Scoring Call of Cthulhu

I'm a big fan of film scores as a source for scenario underscore...

   The trick to using film scores... and it is a bit of work... is to categorize cues.
If you take a favorite composer of mine, Bernard Herrmann, you will find that a score like Psycho is extremely useful, but you don't want the shower murder cue to pop out at the wrong moment. Actually, I wouldn't use the Shower Murder music at all, nor the Prelude and related cues... Those cues are too recognizable. That leaves almost half an hour of quietly (disquietingly) menacing music + another nine minutes of cues which are similar but with a tempo which suggests greater tension.
   The real trick is to find cues from other scores by the same composer to intersperse. In the case of the Psycho cues, I expanded the first category (Quietly Menacing) to almost an hour and the second category to over thirty-five minutes with cues from Vertigo, North By Northwest and material from the CBS Library recordings, The Twilight Zone scores etc. .
   You have to be a bit obsessive to put together a really broad collection of cues in the many categories that may be useful in play.

  Even scores like Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Day the Earth Stood Still and The Mysterious Island can provide a few cues for common CofC situations, although I withhold most of that stuff for cyclopean ruins and vast subterranean lairs.

  In the future, when I blog about scenarios I’ve run, I'll mention the music I used. For now I will provide a brief summary of music used to date.

 
“Homonculous” – The first scenario involved a small, capering humanoid generated by the remnants of an occult experiment conducted fifteen years before the game date in 1921.

·         Bernard Herrmann music in several playlists to cover various levels of tension and weirdness.

·         Richard Band music from Castle Freak, Mutant and Richard Band’s library cues. This was heavily weighted towards the Castle Freak material which has an antic, capering motif which seemed just right.

“Outsider Art” – This scenario concerned artists going mad and disappearing into some sort of lost area in the Sunset District. Since the danger in the scenario was generally out of sight and caused by what amount to extraterrestrial insects… I needed something a bit different. In addition to the usual Bernard Herrmann music I used a lot of Ennio Morricone material from Orca, Moses the Lawgiver and The Thing. I also did something slightly clever by layering a sound effect I had mixed out of insect noises which sometimes came and went behind one version of the playlist. I use sound effects separately on occasion but this allows me to use them with some degree of subtlety, and without having to mess about with the second I-pod.

“Drood” – A lengthy scenario dealing with the Chapel of Contemplation and a plot involving murder of children and some sort of psychic vampirism… In addition to the Bernard Herrmann material, which has been getting quite a workout, I have added a few more composers.

• ·         Miklos Rozsa has provided a creepy theme from Last Embrace. This “ZM” theme, is associated in the film with malignant memories of the Z’vi Migdal, a Jewish criminal organization. Expanded versions of the soundtrack have given me as much as a half hour of related material. I've broken it into two overlapping collections, one creepier and one more prosaic.

• ·         Miklos Rozsa has also provided a collection of action cues from Brute Force, The Killers, Eye of the Needle and The Private Files of J Edgar Hoover. Amazingly enough, these were used while the Investigators were taken on a fast cross-town drive to the scene of a dramatic suicide. Usually such a sequence would be glossed over – being treated as a segue between the actually important parts of the scenario. In this case there was some real interest and I think the music helped to generate tension.

• ·         There’s been occasion to use some material from Jerry Goldsmith’s Chinatown and LA Confidential, mostly when the Investigators are moving about the city, looking for clues. This is an alternative to the Rozsa "prosaic ZM" collection.

• ·         I’ve also gotten a chance to use one of the playlists I generated for Cthuloid monster attacks. This one contains edited cues from Alien 3 by Eliot Goldenthal and is a frenetically paced pounding, screeching cacophony. Because I needed to have a consistently fast and brutal sound, I cut the cues to remove slow lead-ins, quiet resolutions etc. I suspect Mr. Goldenthal would be appalled.

·     

  My library of music for use in gaming began with the score to Psycho (The Joel McNeely re-performance or the original soundtrack are both the same 40 cues… I don’t prefer one over the other.)

Here are the two initial collections that I took from Psycho.

• Quietly Menacing:-Cues 2, 3, 4, 8, 16, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 40 - These cues are supplemented with some from North By Northwest and a few from other sources like the Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV scores.

• Waiting – Searching:  Cues 11, 15, 19, 20, 34, - These few cues are heavily supplemented by more from Vertigo, North By Northwest and from a variety of sources including the Twilight Zone scores.

Bernard Herrmann also provided me with a lot of additional music most notably from the many collections of his TV music which have been released over the last 20-30m years.

September 13-14, 1921 (Skullhouse Date November 10, 2015) Tom Holub’s Recollection of Events

 

SPOILERS BELOW - SPOILERS BELOW 

*************************************

With some slight ammendments...

Tuesday, September 13: Sophie and Tom know they want to get into the Chapel of Contemplation mausoleum in Laurel Hill Cemetery, but are unsure when the best time would be. They decide to talk to Sarah and Dr. Marsh and make up their minds later.

While Sophie and Sarah plan their day at a cafe, Tom clears out of his small apartment and goes into the underworld. He comes across some faces from the old days: Dicky & The Dumberer. Neither can tell him anything about Patrick O’Hara. He has a bit more luck with a cop connection: Duane Gordon who works in the property room. Duane knows that O’Hara is cousin to police commissioner Jesse Cook.

Sarah and Sophie head over to the campus of St. Ignatius, where an aged Father Kolvenbach lives at Campion House. Sophie charms her way in with a story about wanting to interview the Father for a sorority newspaper article. On their way to his room, they are passed by a young lad delivering a bottle of booze to Kolvenbach’s room. Sophie takes the opportunity to further ingratiate herself with the Father by picking up the delivery tab. Drinks are handed around as the interview begins. Sarah slams hers down. Sophie sips.

Sarah focuses in on an arcane text that Kolvenbach has been studying, something like “Investigation into Myth Patterns of Primitives with Reference to the R’lyeh Text.” Kolvenbach’s slurred response points along the lines of, “You don’t want to know about that, little girl. It’s horrible!” Sarah’s having none of it, and pushes back hard, challenging the Father for willfully delving further into the pit of despair he’s so clearly been descending for years. Her tough cross questioning makes an impression, and the man confesses to a loss of faith, muttering about the things he’s seen in this city. Sophie takes this opportunity to rush headlong into a direct statement of the facts at hand, going so far as to produce Patrick O’Hara’s Committee of Vigilance medallion. His final resistance broken, Kolvenbach tells all.

The gist of it is that a young man named Eric Ralston was inducted into the Chapel of Contemplation because of his significant inheritance. He quickly found himself appalled at the goings on there and had the fortitude to tell Leland Cort, who brought Captain Jesse Cook into the matter. They resolved that the Chapel had to be ended and knew it could never happen through official channels; it had to look like an accident. The Reconstituted Committee of Vigilance was born. A young police officer infiltrated the Chapel and the Vigilantes decided to conduct a raid before the terrible Candlemass rituals, when they knew children would be sacrificed.

The raid turned into a bloodbath, with many deaths. Compounding the tragedy, they were too late to save the children, who lay dead on the altar. Two preternatural occurrences cemented Kolvenbach’s conviction that the Chapel’s occult powers were far more than mere posturing: a dagger flew through the air to impale one officer; another turned on his fellow vigilantes with a shotgun as if possessed.

·         Father Kolvenbach also states that he has, or perhaps, had, one of the bloodied stones from one or other of the Chapel members at the Candlemass ritual. The stones had evidently been dipped in the blood of the children, and were small, with the, now familiar triskelion/eye symbol etched into them. Kolvenbach asserts that while he washed the stone with holy water an performed a ceremony of exorcism upon it; the nagging sensation and the troubling “afterimage” of the eye when sleeping or waking from sleep…never lessened.

·         According to Kolvenbach the altar and other symbols at the Chapel of Contemplation were broken up under his direction.

Over in Oakland, Dr. Marsh gets word from his phone service that the other investigators want to meet up at Coffee Dan’s and he catches the ferry back to San Francisco. The four plan their meeting with Leland Cort.

At the Woolworths off Union Square, Leland Cort is curt and dismissive. He denies any ongoing threat from the Chapel of Contemplation and gives only lukewarm indications of relief that the investigators are not plotting an occult conspiracy of their own. At least the heat from the Vigilantes seems to have subsided. As an afterthought, Sophie phones Leland with the license plate of the stalker with the military haircut.

As the hour grows late, Dr. Marsh and Sarah persuade the other two that waiting until the next morning to investigate the mausoleum is the wisest course.

Wednesday, September 14: A bluff, a bribe, and some fast talk get past the Laurel Hill Cemetery groundskeeper and into the mausoleum. The mechanism for opening the inner door is quickly found, and the group descends below. With dirt slowly seeping in from above, they enter a ritual chamber with the familiar triskelion symbol on the floor and another circle of strange glyphs on the wall. A trail of dirt connects the triskelion to a door back near the mausoleum’s entrance. Three skulls rest inside the symbol. Knocking these poor Yoricks aside, Dr. Marsh confirms that the symbol has been broken.

·         Beneath the stack of skulls was a torn vellum sheet. The tearing was described by one of the investigators as looking like the work of a clawed hand… The vellum was folded down the middle and was had written on each side of the fold.

·         On the Left Side: Pledged - Our service when summoned solely for the providing of specified books and artifacts such as are buried or entombed. --- A jagged symbol is at the bottom as if in signature – This symbol, Sarah identifies as connected with the Arabic conception of “Ghuls” or “Eaters of the Dead”.

·         On the Right Side: Pledged – The flesh of any and all of our Brothers whenever and wherever they die shall henceforth be thine. --- A triskelion/eye is at the bottom in signature.

 While Sarah lays salt barricades, the others gather up various documents and books strewn about. Sophie is eerily captivated and needs repeated admonitions to save the reading of these materials for later.

Back inside the door near the stairs, the investigators find a broken coffin (with headless skeleton) and an archway that might once have lead to further chambers but is now choked with dirt. As they plan their next move, they hear scrabbling and guttural croaking from beyond the arch . Dr. Marsh appears ready to stand his ground and fight whatever beast might emerge from the depths of the tomb, but his friends’ pleas persuade him that there’s nothing to be gained here, and a general retreat begins.

The door to the chamber is easily resealed, but now the earthen wall back towards the ritual chamber is bursting outward in a torrent of rubble and debris. Everyone flees this foul and musty place before they can learn what might crawl forth.

And what manner of eldritch lore was recovered from the crypt? The details remain uncertain, but have much to do with the procurement of dark powers, contracts with strange creatures with menacing names, and the ability to compel these monstrosities to commit evil deeds at a distance--even through walls. Some of the writing is in Drood’s hand, some penned by one or more others who could be cohorts, disciples or rivals.

By now, Leland Cort has some information about the man who has been tailing the investigators, but he won’t share it over the phone. He wants the four chums to meet him at The White Shack, which Tom knows to be a sort of distribution point for booze smuggled by sea into Half Moon Bay.

Down south, the investigators find not only Leland, but Patrick O’Hara and Commissioner Cook as well. It takes some convincing to get Sarah over to the barn where these three want to discuss details, but she eventually accepts that there aren’t many other choices.

Leland’s first bit of news is that the man with the military haircut is Jake Luzinski, a private dick with United Services, a dirty outfit that…

·         Has been employed by the Gray brothers…

Dr. Marsh produces one of the documents from the mausoleum, and the Vigilantes are greatly disturbed to recognize the handwriting as that of George Gray. Both Gray brothers were suspected of being involved in the Chapel, but this is the first hard evidence. But there’s more: the investigators’ documents indicate members of the Chapel working towards a momentous event to take place October 31 of this very year! This finally cracks the Vigilantes’ conviction that troubles with the Chapel are in the past. They indicate that surviving Gray brother Harry is the only person they know of who had ties to the Chapel and is still around. Looking into his activities seems like a good idea. Meanwhile, Leland and friends will make sure that the mausoleum is dug up and investigated in its entirety, with nothing left behind as a locus for ongoing Chapel activity.

Harry Gray lives in a posh Pacific Heights mansion, and there’s the Gray Brothers yard that Tom found while following the younger Gonzalez. Gray also has an office in the city. October 31 is less than seven weeks away.

Working on a New Paper House

I have a scenario titled... either "The House on Sign Hill" or "Weltgeist"...
The scenario features a fictitious mansion on Sign Hill, overlooking South San Francisco.
I found a suitable house in one of those nifty Dover books - Country Houses and Seaside Cottages of the Victorian Era  by William T. Comstock.

I wanted an observatory on the house, so I edited the image a bit.

I've laid out a floorplan previously, based on the small version in the original drawing, but now I am laying out a set of exteriors for my paper house. I am using Corel Draw and have a number of previously created elements to work from from doors, windows etc. Below is an example of what I've already done for this project.
The images are scaled for printing out at about 1/60 scale, which is what I use for figure-scale dioramas.

September 12-13, 1921 (Skullhouse Date October 15, 2015) Tom Holub’s Recollection of Events

SPOILERS BELOW - SPOILERS BELOW 

*************************************

This is David's work, to which I have added only one detail, which I recall and which seems to have been overlooked...

 

Monday, September 12: Sophie Leroux is back in town after cavorting with Charles Chaplin and friends down south in Niles. She gets a phone call from old school chum Leland Cort, who has risen to the lofty position of Mayor James “Sunny Jim” Rolph’s Secretary and society liaison. Leland has heard all sorts of things about Sophie and friends’ recent investigations. He’d like to meet with them to catch up. He sure seems to know a lot already! Sophie agrees to stop by his office later.

Sophie calls Sarah and Tom and the three plan to meet up at low-key South of Market speak The Blue Garter. Leaving her house for the assignation, Sarah immediately spots a ruddy-faced man in a black sedan across the street who definitely has the eye on her. Not wanting to lead him to her friends, she hails a cab and directs the driver to Coffee Dan’s, a somewhat rougher speakeasy, but not before taking down her stalker’s license plate number.

Ensconced in Coffee Dan’s, Sarah’s able to phone Sophie and Tom at The Blue Garter, and the three rendezvous.

Sarah and Tom catch Sophie up on the goings on at the Old Drood Place. Everyone is concerned that they haven’t heard from Dr. Marsh. They also want to go to Myrtle’s later in the day to attend a wake for doomed artists Wendell Schank and Johnathan Colbert. When they exit Coffee Dan’s, Sarah’s pursuer is nowhere to be seen.

The trio goes by the Doctor’s house and surveys the damage done by a mysterious intruder the night before. Dr. Marsh is still in Oakland, getting his wife situated with relatives. The only lead about the break-in is the presence of surgical tape on the bottom of the Doctor’s overturned desk.

·      *   Round about midday, Tom stopped by his apartment and discovered signs of a burglary… in which nothing had been taken.

Before Myrtokleia’s party, Sophie heads over to City Hall while Tom goes back to Red Rock Hill to spy on Old Man Gonzalez’s shack.

Leland tells Sophie he’ll be at Myrtle’s tonight, along with a “young friend”, Patrick O’Hara. Leland is able to give Sophie the name of the detective on the Marsh case. She heads over there for an interview.

The detective seems a bit cagey, and doesn’t have much more information on the break-in, though he does give Sophie access to the file on the case. As she leaves, she notes with concern that the detective is eyeing her as he picks up the phone.

Over near the Drood place, Tom follows the younger Gonzalez leaving his house and tails him to his presumed place of work, a stone mason’s shop near Perry & Third, abutting a Gray Bros. Construction yard.

 

The wake at Myrtle’s is as lively as one would expect. Leland is there with Patrick, a rather burly fellow. When Leland spots the three investigators, he nudges Patrick, who gives Tom a distasteful look and stuffs an envelope he’s holding into his inner jacket pocket. Patrick buttons up tight.

Leland and Patrick greet the group and proceed to question them rather aggressively about their opinions on secret societies and the occult. Everyone is evasive. Sarah immediately pegs Patrick as police, triggering Tom’s memory that yes, this guy is a cop.

Finally able to detach themselves from their interrogators, Sarah, Sophie and Tom concoct a plan to adulterate Patrick’s drink, with a little help from Myrtle, so that Tom can fish out that envelope despite Patrick’s obvious vigilance. “Just a little prank,” they assure Myrtle, and she’s quite delighted to play along.

Having procured Patrick’s envelope, along with an unfamiliar “Reconstituted Committee of Vigilance” medallion. The investigators think it best to say their goodbyes for the evening. But who is waiting in a black sedan outside of Myrtle’s but a man with physiognomy redolent of the fake reporter who Milo at Lukas Sanderson’s warned them about. They duck back inside and find a different way out. Instead of going back to their homes, they catch a cab to a modest hotel in Daly City. A black car follows them part of the way there.

The envelope from Patrick’s pocket contains a detailed and disapproving report on the investigators’ activities, going all the way back to their initial visit to Lukas Sanderson’s Fine Furnishings in early April! Everyone is paranoid; are Patrick and Leland working with the surviving remnant of the Chapel of Contemplation? Is this Committee of Vigilance a potential ally against the Chapel? Is it another nefarious organization, opposed to investigators and Chapel alike?

Tuesday morning, Sarah wakes from another nightmare, an afterimage of the mysterious eye symbol fading before her. She tearfully confides in Sophie the psychic anguish she’s suffered from recent events.

Sophie calls Leland to plan a meeting in a public place that evening, where she intends to come clean and hopefully enlist the aid of the Committee of Vigilance. Leland agrees to the meeting. His tone indicates he’s quite cross with Sophie and he warns her strongly about continued association with Tom Holub. “What do you really know about him?” her highschool friend asks.

During the day, while Sarah goes home for some domestic time, Sophie and Tom decide to check out the Laurel Cemetery, near the Richmond District, where Drood and several of his Chapel of Contemplation brethren are interred.

The pair learns from a groundskeeper that the Chapel mausoleum caps a shockingly-extensive underground structure. They decide they’ll have to return some evening to break in and investigate.