Call of Cthulhu Actual Play - Ashes of the Feast

The world doesn't know it yet, but the shots which will trigger the Great War have just been fired. In Boston, the Hub of the Universe, massive construction projects are underway, building the infrastructure which will serve the city for the rest of this century and beyond. However, that construction has unearthed a hidden evil...


Setting: Boston. Monday, June 29, 1914

Cast of Characters:

• Colin O'Connor: Civil engineer from Dunmore, Ireland. Working on the Dorchester Tunnel.
• Lola Diaz Azar: Archaeologist hailing from Puerto Rico, born of a Puerto Rican mother and Middle Eastern father.
• Nathaniel Quincy, MD, Captain, US Army (Ret.) Former army doctor, served in Nicaragua and the Philippines.

The three investigators had assembled at a home in South Boston on Summer Street. With the Dorchester tunnel extension to the Cambridge Subway being built a number of homes were being moved. Under one of them the house movers had found a hidden chamber of horrors. The three had special skills.  O'Connor was an engineer working on the tunnel. Azar had worked with O'Connor before when the Tremont Street Tunnel uncovered ancient fishweirs. Doctor Quincy had treated a number of the injured from the construction - and handled his fair share of corpses.

The house had belonged to Finn O’Riabhaigh, who was killed in an apparent power struggle in his anarchist organization back in 1910. He was also apparently the "cannibal killer" who had terrorized Boston and surrounding area in the noughties and early 1910 - apparently operating in the basement of his anarchist publication. He had at least one accomplice - Sergey Baranov, who oddly enough was in the newspaper headlines today, though less prevalently than that of assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary.

Unfortunately, the basement was discovered on Friday and over the weekend a guard had been killed - his throat slit - and some items likely removed from the basement.

Relevant articles found in the newspaper included:

May 11, 1910

 

ANARCHIST HORROR IN SOUTH BOSTON

 CANNIBAL KILLER SLAIN, ACCOMPLICE IN COMA  Responding to reports of a struggle, police found a gruesome scene in the basements of an anarchist newsletter headquarters. In the basement of the “Universal Brotherhood”, the organization’s leader, Finn O'Riabhaigh was found dead, with his throat slit. He had apparently been in the act of consuming a human corpse, that of Mister Rocco Altieri, a southern Italian immigrant. This bizarre murder matches the modus operandi of several unsolved murders over the past five years in the city and surrounding communities. 

Also found was Sergey Baranov, with both a similar wound to the throat and a gunshot wound. At the time of this writing Baranov was in surgery with an unclear prognosis. 

O’Riabhaigh was editor and publisher of the anarchist newsletter, the “Universal Brotherhood”. He had previously been charged with a variety of misdemeanors. Evidence collected in the basement linked him to several other killings. A search of the building revealed the newsletter’s mailing list to be missing. No such list was found in O’Riabhaigh's home on Summer Street. Police Lieutenant Brian McShane indicated this horror was further evidence “of the anarchist depravity infesting Boston”.

  May 14, 1910

 Baranov Charged as Accessory 

 At his hospital bed in Boston City Hospital, police Lieutenant Brian McShane formally arrested Sergey Baranov as an accessory to the murder of Rocco Altieri. 

 Unable to speak due to a severed larynx, Baranov gave a plea of not guilty in writing. 

December 6, 1910 

Sergey Baranov Found Guilty 

 After a two-week trial and only four hours of deliberations, a jury found Sergey Baranov guilty of being an accessory to the murder of Rocco Altieri. Baranov remained silent as he heard the verdict – as he had throughout the trial – not only did he not testify in his own defense, he remains unable to speak due to his larynx having been damaged beyond the ability of his doctors to repair. Judge Charles Jenney had agreed to allow Baranov to testify with pad and paper should it have been necessary. 

  

Attorney General Dana Malone had also unsuccessfully pursued a charge of first-degree murder. 

 December 13, 1910  

Sergey Baranov Sentenced 

 Sergey Baranov, convicted accomplice in the Anarchist Cannibal Killings, was sentenced to 25 years as an accomplish to murder. He began his sentence at Charlestown State Prison.  

June 29, 1914  

Sergey Baranov Seriously Ill 

 Notorious participant in the Anarchist Cannibal Killings, Sergey Baranov was transferred to the Charlestown State Prison’s infirmary yesterday, having contracted an unknown disease with symptoms similar to that of malaria.  

Though the police had been unable to find the anarchist member list, the investigators did - in the hidden basement. They also found signs of cannibal activities here - a holding cell, tables with manacles, and lots of blades.

Interestingly, the anarchist member list was in alphabetical order by first name, aside from the first two names - his two main lieutenants perhaps?

The second name was the accomplice, Baranov. Perhaps Gallagher would be a name worth checking. Research indicated it was indeed a worthwhile name to look into:

Boston Globe, January 10, 1911

During this investigation, their liaison with the police, Brian McShane, now a captain, informed them that former Attorney General, Dana Malone, had been taken to the hospital - suffering from the same mysterious illness that Baranov had.

They paid a visit to Easmon Gallagher's Back Bay house - failing to break into it or bluff their way in they wound up entering via the roof after gaining entry to a neighbor's house. Unfortunately, they were quickly discovered by Gallagher, holding a deadly looking knife, He cheerfully acknowledged he was a member of the Universal Brotherhood - and through communion with human flesh, would live forever - as well as having the power to infect others with horrid diseases. To illustrate his power (and insanity - he was not a quiet type of insane cultist) he called upon "the great fist of Yog-Sothoth", and with a wave of his hand, Azar flew off the stairwell balcony to the floor below, screaming in pain as her ankle fractured. He waved off bullets from Quincy's guns although he and O'Connor were able to eventually stop him - though fatally, as he fought like an insane maniac. 

In Gallagher's library they found The Book of the Flesh. It was a bit of a horrific tome, talking about how to eat people for eternal life. It also discussed diseases. Quincy and O'Connor couldn't comprehend it but Azar finally was able to understand it well enough to use it to reverse the effects on former AG Malone - though it was too late for Baranov - no great loss.

Captain McShane and Dana Malone were able to shield the trio from major legal consequences of their actions, though they all found themselves out of jobs - and soon working for either the state or the city in various functions - so as to be on hand should similar eldritch horrors plague the commonwealth...

Keeper Notes

This was the kick-off of a new game. It was inspired by a picture of a house being moved as part of the construction of the Dorchester Tunnel extension to the Cambridge Subway - today's Red Line. Though the picture is now in the public domain, I found it in Boston's Red Line: Bridging the Charles from Alewife to Braintree (Images of America).

The anarchists in question are quite fictional, though in the early 20th century anarchists were the terrorists of the day. Boston was a major location of anarchist activity, attracting the attention of anarchist leaders such as Luigi Galleani, 

Captain McShane is fictional, However, Dana Malone was a real person, having served in the Massachusetts legislature and was District Attorney for the Northwest District and Attorney General of Massachusetts.