The Masks of Nyarlathotep: Australia pt 3

The Personal Diary of Fatima El-Ahmed

After the gun battle there were lots of bodies and weapons lying around. We searched the area and went into the bunkhouse. There were even more discarded weapons, a room used as a latrine – and a noticeboard. As well as pictures of naked women (so shocking and demeaning) used as targets for darts.

There were 2 memos and a space where something had been removed. One memo was headed: ‘To all acolytes October 5 2008. Test of shrivelling and wrack spells in 2 weeks’ time’. The other said: ‘Left last prey escape – disgusted January 28 2009’.

Also, and worryingly, we found clothing that looked like Eliza’s that had been cut and soiled. There were long blond hairs like hers on it.

We considered asking questions of the ghost of one of the corpses and Freddie agreed to do it. He asked the man where they had taken Eliza, and after a psychic struggle the ghost said she was at Sandbat HQ. With further reluctance he gave directions to it as to go north along the main corridor from the nursery. Freddie tried to ask him a third question about cultist numbers, but the ghost managed to depart before answering.

In the calm after the fight, fatigue started to hit us all. We didn’t know how long we’d been in this underground place but it was a long time with both physically tiring and mentally challenging events. We needed to find somewhere safe to rest and ideally sleep. I’d had a strange familiarity with the labyrinth of tunnels all the time and led the way to an open room that had undisturbed dust on the floor. We settled down to try to sleep, taking it in turn to be awake and watch.

There was one last thing to do before we slept. John, who had so shockingly turned on us, had the amulet that gave some protection from and could inflict damage on the living winds. We had taken it from his body and one of us had to now take it and use it. I did not know the incantation so did not volunteer. James thought he knew it, so he took the amulet.

After a time when we’d all managed sleep, we all awakened again. It was totally silent around us. I could not see anything suspicious but James and Ginger spotted some beetles in the room. They were large and looked like stag beetles. The beetles weren’t acting like normal insects but seemed to be taking a real interest in us, as if they were intelligent. They were running around in circles and then out of the door. We followed their track and saw they were going north.

I knew we were north of the nursery in this room and that if we wanted to go there we had to go south. The question was: should we go south to the nursery or north following the beetles? I decided to use one of my skills/spells (Future History) and had a vision that I told to everyone.

Fifty million years ago the great winds and others had destroyed the Yithian civilisation. However, the Yithians projected their minds to the planet Jupiter. Then later, after the future collapse of human and two other civilisations, they projected their minds into beetles that lived as a community, a sort of hive mind. Each Yith mind was distributed among hundreds of beetles. While I was saying this I had this niggling feeling that I was talking rubbish; this view of history had to be insane.

However, we went north along the passage about 50 yards and found 5 beetles sitting on top of each other, clearly not normal beetle behaviour. As we approached they fell to the ground and scurried away, as if they were trying to get our attention. We followed them and at the next junction went northwest. I had serious misgivings about following them but the others decided we would follow the beetles. They took us generally towards the north, along lit and unlit tunnels. Weirdly, one would wave at us as we went along as if to encourage us.

Eventually there was a glimmer of light ahead and the five of them became very agitated. We turned our lights off and listened. Marshall said that he could hear people walking and we moved to the sides, the only possible concealment. Then someone crossed the end of the corridor and shone a torch down it. More people went past, five in total. We saw that the beetles were lined up across the corridor floor, for all the world like a barrier. Then they moved on and we continued to follow them. I thought that we were heading towards the suburbs of the city, rather than the HQ.

We went southwest then southeast after the beetles. Some of the walls had bas reliefs of Yithians gathering knowledge. We passed many doors off the corridors but few of them were open. Finally a corridor opened up into a hexagonal room that included a big archway with strange fittings.

I just knew that the arch was some sort of Yithian technology [Operate Yithian Tech] and that there were sensors, currently turned off, that would zap us if they sensed us.

There were actually two archways. The one at the front left led to another room that was brightly lit while the one at front right also led to a room, but with lower light levels. The beetles stopped before the arch with glowing red lights, suggesting it might be turned on. There was a big lever, probably a switch, high up the wall that would have been convenient for the lobster-style claw of a Yithian but not for us. Eventually Marshall and Freddie managed to turn it.

The beetles went in and we followed into a room that was 50 feet on each side. There was a high bench on one side that we could climb onto. However, the most startling thing was a Yithian in the darkest corner of the room, waving its tentacles at us! The reality of it and my memories blended in a weird way so I was completely comfortable this this and knew how to talk it using mindspeech. It glided towards us and we moved aside to give it space.

It told me (and I relayed this to the others) that it was a prisoner in this room. The evil ones had released the living winds. It had been hurled into its future and trapped here. [This was done using the mythos spell ‘look to the future’ by Dr Houston of the Carlisle expedition. The spell that Houston used brings people from their past to now. Dr Robert Houston was Carlisle’s psychiatrist from 2001. Only James (and Eliza) in this group know about the Carlisle expedition. Fatima might know something.]

The Yithian wants to kill Houston and return to the past. It can project its mind into the beetles, hence their intelligent behaviour. It, of course, knows all about the city since it lived here. From storage it gives each of us a fully charged lightning gun.