Wait a second. Who the Hell is writing this?

TBD.......

Bumping this

Can't believe it was a year ago.

Red turned to see that Cole was stuck fast by the silky threads that missed him.  Cole was ok, he was held tight from the knees down.  He wasn't in any harm.   Red was torn.  Does he stay and help his pal, or does he go after that freak that ran off with his million dollar spike?

Sometimes its hard to do the right thing...


So Red did the next best thing.  He put down his lantern, handed Cole his knife,  lite a torch and waded in the ice cold water.   He always thought he was half way to goodness so he did the half way good thing...


    The bottom of the river was slippery.  The water was cold.  The water came up to his chest.  So in one hand he had his torch, the other his pistol.  He was glad he had the torch, cause it was black as pitch in this tunnel.  It was comforting, the darkness he thought, then shook his head to dismiss that errant idea.  Who the fuck thinks darkness is comforting?  Spiders... and worms.    Red shook his head again.  Why did he think about spiders and worms?

Well that was answered by the canopy of webbing above his head. He had to schootch down to avoid touching the webbing.    Large spiders, the size of dinner plates came down from above.  Red fired twice before he even realized what he had done.   One of the spiders dropped into the water and sank.  The other landed on the water and skimmed the surface.   Red was amazed that something so big could do that.

  Then it whispered to him in the shrill voice of the things that crawl in the dark, " Welcome brother.  You seek that which shines like the sun.  Go.  Take it and depart from us.   Pass in peace.  We eight legged brothers will not bother you.  One of you four legged took it.  It is not a brother.  We hate it.  Remove it, and the piece of the sun it carries.  Do it now, while you still can."

Red figured what the hell,  he was talking to spiders.  "Um, my pall should be coming this way in a bit. It would behoove me if you let him pass unmolested."

The spider whispered, " All brothers of all numbers of legs can pass."

Red figured what the hell, you talk to spiders you get crazy answers, and kept on walking in the slow moving river.

He came to a cavern, it was so vast he couldn't see the ended, limited by the too bright light of the torch.   The left bank of the river was still a solid wall, carved from bedrock and perfectly smooth.  The right bank was a gentle slope of pebbles that came to a beach, which  then turned after forty or so feet till it became a steep slope of pebbles.   Red thought there must have been a cave in here in the past to create this pebble beach.

He stepped carefully out of the water and he saw the glow of the Golden Spike.    The masked Enigma was holding the spike and waved his hands and chanted.  A bolt struck Red in the shoulder that made him toss his gun into the drink.

Aint that a damn thing, thought Red.

Red had no choice he threw a knife at the bastard.   He was more comfortable with knives anyway.  He hit him in the mask,  causing the villain to recoil back a bit.   

  The masked man chanted again, and stepped off the slope into the air.  He was walking on air.  Pretty neat trick.  Red was impressed.   But keep in mind he was also impressed by Floyd Druthers.   

Floyd Druthers could drink a pint of beer and then belch the Preamble to the Constitution.

   The Masked Man waved his hands which then caught on fire.  He then tossed the fire at Red.  Red ducked under the water, with just his torch in the air.

   The fire hit the water and died.

Red leapt up and threw two knives at the thin bastard.    One stuck in his upper left arm, the other right under his neck.   He flopped out of the sky and landed hard on the pebble slope, causing a small rock slide.   

Red panicked and ran up, digging rocks and stones out of the way looking for the Golden Spike.    The man, now unmasked, lay looking at Red while what passed for blood in these dark places, pumped out of its artery and seeped down into the rocks and darkness.




Cole cut himself free.  He was reluctant to go into the water.  He took his holster off, and put it around his neck.  He carried the lantern in his off hand, his rifle in his right.  He climbed down in to the water as to not make a splash and went into the dark after Red.

He heard two gunshots, and increased his speed. He heard echos of Red talking and shrill screetches.  He wondered what was up.

Cole made it to an area where the ceiling was obscured by webs.  He didn't think this was good and put his rifle but against his waste, careful not to let the water  get to the trigger or bullets.  Spiders dropped down at him, hissing. He fired at them and then the recoil of the gun and the slippery floor caused him to drop the gun into the water.

Damn!

He did the next best thing possible. He lit the webs on fire with his lantern.  It went up like dried paper.

The tunnel was filled with the dying shrieks of roasting spider.   Cole doubled his speed and went on.

He was then caught by some sea weed.   Odd he thought as this was Missouri.  Why would there be sea weed in a rive in Missouri?    As he thought that he took out the knife Red gave him and slashed the weed off his ankle and carried the slice into the center mass of the large clump of seaweed infront of him.

The weed screamed and lept at him. And worst of all it had a face!   It grabbed him about the face and neck. He hacked it in the face cutting it down.  It went still and floated around him and down river, carried by the current.   

Cole wanted to get the hell out here. 

He went forward, looking for Red.  He heard another gunshot,  He kept going till he came to  the cavern and saw Red digging for the spike.   


The masked man was dying at Red's feet.  Cole looked at him and remarked on how jet black his skin was.  How his eyes were yellow and red.  And his hair was not blond, but gold.   He thought he was a remarkably handsome feller, what with his odd coloring, even with those pointed ears.

Cole searched the fallen foe.  He found a satchel with soggy paper envelopes. Each one was sealed with a wax stamp and had a strange symbol on it.  He took it and went to Red.  Red found the spike.  It was then that they both felt something sharp on their necks.  They turned slowly to see a masked man riding a spider.  But it wasn't.  It was a masked man who was ALSO a spider.  Like from  Mythology.  Half man half horse, but half spider and half what ever the damn hell these masked jet black things were. 

Well there were two of them.   Each with an arrow pressed again Cole and Red's necks.  And between them, but back was a masked woman.  She was all curves.  And tall.  She was sexy even though you couldn't see her real face.   And she seemed powerful, regal, and cruel.

Cole slowly put down his guns.   Red followed and put down his knives and then, as an after thought, but down the spike.

She spoke in beautiful hisses.   And Cole was amazed that Red understood those sounds.  He nodded, said, "yes mam" and picked up his stuff and told Cole to follow suit.

While trudging through the water  Red told Cole that she told them to take that spike and get it as far from here as possible.   And that she would see me later, as I am a brother now in Lolth.  The guy we fought wasn't  and was weak and to be despised.

Cole was happy to be putting distance between himself and that woman.

They got to the tunnel that led them to the surface when the sea weed thing sprung at them.  Cole fired from his still dry pistols and it exploded.  They ran up the stairs and out of the mine.

They made it back to the Jarlson's home after midnight.   They cleaned up and slept.  they woke to the local sherrif and his posse at the door.   Red, being a non friendly kind of son of a bitch, hid upstairs with a rifle aimed right at the star on that fat bastard's chest.

Cole was talking to the fellow law man when he noticed that the men all had mix matched clothes.   Like a woman's shirt, man's jeans, a bonnet and chaps..  something was off.

It was then that he noticed a fly come out from under the sheriff's eyelid, crawl down his cheek and fly away...

Whipple,

We are in agreement.  As per the norm, the Quiet Society wishes this to remain in the shadows.  I suggest you head a team of aburers to remove this mine to the Middle Distance.

  --HRM

Red is screwed but that is usually the fun part.

I, Oni, have research and some guesswork to do

I have to say right after Dick Dante, The Weird West has to be my favorite campaign.

So it has been left to me to file this report.  I find it to be a bit bittersweet.  While O’Grady has succeeded in his mission, the poor fellow has been left with a singular affliction.   

But I am putting the cart before the horse…

Oh yes, Mr. Pershing was stunned to see a fly craw out from under the eyelid of one of the odd visitors.  This moment’s hesitation permitted the strange dressed person to affix some sort of apparatus to Pershing’s forehead.   The former Texas Ranger collapsed to the ground as if he were some sort of marionette and his strings had been sheared.

Red didn’t take to kindly to that.

He came down the steps, guns a blazing.  He shot the lead visitor in the face, dropping him to ground.   He then grabbed an oil lamp and tossed it straight at the second visitor, setting him ablaze.   The third pulled out what looked like a golden ram horn.  Some sort of lighting strike came out and hit Red in the shoulder. 
Red slammed the door and carried Cole up the stairs.    He tied some bedsheets together and lowered Cole out the back window.  By this time the whole house was on fire.  He looked out the window and saw two of the three visitors shedding their skins.  They seemed to be made of pulpy mushrooms!  They also started to grow wings and their chest began to glow.  Red fired at them again. 

He climbed out of the window, and to the barn.  He took what he could and put Cole on a wagon and pulled him.   For nearly a week Red pulled the wagon. He fed and watered his friend as best he could, but he felt if he didn’t get help soon, he would lose him.   

He made it to a town where he paid a local doctor a generous sum to take care of his friend.  He knew he had to leave him.  If Cole didn’t wake up soon, he would be out of time.  He didn’t know exactly what the golden spike did, but he knew it was of great importance.
It was around this time that he began to shun the light.   
They say that hell is other people.  Well let’s just say that Red started to fear hell.    He avoided people. He stopped shaving.   He told himself that his mission was getting to him, but he knew that wasn’t true.  He started to talk to spiders.   And alone, at night, under the light of the moon, the spiders spoke back.

He was awoken, at noon, by one of the pretty saloon girls.  She gave him a shaving bowl, a razor and some soap and told him that a wealthy stranger requested his presence for lunch.   Red would have none of this, but she did mention a world that piqued his interest; wealthy.
Red shaved, dressed and came down to eat.
The Negro was well dressed.  While he knew that they were free now, he did think it was out of place for an ex slave to have become so wealthy so soon.  Not one to refuse the request of a rich man, he sat.

The man introduced himself as Mr. Thebes.  Red’s already white face went whiter.  He recognized his man.  He was the Crawling Chaos.  This was the same being he encountered a few years ago in the mines.  This was a horror beyond imagining.   The man waved and everyone fell dead.   Everyone.   The saloon girls, the customers, the bartenders, the people in the town….everyone.  It’s a good thing Cole was already shipped off to Oklahoma City a few days prior or he would be dead too.

Red did what any semi sane person would do, he reached for the greenish elder sign he wore around his neck and once again smashed this being in the face with it.   He collapsed to the floor and erupted into black, ashy smoke.   Red covered his mouth with a napkin and ran.   He saw bodies everywhere.

So he did what any semi sane man would do, he robbed the bank.  And the general store, and the sheriff’s office.   The only person left alive was the town drunk in the jail.  Red gave him some food and a bottle and left him there.

The next morning he left by train. 

He made it to Salt Lake City in a few days.  From there he hired a stagecoach to take him to Promontory Point.  He had made his destination with 9 days to spare.  He sent a telegram with the proper message to his employers and waited.

He was met by some odd men who looked like undertakers.  They produced the 5 million dollar Treasury bond.  He gave them the golden spike.    Red stayed for the ceremony.  The money was cleared and he made his way back to New York.

He spend the following two years building a mansion in the village.  It was a grand structure with many hallways, and stairways.   For the next five years, Red build his business while never leaving his home.
It was in the six year of his seclusion when he was appended by his rivals and put on trial.  He was accused of grizzly crimes, tried and sentenced to an asylum.

We know that these charges against Red are false.  However, we do know that it is best for his protection to remain in the Miskatonic Aslyum.  He openly worships spiders and has carved strange marks in his skin.    He even once screamed for release as the Black Pharaoh visits him during the new moon, or so he claims.   

I know the poor demented man is suffering, and the merciful thing would be to sever his frontal lobe, but he may still be of use to us.   He is the only man known to have a direct link to Nylarathotep.   We would be remiss in not exploring this further.

December, 13 1907

  I blame myself.  I possessed the singular and lamental task of overseeing Mr. O'Grady.   I make no excuses, I just offer some explanations.   I was remiss in my responsibility.  My visits with him grew farther and farther apart, as I took delight in my new found and growing status in the organization.   My duties took me to the far corners of the world, and sometimes even beyond.   I reveled in all I learned.  And it is with my greatest sorrow that my task of seeing to Mr. O'Grady has taken a distant third to my other two wardenships.

It is solely my fault as to what happened.


  First, Dear Brother, and fellow Whisperer, you must understand that his affliction was caused during a great service to not just his country, but the world.  It is only by knowing that can you understand the debts of my disappointment with myself for my failure.   

During  his duties,  Mr. O'Grady became infected.  The germ finds its way to one's brain and attaches to the thinking centers.  The germ then babbles nonsense to the host.    It brings them to paranoia, to hide from all light.  It also brings with it a keen night vision, and a fondness for spiders.

We knew Mr. O'Grady was a crafty sort, we knew this since the incident with Captain Burton.  What we didn't know what the magnitude of his keen fortitude.

Lolth, the name Mr. O'Grady gave to the germ, is contagious.   He learned that humans can not transmit the sickness, but it can be conferred by spiders.    The patient fed spiders his blood.  He learned this after a particular nasty beating from one of the interns.

He spit blood in the face of all who got in reach.  He hoped to spread his "Dark Affliction" to all.  After many years, and many beatings, O'Grady gave up on this.

It came to him on day while laying in his dark room that spiders enjoyed his blood.  He encouraged them to feed.   This caused a minor scandal in the ward as he became known as the  "Ettercap Man Of the Miskatonic" and the local papers ran some rather harsh articles about the conditions in the Hospital.

  O'Grady was forced to endure forced washings, which repulsed and humiliated him.   He was rewarded, though, as the spider sickness spread.  First to other inmates. 

   The doctors were perplexed as to how the contagion spread.  O'Grady was put into solitary confinement, only his doctors and interns would see him.

Eventual he spun his webs into them as well.  His Dark Faith was undermining the hospital.    Red became the "man behind the throne" so to speak and ran the Miskatonic from his dark cell.  He used hospital funds to run his small criminal empire.    It is said he even made peace with the Crawling Chaos, who no longer hunted him.   

Sadly, it was  O'Grady's own ambitions that did him in.  Local police raided the Hospital this fall, dragging the dimunitive "Red Prince" screaming and yelling.   Sadly he was shot dead while struggling with a detective.

I am sure with more frequent visits and more medical treatments, a cure could have been found.  We owed him so much and gave him so little.

I choose not to recall the Ettercap Man, but  Red  O'Grady, the stubborn man who, when called to do so, saved the New World, from beast below.


Captain John Marvel.

Transcribed from tape recorded notes from Sally Nile   September 23, 2000.


Ok, while inventoring all files pertaining to Nyarlathotep,  I came across papers mentioning a Mr. Thebes.  Mr. Thebes just may be one of the many masks of the Great Old One.  He assumes the form of an Arabic man, in dark eye make up and rich, elegant clothes. 

It shows, oh, these papers are old, that Mr. Thebes met a Mr. Red O'Grady in the late 1800s.  Mr. O'Grady banished his avatar with an Elder Sign, and Mr. Thebes set his sights on the man.

  According to files taken from the Miskatonic Asylum,  Now the Miskatonic Psychiatric Hospital,  Mr. O'Grady ended up their care until his death.

O'Grady seemed terrified of this Mr. Thebes, and carved wards into his flesh to hold him off.  However,  doctors say he stopped fearing this entity over the years and said he made peace with it.  He then covered the wards with new scars, proclaiming his love for his "dark spider queen."   

  Yes,  O'Grady was insane and invented a spider goddess to worship.    His madness seems to have spread* as others have come out in this goddess's worship.

While reading up on this odd case, I found this ( photo of a small scarred man with large eyes with a group of  black men)

This is a photograph of Red O'Grady from 1890 in Cairo, Egypt.   The scars are the same.   This begs the question; how did he get there?

All the records show that Red was committed in 1875 and died in 1907.  He was in the custody of the Asylum all that time.  There is no paperwork showing his release.  In fact, just the opposite.

And it is worth noting, his eyes, they don't look right.  Too big.  Could this be from hashish?


*I have also unearth some papers from Red's autopsy.  The man who was killed was not him.   Still, how did Red come to be in Egypt when all evidence shows him to be in Massachusetts?   Did this trip help him come to peace with Mr. Thebes?  Also the mystery of his spreading religion was explained.  Larva in the brain distort the cerebral cortex.  They probably eat the gray matter and make one vulnerable to suggestion.

Any way, I thought you would find this interesting and any help you could return to me would be invaluable.   May the ether be clear, and may the veil be welcoming.

This is just so Awesome........

I love this. No idea where it is all finally going but I love it.

Wonder who Cole Pershing is working for

Greetings,

    I submit this report with mix emotions.   The new recruits have met an unfortunate circumstance, one that proved to be tempory.  They proved adept and handled the setback with skill and panache.

While riding the Reading Railroad,  they were blocked in a tunnel.  The Science Raiders, The Pale Riders created used dynamite to create a cave in. Seven Riders and their gang boss, Gernie, started at the engine and threatened the passengers with violence.  With everyone remaining in their seats, they rummaged through the baggage compartments looking for a particular trunk.

Our recruits proved resourceful.  One perched himself on the front car and sniped at some of the Pale Riders.  Another went out and explored from the caboose west ward and battled other Riders with a knife.   Deliah,  set up obstacles while protecting passengers.  She found the trunk, one owned by a foreign  born man we found out to be known as Mr. Golightly.  He took off on a flying, golden broomstick.  Yes, that is what the witnesses called it.    The broomstick glowed and burned Miss Moore's lovely pale skin a dark tan.


During the excitement, a young girl was murdered.  She and a friend were off to work at the Deadwood Theater.   The lead suspect is an old woman.   Pennies were left on the victim's eyes.   This leads up to conclude  that another person is seeking application to the Copper Penny Club.


As a side note,  Cole Pershing was on board.  We have tried to recruit this man over ten years ago, but he went back to the Texas Rangers.   He has since retired, and maybe now he will accept our offer.


----William Plymouth

Mr Plymouth,

First off, we understand that sometimes circumstances can cause delays.  The Wendigo Incident was handled with aplomb, and we understand the nature of your sacrifice, and you will be treated with great honors from inside the society.  However from outside, you will have to treated as pariah.  I am sure you understand the need for duplicity, as such, appearances are unfortunately needed in civilized company.   

If you call, we will answer.  You are forever in our debt, no matter words say otherwise.

Now, I am sure in your exile and solitude you think the Golden Lilly Case to be closed.  Well it is, for the most part.

However it the potential agent Joe Cotton, the man you wrote off as a useless poppy addict in your last report proved to be a bit more interesting and resourceful than you or, we, imagined.

Let me start at then beginning. Mr Cotton was born in Bedlam Asylum in England.  His mother, Elizabeth Cotton was hanged for the murder of 22 persons,  all her husbands or children.   Joe was born in custody and as such was protected from his mad mother’s smothering embraces.

Joe emigrated to the New World in his youth and kne not his mother’s nature.  He thought he was an orphan among many.  One thing London is good at producing, is orphaned children.

Well shortly after the destruction of the Blackwood 
Church,  three bodies were discovered. Each were strangled.   Each were in the vicinity of Joe Cotton.

The first was a chinaman.  He was found dead in the. Very same opium den frequented by Mr. Cotton.   This didnt raise any concerns as one chinaman’s death does not rally white men to a cause.

The second death was a prospect of some noteriety.  He was an argumentative sort who most recently quarreled with Mr. Cotton over some poker debts.    And lastly, which caused near riot, was man who panned for gold with Joesph.

The people of Deadwood called for a public hanging.  He was rounded up and put in a cell.  He called for his associates, Alexander and  Mr Lovelace for aid.

They took up train and stage coach to assist their friend.

They paid bail and used their status as Pinkerton and local heroes to transfer Mr. Cotton to their care.  They stayed at the Deadwood Hotel.  While there they were visited, and I must assure you that I am of sober disposition and sound mind when I write this, Joe Cotton’s mother!

She was clearly neither alive nor quite dead.   Later study proved her to be the most deadly of wights, the Revenant.

She demanded her son.  She, like past revenants, possessed the ability to spirt her body to places unseen by mortal eyes.  She occultated from place to place until silver bullets damaged her body beyond use.

The body was not burnt as per normal protocols.   When we able to procure the body,  the decay was too far and we were not able to contain the spirit.   We do know that a revenant is hardly ever defeated so easily, and we are on the look out for for the current location of Elizabeth Cotton’s spirit.

and it is as you feared,   the Iron Monk has been spotted in Sacramento.     For one so wise, he falls prey to the same foibles.  He has accumulated a debt from gambling and is working cleaning in a Dog Racing stable.

WVB