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TRAIL OF CTHULHU

1

The Murderer

of Thomas Fell

A man close to you—father, business partner,informant, friend—has gone missing. The search begins at his house... which is not as it seems.

Following the trail of this missing man leads you ona startling and perilous adventure. Finding him may

change your life, and his, forever.

Tonight you meet the murderer of Thomas Fell.



TRAIL OF CTHULHU



TRAIL OF CTHULHU

3

Credits

Publisher: Simon Rogers

Written by: Will Hindmarch

Art and Layout: Jérome Huguenin

GUMSHOE Guru: Robin D Laws

Playtesters: Alex Jeffries, Scott McKillican, O’Rourke Nirvan Wynn,Michael Marshall, Amy Poynter, Will Ludwigsen, Scott McClellan, EdCain, Don Rochester

Trail of Cthulhu was written by Kenneth Hite, based on the GUMSHOEsystem by Robin D Laws

Trail of Cthulhu was created by arrangement with Chaosium, Inc.

© 2008 Pelgrane Press Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Published by arrangement with Chaosium, Inc. Trai

of Cthulhu is a trademark of Pelgrane Press Ltd.



An Introduction

GUMSHOE is the game engine humming inside a collection of sleek, focused horror and investigation RPGs. It is a precisioninstrument, designed to tell stories through roleplaying by givingplayers a greater degree of control over the moments when theircharacters succeed. In part, it does this by removing the random

element in investigative scenarios and replacing it with that coreelement of all good gameplay: decision making.

In a GUMSHOE scenario, the question isn’t whether youcan find the clues in some kind of randomized equivalent of apixel hunt. Rather, your characters—presumed to be capableinvestigators—are assured to find the clues they need. Thequestion becomes whether you can piece those clues togetherin time to solve the dramatic, and often horrific, mysteries yourcharacters confront.

Whether you’re looking for a game centered on bold detectivesscouring dark places for the truth behind occult crimes, oryou want to recreate the sweaty desperation of survival horrormovies, in which ordinary people face extraordinary terror,there’s a GUMSHOE game to create the perfect experience.

TRAIL OF CTHULHUIn the tradition of the RPG classic, Call of Cthulhu, comesfan-favorite author Ken Hite’s adaptation of the game for theGUMSHOE system:Trail of Cthulhu. If you’re reading this, you havesome idea what this game is, or will soon. Probably you enoughabout the Cthulhu mythos tales of H.P. Lovecraft to understandthat the perils of following the trail of Cthulhu are madness and

death, and that it’s the selfless bravery of the investigators whodare to face the witheringexistential truths of thecosmos that makes themheroic.

What you may not know,yet, is what makes Trail of Cthulhu distinctive, beyond just a new kind of game rules and a ten-yeartime shift to the 1930s.Beyond the specially

honed investigativerules common to allGUMSHOE games, thisgame features simplenew ways to humanizeinvestigator charactersand detail their motivesand personalities. Ingame terms, these are

their Drives, Pillars of Sanity, and Sources of Stability.

Trail of Cthulhu also supports two distinct styles of play, so ycan face Lovecraftian horrors exactly the way you want to. In tPurist mode of play, investigators are fragile, wary souls whosanity is finite and always in peril of being blasted away to nothi by the unearthly truths to which they expose themselves. Y

can also play Trail of Cthulhu is the Pulp style, throwing punchat sinister cultists and emptying Tommy guns into the droolimaws of mythos creatures. Each style of play is a simple mattof degree, so learn one simple set of rules and you’re ready play either way.

You’ll need the Trail of Cthulhu rulebook to play this adventu but you’ll find the format of GUMSHOE adventures is so cleand concise that you can appreciate this scenario even if yhaven’t yet read the rulebook.

THE ESOTERRORISTSYou might be afraid to face the Esoterrorists. You should be. Bthey must be stopped. It’s up to you.

The bold and intriguing debut of the GUMSHOE system, TEsoterrorists is a complete investigative horror game from RPmastermind, Robin D. Laws. As part of a global conspiracalled Ordo Veritatis, your expert detective character pursuand confronts occultterrorists whereverthey lurk. If you don’tstop them, they’ll shapereality to their insane

whims, warping theworld into a vision of horror in which theviciously mad are kingsand good people live infear.

Your weapons? Cunning,reason, courage, andthe truth. Use the cluesyou discover, combinedwith your knowledgeand exposure to

occult truths, to solvethe mysteries of theesoterrorists, fight their crimes, and avenge the dead. Sometimthat means outwitting the enemy, sometimes it means shootihim dead.

The Esoterrorists is a razor-sharp roleplaying game of mysteand the occult, with concrete guidelines to get you designiyour own compelling investigative scenarios right away. Insiyou’ll discover the secret ambitions of the loosely-align



cults of the Esoterrorists, horrors to confront, more than 35investigative abilities to hone, and a complete, advanced scenarioof geopolitical terror called “Operation Slaughterhouse.”

FEAR ITSELFIn the tradition of the greatest slasherfilms and survival-horror tales, Fear Itself pits ordinary peopleagainst extraordinaryhorrors in scenariosin which few—if any—characters willsurvive. Explore amodern world of gritty, desperateconfrontations againstan alien menace fromthe Outer Black. Andescape, if you can,with your life.

Fear Itself putsplayers in control of characters very muchlike themselves, then plunges them into the kinds of brutallyterrifying survival-horror scenarios that make you afraid to walkhome alone afterwards. An ideal platform for one-shot games

of relentless, unforgiving terror, Fear Itself is the gutsy, goryinstrument of fear you’ve been looking for.

If your characters escape murder and madness long enoughto survive, Fear Itself easily unfolds into a series of compellingadventures in which your ordinary characters becomeextraordinary over time—and get their chance to make themonsters of the Outer Black afraid of them.

THE BOOK OF

UNREMITTING HORRORIntelligent. Insidious. Inhuman. These are your new nightmares.

The Book of Unremitting Horror is a bold and mature menagerieof terrifying, grotesque, and cunning new monsters for any GUMSHOE game. No simple catalog of simplistic beasts, this isa detailed examination of horrors more sophisticated than simplevampires and zombies, exploring not only how these creatures behave but what they want, how they think, and why.

Beyond that, eachmonster is presentedthrough the lens of legendry, rumor, andhearsay. Read the

accounts of brave,poor souls who havefaced these things before. Learn whatto look for, whatevidence they leave behind, and how bestto fight them. Andwhen to run.

Don’t just shop fornew creatures tochop to bits. Takeyour antagonists to anew level of terror.Remember what it was like to be afraid of monsters. Remembewhat monstrous really means.

MUTANT CITY BLUESIn a world not so unlike our own—except that super-powerevigilantes and criminals are real—someone must keep the peacSomeone must solve the crimes perpetrated by and against thoswith mutant powers. You are that someone. Using your owunique powers, drawn from more than 95 choices includin

Regeneration and Self-Detonation, you follow the clues anuncover the mysteries of Mutant City.

With a default play mode casting characters as expert investigatoin the employ of the Heightened Capacity Investigative Un(HCIU), Mutant City Blues plays as a provocative, super-powerepolice procedural. With its detailed history of emerging mutanpowers and the effect they have on the world, Mutant City Bluis also flexible enough to accommodate your own unique branof crime-fighting.

Any city—your city—can become Mutant City. This completroleplaying game from acclaimed designer Robin D. Laws, giv

you everything you need to play out intelligent, thrilling polictales with a stunning super-powered twist.



TRAIL OF CTHULHU

Introduction

to the AdventureThis adventure is designed to showoff integral parts of the GUMSHOEgame system that powers Trail of Cthulhu, but also to give you a tasteof the many kinds of thrills waitingfor you in future adventures for thisgame, from investigative suspense toperilous violence to eldritch madness.At the same time, this adventure paysweird homage to the noir classic TheThird Man, by centering the tale on anabsent man—a man the players willhelp bring to life through their ownroleplaying and the actions of theircharacters. Like The Third Man’s HarryLime, Thomas Fell should be a figurethe characters thought they knew...

until their investigation revealed thingsabout him that they might never havesuspected. The climax of the storyhinges on the dramatic entrance of Thomas Fell and the revelation of hisdreadful fate.

For the sake of manageability, TheMurderer of Thomas Fell puts the PCs ina closed environment, so you don’thave to worry about a sprawling city-wide investigation or the possibilityof characters hopping on a train and

riding away from the scenario. (Trail of Cthulhu makes it easy to play out suchlarge-scale investigative tales, but thisshort adventure assumes you don’thave the time for that.)

Within this closed environment,however, the players have a greatamount of freedom to investigate,attack, retreat, regroup, and roleplay.The choices they make will contributeto everyone’s mental image of Thomas

Fell, as well as his actual gamestatistics, thereby setting up the playersand their characters alike for hisshocking appearance at the end of thestory. (See “The Truth About ThomasFell” on p. XX to see how.)

Using This StoryThis scenario is designed to be playedas a stand-alone or one-shot tale—ataste of Trail of Cthulhu before youcreate characters of your own. Thatmakes this a good scenario to play at aconvention or as a first foray into theGUMSHOE system.

This isn’t to say you can’t easily adaptthis story for use in an ongoing Trail of Cthulhu series. “The Murderer

of Thomas Fell” makes a fineintroductory story, or a prologue to aongoing series, if you want to followup on the exploits of these charactersor make continued use of the artifactdescribed herein. See the sectioncalled “Aftermath,” at the end of thisstory, for more on that.

To make this part of a Trail of Cthulhuseries that’s already begun, simplydon’t worry so much about thepersonal connections between the

players’ characters and Thomas Fellhimself. Your series’ characters areprobably already intrepid investigatorswith their own reasons for looking intothe mysterious disappearance of a localantiques dealer. Here are some easyways you can set up Thomas Fell, andthus this story, in an ongoing game:

,QVHUW7KRPDV)HOODVDSOD\HUcharacter’s contact.

,QWURGXFH7KRPDV)HOOLQDQHDUOLHUstory as a witness or expertconsultant on an unrelated case.Then have the characters hearfrom Kenneth or Roger, Thomas’ssons, that Thomas hasn’t beenseen in several days and his housedark. “Will you go with us to lookaround his house?” they ask.

6HW7KRPDV)HOOXSHDUO\LQ\RXUseries as a Source of Stability fora player character, especially onewith points in Archaeology, ArtHistory, or even Occult.

The only downside to using this storyin the midst of an ongoing series is thatyou may not get to take advantage of the opportunity to have the playersdefine Thomas Fell through their own

roleplaying.

Reading This StoryThroughout this story, you’ll findtext describing the story’s settings,characters, monsters, and events.Some of this text is suitable for readingaloud to your players. Don’t. This textis meant to be inspirational, givingyou a concrete details you can use inyour own descriptions and account of

events.

Reading directly from the text feelsstiff and overly formal most of thetime. Worse, when you read from thetext, the players can tell when you’rewinging it and when you’re not. Thismight tip them off to details that areimportant, versus details that are redherrings or just for color. Rather thangiving them these meta-clues, if youwill, stick to paraphrasing the text you

The Murderer of Thomas Fell



TRAIL OF CTHULHU

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Introduction to the Adventure

The first part of the story puts thecharacters in Thomas Fell’s house,parts of which have been replaced,

impossibly, by jutting boulders andtangled jungle trees. There they seekevidence of his whereabouts and anyclues that might suggest just wherethe hell the kitchen has gone. Thispart’s scenes occur when the PCs visitparticular parts of the house but oncethe scene “Cellar,” is complete, thestory moves irrevocably into its secondpart.

The second part of the story beginswhen an ancient artifact in the cellarmystically transports the PCs to theremote and alien mountaintop whereThomas Fell’s expedition of occultistsand archaeologists met its awful end.There the characters struggle to findThomas Fell and make sense of allavailable clues in the hopes of findinga way home. At the same time, theystrive to avoid being bitten and turnedslowly to stone by the strange andlethal creature that dwells upon themountaintop. These scenes occur

either when the PCs physical locationor your sense of drama dictates thatthey do.

This story offers numerousopportunities for embellishing detoursand short tangents, but the barestspine of the tale is quite simple. Tocomplete this scenario, the charactersmust:

%HVXSHUQDWXUDOO\WUDQVSRUWHGWRthe bizarre mountaintop ruins

'LVFRYHUWKHQDWXUHRIWKHDUWLIDFWthat brought them there

/RFDWH7KRPDV)HOODQGNLOOhim to secure escape from themountain

Along the way, the characters haveopportunities to learn the truth aboutThomas Fell’s doomed expedition tothe mountain (which may be of use

Driven mad by Mythos revelations hehas discovered while researching thestones, Thomas tried to kill the rest

of his expedition to keep them awayfrom his fragment of a broken standingstone, which allows them to teleport back to his house. He succeeded inkilling one of his comrades and fatallywounding another; the other twofled into the mountaintop’s strangewilderness, where they were attacked by the egg-tending beast that dwellsinside the rocks there. They remainalive, for now, as they are graduallyencased and penetrated by ribbonsof stone that will store them for themonster and its young to eat later.

Meanwhile, using a spell engravedon a mountaintop stele, Thomas hasabsorbed the stone fragment intohis body, and it’s the only hope of getting off the mountaintop. Hisplan is to capture at least one moreoff the monster’s eggs to take “backto the world.” His plan beyond thatis sketchy and irrational: he believesthat he needs to bring these eggs

to other teleportation destinations,hatch them, and train them to serveas protectors. Anyone who gets in hisway must, in his mind, want to exploitthe teleportation stones for their ownpurposes; killing such persons will savelives, he thinks.

If the player characters want to seehome again, they must get the stonefragment out of Thomas Fell, whichrequires cutting him open and tearingit free. Fatal, to be sure. This is the

price, however, of achieving thescenario’s victory condition: escapefrom the mountaintop.

The SpineThis adventure consists of two mainparts, each set in a different part of theglobe and each containing scenes thatcan be played in just about any order.

find in this book, glancing at it beforeyou describe the setting and actionsunique to your version of this story.

Your focus, after all, should be on theplayers and the tale actually unfoldingaround them—not the version of thestory we predict here.

This adventure demonstrates all theparts of a scenario described on page192 of Trail of Cthulhu.

The HookThomas Fell has gone missing. For daysno one in town has seen him. He hasn’tanswered his phone. He hasn’t pickedup his mail. His house has been dark.Where is he?

The scenario begins with thecharacters assembled on Thomas Fell’sfront porch and unlocking the door tohis house.

The Horrible TruthThomas Fell has departed his homethrough the use of a mystic artifact—astanding stone in his cellar whichinteracts with other alien standingstones to magically teleport personsacross the globe. He has used the stonein his cellar once already, withouttelling anyone, and collected a strangestone artifact—egg-shaped and etchedwith glyphs—on his journey. (This israther what it appears to be: an egg.Inside is a fearsome alien predator.)

Thomas’ scheduled trip is part of an expedition funded by Jan Joyce-Cleveland, but it began somewhatsooner than expected, when Thomasand the four expeditionary partnershe hired (with Joyce-Cleveland’smoney) met at his house to plan outthe trip. The teleportation effect,accidentally triggered, relocated themto a mysterious mountaintop deep in aremote and dangerous mountain range.



TRAIL OF CTHULHU


the characters while they wander themountaintop, but this undercuts thefinal reveal of Thomas at the end of the

story; it’s best if the PCs don’t knowThomas is still alive until after they’velearned that he is the one who hasturned on the expedition members.Leave them wondering where Thomasis and just who has killed him for aslong as possible.

The Mouth in the Stone is a fearsomemonster, vaguely cunning but no moreintelligent or sinister than any earthlypredator. It reacts to the presence of the investigators by stalking them and,if possible, securing them as a sourceof food with its petrifying bite. Thetiming and appetite of the creatureis entirely a matter of Keeper fiat. Itattacks when you think the adventureneeds a dose of desperate peril orgruesome violence, or when you needto conveniently remove an NPC that’s bogging things down.

Neither of these antagonists, therefore,is working actively against the PCs. The

primary opposing force generating theconflict in this story is the characters’predicament: they are trapped in ahostile place. Everything—the threatof the creature, the lurking dangerof Thomas Fell, the possibility of starvation or a fatal fall—should beempowered by the antagonism of theenvironment itself.

Special Game System: The

Truth About Thomas Fell

Who is Thomas Fell? Thatdepends. Who do the PCs thinkhe is?Thomas Fell’s personality, abilities,and background reflect the way theplayers roleplay their characters andwhat they presume their relationshipwith Thomas was like. By reacting

Part Two:

The MountaintopOnce the characters have activatedthe stele in Thomas Fell’s basement,the story moves to this second part,a survival and investigation situationin which the goal is to locate Thomaswithout being slain by a fearsomemonster first. This part of the story isset in a remote Andean mountaintop,transformed into a temperate, alienrefuge by ancient and forgottenmysticism.

By locating and following clues basedlargely on Evidence Collection,Outdoorsman, Art History, andInterpersonal Abilities, the charactersare able to discern just what isnecessary to escape the mountaintop.The clue chain takes the charactersacross various optional encounterscentered on the scenes of multipleattacks and dying survivors, wherethey may learn clues that preparethem for their final encounter, before

culminating in the discovery of ThomasFell at a bizarre shrine. There they arefaced with the moral dilemma at theheart of this story: who will be themurderer of Thomas Fell?

All along the way, the characters haveopportunities to use their GeneralAbilities as they flee from or fight anunearthly monster: The Mouth in theStone.

Antagonist ReactionsThere are two antagonists workingagainst the PCs in this scenario:Thomas Fell and the supernaturalcreature called the Mouth in the Stone.

Thomas Fell reacts to the arrivaland investigations of the PCs bywithdrawing from them and remaininghidden for as long as possible—thatis, until you’re ready to trigger thefinal scene of the story. If it suits yourpurposes, he may track or shadow

should you choose to turn this one-shot story into the beginning of anongoing campaign), and the fates that

befell his colleagues.

Meanwhile, the players use theircharacter’s abilities to add personalityand details to the persona of ThomasFell, with the help the Keeper, asdescribed in the special game systemon p. XX.

OverviewPart One:

Thomas Fell’s HouseThis first part of the scenario is acollection of simple investigativescenes designed to reward almost anymanner of investigative approach andgive the players a chance to get intocharacter (or show off their skills) before the mayhem begins. As such,the clues available in many of these

scenes are attainable with a variety of Investigative Abilities. Be flexible. It’smore important for the charactersto learn how to gain clues in thesescenes than it is for them to properlyassemble them.

Most of the clues revealed in this firstpart are leveraged clues, usefulwhen the characters locate survivors of Thomas Fell’s expedition in Part Two.Likewise, this is where the playersare most likely to detail Thomas Fell’s

character with their own actions.

Pacing in this first part is vital—don’tlet the PCs get bored enough to leavethe house. When one of them triesto do that, it’s your sign to trigger“The Stone Activates” clause in thescene “The Cellar.” This immediatelytransports the character to Part Two.



TRAIL OF CTHULHU

9

Overview

Library Use + Bargain: “We’veseen Hanson’s journal, Thomas. I sawyour notes back at the house. We know

about the stones and those creature’seggs. If we agree to bring the eggs back, will you take us home?”

Letting the Players In On ItDo the players know they’re definingThomas Fell with their actions? Thedefault assumption is that they donot. This minimizes the ability of theplayers to abuse the mechanism.

On the other hand, if you’re runningthe kind of game in which the playersare able to add details to the setting by asking about them—e.g., “There’sprobably a box of cigars in here,right?”—and they’re not throwing thewhole game experience out of whack,then you should let them in on thegame system so they can specificallyadd details to Thomas Fell as a meansof adding reflective details to theirown characters. For example, Roger’splayer might suggest that ThomasFell failed out of medical school and

was always a little jealous of his son’ssuccess, just as a means of explaining a bit of Roger’s arrogance.

Only you know your players wellenough to judge the right course of action, here. We certainly don’t.

Essential TraitsWhile Thomas’ interests andpersonality quirks are subject to theinputs of the players, a few essentialtraits must be in his repertoire in

order to make this scenario unfoldwith a bit of logic. At least as of the moment when the PCs finallyencounter Thomas Fell, he must havethe following traits or Abilities:

+LV6DQLW\LVHURGHGWRQRWKLQJ³Drating of 0. Thomas is irretrievablyinsane, broken by his exposure toMythos spells and the effects of the one he cast upon himself. HisSanity was probably never very

So, an Academic, Technical or possiblyeven a General spend in the first partof the scenario can reveal a piece of

information about Thomas Fell—theprerequisite clue—that can beleveraged in the final scene with anInterpersonal Ability.

Here are a few examples of Investigative Abilities the pre-generated characters possess andhow they might be leveraged with anInterpersonal Ability in the final scene.Remember, these are examples, notrestrictions:

Art + Flattery: “Dad, you rememberhow mad I got when I was havingtrouble with figure drawing in school?I was furious because I wanted it to beeasy, but it wasn’t. You told me, ‘thingsare often hard when they’re worthdoing.’ I know it’s hard for you to putdown the gun, Dad, but... it’s the rightthing to do. You taught me that. Youknow it’s the right thing to do. You’resmarter than this.”

Latin + Assess Honesty: “Youtaught me the Hippocratic Oath inLatin because you said, if I really meantit, I should learn it twice. You believedin me for learning it, and following it,didn’t you? ‘Do no harm.’ You’re notgoing to shoot me, are you, Dad?”

Evidence Collection +Interrogation: “You put two roundsinto that man’s back, Thomas. Youshot a man in the back! What the hellis wrong with you? What were you

thinking? How did you expect to getout of here without your partners? Tellme!”

Occult + Intimidation: “You readthe stones, didn’t you, Thomas? Youused them. So you know how to getus home. Now you listen to me: your boys will die here, starved or eaten,unless you tell me how to get us out of here. You tell me, or we die and you’refinished in ‘back in the world.’”

to the players’ cues (intentional orincidental) you ensure that theirchoices have meaning and that Thomas

has a personal connection with thecharacters when they finally meet.

For example, if Kenneth’s playermakes it clear that Kenneth finds hisfather to be a harmless old kook, youhave a scrap, a datum, to absorb intoyour characterization of Thomas. Heis, on some level, a gentle and perhapseven eccentric fellow—when he’s notcrazily murdering. Maybe he continuesto wear and adjust his glasses, orstraighten his bloodied tie, or speakwith a start-and-stop shyness. If, onthe other hand, Knox’s player suggeststhat Thomas was a stubborn bastard,you should play him as a stubborn bastard, at least in his dealing withKnox. Remember, no one behaves thesame way with everyone.

Beyond that, and more specifically,the spends players make in Thomas’house should influence his abilities, hisinterests, and his vulnerabilities—the

things which affect him, even throughhis madness. Players may make spendswith almost any skill in this way just todetail Thomas’s character. As a rule of thumb, no player may make a secondspend on Thomas’ details until everyother player has made his or her firstspend to do so.

This sets up Thomas to react toleveraged clues in the final scene of the story, essentially creating thepossibility for every Investigative

spend describing him to turn intoa leveraged clue, as describedon p. 194 of Trail of Cthulhu. If it’san Archaeology spend that revealsThomas’ secret library (in the scene“The Den”) is hidden by a latched door behind an etching of Knossos, thenusing symbolism or archaeologicalreferences may get his attention in thefinal scene, enabling an Interpersonalability to penetrate his mad thoughtsand reach the mind within.



TRAIL OF CTHULHU


Thomas Fell gives each player anotherway to define to individualize hercharacter.

Kenneth FellOccupation:Artist

Drive: Ennui

Broke, bohemian, and haunted bya sense of powerlessness, you are atrue artist. Not in the sense of theMasters, but in the real-world senseof the working, toiling creator, livingin squalor but proud that at least youdon’t have to demean yourself withembarrassing, soulless work. You cancount on your fingers the number of pieces you’ve sold—some sculpture,some paintings—but every one hasgone to people with decent taste andgood money; people you can respectyourself for selling art to. By eatingtins of beans and living in your studiowith a communal bathroom downthe hall, you even manage to livefor several months off a single sale.

Somebody, you might make it big. But,you realize, probably not. You get by.

Nature is one avenue of inspiration foryou, particularly the way the worldsculpts itself. Volcanoes, desert bluffs,ocean-side cliffs and other natural rockformations captivate you. These arewhat you paint and sculpt, sometimesrealistically and sometimes not.

You are the younger of Thomas Fell’stwo sons. Your older brother is Roger,

a doctor. He’s the respectable one,the success story. He took after yourfather’s academic side, the rationalside, and got through medical schoolwith discipline and more than a littlearrogance. You can’t really relate tothat. Ambition, arrogance, duty— these are admiral traits, but they belong to other people. You’re moresensitive, observant, and sympathetic;you tell yourself that these are whatmake you a good person, even though

using this story for a convention game,the information provided herein isall the players have to go on when

imagining Thomas Fell, or whendiscussing him in-character.

If you’re using this story to kick off anongoing Trail of Cthulhu series, considerextracting some of these characters’relationships and experiences withThomas Fell and assigning them to thecharacters your players presumablymake for themselves. Although ThomasFell’s personality and history shouldremain close to what’s described here,give him siblings, friendly rivals, ex-wives or whatever else is necessaryto build a compelling dramaticconnection between him and theplayers’ characters.

Whether you’re using pre-generatedcharacters or not, it’s important thatevery player’s character have somepersonal history with Thomas Fell builtinto her backstory, even if that rapportisn’t so important that Thomas Fellis one of their Sources of Stability. In

fact, for characters you expect to carryover to follow-up stories, it’s best if Thomas Fell is not a Source of Stability,since his death is all but guaranteed.Perhaps the characters know Thomasfrom a function at the Joyce-Clevelandestate, or perhaps they’ve met himthrough dealings with Makepeaceor Detective Wright. Any of therelationships established with the pre-generated characters can be dialeddown to something less than Source-of-Stability levels.

A prior connection to Thomas Fellhelps not only to heighten the moraldilemma at the end of this story, but itgives each player material to draw onwhen roleplaying the search for theirmissing friend. Are they afraid for hissafety or afraid that he’ll make somegreat discovery without them? Dothey blame Thomas for their troublesor expect him to save them all? Eachcharacter’s unique relationship with

high to begin with.

+LV6WDELOLW\LVORZEXWQRWJRQH

It’s this semblance of normalcythat enabled him to get the jumpon his expedition partners. Hisexact Stability must be determined by you, the Keeper, to reflect thedifficulty and tone of the finalscene as you want to present it. Itcan also be fudged to reflect theinputs of the players, who maysuggest something of Thomas’Stability prior to this expedition.

7KRPDVUHDGVDQGZULWHVDQDQFLHQW

language that none of the PCs do,and it is in this language that theMythos secrets on the stelae arecarved. Perhaps it’s an ancientIncan dialect or a bizarre derivationof Egyptian hieroglyphics.Whatever it is, this language is the barrier that stands between thecharacters and the ability to useMythos knowledge or spells in thefinal scene. You want to allude to agreater, unknown horror, not get

bogged down in the minutiae of how Thomas’ ill-fated spell works.

)LUHDUPV6FXIIOLQJDQG:HDSRQVThomas needs a rating in at leastone of these Abilities sufficientto be a threat in the final scene.More than likely, his advantage isnot his expertise in any of theseAbilities but, rather, his shotgun:a Winchester pump-action with 5shots. It deals +1 damage.

(If it’s helpful for exposition purposes,Thomas Fell used to hunt quail withMakepeace. From this he’s picked upa rating of 8 in Firearms; enough to be dangerous in the final scenes of thestory.)

Player CharactersTo get you playing the game rightaway, you have here five pre-generatedcharacters, each with its own personalconnection to Thomas Fell. If you’re



TRAIL OF CTHULHU

11

Player Characters

the money is good and it’s importantwork but... you don’t really like

doing it anymore. You have to checkthe chart to remember your patients’names sometimes. You’re a little tiredof seeing the same cases again andagain—tennis elbows and stomachaches all the time.

You are the elder son of Thomas Fell.Your little brother is Kenneth, the“artist.” How does he manage to livethe way he does? Eating beans fromthe tin and sleeping in his hole of a

Roger FellOccupation: Doctor

Drive: Duty

A husband and a doctor, you consideryourself an upstanding citizen and, oneday, a family man. You work hard, youmake good money, you support yourwife and don’t mess around. What elseis there?

For you, medicine is a profession,not a calling. You help people because

you’re not healing the sick. You twodon’t talk much.

Your dad is a kindly old coot, prone togetting in over his head, especially inregards to business. He’s owed moneyin the past, but not to especially badpeople, and he’s been taken by forgersand deadbeats before. Fingers crossed,that’s as bad as it is this time, andhe’s just laying low, trying to figureout how to make some money to pay back some debts and keep his antiquesconsultancy and dealership in business.You don’t know what you’d do if he’sreally in trouble. Surely you’d doanything to find him, but you’re notsure what you’d do if something wereto happen to him. You’ve come todad’s house because you’re genuinelyworried about him.

Pillars of Sanity:7KHJRRGQHVVDQGKRQHVW\RIWKH

natural world

7KHUHOLDELOLW\RIKXPDQNLQG·Vpredictable selfishness being

undermined by generosity

7KHSRZHURIDUWWRLPSDFWWKHheart and mind of any person, if done right.

Sources of Stability:Thomas Fell(your father, who is difficult butreliable), Jeannie Corman (youron-again-off-again girlfriend), HansSiegler (a friend and artist whose workyou admire and emulate)

Investigative Abilities:Architecture 2, Art 6, Art History 4,Craft 4, Credit Rating 1, Flattery 4,Geology 2, Occult 1, Photography 2,Reassurance 4

General Abilities: Driving 4, Filch5, Firearms 2, Fleeing 12, Health 9,Psychoanalysis 8, Sanity 9, Stability 10,Sense Trouble 5, Stealth 5, Weapons 2

What the Characters Know About Each Other

The following information should be paraphrased to all the players, probably

through straight narration, before the story begins, so that everyoneunderstands what their characters know about each other:

This concern for Thomas Fell’s wellbeing started with Jan Joyce-Cleveland, who grew worried when the men hired to plan the expeditionwith Thomas never reported. Worried, but not yet willing to declare Thomasmissing (for her own reasons), Joyce-Cleveland called Knox Makepeace,who Thomas had considered bringing into the expeditionary team, but thendecided against. Makepeace and Thomas are old friends and colleagues, so Joyce-Cleveland hoped they might have been in contact recently.

Makepeace, however, had already been worried about Thomas. The last timethey saw each other, Thomas was acting strangely—paranoid, disinterested inwork beyond his “current project” and quick to anger. They’d met for lunch,and it had ended with Thomas leaving in a huff. So, when Thomas’ currentfinancier Joyce-Cleveland called on Makepeace to ask him if he’d seenThomas, Makepeace got worried and called Thomas’ old friend, DetectiveNorman Wright, for his professional opinion.

Detective Wright got in touch with Thomas’ two grown sons, Kennethand Roger, as par t of his casual pre-investigation. When Detective Wrightmentioned that he wanted to go by Thomas’ house to poke around, bothsons volunteered to come along—out of guilt. Neither had spoken withtheir father, Thomas, for several months. That he could go missing and they’dnot be among the first to notice is embarrassing for them both. Though it’s

possible that they know their father better than anyone else, they probablyknow the least about his work, and his sometimes close contact withantiquities of questionable legality.

Phone calls lead to more phone calls, and soon everyone back along the chainof worry is on the sidewalk outside Thomas Fell’s house, each looking to findhim for their own reasons. So it is that these five souls meet in the space left behind by Thomas Fell.




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that he’d go missing for a few days?You called around to dig up someinformation and ended up getting the

attention of his sons—more troublethan you meant to stir up, but what’sdone is done. If they can help you solvethe case of the missing antiquarian,that’s just fine.

Pillars of Sanity:7KHLQQDWHJRRGQHVVRISHRSOH

Crime makes people bad, whichleads to more crime, but peopleare inherently good.

3DWULRWLVP$PHULFDLVDQ

exemplary nation, admirable andtrue.

/RYHIRU&KLFDJR\RXUKRPHWRZQA hard-working, American town.

/DZ:KHQSHRSOHDELGHE\society’s codes, we can be a greatpeople.

Sources of Stability: CaptainGeorge Gough (your precinct captain,

a weathered old dog of a man who haskept his sense of humor through darktimes), Thomas Fell (a good local soulwho helped you handle the estate salewhen your parents died—you’ve since become friends)

Investigative Abilities: AssessHonesty 6, Cop Talk 4, Credit Rating3, Evidence Collection 4, Forensics 2,Interrogation 6, Law 2, Outdoorsman2

General Abilities: Athletics 12,Driving 4, Firearms 14, Health 11,Mechanical Repair 4, Sanity 12,Stability 8, Scuffling 10, Sense Trouble14, Stealth 6

Jan Joyce-ClevelandOccupation: Dilettante

Drive: In the Blood

General Abilities: Driving 2,First Aid 20, Fleeing 10, Health 10,Psychoanalysis 10, Sanity 12, Stability

7, Scuffling 6

Detective Norman WrightOccupation: Police Detective

Drive: Curiosity

You’re a local police detective, in it forthe mysteries. A fan of detective fictionand puzzle games of all sorts, youlove a good question and the searchfor a good answer. Your devotion toyour job, then, isn’t out of revengeor a need to judge people, but a self-indulgent interest in solving crimesrather than fighting criminals. You’rea capable cop, and you’ve fired yourgun, but your wits are stronger thanyour fists and you know it.

You met Thomas Fell a couple of yearsago, when he helped you out on a caseof missing antiques from a robbery-homicide case in town. Thomas posed

as a buyer for the thieves in a stingoperation you designed. You felt like areal policeman, that day.

Since then, you’ve been fr iends withThomas because of your sharedenthusiasm for the stories behindthings—the tales of how objects cometo be in the hands of their currentowners, for example. He’s a curiousman selling curios, and that leads togood conversations. Still, you don’tspend that much time with him, just

a visit to his house now and again, butif he’s in a rough patch, you’ll returnhis favor by using your job to help himout. You wouldn’t break the law forThomas Fell, but you’d devote on-dutytime to making sure he’s all r ight.

When Makepeace called and went sofar as to say he was missing, well, youwere intrigued. Thomas is no misfit,so he can’t be in too much trouble.But what has he gotten himself into

studio—he has no self-respect and noambition. It’s pathetic, but you can’tspend your life trying to change him.

Some day he’ll outgrow his artisticfantasy and get a real job. Life is work,after all, whether you want to do itor not. You need money to live andkeep your family well. Unless you’reKenneth, and then you don’t have toworry about anyone but yourself.

Your father understands this to a point.He works hard, but he doesn’t showthe best judgment. He gets distracted by art and antiques that appeal to him but don’t have sufficient resale value,letting his fun get in the way of hiswork. In this way, he’s almost exactlyhalfway between you and your brother.

It’s most likely that your father isn’tmissing at all, but rather has no paidhis telephone bill or been checkingthe mail or something. Still, if the oldman fell down in his house and hurthimself, that’d be your fault, in a way.You haven’t checked up on him in awhile, like a good son should. If he’s

not okay, you know you’ll end up blaming yourself. And Kenneth.

Pillars of Sanity:7KHEHDXW\RI*RG·VFUHDWXUHV

especially the human form

3K\VLFDOODZVDQGWKHYDOLGLW\RIscientific knowledge

7KH+LSSRFUDWLF2DWK³DIHZGXW\ bound people can save lives

Sources of Stability: Muriel Fell(your wife of 8 years), Thomas Fell(your father, who is a stubbornheadache sometimes but your father allthe same)

Investigative Abilities: Accounting2, Assess Honesty 2, Biology 4, CreditRating 4, Forensics 4, Languages(Latin) 2, Medicine 4, Pharmacy 4,Reassurance 2



TRAIL OF CTHULHU

13

Player Characters

may become emotional and personal,and that’s no help. Unless you can use

them to get Thomas Fell out of thewoodwork.

Pillars of Sanity:$HVWKHWLFVDQGKLJKDUW³EHDXW\ benefits mankind

)DPLO\6RPHIDPLOLHVDUHJUHDWHUthan others. A great family can leadand inspire.

Sources of Stability: Grover

to some hiding place? You fundedthem, so whatever is happening, it’s

happening on your dime.

Damn it all, though, Makepeace wentand called a police detective. Nowyou may have to pay him off if theprovenance or proper ownership of the stele comes into question—orthe fact that you hired men to lootantiquities. Even with the law being assketchy as it is, you’d rather have keptthe police out of it. And now that Fell’ssons are involved, the whole business

(Jan is specifically named to be gender-neutral. Whether the name is short for Janice or is a male name of Norwegian

descent is up to you, the player, todecide.)

The Joyces and the Clevelands havelong been wealthy. Some families are just more capable than others, and it’sthe responsibility of such families to dothings like solve the world’s mysteries(but not necessarily publicize them),protect the world’s treasures (butnot necessarily share them), and givethe little people a chance to supportthemselves. Long have the Joyce-Clevelands been globe-trotters andcollectors of fine antiquities, and longhas each generation sought to outdothe previous’ collections in terms of rarity and mystery.

You heard word of Thomas Fellthrough Knox Makepeace, who hashelped your father acquire some of hisantique and archaeological collectionsover the years. Fell is a believer in theoccult, like you, unlike your father. You

sent Thomas Fell a stone stele, etchedwith alien markings, from your father’sestate while he was out of town. Yourhope was that Thomas Fell would beable to tell you what the object wasand where it came from—and he didthat quickly. He said Peru. So you cuthim a check big enough for him tohire some men and go off in search of similar objects that you could bring back to impress your father... andpossibly convince him that some of his collection has properties more

fantastic than he believes.

Thomas Fell hired four men— diggers, drivers, explorers—and washaving meetings to plant their trip, but then they all stopped writing orcalling. No sign of them. They didn’t board a plane or a train (and Thomashad said “Oh, I don’t think we’ll beflying there,” the last time you spoketo him), so where did they go? Havethe stolen the stele and secreted away




14

TRAIL OF CTHULHU

Sources of Stability:Thomas Fell(your friend and colleague in thecommercial antiquities business,

he’s the one you turn to when issuesof the occult come up, because he believes in that sort of thing), DorothyChapman (your secretary, who handlesyour paperwork and appointmentschedule—a real savior), John AllenWard (a black-market antiquitiesdealer from whom you’ve bought theartifacts that have earned you respectand authority in the field)

Investigative Abilities:Anthropology 2, Architecture 2, ArtHistory 4, Astronomy 2, Bargain 2,Credit Rating 4, History 4, Languages2, Library Use 4

General Abilities: Conceal 10, Filch10, Firearms 5, Fleeing 20, Health 7,Preparedness 6, Sanity 7, Stability 10,Stealth 5

wealthy man, in his line of work, if hewas willing to tell better stories aboutthe antiques he sells... and if he was

willing to sell more illicit pieces. Still,his conscience is admirable, and usefulto you as a fill-in for the space whereyour conscience should be.

Beyond that, you’re friends withthe man. You’d be heartbroken if hedecided to finally take your advice,get involved in something a littleshadowy, and end up getting hurt. If this is somehow your fault, you’ll feelawful. But keep it yourself. If his sonsor Detective Wright can blame you,somehow, they probably won’t let youclaim any of Thomas’ fine collection.

Pillars of Sanity:+LVWRU\LVDJXLGLQJIRUFHVWXG\RI

it saves humanity from strife andrepeated mistakes

$UWLIDFWVRIKLVWRU\DQGWKHDUWVKDYHa value beyond simple money; they belong in wiser hands show theycan be appreciated

Joyce-Cleveland (your investment- banker father, and the reason whyyou’re rich), Thomas Fell (your secret

investment project, the quaint antiqueexpert who’s going to certify your findand help you make your own fortune)

Investigative Abilities: Accounting1, Art 4, Credit Rating 7, Flattery4, Intimidation 4, Occult 2,Outdoorsman 6, Photography 2,Reassurance 4

General Abilities: Athletics 12,Firearms 10, Health 10, Preparedness12, Riding 4, Sanity 8, Stability 12,Weapons 5

Professor Knox MakepeaceOccupation: Professor

Drive: Antiquarianism

You know better than most folk justwhat history is worth—intellectuallyand financially. It’s not right to leaveartifacts in the hands of those who

won’t care for them or appreciatethem, regardless of inheritance,cultural associations, or weakinternational laws. If a Wall Streetcollector is going to provide a goodhome for that Greek amphora, and letyou study it and record its history, thenthe object is better off in his hands.

And your time is valuable. You should be paid for finding good homesfor these works. The lawmakers inWashington don’t quite appreciate the

antiquarian perspective, so you’ll bendthe law if you must.

You went to graduate school withThomas Fell and have been a businessacquaintance, and sometimespartner, with him for years. You’retwo sides of the same antique coin:you, the purveyor of rare antiquitieswith questionable provenance, himthe expert in determining thatprovenance. Thomas could be a

In the Event of Fewer PlayersIf you don’t have five players in attendance when you play out this scenario,the players may be left at a considerable disadvantage. The characterspresented here were designed to interact with the clues in this story inparticular ways, and were created with a number of built points based on theassumption that four or more characters would be in play. Without some of the investigative abilities linked to each character, people’s fun might seem to be at risk.

Consider one of these solutions to the problem:First, substitute other investigative abilities for certain clues, if necessary.

Alternately, put a book or two into Thomas’ den that can help out in laterscenes by supplying, for example, a few points of Geology or Biology to theinvestigators if Kenneth or Roger is missing.Second, consider playing the leftover characters yourself, as NPCs. You mightonly need to do this long enough to relate some key exposition in the firsthalf of the story, thereby turning unmanned characters into useful experts,and have those characters be left behind when the teleportation effect occursin the scene “The Stone, Activated.” If you like, these NPCs might travel withthe PCs into the second half of the story, where they can be savagely attacked by the mountaintop monster or brutally murdered by Thomas Fell wheneverit’s dramatically appropriate.



TRAIL OF CTHULHU

15

Thomas Fell’s House

adventuring gear (kayaks, backpacks,climbing tools, etc.).

Architecture reveals the house to still be stable; there’s no danger in takingthe stairs up to Thomas’ den or down tothe cellar.

Art History or History notices thatThomas has dug out many of his Pre-Columbian American artifacts from hisoffice and placed them throughout thehouse, on the mantle, on window sills,etc.

riddled with obsidian-like rocks.

Stairs lead up from the front room of the house to the second floor, whichno consists solely of Thomas’s den (andsecret library). Stairs lead down fromthe kitchen to the house’s cellar, whichconsists of the cellar proper and thestorage room where the stele is located.

Evidence Collection finds ThomasFell has recently been receivingmail from companies specializingin outdoorsman equipment and

Part One:


The HouseScene Type: Introduction

This first scene is meant to introducethe PCs to each other and to the bizarre situation within ThomasFell’s house: The kitchen and master bedroom are missing. Where theyshould be is, instead, a stretch of alienstone—solid, smooth, the color of cement, and bristling with brownclinging vines—and the trunk of ahuge, dead tree stretching from thesoil piled in the center of the house,up into the space where the master bedroom should be. It’s as if the insideof the house has been swapped outwith a patch of some strange, rockywilderness.

(In truth, that’s exactly what’shappened. These are the same kindof unearthly rocks that make up the

mountaintop in Part Two. The)

The kitchen walls have been removed,revealing the exposed frame of thenext rooms over (living room, diningroom). Its ceiling is likewise gone,apparently taking the floor and allpossessions of the master bedroomwith it. The walls of the master bedroom are still present—picturesstill hang on nails hammered into floralwallpaper—but vines have already begun to spread from the rocks to the

house and stiff, dead tree brancheshave torn through the plaster underthe wallpaper.

A fine dust is inside the house, as if someone has been tearing out plasteror sawing stone. It’s all throughout thestill, dead air.

Even casual digging around reveals thatthe kitchen’s tile floor is still presentunder about two feet of loose black soil,




16

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rocky location very much resemblingthe stones in the house. Severalphotographs focus on a tall obelisk

covered with strange glyphs.

One of these photographs showsThomas and four other men—twonondescript white men, a tall manwith a serious mustache, and a youngAsian man—standing in the livingroom in front of the strange rocks thathave displaced his kitchen. (Core clue)

Art History or Art notices an oddmix of styles in the obelisk in thephotos: it has an almost Egyptian shape but is strangely adorned with Pre-Columbian, Incan-looking glyphs.

Library Use can make sense of hisorganizational method and sort outwhere his attention was when he waslast in this room. Thomas was focusedon maps of South America, with ahandful of circles drawn over pointsalong the whole length of the Andes.Books on Mesoamerican art andculture are open all throughout the

room, as are texts dedicated to stelaeand standing stones all over the world,from Stonehenge to Egyptian obelisks.Art History and History recognizeshis focus on standing stones as well.

Accounting recognizes thatThomas has tapped his savings to buy expeditionary gear (via mailorder but not yet arrived), planetickets, a shotgun, and to get $2,200converted into various South Americancurrencies. It also reveals that Thomas’

savings have been recently bolstered,substantially, by checks from Jan Joyce-Cleveland.

Evidence Collection finds all theplane tickets revealed by Accounting,unused and still in their envelopes.Destinations include Ecuador, Chile,and Peru. There are tickets for fivetravelers in each case.

A hidden door leads from behind a

burning fireplace punctuates onewall. It smells like a used bookstore inhere. The floor is covered in stacks of

paper—newspapers, invoices, maps,condition reports on various artifacts,correspondence, etc.

Use this scene to foreshadow the feral,isolated, and animal-like behaviorthey’ll see in Thomas later on. Thisroom is his lair, where he nests amidpapers gathered from all over.

Thomas’ camera is here, loaded andready to be used. It’s sitting on astack of photographs depicting some

No additional clues remain to be foundhere, though photographs and printson the walls and antiques all over can

be used to reveal bits of Thomas Fell’spersonality.

The DenScene Type: CoreThomas Fell’s den is a hardwood-paneled room made up almost entirelyof bookshelves, framed maps, anddecorative antiques. It’s cave-likeand dark, all of its windows hidden behind bookcases. A small wood-



TRAIL OF CTHULHU

17


The Cellar

Scene Type: CoreThomas Fell’s cellar is located belowthe front room of the house and islittle more than an unfinished spacewith walls made of the house’sfoundation and a ceiling made of theexposed supports of the floor above.Cobwebbed pipes run along theceiling. There’s a drain in the stonefloor. Old luggage is stacked in onecorner, next to a rusted bicycle. Aragged wooden door occupies a roughgap in one wall. Architecture revealsthat the room on the other side of thedoor would be directly beneath thekitchen. (Beyond this door is the steleand the scene “The Stele.”)

The standout feature of this room is a birdcage hung with metal wire froma pipe on the ceiling. Inside this cageis an ovoid rock, about the size of anostrich egg, with raised bands all alongit, resembling foreign runes perhaps.Anthropology can make no sense of

these markings, but tellingly so—theymay be naturally occurring. Geologydecides that it would be quite unlikelythat they are naturally occurring unlesssomething is inside the stone, to createthose ridges.

Getting the stone out of the cagerequires a 1-point spend of Athletics(to force the door) or Crafts (tofinesse it). Other abilities may beallowed as well. A PC carrying thestone—which is, of course, the egg

of the alien monster called the Mouthin the Stone—is likely ignored by thecreature in the scene “The CreatureAttacks.”

The SteleScene Type: CoreOn the other side of the ragged dooris a small storage room, dank andcrowded. Filling the space is a four-

is the discovery of Thomas’ diary,which includes photographs of, andhis personal notes on, each of hisexpeditionary partners:

Franco Gruber: Germanarchaeologist specializing in Incan

sculpture; has been to Peru onseventeen digs. His English is poor.

Jules Farquarson: French-Canadian transportation and travelexpert with contacts throughout SouthAmerica.

Wu Han: Chinese mountaineerand digger-for-hire. Working cheap inexchange for his shot at the Andes.

James Kellerman:American

game hunter, trapper, and generaloutdoorsman. “Between that handlebarmustache and the revolver he’s alwaysgot, you’d think he was a cowboy.”

This information can be useful fordealing with Kellerman or Gruber inPart Two by inspiring players to pursuelines of questioning or offer up spendsin associated abilities to leverage cluesout of these guys.

bookcase in this room to Thomas’secret library, behind the fireplace.A two-point spend is required to

find this secret door, but just whatability is necessary to find it is up tothe Keeper to decide, depending onwhich characters are in the den andwhat abilities the players are focusingon during their investigation. Thepoint, here, is to reward players foractively bringing their own abilities to bear, thereby teaching them how to be proactive investigators and use theGUMSHOE rules to their advantage.Alternately, you could offer the two-point spend to a player who has not yethad a chance to shine by selecting oneof that PC’s abilities.

For example, Anthropology mightrecognize a statuette of Anubis is facingthe wrong way on a shelf and discoverit swivels, unlatching the hidden door.A Craft spend might realize that thisroom is too short to account for thespace on the second floor of the house,suggesting there’s a closet behind thefireplace. Architecture might be

spent to realize that, while there’s afireplace here along the wall, there’sno visible chimney along the outside of the house.

The Secret LibraryScene Type: Bonus InformationLittle more than an unfinished roomthe size of a walk-in closet, Thomas’secret library is dusty and stuffy. Onewall is the exposed-wood outer wall of

the house, the other is the chimney of his den’s fireplace. A naked light bulbdangles from the ceiling. A handfulof books are here—all of them rareoccult texts of questionable academicvalue but a rarity that makes themworth money—as well as a smallroll-top writing desk and woodenchair. Pictures of Thomas’ two sons aschildren hang on the walls here.

The prize for finding this room




18

TRAIL OF CTHULHU

are mystically transported along withthe characters to the mountaintop

monument and Part Two of thisadventure.

kitchens to the Peruvian mountaintopwhere Thomas Fell has gone. While the

PCs are still in the house, it activatesagain, and anything in contact with thedust in the air (definitely the PCs) isfair game for displacement to Peru.

First, the stone thrums like somethingelectric. It vibrates. A delicate red arcof lightning reaches out and touchesthe closest character, even if it mustpass through floors or walls to do so.That character vanishes in a blindingwhite flare of light, leaving behind afew strange rocks and bits of clinging

vine. A moment later, all other soulsin the house are struck by similar arcs,and vanish.

The sensation is, at first, like burningoneself on the stove—a suddenrecoiling gasp. Then: falling. Then:impact.

A dining-room chair, a lamp in theliving room, and any other objectsyou feel would be amusing or helpful,

foot stone, etched with strange glyphs,standing in a nest of shredded papersand broken-down wooden-crate

fragments. Anthropology recognizesthe glyphs as being vaguely like Incanwritings. Art History recognizes thestone as a fragment of a larger standingstone, resembling something like aViking stele or Incan road marker.Geology is unable to identify thekind of rock that makes up the stone.Art and Craft see the etchings areexquisitely crafted with painstakingdetail.

Accounting discovers a packing slipwithin the dismantled crate, revealingthat the stone was shipped to ThomasFell by Jan Joyce-Cleveland just over amonth ago.

If any character touches the stone,and the PCs have split up to searchthe house, consider “cutting away”to the characters in another part of the house, giving them a last chanceto wrap up their investigation, andleaving the characters in the cellar

hanging in suspense. Then describe“The Stele Activated” from theperspective of the characters not inthe cellar, with arcs of red lightningreaching up through the floors andinto their feet, thereby capturing thesudden, bizarre surreality of theirsituation.

The Stele ActivatedScene Type: CoreThis scene occurs either whena character touches the stele or

whenever you, the Keeper, sees fit.It is essential that this scene occur before any characters successfullyleave Thomas Fell’s house, as this scene begins Part Two of the story.

The stele has been operating erraticallysince Thomas first attempted to use itwith a botched Mythos spell. As such,it now periodically reacts to vibrationsin the house, haphazardly teleporting,for example, helpless souls and

How the Stones WorkSimply put, they work dramaturgically.

In the world of the game, they operate by transmitting objects across themystical conduits of ley lines. Successful teleportation depends on a complexset of metrics based on the intersections of ley lines and sympatheticconnections between the “departure” stele and the “target” stele where theteleported object(s) are intended to arrive. The whole process is controlledthrough sorcery and witchcraft requiring the Cthulhu Mythos Ability.

The stone fragment that Thomas Fell has embedded in his guts is brokenoff the stele in his basement, so using it teleports objects back to his basement. The stele there, in his basement, is carved with glyphs to give it asympathetic connection to the monument on the mountaintop, so those twostele are forever connected. (Whether they are connected only to each otheris up to you.)

In truth, there is no empirical system behind the operation of theteleportation stones. They are plot devices designed to force tough choicesonto player characters. The most obvious: what are you willing to do to get back home? The stones function or malfunction as you need them to. Chalk itup to Unknowable Ancient Powers. The truth is the teleportation stones run

on your own narrative impulses.



TRAIL OF CTHULHU

19

The Mountaintop

Travel across the top of the alien rocks

avoiding the canyon routes, is possibleonly if you want it to be for the sakeof speeding up the action or rewardingproactive characters; alternately,movement might require a Difficulty 3Athletics test.

Otherwise, travel across the top of therocks is presumed to be impossible because it undermines the labyrinthineatmosphere of the alien mountaintopin favor of niggling, mundane details

intervening scenes.

A fall from the mountaintop is fatal,and anyone peering over the sheeredge, down the smooth face of the mountain, can instantly see it.Abandoning their circumstances infavor of a brave descent and death inthe Andes snow is no viable escape.Fortunately, there is no wind coursingthrough these narrow canyons to pushanyone off the mountainside.

Part Two:

The MountaintopThe Geography of theMountaintop

The characters have no map to guidethem on the mountaintop, so theymay be largely at your mercy as theyfollow narrow canyon floors from onescene to the next. On the other hand,they may actively search for a way tovisualize their surroundings and plana course through the canyons, ratherthan wandering hopefully or following blood trails from one sad scene toanother. Thus, you’ll need a sense of the mountaintop’s simply geography.

Picture an archetypal mountain shapewith the top sheered off, creatinga flat, almost circular plateau. Thisplateau is littered with gray, alienstones pressed together in strangepatterns, creating a labyrinth of narrow, irregular canyons, like tangledcorridors criss-crossing the plateau.

Some of these corridors let out at theedge of the mountain, which dropsaway dramatically into snowy, hostilestretches of frigid mountains. Everycorridor is draped and adorned withthick, clinging vines the color of coffee. In some places, these vinesmust be pushed aside to make itthrough the narrow canyon-corridors.

The south edge of the plateau is awide clearing punctuated by a huge,vine-encrusted obelisk (see the scene

“The Monument”); it’s here thatthe characters arrive. On the farnorth edge of the plateau is a similarclearing, occupied by a primitiveshrine made of stacked stones andsquat stelae; it’s here that ThomasFell is researching the mystic powersof the teleportation stones (see thescenes “The Shrine” and “The Killer”).Between these two clearings, in smallclearings at the intersections or dead-ends of various canyons, are all the




20

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The Mouth in the Stone is protected by a pebbly hide of pliable silicon,highly sensitive to vibration (and

thus sound) and light. It has no eyesor other sensory organs, and onlyits flat tail and mouth give its bodyappreciable features. It’s insidesare little more than a geo-organicengine, digesting biological materialfor energy. Some of this material isregurgitated, wrapped in soft flakesof its own hide, and kept as eggs inwhich a new Mouth gestates until theegg is cracked from the outside. A newMouth begins existence as a famishedalien appetite the size of a dog anddoubling in length each day until it isroughly the size of a great-white shark.

The Mouth’s mission on Earth, inthe minds of its ancient summoners,is to patrol and defend the groundswhere the mystic stelae are kept. Eggs, buried beneath rings of standing stonesacross the globe, wait to be hatchedand bound through sorcery on similarmissions. The Mouth’s instinct onEarth, however, is simply to eat all

comers and lay eggs. One day, perhapsan eon from now, perhaps tomorrow,it will hatch them.

Petrifying Bite:The Mouth in theStone bears an alien germ betweenits teeth. This mystic germ replicatesrapidly upon contact with blood,transmuting aerial particles and skincells into a completely inorganiccompound as hard as rock. This stone-like substance grows out from thearea of the bite, both into the victim’s

body and across its flesh and clothing.This growth renders victims unable tomove, while the germ preserves their bodies for later consumption by theMouth.

In game terms, the compound slowsand eventually traps a victim, reducingAthletics and/or Fleeing by one pointevery ten minutes. Alien germs keepa subject nourished on its own fleshand liquids for a number of days equal

character has seen before. Thinveins carrying a clear sticky saprun along the thickest vines, which

isn’t something the character hasever heard of before. They’re asmuch like roots as vines.

Occult or Anthropology sees apattern in the rocks and canyons,as if they form the shape of someMesoamerican glyph. (OnlyCthulhu Mythos can truly makesense of the glyph, however, whichis either an Aztec approximation of some summoning symbol or a linkto any follow-up adventure youlike.)

New Creature:

The Mouth in the StoneLittle more than a mouth on the endof a lithe, eel-like body, the Mouth inthe Stone does nothing except stalkand eat and lay eggs. Brought to Earthfrom a distant and virtually featureless

alien moon by ancient witchcraftand the teleportation powers of themystic stele, this creature obeys fewof our planet’s biological properties.The Mouth in the Stone functionson a metabolism that measures timein millennia rather than days. It is asmuch a geological phenomenon as it isa biological thing.

Capable of traveling through topsoilor solid rock with ease through acombination of an ammonia-scented

excretion and a kind of geomanticwarp, the Mouth in the Stone is oftenseen only as a stony proboscis endingin a ring of black obsidian-like teeth,slick with grainy slime. It typicallyhunts by lurching out and biting itsprey once, to slowly petrify it withits germinating bile, but it is willingto bite and shake a target until itcomes apart and can be swallowedimmediately.

about handholds and jumpingdistances. Say it’s due to the jagged,cutting edges at their peaks, leaving

little space to grip or balance one’s self without causing bloody gashes (worth1 point of damage) across one’s handsand feet.

Just inches above the top of thecorridor-like canyons, the freezingwinds that should be expected atthis altitude are found to be howlingand fierce, as they should be, so thatattempting to climb up out of themaze is like trying to crest a mountainin your shirtsleeves. Treat charactersin the extreme cold beyond themountaintop’s strange temperatezone as hurt until they return to thetemperate zone.

CluesThe following information on themountaintop and its layout can begained by proactive characters whomake 1-point spends or succeed onactions using the relevant skills:

$'LIILFXOW\Athletics test isnecessary to reach the top of thealien rocks and get a look outacross the mountaintop. Thisreveals the two clearings to thenorth and south, as well as a viewof the red train car (from the scene“Train Car”) to the east and any of the other odd objects you chooseto include from the “Victims of theMonster” scene.

Geology recognizes the region

beyond the plateau as theCordillera Blanca (“White Range”)of the Andes, in the Ancash areaof Peru. (If spends were used todiscover Thomas’ secret library,this vista is instantly recognizablefrom his books.)

Outdoorsman and Biologycan make no sense of the clingingvines—conspicuously so. They donot quite resemble any vines the



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The Mountaintop

monument from Thomas’ photographsIts raised markings, vaguely Incan,resemble those carved into the stele inthe cellar.

The ground is gravel. The rocks giveway to three canyon-like corridors(north, north-east, and north-west),cluttered with vines. A frigid wind blows in from the cliffs behind them,uncomfortable but not dangerous.

Thomas Fell’s kitchen is here, too—astrange sight in the midst of alien rockand vines. Its walls are strained butintact. Its cabinets have vomited outdishes onto the gravel-covered groundThe refrigerator leans like a drunkagainst the island in the center of thekitchen. The ceiling, and the floor of the master bedroom above, forms akind of bizarre roof, capped with a bed, dresser, and ottoman.

And that smell... like musk or urine, beaded up like the rock is sweating itout.

Sense Trouble:You smell something.Ammonia? There! Something, thecolor of lime, in little drops on thatrock, like condensation on a glass.

The MonumentScene Type: CoreIt is no great fall to the ground afterthe teleportation, but there is a riskof injury. Any character who fails aDifficulty 2 Athletics test loses 1 pointof Health to injured ankles, scrapes or bruised bones.

The characters have arrived in thesouthern clearing, scattered aroundthe foot of the large quasi-Egyptian

to the victim’s Health, even after thevictim is completely encased in stone.The Mouth uses this ability to store

food, eventually biting through thecompound to eat the flesh within.

Game StatisticsAbilities: Athletics 11, Health 21,Scuffling 25

Hit Threshold: 3 (big)

Alertness Modifier: +2 (onlyagainst creatures standing on exposedrock, not soil)

Stealth modifier: +2 (invisiblewhen in stone)

Weapon: +4 (teeth)

Armor: –5 vs any (tough, rocky hide)

Stability Loss: +2 if attackeddirectly, +2 if seen emerging from bare rock

Investigation

Biology:The stone “growing” onthe victim is like a resin or calcifyingagent, except it doesn’t seem to beorganic, which doesn’t make any sense.Spars, or more like ribbons of stoneare growing like icicles into the body.The damage is already irreversible,and will eventually kill the subject forcertain. (Medicine)

Geology: Stone doesn’t do this.Whatever kind of rock this is, growing

on the body, it isn’t... earthly. It’sgrowing as fast as coral, but it’s morelike granite. The rock this “beast” ranto is solid granite, too, with no cracksa creature could get through. There’sno way an animal could move throughthat. (Forensics)

Outdoorsman: Damnedest thing:the tracks lead right to this scuff on therocks, these grooves, like somethingrough wore down the rock face.

Regarding StabilityThis story is designed to severely tax the characters’ Stability, as a means

of ensuring that Trail of Cthulhu’s central theme of mental fitness eroded byhorrific events is immediately visible. In all likelihood, most of the PCs will be devastated by the attacks, revelations, and actions they are called on toperform in this story; the other PCs probably die. Encourage the players toembrace the atmosphere of terror and anxiety, to play up their characters’withering Stability by describing specific examples of their fear that the other characters can see. (You can find some specific examples in the sidebar on p. 72of Trail of Cthulhu.)

Don’t internalize the fear in this short story; put it out there for all to see.Remind the players (and, thereby, their characters) that they are alone,and have no onlookers to impress or hide their emotions from. When acharacter’s Stability takes a hit, the other characters should see it—peoplescream, shake, cry, curse, and plead.

Even if you’re playing this story in the Pulp style, don’t let the players off the hook. Their characters may react with more resolve or vengeful ire, but they must still react. Even heroically confident types might damn theircircumstances, declare “My God!” or stop to catch their breath and assurethemselves while they reload.

You have many more opportunities to check for Stability loss than the fewthat are specifically detailed in this scenario. Keep an eye on p. 71 of Trail of

Cthulhu for examples of possible Stability tests during this adventure.




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The Outdoorsman recognizes thatWu Han was in no way equippedto be out here—he’s wearing good

boots, but has no backpack, canteen,or anything. He’s dressed for day-to-day living.

A 1-point Evidence Collectionspend gets a character a confidenthunch that Wu Han did not lie in hisdying message—people never do.

Victims of the MonsterScene Type: Alternate Cores (2)This is really two scenes, one for eachof the remaining expedition memberswho fled Thomas Fell’s attack at theMonument. The information that’spossible to retrieve from each sceneis the same. The reason there are twosurvivors is so that you, the Keeper,have some flexibility when revealinginformation in each instance of thisscene. You might want to have thefirst victim be dead already, allowingonly hints of the monster, or you maywant the testimony of one survivor

to be punctuated by a sudden attack by the Mouth. You might simply wanteach survivor to respond to differentInterpersonal abilities, to give morecharacters chances to shine.

The attack split up these survivors,so they each suffered their attacksseparately and are now languishingin slow petrification in two differentparts of the mountaintop canyons. It’squite possible one of them has alreadydied, if that suits your purposes.

In addition to giving characters achance to investigate evidence of the Mouth of the Stone, each of these victims is able to reveal thefollowing clues (requiring a 1-pointInterpersonal spend where noted):

&RUHFOXH7KRPDV)HOOKDVJRQHmad from exposure to the stones.He killed Farquarson and attackedWu Han shortly after they arrived.

Train CarScene Type: Alternate Core

Over the years, attempts to transportvarious teleportation stele or theirfragments have resulted in oddthings being transported to themountaintop. Things like ThomasFell’s kitchen and this red, metal traincar, wedged into the rocks.

Other possible examples of teleported objects you might scatterthroughout the mountaintop tomystify or amuse your players includethe tail section of a l ight cargo plane,a half-petrified camel, a sleigh,about half of an automobile, and thevery top of a church’s bell tower.A suitably rationalized Investigativeability spend—especially Occult — can grant a character the suddenrealization of how these things gothere: At one time or another, theywere each within proximity of someteleportation stone, somewhere onEarth, when that stone was activated.

The blood trail leading away fromthe Monument ends here. Inside thetrain car, behind its shut sliding door,is the corpse of Wu Han, who has bled to death from injuries inflicted by Thomas Fell. Painted on the floorin his own blood is this final messagefrom Wu Han:

&RUH&OXH´7KRPDV)HOONLOOHGme.” The message has beensmeared as if someone tried onegood swipe to erase it, but the

blood was already too dry.

Forensics or Medicine revealsWu Han died of blood loss resultingfrom three slashes across his side andstomach, probably from a straight-razor.

Evidence Collection determineswith confidence that Wu Han’s bodyhas been searched once already. Hishands are covered in his own blood.

Amidst the broken dishes is a body,crumpled and bloody, its faceshocked and pained. This is one of

the nondescript men from Thomas’photograph. (Specifically, it’s JulesFarquarson, though the investigatorsrecognize him only if they’ve been toThomas’ secret library. Otherwise,this is deducible after all the otherexpedition members have beenfound.)

Evidence Collection identifies themeans of death as numerous smallstab wounds to the back, like froma folding utility knife. Forensics

recognizes spatter patterns suggestingnot just stabbings but slashes: there’s blood on the dishes here not from thevictim on the scene.

Additionally, Evidence Collectionuncovers a blood trail leading fromthe kitchen into the tangled rootsand vines of the surrounding, surreal jungle. Evidence Collection orOutdoorsman can be used to trackthis trail, which leads to the scene

“Train Car.” Outdoorsman alsoreveals a trail leading along anotherroute through the rocks, this oneto the “Victims of the Monster”locations.

Geology reveals unsettling detailsabout the rocks here: they don’t belong in frozen mountains. They’dmake more sense in the sea. Theyare smooth like obsidian, coloredlike limestone, and punctuated withribbons porous like dried sponges,

not at all like the snow-capped peaksvisible beyond the cliffs, and not at alllike the mountainside supporting thisstrange, temperate plateau. And whyisn’t there any snow up here?



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intersection of two canyons. Inside,the cave is dark and reeks of rot. Thefloor is solid rock littered with loose

bones and naturally mummified fleshencased is cocoons of rock. These arethe remains of the Mouth’s ancientpetrified victims, sucked dry of meatand juices.

Beyond this grisly chamber is acrack in the rock leading to anotherchamber. Crossing this savage ossuaryrequires a 3-point Stability test, andleads to “The Nest.”

This is an ideal place for the Mouth toattack, lunging from the stone floor ina shower of brown, rotten bones.

The NestScene Type: Bonus AdvantageThis chamber—little more than alarge crack in the rocks—has a floorof collected sediment gathered arounda pile of smooth, ovoid stones like theone found in Thomas’ cellar. Theseare the eggs of the Mouth. There are

a dozen eggs here, each about the sizeof an ostrich egg or football and eachweighing about ten pounds.

See the scenes “The Cellar” and theentry for the Mouth in the Stone formore information on clues in thisscene. See the scene “The CreatureAttacks” for the effects of carrying oneof these stones.

The Shrine

Scene Type: CoreOn the far northern end of themountaintop, some ancient peopleshave erected a shrine of stacked alienrocks and woven vines. At the heartof this shrine is a stele carved withancient Mythos secrets in several deadlanguages. The words on this stoneshine in the sunlight like they wereglass. The stone is hot to the touch,smeared with bloody fingerprints, andemits a low, electric hum.

SW7KRPDVGRHVQ·WVHHPWREHafraid of the monster. He said itwouldn’t attack someone with oneof those “eggs” either.

SW7KHFUHDWXUHDWWDFNVULJKWout of the rock. If you smellthe stench of animal urine, it’sprobably near by.

The LairScene Type: Side Challenge/ObstacleThis shallow cave is discovered at the

&RUHFOXH7KRPDVKDVZLWKKLPthe stone necessary to travel backto the stele in his cellar. He saidanyone who could get their hands

on it could compel the stones totransport people.

&RUHFOXH7KHSHWULI\LQJSURFHVVis achingly slow. “I should’ve diedof thirst days ago, I figure.”

SW.HOOHUPDQGURSSHGKLVJXQwhen the monster attacked. It’s outin the canyons not far from here.(It can be found automatically oncethis clue is obtained.)




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The KillerScene Type: Core (Climax)

This scene, which may overlap thescene “The Shrine,” if you decideThomas Fell is present when thecharacters reach the shrine, is theclimax of the adventure. It’s a simplescene, playable in any number of ways. Let the approach of the playersdetermine the final tone, here. (Beaware, however, that if Thomas Fellattacks the PCs outright, he may becritically injured in the resulting fight,which can diffuse the tension when itcomes time to cut the stone from hisgut since “he’s dying anyway.”)

When Thomas Appears in this scene,he is half-naked, gray with grime, andilluminated from within by glowingred runes carved into the stone he hasabsorbed into his body. If necessary, hemay explain how he has become “onewith the stone” with a bit of villainoussoliloquy.

Thomas gives up fighting once he is

seriously wounded (see Trail of Cthulhu p. 63). For dramatic purposes,he automatically succeeds on allConsciousness rolls so that he is ableto deliver essential exposition. Shouldhe somehow be injured to the pointthat he is technically dead (Health –12or lower), he lingers on the edge of death, conscious and lucid, claiming“It’s the stone, I think... keeping mealive!” This is fine, as it won’t let thecharacters off the hook—the only wayhome is to murder Thomas Fell.

Leveraged clues or Interpersonalability spends (2 points’ worth) may be used to reduce the stakes of theStability test for killing Thomas bycoercing him into putting down hisshotgun and standing his ground— making it clear that he is choosing toforce a life-and-death issue. Thomas,mad and obsessed with the stones inthe shrine, won’t go back home. “Whygo backward when I can go forward,

Fell. More than that, it is meant tomake the players and their charactersthink they are too late—Thomas Fell

has already teleported away withoutthem. They seem to be stranded here.

This scene transitions directly into“The Killer” when you think thedramatic timing is right to introduceThomas Fell, who is still on themountaintop with the characters.(He’s still looking for the Mouth’s lair,so he can bring its eggs to other lands.)When the time comes, Thomas returnsto the shrine’s clearing and finds thePCs going through his things.

The Creature AttacksScene Type: Antagonist ReactionWhenever you need a dramatic punchor a dose of desperate action, have theMouth in the Stone lurch out fromsome nearby rock and attack the PCs.Most of the information you need todescribe the attack can be found inthe monster’s write-up on p. XX. The

Mouth is just as prone to dramaticallystrike out and bite off the head of ahalf-petrified survivor in the scenes“Victims of the Monster,” if you like.Witnessing such an attack risks a4-point Stability loss.

The Mouth attacks a charactercarrying one of the eggs only if all characters are carrying eggs. TheMouth is mystically compelled to wantits eggs to be carried away for hatchingin other rings of standing stones, but is

simultaneously instinctively compelledto horde its eggs for hatching by itself,later. It balances these impulses byattempting to feed on subjects withoutits eggs first, and attacking egg-carriersonly if no other targets are available.

If this is a one-shot adventure for you,don’t be afraid to have the Mouthdevour a PC or two. Death is expectedin Cthulhu adventures.

&RUHFOXH6HYHUDORI7KRPDVFell’s personal effects are here: his jacket, his pocket journal, a blood-

encrusted straight-razor, his shoes,a photograph of his boys as youngmen.

&RUHFOXH7KRPDV·SRFNHWMRXUQDOreveals his accelerating madness.His writings become more fevered,less orderly, and less scientific,culminating in his eager reportof his meddling with the shrine’sstele: He has successfully cast aspell and is ecstatic about it. He has“absorbed” the “mystic traveler’skeystone” and may now “travelfreely from stone to stone, itseems!”

&RUHFOXH7KRPDVMRXUQDODOVRreveals that he is in search of additional “eggs” to take with himon his journey.

Evidence Collection orOutdoorsman reveal thatsomeone has been living here,

apparently eating vines anddrinking sap, for several days.

Anthropology recognizes thestyle of this shrine as similar to anIncan traveler’s shrine, but the stelemore resembles a Viking cross-roads marker. The etchings on itssurface are much more orderly andcomplex than those on the stele inThomas’ cellar; they are likely acomplete text, rather than simplesignage or ceremonial writings.

Occult use surmises that this stoneis another “transmitter” for objects, but it’s easy to determine that itdoesn’t seem to work with simplecontact. The etchings on the stelemust be a spell and, if so, the steleis probably “hot” because it hasalready been cast.

This scene is meant to foreshadow themadness and dangerousness of Thomas



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The Mountaintop

fates of their previous charactersonly by pursuing clues with theirnew characters. They may work with

Detective Wright while investigatingthe murder of Makepeace. They might be part of a city-wide search for akidnapped Joyce-Cleveland. The couldfind themselves facing off against astele-using cult of traveling looters led by an insane Kenneth Fell.

Once this story ends, all of thesurvivors are yours to play with.

Aftermath and Sequels

Any characters who survive can of

course continue on in other storiesnow that they have been exposedto the truth of the stelae. To mixtraditional investigative scenariosinto the potential globe-spanningadventures possible with theteleportation stones, consider thefollowing options:

7KHVWRQHVWKHPVHOYHVEHFRPHWKHsubject of follow-up investigations, asthe characters seek to recover themfrom wicked cultists, greedy black-market art-brokers, and lost citiesthroughout the world.

7KHVWRQHVEHFRPHWKHPRWLYHEHKLQGvarious thefts and murders as thecharacters pursue another organizationlooking to recover the stones for theirown nefarious purposes.

7KHFKDUDFWHUVGLVFRYHUWKDWPRVWof the teleportation-stones across theglobe are smashed and ruined, useful

now as guides only to the possiblelocations of ancient mysteries andlost cities, which must be reachedthrough traditional travel. In this case,the stones serve only to introducethe characters to the world of theoccult—and whatever Mythos spellsyou choose to hide in the mountaintopshrine the characters now have readyaccess to.

An alternate, more complex styleof follow-up tale turns this story’s

introductory PCs into NPCs. Yoursequel adventures cast the players’new, personalized characters asinvestigators looking into thedisappearance of Jan Joyce-Cleveland(for example) or artifacts appearingon the black market thanks to KnoxMakepeace (for example).

Whatever it is that draws these newinvestigators into the mix, the playersfind themselves learning the ultimate

to new places and new sights?” he says.“Why not see where else these stonescan take us?!”

If forced, he challenges the characters:“If you want this stone, you’ll haveto kill me. I won’t go back to mypathetic little house when there’s awhole world to see.” He Scuffles inhis own defense, and is willing to kill, but is probably outmatched by thecharacters.

One of them must step up, then, toslay the man and take the stone. This isa scene of pure roleplaying, in whichthe relationships the players devisedfor their characters finally resolve in adifficult choice. Make sure they havetime to debate amongst themselvesand play out each PCs reaction to thesituation, but not so much time thattheir debate stalls. The Mouth in theStone draws near if they dawdle.

In the off chance that the characterschoose to travel somewhere new withThomas Fell, you have a few other

options for ending the story:

7KRPDV)HOOWHOHSRUWVZLWKRXWthem, leaving them stranded on themountaintop to die—a sad ending thatironically betrays the title of the story.

7KRPDV)HOOWHOHSRUWVWKHPDOOLQWRthe ruins of some vast and impossiblyalien city, perhaps on an alien world.The characters find themselvessurrounded by standing stones... andenormous tentacles stemming from

a great, hovering, quivering mouthabove them. They are all consumed bythis enormous maw, including ThomasFell. Perhaps their ghosts appear in afollow-up tale.

7KHFKDUDFWHUVDOOWHOHSRUWDZD\ZLWKThomas Fell into a deferred climax,their destination never revealed, unlessyou choose to bring these characters back (possibly as NPCs) in somefollow-up tale.




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The Investigator

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TRAIL OF CTHULHU

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