CoCRPG Setup: The Mystery of the Stone

Summer 1922: A long lost exploration vessel, the Balerion, steams into to Baltimore harbor with a decimated crew, and different captain then they departed with, none of their equipment or cargo; the only item manifested is a "religions item", a single package wrapped in rough spun cloth. Attempts to examine it invoke such unnerving hostility from the captain that in the end he is simply allowed to carry the mysterious object with him off the ship. Not long after that, the ship sustains severe damage in a freak collision in the harbor, the crew scatters, the captain is found murdered in a shanty back alley, and the precious parcel disappeared. Winter 1923: A wild eyed nautical type arrives at Miskatonic Museum in Arkham, Mass demanding to see the curator of the antiquities; he offers for sale a oddly shaped stone, wrapped in rough spun, which he claims is an object of worship from some culture remote in time and distance. At first dismissive, then curious, then fascinated, the curator agrees to purchase the object, sending the wild eyed man away with $30. After a few short weeks antiquarians, archeologists, researchers of all stripes become aware of the stone, several articles are published in international journals, and it becomes a matter of interest to many ...

Spring 1923: The Arkham Gazette blares a headline of startling import: "Museum Robbed - Famous Stone Missing - 9 Found Killed in Grizzly Ritual". The article describes a scene of horror in the museum where the curator, several guards, a policeman, and some visitors were found slain. Two weeks later, a similar scene of horror is discovered in the near-dead port town of Innsmouth. A a professor from Miskatonic University and some of his students had apparently witness something of connected with the event (according to local law enforcement), and left Innsmouth in a desperate hurry.

Now, stone was gone. An unnamed private individual has offered a considerable sum of money for the return of the stone to him directly. Several law enforcement agencies have assigned investigators to track down the perpetrators of the crimes and recover the stolen artifact. Freelance journalists, thrill seeking dilettantes, even some hard bitten bounty hunters were all seeking the stone and the murderous thieves who possess it. All clues and leads point to England, where it is rumored the stone has been carried for some unknown purpose, though some dark hints suggest that the horrific scenes of carnage seen thus far are just a prelude to what will take place should these killers fulfill their plan.

The investigators find themselves on board the RMS Mauritania, departing New York City in the late spring of 1923, bound for England where they hope to pick up the trail and solve the mystery of the stone. The party should include law enforcement seeking justice and maybe revenge for murdered comrades, academics or antiquarians with professional interest in the stone and perhaps some deeper glimpses into its origins, agents of foreign governments who have some unstated interest in the stone, and some individuals who are in the employ of the unnamed private individual commissioned to find and return the stone to him. Each player will be given some personal motivations and objectives that are private and probably should not be revealed to the other players.