List of Characters
Stephen St. John, Esq.; Accomplished solicitor/lawyer. A dapper dresser and impeccable orator. Is willing to take on cases no one else would touch, partly out of pride and… well, no, entirely out of pride. Helped save the Adams store from lawsuits intended to keep Adams from inheriting it.
Vincent Adams; Orphaned son of gun store owner, inherited the shop and all the weapon stock and the clientele, both legal and illegal. Always looking for extra cash, and a way to test out his newest weapons. Owes St. John for his livelihood, and will help him at the drop of a hat.
“Lady” Jane Simpson; Privileged dilettante, thrill seeker, trust fund child. Slumming it at the moment in nearby Miskatonic. Parents are professional peers of St. John, and she met Adams through their mutual association. Yawns a lot.
Rachel Hemingway; Journalist and budding author. Currently studying the underworld of arms dealing, working as publicist and adventure companion for Adams.
Happenings
Mr. Franklin Francis, investment realtor and landlord, hearing of St. John and his propensity to take on unusual cases, called St. John in to discuss trouble he’s had with a recent property. Stephen invites his young client Adams, and his friends Rachel and Jane to participate, knowing they enjoy strange cases as well.
In their meeting, Francis explains that a property he came into within the last two years has suddenly stopped making payments, and any attempts to contact the property have been in vain, it appears to be vacant. Francis wants St. John to find the family, find out what has happened. If they’re not coming back, Francis also wants to make sure the house is in working order, so that he can begin renting it again. He said he has a young family ready to move in. He offered them $25 a day, and $100 if they can prove that the house is in the clear. They have seven days before he’ll have to move forward with filling the vacant house with new tenants.
Day 1
Rachel offered to go check in at the local Boston Globe news branch to see if there have been any recent articles about the home. Schmoozing her way past the receptionist and flirting her way into the records room, she discovered the whereabouts of Macario family. The father and mother have both been committed to the Roxbury Sanitarium for violent fits and melancholy, respectively. Looking further into the history of the house, she found it has been involved in violent news stories since 1880. Accidents, or suicides they say.
Vincent and Jane, in the meantime went to the library to see what sort of information it may have. By sheer dumb luck, as evidently Vincent has never even seen a library before, Jane remembered just the book to find. In the book History and People of Miskatonic she stumbled across an entry noting a wealthy merchant selling his brand new home at a deep discount to one Walter Corbitt. Corbitt was an odd individual who incited the neighborhood to petition the city to have him forcibly moved from the location, but the petition failed in court. Corbin’s obituary, in 1866, states that he still resided in that home, and that he had stipulated in his will to be buried in the basement of the home, although there was a lawsuit filed by the neighbors to stop that.
While this is going on, St. John delved into the court records of the town. It appears that the lawsuit to stop Corbitt from being buried in the basement was never settled, but was somehow tied up in court for years, despite Corbitt already being deceased. St. John also came across a strange account of a raid on “The Chapel of Contemplation” for suspected kidnapping, child abuse and murder.
The investigators reunited after their research and headed to the Roxbury Sanitarium. There they found Gabriela Macario in a state of despondence and despair. Fragile and shaking she recounted to St. John how her husband, Vittorio, was injured in the house to the point he couldn’t go to work anymore. As he spent his days in the house while she went to work, he became increasingly violent and erratic. She hated that house, and wanted to move, but Vittorio wouldn’t let her. Her retelling became worse and more disjointed as she spoke of the house, mentioning a man with burning eyes. When she mentioned that man she suddenly becomes inconsolable, sobbing that she’ll never go back and that St. John cannot make her. The orderlies asked St. John to leave the room.
Vittorio Macario was in much worse shape. Restrained and nearly catatonic, he sat staring with unfocused eyes, drool dripping onto his lap. Lady Jane thought it best if she speak with him as St. John’s manliness seemed to rattle Gabriela. As she speaks with him about the house, Vittorio’s eyes became focused and he suddenly became lucid. Vittorio mentions the upstairs bedroom, and a pounding sound, as he spoke about it he became violent, smashing his head into the wall to the rhythm of the pounding. The orderlies forced Jane out of the room for her own safety, and then admitted that they were sure that would happen, but like to push his buttons at times because they get bored watching him drool.
The group find out that the Macario’s two boys that lived with them are staying with family in Baltimore, but decide to drive there in the morning, and retire to St. John’s home in Boston for the night.