Call of Cthulhu: What Rough Beast

This is, I think, the penultimate scenario in the Ladykillers series of adventures, all of which involve a group of college students in Arkham, at Miskatonic, but I'm not sure. This was Classic Era Call of Cthulhu. At least two of the players had been in earlier sessions in previous years. This showed in the dynamics between the PCs as old in-character resentments simmered.

GM: John Addis

Me: Meghan Dugan

James: Freddy Timmons

Timothy Hase: Monty James

Grover Browning: Duke Maseteron, womanizer and acting fraternity president

??? (guy): Alice

???: Jimmy McDoughal, Meghan's boyfriend

Craig (???): Colleen McDoughal, Jimmy's sister, Alice's rooommate, I think.

Leslie Strosky: Sylvia James, Monty's sister, Meghan's roommate

There were black and white photos of all of the PCs, which really helped get the period feel across.

When John handed me Meghan, he said, "Lisa, you up for a bit of a roleplaying challenge?" I said I was, and he pointed out one detail on the sheet. Meghan's starting Sanity was 35.

"Got it," I said, and proceeded to read the sheet. Meghan had been through an awful lot. Her boyfriend, Jimmy, had been wounded badly in the leg, ending his sports career. She felt very guilty about this, as it was when he was defending her from some awful horror. And the president of the fraternity had been involved in human sacrifice. And a mutilated dead body fell in front of her, bringing back memories of a ghoulish cannibal cult.

So, Meghan was very withdrawn, which worried Jimmy. The sheet explained that, while Meghan knew she was under a lot of stress, she thought she was coping. She wasn't. She was slowly coming to pieces. In fact, after that incident with the ghouls, she'd snuck out and had a taste of a dead body. It tasted quite good, and she wanted more. So, when she lost Sanity, she needed to look around for a dead body to eat, and if there weren't any, well, the living would have to suffice.

Me: Oh!

John: Yes. I said it started there. I didn't say it ended there.

Me: So I see.

As the session proper began, the men were in one dorm / frathouse, and the women in another dorm / sorority. And, one of the handouts was a list of who lived in which room in the fraternity:

1 Gary Scott, Soph, Baseball scholarship, rude

1 Howard Green, Soph, New England, Old Money

2 William James, Soph, quiet, not bright

2 Greg Stein, Soph, Brash, cocky, <illeg> New Yorker

3 Booth Crawford, Fresh, Nerd, Bookworm

3 Monty James, Fresh, early admission, Sylvia's younger brother, PC

3 Nathan Steinberg, Fresh, Wealthy, NY, nerd

4 Wallace Humphries, Senior, never around

4 Chauncy Oliver, Junior, wrestler, mean as a snake

4 Tommy O'Shaunessy, Soph, good natured kid, naive

5 Duke, Jimmy: PCs, Juniors

6 Freddy Timmons, Senior, alcoholic, always in trouble

__ Steven S Spaulding, Fresh, _old_ money, Boston socialite

__ Jonathan Throckmorton, Fresh, football scholarship, dumber than Jimmy, if possible

In the fraternity, Duke woke from a nightmare. Outside, birds were flinging themselves against his window. He drew the curtains, denying that anything was wrong.

Meanwhile, Alice had something she wanted Colleen to hear.

Alice: It's a Fats Walker album. It's the bees' knees!

Sylvia woke up from her own nightmare, screaming. Birds flew in through the open window -- and dropped a human head into the room. The started Meghan screaming, too.

Alice and Colleen heard the screams.

Alice: I put on a robe and my hat, and go to see what's happening.

The head belonged to the student Booth Crawford. It opened its mouth and said, "The blood dimmed tide is loose."

Now, many of us at the table, including myself, recognized the source of this quote. However, the GM informed us, our characters did not. They did know that they had heard the poem before, in Dr. Dr. Crauman's (sp??) class.

Booth's head had no more to say, and the window was closed by someone, likely Alice, who wracked her brains for the important facts about Booth.

Alice: Is he either rich or good looking?

GM: Yes.

Alice: Oh! The tragedy!

Someone called the fraternity, I think Sylvia, telling Duke to get over to the sorority, fast. He needed no urging. Well, in principle, he didn't. He still moved a bit slowly, even though this was partially due to the police showing up to ask about a missing college student, Boothe's roommate, Nathan Steinburg. The cops didn't much care for Duke.

Cop: That's not liquor I smell?

Duke: Naw, it's aftershave.

Cops and male students went over to the sorority. By now, Meghan had taken Boothe Crawford's head and left the building to, ah, take care of it.

Cop: We need to talk to Boothe Crawford.

Someone: I hear he's upstairs.

Colleen: Why, I never! There are no men up here!

Sylvia (disgusted): You're right, Colleen. There are no _men_ here.

The cops eventually left, still not pleased with Duke, who protested that he was just a student, not a criminal.

Cop: You're a student. That's the funniest thing I've heard.

Duke: I'm president of the fraternity.

Cop: _Acting_ presidient.

Eventually, the cops were gone, and the students were all together, though Meghan was been vague about what she did with the head. She had, of course, eaten some of it. That didn't mean that she wasn't horrified by his being dead.

Alice: Meghan, people lose their head every day.

Meghan: But, he lost his _body_.

Someone: Maybe it was a railroad accident.

The men went to search Nathan and Boothe's room.

GM: Make a luck roll at half and see if you can steal some dead guy's yearbook.

Someone: Is anything strange?

GM: No, other than the mess you guys are making of his room, everything's pretty much in order.

Monty and Sylvia made nasty veiled conversation. I understand correctly, Sylvia had been having sex with many men, but not, to his dismay, Duke. Meanwhile, the rest of the conversation wasn't much better.

Someone: Yeah, Duke, I could use a stiff one...

Someone: Are you asking, "Why do birds suddenly appear?"

Some of the students checked the library, finding the poetry professor who told them that source of the quote was Yeats's poem, "The Second Coming". Duke decided, for reasons I don't recall, to go to the undertaker and pretend to place an order for 800 bounds of ice. I think this involved Colleen freaking out when she realized Duke was planning to drive somewhere that she didn't want to go. She got out of the car and ran, and I think about half the group caught up with her, temporarily abandoning Duke in disgust. He went to the undertaker anyway, but failed to convince the man that he was in earnest. Funny, that.

Somehow, the group figured out that one male student who lived locally might be behind everything. The students went to his home to find his parents dead, a journal, and a basement full of bits of human bodies (not the parents') in jars.

Me (in a note to the GM): I want to be the last out and grab some snacks.

GM: Ah. Some finger food.

Me: Exactly.

It turned out that the student planned to use Colleen and Jimmy's adopted infant brother, Thomas, aka Tommy. The group went to the McDoughal house, only to find that Tommy had just been kidnapped by the missing student, and Mr. McDoughal had been injured trying to prevent this.

Everyone found the missing student on the top floor of the fraternity, along with Duke's father and Tommy. Duke's father was either helping the crazy student or had his own evil plan. Duke tried to pretend he wanted to help his father, but actually thwart him. His father largely ignored him. I'm not sure he saw through Duke, but he classified Duke as an idiot. Everyone else tried to help as well.

Quotes whose exact context I forget:

Someone: A little wide. Ball one!

Someone: You could see it run through Jimmy's mind, cuz Jimmy's mind moves rather slowly.

Me: Like the rest of Jimmy.

Birds flew around, and a great storm gathered. Parts of the top floor of the frat house were destroyed. Jimmy managed to get Tommy away.

I paid careful attention to what was going on with Tommy at this point. Jimmy considered putting him on the floor, which would have been unfortunate, as Meghan would have tried to eat him. Fortunately, Jimmy decided against that.

Meghan bit the student while other people attacked him, devouring his flesh. Jimmy was taken aback, but did try to see the good side of it.

Jimmy: At least Meghan's easting something!

I'm not sure why the lunatic student killed the other two or exactly what he was trying to accomplish. I'm also not sure exactly what was going on with the other students. But, it was a fun game, and ended on schedule, so I could get some sleep.