THE AMULET OF THA’HAAR
An urban Cthulhu campaign framework, intended for use with the Cthulhu ICRPG Loot, Classes, and SAN rules outlined in this post. I got into running this campaign, but I didn’t get the chance to finish, so I put it here for your use.
NEW YUGGOTH
Districts of New Yuggoth:
Banker’s Ward: where the rich live, doing dark deeds behind closed doors
Buxtable’s Antiquities: If you have an occult artifact, this is where you go to identify it. He’ll even take them off your hands for cash, muttering about how ‘she will find this delicious’.
Maid’s Quarter: The teeming working class live in the shadows of the Banker’s Ward ever-extending skyscrapers
Whatley Park: an idyllic favorite of New Yuggoth, filled with laughing children and bursts of color. Tales of tunnels below the park and visitors disappearing are quickly suppressed.
The Scraps: If the city has forgotten you, you go here. Gang and cult activity abound in litter-choked alleys
The Yellow King Opera Haus: The German couple who run the establishment often host illicit activity, to the delight of the hoi polloi. Below the theatre is a strange shrine to Hastur...
The Seaboard: the stink of fish and spray of sea follow those who make a living against the lakeside
The Fish Markets: The bustling market, sitting directly lakeside, sees much traffic each day. Unsubstantiated rumors of half-fish corpses dredged up from the lake and chopped up for meats abound.
The lake
Arkham Penitentiary: Where they put the worst of the worst. Strange runes scrawled on the wall with rusty scraps line the cells of starved, maddened, and bitter inmates of all types.
THE MAJOR PLAYERS
Thaddeus Hurstin, filthy rich synesthete artist
He has tortured nightmare of color-vortexes and screams that smell of blood and writhing worms, and has for a year
This is a message from Shub-Niggurath, commanding him to seek the Amulet for her own gains
He seeks the Amulet because it can transfer his nightmares to the wider population, which he thinks will rid him of them
This is untrue. When he secures the amulet and spreads the nightmares, they will only get worse
Currently has hired out the Red Rose to secure the amulet for him, creating terrifying new art and hosting lavish galas and auctions to fund his pursuit
The Red Rose: The classiest mercenaries in the city, led by Juliano Hermosa
The art is modeled off of Hurstin’s nightmares-perhaps it can provide clues as to what’s going on?
Charles Vrathagan, deep-spawn thrall of Dagon
Current leader of the Euclid Network
The Euclid Network: A congregation of cults devoted to their collective safety and interests against those who oppose their eldritch evil
Wants to secure the Amulet to raise Dagon, his spawn-lord, from the bottom of the lake
Owns Vrathagan Coalworks
Many sacrifices had been disappearing from the factory floor...
Prodigal arcanist, slippery bastard
Jimmy “The Shrew”, leader of the Eye
Currently VERY insane, surreptitiously skins people and wears them like a suit
The smell in his office gets worse and worse…
The Eye: An espionage organization, opposite the Hand, a gang
His madness calls him to the amulet…
...because Shub-Niggurath wants him to give it to Erich Zann
Zann: the Mad Musician. His music can open doorways into and out of the Drowned City
THE DROWNED CITY
Like a mirrored reflection of New Yuggoth, but a version that has been devastated by a fungal apocalypse
In the center of the lake rises a mammoth cluster of malignant fungus, spewing thick clouds of spores into the air
This is Shub-Niggurath, the fungal mother
She seeks to bring the Drowned City into our world, and the Amulet can help her do that
Entering the City is all too easy
Shadows, malignant fungi, and wrong turns can all result in accidental shifts into the Drowned City
There’s a permanent window into the City in Hurstin’s study
Leaving is significantly more difficult
Follow Zann’s music
Negotiate with Shub-Niggurath’s servants
A mad boatswain knows the way, for a terrible price…
THE CENTER OF IT ALL:
The Amulet of Tha’Haar
Forged from nightmare itself, woven into the collective psyche
Has the power to...
Hypnotize
Induce hallucinations and madness
Create illusions and simulacra
Bring Great Old Ones into this world
Dagon and Shub-Niggurath are sending their minions for the amulet
The catch: the PCs unwittingly have it in their posession
Perhaps it could be destroyed by being fed to the monster below the docks?
ADVENTURE HOOKS
Sent by the police to covertly investigate the disappearances from Vrathagan Coalworks
Hired by the Shrew to check in on a contact gone missing
Attendees of a Hurstin exhibition when a scared-looking fellow passes a parcel into their hands
MOMENTS
Killing the shuddering mass of eyes that lives below Whatley Park and guards the gates to the Euclid Network’s tunnels
Racing towards Zann’s music, and the doorway out of the Drowned City, before the rising tide drowns you in brackish water
Finding the abandoned basement of Vrathagan Coalworks, and the sacrificial horrors therein
Closing the portal to the Drowned City through which the Mi-Goh Enforcers are invading
Meeting in Hermosa’s opulent lounge to negotiate an assassination
Rowing out to Arkham Penn when tentacles wrap around your boat
If I did my job right, with a little planning, this situation could unfold into a dynamic, tense mini-campaign with mystery and thrills to spare. Happy gaming, and have fun trying to contain… the Amulet of Thahaar!
Mob name generator (d66):
1 Bloody Cudgels
2 [color] Guns
3 Big [body part]
4 Dark Hawks
5 Strong Cloaks
6 *none* [letter]
Also, check out Phlox’s GLoGtober entry today. It’s a depthcrawl through Hell inspired by Hadestown, a musical very close to my heart. It’s a really cool adventure I want to run at some point, so if the pitch interests you, you should check it out! As my entry for today’s prompt, HELL, here is a magic item for your players that is really just campaign prep in disguise:
HEREMANCER’S HANDBOOK: Once a day, roll contested CHA to have someone do the opposite of what they want to do. If in MARROW, this LOOT grants a Level in Heremancer.
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