I was out tonight, and we figured we'd do a one-shot Call of Cthulhu game, since most parties don't survive the first game anyways.
Our party consisted of 4 University students and a special consultant. The students were from the Archeology department of the University, and the special consultant was from the Thaumology (magic) department.
We used GM-generated characters, so we didn't get much choice up front. We only got to choose our skills. However, we all sort of fell into the classic student stereotypes:
Player 1: Model Student -- knows his stuff decently well, does what he's told
Player 2: Consultant -- knows a lot about the magical stuff, is trying to keep the party alive
Player 3: Nerd Student -- knows is stuff very well, as well as law, accounting, and other boring++ stuff
Player 4: Jock Cheater Guy -- Passing school with straight A's, with no skill whatsoever. Getting by by lying and cheating, and knows how to use weapons. Has no interest in magical stuff whatsoever, and was voted the most likely to survive the game
Player 5: Slacker -- Straight C student and proud of it. Best skills are hiding, sneaking, and being somewhere where the hard work isn't happening (this is my character).
So long story short, we're sent to the Amazon to explore 4 temples that were discovered. We chop our way to one (they're way overgrown) and, upon the inspection of our Consultant, he realizes (but doesn't tell us) that this is a temple dedicated to Cthulhu. The 4 temples (from East, counter-clockwise) are dedicated to Cthulhu, Azathoth, Yig, and Hastur (4 classic Lovecraftian Gods). But we don't know about this. As our Consultant is learning this stuff, he's starting to realize what's going on and losing his sanity. He soon discovers that there's probably a cult of fish-people (deep ones) living in caves that the temple connects to. He says that we're done exploring here and we have to leave now, damnit. So we leave and re-seal the tomb.
At night, our Consultant and Jock guy sneak up there. Jock doesn't give a damn about what's going on, and Consultant feels it's urgent to seal this tomb with magic. For some reason, they sacrifice one of our helper guys (mules, basically -- we call them mooks) and drain his power for the ritual seal.
Shortly after that night, the other three characters, driven by burning curiosity, journey up the temple. We attempt to open the door, and end up getting caught by the others, and again he explains that "I just can't tell you, you wouldn't believe me anyways". So fine, we go back and sleep.
The next day, the professors that are running this study (there's 3 of them) demand that we finish exploring the temple we were in. So fine, but Consultant is very worried, and nobody understands why, with the Jock not caring. In the second chamber (which we hadn't explored yet) we find an alter. Model Student makes a roll at a 2% chance to decipher them, and does so. He then makes his 65% roll to understand them, and fails his 55% sanity check, and loses it. His sanity drops by a HUGE number as the significance of the alter and the temple ring in his brain with a total "oh shit" moment.
Later that day, Model Student, Jock, and Consultant go to prepare lunch while the professors are investigating that chamber. Nerd was left in charge of not letting the professors dig any deeper, and I found somewhere in our camp to have a nap.
[At this point, there were a lot of secret discussions between the players of Model Student, Jock, Consultant, and the GM. I still don't know everything they discussed, but they planned what to do]
While preparing lunch, the crew added some nauseating poison that rendered the professors and the nerds extremely sick. After going to camp, Model Student, Jock, and Consultant re-sealed the temple and cast two sealing spells on it to make sure it couldn't be opened by anything evil. However, by now we had gotten the attention of some nasty Things (or Gods), and they were plotting our demise. We know we had to seal up the temples now, since help wasn't going to arrive for at least 2 days. Unfortunately, the temples were overgrown and would take about a day each to clean.
It was then that the Slacker came up with a brilliant plan: do a half-assed job! Instead of clearing everything, taking a full day, we just clear out exactly as much as we need to get through, and nothing more (hooray for straight C's!). Doing that, we managed to seal the other three temples without incident. We also scoured the area for caves, but found nothing. All we had to do now was wait.
That night, we started hearing chanting from native tribes that worship the evil Gods of the temples. Listening carefully, we determine that there are 4 groups, at the different compass points, performing summoning rituals. Shit! There are 4 Gods, and we only have a chance of unsummoning one of them: Cthulhu (and it's not such a great chance, anyways). So we break into 4 groups:
- Me and Jock -- North
- Mooks -- West
- Mooks -- South
- Model Student and Consultant -- Stayed at camp, preparing to unsummon Cthulhu
So me and Jock go North, and quickly find the ritualers. Our main weapons are dymamite, I have a shotgun, and he has a tommygun. However, I have no skill at weapons whatsoever, so it was all up to him. He throws the dynamite with his 50% chance or whatever, and totally blows the roll, missing by a mile. So now they see us, and it's all up to me. I have a 25% chance of getting the dynamite anywhere near useful, and I rolled a "01", which is the best roll you can get, a critical success, the 1/100 chance come through. The dynamite sailed in the air in a perfect arc, landing squarely in the ritual leaders mouth during his chant. It explodes, ending the ritual completely. They come after us, but their spears are no match for our guns and we back our way to camp, which is more defendable.
Meanwhile, the Mooks in the South do about the same, stopping the ritual and falling back to camp.
However, in the West no good news shows up. Great! So now we have the West and East to worry about. Well, me and Jock are two people, so let's split up and each take a couple mooks. By now, I know I'm screwwwed. I don't even know how to use a weapon, I just got lucky the first time!
So I head west and find myself overwhelmed. I try to throw dynamite and roll a critical fumble. Crap++! My lighter's empty! Then I go on to blow about 4 straight rows (at 30%) for shooting, and they're going to be at me next turn. I'm about to die! Then we go to Jock.
Jock throws his dynamite at the ritualers. He rolls a critical fumble. Uh oh! The dynamite hits a tree and bounces back. He has one chance, to grab it and throw it again before it explodes. He attempts a roll, and rolls double 0, 00: the worst possible roll. It's worse than a critical fumble, it's a catastrophic fumble. He trips and the dynamite explodes with him on top. BLOOP. The most-likely-to-survive character dies.
Back to me: the natives are right about up to me, and there's no way I can fight them off. So I say "the hell with it, SUICIDE BOMB!!!". I light my last stick of dynamite and run like a mad-man. Keep in mind, if the western-God (Yig) is summoned, the entire party is outta luck. So I had to interrupt the ritual! So I made a running test, which happened to have a 50% success rate. I roll, and make the roll! So I ran like a bastard, throw the dynamite down the priest's robe, and kept running. He explodes, and I dive under cover and totally refuse to move, period.
So that leaves one summoning: Cthulhu. Long story short, the stars weren't quite right, so instead of the full Cthulhu, we got one of his servants ("Star-Spawn Of Cthulhu"). And there they were, ready for Cthulhu! Seeing it, both the Model Student and Consultant very nearly went insane. Their sanity was getting lowww. So Consultant draws power from everybody nearby, all the mooks, the Model, and himself, and used it all to cast the Death Spell on the monster. The exertion knocked them all out. Luckily, it easily smoked the monster. However, the exertion reduced the Consultant to a sanity of 3, compared to the 75 he started with. Almost-insane and totally out of power, he fell unconscious.
After everything calmed down, I went back to camp. I nearly shat myself at seeing the dead monster, but managed to keep my cool. I woke up the rest of my party and, of course, help arrived a few minutes later. We had already won!
So there's me, the slacker, stopping two of the rituals and saving the day! Hooray for everything!
