Call of Cthulhu 7e
GM: Michael Mirth
Anti-Nemesi
CthulhuBob as Breathless Nik
Dwight as Let's Do It Derek
Kathi as Adventurous Anna
Luke as Being Frank
Legend Dan as Pointy End First Duckworth
Also (NPCs)
Gregori Rasputin (Dmitri Passelov), Doc Holiday (Tom Mackay), Adrian Stimson, Irene Adler
Mythos Books
Codex - 2 spells to decode
Asteroids - Gate spell, hidden message?
Sorceress - Oneiro Dismissal spell, Call Heart spell, Dissolve Bones spell, Puffball info
Book of Eibon - spells and info
Spells Openly Known
Gerald - Invisibility (Mummy Dust)
Nik - Dread Curse of Azathoth, Withered Limb, ?
Derek - Invisibility (Mummy Dust), Oneiro-Dismissal
Anna - Unknown but ESP-like powers (Precognition, Psychometry, Predictive Dreaming and Empathy)
Frankie – Unknown
Spells Acquired But Not Learned
Call Heart (Sorceress Spellbook)
Dissolve Bones (Sorceress Spellbook)
Gate (Moriarty Asteroid Book)
[At least two more to decode]
***
Diary of Derek Moriarty Entry 12 - Late May, 1927
Location: Witch House, Arkham,
Note: Acquire lasso, wolvesbane, pouch of rocks, throwing knives.
I awaken to Anna reading the Book of Eibon and start planning today's acquisitions encouraging everyone that it's time to go after Evelyn Bancroft and her cult before they come after us. We wouldn't want to lose the paintings she so lusts after and we don't know the real source of her enmity toward Adrian. He supports my desire to deal with Bancroft now.
Blakely has been moved to his ex-girlfriend's place and is swollen. The belief is that he will migrate to the ocean in a couple days. Apparently we can cast Oneiro on Gadamon. It took so much to use it on the Lich I'm unsure if Adrian and I can handle the Seed (Gadamon). If we accomplish it, Blakely may well be freed of his nightmare and we delay an Elder Being from destroying the planet.
The Agents of Gadamon are still a problem thus we need the Puffballs to bypass them so we may cast the spell.
Nik rises from his slumber and starts 'Good Will Hunting' my chalkboard (following Gerald's scribbles).
I spend some time explaining to Nik and Frankie that we need the puffballs to save Blakely despite my internal desire to learn the Gate spell my grandfather left me. Teleportation IS the superpower I've wanted since I was a toddler. My understanding is that the Gate spell will be somewhat like the clock Gregori stole from the Sorceress (New Orleans) but has now been claimed by the Mi-Go. Hopefully nothing will stand in the way of learning Gate and protecting us from Bancroft. She's coming to us if we don't get to her.
A couple things we learn; the Fungal Forest is in the Dreamlands Underworld. While we genetically have a certain amount of potential magical energy it is possible to increase it. Cosmic luck sometimes in combination with a spell?
I don't recall what Frankie originally wanted to do at the time of this writing however he changes his mind and starts dragging Gerald and Nik away from their neurotic writing with Anna's help. Now that we're on the same page - off to snag some puffballs.
We leave Doc and Adrian to guard the paintings. A mix of arcane and combat. Greg and Irene will come with us bringing arcane and botany.
Before we leave I again impress on the party the danger of Bancroft and that if we're not dealing with her now, we must protect ourselves form her with perhaps wolvesbane and silver bullets. There is an antique dealer nearby where we acquire old silver and Frankie knows a guy who can forge them into bullets. Freja's (shop in Arkham) has some wolvesbane we acquire.
As we go to sleep in front of "New York at Dusk" I hear a warning about a black man with goat feet...
In the Dreamlands we talk to the Ghoul Pickman. I ask if there's anything he wants and the request is for a lean bloody burger or meat pie from Fleet St. in Boston. He directs us to another tunnel that leads to the Underworld near the Fungal Forest. he even draws us a map.
Into the tunnel.
Gerald concentrates and uses his Dreaming skill to fill up my constitution. Nik watches Gerald and struggles to do the same with my withered leg. Somehow he luckily manages to complete the process and my Dream Form is back to 100%. Feeling obliged I do the same with his missing hand and struggle myself only bringing it back with my own brand of luck.
I collect some rocks the right size for throwing while Gerald gives Nik a little instruction on which way to point a sword.
In the distance we see figures coming toward us. Two Serpent-Men. We meet and they are so named Nik and Nora. They recently came from the Fungal Forest and are heading to catch a boat to far away lands including the Moon. So we learn there is a galleon one can gain passage on that goes to the Moon from any port city. Anna engages them in a discourse about etiquette. They are cordial and move on.
Into the forest of slimes, molds and tree-like mushrooms. There are fungus spores in the air so we make masks from our clothes except Gerald and Irene who happen to have handkerchiefs.
We meandre and find a path. Gerald and I look at each other after hearing a cackling ahead. No one else seems to notice. We continue forward into a large clearing with two old hags in brown work clothes speaking to a man in black about collecting Ergot which is a LSD-like fungal growth with alkaloids. The term 'St. Anthony's Fire' is used and I notice the man has cloven feet. I convince the group to hide.
The man in black turns and looks at us. He appears Caucasian and yet his skin is as dark as a black hole, soaking in the light, yet he has strikingly white teeth. I recall reading somewhere about Nyarlathotep and his masks. Nik whispers his name and we quietly talk about how he can be negotiated with. Regardless we choose the better part of valour and shrink into the forest and create a new path to the other side of the clearing. [+1 Cthulhu Mythos] As we hack our way through, Gerald gets some purple mold on himself. Yellow mold actually attacks Frankie as a chartreuse variety goes for Anna. Nik spends some more of his finite luck to Dream it back to dormancy but Anna is hurt.
We connect to the path as it exits the clearing from the opposite side we entered and travel to the next clearing which has a stone ring. Inside it is a smaller mushroom ring (6-18"). Nik measurably says it's a Faerie Ring. You stand in the centre and sing to meet the Faerie. Gerald sings and a little shabbily dressed shoeless man with a top hat appears.
Gerald and the little man tip hats at each other. "Not all hats can be trusted," the little man states mentioning a dangerous woman in a top hat. He interchangeably calls himself Robin and Puck and is willing to show us to the puffballs as well as help us avoid dangers.
We all enter a misty area together to eventually find puffballs! Tall dandelion-like plants with a puffball top. Gerald picks one and it screams. This startles Gerald more than anyone else and he starts sputtering about being humane. It's unlike him to lose his stoic grace like this. He is even more horrified when Frankie strides forward to grab one, "It's a plant, take it." Apparently he's a chronic plucker.
Robin advises we sing. I do. he enjoys it. Nothing more. Anna tells him to go away and Robin/Puck vanishes.
We group-sing to bring him back "Hey Jude..." and foul it up miserably as it hasn't been written yet. According to Epitaph 25% of puffballs are poisonous [need reference for who/what Epitaph is]
"Between the iron gates of fate
The seeds of time were sown
And watered by the deeds of those
Who know and who are known
Knowledge is a deadly friend
If no one sets the rules
The fate of all mankind, I see
Is in the hands of fools"
Frankie has already plucked another puffball and seemingly deaf to the screaming plucks two more. See! He's chronic! No one talks to him about it.
I see Gerald in pain. I walk over and wrap an arm around him for comfort. This is when I notice on his back, the shoulder of Irene and the arm of Gregori is fungus. Tendrils of it pushing into their bodies. I cut one tendril going into Gerald but part stays inside him. He starts to shake and yells, "Cut them all off!" I do.
Anna cuts Irene free. I step over and cut Greg free. All the fungus grows back!
I try to sing again, "With nightmares and with dreams, Will no one lay the laurel wreath, When silence drowns the screams."
Frankie merrily sings while plucking and has more of an ear for music than I. "Have you seen the well to do, Up and down Park Avenue, On that famous thoroughfare, With their noses in the air."
He's plucked nineteen of the puffballs and along with the one Gerald quickly gave up we have twenty of which Irene is sure three are poison and six are good. The rest are unknown. Frankie wants the poison ones and I advise we should keep them all.
Poor Gerald is not happy about this fungus so I try yanking it all out instead of cutting. It causes him pain. Enough! Bubastus. Gerald returns to the waking world. [-3hp, -3 luck, threshold Dreaming]
The rest of us return down the path the way we came. Upon reaching the original clearing the man in black is still acquiring things from the hags. Anna and I hide in the forest path we previously made. Frankie strides up to Nyarlathotep and engages him in conversation - offering his services to what may well be our world's Lucifer based on our research.
Frankie and Lucy make a deal. In the future, Lucy will tap Frankie on the shoulder for a favour. In return he answers Frankie's questions revealing that the Clock is on the Dreamlands Moon and the Blakely Dreamlands paintings are with Bancroft. Knowledge confirmed.
I take this time to use my Dreaming skill to free Irene and Gregori of their fungus. I say Bubastus and awaken in my apartment with Anna and Gerald. What is Frankie doing?
By experiment we brought the unknown puffballs back with us. Frankie has the known puffballs. Where is he? Three hours pass before he appears in my apartment. I learn from Gregori that Frankie was going to bury all the good and poison puffballs in the Dreamlands but luckily he was talked out of it. He spent some time wandering around deciding what to do with the puffballs we need brought back. For some strange reason he proceeded into the tunnel back to the Ghouls alone. Frankie did mention dangers like roots that came alive and tried to grab him. He doesn't explain himself to us but apparently he went to the Ghoul encampment and stashed a spear before returning to us.
Threshold
+5 Listen
0 Spot Hidden
[Note to self - make three inventory lists, Dreamlands/Waking/Dual]
Next Episode: Into the Lake!
Comments
Archergirl
Thu, 10/01/2020 - 01:43
Permalink
The puffballs sound like a
The puffballs sound like a vegans worst nightmare!