Call of Cthulhu: Hysteria

Thursday, 8 pm, Call of Cthulhu: Hysteria, from the You Too Can Cthulhu people

This was a fascinating game, run with a Keeper (aka GM) and three people playing various NPCs, and one person working the slide projector and sound. The room was kept dark, but there was an electric lantern on the table that provided enough light for us to see our character sheets and so on. And, the special Call of Cthulhu dice that Stephen Tihor bought for me some years back are glow in the dark, which means that while I do not perceive them as glowing, I can read them just fine in low light. My notes, on the other hand, are vague and hard to read.

All of the players came in knowing that we'd be playing women who were institutionalized in the late 19th century, which is already plenty horrific without the mythos.

Jane S. (me): While I'm not sure a 19th century mental institution was the best place for her, I'm not sure it wasn't. She was "wild", which meant, when she was young, that other kids would get hurt playing with her. When she was older, her mother kicked her out, and Jane went on a spree of smashing windows and faces. Since the lawyer at the trial said mean things about her, she busted his lip. She had a skill of Instigate at 50%, which was useful for getting other patients to behave badly.

I'm going to describe the rest of the PCs from Jane's point of view, with notes from mine.

Charlotte P.: Talked incessantly about having killed her kids, apparently. OOC: I don't remember enough about the character even to recall whether the player was male or female.

Sally G.: Apparently, someone did something to Sally, as Jane's sheet said that if anyone tried to do whatever it was to her, she'd "put em in the ground". But, Jane thought she might just crack if Sally didn't shut up and sleep at night. I think Sally was played by a first timer to Call of Cthulhu, though not, I think, to RPGs. She was very good.

Lydia R. (male, I think played by the man who was an actual therapist): She said she'd been poisoned by her own husband. On a good night, Jane could get her jumping at shadows. OOC: I think we're talking paranoia here, especially given how she was played. She didn't trust Jane, which was wise. She did trust Kate, at least a little.

Adeline L.: Tried to mother Jane, but at least she didn't yell all the time. My OOC impression was that Adeline was fairly sane.

Margaret A. (male): A crier and afraid of her husband. Oddly, she didn't appreciate Jane's offer to give her husband "a roll to keep him busy next time he comes round". OOC: A tricky role to play, as the GM acknowledged, because she was fairly withdrawn. The player did what he could with her.

Kate H. (male): Mean, and Jane felt it was just a matter of time before they fought -- and wasn't sure she'd win. But, it was fun to watch Kate getting the attendants going. OOC: After the game, Kate's player said that the description his sheet gave him of Jane was that she didn't know whether to laugh with Jane or punch her. I gather that Kate was one of the saner patients, apart from her issues with men. "Saner" is, of course, a relative term.

The year was 1897, and the institution had had electricity since 1880. There was a closed circuit telephone system. One of the buildings, or perhaps the institution as a whole, was called The Seven Steeples. My notes say that one can only see seven of the eight, but I'm not sure if that was meant to be six of the seven.

Other patients, if I read my notes correctly, included:

Mary T., a very belligerent patient, played by the same woman (Rachel, I think) who played Miss Alice, a somewhat sadistic matron, though never in front of the doctor, and Nurse Alva Bell, a more reasonable person.

• Roberta G.
• Donna C.
• Donna P.
• Ruth H.

The first three of these were played by two men (I think one was named Bob), but I think Ruth H. was played by the GM (Jake McFarland), or merely described, I forget which.

One of the nurses (played by the GM), not Miss Alice, was directing the ladies in the game of Similes, where there was clearly a correct answer, whether or not it made any sense, and whether or not a patient's answer might be more appropriate or clever than the original.

So, Jane's dress is as black as ____? The answer was night.

Nurse: Jane is as bold as _____?

Whichever victim, er, patient, had to answer that one: Ninepins.

Nurse: Interesting. But wrong!

The correct answer was brass, leading to some headscratching over whether brass is actually bold.

Nurse: Mary is as bright as _____?

Jane: A star!

Nope. The correct answer was button. More than one of the ladies thought that was utterly stupid, as buttons were certainly not as bright as stars!

Dr. Ninian Roark came in at some point, most definitely played by the GM. He introduced a player piano, and the sound crew called up the sound. Ruth H. danced, spinning around and around, and I think Jane danced as well. But Ruth fell down at some point.

A couple of the women were talking quietly about whether or not one or more of them had seen an angel. This was interesting to Jane for at least thirty seconds, but she had not seen one.

At this point, there's a definite hiatus in my notes. I think someone was calling for Rebecca, possibly in a dream. There was the Nightwatch, a woman who came around with a lantern and, depending on how things had gone, either offered the patients medicine, or made it clear that the medicine was not optional that night. The medicine was laudanum, I think, definitely some kind of opiate.

A day or two passed this way, with Mary ever more belligerent, especially to Sally, taking her stuff (OOC represented by grabbing her goody bag full of candy -- all the players had been given one); Lydia increasingly paranoid and trying to work with Kate to get out of the asylum; Margaret deciding not to eat the food because there were maggots in it, but being forcefed by Miss Alice and others; Jane helping incite the NPC ladies to toss their food on the ground, fights over whose food was touched, who wanted whose food (the NPCs wanted Kate's food, and she wryly told them they could have all the Kate stew they wanted) or what napkins, and other shenanigans. And, there was a newspaper that no one could seem to read. Mind, I'm not at all sure Jane could read to begin with. She did wave to a girl she saw in an upper floor window as the women were doing supervised walking in the yard. She told the others about this, and a couple agreed with her that this wasn't a good place for a little girl to be.

So, now that we understood the routine and a little about everyone's PC and the NPCs, things got a little strange. There was one night when Mary was causing enough trouble that the PCs were actually left unsupervised for a few moments.

My notes say, "Everyone split into like 57 groups", but I think this is a complaint / comment from the GM or one of the helpers, as the women paired off or separated and generally did whatever the players felt their character sheets indicated was the best combination of In Character and Amusing, in a darkly humorous way.

Lydia and Kate tried to escape, the players figuring that they probably did this all the time, rather like Pinky and the Brain trying to take over the world, and with even less success. Sally and Margaret either hid or stayed right where they were supposed to be. I forget which, and it may have been one and one.

Jane and Adeline went for a stroll down the halls, peeking into rooms. Looking through the window of one door, they saw Dr. Roark and Ruth H. Ruth was strapped to a chair, and the doctor was doing something between her legs, and there was electricity sparking all around Ruth. The doctor seemed to be in some kind of ecstasy. Jane and Adeline ducked down to hide, and possibly showed their fellow patients, if Kate and Lydia wandered by.

Everyone got out of sight and back to where they belonged as Mary, finally subdued, was locked up either in a small room or a storage closet, I forget which. The women went into the room they shared. After a while, they heard noise. It sounded as if someone had come to Mary to ask her where Rebecca was and then done something horrible, as Mary started screaming before suddenly falling silent. None of the women had any idea who Rebecca was.

The door to the room where the PCs stayed was suddenly open and unlocked. The Nightwatch's lamp and medicine was found, but not the Nightwatch. I think the medicine wound up with Sally. I don't recall whether Mary was missing from the room she'd been locked in, or whether she was there, but dead, but there was some bloody (I think) cloth in that room.

Miss Alice tried to round the ladies up into their rooms, but they were having none of it and some of them attacked her. IIRC, they tied her up, and Jane enthusiastically stuffed a rag into her mouth and down her throat to keep her from screaming, inadvertently killing her in the process without realizing it. Lydia and Kate were interested in finding keys and getting out, and I think they did find keys, but were willing to let the others go upstairs to look for the little girl Jane thought was there.

Ruth H. was lying dead on the stairs. This was spooky, and it's possible that the more timid ladies, such as Sally, were told by the others that Ruth was just sleeping. Everyone continued up, stopping at the records room. Alas, despite Lydia's best efforts to find her file, everything was unreadable.

The women made their way to Dr. Roark's office. The doctor was there, but they could also see a ghostly image of an older man superimposed over him. I forget how the conversation began, but they told him that Ruth was either hurt or dead. He was very upset and went at once to see. I think Kate pushed him down the stairs.

Ruth, oddly, was no longer there. Sally was talked into pouring the sleeping medicine down the doctor's throat. She poured a great deal of it into him, inadvertently killing him and not realizing it. She sang him a lullaby, I think.

The women went back upstairs and found the room of a little girl who did indeed answer to the name of Rebecca. She wasn't at all happy to hear that Dr. Roark was dead, explaining, "He has to go, or I have to go."

Then, a Hag came into the room, looking for "little Becky". Some of the women got out of her way, and some did not. Jane put her arms around Becky, holding her tight and shielding her from the Hag. This was of no use, as the Hag seemed able to toss people aside telekinetically. Then, the lights went off.

Everyone woke up back in her own bed. But, things were different. There were ten beds in the room, not seven. Their door was again unlocked, and as they wandered, they saw that the institution was more crowded, dirtier, and colder. There were women standing in the halls, wearing straightjackets.

One patient to the PCs: Careful, dears -- it's a madhouse out there.

Kate: You don't say.

Jane: Yes, Ma'am.

There was music coming from the parlor, and the group followed it. The music was coming from a radio on top of the player Piano. Those who could read found that there was a readable newspaper. The year on it was 1928, not 1897.

Then, they saw one of the nurses, Nurse Alva Bell. She looked older and she was both startled and frightened when she saw them.

Nurse Bell: You can't be -- it's impossible!

She ran upstairs and locked herself in a room, muttering, "How can this be?"

Lydia or Kate (focused on the important detail): She has keys?

Lydia taunted Nurse Bell through the closed door, pretending to be a ghost. She and Kate discussed Dr. Roark.

Kate: Sally killed him.

Sally protested that she had not! She just gave him medicine to make him sleep! He'd just been sleeping.

Lydia (ignoring this): We might just get a chance to kill him again.

The women found the record room again, and this time, those who could read found their files.

Lydia (looking at her now legible file): This is a nice try! You're not fooling me!

In addition to records of their own deaths, the women found records indicating:

1. Ruth H. died in 1899. Action was taken against George Boggs, for making Ruth pregnant.

2. Miss Alice was fired in 1904, for abusing patients.

3. Mary was killed in an altercation with another patient.

4. I think Jane died after beating her head against the wall, but I'm not sure. But, I'm pretty sure that all of the PCs' files listed them as deceased.

The patients made their way further in. A much older Dr. Roark was there. He looked like the figure superimposed over his younger self from their first visit to his office.

Dr. Roark: How are things down there?

Someone: They seem a bit odd.

They talked about Rebecca. Dr. Roark was surprised they knew about her, even if he wasn't quite clear on exactly who they were. He was also afraid of Rebecca, and willing to be talked into letting the group go to see her, as he didn't want to make her angry.

Nevertheless, Kate and Lydia (I think) attacked him. Jane might have helped, although she hadn't actually instigated this one. Either way, he wound up quite dead. Again. And, if she hadn't already found them, Lydia found keys on his body.

Lydia: Yes! We're out of here!

Nevertheless, most, if not all, of the group made its way into Rebecca's room. Rebecca was much, much larger, and covered with sores. There may have been tentacles as well. Jane was near tears, but still wanted to hug her and protect her. Alas, it was too late for that. Something happened.

There was a door that suddenly opened, and there was darkness and strange lights. Everyone made Sanity rolls of the big kind, the kind I've actually rarely seen done. This is where, if you succeed, your PC loses 1d10 or 1d20, and if you fail, your PC loses 1d100.

Those who lost all of their remaining Sanity, including Jane, were sucked through the open door (I think there was only one magical gate) and died quickly on a hostile world. They were the lucky ones.

The others were grabbed by tentacles and become part of Yog-Sothoth, forever alive and in insane agony.

And with that, the game ended, and the GM explained what had been going on.

GM: As soon as Roark was dead, there was no chance of you surviving.

This sentence required a lot of unpacking. Rebecca was the child of three parents, two of whom were human, and one of whom was Yog-Sothoth. The human mother was Ruth H. Either Dr. Roark or George Boggs was the human father, but either way, Dr. Roark was culpable. The strange experiments he performed on Ruth, which sounded like they involved a superelectric vibrator, attracted Yog-Sothoth, who seeded Rebecca before she was born.

Rebecca knew that Yog-Sothoth would come to claim her and absorb her into it, and she didn't want this. The PCs were different personalities inside Rebecca's mind, at least in Act I, which ended when they found themselves back in bed (and which was significantly longer than Act II). The seeds of the personalities were patients who had lived in the institution in 1897, and subsequently died, one way or another.

The PCs were not ghosts. The originals were dead, not them. The Hag was actually Yog-Sothoth asking where Rebecca was, searching for her in her dreams in Act I, and materializing as itself in Act II.

The entire game took place in 1928, in the moments before Yog-Sothoth arrived to claim Rebecca. If the PCs had brought a living Dr. Roark into Rebecca's room, then Rebecca would have imbued him with her Outer Godness and dissolved. The PCs would have all gone free, free of Yog-Sothoth's taint, and, if they'd worked with Nurse Bell, free of the institution as well, as she could have set them up with new identities in the outside world.

GM: There were a lot of people you could have asked questions of whom you killed instead.

Absolutely true. Oh yes -- the illegible writing in Act I was supposed to be a clue that it was a dream, since popular wisdom has it that one cannot actually read in a dream. Whether or not this is true in real life, the GM said, it was true in the scenario. That's a clue I would never have gotten.

I very much liked this scenario because it played both fair and true to the horror genre. It was entirely possible to survive, to win, as it were. And, that we did not was due to our choices in how we played our characters. Oh, it would have been difficult under the best of circumstances, but I liked the bleakness, the combination of regular and mythos horror, that everything was carefully thought out, and that we _could_ win, at least in theory.

And we did have a second chance, even if it was actually the first chance. It was killing Dr. Roark the second time that doomed the PCs. Killing him the first time didn't count, because it wasn't real. It was just inside Rebecca's head, and it was why she tried to impress upon us that killing him was Bad. Either he had to go, or she had to go.

That just left the question of who got the two rewards, one for best roleplaying and one to allow a player to advance to the next round of the tournament, which was not a sequel, but a completely different scenario, set at a circus. As it turned out, only Kate's player could stay for that, so it was an easy choice. Sally's player took the prize for best roleplaying, which was quite reasonable. Everyone had done well, making their PC's mental issues clear without making them disruptive. The NPC cast had helped by playing big enough that we felt freer to do so. But, once I took Kate's player out of the running, as well as myself, it pretty much had to be either Lydia's player or Sally's, and I think Sally was the harder role. This was a sweet, if wimpy, woman who had no idea that she'd just killed (okay, not really, but the player didn't know that) Dr. Roark, who was always _there_ as she cowered or whimpered, never hogging the spotlight, but always contributing solidly to the game.