Dam Machine the G is sticked.

Dear Mr Engan,

Its nice youre interested in how my game is going, Ill try not to go on too much.

There are 7 players in the party at present. A little more than Id usually like. Before BTMOM, Id not GMd for a year, my usual players work commitments (and mine) made it difficult to get us all together regularly once a week (plus a couple had partners that made them unreliable - its a long story) - but after seeing BTMOM on a website , I had to buy it, and after reading it, I informed a few of my hardcore "When you gonna GM Cthulhu again" freinds and asked a couple of friends who'd never roleplayed before if they wanted to take part. They did, and then, typically, everyone wanted to play. We started with 8, but one's died en route. More of him/her perhaps another time.

Ben plays Prof. Samuel Hoy, Chinese American Geologist, based at Misk. Uni.

Kevin (roleplaying virgin)is Dr Quincy Black, Parapsychologist from Chicago, doing a psychological study of the effects of cold, exertion, etc. on humans.

Pokey (A long time CoC Veteran) is Prof. Wallace Merryweather, Archaeologist.

Rob is Mr Lawrence Stanley, famed wit and columnist for the Los Angeles Times.

Jason (another vet)is Mr South Powell (nice pun, I think), Radio Operator. (He toyed for a while with the name Runituptheflag Powell, but wisely discarded it)

Lee (another newbie) is Dr Isaac Van Kerr (slight wincing from me when he announced his name), the partys medical man, an expert in radical brain surgery, and the only man yet to have performed an innovative trepanning operation on himself. Lees a bit of a nutter, frankly, and there was plenty of head shaking and 'God help us all' -ing when the party realised that he was their main source of First Aid and Medicine.

And Mahri, my girlfriends sister, who tough playing an RPG for the first time, is a natural at it and an absolute boon to the game, is Cariad Jones, headstrong daughter of a Welsh Mining Magnate, and the first woman to fly over the North Pole. She is the partys polar survival expert.

At the start, we also had Vladimir Ilyich, Russian immigrant taxi driver and an ex revolutionary, with explosives track, disguise etc. experience, played by Jo, my girlfriend. She too was an RPG virgin, but unfortunately decided by Panama that roleplaying was not for her. When we play, she now gets her Dad to take her down the pub, away from 'those geeky chicken sacrificers'

I decided to start the campaign proper with all the party meeting up at the Amhurst Hotel, so composed a letter of acceptance for each, written by Starkweather and conveying his reasons for employing them and instructions for where they were to gather. I wanted to start the game off with something humorous yet give the players something to feel uneasy about so I peppered their letters with comments like

'Sir, I commend you on your bravery! Even angels would fear to tread where we dare!'

I posted the letters to the players by snailmail, on headed SME notepaper (did it on Word before I found the SME stationary at the Webyond site), and even got a couple of replies! Two of the letters I sent out were rejections. Dr Blacks, Starkweather not having any truck with such a girly science - 'To ask stalwart men of physical courage and bold endeavour to look at inkblots or cry like women at childhood fancies would be to mock the very spirit in which this great quest is being undertook'

And Cariad of course, being a woman, was rejected out of hand by good old Starkers. After belittling her acheivements, he finished with 'I mean no disrespect. I understand you are an experienced hill-walker for a lady, more used to wearing sensible shoes than Parisian Courts, and I gather as at home in a pair of dungarees as in a fancy ball gown, but I am afraid I must respectfully refuse your request. The South Pole is a hard place for hardy men, and we cannot afford to chaperone.'

Dr Black donated $4000, and was immediately told by Starkers that he could come and that his study would be 'a study of the human psyche to rival even the great work of Freud.', and of course Cariad was accepted after the 'Get me a woman' episode.

And thats how we started. I hope I havent bored you, you know what its like being a GM, I could ramble on all day long.

Adrian Smith.

*

Dam Machine the G is sticked.

On the subject of handouts, I must mention those from BMOM. I've always looked forward to CoC handouts, they are often excellent. Are you familiar with Horror On The Orient Express? There were these really cool fold-up American Passports with little embossed wax-stamped bits, they made marvellous souvenirs for the campaign. The handouts in BMOM were good, but when I bought the Miskatonic Antarctic Expedition Pack I was blown away. Were you and your colleagues responsible for this, too? The tattoos were my personal favourite. Hopefully I'll be going to work somewhere far away, abroad, before Christmas, Im going to take a Gabrielle postcard to send back. Bens got a patch on one of his baseball caps (Hes a terrible one for baseball caps). And the Pym Document was stupendous.

The best handout, however, IMO, in terms of sheer craziness, has to be the Dyer Text. Using an actual book as a handout is like manna from heaven to a GM like me. I cant wait, Im going to have to wangle it so that Moore gives the Dyer Text to the Players near the end of a session, but Its going to make a hilarious change from the players finding some Eldtrich Tome and saying "Ok, I read it". This time, Ill be able to toss 'em my copy of AMOM and say "Go on then". Top Banana.

Mind you, Rob (Lawrence Stanley, the 'famous columnist') has already read the Narrative Of Arthur Gordon Pym as a result of the campaign. The published one, I mean. He read most of it on a long train voyage (in reality, Im talking about) and it was a hard slog, by all accounts. (I have to admit, I myself kind of skimmed the book - A bit of Moby Dick Syndrome going on there, I thought.) When he'd finished it, he nearly killed me. Well, the end is a little...abrupt. (What was Poe-never mind that, what was his publisher thinking?)

Ach, there I go, rambling off on one again. And I was going to tell you about the death of Vlad the cross-dressing Russian Explosives Expert and the radical change to the character of Hennings I was forced to make by an unforseen plot development. Next time, unless you tell me to shut up.

Smif

>> Dear Mr Engan,

Oh please -- call me Chaz.

>> excellent.  Are you familiar with Horror On The Orient Express?

Yes -- We own the box, though I've never run the campaign.  Actually, I
have to say I am not our CoC Keeper -- that job is my wife Jan's.  I'm
the Sci-Fi and Fantasy GM, and a die-hard CoC *player.*   So it was a
bit of a twist when I became chief author for BtMOM, and Jan became
the editor and plotmistress.

>> The handouts in BMOM were good, but when  I bought the
>> Miskatonic Antarctic Expedition Pack I was blown away.
>> Were you and  your colleagues responsible for this, too?

Pretty much.  Here's the tale:

Originally, BtMOM was expected to be about 180 pages. We were going
to put it in a boxed set in 3 volumes, like Orient Express:  One book for
the adventure, one for the "Antarctica Book," and the third volume to be
made up of handouts etc.   However at 260,000 words there was no way
to publish the adventure in multiple volumes -- it was too expensive.

Chaosium was/is in serious financial trouble.   Added to that, we started
BtMOM in '94 and were supposed to go to press in late '97 ... but it took
so much longer to finish and was so much bigger than they expected
that the manuscript wasn't ready until April '99, by which time Chaosium
was out of money again.

I have a longtime gamer friend who recently struck it big in a dot-com
stock sale; all of a sudden my old buddy was worth close to a million
dollars!   He was a big fan of the Mountains project too, and when he
heard that publication might be delayed further because the printers
wanted their cash in advance, he went to chaosium and loaned them
money to put the book out.

By then, of course, he'd seen our plans, and knew that both AtMOM and
the Pym were "handouts" for the tale, so when he went to Chaosium,
Chris said "here's the deal:  I'll give you $20,000 to print BtMOM, which
should cover most (but not all) of your expnses.  *OR*, I'll give you
$50,000 if you'll make the effort to (a) republish the two fiction books in
a companion volume, and (b) put the originally proposed fancy handouts
back into the box."

The end result was as you saw:  BtMOM, the "Antarktos Cycle" fiction
book, and the accessory pack.  We had trouble coming up with good
things to put in the pack.  The stuff I wanted to put in there -- better
maps,
a realistic folio print of the Pym ending with editorial marks,
figure-scale
 floor plans for the vehicles, etc -- we couldn't do in a shrinkwrapped A4
package, or there wasn't time.   So Lynn did a new Keeper's screen using
the tables from the book, we niced up the handouts you've seen, and
my other friend Lisa -- a graphic designer -- did up the patch and the
newpaper articles, using advertisements from period "national Geographic"
magazines.  The rest you know.

>> The tattoos were my personal  favourite. Hopefully I'll be going to
>> work somewhere far away, abroad, before  Christmas, Im going to
>> take a Gabrielle postcard to send back.

::laughter::

>> The best handout, however, IMO, in terms of sheer  craziness,
>> has to be the Dyer Text.

That is one of my decisions, and I'm very proud of it.  AtMOM is one
of my favorite Lovecrrafts, and I didn't feel we had a hope of presenting
all that wonderful imagery as well as HPL did.   To add to that, any time
you do a sequel you have a problem of making the game fun for both
the ones who have read the book and the ones who haven't.  If you
play to the haves, the have-nots can get lost;; if you play to the
have-nots,
the haves can run all over the plot.

So my delight -- by handing out the book itself, I solve all such problems.
Bingo!  All players on a common footing, and above-game knowlege is
no longer an issue.  Hurrah!

>> Mind you, Rob (Lawrence Stanley, the 'famous  columnist') has
>> already read the Narrative Of Arthur Gordon Pym as a result of
>> the campaign. The published one, I mean. He read most of it on
>> a long train  voyage (in reality, Im talking about) and it was a hard
>> slog, by all accounts.

Good for him!  Give him some good benefit or other.  He deserves it.
It surely is typical Poe though...  very angsty.

>> Ach, there I go, rambling off on one again. And I  was going to
>> tell you about the death of Vlad the cross-dressing Russian
>> Explosives Expert and the radical change to the character of
>>  Hennings I was  forced to make by an unforseen plot development.
>> Next time, unless you tell  me to shut up.

LOL!  Please do!  I love that stuff!

Chaz

Dam Machine the G is sticked.

>Oh please -- call me Chaz.<

Righto.

Chaz,

That mate of yours with the big bucks - give him a pint from me for loaning Chaosium that cash!

And nice one again for your Dyer Text idea. Its one of my faves, too. The copy I have is contained in a book along with all the Randolph Carter stuff - The Dreamquest Of Unknown Kadath is a top book which spoke volumes to me when I first read it - going through adolescence at the time. :)

>>> Next time, unless you tell  me to shut up.

LOL!  Please do!  I love that stuff!<

Okay then!

As I mentioned in an earlier email, at the start of BMOM, my girlfriend Jo was playing Vlad Ilyich, a Russian ex-revolutionary taxi-driver with explosives, disguise, rifle etc skills. She originally wanted to play a female character, but when I pointed out that it might be stretching it a little to imagine Starkweather not only allowing an avowed communist on the expedition, but a female one at that, knowing his sexism and, though its not mentioned specifically, probable strong views on the bolsheviks, she went away and came back with an inspired rationale for her character.

Get a load of this! -

Elizabeth Ilyich, lesbian revolutionary, dissolusioned with the state of Russia after the revolution, emigrates to the US and, because of the morals of the time, lives as a man. Jo and I entered 'historical cross dressers' into a search engine, and found quite a few examples of women living as men throughout history, those two pirate women seem to be the most famous, but there were a lot it seems. We found one who seemed perfect, she was a lesbian living with her lover but acting as a man to the outside world. Her photo was on the website -

Isnt that cool? She looks enough like a man to pass easily, until you know shes a woman, then its like "Of course! I see it now!"
Ive used Byakhee, the CoC character generator programme for the first time with BMOM, and pics can be inserted on the character sheet, so all I had to do was change the name and the pic. None of the players suspected a thing, apart from Kevin, who merely commented that 'Vlad' looked "a bit girly"

As to why Vlad wanted to go on the SME, Jo told me that her lover had succumbed to the pressure of the times, and thrown her out, denied her true nature and married an 'suitable' man. roken hearted, Vlad offers his considerable experience of using explosives in the steppes to Starkweather. Here I had a little fun, once Id given Starkers a roll to see wether he'd sussed anything (Pow x2 I thought, the concept of lesbians is probably so alien to him that he wouldnt think it at all!) I wrote his letter of acceptance to Vlad, littering it with comments like

'You are a man after my own heart, Sir, a kindred spirit and despite any unfortunate political mistakes you have made in the rashness of boyhood, you are a man I would be proud to call 'Comrade' (Ha ha!) Are we not all Men, under the trappings of Class and Culture?'

Of course, there was the examination by Dr Greene to get through. Jo avoided this by adding another facet to Vlads character. He was a morphine addict! He pleaded with Dr Van Kerr,a PC played by my friend Lee, that if he was examined by Dr Greene, his secret would be out, so would Dr Van Kerr provide documentation confirming that Vlad was hale and healthy. In the excitement of Vlads revelation to him, Van Kerr signed the papers without actually examining him at all. Approaching him when he was rather inebriate no doubt helped!

As I have also mentioned, however, by Panama, Jo had decided that she didnt like roleplaying, so we had to kill off Vlad. This was accomplished by a morphine overdose, discovered about a day after she died, by Dr Black (Kevin). He saw the evidence of drug use (which all players bar Lee were unaware of till then) and called Van Kerr and Prof Merryweather (my good friend and longtime CoC player Pokey) to investigate further, as he was worried for his SAN, which had taken a bit of a battering. The examination of Vlad by these two was hilarious. In the security of Vlads cabin (No roommate, thankfully), Van Kerr checked for pulse, etc and then started to undress Vlad (who was fully clothed) to check for signs of foul play.Upon taking off Vlads shirt, they were confronted with the tightly wrapped bandages which kept Vlads breasts form being obvious. "Aha!" exclaimed Van Kerr, "Maybe he's been shot!"

unwraping the bandages, they asked me wether there were any bulletholes. "No bulletholes. But Vlad does appear to have breasts."

"Breasts?"

"Breasts. Two of them."

It was marvellous. They asked me to confirm that Vlad was a woman, and I replied "..Well, he does have breasts..."

So Merryweather groaned and told Van Kerr he was going to have to...investigate further, just to make sure.  He averted his eyes, the gentleman that he is, whilst Van Kerr confirmed their suspicions.

The two had a bit of a discussion as to what to tell the party, and what to tell Starkweather. They decided to uphold Vlads secret gender, but told the party that he had died from a morphine overdose. The party then decided to tell Starkweather that Vlad had died from an embolism in the brain, and destroyed the evidence of Morphine usage. What a fine bunch they are!

The funeral of Vlad was great. Van Kerr, who had signed the death certificate and had a brief altercation with Dr Greene, who was slightly suspicious, prepared the body, and Starkweather gave a speech. Jo got 'The Internationale' to play on the stereo whilst this was going on, and bought a bottle of vodka to toast Vlad with.

Stakweathers speech, which I enjoyed writing and delivering immensely, started with

 "What made Vlad, Vlad?...One might as well ask...what makes a Man, a Man?"

 and was outrageously over the top in terms of statements like

'We shall never know this mysterious woman from Vlads past (Vlad had mentioned an unhappy love affair as being a reason for him coming on the expedition). We shall never know what dark anguish Vlad kept tightly wrapped in his breast.'

and

'With Vlad, what you saw was what you got, gentlemen, and had we brought him before you naked as a jaybird with his soul layed bare, no emotion would you feel but amazement. Amazement and sorrow that such a paragon of manhood be lost to the world this day!'

Pokey, Lee and Jo, of course, were stifling sniggers throughout this impassioned eulogy from Starkers. I was sure someone would click, but at the end, the others came to the conclusion that Starkers bizarre obsession with what a Man Vlad was (esp. references to Vlad 'coming out of his cabin sweaty and lightheaded, no doubt from his physical jerks') meant that Starkweather had been attracted to Vlad in a more than buddy-like manner. Ironic, considering, eh?

Blimey, that went on a bit.

While Im here, Id like to ask you some questions, if you dont mind. You say you are play, rather than GM CoC. Did your wife take part in the playtesting? Ive often wondered how playtesting is done. Was it done in bits, as Chapters(or drafts of them) were completed, or did you wait till the whole was first put together?

One thing which Im having to think about is Player death. When a campagn takes place in 'civilisation'. so to speak, new cahracters can be rolled up and added without too much bother, but in BMOM, now that the players are past Melbourne, if a player dies (or becomes Insane) theyll have to presumably rollup replacements for the NPCs which form the rest of the expedition. In anticipation of this, Ive kept the interaction with some of the graduate students, for example, limited. Was this on your mind when you provided so many other expediytion members? In the Walker In The Wastes campaign (great idea, but I hated the way it was laid out), there werent that many NPCs in the prologue at the North Pole.

Hm - didnt get round to Hennings, did I? :)

Thanks for listening.

Smif

That was great!

Sorry I can't answer at length this time, but I'm at work and we have a
very tight schedule today... so here goes:

>> You say  you are play, rather than GM CoC. Did your wife
>> take part in the playtesting?  Ive often wondered how playtesting
>>  is done. Was it done in bits, as Chapters(or  drafts of them)
>> were completed, or did you wait till the whole was first put  together?

This was an exception.  I did GM one of the playtest groups for BtMOM,
though that's not always a good idea.   There were actually three play-
tests:  One by me, one by Mike Blum (who did the maps and charts) and
one by a fellow named Peter Devlin in Glasgow, who got the pre-release
work from Lynn at Chaosium with our permission.

My group started in '97; the book was only about half done -- we had most
of what became Chapters 1,2,4,8,11,and 17, outlines for a rather different
version of 5&6, and outlines also for a very different 9/10/13.  Alas, we
bogged down at sea somewhere, and I didn't push the point since I had yet
so much to write.

Peter's group ran it in late '98, and except for some slight changes in 3,4
and 14, the work was in its final form.

Mike's started in early '99 with the final draft; they were actually at the
Tower
when we had to commit the work to the printers'.

>> One thing which Im having to think about is Player death. When a
>> campagn  takes place in 'civilisation'. so to speak, new cahracters
>> can be rolled up and  added without too much bother, but in
>> BMOM, now that the players are past  Melbourne, if a player dies
>> (or becomes Insane) theyll have to presumably rollup
>> replacements for the NPCs which form the rest of the expedition.
>> In anticipation  of this, Ive kept the interaction with some of the
>> graduate students, for  example, limited. Was this on your mind
>> when you provided so many other  expediytion members?

Yes and no.  The expedition is big because it has to be, both because
any group that is worth the effort to put on the ice has to do a lot of
stuff, and because Dyer specifically said it was a "new, larger"
expedition in AtMOM, and the Dyer/Lake party put something like 20
men on the ice.

The NPCs are there, they can be used as replacements if need be --
but you will notice that the places that most of the losses happen are
over the hill, where there basically are few replacements if any.  Actually
I wanted people to suffer a bit with this -- sure, they can pick up new
bodies once the main party comes back to Lake's Camp or the lowlands,
but the whole Chapter 10/11/12/13 sequence is intended for the same
dwindling group of characters to have to do more and more gruesome
things with no safety valve.  Only then do we let up and allow more people
in on the game.

Now, that's my rationale.  you don't have to follow it, and many don't.
'S'ok.
the GM is God, after all, and can do what he wants with the world.

Another reason I wanted so many NPCs is to make the world crowded.
Most CoC scenarios, the PC groups are alone or on their own, able to
come and go and do wacky things with no one to see them or hold
them accountable.  But here, I wanted something more real -- a situation
where they're jammed cheek-to-jowl with other, more ordinary, people
24 hours a day, and they have to be accountable for everything they
do.   It makes for an entirely different sort of roleplaying.

The third reason is that that's the way we do a lot of our campaigns here,
and I find it greatly enriches things.  NPCs in Jan's and my campaign are
full-fledged people and motivators in their own right.  We play them out
in full, and the other players accept them as fully independent party
members
and trust us enough that there's never any question of "uh-oh, Vlad's
gone off on his own, what do you think Chaz is setting up?"

Thus you have people like Starkers, Moore and Acacia, all of which are
opinionated motivators that the trip cannot do without -- but in playing
them that way from the start, you set up an expectation that they'll be
true to you and to themselves; and when they are, their needs and
opinions greatly shape the endgame.

Wow -- I have to send this and get on to other stuff -- so much for a short
note!

Ciao,
Chaz

>> Hm - didnt get round to Hennings, did I? :)

Nope.  next time.

Dam Machine the G is sticked.

Chaz,

Hope you and yours are well.

We played Shock In The Lightest Night day before yesterday. It went more or less according to plot, but when it came to Starkweather storming out of Lexington's hut and commanding the party to pack up and leave, some of the Players were a bit hesitant. Cariad (polar guide, female) pretended her sled was broken(?) to stall him, and Dr Van Kerr actually stated he was going to stay behind. Starkers went mental, shouting and raging, threatened to smack Van Kerr one and after Spotting that Cariad's sled was fine gave her till the count of ten "to get that blasted sled moving, or you're fired!".

I thought it reasonable that Starkers behave in such a manner. So far on the voyage, he's already had a couple of run-ins with Van Kerr, who doesn't worry about tact when it comes to displaying his low opinion of Starkweathers competence. The way Ive been Starkers, he doesn't really have much in the way of people skills, but Moore seems like a rational judge of character, so hopefully they'll think more of Starkers when he comes into his own when they're on the ice. After the session, Mahri (Cariad) told me that she nearly crapped herself when Starkweather blew up!

I have to admit, Starkers is an excellent NPC to get my teeth into. His bluster and 'Damn the torpedoes!' attitude plays off nicely against Moores weary determination to discover what happened to Lakes party. Moores taken to having the odd tipple, unfortunately, as the trials and setbacks continue to grow.

Hennings. Adam Hennings. Poor Adam.

If you remember, three of my party, Mahri, Kevin (Dr Black, parapsychologist), and Lee (Dr Van Kerr) are playing CoC for the first time, and Mahri & Kev are playing their first RPG. I wanted them to experience the different parts of CoC before they got to the Big Fights at the end, and of course Combat can get a bit confusing at first. The Roerich rescue offered a chance at this, but Kevin sensibly chose to just lurk in the shadows and watch, till the Profiteers left. Where to initiate a combat on board the ship without getting huge amounts of sailors (and Starkers) involved was the problem I was confronted with, but Kevin's character gave me the answer. AS a parapsychologist, he'd put 40% into the Dreaming skill. Always a fan of the Dreamlands side of CoC, I beefed Hennings up slightly, giving him some Dreaming, and an ancient arcane device - The Horn Of Neptune!

This weirdly inscribed, barnacle-encrusted Conch-Shell, when blown, has the power to draw the targets of the Spell into a dreamlands of the Blowers choosing. I chose the Crossing The Line Ceremony for the time.

Unfortunately, and typically, Kevin was unable to attend on the session when Hennings would make his move, so I had a conference with Lee, and reverse-engineered 25% Dreaming skill for Van Kerr. :)

So what happened, was, at midnight, the mayday bell goes off, and they all troop out on deck, and Davy Jones is there, per the book, obviously a bloke in a suit. We play it out normal, and everyone goes back to bed.

The mayday bell goes off, and they all troop out on deck (a mite confused) to see Davy Jones coming down from the fo'c's'le again, only his costumes ...older more seaweedy and slimy. And his tridents not as flimsy and fake as before. BANG, he hits the deck with his trident, and they hear this weird moaning horn-noise (I got a really creepy noise going on the computer) and the sea rolls and the wind picks up. BANG he hits the deck again, and the sea gets even worse.The a sailor approaches Davy, who reacts by sprouting teeth and tentacles from his head and eating the poor sailors face, and Combat time started. This was merely an intro to Combat Time, however. Every round, Davy hit the deck with his Trident, and the gale force went up by one. The PCs were skidding all over the shop, making increasingly mor difficult DEX rolls, and only Van Kerr had a gun on him. By the time it got to Gale Force 10, the ship capsized and everyone washed over board. And one by one they drowned.

The look on Bens face (First to drown) when he not only realised that he was dead but that the Gabrielle was sunk as hilarious. Mahri looked utterly horrified. Pokey, having played before, must have sussed that I couldn't possibly just kill them all off like that, and of course, he was right. During the last few rounds(all this only lasting 15 or so) Dr Van Kerr realised that the were all collectively dreaming, and as he went under I asked him what he was going to do about it, as he was the only one present with any experience. He informed me that breathing underwater was the thing he thought would help.

Right. They all faded to black, and when they came round, they're lying on the deck of the Gabrielle. Only the Gabrielle's lying on the sea bed, and there's this 25 metre wide bubble of air around them. They can see the edges, and see fish swimming in the murky depths beyond. SAN rolls all round. Van Kerr is keeping the bubble there by using his dreaming rolls, and his POW. And they can hear this weird horn blowing again. Two things shamble out of the sea on the deck towards the,m, creatures made from mud, shells, fish carcasses and starfish, which I made up and named The Blobs From A Million Fathoms (what a name!:)). Then two more., each time accompanied by this noise coming from somewhere behind them in the depths(literally) of the ship. The Blobs were trying to Grapple with a PC, then drag him back through the edge of the bubble to drown in the sea beyond. And every time that Van Kerr failed a Dream roll (Once per round he had to make one) the bubble would sort of go BLoinp! and shrink by 3 metres or so. SO Van Kerrs sitting on the deck, desperately concentrating on keeping the air around them, And the others are trying to protect him and themselves. Cariad got grabbed by one and started being dragged off the a watery grave, whilst South Powell went into the mess and opened the hatch into the Engine room space. Hennings' dream alter-ego, a hideous toad-like mud-skinned creature, is squatting in a corner of the engine room blowing the horn. Every time he does, another Blob appears up on deck. And he's thirty feet underwater as well. Powell gets a couple of heavy shackles in one hand, a fire axe in his belt, and an upside down firebucket in his other hand, and off he drops.

Underwater Cthulhu! A first for me!

It went wonderfully. Everyone had something to do, little mini-combats (Cariad actually did get dragged outside the bubble, and Stanley (journalist) did a heroic die-hardesque dive out into the ocean with a firehose tied round his waist to save her.They were both pulled back in by Ben(Sam Hoy, kung fu kicking Geologist)). Merryweather (Pokey) did a sterling job of protecting Van Kerr, and Powell's submerged fight with Hennings toad thing was brilliant.

Van Kerr's Dreaming score wasn't really up to the task, however, but in such circumstances I use a rule of my own. When Players are confronted with vital situations, where the success or failure of a roll is desperate, I allow them to voluntarily put SAN points into the roll. For every point of SAN sacrificed in  this way, I give them an extra 5 percentiles. I suppose its explainable by saying that in such extreme situations, the person is putting all he's got into getting through the immediate danger at a cost to his sanity later on. I employ a similar method to temporary insanity, when in some combats having an attack of the screaming abdabs would be lethal to the survival of the party. Of course, later, when the reality of how close to The Edge they came sinks in, the phobias and tics come on hard. Have I explained that clearly enough? I hope you get the gist of what I mean, anyway.

So Van Kerr was chucking SAN away every couple of rounds, when the bubble started getting too small.

He managed to stave off doom long enough for Powell to chop bits of Henning's off enough to get the horn off him, at which the toad thing disintegrated and he let his shackles go and came up to the mess with the horn. Which he blew. Whoops!

After having a terrible insight into the awesome behemoths that cruise the deeps and sleep in sunken cities, etc., he grabbed a chair and smashed the shit out of the horn.

Everybody woke up. In their bunks,on the still afloat Gabrielle, coughing up seawater. And seriously freaked out. They found little bits of broken shell on the messhall table, and later on one of the engine room crew complained at having shinned himself bumping into a firebucket with shackles on it someone had stupidly left in the engine room. Apart from that the party were the only ones to know what had happened.

And a cool postscript cam about next session. Kevin was playing this time, and the party wondered why he had been left alone asleep in his bunkwhen the rest of them had been dragged in. Obviously it was because Kevin himself wasn't present, and I don't hold with playing other peoples characters, but the players came up with the theory that Whoever it was had sensed that Dr Black had some experience with such things, and would have been a threat to him.

Why then, did Van Kerr also get pulled in?

I think I have mentioned that Van Kerr is a brilliant and radical brain surgeon, who has performed a trepanning operation on himself. The players fathomed that somehow, Van Kerr's mental faculties were shielded from Whoever somehow by the effects of the operation!

Bloody hell, I cant seem to be concise. Apologies, and the above isn't actually the radical change to Henning's character I was talking about. Ach, next time. If you don't mind, that is, reading my rantings.

Smif

Hey, Joe,

Apologies for the long delay; its been a busy couple of weeks here at work,
and I just let it slip.

Just three things to say about your last post:
1) Are you ever going to tell me what happened to Henning?
2) The Line Crossing sequence sounds like a lot of fun -- very unexpected,
to me, but
   it seems as though you arranged things very well.  Bravo!
3) Dr Van Kerr may be a brilliant surgeon, but -- trepanning HIMSELF?
Ouch!

Best to you, and apologies again, I haven't forgotten,

Chaz

Dam Machine the G is sticked.

Chaz,

Just kicked my CoC players out after another sesh. Sorry I havent written fr a while but Ive been doing a TEFL course fr the last 3 weeks and Ive been horrendously busy. Ive been getting up at 8 and not getting to sleep till 2 am theres so much work to do for it, but hopefully my fruits will bear labour (erm...) and Ill be Teaching English as a Foriegn Language by Christmas.

Cripes, a shedload of stuff has happened in BMOM since last I mailed you. Currently the party are on the first page of Mission of Mercy, but we played for 6 hours tonight and we didnt actually get through any pages of plot, so to speak.

I simply HAVE to get Hennings out of the way or Ill rant on about this evenings session (which was  top).

Hennings character had already been altered by me to provide him with some magic and the party with a little controlled combat at the bottom of the dream Briny.  When the sabotage became obvious and the party decided to hole up in the fuel hangar where the saboteur had stashed the fuses, they went tooled up. Two at a time they staked out the hangar, and when Hennings showed up it was Cariad and Van Kerr who were there to catch him in the act. Out they jumped with guns trained on him, "Freeze!" etc. Well...I coudlnt let them just arrest him without a little excitement, so I reasoned that perhaps he had a little more magical ability. So he started mumbling, which freaked them out a little. He beat Cariad in a POW vs POW roll, and possessed her.
Smif

Wow!  What an intriguing and brief note.  What happened next?  Did
Henning stay with Cariad, and for how long?  Inquiring minds want to know
...

Sounds as if you're very much into the "good bits" by now -- how did they
all
turn out?

Do tell.

Chaz

Dam Machine the G is sticked.

Ahem,

Sorry, Chaz,

That last emai;l I sent you  -  I didnt actually intend to send it. I wrote it during my cousre, stopped halfway thru, chuxked it in a folder meaning to finish it off and my bloody computer, the minion of Nyarlathothep that it is, sent it anyway. I didnt intend to leave you hanging like that (not that i assume you havent slept since or anything :))

Right, now weve got, in a line between two stacks of fuel barrels, Hennings, then Van Kerr (Lee) who is facing Hennings with crowbar raised, then Cariad (Mahri), possessed by Hennings and pointing her .38. Pointing it at Van Kerr. Whilst frantically begging me for Pow Vs Pow rolls. "I can do it!" she's pleading, "Let me put SAN into it!" I did tell you 'bout my voluntary SAN sacrifice rule, didnt I? Yes, I just checked

So, in Combat terms, Hennings gets to go first, and successfully Pushes Cariad to pull the trigger. Then Cariad makes her Pow Roll, so I give her the choice of where to fire. Ha!

What's she gonna do? Plow a .38 slug into Van Kerrs back, or fire one off to the side...where the fuel barrels are.

Slight aside here.

I had a debate with some players a while back about the logistics of firing bullets into barrels of gasoline. Apparently, those in the know (!) assured me, in reality, you can shoot fuel barrels with bullets and not blow them up, because of  some rubbish I cant evben remember now. The same people will tell you that dropping a lit Zippo into a pool of gasoline will merely cause the flame to go out.

Well, fine, I said. In reality, a five pointed star shaped stone wont save you from having your soul eaten by a hideous monstrous denizen of the planes beyond the ken of mortal man.

So, in MY CoC games, you fire a bullet into a fuel barrel and WHOOM! - just like inBruce Willis films.

So, Mahris's got this terrible choice to make.

She said "Sorry Doc." and shot Van Kerr. And then used a fudge point to hit him in the shoulder. Talk about calmness under fire!

Hmm, Fudge points. Cant find a reference so far. Bear with me a sec.

You know some games have Hero pts or Fudge points that let players re-roll important rolls? Ive given my party 2 Fudge points each. For the entire campaign. They can use these to re-roll, or, if appropriate, alyter the outcome of already rolled attacks, etc., to lessen negative outcomes or alter things for their benefit. Whats cool is, their Fudge points are represented by actual peices of Fudge, bought right here in Cardiff Market, and they have to eat them when they use them. Marvellous.

Aaaaanyway, to cut a 'getting longer by the minute story' short, they subdued Hennings. By basically beating him senseless (and bloody) every time he started mumbling. Actually, they beat him to death. Then the SAN losses kicked in, and they stashed his body in the monoplane and ran up on deck to find the others, babbloing like loons about how theyd "killed him, but we had to!"
So whilst the rest calm them down, Dr Black, the parapsychologist, (Kevin) goes down to the hangar alone to check on the body.

I couldnt resist it.

He gets to the monoplane, and ...no body.

Kevin(His first ever RPG experience, remember) is freaked. He finds a bloody trail(bits of bone amongst) and runs away(very sensible) to get help.

So back he comes, with a couple of others, Cariad among them, and they follow the trail to a corner of the hangar, where Hennings is curled in a foetal ball, pretty much a bloody wreck, his face caved in, some brain showing here and ther amidst the shattered bowl of his skull...but still alive, and visibly regenerating.

Here I was thinking on my feet, and basically I wanted to give them some idea of the awesomeness to come without letting too much away, and without working myself iunto a corner as far as Hennings was concerned. I still didnt really know how I was going to explain Hennings away at all.

So Merryweather (Pokey) tries to converse with him, and when Hennings says the immortal line "Dr Merryweather, have you ever thought about what the phrase 'a fate worse than death' means?" , everything fell into place for me. Hennings was talking about what would happen to them if they got captured by the Eldr Things and put on the Wall of Skulls, but I realised that I had a rationale for Hennings also contained in that line.

Il get on to that.

Hennings was mumbling during his conversation, and Cariad got more and more twitchy, and eventually lost it and attacked him. By now he'd regenerated enough to try to get away. He'd been saying things like " What wil you do with me, put me in prison? I'lkl still be there when the walls crumble and the wardens are long dissolved in  the grave" and in my mind all he wanted to do was jump over the side. When he made a break for it, Cariad and Black flipped and attacked him with blunt instruments and knives, Black eventually slitting his throat and Cariad crazily gouging chunks out of his throat with her bare hands.

Well, I dont need to go into everyt detail(tho the temptation as youre probably aware is great) but they basically dismembered him (to stop him regenerating)and threw the pices over the side. They managed to clean up the mess and then concocted a story about confronting the saboteur only to have him leap overboard. It was dubiously accepted as true, and when no more sabotage ensued all was well till australia and beyond.

Cripes, I dont half go on dont I?

Okay, Ill come clean about what I did to Hennings.

His first name is Adam.

Yep, he is the biblical Adam. The first Man. A creation of the Elder Things who was more powerfull than they wanted, who rebelled, escaped and went out into the world way back in the mists of prehistory to wander the world. He's been wandering the world ever since, never dying, giving rise to the legends of The Wandering Jew etc. And he knows what threat the Unknown God poses to Life. Which is why He's trying to stop the expedition. Hw knows what Man can do in these times.

Being Immortal, he tried to jump over the side knowing that he could walk on the bottom to Antarctica if need be.

But the PC's have just chopped him into (still living ) bits.

Poor Adam.

So on they sailed to Australia, and en route I realised that the party didnt know any of this yet, and I worked out another alteration to Adam that would fit even more horribly. Which I'll tell you next mail.

Do you know the legend of Lilith?

Thank you, Chaz, for listening.
Smif

In a word -- BWAHAHAH!!  Man you are cruel!

Poor Adam, indeed!  And yes, I do know Lilith, in a general sense ...
unfortunately, my readings of Gnostic and revisionist stuff over the years
have confused me somewhat ... I don't know that I can separate the
"popular"
Lilith version from any of those that have been tossed away by history.  So
feel free to remind me.   Am I right in assuming that there's another
immortal out there?

BTB -- I really like your Fudge points, especially the fact that they're
edible.

Chaz


Dam Machine the G is sticked.

Chaz,

I knew nothing about Lilith till I was musing out loud in between sessions, regarding what I was going to do about the Hennings situation. Okay, he was out of the party's hair, but I had to at some stage let them know what had gone on. It's only fair.

"I know, "I said to Jo, my girlfriend, "If Hennings was Adam, somewhere there must be Eve."

"No," she said, "Somewhere there must be Lilith."

"Lilith? Who's Lilith?"

"The first feminist." commented Jo's mum.

"No no no, Lilith is a crazy demon bitch who eats babies." retorted Jo's Dad.

Whilst they all started arguing, I went online to find out for myself. And I came across all sorts of stuff, Lilith being the first woman, arguing with Adam, "I will not lie under you." etc, telling God to kiss her ass, all that.

So, here's what I ended up with.

Adam and Lilith are two immensely powerful beings who come to Earth round about the same time as the Elder Things. Above most  material concerns, they watch with interest the various shenanigans that occur between the Elder Things and the Octopi etc., no strife between them and the Elder Things. When the Elder Things create Mankind (or rather when Mankind evolves from the Elder Things food/slave production, Adam becomes more and more interested in this primitive yet oddly durable species, and eventually leaves the Pole to walk the Earth, taking on the shape of at first a Neanderthal then evolving along with humanity. Lilith is critical of this unseemly interaction, and remains, eventually letting herself fall into a slumber neath the Antarctic Ice.

Adams immersion in Humanity is a dangerous one, as his otherworldly powers are leeched away over the centuries, he loses the ability to shapeshift and transport himself through space. He retains some magical powers and his immortality, and of course an amazing regenerative capability. His sense of what he has lost stays with him, balanced only by a bitter love for the species that he has lost himself in. Some connection with the Elder Things remains, however, and sometime in the early 20th century he is visited by a feeling of impending doom that galvanises him into seeking out the cause - the Starkweather-Moore Expedition. He joins with the intention of stopping its unwitting foolishness. Cue BMOM, Cariad, a fire axe and 6 splashes in the south seas.

So, the party get to Lakes camp. Much "Zoinks!" and throwing up ensue with the exhumation of the cairn and the excavation of the tents. The Germans arrive, and here I must again thank you fanboy stylee for introducing yet another excellent role-playing dynamic to the mix. My party must be the most paranoid bunch of untrusting buggers ever! They more or less stalked the Germans, sleeping in shifts so that someone could be awake at all times to make sure the 'filthy hun' weren't up to no good. Dyers Text went down a treat. An absolute treat. Moore comes out of his tent (conveniently close to the end of a session), and when he gave Stanley (the famous LA TIMES columnist, my good friend Rob) the text, I gave Rob At The Mountains Of Madness.

"He gives you this" I said.

"Right," he replied. "I go to my tent and read it. What's in it?"

I smiled evilly as things dawned on him and the others. "Ah," he muttered "I guess I'll have to take it home with me, won't I?

Kevin went ballistic "What? You cant make us do that! We've got to wait for Rob to read it for real?"

Anyway, during this section, Cariad was walking across the camp when she failed a Pow roll and fell through the ice.

Well, I say 'fell' - she was sucked through. Into a cave. Containing a horrible tangible feeling of oppressive Power and malevolence. Dragged forward against her will, she entered a Big cave illuminated from no apparent lightsource, bare except for a slab with a bipedal shape breathing heavily upon it. This figure was lying in an indent in the rock slab, an indent formed by nothing but the movement of a sleeping figure through millennia. Lilith. Up she got, and her shape was at first a hairy primordial one, shifting as she advanced towards Cariad, taking her shape from Cariads mind. Liliths grunts evolved from Neanderthal monosyllables through Sumerian etc to English. Cariad was particularly freaked by the way which this being sniffed her.

To cut a long and delicious PC scaring section short, Lilith was immensely peeved at having her ancient slumber disturbed by the irritating buzz of human activity in her dreams and above her on the ice. Feeling nothing for Humanity, she only wanted to be left in peace for another eternity, and tried to convince Cariad to "go home" by telling her titbits of what was in store for the humans beyond the mountains. "They will use you, bitch." (Lilith referred to humans as dogs throughout). After a little more sniffing and narrowing of her deep black soulless eyes, she smiled and said "Ah, you have met my once mate"

Cariad was nearly gibbering with terror by now. "Who?"

"Your people called him...Adam?"

"Ah, I can explain-"

"Wait. You think you have ...ended his life? Stupid dog! He still lives."

Okay, I said I'd cut it short. Lilith scared the bejesyus out of Cariad, by displaying manifestly that her Pow was immense, and by offering up hideous teasing comments like "You will all die up there...If you are lucky."

Cariad was eventually pushed away from Lilith up through the rocky cold ceiling of the cave and to the surface. Spitting snow from her mouth she was helped up by concerned party members who had seen her fall over in the snow seconds earlier!

( Liliths Cave is not actually physically located anywhere in particular, rather it exists in another dimension type place.)

It happened to Kevin a while later. Poor Kevin. He was having strange dreams of Lilith on the way to the ice on the Gabrielle, and Ben, bless his heart, suggested that because Kevin had had a cut on his hand when he slit Hennings' throat, Kevin might be infected by some terrible virus/disease/possession.

I love it when the Players freak themselves out without me having to do any work.

Well, there you go, Chaz. Hennings changed from a man with a grudge to an ancient being bobbing along in bits at the bottom of the Pacific, and an awful scary being barely tolerating the humans presence a the Pole through disinterest more than disinclination. It's strange how CoC evolves, isn't it?

Lilith BYT is going to come in very handy soon. We are currently playing the Mission Of Mercy Chapter, but as usual things are deviating wildly from the published narrative. I'll carry on, if you like.

Thanks for listening.

Smif

Smith,

Your game is the most bizarre thing I've run into in a good while --
of *course* I want to hear how it all ends!  After coming this far, can
you imagine I'd not be interested?  No, mon frere -- keep me posted.

I've been teasing this stuff to Jan as well, as we've gone on.

Keep the faith, bro

Chaz

Dam Machine the G is sticked.

Hey Chaz,

Okay, after the 'meetings' with Lilith, things ran according to the Book for a while. The Germans opened up the Hangar for the party, Wallace Merryweather (Archaeologist played by Pokey) exhumed the burial cairn (a bit unnecessary I thought but by then the party had reasoned that they needed to know everything that had happened - Moore was quite determined to find out the Truth also) and eventually the Belle and then the Weddell and the Enderby set off for the mountains. A couple of days of exploration and the kidnapping of Starkweather.

Small aside - Dr Van Kerr (the self-trepanner, remember?) decided to go wandering down into the tunnels on his own at one stage, despite warnings from  the rest of the PCs, and eventually found his way to the Entrance to The Abyss. He heard a Shoggoth oozing its piping way up the tunnel and his nerve (luckily) failed him, he ran back all the way, almost filling his pants at one part when an Albino Penguin loomed out of a side tunnel. The poor Penguin was dispatched with a hail of bullets.

"what happened? What did you see?" asked the others when he reached them, his eyes wild and his breath coming in tortured gasps.

"A Penguin." was all he said.

So, Onward to The Tower.

Stanley by now had read The Unpublished Chapters of the Pym Text- Danforth had nicked them from Meyer - and was not happy about going inside. But in they went.

Cariad became the mute witness at the end of a session, and the poor girls face was priceless when all was revealed. To get across the concept of the Gods of the Cthulhu Mythos forms both material and entire I asked her to think about a human dipping his finger into a fishtank - That finger could squish a goldfish, but compared to the rest of the human... Cthulhu, for example, in his form on Earth, was that finger. Outside the fishtank of our material plane existed the body of Cthulhu, so to speak. Cariad exclaimed "Oh no, they've caught Cthulhu!"

"No no, Cariad, "I replied, compared to The Unknown God, Cthulhus a goldfish."

I know you never exactly gave any indication of the extent of The Unknown Gods power, but I like to think that maybe the reason that the Elder Things had never before encountered anything of this creature was that it is so immense in its malignant awesomeness that perhaps it existed in an entirely separate universe, all to itself, before The Lure snared it. Whatever, it gives me an evil grin to posit something to Players that is manifestly humongous in scope, like Cthulhu, and then up the scale tremendously.

So, the next session, Cariads behaving like a loon, gibbering and crying and laughing, and Priestleys trying to convince the party that she shouldn't be trusted, "She touched the creatures crystals, the singing crystals! She's possessed. Tie her up!"

When she heard this, she changed tack, and tried to kiss random members of the party. They didn't tie her up, but it didn't do much to convince them she was sane.

When they reached the Wall of Skulls, and everything kicked off, the combat went like a dream. Mahri played the Mute Witness perfectly (Her first RPG and she's a natural, I must give her credit). The party argued for a bit about what to do with Starkweather, Preistley starts unstrapping one of his oxygen bottles and rams it into the base of the Wall, Starkweathers head is torn from the Wall by Lexington, and the Shoggoth attacked. Priestley backs off and takes aim at the ox bottle, Cariad throws herself on it, Meyer (rather mad by now unf) cries "She's in league with Them! Kill her!" and Dr Blacks covering Cariad with his gun. Stanley gets the oxy bottle and throws it into a maw of the Shoggoth - its sticking out like the one in the sharks mouth at the end of Jaws. Stanley takes aim, and Cariad puts herself in front of the gun, defending the Shoggoth.

Dr Black then tries what has to be the most audacious plan...since the last audacious plan this party tried. He's a parapsychologist, yeah? With a very high Hypnosis skill.

He tells me he wants to make a hypnotic connection with the Shoggoth.

Ah, Ive missed a bit.

At the base of the Tower, in the entrance chamber, among the Elder Thing parkas, they found a five pointed greenish stone.One of the Locator Stones. When they were faffing around with it, trying to work out why it was heating up at various times, completely failing to hit on the real reason, I threw in the fact that whoever held it heard faint high piping and whistling noises in his or her mind, just for added Cthuluoid effect. Tcha! I should know not to do these things...

"Its a communicator!" they decided.

So, mid combat at the Wall Dr Black brandishes their 'communicator' stone, and tries to mind-meld with the Shoggoth. In a little Time-Out with myself, I tried to imagine what old HP would have thought about this.…

Dr Black is assaulted with a maelstrom of alien thoughts and emotions, and passes out.

Cariad breaks free of her spell, and., bless her, the first thing she shouts (in combat I'm very strict on players not being able to say more than ten words or so every round) is "They're not trying to break It out! They're trying to keep It in!"

Panic and terror ensue.

They retreat down the ramp to the room with the slab-and-Shoggoth set-up, while the Elder Things fly off for reinforcements. Who gets the chop?

Priestley. With almost no debate they decide Albert's fate, and knock him out before he can shoot himself. Then, however, they spend so much time arguing about whose going to push him into the pit that he wakes up just as Stanley's tipping him over the edge. They didn't use the slab at all! And after Stanley had read Pyms description! Priestleys face was the last thing Stanley saw as the terrified man was engulfed by the Shoggoth.

So far, so good(ish). Up the ramp they go, and the Shoggoth gets on with its work. They retreat, but since they spent ages arguing earlier, the Elder Things have come back. The Shoggoth gets in between them and the Elder Things, and everybody fitfully moves down the ramp.

I had been thinking about this 'communicator idea, and decided it had potential. If it was a translator, not a communicator, mad things could happen..

Earlier, Cariad had told the party the Awful Truth about the God, and after contemplating the state of the Tower and The Construct, had decided that more repairs were imminently needed. More repairs than could be provided with only one human nervous system...

They had a conversation with the Elder Things. I had the Elder Things howl and pipe, and wrote down whatever the holder of the Translator/Locator Stone heard.

What came through was akin to the translation of the Dot Script. Stuff like

'DISRUPTION/DEGENERATION/IMMINENCE/REPAIR/PRIMARY/WORTH'

and

'ANIMAL LIFE/IRRELEVANT/ANIMAL NERVOUS SYSTEM/COMPONENTS/NEED/STRONG'

The party promised the Elder Things they would bring them more 'animal nervous systems' if they could go. They tried to explain to the Elder Things that their were millions of humans out there who would come and kill them if they didn't get back to civilisation - Of course the Elder Things couldn't conceive of such primitives being so world-spanning. Things looked dodgy for a while

'AGREEMENT/SINGLE BRAINSTEM/INSUFFICIENT/ACQUISITION IN PRESENT/REQUIRED/ACCOMPLISHED BY/USE OF FORCE'

Then Lexington, crying with terror, pulled a crumpled issue of Time, with her on the cover, out from her parka. "My vanity..." she muttered, as Dr Black showed the Elder Things pictures of the teeming hordes of humanity.

That clinched it.

'BARGAIN/PACT/AGREEMENT'

Phew! But then

'COLLATERAL REQUIRED'

One of The Elder Things flew off, and the remaining one paused, and said 'COLLATERAL TAKEN/PROCEED/EXIT/RETURN/IMMINENT' and disappeared back up the ramp.

Collateral? The party didn't stay to find out what that had meant. They'd made a pact with the Devil, and as they made their glum way down to the exit, Dr Black said "I don't believe it - we're the bad guys."

Smif

Dear Smif,

>> Collateral? The party didn't stay to find out what  that had meant.
>> They'd made a pact with the Devil, and as they made their glum
>> way down to the exit, Dr Black said "I don't believe it - we're the bad
guys."

YESSSS!   At last!  By God, I think they've got it!

Splendid work, my friend!  Oh, this is fine.  Now I can't wait to see who
you
chose for collateral....

Poor Albert Priestley.  He really doesn't stand much of a chance, you know.
Did your PCs have any fun with the timeslips and all that?

Other thoughts, en passant...

>> "what happened? What did you see?" asked the others  when he
>> reached them, his eyes wild and his breath coming in tortured  gasps.
>> "A Penguin." was all he said.

Heh heh.


>> "No no, Cariad, "I replied, compared to The Unknown  God, Cthulhus a
goldfish."
>> I know you never exactly gave any indication of the  extent of The
Unknown
>> Gods power,

Actually what I had in mind is that rather than being particularly overhuge
for an
Outer One, the Unknown God was notable because it decided to chase the Lure
*entirely* into our Universe and our world.  To use your analogy of the
fish tank,
(well, first of all, Cthulhu is a Great Old One, and is already *in* our
world, the
Outer Ones are more like Yog or Azathoth) but to return to the analogy, if
you and
I and Mahri (Yog-Sothoth, the Unknown One, and Hastur for example) were all
playing around the fishtank, wiggling our fingers in the water and scaring
the fish,
and even if I'm the littlest one of the three -- if I decide to *JUMP INTO*
the tank,
who's going to scare the fish more?

Kudos to Mahri.  Sounds like you have a real find there.

>> Stanley gets the oxy  bottle and throws it into a maw of the Shoggoth

Yes, a lot of people think of blowing oxy tanks at some point in the
adventure.
Somehow it rarely does any good...

>> He tells me he wants to make a hypnotic connection  with the Shoggoth.

This makes me laugh a lot.  Especially if you know much about hypnosis.
From the sound of things, though, you ran with it and made a great story
from
it, and that's what counts, right?

>> tried to imagine what old HP would have thought  about this.
>> Dr Black is assaulted with a maelstrom of alien  thoughts and emotions,
and passes out.

<laughing>  Yes, that sounds *very* HPL!

>> What came through was akin to the translation  of the Dot Script. Stuff
like
>> 'DISRUPTION/DEGENERATION/IMMINENCE/REPAIR/PRIMARY/WORTH'

Very nice.  I knew there was a reason we put the dot-script stuff in there!

>> Then Lexington, crying with terror, pulled a  crumpled issue of Time,
>> with her on the cover, out from her parka. "My  vanity..." she muttered,

::grin::

Great work all around.  Now I can't wait to see what you do for the sequel!

Chaz

Dam Machine the G is sticked.

Here we go again,

I'd better keep this short cos the group are coming round shortly to play CoC.

When they exited the Tower, they paused for a while to talk about what they had done (and had to do) and to look over the rest of the valley with binoculars. At this stage they weren't exactly sure that the Eastern end of the Valley was where the Cold Hole was - they had an inkling, and definitely didn't want to go there, but the white stele intrigued them.

 - When I read the description of the valleys end I suspected that the party probably wouldn't investigate it; on the way in they are too worried about Starkweather, and on the way out they're probably going to be running like crazy. So here, when they had the discussion, I made sure that Lexington pointed out that from now on, they were the ones who had to save the world. They had to. And that they shouldn't fail to do that for want of a single piece of information that could help them.

Cariad agreed with this, and reluctantly, Dr Black and Prof. Merryweather trudged off to the Stele, noticing those funny little black pals that were now scattered around. They kept a wide berth, Merryweather remembering something from back in New York about black opals that burned. (What a memory! - Id forgotten!)

Dr Black stayed at the Stele after they reached it, whilst Prof Merryweather carried on to the end of the valley and out of sight. Kevin (Dr Black) was not impressed, "What? He said he was only going 100 yards. I'll follow him-no I won't-yes I-no"

A bit of backstory, player wise, here. Pokey(Merryweather) is an RPG veteran, and has played many CoC campaigns with me. Rob (Stanley) also, and early on Rob was telling the newbies about Pokey's role-playing style. Basically it's to sit back and do as little as possible, watching and waiting, not reading hideous tomes or looking at awful beasties, generally not carrying a firearm (so he doesn't have to volunteer for combat bits) and as a result staying saner for longer than other, more...enthusiastic players. He's no coward, and he does contribute, indeed his counsel is wise and he's a very valued member of the party. It's probably that he knows that SAN will be like gold dust later on in the campaign, and so he takes a low-risk attitude to proceedings for as long as possible.

Mahri (Cariad) maintains that he only did what he did next so he couldn't be mocked for not doing anything anymore. At the time, he told me he really really didn't want to do it, but he was thinking of what Lexington had said.

He struggled on up the valley, round the twists as the walls and floor rose to meet the edge of the maelstrom. Just to make him feel better (!), I let him translate some of the weathered dot script close to the edge.

WARNING/LETHAL

was all he could decipher.

Role-playing moments like these come rarely, and here comes another big thank you to whichever of your excellent posse was responsible for the Cold Hole end of the valley.

Merryweather got down on his knees and scratched 'If I'm not here turn back NOW!' on the wall, and braced his arms out to the walls. Then he slowly stuck his face into the Maelstrom.

I told him it was like sticking the edge of your mind into a kind of psychic car-wash brush whirling with the speed and ferocity of a hurricane (although I hope with a little more Lovecraftian language). He rolled for SAN loss before I even asked him to, and as a miniscule aspect of the awesome force of the God raged through his mind he pumped SAN into a POW roll and pulled himself out, turned and ran back to where Dr Black was hopping up and down with fear and hesitation. Dr Black opened his mouth to ask him what he'd witnessed but he didn't stop running. Kevin's reaction ("Oh my God he's seen It hasn't he?") impelled me to ask him to roll for SAN as well. He failed and they both ran shrieking back to the rest of the party.

Does this happen in your wife's games? Sometimes, when faced with something which doesn't require a SAN roll in the book, my players reactions let me know that the are freaked out (by an appalled facial expression or a moaning shudder or something) and I make 'em do a SAN roll. It's great.

The idea roll he made from his encounter with the Unknown God basically let him know what the Seeds were, and why the Elder Things dug them up and chucked them back in the Hole with such conscientiousness.

But he lost 26 SAN in doing it (and I reckon he was lucky, but I view CoC as a co-operative game where I want the players to succeed as much as they do). Dr Black put him in a hypnotic trance and suppressed his memories of the event after he'd babbled out the Grim Truth, sparing him from being a useless wreck for the rest of the campaign. I'm a sucker for this kind of thing - it was a great suggestion from Kevin and allowed Pokey to do something truly heroic (and cinematically dramatic) without rendering his character unplayable.

Just about then, they heard the roar of engines as the Weddell took off. End of session and another cry of "Nooo! Smithy you bastard you cant keep doing this to me!" from Kevin.

Right, there goes the doorbell. Its time for Kevin to meet Lilith again. Poor sod. Regards to your missus.

Smif

Hope your game is going WELL...

Comments below.
Chaz



>> - When I read the description of the valleys  end I suspected that
>> the party probably wouldn't investigate it;

Your group is the only one yet I've spoken to who actually did.  Most are
in too much of a hurry.

>> Dr Black  and Prof. Merryweather trudged off to the Stele, noticing
those
>> funny little  black pals that were now scattered around. They kept a
>> wide berth, Merryweather  remembering something from back in
>> New York about black opals that burned. (What  a memory! - Id
forgotten!)

::chuckle:: We lay the mines early.....

>> A bit of backstory, player wise, here.  Pokey(Merryweather) is an RPG
>> veteran, and has played many CoC campaigns with  me. Rob (Stanley)
>> also, and early on Rob was telling the newbies about Pokey's
>> role-playing style. Basically it's to sit back and do as little as
possible,
>> watching and waiting, not reading hideous tomes or looking at awful
>> beasties,  generally not carrying a firearm (so he doesn't have to
>> volunteer for combat  bits) and as a result staying saner for longer
>> than other, more...enthusiastic  players. He's no coward, and he does
>> contribute, indeed his counsel is wise and  he's a very valued member
>> of the party. It's probably that he knows that SAN  will be like gold
dust
>> later on in the campaign, and so he takes a low-risk  attitude to
>> proceedings for as long as possible.

Sounds like a very valuable player.  And in this case, I think he earned
his
keep, despite breaking from his usual pattern.  Don't you?

>> He struggled on up the valley, round the twists as  the walls and floor
>> rose to meet the edge of the maelstrom. Just to make him  feel
>> better (!), I let him translate some of the weathered dot script close
>> to  the edge.
>> WARNING/LETHAL
>> was all he could decipher.
>> Role-playing moments like these come rarely, and  here comes
>> another big thank you to whichever of your excellent posse was
>> responsible for the Cold Hole end of the valley.

::big grin:: This one's mine, from concept to description.  You're welcome!

>> Merryweather got down on his knees and scratched
>> 'If I'm not here turn back NOW!' on the wall,

Oh, I like that.

>> He  failed and they both ran shrieking back to the rest of the party.
>>
>> Does this happen in your wife's games? Sometimes,  when faced
>> with something which doesn't require a SAN roll in the book, my
>> players reactions let me know that the are freaked out (by an
>> appalled facial  expression or a moaning shudder or something)
>> and I make 'em do a SAN roll. It's  great.

Absolutely.  In fact, Jan almost never enforces SAN rolls any more, unless
the PCs have seen something that requires one from the rules.  In general,
the players dock themselves without asking (except once in a while to say,
"This is why I'm freaking out -- what's it worth in SAN?")  We're all much
better
at knowing what pulls our chains, anyway, and Jan rewards the players for
their diligence with extremely entertaining insights and other little
blessings.

>> But he lost 26 SAN in doing it (and I reckon he was  lucky, but I view
>> CoC as a co-operative game where I want the players to succeed
>> as much as they do).

I agree.

>> Dr Black put him in a hypnotic trance and suppressed his  memories
>> of the event after he'd babbled out the Grim Truth, sparing him from
>> being a useless wreck for the rest of the campaign. I'm a sucker for
>> this kind  of thing - it was a great suggestion from Kevin and allowed
>> Pokey to do  something truly heroic (and cinematically dramatic)
>> without rendering his  character unplayable.

That is a great idea -- and it's even better when you consider that it's
just
the sort of thing that makes a great movie intro -- the rugged adventurer,
years later, now haunted by dreams, embarks on an effort to recall just
what he's been forced to forget -- with drastic consequences.  Hypnotically
repressed memories don't go away, after all, they merely fester down there
in the dark....

>> Just about then, they heard the roar of engines as  the Weddell took
>> off. End of session and another cry of "Nooo! Smithy you  bastard
>> you cant keep doing this to me!" from Kevin.
>>
>> Right, there goes the doorbell. Its time for Kevin  to meet Lilith
again.
>> Poor sod. Regards to your missus.

Oh, bravo!  Give 'em your best -- and regards to your team from Jan and I.

Chaz

Dam Machine the G is sticked.

Hello Chaz,

Sometimes my players render me speechless. Last nights session contained a fair few of those moments.

But that's for another time. I'll get there eventually.

In answer to your question about the Pym Chapters, I didn't think I needed to say which they those. The Directors Cut of course.

"Is all that from Chaz?" bellowed Rob excitedly as he ripped it from my hands.

Mahri thinks its hilarious that I'm emailing you BTW. She's asked me to ask you what you do when you're not designing superb CoC Campaigns. She seems to think you're some RPG Rock Star - I think she's taken my attempt to explain the Origins Award by comparing it to an Oscar too literally."Tell him to send a Limo for you next time he's on tour over here."

On tour precisely doing what I don't know!

So, the Weddell took off, leaving my poor players stuck with The Belle.

I have to explain here, that as there are 8 players in the party, when the Weddell took off to rescue Starkweather, I jiggled the stats for the capacity of the plane a bit. Halperin stayed behind, along with Stephen Harris-Willson, Glaciologist.

- Big aside here, but I have to. Harris-Willson is played by my good buddy Owain, brother of Jason, who plays South Powell the radio operator. Owains a lovely chap and a great role-player, but he is absolutely the most unreliable person I have ever met. Whether he turns up for sessions is in the hands of the gods every time, and originally I was loathe to let him play. In games past he's failed to attend games being played in his own bedroom, when he's been in another part of the house at the time!  - (In one game to lethal effect for the rest of the party, though they grasped the bull by the horns and role-played out a most impressive futilely heroic and messy last stand)

He usually uses the excuse of his girlfriend not letting him out(though this is frankly rubbish - I know her well and she is not the type.) He's just...I don't know, and I probably never will.

That aside, when he does turn up he's a great player, inventive, generous, and consistently amusing.

He split up with his beloved and nagged me to let him join the game around the time they were arriving at Lakes camp, so I let him replace a student with Harris-Willson. A week later he's back with his girlfriend and we've seen him sporadically ever since. Two weeks ago I phoned him to tell him the date, time of the forthcoming session and he said "No problems, I'll be there"

At the appointed hour, I phoned him to find out where he was.

"I'm in Brighton" was his answer.

Nuff said.

So, when Rucker & Baumann stole the Wedell, Cariad took the wheel and flew everyone back to the City, dropped off Moore( Oh yeah, he'd come along though bottled it at the thought of going in the Tower) and Lexington, picked up Harris-Willso and took off in pursuit. They Landed at Lakes camp and dropped off some players, and Cariad, Van Kerr, Merryweather, Stanley and Dr Black flew off after the Germans. Cariad remembered the location of the Supply Cache because she'd been flirting with one of the German Pilots before the flight to the city.

The survivors at Lakes Camp were radioless because of the earthquake and thought that Cariad etc. were flying to a spot outside the strange radio interference that has encompassed the camp since the earthquake. (Thinking of what the players probably intended to do with the survivors, I thought a radio blackout would be helpful.

They located the Weddell, landed, and Van Kerr, Merryweather and Stanley trudged off towards the Cache sit. Dr Black for some reason decided to sit in the cockpit of the Weddell and Cariad stayed with the Belle. Paranoid, you see.

They had been listening to the German transmissions en route, and both Cariad and Dr Black set their radios to the German frequency.

Our trio approached the sit. I made a point of describing the opened cache stacks, with the kerosene lamps in view, and the unfortunate Germans failed listen rolls.

You know the piece in BMOM in italics describing a possible turn of events here?

Silently, the assassins threw a kerosene lamp onto the tent. They drew their pistols to finish off any survivors...they turned and trudged back into the snow

That sort of stuff?

I read it to them afterwards. Kevin nearly cried.

What my players did was this.

They surrounded the tent.

Rob drew his gun.

Pokey said to me "Hang on, did you say there are kerosene lamps over there?"

And Dr Van Kerr opened the tent flaps and barged inside.

What ensued was classic. Rob forgot he was holding a loaded 38. all through the weird conversation that followed, Baumann getting more and more suspicious at their attempts to keep them from communicating with the Graf Zeppelin. The Snow cover increased, and their reasons got more and more wild, till Baumann drew a pistol and Van Kerr shot him in the face. At this moment, Baumann's hand was clenched over the 'transmit button', because seconds earlier they had heard 'Attention supply cache: We are overhead and will drop help as soon as the snow clears'

So the crew of the Graf Zeppelin must have been surprised to hear clear gunshots and then Rucker's terrified voice shouting "Nien! They are killing us!" over the radio.

Not, however, as surprised as they must have been to hear Dr Black shouting over the same frequency "Don' shoot them! They are pilots!"

(Kevin was worried that they only had one pilot, Cariad, with them and he wanted the German to fly the Weddell back to Lakes camp.

"Who is this? What is happening down there?" Came the startled Zeppelin Captains voice.

"This is Dr Black (Rob has his head in his hands by now) - Uh, everything's fine down here, we had a bit of a problem."

Star Wars, anyone?

Then Kevin put the cherry on the cake for me.

"Everything's cool. We had a problem with some monsters, but its all right now. We don't need rescuing. Baumann's dead but Rucker's fine and we're all going back to the camp."

Van Kerr shot Rucker about then, and ran out of the tent.

The snow was clearing slowly, and the three of them started to leg it. Astonishingly, they didn't try to burn the evidence, but bundled the bodies onto a sled and started dragging them back the half mile towards theplanes.

What could I do? What could the Graf Zeppelin Captain do? The snow cover was lifting by the second.

As Merryweather looked back he saw 4 shapes slide down on guyropes to the ground. 4 black-clad deadly looking Aryan shapes.

The German soldiers caught up with them shortly afterwards, and a hideous combat ensued.

Dr Black had now rejoined Cariad on the Belle, and she gunned the engines and started to drive the plane over the snow towards the site.

Okay. 4 German soldiers armed with machine guns in a standoff with 3 loony American scientists dragging a sled with what can only be described as evidence on it. After another escalating bizarre attempt to explain their way out of the situation, gunfire broke out.

I have no idea how they survived. It wasn't me, I swear. It all seemed to go in a blur of disbelief. A grenade went off at one point, putting Stanley into a critical condition, and then The Belle came roaring out of the snow with Dr Black leaning out of the window firing two guns John Woo stylee.

The Germans died.

Merryweather stripped the bodies of grenades and machine guns, then put them back again when he saw more figures abseiling down through binoculars from the Graf. "We don't want it to look suspicious." he said!

Then Cariad comes running out of the plane with a flare gun.

"It takes a woman to clear up you men's mess!" she says, and fires the flare at the Graf.

I think the word is KABOOM!

Down the Graf comes, right on top of the supply cache.

Another KABOOM!

"Mahri, you have just killed 34 completely innocent people with one shot. That is a record in my experience. How do you feel?" I said.

"Guilty" she gulped.

"So you should. Make a nice big fat SAN roll."

So back to Lakes Camp they flew.

Now, they had a conversation on the way back about how they were going to get the survivors up over the mountains to give=ve to the Elder Things. When they arrived, Sykes, the self proclaimed leader in absentia of the survivors, asked them if they had managed to contact the base camp.

"No, but we did contact Starkweather and Moore at the site over the mountains. They say we are to relocate the entire expedition up there." was the astonishing reply.

More to come.

Smif

Dear Smif,

Ouch.  Sorry, again, about the delays ... layoffs and other troubles
abound at work this holiday season, and I have little time for my private
email.

What can I say about your crew?  They're ... um ... unique.  Man, if I were
Keeper, I'd be preparing a HUGE amount of bad things for them whenever they
get back into contact with civilization!

What do I do when I'm not designing games?  Well, I'm a gamer myself, of
course,
a longstanding player in my wife's CoC campaign and an equally longstanding
GM of a Runequest-based fantasy world and my own homebrew Sci-Fi creation.
And I have a day job -- I'm a manager/director in a software company,
making
entirely NON-game-like applications for banks.

I'll gladly accept the limo though, if Mahri insists.  :)

As for your scene at the fuel cache ... oh my!  I had to laugh, so hard
.....
It really is tragic, isn't it?

First, you were generous.  I would *never* let the Zep within several
hundred feet of
the ground, and I bet any Captain worth his salt wouldn't either.
Rescuers would
normally parachute out of the gondola, not come down on ropes -- or would
perhaps
use the cloud car on a single long steel cable -- but the gasbag should
always be its
own length or more above the ground unless landing (which it cannot do in
this sit-
uation.)  And your typical flare pistol has a shooting range of -- what? --
fifty meters?
Not much more, if any.  So "Ka-Whoom!" probably wouldn't happen.

But it did.  And beforehend, there was a lot of time to lower guys on
ropes, etc; how
much would you be willing to bet that the Zep wasn't on the radio to base
the whole
time, describing the bizarre affaire in great detail?  When she crashes,
who do you
suppose is chief on the let's-ask-them-questions list?

That's right.

As for dragging the sled cross-country, covered with bodies ... BWAHAHAH!

And of course, it only gets better.  Keep up the amazing work.

Chaz

Dam Machine the G is sticked.

Chaz,

Here's another chapter in the increasingly desperate tale...

 But first a reply to a question you asked 'bout the Timeslips at the Tower. Fun? Oh yes indeedy.

When the first timeslip happened, whilst they were on the Weddell approaching the tower, most of the players closed their eyes and hung onto something. They didn't really think too much about the weirdness of it, and Cariad actually said something like "Is everything normal now?" after it had gone, followed by "Right, forget it!".

On the ground, when another happened, I gave out little notes for everyone, with of course different things written on them. 'You are suddenly surrounded by millions of Elder Things.', 'Everyone else vanishes. You appear to have been transported to a lush jungle, the Tower rises steaming out of the vegetation. You can hear noises...', stuff like that. People looked at their notes, saw the startled expression on the others faces and panicked, basically. "I open fire!" must have sounded strange to a player who had 'The Tower is gone. You are all standing on a wide, hot, featureless plain, with smoke wisping up from sulphurous vents in the ground.'

The timeslips in the Tower just added to the mayhem, with some players convinced they were fighting an army of Things.

And collateral?

Dr Greene and Halperin were chosen, and taken by the Elder Things. I don't think the players will ever see them again.

When they left the City in pursuit of Rucker and Baumann, all they left behind alive were Moore, Lexington, Meyer and Danforth.

Which proved for an interesting event which I shall come to as forthwith as I can.

So, last I wrote, our intrepid (imbecilic) party were all safe(ish) at Lakes Camp, and Sykes and the German in charge, Johan Benecke, were anxious to learn what they had found atop the Mountains and what an Kerr, Cariad, Merryweather, Stanley and Dr Black had told/learned from the Base Camp. The radio in the Belle was okay, by the way. I hadn't had Danforth damage it too much.

Okay. The party told the survivors that Starkweather et al were all at the base over the mountains with the Wedell, which was slightly damaged by a dodgy landing (but fixable with a couple of hours work) , and that they had found a 'lofty and immense super-plateau...', and just that. No mention of the City, or the Elder Things, everybody's fine, yessir, thankyouverymuch.

This started the Germans suspicions. You see, to get everybody back from the Tower in the Belle, they'd had to basically strip her right down to plane, oxygen and fuel. Threw out all the seats, the fittings, all non-essential supplies, everything.

So the Germans were heard whispering "If the Weddells fine, why did they strip the Belle and dangerously overload her to come back, and where are the leaders?"

Sykes was more concerned with the disaster that had hit Lakes Camp. A few dead, more injured, no radio (lethal in the Antarctic) and no dogs. And only one plane, as far as he could see. He was saying, "Okay, what did Base Camp say? When are they sending help?"

What is it with Players? Do they engage mouth before their brain?

They said that they hadn't managed to contact the Base Camp because the radio interference was too bad, but they had managed to contact Starkweather etc. up over the mountains, because of some weird, err, sort of window effect in the magnetic wossname through the mountains. ! There was a p-lace 400 miles away where they could speak over the radio to the leaders and they had instructed them to tell Sykes etc. to relocate the entire expedition to their camp atop the plateau!

I don't know who was struck more dumb by this, me or Sykes. It was like radioing someone whose half way up Everest and saying "The base camps blown up! what do we do?" and having them say "Well, come on up here!"

Sykes wanted Cariad (The only pilot left alive at the Camp) to fly the survivors back to Base Camp of course, in groups, and bring back radios, medical supplies, another plane if poss.

But the party wasn't having any of this. Logic went out the window, and they started saying things like "Look, Starkweather's the leader of this expedition, not you, and he is ordering you to bring everybody up to the camp on the plateau.2

"What, even the wounded?"

"Well...(Here there were discussions of whether they would survive the trip, delivered in theatrical whispers that a deaf man would have heard -my players are terrible for out-of-game discussions which I come down on like a ton of bricks) ..leave them here-no, bring them too. Of course, bring them too!"

Anyway, South Powell convinced Sykes to gather everyone into the Mess tent to tell everyone what Starkweather and Moore had said (Sykes also rather dubious about believing that Moore would give such a ridiculous order given the circumstances).

Here, I thought, 'aha, they're going to get the guns out and force the NPCs to comply-tie them up or something' , or possibly make a big stew and drug it.

Oh no.

Powell made a speech.

More background. South Powell, radioman extraordinaire. Inventor of a wonderful piece of radio equipment, as innovative as the Peabodie drilling apparatus, utilising powerful magnets to boost signal, etc.

Played by , yep, you guessed it, my good friend, Jason, brother of Owain.

Now, you know if you ask someone what a particular friend is like as a role-player, they'll say something pertinent about them, like "He's a gunbunny.", or "Don't trust her with the magic items, she'll activate them for no reason."?

Owains quote on his brother to the newbies - "Whatever you do, never let Jason make a speech."

"Ahem, gentlemen, I have to tell you what Mr ...(What's his bloody name, I always forget his bloody name-)Ah, yes, Starkhammer-what?-Starkweather, er has to tell you-"

delivered in a marvellous blustery 'My good man' tone that would do James himself proud.

Anyway, he tells them the news, only after a couple of sentences says "So as you see, gentlemen, our leaders have instructed us to relocate the expedition up over the mountains to the camp at the City, and-"

An NPC puts his hand up, "City?"

"-ah, yes., what? er, as I was saying, we shall have to fly in groups of no more than 8, because the Belle can only take that many at a time, but hopefully, ah, by tomorrow, we shall all be safe and sound with Starkboomer-weather!, at the City, and-yes, what is it?"

"You said 'City' again. What City?"

Rob spends more time with his head in his hands. Owains shaking his head and gurning like a loon.

"Ah, yes, well...(takes a deep breath) Its like this. We have, ah, discovered an ancient City ah, on the plateau, and, ah, that is where the camp is. Yes."

"Time out" I charitably said, and all hell broke loose. LMAO

The upshot of this was that Sykes and Bennecke were even more dubious about flying over the mountains. Benecke said "look, its been 14 hours since we contacted our camp, they will send help for us soon."

"Oh yeah? How?" from Powell.

"The Graf Zeppelin will come for us."

Winces from Pokey.

"I wouldn't count on it." muttered Dr Black.

"Okay," Sykes said after more arguments. "You can only speak to Starkweather and Moore from a certain place, a ...'window' in the interference?"

"Yes, that's right."

"And Cariad knows where this place is?"

"Yeess?" from Cariad.

"Then take us there. I want to speak to Starkweather for myself."

"I also" - Benecke.

So, I'm now wondering just when they are going to get the guns out or go for what has subsequently been named the 'magic porridge' plan.

But not yet. The players are still somehow under the impression that they can convince the surviving NPCs to voluntarily accompany them over the mountains.

So Cariad and Sam Hoy(geologist and kung-fu expert, played by Ben) accompany Sykes, Bennecke and Otto (big bald German bruiser invented by me to be muscle for Bennecke) on the Belle to fly to this wholly location 400 miles away. That doesn't exist. To speak over the radio to Starkweather. Who is dead. Through a radio blackout. Which is impenetrable.

And here's the stroke of genius (or the abyss of insanity) to the plan.

Powell trudges off through the snow to a radio Antenna put up by the Germans in the foothills an average trek away shortly after they arrived at the camp, to attempt better reception by having greater height. The earthquakes destroyed the radio at the camp, and broken the cables connecting to it anyway, but the antennas still up and Powell's still got his, hah, experimental magnetic radio thingummy (Well, it would probably have perished in the earthquake as well, but I thought at least they're trying something, and frankly I had to see how Jason dealt with this one). He connects his radio up, and at the previously decided time, goes on the air.

Meanwhile, on the Belle, Cariad is flying round in circles with Bennecke at the radio saying "Doktor Meyer? Come in Doktor Meyer, this is Bennecke, come in Doktor Meyer-"

Right, so after Powell's first speech to the survivors, the rest of the players gave him hell. Now they're letting him try again, only this time he's going to impersonate Starkweather, Moore, Lexington and Dr Meyer. And he's got a Speak German skill of 17%.

I love em. They're all completely nuts.

Right, the phone in my living room, yeah, its cordless, with a hand unit and a base unit. You can use the two as an intercom, ok?

So Jason goes into the kitchen with the handset, and the rest of us crowd round the base unit on the living room coffee table, and there's this utterly mad conversation between Bennecke, Sykes , 'Starkweather' and 'Moore'.

Jason said that Meyer and Lexington were out exploring. He, as Starkers and Moore, told Sykes the same , get up here to the camp, etc.

And all the while he was doing it he was making all these loony CHHH-KCH and WHEEOOEE noises in between phrases, "I'm-CHHHH-having-CHHHifficulty-WHHEEOOEE-eiving you, over!"

Loopy though it was, it was going reasonably well. Well, the Germans weren't very happy, but Sykes seemed to at least believe that he was speaking to his leaders, even if they were being a bit odd. But of course, Jason didn't know when to shut up.

"Professor Moore, what do we do with the wounded, over?"

"CHEE-bring them up to the City, they'll be fine up her-CHHHH-over"

What about sending the Belle to Base Camp for help, over?"

"WHOOOEEE-no no, don't do that, don't bother them, er, they're very busy,ah, CHEEEOOOEEE-I'm breaki-CHH-up"

"Professor Moore?"

"Come on up, the weathers fine-CHHH-I'm handing you over to Stargazer, over"

"Pardon?"

"CHHH-Look here, Sykes, I'm fed up with your insubordination!...ah, CHHH..buggerit..CHHHEEEOOOOEEEE-interference...getting...worse-CHHHHHHHHH-come quick, and that's an order!-CHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH..."

Priceless.

Next time...

"I warn you...I know kung-fu."
Smif

Dear Smif,

Really, Smithy, I don't know how you can possibly top all that's
gone on by now -- how the heck did Mission of Mercy turn out?

As for what you wrote here, it stands alone.  Literally.  I am speechless.

Carry on!

Chaz

Dam Machine the G is sticked.

Hi Chaz,

No probs about any delay, I know how it is near Xmas. Having just finished my TESOL course (I am now qualified to Teach English to Speakers of Other Languages, wayhay! - and am currently trying to gain employment in Foreign Parts) I'm tied up myself a lot of the time with job applications and whatnot, whilst still working at my old job.

Still find time for Cthulhu, of course.

Re: your comments about the Zep and heights. I concede that in reality the Graf wouldnt have come that close to the ground, but for purposes of dramatic aesthetics I thought 'What the hell'. - The shadow falling over the cache site, the looming shape appearing out of the snow cover, the lines dropping, the zzzzzip of the abseilers, the black-clad figures, I'm sure you know what I mean.

And yes, the Graf had been radioing everything.

But not to Berlin. This is probably going to sound like a cop-out, but because of my players propensity for screwing things up on a humongous scale, Ive decided that the Construct has a jamming effect on radio transmissions over a huge geographical area. It isn't a complete blackout, rather it comes in waves, hence the transmissions getting through at certain (plot-necessary) times.

Its dependent on how well the Construct is working, which explains why the interference wasn't apparent before Starkweather, and later, Greene and Halperin, were placed on the Wall.

Sigh. Fiddling with things to save your players asses is sometimes the price we pay for being GMs. Not that I'd let them know that, of course. They're already, (in rare, I have to admit, lucid times) worrying about how to explain away the transmissions they assume must have got out to the world at large.

I suppose some GMs would let it go with the transmissions getting out, but I really want this Campaign to end with the players on top(or at least, hanging on by their fingertips). We wont be playing out any extra sessions based on plotlines left open at the end, and so I would like to get as much closure as possible sorted out along the way. Ill explain about whets happened with the BFE camp later.

Of course, if they really screw things up, by say, crashing the plane into the side of a mountain or something or all deciding to go for a swim in the Sunless Sea, then I'm not going to magic them back to New York or anything, but a little tinkering without them knowing about it helps steer the Campaign back to a, how can I put it, sustainable course.

Anyway, where were they last time I wrote?

Ah yes. The radio conversation between Sykes & Benecke and 'the leaders'.

Well, Powell had had enough, so pretended that the interference had cut in, but Sykes wanted Cariad to land the plane so they could mark out the spot where the 'window' existed. Cariad refused, on the basis, Mahri told me later, that she didn't trust Sykes suggestion because he was an NPC and she didn't trust me! Charming!

Anyway, Cariad maintained that the terrain wasn't conducive to landing. A failed group Luck roll later and Sykes pointed out that even he could land on the terrain below, it was so flat. Cariad still refused, despite urgings from the Germans. They flew back to Lakes Camp, Sykes now convinced that their only pilot, Cariad, was unbalanced by all the stress and the Germans suspecting that the party was hiding something. Not being able to speak with Meyer was a big part of this, also.

So, back at Lakes camp there was another big argument between the party and the NPCs about where they were going to go from here. Sykes now stated that he thought that Cariad was suffering from exhaustion and stress, as proved by her unreasonable fear of landing at the transmission site, and that he wasn't prepared to risk more people and their only plane on her ability to remain calm whilst flying through the dangers of Dyers Strait (I told you that this was what they'd named Dyers Pass? Suckers for a pun.)

To cut a long story short, eventually the party completely caved inand agreed to fly the NPCs back to the Base Camp.

Doh! Finally!

In yet another highly suspicious group huddle in a tent, the party decided on a plan. They would fly 8 NPCs out of Lakes Camp, in the direction of the Base Camp, and give them some cocoa spiked with a sleeping drug en route. Then, when they were out of sight of Lakes Camp, they would turn the plane and fly it to the City, drop off the NPCs for the Elder Things, and return.

At last, the Magic Porridge Plan appears. With a typical twist for my players of course.

How to get around the prob;lem of oxygen for their unfortunate sacrifices?

I assumed they would drug them, tie them up and when they woke up give them the oxygen bottles, masks, etc, and say "breathe through these or you die" whilst keeping them at gunpoint.

No, no, my players didn't want them awake because that would be 'inhumane'(!)

So they snuck an oxygen tent on board. The plan was to knock them out, stick them in the tent for the flight, then hand them over to the Elder Things.

With no thought for how long they would survive without oxygen on the way from the City to the Tower, of course.

Sigh. See, in a situation like this, I suppose there are various ways I could chooses to do things. When Starkweather was abducted, he could be seen struggling, so presumable still had his oxy pipe clamped twixt his teeth.

But these NPCs will be unconscious.

Do I let them go with their plan, and let the NPCS die from lack of oxygen en route?

Or I could actually tell them their plan sucks cos they haven't thought that. I don't like to do this, cos that's a bit like spoonfeeding them instructions, and if their characters haven't thought of it, why should an invisible voice speak to them out of the air. No Npcs around to 'assist' them in this, either.

The thing is, they're trying. They have actually come up with a plan to get the sacrifices up to the Tower. It would be a bit harsh (and dramatically disappointing) for them to go through with it and have the NPCs die, off camera so to speak, and then later on, what? The Tower collapses and the World ends with no explanation from me?

So here's what I decided. The Elder Things, when they get the NPCs, will use their alien supertechnology/magic to put them in a trancelike state that's similar to the one you go into when you drink space-mead.

Sorted.

No problems.

Easy.

Yeah, right.

Okay. NPCs on the plane. The poor bastards were queuing up to get out of there. Just to be a sod I let Charlie Porter say how glad he was to be getting back to his wife, who was expecting, heed found out on the voyage down.

This was about the end of the session, so for the next one I just had Mahri and Ben come over. They were going to be on their own for Mission Of Mercy, and Sykes etc. didn't expect them back from the Base Camp for at least 15 hours.

So, wave got Cariad flying, and Hoy going along with her, and 8 NPCs from the Camp. Hoys got 2 German submachine guns hidden on board, and his flask of doctored cocoa.

They took off, and at the arranged time, Hoy gets the Cocoa out. Its cold up there in the plane, so everyone gratefully gulps the lovely brew (made by Dr Black, Make Cocoa 19%, rolled 21% so pretty good cocoa) down. Feeling a bit mischievous I scribbled 'w/sug yes' on the border of the book and had Charlie eye the flask suspiciously and ask Hoy "Is there sugar in this?"

Ben looked at me as though I was the Devil, and Hoy said"...er,...yyeesss?"

"Then pour it on, Hoy!"  - smacking of lips from Charlie "MM-mm!, nearly as good as my wife makes!" (groans from Ben - he feels really guilty about what they are having to do)

So, 10 minutes later, threes a few "Hey, I feel kinda sleepy" remarks, and Hoy gets ready to get the gun out, but everything's ok and the NPCS pass out.

All according to plan, yeah?

Right, you remember Van Kerr, the self-trepanning doctor?

Lee, who plays him, didn't come this session. Which totally pissed me off, because he is one of only two party members who have Chemistry Skill. He has 78%, and Hoy has...21%

So, Van Kerr,s in his tent warbling to himself for the duration (when players don't turn up I have their characters sleeping if its appropriate, or in shock if theres something going on which would prohibit them sleeping).

So Hoy has to make the roll. A bit harsh of me? Perhaps, but I hate players not turning up for sessions because they don't feel like they'd be "very good company" or "its raining and its a half hour walk to your house".

Hoy makes his roll with only me seeing the result, after all, he wont know if has succeeded till they've drunk the stuff.

He rolled 97%.

I smiled sweetly.

Then, he says "Hmm, I put some more (of the sleeping drug)  in - we don't want them waking up before we get to the City do we?"

I went out into the kitchen for a moment to look in the mirror and shake my head despairingly.

So, 20 minutes after the NPCs pass out, Hoy checks them to find their pulses weakening, one by one, then stopping.

"Cariad?" he calls to the cabin, "We’ve got 8 dead polar explorers here."

Hoy uses a Fudge point to reroll his Chemistry, and miraculously gets 18%.

They're alive, and unconscious. He sets up the tent, in a half collapsed manner, puts them inside, tied up, and through the pass they fly.

They land at the old Camp, and Hoy manhandles the tent outside, with the tied up NPCS starting to wake up, explores, and sets out for the redoubt. When he gets there, he finds that Moores broken his leg and hip, Danforths come back to some semblance of sanity, and everyone's ready to go. Then the Elder Things attack.

Lexington, Danforth and Meyer start running and Hoy is left with Moore, who tells him to go on alone. "Ill slow you down, " the Professor says, "and in any case, if I stay here I can perhaps do my bit...like James did."

A poignant moment for Hoy, who gives him a pistol. "You're a brave man, Sir."

"No I'm not, Sam. If I were a brave man, I wouldn't take this gun from you. I hope I'm brave enough not to use it on myself when the time comes."

Hoy leaves, and a little while later, as he's running through the rubble, he hears a shot ring out from the redoubt.

"Oh, no, he's shot himself..."

And then five more.

Moore had emptied his gun so that he wouldn't be able to kill himself,

This was a truly special moment. What a hero.

Later on, when telling the others of Moores brave action, Cariad exclaimed that they should get a  special statue erected to commemorate his heroic sacrifice, and Lexington replied "Why, Miss Jones? Professor Moore died in an earthquake, just like all the others, didn't he?"

So, the Elders are attacking, the plane mostly, and Danforth and Lexington are ahead of Meyer, whose lagging behind, and Hoy, who catches up with Meyer just as he trips and falls. Cariad has to start the planes engines and the plane picks up speed, Hoy picks Meyer(sprained ankle) up and makes CON and DEX rolls one after another as he runs after the plane, Lexington providing covering fire!

Marvellous stuff.

Just at the last moment, as Hoy gets within jumping distance of the plane, he trips and he and Meyer go headlong. Hoy has to make a split decision. Pick Meyer up again and risk low DEX and CON rolls to make the hatch, or leave him behind and have a vastly increased chance of success himself.

Bens quite upset by the moral choices has forced to make, and it costs him SAN when he reluctantly leaves the Doktor and runs for the plane, making a Jump roll just as its skids leave the ground and he hangs on and makes a STR roll to pull himself;lf aboard. He looks back to see Meyer, limping along and screaming, then falling and pathetically crawling after the disappearing plane, arms upreached as an Elder Thing swoops. The sight of the tent being ripped open and the shrieking people inside loses him some more SAN.

Then Lexington relieves Cariad at the Wheel for the flight to the Pass.

And then, they hear a THUMP on the outside of the plane, which swerves under the added weight of an Elder Thing. A massive blade rips through the fuselage, and the Elder Thing tears a hole through the side, squeezing its bulk through in what can only be described as a frenzy. Its maddened, and totally set on killing the occupants. Its so intent on its mission that it has ripped off one of its wings and two of its arms in its thrashing entrance to the interior of the Belle.

Why?

Well, a couple of reasons.

Firstly, Bens character, Hoy, has a great Martial Arts skill. I had to at some stage get him to have a fistfight with an Elder Thing. I knew he probably wouldn't stand much of a chance against a healthy one, so having it damage itself in its entrance helped there. Also, the interior of the plane provided an arena where it couldn't carry him off, he couldn't escape, and hopefully wouldn't risk using guns in. Also, a fistfight between a martial artist and an enraged Elder Thing in the inside of a plane whilst in flight was an irresistible dramatic situation for me.

And why, in plot terms?

The Elder Things decide that the humans are not to be trusted, and that they have to prevent them from escaping and bringing forth an invasion to the City. Capturing them and putting them in the Wall is preferable, but if they are going to escape, then they will kill them if they have to to preserve their secret. Maybe there was an article about the build up of Germanys armed forces in that Time Magazine...

So, Cariad tries to communicate with the Elder Thing with the Translation Stone they have on board, but the Elder Thing is screaming things like

PACT/BARGAIN/TERMINATION/ANIMAL/ DEATH NECESSARY/PREVENTION OF INUNDATION/INVASION

and theres no talking to this one. Hoy goes into combat.

And gives a pretty good account of himself. He has his Sai and a nightstick-like thing (Bens a bit of a Combat aficionado, and knows all about weapons and stuff) , and mostly he's parrying and dodging, every now and then getting swiped by a weakened tentacle or a glancing blow. The Elder Things slashes with its blade are ripping shit out of the walls of the plane every time Hoy dodges, though, and one of its blows rips through the door catch. The hatch flies open and the plane swerves violently again. Hoy manovers until the Elder Thing is framed in the open hatchway, and says "I warn you - I know Kung Fu." and delivers a flying roundhouse that sends the Elder Thing out. Wicked.

The Elder Thing manages a grab at the door frame, though, and then - 

Danforth has descended again into madness at the eruption of the Elder Thing into the Plane, and has been crouched against the bulkhead for the duration of the combat, muttering his litany of train station names over and over. They rise in volume tho=roughout the combat till at this moment he screams them out loud and launches himself at the Elder Thing and carries it and himself out into air and down to a screaming messy death in the foothills below.

Hoy, bleeding and bruised, manages to close the hatch, and slumps to the floor of the plane. As Cariad sees to him, Lexington calls "Miss Jones! You'd better take over! We're about to hit the Pass, and the turbulence is getting terrible."

Phew.

So, 10 for the wall, and one rescued.

Overall, I think a result, at last, for the Players.

Smif

Wow!   And more to come too!

So who's left now, in the plane and at Lake's Camp?   I will be real
interested to hear the tale that gets told down at the Ross Sea.


Chaz

Dam Machine the G is sticked.

Hi Chaz,

Cripes, after, what?...5 months of gaming and 3 of emailing you, Ive nearly caught up with what's happening in our game of BMOM.

It looks like my optimistic comment of "It'll all be over by Christmas!" back in New York was..well, optimistic.

I'm glad you put the appendix regarding the BFE Camp in...

Anyway, the Characters left at the Camp when Hoy & Cariad flew of on their Mission of Mercy & Sacrifice were Dr Van Kerr, South Powell, Prof.. Wallace Merryweather, Dr Quincy Black, Lawrence Stanley and Stephen Harris-Wilson.

NPCs - 12 left, including Sykes, Benecke, Dr Anthony and 'Colt' Huston. 8 Americans and 6 Germans.

The players were having a hard time hiding what had happened at the Supply Cache from the NPCs. Stanley had been badly injured and was hiding in a tent a lot of the time, but the Germans especially were very suspicious. Eventually, after a lot of bickering among themselves and with the NPCs, they let on that they had visited the German cache site, and said that they had briefly landed and had been shot at by persons unknown, and had taken off again straightaway.. That sort of explained Stanley's injuries, but the Germans were more suspicious by the minute.

An hour after Cariad & Hoy took off, the noise of an aircraft engine was heard. It was seen to be coming from a plane, a German plane, coming in from the direction of the Pole, and was in trouble, stuttering and obviously extremely low on fuel.. As Characters and NPCs alike ran for cover, it crashed into the Camp, causing lots more damage and killing 2 Germans and an American, none of those named above. Luckily the fuel stores were ok.

Harris-Wilson was into the wreck like a ferret as soon as the wreckage settled, rather harshly ignoring the injured.

Aboard he found 3 dead Germans and a leather satchel, which he quickly hid under his parka.

These Players are utterly immoral sometimes! They left the NPCs to clean up the camp and bury the dead etc., while they scuttled off to a tent to examine what they had found on the plane. Needless to say this did not go unnoticed by Sykes and Benecke, who by now were starting to actively dislike them.

In the satchel were a couple of photographs, a journal, and a glass jar containing 2 small black opals. Hehe...

One photograph showed some proud German explorers standing in front of a recently excavated dark opening in the snow. The other showed an icepick (for scale) lying on the icy ground next to a partially excavated black statue of a small mammal of some sort.

Of course, you know what these are, and the opals.

The journal proved to be one belonging to Pommeranke, and when translated described the activities carried out by the BFE up until the fateful exploration of the interior, as described in your appendix. That was the last entry, dated that morning.

Why did I put this event in? Well, I hate to see an appendix go to waste, and I had an inkling that unless I gave the players some info about the BFE they might decide to go look for themselves. As it happens I shouldn't have, the journal seems to have whetted their appetite!

Anyway, at the BFE site, when the Disaster happens, a few of the BFE members panicky and try to escape in a plane, get attacked mid-air by an animaculi that's got aboard, and one goes out the hatch from a great height with the thing on him. The others on the plane collectively fail SAN rolls, as it were, and decide to flee to Lakes Camp to Dr Meyer and their associates.

Well, okay, but I was winging it a bit here. I also wanted to give the party some way of repairing the damage they'd done to their relationship with the NPCs, you know, bonding in adversity and all that, but the swine's made things worse by ignoring the damage and going off in a sneaky huddle again.

So, they next examine the opals, taking them into the empty mess-tent and conveniently warming them by the stove. They melt a bit, coagulate into one blob, and start to etch their way round the glass. I thought that this was going to be it frankly, but the Players immediately thought "Sod that" , took them outside still in the jar, and put the jar into a bigger jar. They then filed the 2nd jar two thirds full of water(freezing and expansion...) and buried the whole shebang in a big hole in the snow.

Everyone then pitches in to help repair damage.

Some time passes.

Okay. One of the NPCs, Maurice Cole, hasn't been seen since the crash.This had been noted at the time, and Pulaski has gone out to look for him some, to no avail.

Dr Black is walking across the camp with Merryweather when he feels himself start to slip down through the ice in that familiar terrifying way which usually heralds a meeting with Lilith. He hears her voice in his head..."...You are still here...an example must be made..."

Screaming with terror, he is pulled from Merryweathers grasp and down through the ice till he's in Liliths Cave once more. It's darker than before, and Lilith is demanding the Humans imminent departure. He jabbers a bit about them leaving soon, and she says that she will show the humans what happens to those who incur her wrath, etc. The light brightens till Dr Black can see Cole, hanging in the air, his guts open to view his intestines writhing and burning as he screams soundlessly. His tongue has been torn out.

"What do you want?" shrieks Dr Black.

"I want to sleep...forever."

"I can help you with that!" stammers Dr Black.

Now, you know sometimes in CoC (or any RPG for that matter), events will take a certain direction because of the GMs steering or plotting, and sometimes they'll go in a direction because of actions or statements of intentions from the Players. Often there's a sort of unconscious collaboration going on - if a Player says "A heavily armed guard rushing at me down the corridor? I crouch down and yank the rug out from under his feet!" without me having said that there's a rug in the corridor in the first place, well of course I'm not going to say "No you don't - There wasn't a rug in my description of this corridor."

You go with it, as GM, don't you? Have you ever played Paranoia? It's my second favourite RPG, I heartily recommend it if you haven't. Totally different from CoC in terms of setting and atmosphere. It has what the writers call a 'Dramatic tactical combat system' where basically, if a Players actions are dramatically satisfying (leaping from chandeliers, jumping from jetplanes onto speeding trains, putting the delicate phial of deadly nerve gas into their mouth cos its the safest place for it in a mayhemic combat, etc.) they are rewarded.

This 'unconscious collaboration' can sometimes go awry, in that the GM (or the Player) can misunderstand what was intended by the other. Stopping the game in these points of plot divergence to ask "Just what exactly are you implying here?" can put a jarring pause in the immersion of the game, but sometimes, its a case of "Oops, I thought you meant that..."

When Kev said "I can help you with that!", he preceded it with a look of sudden revelation which I took to mean he had suddenly thought of the possibility of putting Lilith on the Wall. What an audacious possibility! And an impressive plan, I thought. Such a being, woven into the construct, would be the solution to the problem of shoring up the God Trap for a long long time, and would also address the problem that the players had with numbers. When they had decided to offer up humans for insertion to the Construct, someone had mused "How many will we need?". Cariad, who had merged with the Construct, tried to delve into her memories to find out, and failed a POW roll "30 or 40 would be nice." was the immortal line.

So, the Players think that 30 is like the minimum, despite my gentle hints that if they cant find 30 innocent humans to behead and condemn to an eternity (ish) of limbolike torment then the Elder Things will have to make do.

Well anyway, Lilith rants at Dr Black for a bit longer then tells him that the next time she summons him it'll be him up there instead of Cole, and with a gesture immolates poor Cole in front of Black. SAN loss again, this time its a bit much for his poor shattered mind, and when Merryweather pulls him burbling from the snow he's gained a phobia...for Cold.

Ouch, but I gave him a few options  and he was unfortunate when the dice fell.

So, what to do about this plan of Kevs?

How the hell were they going to get Lilith on the wall?

Plainly, they needed a bit of muscle.

The game had somewhat degenerated into a shouting match at this point, the players were arguing about what to do and what to tell the NPCs, and Sykes et al were getting paranoid. Benecke was convinced that his people would send the Graf to rescue them or send supplies, and had started to carry guns about in case the crazed Americans tried anything.

So it was time for some action, which also might prove to help the party in case they decided to put Kevs plan into effect.

"Hey! Look!" shouted a spotter, as a dot became visible on the horizon. It was a flying Elder Thing, coming from the direction of the Pass. Upon closer inspection through binoculars it transpired that it was carrying something, small.

High above the ground it flew, closer and closer, and when it was way above the camp it dropped the thing it was carrying.

PCs ran like hell away from the Camp.

Behind them there was a muffled 'spt' as it hit the ground, and then...nothing.

Feeling a bit foolish, they examined the object as the Elder Thing flew off again towards Dyers Strait.

Npsc were astounded by what they had seen and were demanding explanations from the party, who fobbed them off with "Later" excuses.

The object was a five pointed stone, larger than the Translator Stone they had, with Dot Script on it.

Powell examined the Script for some time, and discovered that it basically said 'LOCATION'.

This puzzled the players, who thought that this was one of the phrases on the Translator/Location Stone they already had. after careful examination of both, they realised that the Translator Stone said something more akin to 'PROXIMITY'.

Powell reasoned that the Stone they already had in effect said 'Near' whilst the new one said 'Here'

"It's a beacon." said Dr Black.

When the implications of this sank in, there was a brief panicky discussion. Were they expecting an invasion of Elder Things? The NPCs by now demanded to know what the hideous flying monster was, what had the party really seen atop the plateau, what was the stone, what in fact, the hell was going on.

So a meeting was called for, in the Mess Tent.

The Players were sat or stood round the mess tent, Benecke sat opposite Powell with his 3 companions stood behind him.

Powell had his Parka done right up with his machine gun stashed inside (must have looked a bit weird). 2 of the Germans were openly standing with one hand inside their parka (presumably holding onto their guns). Dr Black also had a machine gun under his parka, but was standing. Stanley surreptitiously got his gun out and was sitting at the table with it under the table out of sight. Dr Van Kerr was taking no chances, he had a pistol in his pocket and his rifle slung over his shoulder!

Not a very good set-up for a rational discussion, was it?

And what the party said made things worse.

First, Benecke wanted to know what the mysterious stone was. It was lying on the table infront of him.

He was told that it was a beacon of some sort. They also told him that they had found evidence of the creatures in the City, and that they should prepare for a possible invasion from them.

Benecke was interested in whether they were hostile, and if so, what were the chances of the Leaders still being alive at the City? He picked the Stone up and played with it idly.

Dr Black started to get a very unsettling feeling.

Next, Benecke asked if Mr Powell was feeling warm in all his tightly buttoned snow gear, and if he was alright, as he seemed to be sitting a bit stiffly.

Powell said "Ok, lets put our cards on the table." and unbuttoned his coat, taking out the machine gun and putting it on the table.

Plainly this was a German machine gun, and Benecke said so. where had Powell got it?

Just about now it really went pear-shaped.

Stanley (Rob) told Benecke that they had got the machine guns (Dr Black revealed his, at which point the 2 Germans with guns took theirs out - a brief moment of tension, but nothing kicked off-yet) from the Cache Site. He said that Rucker and Baumann had attacked them.

Harris Wilson made a German roll as one of the Germans whispered something "Rucker? My brother? (big groan from Owain, heh, I thought I'd sling something in to up the tension a little) Attacked them? They are lying!"

Dr Blacks feeling was growing. "Hey guys, Ive got a really bad feeling here..."

Benecke asked if what he had said was true, then how had they got the guns from Rucker and Baumann.

"Well..., we took them."

"were they alive when you took the guns?"

"Nooo...they were dead."

"How did they die?

"er...from bullets." (Pokey was groaning at the inevitability, and Van Kerr started edging his way to the door)

"Bullets from where?"

"Ah...from this gun." Stanley said, bringing his gun up onto the table.

Dr Black now felt absolutely terrible. A rumbling shudder went through the ground below. "Look, everyone, there's something coming!"

"Murderer! You lie!" screamed Ruckers brother, and shot point blank at Stanley's head.

Benecke screamed out loud as the stone in his hands suddenly burned red hot, melting the flesh on his hands.

I bloody rolled a 99%!

Stanley fell off his chair, and Powell fired a burst from the machine gun at all four Germans.

And up through the slats in the floor of the tent bubbled a Shoggoth.

Basically, Powell blew away 3 Germans leaving Benecke alive but wounded, crawling round the tent shrieking. Stanley cut his way through the side of the tent to safety. Merryweather grabbed Sykes, who had failed SAN roll and was delirious and took him outside, and Van Kerr, although he passed his SAN roll, decided he was going to strip naked and run off into the snow anyway (I don't know why, maybe in protest!)!

Powell evaded the Shoggoths lunge and ran outside. The Shoggoth ate Huston, and turned its attention to Dr Black, who was transfixed, unable to run outside because of his phobia. As it oozed towards him, he took the bull by the horns, so to speak.

"I stare into its eyes. I'm going to hypnotise it or die trying!"

Kevs a hero sometimes. I'll let you know next time how he got on. Sorry if this one was a bit long, I know you've got work to do!

Smif

Dear Joe,

Really, Joe, I wish I could get these updates daily.  They are so
enterntaining, and
really make my mornings.

I do know Paranoia, and used to play it with great glee, though our group
here hasn't had a GM interested in running it for a long time (since Jason,
our favorite Paranoia/Illuminati player, moved to Los Angeles to finish his
PhD.)

How the heck do you hypnotize a Shoggoth?  Um, for that matter, *which*
eyes do you stare into?  :)

Chaz


Dam Machine the G is sticked.

Hi Chaz, hope you're not too snowed under. With work, I mean. Here in Wales it's been raining for 15 days straight. I doubt if we'll ever see snow at Christmas here again. Come to think of it, I don't know where you are. Boston, perhaps? :)

A CoC haiku to set the scene -

Many maws gape wide to rend.

The moment shrieks. Then-

"Look into my eyes..."

Dr Quincy Black, a ghostbuster with a fear of cold, stands framed in the doorway of the mess tent, unable to back off as he feels the chill of the wide endless swallowing Antarctic night behind him. Bearing down on him, its fanged mouths oozing and piping, its hundred eyes rolling and bloodshot, its tentacles curling at his toes and snaking above and around him, a Shoggoth. 15 feet square and still bubbling up from the cracks in the ice below, its bulk roiling onward.

Dr Black clutches his Translator Stone and holds it out like a shield, focusing his mind, aiming his will into the core of the beast. "Stop." He commands.

Ahem. Excuse the drama, but it was an amazing scene. I know Hypnotism doesn't really work like this, but for the sake of the game, I took a more...mesmeric view to Kevin's characters Hypnosis skill. Besides, as Ive mentioned before, its Kevs first RPG game, and he's going for it, isn't he? Gotta reward the heroics.

So, with a bit of questioning as to his intent ("I want to stop it from killing us all! - and maybe find out what makes it tick...") and some hypnosis/POWvsPOW rolls, he forges a link with the monster, his success based partly on his utter desperation to succeed.

So what did he learn?

Well, I have to explain my own take on Shoggoths (for this campaign at least - The Mythos is ...elastic as far as consistency I think).

What Dr Black learnt was this.

Shoggoths are created by the Elder Things. At first, they are basically lumps of bio-matter, with a life of sorts but no purpose, no anima. They are sparked into their own basic form of consciousness and driven to act and move and what have you by instructions, by command given to them by the Elders. The first command, the proto-instruction, is simply to 'Live'.

This primal command is very strong. It is in essence instructing the Shoggoth to simulate possession of something akin to a soul, the spark or life-force that differentiates living things from...primordial soup. Then, the Elders can command the Shoggoth to dig this hole, or eat that human, or calve off a lump for an Elder to stick in a sandwich or whatever. They are akin to golems in this respect.

But all through the Shoggoths life, that first instruction is there, underneath the layers of its other commands. When it is given a command by something with sufficient will (POW, natch) , it will carry out the command, then return to its base state, where it is most happy( 'happiness' being a human description of what it 'feels' perhaps 'appropriate' would be closer), just living.

Now, what does a Shoggoth require in order to live?

Heat and sustenance. That's about it.

Shoggoths do communicate, of course, this is in the books etc.

Certain Shoggoths have been sent for arcane reasons to the bottom of the sea, perhaps to assist with undersea construction or hunting. There, some of them encountered those deep sea underwater sulphur vents, where strange microscopic life forms and plankton and little shrimps thrive and live, deep deep out of the reach of most other life.

What better environment for a Shoggoth to live in? Warmth in abundance, and sustenance for ever. It can just curl up and softly trill in the dark warm sea. Other Shoggoths learned about these places over the centuries, in their dreams and from absorption of older Shoggoths.

The idea of these places has filtered throughout the long ages into the Shoggoths being, and has become their equivalent of ...I suppose heaven would be close-ish, or at least as a place where they can be Free. When all commands have been followed, they can seep into the earth through the cracks and fissures, out into the depths, and down, down they will swim till the blackness gives way to a hot orange glow, and they can embrace the sides of the vent and form cilia to sieve the plankton from the water and just...Live.

But the commands never end. There are always more instructions, from beings whom they can never break free of.

None of this is thought consciously, of course, and in fact it isn't even real as such, merely a condition of mimicked thought processes and a result of the way in which they are 'programmed'.

But even so I think its rather sweet('Ol HP's probly turning in his grave :)).

So Dr Black learned all this, and also learned something else, something wonderful for the party.

By breaking the Shoggoths command to 'kill all the animal bipeds in the vicinity of the Locator Stone', he had managed to do something akin to setting a computer back to factory defaults. To the Shoggoth, Blacks Human mind was utterly alien (not the mechanics of his brain and nervous system - The Elders use Shoggoths to perform surgery and dissection on mammals etc. - but the actual thought processes of his mind. He had temporarily broken the Elder Things hold over it.

Temporarily. The Shoggoth 'knew' that if it went back to the City or the Elder Things came looking for it, they would be able to reassert their hypnotic subjugation over it easily.

But Dr Black realised that he could help the Shoggoth to completely sever its link with the Elder Things if he could replace its ...I hate to use another computer analogy, but...its operating system, as it were. In essence, by giving it a set of instructions that 1. came from his, human, entirely non-Elder Thing mindset, and 2. that was ...Powerful. He knew that if the command he gave it contained enough ...stress, if there was a huge amount of will behind it, then the Shoggoth, because of the way in which its creators had designed it, would become single-mindedly set on that course, its being would be consumed with the new instruction, and it would, in order to fulfil its task, fundamentally alter itself in order to do so. It would alter the way in which it thought in the same way that it could grow a new mouth to eat snow with, or grow tiny microscopic tentacles to perform delicate tasks.

And once it had carried out the instruction, it would be sufficiently alien to the Elder Things that they wouldn't be able to control it ever again, and it could be Free, free to journey to its faraway deep warm haven in the endless safe pressure of the deeps.

Quincy knew all this in a long Sanity straining moment, and somehow sensed that the Shoggoth, in its own limited way, knew it also, and that perhaps he had already given it something of himself, perhaps it was now starting to mimic something from him, something till now totally outside its existence...hope.

It would retreat for now, and wait, near in the earth, till he would call upon it, and it would come, ready to perform one last command, one final service as a slave.

The others still in the mess tent saw Dr Blacks eyes widen, and the Shoggoth hold its assault and sway gently from side to side, Black swaying with it. Then He nodded and grunted slightly, and the Shoggoth backed away, boiling back through the slats in the floor of the tent, bubbling down into the ground, piping a last, soft, "Tikeli-Liiii..." till it was gone.

Well, I was going to tell a lot more, but I seem to have written quite a lot considering Ive only actually described about a minute of gametime :)

I'll continue tomorrow, what happened next was "the best session ever!", according to Mahri.

BTW, on the subject of 'Tikeli-Li', I have to mention something which happened back at the Tower. I don't think Ive told you yet. Players are swines sometimes, are they not?

They had the 'translator' stone, remember? Well, when they had finished conversing with the Elder Things, and had made that bargain with them, the Elder Things retreated back up the ramp, and the Gardener Shoggoth followed, and I described it piping 'Tikeli-Liii' as it rolled upward back to the Wall.

Jason, who still had the stone, immediately asked me what it meant! The bastard!

Talk about putting myself in a spot! I should have planned for it I suppose. There are some things man was not meant to know, and I'm sure if 'Tikeli-Li' wasn't one of them, then Howard would have told us!

Well, I told them(after a very quick and frantic search for inspiration on the ceiling!) that what Jason heard was

INSTRUCTION/COMMAND

...

What do you think? The Shoggoths are slaves, after all, so most of what they will have heard from the Elder Things will be orders.

I have to admit, a tiny irreverent impish part of me quite fancied POLLY/WANNA/CRACKER :)

Considering what happened in the scene Ive described above, it would have been nice if the Stone had translated 'Tikeli-Li' as 

LIVE

and understandable given the importance of that command to the Shoggoths, also a bit sad, I think.

Id love to hear your thoughts on my treatment of the Shoggoths. I suspect from your affectionate quotes alongside their stats in BMOM that someone on your team doesn't just view them as brainless monsters.

You getting a nice break for Christmas? If you're getting these emails in work then d'you want me to stop while you're off, otherwise you'll have a gigantic pile of em to wade through when you get back!

I, for my sins I suppose, have to work 9-5 on Xmas eve, and 10-6 on Xmas Day!

Ah well, have to play CoC on Boxing Day I suppose!

Take care,

Smif

Dear Smitty,

Wonderful.  I do like your Shoggoths, Smitty -- they're very
unusual and different from the usual, which is good.

What I had in mind when I wrote the book was much more based
on the ATMOM novel than anything in the rules.   Shoggoths were
presented there as crudely and powerfully intelligent critters,
barbaric but vital.   They're susceptible to the ETs controlling them,
(though obviously not all the time or the Rebellion would not have
happened) but I always figured that was the ETs being good at controlling
rather than the Shoggies being weak-willed or easily programmable.

The ETs in the Tower broke into a "cache" upon their return -- old supplies
laid by for a disaster day, which included the "seeds" of enough tool
shoggoths to work with.  there are signs of this doen in the basement
levels
if PCs look, tho its not obvious what they are.

So that's what I had in mind -- yours is to my mind more interesting, cuz
it's
new and different.

As for "Tekeli-li", I figured that's not what they really say, any more
than
birds go "chirp" or dogs "bow wow."  ETs talk in 5-toned chiming whistles,
much of it outside the human hearing range -- the sharp "tekeli-li" trill
is just
a vocalization of what we can hear.   As for what it *means* -- I like your
answer
just fine.  "Do as I say!"  Why not!  (though again, LIVE would be good
too...)


Chaz

Dam Machine the G is sticked.

Gotta tell you a CoC joke I made up before I get on to the game.

Q. How many CoC Investigators does it take to change a lightbulb?

A. Hideous Shrieking Bloody Terror.

And now, the game...

After the Shoggoth attack, the party saw to the injured and cleaned up the mess tent as best they could. Two of the NPCs, Bryce and Sorenson had run off into the snow, so Merryweather went out to look for them. He found Bryce after a half hour, unconscious and suffering from hypothermia. Of Sorenson there was no sign.

Sykes had been waylaid by Merryweather earlier, drugged and tied up in his tent. Dr Anthony had been driven insane by the oozing monstrosity and had passed out.

A meeting was gathered. The party tried to tell Benecke, his hands bandaged, more about the God, and to enlist his help in terms of convincing his government that there was nothing to gain from exploring the Miskatonics. Benecke was deeply suspicious of theparty, who he now considered to be madmen, but kept this from them. he eventually agreed to help them and retired to his tent.

The party now discussed what to do. Dr Black informed them what he had learned from his encounter with the Shoggoth, and they individually suggested all sorts of mad plans, one real corker being telling the Shoggoth to 'Go to Buenos Aires and take a person to the Wall from there, then go back and do it again. Keep doing it.'

Yeah, right.

They also seemed intent on flying in the Belle to the BFE camp, a prospect which thankfully seemed less inviting when I pointed out that it was 2000 miles away, they would have to refuel at the South Pole Cache Site, and have to refuel at the BFE if they wanted to come back, that is if there was any fuel there.

At this point, the party questioned Dr Black more closely about what he knew of Shoggoths and 'his' one in particular.

Unfortunately, Kevin's memory was a bit grim. Inventively, he suggested that he use his Hypnosis skill to put himself into a trance, and question his subconscious.

Okay, I'm up for that. Nice bit of thinking.

So, in he goes, eyes rolling up into his head etc., and the rest of the players are told to shut up whilst Kev interrogates his subconscious - me.

One of the things they had talked about him finding out was whether or not the Shoggoth could best Lilith in a fight, if it ever came to that. At the time, the way they were talking about it made me think again about what Id assumed Kev meant when he told Lilith he could 'help' her with her avowed wish to sleep forever.

Afterwards, it transpired that putting her on the wall had never crossed his mind - He'd merely been trying to tell her that they would go real soon and then she could get some kip.

See what I meant earlier about crossed wires? Here's me thinking that they are thinking about putting Lilith on the Wall, so I'm using the Shoggoth to give them some helpful muscle, and then they start to think about putting her on the wall only because they now have a Shoggoth to assist them!

Anyway, Dr Black learns that his one-shot 'Summon Shoggoth' spell (in essence what he has) can work in ways not entirely connected with the material planes of geography and distance. There was something about the Shoggoth, he remembers, some shadow in it, that transcends such physical barriers. This aspect gets him thinking about sending it to capture Lilith and take her to the Wall, and as he's thinking about Lilith he senses a familiar dark brooding presence hovering at the edges of his mind, probing for the upstart human that is deigning to disturb her... He calms himself, clearing his mind (more hypnosis rolls, MP expended) and examines the process of the Summoning more closely. He finds that if he is to Summon the Shoggoth, he has to know where he is. If he wants to send it somewhere, he has to know where that place is. It will be taking his instructions from his mind, after all. He could, for example, tell it to appear in the mess tent and take DR Anthony to the Wall because he knows where the mess tent is and he has been to the Wall. But Lilith, he cant instruct the Shoggoth to go there because he doesn't know where Liliths Cave is. He senses the searching mind of Lilith again, and brings himself out of the trance quickly.

So, the party now have the beginnings of a plan.

Here's where it usually goes terribly wrong, as everyone sticks their oar in and argues till someone suddenly shouts "Lets go with Plan C!" and whips their gun out, but this time they got it together.

Before they went further, however, they heard a gunshot from outside, and presently Harris Wilson found Benecke, in his tent, shot through the head with a note next to his body. Perhaps its self indulgent of me but Ive Attached the note as it was quite poignant.

"That's-" started Hoy.

"-accurate" finished Lexington curtly.

And on with the plan.

Which was this.

Dr Black would first put the party into a trance, mesmerising them into giving up their wills to his. Then he would hypnotise himself into forming a mental shield around his intentions, so that hopefully Lilith wouldn't realise what they intended to do until it was too late. (He'd figured that the Shoggoth would take some time to appear after he had called it - maybe up to a minute and a half - yeah, I know in the rule books it takes much much longer, but , ...well, what the hell, they don't know, do they? :)

The he would purposefully think about her, and she would hopefully drag him down to wherever she was.

Okay. They cleared a space in the Mess Tent, pulled up the slats to give access to the ice below, and everyone except Van Kerr and Harris-Wilson sat in a circle. They were to keep watch, but as a precaution they had drugged and tied Dr Anthony, Sykes and Bryce securely.

Dr Black used his Hypnosis skill (supplemented after a suggestion by Hoy by their Cthulhu Mythos skills, which expressed their openness to such processes) and POW vs. POW rolls to put them in the trance, after which he began leeching their MPs from them at a rate of 1d4 per round. Into his trance he went, successfully clearing his thoughts and focusing them on a Lilith-shielding image. He was clutching the Translator Stone and the Locator Stone the Elder had dropped onto the camp - In an earlier meeting with her, he had been holding onto his gun when he was sucked below, and had fired at her. When he'd come up to the surface, his gun was still with him but empty, so the party knew that physical objects when held by people, would go with them to Liliths Cave. (A variation on the plan had been discussed, that of everyone holding onto Black when he was summoned by Lilith, but had been abandoned when they realised that she would be able to read their minds - poor Black had to go alone!)

- I should say here, that as this plan was being built up, Kevin was groaning and muttering with terror about the thought of it. He himself pointed out the reason why he had to go on his own, and his face was priceless. He didn't want to do this at all!

So Black breathes deep, thinks of the Cave, and surely enough, he is swallowed by the blackness and finds himself in the Cave again.

Up above, Harris Wilson turns from his examination of Bryce to find Dr Black has vanished. Van Kerr made a sudden unexpected attempt to "jump in and pull him out!" (Lee had been drinking earlier and was very very very drunk by now - a bit of a nuisance if I'm honest but he mostly just sat there) then stopped and went limp.

Now, this MP donating business. I hadexplained after al the talk about will and 'giving up your essence ' that in game terms, Black would get a characters MPs at 1d4 per round, but the=at once everyone was unconscious, the circle would be broken and the pool of MPs that black had to draw from for summoning the Shoggoth and then feeding it Power for the fight with Lilith would begin to seep out of him, and he would lose them at the same rate. So he had a difficult job - to stall Lilith for long enough that he had sufficient MPs to fight her with, but not long enough thatbhe would lose too many by the time the Shoggoth went into action and the game was up as it were.

Tense? My God!

He's in the Cave, and Liliths Voice calls him, "Come here, dog!" He resists, and quickly grasps the Locator Stone, and calls the Shoggoth to him. He feels it warm in his hand, and knows it is only a matter of time. He is drawn towards her, fighting her (good one, didn't want to make her suspect he was too eager).

Up in the tent, Harris Wilson fails a Listen roll. Van Kerr's not helping at all.

Into the Cave Dr Black steps.

"You sought me out, dog. Why have you come her?" Lilith asks Black.

"I have come to save the Universe." he replies (round of applause from everyone at that).

Lilith narrows her eyes. "You are hiding something from me? You dare? Suffer for your arrogance!" She blasts him withwaves of anger and pain. Dr Black has realised that in this place, her Will, her POW is everything. The damage she has dealt him in the past has been mental in the sense that she has convinced his mind that he is hurt to such an immense level that his mind has literally made it so physically. Now, however, he has the circle of his companions as his foundation. He can resist. He puts MPs into resisting (5% per MP) He staggers, however, and takes a little damage as the malevolence seeps round his defences.

Up above, Harris Wilson looks outside the tent, and is confronted with a frost-covered, crazed Sorenson, brandishing a rifle. There is a moment of stillness, then Sorenson fires.

In the Cave, Dr Black is stalling for time and Sanity, as Liliths hateful force lashes him.

Up above, Lexington falls unconscious as the last of her MP is transferred to Black. Next follows Powell, then Stanley, then Hoy, then Cariad, till only Merryweather is left on 1 MP.

I had allowed the PCs to put POW voluntarily (and permanently) in place of MPs for this scene, and Cariad and Hoy had donated some to stave off the end. I had to point out to them that there were in fact two chapters and an epilogue to go, in case they went down to ludicrous levels of POW!

The fight between Harris-Wilson and Sorenson was meant to add tension (!) to the proceedings, but it went a little 3 stooges actually. Sorenson's shot missed Harris_Wilson, then Harris 's gun jammed, then Sorenson's rifle jammed. Harris jumped at Sorenson, kicking him in the head and going for a knockout (failed). Sor then broke 3 of his fingers whilst strangling Harris! Then Harris hit him some more, again failing to KO him. Sorenson bit Harris in the groin, and with a lucky uppercut KO'd him!

arris used a fudge point to come round and finally grapple Sorenson to unconsciousness whilst he was trying to climb over the table barrier around the circle. Merryweather succumbed at this point.

Meanwhile, down below, Lilith finally broke through some of Blacks defences. "What is that...object?" she hissed. Blacks hand clenched around the rapidly warming Locator Stone in his pocket, and fought till she had compelled him to bring it into view. It became almost too hot to handle as she said "Give it to me! What is it?"

Black let it go, and it sailed through the air to Liliths hand, heating up to white hot as she caught it.

"Its your ticket to beddybies," Black said, as the Shoggoth boiled up from the ground next to and in front of him.

She recoiled in shock "What...is...this...?" she hissed,

"Take her to the Wall" Black commanded, and the Shoggoth leapt at her. It had found its way here by following the undisguisable gleam of its Locator Stone, through dimensional angles and insane facets unknown to man, and it could find its way back once it had her.

As it powered at Lilith, its coils and curves still pouring up through the floor, I asked Kev how many MPs he was going to put into it for its battle with the Lilith. I asked him to consider that a lot of the fight would be based on their respective POWs, and that he should think about how POWerfull he thought she was. I also pointed out that if he went to 0MP he would lose consciousness also.

He mused that if he passed out he'd be helpless if the Shoggoth lost, but concluded that he'd be doomed if it lost awake or not.

"All of them."

In the end, (more or less in order to be able to describe what happened to everybody!) I let him give up some SAN in order to stay awake (And it was lucky he did, in the end).

The Shoggoth roared at Lilith, who was pushed back, her arms outstretched, screaming with rage and bending the very air about the Shoggoth as she tried to rend its form and disintegrate its being.

Its leading edge is being pulped, sprays of matter erupting to the sides as her blasts erode the stuff its made of, but inward it forces, its tentacles coiling and stretching out for her, its eyes rolling and its hundred mouths shrieking 'Tikeli-Liii!' as it engulfs her and powers on, at the far wall. She screams finally, as Black opens his mind and she sees the fate in store for her.

"Goodnight, Bitch." says Dr Black, and then the Shoggoth hits the wall and compacts, bubbling into it, hissing with friction as it spurts into the porous rock, and when its tail end seeps through and vanishes, she is gone with it.

Dr Black is alone in the space, and as he smiles with triumph, there is a faint shudder in the ground around and below him, and the ambient light that has been omnipresent every time he has been to this terrible extradimansional place slowly starts to dim...

Back in the mess tent, Harris is making everyone comfortable for their enforced sleep, when he feels a slight earthtremor. He shrugs and starts to make some cocoa.

"Out in the kitchen, Kev." I said.

Kevin wanted now to wake up, but unfortunately the circle had been broken and his link with reality severed. Besides, I pointed out, this was actually his physical body, here and now, in the place. The light was dimming by the second, and he was getting colder, and colder.

"Oh, Nooo! I'm her replacement!" He moaned.

Wonderful. . .

After a little while, when he hadn't seemed to have got the meaning of the tremors, I asked him how he felt. "Terrible." he said.

"Okay, what do you feel like doing?"

"I don't know? Perhaps I should kill myself"

"What would you do if you were in this situation?"

"...probably scream"

"Go on then."

A faint ray of hope hit him, and Dr Black opened his mouth and screamed, screamed loud and long as if his life depended on it.

I opened the kitchen door. "Harris, make a listen roll."

Harris heard him, faintly, far below, and started digging. When Powell woke up, he joined in, and after 9 hours and 45 feet, Dr Black blinked at the ray of dim light that broke through into his black prison, and they brought him up to the surface. His hair had turned shock white.

Smif

Dam Machine the G is sticked.

Hi Chaz,

I meant to say at the end of the last one, that this is where we have got up to! The party also flew to pick up the Weddell, so they've got two planes again, but from here Ill have to send you updates once a week, as we play!  I think they're going back to the City one last time, they've got 7 Seeds to dispose of, not to mention all the covering up at Lakes Camp!

Were playing Thursday, till then, take care!

Smif

Dam Machine the G is sticked.

Hullo Chaz, hope your Christmas is going well!

Mines accelerating in regard to parties and such. I went out for my Christmas Staff Night Out day before yesterday. Still slightly hungover tonight!

However, we did get to play CoC last week.

Another fine, tense session.

The party spent the first hour or so recuperating and discussing what they were going to tell the world about what had happened at Lakes Camp, both in 1933 and what they had discovered about what had happened to the first expedition.

They didn't arrive at any definite plans as yet.

They also decided that they had to do something with the 6 Seeds they had. And Sykes, Giles and Dr Anthony had to be taken into consideration. Dr Anthony had been driven mad by all the murder and the Shoggoth attack. They mused about the poss. of blaming the disaster at the Camp on him, but Sykes and Giles they decided to take up to the City, along with the Seeds, for one last visit.

They were a bit worried that just dropping the Seeds into the City might mean that the Elders wouldn't find them, and it was also pointed out that if the Timeslips they had experienced were visions of the future, not the past, then eventually there might be a hot humid jungle there, which would be disastrous.

So they decided to fly to the Tower.

Which I thought a marvellous idea, considering what I had planned...:)

While they were talking, there was a slight earth tremor.

A little while before take-off, there was another.

They figured that they would rather not actually land at the Tower, in case the Elders wanted to attack them, but didn't just want to throw Sykes and Giles out of the plane as they flew over, so they attempted to make parachutes out of tent material, using their (frankly terrible) Craft skills! They made 3, intending to use a dead body (Beneckes - he would help them after all...) as a tester.

So, they take off in the Belle(they want to fly back to the Base Camp in the Weddell as it doesn't have incriminating damage to it), leaving Powell and Van Kerr behind to look after Dr Anthony, and halfway to the Mountains, they see the ground shudder and cracks appear as a stronger quake hits.

The quakes increase in strength and regularity during the flight to the Mountains, and when they enter the pass, Cariad finds the going very difficult. On previous flights the wind has been string, but generally in one direction. This time the turbulent winds are howling from all points of the compass.

To add to the danger, the earthquakes are by now affecting the Mountains themselves, sending massive slabs crashing down, and avalanches roaring down cliff faces on either side of the stuttering wheeling plane. The showers of rock and ice crashing down against the faces of the sides of the Pass give the characters the eerie impression that the Mountains are rising, tearing themselves out of the ground in an effort to escape whatever catastrophic upheaval is shattering the ground below.

The winds are truly atrocious-Cariad has to make Pilot rolls often. If she fails, the plane is caught in a mighty downdraught, or slewed towards the cliffs by a sudden change in wind direction, or flying too close to a rockface causes a few rocks tumbling down to glance off a wing. She has to make another roll to cope with the danger the plane is in, to correct the dive or regain precious altitude. She was really miffed when I told her she couldn't tick her skill box when she made the first couple of rolls, "Why? Ill tell you later." I said.

Ive told the players that for this flight, the party can pool their Fudge Points, as Mahri by now doesn't have any left! Good thing, too!

Through the pass at last, and the City lies in the distance, Beyond, the horizon is black.

The winds have eased somewhat, though still wierdly unsettled, and the Belle flies into the City.

The tremors continue, and they see the damage done to the City below. As they fly over the Plaza, they see dozens and dozens of penguins, giant albino ones, swarming up out of the pit, in panicky flight from..something unseen, or maybe just from the earthquake.

They horizons grimness has resolved itself through binoculars into a mammoth swirling stormcloud, whirling anti clockwise about the Tower Valley, which is invisible. In the centre of the cloud, faint blue sparks can be seen occasionally.

The party is very dubious, but flies on.

    Interestingly, they had posed the idea that the Wall & the Construct might not have been able to take Lilith, and if so,         then they should fly to the Tower to give the Elders a hand in fighting her! I wonder what her reaction would have been if this had been the case! Kevin certainly would have been in for a bit of hassle!

Okay, by now the Belle is maybe a third of the way from the City to the Tower, and they see some more phenomenon. Out of the Stormcloud they see great bursts of power erupt, giant lightning streaks of blue energy that arc up out of the cloud and crash down onto the tundra in between the City and the Valley. These arcs of energy are huge, pulsing out maybe 100, 150 miles from the valley area. where they hit (still way way off in the distance) there are gigantic explosions of rock and ice.

Also, the earthquakes seem to be increasing in their devastation. The wind is picking up, everyone's got a really bad feeling, but they still fly on.

Stanley, who is standing (Hanging on) in the doorway to the pilots cabin, sees something else through his binoculars. A vast black cloud, boiling out of the Storm, erupting out in a line towards the Belle and the City behind her. Also, the Western range behind the valley, just visible above the Stromclouds grey top, seems to be visited by the mammoth earth tremors as well. As he watches, he gets the disturbing impression that the mountains, impossibly tall though they are, are actually being thrust upward by the geological upheaval they are undergoing.

Onward the Belle flies, and the staccato rainbow arcs of energy from deep within the Valley continua sporadically, but getting stronger, now arcing out maybe 200 miles from the valley. Cariad gets worried about the plane being hit by one, but if they do, its all over basically.

And then threes this weird stormcloud coming towards them to worry about. Cariad muses that threes something weird about it but she cant quite put her finger on it. An idea roll later, and its realised that the cloud is moving across the direction of the wind, not with it.Stanley has another look, and as he sees that the Western Range is indeed shifting, rising, gaining height with every rumble and quake, he sees something truly alarming about the cloud.

"That's no cloud," he says, "Its a swarm!"

What he sees is indeed a swarm of Elder Things, only about 5 or 6 Adults, but hundreds (maybe thousands - he's losing SAN so its all abit of a blur) of immature ones, half a meter to a metre in length, flying at immense speeds towards the plane. Their wingtips are crackling with a blue lightning like energy, and Stanley estimates their airspeed to be possibly as fast as 300 mph.

"Turn the plane around!" he screams, and Cariad needs no more urging.

She banks the Belle dangerously, sending her into a dive that she manages to correct, and is nearly through the arc of reversal of direction, back towards the City, when the leading edge of the swarm hits the plane. Bucking and dodging through the mass of flying monsters, the Belle turns and flees.

Hmm. I shall attempt to explain.I hope you're not grimacing and cursing me for flagrantly making this all up, but there are a number of reasons why this happened.

The two newbies to RPGing, Kev and Mahri, have taken to it like naturals - Ive said as much before. Kevs had his moment of glory, I wanted Mahri to have one too, and as the pilot, mid air shenanigans seemed right. Requiring multiple Pilot rolls during a frantic flight through chaotic winds and shrieking terrors seemed more conducive to exciting play than a situation needing Polar Survival rolls.

Lilith has been taken to the Wall by Quincy's Shoggoth, but as a being of such power, it seemed right to make the Constructs integration of her more of a dramatic and titanic struggle than a lesser being. Hence the storm, the earthquakes, the arcing power bleedoffs, and the decision by the Elder Things to get the hell out of there while Lilith battled the Construct. They are more powerful creatures than humans, but even they cant do anything to influence the outcome, really.

And the ludicrous numbers of young, compared to your description in the book? Well,

"That's no cloud," he says, "Its a swarm!"

How could I resist?

Besides, the awakened Elder Things have had a good while to reproduce. The fact that the swarm is composed mostly of littleuns also meant that when the Belle and the Swarm hit, the Belle isn't going to be wiped out in seconds.

Ah, and the electric blue power round their wingtips, presumably providing the silly 300mph speed that fortunately (in terms of dramatics)prevents the Belle just leaving them far behind?

...

Look, I don't claim to understand the machinations and abilities of the Elder Things! I'm only a man, and there are some things man was not meant to know!   LMAO

So, Cariads fighting to keep the Belle intact and aloft, the baby Elder Things are all round, frantically flying past the Belle on all side, thumping off the fuselage and occasionally dangerously clipping the prop (!)

Hoy looks out the back -

Hah, gotta tell you something here. when I asked if anyone wanted to look out the back of the plane there was a collective groan from the veterans. "Never look out the back of a plane when Smithy's GMing!" someone said.

This stems from the Walker in The Wastes Campaign. In that, their was a desperate escape from an Inuit cult camp in the North Polar Wastes, by plane. The weather was terrible, their were tupilak (snow, ice, mud and animal part golem things) all over, and as the plane took off there could be heard a horrible eardrum piercing howl and a series of tumultuous crushing thuds from behind the plane. One of the players peeked out the back window, and I took her out the kitchen to describe what she could see. "Hold this up,  I said, giving her a matchbox. She did.

I pointed at it, "That's the plane."

I reached out a clawed hand so that it was inches from the matchbox, if I closed my fist I could take it in my fingertips. "I am Ithaqua"

Her eyes widened and she ran for the living room, screaming "Faster! For Gods sake, faster!" Its great when as a GM, you can make players realise something awesome in an instant.

Well, Hoy didn't see anything quite as SAN threatening (that Walker In the Wastes was the only time Ive ever had anyone make a 1d100 SAN loss roll!) but he did see the Western range rising with the quakes, and he groaned. As he turned from the sight of a huge arc of blue death come zapping down through the swarm, incinerating dozens of the things on its way to an explosive impact with the ground, he races to the front of the plane and points at the Miskatonics, beyond the approaching City, to the Pass. At the edge of sight, to both sides, they can see, vaguely through the whizzing shapes of the fleeing Elders, the distant reaches of the mountains shake and crumble, and thrust their peaks ever upward towards the sky.

As they start to fly over the City, the swarm spreads out, and the impacts with the plane slow.

Cariads still making pilot rolls, failing now and again, and using fudge points one by one, the Belle is groaning with the stress, and a window shatters, a skid is torn off, she dives and rights herself, and with an especially fumbled roll an Elder Things comes through a window. Hoy and Black have a brief fight with it, before Harris-Wilson kills it and flings it out the door.

Over the City now, they can see the Mountains coming closer, but the upheaval in the peaks to either side of the pass is narrowing the gap. Cariad realises that they will reach the Pass at about the same time that the torment in the mountains does. Threes no other way for them to go, however.

Before they hit the pass, the last of the swarm drops off to the sides as the Elder Things seek sanctuary out at the edges of the City.

Then they are flying through the pass, through a hell of crashing, falling rock and rising, looming crags and peaks. The average height of the Pass floor is rising as Cariad veers the Belle around previously crossable mountain tops and coaxes her up over impossibly high altitudes. Hoy, looking behind, realises that the way back to the City is now impassable, if they don't make it through they cant turn back, and still the mountains rend themselves upward.

The last stretch comes within sight, a V formed by two adjacent peaks, and the cleft at the point where they meet is rising, far above what it was on the journey through. The Belle is at maximum altitude, and the V is rising, and at the last minute Cariad knows that they are not going to make it. The wingspan of the Belle is too wide for the gap.

"Roll her through!"

"That's impossible!"

"No-Just very, very improbable."

At the last moment, Cariad pushes down on the stick, sending the Belle into an accelerating dive towards a rocky death. Just before they hit, she pulls back hard and left. The Belle screams as she is forced up and over, standing her on a wingtip as she roars through the cleft, then over into a barrel roll and back to the horizontal. Everyone is dashed about the insides of the plane, and as she rights, the stressed shrieking plane stalls. Cariad dives with the stall, restarts the engine, and brings the nose up seconds before a crash. The plane is in a terrible state, the wings are making horrible noise like they're about to fall off, there a smell of burnt rubber coming from somewhere, and Cariad positively cuddles the distressed plane across the ice to the camp. Barely a mile from home, she has to perform a controlled crash. The Belle hits, slews round sideways in the snow, Harris and Hoy jump for safety, and the plane finally hits a rocky outcrop and snaps in two.

"You can tick it now, Mahri.", I grinned.

The snow settles, and Stanley picks himself up and stands for a second looking out at the Miskatonics. As he watches, the last aftershocks of the quakes subside, and he stares at the Mountains of Madness, now impossibly, impassably tall, their summits surely broaching the limits of atmosphere. He knows that no plane or mountaineer could ever cross them again...and then fails a CON roll and crumples into unconsciousness. Everyone else is okay as well, apart from scrapes and bruises.

...

Well, there you go. That's the last we have played. Now its the home stretch, I suppose.

Ah, Chaz, considering that in terms of mechanics the whole session consisted of everyone in the Belle with only Mahri actually rolling anything (apart from spot hiddens and the little fight with the Elder Thing), it was a brilliant session. Its amazing what you can accomplish with description isn't it?

Ah well, work tomorrow, don't spend too much of the festive season decorating!

Smif

Dam Machine the G is sticked.

Hi Chaz, hope you and yours are well.

Well, we played one session of CThulhu since I last emailed you. Lots of other stuff has happened too, but Ill get onto that once Ive brought you up to speed.

If you remember, the last that had occurred was the dramatic terrifying final flight through the Pass, back from the City through the madness of the Miskatonics tearing themselves upward into the Stratosphere.The Belle crash-lands, and the party limp their way back to the Camp.

After a day or so of resting and patching up scrapes and bruises, the intrepid investigators take stock. They are the only survivors, along with Acacia Lexington and poor mad Dr Anthony. The camp is a wreck, half burned, with a huge great excavation leading to a decidely incongruous underground temple-like chamber where the Mess Tent was, and theres the wreckage of a German Plane obvious for all to see as well. And about a mile away is the crashed Belle, its seats removed and showing evidence of truly aggressive flying.

So, a cover story for all this?

On the plus front, the Miskatonics are now uncrossable, at least Dyers Pass is no longer there, so the Elder Things and The City should be safe from inquisitive eyes for a good many years.

So, what do they decide?

well, most of the session consisted of a big discussion of exactly what they were going to tell the outside world. And I have to admit, that they didnt do too badly. This is what The World Will Know Of The Starkweather-Moore Expedition 1933 -

The last radio message to the outside world was the morning after the Belle and the Weddel took off for the Pass. They know this from Sykes.

So, the story is...

They took off, couldnt find any such Pass at all, so landed in the foothills of the Miskatonics to do some surveys and stuff. Stayed the night, and in the morning felt the tremors of a distant earthquake. They flew back to the Camp to find it had been hit very badly by the quake (including radios being wrecked - the plane radios not working because of wierd electrical/magnetic interference), and had trouble landing as the runway had been damaged. Both planes weredamaged in landing, but not irreperrably, and they hastened to assist with wounded and suchlike. A fire had started in the quake that had caused fatalities. In the early evening, a storm blew up, disrupting repairs, and grwew worse, until everybody battened down the hatches and set to wait it out. This storm lasted days, lessening enough for makeshift repairs to be made to the Belle, and for Starkweather and Halperin to attempt a flight for help. Barely a mile out, though, they crashed, and perished.

The storm came down again with a vengeance, then, and after more days (during which some of the wounded died from exposure and the like), a German plane crashed into the Camp, causing a dynamite explosion, another fire and more fatalities, among them Prof Moore, killed in an explosion heroically trying to drag the injured pilot from the plane. When the storm gets ferocious, they abandon the task and desperatley huddle together in couples and trios in the remains of whatever shelkters and tents they can find, a la Kurt Russell at the end of The Thing. One by one they succumb to the Cold and the Wind, until only the party, A.L and poor mad Dr Anthony are left. The storm finally abates, and the Weddell is repaired enough for Cariad to attempt the dangerous flight back to safety.

Before they leave, however, they have to make the camp look  as it should were this the truth, in case any bold adventurers come to see for themselves what truly happened yadda yadda...(:))

So, they get all the bodies with bullet holes in them, and any incriminating evidence, and chuck it down the hole into Liliths pad. Then they dynamite it. They troop out to the Belle with a pair of bodies, and torch it. They set fire to the remaining fuel supplies in case anyone discovers the truth in the future but suffers some mishap which they could escape from ewith a handy supply of fuel (Harsh, but thinking ahead.).

 Then they go over the entire site again, checkijng and double checking.

Owain (Harris Wilson) writes down their cover story in detail, making them each memorise it in case theres a separate debrifing for them on their return (Paranoid or what! - although I did do this once in a similar situation in Walker In The Wastes - that was a laugh, I can tell you).

Then they get in the plane and begin the flight.

En route, Harris-Wilson decides that they just arent frostbitten enough to back up their story, and opens the planes windows to expose them all to 2nd degree frostbite! They were happy to do this until I gave them the choice of losing 1D2 pts of App(noses dropping off etc), DEX(fingers, toes) or CON(just general chilled-to-the-marrow). But I thought it apt.

Cariad flew them back without mishap, and as they landed at the Base Camp at the Ross Ice Shelf they were greeted with relief by Base Camp Staff who had already sent an overland party and were awaiting a ship with spare parts for the Shackleton.

There was no private debriefing, after all, the Antarctic is widely known to be lethal, and it was decided to abandon the expedition and return to civilisation. Lexington spoke with them once morebefore they parted company, however, and it became obvious that she had become a littl...obsessed?

"You think it is over? It is not over. It will never be over. The Elder Things at the City are now the guardians of humanitys future, they are the Watchmen for mankind. They will continue to hold that Thing safe and secure, for ever, without recognition or gratitude, and in return we must guard them. From ourselves. We must not let others return to that City, for to do so would surely lead to conflict, and the Escape of The Beast in the Cage. Do not let your imagination lessen the evil and might of the Beast by ascribing to it alien properties, attributes indescribable and therefore dismissable, or lower its importance in your hearts by naming it a creature, and hence less than Human. You have seen it, Professor Merryweather, and so have I. We have all seen it, at work before through the actions of others. It is infinitely Evil, and should it escape infintitely powerful. I know what it is, gentlemen, and so do you. It is the Beast. It is ...Satan."

Mad, the party thought. Especially Cariad.

But why? If you think about it, The unknown God is a being of immense evil and power, trapped forever at the center of a frozen whirpool. Sounds a lot like Dantes Satan, yeah?

A rose by any other name...

And the Elder Things do have wings...If Acacia thinks they are Angels, then whos to correct her?

Plus of course, she is immensely rich and powerful.

(but maybe slightly mad)

And so the party finaly sets sail in thre Gabrielle, and leaves the frozen Hell behind, sailing to freedom, and comfort, and normality, where being attacked by nameless horrors is the last thing they can expect to -

(DA-DA-DAAA! (much eyebrow waggling))

Well, were playing Friday night, for the last time, so Ill write soon after to let yo7u know what went on.

Smif

Dear Joe,

Boy, you're right -- sounds like I missed a lot!  Jo's your  *ex* now?
Fill me in when you can -- it sounds like it's been a wild ride, both in
game and real life.

Chaz

Dam Machine the G is sticked.

Hello Chaz,

At last, we have finished Beyond The Mountains Of Madness. Everyone turned up for the final session, even Lee, whose pleas over the phone of "I was gonna ring you" an hour after we start every session have become legendary. The session went on rather longer than is usual, we played on until about 2 am.

The Black Rat episode went more or less according to the  way its penned in the book. The players, though, because of their prior knowledge of the connection between the Seeds and The Unknown God, acted a bit rapidly when they saw the Blob in the bucket., They immediately doused the blob with Co2 from a fire extinguisher, grabbed the bucket, packed it with ice, took it to the Refrigerator, packed the firebucket in a big crate, packed that with ice, then water to filling the gaps, and nailed the crate shut.

Slight bit of overkill I thought, but whatever they want to do...

Then they told the Captain, who was wanting to know why they immediately knew what to do with 'it' , that they hadn't seen anything like it before,, they didn't know what it was, and that they were pretty sure that it was the only one on board. They also kept quiet about the relationship between the Seeds and the Animaculi. The Captain was not happy, but asked them to do some tests on it to make sure.

Then, they proceeded to move the frozen Blob to another crate, without anyone seeing, then they made a mock up of the first crate, and when Turlow barged into the Fridge demanding that it be chucked overboard, they let him. Throw the false crate over, that is. So they've got a Crate that appears to contain Pemmican, containing the Blob, that only they know is on board, and the Captain and rest of the crew think that the thing is overboard. Why oh why are they so bloody paranoid when it comes to NPCs? "Nope, dunno what that is, nosiree, Black Blob? Whets that? Nothing to see people, no danger here, go back to sleep"

Bugger. How are they going to experiment, now?

They had jumped to assumptions about the attributes of the Seeds. The were convinced that there weren't any more because they only found one trail etched in the glass of Humphries tobacco tin. They didn't feel that there was any urgency in finding out about the one they ad, because I think that they envisaged more stuff happening, Climax of Campaign or whatever, after they got to New Zealand. So Ive now got a Black Rat bimbling round the vessel, and the players content to go to sleep and wait for landfall.

Which really pissed me off,  I can tell you. Especially after Lexington had tried to impress upon them the necessity of Knowledge being so important considering the possibilities of failure.

So, what to do? Go with the flow and let them have The Big Fight without the testing section?

Okay. the Dog, Princess (Duchess having expired on the way to Antarctica) provided a bit of combat and a chance to test their theories about fire extinguishers as weapons against the ANimaculi. They subdued the Creature, froze it and crated it up.

Earlier, the radioman had explained that he ad another Seed (They'd made scrumptious enquiries amongst the crew , again without informing the Captain) but he had lost it.

So, a shout goes up and they find a crewman on deck in trouble, its on his hand. His hand gets chopped off by a crewman with an axe, and it goes over the side. Now, they decide to experiment with the one they've got. At first they debated how to do the tests without alerting any of the crew, but eventually pretended that they'd found a sliver on deck. The search of the ship, meanwhile, was underway, Turlow in charge, his men armed with axes and the like. The players didn't see it necessary to give them any help or advice, so Van Kerr was spared having to make a speech. They performed all sorts of tests, discovering its aversion to cold and prodding and its attraction to heat. Then, the call goes out - its in the engine room.

Big Fight. Totally ignoring the potential to lure it with fire, they used fire extinguishers to blast it away, and a fire hose, and it tried to escape down into the shaft tunnel, but fearing it would escape, Hoy heroically threw himself onto it and whilst it was absorbing him, they surrounded it and froze it, locking it and the half absorbed frozen body of Hoy in an oil drum. Into the freezer with it, and home at last.Some of the crew jumped ship at NZ, then the Gabrielle returned to NY, Game Over.

So then we have an Interim before the Epilogue, consisting of us taking turns to read out the news stories from four issues of The Tribune, (THE PAPER THAT TELLS THE TRUTH!) , spanning 6-8 months or so They basically detail the rise in influence of LexCorp, Acacias Scientific Business Conglomerate, and the mishaps befalling other expeditions planned for the Southern Continent.

And then, the epilogue. Its October 1934.

I'll send you the Tribune excerpts in a day or so (I accidentally overwrote parts of two of them, so Ill have to retype them from the hardcopies Ive got).

Then Ill finish off with the epilogue.

Anyway, I hope you and yours are well, and hope to hear from you soon.

All the best,

Smif