Due to a lack of players in June and the US Independence Day weekend during the normal gaming time slot, the fourth Bag of Nails scenario happened the second weekend of July, with three new players, we had a nearly full table.
Scenario: Little Problems
Rest and Recuperation
The characters had a week of downtime to rest and regain their sanity. Take a moment with the players to determine how their characters recuperated.
Fame!
With the reported dispatching of M. T. Pockets and return with treasure from a dangerous expedition into Crow territory, the Investigators have gained a certain amount of fame and attention in Virginia City. Below are character-specific ideas to incorporate their newfound fame and credit into the game.
Arlene – make writing roll, level of success determines if written accounts are treated as newsworthy or penny fiction; regular failure means fiction, critical failure means stories are trashed.
Ellis – A young man (around 14) named Garrit Fischer has started showing up at all your games, studying your moves and learning from you.
Hiram – Lucille Phelps, madame of the Cabbage Patch, has taken an interest in you professionally and, potentially, romantically. She’s set you on retainer to treat/check the girls monthly; during which time she talks to you about medicine (she lets on her father was a doctor) and personal life.
Levi – A successful animal handling roll will show that Earl trains easily and you’ve managed to teach the mutt to find silver and gold, this provides a steadier income that keeps your credit rating intact. Regardless of the roll’s outcome, the time spent with the dog should allow the character to improve in their animal handling.
Red Dove – You’ve seen a rise in respect and jobs, specifically from two paleontologists (Dr. Franklin Amasse and Dr. Emil Blankenthorpe) who have requested an official contract to put you on retainer as a guide, assisting them in the safest ways to travel to potential digs in the Montana area.
Love and Cakes
It’s St. Valentine’s Day and a festival is planned. At the fest, members of the Church of the New Lord are handing out yellow, heart-shaped cakes. For most adults, they’ll taste too sweet but the kids love ’em. Along with the general goings-on, this is an opportunity to check in on the player characters and see if they have any romantic inclinations.
The Kids Aren’t All Right
The next morning sees a rush of activity from Sheriff Gragg and his deputies. The town’s children have attacked their parents overnight and ran off, resulting in multiple injuries (some cuts and bruises, some serious wounds) and three parental deaths: William “Bill” Lewes, Daisy King, and Jason King (related to Alexander King [the other doctor in town]). All thirteen children in town are now missing.
Boys
- Ben Lewes (age 3)
- Sean McInness (age 5)
- August “Augy” Clement (age 10)
- Charles “Chucky” Roscoe (age 7)
- Luke King (age 5)
- Bo King (age 7)
- Linus Rollo (age 4)
- Kevin Weyland (age 6)
- Quinn Gerard (age 9)
Girls
- Adeline Adina (age 6)
- Esther Buckman (age 10)
- Shelly Turnbacker (age 11)
- Penelope “Pennie” Cho (age 8)
Call of Cthulhu is deadly and children are even more fragile than standard Investigators. Children under the age of 10 have 4 hit points and all those 10 and up have 5 hit points.
With the town up in arms, it’s difficult to get much of anything else done. Due to their fame and experiences with the unusual, Gragg calls upon the investigators once more to assist while he and his deputies also search for the children and calm the townsfolk. Dr. Blake may decide to treat the wounded parents before assisting with the investigation, but much of the work can be handled by Dr. Alexander King, allowing Hiram to join the group.
The Bakers
Given the cake was mostly eaten by children and the general suspicion of the Church of the New Lord, it’s possible/likely they’ll be a candidate for investigation. If approached, they can speak with Reverend Joseph White directly and he’ll claim no involvement, nor has he seen the children.
The Nirumbee Caves
If the investigators decide to check on the cannibal dwarf caves they’ll find the overall territory unscathed–this may come as a surprise given they heard explosions from the army the day M. T. Pockets came to town. If the investigators explore, they’ll have to deal with the Nirumbee once more and only to find no traces of the missing children.
The Schoolhouse
With everyone running around, it’s likely they’ve forgotten to check the most obvious location: the schoolhouse. The children have taken over the schoolhouse and have tied up Eleanore Swift (and, if still an NPC, Charlotte Thurman). They are slowly bleeding the headmistress (and teacher), carving small pieces from the adults and feeding upon them.
Upon confrontation, the children will attack (except for Ben). These are kids, so they’re easy to dispatch (see above) but, at the same time, they’re children and the violence against them will scar even the most hardened soul. The investigators, if planning right, should want to avoid physical confrontation if possible.
No Cure for Evil
If the children can be subdued without death, they’ll be almost feral. If separated from each other they’ll begin to calm down. All except for Ben Lewes, who is already calm but his time with the Nirumbee has forever changed him. The aura in Ben’s soul has temporarily affected children as well. The longer he spent in the schoolhouse the more his evil spread to the other students. Staring into Ben’s eyes could also result in the loss of sanity or humanity. There is no right solution. He can’t be placed with other children and there’s no telling how his corrupting influence will grow.
Rewards and Retributions
Checking the Schoolhouse without an “Idea” roll: +1d6 SAN
Subduing the children without violence: +1d10 SAN
Any children killed in combat: -1d6+4 SAN per child (killing Ben once his evil is confirmed will not result in sanity loss)
Session Recap
Three new players, three new characters. One player had created his own character, a soldier named Corwin Blackstone. From the pre-gens the teacher/scientist Charlotte Thurman and wealthy tourist Kathryn Plum were selected. With three new characters to work in, the session started a bit slow so the characters to get to know each other before the action began.
Charlotte’s player did a lot of the heavy lifting for me, interacting first with Katherine, then approaching every other player character to try and arrange a wildlife tour. This resulted in a few amusing interludes as the town NPCs set up the Valentine’s Day festival. The other player characters were remarkably open about the horrors they’d seen—surprisingly so for the school teacher and wealthy tourist, who didn’t know what to make of stories about bigfoot or cannibal dwarves; seeing the remains of the kanontsistonties in a jar invoked the hiccups in Charlotte.
The new characters got to know the more established characters (and vice-versa). Most of the characters were curious, yet distrusting, of the Church of the New Lord cultists members who wore their yellow robes and handed out too-sweet (for most adults) yellow cakes. Levi watched the robed acolytes carefully through the night. Corwin, new to the town and less suspicious, enjoyed the party. Charlotte chatted with Kathryn and debated her romantic options between the young and handsome Dr. Alexander King and austere, yet charismatic, Dr. Hiram Blake; who had left the party early after taking one of the sweets home for investigation. Arlene, bitter about ex-loves, remained home to continue her research into the occult. Red Dove had no interest in the “white man” holiday and took to bed early.
They were all abruptly woken the next morning by the town bell, signaling an emergency. Three adults were dead, multiple adults were injured, and the town’s children were all missing. All the adults affected were parents of said children.
Red Dove, immediately suspecting the Church of the New Lord might be involved, checked the main paths outside of town, looking for signs the children may have gone towards the compound (or the Nirumbee caves). Nothing indicated the children left by the main entrance. The Native American was not the only towns person suspicious of the religious order; Levi, Corwin, and Arlene each worked independently to form groups to investigate/confront the sect and find the children. Dr. Blake worked with Dr. King to tend to the wounded parents.
The rich tourist, Kathryn approached the schoolteacher Charlotte to inquire about the situation and the two checked in on the doctors before heading to the schoolhouse so Charlotte could acquire her notes on the children.
Red Dove, Arlene, Levi, and Corwin prepared a trek to the church’s compound in the mountains and convinced Dr. Blake to go with them. It was possible that medical attention would be needed for the children and with any serious injuries now dealt with, Dr. King could tend to the minor wounds of the remaining parents. As they prepared their gear, they were just able to hear screams coming from the other side of town. Adult women crying for help.
Charlotte and Kathryn had been captured by a net trap in the schoolhouse and the children had begun hitting them with sticks. The two also saw the school’s headmistress, Eleanore Swift, tied up by her arms and hanging from the rafters. Bits of skin had been peeled from her legs and body and it was evident that some of the children had consumed her flesh. They had plenty of reason to scream. Charlotte managed to regain her wits and began to calm the children at least enough to stop them from beating the two prisoners with sticks.
The untrapped characters rushed to and into the school with reckless abandon. They didn’t exactly kick in the door, but didn’t do much surveillance, either. There was tense moment between the feral children, who gripped their knives and sticks tight and stared at the interlopers, and the Investigators. Time seemingly stood still until Corwin took action. The small movement triggered a fight between the groups. The Investigators tried to pull their punches or just hold off attacks from the youths, but the children were not as inclined to be gentle. Corwin, using a martial arts club, did not realize how much damage he was doing to his assailants. Levi used a writing desk to fend two children off, but took no aggressive maneuvers. Arlene and Dr. Blake, neither trained in fighting, worked together to continually swing and miss at a knife-wielding girl. Red Dove used the confusion at the front door to enter the schoolhouse from the back and debated between using a more damaging rifle but or a long ruler as a weapon of defense.
While the adults and other children fought Ben Lewes simply sat with another boy in the back corner and observed.
The chaos allowed Charlotte time to use her pocket knife to extract herself from the net. She freed Kathryn and the two maneuvered the unconscious body of the headmistress out the door. They immediately made their way to the clinic. This was an unspoken signal to the Investigators to end the fight. After taking more than few knife wounds, Corwin violently extracted himself from the massing children. Levi managed to wrangle one of the kids outside of the schoolhouse and locked him in a nearby outhouse. Arlene and Dr. Blake simply ran. Red Dove locked eyes with Ben for a moment and sensed the evil within him reaching out to her; she broke free of the gaze and ran. While some of the Investigators were still extracting themselves, Levi had time to grab another child and lock them away from the schoolhouse.
With the all the adults out of the building the Investigators barricaded the doors and went to check on the adolescents Levi had separately imprisoned. The children were groggy, as if coming out of a trance and returning to their normal childlike selves. It was clear to the Investigators that Ben Lewes, the former prisoner of the Nirumbee was the cause of the disturbance and had sown his seeds of evil into his classmates. The Church of the New Lord, creepy though they may be, was uninvolved.
The townspeople aided the Investigators in wrangling the rest of the children out of the building and the three year old Ben was put in the custody of “Sheriff” Gragg. It would be up to him and the town to decide what next to do with him.
The mystery was solved, but the problems seemed far from over…
Lessons Learned
As a GM, I had written off Charlotte ever being selected as an PC, so the characters going to the schoolhouse immediately wasn’t in my notes. I try to write my scenarios so I can keep things fluid and respond to the unexpected actions players can take, but going to the schoolhouse this early in the scenario threw me off a little. In some ways it worked out, as combat can take a while in any game and coordination of eleven antagonist NPCs and the actions of seven PCs took the majority of the game time.
Call of Cthulhu is a deadly game, with no rules for “pulling punches” or complex combat maneuvers. It’s not made to be a game for people fighting people. I wasn’t clear enough with that and Corwin’s player, who was shocked to hear that some of the assailant children had died due to his actions. Two of the children were struck dead by his club and two of the children he had knocked unconscious were killed by the feral children locked in the schoolhouse. I had originally given him full SAN retribution for all four children (enough to generate a permanent Mania of “Always Asks Questions”) but, after some post-game discussion, relented on the overall SAN point loss a bit (keeping the Mania). It reminded me to be more clear about the damage being done. Not that I expect fights with children to occur again in this campaign, but it serves as a reminder to be explicit about the rules and negative actions beyond the GM trope of “are you sure?”
When I write scenarios, I do so with the spotlight on the characters. However, with a big town emergency, I hadn’t really considered what the other townspeople would be doing and why they wouldn’t be helping the Investigators. I decided that Gragg and many of the able-bodied townsfolk had left to confront Joseph White and his followers at the Church of the New Lord and the other townsfolk just watched in confusion while the PCs dealt with the children in the schoolhouse. This became a reminder to consider the ancillary NPCs when creating an adventure.
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