Play@YSDC

This is an area for OOC chat.

Welcome to the game! We'll begin as soon as the characters are ready.

To speed things up, shall we have Isadora visiting Alice in Arkham when the adventure begins? Isadora will need to decide if she wants to bring anything in particular with her.

Please welcome Starspawn338 who will join us for this game.

One other point, mainly for those of you whose characters study or work at Miskatonic - you must be aware that any action which might be considered reckless, strange or inappropriate could have a severe impact on your standing in the university community, even if it isn't necessarily illegal. So be careful!

How much time has passed since the last adventure?

We'll begin in late February, so 3 months. I believe American universities are open then; please correct me if I'm wrong.

Hi Team! Balzac is back and ready for Arkham's finest food, coffee, and Cthulhoid menace over a Gauloises cigarette.

Andy

Thanks for letting me join you all. Let me know if there is anything about my character that I should change to fit in better with what's been going on.

Your character looks fine Starspawn.

Why don't you all just give us a little detail about what your character is doing now or since the events of the last adventure to give us some context, and then I will start the mystery. Alice will again be approached as she has become the University's go-to person for looking into odd occurrences, and she can assemble her friends. Harrison will have to come up with his own reason to investigate, and either find some way to join the companions (their paths will no doubt cross at some point) or investigate independently. I might keep his thread separate at first, as he might have knowledge that the others wouldn't, being a student and all.

Henri Balzac's career had not been progressing well of late. His recent bizarre experiences have convinced him that there is a hidden world of new science waiting to be discovered and utilised for the good of humanity. And a Nobel in it for someone worthy. The available evidence has all been found in New England and so the Montreal based academic had been spending a great deal of time away from his workplace.

Further, Balzac's colleagues have become very concerned by his increasingly erratic behaviour and strange research. Finally, Balzac has been involved in a few embarrassing and quickly hushed up arrests in Boston, in houses of ill - if not strange - repute. Despite his claims that this was where his admittedly dark research was taking him, Montreal U was having none of it and Balzac was quietly given his marching papers.

Fortunately, he has a number of friends and colleagues at Miskatonic who are still sufficiently enamoured by his skills that they are willing to overlook his eccentricities. For now. A position was found for him in the Medical School.

Balzac quietly dreams of a world where invisible beasts can be summoned to draw your carriage (or lay waste your enemies) and the dead can be brought back to life...

Alice has been very busy, both at work and with helping prepare for Emily's wedding. What free time she has, she has been spending with Henry.

Isadora had to catch up with her art projects, including the selection and annotation of her pictures for photographic reproduction in a gallery catalog.

Henry has just delivered his manuscript for The Music of Dr Cazlab to his publisher in Boston and is waiting to hear their thoughts on publication. He has been helping Alice prepare for her cousin Emily's wedding in April which is due to be quite a grand affair. He has used some savings to purchase a sapphire ring and hidden it in a drawer in his Arkham lodgings. He still hasn't deciphered the writing on the postcard he received from Balzac in the autumn.

Since I'm a student and haven't felt the passage of time, having not been involved in any grand adventures to this point, I'll just be living the life of a grad student.

I will also try to listen to the various rumors about what happened to poor Albert and find out any information about the people who brought him back.

Monday February 25, 1929

The bright and sunny winter’s morning finds the usually serene campus of Miskatonic University abuzz with rumour and gossip, tinged with shock and horror. A body was found in the early hours, laying across the steps of the Orne Library. Frank Charlton was an undergraduate in philosophy, with a particular interest in medieval metaphysics. Nobody had seen him for almost 24 hours previously, and worried friends were considering making a police report. Various rumours abound concerning his fate, with both suicide and murder the most common. Police are witnessed on campus, and the library is closed for the day while the investigation of the scene is conducted.

Later in the morning, another rumour surfaces. Gossip has it that a female student, Vittoria Nangelo, was attacked last night. She hasn’t been seen in classes, and friends making enquiries about her were told that she is undergoing hospital treatment, but no more details are known.

OOC:   I will divide up the threads until you all come together.

Alice and Isadora can now join thread 1d. I’ll set up Henry’s later.

We'll move to Chapter 2 now.

Innsmouth - sorry for the long delay, but Henry is back in the action! Let's get Henry stuck in - show them who's boss.

@Mr Handy - Good answer!

HD - think I might need a break from gaming. I'd be grateful if you could NPC Balzac. Ta. - Andy

That's unfortunate! But also, a break can be healthy.

Sorry about the slow pace. When Mr. Handy returns, Henry, Alice, Isadora and Harrison can think about what to do next about Asenath's requirement. Balzac had a telegram about a sick relative so he'll have to return to Canada. Make a plan and I'll start a new thread.

Isadora's plan: first we should go an take a look at the museum and the bracelets, just as casual visitors.

I agree with Isadora. Let's go to the museum and look at the bracelets and see what's written about them in the display and then do some research on them to see what we can find out.

That sounds like a good plan to me too. After we do that, I could try talking to Dr. Bricknell to convince him to let us borrow one of the bracelets to show to Asenath.

I'm not sure how long a break Andy wants to take, but it doesn't sound like it's so long that he'd have to drop out of the game.

I'll start a new thread for your museum visit then. Please give me a little time, I'm very busy at the moment, so apologies for the slow pace.

With tax season, I've been preoccupied also. I should also note that I will be out of town Thursday, April 26 - Monday, April 30 and am unsure how often I will be able to post during those 5 days.

Have some stuff going on so a short pause would suit me too

I am back from my out of town trip but contracted a nasty upper respiratory infection.

Hope you get better soon!

Sorry about the delay, we can recommence if you all want to continue. I won't post so much but I'll try every day. I'll begin a new thread at the museum.

I'm not NPCing Balzac so he has urgent family business to attend to and so won't be joining you. Maybe he will in the future.

Do be careful about who you talk to about Asenath. She won't appreciate her business being known around campus, and she's your only lead.

HoneyDog wrote:we’ll have to imagine you’ve been poring over the exhibit for 30 minutes or so

That's 100% in character for Isadora...

I'm ready to move on.

Yes, let's move on!

I'm ready too.

Nice roll, Starspawn! I wasn't brave enough to risk it!

evil_scientist wrote:Nice roll, Starspawn! I wasn't brave enough to risk it!

After seeing your roll against Asenath, I can see why...

I'm really sorry. My partner had a massive stroke and I've been at the hospital and to be honest I completely forgot about everything else in my life including this. I actually woke up thinking "oh my god, I just left this game at a critical point." Again. Sorry. Thanks for rolling for me.

I'm so sorry to hear that! I hope your partner gets better soon. Please don't worry about the game, it should be the last thing that concerns you, so don't apologise.

I'm thinking of trying another Gaslight adventure, which all would be welcome to join. But if you all survive this one (or even if you don't), would you like to do another 1920's adventure? I have a follow-up in mind.

I would like another 1920s adventure, especially with the same characters. Gaslight is good for me too.

I've never done Gaslight but I'd be up for another game of whatever when this one is over.

Glad to have you back Starspawn, hope everything is well.

We'll talk about the next scenario later then. I'll run a Classic one for this group.

Yes, I definitely want to play more with this group!

Depicted: Isadora fending off parts:

Showing off parts, more like. I don't think that roof would support anyone for very long. Maybe Isadora should roll Luck?

HoneyDog wrote:Showing off parts, more like. I don't think that roof would support anyone for very long. Maybe Isadora should roll Luck?

Maybe she is standing on the engine block? But I think there were some Model T's with solid roofs:

It would be an old one, all that a poor student like Owen could afford. Lets hope Alice can come to the rescue!

HoneyDog wrote:It would be an old one, all that a poor student like Owen could afford. Lets hope Alice can come to the rescue!

I thought our car or the police vehicle was parked nearby as well, preferably of a more sturdy build!

I would imagine George would have something much more sophisticated than a Model T for Isadora to run about in!

Well done everyone! You solved the mystery. I hope you enjoyed the adventure.

You can roll 1d6 SAN gain for stopping Owen, and due to your growing reputations, 1d6 Credit Rating.

The next adventure, should you care to play, will be The Bosworth House from the Arkham Gazette 1. I’ll begin it soon.

Let me know your thoughts below.

Thanks, HoneyDog!

The adventure itself turned out more "Stuart Gordon" than I expected! The last scene, with the combat, felt a bit too tongue-in-cheek, over the top, I didn't enjoy it much. But there was some great social interaction during the first two-thirds of the scenario. It almost feels like a pity we had to deal with Owen, and not Asenath, who is much more interesting... Maybe some other time?

Looking forward to the next one!

Rolls,Sanity: [dice]0[/dice] Credit rating: [dice]1[/dice]

Skill advances,Jump 25% [dice]2[/dice] Increase: [dice]4[/dice] Dodge 33% [dice]3[/dice] Increase: [dice]5[/dice]

I kind of know what you mean, but it has its own logic. This is a story about a monster which is actually devoid of real monsters, at least what we would expect of CoC. Owen is just a man after all, with no particular special powers, so there had to be something more than just subduing him, which turned out to be pretty easy. He had a nasty damage bonus due to the re-animation rage though, so it’s lucky that the NPC had a good Dodge rating. It was the right and logical thing to involve the police; you would have suffered a lot more without them.

The next scenario will be quite different, a real change of pace. There should be a lot of interaction between the PCs, so I hope you will have a chance to have a good dialogue together. I prefer that to combat and dice rolling.

Thanks, I did like the adventure, and I'm looking forward to The Bosworth House!

Sanity (current level 61) increase:
[dice]0[/dice]
Credit Rating (current skill 59%) increase:
[dice]1[/dice]
Psychology (current skill 62%) XP check:
[dice]2[/dice]
Persuade (current skill 74%) XP check:
[dice]3[/dice]
Own Language: English (current base skill 80%) XP check:
[dice]4[/dice]
Own Language: English increase:
[dice]9[/dice]
Sanity gain for increasing skill to 90%:
[dice]12[/dice]
Library Use (current skill 56%) XP check:
[dice]5[/dice]
First Aid (current skill 60%) XP check:
[dice]6[/dice]
Shotgun (current skill 43%) XP check:
[dice]7[/dice]
Shotgun increase:
[dice]10[/dice]
Listen (current skill 65%) XP check:
[dice]8[/dice]
Listen increase:
[dice]11[/dice]

OOC,Sanity recovery [dice]0[/dice] Credit Rating Increase [dice]1[/dice] Skill Advancement Checks Fast Talk 35 [dice]2[/dice] Own Language (English) 85 [dice]3[/dice] Hand to Hand 50 [dice]4[/dice] Pistol 47 [dice]5[/dice] [dice]6[/dice]

I enjoyed the game. I thought that Asenath was going to be intertwined in this in the end and I find myself still wondering what her long term plans are. The body parts in the end were a bit over the top. I could only really imagine hands/arms and heads being very effective attackers. If he had some reanimated animals and not discarded body parts attacking us at the end, it would have felt more appropriate in my imagination.

I'm looking forward to the next installment. This was my first completed online game. I hope I contributed appropriately.

Thanks for your excellent contribution Starspawn!

I'll announce the new game here soon, possibly tomorrow.

Here is the blurb for the new adventure. Mr. Handy, can you set it up for us? You can remove this game too.

The Bosworth House

A friend of the investigators stands accused of the murder of her husband, due to insanity. It is up to the companions to find out what drove her to commit this terrible deed.

Cool! Sounds like Call of Cthulhu meets The Sinner (which I'm watching right now). The new forum is here.