Private Investigator Connor Myarc and archaeologist Eric Slater shared an office in the clinic of veterinarian Simon Wainwright. The three had had similar experiences with “unexplainable phenomena,” and found that their common interest, bordering on obsession in these matters, became more of a vocation as word of their investigations into the occult and similar fringe cases garnered them a reputation.
Connor Myarc
Connor Myarc was a West Point graduate, but found the life of an officer too bureaucratic. He preferred working “in the trenches.” He served as an intel specialist attached to an infantry unit. While his educational background impressed many, he found that he preferred the action of combat and the life of a grunt to that of his more academic peers.
During a tour overseas in the desert, his unit stumbled across a cave full of dead bodies with weird symbols scrawled onto the walls. While he didn’t know what it was at the time, the experience would alter the course of his life.
After Connor got out of the military, he briefly worked as a private security officer for a large corporation, but again grew tired of the routine, and started his own private investigator/bounty hunter business. He likes being his own boss, although he misses the camaraderie of a team.
Most of the cases he takes are missing persons, although most of those are just runaway teens or spouses who’ve run off with lovers. He misses the adrenaline of the combat theater, and will jump at the chance for a more dangerous case.
Eric Slater
Eric Slater came from a wealthy New York family. His parents were investment bankers who left young Eric to the care of nannies and exclusive private schools. Eric accepted a scholarship to Yale university, where he first was exposed to other worlds. His roommate was a student from Innsmouth, who regaled Eric with horror stories, or so he said.
Eric graduated cum laude from Yale, and after a summer bumming around new England with his roomie, he accepted a doctoral program bid from Cambridge, England. His Cambridge experience was rather bland, given that it was England, but he rather liked it.
This is where Eric met his mentor, Dr. Hendrickson. Hendrickson and his students had often searched for Arthurian sites, and even dug at Stonehenge. Eric’s final thesis was on the Roman imperial period of England.
After graduation, Eric returned to New England, but something happened on the plane ride across the darkened Atlantic. He swore he saw a gremlin on the wing, and made a fool of himself panicking and insisting that the gremlin was tearing at the engine. Escorted off the plane, he is now on a “list” with the government. He spent the next 10 years investigating and digging in central and South America.
Slater recently returned to the United States, working as an occasional adjunct instructor at UC-Samson. However, there were no accommodations available on campus, so Eric rented a space office at Simon Wainwright’s veterinary clinic from which to conduct his independent researches.
Simon Wainwright
Simon Wainwright’s parents were doctors and expected their son to follow that path as well. What they didn’t consider was that while Simon enjoyed the theory of why things live and how to keep them alive, that interest was focused on animals more than humans.
With his parents pulling some strings for him, Simon was accepted to the veterinary school of Tulane University and graduated solidly in the middle of the pack due to his constant distraction of the festive atmosphere that thrives in Louisiana. After graduation, Simon decided to visit some friends on the west coast and never looked back.
He opened a concierge veterinary practice in Samson, California, where he treated primarily exotic pets, such as reptiles, bird, and unusual mammals such as monkeys and the occasional lion, usually at the creatures place of residence.
A Meeting of Minds
It was on one such occasion that Simon was called out to investigate a sudden rash of mutations in the offspring of a twenty-five foot reticulated python named Bessie, a minor celebrity who appeared in movies from time to time. Several clutches in a row were born with two heads or tails, vestigial legs, and one even had flightless wings. Simon approached the veterinary lab at UC-Samson, but was denied access to their equipment.
While on campus, Simon had a chance encounter with Eric Slater, who mentioned that he was in need of office space. Simon had been considering renting out the spare offices in his practice (there weren’t many veterinarians who practiced on exotic creatures), and offered the space to Eric.
In the course of their subsequent conversation, Eric became interested in Simon’s tale. He related various Mesoamerican myths about the origins of certain serpent gods that eerily mirrored what Simon had seen. However, when Simon took Eric to see Bessie, they learned that Bessie had been stolen, along with all her unusual offspring.
Simon had previously rented one of the offices to a private detective named Connor Myarc. The detective was experiencing a lull in activity at the time, and agreed to investigate the matter with Simon and Eric.
The three followed a trail of obscure clues identified through Connor’s symbols and Eric’s studies to a cult of Yig practicing in the San Benito Mountains who believed Bessie to be one of Yig’s sacred serpents. They rescued Bessie and returned her to her very grateful owner.
Full Wilderness
The subsequent press about the recovery of local star Bessie resulted in brief celebrity for the three, but passed quickly with little impact on their lives. Then, one day, a registered letter arrived at the clinic addressed to the three of them from Robert Jatik, the famous environmental advocate and founder of Full Wilderness. In it, Jatik offered $100,000 to address “an unusual and sensitive situation, one which may call on your skills.”
Intrigued, Slater contacted Claris Novescu at Full Wilderness and made arrangements to meet the following morning at the Full Wilderness offices. The three then researched Jatik and Full Wilderness to discover that Jatik, who had given up investment banking for an isolated outdoor lifestyle, had cured himself of cancer. He then returned to Samson and established the well-funded and influential Full Wilderness environmental advocacy organization.
Jatik and Full Wilderness exerted pressure at all levels of government, and through the popular One Wilderness magazine to remove human interference in natural areas. The organization and its founder were criticized for emulating Native American customs in their corporate culture, and also Jatik’s covert proposition of a catastrophic human de-population of the world, in its wake leaving a world-wide breeding population of a few hundred thousand people.
Meeting with Jatik
The following morning, Connor, Eric, and Simon were met by Claris Novescu, a severe, thirty-ish woman, and taken to Robert Jatik.
The council chief, as Jatik called himself, insisted on giving the three a tour of the Full Wilderness facility before getting down to business. Along the way, the three noted the opulent furnishings and stylish and well-dressed personnel seemingly devoted to Jatik’s cause.
When they returned to Jatik’s office, he got down to business. Jatik explained that Full Wilderness sponsored a variety of natural science research projects to contribute its share to the pool of scientific research needed to save the planet. He added that some of this research was being conducted by the Dawn Biozyme (DBZ) corporation, located in Samson.
The Delivery
Jatik went on to tell the investigators of a letter he received from a Dr. Peter Tait from DBZ who believed that some of Full Wilderness’s money “was being misused for the foulest purposes.” Jatik had Tait’s authenticity investigated and it was discovered that he was in fact a microbiologist at Dawn Biozyme.
A few days later, Jatik received a delivery from Tait. When the parcel was brought into the office under a tarpaulin, Jatik removed the cover to reveal a pale yellow-white creature with numerous tentacles and rising up from cloven hooves. The legs octopoid with the same ability to make the astonishingly quick movements. Its four greater and varying number of lesser tentacles waved unceasingly, like the tentacles of an anemone a swirl in the sea. And when the small creature stoods still, the rippling arcs of tentacle movement had an almost hypnotic effect.
Drool and pus seeped from various mouths and orifices; a foul stench filled the air. As soon as the tarpaulin was lifted, the thing leapt across the container toward the investigators in a single lunge, squeaking fiercely, its tentacles gripping the sides of the cylinder. Its multiple mouths opening and shutting with voracious clicks and disturbing slurps.
The Job
Jatik informed the investigators that, shortly after sending this specimen, Peter Tait disappeared. His wrecked car was found at a cliff top park overlooking the ocean, and the police believed it to be a case of suicide. Jatik believes that Tait’s disappearance is related to the specimen and the work being done at Dawn Biozyme.
Jatik offered the investigators $100,000 plus $1000 per day to find out what happened to Tait, uncover what was being done at Dawn Biozyme, and to stop the experiments, whether legal or not. He mentioned that Full Wilderness had a wide network of resources at every level of government and could be called upon if they ran into difficulties.
Connor, Eric, and Simon agreed to take job. Eric asked Jatik to set up tour of the Dawn Biozyme facilities for them.
Jatik mentioned that Sergeant Jack Bolling at Samson PD was handling the investigation into Tait’s disappearance and suggested that they speak with him. But first, he wanted the team ensure that the specimen arrived at Zymvotek biological laboratories across town.
Jatik assigned his aide, Richard Slakes, to make introductions to Dr. Morton Leem at Zymvotek. Slakes provided a Full Wilderness van, but Conner elected to take a second vehicle in case the van was followed.