This is the first game I’ve ever run. To be perfectly honest, I am not a big fan of all the rules and mechanics of RPGs. I’m in it for the role playing and imagination. So I learned the VERY BASICS of the rules of this game and go by that. A lot of it is off the cuff, seat of my pants gaming. Now, hard core, rule lawyer, gaming folk wouldn’t appreciate the way I run a game. But I’m game master and I’m god. And I have a pretty lenient group of gamers who supposedly enjoy the way I run games. So things go relatively smoothly. The only problem I’ve come upon is that I’m too nice of a game master and sometimes allow players to get way with a bit much. This will be a bit of a problem latter on in the game.
Well, anyway, read on and enjoy…..
Game #1
“The Beginning: The Museum of Horrors”
Game played on 7/14/02
A brief synopsis….
-Molly, Iris and Shifty all meet under extraordinary circumstances when a celebration surrounding the delivery of an ancient tablet at the Arkham Museum of Natural History turns out to be an evil secret society’s plot to use the tablet and summon a horrible creature known as a Haunting Horror (giant black worm with sharp tail and bat-like wings…just nasty!).
I wanted to bring the group together separately, but end up with a common goal. I wrote it much like the pilot episode of a TV series. As a matter of fact, I view this game as a TV series of sorts. Each game played is like an episode on TV.
-During the adventure our group of detectives run into a very mysterious character named Elisabetta Bator, a strange woman who dresses in Victorian mourning outfits and covers her beautiful face in a black veil. It is later revealed that she may be the leader of The Fellowship of the Black Hand, the secret cult behind the summoning ceremony at the museum.
I wanted there to be a constant villain and evil organization involved in many of the scenarios. Betta and The Fellowship of the Black Hand fit perfectly. They’re the Blofeld and S.P.E.C.T.R.E. to our detective’s James Bond. I don’t plan on having them in every game, but definitely the first few to establish them as THE main nasties.
-Throughout the scenario our detectives encounter, hooded thugs, glowing skulls, an insane museum curator, cultists and, if they hadn’t foiled The Fellowship of the Black Hand’s summoning ceremony, a Haunting Horror. However, during the climatic battle the group ends up killing the curator, as well as many of the cultists, including a socialite named Samuel Corbitt, and they inadvertently burn down the museum. But, not before following Betta Bathor down a secret shaft that leads to the immense sewers.
-The scenario ends as the group of detectives follow Betta through the sewers and back up another shaft to the morning’s daylight and a shanty town. Betta, having quite the lead, loses our group in the shanty town and gets away. Our group of detectives is then picked up by Lazlo McBrain and his manservant, Desmond, to get them to a safer place.
Lazlo McBrain (named after both Laslo Kreizler from the Caleb Carr mystery novels and Nicko McBrain, drummer from Iron Maiden) is kind of the “M” of this story. He’s very much based on kind of an older Sean Connery. A person who’s seen and done it all and now can no longer go up against such things and has hired the investigators to fight the good fight. He’s very smart and competent, but has secrets.
Game #2
“The Haunting of Corbitt House”
Game played on 8/17/02
(This scenario should be familiar to you die hard Cthulhu players out there.)
This game came out of the back of the core rule book for Cthulhu. But I bent and tweaked it to fit the ongoing story.
-Our group of detectives are taken to McBrain manor, where they are told about the Cthulhu Mythos and are hired as members of Lazlo’s Paranormal Investigation Society. They are also introduced to new member, Joe Hennessey.
McBrain Manor (which, in architecture looks like The Haunted Mansion at Disneyworld) is actually a very warm and inviting place on most of it’s inside. It serves as kind of a base of operations for Lazlo and the Detectives.
-The next day they are hired by a local landlord to investigate a house he just bought and rented to a family. The family ends up going mad and he wants to know what happened and if he will be able to rent it out again.
-During our group’s preliminary research they find that the house has a history of new residents going insane or worse, that the house was owned by Samuel Corbitt just before the new landlord owned it. It was handed down to Walter Corbitt II to his grand son Samuel. Walter was at one time a prominent member of The Fellowship of the Black Hand (like grandfather like grandson). There was also a messy situation years back not too far from Corbitt House, where the cult group got into a battle with local police at their Chapel out in the woods. The story was mysteriously never printed.
-After their research is done, they head to the old ruins of the shrine in the woods just beside Corbitt House. There they find they are being watched from beyond. After falling through the weak flooring they find the Libre Ivonis, an ancient book written in Latin and bound in human flesh.
-During their visit to Corbitt House they find that being investigators isn’t as easy as it was in the museum, as they go up against the undead sorcerer Walter Corbitt II. Molly gets smashed by a possessed bed frame and then later gets herself possessed by Corbitt. Joe and Iris get attacked by a flying knife. And there are some characters with a few less sanity points left.
-But good wins over evil in the end when Shifty uses his firearms skills on ol,’ undead Corbitt, and dispatches of him before he can summon a dimensional shambler!!! (a semi-invisible being that can suck you into another dimension - rather evil!).
-The group saves the day and gets rewarded with pay, a few hit points and very few sanity points.
Once again, I’m being a little too nice.
Game #3
“The Problem with Pumpkins and other Halloween Escapades”
Played on 9/21/02 (in preparation for the upcoming holiday)
I love Halloween. Although, it was about a month away, I was already in the Halloween groove! Like many TV shows, I wanted this scenario to be like a sort of Halloween episode of Cthulhu. Now Cthulhu is already full of spooky stuff, so I decided to throw in some very obvious Halloween themed ideas into the mix to give it a very Halloween feel. Included was a corn maze, living Jack-O-Lanterns and a midnight visit to a cemetery.
- After being informed that possible Fellowship of the Black Hand leader, Betta Baythor’s old house (that was also owned by her now deceased husband, Randolph Spence) is going on the auction block, our group of detectives head over to take a look. They find that the house is completely empty and that a very uptight, snooty lawyer is in charge of the sale. He lends them an interesting clue that Randolph built himself a HUGE and ornate mausoleum for his burial, yet after his mysterious death, Betta had him cremated (so what IS in the tomb?). In any case our heroes find that Betta had an immense shrubbery maze put into the back yard. In its center is a huge, Victorian green house. Within the greenhouse they find a secret basement with blood stains on the walls and a piece of paper on the floor that reads “Plot #999". Could that be a grave site in a cemetery?
I let that Plot 999 clue to be a little overly obvious when the lawyer just up and tells them that for no apparent reason. I’ve got to learn to be a bit more subtle.
- Before taking on the cemetery and Randolph’s mausoleum, our group decides they want to find this Enus Pussfella that is mentioned in a former Fellowship of the Black Hand’s member’s notes as having the Livre Divon (the second translation to the Book of Eibon). They find that there is no Enus in Arkham, yet there is a Jezebel Pussfella. A quick trip to her family’s home reveals that Enus lives in the country south of Arkham on the family’s pumpkin farm. Their parents disappeared in the Inssmouth (did I mention that Jezebel has unusually wide and far apart eyes? You Lovcraft fans know where this is headed eventually, don’t you. Oh, there’s a visit to a small fishing village coming up. But not in this game) where the odd family originated from. Inside her apartment our investigators are shown an old picture of the Pussfella family. Amongst everybody’s wide, far apart eyes they notice the father is holding a book and has a sash with a key on its end around his neck (hmmm?).
- The group hops in a car and heads out to the Pussfella Pumpkin farm. What could go wrong? It is Halloween after all…bruahahahaha. They get there and convince the simple minded Enus to look around the farm. After going through a number of boxes in the farm house’s attic and basement the detectives find the sash with the key and two old, moth eaten robes (perhaps old family heirlooms from their days in Innsmouth?), but no Livre Divon. They decide to head for the barn and search there. After tearing out some floor boards in a corner of the barn, they finally find the Livre Divon, but it has a lock on it. They use the key from the sash and that’s when all hell breaks loose. After a glowing orb floating from the book up into the sky heralds the pumpkins in the pumpkin farm to come alive, our groups heads into a path leading into the surrounding corn fields while at the same time shooting at the oncoming pumpkins.
I actually drew out the corn maze and described it to the players as their characters went through it. They tended to get a little annoyed at every turn when they realized they weren’t going to get out of it for a while. Too bad suckers.
- They decide to head deeper into the cornfield only to find that it is a twisted maze with more living pumpkins to deal with. After running into many zigzags and dead ends, our group finds themselves in a huge circle with a large pumpkin sitting on top of a hill of pumpkins in a thrown of human bones. He declares himself the Pumpkin King (which leaves our detective, Peter Franks with a case of temporary insanity… he screams like a girl and faints) and decided to use a little magic on our group. I say “a little” because our gun heavy group lays waste to him before he can deal some serious damage. His death brings everything back to normal. They leave Pussfella and his farm to head back to Arkham.
Here lies part of my problem with being too nice and giving the Detectives whatever they want. The battle with the Pumpkin King should have lasted longer and been more challenging for them. But in allowing people to carry a frellin’ arsenal of weaponry with them, they took care the Pumpkin King without much of a return battle from him. I attempt to remedy this problem in the next game.
- When they arrive, Lazlo commends them on a job well done and tells them that Plot #999 is indeed Randolph Spence’s Mausoleum located in Our Lady of Eternal Suffrage Cemetery located on the crest of Arkham. Halloween is not finished playing with our heroes.
- After finding the Spence mausoleum they break in and open the crypt where they find the final version of the Book of Eibon, The Livre Eibon! But, not so fast! As they leave the entrance to the mausoleum they run into Betta Baythor who’s accompanied by a slew of armed cultists. After she muses at our detective’s attempts to thwart her, she tosses them a present…..Enus Pussfella’s head carved out to be a macabre Jack-O-Lantern. She then summons a few skeletons from nearby graves and leaves them to deal with the detectives. But after a while, the skeletons are done away with and our detectives are running towards the entrance to the cemetery… only to be caught by the already suspicious Chief Detective Wilkinson and a few of his cops. Both Joe and Iris get away with the Livre Eibon and get to McBrain Manor to report to Lazlo about the nights events.
- The next morning the rest of the detectives are bailed out and all is well (well…as well as it can be in 1920’s Arkham MA.)
Everybody, me included, really enjoyed this scenario. It was a big hit! What a way to start off the Halloween season!!
Game #4.
"A Day Trip to Innsmouth"
Played on 11/17/02
How can one run Call of Cthulhu without a little adventure in the salty, seaside town of Innsmouth? My friend, Mad Mario, gave me an audio tape of a radio drama version of H. P. Lovecraft’s short story “Shadow over Innsmouth”. It was recorded live in the early 90’s at Dragon Con. A big gaming convention second only to the now defunct Gen Con (HEY! If it ain’t in Milwaukee, it AIN’T Gen Con!!!!). In any case I listened to it a couple of times so I could incorporate many of the characters and happenings from the story into the game. I of course would once again poke and prod my own facts into the game to allow it to flow with the current story line I’ve already started.
- Our detectives decide to return to Jezabel Pussfella's to find out more about her home town of Innsmouth. After a bit of sneaking and cajoling, Jezebell tells them of the horrors that took place with her parents and a secret order known as The Esoteric Order of Dagon. Our detectives start to prep for a nice little day trip to Innsmouth.
Here’s where I try and handle the “too much weaponry” problem that I had created for myself.
- On their drive up to good old Innsmouth they run into the police, who releive them of much of their weaponry. Then more bad luck comes their way when their cars suffer mysterious flat tires, stranding them over night in the town of Sullivan where they get more information on the odd little town of Innsmouth.
Well, it sort of worked, but somehow the players still walked all over me and ended up with a ton of weapons. Guess I’ll have to throw something REALLY nasty at them in a later game to remind them that they aren’t immortal.
- The next morning they take a rickety old bus, driven by a gaped mouthed, big eyed character to Innsmouth. The town of Innsmouth is quite broken down and abandoned with the exception of a few interesting characters such as the town preist, an old fisherman named Zarchery Albert and the innskeeper of The St. Ain Hotel where our detectives are staying.
Characters and happenings straight out of Lovecraft's story.
- Our detectives start to explore the desolate town of Innsmouth where they find and experience a few interesting things... The priest runs away from them when they approach his church. When they get inside he's nowhere to be seen, however they do find that on the wooden crucifix that is centered on the alter, there is a rotting corpse wearing a black robe nailed to it. (Hmmm... Felowship of the Black Hand?). They also find that every so often they are being watched by big eyed, gapped mouthed towns people!
- Their investagation of the town continues, with a visit to a masonic temple that is actually The Esoteric Order of Dagon. Frustrated that they can't break in they head down to the warf and run into a wacky seaman named Zachery Albert who tells them all sorts of wild stories of the old Marsh family who ran the town years ago and of frog people who raom the town at night. After their visit with Zachery, they head over to the Marsh home. Since the family is long gone, the house is quite vacant except for a giant portrait of Capt. Marsh that stands against a wall in th celler of the home. They find that it is a secret door that leads to a very long underground tunnel. In the tunnel they come to a giant det of double doors with sculptures of giant frog like people on them. They are unopenable. The group continues down the tunnel and finds themselves in a small, abandonded gold mine. They exit the gold mine to find that they are on the other side of Innsmouth.
- Here's where things get sticky. Night comes and they hear chanting coming form town. They see many towns people, dressed in green, hooded robes walking to the center of town. The detectives throw on some green robes they've procured and march in with the rest of the crowd. They find that everyone is heading to the The Esoteric Order of Dagon temple. Once in the temple they see that the town priest is leading the townsfolk in the chant. He stands over a large golden egg that has an ancient language carved into it (looks awfully similar to the mysterious symbols on a anceint egyption wall that Molly was studying just before she joined the Paranormal Investigation Society).
I’m trying hard to incorporate little scenarios that each of our individual Detectives are personally dealing with. Hence, Molly finds a clue to her personal dilemma.
- Our detectives are discovered and all hell breaks loose. The priest is shot dead, yet Shifty finds himself captured and put into a cage on a wagon. The other detectives tend to their wounds as the cultists march Shifty out to the gold mine. Shifty's cohorts follow the crowd into the gold mine where they find that those huge double doors are opened with the golden egg that glows when brought near the doors. They all head outside onto a precipice that has an alter and looks out over the ocean. The cultists start chanting again and the egg glows some more. There are parts of the nearby ocean that seem to glow green and from the glow there seem to rise human like creatures. The creatures start to come toward a huge staircase that has been fasted to the Cliffside and lead right up to the alter. From binoculars our detectives see that the creatures are actually half man, half frog like monsters who are now making their way up the stair case. At the same time, a few of the townsfolk/cultists start to spasm and change into more frog like creatures. Our group decides to rescue Shifty. But before they do they need a diversion which comes unexpectedly!
- From the Cliffside above the precipice comes a shot, a green robed cultist goes down. Another shot rings out. Another cultists hits the ground. Five ropes are thrown from above, down the side of the cliff to the Altar’s precipice. Groups of black robed/hooded, well armed men descend down. A cult war begins between The Fellowship of the Black Hand and the Esoteric Order of Dagon with a few of the Frog like, Deep Ones thrown in for good measure. Shifty takes this chance and breaks out of the cage and joins his fellow detectives. The detectives grab the Egg of Dagon. They run out of the gold mine only to encounter a group from the Fellowship of the Black Hand waiting outside. Our detectives do battle and after some time, take out the black hooded thugs. Our detectives then find the rickety old bus that brought them there and take off in it, returning to Arkham safe sound and with a few less sanity points.
The players seemed to really like this scenario, while at the same time they got a little frustrated when I’d try to remind them that they aren’t immortal and there WILL BE challenges for them to deal with. They will be in peril from time to time. That’s what Cthulhu is all about.
Gameme #5
“We Love Mysteries”
Played on April 27th, 2003
- The town of Arkham is plagued with two very distinctly different series of murders. One seems to be the work of Vampires who are sucking dry prostitutes; the other is taking big chomps out of its victims and leaving the bodies along a certain area of the Myskatonik River. Our detectives separate into two groups. Iris and Shoeless Joe seek out the Vampiresque killings, and Molly and Shifty head out to the Peabody Bridge on the Myskatonik River where the last half eaten body has been found. Lazlo McBrain is going over sees to visit a friend, thus our detectives are on their own.
This time I really wanted to emphasize the mystery as opposed to the shoot ‘em up that the detectives seem to rely a bit on.
- Iris and Joe start walking the Red Light district of Arkham and visit a few of the murder scenes and discover that many of the women murdered where hung upside-down, by their ankles and had two puncture wounds at the base of the throat. They also discover that their bodies are completely drained of blood. Quite confused in the matter, Joe and Iris seek out the help of local P.I. / Vampire expert Stanley Humplick.
I was inspired by the Victorian mysteries of Caleb Carr and his sleuth Laslo Kriezler in books such as “The Angel of Darkness” and “The Alienist”.
- Meanwhile, under the Peabody Bridge, Molly and Shifty find a dark tunnel that leads them to a secret portal to a very dark alternate world, where they encounter misshaped humans, Deep ones, Haunting Horrors, and some Dweller’s of the Depths. They also witness mass gathering of misshapen humans all worshipping Betta Bathor!!!
Admittedly, I got the idea for this particular part of the game from a short story called, “Dark Providence” by Don D’Ammassa from the Lovecraft inspired anthology, “Return to Lovecraft Country”
- Back in current Arkham, It seems as though Stanley isn’t doing Iris or Joe any help. In fact he almost got them attacked by a group of hobos through his misinformation. Well, after leaving Stanley the two do a little more investigating and find that it is Stanley who is the Vampire killer. He is using an old funeral director’s embalming pump as a jerry-rigged blood sucking machine. Iris and Joe put some bullets in the freak and head on their merry way having just solved the crime….. But not before they are visited by some strangers…………
- Shifty and Molly finally return to the current world of Arkham after realizing that they were trapped in an alternate future ruled by Bathor and The Fellowship of the Black Hand. They also run into the creature that is causing the river murders, a Deep One that has been going back and forth from the two worlds. They put an end to it (only to discover that it was once Jezebel Pussfella [see last game]). They also destroy the “gateway” under the bridge (also doing some heavy damage to the bridge).
- As Iris and Joe are walking to their car, after thwarting the Vampire killer, two mysterious fellows “appear” and confront them. The two strangers seemed amused with Joe and Iris. They reveal themselves to be Vampires and give Iris the missing other half of her long lost parents’ journal. They tell her if she’s interested in what happened to her parents she may want to travel to Bucharest and the Castle Thane. Then the two gentlemen disappear.
It’s called a prologue to the next game, folks!
- When Lazlo returns he is happy to hear both crimes were solved by his team. Now what will be the next step? Will our detectives try and unravel the mystery of Iris’ parents?????
You bettcha!
Game #6
“The Legend of Castle Thane”
Played on August 16th, 2003
- The gang decides to help Iris go and find her long lost parents. With clues left in the Dinglewamer family diary, it leads our detectives to Transylvania. After much traveling, the group finds a carriage driver who will only take them as far as the gypsy camp. But not all the way to Castle Thane which was the last location that Iris’ parents mentioned going to in their diary.
- The detectives encounter a crazy old fortune teller who alludes to there being great danger at the castle. After much partying with the gypsies, a few of them try and rob and kill our group. But of course our gun laden group turns them to Swiss cheese!
I got some of the gypsy camp scene from an old episode of Scooby Doo where they go to Frankenstein’s castle and fight Frankenstein, the wolfman and Dracula.
- The detectives escape the gypsies and find themselves walking the rest of the way to Castle Thane through dark and twisted woods. It is here were they encounter three demonic wolves. Once again the uber-violent group dispatches to the wolves quicker than Ted Nugent and one of his hunting bows could ever dream of!
- They finally reach the immense Castle Thane, a two hundred year old monstrosity with more twists and turns and hallways than you could shake a stick at. Here they run into the two vampires that Iris and Shoeless Joe encountered in the last game, Smython and Alvon. The two undead tell the group to make themselves at home, but stay away from the catacombs and that they’ll be summoned for the big “party” later that evening.
I was trying to put together a creepy atmosphere with all the hearses and coffins. Don’t think it worked.
-After being shown to their rooms, the group decides to go around snooping. This leads them to witness the many different hearses that are carrying many coffins into the castle’s courtyard and down into the catacombs. Who’s coming to dinner? More importantly, who is dinner?
- The time for the party has arrived and our detectives are summoned by Alvon and Smython to the grand ballroom, where they see many pasty, spooky people enjoying the hedonistic pleasures of human blood, while others are dancing, while others are talking, while yet others are looking at our detectives in that, “I’d like to have him/her for diner” way. The group is introduced to Thastro, the Prince of the Vampires. Joining him is a beautiful girl with long, dark, curly, hair. She is introduced as Isabella, one of the advisors to the prince. Then comes the shocker! Iris’ long lost parents, Fredrick and Henrietta. Guess what? They don’t look a day older than the last time Iris saw them………when she was two. Hmmmmm. Guess who’s part of the undead.
- In the meantime, our Egyptologist of the group, Molly, becomes entranced by a beautiful Egyptian vampire by the name of Nefferatitti. Nefferatitti takes a liking to Molly and gives her some information concerning the tomb of an ancient mage , Thraxion, who was quite knowledgeable on the early teachings of the Cthulhu Mythos. The problem being is no one is sure where this tomb is, and there is a missing key that is needed to enter the tomb. There may have been an early expeditition to Egypt where the key was found. But that was in Victorian times and is probably long gone by now……or is it?
This is some MAJOR foreshadowing into the next two scenarios, the next of which is our annual Halloween scenario!!!!
- The prince promises that our detectives will not be harmed while at the castle. For he and the other vampires there are part of the Cammerilla, or “law abiding vampires” not he Sabbat, evil, rogue vampires. The Camerilla will be having a summit meeting concerning the Sabbat the following evening.
I used the same social rules that are in the Vampire: The Masqurade RPG to give it a bit of a political intrigue.
-Later that evening, when our detectives are getting ready for bed, Iris is visited by her mother and Isabella. They tell her that she and her friends were actually invited because they were the only ones that could kill a horrible beast, the Vampire Guardian that may be used against the Camerilla by Sabbat vampires that have infiltrated the summit. Isabella tells them that since the Vampire Guardian is at its most weakest during the daylight and vampires can’t be out in the daylight, that it would make perfect sense for our detectives to destroy the beast at its most vulnerable.
- The next day our group heads to the ruins of the original Castle Thane, where the beast is kept in a huge, well-like structure. Some sanity is lost when our group encounters the half cougar / half bat-like beast despite Molotov cocktails being thrown at it. It takes quite a while and quite a few hit points before the beast succumbs to the detective’s weapons.
The creature was a hybrid of something in the Call of Cthulhu rule book called The Hound of Hell. I twisted it to be more of a cat/bat mix. Unfortunately, it was getting very late in the evening and some of the players were falling asleep during the battle.
-After their brief triumph, the group heads back to the original Castle Thane, only to find out form Alvon and Smython that Iris’ parents are missing and that the beast was not there to harm the Camerilla, but to protect them if attacked! Whooops! The two vampires and our detectives head down into the catacombs of the castle to wake Prince Thastro out of his grave and alert him of the trouble.
This is what we like to call a “plot twist”.
- No sooner do they wake the prince than Isabella and Iris’ mom, Henrietta arrives with a gaggle of other vampires. It is revealed that Isabella and Henriaetta are in cahoots with the Sabbat vampires and that Fredrick, Iris’ father is has been killed by them. They wanted the Vampire Guardian dead and out of the way, then they were going to put the detectives on trial for its death, but the Prince, Smython and Alvon weren’t going to fall for it.
- At this point it becomes an all out vampire battle to the death. Both Henrietta and Isabella are impaled with stakes through the hearts, while the Sabbat henchmen are dealt with similar fates. Our detectives are victorious, but badly wounded.
This battle took way too long and I ended up being very gracious with the players as many of them were close to death. There are some GMs who like to play against the players of an RPG. I prefer to play WITH them and make it fun for everybody!!! But if someone does die…oh well.
- As thanks, the Prince lets them leave freely and gives them a mysterious, small globe. They return to Arkham MA, no worse for the ware and with more questions of where to find this key and the Tomb of Thraxion it opens.
Admittedly, this game didn’t really go as well as I had hoped. My first big mistake was throwing a game in the late afternoon. It soon becomes late night and players get sleepy, frustrated and tired out. My second was trying too hard to placate the players when they started to get tired and grumpy. I cut some of the game short which included another encounter with wolves and the detectives being put on trial by the vampires for the death of their guardian. They told me it was a great game, but I’m not sure if they were truly happy with it. Some people seemed very annoyed. The next game will be based on fun and mystery and it will have a very Halloween flavor to it. They will have to investigate more on the whereabouts of this Tomb of Thaxion is and the location of its key. But they won’t be doing it in Egypt. That’s for a later game. They’ll be doing it somewhere special. As we get closer to the game I will post a hint here.
9/26/03 Update: According to more than one player who visited this site and read what I wrote about their reaction to the last game, they've told me that it was very enjoyable and they liked it very much!!!! Just a note to those players...ya don't have to kiss my butt for your character to stay alive. Just kiddin'. I'm happy that everyone was indeed satisfied with it.
Now on that clue to what may be the theme of our annual Halloween game....... It will take place, not in Egypt, but on the East Coast of this country. You say that Arkham is already on the East Coast of this country? Hmmmm.... let's see if I can give you a clue without giving too much away. Keep in mind that it is the Halloween edition of the game, and what type of beings are prevelent durring the holiday? Where might they be found? Perhaps somewhere where there is "wall to wall creeps"? Now, if one of you players are able to get the huge, festering clues I just gave you, don't go rattling it off to the others!!! Let them slowly discover where this scenario is taking place as they play!!!!
Game #7
“The Lament of Yale Gracey”
Played on October 4th, 2003 (The Halloween Episode '03)
Well, it’s definitely the season for ghost stories, and I have drummed up a doosey for our detectives! Being a big fan of Walt Disneyworld’s dark attraction known as The Haunted Mansion, I did some research on it. Apparently, there is a bit of a myth or legend about the house. Of course it was made up by people who have worked on the ride as well as fans of the ride. I took pieces and parts of the story and weaved it together so that it would fit this particular scenario. During this game the detectives found their way inside of the Haunted Mansion to solve an old mystery.
- After doing some research on Egyptian digs during Victorian times, Molly finds that there was a big dig financed by a Yale Gracey in the 1800’s. Further investigation of Yale Gracey drums up some interesting, yet troubling information…
He was at one time a riverboat captain and then inherited a large sum of money. With that money he built a huge gothic mansion on the shores of The River’s of America in Liberty Square, NE.
He married a beautiful woman named Emily. She died on their wedding night under mysterious circumstances. He died a year later, by hanging himself in madness and despair.
Immediately after Emily’s death, Yale was convinced by a Madame Leotta, a spiritualist who worked for the Gracey’s, to turn his mansion into a spiritualist center. Since he had lost all of his will after losing Emily, he agreed.
Molly surmises that if anyone had the key and map to the tomb of Thraxion, it would have been Yale Gracey when he excavated a tomb in Egypt awhile before his death.
- The rest of the detectives agree to join Molly on her quest to Liberty Square, New England to find out more about the life of Yale Gracey.
- Once they arrive in the quaint, little colonial village, they visit the executor of the Gracey estate, Mr. Weatherly. He tells them that the Gracey Foundation is having trouble finding someone to buy the old mansion. Of course Shifty, being not only omnipotent, but also insanely wealthy (I gotta start getting some control back, don’t I?), decides he will buy Gracey Manor. They also find out that another person was nosing about Liberty Square, asking about the mansion and its belongings 6 months prior. He was a rather large and strange gentleman who seemed very frustrated when he couldn’t find the key or map.
- After the purchase, the group heads to Gracey Manor, which looms over Liberty Square, the Rivers of America and Liberty Island which sits in the middle of the Rivers of America.
- While on route up the hill to Gracey Manor, they run into a caretaker who warns them about odd things happening at night and that they don’t want to stay there too long! The group doesn’t take his advice and heads straight to the family graveyard at the left hand side of the mansion. There they look at the graves of Yale Gracey, Emily Gracey and Madame Leotta (whose bronze face statue seems to be looking right at them).
- Just when they think there is no way for them to get into the house, a side door opens by itself leading them into the mansion’s foyer. There they are confronted by the unseen ghost of Yale Gracey, who makes a deal with them to let them out of the mansion if they do two things…find Emily’s wedding ring and spend the evening in The Haunted Mansion!
Anyone who’s ever ridden in either of the Disney Haunted Attractions knows where this game is going. The rest of the game was a trip through the mansion, much like the ride. Except, I included some nasty encounters with giant spiders and animated decaying corpses as well as a good solid dose of mystery and puzzles so our detectives could find the Ring, the Map and the Key! Some of the puzzles were incorporated with actual paper clues, much like puzzle pieces. I think the group liked this. I was worried they wouldn’t, due to the fact that his game was very linear. They were directed in which way to go. They really couldn’t go back the way they came or anywhere other than where the ghosts and mansion were moving them.
- The game came to a climatic battle on Liberty Island between our detectives and Madame Leotta (a disembodied head entrapped in a fortune teller’s ball) who was responsible for the deaths of both Yale and Emily. She was assisted by many skeletons that were attacking our group. The battle took awhile and some sanity points were lost. But our gang came up victorious and got their reward by not only obtaining the key and map to the Tomb of Thraxion, but also got to witness the spirits of both Emily and Yale having one last waltz together before returning to the afterlife.
Another successful Halloween episode of Cthulhu. I think everyone really enjoyed the game! One thing I learned is that you have to be VERY patient when you run an RPG with 6 players. Everyone wants their say and your attention, usually at the same time. I hope I didn’t come off as a Grumpy McGrumpsalot. Sometimes when everybody is babbling at the same time, I can be less than patient and I hope that doesn’t show too strongly.
Well the next scenario will definitely take the group to Egypt to find out what’s in the Tomb of Thraxion. It might not be for a while though. There’s a lot to do during October through December for myself and the players. But fear not, I’m working on a “Mummy”esque scenario for them to flounder around in. See you all then!
Game #8
“The Raiders of the Dark Halls of Thraxion, Pt I”
Played on March 21st, 2004
Since some of the players are familiar with D&D and I wanted to finally run a real pulp-filled Indiana Jones type of adventure, I decided to combine a kind of Dungeon crawl with a pulp story and smoosh them together and see what happens.
- As for most of the group, with the exception of Shoeless and Peter who seem to have personal business elsewhere, they all return to McBrain Manor where Lazlo joins them soon after to regale them with news of his trip to Egypt. He tells them that he and a collogue found another tomb that seemed to be related to the Thraxion legend. It was of a man servant, Djed-Hor, to a lawman, Thezos. Thezos was the warrior who put an end to Thraxion.
Here’s a little known fact. My mom and I went to the Milwaukee Public Museum one day and went into its “Tells, Tails and Tombs” exhibit. There within the exhibit are a actual couple of mummies. One has the name of Djed-Hor. This is where I got the name. So if any of my players want to see the actual Djed-Hor, he’s at the Milwaukee Public Museum.
- In the meantime, another collogue of Lazlo’s has joined his Paranormal Investigation Society. The group is introduced to a Frenchman named Twitch LaFalmbe who is a phychiatrist (which will be helpful in Cthulhu)!
New player alert! New player alert!
-Djed’s journal, which was found at his tomb by Lazlo, may have clues to what the group may find at the Tomb of Thraxion. But they find that it is written in ancient Egyptian text. Molly can read some of it, but Lazlo has an old friend in town that may be able to help. He’s giving lectures on Holy Grail legends at Myskatonic University. His name? Professor Henry Jones!
It’s always fun to throw recognizable characters into the mix, no matter how cheesy.
- The detectives meet with Jones and he happily agrees to help Molly with the translation. After a few days the journal is translated and it does have clues that the group will need to survive within Thraxion’s tomb.
- The group heads out to Egypt with Prof. McBrain in hand. They meet up with another colleague of the Professor’s, an adventurer named Bruce Byford! Bruce Byford is completely based on actor Bruce Campbel. I was originally going to make him a real ladies man / scoundrel, but since I had so much else going on with the game, he kinda became just an extra gun.While at the local Egyptian watering pub they run into two more interesting characters. A bloated, bald man dressed entirely in white with white fedora and small, round sunglasses named Mr. Roth. The other is a skinny man with black hair and goatee named is Proff. Nathaniel P. Whittymier. While Mr. Roth is quite interested in the Tomb of Thraxion due to his involvement with a company called Olenska Corporation, Mr. Nathaniel P. Whittymier finds the search quite foolhardy. He believes that it is just legend and tries to talk the group out of going on the expedition.
- The next morning the group is off to find the Tomb of Thraxion with the “help” of a few locals who agreed to bring their camels. Once they reach the edge of a cliff, it takes the quick thinking of Bruce Byford to realize that the entrance to the cliff is at he bottom of the cliff, which also happens to be the edge of the “Sand that Swallows”, a nearly endless mass of sand that seems to engulf any living thing that tries to walk across it.
- Once they all finagle their way downward, they enter the cave with great trepidation. It is darker than night inside, and not even the lamps or torches seem to help all that much. After finding the main entrance, the group finds themselves at an empass that has a large sealed door with 4 additional entrances (2 on either side). Since they can’t get into the sealed door the try the other passageways.
- In each of the passage ways it leads them to a small room with an ancient Egyptian being (think a human figure with the head of an animal - Hawk, Hippo etc.) guarding a key. Each of these beings puts are detectives to a task. If they succeed, they will get the key to the main doors that are shut.
- So far our detectives have done what the beings have wished… fought a bunch of mummies, solved some ancient riddles and deciphered some ancient hieroglyphics. They have one more task to do…. Go to the secret lair of a group of thieves and find the necklace of Isis!
Combat became quite the challenge for me. There were so many characters to keep track of, both players and NPCs that I got a bit confused and at times had to wing it, much to the chagrin of some of the players. Understandably so!
-Will our detectives succeed? Find out once we finish the scenario!
Game #8.5
“The Raiders of the Dark Halls of Thraxion, Pt. II”
Game Played on May 22nd, 2004
- Our group of detectives embark toward the lair of the Morag Tong (Does that sound familiar to any of you Morrowind players out there?), a group of thieves who inhabit a cave off in the rocky hills a half day's travel from Thraxion’s tomb.
- Once they arrive, they feel a sneak attack is best, so Iris and Twitch “sneak” with a whole “ouch, I’m hurt! Somebody let me into this thieves’ hideout so we can steal the necklace of Isis” ploy. It somewhat worked too, but Iris ended up locked away in chief of the thieves’ room of the cave with the chief all over her while she tries to keep her… “delicate flower” in tack.
Thanks to the players' excellent role playing and creativity, this whole scene was a lot of fun to play out!!!
- In the end the rest of the group rescued her, killed of the Morag Tong and turned the necklace of Isis to the tomb of Thraxion, albeit grudgingly.
- Now they had enough of the keys to open the main doors of the tomb. Upon entering they found themselves face to face with the sarcophagus of Thraxion himself. Within the sarcophagus was the withered, decayed mummy of Thraxion holding a scepter with an empty claw on top of it. Molly placed her glass orb she got during the Castle Thane adventure (see that adventure above) within the claw and it became a very dangerous weapon. The mummy of Thraxion simply fell to the grounds as its remains smattered all over the ground.
Once in a while you have to reward your players with something. So now they have The Staff of Thraxion which shoots lightning out of the orb on top. It cost a sanity point to use though.
- When the detectives return to the Egyptian town they’ve been staying at, they notice that the strange bald man, Mr. Roth is nowhere to be seen. Mmmmm?
- In any case, our detectives decide to search out for a mythical beast that they read about from hieroglyphics in the Tomb of Thraxion. It is rumored to be in the lost city that is under the very city they are staying in. Bruce Byford has heard rumors that there is a church somewhere in town that has a secret entrance that will take them to the lost city. Only problem is that there is no known church located in the Egyptian city they are in.
- However, after an intense search of the central market place, they do notice a large building that is boarded up and in back of some market stalls. They also notice the building is adorned with statues of medieval knights. After working their way inside, they find a clever secret entrance that slowly lowers them down into the lost buried city.
- It is here they encounter Mr. Roth along with a few hooded agents of The Fellowship of the Black Hand desperately looking for something within a huge cave filled with tons of animal and human bones. He and his acolytes are rudely interrupted by Shoeless Joe and his grenades.
- The acolytes that are left are blown away by our detectives, leaving the badly injured Mr. Roth. But Roth has a card up his sleeve when he reveals himself to actually be a gelatinous being known as a Shoggoth, a Cthulhu Mythos creature!!
- Sanity is lost, damage is done, but the detectives get the job done, and send Mr. Roth, the shoggoth, back to his dark realm.
- After getting themselves back together and cleaning out their pants, they search the cave and determine that it was once used to house something big and nasty. The only thing they find is an old coin that seems to have some worn out symbols on it
- It is decided for the group to head back to Arkham, MA. USA and have Prof. McBrain take a closer look at the coin. In the meantime, Molly has decided that she’s had enough of the detective / adventuring ways and retires from the Paranormal Investigation Secret Society and will write several books on Egyptology.
One player has left us, yet one has joined us. No harm, no foul. I have an idea of what the next scenario will be like, but I have a lot of preparing to do.
I'm already thinking about scenarios for the annal Halloween Game. I've got a few good ideas, but I haven't chosen yet.
Game # 8.6
“Night on Undead Isle” (Side Game Adventure featuring Iris and Shifty)
Played on 9/8/04
I was asked to put together a little side game for the characters of Iris and Shifty since I was going to be vacationing with them in a lake house in Northern Wisconsin. So here’s what I came up with….
- While all of the other detectives are away from McBrain Manor taking care of personal business, Shifty and Iris receive a telegram from Lazlo McBrain asking them to check out some old manuscripts that may have references to the Cthulhu mythos. The catch is that they are located in an old church up in the north woods of Wisconsin.
- They find the church in the small town of Manatowish Lakes. There, they talk to a young priest who tells them of the old late priest who was working on transcribing the manuscripts. They are told that the manuscripts aren’t at the town’s church, but perhaps they may be at the old priest’s lake house on a small island in the middle of the lake.
- During further investigation of the town they come upon an old drug store/neighborhood bar where the locals tell the history of the island and house. The house itself was built by a man who was supposedly an early mob boss. Many of his enemies have gone missing on that island. Even before that, the island was used as a leper colony and there is a small graveyard somewhere on the island.
Do you see where this might be going. If you've ever seen "Scooby Doo and the Curse of Zombie Island" on the Cartoon Network, then you do.
- Shifty and Iris drive out across the long bridge to the island and after some driving, find the house. It is of moderate size and has many rooms. They get into the house and search it. They find some of the manuscript. It tells of the dead walking the earth and of “something” dropping from the sky. Well of course, that evening a comet falls to earth, shattering the bridge that connects the island to land. The glowing rock settles to the bottom of the lake.
- Of course, this heralds many of the dead that reside about the island, to rise from the grave. The whole island becomes Zombie central! Shifty and Iris find themselves either fighting off or retreating from the zombies.
- Iris finds the second part of the manuscript which suggests that the way to end the living dead’s terror is to destroy the meteor. Shifty and Iris leap into action and fight off many of the dead to arrive at the broken bridge where the meteor has landed. They look into the water and see a green glow, obviously the meteor. As the dead slowly lurk toward Shifty and Iris, Shifty flings a few grenades into the water which hit the meteor destroying it. The dead drop to the ground all at once.
- Shifty and Iris are assisted off the island by locals in a fishing boat with manuscripts found, zombies back to dead and all no worse for the ware.
This game was based on many of those wonderful Zombie movies, such as the Remero films as well as the current remakes of Dawn of theDead and the like. Originally it was going to be a Halloween game, but I decided that I had some other really good ideas for this yea's game. But, sadly we didn't get to a Halloween game this year. Much to the shagrin of my gamers. I felt really bad about it, But sometimes life happens and there were some other wories I had at the time. But, I'll have to make it up to them with the next game.
More coming soon......
