That is not dead which can eternal blog!

So it's been over six months since an update so is the game dead? Thankfully not and we should be starting up again in about an hour so I thought I'd do a quick update.

There has actually been a few sessions over the time. After the events around the party our investigators decided things were too hot in Boston and decided to head back to Arkham thus bringing an end to that file for the moment but leaving a horde of loose ends and yet another surviving possible villain. It's also worth noting that Dawson got the police to investigate what had happened to Nancy only for them to report that she was fine and there had been no such call. Dawson's really getting worried about his hallucinations.

Not long after their return and report to the inquiry Document 4 was found hidden in the Necronomicon. The investigators once again noted the reference to Tears of Azathoth and started asking serious questions regarding the books possible existence or not. They also were interested in The Society of Syncretic Inquiry and the Fuschak-Donland Gang. Feelers were put out regarding getting an invite to the society and Dawsons investigations led them to a back street Irish bar where there are some drunken misadventures they discover that Fuschak often visits the fortune teller of the Friockheim Carnival. Further investigation showed this carnival to currently be wintering in Florida. Forgetting all else our heroes bough tickets south...

Merry Cthulhumas one and all!

In which the party ends, Dawson has a call, we fought the law

De'ath and Dawson returned to the party in good spirits. Making themselves known to Huckabee in the hope their absence was missed they continued with night. Sneaking off Dawson bribed a waiter to add some of the food coming out of the canning factory to Huckabees finger food which was quickly done. Watching in anticipation he was disappointed when the man didn't seem to react at being fed his own produce. The party ended not long after as policemen arrived to urgently talk to Huckabee regarding some sort of disturbance. The duo decided it was best to make a swift exit but not until Dawson quickly scribbled a notw with his off-hand,

Huckabee,

Thanks for the party things certainly went with a bang!

Hope you enjoyed the food, please find the secret ingredient in the box.

I think for the sake of all you should keep the fish to yourself from now on...

F. Jahrous

Included was a box with half a can of Huckabees fish food.

Kalabos and Shambles had made it back to their lodgings and fallen asleep fully clothed. After an hour or two Kalabos was wakened by a knock on the door from the police. Thinking quickly he hid under the bed and watched as they arrested Shambles and took him away but not before he hid Dawsons back-up piece in the toilet cistern. Once they had all gone Kalabos flitted into the night himself.

Shambles was taken to the police station to be questioned by Detectives Reynolds and Finn over why somebody wearing his jacket and with his ID was found dead in an exploded factory. Playing dumb for the meantime Shambles was escorted to the cells.

In the meantime Dawson had arrived back at the lodgings to find his compatriots gone!  Already worried he was shocked when the telephone rang. His secretary Nancy was on the other end screaming about 'things' that were coming up the stairs to get her, then the line cut off. Thinking swiftly he called De'ath to pick him up and vacated the premises narrowly avoiding the police coming back for a more thorough search of the premises.

Kalabos, unsure what to do, presented himself at the police station asking about the whereabouts of Shambles. Taken to another interview room he was asked about his movements during the evening. A prepostorous tale involving Kalabos being some kind of gigolo and having group sex in the wood was all they got. He was marched to the cells.

After careful discussion De'ath and Dawson decided it was best to lawyer up and go to the police station themselves. Taken to interview rooms their expensive defenders dealt easily with the police. Even though Shambles had decided to tell the actual insane truth, this together with the revelation that the body in the exploded factory was that of a political extremist Fred Jahraus gave the police no option but to release the investigators. The detectives let them know that they knew they were involved somehow but there was no way to prove it, the'd best mind their step.

I forgot to mention that the Jahraus connection came up with their visists to his ome and the clothing and documents on his body. De'aths lawyers explained that this was after unrelated visits and Jarhaus must have taken Shambles coat after he forgot about it.


The police were also aware of Dawson and Kalabos working at the factory for a day but were convinced that whilst suspicious it was circumstantial evidence. They remain deeply suspicious.

 

Keepers Ruminations

Once again I have to apologise to any readers left for the delays but it's been a rather horrific couple of months which has put a bit of a kibosh on the gaming. Anyway the campaign isn't dead and we should be playing again within the week unless somebody gets eaten by a nameless being or something.

Getting back to the ruminations thing I have to admit I did something that I said I wouldn't do. Still relatively early in the campaign, and as my second monster, I mat have introduced a shoggoth. For anyone paying attention, or with an ability to scroll down, you'll note that I'm against the prevalence of shoggoths in Chaosium adventures and stated that I wouldn't introduce such a thing so early. These people would point and laugh but they've probably abandoned this blog as dead anyway. Even though I have a defense...

First off I'm not even sure it's an actual shoggoth even if some of my players think so. It's definitely shoggoth-like but I never declared anything and though I'm it may look and smell like a duck I'm not sure if it is one. Of course as the Keeper I'm expected to be decisive about these things but I feel the Armitage Files way of doing things gives me a pass. So what it seems may not be what it is.

Secondly the thing never actually did much. Granted the player involved went a wee bit nuts and an NPC got his head bit off in an uncomfortably familiar fashion  but it never indulged in the wholesale chaos which would be expected of such a creature. If it is a shoggoth why is it so compliant to what's going on? I'm very interested in the history of these things as changeable things and wonder if that plasticity could be passed on to other creatures that come from the same Old One source.

I'm not committed to a definite direction on the way the campaign's going but there's a definite theme of stuff being disemminated amongst people and it coming from a conspiracy of people with at least a certain amount of influence. Of course when I think about stuff I always think about The Stuff.

There's a comment asking more about the canning factory which is nice but I'm not sure what I can say about it. Both conspiracies unearthed so far seem to be about infecting the general populace with something but what it is isn't known.The canning factory is sending out tainted goods that are affecting those that eat them. There's a hint of class war as the cans of fish are aimed at the working classes, what do the conspirators hope to gain?

In which our heroes can go to the ball, a moral quandary, can Shambles stay ahead?

So the new PLAN was all set to go. Our stalwart heroes were to attend the Huckabee party which would give them an alibi and perhaps allow them more insight into what was actually going on. Meanwhile Jarhaus was to make his way to the canning factory, Kalabos would sneak away from the party and meet him there at 10pm to help set up the device and get him onto the grounds. Shambles made it very clear that he was going nowhere near the factory. What could possible go wrong?

The group arrived at the party at 8:30pm leaving De'aths driver ready with the car. Once inside they quickly began to enjoy the ambience and the free drink, some questions about the legality of the charity casino were asked but the preence of the mayor and police commissioner set their minds at rest. De'ath sought out Huckabee himself who seemed a quite charming, urbane chap  though he avoided all questions about hbis wife who had retired from public life due to illness a few years earlier. Shambles and Dawson struck up conversation with the handsome but clearly worse for wear Austin Kittrell. He seemed a very jolly fellow full of stories of night out and the ladies he had met but something about his name bothered Dawson.

Kalabos drank.

A lot.

It seems that the life of a hobo had left our friend Kalabos without the necessary social skills to deal with a free bar in anything approaching an appropriate manner and knowing he didn't have much time before he had to face action the bottle of tequila was very attractive. The second one was probably overkill.

As 9:30pm approached Dawson had introduced Kittrell to De'ath and was hopelessly embroiled in a three-way conversation about possible sexual harrasment, Kalabos was hopelessly drunk and Shambles was just hopeless. Having quite ruthlessly manipulated Jarhaus into taking a possible fall for him he now saw that the plan was going to fail unless he took Kalabos' place and went to the factory. With no other option our man girded his loins and went out to the car for the journey to his pre-ordained death.

Only 15 minutes later Dawson and De'ath realised what had happened and that they should try to get to Shambles but without transport how were they to get there? De'ath turned a langurous look to Kitrell.

Shambles managed to meet Jarhaus on time in a patch of wasteland near the factory. Assuring the frightened racist that he would make sure he got in and would watch his back Shambles carefully watched the movements of the two security guards and at the right moment they cut their way through the fence and entered the basement.

Meanwhile Kittrells over-packed sports care, the drunken Kalabos didn't help with comfort. Sped towards the factory. Kittrell was finding all this spiifingly exciting and hoped this would lead to a moment or two alone with the good Lady later in the evening. He was also far too drunk to drive and precious time was lost when one of his tires was blown out.

Shambles and Jarhaus entered the basement with great trepidation. Quickly setting up the device they made to leave but couldn't without one proper look into the pit.Creeping forward they went to risk a glance when the unnameable resident chose to reveal itself. 

Shambles recollections of the next few moments were hazy at best. He later described a column of something like flesh but not, rubbery and viscous and always changing. In his mind it seemed to move slowly and with a snake-like quality but it could only have taken a second or two for it to rise and take Jarhaus' head clean off. He vividly remember the always-changing eyes and mouths and it's strange cry of 'Tekeli-li tekeli-li'! After that he remembers nothing.

De'ath, Shambles, Kittrell and the still comatose Kalabos arrived to find that Shambles had stumbled away from the factory soiled and wild-eyed. Unable to get sense out the man they were figuring out what to do next when the explosion came. A great eruption came from the factory deafening them all. Kittrell, who wasn't quite that drunk demanded to know what was going on. De'ath answered with a sock to the face leaving the poor man unconcious. In desperation they decided the only thing to do would be to proceed with THE PLAN. Dawson and De'ath would return to the party and her driver would take the drunk Kalabos and shocked Shambles back to their rooms. Leaving Kittrell lying alone they set forth.

Apologies for the break!

Holidays, festivals and horrible family stuff has interrupted transmission. Sorry about the delay but there will be updates within the next three days.

In which our investigators work for a living, there's an unnameable thing in the basement, let's fake a death!

Dawson and Kalabos made sure to keep their appointment with Will Moran. Mrs Callahan proved to be a strange old bird but very nice and Moran was exactly what he appeared. The meeting was broken up by Shambles turning up at the door disguised as a flower delivery man but not much was gained for their time except the knowledge that many factory workers stayed at Mrs Callahans and they often did midnight flits leaving some personal possessions. Mrs Callahan attributed this to them being hobo's who'd decided to move on.

It was worth noting that Mrs Callahan stated that Moran was her only current resident and she would be glad to have more but Shambles outside noted movement in the upper parts of the house. Moran himself was non-plussed at the discovery of a long lost half brother but accepted Dawsons story as his Irish father was known to get around.

Dawson and Kalabos's first day at the factory went as well as could be expected. The supervisor, Burke, seemed to take an immediate dislike to Dawson but remained professional as he explained that the overalls were hired by them from the factory, they would be starting at with canning and if they did well they could graduate to warehouse work. Assigned to an expert canner called Margaret they set to it with Kalabos proving a good worker whilst Dawson was noted to spend too much time chatting. Talking to Margaret they found that canning was the lowest job, warehouse work a little above it and the most favoured workers tended to machinery in the basement. Margaret was also very effusive about the free canned fish the workers got, Dawson and Kalabos noticed she had a touch of the Innsmouth look. Kalabos's keen eye also spotted something with a strange green glow in the cheap fishmeat they were putting into the cans.

At the first smoke break Dawson and Kalabos decided to sneak into the basement. Hidden in the shadows they saw that the workers seemed strangely mishapen and something was being piped up to the factory from a strange pit containing an unnameable gelatinous mass. At this point they fled the factory, losing their deposit on their overalls.

Getting back with the group it was agreed that there was something wrong at the Huckabee factory. Lautrec had been investigating Edgar Huckabee and learned that he was to be hosting a charity event, Helping the Hopeless, in two days time. With her amazing connections she was able to get tickets for the event and even hired yet another suit for Kalabos.


The factory still dominated Shambles mind though. How could he avert the fate laid down in the files? In an attempt to kill two birds with one stone they visited Jarhaus once again. After a long talk they convinced him that the factory was used by the half-breed fish things he had talked about before. They then further convinced him to break into the factory on the night of the event and wire up a package they gave him. To give him cover Shambles gave him copies of his ID. Clearly the evil of the factory would be stopped, a racist would die and Shambles would avert his fate!