Tales to Mystify: A Time to Harvest

[Master Fwiffo]

Salutations fellow Travelers!  As I'm now splitting off into Campaign mode and may have some assets here that will help fellow GM's run this beastie, I'm starting a new thread.

As before, I'll be chronicling the tale as my intrepid players delve into this campaign against the Mi-Go.  And as usual, I have propped up quite a bit.

First, as per my Wont, here are a number of "covers" done in Pulp-Style to give Investigators a taste of the atmosphere of the Individual sections of the Campaign.  I've titled the 'episodes' as follows:

1) Perchance to Dream

2) Back to School

3) The Benefactor

4) A Night of Chaos

5) The Harvest

6) Beyond Your Wildest Dreams

Some of the names were taken from the chapters, others I made up to fit what I felt the mood would be.  And I just noticed I'm going to have to fix some formatting in Episode 6 - DOH.

And along with that, here's the props for the first Episode.

For the most part, I've stuck with the handouts provided (mostly because I've been too busy to give them the attention they deserve.  But I did add a couple things, including a newspaper article to begin the scenario that details the ill-fated expedition of Daphne Devine and her companions.  Also, I created a number of "dream" handouts - the first batch will only have the dream repeat once, while everyone will get a dream - a few harmless fluff (you're naked in front of the your class!), one a red herring (you're haunted by the ghost of Sarah Maclearan!) and one with a quick trip into the dreamlands to help set the tone for the later encounter with the Moon Beast.  The second batch has mostly repeated dreams, with another dream of Sarah Maclearan as a fun red herring, while anyone who receives the final dream will have the same plot-relevant dream.

But the big help I've made is that large batch of little cards.  Character cards, in fact!  Here's a closeup of some of them.

Because this campaign has a large cast, I realized that not only would I have trouble keeping up with everyone - the players would too.  To solve this problem, I've run two batches of these little cards, each with a portrait and some common (easily knowable) information about each character.  Handing these to the players as references as characters are introduced will help solidify the characters in the players mind, and I've kept a copy for myself as well - as needed, I can jot notes on the back for any characters changes (or if they notice something).  This will also help immensely with part two when brains are swapped out.

I've attached PDF's that include all characters in the first episode, as well as people who figure prominently in Cobbs Corners and in the prologue.  I'll next post the ones from episode 2 - once I do them later this week, that is.

Anyway, I hope you guys find this helpful, and I'm looking forward to taking this journey as it is... A TIME TO HARVEST!

Portraits ep 1.pdf

Portraits Intro.pdf

 

[Count V]

Nicely done. Thank you for sharing. 

[Master Fwiffo]

Our team of PC's included Professor Benjamin Ivy, Fencing Coach, Abigail Fife, Folklore Student (and aspiring Witch... maybe), Harvey Shultz, Graduate Student in Geology, and Rory Smythe, Anthropology Student.

Professor Ivy was invited along to Chaperone by Professor Harold, while Schultz was sent by Professor Learmouth to keep an eye on things.  We introduced our large and diverse cast of students - everyone hated Terrence Laslow on sight, while Abigale decided immediately she had a crush on William Noakes and played that up accordingly.  The trip to the farmhouse was mostly uneventful, as was the arrival and initial exploration of Cobbs Corners.  Abigail caught sight of Young Jason Haggerty's creepy tree drawing, but was brushed off when he told her "you're too old to understand."  A trip to the library also introduced them to the library caretaker, and Abigail managed to find Azathoth and Others in the poetry section, and checked that out.  Meanwhile, Shultz set out to do an initial survey of the first dig site for Pasquillium - and found some veins that he he thought looked promising.

Tat night, Deputy Cutter told them the story of Sarah McClearan and her shade that haunted the farmhouse.  Before turning in, Abigail attempted to improvise a spell to make William fall in love with her - and a luck, power and then sanity roll (all wildly successful) - well, it didn't make him fall in love with her, but he seemed to notice her a bit more.  That night, the dreams began.  Abgale (who had known John Jeffries) and Shultz both received the dreams from the forrest, while Ivy dreamed of the dreamlands - and Smith dreamed of Sarah's Shade.

The next morning, Schultz caught sight of the strange rat-like creature in the woods, and left befuddled.

The mineral group went to their dig site, and found absolutely nothing.  The folklore group went about, interviewing locals.  They learned a few interesting tidbits, including the buzzing from the mountain and the disappearance of the local girl - and also some blatant herrings, including the ghost dog on a nearby mound.  Guess which one they decided to investigate that night?  It turned out there was a dog on the mound - a big local well trained one that chased them right the hell off the farmers property.

That night, Ivy, Abigail and Schultz all dreamed the same dream.... while Smith again dreamed of Sarah's Shade...

And sadly we had to end there.  They've yet to discuss the dreams, or pick up either on the Young or the Mi-Go, and they may only just be getting the hint about the dream lands.

Perfect,

[jbgillund]

About to run Chapter One in a few weeks.  This is a big inspiration and help to me.  Thank you

Edited September 16, 2017 by jbgillund

[Master Fwiffo]

Had to skip a week due to 3 of four players being busy.  Boo.

 

Excited for next week though.

[joggiwagga]

Very nice props!  I'm not going to lie, I'm a little envious!

What I did for the NPCs is I used little character cards I could fold over my GM's screen, showing who was present or grouping them as necessary.

[Master Fwiffo]

Only had Professor Ivy and Abigail this week, but it went pretty well despite that.

After dreams were finally compared, they went and interviewed miss Angus Bellweather - after learning about some hard truths about Cobs Corners, the rain started to pour, and they learned their compatriots from the survey group had the bridge collapse from under them.  A large rescue effort ensued, featuring ingenuity from the PC's and heroism from a few of the NPC students - when a large pinkish blob appeared in the water, Abigail rolled a critical pushed fail, and fell into the water, which about broke her spirit, until William Noakes rescued her, blossoming their budding romance.  Fortunately, the group still didn't seem to suspect Robert Blane of anything - just of taking the accident hard.

That night, after another shared dream, Abigail became determined to go into the forrest (and nearly staged a kidnapping to do it), while Professor Ivy tried to gather materials to join the overnight survey team.  However, Abigail disappearance into the forrest became a distraction, so he took Willie and Jason Trent into the forrest after her - finding evidence she had been attacked by an immense beast - and the strange zoos watching from the trees.

Jason fled back to the house, and then Willie served as a distraction to get the Moon Beast to drop Abigail unconscious body while Ivy rescued her.  The beast pursued Willie and then as Abigail awoke, she and Ivy confronted the Dream Gate and the mangled body of John Jeffried embedded in the rock, his psychic words pleading with them to "save her" and "kill me".  Abigail obliged the latter almost immediately (She's pretty much a psychopath at this point), and the two embarked to rescue the Bratwaith girl from the Men of Leng, doing so and barely avoiding the returning Moon-Beast on the way back.

 

Unfortunately, on return, things went to hell.  The Deputy turned on them almost immediately and accused them of kidnapping the girl, and the Sheriff, having the two absentee PC's in a jail cell already for returning "drunk" and babbling about an attack, as Robert Blane and a few (mind-swapped) students came along as muscle, agreeing all were drunk or worse.  Ivy threw a fit and demanded to take them back to the cabin, yelling about cultists and beasts and his rights - which they found in ruins with no signs of any cultists or beast.  Jail cell for them, as Professor Harold came and sent them back to Arkham, promising to look into the matter himself...

 

We're taking another break this week as it's our stores Free RPG week and I'm running a special one shot.  What is it?  Well, stay tuned, because there's a chill in the air... a Cold Warning...

[Master Fwiffo]

Ready for this week!  I've got my props and my next set of character handouts.  If I had time I'd do more, like a newspaper article recapping the fallout from the last session, but ah well.  Also a PDF of the new portraits!

Portaits Episode 2.pdf

[Master Fwiffo]

I HAVE BEEN NEGLECTING MY THREAD!  We had a long period of down time due to circumstances beyond everyones control - we lost a few players, and then gained some new ones.  But Ive been real busy and haven't sat down to tell my tales.  But then we had Last Night which was one of the GREATEST SESSIONS EVER.

 

So lets play catchup.

Abigale Fife and Professor Benjamin Ivy were our returning charcters, and they were joined by ruby star player Tony Amor, Medical Student Archibald Crane, Bob Jones the Janitor, and later, Professor Danny Butterman.

Tony, Archibald and Bob quickly noticed their friends among the students who had gone to Vermont were acting oddly.  Eventually they ended up with Abigail and Ivy, and all began investigating the students, noting their odd behaviors and trying to pin down what had happened.  As Ivy investigated Blake, Abigail of course focused on her dear love Willie Noakes, while the others talked with everyone else.  Just for the sake of getting past all I don't remember, Ivy ended up checking on Blake as he committed suicide.  At the same time, the rest had teamed up with Albert WIlmarth to try and get some info out of William.  Eventually, cornered in a diner and caught in his lies, Willie confessed he was actually Henrey Ackley, and he was doing this because of something called the Mi-Go - and he began imploring them to let him go, as he knew the Mi-Go would find out.  Abigail's player had to leave as Tony escorted Willie outside - and then a misinterpreted signal caused Bob the Janitor and Tony to jump him - he broke free and tried to escape - and Bob literally ran him down with his truck, - and the three piled him in and took him back to Bob's house fr interrogation (I love my new players). They strung Willie up and hung him from the ceiling until he returned to consciousness, but they couldn't get any more out of him - as the ground suddenly began to shake and all three saw immense tentacles of an unknown beast ripping out of the ground.  Archibald and Bob went mad and fled the house, with Tony on their heels - when he suddenly heard a gunshot.  He turned - and all signs of the monster were gone.  He ran back inside and found Willie dead, a gunshot in the back of his head.  Panicking, he bundled Willie into Bobs truck, and dumped Willies body in the river.

And in the next session, I taught them not to be murder hobos, as the police, alerted by an "anonymous tip", find Willies body in the river.  And as Willie had been seen with WIlmarth, Abigail and Tony at the diner, all three were "detained" - even after Tony tried to run.  Abigail's player couldn't make it, so we assumed she assaulted a cop during interrogation and ended up in jail (His answer next week: Fair enough).  Tony managed to convince the cops he didn't kill Willie (which was true - technically) and let him go.  He quickly returned to Ivy and confessed everything.  Meanwhile Archibald and Bob tried to lay low - but always found the altered students keeping an eye on them.  Ivy tried some subtle confrontation on Terrance Laslow and after a critical fail on a pushed roll - suddenly witnessed the library catch fire - ushering all the students out and then fleeing himself - only to find the steps he was stepping on didn't exist, falling to the ground and injuring himself.  He glanced back to see everything completely fine - other than a lot of students staring at him - esoecially Terrance, who was laughing.  At that point he became reaaaaaaly scared of Terrance, and enlisted the aide of fellow professor Butterman.

That night Robert Block attempted to contact Archibald and have him meet him in the graveyard, but Archibald was unable to contact anyone else, and decided not to go.  The next day, Block was found dead.

Knowing something was about to happen, they tried to corner Harold and Louis, only to be attacked by Terrance and his psychic powers, who then use invisibility to escape into the crowd - and Harold and Louis escaped the science building.

At that point, Archibald failed a pushed roll, and decided he was hungry, but as he took a couple nibbles, lunch tasted odd, so he took the remainder to the medical lab to investigate.

They again cornered Louis and Harold, along with Clarissa, and tried to get something out of them, but the altered students called their bluff and dared them to give them a solid reason to expel them.  They headed back outside to discuss what to do.

At that point, Archibald found that there was something in the food - and as he did, his mind suddenly began to regress, being struck with severe amnesia - as did 300 other students in the school.  Before long, a riot broke out.  As the main group watched trucks flip and catch fire and fights break out around them, they headed to the science building where they suspected Professor Learmouth was in danger.

Then behind them, they heard an explosion from the One library.

Faced with the decision on what to do, they decided to save the Library, where Professor Harold and Jason Trent were wielding strange weapons and looting rare books.  They confronted them, and ended up killing both in the process, using the alien mist gun to douse the flames and save much of the library.

But it was too late to save Professor Learmouth.  By the time they got to him, he was on a slab, his brain gone.  Having learned about the Safehouse, half the crew headed there - and when they arrived, saw the winged insect creatures and the headless bodies of the surviving students as they flew into the night...

AND THEN LAST NIGHT.

All but Abigail and Ivy were joined by Smith Smythe, Detective (a players brother who was visiting and quickly became Destined to Die), who rounded up and arrested all the PC's for their involvement in the incidents the night before.  But SMythe soon found his pursuit of justice frustrated for unknown reasons - as he was soon approached by Leon Pasqualle, who had power and paperwork to get them released, and convinced them all to go with them  They all arrived at Federated Oil and Chemical, where they met Mr ABelard, and his staff.  They agreed without hesitation to take up his cause against the Mi-Go, and had a wonderful dinner as the plan was filled in and the NPC's introduced.  Over the next few weeks they discussed much with Dr Sarah, and saw the basement and the recording.  While there, Butterman convinced her to let him study the ancient tablet they had discovered with the deep ones, as it was his field.  As he studied it, he learned how to Contact Their God....

 

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  Archibald studied the Pnaktopik Manuscripts (a loaned gift from Armitage for saving his life and the library) and the others trained with hand weapons to prepare.

They then went on the Side Trip to Canada, and it went fairly straightforwardly, with Smtyhe playing the part of Hobo to eventually entrap the crazed priest.

But after Canda, they went back for the final feast before the new expedition to Vermont.  There was much celebration, and Tony got really drunk.  And then the lights went out.

Smythe and Bob accompanied the radio operator down the stairs  to see what was happening - and as a Deep One appeared, SMmythe held his ground to give the others a chance to escape.

He didn't last very long.

The other retreated to Abelards private floor and barricaded the door, and began making plans to escape to the roof and down the long fire escape.  The deep ones battered against the barricade, and then broke through.  Tony and Archibald went mad, Tony deciding fire was the only solution and setting the room on fire, while Archibald saw it and thought... it was beautiful... like he.... belonged....

Tony lunged through the fire with a makeshift torch to attack the Deep One, and burned it badly - before falling to it's claws/  The other pushed forward, charging through the fire toward the retreating players who were covering for the NPCs.  There were lots of missed gunfire rolls.  Butterman went down, badly wounded but conscious, as Bob struggled and suffered a major wound from the rampaging Deep One.

And then Butterman decided to do something crazy.  He tried to contact Cthulhu.  Drawing the shape of the God in his own blood, he looked over at Tony, still holding on to life.... and then Tony passed.  And with the sacrifice, Butterman contacted Cthulhu.

Cthulhu demanded to know what he wanted, and Butterman asked Cthulhu to make his servants leave.  Cthulhu asked for something more in return.  And then Butterman remembered Bob.... Also dying....

And Bob Died.

(And yet somehow he passed all the Sanity Checks)

The remaining Deep Ones stopped suddenly - and gathered Tony and Bob's bodies as they suddenly turned and left.  The Deeps Ones fled....  

But at what cost?

 

It was amazing.

[Larry Lovecraft]

Holy crap! This is incredibly well done.  A thousand thumbs up! I envy your players for sure. I love the time and effort you put into handouts, which I also enjoy doing.  Totally inspiring!

[Capt. Everhate]

I love this thread!

[KennyHass]

This is awesome. Thanks!