Session Five - 03/14/2021

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Delia, Ophelia, and McQuaid stand at the entrance to the Corbitt House, with Monte standing guard, so to speak, at the base of the porch steps, and are preparing to enter.

At the same time, however a parallel event is occurring that leads to this moment as well. A car from Roxbury Sanitarium, with handyman extraordinaire Samuel Becker driving and Dr. Lotte Rosencranz riding passenger, pulls up to the curb in front of The Wish Doctors. The shop is closed, and there are some neighborhood kids loitering on the sidewalk in front of the store. Lotte gets out of the car and approaches the children. Rolly attempts to extort some money out of Lotte in exchange for information on the whereabouts of the shopkeepers, who he mentions went to the church across the road earlier then up to the North End. Rolly mentions that he told the shopkeepers about Mr. Dooley and, as Lotte gets in the car and Sam begins to pull away from the curb, he asks Lotte to ask the shopkeepers about their friend Billy, who hasn't been seen in a few days.

Sam and Lotte drive to the North End and they spot a kiosk set up on a sidewalk. Sam parks the car across the street and approaches the salesman running the kiosk, Mr. Dooley. After purchasing a newspaper and tipping an extra nickel, Sam is pointed toward the Dooley house just down the block, where he sees Monte sitting outside. Dooley mentions a bit about the dark things that are rumored to have happened at the Corbitt house over the years. Sam thanks him and rejoins Lotte, where they approach the house just as the other investigators had opened the door in the previous session.

Ophelia sees Sam and Lotte approaching and immediately warns them away from entering the house. Lotte introduces herself and Sam to the group, and then proceeds to update the group on the reason for her visit. After the investigator's visit the day before, both of the Macarios went catatonic and unresponsive, but were deemed not dangerous and thus not kept under watch. That evening, the orderlies discovered Gabriella had somehow gotten into Vittorio's locked room. They saw her standing over his throat-slit corpse, turned away from them. Lotte, the on-call doctor, arrived as the orderlies struggled to get the door open. Through the window, they watched helplessly as Gabriela turned toward them and calmly gouged out her eyes with the knife. They finally got the door open as Gabriela said a phrase in German, a language that she'd not shown any previous use or knowledge of: "*Jetzt, wo ich ihn nicht sehen kann, kann er mich nicht sehen*"; roughly translated: "*Now that I cannot see him, he cannot see me.*" They were not able to reach her before she cut her own throat.

Delia expressed dismay at the thought of dangerous dreams and visions following people from the house. McQuaid attempted to reassure her that this was simply a normal house with a bad history. Monte pulls McQuaid to the side and expresses concerns that Lotte and Sam may be more than they say they are, in regards to the cult activity the group has been discovering. McQuaid agrees that they should check their credentials at the very least. They rejoin the group and all of them discuss the nature of the house, both mundane and supernatural. Delia asks Lotte if any other strange or possibly connected incidents have occurred. Lotte reveals that there was another patient she worked with previously who also put out their eyes and uttered that exact same German phrase. There was a name that kept repeating in that patient's journals: **Nyarlathotep**. The group eventually agrees that no matter what is going on here, it needs looked into. They then enter the Corbitt house.

Delia casts a small circle of protection around Ophelia as they step into the hallway. Light spills into a dim hallway and they see 3 doors on the left and two on the right. They go through the first one on the right, and enter the living room. They see all manner of religious icons strewn about the room, crucifixes on the wall, statues of Jesus, and a painting of the Virgin Mary. However every single crucifix has been turned upside, the statues smashed, and the painting clawed apart. Delia recognizes something demonic in the pattern of the defaced icons. Ophelia rights a crucifix to see if anything happens. Nothing happens. She goes about righting every crucifix on each wall. McQuaid and Lotte both examine the ripped painting, determining that the rips were not done by an instrument, but possibly by something biological.

A rotten stench wafts in from the dining room, and they see three places set at a table with old rotting food congealing upon them. They attempt to ascertain what the food could have been at one point, but the stench keeps any of them from getting too close. Ophelia and Delia rummage through the kitchen cabinets but find only plates and pans. McQuaid looks back into the living room and sees all of the crucifixes have un-righted themselves upside down again. They then hear a large, heavy creak from the hallway.

Sam and McQuaid investigate, with Sam heading back down the hallway toward the first room across from the living room. He opens the door into a small dark junk room filled with old boxes and rusted water heaters. He notices a small cabinet and forces it open, discovering several loose hand-written pages. As he picks them up, the room's door slams shut, locking by itself. The rest of the group hears it and quickly arrives to try to assist. Sam tries to pick the lock but in the darkness isn't able to get it going the right way, so instead he pulls out his crowbar and pries the door from its hinges.

Sam shares his find, and they discover these pages seem to have been torn from Corbitt's Diary. The pages contain several mentions of a *"hunter, he who once satisfied, fades"* and *"the opener of ways".* Tucking this information away for future perusal, the group then investigates that last two rooms on the first floor. The second to last room contains old broken furniture. Ophelia then kicks in the last door, finding bags of coal and old raincoats hanging from the walls. She checks the pockets and finds something warm and fuzzy, but upon opening the pocket to look closer, sees a massive wolf spider staring up at her. Without thinking, she punches the pocket, crushing the surprised spider.

The sound of a bouncing ball comes from upstairs, before an actual ball comes down the steps, rolling to a stop by their feet. Monte calls in from outside to check on them. They assure him they're fine, he assures them he'll be there to cover their escape if need be. The group, sans Monte, all go upstairs and down to the far end of the hall. They enter into what was probably Vittorio's and Gabriela's master bedroom. They find more upside crosses on the walls, burnt candles, and a ripped rosary on the bedside table. They find an untouched bible in one of the drawers. Lotte picks up the broken rosary and Delia takes the bible.

Unbeknownst to the investigators, Monte drops his cigar on the ground outside. He stands up, grabs the bag hanging from his wheelchair containing the Liber Ivonis, Secrets of Ancient Egypt, and Corbitt's Diary, and disappears into the crowd. As this happens, the master bedroom door slams shut, trapping all but Sam in the room. The bed then slams forward across the room, knocking McQuaid through the window and onto the grassy ground in the side alley.