ULTIMATE Chicago Games Day Story Hour

[Desdichado]

Well, it may take me a day or two to write these up, as I'll be away from my desk for a couple of days (normally I can add a paragraph or two at work until I've got an entire entry written) but I wanted to post my two Chicago Games Day games as story hours. While I'm at it, anyone else who wants to chronicle their games day events, feel free to toss them into this thread as well! I'll keep bugging folks until I get every table chronicled!

 

[mgrasso]

Josh,

I'll work on getting you the pertinent info on the NPCs and other stuff in the d20 Modern game, but it may come slowly: I too have much to catch up on the next couple of days at work.

Mike

 

[Desdichado]

Yeah, me too. I wanted to start the thread and see if I could get a few posts of some games, but my own games will be lucky if I can write them both this week. In any case, I'll write up my morning game first, so that gives you a little time.

 

[Mark]

Here's a link to some photos and files used for the Castle Brawl game-

http://www.creativemountaingames.com/castle.asp

Perhaps WilliamRonald, Halma or DocMorriarty will add their perspective on the game as part of this storyhour thread and wish to utilize the photos for reference.

(Great idea on starting this thread!)

 

[Desdichado]

I may have gotten a name or two wrong. If so, one of the guys who played our game can correct me, I'm sure.

What Lies Beneath (the Surface of Lake Michigan): a Chicago Games Day Call of Cthulhu Session

Near the shores of Lake Michigan, a little north of Chicago, lies the small pedagogue facility of Abernathy College, a quaint little college with decent departments in biology and liberal arts. The Abernathy College Library is also known for its small Special Collections Department which has some unusual and rare pieces. The curator of the Special Collections is now one Dr. Horley, a small, elderly man with a position on the faculty of the Archeology Department. He's actually only been the curator for a little less than a year. The prior curator left his position under mysterious circumstances.

One Friday night in the fall, a number of folks are scheduled to assist the professor in a graveyard shift at the library to catalog and verify the collection contained at Abernathy college. Earl is a dock worker -- not a real bright fellow, but someone who sees this as a way to pocket a few extra bucks. Jeff is also a bit older -- a mid-thirties occult writer who is hoping to get a glimpse at the restricted section of the library that non-faculty rarely get a chance to see. Marcus is just there to get a few points of extra credit. Jennifer (engineering major) is there to be closer to Rex. Mark actually works at the library normally and just helping out with this special project. Rex is a lacrosse player who is there on athletic scholarship (his only hope at getting into college, by the way...)

At about 7:00 PM on Friday night, the college is starting to get dark, and is quite quiet at this point. The library is closed and dark with the exception of the area in which we are working -- a dusty old room that smells of ancient, mouldering paper, with a large table in the middle around which we all sit, a number of shelves around the walls full of ancient books. At the back of the room is a caged area, and behind that are even more books and other items. Professor Horley came in and explained our task -- we were to be verifying the catalogs. Each of us had a list of books, and all night long we were to verify that the books were shelved and present as the catalog showed. Although we would have to pull books down to do so, we were strongly encouraged not to flip through the books, as they were extremely old and many of them were very fragile. In addition, we were each given a pair of latex gloves to wear so as not to get oil from our skin on the pages. The professor himself would be present, but occupied with his own cataloging and study requirements in the cage.

Earl asked about how he was to punch in, and with that, we were put to work. The professor himself was just visible inside the cage (with the gate open) looking at books, clay tablets and strange statues that left us with an odd eerie feeling, as if something were not quite right. But for the most part, we ignored him and went about our work. Rex picked up a book, and was promtply yelled at by Jennifer for not having put on his gloves. "Dude!" he said, quickly donning them.

Earl was quickly bored with the task. Looking through a few books, he was shocked to find one that appeared to be written in blood! "Look at this!" he said to a few folks. "Dude!" said Rex.

Jeff, meanwhile, was more interested in other stuff. He caught a glimpse on his list of The Cthulhu Fragments, a book he had heard about in frightened and whispered conversations with occult experts. Ignoring the other books on his list, he went straight to that one. He was amazed to find that it seemed to be bound with human skin. He spent a few minutes perusing the book, with his back to the professor. Finally, on a page with a picture of a strange humanoid creature with a squid-like head in Polynesia, something clicked in his mind, and the fragments of a greater puzzle starting to come together for him. His mind wasn't prepared for the revelation, however, and it quickly shut down, leaving him completely catatonic.

Earl noticed this and went to snap his fingers in front of Jeff's face. No reaction. He looked at the book, but he didn't understand it well enough for it to effect him. He did notice the human skin book.

"Hey, this guy is weirded out from looking at the skin book," he exclaimed. Everybody else came to check him out, but nobody could get a reaction out of him. Finally, Mark decides he needs to talk to the professor and explain to him that there is a medical emergency of some kind -- Jeff is having a seizure. The professor was busy comparing a strange idol to a diagram in a book, and seems somewhat confused and ineffective as Mark tries to take stock of the situation. Apparently the library is locked and they cannot easily make their way outside. When Mark insists that an ambulance be called, the professor leaves for his office. Mark follows behind him.

The other folks quickly look inside the cage at strange things like chipped African masks, rough-hewn claw tablets and the like, but they cannot tell at what the professor himself was recently looking.

Then the janitor comes in. He smells horrible, almost sewer-like, and when the group tries to address him, he does little more than grunt and give confused one-word replies. Deciding that he is an absolute idiot, the group continues to try and get a reaction of some type from Jeff, although a few of the guys watch the janitor warily as he works inside the cage itself. "Dude!" says Rex. "Are you supposed to be in there?" Then, he recognizes him as Professor Chen, a former biology professor who disappeared mysteriously from campus a couple of years ago. "Dude!" he says again.

Then, like a striking snake, Professor Chen/Bob Chen the janitor grabs some largish clay tablets from the cage and makes a break for the door. The crowd tries to stop him, but he pulls a gun from his jacket and holds everyone at bay. "You're all one of them!" he says. "It must stop!" Earl, in a surge of heroism decides to try to grab him, but he is shot and falls to the ground in pain. Rex tries to stop him as well, but the man shakes him off. Mark, who had tried to follow the professor, but was still just around the corner hears the shot and comes back. He sneaks up on Janitor Chen and disarms him. He still manages to run, though, and heads for a fire escape concrete stairwell. The group chases him (except for Jennifer, who wants to keep an eye on Jeff and Marcus who hides under a table) and Mark even tries to leap over the guard-rail to catch him on the next level. He misses and slams flat against the concrete stairs. Earl tries as well and is more successful, knocking Chen flat and pinning him down against the stairs.

Marcus, who it turns out is a bit of an outdoorsman, tries to tie Chen up with backpack straps, but rolls a 1 on his Use Rope check, thus creating a pretty, but ineffectual bow. We also discover that a Treat Injury check DC 15 can snap Jeff from his catatonia, which Jennifer is finally able to do. Chen is finally secured, Jeff looks at the tablets he wanted to take. He recognizes something about Deep Ones on the tablets, a term he's vaguely familiar with, especially after his recent bout with mental stretching, but he feigns ignorance in horror at what Chen may have been trying to do. The tablets are hidden under Mark's jacket in the back of the cage, and Jeff frantically looks for an unlocked office door outside of the Special Collections area where they can be hidden. Before a place is found (all doors are locked and Chen has too many keys for us to try more than a handful of them) Horley comes back and is shocked at what he sees. Mark rather angrily explains what has happened and demands an explanation for what is in the cage and what is going on. Horley doesn't say much except to shake his head slowly and say that "It's begun already!" He tells Mark and the others that there are other creatures, formerly of our world, who want to regain a foothold any way they can. The tablets Chen was trying to steal were necessary for the very last step in a ritual that would bring some of them to our world. Jeff, with his background in the occult (and his recent experiences with The Cthulhu Fragments) and a judicious Sense Motive check decides to trust Horley, while Mark angrily demands that the police be called. When Horley is reluctant to do so, he stamps out to find a way outside. Once there, he makes a cellphone call to 911 and requests a police officer.

However, when he sees us leaving, he decides to join us, leaving a tip with the police that we are heading for the docks. A clever clue, that Chen smelled like sewer and that the Deep Ones would come from the water, leads us to the only place in Chicago where a large sewer drain joins with Lake Michigan. Another item that seemed odd -- when Mark left the building, the alarms sounded very loudly. In the stairwell in the back, however, we noticed that the alarms were not sounding and appeared to be disconnected. "Dude!" says Rex. Two cars are taken, Jeff's '67 Chevy Nova and a large van.

There is a place on the docks where a large sewer opening opens to Lake Michigan, but the group spreads out slightly. Horley, Marcus and Rex walk out on a dock that extends over the lake surface, while Jennifer heads nearer to the sewer entrance. Jeff tries to stay midway between the two groups, especially since Jennifer happens to be closer to the cars. Mark stands on a large crate somewhat behind Horley, with the gun still ready in case Horley tries to betray them, while Earl decides that the cockpit of the large crane nearby is probably the safest place for him to wait.

Horley begins chanting now, in weird words that bend themselves around the listeners ear like blasphemous curses. Then he throws the tablets to the water, and surprisingly, they shatter on contact with the surface. Then the world gets quieter for a moment, and three strange shapes crawl up from the lake. Vaguely humanoid, and strongly piscoid, they crawl up on the dock. Rex yells, "DUDE!!" and Marcus faints straight away as Horley shouts out, "Here, my brethren, are sacrifices for you to destroy! Now, I can finally be one of you!" His shouting is interrupted as the Deep Ones rip him to shreds and cast his torn, spindled and mutilated body into Lake Michigan. Jeff runs for the car, Jennifer runs for the sewers to hide and Rex tries to drag Marcus to safety. Earl tries to pick up a large crate with the crane, thinking to drop it on the abominations in front of him, but with his nervous shaking hands, he is unable to manipulate the controls finely enough to successfully pick anything up. Mark jumps from the crate to make his way to the cars, but slips on landing, hurting himself badly and knocking himself unconscious. Jeff makes it to the Nova, and gets it started. Rex continues to make some progress with Marcus while Hank decides that with a 4 ft. steel crane claw, he really doesn't need to pick up a crate. Swinging the claw over towards the dock, he releases it to fall heavily, smashing through the dock and splashing into the lake. The Deep Ones dive out of the way, taking only minimal damage from the crane, but are now prone. Jeff, meanwhile, is driving his Nova straight for the Deep Ones and (rolling a natural 20 on his drive check) he flattens all but one of them with a satisfying double ba-bump sound under his tires. Earl drops the crane a final time, turning the last Deep One into a smear of blood and small silvery scales.

Sadly, just when it looked like a succesful Treat Injury check on Mark would have enabled our entire group to survive our first encounter with the Cthulhu-ian world, Jennifer's trip into the sewers puts her face to face with rats crazed from feasting on the flesh of a Deep One. Before she can react, she is killed and eaten by the rabid creatures. Also, although it was beyond the scope of our adventure, we will no doubt have a difficult time explaining to the police why we have the gun that shot Chen and Earl, why Jennifer and Horley are dead and what the strange fishy thing is smeared on the dock that we destroyed.

However, surviving the encounter with our sanity jostled yet reasonably intact is surely as good as we could have hoped!

 

[mgrasso]

Heh, great summary! I'll try to get you a list of NPCs and organizations for the D20 Modern game tonight or tomorrow.

Thanks!

Mike

 

[Desdichado]

No prob. You can send them to my e-mail jdyal@peoplepc.com if you like.

 

[fenzer]

Fun stuff Joshua. I am really tempted to run a d20/CoC mix sometime soon. I just need to talk my group into it.

Keep the updates coming, it sounds like you guys had a good time.

 

[William Ronald]

The Castle Brawl: A Combatant's Perspective

I shall begin with some of my take on the events of the castle brawl.

To begin with, the characters were teleported by a bored noble/wizard to determine who would rule a distant outpost in his name. None of the characters had time for preparation spells. Sadly, there were fewer players than anticipated, which adversely impacted some of my plans.

I chose my character's initial location to be on a roof to gain a good view of the scene. (Specifically, the small peaked roof on the right side of the castle.) Immediately, my wizard cast a spider climb (after not spotting anyone) and waited to cast an invisibility spell on himself. He also cast a see invisibility shortly later.

He tracked down the barbarian fighter played by Halma and tried to cast a Dominate spell. To my surprise, the character made his will save. My wizard retreated back to the roof.

The barbarian, using a ring of invisibility, decided to climb from an opposing angle and land on the roof. Sadly for Halma, his character was hit by an ennervation by my character. His character lost two levels and began to slide down the edge of the roof.

Hanging on for dear life, Halma's character fell onto a flag pole. (The injury may have qualified his character for the Eunuch Warlock prestige class. ) He fell further and retreated for a little while

Unfortunately, Doc Moriarity's Sorceror and I had spotted each other. I hit his character with a fireball from my wand of fireballs, in a manner to negate his 90 percent cover from a parapet. (Cast it into the parapet to do this in your games.) Unfortunately, his character was hasted and I was hit by several rays from his wand of ennervation. (Not in the DMG, but it should be.) Although I was able to cause a little more damage, my character ultimately fell to the ennervations.

I should leave it to Halma, DocMoriarity and Mark to continue this tale. I was an observer for the rest of the battle, although I did try to help speed up play.

Overall it was fun, although my character was the first to fall.

 

[Desdichado]

Sounds like a pretty fun game -- nothing like a good old slugfest to remind me of my junior high gaming days.

Waitaminute... I don't really want to be reminded of those days! Still, sounds like a fun game!

Fenzer, if you like this, you should like our next one a lot too -- we were more "heroic" -- agents of a department of the CIA that specialized in the occult (kind of an x-files except international.) A little more action oriented, but still with that good old fashioned scariness that you expect out of a modern horror-ish game!