Rippers: Fear of the Moon - session 2

So this Friday we managed to finish our first adventure in Rippers - Fear of the Moon. This time my friend playing Sgt. Henry Baynes was able to make it, but my friend playing Father Green was not. So I quickly arranged that Baynes had cycled to the hall to get Father Green for Harriet Burke, who wanted a man of God to help her control her imbacile son Jeremy who was getting more uncontrollable as a result of the PCs interview with him.

When we finished the last session the characters had just lockpicked the gate of Shelbourne Hall. They did not walk very far before they noticed that the gravel had been disturbed quite a lot and upon further examination that there were blood spills leading the the cellar door.

The characters quietly approached the half opened door and when they open it fully were met with growling from inside. When Sgt. Baynes shone his lamp inside he immediately saw two half dead Irish wolfhounds dragging themselves closer to the door. Baynes quickly shut the door.

The characters decided to try and get inside the hall itself, which was easy since the front door was not locked. Inside they were met with a stench of death and decay and after doing a room-by-room search found the maid/cook ripped almost beyond recognition in the kitchen. Dr. Trevelyan despite his strong mind reacted very badly to this (a critical failure on his Guts check, and lost two Sanity as well as getting the Fatalist psychosis from the Psychosis Table) and threw up before just being overwhelmed by despair. Later on they found the master of the house Sir Charles who was just as badly ripped apart. Examination of the bodies dated them to have been dead for close to a week - which was not when the full moon was out.

In Sir Charles study the characters came across plans for an expansion of Sir Charles' farmland, with notes scribbled on it that neighbor Eric Mason should be contacted. Being a retired big game hunter Sir Charles had many rifles displayed and the characters grabbed some so that they could return to the cellar and put down the almost dead wolfhounds. Inside the cellar they found a third wolfhound which had been dead for some days.

The characters returned to Lamport, ate some dinner before planning their next course of action, minus Dr. Trevelyan who retired early still very much affected by the afternoons discovery.

Next day the characters hired a trap to take them to Millwood House, Eric Mason's residence. Upon arrival they found the place empty. Journalist Langdale Pike and Sgt. Baynes enter the house and Pike immediately began to search the desk inside. He managed to lockpick one of the drawers and found a notebook containing observations made by Mason on the village's blacksmith Thomas Runcorn. Just then a person approached the house telling them that they were trespassing - this was mr. Mason. Sgt. Baynes began to explain that they were there to make sure that Mason was okay, now that they had found Sir Charles dead.

Mason calmed down and invited the characters inside for tea. After talking to him about Sir Charles and the murders in the village, the characters were in no doubt that Mason had something to do with it all. They said farewell and left Millwood House.

Returning to Lamport the characters starting to see the bigger picture. According to their theory Runcorn was Mason's pawn. After confining with Father Green and using his knowledge of the occult and folklore, they concluded that Mason was the werewolf who had attacked Runcorn and when the first full moon arose Runcorn transformed into a wolfman and started killing. What they were not sure about was the motive.

After some brief surveillance of Runcorn the characters decided to return to Millwood house to see what Mason was up to. When they arrived they found that Mason was about to leave the house with a lamp in hand. A dense fog was also starting to materialise making them unable to see almost nothing except the dim light of the lamp, a small clacking noise was also heard. They attempted to stealthily follow Mason, but were eventually unsuccessful. When that happened the noise stopped and the light suddenly vanished. What followed were a few tense moments for the characters as they attempted to stand still (Langdale Pike rolled a critical failure and I decided that he has suddenly started coughing). Suddenly a wolf howl was heard and then the sound of something running and getting closer. The transformed werewolf Mason burst out of the fog, but when we drew cards for initiative Pike was lucky getting the joker. Before the werewolf had a chance to attack two of the characters had been able to fire off shots from their guns. The werewolf did manage to strike Pike before going down to another gunshot.

Having survived the werewolf attack the evening ended with the characters confronting Runcorn, who did not put up a fight. Next day - when the full moon would arrive - they arranged for him to be chained and locked into the cellar of Shelbourne Hall with Father Green on hold with an elephant gun, just in case he got loose. Inspector Giles from Leicester Police also arrived to find the case solved - Baynes' report attributed all the murders to the mad Eric Mason. Dr. Trevelyan stated had been quite mad and unable to be cured leaving no option but to shoot him when he attacked them.

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This was our first full adventure and I'm very pleased with how it went. All my players have easily bought into the concept of the game being about mystery, investigation and horror. They have roleplayed more in the two sessions this adventure took to play than they did for several adventures in our previous Deadlands campaign.
In the end with the confrontation of the werewolf we also managed to get that felling of dread/horror out that I was trying to establish.

So now I'm finished up the next adventure where the characters return to London to find that a new mystery requires their attention.