Masks of Nyarlathotep Session 10
The party consisted of:
Lillian Fogg- Museum Curator
Lydia Lisbon- Drug Dealer using Photographer as a cover
Chomden Tsomo- Mountaineer
Curtis Flanagan- Author
Violet Adair- Dancer/Occultist
Warning: If you’re planning on playing the campaign and not running it for others, you should stop reading now.
Intent on ending whatever evil is centered at the Ju Ju House, the investigators set to researching their target. They case the street the store is on and find an abandoned pawn shop across the street that would make for an adequate stakeout later. They then head to the library.
Looking through the archives they find that 50 or 60 years ago, the area the Ju Ju House is in was a large warehouse that has since been renovated into storefronts. They also find old city plans that show there is a sizeable basement directly under the Ju Ju House.
Leaving the library, the investigators find themselves outnumbered by NYPD officers and a paddy wagon nearby waiting. They are arrested on charges of mopery, a common charge back in the day when the police didn’t have squat on you, but wanted to pull you in anyway.
They are taken down to the 7th Precinct, where they are taken to Captain Walter Robson’s office.
Robson, a man in his 50s wearing a suit the investigators know no captain’s salary could afford, is quite pleasant in the beginning. This facade quickly drops as he explains to the investigators that he is well aware of their researches and actions regarding the Ju Ju House, that they are endangering themselves greatly, and that he doesn’t want to see or hear about them anytime in the future, or the next conversation will go much less pleasant. The investigators promise to follow his sage advice and are allowed to leave.
Needless to say, the investigators lied to him. A lot.
Retrieving the car, they make their way back to Harlem, successfully break into the pawnshop, and set up their base of operations. The windows are boarded, but there’s still enough of a view to keep an eye on the store.
The day turns to night, and then it gets interesting. About 25 people of mixed ethnicity and walks of life enter the Ju Ju House, but no one comes out. As they had planned with Bronson, they see him walking discretely in front of the store and down the street. At the half-hour mark, they blink a flashlight, the sign to him that it’s all gonna go down. He melts into an alleyway, waiting for them to start.
They rush quickly across the street and jimmy the store’s lock, Bronson joining up with them. The store itself is empty. They search high and low, finding a trap door under a carpet. The take the staircase going down and find a stone hewn hallway with odd, indecipherable inscriptions on the walls. The hallway ends with a large door at the end. Lydia decides to light a Molotov cocktail for whatever is behind the door.
They open the door to see what they’re facing. At the bottom of dual staircases, there’s a large room with a pit in the center. At the edge stands Mukunga M’Dari, the high priest of the Cult of the Bloody Tongue, resplendent in a feathered robe and gauntlets made of lion’s claws. Held next to him by two cultists are Rebecca Shosenberg and Milly Adams with the same bloody sigil carved into their heads that Elias did. Robed figures join him in a chant that makes no sense other than the word “Nyarlathotep”. An unholy, gibbering roar emits from the bottom of the pit. It is a scene of true nightmare.
Lydia copes with said nightmare by lobbing her Molotov into it, the resulting explosion causing multiple inhuman screams to erupt from it. This enrages M’Dari, and the group is quickly overwhelmed and brought down to the edge of the pit. At the bottom they see a huge, bloated worm-like thing. Tortured, insane faces cover its burnt surface, each of them glaring at the group hatefully and gnashing their teeth.
M’Dari gloats as he chastises the investigators for their foolishness, explaining that their attempts at stopping the Cult of the Bloody Tongue is wasted, for they are but one finger on a many-armed beast. M’Dari speaks of how they will serve the cult by becoming part of the Chakota below.
It’s then that the head of the cultist holding explodes in a crimson rain. Everyone looks up at the staircase to see the Harlem Hellfighters, armed to the teeth. The Hellfighters proceed to do some serious lead farming, sending everyone below into a panic.
M’Dari utters strange words and four zombie-like creatures come shambling out of alcoves to attack the group. The investigators are numbed with horror to see that one of their number includes their old friend, Jackson Elias. The room turns into a theatre of gunfire, blades, a gore. In the end, however, Violet scissor kicks M’Dari and he is This Is Sparta!ed into the Chakota pit, and ultimately the cultists are either killed or scattered. The one casualty on the investigator’s side is Bronson. The smile on his face showing that he died the way he wanted to, horribly.
The Chakota still screamed at the bottom of the pit, the face of devoured M’Dari now joining in the monstrous chorus. One of the Harlem Hellfighters errs on the side of practicality and lobs a grenade into the Chakota’s mass. Everyone is suddenly covered head to foot in Chakota gunk.
Searching the basement before they escape, the investigators find the following:
A copy of Elias’ Africa’s Dark Sects, apparently stolen from Harvard University.
A horrible wooden mask comprised of four monstrous faces atop a long, corded neck that leads to a basket-like headpiece.
A burnished copper bowl covered with bizarre runes and signs.
A runed, wooden scepter covered in what looks like Egyptian inscriptions.
An oddly warm metal headband covered in cuneiform.
A modern chronometer set to Greenwich mean time
They also find a cash box filled with the valuables of the cult’s various victims. The investigators take it as well in hopes that it can help free Hilton Adams.
Everyone then gets out of the Ju Ju House to see Lieutenant Poole and other police rounding up and arresting escaping cultists. Poole does not look at all surprised to see the investigators come limping out. The investigators explain little, but Poole has enough on his hands and knows that questioning them further would be more work than he needs. The investigators give Poole the cashbox, explaining that the valuables within can probably be linked to the murder victims, hopefully freeing Hilton. Poole takes it, gets Millie and Rebecca medical care, and tells the group that they need to talk the next day.
The investigators thank the Harlem Hellfighters for saving them. The Hellfighters explain that they knew the group was going to get themselves killed if they just went rolling in on their own, and that was not going to happen. Everyone goes back to Lillian’s to clean up, rest, and meet the new day.