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Cthulhu Keeper (GM): Myself
Investigators: Caroline, Nik, Chrissy, Raven, Aldwyn and Rachel* as players
Campaign: Masks of Nyarlathotep
I think I can do this one without spoiling anything for those who have yet to play Masks of Nyarlathotep.
Before we begin, let me say that I’ve recently taken a liking to the word “splorch”, which I’ve seen used mainly in a few comics here and there. I’m sure it’s not a real word, but it’s usefulness in describing certain aspects of the Cthulhu Mythos are unrivaled. You’ll see what I mean as you read on.
In this story, the investigators had attracted the attention of some cultists in New York and were busy weaving false trails to try and elude them. The week before, the party had been reading some Mythos tomes using Nik’s house as a base of operations. They were attacked and the house was subsequently burned down in the fight.** The party had then decided to move to a hotel. Caroline’s character rather jestingly suggested the Waldorf Astoria, but after suggesting it Raven’s Field Researcher was the one who talked the party into staying there. They decided on the Concierge level, 27th floor***
Before going much further, I need to impart some information about who the PCs are…or at least a few things of note about them. Nik was playing a New York Police Investigator who was already taking a bit of heat from his boss about the odd happenings he seemed to be involved in lately. He was essentially assigned to his own case and told to take as much time as he needed to solve the case. Raven was playing an upstanding British Field Researcher with a high credit rating and a penchant for being a bit of a male chauvinist – totally appalled by most of the actions of two of the female Investigators who had *ahem* shady backgrounds (a Smuggler and an Assassin to be precise). The Smuggler was played by Caroline and the Assassin was played by Chrissy, and neither one is the petite fair lady the Brit hopes they will start being. Aldwyn is playing another Brit who is an Antiquarian living in New York. Our Librarian, who had just joined our group the week before, was not able to attend this session.
Anyways, back to the tale!
Needless to say, with a really low roll on Raven’s Credit Rating, we now have a well-known Field Researcher (at least to the hotel staff) who checked in under an assumed name with two ladies and two other guys. Already the hotel staff was kind of intrigued and rumors were most likely circulating around the staff.
That night, they set out a watch schedule. The cultists couldn’t easily reach them since they were located in an area that would make an attack by robe-wearing fanatics extremely hard to pull off. I had decided that they would most likely summon monsters to help them. The cultists had gotten extremely lucky in their rolls to tail the investigators and were able to ascertain which room they were in. I had decided that they were relatively determined to destroy the party at all costs so they invested a lot of time and energy into summoning two Star Vampires and in using magical gate spells to get them into the room the Investigators were staying in. This happened at about 1a.m.
Chrissy was on watch at that point failed her Spot Hidden check to notice the slight shimmer the gate made when it opened, but she made the Listen check I had imposed to notice the (very slight) sound of the air displacement that occurred when the (invisible) creatures were gated in. I described a feeling of uneasiness that ‘something was not quite right’ in the room. At that point she heard the tittering sound Star Vampires make and, although she couldn’t see them, decided to wake the party. Two of the guys were in one room (Raven and Aldwyn) with Nik sleeping in the bathroom tub (don’t ask!) and Caroline in the second room. I had decided to give the Vampires a CONx3 roll to act in the first round which both failed so Chrissy was able to wake the rest of the party up in time to act the next round. As the battle starts, Nik realizes that the repercussions of gunfire in the Waldorf Astoria would be bad and warns the rest of the party to not use their guns. The battle, therefore, was a lot of thumping, cries of pain, and a splintering crash where one piece of furniture was turned into an impromptu stake (Aldywn had needed a melee weapon). I rolled a 01% on the neighboring room occupants’ Listen roll, so (unbeknownst to the party) the neighbors literally heard everything that was happening!
The neighbors alerted the Concierge that there was some sort of brawl going on.
After the battle, two of the party had wounds and temporary strength loss, and one received a sizeable hit from a talon. Star Vampires become visible when they drain blood (STR). Since the blood is ingested and diffused after about 6 combat rounds I ruled that they quickly became invisible again even though they were dead. This left the party with the dilemma of what to do with two 500 lb., invisible, rubbery, tentacled and splorchy-sounding corpses.
The discussion started out with the idea of them pushing the Star Vampire corpses over the rail of the balcony, but that was quickly discarded as the ramifications of how much damage a 500 lb. object at terminal velocity could do to a parked car or even an unfortunate passer-by below.
They talked about sending it down the laundry chute, but the thought of how to get the corpses to where the laundry chute was involved them rolling or dragging each 500 lb. invisible corpse all the way down to the other end of the hall. The mental image of three of Investigators grunting, sweating, cursing and rolling/pushing a splorching invisible object – and having someone witness them doing it – was what initially stopped this scheme from being implemented. There were various jokes about mimes, ventriloquists, and even the suggestion of wrapping the corpses in a sheet…you can imagine the response of some NPC witnessing that!
At that point there was a knock on the door as the Concierge had arrived. Quickly the party hid in the rooms, and Aldwyn’s character volunteered as the person to answer the door. There were a few panicked moments as the party hid the bloodstains by dragging a large chair over (which the Concierge heard from outside the door with another successful Listen roll on my part).
Aldwyn answered the door and was confronted with a man who was positive there had been some sort of fight or battle going on in the room. The rest of the party heard all of this from their hiding places back in the rooms. The Concierge was giving Aldwyn the third degree, and Aldwyn was trying to bluff being woken up out of bed (along with his ‘wife’), when Caroline’s character disheveled her nightgown and hair, poked her head out from the room and loudly asked when her ‘husband’ was coming back to bed. Needless to say I didn’t even require any rolls for the implications of what the Concierge thought might have been going on at that point to figure out that the guy was completely embarrassed and shocked. He left red-faced after some muttered pleading to keep the noise level down.
The discussion after the Concierge left turned to finding a way to drop the corpses down the elevator shaft. Once again, the physics of a 500 lb. object falling that far, and the damage that it would do to the bottom of the elevator shaft prevented them from acting on that idea either. Similar discussion was bantered about involving the trash chute.
At one point the party had almost decided to just hide the corpses in the room somewhere – most likely the closet – and check out, but no one particularly wanted to risk being linked to that. Taking them to the basement was also discussed and discarded because of the risk of being caught as well as the thought that the basement levels would probably not be accessible to the public anyways.
They then revisited the idea of using the trash chute, but by finding the bellboy and bribing the use of a luggage cart to haul the corpses with. It was a bold plan, and one that met with success. Aldwyn slipped the bellboy a $10 bill along with a vague reference of “my wife has always wanted to try one of these”. Just about that time Caroline puts in another appearance and caused further mental mayhem on the poor bellboy who was convinced at that point that he was dealing with two very kinky people. Still though, $10 (in 1925) was sufficient to keep the bellboy from alerting anyone...at least at that point in time. Rumors amongst the hotel staff would abound later on of course.
Having secured a cart they successfully evaded detection and were able to drop each corpse into the trash chute, one after the other.
Now, for a moment, imagine the dimensions of the trash chute and the size of the Star Vampire. At 500 lbs. it is about 2-3 times the mass of an adult. Small enough to fit down the chute but big enough to fill most of the space within the chute causing a lot of air to be pushed below it and creating a large vacuum above it. Of course, logically, this would cause the chute doors ahead of the plummeting (speeding) corpse to blow open before them and slam shut after…all accompanied by the splorching noise of the rubbery, tentacled corpse speeding down a sheet-metal shaft. And of course the velocity came into question again when the half-ton mass of fleshy extraterrestrial meat hit the trash bin at the bottom with a Huge Big SPLORCH! Bowing the sides out and busting the seams of the trash receptacle, causing trash to shoot out of the sides along with (invisible) chunks of ichor and flesh…followed a few moments later by the second meaty missile…yeah, the janitor probably had a field day cleaning that up.
The wrap-up involved Nik dodging a few of his fellow officers, Raven’s reputation as a fine upstanding British gentleman being whispered about the hotel (and perhaps leaking into the social scene) as having rather odd, err…sexual partners and tastes. I can’t decide weather to add a few points to the Brit’s Credit Rating or take a few off…and of course there are also the rumors of a discovery by hotel staff of unidentifiable, invisible jelly-like masses of goo and rubbery,fleshy substance that somehow decimated the trash chute and bin.
*Rachel was unable to make it to gaming on this particular weekend.
**Nik, Chrissy and Aldwyn had to cancel that week. Part of a post-session email from that weekend between Raven and Nik can be found here.
***We used modern information for the Waldorf Astoria. It was the easiest information to find in a pinch. Consequently, I have no idea if there really is a Concierge level on the 27th floor in the 1920s or not, but that is the info that the party was basing their decisions on.