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Actual Play

Cthulhu Dark: The Watcher in the Valley – Session 3

Our fourth and final session of Cthulhu Dark, continuing from session zero, session one, and session two, running through the classic Call of Cthulhu module The Watcher in the Valley by Kevin A. Ross, from the anthology Tales of the Miskatonic Valley. This was our miniseries finale, played with a smaller group than usual. We had several horrific scenes in fast succession, and it made for a satisfying ending. Read on for the play report.

Play report

The characters

  • Margaret “Peggy” Sullivan, stenographer (DZ)
  • Howard Pemberton, automobile mechanic (NtH)

What happened

We resume play on the morning of Day 7. On her way out of the camp together with her sister Winnifred, Peggy runs into the Stubbs brothers. They’ve brought moonshine and want to sell it to the dig crew. Reluctantly, Peggy and Winnifred take them back to the camp. No one is interested in the moonshine. The men leave again.

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Actual Play

Cthulhu Dark: The Watcher in the Valley – Session 2

Our third session of Cthulhu Dark, continuing from session zero and session one, running through the classic Call of Cthulhu module The Watcher in the Valley by Kevin A. Ross, from the anthology Tales of the Miskatonic Valley. This time around, I committed to really leaning into the directorial stance implied by Cthulhu Dark, and away from the wargamey, sandboxy approach I’ve gotten used to running classic D&D. As a result, we covered about double the in-game time we did in previous sessions. There was less dice rolling. Less extended NPC conversation. More hard cuts. It felt right. Read on for the play report.

Play report

The characters

  • Philip Hennessey, itinerant photographer (MG)
  • Margaret “Peggy” Sullivan, stenographer (DZ)
  • Howard Pemberton, automobile mechanic (NtH)
  • Chester Holbrook, visiting nurse (HB)

What happened

We resume on the afternoon of Day 3. Two new arrivals at the dig. Howard Pemberton has been driving along the Pike in his flashy car when he spots the marsh from his dreams and decides to pull over and investigate. Philip Hennessey rejoins the group as well. He’d gone back to town to develop his film. Photos taken in and around the mound have turned out completely black. Must have been some kind of technical error.

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Actual Play

Cthulhu Dark: The Watcher in the Valley – Session 1

Our second session of Cthulhu Dark, continuing from Session 0, running through the classic Call of Cthulhu module The Watcher in the Valley by Kevin A. Ross, from the anthology Tales of the Miskatonic Valley. The dig goes on. The investigators dig deeper—in every sense—and things at the camp are getting stranger.

The characters

This session sees a different lineup from Session 0. Winnie and Philip are laid up in their tents with some kind of food poisoning, and two new faces join the dig.

  • Josephine Hartley, bookkeeper (TM)
  • Margaret “Peggy” Sullivan, stenographer (DZ)
  • Chester Holbrook, nurse (HB)
  • Edmund Thorne, stringer (JW)

What happened

We resume on the afternoon of the second day. Chester introduces himself to Francks. Edmund talks to Hanshaw and learns about his motivations for being at the dig. Peggy cares for Minnie and Philip, who are unwell in their tents. Meanwhile, Josephine sneaks back into Mills’s tent and steals his revolver and a box of ammo. Our bookkeeper is not messing around.

The group decides to investigate the Anakoke village. Hanshaw drives them over in his sedan. They pass ancient, abandoned farms on the way, then make the quarter-mile trek through the forest to the old dig site. Several square pits mark the locations of previous excavations. Chester and Josephine investigate and are treated to horrific visions of the village being burned down. In the ruins, they find a small statue of a monstrous, betentacled frog. They return to camp shaken but with a prize.

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Actual Play

Cthulhu Dark: The Watcher in the Valley – Session 0

We played our first session of Cthulhu Dark last week, running through the classic Call of Cthulhu module The Watcher in the Valley by Kevin A. Ross, from the anthology Tales of the Miskatonic Valley. This has been a long time coming (seven, almost eight years, according to my notes), and I’m thrilled we finally made it happen. What follows is a play report from our first session, along with some GM reflections on preparation and running the game.

Play Report

The Characters

Our cast of investigators consists of Josephine Hartley, a bookkeeper; Winifred “Winnie” Graves, a millworker; Margaret “Peggy” Sullivan, a stenographer; and Philip Hennessey, an itinerant photographer.

What Happened

On a Monday in late summer of 1929, the investigators travel to the dig, each with their own reasons for being there. Phillip is on assignment. Josephine is delivering books. Winnie and Peggy are volunteering. They take the bus and get off at a BSAIR marker on the turnpike, then walk the rest of the way.

They cross a decrepit covered bridge, then come to a second one with three cars parked in front of it. They cross this as well and arrive at a deserted camp. Hearing noises from the woods on the other side, they investigate and discover a group of people busy removing two stones from a mound in a swamp. As they watch, one stone disintegrates with a loud popping sound.

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Notes

Year in Review – 2025 – Steady State

Welcome to the sixth annual review on this blog. (Previous annual reviews: 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024.) Another year has come and gone, and my overall sense is that there were no major events on either the personal or professional side, and the gaming just sort of chugged along. Which, to be honest, I do not mind at all. Read on for more on what we played, what I homebrewed, media I consumed, the blogging I did, and some resolutions for the year to come.

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Actual Play

Planet Karus – Session 34

It had been 13 weeks since the previous session. Sometimes life just gets in the way of D&D. But that’s fine, we eventually find our way back to the table every time. The players were chomping at the bit, and Xull’s player’s presence made it mandatory to have another go at defeating the boogiemen. This one challenged by refereeing chops. I had to balance accurately simulating the response of a 150+ encampment of monsters with playability and pace at the table. I think it went okay, although to be honest, I think this type of D&D kind of breaks down once we get beyond a certain number. At this scale, I feel like I’d rather be chucking a bunch of d6s, Chainmail-style.

Planet Karus session 34, in which the party finally moves against the boogieman threat, Ploikal rains sleep spells from above while invisible and airborne, Xull’s cursed claw reveals its terrible power as Cista’s spirit tears free to join the slaughter, an alien ray gun proves devastatingly effective against brutes, Sergeant Uzildar falls in battle, and Tribe Glavrac is wiped from the face of the Iron Slopes—earning our heroes a promised statue in their honor.

Read on over at planetkar.us.

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Actual Play

Planet Karus – Session 33

This play report is from a game that happened two weeks ago. It’s a rare occasion that I actually manage to get the party to run for their lives. It took an iron statue to make that happen, which is saying a lot.

Planet Karus session 33, in which the party attempts to infiltrate an ancient mech in the Yellow Flats but finds their way blocked by Gonazir, a massive iron statue who serves the god of war, pivots to plunder the guild hall’s underground chambers instead, and discovers that Ploikal has been holding back on his lightning bolt capabilities this entire time.

Read on over at planetkar.us.

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Actual Play

Planet Karus – Session 32

I am behind on posting play reports. This one is from session we had in August.

Planet Karus session 32, in which Pholgon and Ploikal sneak through boogieman lines to reach Khodang Town to liquidate treasure, Ploikal narrowly avoids arrest as a wanted criminal for his past magical merchant manipulations, quantum serpents kill Pholgon’s orux on the return journey, and the duo infiltrates the farmers’ guild hall to discover ancient cave systems beneath containing alien god murals and magical artifacts including Vasith’s Ring of Coercion and the Spear of Ssyrinthian.

Read on over at planetkar.us.

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Actual Play

Planet Karus – Session 31

“Let’s return to that farmers’ guild hall, bullshit our way in, and continue to explore that dungeon underneath it” said my players at the start of this session. A brief debate was had about whether it would really be that easy to get back inside without trouble. They were only two players after all, and even though they were running a level six magic-user and a thief level five/fighter level 2, things might get hairy… “Nah” they concluded, “it will be fine” and went at it.

Things quickly devolved, and they found themselves swarmed by cultists. If it wasn’t for some grade-A maneuvering, judicous use of some powerful items, and an ever so slight bit of luck, this would have been a TPK. We ended the session with both characters at exactly one hit point! So close!

Also, this probably marks the single longest running battle we ever played through in our D&D careers to date. That may sound boring, but it certainly wasn’t thanks to all the cool tactics and stunts involved.

In which our heroes infiltrate the corrupted farmers’ guild hall and discover the cult of Gelathrax has taken hold, leading to a deadly battle with the slime-soaked high priest Morival and his tentacle-worshipping followers.

Read on over at planetkar.us.

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Actual Play

Planet Karus – Session 30

Over a year after breaking into the original farmers’ guild hall and possibly causing its collapse and almost half a year after funding its reconstruction and learning about a mysterious hatch inside, the players returned to break in, pilfer, and explore again.

We only had two players, but they run high-level characters (a sixth-level magic user and a thief level 5 / fighter level 2), so we had ourselves a fun little spec ops-style session.

I also got a kick out of pulling out some stuff that I must have started preparing over a year ago and had filed away for whenever the players would finally go and explore in that direction. A fully homebrewed campaign is starting to take off as the pace of prep exceeds the pace of play, and a very rich and varied sandbox with many directions for players to explore has formed.

In which Ploikal and Gorakal break into the farmers’ guild hall under cover of invisibility, dodge an ectoplasmic attack, witness a mysterious meeting, discover a wizard-locked trapdoor beneath the statue of Yiggub, and venture into an underground cave system filled with serpent-toothed skeletons and lizard-men—all while narrowly avoiding detection by the cult leader Morival and his followers.

Read on over at planetkar.us.