Entry 15 - the final showdown on Grey Dragon Island

14 March: Enough time training; it’s time to get underway aboard the Japanese cruiser Kitakami, barely 4 years old. Fast enough to sail the 300 mile trip in almost 6 hours. Brady brings 40 recruits of his new China army under the pretense we are sailing to combat Russian insurgents.

We approach Grey Dragon Island from the north observing empty beaches with the steaming volcano to the southwest. We circle the island westward looking for the Dark Mistress, found docked along a short pier on the south side. No movement; where is everyone? As we reconnoiter, it is James who queries, “You’ve got enough guns on this boat; just shell the damn island.” It’s Captain Isague who reminds all, “We have no idea what they are building nor where. We need YOU to get eyes on their construction.” With the recruits standing nearby, Norman remarks for their benefit, “Yeah, we gotta find out what those commie bastards are doing.”

So the plan is set: we take a small landing craft ashore on the north beach while the cruiser circles to the south to offload the recruits aboard other landing craft for an assault on the dock and village.

Except as our craft draws near the beach, Norm sings out, “Lookout tower. There, camouflaged as a palm tree. Is that a frog-man manning the tower? Looks like he’s more interested in the cruiser and hasn’t spotted us…yet.” We angle east hoping to avoid detection. After beaching, we cover the craft in palm branches before trekking inland toward the volcano. A trail, but caution has us cutting our own path till we come upon a clearing at the foot of the mountain.

A man-made archway cut into the side. It’s Khatan who notices runes carved into the stone, “Occult. References to Nyarlathotep. See the figure with fangs and tentacles.” Which has James questioning whether these are some kind of protection glyph to signal intrusion. “Relax, hear that banging sound…metal on metal? Who could hear any alarm over that racket.”

We enter, around a corner, to a well worn ramp angling 20 degrees down. The racket getting louder as we get closer, till an orange glow announces the 45x60ft chamber before us. To the left – the crates we saw being loaded aboard the Dark Mistress. Nearby, a bubbling pool with whiffs of sulfur. Clockwise around the chamber: a staircase going up to a door, another staircase, a grotesque statue of the bloated woman, then a calm pool.

But most interesting is the huge contraption in the center of the chamber. What looks like a 40 ft tall rocket (rockets for military and recreational uses date back to at least 13th century China) suspended above a lava vent; the source of the orange glow. Gantries and decking ring the rocket with 6 arms arched to grab/support the throat of the rocket. And there on the top deck: 6 frogmen hammering as they work on the rocket.

Staying in hiding, we discuss options. Rene suggests blasting to start a lava flow, James wants to blast the opening above the rocket to bury the thing, Khatan and Norman want a closer look at the rocket. It’s Norm who points out, “I only bought one box of dynamite…10 sticks. I’m no expert on blasting but I doubt that is enough to start any cave-in or activate lava flow.”

And that’s when a Deep One crawls out of the calm pool ambling up one of the staircases. Where the door opens to reveal Sir Aubrey himself! Rene is already raising his rifle to shoot as the others plead for restraint. “Enough talk. It’s time to act. You’ve got 10 minutes before I climb those stairs to kill the man.” Before we can move, the door opens again as Aubrey steps out to yell at the frog workers, “We have company. To the village.” And thus the 6 workers drop their tools, descend the gantry ramp, and jump into the pool led by the Deep One who apparently told Aubrey of the nearby cruiser.

We move forward, James/Norman/Khatan toward the rocket as Rene/Guinn/Brady climb the stairs to Aubrey’s door. Along the way James looks in the open crates finding strange metal tubing. We all pass a side chamber where emaciated humans are chained to the floor. The rocket team moves toward the gantry while the Aubrey team continues toward the stairs having to pass the Bloated Woman statue; Guinn losing sanity from the grotesque image.

The rocket team plan: climb the gantry to place dynamite on the 3 southern arms. 3 sticks of dynamite per arm with the middle one getting a 4^th. We can only hope it’s enough. The idea: if these 3 give way, the weight of the rocket SHOULD overwhelm the other 3 supports. With detonator caps installed and wiring run down the arms, we plan to gather in the entrance to attach said wires to the battery plunger. But that plan crumbles when…

Two Deep Ones climb out of the calm pool and advance on the stairs, while the rocket team is just now finishing their dynamite placement. About to be engaged, the Aubrey team opens the door to confront Aubrey and hopefully bar the door. And if that is not enough kinks in the plan, the bubbling pool becomes more active.

Rene has a surprised Aubrey in his sights when he pulls the trigger, blowing his head off. Brady sights on the advancing Deep Ones getting off a shot before he scrambles to close and bar the door from the inside. Guinn is already at the work desk where Aubrey was fooling with the top of the rocket cone.

She finds a chronometer [little do we know there is one at each ritual site] and book with diagrams detailing what looks like a warhead with cylindrical inserts. The inner cylinder warm to the touch (i.e. radioactive). Reloading, the team readies for the Deep Ones about to crash thru the door.

As for the rocket team, they successfully climb down the gantries and spool out the wire, when the bubbling pool erupts with a blob clawing out to advance on them!
 

Norman is frozen in his tracks, crying hysterically for his “mommy!” James is casting “Shrivel” [the blob fumbles, 00-0, the ONLY way it could fail against the puny human] actually damaging the abomination. Khatan is moved to action, wiring the battery now and slamming the plunger. “BOOM!” Which is heard by the Aubrey team.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awX444Ib3N8

James and Khatan run for their lives. James stops by the hysterical Norm to grab his backpack worth of grenades. “Sorry dude.” James tosses one grenade at the blob but it has no effect. The blob rolls over Norm leaving a bloody skid-mark as it chases the others. Meanwhile Rene and Brady are in a heated battle with the frog-men. Brady saved from a vicious claw attack only because Guinn cast “Fleshward” upon him. Rene’s spray of bullets drops the last Deep One as they clamor to escape. Down the stairs and toward the entrance following James/Khatan and the blob, as they see the rocket slowly titling then sliding toward the lava pit below.

James and Khatan climbing the entrance ramp with the blob close in trail. Then James tying the pins of the last 5 grenades to create one massive explosion that collapses the cave on the blob. And seals Rene/Brady/Guinn inside. Them consumed by the explosive fireball when the rocket slides into the lava, detonating whatever fuel was loaded to launch the thing. The man-made explosion tickling nature into action, the volcano erupting with lava flows.

James and Khatan return to the cruiser exhausted with a permanent paranoia of all things slimy. As the cruiser sails away, a secondary explosion sends a mushroom cloud rising over the island.

Epitaph: it will be another 20 years before the world reasons the explosive eruption of the Grey Dragon volcano was caused by a radium bomb (the lava flow finally consuming Guinn and her cylindrical treasure). The island will remain uninhabited till the 1970s due to the radioactive fallout.

The blob ‘Shoggoth’ was not killed by the cave-in. Whether the nuclear explosion killed it…who knows. We are talking about the “Old Ones.”

15 March will still record the birth of Hypatia Masters’ baby in Kenya, up in the “mountain of the Black Wind”. The clawed demon will wreck havoc upon the world for years to come. But at least the 14 January 1926 eclipse will not herald the coming of Nyarlathotep.

As for James and Khatan? Captain Isague was not pleased they destroyed the device, especially after witnessing the mushroom cloud. Thus he graciously “invited” them to stay in Japan to tell all they know (i.e. prisoners tortured trying to extract working knowledge of such a deadly device that could win any war. And once their torturer learned of their paranoia of all things slimy, imagine his use of gelatin poured over their mouths during waterboarding). And when they get a chance to sleep, nightmares of visitors to their rooms...

As for Dr. Huston and the ruins found in Australia? Does this pose a threat of another portal other “Old Ones” could enter? Only another group of intrepid investigators could answer THAT question.