DARK DELVINGS

Session 21: The Crazy Old Farmer

October 20 1930

The team and their gear/equipment/vehicles took a train to Pittsfied MA where they spent the night at a comfortable hotel.

 

October 21 1930

The team loaded onto another train to Battleboro VT and then drove the rest of the way to Cobb's Corners and the McLearan Farm. Captain explained the upgrades that had been done to the farm by the FOC prep team: A shed now housed a generator for the property, an underground bunker was dug out to house 4 50-gallon drums of gasoline, battery powered electric lights were placed all around the outside of the building, a new outhouse was constructed, and the house was reinforced with oak and steel beams inside. The equipment was unloaded and everyone claimed rooms: Perri, Margaret & Matherson roomed upstairs; Eugene, Thomas & Larry took the other upstairs room and Norris, Captain & Drake took the downstairs bedroom. Captain started working with the FOC men to lay traps all around the property and into the trees behind the farm while Larry set up the radio and Dr. Matherson and Prof Drake set up the laboratory. While everyone was working the group took one of the cars into town to show Thomas around and make sure they were 'seen'. Norris went to visit the librarian Mabel Carruthers and found himself being creepily watched by her niece Amanda Wells. Perri, Eugene, Margaret & Thomas went to see the reporter Richard Wendell who mentioned a fall festival coming up at the end of the month. They all re-grouped at Jim's Grill for an early diner and overheard some ladies gossiping about how James "Jimmy" MacLearan had been put into a rehab in Battleboro. Eugene also heard young Jason Haggerty and a friend whispering and laughing about their group and wondering if they'd be in town for "it". Everyone finished dinner and headed back to the farmhouse. Richard Wendell stopped them on the way to their car to suggest that they talk to: Alexandru Cuzra - one of the farmers who lived on the outskirts of town - as he should have some interesting stories for them. They met Margaret Edwards back at the farmhouse - now devoid of the FOC workers and talked about their outings.

 

October 22 1930

Captain showed the team one of his bear traps which had been triggered during the night. It was covered in a foul goo that Dr. Sarah Matherson took samples of. He deduced that since there wasn't enough of the goo to represent an entire Mi-Go, it seemed like one of them had been watching the house and lost a limb to the trap. After breakfast Captain, Professor Drake and Eugene drove over to Broken Hill to start looking for clues to the Mi-Go base. Larry Nekler stayed at the house to man the radio and do a tune up on the team's Truck - as did Thomas who stayed to watch Dr. Matherson's study of the goo. Margaret drove Perri and Norris to the Cobbs Corners schoolhouse before going to the Town Hall to look through the town's records. She found a 20 year pattern that showed an uptick in the deaths of the young people of Cobbs Corners that seemed to correspond with an uptick in the area's agricultural output. She was also able to look up the address for Emelda Cratchett - the widow who had written Blaine a salty letter. Meanwhile Norris and Perri spoke with the schoolmistress, Holly Rydell, who told them that the children seemed very excited about the Harvest Festival at the end of the month. She told them that a few of them had been keeping her up at night - watching her house from the shadows. Norris and Perri said they would stake out the house one night and try to scare the children away. Then they got the car keys from Margaret and drove over to the Cuzra farm. The crazy old farmer told them that there was a group of witches that would hold sabbats on nights of the New Moon somewhere in the woods behind his farmstead. He thinks that Sheriff Dan Spencer may be one of them since he reported them to the police but it never stopped. He's found some of his livestock missing or killed over the years. They explored the wooded area behind the farm and came across a ring of stones surrounding a bloodied central stone. The stones were carved with fertility symbols. Nearby in the grass, Norris discovered a bloody yo-yo and Perri fell into a large 26 inch wide hoof print that reminded her of what she had read about the Dark Young - the offspring of the fertility goddess Shub-Niggurath. As the day came to an end the groups met back at the farmhouse. While the FOC team prepared dinner, the group discussed how they wanted to proceed - and whether or not to tell the others about what they'd discovered.

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Session 22: Little Pigs, Little Pigs...

October 22 1930 (cont)

Perri, Eugene, Margaret and Thomas explained what they had discovered to the FOC team before heading off to the home of Holly Rydell (while picking up Norris who had started to walk to town). They let Ms. Rydell know what they were doing before all taking positions around the property - with Norris up the tree to the side of the house. Around 12:45 he saw Jacob Wilson and 2 other boys approaching the house. Jacob climbed up the tree Norris was in and crept out along one of the branches that was nearest to the upstairs window and began to quietly sing a prayer-song to Shub-Niggurath while the other boys crept up to a side and back window. The one at the back began to make a symbol with stones outside the window that Thomas recognized as marking Ms. Rydell as a sacrifice. Norris threw some rocks at Jacob - who began to crawl back to the base of the tree but fell to the ground. Norris flung himself down out of the tree but missed Jason and slammed into the ground. The boy at the back of the house ran off and Margaret grabbed the 3rd and held onto him until he apologized and promised to go home. Eugene and Thomas took Jacob back to his house and informed Reverend Wilson about what he had been doing. The Reverend admonished Jacob and thanked the men for letting him know. The group helped Norris back to the car and drove back to the Farmhouse for the night.

 

October 23 1930

The next day Eugene opted to return to the hills with Captain & Professor Drake while Thomas and Perri remained at the Farmhouse to look through Professor Drake's books & Margaret and Norris went to find Emelda Cratchett. Eugene's group had little luck again and were eventually driven back to the Farmhouse by the oncoming storm. Margaret & Norris found the Cratchett farm 'For Sale' and a still grieving Ms. Cratchett unwilling to talk to other students from MU until Norris charmed her and promised that they would help her finish packing up the house. She told them that her late husband, Jethtro, knew many tall tales from his grandfather, Mortimer Cratchett (a carpetbagger originally from IN who had kept journals of his travels). When Daphne Devine and Robert Blaine came around asking for legends, townsfolk referred them to Jethro. After a few visits and some hooch that Daphne provided, he let them view the journals. Not long after that, the students went into the hills and died - and not long after that Jethro was found near Broken Hill having slipped and died from a fall. After making them promise to try and get the journals published, she gave them The Journals of Mortimer R. Cratchett. The two helped her pack and then returned to the farmhouse as the storm had started. When everyone reconvened, they decided to split up the journals and take the next several hours to read through them - finding some stories that refer to the Mi-Go presence in the area. Night had just fallen when the perimeter alarm that Captain had set up started going on. There was something caught in one of the pit traps near the trees - a 15 foot tall Dark Young! Once it was freed, it charged at the Farmhouse and began to batter it. While Captain and Larry crept around back with the Thompson and several grenades, the rest of the group fled to the cars and began to drive into Cobbs Corners. Before they got too far, a second Dark Young charged out of the trees and the car containing Dr. Matherson and Professor Drake crashed into it. Norris flung a Molotov cocktail he'd made at it - as did Eugene throw a grenade. Neither seemed to injure the creature. Thomas got out of the car and ran to save Dr. Matherson who stood dumbstruck in the road. She fled to the car but the Dark Young picked up Professor Drake and Thomas and began to charge off back into the trees.

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Session 23: Exploring the Complex

October 23 1930 (cont)

Perri, Norris, Eugene and Margaret decided to follow the Dark Young as it seemed to be leaving a trail of blood (?) behind it (taking Dr. Matherson with them). Parking the car at the edge of the treeline, they saw a Dark Young seemingly guarding a cave entrance up on Broken Hill. Eugene & Perri crept as close as they dared towards the creature and shot off a flare which the thing ventured out to investigate. With the entrance way open the group made a run for it. Norris & Margaret rushed inside but Perri and Eugene slipped in the wet grass and the monster reared back on them. They tore into the cave just as the Dark Young reached the entrance, narrowly missing it. The cave led further into the mountainside and down below the earth. Eventually the natural cave gave way to constructed walls, floor & ceiling - with huge square seemingly bottomless holes carved into the floor at varying intervals. Soon they came upon a massive 20x20x20 ft cube covered in convex windows of a cloudy glass-like substance. Dr. Matherson touched the cube and it roared to life causing the ground to vibrate - but it powered down almost as quickly as it turned on. Creeping around a corner, they saw a Mi-Go hanging from the ceiling apparently asleep at the far end of a long corridor. They quietly ventured down the hall and found a huge 100x100 ft chamber that smelled of sour milk containing a stone circle with a floating crude sculpture floating above. A sticky substance covered the floor that Dr. Matherson said was the Mi-Go residue which meant that an alarmingly large number of the aliens had died here. Further down the corridor they came across a hallway that led into a room filled with hundreds of trays of a foul smelling fungi - and a modified Mi-Go Scientist eating from one of them. Eugene decided to shoot the sleeping Mi-Go, which alerted the one in the Food Room. Both were quickly taken care of - the goo dripping down into a metal grate in the floor that they could hear running water coming from. Turning down a new corridor, they found a locked room and tried to pry it open - which drew the attention of 3 more unarmed Mi-Go Scientists. Two of the creatures started to attack the group and break their way into the locked room (which was jammed due to the group's efforts) while the 3rd retreated back into the room it had emerged from. Eventually they killed the 2 attackers and battered down the locked door - finding an Armory filled with Electric Guns, Mist Projectors, Spore Guns, and canisters of a sticky green web-like substance. They pilfered Mist Projectors and a few of the canisters and then threw the rest of the weapons down one of the large square holes nearby before following the 3rd Mi-Go into a room where a large modified Mi-Go Computer was housed. Immediately an alarm went off. The group started to retreat back the way they had come - as a platoon of 6 large heavily armed modified Mi-Go Soldiers covered in the green webs emerged from further down the hall and began to fire in their direction.

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Meanwhile, after being abducted by the Dark Young, Thomas and Professor Drake were carried to the cave opening that led to the Mi-Go Complex where they were met by several Mi-Go armed with Spore Guns. Thomas woke up (an unknown amount of time later) in a small room occupied by 2 Mi-Go Scientists who were removing Prof Drake's brain - and Captain passed out next to him. He quietly woke up Captain and the 2 of them ambushed the Mi-Gos - using their Sonic Emitters against them. They crept out of the room and past another that housed 5 5 foot arches that seemed to be filled with shimmering reflective water. Seeing another of the Mi-Go working in a storage room, they ducked into a space containing 100s of Brain Canisters - some which seemed to be connected to each other by wires. As they were deciding where to head, an alarm went off. A few moments later they hear an odd sound coming from the room with the arches - and a squad of 6 Mi-Go Soldiers emerged and flew past them down the halls.

 

Meanwhile, Perri, Norris, Eugene, Margaret and Dr. Matherson continued to flee from the squad of 6 Mi-Go who had emerged from further down the hallway where they were when the alarms went off. Margaret dove into the Armory while Norris threw a grenade at the squad - seriously wounding and stunning them. Eugene gave Norris a 2nd grenade which finished them off. Just as they thought things had calmed down, a 2nd squad of Mi-Go emerged from one of the connecting corridor. Thomas and Captain followed them and took them out with 2 more grenades at them (which they found in the storage room with the rest of their confiscated items). Reunited, the group hurried out of the complex and back out into the raging storm.