A Cthonic Interlude

Here’s the play report for a Cthulhu campaign that’s three sessions in. I’ll sum up the first three sessions fairly briefly, then,  beginning with session four, I’ll post a blow-by-blow blog to help my players recap. I gave the adventure a title before writing began but to avoid giving the game away, I’ll save that nugget until the end…

The investigators

Jade Craft: explorer, archaeologist, magician
Don: ex-Desert Storm, mechanic, brick
Jackson Wells: writer and proponent of the second amendment
Griff: ex-MP, body guard and private investigator

The game is afoot…

The first session begins with two doses of railroading by the Keeper. First each character comes to the table with at least one encounter with the Cthulhu mythos under their belt (I wrote 4 half-page intros and distributed them randomly) and I start the game with all of the investigators sharing a carriage on the way to Chicago after each has received ticket, expense and one quarter of a mysterious letter. Once all four parts of the letter are pieced together, the following is revealed:

The letter:

Travellers,

Our world has changed and cyclopean challenges await those who would turn back the dark tide. You have caught a glimpse of this new world, of that, I’m sure.

Use the next few days, at my expense to decide if you would do something about it or whether you wish to close your eyes and ears and minds. For some, ignorance is bliss, knowledge a curse and the truth, that which must not be believed.

Ray Carlino died October 5. The police PD (New Lenox PD) declare it a suicide and have closed their files. But there are alarming inconsistencies; with your help I’m reopening the case.

§  Sue Leon, a technician at the County Morgue expressed concerns with the Coroner’s findings

§  The crime scene has been tampered with, three letters were written in blood on the walls (O, T and D) but they have since been removed.

§  Ray’s personal laptop is absent but pieces of it (the return key and the cracked DVD drive cover) were found beneath his blood stained recliner

§  Ray worked for a company (InstaCOM) that has returned zero profit for each of the three years of its existence – not suspicious perhaps but certainly curious

To assist in your investigations I’ve arranged hotel rooms, a vehicle and a credit card to cover modest expenses. One of you will find a cell phone in your room. I will make contact with you via that phone; keep it with you at all times.

These may be useful starting places:

Cook County Medical Examiner

2121 W Harrison St · Chicago

(312) 666-0500

Ray Carlino (deceased)

420 Manor Court #C

New Lenox, IL 60451

Your Hotel (Welcome Inn)

600 N Martingale Rd

 Schaumburg, IL 60173

1800-780-5733

InstaCOM

CEO – Ted Widinskji

2424 W Montrose Ave, Chicago, IL (offices and adjoining storage)

(773) 267-8200

A Friend of the Silver Twilight

That was the end of the rail-roading; the investigators decide to look into the matter and discuss their earlier encounters with the weird.

Arriving at their motel, Jade finds the promised cell phone in her bedroom. It is a massive Bakelite brick with a convex screen, valves and a single button. The makers stamp carries a 1927 date.

Jackson and Don check out the hire car – a Ford Mondeo. The only odd thing about the car is the CD on the dash: Handel’s Water Music. Well, that’s not so odd, but the disc case describes the recording as King George’s attempt to rid the Thames of malevolent entities in 1717. The music has a strange raw quality about it that Jackson enjoys.

First port of call is Carlino’s low-rise condo in Lenox County, just south of Chicago. Their they discover the remnants of the crime scene; the blood stained walls are covered with picture-wing flies and maggots (native to Hawaii) and a mysterious dog lurks outside to keep the curious at bay.

Don introduces the mutt to both barrels of his shotgun and the dog flees (not before taking a bite out of Griff and forcing Jade to pull on that strange cloak that causes others to ignore her (and costs her 2 points of Stability).

Also in the house they find evidence of a clay used in upmarket roof tiles (on Carlino’s shoes and pickup tyres). Additionally, the investigators find 30 tubs of expired peanut butter and a lead-lined cavity beneath the bed with its own power supply. Alas there’s no clue as to what the contents may have been.

Outside the house they are photographed by a detective in a cleaning truck (actually he’s a cleaner that really wants to be a detective). The characters pursue him and interrogate him. The meeting ends amicably, cell numbers are exchanged and the detective (Randall Pimm) turns over a copy of his current case on CD.

Pimm’s Case:

Jessica Landers, a 20-something socialite, has gone missing upstate (Buffalo). Her father thinks she’s run away and occasionally receives texts from her saying she’s okay and asking for money. Pimm thinks she’s been kidnapped by Carlino and has some photo evidence to support  his claims. Among the photos in Pimm’s disc is a long shot of a low-rent house on a vacant block. Notes indicate that Carlino has been there but the address is listed as 34 Beech, no other details. No one thinks to use Google Maps as the players are too used to 1920s Cthulhu!

Cook County ME

The characters meet and exchange cards with the ME (Marcus) but manage to get him off-side with Griff’s relentless questioning and Don’s physical intimidation. However, they do learn that Sue Leon is on 6 weeks study leave and that the ME is adamant that it was a suicide. No chance of it being otherwise.

At the hospital they meet up with Alfredo, an intern who has a crush on Sue. He takes them to see Carlino’s body but can’t find it. Instead he finds a middle-aged Jane Doe with a golden ram tattoo on her thigh. It later transpires that Carlino’s corpse has been incinerated due to a clerical error.

Thanks to Alfredo’s help the investigator’s track down Sue. She tells them that Carlino was pumped up on Viagra at the time of death, had numerous piercings and whip marks on this back. There’s no way Carlino killed himself as there were no powder burns on his face and no vitrious humour in the socket. Sue (a wanna-be crime writer) supposes someone ripped his eye out then stuck the barrel of a gun in his socket and blew the back of his head away. Not suicide. She names her source of information as Mitch Baxter – a detective with the Lennox County Sherriff’s office. The PCs warn Sue to get out of town until this is all over and she does.

Lennox County Police

The investigators return to Lennox county and meet up with Mitch. He’s not very helpful and during Griff’s chat with him, she receives a text message which reads: ‘you are in the Lennox County Sherriff’s office. Stay away’.

Griff meets up with the desk seargeant who has a gambling problem and bribes him for one of the computers taken from Carlino’s house (he had loads of tech that he’d apparently stolen from his employer InstaCOM). Griff liberates a computer and promises to return it the following night.

A further warning text is received so the characters move to an out of town motel and get throw-away phones. After setting gup the computer Griff does some searching and locates an annoying dead pixel on the screen. They plug the drive inot Jackson’s laptop and the dead pixel is there too. Finally they plug the computer into the motel flat-screen and the pixel appears again. Griff has been looking at it for some time and is getting agitated. She gets violent, has a terrible headache and steals some of Jackson’s heroin stash before collapsing in a coma.

In the middle of all this, the investigators get a visit from the presumed dead Ray Carlino. Don puts six shells from an AK47 into Ray who finally drops (but it took a long time). They dispose of the body and consider their options for the next session…