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Instruments Yet StrangerPart 2
14 years ago
General
Inane Rambling of a Demented Predator
McGinty and his colleagues continue their cautious investigations of superhumanly talented musician Charles Tow Aching, and are reaching some alarming conclusions. They drop off their latest acquisition to The Massachusetts State Hospital For The Insane
Rondale : How many lunatics have we dropped off there now? We should be getting a finder's fee.
Heading back to McGinty's dubiously acquired home ( As McGinty puts it : Ah, good old Bernie Corbitt. He donated his house to the cause. *looks innocent* ) to study the poor mad writer's paranoid manifesto, which includes the poem below,
And at the last from inner Egypt came
The strange dark One to whom the fellahs bowed;
Silent and lean and cryptically proud,
And wrapped in fabrics red as sunset flame.
Throngs pressed around, frantic for his commands,
But leaving, could not tell what they had heard;
While through the nations spread the awestruck word
That wild beasts followed him and licked his hands.
Soon from the sea a noxious birth began;
Forgotten lands with weedy spires of gold;
The ground was cleft, and mad auroras rolled
Down on the quaking citadels of man.
Then, crushing what he chanced to mould in play,
The Crawling Chaos blew Earth's dust away.
(I'll admit I changed one word of that)
All this leaves McGinty and company highly alarmed, given how much of it, and Aching's song lyrics, seem to be direct references to their own experiences or Aching himself. They're now certain that Aching is really Nyarlathotep in disguise, a prospect that leaves them understandably dismayed.
OOC : I think I hear my mother calling. I'm going home.
Considering a switch in careers to something less likely to get them horribly, horribly killed, McGinty wants to get in the movies, inspired by the fine examples of Intolerance, and other movies where the extras were considered expendable.
McGinty : I'll hire two hundred hobos, and have them fight it out for a tank of booze. We'll call it 'King of the Hill'. And to make it really dramatic, we'll give them real weapons.
Back in New York, The Amazing Julius is finding out what happened to that hitman he sent to kill Aching. The eviscerated corpse turns up in one of his magician's cabinets. In the middle of a performance. This, naturally, ruins the show, kills the rest of the run, and attracts enthusiastic police attention. Plus puts Givetti in bad odor with the crime boss he hired the hitman through. Nonetheless, Givetti is grudgingly impressed, if Aching is responsible.
The Amazing Julius : Well, I have to admire his showmanship.
The Amazing Julius : I need a favour
McGinty : If it's sexual, Rondale can do it
Neither are happy to learn that Givetti tried to have Aching assassinated.
McGinty : You outsourced my field of expertise! You could have asked Rondale or me to do it!
Rondale : Sorry, I only kill people for money when I'm doing government work.
They try to determine which organised crime families they haven't annoyed yet.
McGinty : Well, we can't work with the Irish or the Italians again. Are there any Jewish gangsters?
The Amazing Julius OOC : Sure. Murder, Incorporated is at its height.... Mental note - don't piss off the Jews
McGinty, Rondale & Givetti break into the morgue to check the corpse of the hitman, and if possible interrogate his ghost. The police description of 'lost a fight with a steamshovel' is pretty accurate, although McGinty doesn't recognise the face.
McGinty : Well, all Italians look alike anyway
The Amazing Julius :*glares* And all Irish smell alike.
GM : To call up his ghost he needs to be *buried* - sprinkled with dust bunnies doesn't count.
Rondale : Actually, I was the only one to kill any Englishmen
McGinty : I feel so robbed
Rondale : Don't worry, we'll save the next one for you
They want to find out where Aching and his band are staying - this involves another visit to the club, where Aching smiles from the stage to see them glowering at him, and a break-in at his theatrical agent's office. Where they find the agent long dead, apparently a suicide after the collapse of his business. Slightly peculiar, given Givetti had talked to him on the phone a few days before.
Deciding to incriminate Aching in the death, they fake and hide a letter claiming Aching had been threatening the dead man, and call the police down on the scene the next day. Then they head around to watch the fun at the club, and plant the 'murder weapon' in Aching's guitar case. Aching of course notices them grinning maliciously from the back of the crowd, but seems blissfully unconcerned. And indeed, as far as the investigators can tell from the back of the club, handles the police with equal aplomb, presenting receipts and witnesses and train stubs proving he can't possibly have been in two places at once. And gives the investigators a smug little wave as the police leave.
Givetti, Rondale and McGinty head out to bribe the police into checking his luggage. Professor Santorio stays in the club. They await developments. Which is all the lights in the street going out. So do the ones in the club, although Aching amuses the punters with a few jokes about New York blackouts and some acoustic numbers played by touch.
And outside, the others curse and switch the truck's headlights on - to find Aching standing there, and smiling.
They react by piling into the truck and leaving at speed. Aching simply steps aside and lets them go, smiling in the rear view mirror. Possibly because the gun they planted in his guitar case is now on the middle seat in the truck.
The Amazing Julius : At least he's still smiling. If he stops smiling, I'm going to be ****ing terrified.
Abandoning the Professor, the three flee back up to Arkham, determined that there's no way they're going to mess with Aching. At the very least, they want to compare notes in every Mythos tome they've acquired before they risk running into him again. In the club, unaware of the scenes outside since the music never stopped in here, Santorio hangs around until after the show, wanting to talk to Aching.
Aching : Professor! Alone, I see? Did your friends leave you here?
Santorio : Yes, looks like it.
Aching : What a pity. I was so enjoying having them around.
Santorio : I was wondering, have you ever seen anything like this? *shows Aching one of the Gate diagrams he's been compulsively drawing on everything at hand*
Aching : *studies them with polite interest* Something similar, yes. Not exactly like this... one moment. *fetches scrapbook, pulling out one of his song notes and dropping a receipt that Santorio sweeps onto his own lap for later study* Yes, here you go. I did see something similar. At a business group called 'Look To The Future' - I wrote one of my songs on the back of the flyer, you see.
Santorio : Can I take this with me?
Aching : Well, it's one of my songs.... but since you ask so nicely - take it with my blessing. And tell your friends I look forward to seeing them again.
And thus Santorio heads off to investigate alone, and sets up events that will culminate with The Death of Paddy McGinty, as I will tell in the next installment...
Rondale : How many lunatics have we dropped off there now? We should be getting a finder's fee.
Heading back to McGinty's dubiously acquired home ( As McGinty puts it : Ah, good old Bernie Corbitt. He donated his house to the cause. *looks innocent* ) to study the poor mad writer's paranoid manifesto, which includes the poem below,
And at the last from inner Egypt came
The strange dark One to whom the fellahs bowed;
Silent and lean and cryptically proud,
And wrapped in fabrics red as sunset flame.
Throngs pressed around, frantic for his commands,
But leaving, could not tell what they had heard;
While through the nations spread the awestruck word
That wild beasts followed him and licked his hands.
Soon from the sea a noxious birth began;
Forgotten lands with weedy spires of gold;
The ground was cleft, and mad auroras rolled
Down on the quaking citadels of man.
Then, crushing what he chanced to mould in play,
The Crawling Chaos blew Earth's dust away.
(I'll admit I changed one word of that)
All this leaves McGinty and company highly alarmed, given how much of it, and Aching's song lyrics, seem to be direct references to their own experiences or Aching himself. They're now certain that Aching is really Nyarlathotep in disguise, a prospect that leaves them understandably dismayed.
OOC : I think I hear my mother calling. I'm going home.
Considering a switch in careers to something less likely to get them horribly, horribly killed, McGinty wants to get in the movies, inspired by the fine examples of Intolerance, and other movies where the extras were considered expendable.
McGinty : I'll hire two hundred hobos, and have them fight it out for a tank of booze. We'll call it 'King of the Hill'. And to make it really dramatic, we'll give them real weapons.
Back in New York, The Amazing Julius is finding out what happened to that hitman he sent to kill Aching. The eviscerated corpse turns up in one of his magician's cabinets. In the middle of a performance. This, naturally, ruins the show, kills the rest of the run, and attracts enthusiastic police attention. Plus puts Givetti in bad odor with the crime boss he hired the hitman through. Nonetheless, Givetti is grudgingly impressed, if Aching is responsible.
The Amazing Julius : Well, I have to admire his showmanship.
The Amazing Julius : I need a favour
McGinty : If it's sexual, Rondale can do it
Neither are happy to learn that Givetti tried to have Aching assassinated.
McGinty : You outsourced my field of expertise! You could have asked Rondale or me to do it!
Rondale : Sorry, I only kill people for money when I'm doing government work.
They try to determine which organised crime families they haven't annoyed yet.
McGinty : Well, we can't work with the Irish or the Italians again. Are there any Jewish gangsters?
The Amazing Julius OOC : Sure. Murder, Incorporated is at its height.... Mental note - don't piss off the Jews
McGinty, Rondale & Givetti break into the morgue to check the corpse of the hitman, and if possible interrogate his ghost. The police description of 'lost a fight with a steamshovel' is pretty accurate, although McGinty doesn't recognise the face.
McGinty : Well, all Italians look alike anyway
The Amazing Julius :*glares* And all Irish smell alike.
GM : To call up his ghost he needs to be *buried* - sprinkled with dust bunnies doesn't count.
Rondale : Actually, I was the only one to kill any Englishmen
McGinty : I feel so robbed
Rondale : Don't worry, we'll save the next one for you
They want to find out where Aching and his band are staying - this involves another visit to the club, where Aching smiles from the stage to see them glowering at him, and a break-in at his theatrical agent's office. Where they find the agent long dead, apparently a suicide after the collapse of his business. Slightly peculiar, given Givetti had talked to him on the phone a few days before.
Deciding to incriminate Aching in the death, they fake and hide a letter claiming Aching had been threatening the dead man, and call the police down on the scene the next day. Then they head around to watch the fun at the club, and plant the 'murder weapon' in Aching's guitar case. Aching of course notices them grinning maliciously from the back of the crowd, but seems blissfully unconcerned. And indeed, as far as the investigators can tell from the back of the club, handles the police with equal aplomb, presenting receipts and witnesses and train stubs proving he can't possibly have been in two places at once. And gives the investigators a smug little wave as the police leave.
Givetti, Rondale and McGinty head out to bribe the police into checking his luggage. Professor Santorio stays in the club. They await developments. Which is all the lights in the street going out. So do the ones in the club, although Aching amuses the punters with a few jokes about New York blackouts and some acoustic numbers played by touch.
And outside, the others curse and switch the truck's headlights on - to find Aching standing there, and smiling.
They react by piling into the truck and leaving at speed. Aching simply steps aside and lets them go, smiling in the rear view mirror. Possibly because the gun they planted in his guitar case is now on the middle seat in the truck.
The Amazing Julius : At least he's still smiling. If he stops smiling, I'm going to be ****ing terrified.
Abandoning the Professor, the three flee back up to Arkham, determined that there's no way they're going to mess with Aching. At the very least, they want to compare notes in every Mythos tome they've acquired before they risk running into him again. In the club, unaware of the scenes outside since the music never stopped in here, Santorio hangs around until after the show, wanting to talk to Aching.
Aching : Professor! Alone, I see? Did your friends leave you here?
Santorio : Yes, looks like it.
Aching : What a pity. I was so enjoying having them around.
Santorio : I was wondering, have you ever seen anything like this? *shows Aching one of the Gate diagrams he's been compulsively drawing on everything at hand*
Aching : *studies them with polite interest* Something similar, yes. Not exactly like this... one moment. *fetches scrapbook, pulling out one of his song notes and dropping a receipt that Santorio sweeps onto his own lap for later study* Yes, here you go. I did see something similar. At a business group called 'Look To The Future' - I wrote one of my songs on the back of the flyer, you see.
Santorio : Can I take this with me?
Aching : Well, it's one of my songs.... but since you ask so nicely - take it with my blessing. And tell your friends I look forward to seeing them again.
And thus Santorio heads off to investigate alone, and sets up events that will culminate with The Death of Paddy McGinty, as I will tell in the next installment...
