Session 15: Rondo Report

General Summary

Sunday Evening January 25, 1925 - Sunday Evening January 25, 1925 We get together to plan our next move, what we decide is to try and see if police detective Lt. Martin Poole can help us. We present the evidence we've uncovered to him and convince him to take a couple officers to help stakeout the Juju house. We arrive on site. At some point, the man running the shop (Silas N'Kwane) steps away to get dinner or something. We ask Poole if we should use this time to enter and snoop around, and he says that he can't condone it without hard evidence. He also says that he's gonna take his men and go take an hour long dinner break. We break in the door and quickly find a trapdoor leading down to some basement. As we go down, Edward notices some strange symbols, which are African in origin and mean "evil." We get to another sturdy door, which we remove from its hinges. As we step into the next chamber, we spy more symbols and engravings that refer to the Great Old Ones, mostly Nyarlathotep. We also notice a large pit in the ground (though it's covered by a large stone that can be raised with a winch) and an alcove blocked off by a curtain. Behind the curtain at the other end of the alcove is something wrapped in leopard skin, a priest's robe, gloves with lion claws, and a chronometer (super expensive and accurate clock). There are also four corpses standing motionlessly, intestines hanging out and marked with the mark of the Bloody Tongue. The sight of this causes Solomon and Edward to flee, especially as the eyes pop open. Booker takes out his gun and starts firing, taking one out off the bat. Jack follows up with several misses, and Booker almost takes another one out. Unfortunately, the monsters counterattack, almost immediately taking out Jack. Booker flees with everyone else and runs into Poole outside. He fills him in on the situation and joins them as they go down to try and deal with the situation. They manage to eliminate the creatures with no further casualties. Eventually, everyone recovers sufficiently to return. We continue to investigate the basement, focusing specifically on the bundle underneath the leopard skin. We find a massive carved African mask (Mask of Hayama), a book called "Africa's Dark Sects", a mummified human tongue nailed to a headband, a burnished copper bowl with unknown runes carved on it, an African scepter with hieroglyphs carved on it, and a cash box. Edward identifies the bowl with the markings as a component for a spell for Send Dream and that the bowl is alien in nature, known as copper from above; he also learns that the headband has writings from the lost city of Atlantis and that it protects the wearer from nightgaunts (unless you attack them first). Booker realizes the chronometer is set for 4 hours ahead instead of our time zone (to Greenwich Mean Time). He also asks Poole if he can open the lockbox, and then shoots it open. Inside are trinkets and other valuables that have obvious ties to the victims of the murders, finally providing a clear link between the cult and the crimes (and potentially exonerating Hilton Adams). We also find a business card for Emerson Imports with the name Silas N'Kwane on the back, a letter from the Harvard library to Jackson Elias, and a brochure for a lecture about "The Cult of Darkness" by Anthony Cowles of Miskatonic University (all detailed in America Handouts). We finally decide to peer underneath the stone blocking the pit. With the combined efforts of Solomon, Edward, and one of the officers, we finally start to open it with the winch. As soon as it's opened, we hear crying, shouting, and other such noises. It's a large fleshy mass of muscles with dozens of faces stitched onto it. Booker loses consciousness and, by some miracle, Leviticus catches him before he falls into the pit. Everyone who can then immediately begins throwing molotov cocktails and shooting at the abomination. The bullets do nothing, but the fire does seem to hurt it. We begin tossing more items into the pit to help the fire continue to burn in hopes of killing the creature. As the smoke thickens, Edward catches a serpentine shape out of the corner of his eye before he is attacked by its tail. Once grappled, the creature proceeds to bite him in half. Everyone else but Poole's lackey's then proceed to flee. On their way out, we run into Mukunga, who uses magic to make Poole freeze up. Another fight breaks out, which ends with Solomon blasting two huge holes in Mukunga. Immediately afterward, the wyvern-like creature erupts from the side of the Juju House, taking off into the sky, no longer tethered to a master to serve.

Campaign

Masks of Nyarlathotep Campaign

Protagonists