First Call of Cthulhu Game - A Retrospective

 

You may recall that I recently wrote about the return of Call of Cthulhu to EPIC Ipswich, one of the most popular articles one the blog since it changed from our website to Blogger. This is a follow up to that article and if you haven't done so I would recommend reading it first before continuing this article to help with some context. You may read that here, and for those not wishing to have the Call of Cthulhu module Blackwater Creek spoiled, this will recount key plot points from that module.

Character Creation

Call of Cthulhu Character Sheet

Unlike when players had previously played Call of Cthulhu on Free RPG Day, players got to experience the joy of creating their own unique characters from scratch. Credit Rating, Stat Score interactions, Skills and Occupations were all learned and combined for each player to have a unique character to begin the game. This was not only insightful but a necessary skill to learn as character death is very very high in Call of Cthulhu.

Our game was run by Jon who assumed the role of Keeper of Arcane Lore (Keeper for short) - the Game Master of the Roleplay Game. Jon had previously reintroduced the game to EPIC and I struggle to think of a better qualified person to run the game. He is the Dungeon Master EPIC refers to as the Meatgrinder, his Dungeons and Dragon games have the highest character death count out of any other DM. 

It is my understanding that the Keepers original intent was to have one scenario spaced out over two or more weeks, as such I had brought a notebook with me to take notes to help the players (referred to as Investigators in Call of Cthulhu), for any future games in the following weeks. As such, I have a very well documented account of the horrors and fear installing situations the Keeper through at us on Saturday Night.

The Game - My Recap

The characters were all summoned to Arkham University to aid Professor Ernest McTavish. His friend Professor Henry Roades of the Miskatonic University and his wife Abigail have seemingly gone missing after going on a field trip to Blackwater Creek to dig for relics of a local tribe.

The last contact Professor McTavish had was with Henry Roades over letter, strange as Abigail usually dealt with his correspondence. 

The letter can be seen pictured to the left.

When the investigators arrive at the dig site there's a strange rhythmic thumping sound, like a heartbeat that appears to come from the earth itself. 

A quick look around the campsite finds traces of blood, the excavation trenches completely filled in with black soil and the smell of rot and decay.

Roades research was missing, however a book he was reading was left open to the page about the local tribe. 

Roades Mining equipment was also found burnt in the back of a truck. It became apparent that the local farmers in his letter may be responsible.

The investigators headed down river to head towards the settlement of Blackwater Creek noting that the water was murky with tiny white... parasites floating in it. The water was damned off about a mile down river.

We then decided to cut into the nearby forest to save time heading to the settlement and discovered the trees were rotting, becoming some weird mix between bloat, tumorous creatures and the plants they'd originally been. Their branches became tentacle like and one tree was mid process of pulling the head off a deer it had caught. These trees tried to attack the investigators but we fled rather stressfully. 

After resupplying in town we were directed to stay with farmer Malcolm Jarvey's farm due to the lack of inn. Malcolm informed us that the farmer Roades had a falling out with was Farmer Camodi after he damned the river due to people and animals becoming more aggressive after drinking it. Malcolm relayed this after putting down a pig that had black blisters slowly killing it.

It was apparent to all that this town and everything in it was diseased and dying, sick or twisted.

After sleeping in the barn the animals went beserk and as Malcolm came out to investigate, a boar broke free from its pen and struck Malcolm down. Instead of bleeding a viscous black ooze wept from his punctured stomach.

A man, woken by the ordeal ran from the farm house, panicked and begin crying out "Mother! Mother!" before black fluid filled his mouth and poured from his nose and eyes. He began to choke. Both bodies were discovered dead the next morning.

Deciding that something was contaminating the water and maybe Roades would be investigating the source or may have accidentally caused this curse from a relic he'd discovered. We travelled up river to find the plants had grown monsterous in size! Giant seedpods caked the ground and thick pollen was changing the colouration of the air. Discovering the source - a massive cave that was pouring water out of it, we all ventured inside, finding Roades TNT stash at the cave mouth. 

Taking the TNT as a precaution. One of the investigators saw what appeared to be a giant 100 foot wall of moving heads of women, men and children, warped in a conjoined black fungus. Fearing this as the source the TNT was lit and thrown, destroying the.... thing, and all of us fleeing. The watered eventually returned to its normal colouration.

With our last hope being Camodi farm, we travelled there to find it empty but a locked barn. Breaking our way in, we find Henry Roades with maggots crawling out of his discoloured skin. Driven completely insane, he rants about how Abigail was the black thing, his beloved wife, his mother. We laid him to rest and recovered his journal where he recounted discovering the cave and the relics, something went wrong and Abigail became black and seeped maggots which infected him. Eventually in the entry he stops referring to Abigail as Abigail, and starts referring to her as Mother. 

With knowing Henry and Abigails fate we returned to Arkham to inform McTavish and boost our skills.

My thoughts

Call of Cthulhu is a horror based RPG and with Jon as the keeper, all players at the table were filled with uncertainty in every action they could, frightened that their character may perish or worse. I sincerely hope this develops into a weekly game as the scenario lasted one whole session and we all still wanted more. 

If you haven't already given this RPG a try I cannot recommend it enough! EPIC Ipswich has Call of Cthulhu on Saturdays 4PM.

Yours in insanity,

Lachy