[Gaming] The Adventures of Rupert Bulmer, Esq. - Session 20

[karohemd]

We left the plantation in the late afternoon as we thought it wasn't safe to stay with that horror in the well not too far away. There was nothing we could do about it so we could just leave it to its fate. We set off in a northwesterly direction and pitched camp at nightfall. The next morning we continued our trek towards the Rift Valley, with a detour to shoot some zebra. The Mauser rifle I was given turned out to be no good so I'm sad to report that Rogsby bagged three zebra tails while I didn't get a single one. The meat, however, was wonderful and kept us well supplied for a few days as we continued. Later that day, the savannah gave way to a more forested and mountaineous landscape but the rain kept on falling.

The next morning we were awoken by some commotion from the camp. Two bearers were in a wrestling match, apparently about stealing money. Thankfully, the matter was resolved soon.
Later in the day, Alex spotted a huge dust cloud in the distance. When Rogsby saw it, he sent everyone running for the treeline and made us climb the trees. The reason was soon apparent: As the dust cloud came closer, we spotted dark shapes within, thundering towards our position. It was a stampede of wildebeests that rushed past and below us. Fortunately, everyone had made it up the trees and nobody was injured. Anyone staying on the ground would surely have been trampled to death. I shot one of them but it got trampled into mush so was of no use to us. There was one good thing to this episode, the rain subsided a while later.

The next morning there was still no rain and we covered quites some distance during the day. In the afternoon, we spotted some smoke in the distance in the West. Hoping for a village of natives with whom to trade we made a detour. It was indeed a local tribe, quite friendly and after a short discussion with Rogsby, traded us fresh water and other supplies. The women were wearing huge discs that stretched their lower lips to huge proportions, the men had elongated earlobes.

With the aid of one of our interpreters, Alex asked them about local legends and they told him about a "three-pronged" mountain east of the Great Lake that had "bad magic". This sounded just like the one we were looking for. Trading done, we carried on.

In the morning of the next day, we arrived at a lake almost covered in flamingos. I took some photographs, shot a flamingo to have stuffed and found a rather peculiar footprint that was bigger than an elephant's. There was only one and no tracks so I still do not know what might have made it.
We carried on around the east shore of the lake and made camp. One of the bearers had come down with Malaria, so he was put into the litter Alex had occpied so far but he was fit again.
The next day we reached the Great Lake. Herds of zebra and wildebeests were plenty so we attempted to hunt again. Luck was against me so again I did not manage to bag a single tail. Further on at the shore was a big village, surrounded by palisades. Rogsby and one of the headmen went and talked to the natives but these weren't welcoming at all and sent us on our way.
As the sun set, we spotted three peaks in the distance, our goal in front of our eyes at last!

The next day we came closer to the mountains, quite impressive and indeed there were three peaks. The next day it turned out that the middle peak was actually separate and closer than the others. Still later, we were able to make some odd features: it had an almost unnatural cone shape. On the ground leading towards it was a huge ramp. To the right of it was another unusual shape, as if something had broken off the mountain or possibly a cave. We were still too far away to make out any details, even with our binoculars and telescopes.

We reached the ramp the next day. It was made out of rock, some sort of basalt according to Prof. Carter, half a mile wide and consisting of one giant slab. Astounding!
Going further up the ramp and looking down at the disturbed part, there seemed to be some sort of camp or settlement with tents and pens and pits with ramps leading into them. The tents were still in good condition but there was no-one to be seen. A pile of animal bodies (camels?) was in a corner.
We decided to investigate further, went back down the ramp and around to the camp. The whole area was surrounded by a Wall brush wood and brambles with few gates set in between consisting of crudely lashed together pieces of wood. We made our way through one of the gates and split up to search the tents. All were abandoned but still in good condition. Alex found a lady's tent with a diary. The last entry was from four months previously. It seemed we had found an archaeological dig. Prof. Carter was in his element and investigated the pits while the rest fo the party searched the tents.

In the one I picked I found a large locked chest, a lantern and a desk with papers in an unknown language strewn about the surface. I gathered them up to show to Prof. Carter later. In a drawer I found a piece of paper in Latin, entitled “Contact Rock Crawler” or something along those lines. This sounded like one of those rituals Carter and Nicholas keep babbling about and trying to perform, I think I'll keep this away from them. This "Rock Crawler" does not sound friendly.
I also found two books, one in English (fables and short stories about the "Masked Messenger") and the other in the same unknown language as on the pieces of paper. That book contained a variety of artful but shocking and mind-numbingly haunting illustrations of dismemberment, torture and rape which left me shaking.

Catching up with the others, we shared what we had found (I withheld the book with illustrations but showed the English book). The others had found various dead bodies, some half eaten or mutilated in some way, one half stuffed into an oven and partially, well, cooked. What had happened here? It was quite frightening.
As we continued our search, we discovered a cave or tunnel, partially hidden behind a pile of rubble, leading into the ramp. I guess that's where we'll be going tomorrow...