These Strange Times

 

Present – Mesmer (Shane), Bernard (Jamie), Wonton (Darryl), Jacob (Chris), Gazala (Richard),

Jean (Jeff), Hubert aka Lard-arse (Kevin)

Marmalading – Fleur (Steven), Cooper (Ian)

Dearest mother. 

Father, has not yet replied to my recent correspondence. I fear he still is unforgiving in his heart for me not marrying Hussain and choosing to leave.

These are indeed strange times. I find myself craving the company of Fleur, my one and only
female travelling companion. Over recent times she has been struck down with marmalade
pouring from her mouth. I watch from a distance and see her ample breast swelling with each
breath and cannot help but feel troubled.

Such a feeling is not helped by it becoming clearer by the day that men – most men, are either cowards or violent fools. More on that later.

Perhaps the Chinese are different. I travel with an unusual and somewhat antagonistic and argumentative man called Wonton, who hails from a place called Peking. Whilst an unusual and little man, he is certainly not a fool and whilst he fails to engage in any form of physical labour, he appears to not be a coward; certainly, compared to the Frenchmen I travel with.

Some most unusual things are occurring. Cloves, caraway and harissa are appearing everywhere. In our clothes, our bags and our beds. This, we speculate, seems to be coming from the censer we recovered from Herschel. Wonton, whom I have some reluctant respect for, thinks that cloves and caraway should be burnt in the censer and that indeed Herschel was burning these to summon the strange creature I wrote to father about; or perhaps the ghouls.

Cloves, caraway and the censer

With Gunter's death, a new man has joined us. He is a sailor called Jean Martineau. He has done nothing to restore my faith in the French. I admit he is handy with a sub machine gun but he has the French flair for cowardice and as you will hear later, ran from a battle and left his German comrade to die.

I must say mother, the French cowardice and the German tendency for rash violence, does not bode well for those countries.

After much debate and also discussion on something called the golden rivet (which the fat German Hubert was fascinated by and the new man Jean looked uncomfortable with) we decided to firstly search Herschel's compound and then go to his mansion (which we had forgotten about for a time).

But first another night's sleep. Given these strange occurrences we set watches and during the second (Bernard, Jacob and Jean) Bernard and Jean were strangely affected with eyes rolling back and seeing ghoul like creatures attacking them. This occurred exactly at midnight. 

Wonton and Mesmer speculate that these dreams are being caused by the skeleton of a baby that we are carrying in an ammunition box. This skeleton apparently has something to do with Baal and we have been carrying it since we discovered it in the desert some months ago. I don’t know why we don’t just bury it and move on but that seems an unpopular suggestion. 

Rather it has now been decided that both the baby and the censer need to be encased in silver. Where we get that from is anyone's guess but Heroux, captain of the local constabulary, is going to look.

Mesmer is a strange man. He likes to take his clothes off and run around fully naked. If I were a man and had such a small member I would not choose to do so however he seems completely comfortable in all his inadequacies.

Morning dawns and we eventually get on our way with our Mercedes driven by Private Berenger. 

Mesmer, Bernard and I are in the back. This proves to be a mistake (we forgot the baby was in the boot) and Mesmer and I became "possessed" and with the whites of our eyes rolling back we tried to cut our way to the boot of the car. I awoke with blood in my hair but strangely no cut nor sore head.

"Qui m'a fait ça?" I asked but no one seemed to what to own up which in itself made me suspect it was one of the Frenchmen.

Arriving at the compound (with everyone careful not to be in the back seat again) we found it occupied with Légion étrangère soldiers. 

"We'd better search it anyway" piped up Bernard. 

"Especially where the fire was" squeaked Hubert through a mouthful of ham.

In the burnt-out building Wonton suddenly proclaims "Miffos – I mell it below. We must detwoy da pentagrams" 

We search, kicking away burnt debris and discover a large hole in the floor where the fire has clearly caused damage. 

"Lower me down" I ask Jean – "Bien sur madame" as he ties a rope around me. Gently lowering me into the darkness the rope must have hurt his delicate hands, and he dropped me. 

"It broke" he declared. 7 points of damage and a bruised ego I put that slight away for another time. The others come down on a tied rope

A pentagram is found in the centre of the room which Wonton takes to with his tools. Two hours later it is destroyed.

Hershel's mansion

Now to Herschel's mansion ….

We drive into the courtyard of the very respectable mansion. "We have been here before" says Bernard. 

"We have" says Mesmer – "after the auction for the mythos items" 

"He stole ours from the bank vault – I wonder of my boots and wedding gown are here" I comment.

"An don for ge' those sunken 'edds" Wonton chips in. 

"Oh yes I forgot about those" says Mesmer.

"We all did" Bernard reflects quietly.

"No Mythos here" chime in Mesmer, Wonton and Jacob at once. 

"Mes amis, je dois être en désaccord!" (I must disagree) says Bernard strangely contradicting the others [Bernard has a 1 Mythos skill and rolled a 1 – everyone else failed]

"We carn get it wong at times" says Wonton "what do you sense?"

"This place is not as it seems – its creepy and gloomy". 

"We can all see its gloomy" says Jacob "it is an overcast day"

Maid Maria

To the front door strides the German, Hubert, knocking loudly. 

"I guess we are going in the subtle way then" Mesmer mutters.

A lovely but demur French maid opens the door who we later find out is called Maria.

Hubert is rather taken and behaves disgustingly, suggesting various inappropriate acts to Maria. It is at that point that I wish the fat German dead.

I step in and using my considerable charm to convince Maria we are here to see Herschel's "wife" Fraulein Blucher. She lets us in but we must leave our weapons at the door. We strangely oblige however, mother, I secretly took my knife and revolver. 

Maria is strangely quiet and I would have to describe her as soulless – Herbert may as well have been making his lewd suggestions to a rubber dummy – if there were such things.

Fraulein Blucher

We are shown to a rather luxurious waiting room and shortly after a stern but significantly more attractive Fraulein Blucher arrives.

After idle chit chat we eventually convince her to show us Herschel's study (we used the Charm skill with her also plus a little luck). 

Wonton, Mesmer and I go upstairs and are shown the study. There are pentagrams all over the walls and Mesmer detects mythos from a locked drawer.

It would seem subtlety is over and Wonton starts to remove the pentagrams. When Fraulein Blucher protests loudly and calls for help I reluctantly knock her out with the hilt of my knife. 

"Did you have to?!" chimes Mezmer rolling his eyes; "qu'est-ce que tu veux que je fasse d'autre putain" (what else would you have me fucking do) I shout back.

The sound of running footsteps approach and we see two men. 

"I told you; we are in trouble now" smirks Mezmer nervously. 

"Stop or Fraulein dies!" I call out loudly whilst pointing a revolver at them. 

Wonton usefully continues to remove pentagrams whilst it takes some effort to convince Mezmer to stop trying to open the drawer and tie up Fraulein Blucher.

The men stop and shortly thereafter there is noise from below and Jean, who heard the commotion, yells to the two men to surrender. They turn and fire their pistols at Jean, one hitting for 12 damage (a major wound but fortunately Jean has 15 hit points). The others pistol jams (a fumble)

I shoot into their back with success doing 10 damage to one (a lucky shot as I only have a 4 skill
with a pistol)

Bernard arrives and calls for the men's surrender. They reluctantly drop their weapons and raise
their hands. Jean rushes up and kicks the pistols down the stairs and ties them up. They are
dragged to a room and knocked out. "That should buy us some time says" Jean. 

"Not enough" I say as I slit their throats – two less German's in this world. Or maybe they were French. Too late now.

We search the upper and lower floors. I see Maria is tied and each time Hubert walks past he grins and his tongue protrudes from his mouth. "Do not touch her" I say to Hubert, "or I will cut you where you least want to be cut"

"Where is Mezmer?" Jacob asks as he collapses with marmalade pouring out his mouth. 

"Good point where is he" asks Bernard. A triumphant yell from upstairs "ha got it" and Mezmer opens
the locked draw. A skeletal left hand and the three shrunken heads [ that Herschel won at the auction ]. Reeking of Mythos.

"I will take those" Mesmer says popping them into his rucksack.

In the kitchen we see a staircase down. The door outside is open with the other servants clearly
escaping. Boldly Hubert strides down he stairs. He goes through a wave of cold however has
plenty of installation to avoid any ill effect. The kitchen cellar is full of wine barrels and down the
far end another staircase down. 

"I'm going down" pronounces Hubert. 

"Slow down fat boy" says Bernard.

Mesmer, at this point, can hear muttering from his back pack. Cautiously opening it, he sees the three shrunken skulls chanting. As he picks them up they stop. 

"I'd keep an eye on those" states Wonton "

"Thanks" says Mesmer glumly "so helpful" .

So down we descend. I'm fourth and so only hear the hell that breaks out. Machine gun fire, screaming, Jean running like the french coward he is – up the stairs and through the kitchen and out the door. Bernard battling his way up the stairs hastily – "I'm not staying down there" he murmurs. 

"What was it?" I ask. 

"I don’t know proclaims" Bernard "but Hubert is down".

"So why didn’t you stay and help?" I ask – silence.

At this point, mother, I reflect back and ask myself - am I sad the fat German is dead? No. He
was a grubby, violent and foolish man and got what he deserved.

"Throw some grenades down" Wonton and Bernard say in unison. Mesmer and I look at each
other and shake our heads. We then proceed to drop several grenades. 

"What if Hubert is alive?" chimes in Bernard helpfully. 

"You told us he was dead" says Mezmer. 

"Too bad" I think.

"We should wait for Jean" muses Bernard while at the same time we hear Hubert's voice "help
me please" ringing from below. 

"You told us he was dead" says Mesmer. 

"Too bad" I think. 

"He is – or was!" defends Bernard.

We wait, guns trained on the stairs. Minutes pass and we are reminded of Hubert as his voice
rings out from the darkness below. Eventually Jean returns – "a new sailors suit required for him
by the smell of it" whispers Wonton.

"What are you waiting for?" Jean asks. 

"You or more accurately your sub machine gun" we all respond. "What's that smell?"

More grenades are tossed down and Jean descends followed by Mesmer and then the terrified
Bernard.

The sound of machine gun fire erupts and then silence. 

"Nous l'avons tué!" says Jean eventually. (We killed him)

We all descend into the gloom.

"What was it?" I ask. 

"One of those tentacled creatures like we saw at the Saint Croix church, but smaller.  Hubert's head was embedded in it, calling pathetically". 

"You told us he was dead" says Mesmer. 

"Too bad" I think. 

"He is now" proclaims Bernard……

Mother, I am not sad for the loss of Hubert and my faith in men is being rapidly eroded. They are
either cowards aka Bernard and Jean or violent and thoughtless aka Gunter and Hubert. Mesmer is french but not so much of a coward. He does however like to undress and roam naked – perverse. Strangely I can accept that better than these other traits.

I long for Fleur's company and the winds of the desert.

Your loyal daughter

Gazala

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"

Death of the German

 

Present – Cooper (Ian), Mesmer (Shane), Bernard (Jamie), Wonton (Darryl), Jacob (Chris), Gazala (Richard), Gunter (Jeff), Hubert aka Lardarse (Kevin)

Marmalading – Fleur (Steven)

Qu'est-ce qu'il y a avec ces putains d'étrangers.

Lard arse

Father, 

It is some time since I have written and indeed I have my friend Jacob scribing for I have not yet learnt the art of writing.

I am troubled where I find myself and long for the desert winds.

We are in Tunis. I say we – un étrange mélange d'employés de journaux français, allemands, anglais et polonaise. (a strange mix of French, German, English and Polish newspaper employees)

The Germans and French are most strange. The nicer of the two Germans, Gunter, is dead – he has been ripped apart by some strange creatures - more on that later.

The other, who is fat and lazy, but quite effective with a sub machine gun, Hubert, ran like a coward from the church and was only seen with his stained trousers at a much later stage but after Gunter's death.

Bernard

Bernard, the Frenchman, is very fickle. He runs from the thought of throwing a grenade, he volunteers others to fight while skulking away – he displays all of the traits you taught me about Frenchmen father, cowards to the core.

Some 300 metres down the road from the Saint Croix church we have some decisions to make. We need to enter the church and discover the source of these strange occurrences.

I must say father, I have seen some unusual things. Mesmer and Wonton, members of our group, study these strange religions and talk in riddles. I have never heard of the words "mythos" or "occult"; however, both are becoming common language and both the little Chinaman and the French academic practice some strange rituals.

There is a backdoor we have unlocked and also a large front door from which these strange deformed "people" are coming. We have a heavy machine gun set up some 150m away which needs to be moved.

So many discussions – front door, back door, do we go in, do we not? Quelle putain de racaille (what a fucking rabble). Wonton and Bernard are the worst – argumentative and cowardly at the same time. You would have their heads, father.

Eventually the plan forms. Hubert who is excellent on the heavy machine gun, and Wonton who is hopeless with anything practical, will man the HMG at the front door. They want to man it on the street – what the ….. these creatures move like the wind – at least mount it inside the house opposite the main door to the church and through the window. As events turn out, that saves their lives.

The rest of us will enter through the back door. Hubert is to wait 5 minutes to give us time, and then fire a burst into the front door at which time we will enter.

 

It's so easy to follow simple instructions. Hubert enters a belt into the front door, so much for a burst. 

The rest of us tentatively enter the church. I am at the front, followed by Bernard and Gunter. We are crawling to avoid what seems to be a hovering chlorine gas. We look into the main church [nave] and look toward where the front door is. There are several of these strange creatures hovering around the door that is being obliterated by machine gun fire. It appears a number of these creatures are running out the door, presumably to attempt to destroy Hubert and Wonton. (In fact, Hubert and Wonton kill 4 of these "ghouls" in several rounds of sustained fire)

The rest of us have good line of sight on two of these creatures and let loose with a mixture of sub-machine gun, rifle and in Cooper's case, handgun fire. Two of them drop.

We move forward to the sound of heavy machine gun fire and tentatively look through an opening nearer the front door. An unusual sight – a skull floating with a robe and 6-8 of these hideous creatures waiting patiently for what appears to be instruction. 

"Qu'est-ce qu'on fait?" whispers Mesmer ("what do we do?" ). 

"Grenade them" says Bernard as he backs away cowardly.

"For fuck's sake, give me one of those" I say, pulling the pin and lobbing it toward the skull. As I do so I quickly retreat, noticing everyone else had flowed Bernard's lead

My throw was perfect inflicting 13 points of damage. This combined with more heavy machine gun fire is surely destroying these creatures. (the group were fortunate with their grenade rolls, Gunter, Gazalla and Mezmer all increased their skills by 4 at the start of the night and effectively doubled their effectiveness. Whilst still only an 8, these improved skills proved invaluable).

Clearly not, 2 of these creatures come through the opening and toward us at speed. Hubert gets a burst in and does damage (having made a luck roll to notice them). We shoot, Bernard hits for 8 damage and drops one (it was already damaged) but Gazala and Mezmer miss, Jacob (who has finally arrived) briefly considers throwing his scalpel.

As luck would have it, or not, the creature targets me, or as better remembered I bravely pushed myself forward to engage it. Ne laissez jamais la vérité faire obstacle à une bonne histoire. (Never let the truth get in the way of a good story - as they say in the newspaper business).

For 4 rounds I dodged both this creature and the inaccurate shooting of Cooper who seemed completely ineffective with his handgun (Cooper – Ian - shot 4 times at the creature – it was 50/50 whether he targeted the creature or Gazala, each time he shot at Gazala. Effective use of Luck and some bad rolls ensured Gazala was not injured)

After 4 rounds both Cooper and I resorted to our knives. The creature was already injured and in 1 round we both hit and killed it. I must say I was perspiring a little having previously been severely hurt by one of these abominations.

We again move toward to the opening near the front door. Even more cautiously if that were possible. Gunter moves into the opening only to see a purple haze rapidly moving toward him

 

He shoots infectively and the cloud hits him and he staggers back looking rather ashen. It then forms in the opening but does not reach the floor. Mezmer and Wonton think it harmless unless touched. I have no idea why they believe this – some academic mumbo jumbo. Mesmer sneaks up and tosses a grenade into the space – a critical (rolls a 1) and 20 damage. Silence. Cooper ducks under the cloud and nothing other than bits of body and shattered skulls are to be seem – and of course the front door now destroyed by machine gun fire.

For once we are in agreement and to the undercroft it is. I quietly start to descend the spiral stairs but quickly realise that nature calls and make my apology and rush off to woman's matters. The others descend without incident. (in fact, Gazala saw a skull-like creature with red eyes and failed her Sanity roll – the result was the loss of 1 Sanity and to flee for a D10 rounds – in her case 3)

The undercroft is empty but for a swirling wind and the sound of wet leather slapping below (in the crypt). The pentagram here is visible but looks unused. Do we descend?

The decision is made to set up the heavy machine gun in the undercroft, but in fact, it never gets set up. Wonton starts to destroy the pentagram

 

Mezmer successfully throws a grenade down the staircase having gained a healthy respect for them and then after some healthy debate (ils se disputent tout le temps – what's with these fucking foreigners?) the rest start to descend except Hubert who is [still] starting to set up the heavy machine gun. 

Baal symbol

Cooper, Bernard, Mezmer, Gunter and lastly Jacob descend nervously to the crypt. What a sight greets Cooper – the pentagram is back together with a symbol of Baal. There is an abomination with tentacles that looks squid like and Augustus Herschel with a distorted face is chanting and appears to be in the process of summoning the "squid"

 

There are 8 sarcophagi and 6 skeletons (there were 8 but Mezmer's grenade destroyed 2).

Cooper steps aside and Hubert pushes his way down with his sub machine gun at the ready, having abandoned the setting up of the heavy. As Hubert steps down and looks at the scene his face falls and a crazed gaze comes into his eyes. Like a terrified child he turns and runs, avoiding all attempts to stop him. His screams can be heard exiting the church and as I return from my ablutions I notice a stain cover the back of the fat German's trousers. Putain d'étrangers (Hubert failed his Sanity roll and, like Gazala before him, high-tails it out of there, but in his case for 8 rounds)

As I return I hear multiple shots being fired, screams, the sound of grenades exploding from the crypt. Wonton unemotively continues to destroy the pentagram (although I do notice sweat on his brow)

As it eventuates later, father, the commotion was a combination of the shooting and killing of Augustus and through that the disruption of the summoning (Augustus was sucked into the floor by this strange squid like abomination), the throwing of grenades one of which was dropped amongst the party by Mesmer and doing 3 damage on Cooper, Bernard and himself and the fighting of skeletons.

Gunter Oelschig - R.I.P.

During this Gunter was knocked unconscious and died due to a major wound (he failed his Toughness roll) and Cooper was knocked unconscious with a major wound. Bernard and Mezmer scampered up the stairs leaving Cooper and Gunter lying unconscious or dead. Ces gens sont des laches (these people are cowards)

The remaining party members now congregate at the top of the stairs. "We can't leave them there" I say "and we need to finish this". With that I descend the stairs. Several grenades later the skeletons are dead – but what about Gunter and Cooper? Gunter is clearly dead with pieces torn off him and his entrails strewn about. Cooper, though, has a pulse and I quickly bandage him enabling Jacob to apply First Aid (in this system you can take as much damage as you want and remain unconscious on zero. It’s the major wounds or taking more than your total hit points in one attack that kills you. Every round you are unconscious with a major wound you roll vs Toughness or die – in Cooper's case he rolled successfully 6 times).

The crypt is finally empty. The sarcophagi are empty, Wonton starts destroying the next pentagram and where the abomination was – lies the Censer of Baal

  

ما مع هؤلاء الأجانب سخيف.

Qu'est-ce qu'il y a avec ces putains d'étrangers.

What's with these fucking foreigners?

Your loving daughter

Gazala

I Love the Smell of Green Dragon Breath in the Morning

Present: Bernard Lapin (Jamie), Gazala Haddad (Richard), Gunter Oelschig (Jeff), Hubert Gesäss (Kevin), Mezmer the Magnificent (Shane), Wonton Noodle (Darryl)

 Marmalading: Fleur Jardin (Steven), Cooper Chapman (Ian), Jacob Palowski (Chris)

It was time to return to the city and find what horrors remained within. Into the Mercedes the party clambered, with steely resolve etched into their faces.

“What are you waiting for” Bernard asked. “Start the engine!” In the driver’s seat Cooper’s lifeless form just slumped against the steering wheel.

Muttering French obscenities under his garlicky breath, Bernard dragged his comrade out of the car and marched across to Inspector Heroux’s quarters. Moments later he returned with a uniformed Frenchman. “This is Lionel,” he said. “He claims to be able to drive”.

There followed a loud graunching sound as Lionel wrestled with the gear stick of the Mercedes, a jolt as the car jumped backwards, further sickening noises of metal on metal and finally the car lurched down the road in a cloud of dust and Gallic adjectives.

“She handles a bit differently from a Citroen” smiled Lionel.

The intent was to do a lap of the block around the church to draw out any neighbourhood ghouls, but all that was spied were further corpses littering the streets.

As the car passed by the church, a figure in robes could be seen lurking in the shadows of the doorway. Its head turned to watch the party drive by, and as it did so there was a collective gasp. From within the folds of the cloak was the sight of a grinning skull staring at them!

Lionel was instructed to drive around the block once more, but when the car returned the doorway was empty. They shuddered to a halt next to one of the bodies on the street at what was deemed to be a safe distance from the church. Mezmer began flailing his little arms around wildly and reciting arcane incantations, much to the bemusement of Lionel.

“He’s being mystical” explained Bernard.

With a final grandiose flourish of his hands, Mezmer shouted out “20!”

The party looked on anxiously.

“There is no mythos on this corpse. I would stake my life on it” he cried triumphantly.

Shane had rolled a 20, a critical failure on his Detect Mythos

“Vell, in zat case….” said Gunter, and he strode confidently to the lifeless cadaver. With wide eyes, the rest of the party held their breath and watched.

“Make sure you’re ready to leave in a hurry!” hissed Gazala to Lionel.

The stench of death and corruption assailed Gunter, and he noted that the decomposition was further advanced than he would have expected. Fighting the taste of bile that was rising in his throat, he swivelled on one leg and gave the corpse a swift kick. Nothing happened. Another kick also failed to elicit a response. Looks like the body was dead after all.

“See! What did I tell you?!” said Mezmer.

Not feeling fully comfortable leaving bodies in the street, the party drove around collected all they could find (five) and tied them to the roof-rack of the Mercedes. Returning to the camp, they were delivered to Heroux for cremation.

“Achtung! Achtung!” shouted Hubert in Comic Sans MS. “Wir können nicht den ganzen tag auf unseren fetten Ärschen sitzen!”

So back to the city they went.

Hubert was the first to spy the robed figure back in the doorway of the church, but this time chose to greet it with a hail of bullets from his Schmeisser 28 II. Firing until the clip was emptied, he watched in satisfaction as the figure danced in a ghastly partnership with every bullet which hit it. [47 points of damage]

As the sound of firing died away, Hubert strode to the smoking remains that had fallen to the ground, reloading as he went. His brow furrowed; all that was left was the bullet riddled cloak of a priest.

“Oh this not good!” cooed Wonton. “No, this not normal! This look like Mythos!”

A quick check by Wonton showed that Mythos emanated strongly from both the cloak and the door itself.

“I could have done that” sulked Mezmer. “But I can do this instead!” And he began to disrobe. Gazala averted her eyes in disgust, Lionel stared in wide-eyed surprise and Bernard tut-tutted to himself. Before you could say “Mezmer is about to go invisible”, Mezmer went invisible.

With a degree of bravery that belied his usual desire for self-preservation, Mezmer advised he was going to enter the church for a quick look around.

“I think he just likes getting naked” said Bernard.

“I think you just like burning things” said Gazala, as Bernard began pouring petrol over the abandoned cloak and got out a match.

Stealing his way nakedly into the church, Mezmer paused to look around him. Finding himself alone and “free”, he began slowly gyrating as he walked up to the high altar, swinging his little flaccid friend as he went. He smiled knowingly to himself. Another of his secret little fantasies ticked off…

Suddenly he stopped, and the smile drained from his face. Where the crucifix should have stood was a wooden pentagram. As he stood motionless, he began to make out a low murmur – voices? A chanting coming from the undercroft. His heart began beating faster and louder in his chest and the familiar fingers of fear ran down his spine. Edging closer and closer to the steps, but unable to see anything below. “If I just go down a little way…”he encouraged himself. Gingerly he placed a foot on the first cold step, and the second foot wavered in the air above the next went quiet. The chanting had stopped! With barely enough time for a whimper, he scampered back frantically down the aisle to the safety of the door.

The rest of the party felt the rush of air as he raced past them into the sunlight.

“What you see?” asked Wonton, to where a small puddle of urine trickled into existence and alerted him to both Mezmer’s location and his current level of fear.

Mezmer swallowed hard before stammering “I…I… there….”, at which point a figure burst through the door. Long yellowed, fingers adorned cruelly misshapen hands that reached out towards the almost surprised party as the brown-shirted ghoul sprinted at an unnatural speed.

“Eat lead, sucker!” cried Gunter and he smiled as his finger curled around the trigger of his gun. Virtually point blank range, can’t miss….. Click went the trigger [and the dice, which revealed a 20. Fumble, which Jeff sacrificed luck to avoid, but still a miss]

The reassuring sound of a rifle shot from Gazala, and the even more reassuring sound of a machine gun burst from Hubert was followed by the heartening thud of a ghoul hitting the ground.

“Look up there!” shouted Mezmer as he pointed. Quickly realizing the folly of pointing whilst invisible, Mezmer added the words “In the tower!” to his cry.

Looking up the party saw what Mezmer had, as the skull-face watching them from the tower above ducked back out of sight.

Turning his invisibility to the off position, Mezmer begrudgingly dressed himself once more before joining the others in the awaiting car.

“Where to, boss?” asked Lionel.

“To the back door of the church. And make it snappy!” ordered Bernard.

As the car pulled up to the closed back door in a screech that tested its braking system and the neck muscles of the party members, Gunter majestically floated down to the ground and approached the door. With extreme stealth, he made his way across the ground – no dust stirred, no noise was made – even Gunter was only vaguely aware of his own existence. [Jeff rolled a 2 on his Stealth roll].

Putting existential thoughts to one side and his ear to the door, Gunter listened. Nothing. Assuming it must therefore be safe, he slowly opened the door to peer in. Well, he would have done if the door had been unlocked. Fortunately his legendary skills as a locksmith could be put to good use, and a mere ten minutes of drilling and trying to lift the bolt on the inside of the door resulted in a satisfying “clunk”. “This time” he muttered to himself, and slowly opened the door to peer in.

“What dat noise?” whispered Wonton. “It sound like wet fish flopping on ground! It come from that way!” He pointed towards the direction of the front door.

With the rare (for this party) assumption that discretion was the better part of valour, they all beat a hasty retreat for the safety of the car.

“Where to, boss?” asked Lionel.

“Just drive!” ordered Bernard.

As they drove back around the corner of the building, two brown-shirted ghouls attempted a foolhardy ambush and flung themselves at the car. Lionel accelerated away, but Bernard directed him to slow in an attempt to lure the undead assailants further out. After 200 meters however, both ghouls turned and ran back in the direction of the church.

“I have a cunning plan….” Gunter smiled.

Minutes later the Mercedes slowly made its way back in the direction of the church. Out of each side window could be seen the muzzle of a gun; Hubert with his sub-machine gun and Gazala with her rifle. Strapped to the roof-rack and wondering aloud about this “plan” rode Bernard, with his gun also at the ready.

As it stepped out into the street, the first ghoul never knew what hit it. But the party did, for it was hit by bullets from Gazala, Bernard and Hubert. The second ghoul broke into its supernatural sprint, so Lionel, unexpectedly demonstrating some initiative, hit the accelerator. The sound of gunfire came from the roof of the car. “Gottem” said Bernard nonchalantly, and sure enough the remaining ghoul collapsed in mid stride.

Back to the church the Mercedes sped, where once again Gunter made his way stealthily to the side door. Hearing nothing, he opened the door and gestured the entire party to enter with him. Silently as the grave, with guns at the ready they snuck down the aisle of the church towards the chapel. As one they stopped. There, gathered by the main door was a gaggle of brown-shirted ghouls ready to attack anyone who might unsuspectingly enter the church that way.

With a second bout of enthusiastic reticence, the party snuck back the way they had come before getting back in the car. Back to the camp for the intrepid adventurers.

“Eight’s too many” said Gunter.

“Way too many” agreed Gazala.

“Definitely better off avoiding them” said Bernard.

“Well…….”began Hubert wistfully, when he was interrupted by a sharp squeal from both Mezmer and Wonton.

They had both experienced a sharp jolt in their heads, as if someone had poked their brains with an electric eel smothered in wasabi.

Jumping to the conclusion that this might mean “something” may have happened, and furthermore deducing that this “something” may not be good, Bernard directed Lionel to drive them around the principal sites of interest. Herschel’s compound, the bank, the newspaper office….nothing to report at any of them. Nothing obvious had changed, there were no new ghouls on patrol.

“It's quiet”, mused Gunter. “Too quiet”.

As they approached the church, tendrils of a misty green could be seen snaking their way from the main door and the tower.

Deciding the back door was probably the preferable location to investigate, where Lionel parked the car a safe 50 metres away.

“That’s my cue” said Gunter as he jumped down and picked his way down his well-trodden path. At 10 metres away he paused. Nothing. At 5 metres…still nothing. 1 metre….then at the door itself. Gently he pushed the door open. Green mist had filled the chapel and was now beginning to creep silently towards the now open door. Gunter immediately dropped to a crawl and catching a final gasp of clean air he entered the building. The unmistakable stench of chlorine filled his nose, so he backed out and retired to the car and described what he had seen.

Calling on his haunting memories of the Western Front in the Great War, Herbert confirmed it wasn’t phosgene gas.

“I know science!” exclaimed Wonton. “It sound just like Green Dragon Breath!”

[Darryl failed his Science roll]

Deciding it best to head back to the camp, they were only 5 minutes from their destination when once more Mezmer and Wonton felt the same jolt as before. This time Bernard was left rubbing his head too.

At the camp Bernard demanded the support of as many heavily armed soldiers as possible to assist them in ridding the Earth of the undead scum. Heroux nodded in agreement, then shrugged. “But alas, they are two hours away.” Bernard quickly calculated – on the assumption the jolts were 1) indicative of something bad happening and 2) continuing at the same regularity, then there would be another event before the soldiers were available. Not ideal.

With a loud harrumph, Bernard instead negotiated the use of a heavy machine gun. Better than nothing…

For the umpteenth time, Lionel drove the party at high speed back to the church where the mist was thicker than before.

“Much dragon breath here!” exclaimed Wonton.

The machine gun (Hotchkiss mle 1914) was set up 200 metres from the front, manned by an excited Hubert with Wonton calling upon all his military experience by feeding the belts.

Without warning a sub-machine gun burst into life, as Bernard fired wildly at the tower.

“Mr Skull-face again” he explained.

Gunter high footed it to the door, whistling “The Flight of The Valkyries” loudly as he went.

[Jeff failed his Stealth roll badly]

Alerted by all this noise and as quick as a flash, a ghoul burst from the church. Gunter stared in surprise as the long, razor-like nails tore through his flesh spraying blood into the air.

[Major wound, Jeff saved vs Toughness and survived]

The ghoul bent over the badly wounded Gunter and bared his teeth ready to tear out his throat. The unmistakable staccato of a heavy machine gun, and the creature erupted into red haze.

“Lucky I didn’t hit Gunter” chuckled Hubert.

[There was a 50% chance of hitting Gunter in this circumstance]

Gunter staggered his was back to his waiting party, leaving a trail of blood behind him.

“Help…me…”he gasped to Mezmer, who already had his first aid kit in his hand.

[Shane failed his first aid roll]

Mezmer began rolling a large bandage around his own leg, leaving Gunter to grab the first aid kit for himself.

[Jeff succeeds first aid, and heals 1 hp]

Guessing that the Skullhead on the tower was directing his troops, the Machine gun was trained on the masonry, and chunks of stonework was blasted away.

Suddenly two more ghouls launched a frontal attack.

Bernard and Gazala fired without hesitation, and Gunter flung down his bandages to fire also. Three hits and one dead ghoul!

Meanwhile, Gunter frantically tried to unjam his heavy machine gun to join in the fun.

[Kevin rolled a 20, and had to sacrifice luck to save the gun]

The second ghoul screamed as it ran, its face etched in unholy hatred. Until without warning its face was instead etched with bullets from Gunter and Gazala, blowing its head clean off.

Meanwhile, Wonton frantically tried to unjam the heavy machine gun to join in the fun.

[Kevin rolled another 20, and this time Darryl sacrificed luck to save the gun].

The echoes of the gunfire died into the distance, and the green mist continued to drift. 40 minutes until the next event. Now what?

Kevin - Hubert Gesäss

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.

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.