Ghouls Aplenty

 

Kevin (Hubert Gesäss) had volunteered to do this write-up, but a dog ate his homework. So this is a quick summary.

Present: Bernard Lapin (Jamie), Cooper Chapman (Ian), Gazala Haddad (Richard), Gunter Oelschig (Jeff), Hubert Gesäss (Kevin), Jacob Palowski (Chris), Mezmer the Magnificent (Shane), 

Marmalading: Fleur Jardin (Steven), Wonton Noodle (Darryl)

Party's Mercedes 770

They did a drive-by of Augustus Herschel's compound. The blaze was out; the damage was severe. There were no brown-shirted ghouls left and no fresh ones wandering around.

There were quite a few ghouls wandering around town, in civilian dress. The ghouls were apt to follow cars, or maybe it was that they could sense the baby skeleton in the boot, so the party used the Mercedes to lure the ghouls to some well-placed army machine guns. This way, they got 96.

Next they drove to the Banque de Tunisie (on Rue de Turquie). There was a shell crater in the road outside the bank, presumably fired from the French battleship Bretagne moored in the harbour. They could only guess that this was an attempt by some LE (French Foreign Legion) forward observer to direct naval shells to hit groups of ghouls in the streets.

The bank door had been broken down, and there were bullet holes in all the walls and shell casings everywhere. The casings were examined by the group, but no-one recognized them.  

Cooper manned the Mercedes while the rest of the group went down to the bank vault. While they were away, some ghouls (not brown-shirted) approached the car and so Cooper had to drive off, with the creatures in hot pursuit. He tried to use the car to run some of them over, but failed his Drive roll and hit a building. He was lucky enough to be able to pull away. He lured the creatures away, and then periodically returned in case the group had emerged.

Censer of Baal

Meanwhile, down in the bank vault, Mezmer did a Detect Mythos. Some of the bodies where definitely positive. Gazala calmly decapitated them with her big knife.

Mezmer then got nervous, and he beat a hasty retreat to “guard” upstairs. The rest stayed below.

Down in the main vault, the party's personal vault was broken open. It was empty. The Censer was gone!

They did a cursory search, then went back upstairs - just as Cooper was driving past. So he picked them all up.

Next stop was the Calomnie de Tunis newspaper and the party's apartment. Up on the roof, the generator was on fire, with greenish smoke. The building was evacuated, so they went upstairs. There was a three-armed creature up top next to the generator fire. They fought it. It caused two bouts of Insanity to Bernard and Mezmer.

Mezmer collapsed into a gibbering fetal position, whereas Bernard loudly proclaimed the party secrets in a gloating frenzy: "Avant de vous détruire complètement, laissez-moi vous dire ceci... " ("Before we wipe you out, let me tell you this... ")

• "Nous avons le bébé squelette dans notre coffre, en sécurité dans une boîte doublée d'argent !"
• "Nos puissants mystiques, Wonton et Mezmer, vous vaincra avec leurs pouvoirs impies !"
• "Perdre l'encensoir n'est pas un obstacle. Nous allons bientôt le récupérer et vous détruire !"

(We have the baby skeleton in the boot, sealed in a silver box. Wonton and Mezmer are powerful ungodly mystics who will destroy you. We may have lost the censer, but we will get it back!)

[ Bouts of Insanity can have troublesome (temporary) effects. ]

Gesass and Gazala's shot at the creature and it leapt off the building (down three storeys) to the alley way below. They then blew it to bits with another hail of gunfire.

Cooper determined that the generator fire wouldn’t cause any more damage and would burn itself out.

They met the newspaper manager in the lobby on the way out and reassured him the damage was contained.

The party then drove to the last place where there was a column of smoke - the Saint Croix church. A battleship shell had hit down the road from the church. But no more had been fired. The church nave was empty but they could hear chanting from the undercroft. So they sneaked down, as quiet as they could (not very). 

There was a group of eight (armed) German soldiers facing away from them, and chanting towards a robed figure who was doing some ritual inside a pentagram.

They fired, but it wasn't very successful, and they ended up in a big gunfight against rifles, pistols and bayonets. The party did manage to vanquish the Germans, but suffered bad wounds themselves with Gazala and Gesass unconscious. Jacob’s First Aid was essential in surviving that encounter.

Below the undercroft was the crypt. In their current state, no-one was willing to go down there, so Bernard dropped some grenades down those stairs.

They then limped back to the car, and drove back to the army camp. Inspector Heroux was now there.

They spent two nights (and one day) recuperating and licking wounds. They also ordered a stone box to be made for the baby box (still in the boot of the Mercedes). The theory was that a few feet of stone (granite) was better at shielding it than the silver-sealed tool-box (or the car's boot walls). This box would take a few days.