GM: Sam Tillis
Players: Adrienne Mueller, Dylan Arena, James Lawton, Sean Nittner, Sarah Terman, Matthew Fisher
System: Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition
Before the game, Same sent over this treasure trove of articles that we had collected about the Carlyle Expedition:
Floating above watery graves
Or so the boat ride felt for some of us. Iris get seasick easily. Francois fell into a depression (explained below) that weighed on him, and Colby was recovering from both his recent injury and the 100 seconds he spent unable to discern reality. Collectively we mourned the loss of so many innocent (and in some cases no so innocent) people. In retrospect I think that we silently swore we’d never let something like that happen again.
Here’s some of the activity we got up to:
- Francois read the Book of Eibon. A wizard who studied in a black mountain in the legendary land of Hyperborea. Withing it were several spells, but also a story that showed the utter inevitability our our own destruction. The wizards, far more powerful that we are, saw it, and they could not stop it. How could we do anything to alter the will of fathomless cosmic powers. (much san loss, much depression, some Mythos gained)
- Catherine had a thought, perhaps a faulty one, that if Colby’s traumatic experience might be lessened if he had a filter to view the world from. She constructed a set of glasses that inverted and then reverted images through mirrors so that Colby could narrow the spectrum of his sight as needed, and hopefully filter out the haunting elements.
- Amos, Colby, Reggie, and Iris practiced their skills, studied our leads, and got ready for arrival in London.
- Amos further studied the texts he had only before gleamed and gained more knowledge of the Mythos.
- Francois sat at the end of the ship, cigarette held lifelessly in his hand and stared out in the seemingly eternal expanse of the ocean around us.
An unlucky encounter with Customs
When we arrived, Sam had us make luck checks…and every single one of us failed, which was kind of hilarious. Customs decided to inspect all of our luggage, with varying results.
- Iris had a rifle, which she was allowed to keep, because it was her husbands, and it was for hunting.
- Francois and Amos had firearms, which were not so easily explained, and confiscated, but no further issues.
- Catherine’s luggage was filled with “science” stuff. The customers officer didn’t understand any of it, but he welcomed her home and stamped her passport with a smile.
- Colby’s luggage was uneventful and passed without concern.
- Reggie though… he had a definitely-not-stolen emerald the size of a fist. That was going to take some time (and help from the family) to sort out.
While Reggie battled customs, we did what research we could on the 1919 Carlyle expedition by talking to the dockmaster (who was not happy to have us poking around) and looking though the manifests. We found information on a ship (the Ivory Wind?) and that there was another passenger on the boat (who we later connected to be The Priestess from our earlier notes).
Adventures in London
We got an few hotel rooms, Jimmy rented a car, and we went about picking up the trails of the Carlyle expedition, including:
- Amos and Iris went to the London Museum and looked up text geography to try and indemnify where Amos’ visions were from. The found some books…and only some of them exploded in fire.
- Catherine and Reggie had a visit with Catherine’s father, who was concerned about her activity but supported her. He warned that the undersecretary we sought answers from about the incident in Kenya was likely the one who made up the story, and that we’d have to talk to someone there to learn the truth.
- In different formations we visited the Penhew Foundation. First Amos, Iris, and Catherine, who met Thomas Kinnary, who showed ups the public parts of the foundation, revealed he had little lover for Albert Penhew, but was otherwise unhelpful. Later Colby visited inquiring about funding for an expedition and met the head of the foundation Edward Gavigan, who we’re pretty sure intended for Colby to notice him closing a safe just before Colby entered his office.
- Francois found mentioned of Hyperborea in children’s books written by Michael Cross, an author in London.
- Reggie dodged all summons to meet with his family.
- Reggie did however cavort in gentlemen clubs to learn information about the Carlyle expedition.
- Iris steadfastly (as she would continue to do) tried to prevent Catherine from being drawn into the web that Amos and Francois already had gone down (studying Mythos and losing sanity in the process). She slowed the descent, but as you’ll see in the future, she couldn’t halt it.
- We had determined earlier that there was a expedition made use of a maritime chronometer, a device that allows you to determine the exact time while at sea… so we investigated solar eclipses and found that the next one looked very auspicious indeed, and would be centered in the Indian Ocean.
Book: Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley.
