The Masks of Nyarlathotep: Australia pt 2

Extracts from the Personal Diary of John Jamil Zwaiter

11 February 2009 continued

We worked out that the Yithians could view the future by sending their consciousness forwards in time and exchanging consciousness with another person. They usually wiped the memory of that person but Fatima had retained some memories.

To decide what to do next we read more about the 1921 MacWhirr expedition, the town of Cuncudgery (where the crate with the mind-swap machine originated and the MacWhirr expedition was based) and the geography of its region. The expedition thought it had found an ancient city and was plagued by attacks and deaths of both its camel transport and at least one man.

We were then briefed by Delta Green with some genuine and relevant information about Cuncudgery (population about 100; annual rainfall about 1 inch) and its region. The town was about 100 miles from Port Headland, the busiest commercial port in Australia, exporting iron ore but also gold and manganese ore. The main road between them was along an ex-rail track. All normal, and then they described mythos activity in the region in an equally matter-of-fact way. A plane crash in 1968 was officially attributed to metal fatigue, but in reality an unknown mythos creature had taken a wing off the plane. There was definitely an ancient abandoned city near Cuncudgery that was well documented in Aboriginal tales. We were advised to avoid Lake Disappointment; people had gone missing from there and Aboriginal people said that fairies, with a name suspiciously like Nyarlathotep, lived there. On the positive side, the Rainbow Serpent brought water from the ground and was known as beneficial by local tribes.

Since we were on a world tour of sites important to Nyarlathotep, this area with its ancient city and documented mythos connections had to be worth a visit.

12 February 2009

After a chartered flight to Port Headland, we picked up two well-equipped air conditioned SUVs designed for tourist use. Each could take five people and was supplied with water tanks, extra fuel tanks, GPS, tents, sleeping bags, maps, emergency flares, medical kits (with anti-venoms) and food.

We got more information about Mortimer Wycroft who had supplied the mind-swap machine. He sounded very old-school and no fun at all, even though he ran Wycroft's Emporium to outfit travellers heading to the outback from Cuncudgery. We needed to hire a guide, partly as cover but also because we really needed help. The town had three tourist guides, Virginia Fraser (who had the best reviews), Ginger Muldoon (knowledgeable but an alcoholic) and Tod Gilman (mixed prospecting and guiding). We had already discounted Slattery who had just 2, dire, reviews.

We arrived in the town in early afternoon and it was very hot outside our airconned SUVs. We booked into the only hotel, Barrata Hotel, constructed of corrugated iron in 1896. The hotel owner, Jenny Baratta, a widow with 2 sons, suggested Ginger Muldoon as the only available guide so we agreed to hire him. He was a large, roughly dressed man in his 40s. In the evening we let him read the MacWhirr expedition diary. He told us he had been to the site of the city and seen big birds in the distance that looked like condors or vultures. We agreed to head for the site the next morning, after getting his advice about provisions and equipment. He estimated it would take 3 days to get there.

However, we were still curious about Mortimer Wycroft, so in the evening Marshall and I went to look at Wycroft's Emporium. It was quite run down. There were several vehicles in its compound and we could see one white man and three Aboriginals listening to him read from a book. We watched for a short time and then returned to the hotel. The scene looked innocent and we did not want to stir things up any more than necessary.

13 February 2009

We set off with Eliza driving one SUV with Marshall and James as passengers, and Muldoon driving the other carrying Fatima, Freddie and myself. After lunch we saw a sandstorm on the horizon and Muldoon headed immediately to the nearest water source, Dingo Falls. He was a bit edgy about it, having had a bad experience there, but the potential danger from the sandstorm overcame this. It took us an hour and a half to get there and it was a red rocky outcrop with a pool of water at its base. He parked some distance from it, explaining that we needed to be away from any animals. As well as being attracted to the water, they used the caves in the rock.

Muldoon's evident concern about the sand storm made us take his advice and hope all would be well. It arrived about 30 minutes after we reached Dingo Falls and lasted until about 8 pm. We kept the air-conditioning on the whole time, so it was noisy but not unpleasant. After it was calm again, we made a fire between the two SUVs and we ate a meal that Eliza had cooked. In the darkness the stars were amazing now that we were away from the glare of cities. I finally fell asleep underneath one of the SUVs along with Marshall and Freddie.

I woke, still during the night, with a memory of fire. Marshall was awake as well and looked disturbed. He had a vivid dream of a man floating in the air writhing in agony while he burnt. When he said that, I remembered the same vision and it connected with Farad Najir who had been brought back to a Cairo graveyard by Fatima. I poked Freddie in the ribs to wake him. Although he remembered nothing, he agreed that something was going on.

Immediately I felt a wave of fear and horror and the burning man was before me. I screamed, then stopped abruptly as I lost control of my body. I could not speak or stop myself from getting up and walking towards the rocks. Although I tried I had absolutely no effect as if I was an observer in my own body. Marshall was suddenly in front trying to hold me, and I tried to push him away. I knew he was stronger than me but I struggled to be free.

Then I was speaking, but it was an Australian, not my voice, “Let me go, let me go! I’ve got to go!” Marshall continued to hold onto me, and I felt the frantic pressure in my mind, “I’ve got to get back! I’ve got to get back!”

I could hear the others talking but could not turn to see what they were doing. Abruptly Muldoon was in my sight and he held out a flask with his cheap whisky. My possessor reached for it and gulped it down. The spirit burnt and convulsed my throat and I had to endure the pain because I could neither stop nor cough.

“I’m not cold,” I said, as they tried to get clothes onto me, and when Eliza (sensibly) bent to get my boots onto my feet I screamed and kicked to prevent her. I was deathly afraid of boots. Finally Marshall released me and I walked straight to the rock, over sand then rocks and then reached the edge of the pool. I felt the pain in my cut feet but could do nothing about it. There was a shot, and I realised that Freddie had shot at a snake.

I was heading rapidly for the right hand one of three caves. As I was about to enter it, Marshall grabbed me again and wrestled me to the ground. The others crowded around and stared at the five foot drop I would have taken at the cave entrance. There was already a desiccated body there. Marshall manoeuvred so that I dropped down to it gently. I hardly saw the body because I was kneeling down to lie against it and then embrace the bones.

Then I smelt burning and pain as my own body started to burn. I screamed, but of course no sound came out. Someone threw a blanket over me but that only provided more fuel for the fire. Eliza rolled me away from the body, and I scrabbled to take at least a bone with me. Marshall wrenched that away and it glowed sullenly in the darkness where he’d thrown it. He continued to hold onto me and the Australian within screamed and screamed for him to let go. The others were talking and talking but doing nothing that I could see.

Then I was suddenly back in control of myself, in pain and very unhappy. The thing was still there, but now I was in charge of my body. I said, croakily, “He wants revenge”.

Freddie chanted some more and then I realised that the controlling presence had left me.

It had been another awful experience. Eliza, ever the considerate medic, sized up my physical damage and used a spell to heal my burns. My skin peeled and itched like after sunburn but did not hurt. Marshall had burns as well, although not so extensive, and she left them to heal naturally. I was actually quite glad he was suffering. If he had just let me walk at the beginning it would have been over much quicker and I might not have got burnt.

We all went back to the SUVs and tried to sleep.

14 February 2009

I had been exhausted by the possession and could have slept for longer. In contrast, even though he had drunk a lot of whisky, Muldoon had not slept at all. Over breakfast he tentatively asked who we were and what we were really doing. I left it to the others to explain, still rather aggrieved, and tired, from the night.

We drove on, taking a slightly different route from Muldoon's initial plans. In the afternoon we saw a SUV approaching that Muldoon recognised as belonging to Tod Gilman. We all stopped to compare notes. Gilman had been prospecting and was returning to Cuncudgery after finding nothing (at least he said he found nothing). He said the reason for his return was earth tremors and flights of bats.

After driving for a few more hours we reached Gunyana Spring and stopped for the night. There were three Aboriginals there, cooking lizards over a fire. We and Muldoon talked with them. They had been here overnight and also said the ground had been shaking. They said that the Great Bat was back in the form of a white man, but they did not know where he was. James wondered if any national geological survey had identified the epicentre. He phoned Delta Green and they said they'd ring back.

15 February 2009

We reached the Canning Stock route which had a decent surface so Eliza could pick up the speed to almost 40 mph. The direction of the road turned north. Large birds were flying in the distance. I could not see their wings and got a scary feeling about them. After we stopped for the night James heard from Delta Green that the tremors were very shallow and from blasting.

Fatima and Marshall went out for a look round the area and came back spooked. Muldoon said what they had seen fitted with descriptions of people from the Dreamtime. We set up watches for the night. I didn't see anything but others like James, Freddie and Eliza were sure they had seen people around us.

16 February 2009

We looked round after breakfast but there were no signs of tracks. We drove on north and east towards where we'd seen the flying creatures. The satellite phone stopped working. It was getting more and more like a horror movie and they never end well. However, we were never going to do the sensible thing and turn back.

After a short time we noticed tyre tracks on the trail, some old, some fresh, from SUVs and also vehicles with wider tyres. We headed north east for several hours, the same as whoever was in those vehicles. Finally the tracks ended and we saw two wooden shacks. One could have been a toilet while the other was big enough to take two cars. There was also a tent nearby. The tent had clothes, food and cooking gear in it and then we looked into the larger shack. It had an elevator shaft in it that we decided not to use. Maybe this was a clandestine mine, rather than to do with mythos?

We looked around some more and found another small hut we had not spotted before with a prominent sign EXPLOSIVES. There were boxes within it that might have held explosives. There was also a small spring trickling from rocks into an enamel bowl. Then we heard dogs barking and spotted six dingoes. They growled at us. Freddie shot at them, and they ran towards us, then stopped and turned away to behind our vehicles.

I went to the SUV to get a shotgun. Then a man, wearing only shoes, was standing with the dogs within a circle of stones. He yelled at us that we were spawn of the Outer Gods. We shouted back that we were not. Muldoon offered him a drink and everything calmed down. The man was Jimmy Grogan. He and 23 other men had been hired by an American to dig for gold. This went well until the money ran out and the American started to behave like a lunatic, arguing with himself and saying that he did not need the miners. The miners then had an argument over cards and Jimmy had left to collect his kit from his tent. When returning he saw huge black snake things with wings that attacked and killed all the men. Things then became confused for him as he tried to survive after the massacre. When he ran out of water, he prayed, and the spring appeared. Later the dogs arrived and stayed with him. There is definitely something odd about them; I am sure that I can see through them. Overall, Jimmy was happy to stay where he was.

We filled up with water, took some of the dynamite that had now appeared in the boxes and drove on, still heading north east. We became convinced something was watching us, maybe from the sky. After an hour the road dipped and met a trail coming in from the east. The road went into a ravine and we spotted people among the rocks who pushed some of them down at us. The drivers successfully evaded the boulders while the rest of us grabbed for weapons. Two boomerangs hit the SUVs, breaking a window in each vehicle. Then we were out of range.

We drove on though what looked like never-ending desert and emerged into a flat area. Through a heat haze, we could see some distance ahead large heaps that could be spoil from mining. The sun also glinted on something shiny that could be vehicles. We estimated the heaps and vehicles were a mile or two ahead.

We wanted to see more before getting close. It turned out that Freddie had a pair of binoculars that let him see into the past. He said they were tricky and a bit dangerous to use. Anyway, he went ahead and described a lush green jungle with tall buildings and walkways between the trees. He saw other things, creatures that looked like dinosaurs and giant cones with tentacles waving out of the top. This triggered something in Fatima's memory and she took the binoculars to see for herself. After looking for a moment she screamed and passed out. This had not turned out well, and I could not see how knowing about the distant past would help us anyway.

More practically we decided to drive closer using one of the heaps or pillars of rock as cover for the SUVs. We got as close as we could manage and then Eliza and Marshall left to sneak up to whatever was going on. A short time later we heard a shot, so they had not been as successful as we'd hoped. James got his rifle out, while Freddie resorted to the binos again. I stayed in the front passenger seat of the SUV that Muldoon was driving and could not see much, apart from a wind getting up and blowing the sand around.

Then the others started screaming and shooting but all I could see was a local sandstorm getting going. Muldoon was screaming madly and no longer capable of driving. I spotted that Fatima was trying to get into the driver's seat and leant across Muldoon to open the door for her. We got Muldoon out of the seat and he ran off into the desert. Fatima began to drive, heading for Marshall and Eliza who were being pushed around by the wind. Freddie did the same. I began to realise that there was something wrong with Fatima even though she was driving well. Then Freddie stopped and so did Fatima. They told me that there was a Living Wind heading for Marshall and Eliza, although I had not seen it. I knew that I might be able to drive it away with my medallion. They started the SUVs again and we drove towards where they said the Living Wind was, at the edge of the sandstorm.

We got as close as they dared and stopped the SUVs again. Marshall was there but I did not see Eliza. People opened fire on the Living Wind and I brandished the medallion. There was a weird shrill scream and it took off vertically very fast. This was a creature that could tear the wing off a plane and I could send it away by waving a fancy medallion at it. How cool was that?

The sandstorm and wind died away and we got back into the SUVs to escape the sand falling from the air. We had to wait for it to clear before we went to find Eliza.