GM-Blogging #3: Masks of Nyarlathotep – Book Party at Erica Carlyle’s

Hey folks! As I said last time, I’ll be doing some blogging of my ongoing Call of Cthulhu campaign to counter-balance the existential dread of real life with some fictional existential dread!

When last we left off, the party had received a mysterious telegram from an old friend, selecting them for an investigative team exploring the mysterious fate of the Carlyle Expedition…

Then Jackson Elias got whacked, the team whacked the cultists who killed him, and began running down a whole slew of leads based on the documents he’d had on him when he’d been murdered. Those leads took them to Erica Carlyle, sister of the missing Roger Carlyle (financier of the expedition), and to Ju-ju House, a curio shop in Harlem that imported artifacts from Mombasa which Elias had been investigating.

Our sessions begins with Agent Cameron and Doctor-Professor Danger (!) meeting with one Bradley Grey, Esq., Erica’s lawyer. By intimating that Roger Carlyle might not be dead after all, which would threaten Erica’s control over the family business, they manage to get an appointment with Miss Carlyle. Meanwhile, the rum-runners case the Medical Affairs Board offices where the papers of the perhaps dead Doctor Robert Huston are located.

Meanwhile, Sheik Horus and Ricardo Fuentes check out the Ju-Ju House. After bribing one of the tenement dwellers whose apartment overlooks the shop, they find out that several dozen foreigners and other strangers visit the Ju-Ju House at night, on an irregular weekly schedule. They then go into the shop, where Sheik Horus explains (completely truthfully) to the shopkeeper Silas M’Kwame that he’s a visiting stage magician who might be interested in some artifacts for his stage show. While Silas putters around the shop showing off various objets d’arts, Horus decides to show him a certain sign:

To which Silas replies that “that doesn’t look like anything to me.” While the shopkeeper is distracted, Ricardo notices a key hanging around M’Kwame’s neck. Somewhat offput by his mistake, Horus ends up spending way too much money on a mask and an ivory warthog, but the two have their wits about them enough to give a fake address for Silas’ newsletter.

Meanwhile,  the Agent, Doctor-Professor Danger(!), and Professor Thistlebottom drive up to the Carlyle Estate. “The Westchester County estate is a half hour north of New York City…motoring investigators catch an ominous glimpse of Sing-Sing Prison not too far away. the Carlyle estate consistes of an elegant three-story mansion…all guarded by a twelve-foot-high iron fence…armed men with guard dogs routinely patrol the grounds.” Inside all of this high security, Erica Carlyle conducts a tense interview, where she tries to figure out what the group knows and what threat there is to her control over Carlyle Industries. When the group gives their assurances that they’ll keep everything under wraps and report back to her at all costs, she shares her recollections about Roger Carlyle’s obsessions with a mysterious African woman, the attempts of Doctor Huston to treat his mental conditions, and her suspicions about the motives of Sir Aubrey Penhew, Hypatia Masters, and Jack Brady.

While willing to give the Doctor-Professor permission to view Huston’s notes (so much for casing the joint!), Erica is a bit more loathe to let Roger’s books leave the premises, although she is willing to let them read them. The books weird out Doctor-Professor Danger (!) and Agent Cameron, but Professor Thistleblossom finds them very, very interesting…in fact, these books are so full of hidden truths that he has to have them, because they really belong to him, now don’t they? (This is what happens when you roll an 8 on a D8 Sanity Loss. +10 Cthulhu Mythos and temporary obsession with taking possession of the books.)

The next day, the group gets their hands on Doctor Huston’s notes, and the Professor begins explaining at length that they absolutely have to get their hands on those books and is willing to liquidate every asset the group has in order to get them, even suggesting that Agent Cameron get a warrant for their seizure. Agent Cameron refuses, suggesting that the Professor is off his rocker, but Killian Digby says “now he’s acting normal!” Given that there’s an upcoming party at the Carlyle Estate – a rather morbid “birthday party” for Roger – the group debate staging a heist at the party, where Sheik Horus will distract the guests with a performance of magic, Ricardo Fuentes will try to knock out Erica’s gorilla-like bodyguard, and the two runrunners will jack the safe. The Naval Intelligence officer flatly refuses.

The party is at roughly .5 Gatsbys – these are old money WASPS who understand understatement – and while Sheik Horus entertains the crowd, who tend to feel that an African magician is a bit in bad taste given what happened to poor old Roger, Agent Cameron is going around the party explaining that “he’s having perfectly normal conversations with perfectly normal people who are not stealing anything.” Meanwhile, the two-rum-runners are disguised as rare book-dealers. Killian talks to the staff and doesn’t find out anything but does manage to snag three cocktails (I wonder how he’s carrying them?), the rabbi talks to the guests and finds out that the added staff is due to a break-in at the library that happened some time last year.

And just as everything is about to kick off, the Professor makes an impassioned speech to Erica that these books may contain the answer to the whereabouts of Roger Carlyle, that Erica’s family’s reputation may be tarnished if the books provoke further robberies (oh the irony!), and here’s a giant wodge of money that the party put together, so can we please have the books?

…and Erica agrees. (That was one hell of a Persuade roll. I was kind of hoping for the heist to kick off and cause chaos, but the evening was winding down anyway.) The heist is cancelled, and the group settles down to enjoy Cthulhu Mythos Book Club, and their sanity begins to inch downwards. Now several of them know some spells, and two of them actually believe that magic is real.

Now what to do about Ju-Ju House?