Play@YSDC

Monastery Hill - Dunwich, England
3:47 PM - Thursday, September 5, 1985

Chad, Leonek, and Tobias sprinted through the gateway and to the car. The keys were in the ignition, and the motor was already running. As they fled, the sound behind them grew louder and rose to a crescendo of mad piping. They could not help glancing back, and they saw an enormous, roughly spherical white mass rising above the ruins, seeming to inflate before their eyes. The impossible thing was covered with eyes and mouths - far too many of them. And then it begin to roll forward, heading in their direction...

OOC,Everyone, please roll Sanity. Sanity loss is 1d6/1d20. If you lose 5 or more Sanity, please roll Idea. If you succeed at the Idea roll, you go temporarily insane. If that happens, you will also gain Cthulhu Mythos skill. [b]Chad[/b], you would gain an additional +1 to your skill, giving you a total of 6. [b]Leonek[/b] and [b]Tobias[/b], you would each gain 5 points. All of you may also make a Cthulhu Mythos roll, taking any increase into account, provided your skill is higher than 0. If you fail the Idea roll, you do not go temporarily insane and may act freely.

Sanity,[dice]0[/dice]

To fruit or not to fruit,[dice]1[/dice]

OOC: Yay, no craziness!

roll sanity,annnnnd I [url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4475735/]passed![/url]? Well what's the collateral? [url]Oh it figures. 6.[/url] new ideas? Of course [url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4475747/]Chad has new ideas[/url]

Chad sees the horrible abomination, and remarks, "yes that's pretty much how I thought it would look. But when you really see the thing, it's quite impressive no? I think I'm just starting to get an idea of what's really going on"

Chad began breaking out into hysterics.

Chad Engraham,You're hysterical for the next five rounds, including this one. Other than that, you may not take any action on your own initiative. Since you lost 20%+ of your current Sanity from that, you'll pick up another indefinite insanity that will kick in once the temporary insanity wears off. Also, please roll against your Cthulhu Mythos skill (your score is now 6%).

OOC,[b]Leonek[/b], you'll be able to shoot next round, but let's take things one round at a time. We still don't know how [b]Tobias[/b] will react, and he may need your help. In fact, you may end up needing to drive if both of them are out of it. [b]Chad[/b] isn't getting into the car on his own, but you can pull him in with you as you get inside this round, without having to roll anything. He won't resist you, and he hasn't fainted, so there's no need for a roll in this case, but he cannot take action on his own for now.

OOC: I've edited the post, I'm sure you understand that one tends to get a bit anxious being chased by one of these you-know-whats.


Leonek's eyes widened as he saw Chad go apeshit. He took him by the arm and quickly started dragging him towards the car, hoping Tobias wouldn't go gimpy too.

sanity rolls,Sanity: [url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4476396/]1d100=56, 1d6=5, 1d20=7[/url] Idea: [url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4476400/]1d100=92[/url] I'm assuming this means a big hit on sanity but as Tobias failed the idea roll he doesn't really understand what he sees and doesn't go insane:

Tobias catches sight of something monstrously awful out the corner of his eye as he concentrates on running over the uneven ground. Filled with primordial fear, his mind blanks out and he just runs as he's never run before towards the car.

Tobias raced around the car, threw open the door on the driver's side, and leapt behind the wheel while Leonek hustled Chad into the back seat of the sedan, getting in after him. The monstrosity half-rolled, half-bounced over the ruins, smashing down bits of them as it passed. It reached the open ground and started rumbling over it towards the car.

OOC,[b]Chad[/b], you'll be hysterical for this coming round and three more after it. [b]Leonek[/b], you may fire two shots before [b]Tobias[/b] can drive away. However, these shots are at extreme range, so your Handgun skill will effectively be divided by four, making it 8.75%. This means you'll need an 8 or less to hit. Yes, [b]Tobias[/b], you don't go temporarily insane. However, you've lost enough Sanity in the last hour (dropping from 42 to 33) to cause indefinite insanity. That will kick in after this encounter is over, assuming you survive.

Leonek leans out of the window and takes a few pot shots at the advancing, undulating mass.

Shot 1 (8%),[dice]0[/dice]

Shot 2 (8%),[dice]1[/dice]

OOC: Wow, what are the odds
OOC2: Roughly 8%, I'd gather...

Damage,[dice]2[/dice]

OOC3: Wow, a critical AND maximum damage, why do I get the feeling Leonek will die horribly?

It was hard to miss a creature so huge, even at this range. Leonek's first bullet struck it, but it didn't even seem to notice. However, the second bullet happened to hit one of its countless eyes, and it bellowed in pain - though it continued its advance.

OOC,I forgot that you get a bonus to hit because of the enormous SIZ of the creature (83!). That gives you a +25 bonus, +5 for every full 10 points of SIZ above 30, so both shots hit. Don't bother rolling damage for the first shot. ;) I'll count that 10 for your critical. [b]Tobias[/b], it is now your turn.

Leonek let out a shout of joy as the creature bellowed in pain.


OOC: Yay, I made it angry

"Look at it, it's so beautiful, ha, ha....hahahaha.....HAHAHAHA! "

Tobias slams his door closed, barely checking the others are inside, and grinds the gears into first. He slams his foot down and the car squeals and rocks, "Damn! Handbrake! Come on come on come on" He releases the brake and the car lurches forward."What side of the road is it?" He cries.

The car zoomed forward, down the road to the southwest and away from the beach. The ruins, and the creature they had left behind, were on the left side of the road.

A little further down the road, on the right side, was a driveway. A simple gate lay across it as a barrier, one that could easily be raised to allow vehicles in or out. A small wooden shack about eight feet high stood behind it and to one side. On the gate was a sign that read "Private Property - No Trespassing." The driveway stretched off into the distance, where a few buildings were visible, including a carriage house and a mansion beyond it. The road they were on continued ahead.

Tobias doesn't slow down.

A short distance ahead the road merged with another one going north and southwest.

OOC,[b]Leonek[/b] and [b]Tobias[/b], please roll Navigate. [b]Chad[/b] is still out of it for a couple more rounds.

"Is it still following us?" Tobias shouts. He risks a look round and then brakes hard at the junction not sure where to go but if the thing is still in sight, he starts up again on along the road to the south west.

"I don't know, I can't see it, but keep driving just to be sure!"

Leonek shouts back, nodding as he keeps peering out the window for any signs of pursuit.

Glancing back, Leonek and Tobias saw that the road looked clear at first, but then the monstrosity tumbled onto the roadway back at the ruins they had left behind and began to roll in their direction, so Tobias sped off to the southwest onto what a sign identified as Westleton Road. A short distance ahead, an unmarked dirt road branched off to the south, while the paved road continued southwest.

"It's still following us!"

Leonek casts a look at Chad and then leans closer to Tobias.

"We'll need good roads if we want to shake that thing."

"Ahh hell - it's one of those kind." Tobias puts his foot down and drives onward along the south west road, concentrating on the corners. "Is it gaining on us? I don't want to go too fast on these country lanes. What the hell is it? It's... I've never seen anything like it." The car wallows and dips round a bend, "My pop would be all over it but me? I just want outa here. No wonder folks round here are queer with that thing lurking about." Tobias talks rather too fast and too highly pitched, he's not happy.

The paved road went around a curve, and the creature vanished from sight in short order, left in the distance. Up ahead was an intersection. The road continued to the west, and another dirt road branched off to the east. The south side of the road was lined with woods.

Chad began to calm down.

OOC,[b]Chad[/b], you may now roll Navigate. Your temporary insanity is over.

Chad Engraham,You now suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. You will have occasional flashbacks to your traumatic expreiences, especially when in similar circumstances.

Tobias Maddox,You now suffer from Claustrophobia, a fear of being in confined spaces.

"I think we shook it..."

Leonek puts a hand on Tobias's shoulder.

"Nice driving."

"Thanks. I'm just glad we got away." Tobias slows the car down a bit and drives on to the west at a steady pace. "Well you won't catch me going near those ruins again." He says, muttering under his breath, "Or any caves for that matter." He looks around, "How are you guys bearing up? I guess we need to link up with the others but we'll need a roundabout route back to avoid the... thing. We could do with a hill, get some height for a recce, but it's so darned flat around here."

"There's a map in the jeep, but that's about as useful as these wetsuits right about now...", Leonek says mournfully.


"It shouldn't be that hard to find the sea and that shack again, should it? Provided they are still there."

Chad's head is starting to clear. Though still fearful he becomes realistic. "I don't think we've got a chance against that....,thing. I think our our priorities are, get to safety, then contact U.N.I.T. Update and get updated on our situation and get some new orders. "

A short distance ahead, another paved road branched off to the south, while the current road continued to the west.

OOC,[b]Chad[/b], don't forget that you can roll Navigate too.

"Tobias we continue west" Chad points to the western road. "It's time to get a safe distance from Dunwich and report in. If one of the other groups has evaded capture hopefully they've done the same."

Leonek is figdetting in his chair for what seems like an eternity, until he can't control himself much longer.

"What about Dr. Kirby? We have to try and help her...uhm...sir."

"Leonek, first we did try and help Dr. Kirby, in fact we may have helped Dr. Kirby, we aren't in the position to know. Our contribution to that effort was to create a distraction. Judging by that thing chasing us, I think we met our objective. Second: our cover is gone, half our unit is unaccounted for, we've engaged the local population in combat, and right now they have the upper hand, going back right now has very low probability of anything other than getting us killed or captured at this point. Now all of that said, I'm not opposed to going back to Dunwich and trying to rescue what ever is left of our unit, and Dr Kirby, but given the probability of failure I have an obligation to at least report in with what we have seen and discovered so the blokes from U.N.I.T. that follow us have an idea what they are getting into. Also giving things a little while to cool down might convince the locals we've left and give us some tactical advantage on our return of at least being unexpected; And if any of the others have reported in we will get some intel as to where they are so we actually can extract them, instead of wandering around looking for them until we get captured. We report in, get intel, reevaluate. "

OOC,What time is it?

Being a civilian, Tobias is averse to laying his life on the line for anyone and turning back immediately seems a perilous idea, so he says. "I agree. What we've encountered is far beyond anything anyone could have imagined. I'd say it's imperative to get word to UNIT as this seems a whole lot bigger than a missing person inquiry. Whether they'll believe us is a different ball game." He goes up a gear, "I say we keep going till we find a call box."

The road led west to the Blythburgh road and the small village of Westleton. The only building of note was the White Horse Inn, which had a public telephone.

OOC,It is currently a little before 4:00 PM. It will take a little over four hours to reach UNIT HQ from here.

Leonek leans back in his seat, staring out at the countryside.

"I know, I know,...", he mutters under his breath.

Tobias pulls up outside the sleepy tavern. "Who's up for breaking the news? I don't mind going." He feels in his pocket for small change. "What's the equivalent of a dime over here?"

Chad shakes his head at Tobias. "We've done too many things ad-hoc on this mission. From now on everything gets a plan. First we aren't out of danger, and there are risks going in there and making this call. I'll make the call, Tobias, put your toy away and get the revolver we confiscated from fish-man, try and conceal it on your person, you will be my back up. Keep watch for anyone who looks like a threat or that they may try and keep us from leaving including law enforcement or anyone with aquatic features. The secret phrase between you and I is "Toad in the Hole" use it in a sentence like 'I could sure go for some toad in the hole' to alert me to any of those potential dangers, and I you. Either one of us says it, we walk out and leave immediately. Last Leonek by my commission as one of Her Highness' officers, I ORDER YOU to abandon us and immediately leave if you detect gunfire from within the tavern. Do not risk capture to wait for us or save us; Immediately return to U.N.I.T HQ and give your report there. Now do we all understand? Are we all ready? Who's got change to make the call?"

Tobias pulls out the revolver and, surprisingly deftly for a simple engineer, expertly gives it a quick check and looks at the ammunition. "Okay, good plan. I'm hoping this is a 'normal' village but if not, they may have had word from Dunwich to look out for us. Leonek, better keep the motor running and park so we're heading out of town. If you have any problems out here, beep the horn and we'll come running."

"Aye aye, sir!", Leonek says, a serious look on his face.


He gets out of the back of the car and gets into the driver seat.

"Good luck in there, I hope you don't find any toads in the hole."


((OOC: damn you for that, I'm so hungry now ))

Tobias took the revolver from Leonek and concealed it on his person, then went inside the White Horse Inn with Chad. There was a bartender behind the bar and a handful of customers sitting there drinking. None of them looked fishy, but they did look at the two strangers with interest - perhaps because they were both wearing wet suits for no apparent reason. The public phone was attached to the wall just inside the bar area.

"Err. Hi. Can we use your call box?" Tobias casually asks the barman, grinning a little sheepishly. He wonders how they'll code the necessary information to UNIT without sounding crazy to the locals. Then he has an idea. He says to the room in general, "You'll have to excuse our outfits - we've a good reason but it's one hell of a story. If you'd like to hear it." Hoping Chad will get the idea that one of them keeps the room busy with an outrageous tale whilst the other makes the call.

ooc,I'd forgotten about the wetsuits - quite a ridiculous spectacle - made me chuckle.

Chad chuckles at Tobias' attempt to normalize their wet suits. "Quite a story indeed" Chad palms the change needed to call U.N.I.T. "Tell you what, I'll call home, you can bend their ear for a while with that story" Chad makes a casual approach to the phone.

"Help yourselves," said the barkeep. He and the patrons listened intently to what Tobias had to say.

Chad inserted the coins one after another into the phone's greedy slot and had the operator place a trunk call to UNIT HQ in London. Soon he was patched through to Brigadier Crichton.

Tobias walks over to the bar so that everyone is looking away from the phone. He sits on a stool. "Well, where can I start? I suppose you could say it was when my Great Aunt Olivia died and left some old letters that she'd hoarded from the Victorian times. I'm afraid one of my forebears was kind of of a scallywag and some of the letters were his, boasting of his latest escapades in the Far East - was it the Boxer uprising or was that something else - anyhow, turns out he was a pirate of sorts and when he came back to England..."

Chad gets the connection he is looking for then begins his verbal report. "Brigadier Crichton, this is Captain Engraham of the Dunwich investigation team with a status report. We have encountered aquatic humanoids living the ocean and ocean caves near Dunwich, we have also encountered what are apparently human-aquatic humanoid hybrids living in the town of Dunwich who have noticeable aquatic features like webbed hands. We believe that Dr Kirby was kidnapped by the Lake family and taken to their mansion in Dunwich. We believe the Lake Family is conspiring with the aquatic humanoids. We were attacked by the aquatic humanoids during the investigation. We encountered what was apparent time travelers traveling in what appeared to be a Police Call Box as a disguise, and clearly existed in a dimensional pocket as interior dimensions were far greater than exterior dimensions. We formulated a plan to attempt to rescue Dr Kirby that required our unit to split into three teams. One team Salem Shields, and Raymond MacIntyre provided security for my team's point of insertion at a local boat shack belonging to a local named Horsham. Elliot Webb and Valerie Soames formed a team that attempted covert insertion into the Lake family Mansion in an attempt to rescue Dr Kirby. Our team of myself, Tobias Maddox and Leonek Novak formed a diversion team where we made an overt incursion into the caves occupied by the Aquatic Humanoids. The time travelers recaptured their conveyance and have presumably left. During our diversion operation we captured a vehicle from a local human/aquatic hybrid we also were attacked by a very large, white, roughly spherical creature covered with numerous eyes and mouths, it was able to inflate itself it seemed to more than better than 6 meters in diameter. Small arms were ineffective at stopping it. Status of the rescue team is unknown. The security team at Horsham's boat shack may have been engaged in a gunfight while we were engaged with the large spherical creature, we detected gunfire from their direction. The spherical creature forced us to retreat, the security team's status is unknown. We are currently located with a vehicle in Westleton west of Dunwich. I request an update on any status you might have. Including reinforcements and resupply, or if any other element of our unit has contacted the HQ."

"...His ship struck a shoal not far from here and sank. Luckily all on board were save by a local fishing smack but the wreck was quickly covered by the moving shoals and was lost. But now we have modern technology like sonar, my friends and I decided to see if we couldn't track down the wreck and we came here to do a recce before hiring the equipment.
So we leave the car on the headland and take our rib with diving gear out about half a mile when we see some guys nosing about the vehicle. So we turned back and then the seagull cut out and in the process of trying to restart it we lost an oar so it took ages to scull back to shore." Tobias looks out the corner of his eye to see how Chad is getting on. "Then we realised that we hadn't locked the car and all our stuff had been stolen; clothes, lunch, everything. And then we saw that we hadn't secured the rib properly and it was floating away. So there we were with in diving gear and not much else..."

"Oh, this is one of that sort of mission," said Brigadier Crichton over the phone to Chad. "Those aquatic humanoids sound like the Sea Devils. Been a long time since UNIT have tangled with them. And a police box and time travelers, you say? Lethbridge-Stewart went on about them. I've no idea what that spherical creature is. Sounds like your diversionary mission was a success, though. Well done, Flight Lieutenant. Nobody else from your group has called in yet; you're the first. Right, you'd better return to HQ sharpish for a proper debrief. I'm amassing forces as we speak. I've been in contact with the Royal Navy and Geneva to get resources and authorisation for the next step. This is all going to take a bit of time, but I think everything will be ready the day after tomorrow at some point. Anything else before I let you go?"

The bar patrons listened intently as Tobias spun his tale. "What d'ya mean, the seagull cut out?" asked one.

"I think that's what he calls his motor launch," said another.

"This is ridiculous!" protested another. "If they lost an oar, they couldn't have got back to shore. With one oar, they'd just be rowing in circles!"

OOC,[b]Chad[/b], you're a Flight Lieutnant not a Captain. It's a bit premature to give yourself a promotion. ;) [b]Tobias[/b], please roll Fast Talk.

fast talk,(35) [url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4494556/]1d100=36[/url]

Tobias shrugs. "I said it was a bizarre story. A seagull is the outboard motor; sorry, I'm an engineer so just assumed... anyway, and you can scull over the back of the boat with one oar, you know, in a figure eight motion."
Tobias demonstrates. "But it takes a long time. And I'm pretty poor at it, only know about it from a movie."

Chad responds "Nothing additional sir, not right now. It should take about 4 hours for us to return to HQ if we are not further delayed. Lieutenant Engraham out." Chad waits to ensure the Brigadier is finished.

OOC,:oops: oopsie, RLd myself; To used to thinking of myself as a Captain

"Good luck, Engraham," said the Brigadier before disconnecting.

The crowd looked only a little skpetical about Tobias's story.

"And that's why we are still in our wetsuits. Luckily I had the car key with me, wrapped in a bag, so we were able to get here at least. I'm looking forward to a hot shower I can tell you." Tobias looks round to Chad as he hears the phone click. "You done? I'd like to get back; this suit is chafing in parts I didn't know I had."

Chad hangs up the phone and looks back at Tobias. "Yes I'm done. Let's get going." Then to the barkeep, "Thanks for letting us use your phone."

Chad proceeds to walk toward the door.

The bartender nodded as Chad and Tobias left without incident. They rejoined Leonek, who was waiting in the sedan.

Leonek sighed a sigh of relief as the others got in the car.

"How did it go and where are we driving?"

Tobias climbs into the passenger seat."Phew, I didn't like that one bit. It went fine thanks, but god, I'm paranoid about everyone I meet now. Yeah, let's get out of here asap Leonek, I'm still feeling nervous. "So what did UNIT say, Chad?"

Chad climbs into the back seat and looks at Tobias and Leonek, "The Brigadier was surprisingly unsurprised at either aquatic humanoids, which he said sound like the 'Sea Devils', or the time travelers, both it seems have been encountered before. However, Rover, our big belligerant, we've not encountered before. We are to return to base at once. The Brigadier is amassing forces to address the problem. They should be ready in two days. None of the other elements have contacted the HQ"

Leonek started driving back to HQ, his face glum.

"Two days..that's long, isn't it? If the rest are still there and need relief, that is."

"I know what you're thinking Leonek, but we can't go back. We need to give UNIT a full debrief of what we've seen, maps, people and such so they can coordinate an effective attack plan. It seems the brigadier knows what he's up against so I'm sure he's taken into account the survivability of the rest of the team." Tobias leans back and watches the road ahead, happy in the knowledge he has completed his own mission to a reasonable extent.

Chad follows up. "It's four hours back to the HQ, we might be able to get a new helicopter there if we need to make a rapid return for extraction. At a minimum we can get the equipment we need assault rifles and such, if we have to make a rapid return. I'm thinking A good old American bazooka would be ideal to fight Rover"

Leonek smiles at the thought of the rocket launcher.

"Aye-aye, sir!"


He puts the pedal to the metal as only the eighties allowed and tried to shave a little off the four hour drive.

Tobias isn't sure how he feels about another helicopter ride. Or facing rover again.

ooc,I'm happy to move on.

OOC:Same here

OOC: Yeah I'm done jibber jabberin'

The group arrived back at UNIT HQ just after 8:00 PM, where they were admitted quickly. The guards at the gate told them that Valerie Soames and Dr. Valerie Kirby had returned a short time ago in the Land Rover with an interesting prisoner, and that there would be a meeting in the Brigadier's office soon. They were directed to the main building, where they were provided with uniforms and, in Tobias's case, decent civilian clothes. After they changed, they went to the Brigadier's office, arriving just before Valerie Soames and Dr. Kirby.

OOC,Everyone is moving to the thread linked below.

Best Laid Plans