The House of R'yleh is a Call of Cthulhu adventure set in London
in late November 1923. The Games Master is Mark and play takes place at
Dragons Keep Roleplay Club in South East London every Friday night.
Cast
- Yoshi "Kanagawa" Yamamoto - A disgraced former Sumo wrestler turned journalist - Tony
- Chester "Pretty Boy" Lyle - A bareknuckle boxer - Sam
- Ryan Wurmshurst - A retired policeman turned private sleuth - Steve
- Thelma "Ginger" Purdey - A recently graduated botanist and girl about town - Matt
Thursday 15th November 1923
At the Chelsea Art Club, the mystery deepens, more names are added to the list of the missing but the chums still don't have any solid leads to follow.
- Jason Davies - missing for over a month - Art professor at the Chelsea School of Art.
- Helen Wilson - missing for two weeks - a student of Prof. Davies.
- Ruth Hall - missing for a couple of days - a student of Prof. Davies.
- Ambrose Draper - Davies patron and the person who sold the silver locket to the pawnbroker.
- Thewlis - An artist and friend of Davies who was kicked out of the club for obscenity.
Chester decides to break into the concierge's office and try to get addresses for Davies, Draper and Thewlis. He narrowly avoids being caught by Percival the concierge. Ginger decides that what they really need to know is what the papers said about the whole affair. She takes a cab to the British Library in Kings Cross, arriving just before closing time.
The news archive is well indexed and she quickly finds 3 clippings which detail the missing persons before returning to the club.
Friday 16th November 1923
The friends meet at their favourite spot, Jenny's Tea Rooms in the Strand. Armed with Draper's address, Yoshi, Ginger and Chester head to Kensington leaving Ryan to see if his police contacts can tell him more about the case.
The Draper Residence
A large detached house which appears to have fallen on hard times. The rose beds have been untended for some time and the windows are dirty and curtains closed. Chester knocks oin the door and is suprised when a man fitting Mr. Draper's description opens the door. Clearly a lover of the demon drink, Draper seems distracted and apologises for not paying his club dues on time. They sit him down in the drawing room and after a little questioning manage to extract some useful information.
Draper was given the locket by a man called Peters who uses him as a go-between. Whatever money he gets he uses to buy art supplies for Peters. Draper struggles to describe Peters and Yoshi detects that there is definitely something Draper is witholding either out of fear or some other psychological reason. They convince Draper to take them to Peters. Draper insists that they will need to take Peters a gift of some brushes or paints.
The World's End
Ryan's investigations begin at the World's End Public House on Victoria Street, an old haunt and a regular watering hole for the constabulary's finest. He is immediately recognised by one of his former colleagues, Constable Tim Barley. Ryan is not shy in asking about the Chelsea School of Art missing persons case and Barkley complains that they don't have the manpower to do a search of the riverside, they are effectively just waiting for a body or three to wash up on the banks of the Thames.
Barkley mentions that these are strange times, in fact he had a chap come into the station the other day. He claimed that someone had dug up his dead mother, stolen her locket and sold it to a pawnbroker on the Fulham Road. He didn't know what to make of it, but the man seemed a little out of sorts.
Ryan leaves the pub and as he ruminates on the case he realises he is near to his informant and sometime errand boy Jim. Jim is a greasy looking young ruffian and is more than happy to help Ryan out for a few shillings. Ryan tells Jim to go to Stokes Pawnshop and see if he has a silver charm bracelet with butterfly charms on it.
An Encounter with Mr Peters
Freshly furnished with art supplies the friends and Draper take a cab to Lambeth. The dereliction and squalor of the tightly packed ramshackled tenament buildings an anathema even to Yoshi and Chester whose rented rooms in the East End were still classified as comfortable.
The cab sped off as soon as the four alighted. Draper led them through narrow alleys and passageways to a boarded up half ruined building. Opening the door with a key he led them inside the dark confines through corridors and down stairs until they entered a basement room with what looked to be a well.
Leaving the art supplies against the low wall of the well, Draper was keen to leave. Chester and Yoshi shone their lantern into the well. Something caught Yoshi's eye, a glistening in the light. They climbed down into the well for a closer look. The bottom of the well clearly entered into the subterranean warren of the London sewer system. The ground at the bottom of the iron rung ladder was dry, poking out of the earth was a silver butterfly which matched the description of the charm bracelet worn by one of the missing girls from the art school. As Yoshi turned the charm over in his big hands he could hear the sounds of someone sloshing through the water from down the tunnel. Chester and Yoshi scampered up the ladder and the group cowered in an adjacent room leaving one of the lanterns on the floor next to the well.
As they watched a long withered hand and arm reached out from the well grasping at the bag with the art supplies. This horrifically contorted creature, they presumed was Mr Peters...
