2012 CoC Horror on the Orient Express CJ


Campaign Journals

151 to 193 of 193 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | next > last >>

1 person marked this as a favorite.

16th March 1923 .. errr, 2013 is the next session!


Sadly the norovirus exacted a price, delaying the glorious conclusion of the Horror on the Orient Express until 20th April.


Curses!!


22 days hence the Horror on the Orient Express comes flying off the rails and into the annals of history.

Sanity will be shattered, lives will be ended and a record-setting number of PC fatalities SHALL occur!

~squiggle~


1 person marked this as a favorite.

14 days hence ... tick, tock, tick, tock ...

~squiggle~


1 person marked this as a favorite.

The clock strikes 10 times.

Today the music dies. Or the investigators. In droves.

~squiggle~


Let us sing the song that ends the earth.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

26 investigators bought the farm in the blood-drenched finale to this version of the notorious Horror on the Orient Express.

Rene Clement, senior engineer - death by flesh creeper and a .38.
Emile Duchamps, coal shoveler - death by flesh creeper
Ricarde Allou, assistant engineer- death by flesh creeper and setting himself on fire
Armand Chavelle, assistant engineer - death by flesh creeper
Pierre Marchand, coal shoveler - death by jumping off the train moving at full speed with a flesh creeper still attached to his face with the BBEG's quoit still in his back
Walther Partridge, train buff hanging out with the locomotive crew talking shop about the train - death by 2 .38 bullets from the BBEG.

Lorenzo Berce, ambitious waiter - death by flesh creeper
Richard Montalau, assistant chef - death by jumping through the window with flesh creeper attached to his face from the transformed train speeding along at 60+ mph through a 12 mile long tunnel
Albert Swanson, insurance underwriter - put his face through a glass window, then asphyxiation by flesh creeper

Paul DeGuerre, chef de cuisine - almost escaped the train after cutting a cultist's throat from ear to ear with a surgically-sharp kitchen knife, evaded grappling by 2 other cultists and a fourth cultist's botched attempt to drag him back through the window by his feet. The BBEG shoved the barrel of his trusty .38 up the chef's kiester and ventilating him with 2 bullets.

Humphrey Endelry, insurance agent - stabbed and beaten to death by cultists.
Vladimir Veslenka, dedicated lover/ Luger-packing bodyguard - death by .38 full cranial evacuation courtesy of the BBEG.
Andre Stefani, gigilo - shiv'd by cultists
"Diana" Szorble, assassin without a country - gunned down by a British spy and Colonel Herring before being 'retired' by the surviving White Russian agent provocateur.

The following were all slurped dry of all vital fluids and organs by way of the BBEG's [mass shriveling [/i] spell:
Lady Margaret Bramwell, aristocrat
Charlotte, Siamese attack cat
Emily, Siamese attack cat
Simon Johns, horrid 6 year old child
Amanda Johns, weary mother of Simon Johns
Mary Baxter, tortured nanny of Simon Johns
Lord Roger Whipsnade Palfrey, brat Peer of the Realm
Karen Lindon, Lord Palfrey's cowed nanny
Armand Applegate, Lord Palfrey's butler and head of staff
Kerim Mahtuk, Turkish financier
Yolculuk Tutuyor, butler of Mahtuk
Colonel Andrew Herring (ret.)
Mrs. Anges Herring
Albert Rumsford, devoted manservant of the Herrings'

BBEG put down via impaling shots by .30-30 rifle, 2 elephant guns and a 30-round clip from a Chicago Typewriter.

The maimed survivors included the previous investigators, a Checa agent, a White Russian counter-revolutionary, a British spy, a Romanov princess (she can get a new lover easily enough) and a few other passengers.

Honorable Mention to Jean Renout, pastry chef, who survived both face glompag by face creeper and the 5d6 fall from the train (with half of his hit points! ).


All told there were 36 supplemental investigators provided by Yours Truly, for a maximum possible body count of 41 investigators (not counting the cats). 26 bought the farm and another 4 are scarred for life.

3/4ths casualties with an 87% fatality rate is pretty commendable.

~squiggle~

P.S.: The transformed train, minus the caboose with 15 of the 16 survivors, roared into Constantinople's major train station, drove several thousand people mad and made an utter shambles of the place before the life force of all those slain aboard the train finally ebbed, returning the bound entity whence it came.

I think we now know a possible cause for certain fundamentalist groups' ... at least, in this setting.


Brother Faust the Elder wrote:
3/4ths casualties with an 87% fatality rate is pretty commendable.

Huzzah!

What were your players' reactions to this, and what are your afterthoughts now that the game has come to a close?


Macharius wrote:
Brother Faust the Elder wrote:
3/4ths casualties with an 87% fatality rate is pretty commendable.

Huzzah!

What were your players' reactions to this, and what are your afterthoughts now that the game has come to a close?

The players early on came to grips with BRP's fundamentally lethal combat system.

The original HotOE is a hallmark campaign. The upcoming version to be released this August at GenCon should be a substantial improvement. That is what I intend to GM for the 'Sunday crew' at such time as the desire is to take a break from Pathfinder.

If you have the chance to get the HotOE v2 in August, I highly recommend it.

May you gack 26 PCs in a single session if you do!

~squiggle~


Brother Faust the Elder wrote:
26 investigators bought the farm in the blood-drenched finale to this version of the notorious Horror on the Orient Express.

I had Ten characters get greased in this final session of HotOE:) The reason for my excessive death count, was that I also played the characters of the 1 absent player in the group, in addition to my own, so I had twice as many character deaths as any other player present. To briefly summarize my attempts at survival: Fatality #1 I tried really hard to save Coaler Pierre Marchand. Pierre, like all others present got glommed on by those horrible undead face hugger critters, and started sufforcating. It was pathetically comical how I and several player characters tried to knock a hot coal out of the furnace, onto the floor, and to then face plant onto the hot burning coal, in an effort to get the undead face huggers off of us. I botched my roll, and ended up burning my head instead... Two PCs actually shoved their entire heads into the furnace to burn the things off of themselves! And if things weren't bad enough already, the main villain shows up and throws a knife into my back for 9 HP of damage. I became the first one to try to destroy my face hugger by jumping off of the train. I only had 2 HP remaining before the jump, and was oblitterated during the effort, mainly due to the 9 HP damage I took before the jump from the main villain. Fatality #2: Richard Allou, also at the front of the train, as I caught on fire (trying to burn my undead face hugger off of me) and burned to death, while sufforcating from the undead face hugger. Everything went wrong for Richard. Horribly funny. I'd have loved to GM this... Fatality #3: was my most disappointing/irritating PC fatality on the day. I totally had Chef de Cuisine Paul deGuerre out the window, I totally 86'd one of the cultists trying to drag me back inside, and just prior to my action to get off of the train, Turin has the main villain conveniently arrive and immediately SHOOT ME IN THE ASS, TWICE, and kills me at full HP. Bastard. Fatality #4: I don't even remember his name, but he was a "Underwriter" (maybe insurance guy Humphrey U.), who was attacked by those damn undead face huggers, and beaten to death by cultists while sufforcating simultaneously... Fatalities 5-9:Lord Roger Whipsnade Palfrey, brat Peer of the Realm; Karen Lindon, Lord Palfrey's cowed nanny; Armand Applegate, Lord Palfrey's butler and head of staff; Kerim Mahtuk, Turkish financier; Yolculuk Tutuyor, butler of Mahtuk all got slurped to death by teh main villain by some magical effect where they all lost bodily fluids and/or life force, and ended up looking like dried prunes... I believe I had a tenth character death also, but I can't recall who it was... I died so often, it seems to have ran together with my other fatalites on the day... My two surviving characters (well, three if you count the player character of the Resident Artist (the missing player for the day), but I didn't use his player character at all; were: Biff Baxter (Western Movie Actor), and My main Player Character, who scored an '02' and critically impaled the main villain with my Elephant Gun:) helping to end the day successfully. Hell of a campaign. Fully recommended to all killer GM's on this board. Treat your characters to it. Their "Tears of Joy" will tell you how grateful they are for your thoughtfullness towards them for the campaign. Regards Turin:)


Actually, I forgot, I had another surviving character: the Bodyguard of the Turkish Financeer. Having seen his boss get slurped, the bodyguard who lost 12 or 16 HP during the Shriveling spell, grabbed my other unconscious PC Biff Baxter, and dragged him from the main villain to out of harm's way, while my main character and others began teeing off on the main villain with Elephant Guns.


Glad you enjoyed the carnage this past Saturday. I know I did. :-D


Two musical tributes to my beloved players.

First up, a salute to all of the bodies of the messily deceased.

Secondly, applause for a job well done for staying alive to the players. Or perhaps to their dice for coming through for them at the best possible moment.

o7


Brother Faust the Elder wrote:
26 investigators bought the farm in the blood-drenched finale to this version of the notorious Horror on the Orient Express.

Impressive. I have yet to play CoC. I have the game, but my friends hold too tightly to their characters, and don't want to die or go insane. All the games Imhave tried to play in have been PBP and the GM has been consumed by Elder Gods within 3 weeks.


GM Hands of Fate wrote:
Brother Faust the Elder wrote:
26 investigators bought the farm in the blood-drenched finale to this version of the notorious Horror on the Orient Express.
Impressive. I have yet to play CoC. I have the game, but my friends hold too tightly to their characters, and don't want to die or go insane. All the games I have tried to play in have been PBP and the GM has been consumed by Elder Gods within 3 weeks.

The setup here was to transcribe the provided passengers and crew/staff of the train into investigators for the players to use and have abused. None of the "real" investigators were harmed, on purpose. The players loved it I think.

Call of Cthulhu is a very easy game to make characters for, it is quick to play, and a very welcome change of pace from the more rules-intensive games (such as Pathfinder).

It is a lot of fun if no one takes it too seriously, as investigators often meet horrible fates, go insane or get eaten while simultaneously gibbering from an ill-timed uncovery of a cosmic truth.

~squiggle~


Yeah I have made probably 40 characters for C0C. It's how I learn how to make characters in a system. Although from reading this journal, I realize I put way too much backstory into a a character that may very well die or go insane within 4 minutes. Hehe.

Maybe I will try it as a one shot.


GM Hands of Fate wrote:

Yeah I have made probably 40 characters for C0C. It's how I learn how to make characters in a system. Although from reading this journal, I realize I put way too much backstory into a a character that may very well die or go insane within 4 minutes. Hehe.

Maybe I will try it as a one shot.

Many of the adventures published for CoC do not delve overmuch into character development. EDIT: For a one-shot, if you are the Keeper for a group that is new to CoC, I highly recommend one or more of the short scenarios presented in the basic rules set, especially the Horror in the Attic (which I used). If they can handle that, they can probably handle Call of Cthulhu.

At GenCon / this August a new, improved Horror on the Orient Express will be released. There are a ton of props [a medallion, passports, miniatures, a soundtrack, and more] that should also be available for the HotOE as well.

HotOE - for character development - depends on the players not going 'combat munchkin' and the Keeper recognizing that the investigators really need to get through all the way to the end if at all possible. Going full 'combat munchkin' tends to make Keepers ... remorseless. ;) Having said that, the irony is that for a RP-intensive group, HotOE can really go the distance. There are dozens of NPCs to interact with without swinging a fist/firing a shot. There are a gob of ways to potentially develop one's investigators ... before they die hideously / are driven insane/ both. (SAN loss in some ways is too incremental ... but that may be the PF GM in me.) In a way, the intent here is to get attached before the fit hits the shan, making the pain and suffering all the worse.

The availability of a plethora of replacement investigators through passengers boarding and disembarking from the train along its route, even from among the crew, makes new PCs easy to introduce... yet hard to integrate as only the investigators from the beginning will appreciate the full story. I would suggest any replacement investigators be introduced by way of "your relative's stuff showed up via courier/post - part of your relative's estate demands that you continue his/her task" or somesuch.

Having respectable combat capability is a must, one could do very well with investing INT points into dodge, martial arts, punch, a melee weapon and an easily concealed handgun (such as the M1918 or even better the 'Broomhandle' Mauser). Use the combination of EDU + Occupation to collect decent language skills and - cooperating with the rest of the players - the 'usual suspects' of social/investigative skills.

HotOE would definitely reward a chargen session with the Keeper supplying the basics necessary for the creation of successful investigators.

I look forward to my other group getting to play the updated HotOE late this year or more likely / perhaps sometime next year.

~squiggle~


I ran a one shot a few summers ago and my players loved it. The best part was that most of the deaths were attributed to the characters killing each other either through bad rolls or going insane and turning on one another.

Brother Faust is correct, the Corbitt adventure in the main book is easy to run and a tremendous amount of fun to play! The one shot that I ran was from the Mansions of Madness supplement.


The 2013 edition of Horror on the Orient Express is taking FOREVER to get finished and produced. It was supposed to be done and delivered by about GenCon this year. Instead, here we are at the end of Thanksgiving weekend and they're still working on it.

*muttergrumble*


Brother Faust the Elder wrote:

The 2013 edition of Horror on the Orient Express is taking FOREVER to get finished and produced. It was supposed to be done and delivered by about GenCon this year. Instead, here we are at the end of Thanksgiving weekend and they're still working on it.

*muttergrumble*

Did this update ever occur? This game which I was a player in to the bitter end (as detailed on this campaign journal) was absolutely hilarious. Any self-respecting player should wish to be a participant in such a game. Hopefully this game continues at some point in the future. The Mountain of Madness still beckons I think...


I've just re-read this whole thread for s**ts & giggles. We really need to revisit this game at some point.


Killer_GM wrote:
Brother Faust the Elder wrote:

The 2013 edition of Horror on the Orient Express is taking FOREVER to get finished and produced. It was supposed to be done and delivered by about GenCon this year. Instead, here we are at the end of Thanksgiving weekend and they're still working on it.

*muttergrumble*

Did this update ever occur? This game which I was a player in to the bitter end (as detailed on this campaign journal) was absolutely hilarious. Any self-respecting player should wish to be a participant in such a game. Hopefully this game continues at some point in the future. The Mountain of Madness still beckons I think...

Still waiting. At this point, I will be amazed if they get this shipped to us for Cthulhumas.

~squiggle~


=/


Turin, I was thinking about how one might tailor the Pathfinder rules system for a CoC style game. Could one say, Cap HP at the level 1 MAX + CON bonus maybe? When player characters advance a 'level', they get 1 extra Hit Point, and some skill points? What else?

~Squiggle~


They've STILL not shipped my box o' goodies as of yet. I poked them with a sharpened femur just the other day, prompting update #123. Which basically says "We hired 2 temps to help us pack and ship all this stuff via Priority Mail, please don't go [redacted] on us!"

So, yippy skippy, the wait continues.

Pathfinder simply isn't suited to a CoC style game. Better bet is to take an "E6" approach. However, given the massive retooling certain CoC monsters would require in E6 Pathfinder, I don't think it would be worth the effort. At least, not right now.

~squiggle~


Very well, I shan't try. They do have numerous stats in the Bestiary IV for Cthulhu critters, including a CR 30 write up on Cthulhu himself. As to my other point, we really need to resurrect the CoC game at some point before we start expiring...


The boxed set did at long last show up. I'm awaiting the rest of the loot (coffee mugs, miniatures set specific to HotOE, other things that I forget) to show up.

The new boxed set is on par in size with an old school VHS player, weighing in at a solid 5 kilos.

Most impressive.

~squiggle~


GM Hands of Fate wrote:
Brother Faust the Elder wrote:
26 investigators bought the farm in the blood-drenched finale to this version of the notorious Horror on the Orient Express.
Impressive. I have yet to play CoC. I have the game, but my friends hold too tightly to their characters, and don't want to die or go insane. All the games Imhave tried to play in have been PBP and the GM has been consumed by Elder Gods within 3 weeks.

I've never played PBP, but if Turin or Haru ever desire to keep gacking me in a CoC game via email or a internet chat room; I'm all for it. It's like a Wiley Coyote cartoon. You know your number is going to keep coming up again, and again, and again, and again, and...


Bump.


Killer_GM wrote:
Bump.

My understanding is that you have a pbp invite outstanding. Saddle up!


I'm working on it.


Of late, my group has found it increasingly difficult to get together face to face on a regular basis (too many of us have spawn now), so we've been playing a lot on roll20, which has saved our gaming lives. We can all pop online for a couple of hours in the evening once or twice a week and still get out gaming fixes. Currently I'm running a 5e D&D campaign every Tuesday evening, but on Sunday nights I've been doing one shot type stuff and mini campaigns in other systems. Part of that has been running some CoC, and it works real good. All the dice rolling can be done on roll20 and it has fillable character sheets for CoC as well as plenty of other systems. I can post up handouts, maps, pictures and all that. Highly recommended. The learning curve on roll20 is easy. You can figure it out in an hour or two, especially if you watch one of the youtube tutorials.

I've most recently been running some of the Goodman games Age of Cthulhu adventures. I finished Timeless Sands of India a couple of weeks ago, which was a lot of fun, and I'm probably going to run "Madness in London Town" in the near future. I just picked up the 7e rules, so I think I'm going to give those a shot for the next adventure.

I've also been thinking of running a sandbox style Dunwich campaign, but I'm not sure if that will ever happen or not.


Perhaps a new chapter in CoC is coming for this group. Time will tell:)


A largely different group.

Only you and Haru are confirmed investigators, and it won't be for the Horror on the Orient Express.

~squiggle~


We just started CoC Masks of Nyarlothep. I don't know if Turin is up for a campaign journal. I may post some stuff on it, though I fear I won't do it justice. We'll see.


Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber
Killer_GM wrote:
We just started CoC Masks of Nyarlothep. I don't know if Turin is up for a campaign journal. I may post some stuff on it, though I fear I won't do it justice. We'll see.

We started that as well for 7e, doing a month on and off with Strange Aeons. PH Dungeon is running it, we're back to it next week after finishing off Strange Aeons book 5 this week. It's been great so far.


My regards to PH.
From the one session that we have had thus far, it was a very good game. The props from the 7E version of the adventure are nice. The storyline thus far is good. The game mechanics seem excellent. I've played in an earlier version of CoC, and this is my first jaunt with 7E, but it's as enjoyable as the previous edition. I'm still hopeful that Turin will post a journal. If he doesn't, I may do something. I am not much for a player's journal, but who knows... It would seem almost uncouth to fail to chronicle an infamous adventure such as this one... TURIN!!!!

KGM


Reading this certainly brings back fond memories of my own experiences with CoC!

My very first CoC game was playing as a hapless investigator in Masks of Nyarlathotep (CoC 3e, I think - back in the late '80s anyway). While she didn't make it to the very end of the campaign (sanity loss, institutionalised, eventually recovered after some years), her sister nobly took up the slack and finished it for her. Talk about a baptism of fire!

We next tackled Spawn of Azathoth. That campaign had an unusually nihilistic ending, in that it _required_ that an investigator sacrifice him-/herself in order to hold off the Earth's imminent doom. (Earth is still doomed, it's just been delayed for a while.)

Plus various shorter scenarios/mini-campaigns and side trips to the Dreamlands.

HotOE was run by a different Keeper. Due to being curious about that London train model, but wanting to keep our investigators on the main plot line, we made new characters who were assigned the "toy" investigation. Afterwards the survivors sent a telegram to the main group which - when read aloud - went like this: "It was horrible. Stop. It was horrible. Stop. It was horrible. Stop."

Fennalik found our group rather irritating/frustrating at times, particularly when we re-grouped in one compartment with the McGuffins. He dangled a dead train passenger in front of our compartment window, and our only reaction was to pull the curtains closed. :)

Apparently our HotOE Keeper thought that the as-written ending for HotOE was a bit too much (too much what, I'm not exactly sure), so it ended with a more traditional mind-bending ceremony plus shoot-out in an empty cistern underneath Istanbul.


Animate Thread

I have no idea why he thought that about the original HotOE ending, Bellona. As you read late last year it was pretty gruesome.

~squiggle~


This is a write up I did back in October 2018 following my first and only session in a short lived Masks or Nyarlothep campaign that came to an unceremonious end shortly thereafter. I figured I’d post it here, as it was the follow up campaign to the HotOE campaign. Turin the Mad was the Keeper/GM for this game.
In the 10/20/18 first (and only) session of the Masks of Nyarlothep CoC campaign, there were 0 PC fatalities. There were a total of five players participating in the game session. The Call of Cthulhu game was set in the year 1921. My character (having previously survived the end finale of Horror on the Orient Express) had traveled from France to New York City (before the game started), apparently at the invitation of one of the other players characters (who was independently wealthy), and traveled with him from NYC to Lima Peru for the purpose of exploring a newly discovered pyramid. After arrival in Peru, it became apparent to our characters that the person in charge of organizing the expedition to the Peruvian pyramid had some sort of unusual personal problems, including black veins and an apparent affinity for narcotics. At some point, fellow player Haru, got the boneheaded idea to try to perform an exorcism on this guy, at which point, the crap hit the fan. (Not surprisingly, most of the trouble I experience in Call of Cthulhu games, occur when Haru gets some sort of bright idea during the game, which usually leads to all sorts of unexpected problems and consequences, which I inevitably end up reaping the heavy end of…) And naturally, the other characters present in today’s game were in a different part of the hotel and took no part in the fiasco that then ensued…
Our said host immediately began looking somewhat more alien or monstrous in nature, with his eyes turning completely black; and his accomplice began sporting a mouth that resembled a lamprey, and the hostilities ensued immediately. I had no gun with me, (thank you Turin), so I swung pathetically with my brass knuckles and whiffed mightily. I then got hammered for 6 of my 9 HP, and it was looking like a very early character demise in the campaign was imminent. Haru, for his trouble, was trying to run his sorry ass away and leave me to fend for myself in the carnage that he created with his misguided attempt at an exorcism… My goading persuaded Haru (the player) to stop running and try to help me. I made a 25% roll and managed to get around the “sucker” (lamprey) faced guy and run into the hallway and half way down a stairwell. Haru's character was then the victim of a spell of some sort that blinded his character temporarily. “Sucker face” cornered Haru (now blinded) and I on the stairwell. I declared an intent to try to shove the alien attacker through the window on the hotel stairwell, taking myself and Haru's characters with the bastard, if needed. I rolled an ‘01’ and succeeded spectacularly, knocking the ass-clown through the window and impaling him on an object down below on the sidewalk. Haru and I didn’t even have to go through the window along with suckerface, owing to the '01' roll, and I then helped the temporarily blinded Haru down the stairs.
We encountered the Peruvian hotel management lady, who was equipped with a 10 gage double barreled shot gun in hand, and I told her in Spanish that two idiots were trashing her hotel, and “Abuela” then proceeded to punk both of those bastards in spectacular fashion, saving out butts in the process...
Sadly, the campaign ended after the following game session that I was not present for, but I was told did not accomplish much. Hopefully this game can be resurrected at some point in the future…. KGM


Turin, we really need to restart this via an online format.

151 to 193 of 193 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | next > last >>
Community / Forums / Gamer Life / Gaming / Campaign Journals / 2012 CoC Horror on the Orient Express CJ All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in Campaign Journals