The Masks of Nyarlathotep:
Extracts from the Personal
Diary of Dr Eliza Jamieson
So
it appeared my time in Egypt was at an end so after returning my loaned pistol
and body armour to Robert, I collected my baggage from the hotel and made my
way to the US embassy, and while I was initially held at the gate the use of
Caspar’s name was quickly to earn me entry.
Shortly
after this I was taken to a waiting helicopter where I was asked to hand over
my baggage and any electronic equipment. I wasn’t overly stressed by this but
why did they want my clothes? And I was not overly keen about someone rifling
through my delicates.
I
was soon joined on the helicopter by Ms El Ahmed and Mr Zwaiter
who had also agreed to join this madcap expedition. Anyway I requested a pair
of ear protectors and found a quiet seat were I hoped to sleep through the
flight.
This
flight was quite extensive and it required two re-fuels for us to get to our
destination, which was a military style camp surrounded by mile upon mile of
hot empty desert.
When
we landed I was provided with a greyish jumpsuit that they insisted I should
wear even though it fitted me like a sack and, once I was changed, my clothing
was taken away. Though I was thankful to be able to keep my
undergarments.
What
then followed was a week of de-briefing as they requested all the information I
had gathered while I was attached to MI13. This was a long and tedious process,
not least of which was due to listening to annoying American accents. It has to
be said that some of the re-naming of certain foods also rubbed me the wrong
way. For example why do they call jam, jelly? Jelly is a delicious sweet given
out to patients in hospital or kiddies at birthday parties while jam is spread
on scones or toast.
Apparently
John and Fatima’s’ de-briefings were a much shorter process as they had never
officially been attached to MI13.
I
was also introduced to the rest of my new team two of which could actually
speak English and these were a tall fellow who looked like a university
lecturer named Freddie Wincanton and MI13’s ex-computer expert and my one time
nemesis James Elliot both of which I greeted with a warm hug and a peck on the
cheek. Mind you I did let my mischievous side loose here for a moment when I
kissed James full on the mouth.
The
final member of our time was an African-American named Marshall Winters who was
in his early twenties and can be best described as a walking wall of meat.
As
we were now officially part of Delta Green we were provided with papers and new
cover-names.
James
Elliot is now David Grey.
Freddie
Wincanton is Winston Fredrickson.
John
James Zwaiter is Sayeed Abaat.
Fatima
El Ahmed is Abiya Syed.
Marshall
Winters is Leroy Oswald.
And
I am Dr Laura Clarke.
Following
this de-briefing they insisted that there would be an extensive training program
where we would be trained to employ sparklers and they tried to insist that I
train in both firearms and hand to hand combat.
But
I was able to convince them that I had enough sparklers to get by, my skill
with firearms was sufficient for my needs and that using my hands to hit people
was akin to hammering in a nail with a priceless Ming vase as my hands were
precision instruments. However the rest of the team were to take up these
options…
Fatima
adding Detect Enchantment, Sense life and Cloud memory to her spell list;
James
meanwhile took, Healing, Levitate and Sense life;
John
James learned, Cloud memory, impeccable throw, Light and open the way;
And
Freddie added the sparklers, impeccable throw, light and circle of protection.
One
thing I was trained in, however, was driving and it now appears I am now
official medic and driver for the team. They also insisted that I learn to
drive an APC which seemed rather pointless as it was unlikely that we would be
provided with heavy equipment such as this.
During
this time they returned virtually all my equipment and mystical items but I was
denied any of my communication devices. One side effect of this was that I had
a lot of free evenings and I was finally able to find the chapter I had been
looking for in the Book of Eibon, for it appears that
John’s medallion provides protection from a creature known as a Flying Polyp,
which is a seriously dangerous creature.
Flying
Polyps are apparently the size of a Jumbo Jet and have the ability to fix their
victims into place while they strike them with their tentacles and their wings
can create strong winds. Fortunately it appears that for the most part they are
singular in nature. However, if there is ever more than one, they can generate
hurricane force winds. They can make themselves invisible at will but they can
still be heard. It is unknown what effect modern weaponry has on these
creatures but it is likely that they have some form of defence. Also we needed
to be aware that they are highly intelligent and that a large proportion of
them have magical abilities.
The
training progresses from early December to mid-March and I am somewhat
disgruntled as I am unable to attend my usual family get together or even
contact my parents at New Years, I only hope that father does not disown me for
this.
It
was clear from the information they had acquired from me and from other sources
that there was a world-wide conspiracy and like a giant spider Alpha One was at
the centre of everything.
We
had clearly failed in Egypt as Nitocris had been
resurrected in Egypt but far as I could tell we had little hope of stopping
this. So the big question was what we could do to block the next step and we
had a number of options. However a satellite scan of the area indicated that a trip
to the Mountain of the Black Winds was out of the question as there were large
crowds gathering at the site and while getting in wasn’t an issue making a
difference and then getting out again clearly was.
Snatch
teams were operating in the area and they had captured a number of people who
had been heading in this direction and the subsequent interrogations pointed to
something big occurring at the dark of the moon. But we had no clue as to what
this could be and though we were aware that the so called Spawn of Nyarlothotep had to be prepped for July twenty second we
did not believe this was a birth as such.
This
left us with three options we could either investigate the Stumbling Tiger in
Shanghai, Investigate Grey Dragon Island off Hong Kong or travel to Port Hedron in Australia were the Yacht, Dark Mistress had
recently been seen. So we plumped for Australia.
Before
we left however we distributed the mystical items we had in our possession: Fatima
took the Binoculars, the Hymn book and the Mask (so finally I am rid of that
damned item); while James Elliot took the whip and staff; John James retained
the medallion he had acquired from Ayesha; while I was left with Alex’s silver
ankh and the three MI13 tomes.
And onto the wonderful land of Oz:
So
we were ready to set out for Australia but before we left I remembered to stock
up my medical kit and in doing so acquired a collection of anti-venoms for
while Australasia is geographically the smallest continent it is
disproportionally stocked with some of the most venomous creatures on the
planet.
However
it should be noted that the team was going to be split with half of us making
contact with Professor Cowles in Sydney, while the other half would be
investigating Randolph Shipping Inc. in Port Darwin. As the company is not
publicly listed so David is unable to hack their records some areas are
available but the warehouse section is self-contained.
I
was assigned to the team that went to Port Darwin as they felt they may require
my driving skills along with David and Leroy while Abiya,
Sayeed and Winston would travel to Sydney and it is this part of our
investigation that I will detail first.
But
we need some background to Professor Cowell: he is apparently in his early
fifties and is a red-headed beast of a man with a strong Australian accent whose
lives with his daughter Helen in Sydney and she is a beautiful twenty year-old
elfin like girl. His wife meanwhile has passed on from the big C. He is solely
a person of interest due to our earlier investigation back in London, for he
gave a lecture on the Sand Bat cult that Elton Jackson may have attended.
Our
team asked him about this and while he cannot confirm that Mr Jackson was in
attendance he was still able to provide them with the following information in
regard to the Sand Bat Cult.
This
is found all over Australia, predominantly in the south-east, near Sidney,
where it is known as Balayang and its legends are
almost as widespread as those of the Rainbow Serpent, to which the Sand Bat is
often seen as a major adversary and, like the Rainbow Serpent, the Sand Bat has
a different name in each mythology, though he is typically called the Father of
All Bats. His worship did feature human sacrifice and involved beating the
victims with clubs with bat teeth inserted, and these were poisoned with a venom drawn from rabid bats, which caused the victims to
die in an agony of madness and hydrophobia over hours or even days. Once
invoked, the Father of All Bats would appear and ‘conquer all men’. The priests
of the cult were also reputed to be able to take the form of bat-winged snakes,
thus enabling them to steal sacrifices from all over the land.
This
cult was at its height long before the advent of the white man. But it appears
Captain Cook replaced the Father of All Bats as the great ‘evil god’ in modern
Aboriginal mythology. Cowles has also come across two separate song-cycles that
he believes were linked to the Sand Bat legend, placing its origin further
west, where the gods who were in the Land before man built a great city in the
desert but it was built on land that was lush, verdant and green. But the ‘living
winds’ from the Father of All Bats threw down the walls of this city and dried
up the land. Cowles then showed four transparencies that depicted large blocks
of stone which he believes were taken to the east of Port Hedland, the last
evidence of an expedition from 1921 into the Western Australia desert, an
expedition that was led by Arthur Macwhirr. Cowles
has Macwhirr’s journal, in which he lays the death of
an expedition member solely at the hands on Aboriginals using the typical
execution methods of the Father of All Bats.
Cowles
was very excited by this as it suggests the cult was still active in the
western desert ninety years ago. Cowles also claimed that a take from the
Yolngu people, who are in Arnhem Land, which is on the shore of the Arafura
Sea, in the vicinity of Port Darwin, tells of a battle of wits between the
Father of All Bats and the Rainbow Serpent (locally known as Witij or Galeru) and he
emphasises that the biggest gripe Aboriginals have with western portrayals of
their gods and myths is that they always tell them in the past tense, whereas
the Aboriginals relate to them in the present, as an actively happening thing –
so to the Yolngu, the Father of All Bats is always being defeated by Witij. Conversely, somewhere in the western desert the
Father of All Bats is always sending his living winds to destroy the city of
the gods.
Macwhirr’s’ expedition apparently followed the old
cattle trails and his journal also provided a few entries of note list below in
chronological order…
March 7th: Jock Kuburaga says that abos are following us. Most unusual if
true. Primitives have every reason to fear guns – and our bush ranger predilection
for using them. In the past, I’ve always known them to head the other way as soon
as they see a white man.
March 21st: We are
about equally distant from Joanna Spring and Separation Well, east of an awful
line of dry lakes. The heat is terrible. Our hopes are low – there is nothing
here, certainly not quartz reefs! L’s notations are in systematic error. He is
a complete duffer as a surveyor.
Today we sighted several
enormous birds flying lazily far above us. How did they get here? And where can
they be going? In Africa I’d have said they were vultures but Australia doesn’t
have such things. Tom-Tom, who is a martyr to his Abo superstitions, mutters
darkly, calling them ‘living winds’ and asking ‘where are their wings’. Jock
told him to shut his face before he spooked the others.
March 22nd: Jock
vanished at breakfast while checking the camels. He told another abo he was
going to answer a call of nature. Then there was a brief freak sandstorm and he
must have got lost.
At about noon today we found
Jock, partly buried in a gully. His naked body was scoured and covered with
hundreds of small punctures, he’d obviously been blasted by the sandstorm but
Tom-Tom seemed certain he’d been killed by the Abos that have shadowed us for
weeks – or by something worse! We buried him, of course. I shall miss his
counsel, and he was an excellent hand with the camels.
March 23rd: We
have discovered what appears to be the remains of an
ancient city, rising from the shifting sands! I believe I have secured several
good photographs of this amazing find, though the heat has ruined all but six
of my photographic plates. By the pitting of the stone, the blocks and pillars
appear to be more than 10,000 years old! Incredible!
March 24th: Four
camels killed in an attack last night. I saw at least two abos and more must
have been skulking out there. I’m sure I hit one. That ends this trip – we’ll
have to head back to Cuncudgerie and report this
incident.
More than men were out there
last night. I saw shapes much bigger than men during the attack. My evidence is
the body of Old Sam, the camel, punctured and scraped is the best I can
describe it, just like poor Jock. Since that attack only lasted a couple of
minutes, it’s hard for me to believe that anything human could have done so much
damage so quickly. But then what was it? It makes me wonder about Tom-Tom’s
dark hintings.
As
there seems to be nothing else of significance in the diary they thank the
professor and take their leave.
Before
we get to Port Darwin here is some background to the area. The port was rebuilt
in 1974 after Cyclone Tracy. Stokes Hill Wharf, where Randolph Shipping is
based, was built in seventy-eight but A new wharf opened some distance away in
2000 and Stokes Hill Wharf has been in decline ever since.
Randolph
Shipping started operations in seventy-eight and was remained small but
successful until the new wharf has opened in 2000 AD, since then it has declined,
causing it to turn to quasi-legal business. The police have shown interest in
the company as they have been investigated twice. Their offices are fairly
dilapidated.
As
David needed to gain access to their computer files we had to break in so,
while the guys checked the place out, I hired us a vehicle together with some
coveralls and hats for me and the guys and while I could have hired a car, I
chose instead to hire an old transit van which I felt would blend in better.
As
it turned out Port Darwin security is rather lax and we had no trouble getting
to warehouse and we were able to park up nearby. There didn’t appear be any
cameras outside but I still took the precaution to turn up my collar and tuck
my hair under my hat. I also used the brim to conceal my features and advised
the guys to do the same.
We
then made our way to the door where I invoked Open the Way, remembering to
spritzer the lock before continuing. David questioned why I did this as we were
wearing gloves and I explained that the sparkler required my blood so I need to
inform him that I was just removing my DNA from the scene. He then understood.
There
was a security camera in the top left hand corner of the outer office there was
also a long counter and two doors one of which led to main warehouse while the
other led to the bosses’ office. So we made our way to the office were once
again we followed the same process to acquire access.
There
was also a second camera in the office which was linked to a dial up modem,
whereas the one in the outer office was office use only.
It
was now up to David to find the relevant information on the computer and it did
not take him long to find something as there were two items that sparked
interest and these were
HFPH032578241,
due to be shipped to Aubrey Penhew Industries in
Shanghai and ABPH032578780, which was being sent to Sir Aubrey Penhew at Penhew Place and the
sender was listed as Mortimer Mycroft in Port Hedron.
So
we decided to check these packages but first we needed to access the main
warehouse but unfortunately I did not have enough in reserve to cast ‘Open the
way’. Fortunately David had the whip and staff that acquire more power yet this
required both hands so it was a real test of my manual dexterity to pull this
off and though I acquired the necessary power it shook me to my core and I felt
dizzy afterwards so needed to get my equilibrium still I had enough wits to
spritzer the lock again.
We
then began to search the warehouse and it took us a while to locate the crates,
the first of which was four-foot square so it was fortunate Leroy was with us
otherwise we may not have been able gain access. Packed inside this was a three-foot
tall dark wooden statue covered with light coloured asymmetrical lines and,
when we cleared the packaging, we saw that the figure was a grossly obese
female with tentacles for arms and legs and it also bore two gaping maws filled
with sharp teeth and smaller tentacles, in all a rather disturbing object.
What
was worse was that I recognised this for this was an image of the Bloated Woman
which is an avatar of Alpha One. Oddly though the centre of worship of this
particular avatar was the Orient, yet this statue was clearly aboriginal.
Apparently the Bloated Woman can disguise its appearance from a chosen human
male who will see her as a comely Oriental female there is also a poem…
Behind the black fan
The Soul Twister simpers,
Snake-armed and slickened,
Inflated with blood fat.
The Dragon-toothed feaster
Gluts down grey lilies;
The Gracious donation
Of children left twitching…
Which
is, of course, merely a fragment of something much more epic, but it is fitting
for the Bloated Woman is noted for devouring her victims’ minds.
The
second crate, however, is considerably smaller and lighter and contains a very
odd contraption, including what appears to be some sort of telescope and a
reflector. Unfortunately we did not have a clue as to the purpose of this
device and wisely chose not to attempt to look through the telescope.
Still
we decided to return the crates to their relative positions while transferring
the contents to our van and it appeared I had a wise choice in regard to our
transport for had I acquired a car then it is unlikely that we could have
removed these items. Still I feel better once the statue was covered up.
Once
clear of the port we contacted Delta Green in order to acquire packing crates
for these items and to arrange transport to Canberra we were to meet up with
the other half of the team.
To
be brutally honest I would have been more than happy to throw that grotesque
statue into the nearest wood chipper but was willing to hold fire at least
until we showed our finds to our colleagues.
The
teams met up in Canberra and we began collate the information we had gathered.
Though it must be noted that while there was essentially an acceptance in
regard to the evidence gathered from the professor there was more of an issue
with the items we has acquired from Port Darwin, for it soon became clear that
our three compatriots were as unsettled by the statue as we had been.
However
the weird contraption was a different matter as Abiya
became enamoured by it and, while I did not see her activate the item as I was
talking to Winston and Sayeed at the time, I did see the aftermath, as Abiya suddenly made a strange noise and fell like a tree. I
was later to discover that she had pressed some buttons and had then looked
through the telescope prior to this incident. Doesn’t she realise how dangerous
that can be? I truly believe that she needs to be taught that you should not
jump in with both feet.
Yet
at the time this was a concern and I quickly made my way to her side, noting as
I did so that she appeared to be suffering the symptoms of a massive stroke.
For her eyes were unfocused and acting independently, her arms were floppy,
much like wet spaghetti, and she appeared to be unable to speak. I was ready to
summon an ambulance as she clearly required hospital treatment to save what was
left of her mind but before I could do this she began speaking in tongues and signalling
to the television indicating we should turn it on.
Which
we promptly did and she soon began to refocus her mind, yet she was insistent
that we call her Sheila a name she had picked up from the television. This
indicated something more sinister than a mere stroke for it appeared that she
was possessed.
So
with this in mind I re-acquired Geoffrey Baxter’s mask and used it, hoping to
observe a silver thread going off at right angles which would indicate that her
spirit had been transferred to the Dreamlands, however there appeared to be
nothing.
The
Abiya inhabiting her body, however, appeared not only
to be highly intelligent but also incredibly arrogant as it began treating us
like stupid children and demanding knowledge and, while I was only too happy to
leave it with a diet of mid-afternoon Aussie soaps, Winston began providing it
with books and historical data from the internet.
I
felt this was foolhardy and told him so yet this did not appear to slow him,
and in my opinion this makes Winston a risk as you just cannot be as reckless
as this if you want to achieve success. As we were as of yet unaware if this
spirit was benevolent or malevolent. However we were able to coax a name out of
it for it stated it was a Yith. But unfortunately
none of us had ever heard of a Yith.
But
I did consider contacting Solomon to see if he had heard of this species. But
as it was the middle of the night back in England I put this off until a more
sociable hour.
However
Winston then made a decision that meant time was of the essence for he actually
presented the creature with a testament which may or may not have sparklers. So
we needed to find information quickly and the quickest way I could think of was
to enter the Dreamlands and hopefully find a sage who can identify what the Yith are, and I still had just enough of the leaves Jimmy
had left for one last excursion.
I
announced my plan to the group and everyone seemed to want to come along. But
unfortunately someone needed to stay behind to watch Abiya.
I of course had to go as it was my mission and David was insistent that he be
included. I also included Winston merely because I did not want to leave Abiya to his tender mercies. Which left me with either
Leroy or Sayeed as the watcher and while I would rather have had Leroy come
along he volunteered to remain.
I
have to admit I was unsure about Leroy when I first met him for I saw him as
just a lumbering wall of muscle but he is far more than he appears and I am
really starting to be impressed by him.
But
we prepared to enter the Dreamlands Winston revealed he had access to Chains of
the Pilgrims but this was not really relevant as the Chant of Vloor always took you to the same spot in Dylath-Leen.
I
also remembered the minor drawback with this entry and I was prepared for our
arrival by swiftly heading for the room with the hanging robes, where once
again it was rather easy to identify the robes that were mine.
After
dressing we left the temple and made our way to Ulthar
were hopefully we would find a sage to answer our questions. But unfortunately
they were unable to help us and we would need to travel to Celephais,
which meant acquiring passage from Dylath-Leen but
unfortunately we had no funds. Hopefully we would meet a captain we had aided
previously and they would give us free passage.
Barring
this our only hope was to blag a passage and to this
end I summoned my accursed dress but retained my robes over the top. As it
turned out I did not need to use it as David was able to get us signed on to a
small caravel.
As
is usually the way however we were set upon by pirates but on this occasion the
crew was made up of deep ones. It has to be said that my compatriots handled
themselves admirably and I was particularly impressed by David’s performance as
I did not know he had it in him. However he did suffer a serious wound which
required my Healing sparkler to fix once the fight was complete. I have to
admit that I merely hid during the fight as I would just have got in the way.
Fortunately
this was the only incident and we soon arrived at Celephais
where I noted that there appeared to be more guards in evidence and that they
seemed more on edge. Still we were able to gain access without any problems,
however I was advised to keep my robe on as the guard recognised me and noted
that I was wearing that dress. I must have been focused on our mission at this
stage as I forgot to ask why they were on alert but I was soon to find out.
Still
we needed to contact Ezekiel and hopefully he would be able to give us the
information we sought but unfortunately he was able to tell us nothing as he
had apparently never heard of the Yith and he
suspected that this is because these things are sleepless and hence never enter
the realms of dreams. So it appeared the mission was a bomb until I remembered Olondor for he was the one who warned us about the Mi-Go back at Silbury Hill and he
was able to help us.
The
Yith are a race that have been physically extinct for
many eons but have the ability to swap minds through time in order to learn
about cultures in times beyond their own. It would appear that the device we
found was something they had built to implement a switch and it would require
the Yithian to actually get bored and want to return
in order that Abiya could return. Yet it may not be
long before they swap back as I fairly sure this was not a planned swap.
Mind
you we also have to consider her mental state when she returns as she will have
been living not only with mythos creatures but as one. The only way I can see
to hurry this up is by getting her back to watching those inane mid-afternoon
soaps because surely nothing can stomach those things for too long.
My
one concern though is the two items we found appear to be diametrically opposed
as one fosters knowledge while other seeks to devour it. So why did Sir Aubrey
want these items?
Anyway
before we left I remembered to ask Olondor were his
source was for the leaves as we needed a fresh supply – he said they can be
obtained from Native Americans in the Mohave desert
and are also common in the Dreamlands.
It
is only now however that Winston lets slip the events of three months ago,
namely that not only has Ursula passed on and MI13 been disbanded, Lionel has
also gone to meet his maker (so it was lucky I didn’t try to phone him) The
aftermath of his demise resulted in Notos’ drug
regime being lessened, thus allowing him to dream again, leading to death of a
high priestess in Rinal and the re-emergence of the
worship of Haazhektheth which in turn has led to
unrest between Rinal and Celephais,
which explains the heightened security.
Not
only this, however, the ‘Home’ team had also released Yog
Sothoth’s little friend and he her slightly bigger
friend, who were threatening to make an appearance in the real world in the
near future. But this part was unforeseen as the girl involved was Lionel’s
eight-year old granddaughter who had been sacrificed by cultists and the plan
had only been to release her spirit from imprisonment, and while it could be
guessed at no one really expected a kind of supernatural Stockholm syndrome.
I
was, not surprisingly, dumbfounded that they could be so reckless and this does
beggar the question as to what they hell they thought they were doing. Don’t we
have enough problems without making new ones? To this end I looked at David and
his shrug told me all I needed to know, for this implied he had tried to put a
stop to this but he had been outvoted.
Apparently
they were unaware that I knew nothing about this and had been out of contact
during the time I had been away but I would have thought they would say
something before now.
So
with our trip to the Dreamlands complete I feel I need to assess the new team:
James/David
– It is clear his time working at MI13 have changed his views for I now see him
as a valuable colleague, and while his cynical side has slipped by the wayside
he has proved to be brave and inventive so much so that I find him a pleasure
to work with., and I feel he will excel in his new dual role as both computer
expert and freelance sniper.
John
James/Sayeed – Has continued to fulfil the role he is made for and he is highly
efficient without having to shout it from the rooftops and he will prove useful
as our team diplomat and language expert.
Fatima
El Ahmed – For the most part she is quiet and unassuming and her skills as a
necromancer are not to be ignored and she does not have to prove herself to us
for us to know her worth and I felt the incident with the Yithian
device was a perfect example of this. She is no longer in a place where women
are not seen as equals and she needs to realise this, all the same she is once
again a valuable asset.
Marshall/Leroy
– I have to admit I read him totally wrong as I saw him as a lumbering wall of
muscle and being an American likely to cause issue. But this is far from the
truth. He is likeable, he listens to others, makes no
rash decisions and is a man who thinks of others first, so in all while he is
our warrior arm it has to be said he has impressed me immensely.
Freddie/Winston
– Has on the other hand gone down in my estimation for while he is useful as a
fighting man it has to be said that his decision making appears to lurch from haphazard
to downright dangerous and he appears to decide things on a whim and he really
needs to consider the ramifications of his actions.
As
to my own assessment I leave that to others to make.
Following this we awoke and informed Fatima/Yithian Sheila of the possibility of the Bloated Woman only
to find in the morning that Abiya was once again back
in control.