Event:1925/06/20 Spelunking an Alien City
We drive around the camp in the morning and start following the tire marks to the north. About 5 to 10 klicks north, Chun Li sees[1][2] a cave with no one around it, but it does have some stone monoliths. Lloyd remarks that the stones are over 10,000 years old and not naturally formed[3]; rather, built architecturally. He comments that he believes that this is another entrance to the city. We hide the truck as best we can, bury the bloodletting equipment, stone knapping equipment, and drums in another location, gather supplies, and head into the cave. The deeper we get, the less natural the cave gets, and we find ourselves in a worked passageway of alien nature. We come to a deep 15' square hole that blocks our way. Looking down it, there doesn't seem to be a bottom. Gurumarra throws a rock down, but it seems to drop forever. Gurumarra notices[1] a panel of some type to the right. Lloyd easily activates the panel and causes a wall to quietly come down and form a bridge. As the group crosses, there is the awful high-pitched sound from last night from below, followed by some banging and sucking noises. Lloyd ushers everyone across quickly and the bridge seems to hold. We continue onward and come to a crossroads. We approached this crossroad from the southeast, and we could go northeast or west. We go northeast.
We walk down a long corridor for about a mile that ends in a yawning chasm. Far in the distance, we see an electric lightbulb and the sound of a generator. From below, we hear a chorus of the shrill whining. Gurumarra drops to his stomach and inches to the edge and looks over the edge. He sees many enormous flying creatures with dangling tentacles, many eyes, many mouths, and amorphous forms[4]. Looking closely[1], he sees a gigantic black city below. We head back the way we came from.
Back at the crossroads, we go to the west this time. After another mile long corridor, we come to a T intersection running north and south. There's a line of electric lights hanging from the ceiling that go either direction. From the north, we can see an electric generator running and powering the lights along with rubble behind the generator that would be difficult to climb.
We go north. Checking out the generator, Lloyd says[5] that it's low on fuel and will need to be filled soon. Gurumarra listens[6] and hears a squeaky noise. Looking over the rubble, he sees a repairman replacing broken bulbs. The repairman sees him too, and Gurumarra hits him with a spear. The rest of us scramble to the top of the rubble pile, and the cultist produces what looks like a brownie kodak camera and presses buttons on both sides. What seems like a bolt of lightning leaps from the "camera" and strikes Gurumarra in the chest for serious electric damage. The group dives for cover. Chun Li charges at the repairman. Lloyd misses him, and the guy misses Chun Li with a lightning blast. Gurumarra grazes him with another spear. Charles pulls his coin sword and advances on the repairman, striking him down. Lloyd grabs the lightning gun and notes a sign of the sand bat tattooed on the man's arm. Charles takes the cultist's red robes before too much blood gets on them, and he and Chun Li wash the blood out quickly. Lloyd determines[3] that the collapse was due to natural causes. We move the body next to the generator, put some gas in the generator (about 2 hours worth), and then head the opposite direction (to the south). As we proceed, Gurumarra hears chanting from the south. We attempt to sneak south[7], though none of us are successful. We come to a gigantic expansive room with a continuous blue glow emanating from the floor. There are many cultists having some type of ritual in the middle of the room. They are chanting in a language none of us recognize.
We turn around and head back to the north. We come to the Y, and it looks like the lights end just a bit past the turn to the left. We head left. It's dark (we turn on our lights) and a very long passageway. We see lights start again after travelling a long way. We attempt to approach cautiously again, but continue to fail to do so. It seems that they boarded up a section of the hallway into a wooden shack. Gurumarra listens at the door, but hears nothing. Charles opens the door and sees lights, mining equipment, oil-style drums, and carts. There's another door across the way in another built wooden wall, forming a 10'x10' room. There are stairs leading up. Gurumarra sneaks up the stairway[7] to the next level and sees 7 iron cages with people in them, mostly aboriginal with some white folks, and more stairs leading up. Charles searches the ground floor and finds a locker with 24 sticks of dynamite along with all the accoutrements including the manufacturer's manual. Chun Li finds another lightning gun, and Lloyd grabs it. Gurumarra finds keys[1] and we all go up and begin unlocking cages. Chun Li goes up another level and finds correspondence from Edward Gavigan to Dr. Huston by a typewriter on a desk. She also finds[1] a loaded .45 revolver and the 11th chapter of a manuscript. On the other side of the room, she also sees a helmet with wires coming out of it. She grabs a marine chronometer and tosses it in her bag. Continuing up, she discovers that the stairs are unfinished and there's excavated space above. She comes back down. We have 7 people accompanying us now. They've all lost their memory similar to the woman we encountered in the outback. Lloyd goes upstairs and determines[8] that the helmet erases memories. The pile of scrolls are odds and ends, nothing relevant, written in Yithian. Gurumarra comes up and looks through the books, finding subjects like ancient Egypt and medicine, but nothing additionally relevant. Charles explains to the white captives how to get back to the entrance we used, and we send them on their way.
On the other side of the next door, there are passages going northwest, west, south, and southeast. All passages have lights. The passage to the west has an additional heavy duty power cable running along the ground. We follow it and go west. The passage then angles southwest and comes to another Y with a generator at the junction. We go southeast at the Y and come to a door made of the strange materials the wall is. There are markings on it, which Lloyd seems to recognize. He says it seems safe and opens the door. Lloyd recognizes advanced materials from Earth along with extremely advanced alien technology. Gurumarra takes a couple gears that seem strong and light for throwing. The power cable continues to another room, and Lloyd opens the door to an even larger room where the power cable runs to a large control panel. A panel has been removed and it seems someone was working on it. Lloyd understands that this is a computer and begins using it. Most systems are offline, but there's a space/time machine that seems to be online. It was last activated a year ago and set to 3 million years in the future. Lloyd knows that's when the Yithian race conquers Earth[9]. He also finds that there are two floor lighting systems active, a blue floor and red floor, along with a purple dome. The others notice restraints and another memory wipe helmet in the room, along with a door in an archway. Gurumarra starts paying attention to the door and notices his hair stands on end near it. Lloyd finds that a forcefield is also online nearby. He attempts to open the nearby door, but it's offline. He repairs the panel[8] and it slides open, an electrical buzz preceding a blue glow. Gurumarra is greeted with the sight[4] of an enormous iridescent cone creature with four flexible cylindrical things with claws at the ends, four red trumpet-like things, and and yellowish globe. Lloyd immediately runs back to the control panel and lowers the forcefield, freeing Kakakatak, the Yithian. The group has a conversation in which Lloyd seems to do all the speaking for Kakakatak. He explains that Dr. Huston has brought them here against their will, tortured and enslaved them, and forced them to give technology to the cultists. Kakakatak expects that Dr. Huston is working with an entity called Nyarlathotep and gained enough knowledge from that entity to use the technology in this ship to bring them here.
Kakakatak says they need to put their mind back together, and Gurumarra watches as they activate some equipment that plunges a spike into Lloyd's skull, sucks his brain out, and pipes it into the Yithian.[4] They explain that Lloyd, the human the group originally met, hasn't been with them since looking into the telescope device back in the hanger in Darwin. His mind was supplanted by a fragment of Kakakatak's mind in an attempt to find a way to free themselves, which was clearly successful. They want to work with the other investigators to seek vengeance on Dr. Huston and the cultists that have imprisoned and tortured them. They explain that they floating jellyfish creatures are an extremely dangerous race of beings known as flying polyps, and there's probably too many here to kill them all. Kakakatak hopes to find a way to seal them in or otherwise deal with them before returning to the future though. Kakakatak also warns that the lightning guns are extremely dangerous and advanced technology, and Gurumarra immediately takes one, accidentally activates it, and kills himself with it.
In a sudden flash of lightning, Dr. Victor Lester shows up with nothing a loincloth he's wearing. Everyone is confused and there's a brief standoff. Victor doesn't remember anything transpiring from when he disappeared on 4/22/1925 until now. Once everyone calms down, Kakakatak points out that there's a space/time device available, and they believe it has power for 10 uses. Chun Li slips off, worried about dealing with the alien creature and the mysterious appearing man. She makes her way to the red plaza and back, sneaking[7] along the way. While there, she noticed a foul smell, heard a generator, and had a sense of unease. The path was lighted along the way. Victor loots the bodies in the room and cobbles together an outfit and some equipment. Charles and Victor discuss possibilities with Kakakatak for using the space/time device. They decide on the following:
- Pull the iron chest that vanished from the investigators' hotel room in London from that moment to the present time and location
- Pull Father Quinn from his present location to this location
- Pull the Isoge Taro and the 15 submariners that vanished during the Assault on Grey Dragon Island from that moment to the present time and location
- Pull Jack Brady & 6 Firmies from their present location to this location
- Pull the bomb Dr. Huston has been preparing from its present location in the purple dome room to this location
At that point, Kakakatak spends a short time arming the bomb and preparing it to detonate. Then they continue operating the space/time device to:
- Send the bomb to 6/6/1925 to the room full of flying polyps where it will detonate, hopefully injuring many of them but primarily sealing off their ability to use that exit
- Send the newly reinforced party to 6/6/1925 moments after the bomb detonation so they can perform the ritual during the full moon before the cult can finalize their plans.
Skill Checks