XX Horror: Women, HPL, and Trail of Cthulhu

[Erik Weissengruber]

I tried to keep a log. As we float towards the end there is no need for detailed documentation to keep things in the forefront of our minds: the threads seem to be coming together.

https://xx-horror.obsidianportal.com/adventure-log

Here are some of the links to the docs that I was perusing in my setup:

https://xx-horror.obsidianportal.com/wikis/main-page

[Erik Weissengruber]

Sorry for the early flub. Robin Laws wrote it and a fine piece of work it is. The fundamental conceit of the pack is so clever that I want to celebrate it far and wide on the interwebs. But to do so would be the most awful spoiler leak imaginable. Suffice it so say that the very structure of the GM's set up for using the documents is homologous to one of the cosmological puzzles that the PCs are faced with. The structure of the GM's process and the structure of the fiction fold into each other.

Here is my own documentation:
I create an investigation matrix before the session. After the mystery is solved I reveal the matrix that I used to set up initial situations.

Here is an example of the posts I put on the Adventure Log

____________________________

Doc #7: The Moebius Syllables
"Ai Ioa Io Oooo Ia Ou Oa Ioi Aoai Au Ai I A O Oooo O Ia Ou Ua Oau"

DEC/13

The Crime
Status: Complete [In 1 session, that's the way I like it!]
Sequence of Events

• Let's Make a Deal (Angus & Peasle Sr.)
  Let's Play Cards (Lanfer, Aaron, Rice, Freeborn)
  Let's Go to a Club (Rose and Ashley)
  Let's Talk to Auntie
  Let's Go to New Jersey/Let's Get Mobbed by a Deranged Priest and his Protege
  (in which Rose learns that Ashley has been seeing Martha on the side)
  Let's Go to Prison
  Let's Go to Campus
  Let's Go Visit Dr. Rice
  Let's Go Visit Dr. Davis
  Let's All Congregate Around the Time Traveller's Cylinder in a Frenzy of Panic!

Final Report [I fill this out as the clues are uncovered] [the players do not get ablative Sanity and Stability pools refreshed until the crime is solved]

• Victim: Dr. Cecil Davis (his lab was ransacked & Modena Grimoire stolen, MG actually property of Mrs. A. Pickman
  Perpetrator: Dr. W. Rice (suspect has left town)
  Motive: Dr. Rice needed formula for "Red Powder": needed for the [captive] women carrying Moebius wasp larvae
  Where: Dr. Davis' office @ Miskatonic University
  When: The Mid-November ice storm
  Opportunity: Rice was in the company of Ms. Pickman as she toured campus gathering possessions loaned to Miskatonic U. He availed himself of easy access.
  Means: He had a key (and thereby hangs a tale).
  Mythos Angle: The Modena Grimoire references a red powder integral to the "alchemist's" travels. Davis was exploring a red mycotoxin used to manipulate insects into self-defeating behaviours. Once insects were consumed by predators, the fungus got spread in the droppings of the predator. Possible applications on human nervous system. But what predator would consume the befuddled human victims? Thereby hangs a tale.

Session Recap
Document Review
Investigated
Weirdness #3: Gainesville Cylender
Owned by E. Flowers in Jersey
Why did Martha want it, ask Ashley to get it?
Associated with time-travelling Great Race, calls aliens and the mad into its proximity
Weirdness #4: Modena Grimoire
record of an "alchemist" from future showing up in mid-18th century Modena
belongs to Mrs. Pickman
mentons a fungal powder used in alchemy, which powder was investigated by Miskatonic U professor C. Davis
Uninvestigated
Weirdness #1: International Logospheric Union
disappearances?
other weird activity in Millbrook neighbourhood
Weirdness #2: Millbrook Business Improvement Association
MBIA?
Dr. Brophy and Leon Godtland
Related to abortionist?
Weirdness #5: Cannibalism
weird mentions
no concrete evidence
Starting Situation Matrix
This is how I establish starting situations for characters and plan for the crime & clues that the characters will be confronted with

Character Focus: Annette

Starting Situation: Angus
(PC) Ability Clue: Anthropology
(PC) Drive: Antiquarianism
(Annette) NPC Cross: Lady Broughton
(Annette) Pillar of Sanity: FAMILY

= Nathaniel P. Sr. is out of the Sanitarium and only the cash of Lady Broughton can help him

Starting Situation: Aaron
(PC) Ability Clue: Cryptography
(PC) Drive: Scholarship
(Annette) NPC Cross: Cop NPC [morphed into the Pinkerton agent]
(Annette) Pillar of Sanity: EPICURIANISM

= Llanfer asks for a game of cards and has some coke to share

Starting Situation: Annette
(PC) Ability Clue: Hypnosis
(PC) Drive: In the Blood
(Annette) NPC Cross: Dr. E. Sprague [from Rose, never happened]
(Annette) Pillar of Sanity: EPICURIANISM, FAMILY, LOVE OF HOME TOWN

= start her in some red-hot night club, bring in Ashley

Starting Situation: F. Horatio
(PC) Ability Clue: First Aid
(PC) Drive: Duty
(Annette) NPC Cross: [Cop NPC]
(Annette) Pillar of Sanity: LOVE OF HOME TOWN

= H. Armitage confessing to unnatural hungers

Starting Situation: Winters
(PC) Ability Clue: Evidence Collection
(PC) Drive: Duty
(Annette) NPC Cross: Ms. Pickmann
(Annette) Pillar of Sanity: FAMILY

= some kind of theft that involves Ms. Pickmann. Does she involve Winter?
[this stayed in the background]