This is a short journal of events for âThe Condemnedâ, a Call of Cthulhu scenario from H.P. Lovecraft’s Arkham as we play it out. This is the third scenario in an episodic series.
Players
Andrew W, a skilled (but seemingly incompetent) surgeon.
Chad, an archeologist from Miskatonic U.
Mattw, criminal defense lawyer
Ryan, Great War vet. and outdoors man.
brehaut is the Keeper of Arcane Lore.
Spoiler Warning
The following contains spoilers for the scenario. Potential players may wish to stop reading nowIntroduction
(Matt was unable to make this session)
It is some time in autumn, 1923. The players learn of the disappearance of a Miskatonic U. student, Richard Cardigan, after a botany trip up the Miskatonic river. After a stormy night, his friend Henry Atwater who was with him on the trip has been found wandering aimlessly round west Arkham, apparently suffering amnesia.
Police have requested the help of citizens in forming a search party to look for Cardigan whom they believe may also be lost. The investigators join the search party mid sunday morning.
The investigators reach the campsite at the side of the river and talk to the officer in charge, before joining the search. Police believe they students may be the victim of a lightening strick, and do not anticipate any foul play.
Most people are investigating the forest, and the river and campsite has been largely ignored. The search is occasionally disrupted by heavy rain.
After searching the riverbank and downstream the investigators notice a grown flock of birds, mostly crows and the like forming on the bank upstream of the campsite.
The investigators approach carefully but the birds defend their find till the very last minute. A body is discovered face down in the dirt. It is buried just below the surface and the rain combined with the sandy dirt on the river bank has resulted in most of the top soil coming away. The shoulder and ear in particular have been pecked and eaten by the birds.
{Chad’s character} is sent to get police and {Andrew’s character} proceeds to uncover more carefully. The body has been there for a couple of days by the look and smell of things. {Chad} returns with with a detective and the sergant, and the begin to remove the body from its shallow grave.
As the body is extracted, a hand reaches up from below and grabs {Ryan’s} characters arm and somebody underneath the first body starts to scream. The first corpse is removed, its face is serverly damaged by a blunt instrument, and the second body is removed.
The police believe the corpse is Richard Cardigan, the missing student. Nobody knows who the second person – apparently buried alive for a couple of days – is, or how they came to be there. He is and old wizzen looking man, with black chared skin, a few whisps of hair and a hunch back. His screaming comes to an end with the words ‘Henry – Henry Atwater’ and he collapses exhausted.
The police put the corpse - wrapped in a tarpauline - and and the old man to St Margaret’s Hospital in Arkham. The corpse to the morgue below, and the old man to a private room on level 2, with a police guard.
The investigators resolve to visit the police station, and the Arkham Sanitarium to visit Henry Atwater.
The Police station provides a skim through the recovered property of the two students, and a brief discussion with the patrolman at the front desk.
On the way to the sanitarium the stop off at the hospital briefly to photograph the old man, and check on him. He has been sedated, and {Andrew} holds a brief conversation with him. He mentions the name ‘Henry Atwater’ a few times, and recoils whimpering when ‘Richard Cardigan’ is mentioned.
At the sanitarium, the talk briefly with the doctor in charge, and observer Atwater being interviewed by the detective. They notice that he speaks with an odd archaic burr.
Day Two
{This episode is rather short, as there has been a very long gap and despite writing stuff done, brehaut failed to capture all the important details, particularly what the characters were attempting when we left off.}
The investigators spent far too much time reading books in the library. They then moved on, making visits and phone calls, and found NPCs who were willing to read books on their behalf and conveniently summarise discoveries.
Knowledge gained and events happened:
Atwater seems (seemed) a fairly normal, bright uni student. He is also an orphan foundling, and grew up in an orphanage in Boston.
The old man’s original identity is proving tricky to track down, but it seems likely that, at this point in time, his body is inhabited by Atwater.
Atwater’s original body, now occupied by the villain, has made its escape from the loony bin. The investigators are divided as to whether the old man at the hospital is the villain’s target or not, but have agreed to hang out there for a while “just in case.”
Theories regarding Atwater.
{ expand on some of the theories the characters have }
Most popular theory: the old man, through some arcane ritual, has swapped bodies with Atwater. Therefore, the old man is now the real Atwater, while the villain is running around in what was Atwater’s body.
Extra possibilities:
The old man was an ancestor of Atwater’s. (This seems more likely given Atwater’s otherwise-completely-unnecessary-to-the-story orphan status.)
This may be the first such body-swap, or maybe not.
The climactic event will probably be an attempt to swap them back.
