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Chaosium Digest Volume 07 Number 11
Chaosium Digest Volume 7, Number 11
Date: Sunday, October 2, 1994
Number: 3 of 3
Contents:
The Jonty Scenerio, Part Two (Alligator Descartes) CALL OF CTHULHU
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From: Alligator Descartes <descarte@istellar.demon.co.uk>
Subject: The Jonty Scenerio, Part Two
System: Call of Cthulhu
THE JONTY SCENERIO
PART TWO
[Continued from V7.10]
** BASIC PLOT OUTLINE TO THE PLAYERS
The characters have been summoned by Jonty during the summer. His
letter to all is a little odd, hurried and written by someone through
an alcoholic haze, tempered with a little madness. He speaks of
'devils, demons and obscene shrieks rending his house in two at
night'. He seems to have some idea that this is all connected with
the full moon.
Being fairly urgent sounding, the characters decide to appear. The
motivations of the characters are as follows:
Windsor: Curiosity. As an old friend of Jonty's, he feels a little
obliged.
Leigh: Packed off by Fortune due to her 'getting out and about' for a
little while. Also, her connections with Jonty's family helps a
little. The 'occult' sounding nature of the business sounds important
enough for Fortune to bundle her off.
Others: Make something up. Friends of Windsor or Leigh are a good
bet.
Upon arrival in the evening (Windsor arrives last), the characters are
shown their rooms by Thompson. They are instructed to appear in the
Drawing Room around 19:00 that evening. The characters are free until
then to wander about.
At 19:00, everyone (except Thompson & Cook) meets in the Drawing Room.
Henry will appear 10 minutes late to 'make an entrance'. EL will
studiously avoid alcohol. The conversation will be inane. Jonty will
studiously avoid any topics other than the weather.
Henry's appearance (when it happens) will see her heading straight for
the drinks cabinet on the sideboard. She'll manage to be polite, but
only just. Jonty gets completely ignored.
Dinner gets served around 19:30 in the dining room. The characters
then return to the Drawing Room for more drinks. Any male characters
left at the end will be seduced by the completely drunken Henry,
unless they manage to resist.
Characters prowling at night may find some amusing situations here...
In the morning at 06:30, Thompson will come down to the Drawing Room
to clear up the debris from the previous night.
This is pretty much the pattern of the 'night' in the house.
Cook prepares breakfast in the kitchen under the stairs at 07:30,
which is served by Thompson in the Dining Room at 08:00. Breakfast
lasts until 09:00 and afterwards, the players are free till 12:30,
lunch. Lunch lasts for 1 hour.
This is the cycle of the 'day' in the house.
** TIMELINE
This timeline is pieced together from Police Reports, local gossip,
and GM knowledge. What the GM reveals is up to him, but obviously the
less the better. Cook is genuinely unknowing. Thompson obviously
isn't telling, but may lie. Jonty is too insane to remember, and
Henry was away. This applies generically to most happenings.
--- pre-1920: Old Man Ffarquar-Smythe, a studious type, one night
| is immersed in an old text (Agrippa, Paracelsus: take
| your pick) dealing with Homunculii, Moon Children
| and the contrallability thereof. He then decided to
| study the 'black artes' to create a child that he
| could groom and preen up to be an all-powerful
| servant to him.
|
| In his quest, he hires a new servant girl, a gypsy,
| called Leah to be 'mother' of such a child. She was
| caught by him one evening trying to sneak in through
| the Coal Cellar. Faced with the choice of Police, or
| being an accomplice in his 'research', she chose the
| latter.
|
| Every full moon, she and Old Man would descend from
| his room in which they both lived as a couple,
| to his Study, in which the Rite of the MoonChild
| would be performed (a ritual coupling).
|
--- Early 1921: Old Man one evening finds Leah and Thompson in a
| heated discussion about something. Thompson is seen
| grabbing Leah by the wrist then striking her sharply
| across the face. He then says "You'll do as I say, my
| girl, or you and your mother will regret it." He
| hands her a small packet.
|
--- Full Moon: The Old Man is discovered one night in a field near
| March 1921 the village, stark naked and raving like a lunatic.
| He's screaming gibberish in some barbarous inhuman
| sounding tongue.
|
| Villagers have turned out by the dozen to watch him.
|
| Eventually, he passes out from nervous exhaustion,
| his voice hoarse with raving. Thompson arrives ten
| minutes later with Leah in the car and quietly takes
| Old Man home.
|
| What had transpired was that Leah had put some of
| the hallucinogenic "Al-Hazred Lamp Powder" into
| the incense burner in the Study during their
| Moon Child rites. Old Man, completely unaccustomed to
| the clarity and thought patterns of the Old Ones, who
| were already attracted to the Old Man due to his
| magickal rituals, went completely insane at the
| glimpses of the horde given to him through the powder.
|
| Leah too had gone slightly mad from this, but was
| restrained by Thompson, since this was a two-fold
| plot by Thompson to make the Old Man go mad and
| discredit him to the villagers.
|
| This works admirably in both senses.
|
--- April 1921: The Old Man throws himself intensively into study of
| the Old Ones, guided by Thompson and Leah. He is
| taught certain rites by them, but still continues to
| carry out the rite of the Moon Child in moments of
| proportional lucidity. These experiments continue to
| be unsuccessful.
|
--- Oct, 1921: The Old Man's experiments are still unsuccessful.
| In infuriation, he attempts to sacrifice a small
| child from the village to the nameless God taught to
| him by Thompson and Leah. He feels this is the
| missing key to the MoonChild problem: Blood. The
| child is brutally slaughtered one night in the Study,
| at the climax of the Rite.
|
| The body is drained immediately of blood by some
| unknown agent and the desiccated corpse is disposed
| of in the Kitchen by Thompson.
|
| Old Man and Leah spend the evening in a field under
| the stars and the moon caked with the dried blood
| of the child raving obscenities. Thompson turns up
| soon after disposing of the corpse and returns to
| the Manor. Thompson appears to be becoming almost
| prescient.
|
--- Full Moon: The experiments still prove fruitless in the Moon
| Nov 1921 Child sense.
|
| Leah has lost almost half her body weight and energy,
| whereas the Old Man has gained in proportion.
|
| Thompson decides that enough is enough and that the
| two magi are now surplus to his requirements.
|
| Thompson meets Leah's mother, a gypsy, at the tower
| near the village. The two then perform a hideous rite
| involving menstrual blood, and that of a new-born on
| a small platform on the top of the tower. The rite is
| effective.
|
| On returning to the Manor later on, Thompson discovers
| Leah sitting in the corner of the Old Man's bedroom.
| She is naked and completely dead from terror. The
| Old Man is lying on his back on the bed, also dead.
|
| Blood is slowly dripping down from the ceiling.
|
| This was caused by the passage of Nyalathotep out into
| the space between the stars.
|
--- Summer, 1922: The Police are brought in to solve these suspicious
| deaths, but find no evidence of foul play.
|
| At the funeral of both, it is apparent that the
| Old Man and the Manor are not exactly revered in the
| village. The only mourner is Jonty, to be honest!
| Thompson is also present, but does not look fazed at
| all. Malicious knowledge is apparent in his face.
|
| Jonty acquires the house and the estates in the will
| and moves in not long after, from his flat at London.
|
--- September, 1922:
| Jonty marries Henry. She pounced on him one drunken
| night in London. She was beautiful (still is),
| American and amazing in bed. Jonty sweeps her off to
| the country. She promptly starts up an affair with
| Giles, an old beau in London.
|
--- December, 1922:
| Strange noises start being heard on the Full Moon
| each month. Henry, already drinking heavily in
| between bouts with Giles, drinks even more heavily,
| and wishes to return to London more each month.
|
| Jonty refuses point-blank since he 'can't leave the
| house.'
|
--- Full Moon June: Jonty goes almost completely insane with
| 1923 something he sees one night. He turns to hard
| drinking to try and erase the memory. He appears
| to have seen his father in the library.
|
--- Full Moon July: Jonty sees books flying about in the library. There
| 1923 appears to be no direction nor pattern to the
| movements. Bestial sounds can be heard in the
| ground floor, and occassional screams. An amoral
| female laugh sounds from the Old Man'sRoom on the
| first floor.
|
| These sounds are the invention of Thompson, who has
| had Old Man's and Leah's brains preserved by Byakhee
| in the flasks under the bed.
|
--- Full Moon Aug,: Jonty invites the Bishop of the diocese up to the
| 1923 house with the local priest, armed with holy water,
| garlic, stakes, the whole shebang. Jonty remains,
| armed, more pragmatically, with a shotgun.
|
| Henry is sent away to London, which pleases her and
| Giles no end. Cook and Thompson are sent to the
| village nearby.
|
| The following morning, the scene at the house is of
| total carnage. Jonty is discovered in the Dining
| Room in the dumb-waiter with an unloaded shotgun in
| his mouth. His eyes are raving and his finger pulls
| the trigger rhythmically every few seconds.
|
| In the Library, the Bishop is found naked, tied over
| one of the tables with sigils cut into his flesh.
| His rib-cage has exploded outwards revealing a huge
| 'womb-like' structure within. No organs are
| recognisable.
|
| (The Bishop was killed by Nyarlathotep. Thompson
| added the magickal sigils later to further slur
| the name of the Old Man.)
|
| The priest's body is discovered at the door of the
| library as if he had fallen out of the library into
| the hall. The back of his head has been caved in.
|
| (His head has been smashed in by Nyar when he
| tried running away)
|
| Jonty swears the picture is laughing at him.
|
| What transpired was that Thompson had summoned
| Nyarlathotep, at the tower. His manifestation
| point was in the Library, where, unfortunately, the
| people were waiting.
|
| As you can gather, short order was made of that.
|
--- Full Moon Sep,: Jonty refuses to stay in the house that full moon.
| 1923 The house is left empty to whatever 'ravening
| hordes' require its use.
|
| He is still almost utterly unhinged by whatever he
| saw. Whatever, because he will not say, or can't
| say.
|
| On Thompson's return early the next day, he states
| he found the books as they were. Stacked neatly in
| five piles on the table upon which the bishop was
| butchered.
|
| Jonty swears the picture of his father has taken on
| a knowing sneer.
|
--- Two days to Full : Cook hears a noise in the Coal Cellar and swears she
| Moon Oct, 1923 saw 'that brat Leah' clamber about in the coal
| then shoot off out the hatch. She didn't hear the
| hatch open though.
|
| This effect was easily accomplished by Thompson
| using another of Leah's mother's daughters dressed
| like Leah.
|
--- Full Moon Oct,: The house is abandoned again.
|
| Again, the books are discovered, but in a more
| intricate and complex pattern. This is clearly
| beyond Thompson's abilities at fabrication, if that
| was suspected before.
|
--- Full Moon Nov,: The players arrive... It is actually four days to
| 1923 Full Moon. The Gibbous Moon casts eerie shadows
| upon the house.
|
| On the night of the arrival, books in the library
| mysteriously move from their shelves and arrange
| themselves upon the tables in two tall stacks, one
| on each.
|
| Wanton female shrieks can be heard occassionally
| through the night, as if in in great pleasure.
|
| Again, this is Thompson's doing with the flasks.
|
| The following evening, the books again will arrange
| themselves into two stacks. This time, however, a
| line of books joining the stacks lies underneath the
| tables and runs along the floor. It is several books
| thick, and is not even in thickness.
|
| On this night, male roaring can be heard in
| conjunction with the female cries.
|
| On the night before the Full Moon, the Study is lit
| up with a soft light blue suffuse of light. This
| can be seen round the edges of the door. In the
| library, the books again form two pillars, although
| on this occassion, they also grow over to form an
| arch between the two stacks.
|
| Pulling books from the arch will not actually cause
| the others to topple. Esther Leigh is almost
| paralysed with terror to act at all. Jonty is
| almost certainly too drunk to care anymore. He
| carries his shotgun with him unnoticingly.
|
| On the night of the Full Moon, the books arrange
| themselves as before. A small pinprick of light
| appears in the focus of the arch. This enlarges
| somewhat during the slow passage of time. After
| a while, the image has expanded to the extent that
| small planets can be seen rotating around the
| light, or star. A small stellar theatre unfolds in
| the focus of the arch. Watching this for some time,
| the players will notice objects leave the
| furthermost planet in the imagery. They approach
| the third with startling rapidity, flying upon
| heavy leathery wings. Jonty, if present, will
| enter a state of catatonia almost immediately.
|
| A small shooting star will emerge from nowhere and
| traverse the heavens until it collides with the
| third stone from the sun.
|
| Upon reaching the third planet, Earth, the light
| fades away to nothingness. A bright glow appears
| from the hallway. Looking up the stairs, Leah,
| resplendent in a scarlet shift, and wearing an
| obsidian bracelet her left wrist, glides ethereally
| down towards the players on the arm of Old Man.
| They then move past the players, unseeing, and the
| study door swings open.
|
| Both are impervious to character intervention of
| any nature since they are slightly transparent and
| not real. The players will hopefully be too
| terrifed to bother trying to look for this, however!
|
| The books in the library will begin to whirl into
| shapes of pure chaos. The room will begin to roar
| and howl with shrieks of insanity. There can be
| heard strings of guttural jabbering and raving in
| what seems to be the far distance, although the
| sound is all around.
|
| Suddenly, the noise stops dead. The books stop
| flying round the room and fall to the floor.
|
| The wanton female shrieks and male roarings can be
| heard in the quiet, then fade away to nothing.
|
| The players are left in the library in dead silence.
|
--- Following days: The Cook will let the players know that 'those
| gypsies' have set up camp again near 'that damned
| tower' near the village.
|
| If the players get nosey, there's a slim chance
| that they may see Thompson there. This is at the
| GM's discretion. If they do see him, he will be
| seen talking to an attractive fiery red-haired woman
| who will walk off into the woods with him.
|
| They will go to the tower and climb it and can be
| seen talking at the top. They will return after
| about an hour or two. Thompson will then kiss the
| woman passionately, then return to the Manor.
|
--- Full Moon Nov,: Again, the same happenings as above. However, in
| 1923 the library, an amorphous form begins to coalesce in
| the arch in the spot where the stellar theatre was
| before. This form will eventually form into
| Nyarlathotep. He will turn on one player, generally
| the nearest and their rib cage will explode in the
| same way as did the Bishop's.
|
| After this carnage, he will depart.
|
--- Full Moon Dec,: Upon this occassion, Thompson will attempt to
| 1923 execute the investigators directly via Nyarlathotep.
|
| If he succeeds, or fails, he will try and destroy
| Jonty.
---
--------------------
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