II THE LONG VERSION
Sunday 3rd February 1923
An evening at the Lodge: We dress for dinner and assemble in the dining room. Our evening repast consists of roasted boar with sarma (stuffed cabbage rolls) and ćevapi, (a local kebab dish), accompanied by a choice of wine or rakija liquors. Cartwright seemed somewhat aloof from polite conversation over dinner. He confided in Pierre that he just can’t get that kiss from the wonderfully attractive Jazmina out of his head. After the meal Hubert asks the hotel staff to provide him with more lighting for his room. Ludwig, sharing with Hubert, requests a sleeping blindfold.
Monday 4th February 1923
A trip across town: With good spirits replenished after a good night’s sleep and a hearty breakfast, the investigators hire a motor vehicle through the Lodge and, with Jazmina, head out into the town. The streets of Vinkovci are lightly dusted with powdered snow and everywhere the build up of a strong military police presence is obvious. We witness several citizens being stopped at random for questioning, but luckily our own progress is unimpeded. Perhaps sticking out as obvious as we do, with our mix-match of top hats, cravats, capes, walking canes, tweed suits and unapologetic foreign habits, works in our favour. If military police are searching for a secret cell of underground anarchists, they’re highly unlikely to look as stand-out ridiculous as we do; better to concentrate on looking amongst people who are at least making some sort of effort to blend in with the locals.
The old bookstore: At the convergence of the streets listed in Dr Moric’s message we park up and take in the locality. Just off the junction, along one of the cobbled streets, we come across Odlika Knjiga, a bookstore of renown. Pierre sometimes purchases books from this store for his Paris antiquities dealership. Odlika Knjiga is a long-established business specialising in the procurement and vending of rare history books. Publications from eastern Europe form the heart of its focus.
Inside, the store has the look and smells reminiscent of a library archive. A studious woman, wife of the proprietor, is busy wrapping a package addressed to a Dr Armitage of the Miskatonic University in New England. When the proprietor himself, a congenial Austrian named Dieter Koll, bounds into view, Pierre introduces himself; hoping the name Boudain-Noir would be familiar as a valued mail-order customer. Koll smiles politely in pretend recognition.
Decline and Fall: We enquire whether Koll might have a copy of Edward Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. It seems we have the most incredible bad luck; he’s just recently sold the only one he had. It’s packaged and awaiting collection by the buyer’s daughter, a Jazmina Moric. Jazmina immediately makes herself known, and after being provided some proof of identity, Koll dutifully hands over the package to her. Before we leave, we peruse the store. Pierre, who has a keen eye for rare books, finds an old and battered book that takes his interest. He purchases the Diary of an Unknown Soldier, being the personal account of a soldier of the French Revolutionary army. We also purchase a copy of The Roman History of Vinkovci.
Lunch: We find somewhere to eat nearby, the Café Leonardo. From the Roman History of Vinkovci we learn that the town’s Roman name was Colonia Aurelia Cibalae and was the birthplace of two Roman emperors: Valentinian I and Valens. In the meantime, Jazmina opens her package; it contains a rare 1st edition set of all six volumes of Gibbon’s famous work. Searching through them we find a note tucked inside the cover of one of the books: ‘Go to Pouzdan Zalihi. Use your mother’s maiden name. Key submerged in the nearby Roman Bath. I’ve left instructions. Be Careful’. Along with the note comes a small ticket emblazoned with the number 187.
The Roman bath: According to Jazmina, Pouzdan Zalhili translates from the Croat as something like ‘Reliable Supplies’. It turns out to be a bonded warehouse and storage business located close to Vinkovci train station. Before entering we first search the local vicinity for a building reminiscent of a Roman bath. We fail to find one, or any other building that looks even remotely Roman. An hour or so later, on the verge of despair, we wander through a public garden where we spy a bird bath, upon which is sculpted a small statue of the Roman emperor, Valens. A Roman bath at last, but not quite as we had imagined. Pierre plunges his hand into the bath’s shallow pool of murky water. After some rummaging in the filth at the water’s bottom he pulls out a small brass key.
Pouzdan Zalhili: With key in hand we enter the bonded warehouse. At the service counter, we produce ticket 187 and surrender it along with the key. When asked for the name of the account, Jazmina provides her mother’s maiden name, “Barattic”. We are told to wait. Out of view the key is used to open a secure locker and soon, two porters with a sack truck wheel out a large wooden casket, roughly 8 feet in length and 4 feet in breadth – the number 187 is stencilled on it. We ask to be shown to a private space in which we may open it.
The casket: The lid of the casket is nailed shut. With the aid of a borrowed crowbar Ludwig prizes open the strongbox. A waft of fetid air from within startles Ludwig, he recoils involuntarily and his cravat slips to reveal the shrivelling scars he habitually keeps hidden. Letty is struck momentarily motionless by the sight, and more than one of the remaining investigators baulk.
Treasure: The contents of the casket are a treasure trove of artefacts that can only have come from the Crusader’s tomb; removed and presumably secured here by Dr. Moric. There are medieval swords and maces, bronze cups, pottery pieces, handcrafted books, vellum scrolls and two ornate boxes.
-Amongst the eighteen books we find: Chronicon de Tillius Corvus (The Accounts of Tillius Corvus), a handwritten Latin text of the Imperial Roman period; Kitab Rasul Al-Albarin, (The Book of Rasul Al-Albarin) an Arabic text; and Sapientia Maglorum, loosely translated from Latin as The Wisdom of the Magnificent or Knowledge of the Great Ones, is a mixed text of Latin and Ancient Greek. There were also another three volumes of interest which together formed the record of the Order of the Noble Shield and provided accounts of the founding members. We recognise names from the Devil’s Similare, the Latin manuscript we’d only recently read: Yolanda, sister to Count Baldwin of Flanders, Andre of Troyes, Reynaud of Flanders, Brother David, Gilles de la Grave, Martinus de L’Isle and Eloise of Flanders.
-Of the two boxes: The smaller contained a diminutive silver coin, identified by Pierre as originating from of the ancient city of Tyre. There was a descriptive label in Latin, Unas ex tetradrachum – “one of the thirty”. There was a collective gasp from the investigators on the realisation of the historical importance of this tiny coin. Pierre removed it from its wrapping and pocketed it - “Don’t worry mes amis” he insisted in his smooth Parisian inflection, “there’s another twenty nine out there somewhere”. The second box contained a polished stone; upon its face was carved a strange symbol of unfamiliar design* An inscription in the box reads – obex sancti gabrielis, “The Barrier of St. Gabriel”. Hubert takes the stone into his possession – for safekeeping you understand.
-Of the scrolls: We had not the time to look through the thirty-two fragile scrolls. These would require professional handling and study.
-Affixed to the underside of the casket lid, we notice a small notebook. It is the personal notebook of Dr Dragomir Moric. Its pages are filled with an illegible ink scrawl. Jazmina recognises her father’s shorthand, devised as a code not easy to decipher.
Besides the purloining of the silver coin and the polished stone, we take the notebook and three of the texts: Chronicon de Tillius Corvus, Kitab Rasul Al-Albarin and Sapienta Maglorum. Everything else we leave in the casket and return it to secured storage.
*We all failed our Mythos rolls to recognise an elder sign.
Back at the Lodge: It’s after 4.30pm when we leave the warehouse. We drive back to the lodge to further study our new gains and discuss our next moves. After a delightful venison dinner and nightcap, we retire for the evening. Jazmine sets about translating her father’s notebook, Hubert settles down to read the Chronicon de Tillus Corvus (by copious amounts of candlelight) and Pierre begins the Diary of an Unknown Soldier.
Tuesday 5th February 1923
Breakfast: Jazmina sat up into the early hours translating as much as she could of her father’s shorthand. She shares what she has learned from it with us at the breakfast table. The crusader’s tomb in Vinkovci is a vault associated with the Order of the Noble Shield. The Order, dedicated to safeguarding satanic artefacts and denying them to dangerous heretics, was founded by Yolanda, Regent of Constantinople and Pope Honorius III in 1218. The vault was used to hide satanic artefacts and documents captured during the Fourth Crusade.
Mims Sahis: Moric’s notes continue to assert that the most dangerous artefact secreted within the tomb was the Mims Sahis, also known as the Serpent’s Claw, a knife once wielded by Sedefkar. The first reference to the Mims Sahis is recorded in the accounts of early 4th century soldiers in the service of Constantine the Great. Here Dr Moric’s notes state – see The Accounts of Tillius Corvus. Dangerous cults glorifying the skinning of humans and the creation of abominations consider the Mimis Sahis sacred. The Order of the Noble Shield believed the knife could be destroyed if ground into dust; alas no such power exists for the Order to facilitate the knife's destruction. We conferred between us, but no-one recalls seeing a knife present in the casket.
The last page: The final page of Dr Moric’s notebook reads: “Will talk to Goran later and inspect Bulatovic Cement Factory. Sent letter to Jazmina….Jazmina, if you’re reading this, make sure everything here goes to Dr. R. Jordanov, Director of Ancient History at the National Archaeological Museum in Sofia, Bulgaria.”
Cat and mouse: Having retained our hire car for another day, we set out after breakfast for the residence of Dr Goran Belanzada, the confidante of Dr Dragomir Moric, with whom Jazmina hopes her father may perhaps be staying. She knows the address, on the outskirts of town. En route Letty notices we are being followed by the very van that suspected cultists used in their attempt to kidnap Jazmina from the train station two days ago. Pierre drops the auto through its gears and accelerates away. The van tries to speed up but cannot match our pace. At a corner Pierre turns at a junction to take us off the main route and attempts to conceal us from our pursuers. Moments later, the van appears round the corner and continues onward in the wrong direction.
The doctor’s residence: We take our time before returning to the main road. It is shortly after 11.0am when we pull up at the front of an affluent property. At the end of a long driveway and set in its own grounds is an impressive two storey house. There is no vehicle parked in view, but there is a garage to one side of the residence. Time to find out if the doctor is at home and open to receiving visitors.
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