For character backgrounds, check out The Pennywell Hangmen, Part One
December 19th, 1923
Another good dusting of snow had hit the city in the early morning hours. It was refreshing to Detective Francis Dresden. After putting in time for a long-term investigation, he had gotten wrangled into a bizarre murder or suicide at the Hotel Algonquin. In the chaos, some civilians had gotten access to the crime scene, and despite Detectives Stapleton and Hyatt being the primary investigators on the case, he spent the wee hours finalizing the initial crime scene report to avoid mention of that. With the sun rising, Dresden took a walk for some air, and a decent cup of coffee. Neither worked very well, as he came back to the precinct fighting off the exhaustion. He could barely keep his head up to notice the feet of those walking along the sidewalk.
As he approached the precinct, he could hear a man say, "Hey, that's him over there!"
He groggily lifted his head, only to have it met by the door of a large truck, a sudden flash of light, and everything went black.
For the guests at last night's Mogens Institute Christmas party, the weird events of the evening and the late hour of the ordeal couldn't interrupt the weekday morning routines.
For Steven and Angela O'Hara, their morning ritual of breakfast and griping around the kitchen table, was cut short by a knock at the door. When Steven answered it, multiple armed soldiers in gas masks and extra protective clothing barged in and demanded he and his wife come with them for their own protection. Not even a moment was given for them to grab their coats as they were escorted to a large truck and eagerly encouraged into the back. There, they saw the unconscious body of Detective Dresden, as well as the two other detectives on the case and the coroner who was at the crime scene.
Helping out that young lady last night might NOT have been a good idea.
The truck moved across the city and variations of the encounter took place. Doctor Millheim and Brian Nichols were awoken from their slumber and taken, the good Professor and his friendly library assistant were picked up at the abodes and still brought in, although they tried in vain to demand some protection of their civil liberties. Even the teacher-heroine, Jessica Carson fell prey to these strange men at her school, although she detected something wrong while walking to the Principal's office and tried a futile escape attempt.
The most disturbing stop was at the Wanisko home. Although Joshua was the only attendee at the party, the soldier also demanded that his wife and three-year old daughter come with them as well.
The truck, and a convoy of sedans that followed sped through the streets of New York City with nary a stop nor a siren. In fact, the only stops they had made were to pick up people. This mysterious convoy made its way over the George Washington Bridge into New Jersey and drove a considerable distance south into a military base. There, the truck backed into a large warehouse building and the group was unloaded into a holding area. The only things in this building were a series of tents made out of bedsheets, some sort of showering equipment, and about two dozen soliders, all wearing the gas masks and additional protective clothing.
Dr. Wintermute demanded to speak to a commanding officer and was soon met by a Major Sarek. Major Sarek quickly explained that everyone might have come in contact with dangerous chemicals the previous night, so a chemical shower and inoculation was a precautionary measure for every one's protection. The professor would not accept that an inoculation was needed for anything that wasn't biological, and caught the Major stumbling. The Major waved soldiers over to take the the professor back to the group.
After a considerable wait standing in their pajamas in the unheated building ,an individual referring to himself as Dr.Cooper and an unnamed soldier spoke to the group. All individuals would take a chemical bath to neutralize anything they came in contact with. After the shower, they would get an inoculation as a precaution, once everything is complete and they were cleared, they would be allowed to leave.
The coroner and the other two detectives were the first to be taken. The rest could see little behind the curtains, but things around them caught their eye. When the coroner showered, soldiers began a fire in a barrel and burned his clothes. After the inoculation, the coroner was seen passed out (?) being pushed around in a wheelchair to another tent! This pattern continued with the two police detectives.
For Joshua Wanisko, the activities behind the tents and sheer terror in the tear drenched eyes of his wife and small daughter brought him to the brim of panic and reckless action. Noticing that the a set of large barrels near the fire were marked with the components of mustard gas… and some of those had older marking from Carrington Industrials sent him flying off the edge. Desperate to make his family safe he lunged at the nearest guard… and within seconds was face down on the cold pavement with a severe concussion and multiple rifle barrels pointed at the back of your head.
His commotion was not in vain. It brought over a sergeant in charge and he tore into the soldiers. Apparently they were only interested in the people at the hotel that night. Family were not to be picked up. He apologized, ordered other soldiers to remove their masks and escort the frightened women to a warmer place. He gave Joshua a hand up and moved him to the front of the line, and told someone to get his family back home first when he was cleared. Joshua completely lost consciousness before the chemical bath hit him.
For the rest, the procedure went without incident. The shot made everyone groggy, and by the time they regained consciousness, they were in a heated holding area wearing medical gowns, with soldiers passing out water and biscuits. Soon a solider approached Dr. Cooper, and in a look of disbelief, the doctor stated that they were all free to go. Everyone was dressed in unmarked military uniforms and each person was driven back to their residence.
The rest of the day was one of recovery and connection. For Joshua, he tried to make numerous phone calls for help: The NYPD, The Bureau of Investigation, even his Congressman. No one was willing to lift a finger. He even got the nerve to call Mr Carrington directly. After hearing his story, Carrington thanked him for his assistance, said he was already aware of the situation, gave him the rest of the year off with pay and told to not come back to work until he felt better. Somewhere in that conversation he might have mentioned not speaking of this to anyone else. He did contact Jessica and found out the others had decided to meet, but in his condition, she advised him to stay home and stay safe and she would update him later. He was in no condition to argue.
For the rest of the group, networking back together was much easier. Meeting in a low-end restaurant, the group tried to decide their course of action.... RESEARCH TIME.
A team hit the library and could discover little, only that the army base in question was the Pennywell Arsenal, an artillery proving ground that was almost shuttered after the war.
Detective Dresden used his badge and contacts to find entrance into Robert Williamson's apartment. Police had done a quick once over of the place already. All they could discover was a collection of medals in a picture, as well as a picture of a slightly younger Williamson during the War with his fellow soldiers at the Pennywell Base. One of the soldiers was holding a sign with the same script A in a pentagon that was on the deceased's tattoo.
The most fun for the afternoon came from Professor O'Hara. He had managed to contact Wanisko and invited him over to the Columbia chemistry labs. Steven had collected a decent amount of the mysterious black water and wanted to see what it really was. The results were a bit disturbing. Inside the water was an unknown mutated fungus that was super-reactive to heat and cold. With a little coaxing, he could make the water move on its own!
Those in the group who weren't already exhausted tried to check out the missing prostitute's flat and man on the card she was carrying, Theodore Depp. The missing girl, Siobhann, was nowhere to be seen, but they did discover that Williamson was a regular and had a tendency to shoot off his mouth about previously being in the army.
December 20th, 1923
Morning research and any imaginable leads lead nowhere for the group, but early afternoon, they were in Dr Millheim's "office" Sharing ideas and swapping stories between glasses of Canadian Whiskey. As the stories became more and more specific, Dr Wintermute began doubting the other's sanity. Walking dead? Alternate dimensions? Perhaps the rest of the group were a bit too fascinated in the dime novels of magick and the occult.
To complicate his allegiance to the group, there was a knock on the door. After the group hid their drinks, Nichols opened it to see Siobhan, the prostitute. She was certainly better dressed that their last encounter with her, but a glint of the same fear could be seen behind her eyes.
She had checked herself out of the mental hospital and had been on the run ever since, stopping only shortly to grab a coat and shoes. Her story confirmed many of the group's hypothesis. She had met Williamson at the hotel, like they had many times before. Something smashed in the window and began attacking both of them, and at that point she ran out of the room to get help. She pulled out a folded piece of paper and gave it to the group, saying she could remember everything about the creature. It was oddly bipedal, with huge muscular arms, short,sharp claws, small bat-like wings and a twisted head whose mouth look more of a twisted jagged maw or beak than teeth. Ever since that night she could feel it's presence, but it wasn't hunting her... yet.
Williamson had told her that he was leaving town shortly, that a fresh start on the West Coast might exorcise the demons of his actions during the war. He had even asked Siobhan to come with her. She was going to yes, but the creature had attacked first. With that, she sank into Dr. Millheim's comfy desk and slowly began to cry.
Dr. Wintermute was having none of this. As a proper gentlemen, he told them all in the nicest way possible that they were all batshit crazy and called the operator to patch him to the Pennywell switchboard. Once connected he explained that the missing girl from the Hotel Algonquin was here and was not decontaminated. He then tried to explain away the misconceptions of the girl and the rest of the group, chalking them up to lunacy, even taking all of them up on the roof of the building to prove no flying creatures, other than the occasional pigeon were flying around killing people. With that a total failure, he decided to call Bellevue and claim a number of people were suffering from violent delusions and hysteria. Despite repeated calls to them and repeated responses of help coming, no ambulances, no police, and no army personnel showed up at the door. The rest of the group oddly let the gentleman go through his motions until the futility of his actions, right up to the point that the phone rang. Somehow, Wintermute was allowed to pick it up.
The voice on the line claimed to be Sgt Benjamin Falcone, a member of the unit that had rounded up everyone the morning previous. He had actually been the one to "rescue" Josh's family from the process. He explained that he and his fellow soldier Frank Hedges had information that individuals such as them could appreciate. A meeting was arranged at a cabin near the Pennywell base in New Jersey, Siobhan was told to stay in Millheim's office with Nichols, and a few personnel weapons were picked up on the way out of the city.
Either the Investigators would get answers, or Dr. Wintermute would prove, to at least himself, that everyone else had a mental malady.
Next: Part Three and the exciting conclusion of the Pennywell Hangmen, or... "Bob gets his own malady"
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