Go to Part 1

NODE 2: MINNESOTA 13

INVESTIGATING BOOTLEGGING

Cop Talk – The O’Connor System:

• The former police chief of St. Paul, John O’Connor, established the O’Connor System, in which the police allow organized crime figures to “layover” in St. Paul as long as they don’t perform any criminal activities there in exchange for payoffs and kickbacks.
• The primary liaison is “Dapper” Dan Hogan, boss of St. Paul’s Irish Mob. But Kid Cann of Minneapolis has been benefiting from it, too, ever since the “handshake” deal which settled their mutual territories.
• Cann is the guy in charge of virtually all the bootlegging in the Twin Cities. If he’s not doing it himself, he knows who is. He can be found in the Cotton Club in Minneapolis most nights.

Library Use: As far as the mainstream papers are concerned — the Tribune, Daily Star, Pioneer, St. Paul Dispatch —  there is no organized crime in the Twin Cities. The only possible explanation is that pressure is being applied to keep it out of the papers.

• Library Use 1: Smaller, tabloid newspapers occasionally attempt to cover local political corruption and criminal activity, which is apparently rife. (See O’Connor System above.)

Streetwise:

• Moonshine generally isn’t made inside the city limits.
• Bootleggers run the liquor in from out-of-town distilleries and make the local sales.
• Kid Cann is the mob boss who runs most or all of the local bootleggers. Everybody knows that.
• Streetwise 1: There’s a network of supply – the guys in charge don’t just get booze to the bootleggers; they’re also in charge of the smuggling operations that get the distilleries their raw alcohol.

MINNESOTA 13 WHISKEY BOTTLES

The whiskey in the bottles recovered from the James J. Hill House has a slightly purplish color.

Craft/Chemistry: Can determine that these bottles are brand new; not from 1905.

Chemistry: Can detect the presence of the Tanit parasites. (See General Research: Lab Analysis – Tanit Parasites.)

Chemistry: The Whiskey has been flavored with Juicy Fruit gum.

• Chemistry 1: The Juicy Fruit may have been used to cover up the flavor of denatured alcohol.
• Library Use / Cop Talk: Using Juicy Fruit as a flavoring is a unique trait of Stearns County bootleggers, up near Holdingford (“moonshine capital of Minnesota”).

Leveraged Clue (Juicy Fruit Flavoring / Minnesota 13 Label)

• Oral History (Stearns County): Can find someone willing to identify Node 6: Davis Farm as the source of this whiskey.

PETE’S

A speakeasy on Hennepin Avenue, north of the Mississippi. Oleg Andersson can be found here.

OLEG ANDERSSON

APPEARANCE:

• Prop: Photo of Oleg Andersson

ROLEPLAYING NOTES

• Smirks.
• Fidgets with his tie.
• Fronts as tough, but quick to backpedal in face of real threat.
• Voice goes nasal when he gets nervous.

BACKGROUND

• Born 1898 in Norway. His parents came to America and settled in St. Cloud when he was two years old.
• Came down to Minneapolis in 1921 looking for day labor work. Got tangled up in a robbery gang instead; was out buying cigarettes when the rest of his crew got rolled up.
• He ran to his friend Dan to hide out until the heat died down. Dan was running booze and Andersson’s connections up in Stearns County made him useful. Dan was killed a couple years ago in a drive-by.

CLUES

• He gets the Minnesota 13 Whiskey from the Davis Farm. (Billie Davis is the only bootlegger in Stearns County with the expertise to fix the denatured ethanol Kid Cann hooked him up with.)
• He delivers denaturalized ethanol to the Davis’. He picks up the ethanol from a warehouse location. He doesn’t know who drops it off — Kid Cann hooked him up with the connection and it all stays anonymous.
• Following Oleg: Following Oleg will eventually lead to the Davis’ Farm, where he drops off barrels of chemicals from his truck and picks up crates filled with Minnesota 13.
• Oleg’s Address Book: Carried in his breast pocket. Contains addresses for his pick-ups with notations – Davis Farm is marked as a place that he makes a special drop-off; and checking the noted dates it’s clear Rachel’s whiskey came from the Davis Farm.

NOTES

• Drives a 1922 Ford Model TT truck

OLEG ANDERSON: Athletics 6, Driving 6, Firearms 3, Fleeing 4, Scuffling 4, Weapons 3, Health 8
Alertness Modifier: +1 (keeps an eye out)
Stealth Modifier: +1 (knows how to stay out of sight)
Weapons: sap (-1), .38 revolver (+0)

KID CANN

(ISADORE BLUMENFELD)

APPEARANCE

• Prop: Photo of Kid Cann

ROLEPLAYING NOTES

• Proud
• Prone to violence if threatened.
• Gestures with both hands

BACKGROUND

• A Jew born in 1900 in a Romanian shtetl, his parents emigrated to America in 1902.
• Left school as a kid to sell newspapers on Minneapolis’ “Newspaper Row”, where the best locations were held by gangs of kids.
• Began running errands for pimps and whores in the red light district.
• Prohibition let him and his brothers expand their operations. Forged connections with the Chicago Outfit (Al Capone) and New York’s Genovese crime family (Mafia).
• Oversees illegal distilleries in the forests near Fort Snelling, bootlegging operations, prostitution, and labor racketeering.
• Cann insists his nickname is derived from his boxing days, but it’s rumored that he earned it due to his tendency to hide in outhouses/bathrooms when shooting starts.

CLUES

• Hooked Oleg up with denatured alcohol from the Harris Chemical Plant. (He’s bribed people in charge over there to “leave it unattended”; then it gets picked up and taken to a warehouse. Oleg picks it up from there and takes it to his people in Stearns County. Cann doesn’t know who he takes it to.)
• He can identify that Minnesota 13 from the party as one sold by Oleg Andersson.

KID CANN: Athletics 6, Driving 5, Firearms 6, Fleeing 4, Scuffling 8, Weapons 4, Health 9

Alertness Modifier: +1 (wary)
Stealth Modifier: +2 (sneaky)
Weapons: Brass Knuckles (-1), .45 automatic (+1)

KID CANN BODYGUARDS: Athletics 6, Driving 4, Firearms 6, Scuffling 8, Weapons, Health 8
Alertness Modifier: +1 (watchful)
Stealth Modifier: 0 (unskilled)
Weapons: .38 revolver (0), Sawed-off pool cue (-1), switchblade (-1), Fists (-2)

Go to Node 3: Alicia Corey’s Boarding House

Go to Part 1

NODE 1: THE BLACK CATS

BACKGROUND

The Black Cats aerobatics troupe was first organized in 1924 with 13 members, headed by Bon MacDougall.

MEMBERSHIP: The roster is in constant flux with members coming and going.

Original members: Bon MacDougall, Al Johnson, Gladys Roy, Fronty Nichols, Heard McClelland, Chief White Eagle, Jack Frye, Paul Richter, Art Goebel, Spider Matlock, Gladys Ingle, Frank Lockhart, Reginald Denny, Babe Stapp, Bill Lind, and Sam Greenwald

HOME BASE: Burdett Airport – Los Angeles, CA

UNIFORM: Black sweater with a 13 Black Cats patch on the front and names on the back.

• Each name has 13 letters; if it doesn’t, nickname is added.
• White claw insignias; one for each time they’ve fell. (Under Black Cat rulings, after the eighth claw they can no longer fly with the troupe, because cats only have nine lives. Reginald Denny received two when joining the troupe because he’d been felled twice during the Great War; his joining may have also been a publicity stunt arranged by his studio.)
• The logo of the black cat was created by Bon MacDougall “in regard to the ancient Egyptian religion and it honored the sacred cat of Bubastes”. He flew with it before the formation of the group; adding the 13 for the group.

TRIVIA:

• Appeared in Howard Hughes’ Hells Angels and other 1920s films.
• Used no parachutes until 1927 (when it became law).
• Disbanded in 1929. (Members of the troupe went on to found TWA.)

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

• http://www.twaspirit.com/blackcats.html
• http://www.sedonalegendhelenfrye.com/1928.html

LOCAL TOURING TROUPE: Consists of Gladys Roy (who is from Minnesota) and a handful of other 13 Black Cat members who are barnstorming as an independent tour across the Midwest.

AEROBATICS SHOW

START: If the timing makes it possible, the show has already started as the PCs approach.

• They see a low-flying plane pass overhead. Someone is dangling helplessly from it!

AEROBATICS SHOW: Play Aerobatic Show – Video (skip to 00:15).

Aerobatics Show – Photo 1 (Race Car): Gladys Roy appears in a race car keeping pace with a plane.

Aerobatics Show – Photo 2 (Climbing Aboard): Gladys stands up in the car, grabs the passing plane, and climbs aboard.

Aerobatics Show – Photo 3 (Wing Leap): Gladys jumps to another plane.

Aerobatics Show – Video: As she does so, a third plane comes up… this one having lost its wheel. Gladys collects a wheel from the second plane, transfers to the third, and replaces the wheel.

Aerobatics Show – Photo 4 (Dog): After changing the wheel, she climbs up onto the wing, and does a handstand. As she comes down, she’s confronted by an angry dog. The dog threatens her, she backs away…

Aerobatics Show – Photo 5 (Tennis): … and leaps onto another plane! This one is outfitted with a tennis set, which she proceeds to play with another barnstormer.

The show continues like this for some time, with various stunt performers on both land and ground doing a variety of amazing feats. The planes themselves also do a variety of stunts and formation flying.

OTHER POSSIBLE STUNTS

• Flying through a building or crashing into a building, tree, object, etc.
• Blowing up planes in the air; passengers and pilot eject.
• Spinning airplanes (sometimes engulfed in fire) toward the ground, but not crashing.
• Loops while barnstormers stand on the tip of each wing.
• Flying lower and picking up hats with wing tips.
• Hanging from rope ladders or dangling upside down by ropes; swinging under the plane on wires.
• Parachute performances.
• Flying inverted for extended periods.
• Riding a bicycle dangling from a rope and then parachuting down to the ground.
• Landing upside down.
• Saloon brawls on wing tops.
• Staging a fight on the wing with one man getting knocked off with a punch.

CURTISS FIELD – FALCON HEIGHTS

• Bill Kidder founded the airfield in April 1919; Minnesota’s first full-service airport.
• Licensed by the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company for selling and servicing Curtiss airplanes.
• Snelling & Larpenteur Avenue (dirt-lane roads at the time) would be lined with cars on weekends to watch the planes. Just east of the Minnesota State Fairgrounds.
• Offers short plane rides for $15.
• Additional Resources: http://www.airfields-freeman.com/MN/Airfields_MN_Minneapolis.htm

GLADYS ROY

APPEARANCE:

• Prop: Photo of Gladys Roy

ROLEPLAYING NOTES

• Cool, confident, ironic and witty.
• Smokes.
• Quirks an eyebrow when amused.

BACKGROUND

• 23 years old.
• Started parachute jumping in 1921. Holds the world’s low record for parachute jump. (Has also jumped from 17,000 feet.)
• A barnstormer who’s performed across Minnesota, also in Hollywood and across the nation.
• Famous for dancing the Charleston and playing tennis on the upper wing of an airplane in flight.
• Western Vaudeville Manager’s Association is her booking agent.
• She was injured filming The Fighting Ranger in Hollywood earlier this year when she was thrown from a horse

CLUES

• She invited Alicia Corey to the party at James J. Hill House.
• She knows Rachel bought her whiskey from people associated with Kid Cann. (She recognized the Juicy Fruit flavoring as Minnesota 13.)
• She bought the liquor for the party (Minnesota 13) from a bootlegger named Oleg Andersson. She met with him a gin-joint called Pete’s on Hennepin Ave. just north of the river. (See Node 2: Minnesota 13.)
• She wasn’t drinking at the party last night because she had the aerobatics show this morning.
• Following Gladys: Gladys can be followed to Node 3: Fatima’s Shrine (she goes there after the aerobatics show).

LEVERAGED CLUES (anything proving her membership in the Sisterhood of Fatima)

• Can basically fill in all the background on Tanit and Ra.
• She knows that kids are being kidnapped by the Tanit cultists. (Alicia Corey told her.)
• She knows that the whiskey was tainted with Tanit parasites (although she didn’t know that when she brought it).

NOTES

• Gladys’ Bag: Searching through her stuff will turn up a Hamsa charm similar to the one Alicia Corey had at Hill House. (Can be used as leveraged clue.)

GLADYS ROY: Athletics 10, Driving 4, Firearms 3, Fleeing 6, Scuffling 8, Weapons 8, Health 10
Alertness Modifier: +2 (professional paranoia)
Stealth Modifier: 0
Weapons: Fists (-2), Switchblade (-1), .41 deringer (+0, 2 shots)

OTHER MEMBERS OF THE BLACK CATS

Have no real connection to events, but…

• Know that Gladys Roy was talking about going to Rachel’s party last night and having a grand old time.
• Alicia Corey went with Gladys and didn’t show up for work this morning. (Caused a headache with the box office.)

13 BLACK CATS FLYER

These flyers can be found at Hill House and also Node 5: Fatima’s Shrine. There’s also likely to be some found here at the show itself (brought by people who received them elsewhere, etc.).

Go to Node 2: Minnesota 13

Go to Part 1

BASEMENT

BASEMENT – KITCHEN PORCH

Liquor Crates: Mostly empty crates which originally contained three dozen bottles of Minnesota 13. A half dozen or so bottles remain, unopened.

• GM Note: Gladys brought the liquor in these crates and had them dropped off at the back porch.

FIRST FLOOR

FIRST FLOOR – HALL

Prop: Photo of James J. Hill House Hall

Corpses (3): Two on the floor. One on the stairs.

FIRST FLOOR – ART GALLERY

Prop: Photo of James J. Hill House Art Gallery

3 story tall pipe organ. 12 foot high fireplace on the opposite wall. Expensive art lining the walls.

Corpses (3): One playing the organ. Two in an amorous embrace on the bench.

FIRST FLOOR – LIBRARY

Prop: Photo of James J. Hill House Library

Corpses (3) – One of the corpses is Frank Candide (ID in his wallet; he was married to Evelyn, whose body is in the attic).

FIRST FLOOR – MUSIC ROOM

• Upright piano. Victorian wallpaper. Crystal chandelier.
• Portaits of James J. and Mary T. hang on the walls to either side of the door.
• Coats and purses are stacked on a divan.

• Simple Search: To sort through the IDs.
• Evelyn’s ID: Evelyn Candide’s ID is here, so if they haven’t found the bodies in the attic yet, this will indicate a missing woman.
• Alicia’s ID: Alicia Corey’s purse is here and a photograph inside can be used to identify her corpse. It also lists her name and address on a small “Please Return” card.

FIRST FLOOR – TERRACE

• Evidence Collection 1 / Evidence Collection (Lucretia’s Testimony): There is a trail of fingerprints “walking” across the terrace. (Go from the house down the stairs and then vanish into the grass.)

SECOND FLOOR

SECOND FLOOR – BALCONY

Fluted balustrades around the edge. Lounging furniture fashionably arranged.

Corpses (1 + Alicia Corey)

ALICIA COREY’S CORPSE: This corpse still has its left hand, which is clenched in a tight fist.

• GM Note: Alicia’s purse and ID are downstairs in the Music Room.

Shattered Hamsa: Clutched in her left hand, there are shards of glass and lead. (Prop: Shattered Hamsa)

• GM Note: This was Alicia’s Hamsa charm. To prepare this prop, print out the picture of the Hamsa and cut it up into pieces. Allow the players to assemble the pieces like a puzzle.
  

Slit in the Palm: There is a strange slit or cut in the palm. No blood, but some kind of clear, jelly-like substance in the slit.

• Medicine: The liquid is aqueous humor — the introcular fluid which fills the eyeball.

SECOND FLOOR – RACHEL’S ROOM

Prop: Photo of James J. Hill House Rachel’s Room

THIRD FLOOR

THIRD FLOOR – SERVANT’S QUARTERS

A simple room, but with the same rich oak trim found throughout the house.

ATTIC

THEATER

Converted into a small stage. (For the production of amateur theatricals by the Hill children.)

Corpses (2): Located on the stage behind the curtains.

• Rupert Wild and Evelyn Candide.
• Evelyn was married to a Frank Candide, whose corpse is in the Library.

Tanit Hands (2): These hands were trapped in here.

CRAWLING HAND OF TANIT: Athletics 2, Fleeing 6, Scuffling 4, Health 4

Hit Threshold: 4 (tiny, quick moving hand)
Alertness Modifier: +1 (10% eye by volume)
Stealth Modifier: 2 (tiny skittering hand)
                Weapons: eye gouge, scratching, unpleasant probing (-3)
Stability Loss: +1
Eye of Tanit: Pupil twists into a curlicue. Stability test (no loss). On failure, establish trance like state. On second failure, can issue a hypnotic compulsion that will last until trance ends. Being controlled has a potential of 4-point Stability loss.

RACHEL HILL

APPEARANCE:

• Prop: Photo of Rachel Hill

ROLEPLAYING NOTES

• In a state of shock covered only by her excellent manners.
• Dabs at her eyes with a handkerchief.
• Weakness melts away if pushed around; then she wields her full strength as a millionaire’s heiress.

BACKGROUND

• Grew up in New York.
• Had diptheria as a child.
• Married Egil Boeckmann, a University of Minnesota football hero (scored touchdown that tied first “Little Brown Jug” game with Michigan) in 1913.
• Moved back into James J. Hill House when her mother became ill in 1919.
• Recently hired a photographer to take pictures of the property before it’s given to the Archdiocese.

CLUES

• She did not drink, as she’s teetotaler.
• Gladys Roy left early. She had invited a friend – Alicia Corey – to the party.
• Reassurance 1 / Interrogation 1: She asked Gladys Roy to secure the alcohol for the party (and brought it in the later afternoon). (She won’t admit this without reassurances that she won’t get in trouble. Otherwise her story is that people brought their own booze.)

NOTES

• Rachel was married in the Drawing Room of the mansion. (The dissociation between that memory and the corpses currently in there.)

RACHEL HILL: Athletics 4, Driving 2, Firearms 0, Fleeing 8, Scuffling 4, Weapons 2, Health 7
Alertness Modifier: -1 (oblivious)
Stealth Modifier: 0 (unskilled)
           Weapons: Fists (-2)

LUCRETIA GRAY

APPEARANCE:

• Prop: Photo of Lucretia Gray

ROLEPLAYING NOTES

• Nervous around authority figures.
• Protective of members of the Hill family. Refers to them as Mr. Wallace, Ms. Rachel, etc.
• Gives a “look” to anyone she considers to be acting foolish.

BACKGROUND

• Her husband was a butler in the house. He died in a trolley accident in 1919. They had no children.
• Has worked with the Hill family since 1911.
• Last servant working in the house (the rest were assisted into other positions or given pensions after Mary T.’s death).

CLUES

• She sent the invitations out for Ms. Rachel’s party. (Has a list of addresses and could, for example, give people contact information for Gladys Roy.)
• Gladys Roy brought the liquor (Minnesota 13) to the party at Rachel’s request. She dropped it off on the back porch and Lucretia would run bottles up as people requested more.
• Reassurance 1: As she was calling the police from the phone in the den, she saw something crawling across the Terrace and disappearing into the darkness.

LUCRETIA GRAY: Athletics 10, Driving 0, Firearms 0, Fleeing 8, Scuffling 6, Weapons 3, Health 10
Alertness Modifier: +1
Stealth Modifier: +1
            Weapons: Fists (-2), Household Implements (-1)

Go to Node 1: The Black Cats

Go to Part 1

As the scenario begins, one or more of the PCs have received a call from Detective Fred Watson in the middle of the night. Perhaps they’ve worked with him on previous cases. Perhaps they’ve been recommended to him. Whatever the connection, he has a case that needs their ‘special skills’ and he needs them to come up to the James J. Hill House in St. Paul immediately.

BACKGROUND – THE HILL FAMILY

• James J. Hill (1838-1916) was the CEO of the Great Northern Railway.
• Met Mary Theresa Mehegan (a daughter of Irish immigrants; waitress working in the Merchants Hotel in St. Paul) in 1864; married her in 1867. She died in 1921.
• They had 10 children together: Mary, James, Louis, Clara, Katherine (d. 1876, infant), Charlotte (d. 1923, pneumonia), Ruth, Rachel, Gertrude, and Walter.
• The children have largely scattered – most to New York. Walter lives on a ranch in Montana. (Louis and James are still local, but went with Ruth and Gertrude back to New York a couple weeks ago. Ruth and Gertrude were in town arranging the donation of the house with Rachel.) Only Rachel is currently in town.

BACKGROUND – THE MANSION

• Exterior built of a reddish stone.
• The mansion was completed in 1891. It was the largest and most expensive home in Minnesota, containing 36,500 square feet on five floors (13 bathrooms, 22 fireplaces, 16 cut-glass chandeliers, profusion of elaborately carved oak and mahogany woodwork, a three-story pipe organ).
• President McKinley visited in 1899.
• Back side of the house is on a kind of bluff. It looks out past the Cathedral (which rears up from some unseen depth) and across the sweeping, gently swelling hills of Saint Paul.

OVERVIEW – THE PARTY

• Rachel Hill wanted to throw one last party before she and her sisters donate the house to the Roman Catholic Dioceses of St. Paul. (They have recently purchased the house from her mother’s estate.)
• She invited 8 people. 13 people actually showed up because people brought friends or dates, so there were a total of 15 people in the house (including Rachel and the house servant Lucretia Gray).
• Gladys Roy left early (because she has an aerobatics show in the morning).
• Rachel went to bed with headache shortly after midnight.
• At 1 AM (the thirteenth hour), the Tanit-tainted liquor activated. Alicia Corey activated her Hamsa, which disrupted the ascendance of Tanit, but killed everyone there. Alicia Corey’s left hand was partially saved; but the partially ascended Tanit fragments in the left hands of the other guests separated from their hosts and crawled away.
• Screams awoke Lucretia. She woke Rachel. The police were phoned and arrived around 1:40 AM.

LOCATIONS OF THE DEAD BODIES

• Carriage Porch (1)
• Hall (2)
• Library (3)
• Art Gallery (3)
• Balcony (1 + Alicia Corey’s body)
• Attic Theater (2 + 2 Hands of Tanit)

GM Note: If the number of bodies are compared to the count of guests given by Rachel, it will be noted that one is missing: Gladys Roy (who left).

INVESTIGATING THE DEAD BODIES

Left hands are missing. Stumps left behind are not bleeding.

Some bodies have a small amount of bleeding from nostrils or ears.

Medicine: The flesh on the stumps are pink and new.

• Medicine 1 / Pump Stomach: The contents of the victims’ stomachs are slightly purplish and resemble a non-Newtonian fluid; like water mixed with corn starch. (This can be analyzed with proper lab equipment. See General Research: Lab Analysis – Tanit Parasites.)
• Medicine 2 / Autopsy: Cause of death is acute hemorrhaging in the brain, similar to an aneurysm.

Autopsy: Multiple sites in the right side of the brain are damaged. Left side of the brain appears entirely healthy.

• Autopsy (Medicine 1): The Broca area of the brain, in the left hemisphere, shows signs of very slight atrophy.
• Autopsy – Alicia’s Body / Hand of Tanit: Tissue in the left hand has been replaced with some sort of purplish, crystalline structure. (This counts as a 1-point dedicated pool when investigating the tophet serum, allowing the researcher to automatically see how the hexagonal cells are forming the biocrystalline structures.)

Alicia’s Biocrystal: The structure has decayed throughout her hand; some sort of apoptosis or necrotic effect damaging the tissue. It extends up the Ulnar canal – the semi-rigid longitudinal canal in the wrist which allows passage of the ulnar artery and ulnar nerve into the hand.

Hands of Tanit: The biocrystalline structures are connected to the eye in the palm of the hand. Their exact function is unclear.

AROUND THE HOUSE

These items can be found throughout the house. The GM should liberally strew them wherever it seems appropriate.

Minnesota 13 Whiskey Bottles: They were being drunk everywhere.

• Prop: Minnesota 13 Whiskey
• See Node 2: Research – Minnesota 13
  

13 Black Cat Flyers: Several people have them in their pockets, etc. There may also be a few strewn around on tables and the like where people abandoned them. (See Node 1: The Black Cats.)

• GM Note: Gladys Roy was handing them out.

ARRIVAL @ HILL HOUSE

There’s a gaggle of reporters at the front gate (which is being watched by two patrolmen; they’ve been told to expect the PCs). Police officers mill about on the front lawn. Fred Watson meets them as they come across the lawn.

Detective Fred Watson:

• Police arrived. He got called in. Saw the missing left hands and concluded this was the type of case he should call the PCs in for.
• Cleared the cops out of the mansion so that the PCs would have a clean slate (and to put some sort of stop to any weird rumors that are beginning to spread).

GM Note: The structural key here is that the PCs should be allowed to do their own investigation. If they just listen to Watson tell them what he’s found or have him lead them around the house, that’s really boring game play.

Three Key Points from Fred:

• There are bodies; he doesn’t know how many.
• Rachel Hill, the owner of the house, is in her room on the second floor.
• He’s going to go talk to the reporters now; the PCs should go look at the house.

GM Note: Fred won’t think to mention Lucretia (she’s just a Negro servant after all); but if someone explicitly asks if there are any other witnesses he’ll mention her. She’s in her room in the Servant’s Quarters on the third floor.

Cops: If the PCs question the cops who were cleared out by Fred, they can tell them:

• The known locations of dead bodies (see above; although they don’t single out Alicia Corey).
• That Rachel Hill is in her room on the second floor.
• That Lucretia Gray, the household servant, is in her room on the third floor.

Carriage Porch: There is a corpse with a drop-cloth over it on the front stairs.

Next: The Hill House Investigation

Go to Part 1

REFERENCE – TWIN CITIES 1925

NOTABLE NEWSPAPERS:

• Minneapolis Tribune (since 1867)
• Minneapolis Daily Star (since 1920)
• Minnesota Pioneer (since 1849, first daily newspaper in Minnesota, morning paper)
• Saint Paul Dispatch (since 1868, evening paper)

TRANSPORTATION: Twin Cities Rapid Transit operates 524 miles of electric trolley lines, laced between Minneapolis, St. Paul, and into the suburbs as far as Anoka and Lake Minnetonka. (Map above.)

UNIONS: Minneapolis’ reactionary, anti-labor employers organized into the Citizen’s Alliance. They blacklisted labor organizers, hired spies to keep tabs on “radicals”, crushed strikes, maintained scab registries, etc.

The Minneapolis CLA (Communist League of America) is led by Carl Skoglund, a Swedish socialist who immigrated to America in 1911, and Vincent Ray Dunne. These Trotskyists undermined the business-friendly leadership of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT). The first strikes would not actually happen until 1934, but the union-business espionage ran rampant through the ‘20s.

Source: Red Teamsters

FARMER-LABOR PARTY: Founded in 1918, by 1925 the Minnesota Farmer-Labor party – operating on a platform of farmer and labor union protection – was beginning to dominate statewide elections.

• J.E. Meyers is the mayor of Minneapolis. He ran as a member of the Loyalty Party, focusing on a patriotic platform of supporting America’s World War I veterans.
• Laurence C. Hodgson, a former newspaper reporter and poet, is the mayor of St. Paul.

GENERAL RESEARCH – HAMSA

Occult 1 / Library Use: The Hamsa symbol, also referred to as the Hand of Fatima and the Hand of Miriam, is a protective sigil or charm taking the figure of a hand with an eye in the center of its palm. It is supposed to guard against the “evil eye” and is widely recognized throughout the Middle East and North Africa, with some scholars believing it to have originated in Carthage.

GENERAL RESEARCH – TANIT PARASITES

Lab Analysis (Chemistry/Medicine): The purplish color in the whiskey / denatured ethanol is due to a contaminant. This appears to be bacteriological in nature.

• If analyzing raw ethanol, this will be remarkable because alcohol is generally antibacterial – it destroys cell membranes, penetrates the bacteria’s cytoplasm, denatures its proteins, coagulates the enzymes, binds water (dehydrating the cell), and dissolves fats, leading to massive cell dysfunction and death.
• Closer inspection of the bacteria reveals it to be disturbingly unusual: The cell envelope is shaped like a symmetric hexagon. Its internal structures are simplistic, similar to those of a prokaryote (the first form of life on Earth) and lacking anything suggestive of an internal nucleus. It’s possible that this is some atavistic remnant of an alternative evolutionary path.
• Chemistry 1 / Medicine 1: The hexagonal cells interact strongly with each other, forming honeycomb-like lattices and, due to their symmetrical nature, capable of forming tightly-packed, perfectly tiled structures similar to hexagonal crystals. Within these larger hexagonal bio-crystals, the individual cells appear to take on specialized functions – although its impossible to determine exactly what those functions are, it would seem they serve a function similar to organelles. Thus, in relation to the prokaryote-like individual cells, the bio-crystals are analog to more complex eukaryotic cells – although organized in a way seemingly completely alien to terrestial biology.
• Chemistry 2 / Medicine 2: The interactions between the cells within each bio-crystal seem to possess a neuronal character – perhaps synapse-like micro-structures could explain the coordination between the various “organelle cells” of the crystal, in a fashion similar to a nervous system or brain tissue.
• GM Note: If investigated in a later time period, researchers might detect electrical signals “disturbingly reminiscent of human brain activity”, but neither the equipment nor knowledge of the human mind necessary for this conjecture exists in the 1920’s.
• Organic Tissue: If exposed to organic tissue (whether human or not), the tanit parasites will swarm – forming a kind of purple halo around the tissue. (Investigation of this specific phenomenon with Chemistry or Medicine would suggest that this is stimulating biocrystal growth, as described above – and functionally reducing those point spends by 1 point each.)

Tophet Serum: If dosed with tophet serum, a character must make a 2 point Stability test each day. If they succeed on three tests in a row, the effects dissipate and no further tests are required. (During this time, they will begin to manifest hallucinations, motor apraxia, and alien hand syndrome.)

• If the character is Shaken by tophet serum, they begin to manifest symptoms of dissociate personality. (The bicameral division of their mind is breaking down, their perception of self is evaporating, and the Tanit consciouness is striving to take sole control of their body). This takes the form of a Driver that can impel actions (i.e., Tanit’s consciousness is taking control). As with any other Driver, obeying the driver restores Stability per the normal rules, but also prompts a 7 point Stability test (due to Possession).
• If the character is Blasted by tophet serum, in addition to permanent mental illness they also develop an Eye of Tanit on their left hand.
• A character who is rendered Incurably Insane by tophet serum has become a fully-realized host of Tanit.
• Non-Human Hosts: Unknown effects.
• GM Note: Those who observe the progression of tophet serum may realize that virtually everyone who drinks it will, in fact, be lost to the Tanit consciousness. Realizing that hundreds of serum-tainted whiskey bottles have been sold (and presumably drunk), they may make the intuitive leap that Barca has successfully created hundreds of fully-realized Tanit hosts. (Cthulhu Mythos could also provide a similar revelation.) Where are they? Some might be lost to insane asylums, but most are just quietly continuing the façade of their mortal lives – an invisible army of sleeper agents who will continue to pursue the eventual re-awakening of Tanit throughout the 20^th century.

Go to Part 3: Arrival at Hill House