Trial of Cthulhu RPG: The Book of Bubastis!

Morgoth

Date: Saturday, 13-Apr-2019, 09:49:53 | Message # 1

Major general

Group: Administrators

Messages: 284

Status: Offline

Bookhounds of London: The Book of Bubastis! :|: Scene 1: The Puzzlebox

Now familiar with the Bookhounds club, its insightful library and most of the members, I began to apply myself to the tasks at hand in understanding more about the Great Old Ones and there place in our world!

The club had recently acquired some trinkets from Abduls "Trinkets & Artifacts" shop. The puzzlebox would be my first assignment, which I knew to be in the possession of Detective Jack Hunter, who had little understanding of these ancient artefacts. I decided to call him on his directline at the police station …

“Hello, Jack, it LJ from the Bookhounds club?” To say he was an awkward customer would be an understatement!

Jack responded in his usual manner; “What do you want, I'm busy?” … short and sweet! “I’ve managed to discover some clues about the puzzlebox you acquired at Abduls, would you mind if I could have a further look at it?” I asked politely. A long silence, as usual. “I’m busy,” he stated again, “and I don’t have it on me; it’s at home.”

“No rush, Jack, maybe you could bring it with you next time you’re visiting the club? I believe there’s a meeting this coming Friday, maybe then?” I could hear him flicking pages in his notebook; “I might be busy with police work then. I’ll drop it off when I get a chance.” The line went dead … Jack wasn’t one for pleasantries or nice chit-chat, but he was a stand-up guy in a fight and able to scour police records for confidential information; essential to the many Bookhounds members investigations!

Luckily, Jack did appear on Friday, along with his puzzlebox, albeit a tad reluctant to give it up. I explained that old scrolls on Egyptian text at the British Museum had given me an insight, and showed the members a copy of the said page that had caught my eye. It didn’t look anything like the puzzlebox we had, but deciphering the ancient Egyptian calligraphy gave an insight that these devices where in fact keys to a “portal” of another realm! Our problem, lack of knowledge on how to trigger the device, but that would come later at other persons distress!

As we sat round the table discussing matters, excited about "other realms", "keys" and "gateways to knowledge", I explained to the Colonel our findings and that the artefact should be secured in his safe? “Yes, yes, Lawrence, I’ll have Jeeves do that right now!” The puzzlebox would need further investigation, but for today, it was late and I needed rest!

End of Scene One: The Puzzlebox!

"The thing's hollow .. it goes on forever .. and .. oh my God! ... it's full of stars!"

Morgoth

Date: Friday, 19-Apr-2019, 12:45:55 | Message # 2

Major general

Group: Administrators

Messages: 284

Status: Offline

Bookhounds of London: The Book of Bubastis! :|: Scene 2: The Journal of William Duke

As I made my way to the clubs exit, I felt a tap on my shoulder; “Any chance of a lift, guv’ner?” It was Charley, “… it’s mighty miserable out there at this time of night and there ain’t no buses run by my way.” I was happy to help, as Charley was one of our main go-to for information from the “shady” part of town! I nodded with a happy smile and we headed towards Charley’s side of town.

“Did you hear about Abdul?” Charley asked me. “No,” I replied with a puzzled look on my face? “He’d been done over, badly by some thugs and they wrecked his shop. I’m going to visit him tomorrow and see if I can help the poor guy.” This was a surprise to me as Abdul was known to be very helpful to all, from all sides of the street. “Let me know how you get on and if I can be of help?” Charley nodded, “… will do, guv.”

After a few moments of idle chit-chat, Charley asked if I wanted to help visit a private auction at one of his locals, the old Pig & Iron. “Me? An auction for what?” I didn’t really associate with Charley outside the Bookhounds club or business “trips”, so the request came as a surprise. “Seems one of Jacks friends has lost a journal from their secure rooms and I’ve heard a birdie tell me it’s coming up for auction. I’d mentioned to Wolly about the book and he asked me to bid on it, and not tell the copper about it.” If the Colonel had indeed asked Charley to bid on the journal, then it must be of some importance to the club. We agreed to meet up at the usual phone box Charley called me from in a couple of days for the auction.

“I’m sure the Colonel will return the book to Jack once he’s gotten what he needs?” I’d asked. “Sure, sure … ol’Wollys as straight as they come,” Charley smirked under his breath. “Here’s my stop, thanks for the lift.”

As I sped away, my thoughts went back to poor Abdul. This business was rough and Abdul had been a trader for many more years than any of us. For him to suffer a beating showed signs of a new thuggish-threat on the horizon!

"The thing's hollow .. it goes on forever .. and .. oh my God! ... it's full of stars!"

Morgoth

Date: Friday, 19-Apr-2019, 12:47:27 | Message # 3

Major general

Group: Administrators

Messages: 284

Status: Offline

The following day, I went about my usual jaunt of visiting the British Museum for more information on the puzzlebox and its strange glyphs, but I couldn’t help but feel a shadow following me for the day. I’ve had stalkers before, but couldn’t see why anyone would follow me here? Just my mind playing tricks on me!

On the night of the auction, I approached Charley’s pick-up spot, where he was well hidden and jumpy! “What’s up, Charley, not been paying your rent again!?” I joked with him. “Nazis, Mr Hive, it was Nazis that beat’up poor Abdul … and there looking for the puzzlebox!” I nearly crashed the car going round the bend! Charley gave me the details of his visit to Abdul in the hospital, his wrecked shop and what the Nazis where after. This was a new breed of cultist to hit the streets since Hitler had come into power, and his goons would brutalise any who stood in his way in his search for the occult!

“They’ve been following me for days, but I gav’em the slip. They know we have the puzzlebox and they mean to get it back; Abduls got broken arms and fingers from his run-in with them!” Could these have been the ones following me as well? “Let’s not worry about them just now, we need to get to the auction and get that journal for the Colonel.” Charley nodded, taking a cigarette and lighting it quickly. It wasn’t far to go, but he had finished a couple more cigarettes before he calmed down. “Lead the way, Charley, and take point on the auction, I want to see who else will be turning up.” Now calm, he joked about being home and we made our way through the public house, grabbing a quick beer before being directed up the stairs to the auction in large room, filled with quite a few well known advisories to the Bookhounds Club; one being Lady Violet Fulham, one of the richest and most prestige’s figures in London, and also a well know cultists!

The book collector, Colin Ballard, was hosting the event and he knew who to fleece to get the best prices for the various pieces on sale across the night. Many novices bought into the charade of copies and forgeries, but we waited for the journal, one of the prime pieces for the night. The bidding was fierce, and Charley couldn’t keep up with those in money. Lady Fulham and one other, hidden from our point of view, continued to compete against each other, until the mysterious bidder won. He (or she?) kept hidden all the time as they approached the desk for the purchase, leaving no name and number and a wad of cash to pay.

“Let’s follow and see who they are?” We followed as closely as dared, but got waylaid through the many back streets, only to see the figure jump into the back of a parked car and speed off! Luckily, Charley was on the ball and had taken the licence plate number. “The copper will be able to get us an address we can follow up?”

The night had been a loss for us, but maybe we could follow things up at a later date. “Let’s get home, Charley, it’s been a long night.”

End of Scene Two: The Journal of William Duke!

"The thing's hollow .. it goes on forever .. and .. oh my God! ... it's full of stars!"

zellak

Date: Friday, 19-Apr-2019, 19:50:56 | Message # 4

Generalissimo

Group: Member

Messages: 1596

Reputation: 65

Status: Offline

Nice work Walts

DEMON : " When next we meet, i shall tear you limb from limb...there will be no escape. "

Hero: " You bring balloon animals and i'll hire a clown..... we can make it a regular party. "

Morgoth

Date: Wednesday, 24-Apr-2019, 12:45:16 | Message # 5

Major general

Group: Administrators

Messages: 284

Status: Offline

Thanks! smile

As usual, I've bound to have gotten a few minor things wrong, but we get the
general jist of the adventure!

Walts

"The thing's hollow .. it goes on forever .. and .. oh my God! ... it's full of stars!"

Morgoth

Date: Wednesday, 24-Apr-2019, 13:17:53 | Message # 6

Major general

Group: Administrators

Messages: 284

Status: Offline

Bookhounds of London: The Book of Bubastis! :|: Scene 3: The Nazis of London!

I went to the Bookhounds club the following day, with Charley’s licence plate number in toe. As I stepped into my car, two strange figures caught my eye across the way, before disappearing into the side ally. I was getting jumpy at every odd character that caught my eye! Nonetheless, I took various routes that would lose any tails and soon arrived at the club. Asking to meet with the Colonel as quickly as possible, I explained that we didn’t have any luck acquiring the journal and that Lady Fulham had also failed to buy it, with another unknown party purchasing the journal away.

I picked up the phone in the side room and called Jack once more; “Hey Jack, sorry to be a bother again, but we’ve run into a problem trying to track down a book for the Colonel. Can I give you a car licence plate number and you can get me an address to make further enquiries?” I waited for a response; “Anything for the Colonel, what’s the number?” I guess Jack was just having a bad day when we last spoke! “What’s the book you’re looking for?” I couldn’t let him know it was the journal he was looking for himself! “To be honest, I’m not sure … Charley tried to buy it last night on behalf of the Colonel at a local auction, with no luck.” I could hear Jacks cogs turning over; “Maybe I should have come along?” I muttered some pathetic response about shady parts of the town, coppers not welcome and asked Jack to lets us know about the number plate before putting the phone down. “Best not to include him until we get a copy of the journal!” The Colonel nodded in agreement.

With time to spare, I tool leave of the Colonel and picked up a couple of books in the second sitting room for some casual reading. The hours passed quickly and Charley arrived at the Bookhounds club, still jumpy about what had happened to Abdul, taking some brandy to ease his nerves. Strangely enough, Jack also appeared, and none too happy with what he had found out. Speaking with the us and the Colonel, he explained the number he traced belonged to the M.o.D. and was a pool car. Both myself and the Colonel had a hard time distracting Jack away from the journal and towards another case when we heard Charley shouting; “Colonel, come quick … them Nazis are at your gates!”

Rightly enough, a small figure with a toothbrush moustache stood in front of a large blonde-haired giant, or so he seemed behind his tiny leader. I felt as though I too had seen them about, but couldn’t be sure, watching them from a hidden bay-window. Before we could do anything, Jack took off and engaged them at the front gate! After a short exchange, they left, smirking as they went.

“More unwanted invaders, Colonel!” He went on to say they were looking for our club and how they could join, but Jack had shooed them away. “Let’s keep on our guard, gentlemen, they could be after anything.” We all went our separate ways for the rest of the day; leaving during the late night.

"The thing's hollow .. it goes on forever .. and .. oh my God! ... it's full of stars!"

Morgoth

Date: Wednesday, 24-Apr-2019, 13:40:20 | Message # 7

Major general

Group: Administrators

Messages: 284

Status: Offline

The following morning I was rudely awoken by my phone constantly ringing. “HELLO,” I shouted down the line; it was Jeeves, the Colonels butler... “Could you come to the house as quickly as possible, Mr Hives? Someone’s broken into the clubs vault and stolen the puzzlebox!” This was becoming a regular occurrence now, and the Colonel would need to do something about his poor lack of security with the club house!

I arrived before the others to check-out what had happened. It would seem the offenders broke in through the back and had some skill in bursting open the vault. But, the puzzlebox was the only thing really missing. Looking at Charley, we knew the arrival of the Nazis outside our club was more than coincidence! “Them Nazi dregs took it, Colonel, you know they did. They know it’s a powerful piece, we got to get it back!” Charley was in a rage!

It was then that Jack mentioned that he’d done some enquiries on them and knew they housed in the German embassy in London, not far away. “Let’s checkout the location and look to get our puzzlebox back!” With that, the three of us took off in Jacks car and where soon pulling upto the old stone mansion. “I’ll check out the inside to see how far we can get inside, you guys look around for an easy access?” Charley got out to view the side of the property whilst Jack drove round the back and side as I made my way through the large open doors with posters of Hitler and the might of Germany, welcoming all those of superior birth! Germans had a high opinion of themselves!

The foyer was decked in German flags and images of Nazi power. As I approached the reception desk, I caught sight of the two culprits heading out the side door, carrying a secure briefcase! Quickly excusing myself, I darted to the front and waved Jack down. Luckily, Charley was in the driving seat already … quickly taking off round the side, we followed the card for a few miles before it sped off. “They know we’re following, I’m going to run them of the road!” Jack bellowed as the cars took off at a frightening speed! Cutting through the tight country roads, Jack smashed into their car, causing them to crash off-road and into a field. As we pulled up ahead, I grabbed an iron bar and took off to engage with whoever got out of the car, and my luck being what it was, “muscles” stepped out. I swung and struck him across the head … once, twice, maybe a third time before he went down as Jack and Charlie dealt with the others. As we quickly gathered ourselves, Jack and Charlie grabbed the case as I found some firearms in the back of the car. We bungled both of them into our car as Jack was going to turn them in to the local police for carrying firearms; “ … that should keep them busy for a day or two as we figure out what to do next!”

Heading back to town, and stopping off at the first police station we could find, just outside London centre, as Jack bustled the two Nazi into the yard and appeared a short time later. “I’ve booked them for assaulting a police officer and attempted murder with a firearm; their diplomatic immunity will eventually get them out, but not for a few days … lets get back to the club and see if we can finally crack this puzzlebox!”

End of Scene Three: The Nazis of London!

"The thing's hollow .. it goes on forever .. and .. oh my God! ... it's full of stars!"

zellak

Date: Thursday, 25-Apr-2019, 08:35:32 | Message # 8

Generalissimo

Group: Member

Messages: 1596

Reputation: 65

Status: Offline

Nice job Walts.... ( don't forget that the short nazi had a spell tattooed on his arm. )

DEMON : " When next we meet, i shall tear you limb from limb...there will be no escape. "

Hero: " You bring balloon animals and i'll hire a clown..... we can make it a regular party. "

Morgoth

Date: Saturday, 27-Apr-2019, 17:22:29 | Message # 9

Major general

Group: Administrators

Messages: 284

Status: Offline

Bookhounds of London: The Book of Bubastis! :|: Scene 4: Another World

And so we found ourselves at the Bookhound club once more, curtains drawn as the night sky covered old London town!

Our goal was simple … we had to unravelled the secrets of the puzzlebox, but it required a “key” and “gateway” or “path” to direct us to where we wanted to go and we had nether; that was until Charlie piped up about a frightening dream he had a few days ago, about walking into a strange land of many weird and twisted creatures, of yellow skies and orange lands, where all colours and manner of beast where not of this world. And, as he wandered this strange land, he felt drawn towards a mountain a short distance away, discovering a cave opening with many glyphs and runes above it, but he failed to brave the cave and awoke with only the impression of the writings, which he wrote down for us and we soon deciphered into some kind of spell: “Hyperspace Gate.” Where this would take us was anyone's guess, but we needed the “key” to open the cube!

As we pondered over the various scribbles, ancient occult books and scripts scattered about the room, we finally had a lucky break as I caught a glimpse of Jacks open notebook; “Where did you get these writings from, Jack?” He flicked through the pages, “…the small German man, he had a tattoo on his arm. I copied them in case they meant something, or we could use to identify him … why?”

The “key” to the puzzlebox was in our grasp all this time!

I instantly recognised one of the crucial symbols, which was also on the cube in an ancient Egyptian scribe, and deciphering the rest of Jacks notes, we finally had our key to open a portal to Another World!

We drank a toast to our success and gathered round the cube, we spoke the occult words to activate the puzzlebox and a portal appeared before us, but, to enter now would cast us in a million directions! Without direction, we had no skill to control where we would go, and it was with Charlie’s “Hyperspace Gate” recite that we saw a strange pathway appear within the portal as he spoke the ancient words.

Armed with pistol and notepad, we anxiously entered, feeling our very atoms disintegrate into a stream, only to reform at the far-side of the gateway. To Charlie, this place was familiar, and he pointed towards the peaks of a mountain range in the distance, “… a couple of hours will see us at the cave opening. We must go there, I feel something calling me!”

As we wandered across the dense woodland, it wasn’t an altogether pleasant experience as bugs as big as fists gnawed at us, and we were attacked by much larger demonic beasts that flew above us. As we came heavily armed, we managed to take down many of them and scuttled away from others, until we found the path that Charlie had taken to its end, but the cave way was covered in a living vine, with long, spiky vines that had sharp teeth. Once again, we filled it full of lead and burnt the remains away from the opening, and heading into the cave, we gathered torches and walked slowly along the man(?)-made footpath, reaching a large chamber, filled with pillars, ancient scripts, hexes, necromancy and sculptures across its walls; and a central pedestal with a heavy bound tome, covered in cobwebs of a thousand years!

As I grasped at the book, my eyes caught the signs of a trigger to a trap; a well know ploy to stop thieves in their tracks from stealing such ancient prizes. What type of device it was we would never know, unless we triggered it, but together, we could see a safety catch to hold the trigger long enough, with the help of my trusty pencil!

I had used my pad and pencil to take many drawings of the sights we had seen over the past year, as well as some samples of the beast we had killed to take back for the colonel, so to give up my pencil was a difficult thing for me to do! “My lucky pencil!?!”, I cried to the others. The just shook their heads and told me to get on with it!

Sure enough, it worked, but the sounds of heavy creaking where enough for us to grab the book and scamper quickly out of the chamber and out of the cave, back to our world!

Epilogue: Days later, we had deciphered the book as that of the Tome of Budastis, covering the period of the great cat goddess Bast, along with many sections of the cities great history, and cruel occult practices … this book would be another gem in the collection for the Bookhounds of London!

End of (Final) Scene Four: Another World

"The thing's hollow .. it goes on forever .. and .. oh my God! ... it's full of stars!"

Che

Date: Friday, 03-May-2019, 13:01:39 | Message # 10