4/3/22 Masks of Nyarlathotep: Session 1-- Prologue

1.We start outside a hotel room in NYC in Chelsea Hotel. Room 410. We hear a
muffled voice and have a terrible gut feeling. This is 1925.
2.It’s 1920. We have a flashback to Lima, Peru. Temperature is early 20s. Lima is
quite a modern city with Western conveniences.
3.We are to meet in a bar, Cordano. A bit of a famous historical bar. 20 minutes
before the appointed time, Orson arrives.
4.10 minutes later, Augustus Larkin and Luis de Mendoza show up to the bar. Larkin
is sweaty, with dark circles. Luis looks angry, scans the bar. He is gaunt. Both
look unkempt. Luis doesn’t say much. Larkin calls him an aide.
5.Cate arrives. Pierre arrives ten minutes late. A black man joins us, says his
name is Jesse Hughs. Luis seems to stare angrily at Jesse. Is it cause he’s black?
He’s from Harlem.
6.Larkin is sweating profusely. Mendoza is not. Mendoza has an English accent. It
does not seem to be race-based. Whatever his beef with Jesse is. He has a Kenyan
British accent, Orson discerns.
7.Larkin said he met a alpaca farmer whose grandfather had some artifacts which he
then shows us. He told him the location of the site (tunnels) and sold him the
artifacts. It’s near Lake Titicaca. He said due to local superstition, the farmer
never went back. He has narrowed down the site of pyramid.
8.The artifacts are made of gold, Orson discerns. We will leave on Monday morning
from Hotel Espana where he and Mendoza are staying. It’s Friday today. Larkin has
hired trucks. Drive to Puno then pack animals to the site. It should take 4 days in
total. Then hike up the mountain. The locals are expected to show no resistance.
It’s not illegal to take artifacts.
9.Jesse asks how he narrowed down the site location. Larkin says he did his
research and burned the paperwork. It’s in his head.
10.The veins on Larkin’s wrists seem discoloured and darkened. Orson asks him about
why he’s sweating so much. He says he is suffering the long term effects of
malaria. Orson knows he’s lying.
11.Pierre sees a circular tattoo on his chest, it is showing through his sweaty
linen suit. It’s quite big. He acts at least upper class but somehow he has a big
tattoo.
12.We can request him to get supplies or he’ll reimburse us if we give him receipts
for supplies. He is mostly self funded but there are other parties funding him.
13.They leave as Larkin says he is under the weather. The atmosphere brightens up
quite a bit. Orson discerns that Larkin has a heroin addiction. We have another
round, on Mr. Larkin’s tab.
14.Jesse says his name is Jackson Elias. He says he joined the expedition because…
before Larkin put the call in the papers, he did try to get some of the locals to
go on the expedition with him but most of the locals were unwilling. Mendoza does
not have the best reputation, in Puna.
15.Jackson says he is a writer/ author, writes about cults. He writes about death
cults. He wrote about Thuggies, a cult from India. Pierre has heard of it.
16.He did some research in a library in NYC. Kaisiri are white faced men who sucks
fat out of farmers. Death cult. He said people do go missing/murdered near Puno.
The legend started since the time of the Conquistadors. It is unlikely that a cult
has survived since then.
17.He has been in Peru for about 4 months. He went to Puno. He thinks that Mendoza
has heard of him poking around. The farmers do believe in the legends.
18.Jackson says he is due to meet a professor at the university for more
information.
19.Mendoza has garnered a reputation of a man to be feared in Puno. The locals
believe he is part of the Karisiri death cult.
20.Cate is familiar with Jackson’s books. She has an interest in the occult. They
are also known as Pishtacu or Fish Taco. The mortuary she works at is a family
business.
21.We agree to meet tomorrow to meet the professor and get supplies. Professor
Sanchez at the National University of San Marcos, Museum of Archaeology and
Anthropology.
22.Museum is a new addition to the university. The university is the oldest in the
Americas.
23.He introduces himself as Nemecio Sanchez. The locals call them coqueros, grave
robbers. Sanchez works with his student Miss Rizo and Larkin has consistently
ignore all requests to join up. He hopes to beat them to it by doing his own
research.
24.Ms Rizo has been researching a paper written by a Conquistador from the 16th
century, called Figuero. She is almost done. She should be here soon.
25.Orson asks about death cults, the Karisiri. There is evidence enough that people
are missing. The fat sucking part is myth. The legend has been around since the
time of the Conquistadors. The cult could have come from Europe with them. They
look like gaunt looking white men with big hats, so, conquistadors basically.
26.He describes the highland climate as rainy, very cold at night, strong winds and
cloudless. So beware of the sun. There can also be altitude sickness.
27.He says the letter that Ms Rizo is translating was in the university archives.
It became relevant right now with news of the pyramid. She still isn’t here. Orson
and Jackson go to check on her in the storeroom. She is there for a related
artifact.
28.The door to the storeroom is open. The place is huge and cluttered with floor to
ceiling shelves. They find her digging in crates.
29.There is a figure behind her. He leaps at her. He bites her. There is a sound of
something in his mouth it seems. Jackson shoots Mendoza dead. He looks less gaunt
somehow.
30.There is a disc coming out of his gums? His features change back into a regular
human’s. Ms Rizo is screaming in pain and bleeding from her neck. She looks a
little skinnier, apparently.
31.Pierre tries to help Ms Rizo back to the office. Cate examines Mendoza’s body.
He is playing dead. When she dissects his mouth, he lunges up to kiss her. Pierre
manages to stab him in the heart after Cate manages to convey that stabbing him in
the heart would kill him.
32.Mendoza lies dead, seemingly for real now. There is however something in Cate’s
mouth. It looks like a fatty worm trying to burrow in. Orson tries to pull it out.
It is slimy and slips out of his grasp.
33.Cate shoots it. Jackson shoots it. The worm finally dies.
34.Mendoza comes back up and tries to run away. Cate screams to decapitate him.
Orson tries to take him out but gets punched. Gets knocked out.
35.We chase after him. Jackson manages to shoot him. He doesn’t go down until we
finally chop his head off. Sirens are outside, people are screaming from the
gunshots. We are covered in blood and slime. There is the decapitated now human
body of Luis de Mendoza.