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Wouter Dhondt
Belgium
Anzegem
My armor is contempt. My shield is disgust. My sword is hatred. In the Emperor's name, let none survive.
When I now saw this Coppelius, the frightful and terrific thought took possession of my soul, that indeed no one but he could be the Sandman.
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After my previous session, I had the idea to run more Call of Cthulhu. Problem was I didn't want to run a campaign or anything else that would result in a lot of work and time. I'm playing in a campaign and want to play other games as well. I didn't need anything extra. So I decided to run Cthulhu one-offs in Arkham or environment and made the following advertisement:
No commitment needed from the players as well. Anyone can join, and they don't have to be there every session. Yesterday we kicked things off with the following investigators (I didn't write down the in game names):
Jan playing a Canadian mountain climber
Christine playing a forensic specialist
Kevin playing a writer of occult fiction
Joost playing a police detective
First thought was to run “A Little Knowledge” from Miskatonic University, but Barad informed me he'd run the scenario previously, and Christine played it. He said he didn't mind playing it, but I prefer to play something new for everyone. So I looked around for something else. Didn't want to use anything from the core book as I'm sure Barad would've read it as well. Checked out Arkham: Unveiling the Legend-Haunted City and saw a nice one in it. Then checked the reviews on the geek and noticed a review by Barad, indicating he read that one as well. Found some good ones in other books, but nothing really easy enough to start with. So I turned to my Cthanta gift: Shadows Over Scotland, stole a scenario from the Scottish Isle of Rum and moved it to an even smaller island just outside Kingsport (heresy!). But enough of the pre-rambling, and on to the adventure!
It is the 8th of May 1926 when you receive a letter from Kenneth Heath, PI. He requests your help in a case concerning presumably missing people on Orchard Island in Kingsport. Kenneth Heath informs you he received a letter from a Sir George Bullough (copy included) requesting help.
The investigators go to their employer first for more information on the case. Kenneth is able to inform them the island was bought by John Bullough in 1888. He build a mansion on the island and lived there until his death in 1911. His son George went to the island four months ago. Apparently Orchard island is nicknamed “the forbidden island” due to a number of disappearances from 1904 to 1911. The island had been deserted ever since 1911, until George went back. And now the disappearances have started again. There is little else he can tell them so the investigators decide to drive up to Kingsport in the company Ford model T, check into a hotel and ask some questions there before going to Orchard island in the morning. They ask around in bar at the hotel, but don't find a lot of clues. Jan and Joost decide to stay at the bar while the others decide to investigate in the town. Jan decided this would be a good time to play the ladies man. But the locals are only interested in the drinks he's buying them.
Christine decides to check out the local library for information on the island and the Bulloughs. She doesn't find much on the island, but there is more information on John Bullough in the public records. Last contact on the island was in February 1911, when John Bulloughs lawyers went to the island. The island was deserted at that point and they only found a letter written by his doctor, stating that John had died of a strange illness and was buried in the family mausoleum.
Kevin decides to go to the house of an old lady who might know more about what happened between 1904 and 1911. She is very happy to see someone and let's him in right away. She's quite the blabbermouth and knows a lot of gossip. Apparently John started collecting lots of strange statues, probably Indian, and occupied himself with other strange hobbies. Shortly after Alexandria, his wife left the island in 1904, leaving John with his staff. That's when the disappearances started. Local fishermen and their family on the island went missing, as well as some of the staff. Eventually people left the island as the case couldn't be solved and people still went missing. Only John and his staff stayed. Kevin also asks who investigated the disappearances. The police detective on the case had recently passed away, but his partner Mark Spencer should know about the case. She also talks about the staff currently on the Island. The gardener Isaac Hart lived with his parents on Orchard island during the time of the disappearances. His parents went missing as well, and he was put in an orphanage in Kingsport. She has no idea why he returned to the place.
Kevin decides to visit Mark as well. It seems that Mark isn't too bright. When they couldn't find the cause of the missing people they simply blamed it on animals attacking the islanders. Probably wolves. The investigation was dropped when everyone left the island cause nobody had gone missing since. None the wiser after this visit, they all regroup at the hotel and Christine and Kevin inform the others before going to bed.
Morning comes and they prepare for the trip to the island. Someone is waiting for them in the harbor to take them to the island with a ferry. They are a little worried that they won't be able to get back after the ferry leaves, but he informs them he'll return in three days, which should give them enough time for their investigation. And George Bullough has his own boat anyway if they want to leave early. It doesn't take long before they see the island. Indeed there is another boat at the island. There is also someone waiting with a car at the bank. They quickly disembark and are greeted by Jack Brodie, the butler. He doesn't talk much and drives them to the mansion. It is only a five minute drive through the hilly landscape. The mansion looks in good condition and it seems a lot of work has been done to clean it up after years of neglect.
They are greeted by Mrs MacCrimmon who takes them to their rooms to freshen up before meeting Sir Bullough. The investigators on one side of the mansion can see a garden with a aviary. The investigators on the other side can see the family mausoleum from their room. After they are settled Mrs MacCrimmon takes them to the library to see George Bullough. The library is quite big and they can see several literary and history books. It has some seats and see George sitting there, reading the Arkham Advertiser. They notice the newspaper is about a month old though. George puts away his newspaper and greets them. He tells them that his cook went missing 20 days ago. After that one of his maids went missing as well a few days later. The second maid told him she was quitting the job shortly after. That leaves only Mrs MacCrimmon to do the cooking and clean the house, his butler Jack Brodie, the gardener Isaac Hart and Charlie Lewis the stable boy. He is understaffed and no one from Kingsport wants to work for him. He demands the mystery solved so that he can find people to work for him and the island can be visited again. They ask about his fathers belongings but George doesn't know about any statues or occult stuff. He decides to give them a tour of the house and talks a little about the island. Before they leave the library though, Christine notices something odd about the north wall. They decide not to talk about it at that point. George shows them around, and talks about interesting spots on the island. Close to the house there is the aviary, the stables and the mausoleum. Somewhat further is the small village that's been deserted and a small henge on top of the hill. He tells them they are free to go everywhere and investigate anything they want, as long as they don't damage his property. After that he retreats in his study.
The investigators immediately return to the library to check out the north wall, except for Jan who decides to take a walk outside. Christine finds a book in the wall that doesn't look quite right and it turns out it isn't a book but a cover for a mechanism to open a secret door. They have no problem opening the door and can see there is another, smaller library. There are no windows in the walls. Only some light coming from a window in the roof. They can see a lot of books about the occult, and two seem very interesting: “The Secret Watcher” and “Magic and the black arts”. Joost decides to skim The Secret Watcher and notices a spell has been marked: “Commune with the Dark Stars”. Christine finds a piece of paper in the other book.
They search the rest of the hidden library and Christine notices something cut in the table.
They talk about returning during the night when there is no light. But for now, Christine and Joost decide to go to the mausoleum while Kevin goes to the kitchen to Mrs MacCrimmon.
Meanwhile Jan meets the gardener at the aviary. They talk a while about his job there. Jan notices he's actually not good at gardening but Isaac is able to fool Jan and make him believe he's from Kinsport mainland instead of Orchard island. Isaac keeps his lips sealed and there is little else Jan can find out. So he decides to take a walk to the deserted village.
Kevin enters the kitchen and sees Mrs MacCrimmon preparing the evening meal, cutting up vegetables. He offers to help by peeling the potatoes. She is very grateful for his help, complaining about all the others on the island and that she is the only one working hard. Kevin asks what she thinks about the missing staff and she tells him they are probably too lazy to work and couldn't cope with the pressure. She assumes they just quit. When Kevin mentions they didn't take their belongings when leaving she just replies with “probably too lazy to carry their junk with them as well”.
Christine and Joost arrive at the mausoleum. They can just walk in where they see to two large sarcophagi and a plaque on the wall. None of them can read the Latin part.
Joost decides to open one of the sarcophagus, but fails. Christine helps him and together they succeed to move the lid. They expected to find one body, but got a lot more. The sarcophagus is filled with dead bodies, it looks like more than 10 of them. Most of them very old (estimated 20 years) but the one on top looks recent and is wearing cooks clothes. Joost loses his dinner along with some sanity and has to leave the mausoleum. Christine is used to dead bodies and drags the cook out of the sarcophagus to investigate his body. There is nothing to discover on the outside however, and only a more thorough autopsy would help out. She asks Joost to help her with the other sarcophagus. Again, more than 10 bodies. Most of them about 20 years old, but two of them only weeks. It looks like the new ones are from the missing maids. As they don't have the time to investigate the bodies thoroughly, they decide to put them back in the sarcophagi and put the lids pack on. Then they return to the house where they find Kevin peeling potatoes in the kitchen.
Meanwhile Jan reached the deserted village. There are six buildings here. Looking through them Jan can see the people living there left in a hurry, taking only the most necessary things. He fails to notice a track from the village into the wilds and returns to the mansion. After another 15 minute walk he reaches the stables and enters the building. The stables has room for 5 horses, but there are only two of them. There is also a stable boy, aged fifteen by Jan's guess. They do more chit chat as the boy has no idea what's going on. Jan asks him about the horses, if they've been nervous but the boy doesn't notice anything strange. Jan asks if he can go for a ride and the boy agrees, saddling “Thunderbolt”. Jan climbs up, but almost falls off after a few steps. Charlie asks Jan if he can ride and apparently he doesn't so Charlie walks next to the horse, guiding it with Jan just sitting on it's back. They return after a small tour and Jan decides to return to the home as it will be close to dinner time.
They all meet back in the sitting room. Christine and Joost tell the others about the bodies they found and they decide they will return to Kingsport after dinner to inform the authorities. Christine notices six paintings in the sitting room have been removed from the walls and are standing against a wall stacked so that the art can't be seen. She checks them out and it looks all paintings are of John Bullough. In each painting, John's face has been torn or cut. A bell rings and dinner is served. In the dining room everyone gathers. George eats together with the staff because there is no one else on the island. They inform George of what they've found. He's shocked an appalled. He agrees to bring the investigators back and calls for Jack, his butler. It seems the butler is missing. George asks Charlie to search for him so he can drive the investigators to the boat. Charlie runs of and Kevin and Christine follow. They search the whole house but can't find the man. Then run outside, take the car and drive to the boat. Luckily the boat is still there. Then they drive to the mausoleum to check their suspicion. Kevin doesn't want Charlie near the mausoleum and asks him to run to the henge.
They open up the lid of the sarcophagus that has the cook in it and find the body of the butler on top. Just as they want to turn back to the house they hear a scream, coming from the henge. Sending Charlie there alone probably wasn't the best idea. They decide it's too dangerous to help and drive back to the mansion, telling the others what happened. George decides that everyone will join the investigators to Kingsport and come back with the authorities in the morning as it's getting dark. They leave the mansion and walk to the boat (there is not enough room in the car for all of them). It starts raining and the wind is picking up. Christine's vision suddenly turns to black and she starts to scream. After a few seconds she sees some stars in the darkness. Her vision returns back to normal just as fast as it was gone. She explains the others what happened and they decide to run for it, dragging Mrs MacCrimmon along. They reach the boat, wind still getting stronger. They can see some kind of whirlwind at the henge. It takes some effort but George is able to get the boat back to Kingsport. They all go back to the hotel and most of them start to drink. Christine goes to the police and Joost goes to the orphanage where Isaac grew up. Joost doesn't find anything useful, other than confirmation that Isaac is indeed from Orchard island and his parents went missing. Christine tells everything to Mark Spencer who decides to go to the island next day. He puts some officers on the Kingsport shore to look for any movement from the island. Both return to the hotel, noticing the wind has stopped. It is still raining though.
Next morning Mark Spencer wakes them up. He has gathered 10 police officers and the local doctor. They all go back to the island, including George. The staff stays in Kingsport. They guide the police to the mausoleum. Every investigator stays outside, except Christine who helps the police removing the lids from the sarcophagi. Half of the police force gets sick from the gruesome sight. Charlie the stable boy is in a sarcophagus as well. The police start bagging the remains as the investigators ask the police to join them to the henge. Some of them join. After a few minutes they reach the henge, but there is nothing to be seen. Except one police officer who notices a trail moving from the henge. They follow the trail in the direction of the deserted village. The trail takes a turn however and they can see another trail coming from the village. Both trails seem to go at a rocky outcrop and ends at a small cave. The investigators send the police first. They see something moving and start firing. The fight is over soon and Mark gets into the cave to see what they shot. The thing looks like a burned and mutilated corpse of a man. No clothes and his skin looks like it's been torn, cut and burned repeatedly. Christine looks at the body as well and notices a wedding ring on a finger. She removes the ring and the inscription on it reads “John – Alexandria 14 August 1885”. George who followed the investigators and the police is in shock, almost catatonic.
The investigators consider this a job well done, and the police closes the case as well. Everyone leaves the island with the evidence. The island, once more abandoned. No one in Kingsport dares to go to it and it keeps the name "forbidden island". Sometimes, whirlwinds can still be seen near the henge at night.
Afterthought: I thought the adventure would be more challenging. It's too easy for the investigators to get the authorities to handle the problem. I could've made the boat unusable somehow, but the players informed me they'd simply wait till the morning to swim or use other means to get back to Kingsport. Maybe I should've used a more desolate island. It is short enough and easy enough as a first try however, but maybe a little light on the scary / mythos. It was fun nonetheless.
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Barad The Dwarf
Belgium
De Haan
Got some sanity left?
Come over to the RPGG Tavern, I buy you a drink.
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I help you out with two character names: Teddy Maloy and Helena Todd.
And I loved the moment they where getting rid of the kid and just sending him to a stone circle on an island where a lot of people just dissapeared. What a great idea!
Thanks for running it I had fun.
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Wouter Dhondt
Belgium
Anzegem
My armor is contempt. My shield is disgust. My sword is hatred. In the Emperor's name, let none survive.
When I now saw this Coppelius, the frightful and terrific thought took possession of my soul, that indeed no one but he could be the Sandman.
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Thanks for the names. I should have asked them at the beginning of the session
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Yeah, sending the kid to the henge was great. So I didn't wait a moment to take advantage of it and continue with the story so the player wouldn't correct that.
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Stuart Boon
United Kingdom
Glasgow
Lanarkshire
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Great to see the work you put into this and very interesting to see the scenario nicely moved over to Kingsport!
Thanks for providing the write-up. I really enjoyed reading it! 
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Wouter Dhondt
Belgium
Anzegem
My armor is contempt. My shield is disgust. My sword is hatred. In the Emperor's name, let none survive.
When I now saw this Coppelius, the frightful and terrific thought took possession of my soul, that indeed no one but he could be the Sandman.
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Thank you for writing the book.
The scenario can be ported without any problems. Though you miss a little of the Scotland feel in that case of course. When reading the scenario I googled around and found a link about the original castle. Nice to see the castle and the mausoleum on real pictures. I like the detail of the island from the book compared to the real thing.
Still, Kingsport seemed to fit well enough, though the pic of the building might have been a little out of place.
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Barad The Dwarf
Belgium
De Haan
Got some sanity left?
Come over to the RPGG Tavern, I buy you a drink.
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Kwakkie wrote: Thank you for writing the book. The scenario can be ported without any problems. Though you miss a little of the Scotland feel in that case of course. When reading the scenario I googled around and found a link about the original castle. Nice to see the castle and the mausoleum on real pictures. I like the detail of the island from the book compared to the real thing. Still, Kingsport seemed to fit well enough, though the pic of the building might have been a little out of place.
Well not visiting that catle anymore... 
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