The Masks of Nyarlathotep: Australia pt 1

Extracts from the Personal Diary of John Jamil Zwaiter

19^th October 2007 to 8^th February 2008

The helicopters took us away, the two women and myself. We flew over desert, more desert and even more desert. All I could see was sand, scrubby greenery and dunes to the horizons. After hours we landed in the middle of nowhere, refuelled and flew off again. Then landed and slept, and flew on before dawn. Finally on the third day we landed in another military camp, got out of the helicopter, and this time it left without us.

The people I could see and hear looked like Americans with a few from the Middle East. We were led to an air conditioned tent and there was Mr Green, the Delta Green man who had offered us employment. He looked smart and in charge, while we had not washed or changed our clothes since before we’d entered the pyramid. When he repeated his offer, it was no contest that I’d join. We stayed at the camp for weeks and I finally got some real training and knowledge to become more professional with these spooks who took experiences like a horror movie as normal.

After about 3 months I’d improved my skill on the firing range with the pistol and shotgun, learnt GPS navigation – and could also do some magic spells. That still sounds weird but all are part of my new life. I learnt what Delta Green and Eliza could impart about the background to the events in Egypt.

Delta Green were also able to tell me about the medallion I’d received from Ayesha. It was made of silver, set with jet and opals, but the important part was that the Hyperborean writing indicated it was a ward against a flying horror, something as big as a rhinoceros and partly non-material.

I’d also met two more Britons (James Elliot, an ex-MI13 geek and Freddie Wincanton, a junior curator from the British Museum) and an American (Marshall Winters, the muscled product of an American sports college). They were going to join Fatima, Eliza and myself when we moved on to the next place where we would have to face more of Nyarlathotep’s world-wide plans. That turned out to be in Australia.

Wednesday 9^th February 2008

Freddie, Fatima and I took a commercial flight to Sydney, booked into a pre-arranged hotel and were then met by a man from the US Embassy with a suitcase full of new phones, guns, ammunition and new IDs saying we had diplomatic immunity. I was now Seyeed Abbas. It was enjoyable to be on the receiving end of the facilities of an Embassy rather than having to provide them! We were supposed to find and meet with an anthropologist, Professor Cowles and get him to tell us all about the Australian Sand Bat Cult that has apparently parallels with what we encountered in Egypt. He turned out to be a very outgoing and talkative man, experienced at after-dinner speaking, and he told us more than we really needed to know about the Cult. However his enthusiasm let us pick up key features such as the use of clubs smeared with venom from rabid bats, large bat-winged flying snakes, living winds that can destroy walls, and locations where these happened. One region stood out that had been investigated by an expedition in 1921 led by a man called MacWhirr searching for gold but which found giant birds and what they called a living wind. The route was now known as the Canning Stock Route, with these events occurring between Joanna Spring and Separation Well, east of a line of dry lakes.

While we waited to hear from Eliza, James and Marshall, we had a little free time in civilisation. Fatima, like a typical girl, phoned her Mum from an internet café. She was trying to be cautious. However, she discovered that her mother had reported her missing and the Egyptian military police now thought she had been radicalised and were looking for her as well as investigating the whole family. I imagined something similar might be happening around my family and I decided there was absolutely no point in even thinking of contacting them. Mamma cannot keep secrets and Papa although good with secrets, was so patriotic that he would immediately call the police.

We finally arranged to meet up with Eliza, James and Marshall at the Crown Plaza hotel near Canberra airport. We drove there while they flew in from Port Darwin. They had brought two big crates with them. One had a three foot tall statue of a fat woman with fangs and tentacles that I found disturbing. Eliza identified it as an avatar of Nyarlathotep as the Bloated Woman. Her cult was centred somewhere in China, although might have been more wide-spread in the past and had been supressed, in part because of the very unpleasant things that she did to her own worshippers, like devouring their minds. One of her delightful (not!) attributes was that she could hide her grotesque form from one man. He would see her as a slender Chinese woman – and she would then eat him.

The other crate held a machine, like something from a steampunk picture. It was made of metal tubes and rods, glass mirrors, movable parts and a telescopic sight on the top focused on a concave mirror. To my surprise, after looking at it for a short time Fatima was sure she knew how it worked. She confidently switched it on, looked down the eyepiece – and then shrieked and fell unconscious. So much for knowing what she was doing! The machine made a clicking, whirring noise and lights flashed. Freddie reached over and switched it off. Marshall and Eliza carried Fatima to her hotel room where she remained deeply unconscious. Eliza, being a good doctor, stayed with her all night. The rest of us packed everything back in the crates and then took turns to watch the van overnight. It would be ironic if a common car thief made off with it.

Thursday 10^th February 2008

Fatima was still unconscious in the morning and Eliza was more concerned. We called Delta Green and explained the situation. She then spontaneously woke up after breakfast and spoke gibberish. She also seemed to be looking around and moving as if everything was new to her. Suddenly she stopped trying to speak and pointed at the television. Freddie turned it on and she immediately began copying words from the programme that came on, Neighbours. When he turned it off, she asked him to turn it on in English with an Australian accent. We left her to channel surf.

At midday people from the US Embassy rolled up to take the van and its crates away, back to the desert camp. We start to talk to Fatima, or Sheila as she initially called herself. Then she told us she was Lacome, a Yithian, from a more interesting place. She said she would return there once she had enough knowledge. I was rather concerned at this turn although the others took it in their stride. We decide to try to find out more ourselves. The only way we could think of was to go to the Dreamworld. (Of course I didn’t think of this because I didn’t know the place existed.) Freddie, Eliza, James and I settle down in one of the other hotel rooms and, following their lead, we chanted together. We drifted off to sleep and woke totally naked in a dark stone-walled room lit by 6 green flames. We walked through an archway and there were robes hanging up that fitted each of us well. The others were very casual about this, as if they had done it many times before (which they had), so I tried to follow their lead. They told me we were in the city of Dylath-Leen and not to talk to anyone wearing a green turban (?!).

Then we left the black stone building and walked uphill through Dylath-Leen towards Ulthar (another city, they told me). We had no money (obviously!). We walked, passed through a gate with guards and eventually reached the outskirts of another town. I felt that time was passing quite strangely, as in a dream. This new town was Ulthar and one very obvious feature was many cats. The others told me that no-one was allowed to kill the cats and that the principal goddess was, not surprisingly, Bast. In the distance I could see a domed white building that the others said was both a palace and temple of the Elder Ones. We headed for it, met with an acolyte in a blue robe and said that we sought knowledge of Yithians. He said he knew nothing about them so the others asked to meet with the High Priest, Atal (who apparently is famous). He was a very old white-haired, shrunken man who also had never heard of Yithians. However, he thought that a sage would be able to help us and we could find one in Celephais. (It is really dream-like!) We obviously had to go there and it happens to be across a sea so we needed a ship to take us. We unsuccessfully tried to dream money into existence (what a world if you could!) so then we walked back to Dylath-Leen because at least it was a port.

James tried to dream an invitation for us onto a ship and this time was successful. We embarked on a small ship heading for Celephaïs where the captain offered free passage to anyone prepared to defend it from pirates. They gave us clubs for weapons and our efforts to dream up something more effective were unsuccessful. We did not encounter any pirates but one night somethings started to climb out of the sea and onto the ship. They were frog-like men (later someone told me they are called Deep Ones). They fought with spears but we were able to either kill them or make them decide to go back to the sea. I actually killed one and help kill another. The captain Piero of Flavarrion was delighted with our help but I was rather glad that we fought in semi-darkness so could not see them as people.

We arrive in Celephaïs, which is built of sky-blue marble and rather beautiful in an ancient Greek sort of way. The others and the captain told me all about the city: that priests have lived here for 10,000 years, the King is called Kuranes and he lives in the palace of Seven Delights. Strangely the city also has a park with a Norman-style Abbey and a small Cornish fishing village. The others seemed to know some of the people here; Freddie even appeared to be a knight of King Kuranes. We headed for Ezekiel in the library. He said that Rinar was going vaguely imperial (this meant nothing to me, but the others looked interested). We asked him about Yithians and he said that he (guess!) knew nothing about them but could introduce us to a sage. When we met Foden the sage, he assured us that he knew about all the Dreamland’s races and also had never heard of Yithians. He suggested that could be because they existed in the real world (where we have come from) but do not dream, so never appear in the Dreamlands.

Then, Eliza suggested finding Jimmy the Dreamer, also known as Olondor. He turned out to be someone from the real world who had moved to the Dreamworld (?!). Finally, we met someone who had heard of Yithians. It turns out that they were all wiped out a long time ago in a war with another race. He assured us that there are no spells to drive a Yithian mind out of a person. I reflected that we have gone to a lot of effort and not achieved much, although discovering the Dreamlands was definitely worthwhile.

Friday 11^th February 2008

We finally woke up at dawn on Friday. We discovered that the Yithian had gone to an internet café in Fatima’s body to find out even more about the world. She/It was not keen on what she learnt, and went back to where she came from. Fatima had come back from what was a dream-like experience for her in the body of the Yithian which had masses of different tentacles. The others in that world treated her well and she gained a lot of information about Yithian life. I think this has been one of the less scary, but weirdest things that has happened to me so far.