Part Seventeen

*A terrible fall, a hunter's prey, a merciful way...*

### Content Warnings

Vomit, assault by monster, blood, stoning, setting shoulders into place, corpses, immolation, claustrophobia, noises of injury/pain, discussion of child death, animal death (monster).

## Summary

After falling into the chasm under the mountain, John and Arthur are trapped with a highly intelligent and dangerous creature. They discover that one of the books they carry is a Bestiary, though it doesn’t offer much information on this monster. After a tense game of cat and mouse, John and Arthur manage to kill it by setting it on fire and dropping a rock on its head. They’re able to escape the creature’s lair by climbing a chute into another open cavern.

## Synopsis

The creature moves closer. John and Arthur put out their light and try to hide. Finding it difficult to maneuver in the dark, they briefly use the lighter to find their way. They find their bag, and John confirms that nothing is missing. They reach the closest wall, and John tells Arthur to follow it to the left. Arthur struggles with his injured leg.

The creature uses braziers to light up the cavern. With his leg injured, Arthur decides to hide instead of run, and uses one of the piles of vomit as cover. The creature moves closer and begins speaking in a heavily distorted voice that only John can understand. The creature asks where they are, and that it can smell Arthur’s fear, and that it can sense their thoughts. The creature finds them and knocks Arthur across the room. In the light, John can see it: a monster sixteen feet tall, walking on two legs, with sharp talons on its feet and greasy black fur covering its body. Arthur runs to a crack in the wall just large enough for him to fit through.

The crack is a dead end, but the creature can’t reach them. Arthur asks John what he knows about the creature, since he’s able to understand it. John says he doesn’t remember anything about it, frustrating Arthur. John notes that the creature has “intelligence unbefitting of its monstrous form.”

Arthur digs a book out of his bag: the one with the same symbol as the book John came from (found on the lighthouse island). John notices there are other symbols in addition to Shub-Niggurath's that he doesn’t recognize. Arthur starts flipping through pages, and they realize it’s a bestiary. They find a short entry on the creature: it resides in the Underworld, and is superstitious of ghouls. Some say it is "cursed by the Great Ones."

John and Arthur argue about whether they should try to climb further up the wall or try to learn more from the Bestiary. Arthur is convinced they can find answers that can help, but John chides him for treating it like an investigation. While they argue, the creature finds the hole in the wall above them, and hits Arthur with a rock, injuring his arm.

They run and make it to a hallway off of the main chasm. They move further into the darkness, passing what looks like a chute in the floor, covered in blood. The creature approaches, and Arthur hides in a pool of water to disguise himself. John points out the chute they passed, and thinks that something might be feeding the creature. Looking closer at Arthur’s arm reveals that it’s dislocated, and he uses the cave wall to painfully set it back in place.

Arthur tries to climb the chute, but sets off an alarm. He manages to climb part of the cave wall to escape the creature, and they end up on an upper level. John feels like the creature is hunting them for pleasure, which reminds Arthur of the Minotaur from Greek mythology. He tells John the story, and John says they need to kill the creature in order to escape. Arthur agrees.

Arthur makes it back above the pool of water. They plan to lure the creature to the pool by lighting it on fire with their flask of alcohol and bits of paper (like a Molotov cocktail), and then pushing a large rock onto it. While they wait for the creature to reappear, Arthur tells John what happened to Faroe.

Arthur hired a caretaker named Tess to help care of Faroe after Bella’s death. One night, Tess had to leave early, but she started a bath for Faroe and reminded Arthur to check on her in a few minutes. When Tess left, Arthur went back to work composing music, and Faroe drowned. Arthur tells John he doesn’t deserve his belief, because he failed. John says he won’t let Arthur fail again.

The creature approaches. Arthur throws the flask, and it catches the creature on fire. It runs into the water and they push the rock onto it as planned. While running for the chute, Arthur slips and falls into the water. In the pool they see the creature’s skull cracked open. They escape up the chute into a large cavern covered in glowing moss, which appears to be a trap the creature used to catch its prey.

## Votes

* Chapter 81: Run [6] / **Hide [18]**
* Chapter 82: Climb Up [5] / **Read More From The Book [16]**
* Chapter 83: **Try the Chute [19]** / Continue searching the area quietly [3]
* Chapter 84: **Attempt To Drop A Rock On The Creature [18]** / Attempt To Push The Beast Off The Plateau [4]
* Chapter 85: no vote

## Additional Notes

* Though it is highly distorted, the language the creature speaks is Samoan.
* This episode is the first time John and Arthur open the second book they obtained from the caves below The Island in Part Eight.
* In Part Thirty Six, Arthur calls this creature a Gug.