TEXT: Fear of Falling
  Steve Hatherley
  This is a really, really horrible thing to do to an 
  investigator.
  Let’s’ face it, if there’s an investigator in a 
  parachute then something has gone very wrong. 
  It would have to be an absolute disaster... 
  In The Air 
  It is a routine flight. Fairly long, very dull. The 
  monotonous droning of the engines is almost 
  soporific enough to send the investigators to 
  sleep. Everything is going smoothly. The weather 
  is fine and the flight is on schedule. Then 
  everything goes wrong. 
  The sound of breaking glass alerts the 
  investigators to trouble. The pilot shrieks as 
  something slits his throat. A ghoulish tittering 
  and giggling mingles with agonised screams. The 
  co-pilot stares in horror as the bloody outlines of 
  a star vampire becomes visible. 
  The star vampire (1/1D10 SAN loss) finishes 
  with the pilot before starting on the co-pilot. It 
  hauls him free of the seat and drags him out of 
  the cockpit and onto the wing. There it sits, 
  happily picking holes in the wing and drinking 
  the poor co-pilot’s blood. Controls smashed and 
  broken, the plane starts to enter a dive. 
  The aircraft is not in an airworthy state and is 
  going to crash. Soon. The investigators will have 
  to jump for it. It is unlikely that they have had 
  much interest in parachutes until now. 
  Fortunately, several are within easy reach and it is 
  a simple matter (a successful Idea roll) to fit the 
  harness correctly. Then it is all just a question of 
  taking a deep breath and leaping out. 
  Parachuting 
  The jump begins in freefall. Terminal velocity, 
  120 miles per hour or 180 feet per second, is 
  reached within 3-4 seconds – the investigators 
  need to be thinking about deploying the canopy. 
  Pulling the ripcord releases the canopy, which 
  fails on a roll of 96-100: the investigator loses 
  0/1D6 SAN and falls helplessly to his death. 
  Otherwise the canopy is open. Once open, the 
  parachute is at the mercy of the winds. The 
  investigators can only wait for the star vampire to 
  join them. 
  The Star Vampire
  STR 14 CON 15 SIZ 34 INT 10 POW 15 DEX 8 
  HP 25 MOVE 6/9 flying 
  Damage Bonus +2D6 
  Weapons: 1D4 talons 40%, 1D6 + 2D6 damage 
  Bite 80%, 1D6 STR (blood) drain. 
  Armour: 4 point hide plus invisibility (50% reduction 
  to hit). Bullets do half damage. 
  San loss: 1/1D10 SAN 
  The star vampire, a huge member of its race, is 
  not entirely keen spending time in a frail human 
  aeroplane, the star vampire (after indulging itself 
  in the despatch of pilot and co-pilot) wrecks the 
  –1–
  
  ’plane and waits for its target(s) to leave. There 
  will be plenty of time to deal with them then. If 
  the investigators decide not to leave, it picks sadly 
  through the wreckage, mourning the loss of a 
  fine meal. 
  Soon enough it arrives. Invisible once more, it 
  falls behind as the investigators plummet 
  earthwards in freefall, but catches up once 
  canopies are open. Brave investigators might 
  want to wait until the last possible moment 
  before pulling the ripcord. If they fail an Idea roll 
  then they have left it too late and land with a 
  sickening squelch. If the successful Idea roll is 
  followed by a failed Luck roll, the star vampire 
  arrives before they land. Otherwise they are on 
  the ground and able to prepare for the star 
  vampire’s attack. 
  The star vampire gets it wrong first time, tearing 
  through the canopy to get at its target beneath. 
  The canopy immediately collapses, dropping the 
  terrified investigator out of reach. SAN loss 
  0/1D6, and the investigator plummets to his 
  death. Scratch one meal. 
  Wiser now, the star vampire leaves the canopy 
  alone and goes directly for its victim. Suspended 
  in the  harness, the investigator can attempt to 
  defend himself. With nothing to brace against, all 
  gun skills and melee skills suffer a penalty of 
  -20%. 
  Other investigators can also attack the star 
  vampire. Shots that miss the star vampire may 
  well hit their unfortunate colleague. Re-roll near 
  misses (by 10% or less), if successful the 
  investigator has been hit instead. 
  Landing 
  With the Star Vampire dead or driven off, the 
  investigators land on the ground. As one of them 
  lands with a thud, he suddenly jolts himself 
  awake. He is still on the plane, having just dozed 
  off. His companions are safe in their seats – they 
  are all alive. It was only a dream. 
  Keeper’s Notes 
  Fear of Falling works best if earlier investigations 
  have not been successfully completed. There 
  should be doubts in their minds – did they really 
  finish everything? What happened to the 
  shoggoth? Is it really all over? 
  The investigators shouldn’t know how close they 
  are to falling asleep. Although the dream only 
  happens to one of them, don’t tell the other 
  investigators that it is a dream – they should 
  behave as if it is really happening. SAN loss for 
  the unfortunate dreamer is 0/1 – the earlier SAN 
  losses are ignored. 
  Note: Fear of Falling was originally submitted (in a 
  substantially altered form) to Mark Morrison for 
  the Fearful Passages book. It didn’t make the grade 
  for (I gather) two main reasons. First, it is a little 
  too short (fair comment). Second, it is a little too 
  deadly (this from the man that edited Orient 
  Express!) – but at that time it took place for real!
  Fear of Falling appeared in The Unspeakable Oath 
  #9.
  Steve Hatherley is also the creator of Tales of 
  Terror, a collection of adventure seeds for Call of 
  Cthulhu and other roleplaying games. For more 
  details visit www.talesofterror.net
  –2–
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Call of Cthulhu (CoC) (BRP) [multi]/Adventures/1920s/CoC - 1920s - Adv - Fear of Falling (.pdf