Category: MoN – Keeper

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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Cat Links MoN - Keeper, MoN - Player

Masks of Nyarlathotep – A Rich History

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Initially published in 1984 by Chaosium for the second edition of Call of Cthulhu, this masterpiece campaign was the work of Larry DiTillio and Lynn Willis. DiTillio was a television and movie screenwriter, contributing to pop-cultural products, such as He-Man (17 episodes), She-Ra (18 episodes), and The Real Ghostbusters cartoons, as well as a sci-fi television classic, Babylon 5, among many others. On hiatus from screenwriting, Larry was busy producing role-playing material for various game companies in 1984. His inspiration for Masks of Nyarlathotep (MoN) came from a biography of Jomo Kenyatta he wrote for the television show Against the Odds, and exploded out of a single scenario he created, “The Carlyle Expedition.” Rather than simply tracking Carlyle’s

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Cat Links Keeper Tips, MoN - Keeper, MoN - Player

The Occult Skill in Call of Cthulhu – Useless or Utility?

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The Lovecraftian world contains many dark secrets and mysteries, and the Occult skill tempts many Call of Cthulhu players hoping to unlock knowledge through this skill. According to the 7th edition rulebook: A knowledgeable Investigator can recognize occult paraphernalia, words, and concepts, as well as folk traditions, which may encompass supernatural beings, such as werewolves, vampires, ghosts, and demons. In addition, a skilled occultist will be familiar with secret knowledge originating from ancient civilizations, including Egypt, Sumer, as well as those centered in Asia and Africa. They will also be able to identify occult traditions and texts from the Medieval and Renaissance periods.  Such an Investigator expects to bring a wealth of insight to mysteries

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Cat Links Australia, MoN - Keeper

Robert Huston – A Deeper Analysis – Part 1

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While complete at the publication of the first edition, DiTillio’s Australia Chapter remained excluded from the MoN campaign until the 3rd edition in 1996. From the initial release of the adventure, Sir Aubrey Penhew has hammed it up on the center stage as the campaign’s feature villain enjoying a luxury yacht, a volcano lair, and a diabolical nom de plume. We strongly believe that Dr. Robert Ellington Huston deserves a more sophisticated and dramatic role commensurate with his expertise and charisma. Here we discuss Huston, his valuable skills, and options for an expanded role in your MoN campaign.  An Expanded Backstory The young Robert Huston grew up in the shadow of his two older brothers

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Cat Links England, MoN - Keeper, Tomes

Mythos Tomes – Book of Dzyan

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Pronunciation: Dzyan – “zon”, also called “The Stanzas of Dzyan” Location: Gavigan’s Secret Room at Penhew Foundation (England) Physical Description: Woven papers bound in goatskin with a distinct smell of sulfur Author:  Unknown, but alleged to be an account of the High Masters of Shamballah Publication History:  Introduction indicated the original text is of Ancient origin. Written in English, but reported originally to be composed in Senzar, a sacred language related to Sanskrit. According to theosophist Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, the text is of Tibetan, but some purport the original text originated in Atlantis. Blavatsky published a watered-down version of the text as “The Secret Doctrine” in 1888, which many occultists will be familiar with; however, none beyond

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The Three Mysteries in Masks of Nyarlathotep

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  At its dark heart, the Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign runs upon investigative fuel to carry your players from one continent to the next. The New York Chapter quickly fills the tank to the sloshing brim for your Investigators starting with an enticing telegram from Jackson Elias followed by his bloody death. A series of rapid-fire revelations following this shocking murder hint at a dark conspiracy. In short order, the campaign serves up the following three discrete mysteries, which should intrigue and motivate the Investigators: the murder of Jackson Elias, the fate of the lost Carlyle Expedition, and the dire global conspiracy. Once in motion, the campaign will continue to propel your group forward, and

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Cat Links England, MoN - Keeper

Mythos Monsters – The Thing in the Fog

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The noisome London fog offers the perfect cover for Edward Gavigan’s Mythos invisible pets, the gish-rla (pp. 206-207). These viscous vapors referred to throughout the England chapter as “The Thing in the Fog” provide the Keeper with an atmospheric (pun intended – Ed.) threat to your Investigators on the dark streets of London. The Thing may be employed as an alternative to your routine cultist encounters, particularly after your Investigators have irritated or threatened Gavigan. The nature of the Thing precludes normal combat solutions, instead offering a deadly puzzle for your players to solve. We will discuss a variety of ways to present this other-worldly monster with consideration to incorporating it throughout the chapter.  Before

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Cat Links England, MoN - Keeper

Chapter Inspiration – England

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  The England chapter offers a dramatic range of settings and encounters for your players to explore, and you can unveil a variety of locations and characters to create a dreadful, and even gritty, depth to this corner of the campaign. We like to imagine our Investigators arriving in London with visions of Downton Abbey and Oxford professors only to find themselves soon mixed up in the seedy underbelly of the city.  London:  For an inspirational piece contemporary to the setting, we strongly recommend Hitchcock’s 1927 classic silent thriller The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog. The plot, based on Marie Belloc Lowndes’s 1913 novel, centers on the hunt for the “Avenger”, a serial

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Cat Links MoN - Keeper, New York, Tomes

Mythos Tomes – Life as a God

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Location: Roger Carlyle’s Library Physical Description: Poorly bound in scarred human skin over wood, numbering 150 pages in duodecimo format. No title on the cover, but the frontispiece features a low-quality faux-Egpytian styling opposite the handwritten title page. The content is handwritten in a brown-black scrawl that occasionally fades out.  Author:  Montgomery Crompton, an English soldier and amateur artist, who traveled to Egypt in 1805 and became a minor priest in the Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh. Originally from a prominent English family, he served in the military and became interested in Egyptian history and art. Research into Crompton while in London (Library Use) can be revealing. Originally born in 1780 and raised in Gloucester,

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Cat Links MoN - Keeper, Peru

Mythos Artifact – The Golden Mirror

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  In addition to the piles of kharisiri treasure hidden underneath the ancient pyramid, your Investigators have the chance to acquire a potentially valuable Mythos artifact during the Peruvian Prologue. If your players can wrest the Golden Mirror from de Mendoza, they will have access to a useful foreshadowing device.  The Golden Mirror (Peru, p.64 & Artifacts, p.649) takes the form of a six-inch square solid gold Mask following a design similar to other artifacts found at Tiwanaku excavation sites. While the front depicts a face constructed of the typical Tiwanaku raised-block geometrical designs, the back reveals a highly polished, reflective surface that functions as a mirror. And a conduit to access dark visions and

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