Some Time Passes

Keeper Note: This page summarizes events between the two halves of the campaign.

Clemens Park and Elsewhere, England, November 1940 - February 1941

After leaving Isfahan, the agents of Section M made their way across Persia to Tehran, where (rather to Birapeer's annoyance) the Wellington Bomber on which they had arrived from India turned out to have moved on to its' true destination, leaving them to take a cramped cargo flight to Gibraltar and a hastily-arranged berth on a Navy Cruiser to Southampton.

England was slipping into winter when they arrived, which after India and Persia was something of a cold and wet shock.

The Cup of Yima was carefully stored at Clemens Park along with the other recovered pieces of the Palladion - the Aten Life Giver and the Agneya Weapon of Flame. Each of the agents was extensively debriefed and the various artefacts and documents they had brought back examined carefully by Section M's experts.

Books from the house of Bihari Abdekar

Three books were recovered from the house of the politician and Chaugnar Faugn cultist Bihari Abdekar; "Secrets of the Deep Ones" (concerning a race of underwater humanoids unfamiliar to the agents) and "The Blades of Durga" (which looked like some kind of personal combat manual), both in Hindi, and "The Tau of the Elephant", in Ancient Greek, which appeared to be a copy of a book written for Alexander III of Macedonia - otherwise known as Alexander the Great.

Unsubstantiated rumours pointed to some kind of alliance between the Deep Ones and Black Sun, but no evidence had completely confirmed this.

These were left in the possession of the agents for their reference.

SS Degen

Professor Richard Deadman

Black Degen

The two black metal swords carried by the Canon and Master of the Black Sun were examined by Professor Deadman and by Section M's Master at Arms, Lionel "Sir" Percival. No example of either had ever been captured before, and both were pretty sure that there was some kind of enchantment on them. There were slight differences in the untranslatable runes on each.

Until used for real, neither man could be sure what they would do. They were passed back to the agents who had claimed them, after the SS emblems had been carefully removed, with a clear implication that the wielders would have been warned if anything unpleasant happened.

Totenmesser

Totenmesser

The Totenmesser (knives made from die Toten blades) were similar but lesser weapons to the degen, made of some kind of black steel and originally grafted to the horrific undead creatures as claws. Cut from their corpses after the battle at Marabin, several had been converted into fighting daggers. Deadman was fairly sure that some kind of dark magic lurked in these blades as well, but without seeing them used, could not be sure what form it might take.

Each agent was issued with one of the completed weapons.

Mauser C96 'Broomhandle' Pistols

Mauser C96 'Broomhandle'

These had been recovered from the Canon and Master of the Black Sun. The Mauser 'Broomhandle' was the world's first automatic pistol, designed using a now-archaic 10-round internal box magazine loaded from clips. Its name came from the rounded wooden grip. The rather overlong barrel gave it considerable accuracy and the adjustable sights allowed best use of that. The weapon took the rather unusual 7.63x25mm Mauser round, not found in any other weapon; it could be shot from a 7.62mm weapon at reduced power but 7.63mm weapons could not take the more powerful 7.62mm round.

These examples, though not made of the same black metal as the Black Sun blades, were extremely well-made precision weapons.

Return To Unit

The skills available to the agents were too valuable to waste, and while the experts at Clemens Park worked on their next move for Section M, most were assigned out to put those skills to use.

• Westland Lysander

  Francoise Duval - Assigned to an RAF courier squadron, Francoise flew an assortment of high-urgency missions inserting agents into or removing them from occupied France, the Lysander she knew so well being ideally suited to these operations.
  
  

• Boulton-Paul Defiant

  Birapeer Mansukhani Singh - Seconded to a night-fighter squadron flying out of Scampton, Birapeer was given a Boulton-Paul Defiant night-fighter and a turret gunner named Davy Driscoll. The Sikh's headlong approach left Driscoll white and shaking after their first mission, but he was game and after several weeks the pair had notched up several kills.
  
  
• Anné Laurentine - Section M, while not primarily an assassination agency, did use snipers from time to time, and Anné's reputation had spread in the time she'd worked for them. So she found herself in the classroom and out on the range, teaching young recruits with a flair for accuracy and good nerves the dark art of long-distance murder.
  
  

• Churchill Tank

  Joe Vandeleur - Joe found himself on Salisbury Plain, brevetted Captain, to help train new crews in the use of the newly-arrived Churchill tanks, and some experimental Yank pontoon bridges. He was also detailed to instruct a carefully-selected group on tank warfare in the face of the supernatural...
  
  
• Prof. Marcus Brody, Cyril Boston-Flint - Both academics were minutely questioned about what they had seen and learned during their missions to date, and worked with the Section's experts on the varied books and artifacts recovered to date.
  
  
• Jimmy Wispa - Jimmy was seconded to a photo-reconnaissance unit where he flew several missions observing and photographing enemy fortifications as well as providing expert photoanalysis of pictures of some very strange places...
  
  

• Norfolk Asylum

  'Lucky' Jake Black, Jack ' Egypt' Dorset- Jake and Jack had unfortunately suffered breakdowns as a result of the terrifying black lore they had studied in the books retrieved from various places, and both had spent several weeks in St Andrew's Hospital, Thorpe St Andrew, Norfolk. They'd recovered enough to return to duty, but the experience had left its' mark on them.
  

Curl Up with a Good Book

Two books had come out of Persia with the agents; Bertrand Lane's Diary and the Journal of Canon Victor Spiegel. The journal of the deceased French archaeologist Bertrand Lane chronicled his excavation at the Hill at Marabin and his unwise replication of the killing method of the aereomanius; and his descent into insanity after. The Journal was the personal diary of an insane Canon of the Black Sun, badly damaged by gunfire, explosives, Byakhee claws and bloodstains. After much reconstruction, it revealed some interesting information on Black Sun and its workings.

Over the intervening time, those who had chosen to read the blasphemous and troubling books now available to the group put in some serious studying. The results were as follows:

• Keeper Note: Where it says Spell Available to Learn, if the player wants to learn the spell from the book an INTx3 roll will be required next time dice are to hand.

  Francoise Duval - Cultes des Goules, 42 days out of 70 studied.
  
  
• Birapeer Mansukhani Singh - No books studied
  
  
• Anné Laurentine - Bertrand Lane's Diary completed, spell Call Aereomanius available to learn.
  
  
• Cyril Boston-Flint - No books studied
  
  
• Joe Vandeleur - Book of the Machine completed, Entering the Silver Gate completed.
  
  
• Prof. Marcus Brody - Entering the Silver Gate completed, Catechism of the Knights of the Silver Void 39 days out of 70 studied.
  
  
• Jimmy Wispa - No books studied
  
  
• 'Lucky' Jake Black - The Tau of the Elephant completed, spells Curse of Chaugnar Faugn, Heart’s Courage, Seek Heart available to learn.
  
  
• Jack ' Egypt' Dorset - Ekvaatik Ke Chults completed, spells Wisdom of the Deep Lurker (a Contact Deity spell of some kind), Dreams from Ka Vrksh (another Contact Deity spell), Contact the Deep Ones, Apane Anant Kaal Ke Lie Khud Ko Daraana (Damn Thyself for All Eternity) available to learn.

Back in the Saddle

After several weeks, Viscount Towton's report on their missions to date was reacted to by the various organizations from whom the agents had been seconded, and as well as official commendations, the following notifications were received:

• Francoise Duval - A commission as an Officier Pilote in the Free French Air Force, an honour but only a technical one as the Free French had no aircraft at this point.
  
  
• Birapeer Mansukhani Singh - Promotion to Flight Lieutenant.
  
  
• Anné Laurentine - Commission as a Sous-Lieutenant in the Free French Army.
  
  
• Cyril Boston-Flint - Commission as a 2nd Lieutenant, British Army Signals.
  
  
• Joe Vandeleur - Promotion to Captain, British Army.
  
  
• Prof. Marcus Brody - Commission as a 2nd Lieutenant, British Army Intelligence.
  
  
• Jimmy Wispa - Commission as a 2nd Lieutenant, US Army, Seconded to Majestic and thence Section M.
  
  
• 'Lucky' Jake Black - Promotion from Trainee to Agent MI6.
  
  
• Jack ' Egypt' Dorset - Promotion to Major, British Army Parachute Regiment.

Pay backdated to secondment where relevant. Those not previously serving in the military were advised, off-the-record, that they'd better not try throwing their ranks around trying to command operational troops not assigned to Section M.

And then, at 09:04 on 4th February 1941, the team found themselves gathered once more in the briefing room at Clemens Park, with coffee or drinks to hand and the smoking light lit, and Viscount Alec Towton uncovering some maps and sketches for them to look at....

Session Date: 2018