Achtung Cthulhu: the Sleepers of Ephesus (Part I)

This is a quick summary of the first part of an Achtung Cthulhu scenario I wrote which I am currently running on Roll20. The adventure is set in May 1940. It opens in Cairo, with a briefing held between SIS agent Henry "Hotspur" Smythe-Barrington, and members of Section M, part of the MI6 establishment in Egypt. Hotspur knows of Section M as being some form of shadowy occult propaganda unit attached to the secret intelligence service.

Hotspur is shown some ancient stone tablets which the British Museum has recently acquired from a black market antiquities dealer in Istanbul called Dominic Paraboli. Although this was technically an illegal deal involving Roman artefacts from Turkey, Section M's primary interest is in the strange glyphs covering the tablets. Very similar glyphs were found on the fragments of a stone circle which Section M believes was destroyed by a German landing party in Scotland in December 1939.

For further information on that incident, the stone circle, and why it was destroyed, read here.

The stone circle is currently being reconstructed by British Museum experts in Edinburgh. Section M asks Hotspur to go to Istanbul and find out where Paraboli obtained the tablets. To help him with this, he is to reactivate Pasha Cell, an old spy ring from the days of the Great War. British Intelligence has not used these agents since 1921, but Section M is hopeful they will cooperate.

Hotspur travels by train through Palestine and Syria to get to Istanbul. Once there he uses an advertisement in Turkish newspapers which is the code to reactivate the cell and set up a meet in the Square of the Peacock in Istanbul. This is a small, deserted - and very fictional - square where Hotspur meets at midnight with two members of the cell, namely smuggler Turhan Demir, and doctor Yusuf Ozmir. 

Also present is student Ismet Saka, whose father Burak Saka was an army officer and cell member - Burak died in 1937. Ismet has decided to come in his place having successfully decoded his father's diaries and learned of his espionage activities.

Missing from the meeting are the other cell members, Serdar Aydin and Refset Ozalp. Aydin is known to run an antiques shop in the Grand Bazaar and Ozalp is thought to be still serving as a policeman. Hotspur explains to the cell his requirements, and they decide to move immediately to the house of Paraboli, whom Demir is familiar with already as part of his antiquities smuggling activities.

After much debate on the best course of action (with Ozmir very much against breaking in), Demir hammers on Paraboli's front door, waking up the Frenchman. He seems relatively happy to welcome the strangers into his home, where he makes a late night coffee for them.

Paraboli is initially reluctant to discuss the origin of the tablets, but he is greedy, and hard currency bribes from Hotspur eventually cause him to reveal that he bought the tablets from a black marketeer in Izmir called Fevzi Bele. But something is obviously bothering Paraboli, and he eventually reluctantly reveals that there was a Miskatonic University dig in the ruins of Ephesus, near Izmir, in the summer of 1939. All the archaeologists vanished and are presumed to have been murdered by bandits.

The spies leave Paraboli's house and resolve to meet for breakfast the next day. Ozmir returns to his house where he encounters Ozalp, waiting for him in his darkened living room. Ozalp knows that Pasha cell has been reactivated. Ozmir tells him about the British mission. Ozalp asks him to stay part of the team and report back to him on developments. He gives him a revolver and a telephone number to contact him on. He tells the doctor that Turkey is in a precarious position and needs to try to stay out of the current conflict happening in Western Europe. Ozmir agrees.

In the morning the team meet for breakfast. Demir helps them to tool up with weapons from his illegal stash of firearms. They decide to do some research on the Miskatonic University expedition at the public library. Here they discover that there were four archaeologists, led by Professor Atticus Frith, who was professor of ancient Roman history at Miskatonic. He was assisted by three graduate students, Barry Carter, Augustus Heck, and Marianne Chaste. Oddly, Chaste was not in Izmir when the other three vanished, but was on a research trip to Athens, although she too seems to have disappeared. Both Turkish police and US diplomats seem to have agreed that bandits interested in stealing artefacts and treasure probably murdered the archaeologists.

The group decides to book passage on a ferry to Izmir, which takes the best part of 24 hours. Hotspur reflects on his tank commander brother, now facing the German onslaught in France, as he sips a gin and tonic on the deck of the ferry and watches the sun-dappled Turkish coast slide past.

In Izmir Demir uses his local contact to set up a meeting with Bele in a restaurant in the centre of town. Bele arrives with a couple of bodyguards. He is reluctant to talk about the tablets and is obviously very frightened of something. He tells the investigators he subscribes to the bandit theory as the likely fate of the American expedition, but they can tell he is lying. He hurriedly leaves, telling them to leave the whole thing alone if they know what's good for them!

Demir decides to probe his local contacts further, and they provide him with a guide who can show him the location of the dig site. They also tell him that Bele was in fact responsible for organising labour for the excavation as well. A taxi is hired and the team travels out to a cliff on the edge of the ruins of the old Roman city. Here they find the site screened off by a barbed wire fence. Demir manages to pick the lock to the gate and they enter, although Ozmir feels they are being watched.

The dig site is actually an old cave tomb in the side of the cliff. Entering, they discover little of value left. Hotspur realises this is an old Roman tomb of the early Christian era (circa 350 AD). On the wall is a painted frieze showing the burial of seven saints in the tomb, but oddly they seem to have scaly skin and snake-like eyes. Saka recalls an old Christian legend of seven holy men buried in a tomb who were brought back to life by God centuries later.

There is evidence that there were once seven stone caskets in the tomb, but they are now missing. There are still signs of activity, including evidence that something was packed into wooden crates. There are several cigarette stubs, including one with Russian writing on it. 

Returning to the taxi, Ozmir and Saka are in the lead, and spot a bearded stranger talking to their guide and the taxi driver. Seeing them at the same time, the man jumps into his own car and drives away at speed. The Turks tell them he was asking about the newcomers and what they were up to - they told him the group were just tourists.

Back in Izmir Demir asks his local contacts about the stranger and discovers he is a Russian and has been in town for four or five days. Nobody is sure what he is up to. They do know that he is staying at the plush Kusadasi Hotel and that his name is Kulakov.

The group decide to rely on the disguise skills of Demir, who manages to radically change his own appearance and that of Saka, but sadly his skills are wasted on Hotspur (Anglo Saxon skin) and Ozmir (won't shave his moustache). They break into two pairs and head over to the Kusdasi hotel, where they enter the lobby and try to look inconspicuous. Not long after, Kulakov comes down in the lift. As he emerges, Bele and some of his hoods come in through the front doors...