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Pulp Cthulhu · The Long Winter · November 2026 · Week 1 · Stacy & Caelwyn
The Mountain Does Not Need a Monster
The last wireless message from Camp Four arrived shortly before nightfall.
Visibility zero. Vale unwell. Unable to descend.
Eleven minutes later, another message followed.
Do not send anyone. We have another climber.
CAELWYN: “Another climber? I thought there were only three people up there.”
STACY: “There are.”
CAELWYN: “Then perhaps we ought to find out who the fourth one is.”
October 1934. High in the Himalaya, the mountains were disappearing behind a wall of snow.
Sonam Sherpa checked their ropes while Stacy studied the approaching storm.
STACY: “We have perhaps four hours before darkness.”
CAELWYN: “Enough time to reach the camp?”
SONAM: “If the mountain allows it.”
CAELWYN: “And if it doesn’t?”
SONAM: “Then we turn back.”
Caelwyn smiled.
CAELWYN: “You’re not particularly interested in heroic last stands, are you?”
SONAM: “Dead men do not rescue anybody.”
They began climbing.
An hour later, the world vanished.
No horizon. No familiar landmarks. Just white sky merging with white snow.
CAELWYN: “I can’t tell where the ground ends.”
STACY: “That’s a whiteout. Without shadows and contrast, your eyes lose the information they need to judge distance.”
CAELWYN: “Rather inconvenient.”
His next step broke through a hidden snow bridge.
The rope snapped tight.
For several seconds, Caelwyn hung above a crevasse whose bottom he couldn’t see.
Sonam anchored the rope. Stacy helped haul him back.
STACY: “Are you hurt?”
CAELWYN: “Only my dignity.”
STACY: “Then we got off lightly.”
They found Camp Four half-buried in snow.
Dr Eleanor Vale was alive, but struggling to breathe. The young assistant beside her was exhausted and terrified.
VALE: “Did you see him?”
STACY: “Who?”
VALE: “The man walking behind you.”
Stacy looked at Caelwyn.
CAELWYN: “There wasn’t anyone.”
VALE: “He followed you all the way up.”
The Third Man Factor.
Under extreme stress, exhaustion and isolation, people sometimes experience the compelling presence of an unseen companion.
Some describe a guardian.
Others, a stranger.
Modern neuroscience offers possible explanations for these experiences.
But Vale insisted that the figure had been outside before the rescue party arrived.
Beside her lay a case containing geological samples recovered from deep within the glacier.
VALE: “The black stone. You must take it.”
STACY: “You’re seriously ill. We need to descend.”
VALE: “You don’t understand. The ice around it was moving against the glacier’s flow.”
CAELWYN: “That sounds worth investigating.”
STACY: “It is.”
She looked at Vale.
STACY: “But not at the cost of her life.”
They left the samples behind.
Sonam guided them down a longer, safer route. Minutes later, an avalanche swept across the slope they had nearly taken.
By midnight, they had reached shelter.
Vale was alive.
The mysterious stone remained on the mountain.
Several days later, the expedition photographs were developed.
In the final picture, a fourth figure stood behind Camp Four.
Its face was hidden by the snow.
CAELWYN: “That could be anyone.”
STACY: “Perhaps.”
CAELWYN: “But where are his footprints?”
There were none.
Stacy studied the photograph for a long time.
STACY: “We thought the greatest danger up there was the winter.”
CAELWYN: “Wasn’t it?”
She looked towards the mountains.
STACY: “I don’t know anymore.”
Somewhere above the clouds, an abandoned tent stood beside a wall of ancient ice.
And inside it, something was waiting.
THE MYTHVEIL QUESTION
STACY: “Winter can kill without hatred, intention or mercy.”
CAELWYN: “But what if something beneath the ice does have intentions?”
STACY: “Would you risk another expedition to find out?”
CAELWYN: “Or would you leave the mountain to keep its secrets?”
ENTER THE LONG WINTER
The mountain does not need a monster to kill you. But in Pulp Cthulhu, the greatest danger may begin when you bring something out of the cold.
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