Editing The Second Startling Story!

===THE HAND OF THE DEMON===
[[Image:Handofthedemon.gif|thumb|288px|Cover for "The Hand of the Demon"]]

* '''Part 1 - Graves in the Mist''' <br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Their investigation in Vienna over, our [[Intrepid Explorers]] briefly part ways to work on private projects.  [[Dr. Bermuda]] and [[Lord John Stevens]] return to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London London], where the former holes up in his lab to finalize plans for the rocket plane he and [[Dr. Henri Coanda]] had begun working on while the later gives a series of short (and poorly received) lectures on [[Animals world wide|animal rights]].  [[Charles "Charlie" Desgrange|Charlie Desgrange]] visits [[Helga Dietrich]], the young wife of his enemy [[Rheinholdt Dietrich|Reinholdt]], in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin Berlin] to see if she can shed light on the German air ace's current activities.  Though she tells her paramour everything she knows, Charlie finds his best information from a series of photos of Rienholdt and friends and a flight log-book in the man's study.  Meanwhile [[The Rabbit]], acting on his growing suspicion of [[The Lazarus Trust|his employers]], begins to track down some of the men who've worked for them over the years and since left, meeting with mixed results.  Finally, [[Brendan Lewis Cook]] heads for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantinople Constantinople] where he gets in touch with several acquaintences to pave the way for the next leg of his and his friends' journey.  <br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Their individual exploits complete, the group gathers together in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romania Romania], where they hope to meet with [[Ruthven Vaneko]], a man that Rabbit met at [[Joseph Dippel|Dippel's]] party in hopes of learning more about Dippel.  Though Ruthven is easy to find and makes the group welcome in his home, it's clear that the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyar boyar]is a little... off.  Our heroes meet him first in his family cemetary, kneeling at the foot of a massive angel statue that marks the grave of his parents.  Nearby is a second grave, this one open, that Vaneko explains is waiting for him.  As Vaneko leads the investigators back to his manor, a clock strikes midnight, even though it's only half past eight.  Vaneko reveals that the clock was his fathers and later elaborates that it was broken the night his parents were murdered and he leaves it in that state as a reminder of the impermanence of time. <br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Things get no more normal once inside Vaneko's manor, where a heated iron mud-grate at the entrance seems to open onto a pit that serves as a kennel, judging by the sounds of the howls (even though Vaneko claims to have no pets), a rear hall contains the reconstructed bones of a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyranosaurus_Rex Tyranosaurus] (labelled Dracul, or "Dragon") and our heroes meet Vaneko's five adopted orphan children (3 boys, 2 girls, aged 8 through 16, all with black hair and hollow eyes).  In the hour leading up to dinner, Vaneko is happy to talk about his past association with Dippel.  He had provided Dippel with abundant amounts of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfur sulfur] from his mines in exchange for the Doctor's promise that he would find a way to raise Vaneko's parents from the dead.  When Dippel seemed to have abandoned this project, Vaneko cut off his sulfur supply, to Dippel's rage.  Vaneko now believes that Dippel wants him dead. <br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Dinner over, Vaneko excuses himself to take care of business, promising to collect the investigators the next day for a tour of the mine.  Meanwhile, he says, they can have the run of the house.  John Stevens takes him at his work and attempts to pry loose the mud-grate in the main hall.  He strains his arm, however, at the thing's weight and gives up for the evening.


* '''Part 2 - The Color of Fire''' <br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The next morning, heading for the sulfer mine, our explorers pile into two cars along with Vaneko and three out of his five wards; missing are Janos, the middle boy, and Bareta, the older girl who's gone to look for him.  En route to the mine, Dr. Bermuda and the Rabbit note that the wheat in Vankeo's fields bears a striking resemblance to Dippel's [[Nutriwheat]].  They ask Vaneko about it and he confirms that the wheat comes from the Doctor, but that it wouldn't take root until his new scientist continued to refine its breeding.  This new scientist, a British-educated Indian man named Vasuki, is also at work on the problem of Vaneko's parents. <br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Soon after the group arrives at the mine, but before they can enter, Vaneko's called away to town on business.  He leaves Timaeus, the youngest boy, to lead the mine tour in his place.  Once inside, though, the strangest thing the group finds is Bareta, cradling a shoe.  She explains that the shoe is Janos' and that he's crawled down a hole in the mine too thin for any but a small boy to follow.  A small boy, or the Rabbit.  <br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Rabbit disengages from his suit, to Timaeus' delight, and crawls down the hole.  It goes on for what seems like miles before coming up in a small cell, the ceiling of which is a metal grate - the very one that serves as the floor in Vankeo's main hall!  Rabbit has indeed found Janos, his eyes pushed in and his cheeks ripped open in a bloody parody of a smile; he's also found Janos' killer, a painfully thin man with skin white from lack of sun and moss growing into his hair.  Knowing that his velveteen form is no match for a grown man, Rabbit flees back the way he came, only to be followed, somehow, by the madman.  <br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Meanwhile, Vaneko has returned to the mine, citing his business in town as finished.  As our heros explain where the Rabbit, and possibly Janos, has gone, all hear a loud clanking from above.  Cook, Charlie and Vaneko rush up to investigate only to discover the gate locked and a pair of armed [[The Janissaries|Janissaries]] taking aim at Vaneko.  Though their initial volleys miss their target, the hot lead strikes the sulfer in the walls, leading to an explosion that knocks Charlie and Vanekp flat.  Summoned by the noise, John Stevens, Dr. Bermuda and Timaeus rush up to the first level of the mine and, as still more Jannisaries pour out of the crevasses, the battle is joined! <br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Below, Rabbit crawls out of the hole and reclaims his body.  Using his always-ready supply of bourbon and his lighter, he causes the sulfer to spark, collapsing the tunnel and blocking off his pursuer.  Then, he rushes above to aid his fellows against the last of the Jannisaries as the mine burns.  The battle over, Charlie and Cook rush the injured Vaneko back to his manor while the rest of the team assesses the situation; each of the 18 Janissaries is armed with three new Webley revolvers, suggesting a possible link to [[Adem Sengul]], the Turkish merchant the investigators met on the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriental_Express Orient Express] en route to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna Vienna] who was transporting crates full of similar guns. <br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Later that evening, the Rabbit tells Vaneko about the loss of Janos.  Vaneko, in his turn, asks the explorers to stay until evening for the funeral.  When night falls, Vaneko's eulogy for the boy is short and sweet: "He was a good soldier.  He honored me.  But the war goes on."  As Didu and Timaeus fill in the grave - a grave dug by Janos himself and originally intended for Vaneko - the Romanian lord asks the explorers if, as his proxies, they'll be willing to track down the Janissaries and put a stop to their assaults.


* '''Part 3 - The Ladder and the Scale''' <br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"It's a good thing Master Ruthven isn't going to track down the Janissaries himself; that would be like leaving the henhouse door open for the fox to come in."  With those cryptic words from Vaneko's ward, Timaeus, following them, our explorers leave for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%B0stanbul Constantinople].  On arrival, Cook leads them to meet with a group of his allies, the Volkyi Senezhka ("snow wolves," in Russian): [[Anya Nezvanova]], [[Aleksandra Danilova]] and [[Maria Fyodorovna]].  As the group acquaints themselves with the girls, Maria leads Charlie into another room and applies a still secret technique to his injuries; he falls into a dreamless sleep and heals.  <br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Realizing that they have two avenues that demand quick investigation, the group opts to split up, with Dr. Bermuda, Cook and Anya continuing with the original plan of going to Georgia to investigate [[Ilya Ivanov]]'s Soviet-sponsored experiments with interbreeding men and apes and with Charlie, Rabbit, Aleksandra and Maria heading to Sengul's [[Sengul Ranch|ranch]] to see what he knows about the Janissaries.  Unfortunately, Charlie telegrams the turk ahead of time and, when the investigators arrive, Sengul is free with his hospitality but keeps his secrets close.  He does not afford them the opportunity to explore, but Rabbit nevertheless observes that the dates Sengul claims come from Ankara are actually grown on Cyprus and the cotton suit he says was woven in Basara is actually from Cairo.  <br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Meanwhile, in Georgia, Cook has enacted his plan.  With Dr. Bermuda in a false cage and disguised as a yeti and Anya, curiously, waiting outside, Cook blusters his way past Ivanov's soldiers and, through a series of bold insinuations, convinces Ivanov that Stalin suspects him of treason and that the scientist should "take the honorable way out." 


* '''Part 4 - Secrets Gardens''' <br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;As Rabbit, Charlie and company prepare to leave Sengul's ranch, the turk hugs the steel detective close and whispers in his ear.  "Please pursue your researches no further, my friend," he says, "for Allah's soldiers are the spirits of air and flame, and I would hate for you to get burned."  Rabbit, for his part, uses the moment of intimacy to form a mesmeritic, if temporary, bond between the two - one that will allow Rabbit to know of Sengul's movements for a short while to come.  The group continues on to their next desination, Cyprus, after a quick stop at a local British army base for some faster transportation. <br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Meanwhile, in Georgia, Dr. Bermuda examines Ivanov's lab.  He discovers an insemination schedule for the apes and a series of strange artifacts.  There's a bit of [[Steviomium]], previously unseen outside of the hands of John Stevens, that may come from Siberia, some Nutriwheat, some sulfer and a wall map with three locations marked and noted.  One of these are a set of coordinates that correspond with Tunguska (marked as a possible "aperture"),  another is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevsky_Prospekt #32 Nevsky Prospect] (marked with the note "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amber_Room Amber Room] - [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-point_energy zero-point] aperture?") and the third is a series of coordinates - 9° 21' N, 12° 46' W - in Africa (marked simply "Oliver's city?"  Attached to the map near this last mark are two pictures, depicting a medical theater and people encased in strange metalic tubes with glass viewports.  <br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Stranger than all of this, though, is the discovery of one of the [http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Terra_Occulta#Journals_of_the_Lazarus_Trust Journals of the Lazarus Trust], dated to the Spring of 1913.  Dr. Bermuda reads a story there, written by one [[Michael Oliver]], about a supposed "city of simians" in Africa, a story penned by [[Jean Paul Renaud]] (who our investigators last saw on the Orient Express, claiming to be a Gendarme) and a story of a strange drought in the Three Nagas Valley.  <br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Owing to Cook's travel prowess, he and the rest soon catch up with the Cyprus team to continue that half of the investigation.


* '''Part 5 - A Touch of Thunder''' <br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Doctor Bermuda was the first to jump into action; he threw a stone with his prehensile feet, aiming straight for a pressure point on the neck of the janissary holding Maria in his grasp.  But there was a crack in the air and the stone shattered to pieces, blown apart by an expert shot from above.  Lord John, Cook and Anya soon threw themselves into the fray as well, but quickly found that these janissaries were more puissant thand their already-fallen brothers; the assassins kept our heroes at bay long enough for one to slash his knife across Maria's throat! <br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Meanwhile, in the waters below, Aleksandra and the Rabbit find that the strange cargo cruiser has sent a motorboat out to meet them.  Boatmen take them aboard the cruiser and, when the Rabbit asks to meet the captain, they bring out a large, bald Arabic man who identifies himself as Lurk, welcomes the pair as guests, and tells them that he's been asked to take them to his master.  With a blast of its steam whistle, the cruiser sets sail. <br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Back above, our heroes dispatch the remaining janissaries with minor injuries and find Maria weak from loss of blood but still alive; the mysterious sniper is gone.  When they explore the compound, they find the same underground quay the Rabbit had found earlier, and the same nine guards, now set to take off in a motorboat.  They're captured following swift action by Dr. Bermuda and, though the majority die by their own hand, the simian scientist manages to keep one from killing himself long enough for Maria to put her newly-regained mesmeritic power to use in the ensuing interrogation.  The fallen janissary soon reveals that this compound was a training and deployment ground for janissaries and that it has one mirror, in Marrakech.  Further, he confesses that Adem Sengul is but the voice of a greater master, who dwells in Cairo, where the cargo cruiser is even now speeding the Rabbit!  Most horrible of all, the janissary tells his interrogators that the master is most likely to be found in the Muhammed Ali Mosque, the very Cairo headquarters of the Lazarus Trust! <br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;On a plane borrowed from the local British forces, the explorers beat the Rabbit to Cairo.  Cook heads immediately for the Trust's offices while Dr. Bermuda and Maria await the Rabbit's arrival and Lord Stevens and Anya distract themselves at the market.  To his surprise, Cook finds all three leaders of the Trust present in Cairo - not only local branch head [[Zaim al Mareet]], but also their direct supervisor [[S. Wilson Rosepere]] and the head of the American office, [[Alek Waburg]]; they're busily selecting stories for the Summer 1924 edition of the Journals, due out next month.  Scattered across their table are their samples, including our own heroes' stories of their rescue of the Naga Crown and [[The First Fantastic Feature|The Seed of Madness]].  Also present is the curious tale of a transient point in space from which all others are visible and suggestions of how to find other such points or where they might next appear. <br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Meanwhile, Lord Stevens shows the merchants at the bazzar that animals are not just mindless beasts and also manages to annoy Anya with his talk of gun karma.  "If you use a gun, you will have what you love taken from you by guns," he says.  Anya's voice turns to ice as she responds: "I lost everything precious in this world in a hail of bullets.  Do not lecture me on the evils of guns; you could not understand the pain they've caused me.  But that doesn't make them a less useful tool."  At the same time, back at the docks, Rabbit and Aleksandra disembark and, lead by Lurk and secretly followed by Dr. Bermuda and Maria, they soon reach the Trust's headquarters. <br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;A short round of introductions and miscommunications follow, but soon the whole group (minus Anya) is upstairs for Zaim's startling revelation; ''he'' is the master of the janissaries and he has trained them to fanatical focus for the express purpose of killing Ruthven Vaneko!  "I regret that you were caught in the crossfire; it was never my intention to harm my friends.  But you must understand: Vaneko is a demon.  He drinks the blood of the innocent, he is possessed of unholy strength, he cannot abide the touch of the holy.  Allah has given me a vision of this and as I am his servant, I must see Vaneko stopped." <br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The investigators are baffled, but not skeptical; Rosepere is outraged.  Though the team wants to further investigate, to return to Romania and delve deeper into Vaneko's dealings, Rosepere grimly tells them he'll deal with that himself as he has some different research in mind for them.  "How do you boys feel about going to the colonies," he asks, "there's something strange going on in a little New England town called Innsmouth."


==Terra Occulta==
* '''[[The First Fantastic Feature!]]''' - THE SEED of MADNESS
* '''The Second Startling Story!''' - THE HAND of the DEMON
* '''[[The Third Terrific Tale!]]''' - THE SHADOW of INNSMOUTH
* '''[[The Fourth Fabulous Fiction!]]''' - 

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[[Terra Occulta]]
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−	* '''Part 4 - ~~Secret~~ Gardens''' <br>    As Rabbit, Charlie and company prepare to leave Sengul's ranch, the turk hugs the steel detective close and whispers in his ear. "Please pursue your researches no further, my friend," he says, "for Allah's soldiers are the spirits of air and flame, and I would hate for you to get burned." Rabbit, for his part, uses the moment of intimacy to form a mesmeritic, if temporary, bond between the two - one that will allow Rabbit to know of Sengul's movements for a short while to come. The group continues on to their next desination, Cyprus, after a quick stop at a local British army base for some faster transportation. <br>    Meanwhile, in Georgia, Dr. Bermuda examines Ivanov's lab. He discovers an insemination schedule for the apes and a series of strange artifacts. There's a bit of [[Steviomium]], previously unseen outside of the hands of John Stevens, that may come from Siberia, some Nutriwheat, some sulfer and a wall map with three locations marked and noted. One of these are a set of coordinates that correspond with Tunguska (marked as a possible "aperture"), another is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevsky_Prospekt #32 Nevsky Prospect] (marked with the note "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amber_Room Amber Room] - [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-point_energy zero-point] aperture?") and the third is a series of coordinates - 9° 21' N, 12° 46' W - in Africa (marked simply "Oliver's city?" Attached to the map near this last mark are two pictures, depicting a medical theater and people encased in strange metalic tubes with glass viewports. Stranger than all of this, though, is the discovery of one of the [http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Terra_Occulta#Journals_of_the_Lazarus_Trust Journals of the Lazarus Trust], dated to the Spring of 1913. Dr. Bermuda reads a story there, written by one [[Michael Oliver]], about a supposed "city of simians" in Africa, a story penned by [[Jean Paul Renaud]] (who our investigators last saw on the Orient Express, claiming to be a Gendarme) and a story of a strange drought in the [[Three Nagas Valley~~]], among others. With all of this information in hand, the Georgia team departs~~. <br>    Owing to Cook's travel prowess, he and the rest soon catch up with the Cyprus team to continue that half of the investigation. After a day of trailing the rare rose dates, grown only on Cyprus, that Sengul had served at his ranch, the group arrives at an enclosed monastery. That night, Aleksandra carries Rabbit inside to explore while the rest of the group waits for a signal of danger from without. The explorers quickly discover that all is not as it seems; though ostensibly a monastery, the place lacks and of the appropriate iconography, scripture or study rooms and the supposed monks travel armed and as if on guard. It's soon clear that these aren't monks at all, but simply Janissaries in clever disguise! <br>    Rabbit takes down one of the janissaries to advance deeper into their lair, where he and Aleksandra soon discover a hidden cove beneath the monastary and, waiting offshore, a cargo cruiser. This discovery is not without its price, however, as the pair attracts the attention of the janissary guards and their bullets. <br>    However, the prone body soon attracts the attention of several wandering guards and the entire monastery jumps up to arms. Seeing the monk's consternation, Charlie, Doctor Bermuda and Anya spring into action, laying down fire and driving the revealed janissaries into the shadows. However, something about the monastery interferes with Maria's mystic powers and she hides, defenseless, behind a tree. Regardless, most of the janissaries are soon either dead or under cover, but as the group outside turns to decide what to do next, they discover a group of janissaries holding Maria at knife point!	+	* '''Part 4 - Secrets Gardens''' <br>    As Rabbit, Charlie and company prepare to leave Sengul's ranch, the turk hugs the steel detective close and whispers in his ear. "Please pursue your researches no further, my friend," he says, "for Allah's soldiers are the spirits of air and flame, and I would hate for you to get burned." Rabbit, for his part, uses the moment of intimacy to form a mesmeritic, if temporary, bond between the two - one that will allow Rabbit to know of Sengul's movements for a short while to come. The group continues on to their next desination, Cyprus, after a quick stop at a local British army base for some faster transportation. <br>    Meanwhile, in Georgia, Dr. Bermuda examines Ivanov's lab. He discovers an insemination schedule for the apes and a series of strange artifacts. There's a bit of [[Steviomium]], previously unseen outside of the hands of John Stevens, that may come from Siberia, some Nutriwheat, some sulfer and a wall map with three locations marked and noted. One of these are a set of coordinates that correspond with Tunguska (marked as a possible "aperture"), another is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevsky_Prospekt #32 Nevsky Prospect] (marked with the note "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amber_Room Amber Room] - [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-point_energy zero-point] aperture?") and the third is a series of coordinates - 9° 21' N, 12° 46' W - in Africa (marked simply "Oliver's city?" Attached to the map near this last mark are two pictures, depicting a medical theater and people encased in strange metalic tubes with glass viewports. <br>    Stranger than all of this, though, is the discovery of one of the [http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Terra_Occulta#Journals_of_the_Lazarus_Trust Journals of the Lazarus Trust], dated to the Spring of 1913. Dr. Bermuda reads a story there, written by one [[Michael Oliver]], about a supposed "city of simians" in Africa, a story penned by [[Jean Paul Renaud]] (who our investigators last saw on the Orient Express, claiming to be a Gendarme) and a story of a strange drought in the Three Nagas Valley. <br>    Owing to Cook's travel prowess, he and the rest soon catch up with the Cyprus team to continue that half of the investigation.