karohemd | [Gaming] The adventures of Rupert Bulmer, Esq.

We were finally able to continue the campaign Monday evening but it was a rather short session, mainly setting up and preparing for the big trip ahead of us.

Previously

After our night out in the dream city and the successful recovery of Prof Carter, we headed back to the Club and spend a week to relax and recover, look after personal business and make plans for our next step to uncovering the secrets of the artifacts we seem to be stuck with.

Alex, the erstwhile Reverend, had come out of hiding and it turned out he had drafted his first novel and was now looking for a publisher but had so far been unsuccessful. As he mentioned this, I remembered my good friend John Richardson who's a bit of a nutter when it comes to literature and has helped quite a few young hopeful writers to get their foot in the door to getting published; so I arranged a meeting and it turned out he quite liked the manuscript and it's going to get published! I'm really pleased with this.

Prof. Carter visited the biological department at the University again to have the mysterious mushrooms analysed we had collected at Dr Pike's estate. Apparently similar specimen had been found ten years previously in the Himalayas at a mysterious site that had looked as if it had exploded but none of them survived the journey back as they melted.
Jeremy also managed to translate various pages of the book we had taken from Parsons' cold dead hands. Most of it seems to be illegible gibberish put a few pages appear to contain actual writing, however rather obscure ramblings about gates, the keys to such, all connected to the "Sleepless City" which most likely relate to the city in our dreams and the ball might be the key. The text also contains a warning that the key/ball will eventually take over its owner's mind, at least that's Prof. Carter's interpretation.
Even more strangely, the text also contains instructions for some sort of ritual that will summon ... something, something the caller will be able to command. Jeremy seems to be keen on trying this but everybody else is not really happy with the idea until we know what we might be dealing with. I'm all up for taking on risky endeavours but my adventures so far have usually featured physical threats like forces of nature, wild animals and angry natives - like that Amazonian tribe who insisted on making me a member of their society, feeding me hallucinogenic plant cocktails that made me vomit for days and marrying me to the chief's daughter, just because I had saved her from a rampaging tapir, saving a lady in distress being my duty as a gentleman. Luckily, I managed to escape and finally shake them after three days of being chased through the jungle - but I digress. Where was I? Ah yes. So, physical threats I can live with, summoning the unknown from the depths of the abyss, not so much.

Prof. Carter and I also spent some time researching the area where we assume the tribe who made our artifacts lives or used to live. We have a rough map and a description of the area and our new friend Skipper knows how to get there, too.

Mentioning Skipper, he took a trip to Newcastle to order parts for his boat and on the way back a lady on the train was hit by something that had shattered the window and turned parts of her hair stark white. A ball lighting, perhaps? Skipper didn't know and the lady was too distressed to answer any questions and is currently recovering at Sheffield Royal Hospital.

As all our leads point to Africa, we decided to mount an exhibition. Via ferry and train to Paris where we will stay two days so Prof. Carter can possibly find more information about the odd script at the university there. Then it's onto the Orient Express to Istanbul, from there a steamer to Cairo, a boat up the Nile, a train to Mombasa and then again a river boat towards our destination.
All tickets are booked, various pieces of equipment have been shipped ahead and next Monday morning we should be on our way.

to be continued