The Upton Chronicles #2: That's an Odd-Looking Idol..

The Crew

Terry, Jeff and Greg played the Uptons and their crew.  Ken and I played the forces of evil and chaos.

The Plot

Our heroes, having learned of the nefarious human trafficking and sacrifice enterprise from the freak show's ringleader, race to an abandoned monastery outside of town.  Little did they know that the catacombs beneath the dilapidated ruins would house such horrors.

The Game

Our heroes quickly found the entrance to the catacombs and opened the door.  A blast of stale air, heavy with the scent of cloying incense and the unmistakable coppery odor of blood, greets their nostrils.  

A couple of columns support the ceiling in the small room before them.  Stairs leading up to another level are on the right, while a giant statue of a squatting tentacled creature leers at them with ancient, stony eyes.  Faint chanting can be heard coming from the dark opening at the top of the stairs.

Sir Upton was the first up the stairs.  His practiced eyes scanned the room, taking in everything with scarcely a thought.  

To his left was a huge cistern, replete with ancient Meso-American  glyphs and carvings.  A thick, viscous fluid...blood?...slowly bubbled in the reservoir.  

The chanting was coming from a purple-robed priest, his arms raised in supplication.  Sir Upton realized that the chanting was in ancient Sumerian!  As he looked on in a slight stupor, the ritual was completed and the man fell silent.  Only then did Sir Upton realize that there were others in the room.

Two acolytes rushed forward to meet the intrepid adventurers and the scrum began.

 
A few minutes into the fight, a blubbery creature heaved itself from the pool of ichor and attacked Sal Jackson.  They fought intensely and managed to defeat other simultaneously.  Sal, grievously wounded, sank to the floor and would have slowly bled out if not for the timely ministrations of Professor Edelstein.  Indeed, Edelstein kept both Sal and Fire Marshall O'Leary in the fight (repeatedly in O'Leary's case). 

With the defeat of his summoned creature, the high priest finally succumbed to the blows from multiple attackers.  In a rather funny (irony, not ha ha) twist of fate, Captain Everhardt, firing at the priest, managed to drop the acolyte behind the shifty leader with a head shot.

After the battle was won, the heroes didn't know where to go or what to do.  They'd felled all their foes and the creature now floating in the pool of nastiness wasn't going to give away any secrets.  A thorough search uncovered nothing until Detective Jones and Sid Jackson found a hidden door around the far side of the cistern.

A couple of hallways and ransacked rooms later and a single clue was found.  A torn slip of paper simply had written in a spidery crawl "The Old One will emerge from the gate victorious and devour the world!"  A secret back door was found as well.  How many cultists escaped?

Sir Upton, using his historical knowledge of the area, quickly put two and two together and came up with only one choice: Ctesiphon.  Modeled after the arch found in ancient Mesopotamia, which had once been called Sumer, Upton knew that any evil doings would stem from such a locus of mystical power.  The group made their way to Upton Manor to both drop off the recovering O'Leary and Sal and pick up Jimmy, Airman Jones and Detective Doyle before heading to Ctesiphon.  

Don't miss the exciting conclusion to this tale:  The Old One Returns!