Session 15

Session Report - Played Monday 25th September, 2006

Thursday February 16th 1930

--continued--

The red cliffs of Drakmar

The investigators stand at the threshold of Drakmar, in kingdom of Mustang, the final destination of Malcolm Quarrie's Pilgrimage of Grace.

A quick count shows there are somewhere between 50 and 100 caves spread across the cliffs at heights between 30 and 150 feet about the valley floor. The investigators cross the valley for a closer look. En route they locate the remnants of the Italian expedition’s campsite and nearby a large flat stone stained with a large amount of blood. Though the blood is not fresh, nor is it more than a few weeks old.

Following a trail of blood spots Withers locates a fresh cairn under which it is assumed a body has been buried. The investigators discuss disturbing the dead, but decide against it.

Browne and Saunders climb up to the nearest cave. It is worn smooth as if by centuries of feet and leads to a small chamber whose walls are covered in thousands of tally marks in groups of nine. In the centre of the chamber is a small pile of bones which appear to be mix of birds and human finger bones.

Umberto thinks he catches a glimpse of something from the corner of his eye and sees a stone falling down the cliff. He climbs to where he thinks it came from and discovers a cave with a narrow crawlspace heading back into the cliff. He thinks better of crawling inside.

Several more caves are explored before night falls. Saunders finds a small pit filled with strips of dried human scalps. Other caves are connected by internal tunnels, but there is no sign of life or of fresh activity, and no further sign of Quarrie or his companions.

The investigators camp for the night in the first cave they had explored. During the night both Browne and Umberto have dreams of bestial savagery which feel like the intrusions of an alien intelligence, but which have none of the terrible beauty of Hastur. Each of them awakens, heart pounding.

Friday February 17th 1930

As dawn approaches, Umberto is on watch, and it is he who first hears a disturbing human sobbing sound coming from a cave mouth high above the campsite. Taking his gun and a torch, Umberto climbs to investigate, waking nobody else.

When Saunders wakes up, Umberto is gone. He wakes the others and they hear the sobbing sound. Taking their packs and their weapons they clamber up towards the noise and enter the cave from which it issues. In leads into a tunnel that twists through the rock until a pale glow can be seen in the distance. The sobbing, oddly, is fading, but as it fades the deep slow heartbeat sound heard by Browne the day before is clearly audible to all.

Nervously the party edges forward as the passage opens up into a large chamber dominated by an archway on the far side which is lit up with a pearly glow. Beyond the arch can be seen the silhouette of a vast immobile bulk.