by Tesla » Tue Nov 03, 2015 12:33 pm
Copy of a Journal provided by JD Walker
Written in Algic
…be on to something, but I can’t be certain. I have slain fourteen wendigo in my time and countless more were slain by my father before me. With luck, I hope never to slay another.
Jack
The Second of June, nineteen hundred seven
The people here are ignorant. I believe we can cure the hunger, cure the wendigo. The people here insist I euthanize them as I have always done. I can’t sleep at night. Whether I awake or sleep, I see faces of the wendigo, tied, burning at the stake, by my own hands. I can incinerate their bodies, to burn the wendigo spirits from their hearts and kill them. But I can’t cure them of the spirits alive. Not yet, I need to keep working. But I have created a Fetish that can hold a wendigo spirit temporarily. I believe a ritual will be involved. I’ve tested the incantation using words the wendigo fear like heat and fire, and have taken the spirit from Peter. But when I tried to burn the fetish with the spirit inside, the spirit did not die. It fled and returned to Peter. I will need to create another fetish. Bigger, this time. And try something else.
Jack
The twenty seventh of July, nineteen hundred seven
Nasheykmingaan has just left after a visit, perhaps to return in a month’s time. I believe he thought me going mad. But I have returned to mu work. I have made no progress to cure my brother. And he is worse by the passing days. He no longer understands the reason I must detain him and he fights with me now to stay contained in the cage in the corner. I am afraid. I do not feed him, yet he becomes stronger. I do not give him drink, yet the room is frigid cols, as if he were made of ice. I have captured several wendigos Peter previously infected and I have tried the ritual again without setting the fetish aflame. This time, It worked. My brother and the others were themselves for a few minutes but then the spirits broke from the fetish and returned to their original host’s bodies that have hosted wendigo before.
Jack
The Thirtieth of July, nineteen hundred seven
I have observed something of note in my brother and the other wendigo I have detained here in my hut. The wendigo appear to be subservient to Peter as if he is like an alpha among them. I have never witnessed this behavior among wendigo in the wild. They are ordinarily independent with occasional competition over food. Is it possible that while under duress, the wendigo spirit naturally align beneath the spirit that infected them as if it were their leader? I will not kill my brother but--- but what would happen to the lesser wendigo if the alpha was eliminated?
Jack
The Second of September, nineteen hundred seven
Today I tried to explain to Peter my theory in replacing the heart. He reached through the cage and grabbed me. His strength was inhuman. He broke my arm like a child snaps a twig. I broke free but I was bitten on the shoulder. His teeth were like the fangs of an animal and he licked at my blood on his mouth and lips for hours. He will not stop screaming for more. I fear he will alert the tribe to our location. But I cannot kill him unless I burn his heart, Else the unyielding hunger shall heal his wounds and revitalize him. But so too, I cannot stand to see my brother in agony, if I should set him aflame…
What do I do?
The Fifth of September, nineteen hundred seven
I am treating my wound, but it may be infected. The autumn begins very cold
The Twelfth of September, nineteen hundred seven
Peter has become insatiable for flesh. I have had cravings. I fear the worst. But I can conclude this. A man becomes the cannibal wendigo in two ways. Firstly, when a wendigo is murdered, is unable to heal its wounds and it’s ice heart is not burned to ash, the spirit shall be expelled from the perished heart and seek out a new human vessel at random. Secondly, a new wendigo spirit is birthed when a wendigo feeds on a human victim. But cannot finish its feast and the victim survives. This appears to be my cause. My father would be ashamed
Jack
The twenty fifth of September, nineteen hundred seven
It worked. I could not transfer my own spirit while performing the ritual, but with the fetish, I could transfer the spirits of the wendigo into the fetish and before the spirits could flee back to their original hosts, I finished the ritual I made using words and symbols they feared. My assumptions were correct.
The four spirits in the fetish went together to the Alpha wendigo, My brother, the wendigo who infected them many moons ago. The others did not survive the transfer. For their human bodies were starved for years and the hunger no longer kept them alive. If I had more time, I believe I could have recreated the ritual and redirected the wendigo spirits of the fetish into any vessel of my choosing. My instincts say this would go willingly only into a body a wendigo has once possessed, however. But I do not have time to focus on this. I need to find a way to cure Peter and myself. With several spirits inside of him, Peter worsens ever faster and so have I.
The Twenty sixth of September, nineteen hundred seven
They are coming for me. They will put me on trial and blame me for the murders Peter committed when the spirit took him. They will discover what I am becoming. I can’t let them find out. I need to throw them off track. I need to find the cure. I need more time. I don’t feel the cold anymore.
The Twenty ninth of September, nineteen hundred seven
I have burned down my hut and the wendigo inside. But I am a coward, and I did not stay within. I saved my journals and I will bury them for my own son to find. The tribe will be here soon. But I need more time. Forgive me Peter. In your memory, I will find the cure.
Jack
Kevin
-Character: Douglas Rook
-Formerly known as Professor John Challenger
-Position: Rook for The Lady in White
"Time to feed the Crows"