The investigators and their allies have faced the summoned creature and the cult in Dublin. They are left with a number of bodies in an abandoned barn and a black scar on the earth in someone’s field, or with the city crumbling in the horror’s wake. If the investigators failed to defeat the summoned creature, they will receive no more help from their allies in Dublin. All efforts will be redirected to mitigating the damage and saving as many people as possible. Even if it and most, if not all, the cultists have been killed, arrested, or otherwise put out of action, the repercussions of their activities continue. Specifically, there has been a bombing in the city followed by quite a lot of gunfire just outside it. It would be reasonable to assume that both the British and Irish governments will conclude that the local IRA members have broken the terms of the treaty and the previous ceasefire and restarted a pattern of sectarian violence.
(All page numbers refer to the Seventh Edition of the Call of Cthulhu Keeper Rulebook, published 2015 by Chaosium, Inc. I am in no way affiliated with Chaosium or the writers of the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game system. Content notes for this chapter: mentions of terrorism/bombing, cult activity, forced drugging, a general sense of doom.)
Cullen knows that his people are in danger, and the authorities will be looking for him in particular very soon. It would be best for him to warn the others and leave Dublin for a while, possibly indefinitely, but he worries about what will happen if he leaves. Who will look after Cait and Faelan? Though he has always believed himself a poor leader, he fears what his sudden departure might do to the structure of his group. The realization that everything the investigators have been saying about the cult and the end of the world is true also hits him hard.
Eske will do his best to reassure him and gently persuade him to leave. The men will manage; Cait is just as competent as Cullen is and almost as good a shot. They also now have the money the investigators gave them in exchange for the key. He feels a bit guilty: he had been looking for a way to convince Cullen to leave Dublin with him, but he didn’t anticipate it would end up being such a huge disaster. In any case, this is an opportunity for the investigators to try to convince the two men to help them at the island. If he has not already, Cullen can provide the investigators with a hand-drawn map (Handout 3-4) with an alternate boat landing site (marked with an X).
They may be able to provide other information as well; as the professor’s demolitions team, they had to carefully position the TNT used to open the first door so as not to bring the entire island down—it should be possible to destroy it, if the investigators wanted to try.
For their journey to the island, the investigators likely need additional fighters, a demolitions expert, or just someone who has been there before. Neither Cullen nor Eske want to see that place again, and they are not entirely certain the investigators are trustworthy, reliable people with plans for the future that don’t involve certain death, so it will take some doing to persuade them.
The investigators need to gather their artifacts (including any stolen back by the cult, which have been taken here to the summoning site) and prepare to travel to the village of Coleraine and hire a boat. They should have, at minimum, the key and the Westmont text, but may also have the stone given to them by Jasmine and a copy of the cult text. They may also wish to acquire additional weapons and possibly some explosives before they leave; if the summoned creature is dead, the IRA may be willing to sell as they prepare to go underground.
Before leaving the site of the battle, the investigators should resolve any Sanity losses from seeing the monster and its disappearance, as well as from any casualties suffered during the fight. Additional Sanity checks may be required. Consequences, such as hallucinations, misplaced important objects, emotional distress, and so on should be played out and resolved.
If Dublin still stands, the investigators will notice a much higher concentration of police officers as well as a few government agents around the city.
- At the boarding house, Cait will report that the police were there looking for Cullen. She can share her supply of bandages with the investigators, but she would really like to see them gone. She isn’t sure she believes the story about the cult.
- O’Neill’s pub will stay open a few more days, but it will grow emptier and emptier as the IRA group disperses, going into hiding, joining other factions, or leaving town. Eske will be here in the evenings until he and Cullen depart. He and the other remaining men can help the investigators obtain weapons as they relocate and redistribute their stockpiles. O’Neill’s will eventually be raided by the police and closed down for good.
- Cullen will first go to the boarding house to say goodbye to Cait and Faelan and give them as much money as he can spare. He will then hide in various places around the city, moving about at night. He may be able to be found at Eske’s flat, if he believes he won’t lead the authorities there. Eske will usually know where he is if the investigators need to find him.
- If they are not going to the island, Cullen and Eske will leave Dublin around the same time the investigators do, first to Scotland and then elsewhere, perhaps to reappear in another story.
The investigators can spend a few days preparing, but they must not linger too long—the cult is gathering their forces. When they are ready, the investigators will travel north to Coleraine and then across the sea to the hollow island and the well itself.
Coleraine
This is a tiny Northern Irish fishing village, many miles from Dublin. The train does not run here; the investigators will need to hire or borrow a car for at least part of the journey, if they did not bring one over from England. There is a single main thoroughfare from the highway down to the docks, with a few shops mostly dedicated to fishing equipment and boat repair (there is one general goods store, if the party needs something else). The air smells distinctly of fish and the sea.
The fisher whom Professor Ragnarsson hired to ferry the archaeological team to the island no longer lives here; his name was Mr. Donovan and he fled with his earnings somewhere inland after the expedition returned and hasn’t been heard from since. Asking around town will reveal a general reluctance to sail so far away from land, especially with how Donovan left town so fast after going to the island, but enough persuasion and money will find the investigators a ride with Mrs. McCallum, who can be found at the fishing goods shop. They are, of course, free to find alternate transport, especially if they have the skills to pilot a boat themselves.
Anna McCallum, fishing boat pilot
Mrs. McCallum has been struggling to make ends meet since her husband, Thomas, was killed in the war. She is also a Catholic in the North, which has made things harder for her. She is in her mid-thirties and has reddish-brown hair and a few freckles. She usually wears a set of men’s work clothes, and her face and hands are roughened by the wind. Her boat, the Fairy Queen, can be equipped for a journey of several days and carry up to eight people, with a little squeezing. She has seen better days, but she is still seaworthy despite the peeling paint.
The Fairy Queen (vehicle reference p. 416)
Move: 12 (40 mph)
Build: 3 (30 HP)
Armor: 0
Passengers: 8
Sea Journey
The journey to the island will take a couple of days; longer if the investigators do not travel through the night or if the person piloting fails their Navigation rolls. The party should keep track of the supplies they pack and make sure there is enough for the return journey, as they are probably hoping they will live to have one. The seas will be calm as they can be this time of year, but the weather will be cold, with occasional snow and freezing rain. As soon as the boat is out of sight of the Irish coast, waves of heavy fog will roll through, one after another, with only a few hours of clear skies in between. The fog will dramatically reduce visibility for both the occupants of the boat and the cultists on the island, and it will deaden sound as well. Fortunately, one can navigate using a compass and available sea charts and maps, but it will be a challenging journey—Navigation checks should be made with a penalty die or at Hard difficulty, at the Keeper’s discretion. On the occasions when the fog lifts, the night sky glitters with uncounted stars.
This is the last opportunity for the investigators to rest and prepare. They should take stock of their equipment and do any necessary maintenance, rest to heal any remaining injuries and regain a few Sanity points, and finalize their plan of action. They will still be feeling the effects of the artifacts they are carrying, but penalties should be less as the investigators reassure themselves that the horror will soon be over, one way or another.
As the investigators get nearer to the island, the atmosphere seems to change, though there is no visible difference in the weather. Everything seems still and stagnant, as though this place died a long time ago, and the natural processes of growth and decay have also ceased to work. The air feels heavy, and a chill settles into one’s bones; not the biting cold of winter in the North Sea, but the lifeless lack of warmth of empty space, airless tunnels, and the grave.
The Island
When the investigators have about given up hope on ever seeing land again, the island will appear out of the mists. It is made of jagged spires of black volcanic rock rising sharply from the water. The clouds hang low over the island, drifting with an eerie sluggishness among the peaks. Waves crash against the rocks, threatening to smash the boat into the island as you approach. There is a single visible spot where the ground slopes more or less smoothly down to the water, and there are two boats there, pulled up onto the land. Some people are visible walking around, but they don’t notice the investigators’ boat yet in the fog.
As the investigators make their way around the island to the second boat landing, the rock spires become taller and more formidable, blocking the landing from view of the rest of the island. If the investigators hired someone to pilot the boat, such as Anna McCallum or another NPC, that person will stay with the boat once it lands to keep it safe and facilitate the investigators’ escape. There is a flat spot just large enough for the boat, and a place to climb over the rocks to reach the temple. Investigators should roll STR or DEX or a relevant skill to make it over the ridge.
The climb will place the investigators on top of the rocks behind the temple door. Once they are in the valley, the wind dies down, and the sound of the waves is deadened. The investigators will need to climb down and sneak around the hill to reach the door without the cult noticing. At this time, the door is open—the original stone door was blasted open by the archaeological team, and replaced with a heavy wooden slab when the cult moved in, which is currently propped open by boulders rolled into place. Cultists enter and leave through the door, carrying tools and moving rubble out as they try to open the inner doors without the key (and without blowing up their sacred place). Beyond the temple, there is a large, flat area, surrounded by lower hills with the jagged spires visible beyond. Among the hills are smaller earthworks, likely burial mounds, interspersed with the blackened remains of blighted trees. The cult is starting to gather in the open space. When they have all left their patrols and labors to join the circle, the cultist who seems to be in charge will administer the black water from another clay vessel to two young women, one of whom looks alert and willing while the other is listless and unaware; probably drugged. The excited chanting from the cult will mask the sound of the investigators’ movement if they take this opportunity to sneak into the temple, though they may feel the need to rescue the two women, but fighting this large number of cultists is not advised. Once they are in the temple, the investigators can barricade the door to prevent the cultists from interfering with their work.
The exact number of cultists is left up to the Keeper, but I advise to have a significant number (2-4 spellcasters and 20-30 fighters) to reflect the cult’s strength and discourage the investigators from simply fighting their way through. The Keeper can also start with a more manageable number and add cultists for each failed Navigation roll to get to the island, as the additional time required to travel here has allowed more cultists to gather.
In Part Two, the investigators will enter the temple at last, and attempt to put an end to this scourge once and for all.
Back to Chapter Three (Part Two)
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