Session 1 - Pulp Cthulhu

The Stat Sheet

The Snapshot

• Poorly scoped out a bank
• The whole town is havin’ nightmares
• Got a date with Edith 😉
• The party plans at the Silver Shaft Saloon
• Returned to the bank, planned to make a deposit
• Plan to rob bank, make profit????

The Party

• Aaron – Tommy, a Drifter
• Zac – Daisy De Castillo, an Entertainer
• Lyndsey – Darren Danger, a Prospector
• Kati (me) – Lee the Flea, a Weird Blacksmith

The System

I'm pretty excited by the Weird Science rules that are included in Pulp Cthulhu. I've played in a CoC campaign before and found myself struggling due to my lack of knowledge in Lovecraft lore. This first session had little to no Cthulhu-vibes but many shenanigans. The group was certainly feeling out their relationships and exploring.

The Brief

Tommy lives in a boom town called Shade built around a silver mine. The Marshal has a reputation for being inefficient, leaving the law enforcement to be vigilance committee. They round up and lynch criminals even though they’re supposed to be sent to trial in a neighboring town. Frontier justice…somethin’ Lee’s all too familiar with.

The Marshal, Clem Samuels, hung himself in the rafters of his own jail. The crew is staging a heist around a bank. Everything in the vault is ours save for 1 book. We’ve been told we’ll know it when we see it. It has a locking mechanism and can’t be opened by us.

Darren bought 10 bottles of 180 proof alcohol from some shmuck or something another. They talked about chest hair more in depth than I, uh, wanted. There was a brief mention as to how Prospector Pete Plenty more to kill a man or building…Folks seemed tired and jumpy in this town. Something’s off. Darren asks about it, and a citizen complains about nightmares. Apparently Tommy been having these nightmares too.

Bank is only staffed by 3 folks, and there’s that midday lull. Bank manager ain’t on the premises right now. Tommy leads us inside to scope out the place. Daisy disguises herself as Darren and passes rather convincingly as a man. A young, cute teller named Edith helps us as we tell her we need to deposit money into the vault. We’re told if Darren Danger had just a little more chest hair, Edith would be into it.

Unexpectedly, Daisy feels unwell and abruptly leaves to scope outside the building. While she’s taking off the disguise, a nearby resident notices her and asks if she’s fine. Awkward…There’s a sheen to some badge on his chest. One of those vig-eee-lant-eeez? With a bit of acting, he directs Daisy to the saloon where they do shows. Daisy learns there is a front and back door. Curtains on the second floor hide what’s on the second floor. Edith confirms they are apartments and offices. Rose lives upstairs.

Rose, Edith’s sister, usually handles opening new accounts. Grabs the ledger, locks her teller drawer, and heads to the safe deposit boxes. Edith does not believe Darren Danger’s legal name is Darren Danger. With a box assigned, she tells us that if we need access to the vault that’s a process Mr. Neelson handles who will be back in an hour.

Alls I care about is finding metal. Not much in the bank here beyond the fixtures and tills. I saw a telegram exchange on my way in. Shocked a place like this has one of ‘em.

Tommy asks after Rose, but Edith doesn’t seem keen on it. Talks more about herself. Hearing this, Lee takes her shot with Edith, missing wildly and being told to come back tomorrow about jobs for Blacksmithing. Lee tries to give a $2 tip for her fantastic service, but Edith refuses and suggests getting drinks later at the Silver Shaft.

Daisy sees a wanted poster for “Jedediah Arkansas Cantrell” that's been corrected with, "We found him. He's dead."

Lee scopes out the telegraph building, but it’s a newspaper building with a printing press and whatnot. She heads to the Saloon where the gang plans. Joe Berguson, the proprietor, tells Darren about folks goin’ missing up in the hills. The crew starts to discuss their heist plan but after noticing Joe listenin’, Lee pays the man $10 for a private place to talk. We head upstairs and hatch out a plan. Turns out, we ain’t got enough info and head back to the bank.

New Marshal and one of the vigilante person, George Martin, arguing pretty with each other. Darren takes to talking to Hosper Otis about the dreams in town. Apparently, the doctor’s been workin’ on a tonic for these dreams. Jake Parker who runs the General Store seems to side with George. Ralph Haus Williams and Cliff are ranch hands that help too. Townsfolk pulled a body of the quarry this morning, drowned himself over the dreams? Darren volunteers to become a deputy of this wretched place.

Lee returns to the bank to talk to Mr. Neelson and arranges to secure an invention about trunk size in the vault. He only opens the vault once a day, at 5:30. The crew’s timeline and plan has been pushed up…

As the camera pans out from the party, a newspaper clipping can be seen inside Lee’s wagon.

LADIES AND GENT! LEE THE FLEA STRIKES AGAIN!

Who is Lee the Flea? No one knows. They jump too high and far to be caught by any noose we hang 'round here.

That name is a moniker given by many local papers across all the mining towns. No one knows what Lee looks like. First of all, they assume she’s a man, and second of all…hah, who considers women in this day and age? Indeedy-do, folks!

Rather than buy her a drink, she's happy to accept metals of all kinds, 'specially them rare ones. When she gets word there's a telephone switch around, she's eager to strip it of everything, and I do mean everything.

Clutch your metals, not your pearls, ladies!

This has been Gertrude, reporting for The Gully

The Takeaways

I don't have enough experience yet to form a solid opinion. This session was very classic CoC rolls but hopefully we'll get into the Pulp of it all soon.

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