The Mystery of Loch Feinn

Game Master greg white 722

"Quick lads! We must retreat! I sense the tides may be turning against us soon!"

In his efforts to get away, he begins to drag his cousin along the ground away from the water's edge, away from the heat of combat.

LCDR tries to throw himself out of the light that shrouds him, only to be consumed by a fiery blast.

I'm going to assume that Dr. Hanmer was looking towards LCDR RS, and will have to make a Stability test as a result. Mr. Carter might have been looking away, scrabbling on the ground for the amulet. .

Athletics test was to mitigate damage.

fiery implosion: 1d6 + 3 ⇒ (2) + 3 = 5.

LCDR's RS's charred, ashen figure, lurches drunkenly towards the lake.

LCDR RS: my notes have you have at -7 Health, now minus -11. You're at death's door.

stability: 1d6 ⇒ 1
Aghast by the sight of the fiery implosion, the elder doctor stammers back in disbelief!
"By God! What is going on here!"

Sensing that the lieutenant is in more grave danger, the doctor releases his grip on his cousin's collar and proceeds with haste towards the wounded comrade.

Dr. Hanmer, make a Preparedness test, to have grabbed some morphine sulphates from your medical bag when you fled the crofter's shed.

So sorry, LCDR RS, but what would a horror story be without a fatality?

The monster, the water-horse, seems to be fading back into the fog.

Oh, and Dr. Hanmer, you loose 3 points of Stability.

Is there anything that Edward can do, other than cackle and gibber like a madman?

Not a problem! If someone doesn't die or go insane, it's not Call of Cthulhu!

preparedness: 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4
Spending two points.

Dr. Hanmer you have enough morphine on you to ease LCDR's final minutes.

Mr. Carter. So, at -4 Stability you're Shaken. Mechanically you're unable to use any Investigative abilities. In a narrative sense I would say you're in state of panic; you're hysterical and on edge, but not necessarily psychotic. .

Does the Doc feel any sense of immediate danger?

As if waking from a nightmare, Edward swings his head about wildly.

What the bloody hell? I was in France! Now, now... I’m back... here! Emrys, what in the name of Mother Mary is going on here?

Edward's white hair is wild, his blue eyes are bulging.

I assume this game is winding down, but I would enjoy another (Cthulhu, PFR, D&D, whatever). What do you guys think? I wonder if the person playing the LCDR is still checking in.

"We've been in quite the little skirmish with a fearsome creature. Glad to have you back, cousin. Unfortunately, I fear our brave Lieutenant may not be back with us."

I'm still watching!

Contiuity question: Earlier, when Edward saw the amulet on the ground, I had him grab it, and then say he was throwing it in the lake. However, that was during my confusion of where exactly Edward was relative to the water's edge. So, does he still have the amulet?

Mr. Carter: hmmm, you said you were dipping the amulet in the waters of the loch, but you actually hadn't quite made it to the water's edge by that point.

LCDR RS: any heroic declarations before the valkyries come for you ?

I assume this game is winding down, but I would enjoy another (Cthulhu, PFR, D&D, whatever). What do you guys think? I wonder if the person playing the LCDR is still checking in.

If some-one wanted to step up and run a game, i might be interested.

If I was asked to run something I could possibly do one of three
options:

--More Lovecraftian horror, using the actual 7th ed. rules 'Call of Cthulhu', set during the Spanish Civil war.
--Survival horror, set in contemporary Horn of Africa, using a rule-set called 'The Company'. It's a percentile system derived from the the same basic rules as CoC.
--A fantasy game set in Greg Stafford's 'Glorantha'. Mr. Stafford, who only left us not quite a month ago, was one of the giants in the development of this hobby. 'Glorantha' was the setting for his FRPG, Runequest. Think more Beowulf/Homer than Tolkien, with a very deep mythology. We would be using the 'Savage Worlds' rules.

Henry can see the glorious choirs of heaven playing for him. He can hear his comrades, those who have gone on before slapping him on the back and welcoming him home. The light grows brighter as he moves toward it, but he turns back to the Doctor and Mister Carter, feeling them sliding farther away.

"Doctor Hanmer, Mister Carter, good luck and godspeed, sirs. I'll be waiting for you, with the boys, sirs." He falls, his body snapping to salute as he goes.

"No!!!" Edward screams as the LCDR fades into oblivion. The old writer holds out the amulet in a -- probably hopeless -- attempt to channel any supernatural powers the talisman might have to save the LCDR's life.

I would love an actual Call of Cthulhu game. I have the rules, but have never played.

The fog seems to breaking up, ragged tatters unraveling around the island at the Loch's center.

Is this a good, dramatic place to end things, with the heroic LCDR's RS last words? .

With no words of hope coming to mind, the doctor collapses to his knees. The languishing of Edward's cry out to the lieutenant rings in his ears and his head sinks and his chin rests on his chest.

After a few moments, he mutters "'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death."

Once it is obvious that the amulet is not going to save them, Edward takes the artifact and heaves it into the lake.

He falls to his knees and begins to quiver. "The thing, he says. "There really was a thing down in the trenches.

I'll give you a choice of endings.

The Downer ending . Some villagers from the hamlet of Gregor arrive at where Dr. Hanmer and Mr. Carter are grieving for the lost friend and comrade. Unfortunately the surviving cultists are claiming that you three attacked and murdered their companions, and one of their children. Furthermore, you three fiends horribly mutilated the dead (these are some truly depraved cultists). The villagers, clearly disgusted with you 'monsters', roughly drag you away. Only your old age, and your obvious wounds, prevent a scene of immediate vigilante justice. Years in an asylum for the criminally insane probably await Dr. Hanmer and Mr. Carter.

Upbeat (?) Ending . As the fog clears, you see a a pair of rafts being paddled from the island: the rafts being filled with Royal Commandos. The men beach their rafts near you, and approach.

"He did his duty for God and Country," says a man wearing a sergeant's stripes, as looks down at LCDR's RS' corpse, before checking a stop-watch. "You might want to put your heads down."

The men of the troop huddle around you, as tremendous explosions tear through the island. When the explosions cease, you see the gray, grim stones are leaning at drunken angles, their symmetry ruined.

The sergeant stands, scans the island through some field glasses. "It must have been terrible what you fellows have undergone," he says, his expression genuinely pained. "But it was vital that those bastard MacAllans, and the Beasts in the Loch,
have their attention fixed else where, while we did our work. If the influence of those things would have allowed to spread through our country-- God help us."

While the downer ending is probably better from a Lovecraftian perspective, I think I’ll vote for the “upbeat” ending since that gives closure to the espionage part of the story.

So, in the eternal war between the forces of rationality, and the ravening chaos that is the Mythos, this was a small victory.

By repulsing the cultists in the crypts you forced them to the desperate strategy of collapsing the tunnels, in what was a futile attempt to bury you alive.

This cut them off from some of their more powerful magical resources, and their radio link to their allies in Berlin.

Then, you pretty much decapitated their leadership in the fight outside the crofter's hovel.

The game got pretty pulpy in places, but even as characters, Dr. Hanmer and Mr. Carter were better suited to a more Purist style, the dice befriended them and transformed them into gun-slinging heroes.

The scenario was adapted, by me, from a scenario provided in the 3rd ed. CoC rules, and such I don't think it was ideal for Trail of Cthulhu Investigative mechanics. There should have been a little more sleuthing, and a little less shooting!

This has been an awesome game. Thanks so much for all the hard work GMing us and adapting the adventure for this rule set. This is the first PbP I’ve ever had run to completion.

As I said above, I’d love another game. I’ll watch the site and see if the rest of you are interested.

Again, thanks,
Keith
aka Edward R. Carter, III

Yes, the dice definitely came to aid more times than they probably should have.

Great job leading the campaign for us! Looking forward to an invite for another should you feel the urge!

Glad to know you enjoyed it.

Give me a couple of days and I'll let you know if I'll be running another.

I gather there's some interest in the CoC scenario that I proposed?

I'm definitely interested in the CoC game!