The Starkesboro Library was a beautiful and imposing building of turreted stone towers, archways, and columns. It almost looked kind of like a castle or old-school European Manor House. Honestly, if not for the boards over the windows and the chain and padlocked doors, it could have been one of the most visually interesting buildings I'd seen since arriving here, and I included Tony Stark's Casino in that. As it stood, it looked like this place had been shuttered for at least two years, probably more. Waiting for me at the front door was another robed, sunglasses-wearing, gloves-sporting man, though as he unlocked the padlock, I could tell he didn't have the talons that Regulus did. Entering the dusty halls of the shuttered library, he took his hood, gloves, and sunglasses off to reveal a slightly more human appearance than Regulus had.
His eyes, while yellow, didn't have the same slit pupils, and while his skin was leathery and olive green, it wasn't covered in visible scales the same way that Regulus' was. His canines were pronounced, as had been Regulus' but he didn't have the talons that Regulus had. Instead, he had a snake-like nose with an underdeveloped bridge and slitted nostrils. He nodded to me as I took in his appearance. Honestly, if I didn't know any better, I might be tempted to say that Ophidio was just an unfortunate case of someone with a Regressive Atavistic Disorder or similar disability giving him reptilian traits. Hell, he could probably pass for having an X-Gene, though that wasn't exactly all it's cracked up to be.
"Regulus is less human-looking than all of the rest of us Half-bloods. That is why he has the mystical talent the rest of us lack." Offered Ophidio as my curious look.
"Honestly, if I didn't know for certain you were Half-Serpent Man, I would be tempted to say Mutant or Regressive Atavism." I shrugged.
"That was the point of siring hybrids, at least initially, among the cult. The initial idea was to sire infiltrators who could spread the Worship of Great Sligguth into nearby towns. As you can probably imagine, it didn't work out so well." Smirked Ophidio.
"Right. So, about this puzzle seal?" I questioned, trying to get to the bottom of things.
"We need to answer a series of riddles to disengage the first seal in the array. I've already done that, but the second requires us to find a transpose cipher somewhere inside the library. I have no clue where to find it, and until now, no one to help me look." Informed Ophidio.
"There must be some sort of clue." I frowned.
"Only that the key may be found in the abattoir. I've looked, however, and the books I've found on slaughterhouses and livestock have had nothing. The same for any books on more. . .human related subjects like the Holocaust or Torture." Sighed Ophidio.
"Maybe we should be looking for something more mystical? A book on blood magic, Animal Magic, or Sacrificial Rituals might be more of what we're looking for." I offered.
"Where would we find something like that? This was a public library and even the cult wouldn't leave that sort of thing in plain sight." Pointed out Ophidio.
"There has to be a clue somewhere. Let's check out the library for any secret compartments, switches, or signs?" I tried.
With nothing better to go on, Ophidio agreed, and we began checking the library for any of the aforementioned oddities. We had no such luck in finding anything like that, no secret compartments in walls or shelves, no hidden switches, not even any clues carved into the floorboards, shelves, or walls. I also received nothing when trying to use my mystical senses to pick up anything. Only the basement was registered, where the puzzle seal and artifact cache were. It took us several hours to search everything and by the time we were done, it was already past eight at night, long since having required electric lanterns to be brought in from Ophidio's car.
We were about to give up when I looked up at the ceiling to let out a groan of frustration and realized that the Ceiling was carved in a particular pattern. Almost like the writhing coils of a serpent. Idly, I followed the path of the coils up to where the head should be, only to find it disappearing into a stairwell. I grabbed one of the lanterns and rushed up the stairs, following the spiraling coil to the head, only to find that where the head should be was instead a painting of the Town Founder, Caleb Starke, holding a serpent-twined cross on his lap. The painting was old, done up in oils, and cracked with age and neglect, but the paint to the immediate sides of the frame was less so.
I removed the painting to find a cleverly hidden compartment where a trio of books lay inside. One was A Treatise on the Totemic Magics of North America, Africa, and the Orient by Allesandro Conti di Cagliostro, another was The Sacrificial Rituals of Old Kheshatta by Al-Tothas of Alexandria, and the last was Blood Sorceries of the Vampyr by Tamás Rădulescu, King of the Romani. All three looked to be at least two-hundred-thirty or so years old. It was inside of the book on Sacrificial Rituals that I found a yellowed slip of paper with the transpositional cipher key on it.
Of course, it was to my shock and horror, that the moment I took the Cipher Key out of the Ritual Book, that I could feel my magic start reaching toward the book to attempt to adapt to and integrate the basics of the new magic inside! Kheshatta was the capital city of Old Stygia, the heart of the Worship of the Elder God Set! I didn't want knowledge of how to perform their hoary human sacrifices rattling around in my brain! With an effort of focus, I pulled back on my magic, denying it the ability to adapt and integrate such magics. I did the same when it came to the Blood Magic Tome, though the Totemic Magics I allowed my magic to begin trying to adapt and integrate, as that was less obviously black than either of the others. Granted it still involved invoking inhuman spirits to partly possess you in order to gain powers, which wasn't exactly white magic by itself, but still.
By the time I returned to the main floor with the Cipher and the Tomes, I decided that I'd hand the other two off to Regulus tomorrow. He could figure out what to do with them. In the meantime, I slapped the cipher key down on the table, and it turned out that the password to deactivate the second seal was Great Serpent Satha Unlock This Door. With that, the second of three seals was unlocked. One test had been of cunning, one had been primarily a test of perceptiveness, which likely meant the next was a test of willpower, leaving physical prowess for the guardian afterward.
Indeed, as the second seal deactivated, a third flashed through a number of colors in a hypnotic display, fascinating Ophidio, but doing little to me thanks to my primary mutation. My mind was essentially an impenetrable fortress, which allowed me to walk right up to the flashing, hypnotic, lights, and find the sigil that would deactivate the display, put a single finger on it, and pulse magic energy into it. The light show immediately cut out as the third and final seal deactivated, the stone wall recessing inward with a groan of clockwork and swinging open. Almost immediately, a shambling, bandage-wrapped, Mummy came lunging out of the open door at speed, fangs, talons, and bandage-wrapped tail in place of legs giving away that this was the Mummy of a full-blooded Serpent Man.
The Mummy lunged for the still fascinated Ophidio only for me to activate my various mystical enhancements and kick him away. Mummy or no, Serpent-Man or no, he wasn't in my weight class in terms of physical capability. As he stumbled back upright and smashed a punch into my face, only to do little more than split my lip, I judged him to be capable of maybe hitting with fourteen to fifteen tons of force with similar increases in speed and durability compared to my twenty-five tons. It was going to be enough to win him the fight against me, though I could likely have ended it just by setting him ablaze with magic. That wasn't advisable in a place filled with highly flammable books, however.
Fortunately, I had another way to take down the Mummy fast, and I didn't even need to feel bad about using lethal force this time. I reached into my bag of holding and pulled out my Valyrian Steel Wan-Shen, taking up the Intermediate Matukai Stance and waiting for the Mummy to make his next move. He did so, attempting to catch me with a whip of his tail. Drawing upon the Force to perform the Wan-Shen Defensive Parry. The technique utilized martial arts training and the force to increase reaction times, allowing the Matukai to parry any incoming attack. Even a blaster bolt or slugthrower round could be cut out of the air like this. It was most useful, however, when dealing with another person engaging you in melee, where the technique could be used offensively.
Indeed, as I snapped off a split-second parry, the Valyrian Steel blade of my Wan-Shen bit into the tail of attacking Mummy in a maneuver that was both defense and attack all rolled into one technique. Valyrian Steel, Force-imbued, Mightstone-boosted, blade met undead, serpentine, flesh and it was the flesh that gave way, parting with a sound not unlike tearing canvas as my parry severed the last third of the Mummy's tail from his body. I let go of my hold on the force with a smirk as a silent roar escaped the Serpentine mouth of the Mummy. Unfortunately, that was soon followed by some sort of foul, dark green, acrid, sludge that he spat at me, splattering over my shirt and searing my skin with acidic burns that melted skin before a quick casting of a hydromantic spell washed it off.
From there, however, the outcome of the fight was a foregone conclusion. I knew it had acid spit now, and could anticipate the attacks as they came at me, putting up a mystic shield or dodging away. That was the only thing it had that could actually do anything beyond the superficial to me, as it just wasn't strong enough. Meanwhile, my Wan-Shen whirled around like a buzzsaw of death, hacking apart the Mummy with magically enhanced speed and Force-imbued reflexes. By the time five minutes were up, the Serpent-Man Mummy had been hacked apart and rendered inert.
I began healing the acid burns on my chest with a combination of Alakhestry and Matukai Force Healing. Ten minutes after that, I woke Ophidio up from his mystical stupor. He seemed shocked to have fallen so easily into such a trap, and even more surprised to see part of the basement floor covered in chunks of diced Serpent Man Mummy. Eventually, however, he made his way into the Artifact room looking around. I followed him inside to see what he'd been marveling at and found a veritable treasure trove inside. Not just in terms of magical items, but of knowledge and wealth too.
There was a small chest filled with five thousand Spanish doubloons next to a small barrel filled with Colombian Emeralds and Brazilian Diamonds, Spanish Silver Plate sat in another nearby chest. A bookshelf full of mystic tomes lined one wall and contained a tome of Elementalist Magics penned by a Dutch Sorcerer from Sint Maarten, one on Native Huron Tribe Herbalism, one on Wabanaki Healing Magics penned by a Quebecois Sorcerer, one on Enchantment for use in the Smithy by a Portuguese Magesmith from Brazil, one on Mental Illusions by a Danish Sorcerer living on Saint Thomas, and one on Mayan Necromancy by a Conquistador who'd helped conquer the last Mayan Kingdom and had a bit of Magical Talent of his own. There were also magical weapons of all stripes, from naval cutlasses and cavalry sabres, to Native American Tomohawks and Gunstock Clubs, to knives of all stripes.
The piece de resistance, however, was the single, weathered, gauntlet made of golden-colored metal that was engraved with all sorts of ancient sigils of power. The gauntlet lay on a satin pillow in the center of the treasure room, where the light could shine down on it from the single, blue, magelight that bathed everything in a pale glow. Next to the far rear wall sat a cushion where presumably, the Serpent Man Mummy had waited. Above the cushion sat an oil painting of a man who looked similar enough to Caleb Starke to be his son, save for the fact that his skin was just a tinge too green a shade of olive to be natural, and the prominent, fang-like canines poking out from his mustache. The gilded nameplate on the portrait read 'Captain Abraham Starke of the Privateer Ship Sea Snake'.
"Huh, if I had to hazard a guess, Caleb Starke's son had been even more influenced by Sligguth than his father had. The Old Serpent sent him pillaging to bring back wealth and mystical knowledge to the Town." I mused.
"It wasn't until Abraham Starke's son Joshua's time in seventeen-sixty that the Cult really got formalized and the Serpent Men began moving to Starkesboro en masse. It's certainly possible that Abraham was a pirate stealing wealth, mystical knowledge, and equipment to help set the town up. I know where he might have gotten most of this, but this gauntlet is like nothing I've ever seen before. I have no idea where it might have come from." Frowned Ophidio.
"I think I know where. That metal is Orichalcum, which was used in Pre-Cataclysmic Atlantis to create magical items of power. I think I recall reading about an Atlantean Colony in the Caribbean called Antilla that sunk beneath the waves after the Hyborian Cataclysm, leaving only scattered shoals and a few small islets behind. That must have come from one of those islets." I hedged.
There was absolutely no mistaking that design. The orichalcum combined with the geometric engravings lined with mystic sigils was pure Pre-Cataclysmic Atlantis to a T. The only other place that an early eighteenth-century Pirate would have found something like that would be in the Savage Land, and I very much doubted that Abraham Starke even knew what Antarctica was, much less that there was a hidden, hospitable, section of the frozen seventh continent filled with Hyborian Age Castoffs, Atlantean Colonists, Dinosaurs, Mutates, and Animal Men.
"Look, we can figure this all out later, for now, somebody needs to get in here and catalog everything. I'm not an expert on the amount of gold in a doubloon versus the price of gold per gram, but there has to be at least two million dollars worth of gold in the doubloons alone, nevermind the silver plate ingots or the emeralds and diamonds. That might even be enough to re-open the library. You have no idea how much you've done for our Town tonight." Nodded Ophidio.
"Don't worry about it, although I wouldn't mind a chance to study that gauntlet or some of those tomes. Plus if you could see your way toward voting to lend me a boat to go looking for my Tower, I'd appreciate it." I responded.
"Keep helping out like this and I don't think anyone is going to have a problem with that." Agreed Ophidio.
And with that, the first of the sidequests was over. Next up would be finding out what had happened to Sortius' Grandaughter. Then I'd take a look at the Gremlins in the Old Cannery before trying my luck against whatever beast had made a lair in the Tin Mine. I was planning it out this way so as to save the most dangerous task for last. After all, obviously, a missing persons case would be less dangerous than potentially getting caught up in Gremlin Shenanigans, which in turn would be less dangerous than an unknown, miner-eating beast living in a cavern, right? Wrong. As it would turn out, Sortius' Grandaughter wasn't missing, she'd been kidnapped so she could be taken away for study.
And in the process of getting her back, I'd have to go head to head with her kidnapper, the one and only Taskmaster. . .
XXXX
Carpasia had thought that they could throw their weight around, subsume tiny, faltering, Morvania, and then use the prestige boost to join with Serbia as an equal instead of a junior partner in the proposed Greater Serbian Federation. They had urged Morvania to get rid of all the non-Serbs by whatever means they could. Deportation for the Minorities whose mother countries were part of the European Union, so as not to awaken the sleeping giant that was a semi-united Europe to come crashing down on the Balkans like a thunderbolt, of course. For the Albanians, however? Well, they had no such protection, not like the Bosniaks, Slovenes, and Croats had. Besides, Albanians were effectively Turks who didn't belong in Europe anyway, best to sweep them from the territory by any means necessary, up to and including internment camps and summary executions.
The Dictator of Carpasia, General Dragomir Vladić had given that advice to the now defunct Morvanian Government, along with advisors to help the Morvanian National Military Police carry out such necessary tasks. Only now was he beginning to understand the depths of his folly. Carpasia was not home to just Serbs, though they formed the backbone of the General's support. The North of the Country also had many Croats, while the Southeast had a number of Bosniaks, neither of which were particularly fond of his regime, but both of whom were too brutalized by constant 'anti-terrorist' raids by the General's Gendarmes to do anything about it. That had changed now that an army of undead and Mongrel Albanians and Albanian Sympethisers had swept into the country from the South.
Of course, General Vladić had kept most of his super-agents back in case of just such a problem arising. Thanks to the indoctrination programs he had purchased at great expense from Baron Von Strucker during the ongoing collapse of the Yugoslav State, and his ironclad hold on public education in Carpasia, General Vladić had ensured that any students in the public schools who showed signs of extranormal capabilities had been placed in special classes where they were instructed on how to serve the state to the best of their capabilities. Granted such controls were less able in Croat and Bosniak majority areas, where students often had other options, such as Catholic Schools that were backed by the Vatican, or Madrassas that functioned in a similar manner for the Bosniaks.
Still, he'd managed to put together a team of nine good Serbian Super Agents who would fight for the state until they could fight no more. Three had sadly perished in the fighting in Morvania, while two more had perished since the Barbarian Hordes had entered the South of Carpasia, but he kept four in reserve for his planned grand counterattack. Between Strélac, who could create arrows of plasma and had the skill to fire them accurately in the heat of battle, Orao who could fly at speeds of up to Mach Two and use said speed to destroy enemy tanks and jets, Zivica who had power over the plants and trees of the country, and Grom who could turn his form into living electricity, there would be enough Superhuman backup for his counterattack to succeed.
However, General Vladić would have to launch the counterattack soon. This Mors Cruentia had already made it as far north as Hatec, which was not five miles south of the City of Sárta which was the main manufacturing center of Carpasia outside the capital of Crnilobara itself, and also a major rail hub going to the Country's only port at Nova Luka. He would have to order the counterattack to begin before the sun set and the Armies of the Damned could return to lend their strength to the Albanian Mongrels. If he waited for them to do so, they would have the strength to attack Sárta, but without the unnatural advantages provided, the Albanian Mongrels would be slaughtered easily enough. After all, Albanians were simply not the equal of his men.
As he picked up the telephone to order that the counterattack begin in one hour, General Vladić contented himself with the thought that this would soon be over. His counterattack would break the disorganized Albanian Mongrels while they did not have their Sorcerous Master to help them and while the undead were sluggish from the daylight. Then, his forces would sweep down to reclaim Morvania, though he would not return that country to its former rulers and would instead annex it into Carpasia as a new province. The former leaders there had proven they could not be trusted with autonomy, at any rate. Once that was finished, he would march his men right into the Mother Country to sweep aside the garrisons put in place as a condition of the cease-fire, chastise the Kosovars, and be hailed as a liberator by all Serbs!
After that, who knew? The borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina, along with Croatia could use some re-adjusting to accommodate the Serbs there's need for resources and living space. Surely the European Union would be willing to negotiate with the man who had defeated such an abominable threat as an Army of the Undead led by the blackest kind of Sorcerer? After all, if that sort of threat broke out of the Balkans, where did they think it would turn to next? Mors Crucentia would never be satisfied with what he had, why else would he have sold his soul to the Devil like he so obviously had? As General Vladić lost himself in his fantasies of becoming the Savior of Serbia and carving out an empire under his aegis, he didn't realize that he was only partially correct.
This war would indeed be over soon, though if General Vladić knew the manner in which it would end, he would not be as sanguine. . .
XXXX
AN: All right, so we have one of the Starkesboro Sidequests down, and three more to go. Meanwhile, one, gigantic, last-ditch counterattack is being thrown at Mors Crucentia in an effort to turn the tide. The Carpasian Dictator is counting his chickens before they hatch, of course, and his fantasies are nowhere near realistic, but if he was smart, he wouldn't be what is essentially a Serbian-flavored Neo-Nazi. Meanwhile, Starkesboro is turning out to be more interesting than Jan thought, as not only is he getting the Hyborian Age connection, as Starkesboro first appeared back when Marvel had the Conan License, but also is about to run into fan-favorite asshole mercenary Taskmaster.
A note on the stuff involving the Serbs here, when I use stuff like calling the Albanians Mongrels, it's meant to illustrate that the Serb Nationalists are not good people. In fact, they're basically Nazis, if Nazis were all about Serbian Ethnostates instead of German Ones. They're supposed to be the same kind of despicable villain as the Red Skull is, only flavored slightly differently. I do not hold to any of the views expressed by these guys. It might be obvious that I don't, but I felt the need to cover my bases here.
At any rate, the next chapter will cover the skirmish with Taskmaster for Jan and the Carpasian Counteroffensive for Mors Cruentia.
Stay tuned. . .62