serene and primal

a Call of Cthulhu Scenario

In the sleep of death what dreams may come

- Shakespeare
History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awaken.
- Joyce
…among which there is no difference between those born of real things
and those born of inward dreaming
- Lovecraft
I walked into your dream/and now I’ve forgotten/how to dream
- Tori Amos

There are those who travel through time, bodiless and undimensioned, inhabiting the corporeal forms of things
of matter when it suits their purposes dark and unknown. The Great Race of Yith uses this method in pursuit of its
great work. They are the only race who has conquered space and time so thoroughly.
But there are those who have forgotten if they were ever part of a race, if indeed they were ever anything
other than what they are, incomprehensible mad destroyers and dark forces in the obscure and unknowable corners
beyond reality.
There is a city on a dead world circling a burned-out star. Nothing lives there except a single mind. That
mind does not name itself, and cannot remember its origins. The Yithians, who found it a danger and irritation,
imprisoned it long ago. It seeks to escape. Sometimes, it manages to contact the tiny minds of other worlds. In the
brief time it has before the weak bodies crumble into dust, it tries to escape, to follow the mind of its host back. It
will one day return to where it ruled before…

Backstory: Ernest Smith is an English occultist and explorer of the Mythos. During experiments with astral
projection back a few decades ago, he accidentally made contact with the mind. His attempts to free himself of the
mind’s clutches (involving a Satanic ritual) only partly succeeded, and he often loses control of his own actions. As
part of the ritual, he sacrificed six children. Their minds were caught in the wake of the mind, and still exists. Smith
currently lives in a house adjoining Dr. Junzt.
The house once belonged to an alchemist, Bektrict, who was also a host for the mind. The house contains a
Gate which will allow access to the world of the mind. The mind is trapped in the ancient city, and needs a beacon, a
living mind to follow back. Bektrict died before the mind could use him. Smith’s sacrifice of the children saved him.
Last night, the mind attempted to gain control of Smith. He tried to fight it off, and eventually blundered
into Dr. Junzt’s house (see the tape (handout 1), and your interpretation of it (handout 2). The mind then got partial
control, and Smith ran back to his house and activated the gate.
The gate opened a space-time vortex, and dragged the sleeping forms of Dr. Junzt, Anna, Constance and
Macon, as well as Smith, to the world of the mind. The psychic trauma has created a form of group telepathy
between the five. They are dreaming, a dream created from the memories of all five. The mind has a presence here
to, as do a few others, who I’ll detail later.
Now, in the 7.12 train from Paris to Cologne are Constance’s twin brother Jeremy and his psychic friend
Theodore. Thanks to the psychic link between twins and Theodore’s powers, the two are drawn into the dream.
None of the characters know what happened to them, and (initially) do not suspect they are dreaming. The key to the
scenario is the realisation that they are dreaming. Only by both groups (the sleepers who travelled through the gate,
and Jeremy & Theo) awakening and working on the two sides of the gate can they hope to survive.

The Yithian Solution: The Yithians imprisoned the mind in the first place, and don’t want to see it loose. Therefore,
they bring Macon’s mind back 250 million years into the past and train him to stop the mind. They return him an
instant after they took him, although they train him for 300 years. On his return time-journey, Macon glimpses the
psychic links between the characters, although he doesn’t understand it.
The Yithians didn’t send a Yithian because the mind would detect and destroy an equal mind.
The Characters:
Herr Doktor Erik Junzt: Dr. Junzt was a professor of Theology, and almost became a priest. He is a highly
intelligent and optimistic man. He became fascinated with the theories of Jung and Freud, and threw himself into the
developing field of psychology, losing his faith in God but gaining faith in humanity... He is now a respected
alienist, although he tends towards the theoretical. Despite occasionally bursts of brilliant cynicism, he is a
relentlessly optimistic and hopeful man. He loves his only daughter dearly, and wants the best for everyone.
Anna Junzt: Anna shares her father’s positive outlook and taste for the mystic. However, while Erik tries to
understand and deconstruct everything, Anna is humble and accepting. She knows there are things in the universe far
beyond our understanding. The thought of this does not scare her, it excites her. She believes in angels and telepathy
and astral forms and psychic powers and reincarnation and all the rest.
Macon, a Butler: Macon’s a butler. While Dr. Junzt reads and analyses, and Anna dreams, Macon cleans, cooks,
organises. He is the perfect servant. In his own way, he is intelligent as his master, and far more resourceful. As the
scenario begins, something rather odd happens to Macon. Read on.
Ms Constance Avon: Cold. Hard. Silent. Constance Avon knows what makes people tick. She’s read every theory
of Freud and Jung. There is no soul, no mystery of humanity in her eyes. She sees the tribe-traditions and taboos, the
sublimated sexuality, the base and the unconscious that lie beneath society and proper behaviour. Show her a
cathedral and she doesn’t see a monument to glory – she sees it as an ape’s attempt to placate ancestral god-
memories. To her, people are animal/robots who follow society’s pre-programmed patterns.
Mr Jeremy Avon: Constance’s twin, and her opposite. Constance believes in nothing, Jeremy believes in
everything. For years he’s been digging into the mystic past of the world. He’s a member of the Golden Dawn, and
fancies himself a minor sorcerer. He travels Europe with his friend and companion, Theodore Kelly.
Theodore Kelly: Kelly has a gift. He’s a powerful psychic. Sometimes, in rare moments of lucidity, he wishes he
were normal. Most of the time, he wishes he were dead. The psychic impressions of the dead, the thoughts of others,
the invisible and the ethereal crowd his mind. And though they drive him to the brink of insanity, they are far more
welcome that the other minds he sometimes touches.

Events in the Scenario:

 The characters awaken in Dr. Junzt’s house. The four who passed through the Gate (Dr. Junzt, Anna, Constance,
and Macon) encounter Jeremy & Theodore.
 The Yithians abduct Macon for a moment – or three hundred years depending on your perspective.
 The characters explore their surroundings. They are in a dream, and the town of Almich is greatly changed.
Every other person in the town has vanished.
 The First Awakening
 They encounter the strange entities that inhabit the dream. These are aspects of Smith’s mind, the ghosts of six
children he murdered in England etc
 The Second Awakening
 The characters realise they are dreaming. Jeremy and Theodore travel to Almich, while the other four explore
the alien city.
 Smith, finally falling prey to the mind, destroys the children and allows the mind back into the universe.
The state of the characters: After passing through the Gate, Smith found the unconscious bodies of the characters.
He dragged them away from the Gate and left. Jeremy and Theodore fell asleep on the train to Cologne, and were
drawn into the dream. The staff on the train tried to wake them, but it was impossible. The two are now in a hospital
in Cologne.
Smith’s movements in the scenario: Ernest Smith runs around a lot during the scenario. He is dragged through the
gate with Dr Junzt, Anna, Macon & Constance, but he does not fall completely into the dream. The mind takes
control of him, and makes him drag the four out of the great Hall and into another chamber in the city. Smith breaks
free of the mind, and then he wanders around the alien City for a while, fading in and out of the dream. He broke his
leg in the fall from Dr. Junzt’s study, and eventually crawls back to the Gate and returns to Earth. He hides in the
hidden vault in the Library until the mind finds him and possesses him. He then returns through the Gate (if the
characters do not stop him) and destroys the remains of the girls, dissipating their essences and allowing the Mind to
escape.

Smith’s crimes: There is a newspaper article reporting Smith’s murder of the children. This article is embedded in
Smith’s mind, and keep appearing in the dreamscape. This article, and Smith’s book (Bram Stoker’s Dracula)
should keep appearing. They can find the article in any newspaper, or in the library. The book should crop up in Dr.
Junzt’s house, in Smith’s ruin, in the library – anywhere. It is a dream.

Theodore’s powers: Theodore’s psychic abilities do not work on anyone in the dream apart from Jeremy (the others
are billions of light years away). He can read minds and do basically “Jedi Mind tricks” (use POW vs POW if you
feel the need to roll dice). He cannot affect Smith (Smith is a skilled sorcerer) although he can try to block Smith’s
magic.
Theo’s power will be very handy when they wake up and need to escape the hospital. He can convince the
doctors that two people who collapsed on a train and fell into a coma should be allowed walk out…

Part 1: The Dream

The Dream: The six characters are dreaming. The dreamscape they inhabit looks just like the town of Almich, as it
drawn from their memories. This means that initially the players will believe that some horrible calamity has struck
the town. Let them assume this for a while. The key to succeeding in the scenario is realising they are dreaming and
using the dream as a method of communicating between the two groups of player characters.
The characters can affect the dream. If they go looking for, say, a shotgun, they can find one. If they expect
Dracula to show up…well, unless they really believe it, he won’t, but they’ll notice a few more bats and coffins…
The dream is intended to be surreal. Make the buildings of the town seem as normal and mundane as possible, and
then fill them with all the weird images you half-remember at the moment of waking up.
The characters can awaken from the dream if they really believe they are dreaming, and fervently wish to
wake up. Just saying, “I bet this is a dream” doesn’t work.

Before we begin… Read the character backgrounds, the tape handouts, and Macon’s Yithian handout.
Remember that the Mythos is a darkness beyond human comprehension, and that a player
squealing “I don’t understand” is a good thing. The first section of the scenario should be as surreal, as twisted and
as disturbing as you can make it.
And remember it’s only a dream.
Dr. Junzt’s house: A large well-maintained house, in a pleasant walled garden. The house is rather old-fashioned
and crammed full of well-loved books. There are several “public” rooms – the dining room, drawing room, piano
room etc. There is a study/office (complete with red leather couch), and a library. Dr. Junzt also has a private study,
which is filled with mementoes of his late wife.
Anna’s room is notable only for the sheer number of plush toys. She has a small and eclectic collection of
books, and a small selection of crystals and charms.
Macon’s room is utterly bare except for furniture. Similarly, Constance has a soul-less bedroom, with a
shelf of textbooks and a single picture of her family.

The scenario starts here. The characters awaken. The Junzts, Constance, and Macon are in their rooms.
Theodore and Jeremy awaken in the porch of the house.
While the characters are still in the house, Macon is contacted by the Yithians.

Next to the house lies…

The ruin: This ruin was once a house owned by an alchemist, Bektrict. He was a host for the mind, and created a
Gate in his house. Most of the once-sprawling mansion has collapsed over the centuries. The whole building has a
strange feeling to it, like walking through an abandoned building that was your childhood school, a sense of
forgotten purpose. One section of the ruin has been repaired, and there are three rooms that are to some extent intact.
Smith has been living here for four months.
 The bedroom: All the furniture is second-hand. There is a copy of Bram Stoker’s Dracula as well as a few
newspapers and hardbound books of poetry. If examined, the pillow bears traces of tears and blood.
 The kitchen: There is a bloody iron knife, of 5 th century design, lying on the table. This is the knife Smith used
to sacrifice the girls. This knife becomes covered in warm blood in the presence of the dreamshades of the girls.
 The study: Smith tried to kill himself by burning himself alive in this room. The mind took control of him, and
he threw himself onto the fire he was trying to kindle, and extinguished it. There is a pile of notes and books on
the floor, all of which have been partially burned. One of them is Smith’s journal.
 There is a trapdoor in the study leading to…

The chapel: This is a hideous mockery of a small Catholic chapel. The walls are covered in carvings depicting
heinous acts – murder, rape, torture – in awful detail. The chapel is very dark, and the carvings cannot be understood
just by looking at them – they must be felt, touched, rubbed. There is a cumulative horror to doing this (San loss
1/1d6).
There are two statues flanking the altar. In the dim light, they appear to angels, but they have horrible faces
like beaked insects (byakhee).
The altar is…odd. It is gigantic, a towering thing that arches over the angels. It is a baroque masterpiece,
but it is twisted and alien. It shifts as you look at it, and faces form in the loops and swirls. It is made of something
that looks like brass but feels like stone. If the altar is examined in detail, a whole section of it is found to be hinged
– a door. It can be opened by digging fingernails into the tiny crack between door and altar. This effort draws blood
as the character cuts their fingers on the sharp edges. Inside, there is a swirling mist. Anyone stepping into the mists
Awakens for a moment, then steps back out again (this is only a dream-reflection of the true Gate).
Macon, after his encounter with the Yithians, knows a ritual to collapse the Gate. He may try to perform
this ritual – it will have no effect on the Gate.

The town: See the map of Almich. This is a dream-reflection of the town. It looks just like the character’s memories
of the town in every respect. As it is built from their memories, there is nothing here they do not know already. If
they look at a newspaper, all the articles are familiar. As the human mind cannot access all its memories perfectly,
they may not consciously know they have already read the article, but it will still feel oddly familiar. The only new
article is the report on Smith’s murder of the girls. If they don’t ask for a newspaper, they can find it in the Library
(see below) or with the girls (see even further below).

There is no sign of any humans in the town.

As the characters explore the empty town, they will notice things that are out of place. These things are
bleeding in from the city where four of the characters are sleeping. Here are a few surreal features of the city:
 A blue stone arch, about 15’ tall, with a long conical bell suspended from the keystone of the arch. If the bell is
rung, no sound can be heard…almost….
 A heavy metal door, with geometric scratches on its surface. If opened, the characters see a reflection of
themselves, but the background to the image is the character’s real surroundings (the city for most, the hospital
for Jeremy and Theo)
 A section of wall that is utterly out of place. It is made of heavy bluish-grey stone blocks.
 A window looking out over a storm-tossed sea. There is no sign of any life beneath the dark and gloomy clouds
that hang brooding over the eerie empty waters. San loss 1/1d3

Make exploring Almich as surreal as possible. When the characters awaken, have the four in the alien City see
some of the weird things above. Tie the dream and reality together.

Important Buildings:
 The Church: The main Church in Almich was built in the 18th century, and is vaguely gothic in design. It is
well maintained and well loved by the people. It has a warm, welcoming feel, and seems to glow with a golden
light. It is the spiritual centre of the town.
Inside, the church is overflowing with blood. Rivers of gore flow down the aisles and cascade down the
steps. The pews are drowned in a sea of warm blood. The altar is the source of the horror, as blood gushes from
it. Writhing shapes can be seen on the altar. These are invisible impressions of the girls that Smith sacrificed.
San loss is 2/1d6+1
The whole church is a reflection of Smith’s guilt. The flow of blood cannot be stopped by the characters,
but it serves to show them that the town may not be what it seems.

 The railway station: While it’s unlikely any of the characters visit Almich’s small but modern railway station,
it does contain an important clue as to their location. The departures board in the station reads:
Destination Time
Ulthar 13.42
Baharna 14.11
Celephais 20.00
The names are places in the dreamlands. If the characters bother to wait, then a strange gust of wind, with
screaming faces in the dust of its passage passes down the rails. Anyone in the path of this wind is awakened for
a moment and loses 1/1d3 sanity.
 City Hall: If the library here is searched properly, they can find records showing that a Herr Hans Bektrict
owned the house next to Dr. Junzt’s during the last century. Bektrict vanished on Walpurgisnacht in 1812. His
assets were taken by the town as compensation for unpaid taxes.
 The library: The library is a favoured haunt of Dr. Junzt, Anna…and Smith. As they explore, they may come to
realise (if they examine the bookshelves) that they can find no books in the library that they have not read in
years before. Every tome is one they have already looked at – except for a few books on the occult, and one or
two works of fiction, like Stoker’s Dracula, which appears in the library again.
If they’ve read Smith’s diary, then they may know about the vault in the basement of the library. If they
don’t, a Listen roll reveals an odd gurgling laugh and shuffling coming from the basement. If they investigate
the cellars of the library, they find an old complex of decaying books and newspapers, old and unwanted
records. There is a half-working system of electric lighting, but the vaults are maze-like and confusing.
One vault, number 3, is hidden behind a cabinet full of old newspapers. The newspaper article about Smith
is prominent on one paper. The vault behind the cabinet is bricked up. Breaking down the wall requires a tool
like a crowbar and a combined strength of 20. Behind lies…
The revenant: Hans Bektrict died two hundred years ago. After building the gate under the influence of the mind,
he went mad and travelled through the gate, which closed behind him. He wandered the city for a few days, then
starved to death. His mind was caught in the wake of the other mind, and survives – to some extent – in the dream.
Bektrict has been given form in the dream by Smith. Smith found Bektrict’s books (seized in 1812) in this
vault in the library. In the dream, Bektrict is the physically manifestation of the knowledge found in those awful
works coupled with the vestiges of Bektrict’s mind.
He manifests as a hideous walking corpse, wearing rotting garments – or a prematurely aged man with
piercing dark eyes wearing ceremonial robes – or anything in between. His appearance shifts as you look at him. His
voice, - deep, otherworldly and horrible – stays constant. See Bektrict’s history at the end of the scenario. Seeing
him costs 2/1d8 sanity. Bektrict is a deeply evil and insane thing, but he has almost no power in the dream, being
maintained solely by the characters’ minds and Smith. If any player says anything that implies they want to destroy
Bektrict (like I shoot him), Bektrict is blown away like fine sand in a hurricane. A heavy leather book falls to the
floor where he was standing (san loss 0/1d4 if Bektrict was appearing human and had not yet looked undead). Part
of the book is reproduced as a handout. Although the book is hundreds of pages long, this page is the only one the
characters see, no matter on what page they open it. If any player wishes, Bektrict can reform unharmed. His
appearance is completely at the beck and call of the players. He is just a thing in a dream after all.
He knows nothing that is not contained in the books found by Smith. He knows a lot of the occult, and
certain rituals that open the soul to the astral plane. Here are a few of his likely answers to questions:
Who are you: I…was Hans Bektrict. I was an alchemist, a seeker after secrets…
What do you want: Want? Me? Surely it is evident to the mind’s eye that I have no needs or desires…now.
Where is Smith: He is…between here and there. He is a quarry in a great hunt.
What happened to everyone in town: Nothing.
How did Jeremy & Theo get here: They did not.
What is Smith trying to do: He tried to escape our host…by bathing in blood. A temporary solution. Now he runs.
How can we get back to normality: There is a gate between…I made it long ago. Travel through it to reach the
other side.
How do we open the gate: It is already open.
How do we stop what’s happening: The dead are a bloodied wall between nothing and meaninglessness.

Bektrict will toy with the characters and mock them, but he is a thing of their dream. He has no power over
them (though he may claim to), and will obey their commands. He has no physical or magical power whatsoever.

First Awakening (the city): Some time during their exploration of the city (preferable at a moment of horror or
stress), the characters will awaken for a moment. They wake from the dream and return to their physical forms. They
get a momentary glimpse of reality before the dream rises up around them again.
Dr. Junzt, Anna, Constance & Macon awaken in a dark, damp room. The sound of gentle waves can be
heard, and there is a bitter, acrid smell in the air. The walls are covered with a horrible whitish rubbery coating
which rips and oozes clear liquid. The one exit from the room leads to an eerie gallery with gothic arched windows.
Jeremy & Theodore find themselves in two beds. There is a smell of disinfectant and the walls are pale
green colour. They can here people moving around quietly in the room. If they look around, they get a glimpse of an
ordinary hospital ward before they fall back into the dream.

The judge: The Judge is a manifestation of Smith’s guilt. It takes the shape of the quintessential English judge, with
black robes and long white wig and gavel. It is wraithly and ethereal, and floats. The area around it is icy cold, and
front covers the ground it travels over. It speaks in a cackling voice.
The Judge adds an element of danger and evil to the scenario. Bring him in when the characters grow tired
of running around the city. He can also appear to scare them if they’re working the plot out too quickly, and you
want to disrupt them for a few minutes in the hope they’ll forget…
San loss for seeing the ghost is 1/1d6.
The judge will attack the characters if it sees them. It will fly towards them waving its gavel. Whenever it
speaks the name of a character and bangs its gavel, the targeted character’s heart is filled with icy stabbing pains,
and he becomes icy cold. His pulse slows and icy forms on his skin and in his blood. Damage and crimes are as
follows:
Character Crime Damage
Dr. Junzt Neglect of his wife, failed God he did 1d6+2
Anna Junzt Murdered her mother! 2d6
Macon Inhuman! Alien! Traitor! 2d6
Jeremy Wasted his life! Fool! 1d4
Theodore Monster! Ate his family he did 2d6
Constance has no guilt, and is immune to the judge. Hit point loss is illusory within the dream, and
vanishes in a few minutes.
 The judge will stalk the characters through the city. It cannot be reasoned with, or placated. There is no
defence against it.
If any character falls unconscious due to the judge’s attacks, the judge will pick them up and carry them to
the cathedral. The cathedral will then warp and shift like melting wax, become a dream-version of the Great Hall of
the City. This hall is carved of blue-grey stone that seems to flow and writhe gently. The hall is a Giger-esque
organo-gothic chamber, a birthing room for gargoyles and horrors. There are dozens of shadowed alcoves, spires
like twisted claws, alien shapes in the corners that could be reliquaries, fonts, altars, machines, torture instruments.
San loss is 1/1d4.
The judge will drop the captured characters on the uneven cold floor of the Hall, then it will vanish like
Bektrict does.

Then the mind comes…

The gaze of the mind: The mind is made of whatever exists beyond dream. It warps the stuff of the dreamscape,
twisting it until it tears and its awful radiance shines through. The air, the ceiling, the shapes of the Hall warp and
melt, spinning into a whirlpool, a terrible wound in the dream. Something looks out from beyond that awful hole…
The mind reaches out. The characters get a vague impression of tentacles, hands, mouths, screaming eyes, a
dark cornucopia of the horrors of dream…then a huddled group of six shining figures standing between them and
the horror.

The second awakening: The second awakening is triggered by a close brush with the mind. The four characters in
the city awaken in the strange room again, but this time they have a few moments to look around and talk to each
other. If they leave the room and go out into the corridor, they see through the gothic arches the eerie spires and
haggard domes of the city. As they look, they see the stars in the sky above the city are utterly unlike any they have
seen before. They are closer to the heart of a galaxy, and the stars are tightly clustered, outshining the moons. There
are great red and blue nebulae in the sky.
Across the city, they see a great plaza dominated by a statue of a strange octopus-headed bat-man. An
unmistakably human figure, which they recognise as Smith, crawls across the plaza beneath the statue. His leg is
broken, and he is staggering.

Jeremy and Theodore awaken in the hospital. A nurse is sitting on Jeremy’s bed feeding him soup. When he
opens his eyes, she is surprised, and lets out a little yelp. She then calls for a doctor. The two then fall back into the
dream.

Six little girls: When the characters return to the dream, they are no longer in the Great Hall. They are in an English
pub, vaguely similar to the Rover’s Return in Coronation Street, but more old-fashioned. The décor is strange, with
a lot more prams, dolls and pictures of ponies than most pubs have. The six characters are sitting around a large
table with six near-identical policemen, with the classic woodentops and bright blue uniforms. Each policeman has a
large bottle of ginger ale in front of them. One has a lollipop.
Ok, at this point the players should be looking at you like you’ve got utterly mad or else be giggling in a
confused manner. What’s going on is as follows: The minds of the six girls have blocked the mind from reaching the
characters, and they’ve taken temporary control of part of the dream. They have created an environment in which
they feel protected and can speak to the characters. The six policemen are the six girls.
The policemen speak in a childish and high voice. The one who will speak to the characters mostly is called
Mary. She was the eldest and most responsible of the children. She will matter-of-factly tell the characters that “bad
Mr. Smith killed us all with a big black knife”. The girls have been waiting here in “the city that whispers for a very
very long time”.
The girls have been trapped in a dream for decades.
After a minute or two of conversation with the characters, Mary will announce that they have something
very important to say. All six policeman will line up, and in high yet totally serious voices, begin to sing:
“Row row row your boat
Gently down the stream
Merrily Merrily Merrily Merilly
Life is but…”
(trails off, then begin again)
 At this point, the pub melts away, to be replaced by the dream-streets of Almich. Smith stands nearby.
There is an unholy fire in his eyes and he seems to be surrounded by a crackling aura of dark energies. He screams
“STOP! SHUT UP! YOU SHOULDN’T BE HERE! YOU’RE ALL DEAD!” Blasts of magical energy shoot from
his hand. The policemen are obliterated, and six shadow figures scurry away, vanishing. San loss for this is 1/1d6.
Smith turns to the characters. He smiles a jackal’s smile. “Sorry about that. You’re real, so you’re don’t
matter here, so I can kill you, because you aren’t real here. Sorry about that too.” He raises his hands, dark light
coruscates around them. Then, behind him, the stuff of dreams collapses and warps. A tear in dream forms behind
him. Smith is sucked through the rift in an instant. The rift closes.
This shock prompts the characters’ third awakening.

The third awakening: The four characters in the city awaken. They are lying in the same place they were at the end
of the second awakening. There is a storm coming to the city. Dark purple clouds with weird blue-violet lightning
are gathering over the lake. There is a terrible smell like battery acid. This awakening lasts only a moment, just
enough time to see the first bolts strike the city.
For Jeremy & Theodore, they awaken in the hospital. There are two doctors examining Theodore. When he
awakens, they speak to him, trying to get him to stay awake, encouraging him to talk. It’s no good though – the
dream takes him after a few moments.

Part 2: The Waking World

Waking up: After the third awakening, all the characters return to the dream. There is no sign of Smith or the
policemen. A newspaper with the article is here if they haven’t found a copy already. By now, if they have any sense
at all, they should have worked out they are dreaming. If they sincerely try to wake up, they do so. If they close their
eyes, they return to the dream in a moment. The dream serves as a method of communication between the two
groups of player characters.
At this point in the scenario, there are three possible ways it can go.
If they’ve managed to work out they’re in a dream early on, then encourage them to keep in contact as
much as possible, and run the dream events above as well as the waking world events described below.
If they work out they’re dreaming at this point, you’re on track. Depending on how much time you have,
play up the confusion of the two groups, or else sprint to the finale.
If you have a table of idiots who won’t realise they’re dreaming until Dream from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman
turns up and waves at them, then let them wander around the scenario. Let the judge chase them around again…if
they haven’t made it to the library, he chases them there, otherwise he’ll pursue them to the railway station. Have
them find a book containing nothing but the words to Row row row your boat in the library, or have the public
address in the station play it. If they don’t work it out, hold up a sign saying “YOU ARE IN A DREAM”. Then kill
them all and go to the bar.

The hospital: Jeremy Avon and Theodore Kelly awaken in Our Lady of Mercies Hospital in Cologne. They were
taken there when the porter on the 7.12 to Cologne found them sleeping on the train and was unable to awaken them
by any means. The doctors will question them, asking if they have any illnesses, if they have smoked opium or
cocaine. The doctor in charge of them is Dr. Alain Novell, an overworked young doctor who has no time for
nonsense stories about dreams and aliens.
If the players have any sense, they’ll get to Almich as soon as possible. Theodore can use his psychic gifts
to get the two out of the hospital easily, otherwise they can roleplay their way out.
Almich is only a quarter-hour car journey from Cologne, an hours walk.

The city: Meanwhile, the other characters awaken in the city.

The city is unimaginably vast. It covers a third of the surface of the dead world that circles a burnt-out sun.
It is so far from Earth that space and time are different here. The stars here in this universe scream and wail and hate.
Great Cthulhu, eldest of his kind, once dwelt in this city an eternity ago. His starspawn worshipped him here for
billions of millenia. In time, the stars changes, and he and his followers went into the abyss and ravaged a thousand
galaxies. The city was left with only a few spawn to watch it, and they followed their lord into the abyss in time. The
city lay abandoned for a long time. A dust cloud could have congealed into a solar system, a world formed, life
arose, civilisation developed, space travel discovered, a thousand worlds colonised, an empire formed and fall to
dust in the time that the city lay empty. Then the Yithians chose it as a suitable place to imprison a Rogue…
The city is incredibly alien and confusing. It was designed for creatures which were not human-sized, or
humanoid, or even composed entirely of matter. It is utterly outside our comprehension. Rooms that seem to have no
purpose, weird alien organic things on the surfaces of rooms, corridors that diverge then meet up without turning,
and stranger things make up the city. As they wander the city, they’ll find all the weird bits of the city that intruded
on the dream, like the bell and the out-of-place wall.
Remind the players of Bektrict/the book, which still exist in the dream. It contains a description of the path
the inhuman worshippers of Cthulhu took, from the statue of Cthulhu to the Great Hall.

The steps of the Path are:

The Plaza: This is the square where the Great Statue of Cthulhu stands. It is easy enough to find. If the characters
examine the plaza, they find it’s not a square, it’s a pentagon…no a hexagon…it is no sane shape, and its sides
cannot be counted.
The Steps of Penance: These steps lead down beneath the city from in front of the Statue. As a character walks
down these steps, they feel heavier and heavier.
The Gallery of Voices: This long chamber is eerily quiet…but there is something at the edge of hearing they can’t
make out. If they contact Kelly through the dream in this room, his mind will be attacked by thousands of
somethings…
The Chasm: Just what it says. A narrow bridge over a chasm that goes down…and down…and down…and down…
you can see magma if you look hard enough, and it goes down further. If a character falls off the bridge, they’re not
dead, they’ll be falling for such a long time they’ll die of starvation before they hit anything. Lying in the middle of
the bridge is a human body. It is the corpse of Hans Bektrict, who died of heart failure two hundred years ago. There
are no bacteria on this world to eat the flesh, so the body is fairly well preserved.
The Ten Thousand Lesser Ways: Whatever Bektrict meant by this, it seems to be gone. A single wide passage
leads from the chasm to…
The corridor of the soul: This corridor is filled with white mists. Figures seem to form and melt within the mists.
The faces seem oddly familiar, yet terribly alien. Anyone touching the mist feels their soul being drawn out of their
body. If they do not resist, they are killed by this effect and join the souls of the six little girls. As Dr. Junzt and Anna
pass through this corridor, the mist temporarily forms the face of Elena Junzt…

Beyond the corridor lies the Great Hall…

If you need to slow the game down, then add strength checks to the steps of penance, or let the characters
mess around with ways to slide down the steps or something. Make the bridge over the Chasm invisible (use the idea
of throwing dust on it from Indiana Jones). Make the ten thousand ways a maze, with Smith’s blood a trail through
it.

Almich: Meanwhile back on Earth (always wanted to write that) Jeremy & Theodore should have made it to
Almich. The town is utterly normal, though it seems strange to them after wandering around the dream-version. If
they visit the library, they can find the hidden vault, and a copy of Bektrict’s book. If they go to Dr. Junzt’s house,
they find the house is empty, and it looks like a hurricane blew through it.
If they have any sense, they’ll hurry to Smith’s house. It is just like the dream-reflection. Down in the
chapel, they find the Gateway to the city. It is open.

The Great Hall: This is the vast alien chamber they encountered in the dream. It is even more horrific in reality.
Smith, now totally possessed by the mind, is standing in the centre of the hall. Tendrils of white light coil around
him. Near him stands the Gate, a swirl of grey mist in a freestanding baroque door. Above the gate is a… focus in
the air, a point of awareness: the mind.
Smith will reach out to the Corridor of the soul. Six shapes are dragged screaming from the mists and torn
apart by his magic. With the souls gone, the way is open. The mind passes through the Gate.

Ending: Well, what are the players supposed to do? The mind needs two things to escape – the removal of the girls’
souls and the opening of the gate.
If any character enters the dream, they see a mirror of the Great Hall – dream and reality are identical.
Theodore can engage Smith in psychic combat. This will result in Theodore’s mind being obliterated, but
will give the rest time to get through the gate.
If any of the characters in the city try to run through the Gate, let them – but if they just ignore Smith and
scamper back home, Smith kills the girls again and passes through the Gate before they can close it.
 Macon can close the Gate, and he can teach the Yithian spell to any other character. If Jeremy or Theo use
the ritual, they can shut the Gate down.
Once the girls have been torn from the Corridor, another character could allow his soul to be drawn into the
mists. That character would then block the mind like the girls did.
The safest option is Jeremy and Theodore close the Gate on Earth, trapping the rest in the City.
Alternatively, Theodore will have to face the possessed Smith while the rest run through and close the Gate, or
someone sacrifices themselves to stop the mind, and the rest run through and close. If they mess up completely, the
mind gets through. Smith collapses and dies when the mind leaves him.
Endings:
Utter failure: They never make it to the Gate. Smith escapes, freeing the Mind. The Junzts, Constance and Macon
are trapped in the city.
Partial Success 1: they stopped the mind, but in the process got trapped.
Partial Success 2: they escape – but so does the mind.
Total Success: not bloody likely.

Epilogue:
1: The mind is stopped: You stagger away from the cursed chapel and the alien gateway. Dr. Junzt’s home lies just
ahead. You are left with no sign of your experience except the window that was broken by Smith. Maybe it was all a
dream…
Remove the epilogue for any characters that died:
Dr. Junzt uses his influence in Almich to have the ruin destroyed. The gate is buried deep under the rubble.
Sometimes he wakes in the night, wondering if he truly saw his wife’s face in the corridor of the soul.
Anna and Jeremy marry, and eventually write a book together.
Constance, shaken by her experience, changes her outlook on life. She finishes her studies and founds one
of the first mental institutions that actively try to help the patients. Theodore is a patient there, but also uses his
abilities to help her. He is never able to live with his psychic gift. He joins the army and is killed during the second
world war.
Macon the butler dies in his sleep the night after you return from the Gate. He is found cold in the morning,
a strange expression on his face.

2: The mind gets free: Use the same result as above, but add:
Over the years, you all read many reports of atrocities and serial killings. Sometimes you see photos of the
perpetrators, and you notice they have the same look in their eyes that Smith did when he was possessed. Finally, in
the sixties, only Jeremy, Constance and Anna are still alive out of the group. You’re watching television during the
height of the Cuban missile crisis. President Kennedy is making a speech – when his face changes expression and
you see the same look in his eyes. Within a few hours, the human race is destroyed in a nuclear war.
The only thing left on Earth is a single alien mind…
 APPENDIX 1: NPCS

Ernest Smith: there is someone

Looking over your shoulderinsideyourhead
You are not yourself anymore and there isbloodonyourhandsandamouthinyourheadandit’seating
YOU

Either way you turn He’ll be there

And you can’t escape and can’t stop him

Ernest Smith was an occultist and sorcerer. He is very like Jeremy Avon, and sought forbidden lore. He
stumbled upon Oriental methods of opening his soul to the universe. He sent a call out into the abyss – and the abyss
reached out and touched him. He contacted the alien mind. It tried to possess him. He panicked and tried to escape,
eventually resorting to a ritual. He murdered six young girls brutally. Their souls made a sort of astral smokescreen
hiding him from the mind.
He left England and continued his occult research. He became more and more interested in an obscure
German named Hans Bektrict. Unknown to Smith, this interest was a direct result of his contact with the mind.
Bektrict, another victim of possession, had crafted a Gateway to the world of the mind, but died before he could free
the mind.
Now, Smith is once again being hunted by the mind. He has fallen into the weird dreamscape and is
running from the mind.
Appearance: A tall, elegant Englishman. He dresses well and is unfailing polite. He has a Romantic temperament
and vaguely resembles a poet like Keats or Shelley. As the mind pursues him, he becomes increasingly frantic.
Blood appears on his hands from time to time.
Roleplaying: He is on the verge of insanity. He is terrified of losing his soul to the mind, and will do anything to
escape. He hates the girls for not dying and haunting him.
STR 12 CON 8 SIZ 11 INT 17 POW 17
DEX 15 APP 16 EDU 20 SAN 5 HP 10
Damage Bonus: 0
Weapons: none
Skills:
Occult 60%, Cthulhu Mythos 15%
Doctor Alain Novell: Overworked french Doctor
STR 13 CON 15 SIZ 12 INT 15 POW 10
DEX 14 APP 12 EDU 19 SAN 50 HP13
Damage Bonus: +1d4
Weapons: none
Skills:
Medicine 70%, Psychology 10%, First Aid 80%
Hans Bektrict: Bektrict was a deeply twisted and evil man who delighted in the suffering and pain of others. He
uncovered ancient magics which allowed him to mentally time travel, and eventually encountered the Call of
Cthulhu. He followed the trail back to Xoth, where the mind is trapped. The mind touched him, and inspired him to
create the Gate.
Confident that he would free the mind and become a God, Bektrict travelled through the Gate. He saw the
wondrous alien city – and died of a heart attack.
His mind was caught in the wake of the other mind. He is now nothing more than frozen bitterness and
memories. He doesn’t (and can’t) care about anything. He remembers enjoying suffering, so he will aid the
characters to hurt Smith or the mind, or trick them to they injure themselves. He can be created or destroyed in the
dream with a thought by any of them.
“The truth of Malkhut, the only truth that shines in the night of the Sefirot,
is that Wisdom is revealed naked in Malkhut,
and its mystery lies not in existence
but in the leaving of existence”
FOUCAULT’S PENDULUM – UMBERTO ECO