Call of Cthulhu: The Festival

I was worried that this would be cancelled, as I was told that it had been run in place of another scenario for a group whose GM had been unable to attend. This group included one of the players signed up for my slot. Fortunately, a happy resolution was found for all. Those who had played "The Festival" already got to play in a different CoC game, and the rest of us were joined by one or two folks with generic tickets.

We were all playing circus performers, albeit one who had not met before. Each of us got a prop, and, alas, I forgot to take a picture.

GM: Dave Condon (I think)

Todd Phillips: Aldo, the Clown. Prop: Harlequin mask.

Me: Zampano, the Strong Man. Prop: A chain.

Todd Schmidt: Dinko Sanchez, the Wrestler. From Spain. Prop: A box with some kind of wrestling picture on it.

James Waggoner: Andre Kroskov, the Magician. From Russia. Prop: A turban.

Rick Thomas: Roberto, the Ventriloquist. Prop: A genuine no-foolin' dummy. The player could actually do sufficient ventriloquism to pull this off! He also had two character sheets, one for Roberto and one for the dummy.

I read my character sheet and took a deep breath. I had deliberately chosen to play the Strong Man, on the grounds that this was probably a nice, simple roll to play at 8 am on a Saturday morning, four days into Origins.

It wasn't actually a difficult character to play, but I did need to do some mental realignment. Zampano the Strong Man used to have a lovely mute assistant named Gelsomina. He abused her horribly, raping her occasionally, and, when she grew ill, leaving her by the side of the road to die.

Sometime thereafter, he realized that Gelsomina was the only woman he had ever loved, and he knew that he was a horrible person. So, he turned to drink, and now found himself with a small crowd of men looking for work in Mussolini's Italy.

As it turned out, someone had called for a group of circus performers in a small village called Pancini. Zampano and the other performers got the work order and travel permits, and took the train as far as it would go, and then started to walk, bantering more or less amiably.

As they walked, there was an eclipse, to the bafflement of the group. At least one of the Italians wondered about it.

Andre: I don't know why the government of your fine country allowed there to be an eclipse.

One of the others: It must have filled out its papers!

As they walked, they found a couple of small children waiting for their father. Some farm machine started smoking behind them. Zampano and his companions turned it off before it could overheat. The kids refused to go anywhere without their father or older siblings. Apparently, soldiers had taken them into the woods.

The men sighed and shook their heads knowing that this couldn't be good.

I think the group investigated at this point. They discovered that the older brother had been tied up and forced to drink castor oil, while the sister had been raped by the soldiers. I don't recall whether or not the father was alive. I'm not sure if any of the family went with or was brought by the PCs to Pancini.

They finally reached Pancini, a nigh deserted town. Well, they did encounter an old lady. She looked at Zampano and ran away. The other entertainers asked if he had been in this town before.

I looked at the GM who said, "Well, you don't remember this place, but you know, you've been through so many towns when you were too drunk to really remember much of what happened."

One of the others: You know what that means -- you won't be the headliner!

I think at one point Zampano heard the laughter of a little girl.

Eventually, the group learned that a man named Demanio Durante was the closest thing to a head of the village, and if anyone had sent for entertainers, it would be he. They went to the post office to see if they could learn more. As it was empty, they started to look around for some indication of proof of being hired so that they could be paid -- or at least be given a good meal!

At this point, we were all in character, totally disdaining the things any supposedly normal group of investigators would do.

GM: There are a couple of cots and two rifles.

Someone: Should we take the rifles?

Everyone looked at him in bafflement.

Someone else: Why?

Puppet: Is anyone keeping watch?

Everyone else: For what??

Puppet: For the postman!

Someone: That can be your job.

They found indications that there might have been some carnival a year or two ago, but nothing about a request for entertainers. Someone did find a letter which eventually was shown to Zampano:

-- -- --

Father,

Fear not that you have done wrong by sending me off to live with this man. He is teaching me the arts and feeds me well. He talks often of the many places we will see and the days move on so quickly that I will be back home soon. He is kind to me most of the time and when he is not, I understand why. Sometimes I think about returning to Pancini, but I know you have forbidden this. Perhaps we will travel through town and I will perform a show for my mother. Do you think she would be proud of me? Late at night, I find myself watching him while he sleeps, father what does this mean?

Please take care, Love, Gelsomina

-- -- --

A pair of blackshirts eventually approached, and weren't very polite to the entertainers, but no one started any trouble. I don't recall what the group did for food, but they found some empty buildings to bunk down in.

Aldo slept near Zampano and noticed a couple of odd things, which were news to his player. Zampano had a small woman's costume which he held when he slept. The GM explained to me that it had belonged to Gelsomina. Zampano may also have called out to her in his sleep. If so, this may be what got the others to show him the letter.

There was one other odd thing. When Zampano woke up, he was bleeding from a laceration. The strong man was still in good health, but he had no idea what had happened to him during the night.

It was now a new day. At some point early, they learned that the two men at the post office were the ones who had brutalized the family in the woods. The raped daughter was determined to kill the soldiers. The entertainers told her to let them deal with the men. She agreed, saying that one should never to bad things like that to women.

Daughter (looking at Zampano): Never!

Zampano: No, never!

Daughter: Never, never!

I think that they were with or near another family -- possibly they had brought the girl to this family? Possibly the family was her kin? I forget. But, the man of the house said that he'd gladly feed them that evening if they'd deal with the soldiers.

And, the entertainers meant to do this. But, somehow they got lost following music or something, winding up in a strange house overlooking the sea. I think that Aldo found some book that had once belonged to him.

Aldo: We take my book, but we don't tell him we have a book.

Someone: Why would they _care_ we have a book?

The family whose house this was was, I think, Rahnth.

Zampano heard laughter again, and I'm not sure he was the only one. He followed it, finding the little girl who asked him if he'd perform for her birthday that night. She said it was her birthday because she would get a name that night, I think. He said that he would. He carried her down a hidden staircase, only to be stabbed by something made of jagged glass. The girl seemed to vanish.

The other PCs joined him, more or less. I'm vague on all the details, but there was a door that led to a cave. It could open from the house, but not from the cave side, this not being so much a matter of strength as of mechanics. And the tide was rising.

I think that Andre could and did hold his breath and swim out of the cave, reaching the shore. From there, he went to the house, and, if there were any PCs on that side, helped them open the door, while the ones on the cave side may have been able to pry open a crack.

The entertainers went to the post office to seize the rifles, now that they knew what kind of men used them and were planning to kill those men. They went to dinner, where they learned that there was some kind of ceremony being held that night, a ceremony attended only by the women of the village.

The man of the house wasn't sure what happened during the ritual, but said something about the trees flowing with milk.

Someone: Milk does not grow on trees!

Husband: I've never been there at night. My wife goes all the time.

The food was drugged, and the wife of the man who had invited the PCs over for dinner looked at Zampano, the only one still conscious, though not for long.

Woman: You shouldn't have come back. Not after what you did.

The other entertainers woke up to find Zampano gone, but they could follow the tracks of a very large man being dragged. These tracks led to the ceremony where all the women were.

Dialogue whose context I forget:

Juice?

Zeus! You're not here! I'm talking to no one! Where'd he go?

Everybody's somebody's fetish.

There were naked women at the ceremony. The old woman they'd seen the day before was standing over Zampano with a knife. The body of a small woman lay beside him.

And the puppet was starting to get the urge to join them. He wanted the Milk of the Mother. Rick thought a moment, then figured out the Italian for that (or close enough for our purposes).

Puppet: Latte di Madre! (when Robert protests): I need my mother, not my father!

The old woman started looking around.

Someone: She's not running with a knife?

GM: No, not yet.

A tree was running with milk. I don't recall whether it was a Dark Young or Shub Niggurath herself.

The young woman on the ground stood up. She raised Zampano to his feet, but would not let any of the women harm him further. She was Gelsomina, brought back to life by strange means.

GM (explaining to me): You had two sets of major organs.

The old woman had taken the form of the little girl, and had cut organs from Zampano. This was why he'd woken bleeding, but also why he'd taken no lasting harm. She considered this Gelsomina's (re)birthday. Gelsomina still loved Zampano, and the two lovers, reunited, walked away to try to have a better life, while the rest of the entertainers fled, some sane, some not, and the puppet returned to the Great Mother. I think some of the women may have been consumed either by Shub Niggurath or the dark young.

The GM explained that he wanted a romantic tale, and this was the result. The source he had drawn on was the movie _La Strada_. Someone said that this was also known as or had been remade as _400 Blows_, but online research does not bear this out. The English title of the movie is _The Road_. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047528/)

I later learned that Dylan Addis had played Zampano in the earlier run. His comment was, more or less, "So, at first you figure you're just playing the big, dumb support character, right? And then you learn that it's all about you!"

I said that I thought that all of the other PCs had secrets, but Dylan wasn't sure. I know that Aldo, the clown, was from Pancini. I think that Andre, the magician, was insane, but I'm not sure.

On the one hand, I'm a bit disappointed on an intellectual level, as the plot doesn't quite make sense, and I don't expect a romantic tale when I sign up for CoC. But, on an emotional level, the scenario worked for me, especially the ways in which it diverged from a normal CoC scenario.

Apparently, most groups decide to deal with the soldiers a lot earlier, and they don't usually get lost while doing so.