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Wolfgang · Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 6:33 am Post subject:

The Red Eye of Azathoth
By Joshua Stevens
System: PATHFINDER RPG (or Cthulhu if patrons prefer)
Level: TBD
Length: 50,000 words
Setting: Dark Ages to modern Mythos

All men fear the Harbinger Star. Kings die and nations crumble when the red comet takes the sky, and madness trails in its fiery wake. But those versed in that rarest of occult lore know the Harbinger Star by its true name: The Red Eye of Azathoth.

Ancient, queer texts scrawled in blood upon yellowed pages of flesh note that the Eye of Azathoth struck the earth eons ago, giving rise to a great ice age which laid low the mighty reptiles that once stalked the earth. Unpredictable in its non-Euclidean orbit to all but the maddest of astronomers and star cultists, the Eye of Azathoth appears from seemingly nowhere, arcing through the skies for a few days before leaving again for the darkest corners of space.

Learned men dismiss the existence of the Harbinger Star as naught but superstitious tripe mumbled from the mouths of idiots, as tales of the star are cloaked in the legends of pre-history. In the Cold Wastes of the Dreamlands, the Denizens of Leng know better. Coming to Earth in the winter, they know that Azathoth’s attention must be drawn before he will turn his unwelcome gaze earthward. Through dark rites, the Denizens of Leng work to cause Azathoth’s Eye to strike the earth once more, creating another ice age and shattering the barrier that separates Leng from our world.

Could the Elder Gods, long-slumbering in Unknowable Kadath, be far behind?

Setting
Call of Cthulhu adventures are typically written in a 1920’s/30’s noir style. But how would the peoples of different ages and cultures react to horrors from beyond? Using the PFRPG rules, 5 short adventures (~8,000 words each) would be commissioned, with senior patrons and guest authors alike invited to anonymously pitch adventures.

All adventures will be loosely tied together using the Eye of Azathoth’s appearance in the winter of a year ending in ‘87, and using the Denizens of Leng as the overarching villains. Each time the Denizens are defeated, they go silent for a century or more, before appearing with a different scheme. (Or, are all their schemes connected somehow?)

The best pitches for the following will be selected:

1. The year 887, Vikings raiding off the coast of England fall into the Denizens’ machinations.
2. The year 1287, Samurai are sent by their Shogun to investigate and combat some unspeakable horror.
3. The year 1487, during the Spanish Inquisition, the Denizens’ handiwork is seen as the work of the Devil by the Catholic church.
4. The year 1587, somehow the Denizens are behind Roanoke’s disappearance.
5. The year 1887 in the Wild West, it’s pistols on horseback against horrors from beyond!

What black rites are required to attract Azathoth’s Eye? More importantly, can these twisted plots be stopped? Ia! Ia! Cthulhu f’thagn!

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Josh Stevens is a proud werecabbage, freelancer, and frequent contributor to both KQ and various OD projects. His credits include "Wishbound" in Six Arabian Nights, "A Plague of Shadows" in Tales of Zobeck, "The Kariv" in the Dwarves of the Ironcrags, and articles in five issues of KOBOLD QUARTERLY.