The Mystery Of The Missing Heir
Campaign: Scooby Cthulhu
Jump to navigation Jump to searchThe infant heir of the Famish family fortune has been kidnapped! Is Hideyori's aunt responsible?
Recording of game session, part 1 (YouTube)
Recording of game session, part 2 (YouTube)
Burling Famish, Jr. describes his deceased uncle, Sinus Cavender (YouTube)
Summary
(Spoiler alert: this summary reveals plot details of the adventure "The Kidnapping", by Gareth Hanrahan, from the Pelgrane Press sourcebook Arkham Detective Tales.)
Part 1
After traveling cross-country in Dusty's motorhome, and after several strange adventures, the Miskatonic gang finally arrives in San Fransisco to visit Hideyori's great-aunt Miyoshi. When Hideyori tells the gang who his aunt works for, Dusty immediately recognizes the family as being "old money", and one of the wealthiest of the West Coast "old money" families.
They arrive at Spreckels Mansion (front, back, above, plan) at around 10PM, and are met at the door by an elderly gentleman, Colonel Seyton Ethelquake. After being challenged by Colonel Ethelquake, Hideyori says that he is here to see his aunt, Miyoshi Livingston. Ethelquake tells the Miskatonic gang to follow him, and he storms back inside, expecting them to follow. Colonel Ethelquake leads them to a luxurious salon, where they meet Hideyori's aunt and her employers, Burling Famish, Jr. and Pristy Famish. Everyone seems upset, but at first it is not clear why.
Hideyori introduces himself and his friends to Mrs. Livingston in Japanese, and asks what has happened. She explains to him that Adam Famish, the infant son of Pristy Famish and Burling Famish, Jr., is missing. She was the only person home at the time, but she does not know what happened or how the infant was taken.
Meanwhile, Dusty takes the lead in trying to defuse the tension and get some straight answers (interrupted several times by Burling Famish, Jr., who demands to know why Colonel Ethelquake let the gang in, exclaiming several times, "Who are these people?!?"). According to the Famishes, the couple went to dinner, leaving Adam in the care of Mrs. Livingston. On their way home, they picked up Colonel Ethelquake, who asked to borrow a book. When they arrived home, Adam was gone. All of the doors and windows were locked, and Mrs. Livingston said it had been a quiet evening with nothing unusual. Burling Famish, Jr. expresses the opinion that it is a simple kidnapping for ransom, and that as soon as they receive the kidnappers' demands he'll pay them and everything will go back to normal.
Dusty urges the Famishes to permit Connie to look around the infant's room, to see if she can find any clues, and they agree. Connie confirms that the window is locked from the inside, but when she checks for fingerprints, she finds a man's fingerprint on the windowsill. Opening the window and looking outside, she sees that the shrubbery below the window is trampled.
Meanwhile, Dusty and D.J. explore the rest of the second floor. They find a locked library stocked with occult books, and a diary under a floorboard in Mrs. Livingston's room. The diary belonged to Maria, the nanny the Famishes had hired before Adam was born. According to the Famishes, Maria had left their employ shortly after Adam's birth, but the diary tells a very different story. Some passages are in Spanish, but several of the gang speak Spanish, so that is not an issue for them.
After exploring the second floor, the Miskatonic gang takes a look in the locked basement. The basement is stocked with professional quality but antiquated chemical equipment and supplies. They find a beach-ball-sized stone which is currently being inscribed with celtic runes. They also find a ceramic tub with the remains of caustic lye (sodium hydroxide) in it.
While the rest of the Miskatonic gang is exploring, Hideyori manages to get the truth out of his aunt. She says that the Famishes are demon worshippers, and that they did unspeakable things to Maria. Adam is not their child: he is Maria's, and Mrs. Livingston conspired with a handyman to have the child taken away and given to a good family. After getting a description of the handyman and the details of their plan, Hideyori urges his aunt to go far away. She says she will go back to Japan. Hideyori escorts her to a payphone down the block and waits with her until she is picked up by a taxi.
When the Miskatonic gang gets together and compares notes, they agree that the Famishes are terrible people. Based on what Dusty recollects from what his father has told him about them, they also deduce that Burling Famish, Jr., who appears to be in his 40s, should be at least twice that age. D.J. calls some contacts to see if there have been any complaints from their neighbors, and discovers that about six months ago, there were complaints of a loud bubbling noise, followed shortly afterward by a sound like a gunshot, and a few days later there was a horrific stench that lasted over a day.
When they return to the salon, Burling Famish, Jr. and Colonel Ethelquake are arguing over the quality of Scottish felt versus Dutch felt, while Pristy is reading a fashion magazine. The Miskatonic gang says that they should be going, but Burling Famish, Jr. insists that they stay the night, and tells them to have Mrs. Livingston (who has already left) prepare rooms for them. They reluctantly agree, but they keep one person awake and on guard all night.
The night passes uneventfully.
In the morning, D.J wakes first when someone comes to the door. It is Teak Armbruster, who was mentioned in Maria's diary as having "cruel eyes". He and Burling Famish, Jr. discuss the missing infant, as well as the strangely coincidental arrival of the Miskatonic gang, and it becomes clear to the eavesdropping D.J. that Teak Armbruster is a "get things done" type of individual -- and not someone to take lightly.
To be continued...
Part 2
As D.J. eavesdrops on the conversation between Teak Armbruster and the Famishes, he is surprised when Armbruster abruptly heads for the door to salon -- beghind which D.J. is standing. Thinking quickly, D.J. steps into a hall closet and shuts the door.
Armbruster heads upstairs and interrogates the rest of the Miskatonic gang, demanding to know why they were there. Only Hideyori gives Armbruster a straight answer, but Armbruster doesn't believe him.
The mornng post brings news: the kidnappers have sent a ransom note. They want $50,000 in two days, in exchange for Adam Famish. The money is to be dropped off at the Berkeley BART station. The Famishes and Teak Armbruster retire to the salon to discuss the details. Meanwhile, the Miskatonic gang examines the discarded envelope, and see that it was postmarked in Berkeley three days ago -- before the kidnapping. They pile into the motorhome and head to Berkeley.
At the Berkeley post office, Connie and Hideyori find out that the certified letter was sent by a drunk young man, and they are given his return address. Meanwhile, D.J. finds out from his contacts that men meeting the description of "Thomas" the handyman and his helper are local criminals: Jack "Iron Jaw" Tugdon and Happy "Fingers" Codburn. They are part of the Tugdon gang, a group of a half-dozen or so criminals who operate down by the docks. Dusty makes a gin and tonic back at the motorhome.
The gang finds the return address of the certified letter: a two-room shack on a short pier down at the docks. Hideyori delivers Chinese food to the front door of the shack as a distraction, while the rest of the gang borrows a boat and gains entry through a trap door under the shack. A brief battle ensues, in which several people are shot (including D.J.), but no one is killed.
The only criminal unharmed is Happy "Fingers" Codburn, who surrendered after seeing his compatriots taken down. He leads the gang to his parents' house in Rio Vista, CA, where the infant has been taken.
On arrival, the Miskatonic gang is greeted by Fingers' mother and her Tommy gun. She sprays the area with bullets, but the only damage is to Fingers' car. D.J. puts her down with a well-placed hit from his shotgun (she is incapacitated, but she survives).
While Connie and D.J. keep Ma Codburn covered, Hideyori and Dusty run behind the house, where they spy Pa Codburn running up the hill with the infant. The path leads up to a rocky outcropping among some trees, which is where they lose sight of Pa Codburn.
They find a concealed entrance in the rocky outcropping, which leads to a steep winding passage deep into the earth. They go in, and down, and down, marveling at the ancient carvings on the walls and ceiling of the stone passage. The tunnel eventually opens up into a round chamber, where Pa Codburn is beating his fist against a stone wall, pleading for someone to open it. No one does.
Hideyori and Dusty take the crying infant and go back to the surface, but not before a bright blue light illuminates the hallway behind them. They decide not to go back down and investigate, and flee to the surface.
The gang reunites, and decides that whatever is at the bottom of that tunnel should not be allowed to come out. They plant explosives and collapse the tunnel, possibly with Pa Codburn inside (but possibly not).
After a brief discussion, they drive to Oregon and drop the infant off at a hospital, where they hope it will find a loving adoptive family who don't want to kill it or sacrifice it to ancient gods.
They then return to San Fransisco and, using the plentiful chemical supplies in the basement of Spreckels Mansion, they gas the house, presumably killing everyone inside but leaving the house itself (a local landmark) intact. Connie and Hideyori are shaken by this act of deliberate murder, but Dusty and D.J. sleep like babies, knowing that a great evil has been extinguished from the world.
Or at least, they assume so.
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