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 17th 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.
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