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 ...