Gameplay

Arthur Blackwood, an influential New York attorney, has contacted his cousin, Calvin Bradley, in a desperate plea to find evidence that will clear his good name. Eight months ago, Arthur and his wife, Rose, were vacationing at their summer cabin, near Whitehall, Washington County, New York. The cabin, with its peaceful view of Castle Creek, a tributary of the Mettawee River, was built by Arthur’s great-great-greatgrandfather, Milton Blackwood, in 1717. But the relaxing month-long vacation Arthur and Rose were enjoying ended in terror and tragedy. In the early hours of July 19th, 1928, Arthur was found wandering the North Ash Trail by John and Helen Turner. Arthur was disorientated, and his arms and chest were covered in blood. Rose could not be found and Arthur was arrested for the presumed murder of his wife. The murder trial begins on March 18th, 1929.

The New York State Police and the local Washington County Sheriff ’s Department have completed their investigation of the Blackwood cabin. All pertinent evidence was collected, photographed, and cataloged, and will be presented by the prosecution at Arthur’s upcoming trial. Arthur’s defense attorney (and business partner), Joseph Klein, is doing his best to keep Arthur out of the electric chair but with a lack of evidence to the contrary, Klein fears that Arthur will spend the rest of his days behind bars. Arthur’s mental faculties have returned, somewhat, and he’s begun babbling about how Rose was taken by "darkness." Society at large believes Arthur Blackwood to be a cold-blooded killer who should fry for his crime. It is down to you to discover whether Arthur is innocent or guilty.

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Today is Saturday, March 2nd, 1929, eight months after Arthur Blackwood was arrested for the murder of his wife. As you enter the law office of Joseph Klein, you look upon a breathtaking view of the New York skyline. Klein bids you welcome and gestures for you to take a seat.

Nothing obvious stands out from the photo.

"Alright then, I guess we need to head up to the cabin.

Happy to catch a ride if anyone's offering

OOC:
Samuel is also good with carpooling if Reggie is offering. Fewer cars will attract less attention.

Having set out from Klein's office, you have arrived and looked around the main rooms of Blackwood's cabin, a small one-story house and found nothing of relevance to the case.



You find a couple of lanterns in the kitchen which you take to provide light in the cellar.

You are now looking through the trapdoor into the cellar, where the police says Rose's murder took place.

While looking into the cellar from the open trap door in the parlor, your view is extremely limited. Light from the parlor spills through the hatch illuminating a ladder, some shelving and the white shell and gravel floor. You can make out that the shelves hold jars, small boxes and other knick-knacks. Everything is covered in a thick layer of dust. You also note that the cellar has no lighting, so you will need to use your own lanterns and flashlights. Large cobwebs hang everywhere.

Looking over the trapdoor and shining his flashlight into the cellar, Calvin will say to no one at all:

Everything looks so still, like it hasn't been disturbed in ages. It's hard to imagine a struggle that would leave a victim dead and an attacker covered in blood in a space so untouched. But we haven't found anything to tell us what happened leading up to the "event" up her. Seems all that's left is to go deeper.

Calvin looks really apprehensive as he tests out some weight on the first rung of the ladder. If things seem sturdy, he'll keep his flashlight on, put it in his jacket pocket, and descend the ladder with both hands on the side rails.

Reggie takes the lead and begins to descend the ladder, which seems sturdy, being bolted to the wall. He recognises the cellar from the photograph as the room where the murder allegedly took place. The floor, however, looks clean and white with no apparent signs of blood at all.

The ceiling is low within the cellar, only 7 feet high and as Reggie stops halfway down, sees the cellar is a large L shaped area. The walls are lined with shelves storing what looks like canned and jarred food, while small piles of junk are stored on the floor and against the walls.



As he gets close to the bottom, he notices the ladder extends down and into the crushed shell and gravel floor, rather than resting on top of it.

Reggie scans around as Calvin starts to climb down.

Calvin steps onto the shells and gravel with a crunch and Martha gets onto the ladder, making her way down, followed by Jeffrey.

As Reggie scans around, he notices trace amounts of blood spatter on some of the jars and cans on nearby shelves. The small amount of blood appears consistent with the account of the murder, as the vast majority of blood was spilled on the floor. What's strange though is that he has still not seen any trace of blood on the floor.

It's a simple matter for Samuel to grab the shovel and he passes it down the ladder.

Meanwhile, Jeffrey reaches the bottom of the ladder and moves over to the shelving to take a look at the nick nacks.

Looking through, he spots the blood splash that Reggie spotted but the walls are congested with useless junk.

As you failed the roll, you have a couple of options. You could use Luck, which removes points from your Luck pool to get a success. Alternatively, you could try to push the roll, meaning you do something extra, which you describe. The Push will give you another shot at the roll but a failure results in something bad happening. In this case, it might be something like moving things around to get a better look which may result in things falling causing noise and you to potentially get hurt. You cannot use Luck on a Pushed roll.

Calvin has pulled up a handkerchief to cover his mouth as he begins to search further into cellar assuming Jeffery is starting pretty close to the ladder. The goal is the meet him in the middle. Calvin is looking for the ring Author mentioned in the recording, checking shelves as well as for places it could have fallen or bounced.

As Calvin searches, he finds on one of the shelves a moldy old wooden box, 18" by 12" by 8" that looks interesting. Pulling it out carefully, he opens it to reveal it contains:

A small painting: depicting a stern-looking man in Puritan clothing - an ostentatious black-jeweled ring on one of his fingers immediately catches the eye.
A very old-looking hand written-journal A scrap of paper at the bottom of the box

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Martha doesn't find anything of interest on the shelves but in the corner (upper right) she finds something on the floor , beneath dust and shells, a symbol carved into the ground.

Putting aside the photo, Calvin reaches into the box and peers at the scrap of paper first, reading it out to the others.

Martha moves further into the cellar, looking through the shelves to the south of the marks in the ground. She finds a hammer among a bucket of clutter.

Taking the shovel, Reggie sets about digging at the foot of the ladder. Moments after he begins digging, he uncovers a hidden layer of bones, mostly crushed.

Some of you notice the temperature has started to drop in the cellar.

There is suddenly a clatter as a bucket falls off the shelf, to the south of Martha.

From where he is, Samuel can't examine the bones, but Jeffrey who is right next to him might..

As Calvin turns to him, Reggie notices there's some writing on the back of the painting.

As Martha picks up the bucket, though this end of the cellar is barely lit by the men's lanterns. The temperature suddenly drops even colder and there is a terrible smell, like rotten eggs.

You all hear another noise to the south where Martha is, the clattering of metal hitting something.

I am happy for you to describe your own involuntary action
There are two numbers to be aware of with Sanity.
If you lose 5 or more in a single event, you risk Temporary Insanity
If you lose 1/5 of your starting sanity in a single day, you risk indefinite insanity.
There will be a thread where I keep track for you, but in the normal course of a game, you should keep track of these and inform your keeper when you hit those thresholds.

Calvin reads the words on the back of the painting.

Wizard Milton Blackwood

OOC: Is it safe to assume that Samuel can see at least Reggie and Dr. Shepherd from his current vantage point? Martha is, of course, out of sight, and Calvin might be as well, but looking down the ladder, can I see the other two? Specifically could I have seen Jeffrey's moment just now in addition to hearing his words?

The shells and bone tear into Jeffrey's hands

Reggie takes the lantern from Jeffrey, gesturing for him to head back up the ladder, leaving blood smears on every rung he touches. He finds a chair to sit on.
As Reggie goes around the corner, he feels it's gotten much colder suddenly and the smell of rotten eggs and open graves is very strong.

His hands are pretty shredded. Samuel gets the wounds patched up and bandaged.

Ok round again to Martha

Walking the south end, the smell is constant now and the cold is getting worse.

Looking around, Martha sees a wrench on the floor that wasn't there earlier.

Inspecting the shelves, Reggie comes across a collection of books, neatly lined up among the other bric-a-brac.

From his spot on the ladder, Calvin scans around the room above, but see anything resembling a ring.

So a bout of madness occurs when you either lose 5 points in one go , resulting in temporary insanity ( lasting 1d10 rounds) or when an investigator loses 1/5 of their sanity in a game day ( lasting 1d10 hours). When losing less than that there is the initial reaction (for one round) but you are free to act normally afterwards as you see fit.

Calvin sits beside Dr Shepard and begins to read. A cursory look reveals it is the journal of Milton Blackwood, and Calvin soon finds a section describing a pact the warlock made with a creature 'not of this Earth'.

Suddenly the cellar door slams shut!

Something from behind grabs Martha's leg and wraps around it, a shadowy black tentacle, needles digging into her skin.

(-1 damage Martha)

Next Round
Martha 65
Samuel 60
Reggie 60
Calvin 45
Jeffrey 40
Tentacles 35

As Martha tries to move, the tentacle holds her in place.

As Martha tried to run, the tentacle whips, pulling her off her feet to land heavily on the ground

Tentacle fights back!

With brawl rolls, the defender can choose to either dodge or fight back. If the defender gets a better success than the attacker, they can do damage.

Samuel flings open the trapdoor again with no problem. There are sounds of shouting, screaming and fighting coming from the far end of the cellar.

From the hatch, Calvin can't see what is going on round the corner but it doesn't sound good. The smell of rotten eggs is strong now,

?

Next Round

Martha 65
Samuel 60
Reggie 60
Calvin 45
Jeffrey 40
Tentacles 35

Yes, it grabbed Martha from behind so she didn't see it. Reggie is facing it so saw it full on.

Martha, I'll allow you to roll over before it grabs your second leg (end of last round) but that means I'll need a sanity check as you see...

When rolling a bonus die, it’s a d10 on top of the 1d100 for the skill roll, which act as the ‘tens’ , taking the better roll.
In this case Martha rolled 82 and 5 on the d10,
Making her attack 52 (the better of the two)

You can use 2 Luck to make this a hit Martha!

It is obvious that Martha's kick does nothing to the thick hide of the tentacle.

As the tentacles grip tighter, her legs are now pinned down.

Calvin's flashlight moves over the thing but it doesn't have any effect, aside from doubling the horror as Calvin takes the thing in.

Reggie flings the lantern and though it doesn't hit directly, it smashes into the shelves to the left of the creature, spraying oil over it. Martha is also hit by some of the burning oil

Dr Jeffrey doesn't find a telephone, though he is not surprised.

As the fire hits the thing, one of the tentacles releases its grip.

Another two tentacles reach out to try to grab Martha. (as she is now facing it, she can attempt a fight back roll (brawl) or dodge for each attack.

Martha kicks back the first tentacle (3 damge) but then another grabs her free leg again (-1hp)

The fire burns!

Next Round

Martha 65
Samuel 60
Reggie 60
Calvin 45
Jeffrey 40
Tentacles 35

Tentacle Strength

Martha manages to wrench her left leg free once more, leaving just her right secured to the burning black mass.

As Reggie stabs with the shovel, another tentacle lurches out of the mass to fight back. Neither connect with each other.

Calvin scrapes aside the shells and bones with his bare hands, the sharp edges shredding his skin.

As Calvin's blood spills on the stones, shells and bones, he finds a large rounded piece of bones with ragged pieces of dessicated flesh still attached, then he sees something glitter in the lamplight. A ring!

---

Samuel grabs the axe from Jeffrey and begins to descend the ladder.

---

As the fire continues to burn, two more tentacles lash out, trying to grab Martha.

Martha kicks out at the tentacles and though doesn't do any damage, they don't manage to get more of a grip on her.

The fire continues to burn.

Next Round

Martha 65
Samuel 60
Reggie 60
Calvin 45
Jeffrey 40
Tentacles 35

Martha you’re up, either attack or strength to break your last leg free.

I’d also like san checks from Martha and Reggie as they witness the burning of Martha’s legs (and associated screaming)

Martha keeps her head together but is unable to break free.

Samual reaches the bottom of the steps, and clutching the axe with both hands approaches the corner.

As Calvin picks up the ring, a demonic face appears in the flame and darkness, a look of deep malevolence focussing all attention on him.



A deep booming voice echoes around the cellar.


"BLACK WOOD"

OK, let's talk fumbles. If you have a skill of 51+, a fumble is on a 100, however, 50 or less and you fumble on a roll of 96-100.

For a Sanity Fumble means the character loses max sanity for that encounter.