A Descent into Dullness

Finished up the introductary practice mystery.  It was a crazy scientist all along.  He just wanted to show those fools at the institute the glory of the stars.  And his neighbors.  And anyone who wandered by.  And sure it led to some children vivisecting their father.  And maybe some mass graves came about.  But all for the glory and wonder of the stars.  Which spoke to him (and some others) in the voice of God.  Anyway we solved everything using violence and fire.  As one should.  Next stop, London.

Had a bit of character building to finish up (mostly me) before we started, but then right into the intro adventure.  Of the Go to Small Town to Meet Person, Where is the Person?  In this case an expert on Native Studies who are trio was supposed to meet before the trip to London that would start the full length adventure (which is the big Orient Express box set).  As stated before the roommate & Frazer are running CoC Wooster & Jeeves.  I decided to sideline the various possiblities I rolled up previously and convert Matsuna "Max" Toshiro, my converted from GURPS: Babylon 5 to CoC.  So giant 1/2 Japanese - 1/2 Hawai'in secretly gay  WW1 veteran marine turned P.I.

A quick drive up from New York to Connecticut and we get to the professor's house.  But no one is home.  The door is open so we head on in.  A quick search doesn't turn up the missing Prof, but we do find our boat tickets and travel papers.  But no sign of violence or a rushed exit.  Though while looking thru his study a maddened grocery clerk throws a rock through the window and attempts to attack.  Max subdues him and keeps him from attacking Wooster & Jeeves with a jagged piece of glass wielded bare-handed.  But Kenny (he had a name tag on his smock) wriggles free and bolts outside.  Where poor Wooster gets to see the local Sheriff blow Kenny's head open without warning.

After that we visit with the Prof's secretary who lives nearby.  She seems worried and harried and is holding something back.  But not even Wooster's charm and offers of a new better paying job get any more details from her.  And Jeeves and I observe her slightly off twin girls.  Who, when they think they're not being watched, go from sweet if gifted little girls to cruel people who verbally tear into their mother.  Very odd.

We finish up with a meal at the main local eatery, Mother's Bakery, a restaurant noted for its wonderful pancakes.  Wooster and I indulge in a meal and aren't poisoned, drugged or turned into Deep Ones.

The roommate gifted me with a membership to this year's con again so I took the weekend off to attend.  Saturday got to try out En Garde, a fencing simulation card game.  Fun, though I can see how in a big multi-player game it can turn into a Pile on Player X situation.  Then after that I took part in Brendan's Twillight Imperium game.  Six player game and we managed something like 4 or 5 rounds from noon to 8PM (with a lunch break when I went home to feed the cat).  I ended up "winning" by being ahead by 2 victory points when we called it.

Sunday I was in a Call of Cthulhu rpg, "Proof of Life".  Small town politics in the 1920s over whether to allow in a lumber company.  Which leads to murder, brains in jars and a final confrontation with flying alien funguses.  Though my pre-gen character ducked out of the climax with the mi-go to run off and file her story of small town madness (with pictures!) and win herself a Pullitzer.  Which apparantly was established in 1917 and so is totally what happened.

ETA: On Sunday I (The Roommate) was supposed to play OGRE, but that got cancelled, so I had a game of Heroes Incorporated, a really fun strategy Heroes ggame which I lost by a hair, and Blood Rage, a Vikings in Ragnarok boardgame with a draft system, which I got absolutely trashed in. Heroes Inc. is out of print, so good luck finding it, and Blood Rage is a Kickstarter game that sells for around $75-$100.

Reading this post at the "Lawyers, Guns & Money" blog after finishing Stross' latest CoC/Espionage book. And this bit jumps out at me:

#3. The most interesting period, in my view, takes place from the end of 1958 through September 1961. Nothing happens throughout 1959; France sets off a handful of bombs from early 1960 through the spring of 1961; then the Soviets go absolutely apeshit in September of that year, and things don’t really calm down again until the early 1990s. In this video, the erratic incidence of US and Soviet tests in the 1950s looks and sounds like a conversation. Afterwards, it’s an incoherent frenzy.

I wish I was a better writer, since what that says to my brain is: So exactly What was everything shooting at during those years?

Spent last night talking with my friend Josh about the 1st Age Lord of the Rings rpg he wants to run. He seems to be wanting to do something big and epic in nature, so we'll see how that plays out. I'm probably going to run a human warrior from the mountain dwelling House, though I forget the name of them. Of course he's using the recent Decipher rpg, which I don't own. So I'll have to see if I can track a copy of that down before next Wednesday...

Plus I've got a couple play-by-post games that will hopefully start up. A restart of the Kingdoms of Kalamar game I used to play in (meaning I get to bring back Davan Scratcheye my kobold bard) and a Call of Cthulu game. I'm thinking of running a con artist/medium. Except I'd like to give him actual "psychic" abilities. Anyone know of a Chaosium supplement with rules for that?

Also, since I was discussing the LotR game, I missed the Lost so if anyone wanted to post some spoilery recaps so I don't have to try and dl it I'd appreciate that...

So this week we returned to Noah's Call of Cthulu game. Our merry band of Investigators headed to Florida to find the son of the professor killed in the previous session. He's got an inheritance coming to him, but no one has been able to contact him. We found wastrel son, one Colin Baxter, fairly easily and learned that he wanted to use the inheritance to fund a diving expedition. Well the funds and some money from our group. He had located a wrecked Spanish ship and hoped to salvage the fabulous treasure contained there...

While Brendan's Professor Hutchinson investigated the history of the wreck, my Reggie Abernathy (wealthy layabout and ex-soldier) and Miles' Richard Mason learned how to dive, 1920's style. Then we headed out, with poor venerable Hutchinson picking up the basics of diving as well. Finding the wreck we salvaged a chest full of silver bars and a gold necklace with a strange inscription. Hoping to find more loot or artifacts, Colin and the Prof went for another dive. Where the dice turned on Brendan and he almost died. We managed to stabalize him but had to head back to town to get him to a hospital...

And there the local sheriff arrested Reggie and Colin, saying that they had murdered a local priest and friend of Colins. The police also took the Prof away, supposedly to a hospital. Mason, after being warned to leave town, instead investigated the murder. At the same time the police were revealed to be crazy ass Creole cultists with some half-monster witch woman leader. They healed Hutchinson but held us all prisoner. Mason managed to locate the cult's lair and burst in shotguns ablaze in a rescue attempt. Unfortunately he wasn't soon enough to save Reggie who was gutted by the cult leader. He did free Prof Hutchinson and the two engaged in a total bloodbath of revenge on the cult, killing them all and burning down there base...

So my character died, mostly for constantly mouthing off to his captors and fighting them at every chance. They gutted him while he was tied AND shackled to a chair. Cowardly little bitches...