The Nocturnum
Episode 15: The Demon of Catheway
Original Air Date: 6/6/2005This episode is based upon two Call of Cthulhu scenarios by Dr. Michael LaBosierre. The adventures can be found here and here. For those of you looking to adapt these to your own games, be forewarned: it's entirely possible for your group to run through these scenarios without ever having to enter combat. Mine did.
Special Guest Stars:
Omar Sharif as Dr. Armedt
Synopsis
Anita, in an effort to guess Alan's next move, spends a week studying the contents of Von Junzt's Black Book at the University of Pittsburgh's Darlington Library. She comes up with some positive, if frightening leads which point to the small town of Catheway, about 45 minutes northeast of Pittsburgh and south of New Castle, in Amish country. She meets with the Cast and presents her findings.
The Cast has a meeting with Daniel and with Dr. Armedt, the leader of the Pittsburgh branch of the Rosicrucians. During this meeting it is determined that the Rosicrucians as a whole are not tainted by the goings-on within the Covenants, but have been made a scapegoat for the war by Alan. In addition, Dr. Armedt reveals that a student of his, Bryan Dumont, purchased a rare piece of Egyptian jewelry for Bryan's girlfriend. When Armedt saw the jewelry, he was intrigued as to its origins and asked Dumont if there was any more where this came from. Dumont went to New Castle to visit the pawn shop where he'd purchased the jewelry, and hasn't been heard from since.
Anita reveals her findings from the Black Book, which indicate a cult ritual to resurrect an ancient Hyborean Sorcerer named Xalotun at a place of power marked by five Black Stones. She asks Armedt if he has access to a spell that will allow her to place an Elder Sign on the area, to stop the ritual. He promises to check the Rosicrucian archives and call her with whatever he finds.
Armedt suggests the Cast go to check out the happenings in New Castle and Catheway. Meanwhile, he will dedicate the resources of the Rosicrucian order to trying to hold off the Covenant war that's near boiling point in the city, if not as John reveals, the world. He also informs the group that a new mysterious tome has surfaced at the Carnegie, and that his agents are watching over it. Daniel is going to be assigned to attempt to decipher the manuscript, and if it turns out to be important, he'll contact the Cast.
It's off to New Castle. Following their leads, the Cast rents a hunting cabin in a housing development where there have been a string of recent disappearences. They then visit LaVec's pawn shop in New Castle to investigate the jewelry. LaVec shows them six more pieces and asks for $400 each. The Cast talk him down to $350 and Anita later informs the group that these artifacts are priceless and belong in a museum. There's no good explanation for why they are here; they could only have come from an Egyptian tomb.
Anita and Kay go to question Janet Green, whose husband was killed under mysterious circumstances. Mrs. Green is currently being kept at the New Castle Medical Center for observation, but is scheduled for transfer to Mayview State Hospital (a Sanitarium). The two women get very little from Ms. Green, as she starts raving about "a moose with dead eyes, and skin that was hanging, loose, from its flesh...a loose moose on the loose!" The staff have to restrain and sedate Mrs. Green, and explain to Anita and Kay that these ravings are commonplace with her. Still, her ravings, combined with the mentions of her story in the local papers, make Anita think zombies. The two head back. Armedt calls Anita and gives her the spell to activate the Elder Sign. First, the sign must be placed in something permanent: carved into wood, chiseled into stone, etc. Second, it must cover the entire area to be warded. Third, where this ritual is concerned, the points of the star must touch the five black stones, which Armedt believes are the poles for the resurrection spell.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch (literally), John and Drake are sitting on the porch having a beer and cigar, when just after dark they hear noises in the woods. John attempts to shine a floodlight in, to no avail. They approach the woods to investigate, and John calls Anita to tell her about the noises. She suggests they stay back until she get there, but at that moment, 11 zombies--6 human, 3 dogs, and 2 cows--burst out of the woods. John drops his phone and he and Drake proceed to decapitate the undead. As they backpeadal towards the cabin, a horde of undead emerge from the woods. Drake and John run for the house.
Ten minutes later, Anita and Kay arrive, driving over several zombies to get as close to the door as possible. Anita uses her necromantic powers to impart an aura of undeath on both herself and Kay, enabling them to move unmolested through the press and get in the house.
Once inside, the group debates what to do next. They're trapped and don't have the resources or power to get all four of them through an entire horde of zombies. John calls the Templars to appraise them of his situation, then nails a few tables to the windows, and they decide to try and get through the night. If they can get some sleep, they can come at the problem with clear heads in the morning.
At roughly 2 am, Kay has a terrifying vision of what appears to be a Satanic Black Mass going on in the woods. The vision includes four chest-high black stones, and a fifth, massive monolith, atop which sits a horrific, bloated, toadlike creature. The cultists dance in a 60 square foot area between these stones, which appears to be covered in some kind of ash. Along with the eight human cultists, a group of reptilian creatures and deformed, pygmy-like humanoids also dance and chant. The Cast nearly panics when Kay's eyes roll back into her head and she begins speaking in tongues, but she comes back to normal and tells them what she saw, and that she knows where the ritual spot is.
The next morning, miraculously, the zombies turn to ash. The Cast exit the cabin and make for the ritual site. Upon arrival, they find the area Kay described, but only four stones and no sign of a fifth. Worse, Kay is unable to get her bearings to figure out which end of the site the fifth Black Stone appeared, and without this knowledge, it's a shot in the dark where to place the top of the star that forms the Elder Sign.
Exploring the area, the group finds a hidden vault, roughly the size of the ritual site, that contains a cage. The cage itself radiates magic energy, and there is something dark and tainted within, that the Cast can sense, but not see. John approaches the cage to examine it, and is knocked off his feet by a charging Anita, who explains that she saw a black, vaguely-human shape manifest within the cage and try to grab John through the bars. No one but Anita saw the thing, leading to the group's assumption that it is some sort of ghost or phantasm of someone once living.
The shape within the cage begins to speak, trying to tempt Anita to let it go with offers of anything she wants. The conversation sends chills up Anita's spine, and she finds that she is actually afraid of the thing in the cage. Though it never introduces itself, she is certain that she's speaking to Xalotun.
John places a call to the Templars, asking for as much concrete to be flown in as possible. He explains the situation and informs them of his intention to create two Elder Signs in the area: one on the ritual site, and another on the concrete they're going to fill this vault with.
"Xalotun" overhears John's conversation and informs Anita very casually that if they create an Elder Sign on this area, two things will happen. First, it will simply be more difficult for Xalotun's friends to free him, but far from impossible, and Second, that when he is free, he will murder the entire Cast, one by one, in their sleep.
Anita announces that she feels the Cast should simply lie in wait for the cultists and (she assumes) Alan to show up. Xalotun says he likes this idea and encourages her and all of her friends to stick around all day, and not go anywhere. The seeds of doubt firmly implanted in her mind, Anita and the Cast eventually decide to go get breakfast and debate their next move.
They return to the pawn shop in New Castle, and bribe Mr. LaVec to give them the identity of the guy who sold the Egyptian artifacts to him. He gives them the name "Leland," and tells them that this Leland kid makes him uncomfortable and is often seen with a "Goth chick" and a few other guys, but that the stuff Leland pawns makes him good money, so he doesn't ask too many questions.
The Cast then goes to talk to Dan Jacobs, the man who rented their hunting cabins to them. Jacobs informs them that he hates Leland and his cronies, and would love to see them go down. Jacobs is an ex-cop who is convinced that Leland is involved in drugs and fencing. He tells John that Leland doesn't work, but still has money to rent a house and purchase a Trans-Am and three pickup trucks. He then asks the Cast to get back to him with any solid evidence they can find, and that he'll get the New Castle police in on things.
Leland's address in hand, the Cast goes to investigate his house, where they find the credit cards of the missing people, a lock box with an Egyptian scarab in it, and a phone book with the names of all of his gang (7 names and numbers, making 8 cultists in total). In another bedroom, they discover a quarter of the floor covered with sheet metal and the remnants of lots of burned items. The room is also full of accelerants and flammable materials--the indications of a pyromaniac. Also in this room they discover a journal with a hand-drawn map of the town and many key buildings marked with "X's".
Going to investiage some of the "X-ed" buildings, they discover homemade fire bombs set on the foundations. They debate on the meaning of this before coming to the horrific realization that most dark rituals require a sacrifice of some sort, and a ritual like the one to bring this Xalotun back would require a massive sacrifice...like the whole town.
They run to Jacobs with an "anonymous tip" about the evidence they discovered in Leland's house and he promises to work on getting a search warrant. They then rush to the ritual site to meet up with the Templars, who are flying the concrete in. The problem still remains of where the fifth stone appeared, and Anita touches upon the idea of calling forth the spirit of a sacrificed victim to ask. It takes an heroic effort on her part, due to the tightening of the walls between Earth and the Threshold, but she pulls a spirit forth and asks its help. The spirit tells the group where the fifth stone was, and Anita passes out from exhaustion.
When Anita awakens, the concrete has been poured and is beginning to set. The Cast manage to work the powerful and dangerous Elder Sign ritual together--twice--and the area is sealed. They go home victorious, feeling positive about being able to stop a dark act before it ever happened for a change.
click here to read the epilogue from the end of the episode!
Great Quotes:
Anita (to Armedt): What, do all of you teach at CMU?
Kay: John's telling the Rosicrucians everything about the Alliance. Aren't we supposed to not tell them about that?
Drake: Well, I'm going back to my place to play Jesus. You know...the carpenter part.
Anita: You're taking me...fishing?
John: I hear there's some really great fish up at Catheway.
Drake: No more vacations. Native Americans seem to die when we go on vacation.
Anita: So John...you wanna hijack a cement truck?
[Metagame discussion]
John (Re: Anita): She's short, thin, black hair. Hey, we've got Natasha, now we just need Boris.
(Re: Janet Green's "loose moose on the loose" rant)
John: It could just be a raccoon.
Drake: So...anyone want to order pizza?
(Drake gives Kay a Guinness)
Anita: What are you offering?
(Anita emerges from the vault, clearly shaken.)
Kay: So the Black Sorcerer's going to let him out? Why don't we just kill this Black Sorcerer?
(later)
Anita: It's really bad when an evil, incorporeal magician is better company than your friends.
John: So what's with sorcerer guy, anyway?
Anita: Hey, I didn't tell them anything.
Anita: Yeah. Dark, sexy, brooding fish.
Drake: Evil fish.
Julie: I wonder what would happen if Anita had the Elder Sign tattooed...down there. Alan would, like, pull down her pants and then jump back. She'd be like, "Oooooh, you weren't expecting that, now, were you?"
Jason: Try it. I dare you. You'll have the most mind-boggling orgasm of your life. Then watch in horror as your entire uterus is expelled from your body.
Drake: Don't look at me. I'm tall and thin.
Group: Walter!
Drake: so what you're suggesting is that there's a sexually indiscreet moose running around.
John: There's a moose, I guess. I don't know anything about its moral standards.
Drake: Yes, because after all, we're constantly plagued by cute, innocent woodland creatures, aren't we?
John: I don't think Domino's will guarantee 30 minute delivery through a horde of zombies. I'm pretty sure that's a clause in their 30-minute delivery policy.
Anita: Hold on a second...isn't she underage? Aren't you like 19?
Drake: I'm over 400 years old. I don't card.
Xalotun: Anything you want.
Anita: You can't give me what I want.
Kay: What's wrong?
Anita (indicating the cage): He's bad. Very bad. I mean, baaaaaad.
(Anita goes cold and gives Kay a look that could shatter glass.)
Kay: What?
John and Drake: Walk with us. There's something you should know.
Kay: What? What did I say?
Kay: I'm sorry, Anita. I didn't know...
Anita: Shh!
Anita: He likes me. He says he likes my sparkling personality.
Great Moments:
The Cast manages to stop a great evil before it starts, for a change. Or at very least, they force it to look for other solutions.