Call of Cthulhu (7e) RPG - Cave of Sorrows One-Shot

This game is based on Cthulhu 7th Edition (Lite). It's high on the scale for cinematics and drama and light on strict rule play. Beginners are more than welcome to join and may look at this session as an introduction to Horror RPG.

Disclaimer: This will be a dark, claustrophobic, and intensely atmospheric game (think PG-13 or borderline R) and is therefore not intended for younger players.

Characters are pre-generated and all needed resources are provided. Feel free to bring your own "lucky" gaming dice if you think that'll help.

This one-shot adventure may take one or two sessions depending on game play.

"And the Old Ones, hidden within the deepness and darkness of the flesh of the Earth, plotted and planned."

You play various academics and researchers from Miskatonic University. It's 1928 and Raymond Spruance, an amateur spelunker, visits a friend at your university with a strange artifact he found deep in McFails Cave located northeast of Cobleskill in Schoharie County, New York. The artifact is the statue of a fantastical creature with unusual runes carved into its base. He found the statue in a small underground pool several miles deep into the McFails cave network. Raymond has no idea how the statuette could be located so deep in the earth in a relatively unexplored location of McFail's cave. He asks your help to determine if it may be a meaningful archeological find or just a hoax.

Raymond wants to sell his story to the papers but, he thinks he can ask for more filthy lucre if it proves to truly represent an ancient, hitherto unknown, Indian culture in the Americas. The more sensational the story the bigger the payoff.

Brief Description of the Player Characters.

Alain Delon (PC) is a French adventurer. As an experienced and talented archeologist, he participated in archeological excavations in Central America, Greenland, and North Africa. Alain has a broad understanding of Aztec, Mayan, and Olmec cultures and modes of communication such as: Mayan Hieroglyphs, a complex logo-syllabic script combining symbols for whole words and syllables carved on stone stelae or painted on codices; Aztec Pictograms, a proto-writing system using pictures, ideograms, and phonetic rebuses to record tribute lists, calendars, and genealogies. He is currently at Miskatonic University as a consultant for a planned South American expedition. Alain is a close friend of Peter Benchley. They met during the Great War and Alain introduced Peter to the occult world.

Alfred Korzybski (PC) is a geologist and Professor of Geology at Miskatonic University. Alfred is a Polish immigrant to the United States with a distinguished record of academic achievements in his native land. Korzybski is an accomplished spelunker with decades of experience. Alfred specializes in the geological formation of caverns and has explored several caves in Poland. Alfred is respected for conducting comprehensive and thorough geological surveys throughout Poland and the Eastern U.S. The purposes for these surveys included: resource exploration; Finding oil, natural gas, coal, and valuable minerals before mining or drilling; construction and engineering, checking ground stability and soil makeup before building large structures like bridges or high-rises and environmental assessments, Identifying hazards, underground water flow, and contamination risks for land development

Mina Harker (PC) is a biologist specializing in the divergent evolution of isolated species. Mina is participating in this expedition to observe and catalog fauna specifically adapted to cave life. Harker is an experienced spelunker and has a lot of experience exploring caves. Mina participated in previous scientific expeditions to major U.S. caverns including Lovelock Cave, Nevada where she worked at excavations directed by L.L. Loud and M.R. Harrington through the 1920s. Due in part to her efforts, thousands of artifacts and organic remains, that detailed ancient human and animal co-existence in Great Basin arid environments, were recovered. She also worked in Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico where she participated in biological surveys of massive migratory bat populations and unique subterranean microclimates. Harker also played a major part in biospeleological (cave life) discoveries regarding blind cave fishes. She actively surveyed subterranean streams in Indiana and Kentucky to study how cave fishes adapted to perpetual darkness. Mina also aided classification efforts on blind-adapted insects, spiders, and specialized aquatic life residing in the deep karst regions of the Ozarks and Appalachians. Harker also participated in evolutionary studies using American subterranean discoveries to draw evolutionary parallels regarding eye degeneration and pigment loss between marine burrowing species and true cave-dwellers.

Peter Benchley, Captain (Retired) (PC) – Benchley teaches North American history at Miskatonic University with a strong focus on the customs, myths, and traditions of North American indigenous peoples. Benchley served with some distinction during the Great War as a member of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) under General John J. Pershing. He participated in several military actions. At Cantigny (May 1918), he fought in the First independent American division attack, capturing the village and holding against German counterattacks. At Belleau Wood (June 1918) as part of a U.S. Marine and Army troop force fought fiercely to clear a vital wooded area, halting the German advance toward Paris. Peter also was wounded during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive (September–November 1918). This was the largest operation of the war for the U.S., engaging over one million Americans and breaking German rail communications.

Rolf Hohnecker (PC) is a German professor serving as a guest lecturer at Miskatonic University. Rolf is an ethnologist and linguist. Hohnecker has been instrumental in the translation of ancient Sumerian cuneiform tablets and Nordic Rune carvings. Rolf is inexperienced in caving but has climbed mountains. Most notably, he ascended to the summit of the Matterhorn, a large mountain straddling the border between Switzerland and Italy. Hohnecker did not serve in the Great War. For most of this conflict, he was in Egypt studying hieroglyphics and records of Napoleon’s Expedition to Egypt in 1799 that led to the discovery of the Rosetta Stone.

If you're interested in giving this game a spin, please get on the list! As always, thanks for being gamers.