Ok, after starting the Cthulhu madness thread earlier on, I figured some people here might like to hear about the campaign I've started running, and how it went.
The campaign is particularly unusual in structure, as it is a fixed campaign of nine adventures, with the first adventure set in 1925, the second more or less a decade later, the third a decade after that, and so on (1930s, 1940s, 1950s, etc) so as the last one takes place in 2005. Obviously, the players are expected to play more than one character in the course of the campaign, but since this is Cthulhu that just about goes without saying.
The story has its own very particular twist too: The first adventure involved the player characters ending up in a resort town in italy, most of them having been called there by Aleister Crowley (while a couple poor sods were there by accident). Turns out a couple of Crowley's students stole a rare copy of a fragment from the Book of Ghul, a dark lorebook that was said to originate somewhere in the Himalayas (of which Crowley had an Arabic Mughal-era translation). These rogue students intent to use this fraction of the book to call down a "Moonchilde", a magical creation, a child that could determine the fate of all mankind, whom those who possessed it could conquer the world. A force of great destruction, or perhaps creation.
Crowley had rejected the Moonchild ritual, as too unpredictable, and dangerous. But these two students (one male, one female) rejected his conclusion, stole the fragment and ran off to these ancient roman ruins in the resort town to perform the ritual.
When the PCs get there, they find out about another problem, in the form of the Deep Ones. Attracted by the massive magical energies being called by the ritual, they too would desire to take the moonchilde, and begin an attack on the town. Some of the PCs have to get the local garrison of Mussolini's army organized to fight back against the incursion.
Others find out from a local astronomer that what appears to be some kind of shooting star has mysteriously appeared in the sky, headed this way.
The players with Crowley find the two cultists, in the midst of the sexual ritual to summon the moonchilde. The PCs start shooting, and kill the male cultist, but the Deep Ones interrupt, and the female cultist manages to kidnap one of the male PCs, and starts to complete the ritual.
One of the PCs elsewhere figures out that in the ruins there is a ritual to draw away the Deep Ones (who were apparently a problem in the Etruscan times, too), and conducts the ritual, even though it ends up costing him his life. The Deep Ones finally pull back into the sea.
The remaining PCs end up catching up with the female cultists at the local church, she's in the midst of the ritual with the male PC, and the shooting star is now visible in the sky. Someone shoots her, she dies, and it seems to be all over.
Or is it? The local astronomer confirms to Crowley and the PCs that the shooting star seemed to shift direction (after the interruption of the ritual), but it DID land.
After a few days of calculations, he can tell the PCs with some certainty that the shooting star supposedly carrying this "moonchilde" that could affect human destiny crashed in the United States...
in the state of Kansas...
Near a little town called Smallville...
Nisarg
The campaign is particularly unusual in structure, as it is a fixed campaign of nine adventures, with the first adventure set in 1925, the second more or less a decade later, the third a decade after that, and so on (1930s, 1940s, 1950s, etc) so as the last one takes place in 2005. Obviously, the players are expected to play more than one character in the course of the campaign, but since this is Cthulhu that just about goes without saying.
The story has its own very particular twist too: The first adventure involved the player characters ending up in a resort town in italy, most of them having been called there by Aleister Crowley (while a couple poor sods were there by accident). Turns out a couple of Crowley's students stole a rare copy of a fragment from the Book of Ghul, a dark lorebook that was said to originate somewhere in the Himalayas (of which Crowley had an Arabic Mughal-era translation). These rogue students intent to use this fraction of the book to call down a "Moonchilde", a magical creation, a child that could determine the fate of all mankind, whom those who possessed it could conquer the world. A force of great destruction, or perhaps creation.
Crowley had rejected the Moonchild ritual, as too unpredictable, and dangerous. But these two students (one male, one female) rejected his conclusion, stole the fragment and ran off to these ancient roman ruins in the resort town to perform the ritual.
When the PCs get there, they find out about another problem, in the form of the Deep Ones. Attracted by the massive magical energies being called by the ritual, they too would desire to take the moonchilde, and begin an attack on the town. Some of the PCs have to get the local garrison of Mussolini's army organized to fight back against the incursion.
Others find out from a local astronomer that what appears to be some kind of shooting star has mysteriously appeared in the sky, headed this way.
The players with Crowley find the two cultists, in the midst of the sexual ritual to summon the moonchilde. The PCs start shooting, and kill the male cultist, but the Deep Ones interrupt, and the female cultist manages to kidnap one of the male PCs, and starts to complete the ritual.
One of the PCs elsewhere figures out that in the ruins there is a ritual to draw away the Deep Ones (who were apparently a problem in the Etruscan times, too), and conducts the ritual, even though it ends up costing him his life. The Deep Ones finally pull back into the sea.
The remaining PCs end up catching up with the female cultists at the local church, she's in the midst of the ritual with the male PC, and the shooting star is now visible in the sky. Someone shoots her, she dies, and it seems to be all over.
Or is it? The local astronomer confirms to Crowley and the PCs that the shooting star seemed to shift direction (after the interruption of the ritual), but it DID land.
After a few days of calculations, he can tell the PCs with some certainty that the shooting star supposedly carrying this "moonchilde" that could affect human destiny crashed in the United States...
in the state of Kansas...
Near a little town called Smallville...
Nisarg
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
