Ch.15 (No) Southern Comfort

[Bullfrog]

"It was all a mess." Lawrence shakes his head. "I think he was held somewhere separate from us, and we were so desperate to get out that we didn't go back to look for him. We were all going to be sacrifices to Yig, you see, their god; I'm surprised he didn't turn up dead earlier. For all we know, he could have fallen in with them."

[Silver Priest]

Alex's eyes widen. "That's most concerning. We can't just allow a cult to operate, especially through legitimate channels. Perhaps I should investigate further and see if I can bring any evidence to the police in Baton Rogue. I'd like to think my own credentials hold some weight, but it's likely not going to be that much down south. But if Mr. Livingstone is competent enough to testify about his experiences, that would help us a great deal."

[Mr. Handy]

"This may be a trap to lure us down there," says William, "but we have to do what we can to get Mr. Livingstone back home. I think we should place a long-distance call to the Sheriff in Baton Rouge, let him know who the man is, and find out the circumstances first."

[jp1885]

Talk of snake gods reminds Ivy of the hideous snake idol in those horrible caverns.

“What do you know of this Yig? Perhaps there are records of the cult that we could dig out?”

[Mr. Handy]

"Not much, but it's certainly something we can research," says William.

[Silver Priest]

'I'm of two minds as to calling the Sheriff," says Alex. "Doing it myself would likely be the most effective, but if it's a trap, it alerts the cult to me. I think it would be best if myself and Ivy keep a low profile. Right now we are not known to be affiliated with you. If circumstances require investigation down in Terrebonne, we can do so hopefully without blowing our cover.

[Mr. Handy]

"Yes, that's a good idea," says William. "I can call the Sheriff."

[Philulhu]

”Sheriff DuPont, how may I help you?” came the voice from the telephone when William’s call was connected.

“I understand that you’re calling about our mystery man,” the Sheriff drawled.

[Bullfrog]

"Yig is a god of snakes and their kin, as you may have guessed; the Egyptians called him Set, I think, the Aztecs called him something with a Q in it, and the Indians had all sorts of names for him. He is a vengeful god, especially if you kill his children." Lawrence speaks to Ivy in hushed tones, recalling what Brophy had told him during that brief alliance. In his eyes, there was a look of utter, mad conviction; to Lawrence, this god was just as real as gravity, an indisputable fact of life.
"The library in Baton Rouge had some papers on the snake-worshipping practices of some of the local Indians. I don't remember seeing the name Yig, but we weren't looking for it at the time."

[jp1885]

While William talks on the telephone, Ivy mulls over Lawrence's words. Casting her mind back to that strange Indian visitor who demanded she return Brophy's spirit to Squatter's Lake, she wonders what the Indian knows of this Yig.

"Most... unsettling..." she replies after a while. "To think people still worship such beastly things in this day and age."

[Mr. Handy]

"That's right," says William. "His name is Georgie Livingstone. He's from up here in Massachusetts, the same as me. My friends and I met him when we were all in Louisiana almost a year ago."

[Philulhu]

William could hear the Sheriff’s voice grow muffled and he could envisage DuPont tucking the phone receiver between his ear and shoulder as he took notes of the conversation, carefully repeating Georgia’s name to make sure it was spelled correctly.

Mr Livingstone is unfortunately in a bad way and hasn’t regained consciousness since we picked him up,” said the Sheriff. ”Do you have any idea what happened to him?”

[Mr. Handy]

"I'm not sure," says William, "but I have some idea who may be responsible. We were in Terrebonne Parish, and my friends and I ran afoul of Sheriff Digbe when we weren't with Georgie. The man is corrupt as they come. He and his goons grabbed us, but they didn't place us under arrest. They locked us up in some cells, but we were later able to escape. We barely got out of Terrebonne Parish with our lives. We didn't have time to try to find Georgie, but it's possible they got their hands on him."

[Silver Priest]

"I think we should do some research on this Yig," Alex suggests. "Though I am curious how this cult apparently took over the entire police force of one parish, however rural. Regardless, I would like to root them out. I highly doubt yours was the first group they attempted to sacrifice, so they are a public danger."

[jp1885]

“We should be careful though,” Ivy cautions Alex. “If they can control local police, we can assume they have their hooks in local government too - at the very least.”

[Philulhu]

"I'm not sure," says William, "but I have some idea who may be responsible. We were in Terrebonne Parish, and my friends and I ran afoul of Sheriff Digbe when we weren't with Georgie. The man is corrupt as they come. He and his goons grabbed us, but they didn't place us under arrest. They locked us up in some cells, but we were later able to escape. We barely got out of Terrebonne Parish with our lives. We didn't have time to try to find Georgie, but it's possible they got their hands on him."

There was a long pause and a certain tightness when Sheriff DuPont spoke again. Corrupt or not, perhaps the Sheriff didn’t appreciate one of his colleagues being spoken about in that way. ”Ahem, well, Sheriff Digne has moved on and Terrebonne parish is under our jurisdiction now,” he said.

”Where were these cells in which you were held?”

[Bullfrog]

"It was in the cellar of a church. Must have been... An hour out of town, maybe?" Lawrence quietly reminds William before turning back to converse with the other two. "The cult only had the one sheriff, as far as I know; they had him snake-bitten, and gave him an antidote once we surrendered. The one we should worry about is their leader, a man who called himself Nyatanga; I figure he was one of the Indian snake-worshippers we read about, and he was trying to summon his god as revenge against civilization for moving in on the swamp. A dangerous man, probably even more so than Brophy himself; I'm surprised he hadn't already gone after us, especially me. I think I may have killed one of Yig's children."

[Silver Priest]

"Sounds like the sheriff was coerced," Alex responds thoughtfully. "I'm not sure how we can hope to track down their leader, but our primary focus should be figuring out the state of Mr. Livingstone and if he can tell us anything."

[Mr. Handy]

"That's good to hear," says William, "but the others may still be around, and they're dangerous. I'm not sure exactly where it was, but they took us to this church in the swamp on a skiff, about an hour out of town. We were locked up in the cellar, which is unusual in the swamp. I don't know how they kept it from flooding. The real guy in charge called himself Nyatanaga. He and his bunch of madmen worship snakes, and they forced Digne to work for them. They'd apparently poisoned him with slow-acting snake venom and made him do their bidding because they had the antidote." He describes the route they took to get back to town after they escaped.

[Philulhu]

There was another pause as the Sheriff considered what William had told him. ”Based on the description,” he said eventually, “I think I might know the place you mean,” he said.

There was another pause, then Sheriff DuPont continued, “I’ll level with you, Mr Preston. If it’s the place I think it is, we’ve had our eye on it for some time. Digne seemed to be in cahoots with that Nyatanga fellow, though nothing we could prove. If you’d be willing to come down here and identify the place they held you and make a statement to that fact, then we might be able to use that to put him away. What do you say?”