BACKGROUND

It is early June 1932, and the big cities of the East Coast are rapidly emptying as rhe affluent flock to resorts in various states. One popular resort is the area of St. Jean's Sound on the coast of Maine, a little known area where many wealthy families maintain regular summer retreats in the three small towns, St. Jean, Soundsend, and French Head. Each town is distinguished by the origins of its summer residents. St. Jean is preferred by Philadelphians, Sounds-end by Bostonians, and French Head by New Yorkers. In addition to the many summer houses there are many rental cottages and several summer hotels. The main attractions of the area are boating on the sound, one of the few natural fjords on the East Coast of North America, and mountain climbing on the small mountains areound the sound. The whole area is undeveloped, and the year-round population is small made up mostly of lobstermen.

The sound was first noted in 1534 by the explorer Jacques Cart-ier, but the official landing and discovery was by Samuel de Champlain in 1605. The first settlement was a group of Benedictine missionaries landed among the Aremaco indians at French Head by Jean Nicolet in 1634, They established the Abbey of St. John the Good on the headland above Echo Cove on the sound. While all of the details are not known, it is assumed that the moneatary was destroyed in 1341 in an indian uprising, as a supply ship which arrived late that year found the monestary empty and the tribe gone. No attempt was made to reestablish the monestary, but a new settlement was made by Englishmen from the Virginia Colony in 1666 and they established the original town at Soundsend, which was chartered by the New England Company in 1669. The other two towns were started around the turn of the century as the fishing and lobster industries expanded.

INTRODUCTION

The party for this scenario should have some reason or vacationing together. The ideal selection would be a family, including a mother and father with 2-6 children of various ages, but with no more than 3 older than 15. Perhaps a couple of family friends or older relatives would also be possible. If the family worked out has more members than there are players, you might have one player take all of the younger children to play. A less acceptable alternative is for the party to be made up of a group of vacationing business or academic aasociates (no more than 4 or 5). who are hunting in the Maine woods for a few weeks. The family set-up, with no more than 2 family guests would be a more enjoyable approach to the adventure.

In any case, the party has rented the Soames house in Soundsend (see map of Soundsend). They they come up (probably from Boston) in the second week of June, and settle in. From there, specific events are up to the players actions and the gamemaster's judgement as outlined in the following sections

THE TOWN OF SOUNDSEND

Soundsend, as shown to the right is a small village, running along Maine Rt. 342 at the head of St. Jean's Sound. The town has a total year-round population of only 75 persons, including those in the outlying areas not shown on the map. In the summer this increases to around 300 people at the peak of the season. There is no mayor and no town council per-se. Aministrative decisions are made by a full meeting of the town's year-round population. There is one regular meeting a year, in March, at which a chairman is elected. Any other business is done at meetings which are specially called by the chairman. There really isn' t much business to do and things go on much the same way from year to year. The major areas of the town are detailed below.

1/This is the Peabody house, wnith is occupied year-round. By Jeremiah Peabody and his family. He is a lobsterman.

2/This is the Glencovey Inn, owned by Sarah McKarrick, whose late husband was a major land-holder in the area and had a fleet of lobster boats. The inn has stood in the same place since 1761, when it was built for hunters who came up from Boston. She bought it from so that she would have an occupation after she was widowed. She has made a going concern of it by advertising in major city newspapers. The inn has about 75 rooms and can hold some 150 people with ease. It also owns a number of small summer cottages for use by vacationing families. Rates are reasonable, running $5-12 for a person per night plus meals.

3/These summer cottages are owned by the inn. They are not winterized, and rent at a rate of $250 a month. They can hold a fami1y of five fairly comfortably and have kitchens, although it is also possible to eat at the inn.

4/These are year-round houses owned and lived in by various lobstermen and their families.

5/This is Higby's store, the only store in town. It is a combination market, butcher shop, grocery, dime-store, hardware store and post office. It provides a little bit of anything and will also order special items by mail. Francis Higby runs the store and also supervises the harbor. He is traditionally elected chairman of the town council. Martha Higby is his wife and is also post-mistress. There is no mail delivery, but everyone has a box in the store. They have two sons and a daughter, all in their mid-teens. They help around the store.

6/This is the harbor. There are some 12 lobster boats moored here all year round, plus an additional 10 motor launches and 16 sail boats during the summer. There are skiffs at the dock to get out to the moorings. A ferry which goes to St. Jean, French Head and the islands stops at the wharf every day at noon, and at 5pm as well during the summer. Social trips and excursions can also be arranged through the ferry office in French Head.

7/The wharf. There is a gas-tank here for boat engines, plus another for deisel. Francis Higby is in charge of them and users pay at the store. Skiffs are tied up here as are the two motor boats rented out by Higby and the motor boat and 3 sail boats owned by the Clencovey Inn for rental to their patrons. 30at rental runs about $3 per day.

8/ Route 342. It is a paved, two-lane road, but could use some more up-keep.

9/The Soundaend Museun, containing various memorabilia from the early days of the town. There are lots of pictures of shipwrecks, big fish and old boats, plus driftwood knicknacks and assorted 'treasures'. in an old sea chest from a ship called the 'Sarah Anne are a collection of ancient books taken from the old monestary. They are all hand~ritten manuscripts, all in either Latin or French. They include copies of: St. Augustine's Confessions, the Maleus Maleficarum, the Liber Monstrorum, the Codex Sancti Guinfordus, the De Daemonia of Bodin, sod the Os M~icum of Wayer. Of these ah seem to be reasonable scholarly and clerical works to those who can read them, except for the third and fourth ones. The Liber Monstrorum seems to contain several charms for conjuring up nature spirits, specifically minor Genius Loci type entities, the spirits who exist in and protect specific places and have powers appropriate to that ares. Those who read and understand should lose 1D20 REA temporarily, regaining 1 point per day. However, they will be able to summon Genius Locii, at least to communicate, although they can only compel them to aid or answer questions by performing a service of some sort. The Codex Sancti Guinfordus seems to be a spurious work about a dog who performed miracles and was a Saint.

10/This is the Higby house. It is a large old captains house, with a look-out on top and a rather fanciful design. It is also the only house in the village which has a tennis court, but the Higbys will generally not lend it out.

11/Demarin's Motor-Shop. This is an old carriage house and sailmaker's shop which has been bought recently by Paul Demarin, a Canadian mechanic from Quebec. He will fix wheels for wagons, shoe horses and~do other blackamithing, but his main interest is engines, and he loves to work on both boat and automobile engines. He is tolerated by the town but looked on as a little odd, because of his foreignass and progressive interests. He keeps storage tanks of Kerosene, Gasoline, Motor Oil and Deisel on hand, and will sell any of them to those who ask. His tanks are refilled by a distributor once a week. He tends to run out on Wednesdays or Thursdays and gcts refilled on Fridays.

12/This is the boathouse where the boats are drawn up to be repaired. There is a winch for lifting engines here as well as equipment for repairing sails and hulls. There are runners from the shore to the interior of the building.

13/This is the Soames house. It rents for $200/month during the summer, and the rent include a sailing skiff which is kept at the dock. The house has 5 bedrooms and can sleep 12 if pushed. It has indour plumbing, running water, and all the amenities. It is furnisned as a summer house, with little of the owner's property, and is handled by a Boston real estate firm. The owner is bit of a mystery. All that is known about him is that his name is Carlton Soames, and he is abroad in Europe and has been for some time. This is the house that the party will be venting.

In the house there is a closet which is locked. Only the real-estate company has a key to the 'owner's closet' and holds a few personal possessions of the owner. Such a closet is standard practice in rental properties. However, in this closet is an ancient ebony box. It a scroll written on parchment so old that it has had to be attached to a more recent backing paper to keep it intact. It is in cuneiform script, and should be obscure to almost anyonebut the most expert ancient linguist. If it should be deciphered, the reader will find that it contains excerpts from something called Book of Kishkamu. It details the instructions for summoning Kishkamu, an entity which is partially described, and seems to be some sort of plant. Should the summoning be performed (it may only be done at the dark of the moon and requires a virgin sacrifice), a black crystal will appear. It is a seed, and if planted and watered, it will grow into Kishkamu in a period of 1D8 hours. See the appendix for information on Kishkamu.

There is a maid who is paid by the realtor who comes in once a week from French Head. There is an office of the real estate agency in French Head. The firm is called Joiner and Morrison. There is no key to the closet there, but they have the key to the house for the renters to pick up on their arrival.

EVENTS & OCCURENCES

These are some noteworthy occurances which form the body of the adventures which take place for our party during the summer. They are dsscribed in detail below, and maps are given where needed.

CALL OF THE KRAKEN

One night soon aftar arriving at Soundsend, the character with the highest CRE has a strange dream. He seems to feel a coldness settle around him and a great pressure building up on top of him, pressing him to the bed. All around him it is dark and there seem to be little flecks of lIght moving around him. He has a REAx3% chance of realizing that he is dreaming that he is under water and a REAx2% chance of knowing that it is the waters of the soun. He gets a strange feeling of doom, but nothing more comes of it that night and the dream fades.

The next night. the dream comes again, but this time he gets a feeling of rending pain in hIs side and a feeling of depression and doom, and wakes up sweating.

The third night his dream becomes more vivid still, and he gets a feeling that someone is calling for help, though he can't percieve it as verbal communication. All of the rest of the previous nights dream is repeated.

The fourth night he seems to be reliving some past event, and is inhabiting the body of some huge creature that is caught in rough waters under a hurricane and because he is too near the surface he is injured and cast roughly against some rocks. This knocks him unconscious in the dream, and he floats up the gulf stream and then is drawn into what the dreamer assumes to he the sound, where he regains consciousness, but is badly wounded and too weak to make it out past the rough waters of the Wash.

The fifth night a weak communication is set up with the mind of the being lying in the ound, who he identifies as the Kraken. The Kraken indicates that it needs help desperatly and will die ithin a week if not aided. It needs a special plaster made of cement and kelp and some other ohemicals which it describes. Most of them can be obtained on order through Higby's or by a trip into F~rench Head. The Kraken sava that it has eno~gh strength to surface once and no more, but If the plaster were applied when it surfoced it vould be able to rest and recover and perhap get out of the sound in a week or two. If it is healed it promises that it will try to reward the person who helps it by finding one of the many wrecks in the area and bringing it to the surface or them. It suggests that the healing be done at night, when it will surface to meet the healers who should come out with the plaster in a boat.

Should they aid it, the application of the plaster will take 1D3+2 hours, and the plaster itself should cost about $30 for ingredients, plus some rime to gather kelp and other natural substances. For stats on the Kraken see the appendix. He will perform one service as soon as he is well. He suggests bringing up the wreck, but other things arising from the other events are possible, as some of them may occur before he is ready to resume activity.

If the party is clever about their reward they will go to the museum in town and check on the cargoes of some of the unretrieved wrecks in the area. If they do they will find that in 1832, the French cutter "La Demoiselle" went down around Bear Island, and was carrying a cargo of gold worth about $100,000 at modern prices. It has never been recovered because of the treacherous waters In the area and the great depth to which it has sunk.

If the Kraken brings the ship and its cargo up, it must be done at night, because there is a Coast Guard station on Bear Islsnd and a lighthouse, so caution must be taken. After the gold is removed, the Kraken will return the ship to the depths and depart. Fencing the gold may be difficult as it bears antique French Government Imprints. Also, in retrieving it there Is some danger as thev must navigate the Wash to get there and it can easily capsize a small boat at night. They have to be at the raising of the ship in order to remove the gold. There should also be a small chance the Coast Guard will catch them.

THE RETURN OF CARLTON SOAMES

It rarely storms in the Sound, but when it does, it is a grim sight. One night a strong gale comes up the sound, and everyone takes refuge inside their houses behind closed shutters gathering at the fire. Just after dinner, while our party is sitting around their fire in the downstairs living room, reading or doing whatever they enjoy most (drinking?), there is a knock on the front door. Naturally, they wonder who could be out on such a forbidding night. The knock comes again and again, until they answer it. If they don't answer it it will get weaker and eventually stop and they will find nothing but a watered down bloodstain on the steps the next morning.

If they open the door they will find a frightened looking older man dressed in ragged clothe of European cut. He is propped up against the door and seems to have been wounded in several places, perhaps from a fall. He is virtually incoherent, and totally exhausted, but begs to be let in. Either before being admitted or when he has gotten his wind back, he identifies himself as Carlton Soames, the owner of the house, and Insists on being let into the Owner's Closet. He has no identification and no keys to the closet. Note that he is actually Soames, but there is little reascn for the vacationers to believe that. If they don't get him into the closet he will try to break in on his own, though he is too weak to succeed without help. If they break in for him he will go right for the scroll in the box and summon the Kishkamu, which he will pitch out of the door as soon as it arrives, so that it will grow in the rain in the front yard. See appendix for Kishkamu stats.

If pressed, he will tell a strange tale. It seems that he is an archaeologist and was working at an excavation at the ancient Babylonian city of Carzal, when he and two colleagues discovered an ancient tomb, which they immediatly opened and emptied of valuables. They escaped the area on a ship out of Aleppo and made their way to Paris to sell the items they had collected, when things began to go wrong. Three large female mummies had been buried with the king whose tomb they had robbed (his name was something like Halevansar). One of his associates, an Englishman named Jack Woletay claimed to have spotted one of the mummies in a dark alley, and the next day he was found ripped to shreds in his Paris apartment. The two survivors planned to leave for London immediately, but when he boarded the boat, Soames was alone. He went straight from London to Boston, but in Boston he spotted one of the mummies, who he calls a Galla, and was chased by it and somewhat wounded. He realized that only the scroll he had found on an earlier expedition in the middle-east might save him, so he stole a car and drove up to Soundsend, only to wreck his car when he thought he saw a Galla running along parallel to it at almost 70 mph in the rain. He was somewhat injured in the crash, but managed to run the rest of the way.

The Kishkamu will stop the Galla, but it will take some time to grow, during which time they will have to hold off the Galla somehow. The Galla will want to take vengeance on all within the house, even if they give them Soames. The Kishkamu will dispell the Galla with its power over darkness, and eventually it will lose its power and become a somewhat stunted maple tree. There are stats on the Galla in the appendix.

A VISIT TO ECHO COVE

One popular spot on the sound is Echo Cove, where vacationers like to go to picnic. The particular points of Interest are the cliffs around the cove, which make great echos and are good for climbing, and the ruined mission which is on the top of the cliffs. There are several possibl occurences at the cove and they are described below by the numbers keyed to the old mission and th caves below it. There is a fair chance that If they go climbing the party will spot the caves; an if they explore the mission they are liable to find the stairs down into the caves. If they don't find them or even think of going to the mission you might have to find some logical way to get ther there if you want to use this section.

1/A bit of a climb up the cliff face there is a small cave entrance behind a screen of rocks ad scrub growth.

2/This is a cavern which is used by rum-runners to store crates of liquor which they smuggle into the country from the Bahamas as part of a covert little Hew England enterprise. There are 24 crates of rum here which they are going to pick up. They will arrive sometime while the characters are exploring the caves and begin to load their rum onto a large motorized fishing boat in the cove. There are 12 of them all told, and they don't take kindly to visitors in their storage area. They are dangerous and ruthless, associated with several crime syndiostea. The statistics for the rum-runners are in the appendix. In addition to the 12 loading the bust there are three more guarding the boat itself. They will probably want to silence anyone who knows of their operation, either on the spot if they catch them, or at a later date if they find out about them.

3/This smaller cavern is used to store a reserve stock of 20 cases of rum in case they are unable to make a run and still have to make their deliveries.

4/These stairs lead up into the basement of the mission. There are two old skeletons here jumbled together wearing the remains of monks robes.

5/This is a monk's cell. It is full of rubbish which has been dragged into it from the other rooms and collapsed areas.

6/This is another cell. It is sealed up and full of the skeletons of a number of indians and monks, all jumbled together. They seem to have been sealed in after they were dead.

7/This cell has had all of the cots from the other cells placed in it (a total of 8). Lain out on each one is a monk. Each wears a black robe, and painted on the chest of each robe is a seven pointed star with strange symbols painted at each point. These 8 monks are in a surprisingly good state of preservation, and can be animated on command by the abbot, who has arranged this undead existence for them. They are described in the appendix. Little of their intellect is left, and animating them takes much of the abbot's power. They may animate spontaneously if disturbed, hut the abbot will be immediatly aware of it.

8/This room has a heavy oak door. Stored in chests in it are all the valuables of the abbey, Including altar cloths, gold candlesticks and other trappings, totalling a value of about $25,000 if sold.

9/This was once used as a dormitory, but now it has a few chairs and a large table. Pere Theophile, the last abbot lays on the table, surrounded by black candles and his grimoires. He is conscious but in a suspended state, waiting for his chance for vengeance. The candles are lit and will stay so forever, or at least as long as his power lasts. He has straightened up and organized the basement. He enters periods of activity lasting a few days every year or so. He is in the process of building up his magical power slowly before he emerges. He can feed on the life force of any living thing if necessary.

He has three grimoires, his own compendium of occult knowledge. They are all written in a mixture of Latin and French, and contain some extremely useful knowledge, covering most aspects of raising the dead and summoning demons. They also include the spell which he has used on himself and his monks, which grants eternal life through suspended animation, stretching the lifespan into a few days every year. The time has twisted his perspective and he will assume that any who come into the abbey are thieves and murderers, even Indians, out to get him ani his brothers.

10/This is a lookout tower which is more or less intact, except for a segment of roof which has fallen in and blocked the stairs down with rubble which will take about 3 hours for three people to dig out. The abbot has deliberatly placed much of the rubble.

11/This was once the chapel of the monestary, but all the trappings have been taken down to room #8 and the benches are set up around the walls of room #9.

12/This was originally the scriptorium of the monestary, but all the books have been taken to the museum at Soundaend.

13/This was originally the stable and workshop of the monestary.

14/This was once a tower and storage room.

15/There is a steep path down here to the cave mouth. Onaracters going down should have a base 25% chance of falling modified for characteristics and climbing skills.

CREATURES AND CHARACTERS

Described below are the major characters and monsters found in this adventure as well as some general examples of types of person or creatures. For specific stats, use the standard stat templates and feel free to elaborate. Suggestions for running these characters in this adventure are given at the end.

CARLTON SOAMES

Carlton Suames is an archaeologist attached to the faculty of Boston College. His immediate situation is related in the body of the adventure. Suffice it to say that he is running from the Galls and needs the Kishkamu. The house in Soundsend has been in his family as a summer home for years. He has spent most of his life abroad however, except for time in study and some vacations at the house, where he did some magical and occult research.

THE KRAKEN

The Kraken is a benevolent and intelligent being, the ancestor of all squids, however he is seriously wounded from encountering a hurricane off the Florida Keys, and suffering from reduced capacity due to the coldness of the waters of the Sound, where he is trapped. He is essentially a giant, sentient squid, some 150ft in total length. He habitually lives in a much warmer climate and wasdragged into the Sound by currents while he was floating unconscious. He is capable of full telepathy, but has only limited strength and energy. Not enough to surface, and not enough to get through the Wash which has rough waters and is quite rocky. He has a really serious wound on his underbelly which will kill him in a few days if not treated by the application of a plaster the composition of which matches the mud of his native waters. He will try to contact the most psychic character telepathically and convince him to help. He will reward those who help him as he can, for example by helping them salvage underwater treasure. Once patched up he will have to rest for two weeks after which he will depart.

PERE THEOPHILE, ABBE DE STE. JEAN LE BON

Pete Theophile is an inhabitant of the ruined Abbey Mission of St. Jean of the cliffs above Echo Cliffs . The mission was founded in 1634 by a group of 15 Benedictine brothers landed be explorer Jean Nicolet. In 1641 the local tribe of Aremaco indians who had initially helped the mission grew tired of the proselytizing presence of monks, and destroyed the mission. Exactly what became of the monks has never been determined, but when a group of English settlers explored the area no bodies were found in or near the mission. In actuality, Father Theophile and several of his brothers escaped the attack by hiding in the deepest cellars and caves below the mission. Knowing that the monks were there, the indians sealed up the entrances from the top and attempted to smoke them out with fires at the cliffside entrance. Naturally, the brothers died of suffocation. However, the outraged spirit of Father Theophile lives on, and although time has sapped the psychic forces which animate his corpse, a driving desire for revenge will move him to action if any invade his sanctuary. He has some ability to project flame, and has a sword of Spanish make. He also has other personal Items and relics with him, and the ablity to animate the remains of his dead brothers. Not surprisingly, he is quite mad and will take assume that any intruder in the ruins is a mortal enemy.

KISHKAMU

Kishkamu is an ancient Babylonian entity which takes the form of a walking tree. From its seed it will root and grow very quickly. It is highly magical in nature. Once grown it appears to be a tree made entirely of black crystal, although it can move and is anything but rigid. It has great power to ward off evil forces, which it will drive away effectively. Its powers include the ability to create and control large areas of darkness and to summon up gale-force wind and rain storms. In addition, the screeching as its branches and leaves rub together causes madness in those who hear, though the effect is only temporary. Itcan attack with its branches or leaves, doing substantial damage with the sharp crystals. The leaves can be throwntowards a target and will do substantial cutting damage, and any target they strike must roll against unconsciousness. Kishkamu has little regard for human life, but will stay if scarmoned for a period of about 6 hours, after which it will shift into an alternate reality. It can theoretically communicate telepathically, or even through moving its leaves to produce sound, but it's unlikely that it will be motivated to do so. If forces of evil are in its presence, it will destroy them, but that's the limit of its interest.

RUM RUNNERS

These are desperate lobstermen who have failed at their craft and have taken to running liquour into the country illegally. They meet boats from the Carribean in the open ocean, pick up cases of liquour, store them in the caves above Echo Cliff and then later mvoe it out by truck to inland locations as far away as New York. They are paranoidly secretive, and trigger-happy. Some are also liable to be drunk and generally angry at the world.

MONKS OF STE. JEAN LE BON

These monks are dead and mumified (smoke cured) in their robes and habits. They are kept in a state of intact preservation by the abbot and may awake or can be awakened as detialed above. They use large spiked clubs in combat, and like to feed on blood. They are faster than the abbot, as they are less worn down. While they are resistant to psychic attacks they have none.

THE GALLA

The Galla are fearsome undead guardian spirits. They appear as large, fast, female mummies, with enlarged claws and fangs. They feed on human blood, like to eat babies and live for vengeance. They can call up storms of wind only, move at incredible speed and inspire fear in all who see them. Only three of a total of seven of them are needed on this adventure. They are after Carlton Soames who is a grave robber in their eyes, and won't stop until they get him, at which point they will rip him apart and feast on him. They cannot be slain, and must be incapacitated or destroyed utterly. Chopping off their head won't stop one, although severing a leg will force them to crawl. Missiile weapons do half damage and projectiles and points of all sorts do the same, tending to pass through their flesh. They are intelligent, but not to be reasoned with. They are highly resistant to all forms of magical attack.