Our game - The Armitage Files

[JonathanKorban]

I will regularly be posting summaries of our game here. We play each wednessday, so expect an update each thursday or friday. We play The Armitage Files. Or at least the Keeper's interpretation of that story

If you react, please make sure you don't give away any spoilers. I'm just a player and - of course - I have limited information about what's going on or I may not have all details (yet). I suspect the other players are lurking as well, so please don't spoil our fun. Thanks in advance.

The investigators are:
- Maverick Cromwell (an archeologist with a way to relaxed life style)
- dr Helmut Grand (a professor with a sharp edge, somewhere)
- father Giovanni Sandor Affonso (a priestly investigator send from Rome)
- Jonathan Robert Korban (a somewhat impoverished P.I.)

If my English is not quite what you expect, please keep in mind I'm from the Netherlands and English is not my native tongue.

Have fun with our endeavors!

[JonathanKorban]

Maverick Cromwell, dr. Helmut Grand, father Giovanni Sandro Affonso and I met at dr. Armitage's office. He presented us a peculiar letter. The letter appeared to be send by dr. Armitage himself, although he could not remember a thing about it. The four of us accepted his assignment to find out everything there is to know about this letter.

We went to my place and had a good discussion about the letter and how to proceed (and some very good coffee, I might add). Suddenly I got a phone call. It was Cirus Lanfer, dr. Armitage's assistant. Another letter had been received. Strangely enough, this second one came out of thin air. I spoke briefly with Cirus, but learned not too much. He seemed distracted and confused. He was either genuinely flabbergasted or a very good actor.

[JonathanKorban]

After some investigations and talking amongst ouselves, we set out for the town of Kingsport. It happens to be that the town was somewhat run down and very, very strange things were going on. In a bar, three of us (dr. Grand, father Affonso and me) talked to the tender. He told us about the Smellige family and green/black stones from the Deep. It turned out that Diamand Walsh married Zora, one of the Smellige daughters. His trailers were fishing in Kingsport's waters, but not for fish. Rather, the chinese crewmen were fishing for the green/black stones...

Meanwhile, Maverick visited an old friend - Rex Terry - who lived in Kingsport. In his mansion, he talked a lot about booze and the good old days. The man was obviously settled down and dealing with a butler with a drinking problem. Maverick got himself invited to the new years party at the Kingsport Yacht Club on the day after.

After the visit at the bar, we took a stroll through the town. We ended up at the beach, at a moon shine bar which poured an ill excuse for a drink. They directed us to a Korean fisher man. We talked to the man and he said some incoherent things. In the end, we found out he owned one of the green/black stones. In his mind, giving it to the Smellige family would buy him a ticket home, to his wife and children. I examined the green/black stone, and it really surprised me...

[PelgranePress]

Looking forward to reading more.

[jabonko]

That's pretty cool! Our game also had an early scene in a bar meeting Mr. Walsh.

[Edited to remove spoilers. Apologies!]

[RobinDLaws]

[Edited to remove spoilers. Apologies!]

I'd love to see what's going on in various groups' Armitage games. Maybe a separate, spoiler-warned thread is called for.

[rylehNC]

We need a better word than spoilers, though, since that's not technically the case

[crimsontree]

We need a better word than spoilers, though, since that's not technically the case

Cthspoilers perhaps?

[JonathanKorban]

If you react, please make sure you don't give away any Cthspoilers. I'm just a player and - of course - I have limited information about what's going on or I may not have all details (yet). I suspect the other players are lurking as well, so please don't spoil our fun. Thanks in advance.

---

... The stone seemed to be organic, and had strange qualities indeed. I scraped a bit of tissue off it. It settled between my nails, quite an unpleasant feeling at the time. But I wanted more. I resisted the urge to lick it. But then, in retrospect, I did something stupid. With my pencil, I pierced the living stone. Of course, I was not ready for the sudden cloud of green gas. Just the fact that my friends dragged me out saved me. I went down, only to awake when I hit the salt sea water. To my horror, they wanted to go. Without the stone! And then the pain in my fingers was there, eating away my finger nails. On top of that, it appeared that my face had become a green/black variant of itself. Somehow, I could convince dr Grant to go back for the stone. As soon as he obtained it - along with some of the twin tailed maggots - we retreated back to my beloved Arkham.

Back at my office, father Affonso tried to talk some sense into me. Unfortunately, dr Grant did everything to assure me I was in a really weird - albeit bad - condition. It gave me a small insight in the way the resus monkeys that dr Grant experimented on must have felt. Later that night, the four of us went back to Miskatonic University to meet dr Armitage. We told him what we found out; he just told us to be careful - and not to involve the police. As if they would ever have believed our story. He also arranged a place to hide the car with the green/black stone. He said something about Deep Ones, but was quite vague about the stone itself. He promised to dig up some information about the J. Edgar Hoover incident in Inssmouth and the expedition in Australia.

Although it was very late already, dr Grant and Cromwell both insisted on getting rid of the stone. Meanwhile, father Affonso brought me home for I was really in bad shape. Everything hurt and I had lost my finger nails. Not to mention my complexion. And, of course, I could use some proper coffee. Have I mentioned already that I smoked like a chimney at that time? Anyway, while making a pot of black gold I opened up the coffee can. It happened to be red (it had been like that for years). Somehow, I found myself opening it, and closing it again. And repeating that sequence. Over and over. Father Affonso must have realised what happened, for he wrenched the can out of my hand. But, it had already started. For better or for worse, I'm still undecided. The bad thing was I vomited violently. Whole heaps of gray paperlike pulp came straight out of my guts. Before I knew it, my kitchen was kind of redecorated. Even worse, father Affonso was not quick enough to dodge his share... The good thing was that it seemed to heal me, for my finger nails were back and my face was coloured like the old me. But how was I to explain all this mess to Cecilia when she would come home? I had about half an hour to figure it out.

Strangely, the other guys were doing the same. In another way, though. They went to Tuttle's junk yard; a nice place to hide your car indeed. They learned that Tuttle did this type of work on, more or less, a regular basis. He had some sort of revised sea container. For some reason, the inside was armoured with lead. The car, along with the green/black stone, was parked in the container. And this is where they were not paying attention. The side of the container read "Rubor" - Latin for the colour red, I was told later by Cromwell. And, of course, the container itself was painted in the appropriate colour. Just when Cromwell and dr Grant wanted to leave, they heard a sound inside the container. They opened the container again to check and were presented with the unpleasant gift of a giant cloud of not too unfamiliar green gas. Soon, they had to flee the scene. We were lucky the cloud stayed a local affair.

[JonathanKorban]

If you react, please make sure you don't give away any spoilers. I'm just a player and - of course - I have limited information about what's going on or I may not have all details (yet). I suspect the other players are lurking as well, so please don't spoil our fun. Thanks in advance.
---

Later that night, Dr Grant and Cromwell went back to the junk yard. All they found was an open container. The car was still there as well, but it was stripped from paint. Peculiar indeed. Even more important: the green/black stone was gone. As were the maggots…

In the mean time, father Affonso sort of helped me cleaning up my apartment. When Cecillia, my secretary – or girl friend, if you want – came home, father Affonso helped me again by telling her some silly story about paper mush in the kitchen.

The next morning, Cromwell went to Alice, the assistant of Demsey. He was allowed to look around in Demsey’s office. He found a large glass pot filled with ancient honey. He also learned a few things about the Crownhill digs. Those tablets must really be something. Interesting enough to investigate that, but first things first. Cromwell also found reverences to inverted pyramids and an alleged Egyptian priestess named Halima.

While Cromwell was investigating, I had a not so pleasant conversation with Cecillia about what happened the evening before. Her temperament drove her to her mother’s. Again. Later, I received a phone call from an Odis Jones. He had an assignment for me, for he suspected that he was followed. Eager to make some extra money, I made an appointment for the next day. Easy bucks, that much was for sure!

Later that day, Cromwell had his new year’s reception at the Kingsport Yacht Club. He took father Affonso with him, but they entered the Yacht Club on separate occasions. All they wanted to do was look around. But it was not such a night. Things got wild, Cromwell ended up kicking the **** out of Diamond Walsh. Father Affonso saw Zora, Diamond’s wife trying to give birth some, well… something. The things that holy water can stop. Panic broke loose, people got trampled in the rush. But my companions got out in one piece. The party was ruined, but we certainly learned a lot. And father Affonso got himself a date with Oliver Gardner the next day.

[JonathanKorban]

If you react, please make sure you don't give away any spoilers. I'm just a player and - of course - I have limited information about what's going on or I may not have all details (yet). I suspect the other players are lurking as well, so please don't spoil our fun. Thanks in advance.
---

Father Affonso went to visit the local church before leaving Kingsport. He was welcomed by father Benedict Dean, who told him a lot about the church, the community and Henry. The first two were falling in disrepair, the latter had died recently. The most striking feature of the church is the matt glass window which shows some demonic like beast. Strange. Even stranger is the tale father Dean told about the “other� church, the so called Church of the Rock.

The next day at my place we discussed what to do next and how to do it. We decided to let father Affonso visit Oliver Gardner on his own. The rest of us planned to revisit the bar we went to earlier, then pay another visit to the church. All under the cover of the night.

Before we went to Kingsport, I went to Cecillia’s mother’s place. I talked my way around the mother (can’t stand her) and the sister (hate her, really), and convinced Cecillia about my motives and made positively sure that I had not lied to her. I told her about our investigations for dr Armitage. She was intrigued. She came home…

Father Affonso travelled to Kingsport on his own. The rest of us went by (the same) car. We went to the bar where we found Freddy, the bartender, grieving about the Gulbatros. It was ruined, as was his business. We tried to cheer him up, we failed. When we were in the car, two fish like sailer types came to us, urging us to go away. We did just that; we went to st. Theresa’s church, to meet father Dean. The Church was closed, though. The snow seemed to be quite salt, strange enough. I tried to open the door. Which succeeded after breaking them in. I found absolutely no one in the church. Had something happened here?

[JonathanKorban]

If you react, please make sure you don't give away any spoilers. I'm just a player and - of course - I have limited information about what's going on or I may not have all details (yet). I suspect the other players are lurking as well, so please don't spoil our fun. Thanks in advance.

---

I searched a back room of the church and found a sign and a letter to Allistair Heslip, ready to be sent to an address in the Ivory Coast. The sign was the sign of Pisces and looked like a bended ‘H�. Added to the scratch marks on the front door of the church, this mystified me.

Suddenly, we heard a scream for help from outside. We immediately went to look what happened. Strangely enough, the sound came from a fresh grave (which was, of course, covered in snow). We dug out the grave and a man was inside it, seemingly alive. Because I did not trust this all, I kept my gun pointed at the man for quite a while. In the mean time he told his name, Luciano Vizzini. He said he was a mob member from New York, doing some business here. His business appeared to be Diamond Walsh. Well, you know what they say: an enemy of your enemy is your friend… We took Luciano along, knowing that he would be killed if we didn’t.

Because we did not know what to do next, we decided to go back to the bar. We were in for a surprise. The bar was boarded up, appeared to be vacant. We entered the building by the back door and found out that indeed everybody left. While technically still a bar, it was devoid of anything that would make it practical to run. Sure, glasses were there and even some liquor. But there was no stock. We did find some evidence, though, that a fight had taken place and we have reason to believe that father Affonso and at least one of the strange fish man were involved.

In the bar we poured ourselves a drink and decided to take a risk and go to Oliver Gardner. He seemed like a good man, and slowly but surely some kind of trust between us emerged. He told us a lot, e.g. about the building the “other� church resided in (it was an old lodge building) and gave dr Grand a syringe with some weird substance. Oliver Gardner also warned us to stay away from the “other� church a couple of times. And he told us about the tannery factory on Crow rock. According to him, it was the base of operations for Diamond Walsh and his unfresh business. Oliver proposed to go to Crow rock to blow up the ships that were used to drag up the green/black stones. We accepted…

[JonathanKorban]

If you react, please make sure you don't give away any spoilers. I'm just a player and - of course - I have limited information about what's going on or I may not have all details (yet). I suspect the other players are lurking as well, so please don't spoil our fun. Thanks in advance.

---

Because we were still unable to use our car (and go back to my beloved Arkham), I let Odis Jones know I could not be there to meet him. I talked to Billy Henderson, the manager of the Peacock Club. He promised to tell Odis that I could not make it.

Oliver Gardner arranged to hide the cars of both Cromwell and Vizzini, somewhere near the old town hall of Kingsport. Unfortunately we don’t know where. Oliver also told us that he knew where father Affonso was. He would not tell where precisely, but he told us he was alive but in bad shape. For our and his safety, we would be better off to not know…

We left with the Urania, Oliver’s boat. Gardner himself manned it; not a small feat given he’s in a wheel chair! We went to a small desolate beach, about an hour walking from the factory. The plan was to blow up both the factory and the ships. Oliver would pick us up from the docks; we were to signal him with a flash light.

We made it to the beach safely, and with some effort we made it to the factory. Scouting taught us that behind the factory were three large tanks, filled with cyanide. Although I had never heard of it, dr Grand told me that it was a dangerously explosive substance. Cromwell and Vizzini went to see the inside the factory and to place a bomb. Both succeeded.

After that we went to the harbour to blow up the ships. Here, we were noticed by some fish like men. One of them cut loose the ships, which started to drift away. Others engaged in a fight. Cromwell was able to throw some dynamite sticks onto the ships while we managed to keep the attackers at bay. We actually killed a few. Just when I was trying to use my flash light to signal Oliver Gardner in, the boats exploded. All at once, and earlier than we expected. The blast was of such force, that Vizzini and dr Grand were gravely injured. Cromwell and I were able to get out of harms’ way.

For the time being. We knew we had to get out; in 15 minutes or so the bomb at the factory would exploded. If one of the tanks would be harmed by that explosion, changes are that the whole area would be devastated by cyanide rain…

[JonathanKorban]

If you react, please make sure you don't give away any spoilers. I'm just a player and - of course - I have limited information about what's going on or I may not have all details (yet). I suspect the other players are lurking as well, so please don't spoil our fun. Thanks in advance.

---

While still on the docks, we heard a scream. At first it seemed like a young lady, but later it appeared to be a small child shouting for mama. Reluctantly, we went to the place the noise came from. It was the small office on the pier. To our surprise the source of the screams was a baby, changed into a fat bloated mockery of – probably – a deep one! Horrified as I was, I shot the thing to bits…

When we came back to the docks, I tried to signal Oliver Gardner once again. We were attacked by three naked fish men, each carried a trident. We shot two of them, the third escaped into the water. Around the same time, Cromwell suddenly left for the factory. When I heard gunshots from there, I went to investigate. Viccini and dr Grand went to the far side of the docks, to signal Oliver Gardner once again. If he did not show up, we were sure to die.

At the factory, I saw a four armed monster trying to escape. Stressed as I was, I took aim at the thing. Luckily I missed, for I had mistaken Cromwell – who carried someone on his shoulders – for the monster. The man in question was Diamond Walsh. Later I found out he was the victim (just imagine!) of a complot made by the Smelliges to be part of some vile ritual. We went back to the docks, while the factory exploded. Cromwell had replaced the bomb, and had thus saved the cyanide tanks. And our lives. Oliver Gardner finally arrived – standing – and we left with the Urania. We took Diamond Walsh along, it was clear he was sorry about what he had done in Kingsport. He was grateful to us, and appears to be a good contact in New York. We talked to him for quite a while and learned more than a few facts about what was going on.

Dr Grand told us about a strange dream he had. He dreamt about the factory and a double helix that came from it. It was send, like a beacon, into the skies. This, combined with the strange deep one baby, fish men chanting “Dagon” and the ritual in the factory made us realise that something terrible was going on. Were they conjuring something?

Oliver Gardner brought us to my beloved Arkham. I took dr Grand to the hospital. He asked me to bring the samples he took and some other things to Josef Becker, a colleague of him. Josef was to examine this stuff. Cromwell gave me a sack with the cut off head of one of the fish men and some peculiar candle with an everlasting flame. I took everything and gave it to Josef. He would examine it, and took me to dr Grand’s office. A strange place indeed. But the most interesting thing came from Josef Becker himself: a red book about a triple helix. I borrowed the book, promising it back in two days. I also promised him to destroy the picture of the board with secret signs I had taken in dr Grand’s office. I was not sure to keep my word, for the first time in my life.

And somehow, the back of my hand started to grow green/black again…

[crimsontree]

I'm the keeper of this campaign. I'll post a few updates written by the players.

Saterday, January 5th, 1935

The following day we went to Josef Becker at Miskatonic to ask him to examine the things we found on Crow rock.

Later, we had an appointment with dr Armitage at cloisters, Miskatonic’s restaurant. After a decent meal we retreated to a lecture hall of the English department We told dr Armitage our story. He was genuinely surprised and told us certain thing, amongst them Cathuga and Hydra. Dr Armitage warned us – again – about the dangers we were exploring. He specifically mentioned Crown Hill to be a hazard, and did this too often to my liking. I wondered what’s going on there…

Dr Armitage told us about a presentation given by Polten Williams in his laboratory beneath a light house. He suggested Polten might be willing to share his laboratory with dr Grand. Dr Armitage could arrange invitations for the presentation.