CoC - Gaslight: A Walk in the Night

After this very strange audience I was really troubled by what I had witnessed. Hence I was not able to get any sleep. Therefore I decided to do something useful. I took a walk in the misty November night. Around midnight I arrived at the house of Dr. Laydon.

To read what had happened there please click here. (This is not yet meant for player's eyes)

As I knew from yesterday's observation, the house's servant's entrance in the back could not be seen from the street. So I made sure the street were empty and went around the house. The lock gave me some unexpected trouble. After a lengthy but futile attempt of picking it I was for a moment afraid that I had lost my touch. But I soon realised that I had selected a lock-pick which was a wee bit too small. With the right-sized tool I had no trouble of opening the lock.

Inside it was dark and quiet. I silently made my way to the main entrance hall. I expected Dr. Laydon's office to be in on of the adjacent rooms. And I was right. I found the filing cupboard with the medical journals of all his patients. A took out the Prince's records and began browsing through it. My main concern was to be able to identify it as the genuine record, if Dr. Laydon would show them to us. I also memorized the most important diagnoses. There was written something about opiate abuse, malfunction of spleen and liver, and gout.

Being satisfied with my discoveries I put everything back in place and left. And then I became a little bit careless. Because on my way back to the back-door I stepped on a loose floorboard, which produced a very audible squeak. I froze in place and waited two tense minutes, if someone might have noticed it. But I was in luck. The house was still silent. Taking more care not to make any further noise I walked out and locked the door behind me.

As I was about to leave for good a black coach with four horses appeared and stopped in front of the house. After a man had stepped out of the passenger compartment and had gone into the house it left. A few minutes later a window on the first floor lit up. The light stayed on for about thirty minutes. I suspected this person to be Dr. Laydon. But unfortunately I have not been able to identify the person or the coach driver in the misty dark.

Getting rather tired I left and went home.

The next day was uneventful for a change, since me co-investigators had to attend to some research of their own, in which I would have been not much use at all. Dr. Burnside wanted to have a closer look at the latest victim which I had no desire to observe. And Mr. Roquefort wanted to consult someone, who could translate the books of the German archaeologist.

So I spent a quiet day at the Club. In the evening I was joined by Mr. Roquefort who told me about his discoveries. I have to admit, I understood not half of it. It was mainly about an ancient Egyptian cult which worshipped Thot who was seen by them as the adversary to Ra. One curious detail of his findings was that in the close vicinity of one of their temples Dümmichen (the German archaeologist) had discovered the remains of two human bodies. The gear that had been found with them, was identified as that of soldiers of Napoleon's army. Neither Dümmichen then nor Mr. Roquefort now had any idea why they should have been there in the first place. It is well known that Napoleon invaded Egypt, but this soldiers had no apparent reason to go to this place.

This night I went home early. I was really tired from the recent events and was hoping for a long undisturbed sleep. But this was once again spoiled ...