Today I got up early to demo Spaceship Zero to a bunch of college kids – the other half of the class that played D&D with Darcy last time. It went very well and was enjoyed by all. Then I got home and continued working on the demon drawing I started last night for one of Bob’s new film projects. Turns out he wants me to be the cultist too – I will have to shave. This means that I can’t go to any of the four other functions I’ve been invited to on Saturday – including Anghold’s high stakes Scrabble party or Theo’s birthday party or Stephane & Sheri’s housewarming.

I missed Dalia’s birthday party tonight because we had the final session of the Call of Cthulhu game I’ve been playing in for over a year. Roster:

Palle (V-Con chair, writer, had a tray of fruit thrown at him by Johnny Depp, filmmaker Steam Powered Films)
Mike (director, Steam Powered…”Alphaman” as seen on Space)
Lisa (lifeblood of Steam Powered)
Don (author, wrote an Angel novel for Pocket Books and has a 2-book deal with Harper Collins)
Sam (writer, actor, comedian -“Long Hard Comedy Rocket”, filmmaker Steam Powered, photographer)

Suffice to say there’s usually at least a half hour of film talk before we start a given gaming session.

Palle – gamemaster
Mike – Zarko the Magnificent! Entertainer.
Lisa – Leander, forensics.
Don – Hans, general freak.
Sam – Travis, Private Investigator.
Me – Mister E, hypnotist. Second character – Gerald Swan, reporter for “Weekly World News”-like magazine.

The short version:
1929: We are hired by Hearst Company to investigate disappearance of film crew on island off coast of california. We become trapped on island. Drums, fires at night – strange lights underwater; seemingly invisible monsters. Distortions of space. Mechanical night-gaunts. We find a print of the film they were shooting – seeing the end of the film makes you go crazy and could bring about the coming of the Great Old Ones if premiered on a certain night under the right circumstances. We visit a coastal town transported by the government to the desert, where Leander is staked out, crucifix style to the desert floor and goes cannibalistic. Water creatures steal the hearts from our bodies. We learn to cast a few spells from the book “Monstres and Their Kynde.” Two opposing sorceresses control different player characters and try to force us to kill eachother. In the end, we managed to thwart the premiere of the doom movie. Only Zarko survived.

Zarko: Left in the ocean by the island to a mysterious fate.
Leander: Soul trapped in limbo box.
Hans: Soul trapped in limbo box while he was having a heart attack.
Travis: Shot to death by waiters with guns.
Mister E: Went insane.
Gerald Swan: Killed by Hans after unsuccessfully trying to kill himself (see “opposing sorceresses” above).

It was a very fulfilling campaign! A few choice quotes were “the one in my neck was wood,” “something like a hiss, something like a roar,” “Call of Cthulhu is the kind of game where ‘just taking a peek’ is tantamount to the worst possible thing you could do” and “in this game, ‘just being killed normally’ is winning.”