Hey, all. What with the Dyer manuscript, I was beginning to have some trouble keeping track of the outstanding "mysteries", so I started writing some up (OOC, although Rachel shares many of my suspicions.) I figured I'd post it to invite comment, feedback, and ideas.

I've divided them into a few rough sections by general type.

A) TRAITORS IN OUR MIDST?

1) Was Henning responsible for all of the sabotage?

Was he really acting alone? Could other people unknown to him also have been sabotaging? Can we learn the progress of his trial by radio? Has he confessed to all of it? Has he denied any of it? Has he mentioned a confederate?

2) Who sent us the letters in New York?

This doesn't seem like Henning's style - and current evidence seems to indicate that they were written by someone who had actually been to this area of the Antarctic (or, at the very least, who had read both Pym and Dyer, although that seems less likely.) Why was Catherine sent two letters? Given the probabilities, was it someone from the Miskatonic expedition? Danforth? Dyer? Can anyone say for *sure* that both of them were not in New York? And/or was whoever sent them a member of our own expedition - or Lexington's?

3) Who killed Captain Douglas?

Again, doesn't seem exactly like Henning's style - and if it was, why Douglas and not Starkweather? Was it really just a tragic accident? Did Douglas know something? If so, who might know that Douglas knew something? Danforth? The Germans (see below)? Someone else? Again, could the person who killed Douglas be on our own expedition, or Lexington's?

4) Who killed Acacia Lexington's father?

This may seem like ancient history but - why was her father apparently murdered over the complete "Pym" text? Could whoever did it be still around? Are they with Lexington now - or with us? Or the Germans? Were they with the Miskatonic expedition? What did they want from the text that was so valuable?

5) Why did three members of the Lexington expedition go mad in much the same way, one before Antarctica was ever reached?

Three begins to defy coincidence - a FIFTH of their expedition went mad? Were they drugged? "Ensorcelled"? Is a saboteur among the Lexington crew, somehow causing this?

6) Why was Kyle Williams' attitude so different from that of the other Lexington expedition members?

On the one hand, he could just be a forthright dissenter, but . . . if so, why is it that what he said happened to be the best way to cause dissension and distrust between the two expeditions? Why is his version of Acacia Lexington at odds with that of everyone else in the Lexington expedition we have talked to? Is he up to something?

7) Why has the behavior of the Germans been so odd?

Sure, they had as much cause to be cagey as we did but - why try to reveal the truth to us in such a shocking way? Just to be sure we would believe it? What were those other holes they dug for? Do they know other things they're not letting on to us? What exactly are they really trying to do here, anyway? Should we start by just asking them?

8) Is Lexington hiding anything?

She seems like a straightforward personality type, but so would an extremely sneaky person hiding something. Has she read the complete "Pym" text? Did she believe it? What did it reveal? Could she have motives for being here which are more than what she claims? Why didn't she tell us that the Germans were coming?

9) For that matter, did/do the Pentaforms (and their hideous servants) have any plans that will affect humanity?

Is there any reason to believe that they aren't just over the mountains doing their thang and pretty much ignoring humanity? Can we afford to believe it? How do we find out?

9) Why was the Dyer manuscript not given to Moore?

At several points in the Dyer manuscript, it expressly states that it was intended as a warning for the Starkweather-Moore expedition. So - how come the Starkweather-Moore expedition never got it? Did something happen? Was it intercepted? Is it a fake? If it is a fake, why make one that can be so easily disproved (one trip over the mountains - either there's a vast ancient city or there isn't)?

10) How did the Germans get ahold of the Dyer manuscript?

For that matter, how on earth did the Germans get ahold of it? Was it given to them? Stolen by them? What's their story about this?

11) Can we access the last few chapters of "Pym"?

The relationship between Pym's report and Dyer's is now apparent - but what does Pym say in the end? Has Acacia read the chapters? Have the Germans? Can we ask them what it said? Do either have it with them? Can we borrow it? If they deny it, is there any way to search their camps? Is this a good idea anyway? Or a terrible one?

12) Why is "Pym" so weird?

If "Pym" is has any truth to it, how on earth could there have been a warm sea on one side of Antarctica a hundred years ago and none now? Did Pym encounter special (i.e. supernatural) conditions? If so, what was going on? Could the story be partly or wholly false?

13) What about the other texts mentioned in Dyer's manuscript?

Might the Germans have copies of the Pnakotic Manuscripts, or the Necronomicon? Might Lexington? Can we obtain them for study? Has Moore ever read them (his colleague Dyer has)? Has Moore heard his folklorist colleague Wilmarth's tales? What did they say? Has anyone ever seen the paintings of Nicholas Roerich? Why do they seem to resemble the vistas before us?

14) What was is that Danforth saw at the end of the Dyer manuscript?

Something only Danforth saw out of a plane window drove him mad. What was it? What's the frightening? What's that BIG?

15) What exactly is "sleeping" down there?

The letters warned us not to wake the sleeper. Dyer hinted at it, too. What exactly is sleeping down there? How dangerous is it to wake? How likely are we to do so by accident? Does it have any connection to what Danforth saw?

16) What is the strange mist mentioned by both Pym and Dyer?

Both of them mentioned a strange, disturbing white mist or haze. What is it? Does it have anything to do with the sleeper?

17) What was the storm that wasn't?

Was there actually a storm - simply not one we could physically see or feel? Could it have been something, er, waking up? Or was something affecting the weather to prevent a storm that should have been? Why?

18) What are the soapstones?

What do they mean? What do they say? What are they for?

19) What do we do about all of this?

Should we try to verify the Dyer text? Should we try to figure out exactly what Lexington/The Germans/The Pentaforms etc. want? Should we just go home?

I) We should continue to look for sabotage, and saboteurs, in all three expeditions, if possible. Think what airplane problems could do to us NOW - especially if someone doesn't want us making it over the mountains (remember Danforth was a pilot.) We may want to keep a bored guard up at "night", as the Germans do.

II) We should ask Lexington and the Germans at least the obvious questions. Have either read or have with them the complete Pym or any of the other texts mentioned? Where did the Germans get the Dyer text? And why exactly did the Germans come here?

III) We should consider surreptitiously searching the other camps when most of them are "out".

IV) We should plan a trip over the mountains, at the least to confirm Dyer's manuscript, at the most to discover the intent of whatever living beings are still there, and maybe even to determine what the "sleeper" is and how NOT to wake it, if we're feeling particularly frisky and suicidal.

V) We may also want to a) ask Moore if Dyer ever mentioned this text to him, b) find out if we can get radio reports of Henning's trial, c) ask Moore about Wilmarth, and d) see if anyone knows anything about Nicholas Roerich.