Episode 1 Progress Report

[Spoon!!]

I've started playing a time to Harvest in the last month, and we seem to be settling into a session every fortnight. So far we've only managed to get up to day four of the first book. Next session (scheduled tentatively for next week) we'll probably be finishing off the first book. But here's what the players have managed to do so far.

Characters: Male Chemistry/Physics student currently going for a PhD; Male Lawyer looking for extra credit; Female Science/Medicine Major; Female Linguist Major; Male Art Student. There is also an amusing love thing between pretty much the entire player base, especially as the Science/Medicine Major is a lesbian and the Artist is a rather obvious gay fellow.

Day 1 - The players introduce themselves and meet the NPC's who they proceed to disregard except for Blaine. They question the Professor about the mission and are curious as to what happened to the disappeared members of the previous expedition. There is a hint of suspicion about Blaine. They arrive in Cobb's Corners and the lawyer proceeds to shut down the Sheriff's lecture with points of legal order causing the man to storm out. The farm house and its facilities fail to meet the standards of the party many of whom swear off of using the outhouse. After a talk with the deputy about the town and some of its history, the Players split up and visit the Newspaper office and the Town Hall to learn some of the history of the town, where they learn about the high rate of death amongst young people and the Indian burial ground. This illicits great curiosity from everyone and a bit of paranoia. They return home and sleep, the Lawyer sleeps beside his motorcycle under a tarp outside...

Day 2 - The first dream is had by three of the players (one of whom was friends with John Jeffery) and it freaked them the hell out. Then came the encounter with the Zoog, which ended up getting shot and killed by the lawyer (I made the possible mistake of letting the players have guns if they wished; most of them took the option), it was then preserved and sent back to Miskatonic for study. The players then preceded to go out and do what they'd been brought here to do - interview people and some some archaeological research for the ore. The players in town ended up doing Bellweather encounter early, having heard about her from the Deputy on the first day. They also did some other asking around and stuff, becoming more and more intrigued about the hill(s) near where they were doing the digging. The diggers found naught but a couple of arrowheads and were kept away from the hill nearby by Blaine, much to their suspicion. They called it a day as the clouds came rolling in. Once together they shared their suspicions and a need to get to the hill, as there was obviously something there that they were being kept away from.

Day 3 - Second bout of dreaming. Now the female linguist is the only one not having the dream. Everyone else is really freaking out, the three second time dreamers are getting on edge. Blaine organises everyone to go out in the rain, and all bar the artist and the Science/Medicine major go out digging. The artist just wants somewhere nice and dry to draw and the lass just wants to keep dry. The artist notices Jason drawing and inquires about to get supplies before engaging in a conversation about art. Meanwhile, the lawyer is trying to take every advantage to get up the hill, but is continuously denied by Blaine. Eventually, as the rain gets to much Blaine calls it a day, and runs off to get more transport to get all of them back safe and dry. Taking the advantage, the three party members take a wonder up the hill, and they discover an abandoned mine shaft before returning to the truck and the other students. They grow suspicious about Blaine taking so long and start to head back. The bridge collapsed and the players took the initiative in saving the rest of the students with some quick thinking. Nothing was noticed in the river but they two students in town were drawn into the rescue operation. Once they all finally managed to limp home, they found Blaine, nice and dry, only just making an effort to return to the digging site. Higgin's complaint was shut down by the lawyer, who told him to write out a formal complaint about Blaine and submit it when they returned to Miskatonic.

Blaine disappeared for a while, after turning down repeated suggestions of taking someone with him. The players organised a search party and were about to head out when Blaine returned with a bottle of whiskey. The Chemist pulled a gun on Blaine demanding an explanation. After talking the party, Blaine lead them to where he'd hidden the Whiskey, but not before the lawyer discovered Blaine's tracks going off to the side and found where he'd talked to the Mi-Go. Leading the party back to the house via where the mi-go tracks where and pointed them out.

Day 4 - Dreams abound. Female lingust still the only one sleeping peacefully. Unable to go back to sleep at 3 am, the players (minus the linguist) decide to go Zoog hunting. Noticing the Zoog causes the artist to run away screaming and get attacked by the mutated rats (as the party has come to call them). Defending themselves the PC's take out about 14 zoog before the rest back off from their boomstick's. This gun play awakes everyone in the house including the linguist. The artist runs into the linguist (the artist had been kissed by the chemist in an effort to instill courage and may have caused the artist to fall for the chemist) and accidentally reveals that he is gay to the linguists shock. The Medicine/Science Student organises the party to bring back a number of Zoog corpses to the house for study and proceeds to go all Medical Examiner on two of the less shot up corpses. And as we ended the session, the lawyer was going off to try and shack up with the linguist for a one off now that she was, a. getting drunk for the first time, and, b. devistated from the realisation of the artists sexuality.

 

This was without all the jokes and shenanigans of a bunch of geeks sitting around a table, joking and teasing and all that...

[Brian M. Sammons]

On 7/11/2016 at 10:21 PM, Spoon!! said:

Day 3 - Second bout of dreaming. Now the female linguist is the only one not having the dream. Everyone else is really freaking out, the three second time dreamers are getting on edge.

That makes me happy. I love the detailed play by play, please do keep it coming, if you would. 

[Spoon!!]

On 7/14/2016 at 4:03 AM, Brian M. Sammons said:

That makes me happy. I love the detailed play by play, please do keep it coming, if you would. 

Would be happy to sir. Our game should be happening tomorrow night, so I should have something up not to long after that.

 

[Spoon!!]

Day 4 (cont'd) - So, after some flirting between the Chemist and the Art Student, the Chemist stormed off into the woods to get away. The lawyer stoked the situation by making more than a few suggestive comments and just generally having a laugh at the expense of the Chemist. The Linguist had been drinking heavily, but passed a CON check to remain sober-ish, and at the prodding the Chemist joined her, but failed his CON check. Unfortunately he saw the clearing in the distance as he got into the woods, but was knocked out and dragged back to the house by the lawyer 'cause he was drunk. However, the Linguist and the Medical Student went further in and fought the Moon-Beast. They provided to be relatively successful against it, with the medical student discovering that bullets had limited affect.

Eventually the lawyer returned, leaving the Artist with an NPC, and killed the Moon-Beast with fire. The Artist managed to raise the remaining NPC's, minus Blaine and the NPC tending to the Chemist, into a posse to go in defence of his fellow students after hearing a quick tale from the lawyer. Coming across the scene one of the NPC's noticed the body of Jeffery and the portal. The players eyed the portal curiously and one or two were tempted to go through. Calmer heads prevailed however, and despite Jeffery's pleas he got a bullet to the brain pan for his trouble. This caused the Moon-Beast to disappear along with the Zoog that the players had collected. Collecting themselves, and their weapons, they players and NPC's returned to the farmhouse and called the Sheriff. The booze on premises was waved away as being for medical purposes only, though the Sheriff is highly doubtful.

The Sheriff was lead to Jeffery's body and asked how he managed to miss it. The lawyer began to doubt the man's competence and the theory banded about was that whoever kidnapped Jeffery moved the body to the rock. Thought the players didn't explain how Jeffery ended up in the rock. Giving the scene a once over an hour long period, the players were all asked along to give statements. The players begged off for breakfast first, which was obliged as they were given an hour. I decided to drop the body in the flowerbed plot as the players had long since gone off tagent and were otherwise causing havoc with the plot. While the Sheriff was doing their thing, they set about healing up each other and the Artist took a bit. More awkward situations between the characters happened, and many of the NPC's are confused about just what the players are doing.

The session ended with the players going to get coffee and food...

[Spoon!!]

Day 4 (Cont'd): In the last installment of day four, the players went and got something for breakfast, and a pot or two of coffee. They proceeded to the newspaper where they gave Wendell their story of the Sheriff's incompetence at finding Jeffery and the stories of his misdeeds from their perspective. They also gave him copies of the pictures of the Zoog, the frog and Jeffery's body, all in exchange for $150 and a cut of any proceeds over and above his usual fee for selling the story and the pictures. Then it was onto the Sheriff's office. The Chemist was excused for having missed all the action, the Lawyer gave only the facts, the Doctor gave a full story but prefixed her statement with a concussion excuse, the artist gave a story that was so absurd he was almost arrested for being drunk; thankfully the lawyer struck again and they were all ordered out. They met up with Blaine who gave them permission to go exploring (and looking for Daphne, as the party assumed that she was the girl Jeffery was speaking of). So the party took this as permission to go off and look at the original dig site from the first expedition. They encountered from fog that was could enough to do damage. The chemist saw a claw in the fog and crit shotted it. Two players were attacked with an electricity shooting gun  while the Chemist dodged like grease lightening. They still all managed to escape and return to town. Two on a motorcycle and going to the doctor's office (as the lawyer had been KOed due to health loss rather than electricity gun effects), where they got the lawyer healed up and stole some opiate drugs.

The other three managed to come to a screaming halt outside the Sheriff's office. The Artist and the Linguist were arrested while the Chemist sneaked out of the car before the Sheriff stormed out and arrested them. This was after a lot of blistering on the Sheriff’s part and yelling. The Lawyer and the Medical Student saw this happening as they came out of the doctor's office and came over to deal with the problem. The lawyer snuck two of the opiates into the Sheriff's coffee and drugged him, after blackmailing him into letting the Artist and the Linguist go. They then returned to the farmhouse to find no one home and signs of a scuffle. That was the last straw as they booked it out of town and made for Arkham and home as the session came to an end...

Edited August 3, 2016 by Spoon!!