[UA] Golem Family Reunion

[David M Jacobs]

At 08:57 PM 15/04/02 -0400, WingedCoyote at aol.com wrote:

>Hmm. Golem conspiracy. Good idea, but the hints seem too obvious. Okay if 
>nobody's read the book, I suppose.

Rather than Spanish, the letter could be written in Judezmo, which was a 
dialect of Spanish used by Spanish Jews (much like Jews of German origin 
speak Yiddish).  I'm not sure how much Judezmo varies from the "standard" 
modern Castillian dialect, but if it's as much as Yiddish varies from 
German, you may need to find an interpreter for some words (no easy task 
for a dialect that's been dead for five centuries).

Rather than have a letter signed "Ein Sof", make it part of a fax from a 
law firm.  The fax turns up when one of the PCs use a "handy coincidence"- 
type effect; the intern at the firm whose job it is to handle faxes 
mistypes a digit or two, accidentally sending it to the PC's fax machine.

The fax discusses an upcoming reunion of the Emmett family.  ("Emmett", 
BTW, is fairly close to "emeth".  There's a legend that golems have the 
word "emeth" carved on their forehead; by striking off the first letter and 
changing this to "meth" you kill the golem.)

You don't need to make the fax seem sinister at all; the PCs will know that 
it's significant, having cast the aforementioned effect.  Also, the more 
cluey PCs will want to know why a family with a German surname uses a 
500-year-old dialect of Spanish to communicate.

If the PCs decide to investigate the gathering, they'll have to do so in 
disguise; all of the attendees do, indeed, bear a family 
resemblance.  They're all tall, square-jawed and solidly built, although 
hair, skin and eye colour do vary a bit; although they appear to be 
related, they come from a variety of ethnic backgrounds.  Whilst most 
appear to be of European origin, some are Middle Eastern, one or two are 
Indian (ie, from India) and a handful are black African.  Furthermore, 
they're all men, and none of them touch their drinks, nor get up to use the 
restroom.

The meeting hall is laid out in a "round table" arrangement.  A series of 
random Emmetts get up to speak (in Hebrew) on various topics.  (Hebrew is 
their common tongue, though attendees will sometimes talk to each other in 
other languages between speeches.)  Topics could include:

* Several US Emmetts have been harassed by a particular investigation 
company.  (Research will prove this company to ultimately be owned by Alex 
Abel.)

* York would have become a major centre for European Jewry, had the 
gentiles in York not slaughtered the city's Jews in the 12th Century.  As 
we enter the 21st Century, signs and portents point towards a similar 
massacre happening in _New_ York in the _22nd_ Century.  How valid are 
these fears, and what should be done about them?

* One particularly screwy golem (there's always one in every family) has 
gotten hold of a copy of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.  If there 
really _is_ a conspiracy of Jewish leaders intent on world domination, he 
reasons, then it would be in the Emmetts' interests to seek them out and 
ally with them.

Part way through one of the speeches, a large Chinese man walks through the 
door and sits down near the back.  Everyone in the room (except the 
apparent "head" of the family) turns around and stares at him.  He shrugs 
and says (in heavily accented English), "Sorry, my flight was delayed."

The head of the family (none other than Ein Sof himself, although under an 
assumed name), again speaking in Hebrew, introduces the newcomer as a 
"cousin" from China.  The other Emmetts look confused.

In very poor Hebrew (which some of the Emmetts have difficulty 
understanding), the newcomer explains that his "father" was a Rhadinite 
rabbi in Kaifeng, China, and that he was "born" as the Japanese took hold 
in his country in WWII.  The Chinese man thought that he was unique, until 
Ein Sof contacted him to tell him that others like him existed.

For the rest of the meeting, the Emmetts focus almost exclusively on their 
Chinese "cousin", realising that the ritual used to create them may not 
have been lost after all.  Now, they may have a means to rapidly increase 
their numbers and carry out their plans more effectively.



David M Jacobs
dmjacobs at zipworld.com.au
http://www.zipworld.com.au/~dmjacobs/
ICQ UIN: 17027598

"'Kevin,' David interrupted, 'what the Germans should have done
was show the Russians a dead cat and ask them to explain it.'

"'That would have stopped the Soviet offensive right there,' I said.
"Zhukov would still be trying to account for the cat's death.'"

— from Valis, by Philip K Dick


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