The Rise of R'lyeh

The Rise of R'lyeh

Bruised, bandaged and doped-up on laudanum, the Investigators spent the next few days generally resting and recovering form their traumatic confrontation with The Crawling One.James however, seemed beyond help, remaining in a catatonic state and being committed to the infirmary until arrangements could be made to ship him home.  Matthew spent the time profitably. With the help of the Tangata-Manu he continued his studies of the Arc of Vlactos and the R'lyeh Disk, discovering that that the Disk was in fact a reservoir of power that could be used to fuel a powerful spell that could raise the lost island. Without the Disk many sacrifices would be required to power the spell. The text on the Arc also seemed to imply that the spell could be reversed, but only if cast atop the Blue Monolith.

Their R&R was interrupted on the fourth day, as they were awaiting the arrival of the supply ship Fernando, when a tidal wave struck the island. Fortunately, Sebastian spotted the sudden withdrawal of the tide and worked out what was imminent, they were able to give warning and casualties were few, though the native village was almost completely destroyed and the Government Compound badly damaged by flooding. The arrival of the supply ship a few hours letter brought both welcome help and fresh supplies uncontaminated by seawater. The ship also brought Frank J Wilson a Federal Agent sent to investigate the missing archaeologists and the activities of on Carl Stanford. After being advised of the rescue of the surviving archaeologists, Frank quickly threw himself into the relief efforts.

Next morning, the Investigators and Frank were summoned to the commandant's office. He had had a communication from the Admiralty. Seismographs indicate much underwater activity a thousand miles south east of Easter Island. The Navy feels that it would be inappropriate to send naval vessels to investigate the matter just now, as tensions continue to run high with Bolivia. Wishing to keep all ships close at hand, they also recalled the O’Higgins and her escort from Easter Island.The admirals recognize the importance of the sea-quakes, and want the phenomenon investigated. Professors from the University of Santiago speculate
that the seismic activity heralds the rising of a new island. base don Captain Pereira’s recommendation, they have decided to commission the investigators to survey the area of the sea-quakes. After the investigators accepted the offer as it neatly solved their problem of how to get to R'lyeh and stop Stanford, Captain Pereira informed them that the Fernando was at their disposal and would be able to  depart on the evening tide.

That afternoon was a frantic rush to supply and load all their gear aboard the Fernando, but they managed to depart on schedule at set sail at maximum speed. The trip was uneventful, save on the fourth day as the grew near to their destination. While the Sebastian took his morning constitutional on the deck, the sun suddenly darkened and the sky became leaden. The ocean surface became oily and still, and all clouds fled away. Then an enormous black shadow fell across the ship. A gigantic writhing mass was clawing its way across the sky, heading straight for the calculated position of R’lyeh.As the horrified group watched, it suddenly pulsed green and a pale, corpse-white, then broke up. Small twisting masses flew from it to all sectors of the sky. Within an hour,nothing remained visible of the original mass. All the other pieces had vanished beyond the horizon, as if ghastly messengers sent to all corners of the globe.

Just after dawn the next day - the dread island of R’lyeh stood before them. The island was a horrible black and slimy mountaintop thrusting up from the ocean. Bloated sea creatures gasped their lives out on the muck; dripping seaweed is everywhere.It is evident that the island has been raised for a few hours, but not more. There were thousands of huge stone buildings and monuments in black or green stone, enormous cyclopean buildings built to an unearthly geometry that their eyes almost refused to focus on. Several other small ships could be seen anchored off shore, riding easily in the calm, oily waters. No one seemed to be aboard.

Suddenly., as they anchored, what seemed to be a flare was fired from the nearest ship arcing towards the Fernando's deck. To Matthew's horror, he recognised the "flare" was actually a fire vampire. It crashed down on the deck searing the wooden planking and burning Frank. Fortunately they managed to destroy the creatures with a combination of the ship's fire hose and buckets of sand before it could do too much damage.

Two of the sailors rowed them ashore, though no amount of persuasion would persuade them to actually come ashore, and the investigators set out through the twisted cyclopean buildings of ancient R'lyeh. The going was not easy as the layout of the city made no apparent sense and in fact often building appeared to "move" or not be exactly where they appeared to be, in fact, the investigators could tell if the horizon is level or if sea and sky still meet. R’lyeh was like a different, more ancient, much more malign planet. Suddenly, as they passed yet another unnaturally angled cathedral-like building,  Dan noticed that Vincente, and the Arc of Vlactos, had disappeared!

They called a halt and searched the immediate area, finding nothing. Somewhat reluctantly, they were about to move on when just as suddenly Vincente reappeared. Their friend seemed remarkably calm and unperturbed by whatever had happened to him, even taking the lead as they moved forward through the "streets" of the unnatural city.   Eventually, some unknowable time later, everyone saw it: what they had been seeking for, a tall, perfectly cylindrical pillar of bluish-gray stone angling into the sky. It was like a pillar. There are no visible openings or windows in the Blue Monolith. Because of the skewed angles of the surrounding buildings, the investigators could tell whether the monolith is upright or teetering to one side.

The Monolith was guarded by a loathsome toad like guardian, but a fusillade of shots and a shrivelling spell from Matthew put paid to that, allowing Vincente to find the way inside.They stepped into a glowing blue room then, passing through the walls found themselves atop the Monolith staring out across the twisted city. They
could clearly see the hillock atop which Cthulhu’s terrible tomb lay.Dozens of cultists leap naked around that site chanting the Raise R'leyh spell, dozens more lay exhausted or dead around them.

As the investigators linked hands around the R'leyh Disk and the Arc of Vlactos and Matthew began intoning the spell in reverse  intone their spell, they felt the island start to rumble under their feet. Across the city, the cultists visibly faltered in their wild leaps and chants, but dared not cease. As Matthew finished intoning the spell, they saw the black panel of Cthulhu’s tomb forced open wide, and Great Cthulhu himself left his grave. He immediately waded through the mass of his worshippers, crushing and knocking them aside, and strode straight for the Blue Monolith from which the investigators gape. Each of them felt psychically compelled to
look directly at Cthulhu advancing towards them.

Suddenly their minds reeling and unable to cope with the cosmic horror before them, they sought to flee, instinctively each of them touched the floor of the Monolith with their hand vanishing and reappearing on the room below. As echoes of great rage sound through the city behind them, they fled through the unnatural streets. Fortunately they had something of a head start and somehow just about managed to stay ahead as they they headed for the awaiting launch. Sebastian was bringing up the rear and almost didn't make it as a huge claw descended towards him, Fortunately he was able to dive into the boat at the last minute as the two sailors terrified out of their wits rowed desperately away headed to the Fernando.

For brief while it looked as if the titanic figure would follow them and wreak terrible vengeance, but then suddenly it turned as the island shook, with one last baleful look, turned and retreated back to his black cavern to await a more propitious time for release. His time is soon, but not yet.