The Mystery Of The Dead Light
Campaign: Scooby Cthulhu
Jump to navigation Jump to searchThe Miskatonic gang encounters a young woman on the road during the storm of the century.
Recording of game session (YouTube)
Summary
(Spoiler alert: this summary reveals plot details of the Chaosium adventure, Dead Light.)
The Miskatonic gang continues through Oregon in their motorhome, on the way to Connie's uncle's house. Recent events have taken their toll on the gang. Hideyori decides to stay behind in San Francisco to clear his head and visit with his aunt for a few days before she departs for Japan, while D.J. seeks escape with a variety of recreational pharmaceuticals.
The weather report says a massive storm is hitting the coast, but Dusty thinks he can outrun it. Unfortunately, he's wrong. The storm catches up to them, and gets worse and worse. So when he saw the young woman on the side of the road, he nearly hit her. Dusty and Connie go out to check on the girl, and find that she is awake, but in shock and uncommunicative. She is cold and wet and scratched all over (presumably from running through the trees), and has a huge bruise on the side of her face. Walking her back to the motorhome through the pounding rain, they see a strange light in the trees...
Driving (slowly) through the deluge to the nearby town of Orchard Run, Dusty and Connie find a diner, a gas station, and a feed-and-seed. Entering the diner, they learn that the girl is Emilie Webb, daughter of the local doctor. However, no one is paying much attention to this, because Jake Burns is telling everyone about the terrifying thing he saw, which caused him to nearly wreck his semi full of pigs (which is currently parked on the nearby road, nearly blocking it). This "dead light" was crossing the road, and he swerved to avoid it. The experienced has unnerved him, and he has the full attention of the other diner patrons.
Dusty senses something suspicious about the waitress, Mary Laker, whose surprise on seeing Emilie seems to hint at something more. However, Mary does identify the girl as Emilie Webb, grand-daughter of the local doctor, and points out the telephone. Eventually, the gang gets the attention of the other diner patrons, who do their best to help Dusty, Connie, and the injured Emilie. Emilie is still in shock, and only barely able to communicate. The most the gang can get from her is that her grandfather needs help.
The gang attempts to call Emilie's grandfather, but no one answers. And then the power goes out! The owner of the diner, Sam Keelham, does his best to reassure everyone and keep them calm.
Sam loans them his four-wheel-drive Chevy Blazer, and they (slowly) take Emilie to her house, nearly getting washed away by mud slides along the way. Approaching the door, Connie notices an area of disturbed grass where someone slipped and fell, and she finds a crowbar in the mud nearby. The house is dark, and the front door is hanging open.
Inside the house, they find the dead body of Emilie's grandfather, along with the body of a young man, whom Emilie identifies as "Clem". Emilie says that Clem was there with someone named "Billy", who is nowhere to be seen. Between the two bodies is a shotgun, which has been fired, and an antique brass box about the size of a shoebox. Strangely, neither of the dead men appear to have been shot. Emilie's grandfather has no visible injuries (Emilie had said earlier that he may have had a heart attack), and the other man looks wizened and twisted, and all of his joints are bent at odd angles.
Emilie continues to be no help at all, repeatedly asking for help for her grandfather (who is clearly dead). Dusty goes to the basement and starts the generator, restoring light to the house. He also checks the phone, which is not working.
Connie notices a strange flash of light in the woods outside, which does not seem to match the lightning and thunder overhead. Then a strange shape, not quite light, not quite liquid, moving and not moving, comes out of the trees and moves (yet does not move) toward the house. It is the Dead Light!
Dusty and Connie flee the apparition, taking Emilie with them. Dusty pushes the Blazer to its limits in the pouring rain, and manages to leave the Dead Light behind. They return to the diner.
Connie calls the police to report the deaths of Doctor Webb and the injured Emilie. Meanwhile Jake Burns, the truck driver, is getting increasingly anxious as Dusty tells of what they found at the Webb house. Finally, it is too much: Jake Burns pays his tab and walks out into the rain toward his truck. They do not see Jack Burns again.
Continuing their story, Dusty and Connie learn Clem and Billy are "thick as thieves".
The police arrive around an hour later, assuring everyone that they will take Emilie to the hospital in Bolton. After they put Emilie in the car, the gang sees a strange flash of light through the rain, out near the parked semi. The police also see it, and move to investigate. The gang loses sight of the police in the downpour, but a few minutes later they hear gunshots. Then silence. One of the police officers appears out of the rain and returns to the diner, babbling incoherently.
Connie goes out into the rain and smashes the window of the police car to get to Emilie, and brings her back inside the diner. Connie calls the police again, and reports that the police had arrived, but that there were gunshots, one of the officers is missing, and the other is incoherent. The police say they will send more cops.
The remaining diner patrons grow increasingly anxious. A while later, there is a scream from the kitchen. Charging into the kitchen, Connie and Dusty see the Dead Light hovering over the twisted, burning body of Mary Laker. They try in vain to rescue Mary, but it is to no avail: she's a goner. Thankfully, the Dead Light retreats back into the rain, leaving a Dead Light-sized hole burned into the back door and the wall around it.
This is too much, and everyone decides that it's time to leave the diner. Connie and Dusty take Emilie with them through the downpour to the motorhome, while the rest of the surviving diners pile into Sam Keelham's Chevy Blazer. Sam's Chevy drives north, and Dusty follows close behind.
The weather make staying on the road difficult, but they manage to keep control of the vehicles. Then a light appears in the road ahead. It is the Dead Light! The Chevy veers left and right to try and go around it, but the truck skids and runs off the road into the trees. Dusty sticks to the road, leaving the wrecked Chevy, Orchard Run, and the Dead Light behind.
Hours later, the rain lets up and the sun rises on Bolton Oregon. Connie and Dusty drop Emilie off at a small hospital, and continue on their way.
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