"Th Mystery of Loch Feinn" 8/27/23

In which our intrepid band of 1890's investigators - twins Emily and Quentin Harwood, espionage agent Mirela Baptista, and occult researcher Thodosia Throckmorton, are engaged to investigate the death of Prof. Gibson in a remote village in rural Scotland.

It seems the good Prof's researches, which centered on what he believed to be a prehistoric survival in the local loch, led him to a bad end.  The local authorities claimed he must have gotten too drunk at the pub one night, accidentally set himself on fire while lighting his pipe, and drowned in the loch.  But his diaries suggest something different - run-ins with an extensive local clan, a mystery involving standing stones around the loch, and the sinister legend of a kelpie, or "water horse" inhabiting the loch.

For those not familiar, "Loch Feinn" goes all the way back to 1983's Cthulhu Companion, and is a very sketchy scenario. containing some effective atmospheric set pieces, but leaving a lot to the keeper to work up.  This especially meant fleshing out the NPCs, generating stats for a shitload of MacAllans (aforementioned local clan), and deciding how to build up atmosphere and mystery and events in the tiny village to direct and misdirect the investigators.  I conceived a creepy dream sequence that I think added a lot of atmosphere.  I also had fun channeling Amybeth McNulty's performance in Anne With An E as a local girl who's gotten herself.  The monster of this scenario, the nature of which I will not give away, is a difficult one but full of spooky potential.

I think if I were to run this again I'd expand the NPC's and the local color a bit further, but this apparently worked well.  It's also our first scenario to take more than one session to play out, so based on that I'd say there was enough material to satisfy.  The investigators took many unexpected turns here and I had to improv quite a bit - all of which I think is good.  Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves a lot.  

Since I found the illustration of the "water horse" from the Companion unappealing, I used an illustration from The Sea Serpents Around Us, a beloved children's book by Lois and Louis Darling:

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.