I'm not sure what kind of morality requires the burning of children to defeat evil

I think you two may be getting ahead of yourselves.

While I'm certainly no scholar of Mephiticum, I've come to understand something of the beliefs that compose it.

Specifically, that the damned are damned through no fault of their own.

They're born as such

Eh, I'm even less of an expert than you are, but as I recall, while there's plenty of discussion about hell, sin, and the indestructibility of the soul, there's very little said about the creator god itself, only that one is implied by the wording of the codex

I recently read an essay suggesting that the idea of a benevolent creator god may have emerged in opposition to a far bleaker Mephiticum possibility, that existence consists only of Earth and hell.

In this view, Earth embodies the intended form and order shaped by some distant, impersonal force, while hell is nothing more than the repository of what was carved away, the chipped clay, the pencil shavings, the discarded remnants left behind in the act of creation, kept only until the work is perfected, and then perhaps swept clean

We should have, that is, I should have listened to you

That's quite all right, Dr., uh, Sam.

I knew when I came on this trip that what I had to say would likely be unconvincing.

In fact, I hoped not to have to say it at all.

After the Darrow expedition vanished, it seemed reasonable to assume that whatever was haunting the man vanished along with him.

Regrettably, it did not

Any luck?

Nothing by the way of direct assistance, I'm afraid.

Okay, so what do you suggest? Tell them that Ryan guy is right, that a giant goddamn goat monster crashed through here and took one of the workers?

I don't think telling the truth is our most pressing concern at the moment.

I propose we play dumb, at least until we can prove something.

In the meantime, we work around the clock until we can determine what is to be done, if anything.

Like whatever those machines are, whoever or whatever created them, they're behind all of this somehow.

I'm curious whether someone guided almost entirely by logic would agree with your assessment.

Hank, given all the information we've provided, along with our own written accounts of these events, what would you determine to be the origin of the high strangeness we've encountered?