Session #3 "Night of the Jackal"

London, 1890s. Retired members of British military regiments the Buffs are dropping like flies.  First in what seem like accidents, then what are clearly brutal murders.

Our intrepid investigators - wealthy twins Quentin and Emily Harwood - hardy adventurers though constantly feuding; Mirela Babtista, a Russian gypsy and sometimes spy, and Theodosia Throckmorton, a young Egyptologist and occultist, find themselves drawn in ever deeper when they become almost-witnesses to the murder themselves, and the Harwoods cousin, Alan Paice, finds himself threatened by the dark forces gathering around them.  

All roads lead to a retired army colonel with a dark secret, and a showdown with cultists, zombies, and thing with the head of a jackal...

This was our first Gaslight session and it seems to have been a big hit.  Players took some very unexpected turns with their characters (yay!) and had a real close call with the Child of the Sphinx and the cultists at the end.  Doesn't hurt that this was a well-written and inspiring scenario.  I made minimal changes to the thing.  We ended up going way past our intended 3-hour mark (5 hours all told!), and that seems to be a good sign that people were into it.

Session #2: Dead in the Water

 

Our heroes are taking some r&r in the charming seaport town of Kingsport.  There they find themselves drawn into the mystery involving a rash of disappearances of fishermen and boaters.  Via a twisted path with several blind alleys, they find themselves delving into scandalous events in the town's remote past, and a ghost ship terrorizing the seas, ending in a confrontation with the ghost ship, its crew, and the coast guard.  

Session #2 went pretty well insofar as everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.  Despite a lot of prep though, I don't think I handled the scenario as well as I could.  I was unprepared for some of the paths the team went down, and didn't have anything to offer them (oops!  major GM fail).  I also didn't exploit the setting nearly enough.  If I run it again I definitely think it deserves two sessions, and more immersion in weirdness that is Kingsport, including some red herrings which wouldn't have helped them solve the mystery but would have been fun to play out!

Session #1(!): The Haunting (aka The Corbitt House)

 After lo these many years, it has begun…

Though I’d wanted to return to rpg’s for many years, and started developing some potential campaigns in 2008 with the release of Chaosium’s Basic Role Playing, life continued to intervene for another decade-plus.  

Then, just as I was almost ready to start again, the pandemic arrived, and put all my plans (for games and everything else) on hold for another 20 months.

But, on August 15, it finally happened, and I again sat around a table with some friends for a few hours of dice-rolling and imagination.  

And, it seems, it was a success!  

So now, with this long-overdue campaign at last underway, let us begin following the adventures of our intrepid investigators.

Case # 1 – The Haunting aka The Corbitt House

Dramatis Personae:

Judge Samuel Prescott Plamondon, retired judge

Dr. John Silence, theologian and occultist

Vlad, man of mystery

Our tale began at a private (ahem) cocktail party, where a late-evening conversation with a local acquaintance led to a request to investigate a possibly “haunted” property in Winthrop, MA.  

Accepting the job, our intrepid investigators* went to work, with Vlad checking out the neighborhood and the outside of the Corbitt house (unrevealing) , while Dr. Silence attempted to communicate with the unfortunate former occupants (a somewhat inconclusive but hopefully creepy affair), and Judge Plamondon dug through public records to learn the house’s unsavory history – short-term tenants, rumors of hauntings, and a former occupant with sinister occult connections.

This led to a trip to the ruins of the Church of Our Lord, Keeper of Secrets (that name drew a collective exclamation of enthusiasm), a burned-out crypt of creepiness, wherein our heroes scored themselves a full-on copy of De Vermis Mysteriis (I wanted them to have access to some good magic and potential Cthulhoid knowledge right out of the gate – we’ll see what they do with it).

Finally, it was time to pay a formal visit to the Corbitt house.  After a close call with some very dangerous poltergeist activity, and a thorough investigation by the still very skeptical Judge P, it was time for a full-on assault on the house’s deepest, darkest secret – predicated by some serious debate about whether it was even worth the risk!  

The denouement, as the team faced off with the final menace of the Corbitt house, was one tense affair.  Only some quick-action and good educated guess saved Vlad from being torn to shreds.

With the Corbitt house destroyed, our heroes returned to Arkham … with some reading material…

*We have committed the heresy of not concerning ourselves with how these characters came together, or (gasp!) what their motivation is to pursue sinister mysteries.  Suffice it to say that (1) the already know each other and (2) it wouldn’t be much of a gaming session if they didn’t choose to investigate. To paraphrase Dickens, we must accept that these characters would go adventuring, or nothing wonderful will come of it.

Comment: After all these years, the hoariest of all Call of Cthulhu scenarios still works!  It seems the scenario was a hit (I know I had a good time) and the game is at last, afoot!