This was a Call of Cthulhu story arc which began in 2005 and ended in 2006, before the GM left Chester. Various PCs ended up dead (as is often the case in Call of Cthulhu) or 'on-the-run' so whether they are seen again is anyone's guess.
The GM was [[[player Steff | Steff]].
Story 1
The first story introduced three characters:
- Marcus Bradbury (an antiques dealer played by Andy)
- Dr Owen McKenzie (a surgeon played by Matt)
- John Varney (an artist played by Simon)
These three characters, originally strangers introduced to each other via an invitation to the same party (a charity fund-raiser), were asked to investigate why the hosts' nephew(?) hadn't turned up, since it was on their route back. The story involved finding a strange portal into an exotic alternative dimension, encountering monstrous giant toad-like beings in a ruined city, and finally discovering the missing man, who had become unhealthily obsessed with the world he had discovered through advanced mathematical equations…
Story 2
The big story arc. Having been introduced to each other already, Dr McKenzie invited his two partners in weird experiences to the hospital where he worked, where a man with brief-case handcuffed to his arm had been brought in, and from which some weird insectoid alien creature had apparently flown from, and into the head of another doctor. Helping with the investigations were Dr Evelyn Grey (a psychologist/psychoanalyst played by Heather).
To cut a long story short, the game drew on many elements of the Delta Green supplements. The characters, in attempting to restrain the alien-infected doctor, were kidnapped by a 'terrorist' organisation called The Army of the Third Eye. When released, to aid in their cause, they retrieved the briefcase previously handcuffed to the dead man. There-in they discovered papers transcribing events in Russia at the end of the Second World War.
Cue several sessions of a flashback scenario, where the players played Soviet soldiers who ended up finding out about the strange insectoid aliens, not to mention a disturbing fertility cult and temporarilly forming an 'alliance' with an immortal shape-shifting psychopath who needed the PCs to retrieve an item of occult importance.
Jump back to the present day and the PCs had a choice of what to do - and ended up deciding to follow a trail mentioned in the russian papers - the aliens having some sort of stronghold or base under Goatswood, near the River Severn. And so Dr McKenzie and John Varney headed up to investigate, elisting the help of one of John's old friends, a mechanic in Bristol called Eddie Clay (played by Jamie).
After lots of investigations around Goatswood, and the Severn Aerospace base that had been built there, the characters ended up back in London, breaking into the London headquarters of the company, with much prompting from someone with ties to an American black ops outfit. Tooled up with guns, bullet-proof armour and fake IDs, but no military experience (and having picked up journalist Richard Chambers, played by Steve for this final climatic scene), the characters blundered into the offices, caught easily by heavily armed security. John Varney was killed quickly - having been knocked down by initial gun-fire he failed to convince them that he was actually dead until they'd shot him a bit more.
Marcus Bradbury flipped into Matrix mode, whilst Dr McKenzie fled, closely followed by Eddie Clay. I think Marcus Bradbury and Richard Chambers managed to escape too, but they all ran their seperate ways, as far as I can remember.
John Varney's disappearance has never been solved.
Future games?
Nothing is immediately planned off the back of the previous story-arc, but…
- Henry wouldn't mind running a few short games
- Simon would like to run a 1920s campaign, although based on Steff's flashback technique in his game would like to combine it with a modern day campaign, so that the 1920s scenes don't drag…
