As The Waters Cover The Sea 01: The Quantocks of Solace

The Apocalypse Players

The first episode of 'As The Waters Cover The Sea' introduces a group of five walkers navigating the rugged coastal tracks of the Quantock H

Key takeaways

• The scenario is a 7th edition Call of Cthulhu folk horror tale written by Joseph Chance.
• Characters include Charlie Westenra, Chris Caldwell, Max Davenant, Josephine Arundel, and Lilith Bayard.

Main topics

• Call of Cthulhu TTRPG
• Folk Horror Storytelling

Notable quotes

When there was still hope.

Conclusion

An immersive start to a horror campaign that effectively blends atmosp

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:23) The Apocalypse Players present As the Waters Cover the Sea, a 7th edition Call of Cthulhu folk horror scenario written by Joseph Chance. Starring Dominic Allen as Charlie Westenra, Danann McAleer as Max Davident, Dan Wheeler as Chris Caldwell, and our very special guest star Belinda Cornish as Josephine Arundel. Speaker 1 (0:57) And Joseph Chance as the Keeper of the Arcane Lore. Part 1. The Quantics of Solace. Welcome to 2024, my friends. Cheers. The most current of all of our stories. It changes everything. But it's not this year, it's last year. Oh, God. When Speaker 3 (1:49) there was still hope. Speaker 5 (1:50) When there was still hope. I mean, well, you know, it does really help. It does. Actually, because as a photojournalist, it completely changes what I might be reporting on this year versus last year. Speaker 1 (2:03) It does. Sorry, do carry on. It always makes a difference, doesn't it? Where we're at, what time we are, what we're dealing with, our dreams, our hopes, our fears. And of course, you're by the ocean, so it's a good place to be accessing those dreams. Charlie Weston-Rar is a unique individual. Speaker 1 (2:23) You've all stumbled into his life. Josie Arundel, you were introduced to Charlie by your good friend, Sebastian Gately, who's a very successful lawyer who said, oh, you simply have to go on one of Charlie's walking tours. There's nothing like them. Chris Caldwell, you became friends with Charlie through your fell running days a few years back. where the two of you were pushing yourselves to the limit in a different pace, a different rhythm, but still with the high views and the challenges of the ups and the downs. The English countryside, sometimes the Welsh, sometimes the Scottish countryside too. The United Kingdom's fells. You were investigating. I think Charlie's probably taking it slightly easy on his knees these days, these last couple of years. Max Davenant, you arrived slightly later to Charlie's esteemed company. Yeah. But he's really affected you with his imagination, his way of seeing... He has. The thin places, the coast, the boundary lines, the way markers, the stones on the horizon. He's triggered something in your engineer's mind that has, I would say, possibly for the first time ever in your life, opened up. a vista to something far more imaginative than you ever thought you were going to access. No, absolutely. And it's all come through the influence of this enigmatic, at times charismatic, at times... Problematic? Problematic. Speaker 4 (4:09) Problematic. Speaker 1 (4:11) Gentleman. Still a young man. Charlie Westenra. Speaker 1 (4:19) What do you look like again, Charlie Weston-Rowe? Speaker 4 (4:21) I'll tell you all about it. I'm from Belfast, as you can tell by my impeccable accent. Impeccable. Impeccable. You've lived in London for a long time, haven't you? You can take the boy out of Belfast, but you can't take the accent away. But we'll see. Many vocal coaches have tried. Speaker 4 (4:49) But maybe it'll slip as the scenario goes on. I'm lean, small and beautiful like an elf. Sandy reddish hair and brilliant blue eyes. Sparkling. Captivating. Freckles and a lovely smile. I seem ageless in a way. Speaker 3 (5:11) He's a leprechaun. Speaker 4 (5:15) That would be offensive. Speaker 3 (5:19) I was debating whether to say that. But not to Speaker 1 (5:24) Josie, because she's Canadian, so she doesn't Speaker 3 (5:27) like Speaker 1 (5:27) to make observations like that. I don't know that's rude. You Speaker 3 (5:31) get Speaker 1 (5:31) the first one for free, right? Yeah, sure. Speaker 4 (5:34) I jest, of course. It's my own fault for always wearing green and this big top hat. Speaker 1 (5:42) Which is almost how you imagine him as he stands. Far ahead on the brow of the hill, Josie, I think you're the one who's just... You know how you reach one of those little quarter peaks on the way up to the top as you go up? And so you can see him up ahead, just as you're reaching the top of one of these little victories on the walk. There they are on the top of the brow, Weston Ra and Caldwell. together and it's western rise almost striking a pose i mean it's unconscious he's not doing it deliberately but he's almost striking the pose of almost a fey figure in that glimpsed moment it's a lovely um sweeping path of a curve down to the right you've got rolling green grassy descent towards the coast itself and then off to the left ever ever more steeply now as you progress You've got these grassy, they were meadowlands. You're leaving the last of them now. You can see the brow of this hill is perhaps the last of them. You're leaving the flatlands and you're moving into this rugged coastal territory. This is the last path that leads to what Charlie Westenra has called the Devil's Steps. And this is the steep up and down of the northern stretch of the Quantux, a few miles away from North Kilver. That's K-I-L-V-E. Kilver. It's a real walk. It's up, it's down, it's up, it's down, and it gets the thighs really burning. You're all fit. and healthy walkers, and you like a challenge. There's no way you would have come back for another walk with Weston Ra if you didn't, and you know that he'll push you, and you know that he's got a little secret up his sleeve. There's something he's not told you. You're going to a bay, and you can see him on the top there, Josie, of this, it's only about another 50 yards up, but he's just reached it with the much taller figure of Chris Caldwell next to him. Just out of your earshot, Max and Josephine, and of course Lilith, who is the fifth walker. We should join those two as they survey the greater landscape above. Speaker 1 (8:15) The two of you, Weston Ra and Caldwell, have broken ahead of the group this morning, getting a real stride on, stretching your legs, taking point, as it were. The five of you have been walking for a day already. This is your second day. Ah. You stopped over at a cabin just past the Steat Marshes. You walked from Bridgewater all the way through the post-industrial landscape as it changed into the marshlands, up into the northern Quantock Hills, and then hit the coast. This is a walk that has been designed by you, Charlie Westenra. I Speaker 4 (9:00) regret it now because my legs are completely banjaxed. Speaker 1 (9:04) Now, it came recommended to you from a trusted source, a Cornishman, who, despite his tender years, he's not yet past his mid-thirties, seems to know a few nooks and crannies, some secret places, some thin places, perhaps, on the edge of things. And you, Charlie, well, you're... You're not just a seeker of walks, are you? You're also a seeker of... Stories, mainly. Speaker 4 (9:37) Aye. Always looking for the next tale to tell. You know, these stories, they don't write themselves. You've got to find the inspiration wherever you can. Sometimes that's old stories. Sometimes that's just a funny-looking tree you've seen. Speaker 1 (9:54) And certainly the stay at marshes were not disappointing. You'd known of them before. In fact, Chris Caldwell, you'd come here on a geography trip as a child. Well, and I'd heard about the funny-looking trees. Speaker 5 (10:09) They make fantastic subjects for photographs, trees. A lot of people don't realise that. Speaker 1 (10:14) Did you get a good shot of a low and stunted tree? Speaker 5 (10:19) Exactly Speaker 1 (10:19) that. Sort of all withered. Speaker 5 (10:23) Looked like an old man almost, with the moss hanging off it. Speaker 1 (10:26) Yeah, maybe you're thinking about such things as composition, the artist's eye. As you turn around, you glance over your shoulder and you see down, stretching your way down the path behind you, you see the three other walkers who you're with. Lilith Bayard, the young French woman. She's quite short, she's got sharp blonde hair, rather lovely looking, actually. And Josie Arundel. taller, more athletic build, got quite auburn hair. She's the eldest of the walkers. She's very fit, very strong, confident walker. She's a lawyer. And then in the rear, at the back there, you see the tall figure of Max. He's a really skilled climber and is clearly excited about hitting the cliffs, which is the next... stage of your walk. You stayed at one of those bunk houses that has absolutely, well, nothing to recommend it. It's just, you had your sleeping bags, you had your camping kit. Probably one of those instant meals that you cook up. They're pretty good these days. Lentils and, you know, soybeans with various, I don't know, marvellous extra quinoa. A really bad idea when you're Speaker 4 (11:42) going Speaker 1 (11:42) to have Speaker 4 (11:42) to Speaker 1 (11:42) shit Speaker 4 (11:42) in a pot. Speaker 1 (11:44) That was true. It was hard to know whether you were shitting in a pot or just eating shit from a pot. Very much the same going in and coming out. Well, they say they're closer to nature that way. The cycle, the life cycle is being refined. Like a whiskey. The process of the emptying of your bowel was like a refinement of the whiskey. Watch out for that yeast. Let's hope it's not sentient. Well, right. The path was very established. But right at the end, as you reach the cabin, you realize that the path became much more like animal tracks. Speaker 1 (12:24) That's what you follow this morning. And you break camp early. Speaker 1 (12:33) Charlie, you're keen to get to the North Kilver cliffs by lunchtime, which will mean a hard walk, which is what the five of you are here for. You're all experienced walkers. You're all in good shape. And there may be some scrambling. There may be some scree. There may even be a little bit of rock climbing, depending on how good or bad the paths are. Well, it's not a hard walk. Why bother? Speaker 5 (12:59) Just take the car. Supposed to be a challenge, isn't it, Charlie? Exactly. Aye. Speaker 1 (13:10) I think there's a distant look in Charlie's eye, though, when he says, I like that. I imagine that Max, Josephine and Lilith might have just dropped back a bit. They might be glancing back to that last view of the marshes behind, the flatlands down to Bridgewater, back to civilization. But the two of you have struck out ahead ever so slightly, which has perhaps been the pattern, is that the two of you are slightly more experienced. You're the map leaders of the group. And you have the longest friendship, and you've certainly been through some trials together. Up in Hebden Bridge, you did that fell run, right? Mm, yeah, yeah. Well, that's where Speaker 4 (13:47) we met, right? Yeah. That's right. Hebden Bridge, I'll never forget it. Who won? So many lesbians in Hebden Bridge. Who beat Speaker 5 (13:56) the other man? Speaker 1 (13:57) Not that. It was Speaker 5 (13:58) embraced. Not that. No, it's true, though, there Speaker 1 (14:00) are. It is. And a lot of great art. Who was embraced by those bountiful bosoms of the lesbian ladies? Speaker 4 (14:06) I bought this. I bought this fantastic mug from one of the pottery shops in Hebden Bridge. It was made by a 62-year-old lesbian lady called Carolyn. That's brilliant. Speaker 5 (14:19) I bought a couple of egg cups that looked like tits. Speaker 1 (14:25) What was the... What was on the cup, Charlie? Speaker 4 (14:34) On the cup was... Speaker 4 (14:38) It was pretty straightforward. It was a flower and a cow. It's one of those sort of Speaker 1 (14:46) benign-looking cows that had the... You say benign, Speaker 4 (14:52) but Caroline had a very avant-garde approach to painting cows. So it had really long legs and a tiny body and a big head. It's kind of creepy looking, but I like it. Speaker 4 (15:10) Am I still from Belfast? Can't tell. You are now. We'll see how we get on. It's a small part. It's a weird borough of Belfast. We didn't leave much during the Troubles. Very insular. I thought you left years ago. Speaker 4 (15:28) Yeah, but it's ingrained in the accent. You know, it's not very mixed with the rest of Belfast, so it has its own idiosyncrasies. Speaker 1 (15:37) Listen, it's a pre-generated character. You can blame the writer. It's not your fault. You've been brave to take it on. Maybe there's something about the otherworldliness of the image on that mug that you're thinking about now as you glance out towards the sea. And you can't quite see it, but you can both sense that it's there, just beyond the horizon. Do either of you have the fatal flaw of desiring tobacco? Speaker 4 (16:08) Yes, I think I probably do. It's not on my sheet, but probably. And Speaker 1 (16:15) I suspect that you... I don't know, maybe I vape. Maybe there's a vape and maybe Charlie's got some tobacco. Speaker 5 (16:23) Sounds about right. I think I vape. I think I have one of those enormous contraptions, like a sort of spaceship vape, where I have to replace it with little canisters and it Speaker 4 (16:36) comes to forge. And you have to hold about three buttons to suck on it. Like you're playing some kind of... A bag with replaceable Speaker 5 (16:45) canisters. Speaker 4 (16:46) You're playing Speaker 5 (16:47) some kind of bugle. It's like a sort of steampunk James Bond special item. Exactly. Speaker 1 (16:53) Yeah, yeah. Perfect. I'll give you a bonus for saving throws. Almost certainly for that. Excellent. Comes with its own case. Yeah. I think Lilith definitely smokes. I Speaker 3 (17:04) think Josie also vapes. Yeah. But like, you know, like blue raspberry. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Speaker 4 (17:12) And I smoke strawberry ice. I smoke rollies that are the shape of, like, a dunce's hat. Fucking cone. Speaker 1 (17:22) Cone. Speaker 4 (17:23) And all the tobacco just tumbles out whenever I smell it. It's incredible Speaker 5 (17:27) you're so good at fell-rooding, the amount of those you smoke. Well, you know, Speaker 4 (17:32) when you've got a lot of oxygen flowing through it like that, the way I roll them, it means you get through them very quick when you're running. Which suits me. That's the way I like to do it. You Speaker 3 (17:42) barely have to just draw at all. It's just the running just does the work. Speaker 4 (17:47) You run forwards and you open your lungs and nature does the rest. Like a shark. Absolutely buzzing by the end of a run. Absolutely buzzing. And Nick's sick, of course. Nick's Speaker 1 (18:00) sick. Nevertheless, this is a good spot for a cigarette. Speaker 1 (18:09) And I think maybe there's a moment of, a bonding moment as the clouds start to gather and rise in the distance. And you can see this black mass of clouds coming over the sea, really high. And yet there's this wonderful blue sky off. to the north and I suppose ultimately the northeast away, back in up the Severn Estuary. Speaker 3 (18:34) But Speaker 1 (18:34) the Atlantic seems to be swept with stormy weather. Speaker 1 (18:43) It's November. Sometimes you just get the most wonderful walking weather in November. It's a classic time for you, Charlie, to try a complex walk like this. There's the little summer of St Luke's, of course, in November. Sometimes you get a really nice three or four days of really good weather. It just seems to be quite consistent in the British Isles. And there's that walk to Tintagel that you did years ago. The weather was just perfect, crisp and clean and clear. Pre-winter, centre of fall, leaves thick on the ground. You get all the riches of the colours at this time of year. And those stunted trees, you know, are going to give way ahead to prehistoric oaks that gather on these not particularly well-sheltered cliffs ahead. So those oaks don't grow tall. They grow in groves, old and ancient groves. You're looking forward to some of that. And Chris, you're aware of some of what's to come because Charlie's mentioned it to you. And the two of you have this moment where Charlie's been looking somewhat glassily off into the distance. You're right, Doug. Speaker 4 (20:00) I was just thinking about those groves. Groves? Did you know that the only reason we've got coal is because during the Carboniferous period, the trees developed bark and it fell to the ground, but there was no bacteria that had evolved yet to help it decompose, so it just lay on the ground. And that's why coal seams exist. So all these people who are like, oh, well, you know. We can dig up the coal because there's always going to be trees. Well, it doesn't work like that because now there is bacteria that makes bark decompose. Isn't that mental? It's extraordinary. Speaker 1 (20:41) Could you both give me a spot hidden? That looks Speaker 4 (20:48) really good. That's an 18 on a 45. That's a hard success. Speaker 4 (20:57) Can we bet on that in any way? The hard's good. The hard's really good. Let's have a look. Spot hidden. This fucking fly has got to go. I got it as well. Fuck me. It's all over my hands. I've got a regular Speaker 5 (21:08) spot hidden. Speaker 1 (21:12) 34 on a 55. I think it's the hard that means that you kill the fly so quickly. The weather has been... warm these last few days for the season. A good 14 degrees, you know. Considering when you arrived in Bridgewater, it looked like it was going to be like 6 degrees or something. It's classic sort of shifting autumnal British climate. You kill the fly and it's smeared on your hands and there's just a trace of blood and you flick it off and as your hand flicks an animal runs through the grasses and you both see it. It's a hare. Oh, I try and get my camera out. Yeah, perfect. Give me a dexterity roll. I wonder if I can do a photography roll, but I'll give you a Dex roll first. You can give me photography if it's better. Speaker 5 (22:10) That's a success on my Dex. Let's have a look at photography. Just regular Speaker 1 (22:17) success on both. Regular success. So, yeah, it's up. It's in your hands and you're taking shots. Doing shots. Yeah, Sambuca all the way. That's the Nottingham way, right? Sambuca. Lovely. Just at Sambuca for breakfast. Good ask, Jess. Definitely. Probably too busy drinking in Sambuca right now. Probably. But, Dom, Charlie Weston-Wright, you see that this hair runs straight. Speaker 1 (22:52) It's almost as if you've set it free with the action of your hand. And it hits the verge of path and the green of the now dipping down and then undulating up landscape. Clearly, the heights are coming. So it will be this sort of plunging sensation of going up and down some secret beaches ahead. And as you're thinking of secret beaches, the hair stops, turns. and looks at you it's got that classic nervous quality of the hair's intelligent deer-like affinity but it just stares at you and seems very still in that moment on its back haunches and then it just slinks away down into the delve below how many legs did it have Speaker 4 (23:48) Well, my friend. A normal number of legs. Speaker