This is the much anticipated continuation of the Call of Cthulhu chronicle created by Jim Comer for Viet Nam. If you missed the earlier Tickets, you can read them first by going to the Tickets Intro Page
Seventh Ticket
Archaeology by the Sea
Here we seek answers in the past. Unless
the players have some kind of unnatural desire to be made into chutney,
they have likely requested transfer to a less dangerous setting.
They get it. An eccentric elderly Australian archaeologist, Dr. Gale,
is doing a dig at a site south of Hué that was uncovered by bombing
during Tet in 1968. The American government has offered a few troops
to keep an eye on things, and the investigators fit the bill.
The site is a fifteenth-century Chinese temple
erected by Cheng He during his celebrated voyages to Africa, which were
obviously undertaken for the purpose of gaining information on the Mythos,
including a complete copy of the Necronomicon, transliterated into Chinese
characters and tattooed onto the hides of a hundred Nubian slavegirls,
who were shipped to Vietnam and skinned to make the book. The temple
rests on the site of an earlier Champa shrine to unspeakable evil, which
in turn covers a cyclopean prehuman thingamabob. The Elder Ones used
to hang out here. They may again, soon.
Sidebar-the Amazing Dr. Gale
As a relief to those who have begun to wonder
about the author's SAN score, he proudly offers a Keeper's character to
rival any seen so far. This is the amazing Elizabeth Boudicca Cholmondeley
Pitt-Nebiker, B.A. M.A., Ph. D., called by her friends "Dr. Gale."
She is an expert in the history, archaeology, and anthropology of the Austronesian
culture sphere, and is in Vietnam to conduct one last dig before either
she or the site leaves this world.
THE MEETING
THE GOOD DOCTOR GALE
Elizabeth Boudicca Cholmondeley Pitt-Nebiker
is used to people staring at her name before trying to pronounce it("Chumley").
She is also knowledgeable about the Mythos and a valuable ally for the
investigators.
She was born on a sheep station in the Outback
in 1899 at the hands of an aboriginal midwife, to immigrants from Britain.
Her years at girls' school whetted an appetite for antiquarian things that
only her love for Australian aboriginal culture could match. She
paired a degree from Jesus College, Oxford, with another from Melbourne
University in anthropology, adding another doctorate in Southeast Asian
Studies later. Years of fieldwork among the Aranda, Pitjantjara,
and Western Desert aboes gave her fluency in their language and immersion
in their culture, eventually leading to initiation as a member of a Western
Desert hunting band, from which she acquired her field worker, student
and friend Mihirung, who took the name Abraham Wakurna Wongar and accompanied
her to Europe and Asia.
A recent shell from a naval battle has exposed
layers of early(pre-Buddhist) stonework with odd carvings. These
depict crinoid-like, half-vegetable entities emerging from the sea and
humans worshipping them and offering meat animals as sacrifices.
These people are recognizably of primitive Cambodian stock, and the whole
affair resembles the legendary Angkor Wat. In fact, this area is
older, and a center of human contact with the Old Ones until the coming
of higher population density meant that the Old Ones could not come and
go without recognition by human enemies.
No normal Viet will go near this place.
The South Vietnamese government has to provide protection for such an expedition,
but chooses to ask the American command for a few troops, and Charlie Company
fills the bill.
The records of the Chinese monk Fa-Hsien contain
a note that the place was inhabited by devil-worshippers.
THE MEETING BY THE SEA
The fungi meet the elder things on this beach,
the place where their remote realms are closest. The elder things
rise from the deep-ocean trenches where they survive near the volcanic
vents, to the surface. The fungi stop at the cannibal fortress and
make use of the mystic stone there to transform themselves into human likeness.
They pull up in two jeeps. Their nominal leader, whose Yuggothian
title translates as Decider, is in the first. The fungi are
in human form, disguised as VC cadres with black pajamas and scarves on
their "heads". A Spot Hidden roll reveals that these people are not
normal in that their movements are not in accordance with the human norm.
A critical success reveals that they are clearly inhuman, though only one
who knows the whisperers will recognize the scuttling gait and clicking
noises. They bring Capt. Schwärmer to the meeting for
a ritual, and Col. Shiny for translation-their machines can imitate the
piping of the elder things, but Shiny is a native speaker. His 'cousin',
Mr. Squishy, may also be present, in fake Japanese business suit.
They pipe and whistle to one another as the other beings gather.
The fungi draw strange designs on the sand
and buzz to one another, with lapses into English. Decider is casting
the spell, seldom used, of Contact Elder Thing. The spell succeeds
and the fungi settle down to wait until the elder things arrive.
This takes six hours. The investigators will know this if they are
close enough to hear the fungi talk to Shiny and the Green Berets.
Schwärmer is good with languages, but Yuggothian was beyond him and
the fungi have to use human language. The soldiers may play-practice
fighting with Shiny and Squishy for the occasion, swim, light a driftwood
fire, or just sit and talk old times. Shiny will not appear nervous,
but a Psych or Mythos roll reveals that "he" is under great stress.
The situation is like that of a bad dog being visited by its bitten master,
save that people did not create dogs. Shiny has very unpleasant memories
of the conflict in the Pleistocene wherein he and his fellows faced their
masters, and he knows that despite his millennia of manipulating humans,
he is not so good at facing their and his superiors. The average
elder thing can think rings around an average human, let alone a mere shoggoth.
The elder things arrive at about four AM with
a splash, and a piping whistle. They approach guardedly, recalling
past wars. If the investigators are still watching, they lose the
usual 0/1D6 for each of the four elder things, to a maximum SAN loss of
6 points. The elder things each carry a tool pouch and certain weapons.
A clever investigators may try to stir trouble by firing at random to start
a fight. Schwärmer will then try to locate them. If he
can't, then the squishies kill each other, leaving him rather dazed; he
will leave.
The conflict avoided, the four species sit(?)
down to parley. They use Shiny and Squishy as translators into the
elder tongue, and the Mi-go use English. They draw maps, dividing
the world into feeding zones, breeding zones, mining areas, and whatnot,
with a few human wilderness areas for good measure. They mark the
road to R'lyeh, and the riverway to Tibet. They ask the captain precise
questions about the locations of the planets and the demography of Asia.
If the investigators try to fight, they will
probably all die. The fungi and elder things are not so heavily armed,
but the captain is, and knows how to use his weapon. König and
Müller are likewise.
If no one interferes, the conference gives way to ritual. The elder things make a circle in the sand and draw magic signs. The captain strips and stands in the middle, as the four elder things gather round him. They pipe and whistle their arcane incantation, then each cuts itself and smears Schwärmer with the black ichor. They coat his skin with the stuff until he is completely covered. This bizarre ritual costs 0/1 SAN to see. It also renders Jake immune to fire damage for another four years. If he had killed an elder thing and bathed in its blood, he would have been immune for life; this is not recommended as a personal option. After this is done, the elder things slip off into the sea, not to return. Shiny is palpably relieved.
Wongar
The doctor's personal assistant is a man of
singular appearance. He is six feet tall, with bushy black-brown
hair, black skin, and a red beard. He usually wears bush shorts and
shirt, with a sun hat, although he hardly needs one. He is an Australian
aborigine, born 1939 in the Western Desert to a mob that the Doctor had
been initiated into sometime before, after ten years of fieldwork among
them. Named Mihirung Nyunga Warakurna, or Mihirung Walking Man, he
caught the doctor's eye as a child. She sent him to school on a scholarship,
and he went on to get a degree in anthropology from the University of Melbourne.
For purposes of Western record keeping he called himself Abraham Warakurna
Wongar. "Wongar" will do.
Wongar is no stranger to the Mythos.
His band is a composite of two others. One was the nameless mob visited
by the Father of All Bats, known to English-speaking Mythos adepts as the
Haunter of the Dark, yet another of the thousand forms of Nyarlathotep.
By the time of Wongar's childhood, the exploits of Power Boy, who was an
uncle of Wongar's, were already legend. The whole affair of the City
in the Sands is chronicled in Terror Australis, a Chaosium publication.
As related there, Power Boy vanished into Dreamtime, and the city
was destroyed. There seems to have been no Mythos activity in the
area since, but it is a historical fact that the general area was used
for nuclear testing in the 1950s and 60s, at the time when the last Aboriginal
peoples were driven onto reservations. Dr. Gale fought to reach and
warn as many aborigines as possible, but her success was limited, and most
of Wongar's small band died. He took to following her worldwide on
archaeological digs and teaching assignments.
STATISTICS
Doctor Elizabeth Boudicca Cholmondeley Pitt-Nebiker('Dr. Gale"), Age
70
STR 7 DEX 11 INT 18
CON 11 APP 10 POW 16
SIZ 9 SAN 70 EDU 25
HP 10
Pistol 45%, Rifle 30%, Boomerang 20%, English 99%, French 50%, Latin
60%, Greek 45%, Hebrew 10%, Arabic 15%, Mandarin 50%, Vietnamese 40%, Japanese
5%, Aklo 5%, Aranda 50%, Pitjantjara 40%, Western Desert Aboriginal Dialects
20%, Lardil 15%, History 90%, Archaeology 90%, Anthropology 85%, Credit
Rating 45%, Cthulhu Mythos 5%, Diagnose Disease 10%, First Aid 35%, Library
Use 90%, Occult 25%, Pilot Aircraft 10%, Ride 25%, Linguist 80%, Botany
15%, Zoology 10%, Vietnam 5%
Abraham Wakurna Wongar, Aboriginal Archaeologist, age 35
STR 14 DEX 16 INT 17
CON 15 APP 9 POW 18
SIZ 17 SAN 90 EDU 9
HP16
Rifle 45%, Pistol 50%, Dagger 30%, Boomerang 60%, Spear 55%, Aranda
50%, Lardil 35%, English 65%, Archaeology 25%, Anthropology 15%, Sneak
80%, Hide 89%, Spot Hidden 90%, Climb 70%, Camouflage 90%, Occult 50%,
Cthulhu Mythos 5%, Swim 90%, Track 90%, Jump 50%
Uffington Aethelfrith Bloss-Neville, Graduate Assistant to Dr. Gale,
Age 24
STR 12 DEX 9 INT 15
CON 12 APP 10 POW 6
SIZ 11 SAN 30 EDU 19
HP 11
Rifle 20%, English 80%, Latin 35%, Greek 25%, Archaeology 80%, Anthropology
50%, History 50%, Photography 20%, Zoology 60%(Butterflies only), Recite
Poetry 90%
Decider, A Fungi From Yuggoth in human form
STR 9 DEX 15 INT 17
CON 10 APP 0 POW 16
SIZ 10
HP 10
Skills: Speak Yuggothian 95%, Speak English 55%, Speak Tibetan 75%,
Speak Vietnamese 50%, Speak Chinese 60%, Pistol Attack 45%, Astronomy 90%,
Camouflage 70%, Geology 70%, Linguist 50%, Make Maps 80%, History 45%,
Mythos 25%, Credit Rating 10%(in human disguise), Occult 10%, Physics 80%,
Sneak 15%
Spells: Dread Curse of Azathoth, Contact Nyarlathotep, Voorish Sign,
Resurrection
The other fungi is Mathematician, a friend of Decider. It is also
in human form.
STR 17 DEX 16 INT 14
CON 11 APP 0 POW 14
SIZ 7
HP 9
Skills: as above plus Mathematics 90%
Spells: none
The Leader of the Elder Things
STR 39 DEX 17 INT 17
CON 24 APP 0 POW 15
SIZ 40
HP 32
Skills: Swim 99%, Elder Thing 95%, Cthulhu Mythos 30%, Genetic Engineering
80%, Architecture 45%, Geology 40%, History 90%, other skills incomprehensible
to human readers
Spells: Contact Fungi from Yuggoth, Summon Shoggoth, Bind Shoggoth,
Brew Space-Mead(actually another concoction, but with the same effect;
Leader has never used this spell), Elder Sign
The other Elder Things might be called Grey Follower, Red Follower,
and Green Follower, as they wear toolpouches of these colors to hold their
personal effects. Their statistics are similar to those of Leader,
though less talented.
All Material is © Conrad Hubbard.
Tickets for a Prayer is an adventure written by
James Comer and published here with his permission.
References to products created by Chaosium or other
companies are not challenges to their copyrights
Conrad Hubbard,
Editor
