Sixth Session Notes

While Professor Dyer had not yet told the world the tragic tale, the PCs had at long last read his manuscript, otherwise known as the text of H. P. Lovecraft's story, "At the Mountains of Madness".

Dan missed this session, but everyone else showed up, despite the drenching rainstorm. Dave ran a bit late, but mostly missed descriptions of the plane flight over the mountains. Julian brought his sister's copy of S. Petersen's Guide so that we could admire the pictures of shuggoths and elder things.

The SME expedition prepared to send its two planes over the Miskatonic Mountains, aka the Mountains of Madness. The rival expedition of Acacia Lexington had left already.

The Enderby carried:

James Starkweather, expedition co-leader
Ralph DeWitt, pilot
Julia Styles, co-pilot
Dr. Richard Greene, the expedition's doctor
Peter Sykes, polar guide
Willard Griffith, one of the geologists

The Weddell carried:

William Moore, expedition co-leader
Douglas Halperin, pilot
Damon Carlsson, co-pilot
St. John Pembroke
Erika Hunter
Alicia Nichols

It was a breathtaking flight. Alicia took lots of photos. She and Damon were disturbed by the eerie whistling of the mountains. Julia was not. Mechanically, this was because Josh made a SAN roll. Less mechanically, as Julia was in the same plane as James Starkweather, she was shielded from the sound of the whistling by the sound of Starkweather's rhapsodizing, at maximum volume, about how fame and fortune would be theirs, and how he hoped "that girl", i.e., Alicia, was getting photos.

Pamela: I am! I am!

DeWitt made a stylish landing, Halperin a careful one. Amusingly, DeWitt's rolls have been consistently higher than Halperin's.

Starkweather told folks to explore, ignoring such basic precautions as establishing a buddy system. He was willing to be indulgent and allow others to be sensible. Dr. Greene stayed near the base camp. Radios were useless at this point, either to contact Acacia Lexington's plane, the Belle, or to contact the base camp on the other side of the mountains.

The pilots pulled out charts, logs, and slide rules. They talked with Damon and Professor Moore. The wind had been behind the planes on the flight over the mountains and through the pass. Unless the wind died down, a return flight via that route would prove impossible.

The pilots suggested flying the long way back, 500 miles to the shore, then 200 miles along the coastline, then back along the other side of the mountains, back to the Lake camp site.

Damon: Do we have enough fuel for that?

Halperin (wincing): Barely.

The group had four days worth of oxygen for the high altitude. People agreed that, if the winds did not die down in time, the pilots would take the long way back to the base camp, aka the Lake camp site. St. John agreed to launch weather balloons to monitor the wind.

People explored the city of the Elder Things. Except for Starkweather, they were very cautious, having no desire to run into the shuggoths, if these were not delusions of Professor Dyer. The city was huge, spreading out for 300 miles parallel to the mountains and 30 miles from the pass.

Even limiting themselves to a 10 mile radius, there was much to see, learn, and plunder -- er, bring home for posterity. St. John was able to learn a bare smattering of the complex written language of the Elder Things and he and the others pieced together an overview of the history of the race.

The Elder Things had arrived from space over a billion years ago, apparently flying without a spaceship. They fought many wars with other non-human races. They created the shuggoths, who eventually rebelled against them. They also created humanity, or perhaps humanity evolved from life they had created. Their civiliazion lasted for millions of years, grew, flourished, and eventually went into a decline. The race lost some of its old skills.

The explorers also understood that Dyer believed that some of the Elder Thing bodies that Lake had discovered had not been dead, but rather, in some kind of hibernation, and that they had woken in the midst of Lake's attempts to dissect them, as the scientist did not realize that he was vivisecting them. They slaughtered the humans and dogs at the Lake camp site, and either dissected or vivisected them, trying to understand what had happened during their long, long sleep. However, if Dyer was correct, the Elder Things were attacked by rebellious shuggoths. Still, the explorers encountered what looked like a footprint of one of the Elder Things. They decided to return to camp for the moment, and they also decided, wisely, that they did not wish to go anywhere near where Professor Dyer and Paul Danforth had encountered a shuggoth.

Meanwhile, James Starkweather tried, with no success, to pry a large sphere from a frozen waterfall. The sphere had fallen from a statue of an Elder Thing, where it had represented one of the eyes. It weighed far too much to transport even if Starkweather had succeed in freeing it, so he had to content himself with lesser looting.

On the third day, the wind died down. Starkweather discussed further explorations, but Moore pointed out that the oxygen supply was limited. He instructed everyone to finish up that day, and, if the weather held, they'd return to the Lake campsite that evening, for values of evening that include very little darkness.

About 3 p.m., people realized that Dr. Greene didn't seem to be around, even though he generally stayed close to the camp. People alternated between teaming up to look for him and packing whatever needed packing for the return flight, while Damon instructed the pilots to be ready to fly. The doctor's tracks were found, vanishing in a confusion of scuff marks in the snow. A couple of his instruments were found on the ground. Remembering the Elder Thing footprint, the explorers hastened their preparations for departure, hoping that they could find Dr. Greene, and leave at once.

At about 5:30 pm, a human figure approached. As I recall, Alicia and Julia leveled their weapons at him. Alicia had a rifle. I think Julia had a shotgun. I know that St. John was armed as well.

The figure was not Dr. Greene, as the group had hoped, but Kyle Williams, the pilot for Acacia Lexington. Nonplussed at the weaponry, he explained that Acacia's plane, the Belle, had landed badly, and that he had set off to find the Starkweather-Moore group, hoping that they might be able to spare some help.

Now, Williams's actual desire was to destroy the SME's planes, and the campaign presumes that he will be able to destroy one of the two. I had emailed Chaz to ask if it were a problem if Williams failed to destroy a plane, having an inkling that the PCs might be a little too paranoid for his plan to work. Chaz said that he'd never heard of a run where Williams had failed to destroy the plane, as Williams was willing to die to accomplish this, and the PCs are usually worried about Elder Things, not human explorers, but no, it wouldn't actually wreck anything, though it might change certain dynamics.

Williams did manage to allay suspicions to the point that the PCs pointed their weapons at the ground, and they seemed to believe his tale. They didn't want to try to bring him back with them or to try to bring the rest of Acacia's party back on this trip, but they decided that they could leave supplies behind, as they would be leaving a day early, and then send the planes back with space for Lexington and her people.

At this point, Williams pulled a gun and tried to shoot De Witt. He failed, and Julia successfully shot him in the arm.

Lisa: I'm guessing he's likely dropped the weapon, given the roll and the damage.

Dave: What's Julia using? A shotgun? That might blow his entire arm off.

We agreed that it probably wouldn't kill him, which was good, as I wanted him to rant. Starkweather ordered people to bring Williams into a tent, treat him, and find out what he thought he was doing, while Starkweather looked for any allies.

Damon: Don't go alone! Take Sykes and Griffith.

Starkweather agreed. The three men headed out while Williams was given morphine for the pain, and possibly had his wound cauterized. He was not happy that everyone wasn't dead, and said that they soon would be, trying to make them believe that Acacia Lexington and crew were out to get them,

People realized that this was not the case, and that Williams had been sabotaging the Lexington expedition. They listened to Williams rant about how none of them should be there, none of the people on any of the expedition, how they were like an infection and all had to die, how he and Dyer had seen terrible things, and how there was a terrible Pit with a terrible Thing inside. Then, he started chanting a litany of station stops on the Metro's Red Line, from Boston, I believe.

And, everyone realized that Williams was none other than Paul Danforth, who had accompanied Professor Dyer to the City of the Elder Things, and whose mind had snapped after he took one foolish final look from the plane, seeing horrors beyond imagining. Danforth was one of the few who had read the entire Necronomicon.

As they absorbed this, people heard a gunshot. Going outside, with cautious haste, they saw two living, flying Elder Things carrying Starkweather away.

St. John (after confirming it's that annoying Starkweather, and he's still alive): Fire at will! Fire at will!

Fortunately (?), saner heads prevailed, and people decided to send one of the planes after the Elder Things and Starkweather.

Now, the scenario assumes that it will take an hour for a plane to be ready to go after Starkweather. This gives PCs time to find Danforth's cache, or have NPCs do it while the PCs prep. It is not at all essential for the PCs to find the cache, but it does have some interesting and illuminating stuff.

However, the players noted that the planes had been being made ready to take off on a moment's notice for the last two and a half hours, since Dr. Greene's disappearance was noticed. Surely, one of the planes could lift off Now? Well, perhaps after ten minutes of unloading nonessentials, but surely, it wouldn't take an hour?

This really is one of those things that doesn't matter. The timing isn't critical, as what the PCs discover is scripted. The cache isn't critical. It can be skipped or found later. Or, one can do a minor rewrite, which I did. More on that later.

What is absolutely critical is that the action move and that the players don't get bogged down with things that are no fun and do not matter. After the session, there's plenty of time to ask Chaz about how the planes work, and whether there's actually some reason for the hour delay, likely one spelled out in the text, in a paragraph my eyes glossed over.

But for right then, the Weddell took off, with Douglas Halperin piloting, and with Damon, Julia, Alicia, and St. John. Left behind with the Enderby were Dewitt, Moore, Sykes, Griffith, and the mad Danforth. Precisely where Erika Hunter is can be determined next session.

Halperin flew the plane after the Elder Things for a couple of hours, trailing them, cautiously, to a strange tower with a disturbing blue light, and behind it, an even larger range of mountains than the Miskatonics. As the Elder Things vanished into the tower, people spotted Acacia Lexington's plane, the Belle, piloted by Hermann Baumann. The plane was fairly battered.

Both the Belle and the Enderby managed a decent landing a couple of miles from the mysterious tower, despite an odd wave of distortion that rippled through the land. People got out of the planes. With Baumann were Dr. Meyer and Maxwell Rucker, from the German expedition that was working with Acacia Lexington. There was also Acacia Lexington herself, and her annoying photographer, Albert Priestly.

The crew of the Belle explained that there had been a very rough landing when Kyle Williams, aka Danforth, had flown the plane, and that he had declared it irreparable. Williams told the others that he would try to find the Starkweather-Moore party, and set out with supplies.

In actuality, of course, Danforth was trying to strand both parties, and, if necessary, kill every last man and woman. The Starkweather-Moore people explained this to the Lexington people. The Lexington people explained that they had seen two Elder Things flying by with something heavy carried between them. Then, they saw the Enderby following it. By then, despite Danforth's best efforts, Baumann had made the plane operational, so the Lexington people got in the Belle and headed off after the Enderby.

The SME people explained about Dr. Green and Captain Starkweather being taken by the Elder Things. Acacia said that she'd help try to rescue them, as Starkweather would never be able to live that down, or, if he were dead, to give him a Christain burial. She got her gun.

Baumann said that he wanted to stay with the Belle.

Baumann: During the flight, we have heard noises that should not be present in the aircraft.

Damon: What sort of noises?

Lisa: He makes a sound that an aircraft really shouldn't be making.

Julian: Damon winces sympathetically.

Baumann and Halperin stayed with the planes, while Rucker decided to examine the hills surrounding the tower. Damon, St. John, Julia, Alicia, Meyer, Priestly, and Lexington headed into the tower.

Inside, the tower got warm enough that people had to shed their arctic gear. Meyer clearly seemed to know where he was. Now, according to the book, unless he knows that the PCs have read the manuscript containing true ending to the tale of Arthur Gordon Pym, he will continue to pretend that he is merely following hunches based on what he knows people know about the Elder Things. The PCs may get the manuscript in one of two ways. They may steal it from Meyer's tent, before people fly to the City of the Elder Things. This they did not do. Once Meyer flies over the mountains, Danforth steals the manuscript after sabotaging the plane, and the PCs can find it if they find Danforth's cache. But, the PCs did not stay to search for the cache.

So, I decided that perhaps Danforth did not succeed in stealing the manuscript. Or, perhaps he had, but the book establishes that Dr. Meyer has a phenomenol memory. And, at this point, it's rather foolish for him to pretend greater ignorance than he has. So, he explained what he had learned from the Pym manuscript, which boiled down to the idea that people captured by the Elder Things were more likely to be higher up in the tower, and I handed the correct version of the manuscript around. Confusingly, the version printed in Beyond the Mountains of Madness had some errors. I discovered this, and the corrected version, online and printed it out.

The players skimmed this and read the one page summary, as the PCs climbed further up the tower, understandably skipping the fascinating murals, as it would take too long to study them if any chance remained to rescue Starkweather and Greene.

As people headed yet further up, they encountered strange crystalline structures filling some areas and partially filling others. In the latter areas, the structures wove in and around plants. St. John accidentally brushed against one of the crystals.

This was pre-planned gm fiat. Before the session, I had asked Dave if he actively wanted St. John to go insane, as there happened to be a particular event in this chapter that would be especially suited for him. He agreed, so St. John's body spasmed as Strange Energies coursed through his body and Unspeakable Knowledged coursed through his mind.

The knowledge was, literally, unspeakable, for St. John had lost the ability to communicate, either verbally or in writing. Dave passed me a note asking whether the very concepts of writing and speaking were alien to St. John, and I confirmed that they were.

Meanwhile, the others watched in great concern as St. John regained partial control of his body, but moved awkwardly, and seemed unable to speak or write, or to understand what was spoken or written. The group pressed on, eventually coming to wall of jungle plants interwoven with crystals, stones, and living tissue, including the severed heads of penguines, seals, walruses -- and the more recently severed heads of Dr. Greene and James Starkweather.

Acacia Lexington wanted to cut down Starkweather's head, saying that he deserved a better fate than this. As she moved to do this, though, St. John pulled her arm back. I am not sure if I should have made Dave roll for this, but this was one section of the module that I wanted not to fiat, although that's not how it's actually written in the book.

Acacia appealed to Julia to help her cut down the head. Julia said that they needed to leave that awful place. Priestly advocated burning down the wall, and this they might have agreed to if they had any means of doing this. For, my players, while they like a cinematic game, were also aware that one cannot explode an oxygen cylinder by firing a bullet at it, and the planes that crossed the mountains did not have anything like flamethrowers, because the planes were carrying many cylinders of vital oxygen.

At this point, a couple of Elder Things began to approach, so St. John led the party up and out of sight, while people contemplated options, both in and out of character.

What St. John knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, was this: The wall of skulls, the plants, the crystals, the entire tower, indeed, both ranges of mountains, were all part of a huge cage to contain Something. It had all started millions of years ago, when the Elder Things fought their wars against other, equally alien creatures. The Elder Things were losing, so they developed a way of summoning creatures from Beyond to use as weapons. This turned the tide of the war for them.

But, one day, they summoned up a creature far greater than they had ever anticipated, and it was caught part in, part out of this world. They could not free it, or it would shatter the world. They could not allow it to pull more of itself into the world. So, they turned their resources to containing it.

Unfortunately, over time, their civilization decayed. Now, the great trap containing the creature was slowly failing, kept functional by supplementing the broken crystals with plants, and using the heads of animals, and, when possible, higher life forms, such as humans. Elder Thing heads could be used, but the creatures preferred not to use their own heads.

Moreover, St. John realized that the four Elder Things were the ideal guardians of the trap, for they had a far, far longer life span than humans. So, his goal was to get himself and his fellow expeditioners out alive -- but without damaging anything in the tower, including the Elder Things. He did not wish to become the new guardian of the trap, although he was resigned to doing just that, if it became necessary.

Now, here is where the great fiat of the campaign is. The GM is supposed to try to get the PCs to damage the great construct that is the trap, preferably by cutting a head down from the wall of skulls or trying to burn the wall down. At that point, the person who has been part of the trap itself and knows everything is now freed to communicate the enourmity of what has been done. The PCs must then choose someone to sacrifice to repair the trap.

It's a lovely scenario for a movie or a book, but I did not want to force this, and it wasn't happening. And, in my opinion, it wasn't necessary. The PCs still know what they know: There's an awful doom hanging over the world, a frail barrier keeping it off, and a dire need of sentient heads to repair it. What do they do?

But, how to free St. John to speak? Dave suggested than even minor damage to the trap, like, say, a bullet chipping a piece of crystal, might do the trick. This worked for me. I would have been willing to let him play St. John as mute the rest of the game if he'd actively wanted to -- but not if he didn't.

So, the group crept down and saw two Elder Things and a small shuggoth. As the shuggoth was only interested in tending to the wall, all everyone had to do was to dodge the Elder Things.

Julia managed this, but Damon both got snatched. Folks started firing on the Elder Things, and, as agreed, the first missed shot chipped a crystal and brought St. John back to himself.

St. John: For the love of God, don't damage the crystals, the skulls, or the creatures!

Despite his plea, Julia and someone else -- either Alicia or Damon himself -- managed to do enough damage to the Elder Thing holding Damon that it dropped him. The other Elder Thing grabbed Acacia, the last one running past them. Despite St. John's protests, Damon tried to fire on Acacia, hoping to kill her before she could suffer whatever fate the creatures had in store for her. He missed.

Julia, Alicia, Damon, St. John, Priestly, and a very shaken Meyers who wanted only to go home fled down the tower. St. John explained what he knew. Damon didn't believe a word of it. Clearly, these were horrible creatures doing horrible things to people, even defiling their corpses. Alicia and Julia weren't so sure.

And, there we broke. I sent an email to Chaz, summarizing the situation, and he agreed with me that there's plenty of possibilities for what happens next. All we need, now, is to be able to schedule another session.