The Masks of Nyarlathotep: Australia pt 4

The Personal Diary of Fatima El-Ahmed

I’m starting to remember so much more about what this city was like when the Great Race lived in it. It’s overlaid and simultaneous with what I see around me, and I know how things end before they start. It is a bit confusing but the understanding that I’m getting of the complexity is amazing. From talking with Kakatak the Yithian I know that they weren’t sorcerers but made use of technology and a different way of perceiving the intersection of time and matter. In fact, they were opposed to all sorcery. Kakatak is personally very aggrieved about it since he has been unwillingly brought here by a spell cast by Dr Robert Houston, leader of the cult that has taken over the ruins. I asked him to describe Houston and his description was so vivid that I became certain that I would recognise the skinny old man if we encountered him.

As something practical, I’ve got a lightning gun the size of a submachine gun that takes both my hands to hold and aim. It is comforting to hold it since we’ve decided to attack the cultists to get information and free Eliza. We planned an attack in two groups with Marshall, Freddie and Ginger Muldoon concentrating on freeing Eliza while James, Kakatak and I fight with the cultists. We think we know where their headquarters are in the tunnels, so we headed there, stopping at a bend just before the brightly lit area.

We could see a barricade across the tunnel with bright lights shining outwards and realised it would be impossible to take them by surprise. Fortunately, Kakatak told me that there were more tunnels leading to this plaza. We therefore turned back to the previous junction and went into an unlit corridor. We didn't want to use torches so, since Kakatak's sonar sense let him move confidently in the dark, we all held hands and followed him. Freddie and Ginger lost contact briefly but then found us again. Finally we turned a corner and saw light ahead, as well as another barricade. This corridor sloped upwards and smelt foul. James was particularly badly affected after realising it was being used as a sewer.

We approached as quietly as we could. Marshall said he could see people with weapons beyond the barricade but fortunately they did not pay any attention to us. As we got closer we could see cages containing people and the stench became worse. Marshall and James said that they could hear a woman sobbing, a man muttering as if mad and others speaking in several languages and moving around. We also realised that the sewage was slippery and we needed to take care with our footing. James fell over and got covered in the stuff.

Suddenly Marshall dropped his gun, it went off and then there was uproar ahead. We started shooting, they started shooting – it was complete chaos. I held back behind the Yithian, who was also shooting into the melee while the others rushed forwards. I thought that I heard Eliza calling out, ‘We’re here’. At the top of my voice I yelled, ‘How do the cages open?’ hoping it was really her and that I’d catch her response. I saw the others fall and die they tried to open the cages as the cultists defended themselves. It was hopeless.

This was not the outcome I wanted so with an effort I grasped reality and moved us back to before the attack when James had just fallen over in the corridor. I could see times and realities racing away in different directions. The one we had just been in had ended and looped back. Fortunately the cultists were not yet aware of us. All the others were slightly puzzled when I insisted we should not continue with our plan. I could remember all about our futile attack, and after a moment’s thought I thought Freddie could as well, so the others then believed that we’d been given a second chance and had to go about the rescue differently.

We quietly discussed different options. We tried unsuccessfully to dream up keys to the cages although Marshall managed to find a functioning torch abandoned in the corridor. Finally, we decided to head back to where John Zwaiter’s body lay because he undoubtedly had a silver needle since he (and Eliza) knew the spell ‘open the way’ that we could use to get into the locked area. Following Kakatak’s directions we quietly walked back to the bunkhouse. Marshall went to search it for the needle and soon returned, puzzled. John’s body wasn’t there. Other bodies were bloated and had been dead for at least a week, rather than the single day we had experienced. We all went to see for ourselves.

The area was lit from a generator. There had obviously been a scuffle at the bunkhouse. As we looked around, Marshall insisted that it was different from what he had seen 30 minutes ago. There were five dead cultists, all armed with clubs, and lots of footprints on the ground. Their bodies had been dead for longer than a day. We also found a skeleton clad in rags and another body that was still warm. It looked like some were aborigines but others were of African or Middle Eastern origin. We found Eliza’s clothes but even searching them very carefully we could not find her silver needle.

We came to the conclusion that we were at a different point in time from that we expected. In part to test this we went along the lit corridors via the blue plaza to where we had met Dave. He had evidently been there but was there no longer. We decided to leave him a message: go to where we last met him. We knew that this was a good place to sleep, and we were getting very tired. Kakatak stayed awake all night and each of the 5 of us was on watch in turn. I saw nothing but Dave returned during James’s watch and he woke us all up.

Dave had spent time with the cultists so we wanted him to tell us what he remembered. He told us about four groups that could be potential allies against the cultists, the dog snufflers, mimis, living winds and winged snakes. I went back to sleep while he was talking and awoke refreshed to hear Marshall persuading Freddie to scry at the rooms of Dr Robert Houston, the cult leader, that we knew were on the upper floor of their headquarters. He did so and saw Eliza there.

Dave was on good terms with the dog snufflers so we decided to ask them for help first. We walked for over an hour and finally went through some tight dark passages and out into a cave. I was disturbed when a dog snuffler suddenly appeared. Then after a short time we heard the sound of shuffling and six ghouls came towards us. They wanted to eat in return for helping us and we agreed to take them to the bodies at the bunkhouse. This time when we got there we saw two bloated corpses and two skeletons. The ghouls set to work breaking up the bodies and eating them. I thought that I’d have another go at looking for the silver needle and as the idea entered my head I saw one glinting in the light.

Having been successful with the dog snufflers and ghouls we decided to see if we could get the mimis to help us. We went to the blue plaza and then, at Dave’s suggestion, headed north. He suddenly stopped and there was one ahead. The mimi looked like a very tall, thin aboriginal with extra-long legs and arms. It was sitting on the floor. Ginger Muldoon asked for help in driving the cultists away. After staring impassively for a short time, it reached across to the wall and drew pictures with a claw-like finger. It drew six stick people and then a hexagonal hole, a living wind coming up from the well and then a cap on it with the six stick people. Then the mimi stood up, reached out to the wall and a hole appeared leading to a dark passageway. We walked into the crack in the wall. Strangely, the mimi counted six of us into it even though Dave stayed in the blue plaza. It felt like we were travelling through rock despite the glowing veins in it.

After a short time the passage opened into a very large cavern illuminated by faint blue-white light from the rock. It looked like a natural cave that sloped down into a pool of water. There were 15 mimis in the cave, 10 men and 5 women. The one that had brought us went to sit with them and they all looked at each other, then suddenly turned to look at us. One of the women got up and offered us a tray of fruit. It smelt delicious but we wanted to decline to eat it. Then a man offered us water in a bowl.

Finally another man came over holding a spear with a human skull attached to the end of it, and squatted in front of us. He drew more pictograms on the wall. From this, and his gestures, we realised that they were pleased we had closed the shaft and thus kept the living winds contained. Marshall tried to explain that we had got one of the winds to go into the hole. He also tried to ask for their help to get rid of the cultists and free the people from the cages. The mimi seemed to understand and went to talk silently with the others, then returned and added 6 mimis to his picture. We took this to mean that 6 of them would come with us. He re-opened the crack and we went back to the blue plaza with him, accompanied by the mimis.