End of the Line
The investigators were on a train, but it was no longer the train from New York to Chicago. Over the course of a few hours, they had found themselves on a WWI French troop train, and then in a car full of Scandinavian immigrants crossing the American West in the 1880s.
No tried to go back through the door they had come through after another confused man entered through it. However, when No opened the door, he found that he was looing out from the end of train. He closed the door again.
The new arrival, Lenny “Bat” Batterson, went to the other end of the car and opened that door. He also found that he found that he was looing out from the end of train. He closed the door and joined No.
John opened Bat’s door and looked out on the rolling plains. He noted a fog rolling in from the distance. No reopened his door. This time, however, there was a swirling black void just beyond the threshold, and it was approaching. John, joined by Luther, watched the fog roll in.
They debated what to do. As they did so, the void swallowed up the end of the car and some people nearby. The other passengers did not seem to notice. The void continued advancing, so No and Bat jumped into to void. And then John and Luther leapt into the fog.
Strange Transformation
Each found themselves descending an extremely long stone stairway that ended in a vast cavern, were two cloaked figures waited. They assessed the investigators for a while before on started chanting and the other said to “Go. Seek out he who was abducted, for he knows the secret to salvation. The force that resides in the land of Leng resists us, our magicks can only get you and your companions to the coastline. From there you must find your own way to the accursed Pharos of Leng.”
The figures then faded into a mist that filled the space and revealed yet another stairway. As they descended, the investigators noted that they had been dressed in warm leather and fur, and equipped for a cold weather climate. They were also each armed with an ice axe and a bow.
The bottom of the stairs ended in a plain door, from which a chilly draft came. When Bat opened the door, they entered into a large circular tent containing rudimentary supplies. Opening the door again the stairway was gone and several small stick and thatch huts were now present with rope lines strung between a few of them. From those lines hang animal skins, blankets, and silvery fish that flapped in the wind.
There were a few, stunted, primitive-looking people walking about the village dressed in brightly colored costumes. All were women, children, or elderly, and a young girl, maybe fifteen years old, holding a basket full of short sticks stared wide-eyed right in front of them.
Bat and John tried leave village, but as they approached the edges, they were swarmed by the villagers and encouraged to stay.
No examined the fish, trying to determine what kind they were, but the species was unknown to him. He tasted the water coating them, and found it to be mildly oily. He went to the edge of the sea the village sat next to and tasted the water. It was also oily.
In the mean time, John figured out rudimentary communication with the girl, whose name was Bolo, and she agreed to take them somewhere of note, though he could not make out what it was.
Bolo led them up into the highlands from the coastal village. Their breathing was more labored at the crest of the frosty bluff where a vast tundra was broken up by a maze of huge shards of granite. Most of the plateau was blanketed in a thick mist, and many of the visible granite shards were draped in gossamer webbing. And on the horizon, the investigators could see a shaft of green light shining into the heavensand knew that what they sought was at the source of that eerie light.
Bolo led them down a clear mountain path for two days before it ended at a small plateau perched on the edge of the mountains that overlooked the vast plateau they had been traveling on. An ancient stone monastery stood before them surrounded by a ring of ivory monoliths.
The native girl produced a small turquoise cloth from her pocket. She laid it on the ground and said what seemed to be a prayer. When she finished, to stuck the cloth to a nail in the white wind-scarred walls that protected the monastery, which were speckled with color from other scraps of cloth that had been previously nailed to them.
High walls concealed what was within the monastery, except for the grand temple on top of huge stone rise, and the even taller tower behind the temple. A grand and ornately carved archway in the wall was the only visible entrance to the monastery, and it beckoned the investigators to enter.
Inside the Monastery
No, Bat and John went through the arch and crossed courtyard into temple. Bat examined the offerings that had been left along the walls of the courtyard and found them unsettling. When he picked up a platter, and it’s contents turned into scorpions. He dropped the dish, and the scorpions scattered into cracks in the stonework.
The courtyard was divided into sections by translucent curtains. Beyond the fourth of such curtains, they came upon a raised platform upon which a man covered from the neck down in flowing robes and wearing a golden mask sat on a plush throne.
The figure spoke telepathically to the three and asked them why they had come. They each indicated that they were looking for someone. Satisfied by their answers, the figure produced a small, plain, wooden box from his sleeve. John moved to retrieve the box and grabbed by the robed figure. He felt a searing pain and discovered a brand on his arm.
The figure reclined on the throne again and was immobile. John gave the box to No, who opened it. Inside was a simple reed flute. No blew into it and made a simple tune. Then the figure on the throne faded away.
Unpleasant Discovery
Meanwhile, Luther went through a side door and entered into a hallway lined with cells. A strange muffled sound caught his attention, and he followed it to a cell further along the corridor. Inside he saw a huge translucent chrysalis adhered to the wall by similar translucent resin. Inside the cocoon, he could see the outline of a form struggling within as it tried to break free.
When Luther got closer, he could make out a woman’s face beneath the strands. She seemed to sense Luther’s presence opened her mouth in a muted scream, thrashing about with even more energy. When Luther cut away the webbing, she slid out and fell to the floor in a glistening heap, along with several gallons of mucus. Her body was that of a huge white pulsing maggot. As he watched, her mouth opened unnaturally wide, and the remains of the woman’s humanity fell off. Luther left the cell and closed the door behind him.
The others found him a few minutes later.