Living Forgotten Realms ABER 4-3 (spoiler)

A crowd has gathered to hear Father Thorn, leader of the Scions of Amber, speak about the status of the rebellion against the Dragon rulers.  His speech tells that the revolt is at a dead end.  The crowd murmurs over this news.   Father Thorn holds up his hands to quiet the crowd.  He then tells that there is a plan to forge the greatest dragon slaying weapon of all time.  The crowd cheers the news with much vigor.

Just then, a female dragonborn bursts through the door apologizing for her lateness to the meeting.  She tells that the travel times, with all the patrols out looking for anyone who opposes the Green Duchess, being what they are that she couldn't make better time.  Father Thorn looks at her with disgust and says Zasheena, leader of the Shadowkiss, and her kind, cutthroats and parasites, weren't invited.

She looks at us and thanks us for saving the child of Nandrel and helping his agent in Marrauk.  She tells of her plan and that if it should work she would need the dragonbane amber -- all of it!  She tells her plan of creating a poison that replicates itself and infesting the local drinking waterways, drinking holes and livestock to poison the dragons.  We, convinced of the thoroughness of the plan, inform Father Thorn that he should take this opportunity to complete this rebellion and take the fight to the dragons.

We board a ship and set sail for Lylar named the Dazzling Courier.  Lylar pirates are a large part of the talk in Returned Abeir, so when we run into them, it wasn't very surprising.   The surprising part was that their ship was transparent and most of the crew were too.  We make a deal with Captain Ghedrinn Lassan after besting our best fighter in one-on-one combat.  The fight wasn't to the death, but to when the other had become bloodied with wounds.

We reach Lylar and Zasheena's laboratory where we are to prepare the poison, but find the place in shambles.  Apparently her lab assistants were performing an unauthorized experiment that went awry and after scolding them to get the place back up into working condition, we help her fix her notes on how to create the poison.  All goes smoothly and we soon depart to infect the nearby aqueduct supplying the drinking water.

We make it to the entrance and find the place in darkness, once our lead fighter cracked his sunrod and moved forward a bit, our cleric warned us of sounds of monsters preparing an ambush.  We run into two Talons of Tiamat, two Drakkoth Venomshots, and one Greenspawn Godslayer.  We take out the Talons first, and then the Godslayer, and finally finish off with the two Venomshots, who have a nasty blast.  We press forward and complete our mission to introduce the poison into the aqueduct water system.  Once complete, we head back to the laboratory.

No sooner are we back than we set off again with more poison giving to agents and explaining how they are to infect the nearby water and food systems.  After this task is complete, we have one poison satchel left.  We are to poison the local watering hole of the Green Duchess herself.  We set out immediately and poison the hole, we then recognize the timing and set ambush for the Green Duchess.  When the green dragon shows, we jump upon it with such ferocity, that it is defeated within a couple seconds.  The poison had done its thing, making the dragon easier to slay.  However, a black dragon with bones showing through its skin came and told us that we had slew the Green Duchess's daughter and that we had earned places upon its hunting list from now until eternity.  The dracolich then grabbed the body of the green dragon and hauled it away towards the Green Duchess's lair.

We ended there.  Still don't understand why the dracolich didn't kill us right away.  I'm sure it could have.

Anyway, until next time, safe gaming and have fun.

The Hermetic Oder of the Silver Twilight

We meet with a Mrs. Clark, who is the wife of James Clark.  Mr. Clark is missing.  He is a lawyer in Boston.  Our meeting took place in our office in Boston on a Wednesday morning in July of 1927.  We invite her in after she knocks on our office door.  It's raining outside when she tells us that her husband has been missing for two nights.  She last saw him Monday night at 10:00 pm.  Mrs. Clark informs us that her husband has been spending a lot of time at the Hermetic Order of the Silver Twilight which he joined about three weeks ago and that on the night he went missing he took the car keys and his wallet, but left the car parked in their driveway at the house.  She also tells that he used to meet a friend of his, a Mr. James Henry, at a local pub before it closed down due to prohibition.  The friend, as far as she knows, is abroad in Europe at the moment, but may be back now.  She gives the address of Mr. Henry's home.  She tells of an article in the Boston Globe mentioning the order and that she informed someone of our investigation at the order who may be a doctor.  Mr. Henry, her husband and Mrs. Clark are approximately all the same age, since Mr. Henry and her husband had gone to school together.  We thank her for her time.

We start our investigation by going to the Boston Globe and the clerk there tells us that all the articles are at the local library.  We then split into two groups; one group goes to the library, Mr. Graham, a professor of psychology, and Mr. Seldon, a private investigator, while the second group consisting of Mr. Williams, a Geo-chemist and myself, Dominic Hastings, investigate the home of Mr. James Henry.  We drop off the two at the library and go to the home.

While in the library, George Graham and Hari Seldon search for the article in the Globe.  George finds a book on something and runs into a friend, Frank, who has recently visited the Lodge of the Silver Twilight.  Frank found them odd, friendly, a weird number of employees, almost too many.  Explained that some rooms are locked and access is restricted to the first floor of the three story lodge.  He tells that employees block access to the stairs leading to the second floor.  He remembers a gentleman with pocky skin who may have been the leader of the lodge, but lead the meeting regardless.  He also says that there was an older gentleman named Scott in another room talking and although the building was in pristine condition that he couldn't like the amount of secrecy they seemed to have.

Outside Mr. Henry's small house stood a descent well-cared for garden.  We visited his next door neighbor who seemed very standoffish and just downright creepy and cared nothing for his neighbor.  We notice his other neighbor across the street, who tells us what we just witnessed about the next door neighbor, but also tells us that Mr. Henry is also missing and that it was also in the paper.  We go back across the street and try talking with his next door neighbor again about Mr. Henry's disappearance and he pulls a shotgun on us warning that he'd shoot if we didn't leave.  He told us nothing, so we left and went and picked up the others at the library.

We decide to visit Mr. Clark's law office and find it occupied by a female secretary and his law partner.  The law partner said he saw a light on last Saturday night and assumed Mr. Clark was working into the evening which he normally did and that Mr. Clark had invited him to join the order, gave him the normal meeting time of 5:00 pm and the address of the lodge.  He also mentions a Dr. Call who is a member of the order and gives us his contact number and tells that he normally works out of his home, we also receive the address of the lodge from him.  We call the doctor from the law office, he tells us that it isn't good for us to be seen together and will meet us at the lodge during the next meeting, tonight at 6:00 pm.  The doctor seemed very worried.

We try finding records on the order at the courthouse, but find nothing.  We decide to grab a bite to eat before heading to the meeting.  We discuss that we should act like acquaintances at the lodge, that we are not investigating the disappearances and that we should go our separate ways once inside.

The meeting takes place across the Charles River in the Cambridge area of Boston.  The house itself is three stories tall.  We notice Dr. Call outside the lodge smoking a cigarette.  Ash walks over to talk with the doctor and says that members are restricted from talking with nonmembers.  The rest of us head inside the lodge into a large foyer with two reception rooms, the larger of the two being on the left behind the coat-check room.  I check my overcoat and get a ticket.  I move into the larger reception area and see one of the people that runs the lodge along with the pock-faced man and an animated and energetic man in a wool sweater and a German accent.  A move across the foyer into the smaller reception area and see a young man drawing a lot of attention.  I attempt to get closer to the young man and am bumped into by a tall, burly man. I apologize for bumping into him and he starts a conversation with me, asking a lot of questions.  Turns out he is cop, speaks with a slight Irish accent, joined the local force recently and his name is Terry.  I tell him that I am a private investigator that finds things, like artwork and missing items, that I am not investigating the missing members of the order, and although lying to him seemed like a good idea at the time, I have my doubts.  He walks away and notice him writing something down on a pad of paper.

I head to the restroom, spying Ash Williams in the foyer and whisper to him that the pock-faced man is in the larger room.  I come out of the restroom and sit in the lounge looking out for Dr. Call.  I do not see him anywhere.  I search the dining room, don't remember him in the two reception rooms, and see that an employee is guarding the rear steps and the front ones in the foyer too.  The employees look like security guards.  I go and sit in the lounge, after a while, the meeting seems to be winding down, so I go and introduce myself to John Scott.  I had overheard his name while he was speaking with Ash, also overhearing that his bodyguard is named Mr. Reed and that the other leader of the meeting is named Carl Stanford.  I notice that the pock-faced man is John Scott.  Mr. Scott doesn't know me and although I was expecting something, was disappointed when I received no recognition.

We leave the lodge and go to the office.

This is where my character left off and I left the online chat.

Until next time, have fun and safe gaming!

Irendi part 3

The group spent the day doing individual things, most was spent increasing gear, shopping, praying, getting laid, selling our loot and so forth, but not in any particular order.  I ended up helping Fugelsang sell off the gear we had collected after he went and got laid and I finished praying and thanking Hiteh, and ended up with a good sum.  I then went and paid off what I owed on the church, paid Fugelsang back his contribution to get the down payment on the temple, was only 350 out of the 600 gold required.  I paid for some black velvet curtains that block the light to be hung in the church, think it was only 250 gold.  I also went shopping and picked up some better armor, a cloak of resistance and some boots of the winterlands.

After the day off planning and energizing ourselves, we came up with a plan of attack to waylay the baron's keep and take on the illithid that we thought was controlling him during the night, which is why we had the day off.

We sneaked up to the Baron's Keep walls and while Cyrus, Renault and Malechite climbed up the tower to the top of the turret, Fugalseng and I, wrapped in his cloud of invisibility flew up to the landing atop the watch tower.  We were surprised to find no guards since we had spotted lights moving at the top of tower before ascending.  Fugalseng had altered himself to be a griffin so he could carry me and fly above.

On the landing of the watch tower, we spied a door with some stairs going down.  At the bottom of the stairs we found another large wooden door and had to have Renault unlock it.  Cyrus, also invisible, sneaked inside and discovered the baron's sister, Eriana, and her husband, Friedan, in the throws of passion inside the bedchamber with the fertility symbol of Ilustree looking over the union.  We sneak into the room, failing to be quiet, but also failing to be noticed by their preoccupation.  The other door in the room, also locked, had the key in the door, and as I unlocked this door, we heard it open with a loud 'thunk' and still were failed to be recognized.  We exited the room and walked upon the balcony going around what appeared to be the roof of the watch tower, looking slippery from the rain, and as we circled along the balcony discovered that it lead nowhere at the end.  We realized that we had to go back, through the room with the love-making session, and hopefully slip past without a sound, but I was annoyed by not finding anything and with the air of cockiness that I received with my faulty thinking walked right into the room, dragging Fugalseng, who had changed back into his regular human shape, behind me as I made my way through.  Halfway to the other door a peep escaped the mouth of Eriana, for there love-making had ceased, but since we were invisible, and the feeble idea that if spoken to from out of nowhere may be enough to make her believe that my deity had blessed their union entered my mind.
She spoke,"What's there, what's going on, where is the sound coming from, who ...?"
Thus I spoke and interrupted,"Your union is blessed by the mighty Hiteh."
She fainted dead away and Friedan, with all his glorious manhood, grabbed a feeble dagger to defend.
He stated,"Who's there?"
I replied,"Really, a dagger, are you some sort of special?"
The distraction gave enough time for Cyrus to sneak behind him, but not before I cast a create water spell at the poor man's feet.  Cyrus knocked away Friedan's consciousness.  Friedan then toppled into the puddle of water I created.  Before leaving, I took the opportunity to arrange the two unconscious lovers into a position where it looked like she was eating or licking his asshole.  My party members did nothing to try and stop me, and chuckled at the thought.  We continued our descent on the stairs and encountered a rather thin-walled room with a lock door and when we jiggled the handle to see if the door was locked, we heard a female child's voice from the other side. "Mommy."
We left the room alone and on the other side of the room discovered sleeping servants and saw an opening to the right opposite the sleepers.

Rounding the corner, we encountered a room where we saw the baron, sitting at a table, lost in his own mind, mewling about.  I moved closer, dragging Fugalsang with me to stay invisible, and tied him with some rope to the chair, for his own protection, we were here to kill the illithid.  As I tied up the baron, Cyrus moved up to a large curtain hung across the back of the room and as he did, an ogre mage, also known as an Oni, sliced through the curtain with his huge sized greatsword.  We didn't see the illithid, but we knew that the oni was also bad news and decided that we would need to defeat it as well.  Hidden behind the still hanging curtain, we heard the sound of the illithid and rejoiced that our journey to defeat him required no more travel.  The curtains were set aflame by one of Fugalseng's spells directed towards the oni and now we could see the detestable aberrant creature with its white eyes staring at us.  We continued our barrage on the oni, but the illithid stunned Malechite and Renault.  My spells were failing to get through to the illithid while the others focused upon the oni.  I focused completely upon the illithid.  Malechite and Renault were no longer stunned.  I had a spell prepared that would get through the evil creature's spell resistance and deal damage to any evil creature in fact.  I cast holy storm and with the rain from the storm, defeated the oni and dealt a great blow upon the illithid.  Cyrus and Malechite dealt deadly blows as well, equally the rains ferocity.  Renault directed a hit as well, but the rain must have deterred it from its mark, for it didn't drop the foul creature, but the rain dispensed it from the plane of existence.  We looted the area ( we call it greyhawking, since during Living Greyhawk, if you didn't take everything, including the nails nailing things down, you didn't get all the treasure ) and found a magic potion of clairvoyance on the illithid.

The baron, waking up from his stupor doesn't even know what day it is, and we fill him in on what has occurred.  He did tell us the last thing he remembered, which was about a week before the city festival, which was on its third day when we entered the city around three weeks ago.  He thanked us and said he would do all that he could to help us.  While glancing over the area, I find a small ring, tucked under one of the legs of the table and have his people help identify it.  It is a ring that can allow you to fake your death and then revive you, fully regenerated.  We tell the baron all that has occurred in the last month since his unwilling control started.

The city rejoices as the skies open and it starts to rain, for it hasn't rained since the baron had been mind controlled, and the order to have the city blocked from leaving or entering rescinded.  We search the city for the summoner we faced that controlled the hellhounds at each gate.  I check each gate for passage of strange people, no luck.  We meet the old lady, who isn't old at all, from when we entered the town.  Turns out she is a silver dragon that lives in the clouds over Kider.  I found this out by watching her walk up the air like it was made out of stairs, and when I saw stated that it was a good trick, she chuckled, transformed into the full awesomeness of a silver dragon and flew into the clouds above the city.

We plan on resting for a week and planning our voyage on the river to the Fort of Opportunidad, known as Fort Sunnydale.

This is where we left off.  Until next time, safe gaming and have fun.

Irendi continued

After spending the night in the Shield and Shingle, I meet High Priest Forgrim in the morning outside the Church of Ilustree.  I talk with him about getting property to start a temple to my deity, Hiteh.  He tells me that the church across the way is no longer in use.  I ask what the price on the temple would be and he replies that it would be 6000 gold.  I asked what they would take as down payment.  He said ten percent, so Fugelsang and I came up with the deposit and received the keys for the church and went to go check on our acquisition.   We searched inside and noted the improvements to be made.  Went and hired laborers skilled in carpentry and woodworking to build pews and St. Andrew crosses for worship to Hiteh.  Also hired some menial labor to clean the place.  Received a generous donation to help get the Church of Hiteh started of 500 gold.  The Church is located in the temple district of Ford North.  After procuring the temple, we went to investigate South Spur and ended up finding a place with Hiteh's symbol upon the doorway.  While I went inside to investigate, my party was attacked by a group of grimlocks, about 5, and they defeated them quite easily.  I picked up a cat o' nine tails at the shop.  After I left the store and met with my fellow adventurers, we watched the king or duke or leader of the city give a talk from his residence in the Baron's Keep.  He was probably the Baron.  Noticed a strange creature behind him, found out later that it was an illithid.  Went for a stroll after Fugelsang departed and the rest stayed discussing something.  Ended up being attacked within some kind of concealed or shady area by an aberrant creature which was summoned by a female summoner, who got away after the others showed up.  Fugelsang had been caught in the same shroud, but on the other side of the creature and we met up during the combat before the others arrived.
After searching the area where the summoner had vanished, we discovered the Temple of Lathidus surrounded by shadow and dark mist.  Met Concha, aka Shelly, being dragged away from the temple by two cultists.  Dispatched the cultists and headed to the Owlbear Arms, afterwards headed to bookstore, The Reality Wrinkle, and was beset by a gibbering mouther, which we defeated and encountered an even larger one downstairs and ended the weary fight by killing the bookstore owner, who was controlling the mouthers.  We now control a bookstore.  That night while resting, I have a dream of Hiteh talking with an Elvish women and a dwarf.  The words I remember from the dream simply say, "Must find Anya before chaos gets out of control."

At this point, I believe the Church of Ilustree burns down.  We also defeat some were-rats in the Clock Tower.

We go looking for the Fiendish Elasmosaurus in the Brinding River by the halfling village contained upon some river barges.  Stonedrake crosses the river and gets some amulets that hide us from the invisible Hellhounds from the Druids camped on the other side.  Defeat the Elasmosaurus.  Find out about a merchant hired to leave town to do something, finding out what's going on.  While we were in the halfling village, the baron passed a decree locking the entrance and exit of all people in the town, we just got back into town.

I ended up doing some research in our bookstore, and found out about Fort Sunnydale (Opportunidad), found a smut book with pictures, very graphic, a cookbook for squid, thought it would be great for preparing illithid, and the book on theology and cosmology I was originally looking for.  I learned the following from that last tome:

Anya is the bastard child of Arden, mother unknown

Legend that mother is mortal

Anya is a kleptomaniac and if she stays in one place for too long, one day or more, chaos ensues

Anya is demure, has straight light-colored hair, petite build

Stonedrake shows up while I'm doing my research and tells me that the creature behind the baron was an illithid.  I tell  him I just found a cookbook on how to make squid.  We leave together and walk towards the church of Arden.

We enter the temple, see a huge pillar of fire which is a portal to Hell Plane.  We find two closets, leave, enter the south wing, coup-de-grace  a hell-hound, defeat two clerics of Azhull, moving on, find another cleric of Azhull and I slit his throat, found two privies, went upstairs, defeated a tiefling, found balcony, closed the fire portal with my turning undead power (DMs call on that one).  After closing, encountered a large Bone Devil and defeated him, but was one hell of a fight.  We rested in the room where we defeated the tiefling.

Next morning, Stonedrake is gone, cannot find, go searching.  We see his dead body on the street and meet Cyrus, an Ebon Saint.

That is where we have left off.  I will have this game this Friday and hopefully will be able to update this story on a more regular basis.  Some parts of this story are blank, either I didn't take notes or don't remember what happened.  I do apologize for that.  It doesn't seem any of my fellow gaming group care to read much on the blog, and I do have the worst memory.

Living Forgotten Realms ABER 4-2 (Spoiler)

It all started when we received a letter from Father Thorn, the leader of the Scions of Amber, inviting us to the Salty Wench Tavern in Marrauk, which is one of the Dusk Ports in Returned Abeir.  Our journey to the city is uneventful, but can see why Father Thorn had warned us about the weather.  The city is in the middle of a windy plain where sand has scoured every exposed surface of the city.  We put on our hoods and cloaks to protect us from the elements and make our way to the Salty Wench.  The people in town keep to themselves and shy away from anyone nearby, but we eventually find someone who's willing to point out the direction of the tavern.

Inside is clean and warm which we welcome from the sand outside.  We are directed to a private booth near the back by the barkeep when we inquire and meet Father Thorn.  With the wind outside howling, it is going to be difficult to overhear our conversation.  He explains that when the Spellplague, he calls it the Blue Breath of Change, erupted, there were deposits of an element known as dragonbane amber unearthed throughout the region.  He tells that it is known that the element can be used to defeat dragons and help end their rule.  Legends spouts that the amber is a powerful and near instantaneous poison against dragons.  It can be used to make weapons and holds the best chance the Scions have of overthrowing the dragons.  He also tells of a stronghold once held by rebels known as Djerad Kusold in Melabrauth containing a massive amount of the element.  The dragons actually feared this outpost.  Melauthaur the Undying One, ruler of Melabrauth performed a ritual that caused the outpost to be swallowed by the earth which earned it the title of The Swallowed City.  Since that occurred, hordes of dragonborn have sought these ruins, but none ever return.  No book, including the ancient history books which the dragons didn't destroy, mention not where this fabled city lies nor what dwells within.  Father Thorn mentions a dragonborn who died soon after entering the town and collapsed right in this very tavern.  His possessions were a scroll that was used as a journal, and if believed, details his journey to Djerad Kusold.  He doesn't offer payment, but tells us that the Swallowed City undoubtedly contains treasure, which we can use to compensate ourselves.

After agreeing to the mission of finding this amber, he gives us each a prism, to change an elemental attack to a different element.  We head out to find Djerad Kusold after reading the journal of the dead dragonborn.  We pass through jungle and rough terrain and a day out, we are beset by chuuls, one for each of us, though they be of different kinds of aberrant.  We defeat them and press on through the wilderness, finding a body of one held dear in town, we make note to tell of his death.  We find ourselves in front of two dragonborn skeletons within arms reach of a door, torn and burned.  The journal mentioned a red dragon.

We enter the chamber behind the door and make our way to the temple grounds within.  Massive doors block our way, but insignia helps guide our path.   Each door it seems has a certain key, which happens to be an element related to the inscription in draconic.  Luckily, we were not surprised when the dragon headed chimera, with her young, happened upon us.  We lost one in our fight, but after defeating this beast, we raised him from the dead.  We finished opening the remaining two doors and alighted to find some magic gear, weapons and the Dragonbane Amber.  We leave and report our findings.  The person we tell about the death of her brethren was relieved and promises a boon while Father Thorn, first overjoyed by our return and report of finding the place, loses that steam when we inform him that the place although containing a small quantity of the element probably wasn't Djerad Kusold.  We part ways for now.

This adventure was short, but the fights were both difficult and the skill challenge wasn't exactly a piece of cake.  Watch out for fatigue if you fail, it doesn't not suck. (yes, I know, a double negative)

Until next time, safe gaming and have fun, which is exactly what we did that day.

The real first episode of the CoC home campaign

The investigators are as follow, Luis is playing Artie Gumshoe, Sarah is playing Rachel Hemingway, Jayson is playing Dr. Warren Bedford, and finally, Andy is playing Dr. Thomas Hooper.  Since Andy had to work, he didn't arrive until they were ready to enter the house.

Beginnings

Now being a prominent private investigator as he was, Artie Gumshoe had worked with Rachel Hemingway before on one of her newspaper stories for the Boston Globe, where she works.  She had also worked with Dr. Warren Bedford on some occult thing in the past dealing with a cult from Europe, and since Dr. Bedford is a Professor of European History at the University of Massachusetts, she asked him for help researching the cult.  Dr. Bedford knows of Dr. Thomas Hooper, who is also a professor at the university, and asked him for help researching as well on that story.  Now Artie actually has met Dr. Bedford before on a case he was investigating.  The four of them regularly socialize at the Coconut Grove, a jazz club in Boston.  Artie tends to talk a lot when at the club, so it isn't unknown that he's a private investigator for hire.

Now, Jackson Worthington also frequents the Coconut Grove and overheard Artie one night and one of Artie's stories stuck in Jackson's mind.  So when a Mr. Anthony Worthington, Jackson's uncle, called Artie to hire him to investigate the Corbitt house, a newly purchased residence of Mr. Worthington's, Artie and the group accepted Worthington's offer to investigate and examine the old Corbitt house in central Boston.

Worthington set up a meeting with the investigators at his office in an apartment building across the street from the Coconut Grove via a telephone call, but gave the address to the house accidentally.  He told that he had recently purchased the house, a really good deal, and wanted the investigators to examine the house to squelch the rumors of the house being haunted.  He also let the investigators know that the last owners, the Macario family, were currently hospitalized at Roxbury Sanitarium where the husband and wife were and the two boys were staying with relatives.  Mr. Worthington says he'll pay $20 per day and $100 when they finish their investigation.  He also gives them a $50 retainer and leaves the rest up to them.  He tells them that they can contact him at his office if they need to.  Mr. Worthington also gave the keys to the house to Artie.

Artie drove by the house before meeting with Mr. Worthington and the others, he didn't see anything special.

Investigations

Now the investigators had an idea to search for news and records on the Macario and the Corbitt names.  Dr. Bedford searched the main library at the university while Ms. Hemingway searched the morgue, the place where the newspaper kept their clippings files.  Ms. Hemingway found stories on the Macarios, but it didn't contain any information that they didn't already know, however, she found clippings on a 1918 feature story that was never published stating that in 1880 a family of French immigrants moved into the Corbitt house, but after a bunch of violent accidents killed the parents and maimed three children.  The house had long stood empty.  Rachel also found a story about another family that moved into the house in 1909 whom fell ill right after moving in within a few days.  The oldest brother of that same family killed himself after going mad with a kitchen knife and the family moved out, heartbroken.  The final story that Rachel found was about a third family that occupied the house in 1917, but they left within a few days after everyone got sick at the same time.  Rachel tried bribing and flirting with the male clerk that was working in the morgue organizing and performing duties such as a librarian would, but ended up pissing the guy off so much he helped her just to get rid of her.  The clerk told her that although there weren't any files older than 1878, there might be records of it elsewhere from before that year.

Meanwhile, Dr. Bedford searched the main library at the university and found that a Mr. Walter Corbitt was sued by his neighbors, who petitioned to make him leave the area "in consequence of his sic habits and unauspicious demeanor."  After he found this file, which took him four hours, he contacted Rachel to come help him do research.  Rachel showed up and helped Dr. Bedford search, but only found out that a prosperous merchant built the house, but got sick and sold the house to Mr. Walter Corbitt, esquire after eight hours.  Dr. Bedford had better luck in those eight hours though.  He found that Corbitt won the lawsuit and that his obituary in 1866 states he still lived there.  It also stated that a second lawsuit was filed against him to stop him from being buried in his basement, which was stated in his will.  Dr. Bedford also found out that there was no outcome to the second lawsuit filed.

The investigators end up going to the Hall of Records, they pass through security and find civil court records that state that Reverend Michael Thomas was the executor of Mr. Corbitt's will and pastor of the Chapel of Contemplation & Church of Our Lord Granter of Secrets.  The register of churches, also located in the Hall of Records, shows that the Chapel of Contemplation closed in 1912.  They look for the chapel in criminal court records, but don't find any.  Artie chirps in and tells the rest that serious crimes would be handled in the county, commonwealth, or federal court system and those records would probably be kept at the Central Police Station and High Court House, both in the same building.

The group finally makes their way to the Central Police Station and end up having to bribe the security guard to the records room $10 each.  After getting into the room, which is huge, they are surprised by a female secretary who tells them how the room is organized and that the Cs are in the corner which she pointed to.  In the records they find out about a secret raid on the Chapel of Contemplation that was occasioned by affidavits telling that members of the church were blamed for the missing neighborhood children.  In the raid, three cops and seventeen cult members were killed by guns or fire.  There were no autopsy files that stated anything significantly outstanding since it almost looks like they didn't even perform any, such is the quality of the autopsy reports.  Though 54 members of the chapel were arrested originally, only eight were held.  The records hinted of illegal procedures performed during the proceedings that intervened by officials who were important locally which sort of explains why the biggest criminal action the cops have ever done never was written about in any media, ever.  The records also stated that Pastor Thomas was arrested and sentenced to 40 years in prison, but escaped in 1917.  He was charged on five counts of second-degree murder.

The Neighborhood

Being ready to check out the house now, the investigators go to the house and see a newsstand down at the corner of the block.  Dr. Bedford went and talked with the newspaper and cigar vendor and found out that he didn't know anything about the house, except that it was recently purchased.  Rachel went and talked with him and found out that the Chapel of Contemplation was a couple blocks up the road.

Dr. Bedford had called Dr. Hooper and told him to meet them outside the house.  He gave the address.

The Chapel of Contemplation

The investigators drove up to the chapel and immediately started feeling ill.  They investigated the grounds and found the symbol of the church.

The symbol in the Chapel of Contemplation

Two of the investigators fell through some rotten floor boards and discovered a rotten copy of Liber Ivonis bound in animal hide, upon further inspection, it is deduced that it is actually bound in human flesh.  A journal of cult activities is also found that states that Walter Corbitt is buried in his basement "in accordance with his wishes and with the wishes of that one who waits in the dark."

The investigators go back to the Corbitt house.

The Old Corbitt Place

The investigators go to the house and park in front on the road.

The Corbitt House
The road is towards the bottom of the page.

They investigate the front of the house and find all the windows nailed shut from the inside.  The front door, which is located on the side of the house and leads into the hallway on the ground floor was locked.  Luckily, Mr. Worthington had given the keys to Artie.  They entered through the door and Artie was the first through and went straight into the living room.  He notices an unusual abundance of crosses, images of the Virgin, and other Catholic religious artifacts, but is intrigued by a painting on the wall that makes him feel uneasy.  He makes out the name of the artist, Nelson Blakely.  Followed closely by Dr. Hooper who went straight into the dining room.  Thomas removes the cover of the tureen on the table and the smell is enough for him to vomit.  He feels the need for fresh air.  Rachel was next, who stopped in the living room to investigate all the religious icons found by Artie.  Finally, Dr. Bedford went and searched the the first door in the hallway.  Amongst the storage boxes, rusted water tank and old bicycles, he finds three leather journals.  Artie continues on to the kitchen through the hallway, the smell of the dining room deterring his passage through that room and finds a wood stove and a larder with some edible canned foods, spoor of rats and some bottle of wine.  Dr. Hooper leaves the dining room and goes into the hallway and gets some fresh air by the front door and jams something into the door jamb preventing it from closing.  Rachel takes a look at the picture.  Dr. Bedford heads to the second door in the hallway and finds another storage closet mostly filled with pieces of wood for burning.  Artie then picks up the wood stove poker and heads out to the hallway.  Dr. Hooper heads to the third door in the hallway and finds the mud room where hung upon hangers are overcoats, some galoshes on the floor, some hats on the top shelf and a few umbrellas along with several bags of coal for the living room's free-standing  stove are on the floor opposite the boots.  Rachel and Dr. Bedford come up and form a line behind Artie.  Just then, while they are discussing on whether or not to head upstairs or see what's behind the door, assuming stairs down to the basement, Rachel hears scratching sounds coming from upstairs.

The group goes upstairs and investigates.  Artie goes first, and finds himself at the top of the stairs and heads to the first door on his left.  It opens up into a bathroom.  Dr. Hooper comes up next and heads to the first door on his left in the hallway (I reversed the order of the rooms, so that room 3 was actually room 1 and vice versa).  He found the master bedroom that belonged to Vittorio and Gabriela Marcario.  Rachel came up behind him and searched room two, finding it containing toys suitable for little boys.  Dr. Bedford brought up the rear and went straight to the final room.  He found some weird scratches on the floor under the bed frame with the bare bed springs and called out for the group to look at them.  Artie, being next up in the initiative, headed for the last room in the hallway.  Meanwhile, Dr. Hooper heard something coming from the bathroom and headed there.  He was looking in the lavatory and noticed a dark substance starting to pool to a point on the ceiling.  He pulled out his pocket camera to take a picture of it, and right when he was to snap the picture, the liquid fell on the lens of the camera.  He looked at the liquid on camera and saw that it was red and smelled of blood.  He nearly fainted by the thought of blood dripping from the ceiling and called for reinforcements.  All the while Rachel, eavesdropping on the conversation between Artie and Dr. Bedford, heard scratching coming from the window in the room she was currently in.  Dr. Bedford remained in the last room discussing with Artie and searching for a trap door in the floor.  Artie, hearing the calls of Dr. Hooper, heads to the loo and finds nothing wrong.  Dr. Hooper asks Artie if he can see the blood on the camera.  Artie replies that he cannot.  Rachel stares at the window that's making the scratching sounds.  Meanwhile, the bed in the third room starts vibrating and shaking uncontrollably on the floor, slowly moving towards and blocking the door.  Dr. Bedford, being unnerved by the bed, moves towards the window and looks out to see how far a drop it is, thinking about climbing down, and is surprised when he is pushed out the window and falls to the ground below.  Hearing the crash, Artie runs to the room and sees the broken window and looks to the ground where Dr. Bedford fell and is pushed out the window as well, failing to cling to the window ledge, barely misses falling atop Dr. Bedford.  Dr. Hooper, having heard the commotion, heads down the stairs and out to where the two have fallen, planning on performing some first aid.  Rachel, being alone upstairs now sees the walls with streams of blood flowing up to the ceiling defying gravity which bewilders her and as she runs out of the boy's room, heads to the last room instead of towards the stairs and looks out the window to see how everyone is doing when she is also pushed out the window, landing on Dr. Bedford.

Suffice it to say, they were in pretty bad shape at this point, but were loving the game, so I allowed them to roll their own characters, which we'll do in two weeks and the proverbial torch will pass to the new investigators while these recover in the hospital.  This is what happened.  I apologize for my earlier rant.  I was upset.

Until next time, have fun and game safe.

Call of Cthulhu, home editon, episode 1

Well, I did it.  I ran a Call of Cthulhu scenario after playing only one game of it online and my players loved it.  Now I didn't do anything original, but it was still pretty awesome.  I actually ran The Haunting, the first scenario for Call of Cthulhu.  Now, I had a print out of the scenario from Chaosium.com titled the Quick-start Rules which has a copy of the scenario in it and is free to download on Chaosium's website, however, the discrepancies between the quick-start guide and the scenario written in the 6th edition CoC core book are slightly different.  One includes weird things you can find in the house, and the other doesn't include them.  The quick-start guide fails to mention the free-standing furnace in the living room, but you know its there from the mud room where you find the bags of coal for it.  It actually states for the free standing furnace in the living room, but the description for the living room doesn't mention the furnace at all.  The painting in the living room isn't in the 6th edition book, nor the clipping that describes a raid at a different church that's similar to the one that you know about at the Chapel of Contemplation.  There's one about a visiting doctor at the Roxbury  Sanitarium from Arkham, but only if you visit the sanitarium, which isn't part of the scenario unless you read ahead and make sure not to give them the information about the Marcario family, nor the business card that leads to Dunwich.  I understand that the painting leads to Dreamlands and the clipping leads to Kingsport.  Now Kingsport is not available as a pdf for download at the Chaosium website, but the others are or available in hard-copy, you can buy them from Chaosium.  Kingsport I can only find via book buying websites, which I kind of don't understand.
I've tried getting in touch with Chaosium, and not even an email saying we'll look into this.  I've had some issues, but the lack of response makes me feel like my business isn't appreciated.  I really love the game, and want to get these older out of print scenarios on pdf and then hard-copy so I have everything that's been published.  Granted, some of the scenarios aren't Chaosium's, at least one is by Grenadier and its called the Secret of Monhegan Island, not positive on the spelling, but pretty sure.  Now I don't know how much the gaming community has broadcasted their demands on the game companies as to having them actually act like a company that cares about your business with them, but its the principle of the matter that I'm talking about.  My reasons are my own and I'm not trying to get anyone in trouble or start anything, but it just seems like good business to make the customer happy so they'll come back and do repeat business.