Easter Island, Part Two: August 28, 1926

In the Brig

The London Group  has been imprisoned in the brig in the Chilean military compound on Easter Island. Dr. Black tries his YOLE key in the lock of his cell and discovers that it will likely unlock it if turned. The rest of the group asks him to put the key back in his pocket and decide to bide their time for a bit, hoping that Captain Pereira’s background checks will exonerate them.

Meanwhile, Connie, who is sharing a cell with Vivian, is finally able to corner the young woman and ask her what went wrong with their relationship. This prompts Vivian, who has changed quite a lot in the last year, to bold facedly tell Vivian that she knows that Connie had slept with her father many years ago, and also that she wasn’t terribly pleased with “the Slap Heard Round the Five Boroughs” at her father’s last Christmas party.

Connie, utterly cowed by this, sits quietly on her bunk, and doesn’t talk to anyone for the rest of the night. The other members of the London Group, who have heard the whole altercation between Connie and Viv, react as one might expect.

The Naval Base and the Village

August 29, 1926

In the morning, Lieutenant Alvarez arrives in the brig, releases the London Group, and escorts them back to Captain Pereira’s office. This time, the group receives a much warmer welcome, as the office now has enough seating for everyone, and the captain provides coffee.

Captain Pereira returns the group’s travel documents and apologizes for his previous treatment of them. He says that he was able to get in touch with Raleigh Rothschild, the judge’s former lawyer. Rothschild, in turn, not only replied with his own sworn testimony about the moral character of the London Group, but also contacted several associates to send additional testimony on the group’s behalf.

The group mentions that they would like to interview Professor Methridge. Captain Pereira allows it, asking a very displeased Lt. Alvarez to give the group a brief tour of the island and then take them to Professor Methridge. The captain also reiterates the rules of the island, including the 9:00 pm curfew. Mikhail, realizing that the group will need to be able to come and go more freely, begins penning a letter asking for the captain’s permission to be out past 9:00 pm.

The Military Camp and the Village of Hanga-Roa

Lieutenant Alvarez takes the group over to the mess hall to get them some breakfast. There, they see several rustic Chilean types who are eating with some of the Chilean soldiers. The rustics, who are apparently shepherds brought to Easter Island, eat quickly and leave to go tend to their flocks.

The group also spies a rather rotund older man in the habiliments of a Catholic priest. The priest helps himself to some coffee, but, after looking over the trays of food on offer in the mess hall, makes a face and quickly departs.

Once they are fed, Alvarez takes the London Group out into the village of Huanga-Roa, which contains all of Easter Island’s native population (1,100 people in total). The islanders live in closely built huts and seem to be living in grinding poverty. Most are very sparsely dressed, and the few that do have clothes all wear cast-offs from the military base.

One of the Islanders

The islanders are very friendly, however. When Ron attempts to address them in English, Italian, and French, a group clusters around him to listen. No one in the group of islanders appears to speak any of the three languages that Ron sort of knows, but they do have a great deal of fun parroting some of the more interesting words back to him, laughing all the while. “Arrivederci” and “Bonjour” seem to be the islanders’ favorites.

The rest of the group tests out the other languages they know (apart from Valusian), with little success. However, once it seems that the group will be unable to communicate with the islanders at all, an elderly woman, who introduces herself as Aneru, welcomes them to Rapa-Nui in halting English.

After conversing briefly with Aneru, the group decides to split up. Half of them forcing Alvarez to take them on a tour of the rest of the village. The others will remain behind and question Aneru about the disappearances and anything else of interest.

Aneru says that the islanders suspect the Hanau-Epe, or “evil men,” are responsible for the disappearances. Though she is nervous about mentioning the Hanau-Epe, when pressed, she tells the London Group that they are the “long-eared people,” whom the islanders drove from Rapa-Nui many ages ago. Thanks to the group’s previous research, they know enough about the long-eared people to know what Aneru is talking about. Johnny immediately suspects that the Hanau-Epe are connected to the Mythos in some fashion.

They finish up talking to Aneru as the rest of the group returns with Alvarez. The lieutenant, who seems visibly disgusted by being in close proximity to the natives of the island, quickly walks the London Group over to Professor Methridge’s hut before beating a hasty retreat back to the compound. He says that the group can find him there if they have any further questions.

Professor Methridge

The group knock on the frame of the hut and are soon greeted by Professor Methridge, most recently from Oxford University. The London Group mentions their falsified credentials in passing and, with a bit of luck and some extremely well-placed words, manage to convince the professor of their fake academic bona fides. The professor invites them into his humble abode and has them sit down on the hut’s rug, while he seats himself on the pallet bed in the corner.

Professor Methridge

The professor explains that he and his team have been on Easter Island for three months and have conducted various archaeological surveys with full support of the Chilean government. He mentions finding a dense layer of burned material approximately two feet under the surface of an abandoned village east of the Kaitki Volcano. This suggests that a very large fire occurred in the region about 3,000 years ago, though there is little indication that there was sufficient vegetation on the island, even then, to generate that much material.

Methridge goes on to describe a discovery that proves to be of much greater interest to the London Group. About three miles north of Hanga-Roa, his team investigated a funeral structure (an Ahu-moai), consisting of a stone ramp leading to a platform surmounted by three of the island’s famous stone statues. While measuring the site, one of Methridge’s graduate students stumbled upon a hidden crack, which led into a sort of catacombs beneath the Ahu-moai. There, the team found sixteen mummified bodies standing in niches, as well as a vase and three statuettes.

Methridge goes on to say that the disappearances started shortly after the vase and statuettes were unearthed. They include six members of his team, three native islanders, two shepherds, and two sailors from the Chilean military base.

Kane is concerned that Captain Pereira did not mention that Chilean sailors were among those missing and wants to ask the captain for more details. The rest of the group are very interested in the artifacts that Methridge’s team has unearthed. According to Methridge, these items are being securely held at the military base. Realizing that the base is their next stop on their investigation, the London Group bids Methridge a fond farewell and departs.

The Artifacts

The London Group speaks briefly with Captain Periera and obtains his permission to see the Methridge artifacts. He has Corporal Machado bring the artifacts into one of the base’s conference rooms so that the group can examine them more closely. 

The three statuettes are all nearly identical, depicting humanoid figures about a foot high, with webbed fingers and toes. Their eyes and mouths are distinctly froglike, and their ears have extremely long lobes. Johnny inspects the statues only for a moment before realizing two important facts:

• The creatures’ long earlobes are actually gills.
• The statuettes are most likely of deep ones, similar to the ones they encountered on Chebeague Island.

The vase is decorated with the picture of a crouching man facing another figure that bears a striking resemblance to the statuettes. Between them is a block surmounted by a two-headed serpent, which the group recognizes as the strange artifact that Dr. Black destroyed with the Sword of Marcus in Syria. Vivian assumes that the artifact is none other than the Arc of Vlactos.

Within the jar is a thin layer of a dry, black, resinous substance, which several members of the group (including Dr. Black and Judge Putnam), identify as the concentrated tar of the Black Lotus flower—a rare hallucinogen.

Disturbed by their discoveries, the group ponders what to do next.