Dances with Cthulhu

The Place: National Forest land not far from the Shining Rock Wilderness and the Great Smoky Mountains. Around West Viriginia / North Carolina or thereabouts. (My geography lessons didn't take well.)

The Time: September / October 1974 (no exact date due to time discrepancies)

The Event: A small Feather tribe reunion of a Native American family, and some light hiking in the surrounding wilderness.

The Characters: Ehawee Katja (Milian Tyr), a family friend of the Feather tribe who works as law enforcement on the reservation; Marta "Feather-Upon-the-Breeze" (Waffle Boy), the elderly matriarch of the family, 68 years old but perhaps in better health than her son John, she is a mystic and a believer in the old ways as well as a medical doctor; John Feather (Doktor Zeus), an artist and a bit of a hippie, he mixes the ancient beliefs of his people with modern new-age thinking and up-to-date psychoanalytical procedures, as well as long-forgotten and oft-ignored arcane lore; Tara Feather (NPC, Lord Rumfish), John's sister and therefore also Marta's daughter, is a springy and acrobatic tomboy with a mischievous sense of humor. She teaches gymnastics and works at the YMCA. Recently, however, her sense of reality has begun to crumble along with her normally high spirits; Christopher Falcon-Feather (Alias Jacky), formerly of the military, is a cousin of John's. Strong in combat and skilled with vehicles, both for piloting and fixing, he also has a troubled past and strange dreams and visions; Iain Coldiron (Nobody), is a cousin of Christopher and John who works as a reference librarian. A skilled writer and researcher, and full of bookish knowledge, he has his feet on the ground and is a deliberate, logical and quiet man... until recently. Rift (Doomdog), or Alec Warrens, Lieutenant Major, was the last to join the group. Apparently out on a hunting trip (loaded with a sawed-off shotgun, Remington 700, HK PSGI, and a Ruger Service Six, not to mention a machete and a bowie knife), he came across the group as they were dealing with a peculiar and horrific beast. He is still the only person to have gone temporarily insane... and he's done so twice already. Both he and Christopher share a bond in being "shell-shocked" for various reasons from the Vietnam war, and they both have a gift for seeing things they shouldn't be able to.

Summary: A few family members gathered to take a wilderness hike at Tara's suggestion the day after their larger family reunion, since they had flights to wait on or vacation time to spare. The hike seemed normal enough except for a strange quiet that fell over the forest. Early on, they spotted a white stag off in the trees, and a raven swooped by overhead even as the stag ran off. Marta and John took it for an omen; some of the others were less convinced. As the day went on and they sought out the overlook Tara had spoken of, more information came out in bits and pieces. Apparently the trail had only recently opened back up in the past few years due to the disappearance of a little girl and her family about 20 years ago. The father and mother had been found; the father had apparently fallen to his death over a ledge, and the mother had somehow died of shock. The search for Victoria King went on for weeks, but nothing was ever turned up. The park service had finally opened the trail back up again after years of disuse.

The hike was to be a day or day-and-a-half out to the lookout point, and a similar distance back. As they began settling into camp, strange things started happening. Christopher was beset with visions of a sad, almost morbid little girl with black hair and a faded light blue nightgown. In one, she appeared on the ridge they were camped on a short distance back, and pointed off into the distance at a light on the other side of the valley. Then looking at something behind him, she screamed as crashing sounds came through the underbrush. As he attempted to push her to safety and deal with the approaching entity, the vision ended.

This lead to a search of the ridgetop that started with everything thinking Christopher was crazy, and led down the strange rabbithole the campaign has contorted through. More description will be forthcoming if we run another session anytime soon.