CALL OF CTHULU- THE MASKS OF NYARLHOTEP (Inactive)

Game Master Daniel Penfold 351

What are you doing next?

You have several other leads that you could pursue.

I made my suggestions although they may not have been clear: Either research the book Africa's Dark Sects or spend some time snooping around the Penhew Foundation. Possibly both, with one character staying at the hotel reading while the other two try to watch Gavigan. I'm also up for other ideas.

Jake and Colt, what do you want to do?

Snooping the Penhew Foundation is what appeals to me. Have we run background checks on the foundation and people yet, newspaper articles, international shipments and such? Maybe we should do that first.

While Colt recuperates he'll take the time to study about the book.

"Let's meet up somewhere in a couple of days and see what we've found out. Those paintings... those horrid paintings. What happened with them"?

I'm a bit overwealmed right now and confused about what we're supposed to do next.

Ok, sounds like a plan

The following day Colt remains in the hotel recuperating and reading Africa's Dark Sects. Over the course of several hours you discover that it was written by an English explorer who travelled across Africa. It described how the cults that were investigated all worshipped a being from beyond the stars called Nyarlathotep.

In 1916 while travelling in Nairobi the writer found a group called the Cult of the Bloody Tongue perform a ritual to summon Nyalathotep, although the ritual was only partially successful. It seems that there were division among the various branches of the cult, with all having their own agendas and even going under different names. At that time there were branches of the cult working in New York, England (although it was not clear exactly where, Shanghai, Sydney, Australia, Cairo and Nairobi.

Meanwhile Sylvia and Jake do some investigating. Speaking to Mickey Maloney you discover that the Penhew Foundation occasionally gets academics transporting artefacts (mainly from Egypt) to be catalougued. Usually these are taken from the Limehouse Docks (in the East End of London).

Gavigan is rumoured to have a flat in the Mayfair district of London and a house somewhere in the county of Essex (about 80 miles away from central London).

Where would Jake and Sylvia like to check out first?

Jake turned to Sylvia.
"What do you think, the flat Gavigan has in Mayfair? He asked.

[i]You find Gavigan's flat easily enough. It is situated on Grosvenor Street in the heart of Mayfair. It is a 2 floor flat. Gavigan seems to leave at the same time each morning, around 08:30am and seems to return at around 17:30 each evening. There does not appear to be any staff within the building, it seems as if Gavigan looks after himself.

Sylvia rests her chin on her hands, eyeing the door. "Any chance you know how to pick locks? It might not be a bad idea to poke around while he's gone. If we could get in, say, around 10am, we'd have plenty of time to search the place. Unfortunately I'm not much of a locksmith." She sighs. "Otherwise maybe look for an unlocked window? I'm pretty small, I could wiggle my way through if we found one."

Jake, are you able to pick locks?

Looking at his character sheet, it appears that Jake does not have any lockpicking skills

The flat is a mews flat, meaning it has a set of steps leading down off the street to a below street level basement, there is a window here that could be broken into to allow entry, without being seen.

Obtaining a newspaper and masking tape, Jake and Sylvia waited around until 10am, made sure no one was watching...
Perception: 1d100 ⇒ 93
... taped the access window with masking tape and used the newspaper to muffle the sound when they broke the window (the tape preventing the glass from spreading all over the place) allowing them access to the basement of the Mews flat.

You do not spot anyone watching you.

Stepping inside you find that the flat is very well kept, it appears clean and tidy. You do not find much of interest apart from some good quality whiskey, some expensive clothes and a meagre larder. There are a few bits of Egyptian bric-a-brac but you can tell at a glance that they are practically worthless, the items Gavigan showed you in the Penhew Foundation would be worth much, much more.

Jake poked around a little more, trying to spot something more of interest...
Spot Hidden (25%): 1d100 ⇒ 90

Spot Hidden, 47%: 1d100 ⇒ 82 I'm going to assume with those rolls that neither Jake or I roll uncovered anything new. It we did find something, please disregard this post.

Sylvia looks around the flat for quite some time, then sighs when it becomes evident that there's nothing of interest. "It seems all we've learned is that Gavigan either has a maid or is very good at doing his own chores. I've never seen a bachelor's apartment so tidy." She looks around one last time and bites her lip. "With the broken window, he's going to know someone was here. If nothing's taken, he'll know it wasn't a robbery and could easily come to the conclusion that someone is spying on him. I fear we may have caused ourselves later trouble and gained nothing."

As they make their way back to the basement and she sees the broken window, a sudden thought occurs to her. "Unless...Jake could you remove the tape from the glass and make it look more natural? I promise I'll be right back." She quickly scampers off, eyes searching the windows of any nearby shops until she finds what she's looking for. A few minutes later, (and with slightly less money in her purse), she returns with a child's ball.

"Here." With a glance around to make sure no one's watching, she chucks the ball through the broken window. "Hopefully he'll assume it was just some children playing around."

Jake nodded.
"Good idea." He said.
Picking the glass off the tape, he scattered the shards about as if a ball came through the window.
After that, they withdrew quietly after making sure no one spotted them.

You manage to clean up the break in and place a child's ball on the floor before leaving. Again you do not notice anyone watching you.

You make it back to your hotel with no problems to meet up with Colt.

I figure that having you all back together means you can discuss your next move.

Sylvia sighs as she enters the hotel room. "I hope you have had more luck than us my friend. We found nothing at Gavigan's flat. Nothing of any use, anyway." She sits down tiredly on a nearby chair. "Perhaps we should focus less on Gavigan specifically and more on the Penhew Foundation as a whole, check out the Limestone Docks to see what artifacts they're shipping."

Colt checks himself out of the hospital, a little worse for the wear, but as healthy as he normally is.

"That's not a bad idea. Seems that that there were some weird sacrifices and crap going on in Nairobi with a group called 'The Bloody Tongue'. They had some spell or something to call forth a being called 'Nyalathotep' to the best of my understanding. Rumor is there was also a division of this cult right here in bloody England... so that might be a lead of sorts... though I wouldn't know where to begin looking for rumors of this cult".

Colt sighs, and throws his book sack on his lumpy mattress. "Perhaps some research"?

A quick conversation with Mickey Mahoney reveals that the Penhew Foundation uses an importer known as Puneet Chaudhary in the Limehouse Docks. He also mentions that Gavigan has been known to make frequent trips to Derbyshire, although he's not sure exactly where. Finally he has done some checking and Gavigan owns a big house in the Essex Marshes called Misr House.

Just something to note- some of the clues you have found so far may not reference directly things in London or New York but may be more an indication of things from later chapters.

Jake nodded.
"Also, I've been thinking about the Penhew foundation. I don't know how to deal with the safe; BUT I bet if I can hold peoples attention with a film crew taking a slow tour of the upstairs exhibits guided by Edward Gavigan himself you guys can see what's hidden in the basement." Jake mused aloud.

[i]Jake, you contact the Penhew Foundation. The phone is answered by Gavigan's secretary, Kinneridge.

"Ah, Mr Westfield. It's certainly an idea, good publicity would perhaps help with funding some of our work, however we couldn't countenance a whole film crew in the Foundation, would be a bit too disruptive for our scholars, however perhaps just you with a cine camera would be sufficient. I'm afraid Mr Gavigan will be away for the next few days as he has some meetings but I would be more than willing to give you a tour with you filming. Of course we would ask that any film is reviewed by us before publication."

"Do we have a film crew?" Sylvia's question isn't entirely sarcastic; she's seen Jake pull a number of rabbits out of his proverbial hat, (and wallet). She glances sideways at Colt, then back to Jake. "If you need someone to handle the camera, I'd be willing to do it, or maybe Colt could. While the other one checks out the basement. Or we could both go to the basement, if it makes sense for you to do all the work upstairs by yourself. I'm afraid I don't know much about filming."

Jake grinned.
"It won't be a problem to hire a cameraman and rent a camera. You'll be part of the crew, but when we get there, 'Mr. Westfield! There's too many of you!' I'll let the two of you go at that point and I'll do the rest of the tour.
Simple!"
Jake makes a few calls to get a camera and cameraman...
Credit Rating (70%): 1d100 ⇒ 59

[i]Jake makes a few calls and manages to obtain a cameraman and sound technician from the Pathe studios. Shortly after you all make your way back to the Penhew Foundation where you are greeted by Kinneridge.

"Ah, Mr Westfield I see you have brought our crew and your companions have come along as well. Whilst we can accommodate your cameraman and sound technician I'm afraid your companions as well would be too much. Perhaps they would like to wait in one of the reading rooms until we are finished."

Pathe seemed the logical choice due to the newsreel aspect.

"Oh dear. I was so looking forward to seeing you in action... Still I suppose the footage will suffice. Where would you like us to wait"?

Jake waived his hand dismissively.
"You can go off and get lunch, but stick around here somewhere convenient; we will likely need you to help pack up." He said, before putting his arm through Kinneridge's and striding upstairs.
"Now, where to start. Do you have something in the exhibits you would like featured?" He started asking earnestly as they left.
Charm (72%): 1d100 ⇒ 98

Well that was ugly. You guys better pick up the pace, you might not have as much time as I thought...

"Nothing in particular springs to mind, perhaps I can just take you on a tour and you can film anything you think might be of interest."

With that Kinneridge takes Jake and the film crew on a tour. Colt and Sylvia you are in a reading room directly opposite Gavigan's office. You wait a few moments and then head into the office. The door is closed but not locked. You discover the office is clear of clutter. Apart from a row of closets along the north wall, the rest of the walls are bare except for a couple of large oil paintings, one of the Egyptian pyramids and the other a view of the Nile.

There is a telegram from a Dr Henry Clive (see notes/clues)

Sorry - copy of telegram in images.

Sylvia and Colt, you can both have a Spot Hidden check

"Hmmm. This is interesting".

1d100 ⇒ 89 Spot Hidden (40% chance)

Sylvia spot hidden:48: 1d100 ⇒ 95

You do not find anything at first glance, however you have time to look through the desk, closets etc.

Sylvia heads over to the safe and opens it. The fact that its unlocked strikes her as strange, but perhaps it's simply a sign of good fortune. "Colt, could you check the desk real quick?"

"Sure thing".

1d100 ⇒ 73 Spot Hidden: 40

I almost only play Gumshoe (Trail of Cthulhu) on my investigative games now. I hate going the right place for a clue, doing the right things, and then the dice tell you you're an idiot. :-) Gumshoe if you have the skill you find the clue, and go the right place you find the clue...period. You can spend points to find out more, but knowing what to do with the clues once you find them becomes the focus.

I'm happy to adopt that system for some of the skills if everyone is OK with that.

There is nothing of interest in the desk, just a list of upcoming lectures. In the floor safe you find £100 in £1 notes.

Looking at the closets again at first you find a couple of crystal glasses, a port decanter and several books. Looking closer however you find a strange button, pressing it causes a section at the back of the closet to swing away revealing a passageway that is dark but large enough and wide enough to allow people to walk along.

What would you like to do?

Sylvia carefully closes the safe without taking any of the money. She'd been looking for evidence that Gavigan might be up to something, not planning to rob him. Suddenly there's a slight noise and she looks up, startled, to see a new passageway being revealed.

"Good find," she praises Colt. "Let's see where this leads." Secret passageways to secret rooms seems much more promising than the mundane items in the office.

I've never played the Gumshoe system, so I have no opinion on adopting it. I'm happy to give it a try.

The passage leads into the back of a storeroom full of boxes, crates and old furniture. All of them are covered in a thin layer of dust, however there is a clear path where the dust has been disturbed from the passage to what appears to be an empty mummy case in poor condition lying on its back on the floor in the rear of the room. The top is fairly free of dust and somewhat worn. It appears that the eyes of the sarcophagus function as buttons of some kind.

"Look Sylvia. It looks like the eyes of this thing function as buttons of some sort".

do any of them look like they've been used lately?

"Do you think I should try to press one and see what happens"?

Colt, you think the buttons have been used within the last week.

"I suppose so?" Sylvia doesn't sound at all certain, but nods in Colt's direction. "If Gavigan is keeping something down here, that seems to be where it would be hidden. Just be prepared to run in case something goes wrong."

Pressing the buttons causes an electric motor to slide the case aside to give access to a set of steep stairs leading down.

The spacious room at the bottom of the steps is enclosed by 5 foot thick concrete on all sides. The smell of candles, long since burned out lingers in the air. You can see well maintained furniture including a desk, chairs and various tables, stacks pf crates and boxes, an ornate chest, a bookcase and an array of artwork on the walls.

What would you like to do?

Sylvia descends the stairs, eyes darting about for any signs of zombies...or worse. She's relieved to see nothing but a room that looks like a study.

Although, if there wasn't anything to hide, this room would have been upstairs and not hidden underneath a sarcophagus.

"I'll start with the desk. We should probably be quick though; we don't know how much time Jake can buy us." Sylvia promptly heads over to the desk and begins rifling through its contents.

A drawer in the desk contains a .32 revolver and a box of bullets, a couple of false passports and a number of bundles of used 5 and ten pound notes totalling £2000 ($10,000).

Underneath the pile of receipts is a business card wedged into one of the box's corners.

In terms of time, you've probably had about 10 minutes, Kinneridge has intimated previously that he would allow up to an hour for filming.

There are various works of art around the chamber.

Finally there is a small stone jar containing some black grey dust.

Is there anything you would like to do?

Mythos, 2%: 1d100 ⇒ 20
Sanity, 60%: 1d100 ⇒ 54

Sylvia looks around the room, somewhat overwhelmed by the amount of stuff. She rapidly takes notes of the various names and businesses. Clearly something is going on here, she's just not entirely sure what.

"Do you think it's worth the risk to see what's inside the crates? Gavigan knows we're in the Foundation; if he sees signs of tampering that could be bad." She considers for a moment. "Maybe we could check out Limehouse or even the Ivory Wind, if it's still in London, and open some crates there. See what he's shipping without being quite so...obvious."

While she waits for Colt's opinion, she wanders over to the bookcase to see if she can read any of the titles.

Sylvia speaks English and Latin, she'll quickly flip through any books in those languages to get an idea of what they're about.