Part 8- The Cast

Dramatis Personae:

Hakim pretty much slithered is way into the group while they were adventuring in Egypt. Despite his mysterious intentions, he quickly found himself a valuable resource for the group, with many contacts across the globe. Seemingly on a whim, he joined the investigators and traveled with them back to Boston.

Hakim remains a bit of an enigma for the group (and I don’t even think they realize it yet). So far, his actions have remained pretty altruistic, but it seems that that could change at any moment. Hakim is still active.

Keeper Note: This is arguably Zero’s best character so far. Skill-wise, he fills many of gaps left open by other players; his Credit Rating alone has bailed the group out at least once, and his Language skills have proved beneficial. But most importantly, it’s hard to gauge what side Hakim’s on; so far at least, his motivations seem more self-centered...it’s impossible to tell what he thinks of the group. Does he view them as friends, or just a means to an end? If the latter, then what end?

Dr. Sothby emigrated to the United States from England, where he had cultivated a successful career for himself as an archaeologist and an expert in Egyptian mythology, language, and culture. Sothby never gave himself time to settle down, although he wasn’t above having relationships every now and then...one of which led to his illegitimate son, Bruce Sothby. Despite his academic background, Sothby didn’t shy away from danger. This fearlessness only hastened his decent into madness; on the Raid On Innsmouth, it was Dr. Sothby who did away with the group’s friend-turned-Deep-One Nick Smuntz, and it was Dr. Sothby who tossed grenades into a group of Esoteric Order of Dagon worshippers, many of which were women and children...the ghosts of which later began appearing at his bedside every morning at 3:15 am. This led to chronic fatigue, and later an addiction to opium. These things, along with his rapidly depleting sanity (he had a nasty compulsion to read any Mythos book tossed his way) led to Dr. Sothby retiring from adventuring altogether.

Keeper Note: I had to put my foot down after Sothby’s actions. True, he was in enemy territory, surrounded by Mythos creatures on all sides, but Sothby’s player had had a very gung-ho, “blast ‘em all with my Weatherby” attitude from the beginning, and he needed to be taken down a few pegs for it. So after the Innsmouth events, I decided that his character should become haunted by the ghosts of some of the innocents that he so callously blew apart. Him becoming an opium junkie was icing on the cake, but also appropriate.

For a long time, the past of Heihachi was shrouded in mystery. It was known that he was some sort of cop from Japan, working in the States. As to why he was stationed in Arkham at first was never revealed to the other characters. Early on, his contact was a Chinese (or was he? He seemed to speak fluent Japanese as well...) man running a tattoo parlor in Arkham named Pin Liou. It was first revealed that Heihachi was more than he appeared when the group was arrested, and Hayashada presented “papers” that immediately got him released, while the rest of the group stewed in their cells.

Hayashada has the personality of always going through a door first, which has led to his massive collection of scars. A perfect example of this is the Edge Of Darkness scenario, in which he poked his head through the ceiling trap door, only to have it clawed to shit by the lurker in the attic. He also doesn’t know when to quit- once, in Boston, while pursuing a suspect, Hayashada was shot in the leg, but didn’t stop running until he passed out from loss of blood.

It was eventually learned that Hayashada was a member of a high level agency in Japan that was working in conjunction with the highest echelon of the F.B.I. and Treasury Department on a case involving a group called the Keui Jinn, which enabled him to have an extremely high security clearance. Later, it was revealed that Hayashada was a member of a clan that had been in conflict with the Keui Jinn for centuries. After his battle and escape from capture, Hayashada gained the immortality that had become part of his lineage for battling the Keui Jinn. Hayashada is still an active member of the group.

Keeper Note: Sitting down with Duane and writing out his history was a blast, and gave me an opportunity to see if I could actually pull off writing an adventure for CoC. At the start of this campaign, I didn’t expect that I would end up making someone’s character immortal, but, after all the injuries that Hayashada had sustained, I thought he deserved some sort of reward. Besides, with him being immortal, it means that I can just inflict more scars on him. Heh heh heh...

Amazonian in appearance, and with a large heart matching her frame, Lucy came from a family of cops that has established root Boston. Lucy wanted follow in her father’s footsteps, but because of sexual segregation, Lucy wasn’t allowed in. She instead chose something else, something that gave her a sense of freedom...driving a taxi. And she became good at it, too. Because of her family’s history with law enforcement, she still had a keen sense of justice. However, Lucy was also influenced by her Aunt, who dabbled in the occult, and ran a metaphysical store called “The Candlestick”. Lucy’s closeness to her aunt meant that her aunt’s fascination with the occult rubbed off on Lucy.

Lucy’s first exposure to the Mythos, and to what would become her group of friends, came about when she picked up Hayashada as a fare in Arkham. Later, Lucy became a reluctant servant to the angel Gabriel, who used her to find the blackest, most twisted soul on the planet, Baron Hauptmann.She succeeded, and for this, was granted immortality by Gabriel, with the assurance that he would call on her services in the future. Lucy is still active.

Keeper Note: Making Lucy immortal was almost spur of the moment, but made sense if Gabriel wanted to continue to call on her services...besides, if nothing else, it plants the seeds for a possible future Delta Green campaign idea of mine.

To be honest, I don’t have much on the history of Agent Howe. He’s an agent of the Treasury Department, and recently got promoted to Special Agent after helping with the Keui Jinn raid in San Francisco. Because of his ties to the government, he has been able to use his contacts to get the group out of a couple of nasty situations. Howe has the bad luck to be the butt of jokes for the rest of the group; for example, no one has been able to correctly pronounce his last name to his face. Agent Howe is still active.

Keeper Note: I’m still not sure to this day how Agent Howe became the butt of so many jokes by the group. Maybe because he was the newbie, and it’s a rite of passage for him to join the group...but if that’s the case, then it sure is a long rite.

Inheriting a string manufacturing plant from his father, Nickolas came from a very wealthy family. Bored with keeping tabs on the day to day operations of the facility, Nickolas decided to get involved with adventuring, and, having the financial resources to do so, backed the other characters, providing most of them with a home and a base where they all could gather.

Keeper Note: To this day, still my favorite character. Just a brilliant design idea by James. In addition to the deep one blood, Smuntz was played as sort of a bumbling idiot with a penchant for drink. All around, a fantastic role playing job by James.

Masrick was a veteran flying ace from World War I, where he had been stationed in France. After the war, he became a journalist for a number of rather seedy rags before landing a job as a reporter for the Boston Globe. Mike was one of the original 5 characters to form the group, and his contacts as a newspaper reporter served them well.

Unfortunately for Masrick’s player, Mike had a real bad habit of blowing Sanity rolls, and thus lost sanity quicker than anyone else in the group, except for maybe Dr. Sothby. By the time the end of the Raid on Innsmouth campaign had completed, Masrick had had about enough, and retired from gaming, although he did appear in subsequent adventures as a source for the other characters.

Keeper Note: Poor ol’ Masrick...a fun character that was unlucky enough to fall victim to a lot of missed sanity rolls. Still, someone had to go bonkers first, and it just happened to be him. As usual, Zero handled the roleplaying aspect of that with great aplomb.

Bruce was born the illegitimate son of Dr. Richard Sothby, and was raised in Australia. He grew up to become a big-game hunter, honing his skills in the Outback. As he grew into manhood, he grew curious of his lineage, and spent the next few years tracking down his real father. He eventually located him in Boston, and proving his mettle, joined the adventuring group that his father had formed.

A boisterous and amiable fellow, Bruce never stepped down from a challenge; this personality trait proved to be his undoing when, while the group had been captured by Baron Hauptmann and imprisoned in his castle, Bruce accepted the Baron’s challenge to a hand-to-hand combat duel. With one punch, the Baron shattered Bruce’s cranium, killing him instantly.

Keeper Note: I remember feeling bad when killing off Bruce, but it had to be done for plot reasons. And to give the players an example of their own mortality.

Assigned to the group by the government during the Raid on Innsmouth campaign, Cykkher originally held the position of J. Edger Hoover’s personal psychiatrist (obviously, not doing much help, as history would reveal). Cykkher could be best described as a walking weasel, very slight and unassuming, yet had the most incredible way of annoying people with his constant, rapid-fire babbling. Besides being a constant irritant, his best contribution to the group was staying out of the way and cowering.

During the mass confusion that took place at the raid of the Keui Jinn’s underground lair in San Francisco, Cykkher somehow disappeared. Whether or not he will come back in some fashion is unknown.

It was hard enough growing up poor in Boston; it was even more difficult growing up poor and black. Thomas Douglas didn’t have much going for him as a kid; quiet and introspective, he’d rather stay home and read than to go outside and run with the other kids. But then, Thomas his puberty, and everything changed. Within two years, Thomas grew from a scrawny 130 pounds to a massive 6’7”, 235 pound frame of solid, pure muscle. Seeing his new-found strength as a possible way out, Thomas joined a local boxing club, and quickly excelled.

Thomas rose quickly through the ranks, earning the nickname “Thug” for his unrelenting style of dishing out punishment in the ring. Naturally, as Thug won more and more fights, the stakes grew higher and higher, until eventually a local mobster Ernesto Vicotti, with a habit of gambling on boxing matches got involved with some of “Thug’s” bouts. Ernesto tried to convince Thug to take a dive for one particular fight. Thug refused. Ernesto pressed. Thug again refused. Ernesto threatened bodily harm on Thug’s mother. Thug broke Ernesto’s nose.

After winning the fight, Thug found himself blacklisted from the ring, and his mother dead. Filled with shame and regret, Thug exacted revenge on Ernesto and his entire gang, and then went into hiding, working as a bartender in a rundown portion of Boston.

While investigating the Wilkes disappearance, the group encountered Thug at the bar he worked at, and, realizing that they could use some muscle, asked him to join. Thug stayed with the group through several adventures, but retired after losing a hand during the Raid On Innsmouth campaign. “Thug” currently lives and works at the Smuntz house as the bartender and cook.

Keeper Note: Thug was a character I’d created a long time ago for another game called Justice Inc. I thought it was a good character design, and when James was at a loss for a replacement for Smuntz, I suggested Thug. Alas, Thug was too one-dimensional, and soon James dropped him for Agent Howe.

Born and raised in San Francisco, Thomas lost his parents early to an apartment fire. Half Japanese and half white (his father was a merchant marine who had traveled to Japan, and met his wife there), Thomas moved to Japan to live with his aunt and uncle. A master of several martial arts, Thomas’ uncle became not only a father figure, but his sensei as well, imparting in Thomas all his knowledge and skill.

As Thomas grew into a young man, however, he grew more and more uncomfortable living in Japan. It was obvious to anyone who saw him that his was not pure Nippon descent, and for that he was looked down upon and shunned. Because of this, and because of a yearning to learn more about his father, Thomas moved back to San Francisco. Through his investigations, he became involved in combating the Mythos on several occasions, and decided to set up his own detective agency. In addition, Brand had many run-ins with the Keui Jinn. When looking for Hayashada, Liou Pan, Hayashada’s contact in Arkham, advised the adventurers to seek out Brand in San Francisco, because of his knowledge of the Keui Jinn in that area. Thomas became a valuable ally to the group, and keeps in occasional contact with them.

Keeper Note: Thomas Brand was actually the first character I made when I started playing Call of Cthulhu, and for entirely selfish reasons, I wanted to try to bring him back somehow. With his Asian background, and Hayashada’s scenario coming up, it seemed to be a natural fit.

Higgins first appeared as the butler for the Wilkes family. That particular scenario called for an extremely loyal butler who, even though his master was in the middle of transforming into a Deep One, served his master to the end. At the resolution of the scenario, Higgins was without a family to serve, thanks to the investigators. I had an idea of how to roleplay Higgins, so I gave the group an opportunity to adopt him by having Higgins go to Smuntz’ house and offer his services. Naturally, the group agreed, and now Higgins has become a huge favorite with the players.

Keeper Note: Higgins is an example of me having a bit of fun, and bending the rules a little. The group quickly discovered that Higgins was not your normal, average, every-day butler. He could anticipate a character’s wishes; breakfast and a paper were ready, exactly the character wanted it, as soon as they woke up. He knew when there was a phone call or someone knocking at the door before it happened. Later, they found out that he was a crack shot, had formidable strength, and could speak about half a dozen languages fluently. At this point, I’m not sure exactly how many more powers I’ll give Higgins, if any...i don’t want him to be too powerful, as I didn’t him to be a crutch that the group relies on all the time.

Part 9- Corrupting the Rules