The main campaign delivers an open world for your players to explore, choosing what leads to pursue, cultists to investigate, and NPCs to interview. The metropolis of New York offers plenty of potential for chance encounters to enliven and disrupt your players’ dogged attempts to understand Jackson’s brutal murder and begin to uncover the truth about the Carlyle Expedition. These suggested random events can provide inspiration for some exciting improvisations that may be used in a variety of ways to punctuate your session at the beginning, middle, and end. We will start with events for the premiere location in New York, Manhattan proper: Cultists – As the chapter gets underway, your Investigators may have increasing

Read on…Random Events – New York

A unique Mythos monster worshipped by the New York sect of the Bloody Tongue as a spirit minion of their god, the Chakota provides a horrifying physical encounter in the Ju-Ju House basement for Investigators. Housed in a deep pit covered by a massive stone block, the PCs usually must make intentional efforts to expose this creature and may suffer dire consequences for their curiosity. Here we will explore this Mythos entity found only in MoN and discuss some additional ways to incorporate it into your campaign in the absence of a harrowing basement encounter.  Described as a spirit in the campaign book, the Chakota appears in the New York chapter as a very physical

Read on…Mythos Monsters – The Chakota

Turning to New York, we have a nearly endless selection to dig into, but we’ll focus on some inspirational imagery. When imagining Prohibition-era East Coast life, we can’t help but draw from the HBO series Boardwalk Empire simply for the incredible costume and set-work alone. While primarily set in Atlantic City, the show includes a good deal of underbelly New York action. The gritty New York gangster film released in 1939, The Roaring Twenties, begins in the trenches of the Great War and offers some classic genre imagery in black and white, as well as incisive social commentary. For fans of such films, this is an absolute classic and features the last paired casting of Bogart and Cagney.

Read on…Chapter Inspiration – NYC

  A well-paced New York chapter typically concludes with a climactic confrontation involving the Cult of the Bloody Tongue. The campaign book presents the Ju-Ju House as the likely site of this potentially explosive conclusion; however, a hasty team of Investigators may move quickly to shutter (or burn down) the cult’s headquarters well before the end of the New York chapter. Having some alternative sites for a secondary base of operations and dramatic showdown with the cult and its leader, Mukunga M’Dari, will allow you to keep the tension running throughout the chapter.  First, we’ll touch briefly on a popular secondary location for the chapter climax, which often occurs at Erica Caryle’s house during a

Read on…Ju-Ju Rising – Backup Cult Hideouts

He said really I just want to dance. Good and evil match perfect, it’s a great romance. And I can deal with some psychic pain. If it’ll slow down my higher brain. Veins full of disappearing ink…disconnecting from the missing link.  -Elliot Smith, “A Fond Farewell” After the brutal murder at the Hotel Chelsea on January 15, your Investigators should have a fistful of clues to direct them around New York. In the meantime, someone begins arranging Jackson’s affairs and organizing his funeral. The campaign book sets the date for January 17, a mere two days later, and offers a brief, open-ended description of the event. The full details of the somber arrangements fall upon

Read on…A Fond Farewell – Jackson’s Funeral

After receiving the Telegram from Jackson Elias, your Investigators will likely be eager to meet with him and get the action underway. Following the campaign book, they will reunite with him at Hotel Chelsea, Room 410 at 8 pm, as per Jackson’s “cryptic and anxious” directions over the telephone. This pivotal movement at the beginning of your campaign will ratchet up player tension and excitement about meeting their friend. As Keeper, you face the decision of how and when to deliver this telephone message, which will deliver your players to the iconic, campaign-launching hotel room scene.  Most simply, you could deliver the telephone call and immediately fast-forward directly to the PCs walking down the Hotel

Read on…Getting to Room 410