TRAIL OF CTHULHU 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 on a startling and perilous adventure. Finding him may change your life, and his, forever. Tonight you meet the murderer of Thomas Fell. 1 TRAIL OF CTHULHU 2 TRAIL OF CTHULHU 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, Ed Cain, Don Rochester Trail of Cthulhu was written by Kenneth Hite, based on the GUMSHOE system 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. Trail of Cthulhu is a trademark of Pelgrane Press Ltd. 3 An Introduction GUMSHOE is the game engine humming inside a collection of Trail of Cthulhu also supports two distinct styles of play, so you sleek, focused horror and investigation RPGs. It is a precision can face Lovecraftian horrors exactly the way you want to. In the instrument, designed to tell stories through roleplaying by giving Purist mode of play, investigators are fragile, wary souls whose players a greater degree of control over the moments when their sanity is finite and always in peril of being blasted away to nothing characters succeed. In part, it does this by removing the random by the unearthly truths to which they expose themselves. You element in investigative scenarios and replacing it with that core can also play Trail of Cthulhu is the Pulp style, throwing punches element of all good gameplay: decision making. at sinister cultists and emptying Tommy guns into the drooling maws of mythos creatures. Each style of play is a simple matter In a GUMSHOE scenario, the question isn’t whether you of degree, so learn one simple set of rules and you’re ready to can find the clues in some kind of randomized equivalent of a play either way. pixel hunt. Rather, your characters—presumed to be capable investigators—are assured to find the clues they need. The You’ll need the Trail of Cthulhu rulebook to play this adventure, question becomes whether you can piece those clues together but you’ll find the format of GUMSHOE adventures is so clear in time to solve the dramatic, and often horrific, mysteries your and concise that you can appreciate this scenario even if you characters confront. haven’t yet read the rulebook. Whether you’re looking for a game centered on bold detectives scouring dark places for the truth behind occult crimes, or THE ESOTERRORISTS you want to recreate the sweaty desperation of survival horror You might be afraid to face the Esoterrorists. You should be. But movies, in which ordinary people face extraordinary terror, they must be stopped. It’s up to you. there’s a GUMSHOE game to create the perfect experience. The bold and intriguing debut of the GUMSHOE system, The Esoterrorists is a complete investigative horror game from RPG TRAIL OF CTHULHU mastermind, Robin D. Laws. As part of a global conspiracy In the tradition of the RPG classic, Call of Cthulhu, comes called Ordo Veritatis, your expert detective character pursues fan-favorite author Ken Hite’s adaptation of the game for the and confronts occult GUMSHOE system: Trail of Cthulhu. If you’re reading this, you have terrorists wherever some idea what this game is, or will soon. Probably you enough they lurk. If you don’t about the Cthulhu mythos tales of H.P. Lovecraft to understand stop them, they’ll shape that the perils of following the trail of Cthulhu are madness and reality to their insane death, and that it’s the selfless bravery of the investigators who whims, warping the dare to face the withering world into a vision of existential truths of the horror in which the cosmos that makes them viciously mad are kings heroic. and good people live in fear. What you may not know, yet, is what makes Trail Your weapons? Cunning, of Cthulhu distinctive, reason, courage, and beyond just a new kind of the truth. Use the clues game rules and a ten-year you discover, combined time shift to the 1930s. with your knowledge Beyond the specially and exposure to honed investigative occult truths, to solve rules common to all the mysteries of the GUMSHOE games, this esoterrorists, fight their crimes, and avenge the dead. Sometimes game features simple that means outwitting the enemy, sometimes it means shooting new ways to humanize him dead. investigator characters and detail their motives The Esoterrorists is a razor-sharp roleplaying game of mystery and personalities. In and the occult, with concrete guidelines to get you designing game terms, these are your own compelling investigative scenarios right away. Inside their Drives, Pillars of Sanity, and Sources of Stability. you’ll discover the secret ambitions of the loosely-aligned 4 cults of the Esoterrorists, horrors to confront, more than 35 Beyond that, each investigative abilities to hone, and a complete, advanced scenario monster is presented of geopolitical terror called “Operation Slaughterhouse.” through the lens of legendry, rumor, and hearsay. Read the FEAR ITSELF accounts of brave, In the tradition of poor souls who have the greatest slasher faced these things films and survival- before. Learn what horror tales, Fear Itself to look for, what pits ordinary people evidence they leave against extraordinary behind, and how best horrors in scenarios to fight them. And in which few—if when to run. any—characters will survive. Explore a Don’t just shop for modern world of new creatures to gritty, desperate chop to bits. Take confrontations against your antagonists to a an alien menace from new level of terror. the Outer Black. And Remember what it was like to be afraid of monsters. Remember escape, if you can, what monstrous really means. with your life. Fear Itself puts MUTANT CITY BLUES players in control of In a world not so unlike our own—except that super-powered characters very much vigilantes and criminals are real—someone must keep the peace. like themselves, then plunges them into the kinds of brutally Someone must solve the crimes perpetrated by and against those terrifying survival-horror scenarios that make you afraid to walk with mutant powers. You are that someone. Using your own home alone afterwards. An ideal platform for one-shot games unique powers, drawn from more than 95 choices including of relentless, unforgiving terror, Fear Itself is the gutsy, gory Regeneration and Self-Detonation, you follow the clues and instrument of fear you’ve been looking for. uncover the mysteries of Mutant City. If your characters escape murder and madness long enough With a default play mode casting characters as expert investigators to survive, Fear Itself easily unfolds into a series of compelling in the employ of the Heightened Capacity Investigative Unit adventures in which your ordinary characters become (HCIU), Mutant City Blues plays as a provocative, super-powered extraordinary over time—and get their chance to make the police procedural. With its detailed history of emerging mutant monsters of the Outer Black afraid of them. powers and the effect they have on the world, Mutant City Blues is also flexible enough to accommodate your own unique brand THE BOOK OF of crime-fighting. Any city—your city—can become Mutant City. This complete roleplaying game from acclaimed designer Robin D. Laws, gives UNREMITTING HORROR you everything you need to play out intelligent, thrilling police Intelligent. Insidious. Inhuman. These are your new nightmares. tales with a stunning super-powered twist. The Book of Unremitting Horror is a bold and mature menagerie of terrifying, grotesque, and cunning new monsters for any GUMSHOE game. No simple catalog of simplistic beasts, this is a detailed examination of horrors more sophisticated than simple vampires and zombies, exploring not only how these creatures behave but what they want, how they think, and why. 5 TRAIL OF CTHULHU The Murderer of Thomas Fell Fell, as well as his actual game ,QWURGXFH7KRPDV)HOOLQDQHDUOLHU Introduction statistics, thereby setting up the players story as a witness or expert and their characters alike for his consultant on an unrelated case. to the Adventure shocking appearance at the end of the Then have the characters hear This adventure is designed to show story. (See “The Truth About Thomas from Kenneth or Roger, Thomas’s off integral parts of the GUMSHOE Fell” on p. XX to see how.) sons, that Thomas hasn’t been game system that powers Trail of seen in several days and his house Cthulhu, but also to give you a taste dark. “Will you go with us to look of the many kinds of thrills waiting around his house?” they ask. for you in future adventures for this Using This Story game, from investigative suspense to This scenario is designed to be played 6HW7KRPDV)HOOXSHDUO\LQ\RXU perilous violence to eldritch madness. as a stand-alone or one-shot tale—a series as a Source of Stability for At the same time, this adventure pays taste of Trail of Cthulhu before you a player character, especially one weird homage to the noir classic The create characters of your own. That with points in Archaeology, Art Third Man, by centering the tale on an makes this a good scenario to play at a History, or even Occult. absent man—a man the players will convention or as a first foray into the help bring to life through their own GUMSHOE system.