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  TK
  FAIRYLAND
  A SCENARIO FOR CTHULHU DARK BY SCOTT DORWARD
  
  2
  WE ARE THEIR PLAYTHINGS
  BACKGROUND
  The year is 1897. Cullingstone is a village in the Borders of 
  Scotland, on the edge of a pine forest known as Hobs Wood. It is 
  comparatively isolated, and while there is a sense of community, 
  the people there have few dealings with the outside world. They 
  are bound together by a secret that they feel no need to share 
  with outsiders.
  Since 1849 a young girl has gone missing from the village every 
  three years. Parents try to keep their daughters safe and stop 
  them from wandering, but one always seems to find her way 
  into the woods. There, she vanishes. The horror only gets worse 
  for the family when, a day or two later, their daughter returns.
  The children that walk out of the woods look just as they did 
  when they vanished, but it does not take long for their loved 
  ones to realise that something is wrong. The returned child has 
  all their memories, but is emotionally distant, lacking any kind 
  of sense of right and wrong. While not deliberately cruel, they 
  are careless of any harm they may cause, and given that they 
  are now much stronger than any child should be, they will cause 
  harm on occasion. Their eyes are glassy, staring fixedly into the 
  distance, their skin pale, clammy and oily.
  After their return, the children look exactly as they did on the 
  day they were taken. Some families pass off an older sister as 
  a daughter or cousin, or hope that strangers don’t comment on 
  the fact that they are too old to have a daughter so young. The 
  children are unchanging, locked in time.
  LEGENDS AND TRUTH
  Local legends provide a clear explanation for what has happened: 
  the children have been taken off to Fairyland and changelings 
  have been left in their place.
  There have always been stories of fairies in the Borders, and 
  especially around Cullingstone. Hobs Wood takes its name from 
  the hobs, or fairies, reputed to live there. People have always 
  encountered strange entities there, as well as dancing lights and 
  strange noises, and it is common knowledge that people who walk 
  into the woods can become lost almost immediately, sometimes 
  emerging days later while maintaining that they have only been 
  there for an hour at most. Legend maintains that the door to 
  Fairyland lies within the woods.
  The truth is that there is a colony of Mi-go that have lived within 
  the woods for hundreds of years. Their experiments with space 
  and time have led to the fabric of reality becoming warped.
  In recent years, they have started taking human subjects for 
  experimentation, placing their brains in cylinders and replacing 
  them with simulacra. These changelings act as probes, allowing 
  the Mi-go to gain a greater understanding of the local population 
  and their potential uses.
  The waxy human skin of the changelings conceals something 
  hideous and inhuman. It is unnaturally strong, intelligent and 
  utterly devoid of human emotions. It attempts to behave as a 
  human, but this is a charade and an imperfect one at that. 
  FAIRYLAND
  
  3
  POWERLESS AGAINST THEM
  FAIRY LEGENDS
  Scottish fairies are generally not friendly creatures. The more 
  benign ones, of the Seelie Court, are still tricksters, given to 
  playing pranks on humans or luring them away to Elfland (the 
  common local name for Fairyland). The entities of the Unseelie 
  Court are more obviously monstrous, seeing humans as play-
  things or prey. Red Caps, for example, are wrinkled, bearded 
  old men who rip the unsuspecting apart with their claws and 
  colour their caps with the blood of their victims. Boggarts are 
  mischievous household spirits that torment families by stealing 
  things, hurting animals or spoiling food. Bogles can be anything 
  from harmless trickster fairies to ghosts, or more malevolent 
  beasties which snatch children. Some Scottish myths hold that 
  fairies are the spirits of the dead, and in more Christian times 
  they became associated with the Devil. There are many tales of 
  children who could commune with fairies, often being the only 
  ones who could see them, and who would become corrupted or 
  tainted by this intercourse. 
  Use these legends throughout the scenario as extra clues or simply 
  to add depth or mystery to anything else that is revealed. For 
  example, if an Investigator researches legends about Hobs Wood, 
  try connecting the wood with the story of Thomas The Rhymer.
  CHILDE ROWLAND
  This is a classic fairy legend, although more English in origin, 
  which tells the story of a young girl named Burd Ellen who, while 
  playing a ball game with her brothers, walks around a church 
  widdershins and is pulled into Fairyland. Her brothers go to 
  rescue her, one-by-one, disappearing in the process. Finally only 
  Childe Rowland, the youngest, is left, and he turns to Merlin 
  for guidance. Merlin places a spell on his sword and tells him to 
  chop off the head of anyone he meets in Elfland, and not to eat 
  or drink anything while he is there. 
  Rowland finds his way to the castle of the King of Elfland, de-
  capitating a few people on the way. He finds Burd Ellen impris-
  oned inside and almost fails when she offers him some food, but 
  remembers not to eat in time. The King of Elfland then enters, 
  fights Rowland and is defeated. As his last challenge, Rowland 
  reluctantly cuts his sister’s head off, freeing her, and then takes 
  her home.
  THOMAS THE RHYMER
  The most famous fairy legend of the area is that of Thomas the 
  Rhymer, who met the queen of Elfland just outside Melrose and 
  was taken away to her realm for seven years. He was eventually 
  returned, and was given the gift of a tongue that could never lie. 
  This made him a prophet, but an unhappy one, and he never 
  quite fitted in with human society again. Eventually he returned 
  to Elfland of his own accord and was never heard of again.
  TAM LIN
  In the forest of Caterhaugh, little more than ten miles from 
  Cullingstone, it was reputed that a denizen of Fairyland, named 
  Tam Lin would seduce any young maidens who encountered 
  him. One maiden, named Janet, is seduced by Tam and made 
  pregnant, and when she returns to the woods to seek a herb 
  which will abort the child, she encounters him again. They talk, 
  and Janet discovers that Tam was once a mortal man and after 
  a riding accident, was rescued by the Queen of the Fairies, who 
  took him away.
  Tam explains that the fairies have to pay a tithe of souls to Hell 
  every seven years, and that he fears he will be next. They hatch 
  a plan for Janet to interrupt a procession of fairies and to snatch 
  Tam away from it and take him back to the mortal realm. When 
  they try this, though, the Queen of the Fairies responds by turn-
  ing Tam into various repulsive forms, trying to force Janet to 
  drop him. His final form is as a burning coal, which Janet drops 
  down a well; the naked form of Tam emerges, and the Queen 
  allows him his freedom.
  THE INVESTIGATORS
  The Investigators, who should be new to the area, are oblivious to 
  Cullingstone’s secret. Two of them should be a couple who have 
  just bought The Rambles, which is an old house just outside the 
  village, and the game starts on their first day there. They must 
  have a daughter, aged somewhere between six to nine years old. 
  There might also be another child, probably younger, either a 
  boy or a girl.
  Give each Investigator something that ties them to The Ram-
  bles, to Cullingstone or to each other. Here are some example 
  Investigators with suitable ties.
   
   A new teacher hired by the village school
   
   A young doctor, assisting Doctor Boswell or taking from him.
   
   A nanny or housekeeper hired to  work at the Rambles
   
   The child’s maiden aunt, coming to live with her sister.
   
   The new groundskeeper of The Rambles
   
   A police constable, taking over from PC Thorburn
  Try strengthening their bonds by making one Investigator a 
  relative or old friend of another.
  Tailor the game to accommodate the choices that players make 
  in character generation, making certain NPCs or locations more 
  prominent. If the Investigators are not all members of the same 
  household, find ways of getting them to interact: to bring in a 
  doctor, use the injury to the daugther (see below); to bring in a 
  teacher, use the daughter’s first day at school. 
  
  4
  ANCIENT AND BROODING
  You can run Fairyland using any Cthulhu game system. 
  These symbols indicate when you might use the game rules: 
  see Dark Symbols, at the back, for more explanation.
  SAMPLE INVESTIGATORS
  AGNES BALFOUR
  Providence has only seen fit to bless the Balfours with one child 
  so far: their daughter Christobelle. However, Agnes has not given 
  up hope of having another one day. In the meantime, she has 
  decided to take on the job of teacher in Cullingstone to let her 
  care for as many children as possible, and to make sure she can 
  have a hand in all aspects of Christobelle’s upbringing. 
  Christobelle is an imaginative child, given to seeing fairy 
  magic and imaginary friends wherever she goes. She would be 
  a bit of a handful without the guiding hand of her nanny, Miss 
  Blackfield. Her husband, Sebastian, is well-meaning but not 
  much help. Agnes also relies on doctors wherever she goes to 
  provide her with tinctures and gripe water to stop Christobelle 
  from wandering at night.
  SEBASTIAN BALFOUR
  The Balfour family come from old money, and Sebastian has 
  taken advantage of this to set himself up as a photographer. He 
  ran an unprofitable studio in Edinburgh for a number of years, 
  before becoming thoroughly bored with taking portraits. He has 
  now decided to relocate to the countryside to explore natural 
  subjects, and has used a substantial portion of his capital to 
  buy The Rambles, where he and his wife will raise Christobelle.
  Sebastian has something of an obsessive manner, and currently 
  finds his photography far more interesting than his wife or 
  daughter. He is not a bad father, but simply a distracted one. 
  CYNTHIA BLACKFIELD
  While Miss Blackfield dislikes being called an old maid, the fact 
  that she is now in her early thirties and still unmarried does 
  provoke comment. This is mitigated by the fact that she could 
  only charitably be referred to as plain, and while she comes from 
  good stock, her family has no wealth to speak of. She has worked 
  as a ladies’ companion before, but has just taken employment as 
  a nanny for the first time.
  Miss Blackfield has only known Christobelle for a short while, 
  but is already very fond of the child. Christobelle is certainly 
  wilful, but she is also sweet-natured, imaginative and quick to 
  find wonder in everything. Mrs. Balfour obviously struggles to 
  cope with the child, but Miss Blackfield is determined to care 
  for Christobelle as if the child were her own. 
  ROSS MENZIES
  Menzies has worked as a groundskeeper and handyman for all 
  of his adult life, but found himself out of work recently following 
  the death of his former employer and the sale of his estate to 
  a family who had no need of him. He has recently managed to 
  find a new employer in Sebastian Balfour, although this involved 
  moving some thirty miles to Cullingstone.
  Menzies has taken up residence in the groundskeeper’s cottage 
  on the grounds of The Rambles and has been making the main 
  house and its grounds ready for its new owners. While he is 
  not a superstitious man, he has found himself unnerved by the 
  atmosphere of the place. His father would have been quick to 
  put all this down to the influence of the wee folk, but Menzies 
  knows better.
  DOCTOR DANIEL BRODIE
  Daniel Brodie is a young doctor, not long out of medical school in 
  Edinburgh. He is energetic, enthusiastic and driven by the desire 
  to help others. He has just taken over the village practice from 
  Doctor Boswell, and is finding the whole experience perplexing 
  and frustrating.  Not only has Doctor Boswell left scant patient 
  notes, but he has not set foot in the surgery since Doctor Menzies 
  arrived, but he refuses to even answer his door to visitors. On 
  the few occasions that Doctor Menzies has managed to bump 
  into his predecessor, usually while having a drink at the Tatty 
  Bogle, Doctor Boswell has done all he can to steer the conversa-
  tion away from his former patients.
  Speaking of the patients, very few of them seem to be coming 
  to the surgery, leaving Doctor Brodie rather bored much of the 
  time. They probably just need some time to learn to trust a new 
  doctor. In the meantime, he has heard that a new couple are 
  moving to town and hopes that they will prove less standoffish 
  than the other locals.
  
  5
  THE TREES ARE WATCHING
  THE RAMBLES
  The Rambles is a large country house on the edge of Cullingstone 
  and, when the game starts, the Investigators who will live there 
  are moving in. The Rambles’ rooms are large, empty and feel 
  recently abandoned: the brickwork is not yet cold and, upstairs, 
  the occasional children’s toy is abandoned on the floor. While 
  the Rambles is not quite a stately home, it is grand enough to 
  have a few acres of private grounds, including a groundskeeper’s 
  cottage. These grounds border on Hobs Wood for a distance of 
  a few hundred yards, and this border is visible from the back 
  of the house.
  Their daughter will want to explore, and it is a nice, clear autumn 
  morning, so she is naturally drawn to the garden. As soon as 
  there is some distraction to occupy the adults, such as the movers 
  dropping the crate containing the family china, the daughter will 
  go off to explore the woods.  Unless someone thinks to look for 
  her sooner, the family will certainly notice that she is missing 
  when it comes around to high tea in the late afternoon. By this 
  time dusk has fallen and a chill has entered the air. There is no 
  sign of the daughter in the house or the gardens. There is only 
  one explanation, which can be gathered from asking a member 
  of staff, finding a toy in the undergrowth or any other method 
  you devise. She has headed into the woods.
  HOBS WOOD
  Hobs Wood is a patch of thick woodland of Scots Pine trees. This 
  is an old woodland, and the oldest of the trees stands nearly a 
  hundred feet tall.  From the outside, it appears to be about 75 
  acres in size, but it is possible to get lost for days within it.
  The woodland has been home to the Mi-go for so long that their 
  experiments have changed it forever. Time flows differently within 
  the woods, but even this is not consistent. On some journeys into 
  the woods, a traveller may pass out again to find that only the 
  normal passage of time has occurred, and on others they may find 
  their loved-ones in distress because they have been lost for days.
  Small balls of white light can often be seen moving through the 
  trees, usually high off the ground. Most of the time they are only 
  seen at a distance, but if the Mi-go want to drive off interlopers 
  (see A Storm in the Woods below), they may come much closer. The 
  laughter of children can also be heard occasionally. Sometimes 
  this comes from changeling Maeve (see below) as she plays in 
  the woods, and sometimes it simply hangs in the air as an echo 
  of events long past.
  As the Investigators get deeper, there is a brief flash of light from 
  within the darkness of the woods. If someone goes to investigate, 
  they can hear the girl’s laughter up ahead, but as they follow it, 
  the source of the laughter shifts first to the left and then to the 
  right. There is the occasional glimpse of moving lights off in the 
  distance. Then, unexpectedly, the daughter comes from around 
  a tree and collapses unconscious.
  There are a few specks of blood on the front of her dress. If any-
  one examines her, they will find a small number of pinpricks on 
  her abdomen. Closer examination shows that the pinpricks form 
  the points of a perfect dodecagon, and that the holes are small 
  and deep, as if made with a very fine needle. The Mi-go have 
  made their initial examination and are now deciding if this is 
  a suitable subject.
  When the Investigators emerge from the woods with the uncon-
  scious daughter, they will believe their search has taken less 
  than an hour. However, there are signs that much more time has 
  passed: perhaps the moon is high in the sky, perhaps even the 
  sun is rising. Any Investigators that stayed out of the woods will 
  know that the search party has been gone for hours.
  When the daughter wakes up, she will be excited and happy, 
  telling everyone that there are fairies in the woods. She cannot 
  describe them beyond the dancing lights, but she knows they 
  are there because her new friend Maeve told her. Maeve lives in 
  the woods and is friends with all the fairies there. The daughter 
  is insistent that the fairies are real and that she wants to see 
  them again.
  The next day, the daughter insists she is well enough for her 
  first day at school. 
  DESCRIBING THE WOODS
  Remember that pine woods can be frightening places. The thick 
  foliage blocks out light, making the woods gloomy even in bright 
  sunshine. The carpet of dead pine needles on the ground dampens 
  the sounds of footfalls, which, in combination with the lack of 
  animal or bird life in Hobs Wood and its disconnection in space 
  and time from the surrounding area, makes it an unnaturally 
  silent place. The density of the trees in the wood and the lack of 
  variation would make it quite easy to lose one’s bearings even 
  without the distortions in space. Play all of these aspects up. 
  The woods should seem threatening even before any strange 
  events occur.
  Additionally, create confusion about the passage of time. If one 
  Investigator stayed outside, run scenes in parallel, with no mention 
  of the fact that time is moving differently for each party. If they 
  enter the woods to find the search party, let time run differently 
  for each group. Perhaps one emerges at midnight, the other at 
  dawn. Perhaps, even, one group is gone for days.
  When a group who have been in the woods emerge, play with 
  their perceptions. Try telling them that the sun is low in the sky, 
  then let them realise that it is rising, not setting. Try telling them 
  that their fob-watches are wrong: they read five o’clock, but it is 
  patently dark outside. Best of all, use Investigators that stayed 
  outside to convey that the searchers have been gone for hours 
  without explanation.
  
  6
  THE CHILD YOU KNEW IS LOST
  
  7
  IN SCREAMING, UNNATURAL PAIN
  CULLINGSTONE
  Cullingstone lies in rural surroundings, with gentle hills to 
  the north, green fields dotted around and the dark expanse of 
  Hobs Wood to the west. The buildings are of ancient grey stone, 
  surrounded by dry stone walls of the same material. While the 
  stone appears bone dry, it feels unnervingly slick to the touch.
  The village holds just over three hundred people, but also serves 
  outlying houses and farms. This gives it a large enough base to 
  support a pub, village shop, primary school and church. 
  In the area around Cullingstone, sixteen families have changeling 
  children. The town has banded together to keep their secret, partly 
  out of love for the children, and partly out of fear for what they 
  are capable of if they are betrayed. The villagers obviously live 
  in fear of losing more children, but are also afraid of what might 
  happen if the fairies are not paid their due. There are memories of 
  what happened in 1861: when the parents all conspired to either 
  leave the area or keep their children locked up throughout the 
  autumn. The fairies brought storms and lightning to the village, 
  burning down buildings, killing the innocent and filling the air 
  with an intolerable grating noise.
  Since then, while villagers with daughters often move out of the 
  area until their children are at least adolescents, they do find 
  ways of encouraging newcomers with daughters to come to the 
  village and stay there until their children are taken. Once this 
  has happened, they are welcomed into the secret community of 
  parents of changelings.
  If anyone tries to disturb this process, by threatening to expose the 
  changelings or to somehow bring the wrath of the fairies down on 
  the village again, the villagers will have few reservations about 
  hurting or even killing them and offering up their child directly.
  Below are various locations and characters that the Investiga-
  tors might encounter in Cullingstone. However, don’t feel that, 
  just because an NPC or location is listed here, you must bring 
  it into play. If they never visit the church, for example, there is 
  probably no reason ever to introduce the Reverend Clow, and 
  the game will not suffer for his absence. These elements simply 
  provide colour, information and sources of conflict, and each has 
  something unique they can bring to the game. As the Investiga-
  tors find themselves in locations or situations associated with 
  an NPC, bring that character into play. If you find yourself 
  bringing new NPCs into play, find a way that their lives have 
  been touched by the changelings, whether by having a child, a 
  sibling or even an old school friend still living in the town as an 
  unchanging, cold child.
  CULLINGSTONE SCHOOL
  The school, as is fitting for a village, has only two classrooms and 
  a small office for the teachers. Outside is a grassy area where the 
  children play during breaks, with a set of swings and a see-saw. 
  Like all the other buildings in the village, it is made of ancient 
  stone, slightly slick to the touch.
  Each classroom has wooden chairs, desks and slates for twelve 
  children. Indeed, as only eleven currently attend the school, they 
  could easily all be taught together. The children themselves range 
  in age from five to eleven: older children either attend school 
  outside the village. Older children either go to school outside 
  the village or have started working.
  Mrs Alexander keeps the teacher’s office locked when it is not 
  in use. The office only has one desk, and the bottom drawer is 
  kept locked at all times. It contains a bottle of gin and  an old 
  photograph (see below).
  Mrs Alexander will use the excuse of any new teacher coming to 
  Cullingstone to split the class, giving the older children, includ-
  ing Lizzie Erskine, to the new teacher.
  IRENE ALEXANDER
  Mrs. Alexander is a widow, who lived for most of her life in 
  Galashiels, the nearest large town to Cullingstone. When her 
  husband died in an accident in the textile mill, she took work 
  as a teacher at the Cullingstone primary school, partly for the 
  income and partly to start a new life for herself, away from 
  painful memories.
  In the two years she has lived in Cullingstone, she has become 
  steadily unnerved, especially by Lizzie Erskine. The Erskine 
  girl always struck her as a bit odd, with her distant manner 
  and refusal to play with the other children. On the couple of 
  occasions Mrs. Alexander forced Lizzie to join in the games in 
  the playground, children would get hurt by her. She still made 
  allowances for Lizzie, due to the girl’s exceptional academic ability.
  A month or so back, however, Mrs. Alexander found an old picture 
  which had fallen behind the desk in the school office. It showed 
  Lizzie in the playground, looking exactly as she does now, but 
  surrounded by a different group of children. The picture is dated 
  “Spring Term, 1875” and checking the names listed on the back 
  of the picture, Mrs. Alexander came to realise that a few of the 
  children in the picture were now young adults in the village.
  
  8
  WRITHING BENEATH THE SKIN
  As she asked around, trying to find a sane explanation for the 
  image, she found herself increasingly shut out by her fellow vil-
  lagers. She has started drinking heavily, even hiding a bottle of 
  gin in her desk drawer at the school, and now fears and despises 
  all the children, but especially Lizzie.
  If a Investigator takes on the job of teacher, he or she will see many 
  signs of Mrs. Alexander’s eccentricity and drunkenness. She will 
  insist on splitting the class in two, with the new teacher taking 
  half the students, including Lizzie, and then refuse to even set 
  foot in the new classroom. She will be reluctant to even discuss 
  the children beyond giving names, and her dislike of Lizzie is 
  obvious. Once the new teacher is in place, she will look for any 
  excuse to lock herself in the office, supposedly to plan lessons, 
  and will drink herself into a stupor. 
  Once Mrs. Alexander is drunk enough, she can be drawn out 
  on the source of her fears, but she will only make oblique hints 
  about her suspicions after having been rebuffed by the rest of 
  the village. She will not volunteer to show the picture, which 
  is normally kept hidden in the same locked drawer as her gin.
  LIZZIE ERSKINE
  Lizzie Erskine was replaced by a changeling almost twenty-one 
  years ago. Like many of the changeling children in the village, 
  she was kept indoors and away from prying eyes for much of this 
  time. Last year, though, she demanded to go back to school and 
  her parents eventually relented.
  Lizzie’s attempts to study the other children have been largely 
  unsuccessful, due to her failure to inspire anything other than 
  fear in them. She sits out for most of the games now and keeps 
  to herself. She will take the opportunity of a new teacher to try 
  to learn about them, and will be especially interested if they 
  have a young daughter.
  Lizzie sits in the back of the class and reads books that are far 
  too advanced for a primary school student. She has a special 
  interest in mathematics, and can do calculus as easily as the 
  other children can recite their times tables. If she is presented 
  with the more normal coursework of the class, she will become 
  bored and restless. She has memorised the entire contents of all 
  the books in the school and can recite each one, word-for-word, 
  to prove that she has nothing to learn.
  The relationship between Lizzie and the other children is a dis-
  tant one. They are all frightened of her, and she watches them 
  as a detached observer, as if recording their behaviour. When 
  she interacts with them, it frequently ends in disaster, as Lizzie 
  either accidentally hurts a child while playing, or deliberately 
  inflicts harm on one to make them leave her alone. She will grab 
  the arm of a child, preferably the daughter of the couple who own 
  The Rambles, and pull hard enough to dislocate the shoulder. 
  The bruising on the daughter’s arm looks like it was caught in a 
  vice, but as it becomes more distinct, the shape of a child’s hand 
  becomes more distinct in the bruising.
  PLAYING THE CHANGELINGS
  To project some of the alien impression of the changeling girls, 
  just try taking all the emotion out of your voice when you speak 
  as them. This isn’t quite a monotone, but try to avoid variations 
  in pace, inflections or figures of speech. The girls never become 
  excited, frightened or angry, although they may ask oddly direct 
  questions: “Are you sad?”, “Are you angry?”, “Are you going to 
  kill me?”. Try keeping still and maintaining eye contact with 
  whoever you are speaking to, blinking as little as possible. By 
  the time the players have encountered a few girls who speak this 
  way, they should become quite unnerved.
  When two or more changelings are gathered and there are no 
  obvious human witnesses, they will drop all pretence and commu-
  nicate with each other using a strange buzzing sound. If someone 
  manages to penetrate the false, waxy skin of a changeling, they 
  will see a glimpse of something black, insectoid and thoroughly 
  incomprehensible underneath. The changeling will almost cer-
  tainly kill them to protect its secret.
  THE VILLAGE SHOP
  The Erskines, parents of Lizzie, run the village shop and post 
  office, and so know everyone in town. Callum Erskine is a friendly 
  soul, if of a somewhat haunted aspect, but his wife is a bit more 
  reclusive. They live in some rooms above the shop, along with 
  their daughter Lizzie.
  Unlike some other parents in town, it has never occurred to the 
  Erskines to pretend that Lizzie is anything other than their 
  daughter. Given that they are both now in their late fifties and 
  Lizzie still appears to be eight, this may seem peculiar to a 
  newcomer to the village.
  Moira Erskine is terrified of her daughter and has developed 
  a serious addiction to laudanum in her attempt to control her 
  fear. She rarely leaves the house now, and spends much of her 
  time in bed. Any new doctor in town is going to face demands 
  from her to prescribe her some more “medicine for her nerves”, 
  as she puts it. She is prone to staring blankly out of the window, 
  towards the heart of Hob’s Wood, although she cannot explain 
  why her eyes are drawn there.
  Moira’s sister, Edith Cameron, lives down in Shropshire now. 
  They still correspond, although Moira has never told her sister 
  the truth about what happened to Lizzie. Instead, Moira has 
  invented a rich adult life for her daughter, full of tales of her 
  new husband and their travels around the world. She keeps all 
  her sister’s letters in her bedside cabinet, and a number of them 
  make reference to Lizzie’s fictitious adult life.
  
  9
  THE TALES ARE TRUE
  THE DOCTOR’S SURGERY
  If the owners of The Rambles haven’t already sought out the vil-
  lage doctor after their daughter’s mysterious injury in the woods, 
  they will probably do so if her arm is hurt by Lizzie Erskine.
  The surgery is another small, grey building, which stands in the 
  centre of the village. It contains a consulting room, a small office 
  and a few rooms for the doctor’s living quarters. These have not 
  been used for some time, as Doctor Boswell now has a cottage 
  just outside the village.
  There is a large wooden cabinet full of Doctor Boswell’s records in 
  the office, and it will take at least half a day to go through them. 
  Anyone who does so will notice that there have been pages torn 
  out of notebooks, and that a number of records are entirely miss-
  ing. With a bit of detective work and cross-referencing, it can be 
  deduced that the missing records all pertain to young girls, and 
  the records with missing pages belong to their family members. 
  These alterations run through the full span of the records, all 
  the way back to the early 1850s.
  DOCTOR MALCOLM BOSWELL
  Doctor Boswell has been the village doctor for almost forty years, 
  and the strain of living with Cullingstone’s secrets has taken its 
  toll on him. He sleeps poorly when he sleeps at all, which makes 
  him distracted and easily angered. The only thing which has 
  stopped him retiring is the fear of having to deal with a newcomer 
  learning his role in keeping the secret.
  While Boswell is secretive and surly, he will soften slightly should 
  the parents of a new changeling child come to him for help. Obvi-
  ously he will be unable to help with the child’s condition, but he 
  is more than happy to prescribe laudanum to calm the nerves 
  of any distressed parents.
  THE NEW DOCTOR
  If one of the Investigators is the new village doctor, they will find, 
  on taking over, that the surgery has obviously been empty for a 
  while, with a light coating of dust on all surfaces and a slightly 
  musty smell in the air.
  If a Investigator is taking over as the village doctor, he will find 
  Boswell singularly unhelpful; he will not volunteer to come to 
  the surgery, share details about any patients or even talk to the 
  new doctor unless he absolutely has to. Boswell has taken many 
  of the patient notes with him, especially those relating to the 
  changeling girls and their families. He keeps these notes locked 
  in a trunk in his cottage.
  Many of Boswell’s patients will be reluctant to trust a new doctor, 
  and any Investigator in this position will find the surgery oddly 
  empty unless there is a serious accident in the village.
  THE POLICE STATION
  Police Constable Gareth Thorburn is the one policeman in the 
  village. While he reports to the main police station in Galashiels, 
  he spends most of his time in Cullingstone and the surround-
  ing farms. He is a large man, with a thick, greying beard and 
  a cheerful disposition. This cheer is forced, masking a sullen, 
  fatalistic temperament.
  Like so many others in the village, PC Thorburn has lost and 
  gained a daughter. Marie Thorburn has not left her father’s 
  house for the past eight years. She has become defective, and 
  no longer pretends to sleep or eat. She wanders round the house, 
  day and night, usually in the dark. Her eyes look even less life-
  like than the other changelings. If anyone attempts to talk to her, 
  she will simply ask, over and over, to be told a story, speaking 
  in a flat monotone.
  Thorburn’s wife, Sheila, was unable to cope with the change in her 
  child and went into the woods in search of answers. She has not 
  been heard from since. PC Thorburn tries to love his daughter 
  as if she were as she always was, and is very protective towards 
  her. Nevertheless, he is terrified of what she might be capable of.
  If PC Thorburn is brought in to investigate a missing child, he 
  will try to keep everyone involved as calm as possible. His goal is 
  simply to stop outsiders getting involved before a new changeling 
  can appear. He will also try to convince the parents of a change-
  ling child to accept her as their own.
  THE OLD WAIN HOUSE
  The house in which the Wain family lived, before their lives were 
  destroyed, is now empty and boarded up. If anyone breaks in, 
  they will find it mildewed, musty and home to rats and pigeons 
  which have managed to find their way in through the crumbling 
  walls and ceiling. 
  The main room of the house has a smaller structure built within it. 
  This is the prototype of Wain’s shack in the woods (see below), and 
  shares the same deranged geometry. It can be entered by crawling 
  into one of the holes in the sides, and any explorer will then find 
  themselves in a dark, cramped maze of tight passageways. The 
  walls are rough and wooden, and splinters and protruding nails 
  abound. If they persist, they will find themselves crawling for far 
  longer than could be explained by the size of the structure they 
  saw from the outside. Chinks of light can be seen in the walls, 
  and after a while there will be a coating of dead pine needles on 
  the ground and a smell of pine sap in the air.
  The tunnel finally comes out into a corner of Wain’s shack in the 
  woods, but if a PC attempts to trace their steps back they will 
  find no sign of an entrance to the maze in the shack.
  
  10
  THEY HAVE ALWAYS WATCHED US
  THE TATTY BOGLE
  The sign outside this pub, which lies on the outskirts of Cull-
  ingstone, depicts a ragged-looking scarecrow of evil aspect, with 
  arms reaching out in front of it. The name “Tatty Bogle” refers 
  to a type of fairy reputed to hide in potato fields and capture 
  unsuspecting people. The pub itself is an old stone building with 
  a relatively small public bar and a couple of rooms upstairs. It 
  is busy on most evenings, except on Sunday, when it is shut. A 
  number of the villagers are regulars.
  PC Thorburn can be found here most nights, as can Doctor 
  Boswell, and the two of them often drink together at a corner 
  table near the fireplace. Callum Erskine also drops in a few 
  times during the week.
  The atmosphere at the pub is subdued, and it becomes obvious 
  that many of the customers are there to drink to forget. While 
  they will give a cool welcome to any newcomers, any talk of the 
  children or local fairy legends will be met with silence. So, too, 
  will anyone asking after the Rambles’ previous tenants: a young 
  curate and his wife, who walked into the woods after their daugh-
  ter was abducted, never to emerge. A stranger will have to work 
  hard to win the trust of any drinkers here, and even then they 
  are most likely just to hear stories of boggarts, bogles or Thomas 
  the Rhymer. Only after much persistence and alcohol might a 
  drinker mention children disappearing and returning changed.
  If anyone attempts to tie the local fairy legends with strange 
  events that have happened in the village, they will be met with 
  laughter at first, then attempts to steer the conversation onto 
  other topics and finally with angry silence. This avoidance should 
  be all the confirmation the Investigators need.
  CULLINGSTONE KIRK
  The village church is a modestly-sized grey stone building just 
  off the main road that runs through Cullingstone. It is large 
  enough to hold the entire church-going population of the village 
  for weekly services. The denomination is The Church of Scotland. 
  There is nothing sinister going on at the kirk, and everything 
  is exactly as it seems. 
  The vicar, Reverend Clow, has no children of his own, but has 
  seen enough of what is happening in Cullingstone to believe that 
  girls have been replaced. His struggle to understand what had 
  happened was superseded by the requirement to give comfort to 
  the affected families and the community at large. As a result, he 
  tries to accept the changelings, and even attempts to rationalise 
  having children who never lose their innocence as a divine gift. 
  Underneath all this, though, he is terrified, and tries to keep the 
  peace out of fear of what will happen if the changelings or the 
  fairies who placed them in the community are angered.
  If a Investigator comes to Reverend Clow for help, he will attempt 
  to convince them to accept the child as their own, to show it love 
  and patience and, above all, not to anger it.
  BACK TO THE WOODS
  Over the next few days, the daughter of the couple who own the 
  Rambles tries to slip away into the woods, to play with the fairies 
  again. If she succeeds, she does not come back.
  If the Investigators enter the woods – either to find the daughter 
  or simply to discern its secret – they hear a small girl laughing. 
  On following the voice, they see a small girl, running through 
  the woods and playing with ethereal lights. This, however, is not 
  the daughter, but Maeve. She is difficult, but not impossible, to 
  catch. Maeve, unlike other changelings, has not acclimatised to 
  people and rarely speaks to adults. She just wants to find other 
  children to play with. 
  MAEVE WAIN
  Maeve spends her time roaming the woods. Her purpose, which 
  she only half-suspects, is to act as a lure when the fairies wish 
  to take a child. She befriends little girls who wander into the 
  woods and tells them about the fairies who live there, showing 
  them the dancing lights and the glowing fairy ring. She then 
  tells the child to return, whenever they can, to learn new games.
  Maeve is seven years old, with long brown hair and a broad pale 
  face. She wears a bright red overcoat. Maeve laughs constantly as 
  she runs through the woods; this is not mirth, but a lure for her 
  prey. If anyone demands that she takes them to see the fairies, 
  Maeve may oblige, taking them to the Fairy Ring (see below) and 
  showing them how to open the door to Fairyland.
  WAIN’S SHACK
  Deep in the woods, the Investigators stumble across a shack. 
  At first sight, it looks incompetently built: planks are nailed 
  together at strange angles and often seem to be leaning against 
  nothing. As the Investigators draw closer, the shack’s geometry 
  is unsettling. It should not stand and, yet, it has clearly been 
  standing for many years.
  If anyone enters, they discover a tattered figure skulking in a 
  dark corner. He has a shotgun, which he points at the Investiga-
  tors. The figure divides his attention between the intruders and 
  something hidden beneath an old blanket. He whispers calming 
  words to whatever is hidden, telling it not to be afraid. This is 
  Ian Wain, Maeve’s father, and under the blanket are the bones 
  of the original Maeve.
  Wain was a carpenter and builder, who had carried out work 
  for almost everyone in the community. He used to be a friendly, 
  outgoing man, known for his good humour as much as for his 
  professionalism. 
  Eight years ago, Maeve disappeared from Wain’s house, where 
  he lived with his wife Helen. When the changeling calling itself 
  Maeve returned, he refused to accept it as his daughter. He tried 
  to drive it from the house, but his wife refused to let him do so. 
  He clung to the idea that his real daughter was still out there, 
  and searched Hobs Wood for her, day and night.
  
  11
  MOCKING AND SILENT
  Eventually he found the rotted husk of what had been his daugh-
  ter, with the top of her head surgically removed and her brain 
  missing, lying in a pile of dead leaves. He brought the corpse 
  home to prove to his wife that the thing in their house was not 
  Maeve, which proved more than Helen could bear. She killed 
  herself with her husband’s shotgun that night.
  All this drove Wain quite mad. He abandoned his house and 
  went out to live in Hobs Wood, believing that Maeve’s spirit still 
  lived out there. He has been there for many years, but thanks 
  to the deformations of space and time in the woods, less than a 
  year has passed for him. He has been foraging in the woods to 
  survive, and may have eaten some of his daughter’s remains. The 
  distortions in space and time which permeate the woods have 
  further changed him, giving him insane insights into the true 
  nature of reality. He sees the fairies out in the woods. Sometimes, 
  he sees Maeve playing with them.
  Wain built the shack to protect himself and his daughter. Its 
  structure has been influenced by his perception of the woods. 
  There is not a normal angle in the place. It is possible to walk 
  into a skewed corner and keep going, disappearing from the view 
  of others, or turn a corner into a room and end up somewhere 
  behind where you started. There is no stable geometry.
  Maeve’s remains rest on a dark wooden table. They are largely 
  skeletal, although there is mummified flesh on the bones. If 
  anyone inspects it, they will find the top of Maeve’s skull has been 
  removed, with impossible surgical precision: the edges of the bone 
  are as smooth as glass. Wain himself can no longer differentiate 
  between the dead girl and the changeling: they are both Maeve 
  and both need to be looked after. Both Maeves wear the same 
  red overcoat, but the one on the skeletal Maeve is tattered and 
  stained. In his more lucid moments, he realises that something 
  is wrong with his daughter, but he can’t quite articulate it.
  Wain’s speech is rambling. He believes absolutely in the existence 
  of fairies, making references to Thomas the Rhymer, Tam Lin or 
  Childe Rowland (see above). If one of the parents asks what has 
  happened to their daughter, he will tell them not to worry:  she 
  will come home soon, and that they should love her as their own. 
  His main motivation is to protect Maeve, which an Investigator 
  can extend this into helping their own daughter by pointing out 
  the similarities in their situations. If persuaded, he will lead the 
  Investigators to the Fairy Ring (see below).
  SPLITTING THE PARTY
  Between Maeve Wain, Ian Wain, the dead daughter and the Fairy 
  Ring, there are many places to go in the woods. If the Investiga-
  tors split up, present each with a different scene. Let them meet 
  each other again when the story needs it.
  FINDING THE DAUGHTER
  It is time for the Investigators to find the missing daughter. Bet-
  ter still, they may find two of them.
  As the Investigators approach the Fairy Ring, they may see the 
  changeling of their daughter, walking in circles, lost and confused. 
  She is cold and pale, with a film of oil on her skin. Alternatively, 
  if the Investigators are elsewhere, the changeling daughter may 
  make her way to them. She walks out of the woods at night. 
  While she says she does not feel cold, her skin feels frozen, and 
  all attempts to warm her up are futile.
  Additionally, while exploring the woods, the Investigators should 
  find the real daughter’s body. She is sitting up against a tree, 
  still and cold to the touch. If anyone tries to move her, the top 
  of her head slides slowly off and lands on the ground, revealing 
  the emptiness in her skull. As with Maeve, the surgery has been 
  performed with inhuman precision.
  A STORM IN THE WOODS
  The Mi-go rely on the unwelcoming nature of the wood to deter 
  intruders. However, if people are undeterred by the darkness, 
  dancing lights and echoing laughter, they will start building 
  up a storm.
  The storm starts off as a charge in the air - Investigators perceive 
  a smell of ozone and the hairs on their necks and arms stand 
  on end - with the occasional crack of electricity discharging into 
  the ground. The air then grows darker and a wind starts to pick 
  up, swirling the dead pine needles and dust on the ground and 
  raising them into the air.
  The strength of the wind grows steadily, and the trees begin to 
  shake. The ground rumbles and a strange buzzing fills the air. 
  The dancing lights of the wood air everywhere now and seem to 
  be closing in. Branches begin to crack and break loose, and there 
  is real physical danger from flying debris. Strange, dark shapes 
  can be seen flying through the dust, almost man-sized, but with 
  many misshapen limbs.
  When you describe this, try speeding up your delivery of the 
  details as they escalate to create a sense of menace. Ask “What 
  do you do” occasionally, but then start throwing in more details 
  if the players hesitate. Try to overload them with information, 
  and don’t worry about repeating yourself. Concentrate on the 
  sensory details their characters will feel -- the disorientation of 
  being lost in the storm, the stinging of debris, the nausea caused 
  by the maddening buzzing. Convey the sense of panic.
  If the Investigators escape from the woods, all the chaos stops. 
  From the outside, the woods are perfectly calm and quiet.
  
  12
  ACROSS VAST TRACTS OF SPACE
  THE FAIRY RING
  Deep in Hobs Wood, where the trees are unnaturally thick, is a 
  clearing shaped like a perfect circle. Here, the air is unusually 
  still and silent. The changeling children are often drawn here 
  when they are in the woods. 
  In the centre is a ring of large, fleshy mushrooms: this, according 
  to folklore, is a fairy ring. Whatever the mushrooms are, they 
  are not from this earth, and the colours underneath the cap are 
  outside the known spectrum. Under each mushroom, embedded 
  in the ground, is a luminescent purple crystal. 
  This is the entrance to Fairyland. To enter, one must walk around 
  the ring anticlockwise (widdershins) three times. With each 
  completed circuit, the ground trembles, the wind increases and 
  reality begins to blur.
  There are many ways to learn the secret of entering Fairyland. All 
  changelings know it. Ian Wain knows it, although he has never 
  been there himself. Indeed, any of the Cullingstone villagers 
  might tell the Investigators how to enter: after all, it is an easy 
  way to silence them.
  DEPICTING THE CREATURES
  If your players are familiar with Cthulhu games, be wary of 
  mentioning the Mi-Go or describing them too clearly. Once they 
  can put a name to the horror, the mystery and menace disappears.
  Instead, keep the Mi-Go as a shadowy presence, rarely glimpsed, 
  rarely encountered if it all. If they do appear, simply describe 
  misshapen, dark figures, with too limbs, that move too fast for 
  the eye to see. Give so many sensory impressions  -- windstorms, 
  dust, dancing lights, creaking trees, buzzing -- that anything else 
  is just part of the chaos.
  If your players are unfamiliar with Cthulhu gaming, then you 
  might be more Lovecraftian. Emphasise the alien nature of the 
  creatures. Give hints towards other planets and ancient ages.
  Always, however, leave some doubt about what the monsters are. 
  Use different names and never “Mi-Go”: fairies, shapes, things, 
  creatures, bogles, chatterlings, old ones, wisps, shadows. Are they 
  fairies? Are they aliens? By the end of the scenario, the players 
  should remain unsure.
  
  13
  TOO FAST FOR HUMAN EYES
  FAIRYLAND
  Whatever Fairyland is, it exists in multiple dimensions. Per-
  ceiving it is more than the human mind can cope with. Most 
  Investigators will simply see a riot of light, colours and shifting 
  shapes. In the distance, little girls’ voices can be heard, some 
  crying, some laughing, some calling for their mothers. Dark 
  shapes move within the dancing colours -- misshapen things 
  with many crooked limbs.
  Anyone who follows the sounds of the children will encounter rows 
  of gleaming metal cylinders. These containers are the sources of 
  the voices, which come from dark metal grates on the lids. All 
  the missing children are here. They have all been driven mad by 
  the experience of having had their brains removed and placed 
  in these cylinders.
  The daughter of the owners of The Rambles is especially frantic. 
  She knows that she is trapped and she wants her parents to free her.
  At first, the misshapen creatures simply observe. However, if 
  anyone tries to make off with a jar, they will intervene. Give some 
  warning of this: when the Investigators begin studying the jars, 
  describe the dark shapes drawing closer. If they continue after 
  that, it is their funeral.
  First, the creatures shock their intended victim with lightning. 
  They then vivisect them while conscious. This process is fast, 
  efficient and merciless. This, note, is not really combat, but a 
  suitable end for an Investigator who has pried too far.
  The other Investigators see the victim suspended in the air, on 
  their back, and the top of their head removed with something shiny 
  and unfamiliar. Perhaps the victim screams or cries for help 
  until the brain is actually severed from the spinal cord. Finally, 
  the brain is inserted in one of the gleaming cylinders, and the 
  voice of the victim joins that of the frightened girls.
  WRAPPING IT ALL UP
  There is no one way to end Fairyland. Some Investigators may 
  examine every aspect of the situation, pushing on until they 
  uncover the secret of the Fairy Ring. Others may be drawn more 
  towards the problem of the changeling in their midst or to the 
  human drama which surrounds losing a child. 
  Watch for a suitable ending and finish the game on a dramatic or 
  emotional note that feels right. Maybe one Investigator tries to 
  murder another to protect a changeling. Maybe, having provoked 
  the Mi-go, the Investigators withdraw to the house to make a last 
  stand, as a storm of light and chaos descends on them. Don’t be 
  afraid to ask the players, “Shall we end it there?” even if there 
  are loose ends. 
  If it feels right, have the players narrate codas for any Investiga-
  tors that survive (whether in cylinders or not).
  
  14
  CRUSHING, SEETHING EVIL
  CTHULHU DARK
  YOUR INVESTIGATOR
  Choose a name and occupation. Describe your Investigator. 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 fear.
  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 at-
  tention 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 infor-
  mation 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. For these 
  clues, consider weaving in some elements of Scottish fairytales.
  And, on a 6, you may glimpse beyond human knowledge (and 
  probably make an Insanity roll). For hints on this, see the short 
  phrases at the bottom of each page.
  For example: shortly after arriving at The Rambles, an Investigator 
  wants to know where his daughter has gone. On a 1, he suspects 
  she has gone into the woods. On a 4, he finds her favourite toy, 
  a glittery ball, near the edge of Hobs Wood.
  On a 5, he finds the toy and remembers newspaper reports of 
  similar disappearances in Scotland, which locals related to the 
  folktale of Childe Rowland, whose sister also disappeared while 
  playing with  a ball.On a 6, he finds the toy, remembers the reports 
  and recalls the connection with Childe Rowland. Additionally, 
  when he picks the toy up, he feels the trees are silently watching 
  him, as they watched his daughter before.
  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.
  REROLLING
  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 before, you may add it now and reroll.
  Afterwards, look at the new result. As before, the highest die 
  shows how well you do.
  If your Insanity Die rolls higher than any other die, make an 
  Insanity roll, even if you made one after your previous roll.
  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. Whoever 
  gets highest wins. If it’s a tie, the person with highest Insanity 
  wins. If Insanity is tied, reroll.
  As before, if your Insanity die rolls higher than any other die 
  you roll, make an Insanity roll.  And, if anyone is not happy with 
  their roll, they may reroll, using the rules above.
  SUPPRESSING KNOWLEDGE
  When your Insanity reaches 5, you may now reduce it by sup-
  pressing Mythos knowledge: for example, burning books, stopping 
  rituals, destroying yourself or impeding investigation.
  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.
  
  15
  A DARK MEANING LIES BENEATH
  Fairyland is © Scott Dorward 2012. Cthulhu Dark is © Graham 
  Walmsley 2010, 2012.
  DARK SYMBOLS
  You can run Fairyland using any Cthulhu game 
  system. These symbols show you when to use the 
  rules. When they appear, the text to which they 
  refer is italicized.
  This is a clue. Investigate to discover it. 
  In Cthulhu Dark, make a roll (as described under 
  Doing Things opposite). In other systems, the 
  Keeper chooses an appropriate skill or ability.
  This is a clue. Talk to someone to discover it.
  In Cthulhu Dark, make a roll. In other systems, 
  the Keeper again chooses an appropriate skill or 
  ability, which is normally social (e.g. Bargain) or 
  academic (e.g. Architecture).
  This might harm your sanity.
  In Cthulhu Dark, roll your Insanity Die.
  In other systems, make a SAN roll, a Stability 
  Check or similar. If you lose, the number of 
  branches on the symbol tells you how bad the 
  SAN or Stability loss will be. For example, the 
  symbol to the left indicates a loss of D6 SAN or 6 
  Stability Points.
  Check to see whether you notice this.
  In Cthulhu Dark, make a roll. In other systems, 
  use Spot Hidden, Sense Trouble or similar.
  When two symbols are combined, so is their 
  meaning. So this is a clue. Investigate to discover 
  it. It might harm your sanity.
  And this is a clue. Talk to someone to discover it. It 
  might harm your sanity.
  With all that said, remember these symbols are 
  only guidelines. Sometimes, you might give a 
  clue without a roll. Sometimes, you might call for 
  a roll where no symbol appears. Sometimes, an 
  event won’t seem frightening enough to harm an 
  Investigator’s Sanity, but another event will. Use 
  your judgement during the game.
  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, un-
  derstanding 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 greatuncle’s personal effects, you would not 
  find the coordinates 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.
  UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
  Who decides when to roll Insanity? Who decides when it’s inter-
  esting 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 as-
  sumptions. For example, some groups will let the Keeper decide 
  everything. Others will share the decisions.
  LAUDANUM
  This is a special rule for Fairyland.
  If an Investigators takes laudanum, they may roll to reduce their 
  Insanity. This works exactly as with Suppressing Knowledge, 
  above, except that Insanity need not be 5.
  The Keeper should take this as a license to describe increasingly 
  weird things to the Investigator. Perhaps, after taking laudanum, 
  they are particularly entranced by the fairy lights. Perhaps they 
  believe that the dissected daughter is beautiful. Or perhaps, once 
  inside Fairyland, they find the fairies comforting and welcoming.
  
  16
  DREAM OF THEM
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Cthulhu Dark/Cthulhu Dark - Fairyland.pdf