All Along the Watchtower

Friday, 22 February, 2-6 pm: Trail of Cthulhu: All Along the Watchtower

• GM: Bill White
• Mike: S. Hunter Thompson
• Kevin Meares: E. Gary Gygax
• Me: Robin Morgan
• Sean Leventhal: Hillary Rodham
• Karin: Todd Gitlin
• Ami: Jimi Hendrix

Chicago, 1968: Monday of Democratic Convention Week. Our Heroes were in town for various reasons.

Hunter: I'm chasing the truth, no matter the cost -- and I'm gonna start at the bar of the Hilton.

GM: Let me note the booze rules, for Hunter's benefit.

There were rules for booze, nicotine, LSD, and various other drugs available to everyone.

Gary Gygax was in town because he was working for an insurance company and had to pay a professional visit to De Laurence Publishing. He had just come from his Geneva Convention -- Wikipedia informs me that this was GenCon 1, not to be confused with GenCon 0, held in his basement. He was wearing a suit and walking down the street. I think he was staying at the Hilton.

Jimi Hendrix was in town taking a break from "the pressures of studio production". He was wandering, guitar in hand, and things felt to him like a storm about to break. Robin Morgan was a poet. It turns out I've read some of her work, even if I don't remember it all that well. She was in Chicago specifically for the protests for peace, and she was getting ideas for the women's rights movement. She had been knocked down the night before, when cops moved in on the protest, but she was pulled to safety and given crash space by the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Naturally, she was heading back to the protest. Hillary Rodham had heard reports of the demonstrations and come to Chicago to be a part of history in the making. I don't recall Todd Gitlin's backstory, but given the man's history, I'm fairly confident he was there for the protests.

As protestors started marching down the street, Gary tried to stay out of their way. I think Hunter and Hillary either joined or got swept up in the protest when the cops moved in. The two of them were thrown into a paddywagon. Hunter was released after showing his press pass, and he got Hilary's release by claiming her as his assistant. At this point, the two had an odd not-quite-rapport. It was sort of like he was a storm sweeping her up in his wake.

Robin got knocked down, and Jimi pulled her to safety. The two retired to where Robin had been crashing. Understandably, she had a distinct sense of deja vu. I think Todd Gitlin was with them as well.

Gary went to the publishing company. He was shown to the books and settled down to do his job. But, he also noticed some odd occult books and an even odder game involving the Quabbalistic Tree of Life. But, all the Sephiroth and playing pieces had names from Lovecraft. We agreed that Lovecraft was big enough that Gary would catch the references.

I don't recall why we all wound up at the field museum. I know why Gary was there.

Gary: I hear they have a great polearm exhibit! I want to do research for this game I'm working on...

Hunter and Hillary went because of a conversation they had with a fellow prisoner in the paddywagon. I think that by this point, Hunter was talking about the Omnivore. Their fellow prisoner had given them a key to a locker in the museum. Inside the locker was a vial of an amber liquid.

As they retrieved this, two armed men in suits approached to try to relieve them of it, but Hunter managed to slip it to Hillary unseen. He showed the men the empty locker while Hillary slipped into an adjacent hallway.

Todd, Robin, and Jimi saw the men menacing Hunter. Robin tried to intervene, as she also had a gun. I think Jimi tried to help, and Gary, coming onto the scene, grabbed a polearm.

However, things did not go as planned. Something took control of Robin's, Jimi's, and Todd's minds, and they knew that the Omnivore loved them and that they should look at museum exhibits. I think Todd managed to shake off the effect, but Robin and Jimi didn't. Jimi suggested that Robin do acid and have sex with him, and she agreed.

Meanwhile, Hunter and the two men talked about what was going on, which involved throwing around terms like "Universal Omnivore". But, Hunter wasn't liking what he was hearing.

Hunter: _Yes_ it's definitely national -- but are you _insane_? Even by _my_ standards?

And there was some reference to Machine Elves, although I don't recall what that meant. The men tried to cut a deal with Hunter.

One of the men: Tell us what _Leary_ is up to, and we'll let you have a word with the boss.

"Leary", of course, was Timothy Leary. Hillary walked in and told the men that if they took her and Hunter to the boss, she'd give them the vial. They agreed.

Hillary (sotto voce to Hunter): Do _you_ know who the boss _is_?

Hunter (sotto voce): No. But he's the _boss_.

The men took them to a strange train. Somehow, Gary Gygax managed to follow them onto it, as did Tom Gitlin.

Meanwhile, Robin and Jimi found a, er, cat in the museum, a cat with an injured paw. The poor cat! They wanted to help it. And they understood that it wanted to go high. And, they knew what the highest point in Chicago was. So, they were going to take the hallucinatory cat to the Chicago Civic Center.

What they didn't realize was that the man who'd talked to Hunter and Hillary in the paddywagon had explained that he had summoned a shuggoth. That's what the cat was. I forget how it had gotten injured.

The rules for hallucinogens were:

• +1 to the difficulty of Stability rolls
• +2 to Stability loss if the roll is failed
• You can spend Sanity to
  • refresh Investigator pool
  • spend 1-2 points of Counterculture for a Clue, Counterculture being an Investigative skill in this scenario
  • rewrite the character's Drive or one Pillar of Sanity

Meanwhile, Hunter and Hillary speculated on the identity of the boss. Could it be Hoover?

One of the men: Everybody knows J. Edgar Hoover's been a pawn of Shub-Niggurath since World War II!

There was also a reference to Cthugha, the Chicago fire, and the police.

Finally, they were brought to a train car where the boss was. He was playing the same game that Gary Gygax had seen at the publisher's office. The game was called _Call of Calypso_.

The boss was Richard Nixon.

GM: The shorter of the two men is G. Gordon Liddy.

Hunter's player: Actually, he wasn't that short. Five foot six.

GM: Well, thank God for playtesting. The _taller_ of the two men is G. Gordon Liddy.

Nixon talked about how he'd reached his position. I think he was the Panoptic Hierophant of the Omnivore.

Nixon: All it took was -- the ritual sacrifice of a king.

I think that was intended to be John F. Kennedy, but it could also have been Robert Kennedy, or Martin Luther King, Jr. There were plenty of sacrificed kings to go around!

Nixon wanted to know where Leary was.

Hunter: Leary is _far_ from here. He's playing the long game.

Nixon: He's up to something.

Hunter: But not here.

The stuff in the vial Hillary had was, iirc, extract of human pineal gland. This squicked Hunter.

Hillary: Is it DMT?

Hunter: Worse. It is to DMT what DMT is to LSD.

Nixon: It doesn't just open the doors of perception -- it opens the doors.

Hillary: What does that mean?

Hunter: You don't want to know.

Meanwhile, Jimi and Robin got the cat up to the top of the Chicago Civic Center. The cat was very happy with them. They were its friends!

GM: The cat will take you wherever you want to go.

In fact, the cat brought them up to space where they saw the Tree.

Meanwhile, Gary revealed himself and the fact that he knew about the game Call of Calypso. He had figured out which pieces corresponded to each sphere on the tree and asked Nixon what would happen if the pieces were in that configuration. Nixon said that they didn't want that to happen.

Gary challenged Nixon to a game. The GM listed the skilled that could be used to play the game, and Gary had all but one of them. Gary won the game.

Nixon: I'm glad we weren't playing for stakes.

Gary suggested they do just that. He offered to find Leary for Nixon if Nixon won. Nixon accepted.

Meanwhile, we used the rules for hallucinogens so that Robin and Jimi could ask: How do we rearrange the tree to put the cat -- our friend -- where it wants to be?

And, to do that, Jimi started playing his guitar, which he did superbly. Robin started improvising poetry.

The second game between Gary and Nixon began.

Gary's player: I am not playing to win. I am playing to get _this_ configuration. (i.e. the one where all the pieces were in their, er, proper places on the tree)

GM: Oh. That's much harder. But he (i.e., Nixon) doesn't know that.

Nixon and Gary tied. The tie breaker was Gary's Occult skill.

Meanwhile, Hunter talked to Hillary about the stuff in the vial.

Hunter: You see, Hillary, we don't want Nixon to get it because we know what kind of man he is. But -- and here is where it gets controversial -- we don't want Leary to get it either, because that would deny free will.

Hillary: Oh, I agree.

GM: Is she gonna drink it?

Hillary's player: Oh yeah!

Nixon: What have you done? I can't _see_ any more!

The Power of the Omnivore came streaming out of Nixon's eyes. Todd revealed himself, iirc, and I think did something cool, but I cannot remember what.

Hillary's player: Is the train falling apart around us? (on getting an affirmative) I drink the vial.

This made Hillary supercompetent. I think in terms of mechanics, all skill checks became Investigative checks, which meant that if she had the skill, she automatically succeeded. So, she was able to steer the train wherever it needed to go and make sure everyone got off alive, I think.

Jimi's licks on the guitar rearranged the Tree to what it was supposed to be. The shuggoth returned its friends to Earth and itself to the starts.

Someone: So, Jimi Hendricks saves the universe by playing a bad ass song.

Someone else: And the gods made love!

Someone: McKenna called it. A battle between Order and Chaos.

Gary's player: Yes -- if you remember your D&D of 1974, that's how it is.

Hunter: But it's 2 sides of the Same Coin!

Gary's player said that this was where the Neutral alignment came in.

Either the GM or Hunter's player noted that G. Gordon Liddy and Hunter S. Thompson became professional friends. Hunter at one point made an interesting allegation. Liddy did not deny it, saying only, "Dr. Thompson drinks some interesting substances."

The GM said that Robert Johnson made a deal with Nyarlathotep. Johnson was holding back Azathoth by playing. If he stopped playing, that would no longer be the case. And then, Nyarlathotep, infinite jester, poisoned him.

Hunter's player was very pleased with Hunter's character sheet, as it was precisely correct. The things it said about Hunter's personality were accurate, and this was the last time they would be accurate. Something had clearly happened in 1968 to change Hunter.

Me (explaining the game to Merav Hoffman and Batya Wittenberg): So, Gary broke the universe using his skill at war games, which was absolutely necessary to break Nixon's hold. And then, Jimi Hendrix saved it by playing a great guitar riff. And, Hillary Rodham became scary competent.

Merav and Batya: Lisa, are you sure this game was _fictional_?