Play@YSDC

"He's telling the truth. Jeez, I don't even know if this thing is is loaded."

Harry carefully places the shotgun on the floor.

"We need to get out of here right now. There's something out there. It's already killed a few of us."

Harry raises his arms in the air. "Please, you gotta believe me."

"Something?"

Humphreys pulls the last bandage tight on Jeff's wound with a violent tug, walks up to the shotgun on the ground, and steps on it.

"From what I've heard so far, it's you and surveyors with shotguns getting trigger-happy in the forest, and now it's some... thing? You are lucky I took an oath as a rescuer, otherwise I'd just leave you all here and call in the cops instead!"

He stares in disbelief for a few more seconds, then picks up the gun and points at the craft. "Get in. One of you take the front seat next to the pilot. The rest go in the back with me."

He sniffs. "And what's that weird smell?"

Suddenly you all notice that uncanny, nauseating, sweet vanilla scent...

"Oh, hell, it's coming. Get us out of here, quick." Jeff scrambles into the back of the plane.

"Never mind the smell," says Stanley, climbing into the front passenger seat in case he needs to act as co-pilot. "Let's get out of here while the getting's good!"

Harry Miller

Harry jumps in the plane. "Quick! Let's go!"

He scans the trees in panic.

You pile into the craft and put on your safety belts and headphones. Luckily, Humphreys stops asking questions: perhaps your sincere fear rubs off on him. However, it cannot prepare him for what's to come...

The engine revs up. Before taking off, the pilot first has to execute a couple of delicate maneuvers: turn around the plane, and get into the main open part of the river. Stanley, who is sitting next to him, can now see his eyes narrowing behind the aviator glasses, concentrating on the task. But suddenly he looks up.

There is a loud noise, louder than the airplane's engine - the sound of the wind roaring. And woven into the tapestry of sound, there are fragments of voices, screams, phrases in languages human and subhuman. In the middle of the coastal landing area, the emptiness comes into motion, sending debris spiraling into the air... Once more, the whirlwind that haunts Sukakpak emerges!

The pilot takes off his hand from the controls, and removes his glasses... He cannot believe his eyes.

On the backseat, Humphreys screams like a wild animal, and starts threshing. His belt is holding him back, otherwise he'd be all over the small cabin...

Rolls,SAN loss for witnessing the manifestation, 1/1d6 [b]Pilot SAN 50[/b] [dice]0[/dice] [b]Humphreys SAN 65 [/b][dice]1[/dice] Loss [dice]2[/dice]

Stanley is terrified when he sees the whirlwind, and his mind breaks.

OOC,Sanity roll (current level 40) for seeing the whirlwind: [dice]0[/dice] Sanity loss for seeing the whirlwind: [dice]1[/dice] INT roll (40% stat) to avoid temporary insanity - failure is good! [dice]2[/dice]

"Get the plane moving before it hits us, you idiot!" Jeff yells to the pilot.

Harry Miller
Harry tries to slap Humphreys across the face. "Pull yourself together man!"

Humphreys thrashes and struggles, but he cannot unbuckle his seat belt. When Harry slaps him, he tries to bite him, but misses.

On the front seat, Stanley's body goes limp.

Stanley,Stanley sees [i]everything[/i] and more. He sees the arms of the spiral that's inside the whirlwind reaching out, trying to penetrate inside the minds of all present. He now clearly understands what happened to them, and to the survey team, but also to many others throughout the millennia. The Voice has always been here, forcing humans to act on their deepest, darkest desires, promising them sweet satisfaction in return. Crafting masks for all to wear - the Hunter, the Priest, the Sacrifice... All just puppets in an eternal play, doomed to unfold against the monumental backdrop of Mt. Sukakpak.

The pillar of wind tilts forward, and rushes towards the Investigators. The pilot finally grabs the controls.

The craft starts moving, gliding on the surface of the river, gradually picking up speed. Everything shakes. The wind screams and roars like an army of demons, each sound resonating in the deepest parts of the Investigators' minds. Time slows down, and the outer reaches of the sentient whirlwind hit the aircraft. Huge chunks of the body's outer covering go flying in the air. What's going to happen when the eye of the storm hits?!

You prepare for the inevitable.

The pilot pulls back the yoke, and for a mere second the plane lifts up from the water - only to be pulled back down by the wind. There is a second thrust, and the plane is finally airborne. The floats are torn away by the final tremendous blow of the wind, and then the aircraft carries you into the grey clouds.

OOC,Pilot Roll 60% [dice]0[/dice] Humphreys Brawl 30% [dice]1[/dice]

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This is the place we are bringing the scenario to a close!

I think this was an interesting experience. Thank you all very much for playing! I couldn't have asked for better players! I'd love to hear your opinions on my GMing style, the scenario, or basically anything.

Happy holidays!

Yes, this is pretty much a survive-and-escape scenario. I always try to pick movies or books to help me run games, this time my touchstones were
1. The Blair Witch Project
2. and especially the X-Files episode "Darkness Falls"

The Investigators,[img]https://i.pinimg.com/originals/9f/13/38/9f133846c7d8873eeaa6aaed43320182.jpg[/img] ;)

Some background and my thoughts on the scenario:

Sukakpak was written by Jason Morningstar and appeared in The Unspeakable Oath, #21. It's six pages, so obviously there are a lot of things you have to improvise or build yourself, based on the characters, etc. On the other hand, there are some very useful and important things included in this compact text: the three NPC backgrounds are short but VERY good, with tips on how to roleplay them.

An example,[quote][b]Assistant Surveyor Mike Ravello[/b] Ravello has reluctantly adopted the leadership role. He is a competent surveyor, comfortable in the wilderness, and a little disgusted at the disappointing situation he’s found himself in. Ravello’s opinion is that Kennedy is incompetent and Antal is a worthless, lazy bastard. If given command and competent help, he promises to push the survey through in a few weeks. To play Ravello: * Be very direct in voice and manner. * Use your hands when you talk. * If Ravello were an animal, he’d be a bear.[/quote]

So, I wanted to run Sukakpak, because I was fascinated by the setting and the atmosphere.

A significant change I made was to the "monster" / threat.

In the scenario, its nature is kept very vague, and you only learn two things, about two options of manifestation: one as the whirlwind, and one as the voices.

In the original scenario, the Voice compels characters to do unacceptable, subversive things.

Some quotes from the scenario,The author of the scenario offers [quote]a few suggestions to set the tone: Sexually violating the corpse, catching an animal and eating its liver while it still lives, blinding someone with a fish hook, building an altar out of human excrement.[/quote] or, at another point, [quote]This is also a good time for an NPC to do the bidding of the voices, which will be something obscene, violent, or otherwise awful to behold. Some examples—they might mutilate or destroy themselves, or try to eat someone’s liver while they still live, or perform some act of horrific sexual depravity.[/quote] The scenario also encourages the Keeper to get input from the players on the nature of these depravities: [quote]They can do as it wishes or they can die suffering. What [the Voice] wants is unspeakable, unimaginable (ask the players what acts it requires).[/quote]

I admit that I wasn't keen on going with the sexual depravity line. I wanted to keep this more Lovecraft, and less Clive Barker. Especially that I don't know you guys personally, I don't know your limits, etc. So I picked out a few archetypes that the Voice will want to force on the characters. The clearest one was the Trooper becoming the Hunter, and I saw it as a good options, because Stanley's Sanity turned out to be more rapidly declining, than the others. I think, ultimately, this was a good way to do things.

And I think Mr. Handy handled the possession well: of course, there was an element of meta-gaming to him dragging out the time and "waiting out" the bout of madness, but he explained it in-game by saying that the Hunter doesn't rush into battle, stalks his prey, needs a better weapon, and so on.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. I know I did.

I've got to say I really enjoyed this scenario & the tension and suspense of just trying to keep alive. I think we had a few lucky breaks, dice-wise, but that added to the atmosphere for me. Also some great role-playing.

A pleasure to be part of this chaps. Thank you evil_scientist for a brilliant game!

Mister Ginge wrote:I've got to say I really enjoyed this scenario & the tension and suspense of just trying to keep alive. I think we had a few lucky breaks, dice-wise, but that added to the atmosphere for me. Also some great role-playing.

A pleasure to be part of this chaps. Thank you evil_scientist for a brilliant game!

Some lucky breaks indeed!

Also, that last roll for the NPC pilot really got you out of trouble... Not something I generally like (having an NPC rescue the players), but, well, that's how it turned out.

Thanks for playing!



Mr. Handy, I think you can archive the forum now!