The Vanishing Conjurer.pdf

Pulled Out of a Hat by Mike Lewis & Simon Price, authors

Sawn in Half by Marc Gascoigne, developer and editor

Stage Presentation by Charles Elliott, designer

Cover Illusion by Lee Gibbons, artist

Set Decoration by Ian Cooke, interior artist, and from `Tricks & Il-

lusions' by Will Goldston, published 1909 by A.WGamage Ltd. of

Holborn, London

Magic Squares by David Oliver & Ian Varley, maps

Show Produced by the Games Workshop Design Studio :

Bryan Ansell, Managing Director. Richard Ellard, Production

Manager.Alan Merrett, Publications Manager .Jervis Johnson,

Development Manager.John Blanche, Studio Manager. Charles

Elliott, Graphic Design .Paul Cockburn, Commissioning

Editor.Marc Gascoigne, Editor.Jim Bambra, Graeme Davis, Rick

Priestley, Authors.Tony Ackland, Dave Superstar Andrews, Col-

in Dixon, Artists.Julie Weaving, Gail Morgan, 7ypesettinge Mark

Craven, Visualising. Oliver Campbell, Ruth Capon, Susan

McLoughlin, David Oliver, Joanne Podowski, Ian Varley, Finish-

ed Art

This product is published with the approval of and under license

from Chaosium, Inc.

By Permission of Arkham House

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any

means without prior permission from the publishers.

All characters are fictitious; any resemblance to persons living or

dead is purely coincidental. Honestly.

Any new rules presented in this adventure should not be regard-

ed as official additions to the Call of Cthulhu rules.

Any questions or comments on this product should be directed to:

Statue of the Sorcerer Questions, Games Workshop Design

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ISBN-0-933635-30-3

Published by

Chewton Street, Hill Top, Eastwood, Nottingham, NG16 3HY.

INTRODUCTION . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . .. . ....... . . . . . . .

PLAYERS' INTRODUCTION .. .. ... .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

KEEPERS' INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

The Charity Show * Joining The Brotherhood

THE BROTHERHOOD'S HOUSE. .. . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .

The Ground Floor * The First Floor 0 The Attic

FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. . ...... . 13

Will Crowther 0 Rumours Within The Brotherhood

CHING LUNG SOO .. ........ . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . ... .. . .. . .. ... 14

THE CULT OF LAN-SHI . . . . . . . .. .... . .. .. . ...... ..... .. . . .. . .. ... . . . 14

History 0 The Cult Today * Information on The Cult

THE CHARITY SHOW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. ... . .. . . . . . . . 1G

The Evening

The Ground Floor * Below The Stage 0 TheFirstFloor

Timeline For The Show * Stopping The Summoning

NOTES ON RUNNING THE VANISHING CONJURER. . .21

CAST OF CHARACTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . ... .... 21

Howard Horne 0 Philip Leclair * Ching Lung Soo

Karl Weiss 0 Will Crowther s Cultist Servants

APPENDIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . ... ... .. . .. . . . ... .. . . . . . 2 2

Threes Company s Packet Prediction * Colour Count

Royal Weddings

Preparations

Howard Horne 0 The Vanished Conjurer

The Society

PHILIP LECLAIR. . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. . ... . .. . .... . . .7

THE AMAZING KARL .... ...... ........ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 7

THE INNER BROTHERHOOD OF MAGICIANS . ..... . . . . . . . 9

THE MERMAID THEATRE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . ..... . . . . .. ... . . . . 16

The Vanishing Conjurer

The Vanishing Conjurer

INTRODUCTION

The investigation is divided up into a number of small sec-

tions, in each of which there are sub-headings covering fur-

ther research, extra clues, background information and asides.

You should be flexible enough to allow your investigators to

continue some of their research while the plot advances -

especially if they are being slow in solving the mystery.

The Vanishing Conjurer is an introductory level investigation

set in London in the early 1920s. The investigators are called

upon to investigate the puzzling disappearance ofayoung stage

magician, only to find themselves drawn ever tighter into a

web of intrigue surrounding a mysterious conjurer's club!

And now you should be ready to play. Have fun!

If you are intending to play both ofthe adventures in this book

with the same characters, we recommend that you run The

Vanishing Conjurer first. It is a lighter adventure than The

Statue OfTheSorcerer, andinexperienced players will be bet-

ter equipped to cope with it.

PLAYER'S INTRODUCTION

Investigators tackling this adventure will not require any

special skills, though the usual complement of Spot Hiddens

and Library Uses will come in as handy as always. Please also

note the new skill, Conjuring, which will be useful too. This

adventure may be run with the greenest, most inexperienced

group of investigators, though a group with a few minor in-

vestigations under their belts may need less prodding. With

careful refereeing and the boosting in strength of a few of the

villains, The Vanishing Conjurer can also be run with a far

more experienced group, if you so desire.

It is a pleasant weekday in the latter half of the monthofJune,

192-. In London, one of the investigators is contacted by an

old friend, Howard Horne, who is atheatrical agent working

in London's West End. Horne sends the investigator four

tickets for aconjuring show taking place that evening at a small

theatre off Drury Lane. A small note scribbled on Horne's

business card attached to the tickets gives no more details

about what the investigators might expect, but Home appears

to require their help in a matter of some urgency.

Campaign Play

The Vanishing Conjurer is ideally suited for insertion into a

British-based game, or for an intermission in the English sec-

tion of a world-spanning campaign (such as Masks Of

Nyarlatbotep). It requires no precursors in the form of clues,

and need only have after-effects ifyouwish it, so it could prove

to be a very 'pleasant' interlude for your players.

KEEPER'S INFORMATION

Howard Horne

You should give the players Handouts A and B at this point.

The first is a sample of the ticket for the show; the second

is Home's note. Home is a small-time agent dealing with a wide

range ofartistes. Like many similar agents he tends to discover

youngtalent and nurture it into maturity, until it is stolen away

from him by one of the new management agencies. Horne

himself, though, believes all the acts he handles to be the best

in London. He is in many ways a stereotypical theatrical agent,

his speech being peppered with talk ofdeals andfees, percen-

tages and packages. He operates out of a tiny, untidy office

off Long Acre, close to Covent Garden andDruryLane, though

it is very unlikely that his investigator friend will ever have

visited him there.

Ifyour campaign is set in the United States you will find that

few problems arise in converting the adventure to aNew York

or Californian location. Alternatively, you could bring your

investigators over to London for a time; they may enjoy the

change of scenery, and it will allow you a chance to try out

all those other British-based scenarios that are around. In this

instance youshould perhaps make Howard Home an American

citizen too - andkeep him as an old acquaintance of one or

more of the team.

You will also find that The Vanishing Conjurer can convert

to a different time-frame with a minimumoffuss. Cthulhu By

Gaslightplayers will find little difficulty in moving the adven-

ture back thirty years; if anything, stage musicians and the

popular theatre were even more popular than they were dur-

ing the Twenties. Bringing the adventure up to date will also

prove very easy for a keeper with a modicum of common

sense, though the initials of the Inner Brotherhood of Magi-

cians may have to be changed because of their close

resemblance to those of a certain computer company!

Howard Horne is a thin, nervy sort of chap, with a narrow

face and eyes that appear positively shifty. He has a tendency

to pump peoples' hands with an enthusiastic handshake

whenever he can, and to smoke cheap cigarettes. His daydress

is usually slovenly andstained with sweat and coffee, though

when he makes the rounds of the theatres to see his artistes

he always makes the effort to look like what some would call

,a proper dapper gent' . Howwell he succeeds in thig depends

upon how one would define the term `good taste'.

New Skill

Conjuring: Base skill 15%. This is ameasure of the character's

ability toperform conjuring tricks, card magic and sleight-of-

hand illusions. The base chance allows only simple card tricks

and the like.

How the investigator knows Horne is very much up to you

andyour campaign. If one of your players is a journalist it is

possible that he or she would have run into Horne, who is

always knocking on editor's doors in search of more free

publicity for his acts. Alternatively, one of the investigators

couldbe apatron ofthe theatre, or even an artiste themselves.

However youhandle this, though, Horne's note should be suf-

ficient to attract their curiosity and to persuade them to visit

the Chancellor's Theatre on the night in question .

Preparations

Before you ran this scenario there are a number of tasks you

should perform. Firstly, read the entire scenario (not The

Statue OfThe Sorcerer too, unless you fancy agood read), and

make sure you understand the gist of what is happening, - or

will happen. Remove the various hand-outs from the centre

of this book, and keep them close at hand for use during play.

Read the scenario again, this time visualising how things might

turn out, andhow youwill play the roles of the major NPCs

during play.

"The Greatest Magic Show In The West Endi"

The show starts at 7.30, andlasts for around twohours . There

are maybe two hundred people in the audience, half-filling

the theatre. Outside the theatre abill-board declared the show

to be "The Greatest Magic Show In The [Vest End!", but it

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