[IC]House of Hell[CoC/FF]

[bruin]

House of Hell

A Call of Cthulhu game based on a conversion from a Fighting Fantasy Adventure

August 2003: One day, three investigators made what they thought would be a relatively uneventful trip from Boston to a crime scene near Dunwich…

OOC
Cast

OODM: Please use quotes to indicate speech, and italics to indicate thoughts. Please avoid colored text as I have trouble reading it sometimes.

IDM:

The three of you settle in for a fairly long drive. Tanya, the Boston detective, has earned a reputation throughout New England for being especially adept in solving cases that border on the bizarre and supernatural. Most of the time these prove to have a rational explanation, with the occult element merely being a figment of this or that person's imagination, but other times… Well, suffice it to say that Damien’s expertise comes in just as handy as Kyle‘s does at times.

She’s been asked to investigate the scene of a crime near Dunwich, a case of what appears to be a satanic ritual murder. Sounds like the perfect cover-up for a more mundane motive, but nevertheless she’s asked Damien to come along for the ride. Most of you are a little shaken by an earthquake that hit Boston today. Dunwich is about 85-90 miles to the northwest, near the Vermont border. You’ve waited out the rush hour traffic, so you start off just after 6 pm, hoping to make it to the hotel in Dunwich for a good night’s rest before starting the investigation the following morning….

About halfway there, you hear rain begin to trickle against the roof of the car. The trickle quickly turns into a torrent, and Tanya has to slow the car a bit just to keep it under control…

You are about 20 miles off from Dunwich when Tanya apparently makes a wrong turn. After ten minutes of driving she realizes the mistake, and tries to take a shortcut on a country road she thinks will bring her back in the direction of the road they need to be on…

Another 10 minutes and it’s becoming more and more apparent that the shortcut is leading them further from the main road into Dunwich; from what you can figure, you must have been diverted somewhere to the northeast of where you should be…

Tanya strains to see what’s up ahead; the headlights only barely illuminate the road through the downpour and the country darkness. Finally, up ahead, you see a structure at an intersection; looks like a garage with a gas station. The road to the left might take you to Dunwich, but the road straight might take you there as well. Better ask the attendant at the gas station. This must be the last gas station in America that is full service only…

The white haired old man throws on a raincoat and rushes out into the wind and wetness of the storm. He fills up the tank and comes over to the window. Tanya explains your situation. He tells her to go straight, then take the first left, which should get you to Dunwich after about 30 miles or so. Apparently you’ve gone off track more than you expected. Tanya sees a weird glint in the old man’s eyes, but thinks it’s just her imagination, after all it’s been a long drive...

Tanya follows the old man’s instructions. The rain doesn’t seem to be letting up. So there you are, a little after 9 pm, traveling from darkness into ever increasing darkness, barely even able to see through the windshield now as you take the road that hopefully leads to Dunwich and a pleasant night’s sleep…

[OODM: Talk amongst yourselves]

 

[Master_Pugs]

Tanya sits lost in her own thoughts, trying to keep the look of frustration off her face. Why do I always get stuck with the crazy cases in backwater towns... honestly, I just want to bust a drug ring or save a city, like in the movies... but no, I have to go to Dunwop or some crap and deal with some sick freak who's never got laid and thinks all women hate him or that his mother was a succubi, or his father was abducted by aliens and replaced with a robot... Why can't I just get a normal case? she thinks.

She looks around the vehicle, sizing up her companions and then lets out a sigh, "Honestly, you guys should be less talkative, I can hardly hear myself talk!"

 

[Majin]

Damien turns his head ever so slightly and looks at Tanya out of the corner of his eye. He crossed his arms, hiding his hands inside his trenchcoat and said, "Well what is it you have to say Miss Detective? Tanya was it? It's not to hard to tell from the look thats been on your face for the past 20 minutes that you don't particularly want to be here. Now I admit that something like this would be more up my avenue of expertise, but even I'm not to keen on being here either. This "satanic ritual" situation will most likely turn out to be ho-hum like pretty much all the others I've seen recently. It will probably be just some crackpot who's read too many horror novels and wants to play at being something he's not, nothing substantial. No, the only reason I agreed to go on this trip with you is the off chance that this time I might find something more. Something I've been searching for, for years."

At that point he cut off and eyed Tanya a little more fully. He started fingering the small gold ankh that was hanging around his neck. He had to admit to himself that he found her incredibly attractive. But he couldn't help himself. He spoke again. "Well Tanya? What's your reason for being reluctant to be here?" He smirked and added with a small hint of arrogance, "Is it because this type of stuff scares you? Because the Occult is something you can't put your finger on and fully deduce answers from?"

He really couldn't help himself. He enjoyed playing games like that with people. Especially women he was interested in. He smiled cooly and continued eyeing her through the slits in his eyes waiting for her response.

 

[Shattered Archon]

Kyle sits quietly, looking out of the window. He didn't like how remote, how isolated, this place seemed... in his experience, out-of-the-way places were usually unutterably boring, and the few times when they weren't, it was something really bad.

He takes a moment to glance around the vehicle, looking over his companions. Tanya seemed even less thrilled to be here than he was, but the other guy...

I really can't figure that one out... i guess it doesn't really matter, though. It's not like i'll be working with these two long enough to get to know them... hopefully this will just be a quick, routine job, and then i'll be out of here and back to something resembling civilization...

He returns to watching out of the window, but listens to any conversation between the others.

 

[Master_Pugs]

"Look, I've busted more wacked out copycat horror book fanboys then you can probably count... They start playing wierd roleplaying games, where they get to be vampires or werewolves and all of a sudden their neighbour shows up with his throat torn out... If there's one thing I've learned it's that the Occult isn't hard to put your finger on, you just have to dig through some heavier #%$@ to pull up the truth. Some are just too weak to deal with that kind of human degradation so they pass it off as supernatural. Whatever helps them sleep at night, not my place to judge." Tanya takes a breath and throws an eyebrow to Damien before returning her eyes to the dark and bland road, "What about you? You ever seen anything you could truly call occult? Something so alien and hideous it had to be true?"

(OOC) Character should be done within 48 hours... damn the CoC rulebook is thick

 

[Majin]

Damien chuckles darkly. "No my dear detective, I must concede that I haven't, if you discount manuscripts. Although that does nothing to change my idea that there are "things" out there that we cannot explain and know next to nothing about."

Damien shoots Tanya a cocky smirk and says, "Let's just say that over the years my interests have brought me closer to such things, and from the few reliable contacts I have made over the years, I have it in good confidence that these things exist out there. There are some texts I'm trying to gain access to, but the party in question is being very evasive towards my advances. Theres something their hiding there I just know it. Some kind of evidence that would prove these things exist, I dare venture even to someone such as yourself."

Damien takes an inquisitive glance behind him towards the quiet man in the back seat, and then re-focuses his attention back on Tanya. "If I ever get my hands on what I'm looking for, you'll be the first person I show it to. How about that?" he ends with another one of his patented cocky smiles.

 

[Master_Pugs]

"Sounds like a plan... and I'll be waiting to show you exactly what the rational explanation is for it" Tanya states plainly, giving Damien a glance at her own cocky smile, "I have no patience for books or manuscripts depicting the unexplainable Damien... Anyone can write that something is true, doesn't mean it's true. You shouldn't believe everything you read"

She glances into the rearview and spots Kyle looking out the window with a look of mild discomfort on his face, "What about you back there, ever seen a ghost?" she asks, adding a bit of a chuckle at the end.

 

[Shattered Archon]

Kyle shakes his head.

"No.. never. I've seen some pretty freaky stuff, but all of it was, shall we say... man-made. Not that i'm discounting the possibility of the supernatural, though. Just because i haven't seen it doesn't mean it isn't out there... just that i have yet to be in the right place."

He adjusts the strap on his camera a little. "I've never been at the scene of a ..what was it? 'satanic ritual crime'? ..before. I'm guessing it isn't going to be a pretty sight."

.oO(i wonder how much further it is... she does know where she's going, right? I'm not convinced this was the right turning... ugh, i hate the countryside)

 

[bruin]

As Tanya's eyes move away from the road to glance at Kyle in the mirror, she fails to see that a figure has materialized in the road, not that far ahead of them. Just as Kyle is giving his response, she catches sight of the figure and realizes she is going to hit it. In desperation, she tries to swerve left, but it is too late.

You hear a loud thunk as you mow down the figure, and Tanya fails to keep the car under control. The car swerves and skids left, losing traction and finally coming to rest about 30 ft further just off the left side of the road in a muddy ditch. Tanya tries stepping on the gas, but it's no use; the car can gain no traction and is stuck in the ditch.

Outside, the rain continues to pour down. You see dense forest to the left and right sides of the road. The road back to the gas station would take many miles to traverse, and you didn't see anything else on your way here. Ahead, the road seems to continue as it has been as far as you can see.

 

[Majin]

Damien gets out of the car and looks around for any signs of the figure that we hit. (OOC: Spot check. I didn't catch whether you were making the rolls for us or not Bruin, if not I rolled a 17 (12+5)