Cthulhuween 2013: Assault on Innsmouth!

For the last fifteen years or so, I have run a number of Call of Cthulhu-style one-shot adventures for my friends.  I say 'Call of Cthulhu-style,' because I have used a variety of rulesets over the years (original COC, D20 COC, D20 Modern, and various homebrew variants,) at my whim.

In the beginning, I ran them on Halloween (hence 'Cthulhuween,') but after my wife and I were married, since we both had birthdays in May, we began collaborating on another one shot during that month, the Twin Birthdays of Doom!

The settings and stories have varied wildly, and include homage/parodies of films (Jurassic Park, the Thing, Dawn of the Dead,) and dozens of variations on different themes (sci-fi, Westerns, murder mysteries, superheroes, pirates, etc.)  But they are all related to the Cthulhu Mythos.  True, sometimes I am the only one who gets the link to the mythos, but I always tie it in to Lovecraft's works, or the fiction derived therefrom.

Many of these projects have involved some rather fun and extensive miniatures and set pieces.  So I have decided to start chronicling some of them here, since most involve modern (and specialized) miniatures, so I can justify doing so.

I am beginning with this year's entry, which acts as somewhat of a sequel to "The Shadow over Innsmouth."  I will not recap the story here, but if you've never read it, you really should.  Then come back here.

Okay, now that you have read it, I can tell you that the story takes place after the main action of the tale, but before the narrator's (Robert Olmstead) grim denouement, and before the government forces arrive to deal with the problem.  My story involves Professor Henry Armitage, protagonist of "The Dunwich Horror" and librarian of Miskatonic University, coming across a copy of Olmstead's account.

He hears the description of the strange tiara worn by the Deep One high priest, and identifies it as something too dangerous to fall into the government's hands.  So he has to assemble a team of "Men of Action" to go in and recover the item.

Here's where it gets interesting, because the individuals he recruits (the PC's,) are famous literary characters who were alive and active in 1927.  Sort of a "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" concept if you will (I should point out defensively that I and several other people had ideas like this long before Mister Alan Moore wrote his excellent work, and this is in no way meant to be derivative, so there.)

Each of these characters was of course represented by its own, custom designed miniature. So I will introduce you to the roster below.  Let's meet them, shall we?

Here is Kent Allard/Lamont Cranston (it's complicated,) better known as The Shadow!  He brought excellent stealth skills and a barrage of gunfire to the party.

Here is the Shadow from the back.  This mini had no modifications at all, and is from Reaper's Chronoscope Bones line, where he is known as "the Black Mist."  Subtle.

Behold the Man of Bronze, Doc Savage!  That pulpiest of heroes, he excels in both pugilism and gunfighting.  He was originally the Molten Man, from the Web of Spiderman Heroclix set.  I used putty to turn his briefs into pants (still way too tight, but time was pressing,) and also to sculpt the exaggerated widow's peak that the character became known for in cover art.

I then used putty to sculpt a shirt, as well as the tattered remains of a torn sleeve (another trademark of his appearance on book covers in later years.)  The picture doesn't quite pickup his bronze hair, but I assure you it's there.

Here is his mighty back.  Please don't look at his pronounced butt crack.  I gave his pants an inkwash, and it did not turn out well.  I was pressed for time, and I will probably go back and fix it one day, but just... I SAID STOP LOOKING AT IT!  Let's move on, shall we?

This is meant to be Tom Swift, boy inventor.  Of course, by 1927 he was no longer a boy.  I used the time traveller from Chronoscope Bones, since I had him from the Kickstarter, and wasn't sure how else to show Tom Swift (there aren't a lot of visual references for the character.)

Tom from the back.  No highlights, just a wash, but I think it came out okay.  Sadly, his player could not make it, so he was not used in the game.

John Reid, the Lone Ranger.  He would be in his seventies in 1927, but it's okay, because he exercises regularly and eats plenty of fiber.  He was a crack shot, but his physical stats reflected his age.  The mini was 'Deadeye Slim,' also from Reaper's Chronoscope Bones line, and I used putty to give him the mask and bandana.  His hair was painted grey, and a blob of silver paint created his badge (if I'd had more time, I could have done more, but this worked out fine.)

The Lone Ranger from the back.  The mini had a duster, and I figured he probably gets cold easier these days...

John Clayton, Viscount Greystoke, known colloquially as Tarzan, Lord of the Apes.  He has great physical skills, and is deadly with a knife.  The only metal mini, he is a Wargames Foundry mini I had from a decade or so ago (and one of the ones that gave me the "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" idea, even before reading the comic by Alan Moore.)

The back of Tarzan, showing his bow and quiver.

Da-duh DUH DUH, Da duh duh!  (You know the tune.)  Last but not least, here is young Professor Henry Jones Jr.  He has a ton of hit points (since he gets hit so often,) and is handy with gun and whip.  He is made from the Horrorclix Agent 31, with the hat of another Horrorclix mini, Man in Black, added on top.

Another view of Indy.  Much of this mini is the factory prepaint job.  When I'm doing a one shot, there are a lot of things to do, so any time savers I can rely on, I do.

As to the games itself, the characters started out in the middle of town, having snuck onto the back of a delivery truck returning to Innsmouth.  They had to sneak through the town square past a horde of local toughs.

These guys

After the inevitable fight, they barricaded themselves inside the meeting hall of the Esoteric Order of Dagon.  They saw the tiara they had come to retrieve, upon the head of a hooded figure, who quickly disappeared through a trapdoor in the floor, leaving them to fight a horde of hooded cultists.

These guys.

After defeating them, they had to solve a timed puzzle to open the trapdoor's lock.  This consisted of doing a very simple puzzle belonging to my three year old son.  But they had to do it blindfolded, by feel.

This was FAR harder than it would seem, and they really had fun doing it.

Then they found themselves chasing the figure along a network of tunnels, where they were eventually jumped by deep ones!  I had just received my Dwarven Forge Game Tiles from the Kickstarter last year, so I eagerly constructed the scene.  Alas, I did not have time to paint them first, but it still looked really awesome.

Overhead view of the layout.  I learned after taking these that there was a smudge on the left side of my camera lens.  I have children.

I used water tiles from my WotC Dungeon Tiles to create the water channel in the middle of the tunnel.

The Deep Ones are very old Grenadier minis that I have used for many years now (when you run Call of Cthulhu, you use a lot of Deep Ones.)

Tarzan squares off against the biggest Deep One, a 'goggler' from Reaper.

With that done, they faced another puzzle to unlock the trap door in the ceiling, through which their quarry had fled.  This was a coin moving puzzle, which they solved easily (hooray for smart friends!)  They found themselves in an old warehouse mostly over the water on wooden pilings.  The Deep Ones High Priest used the tiara to control a creature beneath the warehouse, causing its tentacles to burst upwards to attack!

The resolution for this photo got screwed up.  You can see the heroes fighting tentacles here, while Tarzan and Doc Savage try to eliminate the problem at its source, and take out the priest with the diadem.

 The tentacles were made from washers with pipe cleaners glued to them.  Then I covered the pipe cleaners with Crayola Model Magic, and sculpted the tentacles themselves.  The suckers were made by first pushing in a plastic tube, to make little mounds, then pushing the butt end of a paint brush into the middle of the mounds to create the suckers.  I coated the surfaces in white glue for stiffness before painting.  Hot glue around the bases (in this picture I had not yet added blue paint,) served as frothing water, since I will no doubt want to use these again someday.

Once they had recovered the diadem, the heroes fled the scene and returned triumphant!  This was a departure from normal Cthuluweens, where usually everyone dies.  But this time, they were playing beloved characters, and only one character perished.  Thankfully, it was the Lone Ranger (it was his time, anyway,) so no continuities were ignored in making this adventure.

As ever, people had a great time, and that's what gaming is about, isn't it?

Just look at those grinning faces...