January 31, 1965 - February 5, 1965

Sunday, January 31th, 1965

Sometimes I wonder what I've gotten myself into with the Promethean Foundation and all of these white people. The day started off strange and only got worse as the hours ticked by. Early in the morning, there was an earthquake, but I managed to go back to sleep after it subsided. We received a phone call from Kuranes a few hours later, a phone call from Kuranes. This guy never used the phone and always used magical communication. That was the first tip-off that something odd was afoot. It turned out he was in Bishop, California, and wanted us to come pick him up in a car. I found it strange that he did not simply teleport back, so I decided instead of spending hours in a car to just transport myself to Bishop and find out what was going on.

Kuranes was at a farmhouse having breakfast with a local family. The family members were preparing for church. Kuranes was eating. I was invited to breakfast and accepted, being sure to stash a biscuit for Genda. After we ate, Kuranes and I made our way off the farm and into a copse of trees. I took a few minutes to recuperate my energy then sent Kuranes to the beacon by the pool in the Alden House. I soon followed. We both made it home safely. We inquired with Kuranes what had happened, but he was vague. It seemed that something had gone awry with his induction, but I don't know what happened. Genda informed me, too, that Kuranes had arrived back home with some sort of spiritual companion. I said he always had a spiritual companion - that strange little monster that lurks around invisibly - but Genda indicated it was a different spirit this time, that the other creature was not present with him.

In the late morning we received a phone call from someone affiliated with Anaximander. He had a package for it. Elaine took the call then later took delivery of the package, a book of maps. The book was magical and had powers useful to us, powers that could help us learn about random places that we might end up, and also locate people of interest to us. Anaximander did assure us, however, that it could not be used to find him. That's not surprising, especially seeing as how he likes to hide out in magically void spaces. Right around the time the book arrived, we had a meeting in the library. Kuranes confessed to us, upon some prompting from Genda, that, in fact, Kuranes was a spirit entity that had somehow merged with Chet. Chet and Kuranes were, in fact, two entities all along, two minds, but they had somehow been separated during his induction ceremony (or so I speculate). It makes sense now that Kuranes's mind and magical abilities always seemed so fast; he was two people in one! I must admit that now it all seems a little less impressive. The Kuranes spirit is evidently some entity from the Dreamlands, perhaps even the regent of a domain. He claimed to be the creator and ruler of some sort of Cloud City. I didn't exactly follow where.

While this was interesting to learn, what came next was disturbing. Apparently Kuranes, in his time away, had learned that one Xavier Hellestromme had raised an army of demons and had invaded the Dreamlands. We could not guess his precise purpose, but does it matter? A deranged mage and an army of demons anywhere is not a good thing, and if he can use the Dreamlands as a sort of cosmic nexus to reach into other realms - our own included - that just makes matters worse. We decided that we would need to find help dealing with this problem, that we would not be able to deal with him on our own. The others felt that Marjorie and her magical child may be relevant to stopping Hellestromme, but Marjorie has made it clear time and again that she has no interest in Hellestromme, so I don't know if we can rely on her. I know the real answer to the Hellestromme problem, and the answer is Kitab al-Babi. I will need to redouble my efforts in deciphering it.

I took it upon myself to return to the Pasadena Mystery House to speak with the entity there. I wanted to discern if it would have any interest in helping deal with the threat in the Dreamlands or in seizing power from Hellestromme in the Abyss. It gave no response. Whatever its motivations, they are alien to our world and perhaps even to our entire understanding of everything. For all I know, the Abyss and Dreamlands are meaningless to it. It was a longshot, but one I thought worth pursuing.

Shortly after our meeting in the library, Kuranes and/or Chet invited Gardner Graves over to the house, unbeknownst to the rest of us. Mr. Graves arrived while I was preparing lunch. I made us a small feast of Indian and Chinese food. I never knew it before, but bhindi and chow mein are not bad together. And, of course, samosas are good with anything!

Mr. Graves joined us for lunch. He was quite guarded, and seemed a bit paranoid. He took to drinking a fair amount during his visit. He would not offer up much information about what had happened to Kuranes or who he was working with in the Choronzon Club or anything else, except that he was apparently ousted from the Choronzons. He was similarly unhelpful about giving us information we could use about the Red Hand. It's quite possible he actually knows who their leader is, a potential weak point. He indicated he was going to find a different residence. It sounded like he had intentions of going underground, laying low.

See Also

Diary of Lisa Chan

Lisa Chan

New Prometheans Campaign Log