A Letter from Home
A Little Note from Everyone's Favorite NPC
Ron takes some time, while still in Judge Putnam’s carriage
house garage, to read Luca’s letter. The news is not good. Ron learns that “Big
Grin” Bianco has gotten a huge influx of cash for his organization, and is
using it to press very hard against the Bernouse Family operation. Half of the
first whisky delivery from Dunne’s Distillery was destroyed on the docks, many
of the family’s former allies in Boston have either defected or been killed,
and a hired gunman—in a shocking breach of Mafia etiquette—shot up the Bernouse
house with a tommy gun. No one was injured, and Vince is safe in an undisclosed
location, but Luca is very concerned about it all. He also begs Ron not to tell
Vivian about what happened to her father.
Ron takes a moment to pilfer a bottle of whisky from the
judge’s stores and arm himself with a croquet mallet from the judge’s set
before jaunting back through the gate box to Syria.
He, of course, tells Vivian (and the others) immediately.
Vivian is beside herself, and suspects that Bianco is now being funded by the
Silver Twilight Lodge/Look to the Future.
The Approach to As-Safa
The London Group beds down for a well-deserved west and
awakens early the next morning refreshed and free from the oppressive and
frightening dreams that they had experienced the night before. They take most
of the day to prepare and sort out their resources before traveling across the
desert to As-Safa in a truck and camel caravan.
Ron and Mikhail are, by this point, thoroughly suspicious of
Turki and keep shooting daggers at him. Turki is baffled by this treatment.
It is well after dark by the time the group reaches the
volcanic plain of As-Safa. As predicted, the hardened lava proves to be much
too difficult terrain for the truck. Dr. Black and Johnny suspect that the
coarse basalt would, at best, merely shred the truck’s tires. The group repacks
everything onto the camels, while Turki provides them with basic tips on how to
ride the “ships of the desert.”
As night wears on, an ominous fog gathers in the low spaces
between the cindercones of As-Safa. The light of the moon shimmers on the
rolling, cloudy banks, in some places more brightly than others. The members of
the group who visited Nodens in his high house are vaguely discomfited by all
the fog. Their unease is not helped by the fact that several portions of the
fog seem somehow much brighter than the others—almost suggestive of a path
through As-Safa.
Johnny tests this theory with the Powder of Ibn-Ghazi. At
the powder’s touch, a very bright pathway is briefly illuminated through the
fog. The group mounts up and follows this pathway, as best as they are able,
into As-Safa.
Unexpected Company
Due to the group’s inexperience with their mounts and with
the terrain of the volcanic plateau, their progress through As-Safa is
frustratingly slow. They press on regardless, and eventually come to a place
where someone has carved Arabic letters into the sides of one of the
omnipresent cinder cones.
The group dismounts while Johnny struggles to interpret the
carved Arabic symbols. After a while, he understands that the words are both a
guidepost to ‘Umr At-Tawil and a warning to stay far away from that place.
Johnny also notices a curious bas relief carving beneath the words, that seems
to consist of a cluster of spheres…or bubbles…or eyes. Despite the simplicity
of this carving, the sight of it unnerves him.
At about this moment, several members of the group,
including Ron, Dr. Black, and Kane become aware of strange—and possibly
human—sounds echoing off of the cinder cones around them. Dr. Black, concerned
for Brother Theodore’s safety, takes the monk by the arm and drags him around
behind one of the cinder cones. He immediately blunders into the muzzle of a
long rifle wielded by a Syrian man. Dr. Black goes cross-eyed trying to focus
down the rifle barrel at the Syrian.
Moments later, a very large group of armed Syrians step into
view, leveling rifles at the group. From the omnipresent shadows, an unseen man
addresses them in several languages, including Arabic and French. Members of
the group are not proficient enough in either language, and so Ron asks if the
unseen man speaks English.
He does. “Throw down your weapons,” he demands.
The group obeys.
Hello There
At this point, Turki steps forward and addresses the unseen
man in Arabic. After a bit of a back-and-forth, the unseen man—whom Turki
refers to as “the General” steps forward into the moonlight. He tells the group
that he and Turki are brothers-in-arms, and that he is the local leader of the
Druze’s military operation against the French. He wants to know what the group
is doing there.
Johnny decides to be completely honest with the General,
telling him that they seek the gateway called ‘Umr At-Tawil and the Nameless
City. The General reacts with slight fear and disgust, and asks if they are
with the other group that the rebels saw at ‘Umr At-Tawil two days before.
The General goes on to describe that this other group of
about two score individuals wore strange robes and masks and seemed to be
carrying another gentleman who had been, “strapped to a board.” Ron, with much
preamble and care, pulls forth one of the cultist masks from his camel and
shows it off to the General.
“Yes,” says the General. “Masks like this one. Exactly like
this one.”
Ron and the rest of the group then confirm that they are
hunting these individuals, at which point the General orders his men to lower
their weapons.
There is some additional discussion, in which Kane tries to
get some of the General’s forces to accompany the London Group as backup
against the cultists. The General replies that neither he nor his men will go
anywhere near ‘Umr At-Tawil, and that his quarrel is with the French, not the
cultists. He agrees to escort the group to the gate, and will even watch over
their camels in the event that they return from the Nameless City, but he will
commit no other resources to helping them.
The group agrees to this and follows the General and his
forces across As-Safa to the small, bowl-like valley upon which stands ‘Umr
At-Tawil, the basalt gateway to the Nameless City.
Paths Diverge
Turki, overwhelmed by what he has experienced recently,
politely requests to be discharged from the London Group. Judge Putnam agrees,
thanks Turki for his excellent help and loyal service, and settles up his
accounts. A grateful Turki prepares to depart with the rebels.
Brother Theodore also opts to remain with the rebels, at
least for a little while. He also volunteers to take James Raven along with
him, hoping to eventually return him to As Suwayda and medical treatment.
Before the rebels depart, Johnny pulls the truck keys out of
his pocket and hands them to the General. He says that the group might not be
coming back this way, or at all, and that the General is more than welcome to
use the truck for his military operations. The General is quite grateful for
the donation to his cause.
‘Umr At-Tawil
One Option for Entering the City: The Veiled Sage
The group is now confronted with the puzzle of opening the
gate and using it to travel safely into the Nameless City. They spend the rest
of the waning hours of the night poring over all of their notes and
recollections. Mikhail seems to think that the Tahijuh mirror that the group
has might be helpful in opening the gate. Vivian notices several important
passages in Christopher Edwin’s dossier, which note that they must either,
“perform a ritual of service to Yog-Sothoth and take up the silver key,” or “go
to the place where its bones lay moldering and wait until the three suns rise
in the West to anoint the face of the Gatekeeper.”
There is some talk that Dr. Black might be the Gatekeeper
due to his possession of the YOLE key and the Stephen Clark painting in which
he was anointed with the Seal of Yog-Sothoth. Mikhail believes that the three
suns might be three stars, such as those making up Orion’s belt, but there
seems to be no way to utilize these stars to open the gate.
As the sun rises, Johnny explains that they may need to
perform the ritual to summon the Veiled Sage, an aspect of Yog-Sothoth that
they had treated with previously. He, Kane, Judge Putnam, and Dr. Black begin
creating the required sand mandala in the area before the gateway.
Vivian, frustrated but undeterred, sits down and pores over
the group’s collected notes yet one more time. As she struggles to make sense
of the conflicting pieces of information, she notices that the dawning rays of
the sun are reflecting off of the bronze Tahijuh mirror resting at her feet and
are shining back on the western side of the gateway.
In a flash of inspiration, Vivian calls for two more
mirrors. Using the Tahijuh mirror, the compact in Vivian’s bag and a pair of
glasses that Johnny borrows from Judge Putnam, the group prepares to open the
gate Vivian explains that they will need to concentrate on the place that they
want to arrive at, which should not be the Well of Souls. The group chooses to
go to the Path of the Penitent. Judge Putnam takes the opportunity to get a
little drunk, presumably to help make meditating on the Path of the Penitent a
little easier.
Three lights shine on the lintel of ‘Umr At-Tawil.In the
empty space beneath, a dark, pulsating gate opens. Dr. Black is volunteered to
go first. He steps into the gateway, seems to freeze in place and, after
several fraught seconds, vanishes.
The rest of the group pluck up their courage and follow him.
The Path of the Penitent
The group appears in a large room, its ceiling held up by
four massive columns. On each column is a curious lantern: A sphere of glass,
half full of silverly liquid, sits on a metallic sconce. A blue-white flame
flickers in the air a few inches above each sphere.
A pathway leads through a low, trapezoidal doorway, through
which the group must crawl. They spend an agonizingly long time on their hands
and knees before arriving in another room reminiscent of the bottom of a
pyramid, with a flat ceiling and inward-slanting walls.
Alcoves on each of the walls holds long, boxes made out of
crystal, which are fitted with precious metal and gems. Johnny warns the group
against splitting up and against looking too closely at things. Everyone, even
Ron and Mikhail, stay away from the crystal boxes.
The group progresses through another low, trapezoidal tunnel
into a larger room, where a staircase leads up to a massive pair of lead doors.
In front of the doors stand two pillars that are about a yard high and a yard
apart. Both pillars are topped with long, cruel spikes covered in brownish
residue.
The door refuses to budge, and so Dr. Black decides that he
will try to prick his hands on the pair of spiked pillars and see what happens.
The group winces as the good doctor impales himself, screaming in agony as his
blood runs freely out of the ragged holes in his palms.
Moments later, the lead gates swing open a fraction,
allowing him—and only him—admittance.
Ron goes next, piercing his hands and passing through the
open gateway to join Dr. Black on the other side. Dr. Black immediately sets
about dressing Ron’s wounds, but finds that there seems to be nothing he can do
to close the wounds or stop the flow of blood.
Soon after, the rest of the group joins Dr. Black and Ron,
with bloodied palms and terror in their eyes. Pushok, for some reason, seems
largely ignored by the defenses of the Nameless City, and is able to follow
Mikhail past the lead portals without needing to make tribute himself.
The First Challenge
The pathway abruptly ends at a ledge overlooking a massive
cavern, whose bottom is obscured by tendrils of swirling mists. Several pillars
rise up out of the mist, allowing access to the doorway on the far side of the
cavern by those who are brave or mad enough to try and jump across. This
traversal is made all the more difficult by several huge, heavy bladed
pendulums that swing between the gaps in the pillars, ready to maim anyone that
jumps at the wrong moment.
Kane Eastman hops across the pillars easily, as does Judge
Putnam. The rest of the group fares less well, and either do not jump far
enough, do not move fast enough, or are intimidated by the deadly pendulums.
Ron ends up trapped on a pillar with Vivian, Mikhail, and Johnny and, out of
frustration and concern for their safety, simply picks up his companions and
hurls them to the ledge on the far side before making the final jump himself.
Kane catches Vivian. Mikhail crashes into the Judge, and Johnny must fend for
himself, but all of them make it to the other side.
Meanwhile, Dr. Black decides to close his eyes and trust in
the power of Nodens, Lord of the Great Abyss, to save him. Without opening his
eyes, Dr. Black effortlessly jumps from pillar to pillar, avoiding the
razor-sharp pendulums and joining his friends on the other side in short order.
Together again, albeit battered and still bleeding from the
wounds in their palms, the group progress deeper into the Nameless City, and to
the next challenge.
A Letter from Home
A Little Note from Everyone's Favorite NPC
Ron takes some time, while still in Judge Putnam’s carriage
house garage, to read Luca’s letter. The news is not good. Ron learns that “Big
Grin” Bianco has gotten a huge influx of cash for his organization, and is
using it to press very hard against the Bernouse Family operation. Half of the
first whisky delivery from Dunne’s Distillery was destroyed on the docks, many
of the family’s former allies in Boston have either defected or been killed,
and a hired gunman—in a shocking breach of Mafia etiquette—shot up the Bernouse
house with a tommy gun. No one was injured, and Vince is safe in an undisclosed
location, but Luca is very concerned about it all. He also begs Ron not to tell
Vivian about what happened to her father.
Ron takes a moment to pilfer a bottle of whisky from the judge’s stores and arm himself with a croquet mallet from the judge’s set before jaunting back through the gate box to Syria.
He, of course, tells Vivian (and the others) immediately. Vivian is beside herself, and suspects that Bianco is now being funded by the Silver Twilight Lodge/Look to the Future.
The Approach to As-Safa
The London Group beds down for a well-deserved west and
awakens early the next morning refreshed and free from the oppressive and
frightening dreams that they had experienced the night before. They take most
of the day to prepare and sort out their resources before traveling across the
desert to As-Safa in a truck and camel caravan.
Ron and Mikhail are, by this point, thoroughly suspicious of Turki and keep shooting daggers at him. Turki is baffled by this treatment.
It is well after dark by the time the group reaches the volcanic plain of As-Safa. As predicted, the hardened lava proves to be much too difficult terrain for the truck. Dr. Black and Johnny suspect that the coarse basalt would, at best, merely shred the truck’s tires. The group repacks everything onto the camels, while Turki provides them with basic tips on how to ride the “ships of the desert.”
As night wears on, an ominous fog gathers in the low spaces between the cindercones of As-Safa. The light of the moon shimmers on the rolling, cloudy banks, in some places more brightly than others. The members of the group who visited Nodens in his high house are vaguely discomfited by all the fog. Their unease is not helped by the fact that several portions of the fog seem somehow much brighter than the others—almost suggestive of a path through As-Safa.
Johnny tests this theory with the Powder of Ibn-Ghazi. At the powder’s touch, a very bright pathway is briefly illuminated through the fog. The group mounts up and follows this pathway, as best as they are able, into As-Safa.
Unexpected Company
Due to the group’s inexperience with their mounts and with
the terrain of the volcanic plateau, their progress through As-Safa is
frustratingly slow. They press on regardless, and eventually come to a place
where someone has carved Arabic letters into the sides of one of the
omnipresent cinder cones.
The group dismounts while Johnny struggles to interpret the carved Arabic symbols. After a while, he understands that the words are both a guidepost to ‘Umr At-Tawil and a warning to stay far away from that place. Johnny also notices a curious bas relief carving beneath the words, that seems to consist of a cluster of spheres…or bubbles…or eyes. Despite the simplicity of this carving, the sight of it unnerves him.
At about this moment, several members of the group, including Ron, Dr. Black, and Kane become aware of strange—and possibly human—sounds echoing off of the cinder cones around them. Dr. Black, concerned for Brother Theodore’s safety, takes the monk by the arm and drags him around behind one of the cinder cones. He immediately blunders into the muzzle of a long rifle wielded by a Syrian man. Dr. Black goes cross-eyed trying to focus down the rifle barrel at the Syrian.
Moments later, a very large group of armed Syrians step into view, leveling rifles at the group. From the omnipresent shadows, an unseen man addresses them in several languages, including Arabic and French. Members of the group are not proficient enough in either language, and so Ron asks if the unseen man speaks English.
He does. “Throw down your weapons,” he demands.
The group obeys.
Hello There
At this point, Turki steps forward and addresses the unseen man in Arabic. After a bit of a back-and-forth, the unseen man—whom Turki refers to as “the General” steps forward into the moonlight. He tells the group that he and Turki are brothers-in-arms, and that he is the local leader of the Druze’s military operation against the French. He wants to know what the group is doing there.
Johnny decides to be completely honest with the General, telling him that they seek the gateway called ‘Umr At-Tawil and the Nameless City. The General reacts with slight fear and disgust, and asks if they are with the other group that the rebels saw at ‘Umr At-Tawil two days before.
The General goes on to describe that this other group of about two score individuals wore strange robes and masks and seemed to be carrying another gentleman who had been, “strapped to a board.” Ron, with much preamble and care, pulls forth one of the cultist masks from his camel and shows it off to the General.
“Yes,” says the General. “Masks like this one. Exactly like this one.”
Ron and the rest of the group then confirm that they are hunting these individuals, at which point the General orders his men to lower their weapons.
There is some additional discussion, in which Kane tries to get some of the General’s forces to accompany the London Group as backup against the cultists. The General replies that neither he nor his men will go anywhere near ‘Umr At-Tawil, and that his quarrel is with the French, not the cultists. He agrees to escort the group to the gate, and will even watch over their camels in the event that they return from the Nameless City, but he will commit no other resources to helping them.
The group agrees to this and follows the General and his forces across As-Safa to the small, bowl-like valley upon which stands ‘Umr At-Tawil, the basalt gateway to the Nameless City.
Paths Diverge
Turki, overwhelmed by what he has experienced recently,
politely requests to be discharged from the London Group. Judge Putnam agrees,
thanks Turki for his excellent help and loyal service, and settles up his
accounts. A grateful Turki prepares to depart with the rebels.
Brother Theodore also opts to remain with the rebels, at least for a little while. He also volunteers to take James Raven along with him, hoping to eventually return him to As Suwayda and medical treatment.
Before the rebels depart, Johnny pulls the truck keys out of his pocket and hands them to the General. He says that the group might not be coming back this way, or at all, and that the General is more than welcome to use the truck for his military operations. The General is quite grateful for the donation to his cause.
‘Umr At-Tawil
 |
| One Option for Entering the City: The Veiled Sage |
The group is now confronted with the puzzle of opening the gate and using it to travel safely into the Nameless City. They spend the rest of the waning hours of the night poring over all of their notes and recollections. Mikhail seems to think that the Tahijuh mirror that the group has might be helpful in opening the gate. Vivian notices several important passages in Christopher Edwin’s dossier, which note that they must either, “perform a ritual of service to Yog-Sothoth and take up the silver key,” or “go to the place where its bones lay moldering and wait until the three suns rise in the West to anoint the face of the Gatekeeper.”
There is some talk that Dr. Black might be the Gatekeeper
due to his possession of the YOLE key and the Stephen Clark painting in which
he was anointed with the Seal of Yog-Sothoth. Mikhail believes that the three
suns might be three stars, such as those making up Orion’s belt, but there
seems to be no way to utilize these stars to open the gate.
As the sun rises, Johnny explains that they may need to perform the ritual to summon the Veiled Sage, an aspect of Yog-Sothoth that they had treated with previously. He, Kane, Judge Putnam, and Dr. Black begin creating the required sand mandala in the area before the gateway.
Vivian, frustrated but undeterred, sits down and pores over the group’s collected notes yet one more time. As she struggles to make sense of the conflicting pieces of information, she notices that the dawning rays of the sun are reflecting off of the bronze Tahijuh mirror resting at her feet and are shining back on the western side of the gateway.
In a flash of inspiration, Vivian calls for two more mirrors. Using the Tahijuh mirror, the compact in Vivian’s bag and a pair of glasses that Johnny borrows from Judge Putnam, the group prepares to open the gate Vivian explains that they will need to concentrate on the place that they want to arrive at, which should not be the Well of Souls. The group chooses to go to the Path of the Penitent. Judge Putnam takes the opportunity to get a little drunk, presumably to help make meditating on the Path of the Penitent a little easier.
Three lights shine on the lintel of ‘Umr At-Tawil.In the empty space beneath, a dark, pulsating gate opens. Dr. Black is volunteered to go first. He steps into the gateway, seems to freeze in place and, after several fraught seconds, vanishes.
The rest of the group pluck up their courage and follow him.
The Path of the Penitent
The group appears in a large room, its ceiling held up by four massive columns. On each column is a curious lantern: A sphere of glass, half full of silverly liquid, sits on a metallic sconce. A blue-white flame flickers in the air a few inches above each sphere.
A pathway leads through a low, trapezoidal doorway, through which the group must crawl. They spend an agonizingly long time on their hands and knees before arriving in another room reminiscent of the bottom of a pyramid, with a flat ceiling and inward-slanting walls.
Alcoves on each of the walls holds long, boxes made out of crystal, which are fitted with precious metal and gems. Johnny warns the group against splitting up and against looking too closely at things. Everyone, even Ron and Mikhail, stay away from the crystal boxes.
The group progresses through another low, trapezoidal tunnel into a larger room, where a staircase leads up to a massive pair of lead doors. In front of the doors stand two pillars that are about a yard high and a yard apart. Both pillars are topped with long, cruel spikes covered in brownish residue.
The door refuses to budge, and so Dr. Black decides that he will try to prick his hands on the pair of spiked pillars and see what happens. The group winces as the good doctor impales himself, screaming in agony as his blood runs freely out of the ragged holes in his palms.
Moments later, the lead gates swing open a fraction, allowing him—and only him—admittance.
Ron goes next, piercing his hands and passing through the open gateway to join Dr. Black on the other side. Dr. Black immediately sets about dressing Ron’s wounds, but finds that there seems to be nothing he can do to close the wounds or stop the flow of blood.
Soon after, the rest of the group joins Dr. Black and Ron, with bloodied palms and terror in their eyes. Pushok, for some reason, seems largely ignored by the defenses of the Nameless City, and is able to follow Mikhail past the lead portals without needing to make tribute himself.
The First Challenge
The pathway abruptly ends at a ledge overlooking a massive cavern, whose bottom is obscured by tendrils of swirling mists. Several pillars rise up out of the mist, allowing access to the doorway on the far side of the cavern by those who are brave or mad enough to try and jump across. This traversal is made all the more difficult by several huge, heavy bladed pendulums that swing between the gaps in the pillars, ready to maim anyone that jumps at the wrong moment.
Kane Eastman hops across the pillars easily, as does Judge Putnam. The rest of the group fares less well, and either do not jump far enough, do not move fast enough, or are intimidated by the deadly pendulums. Ron ends up trapped on a pillar with Vivian, Mikhail, and Johnny and, out of frustration and concern for their safety, simply picks up his companions and hurls them to the ledge on the far side before making the final jump himself. Kane catches Vivian. Mikhail crashes into the Judge, and Johnny must fend for himself, but all of them make it to the other side.
Meanwhile, Dr. Black decides to close his eyes and trust in the power of Nodens, Lord of the Great Abyss, to save him. Without opening his eyes, Dr. Black effortlessly jumps from pillar to pillar, avoiding the razor-sharp pendulums and joining his friends on the other side in short order.
Together again, albeit battered and still bleeding from the wounds in their palms, the group progress deeper into the Nameless City, and to the next challenge.
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