Call of Cthulhu, Episode #21: 'Arrival at Black Knob - It makes a buzzing sound, and not in a good way...'

 Reuniting with Sinead back at the station in New York, the characters check they are not being followed. Sinead however, swears she sees something...or someone..tall. loathsome...who quickly disappears.

 

'Ok I would recommend that you read NONE of these!'

Consulting the books they have gathered, the party learn spells and benefits..risking sanity, but gaining forbidden knowledge. They now know for instance:

1. Septimus Crane and the Order of Silvery Twilight have the means and intention to open a gate to another realm and summon a bloody dangerous elder being; perhaps Great Cthulhu.
2. They probably won't be changing their minds anytime soon.
3. the characters are simply in the way...

They do everything to ensure that they aren't being followed...though Sinead has an experience on the LA Train sleeper carriage, with something horrific outside her room...later, the part find a strange symbol carved into her stateroom door. She wonders idly if one of the items that 'randomly appears to have fallen into her hands' may be to blame...acting as a beacon to those of malign intent.

I mean it looks perfectly safe?

 She sees the shadowy figure again at the halfway house station at Black Knob in midwest USA, where the Russian count has invited the party to visit him at his hilltop mansion. Consulting with the characters (with McDade rolling 01 for his Cthulhu Mythos), and their new found knowledge...they realise that this may be 'the worm who walks', a manifestation of dread Nyarlathotep himself. The others begin to stay a few tentative steps away from Sinead.

I bet he drinks Carling Black Label.

At Black Knob she starts to create some 'jewellery' with the local metalworker/farm machinist for ummm 'protection?' as the others settle in to get drunk with the local townsfolk, finding out that the Russian Count is not the only new person in town.

Seems perfectly safe...what could go wrong?

 

Black Knob station, before the characters start their normal antics...

 Arriving three months ago, Adam Smythe ingratiated himself with the locals, had a relationship with Margaret Brown the local librarian, drove her mad...and yet seems to be well liked at the same time? Oh, and he also ordered nine large stone blocks for no particular reason at all.

'This is how we sort out paranormal mysteries in Scotland laddie!'

Rolling a '01' (again with the 01s!!!) the Prof manages to find out that not only was the now crazy Margaret in love with 'Good Adam', but 'Bad Adam' seems to be aligned with some entities which go ...'bzzzz and not in a good way'. ...and that the local Sherrif is under some sort of 'glamour' spell that makes him leave Smythe alone.

I hate it when that happens...

 

It's solid slug time !

The party arms up with solid slug for the shotguns - there's vile Sorcerors and foul alien Mi-Go in them thar hills.

 

Call of Cthulhu, Episode #20: 'Is that a Book of Forbidden Lore in your pocket, or are you just pleased to see me?'

 Eventually reaching New York, as the most eventful cruise in world history comes to a close, the party firstly makes sure the precious Lewis Gun is unloaded, before accompanying the Count to his rendezvous with the 'money-men' who have promised to buy his book for the mysterious Septimus Crane of Arkham.

 A local newspaper tells of their patron Edward Call's savage murder in Arkham, together with Sophie - the Post Office operator who had been sending them messages in Scotland... 

Ok that's a problem!

The negotiation proceeds, and the characters follow the mysterious 'twins' one of whom at least appearing to have a very alien stammer.

Trust uzzzzzzzz....

 They promise that they will visit the Count in Idaho when their train gets there, arranging to leave well after he does, though are intrigued by the telegram that he receives upon landing...

 

The couriers, now with the forbidden book 'Monsters and their Kynde' proceed to Arkham, arriving late at night, of course inadvertently offering our intrepid murder-hobos a chance to ambush them.

Setting this up takes some time, but devolves into 'running up behind and using shotguns'. 

'Large area of park good for ambush of alien entities!' CHECK!

 Though that simple plan, goes less than well, as the human disguise sloughs from the twins revealing...what they really are.

SURPRISE!!!

 The 'Fungi from Yuggoth' though surpised, are hard to kill, narrowly missing grappling the professor, but ultimately, much ammo use later...they melt into the ground as if never there, blasted...with difficultly, by round after round. McLeoud takes the book from the icky mess that remains...(ewwwww)

 The characters find both the book and a strange letter on the bodies...realising at last, that they have been set up and that Septimus Crane, is working for the enemy - probably best not to go to his house after all.

Returning to his old digs, the prof makes arrangements to leave on the next train with the party...

 Arkham, the Order of the Silvery Twilight, and the whole damned affair turns into a world spanning conspiracy...and now, having got rid of Edward Call and Sophie, the enemy must know what the characters are up to. In fact they have been spied upon since Scotland! They realise from the letter that the Order may not need the disk at all now, and may have ways around its usefulness, and that things are happening on Easter Island, that are not altogether wholesome.

'All we wanna do is put your brains in jars...I mean, is that so baaaaaad?  zzz zzz zzz zzzz"

 Time to get to California, and find the fabled  Arc of Vlactos...before it's too late, and the Order raise this mysterious entity that they so revere, from the depths of the Pacific...

Shadowdark #12 'Karlyle saves the day!' or 'Gary the sh1t goblin...'

 When we last left our heroes(!), they faced a goblin horde (well, a horde implies danger - not so sure about these lil green dudes)...who match their uselessness with an ability to make random grenades from crap, spores and other less than wholesome ingredients...

'That's not soap dude!'

Climbing into 'piles', they ascend across the shield wall presented by the magical artifact  'Mountainhome' ...though the characters, using Dagmar's light spell, and some theatrics with swords, manage to deflect the attack as the goblins retreat..not least because one of their number fumbles his grenade chuck, is covered in brown stuff, and has light cast upon him, driving the goblin horde nutz! (Christened 'gary' by the party...)

'A bright shining lump of cr*p'

The Mushroom hall

 Coming up with an idea to make ear-muffs from mushroom bits and centipede-legs to combat the 'shroom-shrieks (TM)', the party wipe out most of the remaining gobbos in the shroom hall.

The party manages to free Justin Munchburger and his wife Debbie before they were to be Goblin King Take-away (now that's magic!) and Jeralt takes them home aboard the Griffin...Drusus, the eldest of the brothers, seems less than happy to see them however (curious) and Jeralt lets Maureen the witch know what is happening, including the fact that that they have determined that her wand was traded for the prisoners - and is now in the hands of the Orc chief: White-eye ..she gives him a ring of invisibility to give to Dagmara, and tells him to be careful of the orc caves...'many have died there!'. 

'try not to die dude!...oh yeah, and get my wand back'

Reconnoitering the next cavern, and using information provided by Bruno the scientist... the characters determine that the Goblin King (not that one! jump magic jump...though he does have a blonde wig), is protected by large bodyguard goblins with explosive runes which make them blow when reduced to 0hp...not good (beep beep beep BEEEEEP)..

' i mean I think I look like David Bowie, no?'

 They elect to take a rest before descending next day into the the King's chamber, hearing armoured hobgoblin activity on the next level, that night...

It all starts so well, until Bruno tries to kill Dagmara (apparently having been hit by a spell from the Goblin King), is summarily dispatched, and the characters rush the chamber...of course Jeralt chucks a bunch of marbles to disorient the bodyguards, though this does not go well, and many of the characters on both sides end up on their a*se.

 

Uhh lots of floor clutter ...careful now, mind how you go. Do you have a Risk Assessment and Method Statement?

Elfin John, the 'new guy', sprints across the cavern to get a backstab on the King, and gets slotted by two bodyguards, bleeding to death on the floor (another new character required please - one more for the 'whiteboard o' death'). 

'

'Clear off halfling! ...dwarf...whatever ye are!'

An invisible Leeta the halfling/dwarf fighter, manages to stealth  her way to the spellcasting Goblin King, and stops two goblins raising the grille to the giant centipede lair...later fumbling on a '1' and whacking Jeralt the Paladin cold accidentally, as he follows to help her (oops).

'uhhh why did you hit me Leeta? '

Leeta also gets smacked to zero hp by the goblin bodyguards - who have been exploding on cue and damaging the characters when they expire. Dagmara ALSO is put to zero hp by a bodyguard - at this stage - HALF the party are down, spread all over the complex, and set to expire, one after the other.

Bjorn does some serious damage, as Karlyle the Priest, makes it his mission to rescue ...everyone. After securing Dagmara behind the Mountainhome shield wall, he races back toward the goblin King's chamber, with the invisibility ring allowing him to avoid the fight between the Goblin King and Bjorn...He has ONE chance to save Leeta, then Jeralt , as they are set to die one turn after he gets there...he needs to roll a 14 to save them from insta-death by binding their wounds...and manages to make BOTH ROLLS...give that man a sandwich! 

'

'Come adventure with us they said. There won't be any real danger, they said! Pfffft!'

 Back to (almost...remember Elfin John?) full strength. They raid the King's secret store, lucky to be alive...finding scrolls and a rather strange 'all seeing eye of truth' spyglass...fun!

Flying back, dressing their wounds...Leeta snatches a glance through the all seeing eye, catching a glimpse of Lord Trum watching them come in to land.,,seeing his TRUE form...and it is not good!

The true form of the head of the citadel...I mean, what could go wrong?

Call of Cthulhu, Episode #19; 'Who's going in First?'

During the night, McDade hears a dull roar in the bowels of the ship - I'm sure it was nothing, he reassures himself. Having become the reluctant hero of the voyage thanks to his saving of the Russian Count, McDade gets 'the eye' from the rich 'recently widowed heiresses' on their way to new York with chaperones (clearly more than we ever thought). The previous night, he swore he heard a dull roar in the bowels of the ship - I'm sure it was nothing, he reassures himself.

One lady in particular takes his eye, and he arranges to have dinner with Lady Roseanna Thorpe, of the Dewberry Thorpes, later in the day...little realising that it will be quite the afternoon on-board, even before dinner is served (it's steak night!).

That McDade dude gets around - must be the Scottish accent

 McDade, McLeoud and the Professor, wondering what has happened to Sinead, venture toward her cabin..where they discover a trail of watery 'something', and a sulfurous odour all along the deck. There also appears to be much consternation amongst the Purser's former staff, and he is nowhere to be found.

Rather than knocking upon the door of Sinead's stateroom, our intrepid investigators pick the lock and break in - clearly expecting trouble - though only finding her sleeping, and a strange wet watery seaweed smell in the room (and not in a good way), corroborating with what had been dragged there...interesting. Sinead wakes up with a start, wondering just what the hell they are all doing in her stateroom and shoos them out. Being gentlemen, they all of course leave valiantly, concerned only that Sinead seems 'fine'.

'Can't you see I'm busy?'

 But something is clearly awry on the lower deck; interrogating and fast-talking some of the Purser's men, they determine that his second - Frederick - is clearly very upset about something, and convince him to tell all...

Taking McDade and McLeoud to the Engine room, he shows the characters a bloody house of horror (roll SAN) where some 'thing'; has torn the former engine room native staff, limb from limb (literally). Amongst them lies the Purser - in bits! Fredrick explains that they have explained to the captain, who has enough problems it seems, but has undertaken to have search parties find 'whatever did this' with some shotguns and torches - believing that it is in the cargo hold. 

McLeoud easily convinces Frederick, that what they are dealing with, is a large feral Gorilla...and it is clearly looking for its mate. Frederick swallows nervously: "you mean there are two of them, and one is a lay-dee?"

 

Now that would definitely be a SAN roll!

Forming search parties, they convene on the large cofferdam like cargo holds to starboard, where coincidentally, McLeoud also saw his Lewis gun being loaded. 

'Who's going in first?' 

'You guys go in first!!!...oh go on pleease...'

 Entering the central hold, and checking the perimeter, whilst McDade takes a party up the middle - a hideous partial remnant of one of the native engineers is thrown from atop the stacked crates, slamming meatily against the steel bulkhead...

McDade manages to grit his teeth and go on, as McLeoud goes NUTS! (SAN roll) - seeing the clawed, heavy limbed, horrifically-faced monstrosity that is the Dimensional Shambler, eating a head and sitting atop the crates above them...Does he cower away in the corner? Does he scream unintelligibly? Nooo...he charges the thing (having gone temporarily insane), vaulting onto the stack of crates and climbing up like a madman.

McLeoud 'close assaults' the storage racking

 McDade pulls out the alien weapon that he picked up from the snake men a few episodes ago, and risks a shot, narrowly missing the raving McLeoud and wounding the beast with the death ray, then tries to follow his friend with Frederick in tow - the rest of the crew 'watching them heroically'. 

'alright, alriiight, ye can borrow it...'

 McLeoud empties round after round into the thing running straight at it, as it opens its maw, and readies its claws for its next meal...rolling a CRIT!...gripping him with its claw (and following with almost the least amount of rolled damage possible).

Is it even possible to statistically roll this little damage???

 

 McLeoud is still alive incredibly - blasting away, held by the thing, as McDade arrives with Frederick, shooting it again with the death ray...this time a little too close to McLeoud who suffers burns, and worse, from being so close to the alien device...and eventually the Dimensional Shambler tumbles down, dead..melting into nothingness.

Today Matthew - I am not a Balrog, but a Dimensional Shambler!!!

McDade calms McLeoud and advises a bemused Frederick to tell the captain that they had 'a giant tropical gorilla problem', which he and some passengers helped get rid of, and throw out into the ocean...sounds completely flawless! A panicked Frederick goes with the story, and ushers the crew away. ...but they all know what they saw...

Whatever happened, whatever 'deviltry' this is; the characters are reasonably sure it is all Sinead's fault... 

That night at dinner, Lady Thorpe asks McDade how his day was...

McDade knocks back the double whiskey...'ummmm...well, you wouldn't believe it my dear!'

'Oh it was just another day, stopping Cthulhu and his minions from eating the world dear...'

 

Shadowdark #11 ...'Can I have your Griffin?...oh go on...'

 Driving back the mischievous (and numerous) pack of goblins, noting their preference for chucking bags of 'explosive centipede crap' (which should probably be the title of this post) the party makes its way in the goblin caverns...noting a large sentient mushroom, being distracted and put off (with disadvantage) by its shriek (clearly fearing the frying pan).

Is that a giant centipede? ...or are you just pleased to see me?

 As they cover their ears, a large , giant, two-headed (of course) centipede attacks...as the crush of goblins watch from the sideline...and Elfin John gets behind for a backstab.

Ohhh AI...wrong goblins entirely!

 

 As most of the party fight it out, Dagmara, not one for messy fighting..and noting that the goblins do not like her 'light' spell, finds a hidden room.

'A secret lab in the goblin caves? How very unlikely!!!'

Inside, is that most unlikely of characters - Bruno the Scientist, seemingly allowed to pursue his 'goblin research' work since the goblins believe that his plague mask is actually his face. Altogether more interesting is the map of the keep belonging to Lord Trum amongst his wares.

'You seem trustworthy...'

He tells the party that he is researching the emergence of the monsters in the caves, and refers to hobgoblins in the upper reaches...wondering if the characters own the griffin he has seen and if...he might 'have it for himself'? He also tells the party that two human prisoners are held - for dinner, to be eaten by no less than the Goblin King himself. Clearly the merchants the party seeks.

Nahhhh...still wrong

 Giving a firm no to the griffin proposal, the party pursue the goblins..into their 'birthing' shroom lair...place...the biology of which bears no thinking about, but the characters remain convinced that the goblins love mushrooms...very much.

Much better!

 Facing an utter horde of green. smiley. vile little gits whose 'tee hee hee'ing is getting annoying...the party 'power up' the Magic Dwarven Shield - 'Mountainhome (TM)'...and form a bulwark, ready for the attack.

Mountainhome vs the Green Horde!

Brave Sir Robin ...I mean Jeralt...buggers off

Their aim, is to find the merchants they seek, and to eliminate the Goblin King...and probably he does not look like this one:

  

Shadowdark #10 ...Maureen the witch

Back at the keep, and visiting Maureen the Witch, after letting 'Elfin John' into the party, ...the party realise that there is no obvious door to her tower, and she communicates via a lowered basket - into which Dagmara the half-orc wizard, who is desperate to meet her in the pursuit of spell knowledge, lodges the dark and 'eeevil' pendant that she picked up in the Dwarven mines.

Lifting the basket, and Maureen finding what is inside, results in the tower's secret door being opened and the characters beckoned inside.

Clearly the witch thinks covid masks work

Dagmara the half-orc wizard appears to instantly impress the ancient Maureen, who asks if she and her party will 'rescue' her captured wand from the caverns they have returned from - she believes that the orcs have it. When questioned, she reveals that she, old Jomama the cleric, and the wily Castellan Trum, are all that remains of a larger adventuring party, who came to control the keep after barely escaping the caverns with their lives, many years ago. She also grants three spell scrolls to aid the party. 

There is much discussion as to where the party came from, and they tell of their past as imprisoned revolutionaries of the 'Peoples' Front of Bodertown' (as opposed to the 'Bodertown Peoples' Front'..who are of course SPLITTERS!)... not mentioning the preferred (by some) local title of 'Bordertown' as that is anathema to the principles of their movement! 

 Maureen tells Dagmara to be very careful, insisting that she will reveal more when they return - mentioning her suspicion that the Munchburger brothers are involved in some sort of corruption connected to the caverns, the orcs, dodgy dealings...and an ancient evil... They should also be wary of 'White-eye' the orc chieftain...even Maureen shudders as she mentions him.

'I mean...how bad could he be?'

 

'The reverse ambush helmet job!'

 As the first batch of characters set off on Jeralt's griffin, they notice an ambush being set up below - possibly for the rest of the party, by Rarius -  the fighter that Bjorn had previously fallen foul of in the tavern. Landing, they take him down, scattering the bandits...noticing that they appear to be moving back toward the caverns. Bjorn takes a new Hoplite style helmet from his sworn enemy...

'That's defo going on ebay!!!'

 As the characters resolve to take the goblin cave first, they know they are walking into a trap...and are immediately attacked by giant centipedes, who seem a little handicapped by Dagmara's light spell.As they clear the entry way, they notice many ...many goblins retreating back into the shadows... let's hope the light lasts!

No actual giant centipedes were harmed in the making of this production...