The Black Drop Play Report Session #3
Okay, another session of The Black Drop, a one-shot for the Gumshoe RPG, Trail of Cthulhu.
Day 6-7, Port Couvreux, Kerguelen Islands
After arriving at Port Couvreux, the intrepid party meets the three families, Pamela Menager, her daughter Leone, Claudette Petit, Adele Le Galloudec, and her baby. Their husbands are out in the mountains tending their flocks of sheep and will return in a few days. After some emotional greetings and the offloading of their equipment, the De La Rue's head off east.
Professor Lederman is greeted warmly by Pamela, he's been corresponding with her husband Leon. Maurice embraces his cousin Claudette and updates her on the goings-on in their homeland.
The party decides to head down to the beach to investigate a black stone slab. After an hour's walk, the slab is spied, surrounded by the bones of seals, the slab is man-made and obviously from the Doctor's examination, used as a butchering block. The Professor's interest in the occult recalls there is a God of the Black Stone, also known as Groðgolka, Bird-God of Balsagod. The Lieutenant remembers Balsagod being referenced as an island southwest of Spain, where resides the Temple of Darkness, Balsagod is mentioned in many Norse sagas - one such tale ends with the heroes of the saga breaking a cult when two stars joined in the heavens.
Before leaving, the good doctor finds a small niche with a note from "PP", it's on a timetable of astronomical events, showing that the occultation of venus is occurring in a few days time, it also has a scrawl which says "Gone to Lyall, ahead of them. God help me. PP".
As the party looks to head back to the Port, they spy a tent with light coming from within, as it is on the other side of the bay, they agree to come back tomorrow when they can get their hands on a boat.
Arriving back in port they head to the Menager house for a meal, Maurice accompanies Adele, who rambles various religious text at him as they walk. The meal is good, hearty fare and the topic of conversation turns to the exquisite crystal jewelry that adorns the women, apart from Claudette. It is found locally and Leon Menager has made these items. The discussion takes a sour turn when the black slab is mentioned (Adele cries out) and the letter PP being Pierre Petit, Claudette's husband, the group agree to head to the end of Beau Temps Harbor, where Pierre and the other shepherd's will have set-up camp. The group retires, the doctor drowning a particular strong bottle of "cabbage" moonshine, which has a blessed effect on the veracity of his dreams.
The next morning, Maurice heads to the Menager house asking Pamela if he may look upon the workshop and crystals, Pamel allows him to take one of the crystals, he feels a sense of unease as he rounds up the others to set out to find Pierre.
As the group head down to the beach, they hear a foghorn, but it is not the Austral, a small fishing boat is seen in the harbor, the Tenerife. As the group waits, the professor gets out his telescope and spies three grim-looking fellows landing on the shore, one of them wears the uniform of the Schutzstaffel, the SS.
Keeper Thoughts:
I'd managed to turn it around from the last session and pushed on with meeting the inhabitants of the island and heading off to explore the south and the Black Altar. There was clue after clue to be found at the Black Altar and it was nicely spread across all the team.
I started adding in hints to the darkening sky, the sun dipping below the mountain, before they got the idea and headed back, but not before throwing in a distant light (of the meteorologist's tent), to investigate the next day. There was a nice use of the Preparedness skill, as the professor took out a telescope to identify a campsite and light on the other side of the bay.
Arriving back, there was ample opportunity for roleplay and conversation with the shepherd's wives and a focus on their alluring, mysterious crystal jewelry. Also, introducing the note from PP (Pierre Petit, husband of Claudette), set-up a split in the party, Maurice wanting to find his cousin's husband and the rest of the party wishing to check out the mysterious light.
Finally, the next game day, we threw in Maurice taking a crystal and the arrival of the Germans, this was a great point to stop, cranking up the tension as the group, who were busy figuring out how to avoid a split, now had a new faction to deal with.
I tried to downplay suspicion of Pamela, only Adele was a little strange, I'd hoped to paint them all as good, honest, hard-working people, though a little affected by the harsh conditions and isolation, this in my mind, would add to the shock factor in sessions to come...
In retrospect, this would have been a good end to the first session, but somehow we had taken 6 hours to get to this point!
...Here Be Spoilers...
After arriving at Port Couvreux, the intrepid party meets the three families, Pamela Menager, her daughter Leone, Claudette Petit, Adele Le Galloudec, and her baby. Their husbands are out in the mountains tending their flocks of sheep and will return in a few days. After some emotional greetings and the offloading of their equipment, the De La Rue's head off east.
Professor Lederman is greeted warmly by Pamela, he's been corresponding with her husband Leon. Maurice embraces his cousin Claudette and updates her on the goings-on in their homeland.
The party decides to head down to the beach to investigate a black stone slab. After an hour's walk, the slab is spied, surrounded by the bones of seals, the slab is man-made and obviously from the Doctor's examination, used as a butchering block. The Professor's interest in the occult recalls there is a God of the Black Stone, also known as Groðgolka, Bird-God of Balsagod. The Lieutenant remembers Balsagod being referenced as an island southwest of Spain, where resides the Temple of Darkness, Balsagod is mentioned in many Norse sagas - one such tale ends with the heroes of the saga breaking a cult when two stars joined in the heavens.
 |
| The Black Altar |
Before leaving, the good doctor finds a small niche with a note from "PP", it's on a timetable of astronomical events, showing that the occultation of venus is occurring in a few days time, it also has a scrawl which says "Gone to Lyall, ahead of them. God help me. PP".
As the party looks to head back to the Port, they spy a tent with light coming from within, as it is on the other side of the bay, they agree to come back tomorrow when they can get their hands on a boat.
Arriving back in port they head to the Menager house for a meal, Maurice accompanies Adele, who rambles various religious text at him as they walk. The meal is good, hearty fare and the topic of conversation turns to the exquisite crystal jewelry that adorns the women, apart from Claudette. It is found locally and Leon Menager has made these items. The discussion takes a sour turn when the black slab is mentioned (Adele cries out) and the letter PP being Pierre Petit, Claudette's husband, the group agree to head to the end of Beau Temps Harbor, where Pierre and the other shepherd's will have set-up camp. The group retires, the doctor drowning a particular strong bottle of "cabbage" moonshine, which has a blessed effect on the veracity of his dreams.
The next morning, Maurice heads to the Menager house asking Pamela if he may look upon the workshop and crystals, Pamel allows him to take one of the crystals, he feels a sense of unease as he rounds up the others to set out to find Pierre.
As the group head down to the beach, they hear a foghorn, but it is not the Austral, a small fishing boat is seen in the harbor, the Tenerife. As the group waits, the professor gets out his telescope and spies three grim-looking fellows landing on the shore, one of them wears the uniform of the Schutzstaffel, the SS.
 |
| the Tenerife |
Keeper Thoughts:
I'd managed to turn it around from the last session and pushed on with meeting the inhabitants of the island and heading off to explore the south and the Black Altar. There was clue after clue to be found at the Black Altar and it was nicely spread across all the team.
I started adding in hints to the darkening sky, the sun dipping below the mountain, before they got the idea and headed back, but not before throwing in a distant light (of the meteorologist's tent), to investigate the next day. There was a nice use of the Preparedness skill, as the professor took out a telescope to identify a campsite and light on the other side of the bay.
Arriving back, there was ample opportunity for roleplay and conversation with the shepherd's wives and a focus on their alluring, mysterious crystal jewelry. Also, introducing the note from PP (Pierre Petit, husband of Claudette), set-up a split in the party, Maurice wanting to find his cousin's husband and the rest of the party wishing to check out the mysterious light.
Finally, the next game day, we threw in Maurice taking a crystal and the arrival of the Germans, this was a great point to stop, cranking up the tension as the group, who were busy figuring out how to avoid a split, now had a new faction to deal with.
I tried to downplay suspicion of Pamela, only Adele was a little strange, I'd hoped to paint them all as good, honest, hard-working people, though a little affected by the harsh conditions and isolation, this in my mind, would add to the shock factor in sessions to come...
In retrospect, this would have been a good end to the first session, but somehow we had taken 6 hours to get to this point!
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