The Black Drop Play Report Session #5
Okay, the final session of The Black Drop, a one-shot for the Gumshoe RPG, Trail of Cthulhu.
Day 7-8, Port Couvreux-Betsy Cove-Mount Lyall, Kerguelen Islands
Maurice makes his way cautiously up the hill to the burning buildings at Port Couvreux. Spotting two bodies on the ground, he sneaks towards them and sees Pamela, seemingly hiding behind a house, he instructs her to help, the bodies, who he now recognizes as Marc-David and Claudette.
As Pamela moves towards them she surreptitiously draws out a revolver and points it directly at Marc-David, Maurice shoots wildly but misses, Pamela shoots back wounding Maurice. During this pitched battle, Leone comes running up the path to the bay, to her mother's aid. Maurice decides to beats a quick retreat, as Pamela sets chase she catches her foot in a rabbit hole, she screams at the quickly disappearing back of Maurice, that the God of the Black Stone will rise up and take it's revenge on all of them!
Meanwhile, the others head back from the cave to wait at the beach. They see a boat with Maurice in it, he is shaken, he explains the women have gone mad and that he barely escaped with his life. They all head back to Port Couvreux to try and save Desmarais and Claudette. On the way, they see Pamela, Leone, and Marc-David heading along the beach towards the Black Stone. They disembark and a firefight ensues, Pamela is knocked unconscious by the Lieutenant's sharpshooting and brave dash up the beach, Leone collapses in tears, her mind seemingly gone.
Bullard and Maurice head back to Port Couvreux, Claudette is barely alive, but Maurice bandages her as best he can and they take her back to the boat, but not before Maurice detours to the workshop. Inside, he smashes open the crate and takes all the crystals he can find - as he does this a ringing sounds in his head as the colours of daylight assault his senses, this sound seems only to be silenced by focusing on the black, basalt rocks around him.
Returning to the boat, the group debate what to do, should they wait for the Austral to return, this is preferred by Maurice, or, as the Professor suggests, should they go to Mt Lyall and discover what really lies at the heart of the mountain. Buschner is desperate to leave the Island and suggests they travel under cover of darkness to Betsy Cover, take the German's boat, the Tenerife.
After a vote the whole group, including captives, head to Betsy Cove, under cover of darkness they sneak aboard the Tenerife, surprising the crew. Dr. Schneider implores them to help save humanity by returning the diadem, performing the ritual and sacrificing their lives, three sacrifices are required but they only have Faber, a plan is agreed, Pamela and Leone will provide the other two, leaving Ludwig to return 30 years hence. Meanwhile, as the group prepares to leave, Maurice stashes his crystals into the funeral wrappings of poor Pierre Petit. Again, he is blasted by strange sounds and an incoherent voice amongst the noise.
The group heads off to Mt Lyall, the temple is discovered and the ritual begins, it is at this point that the De La Rue's, revealed as cultists, set upon the group, Edgar is dispatched by the Lieutenant and Andree tries to flee but falls to her death as she attempts to jump across the steaming black crack.
The God arises, as Schneider, using the diadem, calls to it, the Professor and Doctor let out screams of terror, falling to the ground as gibbering wrecks, trying to crawl into the earth to escape the hideous being. Maurice high tails it back down the mountain, not once looking back, the rest remain steadfast as Schneider sacrifices Faber, Pamela, and Leon, the occultation of Venus keeps the God wrapt and an earth-shattering crack is heard as the God, is pulled back into the dark earth. Schneider, his mind wrecked by what it has touched runs from the scene into the mountains.
The sun breaks through as the remaining group, help each other out of this dark and miserable place, making their way down the valley and ultimately back to civilization.
The God of the Black Stone's slumber begins... for another 30 years.
Keeper Thoughts:
The last section was primarily non-investigative, essentially a series of encounters but a great moral choice faces the characters, depending on how things play out. At one point the group toyed with the idea of leaving Pamela & Leone at the beach before heading to Betsy Cove, if they had done this, their choices may have been a lot harder. I tried to emphasize before the game that characters should try to follow their drives - for the Lieutenant, his drive of Duty may have been the end of him.
Overall, I really enjoyed running this scenario, it's quite a challenge, as a new Gumshoe keeper, to manage, as there are a lot of NPCs and they are all pretty tough compared to the investigators. There are also a lot of encounters and timings to get your head around, it's the good and bad side of the scenario, it gives you a lot of flexibility and as a more experienced keeper, I think I'd have enjoyed this more, but as a newbie, at times I felt somewhat lost as to what was or should be going on at any particular time. In true Cthulhu style, players are well-advised to run away/and avert their eyes - I left out some of the other cultists at the end, as I felt I could easily TPK the party without getting to the big reveal - as it was, the appearance of the God of the Black Stone, Mind Blasted two out of the four players.
I definitely had to juggle a number of items that I am still learning, building the tension and story, letting players dialog/decisions play out but not for too long, learning the rules, and balancing the NPCs during combat. Hopefully, I managed to keep things enjoyable, whilst keeping true to the Cthulhu bleakness, there were certainly no happy endings for the Professor and the Doctor and Maurice may regret smuggling away such a large number of Lemurian crystals, it's a long trip home and those dreams and visions are only going to get worse.
I'm still struggling to understand how we played this one-shot for 10 hours and missed out on so many encounters, but I'm sure the group enjoyed this, as they are Cthulhu fans and it was a nice break from the more crunchy D&D/Traveller/CoC sessions.
Here is a flow diagram I put together to help me manage the various scenes/choices towards the end;
The Black Drop Flow Diagram
Plus I had a Black Drop Clues/Character tracker to help me understand what Investigative Skills each player had in relation to clues at each scene, secondly a basic tracker for health, stability, and sanity for which, I'm waiting for an up and coming release of the Black Book to try this functionality out, it's by Steve Hammond and Adam Darwoski;
The Black Drop Clues
...Here Be Spoilers...
Maurice makes his way cautiously up the hill to the burning buildings at Port Couvreux. Spotting two bodies on the ground, he sneaks towards them and sees Pamela, seemingly hiding behind a house, he instructs her to help, the bodies, who he now recognizes as Marc-David and Claudette.
As Pamela moves towards them she surreptitiously draws out a revolver and points it directly at Marc-David, Maurice shoots wildly but misses, Pamela shoots back wounding Maurice. During this pitched battle, Leone comes running up the path to the bay, to her mother's aid. Maurice decides to beats a quick retreat, as Pamela sets chase she catches her foot in a rabbit hole, she screams at the quickly disappearing back of Maurice, that the God of the Black Stone will rise up and take it's revenge on all of them!
Meanwhile, the others head back from the cave to wait at the beach. They see a boat with Maurice in it, he is shaken, he explains the women have gone mad and that he barely escaped with his life. They all head back to Port Couvreux to try and save Desmarais and Claudette. On the way, they see Pamela, Leone, and Marc-David heading along the beach towards the Black Stone. They disembark and a firefight ensues, Pamela is knocked unconscious by the Lieutenant's sharpshooting and brave dash up the beach, Leone collapses in tears, her mind seemingly gone.
Bullard and Maurice head back to Port Couvreux, Claudette is barely alive, but Maurice bandages her as best he can and they take her back to the boat, but not before Maurice detours to the workshop. Inside, he smashes open the crate and takes all the crystals he can find - as he does this a ringing sounds in his head as the colours of daylight assault his senses, this sound seems only to be silenced by focusing on the black, basalt rocks around him.
Returning to the boat, the group debate what to do, should they wait for the Austral to return, this is preferred by Maurice, or, as the Professor suggests, should they go to Mt Lyall and discover what really lies at the heart of the mountain. Buschner is desperate to leave the Island and suggests they travel under cover of darkness to Betsy Cover, take the German's boat, the Tenerife.
After a vote the whole group, including captives, head to Betsy Cove, under cover of darkness they sneak aboard the Tenerife, surprising the crew. Dr. Schneider implores them to help save humanity by returning the diadem, performing the ritual and sacrificing their lives, three sacrifices are required but they only have Faber, a plan is agreed, Pamela and Leone will provide the other two, leaving Ludwig to return 30 years hence. Meanwhile, as the group prepares to leave, Maurice stashes his crystals into the funeral wrappings of poor Pierre Petit. Again, he is blasted by strange sounds and an incoherent voice amongst the noise.
The group heads off to Mt Lyall, the temple is discovered and the ritual begins, it is at this point that the De La Rue's, revealed as cultists, set upon the group, Edgar is dispatched by the Lieutenant and Andree tries to flee but falls to her death as she attempts to jump across the steaming black crack.
The God arises, as Schneider, using the diadem, calls to it, the Professor and Doctor let out screams of terror, falling to the ground as gibbering wrecks, trying to crawl into the earth to escape the hideous being. Maurice high tails it back down the mountain, not once looking back, the rest remain steadfast as Schneider sacrifices Faber, Pamela, and Leon, the occultation of Venus keeps the God wrapt and an earth-shattering crack is heard as the God, is pulled back into the dark earth. Schneider, his mind wrecked by what it has touched runs from the scene into the mountains.
 |
| The God of the Black Stone rises |
The sun breaks through as the remaining group, help each other out of this dark and miserable place, making their way down the valley and ultimately back to civilization.
The God of the Black Stone's slumber begins... for another 30 years.
Keeper Thoughts:
The last section was primarily non-investigative, essentially a series of encounters but a great moral choice faces the characters, depending on how things play out. At one point the group toyed with the idea of leaving Pamela & Leone at the beach before heading to Betsy Cove, if they had done this, their choices may have been a lot harder. I tried to emphasize before the game that characters should try to follow their drives - for the Lieutenant, his drive of Duty may have been the end of him.
Overall, I really enjoyed running this scenario, it's quite a challenge, as a new Gumshoe keeper, to manage, as there are a lot of NPCs and they are all pretty tough compared to the investigators. There are also a lot of encounters and timings to get your head around, it's the good and bad side of the scenario, it gives you a lot of flexibility and as a more experienced keeper, I think I'd have enjoyed this more, but as a newbie, at times I felt somewhat lost as to what was or should be going on at any particular time. In true Cthulhu style, players are well-advised to run away/and avert their eyes - I left out some of the other cultists at the end, as I felt I could easily TPK the party without getting to the big reveal - as it was, the appearance of the God of the Black Stone, Mind Blasted two out of the four players.
I definitely had to juggle a number of items that I am still learning, building the tension and story, letting players dialog/decisions play out but not for too long, learning the rules, and balancing the NPCs during combat. Hopefully, I managed to keep things enjoyable, whilst keeping true to the Cthulhu bleakness, there were certainly no happy endings for the Professor and the Doctor and Maurice may regret smuggling away such a large number of Lemurian crystals, it's a long trip home and those dreams and visions are only going to get worse.
I'm still struggling to understand how we played this one-shot for 10 hours and missed out on so many encounters, but I'm sure the group enjoyed this, as they are Cthulhu fans and it was a nice break from the more crunchy D&D/Traveller/CoC sessions.
Here is a flow diagram I put together to help me manage the various scenes/choices towards the end;
The Black Drop Flow Diagram
Plus I had a Black Drop Clues/Character tracker to help me understand what Investigative Skills each player had in relation to clues at each scene, secondly a basic tracker for health, stability, and sanity for which, I'm waiting for an up and coming release of the Black Book to try this functionality out, it's by Steve Hammond and Adam Darwoski;
The Black Drop Clues
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