Scenario: Never Call Up What You Cannot Put Down
This weekend I ran a couple friends through “Do Not Call Up What You Cannot Put Down”, a scenario in Fear’s Sharp Little Needles from Stygian Fox. It was the first time playing Call of Cthulhu ever for one of them, so I wanted something that was relatively short but had a decent story, a fair amount of danger, and a profound chance of death.
The scenario took place in the current day off the shore of Salem, Massachusetts. Our two investigators were:
Leonard Calvin Bigelow- Ocean explorer
Ethan Chang- Oceanography grad student
The two were part of a project involving the tagging and tracking of Great White Sharks. Their employer, Dr. Erin Howie, told them they’d mostly be hucking chum in the water to attract the sharks, but every little bit helps. They met Captain David Mascari at his boat the Wavedancer along with Dr. Howie.
As they were going to board the ship, they all heard a rambling behind them. Turning around, they spotted a disheveled man in his 30s staggering towards them. He was roaring at them about how they shouldn’t go out there and something about an eye. Captain Mascari called the man “Wall” and tried to calm him down, but Wall wasn’t having it. He went on and on about how Mascari knew what had happened to him, and how he was the only one left alive. Wall finally got frustrated and walked off, still rambling.
The captain told the two to ignore the man and that he was just a poor soul having a hard time of it. However, Leonard remembered reading awhile back about a fishing trawler capsizing off Cape Anne. Mike Wall was the one survivor, found by the Coast Guard and babbling about a “sea monster”. His claims were dismissed as delusions.
The group got on the Wavedancer and headed out to open water until the coastline was in the distance. Once they got to a good position, Dr. Howie had Leonard and Ethan start chumming the water. It was smelly but quiet work for the better part of an hour, until the two saw a fin break the surface a hundred or so feet away from the boat. Captain Mascari saw it as well and called it out. Dr. Howie yelled for the captain to start it up and maneuver closer to the shark.
As they neared the shark, something bumped into the boat hard from the bottom and reared the Wavedancer up several feet before bringing it back down. Stuff was thrown around the deck, but no one was hurt. There was no rocks or coral in the area, so the cause was a complete mystery.
The closer they get to the shark, the surer they are that something is wrong. The shark just bobs with the swells, bumping into the bait crate. When they get close enough they see the shark is obviously dead, a gigantic bite taken out of its midsection.
Everyone grabbed a gaff pole and dragged the shark up on the deck. The tag on its dorsal fin indicated the shark was Albert, tagged in the program off the coast of Wellfleet a couple years back. Looking over the corpse, they learned a couple disturbing facts: first, Albert had been alive about 15 minutes ago and second, whatever killed him had to be about 50 feet long, which disqualifies a lot of marine life in the area. Dr. Howie, instructed the team to start getting samples.
As samples were collected, some of the group heard a strange, keening sound rise up from the ocean. It was definitely not a whale song. As the seagulls that had been attracted to the chum suddenly tore away and flew far from the boat, Ethan and Leonard notice that Dr. Howie is staring off towards the origin of the sound. Her eyes were wide as saucers, her skin was glistening with sweat, and she was gibbering under her breath.
Talk about bad times to find out you have Deep One blood.
Suddenly, the moment is broken by the radio crackling to life. Bill Vogel, the captain of the Coyote, was putting out a Mayday because his boat’s outboard motor had died on him, leaving him and his grandson Peter stranded. Captain Mascari got the Coyote’s coordinates, which put them two miles away from the Wavedancer. Mascari told Bill to sit tight and set course for the Coyote’s location. Mascari had Ethan cut the shark loose from the deck. As the Wavedancer pulled away, Ethan saw’s Albert’s corpse just plunge down out of sight.
Soon the Wavedancer found the Coyote, and was there a sight awaiting them; Bob and his young grandson, Peter, were on the deck waving their arms in the air and shouting towards the oncoming boat. As the crew got closer, they saw there was a giant, serpent-like creature strapped to the side of the Coyote, apparently dead. Its only features were two spindly arms near its gills, a mouth filled with giant fangs, and one dinner-plate-sized unblinking eye.
Leonard and Ethan both deduce that the thing was nowhere near big enough to be Albert’s killer.
Bill made introductions and explained what happened; He and Peter were out fishing when the thing attacked the side of the boat. Bill, fortunately, had a .30-06 bolt-action on board and proceeded to fill the thing full of lead. Peter nodded enthusiastically and exclaimed “We did it! We killed a real sea monster!” If only.
The thing strapped to the side of the Coyote started thrashing about and mewling in pain. The group recognized it as the keening wail they had heard earlier. A lot happened at once then and there:
First, sharks that had been swimming around the boats out of curiosity left. They left quick. They left real quick.
Second, Dr. Howie went into another freakout. She ran to the front of the Wavedancer, making odd signs in the air and making noises that could only be compared to Mongolian throat-singing underwater.
Third, another keening sound came from deeper in the ocean, much louder than any of the others.
Suddenly, something smashed the Coyote into the Wavedancer from below, throwing everyone around. Bill and his grandson get on board just in time to see the Coyote get dragged under the waves. Ethan looked down to see the Coyote descend into the depths in the grasp of gigantic jaws.
Captain Mascari pulled the Wavedancer around towards the coast when a rage-filled roar filled the air. Dr. Howie answered in kind. Then, a gigantic version of the thing strapped to the side of the Coyote broke the surface, a tire-sized eye staring hatefully at those on the deck. Dr. Howie shrieked her song at the monster, dark gill-like scars appearing along her neck. Leonard pulled her away from the prow and got her sat and somewhat calmed down.
As the thing circled the Wavedancer, the crew felt an odd pressure in their heads. The realized the thing in the water was somehow communicating via telepathy. It told them to turn over the two who had killed its offspring, Bill and Peter, or all would die horribly. Peter crawled into his grandfather's arms, shrieking in terror as he heard the demand in his head as well. Bill stared at the investigators in wide-eyed horror.
Ethan felt that the abominable horror presented a valid bargain and voted to have the two sacrificed. The captain was thoroughly unconvinced. While attacking the creature was obviously madness, the Wavedancer was a fast one, and they stood a chance of getting past it to shore.
Captain Mascari told Leonard and Ethan to get flare guns from under a seat. On his mark, they would shoot flares off the port side and over the thing’s head, confusing it for a moment. The captain used that time to kick the Wavedancer into gear and tear past the creature.
The monster immediately gave chase as soon as it realized the boat was getting away with its prize. It was like a foul corkscrew, coiling through the water and roaring its vengeance at the boat. Dr. Howie had broken out of her trance again and proceeded to stand at the door of the deck at sing foul songs at the creature coming after them. Leonard knocked her out, took her to the Captain’s berth, and tied her up there. Not the worst problem they had at the moment, but she was out of the way at least.
Leonard had the crazy idea to try to blind the thing with the Wavedancer’s searchlight on top. The creature tried to paralyze Leonard with its mind, but its rage didn’t permit it to focus. Leonard got the light flashing in the thing’s eye which stopped it for a moment, long enough to put some more distance between the boat and the creature.
Ethan grabbed the radio to try to contact help. When he got ahold of the Coast Guard, he immediately started ranting about a monster trying to kill them which went about as well as you would imagine. Leonard snatched the com from Ethan and got ahold of the Coast Guard again. He told them that sharks had banged into the side of their boat and may be taking on water but were trying to make it to shore. The Coast Guard told them to maintain course and they would come to the Wavedancer.
The captain told them to try to create some more distance between them and the thing again. Leonard and Ethan shot flares at the thing. While doing no damage the flare did startle it some, creating more space between them. The creature went from its corkscrew spiral to just plunging in and out of the ocean, creating great waves as it did so.
It was not able to gain on the Wavedancer before the Coast Guard would come, and it knew it was outnumbered. It gave a final roar of frustration and dived beneath the surface as the Coast Guard came.
Leonard got Bill to agree to a story about how the Doctor had gone nuts and had to be contained. Bill just wanted him and his grandson to forget all about this, so went along with it. Bill did glare at Ethan a lot, however. The Coast Guard helped Dr. Howie get on board their patrol boat with her mumbling about “getting the song back” all the while. They showed the Coast Guard the side of the boat where the creature had banged it up. It was bad but it would get them to shore. As soon as they docked, Captain Mascari said he was going to start drinking heavily and everyone had to get the hell off his boat.
And that’s how you spend a lovely afternoon at sea.