Call of Cthulhu. Episode #28 ...'It's just an ancient journal ...what could possibly go wrong?'

 As Dagon, recently summoned and needing fed (and not at full HP), closes with the heroes at the entrance to its realm, ShanTryan casts invisibility (the power of not being seen) and scooches past the monstrosity toward the Black Sword near the sacrificial victim...Sensing her intent, Belphegor moves a little faster and grabs it, dropping spear and shield, preferring to lift the mythical 'soul sucking blade of Mu' (not TM since I nicked it from Stormbringer)...and ambushes Dagon from behind managing to do 23 points of damage to the developing demi-god creature  (and staring with wide eyes and slobbering mouth at what the blade can do! ...)

Septimus acts 'all defensive like' as Belphegor and.ShanTryan...race to grab the sword

 In a bid to sow confusion (since she may be playing both sides off against each other...see below...), ShanTryan, keen to shake herself from the yoke of Mu'an slavery, befuddles Septimus and makes a break for it, once more casting invisibility and racing for the entrance.

'AHA! it's MINE!'

 There she encounters a short priest (i.e. vertically challenged) - the 'Tangata Manu' in a boat powered by wind spirits, who is keen to rescue the whole party, but opts just to take the Atlantean slave since she has a dagger at his throat by the time she boards. As he sails off, surrounded by his giant ravens, Belphegor and Septimus look on, and try to find the rope they climbed down on...the half dead Kall tells them he will stay and sacrifice himself so that they can get away, as the caves become engulfed with deep ones... his dying screams echo as they reach the cliff top. The (taller) priest that brought them here, has died of his wounds, and they resolve to wreak vengeance on the treacherous ShanTryan...just as soon as Septimus's befuddle wears off. They start to make their way across the island toward the main temple complex, dodgin Deep One patrols. 

The short priest - definitely not a DungeonMaster

 Meanwhile, ShanTryan has been taken in by the old priest and fed and watered. He needs a favour, and not in a good way... 

Apparently easy to dodge...

Since she owes him, he asks that she rescues 'Eye of Maurak of the three aspects' (his POW crystal) from the nearby island (which used to be a peak before the fragments hit)...and donates his 'mask of water breathing' to aid her. She swims across, once more invisible and rescues it for him as well as the Arc of Vlactos which is amongst his old belongings, with the map and its inscription:

'That is not dead which can eternal lie and in strange aeons, even death may die

Your ancestors are not your ancestors; your descendants are not your descendants

Remember to forget, that you, are you...' 

Who is the real evil after all?

 The Tangata Manu is saddened that he must go alone and destroy the fragments of whatever is left in the main temple, and so asks if she will do i?, destroying any means of resurrecting the dark god Ktulu and ways of bringing him back to Earth...since, he fears, that is what the priests of Mu had been up to, rather than worshipping the proper goddess...It all makes a certain kind of sense to ShanTryan, and fits neatly in with her plan.

Poor Kall...sacrifices himself

She agrees, asking for the rescued 'eye' in return, which he gives her with a few spells and POW in it. She also has more on her mind than helping out...since in her days in Atlantis, she had determined that Ktulu might actually be a power for 'good' (honest) - her own good that is, and, after her years in Mu'an slavery, the last thing she wants to do is help humanity, whatever is left of it. He also warns her about the 'thing with a thousand faces'.

Poor Belphegor, a force of good?

 As she arrives at the remains of the temple, Septimus and Belphegor see her from the cliffs, and resolve to set a trap at the entrance.With the help of the priest's ravens however, she realises that something is wrong, and asks the giant birds to attack the men at the temple archway before 'scooching' past in the confusion with her wee dodge.

Poor Septimus...befuddled,,,

The men follow her, succeeding in tracking her wet footprints ...toward the main temple area, where a freshly (relatively) carved statue to Cthulhu resides...damage done during the impacts has rendered the functionality of the chamber somewhat however - a spell to bring Cthulhu back via R'lyeh on one wall, and a partially obscured spell on how to banish him on another, The deep ones are trying, without success, to destroy this one...

The ambush that might have been...

The partial misalignment of the corner statues means that the spell to banish is not clear, though ShanTryan learns the summoning spell which 'is' clear (the bad one) as much as she can, discovering the disk...AND a nearby Shoggoth, which emerges into the chamber. She uses mindspeech from the 'eye' sending the Deep Ones toward her former master and the Shoggoth slowly follows . Bypassing the shoggoth, and ascending the stairs to freedom, she escapes both the island and her former master with both disk and Arc, surmising that the Shoggoth fears the black sword...and recording same...

The Shoggoth, after 8 pints...

 Belphegor and Septimus similarly, leave the island to its fate after seeing the Shoggoth, though Belphegor too realises that it fears the sword...

'Uhhh is that a statue? It's a statue right?'

CHECKLIST for what might have been...

• Realising that the Shoggoth fears the Black Sword, the characters might have destroyed it. 

• Realising that the alignment of the statues enables the 'good' spell to be revealed, the heroes could have re-set it.   

Shoggoth TIME! ShanTryan escapes with the Disk and the Arc, and the 'heroes' escape with the Sword of Mu...Crisis Averted! until uhh 1925

 Now both will most likely have to be done 12,000 years later. Oh well. Shoulda, coulda, woulda... 

Although, facts from earlier episodes remain pertinent; Henry Hancock came to Easter Island to find the blade of Belphegor... 

...and of course, the journal is signed, by 'ShanTryan, a Free Atlantean'...who shall be reborn, again, and again... 

...and again.