*** Session 04 - Scene 11 (of 11) ***

Across town, Le Doux and Fox locate the apartment Jean Baptiste gave as an address. Fox starts knocking on the door, carrying on far longer than most people.

No one answers the door but a door from downstairs opens and an old lady starts yelling about all the racket. Le Doux says they are there looking for the person in the apartment, who the old lady identifies as "Mr. Fearing". Le Doux notes to himself that Fearing is not a Haitian name.

Le Doux says they are there with the Department of Health and Safety. The lady says she doesn't know what that is but sounds important. She wants to know if it is related to the smells coming from the apartment lately, which she believes is a rat dead in the walls.

The lady explains she is the landlady and can let them in if they need to check on Fearing. She unlocks it and calls out for him. When no one answers, she says she doesn't think he's been around in a few days as she hasn't seen him. She notes she has seen someone she believes to be his "Negro servant".

Le Doux asks if the servant is a Haitian, but the old lady says she can't tell "those people" apart. He's fairly sure, however, this is the man is the one who picked up the suit from the laundry. Something else about the name Fearing sounds vaguely familiar, but Le Doux can't place it.

They enter the apartment to look around. Both try smelling for decay, but don't detect anything.

In the kitchen, Le Doux finds a piece of paper on the kitchen table with some names and addresses on it. The names are Taubert, DeHaven, and Giradin; he explains to Fox that they are the names and addresses of the men involved in the Haitian campaign.

Fox decides to check out the bedroom. He finds a diary hidden under the bed; there appears to be a photo in the middle of it.

The special agent ignores it for the moment to smell around more until he's sure he can smell the faint odor of decay. Le Doux believes the diary is more important so he asks Fox about it.

Le Doux starts by pulling out the photo. It appears to be two Haitian caco soldiers standing in front of some other cacos.  On the back there are three lines of handwriting in Haitian Creole. Le Doux translates it to "Benoit & Me", "The Brothers Batraville", and "Honchi – September 23, 1919".

The date and location puts the photo right before the Battle of Port-au-Prince. Le Doux isn't sure whether or not the photo suggests it is of Benoit Batraville and his brother.

Le Doux then looks at the page in the diary where the photo was found. It, too, is written in Creole but Le Doux is able to translate and reads it aloud to Fox.

It reads:

"January 14, 1919.

This evening Benoit is readying the troops for tomorrow's battle. To guarantee our victory, he has found a houngan named Bouak from a nearby village to perform the ritual prayer of Bois Caiman. But the houngan had only an albino pig to offer for sacrifice, and I fear something went wrong.

Lightning formed in the sky and the clouds began to swirl. I saw the head of a great beast emerge from a rift in the air. It was terrifying and exciting all at the same time. The creature was misshapen and appeared to defy all laws of nature; no true description of it can be given. The old man called it, "The Floating Horror."

I could hear the voice of the beast in my head, though its mouth did not move. It promised to give us an unending army of the dead in exchange for our souls. Benoit refused, and called on the houngan to dispel the beast back to its own dimension.

My brother was probably right to refuse such an infernal offer, but I can't help but admire the power the houngan wielded. I made sure to record down his ritual should I ever need to use it myself.

J.B."

Both men are deeply affected by the writing as they try to comprehend how it can be real and what it means. Le Doux realizes the diary of is of Benoit Batraville's brother who is apparently out for revenge against his killers. And in his revenge, he appears to be using the power of the Floating Horror to exact it...

*** Session 04 - Session Notes ***

Well, another session, another ride on the roller coaster. Last session went well, so naturally this session ends up being half a disaster. Sigh.

This was the first session where we tried to have all the players join at once. To say it was a bit problematic was an understatement.

The Walker player is being dragged to the game by her dad and clearly isn't interested. She actively resisted playing this time, barely even paid attention to anything going on, and then spent the last hour or so of the session complaining to her dad until he took her home. I loathe having to deal with player issues - especially family issues - but this isn't working so I'll have to say something. It's very disruptive to the game plus it seems like just bad parenting (it seems to me dragging your teenage daughter to your game night on your custody weekend would be a poor choice for everyone).

Then there was the Agent Fox player. He was very good in the prologue adventure, so it was a bit of a shock when his ADD kicked into high gear this session and he couldn't really follow anything going on.

And finally, the poor Nibbons player. Being the Skype player, I think he was overwhelmed with the larger group and everything going on. He literally talked for 30 seconds the entire game and that was pretty much entirely OOG commentary. From reading the notes, one could easily mistake him for being absent that session.

I think the lesson here is - in an investigative game like this, five players is pretty much the maximum and we'll need to work on what to do about the reluctant player.

Other notes from the session:
* The car theft bust took a lot of session time because of a number of disagreements and because we were having technical issues connecting the Nibbons player.

* I wanted to start with the car theft bust as a way to organically integrate the Fox character back in. I thought I had a pretty good plan with a couple of obvious-enough clues that would lead to things that could be followed up on.

What I didn't count on was the kid playing Fox to be overwhelmed with trying to orchestrate a simple police raid and somehow totally forget the clues almost immediately after learning them. So my plan turned into a bit of a fiasco.

* King Powers was Hawk's ex-gang leader / nemesis on Spencer for Hire so I thought it would be fun to include him as the villain for the car theft bust.

* The cops are all named after characters on Hill Street Blues (along with the direct homage for the precinct location).

* As I've done in past games, I left the other players play out the NPC cops for this scene to keep people engaged while allowing for side plots to play out. Esterhaus was played by the Le Doux player, La Rue by the Eberhardt player, Renko by the Hawk player, and Coffey by the Nibbons player.

* Powers using the Haitians for muscle was another potential way to get Fox connected back to the others. Unfortunately, that caused more confusion than anything.

* I had Powers use "Sweet Christmas!" several times in dialog. It's from Luke Cage's early characterizations in the Marvel comics. I don't know if that's something anyone in real life ever said (I assumed Marvel didn't want to use real jive talk to keep things kid-friendlier), but I always found it absurdly stupid and therefore funny. And since we're playing up that angle of Hawk's character, I thought it would be funny to include it.

* The Fox player seemed to forget his character is supposed to want to investigate the occult this session.

* I don't know how common company cars were in the 20's, nor how many executives a garment company would have, but I wanted a way to point in the direction of the cultist without giving away exactly who it was.

* The burlesque flier was a bit confusing for the Fox player, as he had no idea what a burlesque show was.

* I don't know if burlesque dancers of the day took on misspelled versions of Hollywood starlet names like some sort of modern stripper or porn star might do, but it seemed like the thing to do. I picked Mary Pickford because of the irony of her getting famous by playing younger roles (particularly at this point in time).

* There was no real reason the Fox player burned the flier, he was just being stupid. There was also some misunderstandings about the flier - he thought the note was on a separate piece of paper and he thought the flier was on the floor of the warehouse instead of the car.

* The name of the Tatterdemalion Garment Company is intentionally ironic, but it is also a reference to something else that will be more apparent later.

* I enjoyed my over-the-top fake slogans for the garment company. The players found them less humorous than I did though.

* In the actual game, the Fox player forget all of the clues in the warehouse immediately and only went to Le Doux's office to say goodbye to Le Doux before he left town (assuming he was going to be reassigned with his theft case closed).

* I made a rather mortifying faux pas when Fox arrives at Le Doux's office. As in the write-up, I flat out said that he found a pretty young redhead there, as I was describing the character, Patricia Walker. Of course, the 14 year old girl playing the character is also red-headed so that was awkward as I tried to explain I meant the character not her.

* The use of jive talk in the write-up around Hawk's character is more about me mocking the way he plays the character like a 70's Blaxploitation hero.

* I don't know if the notes on Le Doux's desk regarding the laundry made sense, but I feel it is better to claim dramatic license to keep the game moving.

* Hawk just made up "Fifth and Main". I added the details about the building in Joplin and his cousin in the write-up to give it more depth.

* Hawk instantly disliking Fox and sending him on a wild goose chase really pissed off the Le Doux player as it created a lot of disruption in the game for no benefit (hence the character argument later).

* The Hawk player seemed to misunderstand the laundry paying protection money to the tong with being a tong front - which is why he so urgently chased down Le Doux.

* There were a lot of jokes about the stereotypical Chinese Laundry made OOC as we started that scene. One I made was the reference to the old Calgon commercial, so I put it in the write-up.

* I don't know what the real equivalent of John Smith for Haitians is, but Jean Baptiste sounds close enough. Awkwardly, I have another NPC already planned for a future investigation that was named Jean Baptiste - I'm debating whether or not to change the name to avoid confusion.

* The whole "Void" vs. "BOI" thing is because the Fox player doesn't pronounce it B-O-I, he pronounces it "boi" which I find hilarious since I don't think he gets the connotation there.

* When Fox tries to tell the other players about the warehouse, he somehow jumbled the facts to think King Powers owned the car and was the one going to the committee meeting. It took the Hawk and Le Doux players a lot of leading questions to get him to understand what he really discovered.

* All of the Walker dialog in the scene was said by me during the game. The Walker player was busy texting friends or whatever teens do on their phones these days.

* Big Daddy, the Cajun crime boss, is pretty much taken directly from The Simpsons.

* The Fox player really didn't realize he was having Powers beaten in the interrogation before actually asking him a question.

* The interrogation scene played out exactly like most interrogations have in the past - the players get so worked up about wanting to interrogate someone that when the time comes, they aren't actually sure what to ask causing the person to mock them. The previous Cthulhubusters campaign had even more hilarious attempts at this, particularly the two different failed attempts with Dr. Krasnik.

* Eberhardt's comment about Fox forgetting Powers' name as soon as the interrogation was over was an in-character mocking, but there were other OOC jokes about him having a goldfish memory that night.

* There's a real life Haitian gang called Custer Street; I used it as inspiration for the jazz house that is the central base for Big Mike's crew.

* Initially, my thought was Wendell Poole might get them in contact with Little Zo, but the players were already getting so confused I figured I might as well have him reveal the Haitian gang didn't kill Taubert.

* Eberhardt getting the Haitians released is a rather large stretch, but since the city is supposed to be corrupt and they weren't the boss, I allowed it.

* The breakdown of the various plots and open threads was actually given by me. The players were starting to get too confused with multiple occult and multiple gang activities going on and started relating things that weren't actually related. I wanted to re-center them since the characters wouldn't have nearly as hard of a time keeping up with all the plots over six weeks of sessions that only represented a few days in game time.

* I was happy someone went to Donnenwirth as I had the tentacle-creature attack planned out. My intent was to keep things strange and unworldly - I don't want them thinking they know exactly what is going on.

* The white powder and datura stramonium is taken from The Serpent and the Rainbow.

* The mythos creature emerging from the head is a sort of spawn of the floating horror (my own creation).

* Eberhardt lost 9 SAN on that check, resulting in a pretty bad failure.

* At the apartment, I kept waiting for Le Doux and Fox to ask for Fearing's first name but they didn't. I'll get that in first thing next session - the name isn't important per se but it does have a link back to something. Also, the name is based on a character in the book, Cemetery Dance.

* The landlady's casual racism is something I pepper in here and there in the game. I want it to feel like the 20's, but not show up so much that it becomes either a parody or can be misinterpreted to be promoting racism. In this case, I had her be particularly racist as to explain why she didn't think it odd a black man was staying in the apartment (because she just assumed he was some kind of servant).


* Fox completely ignored the diary and photo. I guess he needs "CLUE" to be in flashing lights.

* Le Doux wasn't sure if the photo meant it was of the owner and his brother, Benoit Batraville; or if it meant it was taken of the owner and the two brothers. Luckily the diary entry was clearer.

* I used another real photo taken during the Haitian occupation as a hand-out for this.

* The diary entry was handed to the players completely in internet-translated lines of French (gibberish, I'm sure).  Once they got over the initial shock, I gave them the English version. I like to make sure all the little details are as right as I can on these things - for the French version it used the European date style (14 January, 1919) at the top of the entry but the English translation used the American date style (January 14, 1919).

* I wanted to give an explanation for how the brother gained the power to return the dead as well as the mythos connection. I used the historical tie to Bois Caiman as well, but was careful to point out that something went wrong and what the Batraville brother is using is not true voodoo but something else entirely.

* Batraville's (non-historical) brother is actually named Jean. Note that his initials are the same as his alias.

* The idea of a Haitian man seeking revenge on someone in New Orleans. for the death of his brother during the Haitian Campaign is something I've used in CoC before - back in the late 90s during a college campaign. In that game, the players were a funeral home director, a drunk riverboat captain, a mobster, and a mob assassin. The assassin skipped town, the riverboat captain went insane after seeing some serpent men, and the mobster and the funeral director ended up killing off the cult and the creature they conjured up by lighting the oil fields they were worshipping in on fire.

*** Session 05 - Cast of Characters ***

 Benjamin "Hawk" Brooks: A Black street kid turned enforcer. He works as muscle and provides information for Le Doux, for a price.

Detective Bruno Eberhardt: A 1st generation German immigrant and seasoned police officer recently made homicide detective. He does some work on the side for Le Doux and others to supplement his income.

 Special Agent Millard Fox: A White agent of the Bureau of Investigation. He was sent to Crescent City to investigate a stolen car ring but spends most of his time looking into occult incidents.

 Boudreaux "Boo" Le Doux: A Cajun and former swamp guide turned private eye who styles himself after hardboiled pulp detective novels.

 Chester Lee Nibbons: A younger, bookish White guy who works as Le Doux's "partner" in order to pay off a gambling debt to him.

*** Session 05 - Scene 1 (of 14) ***

Outside the morgue, Hawk and Nibbons start wondering why Eberhardt hasn't left the building yet. It has been a couple of hours and most of the other employees have already left.

Hawk tells Nibbons to keep the lookout while he goes in for a closer look. He finds the side door to the building locked so he heads over to a nearby window. Looking inside, he can see a lit hallway but no one around.

Jimmying the lock, Hawk lets himself in the window. He looks around for any directory signs and finds the one pointing towards "Pathology".

Hawk heads through a set of double doors into another hallway. The second hallway doesn't have any lights on and is dimly lit by the light outside and from the other hall.

As he heads towards the doors to the pathology area, he steps in something that almost causes him to slip. Looking down, he sees a mass of bubbly, blood-colored liquid on the floor. It appears to be in the rough shape of a person with the clothes of the night watchmen. The sight of what is apparently the melted remains of the night watchman doesn't faze Hawk, though he certainly finds it odd.

Hawk wants to check for a wallet but is smart enough to know he doesn't want to get any of the ooze on his skin. He decides to head over to pathology first and come back for the wallet later.

Getting up to the door, he listens carefully. Beyond, he can hear the sound of a slight mumbling as well as a smell of urine.

Peeking inside, Hawk sees the lights are still on inside the pathology room. On a nearby exam table is a body in the process of being autopsied. Next to the table is another pile of ooze, this time with medical scrubs in the middle suggesting it is the remains of a doctor. Over along the wall he spots Eberhardt, whose eyes are closed but he is mumbling faintly and appears to be sitting in a pool of his own urine. He also notices the vent on the wall near Eberhardt has been broken into in a strange way.

Hawk can tell something very strange is going on. He keeps an eye on the vent to make sure nothing comes back out while walking carefully over to Eberhardt. He starts to shake the man to try and rouse him.

After a moment, Eberhardt starts to come to. He asks what happened and where he is. Hawk wants to ask him about the corpse, but Bruno is still in a bit of a fugue state and doesn't seem to know who Hawk is or what is going on.

Hawk gets some water for Eberhardt then goes to the back door. He motions Nibbons over and explains to Chester they have problems – two men inside appear to have been turned to ooze and Eberhardt is out of it.

Nibbons accompanies Hawk inside. Hawk has Nibbons take a look at Eberhardt while he finds a pair of heavy rubber gloves and carefully looks through the clothes in the ooze for wallets. He does not find anything in the doctor's remains, but the guard has a wallet with his ID (naming him as Rufus DeMint) and thirty dollars in cash along with his security badge. Hawk cleans everything off in one of the sinks carefully before putting it in his own pocket.

Hawk then looks around for the doctor's locker. He finds it with the Dr. Donnenwirth's suit hanging up and his wallet with his ID, state medical card, the keys to his car, and around fifty dollars in cash.

With that done, the thief looks around for other things he might be able to pawn. He finds a laundry bag and starts collecting some of the microscopes and surgical tools.

Meanwhile, Nibbons notices Eberhardt is sitting in his own waste. He tries asking him what's going on while Eberhardt rambles on in German and English suggesting he believes his is back on the battlefield of the Great War.

Hawk tells Nibbons to get Eberhardt out of his clothes and into the shower. Taking Donnenwirth's suit, they get him redressed in the clean clothes. They put his soaked clothes in another laundry bag to take with them so they don't leave any evidence.

Before they leave, they want to look around for any notes that might help understand what is going on. Hawk finds Donnenwirth's autopsy notes on Taubert near the body, but doesn't see anything else sitting around. He suggests Nibbons check the filing cabinets to see if they can find Dr. Alvaro's notes on his investigation into the missing bodies.

While Nibbons is looking through the notes, Hawk finds a phone and calls over to Le Doux's office. Madge answers and explains Boo hasn't returned yet from his last outing. Hawk wants her to pass along a message but she explains she'll leave a note as she's headed out the door for the day.

After hanging up the phone, Hawk hears the night janitor arrive. He quickly moves to block the door to the pathology room.

When the janitor, Ted Johnson, asks what is going on, Hawk explains the doctor doesn't want to be disturbed. Ted asks who the hell Hawk is, and Brooks explains himself by flashing the medical card and saying he is the doc's new assistant.

Ted is illiterate, but notes the card looks right. Hawk says there could be something contagious inside so he should stay out of the room for a while.

When Ted asks about the mess out in the hallway, Hawk feigns ignorance and suggests he clean it up. Ted is clearly unhappy and the two Black men commiserate on their burdens of working for the White man.

Once the janitor leaves to mop up the remains of Rufus DeMint, Hawk tells Nibbons to get Eberhardt up and they need to head out the back.

Outside, Hawk gives Nibbons a cut of the money he found inside. He loads up the stolen equipment into the doctor's car and tells Nibbons he'll meet him back at Le Doux's, as he has his own ride.

Hawk then sells the equipment at the pawn shop and luckily avoids getting pulled over for the cops for driving while Black on his way to the chop shop. By the end of the day, he ends up clearing over four hundred dollars.

*** Session 05 - Scene 2 (of 14) ***

Over at Fearing's apartment, Fox and Le Doux decide they need to quickly get to Giradin before Batraville does. They take the notes, diary, and photo from the apartment then speed over to Giradin's address.

Across town at Giradin's apartment building, they discover he lives up on the second floor. The two men ready their weapons and head up the stairs quickly.

Fox listens at the door but doesn't hear anything inside. Le Doux knocks on the door, but gets no answer.

A moment later, the apartment door next to Giradin's opens and a neighbor sets out the canisters for the milk man. He sees Le Doux and Fox and asks if they are looking for Giradin. When they say they are, he explains Giradin just left a little while ago for his night shift over at the plant.

Le Doux asks the neighbor where the plant is, feigning having forgotten its address. The neighbor helpfully responds that Giradin works at the Oldham Chemical Company plant and gives the location.

After thanking the man, Le Doux waits for him to go back inside his apartment then tells Fox to go look for Giradin at the plant then bring him back. Le Doux intends to stay behind to pick the lock and wait inside.

Unfortunately, Le Doux's bad luck leads to him breaking off the pick in the lock, jamming it. He sighs and waits outside for Fox to return.

Meanwhile, Fox races across town towards the plant. On the way, he cuts off a man in a white pickup. The man in the pickup gets very upset, tailgating Fox all the way and flashing his lights at him.

Fox tries to pull over to apologize. The man parks his truck in a way to block Fox's car in and gets out. He starts running towards Fox's car, with an apparent intent to harm him.

The agent knows he doesn't have time for this and doesn't want to engage the man, so he gets back in his car and throws it into reverse then spins it around to drive away. He gets away, but only after the man gets a good kick in, denting in one of the doors.

*** Session 05 - Scene 3 (of 14) ***

Fox pulls up to the gate at the Oldham Chemical Company. The guard at the guardhouse asks for ID, but when Fox shows his BOI badge, he lets him in. He asks if he wants to see the owner, but Fox explains he's there looking for William Giradin.

The guard consults his clipboard then says Giradin works in the lead arsenate processing area. He points Fox over to the correct entry door from the parking lot and tells him to be sure to grab one of the gas masks hanging just inside the door as the fumes are quite strong.

Before heading inside, Fox asks the guard if any strange people have been around looking for Giradin. The guard is confused, asking if there should have been. Fox says no but tells him to keep an eye out.

Fox then heads inside and puts on a gas mask. He asks the foreman about Giradin, who calls him over.

The two try to communicate, but it is hard to hear inside the factory, particularly when they are both wearing gas masks. Outside, Fox tries to explain how Giradin's friends in the marines have been killed as part of a revenge for the Haitian Campaign.

As a very confused Giradin tries to make sense of it all, Fox notices two zombis hacking apart the guard back over at the gate. He tells Giradin the killers are there for him and they need to leave.

Fox gets Giradin into the car then draws his weapon. He fires off a shot that hits the chest of one of the zombis. The two continue to advance on him.

He gets inside the car then backs the car over the zombis. He runs them both over, but the action damages his tires.

Fox knows they won't get very far so he tells Giradin to get out and they can make a run for it. Behind them, the zombis stand back up.

People start to come out of the plant to get out. Fox tries to tell everyone to get back inside as there are killers out there with machetes.

Thinking fast, Fox knows the nearest precinct is the 3rd Precinct, but it is up the hill a way. He tries to signal a car to stop to help them, but an old lady isn't paying much attention and grazes Fox with her car, knocking him to the ground.

The zombis get close to Fox but he rolls out of the way and gets back to his feet. The creatures advance on Giradin, but he manages to fight them off.

Fox walks up to one of them and shoots it in the head with his gun, causing it to drop. The other one tries to attack Giradin, but manages to get the machete caught in the old lady's car instead.

After dispatching the second zombie, Fox notices the old woman has passed out in her car. Fox tells a confused and shocked Giradin they need to get to the precinct for safety.

Fox tries moving the old woman into the back seat of her car, intending to borrow it. By this time, a small crowd has formed around the area.

An old man in a suit rushes over to talk to Fox. He asks what is going on and Fox explains about the men attacking. The man, who turns out to be plant owner Millard Oldham, shakes his head at the state of the world today and notes he is glad to be selling off his company to the Pentex Chemical Company and is retiring.

Oldham is uncertain he trusts Fox and calls the cops. Fox waits around for them to arrive to explain things.

The cops who show up are officers La Rue and Coffey. They see Fox has gotten himself in another bloody mess and ask what is going on. La Rue wants to know if it is related to the stolen car ring and Fox tries to say it is.

Coffey checks over the bodies. He notes the bodies are in pretty bad shape. Checking the bodies, he finds one has no identification but the other is apparently named Colin Fearing. He asks Fox if he knows who the men were, but he only recognizes the name of Fearing.

Fox tries to fast talk the cops into thinking that Giradin is a federal witness who needs protection. He also tries to get them to dispose of the bodies rather than take them to the morgue, but they insist the bodies will need to be handled through the normal channels.

La Rue explains how old man Oldham is upset and Fox will need to come back to the station to fill out some paperwork. Fox agrees, and he and Giradin are taken back to the station while paramedics look after the old woman and the body wagon takes away the zombi bodies.

*** Session 05 - Scene 4 (of 14) ***

Back across town, Le Doux has waited a couple of hours for Fox but he has never returned. With no cars easily obtainable in the working-class neighborhood, he decides to take the streetcar back to his office.

Meanwhile, Hawk, Nibbons, and Eberhardt have already arrived there. Hawk can see the note Madge left and knows Le Doux hasn't been back yet.

Hawk finds a hidden bottle of whiskey in the office and gives it to Eberhardt to help restore his senses.

A short time later, Le Doux shows up looking quite tired. Hawk tells him some strange things have been going down they need to talk about.

Le Doux notices Eberhardt acting strange and asks about it. Hawk explains about what they found at the morgue, describing the bodies as gooey ooze, or "gooze" and that Eberhardt is "in the funk." He leaves out the part about robbing the morgue and Donnenwirth's car.

Thinking Hawk has been drinking, he tries asking Nibbons what happened. Chester confirms Hawk's story is mostly true, talking about Eberhardt pissing his pants.

Le Doux looks at Eberhardt and is very confused by his new suit. Eberhardt tries saying he is a doctor now.

Giving up on trying to make sense of it, he asks if they have seen Fox. He explains about finding the apartment rented by Fearing, the smells at the apartment, and the lists with the names on it.

At the mention of the name Fearing, Eberhardt's interest perks up. He recalls a Colin Fearing was one of the names on the list from Dr. Donnenwirth of bodies that recently disappeared from the morgue.

Le Doux says the whole situation is messed up, though Hawk notes that he doesn't really know what messed up until he's seen those "gooze bodies."

Eberhardt tries to explain more about the morgue, but gets some of the events jumbled as he talks about Hawk taking a shower with him. Hawk says the boy is confused and tries to clarify what happened there to Le Doux.

Le Doux tries to get Eberhardt to recall what happened. The German notes there was some sort of creature that went into the vent. Hawk confirms the vent in the room was messed up.

Just then the phone rings. Le Doux picks up the phone and finds Fox on the other end. He sardonically notes to Fox he took the streetcar back to the office since he never showed back up.

Fox starts to explain about his car getting wrecked in the attack by "the Haitians." Le Doux wants to know about Giradin. Fox says he is alive and at the precinct with him.

Le Doux is confused why they are at the precinct. Fox tries to say the cops showed up before they could leave. It takes some time for Le Doux to figure out Fox is talking about a couple of zombis (created by the Haitian) and not actual Haitians.

He presses Fox to use his BOI credentials to get Giradin out of the precinct and come back to the office. Fox insists he needs to stay to do his paperwork. Le Doux tries telling him they will lock him up if he starts filing paperwork about zombis but Fox just hangs up on him.

*** Session 05 - Scene 5 (of 14) ***

At the precinct, Fox goes to try and take Giradin out of protective custody. When he goes to do so, he's approached by Sgt. Esterhaus who tells Fox his boss, Special Agent in Charge Bartus, is looking for him. Esterhaus has instructions to escort Fox back over to the Federal Building.

Esterhaus has Coffery and La Rue drive Fox to the Federal Building downtown. Before he gets out of the car, Fox makes sure to instruct the men to keep Giradin under heavy guard.

The office of Special Agent in Charge Michael Bartus is on the upper floor of the Federal Building where the rest of the Treasury Department officials are located. Fox is a little apprehensive about the meeting – Bartus is a very by the book man who is only concerned with automobile thefts, smuggling at the ports, and the KKK; he has very little patience for Fox's side investigations into the occult.

Bartus immediately yells at Fox to start telling him what is going on. He knows the car theft ring was busted because he saw the paperwork about that, but clearly isn't thrilled about the shootings at the Oldham Chemical plant.

Fox tries saying he was investigating something for a friend. Bartus is incensed he would be performing an investigation outside of BOI jurisdiction. Fox makes a sarcastic comment asking if Bartus is actually that surprised.

Bartus tells Fox he needs to follow protocol and the important thing is following procedure. He goes on to say how Director J. Edgar Hoover will never stand for this type of subordination and that he'd better start shaping up.

Fox argues his case that the man was in immediate danger from a gang. Bartus is upset until Fox reveals it is the Haitians. Thinking quickly, Fox convinces Bartus that Giradin is a witness in the car theft ring without actually saying that.

Bartus becomes much more amenable since this falls under the jurisdiction of their open investigation. He instructs Fox to finish filling out his paperwork and he will have a U.S. Marshal place Giradin in the federal witness protective custody program in the morning.

*** Session 05 - Scene 6 (of 14) ***

Back at Le Doux's office, the detective has the operator connect him back to the switchboard at the 3rd Precinct. He tells them he is looking for Special Agent Fox.

After a moment, the receptionist comes back on explains Fox left to go to the Federal Building to talk to the special agent in charge there.

Le Doux tries getting info on Giradin but the receptionist won't cooperate without federal authorization. Le Doux attempts to convince the man he is working with the BOI, but is unsuccessful in making any headway.

A couple of minutes later Fox enters the office, having checked out a new car from the Federal Building. Le Doux asks him what happened.

Fox starts explaining what happened – he went to the chemical plant, found Giradin, and while he was talking to the man two zombis started attacking the guard.

Hawk interrupts to ask how he knew they were zombis. Fox explains their general appearance and lack of any blood flowing when he shot them.

Le Doux still refuses to completely believe in magic and zombis (though admits what is going on is very odd), but listens to the story. Fox goes on to explain one of the men was Colin Fearing, the man who lived at the apartment Batraville was staying at.

Focusing on the present, Le Doux is concerned about Giradin. He doesn't believe he'll be safe at the police precinct. He tells Nibbons to go with Fox to retrieve Giradin.

Hawk suggest Nibbons use Dr. Donnenwirth's ID as part of their excuse to get Giradin. Le Doux is nervous about using a stolen ID at the police precinct and suggests Fox should have plenty authority to get the man out of custody himself. Hawk isn't too happy they don't like his suggestion.

While they go to the precinct, Hawk wants to ask around the neighborhood about Lucien Celine. He also still wants to find Clayton Bigsby and the occult book he took from Dr. Broncati's apartment.

Hawk notes Patricia Walker hasn't been back yet and was also researching the book. He suggests Le Doux and Eberhardt go check in with her (noting a Black man showing up to a white woman's apartment after dark will get him shot).

Eberhardt suggests Hawk check in with the Zobop at the Custer Street House to see if they have a line on Celine, as he is also likely Haitian. Le Doux is glad to see Eberhardt is starting to come out of his fugue state.

*** Session 05 - Scene 7 (of 14) ***

Le Doux takes his car and drives Eberhardt back to his apartment to change before they go looking for Patricia. Eberhardt likes Donnenwirth's suit but Le Doux notes it is too high of quality to be inconspicuous and he doesn't want to attract attention.

On their drive over to Walker's apartment, Eberhardt says he remembers a little more – it sounds crazy, but he thinks he saw Taubert's brain jumping out of his head at the morgue. Le Doux agrees that it sounds crazy.

When they get to the apartment, they take the outside stairs up to her door. There are no lights on so Le Doux readies his weapon just in case.

Knocking on the door, Le Doux gets no response. He notices the door has been forced open recently. He also detects a faint odor of sulfur. Eberhardt recognizes the smell as well.

Le Doux gets his flashlight out and uses that arm to brace his gun arm, saying he saw it in a film. When he opens the door, he immediately spots the dead form of Walker in the middle of the floor.

He checks the body and finds it is already cold, probably dead a couple of hours. Walker has been stripped naked, and the symbol of Allatou is carved into her chest.

Eberhardt looks around, making sure no one else is around. Le Doux spots a pile of ashes near her bookshelf. It appears a combination of her notes and occult tomes have been burned.

They know Walker must have been getting close to something to get herself killed. The place doesn't looked tossed, so the cult must have gone straight after whatever they were looking for.

Carefully searching everywhere, Eberhardt finds a hidden piece of paper with three names on it. The names appear to only be last names – Grimes, Paffenroth, and Roland.

He shows the paper to Le Doux. Something at the back of Le Doux's mind is bothering him about the names, but he can't figure out what.

*** Session 05 - Scene 8 (of 14) ***

Meanwhile, at the police station, Fox talks with Sgt. Esterhaus about releasing Giradin back to him. Esterhaus assumes Nibbons is the U.S. Marshal, which Fox confirms but not very well.

Esterhaus gives Fox a look that suggests he doesn't completely believe him. He tells him he needs to talk to Lt. Hunter first.

Fox waits until Esterhaus is out of sight then heads over to the lock-up. He tells the guard he's there to move Giradin.

Taking Giradin out of the building at a brisk pace, Fox manages to elude Esterhaus and Hunter and get back to his car.

Giradin is confused, wanting to know what is going on. Fox explains the local cops have no idea how to protect him so he is taking him back to somewhere safe.

*** Session 05 - Scene 9 (of 14) ***

In the Black neighborhoods of Treme, Hawk asks around about Lucien Celine. He comes across an old acquaintance from the streets, Eugene "Malice" Thornton. Hawk knows Eugene and his brother Terrance "Pusher" Thornton still run a stick-up gang in the area.

After exchanging greetings, Eugene asks if he's heard about the crazy things going on. Hawk assumes he is talking about the zombis or voodoo but Malice has no idea what he's talking about; he's referring to the "hooded bastards" and the hanging.

Hawk gets Eugene to clarify he's referring to the Klu Klux Klan. According to Eugene, the klan is active again the area (after having been largely driven out a couple of years ago) and hung one of the Thornton Brothers' crew's boys, Jerome.

Malice goes on to say the new klan showed up a week or so ago. They apparently have a new leader, though Eugene doesn't know the name of the man.

He invites Hawk to attend a "neighborhood meeting" over at the jazz club he and his brother operate, the Eclipse Lounge. Malice says his brother Terrance has a plan and wants to get all the muscle from the neighborhood together. Hawk agrees something must be done and says he will show up later at 10:00, the time Eugene gives for the start of the meeting.

Hawk then asks Malice about the name, Lucien Celine. Malice identifies Lucien as a local (unlicensed) doctor; apparently his sister Dorthea was sick the other week and went to Celine's "free clinic" he operates out of his house. Hawk says he's always looking for a good doctor so he gets the address from Malice (who also notes the doctor works late, so he should still be up).

*** Session 05 - Scene 10 (of 14) ***

Fox and Nibbons arrive back at Le Doux's office with Giradin around the time Hawk does. He starts telling them about Lucien Celine, though Fox tries to signal him to not talk in front of the stranger.

Hawk pays no attention and continues on about the klan attack and his meeting with the brothers later, saying he wonders if it is related to their other problems. Fox isn't really concerned with that; he just wants to make sure Giradin is guarded at all times.

Le Doux and Eberhardt arrive soon after and Hawk gives them the lowdown on Lucien Celine. Le Doux is confused that Celine is a doctor, though Eberhardt suggests he could be a witch doctor.

Once Hawk finishes explaining (again) about the klan and the meeting at the Eclipse Lounge, Le Doux informs everyone about finding Patricia Walker dead. Agent Fox is particularly concerned about what happened since the murder was cult related.

Hawk is worried about Walker returning as a zombi. Le Doux still thinks the whole thing about zombis is ridiculous while Fox notes the Batraville problem is separate from the Cult of Allatou problem.

Le Doux notices Giradin and introduces himself. Giradin is very confused – in his short time with them he's heard all kinds of things about Haitians, zombis, someone named Patricia Walker, something called Allatou, and the klan.

To keep things simple, Le Doux tries to keep Giradin focused on Batraville's revenge plot. Giradin is surprised anyone would come after him years later, but does confirm his unit killed Benoit Batraville but his brother Jean Batraville escaped.

Le Doux also briefly tries to explain the zombis by talking about John Taubert. Giradin admits he had heard stories of such things when he was in Haiti, and knows the locals believe the power of voodoo at the ceremony in Bois Caiman in 1791 is what allowed them to overthrow the Spaniards.

As for Taubert, Le Doux isn't sure about him being a zombi though admits it took several shots to take him down and he didn't appear to bleed. Giradin explains he heard Taubert fell on hard times after leaving the Marines and was into white dragon. He suggests perhaps Taubert couldn't feel the pain because of being hopped up on opium.

Le Doux isn't so sure, since Taubert killed De Haven. He points out to Giradin the list they found had three names on it and Giradin is the only one still alive.

Giradin isn't so sure about keeping him at the detective's office, suggesting it might be more effective if they hunt down Jean Batraville instead. Le Doux agrees, but says he doesn't know where Batraville might be and don't want to split up.

Fox suggests Hawk should still go to his meeting. Hawk sarcastically thanks "Massah Fox" for letting him go attend his meeting then quickly leaves.

*** Session 05 - Scene 11 (of 14) ***

After Hawk leaves, Le Doux suggests that rather than waiting around the office they should find Lucien Celine. Fox suggests at least two of them stay at the office with Giradin, who makes it clear he isn't heading out into the dark with zombis out there.

Nibbons volunteers to go with Eberhardt to find Celine while Le Doux and Fox stay behind to guard Giradin. Le Doux gives his sawed-off shotgun to Giradin so he can protect himself.

Giradin suggests they should have kept the "tough looking Negro" back at the office for protection, but Le Doux explains Hawk isn't easy to control and can be uppity. Giradin mentions his mother saying they used to have that same problem with the ones on their farm. He does say they are good workers though, lamenting they can't be as "edjumacated" as White folk.

Meanwhile, Eberhardt and Nibbons make their way over to the address Hawk got from Malice. A middle-aged Haitian man answers the door. Eberhardt asks if he is "Lucien Celine, the doctor". Celine, nervous about white men in suits at his door at night, clarifies he is not a doctor but someone knowledgeable in natural remedies.

Celine goes on to say he doesn't usually have white men as clientele. Eberhardt says someone's life is at stake and they need his expertise.

After Eberhardt assures the man they are not there for anything violent, Lucien lets them in. Bruno explains they got his name from Miss Marie. Celine notes they have good food at Chez Louisianne.

When Eberhardt asks about voodoo, Celine admits he is a practitioner but refers to it as Vodun. He says he is what the White man might call a "witch doctor".

Bruno tells Lucien he needs to know about the ritual of Bois Caiman and refers to the Floating Horror. Celine is somewhat taken aback; he explains that is not Vodun, but an evil perversion of his people's beliefs akin to witchcraft.

As he gets more details from Eberhardt, Lucien explains they will need to perform the ritual in reverse at the location the ritual was first performed at in the city. Only then, he says, can the link be closed between the spirit world and the physical world.

Eberhardt gets Celine to commit to helping reverse the magic if they find the location. Lucien asks if they have any idea.

When Eberhardt mentions the Jimson Weed, Lucien recognizes it as an ingredient in "zombi powder". He says the zombis often have traces on their bodies of the ground their bodies were laying on when they were risen. He suggests Eberhardt check their clothes for evidence of the type of soil they were created at. Bruno talks about the suit one was wearing, but Lucien says he should check the shoes.

Eberhardt notes the recent attack at the chemical factory might be their best lead. Celine agrees that they would be the most likely lead.

Once they discover the location, Celine notes he can perform the ritual but cannot be interrupted once he starts without causing terrible consequences. He tells Eberhardt that they will need to keep the zombis away from him, as well as the witch raising the dead.

Lucien asks if they want him to come with them now, but Eberhardt says they will need to find the location first. After telling Celine they will be back once they find it, the two head back to Le Doux's office.

*** Session 05 - Scene 12 (of 14) ***

When Eberhardt and Nibbons get back to the office, Bruno explains to Le Doux and Fox what they discussed. Le Doux doesn't understand why they didn't just have Lucien come along with them.

After some discussion, they decide to go back and pick up Lucien to see if he can help them examine the zombis at the morgue.

Fox wants to know what to do about Giradin. Giradin refuses to leave the office, even after Le Doux lays out for him the odds.

When they get back to Celine's house, he is a bit surprised to see them again. He doesn't really understand why they want him to examine the bodies since they are the detectives, but Eberhardt admits they aren't really competent in these matters. Saying he is not much of a detective, Celine agrees to accompany them.