At the Mountains of Sensibility

February 2nd 1931, the City of the Elder Things

When the wind on the Antarctic ice flats is still, you can hear the drone of an aeroplane’s motor from miles away. If you were there on the ice, you might stop your work and search the horizon for the approaching plane, and for that moment it could seem to you that Antarctica is just another part of the real world - our world. That humanity could have a place there. But then the wind begins to scream again, whipping your face with ice and the dogs yowl and bite at their tethers, and in the deafening snowy darkness you suddenly know. The Antarctic isn’t part of any world that men can claim a right to. It is as alien to us as the surface of another planet.

Or the inside of a mad-man’s dream.

But we were high above the Antarctic plains, and in the City of the Elder Things memories of the ice flats below were like childhood fancies. Here the wind was never still, and its strange, almost conscious musical piping drowned other sounds.

The City and the mountains that hide it were entirely unknown to science before this year’s Antarctic expeditions. The Miskatonic University expedition arrived first on the ice, crossing the continent with their powerful Dornier aeroplanes and marking the line of the barrier mountains. Just a few weeks later and we might have been the ones to sight and name the mountain range, or the first to navigate its passes to the high plateau where the City of the Elder Things lay desolate and deserted. Or the ones to die, screams echoing across the radio frequencies when the horrors we awoke tore through us like an Antarctic gale.

I trod my shovel deep into the snow and looked about. Ruined windows stared down from around the plaza where we had made our camp, and as far as I could see stretched the inhuman, shattered architecture of the City. Brooding Euclidian shapes worn down by ice and time, honeycombed with tunnels. There was yet time to die like the Americans, among this monstrous tangle of dark stone towers.

It had been folly to bring the expedition here, but what choice did we, good scientists all, have when the radio message went out that the greatest discovery of modern times had been made not a thousand miles away? So it was we abandoned our careful schedules and crossed the mountains to see the City for ourselves.

Folly to come here I knew now, and folly that we stayed - and sour nationalistic bravado. It would take an army of scientists a hundred years to begin cataloguing this place, and no doubt they would come, but you had to be here to know in your heart that there was no knowledge waiting for human kind. Just stone and ice and the wind’s song.

As I brushed the ice from my gloves, Professor Fencrist stomped from the relative comfort of the building we had made our dwelling.

"I thought I heard the plane," he said, although I had heard nothing but the unending piping on the wind. “Mister Bruuke radioed to tell us he spotted the American’s plane abandoned in the foothills. He wanted to land, but then he reported mechanical problems so we told him to come back immediately. We ought to find out exactly what happened to the Americans, but we can’t afford anything to go wrong with the Northrop. Not with the other plane grounded for good."

I nodded beneath my furs. Our Fairchild FC-2W lay mangled beyond repair at our base camp on the other side of the mountains. The weeks on the ice had brought an endless series of disastrous accidents and some were whispering of saboteurs hidden amongst us. Fencrist met my stare, and from even behind his smoked goggles I knew that he was thinking the same thing.

"The other party?" he asked, and I nodded again. There was a third expedition in Antarctica that summer, in addition to ours and the Americans - if any still lived. That other party was also somewhere in the City, but a matter of national enmity remained between us. Strange that history should be a killing matter so far from home, but there were among us those who had fought in the Great War, or muttered that blood was already being spilled in Europe again. Perhaps our hatred in this dreadful, alien place reminded us that we were still human.

There was nobody else in sight, but in spite of the maddening wind Fencrist leaned closer to me and lowered his voice. I caught the glint of something unsettling in his look. "They're among us, the foreigners. Saboteurs. But two can play at that game and their lot won't have any luck either. I've seen to that. God, how I hate the sound the wind makes."

"What have you done -" I began, when the Northrop Gamma came down on us with no more warning than the rush of its wings through the air. It was a broken mess, miraculously missing me but sweeping Fencrist away in front of my eyes. I hardly registered his look of surprise before he was gone.

The rest of the expedition appeared, hastily pulling on boots and furs as they came. We set to the wreckage, but Professor Fencrist and Bruuke were dead and all we could salvage was confirmation that the disaster was no accident, but the result of sabotage. There was no doubt now that there were saboteurs among us, but more pressing was the realisation that we were trapped in the City with only a few days supplies. The mountains were impassable on foot, and even if we could have contacted base camp they had no way of effecting a rescue.

One hope remained. The American's plane might still be serviceable, if we could reach it miles away through the ruined city. We spent one more night camped in the plaza and set off as soon as we awoke, leaving it to whatever unimaginable ghosts yet dwell there.


The Game:

At the Mountains of Sensibility is variation on Mafia played by two equal teams - German and French.

Each team consists of sixteen players, some of whom are saboteurs loyal to the opposing team. To win the game, each team needs to successfully root out their saboteurs while working together to escape the City of the Elder Things. Only one team can win the game, so be wary of both apparent friend and apparent foe.

The opposing team will be trying to confuse or betray you, saboteurs will be looking for opportunities to slow you down or commit murder, and the eldritch forces of the City will work to prevent any human leaving at all.

There is no true night in the cold Antarctic summer, but our game is divided into Day and Night phases depending on whether the parties are traveling or resting.

The two teams travel separately through the City in a desperate race for the Dornier, and possible escape. During the day, team members pick their way through the abandoned ruins of the City, and discuss their predicament. At night the team rests, though individual members may have their own agenda. Saboteurs go about their business in secret, and there may be loyal team members with their own abilities too.


Travel through the City of the Elder Things

Each team member usually contributes ten miles a day, unless they are sabotaged or malingering. The total miles contributed are divided by the number of members in the team to get the number of miles traveled by the party

The first team to reach the abandoned American Dornier secures a great advantage. One of their loyal members will be randomly assigned the Investigator, and if their Protector has died a new Protector will also be randomly assigned. As Mountains of Sensibility enters its endgame, the trailing team’s only hope will be to eliminate their saboteurs and reach the aeroplane before the leading team can capitalise on their success.


Players

Each team starts with an equal number of the different player types.

The Saboteurs

The saboteurs hiding among one team are in fact secret members of the other team and will do anything that they can to ensure that their own team wins the game. They can communicate in secret with each other, but cannot communicate directly with their own team except in public game comments. All Saboteurs win or lose with their own true team.

Saboteurs will do their malingering best to hold the team back without arousing suspicions, and can arrange little trail ‘accidents’ for their team mates. At night their game turns more serious, and they won’t shrink from committing murder. Each saboteur can murder one or two honest team mates during the game.

Committing sabotage is dangerous for the Saboteur as well, as a Watcher might have their eye on him.


The Saboteur Leader

Every day the Saboteur Leader has a set number of sabotage points to allocate to players on his team. Sabotage points can be allocated against more than one player, including other saboteurs. The Saboteur Leader chooses the Saboteur to carry out the sabotage. If the Saboteur leader is killed, a new leader is chosen from among the saboteurs. The leader can also abdicate in favor of another saboteur or be unseated by unanimous group consensus.


The Protector

The Protector is loyal to his team, and can choose an individual from his own team to protect. The individual protected is safe for that night and the following day from murder, burglary or sabotage.


The Watcher

The Watcher can set a watch on a team mate for a day and the following night. If that person commits an act of murder or sabotage, the Watcher will be aware of it. The Watcher cannot determine guilt or innocence if no act was committed that night.


Spymaster

The Spymaster knows the names of the Saboteurs in the opposing team, although they aren’t aware of his identity. He has no special abilities besides this knowledge, and the weight of how to use it.


The Thief

A dedicated pack rat like the thief is adept at stealing anything he can carry from his fellow team members, or even traveling a long way in the night to search the opposing team camp. A thief can only use this ability if he has no other Night Action to perform.


Old Friends

Buddies from the Great War, the Old Friends have fought together before and know beyond doubt of their loyalty to their team. They can converse in secret, but have no extra abilities beyond this knowledge.


Actions

Lynching

Both teams vote separately, and players can only vote to lynch members of their own team.


Sabotage

The Saboteur leader allocates Sabotage Points to team-members, and chooses a saboteur to carry them out. Other Saboteurs are valid targets. Effected players lose one mile for each Point.


Malingering

As well as sabotaging their honest team mates, Saboteurs have the option of actively malingering and blaming it on sabotage. Each day, a Saboteur can contribute any number of miles they choose from ten down to zero.


Murder

During the game, each Saboteur can kill one honest team-mate during the night period. Only one Saboteur on a team can kill during one night.


Objects, Riddles and Surprises

Will be revealed as the game progresses.


The Endgame

If the Saboteurs outnumber or equal their honest teammates, they will automatically eliminate them and join their main group as ‘confirmed townies’. To win, the group still needs to eliminate the remaining saboteurs.


Winning

The first time to reach the Dornier and eliminate the Saboteurs in their ranks will escape the City and Antarctica, and win At the Mountains of Sensibility.


Hints

Special Roles are rare and valuable. Your team must protect them at all cost. Even though each team starts without an Investigator role, there are still ways to identify a Saboteur if you are lucky or canny.

Saboteurs need to rely on coordinated strategy rather then brute force tactics if they are to slow down their group without raising suspicions. Even so, looking at the distanced traveled by each player may be the only way for others to track down the Saboteurs.

Whichever team reaches the Dornier first and secures the Investigator has a huge advantage. But all hope for the slower team is not lost, although the Saboteurs under investigation may need to take desperate action.