SoSA Campaign #3: Haverford House

[This is the third reflection post on my gaming group's long-running Call of Cthulhu campaign, Sentinels of Strange Aeons. For a little more context, you can check out this earlier post.]

SESSION 3

Synopsis

Having dispatched Corbitt, the investigators turned their attention towards the nearby church that was potentially related to the Corbitt mystery: the Chapel of Contemplation and Church of Our Lord Voice of the Silent. They found the chapel in ruins, burnt down long ago. On a crumbling wall was a strange, painted symbol that caused uncomfortable, buzzing sensation in the investigators' heads when viewed, and, beneath the ruins, lay a basement strewn with skeletons and church records mentioning Corbitt.

The following day, the group returned to meet with Mr. Porter, but only found his associate, the younger man from the trolley, waiting for them. He finally introduced himself as Daniel "Cloddy" Barnhill and informed them that he was to take everyone to meet with Mr. Porter at another location. He drove them out of the city to the western suburb of Haverford, where they met Mr. Porter at an old farm house. He explained that he represented a secret organization, the Laterna Mortuis, which was dedicated to rooting out and eliminating inhuman, cosmic forces that threaten humanity, along with their malevolent human agents. Mr. Porter and Cloddy were ranked members of this ancient society (Porter being a "bishop," and Cloddy a lower-ranking "knight"). Bishops were tasked with overseeing a "House," a group of LM members who worked together, conducting investigations under the bishop's direction. By inducting the investigators into the LM, Mr. Porter wants to reopen Haverford House, the LM House that had operated at that site until 1910, when all of the House members were killed following a horrific incident at the farmhouse. Mr. Porter implored the investigators to join the group and help to ensure a future for humankind.

While they considered his offer, the investigators wandered through the old farmhouse, which was clearly outfitted to serve as a base of operations. One strange room had shuttered windows and a number of waist-high, vertical metal bars arranged in a square formation bolted to the floor. The floor around this "cage" was blackened with a greasy, sooty residue. The group expressed concerns and doubts to Mr. Porter, who held fast, trying to convince them. He also explained that an unnamed distant relative of one of the investigators was already a member of the group, and that Cloddy had been on the trolley that day to follow and scout the investigator, whom they had considered approaching as a potential recruit. Everyone finally agreed to join the Laterna Mortuis, and Mr. Porter conducted a simple ceremony in which they all repeated an oath before a lit lantern.

The next few days passed as a series of brief vignettes in which each investigator was introduced to a new NPC contact.

Analysis & Commentary
I was extremely excited going into this session. This was going to be a big reveal for the players, and a major turning point in the plot of the campaign. The Laterna Mortuis was, basically, the core conceit at the heart of the entire thing. What was this group? How much were the players being told? How extensive was the LM? What were the real aims and intentions of this organization? I wanted to cultivate two, conflicting feelings in my players simultaneously. On one hand, I wanted them to feel that kind of weird affection towards Mr. Porter and Cloddy that players develop for favorite, trusted NPCs. At the same time, I wanted them to maintain a certain suspicion towards the Laterna Mortuis in general, and perhaps even a slight unease about what Mr. Porter isn't telling them.

With the idea of Haverford House, I also tried to introduce something of a plot device that I thought would help to cohere the characters together and give them an impetus for future investigations. My hope was that, in some small way, having a formal, named associating framework would smooth the awkwardness that lies near the core of CoC gaming: the players have motivation to want to see these horrific investigations unfold, but the characters don't. And, if your players are doing a good job of immersing themselves in their characters, they're going to instinctively turn away from that danger. I'm pretty lucky that all of my players invest themselves in the role-playing aspects of our games, which results in considered and rich characters. But this investment in character also brings about a realistic bend in RP. I hadn't spent time working with the players to develop hooks or personal circumstances that might predispose the characters to joining up with a weird group.

My attempted solution to this certainly wasn't airtight, even if it was sincere. I tried to lay out some small hooks that would compel in a subtle way, little things to engender a social bond among the characters, giving them a "gang" to belong to (Haverford House). I wrote out the Laterna Mortuis oath, gave the players a touchstone phrase to use to greet and identify other LM members ("Long night ahead."), created a few idiosyncratic touchstones (art depicting Pythagoras and Kant in the House, two iconic patrons to the LM), enough details to hopefully act as a compelling narrative anchor for them. Of course, in the end, the players went along and joined the LM, though it was a very metagame-y choice. It certainly gave me perspective on the importance of good character motivation.

This session also brought about a major shift in the focus and plotting of the campaign. As it's written in the original scenario, the Chapel of Contemplation was a stop-off location along the way to confronting Corbitt. Though it's got a lot of great details baked into it -- and others have since expanded on it as an aspect of the Mythos -- it largely reads as simply part of the clue trail. When my players skipped over the clues that suggested it and made straight for the Corbitt house, I thought "OK, they probably won't need this location." However, after defeating Corbitt, it became clear that they suspected the Chapel itself was at the core of the mystery! A thing lurking behind Corbitt that posed a greater threat. I took the time between sessions to dramatically revise its role in the campaign, aligning it as a splintered faction of a cult that I'd planned to be the ultimate "big bad" and major threat. This is why I tweaked the name of the Chapel from the original scenario, as well as the cult's symbol. As we'll see in future posts, the Chapel went on to become a large plot point that I never would have considered, but proved to be a much more dramatic choice.

Fond Memories & Favorite Moments

• When the characters were inducted into the LM, I lit a small, LED lantern that I'd bought at a store and actually had the players recite the group's oath, repeating each line after me. ("Against the chaos that encroaches, a sword of order -- Against the madness that assails us, a shield of reason -- Against the coming fall of night, a sentinel at dusk’s gate -- For all the dead, a lantern’s guarding flame")
• The Laterna Mortuis greeting, "Long night ahead," had a history to it, though this wasn't revealed to the players at the time. Originally, in the Middle Ages when the group was formed, the greeting was "May the night be long and the sleepers still," referring to the Great Old Ones' sleeping through the long cosmic night. Centuries later, this would change to "Long night, still sleepers," before changing again to the current version. 

Soundtrack Selections

• New Risen Throne, "Withered Regions" --  This track was used for the scene in which the investigators walked through Haverford House for the first time, seeing the rooms and glimpsing the strange hints at the activities of the previous House members. I felt it worked well as more of a soundscape than a song with a discernible melody, which might be distracting during a period when I wanted them to exclusively get to focus on the space they were exploring. Link to purchase.