TEXT: STEALING CTHULHU.
  Konstantinos Liolios (order #5565906)
  
  STEALING CTHULHU
  GRAHAM WALMSLEY
  With art by
  JENNIFER RODGERS
  Cover art by
  OLLI HIHNALA
  Edited by
  HARRIET EVANS
  Layout by
  GRAHAM WALMSLEY and BRENNEN REECE
  Portrait by Brennen Reece.
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  CONTENTS.
  INTRODUCTION. 
  1
  STEALING CREATURES. 
  3
  Reading The Story. 
  4
  STEALING SCENARIOS. 
  5
  Stealing Beginnings. 
  5
  Stealing Set Pieces. 
  8
  Stealing Details. 
  9
  Stealing Backstory. 
  10
  Switching Viewpoints. 
  11
  Switching Locations. 
  13
  Switching Creatures. 
  16
  Shifting Timing. 
  20
  Stealing Endings. 
  21
  The Descent. 
  22
  The Final Horror. 
  23
  The Confrontation. 
  25
  The Escape. 
  25
  The Realisation. 
  26
  Three Alternative Endings. 
  27
  STEALING LOCATIONS. 
  28
  The Themes. 
  29
  The Wooded Hills. 
  31
  The Town. 
  32
  The Old Building. 
  32
  The Inhospitable Plain. 
  33
  The Underground City. 
  33
  The Characters. 
  34
  First published 2011.
  © Graham Walmsley 2011.
  Printed in the United States of  America by
  Publishers’ Graphics.
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  7
  Describing Practicalities. 
  70
  Dreaming. 
  71
  Remembering Tales. 
  72
  Monsters. 
  73
  Naming. 
  74
  THE MYTHOS. 
  75
  Azathoth. 
  77
  Colours. 
  80
  Cthonians. 
  87
  Cthulhu. 
  93
  Deep Ones. 
  98
  Elder Things. 
  104
  Flying Polyps. 
  109
  The Great Race Of  Yith. 
  115
  Hastur. 
  123
  Ithaqua. 
  130
  Lloigor. 
  137
  Mi-Go. 
  145
  Nyarlathotep. 
  152
  The Shan. 
  156
  Shoggoths. 
  162
  AFTERWORD. 
  165
  APPENDICES. 
  166
  A: Miscellany. 
  166
  B: Bibliography. 
  168
  C: Cthulhu Dark. 
  170
  THANKS. 
  177
  STEALING PATTERNS. 
  35
  Beginnings And Endings. 
  35
  Locations. 
  37
  Increasing Horror. 
  38
  Keeping Distance. 
  40
  Increasing Certainty. 
  43
  Increasing Reprisals. 
  45
  Increasing Harm. 
  46
  CREATING INVESTIGATIONS. 
  48
  Not Investigating. 
  48
  Not A Crime. 
  50
  Leave Questions Unanswered. 
  51
  THE INVESTIGATORS. 
  52
  Occupations And Skills. 
  52
  Handling Suspicion. 
  55
  Staying The Distance. 
  56
  ANOMALIES. 
  57
  Fights. 
  57
  Cultists. 
  60
  Rituals. 
  61
  STEALING DESCRIPTIONS. 
  62
  Avoiding Clichés. 
  62
  Painting Pictures. 
  63
  Describing Details. 
  63
  Being Nice. 
  64
  Engaging The Senses. 
  65
  Leaving Loose Ends. 
  66
  Obfuscating. 
  67
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  1
  1. I use this word loosely. It normally means “like Lovecraft”, but sometimes 
  “by Lovecraft”.
  2. Here’s an example of  “riffing”. For the Deep Ones, take the theme of  
  “breeding”, then write a scenario with midwives, inbreeding and changelings. 
  These things weren’t specifically mentioned by Lovecraft, but you’re riffing 
  on a theme.
  3. Lovecraft wasn’t.
  INTRODUCTION.
  When you’ve played many Cthulhu scenarios, they start 
  to look the same. You shoot cultists. You do rituals. You 
  unearth a buried god that’s similar to every other god you’ve 
  dug up.
  This book makes a strange suggestion: to write original 
  scenarios, go back to Lovecraft. Copy his ideas, adapt them 
  and use them again. Graft parts of his stories together. Steal 
  his plots, locations and tropes, tweak them and reuse them.
  Throughout this book, you’ll see four patterns repeated. 
  The first is: steal an idea from Lovecraft, change it and reuse 
  it. The second: steal an idea, emphasise something that 
  Lovecraft didn’t emphasise and reuse the idea. The third 
  is: steal various ideas and combine parts of  each. And the 
  fourth: take a Lovecraftian1 theme and riff on it.2 Although 
  they are simple ideas, they work well. You’ll be surprised 
  how little you need to do. Don’t try to be strikingly original. 
  Don’t worry about being accurate or consistent.3 Just play 
  around with Lovecraft’s ideas and you’ll create something 
  fresh and original.
  Why does it work? Because Cthulhu gaming has moved 
  so far from Lovecraft that anything Lovecraftian is a breath 
  of  foul air. After years of  shooting tentacles, most players 
  love something genuinely bleak and horrific.
  And if  you have ideas of  your own? If  you want, say, 
  to put Cthonians under the slums of  Victorian London or 
  Yog-Sothoth inside Schrödinger’s equation? Simply blend 
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  1. For most examples, I have chosen well-known Lovecraft stories. Partly, this 
  is because they are the best. Partly, it is so Lovecraft novices need only read 
  a few stories to catch up. For further explanation, see the Bibliography.
  2. For convenience, I will sometimes refer to “the creature” even when I mean 
  “the creatures”.
  3. Lovecraft describes such wars, but they weren’t the story.
  1. In fact, not just Lovecraft, but other Mythos authors: Campbell, Wilson, 
  Blackwood, Chambers and Lumley.
  STEALING CREATURES.
  Lovecraft used one type of  creature for each story. For 
  example, The Call of  Cthulhu1 has Cthulhu. Not Cthulhu 
  plus a horde of Deep One servants: just Cthulhu. Similarly, 
  The Whisperer in Darkness uses the Mi-Go. Not Nyarlathotep 
  controlling the Mi-Go: just the Mi-Go.
  This makes the creature seem vastly powerful. Lovecraft 
  is saying: this one thing could beat you all. If  you use more 
  creatures, you make them seem weaker. If, for example, 
  Nyarlathotep controls the Mi-Go, the Mi-Go become mooks. 
  Now, sometimes Lovecraft uses a single creature (Cthulhu, 
  a Colour). Sometimes he uses a whole race (the Mi-Go, 
  the Deep Ones).2 Sometimes he uses a complementary 
  pair (Elder Things and Shoggoths, Great Race and Flying 
  Polyps). Sometimes the creature has servitors (Yog-Sothoth). 
  Nevertheless, the scenario focuses on one type of  creature.
  So don’t mess about. Use one type of  creature. No 
  conspiracies between Mi-Go and Elder Things. No wars 
  between the Great Race and Cthulhu.3 More creatures dilute 
  the story, rather than enhancing it.
  Finally, rather than using a Lovecraftian creature, try 
  inventing your own. To do this, either change something 
  about a Lovecraftian creature or combine parts to create 
  something new. This is how Brian Lumley created the 
  Cthonians: he combined Cthulhu’s squid-like appearance, 
  the Mi-Go’s theft of  human brains and the Shoggoths’ 
  tendency to hurtle through the Earth.
  your ideas with Lovecraft’s. By starting with Lovecraft, 
  you ensure a solid base for your ideas.
  Importantly, this book does not say: This Is How You 
  Must Write Scenarios. Instead, it is a collection of ideas and 
  tools. Use the ones you like, ignore the ones you don’t and 
  bastardise the rest until they work for you. After all, that 
  is precisely what we will do to Lovecraft’s work.
  This book, then, is about returning to Lovecraft.1 It 
  uses his ideas to add new things to your game. Somewhere 
  in those old texts, in the patterns behind the stories, is 
  knowledge you can use.
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  1. For summaries of  these plots, see the appropriate creature’s section in The 
  Mythos (page 75).
  2. Not quite the beginning of The Whisperer In Darkness, but a good beginning 
  for a scenario.
  1. If you don’t have time, skim the story and remember what catches your eye.
  2. In The Statement of  Randolph Carter, it’s the implication that there are 
  underground labyrinths of  horror just down the road. Carter doesn’t travel 
  to some distant land or city: it’s a cemetery just off  the Gainsville Pike...
  3. Or deliberately free-associate. Dreams, waking, rebirth, Australia, desert.
  STEALING SCENARIOS.
  to Write Lovecraftian scenarios, steal Lovecraft’s plots. 
  Steal his beginnings and endings. Steal backstories, from 
  the mouths of  his characters, and rerun them as scenarios. 
  Take a plot, tweak the protagonists, locations and creatures, 
  then reuse it.
  Some of these tricks will instantly give new scenarios from 
  Lovecraft’s plots. Some are subtler: you will need two or 
  three to produce something new. Let’s start at the beginning.
  STEALING BEGINNINGS.
  to start the scenario, steal one of  Lovecraft’s beginnings.
  You arrive in a strange place (The Colour Out of  Space, At the 
  Mountains of  Madness).1
  You hear tales of  a strange place (The Shadow Over Innsmouth).
  You read, in a newspaper, of  strange events (The Whisperer in 
  Darkness).
  You get a letter (The Whisperer in Darkness).2
  You find a strange artefact (The Call of  Cthulhu).
  You go to a strange event (Nyarlathotep).
  Something strange happens to someone, probably you (The Shadow 
  Out of  Time).
  Try doing the same. Invent a race of  Deep One-like 
  creatures, which live in desert sand rather than water. Invent 
  a Colour-like creature, which drains life but travels through 
  time like the Great Race. With your tweaked creature, you 
  can tell a Lovecraftian story and it will feel fresh and original.
  READING THE STORY.
  noW read the story associated with your creature. This is 
  simple advice, but important. Each time you read it, you 
  will discover new things.1
  For example, when I reread The Shadow Over Innsmouth, 
  I remembered the Deep One concentration camps. When I 
  reread At the Mountains of  Madness, I realised how horrific 
  the human dissections were. Remember what you notice 
  and use it in your scenarios.2
  Note especially when Lovecraft’s creatures differ from 
  the versions used in Cthulhu games. For example, Cthulhu 
  has claws, not tentacles. The Mi-Go are welcoming and 
  perhaps even benevolent. Shoggoths imitate voices.  Use 
  these differences in your scenario.3
  And trust your initial impressions of  each creature. For 
  example, when I first read At the Mountains of  Madness. I 
  thought the protagonists were chased by deformed Elder 
  Things. When I read The Colour Out of  Space, I thought 
  the Colour was purple and gaseous. Don’t question whether 
  these impressions are right. Trust them. They will produce 
  a unique take on the creature.
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  1. See Increasing Horror (page 38).
  2. But give the Investigators some weirdness to attact their attention. It need 
  not be a dramatic hook, but give them enough to intrigue them.
  When you make these changes, riff on Lovecraftian themes. 
  In the above examples, the mathematical equation comes 
  from The Dreams in the Witch House, the light in the sky 
  from The Colour Out of  Space and Antarctica from At the 
  Mountains of  Madness. Use these themes freely in any 
  scenario, without worrying about being faithful to Lovecraft: 
  try putting equations in Deep One scenarios, mysterious 
  lights in Mi-Go stories or using Antarctica as the home for 
  the Great Race.
  Keep your beginning low-key. Begin with folktales and 
  eeriness, saving true horror for later. Don’t start with tales of 
  a Deep One concentration camp. Don’t start with a dissected 
  body. Instead, begin with tales and build the horror slowly.1
  Finally, Lovecraft’s favourite beginning is “You arrive 
  in a strange place”. He uses it in many, many stories. You 
  can do the same. Don’t feel you need a clever, interesting 
  beginning. Just let the Investigators arrive.2
  These beginnings are largely interchangeable. For example, 
  The Colour Out of  Space could easily begin with a strange 
  artefact (probably the meteorite). The Whisperer in Darkness 
  could simply begin with the protagonist arriving.
  So choose a different beginning from the one Lovecraft 
  used for your creature. For example, start a Mi-Go scenario 
  with a strange artefact: perhaps the black stone mentioned 
  in The Whisperer in Darkness. Or start a Cthulhu scenario 
  with something strange happening to the Investigators: 
  probably, they have unnatural dreams.
  Having chosen your beginning, change something from 
  the way Lovecraft used it. For example:
  You arrive in a strange place...
  Not Antarctica or Innsmouth, but a desert or forest.
  You hear tales of  a strange place...
  Not Innsmouth, but a Pacific island or Antarctic plain.
  You read, in a newspaper, of  strange events...
  Not a dead Mi-Go, but a dead person or a light in the sky.
  You get a letter...
  Not from a mysterious correspondent, but a relative or colleague.
  You find a strange item...
  Not a sculpture, but a musical score or mathematical equation.
  You go to a strange event...
  Not a technological demonstration, but a public dissection or circus 
  performance.
  Something strange happens to someone, probably you...
  Not amnesia, but hallucinations or dreams.
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  1. I’ve changed these set-pieces slightly, to keep them distinct from the original. 
  2. Venture into these areas if  you like, but do it deliberately.
  STEALING DETAILS.
  having stolen the big scenes, steal the little things too. 
  Lovecraft often makes brief, teasing references, which you can 
  expand. Any of the following would work well in scenarios:
  An undersea city of the Elder Things (stolen from At the Mountains 
  of  Madness).
  A Mi-Go corpse, washed up on a riverbank after a flood (stolen from 
  The Whisperer in Darkness).
  A Shoggoth, controlled by the Deep Ones (stolen from The Shadow 
  Over Innsmouth).
  This leads to a powerful rule: play something that Lovecraft 
  only mentioned. And tweak these details, too. Give the Great 
  Race an undersea city. Put Mi-Go corpses on beaches, in 
  woodland or frozen under ice.
  STEALING SET PIECES.
  next, steal the best moments from Lovecraft’s stories: the 
  set pieces, the parts that people remember, the moments 
  on which the story hangs.
  For example, in a Mi-Go scenario, you might include:1
  A chase through an old building (from The Shadow Over Innsmouth).
  An impossibly ancient object of  unknown workmanship, made of  
  unearthly and unpleasant material (from The Call of  Cthulhu).
  A dissected body, with the brain skilfully removed (from At the 
  Mountains of  Madness).
  By using these set-pieces, you keep your scenario close to 
  Lovecraft, ensuring you don’t stray into pulp, cliché or 
  generic horror.2 Lovecraft wrote about a limited range of  
  topics: often about chases, dreams and underground cities, 
  but rarely about trains, gangsters and gunfights. Stick with 
  the first and your scenario will feel Lovecraftian; use the 
  second and you’ll have to work harder.
  When you steal a Lovecraftian set piece, tweak it, as you 
  did with the scenario’s beginning. For example, if  the Mi-
  Go chase the Investigators through a hotel, everyone will 
  recognise the scene from The Shadow Over Innsmouth. So 
  chase the Investigators through sewers or woods or valleys. 
  By switching one element, you keep things new.
  You needn’t steal every scene from Lovecraft. But, with 
  judicious tweaking, you’ll be surprised how much you can 
  steal.
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  1. From now on, I deliberately blur the lines between Lovecraft stories and 
  scenarios. Thus, I use “protagonist” and “Investigator” interchangeably, as 
  well as “supporting character” and “NPC”.
  SWITCHING VIEWPOINTS.
  When Lovecraft describes something happening to his 
  protagonist,1 make that happen to an NPC instead. When 
  he describes something happening to a supporting character, 
  let that happen to your Investigators.
  This is a powerful switch, letting us tell Lovecraft stories 
  from a different angle. Here are examples of  things that 
  happen to Lovecraft’s protagonists, shifted to NPCs:
  The Investigators meet someone who is possessed by the Great Race 
  (rather than being possessed themselves).
  The Investigators find the diaries of  someone who was chased by a 
  Shoggoth (rather than being chased by one themselves).
  The Investigators must track down a Deep One hybrid (rather than 
  being hybrids themselves).
  Indeed, finding someone possessed by the Great Race could 
  span an entire scenario: the Investigators could begin 
  with medical reports of  amnesia, then track down the 
  possessee amongst a mountain cult. Similarly, finding a 
  Deep One hybrid gives an interesting scenario: what do the 
  Investigators do with a half-human monster? It’s stolen 
  directly from Lovecraft, but shifts the story to an NPC.
  Even more powerfully, steal things that happen to 
  Lovecraft’s supporting characters and shift them to 
  Investigators. This lets them experience the horror directly.
  1. This needs an ending, but endings are easy, as I’ll explain shortly.
  2. Be careful with backstories which feature Mythos creatures as protagonists. 
  For example, playing through the Elder Things’ annihilation by the Shoggoths 
  will take things in a distinctly strange direction. After all, the Mythos is meant 
  to be unknowable: if  the Investigators are themselves Mythos creatures, it 
  takes away the mystery.3
  3. Although playing Investigators in the bodies of  the Great Race could work 
  well. See The Great Race Of  Yith (page 115).
  STEALING BACKSTORY.
  Lovecraft talks a lot: or, rather, his characters do. In almost 
  every story, an incidental character tells a horrific story from 
  the past. For an easy scenario, then, steal this backstory 
  for your main plot.
  Here, for example, are three ready-made scenarios, stolen 
  straight from Lovecraftian backstories:
  On a Pacific island, the Investigators find great carved statues. The 
  islanders wear strange jewellery. Fish seem particularly abundant. 
  Upon investigating, the Investigators discover the islanders have made 
  a pact with the Deep Ones (stolen from The Shadow Over Innsmouth).
  On a scholarly tour of  Greenland, the Investigators find ancient 
  religious carvings. They trace these to a degenerate Eskimo cult, whose 
  strange ways have been handed down through generations, and who 
  are shunned by other inhabitants. The cult conducts cruel, brutal 
  rituals under the Aurora Borealis (stolen from The Call of  Cthulhu).
  A meteorite falls. On the first night afterwards, during a thunderstorm, 
  the meteorite appears to draw the lightning. Scientific investigation 
  reveals globules inside the meteorite, which dissolve test tubes and 
  laboratory benches. Soon, the fruit grows bloated and life drains out 
  of  the land (stolen from The Colour Out of  Space).1
  As before, tweak some details. For example, perhaps the 
  meteorite falls in a desert, rather than the woods of  The 
  Colour Out of  Space. Not all backstories need tweaking, 
  however: the first two stories above work as written.2
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  SWITCHING LOCATIONS.
  Wherever Lovecraft put his creature, place yours somewhere 
  else. For example:
  Put Deep Ones off  the Alaskan coast.
  Put Elder Things in a desert.
  Put Shoggoths on, rather than beneath, an Antarctic plain.
  Put the Great Race on a risen seabed.
  Obviously, there are restrictions. You won’t find many Deep 
  Ones in a desert. Mi-Go prefer the mountains. And Cthulhu 
  should really be in the Pacific.
  But you can always make a change. Put Deep Ones in 
  the Arctic Ocean. Place Mi-Go in desert mountains. Run a 
  Cthulhu scenario on a Pacific island, rather than the ocean 
  itself.
  By moving the location, you change the story. Here, 
  for example, is the plot of  At the Mountains of  Madness, 
  shifted to a desert.
  The Investigators are archaeologists, searching for a legendary 
  desert city.
  The sand dunes shift constantly, often forming into five-pointed stars.
  The Investigators find an abandoned camp, with journals suggesting 
  the explorers had found an ancient city. Within, these explorers found 
  a fossil, which they began to study.
  Half-buried beneath sand dunes, they find all the explorers but one, 
  carefully dissected.
  1. As above: play something Lovecraft only mentioned.
  2. See Keeping Distance (page 40).
  Thus, try letting the following things, which were 
  experienced by Lovecraft’s minor characters, happen to 
  your Investigators.
  The Investigators dream about Cthulhu.
  The Investigators discover bitter fruit of  an indescribable colour.
  The Investigators are besieged by Mi-Go.
  Both directions of shift have advantages and disadvantages. 
  By shifting events to the Investigators, you let the 
  Investigators experience something Lovecraft only described.1 
  However, you risk overloading the story with strangeness. 
  If the Investigators are besieged by Mi-Go, it’s interesting; 
  if the Investigators’ brains are removed, placed in cylinders 
  and flown through space, things get weirder.
  So, sometimes it is better to shift events to NPCs. 
  Sometimes, that distance is necessary.2 Meeting a Great 
  Race possessee is often more powerful than being one.
  Often, timing determines whether things should happen 
  to Investigator or NPCs. Here’s a disgusting example. At 
  the start of the scenario, the Investigators might hear about 
  humans mating with Deep Ones. At the end, they might see 
  humans mating with Deep Ones. It’s unlikely that, at any 
  point, they will themselves mate with Deep Ones.
  Switching viewpoints is a powerful trick. Use it often.
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  As the sun sets over the grey sea, the Investigators talk to a drunk. 
  He tells crazed stories of  creatures in the sea, who he believes are 
  watching him.
  When they arrive back at the ferry, it is broken down. The ferrymaster 
  tells the Investigators they will need to stay the night.
  In the Euston Hotel, the Investigators are attacked by things that 
  seem only half-human. In the dead of  night, they flee the town. 
  You might change the ending: try replacing it with the one 
  from The Whisperer in Darkness, so that the Investigators 
  sneak away then flee by car. That aside, the plot works well.
  Don’t underestimate the power of  switching locations. 
  From that simple change, you get a whole new set of  
  descriptive detail. With one switch, you make an old story 
  seem new.
  1. In particular, much of the imagery is stolen from The Shadow Out of  Time.
  Finally, in the shifting sands, they see an ancient city.
  They explore the city, travelling deeper and deeper underground. From 
  carvings, they learn of  the Shoggoths, a slave race. They also find 
  the missing explorer, dissected and wrapped, as if  for further study.
  When they penetrate too deep, a Shoggoth hurtles towards them, 
  chasing them out.
  Here, I have changed details to fit the new location. Odd 
  rock markings become strangely-shaped dunes. Dreamlike 
  mountains become shifting sand. Those aside, the plot is 
  entirely stolen.1
  Try changing other parts of this plot. Switch protagonists, 
  letting Investigators dissect a fossilised Elder Thing. Change 
  the ending, with the Shoggoth being released, like Cthulhu, 
  into the world above. Nevertheless, changing the location 
  does most of  the work.
  Here is a final example. Choose a port or seaside resort 
  near where you live. In Massachusetts, a good choice might 
  be Wellfleet, on Cape Cod. In Britain, Southend works well. 
  Then rerun the plot from The Shadow Over Innsmouth in 
  that location.
  For example, here’s an Innsmouth plot in England:
  The Investigators hear odd tales about the fishing port of Fleetwood. 
  When they arrive, it is winter and the resort is deserted. The few 
  people on the misty promenade are secretive and unfriendly. Many of  
  the hotels are closed and boarded-up, although the Investigators hear 
  strange noises from within. An unpleasant odour pervades the town.
  They glimpse inside a church, where they see something horrific. 
  Later, locals warn the Investigators not to linger near the church.
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  Conversely, here is the plot of The Whisperer in Darkness, 
  redone as a Deep One scenario:
  The Investigators read reports of corpses, half-human and half-fish, 
  washed up on remote beaches. 
  Locals tell folktales of mermaid-like creatures and strangers speaking 
  in unnatural, guttural voices.
  The Investigators receive a letter from a correspondent, who believes 
  the fish-creatures are watching him.
  In a museum near the coast, the Investigators find an engraved 
  monolith, depicting the creatures.
  When the Investigators visit their correspondent, in his seafront 
  house, they find him sitting in the dark. A fishy odour pervades. His 
  features are strange, with bulbous, unclosing eyes.
  He tells them, in exquisite detail, of beautiful undersea cities, seeming 
  friendly and benevolent as he does so.
  In the night, the Investigators hear Deep Ones in the house below 
  them. They flee.
  And so the changes work in reverse. Mountains become 
  seaside, buzzing voices become guttural and vibration 
  becomes odour. The plot is identical: only the descriptions 
  change.
  Naturally, not all creatures are interchangeable. You can’t 
  run The Shadow Over Innsmouth with Cthulhu bursting into 
  the hotel to capture the Investigators. And some creatures 
  require greater changes: for example, the Shan would fit 
  into either of  the plots above, but should possess someone.
  SWITCHING CREATURES.
  here is the most powerful trick of  all. Use a Lovecraft 
  plot, but switch the creature. With simple changes, you’ll 
  have a new story.
  This is because Lovecraft’s creatures are mostly 
  interchangeable. For example, here is the plot of The Shadow 
  Over Innsmouth, redone as a Mi-Go scenario:
  The Investigators drive to a strange mountain town, which the 
  locals avoid.
  As they wander around the crumbling town, they see closed-up 
  buildings and hear buzzing voices.
  Everywhere in the town, there is an oppressive rhythm or vibration, 
  half-imagined and half-real.
  From a rambling drunk, the Investigators hear about rituals in the 
  wood, where inhabitants worship Shub-Niggurath with hideous 
  black winged creatures.
  When the Investigators return to their car, the engine is broken. 
  They must stay in the mountain town. 
  In the dead of  the night, the winged creatures swarm on the 
  Investigators, who must flee.
  Only the details have changed. The seaside town becomes a 
  mountain town. Guttural voices become buzzing ones. The 
  fishy smell becomes an alien vibration. Mating becomes a 
  ritual in the woods. The plot, however, is the same.
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  1. Try switching the creature for a location. That is, use a creature that is, 
  effectively, a location: for example, a malevolent theatre, island or village.
  Increasing reprisals appear as malicious acts of  nature: foul weather, 
  automobile failure, rockslides. Look at Lloigor and Colours as models (they 
  are almost monstrous locations already). Locations to steal from Lovecraft: 
  the Devil’s Hop-Yard, Plateau of  Leng, Kadath.
  Generally, if  creatures are similar in some way, you can 
  swap them between stories. Here are some similarities:
  The Mi-Go, Shan and Deep Ones are all malevolent races, rather 
  than single creatures.
  Nyarlathotep, Hastur and Shub-Niggurath are all nebulous and ill-
  defined. Their stories are largely interchangeable.
  Lloigor and Colours are both intangible, subterranean and sap energy.
  The Great Race, Hounds of Tindalos and Lloigor all manipulate time.
  The Great Race, Cthonians and Shan can both possess a human being.
  The Great Race, Cthonians and Mi-Go can, in different ways, take a 
  human’s mind out of  its body.
  The Elder Things and Shoggoths form a pair, as do the Great Race and 
  Flying Polyps. In both cases, the second race exterminated the first.
  Cthulhu can be interchanged with any underground Old One.
  There are subtler connections, too: both the Lloigor and 
  Cthulhu want to enslave humanity; both Cthonians and 
  Lloigor cause flu-like symptoms; both Cthonians and Colours 
  cause buildings to collapse.
  So try using Cthonians in The Colour Out of  Space: they 
  swarm beneath farmland, draining the energy from the 
  humans above. Or try the Colour in place of  Cthonians: 
  when a meteorite is taken by scientists, a Colour pursues it 
  and destroys the laboratory where it is kept.
  Switching creatures is your most powerful tool. That 
  simple change lets you recycle Lovecraft’s plots endlessly.
  But this switch will create many new plots. Try the 
  following or invent your own:
  The Shadow Out of  Time, but with Investigators possessed by the 
  Shan.
  At the Mountains of  Madness, but with Investigators discovering a 
  Great Race city.
  The Dreams in the Witch House, but with Investigators dreaming 
  of  Cthulhu.
  Nyarlathotep, but with the prophetic stranger being an avatar of  
  Shub-Niggurath, giving a demonstration of  natural wonder.
  The Call of  Cthulhu, replacing Cthulhu with any other buried Old One.
  The Colour Out of  Space, replacing the Colour with a Lloigor and the 
  gradual decay with intermittent destruction.
  These won’t all be straight swaps. Often, you’ll need to add 
  things specific to the creature: for example, in the Great Race 
  version of  At the Mountains of  Madness, the Investigators 
  should discover a possessed, not a dissected, explorer.
  But, with few changes, you have a wealth of new scenarios. 
  If  you cannot use a whole plot, use parts. For example, 
  start a Hastur scenario with the show from Nyarlathotep, 
  even if  you then take the scenario elsewhere.
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  1. I’ll discuss these creatures’ timelines under Colours (page 80) and The 
  Great Race Of  Yith (page 115). But you can find timelines in almost any 
  creature’s story.
  2. Perhaps, after this, there is a further ending: the punchline. Lovecraft likes 
  to end stories with a pithy, surprising phrase: “It was his twin brother”, “In 
  my own handwriting”, “The face and hands of  Henry Wentworth Akeley”. 
  It’s hard to make these effective in roleplaying games.
  But some shift of  timing is always possible. You could, 
  for example, start a Cthulhu scenario as the stars begin 
  aligning or as he is waking.
  Better still, many creatures have their own timeline. 
  Colours have a timeline of  decay. The Great Race has a 
  timeline of  possession.1 To create new scenarios, start at 
  different points in these timelines.
  STEALING ENDINGS.
  You can also steal Lovecraft’s endings. This gets complicated, 
  however, since Lovecraft likes to end stories many times. For 
  example, The Shadow Over Innsmouth has a climactic chase, 
  then a sight of  the creatures, then an extended epilogue.
  Broadly speaking, Lovecraft’s endings happen in the 
  following order:
  The descent into an underground city.
  The final horror, in which the Investigators see the horror clearly 
  for the first time.
  The escape, as the Investigators flee from a supernatural creature, 
  or the confrontation, as they confront it.
  The realisation that the creature remains and may rise again.2
  Not every story has every ending, but if  they occur, they 
  are normally in that sequence. Let’s consider them in turn. 
  1. Some arrived in prehistoric times.
  2. This is probably not a practical option for creatures that arrived in prehistoric 
  times.
  3. Another general rule. Whatever Lovecraft did, change it.
  SHIFTING TIMING.
  Lovecraft’s creatures, roughly speaking, work to the 
  following timeline:
  The creatures arrive.1
  The creatures do bad things to humans.
  The creatures depart.
  The creatures return.
  This lets you start your scenario at three points.
  Just after the creatures arrive.2
  When the creatures are present.
  After the creatures have departed, with the threat they may return.
  For your scenario, try a different timing from the one 
  Lovecraft used.3 For example:
  Start a Mi-Go scenario just after the creatures arrive in the mountains.
  Start a Deep Ones scenario just after they have been summoned.
  Start a Great Race scenario while someone is possessed.
  Start a Colour scenario with a meteorite falling.
  Start a scenario after Cthulhu has been hit by a ship, letting the 
  Investigators discover that he will inevitably rise again.
  There are limits here. You cannot easily begin with Cthulhu 
  coming to Earth, nor with him already risen.
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  1. When they don’t, the horror often comes from below ground: for example, 
  Cthulhu, the Lloigor or the Colour. And if  it does not, the horror is often 
  associated with an underworld: the Mi-Go dig mines, the Deep Ones hide in 
  tunnels below houses. Scatter subterranean references freely.
  2. Especially if, when Lovecraft wrote about your creature, he didn’t end with 
  an underground city.
  1. The Whisperer in Darkness, which has no definite peak of  terror, breaks 
  this rule. Perhaps the final horror is the brain-in-cylinder or the sight of  
  Akeley’s hands.
  2. When you’re using a complementary pair of  creatures, this creature is the 
  second of  the pair. For example, if  your scenario is about Elder Things and 
  Shoggoths, this creature is a Shoggoth.
  3. Arguably, this is the same as “the harm”, but it’s important enough to 
  keep separate.
  THE FINAL HORROR.
  Just before the story ends, the most horrific event occurs. 
  If  the Investigators descended into an underground city, 
  that’s where it happens. If not, the event happens somewhere 
  dark and enclosed.
  It is a visual spectacle. The narrative slows down as it 
  is described in maddening detail. For the first time, the 
  Investigators see the full horror clearly: if  they go mad, 
  they do it now. There may be a greater, lingering unease 
  afterwards, but this is the peak of  terror.1
  Here are the final horrors of  some Lovecraft stories:
  In The Call of  Cthulhu, Cthulhu rises.
  In Dagon, Dagon appears.
  In At the Mountains of  Madness, the Shoggoth appears.
  In The Colour Out of  Space, Nahum is destroyed by the Colour.
  In The Shadow Over Innsmouth, the Deep One army streams along 
  the road.
  In The Shadow Out of  Time, the protagonist finds his handwriting 
  within an ancient city.
  Broadly, then, there are three types of  final horror:
  The creature: Seeing the creature2 or creatures clearly for the first time. 
  The harm: Seeing the harm the creature does to humans.
  Self-realisation: Discovering something horrific about yourself.3 
  THE DESCENT.
  toWards the story’s end,  Lovecraft’s protagonists often 
  descend into an underground city.1 This journey may be 
  prolonged, as in At the Mountains of  Madness, or shorter, 
  as in The Shadow Out of  Time.
  You can end any scenario with an underground city. 
  Thus, you could:
  Finish a Deep One scenario with a descent into watery caves. 
  Finish a Mi-Go scenario with a descent into mines.
  Finish a Colour scenario with a descent into a glowing underworld, 
  filled with the Colour.
  Underground cities never get old. Treat them as your default 
  option for bringing scenarios to a close.2
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  1. I apologise for using “sneak” as a noun, but it’s useful, so I have appropriated 
  it as terminology.
  THE CONFRONTATION.
  sometimes, Lovecraft’s protagonists confront the monster 
  directly. This is never simply a fight: in The Dunwich Horror, 
  there’s a magical battle; in The Call of  Cthulhu, Cthulhu 
  is hit by a ship.
  So, if you end your scenario with a confrontation, make it 
  good. Guns are not enough. Make it a sorcerous or vehicular 
  combat. Make it spectacular.
  And consider avoiding the confrontation entirely. Fights 
  are used too much in Cthulhu games and rarely in Lovecraft. 
  Instead, try letting the Investigators escape.
  THE ESCAPE.
  after the final horror, the Investigators may run away. If  
  they are in an underground city, they escape through that 
  city. If  not, they at least escape in darkness.
  Lovecraft is being clever here. He needs a dramatic ending, 
  but if  he ends with a fight, he shows that the Mythos can 
  be defeated. Instead, he lets the Investigators escape, 
  highlighting the creature’s invincibility while providing a 
  shot of  adrenaline.
  There are two sorts of  escape: the chase and the sneak.1 
  The chase is your default option: a high-adrenaline flight, 
  with the creature at the Investigators’ heels. The sneak is 
  subtler: a stealthy escape, avoiding the creature’s attention. 
  1. Or the people they love. This isn’t a Lovecraftian option, but it’s a good one, 
  used by other authors such as Robert Chambers. See Hastur (page 123).
  2. Under Cthonians (page 87), I discuss fountains of  blood as Final Horrors.
  In your scenario, then, you have three options for your Final 
  Horror. Your default option is letting the Investigators see 
  the creature. They might:
  See a horde of  Mi-Go.
  See The King In Yellow.
  Watch the Lloigor becoming visible.
  Your second option is showing the Investigators how the 
  creature harms humans. They could:
  Find a pile of  corpses, whose brains were removed by the Mi-Go. 
  Find people who were driven mad by The King In Yellow. 
  Find the mutilated, ententacled slaves of  the Lloigor, whose limbs 
  are amputated so they cannot run.
  And your third option is showing Investigators something 
  horrific about themselves:
  Discovering the cylinders where their brains were kept.
  Discovering they are Deep One hybrids.
  Discovering they are infected by the Colour and gradually decaying.
  With this option, keep the horror personal. Don’t just show 
  that humanity is doomed. Make it about the Investigators.1 
  If  you can think of  a worse terror, use it. Perhaps, for 
  example, you could show the Investigators a postapocalyptic 
  city or prehistoric landscape.2 Nine times out of ten, however, 
  you won’t beat showing them the creature or the harm it 
  does.
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  1. There are many, many chases in Lovecraft. In The Music Of  Erich Zann, 
  for example, there’s a beautiful and brief  dash through a crumbling city: 
  “clattering down steps and over cobbles to the lower streets and the putrid 
  canyon-walled river”.
  2. In Lovecraft’s sneaks and chases, it’s often unclear whether there is anything 
  pursuing the protagonist. It doesn’t matter. Steal the imagery anyway.
  3. Read The Whisperer In Darkness and The Shadow Over Innsmouth, noting 
  when the protagonist fails a sneaking roll.
  1. And note that Lovecraft’s protagonists go mad, rather than die. So, in your 
  games, drive Investigators insane rather than killing them.
  2. In The Shadow Over Innsmouth, the protagonist must choose whether to 
  commit suicide or become a monster. Give choices like this to your players 
  (and we’ll discuss them further later).
  THREE ALTERNATIVE ENDINGS.
  three other endings are often useful. The first two are 
  excellent ways to end a individual Investigator’s story:
  Going mad (from Dagon).1
  Committing suicide (from Dagon and The Insects from Shaggai).2
  When these happen in your scenarios, describe them as 
  Lovecraft would. Mad Investigators go to asylums, while 
  suicides are found alone in rooms.
  A third alternative ending is from The Colour Out of  Space:
  The creature leaves.
  Note, here, that the departure is spectacular: an alien firework 
  display. This spectacle gives a satisfying, definite ending 
  (rather like the adrenaline rush of  a chase).
  Also, note that the creature chooses to leave. Thus, this 
  is a bleak ending, an expression of  human irrelevance. The 
  creature was not defeated. The Investigators’s actions have 
  barely affected it. And, as mentioned above, the creature 
  never leaves completely: something remains behind.
  Try this ending in a scenario. Let a Lloigor leave, but 
  only to feed elsewhere. Let Cthulhu stir and return to sleep. 
  Let the Mi-Go leave, in a spectacular flurry of black wings, 
  but only because their mines are exhausted. Make it bleak, 
  uncaring and spectacular.
  Now, there are different sorts of  chase:1
  An organised pursuit (from The Shadow Over Innsmouth).
  A creature chasing a ship (from The Call of  Cthulhu).
  A desperate rush through an ancient city (from At the Mountains of  
  Madness and The Shadow Out of  Time).
  And different sorts of  sneak:
  Through a dark, creaking house (from The Whisperer In Darkness).2
  Through hostile streets (from The Shadow Over Innsmouth).
  Choose whichever suits your scenario. Even better, switch 
  between the two. On a failed sneaking roll, a sneak becomes 
  a chase. On a successful hiding roll, a chase becomes a sneak. 
  And vary the transport: try planes, cars and ships.
  However you do it, sneak or chase, the escape provides 
  the adrenaline to end the scenario. It is also, probably, the 
  last time you roll dice. After that, it is all narration.
  THE REALISATION.
  this final ending is short but important. In it, the 
  Investigators realise that the danger is still there. Even when 
  the creature is defeated (e.g. Cthulhu), it is not truly dead. 
  Even when it leaves (e.g. the Colour), part of  it remains.
  Perhaps this is just a piece of narration at the end of your 
  scenario, but it must be there. The Mythos is not defeated. 
  It merely waits.
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  1. In particular, Lovecraft rarely mentions technology until the story’s end. 
  On the rare occasions he does, such as Nyarlathotep, it follows similar themes 
  to those above: dark, unpleasant, unsettling.
  THE THEMES.
  at the beginning of  the scenario, everywhere is:
  Old.
  Decaying.
  Unsettling.
  Crumbling.
  Dimly lit.
  Indefinably unpleasant.
  Disliked by those in the surrounding area.
  And everywhere has:
  Suspicious, unhelpful inhabitants.
  An unpleasant odour.
  These themes are common to the Town, Old Building and 
  Wooded Hills. 
  You can apply them to any location. If  your scenario 
  begins in caves, make them crumbling and unsettling. If  
  it begins on a space station, make it dark, creaking and 
  ill-reputed.
  Maintain these themes for the first part of your scenario. 
  Resist the temptation to describe modernity1 or pleasantness. 
  In these early stages, there should be no relief: everywhere 
  is unpleasant and indefinably bad.
  1. There may be more than five, of course. The Expedition Camp is a candidate, 
  as is The City (as distinct from The Town). But let’s start with five.
  2. A cautionary note. Lovecraft’s stories rarely divide into discrete locations, as 
  roleplaying scenarios do. The Shadow Over Innsmouth, for example, doesn’t 
  proceed simply from the Museum to Innsmouth to the Hotel. So use the 
  descriptions, but don’t think of  scenarios as chains of  locations. 
  STEALING LOCATIONS.
  Lovecraft has five favourite locations:1 the Town, Old 
  Building, Wooded Hills, Inhospitable Plain and Underground 
  City. Steal them.
  For example, try starting a scenario in the wooded 
  hills (from The Whisperer in Darkness), move to an old 
  building (like The Shadow Over Innsmouth), then end with 
  an underground city (like The Shadow Out of  Time). Use 
  these locations as defaults: if  you don’t know where your 
  Deep One hybrid lives, put her in an old building.
  Try, also, using these stock locations as bases for your own. 
  If  your scenario includes a university, make it resemble an 
  Old Building: crumbling, dark and crowned with spires. If  
  it includes mines, make them like an Underground City: 
  immense, black and strangely angled.
  Do this especially for historical locations. Describe 
  Victorian London like the Town: dark and shuttered, with 
  narrow streets. Make Shanghai like the Inhospitable Plain: 
  dreamlike, shifting and vast.
  We’ll consider the five locations individually.2 First, 
  however, here are the themes that link them. 
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  1. Note how the “ancient” theme emerges in a natural setting: crumbling, 
  overgrown, timeless. See also Ithaqua (page 130) for the best timeless 
  forest of  them all.
  THE WOODED HILLS.
  the hiLLs are overgrown and remote. Few people go there: 
  roads and railways have fallen into disuse. In the dense, 
  wooded valleys, there are  streams whose sources are 
  unknown.
  There is something unnatural about the wooded hills. 
  The slopes drop at dizzying, fantastic, almost perpendicular 
  angles. Perhaps, even, they are supernatural, for nature 
  seems to run wild within the woods. Bridges are overgrown. 
  Often, the trees grow unnaturally thick, so that the alleys 
  between them are dark.
  In the wooded hills are old buildings (see below), ancient 
  and decaying. Sometimes, the visitor will see half-crumbled 
  bridges, leading nowhere. Sometimes the hills seem 
  fantastically beautiful, but more often they are oppressive 
  and foreboding, and always they are timeless.
  Nobody goes to the highest hills. There are tales of  the 
  things that live there, but the old folk know not to tell them 
  too loudly. They know, too, not to enquire too deeply into 
  the creatures that live on the darkest mountains.
  Later in the story, the themes change subtly. Now, 
  everywhere is:
  Ancient.
  Dark.
  Huge.
  Alien.
  Strangely angled.
  And everywhere has:
  Strange geometry.
  Carvings.
  Signs of  vast intelligence.
  These themes apply perfectly to the Underground City. 
  They also describe other Lovecraftian locations: the last 
  part of  Dagon uses a vast, dark, alien mire, with a carved 
  monolith. Meanwhile, the Inhospitable Plain mixes themes 
  from the first and second sets.
  At a minimum, the final location must be dark. When 
  Lovecraft’s stories do not end underground, they end in 
  darkness: the final scenes of  The Shadow Over Innsmouth 
  and The Whisperer in Darkness are nighttime scenes. So, 
  if  the scenario ends without your Investigators changing 
  location, night must fall. 
  With those themes identified, let’s go through the stock 
  locations one by one.
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  1. Which means “constructed of  huge stone blocks”. Lovecraft frequently 
  uses both descriptions: after describing a city as Cyclopean, he mentions it 
  is constructed of  huge stone blocks.
  THE INHOSPITABLE PLAIN.
  Whether the plain is a remote desert, icy waste or mountain 
  plateau, it is desolate, vast and ancient. Its landscape seems 
  dreamlike and ever-changing.
  Unusually for a Lovecraftian location, the inhospitable 
  plain may be bright. Perhaps the sun beats down or perhaps 
  the moon bathes the land in a pallid, leprous light. This light 
  is not pleasant. Instead, it exposes the land as utterly alien.
  On the Inhospitable Plain, the Investigators are totally 
  exposed to the elements. The wind howls from unimaginable 
  heights and tears aeroplanes from the sky. If  there are 
  dwellings here, they are squat huts or abandoned camps, 
  and they are deserted.
  THE UNDERGROUND CITY.
  the underground citY is vast, dark and alien. It is 
  Cyclopean,1  constructed of  huge stone blocks, which are 
  probably black or green.
  The geometry and symmetry seems wrong, with unnatural 
  curves and angles. Certainly, the geometry is non-Euclidian, 
  designed by alien intelligences superior to ours. Carvings 
  depict the history of  the race. 
  Inside, corridors and doorways are designed for creatures 
  larger than humans. There may be rooms for eating, sleeping, 
  and other unidentifiable purposes.
  1. The Music of  Erich Zann has beautiful descriptions of  an ancient city, 
  complete with a street that the protagonist can never find again.
  2. The default Old Building is a farm. There are always farms.
  THE TOWN.
  it maY be a coastal town, city or Arkham itself.1 Wherever it 
  is, it is timeless, filled with hidden stories. Its ancient spires 
  and peaked roofs cluster close together, falling apart. The 
  streets are cobbled, narrow and frequently steep.
  The town is dark: if  there are lights, they are dim and 
  distant. Perhaps the Investigators navigate by moonlight. 
  At night, the town stirs: timbers creak and rats scurry. 
  Many parts of  the town, from secluded courts to shadowy 
  alleys, are hidden or dangerous.
  The town is curiously lifeless. The houses are shuttered, 
  hidden from the view of outsiders. The telegraph poles have 
  no wires. Railways are disused and overgrown.
  THE OLD BUILDING.
  it is unimaginably ancient, with crumbling brickwork and 
  chimneys.2 It is remote: perhaps on a hill, in a seldom-visited 
  part of town or a long way from civilisation. And it is dark 
  in colour, perhaps brown or grey, with a sharply peaked roof.
  From the outside, you cannot see in: perhaps the shutters 
  are down or perhaps the windows are small. When you enter, 
  a smell of  dust and mouldering timber hits your nostrils. 
  Paint peels and decorations are shabby. The light is dim 
  and the floorboards creak under your feet.
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  1. The rest of  this chapter largely consists of  expanding “They investigate”.
  2. I’ve simplified this, leaving out some of  the alternative horrors.
  STEALING PATTERNS.
  noW, let’s look for patterns behind the stories. How does 
  Lovecraft increase the horror? How does he bring his 
  protagonists closer to the creature? How does he ramp up 
  the weirdness and the harm?
  In this section, we steal the structures that underlie 
  Lovecraft’s plots. Let’s start with two structures we have 
  already uncovered: beginnings and endings, then locations.
  BEGINNINGS AND ENDINGS.
  from what we’ve discovered about beginnings and endings, 
  we can create a rough structure for Lovecraftian plots:
  Something strange draws the Investigators in:
  They arrive somewhere strange.
  They hear tales of  somewhere strange.
  They read about strange events.
  They get a letter.
  They find a strange artefact.
  They attend a strange event.
  Something strange happens to someone.
  They investigate.1
  At the end of  their investigation, they may:2
  Descend underground.
  See a final horror.
  Escape the creature or confront it.
  Realise the creature may rise again.
  1. NPCs perform an important function: they let the Investigators discover 
  clues by talking, rather than searching. Thus, they inject roleplay into your 
  scenario. If  your scenario seems too dull or too short, try revealing clues 
  through NPCs rather than books.
  THE CHARACTERS.
  aLL these locations are populated by Lovecraftian characters. 
  These, too, conform to particular templates. They are:
  The old rustic who has seen too much.
  The suspicious, unwelcoming rustic.
  The straightforward rustic, who warns you against enquiring further.
  The educated ally, who has also seen too much.
  Obliging non-entities, who offer assistance.
  In your scenarios, use these characters as NPCs.1 Use them 
  like the locations: either put them in scenarios as written 
  or base your own characters on them.
  And, as with the locations, use these stock characters as 
  default options. If  you cannot decide what the shop owner 
  is like, make her an obliging non-entity or suspicious rustic. 
  If  the Investigators visit a museum, make the curator an 
  educated ally.
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  1. The Mythos (page 75) gives you appropriate signs to scatter for each creature. 
  For example, a Mi-Go scenario contains strange vibrations and buzzing 
  voices, while a Deep One scenario contains fishy odours and guttural voices.
  2. And I often use the word “clues” interchangeably with “signs of the creature”.
  3. This phrase, “The Investigators investigate”, is clunky but useful.
  1. Or, as an alternative, climb, as in The Haunter of  the Dark.
  2. If  they don’t descend underground, they often descend into a dip or valley 
  (c.f. Dagon). 
  3. Even if  there aren’t specifically unanswered questions, there is a sense that 
  the Investigators know little. For example, at the end of  The Colour Out of  
  Space, the prevailing mood is bewilderment. I’ll come back to this in Leave 
  Questions Unanswered (page 51). 
  LOCATIONS.
  Lovecraft’s locations also form a simple structure.
  The Wooded Hills or The Town or The Inhospitable Plain.
  The Underground City or The Old Building.
  It runs in parallel with the Beginnings and Endings structure 
  above. Thus, the Final Horror probably occurs in an Old 
  Building or Underground City.
  Scatters signs of your creature1 throughout these locations. 
  For example, in At the Mountains of  Madness, Lovecraft 
  places strange rock markings on the icy plain, dissected 
  bodies in the deserted camp, and a body preserved for later 
  study in the underground city. Do the same in your scenario.
  These signs, of course, are clues.2 When the Investigators 
  investigate,3 they discover signs of your creature. These signs 
  can be many things – folktales, rumours, writings, markings, 
  victims – but they must be there. Scatter them liberally.
  Use this as a template for scenarios. Begin with strangeness, 
  to draw the Investigators in. Later, send the Investigators 
  somewhere underground (or dark). Reveal the horror, then 
  end with a chase or sneak.
  By using this structure, you build and release anticipation. 
  The strange beginning creates interest. Then, as the 
  investigation progresses, anticipation grows. The tension 
  ramps up sharply when the Investigators go underground:1 
  when they do, they know something bad is waiting.2
  Having built the anticipation, the final horror releases it. 
  Until then, there have only been hints, tales and glimpses: 
  now, the truth bursts out.
  The final horror and burst of  adrenaline disguises the 
  fact that questions remain unanswered. Why do the Mi-Go 
  put brains in jars? What is the strange vibration within the 
  Akeley farmhouse? What were the Deep Ones planning to 
  do with a Shoggoth? All these mysteries lie unresolved,3 
  but the released anticipation makes the story feel finished.
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  1. Remember that you needn’t explain everything. Why are brains in the mines? 
  How is the curator’s wife connected to the Mi-Go? Leave such questions 
  unanswered, as Lovecraft did.
  2. Alternating investigations with reprisals is a powerful tool. See Increasing 
  Reprisals (page 45) and Lloigor (page 137).
  1. See Mi-Go (page 145).
  Now let’s build a simple string of locations: a strange town, 
  an old building, an underground city. For the old building, 
  steal the museum from The Shadow Over Innsmouth. And, 
  by riffing on Mi-Goan themes, let’s put the town in the 
  mountains and make the underground city a mine. 
  Then put signs of  the Mi-Go into those locations, 
  increasing the horror gradually.
  The Investigators arrive in Roehampton, a remote mountain town. 
  It is silent, with an odd vibration hanging in the air.
  In an old museum, they find an unearthly black stone, covered in 
  carvings. Through a wall, they hear the curator’s wife, who has a 
  fluttering, buzzing voice. 
  Outside the museum are oddly-shaped footprints surrounding their car. 
  In the deserted town, the Investigators discover Ellen, a terrified child. 
  She tells of  creatures, high in the hills, and gives the Investigators 
  a stone, which she believes they are mining for. Clearly, it is not of  
  earthly origin.
  In the hills, the Investigators find caves, carefully blocked by boulders.
  They descend into vast mines, which are filled with alien carvings.
  Deep within, they discover many brains in metal containers.1
  From even deeper in the mines, a horde of  Mi-Go rushes at the 
  Investigators, who must flee.
  Thus, we’ve ended with a chase. We could add complexity: 
  perhaps townspeople, with buzzing voices, could warn 
  Investigators away.2 Nevertheless, just by slowly increasing 
  the horror, we’ve created a workable scenario.
  INCREASING HORROR.
  Lovecraftian horror is not like modern horror. In modern 
  stories, the tension runs in peaks and troughs. There’s a 
  shock to begin, then a moment to recover, then another 
  shock, then more recovery. As the story continues, the 
  shocks get greater.
  Lovecraft’s stories, by contrast, begin with only foreboding 
  and eeriness. For the first 75% of  the story, the horror 
  increases very, very slowly. Finally, all hell breaks loose.
  So, in your scenarios, hold the horror back. Increase 
  tension gradually, then ramp it up suddenly for the finale. 
  And, when you scatter signs of your creature, start with the 
  least horrific. Only after much eeriness should you advance 
  to the truly terrifying.
  Let’s put all this together and construct a Mi-Go scenario. 
  Start with some signs of  the Winged Ones:1
  A child is frightened by something in the forest.
  Clawprints, with saw-toothed nippers protruding from a central pad.
  Tales of  creatures in the hills, looking for an unusual type of  stone.
  Caves of  vast depth, their mouths deliberately sealed by boulders.
  A great black stone with worn hieroglyphics.
  Buzzing voices.
  An indefinable rhythm or vibration in the air.
  Brains, humans and alien, stored under Round Hill in Massachusetts.
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  1. Interestingly, when the protagonist first sees the Deep Ones approaching, he 
  closes his eyes. When they are closer, he opens them again. Why? Because it 
  makes the Final Horror, of  seeing the creatures, a sudden shock.
  2. Another thing that increases narrative distance is ignorance: being close 
  to a monster without realising what it is. This happens in many Lovecraft 
  stories. However, it’s tough in games, since players usually guess what 
  they’re dealing with.
  Even when the protagonist is attacked, he does not see 
  his attackers, although now there are monstrous footprints 
  and voices. While escaping through darkened Innsmouth, 
  the protagonist perceives two shambling figures, but only 
  dimly. Only at the end does the protagonist see the creatures 
  fully. When he does, both physical and narrative distance 
  collapse to zero.1
  So steal this pattern. Keep the creatures distant, let the 
  protagonists approach gradually, then suddenly bring the 
  creatures close for the final horror.
  Here are things that increase narrative distance:2
  Hearing about horror second- or third-hand.
  Folktales, rather than reports.
  Reading about horror, rather than seeing it.
  Glimpses or impressions, rather than a clear view.
  Hybrids or servitors, rather than the creature itself.
  Darkness or obscured view.
  Physical barriers, such as walls.
  Unreliable, rather than reliable, reports.
  Information that is open to other interpretations.
  Unnamed, rather than named, people.
  Dreaming, rather than seeing directly.
  Fewer, rather than many, creatures.
  Physical distance.
  1. See The Investigators (page 52). 
  2. Put another way: if  you start the story by seeing a monster (even a dead 
  one), then there is no way to increase the horror. You can’t then end the 
  story by seeing another monster. You’ve done that already. 
  3. The protagonist glimpses a Deep One priest, which disrupts this structure, 
  but it’s a dark, distant, short sighting. 
  KEEPING DISTANCE.
  When the story starts, the protagonist is far away from 
  the creature. As it continues, he1 gets closer to it. Only at 
  the end might the protagonist see the creature: until then, 
  Lovecraft keeps a distance between the two. 
  Often, this distance is physical. Thus, in The Whisperer in 
  Darkness, Wilmarth gets physically closer to the farmhouse, 
  where he finally meets the Mi-Go. In At the Mountains of  
  Madness, the protagonists get closer to the Shoggoth. 
  However, sometimes the distance is conceptual: there is 
  a “narrative distance” between protagonist and creature.
  Rather than letting his characters perceive the horror 
  directly, Lovecraft adds degrees of  separation.
  For example, at the start of  The Whisperer in Darkness: 
  Wilmarth hears from an unnamed friend, who received a letter, 
  from his mother, about unreliable tales from naive country folk 
  who saw a monstrous corpse in a stream. Note the degrees 
  of  separation: anonymity, unreliability, naiveté, the chain 
  of people. Lovecraft couldn’t begin his story with Wilmarth 
  finding a dead Mi-Go: it would destroy the horror.2 Instead, 
  he keeps distance between protagonist and monster.
  Similarly, in The Shadow Over Innsmouth, there is 
  narrative distance between protagonist and Deep Ones, 
  which gradually decreases. We begin with folktales from an 
  unnamed ticket agent, then stories from an unnamed youth.3 
  As the protagonist explores, he hears distant scurryings, 
  but only through walls. Then comes a direct report from a 
  named witness, but a drunk, unreliable one. 
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  1. This initial stage, in which Investigators only hear tales, is common in 
  Lovecraft. Although atmospheric, it can be dull to play. Consider skipping 
  it or advancing quickly to the second stage.
  2. Note the progression in the people whom the Investigators meet. They change 
  from unreliable to reliable characters; from unnamed to named people; and 
  from indirect informants to direct witnesses to victims.
  3. They normally won’t glimpse the creature now, since we save that until 
  the end.
  1. Sometimes, the rational explanation is “I am mad” or “Everyone else is mad”.
  2. One exception: at any time, the Investigators can discover an artefact 
  beyond human knowledge/workmanship, such as Cthulhu’s bas-relief  or 
  the Deep Ones’ jewellery. Nevertheless, there is a prevailing atmosphere 
  of  sober investigation: everyone keeps looking for a rational explanation.
  3. Or the equivalent in the story: after they descend into a valley, after they 
  climb the dark mountain, after they enter the old house and so on.
  INCREASING CERTAINTY.
  next, how credible is it that something supernatural is 
  happening? At the beginning of the story, it seems incredible. 
  At the end, it is the only explanation possible.
  Thus, at first, everything is rationally explicable.1 Later, 
  although events and objects cannot be explained rationally, 
  they are not clearly supernatural. Finally, everything is 
  obviously supernatural.
  So the story progresses as follows:
  Everything can be explained rationally.2
  Not everything can be explained rationally.
  The only explanation is supernatural.
  This final realisation that supernatural forces are at work 
  comes after the Investigators descend underground3 but 
  before the final horror. Thus, the climax of  the story runs 
  as follows: the Investigators enter the creature’s lair, find 
  proof the creature exists, then finally see the creature itself.
  However, although the Investigators see evidence of  
  the creature, they cannot take it with them.  Thus, in The 
  Colour Out of  Space, the scientists’ samples of  the Colour 
  disappear. In The Shadow Out of  Time, the protagonist’s 
  writing remains within the underground city. When the 
  Investigators emerge, they have no proof  of  their story. 
  Use this trick in your scenarios: ensure that, by the end of  
  the story, any direct evidence of  supernatural activity is 
  vanished, destroyed or left behind.
  You can, of  course, combine these. Indeed, in the early 
  stages of  your scenarios, you should use multiple tricks to 
  increase narrative distance. Try dreams of  unseen voices, 
  distant glimpses through fog, unreliable unnamed witnesses 
  and disputed folktales about a faraway town. Best of  all, 
  use a chain of  people: let the Investigators meet someone 
  who met someone else who heard a folktale.
  By putting these tricks together, we get a scenario 
  structure, based around narrative distance:
  The Investigators hear about the creature. They may read reports 
  or hear tales. However, they do not speak directly to witnesses, see 
  the creature or find traces of  it.1
  The Investigators speak to witnesses, although not victims.2 They 
  may find signs of  the creature, including artefacts. Nothing they 
  discover points clearly to alien influence.
  The Investigators may speak to an unreliable victim of the creature. 
  They may find traces of the creature, including alien artefacts, which 
  are difficult to explain rationally. If they glimpse the creature, their 
  view is obscured or in darkness.
  The Investigators find direct traces of the creature, with no rational 
  explanation. They may find victims of the creature whose experiences 
  cannot be explained naturally. Now, they find incontrovertible evidence 
  of  the creature.3
  Suddenly, the Investigators see the creature directly.
  Don’t follow this structure slavishly. Simply keep the general 
  sense of  getting closer to the creature. Keep the creature 
  distant, then right at the end, bring it dangerously close.
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  1. Inventing servitors is easy: the Dark Flautists of Azathoth, The Ice Vampires 
  of  Ithaqua, The Shades of  the Colour. This can get silly, of  course, but 
  the broader lesson is: use the creature’s themes to define its servitors. The 
  servitors are, effectively, extensions of  the creature.
  2. And the Lloigor (page 137) have splendidly detailed servitors. In that section, 
  I’ll discuss the narrative function of  servitors in more detail.
  INCREASING REPRISALS.
  Lovecraft’s creatures often have human allies.1 Thus, 
  Cthulhu has worshippers, the Deep Ones have hybrids, 
  the Mi-Go have agents.2
  They have a useful function within the story: they take 
  action against Investigators, without the creature needing 
  to show itself. Thus, in The Shadow Over Innsmouth, they 
  sabotage the bus. In The Whisperer in Darkness, they cut 
  communication lines. And, in The Call of  Cthulhu, they kill.
  Importantly, these servitors are active rather than passive: 
  they respond defensively to the Investigators investigating. 
  First, they warn the Investigators verbally. Later, they take 
  direct reprisals. Then, at the end of the story, they disappear, 
  leaving the creature to take centre stage.
  This gives another plot structure, which runs as follows.
  Not every stage is necessary, but if  they occur, they do so 
  in this order.
  The Investigators investigate.
  The servitors warn the Investigators not to proceed further.
  They take indirect action, such as sabotage, against the Investigators.
  They take direct action against the Investigators, trying to kill them.
  The Investigators encounter the creature itself.
  Naturally, your scenario does not need servitors. Often, 
  stories are better without them: they let you focus on the 
  creature. But if  you want to use them, this is how.
  There may, however, be indirect evidence. Thus, The 
  Whisperer in Darkness ends with Akeley’s disembodied face 
  and hands. In The Colour Out of  Space, five acres of  dusty 
  desert remain. The Dreams in the Witch House ends with 
  Gilman’s hollowed corpse and various inexplicable artefacts. 
  Crucially, however, this evidence is ambiguous: curiously 
  inexplicable, rather than definitively alien.
  All this gives us another scenario structure, which runs 
  alongside the one above. Where the previous structure 
  described what the Investigators see, this one describes 
  what they can prove:
  There is no tangible evidence of  supernatural activity.
  There may be tangible evidence of  supernatural activity.
  Any hard evidence of  supernatural activity is destroyed, although 
  ambiguous evidence may remain.
  Putting the two structures together, then, gives the familiar 
  Lovecraftian dilemma: when the story ends, the Investigators 
  have seen things beyond human understanding, but nobody 
  will believe them.
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  1. Plant deaths are unusual in Lovecraft, but useful in scenarios. They signal 
  danger without killing anything.
  2. Animal deaths are even more useful in scenarios. They demonstrate that 
  the creature can kill. They also foreshadow human deaths.
  3. And, as usual,  not every scenario needs every step. 
  1. You’ll notice qualifications, like this, throughout this section. Increasing 
  Harm is a broad generalisation, not a solid rule, and there are exceptions 
  to the guidelines I mention. Nevertheless, the concept is useful.
  2. Which, of  course, is related to The Final Horror (page 23), Increasing 
  Certainty (page 43) and other topics. 
  3. At the Mountains of  Madness is an exception: bodies are found halfway 
  through the story. Interestingly, however, they are unnamed. The named 
  victim is only found later.
  In fact, the harm increases even more subtly. Take, for 
  example, The Colour Out of  Space. At the beginning of  
  the story, nothing is harmed. Indeed, there seems to be no 
  immediate danger, only strangeness. Then, when the harm 
  begins, the victims come in a particular order: first plants,1 
  then animals,2 then Nahum’s unnamed wife and finally 
  Nahum himself.
   Thus, the structure runs as follows:3
  There is no apparent danger, only strangeness.
  There are signs or reports that the creature could be harmful.
  Plants are harmed.
  Animals are harmed.
  Unnamed humans are harmed.
  Humans are harmed.
  The Investigators are harmed.
  That last step does not appear in The Colour Out Of  Space.
  But it’s an obvious progression, which occurs in The Shadow 
  Over Innsmouth and The Shadow Out of  Time.
  So carefully manage the harm that the Investigators see. 
  First let them find victims, then, at the end, make them 
  realise they are victims themselves.
  INCREASING HARM.
  nobodY gets harmed until the end of  the story. They may 
  go mad. They may be scared. But, until the end, nobody 
  gets physically harmed.
  Or, to be exact, the Investigators do not see anyone 
  harmed.1 What matters here is what the Investigators see. 
  Before the story starts, the Mi-Go might capture brains 
  and the Colour drain victims. But the Investigators only 
  see this at the end.2
  To modern eyes, this seems strange. After all, most 
  detective stories begin with a corpse. Lovecraft’s tales, 
  however, do not. We may hear about horror, but only at 
  the end will we see it.
  Now, Lovecraft’s creatures do different sorts of  harm. 
  Cthulhu kills, the Mi-Go remove brains, the Great Race 
  possess, Colours drain life.
  Nevertheless, the rule still generally applies:3
  In The Call of  Cthulhu, no-one dies until the end.
  In The Whisperer in Darkness, the brains-in-cylinders are discovered 
  at the end.
  The victims of  The Colour Out of  Space are found at the end.
  The protagonist of  The Shadow Out of  Time only discovers his 
  imprisonment in a prehistoric city at the end.
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  1. Here, “work for it” often means “make a skill roll”. But not always. If  the 
  Investigators roleplay their search for information, they still work for it.
  Thus, Lovecraft’s protagonists are not really protagonists, 
  but viewpoints to show us the horror. Like remote-controlled 
  robots with mounted cameras, they trundle through the 
  locations, showing us everything Lovecraft wants us to see.
  In scenarios, however, such passivity works badly. We 
  cannot let the Investigators trundle through the horror: 
  we must give them something to do. Hence, we structure 
  scenarios as investigations, letting the Investigators actively 
  uncover the mystery, rather than passively encountering it.
  So, when you steal Lovecraft’s stories, convert them into 
  active investigations. Where Lovecraft’s protagonists simply 
  find information, make your Investigators actively uncover 
  it. Here are some examples.
  Where Lovecraft’s protagonists perceive things from ancient artefacts, 
  make your Investigators research the artefacts.
  Where Lovecraft’s protagonists recall what an ancient manuscript 
  said, make your Investigators search libraries for the book.
  Where Lovecraft’s protagonists are told folktales, make your 
  Investigators question locals or research legends.
  Where Lovecraft’s protagonists know relevant scientific knowledge, 
  make your Investigators search a library or make the discovery 
  themselves.
  Where Lovecraft’s NPCs talk willingly, make your NPCs unwilling 
  to talk, through anger, fear, shyness, suspicion or another reason.
  The general rule is: whenever you have information to give, 
  make Investigators work for it.1
  1. To put it another way: Lovecraft’s protagonists do not use skills.
  CREATING INVESTIGATIONS.
  so far, we have copied Lovecraft’s stories. But we’re not 
  writing stories. We’re playing games: games in which 
  Investigators uncover mysteries.
  So, in the next two sections, we convert Lovecraft’s 
  stories into investigative scenarios. In this section, Creating 
  Investigations, we change his plots into investigations. In 
  the next, The Investigators, we’ll convert his protagonists 
  into Investigators.
  NOT INVESTIGATING.
  Lovecraft’s stories are not investigations. There are rarely 
  clues to follow or mysteries to solve. Likewise, Lovecraft’s 
  protagonists are not investigators. They encounter the 
  horror, rather than actively uncovering it. 
  For example, in The Call of  Cthulhu, the protagonist never 
  picks locks, translates documents, uses libraries or does 
  anything we would recognise as investigation. Similarly, 
  he never persuades or questions people. Instead, everyone 
  he meets is willing to talk.1
  Similarly, in The Shadow Over Innsmouth, the protagonist 
  only actively investigates twice: when he bribes a drunk for 
  information and when he researches genealogy. Otherwise, 
  the mystery comes to him: he stumbles across shuttered 
  houses and willing talkers.
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  1. I’ve touched on this under Beginnings And Endings (page 35) and I’ll 
  describe something similar in Leaving Loose Ends (page 66).
  2. This is from Robert Chambers, not Lovecraft. It is one of the best unanswered 
  Mythos questions. See Hastur (page 123).
  LEAVE QUESTIONS UNANSWERED.
  mYthos stories leave many questions unanswered:1
  Why do the Mi-Go put brains in containers?
  What are the three oaths of  the Esoteric Order of  Dagon?
  What is the text of  The King in Yellow?2
  It is tempting, in scenarios, to answer these questions. But 
  they are interesting precisely because they are unanswered. 
  So leave them that way. If  you answer them definitively, 
  you take the fun away.
  Indeed, if  you try answering them, you will find that no 
  answer seems satisfactory. Try writing the Dagonic Oaths 
  or The King in Yellow.Whatever you write, it won’t be as 
  impressive as the mystery.
  So deal with such questions as Lovecraft did: answer them 
  partially and mysteriously, raising even more questions in the 
  process. Why do the Mi-Go put brains in containers? To take 
  them to other planets. What are the Dagonic Oaths? You 
  don’t know, but the third one is indefinably terrible. What 
  is the text of  The King in Yellow? It concerns a Stranger 
  whose face looks like a mask. Give incomplete and nebulous 
  answers.
  Most generally, give mysterious descriptions rather than 
  definite ones. For example: hint that there are different 
  types of  Deep One, but don’t give a breakdown of  Deep 
  One subspecies. Create mysteries and, instead of  solving 
  them, create more.
  1. And, as ever, if you do steal these elements, keep other events in the scenario 
  as close to Lovecraft as possible.
  2. See the footnote in Stealing Beginnings (page 5). You must give enough 
  weirdness to intrigue the Investigators, but need not give them an explicit 
  hook.
  NOT A CRIME.
  in converting Lovecraft’s stories into investigative scenarios, 
  it’s easy to think of  crime investigations. Avoid this. 
  Specifically, avoid stealing elements from detective stories: 
  for example, bodies, murders and evidence.1
  In particular, avoid making humans responsible for the 
  horror. These are tales of  cosmic horror, not human plots. 
  They concern hyperintelligent beings, not evil villains.
  Finally, you need not begin scenarios with explicit 
  mysteries, as detective stories do.2 There need not be a crime, 
  death or mysterious disappearance. Although something 
  must draw the Investigators’ attention, it need not be an 
  definite puzzle. You can simply begin with strangeness.
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  1. An immensely important way of getting information, which hardly appears 
  in most Cthulhu systems. Use it in your games. Fake it with whatever tools 
  your system gives you: an Idea roll, a retrospective skill roll.
  2. Curiously, given its importance in The Dreams in the Witch House and the 
  many references to geometry in other stories, there is no Mathematics skill 
  in most Cthulhu systems. Put one in.
  More interestingly, occupations and skills set the tone for 
  the scenario. In selecting them, players are choosing what 
  their Investigators will do.
  Thus, if  Investigators are scientists and librarians, they 
  will research. If  they are soldiers and gangsters, they will 
  fight. Similarly, if players choose the Library Use skill, they 
  will read books. If  they choose Fast Talk, they will talk.
  So use occupations and skills to create a Lovecraftian 
  tone. Steal the occupations of  Lovecraft’s protagonists: 
  professors, surveyors and students. Steal from secondary 
  characters too: artists, scientists and police officers.
  Similarly, try choosing the skills that Lovecraft’s 
  protagonists use in stories. First, however, we must work 
  out what they are. By comparing Lovecraft’s stories, the 
  most common ways that protagonists gather information are:
  Observing.
  Reading.
  Asking.
  Recalling.1
  Now, some investigative skills are mentioned directly:
  Chemistry (in The Colour Out of  Space).
  Genealogy (in The Shadow Over Innsmouth).
  Geology (in At the Mountains of  Madness).
  Mathematics (in The Dreams in the Witch House).2
  Trading for information (in The Shadow Over Innsmouth).
  1. Lovecraft’s protagonists were male. You can make his plots seem new simply 
  by putting women in them.2
  2. Note, especially, the possibility of  pregnancy in Deep One plots.
  THE INVESTIGATORS.
  Lovecraft’s stories have one protagonist. He1 is 
  undistinguished and two-dimensional. If  he has an 
  occupation, it is undramatic, and he displays no particular 
  skills. He rarely speaks. He is naive: when he meets monsters, 
  he does not realise they are monsters. If he is accompanied, 
  his companions are equally unremarkable.
  However, in your games, there will be multiple 
  Investigators, suspicious and alert, distinguished by 
  occupations and skills. This section discusses how to adapt 
  Lovecraft’s plots for Investigators.
  OCCUPATIONS AND SKILLS.
  if investigators were exactly like Lovecraft’s protagonists, 
  they would be identical, two-dimensional men. Instead, we 
  must make them into believable, but distinct, Lovecraftian 
  protagonists.
  To do this, we have occupations and skills. These ensure 
  that everyone gets a moment in the spotlight. When 
  exploring an ancient tomb, the archaeologist goes first; 
  when someone is injured, the doctor steps forward. Skills 
  have a similar function. When a manuscript needs decoding, 
  someone with Cryptography takes the lead; when a heretic 
  tract needs deciphering, the Occult expert takes over.
  Thus, occupations and skills ensure the story is shared 
  between the protagonists. Everyone gets a turn.
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  1. When Lovecraft describes sneaking, he describes sneaking out of somewhere 
  dangerous. He rarely mentions sneaking in. There are mentions of creeping 
  cautiously into mysterious places, but this simply builds atmosphere: it’s 
  not actual infiltration.
  2. These skill and ability names are taken from various roleplaying games. So 
  don’t be surprised if  you find one on your character sheet, but not another.
  3. Especially in explorative stories such as At the Mountains of  Madness.
  1. Try giving him documents to carry. Then, even if the Investigators kill him, 
  the documents show where to go next.
  What is missing from the list above? Here are some non-
  Lovecraftian abilities, which  appear in many roleplaying 
  games, but almost never in Lovecraft:
  Combat abilities.
  Active subterfuge: Locksmith, Disguise, Shadowing.
  Detective investigation: Evidence Collection, Interrogation.
  Avoid this abilities if  you want a bleak Lovecraftian tone.
  After all, if  the Investigators take combat, subterfuge and 
  detective abilities, they will want to fight, infiltrate and 
  detect. If  you want a scenario that feels like a Lovecraft 
  story, start with the Investigators.
  HANDLING SUSPICION.
  Lovecraft’s protagonists are frighteningly naive. In The 
  Shadow Over Innsmouth, the protagonist sleeps in a room 
  with no doorbolts. In The Whisperer in Darkness, the 
  protagonist talks to a thinly-disguised monster, then goes 
  to bed. No Cthulhu player would be so trusting.
  In your games, then, expect Investigators to realise that 
  monsters are monsters. Design scenarios so that, even if the 
  Investigators get suspicious, the scenario works.
  For example, if  you put a man with a buzzing voice in 
  a Mi-Go scenario, ensure the scenario works whether they 
  shoot him or interview him.1 Make sure that, even if  he 
  dies, the Investigators get to the next part of  the scenario.
  These non-investigative skills are also mentioned:
  Operating cars, planes and ships.
  Fleeing on foot.
  Sneaking.1
  Putting all this together, we get a list of  authentic 
  Lovecraftian skills:
  Social abilities: Persuade, Oral History, Fast Talk.2
  Scientific abilities: Chemistry, Geology.
  Academic abilities: Library Use, Languages, Archaeology.
  Escaping on foot: Jump, Climb, Fleeing.
  Sneaking: Hide, Sneak.
  Operating transport: Piloting, Driving. 
  And we can add the following abilities, which are mentioned 
  indirectly:
  Performance abilities: Art, Craft.
  Practical abilities: Navigate, Electrical Repair, Mechanical Repair, 
  Operate Heavy Machinery.3
  To give your games a Lovecraftian feel, then, try choosing 
  skills from the eight groups listed above: social, scientific, 
  academic, escaping, sneaking, transport, performance and 
  practical. You needn’t stick to the exact skills mentioned 
  (e.g. Chemistry): if  a skill fits into a group, choose it, even 
  if  it isn’t specifically mentioned (e.g. Biology, Astronomy).
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  1. The roleplaying game Call of  Cthulhu describes scenarios as resembling the 
  layers of  an onion: the Investigators unpeel the layers, one by one, until 
  they decide it is unsafe to continue. By contrast, Lovecraft’s protagonists 
  always continue. They unpeel the whole onion until they find the monster 
  at its centre (at which point the metaphor breaks down).
  2. The roleplaying game Trail of  Cthulhu gives its Investigators a Drive: a 
  reason why they pursue the Mythos.
  3. For example, if  the Investigators have a Cthonian egg, the creature will 
  chase them whatever they do. See Cthonians (page 87).
  1. A fourth candidate is space travel, which occurs much more frequently in 
  games than in Lovecraft’s Mythos stories. The guideline for space travel is: 
  where possible, refer to space, rather than going there. Thus, put observatories 
  and meteorites into your scenario, but not spaceships. If  you do send the 
  Investigators into space, describe the journey in fantastic, nebulous terms. 
  See Obfuscating (page 67) and Dreaming (page 71).
  2. When fights are tied to particular places, they force you to structure 
  scenarios as chains of  locations. This is not always good. As mentioned 
  above, Lovecraft’s stories don’t divide into discrete locations.
  ANOMALIES.
  noW for three things that rarely appear in Lovecraft, but 
  are staples of  Cthulhu gaming: fights, cultists and rituals.1
  For a strictly Lovecraftian scenario, omit all three. Try 
  replacing fights with chases, cultists with servitors and 
  rituals with other climactic endings.
  Nevertheless, all three can be fun in roleplaying games. 
  Here, then, are guidelines to add fights, cultists and rituals 
  into your scenario, while sticking close to Lovecraft.
  FIGHTS.
  there are two types of  fight. The first type is tied to 
  particular locations: you arrive somewhere and are attacked 
  by the things that are there. These opponents are reactive: 
  they sit in a room, waiting for the Investigators to arrive. 
  For example, you arrive at the bottom of  the Great Race’s 
  city and are attacked by Flying Polyps.
  Such fights fit neatly into Lovecraftian plots. Take any 
  structure, above, and add one fight per location.2 Instantly, 
  you’ll have a Lovecraftian scenario with added combat.
  The second type of  fight comes to you: when you 
  investigate, someone uses violence to stop you investigating. 
  This type of fight is more common in Lovecraft: for example, 
  in The Whisperer In Darkness, the Mi-Go attack Akeley’s 
  farmhouse, while in The Call of  Cthulhu, an assassin kills 
  Professor Angell in a cobbled street.
  STAYING THE DISTANCE.
  finaLLY, Lovecraft’s protagonists never walk away.1 Whatever 
  the final horror, they stay until they see it. Thus, your 
  Investigators must continue until the end.
  Sometimes, the players make this happen. Perhaps there is 
  a tacit agreement: they know that, for the scenario to work, 
  they must pursue the mystery. Perhaps they invent reasons 
  to keep pursuing. Or perhaps they give Investigators in-
  character reasons for investigating the Mythos.2 For example, 
  the Investigators seek power, knowledge or academic status.
  Sometimes, the GM ensures the Investigators pursue the 
  mystery. For example, you could give them an in-character 
  reason to investigate. Examples from Lovecraft stories 
  include surveying for a reservoir (from The Colour Out Of  
  Space) or finding what happened to you (from The Shadow 
  Out Of  Time). You might, alternatively, structure the 
  scenario so they cannot escape the horror.3
  Finally, and most satisfyingly, sometimes Investigators 
  create their own final horror. For example, in a Shan scenario, 
  one Investigator may decapitate another, to remove the 
  creature from their head. In a Deep One scenario, the 
  Investigators may burn a house of  hybrids.
  So watch for these moments. They provide the best endings 
  of  all. If  something suitably horrific happens, put aside 
  your preplanned final horror and end the scenario.
  And, of course, you can encourage these moments in your 
  scenario. If  you put a Shan inside an Investigator, you can 
  bet it won’t end well.
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  1. For example, attack the Investigators with something that could either be a 
  dog, werewolf  or Hound of  Tindalos. Or let them fight in the dark, against 
  humanoid opponents. They will not know what hit them.
  2. See The Realisation (page 26).
  3. Try letting Investigators fight in order to escape. They cannot kill the thing 
  (or things), but they can fight their way out.
  Don’t put all these opponents into one scenario. Instead, 
  use this structure as a guideline, showing when to introduce 
  half-humans and monsters into a story. Human servitors 
  can arrive near the start of  the scenario. Half-human ones 
  should wait until later.
  In both sorts of  fights, try adding narrative distance. 
  Simply use the tricks from Keeping Distance (page 40) 
  to add separation between Investigators and opponents.
  Thus, the Investigators could fight:
  Things that are glimpsed, rather than viewed clearly.
  Things obscured by darkness, water or fog.
  Things that protrude from behind physical barriers, such as walls 
  or floors.
  Things whose very identity is open to many interpretations.1
  The secret, here, is that fighting something unseen is scarier 
  than fighting something visible. Likewise, fighting something 
  unknown is scarier than fighting something you understand. 
  The combat mechanics stay the same, but the description 
  makes the fight more interesting.
  One final descriptive tip: when the Investigators win the 
  fight with the creature, emphasise that the horror isn’t over. 
  Perhaps, like Cthulhu, the defeat merely subdues the thing. 
  Perhaps, like the Colour, other creatures are waiting.2
  Never give the Investigators victory. Let them win the 
  fight, but never let them defeat the Mythos.3
  For this type of fight, use the structure given in Increasing 
  Reprisals (page 45), adding fights to the later stages:
  The Investigators investigate.
  The servitors warn the Investigators not to proceed further.
  They take direct action to stop the Investigators investigating. 
  There’s a fight!
  As the Investigators investigate, the servitors take further action. 
  There are more fights!
  The Investigators encounter the creature itself. There’s a fight!
  Thus, early fights are with servitors, while the final fight 
  is with the creature. This maintains narrative distance: by 
  using human opponents for the early fights, we save the 
  sight of  the creature for the Final Horror.
  In fact, you can expand the structure above, sending 
  progressively more horrific creatures at the Investigators:
  The Investigators investigate.
  Human servitors warn the Investigators not to proceed further.
  Human servitors fight the Investigators.
  Half-human servitors (humans that are possessed, insane, infected 
  or changed) fight the Investigators.
  Monstrous servitors fight the Investigators.
  The Investigators fight the creature itself.
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  1. See Deep Ones (page 98).
  2. Try describing your cultists as less than human. Lovecraft’s cultists are 
  monstrous or animalistic: the Mi-Go’s agents have buzzing voices, the 
  Cthulhu cult is animalistic and the Deep One hybrids are fishlike. The 
  Mythos has reduced their humanity. So, when you describe cultists, throw 
  in some animal references.
  1. In this section, I blur the line between spellcasting and rituals. Generally, 
  everything applies, not just to rituals, but to any form of  Mythos magic.
  RITUALS.
  Lovecraft’s best ritual occurs in The Dunwich Horror. In 
  that story, Armitage fights a sorcerous battle with Yog-
  Sothoth’s offspring. That fight teaches us many things 
  about using rituals in scenarios.1
  Firstly, learning about rituals is harmful. It exhausts 
  Armitage and it should exhaust your Investigators. They 
  won’t simply discover a spell to read. Piecing the spell 
  together must cost them health and sanity.
  Next, this learning is unreliable. Your Investigators won’t 
  discover a spell that will definitely stop the creature. They 
  will discover, from obscure sources and references, a spell that 
  might stop the creature. But only if  they cast it precisely 
  right.
  Additionally, spellcasting requires narrative distance. In 
  The Dunwich Horror, we see the first stages of the ritual from 
  Armitage’s point of view. When things get weird, however, 
  Lovecraft takes a step back. He describes how others see the 
  sorcery, from a distance, through a telescope.
  So, when your Investigators dabble in magic, try adding 
  narrative distance. Describe what people see from afar, what 
  the Investigators think happens or what they remember 
  later. Or ask the players to describe their sorcery in this way.
  Finally, spellcasting is a struggle. In The Dunwich Horror, 
  Armitage frequently seems close to losing control of  the 
  spell or the creature. So make rituals a battle: one the 
  Investigators might lose.
  CULTISTS.
  in manY Cthulhu games, cultists are everywhere: the villains 
  behind every plot, the opponents in every fight. They are 
  bland, predictable and unthreatening. If  you use them, 
  make them interesting.
  Firstly, avoid the word “cultist”. Lovecraft didn’t use it: 
  indeed, he rarely used the word “cult”. Instead, he describes 
  the person: worshipper, prisoner, “the man”, “a voice”. 
  Relabel your cultists and they become more interesting.
  Next, give the cult a rich description. Here are some 
  examples from Lovecraft’s stories:
  The unorthodox churches of Innsmouth, with blasphemous creeds.1
  The shadowy Great Race helpers, who assist their travels in time.
  The Cthulhu worshippers in New Orleans, baying and dancing 
  around rings of  fire.
  The immortal leaders of the Cthulhu cult in the Chinese mountains. 
  The Mi-Go agents, with buzzing voices, who intercept and infiltrate.
  Steal these descriptions or invent your own. Note especially 
  that these followers are rarely described as worshippers.  Nor 
  are they organised in a cult. So, rather than generic cultists, 
  try using followers, helpers or thralls of  the creatures. 
  Finally, note that Lovecraft’s cultists are rarely the villains 
  or instigators. Make the Mythos the true horror. The cultists 
  merely assist.
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  1. Some, such as tentacles, are used often by Lovecraft but overused in games. 
  Others, such as cultists, appear rarely in Lovecraft.
  2. Please do brilliantly reinvent them. Write an entire scenario about the cave 
  paintings on which the Necronomicon was based. Write a story set in a 
  meticulously-detailed Arkham.
  PAINTING PICTURES.
  When Investigators arrive somewhere or see something new, 
  pause the action and describe the scene.
  In Lovecraft’s stories, each location warrants a paragraph 
  of  description, sometimes even pages. So never assume 
  the players know what their Investigators are seeing. Take 
  moments away from the investigation to describe the world. 
  DESCRIBING DETAILS.
  imagine a camera that pans, from a distance, over a 
  Lovecraftian location. As it moves, we see the place exactly.  
  Everything is clear.
  Now imagine a camera that focuses tightly on details. It 
  gives confusing images: broken windows, cobblestone streets, 
  a tangle of  chimney pots. These details cloud our mental 
  image of the location: we cannot see the wood for the trees.
  Use the second camera, not the first. Don’t describe 
  monsters and locations from top to bottom. Instead, describe 
  individual, isolated elements.
  Here, for example, is a town described using three 
  elements:
  An aging church, with a sagging, twisted grey-brown spire and 
  rusting weathercock.
  Cobbled streets, which are slippery even though there has been no rain.
  Abandoned houses, on which paint peels and the window-frames rot.
  STEALING DESCRIPTIONS.
  the Last thing left to steal is Lovecraft’s descriptive style. 
  His ponderous, curious writing immediately sets the 
  otherworldly tone.
  Here, there is a danger of  pastiche: if  every creature is 
  “eldritch” and every moon is “gibbous”, the game becomes 
  clichéd. Let’s start with those clichés.
  AVOIDING CLICHÉS.
  here are the worst Lovecraftian clichés.1 Unless you’re 
  brilliantly reinventing them, find an alternative.2
  The Necronomicon. Try the Pnakotic Manuscripts instead.
  “Eldritch”. Try “blasphemous”.
  Tentacles. Try claws or appendages.
  Cultists. Try worshippers or servitors (as above).
  The Elder Sign. Try any other symbol.
  Avatars of  Nyarlathotep. Try Hastur or Shub-Niggurath instead.
  Arkham. Try Kingsport.
  If  you must use a cliché, change the description. Describe 
  something half-octopoid, half-dragon, but don’t immediately 
  call it Cthulhu. Describe a malevolent, branching symbol, 
  but don’t call it the Elder Sign.
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  1. But, for an important exception, see Dreaming (page 71).
  2. Imagine saying this in italics. Wrong. 
  ENGAGING THE SENSES.
  Lovecraft’s descriptions are not just visual. He describes 
  sounds, smells and supernatural feelings.
  For example, in The Shadow Over Innsmouth, the 
  protagonist hears a raucous bell, smells a disgusting odour 
  and feels a odd malignancy. In a single paragraph of  The 
  Call of  Cthulhu, Lovecraft describes Cthulhu’s sight, sound, 
  stink and alien presence.
  So, when describing anything, ask yourself:
  What does it look like?
  What does it smell like?
  What does it sound like?
  What does it feel like?
  Whatever the answers, make them unpleasant.1
  Perhaps the least important of these senses is hearing. Riff 
  on the creature’s themes: thus, Deep Ones make gurgling 
  sounds, while Colours suck. Remember the value of silence: 
  try describing locations as unnaturally still.
  A more important sense is smell. When the Investigators 
  enter a location or see a supernatural creature, always 
  describe the odour. You need not be imaginative: mouldy 
  and rotten odours work well.
  Most important of  all is the supernatural feeling. Here, 
  steal directly from Lovecraft. Simply describe a place as 
  unpleasant, repellent or wrong.2 
  1. Inventing these details is easy. Close your eyes. Picture, say, an old house. 
  Then mentally zoom in.
  2. Ramsey Campbell sometimes gives top-to-bottom descriptions of creatures. 
  They are less effective than Lovecraft’s descriptions.
  3. This might be a facade, but it’s infinitely more interesting if  they mean it. 
  Describe these elements in detail, too. Don’t just describe a 
  church spire: mention cracked tiles and leaking guttering. 
  Don’t just describe a cobbled street: have loose cobbles and 
  lichen growing in the cracks.1
  Similarly, when you describe monsters, give tantalising 
  glimpses, rather than the full picture. This, for example, is 
  how Lovecraft describes Cthulhu:
  A tangible blackness.
  A green, gelatinous mass.
  Flapping, membraneous wings.
  Thus, he does not give an overview, starting with the squid-
  like head and ending with tentacles.2 He zooms in on details. 
  This emphasises Cthulhu’s size (he cannot all be seen at 
  once) and the protagonist’s confusion. So give disorientating, 
  detailed glimpses, rather than the full picture.
  BEING NICE.
  the mYthos is creepiest when it is nice. The Elder Things 
  just want to learn. The Great Race treat captives well. The 
  Mi-Go want peace and intellectual rapport.3
  Try this horrific benevolence. Let Deep One hybrids 
  welcome Investigators into their hotel. Make Cthulhu cultists 
  eager to share secrets. It is surprising and disturbing.
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  1. As an aside: consider how this relates to maps in roleplaying games. At first 
  sightt, maps seem deliberately non-obfuscatory: they show where everyything 
  is. In play, however, maps reveal how little the Investigators know. Behind 
  that door, the map suggests, is somepthing you cannot see.
  2.  Don’t overlook these religiouos words. They are quintessentially Lovecraftian 
  and give an instant sense of  period.
  OBFUSCATING.
  Lovecraft’s descriptions are often deliberately unhelpful. 
  They blur pictures, rather than revealing them.1
  Often, he simply states that something is beyond 
  description:
   “The Thing cannot be described: there is no language ... a mountain 
  walked or stumbled.” (from The Call of  Cthulhu)
  “It presented no identifying features whatever; and at the end of the 
  tests the college scientists were forced to own they could not place 
  it.” (from The Colour Out of  Space)
  “I think their predominant colour was a greyish-green...” (from The 
  Shadow Over Innsmouth)
  It’s a cheap trick, but a good one, and he uses it a lot. For 
  example, in one paragraph of The Colour Out of  Space, the 
  “nameless” colour, which “every spectator later described 
  differently”, produces a sound that nobody had “ever heard”.
  Try, then, cloaking descriptions behind disclaimers, 
  implying they are approximations to the full horror. Describe 
  what Investigators think they see or remember later. And, 
  sometimes, state that there are no words to describe the 
  horror.1
  More subtly, Lovecraft’s descriptions often convey feeling, 
  rather than information. To do this, he uses:
  Words of  religious significance: Blasphemous, Daemoniac, Evil.2
  Words implying scale: Immense, Great, Limitless.
  1. I discuss something similar in Leave Questions Unanswered (page 51). 
  2. See Ithaqua (page 130). Algernon Blackwood gives his creature an “odour 
  of  lions”. The specific animal makes the description more interesting.
  LEAVING LOOSE ENDS.
  PePPer your descriptions with unexplained references.1 
  Here are some Lovecraftian examples:
  “The queer ancient house of  which so many legends are told”, from 
  The Shadow Over Innsmouth.
  “The fabled plateau of  Leng”, from At the Mountains of  Madness.
  “The immortal allegory of  Tao”, from The Whisperer in Darkness.
  Lovecraft also threw about references to “the moon ladder” 
  and “the black pit”. Such references hint at mysteries which 
  he has no time to explain. Try doing the same.
  Often, too, Lovecraft describes strangely specific details.2 
  For example:
  The violet westward mountains in At the Mountains of  Madness.
  Brown Jenkin nuzzling people in The Dreams in the Witch House.
  The soapy, greenish-black stone with gold flecks in The Call of  Cthulhu.
  The three tall steeples over Innsmouth. 
  Why are the mountains violet? Why does Brown Jenkin 
  nuzzle? What is the green, black, soapy, flecked stone? Why 
  are there three steeples? Lovecraft probably did not know 
  himself. But the specificity adds richness to the story. 
  So be oddly specific. Give your town blue-green cupolas. 
  Let your creatures leave heptagonal hieroglyphs. Make a 
  material glow dark, grainy red. Add details and leave them 
  unexplained.
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  Half-delirious.
  Half-deserted.
  Half-imaginary.
  Half-incapable.
  Half-unknown.
  Try the same trick for verbs and nouns. Never tiptoe when 
  you can half-tiptoe, doubt when you can half-doubt or 
  imagine when you can half-imagine. Let your investigators 
  hear half-sounds in the half-daylight, getting half-impressions 
  of  a half-human.
  Creatures are often half  one thing, half  another. Thus, 
  the Mi-Go are half-fungous and half-crustacean. Cthulhu 
  is half-awake and half-dreaming.
  And, finally, Lovecraft uses the same trick without the 
  word “half”. Thus, the Deep Ones are both fishlike and 
  humanoid. The Colour is both liquid and gaseous. Meanwhile, 
  the bas-relief in The Call of  Cthulhu seems both modern and 
  ancient; depicts a creature octopoid, human and dragonlike; 
  and is green and black, with golden flecks.
  Often, these descriptions seem nonsensical. How can you 
  be half-incapable: aren’t you either capable or incapable? 
  Similarly, what does half-solid mean: can you touch it or not?
  You need neither explain nor know. When you describe 
  something, simply smash irreconcilable concepts together. 
  Whatever it is, it is beyond the Investigators’ understanding.
  Words implying impossibility: Contradiction, Wrong, Abnormal.
  Words implying age: Ancient, Timeless.
  Words implying repulsion: Intolerable, Nauseating, Abhorrent.
  Words implying alienness: Other-worldly, Inhuman.
  Although these words describe something, they crucially 
  do not allow the reader to picture it.
  Next, Lovecraft uses “half-descriptions”: that is, the 
  word “half-”, followed by an adjective. By doing this, he 
  creates mystery: for example, a vegetable alien race sounds 
  silly, but a half-vegetable race is intriguing.
  Here is a selection of  half-adjectives:
  Half-forgotten.
  Half-remembered.
  Half  worn away.
  Half-existence.
  Half-afraid.
  Half-illusory.
  Half-mental.
  Half-bewitched.
  Half-abandoned.
  Half-concealed.
  Half-numb.
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  1. The style resembles that used in his “Dream” stories, such as The Dream-
  Quest of  Unknown Kadath.
  2. Beautiful, light and captivating contrast with ugly, dark and repellent, which 
  describe most things in Lovecraft. Ancient and eerie, by contrast, resemble 
  other Lovecraftian descriptions. Another possible word is dreamlike, which 
  although tautological, is a useful spark for the imagination.
  DREAMING.
  occasionaLLY, Lovecraft switches to a dreamlike writing 
  style, giving a sudden and vivid contrast.1
  The material seemed to be predominantly gold, though a weird 
  lighter lustrousness hinted at some strange alloy with an equally 
  beautiful and scarcely identifiable metal. Its condition was almost 
  perfect, and one could have spent hours in studying the striking 
  and puzzlingly untraditional designs – some simply geometrical, 
  and some plainly marine – chased or moulded in high relief  on its 
  surface with a craftsmanship of incredible skill and grace. (from The 
  Shadow Over Innsmouth)
  There was a strangely calming element of  cosmic beauty in the 
  hypnotic landscape through which we climbed and plunged 
  fantastically. Time had lost itself in the labyrinths behind, and around 
  us stretched only the flowering waves of  faery and the recaptured 
  loveliness of  vanished centuries – the hoary groves, the untainted 
  pastures edged with gay autumnal blossoms, and at vast intervals the 
  small brown farmsteads nestling amidst huge trees beneath vertical 
  precipices of  fragrant brier and meadow-grass. Even the sunlight 
  assumed a supernal glamour ... I seemed to find in its necromancy a 
  thing I had innately known or inherited and for which I had always 
  been vainly searching. (from The Whisperer in Darkness)
  These descriptions rarely make sense. Has the protagonist of 
  The Whisperer in Darkness really been “vainly searching” for 
  the Vermont woodland? Has he really inherited something 
  from the creatures? This senselessness is itself  disturbing.
  So, in your games, try switching briefly into dreamlike 
  description. Your watchwords are beautiful, light, captivating, 
  ancient and eerie.2  It will surprise and disturb your players.
  DESCRIBING PRACTICALITIES.
  Lovecraft frequently describes practicalities in detail: 
  especially when mentioning accommodation, transport, 
  weather and geography.
  Here are some examples. Note the extraordinary, 
  unnecessary level of  explanation.
  The sullen, queer-looking night clerk told me I could have Room 
  428 on next the top floor – large, but without running water – for a 
  dollar ... I signed the register, paid my dollar, let the clerk take my 
  valise and followed that sour, solitary attendant up three creaking 
  flights of stairs past dusty corridors which seemed wholly devoid of  
  life. (from The Shadow Over Innsmouth)
  I changed trains in Boston and began the long, westward run out 
  of  familiar regions into those I knew less thoroughly. Waltham – 
  Concord – Ayer – Fitchburg – Gardner – Athol. My train reached 
  Greenfield seven minutes late, but the northbound connecting express 
  had been held. (from The Whisperer in Darkness)
  The successful establishment of  the southern base above the glacier 
  in Latitude 86° 7’, East Longitude 174° 23’ and the phenomenally 
  rapid and effective borings and blastings made at various points 
  reached by our sledge trips and short aeroplane flights are matters 
  of  history, as is the arduous and triumphant ascent of  Mt Nansen. 
  (from At the Mountains of  Madness)
  This ponderous detail does three things. It gives an air of  
  normality, later to be shattered. It slows the narrative, 
  building tension. And, importantly in Cthulhu games, it 
  allows historical descriptions.
  Never, then, let your Investigators simply sleep or travel. 
  Describe the details.
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  1. Even the Great Race and Elder Things, who are approximately human-sized, 
  are actually slightly taller than humans.
  MONSTERS.
  there are surprising similarities between Lovecraft’s 
  monsters. Almost all are:
  Ancient.
  From other planets.
  Foul-smelling.
  Repulsive.
  Hated by animals.
  Featured in old tales.
  Bigger than humans.1
  This is most useful when creating your own monsters. By 
  default, they have the attributes above. If, for example, you 
  used werewolves in a Mythos story, they would be probably 
  be ancient, repulsive and originally from another planet.
  In addition, many of  Lovecraft’s creatures:
  Make a piping or whistling sound.
  Communicate via telepathy.
  Appear in dreams.
  Try using these descriptions for any creature. Let the Mi-
  Go make a piping or whistling sound as they fly. Make the 
  Deep Ones telepathic. Give the Investigators dreams of  
  shifting, alien Colours.
  1. See Occupations And Skills (page 52). There, I mentioned that recalling was 
  a frequently-used way of getting information.  Here, I describe recollections 
  that, while providing little information, add descriptive richness.
  2. Note the layers of  narrative distance here. Wilmarth recalls (rather than 
  reads) a rare monograph that describes folklore, collected a long time ago, from 
  the recollections of  elderly people.
  REMEMBERING TALES.
  rather than discovering information, Lovecraft’s 
  protagonists often remember it.1 In particular, they 
  remember events related to whatever they are investigating. 
  For example:
  On discovering an Elder Thing corpse, the protagonist recalls “wild 
  tales of cosmic hill things from outside, told by a folklorist colleague 
  in Miskatonic’s English department”.
  On seeing the Cthulhu bas-relief, Professor Webb recalls his studies 
  of  Eskimo cults.
  While attempting to decipher carvings, Akeley is reminded of “fearful 
  myths” in the Necronomicon.
  On reading reports of bloated Mi-Go corpses, Wilmarth recalls folklore 
  outlined in “the exceedingly rare monograph of  Eli Davenport, 
  which embraces material orally obtained prior to 1839 among the 
  oldest people of  the state”.2
  So, in your scenarios, let Investigators remember tales from 
  faraway countries, remote places and ancient writings. These 
  related tales rarely give more information. Instead, they 
  provide connectedness, continuity and richness.
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  THE MYTHOS.
  this section examines Lovecraft’s creatures, one by one. It 
  returns to their original stories and rebuilds each creature 
  from scratch.
  By doing this, we often get a new picture of  a creature. 
  For example, the Flying Polyps appear as a living wind, 
  while Ithaqua personifies isolation. Sometimes, underused 
  details emerge: the Deep Ones are associated with beauty, 
  while Shoggoths are imitators.
  We also find things we can steal. For example, the Great 
  Race have a superb underground city, the Lloigor have 
  the best servitors and the Shan have an interesting form 
  of  possession. Steal these things for other creatures. Give 
  Deep Ones a city like that of the Great Race. Give Cthulhu 
  servitors like those of  the Lloigor.
  The list of  creatures is deliberately incomplete. It’s a 
  selection of the best, the creatures that do particular things 
  well. Many favourites do not appear: for example, Cthugha 
  doesn’t get his own section. To write a Cthugha adventure, 
  try copying from Cthulhu or Ithaqua.
  When you use this section, treat canon with disdain. 
  Reinvent the creatures for yourself, ignoring anything you 
  have read before. For example, the classic Call of  Cthulhu 
  scenario Escape From Innsmouth defines the three Dagonic 
  Oaths. Don’t stick to this definition. Define the Oaths 
  yourself  or, better still, leave them undefined.
  Remember especially the four tricks we defined at the 
  start. Steal an idea from a creature, tweak it and reuse it. 
  NAMING.
  finaLLY, Lovecraft calls creatures by many names. Often, 
  they are “things”, “creatures” or “horrors”. Sometimes, 
  they have names specific to the situation: “pursuers”, “my 
  host”, “the column of unknown colour”. Whatever he calls 
  the monsters, he switches names regularly.
  Crucially, he rarely uses the name we commonly associate 
  with the creature. For example, the Mi-Go are never directly 
  called ‘Mi-Go’. They are “Winged Ones”, “Outer Ones”, 
  “hillside creatures” and many other names.
  So avoid naming the creatures. By leaving them unnamed, 
  you keep them unknown and frightening. Resist the 
  temptation to say, “There’s a Deep One.” Instead, vary 
  the names you use, and avoid the best-known one.
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  1. Whenever I list a story without an author, it’s by Lovecraft. Here, because 
  Azathoth is only mentioned briefly in stories, I omit synopses of those stories.
  2. Steal this reference whenever you have music and dance in a scenario, 
  especially if it is influenced by the Mythos. If, for example, the Investigators 
  hear jazz in New Orleans, it will have a a piping clarinet and a maddening 
  rhythm.
  3. Use the same method for Shub-Niggurath scenarios. Also see the “living 
  nature” creature in Flying Polyps (page 109).
  4. We’ve replaced the standard descent with a climb.
  AZATHOTH.
  Stories: The Dream-Quest of  Unknown Kadath, The Whisperer 
  in Darkness and The Dreams in the Witch House.1
  azathoth is nebulous, defined only by teasing references. 
  He is the nuclear chaos, sprawling and bubbling on his throne at the 
  centre of  the universe.
  Around him, flutes pipe and drums beat in a maddening rhythm.2
  Other gods dance around him.
  He is mindless, an idiot god.
  So, for an Azathothian scenario, we must make something 
  from these, using the tricks outlined above.3
  First, try a straight substitution: Azathoth for Cthulhu. 
  Take part of the plot from The Call of  Cthulhu (specifically, 
  the Tale of  Inspector Legrasse) and just add Azathoth. 
  The Investigators discover a jet-black sculpture of  a bubbling, 
  sprawling mass, made of  unearthly material.
  They discover it is linked with barbaric rituals in the mountains.
  When they arrive at a mountain town, they discover reports of  
  disappearances and rumours of  cults.
  They find a raving man who screams of evil in the highest mountains.
  When they climb these mountains, the Investigators find worshippers 
  dancing mindlessly to piping flutes.4
  At the climax of  the ritual, a black polypous thing, possibly an 
  extension or facet of  Azathoth, bulges down from the night sky.
  1. So, for Deep Ones, riff  on themes of  immortality or breeding. For Cthulhu, 
  riff  on themes of  dreams or water. And so on.
  2. Probably by breeding with them. Deep down, they just want to be loved.
  Steal something that Lovecraft didn’t emphasise about a 
  creature and build a scenario around it. Steal ideas from 
  different creatures and combine them. And find themes 
  and riff  on them.1
  Most importantly, be creative. Perhaps Cthulhu controls the 
  sea. Perhaps Ithaqua inhabits any wasteland, not just the 
  Arctic. Perhaps, underneath it all, the Deep Ones genuinely 
  want to relate to humans.2
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  1. To avoid problems with narrative distance, we refer to space, rather than 
  going there. 
  2. Almost certainly, Lovecraft didn’t mean “nuclear” this way, but it’s too 
  good to waste.
  When the Investigators descend, they find an ancient network of  
  tunnels. Deep within, they find a great chamber, with a bubbling 
  mass seething within. It is Azathoth, summoned, seeping through 
  an interstitial vortex. The bubbling mass grows and floods through 
  the tunnels, forcing the Investigators to flee.
  At the end, the Investigators stand outside the observatory. An 
  immense blackness radiates from the mountain, beautiful and terrible, 
  as Azathoth returns to the sky.
  This simply uses the tricks outlined above. The locations 
  are stock ones: a town, an old building, an underground 
  city. The distance between Investigators and Azathoth 
  decreases: the Investigators read reports, hear second-hand 
  stories, meet a babbling witness, then see Azathoth himself. 
  The victims increase in importance: first a dog, a human, 
  then the Investigators themselves. And, since Lovecraft 
  didn’t say how Azathoth harms people, this plot riffs on 
  the “mindless” theme, giving the victims blasted minds.
  It also steals Lovecraftian set pieces. Animals-in-streams 
  come from The Whisperer in Darkness, the dreams from The 
  Call of  Cthulhu. The bubbling mass is a Shoggoth clone, from 
  At the Mountains of  Madness. And the ending comes from 
  The Colour Out of  Space, with blackness replacing colour.
  We’ve taken space as our theme for Azathoth, giving us 
  meteorites, telescopes, astronomy and so on.1 An alternative 
  theme is “nuclear”, riffing on “nuclear chaos”, which takes 
  us into the physics laboratory and Manhattan project.2
  Thus, even the nebulous Azathoth can spawn scenarios. 
  Simply steal his ideas and riff  on his themes. If  we can do 
  it for him, we can do it for anyone.
  1. Try adding further details from other stories. Steal descriptions of  the 
  mountain town from The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Steal the mountain 
  expedition from At the Mountains of  Madness.
  This is a straight steal, with imagery changed. Cthulhu’s 
  green becomes Azathoth’s black. Drums become flutes. 
  And, where The Call of  Cthulhu riffed around the theme of  
  water, with lakes and swamps, this plot riffs around space 
  themes, with the mountains and the night sky.1
  Next, instead of  stealing a Lovecraft plot for Azathoth, 
  let’s assemble one. Use a progression of  Lovecraftian 
  locations, slowly increasing the horror and harm. Riff  on 
  Azathothian themes and add some Lovecraftian set pieces.
  The Investigators read press reports of  comatose animals found in 
  mountain streams. The animals are drooling corpses, their minds 
  blasted by unknown forces. 
  Following the streams, they find a forgotten, crumbling mountain 
  town. Although most inhabitants will not talk, one tells them strange 
  tales of  worshippers who lost their minds and raved about stars. 
  That night, the Investigators stay in an old and stinking hotel. On 
  the wind, they hear discordant flutes and the beat of  drums. They 
  dream of flying beyond the stars, where polypous things caper around 
  an unknown black mass.
  The next morning, the Investigators find a twitching and comatose 
  dog. Its mind has gone. 
  When they enquire about the worshippers, the Investigators are 
  told they worship at an observatory on the highest peak. They are 
  warned not to go there.
  The Investigators go there. They find a drooling, near-comatose man, 
  babbling about stars and thrones. There are records of strange rituals 
  performed in the observatory. The sound of  flutes is loud, now, and 
  comes from beneath the observatory.
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  1. Although try substituting a buried Old One with a Colour.
  2. Another unique race is the Great Race. Their one thing, which they do 
  well, is possession.
  3. It’s unclear whether there are several Colours, of which one remains behind, 
  or one, of  which part remains behind. It doesn’t matter.
  COLOURS.
  Story: The Colour Out of  Space.
  Synopsis: On arrival in the Arkham Hills, the protagonist 
  meets Ammi, who tells the following story. A meteorite fell, 
  which scientists studied but could not understand. Afterwards, 
  local flora and fauna grew strangely, then decayed. When 
  Ammi visited the farm where the meteorite fell, he found the 
  farmer and his wife, alive but crumbling, apparently attacked 
  by something in the well. Ammi summoned the authorities. 
  When they arrived, everything began to glow and the Colour 
  shot from the well into the sky. It left behind a blighted area, 
  which grows by an inch each year.
  coLours, unlike Azathoth, don’t transplant well. Try taking 
  the plot of  The Shadow Over Innsmouth and substituting 
  Colours for Deep Ones. It won’t work.1 You can’t have a 
  hotel run by a Colour.
  This is because Colours are unique. They do one thing and 
  do it well: slow, inexorable decay.2 Thus, Colour scenarios 
  are about decay.
  First, decide when your scenario begins in the Colour’s 
  chronology:
  The Colour falls to Earth in a meteorite.
  It gradually sucks the life from the land.
  The Colour shoots back into the sky, although part remains behind.3 
  It leaves a devastated area, like an acid burn.
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  1. See Increasing Harm (page 46). As noted in that section, we can add “the 
  Investigators” as a fifth step. That is, in your scenario, the Investigators 
  could be the Colour’s final victims. At the end, they notice they are glowing 
  or decaying.
  2. In Colour stories, riff  on themes of  light and decay.
  Humans sicken, shun company and go mad. They glimpse shifting 
  walls and hear things moving in the night. These people lose 
  motivation, becoming listless and mechanical. Towards the end, 
  they become luminous, crumble or mysteriously disappear.
  So, the order is: things, plants, animals, humans.1 This is 
  both the order in which things decay and the order in which 
  Investigators encounter the Colour’s victims.
  Another sequence describes how these things decay. 
  Broadly, the decay progresses through the following stages:
  Unhealthy.
  Unnatural.
  Moving strangely.
  Oddly coloured.
  Luminous.2
  Grey and brittle.
  Crumbling.
  So, in your chosen location, run through these two sequences 
  of  decay. By using them side-by-side, you get a rich array 
  of  weirdness. Here’s an example set in Victorian London:
  In the East End markets, the fruits are huge and glossy, but taste 
  bitter. The milk, too, has an unnatural taste.
  Traders report tales of unnaturally large rats, which scurry up walls.
  The Investigators uncover tales of an ancient meteorite, which landed 
  in London’s East End, and rumours of  something underlying the 
  soil, getting stronger. At night, the buildings of  the East End glow.
  1. And, depending on the location, describe the decay differently. Perhaps, in 
  Antarctica, the ice breaks apart or the rock becomes brittle. Perhaps, in the 
  slums of  Victorian London, the decay looks like a disease.
  2. This description has dreamlike elements: beautfiul, eerie, light (note how the 
  plants are glosssy rather than dull). See Dreaming (page 71).
  3. Note the narrative distance. Seeing an overpowered rabbit might be comical. 
  Finding footprints is eerie.
  This gives us three places to begin a scenario: when the 
  Colour arrives, when it is present and just after it has left. 
  Let’s briefly consider the third. Lovecraft largely leaves this 
  unexplored, but describes:
  A devastated, blighted area, which spreads gradually, growing an 
  inch each year.
  The Arkham reservoir, built on the dusty land.
  Here, then, is a possible scenario about the spreading blight 
  and poisoned reservoir. Slowly increase the weirdness and 
  end with the Colour beneath the soil.
  But let’s return to the first two timing options: scenarios 
  set when the Colour arrives and when it is present. Both 
  options, for the most part, follow the plot of  The Colour 
  Out of  Space.
  How can we rerun this plot, but make it look new? First, 
  switch locations. Pick any Lovecraftian location: a town, 
  the mountains, Antarctica. Or pick somewhere specific: a 
  theatre, an observatory, a museum, a Victorian slum.1
  In that location, run through the process of decay, which 
  progresses as follows.
  Inanimate things decay: water tastes bad and milk goes sour.
  Plants become glossy and strangely coloured and grow to phenomenal 
  size.2 They bud prematurely and move even when there is no wind. 
  They taste bitter and sickening.
  Animals are born with unnatural proportions, move oddly, have 
  unnatural agility and leave strange arrangements of  footprints. For 
  example, rabbits leap further than seems possible.3
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  1. Again, note how dreamlike these descriptions are. Alongside the 
  unpleasantness, there is distorted beauty.
  1. Switch with the eponymous Haunter of  the Dark, an intangible blackness 
  that protects Mythos knowledge and pursues those who seek it. Try the 
  Colour as a guardian or aggressive pursuer.
  2. c.f. H. G. Wells’ The War of  the Worlds, in which green flares from Mars fall 
  to Earth as green shooting stars. They turn out to be huge cylinders. It 
  doesn’t end well.
  To end your scenario, either copy the bleak ending of The 
  Colour Out Of  Space, or use a standard Lovecraftian climax:
  The Descent. Although the protagonist of  The Colour Out of  Space 
  doesn’t descend underground, your Investigators might. They could 
  discover the Colour roosting in caves, mines or tunnels.
  The Final Horror. Since the Colour is more dreamlike than horrific, 
  the final horror is probably a victim of  the Colour, rather than the 
  Colour itself. Nevertheless, it’s possible to imagine a larger, horrific 
  Colour, hurtling towards the Investigators or hanging bleakly in 
  the night sky.1
  The Chase. It’s unlikely the Colour will participate in a dramatic 
  car chase. However, it could rush through tunnels, Shoggoth-style. 
  Alternatively, the Investigators could flee the spreading grey blight, 
  as the countryside collapses behind. Although The Colour Out of  
  Space ends bleakly, your scenario can end with adrenaline.
  The Realisation, with the Colour remaining beneath the soil, is ready 
  provided for you.
  Other endings are less probable, but worth considering. 
  Fighting the Colour is probably silly: the Investigators 
  would simply attack a patch of  light. But self-realisation 
  makes a good ending: an Investigator could realise they 
  have been infected by the Colour.
  Finally, let’s return to the meteorite, which is ripe for 
  stealing. Here is how it arrives:
  There is a string of  explosions in the air.2
  There is a pillar of  smoke.
  The next morning, a huge rock is found.
  There are tales of  animals that the thing under the soil has sucked 
  dry. The Investigators find mice and birds, crumbling and decaying.
  Now, the fruits in the market become brittle, crumbling when they 
  are touched. There is starvation in the poorer areas of  London.
  The buildings, too, begin to crumble.
  As the Investigators investigate, they find crumbling humans, confined 
  to slum housing and slowly dying.
  A new road is driven through the crumbling slums. Yet the 
  Investigators know that, eventually, the Colour will suck the life 
  out of  that too.
  Thus, with a good location, you can simply rerun the Colour 
  Out of  Space plot, and it will seem new.
  Throughout your scenario, tease the players with 
  impressions of  colour. Lovecraft gives us the following:
  Distortions in the colours of  the sun.
  Cloudiness.
  Moving colours.
  Being brushed by a vapour.
  A pale, insidious beam.
  Add your own: try shimmering, glistening or impressions 
  of  mirages. Begin with intangible impressions, then move 
  towards tangible contact and sightings of  the Colour.1
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  1. This is how Lumley spells it. The Greek word would be Chthonian.
  2. Avoid the teleporting clock. Or use Lovecraft’s original version instead.
  CTHONIANS.
  Story: Brian Lumley’s The Burrowers Beneath.
  Synopsis: While investigating collapsing mines, the protagonist 
  is sent a pearlescent sphere. This, it emerges, is a Cthonian 
  egg. The Cthonians chase him round the country: at one point, 
  there is a car chase. Then the creatures send the protagonist a 
  human brain, kept alive inside a body of  filth, to warn him not 
  to investigate. Finally, they destroy his house with him inside.
  the cthonians1 were created, not by Lovecraft, but by Brian 
  Lumley. They cause problems. Lumley, whose style is much 
  pulpier than Lovecraft,2 gives them every supernatural power 
  imaginable, from telepathy to possession. Often, they seem 
  more superpowered than eldritch.
  Nevertheless, at heart, the Cthonians are beautifully 
  conceived. They are an Earth Monster, who riff  on 
  “underground” themes as Cthulhu riffs on “water” themes. 
  By stealing judiciously, we can create a Lovecraftian version 
  of  the creature.
  Start underground, where Cthonians burn through rock 
  like knives through butter, leaving wormlike tunnels behind. 
  Here, the Investigators might find:
  Smoothly-finished tunnels, bored through the rock at unnatural, 
  sometimes vertical, angles.
  Subsidence, as the Cthonians’ tunnels collapse. 
  A honeycomb of  tunnels, lacing in and out of  man-made mines.
  1. Presumably, if you put it near a cloud chamber, it would give strange tracks. 
  If  you put a radio near it, it would give strange radio emissions. And so on. 
  Inventing scientific anomalies is easy. 
  It is struck by lightning on the nights after it lands.
  It contains several “globules”, of  an alien colour, which pop when 
  hit with a hammer.
  Over time, it shrinks into nothing.
  Steal this description for anything that falls to Earth. Note 
  two things in particular. Firstly, although the lightning 
  makes little sense, it makes a wonderful omen. Put similar 
  omens in your scenarios. Secondly and importantly, the 
  meteorite leaves no permanent evidence behind.
  Steal, also, the material from that meteorite.
  It is soft: you scoop it, rather than chipping it.
  It is luminous.
  It is hot.
  It is corrosive, burning through any container.
  It is invulnerable to all known reagents.
  It is composed of  a previously unknown element.
  It produces strange emissions when analysed with a spectrometer.
  It shrinks to nothing over time.
  So, it is odd, powerful, beyond science1 and decaying. Other 
  alien materials, in other stories, are similar: for example, 
  the soapstone in The Call of  Cthulhu. Whenever you need 
  alien substances, then, steal these descriptions, either by 
  using the specific details above or by expanding on those 
  four points.
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  1. The egg is fascinatingly close to the Shining Trapezohedron in The Haunter 
  of  the Dark, except the Trapezohedron allows clairvoyance and is not a 
  MacGuffin. So switch details: make Cthonian eggs like crystal balls; use the 
  Trapezohedron as a MacGuffin.
  2. There are few Cthonians: too few to pursue their plans of world domination. 
  Thus, each retrieved egg is precious, bringing their plans closer to fruition.
  3. Put people near or in the mine, which ensures the Investigators cannot 
  simply ignore its destruction. Also ensure the Investigators know that, if  
  the egg gets captured, the world comes closer to doom.
  Another possible starting point is the Cthonian egg. These 
  eggs:
  Appear as “cave-pearls”, four inches in diameter and beautiful.
  Are made of an unknown material, immune to X-rays and radiation.
  Have thick, almost impenetrable shells.
  Contain something fumbling inside, which can be heard with a 
  stethoscope.
  May hatch, revealing a vulnerable creature the size of  a walnut.
  Are often found in a box (actually an incubator), with queerly-angled 
  sides and carvings.
  Are immensely rare and precious to the Cthonians, who can instantly 
  locate them by telepathy, and retrieve them with force.
  Put this egg, inside its carved box, anywhere in your scenario.
  Lumley puts it in a mine, but you could use an archaeological 
  dig, antiques shop or (stealing from The Call of  Cthulhu) 
  bequest from a relative.
  The egg, of  course, is a MacGuffin.1 Wherever it is, 
  the Cthonians chase it.2 If  the Investigators keep it, the 
  Cthonians pursue them. If  they store it, the Cthonians 
  destroy wherever it is stored. If  they return it to the mine, 
  the Cthonians destroy that mine too.3
  Thus, the chase defines the entire scenario. As the Cthonian 
  approaches, gradually increase the horror: start with dreams, 
  move to earth tremors and end with the Cthonians’ attack. 
  Note that, at the Cthonian gets closer,  narrative distance 
  naturally decreases.
  1. Let’s assume the chanting and etchings are by worshippers. The alternative, 
  that the Cthonians themselves sing and doodle, seems rather ludicrous.
  2. These let the Investigators trace the Cthonian.
  3. Except, perhaps, the Cthonian egg (see below).
  Etchings of  unnatural creatures, like elongated octopuses.
  Chanting heard deep in the tunnels.1
  This burrowing leads to:
  Earthquakes which, against any seismological explanation, run in 
  a straight line.2
  Inexplicable seismologic readings, in areas not normally prone to 
  earthquakes.
  Strangely-built seismological instruments, constructed by others 
  who attempted to trace the Cthonians. They may be mysteriously 
  sabotaged, as if  to conceal the Cthonians’ approach.
  These earthquakes, in turn, cause property damage. Indeed, 
  Cthonians deliberately attack buildings by burrowing 
  beneath them. Thus, the Investigators might discover:
  Buildings collapsing and people disappearing without explanation.
  Reports of a disgusting odour, slime, chanting and something gigantic 
  writhing, shortly before the building collapses.
  No corpse within the house and nothing else missing.3
  Thus, we have three good scenario beginnings: collapsing 
  mines, unexplained tremors and destroyed buildings. Note 
  that, unusually, our scenario can begin underground, rather 
  than ending there.
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  1. The Shan (page 156) have a similar form of  soft possession.
  2. Under The Great Race Of  Yith (page 115), I discuss possession plots in 
  more detail.
  3. These dangers are particularly acute in valleys and other low-lying areas: 
  every time the road dips, the Investigators should be scared. 
  4. Compare with the introduction to The Call of  Cthulhu. An interesting exercise 
  is to do a search for “survival” throughout Lovecraft’s stories.
  Steal selectively here: if  you give the Cthonians too many 
  powers, they become unfocussed.
  However, the last power is especially useful. It is a 
  subtle form of  mind control, more interesting than most 
  Lovecraftian possession.1 Use it to inspire scenarios: let the 
  Cthonians possess individuals, families or entire towns. This 
  form of  possession gives us practical advantages, too: we 
  can oppose the Investigators with NPCs who, if  captured, 
  know little.2
  There are three things left to steal. The first is a car chase, 
  in which the Investigators are threatened by:
  Tendrils emerging from cracks in the ground.
  Earthquakes and rockfalls.
  Cthonians bursting out of  the ground and attacking.3
  Essentially, this is the car escape from The Whisperer in 
  Darkness, but with much more detail. Use it, suitably 
  adapted for your creature, to end any scenario.
  Next, steal Lumley’s concept of  survivals in the fossil 
  record. Everything that is found as a fossil, he suggests, 
  is occasionally found as a living creature. It’s a beautiful 
  piece of  pseudoscience. Steal it for moments of  weirdness 
  and a source of  monsters: Lumley suggests that the Loch 
  Ness monster is one such “survival”.4
  Finally, Lumley gives a backstory, which makes a perfect 
  and bleak scenario. It is set on an oil rig, but with a few 
  changes, you could use it anywhere.
  1. Lovecraft uses a similar structure in The Hound.
  2. Be careful here. When you talk to monsters, they stop being frightening.
  The Lloigor (page 137) do this better: they use servitors to send warnings.
  3. When attacked by either, they dissolve away to nothing, rather like the 
  material from the Colour’s meteorite.
  4. Again, the Lloigor do this better.
  Steal this structure for any Mythos creature.1 Give the 
  Investigators a MacGuffin: perhaps a black stone, ornate 
  tiara or theatrical script. Then send, respectively, the Mi-Go, 
  Deep Ones or the King in Yellow after the Investigators. 
  Instantly, you have a scenario.
  We can also steal Lumley’s take on nightmares. His 
  characters dream of:
  Chants that, on waking, the dreamer finds she can repeat.
  Things that the Investigator could not understand when awake, but 
  can understand in dreams. For example, codes, carvings and writing 
  in foreign languages.
  Thus, dreams teach skills, whether the Investigators want 
  to learn them or not, and grant understanding. Put another 
  way, they allow investigation in dreams. Steal this for other 
  creatures, especially Cthulhu.
  There is more to steal. Here are the Cthonian’s powers:
  They are telepathic.
  They warn you to stop investigating and return the eggs.2
  They can be killed by water or radiation and are afraid of  both.3
  They make people feel tired and ill.4
  They remove human brains and encase them, still living, in filth, 
  while milking information from them. They can force this filth into 
  human shape and send it to warn Investigators.
  They control people by implanting ideas. They influence burglars 
  into stealing their eggs and travellers into carrying them.
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  1. If  you steal the Angell plot, you need to add an ending. As ever, endings 
  are easy.
  CTHULHU.
  Story: The Call of  Cthulhu.
  Synopsis: See Angell, Legrasse and Johannsen, below.
  cthuLhu. What a nightmare. It’s hard to make something 
  scary when people wear T-shirts supporting it for President.
  Let’s begin by stealing the plot, which splits into three 
  parts that skip back and forward in time. It runs as follows:
  Angell. The protagonist inherits a sculpture and papers from his 
  great-uncle, Professor Angell. The papers describe Angell being 
  visited by a sculptor, who had sculpted something from his dreams. 
  Angell investigates the dreaming and discovers simultaneous events 
  of  eccentricity and insanity.
  Legrasse. Inspector Legrasse takes a sculpture to an archaeological 
  conference. It reminds one archaeologist of an artefact from a bloody 
  Eskimo cult. The story then flashes back to the Inspector raiding 
  a cult in the New Orleans swamps, who worship a white polypous 
  thing, which reputedly lives in a nearby lake. From the cult, the 
  Inspector captures the sculpture.
  Johannsen. When a ship’s crew refuse a warning to turn back, they 
  find a risen Cyclopean city. There, they see Cthulhu rise, are chased 
  by him and ram him with a ship.
  All three plots are useful. In Angell, the protagonist’s 
  discovery leads him into a spiral of  weirdness. Steal the 
  plot for other creatures and note that the family connection 
  makes it stronger. Let an Investigator discover that her 
  father was investigating the Lloigor. Let an Investigator’s 
  nephew disappear in Mi-Go infested hills.1
  1. It’s the Cthonian’s heartbeat. Imagine what Cthulhu’s heartbeat sounds 
  like (then put it in a scenario).
  2. This Final Horror is subtly different from those we have considered so far. It 
  is neither a sighting of  the monster, nor of  the harm it does, but a horrific 
  first contact. Steal this Final Horror. Try ending scenarios with fountains of  
  ichor, outpourings of monstrous entrails or huge, unidentifiable fleshy organs.
  This backstory runs as follows.
  The seismograph, analysing the sea bed, shows odd, rhythmic blips.1
  When a diver attempts to investigate, the sea fills with fish, who 
  prevent the dive by gnawing his diving apparatus.
  When another diver goes down, a swarm of fish devours him, leaving 
  nothing.
  Later, when the oil rig begins drilling, the whole seabed shakes, as 
  if  trying to stop the process.
  The drill penetrates the Cthonian’s heart, which issues a rhythmic 
  spurt of  red liquid, hundreds of  feet into the air.
  That spurt of blood becomes the final horror of the scenario.2 
  Steal it for Cthonians or any buried creature.
  Steal the devouring fish, too. It’s a genuinely terrifying 
  set-piece, which also works for Cthulhu or the Deep Ones. 
  Change the fish to birds, flies or animals and you can use 
  them for Ithaqua, Shub-Niggurath, Mordiggan and many, 
  many Mythos creatures. Steal that horrific set-piece, in 
  which small creatures consume a human, for any scenario.
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  1. Replace the single roll with something that involves everyone. Perhaps one 
  Investigator sails the ship, while the others shoot. Hack the combat system 
  or stack skill rolls, ensuring that Cthulhu’s defeat takes more than one roll.
  2. This gives you a way to avoid railroading. When the Investigators fail a roll 
  to kill Cthulhu at sea, don’t fudge things so that they succeed. Instead, let the 
  failure stand. Let Cthulhu reach land and devastate a few coastal villages.
  3. Cthulhu is almost completely interchangeable with other buried Old Ones. 
  Also, Lloigors and Colours.
  1. For more Cthulhuesque imagery, read Dagon. Dagon is Lovecraft’s prototype 
  for Cthulhu: smaller, but otherwise interchangeable.
  2. This last dream probably implies that the dreamers are Deep One hybrids. 
  But it may not: who knows how dreams work in the Mythos?
  3. Steal this and change the artistic medium.
  Now, let’s go deeper into these plots and steal the details.1 
  From Angell, we get dreams.
  Underground voices shouting monotonously.
  Unpronounceable, unwriteable words.
  Alien landscapes and Cyclopean cities.
  A gigantic thing, miles high, lumbering about.
  These dreams have a useful function within the story: 
  they foreshadow the creature, while maintaining narrative 
  distance. They also bookend the scenario, so that the 
  investigation both starts and ends with the monster. Steal 
  them for other creatures. Start a Cthugha scenario with 
  dreams of  fire, a Lloigor scenario with dreams of  slavery 
  or a Deep One scenario with dreams of  undersea cities.2
  These dreams are not simply disturbing. They cause 
  inexplicable behaviour and social unrest:
  A rash of  suicides.
  An outbreak of fever, from which victims awake remembering nothing.
  Unrest in lunatic asylums.
  Increased religious activity, especially from apocalyptic cults.
  Bizarre artworks, which the artist produces while sleepwalking.3
  Use these phenomena to start scenarios: in newspaper offices, 
  hospitals, asylums, churches and art exhibitions. And steal 
  the unrest for any creature connected with visions and 
  dreams: Cthonians, Nyarlathotep, Hastur and Deep Ones.
  Yet Legrasse makes the best standalone plot. Start by 
  switching the timing: when the Investigators research a 
  sculpture, it leads them to a swamp cult. Let the Investigators 
  question natives of  the swamp. Increase the horror slowly. 
  Then, as a final horror, show the cult’s horrific rites or the 
  white polypous thing rising from the lake. Use the same 
  plot for Mi-Go, Ghouls, Deep Ones and others.
  Johannsen, meanwhile, gives us the ship-ramming ending. 
  It’s fascinating but problematic, because:
  It makes Cthulhu seem weak. Although Cthulhu is ostensibly powerful, 
  Lovecraft shows him being defeated.
  There is no drama. If  we give the Investigators a ship, they know 
  exactly how they are expected to defeat Cthulhu.
  It is difficult to run in a roleplaying game. Ending the scenario with 
  a single Piloting roll, to hit Cthulhu with a ship, is an anticlimax.1
  So how can we make this ending work? First, substitute 
  the ship: try a plane, submarine or bomb. Once Cthulhu 
  reaches land, try trucks, explosives or collapsing masonry. 2
  Next, switch creatures: use this ending for other monsters, 
  but not Cthulhu. Ram Gol-Goroth with the Titanic, hit 
  Ithaqua with a plane, hit Shub-Niggurath with a collapsing 
  building and blow up a tomb with Mordiggan inside.3 But 
  for Cthulhu himself, change the ending: try a descent into 
  R’lyeh or a chase.
  Best of  all, be open to such endings, rather than 
  prescripting them. When you plan scenarios, expect the 
  Investigators to run from the creature. If, instead, they 
  produce a plan of attack, Johannsen shows how to handle it.
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  1. It doesn’t matter what it is. Probably, Lovecraft didn’t know. Choose a 
  plausible explanation: once, I explained it was a projection of  Cthulhu’s 
  dreams.
  2. These winged creatures, of  course, are tantalisingly close to Mi-Go.
  The next thing to steal is more than a detail. It is the 
  apocalypse, in which:
  People become like the Old Ones.
  They are beyond good and evil, without laws or morals.
  They shout and kill joyfully.
  The black, mouldy spirits of  the Earth rise from the ground.
  Steal this for premonitions, dreams and visions. Or steal the 
  themes of amorality and joyful murder. Note, especially, the 
  black, mouldy spirits: jet-black ghosts, stinking of  mould, 
  are perfect and unusual Lovecraftian creatures.
  Most useful of all, however, is the “white, polypous thing” 
  in the lake. It seems to be a mini-Cthulhu: perhaps an avatar, 
  projection or facet of  Cthulhu.1 Steal it.
  It is huge and formless, with luminous eyes.
  At midnight, bat-winged devils fly from caverns to worship it.2
  It catches sacrifices for the ritual.
  It lives in a hidden lake, deep within the dark wood.
  During the ritual, it flies and echoes the chants of  the cultists.
  Thus, we have an alternative Cthulhu, which Lovecraft 
  described in detail, but his protagonists never saw.
  It gives us a perfect ending for Cthulhu-based scenarios. 
  Let the Investigators find the hidden lake. Let the white 
  polypous thing chase them. It’s a whole new Cthulhu and 
  one that has never appeared on a T-shirt.
  1. Try rerunning Legrasse, but replace the swamp cult with the Eskimo cult 
  mentioned in the story. Thus, you switch locations and steal backstory.
  2. If  you want to begin a scenario with a murder, this is where you start.
  3. Or, of  course, the Cthulhu bas-relief  from Angell.
  4. Here is a wonderful opportunity for switching protagonists. Let the 
  Investigators master their dreams: perhaps, in their dreams, they could 
  explore R’lyeh. Let them achieve immortality: steal from The Shadow Over 
  Innsmouth.
  Another detail, from Legrasse, is the unusually-detailed 
  cults. Firstly, the horrific swamp cult, who:
  Dance naked around ring-shaped bonfires and granite monoliths.
  Howl ecstatically, like animals.
  Hang bodies of  victims upside-down over the bonfire.
  These are vastly more horrific than standard cultists.1 Steal 
  their blood, murder and animalism for any Mythos servitor.
  Secondly, Lovecraft describes the leaders of  the cult, in 
  Chinese mountains. These leaders:
  Are “deathless” and “undying”.
  Kill those who investigate them, using “secret methods” such as 
  poisoned needles.2
  Have strange, hereditary rituals.
  Have “mastered their dreams”.
  These cult leaders, mentioned by Lovecraft but never 
  encountered by his protagonist, are ripe for stealing. There 
  is a whole scenario here. Start with folktales,3 which lead 
  the Investigators to the mountains. Riff  on themes of  
  immortality and “dream mastery”.4 Let the Investigators 
  descend into tunnels beneath the mountain and discover 
  ancient carvings. Finish with a standard climax, probably 
  a sneak or chase.
  And steal these leaders for other Mythos servitors. Perhaps 
  Cthonian cult leaders chant in tunnels beneath G’harne. 
  Perhaps Yithian cultists plot immortality in buried cities.
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  1. Either with their own relatives or the relatives of  NPCs.
  2. Monstrous relatives, imprisoned in the attic, are a Lovecraftian theme.
  By choosing a different description, you unsettle the 
  players. Use lesser-known descriptions for other creatures, 
  too. Describe Great Race bodies as iridescent, not rugose. 
  Describe the Shan’s hate-filled eyes.
  The next cliché is Innsmouth itself. It is more than a fishy, 
  crumbling town: it is beautiful. In Innsmouth, Lovecraft 
  juxtaposes revolting descriptions with dreamlike ones. 
  Old buildings with a departed grandeur.
  Eerily beautiful jewellery, intricately crafted from a lustrous gold alloy.
  Phosphorescent undersea terraces and coral gardens.
  Keep this tension between beauty and repulsiveness. The 
  town is repellent, but sometimes wonderful. The jewellery 
  is abhorrent but attractive. Note, particularly, that the 
  beautiful things glow.
  Another, subtler, cliché is “breeding”. It’s often represented 
  by NPC hybrids and suspicious-looking families. You can 
  do better than that.
  For example, Lovecraft mentions conversations with 
  long-dead relatives: let your Investigators experience these 
  conversations.1 Let them talk with people who should be 
  dead. Let them find diaries, personal effects or other clues 
  that people are still alive.
  Similarly, Lovecraft mentions imprisoned relatives, who 
  presumably are too monstrous to appear publicly.2 Let 
  Investigators meet these relatives. Use them as a Final 
  Horror, stealing the scene from The Colour Out of  Space.
  1. Or simply hold back in your description. Just because the NPC is a Deep 
  One hybrid doesn’t mean you must mention their strange appearance. You 
  don’t describe the eyes of  every NPC the Investigators meet.
  2. Try basing a scenario around Innsmouth-look-as-disease. Start in a hospital.
  DEEP ONES.
  Story: The Shadow Over Innsmouth.
  Synopsis: The protagonist arrives in Innsmouth and explores. 
  He is warned about the town’s church, the Esoteric Order of  
  Dagon, and bribes a drunk, who tells horrific tales of  monsters 
  mating with humans. When the protagonist tries to leave, the 
  bus is suspiciously out of  commission, and he must stay in a 
  hotel. During the night, he is attacked and flees the town. Later, 
  he discovers he is related to the monsters.
  deeP ones, like Cthulhu, have cliché issues. They are 
  genuinely horrific, but have become so familiar that the 
  horror is lost. How can we get it back?
  Let’s tackle the clichés one by one, starting with the 
  biggest: the Innsmouth Look. It’s often described with 
  bulging eyes and a fish-like face, making it comic, rather 
  than horrific. But Lovecraft gives us many other descriptions 
  of  the Look. Choose something unexpected.1
  A dull, expressionless face.
  Large, veined hands, with short fingers.
  A receding forehead and chin, with small ears and a flat nose.
  A shambling gait, with large feet.
  A blue-grey tinge to the skin.
  Greasy, peeling skin, as though there were a disease beneath.2
  A repellent nature.
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  1. Lovecraft only describes this object. Let your Investigators find it.
  2. It’s a superb and obvious final horror. Lovecraft couldn’t bring himself  to 
  describe it, so you should.
  Now, there is a sequence connected to the Order’s worship. 
  To make a deal with the Deep Ones, follow these steps:
  Use an odd lead object1 to bring the creatures out of  the sea.
  Sacrifice some young people to them.
  Enjoy the increased amount of  fish that comes to your town.
  Also enjoy the strange jewellery they give you.
  Later, expect a request to mate with the townsfolk.
  Keep sacrificing, otherwise the Deep Ones will destroy the town.
  The sacrifices are particularly underexplored. Let your 
  Investigators find caged sacrifical victims or children 
  earmarked for sacrifice. Again, riff  on the family theme.
  The sequence, above, lets us play tricks with time. You 
  could start a scenario:
  Before the creatures are summoned, so that Investigators must 
  prevent the summoning.
  After the sacrifices begin, so that Investigators investigate mysterious 
  disappearances of  young people.
  Before the mating begins, so that the final horror is seeing townsfolk 
  mate with Deep Ones.2
  After the mating begins, as in The Shadow Over Innsmouth.
  Before the creatures destroy the town, so that the Investigators 
  discover the past sacrifices and imminent destruction.
  After the destruction, so that Investigators investigate a ghost town.
  1. Riff  on the themes of  church and immortality. Set Deep One scenarios 
  within the Catholic Church. Offer Investigators eternal life.
  2. But be careful with fish puns. Although Lovecraft used them, they signal 
  comedy rather than horror. 
  3. The default location for a strange old building is on a hill, c.f. The Strange 
  High House in the Mist, The Haunter of  the Dark and so on.
  Perhaps the worst cliché, however, is the Esoteric Order of 
  Dagon. It is much more than a generic cult. It is Innsmouth’s 
  richest source of  inspiration, with enough material for 
  several scenarios.
  When the Order arrives in a town, they run other churches out.
  They promise marvellous changes, leading to immortality.1
  Bizarre chants come from inside the church.
  They worship on Walpurgis Night (30 April) and Halloween.
  They make people take three Oaths. The third is particularly horrific.
  Steal these descriptions. Here, for example, is a Dagonic 
  scenario, patched together from the parts above.
  An old colleague, Professor Walter Pike,2 invites the Investigators 
  to a seaside resort, to assist with his studies.
  When the Investigators arrive, Pike’s house is empty. His notebooks 
  and library reveal that he has been studying the local church.
  The townsfolk reveal that this new church drove out the other 
  churches. The Investigators meet a curate, who was threatened by 
  the newcomers.
  That night, the Investigators meet a frightened escapee, who tells 
  of horrors beneath the church. When the worshippers tried to make 
  him take the Third Oath, he fled.
  The Investigators hear odd chants from the church on the hill.3
  Inside, the Investigators find heretic texts, promising immortality.
  In a stinking basement, they find Pike, horrifically transformed into 
  a Deep One hybrid.
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  1. This means you must state that a player’s character is a monster. It’s a big 
  thing to say about a player’s character, but see it as an opportunity. It lets 
  you create a new and unusual scenario.
  2. This is how Ramsey Campbell ends The Insects from Shaggai.
  3. Read Zadok’s drunken oration in The Shadow Over Innsmouth. We’ve stolen 
  from it already, but there is much more to take.
  Yet the most horrific idea from The Shadow Over Innsmouth 
  is discovering you are a monster. Only Deep Ones give the 
  grim inevitability of transforming into something horrible.
  This discovery presents a terrible choice: does the 
  Investigator kill themselves or become a monster? Other 
  Investigators get a similar choice: do they kill their colleague 
  or let them transform?
  So steal this choice for other monsters, adapting it 
  where necessary.1 For the Shan, the question is: do they 
  kill themselves or become a thrall?2 For the Great Race: do 
  they allow themselves to be possessed? For the Mi-Go: do 
  they allow their brain to be taken?
  Having dispensed with the clichés, you can use the tricks 
  from the first part of  this book. Try switching creatures, 
  interchanging Deep Ones with Ghouls, Mi-Go and Shan. Try 
  switching endings, sending Investigators into the tunnels 
  beneath the Innsmouth houses, then chasing them out with 
  Deep Ones. Switch protagonists, letting the Investigators 
  meet, rather than be, Deep One hybrids.3 Or switch locations, 
  as described in detail above. 
  At heart, the Deep Ones are deeply horrific. By going 
  back to Lovecraft, you can rescue them from cliché.
  1. In The Shadow Over Innsmouth, these inhabitants destroyed the people on the 
  neighbouring island. After all, the neighbouring islanders were worshipping 
  monsters. If you want human horror, this is how you do it: with mass murder.
  2. There is no noise because it doesn’t actually refine gold. It just melts the 
  Deep Ones’ jewellery.
  Most usefully, there is a backstory connected with Dagonic 
  worship. Adapted slightly, it makes an excellent scenario.
  The Investigators arrive on an island. There, they find inhabitants 
  who tell evil tales of  a neighbouring island.1 
  On this neighbouring island, they find a ruined settlement. There are 
  stones with swastikas on them and carvings of  monsters.
  On the beach, washed-up, they find the bones of  young men and 
  women sacrificed to the Deep Ones.
  Then they find more carvings, which illustrate that the Deep Ones 
  will rise unless more are sacrificed.
  Finally, either the Investigators sacrifice one of  their number or the 
  Deep Ones rise from the sea.
  Here, the swastika stones are ostensibly wards against the 
  Deep Ones. Use them carefully: they are not simply Deep 
  One repellents. They do not make you safe. Instead, use 
  them to create danger. Let the Investigators believe they 
  are protected, then find stones missing. And this is a general 
  rule: any ward against the Mythos must fail.
  There are many miscellaneous Deep One details, ripe for 
  stealing and expansion. Any of  the following could inspire 
  an entire scenario.
  Ruins, beautiful and golden, rising from the bottom of  the sea.
  The Deep Ones are preparing something terrible, involving a Shoggoth.
  After the raid on Innsmouth, captured Deep One hybrids were kept 
  in concentration camps, then dispersed throughout military prisons.
  A gold refinery with no noise2 coming from inside.
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  1. And, as ever, steal this for other creatures. Emphasise the brilliance of Mi-Go 
  technology. Show that the Colour feeds like a human baby.
  2. By switching protagonists, you can  give your Investigators an Elder Thing 
  fossil to dissect. That’ll end well. Be careful with narrative distance: don’t 
  let your Investigators see an Elder Thing in the first scene. Try obscuring 
  it, with darkness or mist, or have it move too fast for Investigators to see. 
  Your first task, then, is to get the Investigators to relate to 
  the Elder Things.  If your Investigators are doctors, give your 
  Elder Things a medical air. If the Investigators are engineers, 
  emphasise the construction of  the Elder Thing city. If  
  they are artists, emphasise the Elder Things’ creativity. 
  Similarly, let biologists find dissected human bodies. Let 
  mathematicians find diagrams of  vast intelligence. Let 
  archaeologists find ancient items of beautiful construction. 
  And so on.1
  Having humanised the Elder Things, you can steal the 
  Mountains of  Madness plot. All the familiar tricks work well.2
  First, switch creatures. Because At the Mountains of  
  Madness is a “buried monster” story, you can put almost 
  anything into the Elder Thing city. The plot runs as follows: 
  the Investigators enter the city, learn about the creature, 
  then flee from it. Try Old Ones, such as Ithaqua, Cthugha 
  or Mordiggan. Try races, such as Mi-Go or Deep Ones, who 
  chase the Investigators in a swarm. Note that, whichever 
  creature you choose, it replaces both the Elder Things and 
  the Shoggoth: it is both the thing investigated and the final 
  danger.
  Next, switch locations. Try putting the buried city in the 
  desert, as in The Shadow Out of  Time. Better still, put it 
  in the sea. Use Lovecraft’s  descriptions of  undersea Elder 
  Things, who:
  Write on wax surfaces, using a stylus.
  Use phosphorescent organisms to light their city.
  1. Although they are not necessarily benevolent, as the Great Race are.
  2. It is arguable whether Cthulhu is truly malevolent. Probably, he is merely 
  indifferent to human suffering. However, he encourages humans to laugh 
  and kill, so let’s call this malevolence. Certainly, it is not very nice.
  ELDER THINGS.
  Story: At the Mountains of  Madness.
  Synopsis: In the Antarctic rock, explorers find signs of  
  prehistoric life. They later discover a deserted campsite, which 
  belonged to other explorers. These other explorers apparently 
  tried to dissect a fossil (an Elder Thing), which came alive and 
  dissected them. The protagonists descend into an ancient city,  
  where they find both human bodies and those of  Elder Things 
  (and also albino penguins). From carvings, it appears that 
  the Elder Things created Shoggoths, which then turned against 
  them. Deeper inside, a Shoggoth chases the protagonists out.
  unLike the races we have considered so far, the Elder Things 
  are not evil.1 They are not malevolent,2 like Cthulhu, nor 
  indifferent, like Colours. They are, in fact, rather like us.
  Lovecraft wants us to relate, identify with and even like 
  the Elder Things.3 They are civilised scientists. They just 
  want to learn. And that is where the horror comes from. 
  They learn precisely as we learn: by dissecting other species.
  In your scenarios, then, the Investigators might find.
  Human bodies, packaged as experimental subjects, for later study.
  Human equipment, intelligently packaged for later study.
  Dissected human and animal bodies, with tissue neatly removed.
  Rough sketches, using strange alien techniques.
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  1. For undersea exploration, the Investigators must use a diving chamber, 
  diving equipment or a submarine. All existed from the late 19th century 
  onwards. For Victorian scenarios, steal from Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand 
  Leagues Under The Sea. For the 1920s and 1930s, use the fascinating William 
  Beebe for inspiration.
  1. These mechanised lifeforms are intriguing. They make the Elder Things 
  into creatures like H. G. Wells’ Martians.
  2. In The Insects From Shaggai, Ramsay Campbell uses an enslaved, innocent 
  alien race. SeeThe Shan (page 156).
  3. Lovecraft likes numbers. For a true Lovecraftian description, add numbers: 
  not an afternoon’s journey, but a three-hour journey.
  4. To a lesser extent, the Great Race use the number three similarly.
  Rooms in which everything is placed in the centre.
  Remains of  mechanised lifeforms, which the Elder Things used to 
  live on other planets.1
  Steal this city for other creatures, changing details as 
  necessary. Make Deep One cities beautiful and marshy. 
  Fill Mi-Go cities with mining equipment.
  To describe such cities, simply take an aspect of  human 
  living and make it alien. Ask yourself: where do the creatures 
  sleep? How do they see underground? How do they eat? 
  Invent alien equivalents for libraries, bedrooms, dining rooms 
  and scientific labs. You can improvise alien cities endlessly.
  What else can we steal? Try the albino penguins: a strange, 
  innocent race, seemingly alien but actually strangely evolved. 
  Use other innocent creatures, alien or otherwise, in your 
  scenarios. Harming innocents is always horrific.2
  Steal, also, the motif  of  “five”.3 Throughout At the 
  Mountains of  Madness, things occur in fives, echoing the 
  Elder Things’ five-pointed heads: five-pointed architecture, 
  five-sided mounds, clusters of  five dots.4
  So, in any scenario, choose a number and repeat it. For a 
  Mi-Go scenario, try describing nine-legged structures, nine-
  pointed earth mounds and cylinders with nine antennae. 
  Even if  the repetition is meaningless, it adds an eerie 
  consistency.
  But the biggest thing to steal is Antarctica. Use it, not 
  just for the Elder Things, but for any creature. As Lovecraft 
  describes it, it is strikingly dreamlike.
  This undersea city is an instant scenario. Simply rerun At the 
  Mountains of  Madness at sea: the expedition becomes a ship 
  voyage, drawing from The Call of  Cthulhu, perhaps stopping 
  at islands for investigation. Perhaps, when Investigators 
  discover the undersea city itself, its architecture echoes the 
  dreamlike construction of  the Deep Ones.1
  Even better, use Switching Creatures and Switching 
  Locations together. Run the Mountains of  Madness plot, 
  replacing the Elder Thing city with a Mi-Go mountain mine, 
  a Lloigor beneath the desert or R’lyeh itself. That “buried 
  creature” plotline is endlessly recyclable.
  Note, especially, how detailed the Elder Thing city is. 
  From the outside, we see geometry and intricacy:
  Vertical sides, constructed from rectangular blocks.
  Oddly regular openings in these vertical walls.
  Fragments of  perfect cubes, truncated cones and pinnacles.
  Five-pointed stars.
  Pylons and beautiful stone bridges.
  Inside, we see how they live:
  Intricate devices, employing principles of  energy unknown to 
  humanity.
  Electro-chemical devices used for lighting.
  Tables and chairs, shaped in cylindrical frames.
  Small, flat, five-pointed counters, used as money.
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  1. Which Lovecraft uses as he uses letters in other stories.
  2. When you write a scenario about exploration, At The Mountains of  Madness 
  is an excellent model to use. Other possible starting points are The Shadow 
  Out Of  Time and The Wendigo, both of  which are discussed below.
  1. This isn’t the full story, but it’s what we need for the Polyps. For a fuller 
  synopsis, see The Great Race Of  Yith (page 115).
  2. In The Shadow Out Of  Time, Lovecraft provides two separate underground 
  cities. The Polyps live in basalt towers. The Great Race prefer buildings of  
  sandstone and granite. Note how describing the rock enhances the imagery.
  FLYING POLYPS.
  Story: The Shadow Out of  Time.
  Synopsis: The protagonist searches for an ancient desert city 
  from his nightmares. He finds it, goes inside and is chased out 
  by invisible, wind-like creatures.1
  in The Shadow Out of  Time, the Flying Polyps take the 
  Shoggoth role: they appear at the end and chase the 
  protagonist from the underground city. They provide the 
  evil and adrenaline to end the story.
  Although this is a cameo role, the Polyps are detailed 
  enough to carry a scenario alone. This scenario starts when 
  the Investigators hear about ancient buildings:
  Stone cities, which the natives fear.
  Folktales of  unearthly winds, blowing from half-buried stone huts.
  Indecipherable rock markings.
  Basalt towers, tall, black and windowless, which taper towards the 
  top.2
  When the Investigators enter these buildings, they appear 
  deserted. Deep within, however, the Investigators find where 
  the Polyps are imprisoned.
  Great trapdoors, sealed with metal bands, from which cool, damp 
  air issues.
  A shrill, whistling noise.
  Tunnels, in which the Polyps are sealed.
  The Antarctic is:
  Ancient.
  Dreamlike, with immense mountains rising like mirages.
  Obscured, with opaque fogs and sky and snow merging into one.
  Windy.
  Painted in fantastic colours: scarlets, blues and golds.
  Thus, although terrifying, it is beautiful. In your Antarctic 
  scenarios, describe colourful sunsets, fantastic cities and 
  sparkling ice. Paint pictures in extraordinary colours: not 
  the dark greens and browns of  Innsmouth and Arkham, 
  but golds, silvers, blues and scarlets. 
  More practically, Antarctica gives us:
  Travel by ship, sledge and aeroplane.
  Geology, including drilling equipment and markings in rock strata.
  Archaeology, including fossils.
  Radio communication.1
  Explosives, used to blast into underground caves.
  Camps.
  Most of  these fit into any scenario about exploration.2
  Finally, there is the Shoggoth, whom we will meet again 
  later. For now, note that the Elder Things are too nice to end 
  the scenario. For the final horror, Lovecraft needs something 
  thoroughly evil, and so the Shoggoth enters.
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  1. Many of Lovecraft’s creatures flirt with intangibility. Cthulhu, for example, is 
  preceded by a “polarising miasma”, which distorts the sun, then a blackness 
  that “bursts forth like smoke”. Thus, when he first appears, he seems gaseous 
  rather than squid-like. It’s an interesting alternative Cthulhu.
  2. Slowly increase the unnaturalness of  the wind.
  3. August Derleth shoehorned the Mythos into elemental categories. He did 
  it clumsily, but created interesting creatures in the process.
  In the woods, they find odd carvings on ancient stones.
  Deeper still, they find half-buried basalt towers.
  When the Investigators descend into the towers, they find great, 
  open trapdoors, from which the Flying Polyps emerge.
  That, then, is a simple Polyp scenario. In play, it would be 
  focussed and horrific.
  But the Polyps are much more than basic monsters. In 
  Lovecraft’s story, they seem intangible,1 inseparable from 
  the winds they control. They are, effectively, a living wind.
  When considered that way, the Polyps solve many 
  problems. For example, it is usually difficult for monsters 
  to attack early in the scenario. Imagine if, say, the Mi-
  Go attacked the Investigators just after they had started 
  investigating, The Investigators would see them, which 
  would destroy the narrative distance, and might kill them, 
  which would make them less scary. Afterwards, it would be 
  difficult to scare the Investigators with Mi-Go again.
  The Polyps-as-living-wind, however, can attack any time. 
  Just assault the Investigators with gales, hurricanes or 
  tornados, whenever you like. Because the Investigators 
  can neither see the creatures, nor fight back, the narrative 
  distance remains. And, later, you can send more obviously 
  unnatural winds, with clutching misty tendrils, to menace 
  the Investigators.2
  Better still, we can view the Polyps as not just a living 
  wind, but an air elemental. The elements - earth, air, fire 
  and water - are problematic but important in the Cthulhu 
  Mythos.3 Many creatures, including Cthugha, Ithaqua and 
  From these tunnels, the Polyps emerge. The Investigators 
  experience:
  Clutching tentacles of  wind, like nooses, which stop them fleeing.
  Unimaginable gales, used as a weapon.
  White, cold fingers of  vapour.
  Interestingly, they are vulnerable:
  They are weak and slowly dying.
  They are harmed by electricity.
  Nevertheless, they have powers which any Mythos creature 
  would envy. They can:
  Levitate.
  Turn invisible.
  Sense things through rock.
  With all this, we can easily construct a scenario. Change the 
  location: perhaps to the sea, the mountains or Antarctica. 
  Then slowly increase horror and decrease narrative distance.
  Here, for example, is a simple scenario set in the 
  Massachusetts hills:
  The Investigators arrive in a mountain town, where the wind makes 
  a shrill, whistling sound.
  At night, gales rise to unearthly speeds, as though attacking the 
  Investigators. Tendrils of  wind pluck at them like fingers.
  The Investigators hear folktales of  half-buried cities, in the woods, 
  which the natives fear.
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  1. Always use specific geographical locations: not just a volcano, but Mount 
  Damavand. I discovered Mount Damavand by searching Wikipedia for active 
  volcanos. Even Wikpedian levels of  research add richness to the setting.
  1. Whatever your theme, riff on it throughout the scenario. Thus, your “living 
  disease” plot might have plague villages, rotting plants and a leper colony.
  2. Try, also, replacing the Polyps with other intangible creatures. Put a Lloigor 
  or Colour into The Shadow Out Of  Time plot, tweak it and rerun it.
  alternatively be alien). And, exactly as in The Shadow Out 
  Of  Time, the elemental emerges from trapdoors and chases 
  the Investigators out.
  Try a “living water” plot, featuring Cthulhu or the 
  Deep Ones, or “living earth”, featuring the Cthonians. 
  Try other themes, too. Run a “living nature” plot, with 
  Shub-Niggurath, in which a rushing mass of  vines, earth 
  and bile chases the Investigators. Do the same with ice, 
  disease, insects, crystals or darkness.1
  This, then, is the best thing to steal from the Polyps. They 
  let us make any element, theme or intangible quantity into 
  a scenario.2
  Tsathoggua, are elementals. The Polyps show how to use 
  the elements in a suitably Lovecraftian way. Simply steal 
  the plot from The Shadow Out of  Time, replacing the Polyps 
  with a creature of  living earth, fire or water. For example, 
  here’s a “fire” plot:
  A team of  Investigators – geologists, anthropologists and 
  volcanologists – are sent to the active volcano of  Mount Damavand 
  in Persia.1
  From locals, they hear tales of  vampires and living fire at the heart 
  of  the mountain. They hear of  an ancient temple, high up on the 
  steepest face.
  When the Investigators travel there, their camp is besieged by fire. 
  Rocks are blackened and trees charred.
  In the temple, they find survivors of  a fire-worshipping sect. These 
  worshippers tell tales of  something at the heart of  the mountain, 
  which they fear and revere. Whatever the thing is, they have attempted 
  to seal it beneath great trapdoors.
  As the Investigators go deeper, they find the trapdoors sealed shut 
  and surrounded by curious markings. The Investigators’ clothes 
  begin to char and occasionally catch fire.
  Deeper still, they find an open trapdoor. Beside it are scraps of charred 
  paper, describing legends of  Cthugha, a thing of  fire summoned 
  from distant stars.
  Finally, living fire rushes towards them and they must flee.
  This plot is stolen wholesale from The Shadow Out of  Time, 
  with descriptions changed, fire replacing wind. So, fire 
  attacks the camp; there are signs of fire around the temple; 
  the Great Race are replaced by fire worshippers (who might 
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  1. Consider setting a scenario in these intervening hours, during which the 
  Investigators know someone is trying to seize their thoughts. Whether or 
  not they can stop the possession is up to you.
  2. Try using these premonitions repeatedly, making them eerier each time.
  THE GREAT RACE OF YITH.
  Story: The Shadow Out of  Time.
  Synopsis: While giving a lecture, the protagonist falls 
  unconscious, then reawakens after five years. He gradually 
  discovers that an alien mind had occupied his body. Meanwhile, 
  his mind was imprisoned, in an alien body, in prehistoric 
  times. He dreams about an underground desert city and, by 
  researching, locates it. Within, he discovers that the aliens are 
  now dead, having been killed by Flying Polyps. The Polyps 
  then chase him out.
  the great race give us mind possession. It is their Unique 
  Selling Point, their calling card, the thing they do well. Great 
  Race stories are about time-travel and possession.When they 
  appear in a scenario, someone must get possessed. 
  Let’s go through the possession process. It begins with 
  premonitions.
   Brief, glimmering, chaotic visions.
  A feeling someone is trying to seize your thoughts.
  A headache.
  Then, hours later,1 the victim:
  Wanders in thoughts and speech.
  Sees strange shapes and visions of  the place to which they will be 
  transported.2
  Slumps to the floor.
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  1. Experiment with different sorts of  victims. Lovecraft’s protagonist has 
  partial memory of  his abduction, through visions and nightmares. So use 
  possessees who have entirely forgotten their abduction or those with complete 
  memory of  it. Or invent your own twists on possession: for example, put 
  the wrong mind back into the body.
  Eventually, the creature tires of  its human body and:
  Seems bored.
  Hints that the previous personality may come back.
  Burns everything it has written.
  Builds a strange machine of  rods, wheels and convex mirrors.
  Then the Yithian returns to the past and the original 
  occupant returns. The victim’s body:
  Breathes irregularly.
  Mutters some strange and alien words.
  Resumes a normal human facial expression.
  Attempts to continue whatever it was doing before it was abducted.
  Afterwards, the victim normally forgets their period of  
  possession. Some, however, retain full memory of  the 
  prehistoric past, while others experience:1
  Disordered sense of  time and history.
  Premonitions of  how current events turn out.
  A dread of  seeing one’s own body, leading to a fear of  mirrors.
  Fleeting visions or dreams of  the Yithian city.
  Steal these experiences for other possessive creatures. 
  For example, a Shan possessee could mutter alien words 
  and glimpse alien cities. A brain, newly placed in a Mi-Go 
  cylinder, could sleepily mumble human words.
  1. I use “Yithian” as useful shorthand for “a member of  the Great Race”. Be 
  careful, however: Lovecraft never used this word. Try describing “aliens“ 
  or “creatures”.
  2. Thus, Mi-Go agents have buzzing voices, Deep One hybrids have gurgling 
  voices and Wilbur Whateley, from The Dunwich Horror, spoke in a “strange, 
  resonant fashion which hinted at sound-producing organs unlike the run 
  of  mankind’s”. 
  3. Most Lovecraft stories describe a particular event in the protagonist’s life. 
  Here (and in The Shadow Over Innsmouth), Lovecraft describes events that 
  last many years. Try scenarios that span long periods of  time.
  The victim is now possessed. Their mind travels to the 
  prehistoric past, to be imprisoned in a Yithian1 body. 
  Meanwhile, the Yithian’s mind awakes in the victim’s body, 
  which shows:
  A masklike face, with different expressions from the previous 
  occupant.
  Odd use of  facial muscles.
  Clumsy use of  vocal organs, with an alien pronunciation.
  Stilted, archaic speech, as if  learned from books.
  Unnatural movements, as if  relearning how to walk.
  Note, especially, the changed voice. This is a Lovecraftian 
  theme: whenever an alien-in-human-form speaks, it sounds 
  inhuman.2 Probably, when someone is possessed by the Shan 
  or Cthonians, their voice becomes indefinably monstrous.
  The possession lasts years,3 in which the victim:
  Shows signs of brilliant intelligence, apprehending complex concepts 
  instantly.
  Obsessively studies obscure backwaters of  history, science, art and 
  folklore.
  Studies Mythos tomes, turning the pages incredibly quickly.
  Travels to remote foreign parts.
  Takes peculiar courses of  study.
  Casually mentions events of  the distant past and future, as if  they 
  had been there.
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  1. Partly because the Investigators might discover it early, partly because 
  discovering a colleague is possessed is not horrific enough.
  2. Note the glowing beauty. Where the Elder Things’ city was oppressive, the 
  Great Race’s home is dreamlike.
  Again, steal these ideas for other creatures that possess 
  humans. Let the Shan possess an Investigator’s sister. Let 
  the Cthonians manipulate an entire town.
  If  it’s an Investigator that gets possessed, you have two 
  options: possess one Investigator or possess them all. When 
  you possess one, you create a challenge: will the others realise 
  the Investigator is possessed? This won’t be the central plot,1 
  but adds another layer to a Great Race scenario.
  If you possess all the Investigators, you essentially rerun 
  the Shadow Out of  Time plot. Simply start the scenario 
  after the possession and let the Investigators discover what 
  happened.
  Alternatively, you can let Investigators experience the 
  possession, sending their minds into alien bodies in prehistoric 
  times.
  They start in a huge room, with:
  High vaulted ceilings, the roofs lost in the darkness.
  Vast shelves of  dark wood, with books engraved with hieroglyphs.
  Mathematical engravings of  mind-blasting meaning.
  Massive octagonal flagstones.
  Monstrous granite masonry, with convex and concave blocks fitting 
  into each other.
  Jars of  purplish metal.
  Globes of  luminous crystal.2
  Inexplicable machines of  vitreous tubes and metal rods.
  1. Note the parallels with The Shadow Over Innsmouth. 
  2. Perhaps, like the Elder Things, the NPC wants to dissect the Investigators, 
  for research purposes.
  3. The foreshadowing works as follows: later in the scenario, the Investigators 
  find themselves experiencing the symptoms that the NPC reported.
  4. Using people close to the Investigators is a powerful trick. I referred to this 
  briefly in Cthulhu (page 93) and I’ll return to it under Hastur (page 123).
  The sequence of  possession, described above, lets you play 
  tricks with Shifting Time. Try beginning a scenario:
  Before someone is possessed.
  In the early stages of possession, while the victim travels and studies.
  In the later stages of possession, when the victim is preparing to leave.
  After the possession.
  Now, who will be possessed? If  it’s an NPC, then your 
  scenario is about meeting a victim of  possession. But this 
  creates a problem. The horrors in The Shadow Out of  Time 
  are personal ones: discovering that you were possessed by 
  a monster; finding yourself  in a monstrous body.1 If  the 
  Investigators discover that that someone else was possessed, 
  it seems less horrific.
  So how can you possess an NPC and make it horrific? 
  There are three broad answers: make the possession affect 
  the Investigators, make it affect someone close to the 
  Investigators, or make it affect so many people that the 
  Investigators cannot ignore it. Here are some examples.
  The possession affects the Investigators.
  The possessed NPC wants to harm the Investigators.2
  The NPC’s possession foreshadows the Investigators being possessed. 3
  The possession affects people close to the Investigators.4
  The Investigators are related to the possessee, by marriage or blood.
  The possessee knows an Investigator’s relative is, or has been, possessed.
  The possession affects many people.
  An entire hospital, family or village is possessed.
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  1. Steal these droning machines for other creatures: most obviously the Elder 
  Things or Mi-Go. They needn’t study hieroglyphs: they could do anything. 
  I will discuss technology further under Mi-Go (page 145).
  1. Of  course, the Investigators need not travel in time to see this world. Let 
  them explore it in dreams or through an archaeological dig.
  2. And not just people.
  3. Try starting a scenario with curious events in modern times. Then transport 
  the Investigators to a prehistoric era. There, they can investigate the modern 
  events through the Great Race’s libraries and by questioning other abductees. 
  Finally, return the Investigators to the present day, to put things right (or not).
  Thus, there is a whole world to explore.1 Steal these 
  descriptions for other prehistoric cities.
  Note, especially, that the Investigators can investigate 
  within this world. They can travel, read books and question 
  people from their past and future.2 Thus, you can set an 
  investigative scenario in this prehistoric city.
  What does this do to narrative distance? In one sense, 
  it throws it out the window. After all, the Investigators 
  converse with monsters and explore an alien city. Perhaps, 
  then, the Investigators’ abduction should occur late in the 
  scenario, when the story is ready for some weirdness.3
  In another sense, however, the prehistoric city cannot be 
  the full horror. After all, it is curious, but relatively benign. 
  It promises a greater horror to come.
  What is left to steal? Start with tantalising signs that 
  someone has been possessed:
  Marginal notes and corrections in Mythos tomes, which are either 
  strange hieroglyphs or in the archaic language of  the original text.
  Cases of  abduction from medical, psychological or folkloric sources, 
  which occur throughout history.
  Stockists’ records of  orders for strangely-shaped mirrors.
  Use these details as clues, which the Investigators can 
  follow to find a possessed NPC. With minor changes, these 
  clues work for any creature that possesses humans. Thus, 
  Investigators could track a Shan thrall through marginal 
  notes in the Revelations of  Glaaki or a Cthonian servitor 
  through old auction records.
  Outside that room are:
  Huge, sloping stone corridors instead of  stairways.
  Colossal caverns of  intricate machinery.
  Droning machines to study the hieroglyphs.
  Black vaults below, with trapdoors sealed with metal bands.
  Other abductees, both human and alien, from various epochs.
  When they venture outside, the Investigators find:
  Paved roads, two hundred feet wide, on which boat-like vehicles 
  move, using atomic engines.
  Gardens, with pallid fernlike growths, immensely tall plants and 
  colourless flowers, arranged in geometrical beds.
  Even further afield, the Investigators see:
  Moist, cloudy skies, in which the sun is bigger than it is today.
  Constellations that only faintly resemble those visible today.
  Steamy forests of  prehistoric plants.
  Great shapeless suggestions of  shadow.
  And many forms of  transport:
  Long causeways over dark swamps.
  Gigantic submarines with searchlights.
  Enormous, fast, many-decked boats.
  Titanic, projectile-like airships moved by electrical repulsion.
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  1. Although Great Race possessions are accompanied by “fresh and evil waves 
  of cult activity”, so perhaps they’re not all good. Try progressing, throughout 
  your scenario, from benevolent to sinister or vice versa.
  2. There are parallels with the agents of the Mi-Go (page 145), although those 
  agents seem more obstructive and destructive than the Yithian helpers.
  1. Hasturian scenarios aren’t actually about Hastur. They revolve around the 
  King in Yellow, the Yellow Sign, Carcosa and similar mysterious things. 
  Hastur is a useful label.
  HASTUR.
  Robert Chambers’ collection The King in Yellow contains four 
  Mythos-like stories, which are listed below.
  Synopsis of  The Repairer of  Reputations: After reading the 
  play The King in Yellow, the protagonist believes he is king 
  and his brother will betray him. He is captured, clearly insane.
  Synopsis of  The Mask: The protagonist uses a white liquid to 
  transform living creatures to marble. Later, he finds the woman 
  he loves similarly transformed. Just when he has given up hope, 
  everything changes back.
  Synopsis of  In the Court of  the Dragon: The protagonist 
  is pursued by a malevolent figure. Finally, he falls into a 
  dreamworld, where he is captured by the spectral King in Yellow.
  Synopsis of  The Yellow Sign: An artist and his model are 
  tormented by visions of  death and a malevolent figure. 
  for hastur, we stop stealing from Lovecraft and rob Robert 
  Chambers instead. His four stories in The King in Yellow, 
  dreamlike and beautiful, don’t just give us a new creature. 
  They give new ways to structure Cthulhu scenarios.
  Firstly, they show how to do scenarios without a central 
  monster.1 Rather than using a single malevolent creature, 
  Chambers spins stories around a constellation of  symbols, 
  objects, people and places. These items themselves are only 
  partially explained, giving an overall effect of unreliability 
  and obfuscation.
  Next, some distinctively Yithian twists on possession:
  When a Yithian is dying, the mind can project itself  forward to 
  possess a human. The human mind then finds itself  in the past, 
  trapped in a dying body.
  If a Yithian dies in a human body, the human mind becomes trapped 
  in the past. Similarly, if a human dies in a Yithian body, the Yithian 
  mind remains trapped in the future.
  The Great Race possess people briefly, on the way to the past or 
  future. The temporary occupants experience glimpses of  horror.
  Use these twists to inspire scenarios or as inspiration for 
  your own take on possession. Similarly, the following Yithian 
  trivia can inspire scenarios or add colour to them: 
  They reproduce through spores, which develop underwater. 
  They use camera-like electrical weapons.
  The Yithian police use “major emotion wrenching” as a punishment.
  Perhaps most interesting, however, are the Yithian agents: 
  humans who assist the Great Race in their time travels. 
  Unlike most Lovecraftian servitors, they are remote and 
  secretive, operating through brief visits and telephone calls. 
  They even seem benevolent. Use this remote manipulation 
  for other cults.  Imagine what the Esoteric Order of Dagon 
  could do with a good telephone connection.
  Steal it all. But, most importantly, steal stories about 
  humans possessed by monsters. Any creature might control 
  humans: Cthulhu, Nyarlathotep, the Mi-Go. And nothing 
  is worse than a possessive alien.
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  1. If  you do want a central monster, try the King In Yellow. You might also 
  try Joseph Payne Brennan’s alternative Hastur from The Feaster From Afar: 
  black, shrivelled, iridescent and airborne, with knifelike talons to penetrate 
  the skull and consume the brain.
  2. Taken, in order, from the four stories listed on the previous page.
  In roughly decreasing order of importance, the items are:
  The King in Yellow, a play, published as a book.
  The Yellow Sign, a symbol from no known alphabet.
  Carcosa, a mysterious land.
  The King in Yellow, a demonic figure, who wears a scalloped mantle 
  in fantastic colours.1
  The Pallid Mask, which is unidentified but associated with the King 
  in Yellow. Often, someone will have a white, thin, dead-looking face.
  So, to build a Hasturian scenario, simply scatter these 
  elements, with increasing horror. And, for other creatures, use 
  similar weird constellations. Try building a Mi-Go scenario 
  around unexplained vibrations, watery corpses and peculiar 
  offers in buzzing voices, but don’t introduce the creatures 
  themselves.
  Next, Chambers shows us stories without a Final Horror. 
  Instead of  terrible climaxes, he gives us these endings:2
  The protagonist goes insane and is captured.
  The protagonist’s love returns to life. 
  The protagonist falls into a dreamworld and is captured by the King 
  in Yellow.
  The protagonist and his wife die, apparently mad.
  Thus, the final moment is eerie, not horrific. At first, these 
  stories resemble those of Lovecraft, with weirdness gradually 
  increasing. Then, rather than a climactic peak of  terror 
  and revelation, we get illusion, insanity or eerie happiness.
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  1. The Yellow Sign is the graphological cousin of the book The King in Yellow. 
  They are interchangeable. Note how both can appear suddenly, anywhere, 
  without explanation. 
  the Pnakotic Manuscripts. Let the Elder Things dissect an 
  Investigator’s family.
  Beyond giving us new ways to tell stories, Chambers 
  gives some fascinating specific items. Start with his fictional 
  book,The King in Yellow.
  It is banned in various countries, having spread like an infectious 
  disease.
  It is found on bookshelves without having been placed there.
  Reading it gives a terrible and clear insight into reality.
  The author is clearly diabolical and evil.
  The fun, here, lies in the unspecified malevolence. What is 
  so dangerous about The King in Yellow? We don’t know, 
  because anyone who reads it goes mad.1
  Here, try basing scenarios around aspects of The King In 
  Yellow that Chambers left unexplored. Let the Investigators 
  encounter the book’s author or its victims. Write a scenario 
  about the book being banned.
  Next comes the mystical land of  Carcosa, where:
  Black stars hang in the heavens.
  The towers of  Carcosa rise behind the moon.
  The twin suns sink into the Lake of  Hali.
  Awful words echo through the dim streets.
  Cloud-waves break against the shore.
  Unfamiliar moons and constellations glide across the sky.
  1. Probably in cylinder form. Still, it’s better than nothing.
  2. Try describing different realities to different Investigators. For example, 
  describe a Colour to one Investigator and an empty room to all the others.
  3. Thus, it is a horror of  self-revelation: you realise you are mad.
  Steal these endings for Lovecraftian scenarios. Trap the 
  Investigators in dreams of  R’lyeh. Have the Mi-Go return 
  an Investigator’s love to life.1
  Chambers also shows us a new type of  insanity. When 
  Lovecraft’s protagonists go mad, they scream, run and 
  tremble, but remain reliable narrators. Cthulhu is horrifying, 
  but there is little doubt he genuinely rises from R’lyeh.
  Chambers’ protagonists, however, are unreliable narrators. 
  They see things wrongly: biscuit tins as steel safes, toy crowns 
  as gold, corpses as living people. The things they perceive 
  might or might not be true. Thus, it is unclear whether 
  the Repairer of  Reputations exists or whether malevolent 
  figures, who pursue the protagonists, are real.
  Steal this trick. As Investigators go mad, describe things 
  inaccurately.2 Try, as a final revelation, demonstrating that 
  the horror was in the Investigators’ minds.3
  Furthermore, Chambers shows how to put loved ones 
  into scenarios. Where Lovecraft dooms his protagonists, 
  Chambers spreads the horror to family and friends.
  The deluded protagonist, believing he is king, accuses his cousin of  
  attempting to steal the crown.
  The protagonist turns living things into marble statues, then finds 
  the woman he loved similarly changed.
  The protagonist finds his lover reading The King in Yellow and 
  knows she is doomed.
  So, in any scenario, doom the people your Investigators 
  love. Let an Investigator discover that her husband has 
  Deep One ancestry. Have an Investigator’s daughter read 
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  1. Thus, although the protagonist does not know what he has done, he knows 
  he deserves his fate. The Dreams In The Witch House has a similar horrific 
  inevitability, which I will discuss under Nyarlathotep (page 152).
  2. I’ll return to this, too, under Nyarlathotep (page 152).
  1. When Chambers wrote, the elements were just being discovered. so this 
  was a cutting-edge description. For a more modern take, try a substance of  
  unknown origin, similar to that found in the Colour’s meteorite.
  2. Thus, he increases harm.
  3. This happens in the same order, which creates a narrative crescendo to end 
  the story. First the flower turns back, then the maid complains of  a rabbit 
  running around the house. Finally, the protagonist realises his love will 
  return to life. And then she does.
  Here are some final specifics. Drop them into any scenario, 
  Hasturian or otherwise:
  A man with soft, mushy flesh, with fingers that come off the hands.
  People who have been dead for years.
  Someone following you, staring with venomous hatred.
  Discordant, unpleasant music, which sounds as though something 
  is being hunted.
  A sense of  responsibility for something long forgotten, which will 
  now rise and confront you.1
  A sense that you deserve your punishment.
  And some mysterious phrases, which Chambers scatters 
  without explanation. Use them directly or scatter your own.
  The Phantom of  Truth.
  The Hyades and the mystery behind them.
  Aldebaran.
  The story of  the Lost King.
  Cassilda and Camilla.
  The cloudy depths of  Demhe.
  Lastly, note Hastur’s parallels with Nyarlathotep. Both are 
  male and villainous. Both are associated with dreamlike 
  worlds. And, unlike many Lovecraftian monsters, both 
  warp perception. Try substituting each into the other’s 
  story. They play well together.2
  These images are not just dreamlike, but discordant. Towers 
  rise behind a moon, suns sink into a lake and black stars are 
  visible. For Hastur scenarios, steal these descriptions. Give 
  the Investigators visions, dreams and perhaps a visit to 
  Carcosa. For Hastur-free scenarios, steal the discordance, 
  describing things that seem impossible. 
  Next, and beautifully, there is a milk-white liquid.
  It is a solution, made with a newly-discovered element.1
  It turns living things to stone, with veins like marble.
  As it does, there is a golden ray of  serene light, like a sunbeam.
  Much later, the stone things return to life.
  With this liquid, Chambers transforms progressively greater 
  living things into marble: first a flower, then a rabbit, then 
  a human being.2 It is a meditation on life and death: the 
  golden ray seems to symbolise their dying. Then, when 
  everything is thought dead, it returns to life.3
  So steal this liquid. Try switching protagonists: perhaps, 
  for example, the Investigators must stop someone who 
  transforms things to marble. Switch creatures: make the 
  liquid a Mi-Go invention or the sap of Shub-Niggurath. Or 
  shift time: let Investigators discover marble statues, which 
  were once living beings. 
  More broadly, steal the themes of  life and death. In an 
  Ithaqua scenario, have living humans encased in ice. In 
  a Mi-Go scenario, have humans preserved in component 
  parts, ready to be reassembled. In a Cthulhu scenario, have 
  someone in a permanent, dreaming coma.
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  1. Note how closely these four points parallel Lovecraft: unknown, dark, the 
  subject of  folktales, avoided by natives.
  1. Blackwood calls his creature the Wendigo. August Derleth then renamed the 
  creature Ithaqua. For simplicity, I call Blackwood’s creature by Derleth’s 
  name.
  You can begin the scenario at any point in this sequence. The 
  Investigators could arrive before the abduction, letting them 
  witness it. They could arrive before the abductee returns, 
  so that they investigate the disappearance. Or they could 
  meet a returned abductee, probably as a precursor to the 
  Investigators being abducted.
  Let’s go through the abduction sequence in detail. We 
  start in the forest, which is:
  Immense. It reminds the Investigators how insignificant they are.
  Ancient and primeval. It has survived long before the Investigators 
  and will live long after.
  Merciless. It is indifferent to human life.
  Utterly still and desolate.
  In particular, it is mysterious:1
  It contains places that nobody will ever see, with creatures nobody 
  will ever know.
  It is dark, with shifting shadows.
  There are legends and superstitions about evil things in the forest.
  The natives avoid it.
  And it appears to be alive:
  It seems to be listening.
  It presses around you.
  There are living things beyond your field of  vision. 
  ITHAQUA.
  Story: Algernon Blackwood’s The Wendigo.
  Synopsis: While exploring the Canadian forest, the protagonists 
  are haunted by supernatural forces. One explorer is kidnapped. 
  When the others search for him, they hear his distant voice and 
  find fiery footprints. Finally, the kidnapped explorer returns, 
  haunted and physically changed.
  ithaqua takes us into the wilderness. As depicted in Algernon 
  Blackwood’s The Wendigo,1 he is a creature of  desolation, 
  personifying the vast, lonely outdoors. He is:
  The Call of  the Wild.
  The seductive power of  vastness, which sends explorers mad.
  The Enticement of  the Desolation.
  Thus, Ithaqua is a creature of  madness. He resides in icy 
  wastelands and forests, preceded by eerie portents. He is 
  perfect for a Lovecraftian scenario.
  First and foremost, he is an abductor, whose victims 
  return changed. The sequence of  abduction runs:
  People go somewhere desolate.
  They notice signs of  Ithaqua approaching.
  Someone is abducted.
  The others search for the abductee.
  The abductee returns, changed.
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  1. More generally: when describing a location, ask yourself  how it is lit, then 
  use the light (and darkness) to inspire your descriptions.
  2. When gaslight arrived in Victorian London, people described it as bright 
  and unnatural, rather as we think of  neon lighting today.
  3. In Brian Lumley’s The Burrowers Beneath, Ithaqua controls the weather. 
  Steal this.
  You can use these descriptions in three, increasingly broad, 
  ways. Firstly and simply, when you have a campfire in a 
  Lovecraftian expedition, describe it like this. Secondly, 
  whenever you have a fire in a scenario, steal the descriptions 
  to create zones of  light and danger.
  Best of  all, use these descriptions whenever you have 
  artificial light in a scenario.1 In 1920s scenarios, let 
  Investigators’ flashlights create zones of  light: within the 
  light, everything is harshly illuminated; beyond it, danger 
  waits. In Victorian scenarios, do the same with gaslight. 
  Within the light, everything is yellow, sickly and unreal.2 
  At its edges, nothing is certain. Beyond the gaslight, in the 
  dark alleys, your life is in danger.
  And now Ithaqua approaches. First comes an odour:
  Curious, acrid and thin.
  Strangely sweet.
  Reminiscent of decaying leaves, earth and all the scents of the forest.
  Musky, like an odour of  lions.
  Next, there is a voice. At first, it’s a mere impression of  
  speech, a trick of the wind. Later, it calls a name, although 
  only the named person hears it. This voice is:
  High above.
  Soft and roaring on the wind.3
  Seductively sweet, calling the name of  the person to be captured.
  Composed of all the sounds of the forest: wind, water and animal cries.
  1. Note the parallels between At The Mountains of  Madness and The Wendigo. 
  Both  centre around expeditions in the icy wastes. Swap details between them.
  2. That is, it masks signs of  Ithaqua approaching.
  Vast, ancient, merciless, mysterious and alive: this forest 
  makes an excellent quasi-Lovecraftian location. Try putting 
  an Elder Things scenario here: replace At the Mountains 
  of  Madness’s icy plateau with this icy forest.1 Or move the 
  forest, making it tropical or temperate. Try a Mi-Go scenario, 
  replacing Lovecraft’s wooded hills with Blackwood’s forest. 
  Try a Shan scenario, with a temple hidden deep in the trees.
  As his protagonists explore the forest, Blackwood describes 
  them gathering around a campfire. This is a beautiful set-
  piece, which plays clever tricks with light, colour and danger. 
  Steal it.
  Around the campfire, people sing songs and tell stories of  ancient 
  horrors.
  Beyond the firelight, the forest is black, with things moving in the 
  darkness.
  The light is unreliable and dreamlike, casting shades of  red, black 
  and bronze.
  The smoke masks any odours from the surrounding forest.2 
  At its edge, there is a zone of uncertain light, where fire and shadows 
  mix.
  Thus, the campfire divides the surroundings into three zones 
  of  light, danger and reality:
  Within the ring of firelight, you are safe, although everything appears 
  dreamlike and unreal.
  At its edge, nothing is certain.
  Beyond the firelight, danger lurks and everything is dark.
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  1. It’s unclear whether this is actual possession. Try assuming that it is: let 
  the Investigator be possessed by the spirit of  Ithaqua. Steal tricks from 
  other creatures, perhaps the Great Race or Shan, to play this possession.
  2. This verges on comedy. You could omit the changed feet or change them to 
  bleeding, bony stumps, with shreds of  flesh hanging on. Or steal the wider 
  theme of  being infected by Ithaqua.
  The Investigators may also hear the abductee’s voice. It is:
  Overhead.
  Moving at speed.
  A terrified, delighted wail.
  Complaining of  burning feet and immense height.
  Finally, the Investigators find the abductee. They may 
  seem possessed:1
  Hanging skin and distorted features, as though they have been 
  subjected to immense speed.
  A faint, wailing voice.
  A personality more animal than human.
  A dark, monstrous and twisted aspect.
  An impression of  something diabolical beneath the face.
  Huge, changed, dark feet.2
  Or they may merely seem changed:
  Mindless and catatonic.
  Having no memory of  their previous life.
  Unable to eat food.
  Frozen feet and bleeding beneath the eyes.
  Exhausted to the point of  emaciation.
  1. If  you use the earmarked NPC, be ready for the players to spot the trick. 
  Your scenario must work, even if  the players guard against the abduction. 
  If  they do, this gives you a wonderful final scene: the players defending the 
  NPC, while unknown forces close in.
  2. This is where the investigation becomes active. It’s a good point to begin 
  a scenario.
  Note how passive these early stages are: the horror comes 
  to the explorers. Make them active. The Investigators must 
  pursue something: a disappearance, a folktale or Ithaqua 
  himself. They must unearth Ithaqua’s legend, even as he 
  pursues them.
  That night, Ithaqua drags away the person whose name 
  was called. Now, as with the Great Race, you must decide 
  whether to abduct an NPC or Investigator. If  you abduct 
  an NPC, there are two options: start the scenario after the 
  abduction or start with an NPC earmarked for abduction.1 
  If  you abduct an Investigator, find a way of  choosing the 
  victim.
  If the Investigators see the abduction attempt, be ready 
  for them to stop it. Thus, your scenario must work whether 
  or not the abduction succeeds. This is easy: you could 
  run an entire scenario with something trying to drag the 
  Investigators away.
  Whomever Ithaqua abducts, he leaps with them over the 
  treetops. When their feet drop off, they grow new feet, like 
  those of  Ithaqua. 
  Back at camp, the Investigators find traces of  the 
  abduction.2 First, they find footprints:
  Large, round footprints, unlike those of  any animal, tinged with 
  fire and the eerie odour.
  Alongside those footprints, the footprints of  the abductee, which 
  gradually become smaller versions of  the fire-tinged footprints.
  Strides of  increasing and impossible length.
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  1. In many Cthulhu scenarios, the Lloigor manifest in visible, tangible form. 
  This doesn’t happen in Wilson’s story (although the possibility is briefly 
  mentioned). Think twice before having a Lloigor materialise. After all, being 
  invisible and intangible is what makes the Lloigor unique.
  2. And try switching elements between the creatures. Give the Lloigor dazzling 
  light displays. Give Colours servitors.
  3. The exploded skeletons, cruel locals and ententacled humans are all victims 
  of  the Lloigor. They replace the decayed victims of  the Colour.
  LLOIGOR.
  Story: Colin Wilson’s Return of  the Lloigor
  Synopsis: After deciphering the Voynich manuscript, the 
  protagonist arrives in a Welsh town, where he unearths legends 
  of  a creature lying under the soil. A threatening gypsy warns 
  him not to investigate further, telling him of  the creature’s power. 
  He is one of  many gypsies who serve the Lloigor. Finally, a 
  vast explosion destroys the gypsy and his home.
  the LLoigor are intangible,1 invisible and malevolent. Thus, 
  they give the bleakest kind of horror: when the scenario ends, 
  the Lloigor remain, and the Investigators can do nothing.
  In many ways, they resemble Colours. Both are everywhere 
  and nowhere. Both harm people and property. Thus, you 
  can switch Lloigor and Colour plots freely.2 Here is The 
  Colour Out of  Space with a Lloigor:
  The Investigators arrive on blasted farmland, with trees flattened 
  and buildings reduced to rubble.
  They find skeletons of  animals, torn apart as if  by an explosion.3
  The locals seem ill, as if  drained of  energy.
  They tell tales of a powerful, invisible being, sleeping beneath the soil.
  The Investigators uncover bizarre, cruel acts, committed by the locals.3
  In the upstairs room of  a farm, they find a human, with many 
  tentacles growing from their body.3
  At the end, the Investigators see the farm blasted apart, destroyed 
  by the Lloigor.
  1. It may depend on the players. If, in your game, the returning victim seems 
  horrific enough, then that is the final horror. If  not, let them go to find 
  Ithaqua.
  2. Blackwood doesn’t tell us what Ithaqua looks like. Make it up or try him 
  as a “living wind” creature. 
  3. Although, since the story is little-known, this is not essential. Few players 
  immediately associate the Canadian jungle with Ithaqua.
  What is the final horror?1 Perhaps it is the returning victim: 
  if  so, try stepping up the shock, stealing the crumbling 
  human from The Colour Out of  Space. Perhaps, alternatively, 
  the final horror is a sight of  Ithaqua, as the Investigators 
  pursue him into the woods.2
  Here is some final Ithaquan trivia, to inform or spawn 
  scenarios:
  Ithaqua runs along the tops of  the trees.
  He eats moss.
  When he passes overhead, you feel a huge mass of  air moving.
  He takes people outside the atmosphere, where they recall being 
  surrounded by stars.
  To kill people, he drops them from a height.
  This last gives us mysteriously-deceased corpses, which 
  always go down well.
  Finally, try switching locations.3 Traditionally, Ithaqua 
  is confined to the Arctic Circle, which gives us Siberia, 
  Finland, Canada and the sea. All make good, and different, 
  settings for a scenario.
  Alternatively, try exploring the theme of  desolation 
  elsewhere. Set scenarios in isolated jungles, deserts or 
  mountains. Use Ithaqua himself  or an Ithaquan clone, 
  with descriptions changed to suit the new environment. 
  Try a desert Ithaqua, who whispers on the Saharan winds, 
  or an Antarctic Ithaqua, who haunts explorers’ camps. 
  Ithaqua is about desolation. You can find that anywhere.
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  1. What do these things mean? It doesn’t matter.
  Use one to start the investigation; use the others as early 
  moments of  horror. For example, begin with a ship’s 
  disappearance, then introduce reports of murders on the ship.
  From now on, three chains of  events unfold in parallel. 
  One: the Investigators investigate the legend of  the 
  Lloigor. Two: the Lloigor’s servitors take reprisals against 
  the Investigators. Three: the Lloigor itself  menaces the 
  Investigators.
  Let’s start with the legend of  the Lloigor.
  The Lloigor are fundamentally pessimistic: they understand the 
  uncaring cosmos. The young Earth, which cannot support their 
  pessimism, weakens the Lloigor.1
  They have retreated underground, where they change the basic 
  structure of  the rocks to support their pessimism.1
  Their ancient chief is Ghatanothoa, depicted on engraved green stones.
  Within this legend is a strong theme of  slavery:
  The Lloigor created the human race.
  They ruled the lost continent of  Mu, with humans as their slaves.
  They punished human slaves by amputating limbs and inflicting 
  cancer-like tentacular growths on them.
  They are preparing to take the Earth back and enslave humans again.
  Today, the Lloigor revenge themselves on their former slaves by 
  destroying their cities.
  The Grand Canyon is the former site of  Nam-Ergest, an ancient 
  human city.
  1. These replace the Lloigor’s gypsy followers. And note that we have given 
  the Colour servitors.
  2. Thus, we give Colours the power of sudden, rather than gradual, destruction. 
  It’s an interesting variation.
  3. Try swapping protagonists, so that the Investigators lose a chunk of  time. 
  Alternatively, let the vehicle disappear, Bermuda Triangle-style. 
  And here is The Return of  the Lloigor with added Colour:
  After deciphering an occult manuscript, the Investigators come to 
  an Arkham farm.
  There, they find the animals and plants strangely changed.
  The locals tell them folktales of  a creature from a meteorite, which 
  sits beneath the earth, sucking the life out of  the land.
  Farmhands1 approach the Investigators, warning them not to 
  investigate further. They explain the Colour’s power and history.
  In the final scene, the Colour destroys the farmhands and their farm, 
  which crumbles to the ground.2
  Similarly, all the tricks we played with Colours work well 
  with the Lloigor. Try shifting timelines, letting Investigators 
  arrive post-destruction. Try switching locations, putting 
  a Lloigor beneath a wood, Antarctica or New York City.
  Yet the Lloigor are not just big, invisible Colours. They 
  destroy towns. They push people down stairs. They send 
  servitors after Investigators. Thus, they produce horrifically 
  exciting scenarios, which temper bleakness with adrenaline. 
  There are many places a Lloigor scenario could start:
  A plane or boat passes through a mist and disappears. Later, when 
  it reappears, the passengers have no sense of  time having passed.3
  Horrific crimes – murder, cruelty, sexual perversions – are concentrated 
  in an area. The criminals show no remorse and even amusement.
  A great noiseless explosion destroys a settlement, leaving only a pool 
  of  green and blue-grey water.
  People suffer influenza-like symptoms and die of  minor infections.
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  1. “Menace”, here, encompasses harm, obstruction and general weirdness. 
  Crucially, it is remote menace: for example, Cthullhu sends you a dream, 
  rather than grabbing you with a feeler.
  2. Perhaps by possessing them, perhaps through a subtler form of  inflauence. 
  It is unclearn. so use either.
  3. Most of  these have been discussed already, but they are listed here for 
  conveneience.
  These three chains of events run side-by-side: investigation, 
  reprisals from servitors, menace from the creature. There 
  is a rhythm here: after an investigative scene, there are 
  reprisals or menace.
  Steal these three chains of  events for any creature. Put 
  investigation, reprisals and menace1 into your scenario, then 
  switch between them. For example, in a Deep One scenario, 
  switch between investigation, reprisals from hybrids and 
  dreams of the sea. For a Cthonian scenario, switch between 
  investigation, warnings from brains-in-filth and tremors. 
  By using all three, you create a complex, interesting story.
  Towards the scenario’s end, the Investigators may discover 
  a Lloigor victim. Let’s summarise, then, the harm that 
  Lloigor do to humans. They: 3
  Cause people to commit bizarre crimes.2
  Enrage people, causing a “tearing madness”: “tearing” as you might 
  tear chicken with your teeth.
  Drain people of  energy, causing flu-like symptoms.
  Destroy settlements in noiseless explosions.
  Amputate limbs or cause tentacles to grow on people.
  So what is the climax? Try stealing a chase scene from the 
  Cthonians: as the Investigators drive away, things explode 
  behind them. Alternatively, steal from the Mi-Go and let 
  servitors chase the Investigators away.
  1. Or tentacles. Or give the Investigators tentacular outgrowths and ampputated 
  limbs. That’ll get their attention.
  2. As mentioned above, Wilson describes them as gypsies. You should probably 
  lose the racial reference, but keep the idea of a family or dynasty of servitoars.
  3. Interestringly, although the servitors are menacing and threaten harm, 
  they do not attack.
  4. An unusual, combat-free form of  reprisal. Steal it for servitors of  other 
  creatures.
  5. As with the Ckthonians, this occurs especially on low ground.
  Try showing things that Wilson only described. Thus, let the 
  Investigators feel the Lloigor’s pessimism, find structurally-
  changed rocks, discover engravings of Ghatanothoa, unearth 
  maps of  Mu, meet people with mysteriously amputated 
  limbs1 and explore destroyed cities.
  Next, the servitors take reprisals. These servitors:
  Are related to each other by blood.2
  Watch and follow the Investigators. 
  Warn against enquiring further.3
  Attempt to frame Investigators for crimes.4
  Sometimes seem possessed by the Lloigor.
  Are strangely old, as if  they had extended lifespans. 
  Are destroyed, by the Lloigor, when they talk too much.
  Thus, the servitors warn the Investigators, then say too 
  much and are destroyed. Steal this sequence for other 
  Lovecraftian creatures. Let the Mi-Go send agents who warn 
  the Investigators and are later found with brains removed.
  Simultaneously, the Lloigor menaces the Investigators:5 
  Their compasses become demagnetised.
  Photographs come out black.
  The Investigators suffer flu-like symptoms.
  They have moments of  paranoia, believing people are about to 
  attack them.
  They suffer sudden accidents, such as being pushed down stairs.
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  1. This how the Grand Canyon was created. Thus, the aftermath of the explosion 
  looks like a slightly less grand canyon.
  1. Although tomes in Lovecraft’s stories are confusingly written, they rarely 
  require active investigation to decipher. Wilbur Whateley’s diary, in The 
  Dunwich Horror, is an exception: it is written in code. Wkhuh duh vlplodu 
  hqfrghg gldulhv lq wkh kdxqwhu ri wkh gdun dqg wkh fdvh ri fkduohv ghawhu 
  zdug.
  It is a masterpiece of  obfuscation. Its meaning is hidden 
  behind layers of  encryption and mystery, which the 
  protagonist must laboriously peel away.1 Steal these layers 
  for your Mythos writings. They are:
  The lettering appears, at first, to be an indecipherable shorthand.
  On closer inspection, the letters are half  peeled off.
  Photography enhances the colours, revealing the complete letters.
  ...but only when you look indirectly at the photographs.
  By tracing the photographs, then transferring the tracings to heavy 
  drawing paper, you can see the letters properly.
  The lettering is medieval Arabic.
  The language, however, is a mixture of  Latin and Greek.
  When translated, the manuscript is found to be part of a larger work. 
  Other fragments are rumoured to exist.
  This larger work is a digest or summary of  other books.
  One of  the summarised books contains “a code within a code”.
  That “code within a code” is, of course, the Necronomicon. 
  Beneath all that obfuscation is the most mysterious book 
  of  all.
  Perhaps the best ending, however, is the noiseless explosion. 
  It is simultaneously awesome, destructive and eerie.1
  It is a combination of  explosion and earthquake.
  Three miles away, people are thrown out of  bed.
  Still farther away, people feel a minor earth tremor.
  Trees are flattened.
  After the explosion, the ground appears torn or split open.
  There are clefts and cracks in the earth.
  Fragmented bodies are found scattered, in shreds of  skin and pieces 
  of  bone.
  This is the most destructive piece we have seen so far. Steal 
  it for the Lloigor or steal the destruction for other creatures. 
  Let the Mi-Go tear down a farmhouse. Let Cthulhu smash 
  towns. Never miss an opportunity to smash a building.
  Two other isolated facts, about witches and ghosts, could 
  inspire scenarios by themselves:
  The Lloigor are connected with the Lancashire Witches, including 
  Liz Southern, executed in 1612.
  The Lloigor are connected with, or are the true explanation for, 
  poltergeists.
  This leaves one fascinating item: the Voynich manuscript. It 
  is a real-life manuscript, coopted into the Mythos, superbly 
  blurring history with fiction.
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  1. Or, as always, simply let the Investigators arrive.
  2. Children are unusual in Lovecraft, so this is worth exploring. 
  3. Lovecraft does not specify what these offers are. Either make them up or 
  riff  on a Mi-Go theme. For example, offer to show the Investigators the 
  universe. How could they refuse that?
  MI-GO.
  Story: The Whisperer in Darkness.
  Synopsis: After reading reports of  unidentifiable corpses, the 
  protagonist begins exchanging letters with a man called Akeley. 
  Akeley reports being pursued by alien creatures, who intercept 
  mail and cut off  lines of  communication. Finally, a strikingly 
  different letter invites the protagonist to Akeley’s farmhouse. 
  There, the protagonist meets a strangely-acting man, who shows 
  him a metal cylinder. When connected to speakers, the metal 
  cylinder explains that it contains a living human brain. That 
  night, the protagonist sneaks out of  the house and drives away.
  With everything we’ve learned from other creatures, the 
  Mi-Go are strikingly straightforward. Let’s run, at speed, 
  through a potential scenario.
  Begin with a hook to draw the Investigators in.1 From 
  The Whisperer In Darkness, we have the following:
  Alien corpses, found after flooding: pinkish, crustacean and about 
  five feet long. They do not show on photographs and evaporate 
  within hours.
  Someone who lives in remote parts undergoes an unexplained mental 
  change.
  A child is frightened by something in the forest.2
  A buzzing voice, on a deserted road, makes surprising offers to 
  travellers.3
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  1. Which, of course, let the Investigators go underground later in the scenario.
  2. See Increasing Certainty (page 43). We are at Point 2 in both lists, not 
  Point 3.
  3. Be careful about narrative distance here. This sighting should be distant, 
  obscured by trees or merely reported to the Investigators.
  Next, the Investigators find ambiguous evidence of  the 
  creatures:
  Alien clawprints, with pairs of saw-toothed nippers protruding from 
  a central pad.
  Circles of  stones, with grass worn away around them.
  Caves of  unimaginable depth, their mouths sealed by deliberately-
  placed boulders.1
  A great black stone with worn hieroglyphics.
  Note that, at this stage,  everything the Investigators 
  discover is beyond rational explanation, but not definitively 
  supernatural.2 Thus, the clawprints are described as strange, 
  rather than alien. Note, also, that Lovecraft only mentioned 
  the items above. Let your Investigators find them.
  Gradually, the Investigators get closer to the creatures:
  They glimpse something monstrous in the twilit forest.
  They see many of  the things, wading in disciplined formation.3
  They see a creature carrying an unknown object.
  They glimpse a flying creature, silhouetted momentarily against 
  the full moon.
  They sense an indefinable rhythm or vibration in the air.
  Someone speaks with a buzzing voice.
  1. The Whisperer in Darkness barely explores these mining operations. You 
  should do so.
  2. Another possible beginning for the scenario.
  Lovecraft uses the first, so the others are ripe for expansion. 
  In the early stages of  the scenario, add some narrative 
  distance: for example, let them read about whispered voices 
  on deserted roads.
  As the Investigators explore, they unearth folktales.
  There are creatures, high in the hills, looking for an unusual type 
  of  stone.1
  They are connected to leprechauns and the Yeti.
  The forested tops of  some mountains, where nobody has lived for 
  centuries, are feared and avoided.
  Mountain dwellers, or those living too close to a particular valley, 
  suddenly disappear.2
  Eccentric recluses and hermits are thought to be in league with the 
  creatures.
  These are good folktales, so use them with other creatures. 
  Have people disappear near Deep One cities. Spread rumours 
  about reclusive families being Lloigor servitors.
  Note especially the leprechaun and Yeti connections: by 
  connecting Lovecraftian creatures to legendary beings, you 
  make them seem ancient and mystical. Use this with other 
  creatures, choosing something plausible. Connect Deep Ones 
  with mermaids and Sirens, Cthulhu with the Kraken, the 
  Medusa with Ghatanathoa and the Mi-Go with kobolds.
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  1. Try tweaking this. Let the Mi-Go keep entire bodies alive or merely capture 
  the soul.
  1. “I expect to go backward and forward in time, and actually see and feel the 
  earth of remote past and future epochs”, says the encylindered brain in The 
  Whisperer In Darkness. Thus, the Mi-Go can do time travel.
  With aid, the cylinders can also go backwards and forwards in time.
  Many brains are stored under Round Hill, Massachusetts. Some are 
  from other planets.
  The brainless bodies are kept alive under Round Hill.
  Try exploring these, especially the final three, in scenarios. 
  Let Investigators visit Round Hill. Let them speak to a brain 
  that travelled to, or comes from, another planet.
  What is the final horror for your scenario? In The 
  Whisperer in Darkness, there is no crowning terror. There 
  are brains-in-cylinders, a conversation with the Mi-Go and 
  a chase, but none of  these events is climactic.
  You could, if  you like, try a scenario without a climactic 
  moment. Alternatively, try the standard horrors. Let the 
  Investigators see the Mi-Go: Lovecraft’s protagonist never 
  sees them directly, which means your Investigators should. 
  Or let Investigators find humans harmed by the Mi-Go: 
  perhaps they discover many brains-in-cylinders or brainless 
  bodies. Try stealing from Chambers and let the Investigators 
  find the encylindered brains of  their loved ones. 
  Finally, there is probably a chase. Steal the ending from 
  The Shadow Over Innsmouth, sending a Mi-Go horde after 
  the Investigators. Or, if the Investigators ventured into the 
  mines, steal the underground pursuit from At the Mountains 
  of  Madness, replacing the Shoggoth with Mi-Go.
  And, as always, we can play narrative tricks. Try switching 
  creatures: let Cthulhu’s cultists patiently explain the joys of  
  killing. Switch locations, placing Mi-Go mines in Antarctica, 
  forests or desert.
  Around now, the Mi-Go or their agents begin taking reprisals 
  against the Investigators. They:
  Cut off  lines of  communication, stealing packages, blocking roads 
  and cutting telephone wires.
  Plant spies in local towns.
  As with the Lloigor, the interplay of investigation, reprisal 
  and creature menace makes the story richer. Switch regularly 
  between the three. Try swapping details between the Mi-Go 
  and Lloigor: make Mi-Go agents malevolent and threatening; 
  let Lloigor servitors disrupt communications. 
  Perhaps, now, the Investigators observe the Mi-Go rituals. 
  Again, Lovecraft only describes this, so let your Investigators 
  see the following:
  They worship in the forest, especially on May Eve and Sabbat Night.
  Their human associates join them in the worship.
  They worship Shub-Niggurath.
  Towards the end of  the scenario, the Investigators should 
  see the harm that Mi-Go do to humans. It is a strikingly 
  specific harm: they encase brains in metal cylinders.1
  Some victims are willing, some are not.
  The cylinders connect to sensors and loudspeakers, letting victims 
  talk and hear.
  The encased brains travel to other planets, where they are connected 
  to similar sensory equipment and experience alien life.
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  1. This, admittedly, contradicts my earlier warnings about allowing Investigators 
  to chat to monsters. But this is slightly different. This isn’t a chat. This is 
  the creatures, at the end of  the scenario, explaining their dark plans.
  More generally, try letting creatures talk to Investigators.1 
  Let Deep Ones explain why they must mate with humans. 
  Let Nyarlathotep demonstrate how Cthulhu’s rule will set 
  humans free. Keep some narrative distance: remember that 
  the Mi-Go talked in darkness and disguise.
  But try letting the creatures explain themselves.  After 
  all, the Mythos is not just horrific: it can be seductive and 
  persuasive.
  1. Lovecraft wrote before the transistor was invented. 
  2. This runs close to Being Nice (page 64). Here, however, we consider the 
  possibility that the aliens actually are nice. But not in a good way.
  There are two more themes, rare in Lovecraft, which we 
  can steal for other creatures. The first is technology, which 
  Lovecraft describes in unusual detail:
  Cylinders of  an unknown, shiny metal, about a foot high.
  Three curious sockets set in an isosceles triangle.
  Intricate instruments with attached cords and plugs
  A tall machine with glass lenses in front.
  A box with vacuum tubes and a sounding-board.
  A machine with a metal disc on top.
  Dials, turned to the extreme right.
  A grating and whirring noise.
  Thus, it is large.1 It is mechanical, not electronic: it grates, 
  whirs and uses vacuum tubes and cords. To modern eyes, 
  it resembles an old valve radio. If  you use technology in 
  Lovecraftian scenarios, this is what it looks like.
  The second theme, incongruously, is happiness. At the 
  story’s end, the Mi-Go happily explain the secrets of  the 
  Mythos. They are eager to outline their plans.2 And the 
  brain-in-a-cylinder welcomes Lovecraft’s protagonist, even 
  offering him his own cylinder.
  Try taking this niceness at face value. Just as the Great 
  Race want to learn (by possessing people) and the Elder 
  Things want to study (by dissecting people), so the Mi-Go 
  want to show humans the universe (by putting brains in 
  cylinders). It is deeply eerie.
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  1. This isn’t a railroad. It’s simply presenting them with an impossible choice: do 
  they do the unspeakable thing or renege on their promises2 and face reprisals?
  2. Promises which, of  course, they didn’t know they had made.
  3. Or, indeed, the Barack Obama of  2008. 
  Steal these descriptions for other Mythos knowledge. 
  Explain that, having met the Mi-Go, the Investigators are 
  obliged to visit their planet. They must take the third Dagonic 
  Oath, be the Lloigor’s slave or accept Yithian possession.1
  And make these things repellently attractive. Make the 
  Shan’s memories hypnotically beautiful. Make the Lloigor’s 
  amputations intensely pleasurable. Have the Mi-Go describe 
  the beauty of  the stars.
  Nyarlathotep the showman appears in the story 
  Nyarlathotep itself. His shows contain:
  Static electricity, making people’s hair stand on end.
  Talk of  electricity and psychology.
  Images of  ruin, projected on screens in darkened ruins.
  Glass and metal instruments and combining them into machines.
  And the showman himself  exerts strange power:
  People kneel before him, but do not know why.
  He gives commands, which people forget when they leave.
  For this showman role, try stealing a Nyarlathotep figure 
  from history. In Victorian times, try P. T. Barnum or Charles 
  Dickens. In the 1920s and 1930s, try Nikola Tesla or the 
  villains of Hollywood movies. In modern times, try a figure 
  resembling Glenn Beck,in the United States, or Derren 
  Brown, in Britain.3
  1. There’s much more to the story than this, but this is what we need for 
  Nyarlathotep.
  NYARLATHOTEP.
  Story: The Dreams in the Witch House, Nyarlathotep.
  Synopsis of  The Dreams in the Witch House: After studying 
  abstruse mathematics and folklore, a student’s dreams become 
  increasingly tangible and horrific.1
  Synopsis of  Nyarlathotep: The protagonist hears stories of  a 
  showman. After seeing the show, he sees the world as a post-
  apocalyptic landscape.
  nYarLathoteP is overused. In many Cthulhu scenarios, 
  he is a villain in human form: a Lovecraftian Lex Luthor. 
  From Lovecraft’s stories, however, a more interesting 
  Nyarlathotep emerges. He appears in three forms: the keeper 
  of  Mythos knowledge, the showman and the harbinger of  
  the apocalypse.
  Nyarlathotep the knowledge-keeper appears in The 
  Dreams in the Witch House. When the protagonist meets 
  Nyarlathotep, in dreams, he realises the price of his learning:
  He must accompany Nyarlathotep to the throne of  Azathoth.
  He must sign the book of  Azathoth, in his own blood, and take a 
  secret name now that his independent delvings have gone so far.
  He knows that the name “Azathoth” stands for an indescribable 
  primal evil.
  Thus, investigating the Mythos is seductive, it comes with 
  obligations, but it remains repellent. And it is a slippery 
  slope: once you start, you must learn more.
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  1. Nyarlathotep contains one of Lovecraft’s best illustrations of the maddening 
  power of Mythos knowledge. The people in the story literally cannot handle 
  the truth.
  At night, they scream endlessly.
  They see Nyarlathotep’s equipment being unloaded: unknowable, 
  monstrous creations of  glass and metal. 
  Now, the Investigators begin to see visions of  the city destroyed, 
  around the theatre where Nyarlathotep’s show will take place.
  If  Investigators see the show, they then perceive the world as 
  crumbling and decayed. If  they do not, they see the population of  
  Kingsport screaming and mad.1
  Note that, for the Final Horror, we see the harm that 
  Nyarlathotep does: he sends people mad with knowledge. 
  It’s an intriguingly different horror, which you can steal 
  for any creature. Perhaps, after dreaming of  Cthulhu, the 
  Investigators begin to perceive his apocalypse. Perhaps, 
  after studying the Lloigor, the Investigators see the world 
  as it will be, when humans are slaves.
  Perhaps the best thing to do with Nyarlathotep, though, 
  is mix him with Hastur. The two are remarkably similar.
  Hastur’s book, The King in Yellow, resembles Nyarlathotep’s 
  sideshow: both give incredible knowledge that sends people 
  mad. 
  So swap ideas between the two. Replace Nyarlathotep 
  with a Hastur figure, showing electric pictures of  Carcosa. 
  Replace The King in Yellow with Nyarlathotep’s show, shown 
  on a home projector. Blur the lines between knowledge, 
  illusion, sanity and insanity.
  1. Or use any iconic location. San Francisco, Paris, Cairo, Shanghai.
  2. An analogue of  “winter never comes”.
  Nyarlathotep the apocalyptic harbinger appears in both 
  Nyarlathotep and The Fungi from Yuggoth. Even before he 
  arrives, the world seems apocalyptic:
  The seasons alter, so that winter never comes.
  It is stiflingly hot.
  There is political and social upheaval, with the threat of  physical 
  harm.
  When Nyarlathotep comes, people scream in the middle of the night.
  Through his shows, he causes people to see apocalyptic 
  scenes. It is unclear whether these are real or imagined.
  A destroyed city, with the pavement broken by the grass.
  Crumbling, half-fallen buildings.
  A weed-choked subway entrance.
  Vast, glittering snowdrifts, which seem inexplicably evil, in which 
  no footprints show.
  How can we use this remarkable imagery in a scenario? Try 
  stealing and lengthening the Nyarlathotep plot, adding a 
  slow increase of  eeriness.
  The Investigators hear of a showman, coming to Kingsport,1 whose 
  shows are remarkable and terrifying. 
  When they arrive in Kingsport, the weather is hot and stifling. For 
  days, the sun has not fully set.2
  They meet those who have seen Nyarlathotep and followed him ever 
  since. These people see visions of the city destroyed and endless snow. 
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  1. The Cthonians do something similar, although, in fact, they only implant 
  suggestions. The Great Race’s possession, meanwhile, is a “hard” possession”: 
  it involves complete control.
  2. Campbell uses this to tell the creature’s backstory (as Lovecraft uses carvings).
  3. This memory is of  the Shan’s planet being destroyed, shortly before they 
  teleported their temple to Earth. They are the victims in all this, really.
  Next, the Shan give us a new way to possess humans. 
  Their victims retain abilities, reason and, partially, free will. 
  Thus, this is a “soft” possession:1 the victim feels human, 
  but feels urges to follow Shan orders. It runs as follows.
  The insect flies straight into your head. (It is not wholly material.)
  You feel it crawling in your brain.
  Your vision ripples, melts and distorts.
  You feel ecstatic pleasure.
  Once possessed, the victim might see the creature’s memories. 
  Perhaps they see its previous victims, alien homeland or 
  occult secrets. For players, this is a fascinating double-
  edged sword: they get information, but at the price of being 
  possessed. For you, it is a tool for narration: it lets you feed 
  information and give tantalising, horrific visions.2 Steal 
  this for other creatures: for the Deep Ones and Cthulhu, 
  feed information through dreams; for the Great Race, give 
  information through recovered memories.
  Here, from The Insects from Shaggai, are some particularly 
  fruitful memories:
  A subterranean plant, with purple blossoms and reaching tentacles, 
  demands living sacrifices.
  In an endless ocean, a pillar projects through green mist. A leathery 
  hand reaches from the sea.
  A glowing red globe drifts closer to a planet. When it fills the sky, it 
  explodes, filling creatures and buildings with its crimson glow. The 
  glow turns yellow, then white, and the creatures writhe and die.3
  1. So are the Lloigor.
  2. It is not clear what. Perhaps they are still deciding that part.
  3. For a plausible alternative Shan, who do not want to rule the world, steal 
  from the Mi-Go. These Shan simply want to be left alone, in their woodland 
  temple, and take reprisals against those who investigate.
  4. It is unclear how this connects to the Shan’s other interests: witch cults and 
  bringing Azathoth to Earth.
  5. Incomprehensible plans, such as the Deep Ones’ Shoggoth scheme, are 
  horrific in a different way.
  THE SHAN.
  Story: Ramsey Campbell’s The Insects from Shaggai
  Synopsis: The protagonist hears folktales about a wood connected 
  with witch cults. He explores the wood. Becoming lost, he finds 
  a metallic creature, then a temple. Suddenly, an insect-like alien 
  flies into his brain. He experiences its memories, then enters the 
  temple. Deep within, he finds Azathoth. After running away, 
  he realises the insect remains inside his brain and wants him 
  to lure others to the temple. He kills himself.
  ramseY camPbeLL’s Shan are the best Mythos creature that 
  Lovecraft never wrote.1 We can steal three main things from 
  them: witches, possession and world domination.
  Take these in reverse order, starting with world 
  domination. Many Mythos creatures have no clear strategy 
  for ruling the world. Cthulhu wants to enslave everyone, 
  while Deep Ones will do something with a Shoggoth,2 but 
  neither is clear on the details.
  By contrast, the Shan have detailed plans.3 They start by 
  luring people to their temple, whom they possess and use to 
  lure others. When they have possessed enough people, they 
  build more temples. Repeat until the Shan rule the world.4
  This is horrific because it is comprehensible 5 and inevitable. 
  Steal this plan, suitably adapted, for other creatures. Perhaps 
  the Lloigor will drain more and more humans, until all are 
  enslaved. Perhaps the Deep Ones will systematically breed 
  with humans, until all share their taint. (Perhaps they 
  already have.)
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  1. For the following woodland horrors, I have also stolen from Campbell’s The 
  Darkest Part of  the Woods.
  2. It is subtly different from Ithaqua’s forest. Where his forest is agoraphobic 
  and forbidding, the Shan’s wood is claustrophobic and eerie.
  to grow? Try showing things that Campbell left unexplored: 
  the blood sacrifice, the witches’ rituals, the memory-addicts.
  Having stolen the Shan’s best parts, let’s go through 
  The Insects from Shaggai and steal imagery. We start in 
  the woods, which are ill-reputed, dreamlike and full of  
  legends.1 It is a wood of  dark English fairytales: a perfect 
  Lovecraftian location.2
  The woods are:
  Dark, with the sun barely visible.
  Filled with flashes of  movement and light seen through trees.
  Misty and dripping with moisture.
  Confusing to navigate.
  Reputed, in local legends, to be evil.
  Thickest in the centre.
  As the Investigators venture deeper, things get darker. 
  There might be:
  A dry, approaching rustling.
  Moving lights, seen dimly through the trees.
  Creatures seen in the distant wood.
  Paths that seem to lead out, but lead deeper into the wood.
  Something that seems to hide behind the trees, pursuing you.
  Visions of  people, perhaps those you know, which turn out to be 
  the shapes of  trees.
  1. For an odd and horrifying scenario, steal from Kafka’s Metamorphosis, and 
  let the Investigators begin physically transforming into insects.
  Use these memories to inspire scenarios. Put the plant 
  under London, with a cult to feed it. Bring the destructive 
  globe to Earth.
  Now, after a period of  possession, the victim may:
  Start thinking like the insect, seeing the world with cruel dispassion.1
  Begin luring people to the temple.
  Go insane or commit suicide.
  In The Insects from Shaggai, the protagonist goes mad and 
  kills himself. Try switching protagonists: let the Investigators 
  meet a possessed NPC or investigate a possessee’s suicide.
  Next, steal the witch cults. Campbell gives us an entire 
  backstory, set in the 1600s, which could easily be updated:
  A meteorite falls to Earth, in a clearing previously occupied by a 
  Roman temple.
  It is a temple of  the Shan.
  It gains worshippers, who make blood sacrifices to the Shan.
  In return, the Shan inject memories into the worshippers, which 
  gives them a drug-like euphoria. 
  These worshippers entice others to the clearing.
  As the cult grows, the community realises the threat and kills the 
  witches.
  This is a ready-made scenario. Let the Investigators arrive in 
  the final stages (just before “As the cult grows”, above) and 
  discover the cult. This gives the Investigators a choice: do 
  they murder the cult or, knowing the Shan’s plans, leave it 
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  1. Note the interesting double descent:  into the woods, then into the temple. In 
  The Haunter of  the Dark, there is a double climb: up a hill, then up a steeple. 
  Both suggwest the protagonist is heading deeper and deeper into danger.
  1. Which is what happens in The Insects From Shaggai. It is one of the weaker 
  parts of  the story.
  2. A Lovecraftian rule: before the scenario ends, the sun must set.
  3. There is no indication that, as in many Cthulhu games, the Shan are afraid 
  of or harmed by sunlight. It would be understandable, given that their planet 
  was destroyed by a glowing sphere, but it is not mentioned. Certainly, there 
  is no suggenstion that a possession victim can be cured by unnorthodox 
  methods such as trepanning (an idea popularised by Delta Green).
  It’s a good temple. Use it, adapted, for other creatures. 
  Change the material to black stone and it becomes a Mi-Go 
  shrine to Shub-Niggurath. Change it to green soapstone and 
  it’s a Deep One temple.
  When the Investigators go inside, they descend through 
  the following levels:
  Grey slanting corridors, with bas-reliefs on walls.
  Corridors lined with the cells of  enslaved Guardians.
  A souvenir room, with eyeless corpses of  all the races enslaved by 
  the Shan.
  Finally, behind ominous doors, they find Azathoth. He takes 
  the Shoggoth role, chasing the Investigators out. This is the 
  final horror of  The Insects from Shaggai.
  Try changing the ending. Perhaps the Shan give chase 
  instead. Perhaps the temple teleports away, giving a 
  beautiful, mystical ending like that of  The Colour Out 
  of  Space. Perhaps, even, deep within the temple, the 
  Investigators must prevent a multidimensional Azathothian 
  gate opening.
  The plot above, then, gives many scenarios. Switch 
  locations: a Californian desert, a German forest, the Arkham 
  sewers. Switch creatures: try rerunning the scenario with 
  the Deep Ones, the Elder Things, even the Great Race.
  At its heart, the Insects from Shaggai plot is simple and 
  iconic: hear about a temple, find it, look inside, run away. 
  You can use that plot for anything.
  Now, the Investigators may meet the Daytime Guardians. 
  These extraordinary creatures:
  Resemble sixteen-foot-high metallic trees.
  Have thick cylindrical tentacles, which look like branches.
  Walk on two metallic cylinders, which each divide into six circular 
  extensions.
  Are tortured by the Shan for pleasure.
  Have heavy, metallic-sounding footsteps.
  Have a featureless oval for a head. At the top is a mouth-like orifice, 
  which they bend over to use.
  Don’t let the Investigators meet these creatures too early: 
  if  they see them on entering the woods, it turns the 
  weirdness straight up to 11.1 So add narrative distance. 
  Let Investigators hear tales of  these creatures, find a dead 
  creature, or discover an oddly metallic tree trunk.
  Now, the sun sets2 and the Shan emerge. It is a routine: 
  they worship by day and hunt humans by night.3
  Then, in a clearing, the Investigators find the temple, 
  which:
  Is a thirty-foot-high metallic cone.
  Is made of  a non-reflective grey mineral.
  Has a rectangular, blood-stained hollow, for human sacrifices.
  Has a circular trapdoor on the side, with strange carvings depicting 
  the Shan’s history.
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  1. Let the Investigators see this.
  2. In At The Mountains of  Madness, Danforth mentions many things that 
  might be types or forms of  Shoggoth. Thus, you can invent freely.
  3. Since Elder Things created life as a mistake, try stealing the tainted lineage 
  trope from The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Reveal that humans evolved from 
  a breed of  shoggoths who became fixed in form.
  4. Recall the imperfect human writing in The Shadow Out of  Time.
  1. If  you’re improvising a scenario and get stuck, send a monster at the 
  Investigators.
  2. One of  Lovecraft’s most horrific moments. Enjoy it. Linger over it.
  They also have skills. Being designed as labourers, they can:
  Be commanded hypnotically, producing specific organs on demand.
  Be tamed and broken.
  Push stones into place to erect Cyclopean cities.1
  Use these organ-producing skills in scenarios. Make 
  Shoggoths into spies, by producing eyes; pumps, by 
  producing hearts; or incubators, to keep human brains alive. 
  Try changing their size and shape: use tiny Shoggoths, flying 
  Shoggoths or wire-like Shoggoths in connected networks.2
  Beyond this, the Shoggoths have three fascinating abilities. 
  Firstly, they evolve. In At the Mountains of  Madness, they 
  gain both intelligence and resistance to hypnotic command. 
  So invent new forms of  Shoggoth: chameleon Shoggoths, 
  slime-like Shoggoths, gaseous Shoggoths and more. Try 
  letting them evolve throughout a scenario.3
  Secondly, they think. Perhaps they make plans. Perhaps 
  they want to rule the world. Certainly, they are more than 
  mindless killers: they kill mindfully. 
  Lastly, they imitate. They:
  Grow organs to imitate other races.
  Imitate the voices of  other creatures.
  Make carvings, roughly imitating other carvings they find.
  There is an obvious opportunity here: let them imitate 
  humans. Let them grow human organs, imitate human 
  voices and mimic human writing.4
  SHOGGOTHS.
  Story: At the Mountains of  Madness.
  Synopsis: See Elder Things, above.
  shoggoths play an important role in At the Mountains of  
  Madness: they appear at the end, as the Final Horror, and 
  chase the Investigators. Other creatures take the Shoggoth 
  role too: in The Shadow Out of  Time, it’s the Flying Polyps; 
  in The Insects from Shaggai, it’s Azathoth.
  It’s an easy, effective ending, which works in any scenario: 
  introduce a monster, send it after the Investigators. Even if  
  it makes little sense, the adrenaline rush ends the scenario.1
  But Shoggoths are more than eldritch tanks. They:
  Are faintly luminescent.
  Are covered in strangely-coloured, perhaps green, lights.
  Are covered in eyes, which continually form and unform.
  Are a mass of  protoplasmic bubbles.
  Ooze a fetid black iridescence.
  Thus, they are not just terrifying and large, but eerie. Even 
  a stationary Shoggoth would be scary: glowing faintly, its 
  eyes winking in and out of  existence, oozing steadily.
  The traces they leave behind, too, mix eeriness with horror:
  They leave tunnel walls greasily shiny, as if  polished.
  They bite victims’ heads off, leaving them mauled, compressed, 
  twisted, ruptured and (of  course) decapitated.2
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  AFTERWORD.
  Writing horror stories is creative. So the ideas in this book 
  are not prescriptive: they are not a guide to How To Write A 
  Scenario. They are a toolset, a bag of suggestions, a prompt 
  for your own ideas.
  Perhaps you like to start scenarios with gory horror. 
  Perhaps you prefer to invent your own creatures. Perhaps 
  you think my interpretation of  the Lloigor is completely 
  wrong. If  so, then some ideas in this book won’t work for 
  you. Throw away the ideas you don’t like and use the ones 
  you do.
  The most important idea in this book, however, is: nothing 
  is sacred. Nothing is canon. You need never, ever be faithful 
  to something you’ve read.
  Thus, if  a scenario defines the Dagonic Oaths, you can 
  redefine them. If a rulebook tells you about the Mi-Go, you 
  can redesign them. Make your creatures different. Make 
  your stories different. Accept nothing. Play with everything.
  The other important idea is: players love Lovecraft. They 
  love bleak hopelessness. They love not being able to fight. 
  Most of  all, they love genuine horror. I’ve seen hardened 
  Dungeons and Dragons players reduced to delighted insanity. 
  I’ve had experienced Call of  Cthulhu gamers happy to go 
  mad.
  So don’t be afraid to steal from Lovecraft. He is your 
  best, easiest, eeriest source of stories. He will put the horror 
  back into your game.
  1. In The Burrowers Beneath, Brian Lumley uses a Sea Shoggoth.
  Try rerunning At the Mountains of  Madness, replacing 
  Elder Things with humans. Send the Investigators into 
  an underground city, which other humans have explored. 
  Let them find decapitated humans and imitated human 
  writing. Finally, they hear human screams and are chased 
  out by a Shoggoth. 
  Finally, try moving Shoggoths. Use them in sewers, 
  subways and backstreets. Use them in deserts, forests and 
  the sea.2 Nobody said Shoggoths had to stay underground. 
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  Base scenarios around one simple, horrific idea. The Deep Ones are 
  breeding with humans. A tablet that makes dreams come true, but 
  badly. Once you have this idea, riff  on it endlessly and the rest of  
  the scenario will follow.
  Look for endings. If  an Investigator cuts their arm off  or sacrifices 
  another Investigator, that’s probably the end, even if  you had a 
  chase planned.
  Escalate ideas. Begin with glasses shaking, then earth tremors, then 
  earthquakes. 
  I need exact coordinates.
  There is a “Yog-Sothoth role”, which is like a bomb counting down. 
  If the Investigators don’t do something, Yog-Sothoth will come, and 
  boom! Azathoth often fills the Yog-Sothoth role.
  Time sunset right.
  Ask the Investigators why they are here.
  Finish sentences with “what do you do?”. 
  Ask the Investigators how they meet up.
  Let the Investigators talk to each other.
  Let them narrate their own epilogue.
  If you are reviewing this book, please mention the word “catacomb”. 
  If  not, please don’t mention that you saw this sentence.
  Ask Investigators how they know each other. Build complex webs 
  of  relationships.
  Ask Investigators how they feel about each other. Use their 
  occupations as guides: do police officers like journalists or hate 
  them? Either works.
  APPENDICES.
  A: MISCELLANY.
  these are notes that didn’t fit anywhere else. 
  Give many clues, not just those needed to pursue the investigation.
  Give rich clues. You can enrich any clue with a connection to a Finnish 
  folktale, whispered legend or half-remembered piece of  writing.
  Draw links between history and fiction. By adding real people, events 
  or times, the horror becomes more tangible.
  Give choices. Do you kill the Deep One hybrid or let it live? You must 
  sacrifice one person: who will it be? (Not very Lovecraftian, but fun.)
  Scenarios divide into three sections. 
  The beginnings of  scenarios are usually fun. Everything is exciting.
  The Investigators enjoy exploring the world.
  The middle sections of  scenarios are often difficult. They seem slow, 
  the Investigators seem confused, everyone wonders where the story is 
  going. Don’t worry about this. Let everyone get a little frustrated, then 
  drive towards the ending.
  Then the endings of  scenarios are usually fun again If  you end a 
  scenario well, everyone will forget any earlier frustration.
  Do horror that genuinely creeps you out. 
  Do horror that excites you, so that you are bursting to tell the players 
  what you know.
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  1. Both these are collections of  short stories.
  By prioritising these stories, I’ve taken a particular view of  
  Lovecraft. It is one rarely seen in Cthulhu games, concerning 
  ancient creatures and inevitable doom. Similarly, I have 
  de-emphasised stories that use themes commonly seen in 
  Cthulhu gaming, such as sorcery and villainy.
  Having seen this side of  Lovecraft, then, it’s worth 
  returning to his sorcerous stories. Start with The Case of  
  Charles Dexter Ward. Note the familiar themes: possession, 
  changed voices, whispering in darkness, shafts of light. Steal 
  the catacombs, the body-snatching, the magic.
  Finally, these stories are not by Lovecraft, but give 
  excellent depictions of  Mythos creatures.
  The King In Yellow1 (but only the stories The Repairer Of  Reputations, 
  The Mask, In The Court Of  The Dragon and The Yellow Sign), by 
  Robert Chambers
  The Wendigo, by Algernon Blackwood.
  The Return of  the Lloigor, by Colin Wilson.
  The Burrowers Beneath, by Brian Lumley.
  Cold Print1, by Ramsey Campbell.
  Cold Print is particularly worth mining for descriptions 
  of  lesser-known Mythos entities: not just the Shan, but 
  Daoloth, Y’golonac and many more.
  I have largely ignored August Derleth’s work, for reasons 
  similar to those that led me to select the six stories above. 
  Many Cthulhu games stick close to Derleth’s vision of  
  Lovecraft horror. Return to Lovecraft and you get something 
  new.
  B: BIBLIOGRAPHY.
  these are the six Lovecraft stories to which I’ve referred 
  throughout the text. Read one or read them all. I’d 
  recommend them in roughly this order.
  The Whisperer in Darkness.
  The Shadow Over Innsmouth.
  The Shadow Out Of  Time.
  The Colour Out Of  Space.
  At The Mountains Of  Madness.
  The Call of  Cthulhu.
  The following Lovecraft stories are also worth reading for 
  their descriptions of  particular Mythos entities: 
  Nyarlathotep.
  The Fungi from Yuggoth.
  The Dreams In The Witch House.
  Dagon.
  Pickman’s Model.
  Pickman’s Model, in particular, contains a wonderfully 
  detailed description of  ghouls. Indeed, it contains so much 
  information that I found it impossible to condense into a 
  chapter. Read it and steal the ideas.
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  DOING THINGS.
  To know how well you do at something, roll:
  One die if  the task is within human capabilities.
  One die if  it’s within your occupational expertise.
  Your Insanity die, if  you will risk your sanity to succeed.
  If  your Insanity die rolls higher than any other die, make 
  an Insanity roll, as above.
  Then your highest die shows how well you do. On a 1, 
  you barely succeed. On a 6, you do brilliantly.
  For example: you’re escaping from the window of  an 
  Innsmouth hotel. On a 1, you crash on an adjoining roof, 
  attracting the attention of  everyone around. On a 4, you 
  land quietly on the roof, but leave traces for pursuers to 
  follow. On a 6, you escape quietly, while your pursers continue 
  searching the hotel. 
  When you investigate, the highest die shows how much 
  information you get. On a 1, you get the bare minimum: 
  if  you need information to proceed with the scenario, you 
  get it, but that’s all you get. On a 4, you get whatever a 
  competent investigator would discover. On a 5, you discover 
  everything humanly possible. And if  there is a possibility 
  of  glimpsing beyond human knowledge, you do so on a 6 
  (and probably make an Insanity roll).
  For example: you’re investigating your great-uncle’s 
  manuscripts. On a 1, you find the address “7 Thomas Street” 
  (the next location in the scenario). On a 6, you find that, from 
  C: CTHULHU DARK.
  Cthulhu Dark is a rules-light system for Lovecraftian 
  roleplaying games. One person is the Keeper, who plans 
  the scenario. The others are Investigators. You’ll need some 
  six-sided dice.
  YOUR INVESTIGATOR.
  Choose a name and occupation. Describe your Investigator. 
  Decide what drives them to investigate the Mythos.
  Then ask each other questions to flesh out your characters. 
  Where did you grow up? Do you enjoy your job? How do 
  you feel about where you live?
  Finally, take a green Insanity Die.
  INSANITY.
  Your Insanity starts at 1.
  When you see something disturbing, roll your Insanity 
  die. If  you get higher than your Insanity, add 1 to your 
  Insanity and roleplay your terror.
  As your Insanity increases through the game, roleplay 
  your increasing fear.
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  CO-OPERATING AND COMPETING.
  To cooperate: everyone who is cooperating rolls their dice. 
  The highest die, rolled by anyone, determines the outcome.
  To compete: everyone who is competing rolls their dice.  
  The highest die wins. On a tie, compare second highest dice 
  (then third, fourth etc). If  everything is tied, reroll.
  As before, if your Insanity die rolls higher than any other 
  die you roll, make an Insanity roll.  If anyone is not happy 
  with their roll, they may reroll as above, but only once.
  SUPPRESSING KNOWLEDGE.
  When your Insanity reaches 5, you may now reduce it by 
  suppressing Mythos knowledge: for example, burning books, 
  stopping rituals or destroying yourself.
  Each time you do this, roll your Insanity Die. If you get 
  less than your current Insanity, decrease your Insanity by 
  1. And you may continue suppressing Mythos knowledge 
  when your Insanity  drops below 5.
  GOING INSANE.
  When your Insanity reaches 6, you go incurably insane. This 
  is a special moment: everyone focusses on your character’s 
  last moments as their mind breaks. Go out however you 
  want: fight, scream, run or collapse.
  Afterwards, either make a new character or continue 
  playing, madly, but retire the character as soon as you can.
  February 28 to April 2, many townspeople had dreams of  
  gigantic nameless creatures. Simultaneously, a Californian 
  theosophist colony donned robes for a  “glorious fulfilment”, 
  The dreamers included Mr Wilcox of  7 Thomas Street.
  FAILING.
  If  someone thinks it would more interesting if  you failed, 
  they describe how you might fail and roll a die. (They can’t 
  do this if you’re investigating and you must succeed for the 
  scenario to proceed).
  If their die rolls higher than your highest die, you fail, in 
  the way they described. If not, you succeed as before, with 
  your highest die showing how well you succeed.
  Returning to the example above: you’re escaping from 
  the hotel window. This time, someone thinks it would be 
  more interesting if  your pursuers caught you. When you 
  both roll, they get the higher die. You are caught.
  TRYING AGAIN.
  If you included your Insanity die in the roll and you’re not 
  happy with the result, you may reroll (all the dice). If  you 
  didn’t include your Insanity die, you may add it and reroll.
  Afterwards, look at the new result. As before, the highest 
  die shows how well you do.
  Reroll as many times as you like. Each time your Insanity 
  Die rolls higher than any other die, make an Insanity roll.
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  GUIDANCE ON DESCRIBING INVESTIGATIONS.
  Here are further tips on describing the results of  
  investigations.
  On a 4, the investigation succeeds. Describe whatever 
  is there to discover, with some detail. For example, if  the 
  Investigator is deciphering carvings on a box, they might 
  discover the box is an incubator, holding an egg. They might 
  also realise the carvings are in an extinct African language.
  On 3s, 2s and 1s, describe the same thing, but with 
  progressively less detail. Thus, on a 3, your description 
  should be brief. On a 2, it should be a sentence. On a 1, it 
  might just be a word (“It’s an incubator”).
  On a 5, the investigation succeeds wildly. Describe what 
  is there is to discover, but throw in extra details. Connect 
  the discovery to folktales, writings and scientific discoveries.
  You’ll find these are easy to invent. Simply throw in 
  connections to legends and books. For example, from 
  deciphering the carvings, the Investigator realises the box 
  is an incubator. They remember similar boxes described 
  in the dread manuscript Tears of  Shub-Niggurath. One, in 
  the Middle Ages, was taken to an Abbey, which was later 
  destroyed in a freak earthquake.
  On a 6, add a touch of eeriness. Draw on Lovecraft, ghost 
  stories or whatever comes to mind. For example, when the 
  Investigators deciphers the carvings, they seem to shift and 
  change in front of their eyes. The carvings hint, mockingly, 
  at strange patterns beyond human understanding. The box 
  exudes unnatural life, as though it were a form of incubator.
  OTHER CLARIFICATIONS.
  If  you fight any creature you meet, you will die. Thus, in these core 
  rules, there are no combat rules or health levels. Instead, roll to 
  hide or escape.
  Things within human capabilities include: picking locks, finding 
  Ry’leh, deciphering carvings, remembering something, spotting 
  something concealed, rationalising something horrific.
  Things outside human capabilities include: casting spells, 
  understanding hidden meaning, doing things in dreams. You can try 
  such things if  you have the opportunity: for example, if  you sense 
  patterns, you can try to follow them. However, you won’t get the 
  “within human capabilities” die, and might just roll your Insanity die.
  A high success never short-circuits the investigation: That is, it 
  never takes you to the end of  the scenario, skipping everything in 
  between.  Thus, in the example above: even if  you rolled a 6 while 
  searching your great-uncle’s personal effects, you would not find the 
  co-ordinates of  Ry’leh, where Cthulhu sleeps.
  When you make an Insanity Roll and succeed, getting your Insanity 
  or lower, this means you keep it together, not that you are fine. When 
  you fail, getting higher than your Insanity, you fail to keep it together.
  To play without a character sheet, use your Insanity Die to keep 
  track of  your Insanity, by keeping its highest face turned to your 
  current Insanity.
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  THANKS.
  First, thank you to my patrons: Tim Rodriguez, Rob 
  Harper, Paul Tevis, Eva Schiffer and Ken Finlayson. I 
  really appreciate your support. Many thanks also to Lars 
  Patrik Olsson and Chad Bowser for additional footnotes.
  Next, thank you to the following people for particularly 
  generous preorders. Yukihiro Terada, William Stowers, 
  William Nourse, William Huggins, Ville Halonen, Tom 
  Cadorette, Thora Ingvarsdottir, Thomas Phinney, Sune 
  Nødskou, Stuntlau Perez, Stuart Dean, Stewart Robertson, 
  Steven Marsh, Steve Rubin, Steve Blackwell, Simon Rogers, 
  Sid Wood, Shane Ivey, Scott Acker, Sasha Bilton, Ryan 
  Macklin, Rusty Hoyle, Robert Saint John, Robert J. 
  Parker, Robert Biskin, Rik Kershaw-Moore, Rick Neal, 
  Reza Peigahi, Reto M. Kiefer, Renato Retz de Carvalho, 
  René John Kerkdyk, Randall Padilla, Ralph Shelton, 
  Ralph Kelleners, Peter Miller, Peter Cobcroft, Pete Griffith, 
  Paulo Andre Vieira, Paul Weimer, Paul Sudlow, Anyone 
  Who Uses The Words Blasphemous Or Dreamlike When 
  Talking About This Book, Paul Maclean, Paul Jones, 
  Paul Baldowski, Olav Müller, Ngo Vinh-Hoi, Neal Dalton, 
  Nathan Bardsley, Nancy Goslowsky, Monty Bouvart, Mikael 
  Engstrom, Michael J. Raymond, Michael Harnish, Matthew 
  Sullivan-Barrett, Pookie, David Lai, Matt Stuart, Mary 
  Watson, Martin Blake, Marc Majcher, Lukas Myhan, Lars 
  Schear, Landon Barnickle, Kristoffer From, Ken Finlayson, 
  John Powell, John Mehrholz, John Evans, John Anderson, 
  Joanna Corcoran, Jim McCarthy, Jess Morris, Jesper 
  THREE ROLLS
  Split important rolls, that the Investigator might lose, 
  into three. The Investigator must succeed in two rolls out 
  of  three to succeed. If  they succeed in the first two, don’t 
  bother rolling the third.
  CAMPAIGNS
  For campaign play, reset Insanity to 1 at the beginning of  
  each game session. If  you like, find a narrative reason for 
  this: perhaps the Investigators takes a moment to recover 
  or simply has a moment of  clarity.
  UNANSWERED QUESTIONS.
  Who decides when to roll Insanity? Who decides when 
  it’s interesting to know how well you do something? Who 
  decides when something disturbs your PC? Who decides 
  whether you might fail?
  Decide the answers with your group. Make reasonable 
  assumptions. For example, some groups will let the Keeper 
  decide everything. Others will share the decisions.
  Do let me know how Cthulhu Dark works for you. My 
  email is graham@thievesoftime.com.
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  178
  Veje Walton Simonsen, Jennifer Wong, James Pacheco, 
  James Dillane, Herman Duyker, Greg Cooksey, Anyone 
  Who Suggests This Book Contains Incomplete Maps Of  
  Arkham, Giulia Barbano, Gary Pennington, Frédérik Rating, 
  Flavio Mortarino, Fernando Barrera, Eugene Doherty, Esa 
  Kankaanpää, Eric J. Boyd, E. Tage Larsen, Drew Ness, 
  Dominic Mooney, Dean Engelhardt, David Sokolowski, 
  David Hallett, Dave Desgagnes, Darren Stalder, Darren 
  Miguez, Daniel Ley, Dak F Powers, Colin Creitz, Colin 
  Booth, Christian Nord, Chris Wiegand, Chris Green, Chris 
  Eng, Charles J Wilkins, Cesar Bernal Prat, Cat Rambo, 
  Carlos Garcia Garcia, Cameron Paine, Brendan Adkins, 
  Bob Hanks, Benjamin McFarland, Benjamin Bell, Belinda 
  Kelly, Austin F. Frank, Arttu Hanska, Arseny Kuznetsov, 
  Antoine Fournier, Anthony Ellis, Andrew Stimpson, Andrew 
  Raphael, Adrian Maddocks, Adam Drew, Steve Dempsey, 
  Wayne Coburn, Luciana Retz de Carvalho and Jerome 
  Huguenin.
  Many thanks to the annotators, Gareth Hanrahan, 
  Kenneth Hite and Jason Morningstar. I changed some of  
  your words and incorporated others into footnotes, so the 
  responsibility for the final text is mine. Grateful thanks also 
  to David Walmsley and John Anderson. Thank you to the 
  artists, Olli Hihnola and Jennifer Rodgers, and also, in the 
  PDF version, to Ed Heil and Manny and Ilyana. Finally, 
  thank you to Brennen Reece for layout advice.
  I hope you enjoyed the book. Do get in touch and tell me 
  what you thought. Summon me with the words “Sthakhnr 
  Fgyri” or email me at graham@thievesoftime.com.
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SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Call of Cthulhu (CoC) (BRP) [multi]/EXTRA/Resources/Stealing Cthulhu.pdf