Happy Winter Term students!

Hasn't all this snow and ice been romantic? Trapped indoors, short on supplies, endless night, and only a dangerous network of tunnels to escape the endless monotony of madness and potential cannibalism? Yes, who am I fooling? It only reminds me of the time I'll never get back pining over my over-educated and thoroughly untrustworthy paramour @Seketus Reed.

Which is why I've arranged for a special winter Psychic Study Abroad program for all eligible students to a place where it's summer and the sun never sets! That's right, pack your bags for Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station! It's the land of sunshine 24/7, and high temperatures reaching -14°F (that's -25°C for our metric friends).

There's a new portal in the ice tunnel network, just off the junction between the admin building and the gym. And just between you and me and Quinn the clairvoyant clerk in the Hall of Records, there's a lot of Love Signs perking up above the horizon down there, which means in ALL DIRECTIONS! Every which way is UP when you're down there I hear.

Plenty of bunks in the newly reconstructed "Dome Dorm," offered especially to us for its inaugural sleepover by the Extreme Environmental Psychic Study (EEPS) thinktank.

So a big thank-you to EEPS.

See you down under!

Sincerely,

A. Hazeltine
Student Activities Coordinator

Hey it's a lot colder here on the Psychic Study Abroad program than it was on campus I thought this was a trip the the Global Psychic South?

My birthday is soon. I'm planning a birthday party.
Everyone is invited to my dorm.
First I need to get approved by @Ms. Hazeltine
I hope she says yes.
Because I want to make this birthday special.
Also should I invite that guy that crawls from the bed?

I couldn't turn down the opportunity to go on the school trip to Amundsen–Scott station. As everybody knows, teleportal is the most environmentally friendly way to visit Antarctica.

The dome is a little chilly for sleeping, but there's no "night" and we're allowed to stay up for as long as we want. And there's plenty to do in the sunlight, like rigging the giant Japanese huskies up on the sleds to pull us around, bounding over the snow drifts. Or saddling up one of the giant Japanese huskies and going out for a ride across the wastes. Or just wrestling around with one of the giant Japanese huskies and a chew rope. They're very protective and would never hurt you, even though they're twice your size.

But again I swear it's the same orange checkered blimps I see, just over the horizon. Have they been spying on us the whole time?

Happy upcoming Birthday to @Kyle!

Sheesh! What is it about birthdays and this generation? What happened to "ask forgiveness, not permission?" Feels like it was just @Scaramouche's birthday. Can't anybody keep a secret anymore?

So, the deal with birthdays. The same rules apply for anybody having a get together:

1. Clean up your own mess.
2. This includes carpet stains; broken light fixtures; holes in the drywall; fire repair; and damage from acid, ooze, and poison from creatures terrestrial and otherwise.
3. Keep the noise down. While I may be at the Antarctic research station this month, I have ears EVERYWHERE.
4. No lycanthropy shots.
5. Seal any dimensional rifts thoroughly.

Best advice: Don't get caught! It will save everyone a lot of trouble.

Sincerely,

A. Hazeltine
Student Activities Coordinator

Of course, the mummies got loose in Antarctica. They wandered through the portal and now it's anybody's guess.

Well, ok, it's MY guess, I suppose, since thankfully I put AirTags on the alphas, and with the satellite sim cards the school gave us I can track them. They mostly travel in flocks. And are naturally resistant to the cold.

To a point, that is. They have a very low freezing temperature, but once you reach it, they freeze right up. Regular mummies freeze when water does, but animated mummies are a lot more resistant. These guys won't freeze up for months.

I could just wait it out, but these rascally mummies have a nose for trouble. I don't expect them to start some mummy civilization out on the ice, building ice pyramids or whatever. More likely they'll end up harassing the station, trying to drum up acolytes. So I'm working with the station scientists to track them and see what we can do.

When I sent away for them from the back of the comic book I certainly didn't mean for it to come to this.

Toby the Ice Worm is big enough to ride and seems to enjoy it, so we’ve been snorfing and hurling ourselves across the Antarctic plain. And what do we run across but an Icy Mummy Civilization! Out there in a hidden valley. Building pyramids, worshipping old gods, going about their mummy business.

It looks like they’ve been here for centuries.

It’s worth it to come to Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station just to be able to play with the dogs. The Japanese huskies are bigger than you, but they are super gentle and careful not to hurt you even when you’re rasslin in snow. And their fur is so warm when you’re riding them.

They’ve got their own base at a pace called The Lodge but you gotta know a dog to get invited.

The mummies have been pumping their special glycol out of the ice since time immemorial. It's what keeps them operating in the coldest months. See, their ability to move is all based on hydraulics--the ichor getting pumped around inside them--and the glycol keeps it from freezing up. It's how they move around, and sometimes show feats of tremendous strength. Their "Ice Pyramids" are the covers for the glycol wells and pumps and whatnot. That sphinx-looking structure is a storage tank.

We keep their perimeter under surveillance. The Ice Rangers that is, and our giant Japanese huskies. We couldn't do it without them. Sometimes a new Mummy King will arise and get all the mummies riled up about heading to the sea, stealing some ships, and ice-pirating their way to warmer climes. We keep an eye on that and make sure they stay penned in.

Col. Robert Plume
D.S./D.O./M.P.
The Lodge, Amundsen–Scott

So we're mostly trapped, here at Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, on account of the teleportals being down. Sure they're environmentally friendly but how do they work, anyway?

We could always rig up sleds on the giant Japanese huskies and make for McMurdo (do they have portals there?) or just take a boat or a plane to wherever, but what's the matter with our portal? Because I keep seeing that orange checkered blimp just over the horizon. Or may there's more than one, just like back at the school. That can't be a coincidence. Is that how you make portals? Are those the portal generators or whatever? Or is that what the problem is about? Some kind of jammer?

The giant Japanese huskies are great at bounding, but how do we get up into the sky?