Journal Entry, Colonel Gentleman
31st of March in the year of Our Lord, Eighteen Hundred Seventy
I have said on many a previous occasion that I have had "a most unusual experience". However recent events have proven these earlier statements false. I will explain. At the behest of Count Masterson, myself and the others, with whom I am becoming quite familiar, journeyed to "The British and Foreign Society for Improving the Embossed Literature of the Blind" in order to see if any of these poor fellows had any idea what one embossed on of the mysterious disks from our adventure in France.
We arrived at the "The British and Foreign Society for Improving the Embossed Literature of the Blind" to find the place vacant and unlocked. Letting ourselves inside, we discovered the grisly remains of whom we later learned to be Thomas Arden, a sort of private detective. Shortly there after, his erstwhile partner, one Basil Merryweather arrived and began to accuse my companions and I of the gruesome murder. We managed to convince him otherwise, but he still seemed somewhat calcitrant. I assume that it was this distrust of our presence that was the source of his magickal difficulties. I don't understand what happened, by Doctor Orpheus told me that his spell went "wild" and vaporized his compatriot's corpse.
With this unsavory development, Dr. Orpheus and I took to the streets to engage the Society's neighbors to see if they were aware of any foul deeds or of the presence of any characters of ill repute. Sadly, despite our efforts we learned very little information of use to our investigation. We returned to the Society building to report on our lack of information. While we were gone, apparently Miss Woo and Mr. Wilson engaged in a skirmish with some sort of electrical worm. Dr. Orpheus wandered off upstairs while the rest of us remained below. He was able to discover through both magickal and mundane methods the nature of some sort of bizarre experiments being performed by one of the Society's members involving the so-called "Sixth Sense". With no evidence in the immediate area as to where or when these experiments supposedly took place, we began to search for more information. With the vast majority of the materials written in the embossed dot language of the blind the search was not progressing. We even resorted to breaking into the private lock-box of some of the chaps in our attempts to locate more information to little effect.
Feeling exasperated, I was ready to call an end to these charades when we stumbled upon a concealed passageway in the stairwell. It lead into the basement, which contained a workshop and an assortment of electrical and scientific equipment inside of a metal cage. In the middle was a velvet covered chair upon which sat a strange helmet with wires and light bulbs and other such devices. Miss Woo set about to investigate the machinery, and as she seems to be the most mechanically inclined among us, we did not prevent her. Dr. Orpheus managed to locate additional handwritten notes of Jack Peers, the Doctor performing the experiments. Before we could progress further, Ting Woo had activated the device. She described seeing a sort of purple haze or aura surrounding the rest of us, as well as other, separate entities of unknown origin. Before she could speculate further, one of the electrical worms manifested and began to attack her and despite her best efforts was not subdued untill Dr. Orpheus interjected and turned the creature into stone.
We surmised from Dr. Peers' notes that on the day of the disappearance, the Society had gathered for a demonstration of the device in question. With no other evidence and all other possibilities eliminated we were left with the unlikely possibility that the device had somehow destroyed, teleported, or otherwise rendered absent the members of the Society. With all this taken into consideration, Dr. Orpheus volunteered to sit in the chair while Ting Woo manipulated the controls more precisely. As she increased the power to the controls a strange purple mist filled the room enveloping us all. At this point, I am not exactly sure what happened. I have heard tale of the various mystical and hallucinogenic properties of certain plants or herbs, esepcially those of the South American rain forests but have not myself been exposed to them. I suspect however that the effects are very similar to what I experienced when I found myself enveloped by this purple haze.
(There is a gap in the journal here, as if someone has taken great pains to remove or obscure a section of the text.)
Needless to say, we all barely made it out with our lives in tact! One of the souls we managed to rescue from that field of timelessness was able to identify the strange writing on the disk we brought. It originates in the city of Damascus. I only hope we have no trouble on the road there! Somehow I suspect that this will not be the case.
Items that need my attention:
I feel that I must continue my studies of Helmsmanship skills unabated and uninterrupted. I have canceled all other appointments and obligations this month to prepare for our journey to Constantinople.