There were actually 2 separate sets of stairs down, separated by a wall. While the party formulated a plan, Randolph Carter rang us up. He called to tell us that he had to depart. The large brutes at the surface had departed. They were set upon by bees and a giant owl. They attempted to set the monastery on fire and the fire was immediately put out by a rain storm. (There seemed to be some “positive” forces at work pushing them out, couldn’t keep up with the spoken detail).

Carter had received a letter from himself stating that he would be awaiting us downstairs in a cage with information about how to close the gate and that if we didn’t find him soon, we would fail in our mission. Carter is suffering from some sort of “paradox psychosis”.

One of Carter’s regrets was that he can’t join us below as he has to leave and will meet us (Kyril) near the original oak they met by. He will leave a note in that oak. He still wants to find the old man of the Undertemple. Kyril’s assistance in this matter would be greatly appreciated. Sidequest reminder! What we are trying to do will fail if we don’t talk to him in time. We had been discussing what to do next and this cemented our plan to head downward.

We decided to march down the stairs to the left, and had Flint reconnoiter first. Kyril hit him with a CLW, getting him 8 points (50). Flint hid in shadows and moved silently. After a brief break, he came running back up the stairs. He had startled a fishman at the bottom of the stairs and used his wand on him. There were a bunch of pretty lights and the fish guy got confused and wandered off. He had gone south , following a 90 degree turn right. The floors and walls were of a different kind of material at the bottom (obsidian). The wall seemed to have robed figures marching across it if you looked out of the corner of your eye. He then saw the fish whipped out his Wand of Wonder ( shimmering colors) and blinded the fish man. Down the south corridor he saw a flipped over table with a glow behind it. After hearing his story we headed down those same stairs.

At the bottom of the stairs, the floor was no longer stone, but of polished obsidian. The wall to the north had a faint pattern with a purplish hue, it looked like figures moving, marching across the wall. It was not pleasant to look at. They came from behind a hill and marched into a vortex - it made our heads spin. The ceilings were incredibly high, at least 30-35’. Broken furniture was strewn around to the south and in the passages off to the west. The first doorway in the western wall had a dark room beyond.

Flint looked into the shadowed room in the western wall. There were heaps of things, piles of crap within. He couldn’t tell what it was from the doorway. Cathal stepped into the room as well. The room was large, around 40’ square. The same purple-veined black obsidian, the veins writhing like tendrils if we looked out of the corner of your eye. The room stunk of troll. Vast piles of seaweed and rags, troll lair crap. A heap of firewood stood near a fireplace. Menka checked out the fireplace, while Gonchar (still in the hallway) rolled initiative. He was attacked by 5 hybrid fishman wielding torches and slings - the ones with torches were touching the slings, lighting them on fire. We filed back into the hallway and joined the fray. In the distance down the hall we saw one of the fish men gesticulating wildly.

• initiative tie (Gonchar)
• Ulland had an arrow knocked and shot at #6, hitting him for 6 points (he was wielding a sling and staggered backward)
• Gonchar charged (his gay sailor porn subscription to Ulland’s credit card)
• #4 threw something flaming at Gonchar, flaming oil 6 points
• Lycovyne and Kyril each took one point of damage from splashing oil
• Ulland hit #6 again for 7 points and then again for 3 points
• Gonchar hit #4 for 28 points, killing it
• Lycovyne hit #6 for 7 more points, still not dead
• Ulland got his last shot in, hitting #6 for 5 more points, dropping him, finally - fell backward with a flaming flask, covering himself and #1
• initiative tie
• Menka cast silence 15’ on the gesticulating fishfag (#9)
• Kyril cast heat metal on all of the adversaries beyond Gonchar
• Gonchar hit #2 for 14 points
• Lycovyne hit #8 for 5 points of damage (#8 was a big, fanatical guy)
• Ulland hit #8 for 17 points
• Gonchar got attacked twice, missed both times
• Lycovyne got missed by the small guy but hit by #8 for 12 points of damage (32)
• #1 finished putting out the fires on him and pulled out an axe
• 7 shot at Gonchar with a handheld crossbow (made of gleaming black metal) for 2 points of damage - Gonchar had to save vs. poison and succeeded (he needed a 2 or better)
• Gonchar had one more attack, hitting #2 for 14 points of damage, killing it
• Ulland had 2 more shots left - hitting it for 11 points and then 17 points
• initiative tie
• #9 ran off (though he was still silenced for 12 rounds)
• all adversaries took 1-4 points of damage from their heated armor, except for 7 who is not wearing metal armor but was wielding a metal weapon
• Ulland nailed #8 for 17 more, killing it
• #10 missed Flint
• Cathal hit #10 for 13 points of damage
• Menka hit #10 for 8 points, killing it, praise Thoth!
• Gonchar attacked #1, hitting it for 14 points of damage
• Lycovyne attacked #5 but missed
• #5 hit Lycovyne for 8 points of damage (24)
• #3 missed Gonchar, but #1 hit him for 6 points (65)
• #7 shot another bolt at Ulland, changed his mind, and shot at Gonchar again, missing
• Ulland shot at #3, hitting it for 13 points
• Gonchar got in his second attack on #1 for 18 points of damage who stopped suffering from heated metal because he was too dead to worry about it
• initiative tie
• #3 and #5 are clawing at their armor trying to pull it off, the heat metal is doing lots of damage
• Ulland nailed Gonchar in the back for 24 points (natural 1) - ouch!
• Lycovyne hit #5 for 6 points
• Menka and Kyril closed on #7
• #7 attacked Menka for 1 point though he saved vs. poison, praise Thoth!
• Gonchar attacked Ulland but missed
• initiative tie (#6)
• the hybrid fish guy tried to surrender to Lycovyne in the common tongue
• Lycovyne whacked him for 6 points anyway, killing it
• Flint attacked #3, missing him as the fish guy was rolling around on the floor trying to remove his hot armor
• #7 dropped the heated crossbow, drew his sword and backed toward the door
• Kyril attacked #7 with his staff, missing
• Menka missed him as well
• Tim attacked #3 with his dagger, hitting it for 7 points, killing it
• initiative win
• Kyril attacked #7, hitting him for 10 points of damage, praise Skerrit!!!
• Menka then hit him for 6 more points, praise Thoth!
• #7 attacked Menka with his sword but missed, he continued to back up toward the door, shouting “open the door, I pray thee, open the door!”
• Tim approached the battle and attacked, missing
• initiative loss
• he held his sword at us while clawing door
• Kyril hit him for 9 points
• Menka missed
• Tim missed
• #7 attacked Menka, having given up his initiative, nailing him for 8 points (38)
• Cathal continued to try to dissuade Gonchar from attacking Ulland
• initiative loss
• the door behind #7 opened and an ogre and a fishman walked through, pushing #7 out of the way
• the ogre tried to attack Kyril and hit but missed due to the Cloak of Displacement
• D1, the fishy fighter missed Tim, a full fish fellow, that one
• Tim attacked D1, missing
• Kyril missed
• Menka nailed #7 for 16 points with a natural 20, praise Thoth!
• initiative tie
• the ogre hit Kyril again for 4 points (44)
• #7 hit Menka for 9 points (29)
• Tim missed
• Flint hit D1 for 3 points
• Menka missed
• Kyril attacked the ogre, hitting it for 7 points
• having been distracted from thrashing Ulland by the presence of an ogre, Gonchar barged through, mouthing obscenities in ogrish and attacked the ogre, nailing it for 18 points of damage, killing it
• Kyril is so above average
• initiative win
• Menka missed #7
• Gonchar missed him as well
• Tim attacked D1, missing
• Flint attacked D1, hitting once for 3 points
• Cathal attacked D1, hitting it for 12 points
• #7 swung at Gonchar while backing up to the doorway, but misses
• D1 missed Tim as well
• Gonchar got in his last attack, hitting #7 for 14 points, killing it
• Tim missed D1, again
• initiative loss
• D1 missed Cathal
• Cathal totally missed
• Menka hit D1 for 16 points, killing it

Gonchar cut the ogre’s head off and threw it at Ulland but missed. Cathal passed out the heals. Cathal bound Gonchar’s wounds for 1 point (45). Lycovyne is now at 26. Flint is at 50. Ulland wasn' t hit, yet. Cathal cured Gonchar’s more critical wounds for 25 points (70). He also cured Lycovyne' s serious wounds, getting him to 42. Menka CLW himself, getting up to 39 points. Cathal laid hands on Gonchar for 12 points, getting him to 82.

We entered the room #7 was trying to back into. It smelled awful - oil, fish, body odor, Gonchar… There were cells in the far wall. It was dimly lit but the Cathal’s and Lycovyne’s swords lit the place up. Flint went to examine the door in the north wall. Kyril and Cathal walked toward the cells. And then the well-oiled floor started on fire. Almost all of us got nailed for fire damage:

Tim, Menka, Flint, Lycovyne and Ulland ran back into the hall. Gonchar, Kyril and Cathal ran forward and were attacked by the wizard from before (now wearing black mithril and wielding a mace) and a few fishmen. The fire would burn for 2 rounds. Half the party ran forward, the other half of us backed out into the hall.

• initiative win
• Kyril cast some sort of spell
• Gonchar attacked the cleric, nailing him for 18 points
• Cathal attacked #2 as it tried to attack Kyril, nailing it with a natural 20 for 26 points, knocking it back and killing it
• the cleric smote Gonchar with his mace for 9 points
• #1, trying to get itself between Gonchar and #9, missed Gonchar
• initiative loss
• the cleric caused serious wounds to Gonchar for 16 points (61)
• #1 missed Gonchar
• Gonchar hit the cleric for 17 points of damage, and then again for 17 points of damage
• Cathal attacked the cleric, hitting him for 14 points of damage, killing him
• Kyril showed the remaining fish creature the Elder Sign and it looked absolutely terrified, turned and ran
• As he ran Gonchar hit him for 17 points
• Cathal did the same, hitting it for 11 points, killing it

Menka checked out the cleric’s armor. It was black, drow mithril armor. Menka considered removing the armor but it would become worthless the moment it hit sunlight.

Cathal, looking in a cell, found 6 baleful, forlorn women, dressed in the tatters we saw them wearing in the caravans on the road. Gonchar found the same thing in another cell. Menka saw the same thing. Lycovyne saw something different in his cell: 2 elvish women, gagged, bound and blindfolded. Drow females. One dead, one alive. They both look tortured.

Menka spoke to the women in the cell. He told them that we would let them out as soon as it was safe. They asked: “Are you here to deliver us? Is it time”? Menka said: “Time for what? Is that what you want?” They looked away. Brainwashed and ready, completely.

All the rest of the cells contained the same type of women. They looked out upon us impassively. Kyril, at the end of the hallway, found Mr. Carter. A much older Mr. Carter. Graying hair, open sores on his temples. Wounded, little scales growing on his skin, here and there. The walls of his cell were covered in writing. Some in blood, some in feces, some carved into the walls with a stone. Before Kyril could read any of it, Carter approached the cell doors and talked to Kyril.

The Statement Of Randolph Carter#

Carter immediately recognized Kyril and said: “It has been quite some time since our first meeting, Kyril Druid-Elf, but not for you! My calculations were correct! I did not endure their outrages and witness their unspeakable breedings for naught! Huzzah!”

He sniffed. “Do you have it? The sign? I can smell it, can you? Acrid, yet sweet, metallic! I know its odour! Who holds it? Only that one can invoke its now-feeble protections, but with its other pieces, greater protections, you can seal the - sea-gate!

“It was when I went to that damned theater and watched that unspeakable play that I became certain that this was the time, the deep place, the series of loathsome events happens now, within the day! Soon the sea will rise and bring them!! The King in yellow, the Queen in red, ha! Who would write such a drama! But it was enough!! It was the key I needed to open that door! Such knowledge…” - he looked at his hands, transfixed for a moment. Then he looked up and wagged his finger…

“It happened when you did not find the brooch which holds the elder sign, which must be bound with the chain across the gate! That will stop them! But you failed! You FAILED!!! (crazed laughter) I am interfering, and it has invoked in me unpleasant transformations, but I can repair these - oh yes. I have access to manuscripts. Such things should never have been written but were! I must depart - but listen first.”

“Below there is the goat with a thousand young! The one who is unspeakable! The flaming amoeba! The wind-walker! And He Who Is So Much Worse. They are ALL there, just below! I hear them speak, through Azatoth! One of them holds the chain that allows the sign to be joined to the brooch!”

“The brooch!!” Again, he barked laughter with crazed glee, and then a fit of coughing. “The setting with which the sign must be joined! Azathoth has whispered to me that one must march against the riverflow, to where the toothsome and hungry one guards, and eats, they feed him! They do!!!! When the creature is deposed, go past the frozen wall, sealed by her angry vengeance when her temple was defiled, so long past!”

When further pressed by Kyril, he muttered nonsense: “A season in Carcosa - the studies, the volumes I discovered! Even the Eltdown Shards, ancient when I discovered them, but yet to be written reference this rising of the sea - THIS day! If it can be interrupted, he will not be conceived in this unspeakable coupling! The blasted progeny will never call him forth, never wake him from his eternal slumber!”

He became impatient and started gesticulating. “I’ve waited long enough. Go forth, go quickly. I have waited for you, but other things beckon! Dare I? Will my mind endure? I need what it has, but does it even hear me, or just that infernal piping? I will know soon!! I will know soon!” He began chanting and moving his hands and the disappeared….

We looked in the room across from the cells. Beds with large sacks next to them. Mainly a barracks. Most of the sacks contained clothing and one contained 37, 67, 41 and 70 gp. Some foodstuffs, a keg of brandy.

Lycovyne opened the room to the south. The floors and walls were covered in red cloth. Ceiling too. An old couch in the room with a bunch of supplies and kegs, including a large chest. The chest contained some more drow accoutrements, some of which Flint grabbed (what did he take, exactly? A black mithril chain mail set and a dagger?). We checked some other rooms in the area and they seemed to be little more than bedrooms.

We formed a marching order far to the south. The pillars, like the walls, contained vaguely seen writhing forms, purple veins in obsidian. To the south we saw a sort of stone railing with floor-to- ceiling columns. Cathal sensed the evil growing stronger, especially to the north.

Kyril checked the northern end of the chamber. An ancient temple of some sort, consecrated to whom or what, he knew not. Within the front 40’ of the place the stone was all black. Beyond that was a raised dais of deepest purple, joined with black walls and ceiling.

Burnt Offerings#

Cathal approached the railing and heard, faintly, something walking softly down a set of stairs. Menka said “go get him!” and Cathal bolted. Huge stairs going down, well over 100 steps. Cathal jumped down and started to levitate. We headed down into a large chamber. We followed a formal, processional way down. Our attention was drawn to a purple column in the middle of the area. Cathal got hit with a wave of evil.

On our side of the column, we saw the figure of a black goat, surrounded by horrifying matter. It glistened, though the room was dry. At its feet was a large 3’ diameter alms bowl containing things glistening and shining. Tim tried to read the language around the goat, as did Menka. Tim was unable to read it, but Menka made his intelligence check and was able to read it. An ancient, Thracian tongue: Shib-Niggurath, the Goat with 1000 young. Menka did not say this aloud, though he did tell the party he regretted reading it. The alms bucket contained black gems, coins, and a small ivory goat, statuette, whose head was larger than its body.

The statue on the east side of the column was of an intense, carmine color. It was a 10’ figure resembling a flaming amoeba. Tentacles of flame emanated from its body. As Kyril got closer to it he felt the heat get stronger. He would get burned if he got too close.

On the northern face of the square pillar was another 10’ tall pillar. Deep, dark green, gruesome, scaled elongated body, teeth and tentacles reaching out toward Kyril no matter where he stood in front of it. He could not reach the alms bowl without being within reach of the tentacles.

On the western face, in a deep gray, a vaguely human face with blazing eyes. Cold radiates outward from this statue. It gets icier the closer one gets.

Above all of these statues are words in an unknown tongue, similar to the goat. Flint tried again to read it. He read the one above the cold statue: Ithaqua: Lord of the Air, Wind walker. He said the name to Menka.

Flint tried the north one, no luck. Menka, no luck either.

Menka was able to read the writing on the eastern face: Cthuga.