RPG Thoughts

The sixth session started with a stakeout of the House of Kautsky, where the players hoped to learn more about their query. Dieter and Ludvig mask their appearance, by disguising as Beggers which they fail horribly. They decided to send in Otto and Mira to talk to the old shop keeper who had seemed to be staling Ludvig and Dieter when they had visited the shop. He was in the midst of talking to another customer when they entered the shop, but he quickly stopped the conversation and turned his attention to the newcomers. Otto and Mira claimed to be interested in buying the closed paw shop next door and they were interested in knowing who owned it. They had a lengthy conversation with him and during the conversation, Mira and Otto picked up several odd claims that the shop keeper made. Amongst others, he claimed that business was booming and he constantly saw wares come and go, but Mira noticed a layer of dust on most of the boxes in the shop which indicated that they had not been moved or touched for a while. The old shop keeper claimed not to know who owned the store next door and began to become anxious for them to leave. Mira and Otto left the store and joined Konrad who was keeping watch outside in the small alley.

As they left the area to search for information about the owner of the pawnshop they wait for the other customer to leave and then try to follow him to see if he is involved with the cult. Ludvig manages to keep up with the man but the rest loose sight of both Ludvig and the customer when Dieter's big brother calls out to Dieter in the middle of the street. His older brother proceeds to insult Dieter, claiming that his life as a beggar is a fitting lifestyle for him. Dieter begins to follow his brother when he leaves, forgetting everything about the case, more bent of getting revenge for past slights his brother has committed. He comes to his senses shortly after but that's when the group realizes that they have lost the trail of Ludvig and their quarry and they rush ahead in an effort to pick up the trail. In the meantime, Ludvig has followed the other customer into an alley between two streets. Here he is assaulted by 4 cultists with knives. He manages to Blather his way out of the situation but one of the cultists throw a knife after him and wounds him in the head. As he leaves the alley Ludvig spots Konrad approaching with his hammer drawn, but when they investigate the alley, the cultists are gone without a trace.

Otto and Mira find out that it's a local crime lord Curt Feiber who owns the pawnshop and they head to the broken jaw to talk with him. The broken jaw is a local dive of a bar located in the basement of a townhouse. It's crowded, dark and filled with smoke. They find Curt sitting at his regular table at the back of the bar with his two huge bodyguards flanking him. They agree to a price for the lease of the property but also agree that they can inspect it before finalizing the deal. Curt instructs one of the bodyguards named Hans to show Otto and Mira the shop. They head over to the pawnshop and spend some time looking at it, the most important detail which Otto notices is that Hans doesn't spend a lot of time securing the boards covering the door.

In the evening the group headed to a small theater in Reikerbahn Bezirk to meet Linde Hauck and Freu Fellerer. At the local Thalia Theater, they meet Linde outside and she leads them into the main hall where Carla Fellerer is waiting. As they start speaking Dieter notices someone hiding in one of the stands, he sneaks up to surprise the spy but whoever it is lurking around there eludes him. Dieter spots him as he is about to leave the stands below where Dieter is and he jumps over the railing and attacks the unknown person. Carla flees as the fight breaks out running for her life into the streets of the Reikerbahn. The players manage to restrain the spy and knock him out. They bring him to Dieter's boat where they begin to interrogate him. Unfortunately, the cultist they have captured is quite mad due to the influence of their master so they only get gibberish curses and promises of eternal damnation. The group decides to hand over the cultist to the witch hunters for additional interrogation.

Next time we will see how the groups attempts at spying on the mysterious trade house, the House of Kautsky, will pay off and what the witch hunters will find out. It will also be interesting to see what happens with Dieter's family, where are his sisters, and how come his brother seems to have made himself quite a fortune despite not being very good at doing business.

- Spoilers -

It was a huge success bringing in Dieter's history, the player immediately picked up the tread and began playing it up and he developed a conspiracy theory about his brother, claiming that he must be involved with the cult since they meet him in the vicinity of the trade house and how could his brother suddenly have become successful. The players are increasingly realizing that they are being watched and that the cult is out to kill them, they have been reluctant to travel around alone and I will be throwing more assassinations at them if they continue to hold back on the confrontation. I am using the assassins as a means of forcing their hand into the final confrontation in the basement of the House of Kautsky.

It's important to plan some encounters to bring in some action and disrupt the investigative nature of the Call of Cthulhu campaign otherwise it can become a slow campaign that might not sit well with some players. For my group, there are a few players who need a bit more action in order to keep their attention on the game so we try to introduce some tension with regular intervals.