NOTE: THIS RECAP CONTAINS SPOILERS for the CoC 7e scenario, Saturnine Chalice.

Dateline: Tuesday, 26 December, 1922 – SCENE 01 – Lord Fiennes and his servant, Jean-Francois are seated in a private compartment aboard the 7:30AM Granite Railway train bound from Providence to Boston. Having received word that there’s a scholar at Miskatonic University that can assist him in translating a strange book he has acquired, Finnes has put his holiday on hold and made with all haste towards Boston.

Seated across from the pair is a quartet of children, all siblings, under the charge of their older sister. The smaller children are very excited to be riding the train without parental supervision and their older sister, who appears to be in her mid-teens, is keeping them occupied by reading from a collection of MR James‘ ghost stories, often embellishing the details to draw out the atmosphere and tension.

SCENE 02 – The mystic, Lahissa, finds himself sitting in a compartment aboard the same train, his companion a corset salesman from somewhere in the midwest. The salesman begins dipping into a hip flask early and often and blathers nonstop to Lahissa, who is only half-listening, until the man passes out.

Lahissa pulls out the mysterious telegram he received instructing him to get to Miskatonic University and speak with their head of Occult Studies. He reads over the telegram again, hoping that perhaps this time he will find the secret he has been looking for — the secret of how to be reunited with his dead wife, Angeline.

SCENE 03 – Rose Preston and Lily Bergeron find themselves companions in another compartment and make some small talk as the train slowly winds its way northward.

SCENE 04 – As the day wears on towards afternoon, the snow which had begun falling that morning has been steadily growing heavier. Looking out from their respective windows, the passengers can see the surrounding towns covered in an increasingly higher blanket of snow. The sky overhead threatens to bring much more snow as more and more people board the train at each painstaking stop along the train’s route.

It takes Ld Fiennes several minutes before he realizes that the train has stopped at a station called Lake Town and didn’t proceed. Opening up the compartment door, Fiennes is hit with a sudden cold wind, the corridor being open to the elements as the train doors were not closed. The train conductor is at the far side of the corridor and he approaches Finnes.

The conductor is admitted into Fiennes’ compartment and the he tells the assembled passengers that the storm has made a turn for the worse and a tree has come down, blocking the tracks, a few miles further along. Between the weather and the holiday skeleton crew, the Railway has decided to put all of the passengers up for the night in local hotels or inns, allowing the storm to pass and for a crew to safely remove the tree from the tracks. The conductor apologizes for the inconvenience; the children are thrilled at the idea of staying in a hotel overnight.

SCENE 05 – The passengers are sent away in various taxis through the ever-worsening weather, starting with the very old and very young. Fiennes sees his erstwhile travel companions bundled into a taxi, throwing snowballs at each other and talking excitedly about what they will order from room service after they have called their parents.

Fiennes, Lahissa, Rose, and Lily, are put into an awaiting horse-drawn taxi. The driver is bundled up against the inclement weather, a storm lantern swinging in the fierce wind. The taxi driver tells them that they are in luck, they will be staying at Weyland House, a fine inn up in the hills above Lake Town.

SCENE 06 – It takes over an hour for the taxi carriage to climb its way into the picturesque New England hillside towards Weyland House, eventually stopping at the end of a long, snow-covered driveway, the massive estate house obscured from view by large, well-manicured hedges. Though no lights can be seen on the first floor, dim lights can be seen emanating from the floors above.

After bringing their luggage to the front door, the driver takes his leave, telling the group that they can call the railway station in the morning for updates and if the train is running, he will pick them up in two shakes.

SCENE 07 – Knocking at the front door of the inn is met the the sound of a thump, a scraping sound, and a muffled “Come in!” Opening the door, the group finds a middle-aged man in a house-coat standing on a ladder fiddling with a chandelier. He asks someone to steady the ladder while he puts in a new light bulb. After completing the installation, the man lets out a grunt of satisfaction, climbs down the ladder and tests the light.

The man introduces himself as Jeremiah Lynwood, caretaker of the Weyland Estate, and says that these must be the guests the railway had called about. He bids them enter the Lounge while summoning his wife to see to their needs. As the group enters the Lounge, Jeremiah takes their luggage to various rooms on the second floor.

SCENE 08 – As the party walks towards the Lounge, the pocket doors are opened by a young woman wearing a black mourning dress. She has ash around her shoulders, likely from working a fireplace. The young woman introduces herself as Veronica Larkin, daughter of the inn’s owner and lifelong resident of Weyland House.

When asked about her dress, Veronica laughs and says that the question is very silly. After a moment of concentration, she says that she is wearing the dress because her mother recently died. She asks the party what the current date is, and says, “Of course … Christmas Day was yesterday.”

Jeremiah’s wife, Rosemary, enters the Lounge and nearly drops her tray, a look of fierce anger coming over her as she sees the water that’s been brought in by the party’s wet boots. Veronica soothes Rosemary, whose temperment quickly turns to friendly, and she asks what the party would like to drink.

SCENE 09 – The party is met by the inn’s owner, Augustus Larkin, a tall middle aged man with an Austrian accent. Larkin explains that Veronica has recently arrived from school abroad and the party is in luck: there’s to be a celebratory dinner tonight in honor of Veronica embarking on the Abramelin Operation, a magical ritual which will allow Larkin to meet his dead wife, Evangeline, now 2 years dead.

Fiennes and Lahissa are intrigued and Fiennes engages in a theological debate with Larkin, who scoffs at Fienne’s idea that magic is harmful – the Abramelin Book was originally penned by Abraham himself and the Operation puts a person in contact with the Divine, allowing the successful practitioner to to summon his Guardian Holy Angel.

Both Fiennes and Lahissa know a bit about the Abremlelin book, a very hard to find occult tome from the 15th century. Larkin is contrite when he says that he tried the Operation himself but it failed, which he attributes to a faulty translation. As each practitioner can only use a set of magic squares once, his daughter has volunteered to perform the Operation again, this time using an original copy of the tome, which Larkin obtained from an occultist named Lester Goodman. Larkin praises Goodman for his knowledge and aid in obtaining the Abramelin Book. Lahissa asks if he can see the book and Larkin agrees, saying he will fetch it from the library.

SCENE 10 – While this discussion is taking place, Rose and Lily are sitting in silence, exchanging worried glances and wondering what sort of mad house they have stumbled upon. Lily puts her skilled observation skills to work and uses the time the conversation is taking place to study the Lounge, Augustus and Veronica.

The first thing Lily notices is that the ash which seems to fall from Veronica’s hair doesn’t seem to accumulate or go anywhere, it forever seems to fall and reset.

The second thing noticed is that the candles on the piano in the corner of the Lounge have been burning for the better part of an hour, and yet they are not burning down.

These revelations strike a nerve in Lily – her innate desire to get to the bottom of mysteries is confounded by these incongruities to laws of science that she knows to be be true, and something deep inside her, some primal instinct, takes over. She breaks into a sweat and has a sensation of dizziness. Rose asks what’s wrong and Lily says she needs some fresh air.

Larkin tells Lily that she can go to the kitchen and get some water. Rose, pocketing the scalpel from her dissection kit, accompanies Lily. They see that the entry light, the one Jeremiah had been repairing, is not working again, and looking forward they see the long, dark hallway which leads to the rest of the inn.

SCENE 11 – Stealing themselves, the pair walks into the hallway. Rose immediately hears the sounds of skittering and scratching, likely rats, emanating from behind the walls and ceiling, but Lily hears nothing.

Moving into the corridor, as they pass the stairs leading to the second floor, the light at the base of the stairs suddenly turns on and, standing at the base of the stairs is Lily’s dead brother, Phillipe, dressed as he is in her prized photo of him. Phillipe holds his arms out towards the pair and intones in a sepulchral voice, “Hellllp meeee“.

Frozen in place by sheer terror, Lily passes out, her mind snapping like a twig. Rose is frozen in place, a scream stuck in her throat, her legs refusing to obey. Rose frantically tries to move, to scream, anything — but is helpless. The image of Phillipe changes into that of a bedraggled woman with long, scraggly hair wearing a white funeral dress. Her teeth are sharpened points, her filthy fingernails like the claws of some wild beast. Her eyeless face turns towards Rose, her eyes having been gouged out. The woman approaches Rose and lashes out, Rose closing her eyes expecting the same fate … but the woman vanishes.

SCENE 12 – The sound of two bodies hitting the floor rouses those in the Lounge to investigate. Once again, the entry light now emits a wan light, illuminating the supine forms of Rose and Lily.

Jean-Francois and Fiennes run towards the women but at that moment, the doorbell rings. Fiennes answers the door at the behest of Larkin, who is behaving as if nothing is wrong.

Standing at the door is a tall man impeccably dressed, wearing a broad grin: Lester Goodman. Goodman enters the inn and is greeted warmly by Larkin. They head towards the dining room, simply stepping over Lily and Rose.

SCENE 13 – The bell keeps ringing, and more and more Lester Goodman appear; finally about 12 Goodman walk through the door all at once, all of them proceeding to the dining room, and Larkin greeting each one in turn from the far end of the hallway with delight as if he is seeing Goodman for the first time that evening.

The scene is one of utter madness. Jean-Francois frantically asking Fiennes in French what the hell is going on, cradling Rose’s head in his arms. Rose recovers and yells that she has no feeling in her legs.