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Chaosium Digest Volume 29 Number 08
Chaosium Digest Volume 29, Number 8
Date: Friday, December 31, 1999
Number: 2 of 5
A NIGHT AT THE GALLERY
Ricardo J. Méndez Castro
rmendez@sheertalent.com
http://www.sheertalent.com/rmendez/
(There's an RTF version of this scenario at
http://www.sheertalent.com/rmendez/scenarios/gallery.zip
which includes the telegram handout)
INTRODUCTION
============
This scenario was originally created to introduce new
investigators (and players) on a run of Pagan Publishing's
Walker in the Wastes campaign, during a short stretch of
time that the main group was going to spend on Washington.
Since by this moment in the campaign (after Alaska) my
players are already paranoid, I needed a plausible way to
introduce new Investigators without the Old Crew going Gun
Ho! on them.
The result was this short piece. It is mainly unrelated to
the main campaign, so you should be able to introduce it on
your 1920 CoC campaign or play it as a one-shot affair. If
you wish to run it outside of Walker in the Wastes, just
ignore any reference to Barrow or his expeditions. If you
plan to run it with Walker make sure that the fake Lang
arrives at the hotel before Barrow and the rest of the team,
so that there isn't anyone who can identify him.
I also took the opportunity to slowly start to introduce
Phillip Challis' _The Stage_ to my CoC campaigns, to give
the players a chance to start accepting into their CoC
realities something else than their usual share of cults and
their long dead gods. Since The Stage is freely available I
won't detail it here. The connections with it can be safely
ignored, but given its quality keepers are recommended to
look it up. It's available from
http://www.mimgames.com/Stage/
VANILLA LEGAL INFORMATION
=========================
This adventure is copyright 1999 by Ricardo J. Méndez
Castro. It may be freely distributed for personal use
provided that it is not modified and no fee above the normal
cost of distribution is charged for it.
Call of Cthulhu is Chaosium Inc.'s registered trademark for
their game of horror and wonder in the worlds of HP
Lovecraft. For more information, contact Chaosium Inc.,
950-A 56th St, Oakland, CA 94608 -- or call us at
510-547-7681.
Walker in the Wastes is copyright (c) 1994 John H. Crowe
III.
The Stage is copyright (c) 1998 by Phillip Challis.
A NIGHT AT THE GALLERY, pt. 1
======================
OPENING MOVES
-------------
The adventure starts on Washington when the investigators
are invited to an inauguration of an exposition at the
Griefswald Gallery, owned by Mr. Ingmar Andersson. One of
the investigators is assumed to be of wealthy station and to
have been in Washington for a couple of weeks now. He will
receive a call at his hotel from a friend of the family; an
antiques dealer specializing in odd books called Enzo Lutz.
Enzo has to leave the country to make an acquisition in
Austria and needs the investigator to hold a book for him.
The book is a rare tome and the individual who acquired it
is coming from New York to pick it up on the days Enzo will
be out of the country. Enzo will leave the name of the
investigator to the gentleman, who should be pass by the
hotel in a couple of days.
Since Enzo has an engagement at the inauguration at the
Griefswald Gallery, he asks the investigator to meet him
there and bring company so that he can be safe on the way
back. The event is by invitation only, of course, and Enzo
will have two invitations delivered to the investigators'
hotel.
The gallery is on the center of the city and there are two
guards armed with shotguns at the door. The great event is a
show of paintings following the romantic style, apparently
the owner's favorite. Several of the works are from his
personal collection and all are originals, which explains
the heavily armed security. Among the works displayed there
are a couple by Francisco de Goya (_El sueño de la razón
produce monstruos_ and several of the series _Los
caprichos_) and several by German painter Caspar David
Friedrich, including the crucifixion scene The cross in the
mountains. The feelings of despair and impotence that flow
from Friedrich's work are strong enough to move even people
that have seen it in the past, and it should affect any
investigator with some knowledge of art. Such investigator
should be able to value the complete show in the vicinity of
a million dollars.
A short time after entering Lutz spots them and goes over to
welcome them. He then shows them around the gallery,
explaining the work of Goya and Friedrich to the
investigators if they aren't knowledgeable in art. When he
finally gets a chance he works his way to Mr. Andersson's
side, who is chatting with two gentlemen. One of them is a
young man on his thirties called Robert Beryl, who assists
Andersson in organizing his social events. Aside from
MacMahon and Lindblom guarding the door, Beryl is the only
other of Andersson's assistants present at the party. The
other gentleman is a stern-looking priest on his forties who
is quite knowledgeable of art and will be introduced to them
as Father Anthony Block.
Andersson is an old acquaintance of Lutz, since they both
deal in antiques in a way. Lutz has told him about the book
and the arrangement with the investigator in question some
time ago and Andersson is keeping it on his safe until the
investigators arrive. When the Lutz finally gives the book
to the investigator, Andersson and Beryl will serve as
witnesses.
The book is a copy of _Massa Di Requiem Per Shuggay_, an
opera libretto and score in Italian by Benvento Chieti
Bordighera, 1768. San 1d3/1d6, Cthulhu Mythos +4, no
spells. It is given to the investigator in a beautifully
worked leather document folder with the opera name inscribed
on it. Lang paid for it $40,000, a fact that Lutz won't
reveal. If pressed, he will state that the book is worth
over thirty thousand dollars and that secrecy duty to his
client forbids him to say more.
KEEPER'S BACKGROUND
-------------------
The players
-----------
Ingmar Andersson was among the hundreds of thousands of
Swedish who immigrated to the United States around 1870, due
to a serious scarcity of jobs that plagued Sweden at the
time. His name then was Ingmar Ekerot, son of a fisherman
who disappeared during a storm and a mother who had died
when he was a child. He was a bright but lazy young man who
once in New York quickly turned to crime, robbing
indiscriminately and stabbing those who resisted. It was
during one of his rampages that he stabbed Richard Fowler, a
Matar host. The Matar quickly let go of Fowler's body and
as a sort of punishment took over Ingmar's younger body, who
wasn't able to resist the mental attack. It then dominated
Fowler as it had dominated Fowler's assistants and became
Fowler's protégé. Ekerot inherited all of Fowler's assets
when he killed himself in the New Year party of 1900.
Ingmar took over running Fowler's bank operations,
surprising everyone with the performance of such a young man
with no formal education at all. By 1920 the Matar who
used his body had the nagging certainty that he was being
observed so it decided to sell the bank, change his
appearance and disappear. He resurfaced during 1923 in
Washington, posing as a German art collector named Ingmar
Andersson and has lived there ever since, furthering his own
ends as usual.
Father Anthony Block is a member of an organization called
the Knights of Saint Jerome (see appendix #3). He started
keeping tabs on Ekerot when a Prime Locus controlled by the
Juvat was assassinated in New York with the trail leading to
Ekerot. He believes him to be a rogue member of the Juvat
and watched him closely ever since but lost him after the
bank was sold. It took him six years to find him again and
even now he isn't sure if he is the same man that he had
been investigating. Nevertheless, he has befriended
Andersson with the excuse of being an art lover and
regularly meets with him to discuss about paintings and play
chess.
Block is dying with a cancer that is slowly eating him and
has decided to spend his last years thwarting Andersson's
controlling moves. This cancer and his approaching end have
made him re-think his spiritual values and he now believes
that the good he will be able to do in this life will
outweigh the possibility of going to hell, even if to
accomplish that good he must step over the boundaries set by
his religion. Unbeknownst to him, part of this new
philosophy stems from his constant contact with a Matar, who
have the uncontrollable ability to lower the mental balance
of those individuals near them. Because of that decision he
has disregarded several direct instructions by the Order to
leave Andersson alone until his motives can be understood
and is currently considered a rogue member of the order
himself. Andersson knows him only as a priest with a good
taste for art and wine and has ignored him so far,
considering him unworthy of dominating and useless as a
tool.
The pieces
----------
A Mr. Donald Lang visited Enzo Lutz in his antique store
several months ago and gave him a list of very rare books to
look for and sizable advance payments for his efforts. Since
then Lutz has been tracking them down and just a couple of
days ago managed to find one of them. Experienced players
will expect Lutz to die either before they get there or
shortly after. None of this will happen; he is truly going
out on a business trip. He knows little about the buyer,
only that he is quite secretive and apparently in no lack of
monetary means.
Donald Lang is just a wealthy man who lately has taken on
the habit of collecting rare books. Unfortunately for him
his search for books is quite indiscriminate and appears to
be based only on age and rarity and not on content, so it
has unknowingly put him on the trail of several mythos
tomes. Lang is also one of those wealthy persons that fund
Barrow's expeditions (sometimes secretly) and will serve to
introduce the new characters to the group. Mr. Lang is of a
secretive nature when running his affairs, something that
may spark the investigators' curiosity. That secrecy has
roots only on his eccentric nature. Lang knows of Barrow's
presence in Washington, since his departure from Alaska was
somewhat publicized by the newspapers after they left, and
plans to pay a visit to know how the expedition is going.
Mr. Lang is also a strong believer in the existence of the
supernatural in everyday life, which is the reason why he
continues to fund Barrow's expeditions. If Barrow has died
by this point in the campaign, Lang will want to meet with
the survivors of the expedition.
Paul Livingstone is Andersson's assistant in matters of
acquisitions. He is currently forty-six years old, but the
strain of unsuccessfully fighting against Andersson's mental
control has aged him well beyond his years. Anyone looking
at him would say that he is around his sixties. He has a
passing resemblance to Mr. Lang but none of his vivacity and
personality. Andersson likes to toy with his subjects and
sometimes intentionally lets them escape his control for a
while. Those are times that Livingstone can't stand and he
has slowly succumbed to a morphine addiction to relieve the
stress and escape. Several times he has played with the
idea of giving himself an overdose and be done with it, but
he doesn't seem to be able to find the nerve to do it.
Alec Jason is the accountant for Mr. Andersson. He was
dominated several years ago but couldn't stand being in
touch with his basest instincts and has a serious dislike of
physical contact with any person, maybe fearing that it will
trigger some sort of violent or inappropriate response from
him. Now the only thing keeping him from a nervous breakdown
is Andersson's mind control.
Of all those in Andersson's staff Robert Beryl is the one
that has responded better to his domination, possibly
because he was privately already a violent man who spend a
sizeable chunk of his income paying off the prostitutes he
liked to beat up. While in the surface he is calm and
collected, Beryl is bad enough that Andersson has considered
using him to do his dirty work instead of using MacMahon and
Lindblom.
A previous employer and acquaintance of Nils Lindblom, who
thought that they could get along well since they were both
from the same country, recommended him to Andersson. He
idolizes Andersson and would probably follow him even if he
didn't control his every action.
Fred MacMahon thought for a while to employ himself on the
private investigator business but unfortunately he didn't
have the brains. He started working for Andersson only two
years ago and Andersson is already considering having him
commit suicide.
THE GAME
========
The Matar's gambit
------------------
Donald Lang is one of those persons that are called prime
locus in The Stage: persons who don't follow the same preset
trails as everyone else and have the possibility of shaping
the future through their actions. Andersson put his eye on
him when he still lived in New York but hasn't been able to
find a way to keep him near for enough time to subdue him.
When Lutz told him about Lang acquiring a book from him and
picking it up in Washington, Lang saw an opportunity he
couldn't let go.
The day after the inauguration Andersson will send
Livingstone to pose as Mr. Lang and pick up the book, which
is likely to be staying at the hotel's safe. He will then
have Livingstone disappear with the book and when it is
finally established that it was his acquisition assistant
who took it Lang is likely to come to him. Andersson plans
to kidnap Lang for a few days so that he can dominate him at
his leisure.
When the fake Lang arrives at the hotel the day manager for
the Seattle Hilton will oversee the delivery and Livingstone
will sign any receipt that is given to him. If requested to
present any identification, Livingstone will produce several
fake cards of membership to historic societies. If pressed,
he will flash a counterfeit passport that Andersson had made
about a week ago when he learned of Lang coming to town.
A couple of hours later the real Donald Lang will arrive at
the hotel, show his passport and demand the book to be
delivered to him. He will be quite upset that the book was
delivered to somebody else but won't blame the investigators
if they thought to request the passport from the impostor
(do remember that there was a witness of the exchange). If
they did, he'll offer them a $10,000 reward for the book. If
they didn't, the investigators will then have to scramble
around to recover it. Lang will wish to call the police to
inform them of the theft and it will take some serious
convincing from the investigators if for any reason they
wish to avoid that.
Later that same day, Lang will have an interview with the
survivors from the Barrow expedition to Alaska and will drop
a comment about the theft of the tome. After discovering in
Alaska that they'll have to start globe trotting, they'll
surely like the possibility of having a man of monetary
means on their side.
Preliminary investigations
--------------------------
There are several things that the investigators may wish to
check out.
+ Black market of rare items
Nothing is to be gained investigating on this direction,
since Livingstone isn't putting the book up for sale. Give
the investigators a couple of shots at it if they request
it, and if they roll a critical group Luck roll (or a group
Luck if a character has connections to the underground as a
part of their background) someone will put them in touch
with Thomas McGregor, a collector art items of dubious
legality who will be able to identify the man as
Livingstone.
However, he won't know why Livingstone would steal a rare
book and will state that he believes Andersson to be clean
on the stolen items department. After all, if he didn't do
his acquisitions using regular channels he wouldn't be able
to put them in display.
McGregor will refuse to give the investigators any leads in
the underworld of stolen items, since doing so would
endanger his ability to acquire paintings and other items in
the future. Due to his own personal wealth, bribery will
just serve to offend him.
+ The fake passport
Since Andersson didn't have the time to commission the fake
passport out of Washington, said underworld contacts may put
the Investigators in a position to learn about who paid for
it. That will lead them to a slim and nervous man known
only as "Skinny Jack", a forger of trade. Coaxing any
information out of him will be hard unless force or large
amounts of cash are used, but in any of those cases he will
say that a young man paid in cash and picked up the document
himself. He didn't give a name and none was requested. That
young man was Robert Beryl, and you can see his description
in Appendix #1.
+ The man's identity
There are several ways for the investigators to establish
Livingstone's identity. For example, if a group luck roll
succeeds, a high-ranking hotel employee may remember
Livingstone from a past encounter. Spreading Livingstone's
description around is another sure way to get them to the
man, but that will take at least a couple of days and the
scenario is geared towards a speedier completion.
Andersson's
-----------
Once the man's identity has been established the first
likely stop is Andersson's office. The gallery will be
closed for the day, since Andersson doesn't wish to use the
security needed on hours where nobody is likely to come by,
but he may be contacted at his luxurious office on top of
the gallery and will receive them if they show up after 10
in the morning.
Andersson will show surprise at the theft and deny any
involvement with it, refusing to believe that Livingstone
could have been involved in such a scheme. Privately, he's
already wondering why he lost contact with Livingstone. He
will also personally offer his help to Mr. Lang if he is
present and call him to his hotel if he isn't. Lang will be
pleased at having the help of such a distinguished citizen
and will surely accept Andersson's invitation for lunch at
his mansion when it presents itself.
Investigating Livingstone's house
---------------------------------
If the Investigators don't take any steps towards searching
Livingstone's house, Lang will notify the police and they
will pay him a visit.
If they do decide the check out Livingstone's house nobody
will answer the door. If they decide to break in (a likely
possibility) there is a front door and a back door. The
back door leads directly into the kitchen, and any
investigator succeeding in a Spot Hidden roll will notice
that the refrigerator door is slightly ajar. Checking the
fridge will reveal several bottles of morphine, although it
may take a Medicine or Pharmacy roll to recognize them as
such.
Livingstone lies in his room in the second floor, dead in
the bed. A needle protrudes from his arm and the glass
syringe lies in the floor amidst several empty bottles. Some
blood has dripped from the needle and formed a small puddle
in the floor. His rolled up sleeve will reveal the expected
needle marks all over his arm. The leather pouch that the
tome came in lies empty in the floor.
Knight takes pawn
-----------------
At around the same time the book changed hands, Father Block
comes to the Seattle Hilton to wait for Lang's arrival
(since they are both old acquaintances). He watches the
exchange from the door and recognizes Livingstone, who he
sees carrying the tome outside. Having heard about Lang's
coming for the book, he will put two and two together and
conclude that Andersson is indeed a Juvat who plans to use
the tome as leverage on Lang. His Matar-induced
disappearance of the boundaries between right and wrong
impulses him to go to Livingstone's house to recover the
book by whatever means necessary. Breaking in, Block finds
Livingstone out on a morphine trip and the book beside the
bed.
Without knowing that Livingstone is just a puppet and
considering that it is better to remove a Juvat from the
face of the Earth, Block looks through the house and after
finding Livingstone's stash of morphine in the refrigerator
goes up again and gives him an overdose. He then takes the
book with him to the parochial house, changes his clothes
and takes a taxi to a train station and send Lang a telegram
from there. The telegram itself is unsigned, but Block will
sign the registry under the name "Abraham Isaacs". A copy
for your players is on Appendix 2.
STAY AWAY FROM ANDERSSON STOP HE MEANS TO MANIPULATE YOU
STOP BOOK IS SAFE AND WILL BE DELIVERED TO YOU IN NEW YORK
STOP
His original intention is to send the book via a courier to
Lang's offices in New York, but curiosity gets him before he
does it so he leafs through the libretto and ends up reading
it through the night. The tome perturbs him but he
recognizes it as something his order would be interested in.
However, the man who cold bloodedly overdosed somebody the
day before won't wish to steal a valuable book and he will
decide to take a step forward and contact Lang, even if it
will put him at suspicion from both the theft and
Livingstone's overdose. He is counting on his occupation to
get Lang to trust him and keep away from Andersson, but he
doesn't know how Lang will react to the offer of buying the
book.
Further moves
-------------
+ The telegram
It is quite possible that the investigators will believe the
telegram to be a ruse to have Lang return to New York so
that the trail cools down, so they will surely investigate
it.
The telegram was received at a local office of the World
Wide Telegraph, and the clerk reminds it clearly because he
was surprised that it had come from Washington itself. If
any theft is mentioned and the proper Credit Rating passed,
the young man will give them the name of the office that
sent it where they will be able to find out about Isaacs.
+ Isaacs
Of course, yet another possibility is that the telegram is
legitimate and somebody took the book from Livingstone to
help Lang. In this case, does Lang know anybody by the name
Abraham Isaacs? He most surely doesn't, but a successful
History check will remind the investigator that in the
Bible, Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac
because his god demanded it. Lang may remember a priest by
the name of Block who he met in New York, since Lang usually
helped the church with donations. Lang believes that the
priest got transferred somewhere, but he doesn't quite know
if it was to Washington.
The Matar's den
---------------
Maybe the police find Livingstone's dead body and call
Andersson or maybe he tires of waiting for Livingstone to
come out of his trip, but sooner or later Andersson is going
to find out about Livingstone's death and the book's second
disappearance. When this happens he will be mad and will
start pushing his pieces around to watch Lang and those that
hang around him.
It is quite possible that he will send Robert Beryl or Alec
Jason to query Lang about the progress with the
investigation. When he finds out that the tome is still
missing he'll realize that not all is lost, since he doesn't
actually need to hold the book for the gambit to work, and
will invite Lang to a personal meeting at lunch time in his
mansion. His new plan is to hold Lang hostage for the few
days he needs to make a domination without transferring his
conscience to Lang's body.
As a good host, Andersson will send MacMahon and Lindblom to
pick up Lang and bring him to the house, which is on large
property in the outskirts of Washington. If Lang wishes to
bring company with him (the investigators) they will allow
only for two more persons, since those are all who fit in
the car.
Andersson's house is a large three-story building surrounded
by about 100 meters of land and trees on every side. About
six guards check on the grounds at night, due to the huge
value of the paintings stored in the mansion.
Andersson will be all nice and pleasant at lunch, chatting
about any topic that they fill comfortable with and sharing
several glasses of what the guests prefer. Alas, the food
will be drugged and the characters taken to rooms on the
third floor where the windows have been bricked to avoid
escape. Andersson will then have one of his assistants call
the hotel and notify them that Lang is going to be his guest
for a couple of days. Afterwards he will patiently sit in
the next room to Lang to slowly scramble his mind and
influence his thoughts.
If any of the investigators refuses to eat and doesn't fall
asleep things could get hairy. After all Andersson is only
interested in dominating Lang, and after the domination Lang
will surely assert that the investigators who get killed had
left after lunch.
(CONTINUED)
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