Play@YSDC

Welcome everyone, please use this forum for OOC chat.

So far we have:
Mr Handy
Philulhu
Mephistophilis

While you're making up your characters, we can see if any more previous or new members will join us.

aine will be joining us too.

New players might want to read the beginning of the last scenario, 'The Burnt Man', to get some ideas about the society and the other characters.

Except for Captain FitzWilliam, who sadly won’t be joining us on account of going insane and being hacked to death at the end of the last investigation...

There won't be any hacking in this adventure, I promise. There are, of course, other ways to perish.

Well, that’s reassuring... ...

I should have told you all earlier, but please list under your character bios any particular items that you have brought with you.

I’ve updated mine.

I've updated mine as well.

Sorry guys, I’ve been really busy for work and it seems the notorious hay fever here has finally got me, I can barely see. I promise to start a new thread tomorrow.

Stay safe in these difficult times.

Sorry guys, I've been full on with work. I'll start a new thread soon I promise.

HoneyDog wrote:Sorry guys, I've been full on with work. I'll start a new thread soon I promise.

No problem. Thanks for letting us know

No problem. Busy busy myself.

We can wait

For the first time in over 30 years I am DM-ing 1st edition D&D on the table. It's via Skype and working surprisingly well.

Same here. I've been crazy busy all too often.

Working from home is not easy, especially with 3-year olds crashing my zooms. Today he clamped a giant clothes peg on me.

That D&D sounds fun aine! I've never played a role-playing game like that

New thread is up.... now.

I played in an online two-session CoC scenario a few weeks ago, An Egg Out of Time, which was written and run by BenTheRat on Discord and Roll20. It was a lot of fun! I'd never tried playing online like that before, though I had watched a couple of weeks before that when he ran my scenario The Thirteenth Bak'tun.

I’m playing Traveller RPG over Facebook Messenger with friends (replacing our pre-lockdown boardgame evenings). We’re sharing images via Messenger and we’ve got a Google sheet for all the complicated trading(!) but we’re not using anything else.

RPG Traveler, gosh that's an old one too. The amazing thing is that we almost can play just using the audio; our video link is a bit sketchy and it really doesn't matter. We've just watched 'Colour Out of Space' so I'm hoping I can persuade them to play Call of Cthulhu for our next game.
HoneyDog, mine is 5 years old and we are reading The Forest of Doom; things do improve!

It is, we’re using the 1981 version...

I’ve not seen The Colour Out of Space yet. I must track it down.

'The Forest of Doom?' Is that one of the old Fighting Fantasy books?

Yes, it's a real classic.

I read that one a few years ago. I think I actually managed to complete it successfully on my first try, which is almost unheard of for Fighting Fantasy. They don't publish them here in the USA (though they used to when I was growing up in the 1980s), but I picked up as many as I could find on trips to London and one trip to Vancouver, where they did have them.

I used to do those when I was a kid. I liked the SF ones the best, like Starship Traveller and The Rings of Kether.

He / she's reading that at 5? That's impressive reading skills. It's torture trying to get my daughter to read English.

Rebel Planet was a great one too. I also like Sword of the Samurai, and the Sorcery! series. I only ever found book 3 growing up, but I got the rest of them in new editions in London. I never did find the new version of book 3, but I still have my old copy.

Lone Wolf has always been a favorite of mine, which I like even better than Fighting Fantasy. When I was younger, I never was able to find books 21+ in the USA, and the American versions of books 13-20 were all abridged. I now have the new hardcover collectors editions of books 1-24, 29, and 30, with 25 on its way to me now. You can also read the first 29 books free (legally) on Project Aon, along with other great series like Grey Star and Freeway Warrior. You can find the newer hardcover collectors editions (which have bonus adventures written by other authors as well) at Holmgard Press for sale. They're planning to print new collectors editions of the entire series, and eventually paperback versions. Books 31 and 32, which will finally complete the series, are also planned.

That takes me back. I seem to recall playing the role playing game based on the fighting fantasy series as well.

I don't remember an rpg based on the FF books, might be worth checking out. Here's one: Maelstrom, which was a book and and RPG set in Medieval England.
HoneyDog, I'm reading the story; no hope of him reading it for years but the dice work and attributes are fun maths and it's more exciting than Kipper.

Oh yeah, I used to have it, there was a basic and an advanced set of rules (still not that advanced), a monster manual ('Out of the Pit' I believe), and some setting books (I think the setting was 'Titan'). Think they got thrown out/given away many years ago but I feel nostalgic for it now. Glad I kept my D&D rules cyclopedia.

It must be scary though, aine! I only have one Kipper book, which wasn't particularly memorable. Mog is much more popular; it's much more surreal I think which appeals to me and to the kids too it seems.

I'm sorry again, work is so busy. I won't leave you all hanging. I'm enjoying this scenario, and you're making interesting moves. The devil is in the detail with this one.

Looks like we're back! Something strange happened there for few days. Interdimensional interference from Fomulhaut, I wager.

It might help to take stock of what you've found out so far. Secrets are beginning to be uncovered.

It was a tad worrying floating about in the pale; if this site ever went down for a long time are there other planes (forums) that we can keep in contact on?

I’m hoping we can pool our findings on the walk to the village.

The thought occurred to me too. There's the forum for CoC at Chaosium https://basicroleplaying.org/forum/7-call-of-cthulhu/, and also here https://www.yog-sothoth.com/ which is an entertaining resource in its own right.

The site was undergoing maintenance, but it took a lot longer than I thought it would. About a week and a half ago I was notified that it would happen starting on Friday the 26th at 10:00 PM Eastern time, and it should have come back up by Saturday at 8:00 AM, but I had then forgotten about it until Friday night, when the site went down while I was in the middle of posting shortly before 11:00 PM. It's been down until today, and I saw that all the posts I made Friday night were gone, as they must have backed the site up some time before they took it down. A spammer I had eliminated was also back, so I had to get rid of it again.

I'm also on Yog-Sothoth.com, which is a great site, and a couple players from here sent me private messages there to find out what had happened.

Thanks for those. I signed up to Yog-Sorhoth but haven’t explored it yet.

I got some nice player aids for some of my earlier adventures from there.

I’m off on a 2-wheeled jaunt for a few days so I may not be able to post until late weekend. Sorry, it’s not the best time to disappear; I’ll leave the meeting in Alexander’s and Liv’s capable hands.

Have a nice time! Yes, it's a difficult point right now - you will all have to tread carefully; watch what you say!

So, can I just check we're all on the same page from an investigative perspective.

It looks like Meddler is trying to drive Forby mad by dressing up as a monster in the hope of getting access to money, possibly the treasure, through his sister.

Nicholas Forby's wife had an affair with his friend Christopher Lehman who it looks like may well have been murdered by him and, I suspect, cast inside the Icarus statue.

There is some kind of treasure that we're going to locate using a mirror and the light from the fireplace.

Anything I've missed?

Mephistophilis wrote:So, can I just check we're all on the same page from an investigative perspective.

It looks like Meddler is trying to drive Forby mad by dressing up as a monster in the hope of getting access to money, possibly the treasure, through his sister.

Nicholas Forby's wife had an affair with his friend Christopher Lehman who it looks like may well have been murdered by him and, I suspect, cast inside the Icarus statue.

There is some kind of treasure that we're going to locate using a mirror and the light from the fireplace.

Anything I've missed?

Meddler - I’m not sure. The evidence suggests he could have a financial motive, but I’m not sure we can prove beyond doubt that it was him in the costume. Meddler was described as having “yellow coloured hair”, the same as Lehman (and Aleister and Harry Forby) - some distant relative returned to take revenge for Lehman’s death (or just a coincidence)?

Nicholas Forby - it appears that Lehman slept with his wife and fathered Aleister Forby. Where do we get the information about Lehman being cast inside the statue?

The treasure, etc. - for this we seem to be on the right track.

The statue is just a hunch, guy lying on his back looking nothing like Icarus, design changes after guy disappears before it is made, talk of getting revenge. I'd bet if we crack it open there'd be old Christopher inside. ETA that said, strictly speaking, I'm not sure if it's even be possible to cast a bronze around a person.

Meddler is definitely the monster, but we can't prove it, he claimed to have seen the monster but when we checked the outfit it hadn't been moved. Suggesting he was pretending, to draw attention away from himself.

Both seem plausible to me.

I never even suspected that Christopher Lehman could be inside the statue. What facts do we know about his death? Do we know where he's supposed to be buried? Was it in the crypt?

I agree that Meddler is most likely the one behind what's happening to Harry Forby, but we will need to find proof before we can do anything about it.

The treasure is an emerald (visible in one of the portraits). I don't remember the riddle too well, but that's what I think the solution is to find it, and I think we have to wait until evening to do it.

I'm wondering now about whether the treasure is really an emerald. Maybe it is some form of knowledge represented metaphorically by the emerald - which is green - like envy or jealousy ('the green eyed monster'), perhaps the treasure is knowledge of his own parentage?

Nothing Harry can do about it but re-reading chapter 2 this leaps out:
“The statues are all the work of Nicholas Forby” says Meddler. “He was interested in the Classics, so all you see are interpretations of those figures. I believe there was some kind of weakness in his casting technique, so all the statues have a tendency to crack due to cold.”

There’s an ice house...

We'll I'm sure Icarus will be happy to go and take a look if Harry suggests it to him!

Incidentally, was there ice in the ice house, I'd better have a look back, Harry checked it out.

ETA - yep, ice.

The mystery is finally over - thank you all for playing and sustaining your interest. Although the treasure, whatever it was, could not be recovered, the Forbys are safe and the curse is lifted. Please award your characters 1d8 SAN for destroying the statue, and 1d6 SAN for saving Harry Forby. You can roll 1d6 Credit Rating increase too, as Forby will no doubt be an enthusiastic supporter of the group, and it's reputation will grow. Please roll for skill increases too.

Sorry there was no Cthulhu in that one! It was more of a gothic horror, but I hope you enjoyed it. I will see if I have anymore gaslight adventures, and if you want to reprise your characters, please let me know.

You're welcome, and thank you for running it. It was fun, and I'd be interested in playing Alexander again. Is there a list recorded anywhere of which skills we've successfully used?

Sanity increase (current level 79):
[dice]0[/dice]+[dice]1[/dice]

Credit Rating increase (current skill 26%):
[dice]2[/dice]

Sorry, you'll have to trawl through the threads if you haven't made a note.

Thanks that was fun, for all my assertions there was a body in the statue I was rather surprised when it got up and moved!

That was a good deduction to realise the statue was the location of Christopher Lehman. If indeed that was him, it was never proved!

I'm imagining a story set 100 years later, the new owner of the house decides to drain the quarry.

Thanks, Honeydog. That was very good.

Let me know if you plan to involve the society in any other investigations. I’m sure Vic’s interest is piqued by what she’s seen

Thanks guys. I’m looking at a scenario now which I can run. It will be a bit more dangerous than this one though. Raiko would like to rejoin and reprise his Melody character.

100 years later perhaps George’s grandson will ‘develop’ the property. It would set in the 1980s, the most horrific era known to humanity, in cultural terms anyway. They will discover the broken body of Darren Forby, askew on the decking outside the house.

The statue could feasibly return. Actually, it wouldn't have taken that much to finish it off - Alexander and Fred's attacks had done a lot of damage. But it was lethal; you were very lucky not to get killed. I sacrificed Fred, who met his end in the written scenario in a different way.

Another fine and thrilling adventure for the Seekers of Enlightenment- and we all survived this time! I too was imagining the future in the quarry; maybe BSAC training sessions find more than the usual burnt out car...

Thank you very much, Honey Dog, I’ll look forward to the next time.

Rolls,Hide (10%): 50% check [dice]0[/dice] improvement if fail check [dice]1[/dice] Locksmith (01%): 51% check [dice]2[/dice] improvement if fail check [dice]3[/dice] Own Language (55%) check [dice]4[/dice] improvement if fail check [dice]5[/dice] Psychology (05%) check [dice]6[/dice] improvement if fail check [dice]7[/dice] Sneak (10%): 70% check [dice]8[/dice] improvement if fail check [dice]9[/dice] Spot Hidden (25%): 60% check [dice]10[/dice] improvement if fail check [dice]11[/dice] Grapple (25%): 65% check [dice]12[/dice] improvement if fail check [dice]13[/dice] Sanity: + [dice]15[/dice]+[dice]16[/dice] Credit Rating: +[dice]14[/dice]

I think Harry might need some residual mental disorder to go with his temporary insanity.

Perhaps a phobia of statues? Or automatonophobia - fear of human-like figures (includes mannequins, wax dummies etc. too).

You're welcome. Yeah, the shotgun alone did 34 damage, though I don't know how much the armor deducted from it. The statue also rolled high for damage on its attacks.

I'll have to wait until the weekend to go through the threads and find out which skills I used successfully, as I don't have time during the week.

If you're all playing, plus Raiko, I'll try to recruit one more player, so we probably won't be ready until next week. I'll finish reading the scenario tonight.

I'm looking forward to joining in again for the next instalment! I'm in a better position to post regularly these days, so should be able to keep up better - and I think Melody is my favourite character.

Melody has been away helping her mother convalesce after another bout of illness - she never did fully recover from Cholera.

I'm glad that Alexander has made it to the end, otherwise she'd have to ask whether Isolde needed a house keeper!

We’re glad to have Melody back!

The next adventure is ‘Signs Writ in Scarlet’, another from the Sacraments of Evil collection (don’t peek!). It’s entirely East London set, so expect lots of rhyming slang me old china, gor blimey an’ no mistake. It’s a lot more challenging than the previous ones and will be dangerous. But I think it will suit the characters’ skills quite well.

Cool, looking forward to it. Automatonophobia sounds ideal, and also entirely sensible, those things are creepy.

I don't recall too many statues in the East End, so he should be okay. Maybe we should move the scenario to Italy.

Maybe that would constitute 'flooding' therapy for his phobia and he'd get better.

Straight into another adventure??! Excellent!

Rolls,SAN[dice]0[/dice][dice]1[/dice]. Credit rating[dice]2[/dice]

I'm really sorry, I've screwed up my character sheet in this adventure with an experience check crash - I got in a real muddle and of course one can't delete it and start again. The final results were Listen +7, Persuade, +7 and Spot hidden +8 and I will copy these over to a new sheet for the new game.

No problem! I'll announce the game later on.

Welcome back! It'll be good for Melody to return. Alexander sorely missed her. She would have found his misplaced glasses that were on top of his head right away.

I've advertised for a new player, but in the meantime we can start getting prepared. Mr. Handy, would you mind removing this game and set up the new forum? Here is the blurb:

Signs Writ in Scarlet

A horrific murder in London’s East End leads to a new assignment for the Seekers of Enlightenment. But there could be something even worse than a crazed killer on the loose…

I've created the forum here. I'll wait to move this forum to the Hall of Fame until this weekend, so that others have time to see this and I have time to roll for my skill increases and update my character sheet.

As I missed the end of The Burning Man with Melody, I'll do her skill checks here:

Melody Skills,Looking through I think she only ever passed tests for these skills, rolling in alphabetical order: Skill Check - Listen (75%): [dice]0[/dice] Skill Check - Sneak (75%): [dice]1[/dice] Skill Check - Spot Hidden (60%): [dice]2[/dice] Melody didn't lose any Sanity, and so doesn't gain any. She never actually witnessed anything Mythos related, so I'll ignore the 1% Cthulhu Mythos reward as well. I'll get her sheet posted in the new game now.

Spot Hidden (67% skill) XP check:
[dice]0[/dice]
Persuade (62% skill) XP check:
[dice]1[/dice]
Own Language: English (90% base skill) XP check:
[dice]2[/dice]
Library Use (64% skill) XP check:
[dice]3[/dice]
Shotgun (70% skill) XP check:
[dice]4[/dice]
Increase:
[dice]6[/dice]
Throw (25% base skill) XP check:
[dice]5[/dice]
Increase:
[dice]7[/dice]