We’re back for our Call of Cthulhu game, and the shitteth hath hitteth the fan. Eth.
If you will recall, in our last adventure, we finally found Jack Brady, source of (we hope) many answers – and then our loyal young local bodyguard, Li, SHOT HIM. Somerset, attempting to heal him, rolled a critical success – only Somerset is in truth the evil bastard Edward Gavigan, who unbeknownst to us, has shapeshifted into Somerset – and VERY NEARLY SUCCEEDS IN KILLING BRADY! Only Caliope‘s magical interference saves him, at great personal cost as she ages noticeably within a few minutes.
So we return to the action amidst chaos, with poor Li tied up, sweating, nearly hallucinating, and swearing he didn’t do this! He would never harm Brady! Despite having just shot him, which he claims not to remember doing! Caliope (whose player wasn’t available tonight) drags Brady into another room to help him recuperate while an infuriated and frustrated Gavigan continues to try to find ways to kill Brady without giving himself away…
(The real Somerset is on a nearby exploding volcano island. Naturally. Somerset’s player has taken over playing Gavigan until further notice. He’s PHENOMENALLY GOOD at it.)
Brady‘s freedom fighters divest us of our weaponry but don’t quite kill us, thanks to Evelyn and Teddy doing some really fast talking. All our weapons get put on a table on the far side of the room while we try to sort out what’s going on.
Somerset: Theodore, I’m concerned for Brady’s health. I think someone should go check on him and Caliope. I’ll go.
Teddy, who cannot quite place where he’s seen behavior similar to Li’s before, but knows he has seen it, and who is subtly but not quite aware of the dissonance of Somerset calling him ‘Theodore,’ seizes Somerset’s shoulder: You are right, Somerset! But surely it is important for you to remain here! I shall go to check on them!
Somerset, seizing Teddy’s shoulder in return and attempting to hypnotize him: Fine, but kill him when you get there. Try not to make it look too obvious.
Teddy rolls higher on his defense than Somerset does in his attempt, so while he does go to check on Brady, he also knows Something Just Happened There, even if he’s not quite sure what. He does not try to kill Brady. The others – Ared and Evelyn – also realize something has happened there, but are also not entirely sure what.
Evelyn approaches poor screaming, terrified, confused Li to try to talk to him about what happened. He swears he would never shoot Brady, but as there’s immediate evidence to the contrary, Evelyn asks who he’s talked to in the past little while.
Li: No one except your party and Brady himself! I swear it!
Evelyn, beginning to become suspicious: You know, Li, I’ve had a few experiences with people with particularly piercing gazes and then finding myself fighting impulses to do things I never would. Have you spoken to anyone with incredibly blue eyes?
Li, shaking, points a finger at Somerset.
Teddy, from the other room so not really saying this: SOMERSET HAS GREEN EYES
me, mumbling: why does teddy know somerset has green eyes
Evelyn, in Cantonese, which Somerset does not speak, to Brady’s freedom fighters: Don’t trust that Englishman!
Unfortunately, Edward Gavigan does speak Cantonese, and at this point, all hell breaks loose.
Two of the freedom fighters immediately turn on the man I shall now call ‘Somergan‘, who has an absolute SHIT TON of magic and health to spend, hypnotizes Ared into defending him and also tries to convince him that Evelyn is the person actually threatening Brady/Li. Ared, who doesn’t know ANY of us all that well, is uncertain, but fails his defense roll, so begins to defend Somergan.
Evelyn leaps to her feet, running for the weapons and screaming for Teddy to get back in here: It’s Somerset! It’s SOMERSET!
Teddy rushes back in, trying to assess the situation and picking up weapons from the table. Somergan is now glowing yellow from his head. Ared grabs his scimitar off the table and goes after one of the guys trying to kill Somergan. It does not go well for the guy. Evelyn picks up two guns, shoves one in her bodice, grabs a cane, and rushes back to smash it against Somergan‘s skull.
Gavigan turns out to have an extremely thick skull, and TWICE avoids taking severe damage as Evelyn bashes him with the cane. Between Evelyn‘s attempts to brain him, Somergan manages to hypnotize Teddy – his eyes flashing ice blue as he does so – and tells him to stop Evelyn, but not to hurt her.
Ared, in the meantime, gets shot once, avoids another shot with the coolest move of the evening, pure Jedi shit, deflecting the bullet with his blade, and takes out the first freedom fighter while the second one manages to land a couple of low-key hits on Somergan, who begins to bleed black sand.
Teddy, who trusts Evelyn deeply, and who knows Somerset‘s eyes are NOT BLUE–
(sidebar chat:
Me: I don’t know WHY Teddy knows Somerset’s eyes are green
Somerset’s player: I am 100% sure that of everybody on the team Teddy has spent more time gazing intensely and sincerely into Somerset’s eyes than anybody else. Ever. Listening intently and sincerely.
Me: I’m sure Somerset’s wife doesn’t know his eyes are green
Somerset’s player: She absolutely does not. She thinks of him with much the same fondness as she has for their whippet.
Me: I bet she knows what color the whippet’s eyes are, though!
end sidebar)
–cannot deny Somergan‘s hypnotic power, but does everything he can to thwart it: he spends a point of stability to not spend any meaningful effort in trying to tackle Evelyn, and manages to not tackle her as she continues to beat Somergan about the head and shoulders.
Somergan, who is in fact taking quite a lot of damage but also has huge amounts of health to burn through, casts an absolutely horrifying spell on Evelyn: she feels bones in her body rearrange and break and then slide back into place unbroken, and boils bubble up and subside again, but she succeeds in her save roll and is not hideously maimed and dead.
Somerset’s player: I’M SO SORRY!!!
Evelyn, now desperate to snap Teddy out of his trance: TEDDY! HE KILLED ALICE!
Everybody: uh oh
Teddy rolls well and does, in fact, snap out of it.
Evelyn, who believes Somerset is still in there somewhere: don’t kill him!
The remaining freedom fighter manages to shoot Somergan, but also takes huge damage from Ared, and staggers for the door. Teddy, who does not believe Somerset is still in there somewhere, fully and totally ignores Evelyn‘s plea to not kill him, shoots Somergan twice. Somegan hits the floor–
–and bounces back up, now wearing Alice‘s face. It’s possibly at this point (or maybe a bit earlier) that he also tries to hypnotize Evelyn, which fails, and burns out the last of Aligan‘s magic.
DM: Teddy, you’ll need to roll against the card ‘Wave of Grief’ which will totally disable you if you fail.
Teddy: -rolls the only crit success he gets in the game tonight-
Evelyn, still trying to save Somerset, tries to shoot Aligan just enough to take her down. Teddy, who is less sentimental even though Aligan is wearing Beloved Alice‘s face, pistol-whips Aligan, and–
—Aligan, bleeding black sand, dies, dissolving into dust, all except a horrible screaming distorted face, leaving us…victorious?
We then spend the next two days tied to chairs while Brady and his people decide whose side we’re really on, but eventually we’re released and it’s generally agreed we’re all on the same side. He lets us know that the arcane books we’re supposed to get from him, the ones that he stole from Madame Lin, have been stolen from him in turn, so, y’know, oh well, and good luck with saving the world, lads, but that’s above my pay grade.
Upon release, Evelyn and Teddy get ready to go see Madame Lin, who a few days ago issued us an invitation to visit, apparently because she deemed us, specifically, as the most beautiful people in our group, and she likes to surround herself by beauty. She is, to recap, a former prostitute who worked her way up, dragged herself and her family out of poverty, and now a fantabulously well-preserved beauty in her mid-sixties, she runs a ton of brothels and lives a life of quiet elegance with servants who are no less than Los Angeles nines in terms of attractiveness.
Teddy, upon arriving, bows deeply & takes a seat: Why did you want to see us, Madame?
Lin: Surely we don’t need to get down to business so quickly. Drinks first, then dinner, then perhaps we can find mutual…satisfaction.
Evelyn & Teddy: o my
It turns out she wants us to find Jack Brady. :facepalm: “Have you heard anything of his whereabouts?” she enquires.
Teddy, entirely truthfully: The last we were told of his whereabouts, he’d left town two weeks ago.
Evelyn’s player: OOOOOOOH lookit Teddy threading that needle!
It turns out Lin has quite a collection of magical STUFF, and whether she’s aware of its actual power or not, she likes collecting beautiful things, so she wants her books back. We agree that we’re willing to look for her books.
Lin, gesturing for her servants to open a door which turns out to lead to an extremely well-appointed bedroom: and perhaps I might be able to provide other information you may be interested in, in exchange for…beauty…
My friends, you could HEAR Teddy and Evelyn going “…”
Teddy, mentally trying to get out of this: ‘but I am recently bereaved, and cannot possibly…’
Teddy: …
Teddy: know what, I’ll take one for the team
Evelyn, delicately: Perhaps I could…be introduced to some of those brawny young men from your security team?
Lin: Ah, yes, if your tastes are so provincial…
Teddy, going into the bedroom with Lin:
Somerset‘s player is now playing Li, because we won’t be getting back to Somerset himself for A While, so in the meantime Li and Ared are outside waiting for Teddy and Evelyn.
Li: I feel I owe you an apology. After all, I did know where Brady was all along, and lied to you about it.
Ared: All is forgiven, especially if you don’t do it again.
Ared, after, y’know, A While: …what is taking them so long? What could they possibly be doing?
Li, clearing his throat: Well, aaah, well, Madame Lin does run most of the brothels in S–
Ared: NEVER MIND I DON’T WANT TO KNOW
Teddy and Evelyn stagger out at two or three in the morning. Teddy is Noticeably Drained, and Lin was apparently left invigorated and enthusiastic.
We leave it to the reader’s discretion to determine whether Lin maintains her uncanny youth by sucking the…life…out of hot young people, and on that note, we closed for the evening. :D