The Rapture Screams, part 2

Extracts from the Diary of Thomas Grady

November 27^th (Continued)

17:30 – Awaken at Drummond House we now have the spells for the ritual to reacquire Sophie’s’spirit but we need a fist-sized moonstone.

Friday, November 28^th

09:30 – I take Emily to acquire the moonstone from Fort William and Lucie demands to be part of the ritual and as she can confirm Sophie’s answers we agree to let her take part

16:20 – Back home with the moonstone, we now have all we need.

23:30 – Finish the set up to cast Evocation of the Damned at Sophie’s grave.

00:00 – Midnight, Emily casts the spell and a crescent moon appears in the sky, there is a smell akin to decaying flowers.

Saturday, November 29^th

00:01 – Glowing sphere appeared from right angle to norm, smell changes to rotting meat.

00:02 – Sphere becomes transparent revealing young girl in sci-fi type gear and hair flowing to waist, can now smell spice

00:03 – Lucie calls out to girl and she opens her eyes revealing darkness, then girl presses hands against the sphere.

00:04 – Disembodied voice states ask your questions. Belinda states that it’s Nyarlathotep, don’t have a clue who that is name, sounds Egyptian.

00:05 – Emily asks where did you go on your fifth birthday and she answers the zoo to see the monkeys which is correct.

00:06 – Freddie casts Kuranes’ Binding, the angles change again, the girl screams and she is pulled away at an angle, followed by an audible growl.

00:07 - Emily and Belinda remark that something bad had just happened, and we heard laughter emanating from the disembodied voice, they suspect Nyarlathotep intervened to halt Yog-Sothoth’s wrath.

00.12 – Collect our gear and head back to Drummond House and to bed.

06:00 – Lucie up and very excited about seeing Sophie again.

08:00 – We make ready to once again enter the Dreamlands.

We arrive on a stone bridge near a sky blue city with golden filigree, large golden statues, high walls and a large rose crystal palace at its centre. Still the place has the look of a small Cornish fishing village

Belinda informs us this is Celephais and I notice that she has become Gloriana.

Emily asks us to wait a moment before entering the city and performs a tarot reading to try to pinpoint Sophie.

Once she’s done Gloriana leads us in and up the Street of Bridges and to the Palace of Seventy delights. She also becomes our tourist guide as she states that the city’s markets are to our right while the residential areas are to the left.

After a short yomp we are at the gates of the palace of King Kuranes and she introduces herself to the palace guard which causes them to draw to attention and summon the captain, who looks like a Hollywood knight with a symbol on his chest he invites us in and sends a messenger to the king, he then presents us with a feast, ten minutes later the king makes his appearance.

The king, it appears, was/is a great dreamer and two hundred years ago he lived in Cornwall.

The king asks us to follow him and he takes us to a room in the basement sheathed in metal that is protected from the names of the elder gods.

We inform him why we had come and of how we had released Sophie from Yog-Sothoth using his spell, which caused him to state that we very likely had become a mortal enemy of this Outer God. Still he can be reasoned with so it may not be all bad, yet he is both very powerful and omnipotent so we would need to set up a deal with him PDQ.

We also inform him that to acquire the spell we had to release Gnosos and that he now resided in Rinar, which is not great as Gnosos was at war with Celephais before he was stopped from dreaming. Upon hearing this, the king summons Ezekiel.

Ezekiel arrives and the king informs him of Gnosos’ reappearance and the sage informs us of the issues we face for it appears Gnosos resurrected the worship of a goddess from the Hyperborean pantheon that had faded from memory many years earlier. A goddess whose followers could manipulate dreams and make them reality.

The king informs us that the spell should have sent Sophie’s spirit to Celephais but unfortunately there were no records of an unaccompanied child so we may need to consult a seer and one had set up in the bazaar.

This seer was known as Aforgomon’s Daughter and she apparently picks and chooses her clients. Still we may be able to ply her with coin and to this end the king offers us a purse.

No one appears to know who or what Aforgomon is but is confident that it is not an Elder God.

She has set up shop in the Cornish Bazaar off Ivory Road which is a small, almost model, village in a middle class area and the king assigns us a courtier to show us the way. The bazaar appears of the period of Jane Austen surrounded by tall wooden houses.

Finally we see a shop bearing the sign of a female figure in dark clothing peering into a crystal ball and the name Aforgomon’s Daughter so we knock and are greeted by a weasel of a man with slicked back hair, a fancy coat and an unkempt shirt, this is Abborax who serves as gatekeeper.

We state we have come to convene with the seer but he declares we cannot – that is until we ply him with coin for he then states that he will allow us to ask the seer one question each. But we must be alone.

Lucie demands to be first and she asks for the location of her sister, Sophie, upon which the seer states that she is in Celephais and that she resides to the south of the Knights Gate, just inside the walls. But we should wait as she will visit us in the waking world at the dark of the sun which upsets Lucie somewhat.

Emily is next and she asks the seer to explain the spread of tarot she had drawn before entering the city and the seer replies that the cards require us to seek a military commander who relies on glory and has manipulated a healthy mind into a healthy body. Still the spread is wrong as cards are wrongly placed for it all leads to a blind idiot at its centre, a dreamer and a person once a fool who had since acquired enlightenment but long distances will need to be travelled in the waking world.

Gloriana is next and she asks what has Sophie been doing since her release and she is informed that she has been telling fortunes.

I am next and as I enter I note the room is dark and that the figure sat at the table is small, wearing dark clothing, a heavy veil and lace gloves. She is also surrounded sets of tarot cards and other paraphernalia, including a hand of glory. There is also a table in front of the figure containing a crystal ball and a single candle.

So I ask my question, which is what does Yog-Sothoth require as payment to settle our debt for spirit of Sophie? And she replies that he would require a soul to replace the one he had lost.

As a final statement she asks me a question and that is in the war that never ends, how goes the war? I am not sure how to answer this so remain silent but when I tell the others Lucie remarks that this could be referring to the war against the Mythos where the fight against Gnosos and the Egyptian expedition may just be side shows.

Freddie asked about Gnosos and she replied that the future is not yet written and that we would need to ask him. But thanks to events in Egypt our enemies will attempt to thwart us at every stage and that a knife in the dark can end any man.

In hindsight I have to admit we missed the key clues here.

We spend time near the Knights Gate searching for a long-haired female child and a seer but as to the former there is no sighting and the only seer is an old man – and the captain of the guard informs us that no children had been seen in Celephais for many a year.

So we retired to the palace for dinner but Lucie left during the meal and I found her standing looking at the Temple of Nath-Horthath (the patron god of Celephais) a temple crowned by an ebony hermaphrodite with a silver axe.

After reviewing the evidence we noticed that everything pointed to Aforgomon’s Daughter and this was further cemented when we discovered that Aforgomon is an avatar of Yog-Sothoth!

With this knowledge we chose to arm ourselves before our return and the king supplied me with a broadsword, armour and shield.

Yet when we returned to the shop it soon became clear she had left as the incense was stale and the body of Abborax was found in the kitchen with his throat cut and it was clear from the damage had been inflicted by a big, strong man.

Searching the area we found that there was a cellar and two bedrooms the first of which clearly that of the gatekeeper as his dirty clothing was piled in the corner while the second sparse and bore a scent much akin to the sphere. Still we found what appeared to be a gate or archway in the rooms we request aid from the king.

This aid comes in the form of a man in robes and a long past dreamer (Nehemiah) and two knights. The plan is that Nehemiah shall open the gate and we will recon the other side. Soon the gate opens to reveal a large chamber somewhat akin to a throne room with a human sized throne and three exits one of which is over thirty feet high and sealed by heavy wooden doors.

I insist that Lucie remained with Nehemiah and that she not pass through the portal and for once she listens. I then step through the portal with Gloriana, Freddie and the two guards. As we do so Sophie appears from one of the smaller entrances and sits upon the throne.

She then begins to talk: it appeared that she blamed both Lucie and her grandfather for seemingly abandoning her and that she screamed for years while her only friends dwelt in her mind but because of our actions she can now roam the universe. She has also learned to trust her step-father, Yog-Sothoth, the Guardian, the Key and the Gate to the universe and he taught her many things including how to open gates with just a thought. She then claps her hands and moments later there is a loud bang and the massive twin doors reverberate. This is rapidly followed by a second bang which forces the doors to fly open.

This reveals a large figure, much like a bipedal elephant with a face festooned with tentacles. This is horrific to behold and I feel my mind unhinge slightly, for while I wish to run my feet will not follow my wishes. Freddie was similarly affected and while one of the guards collapsed the other ran. The collapsed guard was smashed to paste by this monster and Sophie appeared to be enjoying this display.

Somehow I knew this was a Star Spawn and I felt it would take more than a broadsword to stop this creature but still I tried. As I spotted an opening, I swung my sword, striking the creature, but noted that the wound began to heal almost straight away.

It should be noted that I am not a swordsman and I realised I would be finished if this thing hit me but I was unable to withdraw and I was only saved by Gloriana, who pulled me back through the portal, which Nehemiah swiftly resealed. Only then did I feel the pain in my arm, for hitting the creature had been akin to hitting whale blubber.

I have been to war and seen many things that would shake a sane man but I have nothing that compares to seeing that beast I am only thankful that I demanded Lucie remain out of the room as the sight of the creature may have destroyed her somewhat fragile psyche.

We desperately needed to do something as Lucie believed Sophie would be returning to the waking world during the eclipse on the 22^nd July 2009. To this end we retired to the palace to reassess and the king offered the opportunity for Freddie and I to become lay members of the cult of Nath-Horthath, the patron god of Celephais and god of adventurers and warriors, which gave us access to a spell that increased our physicality. We also had to swear an oath to be brave and heroic and respect the pantheon’s followers, whether they be good or evil.

Sunday, November 30^th

After the initiation we returned to the waking world to assess and to be brutally honest I feel that I should have seen this coming and put my foot down with Lucie earlier as the Dreamlands now housed two very dangerous individuals in Gnosos and Sophie. I also planned to offer my services to Green and his yanks as they appeared to know a lot about these creatures.