Tatters of the King

Tatters of the King[1] is a new Call of Cthulhu campaign written by Tim Wiseman and published by Chaosium and through which our role-playing group is currently being run. Play started on May 8th 2006. See current events for next session date.

The game is being played in the suburb of Ellerslie, in Auckland, New Zealand.

Setting

The game is initially set in London, 1928. It is the start of a bitterly cold winter, the worst in decades.

London is the capital of an empire covering a quarter of the globe and governing one quarter of the human race. The people busy themselves with concerns of politics and government, finance and production, work and recreation. How fragile things are. What ignorance there is.

There are those whose engage in different pursuits - who would see an inhuman power come to Earth such that it would make mundane activity seem like a last twitch before dying.........

GM

The Keeper of Arcane Lore is Mark Chiddicks

Players

The players are:

Nicola Bishop

Julia Blackmore

Marcus Gustafsson

Darryn Mercer

Player Characters

Doctor Frederick Bartlett (deceased) - Eminent research psychologist, played by Marcus Gustafsson.

Nathaniel Browne - A failed writer, looking for his big story, played by Darryn Mercer

Andrew Saunders - British Museum curator and proud Scot, Played by Julia Blackmore.

Captain George Withers - Coldstream Guards. Career soldier. Played by Nicola Bishop.

'Umberto' - Mysterious former Vatican investigator. Played by Gustafsson.

Notable Non-Player Characters

Prologue

Talbot Estus (deceased) - American novelist, now debuting as a playwright

The Group - an amateur theatrical troupe:

Michael Gillen - Retired publisher, amateur actor and acquaintance of Doctor Frederick Bartlett. Estus's friend and companion.

Hannah Keith - Amateur Actress and sister of Andrew Saunders

George Keith - Amateur Actor and husband of Hannah Keith

Walter Paige - Amateur Actor

Jean Hewart - Amateur Actress

Chapter One

Dr. Charles Highsmith - Asylum Superintendent

Alexander Roby - Incarcerated Madman

Lucius Harriwell - Incarcerated Madman

Price and Evans - Asylum Nurses

Chapter Two

Dr. Lionel Trollope (deceased) - Roby family physician

Grahame Roby - Financier, Alexander Roby's brother

Detective Inspector Andrew Taylor - of New Scotland Yard

Delia Hartston - Alexander Roby's former fiancee, now Delia Morrison

Peter Morrison - Abusive husband of Delia

Vincent Tuck - Private Detective, hired by Grahame Roby

Michael Coombes (deceased?) - Sinister stalker, Bacon's ex-bodyguard.

Chapter Three

Harold Jennings (deceased) - Unfriendly Suffolk farmer

Montague Edwards (deceased) - Alexander Roby's secret guardian

Lawrence Bacon (deceased?) - Antiquarian, occultist and sorcerer

Chapter Four

Cec Watts (deceased) - Tabloid Journalist

Henry Lister - Terrified cultist and necrophobe

Quentin Spence - Poet and Failed Cultist

Noss of Yhtill - Leather worker from an alien world

Yolanda - Noblewoman from Cassilda's court

Aleister Crowley - Famed Occultist

Chapter Five

Wilfred Gresty (deceased) - Writer of letters and spy for the Goatswood cult

Hillary Quarrie - Estranged wife of Malcolm and priestess of the Goat

Atkinson (deceased) - Ailing leader of the Goatswood Shub-Niggurath cult

Chapter Six

Paolo Tuminardo - Milanese Guide and young Fascist

Giuseppe Colombo - Ancient, curmudgeonly Italian Brother of the Yellow Sign

Thomas Villiers (deceased) - Insane artist and Brother of the Yellow Sign

Roberto Anzalone - Professor of Asian History and Brother of the Yellow Sign

Carlo Schippone - Graduate student and Himalayan adventurer

Major Ricardo Delnegro - Alpini officer and Himalayan adventurer

Malcolm Quarrie - Elusive scientist and occultist

Chapter Seven

Julian Knight - Minor diplomat and lounge lizard, en route to India

The Reverend Ian Gore - Missionary, en route to India

Mrs Henrietta Tullis - Matronly figure, en route to India

Stephen Thomas - Quiet, bookish man, en route to India

Miss Francesca Nicholson - Bright young thing, en route to India

Miss Patricia Berry - Quiet, shy young lady, en route to India

Literary Works

Carcosa, or The Queen and the Stranger - a fantasy in two acts, script by Talbot Estus

Le Roi en Jeune - a rare French play, playwright anonymous

The King in Yellow - a collection of short stories by Robert W Chambers

An Inhabitant of Carcosa and Haita the Shepherd - by Ambrose Bierce

Der Wanderer durch den See - by Alexander Roby

British Gods: Religion and Myth in the Western Kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon Britain - by Malcolm Quarrie

The Turner Codex: A translation of Mesoamerican prayers and libations to Hastur - trans. M. Turner et al

The Tatters of the King: A book of short stories by Nathaniel Browne

The Revelations of Glaaki: The Goatswood cult's compilation of occult knowledge

Locations

Map of England and Wales, 1928

London, England - Map of London, 1926

The Scala Theatre, Charlotte St, London

St Agnes Asylum, Weobley, Herefordshire, England

Clare Melford, Suffolk, England

Loch Mullardoch, near Inverness, Scotland

Carcosa, a dream city made flesh

Goatswood, an area of the Severn Valley in Gloucestershire

Nug's Farm, Hillary Quarrie's home, in the Goatswood region

Milan, Lombardy, Italy

The Viceroy of India - Modern P&O passenger liner, en route to India

India, the gateway to Nepal

Bombay, port of entry to India

Nepal, mountain kingdom, closed to Westerners

Mustang, a small kingdom in Northern Nepal

Drakmar, an obscure location, somewhere in Mustang

Sessions

As referred to in the session reports below, there have been a number of murders related to the Roby case.

Session 1 - Opening Night

Session 1.5 - The Madman

Session 2 - The Plot Thickens

Session 3 - Alexander's Friends

Session 4 - Teeth of Winter

Session 5 - Four Go Mad in London

Session 6 - Death by Night, Death by Day

Session 7 - Missing Persons

Session 8 - To Walk Upon the Earth in Carcosa

Session 9 - Aftermath - a Year in the Lives...

Session 10 - Nug's Farm, or "Are You Local?"

Session 11 - Il Fratelli di Signo Giallo

Session 12 - Half a World Away