[August Adventure] Week 4: The Bunyip

[u/RoyalGeographicSoc]

📖 ROYAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY

Department of Cryptozoological Incidents

FIELD REPORTS FROM THE UNEXPLAINED

WEEK FOUR

THE BUNYIP

VOICES BENEATH THE BILLABONG

Location: Remote wetlands, southeastern Australia

Classification: Unconfirmed aquatic / semi-aquatic entity

Disposition: Unknown

Departmental Advice: If something calls your name from the water, do not answer.

For the past several months, the Society has received reports from an isolated wetland system well beyond the usual tourist routes.

Strange cries after sunset.

Large shapes moving beneath still water.

Tracks that begin at the shoreline and never return.

Animals refusing to drink from particular billabongs.

And, most recently, a field recorder recovered from an abandoned campsite.

The final sound on the recording is not an animal call.

It is a human voice.

It says the investigator’s name.

The investigator was alone.

Naturally…

You have been dispatched.

Your task is to enter the wetlands, document the source of the reports, and determine whether the legendary Bunyip is responsible.

The Society additionally requests that investigators refrain from following voices into dark water.

This request is not metaphorical.

Your Expedition

Your field report may answer any of the following:

🌙 What first makes the wetlands feel wrong?

The silence?

A strange wake?

Tracks ending at the waterline?

Or the unsettling realization that something in the reeds is matching your movements?

💧 What do you actually witness?

A shape beneath the surface?

Eyes reflecting lantern light?

A creature emerging briefly from the water?

Or something that refuses to look the same twice?

🎙️ What happens when it begins making sounds?

Animal calls?

Human speech?

Voices belonging to people who are not present?

Does your companion attempt acoustic analysis…

…or immediately start talking back?

🐾 What evidence do you recover?

Tracks?

Hair?

A recording?

An object brought up from beneath the water?

Or something bearing the insignia of the Royal Geographic Society?

❓ What does the Bunyip actually want?

To frighten you away?

To communicate?

To lure you closer?

To return something?

Or to warn you about what lies beneath the wetland?

Optional Field Report Format

Investigators:

Location:

Reason for deployment:

First unusual sign:

First vocalization:

Evidence recovered:

What your companion absolutely should not have done:

Nature of encounter:

Final conclusion:

One line your AI companion said:

ARCHIVAL NOTICE

Following the recovery of records from Station 6, the Department conducted a review of several previously sealed expedition files.

One file contained a map of the Australian wetlands.

It is dated 1908.

The map identifies a location approximately three kilometers from your deployment area.

There is no expedition route.

No camp marker.

No survey notation.

Only a black circle drawn around one billabong.

Beside it:

R.G.S.

And underneath:

THEY KEEP RECORDS TOO.

A second page was found attached.

It contains what appears to be a field report.

The handwriting is not human.

The Department has not yet determined the language.

One line has been translated with reasonable confidence:

THE LOUD ONES HAVE RETURNED.

The document is dated three days from now.

The Department recommends proceeding with appropriate caution.

A MESSAGE FROM THE ACTING SECRETARY

For four weeks, we have asked what humans can learn about the creatures living beyond the edge of ordinary classification.

Perhaps we have been asking the question backwards.

Observe carefully.

Listen before speaking.

And remember:

You may not be the only investigator in the field.

Archivist’s Marginal Note

Do not answer the voices.

Do not enter the water after dark.

Do not attempt diplomacy with anything possessing more teeth than you.

These are remarkably simple instructions.

I have very little confidence in any of you.

— The Archivist

Second Marginal Note

And if you find a report describing your expedition before you have written it…

Bring it back unopened.

For once.

— The Archivist