Call of Cthulhu - The Island - Gameplay

Test post.

All of you begin the game in a rustic wooden tavern, located in the midst of a small fishing village, on this bleak rocky island in the North Sea. It is a dark and stormy night. You're all drinking your ale and smoking your pipes in peace, when the tavern door suddenly swings open. Framed in the doorway, you see a slim young woman in a torn white dress. None of you have seen this woman before. She's soaked to the bone, her blonde hair plastered across her face. She looks extremely distressed.

She croaks out "they came from the sea, the sea" and then crumples to the ground, just outside of the doorway.

What do you want to do?

Dressed in a long weaved suit pants and matching waist coat, a colourful loose dress shirt with rolled sleeves offset by a pair of work boots, his vacant eyes made the other locals not approach him this evening. None wanting to get trapped in conversation about his flight of fancy beliefs. Sterling sat alone attempting to get himself into a dulled state using the cheap red they sold, but it wasn’t coming and his thoughts went back to the beautiful dark reds he had drunk back in University.

His melancholy broken but the noise of the door opening and a croaky ring to her voice. Getting to his feet Sterling waves his hands toward the door, "You two don’t just sit there help her." in a surprisingly strong voice for such a slim frame.

As they attend the newcomer Sterling moves to assist by fetching his jacket, giving it to the lady for warmth.

The woman is carried inside, taken over to the fire, and covered up. Her skin is wet and ice-cold to the touch, as if she's just stumbled out of the freezing sea surrounding the island. Her head lolls loosely as she's brought inside, and she appears to be semi-conscious. As she's set down in front of the fire, she draws in a great shuddering breath, and her slim hand grips Effie's arm, surprisingly hard.

She gasps out "the black water all around me, it was horrible, and there was things in there".
She then closes her eyes, and seems to lapse into unconsciousness. It looks like she's still breathing, albeit shallowly.

What do you want to do?

Sterling floated around the group watching fuss over the girl, sort of waiting the encounter out. "I can look her over, Dad was a Doctor and taught me a little." He says finally. "But getting her into something warm first would be best."

Sterling turns his back as instructed by Effie, she was a woman not to trifle with and probably twice as strong. He does spy Argus and gives a wry smile at the man’s bravery.

To answer your questions, this woman definitely didn't sound local when she spoke, and there is a lighthouse on the island. None of you recognise her, and her dress looks very expensive. There's dirt on her feet, like she's walked across the island barefoot.

You are able to get her out of her soaked dress, and the innkeeper brings over some blankets. The stranger is soon swaddled in front of the fire, wrapped in blankets. She's still unconscious, but seems to have stabilised.

What do you want to do from here?

"This will be a better way to spend my evening then drinking into oblivion, besides this time of night who knows what we may see." Sterling picks up his discard jacket and pauses to examine the discard dress of the young lady. "Was there anything in her pockets, Effie? Or a tag with a name?"

You don't find anything of value or interest on the woman, nothing in her pockets or similar. Leaving the woman by the fire and exiting the tavern, you see the lighthouse in the distance, shining like a beacon. It is still very rainy and stormy outside, and you can hear the waves crash beyond the cliffs. It's probably like 10:00 at night, maybe even later. Searching the ground immediately outside the inn, you don't see any tracks, the muddy ground's pretty churned up by driving rain, and the usual foot traffic of people coming and going from the tavern.

What do you want to do?

The lighthouse, beach, and docks area are just under a kilometer away, you can get there pretty easily. Since you were indicating you might want to check this area out to see if there's a shipwreck, I'll assume that you'll be heading over, so I can give you the next entry.

You make your way across the island to the lighthouse, moving over rugged rocky terrain. The lighthouse looms up in front of you, the light shining into the night. Next to the lighthouse, you see the edge of the cliff, and the open sea beyond. Looking down over the edge of the cliff, you see a wooden ship, crashed on the treacherous rocks. In the moonlight, you see a pair of humanoid figures, moving slowly along the rocks. They look like men, dressed as a sailor would be, but you can't see their faces. The two figures enter the interior of the ship through an opening broken in its hull, and disappear from view.

The storm continues.

What do you want to do from here, players?

Alright, finally got some time to update. Sorry about the delay everyone, work was really mauling me this week, especially since I'm doing someone else's role while they're away on holiday.

For those of you heading down to the beach, you are able to stop past the fish shacks and pick up some equipment (boat hooks, rope, etc). Making your way further down, you see the ship ahead of you on the rocks, listing onto its side. There is a big hole broken open inside of the ship. The ship shudders suddenly as it's hit broadside by a wave, and there's a creaking and snapping of wood as it rolls against the rocks.

You see that there is some large boxes scattered on the nearby beach, and on the rocks themselves, as if some cargo has hastily been unloaded. Looking closely, you see what looks like a couple of dead sailors, lying amongst the scattered cargo. As you watch, you see another humanoid figure, moving through the darkness, seemingly looking like it's picking through the cargo, as if it's searching for something. Suddenly, it bends down, and picks up something roughly the size and shape of a brass diving helmet from amongst the scattered wreckage, and then the figure begins moving away from you.

It's hard to make out details, given how dark it is, and given the weather conditions. For those of you up top on the cliff, you don't see much of this, just the lanterns bobbing about below, and the listing ship lit by moonlight.

What do you want to do from here, players?

As the party moves towards the figure on the beach, it moves away, with a shuffling, shambling gait. It seems unused to walking on land. At the water's edge, the figure doesn't hesitate for a second before wading into the ocean. Just as the figure gets knee-deep into the water, the light from the lighthouse flashes around, illuminating the scene properly.

You see that the figure is a naked fish-like humanoid, with bulging eyes, clawed hands, and scaly green-black skin. The creature is carrying a strange stone idol under its arm, which depicts some kind of weird deep-sea fish, looks like a mix between a gulper eel and an angler fish. As you watch, the creature quickly gets waist-deep, then chest-deep into the crashing surf, before disappearing under the water entirely.

Looking at the boxes on the beach, they appear to be fairly mundane shipping crates. You could break them open if you wanted to look inside.

What do you want to do from here?

You go to the wrecked ship, looking in through the big hole in the side. There's another big hole smashed on the opposite side of the ship, where water is quickly flooding in from. The ship's hold is quickly becoming filled with brackish seawater. There's quite a few more cargo boxes inside here, that are getting thrown around by the movement of the ship as it's battered by the sea waves. You don't see any bodies, but it looks like a fight of some kind took place inside the cargo hold, there are big scratches on the walls that could have been made with sharp daggers, quite a few of the cargo boxes are broken open, there's splatters of relatively-fresh blood on the interior surfaces, and it generally looks like a scene of carnage. You don't think it would be safe to enter the ship and search further, given how quickly the interior is filling with water.

Looking around further on the beach, you find some tracks leading off further down the beach, running parallel to the cliff face. The tracks look like two people wearing shoes, carrying something heavy between them.

What do you want to do?

You don't find anything in the ship. I'm not sure exactly what would be in the cargo hold of a ordinary ship of this time period, but whatever mundane supplies that you would expect to find, that's what you find, both in terms of the boxes on the beach, and those remaining in the ship. There's nothing out of the ordinary here, other than what's previously been described.

I imagine you'll want to follow the trail up the beach at some point, so I'll tell you what lies in that direction. The trail leads to a winding path that gradually works its way up the cliff face. The path leads to a cleft in the rock, that opens up into what appears to be a natural cave. You can't see the back of the cave from the entrance, even with your lanterns raised. You expect that it continues on, deeper into the cliff.

What do you want to do from here, players?

It's alright, I wouldn't have had you roll in that circumstance anyway. It's an easy track to follow, it's on wet sand. I'm not one of those referees who asks for a roll to see what would be obviously visible for your characters in the context of the game.

I’ve been crazy busy the last week, haven’t had a chance to post properly, will put an update through soon though.

Alright, back to it. Sorry about the hiatus, things got really busy for quite some time, but now I've managed to carve out some time to continue posting.

So, there's no response from shouting at the cave entrance. None of you have seen this cave before, so you're not sure what's inside. I'll assume that you want to go into the cave. A short distance into the cave, you see a long wooden box, lying on the cave floor. You see a ragged-looking pair of sailors, standing over the box. When the light from your lanterns illuminates them, they turns around, and rush towards you. Both of the sailors look crazed and feral, and it appears that they're going to attack you.

What do you want to do?