The Armitage Papers

Game Master greg white 722

But no alcohol smell?

Nils brings it over to Mayfield and shows him the monogram. "Do you recognize this symbol? Also, I can't place the smell, what do you think?"

Can Edward use Language (70%) or Appraise (50%) to assess the symbol?

Edward turns his nose away from the flask. "Smells like the back alley behind the Speakeasy," he says. "Can't believe somebody would *drink* that.

Could the symbol be tears?

Pritchard: "We better be hurrying up guys, I don't think Blakesmith is going to wait too long for us."

Nils nods, "Oh yeah, I forgot he was waiting. Yes, let's be off." he turns to go back to the car

Language: 1d100 ⇒ 19 Knowing he has aptitude for languages both modern and ancient, Edward peers at the unknown symbol. He trots along beside Nils.

"I think I might know something," he says as they rush through the woods back to the car

Solemnly you make way back to the car.

Dr. Mayfield you're pretty sure the symbol are tears.

Blakesmith : "Well? What was that crazy old fool about then?"

Pritchard : "It was terrible! God, I wish I hadn't seen that!"

So, are you going to go to the police?

"I vote we go to the police, gentlemen. I think we are out of our depth here. But let's keep the flask to ourselves. What say you?"

Blakesmith : Scowling. "I don't know. How we will tell them we found the bodies? We nearly ran over the murderer, who told us where to look, before we let him go?"

Nils thinks for a minute, "I wonder if we can do it anonymously, just give them a tip or something"

"If it's anonymous tip, then it doesn't really matter *when* we do it, right? Today, tomorrow, whenever. That would give us a chance to go after the man with the bulging eyes, if he's not too far away."

"The man with the bulging eyes? Who is that and why do we need to find him?

I don't recall seeing that brought up earlier, was that before I joined or did I just miss it in the posts?

I believe Dr. Mayfield is talking about the man in the gas mask?

Blakesmith: "Who? Then you're walking back to town, I've got to get this car back now. "

Blakesmith : "We decided then, back to town?"

Blakesmith starts the car.

Sorry, I was trying to role play Edward too subtlety. He's half-crazed from seeing all the blood, so in his mind the man with the gas-mask looked like something different to him. Sorry about the confusion.

It's all right, I understood who you meant. Are you going to make any attempt to keep Blakesmith and the car here?

Just a reminder that it would be about a two hour walk back into time.

It would be about a two hour walk back into town.

I just read through the thread, trying to reorient myself to the plot. It's a late summer day, hot, and it is at least 4:00 PM. We've possibly encountered a mafia boss named "Diamond", seen weird art in the institution, a woman looking for drugs being sold by one of the wards, and then we hit a hobo after we left. The visit to the institution was unsuccessful.
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The hobo described a murder scene. A coupe pulled up behind us, then sped off. We witnessed the driver [yes? no?] We drove on up the road a bit, then three of us went to the murder scene. One of us saw a man in gas mask.
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Blakesmith is itching to get back. Edward Mayfield is not exactly in shape for a 2-hour hike in the heat, so do we head back to Arkham, or possibly use the remaining daylight hours to investigate the standing stones near Dunwich?
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Do any of us have a camera? We could take pictures of the scene, although that would us being in possession of criminal evidence.
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What have I left out?
What do we do?

That pretty much covers it. You know that hobos are not unusual in the woods around the sanatorium: you saw some hobo 'signs' at the gate, and you know from some prior research that there are some unused outbuildings on the sanatorium grounds that sometimes the hobos shelter in.

You saw a plaque and photograph in atrium of the sanatorium commemorating a patron of the sanatorium's founding, Oliver Gardiner: a local magnate whose name appears in Armitage's papers.

You have a flask of some liquid that you found by the dead hobos. The flask bears a monogram that you think might be 'tears'. The young woman at the sanatorium, who might be the girlfriend of a mobster named 'Diamond' Walsh, seemed to be in thrall to some narcotic she called 'Tears of Thought'.

Armitage's bizarre manuscript warns of a a book of blasphemous lore called 'The Tears of Azathoth'.

I'll let you make a difficult Luck (POW) roll to have a small camera (of the Kodak 'Brownie' type) with you in the car.

I think you'll have to explain "Luck (POW) roll" to me. I'm getting the hang of the rules, but I am not sure of the shorthand sometimes.

This would be a 1d100 test against your your POW (POW/2, actually as its a Difficult test).

Edward's POW = 30 (15/6)

Luck to see if we have a camera: 1d100 ⇒ 21

Riffling through the glove box and other nooks and crannies, Edward comes up short in his hopes for a camera.

Pritchard : "There's a drug-store at the edge of town, with a phone-box: I could the cops from there, if that's what we've decided to do?"

Blakesmith : "Sure, I know the place. "

I'm going to assume that Nils has a car too, as he has been travelling up and down the coast looking for possible sites where he might find Viking artifacts. You wanted to use Blakesmith's connections,
and his ability to borrow a real expensive vehicle, to impress the staff of the sanatorium with your supposed 'wealth'.

Dismayed at not finding a camera, Edward gets into the car with a huff. His face is red because he's overweight, it's summer, and he's stressed. He also looks resigned.
"The phone-box sounds like the best idea. Maybe there is some way we can do it discretely? I also say we re-group at the Speakeasy, refresh ourselves, maybe see who won the sporting event wager."

Blakesmith : "I prefer discretion as well. Pritchard, any objection if I let out at the gas-station at the corner, you can run in to the phone box and then come right back."

Of course when I say that Nils has a car I mean back in Arkham.

Correction:"...if I let you out at the gas station at the corner."

I hope Nils' player is still with us

You motor back into town. Blakesmith glides up to the curb, to let Pritchard out a little before the drug-store.

Pritchard : "I'll be right back!" He's hops from the idling car.

Down at the corner, there's a man with a wild, unkempt beard, hands thrust into the pockets of his dingy coat; glaring at those who pass by.

I'll send Nils a message.

No response from Nils.

I'm afraid that this this game thread might be on its last gasp.

What do you want to Dr. Mayfield?

I guess we shall let it die, then. Sad :( This is an interesting campaign you have here. If you plan on running another game of some sort, please let me know. I really like your stories and GM'ing.

It might have been a little too complex for this format. I might try something in the new year, that would be just one-on-one play, if I do I'll hit you up.

hey everyone, sorry everything got crazy irl for the last couple weeks or so here and was unable to let you all know...I am still good to play if you all are

I'll see if Dr. Mayfield is still around and available.

I'm still here and good to go.

As Pritchard gets out, Nils stops staring at the painting that has captivated his attention since getting in the car and nods, "I like the idea of the phone-box, we should be able to alert the police without drawing attention to ourselves. Have you seen those markings before?" he asks Mayfield, gesturing to the flask

Which of the following Skills can Edward use for examining the flask?
Language: 70%
Archaeology: 60%
Occult: 60%
History: 50%
...
I'm not sure if the Skill check is a GM choice or player choice

As Pritchard's passes the vagabond on the corner, there's a short verbal exchange between the two.

Pritchard shakes his head, and hurries on past.

I'll allow a Difficult test (1/2 your skill) of Occult. Or an Extreme (1/5 skill) against the other skills.

Occult: 1d100 ⇒ 39 against a Difficult Occult Test of 30 (have I yet to pass a test?!).

Edward shakes his head and hands the flask back to Nils.

"I feel like a real maroon, I tell ya. Here you brought me along, but I'm about as useful as boobs on a bull."

So with failed rolls you have two options: you can push the roll; you explain a rationale for having a second test (in this example perhaps consulting with your home library, or an 'expert' you know), and you attempt a 2nd roll. If unsuccessful you usually get some benefit, though usually with complications.

The other option is to spend Luck. This is an optional rule, which we can implement. You spend 'Luck' points to deduct numbers from your failed roll. In this instance you would spend '9' points of Luck to reduce your roll to '30'. Of course any subsequent Luck rolls would be at a -9 penalty .

You get a roll to regain Luck each 'session'. For the purpose of this format we'll say that a session encompasses '24' hours of 'in-world time.'

You obviously can't 'Spend' Luck on Luck rolls. Nor can you can spend 'Luck' on Damage or Sanity tests.

Nils chuckles a bit, "Its not a problem, was a long shot anyways. Do you know of anyone else who would know what this is? Damn I could use a stiff drink"

For the sake of this game session, can I use 9 points of Luck even though I've already posted my roll (39)? If so, I would like to do that. It seems like Edward making sense of emblem would help further the plot. And... since Nils needs a drink, I could justify this by us going to the Speakeasy and having Edward run into a fellow professor who might give him a clue. Yes? No? I'm good either way.

Pritchard : returns to the car. "Another crazy hobo. This one asked, as I passed him, 'Have you seen the Yellow Sign'. Weird huh."

Yeah, Dr. Mayfield, that's how the Luck roll works,you can use it to 'correct' prior certain rolls (again, not SAN or Damage rolls). So you want to use that rules option? And you're going to use it for your Occult Skill test?

"Yellow sign? Those are pretty common in town I imagine. I pity a man who loses his mental faculties"

The King in Yellow and Carcosa mythos are some of my favorites in the genre!

Yep, I want to use that rules option. So that would mean I get a 30 on my Occult roll?

Edward gets out his notes, the ones he'd been taking on the clipboard at the sanitarium, and jots down "Yellow Sign".

His list now reads:
Innsmouth
Gilman House
Kitt
Party at Graham's
Tears
Box or book??
Diamond - put her here
Saul/stealing stuff
Gas mask
Flask - emblem
Yellow sign

Nils sees Edward write the yellow sign in his notes, "What is special about a yellow sign?"

Blakesmith lets you off near the speak-easy: it's pretty central, I'm assuming that you all have lodgings near the university.

Dr. Mayfield, you seem to remember something about the that phrase, 'The Yellow Sign.' Yes, it was connected to a decadent French play that created quite a scandal on the continent a few years back.

Furthermore, you read something about that very same play in the newspaper just within the last few days.

Assuming we are now at a table back at the Speakeasy, Edward, never one to pass up the opportunity for melodrama, leaps to feet.
"A cracking good idea!" he says and runs up to the bar.

He tugs on the barman's sleeve: "Do you have any copies of the 'Arkham Advertiser' from the last few days?"

As you make your way to the bar, Ollie, the bookie, intercepts you.

Ollie : "Got some money for me?"

Nils stays seated, having gotten a drink right as they came in

Would the bookie have spoken loud enough & is he close enough that Nils would have heard?