IC: Prologue

[Charles Graves]

"Good afternoon Mr McTighe, thank you for agreeing to see us."

Graves engages in light conversation with the man for a few minutes in order to put him at ease before broaching the main topic.

"As you know we are about to embark on an expedition to the same region that you explored. We were hoping you could shed some light as to what happened while you were there as all the reports seem sketchy and in many instances contradictory."

[Raiko]

Kingsport Head Wireless Station – Kingsport, Massachusetts
01:30pm – 29th August 1933

McTighe’s smile fades, “You know, I had a feeling you were going to ask about that.”

He looks grim, “I’d hoped to put all that behind me....but I knew when the new Expedition was formed that you’d find me here. Oh well, I’ll tell you what I remember.”

“As you probably know, I was the main radio operator for the Miskatonic Expedition, I relayed back news of the expedition to this Wireless Station, via a relay on The Arkham, one of our ships….”

McTighe describes in detail the early part of the Miskatonic Expedition, eventually coming on to details of the messages transmitted by Lake from the mountain camp, "Professor Lake….all of us….we were so excited. You should have heard Lake, talking so fast, I could hardly keep up. Those things he found - like weird kelp, or big starfish - millions of years old, and he wanted to take them apart to see what was inside. He went on, and on, wilder and wilder. You should have heard the things he said! Crazy stuff. Most of it made no sense. I think, by the end, they were all going mad.”

“Then on the 24th, nothing – just static. At first we thought that the storm had damaged their transmission equipment, but as the hours wore on, we became more and more concerned. Dyer asked for the spare Dornier to be sent from the McMurdo base – it was a terrible wait though, we were frantic, and because of the storm it was the 25th by the time we eventually departed for Lake’s Camp.”

“I took the controls for that flight, traveling for hours across the trackless ice fields. We traveled in silence mostly, not knowing what we would find at the camp, praying that they were all ok, but I don’t think that any of us will forget those mountains.”

“The mountains of madness. That's what Dyer called them. I guess they call them the Miskatoriic Mountains now. Incredible things - God in Heaven! Like hallucinations - they reached up so high, impossible peaks and spires. And evil. They looked evil.”

“I think they were.”

Looking into McTighe's eyes, the three investigators can see that he is back there now in his mind's eye, high above the ice, searching for Lake's campsite....

[Decrepit]

Jack looks on, wondering whether to let the man continue or interject something. Finally deciding that McTighe might take a very long time to wander back to them, Jack says quietly, "Mr. McTighe, what happened there was a tragedy, surely. But, with all due respect, 'evil'? From what I've gathered reading Dyer's report, what happened was mostly ... what, overwork? Bad weather? Maybe a student snapping?

"Terrible things, surely, but none of this can mean anything for our expedition, can it? 'Acts of God' and all?"

[Raiko]

McTighe hesitates for a moment before answering, “Yes you’re right just a storm a terrible storm, but such tragedy – and we never did find Gedney’s body.”

The haunted look returns to his eyes as he continues, “But I tell you those mountains are evil, there’s something wrong about them.”

“Dyer and Danforth went alone into the mountains, while the rest of us worked on repairing the least damaged of the planes. When they came back down, Christ you should have seen Danforth. I even felt sorry for him, not that I ever liked him much, the snotty bastard. But - God! How he cried! Screams and moans, and curses in weird languages....We had to tie him down, all the way back though the pack ice. I thought the crew would murder him so they could get some sleep.”

“Mountains of Madness. Yeah – and they got one victim good, at least. You heard they put him in a rest home. He needed a lot of rest.”

“Dyer never spoke about what they saw up there beyond the Mountains of Madness, just what he wrote in his report, but something happened. You may think me a superstitious fool, but I’ll never, ever return to that continent.”

[Decrepit]

Almost to himself, Jack murmurs, "Looks like Dyer might agree with you, based on his row with Moore over the new expedition."

[Steerpike]

Mcraven shrugs at James as he makes his way through the press pack.

"It may seem like a bust, but it's pretty clear this guy was on the boil for sometime. He got the gun legal and sat about waiting for it. This is not a guy who went off the rails overnight. Something scared this guy, enough he wanted to gun Starweather and Moore."

[Ghost_1971]

"Maybe later on tonight James. I've got one or two things that I want to do first, so I'll catch up with you both later on."

"Bye Bye for now." Callum heads off towards his room.

[Raiko]

Hearing Jack’s whispered words McTighe nods, “Yeah William, Dyer that is, has been strongly opposed to further expeditions to the area. So would you be if you’d seen the state of the Lake Camp.”

“Even where we were the winds coming down off those cursed mountains were absolutely incredible that night, we feared for our own safety. I mean it was worse than any storm I’ve ever experienced, and we knew it would be much, much worse for Lake’s team right at the bottom of the mountains. When we eventually arrived at Lake’s camp the carnage was horrific….”

“They’d used ice banks to protect their tents from the winds, as well as the dogs and the four Dorniers, but it hadn’t been any use. Some of the tents were completely flattened by the wind, two of the aircraft shelters had caved in, and the dog shelter had collapsed.”

“The bodies of Lake’s team were too badly damaged by the abrasive ice and wind to fetch back, we buried them there, and the two Dorniers who’s shelters had collapsed were beyond repair: one had been blown over onto it’s side, and every exposed surface had been stripped down to bare metal.”

“Many of the things that Lake had recovered from the cave had just blown away, together with other stuff, and poor Gedney of course. We circled the area searching for him before we departed, but we didn’t find any trace. We never found any of the undamaged fossils of the “Barrel Bodied” creatures that Lake recounted either – the ones we did find weren’t in good enough condition to transport anyway.”

“And all the time we were there, those terrible evil mountains loomed over us, waiting to wipe us out just like Lake and all the rest of them. No if you want my advice, go back to your normal lives while you still have them. Nothing good will come from this trust me. Those mountains aren’t meant for mankind, they’ll take you just like they took Lake and Gedney and the rest.”

“Now if you don’t mind I have work to do.”