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Chaosium Digest Volume 09 Number 11
Chaosium Digest Volume 9, Number 11
Date: Sunday, February 26, 1995
Number: 3 of 3
Contents:
The Past is Doomed, Part Three (Geoff Gillan) CALL OF CTHULHU
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From: Geoff Gillan
Subject: The Past is Doomed, Part Three
System: Call of Cthulhu
The Past Is Doomed, Part Three
Copyright (c) 1995 Geoff Gillan
DAY TWO
The People
Hammerman and Glenda are again separate for the day. Hammerman returns
to the set, while Glenda is keen to find out what is happening with
the official enquiry about the missing Zabrich. She visits the police
and the investigators, if she is aware of them and thinks they are
likely to turn anything up. By the afternoon, she returns to her hotel
room, where she spends the time on the telephone. By the evening,
Hammerman has returned from the set and the pair go to dinner together
at the fanciest restaurant they can find in town. They return at a
little before midnight, with Hammerman a little drunk and ranting,
"The past is doomed, and so are we..the past is doomed and so are we
all," over and over. (Investigators who approach him in this condition
get a very curt kiss-off from Glenda. She bundles Hammerman into his
room and they do not emerge for the rest of the night).
Zabrich sends a letter to the investigators. He does this only if they
have been making sensible progress. Any craziness on their part makes
him suspect them, and he backs off for another day. If the letter
comes, it arrives anonymously, slid under their door by the doctor
himself, while they are out of their rooms for any time. The letter
incriminates the film people. It is addressed to Doctor Zabrich from
Hammerman personally, begging the Doctor to show the man a draft of
his book The Chronicles of a World Gone Mad. Hammerman explains that
he wished to use the book as the basis of his next picture. It is
dated three months ago.
The Servitors
The Servitors now begin to take an active interest in the
investigators, especially if they have been making good progress. The
incidence of their shadowing the investigators intensifies; they also
make an effort to snoop into the investigators' rooms or homes and
discover what they might know about Zabrich and about the film people.
The Servitors use standard break-in measures, so as to not alert the
investigators to their presence.
(Keepers may wish to establish Investigator contact with Douglas
Stoop, so that he can be suspected of burglarizing their rooms, rather
than supernatural forces.)
While the images of the past continue to plague the investigators, a
new one is called up the Servitors.
* The Ambulance - and old ambulance streaks by. This is a world
war 2 field ambulance, a fifties version, even a seventies one (this
may be harder to pick, but a Spot Hidden reveals something not quite
right about the vehicle or History establishes its period as belonging
to the past).
In the back, investigators see a bloodied figure sitting in the
window, waving back at them and smiling. Each Investigator sees their
own face on the torn and brutally injured person.
DAY THREE
The People
Hammerman and Glenda both decide to get the investigators out of the
picture, each in their own way. Hammerman calls the investigators and
tries to buy them off with a bribe. The deal is four hundred thousand
dollars (out of the film's budget) if the investigators leave Arkham.
Even if they are locals, Hammerman does not care. They should take a
holiday. Hammerman sees their departure as concrete proof that they
are upholding their side of the bargain.
Hammerman's excuse is that the snooping around the investigators are
doing is costing him a loss of face with the studio, something he can
ill afford. He wants them out of the way. Presumably the
investigators say no, or yes with a plot to deceive Hammerman.
Glenda's form of getting the investigators out of their hair is a
little tougher. She sets the Servitors on them (see Servitors actions,
below).
Zabrich for his part stays quiet and lies low. He senses danger in the
air, and does not wish to buy into it.
The Servitors
At Glenda's behest the Servitors get tough. They launch physical
attacks against the investigators that night. Keepers should choose
moments when the investigators are alone or vulnerable. See Servitors
section in Statistics, for description of their possible tactics.
DAY FOUR
The Small Hours
By midnight of day three, Hammerman and Glenda have put their plan
into action. Everyone asleep in Arkham that night loses 1D10 Magic
Points. If any character loses more than their total magic points from
this, they have lapsed into a mysterious coma, from which they can
only be awoken by the destruction of the focal point within the movie
set.
If the investigators know or suspect something is afoot and wish to
prevent this, then they must journey to the motion picture set on the
outskirts of Arkham. If this is the case, they do not encounter The
Journey Through the Past and the changing of Arkham, but do encounter
the altered set.
Most likely however, they are taken by surprise like the rest of
Arkham, and have a very strange night's sleep.
SIDEBAR - DREAMS OF THE PAST
Throughout the next section of encounters the investigators will
scarce know if they are awake or asleep, dreaming or living a walking
nightmare. During the dream-passage of the Journey Through The Past,
investigators are certainly asleep. A loss of Sanity or hit points in
these encounters leads to a roll on the Dream Past Nightmare Table
below.
Within the dream, once investigators are trapped (see description in
each section) they must undergo a SAN roll. Success loses 1 Sanity
Point and sees them wake, tense but essentially safe and sane. Failure
loses 1D10 Sanity Points and has them undergo a Nightmare effect.
Once the investigators reach the set they find that reality has warped
and may as well be a dream. In this instance the investigators have
sanity loss and wounds as they normally would, as the great power
tapped by Glenda's spell has altered the very reality of the Set and
its surrounds.
Dream Past Nightmare Table
(Based on Dreamlands Nightmare Effects Table)
Choose or roll 1D6
1. Dreamer becomes one of the creatures in the dream which they would
normally revile. They chase and harass other dreamers, but upon waking
or seized with overwhelming guilt which continues to dog them.
2. Dreamer changes location to another Arkham/Dream Past.
3. The Investigator wakes but sees the room he or she is in as
decorated exactly like the past era they just were in. San loss 1/1D6.
4. As above, except affect lasts for the next 1D10 minutes. As they
walk through the streets Investigator hallucinates that everything is
taking place in this past era.
5. As 3 except effect lasts 1D10 hours.
6. Investigator rolls for SAN loss and matches it against CON. On
failure Investigator suffers mild coronary arrest. If a roll of CON X
10 fails he or she dies. If successful 1 point of CON is lost.
THE JOURNEY THROUGH THE PAST
If the investigators have not acted against Glenda and Hammerman, they
undergo a dream during the early hours of day four. They dream they
arise as though the day is normal, then it begins to take on horrible
new meaning. Finally the investigators must run the gamut of the dream
until being flung violently - and probably less stable as a result
- back to the future.
As they journey out into the town itself, streets and locations remain
exactly the same - it is as though the past has seeped in and
overwhelmed the town. This is a spill-off from the activities on the
set.
Keepers should consider such alterations to be similar to the
dream-states in the Dreamlands. While they are not real, they
certainly seem so, and investigators encounter the changes as though
they are in fact, reality.
Beginning at the north end of the town and running down to the south,
the town has been divided into different historical periods. Within
these sections everything is as it was during that period, except with
a slightly sinister edge.
All the activity within the sections seems to concern unrest and
social upheaval of one kind or another. Investigators have three
things to gain by undergoing this dream state.
* Insane Insight. Failed Sanity Rolls allow the investigators an
insane but telling glimpse into the realities of the situation. They
sense a lurking presence behind the scenes, a malevolent figure,
tantalizingly hovering over the entire scene, which cannot however be
glimpsed or uncovered no matter how hard the investigator tries. They
gain an immediate knowledge that this is how it was - these things did
not simply happen on their own, they were the tinder ignited by some
devious and deadly supernatural spark.
* The Concentric Crowds. When under attack by crowds if
investigators are flung back out of the dream, on a Spot Hidden they
see that the crowds form a concentric pattern, a special surging
picture which directly parallels the pattern investigators may have
seen on the empty set, or later discover when they visit the studio
for the final time.
* The Destination. Once the investigators have succeeded in
getting through this Arkham of the past, they reach the edge of town.
There the woods fall away as if by some giant hand and left standing
is the Film Set. Around it shimmers some horrible figure. A great
gaseous thing, layered with circles and spheres hovering about it,
ever threatening to coalesce into some unspeakable and terrible
entity, but mercifully never quite managing to. It is though it has
almost sufficient power but not enough, that there is something
missing. From within the Set comes a dull chanting, and with each
syllable the form gains greater cohesion. A successful Cthulhu Mythos
identifies this thing as a form of Yog-Sothoth, but happily not one of
its more devastating manifestations. Sanity loss in this case is
1D4/1D20.
Whether or not the investigators manage to remain sane, they awaken
form the dream state back in their beds after this penultimate vision
(should they not already have been returned there during the dreamlike
adventures).
SECTION ONE : North Arkham (towards Kingsport) south to Armitage
Street.
The 50s
This section of town completely resembles life during the fifties. But
far from being the happy go-lucky time it is often depicted as, people
are shunning strangers, as Cold War fever has them tightly gripped in
its nightmare clutches. Investigators are viewed suspiciously and
begin to get trailed through the town by government agents. If they do
not hurry out of here, they are eventually pursued by an angry mob,
arrested, and with the horrible speed of dreams (or nightmares) find
themselves in the electric chair for being spies. The surging burst of
current through their pain-wracked bodies flings them back into the
present.
SECTION TWO: Armitage Street to Water Street
The 60s
The streets and people are made to be from the sixties, but now their
are riots and protests. Brutal thug-like cops and crazed feral hippies
clash in bloody violence. Investigators are flung into the middle of
such riots and must flee or be dragged into and possibly injured by
the raging throng. Finally if they remain, they are surrounded by
either cops or protestors. If they are surrounded by cops they realize
to their horror they are dressed as hippies; if they have been swarmed
by hippies they are clothed in police uniform. The resulting terrible
attack flings them back into the present.
SECTION THREE : River to College Street
The 70s
As soon as they enter this section the investigators are in the
uniforms of Vietnam soldiers, marching through the town and being
harangued on all sides by the townspeople, who loathe and revile them.
Finally one woman bursts through the ranks and claws at one of the
investigators, screaming abuse in their faces and spitting on them.
This creates a tidal wave of reaction as the crowd surges in from all
sides, attacking the investigators and their companions mercilessly.
Unless they can escape, the ensuing carnage ends with the
investigators deposited once more in their own time frame.
SECTION FOUR : College Street to Washington Street
The 80s
Investigators must make Luck rolls. On a failed roll they become drawn
and thin, and find themselves in ragged clothing shuffling along
streets, their joints limbs stiff with hunger and fatigue. Gradually
their outlook becomes bleaker and their health worse, until at last
they fall against the curbside and die.
Investigators who succeed in their Luck rolls become rich and wealthy.
They find themselves prowling through Arkham in a limousine. But, as
they go, they begin to take in more money and more food and more
drink, and even as they pass the destitute around them they swell
fatter and fatter until they burst within the narrow confines of the
limo, showering its interior with their strewn innards.
Only if they can resist the urge to succumb to such a condition
(abstracted as a POW X 5) can investigators escape from the streets,
to the final outcome, glimpsing Yog-Sothoth, which is described above.
INVESTIGATOR ACTIONS
Once having returned from the dream-past, the investigators must
decide what to do. The key lies in the studio outside of town. Now,
however a new evil has risen here, and the place is no longer the
innocuous empty set it was before. Investigators soon discover that
Glenda and Hammerman left for the set just before midnight and have
not been seen in their hotel since.
ZABRICH ACTS
Once things have got to this point, Ernst Zabrich cannot help but act.
He sees in the investigators an opportunity to have allies, and a
chance to bolster his always flagging courage. Also at last there is
something to fight, something tangible, and this gives him hope. If
the investigators have not previously discovered him, he is waiting at
their hotel when they wake up from their past-nightmare. Zabrich
announces himself and discards his disguise. He insists the answer
lies at the set and that the investigators must go with him and
destroy the evil that lies within. "We can do nothing about the past,
but the future still has a chance," the old scholar intones.
THE ALTERED SET
Once the investigators journey again to the set they find it
remarkably changed. The sets themselves are as before, but they have
taken on a new life, becoming like the dreams the investigators
underwent, filled with horrible, ghastly pastiches of the worst
element of the past. On each set, now a horror has overtaken it, and
investigators venturing onto the set must defeat it or at least
escape, before they can deal with the real threat. A description of
the set and how it works. With the following changes and conditions:
Set One
A swarm of zombies inhabits this shopping mall, ravening and tearing
at anything that comes near, a gross symbol of consumerism gone made.
They are all dressed in name brands, and are especially attracted to
the investigators if they possess the same. Suspended above the mall
is a massive net of consumer goodies, reached by a narrow ladder, or
from the top of the escalator. A Mechanical Repair roll operates the
winch and lowers the goodies down to the zombies, which immediately
placates them and allows the investigators to escape.
Set Two
The mock white house is now filled with grinning ghouls as the
investigators must fight through a sea of tapes and bugging devices.
If the ghouls manage to inflict a wound on the investigators, their
face becomes a mirror of the investigator's own. Sanity loss for
seeing this is 1/1D6. Against the window of the white house is a giant
tape head and a set of speakers projecting out. If the investigators
manage to run a loop of tape over the heads they can project the truth
out to the people and escape.
Set Three
The jungle is hissing with rain and seemingly alive. Investigators
must face dead men emerging from the underground tunnels, armed with
lethal weapons which do not work in the hand of the investigators. The
four holes must be simultaneously plugged for the creatures to cease
emerging. There is a pile of First Aid packages lying in a stack,
which can be used for just such a task.
Set Four
The investigators must watch helplessly as they are the ones with guns
in the hands at Dealey Plaza. Even if they throw away the weapons,
seemingly everyone on the knoll has a gun of some sort. The
conspiracy is an endless nightmare. If investigators make sufficient
racket and draw enough attention to themselves they find an
opportunity to escape while the Presidential cavalcade speeds off.
Set Five
A trial at the HUAC hearings in which the investigators must prove to
a group of cannibalistic ghouls that they have not now or ever been
the ghouls' enemies. Since the ghouls insist everyone is their enemy,
they wish to take the investigators and cook them in an enormous
chamber with a chair within, that bears a horrible resemblance to a
cross between an electric chair and an oven.
Between the sets
Going between the sets is not so simple once the powers of the dark
past have been set in motion. Long dark tunnels seemingly without end
link up the sets. These are pitch black within and have no apparent
beginning or end. They simply start as the investigators walks off the
set, and end some 1D20 rounds of walking later. Once in the tunnel,
there is a 20% chance investigators are pursued by the denizens of the
last set and a 15% chance for a Servitor to physically attack. Both
these attacks break off if the investigators reach the next section.
SET SIX: THE FINAL VORTEX
There are two possibilities for this section. The first is that the
investigators are prompt and come to the set before the magic points
of the town have been tapped to create the dream of the past.
The Investigators are Early
If this is the case they find Hammerman and Glenda bent to their task.
The lines of the vortex on this set are glowing and begin to move in
three dimensional fashion forming a complex web of arcane design.
Glenda can use the vortex to summon aid, and call Servitors, and she
and Hammerman flee into the studio as the sets take on their new life
as described above.
The Investigators are Late
The second is that vortex of the past has been set in action by the
tapping of the magic points of the town of Arkham already In this case
the sets are already altered, and investigators must battle their way
to this location in order to halt the summonings of Yog-Sothoth.
When the investigators reach this point, they find the headless
Hammerman, dangling upside down above the vortex, his body swinging so
that his blood traces the lines which may have been perceived earlier.
Ringed around the vortex are six Servitors. In the center, in a
section unbloodied, stands Glenda, a gleaming blood-stained knife in
her hands. She waits for the vortex to be painted by Hammerman's blood
and once empowered by the stolen magic points, it shall be a gate for
Yog-Sothoth, her master.
Investigators can see within the vortex more visions of the terrible
and desperate aspects of the past. This can become overwhelming, and
investigators who fail their sanity roll lose 1D4 points and stand
fixed to the vision until the Call is completed.
The Servitors hold the circle closed from those who would interrupt
the ceremony. Investigators may break through the circle by force, or
climb above the set and cut down Hammerman's body from its grisly
circuit.
Once Yog-Sothoth arrives investigators who succeed in their SAN rolls
perceive the entity as a terrible knowing, a certainty that their
lives are futile and needless and that their world is slowly
crumbling. Those who fail the roll are instantly catapulted into
gibbering insanity.
SUCCESS
If investigators succeed: Yog-Sothoth is banished from having an
earthly foothold. Glenda and her minions must be dealt with, but in
the terrible blast of the elder thing's defeat the Servitors are
sucked backed into the dreadful otherworldly void from which they have
been summoned. Glenda is alone and quite insane, staring at the
headless corpse of her lover and mouthing silent inanities.
Investigators gain 2D10 Sanity points for banishing Yog-Sothoth, but
lose 1D6 from the knowledge that a foothold has already been gained,
that however they may fight for the future, the past is doomed.
FAILURE
If the investigators fail: Yog-Sothoth is summoned and proceeds to
destroy the investigators as threats. Afterwards, the elder god deals
with its servant Glenda, giving her more power and gaining a foothold
in Arkham, from which to unspool its past into a dark and deadly
future. Glenda goes on to wreak more havoc and surviving investigators
may wish to pursue her as she returns to L.A. to further the cause of
calamity.
Arkham begins to see its past begin to impinge on its present. Many
mysteries which people had thought buried forever come to alight
again, and there is a long shadow of fate over the township.
Investigators lose 1D10 further Sanity if they realize they had it in
their power to halt this and failed.
STATISTICS
Ernst Zabrich, Hungarian Academic turned Visionary, 67
STR 10 CON 12 SIZ 11 INT 20 POW 14
DEX 11 APP 9 EDU 22 SAN 15 HP 11
Damage Bonus: None
Weapons: None
Skills: Art: Writing 85%, History 95%, Library Use 67%, Persuade
55%, Psychology 79%,
Henry Hammerman, Film Director and Cultist, 45
STR 11 CON 13 SIZ 14 INT 16 POW 11
DEX 13 APP 15 EDU 18 SAN 10 HP 14
Damage Bonus: +1D4
Weapons: Fist 50%, 1D3+1D4
Skills: Accounting 75%, Art: Direction 56%, Credit Rating 86%,
Persuade 77%,
Glenda, Film D-Girl and Servant of Yog-Sothoth
STR 10 CON 12 SIZ 12 INT 17 POW 16
DEX 14 APP 18 EDU 15 SAN 0 HP 12
Damage Bonus: 0
Weapons: Handgun 65%, 1D10
Skills: Credit Rating 90%, Persuade 85%, Drive Automobile 40%,
French 74%, Listen 55%, Spot Hidden 75%.
Spells: Summon/Bind Servitor of the Doomed Past
Call Yog-Sothoth
Hollywood Security Guard, around 30-40
Not only are these men tough and loyal to their boss, they look good,
always wearing reflective sunglasses and chewing gum elegantly. They
are all potential movie stars.
STR 16 CON 15 SIZ 17 INT 9 POW 10
DEX 12 APP 18 EDU 11 SAN 50 HP 16
Damage Bonus: +1D4
Weapons: Nightstick 75%, 1D6+1D4
Handgun 59%, 1D10
Skills: Chew Gum 90%, Listen 60%, Spot Hidden 55%.
Rex Chase, FBI Special Investigator, 28
STR 15 CON 13 SIZ 16 INT 13 POW 11
DEX 12 APP 16 EDU 19 SAN 55 HP 14
Damage Bonus: +1D4
Weapons: Handgun 85%, 1D10
Fist 90%, 1D3+1D4
Kick 65%, 1D6+1D4
Skills: Accounting 59%, First Aid 85%, Hide 45%, Library Use 34%,
Listen 76%, Track 55%
Douglas Stoop, Tabloid Reporter, 37
STR 10 CON 6 SIZ 11 INT 17 POW 13
DEX 14 APP 8 EDU 15 SAN 65 HP 9
Damage Bonus: 0
Weapons: Acid Put Down 75%
Skills: Persuade 88%, Spot Hidden 65%, Listen 76%, Sneak 82%,
Pick Pocket 55%.
SERVITORS OF THE DOOMED PAST
These creatures appear as humans, always dressed in wildly
anachronistic styles. They have an almost canine appearance in
profile: long tapered head and protruding lower face, although their
features are human enough. The Servitors are keepers of the destroyed
chances of the past, caretakers of the ill days of yore.
Aside from physical attacks Servitors have an array of devastating
psychological attacks, which they often combine to deadly effect.
STR 18
CON 15
SIZ 15
INT 17
POW 18
DEX 12
Move 3 HP 15
Damage Bonus:+1D6
Weapons: Bite 50% 1D3
Claw 65% 1D4+1D6
Doomed Past Image 90% *
Doomed Past Interaction 90%**
Armor: 5 points of coarse furred skin on body
Spells: Most summonings, Evoke Past
Sanity Loss: 1D3/1D6
Skills: Dodge 55%, Hide 75%, Sneak 65%, Track 90%.
* Creature matches POW vs victim's POW. If successful victim sees
some image from the past on television, or some disturbing image (like
the ambulance) linked with a past era. Each image costs a Servitor 6
Magic Points. Servitors can link together to create more spectacular
images. This power can also be used with Doomed Past Interaction.
** Creature can place victim in some past vision. This is how
they conjure the image of a victim in a newspaper story. A POW vs POW
struggle must first be fought, followed by the expenditure of 10 Magic
Points on the part of the Servitor. Again, Servitors can band together
and form a pool of Magic Points to overwhelm victims, but since this
is costly it is also rare.
[Note: Servitors often combine their psychological weapons with their
physical ones, softening up victims with a barrage of images and
dislocating sensory input before their physical attack].
MOVIE SET ZOMBIES
Use Standard Zombies in Call of Cthulhu Rulebook
MOVIE SET GHOULS
Use standard Ghouls from Call of Cthulhu Rulebook
Copyright (c) 1995 Geoff Gillan
Geoff can be contacted via Mark Morrison (bassst@zikzak.apana.org.au).
--------------------
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