As she wipes the sleeps from her eyes, it occurs to Ivy Morgan that there is a recently translated text waiting for her at Columbia University – the crazy and confused bible she found while exploring Red Hook. She wakes up Jonas and Ray, makes a quick call to her grandfather, and gets the number of Professor Rudolph Pearson. She is delighted to find that his people have completed their work, and that she can pick up the translated text later that morning. After a hearty breakfast, the investigators jump in Jonas’ Packard and drive uptown to the university.

Both Ivy and Jonas are concerned that Ray is still insisting that he is David Malgresh, a botanist from Chicago who is town for a symposium on sustainable food sources. To this point, both have been indulging Ray’s fantasy, although Ivy intermittently attempts to force Ray’s reality upon him, to no avail. As they enter Rudolph Pearson’s office, Ray extends his hand and introduces himself as David Malgresh. Confused, Pearson catches Ivy’s eye and she motions him to his office.

“You must forgive, Ray, Professor Pearson,” Ivy begins, “but he has suffered a bit of trauma, and has recently taken on a new identity.”

Pearson looks at her thoughtfully. “Ahh, a dissociative fugue! I’ve only ever read about them.”

Noticing Ivy’s look of confusion, he continues. “A dissociative fugue is a rare form of amnesia that is usually caused by severe trauma. In some cases, the sufferer may establish a new identity as a defense mechanism. There were multiple studies performed on traumatized soldiers after the Great War.”

“Will he recover?” Ivy asks.

He nods. “The amnesia is almost always temporary, but may last days, weeks, even months. It all depends on how long it takes for the brain to heal, Miss Morgan. For that reason, I would recommend indulging the fantasy – trying to force Mr. Brannigan to remember his past might cause more harm than good.”

Professor Pearson reaches in a desk drawer and pulls out a bound stack of paper. “The same can be said of reading this, Miss Morgan.” Handing the text to Ivy, he continues. “One of the students translating the text suffered a breakdown and had to be pulled off the project. I’ll warn you again – use caution when reading these blasphemous pages.”

Opening the office door, Professor Pearson ushers Ivy from the room and politely excuses himself. Placing the translation in her duffel-bag, Ivy walks out of the office, closely followed by Jonas and Ray. They drive back to Ivy’s house, where Jonas commences dissembling and reassembling his rifle, Ray polishes off a decanter of scotch, and Ivy begins to skim the translation.

Several hours pass (Three? Five? Eight?) until Ivy is called back to reality by Jonas, who eyes her nervously along with Ray. Her eyes crossed and head aching, Ivy longs to return to her reading. Only after enduring what feels like hours of browbeating at the expense of Jonas and Ray does she acquiesce, suddenly deciding that they should visit The Slaughtered Lamb. Eager to keep her from diving back in to the text, Jonas and Ray agree, and the three hop in the Packard and drive to Hell’s Kitchen.

The drive is uneventful. The investigators find themselves in front of the familiar, mahogany door, and Ivy moves forward to knock. After stumbling over the password for several moments, she finally gets it right (Come forth, Lazarus! And he came fifth and lost the job!) and the door swings opens. Alec Long, the hulking owner of the Lamb, stands framed in the doorway.

Over the next few hours, the investigators hobnob with Alec, Dora, and Lamb regular, Truth Justice. Jonas and Ivy recount the auction at Miskatonic University, their run-in with Deputy Grietski on the train to Steeplin County, the five-hundred year old manuscript, and the man in Arkham carrying the metallic brain cylinder. Ray, who has no memory of ever being at the Slaughtered Lamb, and has no memory of hearing about long, metallic cylinders containing human brains, shudders for a moment and passes out on the bar.

Intrigued by the prospect of finding another brain-cylinder, Alec suggests that the investigators reach out to Mars Bickle, an Arkham parapsychologist who may be able to look in to the matter further. Jonas and Ivy thank Alec and Dora, rouse the still-comatose Ray, and walk out the door. With a long journey looming, the investigators return to Ivy’s Morningside Heights home. Jonas and Ray quickly fall asleep, while Ivy fights the urge to delve back into the translation that has haunted her thoughts since she put it down mere hours before.

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