Kingbeast's Lair

[Author’s Note: This is the log for the 4th session. Note that the order of the events in this record may not be in the exact order that they occurred during play. The narrator is shown in italics.]

In this hair-raising adventure of Tesla’s Power Corp you can follow the exploits of the following heroes:

Stiffed

Mike Callahan gets a knock on his door. In walks an older woman holding a weather-beaten travelling case. After introducing herself as Mrs. Jennifer Brakespear she tells Mike the story of how her husband, the noted explorer Ernest Brakespear, returned from his trip to the Yucatan Peninsula. The part that concerns Mrs. Brakespear is how “Ernie” avoided meeting with her. This went to the point of him leaving quickly in a taxi. As he left he dropped his case. After consoling Mrs. Brakespear the P.I. opens the case and examines it for clues. The main clue is a personal diary. This details many of the logistics of his trip to somewhere west of Merida in Mexico. The last entry details his returning to New York and a description of a strange man with a scar near his eye. Mike takes the case. After doing some research he discovers that the last page has been torn out. Using a pencil he finds a simple message with an address. The message reads, “Liam will know what to do.”

As Mike reaches the address in the diary he notices that the door has been bashed in. At this moment Liam returns from his trip to Crete. He checks the apartment door then opens it. As Liam enters he asks Mike to wait at the doorway. In the next room Liam finds a body. The body is that of his friend, Ernest Brakespear. He worked as a pilot for Brakespear in Mexico for a stint. In the body’s neck is a strange black needle. There are no other signs of a struggle.

After getting Mike away from the apartment the pair talk about what P.I. is doing at Liam’s apartment. Mike explains the situation. At this point Liam calls Nikola and tells him to send backup. Tommy and Johnny quickly arrive on the scene. Tommy looks around and finds some scuff marks on the window ledge near the fire escape. He thinks the murderer likely entered by this method. More importantly he also finds a gold disk in the hand of Mr. Brakespear. The disk has an Aztec head on one side and writing on the other. Eventually Liam and Mike decide that the best course of action is to contact Mrs. Brakespear.

When Mrs. Brakespear arrives and is informed that Ernest is dead she is horrified and faints. At this point Mike and Liam decide that they need to get to the bottom of his death. Mike consoles Mrs. Brakespear then the group heads to the American Museum Of Natural History to speak with the President, Trubee Davison, about the gold disk. Nikola says that he will be sending an expert in the phantasmagorical to the meeting to provide some assistance.

Museum Mayhem

At the museum the Corp and Mike meet in the office of President Davison. In his office the group is introduced to Miles Ravenwood. At first the Corp is reluctant to speak with Miles until he explains that Nikola called him. When the group shows the gold disk to Trubee he says that he wants to get his expert Melissa Garcia to examine it. She is an expert in Mesoamerican history and culture. With a book from her collection Liam and Melissa translate the writing to “Tzitzimime”. This is the name of an Aztec spider god. At this moment the door busts open and a group of men wearing feathered headdresses and carrying ancient stone axes enter! Acting quickly the heroes fight back. Tommy uses knives to take down two warriors. Mike blasts down Aztec warriors with two-fisted Colts. Miles starts confusing the warriors with an arcane spell. Johnny gums up one with his glue. Liam grabs Melissa and pulls her around the corner to safety.

When the Aztec warriors have fallen the group starts to examine the situation. The warriors have gear made using ancient techniques and old materials but they are in immaculate condition. The men have no signs of being from the modern world (i.e. they do not have wallets, watches, or rings). As they examine one of the bodies a spider emerges from his mouth and the body turns to ash! Acting quickly Miles scoops up a spider in a jar from Johnny. In the basement the group finds a small crate with a broken urn. The urn has some ash inside. There is also another sealed urn which Miles takes as he fears what would happen if it was opened. The crate is from Riverside Shipping in New Orleans.

The Cultists’ Lair

After landing in New Orleans the Corp acquires a car then drives to the Riverside Shipping Company. At the address is a warehouse. The warehouse is located on the waterfront. Tommy investigates the warehouse by climbing up a drainpipe then sneaking through a window. While standing on the catwalk that surrounds the interior of the warehouse he sees a group of men wearing feathered headdresses. Unlike the warriors in the museum these men are wearing normal clothing. The cultists are being led in a chant by a man wearing a strange wooden mask. At one point the man speaks up in English. He begins to preach that now is their time to strike! It is time to let others know about the power of the spider! With that Liam drives the car through one of the warehouse doors! The rest of the Group jumps out of the car and goes on the offensive. Tommy throws a gas canister on the cult leader. Johnny opens up with a chemical flame burst that levels half of the cultists! Miles cuts loose with lightning bolts on the cult leader sending him down in flames! Callahan jumps out of the car and grabs cover behind some crates. In seconds the cultists are taken down.

Miles and Tommy carefully search an attached office. In the office they find a map with lines that form a spider-like web pattern. The center of the web is west of a small town on the Yucatan Peninsula called Merida. Liam confirms that this matches his notes on the location. The book appears to be a coded log. After spending a few minutes Miles is able to decipher the book. The entries are names, addresses, and phone numbers. Scanning the list Miles notices that Mellissa Garcia on the list.

Boarding Brawl

In Merida the Corp hires a riverboat that can take them to the center of their map. The riverboat captain and his two men are wary but need the cash. On the second night of a three day journey Tommy wakes unexpectedly. When he awakens he sees a man with a spider tattoo and knife in his teeth climbing onboard the boat! After yelling loudly he climbs up on deck to face the men. Callahan comes up with gun blazing! Miles starts confusing the spider warriors while Liam jumps into the skiff in case things get out of hand. Johnny puts out a lantern that the warriors knocked onto the deck. The warriors manage to kill one of the crew members but they are stopped before any other losses are incurred. The Corp steels themselves as they await their final journey to the center of the spider cults web…

In our next adventure the Corp takes on the venomous leaders of an ancient spider cult! It will take all of their courage to avoid being caught in this tangled web of evil!

-== What is it? ==-

The Armitage Files (TAF) is a campaign framework for use with Trail Of Cthulhu. It was written by Robin D. Laws and published by Pelgrane Press. TAF was released in 2010.

The key component of TAF is a set of 10 handouts. The premise for the campaign is that documents are being sent back through time by Professor Armitage as warnings to the PC. The PC have to make sense out of these chaotic documents to stop the impending Cthuhlu threats that they foretell. TAF includes details on many of the people, organizations, places, and objects referenced in the handouts. It also includes a section on improvising.

The book has a color cover and a three color interior. The interior colors are black, white, and an olive drab color. TAF is 8.5” x 11” and is 152 pages in length. I am reviewing a print copy that I bought. I ran a campaign using TAF that lasted for nine sessions.

-== What I Like ==-

Each of the 10 handouts are roughly 3 to 4 pages in length. Some handouts include taped on items, photographs, or small drawings. The documents go from coherent log entries to frenetic chaos induced rants. Even though TAF is essentially in black and white you can download high-resolution color versions of the handouts in PDF format from the Pelgrane Press site. These color versions are brilliant! They are so much fun to analyze that my players poured over each one using their iPads. They zoomed into each stain, rip, and rant with a fine eye. These handouts are masterful. They were created by Sarah Wroot.

The key to TAF is that it be used in an improvisational fashion. The documents are intended to act as hooks that get the PC moving in a direction. The GM is then to lead the players through various layers and twists leadings to a final confrontation. TAF gives the GM advice on how this is to accomplished during each session. This product design is something that I personally have not seen in any other product and it had a dramatic effect on me. I am a QA engineer who loves lists and a fair amount of session prep. I do understand that no adventure survives contact with the players but I also value prep and the impact that it can have on making sessions memorable, coherent, and fun. Running several sessions without prep made me quite nervous. After the first 2 or 3 sessions I started trying to do some prep for various angles when I saw where the players were heading. This did help but it was difficult at times. In one case the players actually caught something in the text that completely derailed most of my session prep. I rolled with it but I’m sure the players could detect my unease.

During these improvisational sessions I took away something from the book that I had heard Paul Tevis spout off about in his podcasts. Paul used a term from improvisational theater called “negating”. The idea is that you never say “no” to your players. Instead you go with their suggestions and add a “but” to further the scene. For example, “The bar is open so you can take a look but it is seedy and crawling with shadowy faces…” This worked well for me during the sessions.

-== What I Don’t Like ==-

As I mentioned above the product really assumes a nearly complete improvisational GM style. What happened with me was that I started off with no prep but I quickly realized that I was having trouble improvising unique plots with detailed clues ahead of my players. As I game with very detailed orientated players (engineers, mathematicians, etc) having detailed clues that are consistent is vital. It was just too difficult for me to do on the fly. To help I started creating small threads that I could pull into adventures. This worked fine at first but quickly got more and more cumbersome.

My players are very detailed orientated but they are also very thorough. Not only did they want to research one thread on a given document they wanted to investigate ALL of the threads on EVERY document. After 9 sessions they had just moved to the THIRD document.

Even though the 10 documents have some threads that connect them TAF does not include any details to help the GM have a strong concrete ending. Instead they let the players and GM improvise this through the course of the campaign. Again this was hard for me to handle at my table.

-== Summary ==-

I was in a seminar with Kenneth Hite at DunDraCon several years ago. During that seminar I asked him if TAF was worth buying. His response was classic Hite…it went something like this, “If Beethoven composes a symphony you buy it; same here.” That is some high praise. 🙂 As a prep heavy GM with detail orientated players TAF was a great experiment but overall it was not for me and my group. For a prep lite GM I can see where this product would be absolute gold. I’m going to give the product 8 out of 10 paws. If you are a prep heavy GM I give it 6 paws but if you are an improvisational prep lite GM I give this 10 paws. 😉

I give it 8 out of 10 paws.

TAF can be purchased at Noble Knight Games at this URL. Amazon has copies for $26.27 at this URL. The book is at DriveThruRPG at this URL for $16.95.

[Author’s Note: This is the log for the 3rd session. Note that the order of the events in this record may not be in the exact order that they occurred during play. The narrator is shown in italics.]

In this hair-raising adventure of Tesla’s Power Corp you can follow the exploits of the following heroes:

“Please Call Me Trubee”

After getting a call from Nikola, Johnny, Tommy, and Quigley head towards his apartment. As they approach his hotel room door they see cub reporter Valerie Braveheart leaving the apartment. After giving Tommy a friendly hug she leave the Corp with Nikola. Nikola then asks the trio to come in and take a seat in his front room. At this point the Corp members speak with Nikola about Tesla’s Power Corp. Discussions revolve around what he will give to the team and what he expects from them.

As the discussion closes there is a knock at the door. Nikola gets up and opens the door for the President of the American Museum Of Natural History a Mr. Trubee Davison. After a brief introduction where President Davison asks to be called “Trubee” he explains his predicament.

Several weeks ago he was approached by the famed archaeologist Professor Munroe. The Professor had learned that the famed Labyrinth on Crete was not at the Palace Of Knossos. If he could locate the real Labyrinth it would mean a lot of publicity and likely several important finds for the museum. About 3 weeks ago regular telegrams from Crete stopped. Trubee fears the worst. He asks the trio to help by travelling to Crete to find the missing Professor Munroe and his niece, Gloria Drake. Upon landing they should speak with a friend of Professor Munroe’s on Crete named Milo Kosta. Mr. Kosta is a local antique dealer.

Kosta’s Antiques

After touching down in Crete the Corp dons some light clothing suitable to the Mediterranean climate and heads to the antique dealer’s shop. As they approach the shop Tommy gets distracted by a local Cretan girl selling fruit and flowers. Inside the shop Johnny and Quigley can hear some commotion going on inside. As they reach the front window they hear two men accosting the shop keeper. At this point the Corp jumps into action. Quigley draws his pistols and asks the men to drop their weapons. When the thugs turn and start to draw weapons Quigley drops one of them. At this point an unseen ruffian emerges from the back room with a Tommy Gun! Tommy runs around the back and unlocks the back door to the antique shop. At this point Johnny gums up the men while two large handguns and some rough language from Quigley convince the last thug to give up. After a quick search of the back room Tommy’s trained eyes finds a vase that looks out of place. Inside he finds an envelope. He takes the envelope and gives the vase with some flowers to the pretty Cretan girl. To his surprise as he hands the flowers to the girl the locals start clapping! They appear to consider the Corp to be their saviors in the fight against the ruffians.

The shop keep, Milo, is grateful to the group and is heartened to hear that the group are friends of Professor Munroe’s. He explains that the Professor found the location of the Labyrinth and left him an envelope. This envelope is only to opened if he feels that the Professor may be in danger. As things look grim for Professor Munroe he decides to open the envelope. Inside there is a note that says, “Choose to start thoughtfully.”

Icarus’ Plans

After reaching the camp of Professor Munroe on some horses borrowed from the local townspeople the team investigates the dig site. They find the camp ransacked. As they start to examine some of the pottery found by the Professor they find themselves surrounded y Cretan men with rifles. The men are being led by an older Cretan gentleman who introduces himself as Stefan Andropolous. (Milo later conveys that Andropolous is a local gangster who runs this part of the country. He apparently has most of the local officials in his pocket.) Stefan explains that not only did Professor Munroe find the fabled Labyrinth but that he also found some long lost scroll that belonged to Icarus. This scroll contains plans for a myriad of cunning devices including mechanical men, flying machines, and ray guns. Andropolous threatens that once Professor Munroe has translated the documents these fantastic machines will make him a very powerful man. With the help of his chief assistant which he calls “Mr. Scar” the master villain has his men open a large rock slab revealing an entrance into the Labyrinth. His men then disarm the heroes and throw them into the foreboding tunnel with Milo and the Professor’s niece, Gloria Drake. As the slab seals in the group Andropolous laughs at them and asks them to give their regards to the minotaur!

After Gloria explains that her Uncle is being held on Stefan Andropolous’ yacht the Corp steels their nerves and descends into the maze. While exploring the depths they come across two ancient soldiers that have been crushed by a large falling stone slab. Tommy assesses that the stone is indeed from a trap and takes the lead. On the two bodies they find a flintlock pistol and some spare powder. With Tommy in the lead he uncovers a spear trap. After carefully springing open a pit along one side they find two more skeletons. These bodies are wearing ancient robes. One of the men has a bronze sword and the other has a strange iron amulet with one eye and ancient writing on the back. Milo takes the necklace and says that he can translate it later when there is more light. Finally the PC reach a large chamber with several hallways. On one wall is a sealed doorway and a strange panel next to it with the Greek alphabet. Feeling something is not right Tommy moves to one of the hallways. He then hears metal footsteps approaching! Thinking fast Johnny, Quigley, and Tommy setup a tripwire across one hallway with some flash powder laying in front of it. Moments later a huge metal minotaur wielding a giant axe enters the room! The massive automaton trips on the wire and falls on the floor setting off the powder in a flash of light and smoke! Quickly Tommy start pressing buttons on the panel hoping it will open. After a loud click under his feet he dives to the side narrowly avoiding a deep pit. Thinking fast Tommy pours oil near the pit edge then Johnny glues the minotaur. With a daring feat of strength Quigley pushes the construct into the pit! This gives the Corp precious moments to work with the panel. After several unsuccessful tries Johnny figures out how the message from Professor Munroe can be used to open the door. The first letters of each word are the key to the panel lock. The heroes have escaped from the Labyrinth!

Yacht Firefight!

Upon returning to the camp the PC retrieve their gear and start to follow the horse tracks from Andropolous and his men. The tracks lead to the docks where they see a large yacht leaving port. Grabbing a nearby motorboat the Corp members race off in pursuit! Milo grabs Gloria and asks that she stay with him on the docks.

As they approach the back of the yacht Quigley blows down two men using his elephant gun! When the motorboat gets close enough to the yacht the Corp members jump onboard. Tommy climbs onto the roof while Quigley and Johnny take out Cretan thugs coming out of various compartments on the ship. Tommy finds Andropolous, Mr. Scar, and Professor Munroe in one of the forward cabins. He watches the room until Mr. Scar leaves. In a quick act of skill he handcuffs the assassin to one of the shop rails! As the battle rages Quigley takes some fire but grits his teeth and carries on. Johnny moves around to a position where he can release Professor Munroe. When releasing the Professor he find that dynamite is tied to his chair. Johnny hands a stick to Tommy who launches it into a hallway stunning Andropolous and Mr. Scar. Immediately following the explosion Johnny gums up the two men allowing Tommy to grab the plans from Andropolous. At the point the Corp decides to make a hasty retreat and returns to the motorboat. As they motor back to port mad ravings are heard from the yacht! The Corp has escaped with Professor Munroe and Icarus’ plans but they realize that Andropolous and Mr. Scar have escaped. Their villainy must be stopped on another day!

This is the end of the second daring tale of adventure that will become the legend that is Tesla’s Power Corp. In our next pulse racing yarn the Corp attempts to stop the nefarious schemes of an ancient Aztec deity!