Chapter Ten : After The Lamp And Into The Light

So believe it or not for a while I thought this might actually end up being the last entry for a number of my companions for while I will have to admit the forces moving against us were moving faster than I had anticipated I had hoped to be writing this entry in the neighborhood of Hilltop enjoying the hospitality of Big Vic but alas due to the Red Menace of the Hub it was not to be. So to explain how we managed to end up in Summit and dealing with a genius Shoggoth who lead us to the sewers where we ended up for lack of a better term being bombarded by light cannons which almost seemed to make our enemies near invincible and if that was not enough my beloved Morgan and Nialla almost meeting their end. To be honest I have only tipped the iceberg shall we say this day in addition to seeming like the day that would never end was turning out to be an exciting affair.

So we were all there well with the exception of Null who chose now as a good time to vanish into the Stone of Tongues. Nialla still seemed eager to eldritch blast our Hyborian Lady of the Lake out of her prison and Shiron seemed to still haggling over the details of us taking possession of the Hyborian lady and giving us the location in Summit where we were to meet Fearless Leader or Heinrich contact. He let us know that we would no doubt need the Lady of the Lake in order to breech an audience with his mysterious contact who seemed to not even have a name in his mind. He asked for a code word we could give him to let him know that we were legitimate and offered Dove. I had also figured that it was time that I started expanding my horizons with my friends and our new associates. I had instructed Smiling Ed to remain nearby and I decided it was time I opened communications between the rest of the group and myself. I had noticed that some of my companions namely Buerick as well as Shiron seemed to lack the patience or perhaps intellect to truly understand what we were dealing with. In the case of Buerick I could understand he no doubt relied as did my Morgan on his superior wisdom which I lacked and I trusted their intuition to guide us. While Shiron was a military man who I was sure was used to crisp reports which would enable him to formulate a battle strategy which could ensure victory. Sadly for them I did not operate that way and since I wanted them in the loop I conferred with the group that I was going to open a communication link via a message spell which would allow them to whisper and be heard by everyone. I asked if they wanted Smiling Ed in the link and Shiron seemed adamant that he did not which was fine with me so I cast a message spell between everyone and a separate one for me and Smiling Ed since I knew I was going to need his assistance. I used the newly established link to relate to the others my desire to head the former headquarters of the fascist group who had a list for the Lightning Gun which was located in the neighborhood of Ves Beach. I also reminded the group that while the faction had been looking for the Lamp of Al-Hazred they had not felt they needed to succeed in their mission. I also concluded that the Lamp was not actually on our list of items to acquire but that the Moonbeast Commander had informed us that is might be of use to us and that we would not doubt be soon dealing with an offshoot of Cthulhu which I related was likely the Glaaki. I made it known that I realized that if we stuck to plan we would soon need to be heading to Ves Beach soon anyway to avoid various factions that were it seemed in pursuit of us if the Moonbeast Commander was to be trusted. I was voted down on the side trip to Ves Beach to see if we could locate anything resembling the list that sadly Heinrich had seen and barely glanced at hence the need to go there. Everyone seemed dead set on heading to Summit but I was able to convince them to head back to Hilltop first in order to rest before our next encounter with our destiny. I had also been in communication with Smiling Ed and informed him that we would need two cars and if he have any difficulty. I also had confirmed that he had been in contact with Big Vic as well as his sidekick Sneaky Pete who even now was on the scene. I did have to admit the Moonbeast had been correct when he said that Smiling Ed would come in handy. I had hoped that we would be able to return to Hilltop and warn Big Vic about his associates before it was too late since I felt his contacts and knowledge might prove useful. So it was as I told the others we had two cars on the way and Smiling Ed had told me which car to ride which would be the less crowded and so Morgan joined me and others along with our Lady of the Lake piled into the other car with Sneaky Pete. I informed the others that once we returned I was going to do my best to warn Big Vic since in another reality he was useful to me in finding the other artifacts with the aid of a submarine. The ride back was peaceful and I spent the next forty five minute ride keeping the others in contact between the two cars. So while not as exciting as my last journey having Morgan on my left and Nialla on my right it was more pleasurable since I had a feeling even then that it was a peace that knowing how our luck was running would not last.

We arrived back at the residence leased to us by Big Vic and when we arrived I figured I at least wanted to take another of those excellent showers before I relaxed for the evening and went to see Big Vic. While I was refreshing myself the others with the exception of Buerick who was in trance and Shiron who was reading were quite active. I perhaps could have cleaned up quicker but sometimes I have to admit I often find myself amazed by my own perfect skin and captivating beauty so much so that my own pleasure delayed me for a short while. During my personal time Erik and Morgan had carried our Lady of the Lake into the cellar and were doing who knows what perhaps they were getting to know each other better and perhaps there mutual angst actually hid their true feeling for each other. I had seen it happen before and as I thought about it perhaps that could help explain how each of them could resist my near irresistible charms when I had had each of them alone in the past. I would not be shocked since I am bi-sexual myself just surprised and while I would admit being with each of them together would be one of my dreams come true for now it remained just a dream. So as I left the shower refreshed I saw Nialla coming from outside with a jar of dirt I did have to make a lining her grave joke. She seemed to believe that the very soil held Mitras magic which she believed allowed the Red Menace to maintain their sensory web. She said she was going to go out and collect samples and I will admit I found it a little strange I figured it was perhaps a Warlock thing so I let it go. I had thought she would have waited for me for I went to our room for a moment to catch up on my journal and to check my makeup and change cloths but when I exited the room she had already left. To be honest I was surprised but then again she was a full grown Warlock who could fly with the aid of netherworld wings and even unleash eldritch bolts of power and I suppose if I had those abilities I might get a little cocky myself. So I figure since Big Vic’s mansion was father away then my message spell reach I figure I would take a quick stroll until I was within reach of the mansion and contact Smiling Ed and let him know I needed to speak with Victor. Now of course I did not just go walking down the street I of course turned myself invisible with a spell and slipped out. Looking back at it I can see why the Moonbeast Commander had said to not worry about Victor and focus on Smiling Ed. For it seemed no sooner had I reached within one hundred and eighty feet of the mansion and I reached out for Smiling Ed he responded with news that I had hoped not to hear. It seemed that a Red Menace strike team of at least twenty men strong had laid siege to the mansion and were even now holding Big Vic for questioning. Smiling Ed warned me to get to the others and get them out of the residence since the Red Menace had Victor tied into one of the probing devices and he would soon be telling them everything about everything. He informed me that Sneaky Pete true to his name had slipped away and he was currently being detained. I considered going in and seeing for myself but in reality dealing with twenty plus Red Menace was not really on my high list of priorities. I questioned Smiling Ed about the possible location of Sneaky Pete and he told me to exit from the rear of our residence and move to the home directly behind us. He informed me that there would be two doors and the one the left which would be red was the door where I was to knock and let the young women who answered know we were friends of Sneaky Pete and were looking for him. I told Smiling Ed to be careful and started moving back toward our residence to warn my friends. As I walked I realized that something had come up quick than I had anticipated I had hoped we would have had at least two days before we needed to once again be on the move and well lesson learned. I tried to reach out for Nialla first since I figured since she was a woman she would have a better understanding of what we were dealing with. Strangely my message either failed to reach her or she was unable to respond which did not bode well for my state of mind. I therefore reached for the other love of my life Morgan and filled him in on our situation and to pack everyone and have them ready to leave when I arrived in a few seconds. Barely a moment later I heard Erik calling out to me and I asked what was wrong and he told me that Morgan was acting strangely and asked me what was going on I of course informed him not that I felt he truly needed any help but I glad that he had asked. So it was that I asked Morgan to open the back door for me and I moved into the room shared my Nialla and myself and opened her suitcase and threw her outfits into my Backpack of Containment. I also grabbed suitcases for Erik and Morgan I knew the others had Backpacks of Containment of their own but I had a distinct feeling we were not coming back. Shiron seemed a little taken aback but I quickly filled him in and while Morgan for awhile wanted to attempt to rescue Victor I informed him that there was no doubt a Red Menace strike team on scene and if we had a way to vacate the premises then we needed to take advantage of it since in reality Victor was not the mission. We moved out the back door and quickly knocked on the red door on the left and it was answered by a young woman and after Shiron told her we were friend of Sneaky Pete and were looking for him as I had instructed she waved us all in. After entering the home and reaching a door and descending a staircase of over a hundred steps we arrived at a tunnel where after another two hundred feet we found a ladder. Morgan climbed up the ladder and found that it opened into a dark room. I motioned everyone up after asking Scrounger using my message spell to make sure we were not climbing into a trap. No sooner than we had all arrived than Smiling Ed arrived and was glad to see that we had made it and told us it was time to leave.

It seemed that Sneaky Pete true to his name had already managed to acquire two fast cars and was even now waiting outside. As we made our retreat from Hilltop I questioned Smiling Ed with our personal message spell on the situation with Victor and the Red Menace. He informed me that a Red Menace strike team of at least twenty men had struck secured the mansion and had hooked Victor up to their mind probe device and therefore while we departed he would be revealing everything he knew about everything to them. I thought to myself that is was a good thing that Victor was unaware of our situation regarding the Lamp of Al-Hazred. He also informed me as we were pulling away that they seemed to be focusing their question on the very same Lamp that we were seeking. We slowed as we were leaving the area and Smiling Ed opened the door and a young man with a turban on his head entered and was introduced as Swami Donnie who it seemed had just rigged the entire area with explosives. Smiling Ed asked where to and while I thought perhaps Ves Beach I realized if the hounds were already on our tail then we needed to be moving toward the Lamp and therefore I responded to Summit. It was not long before we saw a flash light up the sky and I could see that Swami Donnie plan had just reached its climax. Ed and Pete drove like wild men and only slowed once they had reached Lake Forest an area controlled by the Ves. Smiling Ed had shared with me once again that while Summit was also Hub the Red Menace worked hard to portray the appearance of normalcy in the region so we should be safe there. To be honest I really doubted it but it’s not like we really had a choice. I took the time while we were driving to take a quick assessment of our situation and I noticed that Nialla looked a little shook up and while she had been holding my hand I had barely noticed until now just how nervous she had seemed. I looked to her and when I asked her what was wrong she told me that while looking for different soil samples she had been surprised by a Red Menace operative who had seemed intent on taking her captive. She informed me she had just managed to escape and had returned to our former residence only seconds before I had arrived. My mind was racing and actually I was concerned since we had left our Lady of the Lake behind. I figured I should be able to create an illusion to fool our contact and inform him that we for the moment chose to meet before we brought the Lady of the Lake into play. I had informed Shiron of that fact and so as we reached the neighborhood I instructed Pete and Ed to park the cars a few blocks away but in sight of his building. I consulted with our support team and Ed told me that if I wanted someone to be able to remain in contact with me then who I wanted was Sneaky Pete. Sneaky Pete let me know he would be able to keep in range and out of sight and still be in a position to inform the others if anything happened and if we needed backup. I also asked Smiling Ed to see if he could arrange for our Lady of the Lake to be delivered to us at a later date and he said he would make the call. So we approached the shady residence of the contact of Heinrich the Fascist with the hope that we would be able to shine enough light on our situation to bring forth the needed illumination. Just in case that failed I precast a detect thoughts spell just in case and we were ready.

I was not expecting what we found inside the residential apartment an older balding man who asked us to come in. He lead us to a well kept apartment actually it looked a little too well kept almost magically actually. I waited for my detect thoughts spell to pierce his mind and reveal his thoughts as well as any hidden ones to me but he was alone and then for my surprise for the day the being was a genius and as intelligent as I. To add to my interest his mind of course defended against my spell which meant I would have to do this the hard way. He asked us if we had business with him and I told him I believed that we did. Shiron and Morgan both seemed a little nervous while seemed deep in thought about something. I informed everyone that my spell had failed to pierce his mind and how intelligent he was as I looked around his abode. I then turned to him and said that a dove sent us to see you regarding a certain light source and a friend of ours told us that the man at this address was the man to see who would be able to better enlighten us situation in Summit. That seemed to do the trick and while he went on to explain how another group even now was looking around in the sewers he told us he could show us down anytime. Around this time Nialla who looked a little pale spoke thru the message spell that we were dealing with a Shoggoth and she said that Scrounger was worried. Meanwhile I had continued as if nothing was wrong and informed the Shoggoth that the Lady of the Lake would be arriving in the morning and if he could recommend any places to stay for the evening and he suggested a number of rooms that were for rent south of town. Nialla who still seemed a little unsettled told us that the Shoggoth was actually a large creature with tentacles and was polymorphed and currently had two left feet. Shiron took the moment while I was digesting that fact to question the Shoggoth regarding if we could head into the sewers now and take a look at the area and the Shoggoth was more than happy to oblige. I could tell that Morgan was getting restless and while I perhaps should have objected I figured the sundial or in reality on Emerald the clock was ticking and no time like the present.

Our friendly neighborhood Shoggoth lead us across the street to a park that looked to be set up for little children to play. He or it walked over to an area and started working over a patch of earth that actually ended up being a concealed passage into the sewers of Summit. I asked him if he was going to leave the hatch open and he told us that he was not and he was sure explorers of our caliber would have no trouble getting out again. I examined the hatch and it was quite heavy well over thirty pounds which was the limit for my open/close spell. I looked to Morgan and I noticed he had been doing the same thing that I had and I asked him if he would be able to open it from the inside and he responded as I knew he would of course Elysia. So with nothing more to be said we began our decent into the underbelly of Summit. Morgan lead the way and once we were down below dismal and dirty were words that barely described it. To begin with the passage was a twelve feet circle with a literal bloody patch of liquid running down the center that smelled horrible which was proven when even Scrounger who I knew had keener senses spoke a few humorous fluid metaphors about just how bad it smelled. He was able to answer my question which was if it was blood or something else and he told me something else. So as Morgan moved ahead to around one hundred feet so that his skills of silence and stealth could be put use all of could think was I had to have faith in him. Looking back at it I really find it strange that he feels the need to protect me due to some binding contract that my Mother had beguiled him into in the first place. I mean really I had neglected to mention the little argument we had had in the ride over to Summit. Where to make it simple he seemed upset because I had left while he was otherwise occupied and not informed him. I don’t know I had told everyone what I was going when we got back was it my problem that he felt the need to do whatever else he had felt the need to do. The way I looked at it he could have joined me in the shower if he had wanted to so he could have cleaned up after the fight at the warehouse but no there was the so called contract. I told him that I was a free spirit and if he expected me to stay at his side then he would need to ask me to otherwise he would if he felt so inclined to just keep up. So once again here he was scouting ahead and where was I back here alone again but I realized that his intuition was no doubt to blame for it was the one factor that often was beyond my ability to predict for he no doubt felt if I was with the others I was safe. I could only think what about him did he not think I was concerned about his welfare and speaking of which he told us that he heard someone ahead and they seemed to be tracking us with some kind of detection device. What happened next occurred quickly for it seemed that they were indeed able to detect us and they opened fire on Morgan with beams of light that seemed to be coming from over five hundred feet away. I called for Morgan to fall back as we started to move forward as he in turn made his way back to us while I moved I cast a greater invisibility spell upon myself for I figured what they could not see they could not hit. So much for my invisibility for it seemed while we advanced so did they and they all opened up with their light cannons which completely covered the entire passage. Morgan made it back to us and he was severely wounded and was asking for healing while Shiron and Erik had charged our three adversaries who I could now make out to be three at least six foot eight men in blue chainmail carrying a light cannon each as Nialla and Buerick moved closer as Nialla started to summon her eldritch bolts and Buerick pulled his bow and they started return fire. Morgan made it back to me and it barely looked like he would survive another blast my mind was racing for I had felt that what was hitting me was indeed light and what did I have that could stop light. It came to me as I thought of what held back sunlight clouds and with that I cast my most powerful fog spell which solid fog around Morgan and I and thankfully for Morgan it worked. As I looked down Morgan looked terrible he looked burned all over and was wet from not doubt trying to use the liquid as a shield that had no doubt failed. I told him I would hand him a healing potion and since everything I said could be heard by Nialla and Buerick who were still in range Nialla reminded Morgan that she had given him two healing potions. Since he did indeed have two such potions I was able to turn my attention back to our armored light cannon wielding adversaries who it seemed were willing to leave us alone if we gave them Nialla. Well that was not going to happen and I figured it was time to speed things up and therefore I cast a haste spell which would give Buerick who had summoned an Air Elemental to harass our foes more shots with his bow and more importantly Nialla another eldritch bolt with which to smite our foes. Looking back at I did notice something strange Shiron and Erik who were still some distance away suddenly teleported into midst of our blue enemies. Nialla was able to fell one of them and I could see that Shiron and Erik were getting ready to get close and personal but before they could the one that Nialla had struck down stared to crackle with electricity which arched to the two others and they vanished. During this time Morgan and I had both downed two potions since while we were down here I had no idea what else would happen next and we raced along with the others to Shiron and Erik. I saw what Morgan pointed to which must have been their detection device and I noticed that Shiron was holding one of the light hand cannons. As I expected Nialla moved toward the device to examine it and as soon as she touched it she was struck back against the walls of the sewer. She tried it again with the same result and even tired the box but as I expected the results were the same. I now had another mystery to add to my list of knowledge that I needed to acquire on this world and while my Mother had trained me to be a Jack of All Trades I still needed to take the time to gather enough information to enable my genius intellect to give me the advantage I needed. Regardless I felt that we had been led into a trap everyone was wounded and it seemed softened up which in my mind would make us good fodder for the Glaaki. I told Shiron had a bad feeling about this and we needed to get out. I had a feeling that we might be getting ready to face another danger or even the return of our blue adversaries with back up but as I looked to Morgan and he was once again calm and composed as if he knew something I did not. I took comfort in that for I realized that one way or another Lamp or no Lamp for now we needed to regroup get out of this darkness and back into the light.