Session 1: https://gauntlet-hangouts.firebaseapp.com/event-detail/-MtB64shEADvvtcD6-ye
Session 2: https://gauntlet-hangouts.firebaseapp.com/event-detail/-MtB6p0SnZ2IMvfMMfv0
Something slowly gathers strength beneath the frozen basalt of the remote Kerguelen archipelago - a monstrous thing once worshiped and then betrayed, a terrible god from the antediluvian past. It’s time has come again, and mysterious forces gather. Will they usher in its rebirth - or put an end to it forever?
For some things, thirty years is but a heartbeat.
The Black Drop is a Trail of Cthulhu scenario by Jason Morningstar, adapted in this two-shot for the rules-light system, Cthulhu Dark and set in the year 1935. In it, players will play a group of investigators aboard the French freighter Austral steaming into Port Couvreux, the only inhabited point in the remote Kerguelen archipelago (the southernmost inhabited islands in the world, just north of Antarctica). It’s a somber occasion - the only settlement in the Kerguelens, a sheep station, is being abandoned. Three families are packing up and returning to France, their commercial enterprise an utter failure. Meanwhile, further down the coast, a German expedition of unknown means and purpose has arrived. While each investigator may have their own reasons for visiting this cold, desolate, and windswept corner of the world, all will soon be swept away into a world of bleak and cosmic nihilism as they stumble blindly into an incredibly dangerous situation.
Cthulhu Dark’s designer, Graham Walmsley, describes the game thusly: Cthulhu Dark is a tabletop roleplaying game of cosmic horror, in the style of H.P. Lovecraft. It’s about the things we fear, amplified until they are unbearable. It’s about stories that genuinely creep you out, not well-worn tropes and creatures you’ve seen hundreds of times before. And it’s about bleak horror, in which humans are powerless when confronted by hyperintelligent alien horrors. You can’t beat them. You can’t fight them. You can only watch, run, hide and fear. If you love Cthulhu games already, then this is Lovecraftian horror at its most intense. If you’re new to them, then Cthulhu Dark is a great place to start. You’ll enter a world of stories that are both terrifying and terribly human.
CW: As is tradition for purist Lovecraftian stories, there is a high likelihood of character fatality and unhappy endings, as well as the possibility of content involving the discovery of desecrated bodies and/or dead animals. Interactions and moral dilemmas involving the aforementioned German expedition (who are Nazis) are also likely to occur. Safety tools will be used throughout the game to modify the intensity of this content as needed for the comfort of players.
System : Cthulhu Dark
Duration : Two 3-hour sessions
Breaks : Breaks every 60-90 minutes, depending on player comfort and preference (~5-10 minutes)
Venue : Zoom
Recording : With permission from all participants before and after the session
Attendance : Open door policy applies. Attendance at both sessions is encouraged
Safety : Lines & Veils, X-card, Open Door Policy. Tools can be modified throughout the game to suit player needs.
This game will follow the Gauntlet Community Code of Conduct.