The Last Voyage of the Ivory Pride

Summary of the Adventure

The Last Voyage of the Ivory Pride is intended as a one-shot Call of Cthulhu adventure. The characters are passengers and crew aboard the Ivory Pride, a steamer bound from Johannesburg to Morocco, with intervening stops at various trading outposts along the way. Several of the characters boarded at Port Caraou, a small French port along the Ivory Coast.

One of the folk who boarded the steamer at Port Caraou was Professor Mildred Foster, an American ethnologist who had been studying the pygmy tribes of Southern Africa. She had been studying the religious practices of the Akando tribe, who worship the Singing Man. The Singing Man, as it happens, is one of the masks of Nyarlathotep. Her expedition was a failure, though she should have a lot of notes on Akando rituals and a certain edginess that should lead the characters otherwise. However, several Akando pygmies have crept on board the ship. They plan on marooning the ship in another world, an endless ocean of darkness and mist, where the Singing Man is trapped. The pygmies intend to use the blood and sanity of the passengers to bring the Singing Man back to the mundane world, and the characters must stop them.

Learning Background Information

In many cases, exactly how the characters can learn important background details has been left vauge. These facts can be imparted to them in several ways. First, Professor Foster can tell them. She doesn't really know much about the Akando, but she does know some stories. Second, several of the characters (and Professor Foster) have brought large quantities of books on board with them. Appropriate Library Use rolls can provide some information on the Singing Man and the Akando tribe. Even better, most of the characters' librarires are held in crates in the forward cargo hold, where the pygmies and the Suckling Horrors are strongest. Simple observation may be enough to determine some details (for example, that the Singing Man draws much nearer every time someone dies).

The Ivory Pride and Its People

The Ivory Pride is an aging steamer owned by Leeds & Holbrooke Shipping, a British company with a fleet of older craft acquired and maintained as cheaply as possible. She is about 150 meters long, and has a crew of ten plus the captain (see below). Her holds are carrying a load of grain, plus a collection of goods brought on board by her various passengers.

About half of the passengers on board joined the ship when it departed from Johannesburg. The other half arrived at Port Caraou. All are bound for London. The only passengers other than the characters are Professor Mildred Foster and her two guides Dawan and Eleban, both Africans.

The Ivory Pride is captained by Joseph Mneke, a well-spoken African who maintains iron discipline among his crew of louts and ruffians. His Mate, Samuel Patanga, is a diminutive, ugly man who clearly intimidates many of the crewmen.

The Armory

The Ivory Pride has a small arms locker with six .30 Bolt-Action Carbines and 300 rounds of ammunition in it. Captain Mneke and Mate Patanga have the only keys.

Cargo Holds

There are two cargo holds, one forward and one back. Both are dominated by stacked sacks of grain bound for Morocco. The forward cargo hold also contains all the characters' goods, and will eventually be the scene of the pygmies' horrible rituals.

Professor Mildred Foster

Professor Foster and her two black servants boarded the Ivory Pride at Port Caraou, having recently returned from a journey inland to study the habits and customs of the pygmy tribes of Southern Africa, specifically the obscure Akando tribe. She had been hoping to observe some of the ceremonies worshipping the Singing Man, a deity apparently unique to the Akando that has some similarities to gods worshipped by the Aztecs and the ancient Egyptians.

Though Professor Foster managed to make contact with the Akando tribe, and has brought back a sizable quantity of artifacts from them (kept in twelve big bales in the rear hold), she considers her journey to largely be a failure as she learned nothing about the Singing Man.

Professor Foster is a sturdily-built American woman of about 40 who has had to fight hard to attain the position she holds in the Reed College Department of Anthropology. She dresses in severe style, and keeps her expression serious and severe. However, her eyes show some of the strain she feels about the things she has seen, and she can be heard humming or softly singing a little tune in her less-guarded moments. If asked, she explains that the song is one Akando mothers sing to their children.

Dawan and Eleban

Dawan and Eleban are tall and silent black men. They are not native to this region of Africa, though they know great detail about their own tribal lands and are clever enough to invent information as necessary. They have no particular loyalty to Professor Foster, save as how she is (to them) incredibly wealthy, and willing to pay them well. They have little to say about the whole expedition to find the Akando tribe. Dawan in particular is silent because he has been driven mad by the song of the Akando (the same song Professor Foster finds herself humming occasionally). He spends much of his time alone in his room, singing quietly. Eleban has noticed the change in his friend, but doesn't want to say anything because he fears that the white men around him might simply abandon or kill Dawan.

Departure from Port Caraou

The Ivory Pride's departure from Port Caraou is fairly uneventful. Teams of bearers stow the passengers' new cargo below decks, in the forward cargo hold, including a large number of bales and boxes belonging to the American Professor Mildred Foster. Any character observing this process should attempt a Psychology roll; success indicates that though Professor Foster is watching the loading process carefully, she is somehow disappointed or unhappy.

The journey to London is expected to take five or six days. As the steamer pulls out of the small harbor, the weather is fair and the sun shines down with a searing intensity. The sea is marked by a gentle, regular swell.

The Sea Goes Calm

A day after departure, everything changes. Very suddenly, the sea goes dead calm. The sun, which had been setting, becomes faint and distant. A thick fog rolls in to obscure everything more than about 20 meters away. Investigators making a Listen roll (base 25%) will hear a faint sound that could be the rushing of waves upon rocks, but could also be singing (mark which Investigators hear the sound: it is the sound of the Singing Man). The crew are worried, but Captain Mneke is confident.

What Is Happening

At this point, the Ivory Pride has entered the realm of the Singing Man. The following events do not need to occur in sequence, but they should all occur. Some are clearly most appropriate just after the portal is breached.

A Crewman Is Missing

Captain Mneke (or Mate Patanga) takes a roll call of the crew, and finds that one sailor cannot be located. There is some concern that the man might have somehow fallen overboard; the Mate suggests that the engines be stopped and an effort be made to locate him.

The man has actually been taken by the three pygmies who snuck aboard with Professor Foster's goods. He has been sacrificed to the Singing Idol to bring the Ivory Pride into the Singing Man's realm.

A Slithering On the Deck

One or two Investigators are walking along the deck, when they hear a strange, disturbing sound, a sort of horrible shushing noise. If they investigate, they find a compartment door slightly open. A bit of greenish slime can be seen on the door jamb. Entering the chamber, each Investigator must make a SAN check or lose 0/1d4 SAN points. The body of a crewman lies sprawled along the wall. Half of the body has been eaten away, leaving only polished bones. The look upon the crewman's face is one of unmitigated horror.

After this encounter, it should be clear that the Suckling Horrors are roaming the ship. There are three of them, and at least one can always be found lurking around the forward cargo hold (where most of the characters' baggage and all of Professor Foster's goods are kept). Because the forward cargo hold is large, any expedition into it will not necessarily meet with a Suckling Horror, but the possibility should always be there.

The Heiress' Necklace

Elizabeth Tuttle constantly wears a gold necklace with an unusual piece upon it. At some point, either Dr. Byron Figgs (the Deranged Professor) or Lester McAnders (the Art Collector) will realize that the piece actually bears an Elder Sign. The Professor's Cthulhu Mythos skill can be used to determine that the Sign is valid, and has power.

The Singing Man Draws Near

Every time the pygmies make another sacrifice to the Singing Man or the Suckling Horrors take another victim, the song of the Singing Man will grow slightly louder. Eventually, the Investigators will be able to make out the shape of the Singing Man through the fog. Once this happens (after three victims or twelve hours of singing), any Investigator may make a Spot Hidden roll to discern details about the Singing Man's bulk. The first time any Investigator succeeds, he must make a SAN roll or lose 1/1d4 SAN.

The Singing Man proper looks like a hugely, grossly fat human. Only the top half of the creature is visible above the water. Rolls and mounds of flesh flow and roll down towards the water. Obscenely liquid eyes peer from between the bloated folds of the Singing Man's body.

Once the Singing Man starts to draw near, no amount of maneuvering the ship can change the situation. Even if the Ivory Pride is run on full steam, the Singing Man will neither draw closer nor pull away, or even show any sign of motion at all.

The Forward Cargo Hold

Sooner or later, the characters are likely to venture down into the forward cargo hold (possibly to secure the dynamite hidden there by the Boer Gunrunner). The atmosphere there should be played up as much as possible, especially the sense that their motions are being watched (which is true: either the pygmies or the Suckling Horrors will be stalking them).

The first obvious development is the fact that the Art Collector's fertility statuettes have all swelled to obscene proportions, and then shattered. The crates they were packed in have been broken open, and the ruins of three statuettes are lying upon the floor of the cargo hold (Art or Archaeology skills may help in reconstructing them to determine the number). A fourth statuette, apparently damaged before it was packed, lies broken open some distance away amid a pool of foul-smelling green ichor. The body of a Suckling Horror, killed when it's receptacle was damaged, lies amid the wreckage. Seeing the body requires a SAN check or lose 0/1d3 SAN.

The characters will also be able to see that some of Professor Foster's bales have been disturbed. If she is brought down to identify what has been removed, she will say that nothing appears to be missing except for a wooden ceremonial mask.

The Ritual Site & The Singing Man's Mask

Searching for the mask will lead the characters to the back of the forward cargo hold, where several sacks of grain have been cut open and moved to create an open space near the bulkhead. The missing mask is visible somehow melded to the steel of the bulkhead. Blood drenches the mask and the wall around it. The mask itself is moving very slightly, and the tones of the Singing Man's Song can be heard coming from its mouth.

A Spot Hidden roll made while looking through the damaged grain sacks will uncover the body of one of the missing crewmen. The Investigator who makes this discovery must make a SAN check or lose 0/1d4 SAN. The man has been horribly mutilated, and the blood drained from his body. His eyes have been cut out, and his tongue removed. With this knowledge it is possible to look back at the mask and see that a human tongue has been placed in it's mouth, and human eyes have been placed in it's eye sockets.

Bullets and simple force will be insufficient to remove the mask from the bulkhead. Heavy tools or dynamite would suffice to destroy the bulkhead and the mask with it. The Suckling Horrors and the pygmies will work to see that this does not come to pass. If Elizabeth Tuttle's Elder Sign is placed upon the Mask's mouth, it will also no longer be able to sing.

The Mate Goes Mad

Mate Patanga, for all his ferocity, is not a very stable man. It would not be difficult for him to encounter something to drive him over the edge. He should do this when there are a lot of other people around, and possibly go amok. His Martial Arts skill will ensure that he does a lot of damage before he is restrained.

Bringing the Singing Man

The Akando pygmies are trying to bring the Singing Man across into our world, using the Call Singing Man spell. This spell cannot be cast except on the sea, near the juncture between our world and the Singing Man's realm, and requires an appropriate offering. They have three primary means of providing this offering: the sacrifice of human blood (either by their own deeds or by the Suckling Horrors), the intonation of the Singing Man's Mask, or the sound of the Singing Man's Song. As long as the Singing Man is being offered at least one of these inducements, he will continually draw closer to the ship. When he reaches the ship, the Ivory Pride will be drawn back to the mundane world, bringing the Singing Man with it.

It will take 100 Influence Points to bring the Singing Man to the Ivory Pride. Influence Points are accumulated according to the following schedule: 

Event                                 Points
One Human Death (>0 SAN)                5
One Human Death (0 SAN)                 4
Singing Man's Mask sings for one hour   1
Human sings for one hour                2
Because Dawan will be singing the Singing Man's Song continually, the characters have at most 45 hours to prevent disaster.

The Singing Man's Song

Professor Foster and her assistant Dawn were both taught the Singing Man's Song. They were told that it was a children's song, sung by mothers to their children. This is true, but only because all Akando are taught the song at an early age. Singing it has a dangerous effect upon sanity (lose 1 SAN per hour of singing), and can be obsessive. When the Ivory Pride passes into the Singing Man's realm, Dawan will be completely dominated by his need to sing, and will lock himself into his cabin. The three Akando pygmies can also sing the song.

Blood and Death

Once the Ivory Pride is in the Singing Man's realm, all human deaths aboard will bring the Singing Man closer. The manner of these deaths does not matter: even simple gunshots will do it. The characters will need to be careful of this, especially if they decide to hunt down the pygmies or kill Dawan.

Stopping the Singing Man

If the Influence Point total can be frozen for two hours, the Ivory Pride will return to the mundane world. Accomplishing this task requires three things: Realistically, these require that the characters find and (at least) capture all the pygmies, and somehow shut Dawan up. Whether they can do this before the time limit runs out is the true question

The Akando Tribe

The Akando are a tribe of horribly degenerate pygmies living in the depths of the jungles of Central Africa. The neighboring tribes all speak of them in tones of hushed horror, and with good reason. The Akando are the descendants of humans who have been horribly warped by their long association with and worship of the Singing Man, an aspect of Nyarlathotep. They practice all manner of unspeakable atrocities upon the tribes around them, including cannibalism and human sacrifice.

Though the tribe would have normally slain Professor Foster and her foolish guides soon after they first encountered them, one of the Akando shamans persuaded the tribe to spare her and allow her to return to the outside, where she could be used to bring the Singing Man to this world.

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