MoN 07: Investigations in Boston

After the horrible events on Beacon Island, Special Agent Solomon Redwell of the FBI had spent the last few months seeing a psychiatrist. As part of his recovery, she had recommended he tackle his fears. Consequently, he was developing a reputation as an agent interested in odd or just downright bizarre cases.

Thus he was not surprised to have a case land on his desk dealing with an allegedly haunted house in Boston. The file reported several people living in the house in north Boston had gone mad and that the landlord was desperate for help. This case seemed perfect for Solomon Redwell, but he felt he needed help. (It never crossed his mind that no one else could be bothered to investigate it.)

Redwell contacted his old friend Rupert Garfield II; after all, who better to debunk bizarre rumours of a haunting than a biologist? He also hired an engineer—Sam Stephenson—to investigate the house on the off chance it had hidden secrets or structural abnormalities.

A Group Gather

On Monday, the 13th of September, the team gathered in Solomon’s grimy basement office. Solomon was surprised to discover Rupert had brought a lady friend with him—the beautiful and wild Jezebel Slaughter. Jezebel seemed well out of Rupert’s league but enamoured with the quiet, studious biologist. Solomon, however, couldn’t shake the feeling he’d seen the woman somewhere before. He was also suspicious of a large bag that she toted everywhere. It bulged oddly and looked much heavier than a typical lady’s handbag. He was intrigued to see what she kept within—but that was a mystery for another day.

In any event, introductions were made, and plans were laid. The four decided it was unwise to go straight to the house. It was sensible, they agreed, to uncover as much information about the place as possible: forewarned is forearmed, after all.

The four decided to split up and search for records of the place in various Bostonian institutions. Sam, Solomon and Rupert kept to the plan, visiting (variously) the central place station, the offices of the Boston Globe, the Central Library and the Hall of Records.

Jezebel Gets Distracted

Jezebel had different plans, however, as she wanted to scope out the neighbourhood surrounding the house. She quickly discovered the old house was the only home still on the block; the rest had been torn down and replaced with new offices and the like. Asking around, she met a street vendor who had dark and murky things to say about the old house—the Corbitt House, as he called it. He also mentioned a ruined chapel—the so-called Chapel of Contemplation—stood only two blocks away, and this piece of news piqued Jezebel’s capricious interest.

She found the ruin without trouble but nearly had a severe accident while exploring the tumbled and time-worn, fire-damaged chapel. As she poked about inside, the ground gave way, and she almost fell into a forgotten basement. Luckily, Jezebel’s panther-like reactions meant she avoided a nasty fall. Without climbing down into the cellar, she made an investigation of the place by dropping lit matches into the hole she had made. She glimpsed what looked like two skeletons amid the ruin and discovered a strange sigil daubed on one wall in white paint that looked like three inverted Ys surrounding a lidless eye. Being near the sigil gave Jezebel a headache, and she quickly left the ruin.

Back at Solomon’s

That night, the four regrouped in Solomon’s dingy office to share their findings. Discussing the day’s events and what they had found, the four agreed the house stood at the centre of a strange series of happenings. Many people who had rented the place had died, gone mad or fallen seriously ill. Something was amiss within!

Plans were laid for the next day. Solomon wanted to find out more about the old chapel in Boston’s official record—he sensed it could have some connection with the old house—while Rupert was confident he would find more in the library. Jezebel and Sam, more adventurously than their fellows, resolved to explore the Corbitt House’s overgrown garden and the nearby ruined Chapel of Contemplation.

To the Corbitt House

Sam and Jezebel made their way to the old house on a gloomy Tuesday morning. Here they confirmed—seemingly—the place was at least cursed. Two bizarre accidents—Sam falling and hitting his head and an old gazebo collapsing on Jezebel—left the duo shaken, battered, bruised and a little embarrassed.

The intrepid duo had more luck at the ruined chapel. Therein Sam, who bravely clambered down into the basement, recovered two old books. To his unsophisticated eye, one seemed like a “proper big book,” but its Latin title defeated him. The other book was much smaller and thinner. The two did not attempt to read either book and bore them off to Solomon’s office.

There they rejoined Rupert and Solomon. Both had found records suggesting the house and chapel were linked. Solomon had unearthed documents detailing a hushed-up police raid that led to the deaths of many people at the chapel. Meanwhile, Rupert had discovered that one of the prior owners of the house—Walter Corbitt—had died of pneumonia and been buried in the cellar!

With this new revelation, along with news of the strange and fatal doings at the Chapel of Contemplation and the discovery that none of the group could read Latin, the four plotted their next move…

About this Session Summary

This post is a prelude to my 7th edition Call of Cthulhu Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign. We decided to run some “origin” sessions for some of the main characters, and this is one of them. Session summaries are posted in (game world) date order, so it will be some time before we get to the main campaign.

This session summary comes from the classic Call of Cthulhu adventure "The Haunting".

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This post is a session summary for my weekly 7th edition Call of Cthulhu Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign.