Call of Cthulhu - Spirits Over Arkham.pdf - Scenariusze - Klucznik0

SPIRITS OVER ARKHAM

INTRODUCTION.

This scenario is intended for use with the Call of Cthulhu role playing system. The adventure itself is set in Massachusetts

in the year 1920 and is designed for a party of 2-5 players. The players should try to resolve this case by the use of stealth

and not rely upon the use of excessive force.

INVESTIGATORS INFORMATION.

It is Monday, 13th September 1920 when you are contacted by Selwyn Robards. Selwyn is a mutual acquaintance of yours,

who has asked you to investigate the apparent suicide of his young nephew Jeremy Lombard.

During your conversation with Selwyn he explains the situation to you. The local police are of the opinion that Jeremy

Lombard committed suicide by leaping from his 4th floor apartment. The unfortunate event took place just 3 days ago

(Friday 10th September).

Although the police have found nothing to cause them to suspect foul play Selwyn Robards is unwilling to accept that his

nephew committed suicide. The reasons that he gives for believing this are as follows;

(1) Although a suicide note was found in Jeremy's apartment, Jeremy had a zest for life and was not the

type of person ‘to do such a thing.’

(2) Jeremy, who worked as a reporter for the ARKHAM REPORTER kept on referring to the 'big case'

which he was working on. He was firmly of the belief that once the story broke it would be so important

that he would become a household name.

At this point the players may ask Selwyn any questions which they may wish to put to him. The information that he knows

that is of any use to the investigation is as follows;

(a) Although he doesn’t know what Jeremy was specifically up to he does know that over the past 2

weeks or so his nephew had been camping out (On most nights.) somewhere to the east of town.

(b) The address of Jeremy's apartment is Apartment 52, Ashton Block, Curwen Street, Arkham. (see

map an page 77 of the Call of Cthulhu rulebook for further details.)

The Keeper should note that it is Selwyn who has hired the party to solve the case, and not the other way round. The

Keeper should only let Selwyn intervene in an advisory capacity, and only then if the party is hopelessly stumped as to

what they should do next. Selwyn will not participate any further than this in the case, after all he does have a busy

schedule to keep.

KEEPER’S INFORMATION.

The case appears to be a relatively straight forward investigation, but it is in fact a can of worms. The scenario itself has 3

sections with which the Keeper should be familiar with;

(1) The suicide of Jeremy Lombard.

(2) The occupants of the Hoesynth house.

(3) Elias Hobart.

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All of the events revolve around a supposedly haunted house that is currently being used by mobsters as a base to

unload illicit Canadian liquor. Once unloaded the liquor is sent to New York where it is in great demand. It was

Jeremy's discovery of this operation that caused the mobsters to murder him.

In order to obtain a better view of the situation the Keeper should make himself familiar with the history of the

Hoesynth house. The house has a long history of strange happenings, the present occupation by the mobsters being

the latest.

KEEPER’S INFORMATION-A SUMMARY OF THE SITUATION.

Despite the situation as it appears at the introduction to the scenario, the players will eventually find themselves

investigating a supposedly haunted house that is situated to the east of Arkham.

The present house which is now occupied by the mobsters was built by the Hoesynth family in 1866. The house was

built upon the foundations of a ruined house that was erected by the Hobart family in 1701. The Hobarts were a

'strange' family of immigrants from Dorset (England) who emigrated to the New World in order to avoid religious

persecution by non believers in the Church of the Astral Essence .

The head of the household, Elias Hobart , was a wizard whose life was devoted to gaining knowledge from other

times and dimensions. It was his belief that the secret of immortality could be gained by travelling along the corridors

of time and space.

In order to be able to carry out his experimentation he had to become a worshipper of Yog-Sothoth . In order to

facilitate his dealings with the deity Elias built a 45' tall stone tower, some 300 yards away from the house.

It was at this time that his work began in earnest, and consequently it was not long before Elias Hobart was engaged

in the process of making human sacrifices in exchange for trips into different time zones. With the knowledge that

was gained Elias was soon able to gather together some of the ingredients that were needed so as to create an elixir

of eternal youth. (See the Tower Area 7b for further details).

However, the nature of his work soon attracted the attention of the locals and reports of missing persons were soon

linked with the screams, shouts and strange flashing lights that emanated from the Hobart house.

Shortly after the first visit from the local militia Elias decided to abandon his work in the Arkham area and decided to

continue his work somewhere less risky. In 1705 he purchased a house in Chatham (100 miles to the south of

Arkham) and constructed an identical tower to that at Arkham. Shortly after work had been completed on the tower he

set up a Church of the Astral Essence and established a gate between the two houses.

During the following 7 years Elias carried out all of his activities in the Chatham area, as a consequence there were

many unsolved murders and disappearances in the locality during this period. Having a gate link between the two

houses meant that Elias was able to transfer much of his work from Chatham to Arkham without letting anyone in the

Arkham area suspect that anything was amiss.

In 1712 the Chatham militia decided to put a stop to the activities of the witches ( The Church of the Astral

Essence ). A long bloody battle ensued during which the cultists were systematically killed by the enraged locals.

Seeing that all was lost Elias attempted to escape through the gate to Arkham. By this time the tower had been blown

up and the house was well aflame. Elias rushed into the burning building and made his way to the gate. As a

consequence of the damage inflicted upon him by the flames he became disfigured and grotesque in appearance.

Without hesitation he leapt into the gate. Owing to the fact that the burning gate area at Chatham had caused the

gate to malfunction he never fully materialised at Arkham. Unable to exit from the gate at Arkham Elias was faced

with the prospect of being seemingly trapped in a state of limbo for the rest of

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eternity.

During his time in confinement in the gate area he discovered that by expanding POW he was able to make things

happen (See the section on Elias's Magical Powers for further details).Having discovered that by expanding POW

that he was able to move in non-corporeal form anywhere within a 200 yard diameter of the gate he set about seeking

a means of escape. Over the years he has driven himself totally insane trying to escape but he has discovered a

means of escape. All that he has to do is to capture enough Essence of POW to be able to break through the barrier

imposed by the malfunctioning gate.

NOTE – The Essence of POW is that POW which escapes fram all humans at the time of their deaths. The

malfunctioning gates have given Elias the power to collect this POW .

Over the years Elias has been collecting this POW and there now only needs to be 4 more deaths within his area of

influence for him to break through the barrier.

Three days after he became trapped in a state of limbo one of his experimental animals, a Tyrannosaurus Rex,

escaped from the pit (See the Tower Area 6 for further details). Once out in the countryside the hungry dinosaur

managed to devour 3 people, 2 cows and a sheep. The local militia were quickly assembled by a devout clergyman

who mistakenly identified the dinosaur as a gargoyle. After destroying the beast the militia were able to trace its trail

back to Hobart’s tower.

Once inside the tower they found no sign of Elias or his family, but they uncovered much evidence of sorcery and

witchcraft. Whilst exploring beneath the tower they discovered a pit containing another 5 'gargoyles'. The militia

destroyed all of the chemical apparatus, incinerated the 'gargoyles' and then sealed off the passageway beneath the

tower. Since they could find no trace of the Hobart family they assumed that the 'gargoyles had devoured them.

Following the episode of the 'gargoyles' rumours soon spread that the house was haunted by the ghost of a burning

man and the house soon fell into disuse. Although no one knew why a ghost of a burning man would wish to haunt the

house the locals all assumed that it had something to do with the gargoyles.

Over the years the house developed a long history of unfortunate happenings and fatal accidents that had befell

travellers who had passed through the area.

On a stormy night in 1826 the house was accidentally burnt down by 2 vagrants who were being haunted by the

'burning ghost'. In the course of trying to escape from the ghost an oil lamp was knocked over, and the house was

burnt down. Not wishing to be arrested for arson the 2 vagrants attributed the blame to the 'burning ghost'. The

citizens of Arkham accepted the story, relieved that the evil place had finally been destroyed.

In 1866 the Hoesynth family decided to build a new house on the foundations of the Hobart house, much to the

consternation of the local residents. The Hoesynth house had a history of unhappy events culminating in the murder

of a child in 1913 (See the section on Clues for further details). The house was abandoned not long after the tragic

affair and the property fell into the hands of J. Watson Ltd, Real Estate Dealer.

RECENT EVENTS.

Three months ago the Hoesynth house was sold to an out of state buyer for quite a lot of money, with a no questions

asked proviso attached to it. The house is now occupied by a gang of mobsters from New York, led by Grazziani

Verducci. These mobsters are using the haunted house as a base for their smuggling activities.

The house is ideal for the mobsters because it has a reputation of being haunted and as such keeps local snoopers

away. Owing to the terrible events of 1913 (See the section an clues for further details) the local

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police are non too keen on going anywhere near the house. The illicit liquor arrives by ship once per week (Sunday)

and is stored in the house’s secret cellar ( Area 14a ). The liquor is then transported to New York by a truck on the

following Thursday.

Ever since the time when they took up residence in the house the mobsters have been plagued by an whole series of

unfortunate accidents. Recently one of their number has apparently committed suicide. Not wishing to attract

unwanted police attention, Verducci hid the body at the bottom of an overgrown well that is situated approximately 60

yards south of the house.

Verducci believes that the mysterious accidents and Antonio's death (The dead mobster) may be the work of a rival

gang attempting to muscle in on his operation. It was Verducci's paranoia that led to the subsequent murder of

Jeremy Lombard. Jeremy Lombard was writing a story that would have destroyed Verducci's operation. Unfortunately

for him, he was unlucky enough to be seen observing the house. Verducci quickly jumped to the conclusion that

Jeremy Lombard was somehow responsible for Antonio's death. Verducci, Emilio and Luigi followed Jeremy to his

apartment where they easily managed to subdue Jeremy. Once they had discovered what Jeremy was up to and how

much he knew about the operation they decided to silence the reporter. After removing all of the incriminating

evidence that they could find, Verducci forged a false suicide note and then pushed the hapless reporter out of the

open window to his death.

NOTE - Despite removing all of the evidence that they could find the mobsters still left enough evidence for the

investigators to uncover to give them a good start on the case.

Because of one his unstable mental condition, the mobster Luigi forgot to remove the missing diary pages (See

Jeremy's apartment for further details) from the inside of his coat pocket. The missing pages contain details about the

mobsters operations in the area. If these missing pages were handed over to the local police then the police would

jump to the right conclusion that the mobsters murdered Jeremy Lombard because he knew too much.

Having already murdered Antonio, Elias is now concentrating all of his energies an trying to kill Luigi. As a result of

this Luigi in a nervous wreck who loathes being left alone. In particular he hates being left alone when the others go

to town on their twice weekly shopping trips (Monday and Friday). Luigi often babbles an about seeing the ghost of a

burning man, but none of the others believe him since he is the only one who has ever seen it.

Luigi has even fired shots at the ghost in an attempt to kill it. This only succeeded in bringing the activities at the

house to the attention the local police. But Verducci managed to convince them that the shots that had been heard

were due to them hunting rabbits in the vicinity of the house.

PART 1.

THE SUICIDE OF JEREMY LOMBARD.

The death of Jeremy Lombard was described by the local police as being a straight forward case of suicide. After

searching through his personal possessions (Diaries, notebooks etc.) and reading his suicide note, they found no

reason to suspect foul play.

'Bearing in mind the erratic lifestyle that he had been leading in the 2 weeks prior to his death the police failed to

attach any significance to the fact that 2 pages had been torn out of his diary. The police believe that Jeremy

Lombard’s mind had obviously been unstable for 2 weeks and the suicide note tends to reinforce their viewpoint.

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Call of Cthulhu - Spirits Over Arkham.pdf

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