Looking for Lovecraft... "Weltgeist" Concluded

SPOILERS BELOW - SPOILERS BELOW 

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 SPOILERS for my scenario "Weltgeist. If you plan to play in my campaign, you might want to avoid this entry.

South San Francisco 1921

  Garrick and Jackson photograph the “Terrarium" at three hour intervals from each of its six sides at high magnification, observing the appearance of plants and animals. After several months there are signs of artificial structures which rapidly grow more complex. A few weeks before the scenario begins the structures became identifiable as cities.

  During this period, the Andromedan Entity began to grow, feeding first on the tiny lives in the “Terrarium” and then emerging as a tiny red-glowing spectre to drain plants, small animals and eventually, Garrick’s dog, Rudy. For purposes of my campaign, I decided that the POW stated for animals in the rulebook (Dogs, Ordinary – POW = 7) was not going to work. So, I accept that a dog has POW 7 for most game purposes but assume that POW available for draining is about 1/10 of that. In essence “available” POW is rather like Magic Points and I am assuming that animals have Magic Points at a fractional level. So, my rules give ½ point of POW for a dog, 1/10 for a bird and minute fractions even for insects and anything alive, even plants.

  To set up the scenario I assumed that both Garrick and Jackson had become more and more obsessed with viewing and recording events within the “Terrarium”. Jacksons’ fiancée, Ramona Travers has been very anxious about him and has tried, unsuccessfully, to get him to tell her something about the project he has been working on. Jackson has thought he saw… something moving in the “Terrarium” and also a red glow moving on the slope behind the house at night.

 The Andromedan Entity has been out prowling at night for the last couple of weeks…Feeding. It is vulnerable to bright light and only comfortable with the red glow of its meteorite. The fact that the front of the house and barn overlook South San Francisco and its new brighter electric street lights, while animals and plants killed by the entity are on the reverse slope, should be a useful clue for investigators.

 In the “Terrarium” over the last days the cities ceased to grow and the “Peripheral Structures” began to appear. Garrick thinks these “Peripheral Structures” may be an attempt at communication but fears they may represent a religious devotion to… himself. The “Peripheral Structures” are actually the symbols which will make up the Gate, and the entire resources of the tiny civilization have been enslaved to their creation. They are just a few days from completion at the beginning of the scenario.

 The Entity has ventured quite a ways down the back slope of the hill in the last few nights before the scenario opens, and it has attacked chickens of a family of squatters who live in a ramshackle cabin back there.

The events directly leading up to the beginning of the scenario are:

1)      Dead plants outside the barn. Largely ignored. Likewise the dead mice and birds…

2)      Larry Jackson has already, unknowingly, been attacked by the Entity, while sleeping. He has been sickly and weak but not obviously in danger of death.

3)      The squatter family has been panicking, having seen the glowing, indistinct, Entity - which has killed most of their chickens.

4)      The Dog has been drained and is dead behind the house.

5)      Two nights ago, Larry was attacked while outside smoking. This time the Entity was larger and it nearly drained him. He fell down the back slope while trying to get away and died.

6)      Every evening Larry would drive into town and call Ramona – there being no phone at Garrick’s’ house. When he didn’t call for the second night in a row, Ramona drove down from San Francisco and got the local police to send a man up to the house with her.

7)      When Ramona and the policeman arrived at the house, Garrick was emerging from the back door, writing in a book when the policeman approached him. He wasn’t actually violent but he did resist, trying to go to the barn, and was babbling incoherently. There seemed to be signs of a struggle by the back slope where the brush was trampled. The body of Larry Jackson was seen using the policeman’s flashlight.

8)      Garrick is being held on suspicion of murder… His past episode of insanity is known.

 The scenario begins with one or other of the Player Characters being contacted about the case. I prefer it to be an old acquaintance whose card was in Garrick’s wallet. Perhaps Garrick was thinking about contacting them if there is a PC with biological, astronomical or even sociological knowledge… Alternatively, in my running of the scenario there was a PC psychiatrist and the attending physician in South San Francisco found the card and called thinking the PC might be Garrick’s’ psychiatrist. That was an ideal setup.

Clues etc: The PCs will have the chance to talk to local police, the doctor who is caring for Garrick, Ramona Travers and anyone around town they think of. Robert Garrick may not be much help as he has had a complete breakdown and his answers can be as rambling and misleading as is required. In addition I arranged an encounter in South San Francisco where the PCs will witness the squatters pawning everything they can to get up travelling money as they prepare to flee in a vehicle which looks like the Beverly Hillbillies car.

  At the house the PCs will be able to find lots of clues, most immediately, they will find the sodden notebook Garrick was writing in when arrested (It rained hard the night before).

  The dead dog and the earlier attempt at a “Terrarium” will be found (The early “Terrarium” actually failed because it was exposed to daylight. Garrick may have realized this but I don’t want it to be obvious to the PCs, so no notes to that effect will be found).

  The dead dog, as with Larry Jackson and all the victims of the Entity, appears malnourished but without any signs of violence. This draining of POW has only the visible sign of causing a slight apparent "wasting".

  In the house there are packing crates for photographic equipment, specially cut glass and steel (The "Terrarium"), a shipping crate from Lick Observatory which contained returned materials from Garrick’s large Xenoscope (Most significant in that it was sent by someone who was close to Garrick while he worked there and who can fill in details if questioned). In the basement are the box and invoice from the Sutro estate referring to the meteorite. The basement is also where Garrick ground his own lenses and there will be old notes lying about.

  The barn will be locked up and the PCs might not get into it immediately. It does have an electrical line and transformer that would seem excessive for a barn but I’d rather the PCs be distracted by the, partially stripped telescope in the house. That telescope was the original reflector built with meteoric mirrors but the mirrors have been removed and are now bundled with the meteorite, which hangs above the “Terrarium” in the barn.

The Barn

 The Andromedan Entity is still pretty small. I have stats for it at three stages. It will grow to the second stage in a day or two and the third depending on whether it gets to drain more humans (The PCs might manage to screw up and… There’s a hobo encampment not far off) or if it reaches the stockyards south of Sign Hill.

Fighting the Entity will not be that hard. Light will drive it off. Gun-flashes might work, giving the false impression that guns are a threat to it. But the Entity is smart and will not show itself if it can be avoided and will only attack if it has a great advantage (Single foe, from behind, preferably if sleeping.)

Inside the barn there will be a lot of confusing information. Scattered notes and many photos, carefully but cryptically labeled and signs of round the clock occupation (Cot, office, kitchenette and bathroom adjacent to the room where the “Terrarium” is). The “Terrarium” room is dark with only red lighting (including for a photo developing setup). The “Terrarium” itself will likely be pretty mysterious to the PCs at first as there will be no direct reference to what it is until considerable reading of notes and journals is done or until Garrick can be gotten to give sensible answers. 

  It is also important that this scenario be run after the PCs have encountered the Gate spell. They needn’t know how to cast it but the image of a circle of just these symbols should have turned up and been recognized as a Gate in a previous scenario. I had the local cultists that the PCs encountered in San Francisco using Gates inscribed in walls to get from place to place. Between that and their reading of a few occult tomes, the PCs were able to guess what was happening in the “Terrarium”.

The Peripheral Structures as seen from one side of the "Terrarium"

. The Entity will leave and reenter the “Terrarium” whenever it pleases, passing through walls with only minor difficulty. It will attempt to build up enough drained POW to open the Gate… Then there will be some form of Armageddon as The Andromedan, a Great Old One, enters our world. It will only be able to operate at night but being as incorporeal as the smaller Entity, will be able to shelter underground during daylight. I imagine something akin to a spectral Godzilla, only intelligent and with 40 POW and every spell in the book.

Ultimately the scenario can be very easily resolved… But only be destroying the “Terrarium”, which is the home of an entire civilization. A certain amount of SAN loss would be associated with genocide… Of course not all the PCs might understand what had happened, but those who did and especially those directly responsible would be in line for some D10s of loss.

  Less easily, the PCs might be able to destroy the Entity and then preserve the tiny world.

"Harriet, Destroyer of Worlds" - Painting depicting a slightly inaccurate version of events in a previous run.

And yes, the above picture was made using a pic. of Bonnie Parker + a muzzle flash + a shattered world of unknown origin and a hastily "dotted" star-scape.