Call of Cthulhu

Tuesday 1930-06-10

It is early morning as you reach the mainland.  Shortly after you land, another boat, this one with Kima and Natalie on board, arrive.  Kima hands Natalie a bag, wishes her good luck, then leaves again.

You group is now reduced to eight people; Natalie, Victor, Samuel and Samuel, Liza, Thomas, Magdalene Cooper and John Burnham.  Natalie has obviously gotten a few words of advice from Kima, like heading north to a settlement, and try to get transportation to Mangalore from there.

The trek up the coast is not a pleasant one.  You don’t have much food, nor much water, as you were warned not to drink the water from the streams.  But you do, after spending a night under the open sky, reach a small settlement named Chaudi.  Here, you find a Portuguese ship willing to take you to Mangalore.

After a couple of days on board, mostly spent in your cabins to avoid getting in the sailors’ way, you finally reach Mangalore.  Here, John Burnham arranges for hotel rooms for all of you, as well as a bath, clean clothes and dinner, telling you he will seek you out in the morning.

Sunday 1930-06-08

After a short while, Kima shows up and answers quite a few of your questions.  From what you understand, they sacrifice people to keep the Fire God appeased, but she stated that they only sacrificed willing victims.  She also denied having any knowledge of Molly or any of the other missing people.

According to her, the Fire God had called Sinclair and Keyes, and had somehow caused the shipwreck because of those two.  She also told them that the weather would clear the next day, and that the villagers would then take the shipwrecked to the mainland.

There was a feast that evening, and you were pretty much woken next morning by some screaming and shouting.  As you went to investigate, you learned that Eliza had attacked Tamal, Amo’s son, for some reason, and you were being kicked off the island.

After some persuasion, Amo grudgingly let you have guides and rowers, and after spending a whole day and a night at sea, you finally reach the mainland.

Sunday, 1930-06-08

As you prepare for breakfast, James Monroe approaches you and ask if you’ve seen Molly, his wife.  It seems she has gone missing.  One of you suggests he go looking for her, and he runs off into the woods, yelling her name.  You follow, and find her necklace, a thin silver chain with a silver cross.  You head towards the mountain at the center of the island, to look for her.

A couple of miles from the village, you find a small cave.  You decide to check it out, and enter, and find a tunnel leading down.  Sam Keyes brings out his lighter, and down you go.  After a little while, the lighter runs out of gas (or goes out for some other reason), and you try to get back to the surface by following the wall of the tunnel.  However, you somehow manage to get lost in the tunnels.

You spend some time trying to find your way through the cave system, and after an encounter with white monkeys, you eventually find yourself on a small ledge, looking down on a larger ledge above a great cave.

From here, you watch Amo throwing people down into a hole below the large ledge, clearly as sacrifices.  The first victim you saw being sacrificed was a young woman, it could have been Molly, though Sam (who was the only one watching) never saw her face.

After that, you waited, listening (and watching) as Amo threw person after person into the great hole below him.  Then the sounds stopped, the people left the cave, and a voice, Kima’s, told you that it was safe to come down.  Somehow, she’d noticed you up there, and she showed you the way out of the caves.  On the way out, Victor picked up a couple of journals he found in the cave.

She did not seem eager to answer any questions, though she did tell you you were perfectly safe, and that she would come by later that evening to answer your questions and explain everything.  You returned to the village, only to find that several others were missing as well; besides Molly, Jeff Lindley and James Sinclair were missing, as well as the professor and Kalap.  The two latter turned up soon after, though the professor was pale, and did not want to answer any questions.

The books you found seemed to be journals written by a sailor named Robert Keyes, possibly an ancestor of Sam Keyes.

Saturday, 1930-06-07

You talk to Tamal again, and he explains that there will, in fact, be sacrifices. He tells you that his father has a great deal of control over the villagers, and pretty much suggests that the only way you can make certain you won’t be sacrificed, is if you kill him.

As you do not quite trust Tamal, you decide to go talk to Amo, his father. He is not in his hut, however, but Sam Gallagher sneaks into his hut and looks around, and finds some interesting things:

-An idol, much like the statue Eliza found, only this one is bigger, about 6 inches tall, and made from something that looks like solid gold, with gemstones as eyes.

-A knife. The blade is approximately 12 inches long, double-edged, and almost three inches wide. It is flanked by two smaller serrated blades, parallell to the main blade. The handle is made from something that looks like white wood. Gallagher was pretty certain it was made from bone.

-A human skull.

-A small, tarnished silver crucifix

-A diary in Portugese. Gallagher could not understand it, but he did notice a few things, among others, the word ‘sacrifício’, along with the names ‘Sinclair’ and ‘Keyes’.

You also spoke to the professor, who told you that Amo had been asking questions about Sinclair and Keyes, and that he had mentioned some religious event happening tomorrow, possibly with some sort of sacrifice, and that the professor had been invited to come along.

That night, you posted guards in the huts, but nothing happened. You all woke up the next morning.

Friday 1930-06-06
During a lull in the storm (though the rain was still pouring down) you got the chance to look around a bit.  You found the boats, and discovered that they were just canoes, able to carry 2, or maybe 3 people.

That evening, you were invited to a party.  There was plenty of food and drink, and the villagers were friendly.  You met, briefly, Amo, Kima’s father, and ‘an important man in the village’.  He is clearly white, Kima told you he was European, though he spoke English with an accent.

And some of you ended up in huts other than the ones you normally sleep in.

Eliza returned from her little flirt with a small carved wooden statuette.  It is about 4 inches tall.  At first glance, it looks like a tree, but you realise soon enough that those limbs are not roots, but rather legs; twelve legs alltogether, all of them ending in pointed single claws.

From the upper body, another eight limbs protrude, four ending in pointed single claws like the legs, the four others ending in hands with seven fingers.

The face of this idol is a hideous one; most of it is a great maw with dozens and dozens of long, needle-like teeth.  Eight eyes surround the mouth that hangs open, and a tongue sticks out, split like that of a serpent.

Wednesday, 1930-06-04

You were woken up in the middle of the night, and told to go to the lifeboats.  After a horrifying night, you somehow manage to crawl to safety on a rocky shore, and the dark-skinned woman whose name you later learn is Kima leads you to a nearby village.

You are given food and dry clothing and a place to sleep, and the next day, you’re told that as soon as the storms are over, someone will take you to the mainland.

Some of you also notice a man watching you, a dark-skinned, but lighter than the other villagers, is watching you with a slight frown.  Later, a boy is asking you to follow him, and leads you out of the village to meet with this man, who tells you that the villagers practice human sacrifices, and that you are all in danger.

He explains that his father is a priest who has convinced the superstitious villagers that they need to sacrifice humans to their god, and that his sister, Kima, is being trained as his successor.  The ritual will take place in three days.

Tamal then gives you a gun and tells you to meet him in the clearing again in two days.

Tuesday April 15, 1930

The ship is called “Princess of India”.  It is a luxury liner, one of the better ones.  It is a fairly new ship, about five years old.  Not one of the largest, but definitely one of the more luxurious.

Its route is from London to Mangalore, India, by the long route, that is, London, stopping in Lisboa, several stops along the African coast, and on several of the islands on its way through the Indian Ocean.

It is an 8 weeks journey, and for the passengers, it will be 8 luxurious weeks.

The setting:
It seems like I am falling down on 1930, though this is not yet set in stone, so if you do have preferences, let me know.

(Here is a bit more information: http://rolemaster.faye-lund.no/CoC)

Now, Call of Cthulhu games, by nature, tend to be rather short; depending on how well you are doing, this might not last many sessions at all, and unless Deb has some big objections, I’m aiming at running my campaign when Bala is done with his.

 Characters:

I would like you all to send me a couple of lines on the character you want to play.  The most important would be profession, a little bit about the background and personality, along with any particular wishes you might have for your character.  Send a mail to [email protected].