Sunday, May 16, 2010

Howling in the Highlands

Not having had much sleep or time to prepare over the last week as Amanda's been out of town and I've been hauling both kids around to eveything for the last week... I kind of pulled this one out of my butt at the last moment... It went over not too bad all things considered.

September 1920, England

SITUATION

Since our last episode Sgt. Malaker has recovered under the close care of Laurel Trebeau, who had studied psychiatric care at a university in Canada, before her father died and had to return to England.

Malaker, Cranston and Trebeau have continued to work for Dr. Wraight on a number of projects over the summer.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Freiherr und Ritter Jochimm von und zu Höllenstadt-Fürchtberg – Retired German Army Officer - (Christian)
Ag d10, Sm d6, Sp d8, St d6, Vg d6,
Pace 6, Parry 5, Toughness 5, Sanity 6, Corruption 0
Skills: Fighting d6, Shooting d10, Notice d6, Stealth d6, Intimidate d6, Persuade d6, Drivingd4, Streetwise, d6, Survival d4, Stealth d4
Edges: Well Adjusted, Rich, Trademark Weapon (Luger)
Hindrances: Vow (major), Quirk (?), Vengeful, Lame
Gear: Uniform, Rations, Luger (Range: 12/24/48, ROF 1, Damage: 2d6, AP: 1), Knife (Str+d4), compass, maps, Sword (Str+d8), whistle, canteen, matches, backpack, blanket, candle

Tom Cranston – labourer – (John)
Ag d8, Sm d4, Sp d6, St d10, Vg d10,
Pace 6, Parry 6, Toughness 8
Skills: Fighting d8, Shooting d8, Notice d6, Stealth d4, Riding d4, Throwing d4, Knowledge ( Farmin’) d10, healing d4, Repair d4, Survival d4,
Edges: Quick, Brawny, Fast Hearler
Hindrances: Illiterate, Loyal, Quirk (Depressed – over the loss of his wife), Heroic
Gear: Work Clothes, Shovel (Str+d6, -1 to hit), Lee Enfield Rifle (Range: 24/48/96, ROF 1, Damage: 2d8, AP: 2)


Sgt. Shivanshu Malaker – Gurkha (Darrin)
Ag d6, Sm d6, Sp d6, St d6, Vg d10,
Pace 6, Parry 5, Toughness 8, Sanity 5, Corruption 0
Skills: Fighting d6, Shooting d6, Notice dX, Stealth dX, Intimidate dX, Throwing dX
Edges: Brawny, Woodsman, Alertness
Hindrances: Heroic, Code of Honour
Gear: Uniform, Webbing, Backpack, Blanket, Rations, Rifle (Range: 24/48/96, ROF1, Damage: 2d8, AP: 2), Kukri (Str+d6)

Laurel Trebau
Ag d6, Sm d10, Sp d8, St d4, Vg d8,
Pace 6, Parry 4, Toughness 6
Skills: Fighting d4, Shooting d6, Notice d6, Stealth d4, Investigation d10, Riding d4, Healing d8, Knowledge (Psychology) d8, Taunt d6, Swimming d4, Streetwise d4
Edges: Alertness, Psychotherapist
Hindrances: Quirk (wears glasses, but doesn’t really need them…), Loyal

THE GAME

Dr. Wraight received a letter of introduction from Byron Mackenzie, a Scottish Laird, who had heard from an acquaintance that she and her staff had some experience in “stange happenings” in the highlands and wondered if she’d meet with him to discuss a “strange situation” that had arisen on his properties. He was traveling to London for some business in a week and would very much like to stop at Cambridge and meet with her.

After checking with her associates she wrote Mr. Mackenzie and explained she was much to busy with preparations for the new term but her associates would be able to meet with him and offer any assistance they could

On 9 September everyone met in Cambridge. Mr. Mackenzie explained his situation. For the last year sheep have been disappearing and turning up torn asunder. It weemed as though it might be the work of wolves or some other predator, but it seems to have only been happening around the full moon. The Sheppard/Gameskeeper was insinuating that it was the work of a werewolf. Mr. Mackenzie believed it was either the gameskeeper or someone else causing the trouble and spreading rumours and suppositions.

After a (very) brief check in the library Laurel determined that there was no information at all about werewolves and they all made their way off to Scotland in the morning.

On the 12th they arrived at Mackenzies estate and settled in to the Castle.

The following day they went out to find the Sheppard/Gameskeeper but found only his aged father who told them nothing of use and that the Sheppard was away off up the glen and would be back in a couple days. Laurel had a brief look through the castle library and found little of use.

On the 14th they wandered into the village and had a chat with the local Preacher and found there was no one new that had moved into the area in some time and the only people that have returned of later were a few veterans of the Great War. Cranston chatted with them at the pub and as it turned out they’d all served with the 51st Highland Division – which Tom’s battalion had served along side at Vimy in 1917. They swapped some war stories shared some memories but turned up no useful information.

The next day they loaded up with gear to go a-wandering in search of clues out in the countryside. They got directions from the assistant gameskeeper as to the location of the most recent attacks. After a day of hiking about they found nothing and camped out in the glen. The next day they tracked down the Sheppard and his herd. He seemed a bit nervous but quite convinced it was a werewolf that was attacking his herd. He had seen it when it attacked in July and described it for them – Giant, wolf-like… He had even taken a shot at it with his shotgun.

The 17th they spent the day hiking back to the Laird’s Castle.

On the 18th they wandered into town again and asked about the “neighbors” – who lived some distance off.

The 20th they spent traveling to the neighboring village and found they’d been having no troubles around there. The following day they traveled back, once again, to the Castle.

With eight days left they traveled to Inverness to do some investigating there. Laurel checked out the local library, but only turned up general information about werewolves in general books about myths and folklore – silver, full moons, etc… The following day they gathered some silver and supplies to load some shotgun shells with silver shot.

On the 24th they returned to the Castle and spent the following two days loading shotgun shells and preparing for camping out in the glen with the sheep.

On the 27th the Sheppard had brought the herd back near the castle – so as not to be too far off if attacked again.

On the 28th – the night of the full moon – The adventurers had slept through the afternoon so they could be rested up for the evening. When they awoke they found that the steward had had an argument with the Sheppard and sent him off – not wanting the flock near the castle in case there was some wild creature attacking them!

The group made off in a great hurry to try and catch the Sheppard and his flock. They caught up just at sundown and made a campfire to wait out the night.

Around midnight they heard an unearthly baying that set the sheepdogs to flight and the Gurkha over the edge… (yeah, seriously..) He suffered two points of mental anguish and more or less sat out the encounter with Laurel alternately slapping him and reassuring him that his mother loved him… or something like that.


Cranston, on the other hand, who raised four times on his spririt/guts check (nothing… NOTHING could be so horrifying as four years in the mud and blood with trench mortar shells whistling down on you night and day) was unfazed. He raised again a number of times on a notice roll and dashed off towards the woods where the sound had come from., follwed closely by the Sheppard and not-quite-so-closely by they limping Prussian.


Pulling a Joker he dashed straight into the woods with his shotgun at the ready! He blundered into the giant beast (hey, lookit that, it REALLY IS a werewolf!?) and let him have it with the shotgun (BAM!) causing FOUR WOUNDS!? (seriously?! My big bad beastie taken down in ONE shot!?) The werewolf rolled two ones to soak… I wasn’t going to let them off that easy so I burned another benny and tried soaking again and soaked three of the wounds (HA! ducked behind a tree!)


Shortly after the Sheppard arrived blew a buch of branches off a tree. Cranston and von Höllenstadt-Fürchtberg both gave him another pair of blasts that sent him reeling back into the woods and falling over with a big crash!

They cautiously approached the bushes where he went down but found only the body of a naked man peppered with shotgun blasts. The Sheppard was fetched to see if he could identify the body. The Shepard was horrified to discover it was the Lairds son!!?

(DA-DA-DAAAAAAAAAHH!)

So, after briefly considering ditching the body in a bog, they wrapped it up and hauled it back to the castle. There it took some persuading and intimidating to get the estate staff to let them bring the body in and put it on ice but not allow Anyone to see it… The Laird, who was still in London was summoned, and a search party was arranged for Jock, the Larids son who had arrived back just after the party had left and had set out after them…

A Day before Mackenzie arrived The preacher and a couple burly boys from the village wandered up to the castle and, having heard rumours, demanded to see the body. There was a bit of a tussle and von Höllenstadt-Fürchtberg had to do some serious intimidating (with the help of his broom-handled mauser) and escorted them out of the castle at gun-point.

On the first of October the Laird returned, along with some policemen from Inverness (having been informed of the strange behavior by the preacher). He was very much distraught to find his only son dead but after interviewing the Sheppard and all others involved he decided not to press charges and sent them on their way….

Coming Soon to Savage Timmy's Playhouse:

More WW2 East Front action. had to cancel this past week's game at the last moment - but we will be raging ahead this week on World War Wednesday for sure!! Stay tuned fro more Horror action next Savage Saturday!

1 comment:

Christian Knudsen said...

This could have gone very badly for our intrepid investigators, if not for my badass persuasion and intimidation rolls! Three aces right when when it counted!