Friday Games and Films

I am time-boxed this Saturday morning and will only cover the highlights of Friday.

I rose and made liberal coffee, which I have been drinking since President Trump was elected. The coffee reminds me to be vigilant and “wokes” me to the possibilities of a better world. The bitterness reminds me of how hard that will be and how long it will take. Trust liberal with your coffee and taste the possibilities.

Rushing, I wrote the blog while having breakfast and finished it before 9:30. Today, it is the black suit, looking more Lovecraftian, with a blood-red vest and another 1980s tie. I leave at 10 with an hour to get to my game. It is raining, not just Oregon Mist, and the traffic, seemingly never experiencing rain before, is extra slow. The roads, still with summer’s mess on them, are slick. I crawl in Air Volvo towards the Hollywood District in Portland. Through the tunnel, a car slows and then brakes. I react, but the safety controls slam the brakes, anti-lock braking takes over, and Air Volvo stops within a few feet of the vehicle. I believe I would have stopped the car in time, but Air Volvo was sure it was time to stop, bringing us to a complete stop sooner. The cars behind me do not take me out. We continue to crawl across Portland, undamaged

I arrive at the Hollywood district with minutes to spare, enjoying an ambulance’s passage on Highway I-84. I park Air Volvo on (really ‘on’) the old, now defunct RiteAid; you park on the roof and have to walk down the ramp. It is wet, and I have to walk four blocks. I am a few minutes late and damp; a spare seat is there.

Battle Grounds, a new gaming store and coffee house (a good combination), is a neat, clean-smelling gaming store on Sandy, just a few blocks from the Hollywood Theater. We all had $20 credit each and a separate space with a door. We could close off the noise of the rest of the store. They brought me coffee (a holy ritual producing a European-style cup) and, later, for lunch, a sausage and cheese bagel sandwich on pepper spiced bagel. It almost made my eyes water. Sean from the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society was hosting the game with props, some sizable, and provided us with characters that we selected at random; I was Colleta, the local librarian and widow.

This is unpublished and professional material, so I will not recount the story here.

Sean tells a great, terrible story and voices and acts for all the characters we meet in the story. While the rules of Call of Cthulhu Role-Playing Game are manifold and explained in two one-inch texts, like most games, there was seldom any reference to the rules and not a single rule text on the table (I left mine in the cargo hold). This is a prop-heavy theater of the mind game and adult fiction with enough horror that the story still bothers me. Perfect.

Sean said they will likely soon publish this adventure and may release a prop set for purchase. I would be willing to invest in this story, set in the Great Depression year of 1935 in Providence, Road Island, and H.P. Lovecraft’s home. I will lurk and hope it shows up soon. While playing, my character managed to go insane temporarily, and as I was a librarian, Colleta was later found reading Agatha Christe at the local library. After my characters’s brush with insanity and the mythos, most of my words involved books; I threw books at bad guys and wandered often. I make every sanity check after that. Colleta had seen this before and accepted it, like any scary book.

We finished the game with only partial success, which is usually all you can hope for. We broke up, and soon I found solace in pizza nearby. The Festival did not start until 6 and was always late, so I had time for pizza. Some of my fellow agents located pizza, too, and we chatted. Soon, I was in line to enter the Hollywood Theater in the shorter VIP line, shaking hands with friends not seen in a year. This theater, built in Portland in the 1920s, is pretty but violates many safety rules, and one must be careful. I did not fall, but I did need to be more cautious than my last visit (before the brain surgery).

I acquired my usual seat in the main theater, an aisle seat on the third row left side with a perfect view of the screen and stage. I put my hat and umbrella there. Then, I went off for beer, popcorn, and my goodies from being a Kickstarter supporter (that is how I got the VIP status and was included in the CoC game with Sean). I return loaded up and realize I still have more time. I would usually risk the ramp to the second floor, but once was enough for me with my new revised one-sided balance system. I am also feeling fatigued. But the hallway outside of the main theater was lined with vendors. Matt, whom I met last year, remembers me and sells me Tenebrous Press’s new magazine, issue 0 and 1. I still have not finished the books he sold me last year, so I demur when offered Tenebrous Press’s latest books.

When I see him, Cody Goodman, dressed in a priestly vestment, salutes back to my raised beer. Only fifteen minutes late, a new record for quickness for the festival, Cody walks on stage with a gal dressed in a tight costume, reminding us of Cthuhu (known as Cthulhu girl), and leads us in the main theater in chants to open the film festival. Gwen and Brian, who run the show and the Kickstarter, come on stage to provide opening remarks and some instructions. Friends from the early game sit next to me. Folks from last year sat behind me, and we chatted before the start. One of the filmmakers sits in front of me. For me, the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival reconnects me with fellow cultists I see about once a year and some new ones.

In the main theater was block 1 of short films; my favorite part of the festival was the shorts made by small teams, but often scary or funny. The first film was a short educational film on how to be a good parasite-host, and while not really a Lovecraftian Mythos-based film, it was funny. Some other films were disturbing and usually focused on one terrible and sleep-losing theme. Excellent. One had jump scares (yes, I jumped), something we don’t usually see. Block 1, according to Brian, who introduced it, was a tour of styles and types of shorts. I enjoyed it, but I was growing weary.

I collected my stuff at 9, when the first break happened, and left. I was dragging and soon returned to Air Volvo, which got me home without incident, but it seemed like a long ride. In the Volvo Cave, I disassemble my apparel, shower, and find my bed comfortable in my PJs. I read Slow Horses for a while but soon fell asleep, though I was wired a bit from the horror shorts. I do not recall my dreams, which is good, I suspect.

Thanks for reading!