SESSION #03 (02/19/25) - "Down In A Hole... Feelin' So Small..."

The ford was indeed quite shallow and the four Caduceus operatives crossed it quickly and easily, the water never rising above the tops of their knees.  

The west side of the river was much like the east, a small clearing with a single trail leading off to the northwest.  Three dead Peruvian soldiers were scattered about.  Vivienne picked one at random and went through his pockets, looking for anything that might help them understand what happened here, but only found a handful of local currency, a cigarette lighter, and a badly worn family photo.  She pocketed the lighter but left the rest.

Rolling him over she was surprised at what she found, and whistled softly.  The others turned and saw that the soldier had fallen atop his gun, which wasn't the standard issue rifle or shotgun but instead a fairly large BAR - a Browning Automatic Rifle. 

"Now that is a serious gun," Ralph observed.  

Maddie was fascinated.  She picked it up and put the strap over her shoulder.  It was huge compared to her, but she didn't seem to notice.  "Pappy's hunting rifle was this big to me when I was a kid, and I shot that just fine," she said, giving it the once-over.

Vivienne found two full magazines for the BAR and handed them to Maddie, who stashed them away in what seemed like a never-ending supply of pockets inside her wrap-around clothing.   

Vivienne looked at Ursini's map.  "I'm guessing this trail will take us to the site of the battle."  

"Well that's the way we need to go then," said Colt, hiking up has pants and trying to show more confidence than he felt.  

While Vivienne and Ralph could see past the bravado, Maddie stayed close to the much older Colt.  "I'll walk with you," she said, the long rifle swinging back and forth as she walked, the barrel occasionally hitting her or Colt in the leg.  

Vivienne and Ralph watched as they walked toward the trail, then looked at each other.  Vivienne was about to say something but stopped herself.  Ralph simply shrugged and began to follow.

The trail quickly turned due west and Maddie noticed some faint tire tracks, the source of which became evident a minute or so later when they emerged into another clearing.  About 50 feet away sat an army truck, the canvas covering of its cargo area tattered by shrapnel and the front bumper dented badly by the boulder it came to rest against.  

But it was the scene in the center of the clearing that really got their attention.  Partly surrounded by shrubs was what had once been a roughly 50 foot diameter stone disc in the ground.  Two craters, both partially filled with water, were near it, speaking to a likely artillery strike.  The disc itself also appeared to have been hit, as a substantial portion was blasted away revealing a dark hole.

"I'm going to see if I can get that truck running," Ralph said, heading over to the vehicle, Colt following.  

Vivienne walked over to Maddie.  "Let's check out that hole," she said.  Maddie nodded, moving her shoulders a bit to re-situate the BAR.  

The women looked into the hole and saw a stone spiral staircase hugging the inner wall, spinning downward into the darkness.  They figured they could see about 30 feet down given the position of the sun, but that wasn't enough for hem to see the bottom.  The stone steps looked sturdy enough, but with no railing they also carried an air of danger. 

"Pretty sure I can get this running," Ralph shouted as he poked around under the hood of the truck.  "No serious damage here."

"Guys, come over and look at this," Vivienne replied.  "There are stairs leading down into this hole."

Ralph and Colt headed over and the four of them stared silently into the hole.  The sides of the shaft were made of cut stone.  Whatever this was, it had been built intentionally.

"I've got an idea," Colt said.  He walked back over to the truck, climbed into the back, and emerged a few moments later with a can of gasoline and brought over to the side of the hole.  "We'll make a torch.  Does anyone have a knife?"

Maddie pulled a large blade from her robe, causing Colt to step back momentarily in surprise.  "Uh, yeah, thank you Maddie."  Removing a handkerchief from one of his own pockets he wrapped it around the knife, then poured a bit of gas on it.

"A torch!" he proclaimed, feeling quite satisfied.  "C'mon, let's go."

The steps came right up to one of the broken sections of what had once been the topper stone, so it was easy to climb onto the steps and head down.  Once they reached a point where they were having trouble seeing, Colt pulled out his lighter and lit the makeshift torch, which burned brightly.  He smiled and nodded, then began heading down.  

After two more revolutions they still couldn't see the bottom.  "I have an idea," Colt said.  He held the knife over the shaft and shook it, causing the burning handkerchief to fall downward.  It flitted to and fro, burning brightly for a few seconds before the remaining fabric was consumed and it went out.  They still had not caught sight of the bottom of the shaft.

Vivienne sighed.  "Great plan.  Now we can't see at all."  

The four of them looked back up the shaft where they could see blue sky.  "Yeah," Colt admitted, "maybe we should have made more torches..."

Which is exactly what they did, returning to the surface to collect sticks and strips of fabric from the back of the truck before returning to the hole.  This time the had no trouble making their way down, though it took well over 20 minutes to get to the bottom, the sky just a pinhole above their heads.

The walls surrounding the bottom of the shaft were covered in bas-relief.  Snake-like humanoids were shown doing various things, as were some larger, hairy creatures leashed with collars and chains that appeared to be some kind of slave class.  

Vivienne was struck by a section of wall that looked familiar.  She pulled out both maps and held them up to the wall.  "This looks like the river.  And that would mean this," she said, pointing to a spot marked with a circle, "is most likely this shaft."  

The others came over to look.  In fact there appeared to be five such circles, the closest to them being to the northwest and southwest.  The circles were all connected by lines in a way that made them form an inverted pentagram, in the center of which was a shape that looked like a corkscrew.  To the left of this apparent map was the figure of another snake person, taller than all the others, wearing robes and a crown capped with the heads of seven snakes.  

Vivienne turned to the others.  "Shapiro said the wards might be spread out in an occult pattern.  That looks pretty occult to me."

Vivienne traced the pattern in her notebook, and after searching the bottom of the shaft a bit further they headed back toward the surface.  It was now late afternoon and they hadn't eaten for a while.  Plus they had to decide if they were going to chance returning to the village.  

Just short of the top they heard voices, and looking up saw a pair of helmeted heads.  They couldn't see the rest of the bodies from the angle, but they were fairly certain these were Bolivian soldiers.  

"I wish we could just find the other stones like this one and break them," one said to the other.  "I'm tired of all this walking aimlessly through the jungle."

After much whispered discussion the party hatched a plan.  Maddie left her BAR with the others, then circled around to the southern part of the stairs, one spiral from the top, and called out to the soldiers, who were stationed at the northern edge.  "Help," she said in Spanish.  "I feel down here and hurt my leg." The rest of the group was half a turn down on the stairs against the north side waiting to spring their ambush.

The soldiers turned and looked into the shaft.  "Show yourself!" one shouted down.  

Maddie stuck her leg out, her clothing pulled up, hoping that the sight of some female skin might help lure them down to where the others could engage them.  "I'm from the village," she said. 

The soldiers were not in a caring mood.  "Woman, make your way up here now.  If you don't, when we get back to the village we're going to start killing people."

Maddie looked to the others.  Colt mimed that she should go up and surrender and that they would follow.  This plan was going to hell quickly.

Maddie headed up and the soldiers helped her out of the hole.  With one holding each arm they called to the rest of their patrol and began leading her around the craters and toward the truck where another four soldiers and their lieutenant were resting.

With all eyes on Maddie the Caduceus team was able to exit the hole and make it to the cover of some shrubs.  But honestly, they didn't have a plan.  

Before that became a problem, however, massive crashing sounds came from the east.  All the Bolivians turned to look, as did the party.  

What emerged from the jungle was horrifying, a black blob of undulation the size of a barn that poured out of the trees.

"Oh god oh god oh god," Vivienne muttered, shock pouring through her system at the sight of this... this... this thing that should not be.  

The Bolivians were also terrified and frozen in place.  In the blink of an eye, two inky tendrils lashed from the creature.  One wrapped around the guard holding Maddie's left arm, flinging him across the clearing and smashing him into a tree.  Maddie's other escort was wrapped up and pulled... inside the thing, where he disappeared with a plopping sound. 

Colt remembered the words of the Indian philosopher Chanakya.  The enemy of my enemy is my friend.  With that he pulled his pistol and strode forward purposefully and started shooting, the others following suit.  Vivienne fired wildly and missed, her adrenaline causing her to shake badly at the horror of what was unfolding.  Looking into the crater she saw Maddie pull out the flame-throwing snake bracelet and put it against her arm.  Vivienne swore it moved like an actual snake as it coiled around the girl's forearm.  

The creature moved with a speed belied by its size, flattening another soldier and launching another dozens of feet through the air.  Shotgun blasts were simply absorbed by the creature's form, seemingly inflicting no damage at all as the Bolivians retreated in panic.  

The officer seemed to be made of sterner stuff, however.  He pulled a stick of dynamite from his back and lit the fuse.  Just as his arm was coming forward to throw it at the creature, however, he took a bullet in the shoulder courtesy of Colt and the explosive went wide of its mark, landing under the truck and blowing it to pieces.

"Clarification," Ralph said, without the slightest hint of sarcasm.  "I don't think I can get the truck running."

The creature smashed the remaining Bolivians flat, then began to undulate toward the Caduceus team.  A streak of flame shot into the air from the crater.  "Dang it!" yelled Maddie, frustrated with missing such a massive target and shaking her arm, trying to figure out how to get the bracelet to do what she wanted it to.

Colt was now closest to the... well, whatever this thing was.  And he realized at that moment he was going to die.  He felt strangely at peace with it, though, having had such an interesting final day.  He was so pre-occupied with his pending demise that he failed to notice the red, sparkling stick arcing over his head.  

Ralph's throw was perfect.  The dynamite exploded just as it hit the top of the creature, splitting it two and ejecting black goo everywhere, a wave of which struck Colt, covering him in foul ichor.  But with that, the clearing fell silent again.

There wasn't much left of the Bolivians to search.

The group landed on two options.  One was to return to the hut where they left the radio and hunker down for the evening.  The other was to trek through the forest and see if they could find the building shown in the middle of the wards on the bas-relief, which could be the temple they were looking for.  They ultimately decided to look for the temple, but everyone agreed they did not want to spend the night out in the open. 

There was no trail, but progress was still reasonable as the jungle wasn't overly dense.  After half an hour of hacking they emerged into another clearing, in the center of which was a structure that looked like the sharp end of a screw protruding from the ground.  It rose about 20 feet and appeared to be made of stone, with a walkway spiraling up the side.  The churned earth around it didn't appear to be completely fresh, nor did it look old. This had happened recently, but how recently the couldn't say.

Walking around the object they saw no way in and surmised that they may need to do something to get it to rise further out of the ground.  But the sun was getting low, so that would need to be a job for tomorrow.

Returning to their hideaway they found the mule they'd left behind had been killed by some kind of predator, though there was more than enough meat left behind to feed them.  Maddie, no stranger to hunting and skinning, quickly went to work.  Vivienne, too shaken to be much help, gave Maddie the lighter she'd taken from the dead Peruvian so she could start a fire. 

The team checked in with Shapiro at Caduceus HQ and it was agreed that they'd head out in the morning to find another of the wards.

SESSION #02 (02/12/25) - "Snakes... why'd it have to be snakes?"

The conversation moved into the medical tent.  Gomez was given the envelope from Ursini's pack, and he shared the contents with the team - a letter of introduction, a memo outlining the nature of Ursini's true mission, and a map showing the camp, the river ford, and a battle site.  According to the memo the team were there to retrieve a mummy from a temple, but to beware of a "level 3" threat in the area.  

The doctors didn't know what any of this meant, though they provided some background.  A battle had indeed taken place near the river ford about a week prior, and shortly after the Bolivians arrived - three officers and 20 soldiers.  The soldiers usually leave in three groups every morning and return around dusk, leaving two guards behind.  After the initial altercation as the Bolivians took over part of the village, they had mostly ignored the villagers and Caduceus personnel.

Two tents were allocated to the team.  Upon leaving the medical tent, Sergio told Ralph that he found four sticks of dynamite and a pistol in Ursini’s belongings.  Ralph took the dynamite and Sergio later gave the pistol to one of the villagers. Ralph and Colt also checked out the camp’s radio, which was destroyed by the Bolivians.  However, there was a log book that included the radio frequency, which Ralph memorized.  Colt offered his pen and pad to write it down but Ralph refused.  "Never put anything in writing," he said, tapping his forehead with his finger as he turned and left the tent, leaving Colt a bit bewildered.

The party met in one of the two tents assigned to them and debated their next course of action.  At this point it was about Noon.  Per the doctors in the camp, the Bolivian patrols usually come back at dusk, meaning the party still had a good six hours or so before they returned.  A major point of concern was the two Bolivians who escaped their initial battle - if they were to return to the camp, they could identify the party as the people that killed some of their team.  The doctors told them there were 23 Bolivians - so knowing they had already killed five, that meant there were still 18 more.  Ralph felt that killing the two guards in the camp would at least reduce their numbers further, but they weren't sure how the Caduceus medical personnel would react.  Besides, if the two survivors of the original battle had truly run off, then the Bolivians would be none the wiser.  But if they killed the guards, the jig would be up.  Ultimately they decided to take the radio and look for a place to set it up so they could call Caduceus HQ.

One of the mules was loaded up and and the party left the village using a very small trail heading west.  After about 200 meters they found an old abandoned hut up against a tall tree that was missing most of it’s branches.  It was high enough that they could attach the radio arial to it and reach above the canopy.  

Maddie created a sling of sorts out of an article of her clothing and used it to help climb about 20’ up the tree.  There she was able to fasten the arial and extend it to rise above the treetops.  As she was getting ready to come down, a monkey jumped to a branch about 20’ above her.  The monkey appeared to have something metallic on its arm, which it waved about before launching a stream of fire into the air.  Guns were drawn as the monkey screamed.  As Maddie slowly began to descend she spoke to the monkey in Spanish, telling it she meant it no harm.

However, the words that came out of her mouth were not Spanish, but instead some other language none of the others had ever heard before.  The monkey, however, seemed to understand, its eyes growing wide.  Holding out its arm to her it said in the same language, "You.  Take off."  

Maddie climbed back up, covered the metallic object with a cloth and tried to slowly pull it off the monkey.  She felt the object reach within her and drain a certain amount of energy, and it almost seemed to respond to her will and come loose.  The monkey leapt to another tree and scurried off gratefully.  The object was an arm-bracelet of sorts, designed like a snake.  The head was that of a cobra with two jeweled eyes, which rose up about where the monkey’s wrist had been.  It was from this snake hood that the fire shot out.

"What was that language you spoke to the monkey?" Colt asked.  

Maddie looked confused and a little concerned.  Colt was clearly the oldest member of the team and she had always been taught on the farm to respect her elders, especially men. "Um, Spanish."

Colt shook his head.  "I don't know what that was, but it certainly wasn't Spanish."

Vivienne looked on, her brow furrowed in concern.  Ralph simply shrugged and got to work connecting the arial to the radio.  It fired right up, and after setting it to the frequency they'd seen in the camp radio tent, they reached Caduceus.  After confirming that Ursini was dead, the person on the other end fetched someone named Quentin Shapiro, who appeared to be the same Shapiro who signed the letters Ursini was carrying.  

"You’ve probably guessed by now, but Caduceus does more than just provide humanitarian aid," Shapiro said. "Our teams also seek out threats against humanity, and deal with them. Ursini was supposed to explain this to you."

Shapiro went on to inform the team that they were in fact in Bolivia to fetch the mummy, and emphasized that the mummy was to be kept alive, which was a bit confusing to team given that mummification is process done only on those already dead.  He also told them that there were wards protecting the temple, one of which may have been broken, and that the wards are usually arrayed in some kind of occult pattern.  Caduceus could sent a plane to get them out once they obtained the mummy.

While Colt and Ralph spoke to Caduceus, Vivienne compared the map they took off the dead snake-person and the one from Ursini’s envelope and realized they showed the same geographic features.  Maddie found that she could sort of understand some of the symbols on the snake-person’s map now (she couldn’t previously) and believed they were directional.  It appeared the Bolivians and snake people might be seeking the same temple.

Leaving the radio behind, the party entered the jungle heading due north, believing that would connect them to the main trail leading to the battle site.  This proved to be correct and they came to the ford in the river.  The bodies and destroyed vehicles from the battle were still littered about, and they noticed that there were absolutely no bugs nor carrion feeders of any kind here, even though the battle happened almost a week ago.  There was a trailhead on the other side of the river which seemed to lead to the spot marked on the map, so they crossed and the ford and headed toward it.

SESSION #01 (02/25/2025) - "Welcome To The Jungle (We Got Fun And Games)"

The date is March 15, 1933.  In South America, the Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay is in full swing, the two countries fighting over contested territory believed to be rich in oil.  Vivienne Montgomery, a 25-year-old fashion designer looking for something more...exciting, was hired by a humanitarian charity, the Caduceus Foundation, to join their Special Operations division.  Her first assignment was to deliver supplies and personnel to a medical aid camp serving civilians caught up in the war.  

The trip to Bolivia was a long one.  After meeting her new Caduceus teammates at the company’s warehouses in Red Hook, New York City as the final supplies were loaded into a truck, it was off to the airport.  The team boarded a brand new Boeing 247 twin-engine airplane and traveled to Miami; then Caracas, Venezuela; then Lima, Peru; then Asuncion, Paraguay; then finally a short, bumpy flight to an airstrip carved out of the jungle.  By the time they arrived Vivienne was sore and lethargic after three full days of travel. 

From the airfield it is a day-and-a-half hike to get to the medical camp.  The team leader is Dr. Arturo Ursini, a mid-30s Italian man of average height and build.  He seemed very preoccupied over the course of the trip and had not made any effort to get to know anyone, mostly keeping to himself and rushing off to use the radio to contact Caduceus HQ at every stop along the way.  In contrast is an early 50s-ish male nurse named Sergio Lorenzi, his short stature compensated for by a muscular frame and easy attitude.  Over the course of the trip he talked of his service as a medic during the World War and more vaguely of some troubles with criminal elements in New York City which prompted him taking this assignment with Caduceus as a way to get out of town and out of their reach.  Two local porters met the group at the airfield, Jesus and Carlos.  The pair spoke no English, instead using a local language and just a small smattering of Spanish.  They spent most of their time tending to the four mules loaded up with equipment for the camp and seemed pleasant enough.

The jungle was thick with humidity, the flora canopy above covering the trail in shade but also trapping the heat and causing Vivienne's clothes to stick to her uncomfortably.  Birds she had only seen in books flew overhead, while monkeys that looked to be perhaps a foot-and-a-half tall screeched from the trees, sometimes following the group's progress for a while.  The bugs were a continuous annoyance.  The only thing that seemed to keep them at bay is tobacco smoke, though Jesus and Carlos were not as badly affected.  Ursini warned her watch out for snakes, as a number of poisonous varieties inhabit this jungle.    

The first day and night passed uneventfully.  Ursini was anxious to get going early on the second morning, when it was a bit cooler, and said that if the group made good time they should arrive at the camp around midday.  Stopping to take a break around 10AM, Vivienne was already sweating profusely from the exertion and rising temperatures.  Jesus, Carlos, and Sergio smoked and talked by the mules.  Ursini looked to Vivienne and her three teammates and waved for all to follow him a few dozen feet away.  He turned with a look of uncertainty.  “This is a breach of protocol, but dammit, you deserve to know” he said.  He looked at the ground, his jaw clenched.  He removed his glasses, wiped them slowly with a cloth, then put them back on.  “You shouldn’t have been sent out here until you were brought into the inner circle anyway,” he muttered.  Looking up Vivienne was surprised by the newly determined look in his eyes.  “Caduceus is more than an aid organization.  In fact, that’s not even it’s primary purpose.  You were sent out here to…”

Blood sprayed out of the left side of Ursini's head in a fine red mist as it snapped awkwardly to the side.  At the same time the crack of a rifle echoed off to Vivienne's right.  Monkeys screamed in the trees as the jungle came alive, the mules braying loudly in fear.  Ursini’s body crumpled to the ground in front of the group, a pool of sticky dark blood beginning to form around his head and already attracting insects. 

Vivienne, Ralph, and Colt stood frozen for a moment, trying to comprehend what had just happened.  Maddie, however, reacted quickly, drawing a surprisingly large pistol from under her cloak and diving behind a log.  They all turned toward the sound of the shot and saw four Bolivian soldiers, shotguns at the ready.  Behind them was an officer who looked up from the sights of his rifle, smoke rising from its barrel, and gave them a grin.

Things happened quickly as gunfire erupted from everywhere at once.  Vivienne took out one of the soldiers with a blast from her double-barrel shotgun.  Colt and Maddie, both unaccustomed to this kind of violence, fired their weapons but their shots went wide.  The soldiers fired back, one of them hitting the prone Maddie and putting pellets into her back and legs as she cried out.  Ralph, with surprising calm, walked toward the soldiers, a pistol in each hand, and gunned two of them down as if it was just another day at the office.

Then shots rang out behind them.  "Two more back here!" shouted Sergio, who began trading fire with a pair of Bolivians.  Jesus and Carlos ran off as one of the mules was shot and collapsed.  

The officer threw a metallic spike of some kind at Colt.  It struck in him in the shoulder and he fell to the ground, screaming in agony.  The officer grinned evilly again, at least until he saw Vivienne running toward him, her shotgun against her shoulder.  He began to run but she stopped, fired, and shot him in the back, almost cutting him in two at the waist.  

As the officer collapsed, the remaining soldier nearby shook his head as if trying to clear it and looked around in terror.  He threw down his shotgun and raised his hands.

"The other two ran off into the jungle!" Sergio shouted from behind them, firing at them one more time to keep them honest.

Ralph approached the surrendering Bolivian.  "We've got some questions for you," he said.  Maddie, however, had something else in mind.  She staggered past Ralph and stabbed the soldier in the chest.  He looked at her with startled eyes before falling to his knees and then face-first to the ground.

"Or not," said Ralph.  

Colt wrested the object from his shoulder.  It was a spike-like metal object engraved with a serpent design.  He was surprised how much pain it caused given how little physical damage it did.  

They examined the body of the officer.  He was carrying a pack that included a compass, a map with some strange writing on it, some type of small flute, and three sticks of dynamite.  But what really caught their attention was the skin around the dead man's eyes.  It was almost as if he was wearing a mask.  A mask made of... human skin.  Colt prodded at it with the spike that had been thrown at him, and it became clear that under the human skin were... serpent scales.

"The other four are dead," Sergio said as he walked over.  Seeing the body he stepped back in shock.  "What is that?" he shouted.  "The organs... that's clearly not a man."  Sergio was right - the damage from Vivienne's shotgun exposed the internal organs of its abdomen and it looked nothing like that of a human being.  Segio shook his head and backed away.  "No... no... that's not possible...."

While this was happening, Maddie was tracing circles on the dead officer's hand.  She then fell back into a sitting position on the ground, her eyes glassed over as she seemed to enter a trance-like state.  Snapping out of it a few moments later, she shared with the group that she had some kind of a vision of a snake person that talked of dreaming and awakening.  

Searching Ursini's body, they found a lighter, some cigarettes, his passport and an envelope.  Not bothering to look inside the envelope, the collected the items, loaded up the remaining mules, and continued on to the aid camp.

The aid camp was in a clearing that also included a small village.  A Caduceus hospital tent stood in the center, with ten smaller tents just to the south of it.  A number of modest huts stood in the west of the clearing, along with a well and a cooking fire.  A handful of villagers went about their business.  To the east side were more huts, two of which were destroyed.  A pair of bored looking Bolivian soldiers stood watch.  

The party were greeted by a pair of doctors when they entered the village - Rafael Gomez and Anahi Salvatorelli.  Nurse Elena was summoned to help Maddie with her wounds, her glassy-eyed expression giving her a vacant look as she escorted Maddie into the tent.  Maddie was just on the other side of the tent wall as the team explained to what happened to the increasingly incredulous doctors.  

"Don't forget to tell them about the snake man!" Maddie shouted from inside the tent, as she could hear the conversation happening outside.  That was immediately followed by the sound of a tray of medical equipment crashing to the floor as Elena looked at Maddie in terror.  "You've... you've seen them too...?" she whispered, horror-stricken.  The nurse told Maddie that she believed at least two of the Bolivians were in fact snakes wearing the skin of people.

SESSION #00 - About Pulp It Like You Stole It

Welcome to Pulp It Like You Stole It, a blog that follows our intrepid group as they play the Pulp Cthulhu campaign The Two-Headed Serpent!

*** SPOILER ALERT!!! *** 

If you plan on participating in The Two-Headed Serpent as a player, for the love of Cthulhu STOP READING!  This will ruin it for you, so don't do it.  If you plan on running it as a Keeper, however, there may be some value.

About The Group

Our group of five has been playing together weekly for five years now.  Most of our campaigns have been Dungeons & Dragons 5e, though we dabbled a little with Paranoia and ran through a one-shot Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition (non-Pulp) session using The Haunting.  This is our first time playing (and running) Pulp Cthulhu.

The Characters

Vivienne Montgomery 

(Player:  Holly)

Twenty-five-year-old Vivienne Montgomery was born in Hong Kong.  Her father, an Englishman, ran illegal gambling houses, while her Chinese mother oversaw bordellos.  Vivienne grew up exposed to both great wealth and depraved poverty.  When things became dangerous in Hong Kong she was sent to a boarding school in England.  She later relocated to New England where she attended college for design.  After some time trying to break into the fashion world in New York City, she accepted a job with Caduceus to satisfy an urge for adventure.

Maddie O'Callahan

(Player:  Andy)

Maddie left behind the poverty of her family's farm in Oklahoma as it was swallowed up by the Dust Bowl.  Having buried her parents, with limited formal education and no prospects she began the slow, dangerous journey to New York City, where it was said an aunt lived.  The slight 20-year-old often sees patterns in the sky that others don't see and believes, including once the image of a flying serpent. She has a kind of vision that allows her to see things happening far away, or even in the past.  After arriving in NYC she took the Caduceus aptitude exam, not because she wanted a job but because it paid enough to feed her for a week.  She was quite surprised when they offered her a job, but it seemed a good way to escape her impoverished state. 

Ralph Wagner

(Player:  Tristen)

Ralph's father died, under mysterious circumstances, when he was a child. His mother left him with her parents, who raised them as their own.  His German grandfather Raiph was a brewer, and young Ralph learned the trade... though eventually expanded his skills into the worlds of illegal brewing and distilling during Prohibition, establishing a reputation for both manufacturing and transporting illegal booze on behalf of Dutch Schultz's gang.  With Prohibition coming to an end, Ralph joined Caduceus to escape the criminal underworld and get a fresh start.

Colt Seavers

(Player:  Norberto)

A reporter for the Orange Town News in Orange, CT, at 52-years-old life seems to have passed Colt by.  Divorced and estranged from his adult son, the daydreaming introvert once had a vision that he could save the people or Orange from apathy and unhappiness caused by a group of people he came to label Boomers because of their loud voices.  Running with the idea he wrote a novel about his fantasy, but despite his writing skills was not able to garner any interest from publishers.  During one of these visions he saw himself being branded by the Boomers, and when he came to saw that he how had a B-shaped burn on his arm.  Showing it to his most trusted confidant, his father Austin, he was deflated to hear the elder Seavers say it just looked like a simple burn.  He hopes Caduceus will offer the opportunity to work alongside other fellow intellectuals toward something meaningful.