*** Session 05 - Scene 13 (of 14) ***

Over at the Eclipse Lounge, Hawk finds a sizable crowd of a dozen or so people have shown up. Eugene starts passing around some lead pipes and Saturday night specials to the boys as Terrance approaches the stage. Hawk helps himself to one of the guns, always happy to have an extra one.

He asks if they are all with him. Hawk says he is, but wants to know who the man controlling the klan is. Terrance figures the klan is Protestant, which in this area means Baptist, so he proposes they go burn down the First Baptist Church on St. Charles Ave and Delachaise in Central City.

Hawk isn't so sure about Pusher's deduction, noting they need to be sure to find the right leader of the klan as it will wither and die with its head cut off, just like a snake. And he definitely doesn't want to get the "wrong Whitey" stirred up.

Before the conversation gets much further, the door bursts open and another group of men enter the club. Hawk recognizes them as belonging to the Thornton Brother's rivals, the Dorsey-Graham gang.

Christopher "Baby Gangster" Dorsey himself appears to be leading the mob, along with his chief muscle Dwayne "Little Wayne" Carter, Jr. They appear to have mistaken the meeting as a prelude to making a move on their turf.

The room quickly erupts into chaos as everyone begins arguing. It doesn't take long before bullets start flying.

Hawk makes a run for the door, firing along the way with the cheap gun he got from Eugene. He lands a shot into Tab "Young Turk" Virgil, Jr. on his way out. Another of Dorsey's men, Terius "Juvenile" Gray, fires at Hawk but misses.

Once outside, Hawk makes sure he isn't followed before heading back to Le Doux's.

*** Session 05 - Scene 14 (of 14) ***

Trying to fit everyone into Fox's car proves challenging, so Le Doux drives back to his office to grab his car as well before they head over to the morgue.

They find Hawk back at the office and explain their plan. Hawk greets Lucien and takes him aside to talk for a moment. Lucien asks Hawk if the others can be trusted.  Hawk says they can, but they are not real believers. Lucien explains they will soon see the true power of voodoo, he guarantees.

Hawk tries to give Lucien a gun to protect himself, but the doctor does not use such things. Hawk instead gives the gun he used at the Eclipse Lounge to Fox, wanting to get the murder weapon out of his possession and with someone else's prints. Fox takes the gun, not realizing Hawk's intentions.

Le Doux, Eberhardt, and Nibbons take Le Doux's car. Fox takes Hawk and Lucien in his. On the drive over to the morgue, Fox notices the gun is too cheap to be usable so he tosses it out the window. Hawk, sitting in the back seat with Lucien, makes a note of where he tossed it in case he can go back for it later.

Once they get to the morgue, Le Doux suggests Fox and Eberhardt use their credentials to get inside. Eberhardt talks the guard into helping them. He has the guard point them towards the bodies of Collin Fearing and the John Doe he came in with.

Of course, once the drawers are opened on the large ice box holding the nude bodies, Eberhardt realizes his mistake. Fox asks the guard where the men's clothes are, with Eberahardt clarifying they need to see the personal effects.

Eberhardt decides to examine the bodies since they are already there. He does notice the zombi powder on their heads.

Fox takes a moment to examine the vent. He can tell something burst into it, but also notices the metal is burned or melted somewhat, as if by a powerful acid. Fox tries to ask the guard if they have anything that can block acid but as he simply works for the security agency, he's not really sure what the agent is getting at. After a confusing exchange, he agrees to take down a note from Fox for Dr. Alvarez about something that prevents acid and getting the vents checked out.

Forgetting for a moment to hold his tongue, Fox starts asking Eberhardt about the creature coming out of Taubert's head, but stops when the guard asks him what he is talking about. Changing the subject, he has the guard retrieve the personal effects from the property room.

When the guard comes back all he has are some clothes. Eberhardt and Fox check the shoes, which are quite muddy. Fox examines them closely, finding remnants of several things mixed in with the soil – yaupon holly berries, oak leaves, and rose petals. Thinking for a moment, he realizes there is only one place in the area he knows that has all three of those things around, the Botanical Gardens at City Park...

*** Session 14 - Session Notes part 1 ***

This session ran much smoother without the Walker player there. She isn't gone for good, though (sigh). I'll digress a moment to explain the situation.

I tried suggesting to her dad over email that perhaps she didn't wasn't interested in this particular game and asked if she'd rather just tag along with him to hang out instead. I framed it along the lines of "hope she doesn't feel like she has to actually play in the game just to come along with you". It sounded a lot better than what I was really thinking, which was "clearly you are forcing your daughter to play and it's a real pain in everyone's ass so knock it off".

He seemed to half take the hint, but still seems in denial. He claims she likes coming to the sessions (well evidenced by her complete apathy and expressed distaste up until now) and basically said the problem is we gave her too central of a role. His solution is to give her a less prominent role where she isn't relied on for anything; his idea was to make her another black guy who could be additional muscle. That's the last thing the group needs, so I'm going to make her his teenage half-sister that his mother is making him look after instead.

To finish off this line of discussion, he claims it's "good for her" to come to the games because she "needs to get more comfortable around people she doesn't know". While this seems to me to be a weak rationalization to explain why he uses his custody night to drag his daughter to his personal activity (she does not seem very introverted to me - just a teenager who couldn't give a hoot less about talking to adults when there's friends to text with), I have seen this expressed by gamer parents before and have always thought it to be rather specious reasoning. I may be nearing 40, but I still remember being younger and more introverted; and the last thing I would want is a parent throwing me in the social deep end - I think it is far better to let kids develop social skills at their own pace as they feel comfortable. But, since I have no kids of my own I know better than to suggest parenting advice to people.

In any event, expect her to show back up at some point though my goal will be to have her character be in the background and do absolutely nothing.

However, if her dad tries to force her to interact more, or if she throws another tantrum about leaving the session early, I'm afraid I'll have to be more frank with her dad about the problem which is not something I'm thrilled about since there are many ways that conversation could go bad.

*** Session 05 - Session Notes part 2 ***

Overall, I found this session to be a mixed bag. The players seemed to feel it was one of the more productive / positive sessions while I felt it dragged a bit in places. But the plot did advance and they did manage to do a few things so it was a good session and did set up a few things for the future.

Misc notes about the session:
* The bodies turning to ooze was something I thought would be very creepy and express how dangerous and mysterious the tentacle monster was.

* I don't think I mentioned it last time - I envision the tentacle monster as something of a cross between a Cthuluian horror and those alien creatures from the movie Dark City. They use their tentacles to eat living creatures by draining their blood then breaking down the rest of their body with a secreted acid.

* The dead security guard only has a name because I thought Hawk was looking for an ID when he grabbed the wallet, not loose cash. The name doesn't mean anything; I had that Iris DeMint song from The Leftovers stuck in my head so I threw out a male equivalent as the name.

* Hawk deciding to rob the morgue instead of just help Eberhardt was a surprise. The Le Doux player was particularly frustrated by that as he knows it will have consequences later.

* Hawk was smart to get the gloves, the ooze might have caused acid burns to his hands.

* I liked that they thought to give Eberhardt a shower and change him into the doctor's clothes.

* I'm not sure what the players think they will find in Dr. Alvaro's notes. Him investigating the missing bodies wasn't intended to convey he had any real information; quite the opposite actually.

* Hawk being seen by the janitor will definitely cause problems later.

* The janitor is named after a janitor character in a Blaxploitation horror film called Tales From the Quadead Zone. Unlike in the movie, I'm not planning to have him murder his twin, dress him up like a clown, and hide him under his house (although that would be the right level of strange for this campaign...)

* I keep telling the Hawk player that there is no need to track money, but he insists on keeping close track of the cash he makes from his stolen goods.

* I was glad the PCs finally decided to go help Giradin. I probably should have killed him off by now since they waited so long but left him alive so the plot wouldn't completely implode.

* I'm not sure why the Le Doux player wanted to pick the lock at Giradin's apartment so bad; there would be no clues inside and it would only make him more likely to get attacked by zombis. It was hilarious when he rolled a particularly bad fail and jammed the lock.

* Fox's encounter with the man in the white pickup is actually based on something that happened to the Le Doux player (Fox's dad) the previous week. The real life version was much more insane - the Le Doux player didn't cut the guy off as far as he knew; the whole thing started on a tightly-packed freeway and the guy followed him for over 15 miles before he tried to get away from him by exiting.

Side note - reporting this sort of thing to the police (at least around here) is pointless because apparently the police are too lazy to actually investigate this sort of thing even when you have the guy's license plate (I mean, its only some psycho following someone for 20 minutes and trying to assault or kill them). Although I own no guns myself, I can see how situations like this lead people to think cops are useless to protect you and feel they need to own a gun to protect themselves.

* I did some research to discover lead arsenate was the type of pest control chemical they would be using at the time. Again, I like to add historical color whenever I can.

* When Fox tried to talk to the guy inside the chemical plant, I covered my mouth when I talked to make everything muffled.

* Hilariously, bad luck caused Fox's car to get damaged when he backed over the zombis. More bad luck got him clipped by the old lady's car.

* Fox was going to steal the old lady's car (on urging from the OOC chatter of the other players) but being a kid he immediately caved in to authority when old man Oldham (yes, the name was a pun) and the cops showed up.

* Careful readers may have caught the mention of Pentex. Yes, that will come up again later as I have re-imagined the company for the Mythos milieu.

* Le Doux was really upset Fox took Giradin back to the police station instead of coming back for him. He really didn't want to take the streetcar back to his office (we actually called it a bus in session, but a streetcar would have been the more likely transport).

* I think the Fox player was confused by the zombis vs. Haitians thing. I tried explaining the zombis were dead white guys.

* I'm not really sure why Le Doux didn't trust the protective custody at the police station; he would have been perfectly safe there (although I could have done an Assault on Precinct 13 type of thing I suppose).

* It took a lot of hints in the conversation between Bartus and Fox before the player figured out he just needed to stretch the truth and imply Giradin was related to the car thefts to get Bartus to back off.

* Le Doux is probably laying on the "I don't believe in zombis or magic" thing a bit much, considering what he's seen. But he's going for the "Scully from X-Files" route.

* I dropped the hint about Patricia Walker to try and get them to check out her apartment. It worked.

* Since the Walker player wasn't going to play her anymore, and it provided a way to escalate the Allatou plot, I killed off the character rather than return her to being a NPC.

* Careful readers may spot that one of the names they found in Walker's apartment already came up. And people who have read certain comics may recognize the names and their connection as well, which was my inspiration for The Committee (though I'm merging two different groups / concepts there).

* Lt. Hunter at the 3rd Precinct is another character from Hill Street Blues.

* Hawk's friends the Thornton Brothers are named after the musicians, as are the rival gang members he encounters later. It all started when I was trying to put Lil Wayne into the game since he's from New Orleans and then it just spiraled from there. Hip hop / rap stars make for great gangster character names because they all have nicknames.

* I wanted to start introducing the klan resurgence plot. It's something else I'd planned from the beginning (and had used in a slightly different form back in my college campaign in the 90's) and it gives Hawk more side plot to chew on.

* The Eclipse Lounge is named after the hip hop group Clipse that Gene and Terrance Thornton originally formed in Virginia Beach.

* Lucien Celine in The Serpent and the Rainbow was a doctor, so I made the character in the game one too (an unlicensed one anyway).

* I have to keep mentioning the Cult of Allatou plot is separate from the Haitian Zombi plot because the players keep conflating the two. It's very challenging having the game play out in ways outside of "monster of the week" when they get confused by multiple plotlines so easily.

* You'll notice I found ways to slip in Fearing and Batraville's first names this sessions. It's too difficult not being able to use the full names but at the same time I want them to be revealed in a semi-realistic way.

* Hawk didn't actually use the words "Massah Fox" in game, but changed his language to suggest it while sarcastically thanking him for letting him go to his own meeting. I put it in the session notes as shorthand.

* Giradin is intended to be "cluelessly racist" as opposed to the more "hostile racist" Fearing's landlady was last session. His background is a hayseed type from a local farm so I thought that seemed more appropriate.

* Again, I had Lucien stress that what Batraville is doing is not voodoo. Not only to be more politically correct, but because I want Batraville's magic to be recognized as being evil and even more mysterious.

* The exposition around Lucien telling them to check the zombi bodies for clues was an attempt to reinforce the need for investigation as well as move the plot along. Far too often the players get a clue and rush to the next person to talk to / place to go without stopping to really think through all possible investigation methods.

* Clearly the First Baptist Church is not the real headquarters of the klan; I wanted to show all kinds of groups can go after easy scapegoats. The church is real and was located at those cross streets at that time. At this time, the pastor was the famous Dr. R.G. Lee (author of the famous Pay Day Someday sermon).

* The shootout at the club was an idea I had about how petty rivalries cloud the larger groups from getting to the root of problems. Hence, the PCs will have to handle it themselves. Though, Hawk has not seen the last of the gangs by any means.

* Eberhardt made a luck roll when they opened the coolers for the morgue bodies to avoid having a tentacle monster spring out. Side note - I have no idea how a 1920's morgue worked so I basically envisioned a modern morgue cooler just with large amount of ice used to keep the bodies cold.

* I claim dramatic license for the large amounts of identifiable debris on the shoes of the zombis.

* I used the botanical gardens for two reasons - first, it was an easy way to point the PCs towards a specific location. And second, I love the juxtaposition of something that couldn't be more peaceful / serene with a dark ritual that could destroy the world.

* Originally I had hoped we'd get to the gardens and play out the climax of this plotline that night, but it took too long to get there. Hopefully next session won't end up with a long denouement.

*** Session 06 - Cast of Characters ***

 Benjamin "Hawk" Brooks: A Black street kid turned enforcer. He works as muscle and provides information for Le Doux, for a price.

Detective Bruno Eberhardt: A 1st generation German immigrant and seasoned police officer recently made homicide detective. He does some work on the side for Le Doux and others to supplement his income.

Boudreaux "Boo" Le Doux: A Cajun and former swamp guide turned private eye who styles himself after hardboiled pulp detective novels.

And introducing...

Pamela "Foxy" Brown: Hawk's fourteen year-old half-sister who tends to get into trouble on the streets.

*** Session 06 - Scene 1 (of 5) ***

With the location of Jean Batraville known, everyone gets back into the cars and heads out. To split up the firepower in the group, Fox, Nibbons, and Celine take Fox's car while Le Doux, Hawk, and Eberhardt take Le Doux's (though he has Eberhardt drive).

Unfortunately, no one notices as the tentacle creatures come out from the morgue and attach themselves to the undersides of the cars. It isn't until they've driven a few blocks that Eberhardt notices Fox's car isn't driving behind them anymore. Just as he says something, the creature melts through the roof of the car, landing in the back seat.

Eberhardt slams on the brakes and tries to pull the car over to the side of the street. It fishtails, and jumps the curb, slamming his side of the car into the brick wall of an empty building.

As everyone recovers themselves after the crash, they look around for the strange translucent creature. They don't spot it immediately and quickly exit the car.

Looking around, Hawk sees where the creature melted through the car's roof. Eberhardt walks around the car to check for it. Hawk bends over to look under the car, his pistol at the ready.

The creature moves too fast for Hawk to react, jumping straight at his face. He steps back quickly to avoid the strange tentacles and fires, but in his haste he misses the shot. The creature grabs onto Hawk and he tries desperately to keep it and its blood-sucking tentacles away from his face.

Le Doux looks around for anything he can use as a club. Finding a nearby piece of wood on the ground, he swings at the creature. He scores a hit as powerful as Rogers Hornsby, knocking the creature off of Hawk and fracturing Hawk's jaw in the process.

The creature starts scuttling towards a nearby sewer grate. Eberhardt shoots at it with his service revolver, hitting it just as it reaches the grate. It lets out an unearthly squeal, then falls into the sewer. He can't quite be sure if he killed it or not.

*** Session 06 - Scene 2 (of 5) ***

Le Doux checks on Hawk who is still a bit stunned from his injury but managing to stay conscious. A few of his teeth lie on the ground. Hawk tries to mumble something to Le Doux along the lines of, "I told you the voodoo shit is real" but is difficult to understand. The detective makes a mental note that Hawk being unable to speak is something of an improvement in their fortunes.

Eberhardt tries to get Le Doux to admit what he saw, but the Cajun insists it was some type of large water spider. As Le Doux and Eberhardt argue, Hawk mumbles excitedly and points, showing them Fox's car wrecked into a utility pole a block and a half back.

The three go over to investigate. They spot Fox and Nibbons in the front seat, both appear to be unconscious. There are cracks in the windshield glass and blood, suggesting both may have been injured in the crash.

Le Doux looks in the back seat to check on Lucien. He finds only the doctor's clothes in a pile of bloody ooze. His heart sinks as he realizes the doctor has been killed.

The detective prods at the ooze with his piece of wood; it begins to smoke as if being burned. He checks to see how the creature got in and sees a hole in the back window where it appeared to have broken through the glass.

Eberhardt has no luck in waking Nibbons or Fox, they appear to be in comas due to their injuries. Le Doux says they need to get the men to a hospital.

Figuring Le Doux's car is the most likely to run again, he has Hawk try to get it running. But a hose has cracked in the manifold and it won't run. They then focus their attention on Fox's car. It takes some time, but Hawk eventually gets the engine to turn over by having Eberhardt and Le Doux help push start it.

But rather than head off to the hospital, Hawk garbles out his suggestion to shoot Fox and Nibbons in the head as they could be zombis now. Le Doux tries to explain that isn't how that works, noting the lack of Jimson Weed powder.

Before they head out to Charity Hospital, Le Doux checks over Fox's car very carefully to see if the "big spider" is still in it. He spots a hole in the bottom of the car, suggesting the creature already left. Being careful to step back very far from the car, he gets down to the ground and looks underneath. Everything appears clear.

Le Doux and Eberhardt move the unconscious bodies of Fox and Nibbons into the back seat. But Hawk insists the men could still be zombis and refuses to sit with them.  After some argument, Le Doux decides they will have to come back for Hawk after and they drive off without him.

*** Session 06 - Scene 3 (of 5) ***

Le Doux and Eberhardt drop off Fox and Nibbons at the hospital. After they explain the men were injured in a car accident, they wait for an initial diagnosis. Le Doux catches some talk between the doctors that it doesn't look good, but all they tell him is that both men suffered severe concussions and are in comas but they don't know when, or if, the men will recover.

The two then head back to pick up Hawk. Though he still needs to see a doctor, the time spent resting has allowed the swelling in his jaw to go down, allowing him to talk again.

With their numbers depleted, Le Doux wants to recruit more help. Hawk directs Eberhardt to drive him over to a speakeasy in Treme where his cousin, Raymond "Ray-Ray" Brooks, sometimes hangs out called Tommy Clown's (named after popular local street performer, Thomas Johnson).

When Hawk walks in, he doesn't see Ray-Ray but does immediately spot his younger half-sister, Pamela "Foxy" Brown, over in a corner booth with some men. Hawk knows this means trouble.

After Hawk's father Franklin died in an agricultural accident when he was younger, his mother Coffey remarried a factory worker named Lincoln Brown and had Foxy. Last Sunday, when he went to church with his mother and stepfather, she mentioned Foxy had been getting into trouble lately and she asked Hawk to keep an eye on her when possible. Coffey was so worried about Foxy ending up working for the mob's "modeling agency" she didn't even notice her rival, Hattie Mae Pierce, was wearing a new crown.

Knowing the fourteen-year-old Foxy shouldn't even be in the bar, much less hanging out with some toughs who appear be twenty or older, he pulls her out of the booth and tells her she needs to come with him.

Hawk tries to recruit some of the locals to come help him, claiming a White man hit him with a board and they need to go down to the Botanical Gardens to shoot his ass. The men in the bar find his story unbelievable, or at least not worth their time, and promptly ignore him.

Heading over to bartender Walter Millsap, Hawk asks about Ray-Ray but Walter says his cousin hasn't been around for a couple of days. He does get Walter to sell him the pump-action shotgun he keeps behind the bar for twenty dollars. He tells Foxy they'll need her shooting skills as well.

Le Doux is nonplussed to find Hawk exiting the bar with only a shotgun and a fourteen year old girl. He ponders the idea of going to other bars and offering men large amounts of money, but quickly realizes he'd be much more likely to get robbed or murdered for his money rather than finding anyone who would be of help fighting a Haitian witch and his zombi minions. Hawk jokes he could just start yelling racial epithets until a crowd of angry men with weapons starts following him.

*** Session 06 - Scene 4 (of 5) ***

The group makes their way over to the Botanical Gardens. As expected, the main gate is locked. Le Doux picks the lock and opens the gate, and Eberhardt drives the car very slowly along the pedestrian path.

After examining the directory map, Eberhardt heads in the direction of the rose garden where they believe the ritual is taking place. It is in the far corner of the gardens, and some distance along the path.

Le Doux and Eberhardt discuss the plan for a long time, arguing with Hawk over strategy. They ultimately decide Le Doux will follow on foot behind the car while Eberhardt drives. Foxy and Hawk will shoot from the car to divert the zombis while Le Doux performs the ritual. Hawk isn't so sure he trusts the plan but eventually decides to go along with it.

As they near the area where the ritual is suspected, Eberhardt spots a fire off in that direction. He stops the car to look as the path is beginning to curve away from that area anyway. He motions over in the direction for Le Doux while Foxy and Hawk roll down the rear windows to get their weapons ready.

Le Doux heads down the small incline towards the direction of the light, keeping behind the bushes and the trees so he can sneak around. Back up on the path, Eberhardt turns his attention back to the path, and notices a large group of zombis waiting up ahead.

Hawk gets out of the car and fires with the shotgun while Eberhardt honks the horn to draw them closer. His first shot goes wide. Luckily, Foxy's shot out the window with a pistol proves better, though only grazes the head of the zombi.

Eberhardt slams on the gas as they get closer, plowing through them. Two get crushed under the car while two move attach themselves to the car. They smash at the car's windshields, trying to get at Eberhardt with their machetes.

Hawk fires another shot at the remaining zombis, but the shell jams. He's forced to use the weapon as a club to fend off one of the zombis.

Back at the car, Foxy fires her pistol at the zombi attached to the passenger's side. She hits it in the head and it drops off. Meanwhile, Eberhardt misses a curve in the path and smashes the car into a tree. It crushes the zombi to death, but also badly damages the car.

Down near the fire, Le Doux spots four zombis surrounding a Haitian man in dark robes chanting a ritual. He circumnavigates the area quietly, looking for an opportunity to strike at Batraville.

Over on the path, Hawk tosses the shotgun and blows the head off of the zombi with his pistol. Eberhardt and Foxy clear off the last two from the path as they all head towards the ritual area to confront the remaining zombis.

Batraville continues his ritual and the sky begins changing strange colors. The zombis start to move away to attack Hawk and the others.

Hawk, Eberhardt, and Foxy start firing at the zombis, taking them down in turn. Eberhardt takes a bad hit from one of the machetes, starts bleeding heavily but is nothing compared to the wounds he took in the trenches during the Great War.

Le Doux takes the opportunity to make a run for Batraville. He almost makes it on time, but isn't quite able to reach him before he speaks more of the ritual.

Le Doux and Hawk notice the sky changes again with flashes of lightning. Up in the sky appears to be an enormous, misshapen mass of polyps, tentacles, mouths with razor-sharp teeth, and other various appendages and masses that defy any categorization. The god-like being of the Floating Horror appears to be half in and half out of this world, forming and un-forming with the stars in the sky.

The effect is far too much for the fragile minds of Hawk and Le Doux and they are temporarily stunned. Le Doux then flies into a wild rage, completing his run up to Jean Batraville and blowing his head off with his pistol.

Screaming like a banshee as he realizes the demon creature in the sky is still materializing, Le Doux takes out the diary and begins performing the reverse ritual while Eberhardt and the others finish off the last of the zombis.

Le Doux begins the chant, but stumbles over the words. The being in the sky becomes more solid, and one of its tentacles begins reaching out towards him. He frantically continues to try, wishing Nibbons or Fox was there since they understand the occult better.

Luckily, his continued attempts work and he is able to complete the spell in time. The entity in the sky melts away into the cosmos, returned to its native plane of being. But the attempt has drained Le Doux completely, and he falls into a deep coma.

*** Session 06 - Scene 5 (of 5) ***

Once it is all over, the zombis melt into pools of ooze. A somewhat deranged Hawk starts looking through the body finding only a pouch of the white zombi powder.

While Eberhardt tends to Le Doux, Hawk finds the back maintenance gate that Batraville gained entrance to the park through.

Hawk grabs Le Doux and they venture out the back gate onto the gravel road behind. Off in the bushes of the adjoining bayou, Hawk spots an old, run-down car. Inside the car are the keys.

Eberhardt drives Le Doux to the hospital after dropping off Hawk and Foxy back in their neighborhood. He tells the doctor they were attacked by a man who stole their car. He files a similar report with the police to cover their tracks.

It will take some time for everyone to recover, but Eberhardt is relieved the threat of Jean Batraville is over.

*** Session 06 - Session Notes ***

Just in before the holidays, this session was quite short compared to most of them. We knew ahead of time the Fox player wasn't going to be able to make it (and won't for a while) but we were waiting around quite a while before we found out the Nibbons player was working late and couldn't make it. Then there was the fact the Le Doux player was still recovering from some medical stuff. And of course, there wasn't much that really could occur before the natural end of the plotline / session.

Was it a fun session? Eh, there were some laughs but on the whole I'd still call it another "down" slope for me.

Being down a couple of players made the others skittish of taking on the bad guy. So then they went down the "let's just hire cannon fodder NPCs" route, not really taking the hints I was dropping that it wouldn't work. This has come up in other campaigns before; for me, this is a non-starter. I'm never, ever going to allow the PCs to "win" a scenario in this game or any other by hiring clueless NPCs to use as cannon fodder. I don't play that way - in fact even the idea of trying it pisses me off as a pet peeve. To me, the basic concept defeats the entire point of RPGs as well as destroying nearly every fictional genre convention; it's one thing to have a game where professional soldiers are hired, paid the proper wages, and know they are going into battle but this is something else entirely.

Anyway, that aside the session was still not great. The Hawk player's disinterested daughter was back. I gave her a character that isn't good at nearly anything and won't be relied on for anything. I was nice enough to let her shoot OK given the circumstances. I'm still not sure this is going to work for me long term.

Then there were the usual complaints about the gunfire. The Hawk player is one of those guys who thinks they are an expert on all kinds of things and always complains about how the game's chances of success for things don't match his personal beliefs.

Lately, its been guns. The other session it was him complaining the .25 pistol low damage because "assassins use it". Then last session he tried telling the Fox player he couldn't have a pump action shotgun because they weren't around yet. This session he was whining because he felt the shotgun he had should have been incredibly accurate at 100 feet because of the spread. It gets kind of old.

In any event, at least we wrapped up the Batraville story so we can move on to something else next session.

Other notes about the session:
* I added the tentacle creature attack at the start of the session to give something else to do before the big finale, as I already knew the session would be short. I also needed an excuse to have Nibbons and Fox out of the picture.

* Killing off Celine was always planned. I was never going to let the PCs get away with letting a NPC do all the heavy lifting (you may call it railroading, I prefer to call it dramatic license for maintaining genre conventions).

* We had far, far too much fun with a stick puppet toy the Eberhardt player brought to represent the squid monster (that he got for his kid from Toys R Us).

* Hawk probably shouldn't have recovered his ability to talk so quickly in the session, but trying to keep him mumbling the whole session wasn't really feasible.

* Hawk's cousin didn't have a name in the session. I chose Ray-Ray because I had recently watched the (terrible) movie A Haunted House on cable and that's what the character's gangster cousin was named.

* When I did a search for Ray-Ray, I found out the name was most associated with some boy band guy from a band called Mindless Behavior that I've never heard of (not my style of music). Reading that, I came up with the idea for Tommy Clown's and Thomas Johnson (for music artist Tommy the Clown) as well as Walter Millsap (he's Mindless Behavior's producer or something).

* Pamela "Foxy" Brown is named after Pam Grier / the movie character Foxy Brown. Again, I'm mocking the Hawk player's Blaxploitation approach.

* Similarly, his mother is named after Pam Grier's other famous movie, Coffey.

* I later realized I'd given his father and other cousin both the name of Franklin (Avery Brook's middle name). Outside the session, the explanation was that his grandfather was Franklin Sr. and both his father and cousin were named after him.

* The half-joke about Hawk's mother not wanting Foxy to end up a prostitute (along with her hanging out with way-too old of guys at the bar) is more of a joke about the fact his daughter is playing the character so I'm mocking his real-life concerns about her dating boys.

* The joke about Hattie Mae Pierce is simply a joke reference to Big Momma's House combined with the typical joke about ladies being rivals at church.

* The actual discussion over the plan at the rose garden took 20 minutes or more as the Hawk and Le Doux player's couldn't agree on a tactic.

* Le Doux made a roll to move quietly but failed his athletics roll to run quickly. The result of that roll was the Floating Horror actually appearing in the sky because the ritual was further along.

This was followed up by a really bad time for Le Doux and Hawk to make their notice rolls, as they then lost a ton of sanity by looking up at the creature.

* After seeing the Floating Horror and casting the spell, Le Doux lost double-digits worth of sanity. Both he and Hawk will be gaining some mental disorders next time because of their heavy SAN losses this session.

* I didn't originally plan for Batraville to have a car, but I threw them a bone at the end. If they would have checked the glove box, it would have been registered to Colin Fearing.

*** Session 07 - Cast of Characters ***

Bruno Eberhardt: A 1st generation German immigrant and seasoned police officer. He does some work on the side for Le Doux and others to supplement his income.

Boudreaux "Boo" Le Doux: A Cajun and former swamp guide turned private eye who styles himself after hardboiled pulp detective novels.

Chester Lee Nibbons: A younger, bookish White guy who works as Le Doux's "partner" in order to pay off a gambling debt to him.

*** Session 07 - Scene 1 (of 15) ***

The weeks after the Batraville case is closed pass slowly. With everyone injured, there is no one available to look into The Committee or its assumed meeting the following night.

Eberhardt recovers from his injuries the quickest, but finds himself deluged in work after several unsolved homicides in the area stacked up while he was away from the precinct. Detective McElroy briefs him on the open cases.

The first is the unsolved disappearance and possible murders of a doctor from the morgue, Dr. Stephen Donnenwirth, along with security guard Rufus DeMint. According to janitor Ted Johnson, he cleaned up a couple of possible "blood-like messes" at the morgue the night they disappeared – one in a hallway and another later in the pathology room.

Detective Le Fleur notes they do have a good lead in the case – Johnson reported seeing a strange Black man there that night who claimed to be working for the doctor. McElroy shows a sketch made from the victim's description. Eberhardt stays quiet, but notes to himself the drawing looks remarkably like Hawk as McElroy gives his theory that the Black man was the one snatching bodies from the morgue at night.

The detective assumes the man must have been caught by the security guard or doctor and trouble ensued. He states the suspect probably killed both men and left with the bodies. Le Fleur notes he won't get very far – the suspect stole the doctor's car on the way out and they have an APB out on it so it's only a matter of time before they catch up with him.

The second case is about a young woman named Patricia Walker who was found dead and mutilated in her apartment. According to a neighbor, two men in suits were seen entering her apartment shortly before the body was found. Le Fleur also believes they will be able to close this case, just as soon as they can bring in suspects for the witness to identify. Eberhardt once again says nothing as he realizes the two men seen were himself and Le Doux.

The third case involves a shootout in Treme at a jazz club called the Eclipse Lounge that left several men wounded and one man killed, Tab "Young Turk" Virgil, Jr. Since the case only involves Black gang members in the poor section of town, McElroy says they don't need to put much effort into solving that one.

Finally, a Haitian immigrant named Jean Batraville was discovered dead at the Botanical Gardens. At the scene was a wrecked stolen car, several sets of clothing around the grounds, and several spots where blood was found. Le Fleur wonders if it is also related to the gang warfare escalating in the city.

*** Session 07 - Scene 2 (of 15) ***

Le Doux comes out of his coma the next day, but his insane ramblings cause him to get locked up in the local asylum for a week of observation by Dr. Essex before being released. When he gets back, he finds Nibbons has recovered but Fox is still in the hospital recovering. He asks Madge about Hawk, but she says he hasn't been around.

Still convalescing, he sits around the office with Nibbons, reading a newspaper.

The first article he finds interesting concerns a story on the front page about a local real estate developer. It reads:

Castle Construction Halted

Bruce Gardener, head of the Gardener and Associates land development company, announced today that construction was "indefinitely postponed" on construction of the Fisherman's Castle resort in the Irish Bayou area.

Gardner's radical design of a castle-like fishing resort gained great attention and a split decision from the public when it was announced two years ago. The project is currently around half done, with its scheduled completion date originally set for next spring's fishing season.

In his press release, Gardener cited vandalism and theft at the site as well as labor difficulties as the causes of construction delays and rising costs associated with the project.

Henry Boland, head of Local 100 of the Bricklayer, Masons, and Plasterers International Union of America (BMPIU) has been involved with several disputes with the land developer and vehemently denies any labor issues are at the cause of the work stoppage, outside of Gardner not providing a "secure working environment".

The other article from the front page he finds interesting is:

Coolidge Promises Tax Reform

Continuing a theme from his inaugural speech earlier this year, President Coolidge announced today his plans for tax reform.

Citing recent economic studies, the President talked of the need to tighten the belt of America and focus on only those taxes necessary to fund the essential duties needed.

Coolidge's plan, as detailed by Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon, focuses on several key points – keeping wages up by further restricting immigration, adding protective tariffs on foreign imports, and most prominently, reducing the tax and regulatory burdens on businesses so they can grow and add more and better paying jobs.

Noticeably absent from his budget proposals were anything to help the agricultural industry. Senate Minority Leader Charles McNary of Oregon and Congressman Gilbert Haugen of Iowa are rumored to be working together on a joint congressional farm bill to cover this gap.

Seeking some lighter news, he also checks out the entertainment section:

Gold Rush a Hit

This week marks the release of the new Chaplin film, The Gold Rush, sure to be another in Chaplin's long line of hits.

The story concerns Chaplin as the Lone Prospector, a clownish figure in a dead serious story of prospectors seeks fame and fortune in the Klondike.

Chaplin inhabits the character with streaks of tenaciousness and tenderness, a thoughtful and original take that could eclipse The Kid and Shoulder Arms as his more popular films.

The icy cold of the frozen Northern tundra is shown in all its glory and danger. Women are advised to be careful of fainting while watching the film due to its graphic sense of danger.

Finally, there is another story on page 5 following up on a different local crime:

Police Still Investigating Museum Break-In

The break-in and theft of several historical artifacts from the Louisiana State Historical Museum four weeks ago is still under investigation with few leads.

Detective Sergeant Charlie Burdette, head of the Property Crimes Division, has given a statement that the case is still under active investigation. According to Burdette, all local pawn shops have been checked and alerted along with local art dealers.

William Darden, Assistant Secretary of the Office of Museums, has described the stolen items as Indian artifacts from several different cultures along with a satchel once owned by Henri de Tonti. Darden has stated the items all have so little in common he is unsure why they were stolen.

As he finishes reading the paper, Madge starts bugging Le Doux about the bills piling up. His cousin reminds him his last job (the Batraville investigation) didn't actually pay anything and he's been out for a while. But, she has a plan.

Earlier when she got in, Madge also saw the article about the problems at the construction site. One of her good friends, Mary Murray, happens to be Bruce Gardener's secretary so she made a call and got an appointment set up with Gardener.

Le Doux is a little taken back by Madge's forwardness, but decides they should go to the meeting with Gardener. Nibbons agrees, saying he needs to make some money so he can pay Le Doux back.

Even though Eberhardt is a homicide detective and not in property crimes, Le Doux calls him at the station to see if he can get any additional information. He tells Eberhardt he knows it isn't his area of specialty, but that he's investigating the crime at the construction site and needs him to dig up some details on Bruce Gardener.

Eberhardt tells Le Doux he is very busy "cleaning up many of your messes." He tells the private detective the police are looking for a Black man who possibly killed a doctor, sardonically asking him if he heard about it. He then mentions the dead woman in the apartment where two men were seen entering the apartment, asking him if he remembers that either.

Le Doux says he doesn't remember anything about that, not wanting to say anything over the phone. Eberhardt doesn't let up, mentioning the shootout at the jazz club and saying he probably doesn't remember that either. Le Doux keeps calm, saying he doesn't but that it would really help if Eberhardt could look up information on the Gardener case.

The detective is clearly unhappy. He tells Le Doux to go investigate and kill some people and then he'll end up assigned to the case anyway, suggesting that's how Le Doux usually operates. Le Doux just says he'll get back to him, hanging the phone up.

*** Session 07 - Scene 3 (of 15) ***

After taking a streetcar over to Djauto's Garage to pick up Nibbons' car, Le Doux suggests he should drive it as he is the better driver. They head over to Gardener and Associates in the Central Business District.

Along the way, Le Doux thinks about what he knows. He's heard Gardener's name mentioned before as a major developer in the area. And Gardener and his wife, Patricia, are often seen in the society pages. He wonders if Gardener could be one of the members of The Committee.

When they arrive, they are shown up to the top floor that houses Gardener's office. His secretary, Mary, announces their arrival and they are shown in to the office. Gardener appears to be a middle aged man, well-dressed and groomed, tall with a mustache.

He greets Le Doux and Boo introduces Nibbons as his associate. Gardener doesn't seem very excited to see them and says they may as well get down to business. He explains that through his secretary, he's heard Le Doux is familiar in investing uncommon, even unnatural crimes.

Le Doux says he is very interested in those things. Gardener clarifies he is not a believer in the sort of "weirdo psychics and witch doctors" type of things, but he is having a strange problem at his construction site and needs someone to look at it. Le Doux says it sounds like the sort of things he and Chester investigate all the time.

Gardener asks is Le Doux is familiar with Fisherman's Castle, his latest construction project. He points their attention to a couple of impressionist paintings of the artist's proposal for the building on the walls of his office. Le Doux, finding them an exorbitant waste of resources, simply says they are very nice.

The executive then starts telling his story of what's been happening. He says it all started about three weeks ago, when one of the workers claimed to have seen something odd near the site at night. Then, the site started to become vandalized at night. Shortly after, Gardener reluctantly explains, a "strange track" was found at the site that spooked the workers.

Le Doux agrees it all sounds very strange. He asks what kind of track was found. Gardener says it was human-sized but not of a man and explains he has a picture of it that he will show in a minute but he'd better tell him the whole story first.

Continuing on, Gardener says it culminated in an apparent attack on one of the men working security at night, and now he can't get anyone at all to work on the site. There's been subsequent looting at the site of tools and supplies but none of the workers will go near it because of "the monster."

Le Doux wants to know more about the monster. Gardener says the attacked man got a photo of the creature right before it attacked him, making things worse. He tells Le Doux if he isn't able to figure out what is going on soon, he'll be forced to shut down the project so he really needs his help.

Gardener shows Le Doux and Nibbons the photos of the creature and the cast of the footprint they found. The picture of the monster is grainy, but shows a man-sized lizard man, complete with tail, strolling along the bayou at night. Nibbons nearly chuckles at the spectacle, believing it looks like a man in a rubber suit; but Le Doux is intrigued.

Both men recall a story from decades past in occult lore about "The Lizard Man of the Irish Bayou." They don't recall any of the details beyond something being reported in the local news and it becoming a local legend.

Gardener believes the whole thing is a hoax, possibly perpetrated by Boss Boland as part of ongoing labor pay disputes he's had with the union. Le Doux, however, is convinced it is real saying many strange things have been going on in the area. Gardener scoffs at the suggestion, saying Crescent City is a modern city of industry and this is the 20th century now. Le Doux warns him there are things that have existed since time immemorial.

Le Doux continues, forcefully saying someone needs to put a stop to this. He tells Gardener they will take the case for free, shocking Nibbons. Gardener can't believe the man believes in all this, but says he'll be happy to have Mary cancel the check they were going to give him. Saying he is busy and needs to get back to work, Gardener has them shown out but tells Le Doux to keep him informed on developments in the case.