Session Seven - 03/28/2021

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After agreeing to take a ride with Vincent to the "Grey" building to check out some medical records, Elijah, Ophelia, and Delia watch as they pull into the parking lot of the Central Police Station instead. As Vincent parks, they see a heavily-bandaged McQuaid waving goodbye to Lotte and Sam. Vincent gets out of the car and excitedly tells McQuaid he caught the killers. McQuaid calms him down, and Vincent eventually shows the special order from Captain Franklins that said to go pick up a body at the listed address, no questions asked. McQuaid points out that this special order is written on a napkin. Ophelia and Delia then update McQuaid on Monte's betrayal and the disappearance of the books that were central to the investigation, along with the accidental assault of the homeless person wearing Monte's clothes.

After some comparing of notes, the group discusses possible leads for the investigation. McQuaid decides he needs to check in with Captain Franklins first, however. Vincent accompanies him into the police station. They approach the closed door to Captain Franklins's office and overhear Franklins shouting at someone on the phone. They hear bits and pieces of the conversation, with Franklins mentioning several of the places the investigators have recently been and ordering whomever is listening to find "them" and find out why they're "digging all this stuff back up". Without breaking his pace, McQuaid turns right back around and exits the building, with Vincent in tow.

They decide to visit the Landing Tree Inn just north of Boston to see where Monte's trail might lead them. Vincent claims to know where the Landing Tree Inn is, but promptly drives them all east to the docks. McQuaid gets out and approaches the dock office to look for a phone and get directions. Ophelia and Delia get out of the car and take a look around for any suspicious individuals. Vincent turns around in his seat and tries to talk to Elijah, only to see that Elijah is not there. McQuaid enters the dock office and speaks with the dockmaster. The dockmaster tells him there's not telephone anywhere nearby that he knows of, but is able to provide more clear directions on how to get to the Landing Tree Inn. After McQuaid relays the dockmaster's information, Delia recognizes the area and realizes she's been to that Inn before. She's able to safely navigate the group north out of Boston and up to the bluff where the Landing Tree Inn is located.

They enter and ask the woman looking over the place about Monte. She states that someone matching that description had been staying there for the past week, and had even borrowed their wheelchair. She says his name wasn't Monte Sterling, but Chuck U. Farley. McQuaid notices the similarity between Chuck's name and the phrase Delia had told them about from her dream the other night, "Cthulhu Fhtagn". The realization causes McQuaid to have a vision of the letters on the page forming the constellation Ophelia had seen in her vision at the Sanitarium. After coming back to himself, the investigators request to rent the room Monte had been staying in. She gives them the key to Room 3.

The room is sparsely furnished, the bed well made, no clothes or personal articles laying about. They all set about looking around the room for any clues as to Monte's whereabouts. Vincent finds a crumpled up piece of paper in the closet. Ophelia finds a small travel satchel under the bed. Vincent hands the paper to McQuaid, who sees its addressed to "my dearest Cecilia". The gist of the writing goes "our time together has been among the happiest of my life. I came here for what I thought was one reason but I found another reason. However, I can't have both. I know where my loyalties lie. I don't want to have to do, what I have to do." The writing stops after that, unfinished, unsigned, and clearly unsent. Delia, unphased by the unexpected mention of her great aunt, decides to look closer at the words to see if there's something more to them. She notices that certain letters seem to stand out to her as she pores over the writing, and eventually she feels she recognizes a phrase hidden in the note's contents, the same one from her horrifying dream, "Cthulhu Fhtagn".

At the same time, Ophelia opens the satchel and finds a strange object made of an unknown material that looks like a cross between stone and metal. On the top of the object, she sees a stylized 27-point star etched in gold. As she reaches in the extract the cube, her fingers happen to push in on two of the sides and she feels the star symbols on the sides actually move inward a bit.

As this happens, Delia feels control of her body slipping away and strange sounds trying to escape from her mouth. She struggles to pronounce words that were never meant for the human tongue, the words from her visions, "Cthulhu Fhtagn". The other investigators hear the sounds, with McQuaid being the only one to actually parse out what she's saying. The realization of this, along with his earlier connection of that phrase, is too much, and he passes out entirely.

Vincent runs downstairs and requests two glasses of water. Vincent makes it upstairs and hands a glass to Ophelia to give to Delia, and then splashes the other on McQuaid's face. This brings him around, though Delia is still struggling with the noises coming out of her. She is able to bring up a memory of when she learned Latin, and starts to replay the exercises in her mind. This calms her and focuses her, and eventually her mouth starts to sync up with her memory and she is free from having to repeat that horrifying phrase from her visions.

Vincent runs back downstairs to return the empty glasses and asks if there's a telephone on premises. He's directed to a small office in the back of the house, where he dials his contact with the U.S. government. As instructed, he leaves a message with the operator to update the Sagittarius group detailing his current whereabouts.

Vincent starts to return to the room just as Ophelia starts to try to mess with the strange box again. He points out the coincidence of them being in room 3 and each star having 27 points on them. They realize that this box matches what they've read of puzzle boxes. They are able to figure out how to open it by pressing on the two sides (the symbols inside each star being a star with an eye in it, and a half-human half-octopus face), at the same time McQuaid hears that the box makes very quick clicks as she presses the symbols in. Overcome by an odd feeling, he reaches forward on the 27th click and presses down on the top of the box. The box opens a bit and Ophelia discovers she can rotate the two halves of the box. She rotates them 90 degrees, then another 90 degrees, and then one more 90 degrees. The box begins ticking, faster and faster. The ticking stops, and the box opens at the top, revealing a glassy black orb with white lightning-looking lines spidering through it. The box begins to play music, though not any music that makes sense to a normal human's ears. Vincent hears something in the strange tune, and then sees a vision of a man in a dark pharaoh outfit standing in front of him. The man grins and bends forward, grasping his head and pulling it open, where Vincent sees space and stars.