IMPOSSIBLE LANDSCAPES © 2018 THE DELTA GREEN PARTNERSHIP

IMPOSSIBLE LANDSCAPES
A Campaign of Horror, Wonder, and Conspiracy
for the Delta Green Role-Playing Game
©2018 Written and Illustrated by Dennis Detwiller

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“Who can say what impossible landscapes await beyond the cracked firmament
and this empty world?”

—The King in Yellow, Act IV, Scene III.

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[Written in a mad scrawl on the back of what look like asylum admittance papers. There
is blood and smeared fingerprints on the page.]

In this book are ideas. Ideas with teeth. One of you must eat this book. Chew it and
swallow it and let the book become you. Then, you must act as the book might act.
This is no small trick. Then, of course, there is the dance.
Once the dance begins, others join. It is their job to pretend to be someone else but
to feel real fear. As they pretend, they dance. They dance with the person who has
become the book, they dance with the fear of the unknown, they dance around a table,
and a story is told in the tracks of their steps.
There are dice. The dice tell you things. They open doors, and cause brains to spray
across walls, and translate books, and climb burning tapestries and scream and go mad
and hide, weeping in the dark as marionettes spin in empty, Victorian halls.
The dice sing, and the people dance the tune.
And the book tells a story. And whether you want to or not, you dance.
We dance.
We all dance this way, hand-in-hand, until the world ends.
INTRODUCTION
Impossible Landscapes is the first campaign for Delta Green the Role-Playing Game. It
focuses on the mythos of the King in Yellow, created by Robert W. Chambers in his
book The King In Yellow, and appearing later in such works as The Unspeakable Oath,
Delta Green: COUNTDOWN, and fiction such as Sosostris, Ambrose, and Broadalbin.
This campaign centers on a missing woman, a mysterious book, an asylum, a
country that doesn't exist, and the end of the world. Agents find the edge of a mystery
which unravels their lives and reality itself. Will they ever be able to find their way back?
This is not a "conventional" Delta Green threat, if anything the group faces might be
called "conventional". Instead, Impossible Landscapes focuses on surreal horror, like
that found in works such as The Shining, Jacob’s Ladder, Lost Highway, or The Ninth
Configuration.
Agents confront monsters, but monsters from the depths of the mind. Creatures that
arise from the nether-realm of the King in Yellow, which madmen sometimes call
Carcosa. But even experienced Agents will find that fighting the inhuman forces of the
Great Old Ones is one thing, while confronting the roiling insanity that is King in Yellow
is another thing altogether.
Few agents can truly feature the differences between an inhuman monstrosity loping
at them from the sea, and a house that seems to bend and warp around them, changing
even as they observe it. The surreal nature of these threats makes them as endless as
imagination and as insubstantial as smoke. They are infinitely more dangerous than any
ancient, slumbering, god.

CAMPAIGN STRUCTURE
There are five operations in this book. Most take between two and four sessions of play
to resolve. Each operation leads into the next, and many contain places for Agents to
affect changes in them or move back and forth between them. The five operations are:

• The Night Floors (see PAGE XX)

• A Volume of Secret Faces (see PAGE XX)
• Like a Map Made of Skin (see PAGE XX)
• Nowhere is Where I’m Going (see PAGE XX)
• End of the World of the End (see PAGE XX)

Resources are presented to run these operations in any order. But it is recommended
that Agents who have not yet experienced the operation The Night Floors confront that
horror first. If Agents already have gone through The Night Floors, they should instead
begin with A Volume of Secret Faces.

Operational Summaries
In The Night Floors, the Agents enter a New York apartment building infected by the
power of Carcosa to search for a missing artist, Abigail Wright. The Night Floors
operation, updated with stats for Delta Green the Role-Playing Game, is the ideal
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conduit to transform the player’s thinking from the tentacular horrors of H.P. Lovecraft to
the surreal horrors of Robert W. Chambers.
In A Volume of Secret Faces, those who have experienced The Night Floors now
enter the Dorchester House mental facility in Boston, to search for Delta Green assets
who have somehow escaped from psychiatric custody. The Agents must unravel the
mystery behind the walls of the asylum; only to discover they are the ones missing, and
nothing is at all as it seems.
Those who survive the madness of the Dorchester House, continue to search for
meaning in Like A Map Made of Skin. Marked as vectors of the disease of Carcosa and
fleeing pursuit by Delta Green (who long before learned of the cancerous nature of The
King in Yellow) and on the trail of the long-missing tenant of the The Night Floors,
Abigail Wright, the Agents flee across a warped world collapsing to fall in line with their
own madness.
Abigail's trail continues to the mythical island nation of Carcosa, in Nowhere Is
Where I’m Going. An alternate world has appeared, brought to vivid life by the sickness
that infects the Agents' minds. On the island nation of Carcosa which never existed, that
has always existed, they chase, and are chased, through regions of madness that still
tenebrously connect to our real world. Past and through, they find the Night World.
Finally, in End Of The World Of The End, the Agents ford the roiling madness of the
Night World and are invited into the presence of the entity called the King In Yellow,
itself. There is a party of masked party-goers, a royal celebration, a mysterious stranger.
There, as the clocks strike midnight, Agents are certain they will find Abigail, and the
final, terrible answer to the question of their own existence.
Beyond this revelation lies the ultimate truth; escape or madness.

OPINT: Transit Between Operations in this Campaign

Impossible Landscapes is perhaps unique as a campaign because although it moves
through operations in a linear fashion, there are certain people, places and things within
individual operations which can afford an Agent access to Carcosa—a place beyond
such considerations as time and space which connects all operations and things
involved with the King. Using these special people, places, and things, Agents can
effectively jump before or after their current location in the campaign.
The Handler will notice that in various operations, there are sections marked:
ENTER and EXEUNT. Enter indicates places in the operation where an Agent may
either be replaced by a new Agent, or a time and place an Agent, object or person from
later or earlier in the campaign narrative may arrive.
Exeunt, similarly, represents an exit from the normal progression of events in the
campaign where an Agent, object or person may leave and travel back to any number of
Enter points in previous (or later) operations. A map of these junctions is provided on
page XX.

OPINT: Agents and Replacements

Delta Green players are of course used to the conceit that it is likely they may lose more
than one Agent during a campaign. Players should create at least two Agents: one to
begin play with, and a second in case their Agent vanishes, goes insane or dies in

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pursuit of their mission. Keep the following in mind when handling replacements in
Impossible Landscapes.

• REPLACEMENTS: Delta Green is tasked with completing its missions, as such, if

an Agent is lost and the operation is still deemed a priority, more Agents are
dispatched to replace those lost. Or, Agents worrying about appearances might pull
some strings and bring in new blood without contacting Delta Green at all…
• DRAMATIS PERSONAE: Many side-characters exist within these pages that a
willing player might take up as a player character. These NPCs are marked with a
short paragraph outlining, who, where and when they might best find their way into
play as a PC.
• SURREALLY: The most cruel and effective way for a Handler to replace lost Agents
is to slot in the new Agent in without explanation, and simply act as if they were
always present even though, moments before perhaps it was a completely different
person. Such is the nature of Carcosa.

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PART ONE: THE INSTRUCTION MANUAL

“Have you never read it?" I asked.
“I? No, thank God! I don't want to be driven crazy.”
I saw he regretted his speech as soon as he had uttered it. There is only one word
which I loathe more than I do lunatic and that word is crazy. But I controlled
myself and asked him why he thought The King in Yellow dangerous.”
—Robert W. Chambers

To some, The King in Yellow is only a book. It contains a play about a stranger who
comes to a masked ball in the far-off royal court of Yhtill, in the city of Carcosa, and
there, reveals that of all the revelers at the party, only he does not wear a mask, that his
grin—a porcelain rictus—is his actual face. In doing so, he announces the end of their
world.
This play is filled with the terrible ability to open doors within that allow imaginations
and ideas to spill out into reality, to grab all that they can see and change it into
something horrible. Or so some say. Others claim that the play is a seam in the fabric of
the world, that, once pulled, begins to fray existence itself.
To others, the King in Yellow is a pallid figure from that play, that somehow appears
in the real world; a malignant creature adorned in ancient golden cloth, with a porcelain
mask. To others still, it is a series of sigils and codes embedded in reality, flagged by a
single, terrible symbol that causes madness and death—the Yellow sign.
In truth, just as it is all of these things, it is none of them. It is anything on the edge of
human understanding. Minds can't help but open to accept the input of this unnatural
force, and are washed away and destroyed in a torrent of madness when exposed to it.
Some are drawn out into this tidal sludge of imagination, where they persist forever as
ghosts.
What, precisely is the King in Yellow? It is that which can never truly be defined and
contained within the human mind.

DISINFORMATION: Carcosa, the King in Yellow and Hastur

The King in Yellow, Carcosa, and Hastur the Unspeakable are all mentioned in the play,
The King in Yellow. Hastur has been identified as a Great Old One in other, ancient
unnatural texts such as De Vermis Mysteriis, and the Necronomicon. Some believe that
Hastur is somehow the King in Yellow itself. It remains unclear precisely what it is.
Carcosa is well known by those who study the unnatural. It is a generic term used to
describe madness, or more appropriately perhaps, a place that madmen go. It is also
the name of the city from the play The King in Yellow. Many believe it is a real place that
can be traveled to. Indeed, that it can exist anywhere it is believed to exist. That it exists
anywhere that madness exists.
Carcosa, the King in Yellow and Hastur are all connected to the star Aldebaran in
many accursed texts, though the meaning of that connection remains obscure. As a
whole, this force is often referred to as Hastur, the King in Yellow or Carcosa,
interchangeably. For simplicity's sake, we will refer to it as the King in Yellow.

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THE BOOK, THE MANIFESTATIONS, THE NIGHT

WORLD AND CARCOSA
Despite its impossible nature, the force called the King in Yellow often manifests in a
predictable manner. Like any disease, it starts from a vector, infects, inflicts symptoms
upon the target, and then, when it's strong enough, spreads.
Usually, a target is infected with exposure to the play The King in Yellow, or a
twisting symbol associated with the king, alternately described as an eye or a dragon,
known as the Yellow sign. Exposure to this seems to awaken a mindset in the subject
through which the forces of the King in Yellow can reach out and operate in the world.
Those infected begin suffering from manifestations, subtle at first, but which soon
grow in complexity and power. Sometimes such infection can be shaken off by those
with a strong will or sanity, but more often than not, they are swept up in the
strangeness. Manifestations are bizarre and surreal and reflect the nature of Carcosa
and the King in Yellow: Victorian style notes from people the infected has never met,
clockwork dolls that croak out their name, dancing, far-off figures that vanish when they
are pursued. They come and go like smoke, but while they persist they are as real—and
as deadly—as anything found in our world. As the power of these manifestations grows,
so does the victim's immersion. Often, they attempt to spread the infection at this point
to colleagues, friends and family–providing copies of the play or the symbol to any they
might be able to ensnare.
When the manifestations reach their peak, Carcosa begins to insert itself into the
victim's world, subtly at first. Doors may open on to strange—yet still known—places.
Impossible locations may spring up in the real world for hours or mere minutes before
vanishing. Strange and unknowable paths may open in well-trodden and well-known city
streets. The more the subject engages, investigates and attempts to understand such
things, the greater the influence of Carcosa grows. Eventually, those who do not lose
themselves might find an entrance to the skein that connects our real world with the
deeper recesses of Carcosa.
The Night World acts as a border between our world and the depths of Carcosa.
Most of those who are swept into the madness of the King in Yellow but who lack the
will to push through to Carcosa itself, persist here in the Night World forever. Many
locations such as the Hotel Broadalbin, the Macallistar Building, the Whisper Labyrinth
and more remain in the Night World, unchanging and eternal, fly-traps that gather lost
souls. For most victims of the influence of the King, the Night World is their final
destination, and when they disappear from reality, they find themselves trapped there,
forever.
Carcosa exists on the far-side of the Night World. This nightmare realm is controlled
wholly by the King in Yellow, and bends and changes to his will (and, to a lesser degree,
to the wills of those within it, locally). Here, the royal court of Yhtill prepares for the
masquerade ball, the revelers plot and plan to gain access, and the King arrives and
declares the end of the world, forever—again and again.
Few ever make it to the shores of Carcosa. Only one has ever left.

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DISINFORMATION: The Nature of Carcosa

Carcosa always manifests in forms reminiscent of the art, architecture, fashion and
design of the Victorian/Edwardian period (1837-1910). Why this is so, few understand.
Perhaps it is because that was when Le Roi en jaune first appeared and took hold in our
world.
Carcosa is a name given to the slurry of thought and quantum possibility that exists
between man and the Great Old Ones. In this run off, human thought is pulled into a
void and fills the space of possibility with thoughts, dreams and ideas that become solid
matter. The collapse of the waveform becomes the dance of multiple waveforms—a
thousand outcomes become possible, or impossible, all at once.
This effect occurs in a limited manner in so called “non-euclidean” constructions. The
warping of spacetime evident in some structures left behind by the Old Ones exhibit a
bizarre change in human perception. This seems to be a fixed effect—the perception is
shifted depending on location, but rarely seems to “bleed” or “change,” instead, it looks
alien and surreal.
Carcosa, however could be more akin to a feedback loop in this area of “reality," a
tug of war between an infinite consciousness considering a finite reality, and a human
consciousness observing the same. Carcosa seems to act and react to human thought,
to change and direct itself in a within human concepts of fear and disorder and chaos.
As such, it is extremely potent in its effects on sanity.
Attempts to understand Carcosa always fail. Carcosa may appear to become
“ordered” for short periods based on Agents’ mental fortitude, but this is always a
momentary pause in a dance of horrors that swarm the mind. It is like an undertow in
the current of thought, deceptive at first—appearing subtle and easy to resist—but soon,
as the Agent is pulled out to sea, the truth is realized. Carcosa envelops and digests
humans like a slug, ingesting and burning away their minds.

DELTA GREEN AND THE KING IN YELLOW

The play The King in Yellow predates the Delta Green organization. Since the play first
came to the Delta Green’s attention in 1951, it has been a particularly sore point in the
group’s mandate. While forces of the unnatural remain difficult to contain, most entities
are confined or bound to some concept of physics. The King in Yellow, it seems, exists,
breeds and thrives in the human mind.

DISINFORMATION: Records and Survivors

Many of the facts presented here exist only in the minds of the survivors of operations
against the horrors of the King in Yellow. Understandably, they do not speak lightly
about what it was they saw. Their survival was predicated on not letting such insanity
settle in their minds and use them as a vessel to transport the “infection”.
Official records on such subjects, for the most part, were purged at various times in
the group’s history, leaving behind only ashes and fragments. Of course, there is always
the possibility a war record, a box of papers, or even an entire file cabinet was
overlooked and lost in the shuffle of Delta Green leadership; which, once discovered
and investigated, might start the chain of infection once more.

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The First Known Outbreak of Le Roi en jaune, “The King in

Yellow” (1895)
The first documented identification of the concepts associated with the play Le Roi en
jaune, "The King in Yellow,” occurred in the summer of 1895 in Paris, France. It is
thought over two hundred people were murdered, committed suicide, or vanished during
this first known outbreak, including two members of the government who fell under its
influence.
It rose like a blight in the form of a short, three-act play in a small black book passed
from artist to artist, infecting those who read it with madness and death until the
government became involved in a general crackdown, claiming the book was an
extremist text.
Copies of the book were collected and burned. In that time, the work was given
special scrutiny by the Deuxième Bureau, a French intelligence group with the mandate
of investigating the martial maneuvers of France’s enemies, because, as they soon
discovered, the work did not, as is widely believed, originate in France at all.

DISINFORMATION: True Origins

The Deuxième Bureau records of the Paris crackdown, which turned up in JUL 1944 in
a looted villa called the Mansion de Portes hint the play was “translated” into French,
indicating it had come from somewhere before France. There is no mention of the
language it was translated from, or the name of the country or city of origin. Worse yet,
a single typewritten copy of the play itself was in this file.
No known records of earlier outbreaks, or the actual source of the play exist in any
form that can be confirmed (or if they did, they were destroyed). The author of the book,
for example, is always referred to as “X” or “the Author” and his country of origin is
never indicated. Where the play was before Paris in 1895, no one knows for certain, but
there are parallels between the play and ancient human legends which were noticed by
the conspiracy during the intervening years.

DISINFORMATION: Themes in Anthropology

Many legends mimic The King In Yellow. There are hundreds of such stories that
conform with the story elements, from all around the world, and in turn, seem to follow
the skein of the play The King in Yellow.
The Mohegan Indians, for example, tell tale of a Hobomack, an evil creature which
can “replace” a shaman, by tearing off his face and putting it on as a mask, to assume
his appearance. When the Hobomack arrives, it is to announce the end of the tribe and
its leadership in a great story, and to bring about chaos, death and destruction in as
subtle a way as possible by spreading lies, turning one against another, and worse.
When confronted or revealed, this entity claims to “wear no mask”.
Delta Green does not understand if somehow the production of the play in the 1890s
created these legends in the past, or if this is a deep-seated human truth which arises
no matter the culture, over and over again, like a cancer of thought. Either way, it is
there, forever on the edge of erupting into the world from many different cultures, times
and ideas. It can never be said to be truly gone.

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Recovery from the War Record and the Red Book (1951)
In FEB 1951 a Delta Green agent named Emmet Moseby, tasked with poring through
recovered paperwork found in various Army operations in France during World War II to
find unnatural records, located a wholly odd French intelligence file. It was marked and
sorted as "reviewed" by German intelligence during the occupation. Included in the file
were the typed pages of the play Le Roi en jaune in French.
In OCT 1951 the play appeared in English for the first time, in America, in the so-
called Red Book; a thin, red leather book marked with an odd, undulating symbol
known, despite the book’s coloring, as the Yellow Sign.
The Red Book’s existence was first noticed by Delta Green in 1952. At the time, the
group failed to connect the dots and it was marked only as a "book of interest"
recovered during two unrelated operations (in 1952 and 1953). Its nature as an active
vector of infection, or as a translation of the Le Roi en jaune was not yet understood. In
1955, the group would pay the price for this oversight.

DISINFORMATION: The Author of the Red Book and Moseby’s

Disappearance
In the cleanup after the 1955 incident, it did not go unnoticed that the first appearance of
the Red Book in America occurred nine months after Delta Green came into possession
of a typed copy of Le Roi en jaune. A secret internal investigation failed to locate
Moseby, the obvious suspect, though a new level of paranoia settled into the group’s
leadership.
In the wake of his work on the files in 1951, Emmet Moseby packed for a spring
vacation in Europe. "The continent first, and then court," he was quoted as saying
before he left. Moseby, for his part, was never seen again; on Earth.

Operation BRISTOL, Her Grey Song, and STATIC Protocol

(1955)
In 1955, Delta Green was involved in an incident in New York City called operation
BRISTOL. It was a disaster with a body count similar to the 1895 Paris outbreak,
focused around a failed off-Broadway play called Her Grey Song. Beyond these scant
facts, nearly nothing remains on the official record, though some survivors might persist.
From the ruins of this operation, the STATIC protocols were established by the
group’s leadership. The protocols are:

1. Works referencing The Yellow Sign, The King in Yellow, Hali, Hastur, Carcosa, Yhtill,
Cassilda, and Camilla, are TO BE DESTROYED.
2. Those who produce such works are to be eliminated. Those who seem influenced by
the work, are to be contained or eliminated at the agent’s discretion.
3. An agent’s exposure must be reported to the group, who will then decide upon a
response.

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4. Agents not exposed to these elements on these ops become the point of contact to
the group and must remain separate from the main investigative arm, acting in a
supporting role.
5. Agents violating any of these protocols are to be assumed active threats and are to
be dealt with appropriately.

The second, more secret portion of the STATIC protocol is the so-called “shadow team”.
Upon activation of the protocol, a second group of experienced agents were activated to
covertly observe the first Delta Green team. If things got out of hand, the shadow team
was there to remove the threat, through any means possible and destroy all infectious
elements, as well as cover it all up.

DISINFORMATION: STATIC Protocol Today

Ironically, STATIC only remains as a protocol in a few cells of the Outlaw conspiracy,
handed down from cell to cell after the 1970 dissolution. They know the basics of
STATIC, and the destructive nature of the play called The King in Yellow.
The official Delta Green Program has no record of such a protocol (it having been
purged along with all records of the King In Yellow in 1970 in a “house cleaning”). Some
old guard involved in the Delta Green program recall STATIC, and might have some
inkling of the play and its deleterious effects, but for the most part, the SAP will look at
such an outbreak as a problem to be investigated, rooted out, and “cured”—just like any
other unnatural threat. Due to the infectious nature of The King In Yellow material,
obviously, this will be disastrous.

The Macallistar Building and Operation ALICE (1995)

In 1995, Delta Green encountered the force again in an art co-op in Manhattan, the
Macallistar building, while pursuing a vanished artist, Abigail L. Wright. By the time the
group became involved, the residents and the building itself had been half-absorbed by
the Night World.
The "history" of Operation ALICE is covered in detail in The Night Floors (see PAGE
XX).

A Song Before Travel and Operation ACTIVE STATIC (2007)

In 2007, operation ACTIVE STATIC in Chicago unfolded into something which was,
briefly, much larger than any previously known outbreak. A single copy of The King in
Yellow found its way into the possession of a director Victor Correll who was on the
verge of breaking through into Hollywood. The 22-minute film he produced after reading
The King in Yellow was called A Song Before Travel, and was reported by the select
audience to be sublime, perfect and completely unlike anything before it.
Not one person of the 53 in attendance of the premiere would be alive in a month. A
Delta Green team led by aging Outlaws ruthlessly rooted out all tendrils of the infection,
which included multiple copies of the book and online clips of the movie. At the height of
the "outbreak" an entire apartment block of Chicago seemingly crossed over into the
quantum slurry of Carcosa.

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Finally, after the smoke cleared, even the last two remaining members of the Outlaw
team had to be eliminated, after being deemed “infected".

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SURREAL HORROR: A PRIMER

“From your first mewling, to last extremity,
A king watches,
Eyes empty like a newly polished sepulcher,
Expression, indifferent as time.”
–The King In Yellow, Act III. Scene I.

Delta Green is about confronting the unknown. Surreal horror fundamentally changes
what that unknown is. Agents are not pursued by tentacled creatures from other worlds
(or at least, not usually); they are hunted by things given form and hunger from the
depths of the power of the human mind, and the unfathomable force that we call
consciousness.
While Lovecraftian monsters represent powers beyond earthly comprehension, the
monsters of the King in Yellow seem somehow borne of humanity, and as such, can be
much more devastating, personal, and bizarre.
Special attention to detail, creativity, and flexibility on the part of the Handler is
needed to make surreal horror work. In this section, we’ll examine tips and tricks to
make your foray into surreality something memorable for both you, and the players.

OPINT: Consequences and Choices

Delta Green exists in a world very much like our own, filled with murder, death and
deceit. When it is complete, each Delta Green operation culminates in a lack of
answers. Did the Agents do what was right? It’s unlikely they’ll ever know. If they’re
lucky, no one ever will. Even more so, an experienced Delta Green Agent has seen
enough that they don’t want to know.
Delta Green Agents are required to make split-second, awful choices which might
haunt them for the rest of their lives. Sometimes, they make these choices and people
die. Sooner or later this gets to even the most hardened and experienced Agents. What
invariably begins as a crusade against the forces of the unnatural always ends with a
broken Agent. Always.
A good Handler will bring consequences and choices to the forefront of the game
again and again, so that the players never forget: their Agents are all that lies between
our world and the things beyond.

RUNNING SURREAL HORROR

As Handler, it is important to set the ground rules and establish what they are to the
players. This underlying structure is necessary for the true power of surreal horror to
flourish. Unlike most games, these rules are established during play. It pays to give
thought on how just to present a moment to cover each of the following four concepts to
your players, preferably in the first gameplay session, so they know what to expect.

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• REALITY: Even though the horrors presented transcend our world, the Agent’s
frame of reference must begin in the everyday. It is a journey from our world to the
world of the surreal (and back, usually) that is of interest. Use mundane references
to set the scene so that when madness strikes, it stands out.
• CONSISTENCY: Agents operate only on the information presented to them by the
Handler. As such, it is vital that when the Handler gives information to the Agents,
that information remains consistent minute-to-minute and session-to-session. When
changes occur, they must make sense to the players (even if the underlying reasons
are beyond comprehension).
• UNCERTAINTY: Agents must never feel completely in control, or if they do, it is only
a tool to demonstrate how truly out of control the situation is.
• CONTROL: The Handler is the absolute arbiter of the game. It must be clear from
the beginning of play that things are deadly serious for the Agents. Without the
possibility of death and failure, it ceases being a game about fear, and as such, a
Delta Green game.

EXAMPLE OF PLAY
Agents Doug and Agent Dimitri have followed the wanted fugitive Dr. Maximo Friend
into a tenement courtyard on Chicago’s east side. It is dusk. They believer Dr. Friend
carries a copy of The King In Yellow with him, which the Agents have been tasked to
locate and destroy.

HANDLER: The courtyard is ratty. There are weeds, old paint cans in a pile and a rotted
out VW Rabbit on blocks. Music (Tom Sawyer by Rush) plays from somewhere above.
As you enter, you see a thin wooden door slam shut on the far side. Friend must have
gone in there.

Here, the Handler is reinforcing the REALITY of the situation. The paint cans, the car,
the music, they say, “our world” to the players.

Agent DOUG: I draw my pistol and go in after him.

The Handler wants the Agents to feel UNCERTAINTY, so he switches up what’s

expected on the far side of the door (perhaps a hallway?) and replaces it with
something unusual, but which still might be found there.

HANDLER: The door opens on to a huge, darkened dance-hall-like room. The ceiling is
not visible, the floor bows towards the middle. Distant glints of various metal items wink
in the dark. You’re somewhat blinded by the lighting shift.

Agent DOUG: What can I see?

HANDLER: What’s your Search skill?

Agent DOUG: Um. 30?

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HANDLER: Not much. Past the light from the door, there are a few amorphous blobs of
light—they don’t look like daylight. But the feeling you have is of a theater, or a roller
skating rink, with nearly no lights.

Agent DIMITRI: I walk in after him and pull my pistol, but keep it to my side.

HANDLER: (TO DOUG): Something shifts by you in the dark, in your peripheral vision,
twenty-five or thirty feet out.

Agent DOUG: Oh shit. I point my gun in that direction.

Agent DIMITRI: Do I see what...uh...he saw?

HANDLER: No. But you do see Doug, twenty feet into the giant room, freeze for a
moment. His head jerks to the side. He points his gun into the darkness.

HANDLER: Suddenly, you both hear dim music—sounds like a music box—out in the
dark.

Agent DOUG: I take two steps further in; “hello?"

Agent DIMITRI: I look back at the door we came in.

HANDLER: You see the outline of the dusk-filled courtyard beyond the lip of the door. It
sure would be nice to be out there, right now.

The Handler is establishing the CONSISTENCY of the situation. The door the Agents
entered remains visible to them—a clear exit to “safety.”

HANDLER: What are your DEX scores, please?

Agent DOUG: Oh shit, uh 15?

Agent DIMITRI: 16.

HANDLER: Doug, the wooden floor suddenly gives way, buckling under your weight,
opening on a black expanse beneath. Give me an ATHLETICS roll.

Agent DOUG: (Rolls dice) uh 32 out of 40. Yes!

HANDLER: You slide down riding the bow-shaped collapse in the floor. You hang on to
your gun, and—with the other hand—grab on to a nailed 2x4 on the wood. Beneath you,
you hear fragments of the floor spatter down into some unseen basement. They sound
like they fall for a long time.

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Agent DIMITRI: Where am I? Can I try to grab him?

HANDLER: You're on the edge where the floor begins to buckle, you can see Doug’s
hand hanging on. The entire floor undulates every time you shift your weight.

Agent DIMITRI: I holster my gun and carefully lean down to try to grab Doug’s hand.

HANDLER: Give me a DEXx5 roll.

Agent DIMITRI: (Rolls dice) uh, 11 out of 55.

HANDLER: DIMITRI squats down and grabs on to Doug’s hand, just as the floor shifts
dramatically again.

Agent DIMITRI: I look down the hole, how far is the fall?

HANDLER: Give me a SAN roll, Dimitri.

Agent DIMITRI: Aw hell. 64 out of 35, fail.

HANDLER: You lose 2 SAN. Looking up from the hole, beyond the dangling legs of
Doug are a half-dozen moon faces standing in the basement below. Porcelain masks on
blacked figures all staring upward with silent expectation. Waiting for Doug to fall.

Agent DIMITRI: “Climb!” I pull!

HANDLER: Dimitri, STRx5. Doug, DEXx5. The shapes below suddenly explode in
frantic movement, winding in and out of circles silently, twirling and spinning in a perfect,
choreographed dance. Circling.

Agent DIMITRI: 31 out of 45, succeed!

Agent DOUG: 61 out of 50, uh…fail.

HANDLER: The floor shifts wildly, dropping a foot or more further into the dark. The
circle of the floor opens wider and wood drops off and hits cement below. The wood that
Doug was hanging onto is pulled down into the dark. Now only Dimitri holds Doug
above the hole, both hands locked on his—straining, feet slipping.

Agent DIMITRI: I need to pull him out! I pull him out.

HANDLER: The figures below stop moving as quickly as they started. A drum beat
begins (Doug, you hear this too), the figures turn to face off into the dark as if they're
expecting someone. They begin to part. Dimitri, STRx3 roll, please.

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Agent DIMITRI: 99 out of 45, fumble!

HANDLER: The floor gives way beneath your feet and you drop Doug who falls to the
ground below. Doug, you suffer 2d6 HPs damage as you smash on to a cement
floor...so...(rolls dice) 8 HPs damage.

Agent DOUG: Uh, that puts me at 1 HP.

HANDLER: DOUG hits the ground on his side, and his head connects with the ground
with a hollow knock, rendering him unconscious. Dimitri, DEXx5 or Athletics roll.

Agent DIMITRI: (Rolls dice) uh, 29 out of 55. Made it!

HANDLER: After you lose grip on Doug, you scuttle back to the edge of the wood that's
still solid, narrowly avoiding a further collapse. The hole now covers all you can see in
the large room. The drum continues below in the dark.

Agent DIMITRI: Uh, shit. I look, I guess.

HANDLER: The figures swarm around Doug’s unconscious form. They swirl and dance.
Occasionally their porcelain faces turn up towards the light. Then, as the drum builds to
a crescendo, they part. Doug lays on the ground, unconscious, but now his face is a
porcelain mask matching his features—the mustache, and bushy brows. His eyes are
black sockets. Two figures drag him off into the dark...

Here, the Handler is reinforcing CONTROL. The rules run the game, as interpreted by
the Handler. Rolls requested and made along with a grim acceptance of what they
portend indicates the players are skirting a thin line.

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ENTITIES AND ARTIFACTS

Many entities and artifacts are associated with Hastur and the King in Yellow. Below,
find cataloged a few lasting horrors, which despite the ever-changing nature of Carcosa,
seem somehow to persist through the ages.

ENTITIES
The array of forces in service of the King in Yellow are vast and as infinite as the human
mind, as such, nearly anything can emanate from this force, there are, however, points
of stillness within the chaos. These forms are reinforced by centuries of human horror,
are frozen into shapes which remain and withstand the test of time, appearing again
and again, like an echo in the dark.

The Clockwork Child

“On the seventh day the Clockwork Child came with my invitation upon its back.
My prayers have been answered. I shall follow him into the dark and step outside
of time and consequence forever…”
—A letter from Paris, Unknown Author. Approximately 1901.

The Clockwork Child is a small clockwork being, approximately 2 feet in height,

composed of brass-parts, wheels and the remains of a porcelain doll. It cannot talk, but
its mouth clacks open and shut as it wobbles on its two uneven wheels. Its arms spin as
it moves and a gloomy dirge plays from a music box embedded in its chest. Its
clockwork seems to be lubricated with something like blood–and the air fills with a
coppery stench when it is nearby.
Though the arms are fixed in place pointing outward in a crucifixion pose, and the
fingers are simply curves carved into porcelain with no seams, when unobserved, the
arms and hands rearrange themselves into new positions.
The motivations of the Clockwork Child are mysterious, though most often, it is a
messenger from Carcosa, delivering hand-written notes, clues and invitations, pinned to
its back. Precisely who writes these notes is unknown.
Though it serves the King in Yellow, the Clockwork Child most definitely has its own
sense of self-motivation, and very often goes off on its own.

The Clockwork Child

Messenger of Carcosa
STR 2 CON 2 DEX 4 INT 13 POW 15
HP 2 WP 15
ARMOR: See METAL AND PORCELAIN.
SKILLS: Alertness 61%, Navigate Carcosa 51%.
ATTACKS: None.
ENDLESS EXITS: The Clockwork Child is impossible to entrap. Placing it in a room, a
box, or even burying it underground will fail to contain it. The moment it is unobserved
by a living being it will transit back to Carcosa to continue its work.

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IMPOSSIBLE GEARS: The structure and construction of the Clockwork Child is

impossible, in the mechanical sense. Anyone examining it at length suffers 0/1 SAN
point damage as they realize it is apparently powered by nothing. Those with Craft
(Mechanics) of 30% or more who examine it automatically suffer 4 points of SAN when
they realize that the construction of the clockwork is built in such a way as to be
physically impossible. It should not be able to spin at all. Yet it does.
METAL AND PORCELAIN: The Clockwork Child is made of metal and porcelain. Every
attack which rolls an odd number in its damage result inflicts only 1 point of damage. If
destroyed, it returns again in the future, wholly unharmed.
MISSIVES FROM CARCOSA: The Clockwork Child never appears without a note,
invitation or letter for the being it hopes to contact. These notes vary from odd, strange
snippets in alien tongues, to invitations made out to exacting detail to the party it is
searching for. Sometimes there are photographs, maps or stranger things.
SAN LOSS: 0/1D4.
Hastur
"... after stumbling queerly upon the hellish and forbidden book of horrors the
two learn, among other hideous things which no sane mortal should know, that
this talisman is indeed the nameless Yellow Sign handed down from the accursed
cult of Hastur – from primordial Carcosa, whereof the volume treats..."
—Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow.

Hastur—often referred to as a Great Old One—has no personality per se, and is not a
sentient individual of any sort. Its relationship to the King in Yellow and Carcosa is often
implied, but can never be verified by the sane. But it is clear that Hastur is greater than
a Great Old One, it is the force of entropy: it is the cosmic principle which destroys
order. Because this destruction of order happens at every level from the atomic to the
cosmic, the "deity" of Hastur has influence at all levels of reality.
This influence can range from inspiring cults to worship this so-called deity to
undermining humanity's perception of reality on a fundamental plane. There are no
game stats for Hastur provided in this book, and in fact no way to meet it as it has no
true personage; but it can be understood, as far as our human brains can tolerate. It is a
primal force of the universe, which assumes an individual role only in response to the
entropy caused by human beings; our destruction gives it form, our violence gives it a
name, our screams give it a voice. It is no more a deity than gravity is, no matter how
many people worship it and ascribe it a personality and an intelligence (many do).
However, by envisioning a "deity" with properties that are in sync with the principle of
entropy, it is possible for humans to commune with this principle in a direct way that
fosters a greater—if insane-understanding than that possessed by most people.
Imagine a deity based on the law of gravity that was described as living in the center
of the Earth and who was constantly pulling all of creation towards itself; while still
wholly fictional, this conception does nevertheless have a strong relationship with the
physical properties of gravity and therefore those who worshipped such a deity could
have a powerful instinctual understanding of the law of gravity and its effects on human
lives. Likewise, those who worship the idea they know as "Hastur" have seen in it
certain properties clearly related to entropy, and therefore these people could have an

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understanding of fundamental entropic forces and their role in our lives that is denied to
the rest of us.
In brief, Hastur can be described as a force that has influence over the realm of
insidious destruction. It breaks things down not from without, but from within. Its force is
sublimely subtle. In practice, Hastur's primary area of operation is the human mind: the
manifold subtleties of thoughts and chemicals that comprise our personalities are the
fields in which Hastur is at play. Although the particulars of Hastur's influence may
function on the level of molecules in the brain, the noticeable result is insane,
destructive tendencies—often self-destructive in nature.
The vector of Hastur's influence is an infective madness that can be passed as
easily through speech as through the printed page. The entropic fever that burns in this
madness breaks down humans' perceptions of reality and, in fact, affects the very
atoms of reality around them. Buildings shift, paintings change, lights flicker, statues
mutate, but only in the presence of those Hastur has touched. Around them, order is the
jester and chaos the King.

The King in Yellow

“I do this every day, and yet the joy of waiting and at last touching again the
diadem only seems to increase as the days pass. It is a diadem fit for a King
among kings, an Emperor among emperors. The King in Yellow might scorn it,
but it shall be worn by his royal servant.”
—Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow.

The King in Yellow is an entity that seems to haunt the human mind, or exist in the
construct that humanity calls thoughts or ideas. Greater revelations have, of course,
been implied (that the King is a manifestation of Hastur, that it is a psychosocial disease
brought on by human consciousness, that it is a meme-entity living inside human
thought, etc...) but of course, none of these can be proven. Instead, this entity is of a
vague and ever-changing nature.
The King in Yellow appears to bend, warp and reshape reality at its whim. Spacetime
reorders as it approaches, and at its most powerful, seems to shudder and slide away
from it. Anything observed by human thought—a planted tree, a doorway, a book—is
under the control of this entity, allowing it to warp and change it at will. With this ability,
buildings can dance, shift and change, and books can animate their meaning in the
spray of words across a flipped-through-page.
Such changes often make little or no sense, and seemingly appear from nowhere.
For the human psyche, built upon cause and effect, this shift is terrifying to behold and
especially damaging. These changes in our world open portals to another world of
roiling thought and insanity referred to in various sources as “Carcosa.”
The King appears as a lonely entity bound in a yellow or gold mask. Specifics differ
from observer to observer. Usually, the creature wears a tattered yellow robe or outfit of
some sort. It rarely speaks, and instead appears to beckon individuals into its realm of
Carcosa. What is beneath the entity’s mask is a subject of intense speculation, but one
thing is known those who see discover this secret are forever lost.

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The King is enigmatic at best. He more or less presides over me terrible alien city of
Carcosa, an embodiment of despair and paranoia (which are also elements of entropy
at the level of everyday human experience). The King in Yellow might well have once
been an ordinary person whose understanding of entropy approached the cosmic level,
and who acquired some form of immunity to entropy as a result thus distanced from the
rest of reality, he acquired peculiar powers and understanding and thereby became the
King in Yellow. Alternately, it could be that all of the faith and strength of will possessed
by followers of Hastur have willed into being the King in Yellow. Explanations are many;
facts are few. He is perhaps only barely sentient—his nature as an incarnate being is all
he needs to be. Personality is only inferred, and is all but irrelevant.
AURA OF POWER: Any human present when the King in Yellow manifests is at −20%
on all rolls (except SAN). A character who fails the SAN roll for encountering the King in
Yellow cannot act for 1D6 turns, instead goggling in shocked silence at its apparent
reality.
DISCORPORATION: A successful attack with a Lethality rating of 20% or higher causes
the King in Yellow to dissipate, exploding into a confetti-like spray of ancient rags,
leaving behind nothing. Each character present who fails a Luck roll loses 1/1D6 SAN
and is overcome by the Yellow Sign. Until that victim etches or paints the Yellow Sign on
an external surface, they are consumed by it; all skill rolls are -20%, and they
must make a SAN roll for each night of sleep. Failure indicates they wake continuously
from unremembered nightmares (normal penalties from insomnia apply).
ENTROPY: The touch of the King is enough to cause matter to dissolve and unravel. If
it is its will, a single touch by the King on any living creature inflicts a Lethality 50%
attack. Victims consumed by such an attack rot, spoil, and dissolve into ashes in mere
seconds (1D4/1D10 SAN).
FUNDAMENTAL CONTROL OF MATTER: The King in Yellow can control all matter
within sensory range on a fundamental level. Observation seems to be of relevance in
this ability—if a target loses sight of a changed item, place or person, for example, it
might change back to its previous form—or into some new horror. Such changes occur
outside of the observation of the target. There is effectively no limit to what his ability
may affect.
THE BOOK: The King in Yellow seems inextricably bound to a particular set of words,
most often seen in a published play called The King in Yellow. No clear timeline for the
book’s creation can be decided upon, but it exists in many places and many languages.
Simply reading this book and failing a SAN roll is enough to open a character to the
ministrations of the King. All who read it are eventually visited by the King or one of its
servants. A long-held belief is that the King is immortal, existing within each copy of The
King in Yellow.
THE YELLOW SIGN: The symbol of the King is the “Yellow Sign.” This mark (described
at various times as a sigil, an eye, a branch, and a dragon) brings horror, fear, and
insanity to any who see it (0/1D4 SAN). Those who fail the SAN roll and who choose to
spread the Yellow Sign might find some comfort from that action. Those who fail and
refuse must make a SAN roll for each night of sleep. Failure indicates they wake
continuously from unremembered nightmares (normal penalties from insomnia apply).
SAN LOSS: 1D4/1D6 (with mask).
1D10/1D100 (with no mask).

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Marionettes
“In moments, just barely within my sight, the two thugs from Lenny were mobbed
by the great bulk of marionette servants. The servants grew animated, lifted their
drooping arms and heads, and surged forward in a great silken mass. Above their
heads, their strings became impossibly tangled and twisted, yet they pressed
forward regardless. In short order, they had completely surrounded the two men
and moved in against them like some bizarre pack of sardines.”
—John Tynes, Broadalbin.

These beings were people once, somehow caught in the tidal pull of Carcosa, and lost
to it forever. Now, they serve the King in Yellow. They appear as life-sized marionettes,
hung from impossible strings that seem to move their limbs in a herky-jerky gait. The
tracks that guide these being’s strings can often be found in ceilings throughout
Carcosa, but they can travel beyond such limitations when it suits them, and their
strings seem simply to hang in the air above them. When they walk, they glide and
when they run they bumble about, legs and arms flailing, feet rarely touching the
ground.
Their faces are blank porcelain with empty eyes, but each has some semblance of
what they once were. Those who wore glasses wear tin-wire fake glasses. Those with a
prominent nose share it with their marionette. Birth-marks, overbites, hairstyles and
more are to be seen, for those who choose to look. If you knew one in life, their
marionette is recognizable. Their clothes are suited to the role they might play; bellhop,
town guard, traveling salesman, but the clothes are simply a costume.
They never speak, but can indicate intention with ponderous gestures. They often
deliver things, show the way or remove threats. They do this by swarming a target, and
when the target is completely surrounded, suddenly extruding razor-pointed iron spikes
from their clockwork bodies, impaling them.

Marionettes
Servants of Carcosa
STR 10 CON 20 DEX 12 INT 10 POW 10
HP 15 WP 10
ARMOR: See METAL AND PORCELAIN.
SKILLS: Alertness 55%, Navigate Carcosa 51%, Unarmed Combat 54%.
ATTACKS: Swarm and spike 35%, Lethality 10% (see SWARM AND SPIKE).
IMPOSSIBLE GEARS: The structure and construction of each marionette is impossible
(and unique), in the mechanical sense. Anyone examining it at length suffers 0/1 SAN
point damage as they realize it is apparently powered by nothing. Those with Craft
(Mechanics) of 30% or more who examine it automatically suffer 4 points of SAN when
they realize that the construction of the clockwork is built in such a way as to be
physically impossible. It should not be able to move its limbs at all. Yet it does.
METAL AND PORCELAIN: Beneath their costume, each marionette is made of metal
and porcelain. Every attack which rolls an odd number in its damage result inflicts only 1

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point of damage. If destroyed, there is an endless army of marionettes in Carcosa to

replace it.
SWARM AND SPIKE: To attack a number of marionettes swarm a target in an attempt
to restrain it (the equivalent of a pin). Make a contested Unarmed Combat roll against
the target’s Dodge. If the target fails to dodge, they are surrounded by marionettes. A
pinned target is permitted a STR×5 or Unarmed Combat, whichever is better. On a
success, they break free, on a failure, they suffer a Lethality 10% attack as each
marionette swarming them releases dozens of razor-sharp spring-loaded spikes into
their body from all sides.
SAN LOSS: 0/1D4.
1/1D6 if the marionette was known to you in life.

Repeaters
Repeaters are independent beings that have managed to hold on to some part of their
consciousness despite their consumption by Carcosa. They are capable of new and
self-motivated action despite the repetition and melancholy of Carcosa; and can even
make plans, form alliances and choose to enter or exit Carcosa.
They range from those that barely made such a transition, living on the fringes of the
Night World, to those who exhibit a huge amount of control in Carcosa itself. They
appear much as they did in life, stuck in a single time-period and look in their life. To
them, time has ceased counting; and they often repeat actions, speeches and tasks
(hence their name) unknowingly.
Most have carved a small niche of existence in the Night World or Carcosa that they
primarily haunt, but all serve at the whims of the King. Each searches for their bottle,
hidden somewhere within the Whisper Labyrinth (see WHISPER LABYRINTH on page
XX), and inside it, the final answer to their looping existence.

Repeaters
Occupants of Carcosa
STR As in life CON As in life DEX As in life INT As in life POW As in life
HP As in life WP As in life
ARMOR: As in life.
SKILLS: As in life.
ATTACKS: As in life.
STUCK: Repeaters are often caught in repeating patterns of life. An author might write
and drink and never leave their room unless prodded by some third party. A bellhop
might man a front desk for eternity. Until someone not yet overwhelmed by the forces of
Carcosa comes in contact with them, it is likely they will just perform the same actions
over and over again.
ENDLESS DOORS: Repeaters can always find a way through, either by discovering
hidden passages, secret doors or even doors that were not there a moment ago,
through the power of Carcosa. Others may even follow them through these passages.
WHERE’S MY BOTTLE?: To attack a number of marionettes swarm a target in an
attempt to restrain it (the equivalent of a pin). Make a contested Unarmed Combat roll
against the target’s Dodge. If the target fails to dodge, they are surrounded by

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marionettes. A pinned target is permitted a STR×5 or Unarmed Combat, whichever is

better. On a success, they break free, on a failure, they suffer a Lethality 10% attack as
each marionette swarming them releases dozens of razor-sharp spring-loaded spikes.
SAN LOSS: 0/1D4 (only if some impossible event is witnessed).

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