Circus freaks and Scotch whisky

This week we got the Buffy campaign under way and continued the 1920s Cthulhu.

It was decided to change Buffy's location from New Orleans to Arkham, as Cthulhoid elements were slated to appear anyway, and we felt that a fictional small town would perhaps fit the game better than a large existing one. The starting date was 16 January 2008, the same as that of the game session, and the opening scene was set at Arkham High where every character was sitting in the English class. What follows is just a list of randomly selected events, as a blow-by-blow account belongs elsewhere.

A circus was in town and Selena Flores' (she's the slayer) watcher told her to investigate it as some star conjunctions indicated that something evil would happen in that park within days. She seemed to be more worried about missing cheerleader practice.

Will managed to inadvertently anger Elianor on the very first day (he's not very good at reading's ladies' intentions between the lines) but luckily they made up the day after. He was even invited for a dinner at her home before they went to see the circus. A nerve-wracking event for the young man, to be sure. Matthieu, Elianor's father had earlier visited the bookstore which Selena's watcher owned. Meanwhile, Vin had learned that one of his teammates was missing...

The circus opening night saw everyone but Vin in attendance; he was hanging out in the park, drinking beer (shocking, I know) with his buddies. Elianor experienced a psychic vision and worried Will in the process. She tried to investigate the main tent with Selena after the show, but they were chased off by circus workers. After Will drove Elianor home, she told her father - who is also a sorcerer, by the way - about her vision and they began a ritual to try and find out more about the park. It indicated that magical forces were converging on the location! Her dad grabbed a sword and left to investigate, telling Elianor to stay out of it.

She called Will immediately and asked for a ride to the circus. What, you thought we actually obeyed? Will was clueless but snuck out of the house anyway and drove to meet his girlfriend. While these events unfolded, Selena was again investigating the circus and ran smack into what looked like a ritual sacrifice of the missing student. She called her watcher for help and then went on the attack. Soon the main tent was really busy with magical clowns, the circus director, his female companion, the slayer, her watcher, Elianor, her father and poor Will all embroiled in a fight.

We won. The big boss got away. The student was saved. Will accidentally decapitated the mysterious woman with the watcher's sword. He really didn't mean to. Selena kicked ass and got hers kicked a little. Elianor used a crossbow instead of magicks. Vin? He scored on an entirely another front. As Will and Elianor drove the rescued guy to the hospital, they got into a meaningful discussion of the nature of courage and mysterious visions, each discovering that the other had also experienced them! The rest of the gang cleaned up at the scene and interrogated a weird height-challenged person. Cue credits.

Back in the 1920s, the team, reinforced by a friend of the deceased Thomas, traveled to Scotland to look for a missing big game hunter at the request of his nephew. No Prohibition, yay! We found the missing man's corpse and a piece of an artifact we'd only seen in a picture before. A ghost tried to eat Jack while Roy was happily cooking dinner in the next room. Sam picked a lock with a supposedly magical toothpick. We did not blow anyone's head off and were friends with the local police. Must be that genteel British air.

Game Count: 4/52