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Cat Links Conventions, MoN - Keeper, MoN - Player

We are Providence – Necronomicon 2022 Recap

Posted on Keeper Doc

“There is Providence, quaint and lordly on its seven hills over the blue harbour, with terraces of green leading up to steeples and citadels of living antiquity…”  The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H.P. Lovecraft In 2021, the world continued to suffer from a pitiless contagion while the stars above spun out of alignment leading to the cancellation of the fifth Necronomicon in Providence, Rhode Island. While veteran attendees lamented breaking the odd-year cycle, they happily flocked to Lovecraft’s beloved hometown for the international festival of weird fiction, art, and academia once more this year as it ran from August 18th through 21st. For us at Prospero House, this was our first sojourn to the

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Cat Links China, Tomes

Mythos Tomes – The Goddess of the Black Fan

Posted on Keeper Doc

Location: Shrine to the Bloated Woman at Ho Fang’s Mansion in Shanghai Physical Description: Single scroll, parchment, stored in an unassuming carved ivory scroll case with silver filigree decorations Author:  Liu Chan-fang, a Chinese monk or retired minor official of the Imperial court Publication History: Unknown. Composed in classical Chinese reminiscent of styles popular during the Ming Dynasty. Lost for centuries until recovered by Carl Stanford. Widely considered among contemporary practitioners as the foundational text for the Order of the Bloated Woman. Some skeptic cultists consider Chang-fang as simply a recent prophet and believe earlier critical texts remain buried in lost libraries and ancient tombs. Some adherents regard Su Da Ji, the brutally malicious and favored consort of King

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Cat Links Keeper Tips

Full Fathom Five – Review & Con Runs

Posted on Keeper Doc

  “Full fathom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral made; Those are pearls that were his eyes; Nothing of him that doth fade, But doth suffer a sea-change Into something rich and strange.”  – William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act I, Scene II WARNING: THERE BE SPOILERS BELOW Review: The title for Paul Fricker’s Miskatonic Repository scenario is drawn from a portion of the song that Ariel sings to lure the shipwrecked Ferdinand to the play’s sorcerer protagonist Prospero. The final stanza explicitly seeks to tempt Ferdinand whose father drowned in the deep. In Full Fathom Five, Fricker skillfully weaves literature, history, and Cthulhu Mythos into a delightfully deadly and dreadful compact scenario set on

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Cat Links Kenya

Kenyan Mythos Artifacts

Posted on Keeper Doc

Taan Kaur’s Ring  Location: on Taan Kaur’s person. Description: a thick gold band bearing a red gemstone, a Burmese pigeon’s blood ruby, which flares during the absorption of magic points, as described below. The magic ring is otherwise well hidden amongst the mundane rings adorning all of  Kaur’s other fingers. Use: stores up to 30 magic points. When held against the head of the dying, the ring absorbs half the person’s remaining magic points as it releases a red glow. Grants the wearer immunity from fire and heat.  Depiction in Game: use for dramatic effect in the dark. In particular, it allows the investigators to spot Taan Kaur as she briefly pauses to drain Magic

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Cat Links Egypt, Tomes

Mythos Tomes – The Black Rites

Posted on Keeper Doc

Location: Stored in an old shoebox beneath Janwillem Van Heuvelen’s bed in Cairo  (The Black Cat, sidetrack scenario). Physical Description: Ten fragile papyrus scrolls, handwritten in cramped Egyptian hieroglyphics. Author:  Luveh-Keraphf, High Priest of Bast. Researching the author reveals conflicting esoteric information about his role as an Atlantean priest alongside High Priest Klarkash-Ton, an alleged servant of Tsathoggua.  Publication History: 13th Dynasty Egypt (1786-1633 BCE), part of the larger collection entitled the Scroll of Bubastis. According to Egyptian scholars, most copies of the Scroll of Bubastis excluded the Black Rites, which were held in secret at the most closely guarded temples. Exceedingly rare and protected by modern worshippers of Bast. Rumors speak of a possible Greek translation, which may be held in

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Cat Links MoN - Keeper

Adding “The Auction” to Your Campaign

Posted on Keeper Doc

SPOILERS FOR “THE AUCTION” BELOW! Released in 1983, The Asylum & Other Tales contained a collection of seven adventures and opened with “The Auction” by Randy McCall. We love this classic scenario, as do many other Call of Cthulhu fans. The combination of the 40th Anniversary Call of Cthulhu Kickstarter and exquisite corresponding HPLHS prop set makes running “The Auction” even more appealing, and we feel it fits beautifully into a Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign either as a prelude adventure or as a compelling campaign-linked sidetrack. In addition, we offer a few suggestions to enliven the investigative trail for any run of this scenario. Prelude Scenario: Peru serves as a perfect jumping-off point for the

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Cat Links China, Egypt, England, MoN - Keeper, New York

Eye of Light & Darkness – MoN MacGuffin?

Posted on Keeper Doc

Even if you won’t be keeping score for your Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign, the Eye of Light and Darkness (EL&D) plays a critical role in disrupting the cultists’ efforts to open the Great Gate. This powerful warding spell relies upon clues scattered unevenly across the globe, and the impact of the spell in your campaign depends heavily upon your players’ destination choices. If your group travels to China initially they will rapidly uncover the entire truth about the ward; however, if they travel the conventional London-Egypt-Kenya route they will slowly uncover this end-stage element of the campaign all while lugging around a useless stone MacGuffin. We offer some suggestions and tweaks to make the broken

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Cat Links Keeper Tips

Crawl of Cthulhu – The Brockford House

Posted on Keeper Doc

Spoilers for “The Brockford House” scenario below! Available in the Call of Cthulhu Rulebook (2nd through 4th Editions), “The Brockford House” is very similar to the AD&D module U1: The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh. The adventure starts with the exploration of the Brockford House, our Cthulhu Crawl’s equivalent of a castle keep. This eventually leads to the sub-basement where a stone altar must be tipped over in order to descend into the caverns below. The previous owner worshiped Cthulhu, and Deep Ones serve as the primary Mythos antagonists, and, unless replaced, added thematic elements and clues should hint at their presence.  Below we examine the locations in “The Brockford House” and provide some suggestions to

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Cat Links Keeper Tips

Condensing Cthulhu for Cons

Posted on Keeper Doc

From the Mind of Keeper and Lurking Fears Impresario Matt McCloud The first ChaosiumCon is a wrap and we look forward to even more gaming and fun at upcoming conventions this year! As the chief organizer for Lurking Fears, we’ve got plenty of work ahead of us as we register for badges, events, and hotel rooms, but, most importantly, we anticipate playing some fantastic scenarios with our friends old and new. For those of us running these upcoming con games, we face the added anxiety of deciding on an adventure, prepping it, and then actually running it for an audience, which includes both our friends and fellow convention-goers. We know what our friends love, but

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Cat Links Conventions, MoN - Keeper, MoN - Player

Unspeakably Good – Recapping ChaosiumCon 2022

Posted on Keeper Doc

I learned of the inaugural ChaosiumCon at GenCon in September 2021 and anxiously awaited the official date for months. This would be the first official Chaosium convention and held auspiciously during the company’s 40th anniversary year. The fact that this historic convention would be held in the Ann Arbor area further fired our enthusiasm since we live nearby in the Detroit metroplex. We looked forward to running and playing games just down the road from our house and meeting Chaosium fans from near and far. The week approaching April 8 ran exceptionally slow. Final preparations and home games helped distract us until the day before the convention.    Thursday, Day 0 But we couldn’t hold

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