by John Williams 

Dear Mr. Corbett,

It is with great regret that I must inform you of the untimely demise of those individuals in your employ who had made the treacherous expedition into the Sierra Madre de Chiapas mountains to the El Triunfo mining installation, of which you are a joint owner. I cannot truly vouch for the specific fate of all those involved in the investigation, as myself and my native guide dared not venture closer to the site having happened upon the frozen remains of two unfortunates some several miles distant. I understand that my failure to reach the mine invalidates our agreement, and I shall make no attempt to press for payment, having so willingly defaulted from our contract. I trust that the following manuscript which we found upon one of the bodies will throw some light upon the unfortunate events that befell this tragic expedition, and in some way explain my reticence to investigate the site in more detail.

I remain Sir, your most obedient servant.

Henry Johnston

Sierra De Chiapas Mountains5^th March 1926

To whom it may concern,

It appears that Mr. St. John–Colthurst and I have escaped the clutches of evil, but I fear that our troubles are not yet at an end. These mountains are barren and treacherous, and being neither locals nor alpinists we may well have some difficulty in reaching habitation or shelter. We have stopped to give our exhausted bodies and minds a brief respite before facing the new dangers that these silent and forbidding hills present, and I feel I must use this interval to recount in brief the terrible events that overtook our company at the El Triunfo mine, lest some further misfortune should befall us.

My companions and I had been hired by a Mr. Randall Corbett to discover the fate of the El Triunfo mine, which he owned in partnership with James Sutherland, who was overseeing the activities on site. Although arduous, our journey into the mountains of Mexico was uneventful, having been most capably led by Senor Enrique Carlos, who acted as our guide and interpreter. Our company was made up of a diverse range of individuals each of whom came for their own reasons and lent their own unique skills to the endeavour:

Nancy Bagshaw - A nurse serving in a Red Cross mission in the Sierra Madre de Chiapas mountains; Hugo St. John-Colthurst - A wealthy ornithologist; Enriques Da Luz - A Portuguese archaeologist and expert in South American culture; Myself, Rex Dashwood - An experienced botanist and explorer; Maxwell “Max” Goddard - An explorer and documentary film maker; Winston Harding - A civil servant from the British embassy in Mexico; Nick Malone - A long term patient and associate of Dr. Wickam-Banks; Sally McCarthy - An American entrepreneur and share holder in the mine; Florence Strongbow - A Christian missionary working in Mexico; Neil Tepp - An experienced South American explorer and mission leader; Dr. Wickam-Banks - A friend of Mr. Corbett, serving at the same Red Cross mission station as Nurse Bagshaw; Ralph Whittingham - A wealthy industrialist and shareholder in the mine; Raymond Winterburn - A psychologist, recently appointed to a sanitarium in Mexico City

We arrived at El Triunfo mine not long after lunch on the 4^th of March to find the site in disarray. The mine office had been totally destroyed in some form of explosion, the mine entrance collapsed rendering the subterranean regions inaccessible, and the dormitory building showed signs of a desperate armed struggle with makeshift barricades constructed to bar entrance and spent shells littering the floor. It appears that the mine staff had been assaulted by some force and had made their last stand in the dormitory, but were eventually overpowered. Curiously, we found no signs of blood nor any remains of the men. A thorough search of the building and grounds was undertaken (whilst Snr. Carlos prepared refreshments), which yielded the mine strong-box (but no key), a camera containing undeveloped film, and several curious documents including the diary of Mr. Sutherland (the mine director).

Over tea and cake we set about examining the fruits of our search. Mr. Goddard set aside his filming apparatus (with which he had been capturing our every move throughout the expedition) and attempted to develop the photographic plates, but with little success, most of the images being obscured by a curious flare of light which he was at a loss to account for. The diary however, revealed that Mr. Sutherland had been at least in part responsible for the calamity that befell the mine, and included references to bizarre Aztec rites, the grizzly practise of human sacrifice and repeatedly mentioned an ancient and malevolent Aztec deity named Titlacahuan.

As we mused over the meaning of Sutherlands insane writings we were visited by a local from a nearby village. Mr. Da Luz (being fluent in the local dialect and customs, as well as dressing in the style of the natives) quickly engaged him in conversation and discovered from him that the El Triunfo mine was an ill-omened place avoided by the locals. He also stated that rebels fighting the Mexican government were known to be active in the area, and that these could have been responsible for the attack and the disappearance of the miners.

Upon the departure of the local we once again fell to studying the diary and debating the fate of the men, when we found ourselves approached by another group of locals shouting threats and brandishing weapons. Snr. Carlos attempted to reason with them but was shot down in cold blood before we too found ourselves coming under fire from the brigands. The ladies quickly retreated whilst those gentlemen who possessed firearms put up a stalwart defence, which quickly saw the miscreants dispatched. Dr. Wickam-Banks and Nurse Bagshaw rushed to treat Snr. Carlos but were too late to save him.

We now found ourselves in a dangerous position. With our guide dead and the light swiftly fading it would be impossible to make our way down the mountain in safety. We could only hope to spend the night at the mine and set out for the nearest village at first light.

As the gentlemen discussed our position and preparations began to be made for the coming evening a bedraggled figure burst from the bushes and rushed towards us. This was Dr. Levitt, the medical doctor who had originally accompanied the miners and who had subsequently escaped the attack. Whatever the truth of his experiences he had clearly lost his reason and babbled insanely about the dead rising from their graves and a beast of unearthly origin before Dr. Wickham-Banks and Mr. Winterburn retired to a separate room in order to question him further lest his ravings unsettled the ladies.

Their efforts appeared fruitless, but a story of sorts was becoming clear; the mine itself had never yielded any gold, but the miners had discovered many ancient Aztec writings and artefacts. It appears that Mr. Sutherland had been aware of the lack of gold before the mine was re-opened but continued the excavations regardless, searching instead for ancient artefacts and the forbidden lore of the ancients. Whatever he discovered clearly drove him insane and some unholy force or creature was unleashed, which destroyed the men.

Although Dr. Levitt’s madness proved beyond the powers of Mr. Winterburn to cure, he did yield the missing key to the strong-box, along with a revised chemical process which Mr. Goddard could use to develop the photographic plates. Both of these revealed information that was to lead us closer to our own dreadful fate; the strong-box contained chemicals, a bundle of Sutherland’s research notes and a curious glowing substance that Sutherland had mentioned in his diary as “The blood of Titlacahuan”. Dr. Wickham-Banks, Mr. Tepp and Mr. Malone were all reticent to read these documents for some reason, but Mr. Da Luz and Miss Strongbow gladly volunteered to undertake the task. They revealed that Sutherland had been an avid student of the occult rites of the Aztecs and had discovered all manner of dark secrets about the true nature of the mine; it was in fact a holy site for the Aztec god Titlacahuan, and that its deepest levels held terrible and dark secrets.

Meanwhile Mr. Goddard succeeded in developing the photographic plates, which revealed the horrific threat that the miners had faced. However, these plates were quickly concealed by Mr. Tepp and some of the others who spoke in hushed tones about previous encounters with horrific forces, leading them to suspect that we faced a foe from beyond the realm of the mundane.

Whilst many of us scoffed at these brooding suspicions, our disbelief was tragically short-lived. With the coming of night we were once again attacked by hostile locals, this time led by some form of pagan priest who wore a fanciful mask and directed the actions of a sluggish but preternaturally resistant follower, who unbelievable managed to survive repeated bullet wounds and blows. It was only once the priest and his comrades were dispatched that we discovered that his inhuman servant was the long-dead body of one of the miners, animated into a blasphemous mockery of life by some diabolic sorcery! A search of the priest’s body revealed a number of ancient texts written in Aztec pictograms, which seemed to confirm our terrible suspicions, and Mr. Da Luz and Miss Strongbow set about the task of translating them in the hope that they might give us some means to combat the dark forces arrayed against us.

Many of our group were understandably eager to leave at once, but the more even-headed of us knew that doing so would be more perilous than staying at the mine. Without our guide and surrounded by hostile foes it would have been suicide to attempt to escape this terrible place at night. Mr. Tepp resolved that the best course of action would be to make the dormitory building secure and wait for the far-off dawn. By this time many of our company were showing signs of the mental strain, with Mr. Goddard making the ghoulish suggestion that the bodies of the slain should be rearranged so as to present a more dramatic effect to be captured on film!