04/07/2021 - Horror at Ju-Ju House (5)

Bloody Tongue Zombies

Alex and Zalkador flee back up the stairs to the shop, leaving Tiger and Jeziah in the room. Jeziah has just a lamp and his cane, his pistol is not drawn. He swings his cane enough to prevent being hit by the machete. Tiger takes out his pistol and guns the machete man down.

Silas N’Kwane then sneaks away to the right, into the darkness, towards where there is some sort stone block on the floor.

In front of them is a curtain that seems to be twitching. Jeziah asks Tiger if they should retreat but Tiger says no, shoot them all. Jeziah draws his pistol as a figure emerges from the curtain.

The figure that stumbles out is an African man with his eyes and mouth sown shut. His throat has been cut and his tongue pulled out, painted with blood and dangling down his chest. Tiger and Jeziah recoil in horror, but open fire, but the bullets don’t seem to have much effect. The man keeps stumbling forward towards them.

This horrifies Jeziah and he throws the lantern at the figure, then flees. The zombie figure begins to burn a little, but not much.

Tiger and Jeziah withdraw, but find smiling Slias N’Kwane with a machete blocking their way. Jeziah shoots him and he collapses. They close the door to the room and head up the stairs to the shop.

We need more Guns!

Tiger babbles about the Africans taking over and they can’t be killed. They regroup upstairs, closing and locking the big door to the cellar.

The Great Zalkador is smoking a cigarette to relax. Jeziah takes out a cigar and joins him. Alex asks what is going on. Jeziah tells them about the tongue dangling dead men. Alex is sceptical. Tiger says he needs to get his shotgun. Jeziah says it is in the car, with his rifle.

They head for the car, discussing heavier weapons like explosives and aviation fuel. Tiger proposes to syphon some petrol from the car. The only danger is a fire causes a gas explosion that kills innocent people in other buildings.

Witch Doctor

They return to the house. Tiger has a shotgun and a can of petrol. Jeziah has his powerful rifle. They open the big door and see behind the door is some sort of Witch-Doctor, a man they have not seen before, wearing African robes and a bizarre head dress that covers his head and has the model of some heads on the top. He is wielding some sort of African style sceptre with hair on the end.

The Witch Doctor starts to chant something in an unknown African language. Alex shoots him with his pistol, then Tiger fires his shotgun and the figure goes down. Silas N’Kwane is at the top of the stairs and turns to run. Jeziah shoots through the wall and his him, but he keeps going.

The Great Zalkador stays upstairs, saying someone needs to watch the shop.

Screaming Horror in the Well

Alex, Tiger and Jeziah head down, Jeziah fixing his bayonet on the end of his rifle. They enter the room downstairs, which is now lit by a burning torch on the wall. There are four zombie figures with dangling tongues stood in the alcove, which has the curtain drawn back.

Silas is on the right hand side of the room, trying to lift up a large, round stone block that is covering a well of some kind, using a winch. As he does, the horrible, inhuman screaming of multiple voices comes out from the well.

Jeziah shoots Silas and he crawls into the well. Jeziah and Tiger step forward to stop him and catch a glimpse of an eldritch horror in the well. There is some sort conglomeration of human heads, bound together by some fleshy material. A bizarre fleshy abomination, the heads of which screech and cry out in terrible pain and horror.

The Investigator are momentarily shocked into inaction. Alex is particularly horrified by the sight, but manages to back off and look away.

Battle with Zombies

Jeziah kicks Silas N’Kwane into the well, they releases the winch to replace the stone block over the winch.

The four blood tongue zombies now begin to advance towards the Investigators. Jeziah considers leaving, but he sees there are interesting things in the alcove and resolves to fight these zombies.

Jeziah shoots one of the zombies through the head, but it just makes a small hole in his head. The Butler is a little taken back by this.

Tiger puts both barrels from his shotgun into the nearest zombie and it is blasted back, stopping moving. Tiger reloads.

Alex shoots with his pistol, but bullets don’t seem to bother the zombies. The three remaining continue to advance and the Investigators fall back.

Jeziah now steps forward and tries to stab the nearest zombie in the back of the neck to cut its spine. He succeeds, but the figure keeps coming. He then stabs it in the front and catches it in the dangling tongue. The zombie then convulses and collapsed.

Tiger then guns down another zombie with his shotgun, while Jeziah stops the last one by stabbing it in the tongue.

Exploring the Alcove

With all enemies now dealt with, things suddenly go quiet. They carefully examine the alcove. They see and take everything of interest.

A wooden mask with tongue painted red on it.
A copper bowl with blood in it.
A grey, metallic head band.
An intricate maritime chronometer on the wall that shows the current time very accurately.
A book – Dark African Sects, marked as property of the British Museum.
An odd symbol carved into the wall. Alex draws a copy of it.
A locked cash box with some money it in.

They discuss what to do next. They resolve to get some petrol from the car, cover their ears and lift up the block from the well, pour petrol down and set the thing down there on fire. Jeziah leaves the block off so that the fire has enough air. The creature screeches and squeals loudly, but the voices slowly start to go quiet.

The Great Zalkador takes a few things that may be of interest from the shop, but there is nothing of much use.

Some Stiff Drinks

They return to Astor Manor and relate a slightly rambling version of what happened at Ju-Ju house. She is initially sceptical and when she sees how earnest and shocked they are, beings to accept their story. They all suspect they have witnessed real Voodoo magic.

They eat and have some stiff drinks, then begin to discuss the implications of what they have seen and how this relates to their investigation into the Carlisle Expedition.

Cassandra remembers a flyer mentioning Polynesia and they find a flyer promoting a talk by Professor Anthony Clowes, from Sidney University, at the British Museum. The next session is on Monday evening. Jeziah telephones and arranges tickets.

London