CoC D20 - Adv - Cthulhu Hardboiled 1 - The Waters over Heaven.pdf - Call of Cthulhu D20 - Dihercen

THE WATERS OVER

HEAVEN

an adventure for the Call of Cthulhu

d20 system

by Jonathan stout

part I in the cthulhu Hardboiled campaign

DISCLAIMER

The majority of the graphics contained in this adventure were taken off of various sites

throughout the Internet. It’d probably take me days to track down all of the places I’ve

taken stuff from, so let me just say that I do not own nor do I claim to own any of the

pictures or graphics in this text with the exception of the Hemingway Investigations ad

and the player and GM maps of the Park (both of which were made with Dungeon

Crafter).

The molochim template is roughly based off of DnDChick’s Deep One hybrid

template. I invite you to visit her web site , which is nothing short of amazing.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

GM Information… 2

Background... 2

Public Facts… 2

A Relatively Honest Piece of Work… 3

Ernie… 3

Q&A Session: Ernie… 4

Meeting William Deaton… 5

Q&A Session: William Deaton… 5

A Woman In White And A Man In Black… 8

The Deaton Residence, 8 am… 8

The Art Gallery… 9

The Cemetery… 10

The Park… 11

A Long Knife… 12

Examining The Murder Scene… 13

So, What Now, Chief?... 14

Calling Ernie… 14

Calling Deaton… 15

Meeting Deaton… 15

Calling the Police… 16

Revisiting the Gallery… 17

Revisiting the Graveyard… 17

Visiting Mason Carver… 18

Visiting Lawrence Cross… 19

Visiting Joanna’s Apartment… 19

Visiting Priscilla’s Apartment… 20

Visiting Vivian… 21

Talking To Vivian… 23

Touching Vivian… 26

Visiting Rose Rogers… 27

Q&A Session: Rose Rogers… 28

Endgame… 29

One By Water… 31

The Business We’re In… 32

Experience and Sanity Rewards… 33

Appendix A: NPC Statistics… 34

Appendix B: Maps and Pictures… 40

Appendix C: Timeline of Events… 47

Appendix D: View From The Backstage (GMs Only)… 48

GM INFORMATION

This adventure has been designed as the

first mission in a campaign centering on an

private investigations firm known as

Hemingway Investigations. It is intended

for a group of 1 st -level investigators. It is

set in January of 1928, in and around the

city of Los Angeles, California. The

general tone of the mission is film noir in

the style of Raymond Chandler and the

movie Chinatown (with a certain amount

of inspiration from Alfred Hitchcock’s

Vertigo) .

Background

At the beginning of the adventure, the

players are hired to work for a private

investigation firm known as Hemingway

Investigations. Their section chief, Ernie

Zulli, assigns them to a suspected adultery

case for a wealthy man by the name of

William Deaton. William Deaton suspects

his wife, Vivian Haase-Deaton, is having an affair; he wishes the investigators to keep

track of her while he goes to work one day and bring him any proof they might find of an

extra-marital relationship. Sounds simple enough, right?

PUBlic facts

William Deaton is the director of the Haase Shipping Company, a large corporation with

interests in cargo transport and ship-building up and down the West Coast. Subsidiaries

of the company include Atlantic Shipyards, Inc., and the Pacific Star Line (a passenger

transport company, specializing in transport to China and Southeast Asia).

The company was founded in 1903 by the family of Vivian Haase-Deaton,

William’s wife. Vivian received a majority share in the company’s stock after her parents

passed away, being the sole heir to the Haase fortune (her brother James having died

while serving in the U.S. Navy during World War I). Under their prenuptial agreement,

William controls Vivian’s stock rights within the company. Other than William, the only

other stockholder of note is one Lawrence Cross, a family friend of the Haases and also

the division head of Atlantic Shipyards, Inc. Cross is a well-known philanthropist within

the Los Angeles area, with a particular interest in the arts.

The US-Mexico border is roughly two hours’ drive south of Los Angeles. The

town of Long Beach, California is a thirty-minute drive southwest from downtown LA,

while the city of Santa Barbara is roughly one hour and thirty five minutes directly north.

A RELATIVELY HONEST PIECE OF WORK

thursday, january 5, 1928, 10:05 am

la office of hemingway investigations

This adventure contains a

mechanism to get the players

together as a group.

Specifically, it is assumed all

the players come across the

advertisement pictured to the

right somewhere in the back

pages of the LA Times. You

may wish to give cut this

article and give it to the

players ahead of character

creation (Oh, and by the way,

the “no Chinamen” policy

mentioned in the article is

strictly for period feel;

needless to say, it wouldn’t

have been something rare to

see in 1920’s Los Angeles. I

apologize if I’ve offended

anyone; please believe that

that was not my intent. And

should one of your players

decide to play a Chinese

character, I can’t really imagine Ernie caring enough to do anything about it.)

Ernie

It’s a relatively innocent action, picking up a newspaper. You figure that as long as you

haven’t murdered anyone, say your prayers and do whatever it takes to keep your head

down, there’s no particular reason for a torn little piece of the LA Times to ruin your day.

Except here you are in a tiny office above a bar. It’s a sweltering January day, and

crammed in as you all are around a small square table, you feel every degree, which all in

all isn’t doing anything to help the hangover you still have from New Year’s. You stare

through the cigar smoke, barely able to breathe, at a short, fat little man with a Kaiser

mustache, a cheap Cuban seemingly attached to the ends of his fingers. He lifts to his lips

again, takes another pull, and lets it out. You do your best not to cough.

“Why I don’t start by being honest with you,” he says. “I lied in the ad. The pay

sucks. Management back east made me put that in to draw flies. Worked, didn’t it ?” He

smirks at you and draws in another breath.

“Let me lay it down for you. You get a buck-fifty an hour with this gig, plus

twenty-five as a tip from the customer if you finish a case in a quote, timely and efficient

matter, unquote. Sometimes we can talk the client into paying for your expenses, but that

doesn’t happen too often, so I wouldn’t count on it. Otherwise, you get a fifty dollar

budget from the organization each month. That’s for all of you, by the way, and if you

misspend a single penny I’m obliged by management to hunt you down and kill you

myself.” He looks like he might be kidding, deep down inside.

“That having been said, there’s one other thing you should know about. Maybe

you’ve read the pulps and decided that this is a glamorous lifestyle. Adventure. Exotic

women. Shit like that. How do I put this to you best… do I look like someone who has

any of those things ?” He pauses to take another drag off his cigar.

“We don’t do murder cases; we don’t do theft. What we get is the stuff the police

wouldn’t touch with a thirty-foot pole. Nine out of ten of our cases are adultery stuff –

client wants to get pictures of his wife with her hubby, or vice versa. It’s dirty, it’s stupid,

and at the end of every day you’ll pray to God that when you wake up the next morning

you’ll be doing something else.

“So. All that having been said, anyone who wants to leave, the door’s right there.”

He pauses.

“Well, all right. Welcome to the business. You’ll be regretting this decision for a

long time. I’m Ernie Zulli. You’ll be answering to me. Welcome to Hemingway

Investigations.” He takes a puff, and then adds, “No relation to the writer, by the way.”

Q&A Session: Ernie

Just in case your players have any additional questions for the boss man before the sign

the contract:

If asked for more information about Hemingway Investigations:

“Isn’t much to talk about. We’ve been working for about the last ten years.

Management’s based in Chicago; we’ve got two other firms otherwise in New York and

Atlanta. They sent me out here to hire a few teams to cover the West Coast. You’re the

second.”

What happened to the first ?

“What do you think happened ? They found better jobs.”

So why’s ‘military experience a plus’ ?

He shrugs. “Mr. Hooker has a soft spot for vets.”

Why “Chinamen need not apply” ?

“Mr. Hooker doesn’t like Chinese.”

Who’s Mr. Hooker ?

“Jeb Hooker. He’s my boss back east.”

So do I have any reason to take this job whatsoever ?

“None whatsoever. Door’s that way, if you want it.”

“Timely and efficient manner”?

He smiles unpleasantly. “Read ‘if the customer decides to.’”

CoC D20 - Adv - Cthulhu Hardboiled 1 - The Waters over Heaven.pdf

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