NOTICE; Students and Staff
(Sent: December 1, 2016; 3:10 p.m.)
Our Christmas Yule break is approaching and we would like to remind students and staff to practice safe celebration. The holiday is for renewal and rebirth. Make sure you do everything as to have a good year after.
But there are still dangers to celebrating Yule if not done correctly. Here are some tips to help keep your Yule happy and safe:
Never leave a fire left unattended, as it may get out of hand quickly. Always stay near your fire.
When using a knife, make sure it is sharpened and not dull, as dull knives need more force to be used, which makes it more likely to cut yourself.
Whatever sacrifice you are performing, read the steps carefully and make sure to do it as instructed. Don’t let children do a sacrifice by themselves. Even adults should have one or more other humans around them to make sure that the ritual is practiced safely.
Have a wonderful Yule time! We hope to see you all back next year, with the joy in our hearts your sacrifices were performed successfully.
NOTICE; Students and Staff
(Sent: January 12, 2016; 5:00 p.m.)
A warning to students and staff of the wild dogs roaming the campus, normally in the later hours. These dogs will not hesitate to attack anything that moves. They are feral, vicious dogs. Please be in your dorm by the specific curfew hours. If you are not, you will be more likely to be attacked by these hounds. For your safety, please try to follow the rules.
Also, we would like to remind students about the theft policy. We want to be known as a morally correct university and we will not treat theft lightly. It is a serious problem and will be dealt with serious actions. We want everyone to remember this and remember, if you see something suspicious, tell a teacher.
NOTICE; Students and Staff
(Sent: January 23, 2016; 3:14 p.m.)
Tomorrow, January 24, all classes will be canceled due to extermination of the rats which seemed to have infested the walls of the university. To prevent any accidents from happening tomorrow, including anything resulting in accidental cannibalism, please stay in your dorms. No matter how curious you are in the conspiracy of the cult under the school, stay in your dorms for the safety of yourself and others. If any student or staff is found to have travelled into the blocked off area, there will be consequences.
NOTICE; Students and Staff
(Sent: February 5, 2016; 8:00 a.m.)
Last night, someone attempted to steal a book from the library, the book being the Necronomicon. As stated in an earlier email, books are not allowed to be borrowed or stolen, whether it be by a student or a visitor. The thief has been dealt with, a guard dog being the first to track down the thief. Luckily, the Necronomicon is safely back on ours shelves and is ready for any student or staff member who may need to use it, as long as it is kept in the library. Dr. Armitage will be keeping a close eye on it.
NOTICE; Students and Staff
(Sent: February 14, 2016; 4:36 p.m.)
Former Student, Asenath Waite is going to be getting married to Edward Pickman Derpy. As she was one of our best students and today is Valentine’s Day, it seemed appropriate to share. We wish them the best of luck on their marriage and hope good is the only thing that ever goes their way. Because if there is one thing we needed to be reminded of on Valentine’s Day, it's that love is hard to grasp. Like a lump of oozing slime, trying to slip right through your fingers. Good luck Asenath and Edward, from all of us here at Miskatonic University. We wish you only the best.
NOTICE; Students and Staff
(Sent: March 3, 2016; 8:30 a.m.)
Janitors have realized there has been a dramatic increase of rats and mice on the grounds which have been causing multiple problems. In an attempt to fix this problem, they have brought in cats which will be used to kill the mice.
Please leave these cats alone and let them do their job. Don’t hurt them in anyway, as they have been kind enough to come and help us. We wouldn’t want them to become angry at us and leave us with this rat infestation on the grounds.
Also, please leave the rats alone as well, especially if they attempt to talk to you. If something of the sort does happen, alert a teacher once you get somewhere safe. So remember, don’t hurt any of the animals on the grounds and leave them alone. They do not need your help like you need theirs.
NOTICE; Students and Staff
(Sent: March 14, 2016; 9:37 p.m.)
We would like to remind students and staff members that the school will be closed tomorrow for the school holiday. This is to remember the death of the amazing man who founded this school and taught it everything it would ever need to know. We know he would be proud of the amazing school this university has become. In his words, “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear. And the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.”
NOTICE; Students and Staff
(Sent: March 24, 2016; 6:45 p.m.)
The local 4-H program has announced they have finally finished their main project this year, raising goats. It turns out one of the goats got a bit too friendly with another and ended with them finishing their project having more goats than needed. They will be selling the goats at the fair coming up in a week, no questions asked as to why or what you will be using the goats for.
Also, totally unrelated to the previous statement, there will be chevon on the menu for the next month, so bon appetite.
NOTICE; Students and Staff
(Sent: April 2, 2016; 6:47 a.m.)
We would like to congratulate the drama club for the wonderful April fool’s joke they performed yesterday. But, because of all of the confusion as to what was part of the prank and what was real, we are here to tell you.
Anything that included cats able to jump to the moon, man-eating spiders, ghouls, and gugs were all a part of their wonderful performance. We would also like to inform students Mr. Een was also a part of the April fool’s prank. His part of the prank was providing the drama club with some of his moon-beasts.
Good job, everyone! We can’t wait to see what you come up with next year! Keep up the good work!
NOTICE; Students and Staff
(Sent: April 18, 2016; 5:00 p.m.)
Tomorrow in the Silverkey Auditorium, we will be hosting a motivational speaker, Gan Ainm. We suggest any student and staff member who has the time, go and listen to this man tell his story. Who knows what feelings it may stir inside of you?
Gan Ainm will be talking about his experience when he was drug-addicted and suicidal. It all happened because of an incident that left him stranded out on the ocean. He will tell you of his experience on a deserted island, what he saw, and how he coped with it afterwards. No matter what you believe, you will leave his speech viewing life in a different manner. His views and thoughts will help anyone who is going through a rough time by reminding them that it gets better.
We would also like to remind students if they are going through a rough time at the moment that the guidance councilor’s office is always open, even if it isn’t during school hours. No matter what it is you need to talk about, his door is always open. Mr. Stu Dorie. We just want to remind you mirrors or any reflective object is not allowed inside his office.
NOTICE; Students and Staff
(Sent: May 20, 2016; 8:30 a.m.)
The school year has finally come to an end and we would like to say goodbye to all students and staff members, whether they be returning next year or if we are saying farewell forever. The Astronomy club members seem to be dead set on this being our final goodbye so, Goodbye Squids.
We hope that you have had a wonderful year here at Miskatonic University. We know we have had our ups and downs, but you have always learned something from all of the good and bad of our university. You might have even learned the most from some of the bad and dangerous things that have happened this year.
Use your knowledge well and put it to good use. The most important thing is for you to use yo
ur brain and use everything you have learned here. Do wonderful things, do what you have always dreamed of. Whether that is to write, to become a teacher at Miskatonic University, or to become a cult leader, you can do anything.
I never ask a man what his business is, for it never interests me. What I ask him about are his thoughts and dreams.
Those Were the Days
Robert J. Krog
The library was nearly empty and, aside from the librarian, only Dr. Fulmer and two of his nervous dissertation students remained, poring through the ancient stacks in the indecipherable section. The librarian, elderly Dr. Silk, was ready to leave.
Sundown, it is almost sundown, he thought in annoyance. The lights are off, and the doors are locked at sundown every, single day. I will not be in here after dark.
But Dr. Fulmer sat at his table still looking at the manuscript open before him, the index finger of his left hand tracing along the sigils on the page while his right hand scribbled away, making notes that were only fit to be housed in the section in which he sat. A desk lamp lit the surface where he worked, and he was apparently oblivious to the settling dusk in the world beyond.
Dr. Silk rose, creaking, from his seat and hobbled over on aching feet to the light switch. He flicked it angrily on and off several times. The dissertation students looked up in surprise and then hurriedly replaced their books on the shelves, gathered their hats and coats, and rushed out.
“We’ll see you here at three tomorrow, Dr. Fulmer,” said one as he passed the undisturbed researcher.
At this, Dr. Fulmer looked up and turned his head to gaze placidly across the room at the agitated Dr. Silk.
“Five more minutes, if you please?” he asked as if it were nothing.
“I will lock you in and leave you,” threatened the librarian crisply. He took a moment to stretch and get limber so he could walk like a middle-aged man instead of an old man.
With a slight sigh and a last, longing glance at the mystery on the table before him, Dr. Fulmer closed the volume, collected his notes, turned off his lamp, and made his way across the floor toward the main door. “It is almost like Proto-Elamite,” he said, “which makes it very alluring. I wish to begin translating it that way, but the syntax is wrong, and then there are the anomalous glyphs that seem to have no correspondence in Proto-Elamite or Sumerian or any other signs from anywhere in the region. I’ve even compared them to the many seals from the Indus Valley. No luck.”
Dr. Silk made a harrumph as he clicked the lights off. He was too disturbed by the lateness of the hour, by the fact that only half the sun was yet above the horizon to be at all interested in his colleague's scholarly pursuits at the moment. Did not Dr. Fulmer hear the buzzing beginning around them?
“It’s very exciting, Dr. Silk,” said Dr. Fulmer. “Can’t you feel it? I’m afraid that I’m really no closer, yet I also feel that I’m always on the threshold of the dream, as it were.”
“Yes, yes, but look at the time.” He all but pushed his colleague out the door. Did not Dr. Fulmer smell the decay rising from every corner of the room? Was not his mind suddenly aglow with the numinous horror of the settling dark and the murmuring of the manuscripts?
“I have a lamp,” said Dr. Fulmer. “I do not mind the hour.”
“We are closed at sunset, every day, all year long. The policy will never change. There will be no exceptions, not even for you,” declared Dr. Silk. He pulled the double doors securely shut and reached in his pocket for his keys.
Inside the library, the men's voices came through muffled by the brass and heavy glass of the doors.
“Well, it is not to worry,” Dr. Fulmer’s voice carried distantly through. “Come to Gracey’s with me and have a good dinner and a glass of wine.”
“I must be home,” said Dr. Silk, his voice sounding small and peevish. He put the key in the lock and turned the great deadbolt within, feeling better for the loud click it made which echoed dully throughout the library.
“Nonsense, it’s only five o’clock. Have a meal with me at Gracey’s along with a glass of wine.”
“Dr. Fulmer, really.”
“Dr. Silk, I will buy.”
They stood a moment regarding each other. Dr. Fulmer smiled beneficently down at Dr. Silk who was stooped and frowning, still peevish.
“Oh, very well,” said Dr. Silk after some hesitation. They both turned from the door, Dr. Silk with a last, relieved look over his shoulder, and went down the steps together.
Dr. Fulmer’s voice carried back in among the books one last time, then faded away, saying, “Have you heard back from our fellow scholar in Scotland about his work on the brother manuscript in Edinburgh?”
***
The buzzing, the murmuring, the odor of decay, and the settling dark in the library remained, growing heavier at a gradual pace. By moonrise, it was a crescendo that rattled the shelves, the furniture, and the window panes. It struggled. It strove. At last, a word formed in the dark and echoed in across the floor and up to the vaulted ceiling.
“When?”
There was silence, a moment of stillness, then dozens of voices found themselves all at once and resumed conversations that had been ongoing for many, many nights. From among them, two were most discernable. Two steady, sad, grating voices held dialogue across the room from one another.
“When?” asked the first again.
“How do you mean?” inquired the second.
“Will it, the human with the pen, will it ever finish?”
“I cannot say. I speak to it, but it does not hear. The other, our jailor, it hears but does not listen. It closes its mind.”
“Alas,” said the first.
“Yes,” said the second. “Those who can hear are not curious, and those who are deaf are. It is not useful to us that it is so, but that is how it is.”
They were silent. They listened to the rasping and hissing of their fellow inmates. The many dialogues were punctuated by howls, licking and smacking sounds, and cries of longing and grief.
“How long?” asked the first, resuming when a natural lull seemed to fall on the other conversations.
“How do you mean?”
“How long since we had form?”
“Ah!” said the second, rapturously. “Those were the days!”
“Yes, those were the days. How long?”
“I cannot say. Do you recall the valleys of blood from the slitting of throats for the master?”
“I do. We were satiated, though He never was. How I longed to be as longing as he. How I longed to be unfulfilled. Do you still recall the longing for longing? It is the desire that is best. I have not hungered in so long a time.”
“Yes. I recall the hunger that would not last. It is almost better this way, but not quite. How I would, I think, like to have teeth and sink them in the belly of our jailor.”
“Yes.”
“What would it taste like, I wonder?”
“I cannot say. They are different, these ones that have come after. They are formed of other materials. There is less ether and more mass, but they last not as long. I cannot say.”
“I would try my teeth, if I had form again.”
“As would I.”
The conversations around them grew clamorous. They paused and waited, not really listening. They had heard it all before. The windows rattled. A chair lifted off the floor and, floating on the viscous darkness, made its way onto a tabletop where it settled with one foot off the edge. Somewhere in the stacks, a volume slipped and landed flat on the floor with a resounding crack.
“Is He awake or slumbering, do you think?” asked the first.
“He lies dreaming. Cannot you not feel him stir the ether?”
“I think I do. I think I do. There is so much other noise. Some wind blows through it.”
“He is the wind, perhaps.”
“Perhaps.”
The headlights of a car flashed through the glass of the main doors. They illuminated what seemed to be a
n eye in the heavy darkness inside. But the eye flashed reflection only a moment and was gone before the beams were swept all the way through their arc.
“Might we not help the one with the pen. Might we not reach its mind?” asked the first.
“Might we? I do not know. Its mind is not very amenable. It is strange that it should be curious at all. It is insensitive to us.”
The first had a sudden remembrance and asked, “What became of the children?”
“The children?” asked the second.
“Yes, the ones between us. We had them at the time of The Valley of Blood, did we not?”
“Yes, I remember. We did. We did.”
“They were many and plump.”
“Yes, they were many and plump.”
Another set of headlights swept through the library doors. The darkness within swirled.
“Mayhap,” said the first, “He will awaken and come for us. Then we might have form again.”
“Is it supposed to be that way, or were we supposed to take form and awaken him?”
“Oh! I do not remember. It has been so long.”
“It has been so long.”
“How long?”
“Very long.”
“Perhaps the thing from Scotland will have answers for the pen scratcher here?”
“Perhaps, but how can we know?”
Miskatonic Dreams Page 21