Originally Posted by Luke PorterThe Journal of the Theran Phylax Society of New York (such that it is)
Thursday, April 9th, 1925
This evening began innocently enough with the pre session activities of the Pentacle Conference at the Sterncastle Hotel. I was sharing a drink with Fu Ban, Ms. Harkens, Dr. Scamander, Sister Tessa, and Snagg the goblin, when Ms. Harkens received a sending from a member of her coven. There was something wrong … very wrong.
It turns out that one of her coven mates (is that the proper term, I will have to ask) Quintana LeBeau, was missing for a ritual recently. <name> , another member of the coven went to check up on Ms. Lebeau, it was what she found that prompted the sending.
I drove us all to the apartment of Ms. LeBeau, while the rest of the crew went inside I stayed behind a talked to the youths across the street who were sitting on the stoop. One of the lads, Vinney, was particularly informative. They had seen a man with a large nose, expensive shoes, a hood and a brass cane topped by a double headed eagle did enter the building, he may have been to visit the cat lady, Ms LeBeau. The level of detail of this description points to someone who is not as covered by the veil, yet they did not see him leave.
On the stairs we found a small blood smear and the heal of a woman's shoe. As Ms. LeBeau did not wear heels, these were probably from <name> who must have left in some haste.
Inside of Ms. LeBeau's apartment there was tea set out, luke warm, but the bedroom was a chamber of horrors. Ms. Lebeau was laid out on her bead, she was covered with arcane symbols of preservation and invocation. In addition her rib cage was sliced open and her heart was removed. According to Osborn, the symbols of preservation are meant to contain the soul of the victim in their still beating heart. The victim was killed with a very sharp knife, but she suffered a lot (but did not struggle) before she died. Some one noticed that she had a small jab wound on her right and that wound showed the signs of some sort of blade poison.
We returned to the Sterncastle for a drink, fortunately <name> was there and we were able to calm her somewhat and we installed her into Ms. Harkens' room. I went to the Wand Marshal's and fortunately Lisa, my consign, was on duty. I told her about what we found and she shared that Ms. LeBeau was not the first victim. Rufus Dobbins, maintenance man at the Sterncastle, was found dead in his Hell's Kitchen home last Friday.
Dr. Scamander also provided some details. on the 31st of March there was a break in at the Magical Heritage Society's exhibition hall. The security troll, Angus, was attacked by some sort of shadow creatures, a man in a black hood stole an ancient ritual dagger sacred to the Egyptian Deity Wepwawet, who controls the door between dreamlands and the real world. See attached notes for more information concerning Wepwawet.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WepwawetThe Arcane Observer has a reporter who is also on the story, she may approach one of us. Her name is Mirada Petigrew, we don't know what sort of information she has and Lisa asked me not to mention anything to her, but, as I write this, she may have some info we do not. I will approach her as a last resort.
Friday, April 10th 1925.
The next morning was frustrating in that we found not a lot of anything. The mundane paper and the Arcane Observer do not have any records of any other killings, and both victims we know of are minor talents, so I believe that the killer is not interested in mundanes. Also the victims are people who will not be missed, no family, no real connections and they lived in the mundane world in high crime, low rent areas. The perfect victims.
Ms. Harkens found that the poison used on Ms. LeBeau was Strethos, a very illegal and dangerous paralytic. It is made with goatweed, and Snagg was able to pin it down one or two makers in goblintown.
Fu Ban was able to determine that there is no undercurrent of fear among the minor talents in Nexus New York, so our killer is not about being feared and his activities are being kept quiet.
The best information came from old Hiram Roth, he was able to point Dr. Scamander to a book on the denizens of the Duat (spelling) and points beyond. Dr. Scmander was able to buy the book and will try to pour through it as quickly as he can. Fu Ban lucked into a group of symbols similar to the ones found on Ms. LeBeau's body in a section on things like vestiges. According to Mr. Roth and Dr. Scmander our perpetrator seems to need five hearts to open a door into the Duat, a very bad thing indeed.
I found that Rufus Dobbins was barely able to do even the simplest incantations, he also had a taste for prostitutes.
In the afternoon most of us attended a panel at the conference on warlockery. There is not a lot of research on how warlockery interacts with the veil, but it would fit with how the youths across the street were able to get such an accurate description of someone who was able to wield as devastating magical power as our mystery man seems to be able to wield.
This evening we plan on attending the informal drinks and dancing at the Sterncastle. But before this we need to make a trip to the Goblin Market and look into poisons and silence tokens. Then we will be able to get a good look at the attendees of the conference.
