Unnatural Influences

Deceased: Gunter (Jeff)
Present: Bernard (Jamie), Cooper (Ian), Mesmer (Shane), Wonton (Darryl)

Introducing: Jean Martineau (Jeff)

Marmalading: Fleur (Steven), Gazala (Richard), Hubert aka Lardarse (Kevin), Jacob (Chris)

Gunter: gone and forgotten

The party were standing around in the crypt, sobbing over the loss of Gunter and the state of his eviscerated corpse. Well, except for Wonton who was on his knees at the side of the chalk inscribed pentagram muttering about red dragons, and Bernard who had dropped a cloak over the Censer and had scooped it up, and Mesmer who had gone back up the stairs towards the undercroft to "guard" the collapsed [marmalading] party members there, and Cooper who was poking around in the scattered bones littering the floor.

OK, no one was actually concerned about the loss of Gunter.

Bernard's eyes rolled back into his head, but no one noticed. 

But Bernard was noticing stuff. 

He noticed Wonton clear the last vertex of the pentagram from the floor of the crypt, and as soon as the final portion was cleared, Wonton exploded in a cloud of blood and gore.

He noticed about eight Ghoul's gather round the boot of our Mercedes, rip it open, and raise the silver sealed toolbox containing the baby skeleton up to the sky, and howl.

Then Bernard's eyes rolled back down, and he staggered slightly.

"Mon dieu" he cried, "we must rescue the Mercedes immediately"

We all rushed up the stairs, guns at the ready, to take on a small hoard of Ghouls.

"How many?" asked Mesmer.

Peering out from the front door of the church, we could definitely see eight or so Ghoul's pounding on the boot of the Mercedes, about two hundred meters down the street. Looking quickly around, we noted that Hubert and his machine gun was not available, Bernard had a rifle, and Cooper had a handgun.

"Rapide, into that building across the road there" pointed Bernard.

Rushing upstairs we found a nice second story window where Bernard and Cooper were both able to fire down on the Ghouls. Mesmer took station at the door to the room, and Wonton waited at the downstairs door to the street.

Like King Canute before, Wonton ....

"I will bravely stop them here" Wonton stated.

"Yeah right" muttered Cooper, "and King Canute stopped the tide too"

As the first shots rang out the Ghouls didn't seem to notice, despite Bernards shot nearly killing one outright. But as the second volley echoed between the buildings and one of the Ghouls dropped to the ground, they all looked round as one and immediately began to race for the door of the building we were in. So fast ...

Wonton managed to let off two shoots, both missing, before turning from the ground floor doorway and fleeing up the stairs towards the room. As he stumbled into the room, Mesmer slammed the door and started to move some of the furniture up against it. Almost immediately thumping could be heard on the stairs and vigorous pounding began at the door.

Bernard had been watching out the window as the Ghouls streamed into the building and saw a movement from the second storey window across the street. The unmistakable chatter of a French submachine gun rang out, the muzzle flash lighting up a figure in a sailor's uniform standing at the window opposite.

"Prenez que vous abominations" he yelled, as another of the Ghouls dropped to the ground.

"Vous devriez fuir" he gestured at Bernard, "you should flee"

But Cooper had already pushed Bernard aside, lowered a rope, and was part way over the windowsill.

As Cooper dropped the last meter to the ground, Bernard was out the window and following. Cooper rushed over to the Mercedes, clear of Ghouls for the moment, and got it started. The boot was dented and scratched, but still closed, and there were only two bullet holes shot through the windscreen.

"Lucky ole me, not in the driver's seat when that one hit" noted Cooper as he turned the ignition.

Wonton, and finally Mesmer, dropped from the rope, Ghouls crowding the upstairs window behind them. Cooper skidded to a halt next to them, and the French sailor rushed over from the other side of the street and dived into the car also.

"Please, take me with you" he pleaded.

Cooper dropped the clutch, and the Mercedes roared off down the street.

"What about the others?" asked Mesmer, "they are still in the church"

Cooper made sure no Ghouls were following the car and returned to the rear door of the church. We loaded up the rest of the party and made a getaway from the city back to the encampment.

The Bretagne - Jean's home away from home

The French sailor we had picked up was one Jean Martineau. He and his radio operator, Henri le Jerque, had been acting as forward observers for the gunnery team from the Bretagne, the French dreadnought battleship sitting in the Tunis harbour. Unfortunately, Henri had been killed and the radio destroyed during a street fight with Ghouls a few days ago. Jean had been holed up in the buildings waiting for the swarms of Ghouls to clear long enough to enable him to escape back to the harbour. He had been woken from a fitful doze by our heavy machine gun fire earlier but had been reluctant to show himself until he saw our desperate plight against the overwhelming number of Ghouls.

Back at the encampment we reported to Inspector Heroux and then stood around discussing what next. Jean used the soldier's radio and made contact with his superiors from the Bretagne.

Bernard noted that he felt a strange tingling when holding the cloak wrapped Censer.

Wonton waved his arms around and sang a little chant.

"Strong Mythos there, make many Ghouls long time" he stated.

"Just burn cloves in Censer, much easy Ghoul"

"Why you haf cloves in bag?" he asked, pointing at Jean the sailor.

Sure enough, in Jean's kit bag was a packet of cloves, ripe for burning.

Bernard handed the Censer bundle over to Wonton to hold for a bit.

Wonton's eyes rolled back into his head, but no one noticed.

But Wonton noticed that the encampment morgue was nearby and was just a large tent packed with the dead bodies of soldiers and civilians from the city. He also felt it would be a sensible idea to head straight over there with the Censer and burn up Jean's bag of cloves.

Wonton shook his head and his eyes rolled back to normal. [Wonton makes his Power roll and fights off whatever evil influence had settled on him]

"We mus lock dis bundle in box, and no touchy" he commanded.

Ammunition box to hold the wrapped Censer

So, a large ammunition case is found, the Censer and cloak wrapping is stuffed in, padlock applied, and one of the privates is instructed to guard it with his life.

"You soot anyone who touch" instructed Wonton.

That evening, Bernard unwraps the magic mirror and asks Tala about the Censer.

"Is it safe to store it in the boot of the Mercedes with the coffin/" he asks.

"That would be unwise" Tala replies.

"Thought so" 

"The evil Wonton is linked to the Censer now" Tala also noted.

Private Leonard Bérengère and Private Adolfi Ardouin are assigned the first watch with Mesmer.

During their watch Leonard's eyes rolled back into his head, but no one noticed.

But Leonard noticed things.

"Evil ..." he muttered, "Evil ..."

Leonard's white eyed stare is focussed on the ammunition box.

"Eeeeevvviiilllll ....."

Mesmer wakes the rest of the party, except for Cooper who was outside sleeping in the Mercedes.

Bernard uncovered the magic mirror and had Tala look at Leonard.

"Possessed" she confirmed.

"Evil ...." Leonard grunted.

Jean walks up to Leonard and slaps him in the face, hard.

Leonard's eyes rolled back down, and he staggered backwards.

Cloves were randomly appearing

"No longer possessed" states Tala, "but I see he has two bags of cloves"

"Where are all these cloves coming from?" wondered Bernard.

The next morning Wonton insisted that we return to the Church, to erase the lower pentagram.

"What? But you might explode" stammered Bernard.

"A twick" postulated Wonton, "so we no do it"

Given the number of party members who had succumbed to "exhaustion" and were resting up in the tent with the Censer box and the two soldiers, we requested another couple of privates ride with us, and we took off to the church.

Cooper and the two privates stayed with the Mercedes to make sure no Ghouls tried to raid it again, while Bernard, Jean, and Wonton entered the church. All traces of the green fog from yesterday were gone, and the place was eerily silent. The front doors still hung open, shot to pieces by yesterday's heavy machine gun fire. Wood splinters crunched underfoot as the intrepid hero's made their way through the narthex and into the nave. Bullet casings scatted away from their feet as they strode forward down the nave towards the vestry and the stairs down to the undercroft.

"It seems very gloomy in here today" notes Bernard.

"These shadows seem to stick all-round the walls"

Wonton bravely starts down the steps to the crypt.

"I hear move there" he whispers, returning immediately after only a few steps down.

"And very darkness"

We hastily retreated and retrieved a flare from the Mercedes. The two soldiers with us were good drivers, so Cooper returned with us and volunteered to sneak down and toss the flare. He's the better tosser, and sneaker.

Cooper attempted to sneak down the tight spiral staircase to the crypt, but his robes brushed loudly against the stone. [Failed his Stealth roll!] But he arrived at the bottom where he also heard the sounds of scraping and movement from the darkness. He struck the flare and tossed it out into the depth of the crypt where it landed perfectly on top of one of the sarcophagi and lit up the whole place.

Skeletons charge for Cooper

Eight skeletons were standing around and they all turned towards him. Cooper ran.

We hastily retreated, all the way back to the camp, and requested reinforcements. A full gunnery squad were rounded up from their rest and packed into a truck. Fully equipped with flares, grenades, and machine guns, they made short work of the skeletons. Although one of them was so frightened by what he saw down there he ran of screaming. We did find him some time later, grinning sheepishly.

After gathering all the bones left by the dead skeletons, Wonton cleaned off the pentagram and Baal symbols from the floor of the crypt, and with a last look around we left the crypt again. Hopefully for the last time.

"Maybe not last" whispered Wonton as he backed up the spiral staircase, "Interesting place"

Back at the camp, we incinerated all the bone fragments (four sacks full) collected from the crypt, and Inspector Heroux reported that his patrols had noticed a marked reduction in the number of Ghouls wandering the streets. He also noted that packets of cloves were turning up all over the camp, and that the cook was quite excited.

we found that Private Leonard had suffered a waking dream where an amazingly stunning goddess had asked him to unlock the Censer box and take the Censer to the morgue and burn some cloves to improve the odour of the place, and to increase the level of goodness, peace, and prosperity throughout the world.

"It was very compelling" he said, "But I resist"