14a. The Veined Crypt

--- UNEXPECTED TENTACLE SESSION 14a ---
---       THE VEINED CRYPT          ---
---          (18.6.96)              ---

	Saddened though we were at the loss of our friends, the Doc needed
prompt medical attention so, after checking into a sleazy 'no questions
asked' motel, he was carted off straight away to the hospital and
immediately admitted. Jeremiah and Reverend Michael went to Boston library
to do some research and to try and fathom where abouts the strange village
is/was/will be.
	After mentally back-tracking our way and finally having the bright
idea of checking the newspaper (now legible) that we picked up, we decided
the village was in the local of Eanston - a port town on the eastern
coast, a fairly prosperous but isolated area with one road leading to it
across barren terrain. Visiting Arkham library, we decided to check out
books about local churches - perhaps recognising the one we saw. We failed
in that, but found lots of interesting history about Eanston church -
built on the site of an older wooden affair during a diocesan upheaval
around 1840.
	Reverend Michael checked out several interesting books, on the
unusual architecture of Eanston church, to keep Dr. Jones occupied -
Jeremiah went along to the 'Hawthorn Mythos Library' and suggested that
the good doctor might enjoy a nice musty Latin text (Unfortunately the
Doctor's Latin is shameful for someone of his standing) - leading Jeremiah
to speculate that since the post of 'Prof. of Archaeology' is vacant, he
might stand a chance of getting a nice cushy job.
	In Arkham library, Jeremiah also found an interesting satire about
the people of Eanston - comparing the people of the town to fish - "No
wonder they're so successful (at fishing) when they look just like the
catch." Incidentally, we later noticed a certain bulging of the eyes and
slight malformation of the skeleton amongst the town's folk that had
obviously inspired the story.
	Asking around, Allerton apparently left Boston for a couple of
days and Swanson was being missed by Tattler's ex-maid. After several
days we finally reported him missing. Reverend Michael and Jeremiah decide
to scout around the Eanston area, looking for a deserted village with a
conspicuous limo parked across the road - little luck. A party discussion
then took place; Jeremiah argued that John and William are almost
certainly dead and the best way of avenging them is to stop Allerton.
Reverend Michael thought that we had to try and retrieve the mask, 
preventing it from falling into Allerton's hands; Jeremiah pointed out
that the ritual can't go ahead without the wand, so Allerton is still
stuck and maybe the best course of action would be to find the cave
paintings explaining the ritual. Somewhere in this discussion, a certain
blasphemous winged horror was remembered - still on the lose somewhere. 
Is this creature keeping an eye on the characters for the Big Cheese? It 
was a hypothesis Jeremiah, and the rest of the party, weren't going to 
rule out.
	The consensus was that the mask was important, so after a good
long rest we stocked up on weapons - two shotguns, 3 knives and a few
crowbars and left for Eanston, trying again to find the dilapidated
village. Walking round Eanston, we gazed upon the magnificent stone
church, which prompted a memory in Jeremiah - the church in the village
was wooden, where they had lost their friends (and limo) and so was the
original church in Eanston (according to their research). Time travel was
certainly not an implausible theory given recent experiences. Orientating
himself via the main street, Jeremiah noticed that a large hotel stood 
where the 'bar' was in the village and the town's street plan was certainly
familiar. A quick drink at the bar revealed a (now unused) trapdoor.
	After walking along the coast, no hidden entrances to the
underground cave complex where found; so the party decided to do a spot of
sight-seeing, this famous church being first on the inventory - a tall but
oddly proportioned building in a mixture of styles, unusual for the period
when it was constructed. Leaving the majority of our larger weapons in the
car, we entered the building - awed by the beauty of the rock and how the
light reflected from wall to wall from the high windows. The rock was
unlike anything we'd seen before - greyish black with filigreed green
veins which matched up perfectly from rock to rock. Searching revealed
that the alter was apparently made out of the same wood as the bookmark. At
Jeremiah's suggestion, we looked for the crypt - still part of the
original wooden church.
	Disturbed by the local pastor, Doctor Jarvis Jones proceeded to
impress him (and us) with our knowledge of the architecture and persuaded
him to show us the crypt - "Not many books mention it, people rarely ("come
back?" was the comment inserted) appreciate it. We were lead down a
ridiculous amount of stairs, through heavy doors below the church.
Every time our guide allowed us to go first and, suffering from acute
paranoia failure, in we gladly went - crash, click - we were trapped in a
corridor, a door at either end - the wood of the doors apparently far
harder than anything encountered before. Nothing to do but press on.
	On opening the door, a massive chamber presented itself. It was a
gigantic place, with the same floor plan as the upper storey, with massive
fluted pillars, made of the same weird stone as the rest of the church,
supporting the floor above. The floor was about 3 inches deep in water and
after orientating ourselves, we realised that, with the church facing
east, the bar might be located roughly to the north, and decided to try
and find it. In the approximate direction of the bar, at one end of the
church were two arched entrances. Upon reaching them, they were obviously
quite close together - closer than the other entrances/exits also found in
the church - a configuration which Jeremiah recognised as similar to those
near the portal at the other side of that huge cavern where the
fish-beings swam. 
	This intuition turned out to be correct and we stood watching
about eight fish-headed humanoids swim in the water. The portal was still
too small to enter; we were about to turn around and try a different
tunnel when a cry rang out - too high pitched to come from these deep
throated blasphemies that swam before us. A gun-shot echoed around the
caverns, and for some reason we waded towards it (which gives a good
indication of our plummeting sanity totals). A figure ran towards us - 
William Hargreaves. A gargantuan monster stood in the water, fished headed
with ragged wings standing 20' tall - two dead fish-beings lying nearby on
the ground. 

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