By the light of unseen stars.

We finally (FINALLY) wrapped up Call of Cthulhu last night. As a test of 7th edition went… it wasn’t a great test. I chose an old scenario (which was very good and thorough, I thought) that wasn’t written for 7th edition, so I had to do more work than I really like doing to convert a handful of things and I HATE doing work.

Really, other than the easy switch to percentile stats, advantages and disadvantages, the possibility of pushing a test (did anyone even ever do that? I know it was offered, but I can’t remember anyone risking it) and the easy side of temporary insanity, we didn’t really dive too much into the new rules system. I’m overselling how much new stuff there really IS… there are only a few changes to the system, but it would have been nice to stretch our legs a little more on them. I’m a sucker for handouts though and this scenario had them in spades.

Character creation is a good process and the good characters that were created helped carry the game. A few small touches in character creation eventually came back around over the course of the story and that’s cool. Those little things can make all the difference.

Our heroes uncovered a scientific advance that seemed to be at the source of visions and madness and were able to tie the new illuminations on deprived South Walnut Street to the disappearance of an entire village in the previous century. They discovered the cave in which a dormant old thing from beyond lay waiting, the walls of the cave providing the material for the technology that was warping the minds of the poor inhabitants of South Walnut.

It ended with a chase, as the naive Professor who had been manipulated into helping awaken this Thing tried desperately to undo his error. In his fatal failure, he eased the old being out of its slumber as it sought to replenish itself under the light of its distant star. It was not to be, however, for while the minds of Swoosie and P.H. snapped at the sight of them, Tony Crazy Legs Balta, unable to see the thing began to recite the old fragment of the Book of Eibon that they believed would steal the sight from the waking god. He recited the song the musical trio had come up with as an aide de memoire and soon Pleasant Hannibal joined him in creating a sense-stealing shield to deprive the god of its nourishment. Swoosie, was temporarily convinced that Tony was her murdered mother (Gasp! Foreshadowing!) but eventually came to her senses and tried to stop the tentacled mass from heaving itself from the hillside.

They were attacked by one of the god’s alien servitude’s and it sucked into the air and then crushed poor Tony to a broken mass. Pleasant Hannibal persisted and the spell they cast stole the thing from the repulsive star’s ability to fully awaken and so they saved… the day?

They certainly seemed to save some of South Walnut Street’s slum dwellers, as the brisk pace with which they had been being driven insane/killed came to an abrupt end.

Swoozie, unfortunately, made the mistake of telling her lawyer about the sky-jellyfish crushing Tony in defense of the tentacled invisible being and the lawyer, sanely, had her and Pleasant Hannibal locked up in the looney bin.

Their stay was brief, barely worth the paperwork, as the doctors concluded that they were both sane but had suffered trauma caused by the sudden crushing death of their friend in a cave in. However, Pleasant Hannibal was roomed in a secur-ish cell next to the poor old Polish cripple who had glimpsed things beyond the veil of our mundane existence. In the few nights he stayed in Arkham’s premiere mental hygiene care facility prior to his immediate and slightly apologetic release, the demented old Pole whispered so many impossible secrets to P.H.

So many.