Intrigue, Horror, & Lovecraftian God Sacrifice in the Western Wastelands - Olathoë' Session Report Eight

So during tonight's game the PC's moped up the last of the Rhan Faced Doppelgangers groups, each of these groups operates with a spotter, a telepathic link to the hive mind, & a shifter who imitates the target. The PC's learned of an insect cult operating fifty miles outside of the Outpost of the Western Wastelands in an abandon temple of the Huldra ("hidden beings") after blowing away a ton of the spawn of the Cockhold god.

One of the PC's almost became the main entertainment &  course at an exiled Hyperborean family's cannibal festival. A quick step in by the bard's Hyperborean musketeer bodyguard hireling saved both face both senses. Another of the PC's took over one of the junk stalls of the vendor at the place whist the rest of the party strolled through the market place looking for  the good aligned a Hyperborean  priest of Yog-Sothoth called Gr'res Ru who has seemingly appeared out of nowhere two weeks ago. According to some of the other Hyperborean families he's wandered back into the wastelands.  The careful application of a crossbow in the face of a vendor got the following information Gr'res Ru had  gone back to speak with several tribes of wasteland mutants but the PC's fear that something bad has happened to him. The PC's also learned of a caravan leaving for the deep wastelands coming up in the next two days.  There were suggestions that perhaps all was not well on the mammoth trails leading to the subhuman tribe's homes! Rumors of hideous hates of old that the old cults have resurrected in the name of the twisted gods of the
'Alpha  Gnophkehs''s shamans!


Now the PC's have decided to tag along with the trade caravan leaving in a day or so on the backs of the giant woolly rhinos. But the Hyperborean traders are worried about inhuman raiders!


"In spite of himself his memory began reconstructing the utterly non-human blasphemies that lurked in the obscurer corners, and these lumpish hybrid growths oozed and wriggled toward him as though hunting him down in a circle. Black Tsathoggua molded itself from a toad-like gargoyle to a long, sinuous line with hundreds of rudimentary feet, and a lean, rubbery night-gaunt spread its wings as if to advance and smother the watcher. Jones braced himself to keep from screaming. He knew he was reverting to the traditional terrors of his childhood, and resolved to use his adult reason to keep the phantoms at bay. It helped a bit, he found, to flash the light again. Frightful as were the images it showed, these were not as bad as what his fancy called out of the utter blackness. But there were drawbacks. Even in the light of his torch he could not help suspecting a slight, furtive trembling on the part of the canvas partition screening off the terrible "Adults only" alcove. He knew what lay beyond, and shivered. Imagination called up the shocking forms of fabulous Yog-Sothoth—only a congeries of iridescent globes, yet stupendous in its malign suggestiveness. What was this accursed mass slowly floating toward him and bumping on the partition that stood in the way? A small bulge in the canvas far to the right suggested the sharp horn of Gnoph-keh, the hairy myth-thing of the Greenland ice, that walked sometimes on two legs, sometimes on four, and sometimes on six. To get this stuff out of his head Jones walked boldly toward the hellish alcove with torch burning steadily. Of course, none of his fears was true. Yet were not the long, facial tentacles of great Cthulhu actually swaying, slowly and insidiously?"
HP Lovecraft The Horror In The Museum


One of the PC's is of the bloodlines of the Huldra ("hidden beings") & has been the sacrificial  target of a cult of the Great Old Ones since the beginning of the campaign. The party's bard is the perfect sacrifice to open a gateway for the cult of the Great Old Ones. Several minor relics have been recovered in tonight's game including a flute which is a key to this temple, a wand of fire of the Huldra, and several pieces of weird gold. All of this points to a mystery of blood & fire deeper in the wastelands along the Mammoth Trails. This is very bad for this is the region belonging to the were cave hyena peoples who rule these areas. They are left overs from the brush fire wars between the Huldra ("hidden beings") & the Hyperboreans.



The PC's are marching straight into several key trails that are also owned by rampaging mutant tribes of subhuman ape men. Though primitive they are beholden to several minor Lovecraftian demon gods of the Dream Places. These tribes use enchanted rhino horrors to sacrifice humans to their twisted demon gods in the hopes of gaining power in battle. But there are rumors of several of these groups having been wiped out by some rampaging unknown horror.