A Brief Summary of our Grand Theft Cthulhu Game

The video of the session can be found below:

However there follows a short summary of the game.

Main Characters

'Dirty' Deny Whatley : played by Afrodave

Horatio Whatley : played by Fozz

Trevor Whatley : played by Pigeon

Principle NPCs

'Fat' Abbot Whately : Mercilessly tough leg-breaker and rivil of Deny’s for the casino racket.

Juvan : Mechanic working in one of Trevor’s garages.

Louie Graves : Long time friend and contact of Deny's, works in the vice trade.

Old Man Pierson Whatley : Patriarch of the Whatley crime family

Sandra 'Scarlett' West : On/off girlfriend of Deny, works as a receptionist at Trev’s garage.

Plot Summary

Arkham City had one been ruled by the Whatley family from the shadows of the underworld, if anyone wanted to run business in Arkham they had to pay a cut to the Whatleys; this all changed about ten years ago when a previously unknown English crime family called the Peabodys moved across the water and, with an almost supernatural ability to avoid the ACPD and have their deals come up golden they took over as the leading crime family within a week, leaving the defeated Whatleys to slink into the shadows, nursing their wounds and their grudges

Recently Pierson Whatley has gathered together three of the upcoming members of his family, Deny, a well known rough nut and security consultant for the familys chain of Silver hawk casinos, Horatio, an AWOL member of the military that the family have been sheltering because his training is very useful to them and Trevor, who runs a successful (and dubious) chain of chop shops and respray joints for the Whatleys. Pierson tells them that Ashap Peabody, the ruler of the opposing cri8me family, is ill and not long for this world, he hasn't been seen in public for a couple of years and there aren't many Peabodys left in the USA; one of Pierson's inside men has told him that the Peabodys intend to bring in a shipment of weapons hidden in an oil tanker down the Masachussetts Highway at midnight. This could be the opportunity that the Whatleys have been waiting for, if they can seize the weapons then they both deny their enemies a valuable resource and can propel themselves back to the top of the heap in Arkham.

Heading to the Masachussetts Highway, the three members of the Whatley family concoct their plan; Horatio will station himself on one of the bridges with a rifle and shoot out the tyres of the tanker as it approaches, meanwhile Trev and Deny will be waiting in their armoured Patriot at the nearest on/off ramp (junction 32), once they hear the shots they'll drive up and force the tanker into the hard shoulder where Deny will deal with the driver and Trev will change the tyres so that they can drive the tanker away and get it off the highway (since the shots are sure to attract the ACPD and they're not known for their tolerance).

As the tanker rumbles towards the bridge Horatio stares down his scope and notes an odd glazed over expression on the drivers face; he is forced to fire a couple of shots as the wind whipping about him makes it very difficult to hit the target, but eventually he is rewarded with the sound of one of the tyres popping, through his radio link he shouts for the others to make their move. Roaring up the off-ramp in the souped up Patriot bumps into the side of the tanker where Trev is able, thanks to his superior driving skills, to force it onto the hard shoulder. Jumping out and running over to the cab, Deny throws open the cabin door of the tanker, he notes briefly the emaciated condition of the driver before grabbing his head and smashing it into the dashboard; expecting a bit of blood and unconsciousness, Deny is horrified with the skull of the driver cracks like an egg shell, revealing not brains and viscera but a pungent green slime that smells of stagnant water and death, he pulls his arm back (now coated with the goo), throws the corpse from the seat onto the road and begins hastily wiping his arm with his jacket shouting to the others.

Horatio has no rejoined them and pokes gingerly at the dissolving remains of the driver, but before they have a chance to ponder it any further Trev shouts that he's changed the wheel and they need to get going; not eager to get back into the cab of the tanker Deny volunteers to drive the Patriot whilst Horatio and Trev jump into the tanker and begin gunning the engine. As they roared off however the sound of suddenly approaching police car sirens filled the otherwise quiet night air, Horatio frowned, how the hell had the cops gotten to them this quickly? No-one was supposed to know about the tanker, unless they'd been double crossed?

Looking ahead they can see that the police have spread their cars out across the road, Trev looks around frantically for a way to escape and sees that the weak point of the cordon ahead of them appears to be a spot occupied by a single army truck; a man wearing khaki clothes is stood by it, the man seems to have noticed Horatio and is frantically shouting into a radio. A sudden bright white spotlight flickers on around the tanker as the sound of an ACPC police helicopter comes swooping in overhead; shouting for Trev to get them out of here Horatio leans out of the window but is unable to hit the spotlight with his rifle at the speed the tanker is moving. Deny tries to keep up with the tanker, driving and shooting but, distracted by pulling his weapon, clips the front of the tanker with the Patriot sending himself crashing into the side struts of the freeway, there is a sickening crunch and a shower of sparks as the side of the car scrapes against the metal side bars of the freeway but Deny manages to keep the car moving forwards somehow.

Smashing at full speed into the military vehicle, Trev grits his teeth as the tanker plows through it, throwing the soldier clear like a broken rag doll, skidding around crazily Deny manage to follow but a hail of bullets riddles the Patriot, some of it finding chinks in the armour and wounding Deny's leg. Pulling off the freeway the tanker and Patriot drive through little known backstreets, losing any pursuit in the chaos of the wrecked military vehicle, Trev rings ahead to one of his garages and tells his man Juvan to get ready to change some tanker number plates; a few minutes later they roll into the garage where the mechanic Juvan immediately begins changing the plates.

Back at the garage Horatio turns his attention to the contents of the tanker truck, using a large angle grinder to cut the lock off the entrance hatch to the back of the tanker, however, when entered he finds it empty besides a small, spikey, metal statue that looks like some kind of sea urchin or cross between a slug and a hedgehog with three tentacle like growths sculpted from it, each with a ruby eye set in them.

Deny’s phone rings and it’s one of his contacts Louie Graves who asks what the hell is going on and tells them that all the police are after them and that even the Whatly family themselves are pursuing them, saying that the three men have stolen something from the family; it would seem that Horatio’s suspicions were correct and then have been double crossed by someone within their own family, possibly Old Man Pierson himself. Graves tells Deny that his cousin Abbot Whatley has moved in on the Silver Hawk casinos saying that he’s going to be the new man in charge; Deny is protesting their innocence when Horatio and Trevor slap the phone out of his hand thinking it could be used to track them.

In order to slap the phone Horatio has put the statue down on a nearby crate, he hears a voice behind him swearing and turns round to see Juvan holding his hand, it seems as though he tried to move the statue and one of the spines broke off in his hand; an unhealthy looked green ooze lines the wound and thin green traceries seem to have spread out under Juvan’s skin from the wound. Whilst Trevor restrains him, Horatio plunges Juvan’s hand into boiling water in an attempt to leech out the poison and then attempts to make the injured man comfortable.

Deny has been looking around outside, however, he fails to spot the hulking figure of ‘Fat’ Abbot Whatley creeping up behind him, he only becomes aware of it when the cold metal of a gun barrel is pushed into the small of his back and the rough, threatening voice of Abbot begins to talk, admonishing Deny for stealing from the family and gloating about how all of Deny’s rackets will soon be his; unseen by either man the red haired figure of Sandra “Scarlett” West is arriving for the evening shift and, spotting her lover with a gun to him, runs inside in a panic, screaming for Horatio to do something.

Outside, Deny struggles to wrestle the gun off Abbot, unaware that Horatio and Trevor (followed by Scarlett despite Horatio telling her to remain inside) have burst out of the garage and are preparing to help him; the gun goes off, missing Horatio and Trevor, there is a muffled scream as the stray bullet hits Scarlett in the chest and she falls to the floor. Horatio’s gun barks out in response and Abbots face disappears in a crimson spray as Deny runs over to cradle the dying Scarlett who, through the gurgled gasps of a punctured lung, mutters something about a black underwater city; Deny frantically dials for an ambulance but, a moment after he finishes the call, Scarlett dies.

Juvan staggers out of the garage looking still quite ill, but seemingly wanting to help, his face suddenly goes slack and with superhuman strength he grabs Horatio’s neck with one hand and begins to squeeze the life out of him, lifting the gasping gunman off the ground; seeing green slime leaking from the minor wounds that Horatio’s struggling has inflicted on Juvan, Trev realises that his friend is gone and fires his shotgun at Juvan. Horatio falls to the floor gasping in lungfuls of air as he is released, the body of Juvan collapses and begins to rapidly decay into a fetid pool of green slime. Still spluttering and slightly blue in the face, Horatio tells everyone to get ready to leave; without thinking Trevor reaches over for the statue to throw it in the pimped out car that he’s prepared for their getaway when he feels one of the metal spikes pierce his skin.

A cold numbness begins to spread up his arm towards his elbow and green lines slowly start to spread from the wound under his skin; with only moments to think and not wanting to end up like Juvan, Trevor ties his belt around his elbow, pulls it tight with his teeth and picks up the nearby angle grinder. There is a spray of blood and a muffled scream and Trev drives the grinder down through his elbow, severing his arm, he reels back blood leaking from the wound despite his makeshift tourniquet, but at least it is red blood, whereas his severed arm begins to submit to the green decay as it lies festering on the floor. Outside there is the sound of the ambulance finally arriving as Horatio cauterises Trev’s wound; forcing the two paramedics inside he makes them dope Trev up on extra strength painkillers, but he spots one of the medics has signalled somebody using her radio, at gunpoint he gets her to reveal that she recognised the three men from the descriptions being put out over police dispatches and has radioed in her position.

Using the butt of his gun Horatio knocks out the paramedics and says that they need to get out of dodge, Trev is losing consciousness so he is chucked in the back of the car, Deny slides behind the drivers seat as Horatio grabs some thick welders gloves, wraps up the statue and throws it in the boot of the car. A few moments later they screech out of the garage and drive off into the night.