Call of Cthulhu. Episode #28 ...'It's just an ancient journal ...what could possibly go wrong?'

 As Dagon, recently summoned and needing fed (and not at full HP), closes with the heroes at the entrance to its realm, ShanTryan casts invisibility (the power of not being seen) and scooches past the monstrosity toward the Black Sword near the sacrificial victim...Sensing her intent, Belphegor moves a little faster and grabs it, dropping spear and shield, preferring to lift the mythical 'soul sucking blade of Mu' (not TM since I nicked it from Stormbringer)...and ambushes Dagon from behind managing to do 23 points of damage to the developing demi-god creature  (and staring with wide eyes and slobbering mouth at what the blade can do! ...)

Septimus acts 'all defensive like' as Belphegor and.ShanTryan...race to grab the sword

 In a bid to sow confusion (since she may be playing both sides off against each other...see below...), ShanTryan, keen to shake herself from the yoke of Mu'an slavery, befuddles Septimus and makes a break for it, once more casting invisibility and racing for the entrance.

'AHA! it's MINE!'

 There she encounters a short priest (i.e. vertically challenged) - the 'Tangata Manu' in a boat powered by wind spirits, who is keen to rescue the whole party, but opts just to take the Atlantean slave since she has a dagger at his throat by the time she boards. As he sails off, surrounded by his giant ravens, Belphegor and Septimus look on, and try to find the rope they climbed down on...the half dead Kall tells them he will stay and sacrifice himself so that they can get away, as the caves become engulfed with deep ones... his dying screams echo as they reach the cliff top. The (taller) priest that brought them here, has died of his wounds, and they resolve to wreak vengeance on the treacherous ShanTryan...just as soon as Septimus's befuddle wears off. They start to make their way across the island toward the main temple complex, dodgin Deep One patrols. 

The short priest - definitely not a DungeonMaster

 Meanwhile, ShanTryan has been taken in by the old priest and fed and watered. He needs a favour, and not in a good way... 

Apparently easy to dodge...

Since she owes him, he asks that she rescues 'Eye of Maurak of the three aspects' (his POW crystal) from the nearby island (which used to be a peak before the fragments hit)...and donates his 'mask of water breathing' to aid her. She swims across, once more invisible and rescues it for him as well as the Arc of Vlactos which is amongst his old belongings, with the map and its inscription:

'That is not dead which can eternal lie and in strange aeons, even death may die

Your ancestors are not your ancestors; your descendants are not your descendants

Remember to forget, that you, are you...' 

Who is the real evil after all?

 The Tangata Manu is saddened that he must go alone and destroy the fragments of whatever is left in the main temple, and so asks if she will do i?, destroying any means of resurrecting the dark god Ktulu and ways of bringing him back to Earth...since, he fears, that is what the priests of Mu had been up to, rather than worshipping the proper goddess...It all makes a certain kind of sense to ShanTryan, and fits neatly in with her plan.

Poor Kall...sacrifices himself

She agrees, asking for the rescued 'eye' in return, which he gives her with a few spells and POW in it. She also has more on her mind than helping out...since in her days in Atlantis, she had determined that Ktulu might actually be a power for 'good' (honest) - her own good that is, and, after her years in Mu'an slavery, the last thing she wants to do is help humanity, whatever is left of it. He also warns her about the 'thing with a thousand faces'.

Poor Belphegor, a force of good?

 As she arrives at the remains of the temple, Septimus and Belphegor see her from the cliffs, and resolve to set a trap at the entrance.With the help of the priest's ravens however, she realises that something is wrong, and asks the giant birds to attack the men at the temple archway before 'scooching' past in the confusion with her wee dodge.

Poor Septimus...befuddled,,,

The men follow her, succeeding in tracking her wet footprints ...toward the main temple area, where a freshly (relatively) carved statue to Cthulhu resides...damage done during the impacts has rendered the functionality of the chamber somewhat however - a spell to bring Cthulhu back via R'lyeh on one wall, and a partially obscured spell on how to banish him on another, The deep ones are trying, without success, to destroy this one...

The ambush that might have been...

The partial misalignment of the corner statues means that the spell to banish is not clear, though ShanTryan learns the summoning spell which 'is' clear (the bad one) as much as she can, discovering the disk...AND a nearby Shoggoth, which emerges into the chamber. She uses mindspeech from the 'eye' sending the Deep Ones toward her former master and the Shoggoth slowly follows . Bypassing the shoggoth, and ascending the stairs to freedom, she escapes both the island and her former master with both disk and Arc, surmising that the Shoggoth fears the black sword...and recording same...

The Shoggoth, after 8 pints...

 Belphegor and Septimus similarly, leave the island to its fate after seeing the Shoggoth, though Belphegor too realises that it fears the sword...

'Uhhh is that a statue? It's a statue right?'

CHECKLIST for what might have been...

• Realising that the Shoggoth fears the Black Sword, the characters might have destroyed it. 

• Realising that the alignment of the statues enables the 'good' spell to be revealed, the heroes could have re-set it.   

Shoggoth TIME! ShanTryan escapes with the Disk and the Arc, and the 'heroes' escape with the Sword of Mu...Crisis Averted! until uhh 1925

 Now both will most likely have to be done 12,000 years later. Oh well. Shoulda, coulda, woulda... 

Although, facts from earlier episodes remain pertinent; Henry Hancock came to Easter Island to find the blade of Belphegor... 

...and of course, the journal is signed, by 'ShanTryan, a Free Atlantean'...who shall be reborn, again, and again... 

...and again. 

 

Cathulhu #1 'The Black Cat Murders'

During a short interlude from Shadowdark, our intrepid party have now become feline investigators in the mad mash-up that is 'Cathulhu - Velvet paws on Cthulhu's Trail', where the characters are ...ummm...cats investigating the Cthulhu Mythos - makes purrrfect sense...(see what I did there...)

I bet he drinks Carling Black Label...

 Whiskey (who belongs to local P.I. Brock) and Fitz (the cat of a certain professor Edward Downie, recently returned from a sanitarium in Los Angeles) both of Arkham, meet at the site of a recent vicious cat-murder, noticing a few things...as they peer through the throng of nosey felines.

'Moidah! Moidah!'

 An old cat called Benjamin, after some discourse, explains that this is the 4th such murder he has seen in the last few days

Whiskey - definitely trustworthy, without any 'dodgy' connections to the mob...

• Whiskey & Fitz notice that the cat's heart has been removed
• Upon further investigation, it looks like all of the victims were also black cats - curiouser and curiouser.
• From a 4th storey apartment balcony overlooking the scene in Walnut Street, a regal and thin looking white female cat watches them.

Fitz - keep an eye on your catnip...and the milk...and your wallet

 Resolving to see what she witnessed, Whiskey & Fitz use the old 'delivery truck driver leaves the door open while they scoot past and head upstairs' trick...then the 'hide in the flowerpot while the grocery delivery knocks on the appropriate apartment door trick'...and manage to make their way inside the white cat's 'palace' whose owner, is actually an old blind woman.

Her excellency 'Madame' decides that they shall be her 'knights' as she is of course descended from Cat Royalty of old...though she appears frightened by what she witnessed the previous night. The local victim - 'Tom-Tom' was known to her but not well, and she saw him taken and killed by something 'large, with distorted contours, warped, cat like, but three times the size of a cat...' seeing it tear something from Tom-Tom's body before he died'. She shudders at the memory.

It seems also that 'her majesty' has a penchant for cat-nip, and Whiskey (who is well connected to the local 'mob') promises to get her some. 

Trail of the Black Cats...

Benjamin had told them that one of the victims had also been found at the docks - where Whiskey happens to know 'Ricardo' the local mob-boss cat and supplier of catnip (Top Cat? the indisputable leader of the gaaaang). Surrounded by mob operators, they find their audience with Ricardo, guarded by Ahab (who is rarely cheerful) and Tik-Tok (who never shuts up)...'tell 'em boss, tell em'.

 As Ricardo relates the story of one of his cats - a black cat named O'malley, who also appears to have had his heart ripped out, he has an idea, trading two sticks of 'nip'...if Whiskey and Fitz will guarantee to  'take out' this cat murdering fiend - be it a dog or whatever.

They agree and leave, finding a stray mother who is being menaced by a dog, and give it short shrift, returning to hear that she had fled from south of the city due to the 'black cat murders'...she thanks them and says she will keep an eye out.

 They resolve to check out the other crime scenes at the East College St Laundry (Fitz's normal hang out where the ladies feed him milk) and the French Hill street. They leave the nip with 'Sanjo Panza' the fearful mouse who hangs out in Brock's offices.

They also hear various rumours about sightings of the thing, and stories of rabid dogs...but they resolve to find Benjamin first and keep him up to date...finding him amongst a gaggle of students being carefully petted at the Miskatonic University Tower... joining the party, and finding themselves pampered by the students...Fitz and Whiskey bring Benjamin up to date surrounded by 'can openers' who have no idea as to the import of their conversation. The older cat slowly realises, based on what they have determined, that this 'thing' must be something to do with the fabled 'Dreamlands'.

From behind a statue...a grey Siberian cat, owned by Paulie Pavlov, listens closely...watching... 

 

Call of Cthulhu, Episode #27: '10,000 years BC'

 Reading the journal in the Priest's house on Easter Island, the Prof starts to translate the hidden story of what happened 12,000 (ish) years beforehand...a time when impacts of 'the serpents of the gods' had managed to melt northern ice-caps, destroy Atlantis, Mu and ancient Lemuria.

AI got all excited about this one

 Cut to: a magically powered vessel, approaching the island in the Pacific, which used to be a mountain peak, now strewn with impact craters, and the ingress of foul sea-demon 'deep-ones'.

Our heroes: Kall, Septimus, ShanTryan and Lord Belphegor the badly painted...and thanks to 'Heroscape' for terrain

  Landing near the ruins of the former mountain city, they see a group of deep ones dragging a wounded priest to his death, and engage..

'Shhh, I don't think they've seen us yet...'

 The fight is short (in terms of RQ mechanics anyway - note Runequest II from  was used for these segments, with IV being considered for Borderlands), and they quickly heal the priest. 

'Guys...this will actually work...what are the chances of a band of intrepid heroes interrupting us at the very last moment eh?'

 He tells them that they must make haste, for the foul sea demons seek to resurrect a once cursed statute of Dagon by removing the 'black sword of Mu' from the once dead corpse, and revivifying it...and they must find the section of the temple that survives on the far side of the island and ensure that the artifacts do not fall into the Deep-Ones, or indeed Dagon's, foul icky green hands. (it's like a Rogue One script with proper spelling...and an actual plot)

Labelling one's monsters is essential in RuneQuest - since monsters need stats too...poor things...

Finding the cave first, they move in, just in time as Dagon starts to emerge after a sacrifice of a local who complained too much...a party of deep ones and a priest are present.

'They have a cave troll! ..no a Dagon!'

Belphegor the warrior-priest befuddles the chief deep one, whilst warriors Septimus and Kall move in to engage; Belphegor's slave ShanTryan remains in the rear, ready to heal...or do something devious. 

The 'DANGER D4' counts down as to when Dagon can start to lumber toward the heroes...

The fighting is vicious (it is Runequest after all), and Kall is impaled in the thigh, his leg mangled..he is pulled to the rear and helped by ShanTryan, as Belphegor and Septimus eventually dispatch the remainder of the deep ones.

 

'uhhh...ok...'

 The sword has been extracted and lies in the temple area, now removed as part of the deep one ritual to resurrect Dagon himself... 

The party readies itself to take on the big man...

 

'That time when Call of Cthulhu used Classic Runequest for a 12,000 year old flashback episode...'

 

Call of Cthulhu, Episode #26 - 'Who Ate all the Stormbringer Pie?'

 Having agreed to help Grant Winwood and rescue Professor Methridge and his students from Easter Island, our heroes make their way to the massive airship hanger south of LA, where the Rosinante is moored.

 It is crewed by Winwood’s hired professionals (lackeys by any other name): Captain ‘I know what I’m doing’ Jensen, Fat ‘do I have to?’ Pedro and Ronnie ‘I’m the apprentice but I’m really in charge’ Van Zant.

Captain Jensen - confident as any drunk Australian can be...

 Also in evidence is a multitude of foodstuffs, under the care of Consww...Consuel...Winwood’s housekeeper. When quizzed about the amount of food, Winwood mentions how the number of students might be 20 or more, and Easter Island is run by the Chilean army, and they will seen as an American rescue mission...and some 'barter items' might not go amiss.

Long corridors and dodgy hydrogen bladders.

 McLeod stays on the bridge, convinced that Captain Jensen McCloy perhaps does not know what he is doing and Apprentice Ronnie is there to keep an eye on things. Taking off, gaining height they hook on an ‘ex’ US Navy seaplane, for good measure. More height, and compass bearings to head south, and they narrowly miss the 'Hollywoodland' sign, oops not missed after all...and now it says simply ‘Holywood’.

'Let's get outta here mayte!'

 In addition, in order to get better range, the airship is using hydrogen filled bladders, rather than helium (very available in the US at this time, and far safer), and also carrying – as Pedro points out with a cigar in his mouth – additional containers of hydrogen in the stowage. What could go wrong? I mean, it’s not as if there have been any major accidents...yet?

Picking up the plane no one can fly

They head south, out across the ocean. In the gondola, McDade starts to investigate the composition of the loaded foodstuffs...finding a large pumpkin pie – the bottom of the deep, and seemingly ancient dish – bearing an elder inscription that they have seen before. Our heroes immediately devolve into argument as to its meaning, with Sinead (now having rejoined the party after a spell in the same sanitarium as the Prof) arguing that they should not throw it over the side. 

'Whatever you do, make sure you've got a risk assessment...'

Even though she has been having very strange dreams since having her new necklace made – funnily enough with the same symbology – she believes the pie bowl to be harmless. 

The dreaded symbol, in the bottom of the dreaded...pie bowl...there purely to ensure that the baking is effective.

 Fat Pedro quickly removes the evidence of there ever having been pie inside, ...clearly to help the characters out ‘eh senor...did anyone else want pie?’

Long narrow corridors in hydrogen filled, fiery explosive potential...what could go wrong?

As the characters argue, McLeod learns from Jensen how to pilot the airship...roughly, as they head into a patch of bad weather, and it grows dark. Sinead has a vision of a worm faced hooded thing, astride a Shantak...staring at her, but manages to keep her sanity intact, and look away... the Prof informs her, that she had a vision of Nyarlathotep ... is that bad?

Into the storm

Then all hell breaks loose as two Byahkee, clearly summoned by nefarious forces, and homing in on the still on board pie-bowl...which Pedro has kindly cleared…

...seems a little hungry

McLeod stays on the bridge, bravely looking away, as McDade and the Prof start shooting with solid slug...far, far away from the hydrogen, and Sinead hides under the table.

Close range solid slug eventually does its duty, as the foul flying things manage to miss the characters...but, something has rent open one of the bladders and the airship is losing pressure fast. The characters, with shotguns, make their way to the keel and spine of the airship, walking delicately between bladders hunting down the remaining Byahkee. 

Balancing on the edge...

The Prof, McDade and Sinead find one, dispatch it, and shut down the pressure leak as the airship descends to 6,000 feet, but there is still something on top of the blimp. McDade volunteers and climbs the vertical access ladder, opening a hatch on top rising into the dark, wind and rain, seeing the thing that has rent the canopy come lurching toward him. He has no time to reload and the beaked monstrosity takes a bit out of him, hanging on to his shoulder and sucking blood as he screams, reloads and blows its head off, before kicking it away, climbing back through the hatch, and managing his way back down the tube, bleeding… but still alive.

Not recommended...

Sinead throws the pie bowl out one of the holes rent by the byahkee in the gondola. Fat Pedro asks if there is any more pie...and can he lick the bowl first.

Destination ahead...(see what I did there)

A few days later, the Rosinante reaches Easter Island, and the ship does a circuit so that they can scout the island, before landing about a mile north of the only settlement at Hangaroa so that Ronnie can carry out repairs to the damaged outer skin and the hydrogen bladder.

South West portion of the island

 They have of course attracted the attention of both the local populace and the Chilean army, whose trucks filled with armed maniacs, now head to their position on the coast.

The discourse seems, roughly jovial, with Captain Manuel Pereira - the Chilean officer in charge, wanting to have the ‘missing Americans’ problem solved, and assuming correctly that this is the rescue party. Though, at the Prof’s persuasion, he allows them one handgun with a full load of ammunition, much to the chagrin of McDade and Sinead, who have ideas about umm...hiding ammo…

Convinced by what they have, they are brought into town, and immediately taken under the care of Father Jorge Haedo, the local Priest (who also likes his food), and who brings them into the church where the stricken students and the now drunk Professor Winthrop Methridge are holed up.

Father Jorge tells them of the ancient legends of the island, proudly displaying his large book collection – occult, historical and...the Prof notices an ancient text, clearly copied many times, but displaying aspects of the same cuneiform language that he taught himself during the flight and whilst in hospital.

He has found a journal it seems...the record of the last days...of Lord Belphegor of Mu and the sacred quest for the lost steel blade of Mu…an ancient sword and Easter Island...something familiar about it all from the party’s time in Scotland.

A journal containing details of the final doomed voyage of four ‘heroes’ at the end of the pre-historical, antediluvian world, when ‘serpents’ from the sky (definitely not comet fragments at all...no...no) had impacted the Earth and shattered empires: Lord Belphegor – Warrior Priest, Septimus – Noble Warrior, Kall the savage brute and ShanTryan – Atlantean slave to Lord Belphegor…

He starts to read of a time of magic; a time of noble warriors; a time of elder races striving to survive, and win back the remnants of a shattered Earth...

 Tune in next week ...

Call of Cthulhu, Episode #25: 'Hot Barrels and Helium 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 invisible 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 slow, insurance is a nightmare...but you get a free dog.'

 

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

 

'...and as with all our whacked out real estate ladies and gentlemen, the doors are of course, on 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 barelled shotgun, 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, I'm sure...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 Roseanna freezes with 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 survives barely, 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 Paulie 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 a 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 wind, 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...

'ere we go, 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 Rosanna outside indicates that the spectral horrors are re-forming, and that spell-work is required...and FAST!

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... Now, it seems, unless they can capture the party, they may have to do things the hard way.

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

Debating whether to go back to Winwood, they first take the mad and the injured to the sanitarium where they had left the Prof (under Winwood's advice), where the head of the place, Dr. Hasselblad, seems very interested in McLeoud's burns from the alien weapon received aboard the Mauretania, after McDade asks about 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 - McDade's colleagues, 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 lies to Winwood, stating 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 Island via Pearl Harbour, that all is not well...and aid 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. 

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.