Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth Game Script Copyright 2007 Cem Gulduren E-Mail: cemgulduren at yahoo.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LEGAL INFORMATION --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This document was written for the GameFAQs website. It may not be placed on any other website or reproduced in any other form without the permission of the author. This document may be used for private, non-commercial purposes only. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- INTRODUCTION --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Horror - the true horror that paralyzes the mind and scars it with nightmares - is never truly healed." Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth is one of the best computer games I have ever played. Although I am actually not very much into horror stories and not a reader of Lovecraft, I found the storyline of the game fascinating, with its unnerving atmosphere and the sense of uncertainty that never goes away. It was especially so for someone who does not already know much about the Cthulhu Mythos. I liked the game so much that I began reading some of the works of Lovecraft after I started playing. That is why I have decided to write this, the full script of the game, which includes all the dialogue and the documents found throughout it. I hope you will enjoy it. If you want to point out a mistake I've made, have a suggestion about the document, or if you just would like to drop your comments, you can send me an e-mail. There will probably be no updates to this in the future, but perhaps I might fix some errors if you point out any. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- TABLE OF CONTENTS --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0. Version History 1. The Game Script 1.1. Dreams of the Future 1.2. Prologue 1.3. Mysterious Phone Call 1.4. A Visit to the Old Town 1.5. Shadow Out of Time 1 1.6. Attack of the Fishmen 1.7. Jailbreak 1.8. Escape From Innsmouth 1.9. Feds in the Asylum 1.10. The Marsh Refinery 1.11. The Esoteric Order of Dagon 1.12. A Dangerous Voyage 1.13. Shadow Out of Time 2 1.14. Devil's Reef 1.15. The Air-Filled Tunnels 1.16. Shadow Out of Time 3 2.1. Interpretation of the Ending 2.2. List of Journal Entries 2.3. List of General Evidence Documents 2.4. List of Mythos Tomes and Manuscripts 3. Credits --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0. VERSION HISTORY --------------------------------------------------------------------------- v. 1.0 May 11, 2007 The first (and most probably the final) version =========================================================================== 1. THE GAME SCRIPT =========================================================================== --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.1. Dreams of the Future --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Was it a dream? I cannot say. But I hope so. For if the things I saw and experienced were more than the imaginings of a disordered brain, then surely does madness hold sway over the universe." Arkham Asylum 16th February 1922 (The camera shows the front gate of the mental asylum.) Jack Walters: Now... at my end... I can fully see. Jack: My last case opened in me a new fear... a real fear... a fear of myself, of what I am... and of what I have always been. (Jack Walters, the protagonist, is sitting on the floor in a small cell, holding a small notebook, apparently his journal, in his hands. He looks delirious and there are strange symbols and writing on the walls and the floor. On the floor, just in front of Jack, there is a large star sign with an eye symbol in the middle. All the symbols in the room appear to have been made with blood.) Jack: All that I was, is now lost. Hope? Purpose? Pleasure? All meaningless. Jack: I now walk in the shadows between worlds... and it is there I have finally glimpsed upon what lives in the dark corners of the Earth... (Jack steps on a chair to hang himself. The camera shows a doctor walking through a hallway with several hysterical inmates. The doctor sees that Jack is committing suicide and quickly enters the cell, trying to stop him. Jack's journal falls onto the floor from his hands.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.2. Prologue --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "The ignorant and the deluded are, I think, in a strange way to be envied. That which is not known of does not trouble us, while an imagined but insubstantial peril does not harm us. To know the truths behind reality is a far greater burden." Six and a half years ago... (Jack is sitting in his car, reading his journal and smoking a cigarette.) --- A Local Disturbance September 6, 1915 Evening I guess I'm becoming a victim of my own success. After closing the last five cases so fast, the papers have been calling me a local hero. But I just had a run of lucky hunches, that's all. I'm just another cop doing his job. So there's a disturbance at a local residence. It's probably just a bunch of kids hopped up on moonshine. Why call in a detective? Maybe the uniform boys are sore at being out in this weather, and they want to share the joy with the "local hero." It wouldn't be the first good-natured prank I've had to take since those newspaper reports. I don't know, though - something doesn't feel right. It's more than just a regular bad feeling - it's hard to explain, but it's strong. I'm probably just tired. Those dreams don't help. I can't remember when I last got a good night's sleep - must be a month, at least. Right about the time I started my run of lucky hunches. The dreams have been getting worse lately. I'm almost afraid to close my eyes. Bourbon helped at first, but not any more. The lack of sleep must be affecting my nerves. Well, jitters or not, I better get going. --- (Jack closes his journal and then takes a final drag on his cigarette. He then steps out of his car. It is a rainy night and he is before a police barricade. The camera shows a set of stairs leading to a hilltop manor behind the barricade.) Massachusetts 6th September 1915 (A police officer arrives and Jack talks to him.) Jack: Robert... this had better be good. What's the beef? Officer Robert Armstrong: Sorry, Jack, we had to call. This fella will only talk to you... name's Victor Holt. Jack: Don't know any Victor. Robert: He's the leader of this weird cult that moved in here a few months back... got about 20 followers. They've been causing trouble all over town. Stealing... going through folk's trash... hanging around outside people's homes at all hours. (The camera shows the manor on the hill. It looks deserted.) Robert: No one ever presses charges though. They're a screwy bunch. They've got the locals scared. So, tonight... we were just passing, doing the normal rounds, when we heard gunshots fired from their property. Jack: Gunshots? Hang on there... no one said anything about gunshots. Who have we got out here? Robert: Just me, Nichols, and a few new recruits. Jack: Well, that's just great! Lead the way, Robert. I'd better check out this crazy gang of yours. (They start moving towards the stairs. Jack talks to Robert on the way.) Jack: Did you call for backup? Robert: Yep. You're it. Jack: Great. (Jack talks to a young police officer at the base of the stairs while Robert goes up.) Jack: How you doing, kid? Officer: Good, sir. Is it true what they say about you? Jack: Depends on what they're saying. Officer: That you've cracked cases... where there was no evidence. Jack: You shouldn't believe everything you hear. Officer: Err... right. (Jack goes up the stairs. Robert is waiting halfway up.) Robert: Jack. Officer Nichols will brief you at the top. Be careful! (Just before reaching the top, Jack overhears a conversation between Nichols and another officer.) Officer: What's taking him so long? Something must be wrong. Officer Henry Nichols: I think I saw him with Officer Armstrong. Just take it easy. Officer: We're wide open here. Nichols: It's okay. I've got you covered. Nichols: I don't like this. Something's not right. Officer: Something's not right? Nothing's right about this! (Jack gets to the top and talks to Nichols.) Nichols: Evening Jack. Glad you could join the freak show. Jack: How's it looking, Henry? Nichols: I don't like this one bit, Jack. Check the alley on the right. Victor Holt's over there in the shadows. He's waiting for you. (The camera shows a man in the alley to the right of the manor. He is waving at them.) Jack: Can we trust him? Nichols: Nope, but we've got you covered. You better take it slowly, though. They're a bit twitchy. Nichols: (to Holt) Try to stay calm. Nichols: You better hurry, Jack. (to Holt) He's on his way. (to Jack) We've got you covered, Jack. Take it slowly. Victor's just over there... on the right. (Jack starts to move towards the alley.) Officer: Be careful, sir. (Suddenly, the cultists in the building open fire from the windows. A firefight breaks out between them and the policemen.) Cultist: DIE! (Nichols gets shot and dies.) Cultist: DIE! You pathetic bastards! Officer: Take cover! Cultist: Keep shooting! Officer: Watch your aim, you sap! Cultist: I'm running low on ammo. Cultist: That one to the right, taking cover. Kill him! Officer: We're all gonna die! Cultist: Where's Victor? He must be inside by now! Cultist: Kill them all. (Robert comes to the top to join the firefight.) Robert: The alley on the right. Get inside! Get inside, Jack. Do your job! (Jack moves towards the alley.) Robert: We can't hold them forever, Jack! Get inside! (Jack enters the manor from the side door in the alley. He is in a dark hallway.) Cultist: I think Walters must be inside. I can't see him. Cultist: Shit! Philip's been shot. He's dead. Cultist: There's one over there... on the left... (Jack enters a large, well-lit room with a long table, a podium to the other side and several paintings on the walls. He examines one of them that seems to depict a big, monstrous eye.) Jack: It looks like an eye, but the rest of the painting has no real shape. (He examines another painting depicting a large, tentacled monster and other creatures worshipping it.) Jack: This blasphemous image makes me feel uneasy. (He looks at another picture of a humanoid creature.) Jack: The depiction of some alien creature. It's a strange painting... but, it reminds me of... something. (He examines yet another painting of a very large monster.) Jack: A powerful painting of some cosmic horror. (He examines another painting.) Jack: That's an unusual design. These fellas have one curious art collection. (He goes to the other side of the room and checks a board with writing on it.) Jack: The board is covered with strange writing. I can't understand the symbols. (He checks another board with a diagram.) Jack: The board has been used to illustrate a diagram. The illustration is quite scientific. Looks like a blueprint for some kind of room. (Jack approaches the podium and reads the handwritten sermon paper that has been left on it.) --- Podium Sermon As I continue to translate the Pnakotic fragments, I become more and more eager to contact my Yithian masters. These beings truly are gods to us. Their intellect and knowledge surpasses ours in ways impossible to comprehend. I know now just how insignificant mankind is in the universe... a doomed and simple species thrown up as a side effect of an experiment by the Elder Things. It is a blessing that such flawed creatures as ourselves have such a short and limited future. --- (Jack goes out back into the hallway. He then continues and comes to a well-lit hall. He sees a white symbol that looks like an eye on the wall. It is the same eye symbol that was with the star in the intro.) Jack: That symbol's real strange. Looks almost like a flaming eye... I should take a closer look. (He goes and tries to open a door in the hall.) Jack: It's locked. (He tries to open another door.) Jack: It's locked. (He then sees the front door is barricaded.) Jack: The front door has been barricaded with tables and chairs. There's no way of getting to the door. They clearly didn't want anyone coming in this way. (He goes up the stairs from the hall and enters one of the rooms. Inside, he sees a dying, bare-chested cultist.) Cultist: At last... it's you... (The cultist dies.) Jack: He seemed to recognize me. I don't get it. His body is covered in tattoos, and they were carved into his flesh with something sharp. The body's still warm, but he's definitely dead. (The room has strange symbols all over the walls.) Jack: What a nut house! The walls have been covered with glyphs. Those glyphs seem to have some semblance to mathemathical symbols. (He enters a dormitory with many dead cultists, lying on beds. He examines one of them.) Jack: Poisoning, by the looks of it. He's dead, they're all dead. Suicide. Or rather, mass suicide. These nuts had some serious issues. (He finds tiny bottles on the table in the middle of the dormitory.) Jack: Poison appears to have been on the menu. (He then finds a diary on the table and takes it.) Jack: A diary. This will make interesting reading. --- Diary of a Cult Member August 20, 1915 We have been watching him now for two months. I can feel my anticipation growing as the day of contact draws near. Victor has not yet divulged his final plan for bringing Mr. Walters to us; all I know is that we must succeed. August 24, 1915 The sermon today was inspiring. Victor enlightened us with a story of The Great Race transcending the bounds of time to visit his dreams. Of the conscious things on this earth, and in the ocean depths, we are but servants of a greater design. I can only hope that my faith during these last days will win me favor when our masters step through the gate. August 29, 1915 The experiments below have claimed one more of our order. Another volunteer is needed, but many are willing. We are truly blessed through our faithful service, now that his coming grows so close. September 3, 1915 The preparations are complete, and Victor's plan is in motion. He will arrive soon. Surely by now he must suspect his true nature, or at least question the nature of his gifts. September 6, 1915 He has come. Finally, it begins. --- (He then leaves the dormitory and enters another room with a dead cultist on the floor and another shooting with a shotgun at the window. The cultist turns to him.) Jack: Don't shoot... I'm unarmed. Cultist: Aaaa... We've been expecting you, Mr. Walters... (The cultist gets shot by the policemen outside and dies.) Jack: Damn. He recognized me, and it sounded like he was gonna get on the level with what's going on in this joint. (He finds a key on a chair.) Jack: A key. This should help downstairs. (He looks at the cultist that was already dead when he came into the room.) Jack: He's dead. Looks like a bad case of lead poisoning. (He then looks out the window.) Jack: I better keep my distance from the window, or I'll end up like this nut job. I should keep back. (He goes back downstairs and uses the key on one of the doors in the well-lit hall.) Jack: It's unlocked. (He goes inside the room. The room is filled with his photos. Many are strewn on the desk and there are yet more on the boards on the wall. Jack panicks with the shock and his heartbeat audibly increases.) Jack: I don't understand. I'm in all of these photos. All of them. There must be some kind of mistake. Why would they want ME here? It must be an old case. Something I've forgotten... some screwball with a grudge maybe. Think... I've gotta THINK! (He examines the photos further.) Jack: All these photos and clippings are of me. I just don't get it. From the dates on some of these clippings, this crazed mob must have been following me for years. Jesus! I'm a detective and I had no idea. They seem to know so much about me, and I've got nothing on them. Aside from their eccentric taste in paintings, and their cheerful indulgence in self-mutilation, I know exactly zilch. A Jack Walters collage. (He finds a board with a timetable on his movements in a day on the other side of the room.) Jack: What the hell is going on? It seems they've been tracking my movements. It's a timetable of my movements. Looks like it's from two days ago. (He finds a key on a desk. There is also a newspaper under the key. He takes both of them.) Jack: Another key. This should fit the door across the hall. --- The Boston Globe, 20th August 1909 Enlightened or Duped? Inside Boston's Strangest Church Those of our readers who live near its headquarters in an ordinary-looking Boston residence will need no introduction to the Fellowship of Yith (or whatever the cult's name is). For those who have not encountered this mysterious, semi-religious group before, a few words of explanation are necessary. Since our country's founding upon the basis of religious freedom, its shores have been home to many small religious groups outside the mainstream. No small number are headquartered in the states of New England, where the Pilgrims themselves sought a new world free of religious persecution. But the question must be asked: At what point does a religion become a cult, and its trusting adherents - not to mention its blameless neighbors - become victims? That is the question this journal poses in regard to the Fellowship of Yith. In a month-long investigation, our intrepid reporters have diligently sought out the truth behind this so-called church. Its origins are somewhat mysterious - the more so since the group's leaders declined to be interviewed, or to assist our investigation in any way. However, it seems that the Fellowship was founded more than twenty years ago by one Victor Holt, based on a revelation he had received from beyond the confines of this world. Holt has not been seen for almost six years; his followers apparently believe that he is communing with the mysterious powers behind his faith, and that he is shortly to return with new insights and teachings. All this sounds like a harmless, if eccentric, spiritual group, little different from many others. However, those who make their homes near to the Fellowship's headquarters tell a different, more sinister story. The adherents of this obscure sect are to be found loitering on street-corners, casting menacing glances at their innocuous neighbors and frequently engaging in acts of petty crime, which the local police seem powerless to prevent or redress. Strange lights have been observed burning in the windows of the old house at all hours of the day and night. They change color unpredictably, and cast weird, unintelligible shadows. Even more disturbing are the noises which have been heard to issue from within the mysterious building. They include chanting, unearthly music, and - worst of all - screams like those of lost souls in agony. Many of the sect's neighbors are convinced that its services include human sacrifice or similar atrocities. Those few who dared complain to the police were told that because the house is private property, and because there is no concrete evidence of any wrongdoing, the most they can do is file a noise complaint. Are the horrors of Salem being re-enacted in our city, more than two centuries on? Is this Fellowship of Yith engaging in unspeakable - and criminal - acts of worship involving torture and sacrifice? Why is nothing being done to ease the fear and distress they cause to the local community? A source within the Police Department, speaking on the condition of anonymity, tell the Globe that the Fellowship is suspected of involvement in a number of local crimes but so far the lack of evidence and the reluctance of nervous witnesses to come forward have thwarted any official investigation. Very well, we say. Where the police cannot - or will not - investigate, the Globe shall continue to act in the interests of Boston's citizens, fearlessly exposing the truth about this so-called church and its followers. Our findings will be published in these pages over the following monts, so that all may know the truth! Editor's note: It is with great sorrow that the Globe announces the death of reporter Howard Addlestone, who was leading the paper's investigation into the Fellowship of Yig when he apparently drowned in Boston Harbor. The Coroner has ruled his death a suicide. Our condolences go out to his family. --- (Jack goes back to the hall and opens the other door.) Jack: It's unlocked. (The door opens to a library.) Jack: For nutcases, they seem quite literate. Those books are really old, and most of them are in strange languages I don't understand. (Inside the library, he finds a desk with a document in the drawer and takes it.) Jack: The drawer holds an ancient manuscript. The symbols on the front seem to be written in classical Greek. --- Pnakotica This manuscript looks medieval, but claims to be a translation from classical Greek of a far older work from before the time of the first humans. The pages are stained, faded, and even burned in some places, making reading difficult. The legible sections tell the history of unthinkably distant antiquity. They speak of races so strange as to be beyond human comprehension, and wars fought across vast gulfs of time and space. There are concepts so utterly alien that they sound like absolute madness. Time travel, Flying Polyps, mental projection, Great Race of Yith - it makes you dizzy just to read it. --- (Jack walks to one of the walls of the library, facing a broken mirror. Suddenly, strange sounds and screams are heard from the other side of the wall.) Jack: There are definitely some strange sounds coming from this side of the room. (He finds a trapdoor near the wall and opens it. A loud scream is heard.) Jack: Shit. That did not sound good. (The trapdoor opens to a secret tunnel. As Jack goes down, the ladder collapses.) Jack: Well, that's just swell. (He begins to follow the tunnel, but it is shaking and looks like it is about to collapse. On the way, Jack finds a dead cultist with a wooden beam on him.) Jack: He's dead. The beam must have fallen and crushed his skull. This tunnel is not safe at all... I'd better watch my step. (He finds several corpses buried behind beams in the walls and in the floor.) Jack: My God! There are bodies buried in the walls. At least that explains the stench. Some of them have been here a while. It's hard to say... but, from the look of the bodies, I'd guess they're from the same crew of nut jobs. What the hell next? They've been burying bodies in the walls... crazy bastards. The stench down here is sickening. The bodies must be rotting. (He reaches the end of the tunnel, arriving at an ominous room that looks like a morgue. Several bloody corpses, covered with sheets, are lying on stretchers. There is a bloody sink in the room and there are also some anatomical charts on the walls.) Jack: Dead bodies, and plenty of them. Something dreadful has been going on down here. In all my time on the job, I've never seen anything like this before. It looks like the bodies have been mutilated. If my instincts are right, I'd say they've been experimenting on each other. The stench in here is even worse. Most of these corpses have been here a while. (He sees a dead cultist lying on the floor near the stretchers.) Jack: From the markings, he must have been one of their own. I wonder if he volunteered? From the look of the corpse, he must have died a few weeks back. (Jack walks on, goes through a door and finds himself in a large chamber. To one side of the chamber there is a twitching, emancipated man suspended to the wall, with his internal organs and brain removed and kept in vats near him and connected to his body with wires and tubes. A large futuristic machine in front of the man seems to operate this system that keeps him alive.) Jack: Good God! What the hell is all this? I've never seen such equipment before. Who could've made such a machine? His internal organs have been removed and spread across the room. This insane contraption looks like it's keeping him alive. He must be in terrible pain. How could anyone have done this to him? Surely he couldn't have volunteered for this torture? What the hell am I dealing with? (He examines the machine in front of the man.) Jack: I've never seen equipment like this before. Looks like some sort of generator for the machinery in this room. (There is a green, glowing crystal held in a socket near the man. Jack tries to take it.) Jack: Owwww... It's too hot to pick up. It's too hot to touch. I think it's being used as a power source for the machine. (There is also a device that looks like a control pad in front of the man. Jack activates it, and the chamber starts to shake.) Jack: Oh, shit... (Electrical waves hit the man and kill him. Jack tries to use the pad again.) Jack: There's no power. (He checks the suspended man that is no longer twitching.) Jack: The machine must have overloaded. He's dead. At least he's out of his misery. (He picks up the green crystal from the socket.) Jack: The crystal's still warm. (He leaves the chamber and enters another tunnel that leads down even further.) Jack: This tunnel feels like it's gonna collapse at any moment. (The tunnel eventually gives way to a strange room with a mechanical gate, a control pad and a green crystal in a socket, like the one in the previous chamber. Jack opens the gate by activating the control pad and takes the crystal from the socket. He enters another huge chamber with a deep, dark pit, around which there are metal columns. Large green crystals also hang from the ceiling. The chamber looks quite alien in architechture. Jack checks the pit.) Jack: Odd. It looks like it's full of mercury. (There is an empty socket near the pit, like those that held the green crystals.) Jack: It looks like something's been removed from it. (He puts the crystal he has taken from the mechanical gate in the socket and activates a pad to the other side of the pit. The mechanical gate closes and the chamber begins to shake. Suddenly, a magical portal appears over the pit. Jack tries to shield his face from the bright light that comes from the portal with his hands. Giant, unnatural creatures with elongated necks and tentacles start to come out of the portal. Jack screams and blacks out.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.3. Mysterious Phone Call --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Just as the body can, given time and rest, heal itself from injury, so, too, does the mind have its own defenses. The chief among these is oblivion: the merciful darkness that shields mind and memory from the greatest of horrors." The Diary of Jack Walters 6th February 1922 (Jack is seen sitting at his desk in his office, studying his journal.) Jack: It has been more than six years since I entered that strange house in Boston. But... to me... it was just five months ago. Amnesia, the doctors called it... probably brought on by acute mental stress. I remember investigating the far side of the library... there was screaming. According to the police report, they had searched the house for hours, only to find me later, collapsed on the floor. When my eyes opened and I spoke, my colleagues recoiled in fear; there was something unnatural in my voice and blank gaze. (He has a flashback of the house, and then of a mental asylum.) Jack: They committed me to Arkham Asylum, where I was diagnosed with severe schizophrenia. (The camera goes back to his office.) Jack: As it became clear that I presented no danger to either myself or others, I was released from the asylum's care. I have learned little of my activities in the six years that followed. The accounts I have been able to piece together show much of my time was spent in travel and study. (The shows books in German, French and English in the bookcases in the office.) Jack: I maintained a fanatical infatuation with the occult, delving deep into volumes concerning witch-cults and dark legends, often in languages unfamiliar to my own. (He has a flashback of a cell in the asylum.) Jack: When I reawakened five months ago, exactly six years after entering that house in Boston, no trace was left of what had been a second personality. I was myself again, or at least what I believe myself to be. Return to normal life has been a painful process. In recent days my dreams have been plagued by cosmic landscapes, and I've become fearful of my own reflection. I am beginning to remember things from that day, more than six years past, that I have told no one else. (He closes and puts away the journal, revealing a sketch he has made of one of the giant creature that came out of the portal in the cult house six years ago. The phone rings. Jack answers it.) Jack: Jack Walters. Man: (on the phone) Hello, Mr. Walters. My name's Arthur Anderson. I need your help finding a missing person. Jack: I don't take that kind of job. Anderson: Did you get my package? Jack: Errr... hold on. (He takes a package from the floor and puts it on the desk. He opens it, finding some money, two newspaper clips and a key. He returns to the phone.) Jack: What exactly do you want from me, Mr. Anderson? Anderson: It's one of my store managers, you see... Brian's his name, Brian Burnham, nice lad. He disappeared recently from the First National Grocery Store in Innsmouth. Jack: Innsmouth? Never heard of it. Anderson: It's a small fishing town on the coast. Not far from Arkham. I'd like to see you in person before you leave. Jack: Hold on there a minute... I didn't agree to take this j... hmm... ... What the hell? I'll be here all day anyway. (Jack puts down the receiver. He then takes one of the newspaper clips from the package. The header reads STORE MANAGER REPORTED MISSING.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.4. A Visit to the Old Town --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I do not expect the reader to believe what I am about to relate. Any sane mind must reject such a fantastic tale. And yet I do not know which would be worse: for my story to be the truth, or for my mind to be capable of imagining such things." Innsmouth 7th February 1922 (Jack is riding in a bus through the town. He is the only passenger.) Jack: Driver, how far to the stop? Joe Sargent (Driver): Almost there. I'll drop you at the town square of Innsmouth. Jack: Why lock the gates? Sargent: Keeps out wanderers looking for work. We don't want folks like that interfering with our affairs. Jack: Is the bus from Arkham always this empty? Sargent: Aye. And we prefers it that way. Not many come to Innsmouth. Jack: But, what about trade? Surely the port needs business. Sargent: Innsmouth has the means to look after her own. (The bus reaches the square and stops before a large building. The sign on the building reads "The Gilman Hotel".) Sargent: This is it, stranger. End of the line. (Jack steps out of the bus. There are three new entries in his journal, one of which he has read in the Mysterious Phone Call chapter.) --- Missing Entries 1916 - 1921 I'm completely unable to recall what led to my confinement in the Arkham Asylum, or what happened to the six years between my two visits there. They tell me I had some kind of personality change that night in Boston - they watched me for a while, decided I wasn't dangerous, and let me go. After six years, I switched back, just as mysteriously. They admitted me again, found nothing wrong, and here I am. Among the personal effects they returned to me is a leather-bound journal - perhaps it will tell me what I've forgotten. Looking through the journal, all I can find is my life as a police detective. There is no hint of any illness, or mental strain, or anything else that could explain my change of personality - or the equally sudden recovery that still baffles my doctors. However, a number of pages have been torn from the journal. Who did it, or why, I can't tell. Did I destroy them myself, to suppress some horrific memory? Or did the asylum staff judge their contents detrimental to my treatment? Why was part of my life erased? What is it that I can't remember, and who wants it to stay forgotten? Is it a precaution to protect my sanity - or the key to something I need? --- A Shadowed Past February 6, 1922 Early Evening It has been more than 6 years since I entered that strange house in Boston. But to me, it was just 5 months ago. Amnesia, the Doctors called it, probably brought on by acute mental stress. I remember investigating the far side of the library, there was screaming. According to the police report they had searched the house for hours, only to find me later, collapsed on the floor. When my eyes opened and I spoke, my colleagues recoiled in fear; there was something unnatural in my voice and blank gaze. They committed me to Arkham Asylum, where I was diagnosed with severe schizophrenia. As it became clear that I presented no danger to either myself or others, I was released from the asylum's care. I have learned little of my activities in the 6 years that followed. The accounts I have been able to piece together, show much of my time was spent in travel and study. I maintained a fanatical infatuation with the occult; delving deep into volumes concerning witch-cults and dark legends, often in languages unfamiliar to my own. When I reawakened 5 months ago, exactly 6 years after entering that house in Boston, no trace was left of what had been a second personality. I was myself again, or at least what I believe myself to be. Return to normal life has been a painful process. In recent days my dreams have been plagued by cosmic landscapes, and I've become fearful of my own reflection. I am beginning to remember things from that day, more than six years past, that I have told no other. --- New Client February 6, 1922 Night I have a new client: Mr. Arthur Anderson, the regional manager of the First National Grocery Store chain. It appears that the First National Grocery Store in Innsmouth was recently burglarized, and its manager, one Brian Burnham, is missing. From what I have been able to gather, Burnham is something of a young rogue. A friend of the family, Mr. Anderson gave him the job as a favor. Burnham is looking like the prime suspect for the robbery, but there are a few things that don't add up - not to Anderson, and not to me. For instance, why would Burnham force an entry into the store when he had a full set of keys, free access to the cash register, and the combination to the back-office safe? To misdirect any investigation? If that was his plan, why did he disappear? Following my conversation with Mr. Anderson, I found out what I could about the ancient town of Innsmouth. For generations, the crumbling sea-port and its people have been shunned by neighboring communities. Outsiders are unwelcome there, and there are superstitious tales of a strange element in the town's oldest families. They are of mixed blood, so the stories go. Whatever that's supposed to mean. The usual hick-town prejudice, no doubt. After making a brief visit to Innsmouth, my client came away distrustful of the local authorities. He isn't buying their line that Burnham robbed the place, and wants to know what happened to him. Only one bus goes to Innsmouth, and tomorrow afternoon I'll be on it. It feels good to have a purpose after five months trying to break through my amnesia. I also feel a little apprehensive - maybe it's the wild stories about the town, or maybe it's just because I haven't had a case in so long. --- (There is also a newspaper article in his inventory of documents.) --- Arkham Advertiser, 6th February 1922 Grocery Store Robbed Manager Missing Thieves have robbed the First National Grocery Store in Innsmouth, breaking down the door and forcing open the cash register. The newly-appointed manager, Mr. Brian Burnham, has been missing since shortly before the robbery. "This is a very disturbing turn of events," said Mr. Arthur Anderson, First National's regional manager, from his Arkham office. "This branch had only recently opened, and First National Grocery had high hopes for its success, given the general lack of modern stores and amenities in Innsmouth. The robbery is a definite setback, and more worrying still is the fact that the branch manager remains unaccounted for." Innsmouth authorities could not be reached for comment. --- (Jack talks to the driver who is standing by the bus. The driver looks strange, as if he is suffering from an illness. His skin is pale and blotchy, also being creased at the neck. His eyes are strangely misshapen, and he has a stooped back.) Jack: Could you direct me to the First National Grocery Store? I hear they have a shop in town? Sargent: I don't know nothing 'bout that. Jack: Oh... You see, I'm looking for a young lad called Brian Burnham. I'm a friend of the family... he worked in the store. Sargent: Dunno who you're a'talking about, fella. Jack: The First National's a large chain... you sure you haven't seen it? Sargent: I'm sure. Stop bothering me with questions. (As Jack starts to walk away, the driver talks to himself.) Sargent: Outsiders coming snoopin' around where they ain't wanted. Fog's thick tonight, damp enough to put out a fella's smokes. Something's coming. Ain't seen fog like this since... (Jack enters the Gilman Hotel and talks to the proprietor, who is doing some paperwork at the desk. He also looks strange, like the bus driver.) Jack: Evening. Proprietor: Aye. Jack: The name's Jack Walters. I'm just visiting. Proprietor: You don't say, sir. Gilman. Charlie Gilman. I run this here hotel of an evening. Jack: You got any rooms? Gilman: I'd not rightly know that for sure... old Habbit's cleaning rooms at present. Them's from outta town can leave an horrid mess. (Gilman returns to his paperwork.) Jack: Hello, again. Gilman: Yeah. Jack: I'm after directions to the First National Grocery Store. Gilman: And I'm busy... so stop your pestering me with questions. (Gilman again pulls his face away from Jack and starts reading his papers.) Jack: Hello, Gilman. Gilman: What you wanting now? Jack: Strange thing about that Burnham lad. Gilman: Burnham? Can't rightly says I know what you're talking about. Jack: That's odd. It was all over the Arkham press... must've been a bit of a local scandal. Gilman: Them's matters for the police, stranger. Innsmouth's not a town for rumouring and talking. Jack: How's business? Gilman: Can't you see I'm busy? Stop bothering me with your talking. Jack: Sorry. Gilman: Aye. I'm plenty sure you are. Jack: (to himself) He's not gonna be any help, and only a crazy fool would spend the night. (Jack tries to enter the back office near the desk.) Gilman: Stop your snooping... in there's for hotel staff only. (Jack leaves the hotel and returns to the town square. The town looks quite dilapidated; there are run-down buildings all around and they look abandoned. Also, most of the citizens that are wandering around the square look strange like the bus driver and the hotel proprietor. Jack tries to ask questions to the weird-looking men.) Jack: I'm looking for Brian Burnham. Citizen: Can't help you. Jack: Do you know the Burnham lad... he worked in the First National? Citizen: Can't rightly says as I know him. Jack: This town's deserted. Where is everybody? Citizen: If you don't like it, just turn around and leave. Jack: Where is everybody? It's very quiet. Citizen: It's getting late, outsider. Folks as know what's good for 'em are safely bolted in their homes by now. (Asks another weird citizen.) Jack: I'm looking for Brian Burnham. Citizen: You're in the wrong place, asking the wrong questions, outsider. Jack: Do you know the Burnham lad... he worked in the First National? Citizen: Can't say as I noticed what you're saying, stranger. Jack: This town's deserted. Where is everybody? Citizen: I reckon you might've scared 'em off with that ugly face of yours. Heh, heh. Jack: Where is everybody? It's very quiet. Citizen: Can't say as I noticed what yer sayin', stranger. Jack: I'm looking for Brian Burnham. Citizen: I never heard of no Burnham. Jack: Do you know the Burnham lad... he worked in the First National? Citizen: Stop your bothering with questions. Jack: (to himself) They won't talk to me. I need to find someone who will. (There are also some few normal-looking citizens. He tries to talk to them.) Jack: I'm looking for Brian Burnham. Citizen: Stop pestering me, stranger. Jack: Do you know the Burnham lad... he worked in the First National? Citizen: Sorry, stranger. I can't help you. Jack: I'm looking for Brian Burnham. Citizen: Please, stop bothering me, stranger. Jack: Do you know the Burnham lad... he worked in the First National? Citizen: Just leave me be, stranger. Jack: I'm looking for Brian Burnham. Citizen: I can't be seen talking to you. Jack: (to himself) The normal-looking folk of this town are terrified of something. They just won't talk to me. (Jack looks around the square. There is an abondoned office next to the hotel.) Jack: These are the offices of the local newspaper. The Innsmouth Courier. It appears to be shut down. Looks as if it's been shut down for quite some time. (He examines another building to the other side of the hotel.) Jack: The sign says, 'Innsmouth Poorhouse. In memory of Lady Warnes.' (He tries to open the door.) Jack: It's locked. (He looks at the store adjacent to the poorhouse.) Jack: It's a Variety Store, and it's closed. (There is a street next to the Variety Store named Dock Street, and it is blocked by a police barricade. Jack talks to the policeman guarding it, who, too, looks strange like most of the citizens.) Jack: Excuse me, Constable. Jack Walters. Policeman: Ropes. Elliot Ropes. What do you want? Jack: Could you help out a stranger to this fine port? Ropes: Are you being funny? Jack: No. Not at all. I'm after directions to the First National. I hear they have a store in town. Ropes: Innsmouth don't take too kindly to 'em from outta town... git lost, stranger. Jack: What happened here, Constable? Ropes: Nothing. Jack: Oh, swell. You can let me pass, then? Ropes: No. You'll have to go another way. (The conversation ends. Jack talks to the policeman again.) Jack: Constable Ropes. Ropes: Aye... what you want now? Jack: You ever meet Brian Burnham? Ropes: I couldn't rightly says as I remember. Jack: The burglarizing of the First National is big news in the Arkham press. The Burnham lad must be one of your prime suspects. Any luck tracing his whereabouts? Ropes: No. That'd be a matter for the Order. Jack: The Order? Isn't this a matter for the police? Ropes: Yup... that, too. Jack: Who is the Order? Ropes: Them's that look after affairs here in Innsmouth. And you'd mind your business not to be asking too many questions. Jack: (to himself) He either doesn't know nothing, or isn't gonna tell me nothing. Whichever, it won't help my case. He's nothing more than a thug, and I don't feel like pushing my luck. (He examines the barricade.) Jack: That way's blocked by a police line. I wonder why they cordoned it off? (There is a huge building near Dock Street, across the Gilman Hotel. It has a clock tower and is well-lit, and it is not in bad condition like the rest of the buildings. A large sign near its front door reads "The Esoteric Order of Dagon".) Jack: This grandiose structure is the Esoteric Order of Dagon. It's the only building in Innsmouth that doesn't look like it's about to collapse. It must serve some significant purpose. (Across Dock Street, near the Esoteric Order of Dagon is the First National Grocery Store. Its front door is barricaded.) Jack: It's the First National grocery store. It's a crime scene... the local law enforcement has blocked the main entrance. (There is another police barricade guarding the small alley that leads to the side door of the store. Jack talks to the strange-looking policeman guarding it.) Jack: Evening, Constable. Policeman: Can't you see I'm busy? No time for talking to strangers. Jack: I'm Detective Jack Walters. I've been hired by the regional manager of the First National. Policeman: Aye... And I'm Constable Nathan Birch, and I'm the law round these parts, and I'm still not talking to you. Now... git lost! Constable Nathan Birch: Move along, outsider. Jack: If you could just answer a couple of questions? Birch: I already told you the once, git lost. Afore I have you arrested. Jack: What the hell for? Birch: Disrupting the peace. Jack: I just want to know if you have any leads on the Burnham lad? Birch: Nope... but I'm reckoning he's fled to Boston. Plenty of his type that way. Jack: His type? Birch: Troublemakers... them's not respecting the law. Jack: There's no proof he did anything wrong. If he had the keys... why break into his own store? Birch: Just details. A missing manager and a robbed store makes him guilty by my reckoning. Jack: What's with the police cordons? Birch: I don't see that as being any concern of yours. Jack: Look, Constable. I used to be on the force, a long time ago. I was the best there was working a crime scene. Birch: Yeah... your point? Jack: If you could let me have a look, just for a minute. I might be able to help, perhaps even get you a lead on this Burnham crook? Birch: Well... no... that would just not be right. Jack: What's with the cordons over the other side of the square? Birch: Them's police affairs. Ain't nothing to warrant your concern. Jack: Nothing too serious, I hope? Birch: Probably a mugging. An outsider wandering the alleys after dusk, maybe come across something he wasn't expecting? Jack: You telling me someone's been murdered? Birch: Perhaps... it's not always that simple. Could of been a wild beast just as easy. Jack: Can I snoop round the crime scene? Birch: No. Jack: I'll be real quick. Birch: I haven't changing my mind. Jack: (to himself) That mug ain't talkin' to me for anything. Jack: Look Constable. The First National hired me to investigate this incident. Got it? Birch: Have you got a warrant? Jack: Well... no... but it's their property, and if you'd just make a call... Birch: No... I already told you. Git lost! Jack: (to himself) There's no point in talking to him. I'll need to figure out a different approach. (Jack tries to go through the barricade.) Birch: Stop... you can't come down here. Jack: (to himself) The police clearly don't want me snooping around. I need to be more careful. Birch: This ain't the place to be stood about. Move along. (Birch leaves the barricade and goes on a patrol. Jack sneaks behind him as he goes through the side door. At the end of the hallway Jack enters a small office and closes the door behind him. There are some shelves by the door.) Jack: These shelves look light enough to push. Perhaps I can use them to block the door, to give me more time. (He pushes the shelves in front of the door, blocking it. He then goes through another door that leads to the store. Inside, he checks the cash register.) Jack: The till's empty. No real surprise. (He finds a trapdoor behind the counter.) Jack: It looks like I need some sort of lifting handle to get it open. It probably leads down to a storage cellar. (He enters a back office through a broken door. There is an open safe inside.) Jack: There's a bottle of bootleg rum and a wooden handle. (He takes the bottle and the handle from the safe. Just as he returns to the main store area, Birch breaks down the blocked door. Jack opens the trapdoor with the handle and starts to descend a ladder, but it collapses. Jack blacks out for a moment, and when he regains conciousness, he sees Birch looking down through the trapdoor. Birch: Whoever's down there. You can rot. (Birch closes the trapdoor.) Jack: The ladders and stairs have collapsed. I'll never get back up. (Jack is in the storage room of the store.) Jack: The storage area is clutter-free and well-organized. (He finds a notebook on one of the shelves.) Jack: It looks like a diary... it's gotta have some clues. --- Diary of Brian Burnham Well, I agree with the locals on one thing - I shouldn't be stuck in this miserable excuse for a town. I can see why nobody comes here, that's for sure. Another slow day at the store. At first I thought people were staying away because First National isn't local, but I haven't seen anyone go into any of the other stores either. Come to that, I haven't seen the other stores open for business. This place is deader than dead. Still, it won't be long before I'm out of here - before we're both out of here. She's the one good thing about Innsmouth. We'll bust open Old Man Waite's safe, take a car - and then it's New York City! Bright lights, nightlife, everything. I'll show her all of it. --- (One of the walls in the room looks damaged. He examines it.) Jack: I can feel the air through holes in the brickwork here. (There is a ladder in front of the damaged wall. He pushes it into the wall and the wall collapses.) Jack: The wall's collapsed... it must have already been badly damaged on one side. (Jack finds himself in an old cellar. There are several charred skeletons lying on the ground.) Jack: The cellar's filled with human remains. These people must have died a long time ago. There must have been a fire down here. (He walks on and finds himself in a dark room. He removes some wooden planks from a box, revealing some newspapers underneath. He takes them.) Jack: There are some issues of The Innsmouth Courier lying here, and they're dated 1846. --- Innsmouth Courier, 19th June 1846 Innsmouth Patrician Arrested! Tales of Heathen Ceremonies! by John Lawrence, Editor Obed Marsh, the head of Innsmouth's wealthy and influential Marsh family, now sits in the City Jail accused of devil worship and other unspeakable practices. The whole community is left in a state of shock by the horrifying revelations that accompanied the arrest. The readers will no doubt be aware of the deep reservations expressed by the Courier's editorship and other decent citizens concerning the Esoteric Order of Dagon, which was founded by Captain Marsh after his return from the South Seas and is said to be based upon a primitive religion he encountered among the uneducated natives of certain distant Pacific Islands. The Captain's arrest seems to lend strength to those suspicions, and a full investigation is expected to unearth more. --- (Jack looks at some old photos hung on the wall.) Jack: Old photos of Innsmouth. Most of them have faded beyond recognition. (He goes through a door, climbs a set of stairs and comes to an abandoned newspaper office. There are piles of old newspapers all around.) Jack: Newspapers lay scattered in molding heaps. (He checks the damaged printing press in the office.) Jack: This old printing press appears to have been sabotaged. I don't suppose the fire helped it much either. (He examines the notice boards on the walls.) Jack: General notices. They're all dated 1846. (He opens a door to another room and sees a hanging woman inside.) Jack: Holy shit... (Examines the corpse.) Jack: From the stench in here... this noosed broad must have kicked it a few months back. The poor woman must have taken her own life. I wonder what could have driven her to such a desperate act. (He returns to the newspaper office and goes through another door, reaching a small courtyard. There is a black-suited, normal-looking man there. The man approaches him.) Man: Jack... Jack: Do I know you? Man: Lucas Mackey. Sorry to startle you. Innsmouth doesn't get a lot of visitors. New names spread fast. What you doing in town, Jack? Here about the missing Burnham boy? Jack: Not bad. I'm a private detective. My client's a friend of the Burnhams. Mackey: Seen the latest press from Arkham? Your boy's been quite busy. (He gives Jack a newspaper.) --- Arham Advertiser, 7th February 1922 Innsmouth Robbery: Missing Manager Accused In yesterday's edition, we reported on a burglary at the recently-opened First National Grocery store in Innsmouth. The case took a new turn today as authorities in the town named Brian Burnham, the store's manager, as a suspect in the case. Burnham has not been seen since the robbery, and is thought to have left the area. "It is a very straightforward case," said Chief Constable Andrew Martin in response to inquiries by the Advertiser. "This young man simply robbed his employer and fled. I imagine he's out of the county now, if not the state." The Chief Constable dismissed concerns expressed by First National Grocery's regional manager, Mr. Arthur Anderson, that Burnham may have been kidnapped or injured. --- Jack: Hmmm... What about you, Mackey? You're obviously not a local. What's your business in town? Mackey: Ha ha... True enough, Jack. Nothing too exciting, I'm sorry to say... I'm a government factory inspector. They posted me in this rotten hole to check over the old Marsh Refinery... speaking of which, I've got an appointment with the manager, Jacob Marsh. Jack: Okay... maybe I'll catch you later. (Mackey leaves.) Jack: That's the first friendly face I've seen in this damn town... but I've been in this business long enough to know he's hiding something. (Jack leaves the courtyard and returns to the alley near the store. The police barricade has been removed, and Birch is not there. Jack suddenly has a blurry vision, as if he is seeing from the eyes of a monster who is watching the town square from a roof. The heavy breathing of the monster can be heard during the vision. The vision ends, and Jack hears two citizens talking near the alley.) Citizen 1: You better keep your trap shut. Citizen 2: I won't tell him anything. (Jack walks out of the alley and sees that a strange-looking and a normal- looking man were talking. Then he moves a bit ahead and sees Constable Ropes talk to another normal-looking citizen at the barricade at Dock Street.) Ropes: If I see you talking to the outsider... you'll git thrown in jail. Citizen: I've told him nothing. (Jack goes and talks to Ropes.) Jack: Seems like the Burnham lad had some doll along for company on this little caper? Ropes: All sorts of nonsense and hearsay be gossiped 'bout such affairs. Jack: But, there was another robbery... at Waite's Variety Store. That much is true? Ropes: That's for certain. Jack: How did they break in? Ropes: Just down them there steps. Old Tom Waite had locked up for the night. Jack: Right... thanks. Jack: Do you know where I could find Mr. Waite in the evening? Ropes: It's getting late. Folks as know what's good for 'em are generally bolted in their homes by now. Jack: Where is Waite's house? Ropes: Look stranger... git lost and stop your bothering me with questions. Jack: (to himself) He isn't gonna tell me anything useful. (Jack goes down the steps and tries to the door to the Variety Store.) Jack: It's locked. It must lead to the back of the Variety Store. (He returns to the front of the Gilman Hotel and talks to the bus driver.) Jack: I'm looking for a young lad called Brian Burnham. He worked in the First National. I'm a friend of the family. Sargent: I ain't heard of no Burnham lad. Jack: Right... What's the grand building across the square? Sargent: That's the old Masonic Temple. Not that the Masons use it no more. Jack: Why? Who uses it now? Sargent: Them's that'd take grave offense at strangers asking too many questions. Jack: What time are you leaving? Sargent: Next ride ain't 'til late, stranger. If you've a mind to leave. Jack: (to himself) I should leave him alone... he's in no mood for talking. (Jack walks to South Street, a wide street leading away from the square. He then enters an alley. Peering into a basement, he sees a corpse being dragged away. He goes further and sees at a window that a man is carrying the corpse away. He goes a bit further and comes across a normal-looking, young woman.) Jack: Evening. Err... the name's Jack Walters. It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss...? Woman: Miss will do for now. Welcome to Innsmouth, Mr. Walters. Jack: Thanks... I think. Woman: Take my advice. Do what you must and then leave... tonight. This port does not cater well to visitors. Jack: While I appreciate your concern, Miss, I can handle lousy hospitality. Woman: Very well, Mr. Walters. Jack: (to himself) This doll seems more open than some folks round these parts... but she isn't gonna talk to me right now. (The woman walks away. Jack follows her and talks to her again.) Jack: Hello, again. Woman: Mr. Walters. Jack: Look, Miss. I only want a conversation, there's no harm in that, right? Woman: There's plenty harm. It's not wise to be seen gossiping with outsiders. Jack: How about playing dumb for a few minutes? Woman: No. Jack: Can you at least tell me if you knew the Burnham lad? He worked in the First National. Woman: Look here, Mr. Walters... I can't answer your questions, and your harassment is putting us both in danger. Please, leave me alone. Jack: In danger? From whom? Woman: The Order. Now go! Jack: (to him) She isn't gonna tell me anything useful right now. (He leaves her alone and follows the street, eventually coming to an open gate with a large sign that reads "The Marsh Refinery". He goes through the gate and finds himself in a storage yard. Lucas Mackey is also there. Jack talks to him.) Jack: Hello, Mackey. Mackey: Jack... swell to see you again. Any leads on the Burnham case? Jack: I don't suppose you knew the Burnham lad at all? Mackey: Just pleasantries. Seemed a nice enough fella... if a little rough around the edges. Strange business, though. I'd never of fingered him as a crook. The First National was a well-run store... a rare thing here in Innsmouth. Jack: Okay, Mackey... thanks. Mackey: Goodbye, Jack. Be careful what you're doing... very careful! Innsmouth's a dangerous place. Not everyone who visits here ends up leaving by the old bus route. Jack: (to himself) This Mackey character knows plenty... but I don't think grilling him for scraps of information is gonna crack this case. Jack: What do you know about the break-in at the Variety Store? Mackey: Only what was in the press. You should speak to Thomas Waite. He owns the joint. Jack: Where's his place? Mackey: I think the Waites' house is over on Dock Street, near the back of the poorhouse. Jack: Thanks! Mackey: Though I warn you, Innsmouth's driven old Waite a bit crazy... he doesn't talk a lot of sense. Jack: That's my sort of fella... he sounds just perfect. Jack: What's this Jacob Marsh like? Mackey: Ahhhh... he didn't show up for our appointment, but then again, the Marshes never do. Jack: Seems like we're both having some lousy luck. Mackey: I've only met Jacob the once... he's not the prettiest picture, and a real slimy character. (The conversation ends. Then, Jack talks to him again.) Jack: Mackey. Mackey: Hello, Jack. Jack: What's the government's interest in the Marsh Refinery, anyway? Mackey: It's just domestic affairs. You ask a lot of questions, Jack. Jack: I'm a detective... what the hell do you expect? Mackey: What you're after comes under official secrets... if you know what I mean... But... I can tell you that our government has become increasingly suspicious of Innsmouth, and the Marsh family. Jack: I've heard of the Marshes. Rumours of that family are rife, even on the streets of Arkham. None of what's said is pleasant. Mackey: That I can believe... the Marshes have been ruling this port for nearly a century, ever since that plague swept these streets in the forties. Jack: A plague? Is that why the place is so deserted? Mackey: Masses died, so that would figure. There's gossip that old Captain Obed Marsh brought the disease onto this port from foreign trade... deliberately. Jack: Oh, my God... Is that why so many of the townsfolk are suffering from that hideous affliction? Mackey: Perhaps. Those from out of town call it the 'Innsmouth Look'. Jack: Where did you say Waite's house was again? Mackey: I think it's over on Dock Street, near the back of the poorhouse. (Jack returns to South Street and goes into a side street named Broad Street. He looks into a basement and sees a hanging woman.) Jack: Oh, God... Some poor soul's hung herself. Why the hell hasn't she been taken down? It's no wonder the town's deserted! (He enters a narrow street named Washington Street and sees a church poster in an alley.) Jack: It's just an advertisement for the local Methodist Church. From what I've seen of Innsmouth, I bet they don't get many takers. (He follows the street and comes to a dead end. There is a normal-looking old drunkard there, singing near a closed bar.) Drunkard: Who's that there? Can you spare a few pennies, young mister? I can give you something for your generosity. Jack: Who are you? Drunkard: Zadok, that be my name, though too few use it now. Zadok Allen. Jack: Do you know Brian Burnham? Zadok: Just a youngun, worked over the store. He's gone. Killed, I reckon. Jack: Killed? What makes you think that? Zadok: Them's from outta town running a store. Taking business from the Order of Dagon. They'd not accept that. Jack: What else can you tell me about this port? Zadok: You just bring old Zadok a bottle of something nice, and old Zadok will fill your ears. Jack: If you pardon my asking, have you lived here in this port all your life? Zadok: Yup. Last thirty-seven years in old Lady Warnes' house. Afore that over by fishing cannery. Jack: Old Lady Warnes'? You live in the town poorhouse? Zadok: Go and fetch me a bottle of something to wet old Zadok's whistle, and I'll tell you all. Jack: What do you know about the Variety Store robbery, old timer? Zadok: That be Tom's old store... stacked with all sorts of knick-knacks and such. Jack: So you know Tom Waite? Zadok: I know he took the third Oath that I wouldn't... aye... I'd have rather died than take that. Jack: What Oaths? I don't understand? Zadok: Just fetch me a bottle a fine likker, young feller, and I'll tell you all. Jack: Where can I find this Thomas Waite? Zadok: Dock Street... Back of old Lady Warnes' house, and my home. Now, mister... You just bring old Zadok a bottle of something nice, and old Zadok will fill your ears. (Jack gives Zadok the bottle of rum he found in the grocery store. Zadok takes a sip from it.) Zadok: Why, you're uncommonly kind, young feller. Here be a little something in gratitude that may help you in your search. (He gives Jack a key.) Zadok: Now you'll be calling me crazy, like's them's that're rumouring in Arkham and Ipswich. But old Zadok's seen all manner of wicked things since afore you was born. Old Cap'n Obed where it all begun. Telling desperate folks they'd oughta git better gods... them's that'd answer their prayers... Jack: Didn't the Christian folk of Innsmouth object to such blasphemy? Zadok: Aye, they did. It were round forty-six that many folks in town were done with Obed and his ways. All that wild preaching, and too many missing, you see. A party of good folk followed Cap'n Obed's crowd out to reef. Shots were fired. Next day, Obed and some thirty of his followers were in jail. And for weeks all were quiet... till that awful night of forty-six. Them's from outside reckon on it being a riot. But I see'd 'em... swarms of 'em. Jack: Look, old man... I don't have time to listen to these fishing tales. Zadok: 'Twas a massacre... the jail thrown open... mounds of the dead and the dying. Shooting, screaming, and shouting all across the town square. Come morning, the mess was cleaned up. Old Obed and his family takes charge, they did. Folks were told to keep shy of strangers if we were knowing what was good for us. Jack: Zadok. Who did all this? Who did all the killing? Zadok: 'Cept the old Cap'n was now deeper in debt to his heathen gods. They were hankering for more than just sacrificing... Obed told folks they had to take the Oaths of Dagon. Jack: What the hell are these Oaths? Zadok: You just ask old Waite 'bout Oaths of Dagon. Aye. He took third Oath. Just head over to his hole in Dock Street, then you'll see... for definite. Jack: (to himself) He's given me a key to the town poorhouse... it could come in handy. Jack: Where did Captain Obed Marsh learn of these heathen matters? Zadok: It were in foreign parts the old fool learnt of ways of making gains doing heathen things. He found a tribe of Kanakies in the South Seas led by a savage chief went by name of Walakea. And his tribe never went without food, for they had all the fish they could catch. Old Obed learnt from this Walakea that they's things of this Earth as most folks never heared about. Seems these Kanakies was worshipping undersea gods, with heaps of human sacrificing and other heathen things. But they's were gitting all kind of favors in return. Plenty of fishing, and even gold now and then. Jack: Human sacrifices? Maybe you've had just a bit too much. Zadok: I don't blame you for not believing it, young feller. But, just answer me this... Why'd Cap'n Obed row out to the old Reef of Satan and chant a lot of rites and incantations in the dead of night, so loud you could hear him all over port? He cast something in water that eve out t'other side of Devil's Reef, some kind of thingumajig crafted out of lead... 'twas given to him by Walakea. Jack: So what happened? Zadok: Well... not long after that, smoke started coming out the chimbly's at the old gold refinery. The Marsh family and those that would join with Obed and his ways started prospering, and the Esoteric Order of Dagon came into being with its heathen ceremonies... that shit they do. Jack: What kind of ceremonies? Zadok: Git outa of here, lad! Don't wait for nothing... they'll know now. (Zadok dozes off.) Jack: I think he's had his fill for the night. Zadok... Zadok... Zadok: Curse you, lad, staring at me with them eyes. The old Captain in hell, and he's staying there! He can't git me. I ain't done nothing nor told nobody nothing. Jack: Are you okay, old timer? Zadok: Get off! Leave me be. Jack: (to himself) It's no use. He's totally smoked, and it'll take him all night to sleep that off. I don't suppose he'll be awake any time soon. He reeks of rotting fish and liquor. (Jack checks the closed bar behind Zadok.) Jack: A seedy looking bar called The Garden. Unfortunately, it's shut. From that fine smell of liquor, I'd say it's gotta be a speakeasy. No doubt it's well stocked with bootleg rum. My kinda joint. (Jack goes back through the street. On the way, he runs into the young woman he has talked to earlier.) Woman: Mr. Walters... I must speak with you. Jack: It's Jack... and just hold on there a minute, sweetheart. Are you gonna even tell me your name? Woman: My name's Rebecca Lawrence, and unless you want to join Innsmouth's long list of missing, I'd urge you to follow me. Jack: Missing, huh? Like Burnham? Rebecca: Of that, I'm not sure... you'd be better off asking the Billinghams' daughter, Ruth. She was dating Brian. Jack: What? Who's Ruth? Rebecca: Quickly... we don't have much time... you've got to follow me. (They go into the alley with the church poster.) Rebecca: Jack... Innsmouth is a strange place. There are things that have no business being here. Foul, reeking things. Jack: Strange? Trust me, I'm good with strange. Rebecca: That remains to be seen. But I can help you. (She pulls down the church poster, revealing a secret symbol. It is the eye symbol Jack saw in the cult house six years ago, but it is also surrounded by a star.) Rebecca: My father discovered this strange sign while studying an old manuscript. It seems to ward off the more unusual elements in Innsmouth. Whenever you find one, you can use it to find a moment of sanctuary. Now I must leave, before we're seen together. (Rebecca leaves.) Jack: I've seen that eye-like symbol somewhere before... but never surrounded by a star. (Jack suddenly has a "monster vision" similar to the one he had outside the grocery store. This time he is viewing Broad Street from a balcony. The vision then ends. Jack goes back to the main street and finds Rebecca there. He talks to her.) Rebecca: Jack. We can't be seen talking together. What is it? Jack: Why do you stay in Innsmouth, Rebecca? Rebecca: My grandfather, John Lawrence, was editor of the Innsmouth Courier. He was murdered in the slaughter of forty-six. He had always despised the Marshes and their blasphemous doings, and it was he who led the party out to the Reef that night. They arrested Captain Marsh and his Order and tossed them in the old jailhouse. A few weeks later he was dead. My father saw him die, him and many others... burned alive in the Courier's basement. Jack: All the more grounds to leave. Rebecca: To leave would be to fail my own legacy. I have a duty to protect the good in Innsmouth... at least what little good remains. Jack: Rebecca. Maybe you know. What happened at the Variety Store? Rebecca: Ah... Tom Waite's place. The gossip on the streets is that the store safe holds a great treasure. Since the Order got wind of the rumours, they've been desperate to get their filthy hands on it. But... it seems they can't get close. Jack: Odd... Do you suppose Burnham knew about it? Maybe he pocketed it before breezing out of town? Rebecca: I don't know, Jack. He'd only been in town a few months, and we can't be certain he even managed to leave. Ruth Billingham must be involved in all of this... somehow. She was desperate for a way out of Innsmouth. Jack: What do you know about her? Rebecca: Only that she and Brian were close... much to the Order's disapproval. You should speak to Tom Waite. Find out for certain if the treasure's gone. Jack: Where can I find him? Rebecca: He lives on 803 Dock Street... just by the back of the old town poorhouse. (The conversation ends. Jack talks to her again.) Jack: Where did you say I could find Waite again? Rebecca: He lives on 803 Dock Street, by the back of the poorhouse. (He leaves and returns to the town square. There, he opens the door to the poorhouse with the key given to him by Zadok.) Jack: It's unlocked. (He is at a small yard surrounding the actual poorhouse. At a corner he sees one of the odd-looking citizens talk to a normal woman.) Man: If I see you with the outsider, I'll report you to the Order. Woman: I'll not say nothing. (Jack walks on.) Jack: I have a strange feeling I'm being watched. (He looks up and sees a hooded figure looking down at him from a catwalk between two buildings. Moving on, he comes across a crouched, hooded man by the entrance to the poorhouse. His face cannot be seen and his hands are bandaged. Jack tries to talk to him.) Jack: Do you need any help? (The man does not respond.) Jack: (to himself) Disease is rampant in this town. (Jack enters the poorhouse building. Then he has another monster vision, watching the poorhouse yard from a roof. The vision ends and Jack sees an old man who is looking out the window, talking to himself.) Man: (to himself) Since old Lady Warnes passed away, the food is rotting. But we'll die soon enough. (Jack talks to him.) Jack: What are you looking at there, old timer? Man: Nothing. I'm just looking. What you doing in old Lady Warnes' house, young feller? This hole is for the broke and the dying. Jack: I'm trying to find Dock Street. Man: It's out back of house. Everything in Innsmouth's rotten and dying. Windows boarded up, and all sorts of curious barking and crawling around black cellars and attics. How'd you like to be living in a town like this, feller? Jack: I've been to more welcoming places. Jack: (to himself) I don't think he's been outdoors for years. He isn't gonna know anything. Jack: That Zadok Allen tells some wild tales? Man: Aye... Zadok's a troublemaker, I tell you. If he weren't such a drunken old fool, the Order'd have sorted him out afore now. Jack: Innsmouth must have an intriguing past? Man: Innsmouth's an historic town, stranger. Plenty of history here. Jack: Do you know anything about the robberies of the two stores in town? Man: Nope. Can't help you there, fella. I can only tell you what I seen from this here window, and that ain't much of nothing. (Jack walks on and enters a small dormitory.) Jack: This almshouse is home to the old and the destitute. These beds reek of sweat and urine. (He sees a sick, sleeping woman on one of the beds.) Jack: Her sleep is restless and erratic. I'm not gonna wake her. (He gets out of the dormitory and comes across a dead, insect-infested woman in a hallway.) Jack: The old woman's dead. She must have kicked it a week back... or more. There's no sign of a struggle, or any external injuries. (He leaves the poorhouse by a door at the end of the hallway and comes out at a street, right before a house. He reads the sign on the fence of the house that has the number 803.) Jack: Number 803, Dock Street. (He knocks on the door. A young girl answers after a short while. She also appears to have some of the strange features that most of the citizens have.) Jack: Hello, there, little lady. Girl: Hi... sir... Jack: Are your parents at home? Girl: Daddy's at work, and Mummy's upstairs... in the attic. She's been bad. Jack: I see. So... what's your name, little lady? Girl: Ramona... Jack: Well, Ramona... could you get your Mummy for me? Ramona: Nope... Mummy bites. Daddy says we've got to keep her up there for her own good. Jack: Excuse me? Ramona: When I go near the door, she growls. I don't love Mummy like I love my Daddy. Jack: You don't say... Ramona, I really need to speak to your Daddy. Do you know when he'll be home? Ramona: Soon, I think. You can wait inside if you like. Daddy won't mind. I'm drawing pictures with my crayons. Jack: That would be great, thanks. (Ramona lets him in and walks away.) Jack: I should check the place over while I've got the chance. (He goes and talks to Ramona, who is drawing pictures in a coloring book on the floor.) Jack: What are you drawing, Ramona? Ramona: Pictures of Mummy and Daddy. (He goes upstairs. There, he finds a framed family photo that only shows Thomas Waite and his daughter. The part of the photo where the mother is supposed to be has been torn off.) Jack: It's a recent family photo. The corner's been torn off. I can only see Thomas and Ramona Waite in the picture. (Jack suddenly has a monster vision of a growling creature pacing around an attic. When the vision ends, he goes up the stairs and sees that the door leading to the attic is fortified with planks and strong locks. It also has a small eyeslit. Jack opens the eyeslit and looks around the attic, but he cannot see anything. Suddenly, a monster begins to pound on the door. Jack steps back in fear but the monster manages to break down the door. He can barely see it before it tramples him. The massive monster seems to have a bluish skin and some features of sea animals. It leaves the wounded Jack alone and heads downstairs. Ramona's screams are heard as he blacks out. As he is unconscious, Jack has a flashback of his cell in the mental asylum. He then awakens and treats his light injuries with the medical supplies he carries. Sobs can be heard from downstairs. Jack enters the attic and checks the wall.) Jack: There's blood and scrape marks on the walls. (He finds a notebook on a crate.) Jack: Looks like a diary. --- Diary of Thomas Waite The last entry in the diary is from today. It reads: Another sleepless night. I lay awake, listening to the movements of that... thing... that I married pacing about her locked room. Damn the Esoteric Order of Dagon! Damn the oaths! And damn the town fathers for not hanging Obed Marsh when they had the chance! No, burning him - him and his whole filthy clan! I wish I could just leave, abandon my sham of a marriage, leave the store to rot, and start a new life far, far away. But I'm trapped here. Every time I look at Ramona I know it. Watching her sleep, in her beauty and innocence, my heart feels like breaking. She has no idea of what she will become. Yesterday was her tenth birthday, the change cannot be far off. Her birth gave me such joy - so much that I still use the month, day and year as the four number combination for my safe: in that order, starting clockwise. It is as though I am trying to preserve that date forever, and deny the inevitable horror. I sometimes think of killing her - an act of mercy before she starts to manifest the horror. God forgive me. But she is my daughter, and I could never harm her. She is blameless in all this. When the time comes, Innsmouth will be the only place for her, and until then, I must stay here to watch over her. It is my penance, my atonement for creating her life with... her chosen mother. After she joins... them - if the grief does not kill me - my life will be my own once more. Not that I know how I will have the strength to go on without her. --- (Jack examines a mattress on the floor.) Jack: An old mattress. Whatever was locked up inside this attic... it must have slept here. (He leaves the attic and goes downstairs, finding Thomas Waite holding the mutilated, bloody corpse of Ramona in his arms.) Jack: Oh, God, no... Thomas Waite: They've taken the last thing I loved away from me. Jack: I'm sorry... I didn't realize what was up there. What the hell was that thing? Waite: There's no time to explain. They'll be here soon. Listen to me closely. You've been the talk of the town all day, asking after the Burnham lad. I heard he never made it to Boston... that he was copped by the Order of Dagon. Jack: Did he pocket anything from the store's safe? Waite: Thankfully, no! It's sturdy... he'd never have wrenched it open with a crowbar. There's something in there that needs protecting from the Order. You've got to get it out of Innsmouth. Take the key to the back of my store. The safe combination's in my diary, upstairs. Hurry, Jack. (Waite gives him a key.) Jack: What the hell's in the safe anyway? (Suddenly, two policemen, Ropes and Birch, break into the house.) Ropes: You've gone too far this time, Waite. We're taking you in for murder. You'll swing for this. (Ropes starts to drag him away.) Jack: Wait... he didn't do anything wrong. Birch: He killed his own daughter, his own flesh and blood. There's plenty wrong with that. I'm reckoning you'd do well to mind your own business, stranger. In Innsmouth, we handle things by the old ways. (Birch shoulders Ramona's corpse and the policemen leave with Waite. Before leaving himself, Jack picks up Ramona's coloring book.) Jack: It's Ramona's coloring book. --- Ramona Waite's Coloring Book The drawings that fill Ramona's book are like things from a nightmare. It is hard to believe that a young child could imagine such horrors. There are pictures of strange, unnatural creatures - crudely drawn, but still able to provoke visceral feelings of revulsion. One of them is captioned with the word "Mother" - what can it mean? These profoundly disturbing images raise grave concerns about the girl's state of mind. --- (Jack leaves the house. He runs into Rebecca outside.) Rebecca: Jack! Jack, thank God I've found you! Waite has been arrested for the murder of his own daughter! Jack: I know... it's my fault, Rebecca. Rebecca: What are you talking about, Jack? What's your fault? Jack: There was... something in the attic... some kind of animal, and I let it loose. It's all my fault. The police dragged Waite off. He can't take the fall for this; he's done nothing wrong. We've got to do something! Rebecca: Guilty or not, the Order will see him lynched for it. There's nothing you can do! (Rebecca walks to Waite's house and stands by the fence. Jack talks to her again.) Jack: Before they could drag him off, Tom Waite gave me the key to the Variety Store. Rebecca: If you are going to snoop around in there, be careful! It's just off the main square. There's a back way down a flight of stairs. Jack: He told me to protect whatever's in the safe... to get it out of town. (The conversation ends. Jack talks to her again.) Jack: Rebecca. I saw the oddest tramp... just by the poorhouse. He wore old shawls over his head... but, Jesus... the skin on his arms and hands were... I don't know... tainted in some way. Rebecca: The poor wretch. It's the Innsmouth curse... and probably the latter stages of it. Jack: This curse... plague... or whatever you call it. Is it some form of leprosy? Rebecca: I fear not. Those of the leprous condition at least have the salvation of death upon them. (Jack returns to the town square. The police barricade in Dock Street is now lifted. He talks to some of the normal-looking citizens.) Jack: Did you hear about Thomas Waite? Citizen: You best not asking about that, stranger. Citizen: Waite's killed his daughter. Don't go telling folks otherwise. Jack: (to himself) Talking to that fella isn't gonna crack this case. (He then talks to some of the odd-looking citizens.) Jack: Did you hear about Thomas Waite? Citizen: I heared when they caught him, he was caked in her blood. Citizen: Nothing I want to talk to you about, stranger. Citizen: Murdering his own blood... crazy old fool. Citizen: Aye... Waite'll swing for that. Jack: (to himself) These odd-looking folks are pretty hostile. They don't want to talk to anybody. (Jack goes to the bus in front of the hotel talks to Sargent, the bus driver.) Jack: Will you be leaving soon? Sargent: This bus ain't going nowhere tonight, fella. Engine's blown, you see. Have to wait 'til morning. Jack: Damn! Is there another bus out of Innsmouth? Sargent: Nope. But, there's the hotel behind me. Gilman'll have board for the night. I already told you... it'll be at least tomorrow morn 'fore we can git off. There's the hotel behind me, or the gutter. Take your pick... just leave me alone. Stop bothering me, stranger. Jack: (to himself) There's still some loose ends that need tying up before checking in for the night. (He tries to go to South Street, but the way is blocked by a police line guarded by Birch.) Jack: Constable... what's with the blockade? Birch: You'd better be minding your own affairs. Jack: What have you done with Tom Waite? Birch: Them's police affairs. Ain't nothing to warrant your concern. Jack: (to himself) Chit-chatting to him's gonna get me no place fast. There's no point in talking to him... he's not going to help. (He returns to the town square and enters the Variety Store from the side door by the key given to him by Waite.) Jack: It's unlocked. (Inside, he sees a young woman trying to open the safe.) Jack: You don't look like your standard crook, sweetheart. (The woman is startled and turns to face him.) Woman: Jesus... You crazy sap, who the hell are you? Jack: Jack Walters... Private Detective... and considering your recent breaking and entering, how about I ask the questions? Woman: Have you any idea who I am? Jack: No... and I really don't care. Woman: My family has influential contacts in the Order, so I wound advise you to mind your manners, sir. Jack: I'm from out of town. The Order doesn't hold much sway with me. Woman: Really... out of town, you say? How interesting. I'm Ruth... Ruth Billingham. Jack: Huh... you're Brian's broad? That figures... Ruth: Brian? I don't believe I know a... Brian. Jack: Yeah, right... I've been fed that line a thousand times, and from much better liars than you. Look, Ruth... the rumour round town is that your lover boy's in the hands of the Order. Ruth: What? No... that's not true... they'll have him killed. It was all my idea... I just wanted a clean break from here. Jack: What do you want me to do? Ruth: I don't know... you're the detective, you think of something. I'll be waiting out at the old fishing cannery the next two nights... just past the abandoned railway station to Rowley. When you find him, give him this... he'll know it's from me. (Ruth gives him a photo. The description of it in the inventory reads: "A photo of Brian Burnham with Ruth Billingham. There's a message on the back. It reads 'I love you, BB'." Ruth leaves and Jack opens the safe by using Ramona's birthday as the combination.) Jack: Yes, that's it! (There is an old book in the safe. He takes it.) Jack: The safe holds a heavily bound manuscript... the front is embossed with the words 'Book of Dagon'. --- Book of Dagon This book is hand-written, and heavily bound. Its cover is embossed with the title "The Book of Dagon." It seems to be a religious work, translated from a series of ancient tablets. It tells of an entity called Dagon - apparently some kind of sea-god - and his consort Hydra. They are the greatest of an underwater race called the Deep Ones, who worship them with sacrifices and other rites. The descriptions of the sacrifices are particularly shocking, and there are details of magical spells and other strange rituals. If this incredible manuscript is to be believed, their history stretches back beyond the remotest human origins, into unthinkably remote antiquity. A few individuals are so incredibly old that they have seen continents rise and fall, for they do not die of old age as humans do. Father Dagon and Mother Hydra are such individuals, and are greatly revered for their age and size. Their greatest awe, however, is reserved for a dark god named, Great Cthulhu, who is said to sleep and dream in the underwater city of R'lyeh. The book seems incomplete. The last chapters tail off, as though the translation has not been finished. --- (Jack leaves the store by the side door.) Jack: It's getting late. I'd better find someplace to check in for the night. (He goes over to Waite's house and talks to Rebecca there.) Rebecca: Jack... you're in perilous danger. You've got to get out of town. The Order is onto you. It's not safe for you in Innsmouth anymore. Jack: The bus is not going till morning. Seems like there's a problem with the engine. Rebecca: That's not good, Jack. Jack: Isn't there another way out of this crazy shit hole? Rebecca: There's no friendly folk in Innsmouth with transport. And you can't walk it. The marshlands bounding this port are a full night's journey, and more perilous than the streets and alleys of the town. Jack: Oh, swell. Well... any ideas? Rebecca: The Gilman Hotel's your only option. But bolt your doors, Jack... those taking board don't always see out the night. (Jack leaves her and goes to the hotel. Inside, he has a monster vision of a creature jumping down onto the street from a roof. He walks to the lobby and overhears a conversation between Gilman and Sargent at the desk. He listens in on them secretly from the corner.) Gilman: Evening, Joe. Sargent: Did you hear Waite's killed his own daughter, his own flesh and blood? Damn shame. Gilman: Maybe... maybe not. Sargent: What you mean maybe, Charlie? I see'd Elliot dragging him off... caked in blood, he were. Gilman: Aye. But Birch reckoned she were ripped open, Joe. I don't reckon Tom'd have the strength for that sort of killing. Sargent: I ain't got much time for talking, Charlie. I got instructions from Order to make certain the outsider don't leave tonight. Gilman: The strange fella you brought into Innsmouth couple of hours back? Sargent: Yeah. Gilman: Heh heh. I'm reckoning on him asking for lodgings here. (Sargent leaves. Jack goes to the desk and talks to Gilman.) Jack: It seems the bus has been delayed till morning. Gilman: Has it, sir? That's an awful shame. Jack: Do you have board for the night? Gilman: We have plenty on the top floor of the house. Nice views over town, I'm told. (While the conversation is going, Jack has a monster vision of someone plunging a hatchet down onto a heart in an office.) Jack: Err... great... that sounds just swell. (He has another vision of the same person closing the door to the office. This person seems to be Gilman, coming out of the back office near the desk.) Gilman: Hey, you... you all right there, sir? You're starting to look kinda funny there for a while, face as white as bone and eyes as black as coal... like you'd seen a ghost or something. (Jack has another vision of the man coming behind the counter. It is clearly Gilman.) Jack: I'm fine, thanks. It's just the sea air round these parts... makes me queasy. Gilman: The Innsmouth breeze is not for you outsiders. (Constable Birch comes into the lobby. He stops for a moment when he sees Jack there.) Birch: Charlie... can you come with me? I need to be telling you something... privately. Gilman: Excuse me, sir. The Innsmouth law don't like to be kept hanging about. I'll be right back with you shortly. (Gilman leaves with Birch. Jack has another monster vision of a monster jumping down from a roof onto a street. After the vision, Jack sneaks behind Gilman and Birch and listens in on their conversation at the entrance.) Gilman: What's it you're wanting, Nathan? Birch: Whereabouts you lodging the outsider? Gilman: Top of the house... plenty of rooms up there. Heh heh... probably four- oh-one. Birch: Instructions from the Order are to make certain he don't leave the hotel. That's a direct command of Robert Marsh himself... they're reckoning that the outsider's seen too much of Innsmouth ways. Gilman: You can tell Robert he can always rely on Charlie to see things done properly. Birch: Aye... you'd better be certain of that. Gilman: What you done with old Waite? Birch: That's a matter for the Order to settle. He's in jail for the present. They're out looking for her now. Gilman: Something was always wrong with that Tom Waite. Not right betwixt ears, if you get my meaning. Birch: Well, if he don't swing for it. They'll probably take him out to the Reef... make proper use of him there. Gilman: If you ain't needing anything more, I'll be getting back to my... work. Birch: I think we're done for now, Charlie. (Jack goes to them.) Gilman: I'll be with you in just a moment, sir. If you'd mind waiting in the lobby. Birch: There's a curfew tonight. Command of the Order of Dagon. (Jack goes back to the lobby and takes a key from behind the counter.) Jack: It's the key to the back office. (He opens the door to the back office with the key.) Jack: It's unlocked. (He enters the office. The room is quite messy. There are pieces of broken glass lying around, the cabinets are overturned, and the rug on the floor is smeared with blood. Jack examines it.) Jack: The rug is caked in dried-up blood and guts. The stench is sickening. (He goes into the adjoining room of the office. Inside, there are severed body parts, heads, internal organs and bones, kept in glass jars or in the open drawers of the cabinets.) Jack: This office is a mess. There are severed body parts strewn all over the office. What in God's name has been happening in this place? (He checks the desk, on which there is a hatchet plunged into a heart. It is what Jack has seen in his vision.) Jack: That hatchet is encrusted with blood. I'm not touching it. I've seen this before... just now, when I was talking to Gilman. (There is a notebook on the desk, near the heart and the hatchet. Jack takes it.) Jack: I wonder what secrets this book holds. --- Post Mortem Records She were a lively one and no mistake. I kept her going as long as I could, for the music she were making. Such a pair of lungs. And after she were done, I found those lungs on her look as good as they sounded. Maybe I'll keep them. Her liver was particular sweet as well. - I never much wanted to go to New York, but if they all talk as much as this one I reckon I aint missing much. Soon as he woke and saw the knives, he was away talking and pleading and bargaining for his life. All them words made me dizzy, and I had to take his tongue first to stop him. In future I better wait a while after they eaten dinner, for his innards stank awful. - The bones was nearly all out before he died. I was real careful around the arteries, so as he didn't lose any more blood than could be helped, and he lasted a lot longer for it. The flesh moved on its own as he tried to work his arm, but with the bones gone there weren't nothing it could do, just twitch. I took it out the strap so it could move free and I watched. The new gag worked much better and he was more quiet than the last. --- (Jack returns to the lobby from the back office and closes the door. Gilman comes back.) Gilman: If you'd just follow me, sir. I'll show you to your lodgings. (They go upstairs. Gilman talks on the way.) Gilman: I heared there was a killing over at old Waite's house tonight. They reckon the old fool killed his own daughter. Caked head to toe in her blood, they says... had to be dragged away screaming and crying. I reckon there'll be a lynching for what he done. (When they get upstairs, Gilman opens the door to a hallway with his keys. Then they enter the room where Jack is going to stay.) Gilman: You're still looking pallid, sir. You're needing to have yourself some rest. Sleep well, and keep down the racket. Us in Innsmouth are quiet folk. (Jack has a monster vision of Gilman shooting a woman with a shotgun and then slashing at her with hatchet in this room. Gilman has already left the room when he comes back to reality.) Jack: I just don't feel safe going to sleep yet. (He bolts the door to the hallway and another door that leads to the adjacent room.) Jack: Better... not exactly safe, but the best I'm gonna get in this infernal town. (He then goes to bed.) --- The Gilman Hotel February 7, 1922 Early Evening Innsmouth turned out to be more dilapidated, depressed and unwelcoming than initially expected. The stench of rotten fish fills the air, while poverty and disease lie festering in every cobbled back-street. Only a few of the inhabitants have been at all co-operative; the others are evasive, and sometimes downright hostile. My detective's instinct tells me they're trying to hide something. Of course, I could simply be prejudiced by their look and manners - they're almost ugly enough to get me believing those local tales of the "Innsmouth Taint." Even so, I've been able to make some progress. Finding Ruth Billingham was a lucky break. She's convinced lover boy is still in one piece, and being held in the town Jailhouse. Rebecca Lawrence is clearly afraid of something. She doesn't come across as the type that scares easily - but then, I guess she's not afraid enough to leave. She seems more worried about me. Then there's Zadok Allen, the old rummy. He was willing to talk, all right. I wish I knew whether he turned to drink because of what he saw, or whether he saw things because he was drinking. The Order of Dagon some heathen religion, brought back from the South Seas by Obed Marsh? Rituals on Devil's Reef? Those who wouldn't join massacred by some kind of monsters in 1846? It's all so far-fetched. But what else could explain the thing that charged out from Thomas Waite's attic? If I hadn't spoken with Thomas himself, I'd be sure I was seeing things. Whatever's really going on, this place gives me the creeps. The dreams are becoming stronger. I seem to spend each night in weird, fantastic landscapes, with immense buildings like no architecture I've ever seen. And my body in the dreams - it's so strange I can't begin to describe it. Maybe it's some buried memory of all the occult stuff I studied when I - wasn't myself. And this spooky vision thing is acting up worse than ever. Used to be, I could kind of see what people were thinking sometimes, but now it's going crazy. It's like someone's watching me all the time, tracking me from the rooftops and the shadows. I'm so edgy I can hardly think straight. If only I could get some decent bourbon in this miserable town. I need to track down Brian Burnham, and fast - the sooner I get out of here, the better. I'll make an early start in the morning. --- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.5. Shadow Out of Time 1 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Horror - the true horror that paralyzes the mind and scars it with nightmares - is never truly healed. Even if the mind draws a protective veil over unbearable memories, still one is left with an impaired ability to withstand such horror again." (Jack has a flashback of the end of the Prologue chapter. The giant creatures come out of the portal. Then everything goes black, and a mysterious voice is heard.) Voice: The great city of Pnakotus. Rest now, Jack. You are safe. Voice: What was in the light, Jack? Where do you want to go? (He is in a large, strange chamber with several of the same creatures around him.) Voice: We are your history, Jack... and your future... Jack: I don't understand. Voice: You will... in time... (Then the vision switches to Gilman and a group of armed citizens talking at the front desk in the lobby.) Citizen: Gilman... where have you put the outsider? Gilman: Top of the house... room four-oh-one. (Gilman gives them a key.) Citizen: Come on. Let's have him. (Jack has a vision with the creatures all around him in the large chamber. His view spins and the vision goes back to the hotel. The citizens are seen opening the door to the hallway that leads to Jack's room.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.6. Attack of the Fishmen --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I scoffed when I first heard it said that there are things Humanity is not meant to know, assuming it to be a clumsy ploy by the illuminated to guard their wisdom and power from others. But now - too late - I know that it is true." (The citizens approach Jack's room in his vision.) Citizen: There's his room... just keep the noise down. Citizen: Here... take the keys. (Jack wakes up coughing. The citizens can be heard from the hallway.) Citizen: Curses... It's locked... probably bolted on t'other side. Citizen: He's awake in there. I can hear him moving about. Citizen: Break the door down, you damn fool. (They start to pound on the door to the room.) Citizen: Hurry up! (Jack runs into the adjoining room, closes and bolts the door after him.) Citizen: Quick... I see him heading for four-oh-two, check the door. (In the next room, he pushes away the bookcase before the middle door and runs into the other room.) Citizen: The next room, quickly! The door won't be bolted! (Jack closes and bolts the door behind him. Then he goes and bolts the door to the hallway. After that, he runs into the next room, closes and bolts the door. He then pushes a bookcase in front of the hallway door because the bolt is broken. There are no more rooms left to run to. The citizens start to pound on the hallway door.) Citizen: Stop. Citizen: Outsider, stop! Citizen: We've got him. (Jack opens the window and leaps out to the balcony.) Citizen: He's clumb out the window. (He then jumps across to the balcony of the adjacent building. He goes through a door, closes it behind him and pushes an old clock in front of it. He is now in a long hallway.) Citizen: He's on t'other side... shoot him. (Citizens open fire on the hallway from the windows of the hotel. ) Citizen: We have him now. (Jack crawls across the hallway to avoid the bullets. The citizens break through the door as he reaches the end of the hallway.) Citizen: Don't let him get away. (He goes through a door, goes down one flight of stairs at the stairwell. There are other citizens on the floor below, so he does not descend another flight of stairs.) Citizen: He's up there! Citizen: After him! (He runs into a nearby hallway and goes into a room to the left. There is a sleeping woman on the bed there. She wakes up when Jack comes in and starts to cry. Her skin is very scaly and she is completely bald, obviously she is in the latter stages of the Innsmouth curse.) Jack: Oh shit! She's hysterical... I'd better get moving. (He opens a window and hops out. He then jumps across to the fire escape of the other building.) Citizen: I see him! (Jack climbs the ladder at the fire escape and gets to a rooftop.) Citizen: Don't let him get away! Citizen: He's here. (Jack walks across a plank to another rooftop.) Citizen: He's going across the roof. (He climbs another ladder and gets to the roof of a warehouse. Citizens pursuing him climb onto this roof too. Jack finds a hole on the roof with a ladder and climbs down, finding himself in a room of the warehouse. He then sneaks behind some wooden crates. There are two guards here, patrolling the building. Jack overhears a conversation between them.) Guard 1: The racket outside has stopped. You reckon that he's been caught? Guard 2: I'm not certain... keep your looking. (Jack sneaks past them and gets to another part of the roof by an open window. He crawls on the roof not to be seen and reaches a vent. When he enters it, he has a monster vision of guards talking in the large warehouse area below.) Guard: They've flushed him off the roof. He's got to be somewhere in here. Guard: Spread out. Search the floor. Guard: He's hiding somewhere. (A hole is seen in the vision. Jack drops down from the vent and slowly crawls to the hole.) Jack: The flooring is damaged here. The hole leads under the floorboards. (He hops into the hole and, crawling among some rats, comes to a small ladder. He climbs up and reaches an office. He then has a monster vision of the warehouse.) Guard: Curses... we lost him! Guard: Open the front door! In the name of the Order of Dagon, find the outsider and kill him! (They open the front door and some of the men leave the warehouse. The vision ends.) Jack: Shit! This Order really wants me dead. I'd better watch my step. (He sees a storage crate behind a door in the office.) Jack: A storage crate has been pushed in front of the door. (He pushes the crate out of the way and goes through the door. He is again in the warehouse. He quietly leaves by the now open front door and comes to the streets. There are many armed citizens on patrol. He sneaks through the dark alleys, avoiding contact with them. In a narrow street, he has a monster vision of a guard watching the street from a balcony. Going on some more, he sees the man from the vision on a balcony.) Jack: Christ, they're everywhere. I need to keep my head down. (After much sneaking, he comes to another warehouse, which looks abandoned. Suddenly, a scream and a loud crash are heard. A man then begins to shout in the building.) Man: William! Say something, William! Are you all right? Say something! (Jack enters the building. A normal-looking man lies dead on the floor whil another man looks down at him from the upper floor, which has just collapsed.) Man: William! For God's sake! Jack: Your friend is dead. Man: Jesus Christ, no! You're a fool, Willie. I told you it warn't safe in there. Jack: Look, fella. I know you're upset, but I really need some help. Man: Ah... you're the outsider they're hunting tonight. You don't have a hope, stranger. The Order's mob'll be every way you turn! Down sewers is the only place that them folks balk at venturing... and for good cause at that, mind you. Jack: I can cope with foul air; it'll be a change from the stink of dead fish. Man: You're not getting my meaning, stranger. There is rumouring of real horrors in the black dankness 'neath these streets. Maybe them folk with the taint are devils, but at least they're devils of this Earth. You ever hear tell of a shaggoth, stranger? Jack: Just tell me where I can get into the sewers. Man: Aye, right. You've been warned. Just t'other side of this here building is a road leading down to a filtration plant. There's an open sewer pit down there. Good luck, stranger. (The man leaves. Jack checks the corpse.) Jack: He died recently... the body's still warm. The building collapsed... from that height, he never stood a chance. (He leaves the building through a hallway and comes to another part of the town. He is in a street that slopes down to the filtration plant that can be seen from where he is. However, there are also three guards down there.) Jack: The filtration plant must be down there. But there's no way I'll be able to sneak past them without cover. (He goes up the street in the opposite direction. There is a parked truck there, held in position by a brick under one of the front tires.) Jack: Seems like a dangerous place to park. (He tries to enter the cabin.) Jack: The door's locked... I can't get in the cabin. To get it moving, I'll need to figure out something else. (There are some large doors behind the truck. He examines them.) Jack: I won't be able to force my way through these doors. These doors appear to be bolted securely from the other side. (He also examines some dead animals hanging by the doors.) Jack: It's a slaughter house... the stench of rotting flesh is overwhelming. Seems like the people of Innsmouth don't care much for the quality of their meat. This carcass must have been decomposing for a few weeks. (He then checks out the back of the truck.) Jack: This would give me some good cover, if I could only get it to move. (He removes the brick from under the tire and jumps into the back of the truck. It slowly begins to move.) Jack: I'm not so sure this was one of my better ideas. (The truck goes down the street, accelerating. The guards notice it.) Guard: He's in the truck! (The truck breaks through the fence of the filtration plant and falls down. Jack wakes up with the guards firing down at him from above.) Guard: Kill him! Guard: Don't let him escape! Guard: Take him down! (There is a giant fan at the sewer entrance right next to him. He examines it.) Jack: The fan's old and rusted... the sewers mustn't have been maintained for some time. This old drainage pipe must lead down into the main sewers. If I could only find some way to stop this fan, I'd be able to get out of this jam. (He then finds a metal bar nearby.) Jack: A sturdy-looking metal bar. (He tries to stop the fan with the bar. One of the wings gets broken and it slows down.) Jack: The fan's broken. If I time it just right, I should be able to slip through. It's risky, but anything's better than giving those bastards shooting practice. I'm sitting real pretty down here; I've got to get into the sewers. (He crouches and slips through the fan, finally getting into the sewers. He advances through the sewers to a catwalk. Suddenly, the crying of a girl is heard. Jack follows the voice and sees Ramona behind some metal bars.) Jack: Hello? (She runs away.) Jack: No... Wait... (Jack continues on his way. He sees some greenish brown sludge covering the walls and the floor.) Jack: What the hell is all this... stuff? (He steps on it. It hurts.) Jack: Shit! It's corrosive! (Some unnatural gurgles are heard. Jack has a monster vision of a creature looking from underwater at a metal grating above.) Jack: There's something down here. (He goes some steps and sees a skinned corpse above a flight of stairs with a trail of blood behind him. Jack examines the corpse.) Jack: His skin's been corroded from his body. He must have died in agony. He must have dragged himself up the stairs; I wonder what he was escaping from? His body is covered in this slimy muck. (He goes by a room with two levers, to another room with a tank full of sludge.) Jack: The tank's full of slimy water. There's no way I'm getting in. (He tinkers with the levers in the previous room so that clean water replaces the sludge. He then has another monster vision of the monster watching the grating. After that, he examines the water tank.) Jack: The water looks reasonably clean... I just need to drain it away. (He drains it away with a crank in the room. He hops down into the tank and follows the water tunnel to a large pit full of corpses and skeletons and insects. There is a metal grating in the middle. Suddenly, a body is dumped down onto it from above. Jack has a vision of his cell in the mental asylum, filled with the same insects from the pit. The vision ends, and he sees that the dropped corpse belongs to Zadok Allen.) Jack: Oh God... it's the old fisherman, Zadok Allen. (Suddenly, some monstrous tentacles snatch the body away through the grating.) Jack: This must be the Order's punishment for him talking to me. I wonder how many others have been dumped down here over the years for defying the Order of Dagon. (He looks down the grating.) Jack: Looks like the main sewer pipe... the grating has been heavily damaged. I can't make out anything in that blackness. (He climbs up through the pit by some ladders and examines it from above.) Jack: What the hell is this place? It's like some sort of mass grave. It looks as if scavangers have started picking at the bodies. Poor wretches. Their remains left to rot in this hellish pit. The odor of death and rotting flesh is overpowering. (At the top, Ramona is heard whispering.) Ramona: There are things here, things that I don't like. I miss my Daddy. (Jack advances a bit in the new sewer tunnels above. To the right he suddenly sees Ramona behind some bars, but she disappears. He goes on to the left through a damaged sewer gate.) Jack: Someone... or something... cut through this sewer gate. (He proceeds and jumps down onto a scaffolding. Behind bars he sees the same sludge on the walls in another area.) Jack: There's slime all over the walls... the quicker I can get out of here the better. (He avoids some poisonous big spiders and enters another tunnel. Two citizens are overheard talking above in the streets.) Citizen 1: They lost him over t'other side of town. They reckon that he escaped into the sewers? Citizen 2: Yeah... that's what I was told. Citizen 1: Then he's already dead. Why all the bothering? We should just go. Citizen 2: 'Til we hears different from Marsh hisself, we ain't going no place. Citizen 1: We could be here till morn. Citizen 2: You're always whining. Maybe you should take the matter up with the Order of Dagon. Citizen 1: Don't be talking foolish. Citizen 2: Shut up, then! We'll never git him with your constant chattering. (Jack goes to a ladder and sees some metal grating.) Jack: The grate doesn't seem to be fastened securely. The grating is loose; it hasn't been tightly fixed in place. (He shakes the grating, making noise. The citizens hear it and come to investigate.) Citizen: What was that? Did you hear it? Citizen: Can you see anything? Citizen: I can't hear anything else. (Jack keeps doing it on other ladders and lures them away.) Citizen: I heared something over there. Citizen: It come from over there. Citizen: Are you down there, outsider? (Jack then goes out by the first ladder while they are away. Outside, he sees a burning building.) Jack: It's just been left to burn. The building must have been on fire for a few hours. The heat is still intense. (He enters the building by the fire escape and gets to the second floor. There is a crank here.) Jack: The fire will have weakened some of the wooden struts. I had better watch my footing... this floor doesn't look too sturdy. (He activates crank and clears the entrance by lifting a platform that was blocking it. He then goes out into an alley and enters a small shed with gardening tools. He examines them.) Jack: These gardening tools are too blunt to be used for weapons. I wouldn't have figured the folks of this town to be interested in gardening. (He goes back into the alley and then goes into another building, getting to a well-lit hallway. He goes upstairs and sees a painting that depicts the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.) Jack: It's a strong image of Christian iconography. I can't see this meeting with the Order's approval. (He then finds a diary in a small room.) Jack: It's the minister's journal. --- Diary of the Church Minister The evil began in 1846 - the same year Obed Marsh was first arrested, and the same year he founded his blasphemous order. It is hard not to assume a connection. As the congregation here diminished, the townsfolk began to develop the unnatural characteristics that outsiders have to come to call "the Innsmouth look." It started in the Marsh family, but spread across the town. For want of any other, I coined the name "ichthyosis" for the condition, and began corresponding with a few medical men I had known in my student days. I was unable to determine the nature of the condition, how it spread, and whether I was in danger from it. Although my flock had deserted me, I could not desert them - I had to stay and fight this evil, or at least try to understand it. They do seem to avoid the ancient sigil that I discovered in one dusty tome, which called it "the Elder Sign." Though it troubles me to rely on this instead of the Cross, it does appear to offer more protection. Soon, it became apparent that the condition was regarded as some sort of blessing by the adherents of Marsh's ungodly faith. I noticed that those most heavily disfigured by it commanded respect from the others, and from time to time I overheard snatches of conversation about "the pure blood" - which, from their context, seemed not to refer to the blood of those untainted and healthy-looking. There was talk of marriages, but no-one came to me to be wed. Wives were sometimes mentioned, but never named. They seemed not to be from Innsmouth, and yet no-one has moved to the town since Marsh's reign began. As I walk the streets at dusk - which I seldom do, except at great need - I seem to hear strange noises from unlit, curtained upper rooms in the town's houses. I hear of births, but conduct no baptisms. Those few who shun Marsh's temple are fearful, and I am fearful too. We must be strong in our faith and in our lives, for we are all that remains of the true Innsmouth, and its only hope of awakening from this nightmare. --- (Jack then goes downstairs and sees Rebecca praying at a fireplace in a large room. He enters and she greets him.) Rebecca: Jack! You're alive... thank God. Jack: Just barely... the Order has got half this blasted town on my heels. Rebecca: I warned you, Jack... I told you the Order wouldn't stand for your interfering. Jack: Save it, sweetheart. You found anything more on Brian? Rebecca: He never made it out of town. The Order has him holed up in the old jailhouse... until he's needed. Jack: Needed? Needed for what? Rebecca: Sacrifice, Jack... to Dagon. They'll take him out to Devil's Reef, and he'll never be seen again. Jack: Dagon? Sacrifice? This is crazy talk. Innsmouth's old fishing tales have muddled your mind. But... I don't want another death on my conscience. Where's this jailhouse? Rebecca: It's out the back of the merchant's bank, just past the old water tower. We'd better keep off the streets... the tainted are roaming everywhere. There's a secret crypt under the church that leads out to someplace safe... we can use that. My father built it when he was minister. Jack: Okay. Get your father, and let's go. Rebecca: I can't... I mean... he wouldn't pledge himself to Dagon... he called it blasphemy. The Order found him and... and... Jack: Jesus... I'm sorry Rebecca... Did your father ever show you how to get into this crypt? Rebecca: No. But he gave me this. I think it'll help. (Rebecca gives him a postcard. Its description in the inventory reads: "An old postcard pierced with four handmade holes.") --- Postcard On the back of the postcard there is a handwritten religious verse. It must be a coded message. It reads: I ring the bells unto Thy glory, O Lord; From the lowest unto the highest. And by the sacrament of baptism Shall I enter into your secrets. The postcard must also serve some other purpose. It is pierced by four handmade holes, each circled with a number of arrows. The arrows seem to signify some sort of order. --- (Suddenly, some armed citizens break the window and open fire on Jack and Rebecca.) Jack: Shit! They've found us. We have to leave now! Rebecca: The church is this way. Follow me. Citizen: We knows you're in there, outsider. (Rebecca opens the door. The church is across the street.) Rebecca: God help us! We'll have to make a run for it. (Rebecca runs towards the church.) Rebecca: Follow me, Jack! (They get to the door of the church under fire.) Rebecca: We'll be protected inside. (She opens the door.) Rebecca: Quick, Jack! (Rebecca gets shot and dies.) Jack: Damn it, Rebecca! Noooo! Citizen: Don't let him get away! (Jack enters the church, closing the doors behind him.) --- Church Refuge February 8, 1922 Night There's no going back now. The locals want me dead, that's clear enough, and they can't afford to let me get away now. Even in the sanctuary of the church, I don't feel safe, though it looks like Rebecca was right - they're not making any effort to break in like they did at the hotel. I'm going to miss her. Still, at last I have a lead on Brian Burnham. Rebecca was convinced he is alive, and being held the town's Jailhouse. But where is the Jailhouse? According to Rebecca's directions, I need to find the Merchants' Bank, and then the Water Tower, in order to reach it. That's easier said than done, though - those things have me pretty much trapped in here. Eventually one of them may think of burning the place down, or they may overcome their fear of the place and come busting in. I need to find that secret way out. Rebecca said her old man's postcard would help, but I don't know how. I just hope I don't have to go back through those sewers. There's something down there, for sure. I thought it was just another tall tale at first, but I could feel it. And that slime... it was like a trail from something... something not natural. What did that hick call it? ... a shoggoth? The Order's grip on the folk of this town is strong, and they'll stop at nothing. Rebecca's murder proves that. And old Zadok - looks like they beat him to death for talking to me. I should have left the poor old rummy alone. --- (Jack is in the church. The citizens cannot enter because of the eye sign with the star drawn on a wall inside and shout threats at him from outside.) Citizen: You can't git away! Citizen: Open these doors, outsider. Citizen: Just give yourself up, outsider. The Order'll have mercy on your rotten soul. Citizen: You're trapped... there's no place you can run. Citizen: Give yourself up, outsider. There's no way out of there. Citizen: If you're willin' to come out now, we'll not gut the gal's carcass. (The church is damaged, most of the pews are overturned. There are also blood stains on the pulpit.) Jack: The defacement of the church must have happened many months ago. The pulpit is stained with blood. (A dead man is hanging from the giant cross above the pulpit.) Jack: It must be intended as a warning to the Christians of Innsmouth. It's the minister of the church... he's been hung up and disembowelled, as some sort of obscene spectacle. (Jack checks the baptismal pool near the pulpit. A section looks like a trapdoor.) Jack: There's a raised section of tiling in the baptismal pool. There is a strong draft of air coming from the drainage pipe. The tile appears to be on runners... it won't budge. (He goes up to the belfry and rings the bells in order according to the code on the postcard. The trapdoor in the baptismal pool opens. He gets down and goes through into some catacombs. There are strange markings on the walls.) Jack: There are markings everywhere... it must have been down here that Rebecca's father figured out that mysterious sign. (He proceeds and enters a small room that looks like a private study. He takes a book from the desk.) Jack: It's a 'Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages' in Innsmouth. --- Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages 1844 Births: 7; 6 baptized, 1 died. Deaths: 6; 5 buried, 1 lost at sea. Marriages: 5. 1845 Births: 9; all baptized. Deaths: 7; 5 buried, 2 lost at sea. Marriages: 3. 1846 Births: 12, all baptized. Deaths: 243; 235 in the disturbances and the epidemic. 240 buried, 3 lost at sea. Marriages: 2. 1847 Births: probably 7; no baptisms. Deaths: 3 reported; 2 burials. One coffin upon being accidentally dropped broke open and was found to contain rocks and logs. This was not buried. Marriages: none registered. 1848 Births: none registered, probably 10; no baptisms. Deaths: 5 reported; 1 funeral, others not certain. Marriages: none registered. 1849 Births: none registered, thought to be 7 or 8; no baptisms. Deaths: none registered, 4 believed; no funerals. Marriages: none registered. --- (He then checks the clipboard near the desk. It appears that there are newspaper clips on it.) Jack: All these articles relate to the deaths of Innsmouth citizens. In the clippings, the year 1846 has been circled several times. (There is a small stone plaque on the desk in the room. He examines it.) Jack: A small stone plaque engraved with a series of numbers. The numbers seem to be random. (He puts the postcard on it and the holes show some particular numbers.) Jack: The postcard fits exactly over the plaque. I can see some of the numbers. (He then opens the safe in the room with those numbers.) Jack: Yes, that's it! I've cracked it. (There is a cross in the safe. Jack takes it.) Jack: The safe holds a stone cross. (He continues and comes to the end of the catacombs with some coffins and a stone disc on the wall that has the shape of an inverted cross.) Jack: There is a small stone disc here, hollowed out with the carving of an upside-down cross. The disc is raised a little from the rock... I can't move it by hand. The edges of the disc are slightly worn. (He puts the cross he took from the safe into the disc. The disc turns to normal position and one of the coffins is lowered, revealing a secret passage into the sewers. Jack again goes into the sewers and Ramona's voice is again heard, albeit intelligibly. At an intersection Jack finds has a vision of the asylum cell. It feels more real than usual, and he moves around a bit in the cell before coming back to reality. Eventually, he climbs a ladder that leads out of the sewers and finds himself in a street near the church. Two citizens are talking nearby.) Citizen 1: Keep your eyes peeled. He'll maybe pass this way. Citizen 2: He'll have to come out sometime. Citizen 1: Don't matter. There's only one way out of church... he's trapped and can't git away. I don't reckon on it being long now. Marsh's got many men stationed all over the town. Citizen 2: Why such a fussing over this outsider? Citizen 1: Dunno. Just keep your eyes peeled. (There is a bank nearby and Jack enters it to avoid being seen by the men. However, the building is on fire. One of the citizens outside is heard speaking.) Citizen: We should take a look inside of the bank. (Jack makes his way upstairs, avoding the fire while a few citizens search the ground floor. He eventually gets to the vault area. The boxes nearby are empty. He examines them.) Jack: Nothing of any value remains. The deposit boxes have been ransacked long ago. (The vault itself is also open and empty.) Jack: The main safe is empty. (He goes upstairs and starts to walk on some planks to get to the other side of the building. One of the planks breaks down.) Jack: Shit... Some of the planks look weak, I better watch my step. (He leaves the bank, getting to a balcony that sees the water tower. He then has a monster vision of citizens on the ground.) Citizen: In the name of the Order of Dagon, find the outsider and kill him! (Jack descends a ladder and jumps across to the ladder of the tower. Getting to the top of the tower, he hops across to a balcony and then jumps to another roof from there. On the roof, he enters the building from the open attic window and then goes into another house by an open door on a balcony. In this building, he heads downstairs and runs into Mackey.) Mackey: Hello, Jack. Jack: Mackey? Have you been tailing me? Mackey: You could say that. Drop me a line next time you're planning on taking the stealthy approach. I'll watch and take notes... ha ha. Jack: Funny. I don't get it, Mackey... what's your angle on all of this? Mackey: I already told you. I work for the government. I've got friends at the top... friends who've invested a lot of time and dough in Innsmouth. They don't want to see their investigation set back by some private op turning up the heat with some mindless caper. Jack: If you mean the Burnham boy... they're gonna kill him, Mackey... you know it, and I know it. I can't let that happen. Mackey: You're not thinking about breaking him out? He's just a punk, Jack. Jack: Where's the jailhouse, Mackey? Mackey: Very well... it's your funeral. The window over there to your left looks over the jail back alley. Jack: See you 'round, Mackey. (Jack talks to him again before leaving.) Jack: What can you tell me about the Order? Mackey: They control all aspects of life in Innsmouth, Jack. Law, business, religion, politics... everything. Robert Marsh is the man at the top. He's a real recluse. No one born out of Innsmouth has set eyes on him in decades. Jack: The government has nothing on this Marsh fella? Mackey: Only that he's an intensely religious man, obsessed with fanaticism and witchcraft. He's evil, Jack... rumours round these parts reckon even Beelzebub himself lies in fear of Robert Marsh. Jack: What about the rest of the Marsh family? Mackey: Well, there's Sebastian... Robert's elder brother. He's the manager of the Marsh Refinery... he's more of a businessman. There's gossip on the streets of a feud between the brothers. Jack: Hold on a second, Mackey. I thought Jacob Marsh was the refinery manager? Mackey: Well... yes, he is. Jacob is Sebastian's son. He handles the day-to-day running of the place, but the real power lies with Sebastian. Jack: Where's the jailhouse? Mackey: At the end of the main corridor... just through the window. Jack: Thanks, Mackey. (Jack hops out of the window at the end of the corridor.) --- Jailbreak February 8, 1922 Early Hours Everything in this god-forsaken town is out to kill me. Around every corner, some hideously tainted thug is searching. I've managed to avoid them so far, though poor Rebecca wasn't so lucky. It's starting to look hopeless. Only Mackey doesn't seem to want me dead - and maybe he has an ulterior motive. His mention of investors in this town - and his knowledge of the Esoteric Order - clearly point to some level of involvement. Still, he told me where to find Brian Burnham, and he seems to pose no immediate threat. Even so, his apparent understanding of things in Innsmouth is unnerving. Am I becoming paranoid? After what I have seen and experienced, how could I know? The strain is certainly having an effect on my nerves. I'm beginning to hear and see things that can't possibly be real. I need to ignore these distractions if I want to get out of here alive. My best chance is to find Brian and break him out of the Jailhouse. To do that, I'll need a plan. --- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.7. Jailbreak --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Some say that the worst monsters reside in the imagination, drawn from the greatest fears of those who imagine them. I say there are horrors beyond mortal imagining, and they are far worse. And I have looked on both." (Jack is in an alley. He climbs a ladder to a catwalk. He makes some noises as he climbs, and the voice of a guard is heard.) Guard: What was that? (The guard comes into view with his flashlight, searching for Jack. It is Constable Ropes. Jack keeps his head down on the catwalk.) Ropes: Probably nothing. (Ropes walks away and Jack drops down into the alley. He then has a monster vision of a street with a burning car, viewed from a roof. After the vision, he proceeds around a corner and sees Ropes and Birch talking. It is clear that this is the front yard of the jailhouse.) Birch: You got anything to report? Ropes: Nope... We should be out there, Nathan. Helping with the hunt. Birch: You have your orders. We're to stay with the sacrifices. They'll yield us much favor with the Order. Ropes: I'a Dagon. The chief's always up there napping. Why ain't he out here with us? Birch: His time draws nigh. Martin can't shut his eyes properly no more... he'll take to the water soon. Then it'll be me taking charge round here... and things'll be done different. Now git inside... and mind that you don't forget to bolt the door. (Birch leaves, and Ropes goes into the jailhouse. Jack walks on and sees a crowbar.) Jack: A crowbar. That could come in handy. (He takes it and then checks a wanted poster near the door. It reads: "Brian Burnham, Wanted for Theft".) Jack: A wanted poster for Brian Burnham. (He then tries to open the door to the jailhouse.) Jack: The door's bolted shut. (Jack continues on the way Birch has gone. There are cell windows on the wall. He checks the first one. The bars are broken. Jack: Some of the bars have been damaged, but it's still sturdy. It's probably from an old break-out. I won't be able to get in through this window. (An inmate in the next cell hears him and calls to him.) Inmate: Who's there? I can hear you. (Jack comes to his window. A young man sits inside, his face slightly stained with blood.) Jack: Shhhh... I'm a private detective. My name's Jack Walters. I'm looking for Burnham. Inmate: Look fella... I'm Burnham. What the hell is it you want? Jack: Why did you knock off the First National and the Variety Store? Brian: What? I'm the manager of the First National. Why the blazes would I rob my own store? They haven't even charged me with anything. Look... just clear off before you get me in trouble. If Garrison spots you, he'll scream this joint down. Jack: Garrison? Brian: Yeah... Henry Garrison, he's the crazy fella in the next cell. Whenever he throws a fit, one of Martin's mob are all over this alley like a rash. Especially tonight... they seem incredibly twitchy, much more than usual. (Jack talks to him again.) Jack: What is it you said about this Henry Garrison? Brian: Just that he's off his nut... if he lays eyes on you, he'll likely throw a fit. You'd think the ugly lugs in the front office would've learned to ignore it... but they come and check outside every time. (Henry is heard talking to himself in the next cell.) Henry: I'a k'nark Cthulhu! I'a! I'a! Restlessly he sleeps at his house at R'lyeh! I'a! I'a! Cthulhu fhtagn! Henry: I will not do as you ask. Never. I will not consort with the abominations. Henry: I remember... Henry... Henry, they call me... my father called me Henry... my real father... Nooooooo... not him... no... I'a Dagon... I'a... I'a... ftaghn... ftaghn. Henry: Out... out... deep in the abyss... beyond the Reef of Satan it lies. Y'ha-nthlei... lair of the Deep Ones! Henry: I can hear them... hear them in the walls. Rats... rats in the walls... I hear them... so very tasty... Henry: I'a Dagon! I'a Hydra! Henry: The Oaths. I won't take them. I won't take the accursed Oaths. Henry: I feel the call inside me... it draws me to the dark ocean... I dream of Dagon... and of Hydra... I'a! I'a! Cthulhu fhtagn! Henry: Rats... I hear them in the walls... scratching... yes, scratching... stop mocking me... grubby little rats with their fleshy tails. (Jack checks the last cell before going to Henry's window.) Jack: There appears to be somebody asleep on the bed. I can't really make anything out in the blackness. (Jacks goes to Henry's window.) Jack: Hey. (Henry turns to him.) Henry: I sees your eyes at the window... hiding in the blackness. (Henry jumps to the window and starts to shout hysterically. Ropes comes to the hallway to check him. Jack crouches to avoid being seen.) Ropes: Shut your trap in there! Something outside must've sent him crazy. I suppose I had better check it out. (Jack goes and hides near the door to the jailhouse in a dark corner.) Jack: Back here would be a great hiding spot. (Ropes goes out, leaving the door open. Jack goes in.) Brian: He'll be back at any moment. Hide. (Ropes checks the outside of Henry's cell.) Ropes: There ain't nothing here. (Jack hides near the stairs. Ropes returns and enters the front office.) Ropes: It were nothing. Just another one of Garrison's fits. (Jack talks to Brian.) Jack: Brian... where do they keep the keys? Brian: Why should I trust you? Jack: What? In case you hadn't noticed it, fella, you're in a bit of a jam here. Brian: It could be a trap. Jack: Are you crazy? Brian: Stop bothering me. I don't trust you. Why should I trust you? What is it you're really doing in Innsmouth, Jack? They're going to find you, Jack... and the Order shows no mercy. (Jack gives him the photo Ruth has given to him.) Jack: Ruth Billingham gave me this. Brian: What? This is the photograph I gave her before... before... oh, damn... I've been so foolish. I'm sorry... If Ruth trusts you, Jack, then so do I. Jack: Where are the keys to the cells? Brian: They'll be upstairs with Andrew Martin... the Chief Constable. He's usually asleep or in the bath around this time. His skin's badly diseased from the Innsmouth taint... keeping it wet seems to help his suffering. How was Ruth? Is she safe? Jack: She seemed fine. Brian: We're planning to get married. In Arkham. There are no Christian churches in Innsmouth. Jack: What a beautiful fairy tale. You gonna vow to take the fall for all her capers? Brian: It's not Ruth's fault. Her father's a powerful man in the Order. He never approved of her taking up with an outsider. Jack: You planning on asking for his blessing? Brian: You're a funny man, Jack. Jack: What did you say was wrong with Constable Martin? Brian: The 'Innsmouth Look', Jack. You must have seen how many folks in this town are tainted. It's the subject of many tales in Arkham and Ipswich. Martin's in a bad way. He's got to sit in the bath for hours every day... it stops his skin drying up, you see. I hear the others talk about it sometimes; they say he's nearly ready to leave. Whatever the hell that means. Be careful, Jack. Martin's sleep is restless. He's always moving around, washing his skin. Brian: They call me the 'sacrifice', Jack. For God's sake, you've got to get me out of here. Listen, Jack, you can't leave me here. I don't know what they'll do to me if you do. (Jack checks Henry's cell.) Jack: The poor wretch has lost his mind. It's no use. I can't get any sense out of him. (Jack listens the policemen's conversation in the front office.) Birch: I reckon that they'll have caught the outsider by now. Ropes: What if they ain't? If he gets out of Innsmouth, he'll bear tales to others of what he has seen. Birch: Shut your trap, Elliot. The Order'll make certain the outsider don't leave town. Ropes: I heared gossiped the other night that Sebastian Marsh is returning from foreign parts tomorrow. Birch: Do you reckon wind got to him 'bout what Jacob's doing with the refinery? A shaggoth, some folks reckon. Ropes: Mind it were Robert's idea. Birch: Rumourings that Sebastian's got different plans to Robert on getting Innsmouth prospering again. Ropes: Did you hear that the Order had old Zadok killed? He were see'd talking to the outsider. Birch: He were warned plenty of times to keep shy of strangers. He wouldn't be told. He had what were coming to him. Ropes: Do you suppose the Burnham boy'll be ready for another beating? Heh heh... Birch: You had better leave him alone for the present. The Order generally prefers an unsoiled sacrifice. Ropes: The boy's been asking why he ain't been charged yet. Birch: Maybe we should tell him... tell him he's to be killed for Dagon's pleasure. Ropes: I'a! I'a Dagon! Cthulhu fhtagn! Birch: Have you gave the sacrifice his feed yet? Ropes: You were supposed to do it. Birch: I ain't doing it. Get on with it, Marsh wants him alive for the sacrifice. Ropes: He's far gone, that Garrison... not right betwixt ears. Birch: Aye... he balked at having to take the Oaths. Marsh wasn't having that. He come here to have talk with him 'specially. After that, Garrison has just been like a crazed man. Birch: Martin'll have already been down for a little spell, I reckon. Ropes: He'll be tiring of the dry land. I'a! Dagon. I'a! Y'ha-nthlei. Birch: It won't be long 'til I can take charge of things. (Jack goes upstairs and peeks into one of the rooms. It is a bedroom and Martin is washing his face at the sink.) Martin: Water! (Jack enters the bathroom at the other end of the hallway and checks the bathtub.) Jack: The bath is encrusted with filth, and there appear to be shreds of... skin. After the sewers, I'm in need of a bath, but getting in there won't make me any cleaner. (He then examines the towel.) Jack: It's encrusted with something, and it smells terrible. (He turns the lever nearby, turning off the water and leaves the bathroom to hide near the stairs.) Martin: So dry! Damn pipes! (Martin leaves his bedroom and enters the bathroom. Jack goes into the bedroom and gets the keys.) Jack: The keys to the cells. Now I can free Brian. (He examines the sink before leaving.) Jack: The sink is grimy, and there are traces of some sort of discolored membrane. Martin seems to be shedding layers of skin. (He goes back downstairs before Martin returns. In the main hallway, he checks the last cell. Thomas Waite lies dead on the bed inside, his throat slit and a razor in his right hand.) Jack: It's Thomas Waite. Ramona's death must have driven him to cutting his own throat. They've not even had the decency to clear away the body. Just swell... another death on my conscience. (He opens the cell door and sees a doll on the floor. He examines it.) Jack: This doll... it must be Ramona's. (He leaves the cell and checks a clipboard on the wall.) Jack: According to this, there have been many arrests lately, but no charges listed. (Jack enters the first cell and finds a notebook on the floor.) Jack: An old ship's log, marked with the name Obed Marsh. --- Ship Logs of Captain Obed Marsh March 6th, 1823 Still en route to China. Eastward from Otaheite, or Tahiti as it is also called, we have encountered an island that does not appear on our charts. I ordered the anchor dropped close inshore, and we sent the longboat for fresh water and supplies. The islanders are not interested in trading for gold, of which they have apparently a great quantity. I asked after its source, in the hope of setting up a mining and milling operation on shore. In response to my questioning, I was taken to a smaller island nearby, and shown some stone ruins, apparently of great antiquity. The designs carved upon them are like nothing I have ever seen, in all my travels. This, they say, is the city of the sea-gods, who can be prevailed upon to give them gold for the asking. I suspect it is a remnant of a higher civilization, now lost; the natives evidently find gold among the ruins. I questioned the island's chief elders at length about the ruins, and was answered with the retelling of legends so savage and fantastic that I wonder at them. Perhaps, when the gold is secured and with it my own fortune, I shall reveal the island's location and open it to scholarship. Having traded for a large quantity of gold in addition to the needed water and fresh food, we resumed our voyage. I impressed upon the crew the need for absolute silence about this island; for if word were to get out others would be sure to go there. Shortly before our departure, Chief Walakea made me a gift of several small metal discs, evidently of the same workmanship as the ruins. By means of these and certain chants, he said, the sea gods could be summoned and induced to bring their gifts. June 4th, 1838 Revisiting the mysterious island, we could find no trace of the people with whom we have traded for so many years. Their villages are razed to the ground, and no trace can be found of them. It appears that some other tribe has attacked and destroyed them. The men are so much dismayed that we shall no longer be able to obtain gold here, unless we discover its source for ourselves. A day's searching among the ruins availed us nothing, although certain of the crew were troubled by nightmares subsequently. It appears that this voyage is destined to be without profit, and we must return to Innsmouth with both hands and pockets empty - a most troubling turn of events. The town has come to rely upon us, and the gold that we bring back, to make up for the trade that was lost when the War of 1812 ended. What shall become of our home port now, and us along with it? August 18th, 1838 While looking over the souvenirs and curiosities I collected on my Pacific voyages, seeking some comfort in happier memories, I happened upon the strange metal discs given to me by old Walakea and his people. I had quite forgotten them, and the stories he told about the gold-bearing gods from the sea. But now, an idea is stirring within me. I do not know whether to embrace it as Innsmouth's last hope, or to concede that desperation has driven me insane. Am I mad? The gold we brought from the island was real enough; perhaps the sea- gods are real also. A sailor to far ports sees many strange things, and learns to keep an open mind. After much effort in recollection, I have remembered the chants Walakea taught me. Tonight, I shall row out to Devil's Reef and try them, along with the discs. Perhaps the sea gods will save us - or if not, I shall acknowledge my folly, and retire to the asylum. Later that night: The sea gods are real. I have seen them, and spoken with them. I carry some of their gold - a token of more to come, I am assured. But the price - yet can any price be too high, when one's home is at stake? Innsmouth shall rise again July 23rd, 1846 This is a day of crisis for Innsmouth. I, and those loyal to me, have been seized and thrown in jail by our pious neighbors. Ready enough to enjoy the prosperity I have returned to the town, they scruple at the means I use, and the power I wield. They must be taught a lesson. They have no idea of the powers they seek to defy. The terrible bargain I made was irrevocable, and by locking me up they bring great peril to the town - the very town that they would "save" from my influence. But it is too late for salvation. As surely as I know the morning tide will rise, I know that those from the reef will come to Innsmouth. They will come in search of those things I have been prevented from giving them, and they will come to punish those who have prevented me. Little do the righteous dream of the horror that will visit Innsmouth this night. There will be great destruction; 1846 will be recorded in the town's annals as a year of unparalleled calamity. I shall make certain that 1846 also marks the beginning of a new age - an age in which no threat to our pact is tolerated. From this year on, I shall play the tyrant, and my descendants shall do so after me - but we do so to avert a greater evil. --- (He then goes to Brian's cell.) Brian: What are you waiting for? Unlock the damn door. Quick, Jack. Let me out of here. (Jack opens the door with the keys.) Brian: The garage on the main street holds an old automobile. It should be able to get us clear of town. Jack: Should be able to? Brian: Follow me. (They leave the jailhouse and come to the garage in a street nearby.) Brian: This is it. (Brian tries to open the doors.) Brian: Damn it... They're not normally locked. We'll have to find another way in. Where to now, Jack? There's got to be another way into the garage... that car's our only hope of getting out of here alive. We should have another look round the streets. (They search the streets. There is a burning car there, so this appears to be the street Jack has seen in his vision. He looks up at the roof from the vision and a figure that was watching them scrambles away.) Brian: The streets have no cover, Jack... we'll get caught. (There is a police vehicle in the street. Jack tries to open its door.) Jack: Locked tight. I can't get inside. (They move to enter one of the alleys.) Brian: Hanging around here for too long is dangerous, Jack. We'll be spotted. C'mon, Jack. We need to get off the streets. (Jack has a monster vision of something watching the alley they are about to enter from an open sewer grate. They go into the alley and the grate closes.) Brian: What the hell was that? (Near the grate, behind some bars, there is another alley with a mess of blood stains all over.) Jack: From the mess, it looks like something... or someone... was killed here recently. There's blood splattered everywhere. (Jack tries to open the sewer grate.) Jack: The grate's too heavy to lift with my bare hands. (He then opens it with the crowbar.) Brian: Nice work, Jack. (They enter the sewer by a ladder.) Brian: The stench here is sickening, and it smacks of more than just the sewage. (Police whistles sound outside.) Brian: Damn! They must have realized I escaped. (They continue through the sewer tunnel.) Brian: There's something wrong down here. Something very wrong. Let's not linger here, Jack. (There are dead rats around. Jack picks up one of them.) Jack: The rotting corpse of a rat... I suppose it might come in useful. Brian: This place is giving me the creeps. Let's get out of here quickly! (Suddenly, a monstrous groan is heard.) Brian: What the hell was that noise? What manner of creature makes such a sound? (They ascend a ladder and reach the garage from a trapdoor. Mackey is there, as if he was waiting for them inside. There is also a truck there.) Mackey: Bravo, Jack... Congratulations on your new promotion to Innsmouth's enemy number one. Jack: Shut your trap, Mackey. You're not a factory inspector. Who do you work for? Mackey: Okay, detective... I'll come clean. I'm an undercover agent for the United States Treasury Department. We've been working closely with the FBI on a secret investigation of Innsmouth... I'm the inside man. Jack: Really... what you been able to find out? Mackey: The 'Innsmouth Look', Jack. It's at the heart of the problems in this town. More than half the population must be infected by now. The spreading of that contagion, or whatever the hell you want to call it, is the key... I just know it. Brian: This is all very interesting, fellas... But we have to get out of Innsmouth... with Ruth. Jack: She's waiting for us at some old fishing cannery, just past the station to Rowley. Mackey: Listen, Jack... there are some agents watching the road not far past that spot. If you can make it there, you will be safely picked up. This is strictly off the record... but... if you want to survive, I'd pick up some firepower. Brian: I need you to do something for me. You can do it while I get this thing started. When they arrested me, they took a brooch I was carrying. It belonged to Ruth... it carries her picture inside. I won't leave it behind. Jack: Are you crazy? We don't have time for this. Brian: They'll be holding it in the jail office safe. Jack: I don't know the combination. Brian: I overheard Ropes talking to one of the other guards... he said something about an important date, and someone called Captain Obed Marsh. If you want to get in through the back door, just knock and I'll open it for you. (Jack talks to Brian again as he starts to work on the truck.) Jack: I don't know the combination to the safe. Brian: I reckon on it being a date... something to do with that Captain Obed Marsh. (Jack talks to Mackey before leaving.) Jack: The government must have known about Innsmouth for a long time. Why the sudden interest? Mackey: A few years back some new hot shot was made head of the FBI... his name's Hoover. He's on a personal mission to wipe crime from this country. He's a good agent. Just don't tell him any jokes. Mackey: You've got guts, Jack. You'd have made a good agent. (Jack sneaks into the jailhouse through the streets, avoiding the policemen and the citizens on patrol. Inside, he shows the dead rat from the sewers to Henry.) Jack: Look, Henry. The rats are dead; there are no rats in the walls. (Henry takes the rat and eats it. Then he starts banging his head violently on the bars.) Jack: Jesus, no! Stop it, you crazy bastard. (Henry dies. Jack enters the cell and checks him.) Jack: The wretched creature had no other possessions. I doubt there was a shred of sanity left in the pitiful creature. (He then takes a paper from the floor.) Jack: The lunatic dropped a piece of paper. --- Oaths of Dagon THE PROVISO TO ALL OATHS I'a! Dagon! I submit to the authority of the Esoteric Order of Dagon. If I should betray these sacred oaths, I am theirs to try, and to punish, according to the ancient laws and the extent of my transgression. I'a! Dagon! THE FIRST OATH I'a! Dagon! I swear that I shall keep faith with the Deep Ones in all things. I shall not resist their will, nor shall I betray their secrets. THE SECOND OATH I'a! Dagon! I swear that I shall serve the Deep Ones in all things, as they shall command me, to the furthest extent of my ability. THE THIRD OATH I'a! Dagon! I'a! Hydra! I take this child of Dagon and Hydra as my (wife or husband), to take into my home, to beget and raise children; so that the race, and the faith, shall continue to prosper. --- (Jack enters the front office and finds guns in a cabinet. The policemen are not there as they are out looking for Brian.) Jack: A pistol and a shotgun. At last! (He then takes a whistle from the desk.) Jack: A police whistle... could prove useful. (He pushes away a cabinet, revealing the safe. He opens it with the combination 1-8-4-6, as the most important date in Marsh's journal is 1846. As he opens the safe, he has a monster vision of a large, green, webbed monster's hand putting the brooch into the safe. After the vision, he takes the brooch, which has an odd shape and a whitish gold color.) Jack: This must be Ruth's brooch. Nothing else in the safe seems of value. (Before leaving, he overhears the patrolling men talking outside.) Cirtizen: Maybe he's got away. Citizen: Don't be talking foolish. He's maybe hiding somewhere. Citizen: Thars no chance of that. Marsh has got men watching all roads out of Innsmouth. Citizen: Have you seen the sacrifice? Citizen: I ain't seen any trace of nothing. Citizen: Just keep looking. Citizen: Someone'll be for lynching when Marsh learns the prisoner has escaped. Birch: Aye... that's for certain. Keep looking. Citizen: Stay alert. He can't have gone that far. Citizen: You got anything to report? Citizen: Not much. I ain't seen hide nor hair of him. (Jack returns to the back door of the garage, all the while avoiding being seen by the men. He knocks on the door.) Jack: Brian! It's me. Open up. (Brian opens the door.) Brian: I'm still not done with the car yet, Jack. (Brian returns to his work at the engine. Jack gives him the brooch.) Jack: Here it is. Brian: Thanks, Jack. Ruth would have been heart-broken if I'd lost it. I'll be done in just a second. Hold on. (He works on the engine for a few moments.) Brian: I'm finished. Get in the back... I know the way. (Brian enters the cabin of the truck.) Brian: Quickly, Jack. Get in the back and we can blow this joint. (Jack gets in the back.) Brian: Jack. I think I saw some ammo in the back of the truck. We'll need it! (Jack takes some ammunition from a crate in the back.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.8. Escape From Innsmouth --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Our dull, embyonic science pales beside the understanding of beings vastly more ancient than ourselves. The things we say cannot be are merely the nearest edge of truths far beyond our capacity to reason." (Jack has a monster vision of armed citizens guarding a railway station. The vision then ends. He is in the back of the truck, with Brian in the front cabin.) Jack: Get us out of here. Brian: Hold on, Jack. Jack: To what? Brian: Whoooooaaa! (Brian drives the truck out of the garage, breaking through the doors.) Brian: Get ready, Jack. (The citizens notice the truck and open fire.) Citizen: Stop him, don't let him get away! Citizen: It's the outsider and Burnham... stop 'em. Citizen: They're in the car. (Jack crouches to avoid being hit by the bullets. Brian then accidentally crashes the truck into a parked police vehicle.) Brian: Shit! Jack: Jesus, Brian... watch the road. This is not good... get us the hell out of here, NOW! (Brian gets the truck on the road again, but the citizens are getting close.) Citizen: Quickly... get 'em now. Citizen: Don't let 'em get away. Citizen: The outsider's on the back of the car... kill him. Citizen: Cut 'em down. Citizen: They're coming this way. Citizen: The sacrifice is escaping. (They crash again into a wall.) Brian: Son of a bitch! Jack: Oh, great. (They get on the way again and come near the railway station Jack has seen in his vision.) Citizen: Burnham's coming... Quickly! (The truck has another accident near the station.) Brian: COME ON! Jack: Hurry the hell up, Brian! I'm not sitting too pretty back here. (Brian gets the vehicle back into position and speeds along the railway. They are now almost out of the town. However, there are still guards around.) Jack: Phhhheww! Citizen: In the car... the sacrifice is getting away. (They stop before a parked truck that is blocking the road. Its back is filled with canisters.) Citizen: They've stopped... kill 'em now. Brian: Hey, Jack! You'd better check this out. Jack: Oh, hell... just force your way through. Brian: It's too dangerous, Jack! The canisters on that truck are explosive. Citizen: They're trapped... don't let 'em escape. (Jack shoots the canisters. The parked truck explodes, and Brian drives on.) Citizen: Burnham's coming this way, and the outsider's with him. (They speed away from the last guards. As they continue to drive, Jack has a monster vision of Thomas Waite and Ramona driving along the same route in a truck. The two are in the front cabin, and the vision is from the back, apparently from the eyes of Ramona's monstrous mother. The vision ends, and Brian stops near the fishing cannery. There are many guards around, patrolling the area.) Brian: Get out, Jack. The old fishing cannery is just round the corner. Hurry up! Jack: But it's swarming with the Order! Brian: Just find Ruth. I'll meet you at the other side. (Jack fights his way through the citizens to the cannery. At the entrance he has a monster vision of someone watching the guards in one of the buildings from the rafters. Jack sneaks into the cannery. A few guards are talking inside.) Guard: Seen anything? Guard: No. Guard: He's close... keep looking. Guard: Noticed anything unusual? Guard: No. It all seems okay. (He then makes his way to an empty storage area of the cannery. There, he finds some keys. Ruth's voice is heard as he takes them.) Ruth: Jack, I'm up here. (Jack looks up and sees her on a wooden ledge by the rafters.) Jack: Ruth! What the hell you doing up there? Ruth: I must have been followed. They stormed inside just moments ago. There was gunfire outside. I only just managed to climb up here, and threw the ladder down to escape. I'm trapped up here, Jack! The door's padlocked, and this ledge isn't going to hold for much longer. I don't want to die, Jack... Help me! Jack: Keep back! I'll figure something out. Ruth: I can hear something! (Suddenly, a group of armed citizens storms the building through the main doors. Jack hides behind a pole to avoid being seen.) Citizen: Spread out! Citizen: Search everywhere. (One of them spots Jack.) Citizen: It's you... come here! In the name of the Order of Dagon... I'll gut you where you stand. (They open fire on Jack.) Citizen: You there! Hold it! Ruth: I can feel it moving... HELP ME! (Jack runs out of the building through the door, all the while avoiding the bullets, and makes his way to where Brian has parked the truck. He is still sitting inside the cabin. Jack talks to him.) Jack: Sorry. There's nothing I can do... the dumb broad's got herself trapped in the rafters. Brian: Well get her down. I'm not leaving without Ruth. Jack: Look, Burnham, you idiot... Pa's not gonna let anything happen to your little girlie. Brian: Just rescue Ruth... then we can leave. I'm not leaving 'til you rescue Ruth. * There are two possibilities at this point --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Possibility 1 (If Jack wastes too much time without saving Ruth, he has a vision of the ledge collapsing and Ruth falling down. He goes inside the storage building and checks her body, which lies limp on the floor.) Jack: Ruth's dead... looks like she broke her neck in the fall. (He returns to Brian.) Jack: I'm sorry, Brian... Ruth's dead. I tried to save her... but... Brian: No, damn it. That's not possible. If it wasn't for me... she'd still be alive. Jack: Shut it... you don't have time to be angry. If we don't get out of here right now, we're gonna end up the same way. Brian: Get in the back. (Jack gets in the back of the truck.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Possibility 2 (Jack runs back to the cannery, climbs a flight of stairs, breaks a window and hops out. Outside, he unlocks a door with the keys he took from the storage area and finds himself on the other side of the rafters in the building. The men are still searching the area below. He begins to slowly move to the ledge with Ruth.) Jack: Just swell... I hate heights. Ruth: It's about to collapse. Ruth: Please! Help me! (Jack reaches her.) Jack: Come on, sweetheart. Brian's meeting us out back. Ruth: I'll never be able to make it across the rafters. You'll have to get that door open. (Jack goes and checks a padlocked door that leads out of the building.) Jack: The padlock's old and rusted. Ruth: Hurry, Jack. Get that door open. There's not much time. (Jack breaks the padlock with his crowbar.) Jack: Let's get the hell out of here! Ruth: Lead the way. (They go downstairs and climb out the window near where Brian waits.) Jack: Come on, Ruth... hurry the hell up. (The scene ends. They are next in the truck with Ruth with Brian in the cabin and Jack in the back.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- (They are riding in the truck.) Brian: There's a bridge out of town not far from here. Just hold on. (The citizens watching the road notice the truck and open fire. Brian gets shot.) Ruth: Brian!!!! Jack: Shit!!! (The truck rolls over. It explodes as Jack falls off. Then several gunshots are heard and, a few men who look like FBI agents are seen rushing to the scene as Jack blacks out.) * This last part is the same for both possibilities, the only difference being that obviously Ruth is not in the truck if the first possibility takes place. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.9. Feds in the Asylum --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "This language of ours is too poor a thing to describe what may be seen when one stares down into the Abyss of primal horror. For language is but the handmaiden of thought, and thought itself recoils from what it sees." (Jack has a flashback of going down the stairs in Waite's house and see him holding Ramona's corpse. Then he awakens. He is being carried on a stretcher by a doctor through the main hallway of the Arkham Asylum. He sees Waite in the hallway as he is carried. They enter a room and the doctor closes the door. He then straps him to the stretcher and then Jack faints. Two men are heard talking.) Man 1: Did I ask for your damn opinion? Remember who funds this damn nut house. Man 2: Very well. (Jack awakens with a blurry vision and the doctor gives him a shot.) Doctor: He's awake. (There are two men who look like FBI agents in front of Jack, with a bright spotlight behind them that shines right in his face. The agent to the left speaks.) Agent: Ahhh... Mr. Walters... Our friends in the Boston PD hold you up as quite the hero... before you went all screwy, that is... (Jack's vision clears.) Agent: I don't like heroes, Mr. Walters. Jack: And I don't care for your opinions... whoever the hell you are. Agent: J. Edgar Hoover, from the bureau. And considering your position, Mr. Walters, you'd best mind your manners... Now... what was your business in Innsmouth? Jack: Just stopping in on some broad... I was feeling down on my luck, and needed the company. Hoover: Ah, bullshit... There are only two types of folks that visit Innsmouth... criminals and fools. And you don't seem like a fool. (The second agent punches Jack in the face.) Jack: Appearances can be deceptive. Hoover: I see... Dr. Hardstrom... if you'd be so kind. (The doctor gives Jack an electrical shock with a taser. He faints.) Hoover: Wake him up! (Jack awakens again with blurry vision.) Jack: Just charge me with something... 'cause I don't know nothing. Hoover: This is not going to stop, Mr. Walters, so you may as well level with me. Jack: I already told you... it was nothing... a missing person case, and I needed the dough. (His vision darkens. He then hallucinates, seeing Ramona from the back in the place of Hoover. The doctor gives him another shot, and his vision again turns blurry. This time he sees Waite's bloody corpse in the place of the second agent for a moment. Then the hallucination ends and his vision reverts to normal.) Jack: I was only checked in for one night, and I had to blow the joint in the early hours. Seems the locals didn't take kindly to my snooping. Hoover: For Christ's sake, Walters! Is it normal in your line of work to break a punk out of the can, then breeze out of town in a stolen car? Jack: Only on the good days... but not normally, no. I've had a shitty night, Hoover, so I'd really appreciate you cutting me some slack. What's the bureau's beef with Innsmouth anyway? Hoover: Widespread criminal activity, Mr. Walters. And half the damn town's involved. Our government's never had to handle something on this scale before. But... they won't sanction a full scale operation without more evidence. Jack: While I appreciate the bedtime story... I don't see where I come into this. Hoover: Thanks to your meddling, Mackey's gone missing... And he was close to something... something we could use. Jack: Missing? What do you mean, missing? Hoover: He was supposed to check in hours ago. Our plans have now changed. You'll be accompanying us back into Innsmouth, Mr. Walters, on a small scale raid. Our target... the Marsh Refinery. Jack: I'm not your lap dog, Hoover. I don't work for the bureau. (The doctor gives him another shock with the taser.) Hoover: I'm not in the business of making requests, Mr. Walters. Or have you forgotten your past so quickly? A signature here, a signature there, and we can make you a permanent fixture of this delightful establishment. (Jack's vision turns entirely black and white, and he sees imaginary insects flying around the room.) Hoover: I could even arrange for you to have your old room back. Jack: Fuck... you... (The second agent punches Jack in the face.) Hoover: Goodnight, Mr. Walters... pleasant dreams. (Jack blacks out.) --- The Feds February 8, 1922 Night During my interrogation, it became clear apparent that the FBI has been watching Innsmouth for some time. Mackey was the Bureau's inside man; now he's missing as well. Hoover and his boys are going to mount a raid on the Marsh Refinery - and I'm invited whether I want to go or not. As if I haven't been through enough in the last twenty-four hours. I tried to tell Hoover what's waiting for them in that refinery - what's lurking beneath the surface of the town - but he didn't believe me. I can't say I'm surprised; I wouldn't believe me either, if I hadn't seen it for myself. And Hoover hasn't seen what I've seen. From the questions Hoover asked me, the Bureau knows next to nothing about Innsmouth or the Refinery, even though the FBI has been watching Innsmouth for some time. That's not surprising, since it cut itself off from the outside world more than fifty years ago and no-one outside of Innsmouth's been inside the Refinery since then. I guess Mackey didn't tell him much - or he didn't believe Mackey any more than he believed me. Hoover thinks the old gold Refinery is the main source of wealth for the Marsh family and is a base of some kind of criminal gang. He figures that a lot more gold comes out of the mill than is possible from the amounts of raw ore they buy, and he wants to know why. I guess I thought things were pretty simple too, when I first came to Innsmouth. Now, I envy him his ignorance. I must have been a sight when they found me; they certainly loaded me up with sedatives. They've almost worn off now, but I'm feeling drained. I wish I could blame the drugs for the dreams I had while I was out, but they were just like the dreams from the other night at the Gilman Hotel. The dreams keep on getting clearer, more like memories. I'm getting fleeting images of other things, too - they just seem to pop up from somewhere in my mind for no apparent reason. I have no idea what they mean - except that I need to keep a grip on myself. I don't want a return trip to the Arkham Asylum. The raid is set for tomorrow. I'd give anything to avoid going back to that town. The Feds handed me back Ruth's brooch, which they found in the wreckage of the car crash... another painful memory. --- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.10. The Marsh Refinery --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Its form was utterly beyond my comprehension, and even now I cannot form a clear mental image. Beyond the impression of great size, immense speed, and a malignity greater than the human mind can conceive, I remember nothing." (Jack is in the back seat of a car in an FBI convoy driving towards the refinery. They stop before the main gate. Hoover is sitting next to him.) Hoover: Look here, Walters! Your profile shows that you're a man to be trusted... even allowing for your stint in the nut house. I've packed you with armaments... I demand your complete cooperation. Our reconnaissance reports have confirmed Sebastian Marsh, the manager of the Refinery, will be out of town on business. He's left his son, Jacob, in charge of operations. (Two agents open the gate.) Hoover: We won't get a better chance to launch this raid. Our mission is to capture Jacob Marsh. He may be our only chance to get under the skin of the Marsh family. We must secure him alive! (The cars go through the gates into the refinery yard.) Hoover: Even with Sebastian away, we expect the Refinery to be heavily guarded. I'll fill you in with more details when we have breached the main doors. (The cars stop, and all the agents except Hoover get out.) Hoover: Jack... you better stay in the car while my agents secure the entrance. (Two guards are seen on the roof over the main entrance of the refinery. Hoover gets out.) Hoover: Get in your positions, agents! Keep sight of the loading bay! (The two guards open fire on them. The agents take cover behind the wooden crates.) Hoover: On the roof, sustain your fire! (A firefight breaks out.) Hoover: Take them down! (Jack has a monster vision of a machine gun emplacement before some big doors. Then the vision ends and the two guards get killed.) Hoover: Hold your fire! Cooper! Get those damn doors open! (Jack has another vision of the same place with the doors opening and a guard running towards the machine gun. As the door is opened, Cooper is seen. The vision ends abruptly.) Jack: NO!!! Wait!!! (The machine gun operated by the guard in the vision kills Cooper and opens fire on the agents.) Agent: Cooper! Agent: Take cover! Hoover: Get clear of the car, Jack! Now! (Jack gets out of the car.) Hoover: Get over here, Jack! (He goes to Hoover, avoiding the bullets.) Hoover: That gunner is too holed in... none of us can make a clean shot. Jack: For God's sake, Hoover! Get your men out of there... they're sitting ducks! Hoover: Nonsense! We'll lay down some covering fire... you get your ass up there, and show us what you can do! Jack: What?!? Hoover: You heard me! Now, GO! We'll cover you! Move it! (The firefight continues.) Agent: We'll get cut to pieces if we stay out here much longer! Agent Scott Nelson: I can't get a clean shot! Hoover: Hold your positions, agents! Nelson: We should fall back! Hoover: Take him down! Agent: He's too well protected! Hoover: Sustain your fire! Agent: I can't hit him from here! Hoover: You're gonna get cut to pieces! (Jack runs over to Nelson.) Nelson: Jack! What the hell you doing? Jack: Hoover's orders! He wants me have a chat with our gunner friend. Nelson: That's too risky. You'll be cut in half before you can make five yards. Good luck, Jack... I'll cover you... maybe you can figure out some way to get closer. Agent: He's tucked in too tight! Agent: It's no use! Nelson: The bay doors are giving him too much protection! Agent: Someone needs to get in close... we'll never hit him from this range! (Jack tries to shoot the gunner from range.) Jack: It's no use... I'll never hit him from here. He's too well protected... I can't make a clean shot. (Jack sneaks through the crates and gets to a door facing the gun from the side. He then shoots the gunner.) Jack: He's down... the area's clear! (The agents arrive.) Hoover: Well done, Jack... wait by me while my men secure the area. (There is a closed door there.) Hoover: Check reception. Nelson: It's locked, sir! Hoover: Break it down... then secure the area. I want Marsh alive. Everything else is a viable target. Fall out. Nelson: Understood, sir! (Nelson breaks down the door. The agents storm inside.) Jack: Okay, Hoover... What's the plan? Hoover: I want to know where the hell they're getting all this gold! Come on... let's take a look around. (They go through the broken door. Jack finds a shotgun and a rifle in the offices they come into, and Hoover moves more quickly ahead of him. Jack then arrives in the main area. A loud scream is suddenly heard.) Jack: What the hell was that noise? It came from somewhere below. (He has a monster vision of someone frantically using an elevator. He then advances in the main area and sees Hoover at the elevator doors. The door opens and a wounded agent, his clothes shredded and blood all over his body, steps out.) Agent: HELP ME! Hoover: What the hell? (Hoover struggles with the agent.) Agent: PLEASE! Hoover: What happened down there, agent? (The agent is hysterical and does not answer him.) Hoover: Did you find Marsh? (Hoover shoots him. Jack comes close.) Hoover: What you staring at, Jack? He was just a field agent. He knew the risks! Hoover: The power's been cut from the elevator. It must have been shut down from the mains. You try the next floor down; see if you can find the generator. I'll secure this floor. Hoover: Find the generator for the elevator, and power it up! The stairs, Jack... get moving! You've got your orders, Jack. Stop your dawdling. (Jack checks the dead agent.) Jack: His skin has been corroded from his body. He must have died in extreme pain. What the hell could have happened to him? His body is covered in the same slimy muck I found in the Innsmouth sewers. (He goes down some stairs and encounters armed guards in the level below. After much searching and fighting, he finds a drive belt in a workshop.) Jack: It's a drive belt for heavy machinery. (He then makes his way to the generator room and tries to use the lever but the generator does not work.) Jack: The generator is not running. (He fixes the generator with the drive belt and uses the lever called Track Generator to restore power to the ore buckets nearby. Then he goes to the bucket control console and activates the buckets. Jack: The bucket track is running fine. (He gets into one of them and then gets off after some way by jumping onto some wooden crates. Suddenly, a loud scream is heard.) Jack: Oh God, what the hell now? (He climbs a ladder and reaches the Pressure Control room. There, he sees a valve that reads "Pressure Release Valve".) Jack: It's a valve for releasing pressure. (He goes through some double doors into a hall. Steam blocks the entrance of a hallway while a burned corpse lies under some broken pipes.) Jack: Turning that pressure release valve seems to have re-routed the steam. (He checks the body.) Jack: The dead body of a federal agent. His body has been burned to a crisp. I better watch my step... this refinery's a death trap. (Jack proceeds, fighting more guards on the way. Then has a monster vision of a man falling into a grinder. The vision ends abruptly and the same man screams and a body falls dead from a machine some distance in front of Jack.) Jack: Damn it! That sounded like Agent Nelson. (He checks the badly mutilated corpse below the machine, which is the grinder he has seen in the vision.) Jack: I can't be certain... but that looks like the remains of Agent Nelson. He must have fallen into the ore grinder... or been pushed. (Jack goes up a ladder and sees some ore chutes.) Jack: For a gold refinery, the levels of raw ore seem very low. (He then sees that the main chute is sealed.) Jack: The main ore chute has been sealed up. It must not be part of the current refinery operations. Strange. (He also checks some containers.) Jack: Large wooden containers for holding raw ore... most of them are empty. (He proceeds and comes across the grinder from above. He examines it.) Jack: The grinder is smeared with Agent Nelson's blood and guts. Aside from the recent grinding of human bone and tissue, the machinery hasn't been used in years. (He climbs up and starts advancing on the conveyor belt leading to the grinder. As he walks on, he has a vision of the asylum hallway. It floods with blood and then Jack equally abruptly returns to the reality. At the end of the belt he sees a suited man at a control console. He is apparently Jacob Marsh.) Jack: Stop right there, Marsh! Jacob Marsh: Goodbye, Mr. Walters. (Marsh starts the belt to kill Jack in the same way as Agent Nelson, and the belt begins to move towards the grinder. Jack jumps off to a broken catwalk just before the grinder. From there, he moves back to the conveyor belt, which is now inactive, and goes to where Marsh stood. From there, he gets to a ladder while fighting his way through many enemies. He goes up the ladder and goes through a trapdoor. He then finds himself in the administration room.) Jack: This must be the Marsh family office. (He picks up a note from a desk.) Jack: It's a letter from Sebastian Marsh. --- Letter from Sebastian Marsh My dear family, I expect to return home shortly. I look forward to seeing you all again. I believe my trip has been a fruitful one. I have met with many potential buyers for our product, and as I predicted, met with few concerns. All are aware that history is written by the victor, and that treaties and laws must bow to the fact of conquest. And what, indeed, is so moral about a bullet or a bomb, that sets them above other means of death? I shall speak with you all further upon my return. I shall have much to say to Robert, in particular; it is of the utmost importance that our personal beliefs and agendas remain subordinate to the overall good of the family and the town. As the time draws ever closer, it becomes more imperative that we act as one. If he is unwilling to do so, he must be compelled, for all our sakes. In particular, he must remove his beast to another part of the refinery without delay. My love and blessings are upon you all. I'a Dagon! I'a Hydra! I'a! I'a! Sebastian --- (Leaving the offices, Jack finds a generator in the outside hall.) Jack: This must be the main generator for the elevator. (He presses the button of the generator.) Jack: This should get the elevator running again. (He then goes through a door to the elevator area. He calls it and pushes the Foundry button once he is inside. At the destination he goes through a door that says Gold Processing. Suddenly, Marsh is heard.) Jacob Marsh: Kill him, men! (The guards attack Jack.) Marsh: In the name of the Order, protect the refinery! Cut him down! (Jack kills the men. Then he goes to the Gold Purification area.) Jack: A vat of molten gold... the heat is tremendous. Where the hell did all this gold come from? (He continues and comes to another chamber with a large vat of molten gold. Suddenly, Hoover's voice is heard.) Hoover: Jack! I'm up here... do something, for Christ's sake! (He looks to the right and sees Hoover in an elevator with Jacob at the control panel next to him.) Marsh: Shut it, Hoover! As for you, Mr. Walters... we've just about had enough of your meddling in Innsmouth affairs. Jack: It was my pleasure to inconvenience you, Marsh. Marsh: After you've watched your copper friend here die... I'm coming after you! Hoover: Shoot him! Shoot the screwy bastard! (Marsh activates the elevator, it is lowered slowly. He then opens fire on Jack. A gunfight erupts.) Hoover: For Christ's sake... just shoot him. Hoover: Hurry up, Jack! Hoover: Quickly, Jack! No time like the present! Hoover: Just kill the crazy bastard! (Marsh gets wounded by Jack's bullets.) Marsh: Aaargh... Damn it! I'll get you for this, Walters! (Marsh retreats from the chamber.) Hoover: We're on a time limit here! Hoover: I'm going to fucking die here, Jack! Hoover: Hurry the hell up, Jack! (Jack runs to the control panel and brings the elevator back up.) Jack: Phew. That was too close! Hoover: You have my fullest gratitude, Walters! You'd make a first-rate agent. Too bad you've got that stinking attitude. Jack: A lousy night of torture can really grate on a man's mood. Hoover: If your aim was as sharp as your wit, then Marsh wouldn't have gotten away. Jack: Your orders were to take him alive, not blow his brains out! Hoover: That was before the crazy psychopath tried to kill me. Besides... he left his briefcase by the controls. There's probably enough evidence in there to sanction a full-scale raid. So, I couldn't care less if you bring him back in small boxes. Just get the bastard! Hoover: Marsh won't come back this way, Walters. You're going to have to hunt him down. So get a move on! What you waiting for? (Jack checks the door through which Marsh escaped.) Jack: Damn it! Marsh must have locked it behind him. I'll have to find another way round. (He goes to the Gold Casting room, and there he has a monster vision of something climbing through the elevator shaft. After the vision, he checks the huge casting machine.) Jack: All this machinery must be used for casting the gold. The foundry seems to be the only floor that's fully operational. Where the hell is the Marsh family getting such a rich supply of gold? (He enters an area called Chemical Storage. Then he has another monster vision of the same creature moving into the Gold Casting room. Jack then advances and has another vision of it moving closer.) Jack: There's something coming... I can feel it. (He goes into Electrolysis Maintenance and has another vision of the monster coming to the Chemical Storage chamber. Jack moves down the hallway and then hears a loud noise like a crash. He is suddenly knocked out when he goes through a door. He wakes up on the floor, facing Jacob Marsh.) Marsh: Wake up, Mr. Walters! You fool. You've got no idea what you are dealing with here. I want you to witness the power of the Order of Dagon. I'a Dagon! I'a Hydra! (He goes to work on a control panel.) Marsh: Ooooo... Jack, you're not looking so good. Don't worry, it'll all be over soon. (Marsh leaves. Jack tries to crawl after him.) Jack: I'm gonna kill you... you creepy bastard! (Suddenly, a giant monster of green-brown slime with many eyes and tenctacles springs up in a large vat nearby and sticks to the ceiling. It is clearly the shoggoth, which has been mentioned before and the traces of which have been seen in the sewers.) Jack: Oh, fuck... (The monster swings its tenctacles against Jack. Jack runs to an area and hides behind some crates.) Jack: This looks like a reasonable hiding place. (He waits there for a while.) Jack: I gotta get moving! (He runs across some stairs near the shoggoth and gets to a control panel that reads Vat Pump Control. He activates it.) Jack: Hmmm... this must activate the vat pump. (The pump vacuums the shoggoth out of the vat.) Jack: I don't see that improving its mood. (He moves back to where Marsh stood and checks the contol panel that reads Electrode Activate.) Jack: The machinery must have overloaded and blown the fuse. It's no use. It needs a new fuse. There's no power going to the electrodes. (He checks the fuse box nearby.) Jack: A blown fuse and the smell of burning metal. (He runs to an office evading the monster which has arisen in the other vat and finds a spare fuse.) Jack: Ah, a spare fuse. (He goes back and fixes the blown fuse box.) Jack: That should fix the problem. (Jack then activates the electrodes.) Jack: Perhaps a touch more stimulation is needed. (The electric shock subdues the shoggoth into an inactive mass of slime. Jack enters a hallway to leave the area. Suddenly, a loud noise is heard behind him. It is the monster pursuing him.) Jack: Oh shit! What the hell was that? (He closes a door behind him, runs and closes another and comes to the Chemical Storage area. He then climbs a ladder and sees a hole in the air duct.) Jack: Must be the main route down to electrolysis. (He crawls into the duct and starts advancing. The shoggoth shakes the duct but Jack reaches the end. At the end is a room and he climbs another ladder leading to a room filled with slime. There is another open duct here and Jack enters it. The monster shakes it again but Jack reaches the elevator. There, he presses the Shipping button.) Jack: I gotta get out of here now! (The elevator shakes and stops halfway through. The emergency alarm goes off.) Jack: For God's sake! Come on! (He presses the Emergency Door Release button, and the door opens. He gets out by jumping on some crates. The elevator falls off in the shaft just as he gets out. Jack suddenly runs into Hoover in the main Shipping area.) Hoover: Ah... Mr. Walters. I see you made it at last. Seems Marsh managed to give you the slip. Fortunately, we had him picked up as he tried to flee. (Jack looks and sees another agent holding Marsh down with his hands on his head.) Marsh: The Order of Dagon will make you pay for this, Hoover. I'a Cthulhu. I'a Dagon. Hoover: Get this ugly bastard out of my face, Agent Harper. Agent: Yes, sir! Come on, Marsh, move it! (The agent takes him away.) Jack: Hoover! You gotta evacuate the building! There's something down there! Hoover: All in good time. We found a key in Marsh's possession... a key he was most reluctant to give up. It must have been for the elevator panel, giving access to an additional floor at the very foundation of this refinery. All my agents are busy planting explosives to flatten this place to the ground. I want you to find a way down there and check it out. Jack: Not a chance! I already told you, there's something down there... I barely got out alive. Hoover: I made it clear back in the asylum, Mr. Walters. I don't make requests. Jack: Okay. But I'll be needing another gun. (Hoover gives him a pistol.) Jack: How am I supposed to access the lowest floor with the elevator out of operation? Hoover: You're a detective, Mr. Walters. I'm sure you'll figure something out. I'm gonna blow this place, whether you're in it or not. So... I'd hurry it up if I were you. (Jack goes to a door with an agent in front of it.) Jack: Let me pass. Agent: I only take commands from Hoover... and my orders are not to let you out till you've checked the basement. You have your orders... find a route to the bottom of the refinery. The clock's ticking... Hoover will leave you behind. (He checks the elevator.) Jack: That drop wrecked the elevator. The elevator is out of order. It may be some time before I get into another elevator. (He then goes to the Administration area, and talks to an agent before a door.) Jack: I need to get through... Hoover's orders! Agent: Explosives are being laid through here, Mr. Walters. The area is restricted. You'll have to find another way. Agent: I already told you. This area's restricted. Only official personnel are allowed through here. (He finds a padlocked gate reads Elevator Maintenance Access. He shoots the padlock and enters. He opens the hatch by pressing a button that says Hatch Release and goes through it, ending up on the trapdoor in the elevator shaft. He jumps to a ladder from the platform and climbs up. He then gets to a room and sticks to the elevator cable and starts going down. Halfway down Hoover opens the hatch and calls to him.) Hoover: The fuses are primed. You've got twenty minutes before this place blows. Move! (Jack gets down to the wrecked elevator with gold strewn all over from the broken crates. He checks the gold bullions.) Jack: Strange... The gold is an odd whitish color. The clock's ticking... I really don't have time to steal gold. Stealing is still a crime... even if they are psychopaths. (He hops down from a hole in the floor of the elevator to a hallway. Proceeds and climbs a ladder blocked by a trapdoor.) Jack: It's some sort of trapdoor, but there's no handle on this side. I can't open it. (He gets back down, presses a button and goes through the now open trapdoor. He then comes to a large area with huge double doors and slimy material and gold.) Jack: It's a secret gold vault... this must be where the Marshes hoard their wealth. (He checks the damaged doors to Gold Vault C and presses the button.) Jack: It's sparking... I better keep back. I won't be able to get through this way. The door mechanism is too heavily damaged. (He checks Vault B but there is no button, only damaged cables.) Jack: There are some broken cables hanging here. They were probably the wiring for the door opening mechanism. I won't be able to open Gold Vault B from this side. (He gets into Vault A and sees the shoggoth occupying all the area. A tentacle blocks the catwalk across the room. There is a valve on his side of the chamber named Gas Flow Control 1. He uses it. Gas on the catwalk forces the monster to retract its tentacle.) Jack: This pressure valve controls the flow of gas. (He goes to the second valve but there is no valve.) Jack: It's a valve for controlling the flow of gas. I can't turn the bolt with my bare hands. (He turns off the first gas valve. He then goes across the catwalk, finds his way to the lower level, evades tentacles and eventually comes to an area with a corpse and a wrench nearby. He checks the body.) Jack: The body's cold. He must have been dead for some time. (He takes the wrench.) Jack: He won't need this anymore. (Jack gets to the other side and activates the two valves with the wrench. Then he goes back to the first side and turns on the first two valves. Gas fills the area. He goes back to the beginning with the doors leading to gold vaults. Here he presses the button for Vault C and the sparks cause an explosion in the nearby area with the monster which throws the doors off the hinges. Jack enters the damaged area with the shoggoth destroyed and burning crates on the floor. Here he opens a door with the key taken from Marsh. It leads to a temple area. He heads down the hall to a strange, shrine-like room with a large, winged monster statue and a pedestal with a red gem. The door closes behind him and he suddenly has a flashback of the asylum room as he enters. In the vision, he leaves the room and moves down the hall with a man in a wheelchair and the vision abruptly ends. After the vision, he tries to pick up the gem from the pedestal.) Jack: I can't pick it up. The gem is firmly locked to the pedestal by an ornamental claw. The claw can't be prised open with my bare hands. (His vision blurs as he starts to go insane with the unnatural influence of the room. He checks the statue with glowing red eyes.) Jack: Staring at the statue is making my head pound. It's a magnificently carved effigy of the great priest Cthulhu. I gonna go crazy stuck in this chamber... I gotta get out of here! (He checks a control panel near the statue and red rays emit from the eyes of the statue.) Jack: Hmmm... Interesting. (He pushes the pedestal closer to the door. He then uses the panel and the rays hit the gem and then the stone over the door. The claw opens. Jack picks up the gem and the door opens. Suddenly, two agents enter.) Agent 1: At last... we've found you. Jack: It's nice of you fellas to show up. Agent 2: What the hell is this place? Jack: It's some sort of shrine... probably used by the Marshes for private worship. Agent 2: And the oversized gargoyle? Jack: That's no gargoyle, agent. That's Cthulhu. Agent 1: Fellas... this chamber's about to be buried under four floors of brick and metal. Agent 2: Okay, Walters. Let's get out of here before this place blows! (They get to the entrance of the refinery barely in time and the massive compound explodes. Jack throws himself onto the ground to avoid being hurt by the blast.) --- The Order of Dagon February 9, 1922 Night That was one big explosion in the refinery. One moment I was running for my life, the next I was face down with a mouthful of dirt. I just hope everything inside was destroyed. What the hell was that thing in there? Some kind of monster jellyfish? How could it move out of water? How could it even exist? My ears are still ringing with the screams of Hoover's men as the acidic slime engulfed them. Despite the casualties, though, the raid hit paydirt. The Feds recovered a briefcase with some very incriminating papers. It seems that among other things, the Marsh family - Sebastian in particular - has been trafficking with enemies of the State. He's been offering a contagion - some kind of germ weapon - to the highest bidder. This is in violation of all kinds of international treaties, but that didn't surprise me. Even if the Marshes care about such things - which I doubt - I could well believe that news of the treaties hadn't ever reached Innsmouth. But I know there's more to the story. Like that shrine on the lower floor of the refinery. The carvings of those hideous gods are one more thing that will probably haunt my dreams for some time to come. Why did they seem familiar? In any case, the evidence of arms dealing gave Hoover the what he needed to bring in the big guns - literally. Innsmouth is now under martial law. A Coast Guard Cutter is stationed in the harbor, with a company of Marines on shore. Led by Robert Marsh, the surviving members of the Esoteric Order of Dagon are holed up in the old Masonic Hall. I suggested pounding the place to dust with the Marines' artillery and the cutter's guns, but Hoover wants Marsh alive. That's not going to be easy. The Marines who attacked the main entrance to the building went into some kind of psychotic seizure before they could reach it. The brass thought Marsh had laid down some kind of gas in the area, but gas masks didn't help the second storming party. That was when Hoover remembered a report of an old smugglers' tunnel, close by the banks of the Manuxet River, that was said to lead into the building from below. It seems my good luck just never ends. With so many agents killed and wounded in the refinery, Hoover has decided that I'll have the dubious honor of representing the FBI in an attack through this secret entrance, in company with a squad of Marines. I have to meet up with a Sergeant Carter and his men by the refinery gates; then we'll set out along the frozen river looking for the tunnel. I may never sleep again. Not that it would make much difference - the waking sounds and visions are getting worse all the time. Though if they are linked with the events here in Innsmouth, maybe getting to the bottom of this horror will help me recover my lost memories. --- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.11. The Esoteric Order of Dagon --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Our dull, embyonic science pales beside the understanding of beings vastly more ancient than ourselves. The things we say cannot be are merely the nearest edge of truths far beyond our capacity to reason." (Jack is talking to Sergeant Carter outside on a catwalk on a cliff near the Marsh Refinery. The frozen river is seen below. Gunfire sounds in the background. It is clear that the whole town has become a battleground.) Jack: Have your men been able to determine the location of this old smuggling route? Sergeant Sam Carter: Not yet. Our intelligence estimates the most likely site would be further downstream. The Manuxet is frozen over, so we should be just fine on foot. Let's get moving. (There are three soldiers on the cliff near them. One of them carries a flame thrower.) Carter: Move out, marines... secure the area. Lance Corporal Norman Flynn: Yes, sir! You heard the man. Move out! Flynn: Hodge! You take point! Private Charlie Hodge: Understood, Corporal! Flynn: Parker! You cover our flank! Private Joe Parker: Yes, sir! Carter: Keep your eyes peeled, and your weapons ready. (They start moving.) Parker: Clear! (The soldiers start to get off the cliff onto the frozen river via a rope. Jack and Carter are behind the three.) Flynn: Hodge! Go! Go! Go! Carter: Hurry up, Jack! It's your drop. I'll be right behind you, Jack. Move out! (Jack suddenly has a monster vision of a group of armed Innsmouth citizens advancing.) Carter: What you waiting for, Jack? Get moving! (Jack has another vision of the gunmen getting to the catwalk they were on just a minute ago.) Carter: Get down the damn rope, Jack! That's an order! (The gunmen see them and open fire. Jack gets down the rope as Carter holds them off with his pistol. When Jack gets to the bottom Carter calls to him from above.) Carter: Move out the way, Jack. I'm coming down! It's my drop... get the hell out the way! Get out the way, Jack! (As he tries to get down, Carter falls off the rope onto the ground. The ice breaks and he plunges inside. Jack advances on the ice as parts of it are breaking.) Jack: Damn it, the ice is breaking up... I better get moving. (As he carefully advances, he sees two of the soldiers beating a few strange monsters that have features of fish, like Ramona's mother in the attic. They are whimpering on the ice just near the sea and the soldiers are kicking them. As he runs past them towards the smuggler route entrance, the ice portion connecting them to the rest breaks. Jack enters the route and advances through a narrow path. As he moves, he has a monster vision of the inside of a cave. Eventually he comes to a cave entrance with a soldier. The flame thrower that he was carrying is near him on the ground. Jack talks to him.) Soldier: They're all dead... aren't they? Jack: They were trapped... there was nothing anyone could have done. Soldier: Damn it. I tried to tell them... but the corporal wouldn't listen. They just wanted to slaughter those... things. Jack: What's your name, soldier? Soldier: Private Parker. Private Joe Parker. Jack: Well, Parker... it looks like you've found the old smuggling entrance. Parker: The door's frozen over... I already tried to open it... but it's stuck fast. We'll have to melt the ice. You operate the flame thrower. I'll cover the door. Jack: We could try knocking? Parker: Shut up, Jack. Just operate the flame thrower. (Jack uses the thrower on the ground and melts the ice of the door. Then he has a monster vision of something or someone coming closer to the entrance of the cave from the inside. The vision ends and he sees Parker approaching the door.) Jack: Parker! Hold it! (Parker opens the door. Suddenly, the arm of a monster snatches him and throws him off and then pulls him inside the cave by the arm.) Jack: Oh, shit! (Jack enters the cave and advances a bit through the torch-lit tunnel. He then sees a humanoid monster with tenctacles over its head that is shaped like the head of a squid eating Parker's corpse. The monster suddenly turns to him and begins to pursue him. Jack gets out of the cave and uses the flame thrower on the monster when it steps outside. The monster dies, and Jack checks its corpse.) Jack: What the hell could have spawned such an abomination? Its body is similar to the more tainted of the Innsmouth population... but the head reminds me of Cthulhu. It's dead. (He walks on and examines Parker's mutilated corpse.) Jack: Looks like I'm on my own again. Parker must have died in agony. His chest cavity has been spread open for feeding. (He then finds some dynamites near Parker's body.) Jack: A hefty chunk of dynamite. (He proceeds in the tunnel, turns left at an intersection and comes to a prison area with cells on both sides. Some of them are empty but monstrous groans are heard coming from a few. Jack checks one of them.) Jack: There's something inside this cell, but it's too dark to make anything out. The prisoner seems to be chained up... it must be an animal of some sort. Whatever's dwelling in the darkness... it sounds like it's in great pain. (He walks on and hears Mackey's voice from one of the cells.) Mackey: Jack? Is that you? (Jack goes to the cell and Mackey comes to the door.) Jack: Mackey. Where do they keep the keys to the cells? Mackey: I don't know for sure, probably somewhere up in the main hall... what the blazes is going on? Jack: A few hours ago the government sanctioned a full scale operation into Innsmouth. It seems you were right about the contagion. Mackey: I knew it... why the delayed assault on the Order? We have to arrest Robert Marsh now. Jack: They can't breach the doors... anyone who gets close is driven mad. Mackey: The guards were discussing some potent mural that Robert Marsh had etched onto the main doors. They said it was powered by a sacred ceremony to the... Old Ones. Whatever the hell that means. Jack: We have to stop that ceremony. Sit tight, Mackey... I'll be right back. Mackey: Hurry up, Jack... you've got to get me out of here. We have to stop that ceremony. Find the keys and get me out of here. (Jack finds a key and a rifle at the end of the prison hall.) Jack: It's a large bronze key. (He goes back and heads to the right at the intersection. He eventually comes to a hallway with a large number of monstrous starfish on the walls. When he goes near them, one of them jumps on his face and slightly hurts him. At the end of this hallway there is a door but it is entirely covered by the starfish. There are also some wooden barrels nearby. Jack checks them.) Jack: These barrels are filled with bootleg rum... highly flammable stuff. (He places the dynamites on the barrels.) Jack: The fuse'll only last a couple of seconds. I better find cover... and quickly! (He quickly gets away to avoid the impact. The dynamites detonate, and the blast kills all the starfish and destroys the door. Jack then goes through the destroyed doorway into a damaged storage cellar with filled with burning barrels, all of it caused by the explosion. He examines the barrels.) Jack: This was a storage cellar for bootleg liquor... it's a shame I had to blow it up. All the liquor's been destroyed. Pity. (He opens a door in the cellar with the key he has found in the prison hall.) Jack: It's unlocked. (He goes up a circular set of stairs into a hallway. He is now in the Order headquarters, which he has seen before in the town square. He then has a monster vision of armed guards at the main hall of the building.) Jack: I better watch my step... this place could be crawling with guards. (He enters a door into an office and checks the desk.) Jack: A few assorted documents and letters lie on the desk... but nothing of any significance. (He checks the bookcases.) Jack: Books and ancient manuscripts... most of them in foreign or strange languages. From what I can figure, most of these volumes cover the occult. (He examines a safe in the room.) Jack: I'll need the combination before I can open it. It's no use. I don't know the combination. (He goes back to the hall and checks a door.) Jack: It's locked. (He enters another door to the right to a meeting room with a big table.) Jack: This large table is most likely a meeting place for the Esoteric Order. (He picks up a knife from the table and then he sees an empty bookcase on the wall.) Jack: I can feel a draft of air from behind this bookcase. (He pushes it away, revealing a secret hallway.) Jack: It's a hidden passage. (Entering this secret hallway, he goes through a door at the end and comes to the main hall with patrolling guards, as he has seen in his monster vision. Artillery fire sounds in the background.) Jack: I don't like this one bit. (Staying hidden, he overhears a conversation between two guards.) Guard 1: Is everything okay with you? Guard 2: All's clear. (He kills the two guards with the knife and then kills the rest in the hall with other weapons. He then examines some overturned tables.) Jack: The tables have been tipped over to provide cover. (The main doors are inscribed with a large, glowing yellow glyph. He checks it.) Jack: Being this close to the doors is making my head pound. This must be the mural that Mackey was talking about. I won't be able to open these doors... they're tightly sealed. (On the other side of the hall there isanother door sealed by a blue glowing barrier.) Jack: The doorway is sealed by some mystical force. I won't be able to open the door with this barrier in the way. (There is a stone plaque next to the door. He examines it.) Jack: It's a small stone plaque engraved with text from some ancient language. I don't understand the symbols... I'll need to decipher it. (He uses the Book of Dagon on the plaque.) Jack: According to the text, only a prayer to Dagon can break the seal. (He enters a door from the hall and gets to a small study. Then he picks up a key from the desk.) Jack: It's an old rusty key. (He checks a portrait by the fireplace.) Jack: It's a portrait of one of the Marsh family. He was suffering from the Innsmouth taint. (Jack leaves the study by a door which leads to the first hall where he has entered the building. There, he opens the locked door with the rusty key.) Jack: It's unlocked. (He enters a small storage room. In the room he climbs a ladder, opens a trapdoor and goes out. The trapdoor closes behind him. He tries to open it again.) Jack: The trapdoor has no handle on this side. I can't open the trapdoor from here. (He goes to a room that has the same blue barrier on a door, and the same stone plaque next to it. He then goes back to the hall and heads to a storage room with a window looking down into a chamber with a stone disc in the middle. Many guards around notice him and attack the room. Jack kills them. Then he checks the winch mechanism in the room.) Jack: It's some sort of winch mechanism... it must be for raising the stone disc. The winch is operated by hand. (He operates it but it does not stick. The disc goes back down.) Jack: The lock on the winch mechanism is broken... I'll need some help to keep it raised. (He returns to the hall and goes to a strange room with a green archway by the wall. It seems to have an unnatural glow. Jack examines it.) Jack: I don't understand the purpose of this archway. The style of the arch is almost alien in construction. I can't do anything with it at the moment. (He heads on to the balcony overlooking the main hall. Some new guards are down there, and Jack kills them. Then he enters a room from the balcony. The room has a notebook on a chair. Jack takes it.) Jack: It looks like the diary of Robert Marsh. --- Diary of Robert Marsh The translation of the tablets is progressing well. Soon, the Word of Father Dagon shall be known to us in its entirety, as it is to those below in Y'ha- nthlei. Then, armed with knowledge of the Divine Purpose, we shall be able to take our place beneath the waves on equal terms, and the Great Design set in motion more than eigthy years past shall draw toward its completion. I'a Dagon! I'a Hydra! I'a! I'a! Poor Darwin - to be so completely wrong! For the higher forms of life are those who return to the sea, not those who forsook it for the land! And in generations to come, as the last remaining taint of human blood leaves our strain, we shall ascend to true knowledge, and true power, in the love and service of Father Dagon and Mother Hydra. But there is much still to be done, before that glorious future is assured. The outsiders could still ruin everything. The one will be sacrificed, but the other who has come looking for him must be dealt with. Innsmouth must remain undisturbed until everything is complete. That which eluded my ancestor Obed on his death in 1878 shall not escape me. If only Sebastian understood things as I do. His science - his meddling in the surface world - how meaningless they all are! Once we take our place alongside the Elder Ones, how small his endeavors will seem! But he has been deaf to the word of Dagon, no matter how I have tried. Perhaps upon his return, with the translation so much further advanced, I can make him see the truth. --- (Jack goes back to the balcony. A crying girl is heard behind a stained glass window with the image of a fish-monster.) Jack: The stained glass window is decorated with an image of Dagon. (He breaks it and hops through into a large room. Strangely, Ramona is there crying with her head in her hands. Jack approaches her.) Jack: Ramona? (Ramona suddenly turns to him. Her face has scratch marks and is bloodstained. Her left eye is also missing from its socket.) Ramona: Daddy... (She disappears. Jack checks another stained glass window in the room. It says Hydra at the top.) Jack: The stained glass window is decorated with an image of Hydra. (He breaks it and hops through it to a study with a stone mural on the wall with ancient symbols.) Jack: The large mural is engraved with text from some ancient language. I'll need to decipher the symbols to understand it. (He uses the Book of Dagon on it.) Jack: The Book of Dagon is missing a few of the symbols... it's a prayer of some sort, but I can't complete the translation... It's titled 'Hail to Dagon'... but I can't decipher the rest. I won't be able to fully decipher the text without figuring out the missing symbols. I'll need more information to complete the translation. (He leaves the study and goes back to the office in the first hall. There, he suddenly has a monster vision of someone chanting before a statue under which a sign reads "Cthulhu". After the vision, Jack opens the safe with the combination 1-8-7-8, as 1878 is an important date written in Robert Marsh's journal.) Jack: Yes, that's it! (He then checks the contents of the now open safe.) Jack: The safe holds a pistol, a crumpled scroll of paper, and a heavily bound manuscript embossed with the word 'Ponape'. (He takes both papers and the pistol.) --- I'a Dagon This scroll of paper holds a prayer to Dagon, translated into English. It reads: 'In thy name let us behold the father. From the depths of the waters I come, And from the depths the Deep Ones also have come. Hail to the ancient dreams. Hail to Dagon.' --- Ponape Scripture This heavy, bound manuscript is embossed with the word "Ponape." It claims to be a reprinting of an original manuscript written by Captain Abner Ezekiel Hoag in 1734, describing his encounters with a strange cult in the islands of the Pacific. Hoag claims that the islanders worship - and even interbreed with - strange beings from the sea, and reproduces much of the lore of this unspeakable religion. There are harrowing passages that tell of unspeakable sacrifices by which these "Deep Ones" are appeased, and of objects cast into the sea to summon them. By means of the correct rituals and offerings, they can be induced to bring fantastically-worked jewelry of gold for the islanders, although this conforms to their own strange anatomy rather than that of any human being., Hoag recounts the islanders' tales of fantastic underwater cities constructed according to some obscure and inhuman laws of geometry and architecture. Some legends tell of islanders transforming into sea-creatures as they grow old, and going to live forever beneath the sea. The greatest of the Deep Ones, Father Dagon and Mother Hydra, are said to be fantastically old, hailing from a time before the first human walked upright. Strangely, he stresses that these stories are not primitive metaphors for an afterlife, like similar tales from other island cultures, but recounts them as actual fact. He claims to have seen and conversed with these creatures himself, and witnessed several of the islanders' ceremonies and offerings to them. --- (The description of the pistol Jack has taken from the safe in the inventory reads: "This pistol looks like it's been personalized. The letters M A C K E Y have been engraved along the barrel." Jack then goes back to the office with the mural and uses the prayer scroll on it.) Jack: The prayer to Dagon reads, 'V'hu-ehn n'kgnath fha'gnu n'aem'nh. V'naa- glyz-zai v'naa-glyz-zn'a cylth. I'a ry'gzengrho. I'a Dagon.' (He goes to the blue, sealed door in the main hall and says the prayer.) Jack: V'hu-ehn n'kgnath fha'gnu n'aem'nh. V'naa-glyz-zai v'naa-glyz-zn'a cylth. I'a ry'gzengrho. I'a Dagon. (Going through the door, he gets to a room with a few guards. He kills them and checks a podium in the room. He finds some keys there.) Jack: These look like the keys to the cells. Now I can free Mackey. (He checks an open book on the podium.) Jack: This book contains details of a blasphemous ceremony. The text is difficult to read, but there are passages of a sermon referring to the Old Ones and the coming of the great priest Cthulhu. Most of the text is hand-written, and barely legible. I don't need it. (He then goes to the prison area. On the way, he has another monster vision of the chanting before the Cthulhu statue. After the vision, he goes and opens the door to Mackey's cell.) Mackey: Well done, Jack! Did you find the ceremony? Jack: Not exactly... I think it's being held in some underground chamber. A great stone disc is covering the entranceway. I'm gonna need your help to get inside. Mackey: I'll need a gun. Jack: No problem. It didn't take much detective work to figure out who this belongs to. (Jack gives him the pistol.) Mackey: First rate work, Jack! Let's go. (They go to the Order headquarters, fighting the guards on the way, into the room with the stone disc. They then go upstairs to the room with the winch mechanism.) Jack: Okay, Mackey, this is it. You raise the lid, and I'll crash the party. Mackey: Good luck, Jack. (Mackey operates the winch and lifts the stone disc, revealing a spiral staircase.) Mackey: Hurry up, Jack! You have to stop that ceremony! What are you waiting for, Jack? The entrance is open. (Jack goes down the staircase. A stone gate opens and a small temple is revealed with three sorcerers in robes with wands bowing and chanting before three monster statues. The sorcerers turn to Jack. The middle one is apparently the chief sorcerer.) Chief Sorcerer: It's the outsider! Destroy him! (The chief sorcerer retreats by a stone gate and the gate closes after him. The other sorcerers throw magical fireballs at Jack and also create a strong wind to slow him down. Jack kills them and the unnatural wind stops.) Jack: That must have been Robert Marsh leading the ceremony... I better get after him! (He checks the gate.) Jack: The doors are tightly sealed. I won't be able to pry them open. (He checks the largest statue in the center, that says Cthulhu under it.) Jack: It's a statue of Cthulhu. (He checks statue to the right, saying Hydra.) Jack: It's a statue of Hydra. (He then checks statue to the left, saying Dagon.) Jack: It's a statue of Dagon. (He sees that there are symbols on the back of the statues for them. There is also a broken mural to the right, with three symbols on it and two broken ones on the floor. If the missing symbols are replaced, the code is anchor, anchor turned to left, anchor, flower, anchor, flower.) Jack: The mural is broken, but I can still make out some of the symbols. It's some sort of secret code. (He tries to use the Book of Dagon on it.) Jack: The symbols are not in the Book of Dagon. (There is another mural with ancient text on the right wall.) Jack: The mural is engraved with text from some ancient language. I'll need to decipher the symbols to understand it. (He uses the Book of Dagon.) Jack: It reads, 'To leave the temple, bow to the deity of the Order.' (He bows before the statue of Dagon, since it is the deity of the Order, and on the floor he sees a key deciphering the symbols on the mural. The key shows that anchor is Dagon, anchor turned is Hydra and flower is Cthulhu. He presses the buttons in the order of the code on the first mural on the wall, and the gate opens. Jack goes through the open gate to a room with a plinth with two missing tablet sockets.) Jack: This plinth would have held the tablets of Dagon. Marsh must have taken them with him. (He proceeds to a torch-lit cave. Running water is heard.) Jack: I can hear running water... these must be old smuggling tunnels leading out to the harbor. (A portion of the ground breaks as he walks, and he falls into water and blacks out.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.12. A Dangerous Voyage --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "By far our greatest strength is not the vaunted power of our science, but rather the almost boundless depths of our ignorance. For should we come, unprepared as we are, to a true understanding of the universe, it would drive us mad." (Jack struggles in the water. Two seamen are seen holding onto a ship ladder, looking at him with a flashlight.) Seaman: Hey! Swim over here and we'll pull you aboard! (Jack swims toward them.) --- The Cutter Urania February 10, 1922 I've had a little time to recover since the Coast Guard Cutter Urania fished me out of the sea. I'm still shaking, but no longer from cold. Although I can think of a thousand better places to be, back in the freezing water isn't one of them. But then, neither is the place where I think this boat is headed. The crew seem like a good bunch. Commander Winter, the first officer, has gone out of his way to make sure I am well taken care of. They seem to have no idea where we're going, or why. I have my suspicions, and I hope to God I'm wrong. I guess I'll find out for sure when I talk to Captain Hearst. I don't know how much more I can take. Before today, I would never have believed that a human mind could stand up to the things I've seen and what I've been through. I should be insane; maybe I am. I'm able to take some comfort in the fact that I'm still in one piece - physically, at least. Maybe some deep-seated survival instinct is keeping me going in spite of my weakening sanity. --- (Jack is in the chart room of the ship with the captain and an officer. The captain is examining the map.) Officer Winter: Jack... our friends in the FBI have been putting the screws on some of the locals. They're a crazy bunch, but all evidence points to a stronghold somewhere below Devil's Reef. Just twenty minutes ago... we lost contact with the sub that was patrolling those waters. Captain Stephen Hearst: Thank you, Officer Winter. Their last communication was just some garbled message about an underwater city. We've got to make our way to the reef and find this stronghold... the old smuggling tunnels that lead below the sea bed will be our best option. Jack: Look, I appreciate you pulling me aboard, but what you're talking about sounds like suicide! Hearst: Nonsense! Lieutenant, let's plan the landing in my office. (They leave. Another officer in the room talks to Jack.) Officer: It's a good job we spotted you; the waters round these parts are no place for swimming! Officer: Stay alert... it's not far to the reef. Something's giving me a bad feeling about this mission. (Seamen are heard talking outside.) Seaman: How's it looking up there? Seaman: I dunno... It all seems clear, but I can't see much in this bloody fog. Seaman: It's still clear. But, this fog... I've never seen anything like it. Seaman: No sign of any danger! Seaman: All clear ahead! (Jack checks the map of Innsmouth Bay in the room.) Jack: Looks like Devil's Reef is about half a mile from Innsmouth harbor. (He checks a larger map on the wall.) Jack: This map covers most of the Atlantic ocean. Normally this ship must be stationed quite a distance from Innsmouth. (He tries to open the door to the infirmary near the chart room.) Jack: It's locked. (He goes up to the bridge and talks to a seaman there.) Seaman: Stay alert... it won't be long till we reach the reef. Keep on the lookout. Stay alert. (He then talks to the officer handling the wheel.) Officer: There's not much you can do up here, Jack. See if you can give the guard a hand on deck. (He tries to talk to him again.) Officer: Not now, please, I'm busy. (A seaman is operating the light near the bridge.) Light Operator: Okay... I'm gonna take a break... keep your eye out. (The operator climbs down onto the deck. Jack goes out onto the deck through the chart room and talks to the light operator near the door.) Light Operator: You got any smokes, Jack? Jack: Fraid not. Water ruined them. Light Operator: Shit. Light Operator: Stay alert, Jack. It won't be long till we reach the reef. I don't mind telling you, I've got a bad feeling about this mission. (Jack then talks to the officer who has been in the chart room before but is now looking at the water by leaning over the railing.) Jack: What you looking at? Officer: I could have sworn I saw something in the water earlier. Something's giving me a bad feeling about this mission. (He then talks to a seaman on the deck with a Tommy gun.) Jack: How you holding up, Henson? (He suddenly has a monster vision of some creatures advancing towards the ship from the water. The officer at the railing is seen.) Seaman Gene Henson: Listen, Jack. I've been to a lot of places, and I've seen a lot of screwy shit, but there ain't nothing that's ever been standing once this baby's starts throwing lead... (He has another vision of the monsters climbing onto the ship. Suddenly the officer that was looking at the water gets pulled into the water.) Henson: What the hell was that? Light Operator: Johnson? Where'd he go? (The light operator that was talking to Jack near the door looks at the water to investigate. A fish-monster jumps onto him and kills him, and then nother monster jumps onto the ship. They are the Deep Ones, like Ramona's mother, and more of them get onto the deck and start attacking the seamen. Henson kills the first two with his Tommy gun.) Henson: Get the rifle, Jack... we're under attack! (Jack takes the rifle that the operator has dropped. More seamen arrive from below to join the battle. Henson defends the door to the chart room.) Henson: We've gotta stop them from getting in the ship. Seaman: Over there! Kill it! Seaman: We're under attack! Seaman: Help us! Seaman: Stop them getting inside! Henson: Jack! Help me guard the entrance! Seaman: Watch out! Behind you! Seaman: Don't let them get inside! Seaman: Behind you! Noooo! Henson: Jack! Come over here! (Jack goes to Henson.) Henson: We're running out of ammo fast. There'll be more in the storage room. Here, take the keys. (He gives him the keys.) Jack: (to himself) I've got the keys to the storage. I'd better hurry. Henson: We don't have much time! Hurry! (Jack goes to the storage room through the chart room and unlocks the door.) Jack: It's unlocked. (He collects ammo from the room.) Jack: Rounds for the Tommy Gun. I need to get these to Henson. (Jack gets to Henson.) Henson: Jack! The ammo... quickly! (He gives him the ammo.) Henson: Thanks, Jack. One of them got me... my leg's bleeding bad. I need a med kit. There should be one in the infirmary. Hurry! Jack: But it's locked. Henson: Well find a way in! Seaman: Kill them! Kill them all! Seaman: They're everywhere!! Seaman: Watch out! Seaman: Please! Help me! Seaman: We're all gonna die!!! (He goes to the infirmary and sees a dead seaman before the door. He goes and checks the corpse.) Jack: The body's still warm... he hasn't been dead long. He's dead... and the stench in here is sickening. (He enters the infirmary through the door that has been broken open. Inside, he sees a huge Deep One feeding on a seaman on a bed. He kills it, and then checks the mutilated, headless corpse on the bed.) Jack: My God! His guts have been torn open. Those things sure don't have a charming bedside manner. I don't think he's gonna get any better. (He finds a medkit in the infirmary.) Jack: An emergency medical kit. I need to get this to Henson quickly. (He goes to Henson.) Henson: Quick, Jack! Give it to me! (He gives the medkit to him.) Henson: Thanks, Jack. We've got to hold them off as long as we can. (The monsters attack again.) Seaman: My God! The water's full of them! Seaman: The sides!! They're coming up the sides!! Henson: Jack! The entrance... we've gotta defend the ship. Seaman: Jesus, no! They just keep coming. Seaman: Oh, my God!!! Henson: Stand your ground. (The Deep Ones eventually retreat to the water after a bloody battle in which many seamen are killed.) Henson: Where'd they gone? Come back, you fish-faced bastards! (Jack gets to Henson.) Henson: Phew! That was a close call. Jack: Well done, Henson. Henson: Most of the crew are dead, Jack... why they'd retreat? Jack: I don't get it either. (Officer Winter too comes onto the deck. After a few seconds, a giant wave is seen coming towards the ship from the direction of the reef.) Seaman: INCOMING!!! Officer Winter: EVERYONE TAKE COVER! (Jack holds onto a railing to prevent being thrown off by the wave. The wave hits the ship, killing a few seamen including Henson. It then subsides.) Seaman: Look! There's lights on the reef! (Winter looks at the reef with his binoculars.) Winter: That wave was no natural incident. It looks like there's some sort of witchcraft happening on the reef. (There are three strange blue lights on the coast of the reef.) Winter: Jack! Try using the cannon's scope to get a better look. (Another wave comes.) Winter: Damn it, Jack! TAKE COVER! (The wave hits the ship, kills all the remaining seamen on the deck and then subsides. Winter is also injured.) Jack: What now, Winter? Winter: Use the cannon's scope, Jack. There are some strange lights coming from the reef. (Jack uses the cannon on the front of the ship and sees three sorcerers with wands creating blue lights. They are apparently casting a spell that causes the waves. Jack hits and kills them with the cannon, evading the waves that come about every thirty seconds. When the last sorcerer is killed, Jack has a monster vision of a Deep One inside the bottom hull of the ship. Then the vision ends and a seaman comes running onto the deck.) Seaman: OFFICER WINTER! Officer Winter! Winter: Take it easy, Thompson. Now tell me slowly... what's the situation? Thompson: Thank heavens you're alive, sir! There's hardly any of the crew left, and... and... it looks like some of those... things managed to get below deck. Winter: Have you seen Captain Hearst? Thompson: He's gone delirious, sir! Locked himself in his quarters! He won't answer the door to no one. With respect, sir. He's off his nut! Winter: Urggh! We need him to open the armory. (The Deep Ones board the deck again from the sea.) Winter: Get inside! (They get inside the chart room.) Winter: Shut the door! (Thompson shuts the door. The monsters start to attack it.) Winter: Damn! I'm almost out of bullets. We gotta get below deck. Head for the armory! Thompson: The mess hall's locked, sir... we'll have to head for the stern. (They get moving from the chart room.) Thompson: Jack! You keep back and look after Officer Winter. I'll make sure the infirmary's clear. (The Deep Ones break down the door and burst inside.) Thompson: This way! Shut the doors behind you! (Thompson moves ahead of Jack and Winter. Jack shuts the door from the chart room to slow down the monsters. Winter slowly moves toward the infirmary.) Jack: It's not far. Keep moving! Hurry up! We're gonna make it. (They enter and Jack closes the door. Thompson is already there.) Thompson: Bolt the damn door, Jack! We're gonna die! (Jack bolts the door. There is another door to the other side of the infirmary. Thompson tries to open it.) Thompson: It's locked. Winter: I've got the keys. (Winter opens the door, which leads back onto another part of the deck.) Thompson: Run! (Deep Ones start to climb again onto the deck. They go through another door.) Winter: Shut the door! (Jack shuts the door.) Thompson: Bolt the door! (Jack bolts the door. They wait a little there. The monsters start attacking the door.) Winter: We need to keep moving! Thompson: That door won't hold forever. We've got to keep moving. The armory's not far... it's just through the main engine room. (Winter goes down the stairs. A gunshot is heard.) Seaman: Wait... I'm sorry, sir... I thought you were... one of those things. (Jack and Thompson go down and see a seaman with Winter.) Winter: That's okay... no one got hurt. Just calm down. (A Deep One suddenly attacks the seaman.) Seaman: Arrrghhhhh! (A steam pipe blows and the steam kills the monster, but it also blocks the way now. Jack talks to Thompson.) Jack: How you doing? Thompson: We should never have shelled the town. It was crazy... and now... now we're the ones being punished. Jack: At least we're still alive. Thompson: We've got to keep Officer Winter alive. (Jack checks Winter.) Jack: (to himself) He's badly wounded. He needs all his strength just to keep moving. He won't last much longer. (Jack checks a trapdoor.) Jack: It's locked. (He enters an adjacent room which happens to be the sleeping quarters. There, he finds a notebook on one of the beds.) Jack: It's a personal diary of one of the crew. (Jack goes back out, turns a valve and stops the steam.) Thompson: This way! (They go through a door and move through the engine room.) Thompson: The Captain's room's through here. (The captain's voice is heard.) Captain Hearst: He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters. (They get to his door.) Hearst: He restoreth my soul; he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff; they comfort me. (Winter knocks on his door.) Winter: Captain Hearst. It's Officer Winter. It's all right now, Captain. Everything is under control. We're just checking through the ship... Hearst: Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life... Winter: Captain Hearst! Open the door! Captain Hearst. It's Officer Winter. Hearst: And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. Amen. (A shot is fired and blood splatters on the window.) Winter: Damn it! We need that armory key. We've got to find another way in. (Winter walks a few steps and then collapses.) Winter: Arrrrggghhh. Thompson: You go! I'll stay and look after him. Jack: How's he holding up? Thompson: He won't make it... he's lost too much blood. Don't stop! (Jack checks Winter.) Jack: (to himself) There's nothing I can do. He's as good as dead. (He checks the armory door across the Captain's room.) Jack: It's locked, and the key's in the Captain's room. (He then checks the mess hall door at the end of the hall.) Jack: It's locked. (He goes down through a trapdoor through a ladder and gets to the engine room of the ship. There are two open air vents. He enters the left one and runs into a working fan.) Jack: I need something to break it open. (He goes back and enters the right vent. There, he has a monster vision of something approaching Thompson and Winter.) Thompson: What the hell? (The vision ends, and Jack hears screams and noises of struggle. He then comes to the Captain's room at the end of the vent. Captain lies dead on the floor in a pool of blood. Jack picks up a key from the desk.) Jack: At last, it's the key to the armory. (He goes out of the cabin and sees the mutilated corpses of Winter and Thompson. He then heads into the armory. There are many weapons inside. He picks up some dynamites.) Jack: Some sticks of dynamite. Always useful. (He also takes a Tommy gun, and, suddenly, two Deep Ones burst in. Jack manages to kill them. Then he goes back to the furnace and enters the left air vent. When he comes across the fan, he blows it up with the sticks of dynamite. Continuing to crawl in the vent, he eventually comes out into a storage room. There, he opens a door to the mess hall. There are some seamen inside, one of them badly wounded. The other one looks very surprised to see him.) Seaman Roy Baker: Oh shit! How the hell did you get in here? Jack: A small vent, a few sticks of dynamite, and a minor explosion. Baker: You idiot! Sealing the exits is the only way we've kept those damn things out. (Baker closes the door through which Jack has come. Then the lights suddenly go out.) Baker: What the hell? (Jack has a monster vision of a Deep One killing a seaman in the cargo hold. After the vision, the lights come back on.) Baker: It's switched to auxiliary power... there must be an engine fault. Just great... we're sitting real pretty now. You'd better go and sort it out. Jack: Lay off. Have you been hitting the pipe? You're the engineer... you sort it out! I know nothing from nothing about ship engines. Baker: No way in hell... those bloody things are everywhere! I already tried to get the welding kit from the cargo hold. We got jumped... Jesus, it was so fast... only me and Paul got out alive. We had to lock Barry down there with it. Take these keys. With the welding kit, at least we could seal these doors. You know... give ourselves a bit more time. (He gives the keys to Jack.) Jack: A key to the cargo hold. (Baker goes and opens a door on the other side of the mess hall. The door looks into the hall with the corpses of Winter and Thompson.) Jack: You locked someone in the cargo hold? With one of them? Are you off your nut? Baker: Look fella... I don't mean to crash in on your party of righteousness... but I'm looking out for number one. Jack: (to himself) He's given me the keys to the cargo hold, and he's not about to give me any more help. (Jack sees the entrance to the catwalk of the engine room is blocked by steam. He heads down a ladder through a trapdoor into the lower part of the engine room. The engines have apparently stopped. He closes the door of the furnace and heads on through. He then climbs a ladder and gets to the other part of the catwalk. After that, he goes through a door to the hallway with the sleeping quarters. There, he has a monster vision of a mutilated corpse floating on the water. After the vision, he opens the trapdoor that was locked before with the keys.) Jack: It's unlocked. (The trapdoor leads to the cargo hold. Jack heads down and sees the mutilated corpse of the seaman in the flooded area. He finds the welding kit and is suddenly attacked by a Deep One, but he manages to kill it. Afterwards, he goes back to the door of the mess hall near the Captain's room.) Jack: Open the damn door. Baker: Not 'til you get this ship moving again. (Jack returns to the engine room and turns a valve next to the furnace but the furnace starts shaking when he does that so he turns it off again. He then goes up the ladder to the catwalk. There, he turns a valve that stops the steam that comes from a pipe on a higher catwalk. There is a crank on the catwalk. He tries to use it.) Jack: A winding mechanism for a maintenance ladder. It's jammed. I can't force it... it's gotta be locked from somewhere. (He looks up and sees a maintenance ladder that cannot be reached because it is padlock. He shoots the padlock and the ladder drops down.) Jack: The ladder is down. (He climbs the ladder and sees the damaged pipe from which steam was coming before but he has now stopped it with the valve.) Jack: I think I've found the problem. That'll need repairing before this ship's going anywhere. It's fractured... I'll need to seal it. From the look of the markings, the engine must have been sabotaged. (He seals the crack with the welding kit.) Jack: The crack's been sealed. (He drops down to the lower catwalk. Then he climbs down and turns a valve next to the furnace. He goes back up the ladder and turns the valve on the catwalk that he has turned off earlier to stop the steam from the damaged pipe, and the engines start. After that, he returns to the door of the mess hall. Baker opens the door.) Baker: Thank goodness you're back. (Baker takes the welding kit from him.) Baker: Give me that. We've got to seal the doors. There've been noises at the other entrance... they're trying to break in. (Two monsters break into the mess hall from the stairway that leads to the chart room. Jack kills them. Then he finds Baker cowering on the floor.) Jack: Come on, Roy... they're dead. Baker: I'm not moving! Jack: We've got to check out the deck. Baker: You look outside. I'm staying right here! (Jack checks the wounded seaman before going out. He has died.) Jack: He's gone. At least he's out of his misery. The body's still warm... he hasn't been dead long. (Jack comes out onto the deck through the chart room, and the door suddenly closes behind him. He then has a monster vision which shows that it is Baker who is sealing the door to the deck with the welding kit. The monster kills him. In the vision, a Deep One approaches him from behind and kills him. Then, a massive giant creature emerges before the ship in the sea. It is clearly Dagon himself, because its body and head are the same with the statues and stained glass images seen earlier.) Jack: Oh, God... oh, God... please no... (Dagon shakes the ship with amazing strength and tries to hit Jack with his hand, diving down the water and surfacing back out from time to time. Jack shoots him with the cannon on the deck when he surfaces in front of the ship. After three hits in the face, Dagon reaches for the deck with most of his weight and shakes the ship. Jack is thrown about the deck with great force and blacks out.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.13. Shadow Out of Time 2 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "It was then that the true horror dawned on me. For if these things were truly real, then what others might there be: lurking in the sea, or among the stars, or even standing beside us, a little past the edge of our perception?" (Jack is floating deep in the water. Then he has a vision of a strange chamber with blue crystals on the ceiling. Then another green chamber is seen, with strangely-shaped tiles that look quite alien in style on the floor. A book on the floor opens and strange symbols are seen in the pages.) Jack: ... when our foe moved on land, we would track them by the strange footprints they left in their wake, consisting of five circular toe marks. (The vision switches to a large cavern with a strange dead creature. Then another page is seen from the book in the chamber.) Jack: They were blind, yet had exceptional sensitivity to both motion and sound. (The dead creature is again seen in the cavern.) Jack: In battle these creatures could harness the power of the winds with terrifying precision. It wasn't until the great energy weapon was developed that we had the means to fight their evil. (A page in the book shows the sketch of a strange, highly-advanced weapon that looks like a ray gun of some sort.) Jack: Then we were able to drive them down deep into the catacombs beneath their basalt towers, sealing all routes with impenetrable trapdoors. (A circular trapdoor with strange markings is seen being closed over the entrance to the cavern. The camera then speeds through different caves. And then the underground chamber in the cult house from the Prologue chapter is seen. The portal opens and Jack is sucked into it. After that the vision switches to what appears to be a small islet with rocky hills and ponds with strange trees, plants and a small waterfall, and soon afterwards the vision ends.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.14. Devil's Reef --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "The land itself seemed wrong, in some subtle way that I could not precisely define. The moonlight fell at an unnatural angle, casting distorted shadows from trees that were not shaped quite as trees should be. Even the hills were somehow different." (Jack awakens coughing and stands up. He is in a small lagoon on Devil's Reef with wooden planks and other wreckage from the ship around him.) --- The Reef of Satan February 10, 1922 Early Evening Did I really see what I think I saw, or was it another hallucination? I can't be sure any longer. Surely these things can't exist in any rational universe, but then, how could any human imagination - even an insane one - produce such horrors? And why do some of the things - the shapes, the words they use - seem so familiar? That's the question that's eating at me. Are they connected to my lost memories - and if so, what on Earth happened to me during the six missing years? Or was it even on Earth? I need to get a grip on myself and look for any other survivors from the wreck of the Urania. I hope I'm not alone on this hellish rock, with these - these things. I must be careful, though. I've seen for myself what they do to unwelcome visitors. --- (Jack examines the wreckage around him in the lagoon.) Jack: Some of the wreckage from the Urania has floated ashore. It doesn't look like much survived. (He starts to move inland by entering a small cave. The cave gives way to a small pond and then to a narrow pathway with ledges on both sides. The pathway is lit with torches on the walls. Suddenly, a dead seaman is thrown before Jack from the upper ledge, and the groans of a monster are heard. Jack checks the corpse.) Jack: It must be a warning... I better watch my step. The body has been mutilated. (He proceeds and comes to a pit with spikes at the bottom.) Jack: Falling in would mean certain death. The base of the pit is filled with spikes. (He jumps across the pit to the other side, onto a lightly-colored stone. Suddenly, a noise is heard.) Jack: What the hell? (Spikes spring up in front of him. He ducks, and a plank with spikes swings over him.) Jack: This entire reef could be laden with traps. Great. This stone slab must be some sort of pressure plate. (He walks on, and eventually comes to an opening with strong winds. There are two narrow ledges here; the left one leads inland, while the right one leads to a jetty on the edge of the reef.) Jack: The winds here are fierce, and there isn't much shelter ahead... I need to be careful. (He follows the right ledge. Parts of the stone fall off as he walks but he jumps over them. On the way Zadok Allen's voice sounds as Jack remembers his description of the ceremonies and the human sacrfice performed on the reef. He then has a monster vision when he comes to the jetty. The vision begins in the water with small discs being cast from above. Then the mighty monster surfaces from the water, and three sorcerers and a prisoner are seen on the jetty. This monster is clearly Dagon, about to take his sacrifice. The vision then ends, and Jack finds a similar disc from the vision on the jetty.) Jack: A strangely carved disc. (He checks the blood-stained shackles on the rock.) Jack: These shackles would have been used to chain people to the rocks. This jetty must have been where they carried out the sacrifices to Dagon. (He goes back and this time follows the left ledge. He comes to a pathway and there is a way to the left leading down. He goes through it, through a tunnel filled with the monstrous starfish, and ends up in a small chamber with shackles and a skeleton. He finds a pulley near them.) Jack: An old pulley. (There are five crude murals on the walls. One of them depicts three men hung on stakes.) Jack: The rock surface the mural is set on seems to be slightly worn. This depicts a scene of sacrifice. (The second one depicts a woman with a small creature in her womb and a Deep One standing next to her.) Jack: This is how the population was infected with the Innsmouth taint. It depicts the fish-men breeding with humans... this would have happened to those in Innsmouth that took the third Oath of Dagon. (In the third mural a man casts discs into the water on a cliff. Two discs are on the wall but the third one is missing.) Jack: There is a disc missing from the engraving. It seems to depict the summoning of the fish-men by the casting of discs into the ocean waves. (Jack places the disc he found on the jetty in the socket and a secret door opens on the wall. Before going there, he checks the fourth mural, which shows humans prostating on a cliff with Dagon and other Deep Ones in the water.) Jack: The mural shows humans worshipping fish-men and Dagon. (The last mural depicts a battle between two groups of warriors armed with spears, and one side includes Deep Ones.) Jack: The mural shows conflict between two groups of people. One is on the side of the fish-men. This reminds me of Zadok's story of the battle between the good folk of Innsmouth and Captain Obed Marsh. (He enters the hidden chamber. There is a hanging man and a small heap of golden trinkets there. Jack picks up an ornamental lever from amongst the gold.) Jack: This lever is the only object in the hoard of treasures not constructed from gold. (He examines the heap.) Jack: The gold in these treasures has an unusual whitish color. This whitish gold reminds me of the hidden vault in the Marsh Refinery. (He then examines the hanging corpse.) Jack: Poor soul... he was probably a fisherman from the port. I doubt he is the only one to have suffered sacrifice in this chamber. (He returns the way he came, this time continuing inland through the main pathway. He proceeds evading plank-covered pit traps and wooden spikes on the walls. He eventually comes to the shore but there seems to be another pressure plate and thus another booby trap on the way. He goes into a small vine-covered alcove to the right and sees a socket on the wall.) Jack: There is a hole in the plate... it seems to be part of some mechanism. There is a plate in the rock here... something has been removed. (He places the lever from the hidden chamber into it and pulls it. He goes back and proceeds the way, and the booby trap does not function. He then goes along the shore as the pathway gives way to the sea, holding onto some iron rings to prevent himself from being swept away by the strong waves. He eventually comes to another pathway. There is a collapsed bridge on the way.) Jack: Only a single rope remains of the collapsed bridge. The rope still seems fairly sturdy. (He swings along the rope using the pulley, falling off halfway through onto a ledge. He follows the ledge and enters a cave and comes to a small chamber with a pad, a green gem and a socket. He tries to pick up the green gem held by claws.) Jack: I can't pick it up. The claws are locking the gem firmly in place. (The pad contains strange symbols and a diagram that seems to depict a maze. A green crystal is at the beginning and a red one is at then end of it. There is writing above it.) Jack: I don't understand the symbols. Until I know what it's for, I'm not touching anything. (He uses the Book of Dagon to decipher it.) Jack: It appears to be a map. You need to press a button to activate the sequence. (The socket to the other side has a carving.) Jack: The design of the carving reminds me of something. There is an intricate design carved into the button... it must have held some sort of decoration. (He places Ruth's brooch into it. It fits very well in place, and then he presses it. A path lifts in the diagram that connects the two crystals and a bell rings.) Jack: I think I've activated some kind of timed mechanism. (Jack goes back to the site of the collapsed bridge and jumps across to a narrow ledge on the other side. By that way, he goes to the other side of the bridge. Glowing red crystals that have emerged on the floor with his activation of the mechanism on the floor guide him through the maze, and, killing some monster spiders on the way, he gets to a chamber with statues, an effigy of the head of Cthulhu on the wall, and an empty pedestal in the middle with open claws.) Jack: This looks similar to the pedestal in the other room. (He places the red gem he has taken from the temple room in the refinery on the pedestal. The claws close after some time, the gem glows and a hidden path opens in the wall below the head of Cthulhu. Jack checks the statue to the left before leaving.) Jack: It's a statue of Hydra. (He then examines the statue to the right.) Jack: It's a statue of Dagon... without the missile I lodged in his face. (He enters the new tunnel, and it leads down to a huge cavern with strange, glowing plants. There is a massive hole in the middle with strong winds coming out.) Jack: There's heavy gusts of air coming from the hole. That updraft is too strong to be anything natural. (There is a rock next to the massive hole. Jack pushes it in.) Jack: That's one hell of a drop... I didn't hear it hit the bottom. (Jack himself jumps into the hole and falls down a great distance. Then he finds himself in the hallway of the asylum. There is a man in a wheelchair up ahead. Jack moves along the hall towards the window at the end, from which a white light comes. The man disappears as he comes close. Then the hallway is flooded with blood and there emerges another man further ahead. As he moves forward arms come out of the door slits of all the cells. He walks on and the second man disappears as well. The light coming from the window at the end gets very bright and fills his visage, and the vision ends.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.15. The Air-Filled Tunnels --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "More than once, I have considered ending my torment, either with a bullet, a noose, or a vial of poison. But already I dare not sleep for fear of nightmares, and Hamlet rightly asks, 'in that sleep of death, what dreams may come...?'" (Jack lands safely onto a large grate, from which strong gusts of air are issuing. He stands up, and sees that he is in a large cavern.) --- The Dark Depths February 10, 1922 Morning I have no idea how I've made it this far. In fact, I'm no longer certain where "this far" is, or if it even exists outside my imagination. Every step I take, I question what I see and hear. There's some kind of song traveling on the wind - like so much else, it seems familiar, and yet it fills me with such dread. I can't believe anything of this Earth could make such a sound. I must be insane. Any sane person would have turned back by now, but I have passed that point. I have to see this through to the end. I have to know what has brought me here. If there's no answer to be found in this maze, I'll do what I can to assist the submarine in blowing this whole place to hell. If there's no answer to this disease of my mind, if I can't find a way to understand what's happening to me, then I'm better off dead, buried beneath the sea forever. --- (A tunnel nearby in the cavern is blocked with rocks. Jack examines it.) Jack: It's sealed up... I can't get through. (He then goes into another tunnel that leads to a chamber with many windows. The windows look into the sea and show an underwater city of strange architechture, which is apparently Y'ha-nthlei, which has been mentioned before. A submarine fires a torpedo at it, but a magical barrier protects it.) Jack: I've got to shut down that barrier. (He heads on and comes to an open area. There he suddenly has a monster vision of a man with the Innsmouth taint coming through a green portal. The vision ends and Jack sees the man talk to a guard on a ledge above. The green rays from the portal can be seen from where he is. He hides behind some rocks near the ledge and listens in on their conversation.) Guard: Good evening, sir. We weren't supposing on your returning so soon. Man: Never mind that! Where the hell is Robert? Guard: Your brother's been leading the children in prayer with Mother. Sebastian Marsh: We don't have time for this religious nonsense. There are troops packing the streets... and the Order's been completely overrun! It won't be too long before they find out about this place! Guard: I've made certain the temple's well-protected. There's plenty of men patrolling the main hallway and prison. Marsh: Good... the barrier has got to hold. Keep on your guard, and check the entrance from the reef. I'm going to the lab. (Marsh walks away.) Jack: I'd better keep my head down. I've got a much better chance of survival if they don't know I'm here. (The guard walks down the ledge and into the tunnel from which Jack came. Jack hides and sneaks after him to the ledge. He sees that the portal is not there and that there is an archway in its place next to a rock wall. It is the same strange archway that he has seen in the Order headquarters. There is also a stone pedestal nearby. Jack examines the archway.) Jack: It looks like some sort of doorway into the rock. Maybe it's linked to the pedestal over there... somehow. (He checks the pedestal. There is a red crystal on it and also some strange writing.) Jack: It's written in some kind of ancient language. I'll need to decipher it. (He uses the Book of Dagon to decipher it.) Jack: According to the text, the gateway can only be activated by those bearing a sacred charm and uttering an ancient chant. I won't be able to do anything without first finding this so-called charm. (He enters a tunnel that Marsh has entered and follows it. A wooden portcullis suddenly closes behind him after some time. When he walks a few steps another portcullis drops down in front of him. A sorcerer appears behind it and draws Jack closer to it with by casting a spell. Then Sebastian Marsh comes there, as well.) Marsh: Well, well... what do we have here? I don't believe you have an invitation to our little party. Jack: Just check the guest list. I'm under the section for fellas that ain't ugly freaks. Marsh: Throw our jester friend here in with the lab rats... I'll deal with him on a more intimate level later. Increase the security levels... check the area, make sure he's alone! (The sorcerer casts a spell that causes Jack to black out. He wakes up in a small prison cell. The Book of Dagon is not in his inventory, apparently taken away by his captors. After waking up, Jack has a monster vision of two guards patrolling the prison area. After the vision, he checks the open shackles in the cell.) Jack: They must have released whoever was in here. The shackles have only recently been freed. (Monstrous groans come from the cell next to his. One of the prison guards goes to its door and reprimands its occupant from time to time.) Guard: Keep your whining down! Guard: Stop with your racketing, you pathetic fool. Guard: Shut up! (There is a grate in Jack's cell. He checks it.) Jack: There seems to be a sewage tunnel running below the grating. The grating is heavily rusted... but it won't budge. (He finds a chisel in the cell.) Jack: It's just an old chisel. (He opens the grate with the chisel and drops down. He crawls through the sewage tunnel and sticks his head out into the next cell from which the groans were coming. There is a person inside with the taint who has completed his transformation into a fish-man but has apparently gone insane because of it. He is shackled, and he starts to groan loudly and thrash about when he sees Jack. The guard hears it.) Guard: Right, that's it... (Jack drops back down into the tunnel. The guard comes into the cell and beats the fish-man.) Guard: If you make another sound, I'll rip you from limb to limb. (The guard leaves. Jack comes back out and examines the fish-man, who is now whimpering.) Jack: I don't want to disturb him again. I should probably leave him alone. (Jack sneaks out of the cell and makes his way to a wall, all the while avoiding the guards. There is a hole on the wall and he goes through it, ending up in a small tunnel. It leads out of the prison to a larger tunnel. Going through this tunnel, Jack finds himself in a large, cavernous area. There are two guards at a campfire right in front of him. They are heard talking as he sneaks to the left.) Guard 1: Afore much longer, they'll have to send someone down that abandoned hole. Guard 2: You'd have to be not right betwixt ears to go down that place. Guard 1: Maybe... but Marsh reckons on it running right under temple of Hydra. It'd not be right to just leave it be. Not with what's down there. Guard 1: The old warning in Visitor's Hall has been covered with Esther's garden... you can barely see the passage now. Guard 2: Talking of overgrowing planting. Have you see'd the prison? There's a vine put a gaping hole in ceiling of one of the cells. (Jack sneaks his way up a ledge to the left, following a patrolling guard. The guard stops next to another stationed by an archway leading into a tunnel, and Jack sneaks past both of them and into it. Just inside he has a sudden monster vision of someone patrolling an area filled with strange plants and further ahead a chamber with rock columns. The vision ends, and Jack comes to the chamber with the columns, patrolled by a few guards. He hears two of them talk.) Guard 1: Have you noticed anything unusual? Guard 2: No. Everything seems fine. (There is also a closed door here. Jack sneaks past the guards and makes his way to the area filled with the strange plants. He examines them.) Jack: I've never seen plant life like this before. From their shape and texture, they look almost prehistoric. (He finds a bright blue plant among the others and takes it. Then he sees a passage leading out of the area. There is some writing next to it. He checks it.) Jack: I'll need to decipher it. It's written in some kind of ancient language. (He cannot decipher the sign as he does not have the Book of Dagon with him, so he continues. He enters the passage, which leads to a rocky area. There are strange, bright green gems on the walls. One of them is smaller and within Jack's reach. He tries to take it.) Jack: It won't budge. I'll need something to pry it out. (He then tries to take it with the chisel.) Jack: The chisel alone won't be enough to loosen the crystal. I can't get enough force behind the chisel to break it out. (He continues on his way and gets to a ledge overlooking an area with a small waterfall. He makes his way through ledges that eventually lead to the bottom of the area. There are two tunnels that lead away from here. Jack enters one of them. This narrow tunnel is filled with water to the waist level. Further ahead he sees that its walls are filled with a large amount of the monstrous starfish. Since he cannot proceed, he returns and heads into the second tunnel. It leads up and eventually ends with a circular grate on the ground. When Jack comes close to it he has a monster vision of someone approaching Robert Marsh's desk. The vision then ends as abruptly as it has begun, and Jack hears a voice from below the grate. He looks down, seeing Robert Marsh talking to a guard at his desk, in a large and well-furnished room. However, the furniture is alien in style.) Guard: We have cleaned out the laboratory, sir. The temple doors are shut and sealed. The outsiders have not been able to rupture the barrier... Mother's song is holding. There are many joining in prayer. Robert Marsh: Excellent... dismissed. (The guard leaves, and Sebastian Marsh arrives, putting his briefcase harshly onto the desk.) Sebastian: What the hell do you think you're doing, Robert? We're in the middle of an invasion and you've got our Order singing hymns! Robert: You're a fool, Sebastian. I command the Order of Dagon... Not you! Sebastian: The research must be protected at all costs! Robert: I've shut the lab down, Sebastian. Sebastian: What? This is madness! Can't you see how far Esther's come? Robert: Your trivial experiments are of no concern to me. All energies must be directed at completing the translation of the tablets. The work of my great- grandfather must be finished! Take your worthless body back to shore... you are of no further use to the Order. Sebastian: That's not going to happen, Robert. (Sebastian takes out a pistol and shoots Robert in the shoulder. Robert, in turn, casts a spell on him that lifts him the air and kills him. Wounded and enraged, he then violently pushes the briefcase away. Just at that moment, the grate from which Jack has been watching them falls off and Jack finds himself in the office with Robert Marsh.) Robert: There is no escape. (He casts his spell on Jack and draws him, lifts him and throws him away. Jack takes cover behind the desk then to hinder the spell and Marsh cannot draw him this time. Jack finds a knife on the desk and runs at Marsh from time to time to stab him, while Marsh continues to use his magic. He utters short phrases as the fight goes on.) Robert: You don't belong here. Robert: Cthulhu fhtagn. Robert: Your race is finished, it is our time now. Robert: You can't hide from me. Robert: You will kneel before Father Dagon. Robert: You will kneel before Mother Hydra. (Marsh dies after a few stabs. Jack opens Sebastian's briefcase on the desk and finds the Book of Dagon and a key inside. There is a large window behid the desk that looks out into the ocean. A few torpedoes are fired in its direction, but they hit an invisible, magical barrier and explode. Then the submarine that was trying to attack the underwater city comes into view. It is apparent that the area that Jack is now in is a part of this underwater city. Jack then examines the bookcases in Marsh's study.) Jack: Books and ancient manuscripts... I recognize some of the symbols from the Book of Dagon. Most of the volumes appear to cover witch cults and sorcery. I've got enough problems without experimenting with witchcraft. (Jack goes through the door of the study, which leads to a well-lit hall. There are a few guards and two sorcerers patrolling the part of the hall to the left so Jack goes to the right, where there are no guards. There, he sees a statue of Cthulhu and examines it.) Jack: It's an ancient statue of Cthulhu. This effigy must be thousands of years old. (This part of the hall also has a large window that looks into the ocean. As Jack looks out, a few torpedoes are fired at that part and are stopped by the magical barrier. A few moments later the submarine comes into view. Jack then follows the hall, which leads to a large stone door. Strange chanting comes from the other side. Jack checks the door.) Jack: The doorway is sealed by some mystical force. It won't budge. (He finds a rifle next to the door. Now armed, he returns to the other part of the hall, which is decorated with large statues of Dagon and Hydra, and he kills the guards and the sorcerers. He then heads into a tunnel at the end of the hall. It leads upward and halfway through Jack has a monster vision in which he sees the guards in the area next to the small garden with the strange plants. The tunnel eventually leads to the bolted door before this same area, and Jack kills the guards there with his rifle. Now that he has the Book of Dagon with him, he goes to the garden to decipher the sign that he has seen earlier. He examines it with the book.) Jack: It's some kind of warning message. It advises against going any further. The passage looks abandoned. (He moves back out into the large cavernous area with the campfire. There he sees that a few Deep Ones are also on patrol, as well as the guards that were there earlier. He fights his way through them to a higher ledge. There are two tunnels on this ledge. The one to the left is blocked by a portcullis, so that is apparently the one Jack has been going through when he has been captured by Sebastian Marsh. As he is about to enter the tunnel to the right Jack experiences two monster visions of a man frantically looking around in a room. He can only see the ceiling and the higher part of the walls. The tunnel eventually ends with a metal door, and a laboratory filled with equipment and strange plants is seen from the window of the door. Screams are heard from the inside when Jack comes close to the door.) Jack: Hmmm... looks like some kind of laboratory. (The key he has taken from Sebastian Marsh's briefcase unlocks the door.) Jack: It's unlocked. (Jack enters the laboratory. There are strange plants everywhere, on tables and in glass cases. There are also small diagrams of the plants on the walls. He examines them and the plants.) Jack: They appear to be trying to cultivate new breeds of plant life. Their surface texture is extremely rough. (He takes a green bottle from a table. Its description in the inventory reads: "A chemical weed killer". There is also a notebook on the table. He takes it.) --- Lab Notes of Esther Marsh Blue Tinfiblia: Further Observations The petals have some acidic properties, which are yet to be fully investigated. They are especially harmful to the beloved of Great Cthulhu, as tests with the prison tender's "pet" have shown. Although exposure was strictly limited, considerable skin disfigurement resulted. Because of this, all laboratory samples are to be removed. However, I will keep the specimen in the garden for now. It promises to be a fruitful object for further study. --- (Jack moves to the other part of the laboratory and sees a prisoner strapped to a table. His body is heavily disfigured, with a protuberance on his chest and scaly, bluish skin. He speaks when Jack comes close.) Prisoner: Cursed! I'm cursed with this vile plague. (The prisoner turns his head towards Jack, revealing his face. His eyes are completely white, his nose and lips are disfigured, he has jagged teeth and there are also gills on one side of his head. He is apparently a victim of the Order's experiments with the Innsmouth Taint contagion and clearly he was the man looking around the room in Jack's vision. Since Jack has commented earlier in the prison that the shackles in his cell have recently been freed, it is highly probable that the freed prisoner is the one strapped to the table, and that he has been given a heavy dose of the contagion and transformed only a few seconds ago, as evidence by the frantic vision and the following screams, resulting in his heavy disfigurement.) Jack: Oh... shit... Prisoner: Please... stranger... I beg you... put me out of this misery. Jack: I need your help. I have to get into the temple. Prisoner: Only those loyal to the Order have access through the main doors. But... there's an old passage... a passage that runs deep beneath the temple. Though I warn you now, outsider... tread cautiously. I've heard talk of ancient dwellers in those dark depths... an evil from a forgotten time. Jack: This just keeps getting better... so how do I get down there? Prisoner: Explore the abandoned areas... that is all I can tell you. Now... please... kill me... end my pain... (Jack talks to him again.) Jack: How do I find this old passage? Prisoner: I don't know for sure... you should search the abandoned areas. Even the tainted fear those depths. Prisoner: Kill me! Put me out of this misery! (Jack kills the prisoner and then starts to look around this part of the laboratory. There is a covered corpse lying on a stretcher and there are body parts on a table. He examines them.) Jack: Most of these experiments seem to have been carried out on humans. This must have been where they were developing the contagion. (There is a big hook hung from the ceiling in the other side of the room, along with a mechanism which is apparently used to raise and lower it. This is clearly a torture device. Jack examines it.) Jack: I'd rather not dwell on the purpose of this device. It must inflict tremendous pain. (He leaves the laboratory by the the door to the other side and follows the tunnel, which leads to the prison area. At that point he has a monster vision of the guards patrolling the prison, which is seen to have two levels. After the vision Jack enters the prison. He is on the upper level, as the lower level can be seen from above. He kills the guards on that level and enters one of the cells. Inside is a strange vine on the wall that has opened a large hole in the ceiling. It also has large, strange flowers that look carnivorious. Jack examines it.) Jack: There's some peculiar vegetation here... it doesn't look safe. Those vines look sturdy; they're growing through the rock. (He uses the weed killer from the laboratory on the vine, and the dangerous- looking flowers die.) Jack: That little spot of gardening seems to have worked. The vines should be safe to climb now. (He climbs the vines out of the cell. It leads to a massive, alien chamber just like the huge portal chamber in the cult house in the Prologue chapter. The hole where he has come into the chamber is where the central pit of the portal is located, with metal columns around it. Large green crystals also hang from the ceiling. There is a socket next to the pit, just like in that previous portal chamber. Jack examines it.) Jack: This looks familiar... I've seen machinery like this somewhere before. It looks like something has been removed. (There is a control pad to the other side of the pit. He checks it.) Jack: It doesn't work. There doesn't seem to be any power. (The large chamber has a mechanical gate, but the catwalk leading to it has collapsed. Jack sees a strange blue marking that seems to depict the opening of the portal and examines it.) Jack: I've seen a room similar to this somewhere before. This place doesn't seem to have been used for thousands of years. (Since he does not have a green gem in his possession, Jack cannot do anything with this portal at the moment. So he goes back into the prison by the vines. He explores the upper level a bit more and finds a window on the floor with iron bars that looks into a cell below. A hammer is seen in the cell, which could be used to take out that green gem. Going down into the lower level of the prison by a ramp, Jack finds all his weapons that have been taken from him when he has been captured on a table. There is also a bucket full of slop on the table next to the weapons, and he takes it as well. Its description in the inventory reads: "Prison food. It's just malodorous slop. Yuk!" Then Jack has a monster vision of someone prowling in a cell as he approaches a bolted door. A hammer on the floor can also be seen in the vision, so it is the cell he has seen from the window. Jack unbolts and opens the door. Suddenly, a humanoid monster with tentacles over his head bursts out of the cell. Jack closes and bolts the door in time to keep the monster inside. This monster is the same as the creature Jack has previously encountered and killed with the flame thrower in The Esoteric Order of Dagon chapter, and it is also apparently the "prison tender's pet" mentioned in the lab notes of Esther Marsh.) Jack: There's no way I'm trying that again! That thing is wild... I need to figure out a way to subdue it. (Going a short way around the wall, Jack comes across a barricaded metal door with a small hatch on it. The cell of the monster is apparently on the other side, and pounding comes from there. Jack opens the hatch. As he opens it, he has a monster vision showing the monster inside approaching the metal door.) Jack: It looks like a feeding hatch. (He puts some of the slop into the hatch and closes it. Then the noises suggest that the monster eats it quickly.) Jack: Whatever's behind it sure is hungry. (He opens the hatch again and puts some more slop into it. But this time he also puts the blue plant he has found earlier as well, as the plant is extremely harmful to the monster according to the notes in the laboratory. Then the monster eats it, and painful groans are heard as the plant affects it. Jack goes to the bolted door and goes into the cell. The monster lies dead next to the metal door. Jack checks its corpse.) Jack: I don't think he'll be bothering me again. Maybe he should have checked the menu first. (He then takes the hammer from the ground.) Jack: This hammer could come in useful. (Now that he has the hammer, Jack goes to the area where the gem is and uses both the chisel and the hammer to take it out.) Jack: That should do the trick. (He takes the gem and goes back to return to the prison. As he is about to come out into the cavernous area before the laboratory, beyond which the prison is, there is a tremor and a group of Deep Ones attack him. He kills them and moves on. Just as he enters the prison there is another tremor and more Deep Ones attack. Jack kills them too and climbs the vines to the portal chamber. There, he puts the gem into the socket and activates the control pad. With that, a white portal appears above the pit. Jack goes through it and suddenly finds in a cavern with a pond and small waterfalls. In the middle of the pond there is a small rump and on it a strange weapon. Jack picks it up. It is a highly advanced weapon of a high alien technology and fires energy rays. If it is fully charged before the shot, the ray is even more powerful. If it is fired into water, the ray electrifies it. Jack enters a tunnel, which leads to a ledge overlooking the big waterfall area that he has visited before.) Jack: It's too dangerous... I need to find another way out. (He goes back and enters another tunnel from the pond area. It leads to a large ledge with two guards, which overlooks the area with the garden of strange plants. Jack kills the guards. He then goes through a door, which leads to a small room with two makeshift beds. He examines them.) Jack: The furnishings here seem temporary. I think these quarters are for visitors rather than inhabitants. (The ledge contains another such room. Jack goes down to the garden area below and a group of Deep Ones attacks him after a tremor. The energy weapon kills them very easily, with just one shot. After that, Jack moves to the bottom of the waterfall from the passage in the garden and enters the narrow tunnel with the monstrous starfish. As the tunnel is filled to the waist level with water, Jack fires a ray with the energy weapon, which electrifies the water and kills all the starfish. The narrow tunnel gives way to a small stone bridge over a huge pit, the bottom of which cannot even be seen. As he goes over it the bridge collapses. Jack goes on and comes to a large circular trapdoor made of stone. There are strange markings on it. It looks quite ancient, and it is like the trapdoor seen in the Shadow Out of Time 2 chapter. One part of it is broken and Jack drops down through this hole. It leads to a massive cavern with many ledges. On the ledges there are strange footprints that consist of five circular toe-marks. There is also a stone bridge that connects the two sides of the area. As Jack traverses it, fierce winds suddenly start to blow and two strange, flying creatures appear in the air. These creatures have large heads and five legs and are apparently the ones that left the strange footprints. They attack Jack by creating fierce winds, and he kills them with his energy weapon after a long battle. After they are dead he goes up a few ledges and climbs some vines that lead out of the cavern through another broken trapdoor. This trapdoor gives way to some tunnels that eventually end at a large area with a catwalk that leads to a well-decorated door, two small shrines and a stone pedestal. Jack examines one of the shrines.) Jack: It's a shrine for worship. I must be near the temple. (He then goes over to the pedestal and translates the ancient writing on it with the Book of Dagon.) Jack: These are the Tablets of Dagon... this must be the original source text for Obed's translation... the Book of Dagon. I can now read some of the last passages... I'll write them down. --- Tablets of Dagon These ancient tablets are written in the strange glyphs of the Deep Ones. They include the final passages that are missing from the translations in the Book of Dagon. They seem to be a prophecy; further study would be needed to produce an exact translation, but the passage reads roughly as follows: 'And the time shall come when the stars are right, and lo, we shall raise up that which has been sunken; So shall lost R'lyeh be lifted from the deep, and the waters shall recede from its palaces And the One Who Dreams shall be awakened, Great Cthulhu shall arise; And fear and madness shall be upon the face of the world.' --- (Jack goes through the decorated door into the lower floor of the temple. Chanting is heard from the upper floor. There is a large gong inside, flanked by two flags. Jack hits the gong.) Jack: This gong must be used as a call to worship. If I was to hit it with enough force, the sound would be deafening. (He goes upstairs through a ramp and finds himself in a large hall. There is a massive monster just in front of him, worshipped by a few sorcerers. The monster looks like Dagon but has four breasts. It is apparently Mother Hydra, conducting the ritual that sustains the magical barrier around the underwater city. She constantly makes a wailing sound. Jack kills the sorcerers but Hydra herself is protected by a magical barrier, which looks like a huge bubble. There are five statues in the hall, placed on high platforms. There are pipes under the statues which lead to a small pool just in front of Hydra's bubble and then to the bubble itself. Jack examines the pipes.) Jack: These pipes control the flow of water into the pool below. If I could release the water, then I might be able to flood the pool. (Only one of the platforms with the statues is accessible by a ramp. Jack climbs it and sees that there is a lever behind the statue. He pulls it and this releases water to the pool. However, he cannot reach the rest of the platforms. As Jack is in the hall, he experiences brief monster visions from Hydra's point of view, showing him standing in the small pool just in front of her bubble. When Jack moves to the pool he has another vision, this time from the eyes of a Deep One that has just entered the hall. Jack seems to control the monster for a moment via the link of the monster vision but the vision ends very quickly.) Jack: I can't concentrate with that damn creature's wailing. If I could block out that wailing sound, I might be able to sustain the link. That song's making my head pound... I've got to block it out. (Jack moves down to the lower floor of the temple and hits the gong there with a fully-charged shot from his energy weapon. This makes a deafening sound and blocks Hydra's wailing. Jack goes to the hall, kills the Deep Ones that have arrived and stands in the pool. He receives another vision of a Deep One but now he can control it. He makes the monster jump to one of the platforms and pull the lever before the sound of the gong ends, after which he kills the Deep One. He repeats this with the other three statues and when all the levers are pulled, Hydra's bubble gets flooded. Jack then fires a shot with the energy weapon into the pool and the shockwave kills Hydra, also destroying the bubble barrier around her. There is a small pedestal in front of her, on which there is a gold disc. Jack takes it. Then he moves to the back of the hall where there is a a large stone gate next to a pedestal. He reads the writing on the pedestal with the Book of Dagon.) Jack: According to the text, the doors can only be opened with an ancient chant spoken by someone in possession of a sacred charm. I'm not going to be able to get through it without that charm. (The gold he has taken from Hydra's pedestal is the charm mentioned here. He holds it in his hand as he recites the chant from the pedestal.) Jack: V'hu-ehn n'kgnath fha'gnu n'aem'nh. V'glyzz k'fungn cylth-a v'el cylth- Cthulhu k'fungn'i. I'a ry'gzengrho. I'a Hydra. (The gate opens and Jack finds himself in the area where he has found the rifle before. He moves up into the hall above and suddenly hears a loud crash. He turns to the window to the left and sees the submarine come into view and fire a torpedo at the underwater city. This time the magical barrier is gone and the torpedo hits its target, damaging the window. Debris starts to fall from the ceiling and there are random tremors as the submarine proceeds to destroy the underwater city with its torpedoes. Jack quickly moves up into the large cavern with the campfire, evading the debris that continues to fall around him. He gets to the ledge with the tunnel leading to the laboratory and the one where he has been captured. The tunnel to the laboratory is blocked with rocks and the portcullis in the other one is now gone, so he goes into it. Inside, he runs all the way to the portal and the pedestal that he has examines before in the beginning of the chapter. The pedestal is the same as the one in the temple, so he activates the portal by reciting the same chant with the gold disc.) Jack: V'hu-ehn n'kgnath fha'gnu n'aem'nh. V'glyzz k'fungn cylth-a v'el cylth- Cthulhu k'fungn'i. I'a ry'gzengrho. I'a Hydra. (The portal opens and Jack goes through it, ending up in one of the rooms in the Order of Dagon. Hoover and Mackey are there, and they are shocked to see him.) Hoover: Jack? How the...? Mackey: Oh, my God! Is he okay? (Jack is breathing frantically and collapses onto the ground, dropping the gold disc that he has been clutching.) Hoover: What the hell happened to him? Check his pulse! Mackey: Jack? JACK? Can you hear me? Mackey: JACK! (Jack blacks out.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.16. Shadow Out of Time 3 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I do not know how to begin. Is it better that Humanity should remain ignorant of the horrors that haunt the dark places of the Earth, or should I tell what I have seen, as a warning to others? I fear I shall be dismissed as insane." (Jack is in a strange, alien chamber, like the ones in his previous dreams. A gate opens and he walks out, coming into a city with many towers. There are some strange creatures ahead, the same ones that have come out of the portal in the cult house and the ones he has seen in his dreams. These are Yithians, an alien race from millions of years before our time. As he approaches them, Jack looks at his hands. They are the same as the hands of the Yithians. He stops before one of the Yithians.) Yithian: Jack. Jack: Why have you summoned me? Yithian: There is something I must show you... We must hurry... time is short... Jack: Where are we going? Yithian: The great library. (Next, Jack and the Yithian are in a large chamber in the library.) Yithian: A terrible conflict is upon us, and our hosts will not survive it. The keenest minds are already projecting to later days. Jack: Who will be the enemy? There have been no ructions with either the mi-go in the north, or Cthulhu's kin to the south. Yithian: In your wanderings, did you come upon the vast sealed trapdoors at the foundation of the old city? Jack: Yes, but I didn't understand their purpose. Yithian: There was a terrible war between us and a race of half-polypous creatures that had been dominant until our arrival. (A gate opens in the library, and a large book flies through it, landing in front of Jack.) Yithian: This volume tells of that bloody period. (The book opens, and strange writing is seen in it.) Jack: Why are you showing me this now? (The book turns to another page that depicts the energy weapon Jack uses in the last chapter.) Yithian: They are still down there, Jack. Thriving in the darkness. They are plotting... plotting to break free of their bonds and wreak a terrible revenge. The end is inevitable... and close, very close. (The book closes.) Jack: How much time do we have? (Suddenly, a loud crash is heard.) Jack: What the hell was that? (Debris starts to fall from the ceiling as the library shakes.) Yithian: You are no longer safe. Follow me. (Jack and the Yithian move through a large hallway. Rubble continues to fall from the ceiling as they move.) Jack: If this is the end, where am I supposed to go? Yithian: It's time for you to go back. Jack: Back? Yithian: Yes, back to your own time. But, before you leave, there is something more you need to know. (They enter a room. There is a large machine, which looks like a cabin, in the middle of it.) Jack: What is this place? Yithian: The human mind is too delicate a fabric for the return displacement; it could easily tear. Your memories of Pnakotus must be cleaned. Jack: Will I remember nothing of this place? Six years of my life, and for nothing! Yithian: When the time comes, you will remember... we will be waiting in the shadows of your dreams. (Jack enters the cabin.) Jack: These riddles make no sense. What was it I needed to know? Yithian: Did you ever wonder about your visions? Jack: Nightmares... It came with the territory. Sometimes it helped with the cases. Yithian: Bad dreams are never that accurate. You are different from the rest of your race, Jack. Your father could see it. Suicide was his escape from the truth. Jack: What's this got to do with him? Yithian: He has been here too... he was displaced, just moments before you were conceived. I was the transferred mind. Jack: What are you saying... that you're my father? Yithian: Not entirely. You are not of our kind. But neither are you completely human. (The machine starts to work.) Yithian: I'm sorry, Jack... There is no more time. (Jack is then seen in his cell in the mental asylum, sitting on the floor, with a delirious look in his eyes. Ramona is seen behind him for a second, covered in blood. The camera then hovers above him, showing that he is looking at his journal and that there are many symbols drawn on the floor, including the Elder Sign, the eye symbol surrounded by a star. Then the camera shows Doctor Hardstrom walking in the hallway of the asylum. It switches back to Jack, who is seen climbing onto a chair to hang himself. Ramona is again seen for a moment, sitting by the chair. Jack kicks the chair away and drops the journal, which shows the last two pages that contain his suicide note. Dr. Hardstrom sees him hanging and rushes to save him. Then the screen goes black. After that, voices and sounds are heard.) Dr. Hardstrom: Mr. Walters... Mr. Walters... can you hear me? Mr. Walters... Doctor: He's convulsing... we're losing him. Doctor: Check his pulse! (The voices and sounds tail off.) --- Suicide Note February 16, 1922 Now... at my end... I can fully see. My last case opened in me a new fear... a real fear... a fear of myself, of what I am... and of what I have always been. All that I was, is now lost. Hope? Purpose? Pleasure? All meaningless. I now walk in the shadows between worlds... and it is there I have finally glimpsed upon what lives in the dark corners of the earth... --- THE END NOTE: The scene between the library of Pnakotus and the mental asylum, where the Yithian reveals that he is Jack's father, is part of the "extended ending" and is only seen if you finish the game with an A rank. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.1. Interpretation of the Ending --------------------------------------------------------------------------- So we came to the end of the script. Now let's make an interpretation of the ending: The Yithians, a highly-advanced alien race that dominated the world millions of years ago, have an affinity for projecting their minds to the future to possess the bodies of chosen humans for some time, during the course of which the human's mind is transferred to the body of the Yithian. Jack's father was displaced this way, and his body was being controlled by a Yithian when Jack was conceived (as explained in the extended ending), thus giving him some of the mental abilities of the Yithians. This is the reason for his visions, which give him clues to overcome obstacles, and he is even able to possess the body of a Deep One for a very short time at the end, just like the Yithians. The cultists in the Prologue chapter, who worship the Yithians, are aware of Jack's alien parentage, and because of this they choose him to be possessed by a Yithian and lure him to their cult house with this aim. At the end of the chapter Jack's body is captured by a Yithian and his mind is transferred to the body of his captor in Pnakotus, the great city of the Yithians. He spends six years there, during the course of which he is educated in in their ways, as the Yithians like to share their knowledge with those they abduct. At the end of Jack's stay in Pnakotus, the city is attacked by the Flying Polyps, ancient creatures that the Yithians managed to defeat with their energy weapons and which were then driven into underground caverns sealed with impenetrable trapdoors by them. (Jack later encounters these Flying Polyps himself in the huge cavern beneath the temple in the last chapter, and defeats them with an energy weapon, which is itself a legacy of the Yithians.) Nevertheless, when Pnakotus is attacked, the Yithians send Jack back to his own body. However, the Yithians also erase Jack's memories of Pnakotus to protect his mind from the shock. These memories are later partially revealed to him in his dreams, as in the three Shadow Out of Time chapters. Jack experiences his last dream in the mental asylum after he manages to get out of the underwater city at the end of the game, and this completely reveals to him what happened in those six years and also the fact his father is a Yithian. This disclosure, combined with all the unnatural things he has encountered during his adventure in Innsmouth and his sense of guilt over Ramona's death, finally drives Jack to suicide. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.2. List of Journal Entries --------------------------------------------------------------------------- September 6, 1915 Evening A Local Disturbance 1916 - 1921 Missing Entries February 6, 1922 Early Evening A Shadowed Past February 6, 1922 Night New Client February 7, 1922 Early Evening The Gilman Hotel February 8, 1922 Night Church Refuge February 8, 1922 Early Hours Jailbreak February 8, 1922 Night The Feds February 9, 1922 Night The Order of Dagon February 10, 1922 The Cutter Urania February 10, 1922 Early Evening The Reef of Satan February 10, 1922 Morning The Dark Depths February 16, 1922 Suicide Note --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.3. List of General Evidence Documents --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Podium Sermon Diary of a Cult Member The Boston Globe, 20th August 1909 Arkham Advertiser, 6th February 1922 Diary of Brian Burnham Innsmouth Courier, 19th June 1846 Arkham Advertiser, 7th February 1922 Diary of Thomas Waite Ramona Waite's Coloring Book Post Mortem Records Diary of the Church Minister Postcard Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages Ship Logs of Captain Obed Marsh Letter from Sebastian Marsh Diary of Robert Marsh Diary of one of the crew Lab Notes of Esther Marsh --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.4. List of Mythos Tomes and Manuscripts --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pnakotica Book of Dagon Oaths of Dagon I'a Dagon Ponape Scripture Tablets of Dagon --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Credits --------------------------------------------------------------------------- I thank, OrhunCYC, for introducing me to the Cthulhu Mythos Headfirst Productions, for creating such a thrilling plot and for making such a good game 2K Games, for publishing it and you, for (hopefully) reading this script That's all.