karohemd | [Gaming] The Adventures of Rupert Bulmer

Previously
So Tuesday night we wrapped

robinbloke's epic Call of Cthulhu campaign. Thank you again for running it and to the other players for making it so enjoyable. Now, without further ado.

(Session 35)
Just as we were about to leave the hotel, I started to feel really woozy and remained so for some considerable time so what follows is a summary based on accounts of my companions.
They acquired a car in Plattsburgh, drove to Montreal and went straight to the university. They were attacked by huge rats with humanoid faces and picked up the book that had sent us back in time twice already. Although we were back in the past, so to speak, when we found the book, it was in the same state as we'd last left it, that is with the damage it had acquired when Nicholas stabbed it so we could escape from the assault. It seemed the book was a constant in time...
Next, they went to the ranch where they found hundreds of undead soldiers who were passive and didn't attack. A single guard was surprised and interrogated. A trapdoor let into a basement where there was some sort of laboratory arrangement with odd glass objects and a row of cages, one of which held Bonaparte. They managed to free Bonaparte but he was delirious.

(Session 36)
As they returned to the car, my dizziness had passed and I was able to take part in happenings again. As mentioned, Bonaparte was delirious but not only that, he was blind, too, apparently having had his eyes scooped out. Poor devil. He was babbling about a desk and a secret but couldn't remember or wouldn't say which desk or where. Finally Thomas managed to extract from the mad professor's brain that it was the one at his house so we drove there.
Nicholas stayed in the car with Bonaparte while the rest of us searched the house. In his office I found his diary which was mainly filled with notes about the excavation and rather nasty comments about the other archaeologists, especially Professor Seymour. One interesting titbit was at the end: A book that was apparently the key to the secret had arrived. Probably still a bit dizzy, I didn't realise this was the book we'd already had and had been in our possession a few times so I started searching the library.
There was also a note taped under the desk that made little sense or was some sort of riddle about the Seeker of Hades and something needed to be burned. A gunshot went off outside, we ran downstairs and saw how Robert and Nicholas fought with one of those rat things that had tried to get into the car. They soon dispatched it and I went to the library looking for the book. Then Dr. Vargas stormed in and started setting fire to the curtains and loose pieces of paper. Before I could protest, I was bundled outside and we all squeezed ourselves back into the car.

Our next destination was the mine (this we pieced together from interrogating Bonaparte and decrypting the note) and he had to burn something there. Also, we needed to stab the book with the crystal dagger. We stopped on top of the hill and Vargas brought Bonapart around with the aid of some drugs. These sadly turned out to be an overdose and the poor Professor died after a fit and babbling about a riddle.

We went to the large administrative building first. Just after Vargas picked the lock, three of those rat things scuttled out of the door and ran off into different directions. Vargas urged to make haste as those things might bring back more. We searched the place but didn't find anything of interest.
Nothing remained but going down the lift. It looked like the first time we were there so we found our way through the crawlspace and various tunnels into the huge circular chamber where we originally found the poor fellow who had been bled to death. The pedestal was there, in the centre of the room, a stone bowl on top with curious inscriptions around the rim and a silver dish. Nicholas went to work attempting to decipher the inscriptions while Robert stayed behind at the entrance behind those sacks, keeping watch for anyone coming down the lift.

I searched the place further, went through an arched doorway at the other end into a long narrow room, about 200 yards long. The floor was dusty floor and nobody seemed to have been down here for a long down as the dust was undisturbed (unlike the area up to the pedestal). Further down the room were two archways on the left and right. I took the one on the left, another tunnel that ended in a blind archway. I wasn't bricked up, it looked unfinished as if someone had gone through the effort of carving our the doorway but not continuing the tunnel. The surface wasn't quite as smooth and there were silver specks converging into a point. I went back into the main corridor where I met Dr. Vargas who reported that the opposite tunnel looked just like that. There were two further tunnels branching off from the end of the corridor, also ending in blind doorways with those odd silver speckles.
I went back into the tunnel and touched the silvery bits. First, there was nothing and then all colour seemed to drain out of my fingers. Vargas had a wild idea and we touched the ends of the corridors at the same time. There was a sensation of pins and needles crawling up my fingers. The silvery bits shone a bit brighter but this stopped after a while.

Then we heard a shout from Robert that the lift was coming down. I joined him and we set up with our rifles behind those stacks of sacks, Robert also had made a supply of petrol bombs. Two uniformed bodies came down. We fought the undead soldiers for a while, they kept coming but we were able to fight them off.

Meanwhile, Nicholas had formed a plan he had devised from bits and pieces from the book, the note and the inscriptions on the bowl: We each had to touch the end archway of one of those corridors while he burned blood and stabbed the book.

So we took our positions. There was an odd sound and then Nicholas shouted, "Touch the wall!". We did, the archway in front of me lit up and became a translucent, shimmering portal. I stepped through into bright light and I don't really remember what I saw there. I vaguely remember horrific images but I'm not really sure I should write these down.

When I came out of what seemed like a trance, we were still in the circular chamber but all the undead soldiers had crumpled to the ground.
We headed out and drove back to Montreal. Everything seemed to back to normal. Professor Seymour was still dead but nobody asked any questions of us.

We bade our good-byes, heading back into civilsation, Robert and Thomas back to their shops in London, Nicholas back to his family. Doctor Vargas mentioned that the South Seas would be a nice place to visit at that time of year and as I'd never been, I asked him if he wanted a travel companion. He agreed so we went but an account of our adventures there will have to wait for some other time.

THE END