Out with a bang

With our move fast approaching, I had to take one last opportunity to scar my gaming friends for life. Surely, a night of Call of Cthulhu was called for. We gathered at our house around 6 and sacrificed chicken and burgers to Vera, the goddess of meat, otherwise known as our big-ass Weber grill. Once the flesh of the innocent (i.e. cows and chickens) was consumed, we headed in for some role-playing action.

Picture if you will, nine strangers (actually, there was a couple and a pair of old friends, but among the 5 cars, there were many strangers) stranded on a mountain road in southern California, having to take refuge from the storm in the abandoned community of Bethlehem Glen. But not all is right in this sleepy town, and the church seems to honor no god that the players recognise. Two players guard a deadly secret, and maybe, just maybe, the town is not as abandoned as they had thought...

Award for first death goes to Sean's surfer soldier who found himself damn near cut in half by Ed's shotgun in a moment of insanity fueled chaos. His surf buddy Ian almost made it out, and if anyone could have outrun the antler-crowned children of the forest god, it would have been him. Alas, it was not to be, and he found himself gored to unconsiousness on the road out of town.

Catherine's mural painter was next to go. Having snapped, she tried to open the barricaded church doors to the hoved and horned terrors. Claiming another victim, Ed crushed the base of her skull before she could let the bad in. Kat's runaway teen broke and ran for the basement, already filled with propane fumes. John's ex-con mechanic went after her, as did Andrew's youth-advisor and Jen's nature photographer.

As the antlered horde broke through, Ed the ex-cop bank robber and Lupa, his cocktail waitress partner, took to the safety of the vestry. A quick bullet into the propane tank by the door bought them some time, but the numbers were too vast. Lupa dressed up in clerical vestments and took hold of any religious symbols she could find, while Ed tried in vain to hold their position. As the fight looked lost, John fired up the jury-rigged riding mower in the shed, lit the fuse to the propane filled basement, and powered the other three out and to safety, sending the profane church up in a fireball against the night sky.

Ed was turned into a screaming comet of blistered flesh and pain, coming to rest in the tall grass, clinging to the last thread of life. As the horde circled him, Lupa stepped through the throng, antlers growing majestically from her head, fully one of THEM now. Ian, too, had become one of the herd, and the four survivors passed him on their way out of town and to safety.

Days later and miles apart, Jen develops her film and sees, for the first time, the shadow of horns on the heads of John and Kat's characters. Maddness envelops her. The terror is just beginning.

All and all, a very satisfactory night of gaming. Those that lived are most likely scarred for life, and over half the party never made it out at all. I think most people had fun, and I got to share my nightmares with them.


Enough for now. More to come.

-T