As Archie stared into the bright yellow eyes of the strange beast before him, Malcolm quickly and stealthily crept up behind Virginia Niesennkraft, putting the business end of his pistol against the back of her head. He told her to have her troops stand down or die. Before she could do more than give that order, Archie grabbed the Dhol Chants from his pack and began reading aloud one of the spells within. And, as could be expected of Archie, things went spectacularly wrong.

As the last of the tones left Archie’s throat, the gathered Nazis winked out of view one by one. Then the Cygnus disappeared. Then the snow truck vanished, leaving only Archie and his friends. Even the cliff side vanished. The group appeared to be on a featureless gray plane, no stars, no moon, nothing but darkness and gray stone ground.

Archie began foaming at the mouth and rushed over to Malcolm, smacking the man with the book. Malcolm gritted his teeth and slammed the butt of his pistol on Archie’s head, dropping the professor to the ground unconscious. The others gathered around, unsure what happened.

As they waited for Archie to wake up…with Malcolm ready to punch him back to sleep if needed…Penelope walked off into the darkness to the north, hoping to find something. After about 500 yards she caught sight of what she believed to be a forest. She returned in time to see Archie wake up, and she reported what she had seen. Seeing Archie was back to his senses, she provided first aid, wrapping the large knot on his head with bandages.

Eleanor followed Penelope’s lead and headed south, travelling a similar distance. She saw far on the horizon dagger-like peaks, and strange shapes, possibly birds, wheeling around them. She quickly returned to the group and informed them of her scouting. The two women agreed to try the same thing again, Penelope heading east and Eleanor going west. To the east, Penelope saw nothing but continuing dark plains. Eleanor, however, saw the angled shadows of what might be a building. Both returned and informed the others of what they found.

With Archie mobile again, the group decided to head westward toward what might be a building. After nearly an hour of marching across the featureless darkness, they arrived at what appeared to be a shadowy version of the Rongbuk Monastery. The group entered the structure, finding it empty of people and belongings. The furniture was missing, the prayer wheels, everything. In the main hall they found one item – a purple silk sitting pillow in the middle of the floor. They recognized the pillow as the same as they saw the Lama sitting upon during their visit.

While the rest of the group investigated the pillow, Archie crept away to check the library. He found all of the shelves empty except for one red bound book. He tried to reach for it, but his hand passed through it. He made a mental note of its location and returned to the main hall.

Penelope was the first to attempt sitting on the pillow. As she did, she heard chanting, smelled incense, and saw ghostly images of the monks around her. She tried to mentally “shout” to the monks. They didn’t react, but Eleanor did, apparently hearing her somehow. Malcolm tried next, and while he heard chanting, he neither saw anything not caught the scent of incense. As Archie returned, he suggested Eleanor take a turn, reasoning that her strange talents might help her make contact with the monks.

Not certain it would work, Eleanor hesitantly sat on the pillow and concentrated on the meditations the Lama had taught them. She heard the monks, felt their presence, and as the images began to manifest, she suddenly blacked out. The group watched in horror as Eleanor’s form faded from view on the pillow.

Eleanor awoke among the monks, back in the monastery. She quickly described what happened to her and her team. The Lama reasoned that they had all somehow transitioned to the astral plane. He offered the assistance of the monks in trying to return them to the waking world. On the other side, the group argued over what to do. Penelope decided to try to push Archie into the pillow, knocking him down and pushing it onto him, sitting atop it.

The monks began chanting, calling out through the veil to the others. As the chanting grew, the team tried to help by engaging in the meditation on their end. After several minutes of chanting, the group fell asleep and awoke again among the monks, back in the monastery. The Lama informed them that they had left seven days prior, meaning they had lost three days in the strange realm.

After checking that they were all ok, the group quickly thanked the Lama and the monks for their help, and made their way to the Cygnus. They worried that the Nazis might have taken the plane, but it was still where they had left it. Penelope went to check the plane for damage and just barely noticed that a tripwire had been placed across the door. She disarmed the booby trap, removing a German grenade from the landing gear. She checked inside but found no other traps, and no damage to the plane. The group boarded the plane and took off, leaving the world’s tallest mountain far behind.

As they traveled back to Bailey Manor, they all took stock of the strange events that had taken them all to the top of the world.