Monday, October 1, 2012

Cthulhu in Vancouver - The Mountains of Madness

'No Mr. Taxman, I don't have my R-271 filed, but I just so happen to have this lovely maiden to act as proxy...'
Late last week I was out in Vancouver (to what many Canadians call 'The Left Coast') for work, and so I managed to tack-on a few extra days to get in a visit with some good friends. In preparing for the trip, I thought that since I still had most of the miniatures still packed up from my last Great War Cthulhu scenario, I'd schlep the game out to Vancouver so I could give the guys a good dose of tentacly, Lovecraftian horror.

A stunning view of downtown Vancouver, with the mountains as backdrop, as seen from Doug's apartment.
After donairs, sliders and beers had been consumed (along with a few other things) the six of us were reved up and ready to play. I ran the charts and split the guys up between the sides of Good and Evil. Doug, Paul and Chris took the Belgian, British and French teams respectively, while Kyle and J ran the 'Cultists of the Yellow Hand'.

I won't go into too much detail regarding the scenario, but if you're interested you can see it described here. The thumbnail plot is that the Forces of Good are tasked to save a damsel in distress, thwarting the Evil Cultists who plan to sacrifice the poor girl in order to summon a Dark Power into our world.

The Heroes push off from their start line to fight the Good Fight.
The game rattled along at a good pace with several lively skirmishes being fought as the Heroes slowly advanced towards the Captive's location (with epic die rolling, on opposite sides of the spectrum, by both Doug and Kyle). 

One of the many highlights was Doug's Belgian priest blessing Paul's Lewis Gun, making it a very nasty weapon to contend with (that is until a team of cultists, crewing a Hotchkiss HMG, caught him in the midst of a reload).

There's nothing like a Holy Lewis Gun to put a crimp in cultist strategic planning.
Despite their valiant efforts time ran out for the Heroes and the poor girl was messily offered up to the Dark Powers. This resulted in a Daemon being summoned into the material plane, which wanted nothing other than to grow in evil power, devour all of humanity and spray non-euclidean graffiti on public buildings. This nasty lad took the form in what 'Strange Aeons' calls 'The Dark Puppeteer'. This beastie is essentially a tentacled psychic horror that can perform long-range possessions to take control of specific Heroes in order to have them do his foul bidding (it actually reminds me of a few girlfriends I've known...). 

'The Dark Puppeteer'
Someone's having a very, very bad day.
For several turns the Final Showdown seesawed back and forth with both sides perched on the edge of their seats to see who would have initiative for that turn. In a particularly nasty sequence 'The Dark Puppeteer' (run by J) took control of the French lieutenant and compelled him drop a hand grenade amongst his own men, wiping out half of them. Cheeky git.

The Dark Puppeteer forces the French officer to drop a hand grenade at his feet. Some of his retinue try to leg-it away.  '3,2,1... KRUMP!'
The good news for the Heroes was that they had largely conserved their special equipment   which proved significant in their efforts to destroy the Daemon. Grenade attacks from the Belgians, lucky talismans and accurate rifle fire from the British all served to finally banish the Puppeteer to whence it came. Alas, the poor captive had been killed, but the world had been saved - well, for today anyway...

My thanks go out to all the guys for coming out to Doug's to visit and play the game (and to Doug for some of these pictures). It was great fun and a lot of laughs! 

(...and take heart Kyle, you must be out of 1s after that game...)

37 comments:

  1. Now that looks like serious fun although I am a little worried that I might have nightmares about that 'The Dark Puppeteer'!

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    1. Yeah, it was a laugh and, yes, that Puppeteer is a bad lad.

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  2. Great game and that beast is as good as it is large!

    Ian

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    1. Thanks Ian. Yes, he is a significant hunk of resin. Very nice model though - quite easy to assemble.

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    1. Cheers Phil! Liking your recent Pulp stuff - especially Msr LeClerc.

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  4. Stunning mini's and it sounded like a cracking good game. It's been some time since I last tangled with the tentacled one and I'm still having nightmares...

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    1. Thanks Lee! It was alot of fun and the guys really got into the game which always helps keep the story rattling along.

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  5. Nice setting, nice models ( the shades of grey help to make the mood there ) and cool that it was on the better half of Canada! Only way to make it better is to head to the island ( can you guess where I come from? :) ).

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    1. Thank you Mr Lee. Vancouver Island is gorgeous. Is that where you call home now? If so we'll have to try to link-up sometime.

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    2. Unfort no, it was where I came from. Now in Turkey for the time being ;)

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    3. My wife and I were just discussing that we'd like to vacation in Turkey sometime in the future. I'll have to chat you up sometime to get some tourist intel.

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    4. Indeed.. can give you more then enough information on how to travel over here.

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  6. Some great pics and great looking figures too, the tentacled one looked very impressive!

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    1. Thanks Ray. I hope you hit your 300K mark soon! I think you need a couple more posts featuring bewbs to help it crack along... Just sayin'

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  7. long-range possessions? That' a scary puppeteer. Looks scary too!

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    1. Yes, the Puppeteer can possess an enemy figure that is up to 15" away which is pretty brutal in a game where many weapons don't have that range. Makes for alot of fun though, especially if you have some deviously creative players...

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  8. Nice to see those troops in action.

    John

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    1. Thanks John. I'm looking forward to the AAR from your upcoming Napoleonic and SAGA games in Montreal.

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  9. Wonderful atmospheric material Curt!

    Christopher

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  10. Great report! Looks like you guys had a blast, that is true gaming there!

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    1. Thanks Styx! Yeah, it was good fun. Its a good testimony of the rules when you can have 5 players (three of which had never played the rules before) play 12 turns in around 3 hours. The card activation mechanic seems to hold up pretty well under the stress.

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  11. A very good AAR, Curt. I like a lot your Absolutely Grey models, and this game...

    Very nice!

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    1. Thanks Juan! By the time I got to bed after the food, beer and game (@ 2:30 am) I was Absolutely Grey as well!

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  12. Wonderfully beastly fun! Thanks for sharing ... I trust the fair damsel didn't make it???

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    1. Thanks! Nope, she snuffed it around turn ten, I believe. Poor lass. The Heroes got bogged down in the middle of the table for a few critical turns (taking full enjoyment in shooting the bejezzus out of cultists and axe-wielding maniacs) which ultimately cost her in the end. No worries, always lots of damsels to draw upon. 'Very nice. Next!!'

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  13. Impressive as always!! Love that Dark Puppeteer!! The white eyes are very disturbing!!

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    1. Thanks a bunch Einar! Yes, I have to hide him deep in the figure cabinet as he gives me the creeps...

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  14. Wonderful - a good scenario, wonderful figs and good company = Great times!

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    1. Cheers Paul! That certainly is the recipe we always strive for and its great when it all seems to come together.

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  15. Good stuff Curt. I would love to play that game some time, this is the second time I've read an AAR for it and enjoyed both. Does the fair damsel ever NOT become a tasty eldritch snack, I wonder?
    The mind control grenade trick was brilliant.
    Cheers,
    Mike

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    1. Love to have you to Regina for a game - we'll have to arrange something for the autumn/winter.

      Yes, so far the Damsel has had a pretty rough time of it. Then again, Cthulhu's gotta eat...

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  16. excellnt write up - sounds like good fun was had.

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    1. Cheers Dave! The guys were great fun and good sports which always makes for a nice evening of gaming.

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  17. Great write up and great figures. Are they painted in 'black and white?'. They look awesome!

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    1. Thanks Phil. Yes, the 'human' figures are largely painted in greyscale while the beasites are in colour. Many of the hero figures are from my Great War project which I've decided to paint entirely in black and white. If you're interested you can read more on this silliness here:

      http://analogue-hobbies.blogspot.ca/2012/05/next-project-great-war-in-greyscale.html

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