A Timeline of Events Relating to the Scenario - Wendigo

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1906 – Apr 18 - The San Francisco Earthquake stops work on the “new spur”.

1906 – July - Discovery of the artifacts in the shell mound – Professor Kroeber sends letter to various contacts in the regions of origin of the mask, stone disc, basketry disc and stone pestle. Kroeber is distracted by other work and the appearance of Ishi and fails to note the single relevant reply, from the University of British Columbia.

1915 May 23 – Date of the odd Ishi recording which contains a reference to Tsonoqua.

1921 Feb. 3 - The UBC warehouse is plundered by unknown vandals.

1921 Oct. 16 - That night Tom Rogan, the old switchman, hears a godawful howling… Like a dog or a coyote… But loud … From the new spur… where they got some cars for months now. Told Clancy to have a look the next morning… There was a singing kinda… Later. Didn’t sound like it came from the Tent… They had their Revival in the afternoon Sunday… Not late.        Little Angelina got to the stand, bought the oranges and dawdled to watch the trains… She spoke with other kids who were playing on the tracks. They went south along the tracks, following a creek-bed and said she was still there when they last saw her. (She said she was listening to the singing…)

1921 Oct. 18 - Rev. Ambrose is missing, though this is not immediately known as his wife covers it up.

1921 Oct. 21 - The Rev returns and is apprehended by the investigators.

1921 Nov. -  Early in the month, the reverend dies accidently – hit by a train.

1921 Nov. 20 - Prof. Kroeber returns.

1921 Nov. 28 Prof Kroeber, having discovered the 1906 reply from UBC, sends out a new wave of letters.

1921/1922 Late Dec. – Early January – Estimated time of attack on Caquarimiut band at Kokechic Bay.

1922 Mar. 6 - The coyote has been seen around the Visitacion Valley tunnel and the remnant of the shell mound since late October. It has been howling the last couple of nights. Old Tom Rogan is badly affected by… something . Apparently the same singing he heard before.

PANIC GRIPS VISITACION VALLEY _ ANOTHER CHILD MISSING

   Another little girl has vanished in Visitacion Valley.

Little Mindy Jones disappeared from behind her family’s house in the evening last night. The child, seven years old, had been sent out to return the family chickens to their coop, just before sunset, and the alarm was raised within the half hour.

  The Jones house is somewhat isolated along the road to the Johnson and Brown Dairy and it was at least another half hour before police and local volunteers arrived in force to search.

  Residents recall the tragic loss of Angelina Rossi, whose horribly mutilated body was found days after her disappear- ance in mid-October of last year.  Because of the previous awful events, Captain Morgan of Southern Station has immediately called in the same deputy from Half-Moon-Bay whose tracker dogs finally discovered the remains of little Angelina.

  It may be recalled that, while foul play was strongly suspected, the death of Angelina Rossi was finally attributed to an accident while playing on the railroad tracks. What has never been clearly established is how the body was found after several days in a location which had been searched repeatedly.

1922 Mar. 7 – The investigators revisit Visitacion Valley and speak to various persons including Tom Rogan.

1922 Mar. 8 – The investigators visit the Lowie, meet Prof. Kroeber and his colleagues, and convince him to secure the very odd artifact, (the one which has a five pointed star of tarred cords securing a sandstone lozenge to a granite slab) in a convenient safe. The investigators get access to the professor’s correspondence about the artifact at this time.

It seems that the coyote is gone from Visitacion Valley.

1922 Mar. 9 – Apparently the date Benjamin Geitner was approached by pawn broker Rex Morganthal. Morganthal wanting to borrow $7000 to buy gold…

Mar 12 - Sunday – Death of Pawnshop Owner  - Apparently Ben Geitner was present – certainly he had a bit of flaked gold like the over $15000 worth found in the pawnshop…

5 year old Luigi Mazeppi lost in the Produce District .

Mar. 13 – Monday. It turns out that Benjamin Geitner got picked up in a dazed condition and taken  to SF General, where Dr. Xander discovered another of those weird little leather “fetish” thingies sewn to his arm.

On returning to the Lowie, the investigators find that Professor Kroeber has become romantically involved with a strange blonde woman named Leda Zenika… He is listening to old Ishi recordings and they hear one from 1915 which in addition to containing a reference to Tsonoqua, seems to them to contain the notes of the weird song which they have been hearing of. On re-play of the recording does not contain that song at all.

Kroeber provides various information on Tsonoqua, the American Indian legend of the cannibal-woman who preys on children. It also seems that, while Tsonoqua is depicted as a blonde woman, most of the time, she may also appear as male…

September 26 - Oct 22, 1921 - (Skullhouse Date February 2, 2016) Part 1

Loot From Drood –
Copy of “The Black Book”
 A large bell jar containing dead rats.
A dozen small numbered jars containing what appears to be ordinary earth, a veritable spice rack of common and exotic herbs and spices, mostly in similar glass jars.
Several bundles of small bones and half a mummified human foot (probably Egyptian – certainly partly ground up to provide “mummy dust” for some spell or other).
There’s a “toolkit” containing small knives, files, chisels and hammers as well as tongs and a number of metal rods between six inches and a foot in length. There is also what may be a thousand dollars worth of fine platinum wire… (A lot more of this is part of the floor symbol and was left behind when the sanctum was dynamited).
One box (an ordinary wooden cigar box) contains pens, pencils and a number of bottles of variously colored ink.
There are also an assortment of amulets. Ankhs, serpents, symbols of every sort in wood, bone, metal... Some may be of considerable monetary value.
The jars and boxes include a number of pieces of remarkable workmanship and value:
•    A small ivory box of African workmanship with delicate carvings of elephants and trees (contains a mysterious white powder).
•    An ebony box about the size of a cigar box with intricate abstract carvings (Malasia?) - contains a quantity of dried vegetable matter or fungus).
•    A Chinese porcelain urn of considerable antiquity and great beauty – but rather chipped and discolored - half full of some sort of leaves.
•    A small pottery container in the shape of a crouching toad; ?Meso-American? and very ancient – contains a gravely grey substance.
  The papers recovered are a muddle, mostly the diary or ravings of Drood – They are not in any sensible order although some sheaves appear to be bound intentionally together.
Some of the papers appear to contain notes on “The Black Book” and may reward study.  The hand varies from the familiar hand of Drood to a wilder, more difficult to read, scrawl, which, while it is definitely still Drood’s,  is much harder to decipher. The sheets scattered nearer the nasty goo-covered chair in the center of the symbol on the floor seem to be the most recent and the most incoherent: Lots of phonetic gibberish “Phataghn! I’a! I’a! Tsathoggua!” AND “I am BECOMING! On the great day when I am one with the LORD TOAD. I’a! I’a! SAINT TOAD! The spirals are nearing completion…” “Children are such tasty morsels… Food for the soul. My power grows.”   Etc. etc….

The memorial service for the police officers killed at the Blue Fox and for Joseph Linehan occurs and the whole Drood affair is carefully covered up.

In the next week a Catholic priest named Father LeClerque appraches the investigators individually; questioning them about the death of Father Kolvenbach.

On October 10th Jessie Cook and detective Gregory contact the investigators as quickly as possible to inform them that Harry Gray has managed to slip out of town despite ordinary police surveillance. As a result of this the investigators take precautions - generally by leaving their known lodgings.

Pictures from 1906 News Coverage of the Excavation of the "New Spur"

The Black Book - As Discovered by the Investigators.

Prominent among the items recovered from the sanctum of Drood was a copy of the 1939 "Das Buch von den Unaussprechlichen Kulten" by Friedrich Wilhelm von Junzt. The scattered, and often difficult to read, notes of Drood, found at the same time, often seem to refer to that volume and there appear to be a lot of pages of his own translation of it... But... very much scattered and out of sequence.

The Black Book

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  I chanced to recall the inclusion of this book in the background of the (now presumably defeated) sorcerer, Charles Aaron Drood and thought I ought to go a ways beyond what was included in the Call of Cthulhu game materials.  I have been going through the horror stories of Robert Howard, whence the book originates, and was looking for pictures and other peoples ideas on the web... When I found this trove of material ready to be used. 

Wewelsberg Castle - fictively important in the background of the author of "The Black Book" - Actually used in the real world as a sort of metaphysical heart of Himmler's SS.

  I usually don't bother to cite the sources I have plundered for game material... But I was very inspired by the quantity and quality of material relating to "The Black Book" (Von Unausspreclichen Kulten OR Of Unspeakable Cults)which was researched and invented (with a seamless combination of the two) by the creator of this site: http://www.rehtwogunraconteur.com/
  I am an an occasional visitor to the site, which is all about Robert Howard, but had somehow missed the six part series on Jon Junzt and Von Unausspreclichen Kulten.

Naturally, I'll be reinterpreting things to suit my campaign...

Three News Items in the Examiner Monday, September 26, 1921

                 Shootout at Lake Merced
                                                     Two Men Dead
 Late Sunday afternoon police officers found two men dead beside an automobile along the coastal road near Lake Merced. A shootout had occurred with each man having fired several shots from weapons which were found, still in their hands. The time of the shooting is uncertain as firing by police officers at the nearby coastal shooting range probably covered the sound.

  According to Detective Walter Gregory, who was among the officers who discovered the bodies, one of the dead is a local man named Jake Luzinsky, until recently employed by the United Service Detective Agency. The other man is unknown to local police but is identified by papers in his possession as Clarence Dobbs of San Jose.
 
The automobile, belonging to Mr. Dobbs, was found to be carrying 144 bottles of bootleg liquor and an illicit business deal gone wrong is believed to be the cause of the killings.


                   Gunfire on Red Rock Hill
                           Actually Blank Cartridges

                                     Weekend Emergency Work By The  DPW
  Gunshots and an explosion heard by citizens in the vicinity of 16th and Castro were a result of an emergency job undertaken by members of the Department of Public Works.
  A charge of dynamite was used to collapse a tunnel beneath the  old Gray Brothers brick works high on the east face of Red Rock Hill. This tunnel presented a very grave and immediate danger to houses downslope and its destruction in a prompt and safe manner will ensure that no landslides occur, such as those which are a subject of litigation, elsewhere on the hill.
  The gunshots heard by members of the public were blanks fired to warn the members of the crew of the impending explosion.

                                       Obituaries

                   Joseph P. Linehan Dead at Age 44
                                     Tragic Automotive Mishap
  On Sunday afternoon one of San Franciscos finest civil servants died in a tragic accident.
  Joseph P. Linehan, whose dedication and perspicacity were responsible for the demolition of a dangerous structure on Red Rock Hill earlier in the day, was killed when his car ran off the road on Skyline Boulevard in Daly City.
  Mr. Linehan’s car suffered a flat tire on a curve and plunged to destruction far below. The accident was witnessed by Leland Court, secretary to Mayor Rolph, who was driving the same stretch of road. Mr. Court states that the car was being driven at a reasonable speed and that the accident appeared to be completely unforeseeable and unavoidable.
  Joseph Linehan is survived by a wife, Heloise, and two  children, Joseph Jr., 7,  and Amanda 9.

September 24-25, 1921 - (Skullhouse Date February 2, 2016)

SPOILERS BELOW - SPOILERS BELOW 

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Saturday, Sept. 24
The investigators make short work of digesting the contents of Harold Gray’s Little Red Book:
The contents are clear and easy to read, consisting of three sections with some useful hints or warnings and help with pronunciation.
1) A ritual for protection against domination of the mind - Detailed and relatively simple, with some tips on pronunciation. Accompanying is an illustration depicting the iron cage apparatus, found in the secret room. It requires also a ritual knife, and some of the blood of the “operator” the effect is claimed to extend to a ten foot radius and to last for “some hours”.
George Gray suggests that the ritual be done in the pre-dawn hours and contact with Drood be made only during daylight.

2) The Voorish Sign. A simple set of instructions for a set of thirteen hand gestures and an incantation to produce what appears to be a spell for rendering other spells more effective. It is stated that this ritual would improve the previous protective spell against mental domination by extending the effect for a full day and “enhance the potency”.

3) The Sigil - There is a spell for making one of the triskelion symbols “active”... It requires an incantation and a bit of blood.

With the Voorish sign and a careful study of the ritual for protection, the investigators are ready to go. Plans are made to cast the pair of spells early Sunday morning and to move on the old brick works by daylight.

Sunday, September 25
  The spell casting seems to work and the “cage” becomes suffused with a shadowy sort of darkness which is mildly disturbing to look at…
  The RCV support consists of Jessie Cook, Inspector Gregory, a new recruit from the shotgun squad named Tom Malloy, a detective the investigators do not know named Neil Corcoran and Joseph Linehan from the Department of Public Works. Shotguns are carried by just about everyone.
Lights, tools and dynamite are also carried.
  Sarah makes a point of cautioning everyone to stay within the ten foot radius of the ritual cage device, which may be its limit of protection.
  By daylight on Sunday the group approaches the brick works. They are attacked by Jake Luzinsky and another United Service operative and a gun battle ensues. A third attacker with a rifle opens fire from near the summit of the hill and Dr. Marsh is badly wounded. Joseph Linehan is killed… Dr. Marsh is carrying special ammunition for his shotgun and he brings down the rifleman with a slug.
  After first dropping a stick of dynamite down the  shaft the investigators make their way down the nearly thirty foot ladder – being careful to remain within the influence of the “cage”. Around this point Gregory nearly panics but is brought round by Sarah.
  Drood is seen first as a black sihouette with redly glowing eyes and his hollow voice is heard as, from the far end of a twenty-five foot chamber, he invokes another of the, previously encountered “demons”.
  Massed gunfire has an effect and the demon is vanquished. Drood escapes down a stairway while the investigators are briefly beset by hordes of rats.
  As the investigators move down the steps there is a commotion as Drood is seen by Cook and the other RCV detective behind them. This causes the detective to panic and flee but no further harm is done.
  At the bottom of the concrete stairs Dr. Marsh is in the lead when they emerge into a larger, roughly circular, chamber carved in the red rock – some sixty feet across. The doctor is nearly caught by the hypnotic effect of a corruscating light ball set in the wall just at the foot of the steps. He fires his shotgun into the ball and it shatters…
  Drood confronts the investigator from roughly the center of the chamber immediately before a twenty-five foot triskelion which appears carved into the floor of the chamber. Drood is fully revealed as a tall humanoid form, much of his body glistening blackly but with pallid fleshy bits which seem to be in motion – flowing across his form. Dr. Marsh throws dynamite which lands just behind Drood. The explosion stops whatever spell Drood had been attempting and lands him more or less at the investigators feet.
  Hector Gonzalez runs shrieking towards the investigators, being attacked by a horde of rats and he is shot down.
  The dead or dying Drood, with bits of pale human flesh showing intermittently, is blasted in the head with a shotgun and black sludge flows out the neck-stump… The whole of the body seems to flow out, leaving nothing but a puddle of nastiness.
  There’s a chair in the center of the large triskelion, dripping more black goo. The triskelion is elaborately worked with fine lines apparently engraved on most of its surface. It is damaged from the dynamite blast…  Two apparent Gate circles are found on the walls of the chamber, one of them entirely intact. Not for long…
  A shelf with papers and many small jars and bottles is found and looted. – Details of the material will be forthcoming… (I forget what I actually described and have lost track of the list… But I hope I will find it.)
The chamber is set with all the remaining dynamite and the investigators and RCV leave,. blowing the whole thing up behind them. The effect outside is underwhelming… A deep but muffled roar and a brief plume of dust shoots up from the shaft.