House on Bunker Hill

Thursday, 28 February 1921

Background

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Calven Alden was an undergrad student in one of my psychology recitation classes at Miskatonic University c.1921. I found him to be a bit of an underachiever. I hadn’t thought about him until I ran into him today at Club Neuah on Bunker Hill.

Calvin is currently a successful pulp detective novel author. He is well travelled: Europe, Polynesia, Africa. When we bumped into each other, he mentioned a recurring nightmare he’d been having. The dream centers around a mist/fog covered Victorian style mansion. A few days ago, he found the mansion in town, on Bunker Hill Road.

I offered to take him on as a client and he eagerly accepted.

Tentative Diagnosis

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I’ve no idea what is causing his nightmares. As he seems to live the life of the rich and famous, I’d be surprised if he didn’t have some neurosis.

Suggested Treatment

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I hope to start psychotherapy sessions early next week. We’ll see what fruit that bears.

To Do

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Check out the mansion on Bunker Hill�Friday, 29 February 1924

Background

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A patient, Calven Alden, has been having recurring nightmares about this mansion. When I did some checking, I found the mansion merited an investigation on its own.

Alden has also enlisted the help of Ryan Keaton, a railroad engineer; Alec Thompson, a retired military man; and Cassandra, an Hispanic woman that sings at some local jazz clubs.

History

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1873: The mansion was built by a Hungarian?/Romanian? architect named Nikoliaus Leonard Drakusz for his wife. Nikoliaus wife died in the house about six months later (1978). The cause of death was reported to be pneumonia; local folk lore claims she mysteriously wasted away.

1874-1877: The house remained unoccupied; although, the groundskeeper, Hoskins, continued to care for the property for Drakusz. Where was Nikoliaus? Apparently sailing the sevens seas; and by some accounts, quite mad.

1878: Nikoliaus Leonard Drakusz returns to the property. He lives the life of a recluse until he dies (of natural causes, according to Hoskins, who found him).

1921: Drakusz dies in the house, apparently of natural causes. He was 68 (being born in 1850). The house is willed to the groundskeeper, Hoskins. Hoskin’s wife leaves him and takes their kids soon after Mr. Hoskins moves into the mansion. She complains he husband was threatening to kill their children.

1921: Hoskins is found in the house--specifically, in the bath tub, dead. The cause of death is reported to be starvation. Locals who saw the body claim he looked “mummified”.

1921-1923: Due to the mansion’s history, nobody wants to buy it or rent it from Dowripple’s real estate company and it remains unoccupied.

1923: A young couple, Viktor and Julia Rheingolds, rents the property. Two months later, the wife shoots the husband dead (on Thursday, 14 February 1921, St. Valentine’s Day).�Interior Investigation of the Mansion

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With the permission of the owning real estate co., I enter the Drakusz mansion on the pretense that I my want to rent. I was accompanied by Ryan, Alec, and Cassandra.

Basement Floor: Bloodstains on the floor appear to be the location of the murder of a few weeks ago. I was able to sense the following scene:

The husband(?) is calling out the name, “Julia”, as he descends the stairs to the basement. It is impossible to see what is in the basement as it is shrouded in an almost solid darkness. Suddenly there is a flash, then the husband fall dead.

Rose Room: An upstairs bedroom had been converted into a rose nursery. (Dead/dying roses were in vases all around the house, except in the main bedroom.) Also found in this room are some small vials full of some pearly dark-red substance. I take one for chemical analysis. Julia’s diary was also found here. I instinctively recoiled when I touched it. It should be considered extremely dangerous.

Library: In the locked drawer the desk, we found a Pazuzu statuette. (1.)

Bedroom: Viktor Renold’s dairy was found here, as well as an inscribed copy of Calven Alden’s latest novel, THE CULT OF THE DARK GODS.

Bathroom: In the tub where Hoskins died, I was able to sense the following.

Mr. Hoskins was addicted to this house; his wife begs him to leave, but he will not. He is enveloped by darkness and hears whispering. He is starving, but won’t eat. He is cold, so he soaks in a hot tube. Darkness envelopes him.

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It should be noted that the Hispanic woman sensed something “magical” in the desk before we opened it.  I’m inclined to believe her, as during this investigation, she was able to rejuvenate me after my psychometric analyses had left me exhausted.�Investigation of Mansion Objects

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Several objects from the mansion where removed for further investigation: roses, rose vials, Pazuzu statuette, Viktor Reynold’s diary, Julia Reynold’s diary.

Roses: While driving home with these in the car, their scent fills me with such dread I almost have an accident. I burn them on the side of the road.�Saturday, 1 March 1924

My Dream

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I had this dream the night after yesterday’s investigation of the mansion’s interior. The dream was very similar to a vision I had that day (see case file JGP19210229 Drakusz Mansion):

I move through the house, almost as if I’m drifting. Once I reach the bottom of the stairs, instead of getting shot, I step into the inky blackness. But it is not so black that I cannot see: I can tell I’m still in the basement, the walls visible just a foot or so in front of me. I hear a voice whispering in the darkness. I drift into the room that has all the boxes (storage room) but find it is empty. There is a doorway in the wall, one which was not there during my previous investigation. The voice begins to get louder. I drift through the doorway and into the room behind it.

I’m in a vast desert. Wind blows around me but the sand is not disturbed. The sky overhead is orange with the fading sunlight. Two men stand before you, one of them drawing a large circle in the dirt, using a large silver dagger. The other man reads aloud from a large book. There is no sound, only the howling of the wind in the desert. Both men stand within the large circle. When the circle is complete, the man stabs the dagger into the center of the circle, driving the knife into the ground up to its hilt.

I awoke to find myself clutching something in my hand: about two grams of sand.

I placed the sand in a small sealable container. Something else to add to the list of items meriting further investigation. �Pazuzu Satuette

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This statue reeks of history. I've had similar sensation before, when something old and bearing a rich history comes into my hands. A sense of its age permeates each vision I have of its history:

The statuette was created sometime in the ancient past, cast in solid bronze by Assyrian artisans, it has been stolen and recovered, bought and sold hundreds of times in its millennia of existence. It was coated with gold in the middle ages by a heretic French monk. It was sold to an English magician in the 1880s, who then sold it to a Romanian client named Nikolaus Drakusz (the original owner of the house on Bunker Hill).

Further research revealed that Pazuzu was a winged demon, Assyrian, generally malevolent but also often invoked to battle Lamashtu, a baby-torturing demoness who who feeds on the blood and marrow of infants. There is also a myth according Lamashtu the status as mother of creatures similar to vampires - worshippers who sought eternal life and were granted this boon but at the price of having to drink human blood (much as Lamashtu herself must do to survive). Some kept statues of Pazuzu, the enemy of Lamashtu, in their homes to ward off these creatures and keep them at bay. Pregnant women wore amulets with Pazuzu's sigil for protection from Lamashtu and her devils.

Rose Vial

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This morning, I was able to finally get a fleeting psychic impression off the rose vial. Today’s attempt was my third so far.

A woman is handling the vial, filling it using some strange machine.

At 1:00 PM, I left a rose vial with a Homer Berryman, a graduate student studying biology and chemistry at USC.

Roses

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Call Chuck Biederman about looking into the roses on Monday.�Thursday, 3 March 1921

Background

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Most of Alden’s dreams are fairly ordinary, and with the exception of the Drakusz mansion nightmares, he doesn’t recall ever having a dream that turned out to be something real. During his journeys in Europe his dreams were sometimes troubled by the things he witnessed, the effects of the war on the population. He could not recall the details of any of those dreams.

The Drakusz mansion nightmares started just weeks ago. Alden couldn’t recall any particular art exhibits or openings he may have attended that might have triggered them, e.g. the Yellow Sign.

Worshipers of the Yellow King

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Alden had encountered a strange cult during his post-WWI military/press junket: "Worshippers of the Yellow King,".

The King in Yellow is an avatar of Hastur, the Unnameable. An entire cult devoted to the King is unusual, as his worshipers are normally solitary artists who have been driven mad from reading a play titled, "The King in Yellow." The cruel beauty of the play inspires the victims to create works of art that render the human experience meaningless. A special symbol, the Yellow Sign, is often stamped surreptitiously somewhere in these works of art. This sigil is a subliminal focus for madness and evil, helping to warp the dreams of those who see it. Everyone who sees it goes mad and either dies or becomes a worshiper of the King in Yellow, and thus the sigil remains secret.

Pazuzu Statue

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Alden claims to have seen a large Pazuzu statue in Germany, in the temple of the Thule. A magic Pazuzu statuette was found in the Drakusz mansion. (See various Darkusz Mansion case files starting late February 1924.)

�First Hypnosis Session

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Under hypnosis, Calvin Alden is able to immediately recall aconnection to Viktor Rheingold. In 1918, while traveling in Germany, Calvin Alden visited an exhibition of artifacts from expeditions sponsored by Rheingold Industries. During a reception at the opening of the exhibit, Alden was briefly introduced to Viktor Rheingold. They spoke about America, specifically Hollywood. Rheingold was then called away by his father.

The Rheingold Exhibition was sponsored by Gustaf Rheingold, a famous German industrialist and father of Viktor Rheingold. A founding member of the Bavarian Thule Society, Rheingold is also an amateur archaeologist and collector of antiquities. His hobby has resulted in his possession of several rare artifacts, mostly from Babylonian and Sumerian antiquity. Gustaf Rheingold currently lives in Munich and has been in seclusion since the death of his son. Viktor's body was returned to Germany and buried on the grounds of the family estate.

One of the artifacts exhibited in this show was a large steel object known as a "black sun," also known as a Sonnenrad (the German for "Sun Wheel"). At the center of this wheel, instead of the usual swastika or circle, is a sigil of unknown origin. Alden found the item striking and inquired about its origin. The senior Rheingold claimed to know nothing about the object and offered to have his curator contact Alden with the information. Alden never heard from the curator and soon forgot about the object.

Three days after leaving Munich, Alden was assaulted by a Russian farmer who had approached their convoy as they passed through the countryside. The farmer had a herd of goats who were blocking the roadway. At first the farmer was pleasant, speaking German with one of the drivers. Alden exited the jeep to stretch his legs and have a smoke. When the farmer saw him, he suddenly flew into a rage and attacked Alden. The farmer was gunned down by two soldiers and Alden was unharmed.

�Tentative Diagnosis

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Alden may have glimpsed a Yellow Sign.

Suggested Treatment

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Begin standard Dreaming therapy--providing him a sense of control during his nightmares may allow him to overcome them eventually..

To Do

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Determine what implications a Sonnenrad has. Could this have been the trigger for Alden’s nightmares?�Sunday, 2 March 1924

My Meeting with Alden’s Occultist

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Don Rogan, Alden's driver, invites me to meet some people late last night. Once there, I’m introduced to:

Professor Gerhardt Thuringer: a professor in the Department of History and Languages at USC, an authority on the occult. The other individual is not familiar to you. He is a bear of a man, standing over six feet tall and weighing in at a solid 200 pounds of muscle and bone. His eyes are dark and haunted. My impression is that he’s probably seen some pretty disturbing things in his life and it’s not left him unaffected. Father Palo Dean: a well travelled priest, recently returned from a several month stay in Europe. His face suggests an odd mongrel mixture of Italian, Irish, and even Indian ancestry. He is round, somewhat short (about 5'5"), but this may be due in part to some back problem he seems to have.

(Generally, there have been five men that make up their circle. Alden, a Charlie Baum (a retired professor of sciences at USC and the skeptic of the group), and one other are the other three. Charlie Baum died recently. I’ve been invited to join.)

Nikoliaus Leonard Drakusz

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Thuringer had looked into the Drakusz mansion and found that the builder/owner, Drakusz, had studied with the German Thule, both as a young man and after his wife's tragic death. Drakusz traveled extensively after his year with the Thule, apparently seeking several artifacts as well as spells which might guarantee eternal life. Thuringer was able to ascertain some of Drakusz's stopping points on his travels, but was unable to discover what items or information, if any, Drakusz had procured.

Worshipers of the Yellow King

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Father Dean, he was investigating leads into a strange cult that Alden had encountered during his post-WWI military/press junket. "Worshippers of the Yellow King,". As madness is associated with this cult, it may have some bearing on Alden’s nightmares and/or the tragedies associated with the Drakusz mansion. See case file JGP19210302 Calvin Alden.

Pazuzu Statuette

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The consensus of the group was that Drakusz purchased the statuette to ward of Lamashtu.

Alden claims to have seen a much large Pazuzu statue in Germany, in the temple of the Thule.

Open Questions

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The sand from my dream (see case file JGP19210301 Drakusz Mansion).

The Thule Society. I’ve got a bad feeling about them.

See Also

GURPS Dark Jazz