Recent Gaming: Call of Cthulhu

Call of Cthulhu
So my players after the usual rampage through America and England and Egypt robbing and burning cults property have been in Kenya. In the adventures in the Masks of Nyarlathotep book, the players got to know everyone important in Nairobi and several friendly native wizards so I have happily been using Secrets of Kenya to pad out adventures in masks of Nyarlathotep. So as a few absentees and all have two characters I've had them doing different things. Some have gone to rescue children from leopard cult while others went to help cats in Dreamlands. Several have been developing links to Bast and one guy who slept with were leopard in Egypt now is one. After visiting, dreamlands players speculated they could set up a new base of operations in the dreamlands or perhaps a  private asylum. Not what I expected but Dreamlands is odd. Cats offered to help investigators one day and a few have dreaming skills and learned sword and dagger fighting while in dream montage that seemed like months.

Explorers who stayed at a dodgy safari camp couldn't be bothered by monsters and happy they would keep intruders away. Eventually, they saw ghouls and several investigators had met a ghoul and could speak basics. Ghouls backed of and investigators satisfied. When the child rescue party returned the news spread across the colony, then reached other African then commonwealth news agencies. Cultists surviving in England, USA and Egypt are now on their way. The British government know party are up to something and killing trouble makers so they have received subtle aid with customs so far. They wiped out a tribe of cultists many transformed into animals but they kept in open and all have become competent at rifle use so poor animal cultists got badly slaughtered. Up close party had double-barrelled hunting shotguns and .45 pistols. These weapons proved to be useless vs a dark spawn of Tsathogua they found taking a flash photo of a dark pit. Someone hurt it with an improvised firebomb and one investigator blasted it with dread curse of Azathoths gaze twice, scaring off the immortal horror. As the party fled it, fought off the cult leader who turned into a leopard then had to flee across a river crawling with crocodiles which proved a great moment. A bit like frogger. A great moment as players realise their efficient rifle drilled kill team was useless on a liquid entity then fled was great. Lost one tribal warrior.

An investigator who is a Kenyan farm widow offers to aid Masai letting them live and work on her land. Also absorbed patrons land as he fled back to England and was easily talked out of the property as his fee. Investigators so was a nice outcome. The party set up a Nairobi company to stockpile assets as they have lost contact with their original organisation destroyed by the Silver Twilight seeking revenge on party founders five years ago. Setting up a covert native aid organisation to help tribal sorcerers fight the mythos and keep the crown law out of their way.

Currently, party dividing between an expedition to an archaeological dig possibly bothered by cultists and others investigating lights and cattle mutilations. Both missions are lethal railroads that remove autonomy so I'm in part justifying them as schemes from Nyarlathotep. Possibly I might make party visit the adventure in the Fragments of the Fear book (2nd Cthulhu companion) while freeing Kenya to Australia. As I keeper I have lots of leeway for a TPK or other bad things happening. Been in Nairobi 5 weeks now and everybody important knows them. If you know the scenarios in Secrets of Kenya you know they are in for a bad time.

On party has just spent 6 days digging and are learning about a secret underground ghoul city with thousands of human slaves. They are getting wary. Must check which group ended up with a lewis gun. One side effect of a month in Africa is everybody getting skills in track, sneak, hide, a rifle which is handy and most animals run away so safer than monster hunting. Currently, lots improving archaeology skills. Three party members qualified and one who had done first year of uni as an elective.

Have been having fun scoring mythos miniatures and a few more books. I got two for 13 each worth 65 so I celebrated by buying a terrible value book one of the last I don't have. Miniatures handy over rifle ranges as players can do a lot of damage to a foe 200 yards away and this helps track movement and hit penalties. Of course, the party are more deadly up close after running about like gangsters for years..