The Elliptical Crown – Outline

As usual, I'm posting the version of the outline that I started out with rather than how it ended up (useful for study purposes because it illustrates how a work transforms during the writing process).

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The Tiara (working title) outline

Dramatis personae

Rose (Roseanna Murray) – Young (late 20s early 30s) associate for the law firm of Dyer, Deadmarsh and Stull, a big New York law firm specializing in corporate clients. Has been with the firm just long enough to be lead counsel on a medium-sized negligence case for an insurance company client. Ambitious, but not rabidly so. Cares most about being good at her job. Medium height, medium build, sandy blonde hair, blue eyes, pale. Grew up in Florida, loved the ocean (seems different to her in Mass.), doesn’t want to have to move home

Helpers

Alison Ayodele – Boston branch attorney for the firm. Mostly a documents specialist, skilled at finding not-easily-accessed records and absorbing lots of information in a short time. Former Boston PD detective, so has an air of private investigator about her. Dark skin, long hair, large but not thick glasses. 30-something. Nerdy but with a good sense of humor.

Ellie (Elisa Salcedo) – Rose’s long-term partner (waiting for Ellie to pop the question). Medium height, athletic build. Short, dark hair. Dresses academic-casual. Works as an assistant curator at the Museum of Natural History, specialty is pre-Columbian art, minor fascination with Polynesian culture

Charles Tilton – Curator of the Newburyport Historical Society museum and collections. Family has served the NHS for decades, but had to marry into money to hold on to his position. Passively resentful of his wife, struck with liberal guilt about Newburyport’s racist attitudes about Innsmouth folk. Secretly favors return of the tiara. Medium height and build, looks very professor-ish.

Calvin Randell – Rose’s law school classmate and another associate at the firm. Promoted into Rose’s old spot (though no hard feelings). Tall, good looking, nicely but not super expensively dressed. Her “in” if she needs to sneak anything from the firm.

Antagonists

Geoffrey Marsh – The client. Short, pale, looks like a toad and a fish had a baby. Peculiar smell. Angry disposition, the clear source of lawsuits filed for pure spite. Dresses in expensive, old-fashioned suits.

William Dyer III – Goes by Will, hates being called Billy (which Petran does for that very reason). Managing partner at DDS, grandson of one of the founding partners. Blustering “good old boy” façade poorly covers the cold-blooded snake inside. Tall, stocky, clean-shaven, not dealing well with male pattern baldness. Very expensive suits.

Miss Darcey (Stacia Darcey Wakefield-Tilton) – Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Newburyport Historical Society. Medium height and build, brown-grey hair held up in conservative style. Dress and demeanor very much a ladies-that-lunch sort of person. She becomes even more self-important when dealing with people who even vaguely might regard themselves as her equals or superiors (so merely dismissive of the younger lawyers while actively condescending to older characters). Feigns pleasantness (usually poorly), has no ability to contain her disdain for Innsmouth folk in general and the Marshes in particular.

Neutrals

Andrei Petran – 50-something “black sheep” partner at DDS, New York branch. Got along well with the previous generation of senior partners, but not so much with the new crop. Now mostly given low-dollar cases so he earns a minimal share of the partners’ take (trying to force him out, but he’s content with his spot and won’t go). Short, balding, goatee, dresses more academic than corporate law.

Geoffrey Marsh III “Jeff” – Considerably more human than his grandfather (though still something a bit off about him). Wants the Innsmouth interests looked after, but isn’t as vitriolic about regaining the tiara.

NHS attorney -

Plot summary

Descendants of the Marsh family of Innsmouth take legal action to reclaim a ceremonial tiara taken to the Newburyport Historical Society after the government raid in the 20s. The story is told from the perspective of a young, ambitious attorney for a big NY or DC law firm. She loses an expensive case (lawsuit? arbitration?) and is exiled to the Siberia of the firm: the public interest attorney (check to make sure this isn’t too close to Grisham). She’s assigned to represent the Historical Society with the assurance that if she can do a bang-up job that she’s got the chance to return to the partners’ good graces (but of course if she fails she’s out the door). The society resists at least in part out of racism against the fishy folk of Innsmouth. They’ve also gotten the funding for upgrades to their museum, including a special exhibit space for the tiara. As a compromise, the Marshes agree to let the museum keep the piece as long as they’re allowed in to perform a “deconsecration” ceremony on it. EOD only in attendance, though a recording made surreptitiously by the museum reveals nothing particularly unusual. But after the ceremony is performed, the museum finds itself beset with a problem: nobody can stand to go anywhere near the tiara. At first it’s just a vague sense of unease felt by anyone close to it. But then it expands, becoming almost a force field of intense feelings of uncontrollable dread and creeping evil pervading the entire museum. And now the Innsmouth folk won’t take it back!

Plot outline

(note: Deadly Light last 2/3 had 30 scenes)

Act One

Rose loses a lawsuit

            Her first time as lead counsel, small (to defendant) but significant insurance case

            Sitting out in the hallway, looking at happy plaintiffs, questioning her life

            Clearly she’s lost the step up to junior partner

            Consoled by Calvin

            They grab coffee and go to Battery Park

            Rose talks about going to the ocean (not visible from the park) in Florida

            Seeking comfort when she was a kid (sense of unimportance of problems)

            both messaged by DDM

Rose is called to the boardroom

            Pattern the building off Lathrop Gage only even swankier

            Rose notes that it’s easier to get into the courthouse

            demoted to Petran’s office

            Calvin gets the junior partner spot

            Rose assigned to artifact recovery case (which she knows nothing about)

            Door nameplate already gone

            Sadly packs her office (photo of Ellie), bids farewell to her bad view window

            New office is windowless broom closet

            Eerie encounter with Innsmouth Look aggressive panhandler

Reassuring interlude with Ellie

            Rose comes home to the smells of a decent meal cooking

            Ellie having harassment problem with her boss at the museum

            Jokes that if Rose gets fired, at least Ellie will be able to afford her

            Ellie points out the merits of the whole artifact recovery thing

            Rose reads up on artifact recovery, introduce the basic issues in a not boring way

Rose and Petran go to Boston branch

            Pick-up at airport

            Alison introduced as their Boston team member and document hunter

            She’s an aggressive driver, white knuckles all the way downtown

            Boston DDM office is older building, the firm’s original home

            Meeting room is expensive, dark wood

            Meeting with Jeff Marsh

                        Petran (little knowledge of artifact recovery) does the talking

                        Marsh explains history from the Innsmouth perspective

                                    History of resentment between Innsmouth and neighbors

                                    Importance of tiara

            Petran dumps case on Rose, returns to New York

            Another eerie encounter, Innsmouth Look group staring from across the street

Battle plan with Alison

            Car trip to Newburyport, Rose driving this time

            Outline what they’ll need to be able to prove, where investigation might help

Meeting with Miss Darcey & lawyer

            Both of whom are the big fish in a small pond sort

            Lawyer has red nose, Rose mentally nicknames him Rudolph

            Chamber of Commerce office downtown

            Tilton outlines the history from the Newburyport perspective

                        Attempts to buy, steal the tiara

            Darcy warns about the Innsmouth Look (already seen in NY and Boston)

            Also the plan to stay in Innsmouth, especially overnight

Tour of NHS with Tilton

            Building is converted church with dusty interior

            special exhibit space upper floor apse (Pratt side room)

            tiara in vault in basement

            Rose gets a weird feeling just looking at it

            Tilton confides his sympathy for the Marsh case

            dislike of wife, new money who needed to marry into an old family

Journey to Innsmouth

            Getting set up in the Gillman Hotel

            Creepy clerk at the desk / no bellhop for heavy, longer stay bags

Straying over to the EOD ruins

            Reading commemorative plaque

            Getting stared at by townsfolk

Eerie night in the hotel

            Room and whole hotel are eerily quiet (Council Grove hotel quiet)

            TV sounds incredibly loud even at low volume

            TV off, trying to sleep (not even any white noise)

            Whispers in the hallway

            Doorknob rattles

            Attempt to unlock the door

            Alison blocks it closed with her body

            Whispering rises to shouting in English, unrecognizable language and growls

            Menace called off by unknown Marsh family member

Rose goes to factory

            Pre-visit agreement with Alison to relocate to Newburyport

            Good description of the creepy exterior / interior

            meets elder Marsh

            floats idea of deconsecration / rejected

            angrily dismissed by Marsh, ordered to leave town

            Jeff tries to smooth things over

Leaving town

            Detained by Innsmouth PD, notorious speed trappers

            Alison thinks to make a quick call to Jeff

            What looked like it was going to go bad turns out okay after call

            Back at Newburyport, Rose calls Ellie

Getting set up in a hotel in Newburyport

            Fortunately no fallout from abandoning the Gillman, as they were ordered out

            Hotel is right across the street cattycorner from NHS (pattern off Eldridge)

Next day preliminary hearing

            Judge in Newburyport courtroom finds in favor of defendant on key issues

            Making it apparent that the Rose and Marshes aren’t going to prevail in court

            Rose at first despairs of another defeat

            Then hallway conversation with Jeff about retrying negotiated settlement

Ellie comes to Newburyport

            Nice reunion

            Ellie inspects the tiara, makes some preliminary guesses, talks to Tilton

            Jeff calls, okays the ceremony scheme

Act Two

Arrangements for ceremony

            Complex negotiations, separate rooms with only lawyers meeting

            Only EOD can be present

            Security cameras / no audio

Lead-up to ceremony

            Audio secretly recorded despite agreement

The ceremony

            description

            analysis: neither Ellie nor Charles has ever seen anything like it

The aftermath

            Plaintiffs and defendants meet to sign documents

            Rose visits the tiara room

            Feels a vague sense of unease, coldness, dampness

Things go wrong

            Ill ease begins

            Escalates to terror

            Spoils local business, starts to affect the tourist trade

            Rose attempts to enter NHS building / description of effects

Attempt to transfer it back to Innsmouth

            Group trip to factory

            Miss Darcey eats shit

            Marsh refuses to take the thing back

Lunch with Jeff

            In which he spills the beans about the EOD cult, at least what he knows

Alison, Charles and Ellie working together figure out a way to contain it

            Secretly using DDM resources even though the firm’s interest is over

            Boston bomb squad (buddy of Alison) uses a remote to put it in container

            Cover story is that artifact has been found to be radioactive

            Some suspense when it’s removed / will it work? / yes it does

            Calvin arranges things on the New York end

            Ellie gets clearance from the museum by threatening her boss

Act Three

Off to NY Natural History Museum

            Ellie installs it in a sub-basement storage area

            Marsh calls Rose hopping mad, demands to know new location

            DDM fires Rose and Alison, demotes Calvin

Marsh tries to reclaim it

            Reasserting title

            Which of course he no longer has (Charles attends to assert NHS ownership)

            Side-revelation that Jeff has been sent away for reeducation

Deep Ones come for the tiara

            Ellie/Charles figure out what the ceremony was all about, what effect it caused

            Scary showdown

            Exposing long-disused tunnels that lead to the river

Thoughts

            Make the early parts scarier

            Lovecraft hated New York. Did he write something useful about it?

                        He

                        The Horror at Red Hook

                        Cool Air

                        The Shunned House (written while in New York)

                        In the Vault (written while in New York)

            More detail for the last act

                        Can the recorded audio be worked in?

                        Ellie/Charles finds/is given something that will undo the curse?

                        Can The Anatomy Museum be worked into this somehow?

                        Also be careful not to turn this into the last act of The Relic

            Overarching theme of the lawyer’s struggle with justice, hateful clients, etc.

                        Making it way more personal with my own past experiences

Relevant passage from “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”

Most interesting of all was a glancing reference to the strange jewellery vaguely associated with Innsmouth. It had evidently impressed the whole countryside more than a little, for mention was made of specimens in the museum of Miskatonic University at Arkham, and in the display room of the Newburyport Historical Society. The fragmentary descriptions of these things were bald and prosaic, but they hinted to me an undercurrent of persistent strangeness. Something about them seemed so odd and provocative that I could not put them out of my mind, and despite the relative lateness of the hour I resolved to see the local sample—said to be a large, queerly proportioned thing evidently meant for a tiara—if it could possibly be arranged.
The librarian gave me a note of introduction to the curator of the Society, a Miss Anna Tilton, who lived nearby, and after a brief explanation that ancient gentlewoman was kind enough to pilot me into the closed building, since the hour was not outrageously late. The collection was a notable one indeed, but in my present mood I had eyes for nothing but the bizarre object which glistened in a corner cupboard under the electric lights.
It took no excessive sensitiveness to beauty to make me literally gasp at the strange, unearthly splendour of the alien, opulent phantasy that rested there on a purple velvet cushion. Even now I can hardly describe what I saw, though it was clearly enough a sort of tiara, as the description had said. It was tall in front, and with a very large and curiously irregular periphery, as if designed for a head of almost freakishly elliptical outline. The material seemed to be predominantly gold, though a weird lighter lustrousness hinted at some strange alloy with an equally beautiful and scarcely identifiable metal. Its condition was almost perfect, and one could have spent hours in studying the striking and puzzlingly untraditional designs—some simply geometrical, and some plainly marine—chased or moulded in high relief on its surface with a craftsmanship of incredible skill and grace.
The longer I looked, the more the thing fascinated me; and in this fascination there was a curiously disturbing element hardly to be classified or accounted for. At first I decided that it was the queer other-worldly quality of the art which made me uneasy. All other art objects I had ever seen either belonged to some known racial or national stream, or else were consciously modernistic defiances of every recognised stream. This tiara was neither. It clearly belonged to some settled technique of infinite maturity and perfection, yet that technique was utterly remote from any—Eastern or Western, ancient or modern—which I had ever heard of or seen exemplified. It was as if the workmanship were that of another planet.
However, I soon saw that my uneasiness had a second and perhaps equally potent source residing in the pictorial and mathematical suggestions of the strange designs. The patterns all hinted of remote secrets and unimaginable abysses in time and space, and the monotonously aquatic nature of the reliefs became almost sinister. Among these reliefs were fabulous monsters of abhorrent grotesqueness and malignity—half ichthyic and half batrachian in suggestion—which one could not dissociate from a certain haunting and uncomfortable sense of pseudo-memory, as if they called up some image from deep cells and tissues whose retentive functions are wholly primal and awesomely ancestral. At times I fancied that every contour of these blasphemous fish-frogs was overflowing with the ultimate quintessence of unknown and inhuman evil.
In odd contrast to the tiara’s aspect was its brief and prosy history as related by Miss Tilton. It had been pawned for a ridiculous sum at a shop in State Street in 1873, by a drunken Innsmouth man shortly afterward killed in a brawl. The Society had acquired it directly from the pawnbroker, at once giving it a display worthy of its quality. It was labelled as of probable East-Indian or Indo-Chinese provenance, though the attribution was frankly tentative.
Miss Tilton, comparing all possible hypotheses regarding its origin and its presence in New England, was inclined to believe that it formed part of some exotic pirate hoard discovered by old Captain Obed Marsh. This view was surely not weakened by the insistent offers of purchase at a high price which the Marshes began to make as soon as they knew of its presence, and which they repeated to this day despite the Society’s unvarying determination not to sell.
As the good lady shewed me out of the building she made it clear that the pirate theory of the Marsh fortune was a popular one among the intelligent people of the region. Her own attitude toward shadowed Innsmouth—which she had never seen—was one of disgust at a community slipping far down the cultural scale, and she assured me that the rumours of devil-worship were partly justified by a peculiar secret cult which had gained force there and engulfed all the orthodox churches.