The Kidnapping Pt 2 - A Ransom Note

This is the second part of our Trail of Cthulhu adventure 'The Kidnapping'. <Part 1>


It's easy to be misled by a grieving parent. In kidnapping cases though, the trail often leads you right back to where you started.

Careful First Steps

Jacob Cornelisz met them at the door, inviting them to join Col. Ellis and himself in the drawing room for coffee. He was a cool enough character, but a missing toddler is enough to shake any man and Dr. Mallister noted that he was showing signs of significant stress under that cold exterior. His wife though, a Harriet Cornelisz, stayed offside. Probably for the best, this could get messy.

The Corneliszes

Early details suggested that person or persons unknown had snatched the Cornelisz boy (Adam) sometime in the night. The housemaid, a Polish woman called Olga Lesek, had gone to check on him in the early hours, only to find his bed empty and the window to his ground-floor nursery open. A short-time later the family alerted Col. Ellis who contacted the bureau, counter to Jacob's wish to keep the authorities away. It was vital to keep this one under wraps and out of the papers.

The physical evidence was sparse. A few foot prints outside and no clear signs of a break-in. So as McPhearson checked the gardens, Dr. Mallister and Agent Gibbs questioned the maid to try and understand why the window apparently hadn't been locked.

Olga (left) with her sister

Olga's English was poor, but it was clear from her inconsistent responses that she was hiding something. Finally she broke down admitting that she had helped 'Thomas' and another red-headed man to take the child. The Corneliszes were 'devil-worshippers'. The child was in great danger. She had to do it.'

What she had done was beginning to dawn on her, so she handed over a diary 'from the last housemaid, Maria'. The diary was mostly in Polish and would need to be translated, so the doctor gave Olga a sedative in the hope that some sleep would help.

Agent Gibbs decided not to arrest Olga, at least not for now. There was more to find here and they didn't want to tip his hand too early in the investigation.

Strange spiralled carvings

Meanwhile in the gardens, McPhearson had uncovered some strangely carved flat stones. These stones were dotted around the house and seemed to bare a passing relation to the carvings described in a book found in the infant's room. It's folklore referred to stones marked with spirals being placed at the borderland between the mortal world and the underworld.

McPhearson collected some physical evidence for Agent Gibbs to have tested.

The Ransom Note

The Ransom Note

A short time later a note was delivered to Jacob demanding $50,000 for the safe return of his boy. The money was to be dropped off at the 45th St. train station under the Lucky Strike poster at 5pm that afternoon. McPhearson followed the man who delivered the note, but found him to be a farmer heading into town to sell his produce. He described the two men who had given him the note to deliver...

Witnesses

“I…I.. just delivered a note mister.” “Nothing more ain’t that right Will?” The other man nods. “Yeah, just like he says.”

He goes on to describe a young, stocky gentleman with slicked back black hair and a flat nose. Probably Italian. “He paid me a quarter to deliver it to the big house.” "The other fella had red hair but we didn't speak with him."

Jerry Grant

McPhearson left the two farmers and headed back to the house. He now had a description of the men they were looking for and knew that it was just a matter of time before he tracked them down.

Mr Jerry Grant

Later that morning, having concluded their search of the house and gardens, the investigators were introduced to Jerry Grant, a contact called in by Jacob Cornelisz to handle the money drop. Grant came across as an unpleasant, oily sycophant and they noted that Olga was especially nervous around him.

McPhearson was certain that Grant would have some sort of criminal background and intended to follow-up his hunch by running his name by Sgt Fairfax, a friend of his from the NYPD. For now though, Grant was running the show and would deliver the ransom as requested in the note. The investigators would just be there to observe and provide back-up if needed.

The Kidnapping Pt1 - A Trail Of Cthulhu Scenario

Hot on the heels of the fine Hillfolk RPG we have started a relatively short Trail Of Cthulhu scenario, "The Kidnapping" - from the Arkham Detective Tales.

A young child has been kidnapped from the Corneliszes, a wealthy New York family, and the investigators have been called in to help track down the child.

Our Cast

McPhearson

Rex McPhearson - Rex is a rough, what you see is what you get, private investigator from the heart of Brooklyn (N.Y.) He lives and breathes the place.

Driven by an innate curiosity, Rex has no qualms with taking the odd short cut to get the job done. For him the ends almost always justify the means.       

Dr. Mallister

Dr.Oliver Mallister - A Park Avenue psychiatrist and somewhat of an idealist, Dr Mallister believes that ultimately intellect will triumph and that the innate goodness of man will shine through. He wants to better understand the world around him and to delve deeper into the events surrounding the raid at the Red Hook.

His dabblings into the occult have widened his perspective and brought him into contact with Agent Gibbs through a long-standing P.I. acquaintance Rex McPhearson. Gibbs is a charmless man, but he has excellent access to official files from the Red Hook case. 

Agent Gibbs

Agent Gibbs - Excelling at just about everything he puts his hand to, Gibbs was head-hunted by the F.B.I. who were targeting talented young men to lead their growing fight against organised crime. 

Unfortunately Gibbs' by-the-book arrogance won him few friends in the bureau and he soon found himself working out of a field office in New York City neck deep in files that few others would touch.

Maybe by scooping this high-profile kidnapping case he can kick-start his career.  

  

A Missing Child

Having pulled an all-nighter, Agent Gibbs was running on a heavy mix of caffeine and nicotine just to keep pace with his backlog of paperwork. Something had to give. As his mind drifted the central phone rang and he leaned over to pick up the call. 

A first he thought it a hoax. A Col. Ellis calling in to report a missing child. Gibbs took down some notes and flicked through his roll-a-dex for a number he could re-direct the man to. Then Ellis mentioned the name Cornelisze... ...and that brought Gibbs back "THE Cornelisze, of Westchester?" Gibbs asked. Col. Ellis confirmed and Gibbs said that he'd be there within the hour. Checking his watch he made it a little after 6 a.m.

The Cornelisze Mansion, Westchester

Agent Gibbs needed to keep the story away from the press and turned to someone he could trust to help with the early parts of the investigation. Rex McPhearson was unorthodox, but usually very effective. "Bring along that doctor friend of yours too, we may need some of his advice in dealing with the parents."

A short time later they met at the Cornelisze's home in Westchester. Approaching the house Rex pointed towards a strange shape burned into the front wall of the building. Gibbs was already beginning to feel a little uneasy about this one...

<part 2>

Trail of Cthulhu... coming soon

Trail of Cthulhu

Most of our blog posts focus on our KoffeeKlub boardgame / wargame evenings, but we also role-play on a fairly regular basis. Hillfolk and Cold City are two recent examples that we've blogged about over recent months.

I'm pleased to confirm that I intend to run a purist Trail Of Cthulhu scenario beginning in late February or early March 2013 on Wednesday evenings at The Black Knight. In the meantime watch out for further updates on Hillfolk as we progress through this cool new DramaSystem Kickstarter game.

GamesWatch: Hillfolk Kickstarter

You may have seen that I have mixed feelings about Kickstarter projects in the past but this is one that has really piqued my interest. Robin D. Laws is a freelance author who has written a number of popular roleplaying games including the GUMSHOE system that powers the wonderful Trail of Cthulhu game.

This crowdfunding project he has kicked off is a story driven game that uses a new system called DramaSystem and will, thanks to an already achieved stretch goal, be published as an Open Licenced game. The Hillfolk game will set the players in an Iron Age setting were players will struggle against Raiders and the environment and against one another in a struggle to survive. I'm keeping my eyes on this one.

Update! - UK based Kickstarters will be available from October 31st 2012. 

Off the Shelf: Eclipse Phase

As a fan of hard sci-fi fiction and games I have followed Posthuman Studio's Eclipse Phase roleplaying game with great interest. It is a horror game set in the near-ish future after a catastrophic war against artificial intelligences hell bent on the extinction of the human race. In the years after the war which left the Earth a burnt and unihabitable ruin, the inheritors of humanity have adapted to survival in the most harsh of environments and have evolved into something more (or less) … transhuman.

Eclipse phase is one of those games that I keep in a cherished place on my bookshelf but have never actually run a game of. There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly it is a massively complicated game with a huge number of factions and political shenanigans vying for power and position and the technology and techno-speak in the game is rich in the current scientific consensus but is not for every player. I suspect that the game is not a good fit for the role-playing groups I have at the moment. I could be wrong in this.

The second impediment is that the rules system is not one that I like. Whilst it is not too complex it is simulationist and whilst this may  fit with the general technical feel of the background, I am looking for a system that allows my players to engage directly with the story rather than trying to accurately implement the game world. Games I have enjoyed recently have been drama and story driven games such as the excellent Sorcerer, Trail of Cthulhu and Cold City games.

So after stating why I have issues with it what makes me like the game so much?

Well Posthuman games does a great job of selling the background as an engaging and immersive (even cool) sand-box in which to drop players. Each of the rulebooks come with a short story introduction which can be given out to players and will give a great foundation to the feel of the background. The quality of the physical hardback rulebooks is exceptional and on a par if not better than any other game I have owned. The content is detailed and rich describing the setting in great detail without crunch to get in the way.

The Eclipse Phase rule book was published in 2009 and subsequent sourcebooks to further enrich the setting have been published including Sunward (concerning Mars and all the planets and habitats closer to the Sun), Panopticon (spy stuff and uplifted animals), and Gatecrashing (describing the worlds beyond the mysterious Pandora Gates). In part two of this focus on Eclipse Phase I will review the latest publication Rimward which describes the outer system include the Asteroid Belt, Jupiter and beyond.