Call of Cthulhu Part Two: Summer 1925

The gap between the first session of the game and the second was quite substantial, so I decided to write something up for the players in my group to help remind them of what had happened previously, describe what they had gotten up to in the meantime, and setting up for the next scenario.

The next scenario also introduces a new player to our group: Mikhail Demathis, brother in the Masonic Lodge and a New York City lawyer prone to clever problem solving and intuitive leaps of logic. Mikhail is the best friend of one James Clark, also a lawyer, also a Mason. Joining one fraternal organization wasn't enough for Mr. Clark apparently, because he also joined the Silver Twilight Lodge. He found out something he wanted to tell Mikhail, but, before he could do it, he mysteriously vanished.

Before we get to the meat of that particular issue, let's see what the summer of 1925, and its conclusion, provided for our protagonists.

Summer, 1925

Quite a lot happens in the weeks and months following the strange incident of Leroy Turner and his horn.

The Horn

It is buried in some out-of-the-way corner by Giannis, hopefully to never be found again.

Leroy Turner

He briefly becomes an inmate at Bellevue. He is treated and released several weeks later. 

Vivian, Ronny, and Doctor Black

They somehow make it back to Vivian’s house before anyone misses them, where they remain for the rest of the night. All three vouch for one another’s whereabouts. Vivian’s word, being as she is the daughter of the capo, is unimpeachable. This proves to be very fortuitous in the coming weeks.

Geoff's Addendum: This was something I had forgotten to mention last time. I'm not quite sure how, but at some point, before they went up to Westchester to look for Leroy, Viv, Ron, and Dr. Black all wound up at The Burnouse household. Vincenzo, Viv's dad and the boss, told Ron to keep Viv at the house and out of danger. 

When Vincenzo realized that the doctor was there, the conversation started out with a hearty, "who the hell is this? Who the hell are you?!" and ended with a, "you know what? I don't care. You stay here, too. Everybody behave themselves!"

As you may recall from the previous installment, they did not stay there, nor did they behave themselves. This will become important later.

Ron Pays the Piper

Word on the street is that one of Bonano’s made guys was beaten half to death and left in a rain barrel by somebody. It doesn’t take much for Bonano’s surviving guys to point the finger at Ron Deluca.

While at a speakeasy one night, Deluca is approached by several of Bonano’s men. He eludes them and leaves the area, hoping to lay low in Hell’s Kitchen until the incident blows over. He’s found three days later by Jimmy Bianco, one of Bonano’s most vicious surviving lieutenants. The encounter is brief and unpleasant.

The next morning, Bernouse goes out to get his mail and finds Deluca unconscious in one of his garbage bins. Deluca spends a week in the hospital recuperating, and says nothing about the encounter. When pressed, he claims that he took a few solid blows to the noggin and doesn’t remember a goddamn thing.

The Mob War

Boss Bonano is dead, killed along with several of his lieutenants in what appears to be a grizzly hit. The other families all point fingers at one another. Boss Bernouse, who has quite a bit to gain from Bonano’s death, is heavily implicated. The fact that his men (well, man) had run-ins with Bonano’s crew shortly before the hit did not help.

Luckily, the families believe Vincenzo and his daughter's story (mostly Viv's, if we're being honest), and his family is spared any reprisals. Bernouse takes on a neutral, fatherly persona as the rest of the families carve up Bonano’s territory, and Bonano’s surviving lieutenants fight for supremacy in the power vacuum.

In the end, Bonano’s much-diminished crew is now led by Jimmy Bianco—also known as “Big Grin,” due to a pair of very unfortunate mouth scars. Big Grin becomes capo thanks to a series of incredibly brutal raids that stabilize his territory with heavy casualties on all sides.

Bernouse comes out smelling like a rose, his reputation with everyone but Big Grin’s "family" significantly improved. It helps that he takes advantage of the power vacuum and the mob war to solidify his own ties with the legal and government entities in New York City. By the time mid-September rolls around, he’s practically a pillar of the community.

Small’s Paradise

The club stays closed for months, initially due to the murder investigation, later because it is on the front lines of a mob war and too hot to use. The club eventually falls under the protection of the Bernouse syndicate, and Vincenzo Bernouse uses his connections help Small restock the bars and spruce up the place. This wins him a lot of acclaim with the mayor and several other interested parties, as well as solidifying his power base as one of the strongest capos in Manhattan.

September

Things gradually return to normal by mid-September. The families still eye one another, but after the exhausting weeks of war, no one wants to break the peace. Everyone goes back to their usual routines.

On September 18^th, Vivian plays first chair violin in a sold-out orchestral performance. The performance is positively reviewed in the Times and other papers, and pictures of the musicians, including and especially Vivian, start making the rounds in society circles. It is not long before her now upwardly-mobile father starts getting requests from interested suitors.

On September 25^th, Vincenzo Bernouse receives another interesting request. As a man of prominence, he has been asked to join a, “society that works toward fostering brotherhood and community between all good, Christian men around the world.

  

The name of the society? The Silver Twilight Lodge.