Salt! We need more salt! {A Call of Cthulhu report}
Last night I ran Team Teen through their first Call of Cthulhu adventure...a scene I could never guessed would happen - me running Call of Cthulhu for four (+ one observer non-player) teenage girls...
Now I had run Dungeon Crawl Classics for this group before, but DCC is generally more fast and furious action that holds the attention; this was a classic CoC scenario - something I sum up as; investigation, preparation/creeping horror and final confrontation. So I was a little uneasy. I worried the girls would get bored/distracted/wander away.
I was pleasantly wrong on all accounts.
The scenario was a mash-up of the Crack'd and Crook'd Manse (from Mansions of Madness) and Mike Ferguson's Abominations of the Amazon (from Goodman Games Long Reach of Evil). In Crack'd the initiating victim was a South American explorer returned with a unwanted "friend"so it was pretty easy to tie in and add some clues for a follow-up game.
The girls randomly generated their stats and built their own characters and (with only a little guiding) came up with their own backstory;
The party was built around Katherine Strauss, a heiress and dilettante cursed with being a genius, and a woman, in the 1920s (with no desire to be a 'flapper'), who also thought most people were idiots and kept a detective agency in Arkham, Mass. and coterie of less intelligent women around to amuse and distract her from ennui.
Peaches (a slightly overweight) Occultist - played by a Ms. Teen Beauty Queen (the irony's of random character creation never fail to amuse me) who was a broke con-woman who maybe 1/4 believed in her own mysticism...until that one night that a too serious fellow occultist opened a door to somewhere else...and let something in that slaughtered everyone but Peaches - thanks to a deft tripping of a fellow occultist that would have beat Peaches to the door. Life is now good, mooching off Miss Strauss, except for the persistent sleep walking and nightmares. (Has 10% in Mythos and Sleepwalking disorder)
Marie - Engineer and survivor of a previous adventure where she and Leroya Jenkins managed to banish a something from beyond from a rural farmhouse. Part-time teacher at Miskotonic University Department of Engineering and handy-woman for Miss Strauss. She is capable, intelligent, fit...and incredibly lazy.
Leroya Jenkins - Amazon-like athlete, bodyguard, driver, and hyper-violent henchwoman to Miss Strauss, also a survivor of previous encounter with the Mythos.
The Strauss Detective Agency received a letter from the rural town of Gamwell, Mass from the Dodge Law firm offering to engage the Agency to determine the fate of one of their wealthy clients, a Walter Cornthwaite (hereto and thereafter referred to by the girls as Mr. Corn). I threw out a $100 retainer offer for a few days work, and the girls bit - of course Strauss would gain half, and the other three moochers could split the rest. {Teagan, the gal playing Strauss, pointed out to me during a break that the other three players were actually risking their characters lives for about 17 bucks each!}
Cast:
Peaches - Cheyenne
Leroya Jenkins - Liz
Katherine Strauss - Teagan
Marie - Peepers
The Rolls
Anyway, they went to meet with the Dodge brothers, and quickly guessed that these weasels were just trying to do the minimum to be able to declare Mr. Corn dead and sell the mansion at a profit. So, at least a little part of the group wanted to find Corn alive, just to hose the lawyers. They picked through the legal documents and were able to find that Corn had asked for the delivery of a dump truck of salt that was never delivered. The meeting done, and it was night, the women retired to the town boarding house. Due to her (sanity loss mental issue) habit of sleep walking, Peaches was strapped to her bed by Marie and Leroya. The night, thus, passed uneventfully.
I really don't make folks do this, but the first thing they did after leaving the law offices was split the party. Leroya and Peaches headed back to Arkham to collect delving supplies and make inquiries of the occult community. They bought gear, and salt bags, but got nothing (useful) from the occultists. They also experienced the non-wired world of 1920s America as well as unpaved roads - which took them out for the day.
Strauss and Marie got to digging through the library, the deed office, and pretty much anything they could get from the town, including the house's history of two mass murders (with regular occupants safely living there in between). Also, they found that the now Sheriff had been the discovering deputy from the last mass murder, and had a deep desire to kill the murderer if he ever showed up. Disturbed...the two also found that Mr. Corn had come back from an expedition to the Amazon in the last couple of years, but did not seem interested in going out again.
That night, the group stayed again at the boarding house, Peaches again strapped to the bed to avoid misadventure.
{I use the Gumshoe concept of the investigators should get something for asking the right questions, but by no means was taking it easy on the gals. However, while they did not do exceptionally well on personality skill checks, as well as missing some leads - they did hit the right places and got a 80% view of what was going on.}
The next day, they decided to head to the mansion. They had already guessed that the place was WAY out in the country, and it was. They passed all the neighbors and went straight to the house. After breaking the fence lock to get on the grounds, Leroya thought she saw something and crashed the car (broke right front headlight). Miss Strauss' only reaction was - "You're paying for that..."
Ignoring her boss, Leroya headed for what she had spotted...a shed. Inside, while creepy, all that really happened was that Leroya fell into some tools, cutting her neck. Two accidents in about ten minute, Leroya was not having a good day!
The group had a key to the house so got in easy enough, and began exploring, with Miss Strauss and Marie taking their trusty shotguns, Leroya and Peaches carrying flares, lantern, and pockets full of salt. . They were amazed at how decayed the place was - it had only been vacant for a couple weeks, yet looked very dilapidated. They went through all of the books moldering in the library and again discovered clues that pointed to something going wrong in the Amazon.
After a few jump scares, the group aimed for the basement - the door seemed locked. Also, there seemed a line of broken salt on the floor. After Marie used her lock picking...nope, it is not locked, but something was still blocking it. Enter Leroya and her skills at destroying things...the door didn't have a chance.
The basement was dark, with an unsettling air. Peaches had brought some flares from Arkham and threw one into the basement. The earthen floor was littered with bones and debris...and something moving in the corner. As Leroya aimed the bulls-eye of a kerosene lantern at the movement, all were shocked at the mass of alien protoplasm, with partially digested animals, servants and Mr. Corn floating in its mass.
Mad combat ensued. Miss Strauss and Marie blazed away with shotguns as the creature created six attack tentacles and Leroya and Peaches threw hands full of salt. The salt seemed to do more than the shotguns, and after emptying the weapons, Strauss and Marie ran to the car to get the large bags of salt that Peaches and Leroya had left in the trunk of the Rolls. All of the gals took hits from the the tentacles, and even destroyed some, but the creature just created more. The bags of salt seemed to really hurt the creature. After throwing the last of the four bags and hands of salt at the creature, it was still kicking. Now desperate, Peaches threw another flare on the creature and Leroya followed with the kerosene lantern.
The fire, following the salt, was too much for the creature - it expires, yet the fire catches the wood of the basement and soon the mansion is in flames.
While the girls escaped with their lives (and sanity reward) the Dodge lawyers sued for destroying the mansion. With good lawyers of her own, Strauss was able to tie the issue in court...until the women received an unusual ally. The Sheriff unexpectedly weighed in for Strauss Agency. Why? he had found the charred skeleton of the old ax murderer in the mansion's remains, and was secretly pleased along with many other townsfolk that the haunted place was gone.
Future adventure: Looking into what happened in South America? {Long Reach of Evil}
Now I had run Dungeon Crawl Classics for this group before, but DCC is generally more fast and furious action that holds the attention; this was a classic CoC scenario - something I sum up as; investigation, preparation/creeping horror and final confrontation. So I was a little uneasy. I worried the girls would get bored/distracted/wander away.
I was pleasantly wrong on all accounts.
The scenario was a mash-up of the Crack'd and Crook'd Manse (from Mansions of Madness) and Mike Ferguson's Abominations of the Amazon (from Goodman Games Long Reach of Evil). In Crack'd the initiating victim was a South American explorer returned with a unwanted "friend"so it was pretty easy to tie in and add some clues for a follow-up game.
The girls randomly generated their stats and built their own characters and (with only a little guiding) came up with their own backstory;
The party was built around Katherine Strauss, a heiress and dilettante cursed with being a genius, and a woman, in the 1920s (with no desire to be a 'flapper'), who also thought most people were idiots and kept a detective agency in Arkham, Mass. and coterie of less intelligent women around to amuse and distract her from ennui.
Peaches (a slightly overweight) Occultist - played by a Ms. Teen Beauty Queen (the irony's of random character creation never fail to amuse me) who was a broke con-woman who maybe 1/4 believed in her own mysticism...until that one night that a too serious fellow occultist opened a door to somewhere else...and let something in that slaughtered everyone but Peaches - thanks to a deft tripping of a fellow occultist that would have beat Peaches to the door. Life is now good, mooching off Miss Strauss, except for the persistent sleep walking and nightmares. (Has 10% in Mythos and Sleepwalking disorder)
Marie - Engineer and survivor of a previous adventure where she and Leroya Jenkins managed to banish a something from beyond from a rural farmhouse. Part-time teacher at Miskotonic University Department of Engineering and handy-woman for Miss Strauss. She is capable, intelligent, fit...and incredibly lazy.
Leroya Jenkins - Amazon-like athlete, bodyguard, driver, and hyper-violent henchwoman to Miss Strauss, also a survivor of previous encounter with the Mythos.
The Strauss Detective Agency received a letter from the rural town of Gamwell, Mass from the Dodge Law firm offering to engage the Agency to determine the fate of one of their wealthy clients, a Walter Cornthwaite (hereto and thereafter referred to by the girls as Mr. Corn). I threw out a $100 retainer offer for a few days work, and the girls bit - of course Strauss would gain half, and the other three moochers could split the rest. {Teagan, the gal playing Strauss, pointed out to me during a break that the other three players were actually risking their characters lives for about 17 bucks each!}
Cast:
Peaches - Cheyenne
Leroya Jenkins - Liz
Katherine Strauss - Teagan
Marie - Peepers
The Rolls
Anyway, they went to meet with the Dodge brothers, and quickly guessed that these weasels were just trying to do the minimum to be able to declare Mr. Corn dead and sell the mansion at a profit. So, at least a little part of the group wanted to find Corn alive, just to hose the lawyers. They picked through the legal documents and were able to find that Corn had asked for the delivery of a dump truck of salt that was never delivered. The meeting done, and it was night, the women retired to the town boarding house. Due to her (sanity loss mental issue) habit of sleep walking, Peaches was strapped to her bed by Marie and Leroya. The night, thus, passed uneventfully.
I really don't make folks do this, but the first thing they did after leaving the law offices was split the party. Leroya and Peaches headed back to Arkham to collect delving supplies and make inquiries of the occult community. They bought gear, and salt bags, but got nothing (useful) from the occultists. They also experienced the non-wired world of 1920s America as well as unpaved roads - which took them out for the day.
Strauss and Marie got to digging through the library, the deed office, and pretty much anything they could get from the town, including the house's history of two mass murders (with regular occupants safely living there in between). Also, they found that the now Sheriff had been the discovering deputy from the last mass murder, and had a deep desire to kill the murderer if he ever showed up. Disturbed...the two also found that Mr. Corn had come back from an expedition to the Amazon in the last couple of years, but did not seem interested in going out again.
That night, the group stayed again at the boarding house, Peaches again strapped to the bed to avoid misadventure.
{I use the Gumshoe concept of the investigators should get something for asking the right questions, but by no means was taking it easy on the gals. However, while they did not do exceptionally well on personality skill checks, as well as missing some leads - they did hit the right places and got a 80% view of what was going on.}
The next day, they decided to head to the mansion. They had already guessed that the place was WAY out in the country, and it was. They passed all the neighbors and went straight to the house. After breaking the fence lock to get on the grounds, Leroya thought she saw something and crashed the car (broke right front headlight). Miss Strauss' only reaction was - "You're paying for that..."
Ignoring her boss, Leroya headed for what she had spotted...a shed. Inside, while creepy, all that really happened was that Leroya fell into some tools, cutting her neck. Two accidents in about ten minute, Leroya was not having a good day!
The group had a key to the house so got in easy enough, and began exploring, with Miss Strauss and Marie taking their trusty shotguns, Leroya and Peaches carrying flares, lantern, and pockets full of salt. . They were amazed at how decayed the place was - it had only been vacant for a couple weeks, yet looked very dilapidated. They went through all of the books moldering in the library and again discovered clues that pointed to something going wrong in the Amazon.
After a few jump scares, the group aimed for the basement - the door seemed locked. Also, there seemed a line of broken salt on the floor. After Marie used her lock picking...nope, it is not locked, but something was still blocking it. Enter Leroya and her skills at destroying things...the door didn't have a chance.
The basement was dark, with an unsettling air. Peaches had brought some flares from Arkham and threw one into the basement. The earthen floor was littered with bones and debris...and something moving in the corner. As Leroya aimed the bulls-eye of a kerosene lantern at the movement, all were shocked at the mass of alien protoplasm, with partially digested animals, servants and Mr. Corn floating in its mass.
Mad combat ensued. Miss Strauss and Marie blazed away with shotguns as the creature created six attack tentacles and Leroya and Peaches threw hands full of salt. The salt seemed to do more than the shotguns, and after emptying the weapons, Strauss and Marie ran to the car to get the large bags of salt that Peaches and Leroya had left in the trunk of the Rolls. All of the gals took hits from the the tentacles, and even destroyed some, but the creature just created more. The bags of salt seemed to really hurt the creature. After throwing the last of the four bags and hands of salt at the creature, it was still kicking. Now desperate, Peaches threw another flare on the creature and Leroya followed with the kerosene lantern.
The fire, following the salt, was too much for the creature - it expires, yet the fire catches the wood of the basement and soon the mansion is in flames.
While the girls escaped with their lives (and sanity reward) the Dodge lawyers sued for destroying the mansion. With good lawyers of her own, Strauss was able to tie the issue in court...until the women received an unusual ally. The Sheriff unexpectedly weighed in for Strauss Agency. Why? he had found the charred skeleton of the old ax murderer in the mansion's remains, and was secretly pleased along with many other townsfolk that the haunted place was gone.
Future adventure: Looking into what happened in South America? {Long Reach of Evil}
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