An adventure centered on the Mythos should be put together in a style I call “layers of the onion.” The idea is that as the players uncover one layer of dark secrets, they expose another
Trang 1or religious quandaries Learning more about these
entities should never become humdrum
An adventure centered on the Mythos should be put
together in a style I call “layers of the onion.” The idea
is that as the players uncover one layer of dark secrets,
they expose another This goes on and on: just as when
an onion is peeled, successive strata appear
At first, the players may think that a scenario
involves an evil cult-worshiping nobleman or a haunted
castle But as they probe more deeply, you, the game
master, can gradually show them the significance of
this particular nobleman or haunted castle As the
players decide to find out more information, this leads
to other adventures
In Lovecraft’s epic “At the Mountains of Madness,”
the characters uncover some odd fossils, excellently
preserved and reminiscent of the ancient tales of the
Old Ones The hero and his companion go scouting
and find what seems to be a huge and complex rock
formation inside a glacier When they return to the
camp, everyone has been killed, and the “fossils” are
missing The heroes are horrified and decide to follow
the trail which leaves camp, headed toward the
ice-bound rocks This all occurs in the first layer of the
onion
They probe deep into the rocks and find tunnels
under the ice which lead lower and lower As they chase
after the tracks of whoever (or whatever) killed their
companions, they gradually come to realize that it is a
true city, not just an unusual formation Furthermore,
nonhumanoid entities, whose history is found in
carvings on the walls, built the city millions of years
ago This is the second layer of the onion
As the heroes penetrate deeper, and come upon
more and more horrors, they realize that the “fossils”
are actual, living (albeit cryogenically-preserved) elder
things The heroes follow the path anyway, and the
story culminates in an awful conclusion, where the heroes meet not the elder things preserved in the ice, but the dread things (shoggoths) that wiped out their species This is the end of the story, but clearly it would
be possible to extend it further
For instance, a gamemaster could have the heroes investigate the shoggoth “civilization”, and find out that these amoeboid horrors are up to something (the fourth layer of the onion) Since shoggoths are not really movers and shakers, no doubt something even worse than shoggoths is directing their efforts And for what purpose? The destruction of all surface life? The return of the star spawn? The formation of a gigantic device designed to break the continent free from the world’s surface and form a new moon? Who knows? The wheels within wheels keep turning, and the players can continue following the tale forever
Alternatively, they could progress a certain way down the stories, and then you, the game master, can switch
to another storyline: a new civilization of nightmare creatures; an ancient tome with unspeakable secrets; something else altogether String together Mythos concepts and bury the heroes deep in the darkness The reason for this system of episodic revelation is because horror, by its nature, is difficult to maintain for a prolonged period of time This is why horror movies typically have only short moments of terror, interspersed with sections (possibly ominous) in which non-horror-based scenes take place It is also why horror novels are never as consistently terrifying as short stories
Thus, each time a new layer of the onion is revealed
to your players, there is an opportunity for a new shock, a new understanding The players may wish time to discuss the ramifications (you may or may not allow this time, depending on the adventure’s needs),