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WESLEY'S DIARY - PART 1
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CONSTANTINOPLE - FEBURUARY 20th 1923
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Steamy Beylab at the Turkish baths We have an appointment with the notorious criminal Beylab the Perspirer in the Turkish baths. Apparently, he can provide us with the information we require to locate the missing children and possibly the scrolls that we still require, and besides, he likes foreigners because they pay more. So they idea is that we meet this fellow in a steam bath au naturell with naught but a damp towel for defense. Nevertheless, our quest has taken on an edge of desperation, particularly as it is now nearing its conclusion, whereby it is deemed wise to walk wide-eyed into any trap set for us by maniacal cultists, insane political fanatics, or psychopathic criminals.  Turkish Baths Contingency plans are laid, Trent Duxford is to wait outside in the getaway automobile with Donolly for company; whilst Gregor and the Hindoo take their time in the locker room (with weapons to hand) so that they can be the immediate back-up to Simon Grand and Irma Bloomberg who have graciously agreed to walk into the lion's den as Adam and Eve into the garden of paradise. For myself, I am accompanied by the ever-helpful and ever-present Feyal to the Topkapi museum, where he will function as my guiding light through the labyrinthine records held there. Following recent events, I have no desire today to walk into a trap as obvious as this one. So what I now tell was related to me after the event by my companions who survived.  Topkapi Museum Beylab the perspirer expires Discussions with Beylab proceed cordially enough and Irma and Simon feel like they are making progress, until Beylab suddenly has his throat slit by a cultist and all hell breaks loose. Gregor and the Hindoo hear screams and the signal for action: three blasts of a whistle. They burst into the chamber and witness a scene of horror. Beylab the Perspirer has perspired himself into a giant mound of cooked flesh hell bent on embracing and consuming whoever is within reach of his molten mounds of flesh. The scene which unfolds before the Hindoo sends the oriental instantly insane as he flees in terror from the scene after being unceremoniously splattered with the brains of a cultist who made the fatal error of attempting to prevent Grand leaving the steam room, failing to notice his concealed pistol. There are many dead and dying within the hothouse of horror, boiled and burnt, or enveloped by the creeping, slopping animated skin of Beylab. Irma, naked but for a shotgun, manages to blast the hideous creature - sensing that it can indeed be conventionally destroyed he quickly dresses and returns with colleagues and ammunition and the creature is destroyed. A quick getaway ensues, avoiding any unpleasantness with the local law enforcement. The last thing that Beylab the Perspirer uttered?  Beylab the Perspirer's Last Words
This can only mean one thing. We must search the last resting place of the Kurdish scholar Garaznet. To be continued. |
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