She'd finally gotten homesick after all those years of living in Paris. So, she shut up her atelier and came back home to Thornmeadow. She arrived on 20 April, unannounced, and to an empty home! Lord Seaward was in Town, of course, Lady Seaward was in Cornwall visiting her sister, and Thomas had just returned to Oxford after the Easter break. She'd very purposefully not brought her paints, and the weather wasn't terribly conducive to setting up outside for a landscape. She'd nothing to do but mope in the library and make her way through the drinks cabinet.
Then on about the third day she overheard two of the maids talking. Seems there was some odd sort of structure in the woods that frightened the groundskeeper. It was so great a shock that he became feverish and took to bed. Well, I don't have to tell you how this gossip met with Miss Seaward! She immediately purloined a pair of wellies and marched out into the wood on the pretext of taking some air.
[There are two RPGs where I will sometimes just roll up a character completely at random and see what happens to them. Traveller is obviously the first (Q.E.D.), the second being Call of Cthulhu. For this PC, I rolled a die to pick a Profession, and rolled stats in order, by-the-book (and appallingly well: I rolled nothing under a 12. Had I been playing T&T, she'd have qualified for warrior-wizard!).
Occupation: Artist
Colleges, Degrees: Sorbonne, - *
Birthplace: Thornmeadow Manor, Bucks.**
Sex: F Age: 26
STR: 12 DEX: 12 INT: 18 Idea: 90
CON: 14 APP: 16 POW: 14 Luck: 70
SIZ: 14 EDU: 16 Know: 80
HP: 14 SAN: 70 Damage Bonus: +1D4
Art: Painting 40%
Credit Rating 30%
Fast Talk 65%
Hide 30%
History 70%
Library Use 45%
Listen 45%
Other Language: French 80%
Other Language: Latin 55%
Persuade 45%
Psychology 50%
Sneak 30%
Spot Hidden 80%
* She studied art history at the Sorbonne, but never completed her degree, instead dropping out to live the life of a bohemian artist on the Left Bank. She's a tolerably good painter, but with her inherited wealth she's not had to worry about selling any of her canvases.
** She was born at her family's ancestral home in Buckinghamshire, a 17th century manor house whose grounds encompass parts of Boarstall Wood.
The scenario was generated with the d% tables in chapter 2--
PROBLEM: While on holiday at your family’s house
QUEST SOURCE: Overheard conversation
Now back to the adventure...]
11:15am - Development - random event: witness crime
Octavia -- I may call Miss Seaward Octavia, mayn't I? Only I've been vicar of the parish since she was a 12 year old with scraped knees. Octavia went crashing off into the wood, but with very little real idea of where this mysterious structure was to be found. She wandered aimlessly, looking for a path or what-not that might lead her in the right direction. [Tracking roll (10%), d%=14, fail]
She was on the verge of abandoning the whole project when she heard shouting. She could only make out that there was a man and a woman. She hadn't a clue as to the substance of their disagreement, only that it was rather heated.[Listen (45%) roll failed] So she crept closer to get a peek. [Sneak (30%) - 22, success] They'd the look of country folk, but she didn't recognise them as tenants. Admittedly, having been away for so long it's doubtful she could have.
Well, the [1d2=]man had the woman by the wrist. He wouldn't let go despite her vehement protestations. She was screaming very clearly that he should unhand her, but his words were just a mad babbling, not a language at all. He certainly didn't look to be a foreigner! Then he produced a knife, and stabbed her repeatedly, chortling and raving all the while.
Octavia was horrified at the gruesome deed, but she remained firm. When the man began to drag the body away, she resolved to see where he was taking her. She meant to return with the police, so he’d not get away with this heinous crime.
[Sanity loss for witnessing the murder is 0/1d3: Her current SAN is 70, but she rolled a 93, failure. The loss of 1d3=1 SAN brought her to 69 with no ill effects. The event also was worth 1 Mythos Point.
Q: Does he take the body to the structure? Y]
No, I didn't ask for the particulars of how he'd done it, nor, thank the Lord, did she offer any. She was greatly sickened by the whole affair. But she guessed, rightly, that the police would have no trouble following this lunatic's gory trail through the forest, so immediately went back home to ring them.
[The grisly sight cost 1/1d6 SAN to witness. d%=02, successful roll, so only loses a single point (to 68). +2 Mythos points (3 total).]
11:53am - Dice Roll - Something Happens: notice mechanical hum coming from the cellar
When she'd got back, there was an unexplained humming sound, which sounded like it was coming up through the floorboards from the wine cellar. But her immediate concern was to summon the police, so she rang straightaway.
[Q: Does she get through? Y]
12:32pm - Dice Roll - Visual Effect - Power goes out
As she was waiting for them to arrive, there was a power cut. The humming noise continued unabated, so she sent some servants to check it out whilst she met with the constabulary.
[Names were either generated with Byakhee or off the top of my head. Personality traits were rolled, one each, with the NPC Keyword Modifier Table in the Solo Investigator's Handbook. Results as reported below.
I made Octavia's APPearance x5 (80%) roll to gauge their initial reactions: 39, success (favourable).]
Two of them came. There was a Detective Inspector Humphries, whom Octavia described as particularly monomaniacal, and Detective Sergeant Langley, whose 'artistic temperament' seemed to please her greatly. I took that to mean she found him young and rather handsome. She gave her account, then led them to the scene of the crime.
[Q: Do they find it? unlikely: d%=Maybe
Verb table for a reason: welcome, drink
Q: Is something trying to keep them away? Y
POW vs POW on the resistance table: 14 vs (3d6+6=)14; O succeeds.]
The rain started bucketing down. They were soaked through in a matter of minutes, even beneath the heavy canopy of trees. DS Langley kept suggesting they turn back, but neither Octavia nor the Inspector would hear of it. She said that the nearer they came, the more she felt something, a kind of force, urging her to turn back. Well, she'd not hear of that, either!
1:39pm - Danger - encounter a mythos creature
Verbs table: parade, strangle
rolling 1d3 to determine who gets attacked.
DS Langley abruptly called out in a fright, gesticulating wildly. 'There! Something moving in the trees! It was 'orrible!' Or words to that effect. But there was nothing there.
[Only he made his Spot Hidden roll.
What he saw occasioned a loss of 1d6=6 SAN, but as he failed his Idea roll, he did not fully comprehend what he saw and thus avoided a bout of Temporary Insanity.
+2 Mythos Points (5 total)]
They pressed on, much more cautiously, mind, as the sergeant was a sensible fellow, no matter how 'artistic' his temperament. But they got separated in the mist and rain. Octavia began to worry she'd never find them when DS Langley began to shout again. She followed the sound of his voice, only to greeted by a 'Don't look, miss!' Well, I needn't remind you what happens when our good Octavia is enjoined not to do something!
It was, said Octavia, a sight both pitiful and terrible. The Inspector was dead. He lay there with a startled expression, his head lolling at an impossible angle on his bruised neck. Langley was staring down at him, shaking from more than the cold and damp. 'Who could've done his? And without our seeing?'
Octavia took pity on the chap and led him back to the house.
[SAN loss is 0/1D4 for Octavia, but 1/1d6 for Langley as it's someone he knows well: both rolls succeed, so L loses one, down to 43 SAN.]
2:17pm - Dice Roll - Random Event: phone rings
When they reached Thornmeadow, Octavia was delighted to find the power had been restored. She made immediately for the study with the aim of getting a nice restorative brandy down the sergeant. She poured one for herself, too, I rather suspect. That odd humming had stopped, but Octavia said she'd forgotten all about it at the time.
The telephone started ringing. As the servants appeared to be in no rush to answer, she gave in and answered it herself. The person on the other end wouldn't stop mumbling. After several increasingly forceful entreaties to speak up, she knew that they didn't hear her at all. She strained to make out what the unknown caller was saying -- it was a series of numbers, repeated ad infinitum with only the briefest of pauses at the start of the sequence. She noted it down and found it rather reminded her of a set of co-ordinates. She looked it up in an old atlas; it was up a mountain in the Peak District.
[Q: Power restored by the time they return? Y
I rolled on the General Location table to get Mountains; I'll only roll on the Mountain table if/when she gets there or does appropriate research.
Q: In England? Y
+1 Mythos Point (6)]
2:21pm - Downtime - Disturbed
verbs: contest, violate
After that, and prefatory to another round of brandy, Octavia suggested they change into dry clothes. She showed Langley to Thomas' room, and told him to help himself from the wardrobe. She found a dry frock and then saw about finding the servants to light a fire for them in the library. The servants were still nowhere to be found, forcing her to light it herself. She'd not hear of Langley helping her.
She was just going to the drinks cart when there was a great low rumbling and then the floor gave way. She'd just enough presence of mind to leap toward the door. Langley was too slow or too surprised, and tumbled down.
[Dodge rolls were needed; only O (24%) succeeded.
Q: Is it deep? Y : 1d6x10=20'
Langley takes 2d6=8 damage from the fall, dropping him to 6hp. He made his CONx5 roll to stay conscious after losing half his current HP, but failed his Luck (POWx5) roll to be able to walk.
Q: Any broken bones? Maybe (a bad fracture)
Q: What does he see at the bottom? suffer, avenge
+1 Mythos Point (7)]
It was very dark below and the dust kicked up in the collapse wasn't helping matters. Calling down to Langley revealed him to be alive, though with a possibly broken leg.
Then he added, 'What is this place? It looks like a medieval torture chamber!'
'Never mind about that. Just you stay put whilst I find a way to get you out!'
2:30pm - Downtime - undisturbed
It had taken the noise of the floor caving in to finally rouse the servants from whatever they found more important than their duties. Well, you know what they say, good help and all that. She told Stevens -- that's the butler, I think. Or is Jones the butler and Stevens the groundskeeper? Well, the butler, at any rate, made an appearance. Octavia told him she needed the keys to the cellar, as it had been locked again, so to fetch them forthwith and then help her is retrieving poor Sergeant Langley.
[Q: Cellar locked? Maybe (yes, but can get keys)
Q: All as expected? No : arrest, disgrace
Psychology (50%): 68, fail]
The butler returned with the keys and a torch. 'After you, Miss Octavia.' She'd only gone down five steps when she heard him shut the door behind her and lock her in!
2:25pm - Discovery - run into someone: another victim
NPC=clergy, talkative
And that's where our paths intersect. I was first alerted to her presence by her pounding on the locked door, and the concomitant stream of most unladylike epithets. Fortunately I'd my torch with me. It was a simple matter to follow the sound to its source. She was more than relieved to see a familiar face, and I thought I'd best try to keep her spirits up.
'It's no use,' I said, 'I've already tried it. But I came in by a differnt way, so if we work together I'm sure we can find a way out of this predicament.'
[Octavia's Psychology (50%) roll was 03, a special success]
I'm afraid she saw right through my bravado. But in her state of shock it didn’t occur to her to enquire how I’d gotten down there in the first place.
She did agree there must be another way out. Thornmeadow had been inhabited by a Catholic branch of the family during the Civil War, after all, so has its fair share of priest holes and hidden passages. But first we needed to find Langley.
2:37 - Discovery - caught up in occurrence related to investigation - requires Occult roll
We passed through the wine cellar and down a narrow, brick-lined tunnel ending in a door of reinforced iron. Locked, of course. And daubed all over in reddish-brown paint with the most devilish-seeming symbols. We knew not what they portended, but felt sickened by them all the same.
[Both failed their Occult rolls. +1 Mythos Point (8)]
2:39pm - Discovery - memory sparked
But then Octavia recalled an old family legend. Not only had the resident Seawards been Catholics, but one of them, Richard Seward, had been a priest. Not only that, but the deluded sort, wholly given over to witchcraft and satanism and that sort of rubbish. She'd never credited it before now.
[History (70%) roll succeeded; +1 Mythos Point (8)
Q: Is DS Langley still there? N]
We retraced our steps, and tried a different passage. At length we came to the area beneath the collapsed floor. But of DS Langley there was no trace! Whatever had been in the 'medieval torture chamber' had been largely smashed and broken. In an adjoining space we found more of the machines, devices of complicated aspect and uncertain purpose.
2:42pm - Danger - feel a threatening presence
'Stop!' cried Octavia. 'I feel -- we aren't alone!'
I flashed the torch round in all the corners. I couldn't see anyone, but she cried out again. There was such fear in her voice that I stopped cold in my tracks.
[O's Spot Hidden (80%) - 59, succeeded.
Q: What does she find? unveil, glimpse.]
Then a half-dozen appendages, like crab claws at the end of long spindly arms, shot out from behind a machine. They seized Octavia, and pulled her bodily into a hidden passage.
[Her SAN check (0/1d6) was successful, but the creature's attack hit and it overpowered her (STR vs STR on the Resistance Table).]
The door to the passage was hidden too, but, having had some experience with the working of priest holes in our historic houses -- do you know Dr. Mowbray has turned one into a rather cheeky drinks cabinet! -- I easily found the catch. So I was able to follow.
What happened to Miss Seaward? You'll find that out presently! She left just days before your arrival. You'll be reunited soon enough. She can tell you the whole marvellous dénouement then. No I shouldn't worry, were I you. Everything is as it must be. What? No, don't be absurd! You see, they absolutely have to remove our brains and house them in these cylinders. Else we'd never survive the vacuum when they fly us through the blackness of space to distant Yuggoth...
Two of them came. There was a Detective Inspector Humphries, whom Octavia described as particularly monomaniacal, and Detective Sergeant Langley, whose 'artistic temperament' seemed to please her greatly. I took that to mean she found him young and rather handsome. She gave her account, then led them to the scene of the crime.
[Q: Do they find it? unlikely: d%=Maybe
Verb table for a reason: welcome, drink
Q: Is something trying to keep them away? Y
POW vs POW on the resistance table: 14 vs (3d6+6=)14; O succeeds.]
The rain started bucketing down. They were soaked through in a matter of minutes, even beneath the heavy canopy of trees. DS Langley kept suggesting they turn back, but neither Octavia nor the Inspector would hear of it. She said that the nearer they came, the more she felt something, a kind of force, urging her to turn back. Well, she'd not hear of that, either!
1:39pm - Danger - encounter a mythos creature
Verbs table: parade, strangle
rolling 1d3 to determine who gets attacked.
DS Langley abruptly called out in a fright, gesticulating wildly. 'There! Something moving in the trees! It was 'orrible!' Or words to that effect. But there was nothing there.
[Only he made his Spot Hidden roll.
What he saw occasioned a loss of 1d6=6 SAN, but as he failed his Idea roll, he did not fully comprehend what he saw and thus avoided a bout of Temporary Insanity.
+2 Mythos Points (5 total)]
They pressed on, much more cautiously, mind, as the sergeant was a sensible fellow, no matter how 'artistic' his temperament. But they got separated in the mist and rain. Octavia began to worry she'd never find them when DS Langley began to shout again. She followed the sound of his voice, only to greeted by a 'Don't look, miss!' Well, I needn't remind you what happens when our good Octavia is enjoined not to do something!
It was, said Octavia, a sight both pitiful and terrible. The Inspector was dead. He lay there with a startled expression, his head lolling at an impossible angle on his bruised neck. Langley was staring down at him, shaking from more than the cold and damp. 'Who could've done his? And without our seeing?'
Octavia took pity on the chap and led him back to the house.
[SAN loss is 0/1D4 for Octavia, but 1/1d6 for Langley as it's someone he knows well: both rolls succeed, so L loses one, down to 43 SAN.]
2:17pm - Dice Roll - Random Event: phone rings
When they reached Thornmeadow, Octavia was delighted to find the power had been restored. She made immediately for the study with the aim of getting a nice restorative brandy down the sergeant. She poured one for herself, too, I rather suspect. That odd humming had stopped, but Octavia said she'd forgotten all about it at the time.
The telephone started ringing. As the servants appeared to be in no rush to answer, she gave in and answered it herself. The person on the other end wouldn't stop mumbling. After several increasingly forceful entreaties to speak up, she knew that they didn't hear her at all. She strained to make out what the unknown caller was saying -- it was a series of numbers, repeated ad infinitum with only the briefest of pauses at the start of the sequence. She noted it down and found it rather reminded her of a set of co-ordinates. She looked it up in an old atlas; it was up a mountain in the Peak District.
[Q: Power restored by the time they return? Y
I rolled on the General Location table to get Mountains; I'll only roll on the Mountain table if/when she gets there or does appropriate research.
Q: In England? Y
+1 Mythos Point (6)]
2:21pm - Downtime - Disturbed
verbs: contest, violate
After that, and prefatory to another round of brandy, Octavia suggested they change into dry clothes. She showed Langley to Thomas' room, and told him to help himself from the wardrobe. She found a dry frock and then saw about finding the servants to light a fire for them in the library. The servants were still nowhere to be found, forcing her to light it herself. She'd not hear of Langley helping her.
She was just going to the drinks cart when there was a great low rumbling and then the floor gave way. She'd just enough presence of mind to leap toward the door. Langley was too slow or too surprised, and tumbled down.
[Dodge rolls were needed; only O (24%) succeeded.
Q: Is it deep? Y : 1d6x10=20'
Langley takes 2d6=8 damage from the fall, dropping him to 6hp. He made his CONx5 roll to stay conscious after losing half his current HP, but failed his Luck (POWx5) roll to be able to walk.
Q: Any broken bones? Maybe (a bad fracture)
Q: What does he see at the bottom? suffer, avenge
+1 Mythos Point (7)]
Then he added, 'What is this place? It looks like a medieval torture chamber!'
'Never mind about that. Just you stay put whilst I find a way to get you out!'
2:30pm - Downtime - undisturbed
It had taken the noise of the floor caving in to finally rouse the servants from whatever they found more important than their duties. Well, you know what they say, good help and all that. She told Stevens -- that's the butler, I think. Or is Jones the butler and Stevens the groundskeeper? Well, the butler, at any rate, made an appearance. Octavia told him she needed the keys to the cellar, as it had been locked again, so to fetch them forthwith and then help her is retrieving poor Sergeant Langley.
[Q: Cellar locked? Maybe (yes, but can get keys)
Q: All as expected? No : arrest, disgrace
Psychology (50%): 68, fail]
The butler returned with the keys and a torch. 'After you, Miss Octavia.' She'd only gone down five steps when she heard him shut the door behind her and lock her in!
NPC=clergy, talkative
And that's where our paths intersect. I was first alerted to her presence by her pounding on the locked door, and the concomitant stream of most unladylike epithets. Fortunately I'd my torch with me. It was a simple matter to follow the sound to its source. She was more than relieved to see a familiar face, and I thought I'd best try to keep her spirits up.
'It's no use,' I said, 'I've already tried it. But I came in by a differnt way, so if we work together I'm sure we can find a way out of this predicament.'
[Octavia's Psychology (50%) roll was 03, a special success]
I'm afraid she saw right through my bravado. But in her state of shock it didn’t occur to her to enquire how I’d gotten down there in the first place.
She did agree there must be another way out. Thornmeadow had been inhabited by a Catholic branch of the family during the Civil War, after all, so has its fair share of priest holes and hidden passages. But first we needed to find Langley.
2:37 - Discovery - caught up in occurrence related to investigation - requires Occult roll
We passed through the wine cellar and down a narrow, brick-lined tunnel ending in a door of reinforced iron. Locked, of course. And daubed all over in reddish-brown paint with the most devilish-seeming symbols. We knew not what they portended, but felt sickened by them all the same.
[Both failed their Occult rolls. +1 Mythos Point (8)]
2:39pm - Discovery - memory sparked
But then Octavia recalled an old family legend. Not only had the resident Seawards been Catholics, but one of them, Richard Seward, had been a priest. Not only that, but the deluded sort, wholly given over to witchcraft and satanism and that sort of rubbish. She'd never credited it before now.
[History (70%) roll succeeded; +1 Mythos Point (8)
Q: Is DS Langley still there? N]
We retraced our steps, and tried a different passage. At length we came to the area beneath the collapsed floor. But of DS Langley there was no trace! Whatever had been in the 'medieval torture chamber' had been largely smashed and broken. In an adjoining space we found more of the machines, devices of complicated aspect and uncertain purpose.
2:42pm - Danger - feel a threatening presence
'Stop!' cried Octavia. 'I feel -- we aren't alone!'
I flashed the torch round in all the corners. I couldn't see anyone, but she cried out again. There was such fear in her voice that I stopped cold in my tracks.
[O's Spot Hidden (80%) - 59, succeeded.
Q: What does she find? unveil, glimpse.]
Then a half-dozen appendages, like crab claws at the end of long spindly arms, shot out from behind a machine. They seized Octavia, and pulled her bodily into a hidden passage.
[Her SAN check (0/1d6) was successful, but the creature's attack hit and it overpowered her (STR vs STR on the Resistance Table).]
The door to the passage was hidden too, but, having had some experience with the working of priest holes in our historic houses -- do you know Dr. Mowbray has turned one into a rather cheeky drinks cabinet! -- I easily found the catch. So I was able to follow.
What happened to Miss Seaward? You'll find that out presently! She left just days before your arrival. You'll be reunited soon enough. She can tell you the whole marvellous dénouement then. No I shouldn't worry, were I you. Everything is as it must be. What? No, don't be absurd! You see, they absolutely have to remove our brains and house them in these cylinders. Else we'd never survive the vacuum when they fly us through the blackness of space to distant Yuggoth...
