Author: Ernest Russell

Joining the others around the altar, whereupon is bound a woman in green robes is bound, a great tome to one side, Inquisitor de Salis ascends the dais. A chant begins. Slowly, at first, building in crescendo and fervor the chant builds. He holds up his hands and cries out,

“Where the stones have been set up thou shalt call out to Shub- Niggurath, and unto he that knoweth the signs and uttereth the words all earthly pleasures shall be granted.”

* * * *

“The sun has entereth the Sign of the Ram and the time of night is upon us. De Salis turned to the North wind and read aloud:

Iah ! SHUB-NIGGURATH !

Great Black Goat of the Woods,

I Call Thee forth !

As one the crowd kneels.

Answer the cry of thy servant who knoweth the words of power!

(my right hand raises in a strange gesture I know to be the Voorish sign)

Rise up I say from thy slumbers and come forth with a thousand more!

(my left hand now raises in a strange gesture I know to be the sign of Kish)

I make the signs,

I speak the words that openeth the door!

Come forth I say,

I turn the Key,

Now ! walk the Earth once more !

The Inquisitor cast the perfumes upon the coals, a putrid smoke now arising from the altar and he traces a sigil in the air and pronounces the words of power:

ZARIATNATMIX, JANNA, ETITNAMUS,

HAYRAS, FABELLERON, FUBENTRONTY,

BRAZO, TABRASOL, NISA,

VARF-SHUB-NIGGURATH ! GABOTS MEMBROT !

And then the Black one came forth and the thousand Horned Ones who howl shall rose up from the Earth. And thou shalt hold before them the talisman of Yhe upon which they shall bow to thy power and answer thy demands.

And before did indeed appear Shub-Niggurath. Standing there legs astride the altar looking down as Inquisitor de Salis plunged an obsidian blade deep into the womans chest tied down upon the altar. As her life force visibly rose from her body to join the incense already polluting the foul air, Shub-Niggurath spoke.

There is another you must awaken this night and your time grows short. Take this image of the last Old One and go now, do as it is foretold.

Turning with the crowd, (had there been so many in our expedition?), we headed out a great archway toward the cliffs looking over the oceans.

Standing at the cliffs edge, Inquisitor de Salis turns and began to speak again. Again the chant grew, more powerful, stronger than before..

Ia!! Ia!! Cthulu Phatagn! Ia!! Ia!! Cthulu Phatagn! Ia!! Ia!! Cthulu Phatagn!

Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh Wgah’nagl fhtan.

After the third chorus of the chant, all was silent. The Inquisitor began to speak,

‘In His House at R’lyeh Dead Cthulhu waits dreaming, yet He shall rise and His kingdom shall cover the Earth.

And He shall come unto you in sleep and show His sign with which ye shall unlock the secrets of the deep.’

O Thou that lieth dead but ever dreameth,

Hear, Thy servant calleth Thee.

Hear me O mighty Cthulhu! 

Hear me Lord of Dreams !

In Thy tower at R’lyeh They have sealed ye,

but Dagon shall break Thy accursed bonds,

and Thy Kingdom shall rise once more.

The Deep Ones knoweth Thy secret Name,

The Hydra knoweth Thy lair;

Give forth Thy sign that I may know

Thy will upon the Earth.

When death dies, Thy time shall be,

and Thou shalt sleep no more; Grant me the power to still the waves,

that I may hear Thy Call.

After repeating this incantation three times, Inquisitor de Salis lifted the statue of the winged creature, (where had I seen it before), and threw it over the cliffs into the waves below, saying as he did, ‘In His House at R’lyeh Dead Cthulhu waits dreaming, yet He shall rise and His kingdom shall cover the Earth.’

Shortly afterward, the waters began to boil, the seas exploded upward, and there he was, towering over the cliffs, glistening by the light of the gibbous moon. Cthulhu! He did exist. Many within our number swooned, or fell dead, I know not which, nor did I care. All that mattered was he was here.

Then a abruptly a pain, a terrible, blinding pain erupted behind my eyes, and I knew. I knew this was the beginning. We did not have the power needed to release him from R’lyeh, but we had enough he could communicate with us gloriously in our dreams.

We must go out, bring the other races under his calling, for it will take many minds to bring him back to our materium. Since he has powers of the warp we cannot even imagine, he can aid us. He sees now there are powers within the warp which were not intended, but he can use them. He can imbue our force with the power of any warp faction. For now, our directive is clear. Take Cthulhu Crusade to the stars. Seek the power to release him from R’lyeh.

*****

Awakening as the morning revel is sounded I am drenched in sweat. The sides of my cot still have impressions of my fingers and I have a headache. I hope there is coffee.

Thank you for reading,

Ernest

Entering, the interior is cavernous, larger than many of the hive cities on other worlds. As we bring in light sources and the cavern is lit, surprised to see many buildings through out the expanse. Central to all of these is a building of apparently the same greenish-black stone as the temple itself. Shaped as a Ziggurat it towers over the other buildings.

These other buildings are not of the same design, not even the same races! Here there are the graceful lines of the Slynar, there are some which if they were not so neatly organized, I would swear are Oruk barracks, clean efficient Mechronter, and dwellings which may have come from any period on Earth, and many styles which could not be named.

After hours of collecting data, trying to find common thread between the runes, it was time to rest. During this time, I know not where the Inquisitor or his Augur had gone, but on my way back to camp they came walking out of the jungles.

Neither offered any information and it is not wise to question the ways of The Inquisition, so we continued back in silence.

Reviewing the runes I am finding much that is exciting. I dare not, I shall not, hope that we may have found a last stronghold of the Old Ones. If I read some these runes right at first impression, they tell the story of the Old Ones. Genetically manipulating and bring into being many of the races we know today. Even, hints at things never dreamt in our imaginations.

After creating many races, even with their great wisdom and foresight, an unheralded event in Galactic history occurred. This unforeseen side effect of the Old Ones began to manifest as the Young Races’ growing pains disturbed the Warp. With this formless energy coalescing older warp entities become predatory and the Empyrean became a more hostile environment. From cracks in reality, the denizens of the warp sought entry into the material universe. From this beginning, all of Chaos was formed.

Legends hinting at some of this continue to be sung by the Slynar on the homeworld Jeilur, but compared to what has been learned here in only a few hours, they are as children’s tales. But if these tales be true, perhaps it is true one yet survives?

So many races who were shaped by the Old Ones and set into their eventual destinies, all described here.

The Mechronter wanted to immortality from them, but were denied, pushing them to form an alliance with the Yith. The Slynar race, were taught and shown the ways of the warp. Teaching them to use the warp portals, and their excesses in search of experiences, gave birth to the chaos god Sleakesh. Kroruks, (possibly devolved into the Oruks we know today), as living weapons from spores, complete with the knowledge of weapons and battle needed to fight the wars with the Yith.

Having not even scratched the surface and to have this much knowledge, what things will we learn here?

I go to sleep, my mind abuzz at the wonders awaiting us all.

Thank you for reading,

Ernest

Now, approaching the area it comes into view. A coastline of mingled mud, ooze, and weedy cyclopean masonry surrounds the nightmare corpse-city. The city built in measureless aeons behind history by the vast, loathsome shapes that seeped down from the dark stars.

As the city resolves itself into sight it is seen as a vista of vast angles and stone surfaces – surfaces too great to belong to anything right or proper for mortal beings. Our pilots found landing space in the great plaza. On our approach the temple dominated the landscape. What has looked black from the air and recon photos had a greenish sheen to it, possibly the result of the slime and molds that covered everything. The great temple, those greenish stone blocks, the dizzying height of the great carven monolith, and the stupefying identity of the colossal statues and bas-reliefs commanded awe from human onlookers.

The geometry is abnormal, non-Euclidean, and loathsomely redolent of spheres and dimensions apart from ours. The taint of the warp so prevalent on this planet is almost palpable in this tomb city of a forgotten race. So much, the Inquisitors’ Augur was almost glowing with it as he jewels sought to contain and bleed it off.

We began our investigations at the largest of the buildings while the guardsmen set up our camp. Exploring the perimeter of the ruin the walls are covered in reliefs. When seen close many bas-reliefs of different species and life forms. Perhaps this was a central complex for an interstellar religion. Many reliefs appear to show scenes studying the stars. These scenes showed astrology and astronomy blended into an arcane science. A great number of runes appear to be similar to versions used by a variety of races.

Between the runes and the reliefs it appears the builders thought themselves teachers, perhaps mentors, to some of the other races.

One such relief shows a winged figure with a barbed tail, crouching upon a platform. Its head reminiscent of a cephalopod or perhaps some sort of Xristox, some of the runes surrounding it are similar in appearance to those used by the Slynar and of all races, the Mechons.

A cry in the distance at the edge of the temple brings me back to our group. It seems some of the group found a stone plinth could be moved revealing an opening into the temple.

Thank you for reading,

Ernest

Tezcatlipoca smiled.

 Had there been any to see, it would be enough to tear the final wisps of sanity from any lesser being. During the long search for the shards of his broken crystal staff, the scribes found something even he had not expected.

 An Old One; one who did not die in the war with the Yith but was found sleeping in the dimension known as R’lyeh. It took tremendous and complex manipulations pulling together the demons to salvage those tokens which would release the Great Old One, Cthulhu, from his slumbers. Even now, the humans speed their way toward the magnificent basalt city in the materium where the gateways lay waiting.

 With the claw of one gnarled finger, Tezcatlipoca reached out and drew aside strands of the veil separating realities to enjoy this moment of time.

“My excitement is intense and building. Finally, after weeks of delay we are embarked upon the Iron Dragons Helleater en route to this mysterious city in the Southern Hemisphere of this planet. Accompanying us are the Arkham Confederates in a Capybara. Seems the delay was a result of consternation by the Inquisitor, not something one wishes to be the focus of, regarding an apparently large number of defectors. Rumors swirled they had taken to the jungles of this strange world based upon dreams of service, power and immortality. Inquisitor de Salis was quite wroth at hearing this and spent days interrogating the Arkham Confederates and inhabitants of the Hive City, Innsmouth.

Seems he did root out the corruption; for finally one broke, somehow his dying words echoing throughout the city, ‘Ia! Iä! Shub-Niggurath! The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young!’, and with that eerie cry, many hundreds fell dead. The remembrance of the event is enough in itself to run my blood cold as icy talons of death caress my spine.