London Times - And They Lived Happily Ever After
1 February 1892 - London, England
It has been nearly two weeks since the explosion of The Christabel just outside of New Harbor on the Thames, an event which still has the city of London buzzing. Your rescue from the river has largely been kept quiet by the press, and you are staying secretly at the newly opened St. James Hotel in Piccadilly, courtesy of the Crown. With impeccable service and discretion, your wounds are healing and your strength returning. The nightmare images have been slow to fade - especially for Colonel Deasy, but your spirits are high.
Tabloid rumors of tentacled sea monsters being spotted in the Thames contrast sharply with the scientific announcements promoting discovery of a large sea squid being sucked into the river during a great storm several weeks ago. A headline about unnaturally large chub being pulled from the river near the Shadwell Docks caught the attention of local media, with several eye witnesses claiming that a two-headed carp was snagged in that same area.
Apart from fire that ravaged two warehouses and a flop house in the Lower Shadwell Docks, there have been no further instances of arson. The papers do not seem to have connected the fires at Monkshood Manor and Gaylord's Auction House, although the police have pieced together the evidence.
Scotland Yard has internally cleared your group of all wrong doing, awarding a civilian medal to Colonel Deasy for his acts of bravery in bringing down the cabal known as the Haunting Hand. Tutbury has been secured, and the remains of Constable White and the cultists from the battles at the Hardwicke Estate and the Tutbury Stone Circle have been returned to London for identification.
Privately, Inspector Smythe tells you that the four cultists (Hopkins, Weston, Ginger and Hyde) have been transferred to solitary confinement cells at Dartmoor Prison in Devonshire. There, they are undergoing interrogation and psychological investigation to learn more about the organization's secret plans - although nothing has been learned to date.
Out of hiding, Eldon Graves was made the ward for Lyla Monkshood by the courts - until the time of her eighteenth birthday. The Monkshood Estate is undergoing significant renovations, and is expected to be habitable by springtime. Lyla has invited each of you to take rooms in the new manor house when it opens. Secretly, she has asked Georgina to tutor her to become an archaeologist, as the young girl has suddenly found a passion for the subject. She has also agreed to allow Robert to keep the Monkshead Cloak and Colonel Deasy the Monkshead Ring. Jeevers was discharged from his duties as groundskeeper and has disappeared.
There has been no word from Quentin Watson. His shop remains closed.
Dr. Theo L. Vines has opened a new office on Whitechapel Road across from the London Hospital - near his old practice but in a much more upscale building. In a private note, he tells you the code of knocks to get into the back door.
