Tomes and Tentacles

Discussion on game mastering Earthdawn. May contain spoilers; caution is recommended!
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Slimcreeper
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Joined:Mon Nov 28, 2016 11:44 pm
Tomes and Tentacles

Post by Slimcreeper » Thu Oct 25, 2018 1:05 pm

Anyone listening to the podcast Tomes and Tentacles? It's Call of Cthulhu.

*Spoiler*

In it there is a play that completes a ritual that summons Unspeakable Evil (tm) when performed. It seems like such an Earthdawn-friendly plot device. I don't have time to write up an adventure right now, but how do you like this: a manuscript that marks the reader, who goes to any effort to put the play on. Each performer or stagehand that reads the script after that point may be marked as well. Like The Scottish Play, its production is cursed, resulting in several deaths and injuries. Minor horrors might even plague one of the rehearsals. The producer, growing paranoid, is convinced that they are being sabotaged. If the play is put on, the audience members become cursed with bloodlust. They must make a Toughness test each minute the play is being performed or take step 4 damage, no armor protects. The only way to avoid the damage and abate the terrible thirst is to bath one's hands in fresh blood. Disrupting the play requires a Willpower test. Leaving the theater requires the killing of a living thing. The Horror lurks nearby, feeding. If any of the actors or stagehands tries to disrupt the play, it inflicts Pain on them.

At the end, the horror forces the cast & crew to distribute copies of the play to other playhouses around Barsaive.

The PCs could be involved at any stage of this cycle.

Tattered Rags
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Re: Tomes and Tentacles

Post by Tattered Rags » Thu Oct 25, 2018 1:20 pm

Is it "A Shoggoth on the Roof"?
Adventure I'm running:
Under the Stars

Adventure GM post-mortem:
Under the Stars Postmortem

Slimcreeper
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Re: Tomes and Tentacles

Post by Slimcreeper » Thu Oct 25, 2018 2:33 pm

I don't know that it's a published adventure. If anything, it would be called The King in Yellow, which a quick google search shows to be a series of short stories by Robert Chambers and also the title of a Dead Milkmen album.


Tattered Rags
Posts:374
Joined:Mon Nov 28, 2016 12:04 am

Re: Tomes and Tentacles

Post by Tattered Rags » Thu Oct 25, 2018 3:49 pm

Adventure I'm running:
Under the Stars

Adventure GM post-mortem:
Under the Stars Postmortem

Slimcreeper
Posts:1061
Joined:Mon Nov 28, 2016 11:44 pm

Re: Tomes and Tentacles

Post by Slimcreeper » Thu Oct 25, 2018 6:15 pm

Thi makes me very happy.

Tattered Rags
Posts:374
Joined:Mon Nov 28, 2016 12:04 am

Re: Tomes and Tentacles

Post by Tattered Rags » Thu Oct 25, 2018 11:08 pm

The old documentary was phenomenal, but I can't find it for free anymore. At least not legally.

Edit: Not strictly true. I did find a low quality video on YouTube.
Adventure I'm running:
Under the Stars

Adventure GM post-mortem:
Under the Stars Postmortem

Lursi
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Re: Tomes and Tentacles

Post by Lursi » Sun Nov 04, 2018 1:41 pm

100% pure Awsomium
Of all things I lost, sanity I held dearest.

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