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Michael Lavoie
United States
Nashua
New Hampshire
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November 1, 2009: Session Two
For the second session, Bob rejoined the group and played Will (who had been played by me as an NPC for the first session). We picked up the action in the basement. The NIGHT crew defended themselves as best as they could against the creature that shambled out to attack them. Not being trained fighters, and lacking any real weapons, they determined that a strategic withdrawal was in order. Dan led the way to the stairs, while Tina tried to drag the catatonic Jack with her as she followed. In his own madness, Duke saw her as a monster trying to attack his meal ticket. He grabbed a hatchet from near the woodpile, which was the closest thing to an actual weapon that was handy, and took a swing at her. All of this was caught on camera, although the images of the ghoul were blurry and indistinct.
Just when it seemed like the gang was doomed, Jack came out of his catatonia and fled the basement under his own power. Duke stayed behind long enough to buy some time for the rest to escape. Waving his hatchet menacingly, he advanced on the ghoul with murderous intent. Or so the ghoul thought. Intimidated by the axe-waving madman, the creature retreated back down the hole. Duke then regained his senses and joined the exodus from the basement.
The two groups of investigators met up in the foyer of the Witch House to compare notes and spread around recriminations for their antics so far. Will, in particular, took an active role after having been strangely passive so far. The main point of contention was the disappearance of Annie Bruno and what to do about it. Finally, everyone retreated to the truck to review the tapes of what they had found so far. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of Dan and Gonzo (the team’s expert data analysts), very little hard evidence had been captured. The monster in the basement barely showed up on the tapes, and the rat-thing that had drained Gonzo’s strength was also hard to see clearly. Only the crashing sound that had replied to the team’s invoking of Keziah Mason’s name was clear.
While they were reviewing the camera footage and the audio tapes, some of the team members noticed some strange images from the camera that was monitoring the old Gilman bedroom. A purple glow began to emanate from somewhere in the room. The back wall, the one that didn’t synch up with the outside wall of the house, seemed to have developed a bulge in the middle, as if something on the other side were pushing against it. As everyone watched the monitor, the plaster of the wall began to crack. All agreed that this warranted investigation, so the eight of them re-entered the house for the last time. Only one would make it out alive.
The investigators climbed to the third floor bedroom in the darkness. The sense of dread was palpable. With Jack and Will in the lead, they trooped down the hall. All the while, the bulge under the wall kept growing and the cracks in the plaster widened. By the time that they entered the room, it appeared that whatever was behind that wall was shaped much like a person. Gonzo reached the wall first, still remembering what had happened the last time he did so. What happened this time was much worse. As he examined the crack, lit by the growing purple glow, it split open and a body came tumbling out.
The NIGHT team had found Annie Bruno.
She was quite dead. The investigation had now taken a sinister turn, and the group discussed their next step. They agreed that the police had to be called in, but when they tried to place a call they found that their cell phones were not working. Also, their walkie-talkies were out and they could not communicate with the truck. The next step was obviously to send somebody out of the house to make the call, but before they could do so, Annie’s body began to swell up horribly. Suddenly, the corpse split open and hundreds of small spider-like creatures poured out and skittered around and over the room.
This event was sanity-shaking for everyone in the group, but it was worst for Gonzo due to his fear of creepy-crawlies. He began to experience dangerous mood swings, from manic to depressive and back again. Deanna was also hit hard, screaming at the top of her lungs and trying to flee the house, not caring if she trampled anyone on her pell-mell rush down the stairs. Others were also affected, with Duke’s grip on his sanity slowly slipping away, while Tina and Jenny Lee were not hit so badly. However, the enormity of the situation soon hit them when Deanna reached the door and found that it would not open. Apparently, they were trapped in the Witch House.
All the spider-like creatures quickly scampered out of sight, but their memory lingered on. Gonzo’s mental breakdown began to manifest itself. In a manic mood, he started to challenge Keziah Mason (or her ghost, or whatever was in the house), to appear and confront them personally. The other members of the group, not quite so affected by the event, tried to figure out a way out of the house. Jenny Lee and Tina went downstairs when Deanna’s screams alerted them to the fact that the door wouldn’t open. They went to various rooms and tried, without success, to open windows. Nobody wanted to enter the basement again and try to exit that way. Deanna, still frantic to escape the house, beat on the door and on some windows to try to get the attention of those outside. Alice Cooper’s limousine lay tantalizingly in view, with the rocker and his driver sharing a drink at the wet bar inside, but neither seemed able to hear Deanna. She ripped off her shirt and jumped up and down, desperate to get their attention, but to no avail.
Back in the main hall, Gonzo kept shouting for Keziah Mason to come out and play. Finally, she answered. The purple glow from the upstairs bedroom spread down the stairs, and a bent old crone of a woman appeared at the top. At the same time, a tall black man appeared downstairs, clutching an ominous-looking book and eyeing the women in the group speculatively. Will was struck with terror, as the old witch reminded him of the supernatural experience from his youth that had started him on the path to being a ghost hunter. She seemed to leer at him, as if she recognized him, then she rushed at him and attacked.
Meanwhile, the black man approached Tina with his book. His appearance was not quite human, just enough off to be unnerving (even without the horrifying circumstances surrounding him), and he immediately made her think of "the black man" of old witch legends. He confirmed that by attempting to entice Tina into signing his book, promising her that all her desires could be realized if she did so. She didn’t buy his sales pitch, but he refused to take no for an answer. Glancing at Deanna with a "you’re next" kind of smile, he continued to pressure Tina.
At the top of the stairs, the hideous old witch leaped upon Will and grappled him while apparently trying to cast some kind of spell, chanting what sounded like some kind of mathematical formula. Will had grabbed a crowbar from the NIGHT truck before coming into the house, and now he tried to use it to defend himself from the witch’s attacks. Jenny Lee tried to help, using a can of hair spray and her cigarette lighter to make in impromptu flame-thrower that she aimed at the witch. After nearly toasting Will as well, she became more careful and waited for a clear shot before trying again. Jack tried to find an avenue for attack as well, looking to save his best friend, while Dan also tried to assist. Gonzo seemed focused on the black man as he tried to entice Tina to sign his book, while Duke also was watching that interaction closely. Suddenly, Keziah Mason’s spell came off and the area around the witch and Will began to swirl into some kind of purple-hued manifestation. She dragged Will toward it. At the same time, Dan leaped at it as well. The manifestation closed in on itself, and the witch and Will were gone. So was Dan.
Tina retreated down the hall, away from the black not-quite-man who continued to press her. This was too much for Gonzo, who felt that the time had come to intervene. First, he tried to emulate Jenny Lee by tossing a Molotov cocktail at the book. When that failed, he decided that a direct attack was called for. Shouting out, "Leave her alone, that’s MY woman!" he swung a makeshift weapon at the tall man. The blow was completely ineffective, but it got the being’s attention. Looking directly at Gonzo for the first time, he concentrated on the NIGHT tech manager and unleashed a blast of power that flung Gonzo against the front door. Brian "Gonzo" Stevens crumpled to the floor, dead.
In doing this, the Black Man revealed himself to be something much more than a man. That caused everyone to realize that they were confronting an elder evil from beyond space and time (for those who haven’t guessed yet, the being in question is Nyarlathotep). That realization led to further sanity crushing, and when the dust settled Duke Pilgrim’s mind had gone bye-bye. When Tina continued to refuse to pledge her soul, Duke stepped forward and offered to sign the book. While the others watched in horror, or continued to try to escape the house, Duke affixed his signature to the book and pledged himself to his new dark master.
Outside the house, the remainder of the NIGHT Stalkers crew finally caught on that something was wrong and were trying to break in, without success. They called the Arkham police, who arrived on the scene. Their efforts to break down the door were similarly unsuccessful.
Jack deduced that the witch must have taken Will to the attic, so he rushed up the stairs hoping to save his friend. His guess was shrewd, for that is just where the crone and her prey were. She and Will were locked in a life-and-death struggle, with Will defending himself as best as he could with his crowbar. Dan, also transported to the attic, whacked at the witch with a fireplace poker he’d seized from the living room downstairs. Jack burst into the attic, ready to add his weight to Will’s defense.
The end came swiftly. From out of nowhere, a swirling portal appeared in the sky outside, visible to those in the attic because the roof was open and the sky was clearly visible. Something came through that portal, a hideous otherworldly creature that had no place in a sane world. Whether it had come in response to a summons from Keziah Mason, or from Nyarlathotep, nobody ever knew. In the end, it mattered little. The monster (a hunting horror) let loose a roar that was so powerful it caused physical damage to those in its area of effect. That sonic blast also quite literally brought down the house. For the second time, the Witch House was destroyed. When the dust cleared, only Duke Pilgrim remained alive and standing. Everyone else in the house was dead.
What those outside the house saw was a violent storm that boiled up suddenly and without warning. A tornado seemed to take form and destroyed the house before dissipating as quickly as it had come. The incident was never adequately explained, and Duke Pilgrim had little to add. It became another story in the legend of Arkham’s Witch House.
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Ed Bryan
United States
Barbourville
Kentucky
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Excellent Session report! I enjoyed both thoroughly.
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Michael Lavoie
United States
Nashua
New Hampshire
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Thanks! The sessions were a lot of fun, and I hope that some of that came through in the reports.
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