Galápagos Islands: Y’ha-n’thal – The Temple of the Deep Ones

What clashes here of wills gen wonts, oystrygods gaggin fishy-
gods! Brékkek Kékkek Kékkek Kékkek! Kóax Kóax Kóax! Ualu
Ualu Ualu! Quaouauh! Where the Baddelaries partisans are still
out to mathmaster Malachus Micgranes and the Verdons cata-
pelting the camibalistics out of the Whoyteboyce of Hoodie
Head. Assiegates and boomeringstroms. Sod’s brood, be me fear!
Sanglorians, save! Arms apeal with larms, appalling. Killykill-
killy: a toll, a toll.
—James Joyce, “Finnegans Wake” 4.1–4.8

17) Y’ha-n’thal: The Temple of the Deep Ones
Volcán Wolf, June 29-30, 1845

A) Y’ha-n’thal
Only Professor Lowell and Castro can anticipate what lies beyond the green glow. Exiting from the tunnel brings the travelers to an enormous temple—a pentagonal chamber some 500 yards wide and 200 yards high. For the first time in White Leviathan, the players come face to face with something that is clearly and inarguably not human. It’s not just the sheer size of the temple or the unsettling geometry of its proportions. There’s something profoundly inhuman about the craftsmanship itself: the undulating floor, the columns spiraling gracefully to the ceiling, the murals encrusting the walls with a frozen phantasmagoria of miraculous imagery. The temple represents an architecture unrecorded in the annals of man, an antiquity hitherto unguessed and unknown.

Morgan’s Reaction
If Morgan is present, he must make an Extreme Power roll or he croaks the name of the temple, the guttural syllables torn unwittingly from his throat: Y’ha-n’thal. While other characters may overlook his ejaculation as a bizarre form of throat-clearing, Pynchon’s head jerks around. He fixes his gaze on the blacksmith’s bulging, watery, unwinking eyes—if there hasn’t been a “conversation” yet, there will be soon.

B) The Starfish Pool
The floor of the temple is smooth but uneven, a gentle, undulating surface like a rolling sea frozen in time. In the very center is a pool of crystal-clear saltwater. The shape of a starfish, the pool is 140 yards wide and 14 yards deep. The water glows with a pale green luminescence, casting trembling waves of light across the ceiling like a subterranean aurora borealis. The farthest arm of the “starfish” vanishes through an archway at the far side of the temple—an exit canal.

C) The Murals
Once the initial shock of the temple subsides, characters may appreciate the finer details. The walls are generously carved with a series of bas-relief murals, a progression of submarine scenes depicting exotic creatures, forests of seaweed and coral, and fantastic cities rising from the seabed like so many Atlantises. Realized with astonishing detail and delicacy, these scenes are captured in a greenish-gray soapstone that seems coaxed from the basalt like a layer of fossilized foam—the border between substances is impossible to distinguish. Shrimp-like creatures the size of horses burst from the basalt and refine themselves in mid-air, the antennae so exquisitely crafted they seem ready to twitch to life. Seashells blossom from seashells, each more fragile than the last. A hammerhead shark thrashes from its stone seascape, its teeth sharpened to each notch and serration. Nothing this delicate should have survived the passage of millennia; yet everything appears pristine, unbroken, unspoiled.

While many of the creatures are familiar to sailors—starfish, whales, sharks, eels, jellyfish, rays, and endless schools of fish—others border on the surreal. Some fish seem armored, while others have stalks growing from their skulls like fishing poles. There are squid the size of schooners, flabby fish with double jaws, and nightmare crabs with legs like giant spiders. And then there’s the froggish beings first glimpsed on the “wall fragment.” Slightly larger than humans, these creatures are shown marching along the seafloor, building temples, and worshipping an octopus god. Although they’re depicted more naturally—and even heroically!—than on Watt’s sea-chest, there’s little doubt these are the beings that haunted the deranged mate’s nightmares.

Making Sense of the Murals
A Science (Biology) or Science (Paleontology) roll identifies some creatures, but others are entirely baffling—perhaps extinct? Or even mythological? There’s another quality to the artwork that’s harder to explain. The longer one gazes at the murals, the more one becomes convinced there’s a pattern to the designs, some hidden aesthetic not articulated by any human culture and inaccessible to the disciplines of anthropology and archeology. A mathematical grammar of recursive enclosures and spiraling proportions, a reliance on prime numbers and disturbing angles. A Science (Mathematics) roll detects a non-Euclidean geometry at work, while an Appraise roll brings to mind the strange, golden jewelry of Innsmouth. A full-fledged Cthulhu Mythos roll connects the architecture directly with the Deep Ones. (Pynchon recognizes it from Kith Kohr.) To Quakaloo they resemble the shamanistic tattoos of Nukavoko.

Further Effects on Morgan
Morgan feels at home in the temple, which awakens distant memories of the “altar in the bayou,” not to mention his mother’s wedding ring. The Keeper should play up the elevated degree of culture suggested by the temple—if the Deep Ones are truly monsters, how could they have produced such wondrous creations? While other characters may find the angles disturbing, Morgan finds them quite natural, even comforting. Of course, if Morgan has been resisting the Change, this “comfort” may ultimately bring more confusion and pain, more shame, more nightmares—and more opium.

D) The Whaleboats
Normally, a pair of whaleboats are moored to the nearest arm of the starfish pool. Brought here at great labor by the Calibans, the boats were partially disassembled and rebuilt on site, with broken or missing pieces replaced by jury-rigged substitutions. Both have been painted red—the same shade used on the Masque of Milan—with their names neatly lettered in white paint: MIRANDA and FERDINAND. (Lowell recognizes the Miranda as the boat that carried him to Albemarle from the Atlantis.) The boats have been stripped of their usual compliment of tubs, line, and spare irons. The mast, sail, and oars have been discarded as well, leaving only smaller paddles for maneuvering.

The Miranda
If the player characters are chasing after Ingo Quiring, the fugitive Calibans have taken the Ferdinand and towed the Miranda behind them, cutting it loose at the center of the pool. If this is the case, there’s only one whaleboat present—the Miranda—and it’s currently drifting aimlessly in the pool. The glowing water is not dangerous, but it requires 25 minutes to swim out, retrieve the boat, and tow it back to shore. This may be reduced to 20 minutes by passing a Swim roll. Up to two additional swimmers may each deduct 5 minutes from the total with successful Swim rolls. (So three characters all passing their Swim rolls can retrieve the Miranda in 10 minutes.) Once the Miranda has been secured, the far arm of the starfish pool may be traversed to reach the exit canal. The canal passes through a large archway carved into the temple wall, one that may be somewhat unsettling for whalers—the gaping jaws of a massive sperm whale!

Prisoner Scenario: Y’ha-n’thal

If Lowell has been cooperative, he’ll be given free rein to explore the temple. As long as Lowell remains friendly, Quiring is excited to ask him questions, revealing an appreciable understanding of developmental biology and an expert understanding of geology. Once the Testifier is ready, they board the Ferdinand and paddle to the Gate. If Lowell is dead, incapacitated, or hostile, Quiring is less interested in discussing Holocene ichthyology and takes his captive directly to the Gate. Because said captive is wearing the Masque of Milan, the wonders of Y’ha-n’thal are glimpsed but obliquely through the lobster-tail.

White Leviathan, Chapter 4—Galápagos Islands
[Back to Encounter 16, Temple Passage | White Leviathan TOC | Forward to Encounter 18, The Gate]

Author: A. Buell Ruch
Last Modified: 24 November 2023
Email: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
White Leviathan PDF: [TBD]