under mysterious circumstances. She has since wandered the world as if searching for something, before finally settling into the Merriweather Society's orbit.
Current whereabouts: A slow boat to China. Status: Active
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| Lily Lee, circa 1920 |
Lily Lee: A daughter of mixed heritage to missionaries, Lily operated as a spy for the Japanese in the Kuomintang regime in China. Eventually, as things in China grew more "complex", Lily found herself in Shanghai in 1917. What she saw there sent her fleeing masked lunatics to Jakarta and from there San Francisco.
Current whereabouts: A slow boat to China. Status: Active
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| Manny, 1924 |
Ma'muhd- "Manny": One of the more clever and ambitious urchins who swarm Cairo, Ma'muhd took it upon himself to attach himself to the Investigators, and be taken in by Hellé Nice. Traumatized by Nice's apparent death during an encounter at the Pyramids, "Manny" has made it his business to finish his surrogate mother's work. Other member's of the party fear for Manny's mental stability and sense of self preservation, but are just keeping him close for now...
Current whereabouts: A slow boat to China. Status: Active
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FALLEN MEMBERS
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Bessie Coleman: The first female African-American Stunt Pilot. A feisty, two-fisted broad, Bessie threw herself in where others feared to tread. This proved to be her undoing- last seen fleeing into the New England forests, a stranger to reason.
Current whereabouts: Unknown. Status: Insane
Ellis Parker: Reporter for the New Orleans Eye, Parker's investigations attracted the notice of Oswald Merriweather, with subsequent events leading to the establishment of The Merriweather Society in 1922. The murder of his long time companion Jackson Elias led to Parker to London, where a confrontation with the Mythos left him a broken wreck. Other Society members hope for a full recovery.
Ellis Parker: Reporter for the New Orleans Eye, Parker's investigations attracted the notice of Oswald Merriweather, with subsequent events leading to the establishment of The Merriweather Society in 1922. The murder of his long time companion Jackson Elias led to Parker to London, where a confrontation with the Mythos left him a broken wreck. Other Society members hope for a full recovery.
Current whereabouts: The Retreat, Chelsea. Status: Temporarily Insane
Dr. Owen Graves: Retired Navy Colonel and Doctor from Saint Paul, Minnesota. A hard headed, yet compassionate man. His experiences in the South China Sea may have inured him to some of the horrors prowling the fringes of reality.
Current whereabouts: The Retreat, Kings Road, Chelsea. Status: Temporarily Insane
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Dr. Owen Graves: Retired Navy Colonel and Doctor from Saint Paul, Minnesota. A hard headed, yet compassionate man. His experiences in the South China Sea may have inured him to some of the horrors prowling the fringes of reality.
Current whereabouts: The Retreat, Kings Road, Chelsea. Status: Temporarily Insane
Edna Wolover: A self made woman and boutique owner, Ms Wolover was drawn into the events that led to the creation of the society. An indefatigable foe of the darkness, the horrors of Egypt proved too much for the lady's mental constitution, and she was sent back for recuperation and treatment.
Current whereabouts: Enroute to England. Status: Temporarily Insane
Aimee McPherson: The first female Evangelist Preacher to make full use of Radio, McPherson was also a clandestine member of the society, thanks to the aid of her double Lorainne Williams. After a botched exorcism called her faith into question, McPherson proved to be a formidable champion for humanity, and later a powerful member of the Merriweather Society. Her loss in London has been a body blow to the Investigatiors.
Aimee McPherson: The first female Evangelist Preacher to make full use of Radio, McPherson was also a clandestine member of the society, thanks to the aid of her double Lorainne Williams. After a botched exorcism called her faith into question, McPherson proved to be a formidable champion for humanity, and later a powerful member of the Merriweather Society. Her loss in London has been a body blow to the Investigatiors.
Current whereabouts: London. Status: Dead
Hellé Nice: A daredevil race car driver, Mademoiselle Nice's venturesome nature and keen mind made her a natural choice for The Merriweather Society, especially after her disastrous tour of Algeria in 1919. Eccentric, she adopted a Cairo street urchin shortly before being lost during a desperate escape from Giza.
"Fisty": An eccentric Adventurer and Seaman, "Fisty" set for the South Sea Islands shortly after the creation of the Merriweather Society. After two years without word, the society fears the worst.
Hellé Nice: A daredevil race car driver, Mademoiselle Nice's venturesome nature and keen mind made her a natural choice for The Merriweather Society, especially after her disastrous tour of Algeria in 1919. Eccentric, she adopted a Cairo street urchin shortly before being lost during a desperate escape from Giza.
Current whereabouts: Unknown. Status: Missing
"Fisty": An eccentric Adventurer and Seaman, "Fisty" set for the South Sea Islands shortly after the creation of the Merriweather Society. After two years without word, the society fears the worst.
Current whereabouts: Unknown. Status: Missing
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TRAVEL LOG
1. New England
The Investigators are members of a loose fraternity of friends and acquaintances of the late Oswald Merriweather (1838-1922), who brought them together to undo a terrible wrong perpetrated in his youth. Merriweather left a modest bequest to the fraternity, which was used to establish a society dedicated to the investigation of the uncanny, and the thwarting thereof.
In the years since, the Merriweather Society has slowly grown, developing into a loose international network of those who have touched upon the darkness between the shadows.
2. New York
After several (relatively) quiet months, the society is contacted by renowned writer and skeptic Jackson Elias. Though couched in paranoid secrecy, it is clear Elias is convinced that he has discovered something of vast import.
Since many members are friends and acquaintances of Elias, all haste is made to rendezvous with him at room 410 in the Chelsea Hotel. What they find is horror and a mystery; Jackson Elias' mutilated corpse and a number of black men armed with knives of African origin. The murderers do not make much of an attempt to fight, preferring to escape, though their leader drives the drives the startled investigators off by summoning a nebulous entity of smoke. Further investigations through Elias' publisher, Jonah Kensington, reveal Elias' interest in the doomed Carlyle Expedition of 1919, and it's relationship to an African fetish cult evidently in existence in New York. There appears to be a master plan and it has a deadline- twelve months from now. Further connections are made back to the Expedition's course in London as well as Shanghai and Egypt, but further delving is impossible as the African Cult of The Bloody Tongue closes in. Tickets to London are acquired and the Investigators break though the cult's invisible cordon of the docks to safety.
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| The late Jackson Elias |
Since many members are friends and acquaintances of Elias, all haste is made to rendezvous with him at room 410 in the Chelsea Hotel. What they find is horror and a mystery; Jackson Elias' mutilated corpse and a number of black men armed with knives of African origin. The murderers do not make much of an attempt to fight, preferring to escape, though their leader drives the drives the startled investigators off by summoning a nebulous entity of smoke. Further investigations through Elias' publisher, Jonah Kensington, reveal Elias' interest in the doomed Carlyle Expedition of 1919, and it's relationship to an African fetish cult evidently in existence in New York. There appears to be a master plan and it has a deadline- twelve months from now. Further connections are made back to the Expedition's course in London as well as Shanghai and Egypt, but further delving is impossible as the African Cult of The Bloody Tongue closes in. Tickets to London are acquired and the Investigators break though the cult's invisible cordon of the docks to safety.
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| Jonah Kensington |
3. London
Four days later, the Investigators disembark in London, hub of the greatest empire the world has ever seen. Putting up at The Ritz, the party begins by making the acquaintance of local reporter Mickey Mahoney, friend of Elias and Ellis Parker. Mahoney proves an invaluable resource, especially when it comes to tracking down importer Tewfik al-Sayed and the organization he runs out of The Blue Pyramid Nightclub.
Another line of inquiry leads to the backers of The Carlyle Expedition, The Penhew Foundation. The director, Edward Gavigan, appears to be effusive enough, recounting how an African woman, who claimed knowledge of a secret shadow history of Egypt, bilked Carlyle and fled with his money, leading to the fateful decision to make a detour to Kenya. It later transpires that Gavigan is in contact with al-Sayed and another organization in Shanghai.
While investigating an apparent red herring, the Investigators encounter homicidal lunatic and artistic prodigy Miles Shipley and gain unexpected insights into the plans of this international cult. The Cult in London is a branch of the Cult of the Black Pharaoh from Egypt, and Gavigan, a sorcerer of no small power, acts as go between between these different cults to the same deity, implementing the master plan. During investigations, al-Sayed is apparently murdered and his business burnt down, and later, while disrupting a vile ceremony at Gavigan's sanctum, Misr House, Gavigan mistaken by something beyond the stars. With both cultists and the authorities closing in, it's time to get a boat to Port Said, Egypt.
Arriving in Port Said, the party is immediately on guard, unsure as to the disposition of the Cult. The country is riven with unrest, but the Investigators settle into their hotel and lease with another of journalist-Nigel Wassif. Wassif, in turn, leads the Investigators to Dr. Ali Kafour, local authority on the legend of the Black Pharaoh, and Warren Besart, once Robert Carlyle's Agent, now a dissolute hashish smoker. An encounter with the cat-god Bast proves both terrifying and illuminating, putting the party on a new track, leading to the pyramids.
Another expedition of similar intent, The Clive Expedition, has already departed for the desert, along with information that may help the Investigators piece together the plan. The group join the Expedition, but are unable to save them from a terrible fate under the Great Pyramid. Just when all appears lost, Wassif and Manny appear to save the day- disrupting the ritual, destroying the undead priestess, Nitocris, and slaying many vile cultists. Aimee McPherson, while helping the rest of the group escape with their lives, is lost when the magical portals reseal. Hoping she at least had a clean death, the survivors must decide between flight south to Kenya, retracing the Carlyle Expedition, to east to Shanghai, another part of the cult's network.
Having gained the attention of Omar Shakti, High Priest of the Cult, and fearing the length of his reach, the party decides to put as much water as the can between themselves and the Cult of The Black Pharaoh, so book passage to Shanghai. This is fortuitous, since Shakti sends a vile Hunting Horror to harry the liner, an attack that might not have been so easily defeated if the group was on dry land.
Another line of inquiry leads to the backers of The Carlyle Expedition, The Penhew Foundation. The director, Edward Gavigan, appears to be effusive enough, recounting how an African woman, who claimed knowledge of a secret shadow history of Egypt, bilked Carlyle and fled with his money, leading to the fateful decision to make a detour to Kenya. It later transpires that Gavigan is in contact with al-Sayed and another organization in Shanghai.
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| Edward Gavigan |
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| Tewfik al-Sayed |
4. Cairo
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| Nigel Wassif |
5. The Pyramids
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| Nitocris |
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