The Crypt of Malkuth

(WARNING – MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS)

I'm sitting in the Absinthe bar, writing these notes. I know who are the men in the black robes, the Followers of Malkuth, and why are they here. And I think I know more about the nature of the Babbage beast already, although I still have no clue about how to get rid of it. But first things first.

Shortly after Mr. Blindside disappeared, his satchel was found near the excavation site. It contained several letters from a man named Frederic Von Battersby to Mr. Blindside, mentioning the old crypt of Malkuth under Cobblestone street, the same place where poor Willard Steamweaver provided his experiments and which I visited already last year during the search for information about The 13 Club, and a document from Van Creed archives (signed as „The Light“). It seems there was another, old excavation site in Clockhaven, with some interesting finds about the Order of Malkuth. I decided to explore both of these sites.

The crypt under Cobblestone street was my fist choice, since I was already familiar with the place. The Steamweaver's laboratory was still there, untouched, even the old phonograph cylinders with his recordings were still on their place. But something terrible must have happened recently – two coffins were open, empty. I thought it was a case of a grave robbery at first... but I was wrong, as I understood later.

I managed to open the third coffin (although I had to consult the Babbage library first), very well aware it could be me this time who could be accused of grave robbery. There was a body of a man (it's hard to tell, it must be several hundreds of years old) covered with a large shield. I thought it's a dead end this time, since I had no idea who the dead man could be, but only by a happy accident I found something which led me later to the grave of poor Helen, to understanding where the Babbage beast came from, and who are the Followers of the Malkuth...

The Beast of Babbage

Again, some matters forced me to leave the city for almost two weeks and couple of days ago I returned pnly to see the city is burried under the heavy drifts of snow. Now I'm not sure if I'll be able to recollect everything what happened during my absence, since I have to rely only on rumors. I doubt I'll provide a whole picture here, but I have to sort the fact for myself anyway.

http://www.babbagechronicles.co.uk/

Strange beast is lurking the streets of Babbage, apparently something which has been imprisoned inside the artifact before and now walks around the town free again. It haunts the citizens and we can consider ourselves lucky that no one was killed so far. The urchins, who are of course in the greatest danger, tried to entrapped the beast (which is described here http://natmerit.blogspot.com/2010/11/new-babbage-monster-attacks.html), repeatedly and unsuccesfully, but only thing they achieved is the detailed photography of the monster.

http://cityofnewbabbage.com/reader/node/1282

A strange black-cloaked men was seen several times in Babbage, talking about the beast as about „something which feeds the flesh of others, and cannot die“. They were recognized by urchins as followers of Order of Malkuth, an ancient cult once present in Babbage and involved in unfortunate events, which happened last autumn and ended with the burning of the place where nowdays the strange statue was discovered. Later, Mr. Cleanslate intercepted a message while experimenting with his radiowave monitor:

http://tinyurl.com/2u2kxrz

It's Van Creed society again, and apparently the followers of Malkuth attacked their headquarters, trying to destroy Van Creed archives. Why? Because there were some informations regarding the origin of the beast perhaps? Or even the way how to defeat it?

Later the urchin named Victor Wunderlich was saved from the beast by one of the black-cloaked men, who managed to injure the monster, and took care of the poor boy. Which brings only more confusion, of course... What are the intentions of followers of Malkuth?
And more than that, Mr. Blindside, the archeologist who doscovered the artifact, is missing, just after he informed the babbage citizens he's got some new informations about the artifact...

For more informations I reccomend notes of Myrtil Igaly:
http://myrtil.blogspot.com/2010/11/beast-takes-bite.html

The Artifact opens

The next day I returned to the excavation site to explore the artifact more and was lucky to met Mr. Blindside himself, working at the artefact at the same moment. He managed to dig out the whole object from the ground and was just adjusting it in vertical position when I disturbed him. We talked, briefly, and he admitted he will be much wiser after he'll remove the mud and dirt from the artifact, which, finally visible, vaguely resembled a cloaked human figure. And of course, there was the heartbeat, stronger maybe this time, but I didn't want to disturbe the archeologist with more questions as he seemed to be quite exhausted. He'll probably attend tonight's Bonfire Night and make some public statement, unfnortunatelly I have some affairs out of town tonight.


I felt comforted more or less, after all, mr. Blindside seemed like he knew what he was doing. That was until today, when I visited the site once more.

The artifact was still there, standing in the same position as Mr. Blindside left it, but there was a huge crack almost at whole it's lenght. It seemed as someone shattered it's surface with a great force, and took anything what was hiding inside. Or, maybe... maybe as something from inside broke the shell and run free. There was a splash of a dark liquid just in front of the artifact, probably blood. Maybe someone tried to use some explosives to disturb the surface of the object, and was hurt? Or maybe someone just stood there when the... thing... from inside broke free and... I hope Mr. Blindside is allright.


The artifact is still standing there, silent, no heartbeat resembling sound could be hear. Just like an empty shell.

Return to Babbage

Long time ago I left this Journal, same as I left the City of New Babbage. But recent events forced me to wipe the dust from these old pages and start to write again...


It was a cold October day when I stepped out of a ship in Babbage
port, returning to the city once more. The thick Babbage fog covered
the streets as the city train approached my old house in Canals and
the memories came back to me, almost as I've never left. The Porta
Terranum Device, Babbage Cuckoos, Cloud Angel, Prof. Eliot, Nareth
Nishi, The Thirteen Club, Van Creed society, Jasper Renfield, Jason
Moriarty... These names are already half-forgotten in Babbage, only
amongst some street urchins the tales are still told. So when I red
in the Newspaper a short note about the discovery of a strange
artifact under the basement of a destroyed building very close to the
Old Imperial Theatre, the place related very closely to these old
events, I couldn't wait any longer.

After I unpacked my things, I hurried to visit the place of the
discovery. There was the artifact, a large piece of stone still half
burried in the ground. And exactly as the rumor said, there was some
sound, almost like a heartbeat, clearly hearable when I leaned
closer...


According to the Newspaper, a famous archeologist Mr Bernard
Blindside was called up to excavate the site and find out more about
the artifact. The only information I was able to find about the
gentleman is that he was the man who discovered the obelisk of
Datramarr, although I'm not familiar with this part of history and
have to admit I have no idea what Datramarr obelisk actually is...

First commission work

Meanwhile I was engaged into the mystery of Porta Terrarum Experiment, I managed to find time for my fist commission work. Yes! It's a photography of Mr Mondrian's factory and I hope doing more commissions in the future...


I found out that I owe several week rent in Cetus Gallery, and since I'm trying to live in SL only from my SL income, that could be a problem. And besides, I need to buy some gun, in times like this one can never be too sure in Babbage... and some new steambot droids,... and some new clothes. And shoes. And makeup... well, basically, I just need to go shopping.
I've tried to do a portraiture work also, for this time it's my self-portrait, but I think some commission work in this field would be great fun...

Murder in Babbage - Epilogue

No one knows what exactly happened that day in the underground of Eliot's old theater. As far as I know, Prof. Nishi managed to convince Moriarty she is on his side (which actually confused even some of the street children, who thought Nishi is “evil”), and while he was showing her Porta Terrarum device at work, she somehow damaged it, overloaded, and caused huge explosion, which apparently killed Moriarty. The gate between worlds was closed again. The device was left broken beyond recovery, and still can be seen in the underground of the theater.

According to orphans, Moriarty confessed the fact it was him who killed Prof. Eliot, his former tutor and friend. And most probably he killed the other victims either, Mr. Canning and Mr. Reifsnider. He was mad, with no doubt, a murderer, and he deserved such an ending, but sometimes I think... he was only child, one of the orphans, when he started to help with experiments. Did Alexander Eliot noticed Moriarty's mind slowly fallen apart? And if he did, couldn't he help him? Or he just doesn't care? Could this whole madness be avoided, years ago, by saying some word to the child? We'll probably never know...
Nareth Nishi is women of lot's of mysteries. Some urchins thought she is a vampire and she destroyed Eliot's device by drinking Loki's blood. Other children says she is time traveler, some claims she is not human at all... No matter how deep her secrets are, New Babbage is bound to her for it's very existence. And maybe not only Babbage...
Porta Terrarum device is exhibited now in the theater as some attraction for visitors, calm and harmless. But some questions still remains unanswered. There is powerful masonic Lodge, with some agent in Babbage. There are remaining members of “The Thirteen” club of scientists, and I wonder – what if some of them will be able to repair the device? And there is of course Van Greed. Several days after the horror above Babbage was defeated, Bow Street police received the footage of the vortex, together with note: “To The Mayor of New Babbage – Best Regards from the Van Greed Society”. Which means some of society members must have been in Babbage at that time...


The Van Greed Footage

And there is another thing which disturbs me a little: the body of Jason Moriarty was never found...
(the end)

Murder in Babbage - Grande Finale

So it is over. At least I think so. And since all Babbage has seen it on that day, up in the skies, I feel I should try to recollect here what exactly happened. I've spoken to orphans, Myrtil, McKay and Loki, and to other people, and here is the chain of events of that day as I understood them...


There was a town meeting in the evening, as every other month, but today it was held under the Babbage square in the engine hall. And while we, citizens of Babbage, were listening Mayor's assurance the Eliot's device is kept safe and guarded in Bow Street police department, the real Eliot's device was at that very moment in the secret room under the floor of the Imperial theater. I still don't know how has Jason Moriarty found all three parts of the device, but one was given to him by McKay Beck, as an exchange for the life of Victor Wunderlich aka Ally Wunder, whom Moriarty has kidnapped. In that secret room, Moriarty plugged the device, fueled now by human blood, into the big mechanism under the theater. I was true – the Moriarty's painting in Absinthe house was really portrait of Eliot's device, connected to this big machinery and fueled by human essence. It wasn't symbolic painting, it was almost an operating instructions!


So while we were listening to Mayor, Moriarty was working, trying to open the gate and bring the old gods into our world. The Eliot's device was the most important part, but it worked only connected to the Imperial theater. Not only the big machinery in the attic floor, but all the pipes and forcers, covered by dust, all those old distribution systems everybody ignored, because Babbage is full of stuff like that, even the old projector and screen... I'm sure no one has ever seen the theater working as a theater. As a matter of fact, the whole building was designed by prof. Eliot to multiply the effect of his invention, and open the gate. Now is clear why Reifsnider and The Grand Lodge wanted to tear down the theater so bad.
The building was the gate.


And so we saw it, the monstrous vortex raising from the old theater, beam of energy of unbelievable powers. I just stood there with the others, unable to think of anything I could do to stop it. And then McKay told me Prof Nishi is inside, with Moriarty, helping him to open the gate! I couldn't believe that! She couldn't be traitor! Or could she? Was I wrong all the time about her?
But I had no time for thoughts like that. In the center of the vortex, something appeared. Something big, a monstrous cluster of tentacles... The Old Gods were coming!


People, standing on the streets, sitting on the rooftops, were in shock. Some of them tried to fight this monstrosity; Miss Frye was shooting at it, Mr. Mayo used some kind of his peculiar magic, Mr. Shepherd with his new aircraft tried to get closer... all without any result. Even worse: two other, smaller monsters appeared and begun to hunt the Babbage streets... We were doomed.

We heard Moriarty shouting at Prof. Nishi something that they can be stopped, then Prof. Nishi's voice ordered everybody leaving the theater. And then, with huge explosion from inside the theater, the vortex and the big monster disappeared.
But those two lesser monsters still hovered above Babbage streets! And again – no one was capable to defeat them, until Prof. Nishi appeared above the roof of theater. She looked... different. Like she was some creature from another world herself...

She started to fight those monsters. She used something like blasts of very powerful energy... but those creatures were though ones. And whole Babbage just stood there, breathless, and watched those unbelievable duel.
Suddenly, it was over. The monsters were gone, sky was clear again, and Prof Nishi was falling down from those height, exhausted, probably unconsciousness. She hit the pavement hard, and the crowd gathered around her. She looked dead, laying there, fragile and broken, her hair turned completely white.


But thanks God, she was alive, and her friends took her to the museum to take some rest. There were no more Old gods coming, no vortex of energy, no Moriarty.
The Babbage was safe.
(to be continued)

Murder in Babbage - part eleven

I'm not very much in Babbage these days and I'm afraid I'm loosing touch with the latest events . It's hard to recollect what happened recently, since I know only tiny bits of the story...
Victor Wunderlich is missing, kidnapped by Jason Moriarty. It's the worst new I've heard today. Not only one part of Eliot's device is probably in the hands of Moriarty right now, but the child could be already dead, in the light of the facts I've learned recently...
Moriarty's lair in MaYifu Arcade was discovered by prof Nishi and Miss Paine, several days ago, hidden in a narrow space behind a fake wall in the back of one shop. On the walls there hanged photographs of children, together with disturbing drawing of a monster not unlike some giant octopus... I remembered notes about Old gods in all letters relating to Jason Moriarty, and one book I've red which lies in the attic above my little photographic gallery in Canals now. Old gods... if this is what Jason Moriarty really wants to bring into our world, then... then God help us all.


In the back of the room also the diary of Jason Moriarty was found, lying still there when I visited the place. While reading it, my most terrible fears was proved true. And although I felt almost sorry for him, I knew one thing: Jason Moriarty should be stopped.
He was a street child back then when he was helping Prof Eliot with his experiments, and almost like son to the old man. They were exploring some “Blood Mechanicals theory”, suggesting that manipulating with certain elements of human blood can drastically improve human abilities... and in Moriarty's case they were improved for sure, turning him into werewolf. He used orphans for his experiments, experiments with his own, smaller version of Eliot's device... And it's possible those experiments were killing them...


I still don't see the connection between Blood Mechanicals theory and Eliot's device. But one thing is for sure: it's hard to say when Jason's insanity began, but he wants to use Eliot's device to open the gate and bring the Old gods to this world, since he sees some relation between them and his lycantrophy. And he probably will need some children to do it. And I remember blood marks on the walls of the old theater, blood spilled on Jason's painting in Absinthe house... and writing on the wall here, made by blood, saying “I am ready to unveil the truth”...


(to be continued)

Murder in Babbage - part ten

Last night, there was another death in Babbage. In the gallery of the old Imperial theater the body of Edler Reifsnider, the old man who ordered demolition of the theater, was found, hanged, but again - knife stabbed in his back. Seems the old Opera house is safe from a demolition for a while, but, no matter how rude that old man was, it shouldn't have ended like that... Refsnider tried to hang himself before, but Mayor cut him down, saying only “he didn't want to play this way”. McKay told me about last evening, since I wasn't there at the time. There was some fighting, arguing, shouting... Three notes was found near the body, correspondence between Reifsnider and some masonic “Grand Lodge”. When I went there the other day to see the place of the murder, I found a card lying on the floor, proving Edler Reifsnider was detective of their masonic investigative department.

The letters brought some new informations. Maybe it's good moment to summarize it all, hope this will help me, since I'm getting lost again, walking in circles:

The Grand Lodge. Powerful society, they financed Elliot's experiments as a part of “The Thirteen” group of scientists. They want to find the device and destroy it. (Refsnider shouting at Prof Nishi overheard by Loki - “when it happens, and by god it will happen, no one can stop it” - seems now more like warning than threatening.) They have agents, two of them dead in Caledon already, but at least one in Babbage, woman, still unknown. Refsnider was their agent too, entrusted to arrange the demolition of the theater. Because of the paintings on the walls? Could someone learn something from them? Or is there some bigger secret hidden in the walls of the theater? I've looked there for some part of the Porta Terrarum device and found nothing, but it doesn't mean it's not there somewhere...

“The Thirteen”. Group of scientists, financed by the Grand Lodge, Prof. Eliot was one of them. They believed in pure scientific explanation of all. For them, Elliot's device was a way how to find a new unlimited materials for industry. The disaster at Sunrise probably killed some of them, but several stay hidden somewhere. They have sent Giles Canning to Babbage, to find some parts of the device, with list of people he should have contact, probably. In my opinion, they want to find the device and continue the experiments, but I don't quite believe they would be able to kill for it.

Van Greed society. Still mystery to me. Elliot was frightened of them, so is The Grand Lodge, they killed two of their agents in Caledon, maybe they are behind the murders here in Babbage. Most dangerous player here, because nothing is known of them...

Jason Moriarty. Former participator of Eliot's experiments, suffering from some sort of side effects, probably lycantrophy. He started experiments of his own, but involving mysticism and “Old Gods”, unlike “The Thirteen”, who believed in pure science and decided to get rid of him, maybe even kill him. He wants the device for his own experiments, which, in my opinion, could be extremely dangerous, if the indications about “old Gods” are true...

Prof. Nishi. Again a little mystery to me, but she seems to gather a group of people around her who are trying... what exactly are they trying to do? I don't know, but I hope they are doing the right thing. Maybe I'll have to just ask her, as she told me once... And Babbage orphans do believe her, and that's most important for me.

But, as always, everything said above could be just my speculation...

(to be continued)

Murder in Babbage - part nine

The week off Babbage cleared my mind a little bit. There were several things at the evening at Loki's absinthe house I almost forgot... When Victor Wunderlich arrived, Loki called him “Ally”, while Victor obviously didn't liked it very much. That means Victor Wunderlich and Ally Wunder are one and the same person, the orphan who should have delivered part of Elliot device to Caledon contact, probably to Mr. Canning. Unfortunately Victor vanished again...
Before my leave I've talked with Shay, one of the orphans who also tries to find out what's happening here. According to him the Eliot device found in Prof. Nishi's laboratory is fake, and I agree. But still – nobody hasn't seen even one part of the true Porta Terrarum device, as far as I know...


After a week of traveling, I've returned to Babbage and found the old Opera house, assigned to demolition just before my leave by some man I've never heard of, still there, open again. As I've learned from Loki whom I've met shortly after my arrival, together with Mr. Vella, Miss Rossini and Shay McDowwll, there were an incident in Opera house, when Edler Reifsnider, the same man who ordered demolition, threatened orphans and claimed he is the proper owner of the Opera house, even after mayor Sprocket denominated his documents as a forgery. There were even some fight, and if Prof. Nishi would not intervene, it may have ended rather nasty...
But one thing is bothering me: Loki heard Reifsnider shouting at Prof. Nishi “when it happens, and by god it will happen, no one can stop it”. And I'm thinking of someone wanting Elliot's device, which is probably capable to open a gate between worlds, so much that he has killed two people already. And I'm thinking about letter on the back of the Moriarty painting, speaking about old gods... And I'm afraid. Afraid that the best thing anyone can do if the Porta Terrarum device would be found is to destroy it once for all...
(to be continued)