Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Hugo The Necromancer

Another adventure in our Realms of Cthulhu serial...

Spring 1921, England

SITUATION

Since our last episode Everyone had settled back into their regular work. Laurel Trebeau continues to work for Dr. Emma Wraight in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at Cambridge. Tom and Shivansu continue as custodial staff.

Freiherr von Höllenstadt-Fürchtberg has left England for a bit until the heat from Lucas’ death dies down. He is also working on translating Lucas’ notebooks with the help of Otto Schultz.

Our adventure begins when Dr. Wraight receives a letter…

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Tom Cranston – labourer – (John)
Ag d8, Sm d4, Sp d6, St d10, Vg d12,
Pace 6, Parry 6, Toughness 9, , Sanity 5, Corruption 0
Skills: Fighting d8, Shooting d8, Notice d6, Stealth d8, Riding d4, Throwing d4, Knowledge ( Farmin’) d10, healing d4, Repair d4, Survival d4,
Edges: Quick, Brawny, Fast Healer, First Strike
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 d8, Sm d6, Sp d8, St d6, Vg d10,
Pace 6, Parry 6, Toughness 8, Sanity 6, Corruption 0
Skills: Fighting d8, Shooting d8, Notice d8, Stealth d6, Intimidate d8, Climbing d8, Swimming d4, Survival d10, Tracking d8
Edges: Brawny, Woodsman, Alertness, First Strike
Hindrances: Heroic, Code of Honour
Gear: Rifle (Range: 24/48/96, ROF1, Damage: 2d8, AP: 2), Kukri (Str+d6)

Laurel Trebeau
Ag d6, Sm d12, 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 d6, Persuasion d6
Edges: Alertness, Psychotherapist
Hindrances: Quirk (wears glasses, but doesn’t really need them…), Loyal

Dr. Emma Wraight – Cultural Anthropologist and Archaeologist (Amanda)
Ag d6, Sm d10, Sp d10, St d6, Vg d8,
Pace 6, Parry 5, Toughness 6, Sanity 6, Corruption 1
Skills: Fighting d6, Shooting d6, Notice d10, Stealth d4, Knowledge: Anthropology d8, Knowledge; Archaeology d8, Investigation d8, Survival 4d, Tracking d4, Swimming d4, healing d4, Knowledge: Mythos d4, Streetwise d4, Healing d4,
Edges: Scholar, Linguist, Alertness
Hindrances: Curious, Phobia (Major – Snakes)
Gear: Clothes, Anti-Snake Boots (Armour +2), Webley (Range: 12/24/48, ROF 1, Damage: 2d6, AP: 1), Knife (Str+d4),

Bart Williamson
Ag d6, Sm d10, Sp d8, St d6, Vg d6
Pace 6, Parry 5, Toughness 5, Sanity 6, Corruption 0
Skills: Fighting d6, Shooting d6, Notice d8, Investigation d10, Knowledge: Occult d10, Knowledge: Books d12,
Edges: Scholar
Hindrances: Curious, Doubting Thomas

Hugo the Necromancer (or… at least his HEAD… in a BOX!)
Ag d6, Sm d12, Sp d10, St d6, Vg d8,
Pace 6, Parry 5, Toughness 6 (10), Sanity 3, Corruption 2
Skills: Fighting d6, Shooting d8, Notice d10, Stealth d10, Knowledge: Arcana d10, Spellcasting d12,
Edges: Undead, Wizard
Hindrances: Just a Head, No Body…
Powers:
Gear: Reinfoced Strong box (+4 Armour)
Note: Physical traits and pace assume Hugo has his body back. While just a head all his spellcasing is at -6. If he controls a person (though his Puppet power) his spellcasting penalty is reduced to -2.



THE GAME

Professor Wraight was contacted by Bart Williamson, a bookseller in London that she was introduced to by von Höllenstadt-Fürchtberg. He was looking for any information about a character known as “Hugo the Necromancer”, who supposedly had figured out the secret of controlling death and may have lived in the 12th and/or 13th and/or 14th centuries… So Wraight and Trebeau set about searching the university library.

Two weeks of searching in their spare time had turned up nothing. Wraight then turned to her professional colleagues and canvassed professors of English Literature and history if they had ever heard about such a personality. One history professor told her of a book he thought might prove useful and it did. There was a brief summary of his crimes and it mentioned that his head had been buried “somewhere in London” and his body was buried in a cemetery in Inverness

Professor Wraight and Miss Trebeau decided to travel to London with the information and pay a visit to Mr. Williamson. There they had an odd encounter with the bookseller. Finding he had not been in his shop in over a week, they paid him a visit in his flat which was in quite a state. He was very excited about the information, but then seemed anxious to send them on their way.

The pair decided to summon Tom and Shivansu from Cambridge to pay Mr. Williamson a visit, as they thought they might be a bit more persuasive in getting him to admit what sort of shenanigans he was up to.

The goon squad arrived the following morning but there was no answer at Mr. Williamson’s flat and his shop was still closed. They decided to break into hi apartment and found he had left. They reported the break in to the police – claiming they had come to pay him a visit and found the place that way.

The four then made their way to Scotland (once again) – stopping off at Cambridge to pick up “a few things”…

Arriving in Inverness they first paid a visit to the cemetery to see if anything untoward had happened there and nothing had. The groundskeeper seemed unhelpful in figuring out which grave might contain a medieval warlock… He suggested they try the church.

Arriving at the church they found the parsons murdered and the grave registry torn asunder and scattered about the church office. After answering may questions for the police they retired to an inn for the afternoon, expecting to be up all night,

Just after sunset they stole out to the cemetery and hid out in some bushes near where they figured the older part of the cemetery was. Just after midnight a trio of lanterns came bobbing along in the dark and after some shuffling about – presumably trying to locate the grave they started digging.

(click on the pics to see a larger version)


Our heroes confront Williamson and his diggers. Cranston successfully intimidates the diggers with some comment about Scots “bringing shovels to a gun fight…”


The diggers scarpered and Mr. Williamson drew a pistol from his coat pocket and shot at Tom.


They all rushed him and beat him senseless.

Laurel grabbed away the wooden box he was holding and that was about all she remembered…

Everyone else was quite shocked when Laurel’s eyes rolled back into her head and she started mumbling some strange incantations to herself! They were even more shocked when dead people started rising out of the ground!


Shivansu and Professor Wraight ran over to deal with the first risen corpse.


Tom then proceded to knock Laurel senseless as well.


Shivansu neatly sliced the head of the second risen body and tom started trying to shoot holes in the box.


They then tried breaking the lanterns over the box to burn it. Finally Tom smashed the box apart with his shovel and crushed the head within to nothing. That seemed to be the end of it…


Then the police showed up…

(okay, so not that many probably showed up all at once… but I just painted this lot and have been dying to throw them on the table…)

They had further answers to provide to the Police, but were eventually sent on their way as all fingeres pointed to Mr. Williamson as the murderer of the Parsons and desecrator of graves.

The group plotted about how they would secure Mr. Williamsons books as he was sure to be facing the gallows soone enough!

This game went well enough – started and finished in one evening. I’d like to run more this way!

Coming Soon to Savage Timmy’s Playhouse:

A report on the next World War Wednesday!

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