Trail of Cthulhu: Masks of Nyarlathotep – New York – episode 3

LodgeThe investigators have uncovered a link between Jackson Elias and a mysterious organization called the Order of the Silver Twilight. It seems one of their members stole a book of the occult that Jackson sought out. Eager to get out of New York, the investigators decide to visit the Order’s lodge in Boston. Posting as potential initiates, the investigators must find out the Order’s secrets while pretending to pass as normal citizens. Is everyone in the Order a threat or are innocent civilians mixed in with dangerous cultists? Guest player Jason shows up to aid their mission, but can he mean the difference between success and failure?

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8 Comments

  1. so you guys have used the word “topic” a few times in the past few months and every time my brain goes “no it’s TOPTIC” and then I get really confused for a few seconds. that’s just the world I live in.

    I’ve listened to a run of Shadows and at first was like “what was this adventure again?” and then Ross said basement and I was like ohhh so is it gonna be more of a clusterfuck than Yog-Sothoth’s run or less and on the whole more definitely more

    I’ve decided I really like this campaign, A+

  2. I gotta say that I love Sean’s pyromaniac priest. I feel like the only reason he hasn’t been excommunicated is that when the other priests look at him they have too many uncomfortable feelings about the inquisition. I fully expect him to, at some point go insane and start screaming “Confess!” and burning people.

  3. If we’re taking bets on the priest, I think he’ll wind up as a Cthuga cultist. I swear somewhere I remember reading a scenario where one of the factions was more or less “Investigators who went full Cthuga cultist because they used so much fire anyway.”

  4. GM’s diary
    Entry 1: the players have grown too uppity. I must put them in their place. I think a Cthuga cult is just the thing, let’s see how they feel after I burn half the party alive!

    Entry 2: well so far so good. I burned one player alive and the others seemed suitably awed. The players have become obsessed with learning the immolation spell. Not exactly what I expected, but it will do.

    Entry 4: the players have Learned the spell after torturing the leader of the cultists. One PC went temporarily mad from the torture. he immediately used the spell to immolation the leader and developed Pyromania (nor that this has actually changed his personality much). Will have to figure out where to go from here.

    Entry 5: Put the players up against a group of deep one hybrids. Session end 30 minutes in after PCs drove diesel truck up to village and proceeded to cover everything in homemade napalm and use immolation spell. Massive San loss all around. What have I started?

    Entry 6: Hail Cthuga! IA IA FTAGHN!

  5. Kind of surprised when they were considering disguising the Chinese woman as some kind of foreign mystic nobody added “Taoist Alchemist” or “Shinto Priest” to the list, which would probably be slightly more believable than “Hindu Guru”.

  6. Wow, this was a monster-rich scenario. They managed an impressively low body-count under the circumstances.

    It was fun to hear Jason operating as the Inside Man. Here’s an idea I got from Ken and Robin’s podcast: when you have an character like that (and you have time to do the prep), give them a bunch of inside info before the session: stuff their character would know from their infiltration, like floor-plans, NPC names, etc. Then have them brief the whole group during the planning stage. That way, the PCs can feel like they own the entire heist/assault/infiltration plan from start to finish. Then of course the GM throws in twists and surprises that the Inside Man didn’t know about during play…

  7. @Omega – “Mystic eunuch” or “eunuch servant” would probably have worked even better as a disguise. Plays to stereotypes, explains almost everything, plus cultists love that kind of thing. Could even have helped them get people to talk about Alexander.

  8. On a very special episode of Upstairs/Downstairs…

    or

    Men’s Fitness: Cardio; Why your Investigator Needs It

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