In this game four adventurers visited a Scottish island to investigate reports of lost ships and wild rumours of sea monsters. Before departing we were able to recruit two assistants (being a small party for the task ahead). A little research and a few calls later the party got permission to use the facilities set up by a university expedition to investigate a prehistoric temple on the island which was currently empty.
Taking the weekly supply ship the weather was bad and most of our characters were being seasick below decks when a giant squid struck.
Craig's character was on deck and was attacked with tentacles, he fell back and tried to avoid the cargo now rolling around the deck.
Andy was on the bridge and a tentacle crashed through the windows to drag him out. The ship's captain hacked at it with a fire axe and Andy broke free, injured. The rest of us armed ourselves and shot at the creature. I had my assistant try to take a photograph with camera I had brought.
Graham who had been putting up our new shelves in the storeroom (in real life that is) joined for a bit taking control of a member of the ship's crew. He pushed over a drum of fuel and ignited it. The captain
called for us to abandon ship. The squid dettatched itself from the ship but did not disappear immediately.
I sent my assistant to the lifeboat and made two more attempts to capture the photo of the century without success. We all moved to the lifeboat, the captain was nowhere to be seen. We cast off with the intention of going round the starboard side to rescue the crew. But our strength rolls were inadequate and we fell behind the ship which was still moving. The fate of the burning ship was unknown at this point. We had lost all our equipment except what we carried on us.
We could see the shore in the distance and rowed to the island, landing near a castle. First aid was given to the injured and the party separated. My character, Prof. Shortman and his assistant followed the path to the village several miles off while the others went to the castle.
I encountered a large group of unruly villagers who seemed to be armed. I told them about the ship wreck and the need to organise a rescue. The mob began to surround me knowing I couldn't outrun or outfight them I continued to insist they help. My assistant ran back down the road to get help while the professor was roughly carried off.
At the castle the door was answered by an enormous servant and the party met the owner, an eccentric Scottish lord and astronomer who invited them to dinner. He informed them that the villagers were a strange lot, very hostile to outsiders, who only tolerated his presence because he employed some of them.
When my assistant arrived the servant was sent looking for the missing professor but there was no sign of him and no-one admitted to seeing him. I was left with the assistant to play for the time being. In the morning the party set out for the archaeological site, staying well clear of the village.
I rejoined the game with a new character, a mercenary who had been hired to protect the university's supplies from looting by the villagers. There was a well stocked building providing supplies and shelter. Nearby was a burial mound and a small ruined monastery. Further away was a stone circle. the party investigated the the stone circle. My character was mysteriously drawn to the alter stone. It was decided to do some digging so two of us went back to collect shovels, observing a couple of shifty looking villagers with pick axes. After raising the alter stone a few inches we discovered an ancient dagger underneath it. Surprisingly it seemed to be clean and sharp as though still in use.
A small lake was also of interest but it was getting late and there was no time to look further. As the others prepared food my character looked around to check for crazed locals. He discovered a shambling creature armed with a meat cleaver approaching. He shot it and when it didn't go down retreated to the barn where the others came out to shoot further. Most of us failed sanity checks and lost sanity points. One character identified it as a zombie and determined that bullets were not very effective. He attacked it with a shovel and was wounded, the rest of us then piled in and battered it to a permanent state of death.
In the morning we discovered tracks that suggested something with a lot of legs had approached and then withdrawn. The burial mound seemed to have been opened, probably with pick axes and we deduced the villagers had released the zombie to kill us. The party investigated the nearby monastery while I dug pit traps. We lay in wait the following night expecting another attack. My mercenary who had good stealth and was an excellent shot with a rifle hid a little distance away and the others hid in the monastery.
The thing that approached was neither villager nor zombie but had multiple heads and limbs and caused us to fail further sanity checks. I held my fire as it went by without falling into any of the pit traps. The others, seeing this thing, attempted to withdraw but saw movement in the darkness behind them. Shooting then ensued and the creature fell back into the night. A good role on Cthulu mythos identified the monster as one of the great race of Yith and something far beyond our ability to kill.
We withdrew to the safety of the castle, again avoiding the village,and from there went to the lighthouse.The lighthouse keepers who were not deranged villagers informed us one of their number had disappeared a few days before. We waited a few days for the supply boat, discovering that the crew had put out the fire and the ship was back in action, although one of the crew was missing. We returned to the mainland to contemplate further action.
