Masks of Nyarlathotep 25
We’re back to our (mostly) monthly Call of Cthulhu campaign for Masks of Nyarlathotep. This is a face to face game unlike most of our others. This means we had the opportunity to use miniatures on a tabletop, along with a long train map to have a fight along.
We also discovered that the handouts for the game were probably designed for a pre-smartphone-that-can-translate-anything era. We have contacted the HP Lovecraft Society for our prize upon finding the hidden text.
In our previous session, we reached Kenya and were planning on catching the train up to Nairobi. As usual, this is the diary of Mrs Evelyn Wooldridge.
Thursday 9th April 1925
The trip to Nairobi will be a train journey between 14 and 18 hours, with lots of stops to replenish since it is a wood burning train. We board the last carriage, for the first class compartments. There is a restaurant car between us and third class, which is more than full.
We come up out of the forested low lands, and are soon out onto the plains. We get an opportunity to see lots of wild animals we haven’t seen before. We also catch sight of Mount Kilimanjaro. It gives me a chance to catch up on some reading as well, since I still have some unusual books I haven’t finished, such as the Pnakotic Manuscripts or Life as a God.
Many hours later, as we are nearing our destination, I am leaving the carriage’s facilities when I am accosted by an Indian woman. She begins to harangue me about being a foreigner in this land, and how we are poking around and not knowing what we are doing. And then she starts going on about the Black Pharaoh and the Expedition. I’m barely able to get an word in edge ways, but she hurries back into the restaurant carriage before I can punch her. I head back to our compartment to grab a gun and warn the others that the train seems to be full of Cultists.
Did you truly think you could crawl into Africa, trailing your filth, and remain unseen? Look at you—foolish, arrogant little flies, so pleased with yourselves because you cross oceans to poke at things your frail, rotting minds can never comprehend! …
M’Weru prepares the Great Work. The Child is coming, born of blood and horror to drown this fragile world in agony! And you… you think a train ticket and a few pocket revolvers give you the right to stand in the way of a God? …
You will not reach Nairobi. You will not see the mountain rise. The Small Crawler has already marked your flesh, and my burning children will strip the meat from your bones right here upon these rails!”
Looking out the window, expecting to see cultists crawling along the side of the train, but there are instead glowing globules of fire clinging to the side of the train. I think it may be Fire Vampires.
Monty gets up onto the roof, so he is above the glowing fiery globe. He then starts to… project liquid onto it, causing it to hiss and splutter. Fortunately I don’t have to directly witness this. I get out my gun, and move out into the corridor. The only person visible is the conductor who asks if anyone is smoking. He sees me with a big gun, and vanishes off muttering about foreigners.
Clayton runs to the restaurant car, and quickly returns carrying a soda dispenser, whilst Lefty pulls out his sword. He opens the window, and a pseudopod of flame comes in through it. He tries to fend it off, but is struck. Clayton arrives with his soda sprayer, and sprays it, causing it to reel back.
Lefty swipes at it, hitting it with the sword. The physical part of the sword doesn’t seem to have any effect, but there is something about the sword which causes it pain.
I move to the restaurant car, where Clayton has grabbed some buckets of fish and water and one of the train staff is carrying a crate of milk bottles. Up on the roof of the restaurant, there is a burning hole beginning to appear, where a fire vampire is burning it’s way through. I put down my gun, and grab a bottle of milk as Clayton and his helper head back towards first class. I throw it at the burning hole – missing.
Another one of the restaurant staff offers some lemonade.
Towards the back of the train, there is shouting and the noise of fighting. From the front, there is shouting and screaming from passengers. The screams of the passengers eventually seems to turn into the sounds of an angry mob.
I grab some lemonade, and fizz it into the burning hole in the ceiling, causing it to fizzle a bit.
There is the sound of gunshots from the front of the train.
The fire vampire stops trying to come in through the roof, and goes back to trying to get in through the window. I pour another bottle of milk onto it, and it extinguishes. Before I can celebrate, another one appears at the window on the other side of the train.
Lefty and Clayton come running into the restaurant carriage, as I pour more lemonade onto the new vampire, forcing it back briefly. Lemonade and milk goes everywhere, as the others try pouring liquid onto it. Lefty stabs it with a sword, and the vampire is vanquished.
Things quieten down. Monty comes back the front of the train, where he had killed several cultists. He’d also shot the Indian woman, and obtained a book from her which he gives to me. It turns out that she was the Aunt that we had heard about.
A couple of hours later, we arrive into Nairobi. Some of us are smelling of burnt milk and fish.
The small book written in Hindi, which is also annotated with English. It seems to be the Black Tomb. The English annotation reads:
1847 Pausa 24. And then shall the gate be opened, as the sun is blotted out. Thus, the Small Crawler will awaken those who dwell beyond and bring them. The sea shell swallow them and spit them up and the leopard shall eat of the flesh in Rudraprayag in the Spring.
In Nairobi, we go find the best hotel, which is the New Stanley.
Saturday 11th April
We have breakfast at the hotel, and get a copy of the Nairobi Star. Their leading story is that “Anarchists’s Attack Train”. It mentions that Tarzan was involved in the fight against the Anarchists and for putting out the fire. So it got some bits right.
After breakfast, Monty and Clayton head to the colonial administration building. Sir Roger Corydon is the person to speak to. He was the original person who oversaw the original investigation. Monty comes up with the idea to pose as insurance investigators. An appointment is scheduled for Tuesday.
We head to the offices of the Nairobi Star, where we meet Mrs Natalie Smythe-Forbes. She is quite happy to talk to us about the events on the train. She is also able to share news stories about the events of the Carlyle Expedition and what happened with the investigation afterwards.
Dr Horace Starret and Mr Nevile Jermyn are mentioned as being spoken to by the Expedition before they went off, so we should probably find those gentleman and question them about what they talked about.
Whilst we are talking, a large man with an impressive moustache comes storming in through the door, carrying an elephant gun and firing it into the ceiling. He goes on a rant at Mrs Smythe Forbes about her lies about his lodge. He claims there is nothing cursed about it, and it is all natural nature. Of course there will be blood and guts – that’s what you get with nature red in tooth and claw. He is Colonel Henry Endicot.
He then notices us, and apologises. But I act disappointed that it isn’t cursed or dangerous, because it was sounding like an interesting place to go. He is a bit taken aback by that, but even more distracted by Clayton who also shows interest in visiting.
He ends up giving us an invite to his lodge, which does sound like it might be an interesting place which will give me an opportunity to shoot some things.
Reading through the newspaper notes that Mrs Smythe-Forbes provided us with, Clayton discovers that Eustace Mun was the prosecutor at the trial, so we should probably talk to them as well.
Lt Selkirk who found the remains of the party has since died in a fire, which sounds suspicious. My thoughts are that the local tribesmen who were hung for the massacre of the expedition weren’t guilty. Either someone else did it, or there was no massacre at all. It was just an opportunity to go missing.
One thing that Mrs Smythe-Forbes mentions is that M’Weru, aka the Buney Woman, was looking rather chubby when she was here. Possibly she was pregnant, and that is the child that is being waited for. We know that there will be a total eclipse of the Sun next year.
