Adventure #22: Old Bundari
(What REALLY happened)
Several days after the destruction of Colonel Endicott's game lodge, the party finds themselves resting at the home of Mrs. Natalie Smyth-Forbes. She has run a full article about the arsonist Tandoor Singh, and he is still in jail. The bodies were found in his basement, as well as the cans of gasoline that Chad and Chang planted there. It is unlikely that Tandoor will be troubling them again anytime soon.
[GM Note: Luckily for the PCs, he never told M’Weru about their presence and tried to handle the “problem” by himself].
However, one night after Father Salvatore has retired to bed to read his bible, while the others drink tea outside on the veranda (except for Chang, who fears that his wife has left him, and has drunk himself into another stupor) he notices a faint breeze stirring the curtains.
The hair rises on Salvatore's neck.
The room is dim, candles burning low. On the table lies the strange book that Chang found in the basement of Tandoor's tea shop, translated from Hindi as the Chuaat Aquadigen. A corner is rippling. And then slowly, it opens. Salvatore watches, entranced, his heart beating faster. A page turns. Another page turns. Several more pages flip, and then a breeze begins to build from nowhere, and soon the pages are flipping furiously and wind WHIPS around the room! He bolts up, terrified, but composes himself and steps toward the book. Wind rattles the bookcases and slings unattended objects across the room. Something is sighing; a deep, mournful breath of stagnation, but Salvatore reaches out and simply closes the book.
The gale ceases. Paper and debris settle to the floor, and seconds later Chad, Lester and Natalie burst into the room, gazing oddly at Father Salvatore and the destruction. He tries to explain what happened, but stops upon seeing a single sheaf drifting to the floor, ripped from the binding. The page is written in Hindi, undecipherable, but the group can identify markings along the perimeter that looks like rise of the sun until it reaches a black eclipse. Disturbed, Natalie quietly asks that they clean up the mess.
The next day brings another unexpected incident: the local jailhouse catches on fire.
Plumes of smoke are seen rising up, and soon thereafter they hear the wail of sirens. It is later revealed that Tandoor Singh died in the conflagration, and it seemed to originate from his very cell block. He will not be a threat at all now, but his death raises new concerns for the party: did someone wish to silence Tandoor, or did he kill himself rather than face punishment by his superiors?
The group was told by Silent Joe (who is not as silent as he initially seemed) that they should speak with Old Bundari, a Boyovo shaman. Silent Joe even comes up to them in the marketplace the same day that Tandoor dies, and tells the group that he can take them to Old Bundari immediately. They fail to persuade him to wait, although they do manage to buy a wooden peace-pipe from a gift shop as a last minute gift. Maybe this will convince Old Bundari to like them by kissing his ass.
Not quite knowing what to expect, they pile into his truck, and Silent Joe transports them out of town, bouncing along a hot, dusty road into the verdant countryside.
An hour later they stop at a quaint village: Boyova. Silent Joe asks them to wait in the car while he goes to talk with a very tall Kenyan man dressed in ceremonial clothing and makeup. Children surround the car, peering inside and chattering. Joe finally returns and introduces the group to Okumo, assistant to Old Bundari, the tribal shaman of Boyova.
Okumo is terse, although he speaks English very well. He does not seem impressed with the group at all, and is very dismissive of their presence (after all, they were not asked to come), but when they begin dropping hints of their true purpose, such as the Carlyle Expedition, and the Cult of the Bloody Tongue and the Black Wind, Okumo's demeanor changes. They have struck a chord with him, a common ground that gains his trust almost immediately. He leads them inside a conical hut that is plastered with occult symbols of warding and protection, and leads them to the very center where Old Bundari waits in a mystical reverie.
Along the way, Okumo explains to them several important facts:
1) The Carlyle Expedition was attacked and carried away five years ago by agents of evil, and taken to the Mountain of the Black Wind. It is possible that all of them are still alive, and not torn to shreds as the reports have indicated. The Corrupted Ground, where the incident occurred, is shunned by everyone. It is cursed now.
2) Once per year the Black Wind is summoned via a brutal, bloody ritual, and a storm of pestilence is unleashed upon the land. This demonic storm is yet another Mask of Nyarlathotep, and the time has come yet again.
3) M'Weru, the black woman with whom Roger Carlyle was infatuated, is the high priestess of the dark god at the Mountain of the Black Wind.
4) The child of Nyarlathotep is soon to be born, and will help usher in the destruction of the world. The group already suspects that Hyapatia Masters has been the chosen mother for quite some time now.
It takes many hours for Old Bundari to wake from his dream trance. Chad does sit ups and stomach crunches while the others nap, quite bored and irritable in the sweltering hut, until the old man finally stirs. He swells, as if stirring to life, and flutters rheumy eyes at them.
Okumo acts as translator because Old Bundari does not speak English. During his exploration of the Dream Time and the astral worlds, Bundari has known that these foreigners would arrive. They have a great task ahead of them, as did their companions and acquaintances before, those that have perished in the battle against Evil. The Bloody Tongue has grown arrogant, and kidnapped hundreds of victims for a foul ritual.
Old Bundari offers them two important gifts: a fly whisk that can stave off evil magic and a chameleon in a cage, Who-Is-Not-What-She-Seems.
"Who" must be regularly fed a steady diet of flies, and when needed, she can be released from the cage, but she will only help once. Okomu volunteers to guide the group northward, through the dense jungle, to the Corrupted Ground and beyond to the Mountain, and the investigators convince him to bring along several (meatshield) warriors.
Old Bundari finally mentions the Eye of Light and Darkness, and if the investigators know of it. They do, but only the little that Chang and Chad heard from Dr. Ali Kafour in Cairo. For the group’s newcomers, Salvatore and Lester, they do not know of the Eye.
According to legend, Bundari says, the Eye had the power to chain the black god within his mountain for eternity. It worked similarly once, in Egypt, until the god tricked a mortal man into destroying the seal. The investigators suspect that this man was none other than eccentric millionaire Roger Carlyle.
They sincerely thank Old Bundari for his assistance, and promise him that they will do the best they can to stop the ritual at the Mountain of the Black Wind. Silent Joe takes them back to Nairobi where they begin preparations to leave in the next few days.
However, before they depart, they receive an urgent telegram from their mystical friend in Cairo: Dr. Ali Kafour!
He is doing well, and tells them that an Australian professor named Dr. Anthony Cowles and his peer, Dr. David Dodge will be heading through Mombasa--and possibly Nairobi--on their way back to Australia. These two gentlemen have been giving lectures across the world regarding what they believe to be a hidden city in the Australian desert. After attending their lecture in Cairo, Dr. Kafour spoke with them intently about their beliefs, and it has come to Dr. Kafour's knowledge that both men are marginally aware of the occult, and there is evidence of another Nyarlathotep cult forming there: the Sand Bat. Cowles and Dodge plan to mount an expedition when they return, and Dr. Kafour remembered the clues found within the Bent Pyramid.
According to that map, Australia houses one-third of a worldwide conspiracy, in roughly the vicinity of Cowle’s and Dodge’s hidden city.
In the telegram, Dr. Kafour urges the investigators to accompany them (even if just for their protection), so they all make tentative plans to meet in Nairobi once Dodge arrives in the country (assuming, of course, that anyone survives the Mountain of the Black Wind!). In addition, they will be accompanied by their old comrade Gi-Gi, the wheelchair bound psychic, who Ali Kafour has recruited to help them.
Several days later, the group heads off after stocking up on necessary equipment for the journey (including a Gas Camel, which is actually a Gas Mule now). They are walking into the jaws of death and fear that they might not return from this expedition. Ahead of them waits the deepest jungle and a country full of madmen but with Okumo’s guidance, they soon reach a village named Ndovu, but Okumo warns them to say NOTHING about the Black Wind or the Corrupted Ground. The natives here live in great fear of both.
For now, the investigators keep them mouths shut, and their eyes upon an ominous black mountain looming in the distance...
[GM Note: I knew this would be a quiet chapter with no gunfights, cultists, or explosions (hopefully) so I added the scene at the beginning with the creepy book]