Saturday 28 March 2020

CoC12: Black Pharaoh Bites the Dust

Friday, February 1st, 1925. With a couple days to kill until their stakeout, the party decided to stay out of trouble and hang out at the office of The Scoop. How well do you think that went?

Investigators:


  • Dr. Gretta Von Flue- Parapsychologist and occult enthusiast
  • Allen Challenger- Antiquarian and dealer in forged artifacts
  • Michael Hunt- 45 year old dilettante in search of diversions
  • Dr. Thomas Thompson- surgeon and occult enthusiast


Mickey received a call from one of his contacts: a suspicious truck has been sighted outside the Penhew Foundation. He convinced the party to go check it out.

They ended up stealing the truck and taking it to Hyde Park. It was full of various types of contraband, from Mythos statues, to Tommy Guns, Mustard Gas Grenades, Heroin...

After stuffing their pockets with goodies, the investigators exited the back of the truck and... were immediately confronted by a pair of Bobbies out on patrol. Mike shot one dead, but the other escaped. Mike also shot a lady witness out walking her dog!


The Investigators checked out of their hotel and into another one in the same area to avoid complications.

In the morning, Inpector Barrington called them in their new Hotel, inviting them to come meet him at Scotland Yard and discuss a lead. The party were suspicous, but Thomas and Gretta went to meet him. He implied that he knew about yesterday's events and that they would hang if they couldn't help him finally solve the Egyptian Murders. They told him about the stakeout tonight at the Blue Pyramid. He kept Thomas in custody and agreed to meet them there.

That night, the investigators staked out the club in a van with half a dozen police officers. The truck came as promised and picked up a couple dozen cultists. They drove to an estate in Essex by the North Sea. Barrington instructed the investigators to break in and get evidence that the police could use as probable cause to storm the estate.


They ended up impersonating a group of cultists, arrived late to the ritual. They crossed over on the cultist ferry boat, knocked on the door of the estate house, and were served drinks. The party ended up finding a hidden entrance to the basement treasure trove of the Black Pharaoh Cult leaders, but were set upon by the cultist household staff. After a close quarters fight, they found leads to cultists in other countries and evidence that some of the Carlyle Expedition members may indeed still be alive!

Thomas proceeded up the hill to observe the Ritual. It was some heady stuff even for the experienced MD, but things really got wild when a winged creature flew in from outer space and started eating willing cultists. An exhausted female cultist told him to climb on it's back so that he can be taken to meet the Black Pharoah in Azathoth, but our hero demurred and returned to the mansion.

Our heroes were leaving just as the police arrived, having thought that an illegal smugglers aircraft was landing. They shot their way through the crazed cultists and secured the facility. At this point, the Inspector congratulated the Investigators, but suggested that they leave London ASAP and don't return.

In the Sunday Morning's papers, there was a writeup of the events, but Edward Gavigon's name was conspicuously missing from the list of cultists. As the party was packing up to go, a fearful looking middle eastern woman bumped into them in the street. "They have taken Yalesha!" she said. "You might have brought down the cult, but their leaders, Edward and Tawfik have escaped! They will take her to Cairo where they can properly avenge themselves on her!" she shuddered, before running off.


Sunday 22 March 2020

CoC11: Mists of London

Israel is in Corona Virus lockdown, so this session was run via video chat on the Zoom app. The video-chat has it's challenges, but I think we all needed an escape from current events...

Thursday, January 31, 1925. The Investigators have one more lead to follow-up in London. Will this finally lead them to the cultist conspiracy that brought them all the way across the Atlantic?

Investigators:
  • Dr. Gretta Von Flue- Parapsychologist and occult enthusiast
  • Allen Challenger- Antiquarian and dealer in forged artifacts
  • Michael Hunt- 45 year old dilettante in search of diversions
  • Gloria- 70 year old medical doctor

The party visited Detective Barrington in Scotland Yard. A lot came out of the conversation:
  • The Egyptian Murders, as they are called, have claimed 24 victims, 17 of them Egyptian
  • He met Jackson Elias- didn't like him. He claimed the Cult of the Black Pharaoh was responsible for the murders
  • He met Gavigan, who denied such a cult still exists
  • You can meet Egyptian locals at the Blue Pyramid club in Soho. Police stakeouts didn't yield any useful leads
  • Gretta could tell he was holding back more information

The party decided to check out the Blue Pyramid. The waitress left them a note to come back tonight and talk to Yaelesha. They spotted a dapper gentleman in a fez who was speaking in whispers to an acquaintance.

When they returned that night, they Alan thought he spotted Gavigan in the crowd. On a dark, foggy street, Gretta was attacked by a tentacle fog thing. The party managed to scare it off with a couple Electric torches. They heard fleeing footsteps, but didn't manage to apprehend anyone.

Returning to the Blue Pyramid, now packed with people, Michael managed to contact Yalesha. She met him out back, saying that she wanted revenge on the Cult for her boyfriend's death, and hinting that Michael might become her new boyfriend. She let him slip some money in her thong, which is not bad for a first date!

Yalesha said that once a month a large number of Pyramid customers pile into a truck around midnight. She doesn't know where they go, but she knows it is cult related, probably outside London. The night of February 2nd is the next such date by her calculation!

The next day, Friday February 1st, the party told Mickey Mahoney about their close call. He fished out the following article from the recent archives:

Thursday 19 March 2020

CoC 10: the Eye of the Beholder


Following on the heels of last session, the investigators are back in London, doing what investigators do. This time they followed up on the lead about otherworldly art...

Investigators:

  • Dr. Gretta Von Flue- Parapsychologist and occult enthusiast
  • Allen Challenger- Antiquarian and dealer in forged artifacts
  • Dr. Milka- 26 year old medical doctor. She has trouble finding steady employment and so is willing to look outside the standard hospital jobs
  • Xanathos- Drifter with a mysterious past

January 30th, 1925, the party visited the Soho apartment of one Miles Shipley and his elderly Aunt. She showed them his horrifying paintings of other planes and planets and times. Much sanity was lost by all.
Eventually the party convinced her to show them Miles' masterpiece, hidden in a cupboard. Dr. Milka was entranced and sucked into the painting where she got to see dinosaurs(cool!) and get sacrificed to the dark god of the Snake-People(less cool!).

The party fought the aunt, who turned out to be a powerful Snake-People sorcerer. After a tough fight, they were victorious and captured Miles and the strange drug he is addicted to.

They returned to The Scoop and made some money on the story.