Monday, November 11, 2019

Call of Cthulhu: The Haunting

So the group survived their encounter with the Dead Light when last we played. I had wanted to do a long term CoC campaign, but I've found the game sets itself up to be better played in scenario / module to module based games. This past Friday, I took the group through the classic module "The Haunting".

First, let me just say, I love the simplicity of this module and the fact it combines the great investigation elements of CoC along with a really great encounter to wrap up the module. I feel as if any group starting out in CoC should start here, just a really great and fun scenario.

The investigators are tasked by a Mr. Knott, landlord of a reputed haunted property to investigate and "cleanse" the house if needed. It is strongly recommended to route the players through the multiple avenues of researching and investigation prior to them going to the house itself. Information can be gathered at the local library, Boston Globe (newspaper filings), or City Hall. With a little bit of background, the group should hopefully learn the fate of the house's most recent occupants, along with its most notable resident, one Mr. Corbitt that was supposedly buried in the basement of the house....creepy...I love it.

At this point, the players can likely go directly to the house or visit a church associated with Mr. Corbitt, the Church of Contemplation for a bit more background information. My group of course choose to go directly to the house without doing any research, which was met with some ghostly apparitions and attacks, which prompted them to retreat and do a little investigation before charging back in, lesson learned! I should also note, that my group plays online via Discord voice chat and the Roll20 online tabletop application. I recently bit the bullet and subbed for a plus account to try out dynamic lighting and it was a huge hit for this module. Have the character tokens setup to show lighting as if carry a flash light as they inched their way through the house really added to the experience.

Once at the house and ready to evict Mr. Corbitt for good, the players are haunted by experiences throughout the house....radio turning on, lights flickering, ghostly noises and worst of all, an animated bed which managed to knock one of my players out the window for a near kill. Eventually the players will discover the basement of the house and a false wall built within containing the body of Mr. Corbitt. If they aren't careful, the spirit of Mr. Corbitt can psychically manipulate the use of a knife to literally stab the players in the back before they can breach in the inner sanctum of the burial chamber. My players carefully found the knife making a key check to wrestle away from the ghostly hands before it could do any damage.

With the way to the burial chamber revealed the final encounter and climax of the adventure is afoot. Mr. Corbitt will raise up from grave prompting sanity checks and using Mythos magic to thwart the group including dominate person which almost got my group killed...so close...they escape this time. Overall, a really great and simple module and best of all I believe this is free in the CoC 7th edition quick start rules. Go get it and run it!

This will be the last of the CoC scenarios for a bit for my group, we've decided to start a long term 5th edition D&D campaign....Rappan Athuk! I'm so excited to run this mega-dungeon, it's going to be fantastic....for me that is....my players....not so much hahaha!!!!




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