Pride of Yirrimburra pt. 2

 Session Notes (3/11/22)

Game: Call of Cthulhu

Scenario: Pride of Yirrimburra

Players: 5

Our second foray into the bush was much more open ended and freeform.  Our investigators:

Abigail, Jack Ramsey’s nephew and Boundary Rider

Millie, American Geologist

Liam, American Hypnotist (fakes it, is actually a grifter)

Vena, Tasmanian Cleverman

Polly, Aussie Jillaroo

In the previous session, the group disembarked and discovered that Abigail’s uncle had passed in his sleep.  After the funeral, Abigail found herself in possession of the farm and town patriarch Fred McKenzie asked the investigators to look into the mine: he thinks someone is stealing from it.

The investigators had two mysteries: what was the cause of Uncle Jack’s death?  And Was someone stealing from the mine?

They split up and hit the town.  Vena and Liam had a mostly unsuccessful visit to the mine during the daytime, where they were reminded that they would have to go down at nighttime, when all the shifts were over.  They met the foreman, Mick Keelor, who took over for his own dad, who also died in his sleep a few months ago.

In town, the girls climbed the water tower and noticed a fire on the mountain, amongst a bizarre rock formation.  They also went to the graveyard and noted the deaths and dates of several prominent townspeople.  They then rode out to see Mrs. McGuire, whose husband had died in the mine just a few weeks ago.  Apparently he had seen something in the mine and ran in after it.  She thought the spirits of dead miners claimed him.  She opened up about how Peter MacGuire, Fred McKenzie, and Jack had been meeting to talk about their friends’ passing: Ted Keelor and Jim Trent.  They were all mates from back in the old days, and now they’ve all passed.  3 in their sleep and Peter in the mine.  Only Fred is left.

Back in town, all five met up for lunch at the Yirrimburra Arms, where an old man told them ghost stories about miners, about trains, and about small towns.  They ended their afternoon talking with Constable Wise next door, who assured them there weren’t any ghosts, and that if someone was stealing it was probably Bill Poul, or the Trent twins.  Bill is “a lazy bludger” and the twins were flashing cash around.

Why are the old men of the town, including Jack dying?  Is Peter’s death in the mine related to that, or to stealing in the mine?

Next session, they’ll go into the mine, at night, hopefully to find more information.

Keeper Notes:

I really enjoyed role playing this session.  It is a “faces and places” in the town kind of scenario, and reminds me of when I used to run world of darkness games.  I would be far less prepped then, just reacting as NPCs and then pushing the plot forward based on what I thought folks would do.  This is similar, I’ve just had to familiarize myself with the town.  I made up a few of my own NPCs, like the old miner in the bar, and the young war vet they met in the previous session.  In both cases they filled small roles that I thought I’d need, and I was right!  It is always easier for me to roleplay a character of my own design, when I don’t have to worry about representing something “just right”.

These two mysteries kept them guessing and thinking, and they loved peeling details out of conversations.  An investigation like this is sort of like a dungeon crawl, but instead of rooms, they travel from person to person.  Some people have “secret doors” that lead them to new people they didn’t even know about.  It is a style I’m very familiar with.