With Kind Regards To Victor Pelevin

 Investigation 1, Day 4
Moon Phase: Waning Crescent
November 4th, 1920

Steve and Fawn decide to return to the site where they had previously seen the crack in the rock face. Fawn asks Steve to take him to the crazy woods where all the dangerous and strange stuff has happened. They’ll be fine because Fawn has a gun and “[is] hot.” They drive there, parking halfway up the mountain in an awkward make-out spot. They don’t end up damaging the car (much) but do get it stuck between some trees. A problem to be solved later. The two of them find themselves at the top of the cliff which the crack (which widens at the base to a hole) is. Fawn demands Steve carry him down, while scaling the near vertical cliff face. No one thought to bring rope, but they make their way down without harm. Fawn succeeds on a listen roll and hears ominous chanting coming from the crack in the cliff. He sees this as perfectly fine and decides to head down the crack after it. As he approaches he can make out a few facts about the ominous singing. One: it’s Russian, linguistically. Two: based on what few words he can recognize, he gets the vibe it’s probably about a wolf eating the sun. He shouts back out the hole to inform Steve, and gives away his position, causing whatever being was singing to stop.
Fawn makes his way into the cavern, slowly, and with his hand on his gun, which he knows how to use, Fawn says, “I am not threatening! I am very frail! Please, if you’re going to hurt me, tell me what you’re going to do first!” to which the only response is a young, feminine voice, coming from all around him in a seemingly empty cavern asking:
“What… is the sun, to you?”
“I have… never looked my best in the sun, and recent tidings… mean I’m… led to prefer other sources of light.” He replies.
His attention is caught by a mysterious book sitting on an altar at the center of the strangely lit cavern. Looking at it, he asks “Man cannot serve two masters. Am I to sign a name, or am I to read?” and is not answered. Fawn takes the book. The lights go out, with just enough time for Fawn to see another person in the chamber. Someone in tweed. Said figure invites Fawn out into the sunlight.
There is an altercation in which Fawn seems to get the upper hand on the professorly type man, disarming him and holding him at gunpoint. The following conversation is had:
Fawn: “Tell me, do you think homosexuality is a sin?”
Interlocutor: “I’ve seen too much to be religious. If there is a god, then he’s already angry at us, and there’s no way to abate it.”
Fawn: “Excellent!”
Interlocutor: “So may I please have the book it is my job to come get.”
Fawn: “What would you do for it?”
Interlocutor, with far less remorse than one might expect: “Well, I came prepared to kill you.”
Fawn, more predatory than offended: “What ELSE would you do for it.”
At this point, Steve arrives, interrupting what might have otherwise gone certain places. Immanuel, the professor and agent at Lacuna Bay Athenaeum, as he introduces himself, retrieves the book from Fawn, in exchange for a promise of goodwill and a favor. He reveals to Steve that yes, werewolves are real, and no, they aren’t what caused this. Werewolves were more of a symptom of the book infecting people with negative chakras that gradually transform them into werewolves. Immanuel was led here by information shared the previous day by Asif, who has spent the day caring for a comatose Ernest. Won’t he be pleased to know he was helpful!