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The Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep d20
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<blockquote data-quote="Nebulous" data-source="post: 4128467" data-attributes="member: 31465"><p><span style="font-size: 15px">Adventure #21: Fires, Vampires & Tea</span></p><p></p><p>Trudging up the slope from the decimated night platform, the group hauls a makeshift litter of ten ghoul corpses as hard evidence of the supernatural. Someone will have to pay attention to this. They're nearly out of the jungle when Silent Joe appears. </p><p></p><p><img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/joe.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>He cradles a rifle and, speaking for the first time, says: "So...you found the small demons." He seems to have known that there was SOMETHING unnatural out there, living beneath an old Boyovo burial ground. Colonel Endicott's hunting platform was built right in the middle of it.</p><p></p><p>Silent Joe seems impressed by the investigators. They are all hurt, scratched, bloodied and aching, and he suggests that they should meet his great-grandfather Old Bundari, a shaman in the tribal village of Boyova. He knows about "strange happenings" in Kenya, but Silent Joe won’t say much more. The investigators agree, but insist they need to go to the lodge first, rest and clean up, and show Endicott the corpses, the real reason behind the mysterious murders.</p><p></p><p>They meet Endicott at the top of the stairs. He is clad in striped gown-pajamas with a cap and fuzzy ball, still drunk and discombobulated from the night before; he thought that the dynamite explosions were thunder. Silent Joe is clearly apathetic toward his employer. The Colonel is about to go outside and investigate the strange "elk" that the group has killed, when he stops, and says: "Do you hear that?"</p><p></p><p>Unfortunately, Chang, Lucifer, Lester and Chad are all too familiar with the sound: </p><p></p><p>The haunting cry of fire vampires! </p><p></p><p><img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/vampire2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>Flames are already licking the front porch, and they ask Endicott about a reliable water source. There is a pump-action well outside and buckets, so the group rushes that direction. Father Salvatore, new to the team, is unfamiliar with this vampiric danger, but he is a fast learner. And after a night of killing ghouls, he is not entirely surprised by the development.</p><p></p><p>Chang runs for the safety of the deeper woods, while Salvatore and Lester pump water into buckets. Chad Slambody spots movement behind a distant tree, and hears the chugging of an engine that won't quite start. He jogs in that direction, narrowly dodging a fire vampire that floats down from the porch in ambush; another drops off the roof. The vampires shoot straight toward the targets in the open: Lester and Father Salvatore. They desperately throw water at the entities, but what damage they inflict is negated by the deadly life-draining touch of the vampires. They swell and spark even brighter.</p><p></p><p>Chad finds a middle-aged Kenyan man wearing a turban trying to kickstart a motorcycle. At the last second he gets it going, spins out, and erupts through the brush, hits the dirt road and spins out toward Nairobi. Chad leaps through the brush, levels his shotgun and FIRES! The back wheel explodes, rubber and metal shredded in a bloom of flame, and the man is launched head over handlebars and rolls to a painful stop.</p><p></p><p><img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/tandoor2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, the vampires chase Lester and Father Salvatore. The humans are much faster though, and outrun them. Lester tries to find keys in the truck while Salvatore runs inside and fills buckets from the faucet. The game lodge is already inundated with smoke and flames, and he begins coughing from smoke inhalation. Silent Joe, terrified now, begins popping off shots at the living flames, but it does no good. Colonel Endicott runs out the front door with his shotgun Mrs. Caruthers readied in his hands.</p><p></p><p>“DIE you flaming sons of bitches!”</p><p></p><p>Elsewhere, Chad begins wrestling the man he blasted off the motorcycle, and finally renders him unconscious in a brutal chokehold.</p><p></p><p>Lester can't find any car keys and tries to run inside, but the smoke forces him out. Chang and Salvatore have just filled several buckets when something NEW tears through the back door in a splintering hail of fire and wood: a man-sized living flame, swinging its fists! </p><p></p><p><img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/elemental.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>They abandon all attempts to fight it and flee out the front door after Silent Joe, who has grabbed the keys to the safari truck. The hunting lodge is largely on fire now, and Colonel Endicott's gun retorts can be heard from behind the building. Everyone loads into the truck, the unconscious man in the turban is haphazardly lashed to the hood, and the wheel around back, where Chad once again makes an impressive feat of strength and manhandles Endicott as they drive by, hauling him into the vehicle. They tear down the bumpy road, leaving the lodge to burn behind them, along with the ghouls...</p><p></p><p>Ten miles later they stop, nearly halfway back to Nairobi. The smoke will be seen and fire wagons dispatched, and the party need to get their stories straight. They slap their captive awake, who they suspect summoned the demonic fire beings, probably three times now, even on the Unguandan Railway from Mombasa. But Colonel Endicott recognizes him: Tandoor Singh! Browntown's best tea-seller and owner of a small shop. He is threatened, and hisses that "M'weru will kill you all!" They recognize the name M'Weru as being the same enigmatic black woman who helped lead the Carlyle expedition five years ago, and with whom Roger Carlyle was infatuated.</p><p></p><p>Soon, the fire patrol arrives, the group points them toward the lodge, and the investigators continue to Captain Montgomery at the police station. With Colonel Endicott's help and support, they are able to pin the arson charges on Tandoor Singh. He is already babbling like a deranged man and doing a poor job of defending his reputation.</p><p></p><p>Unfortunately, in other news, Lucifer Lardlover, the French magician of dark power, has had an urgent calling from his secret circle, the Order of the Flaccid Mallard. He must depart Nairobi at once, but orders his henchman Chad Slambody to protect Lester Cobblebottom instead, and to help the investigators with their mission, as it is of utmost importance.</p><p></p><p>Thoroughly depressed, and still in his pajamas, Colonel Endicott goes to the pub to get ripped. The investigators wearily return to Natalie Smyth-Forbes, who has been very worried about her wonderful Lester Cobblebottom. She coddles him and tends his many wounds, but Chang and Chad have other plans that night. Before turning Tandoor Singh over to the authorities on trumped up evidence of arson, they found a key on him.</p><p></p><p>A key to his Tea Shop, where they arrive around midnight. Chad is customarily naked and oiled up, and they carry cans of empty gas to further incriminate Tandoor. However, before entering, they spot two Kenyan men at the back door, wearing caps with long red tassels...</p><p></p><p><img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/tassel.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>...men who Chang instantly recognizes as cultists of the Bloody Tongue, many of whom they killed in New York City. Kenya is the central headquarters for the Bloody Tongue branch. The cultists wait for Tandoor, but he is in jail and won’t be coming to the door, so they soon leave. Chad and Chang sneak in, and after a thorough search, find a door to the basement. Bravely, Chang advances alone while Chad keeps watch.</p><p></p><p>The basement reeks of death. The earthen cellar floor has grave-like mounds. There is a hideous altar with handcuffs, and a disgusting squid-like statue holding four basalt scythes. Inside a cabinet Chang finds a note, a book, robes, a cleaver and incense cones, and takes them. They leave the back door open and position the gas cans as further arson evidence, and then get as far away as they can, hoping no one saw them...</p><p></p><p>The next morning they look over what they have found. The book is written in Hindi, and only Natalie can read the title: <strong><em>The Chthuat Aquadigen</em></strong>. The most interesting item is the note however:</p><p></p><p>It is a folded telegraph from Port Hedland, Australia, addressed to Tandoor, dated several days prior. It is from someone named Huston, (possibly Huston of the Carlyle Expedition) and he is trying to find Tandoor's cousin in Mombasa, after some terrible accident at a warehouse.</p><p></p><p><img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/fire2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>It seems that several of the lost (and presumed dead) members of the expedition are not so dead and lost after all: there have been references to Brady, Huston and M'Weru long after their documented fates in Kenya.</p><p></p><p>And there we stopped.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Nebulous, post: 4128467, member: 31465"] [size=4]Adventure #21: Fires, Vampires & Tea[/size] Trudging up the slope from the decimated night platform, the group hauls a makeshift litter of ten ghoul corpses as hard evidence of the supernatural. Someone will have to pay attention to this. They're nearly out of the jungle when Silent Joe appears. [img]http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/joe.jpg[/img] He cradles a rifle and, speaking for the first time, says: "So...you found the small demons." He seems to have known that there was SOMETHING unnatural out there, living beneath an old Boyovo burial ground. Colonel Endicott's hunting platform was built right in the middle of it. Silent Joe seems impressed by the investigators. They are all hurt, scratched, bloodied and aching, and he suggests that they should meet his great-grandfather Old Bundari, a shaman in the tribal village of Boyova. He knows about "strange happenings" in Kenya, but Silent Joe won’t say much more. The investigators agree, but insist they need to go to the lodge first, rest and clean up, and show Endicott the corpses, the real reason behind the mysterious murders. They meet Endicott at the top of the stairs. He is clad in striped gown-pajamas with a cap and fuzzy ball, still drunk and discombobulated from the night before; he thought that the dynamite explosions were thunder. Silent Joe is clearly apathetic toward his employer. The Colonel is about to go outside and investigate the strange "elk" that the group has killed, when he stops, and says: "Do you hear that?" Unfortunately, Chang, Lucifer, Lester and Chad are all too familiar with the sound: The haunting cry of fire vampires! [img]http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/vampire2.jpg[/img] Flames are already licking the front porch, and they ask Endicott about a reliable water source. There is a pump-action well outside and buckets, so the group rushes that direction. Father Salvatore, new to the team, is unfamiliar with this vampiric danger, but he is a fast learner. And after a night of killing ghouls, he is not entirely surprised by the development. Chang runs for the safety of the deeper woods, while Salvatore and Lester pump water into buckets. Chad Slambody spots movement behind a distant tree, and hears the chugging of an engine that won't quite start. He jogs in that direction, narrowly dodging a fire vampire that floats down from the porch in ambush; another drops off the roof. The vampires shoot straight toward the targets in the open: Lester and Father Salvatore. They desperately throw water at the entities, but what damage they inflict is negated by the deadly life-draining touch of the vampires. They swell and spark even brighter. Chad finds a middle-aged Kenyan man wearing a turban trying to kickstart a motorcycle. At the last second he gets it going, spins out, and erupts through the brush, hits the dirt road and spins out toward Nairobi. Chad leaps through the brush, levels his shotgun and FIRES! The back wheel explodes, rubber and metal shredded in a bloom of flame, and the man is launched head over handlebars and rolls to a painful stop. [img]http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/tandoor2.jpg[/img] Meanwhile, the vampires chase Lester and Father Salvatore. The humans are much faster though, and outrun them. Lester tries to find keys in the truck while Salvatore runs inside and fills buckets from the faucet. The game lodge is already inundated with smoke and flames, and he begins coughing from smoke inhalation. Silent Joe, terrified now, begins popping off shots at the living flames, but it does no good. Colonel Endicott runs out the front door with his shotgun Mrs. Caruthers readied in his hands. “DIE you flaming sons of bitches!” Elsewhere, Chad begins wrestling the man he blasted off the motorcycle, and finally renders him unconscious in a brutal chokehold. Lester can't find any car keys and tries to run inside, but the smoke forces him out. Chang and Salvatore have just filled several buckets when something NEW tears through the back door in a splintering hail of fire and wood: a man-sized living flame, swinging its fists! [img]http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/elemental.jpg[/img] They abandon all attempts to fight it and flee out the front door after Silent Joe, who has grabbed the keys to the safari truck. The hunting lodge is largely on fire now, and Colonel Endicott's gun retorts can be heard from behind the building. Everyone loads into the truck, the unconscious man in the turban is haphazardly lashed to the hood, and the wheel around back, where Chad once again makes an impressive feat of strength and manhandles Endicott as they drive by, hauling him into the vehicle. They tear down the bumpy road, leaving the lodge to burn behind them, along with the ghouls... Ten miles later they stop, nearly halfway back to Nairobi. The smoke will be seen and fire wagons dispatched, and the party need to get their stories straight. They slap their captive awake, who they suspect summoned the demonic fire beings, probably three times now, even on the Unguandan Railway from Mombasa. But Colonel Endicott recognizes him: Tandoor Singh! Browntown's best tea-seller and owner of a small shop. He is threatened, and hisses that "M'weru will kill you all!" They recognize the name M'Weru as being the same enigmatic black woman who helped lead the Carlyle expedition five years ago, and with whom Roger Carlyle was infatuated. Soon, the fire patrol arrives, the group points them toward the lodge, and the investigators continue to Captain Montgomery at the police station. With Colonel Endicott's help and support, they are able to pin the arson charges on Tandoor Singh. He is already babbling like a deranged man and doing a poor job of defending his reputation. Unfortunately, in other news, Lucifer Lardlover, the French magician of dark power, has had an urgent calling from his secret circle, the Order of the Flaccid Mallard. He must depart Nairobi at once, but orders his henchman Chad Slambody to protect Lester Cobblebottom instead, and to help the investigators with their mission, as it is of utmost importance. Thoroughly depressed, and still in his pajamas, Colonel Endicott goes to the pub to get ripped. The investigators wearily return to Natalie Smyth-Forbes, who has been very worried about her wonderful Lester Cobblebottom. She coddles him and tends his many wounds, but Chang and Chad have other plans that night. Before turning Tandoor Singh over to the authorities on trumped up evidence of arson, they found a key on him. A key to his Tea Shop, where they arrive around midnight. Chad is customarily naked and oiled up, and they carry cans of empty gas to further incriminate Tandoor. However, before entering, they spot two Kenyan men at the back door, wearing caps with long red tassels... [img]http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/tassel.jpg[/img] ...men who Chang instantly recognizes as cultists of the Bloody Tongue, many of whom they killed in New York City. Kenya is the central headquarters for the Bloody Tongue branch. The cultists wait for Tandoor, but he is in jail and won’t be coming to the door, so they soon leave. Chad and Chang sneak in, and after a thorough search, find a door to the basement. Bravely, Chang advances alone while Chad keeps watch. The basement reeks of death. The earthen cellar floor has grave-like mounds. There is a hideous altar with handcuffs, and a disgusting squid-like statue holding four basalt scythes. Inside a cabinet Chang finds a note, a book, robes, a cleaver and incense cones, and takes them. They leave the back door open and position the gas cans as further arson evidence, and then get as far away as they can, hoping no one saw them... The next morning they look over what they have found. The book is written in Hindi, and only Natalie can read the title: [b][i]The Chthuat Aquadigen[/i][/b]. The most interesting item is the note however: It is a folded telegraph from Port Hedland, Australia, addressed to Tandoor, dated several days prior. It is from someone named Huston, (possibly Huston of the Carlyle Expedition) and he is trying to find Tandoor's cousin in Mombasa, after some terrible accident at a warehouse. [img]http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/fire2.jpg[/img] It seems that several of the lost (and presumed dead) members of the expedition are not so dead and lost after all: there have been references to Brady, Huston and M'Weru long after their documented fates in Kenya. And there we stopped. [/QUOTE]
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