Strange Remnants

[Quatermass]

Encounter Phase 2, Part 1

Feeling much better after a long night's sleep, Norman Withers begins to study the strange parchment with the crawling glyphs. After a long while of trying to decipher them this gaze lingers over the moving runes. They dance and swim about the page as if they are beckoning him. His vision seems to expand and dive through the pages on to strange vistas and the roaring sound of wind hangs muted in the background. Norman's perception the sees the city of Arkham stretched out below him as if from a bird's eye view.



[dice]0[/dice]
Success. Will encounter Clue in Space 4.
Clairvoyance Spell flipped. 1-2: The visions are clouded and murky. Roll 1 less die when resolving tests during the Research Encounter.

With a shot, Norman's perception races off at a terrible speed to the north and west.

[Quatermass]

Encounter Phase 2, Part 2

Norman looks about the snow bound clearing. Pine trees thick around him. It should be cold he muses but he feels nothing. Then from the shadows of the trees a dark skinned man walks forward. You have come seeking knowledge? the man says in a voice like ages. "I can give you that knowledge and much much more. Will you take it? The voice in back of Norman's mind implores him to run but the pull is too great. "Yes...." Norman mutters.

The dark skinned man walks forwards and takes Norman's hand. The touch is deathly cold and it burns. Norman screams.

Norman wakes at his desk. Where am I? Then he realizes what had happened or did it. That's when he sees the mark on his hand. A black mark that looks like a three lobed eye!



I will gain a Dark Pact and two clues.


I will spend one Clue from the Encounter to place a Eldritch Token in space 4.

[DSIGFUSS]

Turn 2 - Encounter Phase - Research Encounter.



Charlie wakes in a daze and stumbles out of bed. He was still on the damn boat. He could feel the rocking and the swells of the Pacific beneath his feet. He rubs the wound on his shoulder and grins. It felt much better. That leggy nun fixed him up real good.

Man what a looker… Nice Gams!!!

Charlie splashes water on his face and then notices the full unopened bottle of Gin and the Tom Collins Mix on his night side table. He rushes to it and pours himself a stiff one.

That a girl Phyllis!!

After two more, Charlie felt straight enough to leave his cabin and headed for the Captains Quarters. This trip was taking much longer than anticipated and he had urgent business in Tokyo.

On the way, Phyllis was waiting for him in the mess hall and immediately attacked Charlie with all the assistance he could ever ask for in his own personal Hell. Campaign Bills… Expense statements… correspondence…

Jesus Phyllis… We’re on a god damn boat!!

And we might as well use this time to catch up on same paperwork Mr. Kane, so if you can please sign these statements and take a look at this petition. The Ironworks Union is expecting…

Charlie waved a hand at Phyllis and continued to the Captain’s Quarters. He was please to see that the Captain was drinking.

I wonder why all sailors drink rum? Ridiculous stereotype but accurate to a fault.

After several shots of rum and a couple more Tom Collins’, the Captain agreed to skip a fueling stop in exchange for political favors in San Francisco Charlie had no intention of keeping. That would shave a few hours off his voyage and give him some more time sort out some of this end of the world business…

That was the benefit of being Charlie Kane. He could sell ice to the Eskimos…

Spoiler:

ooc- Charlie receives one clue and uses up his second clue to place an Eldritch token on Space 19.

[Tabs]

Turn 2, Encounter Phase, Shanghai





"I need some answers," thinks Marie. The only English language newspaper is The Shanghai Courier, so she seeks out its offices, hoping to peruse their archive in search of strange or unexplained stories.

"夫人," says the receptionist without looking up from her polished fingernails; when there is no reply she impatiently does so, her eyes widen at sight of Marie Lambeau. The receptionist rattles off an unintelligible, to Marie, sentence.

"English?" says Marie hopefully.

"You have been horribly sunburned, poor girl!"

"No, Miss Lin," interjects the editor who is passing by the front desk, "an educated tribeswoman from the far west. Gobi?"

"Yes, that's right," agrees Marie, sensing that the editor is friendly.

Searching through old copies of The Shanghai Courier, Observation 2 + Blessed [dice]0[/dice]

[Tabs]

Turn 2, Mythos Phase



Spawn Clues: space 16 and space 18.

3 Eldritch tokens on Mythos card.

[Mr. Handy]

Turn 3 Action Phase
After some more unsuccessful lessons from Dr. Zimmermann, Tony boards a ship with him bound for London. A telegram from Norman had told him that something big was going on in London and to meet him there.

OOC,Action 1: Focus Action. 1 Focus gained. [url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4863176/]Will check (2 dice) using Specialized Training, Turn 3 (2d6.hits(5)=0)[/url]. No skill increase this time. Action 2: Travel: Rome->London

[Quatermass]

Turn 3 Action Phase



Norman Withers walked up the gangplank onto the USS Orduna. The passenger liner was beautiful but Norman didn't notice. He had too much on his mind. He was finally traveling to England. What he hoped to find there...no dreaded to find there filled his thoughts. Through out the whole voyage Norman barely came out of his cabin. He had a lot of studying to do.

1) Travel to London
2) Gain Focus.

[DSIGFUSS]

Turn 3 Action Phase

Charlie Kane finally steps off the boat onto the dry port of Tokyo Japan.

What a buncha busy bodies he thinks to himself as the sheer number of people shuffling about and carrying on with their day to day business overwhelms his pounding head. Gin hangovers were the worst. Like a pine tree half stuck in your nasal cavity while a midget hammers on your nuts with a side show mallet. Charlie takes a swig from the flask in his inside suit pocket.

Buh....

The roar of a motorcycle humms behind him as nun in a short skirt revs her engine and tears past him. Charlie rubs his partially healed shoulder.

Nice Gams!!

Charming Mr. Kane as always.

Phyllis walks up to Charlie and hands him a copy of the Tokyo paper. She had a system and knew what Charlie was after before even he did. Charlie grins at Phyllis and begins to skim through the paper looking for relevant headlines. There were some killings in the woods north of Tokyo. Something about cannibals and other key words Charlie knew to look for. Charlie couldn't remember when he picked up Japanese but here it was, rolling off the tongue like a cheap cigar. His eyes squinted as he saw things for how they really were. How these cannibals in the woods might be up to something far more nefarious than simple a human Barbeque. He;'d have to investigate after a few more Tom Collins.

Charlie flipped through the paper and actually guffawed when he read the next story hidden deep in the entertainment section. Some scientists say some giant Penguins in the Arctic killed a polar bear.

Jesus Phyllis! A Giant Penguin.

Indeed Sir!

Do we still have a guy with a gun in the Artic.

I believe so. A ranger of some description. .

Good! I want that damn Penguin dead by morning!

I'll make the call.

Phyllis?

Yes Sir.

I'm out of Tom Collins mix.

Spoiler:

1) Travel to Tokyo
2) Gain Assets

[dice]5[/dice]


Then for the reroll. [dice]6[/dice]

[Tabs]

Turn 3, Action Phase, Shanghai

Extra Action: gain Focus (cast Voice of Ra and lose 1 Health).
Action 1: gain Ship Ticket.
Action 2: Travel to space 19.

Shanghai's train station is a hive of humanity. Luckily its ticket office also sells Ship Tickets, so when Marie books a cabin on the locomotive heading north she takes advantage of the opportunity to buy another--"You never know when I'll need one," she thinks.

She changes trains at the Soviet border, the new locomotive, emblazoned with a red star, wends its way through Kamchatka to an icy wilderness.

[Mr. Handy]

Turn 3 Encounter Phase
Tony takes the train from London to the Salisbury Plain to visit Stonehenge, where Norman had told him that the beacon might be located. Supposedly it would hasten the end of the world if left operational as the astronomical conjunction approaches. He searches the megalithic structures thoroughly, and he manages to find a hidden compartment concealed in one of the menhir stones. Inside is an ancient artifact with flashing lights over its surface. Not knowing how to deactivate it, he settles for smashing it to bits and stomping on it. The lights go out, the beacon destroyed.

OOC,[url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4864433/]Observation roll (4 dice) encountering the Rumor, Turn 3 (4d6.hits(5)=2)[/url]. Rumor solved. 8-)

[Quatermass]

Turn 3 Encounter Phase: London



Bulldog Drummond was caught dead to rights. The two men had found his hiding place and one had a gun. When he had followed up on that smuggling ring he hadn't thought to run into some sort of crazy cult in the home of the Earl of Albemarle. The party was just starting with black robes, shiny knives, and chanting. It looked like Drummond would be the main coarse.

"Come out of there.." hissed the man with the gun. But just before Drummond could act a elderly man with a long greying beard wearing a rumpled brown suit and carrying a umbrella crashed though the door. His eyes were wild and he charged the two men swinging that umbrella like a club. Drummond jumped to action and hit the man in front of him with a quick jab to his jaw. The man fell like a sack of potatoes. He turned to see the old man striking the other with repeated blows with the umbrella and within a few seconds the man was on the ground unconscious. "Who are you?" Drummond asked. The man straighted up and looked at Drummond. "I am Norman Withers. We need to get out of here!"

Spoiler:

[dice]0[/dice]
Norman Defeats the Cultists and a Clue is spawned.

[DSIGFUSS]

Turn 3 Encounter Phase- City

Charlie next finds himself in a smokey bar. If he was going into the woods to confront some crazed flesh eating sons of bitches, he would need a few things. First off... he would need to see the local Dragon's Den and get his hands on some first rate opiates. It had been far too long since he'd chase that particular dragon and the Dragon Lord called his name.

Luckliy Phyllis was there to light his pipe and then guide him back.

Unfortunately, Charlie often found himself in some less than scrupulous situations when he was high on Opium. He awoke this time in puddle of thick sludge in the darkness of Tokyo' sewer system. And worse... He had lost his flask.

He heard heavy footsteps approaching... and a low muffled whimper.

Phyllis? Did you gain weight?

Then the scaly creature was on him. Half fish and half man... The Deep One grappled with Charlie in the narrow sewer tunnel.

Spoiler:

[dice]0[/dice]

Charlie had no idea where his strength came from but he turned suddenly and threw the creature against the wall. There was a loud crack as its fish shaped skull smashed hard into a outflow pipe on the sewer wall. The creature slumped back into the sewer water and Charlie squinted to see a squirming shape in a sac that the Deep One was dragging through the tunnel. There was someone inside it....

Spoiler:

Charlie passes his strength check and gains an ally.

[Tabs]

Turn 3, Encounter Phase, space 19



Marie steps down from the locomotive's foot plate and surveys the frozen, ramshackle station. "Good God," she thinks, "this dump makes my Louisiana marshes seem like a paradise." She recalls grand-mère's words, the ones which launched Marie on this globe-trotting nightmare, "When the planets align with the center of the universe, child, and the Earth falls under the shadow of an eclipse, that which would devour all life seeks to pierce the veil that keeps the darkness at bay. . . . Go to the Kingdom of Sarawak, an old evil has returned. . . ." And that was why she was singing So In Love in the Indo-chinnie nightclub, and since then had followed a trail of clues which had led her here. Here! She looks around again and cannot believe the desolation of the place.

The locomotive puffs away leaving Marie stranded and feeling very alone. A reindeer herder, dressed in coarse-stitched hide and with features like her notion of an Eskimo's, approaches her and bows. They agree terms: Marie's watch (he will not accept money) for food and a bed in his yurt--she guesses that means she'll be sleeping among his livestock.

Twilight falls ever so quickly. Marie sees a cheery looking bonfire at the foot of an obelisk, its flames leap into darkness.



Grand-mère's voice echoes inside her mind. "Not all who walk the Earth wish to see humanity survive the eclipse."



Ambushed by a Cultist, Strength 2 +2[Ritual Dagger] + Blessed [dice]0[/dice]

An arm wraps around Marie's neck and she is pulled backwards upon the slushy, dirt track. A thumb pushes into her neck, crushing her windpipe; her eyes roll upwards, she cannot breathe, and she begins to choke to death. "Don't give up!" rages a familiar voice. Her fingers grasp the Ritual Dagger and she blindly jabs it upwards into his flesh, over and over again. She can breathe! The reindeer herder lies beside her, his face a bloody mess of punctures. Marie promptly vomits into her hand.

The bonfire is immediately extinguished--with the death of a member, the ritual, a plea to the court of Azathoth, is over.

Eldritch token placed upon the Mystery.

[Tabs]

Turn 3, Mythos Phase



Advance the Omen: red sun, 1 Eldritch token placed on that space.

Resolve Reckoning effects: possessions and Conditions.

@Norman Withers



@Charlie Kane



@Marie Lambeau



Lore 3 +1[improvement] + Blessed [dice]0[/dice]
1-2: Stress and fatigue wears at you. Lose 1 Sanity.



[dice]1[/dice]



[dice]2[/dice]

[Quatermass]

@Norman Withers



[dice]0[/dice]

[DSIGFUSS]

@Charlie Kane



[dice]0[/dice]

[Tabs]

@Norman Withers



@Charlie Kane



Spawn Gate: The Pyramids (blue constellation) and



Text effect: Tony Morgan gains

[Quatermass]

Bulldog Drummond had a lot of useful information that could be used by Norman. Something down in the Antarctic needed looking into. Suddenly the Dark Man appeared in front of Norman. He just walked out of a shadow. "Norman, the time has come. Choose." He held out his hand and there was a fan, a bullet, and a coin. Norman knew what they meant. Each was a friend of his. Norman sighed and picked the coin.

Spoiler:

Charlie's Devoured

[Tabs]

Charlie Kane is devoured. Doom advances by 1 (13 down to 12), discard everything of his, and choose a new investigator at the end of the Mythos Phase.

[DSIGFUSS]

Charlie Devoured

Charlie sat in his hotel room with Brother Nethaniel and Phyllis. Phyllis wore a smug little grin as Nethaniel tore into Charlie’s lifestyle choices with an almighty righteousness that made Charlie want to choke a kitten. Charlie had just rescued Nethaniel after a serious Opium binge that landed him in the sewers of Tokyo. A rescue that never would have taken place he reminded the preacher if Charlie’s lifestyle choices were not as they were.

He nursed his Gin... suckled at it as if it were his last.

Nethaniel took a break from berating Charlie’s addictive personalities and poured himself a cup of tea. He offered one to Phyllis and she gladly accepted.

Why thankyou Nethaniel. How very kind of you.

Phyllis’s tone was obviously directed at Charlie and he took another longer swig from his Gin.

I’ll have some of that Tea too if you don’t mind Brother Nethaniel. The leaves will do me some good.

Nethaniel poured Charlie a cup and he drank it down eagerly.

They all drank for a few minutes in silence and then finally, Charlie started smiling.

Phyllis had moved closer to the priest and had started to pet his head like a beloved family pet. Both rocked uneasily to what appeared to be the beating of Charlie’s heart. Brother Nethaniel’s hand moved slowly up Phyliis’ skirt and the assistant tugged playfully at the Priest’s collar as the two began to explore each other in a clearly biblical way.

Charlie groped at the velvet arms of the chair he was nestled in. It seemed to pulse with his touch. He would have to remember the name of the herbs he put in the tea but it had escaped his memory at the moment. The Dragon Lord had charged him a hefty price for it and it was worth every yen as far as he could tell.

Phyllis and Nerthaniel were now writhing on the floor tearing off each other’s clothing in a lust reserved only for the young and the primitive. Phyllis scratched at Nethaniel, tearing deep cuts into his back and neck as the two continued on in violent ecstasy.

Charlie could feel himself sinking further into his armchair. The purple velvet now felt more akin to flesh than cloth. Small Ivory horns, like rows of teeth, began to pierce the flesh of his armchair all around him. The back of the chair stretched high above his head and the wood creaked and moaned as the horror of the thing took shape. Worse, it felt as though he was reclining on a thick bulbous tongue of some description.

Nethaniel and Phyllis were now heavy into their own unique style of violent lovemaking. Both were bloody and crying out with pleasure. Nethaniel had already pulled out most of her hair and Phyllis now reached into Nethanel’s eye and plucked it out like a grape. She held the thing between her fingers and smiled with a Mother’s care at Charlie.

Charlie smiled back as the chair devoured him.