Date At Start Of Game: September 9th, 1935
[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 Party Is Over
After Oren and Oliver Gardiner leave Elsa Hower’s coming out party in a rush Detective Keegan decides to delay their return to the Kingsport Yacht Club (KYC). He calls a friend in Arkham police dispatch and has them send a patrol car to waylay the Gardiner car. After making the call to the station the Detective and Professor Peaslee follow in his roadster. They catch up with the Gardiners as their car is in the process of being searched by two uniformed officers. At this point the Detective convinces the officers to let these fine gentlemen go after vouching for their character. Before the Gardiner car leaves Detective Keegan knifes their tire. He then heads to the KYC with the Professor for a “drink”.
Kingsport Yacht Club Shenanigans
While the other PC are distracting the Gardiners Professor Cuttling and Archie are breaking into Oliver Gardiner’s office to crack his safe. First the pair sets up a motorboat to make a fast getaway. Then they break into a window and enter the office. They can hear the KYC chef and host, Laurent, speaking in the kitchen but they do not appear to be paying attention to Oliver’s office. Archie opens the tricky safe in under 5 minutes. Inside he finds some legal paperwork and a packet of papers bound in a leather portfolio. After quickly examining the papers Archie decides that they are important enough to keep and takes the entire bundle.
As Leo and Archie start to leave they see a black limousine in the parking lot that was not there before they broke into the office. Outside of the limo is a large man smoking a cigarette. As this man has a view of their escape route the pair decide to return to the office to plan a different route. They decide to carefully cut open the window pane in the office. Outside the terrain is a rocky cliff. Archie decides to carefully sneak over the roof and down the far side of the building. Professor Cuttling decides to look for an underwater tunnel that might lead to the KYC. After doing a perfect jack-knife into the turbulent waters Leo finds a dark underwater tunnel! The dark tunnel leads to an underground pool that appears to be under the KYC main rotunda. As he enters the larger pool he spies a large shape quickly move by his side out of the tunnel! With that he enters the main pool and take refuge behind a large boulder that provides some cover. While waiting behind the boulder Leo hears two men enter the room. He peaks up and spies two men wearing dark gray robes. One is Elihu Smallridge! The other is a large man with a Texas drawl. Also in the room on a stone altar appears to be Diamond Walsh! He is naked and tied up with seaweed.
When Professor Peaslee and Detective Keegan arrive at the KYC they find Dora Smallridge and two of her goons at the front door speaking with Laurent. Apparently Dora wants to see Oliver immediately. She is quite irate. As the PC approach Detective Keegan calms down the argument then asks Laurent to let them in to have a drink while they wait for Oliver. He relays that he passed Oren and Oliver on the road on the way here. Reluctantly Laurent agrees to let them wait for the Gardiners to return.
As Archie reaches the motorboat another car pulls up. Oren and Oliver grab a suitcase from their trunk then head into the KYC. Oliver politely tells the PC and Dora that they are closed and asks them to leave. After some tense conversation the PC and Dora leave the KYC but Detective Keegan stands with Professor Peaslee immediately outside of the main veranda while he finishes his cigar. After speaking to each other quickly Oren and Oliver enter the walk-in cigar humidor with the suitcase. With that Detective Keegan returns to his roadster and grabs his weapons. Archie runs up with a wrench from the motorboat to join them. The trio calls over Laurent and after Detective Keegan flashes his badge the door is unlocked. At this point the trio heads to the humidor to find it empty. Now knowing that there must be a secret door Professor Peaslee searches the humidor shelves carefully. He finds a secret latch and flips it. This open a hatch in the floor allowing the PC to descend.
Ritual Interrupted
As Detective Keegan, Professor Peaslee, and Archie descend the damp stone stairway they can hear chanting in broken Chinese and English. They emerge in a rocky chamber with a stone table on one side tilted at a sharp angle. At the stone altar a man in a dark gray robe, Oliver, pulls a sacrificial knife and moves toward Diamond Walsh! Detective Keegan acts quickly firing a shot that hits Oliver Gardiner in the stomach. Quickly Professor Cuttling jumps out from his hiding spot behind Oliver pushing him into the water. At this point Archie rushes forward using the shotgun from Detective Keegan as a club. He strikes the large Texan, who Detective Keegan knows as Samuel Watson, in the head sending some teeth flying! At this point Elihu knifes Detective Keegan and Watson knifes Archie. Gathering up his courage Professor Peaslee enters the room and shoots Oren Gardiner in the back as he tries to knife Diamond Walsh from the other side of the altar. This gives Leo a chance to wrest the knife away from Oren Gardiner. Archie then throws Samuel Watson into the water. To the surprise of the PC they hear a gurgling sound coming from the water! They see a humanoid figure with long claws and black glowing ooze grab Oliver and pull him under the water in a screaming cacophony! As the creatures start to pull themselves out of the water Detective Keegan cuffs Oren Gardiner and leads him out of the room. Professor Cuttling grabs Diamond Walsh then the group makes their escape. As they leave the KYC they see several of the strange creatures emerging from the water.
Back At Miskatonic
It is late at night when the PC get back to Miskatonic with Oren, Diamond, and the contents of the KYC safe. Once they arrive Professor Peaslee starts treating the physically and mentally wounded. When he finishes the group decides to examine the papers they took from the safe and to speak with Oren Gardiner and Diamond Walsh.
There are three groups of papers in the leather portfolio from the safe:
Group #1 – Handwritten text on browning paper. Appear to be ripped out of a larger notebook. There is an entry dated October 4th, 1900. It contains the following text:
October 4th, 1900 – I’m sure most kids have normal birthdays but they are not part of a family like mine. After returning from a late night at Pacheo’s Place (aka a high-end bar in Arkham) father asked me to join him in the study. I was expecting a lecture but that is not what I got. Father told me a very strange story from his youth. When he was just 17 he was a hand on the Capricorn. The Capricorn was returning from a plentiful fishing run when they got caught in a ferocious storm. As the storm pounded the ship the mast split in two and dropped on him. When he awoke the storm had subsided but the rest of the crew were gone. Father thanked the oceans for seeing him through the storm. To his surprise the ocean churned and spoke back! It told father that he survived because the “ocean” had intervened on his behalf. The ocean told Father that if he listened and followed instructions he would be granted wild success in all his ventures! Father thanked the strange entity and asked his name…the ocean replied with “Dagon”. Over the years Father has followed directions from Dagon…no matter how dangerous…and he has had nothing but success. I’m not sure what to believe…maybe Father has had a bit too much to drink.
Group #2 – Handwritten text on clean white note sheets. Lines and columns are drawn. The second and last columns appear to be in some type of code. Leo deciphers the code without too much effort.
- First Column – One or two Chinese (Mandarin) characters. – Increasing numbers running from 1 to 43. Leo knows that the Mandarin number “44” is symbolic for water. (It is a very important number in Chinese mythology.)
- Second Column – Code – Names. Archie and Detective Keegan recognize the names as members of the Walsh Mob. Archie will see his hotdog stand contact listed three times. The last entry dated two days ago lists this contact with a currency value of $150.
- Third Column – Dates – Various dates ranging from 1925 to 2 days ago.
- Fourth Column – Currency – Various dollar amounts mostly ranging from $50 to $200.
- Fifth Colum – Code – Locations. The locations appear to be various loading docks, back alleys, and deserted roads.
Group #3 – Handwritten text on water stained white paper. Shows various chants in Mandarin. Some are loosely translated to English. First pages appear older and some are water stained. After getting some pages translated Doctor Armitage suggests that it is a summoning spell of some type. (At this point none of the PC have decided to read these pages in detail.)
After analyzing the papers from the safe Doctor Armitage informs the inquiry team that another set of papers have appeared under his desk blotter. At this point the PC need to speak to Oren and Diamond then analyze this new set of papers from Doctor Armitage…
Date At End Of Game: September 9th, 1935
I just posted all of the magic items and mundane objects that I created during my 3 year Fantasy Hero campaign. Entries range from the Bark Of The Great Tree Necklace to Wickshine Apple Brandy! Some of the items are actually traps! (Pictured is Spirit Splitter.) All items are provided in Hero Designer format. Some items are built using Hero System 5th edition and some are in Hero System 6th edition. There are 27 objects included in the zip file! Here is a hyperlink to the page where SpiritStormItems.zip can be downloaded.
