WilloftheWest

In the fourth chapter, Carter traverses the abyss and the deep Dreamlands, employing the aid of unlikely allies to reach the surface once again.

The Night-gaunts fly on silent wings, bearing Carter past the famous underground peak of Thok and depositing him on a pile of bones and returning from whence they came. Carter recalls the stories of bholes (later renamed by Lovecraft to dholes), gigantic and hitherto unseen worms that feast on the mountains of bones that fall down into the abyss. Carter, once again demonstrating great knowledge of the Dreamlands and its inhabitants, knows that the ghouls of the waking world know of passages to the Dreamlands, and that they use a hole into the abyss as a refuse dump for their gnawed bones.

Being a friend of the now missing artist and ghoul-friend, Richard Upton Pickman, Carter seeks out the shower of bones and calls out using his limited knowledge of the gibbering ghoul language. He is rescued from the abyss by a rope ladder and not a moment too soon, as a bhole emerges and almost takes him.

Carter is surprised to hear that his disappeared friend Pickman has transitioned to the life of a ghoul and now resides in the lower Dreamlands. Carter is led to his old friend who knows of multiple ways to access the upper Dreamlands. His two recommendations are to climb through ghoul tunnels back to the waking world and once again descend the steps of slumber, or to journey underground to Sarkomand under the dream-plateau of Leng, where he can emerge into the upper dreamlands. There is a third, far more dangerous option of sneaking past the 6m tall carnivorous giants called the gugs, and leveraging open a cursed trapdoor to escape into the Enchanted Woods.

Naturally Carter chooses the latter: he dare not wake and possibly forget the information gathered through his dream, and he is too unfamiliar with Leng and the underground passages to dare the journey. Pickman relents and sents Carter, disguised as a ghoul, with an escort of 3 ghouls and a tombstone to act as a lever for the giant trapdoor.

The group reaches the cyclopean city of Gugs and spies the tower to the surface, marked as Koth. The journey isn't smooth sailing; though the ghouls waited until the gugs are fast asleep, another danger lurks. The gugs hunt the kangaroo-like ghasts of the Vaults of Zin (the land down under in the Dreamlands down under), and when the gugs take their hour of sleep each day, the ghasts take their revenge. Fifteen ghasts pass a sleeping gug sentry into the city of gugs to enact their revenge. The sentry awakens and begins to fight the invaders. The gug is eventually overpowered and dragged back down into the vaults. During this fracas, the group of ghouls run for the tower. scrambling slowly up the metre-high stairs, they note the coughing bark of a ghast above. They lie in wait and cave in the creature with a mighty blow of their tombstone. They journey onwards.

Reaching the cursed trapdoor, the group struggles to force it open and place the tombstone lever in the crack. They hear the disturbance of the ghast corpse far below and worry that the gugs have awoken and are coming to investigate. In desparation, they manage to finally fit the lever under the door and all escape just as the gugs are approaching. Now trapped in the upper Dreamlands, Carter informs the ghouls to head for Dylath-Leen, where they can find a merchant ship bound for Leng, so that they can re-enter the abyss through Sarkomand.

Another short chapter with few references. The one major reference is to a non-Dream Cycle story, Pickman's Model. The story Pickman's Model concerns an artist who, in a secret studio, keeps a ghoul specimen as a muse for his more disturbing works of art. years later we see the return of Richard Upton Pickman, now a renowned member of the ghoul community.

What is interesting to me is the establishing of some new lore of the Dreamlands. Under the Dreamlands is a large connected abyss. The most famous part of this abyss seems to be the Plains of Pnath, where Carter is deposited by the Night-gaunts. These plains are home to the peaks of Thok and the never-seen colossal beast, the bhole (dhole).

The third "chapter" concerns Randolph Carter travelling to the land of Oriab, scaling Ngranek to witness the sculpture of the god, and his capture by Night-gaunts.

Carter is transported back to Dylath-Leen by the cats, where he warns any who will listen of the slavers from the moon. when a ship bound for Oriab arrives, he discusses with the captain, who says that many tall tales abound of the god face and that he is not certain if any living person has seen it.

They travel by sea and canal to the port city of Baharna, on the short of the great lake Yath. There Carter finds in a tavern a supposed carving of the god face, many generations old. He doubts the veracity of the carving and sets off, despite more warnings of doom.

He travels to the far end of the lake via zebra and camps in forgotten ruins, despite warnings not to camp there. In the night he believes he is disturbed by some winged insect. He wakes up to find his zebra completely drained of blood and many shiny trinkets missing. He carries on and meets lava gatherers, who harvest lava from the now dormant volcano that is Ngranek. They had a member of their group kidnapped by night-gaunts and are heading home. Randolph mentions his interaction and they seem uneasy, saying that it was not night-gaunts. They warn him against travelling further but he ignores them and trades for another zebra.

He travels for several days and then begins scaling Ngranek. He notes the precipitous drop and the thinness of the air, which he blames for the lava gatherers' "fantasies" of night-gaunts. He climbs higher and higher, reaching the dangerous face which looks out onto fields of lava and untamed deserts. Eventually he spots the colossal, polished carven face of a god, blazing in the red light of the sunset. Carter is simultaneously awe-struck and relieved. He does not need to search the entire Dreamlands for people that look like this carven face. Travellers matching this description often travel from the north to the city of Celephaïs.

In this moment of revelation, he feels his scimitar being snatched from him, and is dragged from the cliff by silent wings into a cave in the side of Ngranek. Carter has been caught by the night-gaunts.

A short chapter with not that much to delve into. Though morbid curiosity is a common trope of Lovecraft's characters, I can't help but be a bit annoyed of Carter constantly coming across obstacles and somehow being convinced to delve deeper as a result. Certainly makes for a good RPG character but maybe not an actual person. I struggle to find many references apart from the mention of Zar and the Southern Sea which links again to The White Ship. I'm very excited to see what becomes of Carter in the hands of the Night-gaunts.

The second "chapter" concerns the voyage of Randolph Carter aboard the slavers' ship and his eventual rescue from his captors.

Carter regains consciousness on the foul smelling slaver ship, and notes that he must be on the Southern Sea, travelling at terrible speed. As he watches the islands race by, he marks that they are following the path travelled by in olden times by an old lighthouse keeper of Kingsport. He then comes to a stark realisation of his intended fate at the hands of these slavers. Evidently, the slavers are in league with the Other Gods, who protect the relatively weak gods of Earth. Carter concludes that the final destination of the ship is the colossal cataract that swallows the waters of the Dreamlands. From there, they will descend into the void that is the dominion of the blind idiot Other Gods and their sultan Azathoth. Being too close to humans, Carter doubts the slavers would survive in the presence of the Other Gods, and so he must be handed off to the soul and messenger of the Other Gods, the crawling chaos Nyarlathotep.

As they reach and plunge into the cataract, Carter is somewhat relieved that the ship has altered its course and is somehow sailing directly towards the moon. Travelling to the dark side of the moon, Carter notes that the slavers appear to be agricultural, growing fields of fungus. In the distance he spies towers and temples of unnerving proportions, and he dares not guess at the creatures for whom these buildings were designed.

As they travel ever onwards on a greasy brown river of the moon, he sees other terrible creatures: blind, pink-tentacled toad creatures, to whom the turbaned near-humans of the ships are slaves. He sees these toad-things embark other slaver ships, with the near-humans embarking to undergo tasks that do not require strength. Evidently, their odd dress disguises these near-humans so that they can trade on the toad-things' behalf in Earth's Dreamlands.

Even more unnerving is the sight of fatter specimens among these near humans being appraised by the toad-things, then packaged into crates and shipped inland. Carter worries for the fate of the slaves bought in the Dreamlands.

After docking at the moon city, Carter is led on a seemingly infinite climb and imprisoned for an indeterminate amount of time; he surmises that the toad-things are making contact with Nyarlathotep in order to make the exchange. Eventually he is summoned and escorted by a procession of ten toad-things and 24 near-human slaves bearing torches.

On their march to his inevitable doom, Carter hears a familiar and comforting sound: the mewing of Earth cats. Knowing a small amount of the tongue of cats, Carter calls for help, but his cries are soon drowned out by the angry yells of a legion of cats. His captors are beset upon from all sides by these cats, and Carter is soon overwhelmed by the waves of cats coming to his rescue.

When Carter regains his senses, he notes that a legion of cats surrounds him in concentric circles while three of their leaders fuss over him. Of his captors the sign is a discarded bone. The leader of the cats remarks that Carter is known as a friend to cats, both in the waking world and the Dreamlands, and thus when they recognised him as the prisoner of the moon-folk, the cats strove to free him.

The cats cannot stay too long on the surface of the moon, for they may soon be set upon by the cats of Saturn, who hold treaties with the moon-folk and are hostile to the cats of Earth. The cats, leading Carter through the void, pounce back down to earth and leave Nyarlathotep foiled atop the moon mountains.

Thus ends what I'd consider the second chapter of this story. In this chapter we find three references to previous Dream Cycle stories: The White Ship, Nyarlathotep, Azathoth, and tangentially The Strange High House in the Mist.

A small detail that is easy to miss is found in the mention of the old lighthouse keeper from the White Ship. Carter notes that Basil Elton is from Kingsport. Readers who are on the ball will recognise this as the town in which The Strange High House in the Mist takes place. I just think it's rather interesting to see the two disconnected threads of previous story snap together through an offhand comment in a third story. From this, we can imagine the treacherous sound near the lighthouse as the precipitous crags described in The Strange High House in the Mist. Given the regular deep mists that encompass even the highest crag, and the haunting sounds that can be mistaken for buoys, the need for such a lighthouse is abundantly clear.

Nyarlathotep is mentioned fairly liberally throughout this chapter, and is often mentioned by the title given to him at the end of his own prose-poem, that of "the soul and messenger of the Outer (or Other) Gods*. Given that the Outer Gods are often described as blind idiots, in calling Nyarlathotep their soul is Lovecraft hinting at some level of control over these gods? being the only known Outer God that's been mentioned as having some measure of intelligence, it would be rather easy for the messenger of the Outer Gods to influence their power to suit his will. While there are certainly gods who can claim a greater measure of power, I doubt it can be argued that any of them claim a similar amount of control than Nyarlathotep.

In this chapter, Azathoth is mentioned for the first time (in the Dream Cycle) as the daemon-sultan of the Outer Gods. Though he is never mentioned in the short story named after him, there is a link to be found here. Azathoth is remarked as dwelling in the void by Carter. In the short story Azathoth, the dreamer observes the cosmos and discovers passages through the void. Could this be another - albeit more dangerous - way of accessing the Dreamlands; through traversing the void and emerging from the cateract described in The White Ship?

While The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath does not come separated into chapters, from reading the story There is a definite structure and tone shift between parts that could easily be separated into chapters. I'll be covering each of these "chapters" in a separate comment chain.

The first "chapter" establishes the quest on which Randolph Carter is to embark, and the hubris of Carter. Carter has received three dreams of a fantastic city, only to wake before he is given a chance to explore. He prays for answers to the gods of dream who reside atop Unknown Kadath, but they do not seem to respond. He makes sacrifices in the cavern-temple holding the Pillar of Flame, which separates the 70 steps of light slumber from the 700 steps of deep slumber leading to the Dreamlands. Of note is that these 770 steps act to expert dreamers as a gateway from the waking world to the dreamlands. After his prayers and sacrifices, he receives no more dreams of the fantastic city. He thus resolves to seek out Unknown Kadath, the final home of Earth's gods, and beseech them in person to reveal this city to him.

Everywhere he goes, he is warned away from his quest by the wiser denizens of the dreamlands. The priests who tend the Pillar of Flame, Nasht and Kamon-Thah, state that the will of the gods has been communicated to Randolph Carter in that he has not received further visions. Indeed, it is unknown whether the gods reside on a peak located in Earth's dreamlands, or in a portion of the Dreamlands far away in the cosmos. Only three have ever dared the journey into the cosmos of the dreamlands, and of those three only Kuranes, king of Celephaïs, has returned at least partially sane.

Ignoring their warning, he descends to the Dreamlands and contacts the Zoogs, rodent creatures of the Enchanted Woods, who Carter notes have previously predated on lost dreamers travelling in those woods. Carter has made friends with these people before and has learned much of the Dreamlands from them. The Zoogs do not know the location of Unknown Kadath, but they escort him to the edge of the woods and towards the town of Ulthar, where a character from a previous story may have more information.

In Ulthar there is is the last extant copy of the Pnakotic Manuscripts, secreted away from the waking world into the Dreamlands before the destruction of Olathoë following the events of the short story Polaris. Another important source of information is the high priest Atal, The only living person known to have survived a journey to contact the gods of Earth. Atal has grown from an acolyte to a high priest over 300 years old, and in this time he has grown very wise. He speaks of his adventure and the loss of his mentor Barzai from the short story The Other Gods. He once again warns Carter against his quest, but Carter continues. Carter betrays the trust of Atal by getting him drunk, so that Atal will speak more freely. Atal drunkenly babbles of the mountain Ngranek in the distant south, where the likeness of the gods is carven into the most treacherous face.

Carter hatches a plan with this information. He will travel to Ngranek and witness the carving. It is known among dreamers that the younger gods enjoy disguising themselves, descending from their home, and mating with the women at the foot of their mountains. Thus, Carter will travel the Dreamlands and inspect the people who live there. Surely, the land where the people most resemble the face on Ngranek must bear the blood of the gods in the highest concentration. It is there that he will find Unknown Kadath.

He ventures to the port city of Dylath-Leen, where he enquires unto passage to Oriab, where the mountain Ngranek lies. While waiting for a boat which offers passage to oriab, a black sailed slaver ship docks in the city. The locals are made uneasy by this ship. the crew appear to dress in pointed turbans and tiny shoes. The rowers of the three banks of oars are never seen despite the long period for which the ship is docked. Ostensibly, no food is taken on board for crew or rowers, but slaves are paid for "by the pound." The slavers trade exclusively in gems, mainly rubies.

A merchant from aboard the slaver ship makes acquaintance with Carter, hinting at secret knowledge that he cannot divulge. Carter attempts the same trick as he performed on Atal, trying to get the merchant drunk. The merchant gulps down the wine, but doesn't appear phased. He then offers Carter a wine on a carved ruby carafe. After just one sip, Carter finds himself losing consciousness as the merchant laughs evilly.

This is what I consider the end of the first chapter of Unkown Kadath. Already it's filled to the brim with references to previous stories, giving much pay-off for our previous reading. Of note are The Cats of Ulthar, The Other Gods, Celephaïs, and Polaris.

We see a similar fate befall the Zoogs as did the cat killers in The Cats of Ulthar; while nothing explicit is mentioned yet, the Zoogs seem to have attempted to prey upon a cat only to have the Cats of Ulthar attack and sate themselves on the bodies of the Zoogs, who are missing when Carter next looks for them.

We know of a relative timeline in stories, as Atal, who was a young acolyte in The Other Gods, is now a high priest of over 300 years. Of course the timeline of the Dreamlands and the timeline of Earth seem mostly disconnected, but it's handy to have an idea of the continuity within dream stories.

We see mention of Kuranes, who Carter remarks as a friend who he knew by a different name on Earth. It makes sense that an avid dreamer such as Carter would seek out other dreamers in the waking world. It's a nice nod to Celephaïs.

Finally, we get some more information about the ancient city of Olathoë, which is the source of the much cited Pnakotic Manuscripts. Evidently the Dreamlands keeps more accurate ancient records (possibly aided by the altered passage of time) and mentions Olathoë as an ancient boreal city in the waking world which was sacked by an invading group called the Gnopkehs. A lot of authors around this time were inspired by the alternate history of Hyperborea. Robert E. Howard, who was a contemporary and friend of Lovecraft, is probably the best known fantasy writer of that period, writing his Conan stories in an alternate history of Earth called the Hyperborean Age.

In Carter we see a common theme repeated over and over in these dream tales: hubris. Our protagonists are often driven by a sense of morbid curiosity, or even defiance against the warnings of others. They seek these dangerous sights in some way to prove themselves some manner of master. As in earlier stories, we see Carter suffer for his hubris when he is captured by these slavers. Where will our story take us next?

Turns put I’m a bit basic with my choice of Dragonborn Paladin (Oathbreaker Dark Urge). I’m a sucker for charisma classes that can hit like a truck.

I’m hoping for some unique interactions as a tiefling next time around.

This came up during the Lovecraft book club. The Nameless City is a great short story inspired by the city of pillars, and a great adventure hook. A mystery of an ancient sand buried city and what seems to be a cult dedicated to lizards

Quadrupedal tarrasque looks so coo...

Wait, what the hell is going on at the back?

You must be mistaken. I'm the one you originally replied to and I made no speculation. I said that the video isn't an act (it demonstrably isn't, having watched his channel for years), and that some people are better suited as friends than as romantic partners. In relationships that don't involve abuse or infidelity, it's common for former partners to be civil or even friendly to one another.

You know nothing about his relationship with alcohol, other than the fact that he has a Youtube channel where he reviews whisky. Having a collection of whisky is not evidence of substance abuse, just as me having a thousand books doesn't mean I have an unhealthy relationship with books.

None of this is making me uncomfortable. I have grandparents and parents who married young, grew up to have different priorities in life, and remained good friends afterwards. I've just got back from my baby brother's wedding where they all had an amazing time sharing a villa and having a party. I'm a happier, more mature person from having witnessed amicable breakups where people remain good friends afterwards.

You're the one who seems personally affected by someone eight years ago reviewing whisky and breaking up with their wife. The moment you see an ostensibly healthy continuing relationship, your first thought is abuse. That's on you. You may need to reflect on why that's your kneejerk reaction.

The Strange High House in the Mist seems to me like a second, more mature stab at The Other Gods which we saw in a previous week. Indeed, The Other Gods gets a nod in this tale as Hatheg-Kla is namedropped and the return of the gods from Unknown Kadath is speculated upon. We're in for a real treat with this week's reading, where we see a pay off to these mentions of earthly gods and Unknown Kadath.

There is a particularly tall crag over the fictional Lovecraftian city of Kingsport, which bears a stout grey cottage at its peak. The citizens of Kingsport share rumours about this cottage, for they believe that inhabitant of the cottage engages in strange communications when the morning mists of the sea bathe the peak.

One day a philosopher comes to town. He is weary of the same old sights, and wishes to experience something novel. Thus he attempts the dangerous climb to the cottage. He eventually makes the climb, helped over the threshold by the inhabitant of the cottage, and sits in wait of the mists. The philosopher August Orley and the man in the cottage speak of ancient times, of Atlantis and the reign of the Titans. The man grows timid when talking of the first age of chaos, when only the other gods came to dance on Hatheg-Kla.

Immediately after this topic of conversation, there comes a knocking at the door, and Orley and the cottager sit still and in silence as a dark figure inspects around the cottage and then leaves. Shortly thereafter, there is another knocking at the door and the man in the cottage changes in his disposition. He immediately opens the door, revealing pagan gods of old. Up from the abyss has come the Greek god Poseidon and the Celtic god Nodens to bear the two men on a journey.

The next morning Orley returns to Kingsport, ostensibly now content with his boring life. The Terrible Old Man (the namesake of another tale not in the Dream Cycle) hints that Orley left a portion of his spirit on the crag, that part which seeks adventure. The people of Kingsport note that on the next night, the light of the cottage seems just a little brighter.

Before long, many of the youths of Kingsport make the dangerous journey to the peaks. They inevitably return to the town the next morning, changed in the same fashion as Orley. At night, the light in the cottage grows ever brighter, the sounds of revelry grow louder, and the mists bear the sounds of bells not solely attributable to the buoys. Learned folk worry that the increased jollity on the crag may tempt the gods from Unknown Kadath.

It's easy to see plenty of parallels between this tale and The Other Gods. A learned man, in search of new thrills, climbs a perilous peak into deep mists. There he meets with the images of gods, and forever loses a part of himself on top of the peak.

As I said at the start, I see this as a more mature go at the story of The Other Gods. Personally, I prefer the idea of the philosopher returning from the peak forever changed in some fundamental way. It's a more intriguing form of horror than forever disappearing into the mists.

I'm interested in the identity of the dark entity that tries the door before the gods of Earth. I think it's uncontroversial to guess that it's one of these "other gods" which seem to protect the gods of Earth from unwanted visitors. Having read the cycle before, I believe the most likely culprit is Nyarlathotep, who seems to take a more active role in the affairs of humans and earthly gods throughout the Dream Cycle.

The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath pieces together a lot of disconnected pieces from the stories that preceded. They've all been covered in this book club. I wouldn't say that any of them are required to appreciate the story. If you want to read it with the context we have from the book club, the 3 main stories are The Cats of Ulthar (3 pages), Celephaïs (5 pages), and The Other Gods (4 pages). The rest of the tales have some manner of nod in the story. While not in the Dream Cycle, Pickman's Model (11 pages) gets a nod as one of Carter's friends in the waking world has made a semi-permanent transition into dream.

Welcome to the club. It's unofficial and very loosely run so there aren't really any guidelines. If you can see the older posts on the instance, we set some reading for the week ahead and then discuss them the following week. Admittedly engagement has been a bit sparse.

If you can see them, feel free to jump into any thread and post about the relevant reading. I'd be happy to jump about and respond to you. There's no time limit on joining the discussion.

The Silver Key is our introduction to Randolph Carter, a Rhode Island based amateur novelist and expert dreamer (do we need any more evidence that this is a Lovecraft self-insert?).

Carter is an avid dreamer who finds that, as he reaches his "middle age" (I feel very called out that 30 is middle-aged), he finds it harder and eventually impossible to dream. He finds that he has fallen under the influence of the values of the waking world, who undervalue dreams and overvalue the "real world".

Looking to make the most out of his loss of dreams, Carter invests himself in the philosophies of the modern time, from empiricism employed in the scientific method, to spiritualism and occultism. While he finds scientists to simply be obsessed with a fantasy of their own - speculating on the void between atoms and the dimensions of outer space - he is even less impressed by the spiritualists and occultists whose fantasies he disregards as not even being based upon fact and evidence.

He reads ancient manuscripts and seeks adventure with other thrill-seekers. Here we see mention to another short story, The Statement of Randolph Carter. Eventually he recalls a family heirloom, mentioned by his grandfather. In the attic of the Carter family manor, secreted away in some fearsomely carved dark wooden box, is an ornate silver key, featuring arabesques which our narrator speculates may contain answers to deeper secrets. In a confusing flash of memory, Carter finds himself falling back through time until he finds himself in his ten year old body. He is being called in for it is past his curfew. Reaching for his spyglass to read the nearby clocktower, he finds the silver key in his pocket.

The silver key is an artifact that has belonged to the Carters for centuries. It was last used over 2 centuries ago by a Carter sorcerer who was a master of dream.

The tale ends with a shift in narrative, revealing that another person in the fiction who is dictating to the reader the story of Randolph Carter. This person eagerly awaits Randolph using the key and their eventual meeting.

This is some of my favourite Lovecraft fiction. Time travel is seen in some of his other stories, such as being employed by the Yithians. I love the idea that the Dreamlands, via use of the silver key, can hold the secret to passing between periods in time in the waking world. It hints at an even greater influence and connectivity between the Dreamlands and the Waking World. Are the two spaces in fact merely subspaces of some larger superspace? Through my mathematical eye I view it as some smooth manifold representing all of existence. Within this manifold we have two open subsets, which in fact intersect at many points. These intersections could be physical intersections allowing for travel, or they could be intersections in some time-like dimension that somehow link two times together.