The year is 1930. Lord Ampney Crucis was a dashing young man, tipped to rise to the top of high society. But the Great War took an even greater toll on him than others of his generation, and a close encounter with something awful in no man's land drove Crucis quite mad. Upon recuperation he discovered that he had the ability to sense the presence of entities that lurk beyond the veil of our reality. Ampney, aided by his loyal butler Eddie Cromwell, investigated the rum goings-on that had begun to plague our green and pleasant land. From apicultural abominations set to put the world under the appendage of an Aspidistra with ideas above its station, to a cosy coven of necromantic nannies summoning at the seaside, Crucis and Cromwell were ready to give them six of the best. Alas, a mission given by a shadowy figure in British Intelligence went badly awry, and our fair heroes found themselves trapped in a hellish otherworld pursued by eldritch beasts. Cromwell gave his life to ensure his master’s escape, but Ampney found little relief as he was almost immediately seized by the Russians!
Ampney Crucis Investigates, the first three parts of which were storytimed here yesterday, is a series of occult detective stories that began in the British comic anthology 2000AD in 2008, part P. G. Wodehouse and Agatha Christie two parts H. P. Lovecraft. Like the author’s previous comic, Leviathan (storytimed here a few weeks ago (Dead)), Ampney Crucis Investigates could be very easily adapted for an absurdly English game of Call of Cthulhu, where the traditional betentacled beasties from beyond are supplemented with a variety of other eldritch abominations, and there’s always another layer of secrets to draw out…
Possible point of confusion here, particularly for Americans: in the English system a "public school" is a private, fee-paying independent institution like Eaton. They were traditionally (and at the time this is set universally) all-male boarding schools where the boys would live away from their families, sometimes for years at a time. "State School", as in schools run by the state, are where the plebs and unwashed masses go.
Thomas Price
Brief recap for anyone coming in late.
Jose Taylor
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Luke Lee
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Cooper Sullivan
Oh cripes.
Jordan Bennett
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Samuel Bell
Cromwell's fate following . Morior invictus.
Jeremiah Jenkins
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Noah Lewis
>Our nations are allies, after all - blood relatives, even - and what families don't have their secrets, eh?
How... incongruous.
John Wilson
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Ryder Price
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Jack Lee
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Ayden Cook
If anyone is reading along would they mind bumping or commenting from time to time? Thank you.
Lucas Kelly
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Parker Mitchell
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Leo Anderson
>imperial russian empire Are they not commies in this world?
Isaiah Ward
Havent started reading, preemptive bump because Shaka
Anthony Lopez
S.O.S. - Save Our Souls (or ... _ _ _ ... in morsecode). The international distress signal adopted worldwide in 1908, it remained the maritime radio distress signal until 1999 but the visual form seen here is still in use.
Anthony Butler
>Soviet?
Thank you kindly, sir or madam.
Parker Bailey
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Nicholas Evans
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Luke Collins
>Ivan Dragomiloff
Holy shit, that's the guy from Assassination Bureau. I love that movie/book. This is literally the last place I would expect to see this.
Zachary Brown
The Sun is a British "Red Top" tabloid newspaper with the largest circulation of any daily newspaper in the United Kingdom. It is known for its blunt headlines and, formerly, topless Page 3 girls.
In the background you can see the Palace of Westminster, home to pale, squamous abominations with ulterior motives.
Julian Flores
I want to live in their timeline
Lincoln Wright
He's also makes a cameo in Kim Newman's "Anno Dracula" books, very briefly!
Wyatt Price
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Benjamin Hughes
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Bentley Baker
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Alexander Gutierrez
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Easton Baker
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Joseph Moore
More heroes should be this sensible.
Mason Lewis
Leviathan is the name of a primeval sea serpent in the biblical Book of Job, Psalms, and Isaiah, with Job especially giving the most detail mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt2741.htm#1 >Behold, the hope of him is in vain; shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him?
It is also the name of a book by Thomas Hobbes, arguing for a social contract and rule by an absolute sovereign. It is also the name of another comic by the same author, where the titular enormous ship was revealed to have been built in the same universe as Ampney Crucis Investigates.
Tyler Turner
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Jack Long
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Christian Rivera
Oh dear.
Owen Garcia
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Gavin Parker
Heeeeeeeeere's JOHNNY!
Josiah Perez
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Sebastian Thompson
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Landon Sanchez
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Oliver Ramirez
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Joseph Russell
This is a somewhat different explanation of the universe to how it was originally portrayed by the cultists in the last book .
Thomas Jones
Reading now, this has great pacing
Henry Rodriguez
I honestly think this is quite an interesting way to combine Lovecraftian entities from beyond and a series of humanocentric universes where cloistered writers and opium fiends (but I repeat myself) are nevertheless important.
Adrian Davis
It rattles along, doesn't it? Never overstays its welcome.
Forgot to mention here , but an actor named Michael Trubshawe was a real-life friend of David Niven, and they worked together on The Guns of Naverone en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Trubshawe
Boudica of the Iceni was a female celtic warlord who sacked the Roman settlements of Colchester and Londoninium around 60AD. She is considered a national heroine.
Tyler Gonzalez
Thanks for the storytimes Shakaranon.
Lucas Cruz
Well blow me down.
Alexander Roberts
Ambrose Chutney was, when originally introduced, a fat fop working for some very murky patrons . He also married Ampney's beloved former fiancée, lady Caliope Wykes, translating the match into even greater power and prestige.
Luke Bennett
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Christopher Green
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Colton Bennett
Rendlesham Forest is a 1,500-hectare mixed woodland in Suffolk, England. It is also the site of unexplained lights in the sky and other UFO phenomena en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendlesham_Forest_incident
I'm taking a break here to sort some things out in the real world before doing the final story (dashed inconveniance, I know) but it would also be remiss of me not to mention that 2000AD is having a sale at their official site on a selection of physical and digital books. Well worth a look. shop.2000ad.com/catalogue/on-sale
Matthew Thompson
Thanks, this is very cool so far.
Camden Johnson
Bump
Christian Brooks
BUMPAN
Julian King
Amazing.
Thanks for this.
David Morales
Thank you OP, this comic went completely under my radar. Amazing inspiration for a pulpish chthulu campaign.
Also all the stories in this arc seem to be named after Michael Moorcock books. Loving that detail.
Thank you, dear friends, for doing me the honour of keeping this insubstantial thread intact whilst I was preoccupied. You have my gratitude.
Kevin Brown
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Christopher Hill
This is not his beautiful house. This is not his beautiful wife. One might ask oneself, ""Well... how did he get here?" youtube.com/watch?v=98AJUj-qxHI
Jace Ortiz
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Kevin Mitchell
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Nicholas Lopez
The airships are all counterparts to cultural bastions of "our" Britain - The Flying Scotsman train, Shell Petroleum, Oxo meat extracts and spices, Colman's mustard, Horlick's malted milk drinks and... whatever CFZ is, I'm sorry, I have failed my people.
Christian Hughes
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Liam Sanchez
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Julian Gomez
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Joseph Peterson
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Jayden Price
Ah yes, the oldest trick in the book. How could I not have seen it? How could I have been so blind?
Blake Miller
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Isaiah Wright
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Connor Hughes
>"The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one," he said. >"The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one - but still they come!"
I'll be honest with you. While I loved Nikolai Dante, I absolutely hated Dredd. Like, not "I hated the character and the world," I actually hated the process of reading the story. Shit bored the crap out of me enough to sour me on the rest of the rag, Nikolai Dante aside.
Which is an utter pity, because this shit right here is *awesome*, and so was Leviathan. I might need to go torrent some 2000AD.
Brayden Thompson
Really? That's interesting. Do you know which ones they were or what the ones that put you off were about?
The thing with 2000AD is that because its an anthology even if you don't like some of it there's always going to be something else worth reading in the same issue. The stories tend to be quite short too, so if you HATE one story you only have to wait a month or two for it to be over.
