Call of Cthulhu, Episode 15..."Don't Look at It! Don't Look at It!"

With McDade on the inside, the knowledge that Leclair can only be saved if Ching Lung Soo is allowed to partially complete the summoning (cunningly disguised as a magic trick) that will bring the Lan Shi Star Vampire to Earth, we could say that the characters are (both literally and figuratively) playing a very dangerous game.

The definitively unique architecture of the Theatre in stunning 'not 20mm' scale. ...with clear indication to the players that their characters could, in true 1920s 'dangerous act' style, try and use the lighting rig at right of picture to balance, dive, jump and fall...I mean, I thought it would be obvious, a perfect stunt...no? Dang...it took me literally 5 minutes to cut that out of the cardboard and nobody used it!

 

Having returned to the 'teleportation box' and somehow ended up locked in it, Sinead manages to miss the main part of the show.

A similarly named Chinese bloke

 As Ching Lung Su announces "the greatest trick ever performed anywhere in the world..." in the Master of Arcane Lore's best Chinese accent, the characters manage to fast talk their way backstage. McDade, despite being caught trying to 'borrow' one of the robes for the stage chant, is caught, and forced to sidle up to the stage later, whilst the Professor and McLeoud..manage to persuade a constable that there is a threat to the Prime Minister from 'Chinese-Irish dissidents' (a clear threat in the 1920s - honest Guv'na) ... The Chinese henchmen have now erected the three part summoning archway on the stage, inscribed and daubed with appropriate magical cuneform (or something) runes, and containing the soul of Phillip Leclair as sacrifice to Lan Shi - the Star Vampire.

...and the back of a fag packet version (for our American viewers, a fag is a cigarette...no really)

 The ruse will work for a few valuable minutes, as the crowd watches with awe at Ching Lung Soo in his diabolically stunning red robes, surrounded by his Chinese henchmen in appropriately black cultist cloaks - who start to chant the incantation...that will summon the thing from another realm.

Appropriately armed with smuggled pistols...the party wait for a signal - which they 'hope' is the appearance of the trapped spirit of Leclair. ...and...as the foul words of magic continue...something is forming above the arch...a writhing body of a man?...in a suit...and he is starting to smoke (and not in a good way), and catch fire...flames writhing along his clothing as he floats. The crowd loves it!

"Summoning a Star Vampire - step 1 - make sure your miniature MDF archway is symmetrical"

 

The audience applauds madly, for it is all part of the new trick, right? The Professor and McLeoud rush the stones, McLeoud to try and topple them...McDaid and the Professor grab fire buckets full of sand trying to engulf the flickering, manifesting LeClair before he goes fully up in flames...McCleoud climbs the stone and yanks Leclair - still flaming - to the ground.. He then slams into the stone to topple it as the Prof dodges a knife wielding mad Chinese  maniac cultist...Mcdade is not so lucky being impaled badly by a Chinese blade, and falling unconscious...almost dead. 

The cheap seats

 With guns popping and Chinese cultists stabbing, the Police are totally confused, not least by the fact that the crowd are screaming and heading for the doors, since this is not the magic trick they were expecting. 

McLeoud manages to take down one granite post - dodging the falling masonry, as the Prof is wounded by knife wielding maniacs and Police start to fire at the Chinese men in black cloaks as they seem the obvious bad guys! The Prime Minister is ushered from the scene, as Police struggle to retain any sort of control, the Prof and McLeoud first aid McDade, then take after the escaping Ching Lung Soo, in hot pursuit.

A partially formed Star Vampire, behind the stone blocks...curses as its sacrifice in the shape of Leclair, is saved...and it remains in its horrific home dimension, unable to fully form  (note to self...if characters ask what it looks like - hit them with SAN roll ;)  ) 'Don't LOOK AT IT! DON'T LOOK AT IT!'

Rounds fly down range in the basement corridor as Ching Lung Soo, and most of his remaining party fall to the characters shots. ... a badly sliced up McDade looks away from the partially formed Lan Shi.

The Police are convinced (roughly) by the character's story, without necessarily accepting the whole 'alien fiend was about to be summoned to this mortal plane, and it would have been really bad!' tale, and opting for the preferred 'Irish-Chinese' plot to take out PM Stanley Baldwin. Seems obvious really. The Irish componenet seems to have escaped however. How strange. 

McDade meanwhile tries to ascertain the ease (or otherwise) of re-accessing the Magic Society's library, determining from the local constable and the American Magician Will Crowther - who has also re-appeared, that not  only has a lot of evidence been taken, but a bald man was seen to have made off with most of the books. Crowther also reveals that he managed to spirit Sinead away before she got arrested for being a disguised Irish lass impersonating a dodgy American Magician in the pay of Chinese Sorcerors, or something.

'Don't look at it! Don't look at it!'

 

In a definitive last act, having left LeClair back in the arms of his girlfriend Elaine...and after McDade has interviewed him (for the Cthulhu Mythos at least), the characters find Karl Weiss the German Magician who seems to be to blame for all of this, forcing him to hand over the strange book that started this whole thing... an immaculate English tranlation of the 14th centruy 'Ctahht Aquidatat', stamped with the markings of the British Museum and clearly nicked...The Prof pockets it.

I simply can't imagine what it looks like..ummm...DON'T LOOK AT IT!

 As the characters make their way to Southampton a few days later, a strange bald man with crates of what might be books, or something more sinister...appears to be awaiting his turn at the ticket office...

 

Shadowdark #8 'So...apart from the flesh eating creepers, is everything else ok?'

The party, patching itself up after the owlbear and the death of ...what was his name?...and now porting two baby owlbears (since...why not), move to the ground level cavern where they saw the wagon wheel (and not in a good way).

Balin leads the way - for 5 minutes anyway

 The cavemouth stinks of rot, and is covered in malign looking fungus and rotten plant life, ...but they go in anyway. Lighting a torch, and keeping an eye out however, is not enough for them to see the floor pit trap, with spikes and such...and Jeralt and Balin fall in...the characters behind them narrowly avoiding the trap themselves...the fall triggering an attack from the flesh eating creepers on one side, whilst Jeralt the Paladin, managing to get out of the pit trap, faces giant rats on the other..

Creepers - who clearly have gym memberships

Now these guys seem easy to take down  - until they don't. Balin, having taken damage from the pit, is a 'bit' wounded. Bear that in mind.

Not this Balin...

The party move on to explore the complex, encountering the cannibal creepers' 'larder' (ewww) and more of the warrior creeper types in hidden chambers, at which point the wounded Balin is taken down in combat...with two rounds to live; even the multitude of party members that get to him, seem unable to save him as he bleeds to death...oh Shadowdark, thou art a harsh gaming environment ;)   

ummm man down!

Somebody save him dammit!

 Busted up, the party elect to use Mountainholme - the magic shield - to barricade their position, the shield now passing to Lidda the halfling (whom its magic will turn into a dwarf by morning, meaning that she will have to wear boots - it's complicated...).  

Party of five - Dagmara, Karlyle, Jeralt, Bjorn and Lidda the halfling-uhh dwarf...

 And then, there were five left... :O

 

Call of Cthulhu, Episode #14 - 'Now that's Magic!'

With McDaid safely ensconced 'on the inside' - even though it may be a very dangerous place to be, the remaining characters deliberate what to do, having received his letter from the American Magician - Will Crowther.

He tells them of strange crates which are to be sent to the show next day. Bearing in mind that they are now aware that the Prime Minister will be there...

'I'm sure McDaid will be fine working undercover...'

 ...they deliberate the following plans:

• Plan A- Straight up assault on the house of the Chinese Magician - Ching Lung Soo, with the Lewis gun 
• Plan B - Disguising Sinead as Crowther (she rolls a 03) and getting her inside the house
• Plan C - Again, a straight up assault on the house of the Chinese Magician - Ching Lung Soo, with the Lewis gun...um, it's a bit like Plan A
• Plan D - Bearing in mind what the trucks might be carrying, possibly sabotaging them before they can leave the house (preferably when McDaid is not inside - although to be fair...he may be dispensable?) 
• Plan E - Another straight up assault on the house of the Chinese Magician - Ching Lung Soo, ...did I mention the Lewis gun? haven't we um..?
• Plan F - Taking out the trucks en route with a planned 'accident' involving (1) a car crash, (2) Sinead's unstable 'devices' ...or, since said devices are beginning to 'weep' dangerously, a combination of both ideas.

'I believe that I can summarise these plans, as a load of these...!'

  Watching the trucks at the back of the Ching Lung Soo's Surbiton townhouse, the characters note that there are two. Crowther informs them that they will be used to move crates to the theatre. Resolving to stop the crates en route, the party adopts 'Plan F'.

"Wait! That's your plan to stop me? Really?"

Clearly Ching Lung Soo hopes to summon something nasty - and it looks like the man they seek - poor old Phillip LeClair ...is done for? ...somehow part of the plan and already lost to fate...

They spend the day getting a university car for the 'incident' whilst Sinead gathers the components of her 'Crowther disguise'. 

They outmaneuver the trucks as they leave, leaving Sinead with her special 'street package' for the second truck...which she lobs successfully into the back and it goes off in the leafy London street, shattering windows, NPCs, cultists, and the local peace,the Professor and McLeoud watch nonchalantly from a sidestreet, ready to slam into the first truck...when...a ghostly apparition of Phillip LeClair appears in the rear seat...on fire...and very briefly...oops!

'You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off...'

 He warns them that:

'...you must help me...get me back from this accursed place...you must get me back...stop the Chinaman...BUT OPEN THE GATE!..OPEN THE GATE! for pity's sake!'

...oooh scary

 

They slowly work out, that the crates contain summoning obelisks, and that Ching Luing Soo is using the trapped Phillip as some sort of sacrificial medium to summon the evil Lan Shee entity...which means that Phillip might yet be alive, and somehow they have to interrupt the ritual to get him back? ...I mean that sounds plausible, right??? 

'Part 3, section 2.3 of Plan F (car whacks truck 1in side on London side-street)'...is therefore not carried out, and the party resolves to attend the Magic Show instead, hoping that somehow, they can save Phillip, and also ensure that the Prime Minister is not swallowed by something large and slimy. 

On the way, Sinead and Crowther come up with a new idea for a trick - since she now looks like him - they could pull off a teleport scam!..I mean trick! They plan how it will work.

'Ta Dahhhhhh! Spoilers - this movie is ruined in the next line...'

 Sinead smuggles Crowther in, outlining to the police outside the theatre that he is 'his' twin and obviously part of the trick ...it seems completely plausible.

McLeoud convinces the heavy police presence that he is a special investigator...and the show gets underway.

Ching Lung Soo announces with a special bang of the gong - that 'Tonight's show will be one that you will never, ever forget , Ladies and Gentlemen...'

...real time footage, of the actual gong...no kitchen appliances were harmed in the making of this programme

 A few dodgy magicians present their tricks...and Crowther and his 'twin' go down a storm...proving that teleportation up the corridor from one box to another IS indeed possible...(as Crowther falls through the stage and the disguised Sinead emerges from the box she has been hiding in further up the aisle ..GENIUS! - definitely original, honest!). Even the PM claps.

A nervous Karl Weiss and 'the lovely Karla' then take to the stage, strangely not performing the 'vanish' trick that he stole from Leclair...

The lovely Karla...and some bloke.

...but it is almost time for the finale - the great trick of Ching Lung Soo...what could go wrong?