Sweet Poison Wine

**Sweet Poison Wine** is an InCryptid short story. It is the sixth in the Jonathan and Frances Shorts.

## Synopsis

Jonathan and Frances Healy are beginning their new lives together with that most traditional of celebrations: the honeymoon. Leaving their infant son with Jonathan's parents, the Healys are leaving Buckley Township, Michigan for the cosmopolitan wonders of the city of Chicago, where they can properly celebrate the fact that they managed to have a wedding without anybody winding up dead.

Of course, these are the Healys we're talking about, and nothing in Chicago is exactly fitting the description provided by the Bureau of Tourism. From the gorgon-run hotel where they'll be staying to the swamp hags in the Chicago River, things are definitely business as usual, at least by the family definition of "usual."

Bootlegger Arturo Gucciard has only just been introduced to the Healy definition of "usual," but he's going to need to get awfully familiar with it if he wants to live long enough to have a honeymoon of his own. And Jonathan, well. Jonathan just wants to have a normal honeymoon.

Good luck with that.

## Plot

Enid and Alexander practically have to push the newlyweds out the door for their honeymoon, as they are delayed worrying about leaving newborn Daniel for the first time. They make it to the train, where Jonathan and Frances partake in honeymooner activities to pass the time, before arriving in Chicago. They arrive at the Carmichael Hotel, whose shabby exterior is revealed as a façade for a pleasant cryptid-friendly operation. Jonathan introduces Fran to the Kalakos family, Pliny's gorgons who own the Carmichael.

While exploring the sights of Chicago, the couple encounters feeding river hags and rescues their victim. The man introduces himself as Arturo Gucciard and explains that as an alcohol smuggler, he's gotten into trouble with the competition.

Gucciard visits them later at the Carmichael, much to the gorgons' displeasure. One of his associates has been murdered and he needs help. Jonathan and Fran go with him to a warehouse along the shoreline where they discover salt rocks designed to repel the river hags. Jonathan also realizes Gucciard is the Kalakos family's wine smuggler. He had presumably been set up by his competition, who had previously smuggled for the Carmichael.

The stolen wine is Medusa, specially made by a gorgon community in Canada and vital to Pliny's mating rituals. If they can't recover the stolen wine, the Kalakos's current marriage negotiations will fall apart. Jonathan, Frances, and several gorgons confront the competitor, Francesco Russo. They recover the stolen wine and leave Russo to the hungry river hags. Jonathan has no sympathy given how Russo disrupted the river hags' habitat.

## Characters

* Jonathan Healy
* Frances Healy
* Enid Healy
* Alexander Healy
* Daniel Healy
* Asta Kalakos
* Chruse Kalakos
* Arturo Gucciard
* Hector Kalakos
* Layna Kalakos
* Francesco Russo

**Mentioned**

* Caroline Carew
* Big Tommy (gang member)

## Field Guide

* Aeslin Mice
* Pliny's Gorgon
* River Hag

**Mentioned**

* Cactus Cat
* Oread
* Kobold
* Questing Beast

## Locations

* Buckley Township, Michigan
	+ Healy House
* Ann Arbor, Michigan
* Chicago, Illinois
	+ Carmichael Hotel
	+ Adler Planetarium
	+ Riverfront
	+ Gucciard family restaurant

**Mentioned**

* Tempe, Arizona
* Gorgon community, Canada

## Organizations

* Francesco Russo's bootlegging operation

## Continuity

* The Kalakos family will continue to be close to the Healy family for several generations.