Starting Location:
London
Starting Date:
Sun Jan 7, 1923
Cast:
Active
Sabine [Rob]– a french “political leader”
Leeroy [Brandon] – a “landromat owner” from New York
Robbie [Trevor] – a scottish clock tower mechanic raised by american expats
Ithabel [Jeff] – a thpanish thef
Misty the Magic [Brenna]- a local student and former lover of Professor Smith
Greg [Jimmy] – a “local kid” from london
Inactive
Jordan [Bob] – a scottish alienist

Episode Summary:
The investigators decide to conduct some pre-research while still in London. They find a skinless corpse in the British Museum Library, clearly left for them, tacked with a message written on skin saying “The Skinless One Will Not Be Denied.” Greg notices a Turkish man watching them, who disappears into the crowd when noticed. Sebine reveals she can commune with spirits.

The investigators gather their luggage, secure first-class tickets on the Orient Express, and head to Paris.

In Paris, Leeroy buys a trunk that will ensure efficient immigration/inspections when traveling through Europe. Misty continues to accuse him of murder and “reads” him to discover his NY laundromat is not all that it appears to be. Some of the group takes a trip through the Louvre. Misty discovers her leg isn’t as sexy to everyone as she thinks it is. Greg is surprised by the fact that things like art and books apparently have value to people. Momentarily separated from the tour group, Robbie hears sinister laughing, and can’t look away from an untitled picture of a 18th century French nobleman who seems to be staring through his soul….

Sebine and Isabel research for a few days. Sebine discovers journals related to Comte Fenalik, the last known owner of the Sedefkar Simulacrum and a French nobleman based out of the town of Poissy. The journals reveal he was committed to a sanatorium called Charenton in 1789 after being captured and sentenced by the King’s men for indescribable crimes.

Isabel discovers that Napolean did indeed carry an “object” to Venice. She also misinterprets her research assistant’s intentions when she asks for help finding things out about strange phenomena or the supernatural, and unwittingly joins a socialist riot against the police while Leeroy (from the shadows), Greg (from the nooks and crannies of the streets), and Misty (from behind her thick mustache of a disguise) keep watch on her. Sebine and Robbie play Go Fish.

Misty finds out from her friends in the Psychic community that the director of Charenton just passed away under strange circumstances. The group heads to investigate. Misty and Leeroy are unable to convince the acting director to provide much information, however the others discover the journal of the previous director. The journal reveals that one of the hospital orderlies was recently found raving-mad and bleeding from his arm next to an unknown and barely-alive man deep in the cellars of the building. After committing their former orderly to a cell, the director tried to nurse the unknown man – who apparently would occasionally rant in French and Latin of dark, crumbling cities and other things that made no sense – back to health, but nothing seemed to work. Finally, the last entry detailed that he would try electroshock therapy next.

Hatching a plan unknown and unvetted by the rest of the group (and, some might say, unvetted by themselves as well), Misty and Leeroy decide to get Misty committed to the asylum in order to gain access to the insane orderly from that the previous director had committed as a patient. This part of the plan works quite easily, and Misty is locked into a padded cell inside a locked ward full of deranged men and women screaming. Leeroy hides in the ward until it is locked-down for the night, but both him and Misty realize that this plan may not have been ideal when the orderly they wanted to talk to in the first place seems too insane to communicate with.

Assuming that Misty and Leeroy already went home, the others grab a taxi back to the hotel and retire to bed.

The darkness and screams of the ward begin to affect Misty and Leeroy’s mental stability. Leeroy is unable to unlock the door to Misty’s cell. This proves to be of little consequence, as he also is unable to unlock the door out of the ward anyway. As he pounds on the door and screams for someone to come open it, he questions to himself whether a door that locks from the outside is really meeting Parisian fire-safety standards.

Lying on the floor of her cell, sobbing as the terror of screaming and darkness and imposing walls crowd around her, Misty suddenly feels a smoky presence materialize over her. A dark face appears to stare down at her, and she feels a moment of recognition that she can’t quite place… but it all disappears from her mind as she feels an icy hand, thick with the stench of rotting finger nails, casually stroke her cheek. She screams.

Leeroy, still at the door to the ward, suddenly realizes that the sounds of all the patients yelling have completely stopped. The only sound piercing the black silence of the ward is Misty’s screaming.

Misty tries in panic to push the smoky figure away from her. This seems to annoy or anger the entity, and she suddenly is ripped up from the ground and thrown with force across the room into the opposite wall. Air leaves her lungs rapidly and her ribs creak as she slumps back to the ground. In the darkness she feels the entity disappear into smoke again, and suddenly a strong wind flies past her and toward the door to her cell. Her door rattles and she feels a click at the lock.

Leeroy hears the thump of Misty’s ragdoll body hit the wall of her cell, and turns to go back down to the hall toward her… but is nearly toppled as the dark wind flies past him and into the door leading out of the ward. The door shakes violently and he hears the lock release. Misty emerges from her room, wide-eyed and shaking in the dim light of the hallway, and they both run in panic out of the now deadly silent ward into the main halls of Charenton.

Pushing open the door from the ward, they find a man wearing the clothes of a night attendant hanging upside down from the ceiling rafters. His feet have been nailed or pierced in some way into the roof, and blood pours out of his eye sockets. Misty and Leeroy run, fearfully noticing that the facility is deathly quiet and empty. They escape out the main doors and flee the grounds of Charenton, eventually making it back to their hotel.

They do not sleep well that night.