Part 12: Sins of the Fathers 12: Bye, Crash.

Part 12: Bye, Crash.
Okay, so next I think we better check on Arcade Hartridge and see if he’s got anything for me yet.

“Mr. Knight. You’re back. Oh goody.”
Jesus, did Gabriel just fuck everyone’s mom in a past life?

“Have you had any luck yet with that veve?”
“I’m still working on it, Mr. Knight. When I’m finished, you’ll be the first to know.”

Okay, well that was marginally more polite. Now comes the big stumper moment….what the fuck are we supposed to do now? Because to the best of my knowledge, the game gives you precisely zero hints as to what we’re supposed to do next. So what do we do, you ask?


Well, we’re supposed to go here, the Jackson Square Overlook.


Here we find a variety of those old pay binocular things that were everywhere for awhile, and we need to use the one on the furthest left to see the northeast corner of the park.


Who is that?

“That’s Crash. What the hell is he up to with that drummer?”

Yeah, Crash, remember him? We met him briefly the other day when Mosely was convinced that he was involved in the Voodoo Murders. He wanders up to the north of the screen, which leads directly to the St. Louis Cathedral, so we head there next.


Yep, there he is…and he don’t look too good. He also won’t talk to Gabriel at first, continuing to deny everything unless we show him the snake bracelet. At that point, he shows Gabriel that he has the same snake tattooed on his chest, and agrees to answer some questions, however he evades or refuses a straight answer…except when he’s asked about the drummer he was talking to, Crash begins to panic.

“Promise you won’t say nothin’ to no one! It’ll get back to ‘em, everything does! Promise me you won’t tell ANYONE you saw me!”
“O-kay, but you have to tell me everything I want to know.”
“Okay, Okay. I was sending a message, man. They have these Rada drummers posted around the Quarter. They see everything, and they report.”
“Report? How?”
“The drums, man! It’s some kinda code.”

Now, if you think about it, this is kind of ingenious. Hell, bucket drummers across New York could be secretly communicating right this very second. Anyway, Crash begins giving straight answers on all the subjects he knows about. He confirms that the cult is real, the murders are genuine Voodoo, and he is scared to fucking death of them. But the big info shows up when he’s asked about the Voodoo Hounfour at this point:

“All right! There’s this underground cartel in New Orleans…a Voodoo cartel. They control everything that happens on the street…I mean EVERYTHING that’s bought or sold. They have their fingers in the legit world too…banks, foreign stuff, you name it. There’s supposed to be this temple…what you said, a hounfour. That’s their headquarters. I heard people say it’s underground, somewhere in the French Quarter…I don’t know where.”
“Have you ever been there?”
“No, no, I’ve never been in it. I’m nobody. A runner. But I saw them once…out at the lake. They became animals, man…beasts! I remember the eyes!<choke> The eyes!”
“…Hey, are you okay?”
“The eyes…the eyes…of the snake!”
“I think I should go get a doctor! Someone! I need help!”
“The eyes of the snake! Damballah!”
“What snake? Crash?”

And with that, Crash just drops dead instantly.
“Oh, God! Poor bastard!”

So we’re alone with a fresh corpse in a church. Better rifle through his stuff I suppose.


Ew. Actually, we, uh, need to lift his shirt.


Oh yeah, this, uh, isn’t weird at all. In a church. Anywho, using Gabriel’s artistic talents, we copy down the tattoo. And after that, we just leave Crash’s corpse sitting in a pew, in a church, with his shirt hiked up around his armpits. Classy.
Well, after witnessing a mysterious death and molesting a corpse in a house of God, Gabriel wisely decides to call this a fucking day, and heads back to St. George’s Books for the night. And then he gets on the phone.

“Hello?”
“It’s me. I can’t sleep.”
“ Me neither.”
“Can I….?”
“Yes. Come.”

Oh, I’m sure he will, Ms. Gedde.


So Gabriel arrives back after Grace opens the shop. And for the record, the creepy fucking dude is still there.

“Are you OK, Gabriel?”
“<yawn> Sure. Great. Why?”
“I’m worried about you.”
“If I were any better, Grace, I’d be dead. Now what’s up?”
“You got another package this morning. Fed Ex, from Germany.”
“I was expecting that. Where is it?”
“Well…it kind of came open, but I salvaged the contents. There was a letter from your great uncle Wolfgang, and a journal.”
“The package just ‘came open’, huh? How’d you like the journal?”
"Someone has to look after you. You’re in trouble in case you don’t know it.”
“Yeah, you’ve been reading my horoscope again, haven’t you, Grace?”
“Just read the journal carefully, Gabriel. PLEASE.”

At that point, the store phone rings, with Hartridge on the line.

“You did. Wait, slow down…The Agris? Really? You think that’s them? The wheel-within-a-wheel? Ogoun Badagris, huh? Well, that does sound like it. Damballah, the snake? That’s the wavy pattern at the bottom. Okay. The 1791 slave revolt in Santo Domingo? Well why would the veve show up there? Uh-huh. Okay. Okay. Okay. Look, I’ll come over as soon as I can. Okay. Relax, Professor! I’m excited too, but you’re going to give yourself a heart attack! Okay. Thanks. See ya.”
“I wish you’d tell me what’s going on. I swear, you’re going to step into a hole you may never get out of.”
“Don’t look so worried. No one knows what I’m doing.”

I think this guy begs to differ, Gabriel.

“I’m perfectly safe, and I’m getting some GREAT stuff for the book. Besides, there’s something about all this. My dreams…”
“What ABOUT your dreams?”
“…Nothing. I’ll be careful. I promise.”

Well, time to check the paper.



“Wonderful.”

Well that does it for tonight, stay tuned for more SHOCKING developments when we read the journal, talk to Uncle Wolfgang (who is another amazing character, by the way), and speak with Hartridge about the veve!