Actual Play: Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign? Part 1

[Part Two] [Part Three]



In early 1921, the investigators depart Massachusetts to investigate a mysterious death in New Orleans...

Based on the classic Call of Cthulhu adventure "Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign" by Kevin Ross. Originally published by Chaosium in The Great Old Ones, revised version published by Golden Goblin Press in Tales of the Crescent City.

Setting: Boston, Mass. and New Orleans, LA; Friday, January 28 - Monday, January 31, 1921

Characters:


  • Earl Crowley - Antiquarian settled in Arkham
  • Jordaine Furst - Strasbourg-born Great War spy for France
  • Fredrick Tardiff - Great War veteran, Kingsport artist

Summary

 The investigators received a telegram from the great occultist, Étienne-Laurent de Marigny of New Orleans asking them to travel to New Orleans, indicating he required their services in an investigation.

Leaving Boston on Friday the 28th, they arrived in New Orleans two days later after an uneventful rail journey. Much warmer than Boston, New Orleans was apparently unaware that Prohibition was in effect. de Marigny met with them briefly, explaining he had business in Arkham that prevented him from giving a curious case the attention it deserved but that their reputation made him confident it would be in good hands.

De Marigny showed them a letter he had received from Charles Sunstram, editor of the New Orleans Daily Gazette. Sunstram's letter indicated suspicion that one of his reporters, Peter Gavvin, had been murdered after stumbling upon a conspiracy. According to the police, Gavvin jumped to his death from the roof of a Tulane University building. Sunstram did not believe it and was concerned about a drawing found in Gavvin's hand - an occult symbol, de Marigny was quite certain...


Sunstram was able to meet with the investigators, with the newsroom beginning to fill up as with Sunday evening setting in and the Monday morning issue being finalized. Sunstram explained how Gavvin had been reporting on various Krewes preparing for Margi Gras (February 8th this year). He shared with them Gavvin's notes:


Going through the newspaper morgue's they learned a number of bits of trivia:

  • Randall Fowler's wife and child had been killed in an automobile accident
  • The Fowler family was once known as the LeFleur family. They changed their name after the Civil War owing to Gaston LeFleur's reputation as a slave-trader.
Sunstram wrote them letters of introduction and secured them lodging at the Lafayette Hotel. On the way to the hotel, they kept seeing examples of the symbol found on Gavvin. Though the hotel was very nice, they were plagued by dreams - dreams of the symbol, yellow-colored, and of an abandoned city of towers on a lake. Tardiff secured liquid courage to help him find his way back to sleep.

On Monday the 31st they sought out information on the strange symbol they were seeing. They found their way to the Avedon Antiquarian Gallery. Avedon wasn't around but his trusted assistant, Rodrigo Vargas was. From Vargas they were able to obtain a blade Imbued with the Might of the Elder Ones.. 

They learned quite a bit from Vargas:
  • Gavvin had met with Avedon. He was looking for a copy of the infamous French play, The King in Yellow. Avedon was going to check his personal library for a copy. He hasn't been in the shop since.
  • Papa Screech is rumored to have been part of a cult shut down by the New Orleans police over a decade ago.
With some persuading, they got Avedon's address. Traveling to his small courtyard house, they were able to meet with Francois Avedon, though he was only partially sane. They did manage to find his private copy of The King in Yellow, in its original French. Furst read it and summarized it for Crowley and Tardiff. The experience was somewhat sanity-rending for all of them, learning strange tales of Carcoa, Hali, twisted royal families, and the Phantom of Truth. All were infected with a strong paranoia, Crowley and Tardiff much worse and indefinitely...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jules Verne Translations That Don't Stink

Image
Shortly after I graduated from college R. Talsorian published their fantasy steampunk RPG,  Castle Falkenstein. Having missed out on Space: 1889  when it first came out this was my first steampunk RPG, though I had been exposed to the genre by Gibson and Sterling's novel The Difference Engine (a novel which, though I though I found the setting compelling, I did not particularly care for - must reread some day). Jules Verne was one of the authors in the inspirational reading section of Castle Falkenstein.  Heck, the game also made him into France's scientific advisor, having him responsible for their massive Verne Cannons  which formed a sort of nuclear deterrent.  With that in mind, one Sunday afternoon I was at a Barnes & Noble bookstore my new girlfriend (now my wife of nearly 16 years!).  On a whim I decided to pick up a Jules Verne novel. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea . That night I started reading it, never having read any of his works before but having vagu
Keep reading

Stepping Away and a New Beginning

Image
After maintaining this blog for nearly seven years (an eternity in internet time), I've decided to step away from it. When I first began I wasn't 100% certain what it would be about. For a while I thought it would be a blog related to OSR type RPGs but I found my own tastes not firmly rooted there. Looking at the history of the blog, I see a lot of Call of Cthulhu which is hardly surprising. However, some lack of consistency definitely made it tough for me find a defined niche and over the past few months I've been giving some thought to starting a new, more narrowly focused blog. The imminent end of Google+ played a part in these thoughts, with much of my traffic coming from that site. I write because I enjoy writing, but I do enjoy growing an audience. My plan to start a narrowly-focused blog took a turn when I had the opportunity to join the  Rolling Boxcars  blog. Talking with the contributors (one of whom I game with on Discord already) and going through thei
Keep reading

RPG Review: Fate Accelerated

Image
Fate is a difficult system for me to grok. I like it conceptually, but I have a difficult time when it comes to running it.  Fate is what's considered a narrative game. Instead of modeling a simulation of the reality of the RPG setting, it is designed at supporting a story. I've seen arguments as to whether or not this makes it a "real" RPG. I think the whole debate is a bit silly, dealing with issues of "bad wrong fun". Truthfully the challenges I have with it are largely a function of me being a grizzled gaming grognard, gaming since the early 1980's. To paraphrase Yoda, I must unlearn what I have learned. I've a hunch that I'd actually have an easier time grokking Fate were I to know less.  Overview With that prelude behind us, let's take a look at the Fate Accelerated game. It is a variant of the Fate Core game. Fate Core looks a lot like what one would expect from an RPG book - pretty thick, lots of skills, stunts, etc. F
Keep reading

Using the Force in D6 Star Wars

Image
Defending yourself with just 1D in Sense is not easy, as Luke discovers when training with a remote. My previous post discussed the proto-D6 System as found in the Ghostbusters RPG. For those unfamiliar with the D6 System and the way it does the Force (or for a brief review) the essentials are: You roll a bunch of six sided dice against a target number, typically ranging from 5-ish (easy) to 20 or even higher. Your rating is listed as something like 2D+2 which means roll 2d6+2. By default, most normal/non-heroic people have 2D in most stats.  Starting heroes will might have their best skill be at 5D or a touch higher. You can take as many actions as you want in a round. However, taking two actions in a round reduces all dice codes by 1D, taking three reduces all by 2D, etc. Starting with Force skills will lower a characters starting attributes. Unlike most skills they start off at 1D. There are three Force skills - control, sense, and alter. Control lets you control t
Keep reading

Developing Boston for 1920s Call of Cthulhu

Image
While Chaosium has produced sourcebooks for many locations in Lovecraft Country (Kingsport, Arkham, and Innsmouth) as well as non-fictional cities of the 1920s (such as New York City and New Orleans), the nearby city of Boston, while being featured in many adventures, has never received its own full sourcebook. The most common era for my Call of Cthulhu  games has been in the 1920s - some campaigns have been in New York City while others have been in Lovecraft country. For those in Lovecraft Country, many adventures have been in nearby Boston. Over the years I've slowly been building up some expertise in the area and I thought it might be of interest to others gaming in the same setting - whether with Mythos horrors or a purely mundane game. First, let us investigate those official sources. While Boston has found its way into many adventures, I can think of two sources where it has been given a fair amount of detail. First, The Unspeakable Oath  double issue 16/17 has a ref
Keep reading