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TRAIL OF CTHULHU

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Credits

Ritual Pursuits is a 15 minute demo for Trail of Cthulhu writtenby Steve Dempsey.

Artwork - Jerome Huguenin

Layout Template - Jerome Huguenin

Layout - Beth Lewis

Trail of Cthulhu Core Rulebook written by Kenneth Hite

Based on the GUMSHOE System by Robin D Laws

Steve Dempsey. All r ights reserved. Trail of Cthulhu is a trademarkof Pelgrane Press Ltd.


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BackgroundThis is what is going on. VincentCrane is a graduate of the MiskatonicUniversity. He read some things in thelibrary that have unhinged him, part ofthe Necronomicon. He decided that hewanted to contact Abdul Alhazred inorder to understand things better. He has

managed to contact Alhazred and warnhim off his impending doom. Cranehas also tracked down a descendant ofthe Mad Arabs into whom his spiritcan be summoned, namely WoodrowChadwick. Crane has holed up in hisfamilys old farm outside Muncie,IN. He has arranged for Chadwick tocome to him by faking a haunting andinviting Tyler to Indianapolis. Tyler hasmissed the rendezvous and welcolmeparty so Crane has summoned up anddespatched a Night Gaunt to fetch

Chadwick for the ritual. This involvedthe killing of many farm animals as anoffering and the inscription of a largeElder Sign on the side of his barn.This ruckus worried the neighbourswho called the police. Two policemenarrived. One, Officer Taylor, was killed by Crane with a shotgun. The other,Hicks, escaped the carnage by runningaway. It is he that the PCs will meet onthe road.

IntroductionIts 1931 and the Indianapolis Indianshave just opened their new PerryStadium on 16th St. Also the newlyreformed Indianapolis ABCs areplaying in the Negro National League.Travelling to Indianapolis cross countryfrom New York in a quite a decent car,a Ford Model A Sedan, are you fivepeople looking to take advantage ofthese exciting times. There are 2 ball

players, a sports journalist, a doctor, anauthor whose car it is and the driver. Itsnot been an easy journey. Unmarriedwomen travelling with men and whitestravelling with blacks are viewed withgreat suspicion.

You took a slight detour in Ohio tocheck out a haunting in Lima. You had

hoped to make better time because youneed to be in Indy tonight. Youve beenforced to push on into the night andnow youre just South of Muncie. It isa moonless night. It is clear and cold,being March and the stars are bright.

Scene 1

The Police OfficerScene type: Core (Cop Talk)

Suddenly there is a roadblock up ahead.A police officer flags the car down witha torch and Woodrow is asked to get outof the car. Anyone who wants to SenseTrouble and will see a flickering assomething occludes the stars.

Woodow and the officer standtalking in the headlights when somelarge creature swoops down assaultsthe officer and disappears into thenight with Woodrow in its clutches(Stability 4 for those who can see the

Night Gaunt, 5 for Tyler whos friendhas been abducted).

Officer Hicks, #7435, is dead(Stability 2 for those who didnt seethe Night Gaunt). His head almosttwisted off. On the floor next to himis a torch and his notebook. Medicineor Shooting (supplementary clue)reveals that the officer had someshotgun pellets in his side that wereinflicted under an hour ago.

Decoding the notebook requires CopTalk (core clue) and shows that hewas investigating a disturbance at theCrane farmstead. Their neighboursthe Dicklys, reported (10-67) strangenoises and screams (10-91b) comingfrom the farm, possibly a prowler (1070). The Dicklys have the only phonein the area and Old Mother Dicklywasnt too keen on investigating.

The officers vehicle is nowhere to beseen but across the fields you can thelights in a farmhouse.

Scene 2

The FarmhouseScene type: Core (Evidence

Collection)Time is of the essence, the group mustfind Chadwick before Crane completehis terrible ritual. Arriving at the farmhouse, the group finds the yard awashwith the blood and flesh of many animal(Stability 3). Parts bear human bitemarks and parts have been nailed to the barn, in and around a strange symbothat has been inscribed. A pipe from alarge water tower has created a smalstream that runs into the barn. Occul(supplementary clue) will confirm thi

is some kind of summoning ritual.

To one side is parked a police car, bothdoors are open. A dead police officerlies slumped and bloody across thefront seat. His chest has a large shotgunwound. His gun lies on the floor.

Inside the homestead is a bloody messthe remains of Cranes research andexperiments. Mad scrawlings adorn thewalls, papers are strewn everywhere

Ritual Pursuits


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TRAIL OF CTHULHU

Ritual Pursuits

Otherwise a difficult Drive roll (7)with one wheel bumped up on one of

the copper strips can get the car downto the bottom in one round.

The PCs have three rounds to reachCrane before he finishes his ritual.And it will take them this long to getin range to shoot him. Other waysof interrupting the ritual includedisrupting the copper wires in someway. Touching them directly incursa blast of ethereal energy doing 1d6damage and permanently blasting away

Otherwise, as the PCs reach the quarry,their car is attacked by the Night Gaunt

(p144 of the Trail of Cthulhu corerulebook), sent to stop them by Crane.It will attempt to carry PCs off anddrop them into the quarry (it has tomake a scuffling roll to avoid droppingthem in the water.

Athletics checks are necessary tomake it down into the quarry quickly.The target is 4 with a torch, 5 without(-1 to target if going more slowly).

and various body parts and otherindescribable things are scattered hereand there.

Evidence Collection (core clue)allows a quick assessment. Simplesearching will find all the clues but thegroup will arrive at the quarry after theritual has failed. The perpetrator is nothere but there is a drawing on the wallthat is some kind of map. Outdoorsmanallows the speedy identification of thelocation, a quarry somewhere to thenorth of here.

A spend ofEvidence Collection will

allow the investigator to recognise thatthe various notes, books and images, ifcollected, amount to a Mythos Tome,the Crane Archive, giving a pool ofOccult 2 and Cthulhu Mythos 1.It is a mixture of English and Arabic.There are three spells present, Call DarkServitor (Summon/Bind Night Gaunt),Summon Ancestor (a Resurrectionvariant requiring a descendant of thedeceased into whom the spirit of thedead is summoned) and Blessing of theDark (enchant knife). Using Languages

(Arabic) will spot that the SummonAncestor spell has been mistranslated.Occult would then indicate that theritual is likely to fail.

Scene 3

The RitualScene type: ResolutionCrane has prepared an old quarryfor his ritual. There are long strips of

copper wire that radiate out from thecentre to the rim and channel whateverunearthly power Crane is using (seemap). Unearthly energies coruscate inthe night sky (see handout).

If the PCs used a simple search inthe Farm, they arrive after the ritualhas failed finding both participantsunconscious and slumped to the ground,the Night Gaunt, prancing and picking attheir bodies.


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Pre-Generated

CharactersPrint off the following 5 pages as nametags for your table, and distributethem with the character sheets to yourplayers.

Ritual Pursuits

The NightgauntThis is straight from the book although

you might like to change things a bit tomake it more interesting for the players.Nightgaunts use a tickle ability toimmobilise. There are several ways thiscan be represented in the game:

the Nightgaunt applies pressure topoints on the character paralysingthem and causing their face to contortin a terrible rictus;

the Nightgaunt does not swoop butpresents itself initially as a ridiculousidea to the character who cant help

but chuckle at the enormity of it.When the character laughs, they letdown their guard and the Nightgauntcan insinuate itself into reality andcarry them off, helpless as they arewith the terrible humour of what ishappening.

1 Sanity as the unfortunates brain isdirectly exposed to the otherworldlynexus. However this will stun Crane

and knock him down for a round.

In any case, the ritual will not succeedbecause Crane doesnt have the correctspell. It will pull Al Hazred from hisproper place in time and space, as ifinvisible creatures were devouring him.He will be mostly trapped in limbo butsome portion of his being will enterChadwick and corrupt him. He willrespond by using the Shrivelling spell(p117 ofTrail of Cthulhu) on any whocome near, first using it to severely hurtCrane.

Chadwick will be on -1 Stabilityby this point. He will shrivel the firstPC to approach (4pts to cast, 5 pts tothe damage roll) leaving him on -11Sanity, almost completely mad. Hewill last one round of gibbering beforehe too collapses.

Car

The Quarry


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Amanda Jones Eager Journalist

Your family is from Brooklyn and your dad played for the Dodgers. You

travelled the country with him as he plied his trade. Now you're a journalistlooking for a break. If that wasn't hard enough for a woman, you're a sports

journalist. You've managed to get a job in Indianapolis, writing copy on thelocal AAA team, the Indians.


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Brad Heller Journeyman ballplayer

Originally you're from California but you've travelled all over the States plying

your trade as a catcher in the Negro Leagues. The ABCs are looking for aseasoned pro to help develop their young players and you've landed the job.

Recently you've been working as a bible salesman so that's much better. Youhelped Fran with some baseball myths when you played for the Louisville

Colonels.


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Eugene Stafford Ex-con baseball pitcher

You're from Queens where you had a job as a locksmith. You practised on theside a bit, cracking safes for the mob. On Sundays you played amateur

baseball in the park and that's where you were spotted by a scout for theIndianapolis Indians. Hopefully you can stay out of trouble and make a name

for yourself.


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Fran Tyler Wandering Author

Originally from Louisville, KY, you travel across America, collecting myths and

legends and writing them up as horror stories for the pulp magazines.Recently you've heard some strange things about Indianapolis so you're

checking it out. You don't like to travel alone so you advertised in the paperand have some interesting companions for the trip from NY.


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Alan Lansdale Poor farmboy made good as a doctor

From a poor family of farmers from up-state Massachusetts, you've made it

good to become a doctor. The trouble is, you've not got any money to buy aplace in a swanky new practice but the Indianapolis Indians need a doctor to

go with them on the road and you've got the job. You hope to save enough tostart your own practice.


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