I have chosen not to reveal the name of the campaign we are playing as this will be a small spoiler to the players invoved. As we work our way through the adventures ahead I will change the titles of our sessions to reflect what has been discovered…or not as might be the case !
I should, of course, introduce myself ! My name is Phil Crompton and I have been a club member for nearly three years now although my gaming goes back over 30 years. I am using the 5th/6th edition Cthulhu rules with a smattering of Savage Worlds (bennies and initiative). We have 8 (!) players for this campaign which is a challenge but the beauty is that they are a great bunch of roleplayers which makes life a lot more easy. My Cthulhu sessions are a mix of horror and humour (although that is open for debate !) Anyhow to the Session One Recap, which was held on tuesday 16 Sept 2014…
January 10th 1925. Miskatonic University, Massachussetts. A select group of 50 people gathered for the first-ever seminar of the Occult. Amongst them are 8 friends of the author Jackson Elias.
The seminar opened with a lecture on Egyptian hieroglyphics. Some of the party (as the collective shall now be known) found the droning, monotonous monologue to be wonderful – Sebastian Du’Thame in particular. Others rubbed their eyes, yawned, scratched, fidgeted or fell so deep asleep that they slid from their chairs into crumpled heaps upon the floor (Aubrey Murray, ahem).
During a refreshment break people began to introduce themselves and it quickly became apparent that they shared a common theme – that Jackson Elias played a part in all of their lives.
After enduring a shambolic talk about an Australian Sand Bat Cult, in which the lecturer mixed up his notes, the audience were dismayed to learn that Elias had suddenly and unexpectantly pulled out of the seminar. The Director of the Univesity library then hurriedly arranged replacement speakers but enough was enough for some people and the lecture theatre quickly emptied.
Captain Howard retired to his room to freshen up and received a strange telephone call from Jackson Elias in which he sounded very ill at ease and was very vague in his dialogue. Miss Rivers decided to interview the telephonist who had put through Elias’ original call and Clinton Baptiste then attempted to speak with the spirit of a girl’s deceased lover.
At dinner that evening everybody began to get to know each other a little better – revealations of participation in the Great War nearly led to harsh words between Kane and Howard and the sad story of the death of ‘Bertie’ McTavish’s wife had most of the party dabbing tears from their eyes.
Aubrey Murray was then handed a telegram – sent by Jackson Elias from New York. Cryptic it stated – ‘HAVE INFORMATION CONCERNING CARLYLE EXPEDITION STOP NEED RELIABLE INVESTIGATIVE TEAM STOP ARRIVE JANUARY 15 STOP SIGNED JACKSON ELIAS.
It was unanimously agreed that the group would all go to New York. The Carlyle Expedition was unknown to most and sketchy to those that remembered its name so Miss Rivers used her charm to have the University library opened up for an hour on sunday morning. Whilst Du’Thame went to arrange transport to New York the rest of the party entered the huge library halls and leafed through many newpapers and journals of past years finally coming up with some mention of the Carlyle Expedition;
In 1919 Manhattan playboy and millionaire suddenly got up an expedition party and embarked for London. Joined there by another millionaire, Sir Aubrey Penhew, the expedition then moved to Egypt and were involved in some excavations. Little details were given as to what they were looking for and if they actually found anything yet suddenly the expedition relocated to Kenya citing illness within the group. In Kenya they dissappeared without trace – the bodies of their bearers being found some months later torn apart yet very well preserved. The expedition were eventually declared dead. Roger Carlyle’s sister, Erica, travelled to Kenya to search for her brother but returned to New York without success.
