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  Art for Art's Sake 
   
   
  A One Round Call of Cthulhu Adventure using 
  Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu game rules 
   
   
  by Robert Hobart 
   
   
   
   
   
   
  The cutting-edge California artist Michael Tey has invited you to a party at his Los Angeles mansion. A shame that 
  violent thunderstorm is dampening the festive atmosphere. A cinematic-style adventure. Characters provided. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  CALL OF CTHULHU is a registered trademark of Chaosium, Inc. RPGA is a registered 
  trademark of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Scenario detail copyright 2002 by Robert Hobart. ALL 
  RIGHTS RESERVED. This scenario is intended for tournament use only and may not be 
  reproduced without approval of the RPGA Network.  
   
  
  This is a RPGA Network adventure game. A four-hour 
  time block has been allocated for playing the game (or 
  this round of the game), but the actual playing time will 
  be about three hours.  
   
  It is a good idea to ask each player to put a name tag 
  in front of him or her. The tag should have the player's 
  name at the bottom, and the character's name, race, and 
  gender at the top. This makes it easier for the players to 
  keep track of who is playing which character. 
   
  Pass out the player characters based on class, 
  gender, and/or race. Instruct the players either to prepare 
  their characters now, or wait until you read the 
  introduction, depending on the requirements of the 
  scenario as described below. When they have prepared 
  their characters, you may continue with the game. 
   
  Scoring the game for RPGA points: The RPGA 
  has three ways to score this game. Consult your 
  convention coordinator to determine which method to 
  use: 
  1. 
  No-vote scoring: The players write their names and 
  numbers on the scoring packet grid, you fill in the 
  top of the grid. That is all. No one is rated. This 
  method is used for people who are just playing for 
  fun. 
  2. 
  Partial scoring: The players rate the game master 
  and the scenario on their player voting sheet, and 
  provide personal information, but don’t vote for 
  other players. The game master rates the scenario 
  and completes personal and event information, but 
  does not rate the players as a team or vote for 
  players. This method is used when there is no 
  competition, but the convention coordinator wants 
  information as to how the game masters are 
  performing, or the game master wants feedback on 
  his or her own performance. 
  3. 
  Voting: Players and game masters complete the 
  entire packet, including voting for best player. If this 
  method is used, be sure to allow about 15-20 
  minutes for the players to briefly describe their 
  characters to the other players, and about 5-10 
  minutes for voting. This method is used when the 
  players want to know who played the best amongst 
  them, or when the adventure is run in tournament 
  format with winners and prizes. Multi-round 
  adventures usually required advancing a smaller 
  number of players than played the first round, so 
  voting is required for multi-round adventures. 
   
  When using Voting, rank the players in order 
  of your voting choice while they are completing 
  their forms, so that you are not influenced by their 
  comments on your abilities. 
   
  The players are free to use the game rules to learn about 
  equipment and weapons their characters are carrying. 
   
  Some of the text in this scenario is written so that 
  you may present it as written to the players, while other 
  text is for your eyes only. Text for the players will be in 
  bold italics. It is strongly recommended that you 
  paraphrase the player text, instead of reading it aloud, as 
  some of the text is general and must be adapted to the 
  specific situation or to actions of the player characters.  
   
   
  Adventure Background 
  This scenario takes place in southern California in 
  1969, during the height of both political unrest and the 
  modern “pop art” movement. The investigators are a 
  group of artists and writers, many of them politically 
  active, invited to a cocktail party held at the coastal 
  mansion of Michael Tey. Tey is a hugely successful 
  cutting-edge artist who has been lighting up the 
  California artistic scene with his bizarre, avant-garde 
  creations.  
   
  What the PCs do not know, and cannot know, is 
  that Tey is actually completely insane and plans to use 
  them all (along with the other guests) as victims in a 
  terrible ritual. Tey was driven mad many years ago, 
  while still a teenager, by a reading of the Revelations of 
  Glaaki, and has since degenerated into a mad 
  worshipper of Azathoth, the Daemon Sultan who 
  writhes endlessly at the center of the universe. Tey 
  longs to recreate that first youthful moment of 
  transcendent madness, the glare of primal horror 
  blasting away the comforting shroud of sanity, the 
  merging of the weak and paltry Self into the powerful 
  and terrible Other. This obsession has powered his 
  unconventional art and driven him to prepare, at last, 
  this grand supernatural ritual. His broken, fragmented 
  mind, tainted with the essence of Azathoth, believes 
  that this will be the “ultimate artwork,” which will 
  enshrine him for all time as the world’s greatest artist. 
  Indeed, even before his insanity, Tey viewed art as 
  something that transcended all moral values and, 
  indeed, life itself – art as the only true eternal value.  
   
  Michael Tey has arranged the party at his mansion 
  to be one gigantic eldritch ritual, in which the guests 
  will participate without even realizing it. The ritual will 
  break down the walls of reality, allowing entities from 
  Azathoth’s court into our universe, and will ultimately 
  culminate in the invocation of the Outer God itself. The 
  key to the ritual is the latent psychic power found in the 
  souls of three of the guests: two PCs, Tabitha Conrad 
  and Linda Waite, and an NPC, Agatha Symcox. The 
  sacrifice of their bodies and devouring of their psyches 
  will trigger each step of the ritual, leading to the 
  manifestation of Azathoth himself in the physical 
  world. The PCs will have to figure out what is 
  happening before this irrevocable step is reached. 
   
  It is intended that this adventure evoke the spirit of 
  horror films like “House on Haunted Hill” and “The 
  Haunting” in which the characters are trapped in some 
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 2 
  
  Rain spatters the windshields of your cars as you drive 
  up the curving seaside road north of Los Angeles. 
  Ahead, emerging from behind the shoulder of a 
  lightly-wooded 
  hill, 
  you 
  can 
  see 
  the 
  huge, 
  unconventional mansion of Michael Tey. The 
  controversial, award-winning artist has invited each 
  of you to attend a party at his home, and you’re sure 
  your own careers will get a boost from this.  
  malign place and nothing they do seems to work. The 
  scenario deliberately drops lots of movie-style “hints” 
  early on that something untoward is happening, but the 
  story rolls on regardless, and the characters will have to 
  struggle very hard to take control of their own fates. 
   
  CREDIT where it is DUE: This scenario was 
  inspired by a variety of sources, including movies, 
  books, and a Call of Cthulhu session run by a personal 
  friend, Parvez Yusufji. All borrowed elements are 
  intended as homages, not thefts.  
   
  Tey’s mansion is impressively surreal, a tangled 
  agglomeration of triangles, circles, and cylinders. 
  You’ve heard that when he built it four years ago, it 
  cost him more than three million dollars to construct, 
  a staggering amount even for a successful artist like 
  him. As you pull your car up to the off-center door, a 
  valet steps forward and takes your keys with a smile, 
  quickly parking your car next to the dozen or so 
  already crammed into the narrow cliff-side lawn. A 
  flash of lightning from the clouds overhead briefly 
  illuminates the choppy Pacific waters beyond the 
  lawn, and you can see that only a low wooden guard-
  rail shields strollers from a sheer cliff-drop to the 
  choppy waters below. This wouldn’t be a good place to 
  experience a major earthquake. 
   
   
  KEEPER’s INTRODUCTION: 
  EVOKING the SPIRIT of the 
  EVENING 
  This adventure is laid out in three sections: an 
  introduction to the people at the Tey Mansion, a 
  description of the Tey Mansion itself, and a sequence of 
  events that occurs once the PCs arrive for the evening’s 
  entertainment. The Keeper should read all sections 
  thoroughly before trying to run the scenario. 
   
  As the drops of rain grow from a scattering to a 
  downpour, you hurry inside, to the welcome light, 
  warmth, and noise of the gathering party.  
   
  Tone and feel are important for this adventure. 
  Once the PCs arrive at the Tey mansion, they will be 
  part of the elaborate “play” which Tey has created to 
  invoke the awful powers of the Outside. The growing 
  power of this ritual will tend to bend reality to force the 
  characters to follow their “script.” The Keeper should 
  reflect this in play by continually throwing obstacles in 
  the paths of PCs who try to deviate from their assigned 
  roles as helpless victims. Things will continually go 
  wrong for the PCs – typically in frustrating or 
  spectacular ways, like in a horror movie.  
   
  There are two men, valets, waiting on the front porch of 
  the mansion to park the cars of visitors. Since the 
  mansion’s garage is insufficient to house all these 
  visitors, the cars are parked on the lawn, churning the 
  grass with their tires. Besides the PCs’ own vehicles, 
  there are fifteen other cars present.  
   
  The party is gathering in the main front room of the 
  house (area #1 on the Map). Two silent servants, a 
  Hispanic man and woman, circulate with drinks, and a 
  long table boasts various hors d’ouvres and snacks. 
  People talk loudly, circulating through the room to see 
  and be seen. Michael Tey himself is nowhere to be 
  seen.  
   
  For example, a PC who tries to unlock a door will 
  break off the key (or lockpick) in the lock. Then, if the 
  PC tries to kick or break the door down, the blows 
  shake a light fixture loose from the ceiling, which falls 
  with a loud crash, perhaps hurting one or more PCs 
  with shattering glass or flying parts. Only if the PC is 
  extremely persistent, or escalates the level of action 
  severely (by improvising a battering ram, for example) 
  will the door finally, suddenly, give way (perhaps 
  causing the PCs to fly through violently and trip/collide 
  with each other).  
   
   
  THE OTHER GUESTS  
  Bryan Simmons 
   
  It is important to remember that it is NOT 
  IMPOSSIBLE for the PCs to break out of their roles – 
  only extremely difficult.  
  Simmons is a pudgy, self-important, pretentious man in 
  his late forties, with tufts of graying hair sprouting from 
  around a balding scalp. He is curator of the Los 
  Angeles Museum of Fine Arts and never tires of 
  reminding people of it – his support can make or break 
  an artist’s career. He is fond of making cutting remarks 
  about the work of artists he dislikes, or who have 
  personally offended him (he doesn’t care for Finnigin 
  Posner, and resents the latter’s success). He is also a 
  rather clumsy, maladroit womanizer, and will make 
  awkward passes at all the women here, including 
   
   
  Players’ Introduction 
  (Before starting play, hand out HANDOUT #1, “What 
  You Know About Michael Tey,” to the players. Make 
  sure they have read it before launching the scenario.) 
   
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 3 
  
  Tabitha and Linda. Bryan believes he is the one who 
  “discovered” Michael Tey as an artist, and never tires 
  of describing how he first found Tey’s work on display 
  at a Chinatown festival in 1961.  
   
  Jacob Bernstein  
  Jacob is a writer and political activist, adhering to a 
  strict 
  and 
  ferocious 
  Marxism. 
  He 
  sometimes 
  contributors to the magazine Ramparts, and is a casual 
  acquaintance to James Spraddock and Jackson Lee. He 
  regards himself as a “cultural critic-at-large” and often 
  writes scathing attacks on the “imperialism” and 
  “racism” of American culture. He admires Michael 
  Tey’s early artwork but claims to despise his current 
  output as a “sellout to the capitalist system.” At some 
  point during the evening he will launch a scathing 
  attack on a children’s author, “Jason Davis” (Jackson 
  Lee’s nom-de-plume) for creating works which are 
  obviously “racist” (because of the distinct Arabian 
  Nights flavor) and “tranquilize working-class children, 
  like religion does their parents.”  
   
  Will Mosby  
  Mosby is a vague, slightly lost-looking young man who 
  dresses in a suit that seems a size too large for him. 
  Mosby is a sculptor, specializing in abstract shapes and 
  disconnected human limbs, all rendered in smooth 
  white plaster. He always carries a small plaster hand in 
  his pocket, the fingers sticking out as though waving to 
  passersby. Mosby is insane – he went mad during a 
  previous visit to Tey’s mansion. He feels disconnected 
  from reality, and sometimes experiences violent and 
  frightening hallucinations (particularly when speaking 
  with someone for the first time), although he does his 
  best to conceal this and put up a normal front (he is 
  deathly afraid of being institutionalized, a fate which 
  befell his father). 
   
  Mosby knows that Tey is also a madman, and that 
  he has vile designs on everyone around him, but feels 
  powerless to do anything about it. He comes across as 
  nervous to the point of fearfulness, vaguely depressed, 
  easily distracted, and more than a little “spaced out.” 
  He avoids Tey (to the point of hiding from him). A 
  Psychology roll can convince him to open up to at least 
  some degree, to the point where he will make strange 
  remarks like, “Tey hates me, but then, he hates all of 
  us,” or (after Event #3), “Don’t bother with the phones, 
  they’re busy.” After Burns’ rampage (Event #5), Will 
  hides in the basement (Event #6), where inquisitive PCs 
  may be able to find him and gain valuable clues.  
   
  William Burns  
  Burns is a British (specifically Scottish) Shakespearean 
  actor working in Hollywood. Lacking the talent of more 
  famous British “imports” like Olivier, his career has 
  been an undistinguished one, and he is a bitter and 
  angry man, given to drug addiction, alcoholism, and 
  womanizing. Nevertheless, he manages to put on a 
  shallow, brittle front of charm and wit, and is handsome 
  in a rough-edged, raffish sort of way. (Anyone making 
  a Psychology roll after speaking with him will be able 
  to see through appearances to the rot within.) Like 
  Simmons (who he hates, and will insult behind his 
  back), Burns will make passes at any attractive females, 
  although his approach is generally smoother.  
   
  Burns is distantly acquainted with Tey from some 
  design work Tey did on a horror film (“The Thing 
  Without a Shape”) two years ago. He thinks little of 
  Tey, who he routinely insults as a “morbid Chinaman,” 
  and regards this party as nothing more than a chance to 
  get drunk and chase skirts. He will also be the first 
  guest to fall victim to Tey’s house, going mad in rooms 
  8b and 8c and then running amok (Event #5).  
   
  Alexis Chen 
  Chen is a short, plain-featured, sharp-tongued Chinese-
  American woman who is an art critic at the Los 
  Angeles Times. She dresses conservatively and wears 
  thick glasses that conceal the intelligence in her small 
  dark eyes. Alexis despises Tey’s work as “shallow, 
  pretentious, and morbid,” and believes she has been 
  invited to this party to curry her favor. She will not 
  hesitate to tell this to anyone, and speaks her mind on 
  every topic. A prototype feminist, she regards men as 
  slightly dim-witted creatures ruled by their desires, and 
  has even more contempt (if that is possible) for women 
  who play along with men (like Maryanne).  
   
  In truth, Alexis is less clear-headed than she might 
  wish. She attended art school herself, and envies 
  successful artists because she couldn’t be one herself. 
  She is fond of making cutting remarks about others’ 
  talents (or lack thereof), and at some point Bryan 
  Simmons will remark that Alexis “never found an artist 
  she didn’t hate.” Her favorite target here is not Tey but 
  Finnigin Posner, who she considers an empty-headed 
  poser.  
   
  Maryanne Howard  
  Maryanne is a vapid young would-be star who also 
  worked on the film “The Thing Without a Shape,” 
  where she distinguished herself by being so sickened by 
  some of Michael Tey’s designs that she demanded they 
  be removed from the set. Silly, shallow, and less than 
  intelligent, Maryanne flits around the party talking up 
  everyone and trying to make contacts for furthering her 
  “career.” She knows nothing about Tey or his work 
  (other than her brief film experience), but tries to sound 
  “with it” and knowledgeable about everything. Her 
  opinions on most subjects are “radical chic” (she’s 
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 4 
  
  THE SERVANTS 
  against capitalism, racism, Vietnam, and so forth) 
  although she has no real understanding of any of these 
  things, simply parroting what she has heard at other 
  parties. (This will quickly earn the contempt of Jacob 
  Bernstein.)  
  The Valets  
  These two gentlemen, Jose and Tony, are both dressed 
  in the sharp, red-and-black uniforms typical for valets. 
  When not parking cars, they stand in the door, chatting 
  with each other and occasionally sneaking a quick 
  smoke. They have been hired for the night by a Los 
  Angeles temp service, and know nothing about Tey or 
  his mansion. Shortly after the storm breaks (Event #2), 
  they will disappear. The PCs may be able to discover 
  their corpses later. 
   
  At some point, William Burns will make a pass at 
  Maryanne. She is unreceptive – having suffered through 
  William’s attentions on the set of “The Thing Without a 
  Shape,” she has no time for him now – and the scene 
  ends with her throwing her drink in his face. William 
  attempts to laugh off the incident and retreats to a 
  bathroom (he is not seen again until Scene #5).  
   
    
  Agatha Symcox  
  The Waiters, Jorge and Candiza  
  This thin, slightly bony woman has large soulful eyes 
  and a perpetual expression of earnest concern. She 
  dresses in jeans and tie-dyed shirts, wears her stringy 
  brown hair in long braids, and wears a wooden pendant 
  carved to resemble an oak leaf. She is a painter, 
  producing delicate works of fantasy that serve primarily 
  as illustrations to children’s books – the other guests 
  clearly wonder why someone like her was invited. 
  This man and woman, both Hispanic, are dressed in 
  rather plain formal garments (jackets and pants) and 
  wear their dark hair short and slicked-back; it is often 
  difficult to tell them apart, especially since they never 
  speak. They have worked for Tey for several months, 
  and NPCs who have visited Tey’s mansion before (like 
  Alexis Chen) remember them and their peculiar 
  mannerisms. These two poor souls are victims of Tey’s 
  experiments with “flesh art;” their tongues have been 
  cut from their bodies, leaving them mute, and their 
  minds broken by participation in Tey’s foul rituals. 
  They respond to questions or requests with silent nods, 
  brief gestures, or an occasional grunt or “hm.” They are 
  completely insane and will slavishly follow Tey’s 
  plans. Their true nature will not become apparent until 
  later in the evening (unless a PC makes a deliberate 
  attempt to stalk them and learn the truth about their 
  nature), but anyone speaking with them for more than a 
  minute or two will notice the glassy, distant stare in 
  their eyes, and a Psychology roll will suggest there is 
  something desperately wrong with these people.  
   
  Agatha is a spiritual medium, and has at least some 
  inkling of her own abilities. She thinks of them in rather 
  vague terms with heavy influences from India – in 
  many ways, she is a prototype “New Ager.” She 
  approaches the world with a wide-eyed innocence and 
  naïveté, and likes to pepper her conversation with the 
  newly popular term “grok” (a euphemism for 
  “understand”). She has never met Michael Tey, and is 
  pretty confused about why she was invited to the party 
  (“maybe he needs a cleansing of his spiritual aura – this 
  place feels really heavy”). If Finnigin Posner makes a 
  Cthulhu Mythos roll after speaking with her, he will 
  realize that something about her reminds him of “the 
  bug” which once lived in his head. 
   
   
  Agatha is one of the three individuals here whose 
  underlying gifts will serve as focus points for Michael 
  Tey’s invocation of Azathoth. She will perish first of 
  the three (Event #7), the trauma of her death unleashing 
  the first breaks in the walls of reality.  
   
  A GUIDE TO THE TEY 
  MANSION 
  Tey’s mansion is the product of an insane mind; he 
  built it five years ago, after his first successful 
  exhibition brought him wealth and fame. He later 
  sorcerously murdered the contractor who made it to 
  keep certain aspects of it secret forever. Portions of it 
  are non-Euclidean in nature, serving as links to other 
  realities.  
   
  Various Others  
  In addition to the specific individuals listed above, there 
  are nineteen other guests at the party, fodder for Tey’s 
  inhuman plans. The Keeper should feel free to 
  improvise whatever artistic or Hollywood types seem 
  appropriate to the scene. Politics are generally left to 
  extreme left, and everyone agrees that Tey is a genius. 
   
  Superficially, the interior of the house is extremely 
  “modern,” with smooth cream-colored walls and 
  ceilings, abstract-shaped light fixtures, and severely 
  simplified furniture. Paintings by avant-garde artists 
  decorate the walls, while corner stands boast abstract 
  and experimental sculptures.  
   
   
   
  The house is built into a near-cliff overlooking the 
  Pacific, and the back of its near-flat roof is flush with 
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 5 
  
  the slope. Below the house a sheer drop descends over a 
  hundred feet to the churning waters. Above it, steep 
  slopes covered in scrub brush climb away out of sight. 
  The slope is so steep and rugged it will require halved 
  Climb rolls to ascend it during this rain soaked night; at 
  least five rolls will be needed to make it over the crest 
  of the hill to safety. Failure means the PC slides 
  painfully back down the slope, suffering 1d6 damage (a 
  critical failure – 96-00 – means the PC suffers a broken 
  limb).  
   
  Besides the table of snacks and hors d’ouvres, the 
  only furnishings here are display stands in the corners 
  which boast small abstract sculptures.  
   
  Initially, this will be the only room where any 
  NPCs can be found, and the majority of the guests will 
  remain here throughout the evening (although the 
  bolder and more curious will soon go exploring).  
   
  Area 2: Kitchen/Dining  
  A large and thoroughly modern (electrical, not gas) 
  kitchen adjoins a dining area with a glass table and 
  seating for four. A large counter in the kitchen boasts 
  bottles, glasses, and buckets of ice for drinks. Another 
  counter has supplies for making snacks, sandwiches, 
  and so forth. The two servants shuttle in and out of this 
  room constantly, renewing the guests’ supplies in the 
  main room. 
   
  Behind the back of the house, halfway up the slope, 
  an entrance to the secret True Basement is concealed 
  behind a brush-shrouded boulder. PCs will not find this 
  unless they actively search the slope (requiring several 
  halved Climb rolls) and then roll Spot Hidden. If the 
  PCs come here after Event #3, they will find an obvious 
  trail of footprints and tumbled rocks and brush leading 
  down to the roof of the house (this is where the valet, 
  Tony, attempted to escape). If they roll Spot Hidden, 
  they will also find the burnt remains of a fuse (Tey 
  came here to light the dynamite charge which blocked 
  the drive). 
   
  After Event #2 (the Storm Breaks), PCs who 
  happen to visit the kitchen will find the two valets here, 
  sheltering from the rain and enjoying a snack. The 
  servants will soon drug them and take them away to the 
  True Basement for sacrifice.  
   
   
  Aside from the generous party supplies, there is 
  actually very little food and drink kept in the kitchen, 
  except for an astonishing number of cheap TV dinners 
  in the freezer. Tey clearly doesn’t much care what he 
  eats on a day-to-day basis.  
  The Drive/Access 
  The mansion’s paved drive winds along the steep 
  hillside for a half-mile, a rugged near-cliff rising on the 
  inland side while an even steeper drop-off descends to 
  the Ocean on the other. The drive leads to a state 
  highway few miles north of Los Angeles.  
   
  If PCs search the drink supplies, they can roll 
  Medicine or Pharmacy to notice a bottle of powerful 
  (prescription-strength) sleeping pills amidst the normal 
  liquors and mixers.  
   
  After Tey sets off his dynamite charge (Event #2), 
  a mud-slide will block the drive, leaving a huge pile of 
  treacherous mud and rock to clamber across. Vehicles 
  will not be able to pass this blockage, and PCs 
  attempting to clamber over it must make a total of five 
  Climb rolls. If any Climb roll is failed, the PC begins 
  sliding and tumbling down the mud toward the edge of 
  the seaside cliff, requiring a Luck to roll avoid a 
  desperate plummet to certain death. (A merciful Keeper 
  may choose to allow a final, desperate Jump roll to find 
  purchase at the very edge of the cliff.) This is the 
  classic horror movie situation, of course, and smart 
  players will recognize it for what it is.  
   
  Other useful items in this room include an 
  assortment of kitchen knives (damage 1d3 or 1d4, 
  depending on size), a chemical fire extinguisher, a 
  drawer full of candles (with a box of matches), a pair of 
  flashlights (with spare batteries), and a telephone. 
   
  Area 3: Art Studio  
  This room is normally kept locked, but can be seen 
  clearly through the sliding glass doors which separate it 
  from the corridor. The lock can be forced by 
  overcoming its STR of 10, or a PC can simply break the 
  glass.  
   
  Area 1: Front Room  
   
  Tey’s studio is a large room with a vaulted ceiling and 
  modern light fixtures. There are several desks, easels, 
  and work tables scattered around the place, and you 
  can see painting and sculpture supplies everywhere: 
  tubes of oil paints, brushes, trowels, bags of plaster, 
  plastic tubs which probably hold clay, blank 
  canvasses, and so forth. Atop one desk are a large tape 
  recorder and a rack of shelves which contains the 
  bulky disks of old tapes. A tripod nearby holds an 
  8mm movie camera. You can also see the indistinct 
  This is where the party is underway. As described in the 
  introduction, this is a large, well-lit, high-ceilinged 
  room with a staircase sweeping up one wall to a 
  balcony at the second floor. A very expensive-looking 
  chandelier hangs from the center of the ceiling. There is 
  a large ornamental fireplace on one wall (no wood, and 
  no sign the fireplace has ever been used), and a large 
  color television in the corner under the stairs. Archways 
  lead to the kitchen and a hallway to the rest of the first 
  floor.  
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 6 
  
  shape of a half-completed sculpture atop a work-stand 
  toward the back of the room.  
   
  Most of the items and supplies in this room are 
  mundane, although PCs could conceivably find many 
  uses for things like paint thinner or plaster. Besides the 
  things listed above, the room also contains a telephone 
  (with a very long cord, able to reach anywhere in the 
  room), a small screen and projector for showing 
  movies, and a large filing cabinet full of blank audio 
  tapes and reels of blank 8mm film.  
   
  The drawer of one desk contains an oddity: a large 
  collection of extremely sharp knives (over twenty of 
  them, damage 1d4+3, if anyone chooses to use them in 
  combat). The blades are apparently meant for meat-
  carving; what they are doing here is unknown. One 
  knife is clearly missing, leaving a gap in the long row 
  of gleaming steel.  
   
  The partially completed sculpture in the back of the 
  room cannot be seen clearly unless the PCs enter the 
  room or shine a flashlight into it. It is a half-completed 
  rendering of Daoloth, the Render of Veils, a Mythos 
  entity whose alien geometry is deadly to the normal 
  world. (Another of Tey’s projects for bringing his 
  transcendent madness to the rest of the world.) 
  Although the statue is not complete enough to be a 
  direct menace, its alien geometry and strange, pseudo-
  abstract yet somehow threatening components are 
  deeply disturbing to look upon for any length of time, 
  costing 1d3 SAN for each round a PC gazes upon it.  
   
  If a PC looks through the completed tapes and 
  movies in the storage racks, they can see that they are 
  all dated, but not kept in any particular order. Tapes 
  from two years ago sit next to film from last month.  
   
  Listening to any of the tapes reveals that they are 
  dictations by Tey discussing various art projects and 
  plans. Although there is nothing openly incriminating 
  on any of the tapes, there is definitely something 
  unsettling about them: Tey comes across as frequently 
  disoriented, rambling incoherently or mumbling, and 
  referring frequently to “the perfect goal, the perfect 
  art,” which he cannot seem to attain.  
   
  The films are records of Tey’s sculptures, from 
  beginning to completion, and are rather boring except 
  for the unconventional nature of his work. However, 
  one film (Luck roll to find it, if the PCs pick at random) 
  shows the creation of the “Truth” sculpture in the 
  display room. That film is described in HANDOUT #3. 
  Any PC who watches it loses 0/1d4 SAN.  
   
  Area 4: Display Room  
  Tey uses this unsettlingly irregular room to display the 
  many paintings and sculptures he has accumulated in 
  the last five years, as well as a few of his own works. It 
  is also a focus-point for his Mythos activities, for its 
  mildly non-Euclidean nature makes it a focal point for 
  Mythos energies. When Tey’s ritual begins, this place 
  will become quite dangerous. See the Events listings.  
   
  You cannot see the far end of this oddly irregular 
  room, and the light is limited to soft pools 
  surrounding the various paintings and sculptures 
  which are scattered throughout its length. The floor is 
  dark tile, and echoes oddly through the room as you 
  walk forward.  
   
  The subtly non-Euclidean geometry of this room is 
  damaging to the human psyche, and any PC who spends 
  more than a few minutes here begins to register a 
  subconscious sense of profound unease. The PC cannot 
  explain why they feel nervous – something just “isn’t 
  right,” although the feeling fades shortly after the PC 
  leaves the room. 
   
  The artwork here is mostly popular contemporary 
  works from trendy artists such as Andy Warhol and 
  Jackson Pollack. Tey’s own works here are two 
  paintings (mere abstract geometric constructions) and 
  one special item: a bizarre, unnatural sculpture which 
  might be described as a cross between a three-
  dimensional circuit diagram and components of a 
  human corpse, all rendered in a mixture of clay, metal, 
  plaster, and plastic. The sculpture, entitled simply 
  “Truth,” is a truly shocking work, its impact enhanced 
  by the fact that it lurks in an odd nook of the room and 
  is not visible until PCs are right on top of it – at which 
  point it seems to leap into their sight. (Lose 0/1d4 
  SAN.) Tey has been unable to sell this work – it is too 
  shocking – and keeps it here to ambush visitors.  
   
  If any PC dismantles or vandalizes the “Truth” 
  statue, they will learn a terrible secret – the “clay 
  sculptures” of human body parts are simply thin layers 
  of clay smeared over ACTUAL body parts. This 
  shocking discovery costs 1/1d6+1 SAN to anyone but 
  Oscar Petrovsky (who merely loses 0/1). If the PCs 
  watched Tey’s home movie of making this statue 
  (HANDOUT #3), they know what to expect and lose 
  only 0/1d3 SAN. 
   
  This room contains one of three entrances to the 
  Secret Basement (area #11), the other two being outside 
  and in the normal basement. The non-Euclidean nature 
  of the room’s geometry, however, makes it very hard to 
  spot the thin irregular lines of the concealed panel in 
  one corner (near the “Truth” statue). Only a halved Spot 
  Hidden roll will find the door, and then only if the PCs 
  are 
  actively 
  searching 
  for 
  hidden 
  doors 
  or 
  compartments.  
   
  Tey will use this door to deposit Agatha Symcox’s 
  corpse after her murder (see Event #7). 
   
  Area 5: Public Bathroom  
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 7 
  
  This is a simple bathroom (no tub or shower) meant for 
  the use of guests. There is nothing strange or alarming 
  here, although after Event #8, the plumbing here may 
  become a source of menace.  
   
  Area 8: Guest Rooms  
  There are a total of four guest rooms in Tey’s mansion, 
  each with a slightly different shape. Each, however, 
  shares the same basic layout: a large bed, a lamp on a 
  bedside table, a dresser and closet, and an adjacent half-
  bath. The windows in rooms 8a-8c are high and narrow, 
  and provide a view of cliff and ocean. The main 
  difference between each room is the choice of artworks 
  and decorations to be found within. 
   
  Area 6: Library  
  This room is L-shaped, and the far end of the L 
  terminates in a glass-walled globe, a sort of 
  observation dome, overlooking the ocean. A single 
  low-light fixture hangs from the center of the globe, 
  while the rest of the room is lit more generously, 
  creating a dim recess that seems to draw you in. The 
  room itself contains shelves along both walls, packed 
  with books, while a large cylindrical aquarium 
  gurgles quietly near the door. There are three 
  overstuffed chairs in the room, each positioned near a 
  light source. 
   
  Guest Room 8a: There is a large duplicate of Picasso’s 
  famous painting, Guernica (depicting the German 
  bombing of a village during the Spanish Civil War) on 
  the wall of this room. Anyone who looks closely at the 
  painting will experience a disorienting sense of vertigo, 
  as though they are falling into the painting, and briefly 
  hear a roaring in their ears, as though of distant 
  explosions. (SAN loss 0/1.) If anyone asks Tey about 
  the painting, he will smile and remark, “It’s quite a 
  good replica, isn’t it?” 
   
  Players/PCs who have seen Walt Disney’s live-action 
  movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea will recognize the 
  glass-walled “observation dome” as being inspired by 
  the similar window in the movie’s Nautilus submarine.  
   
  Guest Room 8b: There is a large Indian rug on the 
  floor of this room, laid out in an elaborate mandala 
  pattern. The rug is a mental trap, and anyone who stares 
  at it for any length of time must roll POW x3 or find 
  their mind lost in its infinite patterns, standing vacant-
  eyed and drooling in the middle of the rug. This causes 
  a loss of 1d6 SAN for every minute in this state. 
   
  The books themselves are the sort one would 
  expect for a trendy Sixties artist: a mixture of 
  liberal/left politics, art and entertainment, current 
  affairs, and so forth. There is really nothing overtly 
  strange or mysterious about the books, but a Library 
  Use roll will discover something of interest along one 
  wall: several framed newspaper articles hung on the 
  wall between two of the shelves. The pieces are mostly 
  “Lifestyle” puff-pieces on the construction of this 
  unusual mansion by “rising art-world star” Michael 
  Tey. However, the last piece describes something else: 
  the mysterious murder of the contractor who built the 
  house. (HANDOUT #2) If anyone asks Tey why he has 
  that piece framed here, he remarks that “he did good 
  work, and I felt it was proper to remember him here.” 
  Anyone making a Psychology roll sees a glint of 
  malicious humor in Tey’s eyes as he makes this remark.  
   
  William Burns will fall victim to the rug early in 
  the evening, and will eventually go completely insane 
  and run amok (see Event #5). 
   
  Anyone who rolls Cthulhu Mythos after seeing the 
  rug will realize that the mandala pattern is actually an 
  artistic rendering of the cosmic writhing of Azathoth, 
  the Daemon Sultan.  
   
  Guest Room 8c: There are a dozen framed photographs 
  spaced around the walls of this room. All of them 
  depict moments of savagery and slaughter in recent 
  history: the Holocaust, the Spanish Civil War, the 
  Japanese invasion of China, Vietnam, etc. Stark black-
  and-white scenes of concentration camp victims, 
  executions, and battlefield slaughter stare at visitors 
  from every wall. Spending any amount of time in this 
  room is deeply unsettling to anyone not already 
  hardened against such scenes (anyone but Oscar 
  Petrovsky), filling them with a sense of the 
  pointlessness of human life and the emptiness of all 
  mankind’s claims to enlightenment and decency. Roll 
  SAN: possible loss is 0/1d4. Anyone who is already 
  insane when affected by this room will become 
  convinced that human life has no meaning and human 
  flesh is nothing more than putty. 
   
  If any PC comes here after Event #2 (the power 
  outage), the room gives a very different impression, as 
  lightning flashes outside illuminate the room in strobic 
  blinks. At that time, they will discover the body of 
  Tony, one of the valets, sprawled atop the glass globe, 
  streaks of rain-diluted blood running down the curving 
  glass. (Lose 1/1d6 SAN.) He fell here after trying 
  vainly to escape (see Event #3).  
   
  Area 7: Upstairs Bathroom 
  This is a large, luxurious bathroom, tiled in shining 
  white and boasting a huge tub with shiny, ultra-modern 
  steel fixtures. There is nothing initially strange or 
  threatening about this place, but after the barriers of 
  reality begin to fade (as outlined in Event #8), the 
  plumbing here will be a source of menace.  
   
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 8 
  
  Guest Room 8d: the artwork in this room is 
  nondescript (abstract paintings and sculptures), but 
  anyone who spends more than a minute or two here 
  must make a Listen roll. Success means the PC hears a 
  strange, wailing, flute-like music in the distance. The 
  source of the music cannot be ascertained. SAN loss 
  0/1d3. If the PC makes the SAN roll, the music fades 
  away, but if the roll is failed, thereafter the PC will 
  seem to hear the music everywhere in the house, always 
  just barely at the edge of their perceptions. 
   
  Behind the painting, set into the wall, is a safe. If 
  the PCs do not think of looking behind the painting, 
  anyone who searches the room carefully can make a 
  Spot Hidden roll (to notice faint scratches on the wall 
  where the painting has been swung aside) or a Track 
  roll (to notice that the carpet on the floor in front of the 
  painting appears slightly more worn). The combination 
  to the safe can be found in Tey’s papers on the desk, as 
  mentioned above. A PC may also try to unlock the safe 
  with a Locksmith roll (which represents the classic 
  Hollywood ear-pressed-to-the-door method) or simply 
  by randomly guessing numbers (requiring a POW x1 
  roll to succeed).  
   
  The music is a distant reflection of the Court of 
  Azathoth, to which the house is vaguely attuned, and 
  this particular room is a focal point for it. As the 
  evening progresses, the music will gradually become 
  louder, until Listen rolls are no longer required to hear 
  it. Ultimately, a Servitor of the Outer Gods will 
  manifest itself here. See the Events section for more 
  details.  
   
  The safe contains over $100,000 in assorted bills, 
  bound together randomly and piled in the back. It also 
  contains a list of guests for the evening’s party 
  (HANDOUT #5), three audio tapes which detail some 
  of Tey’s plans for this evening (if the PCs play them in 
  Tey’s studio downstairs, give them HANDOUT #6), 
  and a set of blueprints for the house. A PC can read the 
  blueprints with a successful Idea roll, in which case 
  they can learn the locations of the three entrances to the 
  “true” basement (the basement itself is not shown on 
  the blueprint).  
   
  Area 9: Tey’s Main Bedroom  
  This is a large, almost grandiose room which 
  nevertheless feels oddly constricted and uncomfortable 
  to anyone who spends time in it. The room’s 
  dimensions are non-Euclidean, with angles that don’t 
  quite “add up,” and spending the night here will cost 
  any sleeper a point of SAN. 
   
  Area 10: The “Public” Basement  
  After the power goes out (during Event #5), the PCs 
  may wind up descending to this area in search of the 
  breaker box.  
   
  This large rectangular room is probably Michael 
  Tey’s personal bedroom. There is a huge king-sized 
  bed of modern design in the middle of one wall, and 
  beside it a spare, cleanly-designed desk with a 
  telephone and untidy piles of notepaper. A single 
  abstract painting, a collection of colored bars and 
  squares, hangs on the opposite wall, next to the doors 
  of a walk-in closet. Aside from the clutter on the desk, 
  the room feels spartan, almost unlived-in. 
   
  The basement of Tey’s house is a large concrete-
  walled chamber that underlies about half of the 
  house. A pair of bare light bulbs hang from different 
  parts of the ceiling. Besides random junk, extra 
  furniture, and other random bits commonly found in 
  basements, this place is home to a washer-dryer, a 
  laundry chute from the second-floor main bedroom, a 
  large propane furnace for heat in cold weather, and a 
  bulky breaker-box on one wall.  
    
  The impression is accurate – Tey, being mad, has little 
  need for sleep. The appearance of normality is 
  somewhat marred by the contents of the closet – the 
  clothing is jumbled and mixed together randomly, with 
  piles of both clean and dirty laundry intermingled on 
  the floor.  
   
  The furnace should raise some eyebrows – this is 
  California, after all, where heat is a modest problem. In 
  point of fact, if the PCs search the corner where the 
  furnace is located, they can roll Spot Hidden to locate 
  the hidden door (disguised as a metal panel on the side 
  of the furnace) that leads to the secret “true” basement. 
  It is held shut by a magnetic seal, and is opened by 
  pressing in sharply and then releasing.  
   
  The papers on the desk are a mixture of random 
  personal notes and memos (everything from schedules 
  and art sales to grocery lists, letters from colleagues, 
  and even pages covered in random numbers). Looking 
  through the papers and making a Luck roll will uncover 
  some items of use, including the combination to Tey’s 
  safe. (HANDOUT #4). A drawer in the desk contains a 
  flashlight, a pocketknife (damage 1d2), a book of 
  telephone numbers (including the numbers of all the 
  guests, but none of them in alphabetical order).  
   
  After the power outage, Will Mosby will be found 
  hiding in the basement. See Event #6 for details of his 
  behavior.  
   
  Area 11: The True Basement 
  This place is where Tey keeps his darkest secrets, the 
  things he cannot risk anyone learning. It was to keep 
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 9 
  
  this place secret that he murdered the building 
  contractor. There are three concrete tunnels which lead 
  to this place: one from the normal basement, one from 
  the display room, and one from the hidden entrance 
  halfway up the outside slope. All three entrances are the 
  same: narrow, damp concrete stairs, lit by intermittent 
  bare light bulbs. After the power outage, there will be 
  no light at all. Any time after Event #7, Tey and the two 
  servants will be found in the true basement, unless they 
  are out trying to capture Tabitha or Linda. 
   
  The three riveted-metal doors that lead into the 
  True Basement from the three tunnels are normally 
  locked, with only Tey having the keys. They can be 
  opened with a Locksmith roll, a halved Mechanical 
  Repair, or by forcing them by overcoming their STR of 
  18 on the Resistance Table (up to two PCs may try at 
  once). All three doors are inscribed with eldritch 
  symbols that will prevent passage by the Entities, once 
  they have appeared (Event #8). However, the air vents 
  in the ceiling are not so warded.  
   
  The True Basement itself is a large room that 
  appears to be square, but in fact is not – somehow the 
  angles of the room do not quite “add up.” This will be 
  apparent to anyone who spends more than a few 
  minutes here, and the realization costs 0/1d2 SAN.  
   
  In the center of the room is an elaborate circle of 
  signs and mathematical symbols. Set into the concrete 
  are manacles for holding a victim in place, and there is 
  a drain for letting out blood. This is where Tey 
  sacrifices his victims to the ritual.  
   
  One wall of the room has a small wooden rack of 
  books, a mixture of old occult tomes and obscure art 
  books. Hidden among them (Library Use to find) are 
  old copies of the nine volumes of the Revelations of 
  Glaaki. Tey has scribbled a number of hand-written 
  notes into the inside front covers of these volumes 
  (HANDOUT #7).  
   
  Another wall boasts some of Tey’s most radical 
  paintings, bizarre abstract works that seek to 
  encapsulate on canvas the unimaginable vistas of 
  Azathoth’s court. Viewing these dark masterpieces 
  costs 0/1d3 SAN. Nailed to the wall in between the 
  paintings are two small, shriveled, blackened objects 
  that can be identified with Know rolls as human 
  tongues (lose 1/1d4 SAN).  
   
  In one corner of the room is a small wooden box 
  containing two sticks of dynamite, along with fuses and 
  blasting caps. It will require a halved Know roll to get a 
  stick of dynamite prepared for use (a normal Know roll 
  for Oscar Petrovsky). Damage from a stick of dynamite 
  is 5d6 with a blast radius of 2 yards.  
   
  After Event #3, the knife that was missing from the 
  studio is here, coated with blood, along with the 
  horribly mangled body of Jose the valet, tossed in a 
  corner. After Event #7 (Agatha’s sacrifice), the 
  bloodstains will be much worse and there will be a trail 
  of blood leading up the passage to the display room.  
   
   
  SEQUENCE of EVENTS 
  After the PCs have had a chance to socialize with the 
  other guests, the evening’s events begin to move 
  forward. The following events should happen more-or-
  less in sequence, although the Keeper should feel free 
  to modify the course of events to make the adventure 
  flow more smoothly.  
   
  Event #1: The Host Appears  
  Michael Tey will make his first appearance after the 
  guests have had time to socialize with each other (and 
  perhaps to begin wondering where he is). Stepping out 
  on the balcony above the main room, Tey waves to 
  everyone, smiling a charming and unpleasantly wide 
  smile. Then he descends the stairs to mingle briefly 
  with the crowd.  
   
  Michael Tey is handsome in a smooth Asian-
  American way, with light-gold skin and sharply styled 
  black hair. He is fashionably “dressed down” in jeans 
  and a polo shirt. Superficially, Tey is glib and talkative, 
  a charmer, whose opinions are all “correct” for the time 
  (which is to say, left of center). However, there is an icy 
  distance beneath his charm, and anyone making a 
  Psychology roll after speaking with Tey senses that he 
  is profoundly disconnected from normal human 
  feelings. 
   
  Tey will circulate through the crowd, engaging in 
  superficial conversation and generally playing the 
  gracious host. He will be sure to stop and speak with 
  Agatha Symcox, Tabitha Conrad, and Linda Waite, 
  asking each of them about their work, praising their 
  “unique visions,” and promising that their talents will 
  soon find a “proper venue.” 
   
  Tey invites everyone to make the house their own, 
  to view his art collections and his library, and generally 
  to enjoy everything his residence has to offer. He is 
  hoping, of course, to make his planned kidnappings and 
  sacrifices easier by scattering his guests through the 
  house.  
   
  Event #2: The Storm Breaks  
  At this point, the gathering storm suddenly unleashes 
  itself with tremendous fury. Thunder booms and 
  echoes, and everyone can hear the sudden roar of heavy 
  rain pounding on the house. Lightning flickers outside 
  repeatedly. Most of the guests utter small noises of 
  astonishment, the occasional “ooh, ahh” at a 
  particularly bright lightning flash, and so forth.  
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 10 
  
   
  Any PC who makes a Listen roll during this period 
  may notice that, amid the thunder, there was another, 
  deeper and sharper, detonation. It seems to have come 
  from back up the road. Tey has set off a landslide with 
  a dynamite charge. Oscar Petrovsky (only) can roll 
  Know to recognize the sound as an explosion (if he 
  heard it).  
   
  If anyone is trying to watch Tey at this point, they 
  can make a Spot Hidden roll to notice a brief satisfied 
  smirk cross his face.  
   
  If any PCs decide to leave the mansion, they 
  discover the two valets are gone, having fled inside 
  from the pouring rain. (Anyone who makes an Idea roll 
  remembers seeing the servants leading the valets back 
  to the kitchen a few minutes ago.) There is an odd burnt 
  smell drifting through the rain – Petrovsky recognizes it 
  as the smell of explosives.  
   
  If the PCs go up the road, or try to track the smell, 
  they soon discover the drive has been blocked by a 
  massive mudslide, mixed with boulders and trees. No 
  vehicle can navigate the blockage.  
   
  Event #3: The Valets Perish  
  Some little while after the explosion, Tey departs the 
  front room. Many of the guests are now wandering the 
  house, so his departure is not completely surprising; if 
  any PC asks when he left, and with whom, they can roll 
  Idea to recall that Michael was talking to Agatha 
  Symcox. Agatha is still in the front room, and does not 
  recall where Tey went after speaking with her. Several 
  other guests are absent, taking advantage of Tey’s offer 
  to explore the house.  
   
  At this point, the two valets have been drugged and 
  taken down to the basement for the human sacrifices 
  required to begin the evening’s “festivities.” However, 
  one of them (Tony) is not completely overpowered by 
  the drug, and manages to flee up the secret staircase and 
  across the roof before the enraged Tey finally catches 
  and kills him.  
   
  Any PC who is on the upper floor of the house will 
  hear a sudden irregular pounding on the roof, very 
  different from the normal drumming of the rain: a 
  Listen roll will determine that this is running feet, 
  probably more than one pair. If anyone is in the Library 
  (room #X), they will see the valet’s bleeding corpse 
  land heavily atop the observation dome.  
   
  Event #4: An Observer Arrives  
  After the sacrifice of the two unfortunate valets, the 
  first phase of the ritual has begun. The powers and 
  energies of the Outer Gods will begin to flow through 
  the house, weakly at first, but growing with each 
  additional step in the ritual. The distant wailing in room 
  8d will become slightly more audible. The first direct 
  manifestation, however, will be in the telephones and 
  television.  
   
  At some point, have one of the PCs notice another 
  guest (Chen and Simmons are good choices) attempting 
  a call, then putting the phone down with a strange, 
  unsettled expression on their face. If a PC speaks to 
  them, they say only “something was wrong… I got 
  some odd voice.” They will say nothing further. 
   
  Any PC’s attempt to call anyone on any of the 
  telephones will fail. Instead of the number they dialed, 
  the PC will get a strange, deep voice which speaks with 
  them in mocking tones, belittling them, their 
  accomplishments, and indeed their very species.  
   
  If anyone happens to turn on the television after 
  this time, all of the channels are showing the same 
  thing: a suave, dark-haired, swarthy man in an elegant 
  black suit. The man is reading – in a deep voice fraught 
  with mocking, amused tones – news reports about war, 
  destruction, and crime from all across the world. His 
  glittering dark eyes seem to follow anyone who watches 
  him. He is on all the channels.  
   
  Both the voice and the man on the television are 
  manifestations of Nyarlathotep, the messenger of the 
  Outer Gods – Tey’s ritual has drawn his attention, and 
  he will observe things through the telephones and the 
  television until the end of the scenario. The Keeper 
  should feel free to improvise additional mocking 
  behavior on Nyarlathotep’s part when it seems 
  appropriate – the god is darkly amused by everything 
  that transpires here, and is not above contributing 
  further terror and chaos to the situation. He will never 
  take any sort of direct action, however.  
   
  Event #5: William’s Rampage  
  William Burns is driven insane by the Azathoth 
  mandala in Guest Room 8b (Tey led him there before 
  departing to sacrifice the valets). He then wanders into 
  room 8c (the room of war crimes), and goes psychotic.  
   
  The insane Burns runs rampage through the house, 
  attempting to murder the other guests (using kitchen 
  knives, furniture, and bare hands, even teeth if 
  necessary). His favored targets will be women who 
  spurned his earlier romantic efforts, such as Maryanne 
  Howard. All the while he gabbles that “I can see now, 
  it’s all so simple, DEATH is what matters, the FINAL 
  CURTAIN, 
  nobody 
  cares 
  about 
  any 
  lesser 
  performance!”  
   
  Midway through this horrific assault, there’s a 
  violent lightning stroke, and the power goes out. The 
  rest of the struggle takes place in darkness, lit only by 
  the strobing of lightning. The Keeper is encouraged to 
  play this up for maximum horror-movie cinematic 
  effect, with Burns stalking guests through the house 
  while chuckling, babbling psychotic nonsense, etc. 
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 11 
  
  Sometime during all this confusion, Agatha Symcox 
  disappears (stolen away by Michael Tey). 
   
  William cannot be broken out of his madness – his 
  SAN is at zero. He must be overpowered or killed. 
   
  The electrical power will not come back – the 
  breaker is blown. There are candles in a drawer in the 
  kitchen (once the fight is over, the servants will bring 
  them out and light them), and flashlights in the kitchen 
  and in Tey’s master bedroom.  
   
  Event #6: Mosby in the Basement 
  If the PCs visit the basement at any time after the power 
  outage (perhaps to search for the breaker box), they will 
  find Will Mosby sitting in the dark and singing softly to 
  himself. If any PC speaks to him, Will answers with 
  nonsensical babble mingled with lines from Alice in 
  Wonderland.  
   
  If the PCs speak with Will for more than a few 
  minutes, he begins to mutter, “They make the 
  flowerbeds so soft, the flowers are always asleep!” 
  while fumbling his way along the walls of the 
  basement, peering closely at the concrete and 
  scrabbling at cracks in it with the plaster hand he 
  always carries, as though trying to find a doorway. (He 
  can sense the secret basement below the house.) If the 
  PCs try to question him about what he is doing, or why 
  he is here, he says, “Well, do you think the clams really 
  appreciated being eaten? I’ve always wondered, you 
  know, but all WE ever here is the walrus’ story. Time 
  to speak of many things…” He gets a canny smile on 
  his face. “No telling what you might find down a rabbit 
  hole. Just ask Alice.”  
   
  At the Keeper’s option, Will Mosby can supply 
  additional cryptic clues, using the above suggestions as 
  examples. He will not leave the basement, even if the 
  PCs do indeed find the breaker box and turn the power 
  back on. Eventually Mosby will disappear (perhaps 
  leaving behind his plaster hand), devoured by one of the 
  things summoned by Tey’s ritual.  
   
  Event #7: Agatha Symcox is Sacrificed 
  Whether or not the PCs have noticed the absence of 
  Agatha Symcox, shortly after the end of William 
  Burns’ rampage, a series of desperate, agonized 
  screams echo through the house. The screams are 
  Agatha’s, carried up through the hidden ventilation 
  ducts from the Secret Basement. It will be impossible to 
  determine their exact location, though anyone making a 
  halved Listen roll can deduce they are being carried 
  through the ducts. Listening to these screams (which go 
  on for several minutes before mercifully ending) costs 
  everyone 1/1d6+1 SAN.  
   
  After this event, Tey deposits Agatha’s corpse in 
  the display room (Area #4), festooning her body on the 
  “Truth” sculpture. Anyone who suddenly stumbles 
  across her loses 1/1d6+1 SAN – the way in which her 
  body actually seems to fit in with the rest of the 
  sculpture only enhances the shocking sight. Agatha has 
  clearly been tortured, her body covered in bloody cuts 
  and her eyes torn from her head; her mouth gapes in a 
  soundless scream. Anyone who examines the body can 
  roll Medicine to determine that the injuries were 
  inflicted with an extremely sharp blade.  
   
  Anyone who examines the surrounding area after 
  this time can make Spot Hidden or Track rolls to spot a 
  few drops of blood which lead to the hidden door to the 
  Secret Basement.  
   
  Event #8: The Things Emerge 
  Shortly after Agatha’s death, the dimensional walls in 
  and around Tey’s house begin to collapse, and various 
  Mythos entities begin seeping through and menacing 
  the remaining guests and PCs. Other-dimensional 
  things, invoked by Agatha’s death, begin stalking 
  through the mansion and its surroundings, slaughtering 
  the guests in various horrible ways. The wailing from 
  room 8d will also become noticeably louder after this 
  time, audible on the entire second floor. 
   
  There will be a total of four entities stalking 
  through the house, although the Keeper should refrain 
  from having more than one or two appear at once. They 
  should be noticed as much through distant screams and 
  dead bodies as through direct encounters. Needless to 
  say, all their activities will inflict SAN losses 
  (suggested SAN loss for hearing someone else fall 
  victim to these things is 1d4).  
   
  These creatures appear to be translucent, shapeless 
  beings, vaguely resembling amoebae, but sprouting 
  tentacles, toothy mouths, and claw-tipped limbs. They 
  cannot pass through solid objects but can freely alter 
  their shape to slip through narrow spaces, and favored 
  stalking techniques will include sliding under doors, 
  pushing through air vents, and so forth. The cleverest of 
  the four entities will take up residence in the pipes and 
  plumbing of the house. This thing will strike through 
  faucets, sinks, and other suitable locations, traveling 
  around 
  the 
  house 
  with 
  unnatural 
  speed 
  (and 
  accompanied by gurgling, clunking sounds as it 
  traverses the pipes). The Keeper is encouraged to draw 
  on the inspiration of horror movies to depict all these 
  creatures’ activities. 
   
  None of these entities will directly attack Linda 
  Waite or Tabitha Conrad, who are effectively protected 
  by Tey’s ritual. They will strike ruthlessly at all the 
  other PCs and NPCs, however. Victims killed by these 
  things are literally turned inside out, their brains and 
  hearts devoured.  
   
  These things are largely immune to physical 
  weapons, but spells, enchanted weapons, fire, and 
  electricity will harm them (a Cthulhu Mythos roll can 
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 12 
  
  FINALE #1: SURVIVAL 
  suggest which weapons will hurt these creatures). 
  Clever PCs may come up with clever methods of 
  employing such weapons (such as scavenging batteries 
  or siphoning gasoline from the cars outside). The Elder 
  Sign will prevent them from passing through openings, 
  but cannot otherwise harm them. 
  If the PCs succeed in killing Tey or otherwise 
  preventing him from completing his ritual, the energies 
  he has unleashed disperse at sunrise, and any surviving 
  Entities retreat back to their own dimension (along with 
  the Servitor of the Outer Gods, if it appeared). 
   
   
  Event #9: Tey Takes Action 
  You stagger out of the house, dazed and blinking in 
  the light creeping up from the eastern horizon. The 
  sea sparkles with the rising sun, and you wonder if 
  anyone will really believe any of what happened to 
  you. Perhaps it will be best to claim that someone 
  spiked the evening’s drinks with LSD.  
  Michael Tey will eventually set out to capture Linda 
  Waite and Tabitha Conrad so as to sacrifice them and 
  complete the ritual. He will try to do this while the rest 
  of the guests are being hunted by the Entities, giving 
  him free reign to slip through the house in search of his 
  prey. The two servants will accompany him.  
   
   
  Tey’s goal is to take these two people alive, 
  ordering his servants to Grapple them and drag them 
  downstairs to the True Basement. There he recites an 
  extended incoherent chant while ritually torturing and 
  finally executing his victim (assume this costs 1d3 HP 
  and 1d6 SAN per round until the victim dies).  
   
  FINALE #2: AZATHOTH 
  APPEARS  
  If the PCs do not succeed in stopping Michael Tey, he 
  will eventually succeed in sacrificing all three of the 
  focus-point victims and summoning the Daemon 
  Sultan. This event is triggered by the ritual death of the 
  third sacrificial victim (Tey will try, if possible, to 
  make Waite the last victim).  
   
  If Tey is attacked or otherwise interrupted, he will 
  try to have his servants intercept the intruders while he 
  hastily completes the sacrifice. If forced to fight 
  himself, he exploits his magical abilities to the fullest. 
  He will try at all costs to avoid killing Tabitha and 
  Linda before the ritual sacrifices, since their deaths can 
  only power the summoning of Azathoth if they are 
  performed in the proper ritual setting.  
   
  The ground heaves and shudders like a beast in 
  torment, and the shrilling of terrible flutes rises to an 
  insane, impossible pitch. A massive earthquake shakes 
  the ground, splitting open Tey’s mansion like an 
  overripe seed pod. The sky itself seems to tear open, 
  and through the rent in reality’s fabric you catch a 
  glimpse of something impossible to comprehend: vast 
  entities coiling and dancing impossibly around a 
  writhing shapeless THING that somehow radiates 
  idiot malignancy. The vast shapeless mass forces it’s 
  way through the gap, spilling out into the real sky, 
  spreading and coiling smoke-like across miles of open 
  air in merest seconds. As its pseudopods begin to 
  descend to the earth, you see soil and trees and water 
  flash into plasma and dust.  
   
  If any of the PCs were being pursued by one or 
  more of the Entities when they came to the basement, 
  those beings will find their way in through the air vents 
  a few rounds after the PCs arrive. This will come as a 
  shock to Tey (if he is present), since he forgot to 
  consider the vents when he warded the basement. 
   
  Event #10: The Piper and the Quakes 
  If Tey has succeeded in sacrificing two of his three 
  chosen victims (Agatha and either Tabitha or Linda), 
  the piping and wailing from Room 8d rises to a fever 
  pitch as a Servitor of the Outer Gods manifests in that 
  room. This monstrosity will normally remain in the 
  room, piping insanely, and will not depart until dawn 
  (or Azathoth appears). It will not leave the room but 
  will attack anyone who approaches it for more than a 
  moment. So maddening is its piping that anyone on the 
  second floor loses 1d3 SAN per minute.  
   
  Lose 1d10/1d100 SAN. All is not completely lost if 
  Azathoth appears. Assuming the PCs survive the SAN 
  loss, Finnigin Posner knows the spell to Dismiss 
  Azathoth (he remembers it from when the Shan 
  inhabited his skull), and will recognize Azathoth as the 
  same entity from his memories of when the Shan 
  departed. If Finnigin casts the spell, PCs who do not 
  know the spell can still contribute 1 Magic Point apiece 
  to it (assuming they are sane enough to join in the 
  chant).  
   
  Also, once the second victim has been sacrificed, 
  small earthquakes will begin to shake the area every 
  few minutes. These will require the PCs to make 
  DEXx5 rolls to keep on their feet, and will impose a –
  30 percentiles penalty to Climb rolls. 
   
   
   
  If the PCs fail to Dismiss Azathoth, the Daemon Sultan 
  obliterates them along with Los Angeles and a large 
  portion of the California coastline. 
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 13 
  
   
  The End of Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 14 
  
  HANDOUT #1: WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT MICHEAL TEY 
   
  Michael Tey is a Californian of mixed Chinese-American ancestry. By his own account, his mother is Chinese, his 
  father an unknown white man. Tey’s age is uncertain, but probably in his mid-to-late thirties. Supposedly he grew 
  up in San Francisco’s Chinatown during the Depression and World War II, where he claims to have learned the 
  “profound wisdom” of his Chinese ancestors while embracing the more enlightened values of the modern age. His 
  career as an artist began in the late Fifties, but his startling, avant-garde creations didn’t win major popular or critical 
  success until the Sixties, when a more open-minded attitude came to prevail. 
   
  Tey’s work is a mixture of painting and sculpture, and is extremely unconventional. One of his favorite techniques is 
  to blend an overall abstract work (full of bizarre shapes and colors) with one or two extremely realistic elements, 
  such as a portrait. Violence and torture are recurrent themes, as is oppression. Much of his work is believed to be 
  making a statement against the cruelties and injustices of the world, although Tey himself is often somewhat cagey 
  about his work, saying only that “you can judge it for yourself.”  
   
  Tey designed his famous Los Angeles mansion himself, and reportedly spent over three million dollars on its 
  construction. Since it was completed four years ago, it’s become a popular site for trendy parties and artistic 
  gatherings. 
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 15 
  
  HANDOUT #2: NEWSPAPER CLIPPING 
   
  Los Angeles Times, October 22nd, 1965: Local Contractor Killed 
   
  Scott Avandros, a local building contractor known for the fine houses he has built for many Hollywood celebrities, 
  was apparently murdered in his Venice, California home last night. The body, and Avandros’ hysterical wife, were 
  discovered this morning by his housemaid, Angelique Vasquez.  
   
  The crime was reportedly one of extreme violence. According to police statements, Avandros was literally torn limb 
  from limb with great force, as well as suffering numerous puncture wounds. Rumors have circulated that, despite the 
  extreme violence, almost no blood was found, it having been drained from the body. When asked about this story, 
  detective in charge Joe Ridgson dismissed such “stupid rumor-mongering.”  
   
  Avandros’ wife has been hospitalized for shock and hysteria, but is reportedly recovering well and cooperating with 
  police. Detective Ridgson would not comment on what help she may have been able to offer, except to say that she 
  had been “very helpful.”  
   
  The police urge anyone with information on this crime to contact them immediately.  
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 16 
  
  HANDOUT #3: The Making of “Truth” 
   
  This reel of silent film shows Tey creating a sculpture. It seems at first to be little more than a complex assortment 
  of wires and metal parts, and Tey spends many minutes of the film meticulously hammering, soldering, and twisting 
  the different parts together, following some pattern found only in his own mind. Periodically the film jumps as Tey 
  turns off the camera.  
   
  Finally, when the sculpture is nearly as tall as he is, Tey brings in a bucket of wet gray clay and a large sack, setting 
  them both down heavily. The lumpish, dark-stained sack clearly contains several irregular-shaped objects. He begins 
  removing them from the sack, carefully coating them with clay, and affixing them to different locations on the 
  sculpture. It takes you a few moments to realize that these objects are the blood-drained parts of a dismembered 
  human body. Tey continues carefully embalming them in clay and affixing them to the statue until the sack is empty. 
  There is a pleasant, slightly vacant smile on his face throughout the procedure.  
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 17 
  
  HANDOUT #4: Notes on Tey’s Desk 
   
  Assorted handwritten notes in a shaky scrawl. There is no apparent order or system to how they are kept. 
   
   
  Sequencing important. Agatha first. Waite last.  
   
   
  Don’t forget to invite Chen and Simmons. One good turn deserves another. 
   
   
  15 – 34 – 8  
   
   
  Petrovsky. Escaped. Make sure he attends.  
   
    
  Remember to do something about the valets. 
   
   
  Get something to block road. Can’t have anyone leaving before the finale. 
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 18 
  
  HANDOUT #5: Guest List 
    
  Agatha Symcox  
  Linda Waite  
  Tabitha Conrad  
  Oscar Petrovsky  
  William Burns  
  Will Mosby  
  Maryanne Howard 
  James Spraddock 
  Bryan Simmons 
  Jacob Bernstein  
  Alexis Chen 
  Jackson Lee  
  Finnigen Posner 
    
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 19 
  
  HANDOUT #6: TEY’s TAPE RECORDINGS 
   
  1st TAPE 
   
  [A long silence, broken only by a sound that might be heavy breathing] 
   
  [Male voice (Tey?)] I understand everything now. See the fundamental truths.  
   
  [Two other voices in the background, wailing and pleading. Gender uncertain. Sounds Spanish?] 
   
  You see, it is simply a matter of abandoning the limitations of the flesh. 
   
  The flesh, yes… such a burden.  
   
  [Wet crunching sounds. A woman(?) shrieks.]  
   
  [Tey, sounds out of breath] Yes! I can, can see it now! The ultimate… the supreme art transcends the flesh, the very 
  – the- the very bounds of PHYSICAL REALITY!  
   
  [Long scream abruptly cut off by end of recording.] 
   
  2nd TAPE 
   
  [Tey? A male voice, mumbling, mushy pronunciation] No other… no other artist can grasp the final, true form… not 
  Pollack, not Warhol… Hah! They’d puke their guts if they saw, saw the real… um… yeah, yeah.  
   
  [Sound of a long inhalation.] 
   
  If, if I walked far enough, I’d never come back. [Strangled giggle.] Focus, now, um… Yeah. He showed me, see, 
  that flesh is the final medium. Ah, artistic, that is, the flesh is just paint. LESS than paint. Unless you see it, see that, 
  you know, it’s just an OBSTACLE, it gets in the way, right?  
   
  Yeah.  
   
  Unless you USE flesh, it just, uh, sits on you, blocks you in. Like that.  
   
  Focus, it needs a FOCUS. Something to channel through. The flesh is a door, and through pain comes art. Yes.  
   
  Have to, uh, yeah, find DOORS, the right bodies. Out there somewhere.  
   
  [Sharp snap, as of fingers snapping.] 
   
  Finnigin! He can see ‘em. The ones he picks. Yeah.  
   
  [Clattering noise, recording ends.] 
   
   
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 20 
  
  3rd TAPE 
   
  [Tey? His voice has an echo, as though someone is repeating his words a half-second later.] Okay, guest list. 
  Ummm… important ones, yes. Conrad, Waite, and Agatha. Uh, yeah. Is that right? 
   
  [Silent pause, sound of labored breathing.] 
   
  The stuff, the thing, has to have the FOCUS, yeah. I got that. They’ll be here, who’s gonna turn down an invitation 
  from ME? [strangled laugh] 
   
  [Odd hollow sound, wet, like someone clearing their throat?]  
   
  Yeah, I GOT it.  
   
  [Long silence.] 
   
  Okay, the rest, uh, whoever… Hmm. Who deserves it? [High giggle, joined by a second giggle noticeably higher 
  than the first.] Yeah… yeah.  
   
  I’d like to see everyone’s faces, when it happens. [Giggles again.] The whole world… 
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 21 
  
  HANDOUT #7: Notes inside the Revelations of Glaaki 
   
  The truth is so OBVIOUS. 
   
  Everyone must see. When the One comes, all will understand. 
   
  A transcendent moment. I felt it, the moment I first read these pages. These things need to be shared. It’s an 
  artist’s duty to share his perceptions. 
   
  The universe is just their tool, their playground. We are ALL part of THEIR artwork. So let us accept our roles!  
   
  The Daemon Sultan will remake reality to suit Himself, and in that transcendent moment we will all be One, 
  free of the burdens of the Flesh. 
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 22 
  
  KEEPER’S AID #1: NPCs and MONSTERS 
   
  William Burns, insane actor  
  STR 13  
  SIZ 15  
  CON 14  
  DEX 14  
  INT 11  
   
  POW 8  
  EDU 12  
  APP 16  
  HP 15 
   
  Damage Bonus: +1d4 
  Weapons: Fist/Punch 60%, damage 1d3+db. 
  Kick 30%, damage 1d6+db 
  Head Butt 20%, damage 1d4+db 
  Grapple 40%, damage special  
   
  Michael Tey, famous artist and maddened cultist of Azathoth 
  STR 11   
  SIZ 13  
  CON 17  
  DEX 17  
  INT 15  
   
  POW 24  
  EDU 12  
  APP 14  
  HP 15 
   
   
  Damage Bonus: None 
  Weapons: Sharp Knife 40%, damage 1d4+1+db 
  Grapple 50%, damage special 
  Spells: Clutch of Nyogtha, Dominate, Flesh Ward, Red Sign of Shudde M’ell, Wither Limb 
  Armor: Has a 15-point Flesh Ward in place 
  Skills: Art (sculpture/painting) 90%, Dodge 40%, Sneak 50%, all others at base 
   
  Jorge, insane servant 
  STR 12  
  SIZ 13  
  CON 11  
  DEX 12  
  INT 10  
   
  POW 8  
  EDU 6  
  APP 10  
  HP 12 
   
  Damage Bonus: +1d4 
  Weapons: Club 40%, damage 1d6+db 
  Grapple 50%, damage special 
   
  Candiza, insane servant 
  STR 10  
  SIZ 11  
  CON 11  
  DEX 15  
  INT 10  
   
  POW 9  
  EDU 5  
  APP 12  
  HP 11 
   
  Damage Bonus: None 
  Weapons: Knife 35%, damage 1d4+db 
  Grapple 40%, damage special 
   
  Other-Dimensional Mythos Entities (4) 
  STR 6  
  CON 12  
  SIZ 8 
   
  DEX 13  
  INT n/a  
   
  POW 8  
  HP 10 
   
  Move: 8 flying 
  Attack: Claw 50%, damage 1d6 plus drains 1 POW  
  Armor: None, but only harmed by enchanted weapons, magic, fire, or electricity. 
  Skills: Listen 40%, Sneak 40%, Spot Hidden 50% 
  SAN loss: 1/1d8 
   
  Servitor of the Outer Gods 
  STR 15  
  CON 19  
  SIZ 24  
  DEX 16  
  INT 18  
   
  POW 20  
  HP 22 
   
  Move: 7 
  Damage Bonus: +2d6 
  Attacks: 2d6 Tentacles 45%, damage 4d6 
  Armor: None, but hurt only by spells and enchanted weapons; regenerates 3 hit points per round. 
  Spells: Mindblast, Shriveling, Wrack 
  SAN loss: 1/1d10 
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 23 
  
  KEEPER’S AID #2: Map  
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 24 
  
  KEEPER’S AID #3: Suggested Insanities, by Player Character 
   
  James Spraddock: if Spraddock goes insane, he begins suffering from an anger disorder, in which stressful 
  situations cause him to fly completely off the handle, screaming, pounding on the walls, grabbing and shaking 
  people violently, and so forth. These bouts of uncontrollable temper last only a short time at first (1d4 rounds), but 
  as his SAN drops further, they last longer and longer.  
   
  Jackson Lee: if Jackson goes insane, the disconnection with reality caused by his frequent trips to the Dreamlands 
  begins to slip out of control. He becomes more and more calm, relaxed, casual, and eventually spaced-out, offering 
  advice like “be cool” and “go with the flow,” and dismissing serious contemporary matters like politics as “an 
  uncool drag, man.” Once his SAN drops below 20, he won’t really be able to get excited about anything, not even 
  physical pain or death.  
   
  Tabitha Conrad: if Tabitha goes insane, she begins having hallucinations of her dead mother, coming back to 
  speak with her. Her mother demands that she fulfill the “family business” by accepting her fate as a sacrifice. As 
  Tabitha’s SAN drops, these hallucinations become more frequent and severe, and once her SAN is below 20 she will 
  feel compelled to seek out a place of sacrifice and offer herself up to fulfill her long-avoided fate.  
   
  Finnigin Posner: if Finnigin goes insane, his already fractured personality begins to break down even further. He 
  splits into two internal “Finnigins” who argue with each other, quarrel over control of his body, debate decisions 
  between themselves, and so forth. Each time he goes insane again, another Finnigin joins the chorus. Different 
  Finnigins may have different voices, temperaments, likes, or dislikes, but all share the original personality’s basic 
  chattiness and aversion to “bugs.”  
    
  Linda Waite: if Linda goes insane, she begins having hallucinations about a dark pit where a crowd of robed, 
  hooded people drag her to an alter and sacrifice her to summon forth massive entities of black slime. With an Idea 
  roll, Linda recognizes a face under one of the hoods – the smiling face of her near-forgotten great-aunt, Asanath 
  Waite. The hallucinations become more frequent and intense as Linda’s sanity drops, until she begins to see them as 
  predictions of an inevitable doom which her family tried futilely to escape by coming to California. If Linda’s SAN 
  ever drops to 20 or less, she will begin looking for a similar “dark pit” where she can share the fate in the 
  hallucination.  
   
  Oscar Petrovsky: If Oscar goes insane, he begins to remember what happened to him four years ago in “the Nam.” 
  His memories will return in steps, each time he suffers an insanity effect: 
  1. His squad was ambushed by a pack of strange, pygmy-like native folk, armed with blow-guns and spears 
  and knives. They seemed impossible to kill – Oscar shot one of them will a full clip from his M-16, and the 
  little monster just stood back up and grinned at him.  
  2. Then something else came – a vast black THING that resembled nothing so much as a tree that walked on 
  two thick shaggy legs. It snatched up soldiers in writhing tentacles and sucked the very flesh from their 
  bones with the toothy maws that covered its trunk-like body. 
  3. Most of the soldiers were killed. A few, including Oscar, were captured and dragged deep into the jungle. 
  In a dark, watery cave there was an altar, a piece of ancient stone carved with obscene images. The 
  pygmies danced and shouted and chanted around the altar, and sacrificed their captives one by one, the 
  soldiers screaming horribly as they were ritually disemboweled.  
  4. Somehow Oscar freed himself – he remembers flinging himself against a rock until one hand broke and 
  could slide free of the ropes that bound him. As he fled the cave, he looked back over his shoulder – and 
  saw the awful, shapeless, impossible THING which the pygmies’ ritual had summoned. At this point Oscar 
  goes berserk, running madly through the mansion attacking everyone he sees – which is how he ultimately 
  escaped the first time.  
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 25 
  
  James Spraddock, “Protest Artist,” Age 26  
   
  STR 9 
  DEX 13 
  INT 15 
  Idea 75% 
   
  CON 10 
  APP 10 
  POW 12 
  Luck 60% 
  HP 11 
  SIZ 12 
  SAN 60 
  EDU 17 
  Know 85% 
  Magic Points 12 
   
  Damage Bonus: None 
   
  Skills (those not listed are at 01%): Accounting 30%, Art (playwright) 50%, Bargain 25%, Biology 10%, Chemistry 
  10%, Climb 40%, Conceal 15%, Credit Rating 35%, Cthulhu Mythos 0%, Dodge 37%, Drive Auto 40%, Electrical 
  Repair 10%, Fast Talk 25%, First Aid 30%, Hide 20%, History 50%, Jump 25%, Law 25%, Library Use 75%, 
  Listen 25%, Mechanical Repair 20%, Medicine 5%, Natural History 20%, Navigate 10%, Occult 5%, Other 
  Language (Spanish) 25%, Own Language (English) 95%, Persuade 45%, Pharmacy 10%, Physics 20%, Psychology 
  5%, Ride 5%, Sneak 10%, Spot Hidden 35%, Swim 30%, Throw 35%, Track 10% 
   
  Weapon Skills: Fist/Punch 85%, Grapple 40%, Head Butt 20%, Kick 55%, Handgun 20%, Machine Gun 15%, 
  Rifle 25%, Shotgun 30%, SMG 15%, Knife 25%, Axe 20%, Small Club 40%, Large Club 25%, Sword 20% 
   
  Equipment: Clothes and shoes, billfold (driver’s license and $21 in cash), pocket notebook and pen, copy of 
  Ramparts stuffed in back pocket. 
   
  James Spraddock is a bitter, alienated young man. He grew up in a comfortable middle-class home in Boston, 
  incoherently resenting the bland, conformist life that his parents lived and tried to force on him. Going to college in 
  California (at the University of California at Berkeley) was a revelation to him, showing him the hollowness and 
  corruption of American life. James majored in Art, and quickly came to see himself as a “protest artist” who would 
  speak out against the social injustices and crimes of the capitalist world. He joined in many anti-war and civil rights 
  protests, and fought with police on more than one occasion. After graduation, he stayed in California to pursue his 
  artistic career, as well as working at Ramparts, a left-wing political newspaper.  
   
  James reads the work of Marx and Mao Tse-Tung, regularly marches in civil rights and anti-war protests, and joined 
  in the violent protests at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last year. His politics are 
  Marxist/conspiracy-theory, blaming the United States (especially the military and CIA) for everything wrong in the 
  world. He admires Third World socialists like Castro as the wave of future. He also despises the USSR as an 
  imperialist power tainted by the crimes of Stalin – it will take a “pure” socialism, born in the poverty-stricken 
  countries of the Third World, to lead the world forward to a brighter future.  
   
  James’ art consists mostly of short plays and performance pieces which try to draw attention to social or political 
  ills. It is often considered too bizarre and avant-garde to be really enjoyable, and he has found little financial success 
  – of course, success would mean he’d been co-opted by the capitalist machine, so he’s happy (on the surface, at 
  least) with his status as a “starving artist.” He has mixed feelings about Michael Tey, admiring his daring but 
  resenting his material success. Still, being invited to one of Tey’s parties isn’t a bad thing – maybe he’ll meet people 
  who will really appreciate his art. After all, Hollywood has been getting much more progressive lately.  
   
  Appearance/Personality: James is an intense, feverish young man, thin and sallow, with glittery pale amber eyes 
  and thin delicate eyebrows. He dresses in old sweaters, blue jeans, and other “working class” clothes, and wears 
  small spectacles. He tends to be aggressive in his opinions, always seeking a chance to work them into conversation, 
  and grows extremely agitated if anyone contradicts him in the slightest way. He readily tosses around terms like 
  “fascist” or “Nazi” at those he disagrees with. He is currently single (and looking), lonely but too politically intense 
  (and personally grating) to form a stable long-term relationship.  
   
  Jackson Lee: You admire Jackson, a black man who has overcome the oppression of racist America to become a 
  successful poet and essayist. Still, you prefer his early, angry work to his gentler, more humorous recent writing, and 
  can’t help feeling that his success has somehow caused him to be co-opted by the very system he opposes. Of 
  course, you would hesitate to ever criticize him out loud – as a white man you can’t possibly appreciate what he’s 
  been through.  
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 26 
  
   
  Tabitha Conrad: A pretty young woman from the South. You find her attractive, but wish her politics were better – 
  in fact, she doesn’t seem to care much about contemporary affairs at all. Maybe you can educate her about such 
  things.  
   
  Finnigen Posner: This flaky old man is a shallow poser with no real commitment to anything important. You can’t 
  understand why others seem to admire his work, which is childish and confused. Even pop artists like Andy Warhol 
  have more depth than this man.  
   
  Linda Waite: Posner’s latest little sycophant (he seems to collect them). Linda seems to have the right politics, but 
  doesn’t show much artistic talent. Anyway, she seems to think the world of old Posner, so she’s clearly not someone 
  you can associate with.  
   
  Oscar Petrovsky: A tragic victim of the corrupt System, a working-class man forced to fight in Southeast Asia 
  oppressing the indigenous people there. You’ve never met him in person, but you know he’s an anti-war artist and 
  you’re sure you’ll get along with him. Maybe you could collaborate on something – his drawings and paintings are 
  amazing, visionary stuff.  
   
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 27 
  
  Jackson Lee, Writer, Poet, and Essayist, age 28  
   
  STR 12  
  DEX 12  
  INT 17  
  Idea 85% 
   
  CON 14  
  APP 13  
  POW 14  
  Luck 70% 
  HP 14 
  SIZ  14  
  SAN 61  
  EDU 15  
  Know 75% 
  Magic Points 14 
   
  Damage Bonus: +1d4 
   
  Spell: Deflect Harm (learned in the Dreamlands; he doesn’t yet realize it can be used in the waking world)  
   
  Skills (those not listed are at 01%): Accounting 10%, Art (writing) 70%, Bargain 25%, Chemistry 20%, Climb 50%, 
  Conceal 15%, Credit Rating 45%, Cthulhu Mythos 3%, Dodge 48%, Drive Auto 30%, Electrical Repair 10%, Fast 
  Talk 15%, First Aid 40%, Hide 20%, History 60%, Jump 25%, Law 45%, Library Use 65%, Listen 40%, Locksmith 
  30%, Mechanical Repair 20%, Medicine 5%, Natural History 10%, Navigate 20%, Occult 25%, Own Language 
  (English) 88%, Persuade 40%, Pharmacy 40%, Psychology 25%, Ride 5%, Sneak 30%, Spot Hidden 46%, Swim 
  25%, Throw 40%, Track 10% 
   
  Weapon Skills: Fist/Punch 60%, Grapple 25%, Head Butt 10%, Kick 35%, Handgun 40%, Machine Gun 15%, 
  Rifle 25%, Shotgun 30%, SMG 15%, Knife 50%, Axe 20%, Small Club 40%, Large Club 25%, Sword 20% 
   
  Equipment: Clothes and shoes, wallet (driver’s license, $103 in cash, credit card), wristwatch, pack of cigarettes, 
  lighter, pen (in breast pocket).  
   
  Jackson Lee is black, an escapee from the Los Angeles inner city. His parents were sober and hard-working but 
  never got anywhere in life, crushed under the weight of poverty and racism. He himself is self-educated and 
  surprisingly erudite, capable of quoting Hegel or Whitman in the midst of a discussion about contemporary affairs. 
  He is a writer, essayist, and poet, regularly published in many artistic magazines and political opinion journals. 
  Although he has no doubt that America is a racist country, he is surprisingly soft-spoken in his opinions, preferring 
  careful points and gentle satire to angry denunciations. Those who have read Jackson’s early published work often 
  expect an angry man full of fire and denunciation, and are surprised to discover that he is calm, soft-spoken, and 
  possessed of charm and elegance.  
   
  It was not always so. Up until three years ago, Jackson was full of anger and bitterness, and a member of the nascent 
  Black Panther party. Many of his early writings, which brought him to public attention, were angry screeds against 
  the “racist white power system.” He was also a drug addict, seeking escape in narcotics from his bitterness at the 
  world around him. The drugs sometimes brought him strange visions of a world of fantastic wonders, a place free of 
  the evils and oppressions of white America. Then, three years ago, he discovered he could visit that world in his 
  dreams, spend weeks in it during a single night. That place, the Dreamlands, became Jackson’s escape from the 
  anger and frustration of the waking world, and he found himself able to face the cruelties and absurdities of waking 
  life with much greater equanimity. Some of his early admirers were disappointed with the more relaxed, live-and-
  let-live style he developed, but now his work (especially his poems) began to reach a larger audience, and he found 
  himself becoming famous.  
   
  Today, Jackson Lee is a popular figure in Los Angeles, where he is invited to all the best parties and can hob-nob 
  with the rich and famous. He still doesn’t hesitate to criticize America’s problems, or to recall the bitter fate of his 
  parents, but he does so in a relaxed, almost gentle manner which even his loudest opponents find disarming. He is 
  also increasingly wealthy, for an interesting reason: although his “official” writing is still politically-oriented, essays 
  and poems about America’s racial problems, he also writes children’s fantasy under a pseudonym, Jason Davis, 
  using his Dreamlands adventures as inspiration. The stories have become quite successful.  
    
  Appearance/Personality: Jackson is a handsome black man in his early thirties. He dresses well but conservatively, 
  and speaks in a cultured voice which only occasionally (in moments of stress) shows the accent of his inner-city 
  youth. It takes a lot to get him angry or upset; there is a serenity about him, a sense that he is somehow above all the 
  cares and worries of day-to-day life. He feels slightly embarrassed about his secret career as a children’s author, but 
  at the same time is proud of his work and happy that he can share his nightly adventures with others.  
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 28 
  
   
  James Spraddock: One of those young fiery Marxists who always seethe with indignation against all the evils of the 
  world. James is way too intense and angry, and reminds you of the worst aspects of your younger self. He needs to 
  relax a little, though you doubt he’ll take your advice. 
   
  Tabitha Conrad: A pretty young woman from the south, she seems quite naïve and distinctly out of place in the 
  California scene. Despite her background she doesn’t seem to show any racial prejudices, and you can’t help 
  wondering how she’ll fare in this worldly environment. She does surrealist paintings that sometimes remind you of 
  your own dreams, and you wonder if she visits the Dreamlands as well. She somehow knows about your alter-ego 
  Jason Davis, as well, though you got her to promise to keep that secret. You’d like to get to know her better – there’s 
  clearly more to her than meets the eye.  
   
  Finnigen Posner: This wacky experimental artist is harmless and fun to be around, but almost certainly insane. 
  Although he’s clearly a product of the white privileged class, it’s hard to resent someone so clearly off his rocker. 
  Weirdly enough, sometimes his random babble reminds you of things you’ve read in the Dreamlands – maybe he’s 
  also been there himself. Posner makes a point of trying to promote less-fortunate artists, although his choices of who 
  to promote sometimes are rather odd. His current “project” seems to be the young Miss Waite. 
   
  Linda Waite: A very young woman apparently trying to launch a career as a poet. You don’t know anything else 
  about her, and you wonder whether she can succeed even with Posner’s support. 
   
  Oscar Petrovsky: A Vietnam vet who dresses like a street bum and does strange, unpleasant drawings. Oddly, 
  something about this man reminds you of yourself. Maybe because you both grew up in poverty? Or perhaps 
  because you have each been victimized by the white power structure? You should try to get to know him better. 
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 29 
  
  Tabitha Conrad, Surrealist Painter, Age 24  
   
   
  STR 8  
  DEX 11  
  INT 14  
  Idea 70% 
   
  CON 17  
  APP 14  
  POW 18  
  Luck 90% 
  HP 14 
  SIZ  10  
  SAN 79  
  EDU 17  
  Know 85% 
  Magic Points 18 
   
  Damage Bonus: None 
   
  Spell: Shriveling (instinctive ability – doesn’t consciously realize she can do it) 
   
  Skills (those not listed are at 01%): Accounting 20%, Art (painting) 75%, Astronomy 20%, Bargain 50%, Climb 
  50%, Conceal 15%, Craft (knitting) 25%, Credit Rating 20%, Cthulhu Mythos 5%, Dodge 30%, Drive Auto 20%, 
  Electrical Repair 10%, Fast Talk 5%, First Aid 40%, Hide 25%, History 20%, Jump 25%, Law 5%, Library Use 
  50%, Listen 40%, Mechanical Repair 20%, Medicine 5%, Natural History 25%, Navigate 30%, Occult 25%, Other 
  Language (French) 15%, Own Language (English) 85%, Persuade 45%, Psychology 80%, Ride 25%, Sneak 40%, 
  Spot Hidden 80%, Swim 25%, Throw 25%, Track 70% 
   
  Weapon Skills: Fist/Punch 50%, Grapple 25%, Head Butt 10%, Kick 25%, Handgun 20%, Machine Gun 15%, 
  Rifle 25%, Shotgun 30%, SMG 15%, Knife 25%, Axe 20%, Small Club 25%, Large Club 25%, Sword 20% 
   
  Equipment: Clothes and shoes, purse (lipstick, compact with mirror, $34 in cash, notebook, pens and pencils), 
  wristwatch, crucifix on necklace. 
   
  Tabitha is a young Cajun woman from Louisiana. She grew up on a remote farm, and was educated at a one-room 
  schoolhouse in the backcountry. She proved, however, to be quite intelligent, and her teacher was surprised at her 
  skills and energy. He urged her to seek a scholarship and try to attend college. But her backwoods family seemed to 
  resent her academic success, claiming it was distracting her from “more important things.” Her mother, in particular, 
  was adamant that Tabitha not waste her time on “book learning” and instead stay on the farm to learn the “family 
  business.”  
   
  Tabitha never really learned what that “family business” was, but she gathered it had something to do with a time 
  when she was five years old, and her mother took her into the woods alone. She doesn’t remember what happened 
  there, but after that she began to have strange visions, visions so intense that she would lose all awareness of the 
  world around her until they ended. Her mother would always question her afterward, demanding that she describe 
  everything she had seen in detail. Tabitha began drawing her visions to help herself remember them.  
   
  When Tabitha was 16, her mother took her into the woods, saying that it was time for her to “complete her duties.” 
  She took Tabitha to a huge, misshapen tree deep in the Louisiana swamps, and when Tabitha saw the manacles on 
  the tree-trunk, and the knife in her mother’s hand, she realized something terrible was about to happen. She cried 
  out, screaming for help in a language she had heard only in her visions – and her mother suddenly shrieked and 
  collapsed, smoking and shriveling before her eyes into a blackened, twisted corpse.  
   
  After that Tabitha’s family no longer tried to impede her education. Eventually, she earned a scholarship to attend 
  Louisiana State University, enrolling at the tender age of 17; from there her interests and talents in art and painting 
  led her to Yale Art School. She graduated just two years ago, and already her work has earned her praise and 
  attention in the national art scene. Now she has traveled to California, where her work gets even more appreciation. 
  She finds California city life a bewildering and often unsettling environment, however, and feels very much out of 
  her element. At the frequent parties which seem to be an important part of life on the West Coast, she is often 
  reduced to smiling and laughing uncertainly, confused by all the personal rivalries and the incessant politics. She 
  would much rather be painting.  
   
  Her visions still continue, strange fugue states in which she seems to see into other realities. Whenever she emerges 
  from these visions, she has the inspiration for a new painting. Her bizarre, surrealistic images have earned her 
  comparisons to Picasso and Dada, among others.  
   
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 30 
  
  Appearance/Personality: Tabitha is normally a pretty, dark-haired, soft-spoken young woman with a pronounced 
  southern/Cajun accent (she has not spent enough time elsewhere to lose it). She is short and slim, and dresses 
  conservatively. Superficially she seems to be innocent and naïve, but there is a core of saddened experience beneath 
  – she still remembers the terrible day when she had to kill her mother. She is lonely and looking for a boyfriend, but 
  often lacks confidence in her ability to find one, thanks in part to her poor rural upbringing and mannerisms. Since 
  her childhood experiences she has been a devout Catholic, and she feels uncomfortable in the agnostic, over-
  educated atmosphere of California. She also has a faint air of the otherworldly about her, a sense that she is not quite 
  connected to the same world as everyone else. She seems to see right through people, and to understand things about 
  them instantly. Many people find these insights unsettling, especially from someone as “innocent” as her.  
   
  James Spraddock: An angry, intense young man whose bright eyes and feverish energy somehow remind you of a 
  polecat who once slaughtered your mother’s chickens. You can see that, underneath all his talk of justice and a 
  bright socialist future, he’s nothing but a big bundle of anger, and that alarms you. You try to keep yourself 
  distanced from him, but that’s not easy, since he always seems to hang around you when you meet.  
    
  Jackson Lee: A handsome, smooth-spoken Negro gentleman from Los Angeles, he writes a lot for serious 
  magazines and newspapers. Your family didn’t like Negroes, being old-fashioned Louisiana folk, but one thing you 
  learned at Yale was that Negroes (well, actually, they prefer to be called blacks) are just people like anyone else. 
  How your folks would be scandalized to see you talking to one! Jackson used to be an angry man, like Spraddock, 
  but now he’s calm and pleasant. You wonder what changed him – whatever it is, he holds it deep inside himself. 
  Maybe it has something to do with the lovely children’s books he writes under another name – when he realized you 
  knew about them, he made you promise not to tell anyone about them. 
   
  Finnigen Posner: What a peculiar old fellow! He’s always chattering and babbling strange things, and everyone 
  thinks he’s awfully clever and creative (even “brilliant” or “visionary”). But when you look into his eyes, it’s as 
  though there’s a big hollow place inside him, as though someone scooped him out and just left a shell behind. 
  You’re not even sure that “Finnigin Posner” is his real name. You wonder what happened to him in the past to 
  change him so much, and what he was like before that. 
   
  Linda Waite: A nice (if a bit plain) young girl who seems to be dating Finnigin Posner, although it’s so hard to be 
  sure about that sort of thing out here in California. Why, sometimes the women here seem to change their boyfriends 
  every day! Linda is a poet, and what little you’ve seen of her work somehow reminds you of your own paintings. 
  You wonder if she has visions like yours. There’s something about her that makes you think of the sea, for some 
  reason.  
    
  Oscar Petrovsky: a poor, ragged young man who fought in that terrible war over in Viet Nam. It seems to have 
  affected him dreadfully, and he’s always drawing pictures of horrible things. He’s usually a mess, but could be 
  really handsome if he cleaned up. He always seems even more lost than you at these parties, so you try to help him 
  around. You find yourself worrying about him, and wish you could help him to get over whatever happened to him 
  over there in Viet Nam – the memory sits inside him, festering, like a boil. Can you lance it, perhaps?  
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 31 
  
  Finnigin Posner, Painter, Poet, and Madman, Age 45 
   
  STR 6  
  DEX 10  
  INT 19  
  Idea 95% 
   
  CON 15  
  APP 13  
  POW 16  
  Luck 80% 
  HP 14 
  SIZ  13  
  SAN 41  
  EDU 12  
  Know 60% 
  Magic Points 16 
   
  Damage Bonus: None 
   
  Spells: Call/Dismiss Azathoth, Elder Sign, Enchant Weapon.  
   
  Skills (those not listed are at 01%): Accounting 10%, Art (poetry/painting) 50%, Astronomy 50%, Bargain 5%, 
  Biology 30%, Chemistry 40%, Climb 40%, Conceal 15%, Credit Rating 75%, Cthulhu Mythos 40%, Dodge 20%, 
  Drive Auto 40%, Electrical Repair 10%, Fast Talk 30%, First Aid 30%, Hide 10%, History 30%, Jump 25%, Law 
  5%, Library Use 40%, Listen 50%, Mechanical Repair 20%, Medicine 5%, Natural History 40%, Navigate 20%, 
  Occult 50%, Other Language (Shan) 20%, Own Language (English) 70%, Persuade 60%, Pharmacy 25%, Physics 
  60%, Psychology 50%, Ride 15%, Sneak 10%, Spot Hidden 45%, Swim 25%, Throw 40%, Track 10% 
   
  Weapon Skills: Fist/Punch 50%, Grapple 25%, Head Butt 10%, Kick 25%, Handgun 20%, Machine Gun 15%, 
  Rifle 25%, Shotgun 30%, SMG 15%, Knife 25%, Axe 20%, Small Club 25%, Large Club 25%, Sword 20% 
   
  Equipment: Clothes and shoes, pocket-watch, wallet ($230 in cash, driver’s license, business cards), deck of cards 
  (in back pocket), pack of cigarettes, lighter.  
   
  Finnigin Posner woke up one day with someone in his head. It was a bug, a great big bug, and it crawled around in 
  there and chattered in his ear, and made him do things. Finnigin (that wasn’t his name back then) spent a lot of time 
  with the bug. It made him build things, machines the bug needed. Amazing things. Then it made him kill some 
  people. Then it called something. SOMETHING. Finnigin doesn’t want to remember that, but he has to. The vast, 
  impossible THING spoke to the bug, and then it and the bug went away together, to a place where humans can’t go.  
   
  Finnigin woke up in a park in San Francisco, trying to remember who he was. There had been a war, he learned, 
  while he was with the bug. And lots of other things. He realized he shouldn’t talk about the bug, because other 
  people didn’t have bugs, and if they found out about his bug they’d lock him up. So he was very careful, was 
  Finnigin. Eventually he learned that he actually had quite a bit of money. He had a wife too, but she had left him 
  after the bug came. Or maybe the bug killed her – Finnigin isn’t too solid about all that. Once he learned who he 
  was, he decided to change his name, because his old name reminded him of the bug. He became Finnigin Posner, 
  who didn’t have any bugs in his head. Anymore. 
   
  Finnigin is an artist, of sorts. He likes to paint, and to write. He likes to talk. Mostly he paints or writes or says 
  whatever pops into his head. Sometimes it’s things he remembers from the bug, but more often its just whatever he 
  imagines at the moment. His mind is always whirling, spinning round and round, chasing the bug that isn’t there 
  anymore. People like the stuff he paints and writes and says, they say it’s “profound” and “visionary” and “far out.” 
  He gets invited to lots of parties, and they show his pictures in museums, and print his poems in big magazines like 
  the New Yorker. Posner thinks this is all pretty funny, but he likes going to the parties, and meeting all the people 
  who think he’s “profound.” Especially the pretty women, they’re always fun to meet.  
   
  Finnigin meets lots of artists, because he’s famous now, and the other artists hope he can make them famous too. 
  Sometimes he helps them, and sometimes not – whatever pops into his head at the time. His big, hollow, bug-less 
  head. Occasionally, though, Posner meets someone whose art reminds him of his own work, or of the bug. He helps 
  those people. If everyone sees the same things, he won’t have to worry about talking about the bug. 
   
  Finnigin’s going to a party again tonight. It’s held by Michael Tey, an artist who’s a lot like Finnigin. Well, his 
  pictures are sort of like Finnigin’s, so Finnigin thinks maybe Tey had a bug too, once. He’s not as nice as Finnigin, 
  but his parties are always good.  
   
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 32 
  
  Appearance/Personality: Finnigin Posner is a thin, gangly man with a huge shock of gray hair, sprouting out of his 
  head like a fern. He looks to be in his fifties or sixties, but is actually only in his forties, and acts in an innocent, 
  childish manner that seems far younger. He sometimes speaks in a vaguely British accent, but not always. He 
  dresses in an odd mixture of formal old-fashioned garments and hip new styles, such as combining a formal evening 
  jacket with tight blue jeans and a tie-dyed t-shirt.  
  Finnigin is a disconnected, fragmentary personality. He tends to say whatever he feels at the moment, or speaks in 
  random free-association chains, or makes inane childish jokes. Many people think (mistakenly) that he’s constantly 
  stoned on drugs. Finnigin doesn’t bother to disabuse them. Basically, though, Finnigin is a nice fellow, a harmless 
  crank who likes anyone who doesn’t actively threaten him, and often does favors for complete strangers. Secretly, 
  Finnigin fears that the “bug” (which was actually one of the Shans, the Insects from Shaggai) might someday return 
  and make him do bad things again, and his attempts to promote artists who share his visions are a clumsy attempt to 
  understand what happened to him years ago.  
   
  James Spraddock: An angry young man. There seem to be a lot of those nowadays. You wonder what they’re so 
  angry about. You like to tease him – it’s so much FUN when his eyes bug out like a frog’s! You’re sure he’ll never 
  have a bug in HIS head – too crowded with his own thoughts.  
   
  Jackson Lee: A nice black gentleman who is a very pleasant conversationalist. It’s funny, though – his poems 
  remind you a little of the bug. Odd, isn’t it? You should find out if he’s ever had a bug, or met someone else with 
  one. 
   
  Tabitha Conrad: You think Tabitha had a bug for sure. I mean, look at those paintings! So strange, so wonderful, so 
  frightening! How should you ask her about it? Did her bug leave, or is it still there? Maybe it’ll skip into your head 
  instead! You’d better be careful around her.  
   
  Linda Waite: Linda’s a pretty girl, although not as pretty as a lot of the girls you’ve dated lately. Her poems remind 
  you of your own poems, just a little, so you’ve been showing her around Los Angeles. Her eyes somehow remind 
  you of the bug – why would that be?  
   
  Oscar Petrovsky: Another of your discoveries. Oscar used to be a soldier. His drawings are just like some of the 
  things the bug showed you. You’ve made Oscar famous. Was that a good idea? Maybe. Who cares? 
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 33 
  
  Linda Waite, Poet, Age 21 
   
  STR 10  
  DEX 9  
  INT 13  
  Idea 65% 
   
  CON 8   
  APP 9  
  POW 19  
  Luck 85% 
  HP 10 
  SIZ 13  
  SAN 84  
  EDU 11  
  Know 55% 
  Magic Points 19 
   
  Damage Bonus: None 
   
  Skills (those not listed are at 01%): Accounting 10%, Art (poetry) 40%, Bargain 25%, Climb 40%, Conceal 15%, 
  Credit Rating 15%, Cthulhu Mythos 7%, Dodge 18%, Drive Auto 20%, Electrical Repair 10%, Fast Talk 45%, First 
  Aid 40%, Hide 10%, History 20%, Jump 35%, Law 5%, Library Use 60%, Listen 50%, Mechanical Repair 20%, 
  Medicine 5%, Natural History 10%, Navigate 10%, Occult 5%, Own Language (English) 68%, Persuade 25%, 
  Psychology 25%, Ride 5%, Sneak 20%, Spot Hidden 42%, Swim 25%, Throw 25%, Track 10% 
   
  Weapon Skills: Fist/Punch 60%, Grapple 25%, Head Butt 10%, Kick 25%, Handgun 20%, Machine Gun 15%, 
  Rifle 25%, Shotgun 30%, SMG 15%, Knife 25%, Axe 20%, Small Club 25%, Large Club 25%, Sword 20% 
   
  Equipment: Clothes and shoes, small purse (notebook and pen, $13 in cash, lipstick, small mirror), oddly-shaped 
  golden necklace.  
   
  Linda Waite is a young poet who is just starting on what she hopes will be a long and successful career – although 
  her surrealistic, fantastical works are not particularly popular in today’s politically-charged climate. She tries to 
  make up for it by being very much a part of the new “hippie” counter-culture, and holding radical political positions 
  that will make her popular with the “in” crowd.  
   
  Linda’s parents moved to California in the fifties, seeking a life of prosperity and leaving behind the stale New 
  England backwaters where they had lived for many generations. Her father’s family, the Waites of Innsmouth, was 
  angry at their decision, and they have been estranged ever since. Linda doesn’t even remember them, since the last 
  time she saw them was in kindergarten. But every birthday she gets a present from her great-aunt Asenath, a piece of 
  peculiar golden jewelry. She keeps them all in a drawer, but seldom wears any of them (tonight is an exception – she 
  wants to look her best).  
   
  Linda’s health has always been poor, and she had frequent bouts with pneumonia as a child. Since moving to 
  California it has improved, although she still gets the flu every winter. She has also always had strange and vivid 
  dreams, especially when she is ill. Some of them are wondrous, some frightening, and a few so terrible that she’s 
  woken from them screaming, unable (or unwilling) to remember what her mind just showed her. Since Junior High 
  she’s been writing them down, as stories and poems. Many of them got favorable attention in school, and some were 
  re-printed in local newspapers and even in a few poetry magazines, although they paid only with contributors’ 
  copies. Still, Linda was full of hope that she could become a great poet, another Elliot or Whitman, and last year she 
  moved to Los Angeles to pursue her dreams of artistic success. Her parents were furious – they had planned for her 
  to attend college and get a good job – but she refused to listen to them. After all, wasn’t everyone saying now that 
  you shouldn’t trust anyone over thirty?  
   
  Since arriving in L.A., however, Linda has had a difficult time. No one wants to publish her poems, not even the 
  student newspapers and alternative press magazines that she was hoping would embrace her work. “Too weird, too 
  surreal,” she always hears. But Linda can’t bring herself to write anything else – her dreams are too vivid to be 
  denied. Visions of strange alien cities, of deep caves full of unknown things, of strange monsters and amazing 
  abstract vistas – surely these visions have some value! Does everything have to be politics? Can’t she just put out 
  some good vibes for everyone to enjoy? 
   
  A few weeks ago Linda met an odd older fellow named Finnigin Posner at a book signing where she was trying to 
  interest someone – anyone – in her work. For some reason Posner took an interest in her – or at least in her looks. 
  Linda didn’t want to let herself be used, but she was running out of money and couldn’t face the idea of slinking 
  back to her parents a failure. Besides, she can’t help believing there’s an important reason for her dream visions, a 
  reason that needs to be shared with the world. Anyway, Posner has been taking her around to parties and political 
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 34 
  
  gatherings, introducing her to the movers and shakers in the California art and entertainment scene. She hasn’t 
  gotten any interest in her work yet – everyone seems to dismiss her as some bimbo hanger-on of Posner’s – but she’s 
  sure she just needs to find the right person. Someone with good vibes, someone who can understand her visions – 
  and understand her.  
   
  Appearance/Personality: Linda is thin and pale, with wispy brown hair and protuberant eyes which spoil an 
  otherwise pretty face. She adheres to a vague sort of “neo-paganism,” a code of friendship and nature-worship 
  combined with a general sort of niceness. She often refers to the people around her as putting out “good vibes” (if 
  they’re nice folks) or “bad vibes” (if they’re angry or unfriendly). Linda dislikes angry or temperamental people, 
  who she accuses of “making a bad scene” and getting her “uptight.” She takes her dream-visions very seriously and 
  believes they represent some sort of message which should be shared with the world.  
   
  James Spraddock: An unhappy young man who is so obsessed with his politics that he can’t seem to enjoy 
  anything. All that anger’s making a lot of bad vibes around him. He’s obviously a Communist, and while you don’t 
  mind that one way or the other, you can’t help thinking about how horrified your parents would be that you’re 
  associating with a Communist.  
   
  Jackson Lee: An intelligent, highly educated black man, full of good vibes. He writes mostly about politics, and you 
  haven’t read any of his work, but you can’t help liking someone who’s so laid-back and relaxed. If more people 
  were like him, the world would be a much better place.  
   
  Tabitha Conrad: This woman is older than you, but seems to know a lot less about the world than you do. It’s like 
  she just stepped off a farm somewhere. You’ve seen a few of her paintings, though, and for some reason they remind 
  you of your own dream-visions. That’s really strange. Maybe your spirits are connected somehow, or you’re both 
  tied into some higher plane.  
   
  Finnigen Posner: A strange but oddly sweet man, much older than you (how your parents would be shocked!) 
  who’s very popular in the California art scene. You’ve seen some of his paintings and poems, and oddly enough, 
  they remind you a little of your own work. Maybe that’s why he’s helping you. Maybe someday you’ll be famous 
  and popular like him! In the meantime he’s been taking you around to parties and such, introducing you. He’s really 
  quite nice, full of good vibes, once you get used to his strange behavior. 
   
  Oscar Petrovsky: A dirty, bedraggled young man who picked up a lot of bad vibes in Vietnam. His artwork is really 
  creepy, nothing at all like yours or Tabitha’s – well, you hope not. Maybe. Why does he do those awful pictures, 
  anyway? Is it because of that war? If so, you’ll need to stay away from him – that stuff is just way too heavy and 
  uncool for you to endure.  
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 35 
  
  Oscar Petrovsky, Painter and Former Soldier, Age 22  
   
  STR 15  
  DEX 17  
  INT 13  
  Idea 65% 
   
  CON 13  
  APP 12  
  POW 14  
  Luck 70% 
  HP 14 
  SIZ 15   
  SAN 54  
  EDU 10  
  Know 50% 
  Magic Points 14 
   
  Damage Bonus: +1d4 
   
  Skills (those not listed are at 01%): Accounting 10%, Anthropology 10%, Art (drawing/painting) 70%, Bargain 
  35%, Chemistry 10%, Climb 70%, Conceal 25%, Credit Rating 15%, Cthulhu Mythos 15%, Dodge 64%, Drive 
  Auto 30%, Electrical Repair 20%, Fast Talk 25%, First Aid 60%, Hide 40%, History 20%, Jump 50%, Law 5%, 
  Library Use 25%, Listen 50%, Locksmith 20%, Martial Arts 10%, Mechanical Repair 50%, Medicine 5%, Natural 
  History 10%, Navigate 30%, Occult 5%, Operate Heavy Machinery 20%, Other Language (Polish) 10%, Other 
  Language (Vietnamese) 15%, Own Language (English) 56%, Persuade 15%, Pharmacy 20%, Psychology 10%, Ride 
  5%, Sneak 50%, Spot Hidden 63%, Swim 34%, Throw 40%, Track 25% 
   
  Weapon Skills: Fist/Punch 60%, Grapple 30%, Head Butt 20%, Kick 33%, Handgun 20%, Machine Gun 25%, 
  Rifle 60%, Shotgun 40%, SMG 45%, Knife 40%, Axe 20%, Small Club 25%, Large Club 50%, Sword 20% 
   
  Equipment: Clothes and boots, large sketch-pad, box of drawing charcoal, wristwatch, $65 in cash (rolled up and 
  tucked in boot), lighter, three packs of cigarettes. 
   
  Oscar Petrovsky was just another young Detroiter, the descendent of Polish immigrants (his grandparents in New 
  York still spoke the old language, and were barely literate in English). He enjoyed drawing, an odd hobby for a well-
  built football player, but otherwise was a typical working-class youth (his father worked in the General Motors 
  plant, and Oscar had expected to do the same). Oscar graduated high school in May of 1965, and planned to marry 
  his high-school sweetheart Janet and work in the GM plant. The only thing in the way was the draft – Oscar would 
  have to spend some time in the Army first. He was a patriotic boy and accepted it as his duty.  
   
  Oscar was sent to Vietnam. There, he fought bravely in the 25th Infantry Division, struggling to stay alive in the 
  nightmarish jungle fighting, the patrols and ambushes and the long, pointless marches. He didn’t understand what 
  the war was about, or why his friends and comrades were dying, and after a while all that mattered was staying alive 
  until his tour was over and he could come home. Letters from Janet kept his spirits up for a while... but then she met 
  some other boy and sent him a “dear John” letter.  
   
  Something happened. Oscar does not remember what – it was a patrol, somewhere deep in the jungle, and Oscar was 
  the only survivor. He remembers shadows moving through the trees, inhuman shapes, the screams of the dying… 
  And staggering out of the jungle a week later, starving and feverish, to be nearly shot by the jumpy guards at the 
  firebase. After that he spent most of his remaining tour in a hospital. The Army psychiatrist diagnosed him with 
  “combat fatigue” but Oscar knew there was more to it – knew he’d seen something, met something, that would have 
  driven him utterly mad if he remembered it. Only his drawings, his pictures, let him release the terrible stress of 
  those suppressed memories. His work was frenzied, inchoate, maddened charcoal evocations of the horror of 
  combat.  
   
  When he returned to the US, Oscar couldn’t seem to fit in anymore. He left home and wandered across the country, 
  working odd jobs to stay alive, and spending every spare moment on his frenzied drawings. Eventually he wound up 
  in California. There, while he was working, an older man named Posner saw his artwork and was amazed. He 
  offered to get Oscar a show at a local art gallery. The next thing he knew, he was famous, trumpeted as a new 
  “protest artist” whose work revealed the bankruptcy and horror of Vietnam. Oscar found he had money, an 
  apartment, and rich famous people inviting him to parties and even into their beds.  
   
  Oscar wanders through all this in a daze, the same vague confused daze he has lived in since he returned from 
  Vietnam. The unwanted memories still fester inside his head, and he still draws (and now, sometimes, paints) with 
  frantic energy, trying to exorcise a horror he does not understand. There must be someone else out there who 
  understands these compulsions, these awful, indefinable visions. Surely he isn’t the only one with such a burden.  
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 36 
  
  Art for Art’s Sake 
   
  Page 37 
   
  Appearance/Personality: Oscar is normally handsome in a blond, square-faced Slavic sort of way, but since 
  returning from the ‘Nam he’s really let himself go. His hair and beard are long and straggly, full of snarls and knots, 
  his skin is pale, and his eyes are shadowed and sunken with lack of sleep. He smokes constantly. Oscar usually 
  dresses in a mixture of old, ragged Army clothes and random garments from the local Salvation Army. He always 
  carries a tablet and a box of charcoal, in case the need to draw suddenly seizes him (which it does at the most 
  inopportune times). He has a vague, disconnected, dreamy air about him, and seems to take everything the world 
  throws at him without particularly caring – although he grows tense and irritable when someone brings up Vietnam. 
  Inwardly, he is desperate for someone who can understand and explain what happened to him, who can soothe the 
  clawing not-memories in his head.  
   
  James Spraddock: A young idiot who’s always babbling about socialism, revolution, and the plight of the working 
  class. What a load of… well, you know.  
    
  Jackson Lee: A mild-mannered black man who writes for a lot of famous magazines. He seems very calm and in 
  control of himself – you wish you could feel that way. Maybe he can tell you his secret.  
   
  Tabitha Conrad: A pretty young woman from somewhere down South. She seems kind of lost out here in 
  California. Something about her fascinates you, though, as though something in her connects to a current deep inside 
  your brain. She’s the first girl you’ve felt interest in since Janet dumped you. You have to get to know her better, 
  find out what’s behind that strange, haunted look in her eyes.  
   
  Finnigen Posner: the skinny, wacky guy who made you famous. Posner’s always inviting you to parties, like he’s 
  showing off his discovery. He doesn’t seem to really have much talent himself. Not that you really care – the only 
  difference between now and when you weren’t famous is that now you have enough to eat. You think Posner must 
  do a lot of drugs – he has the same look as soldiers in ‘Nam who did a lot.  
   
  Linda Waite: A thin, plain young girl who looks out of place in this fancy party. She talks in that “California hippie” 
  style you’ve been hearing a lot lately. She’s apparently here with Posner, maybe another artist he’s trying to promote 
  the way he did you. There’s something unsettling about her big watery eyes, although you aren’t sure what – you get 
  the shivers whenever she looks at you for too long. 
   
   
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Call of Cthulhu (CoC) (BRP) [multi]/Adventures/1920s/CoC - 1920s - Adv - Art for Art's Sake (.pdf