Thanks for the update there Natasha..

Things should be catching on fire very soon.

Razor, Sasha... go screw yourselves

XD

You first Koyla!

Uh ok don't mind if I do....

We went back into the cave. We have a good cave map now having explored several times many of the main passages in and around the temple area, although there is plenty of passage unexplored into which the bad guys could escape, but we have a plan regarding that.

Sasha was the first to descend into the pit. Immediately he saw some canine footprints in the mud. The mud is very wet so it does not hold form too well, which destroyed details of the prints (definitely canine though). One thing was certain, however, there were plenty of them. Either they had wandered in from that long cave passage, or they had picked up our scent and were looking for us. Either road, they were no where around at the time we arrived.

All the way from the small crawlway we could hear a waterfall - I could hear futher out. As we approached the temple it became very loud, like a roaring white water river. Of course, the waterfall was slightly less than a meter high. As we approached the underground temple area, we switched off our headlights. The waterfall pretty much killed the sound created by tearing boots out of sucking mud, and we used nightvision goggles with IR illuminators since there is absolutely zero visible light that far into the cave. So long as we did not come across anything sensitive to IR light, we were practically invisible.

As we approached the temple a light was flashing around. Someone was walking around ahead of us, but not coming towards us. He was whistling and mumbling/singing something - no idea what though. He must have entered the cave after we did because aerial surveillance had indicated that the same number of people that had gone in had come out. After a couple of hours of laying on the cold, muddy cave floor the guy left - he seemed to be doing some sort of preparation work (maybe for a ritual or something). We moved in and placed sound-activated recorders. We did our best to position so that the waterfall, still noisy here, would not give us hours of waterfall noises.

We will need to check them regularly. Sasha and I may end up camping out in the cave to make the trip shorter in and out of the temple area. But with those footprints in the best area for camping, we need to find out if it will be a problem. Roma, Lyosha, and Natasha can pack in food and water, and pack out our trash, including pee bottles and aluminum foil in ziplock baggies, if you know what I mean.

With any luck we will have a better idea of what we are dealing with before the big raid in the run up to the lunar eclipse on 3 March after analysing the what the recorders capture. So far, no human sacrifices. We suspect that there will be one on 3 March though.

My muscles are soooooooo sore today.

Sasha says such antiinflammatory pills are "climber's candy". I understand.

Ron Caliburn wrote:Koyla, is there any way to, perhaps, set up some compact cameras and microphones int he cave so you could monitor the goings on without having to get all scraped up?

Recorders work the best, I think; otherwise we need a really long wire or some kind of relay system. That is actually a real concern we have of cave camping - just not knowing what is going on outside.... with such a long walk, news could not be received or delivered fast enough. We tried the latest cave comms technology, but just does not work in this cave. The geology is all wrong.

We can see everyone that goes in the cave. We figure a sacrifice victim would be the unwilling participant. Otherwise, folks just seem to go for worship, relax, drugs, whatever it is they are doing.

Ron Caliburn wrote:Natasha, it's a good thing I knew you were going spelunking or I might have read the start of your post all wrong.

*grin*

Ron Caliburn wrote:Natasha, it's a good thing I knew you were going spelunking or I might have read the start of your post all wrong.

I winked!

Roma, Sasha, and I are going in to check the recorders.

25 individuals entered the cave and emerged about 45 minutes later.

Hopefully the recorders have picked up something.

This could be the big break we wait for...

Not quite, unfortunately.

We swapped out memory cards from the recorders. The transcripts have been translated. Nothing special about the 25 men gathering in the underground temple. They are all in their 40's, neither wealthy nor poor, all local men, most of them with families.

They spoke about the rise of the esteemed one but did not mention any names or descriptions otherwise, and, of course, how was not discussed either. It was basically a get together as a proclamation of faith and congratulate each other that very soon the esteemed one would be rescued from the core of the planet to lead the battle for world domination.

Interestingly, perhaps, is that they seem unaware of the demise of Alibek the summoner, the witch, and the Sowki over in North America. Not being high level guys, they probably never knew about them anyway. They have been put under surveillance nonetheless. Clearly they are anticipating something big, and something big very soon. Perhaps they can lead us to some of the bigger fish.

Hopefully more informative meetings will take place in the run up to the lunar eclipse on 3 March.

Beh

Not forget to mention, too, that some of the conversation was along the same lines of the bas relief sculpture near the entrance of the cave.

yea, that is true.

Unfortunately there is not much in the sculpture that gives any names or processes.

Or have you uncovered anything recently since we last met about it?

Nothing new, no.

Only a few days remain until the lunar eclipse. For all the surveillance and activity, what do we really know?

Nothing.

Although we think that we know when and where.

But these guys must be aware we are watching them. If their operational security is tight, then we might be completely wrong.

A process has been put into motion. That will fix our opponents in time and space, at least momentarily. If we are correct about the time and space, then things should work out alright. If we are incorrect, well, only the devil knows what then.

The die is cast. All we can do now is wait.

Yea, that is a good point.

At this point we do not know what each does or does not know about the other.

Prevention would be considered a victory. From all that we have gathered since this all started, they are planning something with significant implications regarding life on Earth....

This is the one thing I have come to dislike about this job. With supernatural creatures their is a logic to them. It might be twisted as can be, but their are rules and methods they follow. With cultists, they just make no sense.

Well put. Very well put.

That makes me feel better. Seriously, coming from you...

It seems as if this day was never going to come.

We are dropping off line now. The operation is starting...

Good luck guys. Hope to hear form ya soon ya Russian Bear.

Good luck and good hunting.

Yea, looks like we came out alright. Unless we are dead and this is what it feels like