Tatters of the King

Tatters of the King[1] is a Call of Cthulhu campaign written by Tim Wiseman and published by Chaosium and which our role-playing group played. Play commenced on May 8th 2006 and ran until October 2nd 2006.

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

Guest Book

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

Cast of Characters

Tatters of the King is full of interesting and diverse characters, none more so than the Player Characters themselves!

Keeper of Arcane Lore

The Game Master is Mark Chiddicks

Player Characters

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

• Andrew Saunders (Deceased) - British Museum curator and proud Scot, played by Julia Blackmore.

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

• 'Umberto' (Deceased) - Mysterious former Vatican investigator. Played by Marcus Gustafsson.

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

Notable Non-Player Characters

Prologue - Opening Night

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

Chapter One - The Madman

• Dr. Charles Highsmith - Asylum Superintendent
• Alexander Roby - Incarcerated Madman
• Lucius Harriwell - Incarcerated Madman
• Price and Evans - Asylum Nurses

Chapter Two - A Walk in the Park

• 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 (deceased) - Abusive husband of Delia
• Vincent Tuck - Private Detective, hired by Grahame Roby
• Michael Coombes (deceased?) - Sinister stalker, Bacon's ex-bodyguard

Chapter Three - Springer Mound & the Canal

• Harold Jennings (deceased) - Unfriendly Suffolk farmer
• Montague Edwards (deceased) - Alexander Roby's secret guardian
• Lawrence Bacon (deceased) - Antiquarian, occultist and sorcerer

Chapter Four - The Flight North

• Cec Watts (deceased) - Tabloid Journalist
• Henry Lister - Terrified cultist and necrophobe
• Aleister Crowley - Famed Occultist

Chapter Five - To Walk Upon the Earth in Carcosa

• Quentin Spence - Poet and Failed Cultist
• Noss of Yhtill - Leather worker from an alien world
• Yolanda - Noblewoman from Cassilda's court

Chapter Six - Talk of Goatswood

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

Chapter Seven - Nug's Farm

• Hillary Quarrie - Estranged wife of Malcolm and priestess of the Goat
• Atkinson (deceased) - Ailing leader of the Goatswood Shub-Niggurath cult

Chapter Eight - The Brothers of the Yellow Sign

• 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

Chapter Nine - The Viceroy of India

• 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 Miss Francesca Nicholson - Bright young thing, en route to India
• Miss Patricia Berry - Quiet, shy young lady, en route to India

Chapter Ten - A Thousand Miles

• Sivakumar Patel - Guide and translator from Bombay
• Jigme Rinzing - Nepalese merchant/guide

Chapter Eleven - To Drakmar

• Tsewan Pemba - Tibetan Guide
• Carlo Schippone (deceased) - Graduate student and Himalayan adventurer

Chapter Twelve - The Upper House

• Mayor Ricardo Delnegro (deceased) - Alpini officer and Himalayan adventurer
• Roberto Anzalone (deceased) - Professor of Asian History and Brother of the Yellow Sign
• Malcolm Quarrie (deceased) - Elusive scientist and occultist
• The King in Yellow - Beautiful, yet terrible, alien god

Literary Works

The Masque of Yhtill

Works of Fiction and Fact as found in on the journeys of our intrepid Investigators.

• Carcosa, or The Queen and the Stranger - a fantasy in two acts, script by Talbot Estus
• The King in Yellow - a collection of short stories by Robert W Chambers
• Le Roi en Jeune - a rare French play, playwright anonymous
• 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, in Mustang, the legendary site of the death of the ogress Balmo

Leng, legendary icy plateau - not on this Earth

The Upper House, labyrinthine alien structure, found in Leng

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 - The Viceroy of India, or "May I Have This Dance?"
• Session 13 - A Matter of Honour
• Session 14 - The Trail of the Pilgrims
• Session 15 - Drakmar and Beyond
• Session 16 - The King Steps Down
• Aftermath - Forever Wondering

Collected Audio Recordings

The audio for all of the sixteen sessions that were recorded will be collected below.