GM: Sam Tillis
Players: Adrienne Mueller, Dylan Arena, James Lawton, Sean Nittner, Sarah Terman, Matthew Fisher
System: Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition
Content warning: body horror bits masked (like this)
A bit of reprieve after the last two sessions of frantic and desperate actions.
Leads
Things we wanted to explore in different parts of China:
- H’san writing about greater seals of warding in Shanghai
- Shanghai Tiger Bar
- Jack Brady seen in Hong Kong (Yellow Lily Bar on Wang Shen Street)
- A boat with name starting in “Dar” docked Shanghai
- Ho Fang, the shipping company and the individual
Also things we had in our minds:
- The god in India served by Taun Kaur that was not one of the faces of the crawling chaos
- The telegram sent to Dr. Kalfour in search of the broken seal.
- Colby talking to cats, woo!
Leaving the contient
A fathom of horrors and loving friends left behind. Time unfurls as we travel to see new horrors. We hop from Mombasa to Aiden to Ceylon to Saigon to Hong Kong (where we made a brief stop) and finally to Shanghai. The route was efficient. We made it there in 18 days. Arriving on the first of June, 1925.
Jimmy and Charles
Jimmy (mostly recovered now from the burns) approached Charles “So, you’ve joined the circus, right?”
“Seems like they are heading in the right direction.”
“I can’t say if everyone in this group is insane or they ware the one ones who are sane and the whole world has gone made.”
“I’ve seen things in the mountain that were not of this earth. If they are mad, it is catching.”
Jimmy smiled “Ah, you’ll fit right in.”
Charles, ever ingratiating himself said “Let’s have a drink.”
Jimmy chuckled “You’ll definitely fit right in.”
The two man drank and shared stories. Jimmy talked about being a cabbie in New York but after all he had seen, that seemed like another life, a drawing made in crayon. Charles told the story of the jaguar attack that scarred him. He was happy to talk about hunting, not so much about his family life.
“A kid in India? What’s she doing there?”
Charles had to search for the words “Studying… I haven’t heard from her in a few years.” And they moved onto other topics.
Colby and Nails
The captain of the ship asked Colby if he could do something about Nails, who was apparently drinking their supplies dry.
Nails’ reply. “Did you know….the captain can go fuck himself?”
Colby persisted and promised Nails a BIG morale boost on Hong Kong if he could just slow down a bit on the trip.
“Hong Kong isn’t like places you’ve been. There’s no central government to take care of problems. Factions, gangs, brotherhoods, secret societies that go back thousands of years are in control. Say the wrong word to the wrong person and you’re going to have an intimate encounter with a knife.”
“Well, if that happens, I want you there with me” Colby entreated and they agreed to murder each other’s enemies. Oh, boys!
Amos and Iris
Iris planted the dream seeds in pots and they stayed with her in her cabin on the ship. Spending time with the plans she noticed some of her fears of water had abated [They were absorbing the powerful emotions]. As they grew she could see it was not a normal plant. No clear analogs to extant botany. Not sure how it would be come a “tree”, but for not it was more fern-like, with long fronds that hung like drooping tendrils and exuded a pale white viscous globules of sweat. As the fronds made contact with the clay pots that held them, the bleached the color out of the pots. To observers it was eerily beautiful, unnervingly horrific, or both.
“How is the plant?” Amos asked as he entered her room.
“Coming along well. It doesn’t photosynthesize. Seems more like Who tan the Sword of Dreaming, but it is not exerting carnivorous tendencies.” [Sean’s idea after the fact, it is an emotivore].
“It’s absorbing color?” Amos pondered the properties [Mythos roll, hard success] and believed it was having an effect on Iris, strengthening her connection to Dreaming and weakening her connection to this world. Probably draining the color into dream. The sap of the plant from dreams might be used by sorcerers for alchemical properties. It probably drinks any powerful emotion.
The performed an experiment by placing a photo that Francois took of the sun setting over the pyramids as we first entered Cairo, where we all felt an incredible sense of awe. While it trained the color as it had hat from the clay pots, the picture itself did not seem to feed it.
Colby and Catherine
Colby had interest not just in the functioning but in the underlying principles of the Yith technology and wanted to understand the physics behind them. Catherine could have not have been more elated to share her thoughts on 4th and 5th dimensional models (“what does time pass through?”)…or at least she would have been elated if the plants did not absorb these powerful emotions.
Instead she felt a memory of the excitement she had making discoveries, that should could not capture again. It was frightful. The notion that cryptography and mathematics and physics and pattern matching and theoretical models for the major forces propelling every particle of the universe forward were not filling her with excitement and anticipation was the thing of nightmares.
The did study together amicably, Catherine just knew something was missing.
Charles and the crew
Charles went abut the voyage actively trying to make friends with most of the investigators. He arrived early for meals, stayed up late to drink or smoke. Talked of boxing and rugby. Asked about exploits and sought practical methods for helping us. He was only reserved in the presence of Catherine.
Charles’ conviction that having a Morsely present was an important aspect of the team’s success. In the wee hours, to those who would listen he shared that he was not with us because he wanted revenge for Evangeline, that was her motivation. He wanted a better world for his daughters, and hoped that one day he would reconnect with them.
A day on the beach
It was a sunny day on the beaches of Ceylon when we arrived in port for resupply.
- Amos and Charles has talked about practicing some fisticuffs and finally had a chance. Initially Amos started off going easy on Charles and then soon regretted it. The older man still seemed in the prime of his life, and the power of his blows was ferocious [Hard success on Brawl for both of them].
- Colby and Catherine left the boat still talking physics, but upon seeing the action, Colby asked Nails if he’d like to spar as well. It was another good match but Colby prevailed [Extreme success vs. Hard success]. “You cheated, but I don’t know how” retorted Nails. Colby said “There’s no cheating in a fight.” Nails thought on that and then smiled “You must have cheated in another way.”
- Catherine and Iris sat on the beach in their modest bathing suits (of course all black for Iris) and watched the boys tussle about on the beach.
With the plant far away on the boat, it was a delightful time for all. [+1 San for all]
Amos and Catherine
After some discussion of the dreamscape images that they captured form M’weru, they decided to enter dreaming together to see what Catherine could make of the Blue Temple. It felt Yithian, but not made by the Yith. It was constructed by someone else to replicate their work. An imperfect replication that Catherine meant to improve upon.
Floors glowed. 2000′ ceilings. In the center was a perfect hemisphere, perhaps 500′ feet across. An energy source? The place felt “loose” in time, but not out of time all together.
Catherine did some tests to see if the energy source was real, that is to say, if it could power things outside of dream and found that while it would charger her Mark 2 device in Dreaming, the charge did not remain in the real world.
Catherine believes this was an attempt by M’weru (or someone else she encounter in dream) to create a model of the Yith, and that now having this space available to her, she could improve on it. Much as the memories that Amos first formed in Dream were not with him when he woke, Catherine believes that if she wants to create a Mark 3 device, the source of its power could be this place.
Downtime actions
- Colby trained in physics (twice)
- Catherine trained in physics and arabic
- Francois studied spells and tried to learn the Barrier of Naach-Tith. He went deep in the hull of the boat, underwater, and entered a trance. He felt his body move to the other side of the depths, perhaps depths he had never left. He was a mote in the abyss, observed by Nodins. He heard the Lord of the Abyss through a disembodied voice “You would have me enable your small mind to hold this spell?” Francois entreated “My mind is often constrained to learn such things without aid.” After a time which could have been a moment or an eon he received a reply “I can provide that. You have served me well, but your companions do not…” Clearly insinuating that Francois should grow his flock. The eye on the horizon grew to such an extent that it was all that Francois could see. “Fix it and I will fix you”. Francois woke to find himself stooped over the bone spear which was about to impale his own eye and he flinched away!
- Charles worked on coordinating us better as a group. [Gained 6 bonus dice that could be distributed to group members who were following his guidence]
- He also practiced shooting with Iris.
- Iris harvested the plant sap [critical success] and determined it won’t have its full effect until the plant is fully grown. The sap (goop?) has a resemblance to the fog that attached us in London. It isn’t the larval form of that, but it could be. This goop could be formed into almost any chemical compound, give the right influence.
- Francois tried to cast the spell Wheel of Mist. He almost faltered but pushed himself and succeeded! A possibility of disaster averted. It provided 30 minutes of protection in the Wheel of Mist. Inside of it Francois taught Amos to create the Barrier of Naach-Tith.
- Iris drank of the zoog wine and found it sweet [Training in Dreaming]. Catherine, feeling it due, watched over her in the waking world.
Catherine and Charles
Catherine smiled as she found Charles in the dining car and sat down with him. He stiffed somewhat as she sat down. “Charles, I’ve noticed how famously you’ve gotten along with everyone. Ingratiating yourself, proving useful, helping us coordinator our efforts, and making fast friends. With everyone in our party…except for me.”
Charles looked as if was going to reply but Catherine continued and the honey in her voice turned to steel. “It is perfectly fine if your hold me responsible for Evangeline’s death, I know I certainly do. One thing you will not do, however, is turn my companions against me.” She did all that should could to channel the former Morsely in this effort.
Charles had never once in his life stood up to Evangeline and seeing, if momentarily, her spirit reincarnated now, he wasn’t going to start. He assured Catherine he had no such intentions, and they quickly turned to gossiping about Reggie, that fine, very fine, lad.
Catherine and Francois
Seeing what a hazard it is to invest a portion of your own life into a magical artifact that you then throw at your foes, Catherine crated a tether for the spear so that Francois could retrieve it after being thrown.
Arrival in Hong Kong
At the customs office we realized we’d be able to carry along the spear and sword (antiquities), the yith artifacts (mechanical engineering studies), but the guns and certainly the opium would not pass inspection. After some back and forth, we elected to leave them on the boat rather than try to sneak, bribe, or con them into the city.
Hong Kong was a city of 750,000 very hot people. The sun was scorching and the city seemed to absorb the heat! Iris, now in charge of the purse strings (having inherited some of Evangeline’s fortune as well as Edwards) was unaccustomed to luxury. So despite Amos’ protestations, she did not get us a lodging in a hotel with air conditioning, but at least they had fans.
Li-Wen Cheng
At the concierge desk Iris asked if we could hire a translator who spoke English, Cantonese and Shanghainese. The concierge look a little put out and uncomfortable. “Well…there’s always Cheng, but she’s been in trouble with authorities from east to west.”
We liked her already. We met Li-Wen Cheng as as she was being thrown out of a bar and asked her about herself and if she would work for us. She studied first literature (blech) and then linguistics (even worse by her account). She spoke the languages we sought and was willing to work for an extended period, though she imagined she was just referred to get her out of town (probably true, but we liked her). She was skeptical and wanted to know if there was money? Yes. Hazard pay? Yes. Travel expenses? Yes. A letter of recommendation? That would depend on her service.
Iris introduced her to the rest of the group and we all descended upon her with questions. What is the best practice when getting kicked out of a bar? Tell me about your literature studies? (It turned out she had no knowledge of Mythos but did study western culture and was bored by it).
Cheng thought we were shady (accurate) but she liked us (extreme success on a charm roll). She joined our group with a warning “I don’t just piss off authorities. I’m honest and that makes everyone made”
Francois assured her that “we’re not a fan of masks.” [Contender for best line of the game]
On Cats
Amos received the telegram from Dr. Kalfour that they were searching outside the Red Pyramid but they were looking for a stone dropped in the sand six years ago…and there was a lot of sand to look through .
Amos, always looking for supernatural advantages asked Colby about the cat figuring he wore. “Colby, could you introduce me?”
“To who?”
“The felines.”
“You want me to introduce you to cats?” [Another contender for best line of the game, especially the way Dylan delivered it].
Not convinced it would do any good, Colby eventually found some nearby cats and with Amos at his side began following them through alleys. His understanding was that if there is any connection between Bastet and cats, they may be her worshipers, but she does not grant any special powers to them. Eventually they found a shrine that they felt only Colby could enter, but it went poorly inside. Colby overstepped and it seemed Bastet withdrew her favor. For not at least.
Yellow Lily (again)
We returned to the Yellow Lily (our first attempt was thwarted by language and cultural barriers). We bout the house a round of drinks and then showed pictures of the Carlyle expedition. Eventually, with further drinks ordered, learned that Rodger Carlyle, who looked very unwell, and Jack Brady had come here several times, then just Jack Brady, and then none of them at all.
The believe was they came here because it was the cheapest bar with the strongest drink. Brady had been looking for a place to put Roger. A hospital or asylum that could help him. After some digging we found the Hong Kong Sanctorum and Hospital in Happy Valley.
Travel accomodations
To get around the city with our rather large group (six investigators, plus Jimmy and Cheng) we had to rent not one, but two cars. Jimmy made clear to our second driver that he was the lead driver in charge.
Hong Kong Sanctorum and Hospital
We found no records for admission of a Rodger Carlyle, but through some bribes and charm we did find a man who fit his description admitted as Henry Gage. We traveled down the dirty hallways (with the dream plant under Iris’ arm) that seemed as much a prison as it was a hospital.
We were led to a padded room with a small window. Through it we could see the emaciated figure of Rodger Carlyle. He had an iron bar in his mouth to prevent him from self-cannibalization (we learned he had already eaten his tongue, lips and cheeks).
When we called his name (his real name) he recognized it, and it caused him to focus somewhat. Once we had his attention. “One June 10, 1919 you were at the Red Pyramid and you broke a sigil. Do you know where it is?”
Through the iron bar he struggled to sound out the word “Brady”.
“We know Shanghai is where they are working with the Yith artifacts.” Amos was trying to appeal to him as a cultist would “The fetid normalcy is against us. Who must we contact? Who is in charge?”
Rodger wailed in pain and moaned through the bar “No. No. Not again”. His lucidity faded and he fell into tantrums for a time.
Thankfully it seemed that after a moment, he had forgotten the prior part of the conversation and Catherine tried again. “Rodger. Please help us. We have to stop them. The sorcerers.” He tried to say something but we could not make out the words. Finally he used the metal plate to scrap a signal into the glass, that looked vaguely like a forward slash and a backwards P.
Catherine opened the small slot meant for transferring food to touch him and tried to help him see the past using postcognition but he was too far gone. She asked him about the Yith and through his bar he moaned out “The great plan” with eyes wide.
Rodger was too disturbed to speak with us further, but Amos speculated “we know the materials they need to make the devices. Maybe they can be tracked.”
Reality Check
After we left the hospital Li-Wen asked us point blank “What the hell was that?” Amos cast Earthly Serenity on her and we gave her the story. She took it about as well as we could have hoped.
Mapping the Stars
Amos and Catherine worked together to map the location of rituals that have happened so far and that we expect in the future. From our calculations, it seems that it couldn’t be on China proper, more like 200-300 miles off shore. We did some quick math and estimated that will probably take two days on the open water from a port in Shanghai.
Three days on a train
We boarded a train to Shanghai. On the way Li-Wen asked Amos to teach her the spell he cast on her (Earthly Serenity). She failed to learn it, or Amos failed to teach it, or she wasn’t prepared without any knowledge of the Mythos. Either way Li-Wen decided this meant the spell didn’t work or that Amos was a bad teacher.
She then moved onto a livelier topic, asking if Colby was in denial or just stupid? Catherine vehemently defended Dr. Slater’s methodology and claimed his academic principles exceeded all our ours because he was simply not willing to believe things are true without fully understanding them first.
“Are going to marry him?”
“I’m not sure what that would have to do with Dr. Slater’s academic integrity?” Catherine said as she blushed, and then remembered another principle of motion she wanted to examine further with the doctor.
Nails, meanwhile revealed that he had, at our request, acquired both guns and opium.
Shanghai
A low city protected from being flooded by the delta by dikes and embankments. As we arrived it smelled of low tide and sewage.
Nails gave us the history lesson that when the English forced appeared (by his account, civilizing the place) there developed three areas:
- International settlement
- French Concession
- The rest, mostly filled with Chinese people
Catherine was affronted by his depiction of the people and told him “Your vulgarity knows no end.”
“Thank you.” Nails was undaunted.
We found another hotel in the French Concession (thank you for the help Francois). Immediately we could tell there were eyes everywhere. Were the watching us? If so was it because we were foreigners or connect to the Great Plan? We couldn’t know.
Shanghai Courier
Iris and Charles met Anthony Cheng, editor of the Shanghai Courier, a local newspaper written in English, and asked him if there were any patterns of strange occurrences. Unfortunately, that sounded just like how life in Shanghai is. Brotherhood, sects, cults, and secret societies made everything Iris could describe just “occurrences”.
The one thing he could comment on though was the increase in street violence. Protestors who have been beaten back with violent retribution.
When asked about disappearances and killings, it was hard for Anthony to help. Affirming what Nails told us earlier “There is no real government. Warlords control everything. Japan’s imperial nature grows every bolder over time. People protest and they are punished or it.
Shanghai Library
Li-Wen and Amos went to the library in search of H’san or his work (the man Bundari met in dreams). They found no sign of him but they did notice the absence of several occult books. Books that had been checked out and never returned.
When Amos tried to find out where the books had gone and found the information was simply missing, perhaps never recorded Li-Wen told him this whole city was a shit show. The police are owned by gangs and no enforcement happens here unless you have he power to do it yourself.
Shanghai Tiger Bar
Catherine, Francois and Colby went to the seedy district the Tiger Bar was located it. The whole place was filled with bars, gambling halls, and flower girl shops. Catherine did not inquire over much about the latter.
The logo for the bar was a drunken tiger tripping over a stone. From outside we could tell there were lots of people going in and out of the bar, and all of them watched, and those watchers were watched in turn. The crowd was diverse but generally seemed poor, or at least not advertising their wealth.
In the area we could hear many languages spoken, including English, but it seemed you needed to speak five languages just to walk down the street and have any idea of what was happening around you.
To avoid entanglements we snuck in the service entrance in the back. The place was heavy with sweat and booze, it seemed to seep into your skin. We saw groups of Americans, Chinese, and a single Japanese man pretending to be drunk (noticed by Colby).
While there were no overt cult symbols, we still had no idea who here was a potential ally or foe.
Catherine and Francois went to the bar while Colby watched for threats. The bartender spoke English with a Scottish accept. “My names Fergus Chum, but most here just call me Mc’Chum). Catherine but a bit more of her usually suppressed Scottish accent in her voice and told him that they were delivering mail to someone at this address.
He went from friendly to grave when he saw the envelope (we flashed back to writing a letter to Jack Brady inviting him to meet us in a park). He told “Katie” that she had to be careful with the names she spoke out loud. She nodded and asked if it was possible for him to hand this parcel off discreetly. He said he’d hold if, and if someone came looking for it, he’d pass it along, but that seemed as far as he would commit to outload, though Catherine though he meant to do more.
To cover their exit, Colby walked out the front door on his own, drawing the attention of three men who first subtly and then very overtly followed him. He broke into a run and they drew sickle like blades as they chased him down. He almost got away but the closed in. Colby fended off two of their blows, and just as the third was about to bring his blade down, a shot rang out and he fell to the ground dead. The Japanese man who had feigned drunkenness at the bar was holding a pistol and told Colby “I think we should talk!”
