Call of Cthulhu at Nine Worlds: The Vanishing Man
Friday, August 08, 2014
Tonight, four intrepid authors will be playing a game of Call of Cthulhu for the entertainment of the masses.
Our Heroes
The player characters are all affiliated with a group called The Rational Society, based out of Miskatonic University in Arkham, Massachusetts. Not an official University organization, the society developed partly as a reaction to the increasing acceptance of parapsychology as an academic subject, starting with Stanford’s experiments in 1911. The Rational Society, which includes faculty and staff as well as outsiders who share its views, operates on the basis that everything is explicable, even if the explanation is bizarre or outré.
The Rationalists Involved
Professor Dora Eaton (Rebecca Levene - @BexLevene), middle-aged Professor of Child Psychology at Miskatonic is an expat Englishwoman with some challenging views on childhood development.
Nelly Blythe (Kim Curran - @KimeCurran) is a local journalist known for going to extreme lengths in pursuit of a story. She recently had herself committed to an asylum to expose the unnecessary institutionalization of women, a rouse that she was very nearly unable to extract herself from.
“Reggie” Fermier (Scott Lynch - @ScottLynch78) in his guise as “The Great Roderick Royal” is a moderately well-known stage illusionist and slightly better-known debunker of mystics, psychics and other charlatans, which is what brought him to the Society.
Dr Bernard Chambers (Jonathan L Howard - @JonathanLHoward) of the University’s Chemistry department. A leader in his field, and aware of the peculiarities allowed by quantum theory; of them all, Bernard is probably the most likely to allow that explanations may come from outside that which is currently known.
Scenario
The story opens in December 1924. One week ago, on Tuesday 9th, Robert Elsner, the tenant of one of Arkham's best-known houses, vanished from his locked study during the night. There was no sign of a disturbance of any kind in the room. The Arkham Gazette of the following day was full of extravagant suppositions about this 'locked room mystery', ramped up because of the house's reputation. Built and owned by the Armitages, one of Arkham’s oldest and most respected families until a family tragedy six months ago caused them to leave town and rent out their home; like many old houses the world over, The Armitage House is reputed to be haunted.
But a locked room mystery must surely have a prosaic explanation, even if it is clouded by the superstition surrounding the house. The Society has offered its assistance to the letting agent in establishing what happened to his tenant, and whether he should start looking for a new one...
Where and when
The game takes place on Friday night, 20.30 - 22.45 in Royal A at Nine Worlds.
Please come and cheer on as the players' minds are devoured by eldritch evil.
(Comments open if folks want to record key moments, embarrassing quotes or leave messages of sympathy.)