Tracking the Medicine Man

 Sunday, May 10, and thee Three Amigos were finally preparing to leave for Carizo Mountain, hopefully to find the whereabouts of Old Horse Medah Mitchell and what he was up to with that dreaded ancient cult of Yig. Cannon, McCloud and Ashford were however pleasantly surprised when a visitor showed up in the early morning hour. It was Chief Ruiz of the Antahueca Apache, and he declared that he was coming along to Carizo Mountain. He had also managed to find what seemed to be a drawing of some kind in Old Horse’s small house, and by simply flipping the drawing upside down, it turned out be a crude map of Carizo Mountain with several locations marked with stars and circles. The map was definitely going to make things easier for Ashford, Cannon and McCloud, while having Chief Ruiz along would be a most welcome addition to the expedition. They had all come to respect and like the Apache chief, and even come to appreciate his dry humor. As extra precaution, the Three Amigos also included Nurse Pettenkoffer, the abominable serpentine baby from the reservation, and Esteban, one of Ashford’s most trusty ranch hands, who had been part of the original confrontation with Otto Argo. His friend, Daniel, had suffered a horrible death at the hands of the Mi-Go, hos brain being carved out of his skull by the alien physician-monsters.

The Map. Red lines indicate distances covered by bus, while green dashed lines indicate hiking.

They also decided to bring along a mule in a horse cart behind the bus, and with full stomachs after one of chef Thibaude’s amazing breakfasts, they were off. The weather was promising, and they reached the mountain late that Sunday. A camp fire was lit, guard details worked out, and nature reminded the small party of its ferocity when an enormous black bear approached the camp in the middle of the night. Fortunately, some extra food managed to distract the bear, and the power of fresh bacon led the bear out into the night again.

 

They decided to leave for the first location in a wide gorge on the west side of the mountain, and although the terrain was reasonably easily traversed, it was still a tough hike. McCloud and Chief Ruiz led Cannon, Ashford and the mule along narrow and winding paths, while the rest of the party stayed by the bus. The very end of the gorge contained a strange figure composed of sticks, feathers, odd stones and some beads. It seemed to be fairly old, but nothing else was noticed, so the party trekked back to the bus.

The next day saw another excursion up towards the actual peak of Carizo Mountain. The going was much harder, and although the small party didn’t have to climb the peak itself, they were sweaty, hungry, and exhausted in general when they came back to the bus late that Tuesday afternoon. They had, with the help of McCloud’s and Chief Ruiz’s amazing tracking skills, encountered an abandoned hut on stilts. Chief Ruiz assured the Three Amigos that this was built by Old Horse, and they also found a small skeletal figurine in the messy remnants of the hut. Chief Ruiz examined the figurine, squinting his eyes and weighing the figurine in his left hand. “This is a Death Stalker. It is a totem of significant power. It will take away one death from the person possessing it.” Frank Cannon wasn’t really sure what to believe, but he took the little figurine and placed it in his shirt pocket. As the party started back towards the bus. Bill McCloud was convinced of one thing: they were not the only hikers on Carizo Mountain. Someone wearing size seven boots was also scouting out the mountain trails. The tracks were no more than a day old.

The Death Stalker.

Wednesday turned out to be a remarkably foggy day. The dense swirls of mist seemed to absorb much of the sounds of nature, but the party nevertheless pressed on. The southeast side of the mountain had a weird old totem pole of pre-Apache design, but no other items of interest. They then travelled further north until the expedition encountered a fairly wide stream, and they all came to the conclusion that this was the final stop for the bus. The next leg would be on foot, so to say.

It was decided that nurse Pettenkoffer, the supposed brood of Yig, and Esteban would stay by the bus, while the other members of the expedition continued up towards the remaining sites. This was the most difficult hike so far, but whoever wore the size seven boots seemed to have the agility of a mountain goat. Even McCloud would have hesitated to take some of the paths that were negotiated by the unseen fellow outdoorsman. As they pressed onwards and upwards, the small party became aware of the typical sounds of the mountain becoming increasingly muted, and eventually being replaced by an eerie quiet. Then they noticed signs, symbols and wards, as well as one of the white prehistoric snakes that seemed to be associated with all kinds of ill portents. One of the signs, a painted animal skull, was also adorned by a chord with a symbol that seemed oddly out of place in the native American designs. Frank Cannon, being a consumer of all kinds of pulp and esoteric fiction, recognized the symbol as the seal of Justified and Ancient Mu, a symbol that was oddly out of place here in New Mexico. But what was it that Father Bose had mentioned about Justified and Ancient Mu and their battles against the snake people of hoary Valusia?

 

All of these discussions came to an end when a large stone, seemingly out of nowhere, almost crushed Frank Cannon and Chief Ruiz as it landed in the middle of the small party. The stone turned out to be the calling card of an old nemesis, the monster assembled by parts of corpses that was created by Old Horse to fight off the ranchers of Otto Argo. The monster bellowed furiously and attacked the terrified investigators, swatting Chief Ruiz and Frank Cannon to the side and lifting up Bill McCloud in an attempt to tear off his arms and legs. Lotus Ashford opened fire with a shotgun on the grotesque monstrosity, but to little avail, while Bill McCloud kept on chopping at the abomination with his Bowie knife. Fortunately, Frank Cannon lit a dynamite stick, and as the monstrosity nailed McCloud to the ground in an attempt to once and for all dispatch of him, Cannon jammed the dynamite stick into one of the cavities created by Ashford’s shotgun shells. The ensuing explosion threw lumps of fetid flesh all over the mountain side and doused the members of the party in putrification.

The seal of Ancient and Justified Mu.

Several of the party members were battered and bruised, but they decided to follow the path to the final point on Old Horse’s map after trying to do some cleaning up. An hour, Bill McCloud did find a small hut, and inside the hut, the body of Old Horse. He seemed to be comatose, and Chief Ruiz explained that he was surrounded by powerful glyphs and symbols to ward off anyone who might interfere with the ancient medicine man. A pipe and a tobacco pouch was lying at his side, and Chief Ruiz expaliend that this might be the way to travel to wherever Old Horse might be, and to finally confront him and his wrongdoings. It was decided that Lotus Ashford and Frank Cannon would smoke the hallucinogenic substance, while Chief Ruiz and Bill McCloud guarded their mortal bodies. Cannon and Ashford were in for a blood-curdling surprise