Yes, so the campaign has been on hold for a few months :  work, children, work, ill children and other divers activities in deference to Real Life.  But in  two weeks, we'll be having another session.  Have at it!

Cymru Cthulhu

Iä! Shub-Niggurath!  Iä! Iä! Cthulhu Fhtagn!  Fy mhen yn ymddangos i fod yn sownd yn y cwpwrdd!

Session 2

Friday 19^th October 1928

Arty MacCloud receives a letter in the post from Dr.  Highsmith.  It rather curtly requests that he provide any information  pertaining to the Roby family.  Arty notes that the address is an Asylum for the deranged, in Herefordshire.  He heads to the library to hit the newspaper archives to see what he can find.  He discovers two articles relating the deaths of Herbert Roby and his daughter Georgina, both found dead in the family home.  A member of the family was detained to help police with their enquiries.   The second article, a short obituary, gives details of Herbert Roby’s funeral.  Both articles are under the name of Leonard Wash.

That the letter is apparently from a Dr. in the same field as Monty, and remembering that Monty has a connection at a newspaper, Arty telephones Monty to arrange a meeting.  He would like to know if Monty knows anything about this Dr.  Highsmith.  Monty suggests that they meet at the Punch & Judy on Fleet Street again, and then telephones Liquid Len of the Daily Express.

The good Professor, also keen to discover more about the play, spends the morning in his private library looking for any mention about the King in Yellow and the Yellow Sign.  His researches do not provide him with anything concrete; his books never speak of this in a direct fashion.  Instead, when they are referred to at all they are merely allusions and suggestions.  The subjects are never addressed directly, and it is not at all certain whether they even refer to the same entity.  Each uses a different name, some of those being He Who Is Not To Be Named, The Feaster From Afar and Haita the Shepherd.  Other books make mention of The Tattered King,  the Stranger and the White Acolyte.  These names immediately bring the play Carcosa to mind. 

The Professor also finds reference to the constellation of Taurus, and of Aldebaran and the Hyades that occupy that stellar congregation.  He makes specific note that Taurus rises in October, peaks in early January, and finally disappears in to the west at the end of March.  That the apex is in January he finds to be somewhat disquieting, but cannot explain why this might be.

Meanwhile, Ferris O’Rourke is increasingly desperate to discover as much as he can about Talbot Estus’ play, Carcosa, that had such a profound effect on him.  Ferris contacts a friend of his that is a well known collector of esoteric books to enquire of him as to whether he knows anything about the mysterious play.  His friend certainly knows of the play, and that the original books are very rare, and very expensive, if they even exist.  Ferris asks whether he has heard of a book named Der Wanderer durch den See.  His friend suggests he contact a collector named Richard Smythe, who lives in Primrose Hill.

Having arranged to meet Arty and Len, Monty telephones the Professor and Ferris.  The professor will travel by train to attend the meeting, and Ferris decides to walk from his Soho office.  The walk to Fleet Street is an unpleasant one, and Ferris slips on the icy street, landing on his elbow.  Though painful, there is no damage other than a bruise.

Settled in at the pub, the investigators ask Len what he knows about the Roby murders.  Len remembers them well.  Supplying him with another drink, Len relates what he knows.  He tells them that the gruesomeness of the killings were not generally reported.  The family is, or was, rich and powerful and were able to suppress the more bizarre aspects.  Len tells them that both bodies were discovered in the downstairs drawing room at the family home in Mayfair.  Herbert’s body showed a gaping, stabbing wound above the left collar bone.  Georgina’s wounds were worse, having been killed by two slicing blows, one to the front of her torso, the other to her neck and head.  One was a left handed blow, the other right handed.  The wounds on both bodies indicated the attacker possessed great strength, and the forensic surgeon speculated that two different weapons had been used.  No weapons were found at the scene.

He tells them that Alexander Roby, the youngest son and brother to George, was detained, but not arrested, and that he was sent to an asylum.  Monty quickly asks why Alexander was arrested, and Len tells him that he confessed to both murders.  Alexander would not say how he had committed the murders, and the glass balcony door to Alex’s upstairs room had been broken from the outside.  Len also tells them, talking in a slightly quieter voice, that he was told that Herbert’s body was found to have been entirely drained of blood.  Asked who the investigating officer was, he gives them the name of Detective Inspector Andrew Taylor of New Scotland Yard.  The investigators leave Len to his journalist friends, and depart for Monty’s practice rooms. 

Ferris is very keen to get his hands on Der Wanderer.  Knowing that the book will be either not be for sale, or very expensive, the investigators discuss whether there might be another means of obtaining the book.  Without anyone actually mentioning burglary, it is decided that it would probably be best for Ferris to simply visit Smythe directly.

Arriving at Smythe’s address in Primrose Hill, the door is answered by a rather bohemian gentleman wearing a skull cap and a long smoking jacket.  He is willing to allow Ferris to have a look at the book, and leads him to his study where is unlocks a glass fronted book case and places the book on the table.  Ferris opens the plain white, cloth bound book, noticing that the book contains passages both in German and English.  Realising at the last moment that he has no knowledge of the German language, he opens the book and proceeds to read one of the English passages.  Ferris is unable to understand the meaning of the passage, but recognises references to Hali and the Yellow sign.  Reaching the end of the passage, Ferris is overcome by a feeling of nausea, but also strange exhilaration before his knees give way from under him and he has to lean against the table.  Regarding him with a penetrating, mirthless, even hostile gaze, Smythe helps Ferris to his feet.   In a shaky voice asking if the book is for sale, Smythe tells him it is not.  Ferris is shown to the door.

Meanhile, Monty has been to New Scotland Yard enquiring after D.I. Taylor.  He is told that he will not be available until the following Monday.

Meeting once more at Monty’s rooms, the investigators share their thoughts with each other.  They appear to be observers of, or maybe even participants in a surreal and disturbing set of events.  With a last brandy, they each return to their homes, anticipating an uninterrupted night of sleep before tomorrow.

Monty's busy Thursday

I am still ill and off work, so what better way to pass the time than listening to Musica Cthuliana's fantastic album The Fourth and reading The Unspeakable Oath issue 20 and then spending a couple of hours playing through a one-to-one side-story with one of the players?  I really enjoyed roleplaying in the snow- and ice-gripped streets of London, visiting slightly grubby pubs, second hand and antiquarian book shops, and taking tea with a slightly dotty spinster.  

Ferris, substantially, and visibly moved by the play has gone straight home, while Arty and Dr. Blake return to Monty's consulting rooms for brandy and supper.  I will let Monty's player summarize the proceedings :

After Arty and Stephen left, Monty retired for the night but found sleep to be rather elusive. Thoughts of the afternoon's events roiled within his mind. Eventually he concentrated on how he could uncover more about the play and it's author, and once his plan had taken shape he was finally embraced by the arms of Morpheus.

He arose early, and with his actions for the day already determined went about putting them into action, after breakfast and his wardrobe.

First he phoned a journalist working for The Express, Liquid Len, who had contacted him a number of times in the past to ask him to contribute his professional opinion to the coverage of a number of sensational stories which had grabbed the public's attention in the past. He told Len that he had been present at The Scala the previous afternoon and was so perplexed by what he had seen he wanted to find out more about what could have contributed to the events. Len was very pleased to hear from an actual eye witness and arranged to meet Monty at 11:30 at the Punch & Judy on Fleet St.

After speaking to Len he placed a call to McGraw-Hill and found out that Talbot's agent was called Jessica Jones and could be contacted through the publisher. He sent a note to Jessica Jones c/o McGraw-Hill explaining who he was and expressing his desire to meet her as soon as possible,

Monty then caught a cab to Charing Cross Road to see if any of the bookshops had, or could acquire, a copy of each of Talbot Estus' five books. To attract the attention of the booksellers he let them know that he would be paying £5 a volume to the first person to provide him with a copy of each of the books. He was in luck and the second shop he visited had a copy of "The Curse of Beydalus." He had left his card at each of the shops and hoped to hear from them shortly.

His business with the book shops was completed about 10:30, and from the last shop he placed a call to his Harley St. offices and found that he had received a reply by telegram from Jessica Jones asking him to visit her at 14:30 in Hampstead.

With just under an hour to spare, he decided there was enough time for him to walk, cautiously, to Fleet Street, arriving at the Punch & Judy almost bang on 11:30.

Liquid Len pumped Monty for a pretty comprehensive description of the previous days events paying particular attention to the quantity of blood and gore. In return Monty found out that Talbot was actually an American - which with hindsight, was hinted at through his rather affected accent the previous day. He also found out that Talbot lived somewhere in Belsize Park but Len didn't know exactly where. He has a fairly loyal following of mainly older female devotees, but does not court public recognition. Although when he does go out he has a rather flamboyant manner and his tendency to stop and stare up into the sky has been commented upon.

After catching a cab to Hampstead and having lunch, he visited Jessica Jones. She seemed rather pleased to see Monty, possibly being under the impression that he was looking for a new agent. She was completely unaware of the events of the previous day and was rather surprised when Monty described them. He explained that the mass hysteria/psychosis he had witnessed was of professional interest to him and that he was trying to gain some understanding of the influences that had led Talbot to write the play.

He found out that a couple of years previously, Talbot had acquired a copy of a German book called "Der Wanderer durch den See" (The Walker by the Lake) and had referred to it as being an influence a number of times. She did not know who the author of this book was. The origins of the play were confirmed as being a book in French called "The Yellow King" by Thomas de Castaigne which is not a well documented book and seems to have appeared around 1895. It was this book that Talbot translated and adapted into the play "Carcosa". Jessica thinks it is unlikely that Talbot would want to meet Monty and does not provide an address, nor is she willing to make an appointment for him, but she does say that the next time she meets Talbot she will hand him Monty's card. She provides Monty with a copy of Talbot's most recent book "The Revenant King", which has not been at all well received.

Monty catches a cab back to Charing Cross Road to revisit the book shops and add "Der Wanderer durch den See" and "The Yellow King" to the list of books he is seeking. It quickly becomes apparent that these two books are much more unusual requests, unheard of in most of the shops. Even wih an offer £20 for each of these volumes it becomes apparent that he needs to visit an antiquarian booksellers, rather than a bookshop. He makes his way to Grafton St. to see if it is available at Quaritch's. At Quaritch's they have heard of the books and even know private collectors who have them. Monty explains that he is not a book collectors, but is interested in the contents of the books and he would be willing to purchase facsimiles of the books if the owners are not willing to part with them.

He leaves his card at Quaritch and heads back to Harley Street, there not being much more that he can do other than start reading "The Curse of Beydalus" and "The Revenant King".

The books are not hefty tomes and Monty is not studying them in depth, but rather trying to pick up the key concepts and ideas they contain. He finishes both volumes in the early hours of the morning, retires to bed starts to mull over the contents of both books.

He feels that the archetypes vaguely alluded to in "The Curse of Beydalus" - The Magician, The Demon Princess and The Family -  bear some resemblance to those portrayed in "Carcosa" - The Stranger, The King in Yellow and Cassilda and her children.

"The Revenant King" was a much harder read. It seems to be an incoherent product of a delusional mind. Describing Talbot as delusional doesn't quite jibe with the impression gained the previous day, but on reflection the exuberance of Talbot's manner was not far removed from mania and the way in which he periodically scurried across the foyer and peered out of the door up into the sky was, in hindsight, noteworthy.

Session 1

The investigators have been created, and we played the first session last night.  In past sessions we have used Skype and Google Hangout for video conferencing.  This time, we just used Skype voice, to see if it encourages a little more focus.  We also started playing with corkboard.it for sharing clues and NPC details.  Hopefully the clues will be annotated by everyone, thus eliminating the dreaded lost or forgotten clues.  I'm undecided whether it is going to be a satisfactory solution - the first limitation we discovered was that PDF files cannot be pinned to it, so I'm sharing those the old way, via Skype.

What follows is basically the report I wrote for the other players.  Due to pesky Real Life getting in the way, I was not nearly as prepared as I had wanted to be.  So fighting illness passed on from ill children I handwaved my way through the initial start-up, and motored on through the prologue, that being the attendance of a play; Carcosa, or The Queen and the Stranger...

Tatters of the King :  Session One – 16/01/12

The investigators :

Dr. Stephen Blake, 55 – Professor of Theology

Having gained his chair at Cambridge, the Professor has noticed a sense of ennui settling upon him.  Combined with a growing disillusionment with church affairs, he has lately been pursuing his interest in ancient books and manuscripts with greater  assiduousness.  His knowledge of esoteric and occult matters is extensive, though his peers would be unlikely to realise this.   The Professor stands out against many of the university circle by attending to his appearance meticulously: he is, whenever he can manage it, well turned out, even fashionably dressed.

Monty Cookson, 47  – Psychoanalysist and Author

Though born to parents who were in service, Monty has risen high.  Through fortune and natural intelligence, he earned a BSc in Psychology from The Royal Holloway with London External Programme, while maintaining a role as valet to the youngest son of an Earl.  The Great War saw Monty specialising in the treatment  of victims of Shell Shock.  After the death of his employer, Monty made his name within artistocratic families for helping their war-damaged sons.  Eventually writing three well received monographs, a highly successful book and opening a Jung-based clinic in an old school and grounds, Monty now finds his source of income to be dwindling due to the natural reduction of possible patients.  Though still practising, he has reduced his patient list to include only the most complex and interesting.

               

Arty McCloud - Private Investigator

Ferris O'Rourke, 42 – Art Dealer

Having each received flyers promoting a new play, ‘Carcosa’, to be shown at The Scala, you meet at Monty Cookson’s consulting rooms in Harley Street, on the morning of the 17^th October, 1928, to attend the matinee.    The weather this year has been harsher than usual, and the city was covered in snow and ice, and you make your way along the frozen streets to the theatre.  It is small, and with no more than a hundred in the audience, only half full.  The play begins, and it is immediately apparent that this is an abstract, and puzzling play.  The effect that it has is greater than would have been suggested from the quality of the script, and as the curtains comes down on the first act, seems to have upset some members of the audience.  Two gentlemen argue, appearing to be in loud disagreement with each other about the content of the last scene and another couple leave, the woman distressed.  It seems that the Yellow Sign as a powerful effect on people.  After a Monty is rebuffed for offering his assistance to the couple, the play resumes.

The fate of Yhtill, the Queen, her family, the mysterious, wandering city of Carcosa and the lake, Hali, where it lies, twist and intertwine with each other.  The Stranger has arrived, and nothing will be the same.

The play ends, and immediately the theatre is in uproar.  Men attack each other with considerable savagery, others simply sit, staring forwards, unmoving.  Four men rush towards the stage before being grappled by the stage hands and another attacks his fellows with a bottle while another, a well dressed gentleman of obvious wealth, ferociously lashes out with his cane.

Most people leave the theatre quickly, while the police deal with the few still inside.  Outside in the foyer, a rather hopeful attempt at a post show drinks party has been set up.  Your small party and a couple of other stragglers are the only ones left.  The atmosphere is awkward, but the actors put on brave faces and talk quietly.  After a few minutes a man enters, and there is a scattering of applause from the cast and others.  This is Talbut Estus, playwright.  Seemingly oblivious to the scant crowd, and the unexpected reaction to the play, he stands up on a small chair and gives an enervated little  speech, giving details of the history of the play and how it has been suppressed and banned and including murders and suicide, trysts and book burnings as embellishments.  He explains that he first read the play two years ago and has re-read it at least twenty times since.  After thanking the cast members, he anxiously hurries to the doors and looks up in to the sky.  Apparently satisfied, he returns to the party, but can be seen doing the same thing again a little later.

 Speaking to Talbut Estus, you learn that he has actually translated and adapted the play from an original French script.  Called The King in Yellow, published around 1895, and possibly written by someone called Thomas de Castaigne, it was seized and destroyed by the Third Republic just after publication.  Ferris, deeply moved and effected by the play , borrows Talbut Estus’ personal copy of the book.  He declares to his collegues that they have just witnessed what is almost certainly one of the greatest, and most important artistic statements ever created.

Speaking to the rest of the cast, you learn that the reaction witnessed tonight has never occurred in any rehearsals.

Tired and confused by the preceding events you return to Monty’s rooms for supper and brandy.  Apart from Ferris who returns home declaring that he must begin reading the King in Yellow immediately, and that his own artistic attempts could never match the extraordinary play.

In the morning, Monty does a little more research in to Talbut Estus and discovers that he has published several books prior to the new play.  They are :

The Grey Lady (1905) Wherein a children’s governess poisons their mother and then takes her place

The Haunting of Agatha Mae (1912) A young woman is the only one who can see what happened to the previous owners of a country home.

The Curse of Beydelus (1921) A magician in a pact with a demon prince plots to ruin a famous family.

Evilroot (1926) An eldest daughter is possessed by the spirit of an Egyptian princess whose tomb was uncovered by her archaeologist father.

He instantly understands that there is an underlying connection between the ideas and concepts expressed in the play, and in the books.  Determined to understand the better, he sets upon a period of rigorous self-analysis in order to try to bring these ideas to the surface.  He is certain that another meeting with Talbut Estus is required.

The preparation continues

Well, it was probably a bit dim to try to start a blog just before the Yule and New Year period, but I have pretty much finished preparing Tatters of the King for play and yesterday Tim and I rolled up his investigator.  Tim just needs to finish writing the back story and he's good to go (insane).  Hopefully we'll finish creating the other three players' characters in the next day or so, and with a bit of luck get the first session running this week.

As for handouts, character sheets and divers paraphernalia I am going to use dce's beautiful Art Deco character sheet, and Droesler's fantastic NPC and  Object cards.  As ever, the creativeness of fellow Yoggies makes me feel like a talentless dimwit, so I can only thank them for their wonderful efforts.

Although much of this campaign is going to be played online, I have created the playlists for backgound music and sound effects.  I use the one true music player foobar2000 which makes creating playlists a breeze and I've been experimenting with SceneSound, developed bknode, another very talented Yoggie.  I'm not sure how I'll use them in the online sessions, but they will be ready for our face to face weekends, and besides, I enjoy making them; they help me focus on getting the atmosphere right, something which is all the more important in Tatters of the King.  I work quite hard on choosing background and thematic soundtracks for games, so I may post the playlists later.  I collect pretty obscure music, so it might be interesting for someone.

Preparation

Tatters of the King has been on my list of Call of Cthulhu campaigns to run.  Our last campaign, Masks of Nyarlathatotep, unfortunately had to be abandoned midway due to the group not being able to afford the time, and more importantly, the regularity of play that this great adventure deserves.  We are all busy with work and families, and we are scattered asunder, hence we are only able to meet up four or five times a year for a long weekend of gaming.  This has lead us to experimenting with Skype, and latterly Google+ Hangout for playing on-line.  I think we're all satisfied enough with it to commit to a regular on-line gaming session.  We will start by playing fortnightly, but with individual side adventures and story development, I hope that I will be posting more frequently than every other week.

I have read through Tim Wiseman's creation twice now, and overall, I consider it to be one of the best campaigns that Chaosium has released.  As has been commented on before many times, TotK is in a different vein to other of Chaosium's publications.  TotK leans more towards the Purist end of the Pulp/Purist spectrum of Call of Cthulhu campaigns.  While it in no way approaches the bleak hopelessness of Grahame Walmsley's fantastic series of Purist adventures for Trail of Cthulhu, it is still a country mile from the globe-trotting cultist-fest of MoN, or the action soaked Grande Tour of Horror on the Orient Express.

Although I admire Tim Wiseman greatly for writing such a good campaign, in a tradition as old as the hobby itself, I will be changing a few aspects of the adventure to suit our group's style.  In places, I get the feeling that the campaign has been written around characters that already exist in the author's gaming group, or, at least, written for certain tropisms within his players styles.  This is not a negative criticism, in fact, I prefer this style of writing far more than a game or supplement that feels as if it was written by a focus group.  I like the sharp edges and peculiarities not to be filed off.

That all being said, the changes I will be making will be small.  In particular, I will change the campaign's 'hook'.  While I will stick with the advice on types of character, I will inveigle them in to the campaign in a different manner, and more slowly.  I am also going to create smaller, personal hooks for each character.

Having mentioned Trail of Cthulhu, I'm going to play around with using it's concepts of Pillars of Sanity and Drives.  I have as yet not run a ToC game, but the forthcoming Eternal Lies campaign may very well change that.

Personally, I am really looking forward to getting in to this campaign.  It will be  slightly different from our usual Call of Cthulhu games.  I think like many others, our group tends towards the Pulpier end of the spectrum.  I'd like to try to bring a grittier, more loathsome atmosphere to this campaign.  I think it deserves that extra bit of effort.  In the past, when we have played on-line, we have used video conferencing.  I'm thinking of experimenting with using voice only, and a new method of passing notes to the players.  TotK allows for some nice inter-party paranoia and suspicion.  While I am not a huge fan of character conflict, I think TotK allows just enough to add another edge to the adventure.

As a group, the five of us have been playing RPGs for over thirty years, and almost exclusively within the same group.  There have been a few others who have come and gone along the years, but now it is just the five of us who get together four times a year for a long weekend of face to face gaming.  Like most groups belonging to the same peer group, we started with either Holmes' edition D&D, or Red Box Basic.  Today we play Call of Cthulhu, Delta Green, Traveller and All Flesh Must Be Eaten.  In the pipeline is Savage Worlds Pulp Adventures, Mistborn, and a new AFMBE campaign as a playtest.  We also dig good board games, and the others really like poker.

So, all that needs to be done now before we start is character generation.