The investigators have arrived at last at the seat of the cult’s power: the hollow island in the North sea. Already, the Great Mother’s servants are gathering, and they will stop at nothing to prevent our intrepid heroes from ending their evil and saving the world.
In Part One of this chapter, the investigators procured transportation and sailed to the island, hiding their boat and making their way over the jagged rocks to the underground temple. Armed with the spell in the Westmont Text, and possibly some explosives obtained in Dublin, they must now enter the temple and seal the Mother’s well for good.
(All page numbers refer to the Seventh Edition of the Call of Cthulhu Keeper Rulebook, published 2015 by Chaosium, Inc. I am in no way affiliated with Chaosium or the writers of the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game system. Content notes for this chapter: eldritch horror, cult activity, forced drugging, abduction, monstrous pregnancy and miscarriage, explosions, and geographic destruction.)
Maps
The Keeper can use this map of the temple (Handout 4-1) as a reference, but I advise having the investigators make do with the diagram in the Westmont Text (Handout 2-3) to make things a little more challenging.
This is a map of the temple with important locations marked. Some of the symbols from Estrilda de Westemond’s spell remain inked into the temple floor, especially deeper within; wear and tear and deliberate scrubbing by cult members have removed the rest. The map notes the locations of each character for the spell and whether they are missing or extant. There are also four monsters that begin in the last chamber and will move around as their resting place is disturbed.
Key:
- Missing symbol ᛊ
- Missing symbol ᛃ
- Missing symbol ᚠ
- Missing symbol ᚢ
- Extant symbol ᛒ
- Extant symbol ᛢ
- Extant symbol ᛚ
- Missing symbol ᛞ
- Extant symbol ᛗ
- Missing symbol ᚦ
- Extant symbol ᚲ
A. Entry door
B. Locked door
C. Locked door
X. Temple stalker starting positions
The last page of the Westmont text shows a simplistic floor map of the temple under the island, overlaid with a geometric diagram of a five-pointed star contained in a pentagon, placed inside a six-pointed star contained in a hexagon. Inside this diagram is the illustration of a blooming lily. Each vertex of the diagram has a runic character inscribed beside it, and these characters are repeated in the left and right margins of the page.
The Temple
The Door
As the gathered cultists prepare to administer the black water to their two victims, one willing and one drugged, the investigators can take this opportunity to sneak into the temple. The door is a heavy wooden slab, and it stands open: it will take two people making a hard Strength check to move it, a single person making an Extreme check, or four people making a regular check. It is thick enough to provide cover from gunfire and slow the cultists’ attempts to batter it down and enter the temple, should the investigators wish to barricade themselves inside. If they do not close the door, cultists will follow them in and attack them.
The temple’s original door was stone, and it was blasted open by Professor Ragnarsson’s expedition. Cultists have cleared away much of the rubble, but a few large pieces remain, showing stark, angular carvings of dead trees.
Entry Chamber
The first tunnel slopes downward into the underground structure. There are no windows and, if the door is shut, almost no natural light; any artificial lights the cultists were using have been removed, so the temple is in total darkness. Only this first chamber has a little light, gray and thin, filtering down from the door.
This is evidently some kind of gathering space, with low stone benches arranged in a semicircle facing the back wall. All around the chamber, set into the wall about five feet from the ground at roughly three-foot intervals, are round, flat stones identical to the one the investigators received from Jasmine. Unsurprisingly, there is an empty slot directly to the right of the doorway to the entrance where this stone was removed. Since returning to the island, the cult has removed most of the skeletal remains and the tags left by the archaeological team; a couple of mostly-complete skeletons are still against the back wall, along with a tag reading “01-13.” There is a hallway on either side of the chamber. Replacing the stone taken by Ragnarsson produces no visible effects, but doing so is needed to complete the ritual.
As the investigators descend into the temple, the feeling of despondent stagnancy grows worse, and the air feels thick and heavy. They should make SAN checks as they go forward. If they fail more than one in a row, they should lose 1d4 Sanity points and/or take a penalty die on their checks as they feel the temple’s effects, at the Keeper’s discretion.
First Hallways
These halls slope downward from the entry chamber toward the first rooms. The air grows dustier, and there are hundreds of footprints visible on the ground from the cultists’ comings and goings, though the dust was first disturbed by the archaeological team.
Both hallways are decorated with murals, painted on the stone with some kind of black substance (analyzing it will reveal it is mostly charcoal with some unidentifiable trace elements). The left-hand hallway depicts strange, small ships leaving the island and going to other lands, capturing vaguely feminine figures, and bringing them back. The right-hand hallway shows bare hills and a few barren trees, as well as some tree-like shapes similar to the creature summoned outside of Dublin. The drawings are crude, and the human faces portrayed are hollow-eyed and blank.
Library
This room is filled with rows and rows of crumbling shelves, made of wood planks laid on stone supports, and apparently once used to hold a wealth of terrible knowledge in the form of manuscript texts. The books have long ago rotted away, as have many of the wooden shelves, and the room has a faint scent of decaying paper under the dead smell of the temple. The stone supports are mostly still standing, though a couple have toppled, and they can provide cover if it is needed.
Living Quarters
This room has a few rows of narrow cots, probably purchased secondhand from military surplus, and it is apparently where the cult has been sleeping. There are not as many beds as there were cultists visible above ground, so they are probably sleeping in shifts (or, in the case of more powerful cultists, not sleeping at all). There is very little in the way of provisions or personal possessions here; only a few articles of clothing and a little extra bedding. Though one might expect this room to smell like a lot of people packed into a small space, it has the same flat miasma that permeates the temple.
Second Hallways
The locked doors lie just outside the rooms on either side. They are made of huge wooden slabs—probably oak—cut to carefully fit in the opening and reinforced with rusting, black iron fittings. The doors are thick enough that it would be difficult to break them down, even if one did manage to maneuver a battering ram down the narrow hallways. Each door has an iron fixture with a keyhole in its center. It will take a STR check to turn the hierophant’s key twice around and unlock the door, as the mechanisms have not been moved in centuries. When the doors are open, the locking mechanisms on the back can be seen: a complex system of gears and levers covering the back of each door, choked with rust and dust.
The hallways slope sharply downward into the darkness, and the dust grows thicker. Bringing a light into these halls will show that there are strange, dragging footprints wandering aimlessly to the door and back down. These walls have no adornment, not even any fixtures on which to place a light.
Monsters
There are four creatures in the temple. They crawled out of the well when it was reactivated some months ago, and since they need to neither eat nor sleep, they mostly just wander around the lightless lower chambers, waiting for someone to open the doors. Their starting positions are marked by four X’s on Handout 4-1. They can hear and see, though not very well, and will respond to light or any sound louder than a quiet speaking voice. If they locate the investigators, they will attack. They will wander into the upper rooms if the investigators open the doors, but they will not leave the temple even if the outer door is left open. Fortunately for the investigators, the creatures lack the knowledge and the fine motor skills to disrupt the ritual or move or disarm any explosives.
The creatures are vaguely humanoid. Their skin is a pale gray-white with webs of visible black veins, and they are tall and gangling, with a stooped posture and an unnatural, lurching gait. Their bodies are bare and featureless; their faces consist of a pair of large, reflective black eyes, a gaping, empty mouth, and small holes for the nose and ears. The bones visible through the skin are twisted like gnarled branches.
The cult’s writings do not mention much about these creatures, so the investigators are free to speculate where they came from and what their purpose is.
Temple Stalkers
STR 95 CON 140 SIZ 80 DEX 20 INT 10
POW 50 HP 22
Damage bonus: 1d6
Build: 2
Move: 8
Attacks per Round: 1
Attacks: Strike: 1d4+db
Grab: 1d4 per round held
Skills: Spot Hidden 20, Listen 20, Climb 50, Stealth 60
Sanity Loss: 1/1d6
Ritual Chamber
The room at the entrance to the well chamber holds a number of empty, dusty clay vessels, as well as a badly rusted long knife, resting on a rotting wooden table balanced on its three remaining legs and leaning on the right-hand wall. A long chain, also rusted but seeming to hold together, reaches from eye level up through a chiseled square hole in the ceiling, through which the metallic curve of a great iron bell is just barely visible.
The room at the very bottom of the temple is bare, with only the well—a black hole in the center of the room—as a feature. The stagnant, dead smell is strongest here. A thick layer of gray dust rests on the floor, and the air is difficult to breathe. There are no fixtures on the walls for lights, no furniture, and no decoration.
Estrilda’s Spell
If the investigators choose to perform the spell detailed in the Westmont text, they will need to place the symbols on the floor of the temple as shown in the manuscript diagram and then ring the temple bell seven times. Roughly half of the symbols remain from the first time the well was sealed, mostly in the lower chambers, which have not been touched by either the cult or Ragnarsson’s archaeological team. The other symbols must be replaced in order for the spell to work. The extant symbols are written in a dark-colored ink, similar to the murals in the front hallways. They can be removed with a lot of scrubbing or by heavy traffic, which may have been what happened to the missing ones. The investigators can redraw them using any means at their disposal: ink, chalk, scratching with a stone, or even tracing in the dust with a finger. However, all the symbols must be present before the bell is rung, so the investigators should be careful that their drawings are not disturbed. The round stone must also be replaced in the entry chamber before the spell will work.
When a new symbol is drawn, lines of pale golden light like narrow sunbeams radiate out from it toward the adjacent symbols, much like the geometric diagram in the Westmont text. If the light reaches a space where a symbol is missing, it will stop; if it reaches an existing symbol, it will continue branching out through the temple. The light will pass through walls and other obstacles. It will only last for a second or two, but it can help the investigators find where to place the remaining marks (they can make Spot Hidden checks to help find where the light is pointing). Furthermore, when it appears, it will distract the temple stalkers, who will follow the light until it vanishes and momentarily lose track of the investigators. The light is an indication that the spell originally performed by Estrilda de Westemond is being reactivated.
Once all the symbols are drawn, someone must pull the chain that hangs down in the chamber across from the well and ring the bell seven times.
Players can make SAN checks for casting this spell if they feel it is appropriate for their characters; e.g. if an investigator is a particularly stubborn rationalist whose worldview will be dramatically affected by doing magic even after what they have already experienced. Otherwise, the ritual is an effort to defeat the present evil, and no sanity points need be lost.
Destroying the Island
When the ritual is complete, the seventh and final bell toll will reverberate through the temple and then fall suddenly silent. The island will shake from deep within the earth, and there will be the sound of something moving far underground. Then, the water in the well will begin to drain away, leaving an empty, bottomless pit.
The pervasive sense of stagnation surrounding the island will break. While the investigators won’t be aware yet, as soon as the well is sealed, the effects of the dark water will begin to slow and, in some cases, reverse. Anyone and anything affected may begin to recover, depending on the spread of the corruption; anything dead will stay dead, but less extensive effects will reverse, leaving only inky black scars. Claire Cooper, for instance, will miscarry her mysterious pregnancy and start to recover. The spell-casting cultists will also lose the ability to perform their magic.
If the investigators choose to use explosives (obtained from the IRA in Chapter Three or elsewhere) to physically destroy the island, it will collapse on itself (it is, after all, hollow), and the spires on the perimeter will fall inward. Eventually, the island will flood with seawater, sinking it beneath the ocean.
Obviously, if the investigators complete the ritual but do not blow up the island, the magical effects of the well will reverse but the island will still stand. If they destroy the island without performing the spell, anyone corrupted by the dark water will remain so and any remaining samples will still be effective; spellcasters will be able to cast spells normally. Without the source, however, the cult’s plans to end the world will be significantly hindered, and it will take them some time to recover.
Epilogue
The investigators must now escape from the island. If the ritual was completed, the cultists have lost their spellcasting abilities, and the victims are free of the effects of the dark water; a few cultists may still have the will to pursue the investigators, provided the island is not currently collapsing underneath them. Investigators will need to make their way to the boat as quickly as possible, making STR checks to climb or swim, DEX checks to avoid collapsing ground and falling rubble, or relevant skills as needed. Attempting to carry a rescued cult victim will make checks harder. Once the investigators make it to the boat, they are more or less free to leave, though a cultist may try to swim after them and board the boat. They can then leave the island behind and take the boat back to Coleraine. From there, they can make their way back to London with no further difficulty.
Surviving investigators will receive letters from Freydis (Handout 4-2), Jasmine (Handout 4-3), Aurelia (Handout 4-4), and/or Cullen (Handout 4-5), provided the NPCs survived, thanking the investigators for their efforts. (The examples provided are tailored toward the original investigators; the Keeper is encouraged to personalize them for their players).
Dear Mr. Cross:
I wanted to extend my sincerest gratitude to you for taking my father’s case well beyond what anyone could have expected of you. I understand that your investigation resulted in quite the adventure. You and your companions went to great risk, and I cannot thank all of you enough. I believe my father’s spirit rests easy now thanks to your efforts.
Enclosed is a cheque for five hundred pounds, which I understand was the amount agreed upon. I wish I could spare more, but my father had spent quite a bit of his savings trying to get a second expedition approved. The rest of his assets, as per his instructions, have been willed to his beloved Oxford.
If you are in need of anything I can provide, don’t hesitate to write, and if you or your friends find yourself in Reykjavik, my home will be open to you.
Most sincerely,
Freydis Emundrsdóttr
(There are two versions of Jasmine’s letter: the first is for if the investigators sealed the well, and the second for if they destroyed the island without performing the ritual.)
Professor:
I understand you and the detectives visited Dr. Ragnarsson’s island. I am glad that it was a marginally better experience for you than it was for us.
The reason I am writing you is in reference to your work on the blight. It seems that many of the conspirators have moved away from Oxmoor, so you should be able to collect samples of blighted crops without interference. I haven’t been back there myself, having been in London until just yesterday, which brings me to my next point: Claire Cooper has apparently suffered a miscarriage. Whatever she was carrying—I thought it best not to ask—is no more. She seems to be taking it rather hard, so I will ask you to please stick to plants and respect her privacy. Malati is staying with her at the hospital in London, and when she recovers they will move out to the new shelter outside of Greenwich. I’ve already moved the other ladies, and they are settling in.
Thank you again for all your efforts. You and your friends saved all our lives. I’m sure Ragnarsson would also be grateful to you in particular, for continuing his work, in a sense. On behalf of all of us (perhaps excluding Claire), thank you.
Best wishes for less dangerous future research,
Jasmine Indrani
Professor:
I understand you and the detectives visited Dr. Ragnarsson’s island. I am glad that it was a marginally better experience for you than it was for us.
The reason I am writing you is in reference to your work on the blight. It seems that many of the conspirators have moved away from Oxmoor, so you should be able to collect samples of blighted crops without interference. I haven’t been back there myself, having been in London until just yesterday, which brings me to my next point: Claire Cooper’s condition is progressing rapidly. Malati has taken her to a hospital in London, where I suppose she will soon deliver whatever it is she’s carrying. For all our sakes, I hope you decide to stick with plants—and respect Claire’s privacy in what is undoubtedly a difficult time. When she recovers, Malati will bring her to the new shelter outside of Greenwich. I’ve already moved the other ladies, and they are settling in.
Thank you again for all your efforts. You and your friends saved all our lives. I’m sure Ragnarsson would also be grateful to you in particular, for continuing his work, in a sense. On behalf of all of us (perhaps excluding Claire), thank you.
Best wishes for less dangerous future research,
Jasmine Indrani
My dearest Eloise,
I am writing to let you know that I am safe and sound at Aunt Eleanor’s house. York is lovely, though it has rained constantly since I arrived. It seems that even our recent adventure has not stopped the progress of planning my debut—Aunt Eleanor has placed me on a rigid schedule of dress fittings and dance lessons, and has designed and discarded three different menus already. She is a holy terror, as you probably remember, but I am trying not to let her spoil the occasion.
There’s been no word yet on when the manor in Oxmoor can be reopened. The town, according to the police, grows emptier and emptier. Pretty soon it will be like a ghost town in one of those books about the Wild West. America really does sound so exciting.
Anyway, I hope that now that the horrible people have moved elsewhere, some nice people will move into the village. It really is a lovely place, especially in the summer. Aunt Eleanor doesn’t want it to look deserted for the party. I tried to tell her that there was really great danger and people almost died, but she still seems to believe that you and I conspired to ruin all her plans.
I miss you terribly, and I miss London, and I wish I could have adventures with you rather than being stuck here. I hope I can visit you soon. In the meantime, I hope you don’t have too much excitement without me!
Thank you, again, for saving my life and helping all of us in Oxmoor. Please extend my thanks to Mr. Cross and the professor and the detective as well. I wish all of you the best.
Yours,
Your loving cousin,
Aurelia
INSPECTOR,
I hear everything’s good and quiet now. You lot do good work. And if it wasn’t for you and your fancy horsemanship, Dublin would probably be flat by now. I hope it stays more or less upright in the coming months.
I suppose what I’m trying to say is thank you. You’ve done me and mine a good turn, and an O’Mara always pays his debts. If our paths cross again, and you need a favor, it’s yours.
Having said that, if you need help kicking the Brits out of your country, please call someone else.
Eske and I are in Scotland for the moment, but we’ll be moving on, in case you were thinking of alerting the authorities. I hope things in London are quiet for you, or at least quieter. Thank you, again, from both of us, and pass on our thanks to your friends.
I really hope this is going to the right address.
For what it’s worth, God keep you.
Cullen O’Mara
Some questions still remain: how did the well reopen after the ritual described in the Westmont text, especially since no one was able to access it without the temple key? How was the cult going to enact their doomsday plan? Is the threat truly defeated now?
Players should narrate the investigators’ attempts to return to normal life. They may have reports to file, case notes to work on, or papers to write. Unbeknownst to the investigators, their actions have caught the attention of mysterious, unknown forces, but that is a story for another time.
Forward to Appendix: NPC Profiles
I hope you’ve had as much fun reading this as I did writing and playing it. If you’re a Keeper of Arcane Lore or other game master, you are free to adapt all or part of this module into your own games, as long as credit is given. The Well Below the Valley and all its components will always be available here for free, but if you’ve enjoyed it and would like to support my work, please consider donating to my Ko-fi.
Space Whales Press 
2 thoughts on “Chapter Four: A Home Without Joy (Part Two)”