We played Until We Sink by Magnus Jakobsson and discovered a mysterious, haunting island sinking into the Pacific. Just before we arrived, Dave the fisherman died on the rocks for no apparent reason. The night after our arrival, Velma the bush pilot sees a figure on the rocks in a storm, but no one else witnesses it. Luke an alcoholic writer hiding on the island is secretly trying to determine what happened to Dave, but Lily the owner of the hotel keeps trying to put him off the scent. But Luke and Lucy, a stoner backpacker whose washed up here, go up into the cave that Lily keeps warning them away from and discovers a pentagram and various occult paraphernalia. A message carved onto the trees suggests Lily knows more than she’s letting on. As the island finally sinks beneath the waves and we’re marooned on the motorless boat waiting for rescue, our secrets are revealed. Lily explains that she had summoned a demon to save her island but it had failed her and now might be loosed upon the world.
Afterward, we played a quick session of Cheat Your Own Adventure by Shane McLean in an undersea modern city to tell the story of a young merwoman in the city, an associate attorney starting a new job. If she failed, she was fired. She kept getting fired for trying to do the right thing and kept making it through when she showed the most brazen chutzpah. It was a low-key story unlike the action-oriented CYOA that we’ve played in the past and a lot of fun. We even got in a test round of Ghost Court by Jason Morningstar which was fun and will likely make it to the table again very soon.
Story Games Club 