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 carefull 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 accepted this.
Belle
Danforth
