Shub-Niggurath stirs in her slumber, threatening to awaken as her spawn begin to surface all around the world. Can musician Jim Culver and martial artist Lily Chen prevent the unthinkable, or is the Earth doomed?
On return to the docks and his ship, Jim strolls along Barrio Norte avenue and admires the palatial buildings. An old woman tugs on his jacket's sleeve.
"El músico negro. Vamos, vamos!" she says. Her eyes implore Jim to do as he is bid. Chance meetings can lead to significant events . . . so he goes along with the old woman.
In the cellar a party is in full swing, the rhythm of the music and dancers, and the Fernet beer, with its distinct, licorice flavour, combine to create a hypnotic atmosphere. The old woman scribbles upon a newspaper and hands it to a flapper who sports a fashionable, bobbed haircut and wears a satin dress. The flapper reads the scribbles and then whirls round and round like a dervish, her eyes sparkle, and then flame, she laughs exultantly as she spins faster and faster.
Jim picks up the newspaper from where the flapper had let it fall, beneath the scribbles he sees a disturbing photograph of a snake-like gargantua. . . .
OOC,Wow, that's an awesome Spell! If we ever meet, you should cast it on me. I get double skill improvements as my special ability.
I'll have to wait until I see what the Mythos card does before I plan out Turn 4. I think you should Acquire Assets and try to get that Agency Quarantine on Frisco. If you succeed, you can then try to immediately pay off your Debt.
What is Lily's plan? Mmmmm, maybe rest in Istanbul and ?, and then kill the Goat Spawn and have a Clue Encounter; or maybe move to Rome and ?, and then kill the Cultist and have a Gate Encounter. And who is the Lead Investigator?--I cannot see that it matters at the moment. . . .
Edit: re. my suggestion, an Inv. cannot rest in a space with a monster.
Turn 4 Action Phase Lily Chen resolves to leave Istanbul, realizing that she's not ready to face what's here. She also is starting to feel the disturbances caused by the rifts, and she can sense that there is one in Rome. She takes a relaxing ride on the Orient Express. At least nothing horrible could ever happen on the Orient Express! she thinks. She gets off in Venice and transfers to a different train heading to Rome, where she makes arrangements for further travel.
OOC,[b]Lily[/b] remains Lead Investigator
Action 1: Travel (Istanbul -> Rome)
Action 2: Prepare for Travel (Acquire Ship Ticket)
I'm not going to stick around and try to fight the Goat Spawn again in my current condition. If I beat the Cultist, then I'll be able to Rest in Rome on Turn 5 before heading back to Istanbul. That Cultist has to go before it turns into something worse, and I need to try to do something about the Gate.
Turn 4 Action Phase
A change of plan for Jim, he will cast Feed the Mind Spell to improve his Influence, and then Acquire Assets. T4 Feed the Mind, Lore 3 -1 (1d6=2, 1d6=1)--shit. Card flipped, 0-2: "Your mind is filled with gibberish, repeating endlessly. Discard this card unless you lose 2 Sanity." Cast Instill Bravery, T4 Instill Bravery, Lore 3 (1d6=4, 1d6=1, 1d6=2)--ho hum. Card flipped, 0 : "Your malformed magic etc. If you did not roll any 4's, discard this card." Best laid plans and all that, 2 Sanity lost. T4 Acquire Assets, Influ. 3 (1d6=4, 1d6=1, 1d6=6)--only 1 success so Jim chooses the Whiskey. (Asset replaced by Tear Gas.)
JIM finds a quiet corner of the cellar where there is another man, who is either asleep or unconscious, slumped upon a chair. He reads aloud the scribbles upon the newspaper he had picked up:
"Detenga todos los relojes, corte el teléfono,
Evitar que el perro ladre con un hueso jugoso,
Silence los pianos y con redobles en sordina
Llevar a cabo el ataúd, dejar que los dolientes."
He repeats the words over and over, seemingly endlessly . . . and then with a start Jim realises he had been dreaming, although, now awake, he feels confused and the words still echo in his mind; he holds his head with his hands and blows through his teeth. He remembers the page he tore from the esoteric book in Miskatonic University library. Pulling the folded paper from his pocket he reads aloud the verse, but, once again, slips into a dream: a stone corridor in which a woman holds up a cross to keep at bay a tentacled demon, but he has mangled the magic words and nothing happens. Jim Culver takes a pull at a Whisky bottle, which is stood beside the sleeping man's leg, and emits a gasp of alcoholic relief.
OOC,You still get a second action. I recommend Prepare for Travel so you can get a Ship Ticket. Then you can try again to Acquire Assets next turn as your first action. I'll wait until you've taken your second action before I have my Encounter Phase. I'll also refrain from reading the Other World Encounter until and unless I beat the cultist. The way I've been rolling, it's not guaranteed.
Turn 4 Encounter Phase Lily's instincts lead her into the catacombs beneath Rome. Carrying a flashlight, she trudges through seemingly endless stygian caves, drawn in a particular direction. Finally, she comes across a door that fills an archway. The door is not ancient at all, but seems to have been constructed in the last century or so. It appears to have been locked, but a swift kick sends it flying open! Beyond it lies a small room with bizarre carvings on the walls. A man in a black priest's outfit turns, startled, as she makes her entrance, dropping the candle he carries, which is promptly snuffed out.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" demands Lily.
"Why, I'm Father Giueseppe, of the Jesuit Order," he says, collecting himself. "I might ask you the same question, young lady."
"I asked you two questions, and you answered only one. I am here to battle evil. I can feel it in this room."
"Ah, yes, so am I. Perhaps we can...work together. These carvings are the key to some sort of portal, but I cannot decipher them. Look here." He indicates a line of arcane symbols engraved in the wall opposite him.
Lily studies them, but they mean nothing to her. "They look like gibberish to me." A sixth sense causes her to glance behind her, just in time to see the priest lunging at her, clutching a wicked-looking obsidian dagger. She nimbly whirls aside, striking him from behind and sending him crashing into the wall. Father Giuseppe - if that is his real name - collapses in a heap with a horrified expression on his face. The hilt of the dagger juts out from his abdomen, where it appears he has accidentally stabbed himself when he collided with the wall. He mutters some sort of chant under his breath as his lifeblood spills onto the floor, which seems to eagerly soak it up. A whirling black vortex appears on the rear wall of the chamber, growing wider. Somehow Lily knows that the priest's death, combined with his chant, has opened a portal to another world. An irresistable force pulls her into it!
Lily finds herself in a vast alien library, bookshelves stretching up into mist above so thick that she cannot see the ceiling. Again she lets her instincts be her guide, and they lead her to a book with yellowing pages bound in black leather. She opens it up and looks through it, but it is incomprehensible. She cannot figure out the ritual it describes that would seal the gate. She feels only despair. Strange forms fly in and out of the wall, forms that she realizes are not real. In a state of panic, she races down a spiral staircase, somehow keeping her footing. It seems to go on forever. Without being sure how she got there, she once again finds herself in the small room in the catacombs with the dead priest.
OOC,Whoops! I hadn't realized that Feed Your Mind was an Action.
Where was that combat roll when I needed it earlier?
Cultist is killed. Hallucinations Condition gained. The Gate is still open. :cry:
JIM pauses outside the Cervantes Theatre. A matinee performance of The King in Yellow in English is about to commence, he does not need to be back aboard ship for several hours--"The cabin boy will be alright, won't he?"--so Jim steps inside.
The plush seats are worn and dirty, and empty of anyone; Jim plonks himself down on the back row. The curtains part, all goes dark, and then the footlights illuminate a figure.
"I am Lou Cifre, your narrator," he announces, and proceeds to describe an ancient city inhabited by intelligent, pink insect-like beings. . . . During the play a scholar, surrounded by thick tomes, is surprised by a monstrous automaton. As the scholar is devoured by the mantis, its mandibles tearing and pointed legs pricking, he shouts in ecstasy:
"Carl, oh Carl, the burning of a thousand kisses!"
Advance the Omen: (blue constellation [left hand]).
Resolve Reckoning Effects: Goat Spawn spawned Space 10 and Cultist discarded; Ghost spawned Space 2; Hallucinations Condition: Lily and Jim test Will.
Lily's Hallucination card flipped: --she is rapidly going insane!
Turn 4 Mythos continued.
Spawn Gate: Tokyo (blue constellation) + Cthonian -> Heart of Africa.
Event: Active Expedition moved to Antarctica.
Turn 5? Jim to Acquire Assets and Ship Ticket, encounter in Buenos Aires? Lily could go insane by fighting a Goat Spawn, it may be a good idea to start over and your new Investigator to encounter the loony Miss Chen?
OOC,Sounds like a good plan for [b]Jim[/b], but I'm not giving up on [b]Lily[/b] yet. Wow, that was close! I'm planning to Rest for my first Action and Travel for my second. I could go to Rome and fight the Goat Spawn, but there's a good chance I won't beat it in one combat round. Alternatively, with my Ship Tickets I could reach Space 18 this turn and go for the Clue there. Do you want to be the Active Investigator this time? If you let me know before you turn in for the night, I can post my Action Phase. Otherwise, you're better off being the Active Investigator, as after tonight I won't be able to post again until late Monday night (eastern U.S. time).
It's funny that the earthquake struck in the Heart of Africa and the Monster that spawned (which appeared there) happened to be a Chthonian. It's amazing how fitting that was!
It's funny that the earthquake struck in the Heart of Africa and the Monster that spawned (which appeared there) happened to be a Chthonian. It's amazing how fitting that was!
Yeah, I thought the same thing.
I'm sure that Lily will succeed in the end. You can be the Active Investigator, it occurred to me, however, that it could be risky if there is a nasty Mythos card. . . .
Turn 5 Action Phase Lily Chen suddenly feels something crawling on her skin. Shining the torch on her arm, she sees to her horror that it is crawling with disgusting insects! She can feel them on her legs, on her face. She screams in terror, and they crawl into her mouth! In a panic, she flees through the catacombs, eventually emerging into the light of day. She brushes furiously at her flesh, only to see that the bugs are gone - and in fact had never been there.
Lily returns to her hotel room and enters a meditative trance, slowing her breathing. When at last she feels better, she goes to the port of Ostia and boards a ship bound for the southern Indian Ocean to follow up on what she had felt coming from that direction.
OOC,I'll have to take my chances.
[b]Lily[/b] remains Lead Investigator
Action 1: Rest (Gain 1 Stamina, 1 Sanity)
Action 2: Travel (Rome->10->15 [Ship Ticket]->18 [Ship Ticket])
, Feed the Mind Spell counts as my first Action.
--she is rapidly going insane!
