NOVEMBER 1, 1934: Having wrapped up their interviews with Douglas Henslowe and Edgar Job, the Investigators decided to leave the Joy Grove Asylum. On their way out, Dorothy was accosted by a heavyset, disheveled patient who identified herself as the movie star Olivia Clarendon. She appeared to be delusional, as Clarendon is a sleek, polished Hollywood icon, but Dorothy humored her. “Olivia” signed autographs, and the group left for Henslowe’s ancestral estate on the outskirts of Savannah.
While driving along the marshy roads, the Investigators convoy of two cars was approached by the sedan that had been tailing them earlier. It moved to ram Dorothy’s car, but Chantelle fired a very large pistol at it. The car went off the road, and the Investigators escaped, shaken, but unharmed.
The Investigators arrived at the Henslowe estate, a decaying plantation. Various outbuildings stood in disrepair, and the grounds themselves were overgrown and being claimed by the nearby swamp. To be cautious, they approached on foot, but they were detected by a trio of guard dogs. In the ensuing scuffle, Luke Davis was badly mauled. The elderly groundskeeper, JOHN CORUTHERS appeared and called his dogs off.
After speaking with the Investigators and reading the letter of introduction Henslowe had given them, Coruthers escorted the Investigators to his shack. There, he tended to Luke’s injury. He also answered a few questions about the Henslowe family. Douglas and his mother are the only surviving members of what was once a very powerful family. As the Investigators already knew, Douglas has been in and out of Joy Grove since 1924, when experienced some sort of breakdown. Coruthers expressed disdain for Douglas, while also making his obeisance to the family clear. They Investigators warned Coruthers about the men in the sedan, as they noticed it was parked up the road.
On the basis of the letter of introduction, Coruthers escorted the Investigators to the main house. The house itself was largely dilapidated, with some sections being closed off entirely. Coruthers asked the Investigators to keep away from MOTHER HENSLOWE, who was resting on her sun porch. The Investigators looked around a bit, finding a dusty gothic interior. They made their way to Douglas’s room, where they found an old shovel standing by the door, caked in old dried mud. Looking around a bit more, they also found a basket full of a strange mix of stuff, including twine and purple ink.
Using a photograph of the house that they found in a book Douglas had mentioned, (indirectly,) the Investigators determined that he had buried a cache of materials from 1924 in the family graveyard, here on the estate. They dug up a box holding, among other things, a key to the safe deposit box Douglas had mentioned before. It is at the First Bank of Long Beach in California. Meanwhile, Tick Tock had put in a call to an associate back in New York. He was trying to identify the men in the sedan that had been following the Investigators. Aside from finding out that they appeared to be Asian and had been seen in Tick Tock’s neighborhood back home, the contact was unable to tell him much.
A heavy downpour began falling. The Investigators turned to leave. Despite their attempts to sneak away—and to use Coruthers as a distraction—they were set upon by the thugs from the sedan. An altercation broke out, with guns drawn, but no shots were fired. The thugs seemed to be speaking a strange alien tongue and who were made up of a peculiar mix of White and Asian men (peculiar for the time and place). They threw a typed sheet of paper at the Investigators, and then left. The paper read “DROP THIS CASE. GO HOME.”