Masks of Nyarlathotep: Session 3
After a few months off due to holidays and other inconveniences, the crew got together to continue on with Masks of Nyarlathotep. Picking up where they left off back in September.
The party consisted of:
Lillian Fogg- Museum Curator
Lydia Lisbon- Photographer
Chomden Tsomo- Mountaineer
Curtis Flanagan- Author
Violet Adair- Dancer
WARNING: IF you’re planning on playing the campaign and not running it for others, you should stop reading now.
After the corpses of their Kharisiri attackers were reduced to charred, decapitated and bubbling goo, the investigators realize that the Kharisiri were following them, and that they should get out of Puno as quickly as possible for their own safety and the safety others.
Getting back to Narya’s home, they find her pissed. Highly pissed. They stand by awkwardly as Narya dressed down Jackson as only a salty Peruvian wise woman can. She admonishes him for bringing the threat directly to her doorstep. Narya demands he be gone in the morning. She’s huffy with the investigators, but she is not so angry that she can stand to see them hungry and tired. She goes into the kitchen to put together a meal, yelling things in Peruvian with “Elias” peppered throughout, things which cause Jackson to flinch occasionally. Violet goes into the kitchen to offer to help, and soon her and Narya are fast friends.
The group ate and went to sleep while Narya’s grandsons and others in the village kept watch, but the Kharisiri were apparently done for the night. Narya woke them at 5:30am with a large breakfast, a very polite way of telling them to bugger off. Jackson said his supply man didn’t open shop until 9, but knew he often got in much earlier. They took the boat back to Puno and went to the shop to see if luck was finally on their side.
Jorge was at the store, and Jackson checked to makes sure their blankets, clothes, and other supplies were all there, loaded up the mules, and they headed south for the temple.
The first day went without any real incident. They enjoyed the scenery, saw a jaguar, and Chomden, a mountaineer from Nepal, took perverse pleasure in watching a bunch of noobs trying to navigate the high forest terrain for the first time.
It wasn’t until early the next morning that things took a turn. Chomden, who was on watch, heard a noise over by the mules. She raised her rifle in the air and shot in the air to scare off whatever it was. A growling came from behind the bushes, then a mad-looking man with matted hair and old, tattered leather clothing came loping out.
Upon seeing her, there was a MOIST POPPING SOUND (god I love doing that) and his mouth turned into a now all-too-common lamprey-like maw as he lurched towards her. She leveled her rifle, fired, and took out a hefty chunk of his right hip. Physics affects wild vampires like everyone else. He face-planted immediately.
This didn’t take him out of the fight, however. He was still growling wildly and crawling towards her. All the noise had awoken the others, gunfire filled the early morning air, and after cursory decapitation and burning, the Kharisiri was no more.
It’s presence worried Jackson. The Kharisiri’s appearance and wildness pretty much proved that it wasn’t part of the organized ones they had met, indicating there could be many more than they had suspected. They would have to be even more careful moving forward.
The feral Kharisiri had taken out on of the mules, so they adjusted the dead mules load to the others and moved on. As they were traveling on, they heard gunfire over a hill. Part of the group went over the hill to see what was going on.
From the top of the hill they saw about a half mile away there was a man on his knees cradling another man and firing a rifle one-handed wildly into the trees off in the distance, yelling incoherently.
Lydia hid in the bushes to take pictures and watch what happened next. The man down below saw the group coming, dropped his compatriot to raise his gun at them, and proceeded to yell at them, the word “Kharisiri” occurring more than once.
Jackson took the lead to go forward slowly and calm the man down, explaining to him they were not Kharisiri. Julio, the man, explained that two Kharisiri had attacked him and his son, as indicated by the bleeding wound in the other man’s chest, before he fired off shots that made them retreat.
Chomden performed excellent first aid on Julio’s son, Domingo, to stabilize him which Julio was profusely grateful for. He invited them back to his farm to rest and eat. Helping him get Domingo back to the farm, the investigators followed.
Julio’s wife was at the door when they came to the farm, and properly freaked the hell out when she saw the state of her son. Julio calmed her down and told her what happened and how the investigators had helped. She brought them in and they ate while they talked to Julio further about what happened.
He told the investigators that the Kharisiri were the stuff of regional legend until bodies started being found years ago, desiccated and bearing horrible chest wounds. Soon, people just started to disappear and be seen later, lurking in different areas. The locals realized that the Kharisiri were all too real.
The investigators asked Julio about the temple to the south. He was incredulous that they were going there. Most of the locals knew of the temple but few had gone there, and fewer went twice, as it was considered an evil place. Julio understood they would not be swayed, so gave the party instructions that would lead them there the safest, if not the fastest, way.
Curtis showed Julio the piece of gold they had found. Julio said he didn’t know what the piece was to, but it looked vaguely similar to patterns his great-great grandmother had sewed into clothing she made. The knot pattern was definitely regional.
The party took of for the south with little interruption until they saw two people walking through the foliage not far ahead of them, heading south as well. The investigators hid and watched. It was a man and a woman. The man was dressed in dirty white linens and the woman was dressed in more contemporary clothing. The party decided it wasn’t in their best interests to find out if they were human or Kharisiri (the more likely option) and continued on their own route that wouldn’t cross paths.
Towards mid-day, they came to a cliff overlooking the temple, a desolate place with blowflies everywhere. The temple was in ruins below them, cracked stone everywhere with a large pyramid for the only recognizable structure. They also saw something that confirmed their earlier suspicions; The pair were Kharisiri: the man they saw earlier walking through the jungle was bent over a crack in the top of the ruined pyramid, vomiting a white goo into a crack at the top. When he finished, he went down and the woman climbed the steps and did the same thing. When she was finished, the two walked around the side of the temple where they could no longer be seen.
UberEats for cosmic horrors
Lydia figured that there was something nasty in the depths of the temple, and the best way to deal with it was to dump three kilos of heroin down the crack onto it.
Does it make much sense? No. Did I try to talk Lydia out of it? Also no.
The party went down to the wall of the ruins and over, covering Lydia as she climbed the steps. At the top, Lydia took out her smack and proceeded to dump the copious amount down the fissure. Nothing happened. No rumblings, no shaking, no unearthly voices roaring “Ya got any more of that?”. She figured she still had three kilos of cocaine (she did) if they wanted to try anything else later and rejoined the group.
Examining the courtyard of the ruins, the party decides to check out a cracked stone slab just a bit east of the pyramid. Looking in the crack, they saw naught but darkness below. Moving the slab, they find hole, dropping down about 15 feet, with what appear to be passages below. The decide to see if this is an entrance to the temple from below.
Once they’ve climbed down they start traveling the dark hallways, marking their way as they go. It is dead silent other than any noise they make. Following any path they can that goes towards the direction of the temple, they wander the hallways until they come to a t-intersection. From one direction is the foulest smell imaginable, SO OF COURSE THEY HAVE TO GO CHECK IT OUT, and they find a disgusting charnel pit filled with corpses, skeletons, and other vile effluvia. They stagger back the other direction and go down the other hallway, with naught but a pile of rags and bone in the middle.
A pile of rags and bone that shudders to life ad starts shambling towards them. Within the eye socket, a slimy larvae of some sort writhes.
Ever see the majority of a party seriously lose sanity at once? Buckle in because this is going to get good:
Curtis falls down gibbering and suddenly has a phobia against bandages.
Violet runs down the hallway screaming and dives into the charnel pit, only to nauseously crawl back out with a fear of soup that will haunt her to the end of her days
While Violet tries to regain her senses she sees Lillian go running by her, screaming as she dives into the pool. Violet finally pulls her out, but not before she gets pulled into the foul goo by Lillian one more time. Lillian now has a mania for swimming.
With easily half of the group losing their minds, Chomden, Lydia and Jackson panic due to the situation but pull it together. Chomden again takes out a major chunk of the thing’s core, dropping it and make it easier for the other two to finish it off. They reduce the mummy to bits of bone and dust, calm each other down, and assess the situation.
Along the interior wall of the passageway they hear random thumpings coming from the other side, as if something is trying to get through. This noise brings the group’s attention to the fact that under the grime of ages, there is a gold inlay in the wall. They immediately recognize it as the same pattern on the chunk of gold they have. They immediately set to following the gold band, the thumping behind the wall getting louder and more violent as they go.
After some walking and a couple corners, they do find where their portion of the gold inlay fits in, but there is a crack running through it that is releasing a disgusting-smelling, white effluvia that the investigators almost pass out from smelling. The stuff has gathered into a pool over time in the floor beneath the crack, making it difficult to just put the missing piece in its place. Furthermore, Violet points out how much heroin Lydia had dropped into whatever-the-hell this was, surely making any contact lethal.
A plan was formed; Violet would have Jackson brace her from behind and slowly lean Violet forward over the slime pit. Violet would then get the piece attached back in place, then Jackson would pull her back. Other than one of those foul larvae jumping out of the pool and missing Violet’s face by mere inches, the plan when well.
Or well enough. As soon as the gold inlay was whole again, the entire temple started to shudder as if a giant fist was beating it from the inside. Following their trail of signs they left, the group rushed back to the rope and climbed there way out as dust and small bits of rock fell from the ceiling, Getting topside, they ran as fast as they could to the entrance of the ruins.
..only two find Augustus Larkins there with two Kharisiri. The Kharisiri were not much of a problem, as they were flailing on the ground, their flesh sloughing away as their mouths MOISTLY POPPED ans involuntarily switched between screaming human and hissing lamprey. Larkins paid no heed to his compatriots, or even the investigators. He just stared glassy-eyed at the temple beyond them, listening to the raging roar that could be heard even this far away.
“You did it.” He said to no one in particular. “You really did it.” Larkins’ shirt was unbuttoned to the navel, and the investigators saw a black tattoo on his chest that resembled a lamprey’s mouth. “I...thank you? Is that right?” He asked. Finally looking at the group. “I only wish...I only wish I could stop...this...” With that, Larkins’ eyes turned onyx-black and waves of power could be felt emanating from him.
The thing that was obviously not Larkins looked the group over, a cruel smile playing over its face. “Oh. Oh my. You are going to be problems, aren’t you?” the Larkins Thing asked in a voice that sounded like it came from a pit a mile down in the earth. “It’s no matter,” it continued, “I have all the time in the world. Can’t stay and chat. Things to do, and all that.” The Larkins Thing looked them over once more, then said “See you around.”
With that, Larkins’ eyes returned to normal and he slumped to the ground dead. The group made the unanimous decision to GTFO.
This wrapped up the Peru chapter of Masks of Nyarlathotep. Elias apologized for the lack of treasure, but he paid everyone $125 for their time, reduction of sanity, and general threat to life and limb. The group split up, promising to keep in touch and already thinking of how to spend their well-earned fortunes.
After all, they had their whole lives ahead of them.