Roots

It's the summer of 2017 in small town Virginia. The tranquility the residents take for granted is shaken by disturbing news: Karen Parker is missing. To some she may be a friend or neighbor. To others, a daughter. But regardless of the relation, the investigators set out to bring her home. But ancient evils lurk everywhere, and as the investigators are about to discover, some are very close to home...

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Re: Roots

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"Oh yeah, last thing, did you find any patterns to the disappearance? Like, do these disappearance every other year or something like that? Any connections that jumps out?"
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Re: Roots

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Catherine found no real patterns. The few people who vanished each decade were both women and men of every age and race.

Decided to go back to their homes, the team settles into an uneasy sleep. At least they were out of Geverlon. Though it seemed likely they'd be revisiting it again very soon, an uneasy prospect.

And while two of them find their dreams rather uneventful, Tobias has a disturbing one.
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He's in the woods. Alone; there is no sign of the others. But he has no time to question this.

Somehow Tobias knows his rough location. He's a little past Geverlon, a mile or so north then east off the road into the forest. It's dense here, and the musky smell is everpresent and heavy. Tobias hasn't smelled it before. But he knows it's the smell of evil.

He walks forward through the thick trees, searching for Karen and desperate to find her. A scream rings out now and then, a scream he knows to be that of his granddaughter. It guides him forward, and he picks up the pace. He can feel the rough path, the vines bite into hm as he forces his way through them and continues on.But he knows he needs to find her soon. It's pitch black, and very soon it will be too late.

The screams get closer to closer, and he soon finds himself in a clearing. There he sees her. Karen's naked and battered hands and feet tied to a sacrificial altar. Just behind her is a giant tree. It's alone, with no other foliage near it, and humongous, clearly several hundred years old. Its bark is covered with numerous writings, the words are incomprehensible to Tobias right now. But he knows enough to know this is a thing of great evil. It radiates out from the tree like a sickness.

"Grandpa! Help me!" Karen screams, and he approaches her. But before he can reach her a robed figure emerges from out of the darkness. Taking a sacrificial knife, they plunge it into Karen's flesh, again and again. She screams in agony, but Tobias finds himself suddenly paralyzed. Unable to do so much as scream towards her.

But Karen does enough of that for both of them.

After what feels like an eternity the figure stops stabbing Karen, and it would seem that she is dead. But then she turns her head weakly towards her grandfather, and speaks.

"Run."

And then the robed figure pulls down their hood, and Tobias finds himself starring at Karen herself. But this Karen is different. Her eyes are more feral, and there's a savage joy within her expression. She grins in ecstasy.

"Let the hunt begin!"

Tobias can move again, and he feels the overpowering urge to run. But he does not get far between dozens of shapes emerge from the trees. They're completely dark, their features indistinct. But they are inhuman, and he knows to be afraid of them. He struggles but finds he lacks the Sign, and without it he is a feeble old man. They are soon upon him, and the last thing he hears is Karen's laughter.

He wakes, covered in sweat.

OOC:   I think this calls for a SAN roll for poor Tobias. 1/1d6. He knows for a fact whatever he saw was in some sense real.  
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Re: Roots

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SAN 76%,[dice]0[/dice] SAN LOSS: [dice]1[/dice] REMAINING SAN: 74 [ooc]Do [b]Tobias[/b] remember the tree from his dreams? After all, the memories of dreams are hardly reliable, however vivid they seem to be.[/ooc]
Tobias woke up screaming, "KAREN! NO!"

He was suddenly overcame with a great urge to grab a medical kit, a gun, and insect repellent and just...dash out into the woods, but he knew that rash actions will not help. He hopes that, however, he could find some proper solution to this nightmarish incident. He wheezed, breathing with great difficulty, finding himself almost as paralysed and helpless as he had being in the dream. He struggled to his feet.
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Re: Roots

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ooc,For whatever reason, Tobias remembers everything vividly and in exacting detail. What he makes of it is up to him.
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Re: Roots

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Image

In the morning, Catherine goes to meet Tobias and Daniel.
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Re: Roots

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Tobias scribbled down everything he remembered about the dream, and met up with Catherine and Daniel. He forgot to shave, his clothes were sloppy, and he has bags under his eyes; looking worse for wear. "Catherine, before we contact Paradise Falls University, do you mind doing a quick search on the inter-webs about pagan mythology revolving around a 'tree of life' in these areas? Any folk tales about a towering tree with strange writings etched into its bark?"
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Re: Roots

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Image

"Sure, I'll take a look," says Catherine. "There was a tree of life in the Garden of Eden, and there's also some references to a 'tree of life' in Kabbalah, though you'll probably know more about that than I would. How did you hear about this? It would help to know the context."
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OOC:   Searching for information specific to Geverlon will require a Library Use roll. I'm tempted to add a penalty, but I'll instead say only one attempt at this roll can be made by one character.  
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Re: Roots

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"Oh nothing, it's just that Geverlon supposed had some ties to occult worship. I was just wondering if there was some more information concerning this area. Has there ever been any specialised mythology involving an intricate tree with many complex symbols carved into it found on the internet?"
OOC:   Mr. Handy, do you volunteer as tribute? :)  
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Re: Roots

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Catherine searches, but she can't find anything.
OOC,Library Use roll (65% skill) searching for a 'tree of life' that might be associated with Geverlon: [dice]0[/dice]
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Re: Roots

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OOC:   oof  
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It takes a few more tedious and mostly frustrating hours. It's a specific subset of an already obscure subject, and they find nothing directly linked to Geverlon. However, they do find a few stories from a local Native American tribe from this area of Virginia. The tales are located in a book of Native folklore.e Thanks to Google Books, the investigates luck out and are able to read much of the article.

The Native tribe located in the Geverlon area were known as the Lanid.They were a small and insular group, and contacts between them and other tribes in the area were scattered and irregular. It is mentioned that sometime in the precolonial past some of the tribe turned their back on their ancestor's beliefs and began worship of a figure known as the All Consuming Mother. There is little written about this figure , but it was apparently a dark god, feared and reviled by the other tribes in equal measure. Many of the Lanid people apparently disliked the religion as well, and there was conflict between the tribe's traditionalists and the believers of this new faith. The newcomers quickly gained the upperhand. In despair, the tribe's elder shaman went on a vision quest. A few weeks later, he returned with knowledge as to how to defeat the vile worshipers. Tales claim he crafted some sort of sign(details of which are lacking) and cast it upon the wicked, turning them to trees. The All Consuming Mother's favorite worshiper he shaped into a great tree and covered with symbols so it would forever be rooted onto the ground and unable to harm anyone else. A great sickness then took him, and he died shortly after. But the remaining Lanid returned to the ways of their ancestors, and the wicked faith was suppressed.

There are few records of the tribe's interactions with European colonialists when they reached this area. What few notes are left on the history of the Lanid indicate that much of the tribe had died out by the dawn of the ninetieth century. Even so, there are likely few members still alive, but no matter how hard the investigators search they could find no trace of any of them. Unfortunate too; anyone who knew the tribe's stories could be a huge asset in understanding more about Geverlon and whatever sort of cult the townspeople were running.
OOC:   To save you time, no amount of research will allow you to find any surviving Lanid. That was the source of information a successful check would have gotten you. ;) So on this front at least, you guys are on your own.  
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Re: Roots

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OOC:   I don't suppose Tobias can roll Cthulhu Mythos? How much Herbicide can a person logically buy?  
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OOC:   Sure. It's what the skill is there for, after all. :D  
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Cthulhu Mythos 23%,[dice]1[/dice]
Tobias twitches slightly. But he continued, “Perhaps a visit to the Paradise Falls University will offer more fruitful information about the remaining Native American tribesmen the article talked about, and Geverlon itself. I’ll contact them.”
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Although sympathetic, there's not much help the university can offer. Some persuasion gets the person Tobias is talking to to dig up Beth's records. she had been a great a student, and had apparently gotten the idea to visit Geverlon and conduct research on it from a book in the library. The book itself dealt with Virginia and its history of support(or lack thereof) for various sociatial movements. In an interview with her professor, Beth apparently found the few mentions of the town interesting and noteworthy, and believed that it held a story worth being told. She intended to go down to Geverlon and interview its residents over the break between semesters, in preparation for her upcoming thesis.Unfortunately Beth never returned to school, and it was generally assumed she had gone missing or simply burnt out. Even amongst the dedicated it happened now and again.

As for Geverlon, the town itself has little to do with the university, though very very rarely a student from the town enrolls at Paradise Falls University. As it turns out there is a student from Geverlon attending the university at the moment, though privacy concerns dictate the university cannot give out the student's identity without their express permission.

Some further investigation gets them transferred to a professor who is all too happy to discuss The Lanid people. Professor Simon Mortons explains that there is little known about the tribe, and it is actually regarded as a bit of an unsolved mystery.

"Most of their tribe fell prey to some sort of awful sickness, and many of those left integrated into the larger tribes in the area. As such much of their history has been lost to time. The tidbits we have been able to understand are fascinating, however. They have their own history and mythological cycle, and they're entirely distinct from other tribes in the area. If we could ever interview any of the tribe's descendants we could learn so much about the Lanid people, but I doubt there are many left who are enmeshed in those traditions, as it were. Many of the surviving Lanid people most likely don't even identify with it, and it's doubtful they could tell us much more than we already know."
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"What do you know about their beliefs and their history and mythological cycle?" asks Catherine.
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"Professor Mortons, I don't suppose you'd be interested in coming along with us to take a look around Geverlon, would you? We have reasons to believe that a bastardised version of the Lanid People's mythology still lives on in the town of Geverlon, and it could be possible that a dangerous cult was formed around it." Tobias said, pausing slightly to digest the information. "Furthermore, is there any reference books that you would at least recommend that contains information on the All Consuming Mother and the legend of the Lanid Shaman's binding of the All Consuming Mother's favourite worshipper? It's a personal curiosity, I suppose, but I suppose some details would be welcome."
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"Oh no, my days of fieldwork are long behind me." The professor says with a laugh. "So I'm afraid I'll have to pass.

"The Lanid's religion seems to be more or less standard for this area until some sort of conflict split the tribes between their traditional beliefs and this All Consuming Mother figure. We know very little about the entire thing, only whispers and asides in books, which makes it even more frustrating. The whole story sounds tantalizing, and we've no historical record truly focusing on it. Regardless, the conflict is generally thought to have resolved with the traditionalists winning out and casting their rivals out, albeit it at great cost. If I had to guess, these stories are allegories at least in part of first contact with European colonialists. It would explain the great loss the tribe suffered from contact with the Europeans. I've no real clue about this All Consuming Mother Figure. we don't have any records from those who venerated her, and the traditional members of the tribe seemed content to mention her name in horrific undertones and nothing else. My best guess is that she was some kind of twisted fertility goddess, though that's only a guess mind, I've no real research to back it up. Still, it is odd. No other tribes in the area worshiped anything like that, so I really don't know from where inspiration for her as a figure of worship could have spring from. You see why this all is so frustrating. We have so little answers, and most of them are contradictory! Even the Lanid stories seem to place this inter tribal conflict before the arrival of the white man. But based off what I've sen it's far more likely the sociatial upheaval was the result of these two cultures clashing.

"A cult, based off these old teachings? Please forgive me but I find that difficult to believe. We don't have any records of this faith. The folks in Geverlon are largely descended from the European colonists who founded the town. I'm not even sure if there was any significant intermingling of them and the Lanid. It would be highly improbable that a suppressed faith practiced by a Native American tribe would somehow be able to take root in a town all these centuries later. Oh makes for a fun paperback, I suppose, but these sort of things just don't happen. Why, there's actually a young man in one of my classes from Geverlon,and he's perfectly ordinary and friendly."

"Now, unless there's something else, I really must be going."
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"Professor, actually, according to local papers from the 1700s. There's published articles on 'daemonic presences' within Geverlon that has been mysteriously swept under the rug. Furthermore, we spoke Beth's mother, her last remaining relative. According to her story, it appears that her daughter Beth went missing for several weeks in Geverlon with no contact with the outside world before returning as a completely different person. The child had then professed a deep desire to remain in Geverlon for the remainder of her life. My name is Tobias Jerkins, I'm a renowned author of the occult with a background in cult indoctrination and ts inherent symptoms called 'Encyclopedia Dæmonica'. During the late 1920s, I was a Private Investigator, so I believe my suspicions about Geverlon is justified and credible. Having you onboard would certainly make things easier." Tobias said.
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"As for the boy, if he's willing to talk to us, we would like to interview him, actually. In fact, I would be very interested in hearing his side of the story."
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