And that’s what prompts the team to eliminate Lister, “If he describes meeting us to Coombs or Edwards…”
Monday, 3 December: 1am
when the team walks the empty corridor of Lister’s sleeper car. Oliver stops at
the car door, “Dad and I will keep watch for the porter. Dad, you go watch at
the other door.” The others tip-toe toward Lister’s cabin. The clickity-clack
of the rails drowns any noise they make, but John is still on edge when Jenny
stoops to pick the lock. “Click.” Jenny steps into the dark room. Moonlight
peeks around the shades to reveal the sleeping form.
Jenny grabs the spare pillow
and covers the snoring face. She hangs on for a wild bucking ride as Lister
struggles for breath. John enters the room to put his 340 pounds atop the
pillow. The bucking ride soon ends. George is already opening the window.
John
and George struggle to shove the body out the window and into the cold Scottish
night, after emptying Lister’s pockets and taking his whistle. “Here’s his
Machine-Press ID and a business card for a ‘Glenaffrie Cars’ in Inverness.”
The train wanders thru
beautiful countryside but the team is too absorbed in planning to enjoy. “We
could be days or weeks ahead of the ceremonial event. If not a full year early.
Let’s search for the trucking that delivered the stones. Scout out the lodge
and maybe find the stones where the ritual is to be performed. But stay
undercover. Jen, maybe you and John can pretend to be a married couple.”
It’s 7:20pm when the train
pulls into the Inverness station. Streetlights struggle to pierce the foggy
darkness, revealing a foot of snow. A half-moon adds some light as each member
exits from a different car. John finds a porter to carry his and his ‘wife’s’
luggage. Oliver pulls his thick coat tight as he exits, scanning [Spot-Extreme]
for known cultists, such as the nefarious Coombs. None. No sign of the car that
Lister said would be waiting for him. The group soon rejoins to find lodging at
a lessor known establishment, The Wallace Inn, just in case
cultists are in town.
It’s past 9pm when the group
enters a local pub. Exchanged glances: patrons sneering at the strangers; the
group gawking at the men in kilts. George clearing the tension when he
announces, “Barkeep, drinks for all.” John leads his ‘wife’ to a table as Oded
slips into a corner. George already at the bar to pay the owner, Margaret
McNair, “May I call you Maggie?” Oliver grabs 2 mugs when they’re delivered,
“One for me dad too.” Free conversation from the wet lips, “Eyh, there’s an old
hunting lodge by Lock Mullardoch. On the east end. Been abandoned for years. A
lord of the manor? Ain’t been no lords around here for ages. Strangers? Besides
you? Well about 10 arrived days ago. Bought a pint then took off to the car
rental.”
It’s near midnight when they
retire to their rooms:
- John squirms uncomfortably on the couch as his little ‘wife’ Jen sprawls on the bed. Maybe that’s what sparks his vivid dream: horrifying images of all his failed marriages. Beautiful faces transformed into ghastly masks. Suddenly he standing beside an open grave. The coffin being lowered. The lid suddenly opens, revealing his son with a frozen scream upon his face. John bolts up from the couch screaming.
- Meanwhile, George has his own dream: him at sea manning the rails, waves crashing over the side. Then suddenly a raft adrift off the port beam. His wife alone on the raft. George suddenly tied to the main mast unable to aid his wife. Struggles and screams as he can only watch the raft begin to flounder and sink beneath the waves. A pallad mask rising in its place. George bolts up from the bed screaming.
- Oliver too lost in a dream: his father rejecting the bodies he brings to the Bacon house. Condemnation and rejection whether a fresh kill or not. “Just tell me what you want.” Oliver paralyzed as he watches his father hack away at Oliver’s foot, then leg, then arm. “I always knew a fat son would serve me well someday.” Oliver wakes screaming.
Tuesday, 4 December: It’s
already 10am when they arise from their fitful sleep for a late breakfast. No
trucking company within Inverness. But confirmed sightings of trucks rumbling
thru weeks ago heading west out of town. Yes, toward the loch. Oliver offering
explanation for his questions, “I’m an insurance adjustor. One of the trucks
broke an axle. I need proof.” As for transportation, John walks to the nearby
Glenaffrie lot. “Your lucky day. Got one left. Fellow never showed. He was
supposed to join with the others who rented my other 3 cars weeks ago.”
Meanwhile, Oded goes shopping for a cover story: fishing and camping gear. And
binoculars.
It’s noon when they get on
the road, Oliver driving as John reads the map. An hour westward along the only
stretch of road toward Loch Mullardoch. Hairy moment when they hit an icy-patch
but Oliver maintains control. But during the slide, George spies an old
abandoned church ruin. “That could be our vantage point to monitor the lodge.
We should be within a mile. Let me take a look.” George trudges thru the snow
to the ruins where he uses the binoculars trying to find the lodge;
instead [Spot-Hard], spying a stone pillar within the nearby fir
trees. He returns, “Let’s unload here.”
Oliver angles the car off the road as if they had an
accident. They carry the gear to the ruins, before trudging on to the pillar.
Oded reads new inscriptions carved into the familiar stone, “We raise our
muzzle… with love.” [Listen-Extreme] Oliver and Jen are the first
to hear distant trees snapping. Soon, snow falls from the tree-tops above
foretells something approaching. Sanity check by all as the “something” is a
huge squid with maybe 20 tentacles walking the tree-tops overhead. HUGE!
Blotting out the sun…before continuing westward before it stops maybe a
quarter-mile away. Oded now observing with binoculars, “Another stone pillar.
It’s wrapping its tentacles around the stone. Shifting in color.”
John offers, “I want to check where it came from.” Thus, as
Oded stands watch from this pillar, the others trudge east. An easy trail of
broken tree-tops and snow banks formed by the fallen snow from the tree-tops.
Sure enough, another stone pillar lies a quarter-mile east. But a dead-end; no
more fallen snow or broken tree-tops. John thinks of the ‘V’ design at the
Jennings farm back in Claire Melford. “Let’s angle northwest, assuming this the
vortex of the ‘V’.” [Navigate- Failure] It doesn’t take long to
get lost. At least they have their fresh tracks to backtrack all the way to the
church ruins and Oded at the original pillar. Oded announcing, “The squid moved
on.”
Together, they trudge westward. Instead of another
pillar, they find the lodge with 3 cars parked out front.
A marble arch before
the lodge. Out of place. “OK, George can hot-wire one car as our getaway while
we disable the other cars to prevent pursuit. In case we gotta make a run for
it.” They all sneak thru the archway into the lodge courtyard. Then
realization… ”We’re not in Scotland anymore.”
Mist rolls in from the loch and from the forest behind
them. Behind them? The arch now changed in color and form. Now brass. Look away
and back; now wooden. The lodge replaced by tall buildings. A dark sky with 2
suns to the west. No longer night. A light haze. Ever changing. A beautiful
city awaits. People. Joyous. Wearing masks. Partying. Everything feels strange;
but right. “Paradise that Alex spoke of?” Oliver remembering the séance image
of the city, “Welcome to Carcosa.”
Jen looks skyward to see thousands of birds
flying high. Realization they are too large to be birds, “Byakhee.”
People stand on balconies wearing masks and partying.
Oded picks up a discarded mask and puts it on, gaining the attention of one
above, “Why don’t the others have masks? By order of the Queen, all must wear
masks. What faction are you? Celebrate or Protest?” When they announce they
celebrate, bejeweled masks are tossed down to them. And that’s when they spy
the pallad man. Above, they hear announced, “Look, the envoy approaches. It
won’t be long till the king himself arrives.”
Hearts pounding as they realize they must get to the
palace ahead of the envoy. A mad rush towards the palace but complicated by the
shifting scenery. Buildings ever shifting and transforming. A marble bridge;
slippery from the mist rising from the river below. Oded makes it across but
Jen slips and begins to fall over the side. Luck and skill that George is able
to grab and save her. Even Oliver [Insane Dex] makes it across. The streets
changing. Marble, then stone, then gravel, then paved. Ahead, the colosseum.
“We’re late. Let’s cut thru.” And that’s when George sees an unmasked man
hiding behind a column… raising a gun. George removes his mask and raises his
own gun to threaten, “I wouldn’t do that. Who are you and why the gun?” The
assailant lowers his gun, “I’m Quinten Spence. I came with Edwards and Alex a
week ago. Did he send you after me? I’m surprised he didn’t send his creature.
Yes, the squid thing. He summoned it you know. And plans to summon something
MUCH worse. In 1925 our summoning failed because we were still on earth rather
than here in Carcosa. That’s why I need to find Alex. Maybe he can talk Edwards
out of it. Edwards used Alex to open Carcosa. Once here, Alex found his
paradise and is off painting. He cares less what Edwards does. Join me and we
can…” His words cut short as Oded drives a blade up thru his chin into his
brain. “What?! He was a cultist. Now let’s go find Alex to stop this.”
It’s not long to find a masked reveler willing to take
them to the Art Gallery. As he skips along he warns, “Don’t touch the art.”
Inside the gallery, 2 byakhee statues frame the entrance. Their eyes follow the
arrivals, “Yeah, don’t touch the art.” Pictures hint at time and dimensional
scenes: New York alive with flying cars, London in the 1800s, another planet
with 3-legged people, another with 2-headed monkeys riding large centipedes.
They press on into a room filled with sculptures. Oliver comes face to face
with his likeness. The artist asleep at its base. Oded rustles the artist, “Mr.
Roby?”
Alex awakes finding Oliver, “Isn’t the city as I
described? Paradise. Edwards? I care not his plans; I’ve found eternal
happiness.” The group breaks his peace, “Not if Edwards succeeds in bringing
the King-In-Yellow here. The KIY would threaten earth, all planets and time,
and even your Carcosa.” Alexander FINALLY realizing his mistake, “What have I
done?! He MUST be stopped. Follow me; he’s at the palace.”
Alex leads them to the lake where he drops 2 coins into
the water before climbing into the sailboat. “Come on, this is the fastest
way.” George takes the rudder as Oliver and John assist with the rigging.
Almost halfway across when Oded [Spot-Extreme] spots rippling
water bearing straight for them.
Tentacles rise from the water. Wind catches
the sails jerking the boat off angle just as the tentacles sweep where the boat
should have been. Oded shooting at the tentacles, Alex hysterical, George
hellbent for the far docks. Everyone bailing out onto the dock just in time.
The squid slipping away.
They rush to the palace where they witness a human orgy
of intertwined bodies. “Quick, up the stairs.” But George and Jen spot Coombs
following. They set a trap at the next corner. Oded remembering the pummeling
he took at the hands of the brute when he attacked Oliver at his office. 5
versus 1… complete surprise… when Coombs shifts into a rubbery form. Alien!
No
wonder he can absorb so much and dish out equal wounds. Till George blasts
again with his reloaded shotgun. Rubber turning to ooze that melts into the
gravel road. They continue down halls till the sound of high-heels stops them.
A beauty stands before them, decked in jewelry and flowing
gown. The court proxy welcoming them, “I’m quite pleased to meet someone so
plain.” Jen fuming at the arrogance, “Proxy? Don’t you mean prostitute?” The
proxy unfazed till Oded explains the threat Edwards poses. “He’s with the Queen
now. At the theater. In the balcony.” They arrive finding the Queen alone and
in a trance. On stage below, the play ‘Carcosa’ unfolding. But this time one of
Cassilda’s sons slices his brother, who seems to enjoy it. “Edwards! Blood
sacrifice for his ritual.” Oded raises his Enfield, steadies his aim, “Blam!”
Edward’s head exploding like a watermelon.
Alex smiles but for a moment, “Maybe it was fortuitous that
we met. But I feel the king is coming. Whether he makes it across; we must
leave. Run for the docks!” Thru the palace, into the shifting streets, and onto
the boat once more. This time they stream across the lake reaching the far
dock. “Run for the arch.” Oded goes left, Oliver right, and the others up the
middle of the Carcosa streets. [Strength – fail] The speedier Jen
reaches the wall first but is unable to climb. John and George also can’t
climb. Till they work in unison, boosting Jen to the top so she can pull the
others up. [Track -fail] Oded gets lost along his chosen path. Enough
so that Hastur catches up. Oded opens his mouth to scream, until he looks upon
the king… and peace consumes the warrior.
Jen, John, and George continue along the streets only to
be confronted by a throng of revelers. [Interpersonal-pass] Charm
and Persuade to get past them. [Navigate- pass] Surprisingly
Oliver finds his way thru the streets before him. He proceeds at a steady pace
for someone so large. Which is his downfall; Hastur catches up. “Run dad; save
yourself.” Oliver is overcome with peace. But his efforts provide the time for
the others to reach the arch and pass back unto earth. And the cold. The
shivering cold, considering they shed their winter coats with the realm of
Carcosa.
They stand in fright as something else approaches the
arch from the other side. A tentacle reaches out wrapping around one of the
cars, as if trying to find an anchor. Suddenly the arch begins to quiver and
shimmer, before it collapses upon itself. The car sucked into the void. Quiet
falls upon the Hunting Lodge. The trio rush inside for warmth, clothing, and
food. It’s not long before George hotwires a remaining car for their return to
Inverness. The Glenaffrie clerk
noticing, “Hey, this isn’t the same car I rented you.” John tosses him a few
more pounds, “Close enough.”
EPILOGUE: The ringing
doorbell jars Jenny from her slumber, “Excuse me mam, I’m inspector Taylor from
Scotland Yard. I have it on record that you are… were… a friend of Dr. Oliver
Richardson. I found your name along with his on a 17 October police report
regarding a riot at the Scala Theater during a performance. I also found
your name recorded along with his on numerous visits to the station. In fact, a
diner hostess verified you and others frequently joined the doctor for dinner.
My point being, I’m hoping you can explain just what Mr. Oliver was doing at
the Bacon house. You see, neighbors reported a foul stench from the place. They
spotted the doctor frequently entering the establishment where we found body
parts stored in a freezer. Would you care to explain just what he was doing?
And please, don’t mention Dr. Frankenstein.”
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