TEXT: Complete Issue Two - 2005
  The Unbound Book
  
  i
  The Unbound Book
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  The Unbound Book -  Issue 2, 
  August 2005
  The Unbound Book is an irregular 
  magazine publishing free adventures for 
  Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu roleplaying 
  game in the Roaring Twenties.
  Published by: Unbound Publishing
  Editor: Marcus D. Bone
  D20 Editor: Shannon Bell
  Contributors:  Brian Courtemanche, Matt & 
  Debbie Cowens & Michael Mahony.
  Magazine Layout & Design: Marcus D. 
  Bone
  Cover Art: “Deep One” by Luis Corte Real
  Interior Art: Alan M. Clark, Rebecca 
  Smith-Cruz, Don Fougere, Matt Cowens
  All Maps: David Conyers
  Magazine Template Art: Eyal Feingersch
  Play-testers: Julia Blackmore, Emma Bone, 
  Mark Chiddicks, Colin D’Souza, Marcus 
  Gustafson, Darryn Mercer, Stephen Moir.
  Pages from an 
  Unbound Book
  Welcome to our second issue of the Unbound Book! Originally this issue of 
  the magazine was due to hit the net in October 2004, but due to a number 
  of unforseen circumstances (which include the loss of my day job and the 
  arrival of Chaosium’s monograph series) it was not forthcoming. 
  Why is this issue special? Well for one it is highly likely to be the last 
  issue of the magazine, but more importantly it is a showcase of ‘what 
  should have been’ The Unbound Book (UBB).
  As some of you reading this might be aware, The Unbound Book is a 
  small adventures magazine dedicated to Call of Cthulhu. Focusing on 
  what we like to call the ‘The Roaring Twenties’, UBB is produced on 
  a irregular basis in .PDF format and is available for FREE download 
  on our website - www.unboundbook.org. As a fanzine, UBB relies on 
  submissions from its readers, with all art and layout undertaken by a 
  small group of dedicated volunteers. 
  Although The Unbound Book is indeed small scale amateur press, that 
  is not to say we aren’t trying to present a quality product with new new 
  issue. While UBB may not be professional in production (although I like 
  to think that some of our artists are as good as, if not better than many 
  freelancers), we continually strive to attain a professional attitude in our 
  approach to publishing, hopefully gaining in quality and quanitity with 
  each issue produced.
  In this issue we have attempted to show you what it means to download 
  a copy of The Unbound Book - what types of adventures you would 
  expected to find and how we go about giving you, what we think is, the 
  best free Call of Cthulhu resource anywhere on the net.
  Thanks for taking the time to read the fruits of our labours and I hope 
  you all the best now and in the future.
  May the Stars be right for you!
  Marcus D. Bone  - Editor 
  Call of Cthulhu is copyright 1981, 1983, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2001 by Chaosium Inc.; 
  all rights reserved.
  Call of Cthulhu is the registered trademark of Chaosium Inc.
  Chaosium Inc. 900 Murmansk Street, Suite 5, Oakland CA, 94607-5018, U.S.A.
  All content is copyright the authors and artists and is published with their permission.
  Special Tribute
  This Issue is dedicated to one of UBB’s 
  fine artists - Rebecca Smith-Cruz!
  Beckie was kind enough volunteer to 
  attend GenCon as our representative 
  this past year, and while there handed 
  out copies Unbound Book. In addition, 
  she be attended the Call of Cthulhu 
  rallies during the Con and, with the 
  help of her fantastically designed 
  flyer, assisted us in raising our profile 
  amongst the CoC community.
  All of us here at The Unbound Book 
  have an undying gratitude for Beckie 
  and the lengths she has gone to, not 
  only with her art, but also with the 
  dedication and time she has devoted to 
  this ‘fan’ magazine!
  Please see our special Tribute to 
  Rebecca’s work later in this issue - we 
  hope it goes some way to making up 
  for all the work she has given us!
  
  The Unbound Book
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  ii
  Contents Page
  Cover Art - “Deep One” by Luis Corte Real (www.cortereal.net).................................Cover
  Pages from an Unbound Book.................................................................................ii
  Contents Page.....................................................................................................iii
  Adventure - “Dark Dreams of Innsmouth” by Brian Courtemanche.....................................4
  with Original Art by Don Fougere  & Maps by David Conyers
  Map - “Innsmouth” by David Conyers................................................................................14
  Fragment of Fear - “Land of the Rising Dead” by Matt & Debbie Cowens........................16
  with Original Art by Matt Cowens  & Alan M. Clark  Maps by David Conyers
  What are Fragments of Fear? -  
      An Introducton to Single Session Adventures by Marcus D. Bone..................................17
  The Art Of Rebecca Smith-Cruz - A Special Tribute............................................29
  Adventure - “Horror on the Mesa” by Michael Mahony................................................30
  with Original Art by Alan M. Clark  & Maps by David Conyers
  Player Handouts ...............................................................................................37
   
  Dark Dreams of Innsmouth....................................................................................37
   
  Land of the Rising Dead........................................................................................39
   
  Horror on the Mesa..............................................................................................41
  Resources
  Due to size constraints The Unbound Book is unable to hold all extras we would like to bring our readers. But 
  don’t fret, on our website www.unboundbook.org, we have placed all those documents we weren’t able to fit in 
  this issue. These include:
  d20/BRP Conversion Notes - All the statistics and rules required for running all the adventures in this issue using 
  the alternate Call of Cthulhu system, including NPC stats, difficulties levels, experience rewards and much more.
  Maps - Full scale maps in a print friendly format. All hand drawn by David Conyers, these maps bring something 
  special back to the Call of Cthulhu gaming experience.
  Special Note - 
  With the release of this special issue of UBB, our magazine’s website will be going through a number of changes. 
  Please visit www.unboundbook.org to see how we continue to grow in our support of Cthulhu! 
  
  This adventure involves an imperilled friend of the Investigators, 
  sanity-shattering dreams, a cursed artefact and shadowy, sea-
  haunted Innsmouth. A desperate friend has mailed the artefact to 
  the Investigators, the result of which leads the players into direct 
  conflict with Deep Ones of Innsmouth and their hybrid allies.
  Keeper’s Background & Adventure Overview
  Dr. Swanson Ames, professor of English at Salem’s Normal 
  School for Teachers and friend or associate of the Investigators has 
  recently fished up a golden crown of fabulously alien design while 
  fishing off the coast of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Unfortunately 
  for Ames, the crown is a relic of the Deep Ones that inhabit the 
  cold grey Atlantic waters and is used to conduct alien rites and 
  grisly sacrifices on Devil’s Reef. As a result, should the crown come 
  into the possession of an innocent human, such as poor Ames, the 
  effects can be disastrous.
  Professor Ames, reeling in the Crown of Dagon, was awed and 
  baffled by his find, an exquisite headdress made entirely of gold 
  and crafted with fabulous and disturbing designs. The astute 
  scholar recalled that he had once viewed illustrations of similar 
  craftsmanship in a book he had once read on the town of Innsmouth 
  and its curious maritime lore. Ames promptly visited the decadent 
  settlement to learn what he could of his find, ending up at the Marsh 
  Gold Refinery. Ames called upon the plant manager Jacob Marsh, a 
  slimy character with a ‘too-wide’ a smile and a disturbing gaze. The 
  refinery man slyly tried to purchase the crown from its new owner 
  without divulging anything of the crown’s sinister origin. Repulsed 
  by Marsh’s evasive, slick ways and seeming over-eagerness to buy, 
  Professor Ames left Innsmouth with the Crown. 
  However with the knowledge of the crown’s whereabouts, Marsh 
  set into motion a plan to retrieve the relic and silence the one and 
  only person who might know of its power. As a result, since his 
  trip to the refinery some three weeks ago, Ames’ life has become 
  increasingly unpleasant and on several occasions he has been visited 
  by sinister folk. To begin with, these strangers claim to be ‘jewellers’ 
  wanting to buy the crown, but with Ames’ continued reticence to 
  sell, the visits have become more and more threatening.
  Simultaneous with the appearance of the unwholesome visitors, 
  Ames began having feverish and disturbing dreams. In these 
  nightmares Ames visits cyclopean undersea cities, communes with 
  monstrous fish-like “men”, and partakes in unspeakable rituals. 
  Worse still, the professor began waking from these terrifying 
  dreams to find that he had been sleepwalking. More disturbingly, 
  one night he awoke to find himself behind the wheel of his Packard, 
  halfway to Innsmouth, the crown sitting on the seat next to him.
  With his sanity dwindling from the damning dreams and damnable 
  visitors, Ames, in wild belt of desperation, mailed the Crown of 
  Dagon to his friend, one of the Investigators, knowing that they 
  took an interest in matters strange and occult. 
  Dark 
  Dreams of 
  Innsmouth 
  by Brian Courtemanche
   
  4
  The Unbound Book
  Dark Dreams of Innsmouth
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  ‘Crown of Dagon 1’ 2004  Don Fougere
  
  The Unbound Book
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  Dark Dreams of Innsmouth
  5
  What the Investigators can do to make things 
  right 
  After reading the letter, the Investigators learn that 
  Ames has gone crazy and has been committed to 
  the Danvers State Hospital for the Insane. It seems 
  that the crew of a Gloucester fishing boat hauled the 
  good professor out of the Atlantic early one morning. 
  Brine-sodden and chilled to the bone, the man babbled 
  incessantly about monstrous fish-beings and inhuman 
  cities beneath the waves. Unable to locate any immediate 
  family, the authorities have little choice but to commit 
  the poor man to the care of an insane asylum.
  Now it is the turn of the Investigators to find out what 
  power the crown holds, as they too become victims of 
  disturbing dreams and are paid sinister visits by the 
  hybrids of Innsmouth. As the story progresses, the 
  desperate Innsmouthers become an increasing menace to 
  the Investigators, the horrible sea-dreams become more 
  regular and eventually the players will find themselves 
  waking from dreams in their automobiles, on the lonely 
  roads to Innsmouth. 
  The Investigators are bound to suffer the same miserable 
  fate as their friend unless they can break the curse of 
  the crown. Of course, should they decide to simply throw 
  away the crown or perhaps even sell it to some other 
  unsuspecting fool, even to Marsh, the Keeper should call 
  for Idea rolls. Successes recall that Ames continued to go 
  insane after he had mailed the crown to his friend and it 
  is likely the same fate awaits the Investigators. 
  Eventually however, the dream-burdened, hybrid 
  harassed Investigators should come across a reference 
  to the crown in a book on maritime folklore. This text 
  makes special reference to the Ponape Scripture and 
  focuses on the peculiar Innsmouth jewellery and its 
  relevance to odd superstitious practices. 
  As the Investigators discover, this weird Ponape Scripture 
  reveals the horrible truth about the Crown of Dagon and 
  the grim fate that awaits those who come to posses it. 
  However all is not without hope, as the book also tells of 
  a midnight ritual to disenchant the crown, thus ending 
  the cursed dreams. The catch being the banishing ritual 
  must be conducted on the shorefront and unfortunately 
  acts as a beacon, drawing nearby Deep Ones and hybrid 
  humans to the proceedings.  Nevertheless this book and 
  its odd ritual are the Investigators’ only hope if they are 
  to live through the Dark Dreams of Innsmouth.
  Involving the Investigators
  The story begins when one of the Investigators receives 
  a package from their old friend/colleague/mentor, 
  Professor Swanson Ames. Keepers should convey to the 
  player concerned that Ames is someone who is counted 
  on as a friend and a decent person who knows something 
  of the Investigator’s involvement in matters arcane and 
  occult. The package contains two items, a letter from 
  Ames (see Innsmouth Paper 1) and a heavy object 
  imperfectly wrapped in old newspaper. Peeling away the 
  paper reveals a heavy headdress, crafted entirely of gold. 
  Strange sigils of unknowable import are worked into the 
  artefact. 
  Shortly after the package arrives and the letter is read, 
  hand one of the Investigators Innsmouth Paper 2, an 
  article from the Arkham Advertiser, the Kingsport 
  Chronicle, Boston Globe or other newspaper of the 
  Keeper’s choosing. How this is done is left to the Keeper’s 
  own devices, but the act of receiving the article should be 
  enough to prompt the Investigators to discover more of 
  what has befallen their friend. 
  The Investigators now have a number of choices open to 
  them; they can go directly to Danvers State Hospital for 
  the Insane and try to speak with Ames; visit Gloucester 
  Harbour and interview the crew of the lobster boat, 
  Divine, or travel to Innsmouth and meet with Jacob 
  Marsh.
  
  6
  The Unbound Book
  Dark Dreams of Innsmouth
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  Furthermore the Investigators might opt to conduct some 
  research by either visiting Ames’ home in Danvers to 
  locate his book on maritime folklore, or prowl established 
  libraries for said text. Of course those versed in the 
  Mythos might simply wish to make a Cthulhu Mythos 
  roll, or consult a selected mythos tome as reference 
  regarding the Crown of Dagon. If Investigators have 
  access to such texts, the Keeper should insist that the 
  tome fit the subject matter of Deep Ones. Good choices 
  for this would be the Ponape Scripture, the R’lyeh Text, 
  Unausprechlichen Kulten, Invocations to Dagon, or the 
  Necronomicon. If these books are not available or the 
  relevant Cthulhu Mythos rolls fail, Investigators may still 
  learn about the Crown of Dagon by the more arduous 
  routes previously detailed. In any event, Investigators 
  will face dangers to their physical and mental well being 
  as evil dreams invade their sleep, Innsmouth thugs drop 
  in for visits, and the ritual to break the curse of the 
  crown is learned.
  The Danvers State Hospital for the Insane
  A winding drive up a quiet wooded hillside and on 
  through a set of tall iron gates leads to the sprawling 
  complex known as Danvers State Hospital for the 
  Insane. Brooding over the multi-acre property is an 
  inter-connected series of towering red brick, slate 
  roofed wards erected in arresting neo-gothic style. 
  Even the completely sane are unnerved when first 
  gazing upon the compound’s disturbingly angular, 
  oversized buildings. Numerous wooden outbuildings 
  and small copses of elm, maple and pine trees dot the 
  property’s vast acreage, although they fail to soften the 
  hospital’s cold, formal and gothic facade. Arriving at 
  the Kirkbride administration building, an orderly leads 
  the Investigators to the ward where Ames is being held 
  for observation. Ames is currently under the care of a 
  Dr. Wade Holt, who will be summoned at the parties’ 
  arrival. The interior of the hospital is reasonably well 
  lit and smells strongly of antiseptic. Inmates lounge 
  listlessly in hallway chairs or are locked away behind 
  stout metal doors with small, thick-paned windows. An 
  occasional shout or bark of giddy laughter echoes from 
  a distant hallway, punctuating the general lassitude and 
  silence that surrounds the hospital. 
  Meeting Doctor Holt
  Dr. Holt is a large, kindly man in his early fifties with 
  chestnut coloured hair which is turning slightly grey at 
  the temples and who sports an enormous moustache of 
  the type regarded as fashionable by an earlier generation. 
  Holt is naturally courteous to the friends of the stricken 
  
  The Unbound Book
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  Dark Dreams of Innsmouth
  7
  man and relates to the Investigators that while Ames is in 
  good physical shape, he is still vacillating between states 
  of delusion and lucidity. As the party is brought to Ames’ 
  room, the doctor comments that they are, in fact, the 
  second group of friends to visit the poor man. If asked, 
  Holt explains that the first group was a “rather shifty 
  looking lot”, who claimed to be old friends of Ames. 
  Holt almost refused them access to his patient, but 
  relented, hoping that a familiar face might help restore 
  his patient. He says that the group was alone with Ames 
  only a short while before the patient became agitated, 
  his shouts bringing both himself, and orderlies from the 
  nurses’ station. Unfortunately, nothing intelligible could 
  be discerned from the patient, save that he seemed to be 
  hostile toward his visitors, who were hurriedly escorted 
  from the patient’s room. Thinking something “just 
  wasn’t right” about the odd visitors, Holt states he called 
  for the police, but by the time they arrived, however, 
  Ames’ ‘friends’ had left.
  For the most part, Dr. Holt is very well disposed towards 
  well-intentioned Investigators and is a good contact to 
  cultivate for future investigations. He will not initially 
  believe in supernatural powers, Deep Ones, hybrids, 
  and the like, however if he becomes an associate of the 
  Investigators he might alter his perspective.
  Taking to Ames
  At Ames’ bedside - this time with Dr. Holt just outside the 
  door - the Investigators find their friend in a delusional 
  state. Normally a fat, jovial fellow, Ames has become 
  alarmingly emaciated since the Investigator(s) last saw 
  him. His face is thin and sunken, drawn with deep 
  lines of worry and restlessness. Unaware of his visitors, 
  Ames shifts uneasily in his bed, as if in the throes of a 
  nightmare. Face half-pressed into a sterile white hospital 
  pillow, he utters:
  “the reef...sunken city... town...no, out of ...the water...
  never...crown...ceremony...dead...waves”. 
  Ames will continue to babble the same phrases for a 
  minute or two before gradually waking to behold his 
  newest visitors. At first Ames recoils in fear; then, 
  recognizing a familiar face or two, noticeably relaxes. 
  Though very weak, Ames appears pleased to see his 
  friend(s), greeting them by name. In a wheezy voice, 
  he asks why they are in his bedroom, and why they’ve 
  brought a doctor to his house. If the Investigators 
  mention the letter, the crown, or any other aspect of the 
  mystery, Ames becomes lucid and grim. He apologizes 
  for having involved them in all this, but says that he 
  knew of no others that could help him. 
  He also warns them of Jacob Marsh: “he’s a dangerous 
  man, with sinister connections”, before breaking down, 
  sobbing that, afraid for his life, he gave “Marsh’s hideous 
  thugs” the name of the Investigator to whom he mailed 
  the crown. Finally he urges the Investigators to visit 
  his home, where they can find the book on Innsmouth 
  lore in his study. Then, with a coughing gasp, Ames 
  falls back into a glassy-eyed stupor and can answer no 
  further questions, seemingly lost in another world. Dr. 
  Holt soon ushers the party out of the room, but thanks 
  the Investigators for visiting their friend and suggests 
  that perhaps they contact Detective Russell Pierce of the 
  Gloucester Police, the officer handling Ames’ case. 
  An Interview with a Detective
  Detective Russell Pierce is a plain spoken, simple 
  thinking man with few interests other than his job and 
  his family. He is tall and lantern-jawed, with a slight 
  paunch and wispy hairs combed over his balding pate 
  with generous applications of hair gel. He has recently 
  been promoted to the rank of detective after putting in 
  years as a patrolman, and now solidly into middle age, 
  cares little for stories of supernatural menaces or far-
  reaching conspiracies. He believes that Professor Ames 
  suffered an accident on his boat, which has scattered 
  his wits, a conclusion he intends to file in a few days. 
  As a result, any inconvenient Investigator assertions of 
  monsters or cults will be steadfastly ignored.
  At Ames’ Home
  Located within walking distance of Salem Normal 
  school, Ames’ domicile is a small, unobtrusive, two-
  storied affair, nestled in a small yard shaded by oaks 
  and a stand of pine trees. A weather-worn but sturdy 
  three-foot picket fence with a latched (but unlocked) 
  front gate surrounds the premises, while a slightly rusted 
  mailbox on a leaning wooden post displays Ames’ name 
  painted imperfectly on its side. The front door to the 
  house is locked. The back door, though shut, has been 
  forced. The wood around the small deadbolt has been 
  split asunder. Inside the house has been ransacked, with 
  the plush furniture toppled and sliced open, cabinets 
  and drawers flung wide and their contents strewn 
  everywhere. Though it may at first look like a typical 
  robbery, keen Investigators will, with an Idea roll, 
  discern that nothing of any real value has been taken. 
  Should the police be summoned, the break-in will receive 
  front-page coverage in the Salem Evening News. ‘Home 
  of Hospitalized Educator Vandalized!’ and ‘Stricken 
  Professor’s Home Burgled!’ blare the headers; the 
  
  8
  The Unbound Book
  Dark Dreams of Innsmouth
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  articles express disgust that malcontents would ravage 
  the property of a respectable citizen fallen on distressing 
  personal circumstances. The police will rule the break-
  in as just that, stating publicly that the vandals were 
  obviously scared off by a passing car or a noise outside 
  before anything of value could be taken. 
  Should Investigators take too long to visit Ames’ home, 
  the break-in is instead discovered by a visiting neighbour, 
  with much the same result as those set out above. If this 
  is the case, the Investigators can either ask the police 
  for permission to enter Ames’ home or take the riskier 
  approach of entering without permission. 
  Sneaking into the house simply requires the nerve to 
  approach and enter the house. The front door is locked 
  and the back door now sports a stout new padlock, 
  courtesy of the Salem police. All the windows have 
  been locked from within, and the cellar bulkhead is also 
  secure. Getting past either the front or back door requires 
  a successful Mechanical Repair roll on the lock or brute 
  force (versus a STR 13). Keepers may also call for Sneak 
  rolls, as the Salem police and nearby neighbours have 
  increased their vigilance since the break-in. There is a 
  20% chance that at any time of the day the Investigators’ 
  approach to the Ames property will be noticed by a 
  neighbour, who promptly phones the police. These events 
  can prompt any number of Sneak, Hide, Luck, or Fast 
  Talk rolls, depending on how the Keeper wishes to handle 
  the situation.
  Ames’s house, though ransacked, otherwise appears 
  quite ordinary. A small study off the front parlour is 
  cluttered with hundreds of books, papers and personal 
  effects (souvenir paperweights, brass letter-opener, 
  small globes, etc.). If the books are examined, a Spot 
  Hidden roll will locate a small book entitled Innsmouth: 
  Superstition and the Sea, by Michael Peabody (see 
  Innsmouth Paper 3), buried in a heap of books from an 
  overturned bookshelf. Reading the slim volume costs 
  the Investigator 1d4 Sanity but grants 1d2 points of 
  Cthulhu Mythos. The book details the strange customs 
  and quaint folk practices of small Yankee seacoast towns 
  with Innsmouth, Massachusetts as its focal piece. One 
  old Innsmouth native is quoted in the book as he speaks 
  vaguely of a curse that lies upon his home, stating, “that 
  the old town has lost more than its share of sons and 
  daughters to the sea.” Peabody concludes his treatise 
  with the assertion that Innsmouth’s loss of maritime 
  trade in the 19th century caused its insular populace to 
  resort to superstition to restore its prosperity, forsaking 
  healthier routes of alternate industry. In this bizarre 
  effort, the town failed, though has yet to, and may never, 
  emerge from its intense insularity. A brief endnote to 
  the book by the publisher states that author Michael 
  Peabody drowned just before the publication of this, his 
  only book.
  An Encounter with the Divine
  Travelling to Gloucester from Arkham or Danvers takes 
  less than an hour. Gloucester is the archetypical New 
  England fishing town, tucked into the northern shoreline 
  of Massachusetts. Checking in at any of the local spots 
  (the diner, post office, police office or fishermen’s 
  wharves), can lead to the Investigator’s being informed 
  that Captain Joshua Briggs’ fishing boat, the ‘Divine’, 
  heads out to sea just before sunrise and returns late each 
  afternoon. Depending on when Investigators arrive in 
  Gloucester, they may have many hours to wait before the 
  Divine returns to the harbour. Even then there will be 
  the need to wait as the crew pulls up to the dock, hauls 
  the daily catch onto waiting trucks, payments are to 
  be tallied, and the boats rigged for the next morning. 
  These working folk are very busy and will have no time 
  or patience for ‘well-dressed city types’ interrupting their 
  business. Finally, after all the hubbub of business has 
  ceased, the Investigators may approach the crew of the 
  Divine and speak with Captain Briggs. The Captain is 
  hungry and tired from a hard day’s labour and offering 
  him a meal at the local diner will be gladly received (+10% 
  to Persuade rolls, Credit Rating rolls, etc.).
  Captain Joshua S. Briggs is a lanky, rough-looking man, 
  his features hardened and leathery from innumerable 
  hours spent at sea in all sort of weather. His hands are 
  gnarled but very strong, attached to arms of corded 
  muscle. His hair is a thick shock of peppery grey, turning 
  white at the sideburns. Despite his ‘severe’ appearance, 
  Captain Briggs is a kindly man commanding discipline 
  on his boat by mutual respect rather than fear. He is 
  very open and matter-of-fact if asked to recount how he 
  and his crew rescued Dr. Ames.
  “The Divine was about a half hour out of harbor, when 
  I myself noticed what I thought was a large seal or big 
  fish or god knows what, in trouble. As we got closer, I 
  realized that ‘twas a man, all alone, way out here, kickin’ 
  and a-wavin’ his arms around. Looked like he was tryin’ 
  to duck under but kept bobbing up. The boys used boathooks 
  and we managed to hook ‘im with a bit of trouble. Was like 
  he didn’t want to be saved. He was a big feller, so it took 
  a bit of doin’, but we managed to get him on board after 
  a bit of a fuss. The man seemed delirious - kept yapping 
  that he had to get to “Yannalay”, whoever or wherever the 
  devil that is.”
  “I had the man brought below deck and warmed with 
  
  The Unbound Book
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  Dark Dreams of Innsmouth
  9
  blankets and broth. I radioed back to the Harbormaster, 
  and, since me and the boys weren’t that far out, brought 
  the sad feller back to land, to the authorities. Then we 
  headed back out.” 
  (Keeper’s note: “Yannalay” is actually “Y’ha-nthlei”, the 
  great underwater city of the Deep Ones).
  A Trip to Innsmouth
  Investigators wishing to travel to Innsmouth to interview 
  Jacob Marsh, of the Marsh Refining Company, might 
  find this is a difficult and dangerous task. The Marsh clan 
  controls much of Innsmouth and anyone poking around 
  on Marsh soil had best beware. Rash Investigators may 
  find themselves beaten, harassed or run out of town. 
  Furthermore, the Innsmouthers may well be aware that 
  the Investigators now hold the Crown of Dagon, in which 
  case this could prove to be the most hazardous episode of 
  the whole scenario. 
  Innsmouth is just a short automobile ride from any 
  Massachusetts town and about an hour from Boston. 
  A daily bus service makes a route between Arkham and 
  Innsmouth, and costs 40 cents. The surly, taciturn driver 
  and his ramshackle bus leave Arkham daily at 8 a.m. 
  and 9 p.m., depositing wayfarers at Innsmouth Town 
  Square, directly in front of the Gilman House hotel. 
  Arriving in Innsmouth, the Investigators are impressed 
  with the atmosphere of decay that pervades the neglected 
  town, perhaps only in the hills of Dunwich and its environs 
  is degeneracy so physically palpable. The Gilman House 
  is the Square’s most impressive building, a teetering five-
  story structure of rotting clapboard and peeling yellow 
  paint. It is the town’s only hotel. If Investigators staying 
  here prove to be a real threat to the powerful Marsh clan, 
  the hotel is likely to be the last place on earth they’ll 
  see. Out of town guests are conveniently quartered in 
  the upper stories of the building, preventing easy flight; 
  there are no fire escapes. Rooms are $2 a night and are 
  in ill repair (rusted bed frames, peeling wallpaper, water 
  stained walls and ceilings, bare light bulbs, uniformly 
  inoperative locks on doors). The day manager is an 
  oldster named George Habbit, a functional yet quiet 
  man, he is utterly insane due to regular contact with 
  Innsmouth’s loathsome populace. The night manager is 
  the surly Charles Gilman, son of the owner. The Town 
  Square is also home to the First National grocery store, 
  the Innsmouth Cafe, a drugstore, a seafood distribution 
  company, Waite’s Variety Store, the First Unitarian 
  Church of Innsmouth, a small gas station and the offices 
  of the Marsh Refining Company. All of these buildings 
  are in dire need of repair. 
  In Innsmouth, the locals keep their secrets well and 
  will rebuff any attempts by the Investigators to glean 
  information from them. It is not a friendly place! 
  Talking with Jacob Marsh
  The office of the Marsh Refining company can be found 
  on the northern side of the Innsmouth Town Square 
  and is normally open during business hours.  However, 
  before getting to speak with Marsh, the Investigators 
  must first make their way past company receptionist, 
  Lucy James, an untainted but very blunt and unattractive 
  young woman. Assuming the Investigators convince the 
  receptionist of their need to see her employer, Jacob Marsh 
  admits the visitors to his office. The well-dressed man 
  oozes a sickly sort of charm as he continually slicks back 
  his dark and thinning hair. He is every bit of the ‘greasy 
  character’ Ames spoke of, as he smiles at Investigators 
  with his “over-wide” grin, his bulging eyes alight with 
  unwholesome mischief. 
  If Investigators ask Marsh about the dealings he may have 
  had with Professor Ames, he confirms that the professor 
  did indeed come to his office several weeks ago, bearing 
  with him an unusual item, a crown of solid gold. The 
  professor, it transpired, wanted to know if the company 
  had ever crafted such an item, a question to which Marsh 
  sadly said no. Marsh says he then offered to buy the 
  unusual item from Ames, but the man seemed not to be 
  in a selling mood. The professor left the refinery offices 
  and Marsh has given him no further thought. If pressed, 
  Marsh indignantly denies knowledge of any underhanded 
  attempts to wrest the crown from the professor.
  Of course, Marsh is a liar. He is indeed the figure behind 
  Dr. Ames’ threatening callers, being the individual 
  tasked with recovering the crown for the Deep Ones. 
  As such, during the course of the interview, Marsh 
  will attempt to discover if any of the Investigators 
  have the crown in their possession or if they know of 
  its whereabouts.  Hopefully the players will be bright 
  enough to not reveal such information.
  After the interview, Marsh will work with zeal to discover 
  the addresses of the Investigators and will dispatch a 
  handful of his hybrid flunkies to scour neighbouring 
  communities, businesses, hotels, college campuses, etc. to 
  discover their whereabouts. 
  A Change in the Weather
  The Innsmouthers campaign to terrorize Investigators 
  into relinquishing the Crown of Dagon should be paced 
  by the Keeper according to how quickly the group is 
  
  10
  The Unbound Book
  Dark Dreams of Innsmouth
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  progressing through the adventure. Of course, if the 
  Investigators fail to visit Marsh, it is feasible that the 
  hybrids manage to get their names and addresses from a 
  fearful and bed ridden Dr. Ames.
  Incidents begin with the hybrids’ attempts to shadow 
  Investigators to discover just who has the artefact and 
  determine when best to strike. Next come visits in the 
  night from small groups of sinister men who demand the 
  crown. If met with resolute resistance, break-ins follow. 
  Finally physical assaults and kidnapping may occur, 
  but the Keeper must be careful not to overwhelm the 
  Investigators. Instead, players should sense that they 
  are at the centre of a web of occult danger. Investigator 
  violence as a first response to the hybrid goon squad is a 
  bad idea. The Innsmouthers can call in any number of 
  replacements, summon their Deep One kindred for aid 
  and have an entire town in which to gain refuge from 
  retribution. The Deep Ones, immortal as they are, have 
  plenty of time to recover their crown and will continue 
  to make the Investigators’ lives a living hell until the 
  artefact is in their clammy claws.
  Investigations and Resources
  The Lore of the Crown
  Investigators will likely wish to delve into the foul pages 
  of the Ponape Scripture after learning of its usefulness in 
  Peabody’s Superstition and the Sea. Lore on the Crown 
  of Dagon can also be found in other mythos tomes: the 
  Cthaat Aquadingen, Dr. Laban Shrewsbury’s Cthulhu 
  in the Ponape Scripture, or perhaps chapter eight of Von 
  Junzt’s Unausprechlichen Kulten (“Nameless Cults”). 
  Of course the Keeper may place information about the 
  Crown of Dagon in any appropriate Mythos tome to aid 
  Investigators in concluding this adventure.
  The Crown of Dagon
  This dreadful ceremonial headpiece is worn by the Deep 
  Ones as they perform bizarre and terrible rites devoted to 
  their alien gods. Human sacrifice is common; victims are 
  gathered in stormy night raids on coastal communities, 
  kidnapping sailors and other seafarers, or relying on 
  degenerate human allies to provide suitable sacrificial 
  victims. The metaphysical energies (POW) generated 
  by the sacrificial rites flow into the Crown of Dagon, 
  enabling communion between the wearer of the crown 
  and the alien minds of the Deep Ones’ dread gods. A new 
  sacrificial rite must be undertaken for each communion 
  and no more than one deity may be contacted at a time. 
  Spells and other knowledge may be imparted via the 
  crown but the sanity cost to contact these alien intellects 
  is terrible: 1d10/1d100. Just as awful, psychically sensitive 
  persons (those with high POW ratings) who come into 
  contact with the crown often trigger residual psychic 
  energy gathered in the headpiece, causing terrifying 
  nightmares. Sanity loss for these dreams is comparatively 
  low, but they are chronic; the mind being gradually lost 
  to terrifying visions.
  There is however hope for those unfortunate enough to 
  have come into contact with the Crown of Dagon. The 
  terrible books that detail the purpose and function of 
  this horrid artefact also detail a rite for dispelling the 
  latent energy in the crown. The texts describe a pre-
  dawn ceremony, performed where the land meets the 
  sea. Celebrants sing complex chants to the god Nodens 
  before a small driftwood bonfire and implore his aid. 
  At the height of the ritual the appropriate verse is sung 
  and the crown is cast into the flames. Vulnerable to the 
  flames, the crown writhes like a living beast in the fire, 
  blackening and withering into ropy strands of charred 
  seaweed as its noxious fumes mix with the smoke and 
  rise high into the sky overhead. Thus ends the crown’s 
  power over the minds it has infected. 
  Danger courts those who perform this rite. The dispelling 
  ceremony also acts as a telepathic beacon to the Deep 
  Ones and their hybrid allies. Enraged at the assault on 
  their revered artefact, it is unlikely that they will leave the 
  spell singers unmolested to complete the proceedings. 
  The Dreams
   The dreams that have been haunting Dr. Ames - and 
  likely some Investigators - throughout this scenario can 
  be described to the players in vivid detail. Dreams work 
  to best effect when the Investigator does not realize he 
  or she has gone to sleep. Keepers can simply describe 
  an ongoing scene, such as the Investigator having just 
  arrived home for the evening, and segue right into the 
  dream sequence. At a critical moment, describe to the 
  Investigator the sensation of waking up in bed. Only 
  then does the dream become apparent. Or do the reverse: 
  tell the Investigator something has woken him up from 
  a sound sleep and then move seamlessly into a dream 
  sequence. At a chosen moment, have the Investigator 
  wake up again, and realize the first waking was but a 
  dream. Flitting in and out of dream narratives should 
  keep the Investigators on edge and give them a sense of 
  their slipping grasp on reality. Sanity losses for these 
  dreams are just 0/1d2. Despite the low cost the dreams 
  are repetitive, occurring again and again over many 
  nights, and no Investigator no matter how strong of 
  mind can hold out forever. The dreams originate with 
  
  The Unbound Book
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004  
  Dark Dreams of Innsmouth
  11
  the Crown of Dagon, containing imagery of the sea and 
  of horrific secrets concealed by the endless waves. What 
  follows are some sample dream sequences that can be 
  tailored by the Keeper to best suit his players.
  Dream One - The Undersea City
  You wake from slumber and your room is unusually 
  dark. There is a thickness in the air that causes your 
  feet to drag and blurs vision.  Your body feels cool. 
  Shockingly, you find yourself not in your bedroom but 
  on a bare slab in a drab, near lightless cell. Have you been 
  drugged and thrown in some sort of prison? There is one 
  triangular window across the small room, unbarred, just 
  large enough for a man to squeeze through. Moving to 
  the window, you look down upon a vast, lightless city, 
  dark towers rising in the gloom, much like the one you 
  must be in. There is an impression of movement down 
  below and among the towers, but it is too dark to make 
  out any details. After a minute or two you suddenly feel 
  movement nearby and then something huge rises to fill 
  your field of vision. A massive shark, razor-toothed 
  mouth agape, rushes in for the kill. Your scream is 
  somehow muted, a torrent of bubbles rising from your 
  throat. You are underwater! The shark slams into the 
  wall, snout first; it cannot breach the window. It makes 
  several ramming attempts at the opening, probing with 
  its snout and dead black eyes. You are trapped while the 
  shark circles without and noses at the window opening. 
  There is another sound, an odd songlike vibration, and 
  the shark half turns. The massive fish retreats from the 
  window. You get the merest glimpse of that which called 
  the shark. The vision is too much. You throw your hands 
  up to cover your eyes and wake up screaming in your 
  own bedroom, bedclothes soaked with sweat.
  Dream Two - The Trouble with Friends
  You are just finishing up some mundane work when 
  a friend drops by for a visit. After a little while spent 
  chatting, you notice that the other person looks feverish 
  and is sweating profusely. Your friend denies that 
  anything is wrong. Soon damp patches begin to soak 
  through the clothing, and skin starts to peel and dribble 
  away in large flakes. Still the friend denies any problem, 
  wondering aloud if you yourself feel all right. The friend’s 
  voice becomes watery and choked with phlegm; eyes grow 
  impossibly large from a swell of fluid. Hair and skin ooze 
  away, revealing a glistening, greenish-black lump where 
  a head once was. Hands become more like sickly black-
  green scaly claws, while legs become mucus-covered, 
  scaly tentacles. Eyes finally burst from fluid, running 
  down green-black cheeks. Black, glistening orbs now 
  stare out of a once-human face. Shocked and sickened, 
  you flee. Behind you, that-which-was-your-friend shouts 
  garbled, drooling inhuman sounds, grabbing for you 
  with a webbed claw. The sharpness of the talons shock 
  you awake, panting and awash in a sheen of fear.
   Dream Three - Tough Sacrifices
  A sound wakes you from your slumber. Reaching for 
  the bedside light, you’re stunned to realize you’ve been 
  manacled hand and foot to a slab of cold rock. The ceiling 
  is gone, replaced by a dark, overcast night sky. It is cold 
  and wet, and the wind smells of brine. The surf pounds 
  nearby, though you cannot rise to see its source. There 
  is another sound, an eerie droning chant. Dark figures 
  shuffle and waver rhythmically nearby, just tantalizingly 
  out of your vision. It is from them that the chanting 
  comes. It is a terrible sound, a buzzing, gurgling, 
  choking sort of sound, full of harsh consonants and 
  alien cadences. A dark, hooded form looms before your 
  captive body, features shrouded, its bulk blocking out the 
  inky clouds overhead. It raises its arms to the moonless 
  night, something long and wicked held in its hands. With 
  a final, gurgling chant, the hooded one violently thrusts 
  is arms downwards. You wake breathless with sharp 
  stomach pains. The following morning an ugly bruise 
  spreads itself across your lower torso. 
  Dream Four - It Takes a Village
  A splash of water across your face brings you alert. You 
  are prone, face down in shallow, choppy surf. The water is 
  salty and warm, the night is dark. Sand wriggles between 
  your fingers as the surf rhythmically churns the beach. 
  Ahead, beyond the surf line, beyond the beach, is a large 
  cluster of huts. All is dark there, the sound of the surf the 
  only sound. To either side of you, and behind you, there is 
  a rush of movement. Figures, prone as yourself, rise up 
  out of the choppy surf and shamble quickly toward the 
  
  12
  The Unbound Book
  Dark Dreams of Innsmouth
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  huts. You are borne up and keep pace with the others, 
  your heavy feet pounding the sand. You reach the huts. 
  Your companions throw aside grass mat doors and enter 
  the little dwellings. Screams of terror and the sounds of 
  fighting fill the sultry night air. You half-lurch, half are 
  pushed into a hut where a small group, a family, are just 
  scrambling to their feet. A small child, no more than 
  four years old, turns to you as you stumble through the 
  doorway. Her mouth goes wide as her scream pierces the 
  walls of the little hut. A warped, hulking figure staggers 
  past from behind you to meet the girl’s father in a death 
  struggle. Outside, in the night, your fellow raiders are 
  shambling back to the sea, writhing burdens slung across 
  their wide, glistening shoulders. Reaching out to silence 
  the little girl’s unending scream, your own gurgling 
  scream commingles with that of the others: your arm is 
  glistening, scaly, black, and sinewy with ropy muscles. 
  Bits of seaweed cling to your wrist, and your hand is a 
  large, webbed, claw-fingered horror. You wake in your 
  own bed screaming.
  Dream Five - No Man is an Island
  It’s an unusually sunny morning as you rise for the 
  day. In fact, you wince - the sunlight seems so bright 
  in your room. But what is that terrible smell? Did the 
  icebox give out sometime during the night, spoiling 
  your food? Rising from your bed, you are shocked to 
  observe that your bed is a mass of ropy, half-damp 
  seaweed slowly baking in the sun. The walls of your 
  room have disappeared; instead, all around lies a vast 
  expanse of muck, strewn with drying seaweed and 
  decomposing fish. Directly above, the sun gleams 
  blindingly white, baking the air into a rotting miasma of 
  organic putrescence. It is deathly quiet; there is no wind, 
  no sound of surf. You wander for what seems hours. The 
  sun gradually sinks until it is a dull red disk absorbed 
  into the barren, featureless horizon of half-baked muck. 
  The moon rises full, white, and cold, like a blind and 
  pitiless eye on the desolation below. Its pale light reveals 
  a great chasm stretched out before you, so wide and so 
  deep that it blocks your path. Far down, a silvery river 
  of water ribbons its way along the bottom of the canyon. 
  Beside the river rises a stone obelisk half buried in the 
  ages-old silt at the bottom of the canyon, nearly concealed 
  in shadow. That you can just perceive by moonlight 
  bas-relief carvings covering the obelisk is a testament 
  
  The Unbound Book
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  Dark Dreams of Innsmouth
  13
  to the monument’s immense size, far and below as it 
  is. As you struggle to discern the nature of the distant 
  carvings, there is a sudden disturbance on the surface 
  of the river. A scaly humanoid, a great blasphemous 
  anthropomorphic form, rises from the water to throw its 
  great, flabby arms around the obelisk in some form of 
  obscene worship. That you can see the creature so clearly 
  from your distance is an indication of its great size. You 
  grow dizzy from the thought, lose your footing, and 
  pitch forward over the rim of the canyon! Screaming, 
  you wake up in your own bed, your sheets soaked in 
  sweat. The memory of a foul miasma hangs in the air, as 
  if something vile had just left the room.
  Concluding the Scenario
  The only effective way to successfully conclude this 
  scenario is by performing the magical ritual to destroy 
  the Crown of Dagon. If the crown is destroyed sans the 
  ritual, the horrific dreams will continue - and sanity 
  points lost - until the dispelling ceremony is performed 
  or the Investigators go insane. If the players seem at a 
  loss how to proceed at any point during the scenario, 
  they can be guided by Dr. Ames during his rare lucid 
  moments. Events are likely to get violent during the 
  dispelling ritual as Deep Ones and their hybrid allies 
  close in to recover the crown. 
  Keepers can adjust the level of resistance offered by the 
  Deep Ones as they see fit, from a couple of angry Deep 
  Ones shambling out of the waves to hordes of Fishmen 
  rising up from the sea and carloads of Innsmouth hybrids 
  roaring up to the beachfront. 
  The Crown of Dagon being a powerful artefact, it’s 
  possible that destroying it draws the attention of Nodens 
  himself, who might aid Investigators; a longshot, but not 
  out of the range of Keeper options. 
  Sanity Awards and Final Thoughts
  Dispelling the Crown of Dagon nets each participating 
  Investigator 1d10+4 Sanity. Defeating the intervening 
  Deep Ones nets Investigators an additional 1d6 points 
  (awarding the maximum, 6, if a group of Deep Ones 
  are defeated). With the breaking of the crown, Professor 
  Ames and any other unfortunates beholden to the crown’s 
  power will gradually recover. If he survived, Ames can 
  become a staunch ally of the Investigators and in the 
  future may be able to help in conducting research etc. in 
  the areas that befits a man of his education.
  Destroying this artefact, so revered by the Deep Ones 
  and their allies, also earns the Investigators the eternal 
  enmity of these foul beings. Effectively immortal, the 
  Deep Ones have a lifetime to plot revenge and the Keeper 
  should rejoice in the possibilities.
  NPCs Statistics
  Sample Innsmouth Hybrids
  These hybrids can be reused as many times as the Keeper 
  requires.
  STR:     13    9   13    9  12  12
  DEX:    12   10   13    7  14  13
  CON:    12   10   13    7  14  13
  SIZ:      14   14   14   13  12  13
  INT:     12   13   14   14  13  11
  POW:   11    8   14   15    7   7
  DEX:   12   14    8    9   11   9
  APP:     5    7   10   12    9  10
  HP:     13   12   14   10   13  13
  Db:    +1d4   -  +1d4  -     -  +1d4
  Weapons:
  Fist:    60   55   55   50   60   55
  Grap:  35   35   40   30   25   35
  Kick:  30   25   30   30   40  30
  Club:  25    -    25    -     40    -
  Pistol:  -    35    -    35    -    30
  Club: 1d6 + db
  Pistol: 1d10, can impale.
  Sample Deep Ones
  These Deep Ones can be reused as many times as the 
  Keeper requires.
  STR:     14  10  13   22   12   12
  CON:    13  11   12   10   15   12
  SIZ:      18  14   12   18   13   13
  INT:     18  18   16   10   13   12
  POW:   15   8    6    4    8   10
  DEX:    12   10   10   11   10   14
  HP:      16   13   12   14   14   13
  Db:     +1d4   - +1d4 +1d6 +1d4 +1d4
  Weapons:
  Claw    30  30   40  50  35  40  
  Spear    -   30    -   30    -    -
  Claw:   1d6 + db
  Spear: 1d6 + db, can impale.
  
  14
  The Unbound Book
  Dark Dreams of Innsmouth
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  
  The Unbound Book
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  Dark Dreams of Innsmouth
  15
  Armor: 1-point skin and scales
  Spells: none
  Sanity Loss: 0/1d6 Sanity points to see a deep one.
  On the Unbound Book Website 
  Dark Dreams of Innsmouth
  - D20 Stats for Dak Dreams of Innsmouth
  - Large print friendly maps by David Conyers
  Visit the Unbound Book Website @
   www.unboundbook.org
  
  Editor’s Note
  This adventure was originally run at KapCon, New Zealand’s largest 
  and most popular roleplaying convention, and is The Unbound 
  Book’s first ‘Fragment of Fear’ (see What are Fragments of Fear 
  on the next page for an explaination of this type of adventure), 
  Land of the Rising Dead is a prefect adventure for a night when the 
  Keeper or their players are looking for someting ‘a little different’. 
  The player characters created for this adventure are found on the 
  Unbound Book website in both ‘Byakhee’ and ‘jpeg’ format.
  Keeper’s Background
  Seth Acres, a rich ex-patriot Britain, has recently died in Japan. 
  During his life, Acres was the head of a Japanese Cthulhu cult, and 
  has made preparations in his will for his resurrection as a powerful 
  undead creature. Unfortunately for the players, a part of these 
  preparations involve the untimely death of their Characters!
  In this “Fragment of Fear” adventure (see the page opposite for 
  further details on running The Unbound Book’s Fragments of 
  Fear), the players take the roles of  characters somehow connected 
  to recently deceased Acres, either as one of his relatives or as the 
  result of some past interaction.  As our story opens all of the 
  Characters have been invited (all expenses paid of course) to Japan 
  to collect their inheritance. However if all goes to plan for Acres and 
  his servants, once in Japan our heroes will be used in a ritual which 
  will resurrect their leader and allow his eternal life, that is unless 
  the players are able to unmask the deceit and defeat their crafty 
  enemies. In addition to the cult, a group of Japanese Priests are also 
  attempting to prevent the ritual. Unfortunately their plans call for 
  the characters to be ‘scared’ out of Japan prior to their attempts at 
  destroying the cultists and the zombie Seth. It looks as if the players 
  are between a rock and a hard place!
  Adventure Timeline
  The following timeline outlines the general progress of the 
  adventure.  
  1907 to 1918 - Seth Acres moves to Japan and begins his worship 
  of Cthulhu.
  1921 August - Seth learns of the blood ritual that will grant him 
  eternal life.
  1922 December - The law firm of Speegle and Sayo receive 
  detailed instructions from Acres regarding the recipients of his 
  will and the circumstances surrounding its reading.
  1923 - A secret Shinto organisation learns of Acres’ cult, and 
  reopens the ancient temple on Kuroiyama. Shortly afterwards 
  they discover the identities of the Acre’s heirs and begin planning 
  how to stop them ever reaching Kuroiyama.
  February 19th - Seth’s followers drain the blood from his body 
  Land of the 
  Rising Dead
  A Fragment of Fear 
  by Matt & Debbie Cowens
  16
  The Unbound Book
  Land of the Rising Dead
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  ‘Dead Like Me’ 2003 Alan M. Clark
  
  The Unbound Book
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  What are Fragments of Fear?
  17
  What are Fragments of Fear?
  One-Shot Adventures for Call of Cthulhu
  Fragments
  Imagine if you wish, the session when key players 
  can’t make it, but the rest of your Investigators are 
  still itching to face the Mythos or when a couple of 
  old roleplaying buddies unexpectedly turn up at your 
  door and demand a session of their favourite RPG. 
  Better yet, think of the time you didn’t get a chance to 
  organise the next session of your latest campaign. Now 
  think back in hindsight of what you could have done 
  if you had something ‘different’ prepared or one-shot 
  adventure ready to go? 
  We’ve all had those experiences before, when players 
  have decided that role-playing would be a great idea, 
  but you, as the Keeper, haven’t got the slightest idea of 
  what to run. 
  I know sometimes we think all we really need is to 
  prepare a simple one-off adventure – a ‘just in case’ 
  scenario - but even then this can be a hit and miss 
  affair. Writing a good Call of Cthulhu adventure takes 
  time and there is never any guarantee that what you 
  have written will work as planned. Worse still, you 
  have to create Investigators, handouts, etc., and in the 
  end organising and running a one-off adventure is just 
  as time consuming as it would have been to arrange a 
  regular session. All that, without even guaranteeing a 
  satisfying gaming experience. 
  Fragments of Fear are The Unbound Book’s attempt 
  to alleviate the problems of running a quick and simple 
  adventure. You’ve encountered this sort of scenario 
  before, at your local Convention, or in publications 
  like Chaosium’s Blood Brothers 1 and 2, or Pagan 
  Publishing’s highly acclaimed ‘Grace Under Pressure’. 
  In a nut shell, Fragments of Fear are short self-
  contained stories which supply the Keeper with all the 
  handouts, Investigator stats and plots-twists they need 
  to run a successful one-off adventure! 
  Vital Statistics
  Fragments of Fear adventures include all the tools 
  needed to run a one-off session, and usually cater for 
  between 2 and 6 Investigators. 
  Setting: When it comes to Fragments of Fear, the 
  author’s imagination is free to run wild, with strange 
  locations and odd encounters being the norm. In fact, 
  apart from the requirement to set the story during 
  the ‘Classic Era’ of CoC, these short adventures are 
  perfect chances to explore ideas of horror and gaming 
  which could never fit a normal campaign.   
  Style of Play: Most Fragments of Fear will be based in 
  situations where it would be difficult to place a regular 
  group of Investigators (e.g. The Western Front in 
  WW1, a group of young students at high school or as 
  advisors to a British politician on the campaign trail). 
  All in all each adventure is not only meant to be a fun 
  and exciting experience, but also allows a change of 
  pace from a regular Call of Cthulhu session.  
  Length of Adventure: All Fragments of Fear games 
  should only take one session to complete. In play testing 
  this will be 4 to 6 hours (depending of course on the 
  decisions made by each group’s players). 
  Game Difficulty and Style of Play: No Fragment of Fear 
  will be too difficult to complete, in fact the requirement 
  of the adventure to be completed in such a short period 
  of time, is that it does limit the amount of investigation 
  and detective work required for a successful conclusion. 
  By extension, these adventures are usually ‘pulp action’ 
  in style, as opposed to the traditional horror stylings of 
  regular Call of Cthulhu stories. 
  Rewards: One of the limitations of one-off adventures 
  is the lack of character development. However, as the 
  players will hopefully discover, the true reward for a 
  good one-off game is the actual game play as opposed 
  to the potential investigative gains. As a result, the 
  point of Fragments of Fear is to enjoy the roleplaying, 
  ham up the acting and get a buzz out of our hobby, 
  rather than look to any ‘on paper’ gains.
  Death: If there is one thing that immediately becomes 
  apparent with one-off adventures, it is the way in which 
  players are more willing to risk their Investigators in 
  the hope of achieving the adventure’s objectives. In this 
  type of adventure, character death can occur without 
  fear of future repercussions, and in the experience of 
  the editor allows players to act more heroicly than in 
  regular game-play.
  Summing up
  We hope our Fragments of Fear are here to stay, and 
  although we realise that not all of these adventures are 
  going to appeal to every Keeper or their players, we 
  do believe that they are a vital part of keeping Call of 
  Cthulhu fun and vibrant.
  
  18
  The Unbound Book
  Land of the Rising Dead
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  in the preservation ritual, resulting in Acres death 
  like stasis.
  March 1st - Speegle and Sayo learn of Acres’ 
  ‘death’, and dispatch letters to the recipients of the 
  will (the Characters).
  May 3rd - The tramp steamer ‘Kipper Maru’ leaves 
  London bound for Tokyo with the Characters on 
  board.
  June 5th - The ‘Kipper Maru’ arrives in Tokyo, the 
  Characters stay at the Scherer Pension. That night, 
  the Shinto Priests’ contacts in Tokyo summon a 
  yuurei (ghost) in an attempt to frighten off Acres’ 
  heirs.
  June 6th - The Characters travel by boat to the island 
  of Kuroiyama. The Shinto Priests on Kuroiyama 
  dispatch a pair of Kappa (turtle creatures) to stop 
  them reaching the island. The Characters stay in 
  Kuroiyama village.
  June 7th/8th - A Confrontation occurs between the 
  Priests and Cultists, resulting in all Priests being 
  killed - except the aged leader, who remained at the 
  temple. The Characters reach Seth’s mansion and 
  his spirit begins to torment them.
  June 8th/9th/10th - The Cultists attempt Acres’ 
  resurrection, using the PCs as sacrifices.
  September 1st - The Great Kanto Earthquake 
  destroys huge sections of Tokyo, Yokohama, and the 
  surrounding plains. Kuroiyama itself slowly sinks 
  beneath the waves. Most of the fishing community 
  survive, but there are many casualties. The island 
  is lost and forgotten by history.
  Starting the Session 
  The year is 1923 and prior to the start of the game, each of 
  the player’s Characters has received a visit, either at their 
  home or place of work, by a small oriental man (who it 
  seems had very limited English skills). He approached 
  each character by name, confirming their identity by 
  the simple method of asking their name in a questioning 
  manner (e.g. “Mista Johna Sumisu?”), before handing 
  each of them a letter, its envelop bearing the character’s 
  name on the front, and the name of “Speegle and Sayo” 
  on the reverse (see Land Handout 1).
  Aboard The Ship – The Kipper Maru
  The adventure itself begins with a dinner table 
  conversation on board the Tramp Stream ‘Kipper Maru’ 
  lately of London, now bound for Tokyo, where the 
  Characters have all been invited to dine at the captain’s 
  table. The ‘Maru’s’ Captain is John MacWhirter, a solidly 
  built, heavily whiskered Englishman. He will loudly ask 
  each of the characters whether they are enjoying the trip 
  and why they are travelling to Japan. Furthermore he 
  will ask what they have been doing to keep themselves 
  occupied on the voyage so far. 
  As an answer to this final question, it is up the players 
  to decide what their characters have been up to while 
  at sea. There are a number of possibilities, including - 
  reading, playing cards, strolling on deck, studying the 
  Japanese language, studying Japanese geography and so 
  on. The ship has only one text on the Japanese language; 
  therefore anyone opting to do so will have already become 
  better acquainted any other player ‘students’. Likewise, 
  any characters who decided to gamble or play cards will 
  also be able to know each other better. 
  This option for introduction is a good opportunity for 
  the players to describe what their characters look like, 
  how they usually behave and any interesting bits of 
  The Other Passengers
  There are only three other paying passengers 
  onboard the ship during the current voyage 
  (although there are a number of sailors, of British, 
  Japanese and South American origin who are of no 
  interest to the characters).
  Mike Vincenzi – an Italian-American, he has a broad 
  New York accent, and is always impeccably attired 
  in a pin striped suit and fedora. He habitually rolls 
  a coin over his knuckles, and chews a matchstick, 
  spending most of his time playing cards with the 
  two other Japanese passengers. If questioned why 
  he is on his way to Tokyo, he simply says that he is 
  on ‘business’, and refuses to disclose any more. He 
  is something of a ladies man.
  Hiro and Yuusuke Fukushima – Japanese brothers, 
  heavily tattooed and wearing wooden sandals and 
  loose fitting robes. These two are very serious, 
  and seem to speak no English although they will 
  not answer to anyone in any language. They 
  spend most of their time playing cards with Mike 
  Vincenzi.
  It is probably impossible to tell, but Vincenzi and the 
  Fukushima brothers are actually working together, 
  their card games an elaborate system of code used 
  to arrange a deal to smuggle liquor to New York.
  
  The Unbound Book
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  Land of the Rising Dead
  19
  personal information that may have come to light on the 
  voyage so far.
  The trip to Tokyo from London takes about 4 weeks by 
  steamer and the characters arrive in early June, at the 
  start of summer. Tokyo is a little hot, and very humid at 
  the moment and as the rainy season is about to begin, the 
  air hangs moist, thick and heavy with the anticipation of 
  rain.
  The Dock
  Tokyo bay is bustling with activity - seaweed dries on 
  large bamboo boards, fishermen go about their work, 
  and bentoo (or boxed lunch) salesmen scream for sales 
  at the top of their lungs. On the docks, most people are 
  dressed in semi-traditional clothing - large baggy pants, 
  boots with the big toe separate and loose jackets adorned 
  with strange writing. Everywhere is a strong smell of 
  fish, and a sweaty aroma that seems to hang over the 
  dock. Hundreds of wooden buildings can be seen around 
  the waterfront – most of Tokyo’s buildings are wooden. 
  Once the characters have had a chance to take in the 
  sights they are met by a very polite Japanese man named 
  Takayuki Nakagawa, a representative of Speegle and 
  Sayo.  He is dressed in a Western style suit and hat and 
  as he has spent several years studying at Oxford, speaks 
  very good English.  Takayuki explains that he will be 
  escorting them to the reading of the Will, but for tonight 
  they will be taken to a nearby Pension (hotel) to rest and 
  recover from their voyage.
  The streets near the docks are very narrow, especially 
  travelling in Takayuki’s seven seater Mercedes, and the 
  multi-story wooden buildings lining each side of the 
  lanes are built so close to one another that they touch. 
  Telegraph lines drape overhead, as do the innumerable 
  signs and paper lanterns, which are covered with 
  indecipherable characters. Progress is slow, as every 
  cart or car they meet must find a side road to allow the 
  Mercedes past. Here and there, the locals stare intently 
  at the car and its passengers, their faces blank slates. 
  Only the children in the streets seem curious, while the 
  older citizens look mostly scornful. 
  As the car moves further away from the docks the roads 
  grow broader, and at last the Characters begin to see 
  Japanese people dressed in Western style clothing – suits 
  and hats for the most part. Now, all around, there is the 
  proliferation of bicycles and rickshaws, trams which run 
  up and down the streets and large brick buildings of false 
  European design.
  
  20
  The Unbound Book
  Land of the Rising Dead
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  The Pension
  A pension is a kind of Japanese hotel, a little similar to a 
  European Bed and Breakfast. The Pension at which the 
  characters are to stay is a small 1 level wooden house, 
  which is nestled between 2 much taller office buildings. 
  Inside their accommodation, the floors are tatami - a 
  woven straw mat. It is forbidden to wear shoes or even 
  slippers on this kind of flooring and the characters are 
  instructed to remove their shoes in the entrance hall 
  (genkan). 
  The Pension itself has a central bathroom, used by all 
  guests, which includes a deep (though not wide) tub, and 
  a small 3 legged stool. Most rooms are separated by thin 
  walls, and allow for easy eavesdropping. While 2 pairs of 
  rooms are separated only by sliding paper doors. When 
  there is strong light behind these doors it is possible to 
  view the movement and position of the silhouetted figures 
  in the next room. The Pension is only large enough for 
  8 guests, so the characters are the only people staying 
  here this night. The owners of the Pension are Anton and 
  Misako Scherer. 
  Dinner with the hosts, which consists of raw fish, 
  seaweed, a soup that smells of old socks, and giant 
  crabs eaten from the shell, is a light hearted and jovial 
  affair and allows the players to experience a little of the 
  Japanese culture.
  Anton and Misako (Pension Owners): Anton is originally 
  from Belgium and was a champion Judo player. He came 
  to Japan 13 years ago for an international tournament, 
  met his wife, and has lived here ever since.  He has not 
  heard of Kuroiyama Island or the law firm (or Seth Acres 
  for that matter), but will direct any enquiries about such 
  to his wife. If so asked, he can direct PCs to the nearby 
  libraries, local government offices, izakaya (pubs) and 
  so on. He is a loud jovial Belgian, with a great love for 
  Japan.
  Misako is native Japanese, with very little ability to 
  speak English. She is short (a little over 5 feet) and very 
  pretty with shoulder length black hair. Her age is very 
  hard to guess - she looks anywhere between 15 and 40. 
  If the Characters talk to her, she will say “Velly nice 
  customer san. Barseloom velly kureen. Eigo o sukoshi 
  wakarimasen (I understand only a little English)”. 
  If any mention of Kuroiyama is made, she looks very 
  concerned, and will say “Abunai desu yo! Abunai! Ikanai 
  de kudasai! Ikanai no ho ga ii desu,” which roughly 
  means “It’s dangerous! Dangerous! Please don’t go! It’s 
  better not to go”. She however lacks the ability to explain 
  her concerns further. If the smart thinking characters 
  ask Anton what she said, he’ll chuckle and tell them it’s 
  some kind of old wives tale, which makes no sense to him. 
  But, he continues, that isn’t uncommon, even after all his 
  years here in Tokyo.
  The Ghost in the Pension
  That night, around 1 in the morning, any character 
  making a successful listen roll is oddly awoken, although 
  by what they are unsure. Anyone succeeding the roll by 
  20 or more will remember hearing the faint sound of a 
  woman laughing. The sound, which continues now that 
  some of the group is awake, seems to be coming from the 
  roof of a random character’s room. If anyone present in 
  the room makes a successful Spot Hidden roll, they will 
  see the translucent hem of a white Kimono coming down 
  through the roof.
  As the characters watch, read the following -
  A Japanese woman, ghostly pale and shimmering, 
  descends into the centre of the room. Her eyes are wide 
  and staring, without pupils. Her mouth is split from ear 
  to ear in a huge grin - her teeth small but incredibly sharp. 
  She wears a triangle of cloth on her forehead. Waves of 
  anger and malice roll out from her as she floats slowly, 
  eerily toward you.
  This is the ghost sent by the allies of the Shinto Priests in 
  an attempt to scare the characters away. 
  As the group watches, she tilts her head to one side and 
  stares menacingly at the closest character, before drifting 
  into the next room. She continues to drift through the 
  rooms of all the characters, her eyes glowing ever redder, 
  and then, as suddenly as she appeared, she vanishes. 
  All witnesses of this event must make a San roll (0/3). 
  The woman is most definitely a ghost, and nothing the 
  characters can do will affect her.
  If the group decides to wake Anton, he doesn’t believe 
  their story, though his wife will appear terrified. While 
  characters searching the pension for secret doors find 
  only cobwebs, spiders, and an occasional grain of rice. 
  The crawlspace above the ceiling (below the sloped roof) 
  is particularly creepy, though it contains nothing of 
  note.
  Travelling to Kuroiyama Island
  In the morning the group is again met by Mr Takayuki, 
  who is still driving his very large Mercedes. Once all is 
  ready, he drives them back to the port, explaining that 
  he has arranged passage to Acres’ home on Kuroiyama 
  onboard a small fishing vessel. 
  At the docks two hardy looking Japanese men invite the 
  
  The Unbound Book
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  Land of the Rising Dead
  21
  group (including Takayuki) onto their vessel and into its 
  single cabin (although as the morning is fine, they have 
  no issue at all with characters remaining on the deck). 
  The fishermen do not speak to the group, but instead 
  gaze nervously up at the sky as they prepare to leave 
  port. 
  Gwillam (the player character and fisherman) soon 
  notices that other sailors in the harbour are tying up their 
  boats, as if a storm were coming, although pointing out 
  this fact has no effect on the preparations to the two men. 
  Soon enough the boat sails out through the harbour and 
  into the sea, just as above the skies darken and the wind 
  increases. The fishermen nervously drape bits of dead 
  fish (mixed with cucumber) over the back of the boat 
  and soon a few heavy drops of rain begin to fall. 
  The rain quickly grows into a deluge and about half 
  an hour later, anyone who succeeds in a Spot Hidden 
  or Boating roll notices the ship list in the water, as 
  something heavy is at one end of the fishing vessel. 
  Although the characters might believe that the boat 
  is taking on water, what has in fact come aboard are 
  2 Kappa (5 foot tall turtle monsters – see the sidebar 
  nearby), sent by the Shinto priests to stop the boat. 
  These creatures immediately attack the Captain and his 
  mate, and unless the characters get involved, will injure 
  them badly. If the Kappa succeed in mauling the crew, 
  they take the bits of fish and cucumber, and disappear 
  back into the sea, leaving the characters to sail the boat. 
  On the other hand, if the Kappa are driven off, the 
  fishermen are very grateful, and once on Kuroiyama 
  will take the group to the Inn and introduce them to the 
  locals. 
  Mr Takayuki doesn’t offer much assistance during the 
  skirmish, as he is in a state of shocked disbelief. “But 
  they’re just fairy stories!” he insists, refusing to believe 
  what he has seen. The fishermen, on the other hand, are 
  a superstitious pair, and while scared by the attack are 
  aware of such things’ existence.
   The remainder of the trip is without incident, and 
  the boat arrives at the island of Kuroiyama late in 
  the afternoon. Seeing the lateness of the day and the 
  continuing bad weather, Takayuki insists they stay in 
  the village overnight, before travelling to Seth’s mansion 
  the next morning.
  Kuroiyama Island
  At sea level the island is a very green and lush forest, but 
  as the viewer’s gaze looks steadily upwards the forested 
  slope of Kuroiyama gives way to the black and barren 
  landscape of the mountain, rising up over the island like 
  a dark shadow. The island itself has several important 
  locations which the characters are likely to visit - The 
  Village, The Old Temple, Seth’s Mansion, and The 
  Mountaintop. 
  As the evening wears on, the weather gets worse, as a 
  typhoon passes near the Island and the characters are 
  encouraged to seek shelter in the Inn (which is the only 
  place in the village to eat anyway!).
  The Village
  The characters eventually arrive in the small fishing 
  village of Kuroiyama-machi (Black Mountain Town). 
  There are about a dozen fishing boats moored just off the 
  beach, plus a few others in the harbour. At its centre, the 
  village has 4 large buildings - the Inn of the Pierced Fish, 
  the Police Station, The Post Office, and The Library. In 
  addition several smallish houses are scattered about the 
  bay and the entire village is surrounded by a number of 
  farms, consisting mainly of rice paddies and vegetable 
  gardens.
  The Post Office
  The single staff member gives his name as ‘Bob’. He is 
  a very enthusiastic, fat little man who has spent the last 
  few years studying English. Originally from Tokyo, he 
  was transferred to the Kuroiyama post office after he 
  hit a young boy whilst on his delivery rounds. He is a 
  Christian (as he will loudly tell the PCs) and is eager to 
  tell them anything he can:
  The Kappa
  Kappa are mythical Japanese water creatures. 
  They resemble four foot high humanoid turtles and 
  although not evil creatures are known to attack 
  humans. Kappa are very strong, and have some 
  gruesome habits, although they are also rumoured 
  to be very skilled healers, and are said to have taught 
  humans how to bind broken bones. They have sharp 
  beaks, webbed claws, and hard shells and have a 
  bone-like crown atop their heads, which they must 
  keep filled with water if they want to move about 
  on land. Their favourite food is cucumber and are 
  very fond of tradition – it is said that if you meet 
  a Kappa on land the best thing to do is to bow to 
  it. It will bow back, thus spilling the water from 
  its crown, forcing it to flee back to a river, lake or 
  sea.
  
  22
  The Unbound Book
  Land of the Rising Dead
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  Kuroiyama Island: “Every Spring and Fall there are 
  huge storms that sweep over the island, causing much 
  devastation. This building is very strong, so I don’t 
  have to worry. The locals are very superstitious - they 
  are not Christian like me!”
  Speegle and Sayo: “A lot of mail from them to Mr 
  Acres, and from Mr Acres to them, passed through 
  this office. All confidential of course!”
  Seth Acres: “He was a very good man - I met him 
  only twice, but he was a Christian, and his English 
  was very good. He said I spoke English very well. I 
  took his picture.”
  The Kuroiyama Library
  This is little more than a small shack, installed with a 
  couple of shelves of books, and an incomplete collection 
  of Tokyo newspapers, including some issues of ‘The 
  Japan Times’, an English language paper. Investigative 
  characters may find the following information:
  Kuroiyama Island – a few miles south of the 
  Southern tip of Chiba prefecture, this small island is 
  home to an insular fishing community. They speak 
  a dialect of Japanese unlike any other. Though trade 
  with mainland Japan has increased this century, 
  there is still no electricity or gas on the island, nor 
  any schools. In addition there is reference to ‘The 
  Legend of the Black Mountain’, a story involving the 
  drinking of blood and the secret to eternal life.
  Speegle and Sayo - a respectable law firm, with a long 
  tradition of practice. Bilingual since 1885.
  Seth Acres - he appears in island censuses from the 
  late 1800s. He has donated a dozen or so books to the 
  
  The Unbound Book
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  Land of the Rising Dead
  23
  library, including a complete set of encyclopaedias.
  The Police Station
  PCs may speak to Shinji, the island’s only police officer. 
  He is from Osaka, here on assignment for a 2 year term. 
  He does not speak any English, but is happy to use Mr 
  Takayuki as an interpreter.
  Shinji investigated the death of Mr Acres and will tell 
  the characters that Mr Acres’ body had seemed very 
  pale when he last saw it. Mr Acres’ personal physician, 
  Kentaro Yakimoto, examined the body and pronounced 
  the cause of death as ‘heart failure’. If anyone asks to see 
  the doctor’s report, Shinji will explain that it has been 
  sent to the record archives in Tokyo.
  The Inn of the Pierced Fish
  Takayuki will arrange the party’s rooms for the evening 
  at the Inn of the Pierced Fish, the characters placed 
  in the long building adjacent to the Inn. As with the 
  Pension, all of the rooms have tatami floors and sliding 
  rice paper doors. 
  In the Inn there are some quiet fishermen, and some very 
  quiet, eerily fishy fishermen. The innkeeper will serve 
  the characters fish, seaweed and rice with cold noodles, 
  and then converses with Takayuki in Japanese for a short 
  while. If the players ask Takayuki what the innkeeper 
  was talking about, he says he was asking about the 
  history of the island: 
  “This is an old folk tale of this island. Once there was a 
  powerful Samurai who wanted to live forever. He came 
  to this island, and learnt how to steal the power of the 
  forest. It seems that he lived on the blood of this village 
  for decades, until finally one of his great grandchildren 
  decided to cut his head off. How very quaint.”
  Throughout the night one particular fisherman seems 
  to be watching the group, although he might just be 
  drunk pretending to be drunk (a Spot Hidden roll is 
  required to notice this man watching the characters). If 
  questioned, he speaks little English, and claims to be a 
  simple fisherman. 
  The seemingly drunk fisherman is in fact Masao, a cultist 
  associated with the followers of Seth Acres and watches 
  to ensure the characters arrive at safely at the island. 
  He leaves the inn at around 9pm and heads out into the 
  wild weather, leading any character following him to his 
  odd dwelling. Here, observant characters notice huge 
  weblike tracks (belonging to Deep Ones) beneath one the 
  buildings’ windows, which, with a successful Track roll, 
  ltrack directly to the nearby beach. 
  On the outside Masao’s house looks very much like any 
  other in the village, but within there is considerable 
  difference. As part of Masao’s cult worship, his house has 
  become home to a shrine and sacrificial dagger dedicated 
  to the entity ‘Dagon’. Furthermore, it seems from the 
  evidence strewn around the house - clothing  that clearly 
  doesn’t belong to the fisherman (including items of 
  women’s apparel), strange stains etc., that he has been 
  kidnapping people (obviously from the mainland) and 
  sacrificing them to his gods. If the cultist is confronted, 
  he will attempt to flee if at all possible. Masao uses the 
  same statistics as the rest of Seth’s followers (see NPC 
  statistics at the end of this adventure).
  If the PCs do not follow Masao, he will return in the 
  middle of the night and will linger outside their rooms 
  spying on them. In this event all characters should receive 
  a chance to hear him prowling around and anyone who 
  succeeds a Listen roll by 20 or more will be woken by the 
  cultist’s movements. Again if he is seen he will attempt to 
  flee back to his shack.
  The Trek to the Mansion 
  The next morning the group, with Takayuki leading 
  way,   must travel through thick forests and climb high 
  up the ‘green’ portion of the mountain. The path is not 
  easy, and it is hot and sticky. 
  After a couple of hours of travelling the hindmost person 
  in the group hears tittering noises, and the sound of 
  small creatures moving about in the trees, although 
  nothing can be seen. About the same moment the party 
  comes across a teapot in the middle of the path. It is large 
  and brown – and for all intents and purposes a fairly 
  standard teapot.
  Of course the teapot is more than it first seems and in 
  fact is a Tanuki, a kind of magical mischievous racoon 
  that can change its shape at will. The Tanuki has been 
  sent by the Shinto monks to keep an eye on the party. If 
  the characters decide to pick up the pot, it indeed seems to 
  be a typical example of Japanese tea pot and the Tanuki 
  will happily travel along with the party.
  If nobody picks up the teapot, about 100 metres further 
  up the track they will come across it again, laying on the 
  path in front of them. This will happen again and again 
  until taking the hint the Tanuki scampers off ahead 
  (and will be waiting in one of the bedrooms of Seth’s 
  mansion. If the PCs try to damage the teapot, it will yelp 
  and scamper away (though how it runs without legs the 
  characters are unable to figure out). 
  As time and pacing allow, the Keeper may also want to 
  
  24
  The Unbound Book
  Land of the Rising Dead
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  include the following events:
  One of the characters catches a glimpse of a 3 foot tall 
  cyclops in the woods, which then quickly disappears 
  (another Tanuki). Seeing this costs (0/1) San.
  A small girl walks by the group ignoring them, and 
  then as she moves away her neck begins to grow and 
  stretch, until her head is swaying about atop a huge, 
  snakelike appendage. She too runs into the trees and 
  disappears (these are common Tanuki tricks). 0/1 
  San loss.
  If any of the group ask Takayuki about these strange 
  ‘visitations’, he is just as confused as the rest of the party 
  and unable to provide an explanation.
  Monks and Cultists Battle
  Once again the weather deteriorates as the party continues 
  its climb, and soon thunder crashes and lightning flashes 
  overhead. Eventually the group reaches the eastern bank 
  of a river, along which the path follows for a mile or so, 
  before they see it crosses the water by means of a small 
  wooden bridge. On the far bank the path doubles back to 
  almost where the characters now stand. 
  As they begin the long trip to travel, what should have 
  really been, a short distance across the river, they 
  suddenly make out the sounds of clashing steel and the 
  dim distant cries of men in battle across the other side of 
  the tumultuous river. 
  It takes the characters a good half hour to reach the 
  bridge, cross over it and cover the mile or so back to 
  the battle site. Here, there are many footprints but 
  surprisingly few bodies, all of which are priests dressed 
  in Shinto garb. Amongst the debris of the fight, there is 
  a large book, written in Chinese. Within it also contains 
  illustrations of Deep Ones, Byakhee, Kappa, and many 
  other Mythos monsters, costing the reader one point of 
  SAN just looking at the pictures. If the party lingers, 
  Takayuki urges them to press on, stating that once they 
  reach the safety of Acres’ mansion word can be sent back 
  to the police of the tragedy here. 
  Although there is little the characters can surmise 
  from the scene, it is here, in a desperate attempt to stop 
  Seth’s plans, that the Priests battled a number of Acre’s 
  followers.  
  The Shinto Priests’ Hideout
  If any of the characters think to ask a number of tracks 
  lead off into the forest at a tangent to the path they were 
  to follow. A successful Track roll will allow the group to 
  
  The Unbound Book
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  Land of the Rising Dead
  25
  follow the trail, and after a half hour’s march through 
  the forest (there is no real path to speak of) they lead to 
  what appears to be an abandoned Shinto shrine. 
  Here there are 2 buildings, both made entirely of wood 
  built using an interlocking pattern (there are no nails). 
  The roofs of both structures are sloped and intricately 
  carved with dragon head designs.
  In front of the shrine, an old man dressed in white 
  and cream robes can be seen kneeling before a carved 
  wooden statue of a many armed woman. This is the only 
  remaining Shinto priest, the headman of the sect - a 
  gnarled figure, his long thin hair and beard drooping, 
  his eyes completely white and unseeing. 
  Immediately aware of the character’s presence, he will tell 
  them that “Your coming is as the spark to the tinder, you 
  will burn us all!”, before lapsing into silence and refusing 
  to speak any further.  If the characters search the shrine 
  (the head priest will not try and stop them) they find a 
  list of all their names, along with a photographs of Anita 
  and Gwillam. 
  Seth’s Mansion 
  Seth’s Mansion, a 3 level, Western style home, sits at the 
  edge of the forest, where the mountain begins its final 
  drive to the barren black peak. 
  Reaching the front door, the party is welcomed by 2 
  servants, and offered refreshments after their long 
  journey. Once they have recovered from the day’s 
  exertions the 2 servants, Jim and Frank (Ryuji and Yoto) 
  - the only two in the house – will give the group a tour 
  of the grounds. 
  After this introduction to the estate, they will be shown 
  to their individual rooms, and find that their baggage 
  has already been delivered. If nobody picked up the 
  teapot (Tanuki) on trip to the mansion, it will now be 
  sitting amongst one of the character’s luggage, where it 
  will remain until it is required. 
  Shortly afterwards, Takayuki informs the group that 
  they will have the afternoon to rest - lunch will be 
  brought up to them - and that dinner will be at 6pm. He 
  asks them to dress appropriately.
  Exploring the Mansion
  Guest Bedrooms – For all practical purposes identical, the 
  guest rooms are well furnished with beds and dressing 
  tables. The windows at the front of the house look out 
  onto the forest, at those to the rear onto the steep slopes 
  of black and brown rock.
  Master Bedroom – The door to Seth’s room is locked, 
  although within there is a large 4 poster bed, a bookshelf, 
  and a large chest of drawers. The bookshelf contains 
  several occult tomes, including the parchments Father 
  Patrick is looking for. In addition, there is an enormous 
  sacrificial dagger displayed on top of the chest of drawers, 
  and a pair of ornate, but working, shotguns hung on one 
  of the walls. Despite the fact that Seth died more than a 
  month ago, the room still feels occupied.
  The Dining Room – This is an opulently decorated room, 
  dominated by a long polished wood table. A portrait of 
  Seth dressed in a kimono hangs over the fireplace.
  Museum – Housing Seth’s collection of artefacts 
  collected on his many travels, it displays items of mainly 
  Eastern origin. Included in these are some fantastic (and 
  valuable) pieces - an Oni (demon) mask, oddly decadent 
  Thai statues, and old parchments covered in Eastern 
  writings and pictures.
  Library - Seth’s library contains many classic works of 
  English fiction - in one corner, beside a very comfortable 
  looking armchair, a small side table can be seen, upon 
  which sits the collected works of Sir Arthur Conan 
  Doyle. Seth also stored a few occult tomes, and a small 
  collection of Japanese books  here. Each of the Japaneses 
  books accompanied by a notebook, detailing Seth’s 
  rough translations. For most part these books deal with 
  Shinto and Buddhist religions, as well as local folk lore, 
  mythology and magic. There is also a complete account 
  of the legend of Kuroiyama (see Land Handout 2).
  Shrine - This room contains a 4 foot high Shinto shrine, 
  complete with incense and a bell suspended from the 
  roof on a long rope. This room is scrupulously clean. 
  Perceptive characters may note that the floor here shows 
  no signs of wear – as if no one has ever used the Shrine. 
  (Seth was briefly taken with Japanese religion, before 
  converting to the dark path of Cthulhu worship)
  Servant’s Quarters – Obviously the servants will try to 
  stop the group entering their rooms, locking the doors if 
  necessary. The quarters are sparsely furnished, without 
  beds, instead with futon mattresses rolled up in the 
  cupboards, along with their clothes. In the top of the 
  cupboards there are several weapons, including several 
  vicious looking knives, swords, guns and clubs.
  Kitchen – A well stocked and fairly typical 1920’s 
  kitchen.
  Games Room - A billiards table, card table, and a 
  telescope are to be found here. The stairs to this room 
  are easy to barricade, and due to the shape of the house, 
  it is relatively easy to jump from the windows to the roof 
  
  26
  The Unbound Book
  Land of the Rising Dead
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  of the first floor, then down to the ground (if a hasty 
  escape is required).
  Basement – The door to the basement is locked and 
  constantly under watch. Although generally used for 
  storage - here there are 6 extra futon sets and a large 
  quantity of various foods - the basement is also the 
  current resting place of Acres. Laid out on a makeshift 
  table in the Cold Store, the body of Seth is wrapped in 
  a white sheet. If the characters get the chance to inspect 
  the corpse closely, he has needle marks in his arms and 
  thighs, where his blood was ritually drained. He does not 
  move, or breathe, but the characters get the eerie feeling 
  that he is somehow aware of them. There is also a locked 
  door in one corner of the basement which leads into the 
  mountain itself, through a series of caves and a long 
  winding tunnel that leads (eventually) back to the beach. 
  Inside the cave there are also manacles, bloodstains, 
  robes, and all the accoutrements of ritual sacrifice.
  The Shared Dream
  The following sequence occurs as a result of Seth’s 
  presence in the house and it advised to not let the players 
  know that this is a dream. Instead ask them how they 
  are dressed for dinner, then describe the dining room 
  and meal:
  “The long polished wood table is adorned with succulent 
  meats, potatoes, grilled fish, fresh vegetables, and crystal 
  glasses filled with wine. Soft candlelight fills the room 
  with a warm glow, as you sit down and feel the stress of 
  your journey melt away.”
  Allow the players to make conversation amongst 
  themselves if they wish. But then notify them that they 
  suddenly realise that they have not seen any servants (the 
  meal was waiting when they arrived), and that Takayuki 
  is missing. Immediately, before anyone can do anything 
  to investigate the situation, they hear heavy footfalls in 
  the hall outside. Moments later the door near the library 
  swings open, and Seth Acres walks in, smiling - those 
  who have met him before will recognise him instantly, 
  while the others take a few seconds to match him to the 
  portrait over the fireplace. Seth is incredibly pale, but 
  his eyes are bright in the candlelight. He smiles at the 
  characters and talks with them quite casually.
  “Thank you for coming - it’s a great pleasure to see you 
  all here. I’m so looking forward to eating all of you, 
  especially...” his gaze lingers long on his blood relatives 
  Anita and Gwillam.
  If asked whether he is alive, he will reply “Alive? 
  Difficult to say. My body lies still, yet here I am. I shall 
  be wearing my old flesh soon enough, but stronger than 
  ever. Whatever I am, I have most definitely not passed 
  into the great beyond.”
  Seth is quite happy to make polite conversation, 
  recommending dishes from the table, and talking about 
  the weather on the island. As he points to the various 
  dishes on the table, they rot and putrefy instantly. After 
  about 10 minutes of Seth’s company, the doors again 
  swing silently open, and the 2 servants, accompanied 
  by 6 more Japanese cultists, enter the room bearing 
  weapons. They encircle the characters and attempt to 
  tie them up. As soon as anyone reacts with any sort 
  of violence or all the characters allow themselves to be 
  bound, the dream ends.
  Instantaneously all the party wakes, dressed in their 
  finest dinner clothes, they lay on their beds. Outside it is 
  dark and all available time pieces say that it is in the early 
  hours of the morning. They have no memory of the real 
  dinner, or how they got into these clothes or into bed.
  
  The Unbound Book
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  Land of the Rising Dead
  27
  The Empty House
  When the characters emerge from their bedrooms, the 
  house is eerily silent - the cultists have taken Seth’s 
  body up to the mountaintop to prepare for the ritual & 
  Takayuki has gone back down to the village to tell the 
  police about the dead priests. If the players decide to 
  flee at this point, they will have to stumble through the 
  dark house, out into the unfamiliar forest, and down the 
  mountain. If they do this, the teapot Tanuki will help 
  them, moving ahead of them as a dim light on the path, 
  unable to be identified but providing enough illumination 
  to help them stay on the path. 
  The Reading of the Will
  If the players stay in the house, Takayuki returns in the 
  early morning. He has been talking to the police about 
  the dead priests and knows nothing of the shared dream. 
  Rightfully worried at the events of the previous days 
  and now for the sanity of his charges, he will gather the 
  group in one of the mansion’s rooms as soon as he is able. 
  He performs a head count, and once satisfied that all are 
  present, he opens the sealed will. At the same moment, 
  there is a rush of a cold breeze through the room and the 
  faintest hint of laughter carries on the air. 
  The will reads as follows:
  My dear relatives and associates,
  I am so pleased that you could all be here, to take part in 
  my legacy. Long ago I learned of the secret of Kuroiyama, 
  the black mountain. I learned how a man might devour 
  the spirit of the mountain god, then survive on the blood 
  of mortals. Sadly, the first taste of blood I took needed to 
  be blood of my blood...my family. For this I had my men 
  drain the blood from my body, my corpse placed in storage, 
  and stage my funeral. Yes, all that simply to get you here, 
  and now, in turn, devour your essence. I must thank you 
  for travelling so far. Of course, you who are not my family, 
  you will be a most delicious second course, allowing my 
  palate to become accustomed to a cosmopolitan diet. I thank 
  you all, and look forward to eating you atop Kuroiyama, 
  the Black Mountain.
  Seth Acres
  Immediately upon the will being read 8 Servants 
  (cultists) enter the room. The cultists do not want to kill 
  the characters, as they need them for the ritual, but they 
  menace them, tie them and Takayuki up and drag them 
  up to the top of the mountain. 
  As they are leaving the house, the character that has the 
  teapot (either as a result of picking it up or by virtue of 
  it choosing their room to hide in) realises that it is now 
  clinging onto their belt, trying to look like it is tied on. 
  The Ritual at the top of Kuroiyama
  The climax of this adventure is a good old fight to the 
  death (or in Seth’s case re-death). The players should 
  be able to free themselves and fight the cultists, though 
  their chances of surviving the fight are not good. Stats 
  for Seth and the cultists can be found at the end of the 
  adventure.
  Upon the top of the mountain stands a circle of white 
  sand, and now that all is in readiness, in the centre of 
  the circle lies Seth Acres’ body. The group is thrown to 
  the ground outside the circle and immediately the cultists 
  begin to chant - throwing powders and oils onto the 
  corpse of their master, and generally working themselves 
  into a frenzy. 
  As the ritual reaches its peak the body of Seth begins to 
  move, and the cultists pour blood from glass jars into the 
  undead’s mouth. This horrible site requires a San check 
  from all present (1/1d6).
  With all the distraction going on it is a good time for 
  the party members to try and escape. Each may try to 
  escape their bonds (STR 18 rope) or the teapot Tanuki 
  will attempt to free the players. 
  As the ceremony concludes, the body of Seth Acres is once 
  again reunited with its life blood, and then rises to begin 
  the last act of its resurrection - draining the blood from 
  the characters. To being with Seth will focus on Gwillam 
  and Anita at which the cultists get very excited and start 
  to cut themselves, offering their blood to Acres.
  To give the characters more time a Keeper could have 
  Seth kill 1 or 2 of his own cultists in his weakened state 
  (in an attempt to gain strength for the attacks on his 
  ‘guests’). But eventually the battle will come down to 
  whether or not the party (and Takayuki) can wear down 
  Seth before they are all consumed!
  Resolution
  Depending on what the PCs choose to do after the 
  dream, the game can have a few different endings. If 
  they fled, they can eventually find a fishing boat to take 
  them back to Tokyo, where they are able to book tickets 
  for home. The law firm Sayo and Speegle will be curious 
  as to why they are leaving, but will help them if they 
  insist. The night before the PCs are scheduled to leave 
  the cultists attempt to drug them and take them back to 
  the Island, where they are used as fuel in the ritual to 
  resurrect Seth.
  
  28
  The Unbound Book
  Land of the Rising Dead
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 - 
  If they stayed and Takayuki read the will they may 
  have possibly escape and overcome Seth, or they may be 
  killed. If the PCs succeed in defeating Seth, they regain 
  1d8 Sanity.
  If they kill the servants and Takayuki, they will be able 
  to escape back to Tokyo, and onto a ship. Although it is 
  highly likely that if they ever return to Japan, they will 
  be arrested for murder.
  No matter what the outcome of the adventure is, three 
  months after the conclusion of the events of this story 
  Japan is hit by a massive earthquake (The Great Kanto 
  Earthquake, 1st September 1923) which destroys huge 
  sections of Tokyo, Yokohama and the surrounding 
  plains. As a result of the earthquake the island of 
  Kuroiyama sinks beneath the waves, and is lost forever 
  to Japanese history.
  NPC Statistics
  The Kappa
  Four foot tall turtle-like water creatures, currently in the 
  employ of the Shinto Priests.
  STR: 16    DEX: 15     APP: 2    CON: 16 
  SIZ: 9       INT: 4      POW: 16   EDU: 4 
  HP: 12     
  Damage Bonus:+1d4 
  Skills:Claw/Punch 45% (2d4 Damage),  Bite 45 %, (1d6 
  Damage)
  Armour: 2 point shell (reduces all damage by 2).
  Seth Acres
  Recently deceased Cult leader. He will rise from the dead 
  in the final scene to confront the characters. He is a well 
  educated man, with a keen interest in the occult practices 
  of the Orient. His personality (and ghost) permeates his 
  Mansion (the site of the reading of the will).
  STR: 17    DEX: 15    APP: 2    CON: 16 
  SIZ: 12      INT: 17     POW: 16   EDU:19 
  HP: 12     
  Damage Bonus:+1d4 
  Skills:Punch 75% (1d4 Damage).
  Spells - 
  Choke Victim - (holds one hand up in a choking shape, 1 
  chosen humanoid in sight begins to choke, losing 1d6 hit 
  points per round). Costs 1 magic point per turn.
  Telekinesis - (exaggerated gestures with both hands, can 
  move a full grown man or similar weight at walking 
  pace). Costs 2 magic points per turn.
  Seth Acres’ fanatic followers.
  The following is a typical exmple of one of Seth’s 
  dedicated servants.
  STR: 12    DEX: 10    APP: 9    CON: 12 
  SIZ: 10      INT: 10     POW: 8   EDU:9 
  HP: 11     
  Damage Bonus: nil 
  Skills:Punch 50% (1d4 Damage), .32 Pistol 30% (1d8 
  Damage), Sword 35%, (1d8 Damage).
  Takayuki Nakagawa
  An employee of Speegle & Sayo, Takayuki is tasked 
  with taking the group to the reading of Seth Acre’s 
  will. Highly sceptical  of all ‘paranormal’ activity, he 
  will soon wonder why he was choosen to escort ‘such a 
  group’.
  STR: 14   DEX: 10    APP: 10    CON: 12 
  SIZ: 10     INT: 13     POW: 8   EDU:18 
  HP:12    
  Damage Bonus: nil 
  Skills:Punch 50% (1d4 Damage), Act cool calm and 
  collected in all situations (95%)
  On the Unbound Book Website 
  The Land of The Rising Dead
  - D20 Stats for The Land of the Rising Dead
  - Large print friendly maps by David Conyers
  - All the pre-generated characters required to 
  run this adventure
  Visit the Unbound Book Website @
   www.unboundbook.org
  
  The Unbound Book
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  The Art of Rebeecca Smith-Cruz
  29
  The Art Of Rebecca Smith-Cruz -  
  A Special Tribute
  Rebecca is one of our regular volunteer artists here 
  at The Unbound Book. She is responsible for the 
  magazine’s great logo and has contributed to both 
  ‘full’ issues published so far. 
  By day Beckie is the Creative Director at MSDatastep 
  (www.msdatastep.com) where her responsibilities 
  include developing the look and feel of client web sites, 
  and refining the company’s own corporate identity.
  Her own website (www.cruzspace.com) has many 
  examples of her art and sketches, but we here at The 
  Unbound Book thought that if she going to so much 
  trouble for us then it was only right that we show you 
  some of the outstanding work she has completed for 
  our next issue.
  
  Introduction
  This is a short, one or two session, adventure for D20 Call of 
  Cthulhu. Designed for two to five novice Investigators, it is set in 
  Texas anytime during the 1920s, but can be adapted to any other 
  time or setting with relative ease.
  The Investigators are hired to escort a released military prisoner 
  from his prison in Texas to New York. However, during his 
  release, the prisoner went crazy and has shot his way into Mexico, 
  seemingly intent on returning to the dread temple he discovered 
  years earlier.
  Keeper’s Background
  During his service in Mexico, Private Peter Hancock and the 
  fellows of his company discovered a mysterious and primitive 
  village in the desert, set atop a massive plateau. Camping on the 
  mesa at their Sergeant’s whim, the inquisitive Hancock discovered 
  a secret temple from an earlier age, dedicated to Yog-Sothoth. 
  Inside, Hancock discovered an esoteric book written in Spanish 
  “El Libro de Puertas” or in English “The Book of Gates”. With 
  discovery in hand, he returned to the camp and searched out one 
  of his fellow soldiers to translate it, eventually discovering Private 
  White could read its contents. What occurred during the next few 
  hours, Hancock could never really explain, but by morning White 
  was dead and Hancock had wandered out into the desert night. In 
  a crazed state, his sanity barely intact, he staggered through the 
  sand parched wilderness for days until, more by luck than design, 
  a patrol from a nearby US encampment discovered the sun fried 
  deserter. In the court-martial that followed, Hancock gained a stay 
  of execution. His condition seen as extenuating circumstances, he 
  was confined to the stockades in Fort Partch, an obscure prison 
  camp on the Texas/Mexico border. 
  For nine long years Hancock has rotted in his prison, his obsession 
  with the temple and its power growing each and every day. 
  Involving the Investigators
  The investigators should be brought into the adventure via an 
  appropriate contact, someone who’s good at finding the group 
  odd jobs and the like. In this case the Investigator’s contact has 
  been asked to find someone who can escort a particularly unstable 
  prisoner back East, although (s)he merely informs the investigators 
  that the job is ‘simply an escort for a former prisoner’. 
  If the Investigators seem interested they can be told the following: 
  The convict’s name is Peter Hancock. He was incarcerated for 
  desertion while doing service in Mexico a few years ago. The 
  task simply involves escorting him to New York safely. 
  The army is offering $75 for each escort and the job should take 
  four or five days at most. 
  Horror on 
  the Mesa
  (A D20 Adventure)
  By Michael Mahony
  30
  The Unbound Book
  Horror on the Mesa
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  ‘Halloween Man’ 2004 Alan M. Clark
  
  The Unbound Book
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  Horror on the Mesa
  31
  They are required to leave next Saturday. Travel 
  will be by train, with tickets paid both ways.
  If the players agree, the contact gives them the train 
  tickets and forwards each Investigator ten dollars.  The 
  rest of the week is the party’s own to do as they wish and 
  prepare for the trip south. 
  On To Texas
  The train ride to Texas is uneventful and the Investigators 
  arrive in the small town of Partch at around 9AM. 
  Partch is a tiny settlement, little more than a main street 
  and a few houses in the middle of the desert. It’s hot, 
  sun-scorched and miserable. At the train station the 
  group is greeted by Captain Welcome Harris, a genial 
  Texas man who prefers to be called by his first name. 
  Welcome introduces himself and says that he is here to 
  take the group to the prison, Fort Partch, and explain 
  the ‘unfortunate’ situation that has arisen. 
  “Hancock has escaped! Yep, gone and busted himself 
  out of Partch jus’n two days afore he was goin’ to be 
  released.  Lookin like he got himself a gun and shot his 
  way into the desert. And the damn fool is on foot. Look, 
  we when a tracking him but he made his way into Mexico 
  before we could catch ‘im, and the Army can’t just go 
  marching into another country unless we’re invited.” He 
  pauses allowing you to take in what he has been saying 
  “See here, invites take a while and who knows where the 
  crazy Fella’ll be by the time we all mount up? So... we’re 
  a wondering if you all’d go after him for us... we’ll make 
  it worth your while”. 
  Welcome is authorised to pay what it takes to get the 
  party to accept the task of crossing over into Mexico 
  and tracking down Hancock, but he won’t tell the 
  Investigators that, of course. If the group is reluctant he 
  will state that they are on Army territory now and they 
  have ways in which to ‘encourage’ cooperation. 
  Once the group agrees (and they really don’t have an 
  option not to), Harris states that the government wants 
  Hancock back alive... otherwise he doesn’t care what 
  condition he’s in, saying that his men have ‘business’ with 
  him once he is back in custody. 
  Fort Partch
  A satellite settlement near to the town of the same name, 
  Fort Partch is a fairly lackluster military prison. The 
  base contains the normal prison arrangements (prisoner 
  barracks, warden’s quarters, stockades, etc.) as well as 
  an uninspiring staff bar. 
  Upon their arrival, Captain Harris shows the 
  Investigators where the shoot out took place (near the 
  gates), and shows them Hancock’s only remaining 
  personal effects - A journal (See Mesa Handout 1) and 
  a map of Las Portos (A Spanish check (DC 10) will note 
  that the name of the town means ‘The Town of Gates’), a 
  tiny settlement in Mexico a few days south. On the map 
  an unexplained red ‘X’ can be seen on top of a massive 
  plateau to the south to the town proper. Naturally Harris 
  assumes that’s where Hancock is going and suggests that 
  the party stops by the Supply Depot before heading out 
  after the prisoner, as ‘he wouldn’t want ‘em dying out in 
  the desert’.
  In any of the Investigators decided to visit the staff bar 
  to discuss the missing man, they find that they aren’t 
  particularly welcome - the wretched heat makes people 
  fairly unfriendly. Although the guards don’t talk much, 
  they will say Hancock ranted a lot, mainly about a ‘Gate 
  and a Key’. 
  Anyone in the camp can give the group a generic 
  description of Hancock, which in hindsight is pretty 
  useless, “About six feet tall, pretty thin and very pale 
  with long, dirty black hair and beard”.
  The officer in charge of the Supply Depot is much more 
  helpful. Informed ahead of time to outfit the Investigators 
  for the rough journey across the desert, he will supply 
  them with horses and  enough food and water for all 
  (including Hancock once he is captured) to last the two 
  days journey to Las Portos. He is also able to supply the 
  Investigators with whatever additional supplies they may 
  require (at the GMs discretion of course), including guns 
  and ammunition, desert survival equipment, etc.  
  Travelling South
  Travelling to the location shown on the map is simple 
  enough in theory; just two hard days ride south of Fort 
  Partch until one reaches Las Portos. However, while the 
  journey may be uneventful, it’s an arduous trip on both 
  horse and rider. The days are dreadfully hot and the 
  nights uncomfortably cold. While there’s actually little 
  to do on the ride, GMs may wish to draw the journey out 
  to make the players feel how wretched the trip really is.
  Odd Cacti
  As the party makes camp at the end of the first day of 
  travel, one of the investigators notices a strange brown 
  and misshapen cactus a little ways off their camp. On 
  closer examination the succulent seems oddly deformed 
  but in every other way normal from the outside. Should 
  
  32
  The Unbound Book
  Horror on the Mesa
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  anyone decide to cut it open, however, it is found to be 
  teeming with hordes of spiders. These range in size from 
  a tiny half inch through to a massive 6 inches. Once 
  exposed to the elements, the spiders scurry off in all 
  directions, including all over the poor Investigator who 
  attacked the cactus.  Although harmless, the experience 
  costs the character 0/1d2 San loss.
  A Sign of Hancock
  As the party is starting out on the second day of travel, 
  a successful Spot check (DC 15) espies a goat carcass off 
  to one side of their route. On closer examination it is 
  clear that the goat has been cut up with a knife for its 
  meat, although now more than 24 hours later the body 
  is filled with beetles. A sequential Spot check (DC 20) 
  will allow any of the Investigators to see the remains of a 
  fire pit. Built with strips of wood placed under rocks, to 
  provide heat for cooking and reduce smoke, it is obvious 
  to any Investigator with the appropriate skills that the 
  fire is about a day old. It would appear that Hancock was 
  definitely travelling this way.
  Las Portos
  The investigators arrive at Las Portos late on the second 
  afternoon. The village is a fairly typical example of 
  Mexican architecture, with many small adobe homes 
  clustered together, most, if not all older than any of 
  the residents. All show signs of wear expressed by 
  dilapidation caused by the sun’s rays and sweltering heat. 
  The locals are surprisingly disinterested at the arrival of 
  the Investigators, and won’t even bother to acknowledge 
  them unless they’re directly approached. 
  To begin with the group will be hard pressed to find 
  anyone who speaks English, but with perseverance (the 
  use of signs etc.), any of them will direct the Investigators 
  to the hotel in the center of town. 
  Alasandro
  Before the group reaches the hotel, or if they are having 
  a particularly difficult time communicating with the 
  locals, they are stopped by a teenage Mexican, carrying 
  an old Thompson SMG. The boy explains in broken 
  English that his name is Alasandro and solicits himself 
  to the party as a guide. He will ask for payment for his 
  services, but will take whatever the Investigators offer, 
  even if the offer is next to nothing - he really just wants 
  to tag along.
  Whether accepting Alasandro’s services is a positive or 
  not is left up to the individual, although the young man 
  has an overblown image of all Americans being cowboys 
  and will pester the group as to why they’re not “being 
  cowboy enough”. Alasandro knows the best way to get 
  to the mesa and knows enough about both locations to 
  act as a decent, if over excited, guide.  
  The Hotel 
  If the party goes to the hotel where Hancock was staying, 
  there is a 25% chance he will be at the bar.  Otherwise 
  he’s in hiding in his room, paranoid that everyone knows 
  of his secrets.
  The bar patrons don’t have much information to supply 
  the group with, not even the woman who stands behind 
  the bar. What they can say is - 
  A man matching Hancock’s description is indeed 
  staying at the hotel (or if he is in the bar they will 
  point him out!)
  He is horribly sun-burned, as if he hasn’t even tried 
  to protect himself out in the sun.
  He is always armed, with a couple of pistols and 
  came in carrying an automatic rifle.
  Finally, he is roughly dressed, wearing a tattered 
  prison uniform sporting the signs of long term wear 
  and tear.  
  Dealing with Hancock
  Hancock isn’t overly aggressive, just insane; he won’t 
  even suspect that the Investigators are after him, the 
  thought never crosses his deluded mind. If one of the group 
  decides to hold a conversation with him, he just babbles 
  about “the mesa” or “the keeper of the key who holds 
  the gate”. His speech is a little incoherent, and slightly 
  distant, and if the Investigators bother him for too long, 
  he retreats back to his room in a fit of paranoia. 
  His room is mostly empty, with just his stolen Browning 
  standing out. However anyone making even a cursory 
  search of the room soon sees that Hancock has stuffed 
  a few pages of paper under the bed. These pages are a 
  fairly inaccurate handwritten copy of the spell ‘Open the 
  Deceased Gate’ from the book ‘Liber de Portos’. 
  Anyone reading the spell (at the cost of 1 point of Sanity) 
  notices that the pages describe a ceremony involving the 
  spilling of a considerable quantity of blood over a strange 
  symbol (which some may be able to identify as the sign 
  of Yog-Sothoth), and something called “a piece of the 
  Key”. Any investigator who is aware of or knows the 
  spell ‘Call Yog-Sothoth’ will recognize this ceremony, 
  although will be able to tell that it is different in many 
  
  The Unbound Book
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  Horror on the Mesa
  33
  ways to the ceremony they have knowledge of (although 
  why is is so different is not immediately obvious).  
  If Hancock is left unmolested by the group he soon 
  leaves for the Mesa. However, if the investigators decide 
  to take a direct approach to capturing their man they 
  will discover that this is much more difficult proposition 
  then they are expecting from a crazy man. 
  Hancock is ruthlessly devoted to completing his objectives 
  and will NOT allow himself to be taken alive.  He is 
  heavily armed, especially if he can again access to the 
  Browning in his room. Also unlike the characters, he has 
  no compunction about killing his attackers. In addition 
  Hancock has a strange ability to avoid being trapped and 
  will at the soonest possibility make for the mesa.
  Wasting Time
  If the Investigators spend too much time getting to and/
  or staying in Los Portos, Hancock still makes his way to 
  the temple as scripted and conducts the ritual, with the 
  same horrible result. The village on the Mesa (see below) 
  is now empty however, save for the Elder’s mummy and 
  the Servitors are no longer in the temple. Likewise the 
  Liber de Portos and the Piece of Yog-Sothoth are now 
  gone and it is pretty obvious that the Investigators have 
  blown their mission.
  The Mesa
  Hancock’s goal is to reach the mesa, about a mile south 
  of Las Portos. The sun-blazed route to the plateau 
  is extremely inhospitable and offers any number of 
  opportunities to Hancock to evade capture. The mesa 
  itself is several hundred feet high and extremely difficult 
  to scale; the best way up being via the carved path at the 
  rear of the mesa (i.e. the side furthest from Las Portos). 
  Once atop the mesa the Investigators immediately notice 
  a small gathering of huts scattered around roughly the 
  location Hancock marked on his map.
  The Nameless Village
  The tiny village on top of the mesa has no name, at least 
  none known to Alasandro or any of the Las Portos locals. 
  All anyone can say about it is that it has been at least as 
  long as Las Portos (and in all likelihood much longer), 
  and its native Mexican Indian residents have very little 
  to do the Spanish Mexicans of the town (although on a 
  the rare occasion they are seen along the main street, 
  conducting some personal affair or another).
  The village itself is little more than a collection of 
  adobe buildings, all of a very similar age and showing 
  much wear and tear. Once the party gets closer they 
  do indeed see that the settlement is inhabited, although 
  its inhabitants move silently around the town, doing the 
  very same primitive day-to-day tasks that their ancestors 
  were completing a thousand years ago. None of the 
  villagers seem to want to speak to the Investigators, 
  although they do give the group disapproving glares if 
  they interrupt them or disturb the focus of their current 
  task . Alasandro recommends the group goes to see the 
  Elder, as he is the native seen most often in Las Portos 
  and speaks some Spanish. 
  The Elder
  The Elder’s home is located on the outskirts of town and is 
  a building no different than any of the others. The Elder 
  himself is an ancient, pencil thin man, his appearance 
  telling a story of a long, hard life. He will reluctantly 
  converse with either the investigators or if none speal 
  Spanish through Alasandro. He is unaware if Hancock’s 
  is nearby, although he does remember the company of 
  soldiers who stayed here ten years earlier. 
  If asked about a temple he will simply state that they 
  have none as nobody in the village believes in anything 
  they can’t see. 
  Hancock’s Move
  While the Investigators talk with the Elder, Hancock 
  makes his move.  Finding his way to the home in which 
  the entrance of the Temple lies (and where he was billetted 
  all those years ago), he attacks and kills the buildings 
  residents.
  The attacks are not silent however, and although the 
  Indian family is quickly overwhelmed by the crazed man, 
  the sounds of his gun firing echoes eerily off the adobe 
  walls of the town. Immediately alerted that something 
  is wrong, the characters, with the village Elder in tow, 
  soon discover that a crowd of the strangely silent Indians 
  have gathered about the house in which Hancock has 
  enter, although none have ventured into the building. 
  Any Investigator making their way inside the single room 
  dwelling, immediately notices five mortally wounded 
  Indians lying about the floor, although thier attention 
  is soon directed to the part of the stone floor that sits at 
  an odd angle - the unmarked door to the Temple of Yog-
  Sothoth. 
  The Temple
  The temple below is a peculiar anomaly in the desolate 
  
  34
  The Unbound Book
  Horror on the Mesa
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  depths of Mexico. It is roughly three hundred years old 
  and was built by wealthy, but psychotic, Spanish followers 
  of Yog-Sothoth.  The temple at the time was known as 
  “The Tomb of Yog-Sothoth” and although its claim is 
  obviously not true, it does hold a piece of that Great Old 
  one severed during a failed ceremony many centuries 
  previous. The plight of those first worshippers is lost in 
  time, but the village now above the temple was obviously 
  built here by the ancestors of its current inhabitants, 
  in an attempt to ensure others did not stumble onto the 
  terror below. 
  The Entrance Chamber
  The trap door leads to the Entrance Chamber, some 
  12 feet below the stone floor of the adobe house. This 
  ten-by-ten foot room below is shrouded in darkness lit 
  only by what light make its way through the trapdoor. 
  Once inside, the Investigators can easy to make out the 
  fabulous scroll work carvings that mark the marble tiles 
  on the floor, walls and ceiling. These designs show 
  vines, thorns and a peculiar-looking flower (which is not 
  identifiable).
  The threshold to the Hallway lies on the southern wall, 
  and about it a golden plaque marks the temple’s name in 
  Latin. A Latin check (DC 10) or a Spanish/Italian check 
  (DC 15) deciphers the words to read “The Tomb of Yog-
  Sothoth”.
  The Hallway
  The hallway is about twenty five feet long and is similarly 
  decorated to the Entrance Chamber. Although the walls 
  tilt inward at a slightly unnerving angle, there is nothing 
  else of interest here.
  The Ceremony Room
  This huge room is completely circular. Although it 
  is likely that Hancock is here (in which case see the 
  Conclusion below), there are a number of things that 
  immediately jump out at the group as they enter the 
  Ceremony chamber - 
  Lying against the right wall is the mummified 
  skeleton of Hancock’s ‘once friend’, White, his skull 
  caved in. 
  Against the far wall is a raised platform. Once 
  covered in a red cloth, the trappings have now 
  decayed into a pile of stinking rags. In the middle of 
  the platform rests a rune covered pedestal, on which 
  rests the Liber de Portos (see below). 
  Judging from the path left by shreds of the material, 
  the pedestal used to rest against the wall. Moving 
  the pedestal elicits a deep rumbling at its base, as if 
  something is being dragged along inside its hollow 
  stand. Lifting the base reveals a small obsidian box 
  underneath, shut with a rusty brass lock. Breaking 
  the lock is easy and nestled inside is what vaguely 
  looks like a half eaten cob of corn. Worse still this 
  ‘cob’ looks as if it has been dried in the sun and then 
  dyed with a purplish tint. Of course this is in fact a 
  piece of Yog-Sothoth and a Cthulhu Mythos check 
  will  readily identify it as such.
  Conclusion
  Hancock has entered the temple for the first time in 
  almost ten years. Immediately he goes straight to work 
  consecrating the sign of Yog-Sothoth in the temple room 
  and spends a few minutes preparing for the ritual. Then 
  he begins the ritual, and shortly after, a heavy rain rolls 
  over the desert.
  Items in the Ceremony Room
  The Liber de Portos
  Written in Latin, with Spanish footnotes. The 
  Liber de Portos is a well-written, albeit confusing 
  book of Yog-Sothoth. It is bound in thick leather 
  and bears a metal clasp. It refers to the “Keeper 
  of the Key”, the “Keeper of the Gate” and the 
  “Keeper of Key who Keeps the Gate”. It was 
  written by the Spanish cultists who founded the 
  temple and is the only copy in existence. Handling 
  the book for more than a few minutes in the Tomb 
  will cause the offending Investigator to hear a 
  distant, eerie chanting (SAN loss 0/1 the first time 
  this occurs). Examination Period - 1d10 +2 weeks 
  (DC 20). Contains 1d6 spells in addition to Hail to 
  the Deceased Gate (Contact Yog-Sothoth), Open 
  the Deceased Gate (Call Yog-Sothoth). Sanity 
  Loss 1d4 initial and 2d4 upon completion. Cthulhu 
  Mythos: +2 ranks.
  The Piece of Yog-Sothoth
  A dried and somewhat fragile piece of Yog-
  Sothoth, severed in a failed summoning. It’s not 
  particularly unnatural looking, but if kept in 
  one’s possession for more than 1d4 days will begin 
  to impart onto the holder disturbing dreams of 
  fantastic dimensions. It is required to cast Open 
  the Deceased Gate. 
  
  The Unbound Book
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  Horror on the Mesa
  35
  The Investigators should arrive in the Ceremony room 
  just in time to witness Hancock disembowel himself to 
  complete the bloodletting part of his ritual. As his blood 
  pours everywhere, the ritual is complete and a vortex 
  of fantastic colours, which emits cries of terrible piping 
  opens in the middle of the room, quickly encompassing 
  the circle and swallowing Hancock’s body (a 1/1d4 San 
  loss is needed for viewing this upsetting scene). 
  But at this point it become obvious that Hancock has 
  performed the ritual incorrectly (not having the Key, 
  the piece of Yog-Sothoth required to call the Great Old 
  One), as the portal grows no further than this circle. 
  The piping grows louder for two rounds, at which point 
  a protoplasmic tentacle reaches out from the void and the 
  formless shape of a Servitor of the Outer God lumbers 
  into the chamber (two if there are more than three 
  investigators). 
  Naturally the Servitors will attack those who have 
  desecrated their lord’s temple. The portal itself will 
  close naturally in ten rounds, although the Servitors 
  will remain. Running away might be an advisable tactic 
  at his moment, but a few well placed grenades or sticks 
  of dynamite could well be sufficient in destroying the 
  Servitors (and, if the Keeper is feeling vindictive, perhaps 
  collapse the temple as well). 
  The Servitors themselves cannot leave the temple, but 
  their horrible piping is still enough to drive those nearby 
  insane ( and God help any investigator who goes into the 
  portal).
  Outside of the temple, the rain has built into a wild 
  pelting storm and the village itself seems totally void of 
  life. In addition, and most oddly, the adobe buildings are 
  collapsing, as though in only a few moments the village 
  is suffered through a thousand years of aging. Nobody 
  can be found in the town, and if the Investigators decide 
  to check on the Elder, there’s nothing him but a heavily 
  decayed and mummified corpse. Once the portal closes, 
  and regardless of what has become of the Servitors, 
  the rain stops and the sun returns bright and hot. The 
  Investigators have either stopped or at least borne witness 
  to the Horror on the Mesa, and now there’s little left to do 
  except return home (and maybe read their new book!)
  Aftermath & Sanity Rewards
  The GameMaster should decide whether or not the players 
  get paid for their exploits. Obviously nobody in Partch 
  would believe the story of the Temple, although they 
  might be able to convince the Captain that Hancock died 
  resisting arrest or some such.
  If the party employed Alasandro, he will want to return 
  with the Investigators and join them on their further 
  investigations, although this is a decision for the Keeper 
  and their players. If they decide that he can’t come along, 
  he’ll sadly return to Las Portos, but at least he has a 
  great story to tell his grandchildren one day.
  As for Sanity gains:  
  The Investigators regain 1 point of Sanity each if 
  they killed or captured Hancock before he revealed 
  the location of the temple - it’s nice to know he’s not 
  out there anymore.
  If the Investigators killed Hancock after he revealed 
  the temple, they receive 1d3 SAN - maybe there was 
  some truth to the journal?
  If the Investigators somehow stopped Hancock 
  during the ritual, they receive 1d4 SAN.
  If the Investigators failed to stop Hancock, but 
  survive, they receive 1d3 SAN.
  In addition - 
  
  36
  The Unbound Book
  Horror on the Mesa
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  For each Servitor of the Outer Gods they defeated, 
  award 1d2 SAN.
  For each Servitor that survived (and still remains 
  in the Temple), the Investigators lose 1 Sanity point 
  - what if someone finds them?
  NPC Statistics
  Alasandro
  Male 2nd level soldier, offensive option; HD 
  2d6+2; hp 10; Init +1 (+1 Dex) ; Spd 30 ft.; AC 
  11 (+1 Dex); Atk +3 melee, +3 ranged (+4 at 
  point blank); SV Fort +2, Ref +5, Will +1, Str 
  13, Dex 13, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 13, Cha 14
  Skills – Bluff +3, Climb +4, Concentration 
  +2, Hide +4 Jump +3, Listen +5, Move Silently 
  +2, Ride +5,  Search +3, Spot +3, Speak 
  English +2
  Feats- Alertness, Point Blank Shot
  Possessions- 
  Thompson 
  Barrel 
  SMG, 
  Knife, Horse
  SAN- 60
  Peter Hancock
  Drifter with a Purpose: Male 4th level 
  soldier, offensive option; HD 4d6+3; hp 21; 
  Init +6 (+2 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative) ; 
  Spd 30 ft.; AC 12 (+2 Dex); Atk +5 melee, +5 
  ranged (+6 at point blank); SV Fort +4, Ref 
  +6, Will +1, Str 14, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 12, 
  Wis 11, Cha 12
  Skills – Balance +3, Bluff +2, Climb +5, 
  Concentration +5, Craft (Gunsmith)+6, 
  Demolitions +2, Hide +5, Intimidate +2, 
  Jump +3, Listen +4, Move Silently +3, Ride 
  +4,  Search +5, Spot +3, Swim +2
  Feats- Alertness, Ambidexterity, Improved 
  Initiative, Point Blank Shot
  Possessions- 2 Colt 1911s, M1918 Browning 
  Automatic Rifle, Combat Knife, 6 Grenade 
  Traps, 10 Sticks of Dynamyte, Bedroll, 
  Survival Blanket, 10 Days Rations
  Spells- Hail to the Deceased Gate (Contact 
  Yog-Sothoth), Open the Deceased Gate 
  (Incorrect version of Call Yog-Sothoth)
  SAN- 21
  On the Unbound Book Website 
  Horror on the Mesa
  - BRP Stats for Horror on the Mesa
  - Large print friendly maps by David Conyers
  Visit the Unbound Book Website @
   www.unboundbook.org
  
  37
  The Unbound Book
  Handouts
  Issue 1 - October 2003
  Dear Friend,
   
  I wish I were writing to you under pleasant circumstances.  Sadly, nothing could be 
  further from that truth. I’m in trouble, of a sort I don’t understand. Only someone 
  such as yourself - someone who has been involved in so-called occult matters - 
  might comprehend. My time grows short and you must be informed of all I can 
  volunteer before it is too late.
  Some weeks ago while fishing off the Gloucester coast, I hauled up an artifact, a 
  crown - that’s the item I sent along with this letter.  I remembered reading about 
  such odd items once before, in a book I own on that old, depressed fishing town 
  called Innsmouth, here in Massachusetts. They do some gold refining there, and, as 
  I was intrigued by my strange catch, I promptly motored to Innsmouth and spoke 
  to a man named Jacob Marsh, of the Marsh Refining Company. I didn’t like that 
  fellow at all, so I left his office with my prize, though not before making the mistake 
  of giving that Marsh devil my name and address. Soon after I began receiving 
  unwelcome callers at my home in Danvers.  They wanted to purchase my artifact.  I 
  must have something Marsh desperately wants.  I refuse to sell, but they’ve become 
  more persistant - and more threatening.  Last week I came home to find my house 
  broken into; nothing stolen, though by that time I had hidden the crown out of the 
  house until I could learn just what I had on my hands.
  At the same time that the visitors began arriving, I started to have awful, vivid 
  dreams - visions of undersea cities, peopled with disgusting fish-like men.  Many 
  times I have awoken in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat.  On several 
  occasions I think I’ve heard people in the yard, though I’ve not ventured out in 
  the dark to look.  But even these things have not been the worst of it.  For the last 
  few nights I’ve awoken from my disturbing dreams not in bed, but in my Packard, 
  halfway down the route to Innsmouth!  I’m scared. Events are happening in my life 
  that I do not understand.  Only someone with your experience might comprehend 
  these things and help me.
   
  Your friend,
   
  Swanson Ames 
   Innsmouth Paper 1
  Handouts for Dark Dreams of Innsmouth
  
  The Unbound Book
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  Handouts
  38
  Man Saved Off Massachusetts Coast
  Gloucester - Local lobster ﬁshermen rescued 
  a man who was struggling for survival in the 
  coastal waters off Gloucester early this morning.  
  The man, chilled and delirious but suffering 
  no serious bodily harm, has been identiﬁed 
  as Swanson Ames, a local teacher. Ames was 
  delivered by the crew of the lobster boat Divine 
  to local authorities. Ames’s car was later found 
  parked near the waterfront. In shock and 
  incoherent from his ordeal at sea, Ames has 
  been transferred to the Danvers State Mental 
  Hospital for treatment and observation.  Ames is 
  without immediate family. 
   Innsmouth Paper 2
  An excerpt from Peabody’s Superstition and the Sea:
   
  “...perhaps nowhere else have declining maritime fortunes had such an adverse 
  social and economic eﬀect than in Innsmouth, Massachuse�s, a once thriving 
  seaport now reduced to a depressed hamlet. Education and other social services are 
  all but unknown, leading to a rapid decline in cultural mores, despite the town’s 
  close physical proximity to Arkham, home of the prestigious Miskatonic University.  
  Arkham for its part ignores any responsibility it might feel it has as a community to 
  its backwater neighbor. As a result, the residents of Innsmouth have combined elder 
  sea lore, religion, and cultural ways into an odd mix of superstition and secretive 
  ritual practices unique in New England.  Samples of Innsmouth superstition include 
  rituals to reap be�er lobster harvests, spells to a�ract and control sharks, and charms 
  wrought to invoke a watery doom on the unwary. Perhaps most curious are some 
  of the genuine golden ornaments that are incorporated into many of the rituals and 
  charms.  Locals insist these are locally cra�ed; nonetheless they possess a disturbing, 
  otherworldly quality that this author struggles to convey in words.  I have examined 
  only two such ornaments, and this under circumstances that would draw the ire of 
  many locals, should they know of my trespass into their aﬀairs. The ornaments most 
  greatly resemble similar pieces described in ancient occult tomes such as the obscure 
  Ponape Scripture, a copy of which resides in special collections at nearby Miskatonic 
  University Library.  There have been rumors circulating in academic circles for years 
  of similar objects and practices common to the geographically and socially isolated 
  peoples of the Louisiana bayou country.  If proven, this could prove a fascinating 
  link between the cultural, moral, and religious decline of the two separate, isolated 
  communities....”
   Innsmouth Paper 3
  
  39
  The Unbound Book
  Handouts
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  Land Handout Paper 1
  Land of the Rising Dead
  Dear Sir/Madam
  It is our sad duty to inform you that Mr Seth Acres, British citizen has recently 
  passed away. We know this must come as a great shock to you, and we offer 
  our deepest condolences. As executors of the late Mr Acres’ estate, we invite you 
  to attend the reading of his will at his former residence on Kuroiyama Island, 
  Tokyo, Japan. 
  While we cannot as yet disclose the details of the will, Mr Acres was quite 
  insistent that your attendance at the reading would be highly rewarding. The 
  late Mr Acres left meticulous instructions on the execution of his affairs and 
  following the terms of his will, should you not attend his estate in person, your 
  inheritance shall be distributed among the remaining benefactors. Your passage 
  to Japan and accommodation prior to reaching the Acres estate has already been 
  arranged. Please embark the Steamer ‘Kipper Maru’, from pier 14 on Monday, 
  May the 3rd, at 8 am. 
  A car will be in attendance at your home promptly at  6am of the day of 
  departure. 
   
  We look forward to meeting you.
   
  Yours Faithfully,
   
  Willhelm Speegle
   
  Speegle and Sayo
   
  1-3-7 Shinjuku, Tokyo 
  
  The Unbound Book
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  Handouts
  40
  The Legend of KuroiYama Island
             Many years ago during the time of Ashikaga, a great and terrible Samurai called 
  Takahiro waged war on a neighbouring Samurai.  As their armies were massed for battle, 
  in the mountains between their homes, the deceitful Takahiro and his 12 faithful retinue 
  set out one dark moonless night to attack his enemy’s home, murder his wife and shame his 
  children.  The ﬁsherman whose boat Takahiro had seized was angry at the Samurai and his 
  men for involving him in such a deed and he called upon the kami of his ancestors to avenge 
  the theft of his property and livelihood.  He prayed that, although it meant the ruination of 
  his own family and the destruction of his father’s only ship, the kami would bring a terrible 
  storm and thus ensure Takahiro would not proﬁt from his dishonourable task.  
  A great roar welled up from deep beneath the ocean and a huge tsunami was brought 
  down on Takahiro and his company.  The ship was shattered to pieces by the mighty blow of 
  the sea kami and Takahiro’s men were dragged down beneath the crashing waves.  
  But not Takahiro, for he was a strong swimmer and even the biggest of waves could 
  not pull him down.  For hours he swam and until ﬁnally, at dawn, he washed up on the 
  shore of a strange island.  The people of the island found him unconscious on the beach that 
  morning, his great clothes mauled by the sea but his marvellous sword still hanging from his 
  strong belt.  Knowing him then to be a man of power, they took the Samurai to their village 
  and he quickly recovered.  Takahiro married the local lord’s beautiful daughter, Akiko, 
  and he sired many strong children.  In time he came to rule the peaceful village and was 
  blessed with such happiness that he seldom missed his former days of battle and glory on the 
  mainland.  
  Thus for many years he ruled and until he reached a very great age indeed, old 
  enough to watch his children’s children grow and begin again their own families.  But 
  Takahiro refused to accept the destiny of all who live to grow old.  Surely he, the great 
  Takahiro, who had survived the terrible wrath of the kami of the sea, who had won so many 
  battles, surely he could cheat old age and even death itself.  So determined, he left the village 
  and set out into the wild forest on the black mountain to seek out the great Boar spirit, 
  warrior king of the forest.  After seven nights he returned, a terrible light in his eyes.  He 
  would not speak and sat alone in his private quarters for many days.  Eventually his son, 
  Hiroyuki, went in to see him, and never returned. 
  There were rumours among the people of the village - someone claimed to have seen 
  Hiroyuki’s hewn head on a pike in the forest, another claimed to have seen Takahiro’s great 
  sword soaked in blood resting against a tree, and one even said they had seen Takahiro 
  himself, his face and hands covered in blood with a wild ﬁre gleaming in his eyes.  It is said 
  that he lived on for many years, never growing old on the blood of his village.  A terrible 
  plague befell his family, for his sons and daughters and grandchildren, once so strong and 
  long lived began to die. How many years he continued unnatural  life it is not known.  But  
  stories speak of a great warrior or priest, reputedly one of his own great grandchildren, who 
  ﬁnally put an end to his evil unlife. 
  But that is only rumour and heresay, so even today the legend of Takahiro and the 
  Kuroi Yama remains nothing but mystery.
  Land Handout Paper 2
  
  41
  The Unbound Book
  Handouts
  Gen Con Issue - August 2004 
  Mesa Handout 1
  Handouts for Horror on the Mesa
  
  The Unbound Book
  Issue 1 - October 2003
  Handouts
  42
  Mesa Handout 1, Continued
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Call of Cthulhu (CoC) (BRP) [multi]/Adventures/1920s/CoC - 1920s - Adv - The Unbound Book #02 (.pdf