Pyramid Pick
Tatters of the King: Hastur's Gaze Gains Brief Focus Upon the Earth (for Call of Cthulhu)
Published by Chaosium, Inc.
Written by Tim Wiseman
Cover by Ashley Jones
Illustrated by Ashley Jones
Cartography by Antony Fentiman
232-page perfect bound black and white book; $27.95
During the final years of the 1920s, the winters are cold, and the star Aldebaran is visible in the clear night sky. A malign influence falls upon the Earth, felt by the sensitive and the weak willed; it finds expression in the output of the artistic set. The lure of the stars is seen in poetry, painting, theatre, and even radical science, sometimes as a thrill, at other times as a taint that drives men to madness. The medical profession doesn't yet have a name for this "sympathetic madness," but there are those who can explain it. The Earth has fallen under the gaze of the Great Old One known as Hastur, and his cult seeks to either bring the doomed city of Carcosa or his avatar, the King in Yellow, to Earth.
[SPOILER ALERT!]
This is the stage for Tatters of the King, a new campaign for Call of Cthulhu set during the game's classic 1920s period that will take the investigators on a journey beginning in Britain and traveling to Italy, India, and Nepal, before climbing to a final confrontation above Tibet on the Plateau of Leng. Compared with Delta Green or Realm of Shadows, Tatters of the King is hardly the most radical release. Compare it though to earlier campaigns such as Shadows . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: February 2, 2007
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