I s s u e 2 4 , J u l y 2 0 1 4

Writers: Chad J. Bowser, Scott Carter, Bobby Derie, Adam Scott Contents Glancy, James Haughton, Shane Ivey, Bret Kramer, Matthew Pook, Ed Possing, Ben Riggs, Brian M. Sammons, Columns ILLUSTRATORS: Ian Anastas, Matthew Hansen, Steffon Worthington; The Dread Page of 2 cover art by Todd Shearer The Eye of Light & Darkness 8 Directives from A-Cell 57 ART DIRECTOR: Mysterious M anuscripts PAGE DESIGNER: Shane Ivey Fragments of the Simeon Bible 60 EDITORS: Contents Tales of T error Daniel Harms, Shane Ivey, John Scott Tynes The Dread Page of Azathoth 2 The Black-Eyed Children 4 FOUNDING EDITOR: John Scott Tynes Hidden Passage 6 Smuggling 56 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Shane Ivey The Black-Eyed Children 5 Scenarios EDITORIAL BOARD: Brian Appleton, Monte Cook, Adam Crossin- The Hidden Passage 6 The Mardler House 10 gham, Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, Daniel Harms, Kenneth Agent Purple’s Green Box Blues 32 Hite, Shane Ivey, Greg Stolze, John Scott Tynes, Ray Winninger Holding Cell 34 the Eye of Light & Darkness 8 Secret Shopper 36 COPYRIGHT: All contents are © 2014 by their respective creators. The True Detective, Season 1 8 Yellow Sign design is © Kevin Ross and is used by permission. Call of Cthul- Masks of 9 Features hu is a trademark of Chaosium Inc. for their roleplaying game of horror The Cult of A 40 and wonder and is used by their kind permission. is a The Mardler H ouse 10 The Chosen of Eihort 53 trademark of Pagan Publishing for its magazine of horror roleplaying. The Unspeakable Oath is published by Arc Dream Publishing under license from What's Really Going On? 11 Message in a B ottle Pagan Publishing. The Mardler History 11 Why Should We Care? 12 Notes, TXTs, and a SUBMISSIONS: Ever hear tell of a ? Submission guidelines The House Itself 14 Two-Inch Article 72 are at our website. Timeline Within the Mardler House 14 Timeline Outside the Mardler House 15 Our Sponsors, The Plotlines 20 ADVERTISING: Let us bring our cult to your doorstep. Get terms The Residents 24 Ravening for Delight and specifications at our website. The Living 26 Where the Deep Ones Are 4 Playtesters 29 Sword & Mythos 19 PODCAST: “Unspeakable!” It’s like the Oath for your ears but with Statistics: The Living 29 H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival 21 more sarcasm. Subscribe at iTunes or listen at our website for hours of Statistics: Residents 30 Gazette 23 interviews and actual play. Golden Goblin Press 25 Agent Purple's Green Box Blues 32 Call of 39 CONTACT: Arc Dream Publishing, 12215 Highway 11, Chelsea, AL, What's Really Going On 32 Encyclopedia 46 35043, USA; [email protected] Horrors of War 52 SampleDelta Green: Strange Authorities 64 WEBSITE: www.theunspeakableoath.com file ISSN: 2334-4180 The Dread Page of Azathoth By Shane Ivey

“When age fell upon the world, and wonder went out of the minds of men; when grey cities reared to smoky skies tall towers grim and ugly, in whose shadow none might dream of the sun or of Spring’s flowering meads; when learning stripped Earth of her mantle of beauty, and poets sang no more save of twisted phantoms seen with bleared and inward- looking eyes; when these things had come to pass, and childish hopes had gone away for ever, there was a man who traveled out of life on a quest into the spaces whither the world’s dreams had fled.” —H.P.Sample Lovecraft, “Azathoth (a fragment)” file

2 Fear is the object of every Cthul- that might be forever beyond his hungry things. That can make for hu Mythos roleplaying game. Fear reach, awakens him to astounding a very different kind of game. The is what moves us, whether we’re revelations. Carter is a jaded old special challenge for the Keeper is trying to evoke a chill of horror veteran of dreaming but the reader evoking those moods so effectively in players or release it in a shot- can’t help but start at the awful that they seduce players more jaded gun-shooting blaze of catharsis. and magical things encounters. than Randolph Carter. But there are many kinds of fear. The quickest way to mine the Even outside the Dreamlands The Cthulhu Mythos thrives not Dreamlands for wonder is to actually themselves, every game can take just on the shock of one human play them in the game. But that lessons from Randolph Carter’s death but on the crawling dread can be tricky. There’s a common dreams. A cosmic fantasy like Call of a world where humanity itself sense that the Dreamlands are of Cthulhu or Trail of Cthulhu must is meaningless. There is often a gentler than the ordinary worlds evoke a yearning for other worlds—a vast gulf between gory horror and of Cthulhu Mythos games. Just see yearning that can be fulfilled only in cosmic terror. how Randolph Carter defied Nyar- the realization of what those other Lovecraft knew that gulf better lathotep and escaped the slaughter worlds truly hold. That yearning than anyone. His life’s work was of the moon-beasts. The Dream- is not just the province of idealism, reaching for the cosmic, yet he never lands tempt gamers to expect the and certainly not just the province completed his deepest exploration of tropes of Lovecraft but the mode of Lovecraft. Robert Chambers’ it. He wrote one page of “Azathoth” of heroic fantasy—swords shining, fragmentary mentions of Carcosa and abandoned it. He drafted The spells crackling, courage rewarded (“Strange is the night where black Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by with victory over tentacular mon- stars rise”) leave you breathless with hand but never meant to publish it. strosities. Be wary that dashing fascination even knowing the Yel- Dream-Quest encapsulated themes those expectations doesn’t cheat low Sign signifies decay and death. that he evoked again and again, but the players of the game they want. The urge to be touched by a larger he worried that the breadth of its Dennis Detwiller and I faced meaning, even if an alien one, rises fantasy was overwrought—that “the this challenge developing The Sense from the terrible meaninglessness very plethora of weird imagery may of the Sleight-of-Hand Man, his long of mundanity. That fascination can have destroyed the power of any Dreamlands campaign for Call of drive monstrous evil, dangerous one image to produce the desired Cthulhu. In my home game, players curiosity, and tragic self-destruction. impression of strangeness.” who prefer high action felt frus- Lure players with curiosities of Many readers agree. For all trated with the sensation that in beauty and awe beyond the reach of its attention to Nyarlathotep and some parts they were being driven everyday life. Awaken their sensitiv- Azathoth, Dream-Quest is an outlier along from horror to horror, vic- ity to unknown possibilities. Then in the Cthulhu Mythos, especially tims and spectators. But that’s a let the most dizzying and terrible in games. It’s like a separate body deliberate feature of some parts revelations unfold alongside the of work and myth, ignored most of of the campaign—the way dreams worst gruesomeness. The bridge the time. Lovecraft’s Dreamlands sometimes carry you along unwill- between deadly horror and cosmic and his harder Cthulhu Mythos ing. Lovecraft’s vision lingers in the terror is wonder. stories seem hopelessly disentangled. imagination not for its heroism but Randolph Carter found his But the Dreamlands distill for its moods: the melancholy of golden city, forever part of him and and concentrate something that’s beauty that will soon be lost, the forever lost. What will your players essential to Lovecraftian terror. drifting timelessness of lassitude, find when comes to SampleRandolph Carter’s great quest to the creeping fear of secrets and bear themfile away in the night? regain a dream that he lost, to re- hateful schemes, the weirdness of turn to a hopelessly beautiful place trusting and befriending evil and

Issue 24 3 Sample file

4 Tale of Terror: The Black-Eyed Children by Scott Carter

it. The BEC’s targets are random, There was a man in our town having no correlation to any cult or cultist other than proximity, both geographically and temporally, to And he was wondrous wise. their meetings. However, all it takes is a nervous cultist to unintention- ally clue the Investigators in to the He jumped into a bramble bush bigger picture. Possibility 2: R evenge And scratched out both his eyes. BECs, while odd, bear some resem- blance to summoned beings in occult —“The Bramble Bush” lore. Perhaps they are servants of a witch summoned to terrorize victims who have threatened the Not all horrors are ancient. Some Investigators encountering witch or obscurely insulted her coalesce newborn from the stress these children are immediately decades ago. A disappearance or and fears of modern life, or else take disquieted, filled with a sense of two should spur the Investigators on new forms heretofore unknown. unspecific dread. Eventually the to action. Reports of the Black-Eyed Children child’s eyes are seen to be large raced across the Internet starting black pools lacking any trace of Possibility 3: A Great Work in February 2013 beginning with white or color. At this point the an MSN Entertainment segment children become angry and insist The BECs are the ghosts of rit- called “Weekly Strange.” Prior to that they be allowed in. Witnesses ually murdered children, their that one can find a smattering of report feeling irrationally compelled spirits bound up in dark magics articles in 2011 and 2012 from The to do so but being able to fight it and newly awakened in the world. Examiner and Mysterious Universe. off. No reports have surfaced of Each appearance correlates to Both claimed the phenomenon had anyone who has actually let one of the site of one of these killings, a been reported for over a decade. these black eyed children in, which series of which took place across Strange, unknown children suggests that doing so may have the country about a decade ago. are seen playing in deserted or fatal consequences. The killings were orchestrated by abandoned places, often singing a well-organized group who used an old nursery rhyme such as “The Possibility 1: the energy gained from them in a Bramble Bush.” Occasionally one The Spawning Chaos great project that is on the verge of appears outside a door, seemingly completion. The ghosts are looking from nowhere. These children, sin- for shelter lest they be consumed gly or in pairs, approach an adult The BECs are spawned when Nyar- completely. It is up to the Investi- who is home alone. The children do lathotep’s attention is drawn to a gators to determine whether that everything to convince the adult they particular area, unintended byprod- comes to pass. need to enter the house—to use the ucts of his working in the world. phone, to escape some unspecified They form from his energies and danger, to use the bathroom. The the anxieties of the community. Black-Eyed Children are said to Investigators searching for man- be preternaturally confident and ifestations of the weird could be eloquent but seemingly shy. This drawn to the area by numerous Sampleperception of shyness may come reports of BECs showing up on file from their efforts to hide their eyes the usual websites; or one of them at all costs. may have a disturbing evening vis-

Issue 24 HANSEN 5 Tale of Terror: The Hidden Passage By Ben Riggs

While moving boxes in the base- left her heart buried under the nave police. (“Nothin’ sees ‘less ment, an Investigator feels a draft. of a church in Champagne, France, the sheriff gets a taste.”) She follows it to a gap in the ma- and is immortal as long as it is safe. Whether the Investigators sell sonry of a wall. With a little light At last the wise men entombed the stuff, transport it, or destroy fingering a whole section of the Saint-Loupe in a granite crypt, seal it, word leaks out. The ghoul, the wall pops open, revealing a secret its door with unholy signs, and gang, and the cops come looking for passage! bury it. Perhaps a diary from one what they see as theirs. Tough talk, of those colonial patriarchs might intimidation, street violence, and Possibility 1: Pandora's Box be found at a local historical society. arrests may ensue. The Investigators If the door is opened, an im- may very well end up saved from The passage leads down to a possibly aged woman in clothing in-jail assassination by gang mem- granite door large enough to ac- patchy with rot begs for aid. She bers only because they are broken commodate an elephant. There claims that a wizard condemned out by the ghoul, who demands the are no apparent locks on the door her to eternal life without eternal return of his contraband. but it is sealed with wax and rusty youth. She begs the Investigators A successful Cthulhu Mythos spikes. Mystic sigils have been im- to help her find a cure. As they roll, or questioning other ghouls, printed on the wax and carved in chase a phantom solution she finds reveals that selling drugs goes the door. An Occult roll identifies opportunities to feed, while her against numerous traditions of ghoul the sigils as wards created by Re- victims sleep if possible, until she culture, which begs the question of naissance wizard John Dee. A faint grows younger, stronger, and more what the local ghoul elders would shuffling is audible beyond the magically potent. think. But to find the ghouls, the door, and whispered words. Inside, Investigators must go underground. a 600-year-old witch, Georgette Possibility 2: The Stash Investigators who seal up the Saint-Loupe, waits. stash and ignore it receive a noc- She came to the New World The passage leads to a small turnal visit from the ghoul, who and joined a colony, bringing death. door which is locked from the smells them on his goods and is Through a foul ritual Saint-Loupe inside. Once they break it down, convinced that they must have sold granted herself immortality, but the Investigators discover a small him out to his rival. not youth. To not look like an an- earthen room containing a large tediluvian crone, she must feed on quantity of illegal drugs or liquors. Possibility 3: Psychonaut the living. Once a day, a successful There is no other exit. touch attack robs her target of a A recently transformed ghoul The door leads to what is appar- point of CON and a point of APP was in mortal life a gang member. ently the bedroom of the Investigator and restores Saint-Loupe to youth Now he is continuing his career. who owns the house. She sees herself and vigor. She was discovered when The ghoul recently robbed a rival sleeping in the bed (SAN 0/1D4). one of her servant girls, a 13-year- of his stash and murdered a few The duplicate can be awakened and old suddenly withered and shuffling of his underlings. Elder ghouls questioned. She is unperturbed to with age, escaped the dungeon forbade any participation in his be talking to herself. The previous where she was imprisoned. past life, so he hid his stash in the owner of the house was a wizard, The wise men of the colony ap- secret passage, tunneling in and out but instead of lusting for power or plied countless methods of execution and locking the door from inside. summoning a terrible monster or to rid themselvesSample of Saint-Loupe. All The contraband is sought after similar apocalyptic file nonsense, he failed—eventually her body reknit by the ghoul, the ghoul’s human used magic to better understand itself, even dismembered. Georgette gangland rivals, and corrupt local himself. After a reading Freud, he

6 created a portal in the basement bed is her ego. Her id is a pair of by simply finding the right room to lead to his own mind. After he anarchic teenagers tearing around in the house, which seems to have died, the magic adapted. The portal the property vandalizing and for- infinite space within its walls. So, now leads to the mind of whoever nicating. Her superego is her own of course, can any Cthulhu Mythos owns the house. mother, who is constantly trying tomes the Investigator has read. The Investigator can wander to stop the teenagers and clean And heavens forfend any enemies the “house” that is her mind. It is up after them. Anyone the Inves- learn that her mind can be accessed populated by alternate identities tigator has ever met, historical by a door. What would happen if informed the wizard’s Freudian figures she has studied, and even her ego were killed or the house theories. The version of her in novels she has read can be entered burned down?

Sample file HANSEN

Issue 24 7