MoN 10: There’s a Madman Loose…and He’s Got a Gun

Arriving at the Chapel of Contemplation early the next morning, the investigators got to work. Sadly, their efforts were in vain. Despite a comprehensive search of the ruins, they could find no dagger. With this final avenue of investigation now closed, it seemed there was nothing for it but to once again dare the haunted house.

At the Corbitt House

Arriving at the old Corbitt house in the mid-afternoon, the investigators affected entry through the front door. Downstairs, all was quiet, although a stillness and pregnant malice seemed to lurk in the house’s shadowy confines.

The search of the ground floor passed without incident until Solomon noticed something red and sticky dripping through the ceiling of a small storeroom he was investigating. The grizzled detective quickly realised the substance was blood and that it was dripping through the ceiling.

Horror Upstairs

The group cautiously moved upstairs. It was then things started to go wrong.

After searching several upstairs rooms, the group’s investigations centred on the spare bedroom. Jezebel swore she could hear movement and scratching—perhaps even rattling—from within. Steeling themselves for some unknown terror, Solomon thrust open the door, and Jezebel leapt into the room. The highly-strung women saw danger everywhere. A huge pool of blood lay under an iron bedframe while the curtain covering the window opposite the door was moving in a fashion suggestive of furtive stealth.

Not taking any chances, Jezebel fired both barrels of her shotgun at the curtain. In her frenzy, she forgot that bullets pass through glass. Her wild shots shattered the window—and that of the office opposite. As screams erupted from across the alleyway, she quickly reloaded. Solomon and Sam meanwhile rushed downstairs to help the office workers caught in Jezebel’s crossfire.

At that moment, Rupert and Jezebel noticed—horrifyingly—that the window frame had started to bleed! As Jezebel frantically reloaded, Rupert moved to investigate. It was a brave, but poor, decision. As he got to the window, the iron bedstead started to move! It shot across the room and knocked the hapless biologist through the shattered window and into the street below.

Solomon and Sam had just got to the office building when a strangled cry and a loud thud—quickly followed by renewed gunfire from inside the house—brought them rushing back outside. They discovered Rupert lying in the alley. As Solomon tended to his friend, Sam dashed back into the house to help Jezebel, who was clearly fighting for her life against some unknown threat.

He found Jezebel once again reloading. “Three left,” she muttered as the redoubtable carpenter reached her. The two quickly discussed their next move and decided the time was ripe to dare the cellar.

Horror in the Cellar

The cellar was even darker and dingier than the rest of the house. The light switch therein did not work, but Sam had an electric torch, and the two gingerly descended the rickety wooden stair. The cellar was full of rubbish and trash. The pair searched the room, and Sam found a dagger amid the rubbish! Could this be the dagger they sought? However, his glee at finding the weapon quickly turned to terror as it began to writhe and twist in his hand!

The dagger shot forward and stabbed the carpenter who, unnerved by events, was trying to flee the cellar. Jezebel unleashed both barrels of her shotgun (again), knocking the dagger up the stairs.

As the two investigators staggered (or crawled, in Jezebel’s case) from the cellar, Sam had a genius idea. He ducked into the dining room to grab the soup tureen; he planned to capture the weapon therein. Sadly, while the plan was a good one, the dagger eluded his attacks and instead injured him once again. As Jezebel—now out of ammunition—moved to help Sam, the dagger buried itself in her chest. With a scream, she collapsed.

This was too much for the badly wounded Sam. With Rupert gravely injured outside, Solomon engaged in bandaging the biologist’s many wounds and Jezebel’s serious injury, the horrors and dangers of the house were too great. Dragging Jezebel out of the house, Sam escaped to the street and into a different world. Terrified office workers were now streaming out of the opposite building while police and ambulances were arriving in ever-increasing numbers…

About this Session Summary

This post is a prelude to my 7th edition Call of Cthulhu Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign. We decided to run some “origin” sessions for some of the main characters, and this is one of them. Session summaries are posted in (game world) date order, so it will be some time before we get to the main campaign.

This session summary comes from the classic Call of Cthulhu adventure "The Haunting".

We play weekly, so sign up to get our session summaries direct to your inbox.

Read More

This post is a session summary for my weekly 7th edition Call of Cthulhu Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign.