DRAMATIS PERSONAE:
Zeke Broda (Grease Monkey / Mechanic)
Ivy Guinness (Outsider / Nurse)
Oz the All Knowing (Mystic / Entertainer)
Nigel Thorne, VC, DSC (Thrill Seeker / Explorer)
After seven days of travel, the team lands at Dum Dum Airport on the outskirts of Calcutta. After first hiring a secure hanger for the plane, the team hires a car and driver (the unfazeable and cheerful Narayan) for the duration of their stay. Directing their driver to find them a hotel, Narayan bring them into the heart of the city to the Great Eastern Hotel. Inquiring as to any less opulent establishments, Narayan notes there is the equally upscale Grand Hotel, and a series of more moderate establishments catering to European travelers (Bristol Hotel, Conrad Arms, Fairlawn Hotel). But Nigel convinces the team this is the place to be, and notes Joshua Meadham would likely stay nowwhere but the best hotel. Questioning the doorman, the team is somewhat alarmed to learn Meadham and Canning are both in the lobby right now! Nigel goes in to eavesdrop and watch, he being the one team member Meadham has not met face to face. The old man, with Canning standing an intimidating guard nearby, is inquiring about two men (Tulsidas Vikmatji and Jonathan Taylor). Learning they has checked out, Meadham turns to leave. He locks eyes momentarily with Nigel, but does not recognize him.
With Meadham and Canning gone, the team questions to doorman about Vikmatji and Taylor, wondering what they have to do with Caduceus or the Cobra Crown. They find no link to the mission, but get good description of the two men; early 30's, well dressed and educated. After checking into the Great Eastern themselves, Oz obtains and skims the last few Sunday editions of The Statesman newspaper. He notes the India Museum has a standing column in the paper announcing upcoming exhibits and shows. But there is no mention of the Cobra Crown, and the column is bylined to "Nathaniel Blyth - Curator", not the Mr. Kumtekar their own newspaper clipping identifies as the curator. He also find the original announcement of the Cobra Crown exhibit, but it is buried away elsewhere in the paper away from the regular museum announcements.
Deciding they need to follow-up on this discrepancy, the team piles in the car for the drive to the India Museum. As Narayan weaves through the crowds and traffic, tragedy occurs. A man runs out in front of the car and is struck, falling to the pavement. Ivy leaps out to help, but the man is beyond saving, his head smashed open and oozing brains and blood onto the cobblestones. As the others join her, they note he is a rather well dressed European. As the crowd, interested for fleeting moment, starts to drift away, the team also notes two other points of interest. One, a woman watches the scene from a nearby car, parked on the side of the road from which the man ran. Ivy recognizes her as Rose Meadham. The car then pulls away and is lost in the crowds. Two, as the team turns over the body, something rolls out from under his jacket. The Cobra Crown!!
Moving fast, the team loads the body into the car and Nigel starts rifling through the deceased's jacket for ID; the man turns out to be the mysterious Jonathan Taylor. He also finds a copy of the museum exhibit clipping; business cards for Mr. Kumtekar of the India Museum and a Reginald Askwith with the British Museum; napkin from Willard's Tearoom; and a matchbook from the Fairlawn Hotel marked "217". Outside, Oz swiftly throws his jacket over the Crown just as an Indian policeman runs up blowing his whistle and demanding the team stand down and turn over the body. After some discussion and bribery, the team turns over the paperwork and ID to the policeman and state they will bring the body to the police morgue. And then drive quickly away as the policeman attempts to take their names and statements. Narayan looses them in the twisting slums along the Hooghly River, where he finds them someone who will take care of the body.
Meanwhile, they examine the Crown and are not overly surprised to find it's a fake. Still unsure of where this Vikmatji and Taylor fit into things, they decide to head to the Fairlawn Hotel, assuming they'll find more information in room 217. Narayan gets them access through the kitchen and up the back stairs to the room. Faking room service, they get the door to open a crack, but still closed by the chain. A large goon confronts them, and after some tense back and forth, a female voice from inside the rooms tells the goon to let the party in. This leads to a brief standoff with guns drawn on both sides, broken by the calm words of the veiled woman sitting at a table by the window. And so the party finally meets the elusive and mysterious Rose Meadham.
A somewhat amicable but tense conversation ensures, in which Rose attempts to convince the party that her father is the real villain with his plan to enslave humanity, while she and the Inner Night oppose him. She intends to prevent her father from getting the Cobra Crown, and use it to access the Gate to Mu on Snake Island for her own undefined purposes. The Crown, it seems, is needed to defeat the guardians of the Gate. She provides some intelligence from her agents that confirm much of what the team knows, and makes it clear that once any of the three interested parties (Tyranish, Inner Night and Caduceus) get they Crown, the next stop is Snake Island and the Gate. Rose explains Vikmatji and Taylor are two men who claimed to have found the Crown and were going to sell it to her. But they had delayed and double crossed her, and she was now getting ready to leave Calcutta to deal with other matters. But perhaps she could make a deal with the team; they recover the Crown for her and she makes sure Joshua Meadham does not get his hands on it. The party initially tries to bluff, telling her they have the Serpent Scepter; but she tells them it is not critical to the plan. Rose is likewise unperturbed by the news Tyrannish is also in Calcutta looking for the Crown; she dismisses the Dreamer as a useless fossil of days long past. In the end, the team "agrees" to join forces, and to their surprise she hands them a Haftorang Device like the one they used to blow up Borneo. She tells them if they have the opportunity, it would be wise to plant this somewhere to take out her father for good. She assures then it is in good working order and set for a 6 hour delay. And that that she announces her intent to leaves India, and her goons hustle the team out of the room.
Back at the car, the team reflects on their latest questionable comrade and next steps. Maybe Willards Tearoom for a break and to look for clues? Arriving at the tearoom, they are quickly seated and are surprised to see a man matching the description of Tulsidas Vikmatji cowering behind his newspaper in an adjacent armchair. Confronted, he leaps up and runs, but after a short chase through tumbled tables and broken teapots, Nigel grabs him by the back door. Hustling him outside, the team learns the final piece of the puzzle. Vikmatji and Taylor were old university chums with plans to make their fortune recovering and selling ancient artifacts to the rich and famous. They'd learned the Cobra Crown was now held by a local Hindu cult, and were trying to figure out a way to get it from them. Along they way they crossed paths with one of Rose Meadham's spies, and so entered an agreement to sell it to her once it was in their hands. They also spoke of the crown to Mr. Kumtekar of the India Museum, and to a strange and frightening eccentric. And then Joshua Meadham arrived in town asking after them. Now frightened out of their wits, and under pressure and threat from Rose Meadham, they planned to pawn a fake crown off on her and either get the real crown to sell to another interested buyer, or just get out of town. That plan is of course now in tatters, and Vikmatji begs the team to help him. He divulges the location of the shrine with the Cobra Crown, and the team them gives him enough cash to get out of the city forthwith ...
No comments:
Post a Comment