Chapter Eleven

 In which the evil at Edrachillis Bay is uncovered, the traitors at the Navy base are arrested, Deborah Stankey’s place of imprisonment is discovered, and Genevieve is finally reunited with her estranged husband. All sounds pretty good news… doesn’t it?

The aboleths dwell in seclusion in great sunless seas beneath the world. Cruel, emotionless, and logical they live for thousands of years, gathering information and performing their experiments. They have four castes, the slave gatherers, the slave masters, the nobles (scientists), and the rulers. Usually only the lowest castes are seen near the surface. Their culture makes no use of magic, but is advanced in science and the powers of the mind.

An aboleth resembles a plump fish, twenty to forty feet in length from its bulbous head to its fluke-like tail. Its body is blue-green with gray splotches, and its pink-tan underbelly conceals a toothless, rubbery mouth. Three slit-like eyes, purple-red in colour and protected by bony ridges, are set one atop the other in the front of its head. Four pulsating blue-black orifices line the bottom of its body and secrete grey slime that smells like rancid grease. Four leathery tentacles, each 10 feet in length, grow from its head. An aboleth uses its tail to propel itself through the water and its tentacles to drag itself along dry land.

Aboleth have both male and female sexual organs. A mature aboleth reproduces once every five years by concealing itself in a cavern or other remote area, then laying a single egg and covering it in slime. The parent aboleth guards the egg while the embryo grows and develops, a process that takes about five years. A newborn aboleth takes about 10 years to mature.

An aboleth brood consists of a parent and one to three offspring. Though the offspring are as large and as strong as the parent, they defer to the parent in all matters and obey it implicitly.

The common aboleth spends most of its time searching for slaves, preferably human ones. It is rumoured that the aboleth use their slaves to construct huge underwater cities, though none have ever been found. The aboleth are said to know ancient, horrible secrets that predate the existence of man, but this lore are also unsubstantiated. There is no doubt that aboleth retain a staggering amount of knowledge. An offspring acquires all of its parent's knowledge at birth, and a mature aboleth acquires the knowledge of any intelligent being it consumes.

An aboleth's treasure consists of items taken from its slaves. The items are buried in caverns under a layer of slime resembling grey mud, recognisable by the distinctive rancid grease odour.

All aboleth are psionic, with abilities of false sensory input, mind-linking, and mass domination, which make them very effective slavers. The greater aboleth have other psionic gifts, and their enslavement is much harder to overcome. Abilities such as ESP, Dimension Door, Probability Travel, and Astral Projection are not uncommon.

The aboleth attacks close-up with its tentacles. If a victim struck by a tentacle fails a saving throw vs. spell, the victim's skin transforms into a clear, slimy membrane in less than five minutes. If this occurs, the victim must keep the membrane damp with cool water or die. Cure disease cast upon the victim before the membrane completely forms stops the transformation. Otherwise, cure serious wounds will cause the membrane to revert to normal skin.

Because its sluggish movement makes attacks difficult, the aboleth attempts to lure victims close by creating realistic illusions at will, complete with audible, olfactory, and other sensory components. The aboleth can attempt to enslave creatures within thirty feet. If the victim’s will falters he follows all of the aboleth's telepathic commands, although the victim will not fight on the aboleth's behalf. The enslavement can be negated by remove curse, dispel magic, the death of the enslaving aboleth, or sometimes if the victim is separated significant distances from the aboleth.

When underwater, an aboleth surrounds itself with a mucous cloud one foot thick. A victim in contact with the cloud and inhaling the mucus may be poisoned and lose the ability to breathe air. The victim is then able to breathe water, as if having consumed a potion of water breathing, for several hours. This ability may be renewed by additional contact with the mucous cloud. An affected victim attempting to breathe air will suffocate in ten minutes or less. Wine or soap dissolves the mucus.

The omnivorous aboleth will eat any organic matter, usually algae and micro-organisms, but they are also fond of intelligent prey so they can absorb nutrients and information at the same time. Aboleth have no natural enemies, as even the mightiest marine creatures give them a wide berth. Aboleth slime is sometimes used as a component for potions of water breathing.

From the notes of Inishail "Crannog" Duncan, drawn from earlier accounts by Dr Popplejay, Dr Charterhouse, and Dr Hamble.

The sample you sent me was potent aboleth mucus with a component to temporarily enhance human psionic receptiveness +STOP+ Zany

Coded telegram from Tanzania Quilp, Alchemist, to the Monster Hunters at Edrachillis Bay

The sudden evidence that an arboleth lurks beneath the waters of Edrachillis Bay is not a great comfort to the Monster Hunters submerged in Prototype Three, but does help to explain a few things about the strange changed behaviour of the (now seemingly evil) villagers and the disappearance of Prototype Four. The Club are probably curious about the strange fluke of timing which means that such a rare creature becomes active just as someone is apparently taking an interest in what has been going on in this remote stretch of water.

Revell, Radshaw, and Crannog continue to have the experimental submarine. They follow the line which Prototype Four was on when it vanished. It doesn’t take too long to find the silt-rimed hull of the shattered other vessel. It lies in a newly-made sixty-foot hole on the sea-bed. Amazingly, the hole has discarded shovels and spades lying beside it, as if it has been dug by human hands!

Prototype Four has been split open, but Radshaw notes that one of its hatches has also been unsealed.

Meridian urgently contacts the people in Prototype Four to warn them that something large is moving through the waters towards them. Then suddenly no less than six gigantic creatures loom out of the darkness and move towards Prototype Three.

• What does the team do next?

As Redvers-Ainderbury and Albrecht piece together what has happened to the village six marines arrive to take them into custody. R-A’s sergeant has already been detained. It appears that Admiral Potter rose from lunch, denounced them as saboteurs, and has ordered them to be confined.

• What does the team do next?

As requested, Angherad makes a list of the known "Hallows" and other legendary treasures of Britain. The Hallows include the Spear of Lugh, the Cauldron of Plenty or the Holy Grail, the Sword of Falias, and the Stone of Destiny.

Dame Chanterness adds the Thirteen Treasures of Britain, which according to Welsh legend were gathered by Arthur Pendragon on his ship Pridwen. These treasures were:

• Dyrnwyn, the flaming sword of Rhydderch the generous, which would burn for only a nobleman.
• The Hamper of Gwyddno Garanhir, which when filled with food and drink for one man would multiply it to a feast for a hundred.
• Bran’s Horn, which offered whatever drink one wanted.
• The Chariot of Morgan the Wealthy which transported its owner wherever he wished to travel.
• The halter of Cydno Eiddyn which summoned whatever horse the owner required.
• The Cauldron of Diwrnach the Giant which boiled the meat only of brave men.
• The Knife of Llawfronedd the horseman which could carve for twenty-four men at a meal.
• The Whetstone of Tudwal Tudglyd, which sharpened the sword of a brave man but left a coward’s weapon blunted.
• The Gown of Padern, which fit a nobleman but not a churl, or which covered a virtuous woman but exposed an adulteress even to the buttocks.
• The Crock and the Dish of Rhygenedd, which provided whatever food was a man’s favourite.
• The Chessboard of Gwendollau, which played by itself when the pieces were set up.
• The Mantle of Arthur, which conveyed invisibility.

Whoever collects these things is the rightful sovereign of Britain, and they alone decide which nations may enter and which will be denied entry to the land.

COUPLE FOUND DEAD ON SHORELINE

Police were summoned to the shingle strand below Strumble Cliffs yesterday when local children discovered two decaying corpses washed up on the tide by Old Man’s Rocks. A police search of the clifftops found a tent and camping equipment which had apparently been abandoned, but medical experts have determined that the bodies are some weeks dead and so cannot be the missing people from the campsite.

The authorities are appealing for any help in identifying the drowned man and woman and are seeking information as to the identity and whereabouts of the two campers on the clifftop.

• What do the Monster Hunters do about this?

Spurred on by Qayrawun, the majority of the Southern operating team takes the Operations Bus up to Milton of Campsie. From there some of the team intend to travel on to visit the nymph Galeili Worldsedge but events overtake them. Present on the bus are: Qayrawun, Genevieve, Magda, Emmanuelle, Flaxton, Angherad, Selkirk, Aveyard, and Dawn.

North of the town of Milton of Campsie lies thick forest. It takes Magda and Selkirk only a little time to locate some (unusually) powerful leys but it is getting dark by the time the team gets there. At this point Angherad’s staff senses a powerful undead a mile or so off in the forest and Flaxton and Dawn insist on going to have a word with it.

Shortly after entering the deepest part of the ancient wood the Club meet the first guardian, an Earth elemental that strikes without warning. As the Club struggle with it Selkirk does something with a micro-portal and the creature crumbles. He explains how he did it but nobody understands.

The next ring of defence are sixteen zombies, which are held at bay by Flaxton and Dawn but destroyed when Angherad commands her staff to destroy them. This the staff does by wresting control of the undead from their creator and having them rip each others’ heads off. This does not make the Club feel comfortable.

Suddenly Qayrawun recognises his surroundings from his brief scrying. Here is the place that Deborah Stankey was formerly bound. The ground is churned up with massive unshod hoofprints and stained with a few drops of blood.

There is a flash of light and suddenly a raging-mad and very large unicorn is amongst the Club. With a single toss it sends Flaxton and Qayrawun flying. The roots and weeds of the forest floor seem to rise up to confine the Monster Hunters. Magda and Aveyard try to speak but find themselves inside a foul-smelling cloud of vapours. There is no sign at all of Angherad. Dawn tries to move to shield Emmanuelle from the massive unicorn bearing down to skewer her, but finds herself overcome with sleep. Genevieve, who alone has danced free of the entangle, intervenes herself instead. The terrible beast rears before her but cannot harm her.

Then a voice commands her. "Genevieve. Stand aside, my wife and allow the strumpet to be destroyed."

People are quite at liberty to suggest different ways they might react or have reacted, but please bear in mind the constraints we have to work with in this storytelling medium and that I have to make some assumptions based on past knowledge of player actions and how the dice fall.]