Jack Belkirk

A Trail of Cthulhu GMC

in Armitage Files format

Resort Owner

Name: Jack Belkirk

Physical Description: heavy-set man in his mid-fifties, wears overly tight suits, hair slicked to scalp with faintly medicinal-smelling pomade

Sinister: The blood of the Deep Ones courses through Jack’s veins. Yet when he reached the age where other members of his family transformed into batrachian descendants of Dagon, Jack remained sadly human. At night he dreams of an ecstatic life prowling the seaways in search of drowning sailors who might slake his primordial hunger. Every morning he wakes up in his pitiful human bedsheets and trundles to the mirror to stare at his pitiful human face. In hopes that it will bring about his longed-for transformation, Jack aids his amphibious kin. He used his head for business to purchase and revive an ailing Massachusetts beach resort. When possible he appeases his aquatic deity by singling out resort guests who won’t be missed. Jack leads them down to the dank grotto where his people gather. One day the excitement of the kill will surely trigger the change, Jack thinks. In the meantime he remains watchful for disappearance-investigating interlopers who would harm his kind. Assess Honesty identifies him as a man hiding a mighty secret.

Innocuous: Jack doesn’t know why people have been disappearing from his beach resort. He chalks up the string of vanished guests to the Depression. They must be sinking beneath the waves on purpose, Jack frets. Why they have to do it at his resort, and not, to name an example, the one down the road, he can’t say. Maybe they’re not disappearing at all. His rival hotelier, Ernest Kitzmiller, entertains a mobster crowd. Could Ernie be hiring ringers to check into his place and never check out? That would be just like Kitzmiller, to try to hang a reputation of death resort on Jack’s place. If asked by investigators, Jack points to this as a likely reason for the vanishing they’re looking into. Though a red herring, this tip may lead in GUMSHOE fashion to the real Deep One situation. Or a character could use Bargain on business-minded Jack to promise him promotion or other business contacts in exchange for the cooperation they really need.

Stalwart: Jack has seen the strange creatures who bob in the cold Atlantic waters beyond his beach. Some fancy talkers from the university came by a few years back to ask about rituals, and showed him a statue of a god they called Dagon. He thought they might help him, but then they all disappeared. Since then he has hired extra lifeguards to hustle his guests out of the water at dusk. They wonder why he has armed him with spearguns, and he tells them he hopes they never have to find out. When investigators show up with the name Dagon on their lips, he tries to discourage them. He doesn’t want them meeting the same fate as their predecessors. Reassurance convinces him that they’re better equipped to take on oceanic humanoids than the last crowd. Who maybe weren’t so much hunting Deep Ones as seeking to join them.

Alternate Names: Doug Uxbridge, Harry Putnam, Jake Whitings

Trail of Cthulhu is an award-winning 1930s horror roleplaying game by Kenneth Hite, produced under license from Chaosium. Whether you’re playing in two-fisted Pulp mode or sanity-shredding Purist mode, its GUMSHOE system enables taut, thrilling investigative adventures where the challenge is in interpreting clues, not finding them. Purchase Trail of Cthulhu and its many supplements and adventures in the Pelgrane Shop.