The First Day is that they have hit an unexplain- accent). Dimitri is happy to meet the On their first able pocket of air, large enough for investigators—even if they attack it, it Organism day drilling into the drill assembly to collapse into. attempts to placate them and request the ice, after a few The bore hole is about one meter their help. Dimitri has been down hundred meters, in diameter—just wide enough for here for far, far too long, and all it 46b by the drill sputters a full-grown person to descend, and wants is to see daylight again… but, Noah Lloyd and groans as the expedition has more than enough you see, it has a problem, the chamber though it has hit rope and safety equipment to low- they are all now in is a bomb, set to Deep beneath the Antarctic ice rock. This can be er down a select few individuals… make the Earth unusable by the Elder a tense moment, sheet, a newly discovered lake may The Chamber, the Elder Thing, Things’ enemies the Mi-go, and, well, as the investigators struggle with be the deepest ever discovered. Radio and the End of the World the humans have just set the bomb to soundings have put it at nearly 10,000 equipment and the backblow from As the investigators are lowered ticking. Dimitri can answer just about feet, twice the depth of the current- superheated water (call for appropri- through the shaft, no roll is neces- all of the investigator’s questions. ly known deepest lake in the world ate rolls as the investigators respond). sary (assuming they bring flashlights While this conversation is oc- (Lake Baikal, around 5,000 feet). After a few dramatic moments, the with them) to notice the segment curring, anyone who remains at the Dubbed Lake Carter, the Americans drill spits out a large chunk of what of electro-mimetic material the collapsed drill can roll Spot Hidden have leaped upon this discovery, send- appears to be black, igneous rock; drill churned through on their first to notice that a black ooze seems to ing out an expedition to drill through as soon as the rock warms up, how- day. They apparently drilled straight be dripping, and then running, down the ice sheet and probe the mysteries ever, it melts into a malleable putty through a narrow band of the stuff, the hole and pooling onto the cav- of the maddeningly deep abyss… unidentifiable by modern science. about five meters tall, that is obvi- ern floor. This eventually reconsti- Allow the investigators to be creative ously viscous and darker than the tutes into the Mi-go Electro-mimetic Keeper’s Background in their attempts to identify the ma- The Russians, too, are interested surrounding ice above and below it; Shoggoth (use Shoggoth stats, SAN terial: if they ever expose it to elec- anyone who leans in for a closer look, 1D6/1D20 to witness). Wait for a in the lake, and rumors are that they tricity (or you can contrive to have it may be beginning another drill site and with a successful Spot Hidden, suitable moment in Dimitri’s con- exposed), it rigidifies into whatever notices what might be tiny occasion- versation for the shoggoth to attack only 75 miles away. The characters shape it had been formed into. An- are aware of these rumors when they al sparks along its surface. It is easy (perhaps Dimitri is explaining the other current causes it to re-liquefy. to take samples, if they so desire. nature of the electro-mimetic mate- are flown by helicopter into their drill Further experimentation reveals that site, over 400 miles from the coast; It takes nearly an hour of hanging rial, or perhaps Dimitri has just said, this property extends to the molec- in an uncomfortable harness for the “Why yes, disarming the bomb is everyone in the expedition is nervous, ular level; the material is effectively especially as tensions between the investigators to reach the site of the easy, all you do is—”), when it col- impervious in its rigid state. The pos- drill’s collapse. The floor of the area lapses upon Dimitri and devours it. U.S. and Russia are so high (you can sible benefits to science, especially invent a reason for this, or leave it as they enter is covered in snow (un- The investigators now have two material manufacturing, are immense. usual for Antarctica, which receives problems: 1) find a way to defeat or the de facto political situation). It will A conspiratorial member of the take the team about six days of drill- almost no precipitation), and the drill escape the shoggoth, and 2) disarm expedition named John Mercy seeds has foundered into many segments doomsday machine. The bomb fun- ing to reach the surface of the lake. rumors around the camp about “Or- The ice sheet is over two kilome- that lean haphazardly against stony nels its explosion through the large ganism 46b,” a supposed cryptid columns. (A closer look at these col- cone at the chamber’s center, so de- ters thick, but only a few hundred me- discovered by the Russians in Lake ters down is a frozen Mi-go weapon umns will reveal that they are not stroying the cone (or luring the shog- Vostok, another Antarctic sub-gla- natural, but handmade.) Getting their goth into destroying it) will stop the reminiscent of a shoggoth. During cial lake (see our resources in this their war with the Elder Things, the bearings, the spheroid chamber they bomb and melt the shoggoth, long one-page scenario’s original post for find themselves in is perfectly sym- enough at least for the investigators Mi-go designed this creature to com- more information about this urban bat the Elder Things’ shoggoths, metrical, with perfectly smooth walls to make it back to the cable and begin legend). Mercy claims that the Rus- and ceilings, and likely a continuation their ascent. Alternatively, Dimitri has and over the past millions of years sians weaponized whatever it was it was lost, frozen into the ice. It has of this pattern beneath the snow; it left instructions behind on using the they found under the ice, and that is about the size of a football field, bomb’s controls, but they are written electro-mimetic properties: when- maybe this material is related to it. ever an electric current is passed with a ceiling half again as high. in confusing Elder Thing cartouches through it, the material will hold The Third Day The columns and stone walls, some as simple arrays of dots (readable whatever shape it has been formed Halfway through their drilling, of which the drill has knocked over, with Cthulhu Mythos). Alternative- into, down to the molecular level. while the crew attaches another shaft are parts of pentagonal buildings ar- ly, investigators can attempt three Halfway through the glacier rests to the increasingly long drill, the ranged in an almost beehive fashion. Hard Operate Heavy Machinery a large spheroid chamber. This cham- whole apparatus begins vibrating; at As the investigators explore, Listen rolls (or other if they can improvise a ber is an Elder Thing doomsday first minutelySpot ( Hidden, which notes sounds of movement coming creative solution) to defuse the bomb machine, built as a counter-measure allows the investigators to back off from the approximate center of the via the control panel. Every round to Mi-go colonization. Should the before danger occurs), and then with chamber, and a queer musical piping. that an investigator fiddling with the sphere ever be breached, it begins great ferocity. John Mercy stands near In the center of the chamber is a controls fails a roll brings the bomb warming at a progressive rate, even- the bore hole when a sudden back- huge cone, the funnel of its mouth one step closer to detonation—they tually exploding, directing its energy wash of superheated water sprays pointing downwards. Beneath this only have four failures to disarm it. downward through its central cone, from the hole, effectively boiling cone, happily toying with his experi- The electro-mimetic shoggoth freez- where it melts through the rest of Mercy alive—any investigator near ments, is a billion-year-old, and quite es in place if an investigator can man- the glacier, vaporizes Lake Carter, the bore hole should roll Dodge or mad, Elder Thing inventor that calls age to send electrical current through and opens up a supervolcano at the take 1D10 damage as the water surges itself Dimitri (SAN 0/1D6). Dimi- it, but only for the duration of one bottom of the world, one so big that out. The investigators can attempt to tri has built itself a speech box that round, before it regains control of it- it will plunge the Earth into a nuclear save Mercy, but his skin peels and falls translates its musical piping into hu- self. If they fail to disarm the bomb, winter that may last a thousand years. away whenever he is touched, and man language—at first it attempts suffice it to say, the Earth trembles The Americans’ drill will pierce his death is merciful (SAN 0/1D4). speaking to the investigators in Rus- as a new supervolcano opens di- this egg-shaped room, and they will Amid the chaos, the drill collaps- sian (they were, after all, the first to ex- rectly beneath Antarctica. If they likely meet the Elder Thing caretak- es into the bore hole: even though plore nearby Lake Vostok), but once it succeed at stopping the bomb, but er of the doomsday device; whether another kilometer of ice should be realizes they speak English, it fiddles the shoggoth survives, and the bore they can defeat the ancient weapon standing in its way, the whole appa- with a couple of knobs and the speak- hole remains open, it eventually be- of the Mi-go, or stop the bomb from ratus rockets downward. The only er switches over to English (though gins to squeeze its way up the shaft… exploding, is another question… explanation (with INT if necessary) Dimitri’s speaker always has a Russian ©reckoningofthedead.com 2019