Events

Sometime during the day: The Investigators explore the cave where the Ridley-Spawn is hiding out. The black goo will move in "unnatural" ways (because of their paranoia and the unsteady light from their flashlights). They see heavy footprints and a human form in the distance. They chase the form. It runs away. They follow the footprints to a large pool of "oil" and the footprints walk right up to the edge and disappear.

Midnight: The Investigators hide out at Well #3. They encounter the Ridley-Spawn (for better or worse).

Goals

The Investigator's primary goal is stopping the Ridley, Spawn from performing another ritual.

Consequences

If the Investigators do not visit the cave, they may not get the clue about the flammability of the Ridley-Spawn.

If the Spawn is successful, it will release the magical barrier that traps its brethren, and the town will be annihilated by a swarm of the Formless Spawn of Tsothoggua, which will spring from the well in an unholy gusher.

If the Investigators manage to stop the Spawn, its fellows will remain trapped in their cyclopean tomb.

Details For Day Three

At the Cave

Unless they are complete dunderheads (and that's what the Idea Roll is for, folks!), the Investigators will go down and check out the cave. It's a creepy place with long, shifting shadows and black water. The echoes from the dripping are amplified a thousand times and everything seems to be moving all at once. You have an ample opportunity to really scare the pants off your players here. Keep them secondguessing about every shadow, every pool of black water, especially if they happened to see the Ridley-Spawn last night.

The Spawn is indeed here. It's hiding far back in the shadows. With the use of electric torches, the Investigators will proceed through the tunnel. Spot Hidden checks reveal footprints and distant footsteps running deeper into the cavern. The Investigators are free to try and chase the RidleySpawn, but if they get close, it will quickly leap into a nearby pool of crude oil and water and disappear.

The Confrontation

At midnight, the Investigators will once again stake out Well #3. If Investigators stuck around last night, the spawn will be ready for them; if not, they might catch the thing unprepared.

The Ridley-Spawn will perform the ritual once again, and anyone watching it will feel the tug on their POW as before. Your Investigators will no doubt come up with ingenious ways to stop the Spawn. Since O'Bannon has abandoned everything, they may even feel the need to use explosives. Let them come up with whatever clever and destructive methods they wish to use to destroy the Spawn.

The thing to remember is that it is hindered by its mortal body. Ridley's body should be quite near the point of disintegration at this point. If the Investigators cause 15 or more points of damage to the body, the Spawn will cast the body aside and reveal its true form (a gruesome sight that will cost the Investigators 1/d10 SAN). Here's a summary of ways that your Investigators may try to use against the Spawn:

• Normal mortal weapons will not harm the Spawn at all. Firearms, knives, axes, swords and the like will simply slice through its liquid body, allowing the Spawn to get close enough for a nasty attack.
• Explosives will cause the Spawn half normal damage. A stick of dynamite does 5d6 damage normally, so roll for the damage and divide by half, rounding down.
• Fire will also do half damage to the Spawn. Small flames will do 1d3 per turn. Large bonfires will do 1d6 per turn.

And in case your Investigators get really inventive...

• Flareguns and cutting torches will do 1d3. Hand-held, home-made torches will do a single point. Molotov cocktails will do a d6 per round to the Spawn. Every turn, have one of the Investigators make a Luck Roll. If they miss it, the Spawn gets the flame out. The Spawn must roll for each flame every turn.

Do not allow your Investigators to use their Damage Bonus against the Spawn for any reason.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering, there are no flamethrowers in 1927.

If the Investigators Succeed...

Congratulations are in order. If the Investigators stop the Spawn from finishing the ritual, the other Spawn will remain locked away in their subterranean tomb. Stopping the Spawn will get the Investigators a d10 SAN reward.

If the Investigators Fall...

The Spawn will release its brethren and they will spill out from Well 3 with violent fury. Seeing this sight will cost the Investigators a d10 SAN loss, not to mention a sudden need to flee the area, lest they become overwhelmed by hundreds of Formless Spawn.

The entire town will be destroyed by the arcane explosion of Spawn. No man, woman or child will live through the chaos. Investigators that do (and that alone may make a very interesting adventure) will lose an additional 2d4 for the realization that their failure caused the death of hundreds of people.

Conclusion

The report the FBI agents bring back to the Bureau will be marked "CONFIDENTIAL" and will be locked away. The official report of what happened in New Jerusalem will be gang activity and sabotage. The Investigators know better, however, and their diaries and journals will keep the truth alive for another seventy years when a new batch of agents must return to New Jerusalem to solve a new mystery.

But that, of course, is another story.

Call of Cthulhu Crude Oil (Part 1)

Introduction
Day One
Day Two
Day Three
Characters

Crude Oil Part 2