Trail of Cthulhu - The Armitage Files.pdf

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The Armitage Files
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by Robin d lawS
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TRAIL OF CTHULHU
The Armitage Files
CREDITS
Publisher : Simon Rogers
Writer: Robin D Laws
Layout : Jérôme Huguenin
Cover and Interior Art : Jérôme Huguenin
Handouts : Sarah Wroot
Proof Editing: Sam Friedman
Playtesters: Enrique Esturillo , Nast Marrero , Pablo Valcarcel , Nestor
Ramos , Javier Dorta , Cripzy Reyes , Nestor Bolaños , Jorge Andrés, Arseny
Kuznetsov, :Sam Friedman, Andy Johnson, Kyle Thoson, Jamie Huddle,
Dr. D, Kev Hickman, Belinda Kelly, Sly Gryphon, Malcolm Edwards, Anna
Kucharski, Kev Hickman, Tony Sweeting, Mike Riddle, Andy Whitwham,
Mike Hough, Alexander and Julia Drobyshev, Fedor Dudnik and Alexey
Dobrynin.
Special Thanks from the writer for the Playtesters: I’d like to thank
all of the Armitage Files playtesters for their great assistance and superlative
effort. This was without a doubt the highest-quality, most useful set of
playtest reports I’ve ever received for an RPG supplement. Although, as is
to be expected, I haven’t chosen to follow every piece of advice given, I think
it’s safe to say that you’ll all spot traces of your influence on the finished
product.
Special thanks from Jérôme for : Adeline and Fabien, the talented and
friendly models on the cover. Effie and Julia.
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TRAIL OF CTHULHU
The Armitage Files
CONTENTS
Gangs ............................... 63
Meditations On An Attic Figure By
Emrys Dorian Wynn.............. 75
The Modena Grimoire........... 75
Credits ..................................1
Business Association .............. 64
Hobbyist Organization........... 64
Amateur Press Association ...... 65
Political Party ..................... 66
Places .................................. 67
Contents ................................2
These Dread Pages ....................4
How To Use This Book .............4
Bringing In the PCs.................4
The Files Arrive .....................5
Document Keys .....................7
The Noprhu-Ka Panel............ 76
A Short History Of the Future by
Wilton Bohleen ................... 77
The Tears Of Azazoth, Author
Unknown .......................... 78
Scenario Spines ...................... 79
Document 1 Sample Spine A: The
Corrupter .......................... 79
Stock Footage ..................... 67
Army Base ......................... 67
Carnival ............................ 68
Cemetery .......................... 68
Crematorium...................... 68
Using The Files ......................9
The Improvising Keeper ......... 13
Improvising with GUMSHOE .. 18
The Improvising Player .......... 21
Scenario Spine Worksheet ....... 22
Document 1 Sample Spine B: The
Dweller Within.................... 80
Document 1 Sample Spine C: The
Boaster.............................. 80
Document 3 Sample Spine: Object
Lessons ............................. 82
Document 7 Sample Spine: The
Gainesville Cylinder.............. 83
Document 8 Example Of Play: Cry
of the Nightingale................. 84
Curio Shop......................... 69
Doctor’s Office.................... 69
Factory ............................. 69
Farm ................................ 69
Hospital ............................ 69
People ................................. 24
Academics.......................... 24
Professionals ....................... 29
Police ............................... 32
Swells ............................... 34
Lecture Hall ....................... 69
Library.............................. 70
Mansion ............................ 70
Nightclub, Swank ................. 70
Nightclub, Sleazy ................. 70
Appendix: The Armitage Files ..... 89
Document 1 ....................... 90
Document 2 ....................... 97
Document 3 ......................102
Townsfolk .......................... 37
Salesmen and Shopkeepers ...... 38
Rural Folk.......................... 41
Working Men...................... 43
Sailors............................... 45
Observatory ....................... 70
Parlor ............................... 70
Private Club ....................... 71
Sacrificial Ground ................ 71
Sanatorium......................... 71
Document 4 ......................109
Document 5 ......................116
Soldiers ............................. 47
The Hardboiled ................... 49
Carnies ............................. 53
Organizations ........................ 58
Masonic Lodge .................... 59
Document 6 ......................123
Document 7 ......................130
Tenement .......................... 72
Town, Rural ....................... 72
Town, Seaside ..................... 72
Tomes and Magic .................... 73
Name Of Item..................... 73
Document 8 ......................135
Document 9 ......................139
Document 10.....................143
Service Club ....................... 59
Academic Society ................. 60
Gentleman’s Club ................ 61
Ethnic Association ................ 61
Esoteric Society ................... 62
The Basel Codex .................. 73
The Gainesville Cylinder ........ 74
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The Armitage Files
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TRAIL OF CTHULHU
These Dread Pages
They arrive mysteriously, one by one.
Each appears amid the effects of persons
associated with Mistakonic University’s
Orne Library. The first shows up inside
the valise of assistant library director
Cyrus Llanfer. The second is found
by chief librarian Henry Armitage,
tucked neatly under his desk blotter.
Others follow, each materializing in
circumstances of troubling mundanity.
They are handwritten notes, some in
elegant, legible cursive, others in a
wildly agitated version of the same hand.
The pages are are dirtied, bloodied,
folded. Some have photographs or
odd scraps of paper ephemera glued
to them. In varying degrees of lucidity,
they describe a series of investigations
leading to a looming apocalypse.
leads to follow and which to leave on
the backburner, the Keeper improvises
a series of scenarios allowing them to
avert the future cataclysms the files
foretell.
as hoaxes or genuine loci of Mythos
activity, as your improvised storyline
demands.
Scenario Spines: This chapter shows
you how to wrap all of this material
together into a satisfying campaign of
epic scope. Included is a description of
the Inquiry’s reaction to the discovery
of the documents, example scenario
spines, and notes on time travel.
Inside The Armitage Files you’ll find the
following sections:
The Documents: The ten documents
found in the Miskatonic Library, in
the order they’re discovered. After
the occasional customization by you,
these are used as player handouts. Each
contains more than one lead, allowing
the players to decide what dark corners
their investigators pry into, and in what
order.
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
Before reading further, flip to each
of the chapters and read or skim an
entry or two apiece. After familiarizing
yourself with them, come back here
to see how they all piece together to
create your improvised campaign.
People: Forty-three characters, many
of them referenced in the files. Divided
by category and type, each is described
in three alternate versions: one sinister,
one innocuous, and one ready to aid
the PCs in their battle against the rising
forces of ancient madness. Alternate
names and physical descriptions allow
you to reuse them as new NPCs as
needed.
Of the members of the Armitage
Inquiry, the intrepid team of scholar-
explorers who face down the horrors
of the Mythos, none is more surprised
by the arrival of the letters than the
group’s eponymous founder, Dr. Henry
Armitage.
BRINGING IN THE PCS
If you’re already using the Armitage
Inquiry campaign frame ( Trail Of
Cthulhu , p. 206), the investigators are
on hand when the files first appear
and are quickly deemed the obvious
team to go out and verify its peculiar
references.
The handwriting is his own !
Dr. Armitage has no recollection of
having written them, nor of the people
or events laid out on their grime-
stained pages. Speculation rages as to
the provenance of the files. Is this an
elaborate prank, or a hoax played by one
of the Inquiry’s growing list of occult
enemies? Or do the weird warnings in
these impossible documents portend
real doom, if not investigated?
Organizations : Eleven organizations,
each referred to in one or more of
the files. Each is presented as either a
stalwart, innocuous or a sinister group,
allowing you to tailor them to your
current narrative needs.
Investigators affiliated with Project
Covenant (ToC p. 207) may be
temporarily detailed to the Inquiry
as a joint operation between the two
groups. Recent brushes with the
Cthulhu cult have left Armitage’s own
field teams lamentably depleted. With
his own people fiercely divided on the
possible authenticity of the documents,
the professor arranges with Cleveland
Drew to send out the PCs, in hopes that
they will look at them with fresh eyes.
Places: Snippets of “stock footage”,
short bursts of prepared text allowing
you to evocatively describe common
locations of the 1930s.
This book provides the raw materials
for an open-ended epic campaign, in
which the PCs investigate the cryptic
references laid out in the files as they
see fit. As the players choose which
Tomes and Magic: Eight terrifying
new Mythos volumes, each mentioned
in one or more of the files. Alternate
versions allow you to portray them
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