Pulp Cthulhu - The Two Headed Serpent (Mu Part #2 & Finale)

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Zeke Broda (Grease Monkey / Mechanic Spy)

Ivy Guinness (Outsider / Nurse) 

Oz the All Knowing (Mystic / Entertainer)

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

The team rides Oz's tamed lloigor down off the plateau into the swamp. The path weaves between hills of festering mud and pools of thick, foul-smelling liquid. Twisted forms can be seen writhing just below the surface. Thanks to their steads however, nothing bothers them as they make their way towards the volcano. About half way across the morass, they encounter debris from one of the flying spheres. Based on Zeke's assessment, it appears the sphere had been smashed straight down into the ground and shattered. They hear a hissing groan nearby, and find a badly injured serpent person lying in the mud. He begs them to pull him out before the swamp creatures eat him alive. The team does so, and then question him. The serpent person is one of Rose Meadham's followers, and he tells the team she has reached the Citadel and should now be starting the process to summon Mu back to Earth and then invoke the doomsday device to destroy humanity. He also points out the battle underway on the lower slopes of the volcano, where the elder things and lloigor have tried to stop Rose's forces from getting into the Citadel. The team asks him about the transport sphere, and the serpent person described how they work and that they need to be filled with a special oxygenated liquid before flying. Ivy meanwhile tries to apply medical aid, but her knowledge of serpent person physiology is poor and instead their captive dies. 

The team pushes on, and at the edge of the swamp encounter the remains of battle. Three dead elder things, scorched by flame pistols, lie beside the broken remains of two serpent people. One of the serpents’ bodies has been so badly crushed that it is little more than a red smear. A fourth elder thing has survived,  barely conscious, floating in a pool  and being nibbled at by creatures that look like human eyes with the legs of spiders. The team approaches and Oz tires to communicate with the strange barrel-like creature. He seems to have no success, but the thing pushes a strange metal deices towards Oz. He picks it up, and now finds himself in telepathic commination with the Elder Thing.  It tells them of the battle to stop the serpent people, and how the Citadel draws its power from the body of the god Ghatanothoa who lives inside the volcano. The team is also warned not to stay too long outside the Citadel, as the power of the god will eventually turn them to stone. Though it also warns that the Citadel itself is partly out of phase with Mu, so they may have to wait some time to gain entry once they reach the top of the volcano. Once more, Ivy tries to help the creature, but once more her knowledge of alien physiology lets her down and the creature dies.

While in communication with the elder thing, Oz also learned it had summoned help in the form of a shoggoth from the nearby battle. They now it it approaching with a piping cry of “Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!". Not wanted to take their chances with the protoplasmic monster, Zeke leads them in a wide detour out of the way and towards the volcano. As they get closer, they see more scenes of fighting, which they avoid and instead head up the slope towards the huge egg-shaped metallic citadel. It is perched over the mouth of the volcano on struts, one of which has already been damaged in the fighting. The team approaches one strut and waits for the Citadel to phase back into solid form. When it does, Oz tires to lead his lloigor through the strange metal door; but the creatures cannot pass. So he releases them to the battle, and the team pushes through the weird liquid metal door on foot.

On the other side they found a corridor of metal construction, slopping up towards the interior of the Citadel. Nigel notes damage along the walls of the narrow passage, and guesses it comes from the transport spheres zooming through. So they follow the trail deeper into the structure, noting that the structure becomes more organic and less metallic as they proceed. They also start to see signs of life; weird stunted and deformed serpent folk, and odd hairless and mutated rodents that sequel like humans. These flee from the team and the advance continues without delay. They eventually some to a point where the trail splits; the transport spheres seems to go one way, and a trail of serpent person footprints goes in another. They decide to follow the footprints, surmising it will lead to Rose and her goons. But they make note of the location of the transport spheres as they expect to need a quick exit before the day is over. 

The trail leads to a grand, circular structure, some 200 feet in diameter. Alcoves around the edge are filled with colorful, ophidian statues that writhe constantly. The walls coil up to a domed roof hundreds of feet high, with a glowing green ball of energy at its apex. A great snake-like form rises in the center, with an alter at the top. Around the room itself is a thick layer of shed snakeskin and debris. Zeke and Oz quickly check the alter, but then the team all converge on the only exit; a catwalk/gangway that leads steeply down. However, before they can reach this exit, a black amorphous form emerges from the debris on the floor; a formless spawn that now moves to block their passage. Zeke shoves a stick of dynamite at the thing, which unfortunately catches the rest of the team in the blast. But Oz then finishes it off with a laser staff.  

With the way now free, the team slowly makes their way down the gangway. They come to the entrance of another round room, this one surrounded by a strange mesh of fine wire and fleshy tentacles. In the center of the room is a giant holographic projection of Yig. Four armed serpent people stand guard around the perimeter, while seated at one side are Rose Meadham and two other serpent people. The two are connected to the wall via tentacles to their heads and seems to be controlling something. As the team enters, they hear a voice: "T-30 and counting. Mu return sequence activated". Knowing it was now or never if they wished to save the Earth, the team springs into action. They try to focus on Rose, but another formless spawn drops out of the ceiling to confront them. Oz wrestles with Rose for control of the creature, but even with the added power of the Crown, the control passes back and forth. In the meantime, the serpent person guards open a hail of deadly fire on the team, and Ivy is soon dropped unconscious. Nigel makes the fateful decision to activate the haftorang device he's been carrying since Calcutta, accepting the team may have to sacrifice themselves to save the world. But then with the successful application of more fire power and a bag of grenades, the team finally kills Rose and the remaining serpent people. 

With the countdown nearing an end, Zek rushes to the tentacle panel, and attaches the writhing flesh to his head. And finds himself in contact with the AI controlling the Citadel. In a blaze of nonsense logic, Zeke convinces the intelligence that humans and serpent people need to live in peace and harmony, and the AI is unable to process the fact that this monkey-person was as smart as it's serpent person masters. And so it goes insane, stops the Mu countdown, and begins a new countdown; 5 minutes to self destruction of the Citadel. 

Now with two dooms counting down, the team flees from the control room and rushes back towards the transport spheres. They find them in a strange fleshy workshop, where orifices are oozing out new structural material for the Citadel as well as new transport spheres. Some successful first aid brings Ivy back to consciousness, and the team jumps into individual spheres to escape. Unfortunately, Nigel is unable to properly interface with the mental control mechanism of his sphere. With gallant aplomb, the war hero waves the others on, then sits down with his pipe and pocket edition of Kipling to await his fate. 

The rest of the team, with a final salute to Nigel, rush out of the nearby airlocks just as the citadel begins to rumble and explode. They jet across the swamp towards the gate, which is starting to waver and fade. But all three spheres plunge in, and within moments the three survivors find themselves floating above Serpent Island, back on the green and pleasant earth ...

And here ends the campaign. 

Pulp Cthulhu - The Two Headed Serpent (Calcutta Part#3 / Brazil 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)

Zeke and Ivy work frantically to pull their unconscious colleagues from the wrecked car. Luckily the approaching police officers are still caught in the crowd, but the truck from the fort is not so impeded. The two finally pull Oz and Nigel out, along with some choice items of their gear, then toss a grenade in the wreckage to destroy anything incriminating. Dragging the comatose two, Ivy and Zeke head up the stairs and inside the Victoria Monument. Pausing for a moment to let Oz and Nigel recover, they then all run out the back door, looking for somewhere to hide  or a vehicle to use in their escape. Finding nothing, and with the truck full of soldiers almost on top of them, Zeke whips out the Cobra Crown and convinces Oz to put it on in the hope that it will give the mystic some sort of power to help them. Immediately, the cobras on the crown animate, and drill their tails into Oz's skull. Oz now feels the power to control snakes and other reptilian creatures, as well as the ability to summon nearby snakes. Which he starts to do just as the army truck pulls up and  disgorges soldiers from the back. 

Confronted by a young Lt. Williams intent on taking them into custody, Nigel manages to use a mix of fast talk and impressive war stories to convince the officer they are some sort of special operatives. While the lieutenant won't let them go, he agrees to take them to his own commanding officer  instead of just locking them up. His men load the teams gear in the truck, wave off the now arriving police and, and then load everyone aboard to head back to Fort William. As they drive, Oz orders the cobras he has attracted to attack their captors. The venomous snakes kill half the soldiers, while the others jump out of the back and and quickly left behind.  Zeke crawls on to of the truck cab, and as another cobra kills the driver, slides into the driver seat and takes control of the vehicle. Slamming on the brakes, he pushes Lt. Williams out of the cab, and Nigel slips into the drivers seat. And gets them to the airport quickly, stealthy and without raising any further alarm.  They make it to their plane, and as they board notice another plane with a Caduceus crest on the side, taxiing for take-off. Assuming the is Joshua Meadham, they initially plan to quickly follow him into the air and try shooting him down with their small arms.  But in the end decide to just rely on Nigel's piloting skill and outfly him, figuring they are headed to Brazil and the gate to Mu as well. 

Two weeks of flying from one airport to another finally lands them in Santos, the port of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Hiring an out of the way hanger, they get the plane out of sight. Questioning the airport personnel, they learn no one matching the description of Rose or Joshua Meadham have landed recently. Nigel figures his marathon flying has gained them a half day at most, so the team hires a truck to bring them down to the docks where they hope to find a boat to take them to the Ilha de Queimada Grande aka Snake Island. Once there, they find it impossible to hire a boat. No one will take them on the water, and certainly no one will take them to Snake Island. They also note a small steamer nearby flying a Caduceus pennant. Zeke uses his contacts and makes a phone call to the local US Navy attaché, learning that a US Navy task force is stationed offshore but the attaché doesn't know why. There was some thought of requesting a boat from the Navy, but in the end they decide just stealing one would be their best bet. 

While they wait, a young boy approaches with a folded piece of paper. Nigel takes the paper and unfolds it, revealing a crude drawing a a serpent eye. Which to their horror, then blinks at them! The young boy, looking at the paper with them, suddenly gasps and they see his shadow start to to wrap itself around him in a constricting embrace. Before they can do anything to help, the boy is dead. And Oz feels his shadow start to grasp his body. After a few panicked moments, the team hauls Oz into cover where he cast no shadow, thereby saving him from death. 

Fearful now of going out in the sunlight, the team watches helplessly as a group of vehicles approaches the Caduceus ship, loading men and supplies. After this, the ship raises steam and heads out the harbour.  Shortly after, as darkness had fallen, the team slips out onto the docks and steal a boat to make their way under cover of darkness across the waters to Snake Island. 

Pulp Cthulhu - The Two Headed Serpent (Calcutta 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 team finishes their tea and discuss next steps. They decide to head to the museum, hoping to find more clues before checking out the shrine of Masa Devi by the Adi Ganga canal. At the museum they bluff their way into the office of the curator, Nathanial Blyth. They quickly learn Blyth is tired of talking about the Cobra Crown as the museum doesn't have it and has no information on the artifact The assistant curator, Vatsala Kumtekar, who posted the newspaper notice has not been back to work for days, obviously too embarrassed to show himself at work.  Blyth does let slip that, among everyone else who have been asking, a pair that sound like Meadham and Canning were at the museum the day before Kumtekar disappeared. And the team thus assumes Kumtekar is dead and there is little more to learn on this path of inquiry. 

Back to their hired car, the team gets Narayan to bring them deep into the slums to the shrine of Mansa Devi. They arrive in a little square in front of a garish but somewhat rundown shrine. At the top of the steps leading inside stands a large statue of a woman wearing a snake crown. They also encounter a scene of chaos, with injured and dead scattered in the square and more still stumbling out of the shrine. Ivy examines one of the fallen and sees they all suffer hemorrhaging from eyes, ears and mouth, and that is is not a natural injury. The team fires a few rounds into the air to clear the mass of humanity blocking their way, and push into the shrine to investigate. But are stopped by an old woman who is the shire keeper. They learn one of the temple adherents, a man named Kiran Kapoor, broke into just an hour before, forced his way into the lower shire and stole the crown of Mansa Devi! It was he that caused such death and destruction, but how or why the woman could not say. 

As they pondered this new mystery, the team hears a commotion outside. The old woman translates for them; the people are saying Kiran Kapoor has returned!  Everyone rushes outside, and the team sees a small man approaching, stumbling as in a daze. The crowd parts fearfully for him. He reaches the step, and raising a hand in greeting whispered "she stole my face" before disintegrating into a pile of dust! This causes more panic and pandemonium, and the crowd quickly disperses. Oz reaches out  to the dusty remains to use his clairvoyance power. In his minds eye, he sees Kiran talking to an unknown woman about the shrine and the crown. The woman then reaches out to him  and Oz senses the man's life force being pulled from him, leaving just an empty shell. And the woman now wears the visage of Kiran Kapoor. Oz finally senses the empty shell of the man wander back to the shrine. 

Stymied once more and out of leads, the team decides to head for the Victoria Monument where they'd agreed to meet Tyranissh, hoping the serpent woman would be there and give them some idea of what to do next. As they drive up towards the open common and the monument, they encounter a huge crowd, who are cheering for someone standing atop the monument dome. The figure is proclaiming the glory and the might of Mansa Devi, punctured with a display of magic and illusions. Sharp-eyed Ivy recognizes the figure as Kiran Kapoor. She also notes two cars at opposite ends of the crowd. One contains a pair of Rose Meadham's goons, while the other is occupied by Joshua Meadham and Canning! 

Sensing trouble, they pool all their cash and buy Narayan's car, sending the poor man home and out of danger. At this point, Kiran pulls out what looks to be the Cobra Crown and moves to place it on his head. As he does, the man changes into the form of Tyranissh. Moving fast, Nigel fires a shot at her wrist, causing the serpent woman to drop the Crown to the ground below. Zeke and Ivy start to push through the crowd, but are slowed by the mass of people. Nigel, dropping his BAR, jumps behind the wheel of the car. Joined by Oz, he drives wildly through the crowd, throwing bodies left and right in an attempt the reach the Crown before Tyrannish. Meanwhile, Canning has also starting pushing through the crowd, having as much easier time of it than Ivy and Zeke. The Inner Night goons instead copy Nigel and drive their car through the crowd as well. 

Tyrannish climbs gecko-like down the building and reach the crown first.  But Canning arrives almost as quickly, lashing out a serpent-like tongue and entangling/paralyzing the serpent woman. With the Crown almost in his hands, Canning is cut down by automatic fire from Nigel and laser staff bolts from Oz. This frees Tyrannish, and she now turns her wrath on the team. Ivy, having snatched the fallen Crown, jumps in then car. But Tyrannish calls down a fist of force that smashes the car and flips it over. She slams down again on the vehicle, trapping both Oz and Nigel and knocking them unconscious. At this point, the Inner Night goons arrive and wrench the Crown from Ivy's hands. Who lets them take it, as she has cleverly swapped it with the fake crown while tumbled in the back seat. The goons retreat, and Ivy crawls out of the smashed wreckage with the real Crown. But as Tyrannish prepares a final fatal blow on the team, Zeke unloads a drum of Tommy Gun fire into her and the dispersing crowd. The serpent woman (and a few bystanders) go down in a hail of .45 bullets. Looking around, they see Meadham directing his driver the pull away from the scene, and hear the sound of police whistles and diesel engines as a truck full of Indian soldiers pulls out of  Fort William and heads across the common towards the monument...

Pulp Cthulhu - The Two Headed Serpent (Calcutta 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)

After seven days of travel, the team lands at Dum Dum Airport on the outskirts of Calcutta. After first hiring a secure hanger for the plane, the team hires a car and driver (the unfazeable and cheerful Narayan) for the duration of their stay. Directing their driver to find them a hotel, Narayan bring them into the heart of the city to the Great Eastern Hotel. Inquiring as to any less opulent establishments, Narayan notes there is the equally upscale Grand Hotel, and a series of more moderate establishments catering to European travelers (Bristol Hotel, Conrad Arms, Fairlawn Hotel). But Nigel convinces the team this is the place to be, and notes Joshua Meadham would likely stay nowwhere but the best hotel. Questioning the doorman, the team is somewhat alarmed to learn Meadham and Canning are both in the lobby right now! Nigel goes in to eavesdrop and watch, he being the one team member Meadham has not met face to face. The old man, with Canning standing an intimidating guard nearby, is inquiring about two men (Tulsidas Vikmatji and Jonathan Taylor). Learning they has checked out, Meadham turns to leave. He locks eyes momentarily with Nigel, but does not recognize him. 

With Meadham and Canning gone, the team questions to doorman about Vikmatji and Taylor, wondering what they have to do with Caduceus or the Cobra Crown. They find no link to the mission, but get good description of the two men; early 30's, well dressed and educated. After checking into the Great Eastern themselves, Oz obtains and skims the last few Sunday editions of The Statesman newspaper. He notes the India Museum has a standing column in the paper announcing upcoming exhibits and shows. But there is no mention of the Cobra Crown, and the column is bylined to "Nathaniel Blyth - Curator", not the Mr. Kumtekar their own newspaper clipping identifies as the curator.  He also find the original announcement of the Cobra Crown exhibit, but it is buried away elsewhere in the paper away from the regular museum announcements.

Deciding they need to follow-up on this discrepancy, the team piles in the car for the drive to the India Museum. As Narayan weaves through the crowds and traffic, tragedy occurs. A man runs out in front of the car and is struck, falling to the pavement.  Ivy leaps out to help, but the man is beyond saving, his head smashed open and oozing brains and blood onto  the cobblestones. As the others join her, they note he is a rather well dressed European. As the crowd, interested for fleeting moment, starts to drift away, the team also notes two other points of interest. One,  a woman watches the scene from a nearby car, parked on the side of the road from which the man ran. Ivy recognizes her as Rose Meadham. The car then pulls away and is lost in the crowds. Two, as the team turns over the body, something rolls out from under his jacket. The Cobra Crown!!

Moving fast, the team loads the body into the car and Nigel starts rifling through the deceased's jacket for ID; the man turns out to be the mysterious Jonathan Taylor. He also finds a copy of the museum exhibit clipping; business cards for Mr. Kumtekar of the India Museum and a Reginald Askwith with the British Museum; napkin from Willard's Tearoom; and a matchbook from the Fairlawn Hotel marked "217".  Outside, Oz swiftly throws his jacket over the Crown just as an Indian policeman runs up blowing his whistle and demanding the team  stand down and turn over the body. After some discussion and bribery, the team turns over the paperwork and ID to the policeman and state they will bring the body to the police morgue. And then drive quickly away as the policeman attempts to take their names and statements. Narayan looses them in the twisting slums along the Hooghly River, where he finds  them someone who will take care of the body. 

Meanwhile, they examine the Crown and are not overly surprised to find it's a fake. Still unsure of where this Vikmatji and Taylor fit into things, they decide to head to the Fairlawn Hotel, assuming they'll find more information in room 217. Narayan gets them access through the kitchen and up the back stairs to the room. Faking room service, they get the door to open a crack, but still closed by the chain. A large goon confronts them, and after some tense back and forth, a female voice from inside the rooms tells the goon to let the party in. This leads to a brief standoff with guns drawn on both sides, broken by the calm words of the veiled woman sitting at a table by the window. And so the party finally meets the elusive and mysterious Rose Meadham. 

A somewhat amicable but tense conversation ensures, in which Rose attempts to convince the party that her father is the real villain with his plan to enslave humanity, while she and the Inner Night oppose him. She intends to prevent her father from getting the Cobra Crown, and use it to access the Gate to Mu on Snake Island for her own undefined purposes. The Crown, it seems, is needed to defeat the guardians of the Gate. She provides some intelligence from her agents that confirm much of what the team knows, and makes it clear that once any of the three interested parties (Tyranish, Inner Night and Caduceus) get they Crown, the next stop is Snake Island and the Gate.  Rose explains Vikmatji and Taylor are two men who claimed to have found the Crown and were going to sell it to her. But they had delayed and double crossed her, and she was now getting ready to leave Calcutta to deal with other matters. But perhaps she could make a deal with the team; they recover the Crown for her and she makes sure Joshua Meadham does not get his hands on it. The party initially tries to bluff, telling her they have the Serpent Scepter; but she tells them it is not critical to the plan. Rose is likewise unperturbed by the news Tyrannish is also in Calcutta looking for the Crown; she dismisses the Dreamer as a useless fossil of days long past. In the end, the team "agrees" to join forces, and to their surprise she hands them a Haftorang Device like the one they used to blow up Borneo. She tells them if they have the opportunity, it would be wise to plant this somewhere to take out her father for good. She assures then it is in good working order and set for a 6 hour delay.  And that that she announces her intent to leaves India, and her goons hustle the team out of the room. 

Back at the car, the team reflects on their latest questionable comrade and next steps. Maybe Willards Tearoom for a break and to look for clues? Arriving at the tearoom, they are quickly seated and are surprised to see a man matching the description of Tulsidas Vikmatji cowering behind his newspaper in an adjacent armchair. Confronted, he leaps up and runs, but after a short chase through tumbled tables and broken teapots, Nigel grabs him by the back door. Hustling him outside, the team learns the final piece of the puzzle. Vikmatji and Taylor were old university chums with plans to make their fortune recovering and selling ancient artifacts to the rich and famous. They'd learned the Cobra Crown was now held by a local Hindu cult, and were trying to figure out a way to get it from them. Along they way they crossed paths with one of Rose Meadham's spies, and so entered an agreement to sell it to her once it was in their hands. They also spoke of the crown to Mr. Kumtekar of the India Museum, and to a strange and frightening eccentric. And then Joshua Meadham arrived in town asking after them. Now frightened out of their wits, and under pressure and threat from Rose Meadham, they planned to pawn  a fake crown off on her and either get the real crown to sell to another interested buyer, or just get out of town. That plan is of course now in tatters, and Vikmatji begs the team to help him. He divulges the location of the shrine with the Cobra Crown, and the team them gives him enough cash to get out of the city forthwith ... 

Pulp Cthulhu - The Two Headed Serpent (New York Part#6)

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Zeke Broda (Grease Monkey / Mechanic)

Ivy Guinness (Outsider / Nurse) 

Oz the All Knowing (Mystic / Entertainer)

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

At the last minute, Nigel has a change of heart. Instead of pulling the trigger, he pulled out a grenade and, leaving the pin in, throws it at the fleeing guard.  Which hits the man in the head and knocks him out cold. The team drags the unconscious man back into the office and ties him up. But unfortunately the other guards have heard and come to investigate. Oz, hiding in the bathroom, manages to fast talk them into leaving, impersonating the guard and saying he's just having some stomach issues. Once the guards leave, Zeke sneaks back out into the warehouse and moves to the edge of the piled crates. Beyond he can see the big bay doors overlooking the river, in front of which are posted four more guards. Above is a large gantry crane, controlled from a small mezzanine in the upper right corner. There is also a large covered hatch in the floor, and a set of stairs going down. 

Assuming the information or proof they are looking for is in the basement, the team hatches a plan. They decide to start a fire in the office to draw off the guards, then sneak downstairs. The plan partially works; the fire does attract a few guards, but two remain by the bay doors. So the team charges in, guns raised, and successfully intimidates them into dropping their weapons. Marching their captives before them, the team goes downstairs. Where they immediately run into two more very alert guards. A short gun fight ensues, with one guard going down right away, and the second shot as he ran towards a glassed-in control room at one end of the warehouse. And now the team sees what fills the rest of the space: suspended from the ceiling are huge pressurized canisters. Tubes run from these canisters and flow into huge glass pipes, six feet across and a hundred feet long that contain hand-sized mutated mosquitoes, flying in a green cloud. Airlocks at the end of each tube allow access—in a couple of these are the near-mummified remains of bodies drained of their bodily fluids.

Momentarily there is commotion upstairs, sounds of running feet and the firing of Tommy guns. Figuring they're sprung some sort of trap, the team quickly examines the control room. It is full of dials and gauges of a type that even  Zeke can't quite understand. There is also a radio, which Nigel picks up , hoping he can use it to delay the people upstairs. It links, however, to Caduceus headquarters. So Nigel has inadvertently alerted the whole organization to the break-in. 

Zeke figures out how to turn on the gas, and starts to over-pressurize the mosquito chambers, meaning to break them and hopefully kills the bugs. At about the same time, a group of men in trench coats and carrying Tommy guns burst into the lower level. Not knowing who they are but assuming the worst, the rest of the team opens fire with gun and grenade, cutting down a few while Zeke sets a dynamite charge to blow a passage out into the East River. His plan is to open an escape route and flood the basement at the same time. The first works, but the water flow is pretty slow and it's likely the mosquitos are going to escape the building. But as the team climbs back into their rowboat and starts back across the river, they hear another round of gunfire and then the warehouse goes up in a massive fireball.  At least they've left no tracks behind ...

The team makes it's way back to their hotel, and wait to see what happens next. They read about the explosion in the newspaper, as well as an article identifying them as the 'rogue' team that attacked the Caduceus headquarters a few days earlier. But perhaps the most interesting piece is the announcement, buried on the back pages in the culture section, that the Cobra Crown is about to go on display at the India Museum in Calcutta! Now they really need to get the Serpent Scepter!

First step is to get back in touch with their Mafia connections, to tell them what the team learned at the warehouse (i.e. there are no illegal drugs there) and see what their associates have learned of the Serpent Scepter. After a few days in hiding, their usual driver Lucio knocks on the door and bundles everyone into his car to meet with their handler, Bonventre. Oz hypnotizes their driver, and learns that as far as Lucio knows, the meeting is a safe and friendly one. They arrive back at the Green Garden Cafe just after dark. This time there are just a half dozen mafioso soldiers, and Bonventre sitting alone at a table in the back. He greets the team and offers them a drink, then gets down to business. The tell him their tale, giant mosquitos and all. He does not seem too surprised by that news, and the team learns the trenchcoated men at the warehouse were part of Bonventre's crew, sent to back up/check up on the team. He seems nonplussed by the deaths of his men; just the cost of business. 

Pressed to fulfill his end of the bargain, Bonventre pulls back a curtain hiding the end of the bar nbehind him, revealing a very bloody and bruised man tied to a chair. On closer examination, the team realizes it's actually a disguised serpent man. Bonventre thanks the team for the warning that his organization might be infiltrated, and introduces Martino Bresciani aka Hlysa. This was the 'man' who altered the family to the possible presence of drugs in the Redhook warehouse. Bonventre reveals Hlysa works for some organization called the Inner Night, headed by Rose Meadham. His job was to stir up trouble for Caduceus, but Bonventre didn;t learn exactly why. As for the Serpent Scepter, Bonventre tells the team it was stolen from their plane by a man called Canning; and that both Joshua Meadham and Canning have just this day left for Calcutta on urgent business. 

Bonventre offers the family's help in getting the team to their plane and out of New York, probably for good. And a short time later, the de Havilland Dragon is in the air and headed for Calcutta ... 

Pulp Cthulhu - The Two Headed Serpent (New York Part#5)

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 spent the next week laying low in the cheap hotel to which they'd relocated their centre of operations. Zeke did slip out to make contact with some old friends, returning with a resupply of weaponry, ammunition and dynamite. Oz locked himself in the bathroom with the two fearful tomes liberated from Joshua Meadham's library. But otherwise they waited for any hubbub arising from their gunfight at the Meadham Building to die down, and discussed what to do next. They decided to make contact with the Bonanno crime family, who'd been making efforts to connect with the team over their last few visits to New York. Ivy dropped some hints to he friends on the streets, and she was not surprised to find, a few days later, a large car pull up in front of the hotel, driven by Lucio and Filemone Casale, their erstwhile Mafia contact. Casale bundled the team into the car, and by a circuitous route, drove them deep into Brooklyn, stopping in front of the Green Garden Cafe. 

Although the sign said the restaurant was closed, all the tables appeared to be full, and Casale led them inside. There, leading them past tables of rough looking men in bad suits, he introduced them to four men at a large table in the rear: Giuseppe “Joseph” Bonanno, Phillipe Rappa, Francesco “Frank Caroll” Garofalo, and  Giovanni “John” Bonventre. Ivy recognize Bonanno as the head of that crime family, and the others as his highest advisors. After some polite banter and good Italian cooking, they get down to business.  Bonanno questions the team about their role with Caduceus, experiences, and their recent falling out with their employer. The team is pretty forthcoming without getting too far into the details of 'the Mythos is coming'. Impressed by their candor, Bonanno has an offer for them. The family has gotten intelligence that Caduceus is edging into the illegal drug market in New York, a market which the Bonanno family currently dominates. Using a cover story of ensuring the drug supply is 'clean', Bonanno makes the team an offer. They help Bonanno find out what Caduceus is up to drug-wise, and he will help them find the Serpent Scepter (which he seemed to know all about). He directs them to a pair of warehouses in the Redhook district, both owned by Caduceus. One is obviously used for supplies related to Caduceus' humanitarian cover. The other they do not know, but suspect it is related to the drug trade.  Bonanno send the team on their way, and lets them know “John” Bonventre will be their contact going forward. 

Deal made, the team takes a taxi down to Redhook to scout the location. The two buildings lie in a maze of other warehouses. One is quite busy, but poorly guarded. The other is largely silent, but the guards appear much more active. Both are surrounded by fences, with a vehicle gate facing the road and large cargo doors facing the docks on the East River. The team crosses over to Manhattan to size up the docks, and decide their best bet is to approach from the water late at night. That night, they obtain a small rowboat and row with muffled oars to the seemingly inactive warehouse, timing their arrival to avoid the guards walking the perimeter.  Once on the dock, they listen at the bay doors, and hear voices inside. At least 4-5 men by the sound of it. They then split into two parties (Ivy & Zeke, Oz & Nigel) and move into the shadows on either side of the warehouse, in the hopes of surprising and chloroforming the two outside guards they'd seen on their earlier scouting trip. Ivy & Zeke pull it off with ease, but Oz & Nigel stumble a bit in the dark and have to clobber their guard with a pistol butt to knock him out. Thankfully before he can call out for help. 

Tying them up and stripping them of their uniforms (one of which fit Oz nicely, Nigel with the other not so much), they move towards the front entrance. Seeing and hearing nothing inside, they use the guard's keys to get into the building, finding themselves in the office area.  They silently sift through paperwork, finding the warehouse seems to hold lot's of construction related equipment and supplies, as well as some other undisclosed 'special' items. They also learn there are likely 10 guards on site, which definitely points to something of value and great danger to the team. However, they carefully open the door at the end of the office area which leads into the rest of the warehouse. And are confronted with a maze of wooden packing crates, large and small, blocking their view. They grade a small one by the door, and carry it back into the office to open. It contains a mix of tools, just as the contents painted on the side suggests.  Hoping to find one of the 'special' crates, they head back into the warehouse and carefully move their way down the passages between the rows. But turning the corner, Nigel runs headlong into a security guard. He tries to take him down silently, but the guard dodges, and turns to run. Presumably for help. Nigel raises his revolver to shoot the fleeing man in the back ...   

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 .... 

Pulp Cthulhu - The Two Headed Serpent (Oklahoma Part #3)

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 spends a quiet night at the hotel mulling over all they've seen and heard, and in the morning don their Sunday best and head for the Rev. Kornfield's outdoor service. They arrive to find much of the town there in the street in front of the burned church. The Reverend himself arrives shortly, accompanied by Sheriff Benson and a couple of men carrying a large wooden crate. The Reverend launches into the service, opening with a pleas for forgiveness for those responsible for burning the church (which does not seem to please the Sheriff). He then launches into a fiery sermon with a definite serpent theme, before having the two men open the crate. He reaches in and hauls out a pair of rattlesnakes, and calls upon the faithful to come forward and take the creatures in their hands, for "true believers will not be harmed by the children of the god".  Several worshipers do so, before one is bit. He survives the event, but after Ivy checks him over, he leaves the crowd dejected for having failed in the test of faith. Rev Kornfield then turns to the team, and calls Zeke up to test his faith. Zeke passes the test to Rev, Kornfield's delight, who ends the service by announcing he will lead these new faithful on a pilgrimage into the wilderness the next day,. 

As the service breaks up, the team finds an empty house nearby to hide in and listen in on the conversation between Rev, Kornfield and Sheriff Benson using the serpent person listening device. The Sheriff is vehement that they track down and punish the Dissidents and non-believers, blaming them for the church bombing. The Reverend however maintains a conciliatory tone and forbids any rash action by the Sherriff. The team then takes the chance, with the Reverend busy, to search his house. The only thing of interest they find is the Reverends huge leather bible which they steal. A cursory reading shows it to be a large, leather bound tome, which was originally a standard Bible. The margins contain many handwritten notes and drawings. Some passages have been amended, some crossed out, and replaced with new ones, all the a strong Yig theme. 

Hoping to learn more of where this pilgrimage will lead, they track down Greg Shaw. The young man directs them to Hillard Fowler, owner of the lumber yard. He knows quite a bit of the rocky hills south of town and might be able to help them. They track Hillard down at the Deer Head Saloon, and learn he too is a Dissenter who does not like Rev Kornfield. A very drunk one mind you, but he does recall a series of caves in the rocky hills that would be worth investigating. Grabbing a truck from the lumber yard, the five of them head south over bad roads and around abandoned farms and fields until they reach the hills. Hillard directs them up a rocky draw, where they find a cave entrance. When Ivy, Zeke and Oz attempt to approach however, they are hit with an unnatural blast of hot wind emerging from the entrance. Zeke is battered and tumbles halfway down the draw, but Ivy and Oz are able to grab onto the rock and haul themselves inside, battered but now out of the wind. 

Inside the cave the pair find the body of what looks like Rev Kornfield, laid out naked on a slab of stone. Except the body has a reptilian cloaca instead of genitalia. And it also appears to be alive, but in some form of hibernation of statis. Oz attempts to touch the slab and use clairvoyance to get a picture of what happens here, but oddly finds he cannot force himself to do so. Ivy however gets a foreboding sense of the presence of Yig, the father of snakes. And draws the conclusion that this thing on the slab is somehow responsible or tied to the Rev, Kornfield's 'miraculous' powers. She take a rope and with great strength of will is able to lasso the body around the neck. She hauls it our of the cave, and the rest of the team gathers around to discuss what to do next. Zeke is somewhat reluctant at first to destroy the body, but in the end agrees. Ivy slits it's throat with surgical precision, then they toss the remains back in the cave and dynamite the entrance shut. 

The team heads back to town and, after dropping Hillard back at the lumber yard, head towards the burned church where they'd spotted the Reverend and Sherriff as they drove into town. Hiding nearby with the listening device, they overhear a heated debate. But this time it is the Reverend who is upset, raving and ranting and insisting they head out right away to the pilgrimage site as something is wrong. The Sherriff meanwhile tries to calm him down, saying they can leave in the morning as it is now getting dark. 

The party slips away and returns to the hotel for the night. It's decided Zeke will still go on the pilgrimage, and the rest of the team will head separately to the cave site as well. But when Zeke gets to the church that morning, the Sherriff informs him and the other new faithful that the pilgrimage is cancelled for the day as he and the Reverend have some things to do. At which the two, along with a few burly men, climb into the Sheriffs Model T and head south out of town. When Zeke reports this the the rest of the team, they make a quick decision to catch the next train out of town. figuring they've done and learned all they need to given their mission brief. And that things are likely to get very hot once the Reverend discovers what happened to the cave and body ... 

Pulp Cthulhu - The Two Headed Serpent (Oklahoma 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 team decides to walk the town, to see what they can learn about the local happenings and the good Rev. Kornfield. On their excursion they make the following stops, and learn and see the following things: 

• Oz flips through the newspapers in the hotel lobby, looking for any sign that people have been dying or disappearing in town. On the contrary, he discovers there have been almost no deaths since the Rev. Kornfield returned from his wilderness excursion, and none at all from traumatic events. 
• As the team makes it's way down Main Street, Ivy notes the stray cats all look half-starved. 
• Nigel and Oz head for Kinkel's Barbershop for a trim and to ask questions. Ralph Kinkel, barber  and owner, has nothing but praise for Rev, Kornfield, hinting even that the good reverend has helped his wife get over some unspecified affliction. They pair are startled when Ralphs' wife rushes into the shop from their upstairs home, leaps against the window to slurp up the lazy flies that buzz there, then rushes back upstairs. Ralph shrugs as if to say 'Woman!' and goes back to cutting hair. Oz likewise notes old Harry Mathewson snoring the the comer, looking like he (literally) just ate a whole pig. And is again startled when the old man stirs, rubs his jaw so hard it unhinges completely, before pushing it back in place. Ralph notes the Rev. Kornfield has recently cured Harry of his blindness. 
• Ivy and Zeke head for the offices of the local paper, the  Bingham Journal. There they befriend the editor Baxter Fandyke, who they learn is not a fan of the Reverend. But is too afraid of alienating his customers to say much. But he does let Ivy browse the pile of back issues and his files to learn more about the town. She notes that pictures of the  Reverend show a man who looks much younger after his harrowing pilgrimage in the wilderness. She also learns he is single, and dismissed his cook shortly after returning from the wilderness
• The four reunite and head for the church. Except for the lack of half the sign outside and the usual Christian paraphernalia inside, it looks much like any other small town church. Except the Sunday school kids seem obsessed by Adam and Eve and the serpent in the Garden of Eden. As is the good reverend, based on the sermon notes the team rifles through in the small office. 
• Having learned from the newspaper editor that the local blacksmith is no fan of Rev, Kornfield's, they head to Bill Schoenbaum's forge to have a talk. The big man is clear in his dislike of the reverend; seems to have something to do with how his wife was 'healed' of her skin condition. But the blacksmith gives few details, and remains guarded. He does tell them to go see Peggy Shaw if they want to see more of what the Rev Kornfeld's supposed healing touch can do. 
• Encountering a crowd of street urchins rushing out of an abandoned house nearby, the team gets the kids to show them what's going on. They are led to the upper story which overlooks the Schoenbaum home. There they see Bill wife, Pearl, sunbathing naked on the roof. They see no sign of a skin condition though; in fact her skin looks pink as fresh as a newborn. Remarkable for a woman in her fifties.  
• Before going to see Peggy Shaw, they head back to the telegraph/telephone office where her husband Greg works. They've learned he seems to be uncomfortable with the Reverend as well. He doesn't say much, so they go outside to eat their picnic lunch and eavesdrop with the serpent person listening device they brought. They hear Greg conspiring with Suzie Schoenbaum, Bill and Pearl's teenage daughter. The pair plan to firebomb the church that night. They also overhear the office manager listening in on the phone calls of everyone in town, and making notes on those who speak ill of the Rev, Kornfield. 
• The team backtracks to the Shaw house, where Ivy gains entry by posing as a public health nurse. Peggy Shaw is just recovering from a difficult birth, one in which the Rev, Kornfield intervened to save mother and child. As she speaks to the pale and frail Peggy, she is shocked to learn the young woman is very visibly pregnant again, having given birth weeks before. And notes she is tending a sand tray full of reptilian eggs warming under the kitchen stove. Checking on the newborn in the nursery, Ivy is further shocked to see a baby with scales and a forked tongue! 

The team reconvenes back at the hotel. They decide to not intervene in the planned firebombing of the church, but instead will find a place nearby to observe what happens. They find an abandoned house just across the street, and watch (and listen) as Greg and Suzie sneak into the church and set it ablaze before running off into the shadows. The alarm is soon raised, and after some time the team likewise sneak out and joins the the bucket brigade of townsfolk who have gathered, attempting unsuccessfully to douse the flames. This brings them to the attention of Rev, Kornfield, who  praises and thanks them for their efforts and insists they join the congregation for a outdoor Sunday service  the following day ... 

Pulp Cthulhu - The Two Headed Serpent (New York Part #2 / Oklahoma 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)]

Over the course of the four days flying back to New York, Ivy spends time studying the sketch Pangea map from the serpent person outpost. She  locates four of the red dots on the current map of the world; North Borneo, Iceland, Belgian Congo and New York. Meanwhile, Zeke begins to air his doubts about their employer with the rest of the team. He gets everyone in line with his thinking, that there are many  more secrets under the Caduceus cover, and they need to find out more so they know what they are getting themselves into on these missions. And if they're really working for the good guys. 

As such, on arrival back in New York, they report to the Meadham Building for debrief. And this time push back, demanding to be told more information, pushing the fact they need to know more if they're putting their necks on the line. Their interviewer, a stuffed shirt named John Adams,  tells them nothing. And they figure out quickly he doesn't know anything to tell them.  But the push does get Ms. Parville, Mr. Meadham's personal secretary, involved. She agrees to arrange a meeting with her boss, and let's it slip to Nigel that Mr. Meadham has already expressed interest in meeting the team. 

Left with many days to spare before their meeting with the head of Caduceus, the team spends some time digging for more information. A trip to the New York City Library uncovered some more information on Rose Meadham. It seems she is still alive, but estranged from her father and somehow changed (both physically and mentally). Attempts to learn more about Joshua Meadham turned up nothing they didn't' already know. But they did find building permits for his Connecticut estate that dated from about the time he sold his pharmaceutical business and started Caduceus. In seems he built some sort of  unusual structure around that time, but details were unclear. 

Ivy then turned to her street contacts, but likewise was unable to learn anything new. But did learn that people had been asking about her. And that she was right now being tailed, her contact pointing out a trenchcoated man standing in a doorway just down the street. When she informed the rest of the team, tthey quickly realized they were being followed as well. 

After about a week, the team is summoned to the Meadham Building. Arriving by cab, they have a curious encounter. As Zeke is about the pay the cabbie, a man steps out of the crowd and pays instead. The man then simply says "Fugetaboutit. Let your friends take care of this one for you" before disappearing  into the crowd.

The team is led into a 7th floor meeting room, and are seated at a table opposite two men. One they recognize as Dr. Goncalves, the Caduceus head of research. The other is a 7' tall giant of a man who simply stares unblinkingly at the party, making them feel increasingly uncomfortable. Relief arrives in the form of Joshua Meadham, a white haired old man with a cane who sits between the other two.  He begins by praising the team and their efforts in Bolivia and North Borneo, somewhat callously noting the success of their recent mission and seemingly unconcerned with the loss of innocent life involved. He also made some snide comments' about their ability to kill off team leads, before appointing Nigel as their new lead. Zeke and the others try to pry more information out of Mr. Meadham, but the presence of the huge bodyguard (Canning) throws them off their game. They do draw out a promise to provide more information on missions when possible. But there is a sense of urgency. When asked how far advanced the serpent person plans are, Joshua Meadham is unhesitant when he says they are very close to completion and time is critical.  But it is not clear which to which plans he refers, and when Oz uses his clairvoyance on the meeting room table, he is troubled by the sense that the last meeting in here involved creatures of the Mythos! 

But for now, they turn to the briefing for their next mission. A cult worshipping Yig, the Father of Snakes, has come to light. They are situated in a small town in Oklahoma and are using the guise of a Christian church. A heavy-handed approach is not needed at least, not to begin with. Caduceus needs to find out the root cause of all this. Find out how this backwater town has turned to worshipping this particular god. Be on the lookout for serpent people. Remember the Inner Night is dangerous and can appear just like a human! Mr. Medaham and Canning then leave, and Dr Goncalves takes over the briefing. He plays them a recording from Radio KFOC in Oklahoma City. It's a broadcast by the preacher from the little town of Bigham, a man by the name Kornfield. It seems at first to be a standard radio sermon, but when Dr. Goncalves makes a few adjustments on the record player, a second recording is heard praising Yig instead. 

The team draws some equipment (including a serpent person listening device) and hops the train to the dustbowl of Oklahoma. Dropped on the platform in the town of Bingham, they make their way to the only hotel and get rooms. Using as a cover story that they have been drawn by the reverend's preaching on the radio, they hear nothing but praise for the Kornfield. The hotel co-owner, Delbert Adams, tells them how the reverend was always a good man, but some months ago went into the wilderness to fast and pray, and returned a new man. A few other folks they talk too likewise have nothing but good to say about the Rev. Kornfield ... 

Pulp Cthulhu - The Two Headed Serpent (North Borneo Part #3)

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Zeke Broda (Grease Monkey / Mechanic)

Ivy Guinness (Outsider / Nurse) 

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

[Oz the All Knowing (Mystic / Entertainer)]

After brainstorming a range of ideas for getting past the night gaunts, the team decide to simply sneak past. Zeke goes up the ragged cliff face first, followed by the rest of the team roped together like mountain climbers. Except their guide Abidin, who wisely stays hidden in the tunnel entrance in the clearing. They make it without arousing the interest of the perched monsters, and find themselves in a hexagonal tunnel. It glows with a white light, and is made of some seamless rock-like or concrete-like material. It leads into a large hexagonal room, 20 feet in height. Standing in the center of the room is a six-sided step-pyramid of polished metal, and hanging in the air above the pyramid are two hexagonal frames. In an adjacent room there are control panels inscribed in Nacaal and other weird symbols, while three walls are coated in a glossy glass or some similar material. Zeke gets down to work trying to figure out the controls, and is successful in bringing up an image on the three flat glassy panels. They show a map, which after some confusion they realize shows the earth millions of years before. There are some spots on the map in red, and Ivy sketches it all in her notebook for future reference. 

After some further fiddling about, Zeke powers up whatever is in the the adjacent room. The low hum he heard earlier now intensifies, and the team glances in the pyramid room to see the two hexagonal frames now circling around in the air. After a few moments, the two overlap and lock together. Where before is was possible to look through the individual frames, they now showed only an inky blackness. Ivy and Nigel clamber up the pyramid to look into the frames, and Ivy's keen eye's spot movement in the darkness. A huge worm-creature chewing through rock, much like the description the ghouls gave them of the creature that dug the tunnels in the clearing. The party surmises this is the portal to another dimension through which all the weird plants and monsters have travelled, and they decide to destroy it. Prying open one control panel uncovers what looks to be more serpent person technology of intricate brass gears and moving gyroscopic parts. They also finds fragments of writing in Nacaal that Oz tells them refers to Tsathoggua, which suggest the involvement of the Inner Night and further convinces them the facility needs to be destroyed.

The party is just wiring up the last of the dynamite when to their surprise Quintin Shapiro enters the chamber. He is shocked to see what they are doing, saying they need to stop so they can all shelter here. He has discovered there is no cure to the Yellow Death and they must stay here to be protected from the Haftorang device when it blows, a course of action now necessary to stop the infection from spreading. The team is suspicious. Zeke notes Shapiro is not acting like himself, being very cavalier about the death and destruction that is about to be released. Ivy notes that he is also not sweating at all; unusual for an out of shape scientist whose just climbed through the hot jungles and up the cliff face. They try to bluff him and proceed with rigging the demo charges. Quinten responds with an inhuman scream, threats of death and destruction to the human race, and leaps at Zeke. The mechanic dodges, and Nigel guns down 'Shapiro' with his Webley. When they examine the body, they find it unnaturally cold with oddly inhuman features. Even though it looks like Shapiro.

They waste no further time, and blow the facility with dynamite. Immediately the night gaunts on the cliff above disappear, as does the strange dying plants they'd observed earlier.  Collecting the shaken Abidin, the team heads back down the mountain as fast as they can, determined to figure out what happened to Shapiro and hopefully get the Haftorang device far far away. They reach the armored cars just as daylight breaks, and head for Kazin's farm and the medical tent. They find Shapiro has confirmed the disease was the Yellow Death, and that is no cure producible with the viral analyzer. There is a way to delay the progress of the disease, but in the end the person would die in a week rather than a day,. There was however a curious note that read 'hybrid?' in the margin of his notebook. 

While Ivy is picking apart their erstwhile leaders notes, the rest of the party checks the rest of the tent. In the wooden chest in which the lab chemicals and apparatus had been packed, they now find a collection of human bones and scraps of flesh. But more troubling than that was the Haftorang device. When Zeke looks inside the lid, he realizes the timer had been advanced and it will now blow in less than an hour. Given the time it would take them to get out of the blast radius, they have to leave in the next 20minutes or be caught in the blast. A fast and furious argument breaks out about what to do. Nigel insists they must try and save any uninfected folk they identify using a testing solution produced by the viral analyzer. The others, though sympathetic, didn't think they have time to do that. And are appalled by the panic and angst that would ensue when separating those who could be saved from their infected loved ones who would be left behind. Not to mention how could they get them out of the blast zone in a hurry with just the armored cars. 

In the end, Nigel has to be forced into one of the armored cars, and Ivy has to persuade the crowd now blocking the road to move out of the way so they can go get help for the sick nad dying. And having quickly checked that everyone in the party, including Abidin and their drivers, are free of the Yellow Death, they head down the winding dirt road at high speed. The tear into the army camp just as a massive conflagration explodes behind them, incinerating the jungle and all in it for miles around. As ash and debris starts to fall around them, the team is met by Captain Lancaster and a pair of officials from the North Borneo Chartered Company. Once the excitement dies down, the official's  question the team. And they, with a great deal of pragmatic skepticism, buy the story that the dormant volcanic mountain had blown and wiped out the infected zone. 

With heavy hearts at their inability to save the doomed people, the team climbs aboard their plane for the long flight back to New York and another debriefing at Caduceus headquarters. 

Pulp Cthulhu - The Two Headed Serpent (North Borneo Part #2)

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Oz the All Knowing (Mystic / Entertainer) 

Zeke Broda (Grease Monkey / Mechanic)

Ivy Guinness (Outsider / Nurse) 

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

The teams initial reaction to the haftorang is to drop it into the sea from the plane. Quentin insists they need to keep it for now just in case they need it to eradicate the virus, even though the though of using it is distasteful to him. Zeke and Oz look at the device to try and disarm, and discover it is not normal human technology and has no visible 'explosive' but rather a collection of astronomical signs and sigils. The team agrees and Quentin directs them to search for Inner Night activity while he uses the viral analyzer to identify the pathogen and find a way to treat it if possible. 

First, however, they report to the officers mess to lunch with Captain Lancaster. He explains the quarantine zone, and that his men have orders to keep anyone from leaving using lethal force if needed. Inside the zone are a large number of local farmers gathered at a local tobacco plantation. They have gathered to protest mining exploration work the North Borneo Chartered Company  is carrying out. These locals believe the mining team has angered to spirits of the mountain with their blasting and drilling. The mountain had recently blessed them with wild abundance of strange fruits, but these have now died away and they blame the mining team. That exploration team is likewise trapped in the quarantine zone.  The captain does not seem too troubled by his orders when it comes to the locals, but is anxious to save the mining team.  Asked about the strange happenings on the mountain, he gestures to an odd animal head mounted on the wall. It looks like a cross between and elephant and a stegosaurus with moss skin, and he explains two of his men shot the creature outside the perimeter two nights ago. Very weird and must be a new discovery. Also very tasty, and the team realizes the steak on their plates is from the strange creature. Zeke goes ahead and eats heartily, but the rest politely avoid the meat.  Oz clairvoyantly bonds with the creature's head, and gets an impression that it comes from some other reality, and is not native to earth. 

Lunch complete, Captain Lancaster walks them over to a pair of armoured cars and drivers who will take them up the mountain to the tobacco farm and survey camp. Before they can leave a woman stumbles out of the brush, obviously sick and covered in yellow pustules. The team first moves to help her, but when she gets too close and it becomes obvious she cannot be saved, Nigel and Captain Lancaster end her misery with a pair of pistol shots. 

A hour driving up a rough track brings them to a fork in the road. They take the left fork to the survey camp, and find a ragged line of protestors outside the chain link fence surrounding a collection of pre-fab huts. Two guards stand just inside, and the team talks their way through as one goes to get Richard Clements , the head of the survey team. As they wait for him to arrive, the second guard suddenly bends over and vomits out all his rotting internal organs and dies before their eyes. Mr. Clements arrives, and seems to think the team is there to escort him and his men out of the quarantine zone. When he learns that is not the case, he gets increasingly angry and threatens them. Sensing they will get no where with him, the party leaves and goes to the tobacco plantation / refugee camp. There the plantation owner (Kazin)  meets them, and insists that the team clear the protestors off his land. He thinks once they are gone, the spread of the disease will stop. Instead the team convinces him Quentin will set up here to collect blood samples and look for a cure. Once the party has their boss settled into one of the medical tents, he directs them further up the mountain to look for Inner Night activity and any clues to the source of the Yellow Death virus. Kazin sends along a guide with them, a cheerful scruffy young man named Abadin. 

Leaving the armoured cars behind, the team proceeds on foot. They encounter a number of different tracks, some clawed and slender going up the mountain, and other hoof-like and going to the east. They continue up the mountain, and pass though areas where a kaleidoscopic array of weird plants and fruits are dying.  As they climb, they encounter two strange creatures. One looks like the thing in the officers mess, and it when encountered it charges straight at Zeke. Lucky for him Nigel drops it with a full magazine from his BAR. The second creature is a 20' fall, four-armed giant with a massive toothed maw at the top of it's head. Zeke returns the favor to Nigel by emptying his tommy gun into the thing. Oddly enough, neither sight seems to phase anyone on the team. The weird and unknown must be getting too common. 

As light is failing, they come to a clearing. Abidin tells them this is where the survey team had been blasting, and caused a rockslide that killed two men. They see the rock slide and ragged rockface ahead. On the rockface perch nights gaunts, which seem to at this point ignore them. There is also a hexagonal opening in the rock, obviously not natural and faintly glowing with a white light. There are also two, 200' wide tunnels at opposite ends of the clearing. One goes straight down, the other at a 45 degree angle, The team heads down the slopped tunnel to explore, and after some time hear noises ahead. But are surprised from behind by a hideous ghoul with hoofed feet. The noise ahead proves to be a pack of ghouls feasting on flesh infected by the Yellow Death. They don't attack, content in their feast, and instead one speaks enough English to question. The tunnel was dug by a great worm from another reality, attracted here by all the recent death in the area. This stench of death has opened the already thin veil between here and the Dreamlands, and other things like the strange plants and creatures have also come through as well. The ghouls too have been drawn here to feast, and they offer the choicest bits to the team. Who politely decline, and head back to the clearing to determine how best to get past the night gaunts and into the hexagonal tunnel ...