Call of Cthulhu: At the Inn of Hakone
Friday, 24 June 11 -- 10 am: At the Inn at Hakone, Call of Cthulhu
- GM: Justine Wiessinger
- Clifford Earle: Bud Swanson, HS Gym Teacher
- ???: Timothy Teasdale, Med School Grad
- ???: PFC Cortland Creed, US Army
- ???: Maybelle Whitney, History Teacher
- Me: Lt. Conrad Walker, US Army, Public Affairs
- Thomas Rile (sp? Pile?): James Ying, Science Teacher
- ???: Ambrose Dawes, HS Principal, Deacon
- ??? (male): Sally Preston, College Grad
It was May 12, 1946. Over 200 teachers from the USA were going to Yokohama. The PCs were teachers and army support. James Ying was Chinese, and PFC Creed was Black. I gather that the person who played Creed in a previous run felt that he had to fade into the background as Creed, while highly intelligent, wasn't about to draw flack by making waves. He saw this as a problem with the character.
Perhaps so, but the person playing Creed in this run did not seem to have that problem. He found ways to be effective while being subtle in character, but obvious enough out of character that we appreciated the subtlety. If anyone faded into the background, it was Maybelle Whitney, played by the woman who played Gemma and the mourner when I gamed with her last year at GenCon. (I've also played with Clifford Earle in many CoC games at Origins, and in at least one previous CoC game at Origins with the man who played Sally Preston.)
Orientation was at 0800. The teachers' mission was to transform and educate Japan, paving the way for democracy. They were to keep out Emperor worship, and, of course, Communism.
This particular group was heading first to Hakone, where there was a shrine nearby.
Captain giving the briefing: And, for God's sake, remember: Hot springs. Take off your shoes.
After the briefing, the members of the group introduced themselves to each other. A couple of them were quite enthusiastic.
Sally: We're going to teach Japanese to be real people!
Lt. Walker: And I wouldn't let them know they're not real people, not just yet.
GM (giving me Rogue Cthulhu coin): Break it to them gently.
The group set out for Hakone. They were met by a man, Saito Matoshio, who taught at Kyoto Women's College and walked with a limp, and a woman, who was dressed Western style, and paused to switch to formal Western shoes before approaching. I forget her name, alas.
Sally: Do you know Mr. Yang? He runs the Chinese place.
The group arrived at Hakone, where Lt. Walker made the error of managing a greeting in Japanese. The people were delighted, and started addressing him in that language.
Lt. Walker (to the woman liaison): Miss, can you teach me "This is all the Japanese I know"?
The folks of Hakone brought food for the group.
Sally: Do you have a hot dog? How about Egg Foo Young?
Woman Liaison: Ah, these people have brought food from their homes.
Bud Swanson had better luck with cross-cultural communication.
Bud (to the kids): Baseball?
Kids (this is a word they know!): Baseball!
Bud (delighted): Yay!
Kids: Yay!
James Ying: Well, Lieutenant, we're already fulfilling our cultural mission.
Lt Walker: I don't think Miss Preston will get a hot dog any time soon.
James: Oh, I wouldn't be too sure of that, Lieutenant.
He recognized this as a clear Photo Opportunity for the Folks Back Home.
James: Call me James. It'll be easier that way. (to PFC Creed) You take one set, and I'll take another.
PFC Creed: Good. That way, I won't be in any of them.
In case it's not clear, it isn't that Creed had an objection to being photographed. He was, however, savvy enough to know what would and wouldn't play well Back Home.
If I remember correctly, reaching the inn involved taking a cable car. Mr. Myra welcomed the group to the inn. The last sliver of the waning moon was shining.
Room assignments:
- Plum Room -- The Ladies: Maybelle, Sally, the female liaison
- Pine Room -- Tim, Bud, James, Ambrose
- Bamboo Room -- Conrad, Cortland, Saito
The next day, the group decided to visit the shrine. This meant a trip partway p the mountain and to the left. There was another path leading further up, to where a hermit lived.
My notes say, "Miko -- Priestess -- Tatamasu". I'm not what that means. I think the priestess was Miko. I do know it was a shinto shrine, and my notes say "Fox shrine".
Sally: So, where's the Buddha?
James: Not here.
Saito, the male liaison, spotted a man at some point. I think the man was traveling to the hermit, but I don't recall. Regardless, the sight of the man made Saito flinch, and he did not want to talk about it. But, he was with the army men, who were willing to respect his privacy, not with Sally or Bud, who would probably have tried to convince him to unburden himself.
I think Saito went for a walk at one point and did not return. I'm fairly sure that a local woman went to visit the hermit and came back screaming. The Americans went to see what had happened.
The hermit was in his home, dead. He had apparently turned into some kind of black goo creature first. He had tried to leave a note. Someone was able to translate it, possibly the woman liaison, possibly someone else. The hermit had written: Box Great Harm Emperor Stop Him
GM (in response to the group's reaction): That is exactly the situation. You have just made a diagnosis of What the Fuck?
Lt Walker and one or two others went down in the cable car to alert the local authorities, I think after contacting Walker's superiors. At least one of the local policemen went into the cable car with the others. On the way back to the inn, the people in the cable car saw a body far below them.
This proved to be Saito's body. The authorities were not happy about the two deaths, or that death seemed to be occurring where the Americans were.
I think the woman liaison revealed that Saito had recognized the man who had gone up the path leading to the hermit's home as a former student of his, one who was also a wanted war criminal and had served in China and Manchuria.
Bud (I think to the inn's owner): Baseball? (clearly not) Maybe not. Sake? (this goes over much better) We're making progress. Sake Baseball?
The group went to the shrine, I think having figured out that the priestess seemed to know something of what was going on. The priestess, however, was now a Naga Priestess, with four arms, each ending in claws.
Bud: Baseball?
Someone: Shut up about your baseball! She's a god damned snake!
I am not sure whether she actually attacked the Americans. I'm fairly sure Lt. Walker shot her, and she fell, weeping, but trying to warn them about what had happened. The man whom Saito had recognized was Nabayuki (or Noboyuki -- I have both spellings in my notes and I'm not sure which is correct), a war criminal. He did not like that the Japan had surrendered, and he considered the emperor's actions a betrayal. The priestess, I think, agreed with him, but did not support his current actions.
He had taken some kind of box from the hermit, one which, if opened, was supposed to bring about the end of the world. He had turned himself into an oni, and he was planning to bring the box to the emperor. The Americans decided to try to stop him, and the Naga Priestess opened up a weird kind of smoky tunnel in thin air. The Americans stepped through, possibly taking the woman liaison who most certainly did not want to go.
The Americans found themselves transformed into Japanese combatants. Lt. Walker had a katana and found that he had a respectable skill with it. Sally was on a horse and had a bow and arrows. Bud had shuriken, and I think some other weapons. Maybelle was a shaman who could raise the spirits of the dead for a brief time.
They heard voices whispering, "Do you know where you're going? He had a device that pointed the way."
Someone (trying to adjust to the strange landscape): Let's try not to crash into any walls.
Someone else: Right. Crashing into walls is bad. Wait -- there _are_ no walls!
At one point, their path was blocked by boy warriors who had been told they were enemies. I think Maybelle summoned up Saito's spirit who convinced the boys otherwise. Finally, the group came upon the oni trying, unsuccessfully, to open the box.
They grabbed the box, tossing it from one person to another, and attacked him.
Someone (apparently doing quite well): And they said heart murmur!
Bud: For baseball! (throws shuriken)
Bud: Hiroshima, here comes Fat Boy! (throws shuriken, player rolling 52 out of 65 in a system where low is good)
Someone else: More like Little Man.
Sally: For Yuki's honor! (rolls) Ah, no. Yuki has no honor.
GM: That's all right. Yuki's not [the woman liaison's] name.
Bud: See, this is because you don't like baseball! No batter! No batter!
For reasons obscure to me, Ambrose decided to attack James or vice versa. This wasn't the oni's doing, but player / PC choice. The oni occasionally got control of the box back and tried to force one of the group to open it, I think biting off one of Maybelle's hands when she refused.
Finally, the group (except for Ambrose and James) got the box away from the oni one final time, and someone, I forget whom (possibly Walker, possibly not), decided to smash the box.
GM: You smash the thing to smithereens!
Someone: This loosened the lid!
Unfortunately, this turned out to be the wrong thing to do. Well, not as bad as letting the oni open the box, but bad enough. It resulted in a three year global winter.
Someone: Oops!
GM: But, on the bright side, Azathoth isn't released, and the world isn't destroyed.
However, Japan was destroyed in a great seismic shift.
Someone: Well, that solves the reeducation problem.
The GM explained that the reason the oni kept trying to force a PC to open the box was that the oni's hands were too large to open the complicated thing himself. I liked this as it was a reasonable in game explanation about why the oni couldn't possibly finish its plans before the PCs arrived. The GM added that if the group had killed the oni, but not destroyed the box, and the box did not open, then there would be a slight shift in the strange space in which they found themselves. This would result in the Americans being dropped into the emperor's palace -- armed! They would have been arrested, and possibly met a dire fate, but they would have saved Japan, as well as the rest of the world.
