Roderick has acquired a ritual from the
Miskatonic University. He shows it to Dr. Schreber, who can't decide
yet whether it's Just The Thing or an utter abomination. Well,
clearly using a human sacrifice is out - maybe a horse? Roderick buys
a number of anatomy books on horses, cows, and dogs, though he doesn't
think he can do the surgical parts of the ritual himself (hence the
need for Dr. Schreber). After much dithering, they acquire a
St. Bernard named Percival.
Dr. Schreber does the surgical bits (which, astonishingly, don't kill
the dog), Roderick spends magic points and drips blood into the
thing. The limbs sort of fold back and under to look like a curved
sword plant (albeit one made of meet), and the whole thing gets
slightly coated with white fungus-like filaments as well. Underneath
the body of the dog/plant, veins and roots quest hungrily, and
Roderick feeds it about a pint of blood. About an hour later, the outer membrane of the plant's heart
dries and crackles off, revealing a rasberry-like fruit, which
Roderick eats. He says it tastes good.
April 23 or so
Over the course of the next week,
Roderick's missing pinky finger begins to grow back. Towards the end
of the week, it's complete (if a little pale). That night, there's a
terrible storm, mostly just over Boston - Sheila shows up and tells
Dr. Schreber that Roderick has gotten something peeved at him. He
tries to call Roderick, but lightning has already struck the house and
knocked out power and phone, so Dr. Schreber heads for Boston with
Sheila. By the time they
they get there, Roderick's finger has gone all blackish green and
boneless, and the greenish tinge is spreading. The finger is removed
before the corruption spreads much further; by that point, it's mostly
just a little bag of skin with some goo in it which drains out. A
leaf falls off the plant.
Roderick scolds the plant (which is impassive), and gathers the scraps of finger and leaf to throw into the ocean later. Over the course of future days, Roderick will discover that he has to keep trimming his finger stub (though that makes it convenient to feed the plant blood).
"I'm married now!" -CharlieCharlie wants mostly nothing to do with her or her son, asking if she's sure it's his - she slaps him. After a bit more posturing all around, Juliana leaves again.
"A mistake, easily remedied." -Juliana
Charlie confesses shamefacedly to Gerti about a not-entirely-remembered interlude with Juliana Ficorelli before the Innsmouth incident. Gerti is serene and sends Charlie to bed too. Gerti also asks if Charlie noticed the weird scars - he didn't.
April 22
Vincenzio (Juliana's father) stops by the docks
to talk to Charlie. He's not happy that Charlie dissed his girl. He
also doesn't seem to think that the current (and temporary) existence
of one wife is necessarily a great impediment to Charlie's marrying
Juliana. Charlie is given three days to take care of the problem,
before Vincenzio takes care of it for him. Charlie also notices that
Vincenzio has the strange scars too.
Gerti asks Eddie to look into hotels and such to see if there are some Ficorellis staying in Boston, but none turn up under that name, at least. Gerti also instructs Charlie to tell the Giottis that Vincenzio and Juliana are back in town, to let them take care of it. Charlie starts thinking about taking Gerti and Junior and skipping town.
