The London Group, still battered and exhausted from their desperate battle beneath Easter Island, prepare to set off to the newly arisen island somewhere to the southwest. The group, along with Captain Pereira and the crew of the Golden Bear, are convinced that this new island is likely related to the recent evil events on Easter Island and not—as Captain Pereira’s superiors hope—potential territorial expansion for Chile.
Ron rejoins the group and orders Liam to return through the gate box to a place of safety. He seems hollow and dispirited by recent events in New York City, but uncharacteristically refuses to talk to anyone about it.
Kane pleads with Captain Pereira to send naval destroyers along with the Golden Bear to help them in their investigations—especially considering that the London Group is nominally doing them on behalf of the Chilean government. The captain apologizes, telling Kane that he cannot spare any of the ships or men under his command. He can, however, offer them so small arms from the base’s stores. Kane gladly gathers up several pistols, rifles, two Thompson submachine guns, and several cases of ammunition.
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| The Golden Bear Prepares to Get Underway |
While Kane gathers supplies, those of the London Group who skilled in magic and the Mythos put their heads together to create a counterspell to the Raise R’lyeh spell found in the Easter Island Codex. After much thought and planning, they create a ritual chant which they are fairly certain will work. Unfortunately, for their spell to work, it must be cast upon R’lyeh itself.
Shortly before their departure for points unknown in the Pacific, Captain Pereira calls the London Group into his office and reads them a radiogram he has just received. Chile reports three tramp freighters have set out from Valparaiso and are enroute to the potential location of the new island. Captain Pereira reports that the descriptions of the freighters and their dubious crews matches those of Carl Stanford’s people and ships. He warns the London Group to be cautions.
The group makes final preparations, bids farewell to Captain Pereira, and sets sail for R’lyeh. The trip takes almost thirty-six hours and, for the most part, is uneventful. Until…
September 7, 1926
The sea becomes ugly and storm-tossed. The Golden Bear sails
through and near frequent patches of torn apart, dead fish which are being
feasted upon by sharks and gulls alike. Ahead of them, the sky is filled with
churning, green clouds that lash out with lightning at an alarming frequency.
The storm and the ocean waves die down eventually, leaving the Golden Bear
sailing through waters that are unusually calm and covered with a sickly sheen.
Vivian takes the opportunity to barricade herself in her cabin and summon forth the spectral hound from the black gemstone stored in the Jade Sphinx. When the hound appears, Vivian sends it after Carl Stanford.
Shortly thereafter, Captain Keane of the Golden Bear sounds the collision bell and calls an all stop. The London Group come up to the top deck to see that they have stopped amidst a cluster of slimy, black, barnacle-covered spires that arise at odd angles out of the ocean. Some of them seem to be natural rock, while others seem to be towers and buildings of singularly ugly and bizarre design. These sunken edifices all ring an island of black, volcanic rock, covered in detritus, slime, and the corpses of sea creatures. The London Group spies hundreds of cyclopean buildings, stairs, minarets, and other structures arising in a confusing tangle to pierce the sky. Distances and angles seem oddly distorted on the island, and it seems as though many of the buildings lean at strange angles, or are about to fall over.
In the center of the island, on the tallest peak, a massive edifice of black stone stands silhouetted against the sky. A pair of doors in one side of the edifice are firmly shut. Vivian, among others, believes and fears that this edifice is their ultimate destination.
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| A Map of Dread R'lyeh |
Captain Keane says that he will not go any further, as he will not risk running the Golden Bear aground on any of the half-submerged peaks. The London Group wholeheartedly agree to this and ask the captain to prepare a longboat so that they can go ashore themselves. The group also tells the captain that he should feel free to leave the area rather than risk the ship or the lives of his crew.
While they prepare the longboat, the lookout on the Golden Bear spots the three tramp freighters docked relatively close to the island. The group decide to investigate the freighters first, as they hope this will give them some idea of where Carl Stanford and his cultists have gone.
With their weapons, gear, and gate box loaded into the longboat, the London Group set sail for the freighters.
Coming Ashore
Passing near the three freighters, the London Group notes
that they are all in extremely poor condition and are likely only just this
side of being seaworthy. They also spot what seem to be fiery orbs patrolling
the ship decks. Johnny, who knows too much of the Mythos, identifies them as
Fire Vampires, and the group decides to steer well clear of them.
They land their longboat on the shore near the freighters, and Mikhail has a very nervous Pushok sniff around to find the cultists’ trail. The noble Great Dane eventually gets the whiff of something, and begins pulling Mikhail up a rock-strewn path that leads into the center of the island. The group, their gear unpacked, their weapons loaded, follow Mikhail and Pushok deeper into the island’s interior.
The vistas on R’lyeh are awful. Winged things flit through the sky. Spectral monsters appear briefly, scream, and vanish. The group navigates a sagging bridge seemingly made out of taffy-like cables, that stretches over a cavern with no bottom. Pathways vanish into shadows. Stairs descend upside down. The entire journey is sickening and dreadful.
The pathway takes the group, by many twists and turns, up to the topmost peak of the island. The summit is ringed with a massive stone wall, which surrounds the edifice they glimpsed earlier. On the far side of the wall from their current location, the London Group spies a massive, leaning tower of bluish stone. On the other side of the wall, the group can hear the gibbering, chanting, and atonal singing of what they hope are Carl Stanford and his cultists.
The wall itself is covered with stone eyes and mouths, all of which move on their own. The stone mouths whisper terrible secrets and taunt the group, and many of them whisper, “the Key, the Gate, the time soon comes, the Herald awakens!”
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| A Horrible Wall |
Dr. Black, taking the hideous mouths a bit too literally, assumes that there is some kind of hidden doorway in this part of the wall. He thrusts his YOLE key into one of the mouths, blindly searching for a keyhole. He does not find one. The mouth clamps down on his wrist, stone teeth rending flesh and clamping down hard on bone.
Johnny points the muzzle of his pistol just above the hungry mouth and fires, destroying it and allowing Dr. Black to pull his blooded hand from the wall. The group treats his injury and finds, to their relief, that the doctor’s hand isn’t permanently damaged. He will be able to play the violin again, after all.
The group suspects—or rather, hopes—that the blue tower will provide some kind of ingress into the courtyard beyond and, ultimately, to the great edifice. To that end, they follow along the wall for a very long time, until at last they come to the tower’s entrance.
The Bluestone Tower
The London Group passes into the yawning doorway that
provides entrance into the tower. The first floor of the tower is
incomprehensibly vast, its distant roof supported with pillars of blue stone.
Shadows and lights dance within the walls, providing an eerie ambiance, and
bones and shells litter the ancient floor.
The group spies a much smaller, though still very tall, door on the far side of the chamber and makes their way toward it. As they approach, they spot a hooded and cloaked figure who seems to be…sweeping the area in front of the door.
The figure notices them and pulls back its hood, revealing that they are none other than Ms. Bridger. The group recoils in shock as Ms. Bridger casts aside her broom and strides toward them.
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| What are You Doing Here? |
“You slew my twin,” she says, her voice rasping as her body bloats and undulates. “For that, you shall die.”
With a hideous tearing noise, Ms. Bridger explodes into a pool of dark, rippling slime nearly twenty feet across. Mouths, eyes, and pseudopods erupt all along its surface, filling the air with manic, piping cries. Chief among them is a baleful and repetitive screech of, “Tekeli-li!”
The group unload their firepower as the shuddering beast advances, filling it with lead both from Johnny’s future gun and Kane’s recently acquired Thompson. Dr. Black attempts to employ one of the serpentpeople’s crystal weapons to deadly effect, only to have the thing nearly blow up in its face. Ron ignites and hurls a stick of dynamite, blasting a great divot out of the center of the creature and spraying ghastly ichor all over the chamber.
“Ms. Bridger” lashes out with two pseudopods, seizing Johnny and Vivian and pulling them into its center mass. Though Johnny and Vivian fight against the creature’s nearly limitless strength, it still threatens to suffocate and crush them in its mass.
While Vivian and Johnny try to cut themselves free with blessed blades, the rest of the group does their very best to pour small arms fire into the creature. By some miracle, this is enough to kill it. It begins to lose cohesion and fall apart, leaving Vivian and Johnny filthy, but alive, in a spreading pool of protomatter on the floor of the tower.
The London Group takes a few moments to take a breath, reload, and get their bearings. Then Dr. Black, YOLE key in hand, strides purposefully toward the far door…
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| Aaah! AAAAAH! |
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