Events

6:00 AM: The Investigators are summoned to Well #3 by the foreman. The workers have found carvings on the wellhead along with a large quantity of blood. Along with the runes and the blood, workers will also find the withered body of the child.

10:00 am: The Investigators receive a phone call from Kathy O'Bannon at their hotel. If they aren't there, they get a message when they return. She wants to meet them to tell them of her trysts with Ridley and Whipple.

12:00 Noon: They meet with Kathy O'Bannon in a private place (an abandoned water well on Oak Street). She tells them all about Ridley and Whipple and their violent competition for her affections.

3:00 pm: Kathy O'Bannon departs for the seashore. She wanders by the old cave where her father first found oil seepage and is killed by the Ridley-Spawn. The Spawn throws her body out into the ocean.

11:00 pm: Kathy O'Bantion's body is found by two kids making out on the beach.

11:55 pm: O'Bannon's thugs drag the Investigators away from whatever they are doing into a meeting with O'Bannon. He's furious about the death of his daughter and demands results.

12:00 pm: The Ridley-Spawn performs the second rite and sacrifices another victim to empower the runes at Well #3.

After Midnight: The Investigators learn that O'Bannon is leaving town and they gain another clue.

Goals

The runes, blood and remains of the child should clue the Investigators that it would be a good idea to stake out the well.

Talking with Kathy O'Bannon will give them a suspect with a motive (Ridley).

Investigators will want to question the townsfolk about Ridley. People to question: Coworkers, Ridley's Mom, his landlady and O'Bannon.

Consequences

If Investigators go to the well that night, O'Bannon's thugs will "pick them up" for a heated discussion with the Irishman about the death of his daughter. If the Investigators decide to leave someone behind, he'll have a lethal encounter with the Ridley-Spawn.

Details for Day Two: Little Old Man

When the Investigators get called down to the site where Billy's body has been found, they will encounter what can best be described as a "little old man." Billy's tiny four-year-old body has been shriveled. His skin is tight on his bones, almost translucent. Bones poke at the thin layer of skin and the thick black ichor that was once his blood pumps slowly through his veins with a sickening slowness.

That's right: Billy is still alive.

He's clinging on to life with his single point of POW. Finding Billy in this state will cause the Investigators to lose 1/d4 SAN. If the Investigators try and move him to the local doctor, they will find that his extremities are as brittle as sandstone. Trying to lift Billy will only complicate matters, as his fingers and toes will disintegrate in the party's hands. This sight will cost the Investigators an additional 0/1 SAN.

Finally, ask the Investigators who are carrying Billy make DEX checks. If one of them fails even once, Billy's corrupted body breaks in half and his organs and thick black blood spill all over the ground and the Investigators. This will cause a 1/1d6 SAN loss. Even if the Investigators get Billy to a vehicle, he will die before they can get a chance to get him to medical attention.

The other very important clue at the site are the runes that are carved around Well #3. They are indecipherable and the well workers cannot explain how they got there. However, there is blood smeared into the carvings (found with a successful Spot Hidden check).

O'Bannon's Daughter

The Investigators get a message from Katherine O'Bannon. The way she gets the message to them varies on where they are at around 10 am. She could send out one of her daddy's thugs to meet them, she could leave a message at their hotel, or just find them herself. Either way, she needs to talk to them about... things.

Katherine is small with dark red hair and a trim figure that she accentuates with her dresses. She has her hair cut short (quite scandalous in such a small town) and wears soft make-up to highlight her bright green eyes. She meets the Investigators for lunch (or dinner, if that's more convenient) and tells them quite frankly about her affairs with Whipple and Ridley. She smokes clove cigarettes during lunch and makes shrouded flirtations at each of the Investigators as she tells her story.

When she started her affair with Ridley, she did so just to anger her father. They used to meet at the cave that made her father rich: a little cavern by the ocean that is thick with oil seepage. Her father used it as a hideout when the Feds got a bit too close. When he realized what the oil in the cave meant, he got some investors and made a killing. He moved his wife and daughter to New Jerusalem to get away from the action that was going on in Boston. He kept all his contacts, left on good terms and retired a rich man.

Katherine, however, did not approve of the move. She loved the lifestyle of a gangster's daughter, and when her mother died of cancer a year ago, she snapped. She drives up to Boston every night and gambles away her allowance and drinks until she can't stand and spends the night with men who don't even remember her name in the morning. She started flirting with Ridley just to watch her father's fury, but even that was not enough, so she started up another affair with Ridley's assistant and best friend, Arthur Whipple. The two friends suddenly turned into bitter competitors. The morning before Ridley disappeared, there was a fist fight between Ridley and Whipple that ended up with the other oil workers pulling the men apart.

Katherine tells the Investigators all of this (the workers on the yard won't; they want to protect Ridley because of their strong devotion for the man) and tell them that she's convinced that Ridley did away with Whipple. She doesn't know how he did it; "He was always such a gentle man."

Whatever time the Investigators meet Katherine, she will leave them feeling nostalgic and will wander down to the cave at the beach. Unfortunately, that's also where the Ridley- Spawn is hanging out. She will see Ridley hiding in the cave, approach her old lover and try to embrace him. The Ridley- Spawn will proceed to tear her into pieces and throw her into the ocean. Her body will be found washed up ' on the shore by two kids from Boston University making out on the beach at approximately 11pm

. Their screams alert a deputy who's watching them with binoculars. He'll come down to the beach, recognize the bloated face and notify the sheriff and O'Bannon immediately.

Staking Out Well # 3

If the Investigators start putting one and one together, they'll figure out that they'd better stake out the well tonight. If they don't, no big deal. They'll just have another body on their hands in the morning and fresh blood on the runes. But if they do decide to stake out the well, they're going to be in for a rude surprise.

At about 11:45, that black limousine pulls up to the yard and O'Bannon's three thugs step out and walk right up to the Investigators. The boss wants to see them right now. If they resist, they get blackjacked.

Notify them that killing the thugs would be a bad idea. Such an act would bring bad press to the Bureau and would also endanger the investigation. Going along with the thugs is the best idea. Of course, if the Investigators want to split up and leave someone behind, they are more than welcome to do so.

The Ritual

At midnight, the Ridley-Spawn arrives with its new victim and begins the ritual once again. Any Investigator watching the ritual will lose 1/d4 SAN as the dark sorcery rips holes in time and space. Also, anyone watching the ritual must make a POW vs. POW test or get sucked into the energies of the ritual. The ritual has a beginning POW of 10. Every turn, this POW pins one point. Every turn they remain near the site of the ritual, the Investigators must make a new POW vs POW test.

If they fail the test, they begin losing 1d6 Magic Points per turn. When the run out of Magic Points, they start losing a point of POW every turn. Remember, an Investigator with zero POW suffers the same fate as poor little Billy. The only way to stop the POW drain is to stop the ritual. The only way to do that is to face the Spawn.

Facing the Spawn

This is a bad idea.

The Investigators are not prepared to face the Spawn and will get themselves slaughtered if they try. Bullets will harm Ridley's body, but not the Spawn. Black ooze will spill out and perform a Whipping Strike at the Investigators, striking with a 60% accuracy for 1d6 damage. It can attack d3 Investigators within reach with this attack (reach of the Spawn is approximately 15' in this form).

The Ridley-Spawn can also use an Enveloping attack with a 30% accuracy. The Envelope attack involves a part of the Spawn exploding from Ridley's y a squeezing an Investigator to death. It can only attack a single Investigator a turn this way, and it may still use its Whipping Attack on other Investigators while it uses its Enveloping Attack. Once the strike is successful, the Enveloped Investigator will take I -damage per turn. Witnessing the Spawn use each attack for the first time will cause an Investigator I/d4 SAN.

You can handle an encounter with the Spawn one of two ways. You can make it gentle, or you can make it hurt. If the Investigators don't get the clue that they are outclassed, even after they've shot the thing up, make it hurt. You don't have to kill them, but you can sure hurt them so bad they wish they left the damn thing alone.

O'Bannon's Flight

The Investigators who don't stay behind are going to get to face a wrathful and drunk Sean O'Bannon. He's seen his daughter and he's convinced that his old connections back in Boston are trying to bring him back.

Under all of his bravado, Sean O'Bannon is scared. Halfway through his drunken tirade, one of his aides informs him that his car is ready and the Investigators watch as he leaves the house with a whole lot of luggage. He tells them they can consider themselves off the case. He gives each of them a large envelope stuffed with cash ($1,000 apiece) and he wishes them good luck. They will never see Sean O'Bannon again.

A Spot Hidden roll by any Investigator will see an open book by the chair that O'Bannon was sitting in. It's Katherine O'Bannon's diary. The book is open to her final entry that reveals where she went before her demise. You can find the entry below.

The Investigators should be able to figure out that Katherine went down to the cave before she was killed. Her body was found on the seashore, and if they inquire about the cave, they'll discover that her body was found not a mile from the location. That should be enough to convince the Investigators to go and take a look at the cave.

Katherine's Diary Entry

Daddy's all wrong about Scotty and Arthur. I can't believe that he'd think that Scotty was sent from Boston, I just can't believe it. He was so gentle, so kind. Maybe I'll go down to the cave today and watch the waves roll in and listen to the sound of them crashing on the shore and think of Scotty. Poor Arthur.

Blowing Up Well #3

Enthusiastic Investigators may get the brilliant idea to drop dynamite down the well to keep more of "whatever the hell that thing was" from coming back.

Let them.

First off, they'll need to get one of the roughnecks (oil workers) to pull up the drillbit. A few thousand feet of drillbit can't be pulled up easily by a few Feds and flatfoots.

Once they've got the help and know-how, they can get all that steel up out of the ground and begin dropping sticks of dynamite down the shaft.

Remember, we've got crude oil down there. Explosions of this kind are likely to rip up the earth they're walking on, not to mention cracking the seals that are keeping the Spawn asleep. The waking Spawn will flow up the tube and (since they've been asleep for so long and are so very hungry) will start eating anything in sight.

That'll teach 'em to leave well enough alone.

Call of Cthulhu Crude Oil (Part 1)

Introduction
Day One
Day Two
Day Three
Characters

Crude Oil Part 2