Call of Cthulhu, Episode #25: 'Hot Barrels and Dangerous Zeppelins'

 Having driven around the movie set and spotted 'something' nearby via the lens handily attached to the Lewis guns, McCleod opens up at 110 yards...'FOLLOW MY TRACER!'

'I feel that this needs a Risk Assessment and Method Statement mate!'

Ten round bursts tend to be quite definitive from our friend Lewis, and whatever the thing is, it gets torn to pieces by the impacts, apparently starting to age fast and melt away, though no one gets too close. 

'Become a spectral horror, they said, it'll be fun they said...no one mentioned a f'kn Lewis gun???'

Spotting a slight blip a mile away at the Hotekh Indian site in the side of the mountain, the car trundles along the rough scrub and brush, though can only close to 1/4 of a mile from the site, without getting stuck.

'It's fast, but the insurance is a nightmare...but you get a free dog.'

 

The party leaves the car pointing the right way ('outta here', and they proceed on foot.

 

'...and as with all our whacked out real estate ladies and gentlemen, the doors are of course, via the roof...'

 Discovering an elaborate and ancient stairway leading up to the site, the party proceed in single file - McCleod with the Lens on the Lewis Gun, then McDade with solid slug double barrels, then the suspiciously nosey journalist Roseanna Bartlet, and the Russian Paulie Pavlov, with the Tommy gun.

 

All seems fine, as they approach the first level, scanning..scanning...this will work...then a shriek from Roseanna as Paulie is grabbed by something at the rear of the party, which yanks him by the head and pulls him up into the air, blood spouting and drenching its invisible spectral form as Rosalind freezes under temporary insanity. 

'Wasn't there only 4 of us?'

 McDade turns quickly, close range, both barrels with the solid slug, and manages to do max damage, creating spray where once there was a spectral horror...Paulie ends up with ONE hit point, and McDade manages to save his life, though he is unconscious.

How it happened in my head...

 Being the caring characters they are, they tuck the insane Roseanna and the unconscious Russian into a corner nook, and give her a revolver for protection. What nice chaps.

McDade and McCleod proceed...thinking there were three of the things in the phantom movie, and they have killed two...right?

 

As they reach the upper levels, looking for vertical entrance into the tallest tower, a 'special' roll on McLeod's spot hidden and he sees the third 'thing' making its way toward the nervous Roseanna's position ...time for more Lewis gun discipline...and multiple rounds from McDade push the thing over the cliff in tatters, as Rosalind starts firing into the air, mad as a box of bees,

Clearing the tower, the two surviving sane members of the party lower themselves into what looks like some sort of sacrificial pit...covered with runes and cuneiform snake markings, clearly identifying worship of Yig, or worse...but something slimy is moving in the sand between the steps downward and the fire-pit...McLeod fires a burst and McDade jumps badly, narrowly missing having his crotch bitten off by something with a big mouth...

'down pit..'

As he starts to analyse the pit, finding a stone tablet and three wicker dolls of the Hotekh who gave their souls up to become spectral horrors, a scream from Rosanne outside indicates that they are re-forming, and that spell-work is required.

Time for the spell, and McDade aces it, burning each effigy as he recites the words at the unholy altar..hearing mingling horrible screams outside as the spectral horrors die once more, and Roseanna goes full GAGA.

 

'ummm chaps?'

Pulling free the stone, they realise that they have in fact found, the 'Arc of Vlactos' - a tablet with cuneiform writing and a map of R'lyeh, indicating points of safe passage to the important places. This, and the disc, were what the Order of Silvery Twilight were prepared to kill for, since it would grant them safe passage on the cursed isle, or at least, what path to follow...

They leave quickly, carrying Roseanna and Paulie back to the car, keeping careful watch with the lens ...just in case, and return to LA.

Debating whether to go back to Winwood, they first take the mad and the injured to the sanitarium where they had left the Prof, where the head of the place, Dr. Hasselblad, seems very interested in McLeoud's burns from the alien weapon received aboard the Mauretania, after he seeks something to heal his ongoing damage problem.

'I sink I zee zee problem...'

 He is also aware that the Prof is acquainted with Winwood's hired investigators, and assures them he has taken great interest in the Professor, who will be healed shortly thanks to pioneering new research...

'who loves ya babay?'

 McDade meanwhile tells Winwood that as far as the movie set was concerned, there was 'nothing to see here', though he warns about Conswe...Consuell...the housekeeper, being less than trustworthy, but Winwood has bigger issues now, having heard from another colleague - Professor Winthrop Methridge, whom he and Edward Call had managed to convince to go to Easter Island, on a 'research' expedition with his students.

He has received word via telegram from Easter then Pearl, that all is not well...and help is requested.

He asks the characters if they will help...revealing that he has a fast way to get there...pointing to a picture of his finest airship, 'the Rocinante'...on the wall. ... Mcdade ignores the inclusion of the helium vs hydrogen debate into the conversation.

 

The Rozzy

McDade happily agrees - not really listening to the fact that they will need hydrogen rather than helium due to range - , being more excited about airships than saving the world, and shakes on the deal, before going to get McCleod from the sanitarium. As he enters the office of Dr. Hasselblad, he notices an empty jar, which reminds him distinctly of something he has seen before, though last time, there was a Mi-Go embryo inside...curiouser and curiouser.

Not jam

Next stop...Easter Island. 

Shadowdark #14: 'Join ME and together we will rule the kingdom as Father and son...I mean daughter...'

 Joining our heroes once more, as they make their way through the secret way, trailing a surviving orc, straight into what appears to be the bandit lair.

uhhh...ok?

 ...a seemingly useless guard, finds some use in his last moments...and screams a warning, such that Fergus the disgraced knight and his fam...get the heck out of their living room, and alert the rest of the bandit compound to the presence of intruders. The place is coming down with smuggled trade goods, and anti magic powder...(as opposed to coming down with smuggled white goods, as that would be washing machines, and that's not half as exciting).

'It's ok...I'm sure there won't be a clatter of bandits at the other end....'

 Added to the party's  ill fortune is the fact that the Orc Leader 'Ruckin White-eye' is now approaching with his tattooed 'protection rune' guards, from the other end.

'Spare the girl!' he screams. "She is my fam!'

 Combat ensues at both ends of the party, with Bjorn and Jeralt heroically fighting off the bandits, whilst Nijel the (new)cleric of eeevil, Leeta, Dagmara and (not) Llewellen  ...Lyall, that's it, defend against the orcs.

It seems dire, though manageable until, White-eye screams at Dagmara the half orc 'The Witch Maureen never told you what happened to your FATHA!" (you can see where this is going right?)

Dagmara is perplexed in a 'wtf' kind of way., as White-Eye announces "I am your FATHA!"...that is bad enough, but more distracting is the fact that ...'and Maureen the witch, is your MUTHA!'  ...(sound of screeching wheels and needle jumps on records on the movie track)... 

perplexed in a 'wtf' kind of way ...obviously

 Wide eyed, she uses the Witch ring to turn invisible and distracts herself by searching the bandit Lord Fergus's apartments, finding paperwork enough to create confusion at the keep as to who is really behind what, and 400 odd gold pieces.

 

As the party rear pulls back to the party front at the bandit fight, seeing a way out via the entrance to the cave, Jeralt pulls an absolute flanker...and not in a good way.

 

Rolling a 1 for a fumble, he manages to get to roll 3 times on the table, whacking his ally Bjorn for max damage (ouch), breaking his sword in the process (double ouch)...oh, and twisting his wee ankle. Poor lad. 

'oops, sorry mate...I didn't read the Risk Assessment!'

 Back at the orcs, Lyall manages to steal the back-scratcher that White-eye has at his belt, realising that it is actually  Maureen's long lost wand 'I'll have that!'

"we got the wand - RUN!'

 The rear of the party runs for it, ...as white-eye catches up with the slowest and splatters Nijel the Cleric all over the floor (new members of the Party appear to be like Spinal Tap drummers at this rate).

Another unknown drummer goes down...

 They manage to force the bandits back, and hold off White-Eye who tries to convince Dagmara to 'join him and rule the galaxy..I mean the valley..side by side' . 'Not until I have had a word with me Mum about this confusing and yet dramatic situation!', Dagmara shouts back, in not so many words.

"Stay 

"STAY BACK! I have a sword and a bloke that keeps fumbling! ...and my injury claim is PENDING!'

 Jeralt, manages to whistle for the griffin transport, and they start to get out, the trap at the cavemouth spotted by Jeralt as he jumps over it, whilst carrying the wand wielding Lyall...and they ultimately get away.

'GO! GO! GO!'

 there may be questions to answer back home... 

'ummm...did I forget to tell you?'

 

Call of Cthulhu, Episode #24: 'The 1925 Technical'

 As the Professor recovers, and Sinead is missing somewhere in Los Angeles, the next port of call is Pierre Baptiste...the French cameraman on the ill fated 'Prince of Babylon' movie. McDade, McLeoud and Pavlov 'Paulie' with the Tommy gun, get the reclusive Frenchman's address from Winwood the Producer...and find a deserted warehouse well south of LA.

A premier example of an early 20th century Scottish 'Technical' deployed in the Mojave Desert...AI says

 Entering, it looks like Baptiste has surrounded himself with his trade - photographs, reels of spent film, cameras...and...he might have just topped himself, though they determine he is drunk and the shot missed, whacking an expensive camera instead.

'Can't yoo zee ahh am bizzeeee?'

They soon determine that he is as mad as a box of madness, and is only semi coherent when drunk...so they feed him the expensive brandy they brought, and find out about a very specific 'lens' which von Varnstein (the dead Director) had ordered in order to see 'something' on the desert set. Baptiste designed it, to von Varnstein's peculiar specification - but never saw a thing.

The lens...certainly not suitable for strapping to a firearm...oh no no No, the vibration, the lack of zeroing, the potential for falling off..yeah, f**k that sh1t

 Swapping a 2nd bottle of brandy for the lens, Baptiste tells them he is 'never going back' to the site...mind you. all the characters want is the lens, reasoning that they can both re-watch the film, and get the jump on the so called 'spectral horrors' that must have been the reasoning behind the curse.

Outside, they realise they have been followed by Roseanne Bartlet - a Holywood reporter with a New Yawk accent...who wants the story on the 'ghost-hunters' that Winwood has hired...she could be useful so the party agree that she can tag along (extra SANs always helps). 

'All I want is the story dahling!'

At Atlas studios, despite the ravings of James Raven (the only main surviving actor) they find the receipts to the lens in von Varnstein's garbage bin, and determine to re-watch the movie excerpts with the lens in place on the projector...they then see what they are dealing with - the invisible spectral horrors are revealed by the lens (SAN ROLLS!!!)...and clearly something to do with the dead Indian tribe near the set. 

...also mad as a box of ticks...

Time for Library use...they determine that indeed, the invisible stalkers have benefited from a spell, and the tribe was not altogether wholesome to begin with.

Preparing to leave, they also notice that ...Conswella,... Coinsuella, ...Kawn se....'Winwood's Head of the House' is wearing an elder sign... of sorts.

Nothing to see here...

Time for action. The journalist and Paulie accompany McLeoud and McDade to the film set...though McLeoud makes some 'modifications' to the vehicle that Winwood has loaned them..raising the trunk, and securing the Lewis gun on the roof, then strapping the lens to Lewis gun (securely of course), and loading up with 1 in 5 tracer rounds...'FOLLOW MY TRACER!' What can go wrong.

Looks like my back garden, to be fair...

Confident in their early version of the 1980s African 'Technical' vehicle they have developed (TM) in 1925, they find the movie set 40 miles to the south of LA...and drive around slowly...as partial remnants of wooden castles and offices flap in the dry wind...then...'worm sign' as McLeoud sees a faint flicker of a blue tinged head near a sand dune, then a lolloping clawed arm...'CONTACT!' ...what could go wrong? 

"That's...not so good...'

This is the original 1925 Scottish version of the 'Technical'...aye

 

It's only a model...

 

Call of Cthulhu, Episode #23 - 'Hooray for Hollywood'

 Finding some items amongst the wreckage of Smythe's house, these will inform the rest of the campaign...

next stop...Hollywood...land

• A 'Rosetta Stone' document of sorts, which translates the cuneiform tablets and etchings they have found, revealing that ancient Mu and the mythical island of R'lyeh are in some way connected, and that the Mythos speaks of the rising of an ancient being known as, 'Ktulu'...via a gate, on said island..amongst the maps they had already seen. All of these are snaffled.
• A copy of 'de Vermis Mysterius' in Latin, which aligns with the books that the party already has, with regard to methodology for closing said gate, from what the characters can understand of the diagrams anyway.

Using their favour with the Russian Count, they get rid of much of the evidence, using the fire at Smythe's former abode to cover their escape, as the Mi-Go 'glamour' which seemed to have dimmed the minds of the townsfolk, lifts.

Count Mikhael advises the characters to take his bodyguard 'Pauly' with them, since the party seems to have trouble following them wherever they go, and 'a man with a Tommy Gun is always useful to hev, yes?'.

LA...pre smog, and pre Starsky & Hutch

Taking the 3 day train ride to LA, the characters peruse all of their books and documents, to try to uncover what is going on. Sinead also seems to have fabricated 'something' as a pendant...interesting.

Arriving in Los Angeles, they respond to the telegram desk clerk's request,  and make contact with Grant Winwood, noted producer of motion pictures...time for the next chapter.

Winwood's small place...

Winwood, who lives in Hollywood(land) opulence, brings them into his large office, informing them that he knew they were coming via a letter from their Patron, Dr Edward Call. He knows that Call died under mysterious circumstances, and the good Doctor had asked him to find the 'Arc of Vlactos' on the Hotekh Indian lands nearby...by ensuring that a movie was directed there, using Professor Schmidt and his friends to investigate when they arrive..

Winwood informs the characters of the 'curse' behind said movie - which would have been an epic known as ''The Prince of Babylon', making them aware of the deaths of some of the main players. The entire production turned into disaster in the past few months. 

'I need it to be this big'..."yes Mr Winwood..."

Actress Monica Dolman jumped from her apartment window after fleeing the set and returning to New York. The Director Erich von Varnstein was officially 'killed in a shooting accident' though Winwood knows that he pulled the trigger on himself... The main actor in the movie, James Raven, has gone mad and runs around movie sets babbling now, whilst the main cameraman, Pierre Baptiste, has retreated from society.

'Maaaahd as a hatter I tell ye...'

 The characters see through some of his reticence to continue, and realise that some of the film was actually shot on location, in the Hotekh heartland, 40 miles to the south. Winwood reluctantly admits to this. 

The Hotekh homeland, where real estate prices have plummeted

They demand to see the footage that was taken, and are are eventually shown silent move scenes of a 'desert epic'...though something is not altogether wholesome about the parts they see.

'I need a 'smell the fart' look into camera...'

 Within each scene is a mysterious, shadowy presence, or presences, from the side of shot, or interfering with the actors... clearly, the curse of the movie, is tangible...

'He says he's not going anywhere until he speaks to the camel union rep...'

 ...investigations continue. 

 

Call of Cthulhu, Episode #22: 'Fear and Loathing in Black Knob'

 With Sinead spending time with the owner of the local agricultural machinery store (!), the other characters make their way to the Russian Count Mikhael's home on the mountain, not far from the infamous Adam Smythe, who, it seems, has found a real kinship with the townsfolk, though the Prof recognises the fact that something is amiss with them...and somebody, has been messing with the darkest of magics. 

Real estate prices are gonna plummet ...just a sense...

Arriving and being welcomed by the Count's bodyguard, having had a look at Smythe's mountain home - where they see a very polite 1920s Architect style fellow...and some strange French Windows on the upper floor..., they see that Pauly (the bodyguard with the Tommy Gun) has recently received a serious hand injury.

When the vodka is flowing and the Count is once more glad to see that his guests actually paid him a visit after the weird adventures on board the Mauritania, Pauly tells the tale of his injury as the Prof prevents any infection and applies a fresh bandage - the count insisting that it was a dog - while the bodyguard insists that 'no dog walks on its hind legs'.

 Reasoning at first that all these tales of potential werewolves must be true, the characters make Cthulhu Mythos rolls (with the Prof and McDade rolling 02 and 03) and realise, that 'what we are in fact witnessing here gentlemen, is a ghoul!'

Not a dog...

 Tales of men seeking immortality, feeding on the dead, and sometime even finding that though this works - they are forever 'changed' - abound at Miskatonic University... Pauly gives them an exact location of the attack.

Using their binoculars, the party also sees some sort of summoning site in a clearing near an old Indian burial mound...clearly the location of the large blocks of concrete that Smythe had ordered.

 

I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit...?

That night, of course, having also seen a faint glow from the summoning site, they set out with shotguns. The count insists that Pauly accompanies them; they agree reluctantly,  though slipping and falling on his ass on his way down the scree slope, he reopens his hand wound, and is advised to act as rearguard instead - a fateful decision - with the signal being three flashes from the Prof's torch on the way back (this is important).

 The characters make their way along the side of the trail, using the woods as cover...and find the entrance to Smythe's house...only a candle is lit at the French windows...and the ever present sound of Mi-GO...more than one - can be heard toward the summoning site, as can the wailing cries of a human summoning something nasty - Smythe?!?

It's on!..although there is also sound of something in the area across the roadway, in the woods around the burial mound..the ghoul, no doubt, though it seems to be aware of the wily characters' attempt to set a trap for it.

The canny ghoul, does...canny...ghoul stuff

Opting instead to return to Smythe's presumably empty home, they scooch through a badly secured window, and find it empty... In the living room is a partially finished letter, and a map...to Septimus Crane. McDade starts snapping photos of everything.

They opt to leave...hearing a terrifying female scream from the site...then decide to go back inside the house and await the 'things'. Whoever they might have saved. it would appear, ran out of time (those cads!). 

McLeoud and the Prof head upstairs, securing a superb ambush position at the entrance to the door with the French windows with solid slugs in their shotguns...the room having been turned, it seems, into some sort of alien nest! 

'Yeah man, but it's a dry heat...'

 McDade finds a research area, with three human brains preserved in tanks of foul green liquid...ewwww..., with maps and data on ancient Mu...and snaps everything, then unplugs the brain jars which start to vibrate and die with a quiet, shuddering, inaudible screech...and then he finds a pupa mi-go, that may...or may not...be alive.

Lovely with chips.

As the 1st Mi-Go returns to the nest, the Prof gives it both barrels (min damage 7 from solid slug - which is a big deal since rubbery Mi-Go take minimum damage (shotguns impale in 6th ed. but not in 5th - but it was a stoopid rule anyway)) and blows it apart at close range, with the second coming in fast ti grab McLeoud, but he similarly gives it some solid slug discipline.(The local Black Knob gun store is currently out of solid slugs by the way...).

They're heeeere...

They start to gather all of the intel, the sound of a 'third' Mi-Go echoing as it seems to leave the scene of carnage. ...and the ones, are bigger than the previous aliens they had slain... 

Another one???

Returning from the summoning now, Smythe himself, painted in horrible runes and sigils rushes up the stairs screaming 'WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" ...good thing McDade is still loaded for bear - it isn't pretty, and that carpet was new too!

 They now rush out...speeding to the summoning site, perhaps to delay or stop whatever is coming? Though...they have forgotten about the ghoul in the woods...

Yeah...that guy

 After luck rolls, where the Prof loses out..the ghoul SLAMS into him from the woods as the characters rush down the road...clawing and biting and clawing...doing considerable damage as the two fall into a flurry of teeth and claws...McLeoud and Mcdade, keen not to shoot the Prof, take into the ghoul with the butts of their shotguns, though this allows the thing to get more attacks on the Prof who bleeds out and falls to to the ground..apparently dead, blood streaming from his neck (-2 hp - one round to save). McLeoud tries a first aid, but there is too much blood.

As the ghoul rears, McDade blows its head off with solid slug at close range...and both characters look up to see, the third Mi-Go..casting a Mind Blast to destabilise the characters - striking McLeoud who falls to the ground raving and screaming with madness...

McDade reloads as the Mi-Go comes in to grab McLeoud, delivering both barrels of solid slug to the alien thing...and the stench of cordite and the sweet sickly smell of dead bug...fills the air. 

Falling to the ground, with McCeoud screaming nearby, McDade manages to get a dressing onto the Prof's neck, and just manages, barely, to save his life.

That...was close.

He rushes back to get Pauly, forgets the signal, and almost gets shot... (I mean it would have been funny?) ...

 Bearing in mind that the Count owes McDade a favour for having saved his life, agreeing to burn the evidence, is practically a given...and he sends men off to do the deed. McDade searches the remainder of the house as the fuel is being doused around the place, finding more books on ancient Mu (and Easter Island) and another book...with strange inscriptions and sigils and spells...of course.