Pickman’s Student pt3
Extracts from the Personal
Diary of
We discussed our various dreams. Alex and
Adam had dreamt of Celephäis, and there they visited Malachi
the Wise again. From him they learnt that among ghouls there is an aristocracy,
who have names and who can be communicated with, unlike the slavering beasts
that the restof them are.
Malachi would much appreciate any information about how these ghouls achieve
this status.
The ladies (who had slept at Eliza's place)
joined us. Belinda had dreamt of a graveyard, and a mausoleum where she
had a struggle with a large undead woman.
Phoned Jules at the Henge Shop to check that she is OK. I was also interested to know if she had
had any further strange dreams, but I didn't dare ask and she didn't volunteer
anything.
Adam had phoned the office and finally
obtained permission to talk to Tony Higginbotham. Belinda is currently his designated
interlocutor. Due to his instability, they wish as few different people as
possible to talk to him; and as Belinda was the contact last time she remains
the only authorised contact.
Higginbotham seems to know something about
it but was trying to bargain for reduced medication to reveal it. Forbush point-blank refused to consider any such deal. The
only information that we got was that Ghadamon is an
artificial god. Of course, we also have to consider that all of this could be
the purest invention by Higginbotham trying to get his medication
reduced.
Alex and Adam have arranged for us to have
access to’Karl Marx lies in
The whole team, except
for Eliza who is on duty at the hospital, and with the addition of Adrian Stimson assembled to dream in to the painting. We all have ankhs with us, as we believe
these will be some protection from ghouls. Alex is using his spell to keep us
together, but the expectation is that dreaming close to the painting will
almost inevitably draw us into the painting.
Night of
I dreamt of
After a trek through a tunnel, we emerged
on a hillside and met the ghoul Pickman. We learn
from him that ghouls with names have acquired the memories of a human by eating
their brains. So this ghoul is only Pickman in the you-are-what-you-eat sense. According to ‘Pickman’, we may be able to obtain the spells necessary to
deal with Ghadamon from an ancient sorceress. In
exchange for a promise to facilitate ‘Pickman’ having
a painting expedition to the waking-world surface, he agreed to arrange our
being led to the sorceress. We were actually taken there by the ‘Pearly King’.
After a long trek,
through a tunnel, the ghoul stops and points to an opening to the surface. He will not go any further. We all emerged
into a graveyard with a large mausoleum at the far end. Then suddenly Gloriana is gone and replaced by an enormous undead hag. I was quite literally frozen with terror. I was
vaguely aware that this hag was claiming to be Belinda and perhaps was. Alex,
Adrian and the hag set off to the mausoleum. Barbara and myself
stayed put; neither of us felt up to doing anything practical. Adam was doing
his Reiki healing on us which helped a bit.
It was clear from the ease with which the
hag wrenched open the door, that she was immensely strong. Alex and the hag disappeared
inside and
Report of Agent Cameron
The team had been engaged in a routine
collection of a tome when I observed superb specimen of a shoggoth.
The opportunity for study was not to be missed. I ordered the others to
withdraw immediately so as to avoid disturbing the creature. Unfortunately the
creature had already spotted them and was proceeding in the same direction. I
decided that I could not allow the creature to get between me and the rest of
the party as my duty as a commander required me to stay in
contact. Accordingly I stayed in front of the shoggoth,
prepared to double back if the creature did not follow. Fortunately it did. I
slowed to allow the creature to catch up and observe it. It stopped. It seems I
had a tame shoggoth. The possibilities for study
seemed unlimited.
The others, with the only sources of light,
were proceeding away at speed. I immediately set off to catch up, hoping the shoggoth would follow. It did; I definitely had a tame shoggoth.
The others were travelling too fast for any
proper observation of the creature until we exited the tunnel. Finally we got
to the end - finally there should be the chance to examine it properly. Disastrously
the creature disappeared only to be replaced by Gloriana. In
spite of extensive questioning, I have been unable to get any sense out of Gloriana as to what happened to the shoggoth.
I must accordingly recommend that Gloriana is court-martialled.
Night of
We remained in Celephäis
for the rest of the night. I spent the time receiving therapy from Adam.
I wanted to check on Nelson Blake and see
Penny Tilstrom again. Penny had told me that Nelson
had talked to her. At the time I thought it was her imagination. However it
occurs to me that it is possible that whatever is possessing Blake spoke. I
think it would be wise to question her further on the point.
I went to the hospital with
I phoned H.Q. and got the doctor leaned on.
Soon Dr. Jones is back, clearly peeved. He will only allow one of us in. As the
member of staff, it has to be me. I have to put on a bio-hazard suit, and I want
to have a look.
I don't remember what Blake looked like. It
was too horrible. All I am really sure about is that I am back in the Wilmarth Institute again.