Quest Line · Original Adventure · Call of Cthulhu 7e
1930s · One-shot
Children across Chicago's South Side have begun sleepwalking toward the Waverly Hotel, drawn by a signal only they can hear through radio static. The investigators must penetrate the decaying hotel's secrets, navigate the obsessions of its isolated residents, and confront what waits in Room 214 before the next broadcast compels the children to complete their terrible pilgrimage.
Setting: Chicago, October 1935. The Great Depression grips the city. The investigators should have connections to the neighborhood around the Waverly Hotel—parents, teachers, social workers, beat cops, or journalists covering the "sleepwalking epidemic."
Player Characters: Ordinary people thrust into extraordinary circumstances. At least one investigator should have a personal connection to an affected child.
Content Warnings: Child endangerment (no graphic harm), body horror, themes of obsession and isolation, cosmic dread.
Choose the hook that best fits your group:
The Personal Hook: An investigator's child, niece, nephew, or student sleepwalks from their home at 3:47 AM, found three blocks away heading toward the abandoned Waverly Hotel. The child remembers nothing but describes "the lady singing numbers" in their dreams.
The Professional Hook: Investigators working as police, reporters, or social workers notice a pattern—seven children in three nights, all found sleepwalking southward. All were near radios tuned between stations. All describe the same dream of Room 214.
The Mysterious Hook: An investigator receives an anonymous envelope containing a child's drawing of a tall building with "214" on one window, a key to Room 214 of the Waverly Hotel, and a note: "They're listening. Make it stop. —M.W."
The Waverly Hotel looms seven stories above South Halsted Street, its art deco facade cracked and water-stained. Condemned signs from 1933 hang askew on chain-link fencing. During the day, the hotel appears merely neglected. At night, a faint amber light glows from a fourth-floor window—no electricity has flowed to this building in two years.
Initial Investigation:
Neighbors (requiring Charm or Persuade, Regular difficulty) reveal the hotel closed when the owner, Maxwell Waverly, died under mysterious circumstances. A few tenants remain, paying no rent, living in sealed-off sections with generator power. Children have been found at the fence, pressing their faces against the chain-link, humming.
Library Use or History checks uncover that Waverly was an amateur radio enthusiast who believed he could detect "signals from beyond." His obituary mentions his widow, Margaret, who "continues his work."
Gaining Entry:
The front entrance is chained. Investigators can:
Inside the Lobby:
Dust and debris coat the once-grand space. The elevator is defunct. Mailboxes hang open like missing teeth. Footprints in the dust lead to the stairs—adult-sized, and small child-sized prints that shouldn't be here.
Listen checks detect faint static from upper floors, rising and falling like breathing.
The investigators must ascend to the fourth floor, navigating three floors of decay and the hotel's strange residents.
Second Floor — The Collector:
Arthur Pence, a former insurance adjuster, has filled his apartment with radios—dozens of them, all sizes, covering every surface. He sits among them with headphones, scribbling in ledgers.
He'll frantically warn investigators: "She's calling them! The children are receivers—pure receivers! I've been trying to triangulate, to jam the signal, but it's not coming from here, it's coming from there!" He gestures vaguely upward.
Psychology reveals profound paranoia, but also genuine terror. Persuade or Fast Talk can convince him to share his findings: the signal broadcasts at exactly 3:47 AM and 3:47 PM, lasts 47 seconds, and originates from Room 214.
If investigators mention stopping the broadcast, Pence becomes agitated: "You can't stop her! She's already there—has been for two years! The signal just helps them see her!"
Third Floor — The Threshold:
The stairwell to the fourth floor is blocked by a makeshift barrier of furniture. A crude sign reads: "NO ENTRY. BY ORDER M.W."
Spot Hidden notices fresh scratch marks on the stairs—small fingers that clawed at the wood.
Investigators can dismantle the barrier quietly (Stealth opposed by Margaret's Listen of 45%) or force through (alerting the fourth floor).
Fourth Floor — The Broadcast Chamber:
The hallway lights flicker from a sputtering generator. Seven doors line the corridor. Room 214 is at the far end, its door reinforced with metal plates and a complex lock.
Margaret Waverly emerges from Room 212. She's gaunt, wild-eyed, wearing a stained dressing gown. She carries a wrench like a weapon.
"You'll ruin everything!" she shouts. "Maxwell showed me! The children can hear properly—their minds aren't closed like ours! They'll complete the circuit! They'll bring him back!"
Combat Stats (if necessary):
Persuade (Hard difficulty) or showing evidence of the children's suffering might pause her: "But they're volunteering—the signal only calls the willing!" (This is false; the signal compels.)
Key Choice: Investigators can pursue Margaret into Room 214, attempt to disable the generator (stopping power but not the supernatural broadcast), or wait until the next broadcast time to intervene.
If investigators break in immediately:
Room 214 is a nightmare of amateur engineering and occult desperation. A massive radio transmitter cobbles together parts from dozens of devices. Copper wires spiral across walls in geometric patterns matching no known design. At the room's center, a hospital bed holds the desiccated corpse of Maxwell Waverly, wired into the transmitter as its central component.
Margaret attempts to activate the device early, beginning an incomplete broadcast. Investigators must choose:
Option A — Destroy the Device: Smashing the transmitter (STR roll or improvised weapons) releases a pulse of static that causes 1D6 Sanity loss (0/1D3) to all present as they briefly perceive what Maxwell perceived—an infinite void filled with mathematical voices. The corpse collapses to dust. Margaret screams and faints. The children are freed but retain nightmares.
Option B — Disconnect Maxwell: Carefully removing Maxwell's corpse from the device (Medicine or Electrical Repair, Regular difficulty) shuts down the supernatural aspect while preserving the equipment as evidence. Margaret can potentially be saved from complete madness. Sanity loss: 0/1D4.
Option C — Let the Broadcast Complete: If investigators fail to stop Margaret, the next scheduled broadcast occurs. All children within two miles sleepwalk to the hotel's fence. They stand in a circle, humming in harmony. Maxwell's voice speaks through them: "The circuit is incomplete. I need seven to cross over. Margaret, send me seven." Stopping this requires POW checks to resist the compulsion if any investigator had children. Breaking the transmitter now causes 1D8 Sanity loss (1D3/1D6) but saves the children, who collapse unconscious.
If investigators wait and observe the broadcast:
They witness the full horror of Margaret activating the device. Sanity check: 1/1D6 as the corpse's jaw works soundlessly, the wires glow with no electricity source, and the static resolves into Maxwell's voice counting: "Forty-seven, forty-six, forty-five..." The investigators have 47 seconds to act before the signal reaches full strength.
Possible Endings:
The Mercy: Margaret survives, institutionalized but claiming Maxwell "understands now why he had to stay." The children recover with no memory. The investigators destroyed something that might have been evidence of an afterlife—or a horrific trap.
The Evidence: Authorities seize the equipment. Scientists dismiss it as elaborate fraud, but investigators know the truth. Margaret is arrested. The children recover but some develop unusual sensitivity to radio static.
The Failure: If the broadcast completes and seven children reach the transmitter, they collapse into comas. Maxwell's corpse crumbles, the device shorts out, and Margaret dies of shock. The children wake after seven days, changed—they occasionally speak in unison and know things they shouldn't. The investigators prevented something worse, but something came through.
Margaret Waverly: Widow, early 40s, former nurse. Gaunt and manic from two years of isolation and obsession. Motivation: Bring her husband back from death, convinced the children's "pure" minds can bridge the gap.
Sal Moretti: Former doorman, 70s, lives in adjacent boarding house. Arthritic but kind. Motivation: Protective of the neighborhood's children; guilty he didn't stop the Waverlys' experiments.
Arthur Pence: Former insurance adjuster, 50s, paranoid researcher living on the second floor. Motivation: Understand the signal before it drives him completely mad; prevent catastrophe he senses coming.
Detective Frank Morrison: Homicide detective investigating if needed. Skeptical but thorough. Motivation: Solve the sleepwalking cases; willing to bend rules for children's safety.
Maxwell Waverly (deceased): Amateur radio enthusiast who became obsessed with "voices between stations." His corpse is the transmitter's power source. Motivation (in death): Unknown—perhaps genuine attempt to return, or something else using his voice.
Standard Success: Investigators gain +1D6 Sanity for saving the children, lose -1D6 for the cosmic implications of what they witnessed. Net loss typically 0-4 Sanity.
Evidence Preserved: Investigators who document the transmitter gain a +10% bonus to Electrical Repair or Occult (representing their unique knowledge of supernatural broadcast technology).
Story Rewards:
Investigator Development: Award skill check experience for successful uses of Persuade, Electrical Repair, Occult, Psychology, and any combat or stealth skills used creatively.
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