Afraid of the dark

Doc Thaddeus tries to guess the habits of Corbitt and Tomaszewski, but can only hypothesize. So he goes back to the hospital to ask co-workers of the deceased to find out his habits or who he hung around with. All he finds out is that Tomaszewski was a bit of an odd loner, a bit of a strange one, and kept himself to himself.

Walther keeps a watch on the house, and sees Mr Corbitt come back at six O'Clock, then later, a few lights go on in the ground floor.

John Harper then turns up, stateing that he needs to do much more research and came up with nothing (two awful rolls). Doc Thaddeus then has a discussion with him, regards it. John had trouble with the equipment, gas burner, and kept breaking the glass. The Doc says that he'll come along and assist him tomorrow, to help.

Thomas goes back to his place.

Doc Thaddeus then sees Corbitt come out of the house with a house rug, putting it on the ground he then re-enters the house coming back with a carpet beater. Thaddeus, seeing an opportunity, goes out to his car, opening up the boot in a pretence to get his doctors bag, and then casually pretends to notice Corbitt. The Doc calls out hello, and goes over as Corbitt begins to beat the rug. They discuss antiquities and doctors equipment, that Thaddeus states that he collects. Mr Corbitt asks for him to see his greenhouse and rare plants. They make arrangements for him to pop over at seven O'Clock the next night.

The players then discuss what they'll do tomorrow, and eat dinner. Then they then settle down for the evening, breaking out the cards for a game of Poker and drinking coffee.

As they are playing Doc Thaddeus sees a mall pink creature over in the corner of the room.



It's only about a foot tall with a pointed hat on, and just stands there. Thaddeus asks if John he can see the coin over in that corner of the room and if John could go over and pick it up. Walther makes a joke and makes one appear out of his ear, to which the Doc says not that one, but takes it, pockets it, and says "Thanks very much!"

John looks over and cannot see any coin, to which Doc says, "It's over there, under that pink creature with the cone on his head!" "Sorry, what?" replies John. "Have you been at your medicinal alchohol,... again." "Look, over there, under that pink creature. Why do you keep such ugly things in your house?"

No one else around the table sees a thing. "For Gods sake John, get some glasses!" Thaddeus goes over and looks at it, over his glasses, studying it.



John reaches over to the Docs drink and sniffs it but it doesn't smell boozy. The Doc, when he spots another behind him, states "it's brought a friend!"



and trots out to get his medical bag. Returning he gets out his medical kit to examine the creatures. Using his forceps, he gives it a tweak, to see if he can get a reaction out of it. The forceps go straight through it, and he remarks that they are incorporeal! "That's very strange, have you spiked my drink you cad?" John walks through the area, "saying there's nothing there." To which the Doc speaking down to him states, "Well what did you expect, I said it was incorporeal."

The Doc takes a swab, wafts it through the creature and puts it in a jar. Doc is becoming increasingly agitated and almost fearful so asks his friends to stop playing this game. "Walther, a jokes a joke, pulling a coin from behind your ear, but this is quite preposterous and boorish behaviour. Look, stop it!"

The Doc feels the slow creep of fear coming over him and begins to shake. He sees the walls in that corner of the room shift a bit. His friends become concerned. "Somethings not right here gents," and Thaddeus begins to back away from the corner. Harold says describe it, out loud."

(As ironically at that time a small Cthulhu entity entered the hobby room. Namely one of the players small children and started talking loudly!)

Thaddeus states "Well there's a pink creature there, with a cone on it's head there, and there's a flying green one there, and now the walls are starting to shift in the corner." "Can you describe the creatures exactly to us?" says Harold. Well it's a small amorphous creature with a, er,.... pink complexion. It appears to be incorporeal. John tries to take the Doc medical kit off him, but the doc's not letting go.

Thaddeus is becoming really anxious, getting louder and louder, and says "For Gods sake man, can't you see them, they are right there! I'm not sitting in here you imbecile, "I think that sounds like a jolly fine idea." says Walther (who's taken cautious as a middle name), becoming increasingly uncomfortable himself. "Good God, lets get out," Thaddeus says, and starts to make for the door. Thaddeus then sees monsters and hideous creatures coming up from the floor. "My God, he says, drops his medical bag and runs for the front door saying "Save yourselves!"

Harold tries to restrain him (but makes an awful Grapple) but trips on the rug. The Doc however shouts Monsters! MONSTERS!!! and heads for his car. Walther immediately gets on the phone and asks the operator to be put through to Thomas, to let him know. Harold is right behind him. John reaches into the Docs bag, for something to sedate him, then gives chase with a bottle of Chloroform.

The Doc makes it to the car, and using the door as a weapon, he hits Harold with the car door as he opens it. Gets in and starts it up. Harold goes for the car keys to stop him driving off and succeeds, but at the same time the Doc pulled out his pistol. Pointing it, he says "Give me the keys Harold, you are not feeding me to the monsters."

Harold hands them over.

"Come with me and save yourself, young man." At the same time John's popped the cork off the bottle of Chloroform, and throws the bottle in the car as The doc floors it, driving off, picking up speed. The Doc's driving a Studebaker, (and has to make a Drive Automobile roll to stay on the road. He needs 30% and gets 14%) The Doc's screaming at the top of his voice, hairing off down the road seeing things coming at him. He starts heading towards the monsters and running them over. (After 30 feet he has to make another roll to stay in control at minus 10%. Getting 12%).

Luckily for that era and time of night in the surburban area, there are not any other cars on the road, not that the Doc's going to really see them anyway. The Doc, amazingly makes it to the end of the road, but the car fills up with fumes from the Chloroform. He passes out and crashes straight into a tree by the roadside. Luckily he's slumped down and relaxed when he hits (as seat belts were not even an idea then).

Walther hears the crash from in the house and puts the phone down. John and Harold run up the road. Harold holds his breathe while he drags him out the car and John takes the keys out. Harold carries out first aid then takes the doc's firearm out of the car, and puts it in his back waistband. After they fob off a concerned neighbour who asks to call the Police, stating that they (referring to Thomas) has already been called, Harold then takes off the Docs belt and ties up his legs. They then carry the Doc back to the house.

The Doc is left unconscious on the couch while the characters debate what could have happened? Thomas speeds over, turning up 45 minutes later. After two hours, the Doc comes round but is still screaming. Having another rummage in the Docs bag, they pull out some Laudenam, and administer the same dosage that that the Doc gave to Walther on Sunday night. They search through his pockets, thinking that perhaps it's one of Tomaszewskis vials thats broken and caused this, but the vials he has are undamaged. Thomas thinks to how long this effect occured from when the Doc spoke to Mr Corbitt across the road. Walther thinks that madness is contagious, and perhaps he picked it up from the Sanitarium?

He's tied up with some rope and watched over night. Before Walther sleeps he goes to check the knots and asks if everything else is alright, referring to the rope arrangement regards his his own safety, rather than the patient.

WEDNESDAY

In the morning Harold is up to cook up breakfast again. Thaddeus has a bad head (from the crash), and then notices that he's tied spreadeagled to the bed. "Hang on, I'm not getting married am I?" He still thinks that it's one of Walthers childish parlour tricks, and he's slipped him a Mickey. He's aware of what happened, but recollection is slightly dreamy.

The friends cannot figure out what's going on. Harold asks if the Doc's been touching the vine, where the Doc just says "What are you talking about. That's your game?" "We used all your supply of Chloroform to subdue you when you went mad," says Thomas. Walther asks "have you been experimenting again." After asking to be untied, "I've had quite enough of this." Doc Thaddeus stomps down the stairs checking the corners walls, looking for mirrors, "come on, where are they," pulling books off the shelves, "and where's my medical bag?"

The Doc finds his medical bag and takes it out to put in his car, but it's not parked in the drive. Thomas points down the street to the gently smoking wreckage. Looking over the car the front is knocked in from a head on. (After a mechanical repair roll) The Doc manages to push it back from the tree, looks under the hood and gets it going. He drives slowly into town, headed to the nearest garage, with Thomas following behind.

Walther attempts to disguise himself as Mr Corbitt uses stage make up that he has in his house, and at 10 O'Clock, an hour after Mr Corbitt leaves, Harold and he head over to his house. They go up to the front door and what with it still not being repaired by the absent minded Corbitt, the door is easily opened.



Walther has on his magicians white gloves (possibly why he failed his disguise roll) and they head upstairs. Walther, being cautious, lets Harold go first, as he's bigger. As Harold almost gets to the top,



he hears a scurrying noise of small footsteps coming towards him. walther also hears this, and knows that Corbitt doesn't have a dog?.......

Harold sees a creature coming towards him.



It's basically a womans head with long hair, but looks like it's made of discarded human parts. It has a single human leg attached at the neck and arms attached where it's ears should be (Making his San check, Harold still loses 1 San).

The creature barrels into Harold, but he keeps his footing. Walther can't see a thing past him, so Harold tells him there a monster, to which Walther releases his wrist action holdout double derringer. The creature backs up, Harold is cocked and readied. Harold punches the creature, knocking it back and it runs off.

Harold steps up to the side and Walther manages to get by him and loose a shot (after making his San roll).



before it turns the corner. Walthers hurried shot goes wide, and he chases it.



He turns the corner and gets off another,



as the creature barges through a doorway, but again misses. Walther immediately realises that he didn't bring any spare ammunition!