612: Russo's Tale

Synopsis

Speeding away from the Meridian House in the rain, the investigators decide against going back to their hotel, the Hotel Couronne Creuse, which was still a crime scene after Michelle Casey's murder. Instead they head to the Hotel Monteleone to meet the Arkham music writer Ricky "Jazzman" Dubois, whom Major Bakersfield had arranged to meet to compare notes. Ricky turns out to be a sharp-dressed man in his thirties wearing a newsboy cap. He still has friends on the police force and agrees to help, but only if he can come along: he wants to break into real journalism and win a Pulitzer. The group reluctantly lets him in, and he says he has his own gun. Necronomidog, who lost a leg, is still with the vet.

At the New Orleans police station near City Hall, Ricky's old friend Sergeant Hanny Boudreau visibly flinches when they mention the 1907 swamp raid and claims it was just a roust of bootleggers. Devin Black spins an absurd story about a famous heirloom figurine stolen from Tallahassee's dying rich uncle. With Ricky's help (and a promise of concert tickets) it barely works, and Boudreau sends them up to the third floor to see Inspector John Raymond LaGrasse, the man who led the raid.

LaGrasse is an older, heavyset, mostly bald detective with scarred hands. He clams up until Tallahassee drops the cover story, tells him the Axe Man has tried to kill them twice, and has Devin show his missing hand. A critical charm roll wins LaGrasse over, and he tells them the story of 1907:

Dozens of people, including women and children, had been taken from the bayous. Even the reclusive swamp folk were calling the police. There were rumors of drums, of monsters, and of an enormous white thing with too many glowing eyes.
He and his partner, Mark Russo, got a frightened bootlegger to guide them to a hidden squatter settlement near an island. They led 20 armed men there, joined at the city's insistence by scholars from the Astral Society of St. Lazarus out of the Meridian House.
On the island, about a hundred cultists were circling a ring of fire around a stone monolith with the idol on top, chanting words not meant for human mouths. Their victims were hung upside down from scaffolds like butchered animals. One officer, Galvez, swore he heard something answer the chant.
The police attacked and rescued the few survivors they could. LaGrasse took the idol.
Nathaniel Orialis asked for an hour alone on the site. Russo reported singing and flashes of golden light.
Of the 47 prisoners, only two were sane enough to hang. After that night the Meridian House men were seen much less often.
LaGrasse took the idol to an archaeology conference in St. Louis a year later. The more he learned, the less he wanted to know. He thinks about it every day and is glad to let them have it.

The group asks for weapons, a brass or iron key engraved with the seven-pointed star of the Brotherhood of Orion, lanterns and flashlights. They weigh their two options:

The Cthulhu ritual is easier and cheaper now that they have the idol, but it would dedicate the site to Cthulhu.
The Rite of the Turned Key is harder, but it would fully seal Amducius away.

Piecing together Orialis's letter, they conclude:

The Brotherhood's 1918 seal against the Cthulhu influence let the sleeping Amducius rise.
Amducius later possessed a swamp mystic to hunt down the Brotherhood's bloodline.
Corbitt's note "he can't be the last" means the bloodline is the key.

Devin suspects Corbitt, who has Russo's map, will be waiting to ambush them at the nexus. Devin says he knows about the Major's mistakes because Goodman Gray filled him in.

LaGrasse arranges for them to get back into their hotel for their own gear and calls the evidence room in the basement to have the idol ready. Ricky leaves with a supply list to meet them at the hotel. Before LaGrasse can finish speaking, gunshots and screams ring out from the first floor of the station.

Funny Moments

Ricky "Jazzman" Dubois turns out to be a man, not the phone the Major has been talking to.
Devin's dying-uncle heirloom story: "I am now dumber for having listened."
The Sax Man joke finally lands.
The group asks the police for "guns, ammo, and chicks", plus a one-handed flamethrower that hasn't been invented yet.
Six people pile into one cab like a clown car.

Notable Quotes

"I want in on it." —Ricky Dubois
"I wish I could have the 30 minutes that it took for you to tell that back." —Sergeant Boudreau
"We fought in the Great War and we survived two encounters with the Axe Man. I think we can put this to bed." —Major Bakersfield
"If you want it, it's yours. If you want to make it disappear, well, that's just fine with me." —Inspector LaGrasse