C-TMS01 (Nov 1, 1995)

C-TMS01 DISCLAIMER: THIS RECEIPT WAS DECAFFEINATED. NO PUZZLES WERE GIVEN.

Summary of Receipt

The Owner seems to believe that the ‘loose-lipped stranger’ Tom Walker was referring to will likely be the last consort of Satan’s they have to track down. This ‘Mysterious Stranger’ (later called Mr. Clemens) has been Satan’s ledger maker for roughly 85 years or so, and has been involved with the supernatural world in the past. Still, he shouldn’t have ended up in the Hauntaurskald, which is interesting. There's just one issue: since he doesn’t visit the Flipside, it might be hard to reach him. The Owner asks 17, 71 and 44 to look into it.

Transcript

RECEIPT #001
FILED UNDER: CAFE-TMS
DATE: 11/1/95
THE OWNER

I can’t be the only one tired of the run around these consorts seem to be giving us. Ah well, if it was easy, it wouldn’t be worth doing. And besides, I believe Tom let a rather important detail slip… we need to seek out a loose-lipped stranger. Mercifully I suspect this will be the last consort we need to consult with—assuming I am right about who exactly Tom was referring to. (And, let’s be honest, when am I wrong?)

One of the more interesting consorts of Padre, the Mysterious Stranger, has served as his personal ledger maker for the past E5 years or so. And while he may appear to be a relatively fresh face in the House of Satan, I suspect he is far, far more than he appears to be. In life, the Mysterious Stranger was, well, no stranger to the Coffee Trade. There are some accounts of his more occult fascinations and premonitions though he lived a rather quiet life when it came to coffee.

How and why he found himself entangled with the House of Satan in death… well, I can’t say that I know. It could be his later sympathy for Satan, though. Even still, I can’t imagine him ending up in the Hauntaurskald for something like that. Unless, of course, the Mysterious Stranger had some special degree of control over his afterlife, though why he would choose the cacophonous bedlam of Pandemonium and not the idyllic warmth of Aurora is beyond me. Regardless, we only need to figure out a way to reach the Mysterious Stranger, though unlike Mr. Gray and Mr. Walker, he is not known to come Flipside, limiting our options a bit. I’ll have the palindromic 17 and 71 look more into it and perhaps #44 as well for the sake of literary parallelism.