ic The Sick and the Serpentine (IC)

[Supercape]

GM

 

April 17th, 2017, Emerald City University

 

Something was swirling in the ether, a sensation that only the attuned could feel. And Kimo was one of those. A message from the Gods. 

 

It was a command, of sorts. Perhaps a request. Perhaps a challenge. Perhaps all. 

 

Into view swam Professor Gallagher, the elderly short man who always insisted on wearing too heavy clothes in too heavy heat. He was surely due retirement but he ran on hard will. His stick clicked on the floor of the university and then raised, a little unsteady, pointing at Kimo. Professor Gallagher was one of the Professors of ancient american history in the university, with some rather strange ideas he took to professing. He also taught Kimo. 

 

He was pointing him out to a woman in her thirties, a professional woman of enigmatic and magnetic look. Long and wild blonde hair fell around darker skin. Maybe she was Colombian, or Bolivian. Glasses gave a intelligent almost serious, and almost sad, look to her. 

 

The Gods had directed Kimo to help this woman. 

 

A moment later, the two were there. 

 

"This is Doctor Sanchez" explained the Professor. "Oncologist. You...ah...you know what that means, don't you?" said the Professor, testing the young man. 

 

"She has some notion of a cure for cancer. Mmmm. We should be so lucky. Except some of her ideas also are in keeping with mine. Anyway, she needs someone who knows a bit about history to help her and...."

 

Somehow the will of the Gods had bent his mind to Kino. He didn't quite understand why, pausing, trying to work out the reason he had chosen Kino, but the Gods were strong and subtle. 

 

"...well I thought...you would be so good as to go on a field trip with her? I'm getting to old. Somewhere down the river, something....ancient, I think" he said, with mind once again foggy from divine interference. 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 20, 2017 by Supercape

[Kolohehonu]

A message from the gods was always an odd feeling. It also was never particularly pleasant. This had been no exception,  he still greatly preferred the god of war's communication. At least the bruises only hurt for a few days. Still rubbing one eye, the totally average looking Hawaiian boy reached out his hand with a smile. He loved Professor Gallagher's lectures, especially because the "strange ideas" were far less strange than what Kimo had seen.

 

"Kimo Kahananui." Kimo smiled extending his hand to the oncologist. His voicce charged with the very essence of the goddess Hina, her charm flowing through him again. "Eh one cure for cancer, no way I can say no to helping with that!" He laughed, that and he had just gotten a fairly clear divine message. "All Pau with classes for the day anyways. Where on the river do you need to go?" He tried to force himself to speak english rather than pidgin, with mixed success.

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Rosa...Rosa Sanchez. But call me Rosa"

 

She pulled out a crisp map of the RIver. "I...sorry. It's a bit embarrassing. Everyone thinks I am crazy. But I read some of the Professor's papers, and, well, either we are crazy together, or not crazy at all" she explained, a little nervously, but with a warmth. That kind of smile that reminded one of embers in a dying fire. 

 

"Down the river. Quite a way down. Wetland, I think. I have a boat already. Captains a bit of a character but said he knew the wetland and his boat could handle it"

 

The Professor nodded with unusual enthusiasm. "This area...lots of legends about it. Very old" he said, sagely. 

 

"Older than human civilization" he said, more softly. 

 

"Older than human life" he said, even more softly. 

 

Rosa looked slightly awkward about that statement but did not disagree. 

 

"And the source of an plant with the most extraordinary regenerative properties, they say" she added, hopefully. 

 

 

[Kolohehonu]

"Eh Kumu knows, I love old kine stuff." He smiled again. Well that explained why the gods were at least interested. This whole thing was right in Lono's portfolio, a wild plant of healing properties. Though the whole, older than humans thing was a little weird. "Eh I like for grab some bettah shoes if we go river side. Oh and dakine, books and journals." Kimo pointed down at his rubber slippers, definitely not wetland attire. He also wanted to grab his costume. It would be a terrible shame if he got caught in the middle of the wetlands without it. 

[Supercape]

GM

 

 

Pre Homo Sapiens Culture in the Nevada and Surrounding Environs:

 

Professor G. Gallagher

 

Abstract:

 

The Nevada and surrounding regions are diverse, and large areas are yet to be properly understood from a robust archeological perspective, not least due to socio-political, and justified, sensibilities regarding the native American population and history.

Yet tantalising fragments remain, hints of civilizations not understood. A cohesive picture is yet to emerge, yet if one uses convergent mythological analysis using standard meta-reduction statistical analysis, a strong and yet uncomfortable possibility presents itself.

 

Pre European American History has, as described in previous papers, descriptions of cults and theologies that span the globe. Our understanding of the geological history of the world does not explain this. Was pan-continental communication and travel a reality in pre-history? Or do this myths and stories have a common ancestor? The cult of the Yellow sign, Lemuria, Atlantis. The words may differ, and even the details, but there is too much in common to casually dismiss this convergence.

 

In Nevada, and nearby, we find evidence of pre historical civilisations. Even more amazingly, these civilizations may not even be human. A concentration of archeological and anthropological evidence raises the possibility that Homo Sapien was not the first sentient species to walk the earth. References to a serpentine pre-human civilization appear, obscured but with undeniable consistency around the globe. And the region around the Emerald Cities is notable for a remarkable concentration of such evidence.

 

Whilst one of course must shy from unsubstantial quasi-mystical speculation, this paper explores the possibility that certain loci around this area held special meaning for pre-human (and indeed pre historical human) civilisation, presumably related to mystical belief systems, quite possibly of a cult or quasi-cult like state (such as the aforementioned “Yellow Sign”). Even now, folklore and rumour ascribes such loci as mysterious, or even dangerous.

[Supercape]

GM

 

Halfway down the river, on a small boat…

 

The Professor had given Kimo a rather blurred photocopy of his latest paper, with a hand written annotation.

 

And into the locus you go! Be careful!

 

Dr Sanchez and he were joined by a short, squat and bearded captain called John Hammer. Interestingly, or perhaps ironically, he had lost a hand and had it replaced with a blocky and rather unwieldy metal prosthesis. He still seemed to know the area, and his boat, very well, and could navigate through the increasingly shallow wetlands they were traversing.

 

“Careful round here folks. Its wild country. The lands, the wildlife…” he paused, grimacing, clutching his one hand round his false prosthesis in a tight knuckle white grip.

 

“…hrmm…and the people too” he said.

 

“I’m sure we will be fine” said Dr Sanchez, without full conviction.

 

Captain hammer didn’t answer. He just kept driving his boat.

 

Dr Sanchez folded open the map of the river, which she had annotated with various red circles. One circle was bigger and bolder than the rest, and was not far away, either.

 

“These are the area’s your Professor said were important. Loci. That’s what he called them. Basically, somewhere between marshland and swampland. Who knows what is sunken beneath them?” she said, musing on the matter.

 

“But there is also reference to flora, namely an orchid, with powerful medicinal properties. Mystic foolishness, maybe. But I need to know….”

[Kolohehonu]

"Eh so what's the plan?" Kimo asked. He had given a read over the paper that his professor had given him. Well that wasn't true. He read the abstract. It was interesting, Kimo knew that people weren't the first civilization. The menehune had been around longer, or at the very least as long. They too told the stories of precursors, nothing like these snake people though. He had tried asking the gods for any input, but they were unusually silent. "You know how this orchid look?" He asked curiously. It was going to be a long day if they had to try for every orchid they found. 

 

"What kine people stay here?" Kimo asked as the boat rushed along. He stepped away from the doctor so that his back was to her and coughed into his hand. Then he whispered as quietly as he could: "God of the evening hunter, Puenui god of owls lend me your vision." He felt Nina's charm fade as he felt his pupil's dilate. When they refocused he could see all around him and made sure to take in the response of the captain carefully. "Like native kine or wut?"

[Supercape]

GM

 

Following the map, Capt. Hammer started turning north, into wetter and more ominous terrain. It was hot and wet and chilled all at once, and a bad smell lingered in the air. A smell of sweat and disease, of something fetid, or something fragrant and pungent just beginning to rot. 

 

Mosquitos began to take their supper from the crew. They swam hypnotically through the air, as if asleep. 

 

Rosa Sanchez slapped on on her neck. A sweat lay on her. 

 

"Yellow, but not golden. Smells sweet and sickly. I checked the flora. Nothing else like it round here. As far as I can tell, nothing like it has ever been found" she said, almost despondent. Yet somehow the languid air sucked even despair out of one. 

 

Capt Hammer wiped his neck. 

 

"Feels...familiar" he said, pressing his eyes with his good hand to keep himself alert. "Something nasty about this place. I can feel it in the air. In the water..."

 

Something did seem to be rippling in the water, as the boat silently coasted through reeds and twisted trees, parting the green scum that covered the water in blotches reminiscent of an unpleasant skin disease. 

[Kolohehonu]

"Eh brah you ok?" Ok this was officially a little mento. The Captain seemed out of it. From what he said this was not the place to be riding on autopilot. He caught the shifting in the water and fought the urge to have his head snap over. He didn't need to turn his face to see with the blessing of Puenui. He didn't need whatever it was to know he had seen. So instead he let the keen magic in his eyes take in whatever it was that had just moved.

 

"well I've seen some strange kine stuff around here. Eh and so has kumu." He smiled. He wondered if and what the professor had seen. He didn't always speak as a theoretician. Sometimes Kimo worried. "Eh if nothing else stay like it, we'll know fo sho when we find it."

[Supercape]

GM

 

There was something strange. In the water. With the eyes of Peunui, it could be seen. Something slithering beneath the green growth of the still waters. Something arcane, or at least spiced with Eldritch. 

 

It was a snake. A serpent. 

 

It swam deep, silent, and invisible to all but Peunui. It somehow seemed at home in this dreary, soporific marsh that seemed more and more twisted with every yard. As if they had entered...well...a locus. 

 

Dr Sanchez snapped away another two blood suckers, feeling hot, sweaty, and slightly ill. "We should see it. I hope we don't have to spend a second longer in this place than we have to. I feel anaemic already....God knows what these bugs are carrying!"

 

"Something up ahead" said a drowsy Captain hammer, clenching his fist and prosthesis in a writhing agitation. He nodded towards a slightly rotten and crumbling set of huts, which were fairly well made of green tinged wood, build half on stilts, half in the water. A small fire could be seen. 

 

And something was circling, more restlessly by the second, below, circling the ship with more speed and malice...

[Kolohehonu]

The eyes of Puenui saw more than the physical. They saw more than the magical. They saw the mind. Kimo focused his gaze on the mind of the captain, the man seemed like he was about to sail right into that village. A village of people he had called wild. Kimo wasn't sure what he was going to do if he found another mind there, but that was a question to be answered after he saw what was happening.

 

Kimo grabbed his bag and felt his helmet within. It was a great comfort to have that at least if things went too far sideways. He looked out towards the huts. Unless they were gold plated he should be able to peer straight through them. 

[Supercape]

GM

 

The mind of the Captain was a curious beast. It was like trying to grasp dense and clinging fog. Yet for all its drowse, shapes could be seen. 

 

Bitter...the lost of his hand. The memory of a machete falling on it and the black oblivion of pain that followed. 

 

Rage....from bitterness flowed revenge.

 

Fear....the huts ahead. Something wicked in them. Vague memories of delerium, of fever. Of the cruel men inside, of the man with the machete. 

 

Regret...of the woman he could not save from their cruelty. 

 

As for the huts themselves, there were two men inside, one who was verging on giant, well over six feet and nearer seven. He could also a see a beaten up boat in bad condition, with oars and an outboard motor of unimpressive nature that bobbed in the green scum next to them. 

[Kolohehonu]

Kimo kept his bag with him, he laid his hand on the Captain's shoulder. 

 

"Eh Brah try for slow down, no need for another lady get hurt." Kimo said hoping to strike a chord. He didn't want to force the man away from the wheel, the least reason being not wanting to piss off his ride out. The bigger reason was his strength was the hardest power to hide. That and he would lose his vision. Which would not be good, especially not with whatever that was under the water.

[Supercape]

GM

 

Jack was clenching the outboard motor in a vexatious mood, frowning. 

 

"What did you say?" he asked Kimo, suspiciously, his vexation doubling. Whatever was going on in his head, it seemed it was a private matter and his response was a reflexive aggression. 

 

"Another lady?" asked Dr Sanchez, becoming nervous, throwing the Captain an almost frightened glance. 

 

Whatever feats and suspicions they had, they were soon distracted. 

 

With a slop of water and green scum, something poked its head over the side of the boat. 

 

It was a snake, and not one that could be recognised. It was, however, large, with tiny black eyes and a brown and green skin that looked blotched and ugly. Its was thicker than Kimo's thigh, and must have stretched twenty feet into the depths. Snakes always look malevolent, but this one had an unfathomable studious look to it. 

[Kolohehonu]

Kimo stepped away from the captain. He'd deal with that later. The snake was an immediate threat. He mumbled under his breath: "Goddess of the heart of the earth, Pele goddess of the volcano lend me your power."

 

He crossed the boat and bag in hand swung hard at the snake with the force of the volcano goddes behind him. "Get off!" 

[Supercape]

GM

 

The snake shifted back from the swing. For all its size, it was not slow. It paused a poignant moment, studying his prey. 

 

"Get behind me!" screamed Rosa Sanchez, both terrified and brave. The Kid was, after all, virtually a Kid. 

 

The Snake slithered on board like an oily rope. It was as large as its submarine shadow suggested it would be. Captain Hammer backed off, almost dazed. "No! No!" he screamed, only to catch the side of the boat and fall into the fetid waters with an impressive gloop sounding splash. It was fortunate he did not trip onto the outboard motor, or he could be missing more than just one hand. 

 

The Snake coiled around Kimo, strong, but not strong enough. Yet the writhing wrestling rocked and barraged him from side to side, tossing him this way and that. And that malign face came straight to his. 

[Kolohehonu]

"I said get away." Kimo growled low at the snake. With a mighty flex he shrugged off the snake. It hurt and for a moment he felt the wind leave him, but he was still up. He struck back and grabbed the snake in a headlock. "Eh I can throw you off too." He grunted. 

 

"Try stop this boat." Kimo shouted hoping the doctor had enough sense not to let their captain drown. 

[Supercape]

GM

 

Rosa did have the presence of mind, the steel, to flip up the outboard motor, leaving the boat to silently drift towards the huts (which where still a good several dozen feet away). She looked at the motor for a moment, and its whirring blades....

 

The snake coiled and looped, but this time a vice like hand had gripped the head, and now it was caught in Kimo's arms. It struggled and spiralled, but despite its strength it could not break loose. 

 

Hsssss.....came an escaping sound, and its breath was faintly noxious, like swamp gas.

 

Rosa stood up, armed with the motor, turning the blades towards the body of the snake. She was intent on cutting the serpent to pieces....

[Kolohehonu]

Eh Mento! She'd cut him up! With a swift turn of his body Kimo sent the wriggling beast hurtling away from the boat at top speed. Strength he could play off, the last thing he needed was for the motor to be unable to get through his skin. Or tear his clothes. 

 

"Stink your Breath stay!" He shouted, as the thing launched away. Hopefully into a tree or something. 

[Supercape]

GM

 

The snake was at least two hundred pounds, and probably a fair bit more. Kimo could throw it a mile, and lobbing it a dozen feet into some mangled trees was easy enough. It hissed again, and fell with a mighty splash into the waters, giving Kimo and Dr Sanchez a good soak. 

 

Capt Hammer started to swim back to the ship, some nerve half recovered. If the snake had survived the impact, it would not be wise to remain in the water. 

 

A Gunshot rang out. 

 

In the wetlands, all was quiet. The buzzing of insects was ever present but not loud. The outboard motor, in Rosa's hands, was purring away. The air was still. A gunshot could be heard for miles. In response to the sharp sound, some black birds fluttered from a tree to fly away, startled. 

 

The sound had come from the huts that were closer now, with the drifting of the ship. Two figures stood there. One was a tall man with a grey beard, undone shirt and jeans, with steel capped boots and a machete by his side. 

 

The other, holding a shotgun, was nearly seven feet tall, bald, wearing jeans and boots but without any shirt or vest. He had an ugly, almost dysmorphic look to him. He was loaded with a big overhanging belly, but one could not mistake he was stronger than an ox, weighed down with slabs of muscle. 

 

The two looked like they were almost laughing. 

 

"Ahoy there" shouted the smaller (but still tall man). "Got yerself a snake problem?"

 

 

[Kolohehonu]

Kimo made as how of struggling to help the captain back into the boat. No need to make it look easy as he carefully heaved the man back on the boat, carefully not to capsize it. These two were the ones in the huts, the huts that were freaking out the captain. 

 

"Nah brah, no problems here!" Kimo shouted back, he didn't need another fight. He smiled awkwardly without Hina's charm. If it was going to be a fight, he'd rather settle it with his fists.

[Supercape]

GM

 

The two men actually laughed at Kimo's joke, although there was a cruel spice to the laugh. It had the kind of flavour of a school bully who had grown up. 

 

The boat continued to drift towards them. Rosa, with some presence of mind, decided to turn of the outboard. It was not wise to wave that around. There was that silence again, just the noise of buzzing insects. 

 

"No problem?" hissed the Captain, crawling back into the boat, dripping wet. "These jokers are killers...."

 

"My names Billy Bob" said the machete man, still smirking. He had a strange southern accent, drawling and crude. "This here's my cousin, Duke" he said, smacking the giant by his side on the back. "Strong as an Ox, but not as clever, Harr harr!"

 

"Duh hurr hurr" grunted Duke, his belly wobbling with the half-laugh. 

 

"What brings you out here? Going snake hunting?"

 

At closer range, both the men appeared to be wearing snake-skin boots, and Duke had a necklace of what looked like snake-fangs around his sweaty blubbered neck. 

Edited April 23, 2017 by Supercape

[Kolohehonu]

"Eh doc no like for get any nearer." Kimo said quietly to the doctor. Yeah that was the man who took the captain's hand. He had no interest in getting any nearer. Not that he probably couldn't toss this guy about a mile if he had to. "Eh snake stay make! Mahalo nui, but we be going."

 

 

 

[Supercape]

GM

 

"You don't have to persuade me" Rosa whispered back, her olive skin pale with adrenaline. She was too frightened to even swat the ever-present mosquito's. There was something steely about her, however, even when afraid. 

 

The Captain stood up, face angry. 

 

"Remember me, Billy Bob?" he said, standing defiantly despite Duke's shotgun. 

 

"Har Har, I do believe so!" laughed Billy Bob, pulling out his machete casually. "Do you remember him, Duke?"

 

"Hrur Hrur" guffawed Duke. "E want some more?"

 

"Something really wrong with the big one" whispered Rosa. "He must have some syndrome or something. Watch him!"

 

Billy Bob waved his Machete lazily around. 

 

"This here is our swamp, Captain. We gots a right to know whatcha doing here" said Billy Bob, still chuckling with a cruel mouth. "Happy to all hospitable, if the mood takes us. Always happy to lend a hand!"

 

"hrr hrr" said Duke after Billy Bob nudged him with his elbow. 

 

Captain Jack turned away, face red with rage or maybe shame. "I'm going to damn kill them" he muttered to Rosa and Kimo, the veins in his neck visibly pumping. Even the mosquito's did not dare feast on him, though...

[Kolohehonu]

Well if he could get this situation to dissolve without a fight, he'd be more than happy. 

 

"Goddess of the unattainable beauty, Hina goddess of the moon lend me your charm." He mumbled to himself. He felt the power flow from his muscles. His posture shifted slightly, and he stepped up next to the captain. 

"Eh boss man no need for scrap and no need for stay." He said and the magic of his voice swept into the captain's ear. 

 

"Eh mahalo nui for all the help!" He shouted at the other two. "We no like for intrude, looking for one orchid. Part of one school project." He laughed disarmingly and nervously. "We no like for stay, we don't see it anyways!"