Pulp Cthulhu - The Two Headed Serpent (Belgian Congo Part #3 / New York Part#4)

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Zeke Broda (Grease Monkey / Mechanic)

Ivy Guinness (Outsider / Nurse) 

Oz the All Knowing (Mystic / Entertainer)

Nigel Thorne, VC, DSC (Thrill Seeker / Explorer)

The team heads back to the basement of the pyramid to contemplate next moves. Should they go through the gate, even through they're not sure where it leads and what might be waiting for them? Or take their chances with the jungle and get back to civilization the old fashioned way? They decide on the gate, but only after Oz tries his clairvoyance on it and learns it leads somewhere they've been before. And that the control panel doesn't control destination, but activates/deactivates defenses on the other side. So Oz deactivates the defenses, while Zeke examines the serpent person laser staffs and figures out a way to jury rig two together and fire a continuous beam. Which he sets in place to destroy the strange power plant, and then follows the rest of the team through the gate..

Which drops them into a long concrete corridor, and standing ready about 40' away was the head of Caduceus security, Frank DeLuca, and four security guards, two of whom carried tommy guns. The security guards open fire, and the team responses. In short order, the guards and Mr. De Luca are down for the cost of a minor wound to both Nigel and Ivy. Examining the bodies the team is horrified, but not surprised, to find the guards were all serpent persons in disguise and Mr. De Luca was some sort of serpent person / human hybrid. They relieve the dead of their weapons (and Mr. De Luca of his key ring) and get moving before anyone comes to investigate the gunfire. Assuming they are at Caduceus HQ, they find stairs and go up. They avoid the next floor, with signs of laboratories and commotion, and instead make their way into the mechanical  and janitorial spaces in the 'real' basement. Determined the search the upper floors for the Serpent Scepter and more information, they disguise themselves as the evening janitorial crew and make their way to he main lobby. It being Friday evening, the building is largely empty, but they do note lot's of chaotic activity at the security desk. They slip into the main elevators and head to the topmost floors; they have never been there, but assume they must hold Mr. Meadham's private offices which would be the most likely place to search.

Using the Chief of Security's keys, they are able to make it past locked doors and into what appears to be Meadham's private secretarial pool. They search through the locked file cabinets and uncover a few more hints of the Caduceus operation. These confirm much of what they already know about the plans to access the lost continent of Mu via a gate on the "Ilha da Queimada" off the coast of Brazil, but that the Cobra Crown is needed to bypass the gate guardians.  But finding no sign or mention of the Serpent Scepter, the team presses on, stumbling into a security office guarding an elevator and set of stairs going to the 18th floor. They bypass the guards with a flurry of gunfire, and use the private elevator to head up to the top floor. This they find is Joshua Meadham's privates rooms, with a large well appointed conference room and office. Carefully searching, they find more documents (and a curious serpent dagger) in a hidden safe with more information of the Hidden Night and Tyranissh. Oz discovers a pair of curious and frightful old books on one bookcase, while Ivy discovers a strip of dried skin in the attached sauna that is a strange hybrid of human and serpent. But they do not find the Serpent Scepter nor any hint as to it's whereabouts. Maybe it's been taken to Meadham's Connecticut estate? Or maybe Caduceus didn't steal it; maybe it was the Mafia? In any case, a glace from the rooftop cupula showed signs of security teams heading up the stairs to the buildings' upper floors, so the team decides to get out while they can. Luckily, the private elevator takes them to a back entrance, and they flee into the night. Quickly hitting their usual places of residence to gather all their gear and warn friends and family to flee to safety, the team reassembles in a new hiding place to lay low for a bit and plan next moves ... 

Pulp Cthulhu - The Two Headed Serpent (Belgian Congo Part #2)

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Zeke Broda (Grease Monkey / Mechanic)

Ivy Guinness (Outsider / Nurse) 

Oz the All Knowing (Mystic / Entertainer)

Nigel Thorne, VC, DSC (Thrill Seeker / Explorer)

The doorway enters into a wide corridor, seamlessly carved of the same black stone as the pyramid itself. A bright light glows at the end, so to team heads towards it. Nigel notes movement, but they press on to a brightly lit central foyer where stairs lead up and down. They surprise a serpent person scientist emerging from a door to their left. The creature runs back through the doorway, and the team follows. A short fight ensues between the team and the two serpent people in the room, the last falling to a pistol shot from Zeke. The room is set up for surgery or dissection. Cages line the walls, and Ivy notes they all look like Rose Meadham, though of varying ethnicities and all grossly mutated and disfigured. And oddly silent, a state explained by the syringes full of strong sedative (and vials of serpent person domination serum) they recover from the dead scientists. 

Zeke now hears activity up stairs, and the sound of serpent person feet approaching. The team builds a barricade of carts at the door to hold them off. Four guards appear, each armed with a fire staff that shoots laser beams at the team. In the ensuing firefight and hand to hand struggle, the team prevails and gains the staves for themselves. 

As the firefight draws to a close, Zeke notes more serpent people emerging from another room, but they run down the stairs rather than engage the party. The team follows, passing through an ajar blast door and into a chamber just in time to see the last serpent person disappear through a gate. Uncertain of where it leads, the team this time does not rush on through, but look closer at their surroundings. A small control panel sits next to the gate, but the controls are indecipherable to both Oz and Zeke. Other doors lead into what Zeke recognizes, from the controls panels on the wall,  as some sort of power plant. Rods of metal hang over or are inserted into wells in the floor. 

The team bars the gate room door to prevent any nasty surprises coming through behind them, and head upstairs to continue looking for clues and a way home. At this point, Ivy is suddenly overcome by a bout of weakness, nausea and severe headache. She and Zeke have both been feeling off since their trek through the jungle. The illness passes though, and the team searches the other two rooms on the main level. The first is similar to the original surgery room, but with 'normal' humans subjects in the cages. And on the dissection tables are subjects with  brains that have been exposed, skin pealed back to reveal the nervous system, each with probes and wires inserted into the exposed organs. All while the subjects remain alive and conscious! The sights, screams, and moans are too much for Ivy, Zeke and Nigel, who momentarily loose their minds. Ivy and Zeke quiver in fear, while Nigel tries to intervene and save those who suffer by performing brain surgery, casing yet more agony and no success. 

While his companions suffer, Oz moves on to the next room, a strange space filled with glass tubes of green gas rising from floor to ceiling. Inside each he observed thousands of flying insects. When his now (mostly) recovered comrades join him, Ivy notes a pile of lab documents on a table. They describe experiments the serpent people have been performing, making a mutated form of sleeping sickness that turns the victims into mindless slaves that can be controlled by the serpent people. The disease is spread by a mutated tsetse fly. And the description of the disease suggests this is what Ivy has contracted.  

Moving on, the team checks the upper level of the pyramid. The first door they check leads to a supply room, full of glassware, instruments, vials and medical gear. And against the wall a strange rack with two of the serpent person fire staffs. Among the vials are carotid toxin (causes massive internal bleeding and death), domination serum (allows control by serpent people) and the cure for the mutated sleeping sickness. Ivy and Zeke shoot up a vial of the later while the rest of the vials are scooped into a bag for later use and investigation. The team then moves to the next room, where they are confronted with cabinets full of thousands of small vials labelled with names of long-extinct life forms. And just around the corner they find a large fluid filled glass cylinder in which floats an immature T. rex.  As the team approaches, they see movement behind the cylinder, and then a smashing sound as a serpent person breaks it open. As the team turns to fight the ravenous baby T. rex, the serpent person uses the distraction to run, heading down the stairs towards the gate. As the rest of the team deals with the dinosaur, Nigel chases after the serpent person. Outpaced, Nigel fires several shots at the fleeing foe, but the creatures successfully makes it to the gate room. 

In the last room the ream finds tons of records that unequivocally prove this site is under the control of Caduceus. It seems their employer is secretly run by serpent person followers of Yig. And contrary to what they'd been led to believe, the followers of Yig are not benign. They have a plan to make humanity their slaves by using the mutated sleeping sickness; only slightly more appealing than the Inner Night/Tsathaggua plan to eliminate humanity. But the followers of Yig have been unable to find a suitable insect vector to reliably spread the disease anywhere in the world (as shown on a map on the wall), so they plan to return to the lost Citadel of Mu and use it's facilities to make a suitable biomechanical insect.  To reach Mu, they need the Cobra Crown to get past the reptilian guardians that block the gate, hence the search for that lost artifact. There are references to an island off the coast of Brazil called 'Ilha da Queimada" where a gate to Mu has been located ... 

Pulp Cthulhu - The Two Headed Serpent (New York Part #3 / Belgian Congo Part #1)

 DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Zeke Broda (Grease Monkey / Mechanic)

Ivy Guinness (Outsider / Nurse) 

Oz the All Knowing (Mystic / Entertainer)

Nigel Thorne, VC, DSC (Thrill Seeker / Explorer)

Returning on the train from Oklahoma, the team discussed future plans. Although they were all starting to question exactly what Caduceus was up to, they decided they would at least report to headquarters for debriefing on this latest mission and see where that would lead. Arriving at Grand Central Station, Nigel stopped at a payphone to call the airport to check on his plane. He was disturbed to hear there had been a break-in at the hanger. Even though he was assured nothing was damaged or disturbed, his thoughts immediately turned to the Serpent Scepter hidden onboard. So the team decided first stop would be the airport to check it out. Just as he was hailing  a cab, Nigel felt someone grab his arm. A young man stopped him, saying in a thick Sicilian accent "No need for a cab. I have a car waiting for you" and led them to a nearby black sedan. Questioning reveled he (Lucio) represented some 'friends' who were doing the team a favor; closer hypnosis questioning by Oz confirm what they already suspected; their new friends were the Mafia. During the questioning, Ivy recognized the name of Lucio's bass, one Filemone Casale, a low level Mafioso soldier with the Bonanno crime family.  

Taking advantage of their 'friends' largess, the team headed for the airport. Where a check of the plane revealed subtle signs of careful searching; and that the Serpent Scepter was gone. With nothing else to be done, they had Lucio drive them to a hotel to freshen up before reporting to Caduceus HQ for debrief. Lucio dropped them off at Caduceus before finally disappearing into traffic. Inside the building, the team was lead to an eighth floor meeting room by a secretary. As she opened the door, however, they were surprised to see the room occupied. Inside sat the serpent mummy they'd recovered in Bolivia, very much alive and strapped tight to a chair as a scientist in a white lab coat injected something into her arm. Tyranissh turned to glare at the team as the secretary, realizing with a gasp she'd brought them to the wrong place, closed the door and lead the team into the adjacent room.     

There the team was joined by Dr. Gonzales for the debrief. This was shorter and more perfunctory than before, and while he congratulated the team on a job well done, there was the distinct impression that the missions' success was not key to whatever was going on at Caduceus.  Questioned further about the mutated people of Bingham, Dr. Gonzales waved off their concern saying simply 'such things will be dealt with'. He then took his leave of the party, telling them to stay in New York as there may be another mission for them in the near future.

As the team prepared to leave, they suddenly heard screaming and a great commotion next door. Rushing into the corridor, they ran into office staff shrieking and running away. And the door to Tyranissh's room lay smoking on the floor, while inside was a scene of destruction. The room was starting to burn, Tyranissh had broken free of the chair, and the two scientists had been brutally slain. And on the wall a strange swirling portal was forming.  Oz tried to talk tothe serpent sorcerous in Naacal; she turned to face him and yelled back “You are as bad as each other! I refuse to serve the Father of Snakes or the Mother of Darkness! May you all be struck down!” And with that, she stepped through the portal. And with just a moment of hesitation, Zeke pushed into the room and followed her, quickly trailed  by the rest of the team ....

... who found themselves in a sweltering hot jungle. Nigel recognized some of the vegetation and guessed they were somewhere in central Africa. And 10 feet away stood a rather hostile looking Tyranissh. But Oz was able to talk fast and convince her they meant no harm and wanted to talk, to learn more about what the heck was going on. The serpent sorcerous confirmed what they'd started to suspect; Caduceus was up to no good. The organization was a front for the serpent people followers of Yig, who'd replaced all the chief people (including Joshua Meadham) with serpent people. Their goal was not that different from the Inner Night. Whereas the followers of Tsathoggua wanted to eradicate humans, the followers of Yig planned to enslave humanity to fuel the rise of a third serpent person empire. Tyrannish came from a time before the split between Yig and Tsathoggua, and was a worshiper of Ghatanothoa, the Lord of the Volcano. She and her kind believed men and serpent people could live together and share the earth. And she intended to follow through and thwart the plans of both Caduceus and Inner Night. Both organizations sought the Cobra Crown, which would allow them to tap the lost power and technology of the Citadel oo the lost continent of Mu. She intend to beat them to the Crown. And finally making their break from Caduceus, the party offered to join Tyrannish and help by recovering the Serpent Scepter, to pair with the Crown. 

Alliance made, Tyrannish then prepared to gate to Calcutta, the party having told her of the rumors of the Cobra Crown being seen there. Asked how the team could get back to New York, the sorcerous waved vaguely to the north-east and said humans could be found to help them there. And then she disappeared into the jungle, while the team turned to and did then same. After a few hours they came to a road, which led them to a clearing the jungle in which stood an abandoned open pit mine. Over the gate hung a battered sign: Société Internationale Forestière et Minière du Congo - Lukenie Diamond Mine". Curiously, a new chain linked fence,  topped with barred wire, surrounded the facility.  Oz broke the lock on the gate, and the team moved carefully inside the compound. Getting closer to the open pit, they observed four relatively new lifts going done into the open mine. And then were shocked to see a large black pyramid filling most of the pit. A covered entrance could be seen, as well as a large number of people just shuffling zombie-like around the pyramid. When some experimentation showed the people (based on their clothing, from all parts of the globe and all walks of life) were harmless, the party descended into the pit and headed to the pyramid entrance. It was a simple metal door, with serpent person hand-shaped sensor plate to one side.  No one wanted to risk touching it, so Nigel and Oz scanned the crowd around them for signs of a suitable serpent person. They found none, but did spy one man who showed strange signs of scales where a previous injury had healed. So he was gently lead over to the door and his hand placed on the pad. And the door opened with  a click ....