SESSION 2
Synopsis
Having reached the subway surface platform, the trolley passengers were rounded up and shuttled off to the nearest police precinct. There, while everyone was divided into smaller groups to await questioning, the investigators were placed in a holding room with an NPC from the trolley, a man named Eric Garfield.
Before long, a strange man wearing a grey suit, fedora, bow tie, and eyeglasses (one lens darkened to cover a missing right eye) came to speak with them. He introduced himself as "Mr. Porter," and offered to get everyone in the room out of trouble with the police, provided they accompanied him for an hour. After sneaking out of the station, he escorted the investigators to an empty restaurant where he made them an offer. He would handle any issues they had with the police if they would assist him by looking into and resolving a problem: David McCullough, a West Philly landlord and associate of Mr. Porter's, managed a house in which recent tenants had developed violent tendencies and gone mad. Also present at the restaurant was a young man who had previously been a passenger on the trolley, involved in the strange encounter with the old woman, and who, it was now clear, was associated with Mr. Porter. The investigators agreed to look into the incidents and report back.
After doing some research and discovering the strange provenance of the house, as well as a possible connection to an old church in West Philly, the investigators went to the house. Though it, at first, seemed to just be a decrepit house filled with dusty furniture, the group soon found an old journal written by the notorious former owner. Making their way to the basement, they were attacked by a flying knife and discovered a secret room walled-off from the rest of the basement that contained the wizened corpse of a man. Soon the body came to life and the group fought with it before one of them landed a perfect shot, blasting the undead thing's head to pieces.
Analysis & Commentary
Though this was the second session of the campaign and picked up at the same moment that the previous session ended, about one year of real time had passed for the players. When we gathered for this session, it was August of 2016. This was my own fault. After the first session, I got really self-conscious and started doubting my approach to and abilities at GMing. I ended up delaying in the name of taking some time to reflect on my approach to the campaign, then getting caught up in other life issues that arose. I continued to work on the campaign's story arc in the meantime, piecing together possible plot hooks that could be presented, creating a host of NPCs for the investigators to interact with. Unfortunately, as I ultimately came to realize, this 12-month period ended up overcomplicating the campaign instead of helping it. (More on this in a later post.) True to my word, though, I never considered ending the campaign. However, I'm not convinced that I was doing it any favors by delaying it all that time.
The main portion of this session consisted of the infamous, classic CoC scenario, The Haunting -- though, clearly, reframed slightly to fit into the broader campaign arc. This is the same approach I took for many of the adventures within the campaign: use published scenarios that I would rework into the campaign -- sometimes only a little, adjusting the location; sometimes extensively, changing plot elements and introducing entire new plot threads. For this scenario, I kept most of the elements intact: the Mercario family, the newspaper article clues (seeded into the clippings archive for the Philadelphia Inquirer, where one of the PCs worked, and in a book on weird, local history found at a bookstore owned by an NPC with a close tie to another PC), and, of course, Walter Corbitt and his house. Like many of the initial scenarios in the campaign, I scaled down the lethality a bit. The players understood that this was intended to be a long-running campaign, so I didn't want them to have to make new characters too early on. While this might go against the spirit of "purist" CoC gameplay, I felt that the campaign could allow for a decent chance at survivability (at least initially) without compromising the mortal and existential dread that is the hallmark of the game. I also hadn't anticipated one of my players rolling a 01 on her very first attack roll in the entire campaign, which made shorter work of Corbitt than even I'd expected.
Fond Memories & Favorite Moments
- During an initial conversation with Mr. Porter, after he asked them to take on the task of investigating the Corbitt house, one of the PCs asked Mr. Porter how he, an ordinary family man, could possibly be of use to him. Mr. Porter looked at the PC for a long moment before giving a simple, unmemorable response, and the scene rolled along without further comment. But this was an especially poignant moment, even though the PCs themselves couldn't know it, and thrilled me at the time. It wouldn't be revealed till the next session, but the reason that the associate of Mr. Porter's (the young man mentioned in the summary above) was present on the trolley was because he had been following and observing that PC (who had asked this question) for possible recruitment by the mysterious organization that Mr. Porter represented. It was a great moment of foreshadowing, even if I couldn't reveal it as such in that moment.
- There was a really nice, natural bit of investigative roleplaying for the group when they went on a clue-gathering spree in a local rare bookstore run by an NPC with close personal ties to one of the PCs. They got to discover information from a large, old book on weird Philadelphia history, City of Brotherly Lore. My plan was to use this book as a repeated source for information pertinent to some investigations -- and possibly even develop some minor plot thread involving the local publishers of the book. It never quite panned out, though.
- There's nothing quite as exciting as starting the first combat scene of the campaign -- and then having one player step up and roll a critical impale! They pretty much blasted the upper half of Corbitt's mummified head to dry bits. Everyone cheered; the camaraderie was palpable.
I also want to give special attention to the music I had planned and used for special scenes during the campaign. I feel that these moments could really be excellent mood heighteners, and I'm a big fan overall of using background music and sound effects during play.
- Svartsinn, "As a Black Stone Monument" -- This track was actually used during the first session (I only thought to include this info recently). It opened the campaign and was playing during the opening scene in which the PCs boarded the trolley at an underground station and proceeded through the tunnel. Its tone was great to introduce the overall tone and atmosphere of the campaign: deep, rumbling drone and quiet, building tension. Link to purchase.
- Paul Whiteman & His Ambassador Orchestra, "Whispering" -- This track was playing during the scene in which the PCs went to lunch with Mr. Porter and heard his offer to investigate the Corbitt house. It's an appropriate choice setting-wise, as this song was released in 1920 -- but there's also something about it, a tone of subtle unease that struck me. I can't quite pinpoint it, but it's there. Link to purchase.
- Desiderii Marginis, "Lazarus Palace" -- This track was used as background during the exploration of the Corbitt house. I think it works really well as a piece of dark ambient music (most of Desiderii Marginis' work is excellent), and the title works perfectly as a kind of secret easter egg for what's actually going on (hinting at the Lazarus/Walter Corbitt metaphor of the dead coming back to life). The initial and concluding sound -- that single, repeated note -- are the cherry on this unsettling sundae. Link to purchase.
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