ic Curse of the Swamp Hag

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Scary crocodile?" asked the man, raising an eyebrow. 

 

His black chinese suit was silk. Pure silk. 

 

"No crocodile here. And you no answer question. Who you?"

 

"I...!" started Professor armitage, putting his hands in his jacket lapels, "And professor..."

 

"...."

 

"...professor...."

 

He gave a sideways glance at Golden Star. 

 

"Who am I again? And who are you, young fellow, if I may ask?"

[Poncho]

"Crococonda. Half Snake, Half Crocodile, half magic, and all violence. It broke some of my ribs. That's not something you can do easily let me tell you that. Well I mean a lot of metahumans could do it. But normal people not really." he corrected.

 

"I'm Golden Star, I'm from Freedom City. This is Professor Armitage. We were on the case to find a stash of cursed artifacts and uncurse them, because they've been causing massive trouble all across the US and that's just not acceptable. I am here because I was doing my job being an elf at a mall when an insane guy who is pretending that his last name is Dickens showed up and, wearing a magical cursed golden wreath, started turning things into Gold. That was a day ago. I've already missed one day of class, and it's looking like I'm gonna miss another one, and let me clarify I've never missed a day of class before in all my years as a student so that's kind of sad. Also I'm pretty tired and kinda freaked out by the talking skull that was down there alongside the giant anaconda creature." he pointed back down the hole.

 

"There's a magician guy down there who got turned into a lady who is fixing all the curses. So if you have any questions about the cursed objects you should ask them. I've currently traveled the length of the continental United States one and a half times over the past 36 hours so I'm honestly a little confused myself!"

[Supercape]

GM
 

There was more discussion in Cantonese. Befuddled, confused discussion. Whatever the four men had been expecting, it wasnt a superhero and an elderly professor talking about a gender-swapped magician and a giant anaconda with the head of a snake. 

 

Eventually, they seemed to come to some kind of consensus. 

 

"You not see us, we not see you. This no longer our business. Bye-bye."

 

With that curt conclusion to the matter, the speed boat turned around and made for the open sea.

[Poncho]

"...What the heck was that about." Michael mumbled. "WAIT A MINUTE THEY LEFT US HERE! And you're hurt!" he yelled as he looked at Armitage. "It's okay professor, we'll get you back to the city and get you all patched up. Don't worry." he said calmly. "We'll get you back to the city safely professor." He said confidently. Meanwhile, in his other hand he had the thing he had picked up from the cave once Blackstaff had disinfected it; the fancy Nintendo 64. He had never played one before but maybe the guys at Claremont would be into it. That would be fun. He'd probably have to get it all fixed up though.

 

"Blackstaff, are we ready to go yet? I really need to get back to school before it gets too late; I'm gonna miss curfew."

[Spacefurry]

Blackstaff

 

Blackstaff had watched the boat approach curiously. She let Golden Star speak and keep the men occupied while she opened her senses to the magic. It was a struggle at first, it took her far longer than normal to tune out the magic of the cave so she could focus on the boat. She looked the men over first, then the boat and its contents.

 

She had a feeling the men wouldn’t want anything to do with them or with helping the professor. As Golden Star continued to speak it became even more obvious.

 

When they declared they had no intention of staying, let alone helping, she wasn’t surprised. They had been here for a purpose but now that they had been discovered they wouldn’t return.

 

She instead turned her attention back to the cave and its many… bobbles.

 

It's one resident still lying motionless. Blackstaff approached the creature and examined it. As far as she could tell, it hadn’t survived their fight. Saddened by its loss, she didn’t hold it against the young hero, it had been a fight for survival.

 

Looking over the cave with her sight it took a few moments to fight the threads anchoring the swamp. Returning it to its proper locale and cleansing all the would take time, time she did not want to take right now.

Instead she chose to secure the location and return once the Professor and the boy were safely home.

 

 As the trio moved towards the entrance, she noticed Golden Star interest in the old game console. It had been a long day, but one item wouldn’t take but a moment. With a cursory look Blackstaff was able to spot the substance of the curse. With her ability to suppress magic it was easy to weaken the mass of it and with a few words of power break the treads of it to leave the curse in tatters. The strands left behind would fade in time.

She handed the item to the hero with a gracious nod.

 

Moving to the mouth of the cave, Blackstaff pulled an old piece of metamorphic rock from her pocket. Several slivers of jade could be noted in it, but not enough to make it worth processing.

Holding it out in one hand she began chanting in something that sounded akin to Latin but not quite. She gestured through the air with her free hand and the black and green stone floated from her open palm.

It floated into the center of the cave mouth, pulsed and flared. Suddenly phantom streamers exploded out from the stone, crisscrossing the opening. The distant sound of chains snapping into place echoed faintly and then… silence.

 

Blackstaff turned back to Golden Sun and the professor, who was sounding to be in worse shape than she had suspected. She frowned.

“The door we arrived through will get us back to my office.”

She gave the younger hero a friendly smile and reassured him.

“It can get you back to Freedom as well once we’re inside.”

 

Waving back at the swamp and cave she sighed.

“It’s going to take time to set these right, I'm afraid. But, the professor needs help first. I’ll come back later with what I need.”

[Supercape]

GM

 

And so...

 

The town of Tez was rid of curses. The strange swamp receded over the coming months, and the diseases and infections that ran rampant throug the city started to recede with it. Even the biker gangs, deprived of their source of income, still conceded that it was better to live healthy and poor than rich and coughing up your guts in a feverish pool of sweat. 

 

The smugglers, however, did not stop. 

 

For all the decursing blackstaff did, he and Amritage noted that someone was still trying to flood America with curses. 

 

But who?

 

Not the smugglers. Mr Silk, the mastermind smuggler had much bigger problems in Hong Kong. He soon pulled out of the whole deal. 

 

But someone else had an agenda... and there were other ways to get cursed items into America. 

 

Somewhere, the swamp would return!

 

To be continued!....

 

~ Fin ~