The 19th Hole.P2 Conclusion

The 19^th Hole.P2 Conclusion

9am Friday, June 13, 1924: While Peter was outside at the barn/garage examining the undercarriage of the car he’d seen the groundskeeper working on, the others were still inside finishing breakfast conversation before excusing themselves. Richie said his goodbyes in French to Mrs. McMillan as Lance led the way out to Essie’s protests, “I’m telling you, Arthur McMillan is inside the manor. Why are we going to the clubhouse?!” Lance explained again, “Because that is where he went missing. All these ‘ghostly sightings’ are just hopeful imaginations.” As the others gathered around Bessie, Peter arrived with an oil spot on his shirt, “A millionaire trusting a gardener to do his auto repairs… there’s something not right with that picture. As I’ve always said, if not the butler, then the gardener is the prime suspect.”

They paused to unlock the Thistledown Golf Course gate, then drove along the gravel driveway to park beside Arthur McMillan’s blue Humber 1440 town-car still parked in front of the 2-story clubhouse. Peter slid into the driver’s seat of the Humber and found the registration paperwork clipped to the visor. Inside the glovebox he found a box of expensive cigars and a fancy snipping tool to cut off the end of cigars. Those went in his own pocket.

Richie walked around the scaffolding blocking the front door and tried using one of the keys to open it. While the key turned, the door wouldn’t budge. Richie stepped back to allow Peter to use his backup key… the detective used his boot aimed at the lock. “Umph.” Peter hobbled backwards with a wrenched back. Richie dug into his medical bag and found laudanum ointment to apply [First Aid-extreme: heal 2]. But when he happened to look up, Richie saw a small face pause in front of a 2^nd floor window before dashing out of sight. “Someone’s inside needing help!” Richie and Lance hustled left around the building along a sidewalk while Peter and Essie went right along another sidewalk.

While Richie kept walking, Lance stopped at the first window to peer inside. Through the sawdust sheen on the interior of the window, he looked into a shower room: boxes of tiles, buckets of grout, boxed toilets filled the room still under renovation. He pried the window open and climbed inside. Meanwhile, Richie looked back to see his ally disappear but continued around the building to its backside.

Meanwhile, Peter and Essie turned the corner and saw a porch ahead while also noting 2^nd floor windows that angled down. They continued to the porch and used the keys to enter a foyer where: a roll of carpet butted against a wall, exposed wires marked where sconces were to be set, a toolbox lay in the corner. The walls were painted a pale hunter’s-green, with elaborate plaster cornices decorating the ceiling edges, and white-fluted pilasters framed a far archway. Orante stained-glass windows (golf themed scenes) along the northern wall added to the opulence as did the large crystal chandelier hanging from the center of the ceiling.

As Peter continued into the foyer with his flashlight in hand, Essie turned left to first try the light switch (nothing as no power), then continued up the side stairs. Strange how the eastward facing windows (early morning sun) were black. At first, she thought them covered in paper to protect from splashing paint. But as she climbed the stairs and looked closer at the windows that angled upwards to match the slope of the stairs, she gasped when the windows suddenly cleared to reveal a desert scene, as if she was looking at the rise of a sand dune. But most shocking was the flash of something… flying?...by: was that wings, claws, and a long tail?! And just as suddenly, the windows returned to a black void look. Essie screamed in fright!

Richie was just about to enter the northern door, when he first heard Essie’s screams. He rattled the locked door and was just about to break the glass pane when he heard the gunshots.

Lance crawled through the window and stood in the barren shower room. His footsteps echoed as he stepped on debris from carpentry work framing the shower stalls. With guns drawn (his gold handled 1911 pistols- Hedley and Lamarr), Lance entered the connecting locker room where western facing windows let in slim rays of light. Shadows played tricks on his nerves, especially when he heard chittering noise. “Look at me overreacting to a mouse.” But then he realized the noises were about chest high. He spotted another door, “To hell with it.” About to run for it, he paused to fire off 2 rounds each from his pistols at whatever closed from behind him.

The echo of his shots drowned out his screams as he saw…. [SAN check- fail, 9 pts lost, INT check- pass, Bout-Of-Madness: Panic/RUN!]

Peter reacted to the gunfire by rushing towards it. He heard Richie rattling the door to his right and paused to let him in. Which gave Essie time to join them. All were surprised as Lance rushed past them and out the now open door. Richie drew his rapier and readied in the small hall while Peter and Essie went forward to check out what caused Lance to panic. With flashlight and pistol drawn, the PI did a cautious police-sweep of the locker room. Tense minutes before he gave the “All clear.” Richie relaxed and decided to check out the stubborn locked front door at the end of the long grand hallway filled with long display tables and high-back chairs. And that’s when Peter and Essie heard noise coming from the shower room.

Lance frantically searched Peter’s car for the key (in Peter’s coat pocket). He pulled out his pocketknife and tried to hotwire the car [Electrical Repair- 98]. Unsuccessful, he climbed into the town-car and was about to do the same, when he finally came to his senses. Fearing for his allies, he retraced his steps and cautiously climbed through the open shower window, calling out, “You OK? Is it dead yet?!” In a paranoid reveal to Peter and Essie, he described what he had encountered, “Almost insect-like in its carapace armor and long-clawed appendages. As if it stepped out from that shimmering haze to attack me.” And that’s when they heard an eerie voice from beyond…

“never…meant…ease…ace”

And that’s when they heard Richie give his distant report, “All clear as you say. The front door open and the cars are still there. But come check out this secret door I’ve found.”

As the trio exited the locker room, Peter was drawn to noise from his left. He investigated the Golf Shop where he found it too under renovation: bare floor with carpet stacked to the side, bare wires, cloth sheets covering merchandize racks, and a dusty counter with a cash register and bowls of golf-tees and golf balls. Speaking of which: one rolled along the floor going through the door he just entered. He followed its roll into the small hall where it turned right toward his allies. Turned right?! That’s not natural! [1d6 Etheric Encounter: Glowing Motes] But most peculiar were the spots of floating lights: as if sunlight reflected off floating dust particles. He cautiously avoided them as he stopped to pick up the golf ball (which he pocketed), then rejoined his friends.

With keys to unlock it, Richie led the way down the stairs with his own flashlight and rapier drawn. Peter pulled out his sawed-off shotgun while Lance readied his golden pair of 1911 pistols. Essie took the clue to notch an arrow. The air grew colder as they descended. In fact, frost formed on the lower stairs while their breath hung in the air and their nose hairs began to freeze. Richie loudly pondered, “Does anyone hear a chiller? Could there be a refrigeration unit down here? Why is it so cold?” Someone pointed out, “At these temperatures, we’ll have maybe an hour to search before we have to deal with hyperthermia.”

They stepped into a basement storage area filled with a collection of boxes, crates, canvas bags, more store merch and kitchen items. A layer of frost covered everything. Richie was drawn to noise coming from a central door. While Peter remained outside, the others entered the room filled with wall boxes that Essie recognized as electrical and telephone line junction boxes. While nothing electrical ran in this room, all could hear the hum of something behind the far wall. [Electrical Repair] Essie noticed additional wires that had been added to the junction boxes: fresh metal filing and stone dust littered the inside of the box. “Something must be on the other side.” [1d6 Etheric Encounter: Dimensional Barrier] Lance turned to leave and smashed his nose on an invisible barrier. As Lance ran his hand along the barrier to determine its width and height, Richie stabbed at it with his rapier.

Meanwhile, Peter found the adjacent southern door locked. He returned to the others to also run into the barrier from the other side. Panic started to climb as his friends worried they’d be trapped and freeze to death. Yet within minutes the barrier subsided. Relieved, they joined Peter to inspect the other room which proved to be a wine cellar. At least they finally thought to search the storage boxes for clothing: Peter found club-logo sweaters. “At least this will give us a little longer to search.”

They entered the last door which revealed a basement access door that led to outside stairs. Beyond that room was the Furnace/Boiler room. While the coal chute was full, no-one had stooked the boiler thus little if any heat was generated. Confused, Peter stepped back into the storage room to search more. Yet that was when the others realized the hum of the furnace didn’t match the sound they’d heard from the Electrical room. While Lance and Richie tried to reason how everything was powered, Essie [Spot- extreme] pressed her ear to the southern wall and heard the familiar noise. Looking closer, she realized this wall had been recently plastered as if hiding something. “Help me break it down.”

[1d6 Etheric Encounter: Gaseous Vortex] Peter was surprised when he heard the flapping of canvas. Strange how a dust-devil was beginning to swirl in the center of the storage room. At first, small items were sucked into the vortex. But as the intensity grew enough to actually suck his breath, larger items joined the maelstrom! [Dodge-fail, Luck 01] Peter was fortunate nothing large struck him; only dust that blinded him. The grit irritated his cornea. He blindly staggered towards the door he remembered nearby, as he successfully found it and stepped in to then bar the door shut with his back. “There’s a tornado in the basement!” [First Aid] He flushed his eyes with spit.

CLIMAX

The others broke through the wall and entered what must be a laboratory. Richie walked around the prone men on cots to inspect a 3^rd body slumped over some kind of machinery. Lance first helped Essie through the small gap then walked around the first cot to get between them so he could check the pockets of both bodies. “They are both shallow breathing. Gaunt as if starved for a week.” Essie continued around him to inspect the bank of flashing lights on the far wall. Peter was the last to enter with his camera raised, “Smile.” The flash temporarily blinded the others. But not before Peter and Essie noticed Richie was nowhere in sight! Their gasp alerted Lance to the news. Lance ignored Essie’s warning, “He must have touched something.” Peter suspected a trapdoor Richie had fallen through. Lance touched the bracelet on the nearest man on a cot.

Richie stood in a desert landscape with crystalized trees and sand-dunes under twin suns that beat down with oppressive heat. [Spot-extreme] He heard the chittering noise before he actually saw anything. Enough warning to dive behind a crystal bush almost buried in its own sand berm. 

[Sanity check- pass: 2 pt loss] [Occult: hard] Richie read about these large [build 2] Dimensional Shamblers: claws to snip and tear and grab foe to drag into their own dimension to feed their offspring or themselves. He silently swore his racing heart sounded like a freight train in volume. He readied his rapier while he held his stethoscope ready to fling as distraction if it approached him. He relied upon vibrations as an indicator of its approach. And that’s when he heard the popping sound as if the fabric of space split. For Lance stepped into view: of both Richie and the Shambler!

[Spot-extreme] Peter realized the face-down body laid across paneling on the machine. He could just make out switches and dials. He was about to use the barrel of his shotgun to push the body off the machine when Essie cautioned, “You want to get shocked?! You need something insulated.” While he searched for a broom to use its wooden handle, Essie pulled out her bullwhip as she began to exit the room, “I’ll go back to the electrical panel to try to remove the wiring from this room.” Peter realized an easier plan, “Just use your bullwhip to snare his leg and pull the body off the machine.”

Lance tried to act casually as he switched his pistols for his tommygun. The creature was 10 yards away (point blank) when he emptied the full 30-round drum magazine. [5 volleys of 6 rounds each]:

SMG- Rolling to hit with automatic fire (one pull of the trigger): 1.       First attack roll: apply the usual rules for a firearms attack roll (set difficulty by range and then apply any modifiers). 2.       Second and further attack rolls: add one penalty die (or remove a bonus die) for each additional attack roll. If this would incur three penalty dice, stick with two penalty dice and raise the difficulty level by one step (from Normal to Hard, Hard to Extreme, etc).

Resolving each attack roll: 1.       If successful: half of the shots fired hit the target—roll damage for half of the shots. Subtract any armor from each shot. 2.       If an Extreme success: all shots fired hit the target, the first half (round down, minimum of one) of which impale. Subtract any armor from each shot.

1.       First volley (with bonus): extreme- 3 impales (14, 13, 22) and 3 regular hits (7, 5, 9). 2.       Second volley (regular roll): extreme- 3 impales (13, 14, 21) and 3 regular hits (7, 8, 10). 3.       3rd volley (1 penalty): regular (4, 4, 10). 4.       4th volley (2 penalties): fail. 5.       5th volley (2 penalties and difficulty Hard): fail

The creature (17HP with 3 armor: tough carapace hide) vaporized in the first volley. The remaining volleys spit sand burps from the distance sand dune. Richie stepped forward, “Great. He was a dimensional traveler we could have followed out of here. Now how do we get out?!” Lance ignored the spoiled aristocrat as he stooped to collect a surviving claw as his kill trophy.

The gun fire drew other threats: 3 men rounded the dune behind them. Lance and Richie recognized Arthur from his portrait hanging back in Crow Hall Manor. Arthur explained, “I tried to get Crystal’s attention back in the manor but at best people thought I was a ghost. There is only so much interaction we can achieve here in this ethereal plane.” The other men weren’t as forthcoming, “Mr. McMillan here damaged our machine and caused it to spool out of control.”

Essie caught the right leg and with Peter’s help, they pulled the body off of the machine. “Thunk!” The face bounced off the floor, breaking the man’s nose which began to gush blood. “At least he’s alive. Dead bodies don’t bleed. Oh my gosh; it’s Arthur McMillan!” As Peter knelt to staunch Arthur’s bleeding, Essie whipped at the control panel and managed to snag the OFF switch. The machine powered down, replaced by clicking/popping sounds and ethereal crackles of released energy. They were buffeted by ethereal explosions and shockwaves that seemed to appear nearby that rippled then snapped back into place.

Suddenly, the 3 bodies came to life and sat up. [Archaeology] Essie recognized the other two, “I remember your faces published in the Miskatonic office directives that listed you as “retired” from duties for stolen funds. You’re Professor Donald Gilmour, physicist. And you are James Lackie, the experimental engineer reported to be researching time travel.” Richie and Lance entered the secret laboratory as they had appeared in the Storage room. Lance was about to slap the scientists when Peter interceded, “Look at their frail bodies. You might accidently kill them.”

They exited the front door of the Clubhouse and froze in their tracks: standing on Arthur’s blue town-car was a frightening beast! Bluish pus dripped from its gapping mouth as it snarled at its foe. The acidic pus hissed as it contacted the car’s metal hood, melting through. The weight of the large beast (build 2) crushed the cloth car top. [Sanity check]:

• [Pass: 3 pt loss] Peter pulled out his shotgun and checked both barrels loaded as he strode forward to get within point-blank range (5 yards per his sawed-off shotgun).
• [Fail: 6 points; failed INT check] Essie notched an arrow as she backed up from the threat.
• [Fail: 6 points; failed INT check] Richie reached into Lance’s backpack and retrieved the flare-gun before advancing to point-blank range (10 yards).
•  [Fail: 7 points; 20% threshold, auto BOM- Crazy Plan] Lance pulled out his pistols and aimed towards the rear of the car in his attempt to detonate the gas-tank. Only 2 out of Lance’s 4 shots impacted the car with no explosion affect.

Richie fired and missed: the flaming projectile caught nearby grass on fire.

Peter: the first shotgun blast (regular: 4, 4, 4, 5) hit the beast dislodging bluish pus that hissed on contact. The 2^nd barrel blast (extreme: 10, 7, 9, 9) carved even more ichor pus from the beast that still stood as a threat.

Essie twanged her arrow that impacted in the beast (3 damage).

[HP40, 2 armor, regenerates 1d4 per round. 40 minus Peter’s separate hits less armor, minus Essie’s 1 point that got through = 3HP remaining + 4 regenerated= 7HP] Black Jamie (Occult: that both Richie and Essie recognized as a Hound of Tindalo) leapt off the car at its closest foe. Peter tried to dodge (Hard but the Hound hit with an extreme) … odd how the beast’s rigid tongue lanced his side yet didn’t hurt. [Peter suffered 3d6= 16 POW damage]

Richie stepped forward and thrust with his rapier (1d6+1d4 threat damage) twice (used rapid Attack for his 2^nd): 01 extreme hit for (10+1d6 (2) = 12 damage). The Hound evaporated into the dimensional void.

Only then did they find Bessie a wreck: Peter’s car’s wiring ripped out from under the dashboard. Lance acted innocent because he was suffering his original BOM and didn’t remember his actions. Maybe days later he would remember. For now, they all began a slow walk back to Crow Hall Manor.

EPILOGUE

Mrs. Crystal rushed outside to greet her husband with a firm hug, “Your bloody nose; are you OK?” Arthur tried to play nonchalant at his absence, “At least I discovered the holdups to the clubhouse repairs. Perhaps now we can get back on schedule. Gordon, contact Mr. Cameron Nairn and have him reassemble the workers.”

Arthur proceeded inside to his office safe and returned with the reward, “Gordon told me I owe you $50. Will $75 suffice? You have my eternal gratitude if you ever need help or like to golf.”

Peter sought out Peter Craig, “Do you have a tow-truck? My car is disabled and I…” [Apotemnophobia-fear of amputations] Peter froze at the sight of Craig’s missing left hand. Lance had to coordinate the repair of Bessie.

Days later, Theresa pouted as she saw Lance climb into the car as the investigators returned to Arkham. She blushed as she meekly waved goodbye.

BACKGROUND

The Hound of Tindalo was always a dimensional threat in the area.

When Gilmour and Lackie were fired from MU, undeterred, they secretly moved their lab equipment into the basement of the abandoned Thistledown clubhouse where they set up operations. Months of undisturbed experiments until Arthur McMillan bought the place and began renovations. They barely had time to craft the secret panels to hide their basement operations. They laughed at their ethereal travels seen as ghostly visions by the craftsmen within the clubhouse. They laughed… until Arthur literally stumbled into their plans.

First Arthur accidentally boosted the machine’s power beyond safety limits. When sparks flew and the machine glowed, he tried to turn it off. Frightened that his hand went through the control panel, he stepped back only to witness himself stepping out of his own body. His empty body collapsed onto the machine, covering the control panel and locking the device’s timer (to aid the traveler’s return) in place, trapping all 3 men in the ether-net!

The bodies of the 3 men lay in a state of repose for the last 4 days: McMillan on the floor while the scientists’ bodies lie on cots. Meanwhile, with the power pushed beyond limits, energies both etheric and extra-dimensional radiated from the basement, projecting tears in the fabric of space that let in Dimensional Shamblers and a Hound of Tindalo.

As for the voice they heard in the Men’s Locker Room (“never…meant…ease…ace”): it was the ethereal Gilmour saying, “Never mind this! Come to the basement! Our bodies are in the basement!”]