The game of the day is Call of Cthulhu, a one-shot scenario entitled The Last Voyage of the Ivory Pride. The players are:
Who Character Description Chris Kanute Louis Chanoir French Officer Mike McCourt Elizabeth Tuttle Jaded Heiress Tim Rudloff Dr. Byron Figgs Deranged Professor Ray Holland Mycroft Jones Great White Hunter
Bob is ill, and unable to attend.
Mycroft Jones has a case of twelve sticks of dynamite hidden inside a crate of machine parts in the forward cargo hold. Dr. Byron Figgs managed to purchase three crates of fertility statuettes in Port Caraou.
The Ivory Pride departs from Port Caraou on a pleasant morning. The travelers spend the first day of the journey getting acquainted and drinking Captain Mneke's cheap bourbon. The characters also make conversation with Professor Mildred Foster, an anthropologist who had just recently returned from the African interior, where she was studying the Akando pygmy tribe. Dr. Byron Figgs is already acquainted with Professor Foster, and they spend some time belittling each others' discoveries. Professor Foster has an easier target, as Dr. Figgs has been unable to find another university position since he was dismissed for his unorthodox theories. Elizabeth Tuttle takes the opportunity to tweak Dr. Figgs as well.
Professor Foster confesses that she did not manage to learn all she wanted about the Akando. In particular, she had hoped to learn about the Singing Man, a deity who appears to watch over children, and who has some similarity to certain Aztec spirits. However, all she was able to find was a song that Akando mothers sing to their children, which she sings for the other characters.
Towards the morning of the first day, the world changes. The sun, which had been rising, becomes nothing more than a faint glimmer. The sea becomes still and glassy, and a thick fog obscures everything. Soon after, the Captain calls all the passengers together and tells them that one of the crewmen is missing.
Mycroft Jones immediately goes down into the forward cargo hold looking for his dynamite, and encounters a dead crewman. The lower half of the crewman's body is nothing more than polished bone. Mycroft then hears a terrible grinding noise and glimpses a horrible leathery form disappearing between a pair of grain sacks. He fires two rifle shots at the creature, and then runs screaming.
Elizabeth Tuttle manages to catch a glimpse of a diminutive black man on the forward deck while searching for the missing crewman. She also spots a small, dusty footprint, but cannot find any other trace of the man.
The characters talk to the Captain, and determine that there are four stairways down into the forward cargo hold, as well as to bulkhead doors between the forward and rear holds. They decide to seal off the whole forward hold. Mycroft Jones, Dr. Byron Figgs, Captain Chanoir and the ship's Mate Patanga gather up guns from the arms locker and head down into the rear cargo hold. In the process, Jones and Patanga are both shot by pygmy darts. Patanga is paralyzed, but Jones manages to resist the toxin by the narrowest margin.
The characters note that one of Professor Foster's assistants, Dawan, cannot be found. They also note that Professor Foster is constantly humming the same song she sang for them in the lounge. They finally find her in her room, looking completely deranged. She is singing out the porthole, towards the obscene bulk of the Singing Man, now faintly visible through the fog. The characters deal with the situation by hitting her over the head and knocking her out.
After seeing the Singing Man in the distance, the characters decided to try and restart the engines and get away. Captain Chanoir and two crewmen go down to the engine room, but encounter one of the Suckling Terrors in the coal-room. Captain Chanoir tries shooting the creature, with little effect. All three flee, but only Captain Chanoir makes it back to the deckhouse.
By the end of the session, several crewmembers have been slain by the Suckling Terrors, and in return the characters have slain two pygmies with rifle fire. Mycroft Jones uses the ship's crane to rip away one of the hatch covers on the forward cargo hold. The characters use the crane to retrieve the dynamite, then proceed to blow up the Singing Man Mask altar in one corner of the forward hold. Captain Chanoir actually does the deed, and ends up fleeing for his life from a Suckling Terror. The dynamite explosion dislodges enough sacks of grain to crush the Suckling Terror, but it also traps Captain Chanoir. Worse, a Suckling Terror gets onto the hook of the crane when Mycroft Jones attempts to use it to rescue Captain Chanoir. Jones' attempt to throw dynamite at the creature is not successful: his throw puts the explosive down in the front cargo hold, where it blows a hole in the hull. Desperate to escape the creature, he leaves a stick of dynamite in the crane control booth and leaps into the water, practically onto the Singing Man. Once there, he sacrifices himself by lighting off two more sticks of dynamite and allowing the Singing Man to catch ahold of him.
After the final explosion, the fog starts to clear and the Singing Man fades away. The surviving characters, along with Captain Mneke and the six surviving crew (out of ten), row away from the stricken Ivory Pride and head for shore in a normal sea.