Call of Cthulhu: Ghost Light (Part 2 - Escape From The Lighthouse)

Last time we left our heroes, part of the crew of the lighthouse tender Helios, ashore on storm-wracked Hallowsay Island. They were trying to find out what had happened to the keepers of the lonely lighthouse there. Thus far, no sign had been found of them, but a mysterious fog was closing in and strange cries were heard upon the night air. The game was played using Call of Cthulhu 7th edition from Chaosium Inc.

The adventure is 'Ghost Light' by Gary Sumpter from the Terrors From Beyond adventure collection, published in 2009, also by Chaosium.

The player characters are as follows:

• Angus Milne, the hard-bitten second mate on the Helios, leading the shore party to find out why the Hallowsay light has gone out. Played by Manoj.
• Archie Finlay, the young and impressionable assistant lighthouse keeper from Ayrshire, keen to take up his first assignment. Played by Ben.
• 'Wee' Willie Ross, a cynical sailor from the Helios, who has been volunteered to accompany Milne. He has found a flare gun, much to the others' consternation. Played by Ash.
• Jock Paterson, a devout Presbyterian and another sailor on the Helios. He seems a little over-educated to be doing this job. He has found a shotgun. Played by Kelvin.

Milne, Ross and Paterson were exploring the top level of the lighthouse in a fruitless search to find the missing keepers. They discovered a slate on which the most recent meteorological readings taken by the keepers had been scribbled, two days previously. Disturbingly, they included a sudden and mysterious drop in temperature and barometric pressure. Downstairs, Finlay started to notice that it was getting colder, much colder, with frost beginning to appear on the inside of the window panes.

Upstairs the other three men went about getting the lamp started up. But they too noticed the plummeting temperature. With the lamp now stabbing out into the gloom, and the clockwork mechanism that would power it for 45 minutes safely rewound and operational, they headed downstairs.

Sitting in front of the warming fire, Finlay began to nod off. He did not notice the glow coming from the chimney, or the luminescent, semi-transparent tentacles, seemingly oblivious to the fire, which extended out of the chimney cavity and started to grope towards him. Seconds later, Milne entered the room and seeing what was happening, screamed "Finlay!"

Robert Pattinson playing Jock Paterson

The tentacles reached for the sleepy youth but he came awake quickly, saw them and instinctively rolled out of his chair. There followed a sudden, bright flash of searing light and a sensation of burning cold. Finlay screamed as ice and frost covered him. Something was coming out of the chimney. Something globular and blue, that glowed with an unearthly light. Stepping into the living room Paterson came from behind Milne and fired his shotgun at the thing. He was right on target, giving it both barrels, and it seemed to dissipate into hundreds of tiny, crystalline points of blue light before vanishing altogether.

The men found Finlay lying unconscious. He had suffered frostbite to his foot and was covered in a coating of ice. Paterson worked to restore him and was able to bring him round but he remained in intense pain, not helped by several swigs of cheap whisky. Terrified of what they had seen, the men decided to flee to the Helios. Running downstairs, however, they were just in time to see a sickly blue light coming from under the iron entrance door. Something was trying the handle, something they didn't really want in there with them. Desperately Milne hurled himself against the door while Ross secured it.

Realising they needed to close all entrances to the building, the men raced back upstairs, checking the the windows. They reached the topmost floor to see the trapdoor was open and through it came another...thing. A floating, blue, luminescent globe, sporting dozens of eldritch tentacles that probed outwards around it. Horrified, the men opened fire again. This time the crazed Ross fired off a flare at it; he missed, and Milne winced as the flare narrowly missed the paraffin tanks and set fire to the paint on the wall. Paterson fired his shotgun again and this time the creature was dispatched to wherever it had come from, vanishing in a burst of evil-looking crystals.

Desperate now to escape, they fled back down the stairs, retrieving the stricken Finlay. Opening the iron door, they ran carelessly into the dark and the fog, their bobbing lanterns illuminating the path as they ran for the jetty, the men supporting a hobbling and half-conscious Finlay, who was moaning deliriously, "The light, the light!".

At the jetty it was obvious the weather conditions had worsened. The sea state looked perilous. Ross fired off a flare in a bid to attract attention from the Helios. The men struggled into life vests from the shed by the jetty and then ran onto it to see if they could spot their ship. At that moment a huge wave hit the jetty, washing all but Milne into the sea. Paterson dropped his shotgun in the water and was smashed by the wave into a rock, losing consciousness. Finlay struggled in the surf, but Milne managed to throw him a rope.

As Milne was pulling Finlay to the jetty, he saw Ross trying to reach Paterson amidst the dark and roiling waves. Then he spotted a blue glow coming from the sea behind Ross. The sailor desperately seized hold of Paterson and began to tow him to the jetty. Milne was screaming a warning at him, but with the wind and the waves it was difficult to hear. Milne wrenched on the rope, desperately trying to bring in Finlay, but it was Finlay who spotted the boat approaching from the Helios and started to swim towards it.

Attack of the Ny'ghan Grii!

Paterson was coming round, bloody streaming down his face. Ross suddenly realised he and Paterson were surrounded by a glow coming from the water beneath them. Then all around him luminescent blue tentacles were sprouting from the surf. Paterson screamed and began swimming for the boat. With tentacles lashing around him, Ross struggled towards the jetty. Milne dropped the rope and ran to help him but some of the tentacles started questing for him, forcing the mate to retreat down the jetty out of reach.

Finlay reached the boat from the Helios, which had three crew aboard. They hauled him in, before picking up the semi-conscious Paterson and then pulling for the jetty, where Ross was scrambling out of the sea. But one alien tentacle now seized Ross' ankle and started pulling him back towards the sea. The men in the boat held out an oar to him and he grabbed it, but soon a battle of strength ensued, with Ross up in the air, valiantly clinging to the oar while a glowing blue tentacle was wrapped around his ankle, searing it with otherworldly cold.

Finally, the men in the boat prevailed and Ross broke free of the tentacle, landing in the boat. As soon as he was safe, Milne sprinted down the jetty, evading the tentacles and leaped through the dark into the safety of the boat. "Row!" he screamed, and the other sailors needed no second order, pulling sharply for the Helios and leaving the dreadful Hallowsay Island and its secrets behind them...

Notes from the Keeper: this adventure was used to test out the Call of Cthulhu 7th edition rules. While I liked some elements of it - e.g. pushing roles, using Luck to adjust roles - there is also a great deal of additional complexity in the game, some of which just seems unneeded. For example, the resistance table has been dropped in favour of something else much less wieldy. I may incorporate some of the changes to the rules in future games of CoC, but not embrace them wholeheartedly. I am still testing out other alternatives to my horror gaming.

Next time: slightly warmer climes prevail as we tell a tale of two academics shipwrecked in Haiti and what happened when they ran afoul of the White Bokor!