Out of the Frying Pan ...

Having reached a conclusion in the Witches Coven adventure (Not a final conclusion, but some form of intermediate conclusion) the players have temporarily abandoned the Known World and have returned to 1930's French Tunisia on the African continent. 

We have picked up the characters colloquially known as La foule de Bernard (Bernard's Mob), employees of the the Tunis newspaper Calomnie de Tunis (Slander of Tunis). You may recall them:

Bernard Lapin (Jamie), a Journalist from Tunis.
Cooper Chapman (Ian), a Rogue from England.
Fleur Jardin (Steven), a Medic from France.
Gazala Haddad (Richard), an Explorer from Algiers.
Gunter Oelschig (Jeff), a Rogue from South Africa.
Hubert Gesäss (Kevin), a Soldier from Germany.
Jacob Palowski (Chris), a Jewish Medic from Poland.
Mezmer the Magnificent (Shane), a Mystic from France.
Wonton Noodle (Darryl), an Antiquarian from China.

Having (they thought) taken care of the source of the strange occurrences in the city of Tunis by sealing the evil words of power into the carved granite slab using molten silver and dumping them into the depths of the Mediterranean Sea, they were returning back to Tunis from the isle Jaziret el-Monbasta (Plane Island). [Revision: The End?]

The Hotchkiss Machine Gun

A short distance outside the city of Tunis, they were stopped at a roadblock by a squad of 16 Légion Étrangère (French Foreign Legion) soldiers. Beyond the roadblock, four plumes of black smoke could be seen billowing up from locations spread across the city, and people were fleeing along the road and across the surrounding countryside. Occasionally, the chatter of the Hotchkiss Mle 1914 machine gun setup beside the roadblock would ring out, and one of the running figures would collapse to the ground. 

One of the soldiers rushed across to our Mercedes and peered in through the open window.

"Ello, êtes-vous La foule de Bernard?" he rattled off.
"Oui, oui" replied Bernard, "We are indeed La foule de Bernard"
"Inspector Heroux est seeking your elp" he stated, "ollow me"

The Shiny Mercedes 770

We moved the Mercedes off the road and parked up beside the soldier's large brown tent and followed him inside. He explained that he, Corporal Chauve, was in charge of this roadblock station under orders from Inspector Heroux, and that Inspector Heroux had asked him to watch out for our return. Corporal Chauve had heard that we were the experts in the issues that had been plaguing Tunis, and that Inspector Heroux had requested that we assist the Légion by investigating the compound of Monsieur Augustus Herschel, the German art dealer. Apparently, some of these possessed creatures that were being shoot down after issuing forth from the city were from his very own compound. 

"Isn't that where the closest column of smoke is coming from?" asked Gazala, having already identified the landmarks around the base of that particular column.
"Oui, oui" exclaimed Chauve, "Merveilleux, you are already on the case. Merci, merci"

Bernard noted that our armaments had been depleted and requested a resupply before we could "possibly take on such a dangerous mission on behalf of the Légion"

We still had four sub-machine guns with us, and Chauve provided a box of twelve grenades, a rifle for each of us, and a couple of boxes of ammunition. We were also carrying a few of the "magic" items with us from our previous adventures. Specifically, Jacob was wearing the Medallion (which controls the tracking skull, currently quiescent), Gazala had the Ghost Mirror and her Dagger, and the skeleton of the three-eyed baby was in the boot of the Mercedes, silver-sealed into an old tool chest.

As we were heading out from the tent to load into the Légion's transport de troupes, a rattle of machine gun fire rang out and a couple of the second class legionnaires dragged over a bullet ridden body, dressed in the typical German army "Brown Shirt" uniform. We had previously observed these "Brown Shirts" marching around in Herschel's compound. The body had a myriad of bullet holes across its chest, but no blood, and its fingernails were noticeably elongated and dangerous looking.

"Thees is wheet we are farcing" Chauve explained.

Gazala leapt forward, whipped out her Dagger, and sliced through the body's neck like a hot knife through butter. The Legionnaires staggered back, and as its head rolled across the dusty ground at their feet (again, no blood) Gazala yelled at them.

"Vous êtes des idiots. You must decapitate immediately, and then burn the parts"

Dusty Transport Truck

Then we all loaded into the back of the truck and the driver took off towards the city and the burning compound of Augustus Herschel. Gazala was still grinning at the dumfounded look on the faces of the two Legionnaires as we sped away.

The driver skidded to a halt some distance from the outskirts of Tunis and waved his arm in the general direction of the smoke. 

"C'est aussi loin que je vais" he grunted "This is as far as I go"

Columns of Smoke Billow up from Tunis

We leapt off the back of the truck, slung our rifles and machine guns over our shoulders, distributed the grenades and ammunition around, and made our way into the city. The stench of acrid smoke was everywhere, the northerly winds blowing the black clouds billowing up from Herschel's compound south across the city. 

There was hardly anyone around, so we easily made our way through the outer districts and soon arrived in the vicinity of Herschel's compound. Feeling like caution would be the safest option given the unknown situation ahead, Mezmer stripped off his clothes and sung his strange Invisibility chant and faded from sight. Gunter applied his Stealth skills and scouted a safe route to an abandoned warehouse building just across the street from the compound, Mezmer trailing him invisibly.

Looking down from the second level of the abandoned warehouse they could see that the smoke was billowing out from the roof of the two-storey main residence building at the far end of Herschel's compound. The whole compound was surrounded by a ten-foot-high chain-link fence topped with coils of barbed wire. At the far end, beyond the burning house, stood a tall steel lattice radio mast, while at the near end was a single storey building just inside the fence. 

Between the near building and the burning main two-storey residence was a large open courtyard where around ten brown clad figures could be seen lurching around the yard. They were staggering about aimlessly, and occasionally one of them staggered out through the gate and shuffled off into the city. Every so often, another similar brown shirt clad figure would stagger out of the burning building and join those within the courtyard.

Mezmer, still invisible, waited in the abandoned warehouse while Gunter snuck back to get the rest of the mob and lead them all back to the warehouse. Some discussion ensued, and it was concluded that a more subtle entry into the compound from the rear would likely be safer than using the front gate and passing all the possessed creatures.

"These might help" noted the invisible Mezmer, while a pair of wire cutters floated through the air.

We located another old warehouse, not so abandoned, but empty of occupants and full of grain, on the far side of the compound, and we all made our way safely over there. The view wasn't so good, but we could see the rear of the compound fence, and that there were no people, or possessed creatures, in sight. Just before we all moved to the grain warehouse, Mezmer reappeared, totally starkers, and calmly got himself dressed.

"What?" he exclaimed, "Never seen a naked man before?"
"Ewwww" winced Fleur.

We crept up to the fence at the rear of the compound, Cooper quickly cut out a small door flap, and we slipped through. We jogged past the radio mast and up to the rear wall of the burning two-storey residence. Cooper peered through a dirty window and reported some type of office inside.

"But the window is locked" he declared.

Bernard swung the wire cutters.

"La fenêtre is open" Bernard contradicted.

The room wasn't too smoky or too hot, so we climbed in through the window to the office. Gazala wasn't too keen to head inside, so she waited outside and stood guard, which turned out to be not as sensible as it sounded at the time. While we were rummaging through the office, looking for anything interesting in the cupboards, drawers, and files, Gazala let out a loud squeal.

One of the possessed ghoul creatures had come charging around the back corner of the house and launched itself at Gazala. She was quickly overcome and collapsed to the ground unconscious.

[Gameplay is based on a Simple Pulp Cthulhu (SPC) system. As Andrew states is his rulebook summary, SPC is an offshoot from Pulp Cthulhu which itself is a 2016 offshoot from Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu version 7 rules. CoC started in the 80s and has gone through 7 versions since then. SPC is a D20 “roll-low”, skill-based system. Character skills are initialised from archetypes only (not professions & archetypes like V7). 
Richard rolled for Gazala's attack against the Ghoul using her attack skill of fourteen but rolled a twenty. A fumble! Since a fumble is definitely not good, Richard spent two of Gazala's Luck points to "stop the fumble" and the attack became just a miss. Rolls are opposed, so the creature's successful role meant that Gazala was hit. Having already decided to attack, a Dodge of the attack wasn't possible, and seven damage was inflicted. Gazala has more than seven hit points so was still up and fighting at this stage, but seven damage is more than half Gazala's hit points, so the attack caused a Major Wound.
Gazala also has the Rapid Attack combat talent which allows Richard to spend two more Luck points for a second melee attack in the same combat round. Which Richard did, but the second attack also missed. In the next combat round, Richard again decided to attack, and spent another two Luck to gain two attacks in the round. The first opposed attack roll was not successful, and the creature hit for another four points, enough to knock Gazala unconscious. All attacks are effectively simultaneous, and Gazala's second attack as she fell did actually hit for one point of damage. Gazala was Bleeding as a result of the Major Wound though, and needed to make a roll against her Toughness stat at the end of every round after the wound, or die!]

Not wanting to see another one of our own consumed by these creatures, Cooper bravely leapt through the window to hold it off, and Bernard lowered his rifle onto the windowsill and took a shot. The bullet took the creature through the forehead for fourteen points of damage, but it was still "alive" and attacked Cooper. The creature swung its elongated fingernails towards Coopers face, but missed, and Cooper's return knife swipe cut into its neck, and fortunately killed it.

Cooper scooped Gazala up off the ground and passed her in through the window to Jacob, who immediately performed First Aid. Gazala groaned and sat up. [Richard successfully made Gazala's Toughness roll, Gazala didn't die that round, and Chris successfully made Jacob's First Aid roll and cured two points, stopping the Bleeding and bringing Gazala round]

We were all in the office now, the only door was closed, and a small trickle of smoke was curling through under the door and wafting across the room and out the smashed window.

Smoke filled the corridor

Gunter cracked open the door, peered out into the smoke-filled corridor and crawled out on his hands and knees. After a few minutes, he crawled back in dragging a body.

"This guy was stuck halfway through a door on the other side of the corridor up there to the right. The source of the fire is behind that door, but I've closed it now. Hopefully, the smoke should dissipate from the corridor now" explained Gunter.

The body was a male, dressed in a white lab coat, no wounds, and thankfully with normal fingernails! Gazala cut off his head anyway and tossed the body and head out the window.

"Just in case" Gazala grinned.

"So, what was burning?" asked Mezmer.

"Couldn't really see. Lots of machines and pipes and stuff" answered Gunter.

Once the smoke had lessened in the corridor, we explored off to the left. One other door on the left leading to another office, and one door to the outside at the end of the corridor. With just the one other door that led to the fire, we were missing the stairs to the second level.

We found them in the second office. A door we hadn't spotted in the corner of the room led to the stairs. All was quiet up there, although the crackle of flames could be faintly heard. Gunter tried to sneak up the stairs quietly, but old timber staircases are notoriously creaky. No exception here ... "creaaaak"

At the top of the stairs was an obvious radio operators' room. Desks covered in radio equipment, power cable snaking all over the place, charts on the walls, and papers over all the desks. The stairs continued upwards to what appeared to be a trapdoor out onto the roof, and there was one door that led towards the centre of the building.

Gunter quickly moved over to the door and checked for heat. Not much, so he opened the door slightly and peered through. Thick black smoke billowed in. On the other side of the door was an open balcony to the whole other half of the building. The deep orange glow of flickering flames could be seen through the dense acrid smoke that was billowing upwards and into the sky through a giant hole burnt through the roof. The crackles and pop of timber and metals being consumed by intense heat filled the balcony. Not good at all.

Gunter slammed the door closed and prepared to head back downstairs.

Meanwhile, in the office at the bottom of the stairs, Wonton heard a scratching noise from the door to the corridor and gave a yell. Bernard, Mezmer, and Wonton all aimed their rifles at the door, and Gazala drew her magic dagger and stood behind them.

The door was flung open, and a figure surrounded by smoke entered.

"Blam, Blam, Blam" rang out as the rifles all discharged.

A brown shirt ghoul fell into the room and lay unmoving on the floor. No blood.

Gazala rushed over and decapitated it.

The door to the burning laboratory was open again, and the corridor was filling with smoke. Gunter volunteered to crawl up and close the door, provided he was covered by the rifles as he moved. He got to the door and was just pulling it closed when an arm swung down through the doorway from the room beyond and raked Gunter across the back. Gunter hugged the floor while the brown shirt ghoul stepped through the door and prepared to shred him.

"Blam, Blam" and the ghoul fell back into the burning room. Gunter slammed the door and scurried back to the others. 

"If they keep coming through there" Hubert noted, "We'll need to set up a kill zone covered by the machine guns and rifles. We should be able to clean them out in no time"

"Can we use this rope somehow?" asked Mezmer. 

He had this uncanny habit of finding useful stuff. 

[Mezmer has the Resourceful talent; spend two Luck to find a certain useful piece of equipment]

The rope was attached to the door into the burning room, the machine gun was set up on the floor in a prone firing position, and Bernard was standing with the rifle. Mezmer also found a broomstick which was used to push the door open. Smoke did pour into the corridor, but also another brown shirt ghoul. A round of machine gun fire successfully took care of that one, but Bernard's rifle jammed up. 

While the door was open, Hubert tossed a grenade, hoping to take out a few more creatures inside the room. Unfortunately, he missed the door and the grenade rolled off down the corridor and exploded. Everyone had ducked back out of the way, but the blast damaged the walls.

We reset the door trap and lured out another of the creatures, but the door was getting quite blistered and charred. It didn't look like it would last much longer, so we all withdrew to the original office where we had entered. Fleur, Gazala, Jacob, and Wonton clambered out the window and raced for the hole in the fence. Mezmer bravely decided that he might be able to recover useful information from the upstairs radio room and raced for the stairs. Bernard, Cooper, Gunter, and Hubert waited in the office, covering the corridor in case any more ghouls emerged, util Mezmer got back.

He never came back.

Mezmer drops from the roof

The flames soon burst through the door and the damaged wall, and we were all forced to retreat out through the window and back to the grain warehouse. Mezmer joined us soon thereafter. He had got trapped upstairs by the advancing fire, climbed out onto the roof, and dropped off the edge of the roof two storeys to the ground below. He barely twisted his ancle in the fall. [D10 falling damage, which could have killed him, but he luckily only received two points of damage]

He did recover some notebooks filled with German script, but they turned out to be transcripts of pretty boring supply messages. There was nothing more to be done there, the fire had escaped the laboratry room and had engulfed the whole house. We could feel the heat from the door of the grain warehouse, so we decided to head back to the roadblock and recover our Mercedes. That would get us around the city to the other fire sites a lot quicker than walking, and there were no other vehicles nearby that we could commandeer. 

The Church of Sainte Croix

It only took us a half hour to get back to the soldiers, where Gazala exercised her feminine wiles on Corporal Chauve. He was more than happy to resupply our spent ammunition and grenades. He also provided a replacement rifle for the one that Bernard had effectively destroyed. We quickly loaded up the Mercedes and headed back towards the city. Our target was the next closest column of smoke, and it was soon apparent that we were heading for the vicinity of the ancient Sainte Croix church. The very same church that had been the source of the earlier "problems" we had encountered in Tunis.

The church wasn't burning, but some buildings just along the street looked like they had suffered a bombardment of artillery and were definitely ablaze.

While we were watching, Wonton noticed someone staggering out of the church building in priestly vestments, behaving exactly like the brown shirt ghouls from Herschel's compound. In fact, there were quite a number of "bystanders" that were behaving exactly like the brown shirt ghouls from Herschel's compound. When they all turned and started lurching in our direction, Bernard hit the gas and we raced off, towards the next distant column of smoke. The creatures followed until we were around one hundred yards from them, whereupon they shuffled to a stop and started aimlessly wandering about at random.

"A hundred yards" noted Wonton wisely.

The source of the next column of smoke was the Banque de Tunisie. The very same bank that had the vault. The very same vault that was storing our magical treasure!

"Mon Dieu" exclaimed Mezmer, "Mes affaires"

Ghouls were also spotted there, so we raced off to the fourth and last column of smoke.

You guessed it, the office of Calomnie de Tunis. Our own newspaper office, and our apartment.

"Mon Dieu" exclaimed Mezmer again.