Part 13: Sins of the Fathers 13: Snakes. Why'd it have to be snakes?

Part 13: Snakes. Why'd it have to be snakes?

Oh, why’s that? Guess I’ll hit up Google and….oh. Oh dear. Ahem. MOVING ON!
Okay, first thing’s first, let’s read the letter Uncle Wolfgang sent:

“Dear Gabriel: Please read the enclosed journal carefully. It might help you understand your family’s special obligations and our current predicament. God be with you, Uncle Wolfgang.”

Ok, better check out that journal then.


“Poor bastard!”



“Ballsy son-of-a-bitch, wasn’t he?”
Yeah, Gabe, the, uh, apple didn’t exactly fall far from the family tree I think.




I think I speak for the entire viewership here Gabe when I say: QUIT FUCKING THE OBVIOUS VILLAIN. I mean, Christ, just before you started sleeping with her, you attended a lecture where you found out her last name is the name of a Voodoo death god you jackass. Ah well, moving on, I suppose we should call Uncle Wolfgang who I’m sure is going to tell you the same fucking thing. Except…the game won’t let me.

“No, I can’t afford to call Germany again until I figure more of this out!”

Hookay, I’ll ride your damn plot railroad I guess. To Hartridge, so we can get the inside skinny on that veve!

“Hey, Hartridge, what’s the good word…? Hartridge?”


“Oh, God, not again!”
Yep, the cult got ‘im. Another protip, Gabe: STOP DISCUSSING STUFF IN FRONT OF A VERY OBVIOUS SPY. Anyway, there’s nothing on his corpse that we can do, so we’re spared more corpse molestation. But we do snag his notes on the veve from his desk:


Clear as mud. And of course, we abandon the crime scene before the cops haul Gabriel’s ass in for questioning.


However, Gabriel is good enough to do at least that. And we still can’t call Wolfgang. However, what we can do is ask Grace to research Rada drums for us…and considering they’re being used to send coded messages, this is a good plan. Ok, next plan of attack, maybe Dr. John can tell us more about Damballah, Ogoun Badagris, and the rest?


BAD IDEA!!! Luckily, we hit the air conditioning switch, and the shock of the cold air makes the snake take off….and then Dr. John enters.

“Good day, Mr. Knight.”
“That thing just tried to KILL me!”
“He did? I am sorry. The museum is closed today, you see, and we were not expecting visitors. But, if you will excuse me, Mr. Knight, I must go look for him. He is incredibly valuable.”
“You don’t need to ask twice. I’m outta here! By the way, you might want to lock your door next time you’re ‘closed’.”
“Not a bad idea. Good-bye, Mr. Knight.”

Returning back yet again to St. Georges, Grace immediately notices something wrong with Gabe, saying he looks a little pale green around the gills.

“Pale green, you say? Charming.”
“What’s that on your face?”
“I’m sure you’ll tell me.”
“Looks like a sparkly or something. Got it.”
“I love it when you pick stuff off my face, Grace.”
“Hmph. Well, excuuuuse me.”

Grace puts the whatever it is in an ashtray on the desk, which begins the hardest task yet: trying to pick it up. Every time, it’s taken me at least 5 minutes to hit the hotspot with the tweezers.

“Looks like the python left me a souvenir. Verrrrrry interesting.”

Yep, another scale.


So, yeah, if you didn’t realize it before: Where would the cops go for information on a series of Voodoo-related murders? Why to a local museum where the proprietor is an expert on the subject. An “expert” who sent a researcher to a local nutjob, and told the cops that the Voodoo was completely faked. Dr. John’s a very, very bad Klingon, and a filthy p’takh to boot.

Anyway, seeing as Dr. John just tried to kill us with the cult snake, we better go file a complaint with the cops and…


Oh, that’s not good. Anyway, I guess we better show Mosely some evidence. Let’s start with the completed veve.

“You know those marks you found around the murder victims? This is a reconstruction of the whole pattern.”
“What makes you think this is an accurate reconstruction?”
“Well…I ‘borrowed’ the partial patterns from your police file, and did my own tracing of the pattern at Lake Pontchartrain. An architectural artist reconstructed it for me from the partials.”
“Really? So this is the pattern, huh? That’s pretty good work, Knight. But that doesn’t prove that this pattern is really connected to Voodoo.”

Hah, shows what you know, Mosely. Next, Hartridge’s notes:
“Take a look at these notes. They’re from Professor Hartridge at Tulane University.”
“Yeah? What about them?”
“They confirm that the pattern from the murders is of African origin.”
“Really? That’s incredible, isn’t it? Somethin’ like that showin’ up here?”
“It’s been ‘here’ for quite some time, so it seems.”
“I’m impressed. Okay, you’ve convinced me. The murders were done by a legitimate Voodoo cult.”

Okay, Mosely, what do you think of my scales?
“I have these two snake scales. One’s from the crime scene at Lake Pontchartrain. The other’s from a snake in the Voodoo Museum on Ursulines and Chartres.”
“Is this common? Do they all look alike?”
“Not at all. They’re bother constrictor scales, and the coloring is the same. A python’s coloring is quite individualistic.”
“A PYTHON?!”
“That’s right. Hardly an indigenous snake to Louisiana. Somehow, some way, the Museum’s python was at the scene of the Lake Pontchartrain murder.”

And Mosely accepts that as a lead. Nice. Okay, now to prove that they’re a threat. Hey, Mosely, what if I told you that the cult’s been active since the last century?
“This is a newspaper clipping about a murder committed in 1810. That murder is an exact match of the Voodoo Murders-right down to the marks around the bodies.”
“Hmmm. This does sound like the same M.O. 1810?”
“1810. They killed then, they’re killing now. Isn’t that proof that they’re likely to kill again…that they ARE a threat?”
“Okay, they’re a threat. Okay, I’ll reopen the case. I hate to admit it, but you’ve done some pretty good detective work here, Knight.”
“Well, you know what they say. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”

“Well, <ahem>, point taken. Glad I could inspire you. I’ll check around the department, but I have a feeling I’m on my own. In fact, I’d better lock up this office just in case I step on a few toes. Come on.”

And thus did Gabriel Knight achieve a subquest successfully! Huzzah! And next time, we may solve another mystery: WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO MAKE THIS GUY CALL LONG DISTANCE?!?!?