Pride of Yirrimburra pt. 4 - conclusion

Session Notes (05/28/22)

Game: Call of Cthulhu

Scenario: Pride of Yirrimburra

Players: 4

Our final session in Yirrimburra brought the investigators face to face with the past.

Content Warning: colonialism, violence against aboriginal people

Our investigators:

Abigail, Jack Ramsey’s nephew and Boundary Rider

Millie, American Geologist

Vena, Tasmanian Cleverman

Polly, Aussie Jillaroo

Session Notes:

The players began by wrapping up the mine investigation.  After a sting operation they discovered that Ray and Phil Trent were stealing gold from the mine, and apprehended them with the help of Fred McKenzie and J.K.L. Wise.

They then decided to make the trip to Traralgon in order to find out more about Jack and the other town founders (all but Fred now deceased), but first ran into Bill Poul.  After buying him some rounds and a lunch, he spoke cryptically about feeling guilty, hating the five other old timers, and hinting at a “penance” he was serving.  He also spoke of Traralgon, telling them to “go read about it, and stop bothering me”.

The trip was an hour away, and followed by a long library search, unearthed two newspaper clippings concerning Fred, Jack and the other town founders.  They were acquitted on charges of murdering aboriginal people in Yirrimburra before opening the mine.  Bill had been a witness, but backed out at the last minute, therefore the trial failed with “no evidence”.  David King, the prosecutor at the trial, was still alive and willing to shed more light on the matter.

Fred and the other men murdered 17 aboriginal people, and buried them in what would become the scrap yard behind the mine.  Bill assisted them, under duress, and although he intended on bearing witness in court and helping find justice, Fred’s threats ultimately coerced him into a life of quiet cowardice.

The investigators returned to Yirrimburra, and pulled on one final thread.  They explored the mountain that overlooked the town, and in the process met Yurragan, survivor of the massacre.  He had been sending the town founders, once a month, into the Alcheringa to be hunted by terrifying creatures.  This caused their deaths.  He had one final act, to “make Fred watch” as everything was destroyed.

That night came the brushfire.  Bolts of lightning came down from the sky, and ignited the town.  The investigators split into two teams: Abby and Vena raced to Fred’s farm to see if they could get him to reconcile, and maybe put his leadership behind rescuing as many people from the town as possible.  Millie and Polly ran through the town and rang the fire bell, hammered on doors, and led people to the only safe place: the other side of the tracks.

Millie and Polly were successful: they saved almost everyone from the town.  But when Vena tried to speak to Fred, and talk sense into him, and tell him why the town was burning, he remained a bitter, racist prick until the end and rebuffed Vena.  He died in the fire.

The group noticed that Bill wasn’t with the townspeople, and despite his cowardice in the past, they risked themselves in the fire to find him in the throes of an Alcheringa attack.  They dragged him to safety.  Vena used his dreamsong to enter Alcheringa.  He saved Bill.

The town burned to ashes, and Yirrimburra was no more.

Keeper Notes:

Since this game met in person, and one player was going away for five weeks, during which time I myself would be moving away, we decided to make this session the last session.  I offered the players some options to help make sure we got through all the important stuff, and they settled on the following: I would “end the sandbox” and instead narrate important scenes, and then offer some scenes to choose from based on the timeline.  This would remove a lot of their agency (but crucially, not all of it), to ensure they made it to a satisfying end.  During feedback, the players all agreed that this was much more fun and was very good for the scenario.  In previous sessions, they felt a struggle with the sandboxy “you can go anywhere and talk to anyone” approach I was taking.  This was interesting and important to hear for me, and I think it just speaks to my poor organization of clues and reveals.  Coupled with large gaps of time between sessions, they didn’t have enough momentum to think “OK this is what we should do next time”.  I think rereading this scenario and prepping it using the three clue rule (from the alexandrian) would be a welcome improvement to it.

That being said, the players found themselves uncovering the core mystery of Yirrimburra, and were pleased not only with the twists but with the resolution.  There were no “dust ups” but instead conversations about justice with witnesses, victims, and perpetrators; and a tense fight with the bushfire to save as many folks in the town as they could.  I handled the “fire fighting” on the fly and it worked really well, just asking for skill rolls when they felt natural.

As far as Call of Cthulhu goes, I think it is a really excellent system for running paranormal investigators in any time period.  The BRP game is really simple and robust, and the CoC 7th edition rules are very simple, easy to understand, and very helpful for at the table interpretations, oracles, and play.  After running this long arc, and having played The Haunting and Edge of Darkness, I think the game really does what it sets out to do.  Though, importantly, I am not a fan of Lovecraft.  Like, literally, I’ve read none of the books, and so I’m not interested in scenarios that have anything to do with the Mythos.  As a game for general horror though, I’ve found it really great, and perfect for newbies.  The strong focus on investigating supernatural phenomenon is a really great hook and makes for great gaming.  Terror Australis has also proven to be a great supplement as well, though the scenario I’ve run is from the pdf copy of the original one from the 1980s.