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"plaintext": "The party gathered in the foyer of the hospital on Sunday evening, June 4th, having just concluded their visit with Sherwin, the lawyer handling Scott's estate. As they prepared to depart, they took stock of their recent experiences and the mounting mysteries before them. They recalled their shared spiritual experience—though one member remained skeptical of its authenticity—and discussed their plans to take a Ouija board to the British Museum to contact Margaret Wickersham. They also remembered their promise to assist a professor at St Albans University in searching through rubble for a mysterious jar. Alfie kept watch outside the hospital, scanning for any signs of surveillance, though he noticed nothing suspicious at the moment."
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"plaintext": "The conversation turned to the research one party member had conducted overnight, studying documents obtained from St Albans University. These papers revealed troubling connections between their possessed scroll and jar to an ancient and dangerous tome called the Necronomicon. The researcher explained that St Albans had a copy of this evil book, but the university had made it clear they would never be permitted to see it. Drawing on undisclosed previous experiences, the party member expressed a growing belief that great evils existed in the world, all tied to the artifacts they had been encountering. They learned that Dr. Omar Shaddid from King's College, Cambridge had translated portions of ancient scrolls discovered at an excavation site in Haran, near Aleppo in Syria, which appeared to be part of possibly the oldest version of the Necronomicon ever found. The party debated whether to journey to Cambridge to speak with Dr. Shaddid, or even to travel to Haran itself, where the excavation had been left incomplete and more unopened jars might still await discovery."
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"plaintext": "However, the group agreed they needed to understand their own scroll before consulting others about potential connections. More pressingly, they decided they absolutely could not open their jar until they secured the protective incantation bowl that Sherwin had mentioned. Sherwin had told them that Scott, the deceased whose estate he was managing, had been attacked by something in the desert and had written about \"cracks in the air\" in his diary. Scott had also written about a magical bowl, but frustratingly, no such bowl appeared in the inventory of his possessions. Sherwin believed the bowl must still be hidden somewhere in Scott's house in Richmond, Surrey, and had asked for their assistance in finding it."
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"plaintext": "The party's plans hit an immediate obstacle when they realized they couldn't access either Scott's house or his diary until Monday morning. Both the key to the house and Scott's diary were locked away at Sherwin's office with the law firm of Marklin and Walsh at 14 North Street in Guildford, Surrey. Sherwin hadn't had these items with him when he was taken to the hospital, and his assistant would need to help them gain access during business hours. Resigned to the delay, the party agreed to meet at the Guildford office at eleven o'clock Monday morning."
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"plaintext": "Before parting ways, they discussed the persistent threat of Home Office surveillance. They had successfully evaded their watchers on the journey to St Albans on Saturday, but had taken no precautions when traveling to the hospital, meaning they had likely been followed. To make Monday's meeting safer, they decided each member would travel separately to Guildford, making it harder for the Home Office to track all of them. Alfie suggested using his knowledge of back alleys and street connections to lose any tails or even employ street urchin friends as distractions. John Anderton planned to have his chauffeur Parker drive him, with the car fully fueled and ready for a quick escape if needed. Some discussion arose about carrying weapons for protection, though others worried about the consequences of armed confrontation with government agents. The party acknowledged grimly that the Home Office had already demonstrated no interest in due legal process, making evasion their best strategy."
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"plaintext": "As the group prepared to disperse for the evening, they briefly touched on other unresolved mysteries. Someone mentioned their previous plan to use the Ouija board in Teddy's room to determine if he had been transported to another realm rather than killed. The party recalled that Teddy had been ripped in half, though they wondered if he might have suffered the same fate as the lady who had simply disappeared without a trace. With these dark thoughts lingering, each member departed to their own lodgings, the summer evening settling over London as they contemplated the dangers that awaited them in the morning."
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"plaintext": "Monday (June 5th) the party rendezvoused at Marklin & Walsh in Guildford and spoked to Carl Sherwin's assistant, Walter Frewer. Frewer had believed Sherwin was missing, presumed dead, and was delighted to hear that he was hospitalised, apparently with only minor injuries. Still, Frewer was also suspicious of the remarkable appearance of strangers with good news who wanted access to Scott's diary - especially after the interactions with Nigel Finley prior to the Langham event. The party waited impatiently while Frewer made some calls, confirming that Sherwin was indeed a patient in Middlesex Hospital."
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"plaintext": "Armed with Scott's diary the party drove to the Scott house in Richmond - a relatively simple cottage on an acre of land. In the time available they were able to determine that Scott's diary described his work in Jordan during the war, and an illicit expedition into the desert to investigate a report of artifacts. The expedition was attacked (the description of the attack was vague) and there were both local and military casualties (including a man named Finley), and Scott was reprimanded and punished. There were also sections in the diary in Arabic, and what appeared to be a description of some sort of ceremony or invocation.There was mention of a bowl of some kind, as Sherwin said, but there was no indication of where the bowl might be, or it's purpose."
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"plaintext": "The party entered Scott's house and found it quite barren, the contents passed to his estate. After learning that Parker had seen the same car circle the block multiple times there was a heated discussion about how to secure the key to the back door of the house, with particular tension between John and Reverend Grainger. With this resolved the party continued their search, and eventually the pantry between the dining room and the kitchen revealed a trap door into a dark, musty, bare dirt cellar."
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"plaintext": "Alfie was first into the cellar, quickly and fortuitously discovering a patch of disturbed earth in the corner of the cellar. Joined by Reed and Grainger, digging revealed a 10\" square wooden box containing a shallow bowl with a spiral inscription in an undetermined alphabet. The top of the box was carefully marked \"This Side Up\"."
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"plaintext": "Reed, Grainger and Alfie decided to take the bowl out of the cellar, but as Reed turned the bowl on its side to pass it through the hatch green vapours emerged from the bottom of the bowl, swirling and coalescing until a ghostly form appeared, and a maggot like, dog sized creature with biting mandibles emerged from a crack in space, like a crack in a mirror."
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"plaintext": "Gunfire, sanity loss and injury followed before the creature was killed. The ghostly form, now clearly in a military uniform, spoke."
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"plaintext": "\"I should never have taken it. Contain i. Repair the damage. Return it.\""
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"plaintext": "The day ended with Grainger and Reed in a hotel in Southwark studying Scott's diary while John took Alfie to the passport office in Westminster - a trip to France or Jordan were possibilities, and best to be prepared."
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"textContent": "The party gathered in the foyer of the hospital on Sunday evening, June 4th, having just concluded their visit with Sherwin, the lawyer handling Scott's estate. As they prepared to depart, they took stock of their recent experiences and the mounting mysteries before them. They recalled their shared spiritual experience—though one member remained skeptical of its authenticity—and discussed their plans to take a Ouija board to the British Museum to contact Margaret Wickersham. They also remembered their promise to assist a professor at St Albans University in searching through rubble for a mysterious jar. Alfie kept watch outside the hospital, scanning for any signs of surveillance, though he noticed nothing suspicious at the moment.\nThe conversation turned to the research one party member had conducted overnight, studying documents obtained from St Albans University. These papers revealed troubling connections between their possessed scroll and jar to an ancient and dangerous tome called the Necronomicon. The researcher explained that St Albans had a copy of this evil book, but the university had made it clear they would never be permitted to see it. Drawing on undisclosed previous experiences, the party member expressed a growing belief that great evils existed in the world, all tied to the artifacts they had been encountering. They learned that Dr. Omar Shaddid from King's College, Cambridge had translated portions of ancient scrolls discovered at an excavation site in Haran, near Aleppo in Syria, which appeared to be part of possibly the oldest version of the Necronomicon ever found. The party debated whether to journey to Cambridge to speak with Dr. Shaddid, or even to travel to Haran itself, where the excavation had been left incomplete and more unopened jars might still await discovery.\nHowever, the group agreed they needed to understand their own scroll before consulting others about potential connections. More pressingly, they decided they absolutely could not open their jar until they secured the protective incantation bowl that Sherwin had mentioned. Sherwin had told them that Scott, the deceased whose estate he was managing, had been attacked by something in the desert and had written about \"cracks in the air\" in his diary. Scott had also written about a magical bowl, but frustratingly, no such bowl appeared in the inventory of his possessions. Sherwin believed the bowl must still be hidden somewhere in Scott's house in Richmond, Surrey, and had asked for their assistance in finding it.\nThe party's plans hit an immediate obstacle when they realized they couldn't access either Scott's house or his diary until Monday morning. Both the key to the house and Scott's diary were locked away at Sherwin's office with the law firm of Marklin and Walsh at 14 North Street in Guildford, Surrey. Sherwin hadn't had these items with him when he was taken to the hospital, and his assistant would need to help them gain access during business hours. Resigned to the delay, the party agreed to meet at the Guildford office at eleven o'clock Monday morning.\nBefore parting ways, they discussed the persistent threat of Home Office surveillance. They had successfully evaded their watchers on the journey to St Albans on Saturday, but had taken no precautions when traveling to the hospital, meaning they had likely been followed. To make Monday's meeting safer, they decided each member would travel separately to Guildford, making it harder for the Home Office to track all of them. Alfie suggested using his knowledge of back alleys and street connections to lose any tails or even employ street urchin friends as distractions. John Anderton planned to have his chauffeur Parker drive him, with the car fully fueled and ready for a quick escape if needed. Some discussion arose about carrying weapons for protection, though others worried about the consequences of armed confrontation with government agents. The party acknowledged grimly that the Home Office had already demonstrated no interest in due legal process, making evasion their best strategy.\nAs the group prepared to disperse for the evening, they briefly touched on other unresolved mysteries. Someone mentioned their previous plan to use the Ouija board in Teddy's room to determine if he had been transported to another realm rather than killed. The party recalled that Teddy had been ripped in half, though they wondered if he might have suffered the same fate as the lady who had simply disappeared without a trace. With these dark thoughts lingering, each member departed to their own lodgings, the summer evening settling over London as they contemplated the dangers that awaited them in the morning.\nMonday (June 5th) the party rendezvoused at Marklin & Walsh in Guildford and spoked to Carl Sherwin's assistant, Walter Frewer. Frewer had believed Sherwin was missing, presumed dead, and was delighted to hear that he was hospitalised, apparently with only minor injuries. Still, Frewer was also suspicious of the remarkable appearance of strangers with good news who wanted access to Scott's diary - especially after the interactions with Nigel Finley prior to the Langham event. The party waited impatiently while Frewer made some calls, confirming that Sherwin was indeed a patient in Middlesex Hospital.\nArmed with Scott's diary the party drove to the Scott house in Richmond - a relatively simple cottage on an acre of land. In the time available they were able to determine that Scott's diary described his work in Jordan during the war, and an illicit expedition into the desert to investigate a report of artifacts. The expedition was attacked (the description of the attack was vague) and there were both local and military casualties (including a man named Finley), and Scott was reprimanded and punished. There were also sections in the diary in Arabic, and what appeared to be a description of some sort of ceremony or invocation.There was mention of a bowl of some kind, as Sherwin said, but there was no indication of where the bowl might be, or it's purpose.\nThe party entered Scott's house and found it quite barren, the contents passed to his estate. After learning that Parker had seen the same car circle the block multiple times there was a heated discussion about how to secure the key to the back door of the house, with particular tension between John and Reverend Grainger. With this resolved the party continued their search, and eventually the pantry between the dining room and the kitchen revealed a trap door into a dark, musty, bare dirt cellar.\nAlfie was first into the cellar, quickly and fortuitously discovering a patch of disturbed earth in the corner of the cellar. Joined by Reed and Grainger, digging revealed a 10\" square wooden box containing a shallow bowl with a spiral inscription in an undetermined alphabet. The top of the box was carefully marked \"This Side Up\".\nReed, Grainger and Alfie decided to take the bowl out of the cellar, but as Reed turned the bowl on its side to pass it through the hatch green vapours emerged from the bottom of the bowl, swirling and coalescing until a ghostly form appeared, and a maggot like, dog sized creature with biting mandibles emerged from a crack in space, like a crack in a mirror.\nGunfire, sanity loss and injury followed before the creature was killed. The ghostly form, now clearly in a military uniform, spoke.\n\"I should never have taken it. Contain i. Repair the damage. Return it.\"\nThe day ended with Grainger and Reed in a hotel in Southwark studying Scott's diary while John took Alfie to the passport office in Westminster - a trip to France or Jordan were possibilities, and best to be prepared.\nNotes on Scott\n#cthulhu",
"title": "The Awakening - Part 2"
}