SKELETON KEY #7

21. Mother Claude

22. Professor Sovac ~ aka The Iguana ~ and The Brain of Cagliostro

23. Phoebe Duprey

21. Mother Claude

The vile, black-hearted, monstrous Mother Claude was a high-ranking member of a secret organization of criminals known as The Obtainers.  She ran one of their largest orphanages ~ which were actually schools where children were raised from infancy to be expert thieves, pickpockets and cat burglars.  The children were terrified of disobeying her and those who did learned that she took a sadistic glee in their punishment.  She promised those who longed to escape that they never could because The Obtainers were everywhere and would catch up with them eventually.

When a great fire consumed the orphanage, Mother Claude was officially declared dead.  However, many of the children refuse to believe she really died in the fire and swear they have seen her peering in their windows at night.

(See: Cat Burglar Black)

22. Professor Sovac ~ aka The Iguana ~ and The Brain of Cagliostro

While on a research expedition on a remote mountain village, Professor Egon Sovac discovers the ancient hiding place containing the living brain of the dark sorcerer Cagliostro.  The brain's powerful thoughts easily  overwhelm the professor who becomes a slave to the brain's evil desires and schemes.

Eventually, The Brain of Cagliostro succeeds in sucking all the personality and memory from the professor, turning him into an empty shell, a mere puppet doomed to do the brain's bidding.

Together they spend years traveling the endless Red Desert Valley in search of a cave that, legend has it, contains the doorway to another dimension.  Sovac survives the journey by eating insects and becomes known to local tribesmen as "The Iguana."

The pair eventually return to civilization. and the brain, more powerful than ever, embarks on a campaign of crime and terror.  They are finally defeated and captured due to the efforts of telekinetic teenager, Phillipa Knicely.  The two are confined to a single padded cell in an isolated asylum, which is tragically washed away when a nearby dam bursts, for reasons still being investigated.

23. Phoebe Duprey

The story goes that a kindly traveling surgeon, Dr. Vogardus, rescued young waif Phoebe Duprey from a life on the streets of Paris, and brought her back to the village of Crow's Creek were he raised her to be a well-adjusted and proper young lady.  The truth is ~ a bit more complicated.

(See:  The Chuckling Whatsit)