Ch.13a. All Unquiet on the Western Front (Alex, Lawrence, William)

[Mr. Handy]

Somehow, William manages to cling to sanity - mostly.

Sanity loss (current level 60) for seeing Mordiggian:
1d10

[Philulhu]

William and Alex will be badly shaken - they are in the presence of a god after all, albeit one unlike anything else they have experienced. They will experience a conflict of emotions… but more of that in a while.

Having lost almost half of his SAN, Lawrence has gone indefinitely insane (a loss of more than 1/5 of his current SAN). Let’s see if he has an insight into his situation that might affect how he reacts. Please roll against 5 x Lawrence’s intelligence.

[Bullfrog]

I really can't wait to see what manner of derangement you give Lawrence. He's seen a lot more awful stuff than any man really should, especially now.

INT 9 × 5 (45%): 1d100

Lawrence's madness brings no insight, only confusion and deep, primal terror.

[Philulhu]

Lawrence’s mind shattered from the blow it had been dealt! Everything he thought he knew was rent asunder by the knowledge that a god walked the earth! But not the benevolent God from the Bible he’d been forced to learn about at Sunday School! Not even vengeful fire and brimstone God of the Old Testament! No, this was something far, far worse - a god who had fed on four years of death and fear, who had drunk the blood of millions of men, women and children from the four corners of the earth but was still not sated! Who would drink, and drink, and drink, until there was no more…

Unable to deal with the trauma of the events before him, Lawrence’s mind unravelled, running backwards until it found a safe place. He was eleven years old and staying in hospital recuperating in the local hospital after a bout of pneumonia. It was a hard existence, growing up on the farm and Lawrence was revelling in a clean bed that he didn’t have to share with siblings and nurses who genuinely cared for him and didn’t just treat him as another mouth to feed or free labour to do all the chores around the farmyard. There was one of the nurses, now; Nurse Betty - so kind and pretty! He was going to marry her when he grew up! - and there was his pappy! Come to take him home because he didn’t have the money to pay the bills. It never stopped him drinking, though! He always found money for that, though little Lawrence knew that pointing that out would just get him a whuppin’…

Lawrence is hallucinating, as described above, and thinks he’s an eleven year old boy. Have fun with that!

Mordiggian turned to face Nurse Zenna. ”RESTORER OF LIMBS?! I AM NO BENEVOLENT GOD! I EXIST FOR DEATH, DESTRUCTION, PAIN AND SUFFERING!” He took a step closer and one of his black wires whipped out in Carter’s direction, wrapping itself around the soldier, who disappeared in the blink of an eye, with only a rough wooden crutch to show that he’d ever been there.

The colour drained from Nurse Zenna’s face as she suddenly realised the extent of her misjudgment. Two more wires flew out, stopping mere fractions of an inch from the nurse. ”WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR YOURSELF?!” came the cold voice again but Zenna couldn’t answer; she could only stand there mute, while her fear manifested itself as a dark spreading stain on the front of her army skirt.

The creature turned - it had no actual face but it was clear to Alex and William that it looked in their direction.”DO YOU SPEAK FOR THIS WOMAN?!” it said, each word delivered with the cold fear of being alone on a deserted path at nighttime, when the sound of a pursuer from behind could be heard…

SAN check for seeing Carter disappear, please.

[Silver Priest]

1d100

Alex screams.

[Mr. Handy]

"Not me," says William, trembling. "She can speak for herself."

Sanity roll (current level 57) for seeing Carter vanish:
d%

[Bullfrog]

It was all just the fevered dream of a sick child, nothing more. No monsters in lakes, no serpents, no travelling through time.

Just a good-for-nothing drunkard of a father. Even the best days of childhood had dark clouds looming over them.

Lawrence gazes around in confusion, his eyes watering; he knew Pappy all too well, and Nurse Betty certainly wasn't a stranger, but who were the two men next to him, and why was Pappy yelling at them? He could have sworn he'd seen them before, but he couldn't remember their names... They must have been boys from school. He wasn't the only one that caught pneumonia, although some others got it a little worse than him, and two even died. Lawrence looks towards the exit, slowly cowering away from what he believed his father to be; maybe he could run away while Pappy was still mad at that nice nurse, and he'd never have to see his father ever again...

[Philulhu]

That’s a 1d6 SAN loss. If it’s a 5 or 6 then please roll IDEA.

[Silver Priest]

1d6

1d100

Carter's death hits Alex hard, as terror fills him. How could they stand against such a creature?

[Philulhu]

1d10

1d10+4Bewildered by Carter’s sudden disappearance and overcome by the turn of events, Alex feels the need to talk, and talk and talk and talk…

Didn’t Mordiggian ask who spoke for Nurse Zenna? Perhaps it would be Alex’s moment to shine… …

[Silver Priest]

Alex stops screaming and takes a step forward. As a detective he is used to taking the lead, and this was a crisis like any other. So he figured he was best equipped to deal with it.

"Detective Alexander Reynolds, Arkham police department. My friends and I have traveled through time and arrived here a few days ago. We quickly caught on to the cult activity in the area and realized Nurse Zenna was one of the ringleaders, and attempted to stop her attempts to summon you. We proved unsuccessful, but the blame for her summoning falls on her and the foolish and naive patients she coerced into her scheme. The rest of us want nothing to do with you or meant to disturb your slumber." He reports all of this in a matter of fact tone.

[Mr. Handy]

William slips into blissful madness.

I presume I also need to roll Sanity loss, as I also failed the roll.

Sanity loss (current level 57) for seeing Carter vanish:
1d6
Idea roll (80% stat) to avoid temporary insanity - failure is good:
d%
Everybody's insane! Yay!

[Philulhu]

At least it’s just TPM (total party madness) rather than TPK!

1d10

1d10+4

Overwhelmed by events, William just shuts down, staring blankly ahead without registering anything going on. He is in a catatonic state, so cannot act independently without help of others. If only they hadn’t just gone mad… …

”I AM MORDIGGIAN! I DO NOT SLUMBER!” came the dry, cold voice. Black wires hissed out from the swarming mass, reaching out for Alex but stopping a mere fraction of an inch from his skin. He could feel alternating heat and cold from the wires which hovered around him like a snake’s tongue would taste the air around its prey.

Suddenly they jerked away to surround Nurse Zenna, who screamed as she tried to avoid their touch. There was a cold, mirthless chuckle. ”YOUR SUFFERING PLEASES ME! I MIGHT KEEP YOU ALIVE A WHILE LONGER!” Zenna screamed again and from the direction of the main doorway, there was the clatter of a Lee Enfield rifle hitting the floor as one of the soldiers fled screaming into the night…

[Silver Priest]

I'm probably wrong, but given Lawrence and Alex failed their Int*5 rolls shouldn't have they not comprehended the total horrors they were witnessing and thus avoided a temporary insanity? It probably won't change Alex's behavior, just wanted to make sure.

The detective trembles in utter terror, but continues to talk, his only way of even beginning to alleviate the anxiety he is under.

"You seemed to require Nurse Zenna and her acolytes to bring you forth,suggesting you are more tied to your worshipers than you'd like to admit. In any case, you should be on your way. The future of this world has no mention of you, so whatever you do here goes unnoticed. I observed how you jerked in pain when the bullets hit you, so you can be hurt. There are hundreds of thousands of armed men just outside this crypt. If you stay here you chance harm coming to you or even death. Go back, go back from where you've spawned and trouble us no longer!

[Mr. Handy]

William stares blankly.

[Bullfrog]

I'll hold off on my post until we get a ruling from Phil, since depending on the decision my posts will probably be very different.

[Philulhu]

Ok, from the 6th Ed. rules:

If an investigator loses a fifth (round up fractions) or more of current Sanity points in one game hour, he or she goes indefinitely insane. Indefinite insanity may remove a character from play for some time. The average duration for indefinite insanity is 1D6 game months.

- - -

If an investigator loses 5 or more Sanity points as the consequence of one Sanity roll, then he or she has suffered enough emotional trauma that the keeper must test the character’s Sanity. The keeper asks for an Idea roll. If the Idea roll fails, then the investigator has repressed the memory, a trick the mind uses to protect itself. Perversely, if the Idea roll succeeds, then the investigator recognizes the full significance of what has been seen or experienced, and goes temporarily insane. The effects of temporary insanity begin immediately.

- - -

At the keeper’s option, a character who has just gone insane may have an insight into the situation or entity which provoked the insanity. The player needs to roll D100 and receive a result greater than the character’s INT x5. The keeper should offer the insight promptly.

By my reckoning:

Alex - lost 6 SAN but failed his IDEA roll (94 vs 75) so hasn’t gone temporarily insane - the need to talk is no longer there. He can make a separate Insight roll, however.

Lawrence - has gone indefinitely insane due to losing 29 SAN points (more than 20% of his SAN) so his warped perception of what he sees before him still stands (indefinite insanity trumping temporary). We can deal with any long-term effects, post-Mordiggian*. Lawrence did have an Insight however, which I forgot to mention (see below).

William - lost 5 SAN and succeeded in his IDEA roll (51 vs 80) so understood the full significance of the situation before him and is temporarily insane/catatonic. He can also make an insight roll but it probably won’t be anything he can act upon immediately.

Have I got that right?

*Post-Mordiggian survival is not guaranteed

Lawrence’s childhood was not a happy one. His father believed in hard work and hard knocks so Lawrence’s stay in the hospital had been a welcome relief. As fond as he had become of Nurse Zenna, though, Lawrence knew that his pappy must be obeyed and that, somehow, was key to getting home.

[Mr. Handy]

William is too paralyzed to have any insights.

Idea roll (80% stat) for an insane insight - failure is good:
d%

[Silver Priest]

1d100

Though he has no particular insight, Alex still feels the best way to deal with the situation is to appeal to the foul creature's desire to live. He stands by his words, hoping they will convince it to leave before it does more harm. Some part of him knows speaking to the creature in such a way may end in his death, but lacking any other weapon he feels he has no other option.He wasn't about to retreat and leave the others to a dark fate.

[Bullfrog]

"We have to obey Pappy, you can't talk to him like that." Lawrence feverishly mumbles to Alex, pointing at the nightmarish death-god that he inexplicably believed to be his father. Somehow, despite his delusions, Lawrence's shattered mind must have reached some kind of conclusion that the others had missed. "We have to obey and honor our fathers and mothers, like how they told us in Sunday school. If we obey him, he'll take us home, and it'll all be alright."