Testament of the Dripping Mouthes' Emanates

Keeper's intervention, Session 7

This session was basically the planning and executing of the burglary into Trammel's mansion.

With the help of a retired burglar, a chauffeur as well as Trent Huggins, a retired cop who was on the 1926 case back then, and taken off when the top brass decided to cover it all up.

The group made their way in through the conservatory, and after picking the first interior door, already hit the mother lode: a large library full of occult as well as Mythos related works. Dominating one wall was a large painting whose nameplate identifies it as The Gazer’s Perspective. It is a relatively mundane view of a star field. The only reason it was sticking out was because Sloane and Black had seen it before: in the photos with Echavarria, it was clearly visible in the background.

The Gazer's Perspective

Black started to work through the bookcases, while Carter made his way into the next room, Trammel's office. A huge sheaf of papers was filling the desk, with one of the stacks being labeled as "Testament of the Dripping Mouthes' Emanates". By chance they also located a list of the books Trammel had purchased from the Echavarria estate:

Adrift in a Storm-Tossed Sky

Azathoth and Other Horrors 

The Broken Ouroborus of Ahtu 

Children of the Night and Nahua Legends 

Collected Sermons of the Float’d Tongue 

The Cradle in the Ocean 

Fragments of Bal-Sagoth 

The Gaze of Azathoth 

Geheimes Mysterium von Asien 

The Last of the First: The Ends of Occult Dynasties 

Lights in My Eyes: Wisdom and Lunacy in the 20th Century 

Lights in Their Eyes: Wisdom and Lunacy 1840 to 1899 

Princes of the Darkest Hours 

Seeds of Forbidden Fruit 

Seven Masks 

The Temple of Furtea-Nya 

The Womb of the Black Stone

They made their way further through the house, staying out of sight of the guards and headed into the basement. They found some kind of ante-chamber, full of lounges, covered with clothes, A record was playing an unsettling Spanish song, and once the record finished, they could hear a low and strange sound from one of the corners. Inspection showed there was actually a door located in these tiles. After opening the door, the sound became louder, vaguely reminding him of the weird language "John Smith" and the Asians had spoken. Sloane made his way through the short corridor and pushed the door open, beholding a scene of endless debauchery. As he pushed through, he noticed the wall receded on the left, and there he found Samson Trammel, in his full (and naked glory). That however was not the most shocking thing... behind him the whole wall was made out of leathery, cracked lips, massive brown cracked teeth, a gaping mouth with a disgusting, tentacle looking tongue, that was slithering on and among the bodies in front of it. Sloane was able to momentarily pull his eyes away from this abomination and regained control of his senses just long enough to blast Trammel with his shotgun, sending him backwards, flailing and falling into the mouth and out of sight. As the tentacle-tongue started to whip around frantically, the group pulled back, out of the basement. 

A firefight broke out between them and the guards, but everyone managed to get away mostly unharmed.

After this it was time to get out of LA. They got back on the Silver Sable and said their goodbyes to Trent, who finally could lay the case to rest.

George Ayers Research

AYERS RESEARCH NOTES 

Ayers’ research appears to be primarily concerned with Gol-Goroth (a.k.a. the Fisher from Outside) and the Liar from Beyond. The earliest notes seem to indicate that these are one and the same, but later notes seem to evolve an understanding of duality in their nature – possibly indicating that Gol-Goroth is in some way the “herald” or “harbinger” of the Liar.

Echavarria’s Betrayal: 
In notes dated in late 1922, Ayers has a bleak “Eureka!” moment and begins ranting at length in one of his journals about “Echavarria’s grand betrayal”. He describes the cult as a “sham of lies”. The general thrust seems to be a conclusion (or revelation) that none of Echavarria’s rites have anything to do with Golgoroth at all. “Let the Forgotten God remain forgotten! Echavarria has shamed the true glory of the Liar From Beyond by cloaking it in the false shroud of the Bloated One!”

Within a few weeks, however, Ayers’ anger at Echavarria appears to have been forgotten. “Ramon has revealed a great truth to me.” Apparently be piercing the “veil” of Echavarria’s lies, Ayers has proven himself “worthy of the Liar” and has been ushered into the “inner circle of Its worship”. This appears to be a confirmation that Echavarria’s worship was never aimed at Gol-Goroth and that the Forgotten God’s name was used only to mask the true nature of whatever entity bears the title of the Liar From Beyond.

Correspondence with Bartolo Acuna: 
Ayers’ continued obsession with finding the “Truth of the Liar” is given some additional context through the fragmentary remains of his correspondence with Bartolo Acuna, a professor and archaeologist from the Universidad Complutense in Madrid. Almost the entirety of this correspondence and much of the associated material is not present, but there are some scraps and notes representative of the research that Ayers was apparently doing in response to the correspondence and which hints at the broad outlines of what the correspondence concerned.

In short: Bartolo Acuna had done fresh work translating some rare book of lore, discovering that previous translations had been plagued with serious errors. New scholarship allowed him to discover an ancient site of worship for a diety worshiped through orgiastic rituals. Four things of note can be discerned from the material which remains:

• The site was located at Dallol in Ethiopia. 
• Ramon Echavarria had a book in his possession which Ayers was able to use to either confirm or supplement Acuna’s discoveries. 
• Ayers recognized broad similarities between the rites performed by Echavarria and his followers and the rites described by Acuna. 
• Acuna was planning an expedition to the site.

George Ayers Itinerary

Police report on the 1926 raid

George Ayers

George Ayers was one of the original 1926 Cult around Ramon Echevarria. More info to be added by Sloane and Black

Samson Trammel

More info to be added by Sloane and Black

Jack Pizner

Jack Pizner is an LA Private Detective, hired by Captain Walker to keep an eye on anyone who might go digging around what happened at the farm in 1926.

Both Sloane and Marcus were at the receiving end of his attention during their first visit to LA.

Captain Walker

 Right hand man of Samson Trammel. Hired Jack Pizner to keep an eye on anyone looking into what happened in 1926.

Abraham Buchwald

Former accountant of Ramon Echavarria.

More info to be posted here by Sloane and Black

Franklin Cormac Kullman

FC Kullman was one of the original investigators in 1926, together with Walter Winston, Douglas Henslowe, Vincent Stack and Kathleen Clark.
Dies during the raid on the farm. Found near the car, his wheelchair still in the vehicle

Katherine Clark

 

Kathleen Clark was one of the original investigators in 1926, together with Walter Winston, Douglas Henslowe, Vincent Stack and FC Kullman.
Died during the raid on the farm, She was ID'ed by some papers she had on her body. Decapitated... head never found...

Vincent Stack

 Vincent Stack was one of the original investigators in 1926, together with Walter Winston, Douglas Henslowe, Kathleen Clark  and FC Kullman.

According to Douglas Henslowe, he was the one who blew Echavarria's head off with a shotgun, later to be killed by Edgar Job

Keeper's Intervention, Session 6

Upon their return to New York, they quickly filled Janet in on what had happened and decided to take the rest of the week off to spend with their loved ones.

• Sloane went to the farm where his boy was living, only to get a cool reception from the kid. It took a few days to figure out what the problem was: for the last weeks, the boy was repeatedly having nightmares, in which Sloane was running through a forest, the ground and underbrush covered in blood spats and something like honey. Sloane was bleeding, from a deep cut in his arm. He was chasing a wolf or something, but then the wolf was chasing him. He was running through the woods and ran into the boy and started hacking at him with a large knife or machete. The dream is always the same...
• Black came home to find his wife less than impressed with the state he was in: beaten up, most of his teeth knocked out and full of bruises (his daughter didn't even want to go near him). Though Black did his best to explain to her that what he did was necessary, she kept pointing out to him that that part of his life was behind him. That he had left it so they could get married and live their lives together. That he had a parish now... In the end Black decided it was better to spend some time with Father Gregory. He filled him in about what he had found out.

Afterwards they met up with Janet. It was decided they were heading back to LA to look into a few last things: Olivia Clarendon and the Trammel estate. Sloane hooked up with a few dodgy people from his past and got hooked up with two less reputable guys, one who was pretty good with cars, the other an old (retired) burglar

• They observed the Trammel estate and noticed over the course of the day how a lot of (mainly Mexican) visitors arrived at the mansion, were parking at the coach house (where Walker resided) and how the Captain escorted them into the mansion through a back door. After spending a few minutes in there, they would walk out again and leave the premises.
• Later on they also saw how a few women and a man arrived, parked their car and went into the house. They didn't see them leave.
• In the middle of the night, they saw how one of the doors upstairs opened and a tall man in a bathrobe walked out onto the balcony, smoke a cigar and entertaining himself for a while. This probably was Samson Trammel.
• The next morning, as they left, they were noticed by the neighbors gardener, Genial Brooker. He opened up to them easily, explaining he was happy to finally see someone looking into what was going on next door. He confirmed that he had seen daily lowlifes and foreigners arrive at the house, even that he had seen how they carried something large from the house (a body?) to a car in the middle of the night. He had seen Trammel crawling through the garden naked...
• Brooker also showed them something he had stumbled upon. In the back corner of the garden, under s lush flower patch, there was something like a stone sculpture of a distorted mouth, full of large and crooked teeth. Brooker explained how he heard some noise one night, and tried to figure out what was going on. He found the mouth (a real on, with teeth and a tongue and all), hissing and spitting. Terrified, he threw his mothers crucifix into the mouth. As he explained, the thing turned to stone, leaving it in the state it is now.

After meeting Brooker and reassuring him, the investigators took up residence in the house next door, observing the comings and going for the rest of the day.
They also decided to get Kearns to follow the Mexicans who visited the mansion throughout the day. Afterwards, he reported that they drove around the city, making deliveries at houses. The people receiving them seemed to be a mix of housewives, middle-class users, as well as the occiasional marginal type.
He took them back to one of the latter, and with a bit of pressure, they were able to enter the apartment from Lee Dempsey. Things got a bit out of hand and a scuffle ensued. Black and Sloane were able to overcome  Dempsey, although the threat of violence seemed to have very little effect on the man. He spoke to them about Nectar, and how the stuff that is available in LA is but a weak version of what he used to get in Bangkok.
“It was incredible. These two were just ripping into each other like rabid dogs. Somebody — just some joker standing next to me — throws a knife into the arena, but they were too busy gouging each others’ eyes out with their thumbs to notice.
“Then I got a hit and everything became so much more intense. More wild.Y ou know how the stuff here works on your urges? Well, this does that, but it works on something baser. Fights started breaking out in the stands. That’s how I broke this arm the first time.”

He also suggested that Sloane should go and check out the fights, or even partake in them.  He explained the proper procedure for accessing the fights as a spectator if they choose to travel to Bangkok and told them what denominations of banknotes to rub together at the Fragrant Honey Shop in Phra Nakron while saying “I have come for the exhibition.”

Keeper's intervention, Session 5

Since the guys had little time to work on the blog, I will post a quick outline of what happened during the last session.

• Sloane was taking by the cops to the local precinct, and charged with indecent exposure. The cop made sure to alert all the other drunks and roughs in lock-up of that, which resulted in Sloane being beaten to a bloody pulp. He was released later that night, and made his way, stumbling and goraning, back to the White Staf where he collected the crumpled Black, and dropped him off at a local hospital.
• He returned to Kearns, and asked for help to keep an eye on them, while he booked himself in as well in the hospital (note: Black woke up the next morning with a bunch of fresh grapes and a card saying: "Get well soon, Jack xxx"next to him). 
• Kearns kept an eye on things and noticed how the hospital was being observed by a man in a car. He followed the man and confronted him, which ended in not a small number of bruises and a broken nose for Jack Pinzer, an LA PI.
• Kearns got out of him that he was being paid by a certain Captain Walker to keep an eye on the Farm, and anyone who would start digging into what happened there, and how he was supposed to pay those persons to leave things be. Apparently Jack had decided that beating them up and pocketing the cash would be a better plan...
• After doing a bit of research, they decided to pay Samson Trammel a visit. Driving past his opulent mansion they noticed a lot of Mexican staff. They pulled over, and decided to make a bold play. They wandered up to the gate and adressed one of the Mexicans, telling him they wanted to talk to Trammel. He called someone on the phone, who came over a few minutes later. Black and Sloane explained to the man how they wanted to buy a number of books Trammel had purchased a few years ago. All they got in response from the man, who introduced himself as... Captain Walker... and made clear that he knew all to well who they were, was a clear and final warning: leave things be and leave this city!
• At this stage, they were a bit lost... these guys had money, they had connections, they had threatened them, and worse even, their families and children! It was time to reconsider the whole thing and put some distance between themselves and this cult. Black and Sloane returned to New York