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.