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?

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?

The fifth chapter concerns Randolph Carter making the journey to Celephaïs, asking after the men who bear resemblance to the gods, and setting off on a boat to their lands.

After bidding farewell to the ghouls, Carter wanders through the woods. He hears murmurs of a war between the cats and the zoogs; the latter are enraged by their slaughter by the cats of Ulthar. Understanding the language of both, he finds a group of cats and warns them of the pending attack. Using Carter as a translator, the cats broker a peace deal with the zoogs. His job in the Enchanted Wood done, Carter sets off towards Celephaïs.

On his travels, he discovers that the god-like men come from the cold land of Inganok, where no cat dare tread. The men of Inganok trade in onyx, which they mine and use as a building material. It is revealed that their land neighbours Leng, which is separated from them by an impassible mountain range. Prying further, Carter finds that a stony desert lies between Inganok and the mountain range, a desert so unsettling that even the men of Inganok no longer travel in it despite its rich onyx deposits.

Finally reaching Celephaïs, Carter visits his old friend Kuranes who has lived for many years after his physical death. He has become bored of Dream and models parts of Celephaïs after his earthly homelands in the West Country of South England. After revealing his plan to climb Kadath and entreat the gods, Kuranes follows suit with almost everyone else who has spoken to Carter, and advises against his continued journey. Ignoring the wise king’s advice, Carter finds a ship of the men of Inganok and sets sail towards their homeland.

Lovecraft was really having fun with this short story. On a simple quest to find a particular mountain range, our hero has been kidnapped by slavers from the moon, been rescued from moon-toads my cats who can jump to the moon, climbed a dangerous mountain to bear witness to a colossal carving of a god, been kidnapped by night-gaunts, traversed the abyss, snook through a city of ghast-eating giants to regain the surface, and brokered a peace between the cats of earth and dream and the carnivorous zoogs. While there are definitely horrific undertones such as the seeming ever-looming presence of Nyarlathotep, this is definitely more of a tale of classic fantasy than a tale of horror.

I was interested to see how Kuranes had developed over his long years in Dream. I was especially interested in the fact that he had grown weary of near godly power over the city of Celephaïs, and that he is embarking on long journeys to sate his wanderlust.

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).

In the eighth and final chapter of the story, Randolph Carter reaches the end of his quest and the end of his dream.

Carter and his host of ghouls and night-gaunts fly through the night, through darkness and foul winds, with such speed that Carter marvels that they are still within Earth’s Dreamlands. As they reach more dizzying heights, Carter sees the three peaks of the quarry stretching out before him and only now realises that they are former mountains, carved in the shape of godly sentinels.

Carter and the ghouls are spooked by some colossal flying creature keeping pace with them. Carter imagines a shantak of epic proportions, but the flying creature appears more like an infinitely magnified head than a bird. As the group clears a mountain range, Carter is driven to madness but utters no scream. The “flying creature” is in fact only the double hyena head of some silently lumbering titan who is following them. Carter looks back to see that the three mountain sculptures have also animated and are silently creeping after the group.

In the endless void, the constellations, while unchanged, begin to reveal their true hidden meaning and geometry to Carter. Carter comes to realise that there is a hidden pattern in the stars which points ever forward to true north. Carter eventually notices that the night-gaunts no longer flap, and that they are borne ever onward on some violent gust.

Pickman utters a command and the night-gaunts rapidly gain height and speed, leaving the mountain sentinels behind. They travel at such hurtling speeds that Carter believes they must have crossed into some new realm of the dreamlands. Suddenly, he sees the peak of Kadath, a mountain for which the impassible range between Leng and Inganok are merely foothills.

Atop the peak is a gargantuan castle, a structure for which the colossal carved onyx from Inganok form building bricks. The host of night-gaunts and ghouls effortly glide abreast through the one lit window. Once inside, Carter struggles to see the boundaries of grand chamber. The winds abruptly cease and the party are deposited on the floor of the chamber. The castle appears otherwise empty.

The group are greeted by a dreadful trumpeting. At the end of this haunting note, Carter realises that his entire retinue has dissolved into thin air and he is alone. A horde of slaves, with chimera-headed wands in one hand and silver trumpets in the other, form a line and play a fanfare announcing a man, the ideal image of a pharaoh.

The pharaoh greets Carter amicably and introduces himself as Nyarlathotep. He apologises for Carter’s trouble at the hands of his minions and explains that, if he had not been busy elsewhere, he would have personally escorted Carter to Kadath. The gods of Earth have abandoned their castle atop Kadath and declared that the fantastic city of Carter’s dreams shall be their final home.

Lovecraft then, through a monologue of Nyarlathotep, writes a love letter to New England. Nyarlathotep explains that the wondrous city of Carter’s dreams is simply a congeries of all the wonders of New England witnessed through the eyes of an infant Carter. Carter’s prayers alerted the gods to its existence, and they were so enamoured that they’ve abandoned their godly duties.

Nyarlathotep pleads for Carter to travel to the city of his dreams in order to persuade the earthly gods to return to Kadath; his reward for this task will be to keep the dream city for his own. He produces a shantak and describes the journey, warning Carter to steer away from the haunting music of the Outer Gods.

Of course, this was all a ruse by Nyarlathotep, who knows that Carter and the shantak will be hypnotised by the music and urged to travel on to Azathoth and inevitable madness. The instructions on how to escape this fate were simply given to torment the helpless Carter.

While travelling to his waiting doom, Carter remembers that he is in fact dreaming. Through a feat of mental strength, he wills himself to jump from the back of the shantak and plummet into the void.

Carter plummets for unknown aeons, witnessing the birth and death of galaxies. He witnesses the new beginning of a new kalpa (Hindu word for a cycle of time. Carter sees the recreation of the universe itself). He continues to plummet as light and darkness are remade. galaxies form and he continues to plummet towards a familiar planet. As he enters Earth’s atmosphere, Nyarlathotep races in chase. Just before he can regain Carter, Nodens emits a triumphant noise that allows Carter to escape.

Carter wakes in his familiar bed in Massachusetts and startles awake his black cat. In unknown Kadath, a brooding and foiled Nyarlathotep tortures the gods of earth for catharsis.

This draws the epic of The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath to a close. This is my third time reading it and I’m also a bit shocked at how it abruptly turns into a love letter for New England. other than that, I believe it’s a fantastic finish.

The imagery in the final chapter plays into a certain fear of mine. Since I was a child, on foggy nights I’ve imagined colossal glowing eyes opening in the mist and staring at me. On car journeys I imagined giants chasing after me, stepping between hills as we would step up onto a curb. The imagery of the walking mountains really chills me.

Onto the references, there is the obvious Azathoth. There is also Polaris. This is a connection that I’ve only made in my latest reading. The dreamer in Polaris is borne away to a new world when he is haunted by the north star shining through his window. From the very first dream story we’ve seen evidence for how the stars bear secret pathways that transport us, willingly or not, into the world of dream. As Carter travels to Kadath, he witnesses new meaning in the constellations. They appear to be actively leading him further north. I interpret this as the same phenomenon seen in Azathoth, where the dreamer found passage to dream by studying the interconnected voyages of the stars.

In chapter 7, Carter escapes dreadful Leng and comes to the aid of friends.

Carter runs madly through the temple, eventually getting turned around and cursing his lack of direction. He wanders by instinct until after a long while he finds himself outside. He sneaks away from Leng towards some ruins. Safely inside the ruins, he finds twin statues of colossal diorite lions. He recalls mention of these lions as the entry to the abyss via Sarkomand. He wanders but a bit further and hears pained gibbering.

Carter seeks out the source of the gibbering and finds, to his horror, the three ghouls that aided his escape from the abyss, now tortured by the toad-beings from the moon. In a moment of genius, he recalls a password given to him by Pickman. This password allows ghouls to safely travel into and out of the abyss without harassment from night-gaunts.

Carter rushes back to Sarkomand and delves deep, until he feels the familiar tickling sensation of probing night-gaunts. He utters the password and explains his plight. The night-gaunts descend into the abyss and return with an army of ghouls. Carter leads the ghouls in a charge and rescues the three captives from the moon-beasts.

The three captive ghouls describe their journey to Dylath-Leen and their capture. The ghouls caught the attention of a moon slaver crew when they asked about passage to Sarkomand. Ever protective of Leng, one of the slavers pulled the same trick of getting the ghouls drunk on ridiculously strong moon wine. The ghouls were then transported to Leng and tortured for play by the moon-beasts.

The now defeated beasts left their ship behind. Carter and leaders of the ghoul clans discuss a plan to sail to the haunted island and forcefully shut down the operations of the moon-beasts. An epic battle ensues, involving night-gaunts dropping beasts from great heights, and the ghouls defending the captured island from a two-pronged counter assault. The ghouls loot the island for moon alcohol which they can use for trade. Realising that rubies are inedible, they leave the hoard alone. Carter, aware of the origins of the rubies, does not grab any.

Carter, who led a naval counter-offensive during the final great battle of the island, is lauded as a hero by the ghouls and their allied night-gaunts. Carter then sees an opportunity to leverage passage to Kadath. He explains the fear of the gods and shantaks for night-gaunts, and requests a modest reward for his bravery. Carter asks for a few night-gaunts to transport him to Kadath and protect him from assailants. If the ghouls could spare a few of their own, he would also like a retinue.

The ghouls, fearing not what lies atop Kadath, instead over-deliver. The entire ghoul and night-gaunt host will accompany Carter to Kadath, and a company of ghouls shall be his honour guard.

I was surprised that the ghouls were not aware of the night-gaunts’ allegiance to Nodens, lord of the abyss. Apparently, everyone except the people of Leng seem to associate them with Nyarlathotep. given their allegiance to the night-gaunts, doesn’t it make sense that the ghouls would know of their loyalty to Nodens?

Here we see the foolhardiness of Carter finally paying off. He didn’t rescue the ghouls with an idea to bargain for passage to Kadath. He engaged in the (apparently foolish) task of communicating with the night-gaunts, which really could have ended poorly for him. He then led several assaults and was pivotal in the capture of the island of the moon-beasts.

One thing that I don’t mention in the plot synopsis is a brass door on the island. It is mentioned almost off-handedly. While the conquerors loot the island, Carter sees a brass door. He has a supernatural aversion to the door and so does not peek behind it. Given what he’s witnessed so far on his quest, what could be so disturbing that he dare not bear witness to it?

In chapter 6, Carter ventures to Inganok and the cold desert beyond. There he meets a familiar face and surely his certain doom.

The voyage to Inganok is mostly uneventful. The one event of note is when Carter points out a craggy island and asks of it. The captain says that they have no name for it and do not venture towards it, for strange sounds come from that island at night. They later dock in the amazing carved onyx town of Inganok, where reverence to the old gods and old customs are observed. The town is seemingly filled with carvings similar to that on the mountain Ngranek, though far less impressive.

In town, Carter acts as an onyx miner and asks after quarries. The locals warn of a strange quarry that none venture to, for it was seemingly mined by a strange hand. Carter notes that Kadath is fabled to be made of onyx. While in Inganok he notes a familiar face: a particular merchant he met in Dylath-Leen, who is known to trade with the people of Leng. He trades giant shantak eggs for onyx.

Soon Carter departs for the desert and the giant quarry. He comes to a smaller quarry, where the miners warn him of not venturing further. He ignores them and carries on. Looking back, he is perturbed to see the familiar merchant arriving at the quarry. He ventures ever onward with his hired yak until he reaches the fabled quarry. He is astonished to witness the sheer scale of the quarry. Clearly giants have mined at this quarry. His yak is spooked and runs away. Carter gives chase.

Carter soon realises that the sounds of yak hooves he believed he was chasing are actually coming from behind. He runs on frantically, not wishing to confirm his fears by looking back. Eventually he is struck by a horrific realisation. He is trapped by three colossal carved mountains in the distance. Flying to meet him are elephant sized reptilian Shantak birds. Certain of his doom, he turns to face his pursuer and sees the familiar merchant, atop a yak mount and herding a flock of giant shantaks. The merchant dismounts and forces Carter to mount a shantak. He also mounts and they fly out of the quarry. During their flight, Carter looks down to see huge craters which remind him of the colossal cave on Nganek which led to the abyss. The shantaks fear these holes.

Passing by the impassible mountain range, Carter finds himself at the plateau of Leng. He sees yet more familiar figures, as the hooved and horned men of Leng were in fact the slaves and cattle of the moon toads.

Carter dismounts and is led to the temple in the middle of Leng, where the High Priest Not to be Described resides. In this temple, he gains important knowledge on Leng and its environs. Leng and few other places are home to passages to the abyss and the waking world. The abyss is the dominion of the celtic god Nodens, who uses night-gaunts to his bidding in order to guard these passages to earth. Even the gods fear the night-gaunts. This confirms Carter’s suspicion that the nearby craters are similar to that cave on Nganek. The murals also describe the worship of the toad-beings from the moon, and how men of Leng are transported on slave barges to the moon via the island that Carter passed on the way to Inganok.

finally bringing himself to face the High Priest Not to be Described, Carter is horrified to learn its true identity (which is left a mystery to the reader). He tackles a guard and makes his escape.

In this chapter we see references again to Celephaïs and The Strange High House in the Mist. In the latter story, Nodens is one of the gods who arrives to the house to escort dreamers safely on their journeys. It is interesting that he employs a gruesome creature that even gods fear. In Celephaïs we learn that the only other known character to escape the clutches of the High Priest Not to be Described is Kuranes himself.

I’m interested in the imagery of the High Priest. He wears all yellow and covers his face with a yellow silk veil. When I first read this I thought of Hastur, which Lovecraft namedropped in at least one of his stories. Another possibility that I’ve thought of is that perhaps the people of Leng have some manner of cult to Hastur.

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.