The City of the Elder things, 4th - 6th December 1933
The flight took them over an impossibly high mountain pass and into a range of peaks with features that could not be natural, with seeming rectangular buildings and caves with smooth entrances. Meanwhile, Caine investigated the effects of Hypoxia on the human body before finally deciding to use Oxygen, no matter its purity. As they flew on, Shuttlebolt heard a strange, inhuman, haunting piping which he found oddly disturbing. The planes continue to survey the area.After only a few minutes, they were through the pass and into the high cloud over the plateau. Eyes straining, they peered eagerly forwards for their first glimpse of the city written about by Dyer and the possible riches and horrors within. Finally, they broke through into the ruddy glow of the sun, low over the far mountains and saw the city below, vast and impossible. Despite several passes over the plateau, the scale of the city was impossible to judge, its age impossible to guess, although from its state, it must be millennia at least. They landed, bumpily, on a large plaza with a pit at its centre and made camp in a low, more or less complete building in the south.
At Moore's request, the investigators examined the pit at the plazas centre. They found a ramp, spiraling down into darkness, adorned with frescoes and more of the now familiar dot patterns, which Caine had become convinced was some form of language. Venturing down, the pit was some ten yards deep, with archways leading off in all directions. As they paused to take this in Caine noticed a piece of yellowed paper stuck in the brickwork. As he took it out, he saw another, ten yards or so down the tunnel and so the investigators set off , following the paper trail. It lead them to a chamber, with signs of a camp site and various detritus such as a broken pen. There were several sheets of paper covered with yet more of the ubiquitous dot patterns and a top secret document, found by Ivanoff, which detailed the fitting and maintenance of a battery. There were boot prints in the dust on the floor, in places overlaid with strange striated triangular prints similar to those seen back at camp. They returned to camp for the evening meal and reported their finds.
The next day, rising bright and early, Ivanoff decided to accompany Starkweather to investigate the statues they had seen from the air while the others started to try to decipher the dot language. They found several murals which helped them in this and began to piece together some detail of the civilization that had once lived here. It seemed that the former inhabitants had flown through space under their own power and that this was not the first planet they had visited. Ivanoff, meanwhile, found that the statues were of huge elder things, similar to the bodies found back at Lakes camp and was co-opted to dig out a large lump of stone covered with gold flecks, despite the pilot DeWitt pointing out that it would not fit in the plane. Both groups returned to camp for a late lunch/early tea.
The remainder of the day was spent catching up with what other teams had been doing and comparing notes, before a brief foray by Caine to continue his studies of the script of the Elder Things and their history.
The morning and early afternoon of the sixth were taken up with the continued quest for knowledge by Caine, who learnt many salient facts of the Elder Things, of their journey through space to get to Earth in times long past and their struggle against several other space-faring creatures over the millennia, to the collapse of their surface civilization and subsequent withdrawal beneath the waves.
When they returned to camp in the mid afternoon, they were surprised to find it mostly deserted. Finding Moore, they discovered that one of the engineers, Lawrence Longfellow, could not be found. He had last been seen near the planes, going to answer a call of nature. Unlike the rest of the expedition, they had some ability to track him and immediately returned to the planes to try to pick up his trail. Jack soon found his tracks, leaving the planes and leading to a partially ruined building. They soon found that the tracks ended suddenly, as though he had vanished into midair. Piotr noticed that snow had been dislodged from the roof of the building and moved up to investigate, swiftly calling in Jack for his tracking expertise. Piotr then realized he could track too and found a tail that looked as though someone or something had attacked Lawrence from the buildings roof. They set off back to camp to report their findings.
They returned to camp, passing close to the planes. As they did so, they saw a crewman there, who waved to them. The eagle eyed Piotr noticed that the breather mask he was wearing was not of the same design as those worn by the Starkweather expedition and challenged him, drawing his gun. The Jack and Caine moved forward to get a better look, when they saw the interloper draw a flare pistol from his jacket and move to aim it into the plane. Without a moments hesitation (which was lucky), Piotr shot him in the back. Moving towards the plane, they realized that Piotrs action had saved it from destruction, as the smell of nav gas and paraffin assailed their nostrils from within. They were swiftly joined by other members of the expedition who had heard the shot. The man was soon identified as Kyle Williams, a member of the Lexington expedition. On searching him, he was found to be carrying very little and the team realized that he must have a cache of supplies nearby, since he must have walked here. As Starkweather approached, Williams appeared to threaten him, telling him that someone would get him, be it Lexington, Meyer or Williams and finished by saying he would not get home. While other crewmen swabbed out the plane to avoid any accidents, Starkweather set off to find Williams cache. The investigators escorted the prisoner to the medical tent, leaving him in the capable hands of the doctor. On the way there, Jack quizzed him over his actions, eliciting the following ramblings of a man on the edge of sanity:
It doesn't matter what he did, what you do, none of it matters at all. It's too late. It's an infection...it spreads from the outside in. Lake and the rest of them started it. We didn't understand. Everyone here makes it worse. All of us, like germs - we've got to die! No one can return. We must give up our lives, it's the only way to save them - keep us away - keep it safe behind the wall.
I tried to tell you! You didn't understand! He doesn't hear when people speak...does he? Even the professor turned away...The building was dark. No one knew where he was!
I tried to tell them. The new ones. Fresh: I thought she'd listen, but no one does. The rest - it was just money, things. How much is a life worth? How much are they all worth? She'd thank me for trying, if she knew...
We should never have left the icecap, last time. We should never have come here. Dyer and I saw the things. terrible things - they move - they live - in the dark...Oh God, oh God - they even speak - the sound of their movement and the smell...terrible things, terrible, terrible things.....
They're mocking us all! They're watching us with their cold flat eyes! Those eyes in the darkness! Time and space are not enough...not enough for them! For millions of years, they were safe! But it was a lie! That tower...is still there - and the pit! I saw it! The Pit and the Thing inside!
At this point, his mind finally unhinged and they left him.
As they returned to the plane,. they heard shouts and a scream of terror and, looking over, saw two creatures flying off, with a struggling form held between them - it was Starkweather! Piotr managed to wing one of the creatures before they passed out of range and Jack carefully noted their direction of travel and airspeed, allowing for wind shear, curvature of the Earth, etc - it's amazing what one good roll can achieve.
They reached the planes to find Moore organizing a rescue mission, with a plane being prepared for take off. The investigators headed off to see if they could find anything at the spot Starkweather had been kidnapped from. They were rewarded with Williams supplies - a sketch pad (with writing in German)and a loose sheaf notebook. As they waited for the plane to be ready, Caine skimmed through the papers, with some translation from Moore. The sketch ad appeared to be someone's notes on the Elder Things, with some translation of their script. the notebook was an account of someone called Arthur Gordon Pym, written by Edgar Allen Poe.