Lovecraft Country 1

2 Return to Arkham
Lovecraft Country 3
4 Return to Arkham
Lovecraft Country 5
6 Return to Arkham
Lovecraft Country 7
8 Return to Arkham
Lovecraft Country 9
10 Return to Arkham
Lovecraft Country 11
12 Return to Arkham
Lovecraft Country 13
14 Return to Arkham
Lovecraft Country 15
16 Return to Arkham
Lovecraft Country 17
18 Return to Arkham
Lovecraft Country 19
20 Return to Arkham
Lovecraft Country
About the Comic
Ive been a fan of H.P. Lovecrafts works for at
least ten years. Ive read almost all of his fiction,
Howard & Smiths contemporary works, many
of Derleths additions, Campbells wonderful
Severn Valley stories, most of Robert Prices
collections, and more. Ive got 17 feet of shelved
Mythos books, running from Ackroyd (First
Light) to Zelazny (A Night in the Lonesome
October).
Ive written chronologies and histories of
the Mythos races and the Mythos world, which
you can find in the Encyclopedia Cthulhiana,
and scattered online. Ive flown with the Fungi,
danced with the Dark Young, and swum with the
Star Spawn.
Which is all a fancy way of saying that Im
familiar with the horrors that haunt the Mythos
and the dark places that they inhabit.
And perhaps that makes it all the more
surprising how little upfront horror there is in
this comic. Certainly there is a Yellow Sign,
some dark dreams, and the hints of something
more, but no monster presents its scaly face to
the readers of this comic, no protoplasmic
prodigy lurches into view, even briefly. Instead
the horror is left to the reader.
And this is, I think, as it should be.
Any true horror story is largely about the
mundane, about our safe, rational, sane universe.
About our world of 100-watt bulbs burning
away the darkness. And then we see, on the
edges, or perhaps hidden in the fabric of the sane
world itself, something else. And there is the
21
Return to Arkham
Throughout its history, Arkham has been home to
many strange occurrences, including witch burnings,
Fortean phenomena, and bizarre rituals. Though all is
not well in Arkham, life goes on there with at least a
veneer of normalcy.
horror: the terror is in our rational world made
unsafe.
And this is the core of Skotos online
game, Lovecraft Country: Arkham by Night. The
games motto is Act as if Nothing is Wrong,
and its about an Arkham that pretends that
horrors do not exist, that tries to go on with its
own life. This is the mood that Ive tried to
create in this comic as well.
I should also admit that the comic is a bit
of a teaser. It offers a brief look into the world of
Miskatonic University, and I hope that you have
enjoyed the beautifully portrayed black and
white streets of Arkham. I think that the core
story, of one person coming to terms with the
true nature of the world, is a good Mythos tale.
However the larger plot of what happens to Seth
next, of whether he ever finds closure for his
brothers death, can only be continued in one
place: the online game. I invite you to the online
streets of Arkham by Night, to discover therein
your own truths.
Return to Arkham is my first Mythos
story. In looking through my writing archives I
found a Dreamlands fragment I wrote years ago
called When Death Came Knocking, but I
could never get the poetry of the words right,
and so I eventually discarded it.
The heart of Lovecrafts Mythos has
always been in the divers hands that have
contributed to it over the last 80 years. Im
pleased to now be two of them.
--Shannon Appelcline, July 2005
22
About the Setting
Lovecraft Country is set in the ancient and
haunted New England town of Arkham, home
to the prestigious Miskatonic University, one of
the oldest liberal arts colleges in the United
States. Throughout its history, Arkham has
been host to many strange occurrences, includ-
ing witch burnings, Fortean phenomena, and
bizarre rituals. Though all is not well in
Arkham, life goes on there with at least a
veneer of normalcy. Students attend classes by
day and, at night, spend time with clubs,
practicing sports, attending special lectures, or
simply relaxing at the Garden Cafe or Dantes
Pub. Residents of the town go about their lives
acting as if nothing is wrong.
The Characters
Seth Fletcher
New Student. Seth came
to Miskatonic University
seeking his lost elder brother,
Carlton, who had attended
years before and who disap-
peared on an expedition to Morocco. He is
a lanky and delicate-looking young man with
dirty blonde hair, a fine example of vigorous
New England breeding, both polite and intel-
lectual. After arriving in the summer of 1933,
Seth began to unravel the tangle of bureaucracy
and obfuscation surrounding his missing
brother. He decides to stay at Miskatonic
University to get at the truth, a decision he may
live to regret.
Carlton Fletcher
Former Student. The
second eldest son in the
Fletcher family, Carlton
bore himself with grace and
made friends easily. He was
particularly skilled at art and
was pursuing his study of archaeology when he
was tapped by Professor Richard Newland to
Return to Arkham
attend and make sketches on a prestigious
expedition to some ruins in Morocco. Embark-
ing in the summer of 1928, Carlton never
returned.
Professor Julian Harding
Former Professor of
Archaeology. Arkham
Sanitarium currently houses
a deeply disturbed man who
was once a respected and
ambitious professor at
Miskatonic University.
Professor Harding led the ill-fated Moroccan
expedition where Carlton Fletcher met his end.
Alas, Professor Harding now remembers only
disjointed snatches of what happened on that
fateful journey.
Professor Richard Newland
Professor of Anthropology. A recognized
scholar, Professor Newland has made a career
out of espousing some of the more outre
theories of human development. Regard-
less of his rather outspoken personal opinions,
Newland is a highly respected anthropologist
who publishes carefully-
researched monographs on
early and prehistoric cultures.
Miskatonic University was a
natural home to Professor
Newlands continual interest
in fringe theories about the
sudden depopulation of
Easter Island, the mysterious Pango-Pango
tablets, and the obscure ritualistic worship
practices of certain Sumatran tribes. Newland
is a widely acknowledged expert on early
Middle Eastern and African cultures, including
Babylonians, Israelites, Egyptians, and
Phoenicians. He accompanied the 1928
Moroccan expedition where Carlton Fletcher
supposedly drowned.
Lovecraft Country
About the Game
A text-based, multiplayer, online role playing
game, Lovecraft Country has a social rather
than combat-oriented focus. The game
recreates the horror genre thrills of settings
inspired by the works of H. P. Lovecraft (1890
1937) and other authors who have followed
in his style.
Lovecraft Country currently offers two
types of play. Arkham By Night is the main
game where players will spend the majority of
their time interacting and preparing for
excursions across the globe. The setting
recreates the Arkham of H. P. Lovecrafts
writings and the popular Lovecraft Country
role-playing game supplements for Call of
Cthulhu, published by Chaosium. Arkham
serves as a backdrop to the discovery of
horrors both human and alien.
Expeditions, such as In the Tomb of the
Desert God, are almost separate subgames in
Lovecraft Country. Expeditions allow your
Arkham By Night character to depart with other
player-run characters and professors for far-
flung locales to experience dangers and adven-
ture. An expedition may involve a trip to an
African temple, a climb to a deserted
mountaintop, an auction of rare occult artifacts
in Russia, or a day trip to Boston. Expeditions
may only take place during limited hours,
depending on the nature of the trip.
Arkham By Night is in its beta testing
phase in the Summer of 2005, meaning that
Lovecraft Country: Arkham by Night Links
http://www.lovecraftcountry.com
The main site, with info about the games and stages.
http://www.lovecraftcountry.com/comic
The online version of this comic, in a screen version or PDF.
http://www.skotos.net/games
A listing of all 15 of Skotos games, including prose adventure, strategy, and more.
23
core systems are in place for game play while
secondary systems are still under development
and testing. The game is, however, open for
regular players to enjoy.
Welcome to Arkham
The year is 1935, the height of the Great
Depression in the United States. As the world
wrestles with the rising horrors of Nazism and
Fascism, the United States reels from a
savagely devastated economy. Jobs and food
and a roof over your head are valuable com-
modities that not everyone is lucky enough to
have.
You start the game as one of the privi-
leged, a freshman student at Miskatonic
University. It is a lovely night for a walk to
Dantes Pub to meet your friends or a quick
trip to the library to study for tomorrows
chemistry test. The wide world seems full of
promise and beckons you with its secrets and
opportunities.
Gaming Style
Playing in Lovecraft Country requires a
certain mindset. Like most of Lovecrafts
settings, the world in which players will find
their characters is essentially rational, or one
which at least expects rational behavior in the
context of early twentieth-century United
States of America. The game world follows
certain styles of gameplay that are important
to understand before playing:
24
Horror
Lovecraft Country is a game of personal
horror, more akin to a supernatural thriller or
gothic novel than a slasher film. It empha-
sizes mood and atmosphere over blood and
gore. Arkham is a town of crumbling build-
ings and armigerous New England families
with tenuous bloodlines. Fear-shrouded
secrets--not rampaging monsters that terror-
ize, and cut a violent swath through the town
in plain sight--are the center of the game.
Cooperation
Players who create characters in Lovecraft
Country will need to cooperate to survive in
difficult circumstances. While you may at
times need to pit your character against others,
that will be the exception and not the norm.
Arkham itself is relatively safe for those who
do not look too closely, but expeditions
outside of the town can be extremely perilous
and carry a high risk of madness, death, or
worse.
Socialization
The game emphasizes social interaction and
role playing. You learn and advance by
interacting with professors, joining student
(and other) groups, and trying to earn a place
on expeditions.
Unlimited Hours
Lovecraft Country: Arkham By Night is
a Grand Theatre--a large-scale setting
that is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week. However, in the Arkham By
Night game setting, it is always night-
time. It is assumed that your character
has spent the day attending to classes
and study. At night, you are free to
make your own appointments, attend
special lectures, join clubs, go to
sporting events, or simply socialize with
close friends.
Expeditions (excursions outside of
Return to Arkham
Arkham) are an exception and may only be
open for play during limited hours. Game
play for expeditions may be set at day or night
and will usually be limited to select groups of
players whose characters have qualified for a
special event.
Gaming Theme
The most merciful thing in the world, I think,
is the inability of the human mind to correlate
its contents. We live on a placid island of
ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity,
and it was not meant that we should voyage
far. The sciences, each straining in its own
direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but
some day the piecing together of dissociated
knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas
of reality, and of our frightful position therein,
that we shall either go mad from the revela-
tion or flee from the deadly light into the
peace and safety of a new dark age.
The Call of Cthulhu, H. P. Lovecraft
Arkham By Night was designed with one
dominant theme, that sometimes it is safer and
saner to remain ignorant of truth than to seek,
analyze, and understand even a fraction of the
enormity of a mad, uncaring cosmos.
Whether as a player you choose to have your
THE PORTAL INTO LOVECRAFT COUNTRY
Lovecraft Country 25
character pursue the life of a relentless and the game as a freshman student at Miskatonic
intrepid Seeker of Truth or a retiring academic University. As the game progresses beyond
living a quiet life in Arkham, the world you its beta test release, however, other, more
experience will be one where, for most, complex and varied roles will be available,
ignorance is bliss and knowledge is hellish both mundane and occult.
torture.
Learning the secrets that underlie the Telling Stories
founding of Arkham, the history of the earth, Arkham By Night is not a game where you
or the true nature of the universe may lead to will be running around with a shotgun, killing
paths of power, but knowledge has its price. endless hordes of monsters and powering up.
Madness might claim your characters percep- It is a more realistic sort of game about telling
tions, separating him or her inextricably from storiespersonal stories. The town of
the rest of humanity. Death from unexpected, Arkham is a stage and you are an actor upon
primal, cosmic forces might swiftly visit to it. But rather than having a set script, the
mete out an inglorious end. Or, in some cases, action is up to you. Sometimes, major events
a horrific transformation may irrevocably may occur to which your character may
change and utterly destroy both body and respond; but, more often, the drama and action
soul. that you create is your own, inspired by your
Tantalizing, enticing mysteries may beg characters interactions with other players
you to solve them. But do you dare to answer characters.
the call, despite the potentially dire conse- There are no clear-cut goals that players
quences of that knowledge? There is a simple need to achieve in order to win. A story
power, safety, and comfort if one will simply might have any number of outcomes, depend-
Act as if Nothing is Wrong. ing upon the actions of the players who
become involved. The challenge arises from
Playing Roles creating compelling, dramatic situations that
A central concept of playing Arkham By Night bring your character to life. In essence, if you
is your adoption of a persona, a Role within experience fulfilling role play, you have
the town of Arkham. Before you can play, you already won.
will be asked to create a character with a As you play, you may choose to set
name, personality, skills, and physical descrip- certain goals for your character. These goals
tion. Many people enjoy role
playing for the opportunity to
pretend to be someone com- Arkham by Night Sources
pletely unlike themselves
Adventures in Arkham Country (Chaosium)
someone stronger or wiser;
H. P. Lovecrafts Arkham (Chaosium)
more truthful or deceptive.
H. P. Lovecrafts Dunwich (Chaosium)
Others choose to adopt Roles
Miskatonic University (Chaosium)
very close to their own
Miskatonic U. Graduate Kit (Chaosium)
personality and disposition, in
order to play out how they Encyclopedia Cthulhiana (Chaosium)
might act under different
At the Mountains of Madness (Arkham House)
circumstances.
Dagon and Other Macabre Tales (Arkham House)
At present, every player
The Dunwich Horror and Others (Arkham House)
of Arkham By Night must start
26
may bring success or failure, and those
successes or failures will affect the growth
and complexity of your character. For ex-
ample, in choosing a major field of study for
your character, in studying the Ponape Scrip-
tures for a magic spell, in investigating the
disappearance of infants on every
Walpurgisnacht, you may meet with success
or abject failure after, sometimes, months of
real-time game play. But the success or
failure of these endeavors is less important
than the ways in which the adversity affects
your character.
As you begin to play, you will have the
opportunity to become involved in many of
the stories already taking place in Arkham.
Sometimes, if these are particularly large
stories, they may be advertised ahead of time
on the Lovecraft Country web site (http://
www.lovecraftcountry.com). However, you
will probably be most affected by and more
fully enjoy telling your own stories in
Arkham, either on your own or with the
cooperation of other players. Have you had a
disagreement with a bully in your dormitory?
Is the professor whose lectures you are
attending impossible to please? Has your
family been cursed with an evil spell that has
brought you to Arkham to try and find its
cure? Will you choose to join a club that your
friends clearly disapprove of? What will
happen? You are the hero of the piece. Or the
villain, perhaps. The choice is yours.
A staff of volunteer story plotters are
frequently present to help provide ideas and
support for running your stories. Occasion-
ally, they will run broader, overarching tales
that will involve large numbers of players,
including adventures in Arkham and expedi-
tions across the world and beyond.
Seeking Success
Though important to Arkham By Night, role
playing and cooperative story-telling arent
the be-all and end-all of playing. Theres
Return to Arkham
plenty of room for advancing your character
in the town of Arkham. As you play, your
characters skills and knowledge will increase
over time. He or she may learn about
Arkhams secrets or become deeply involved
in university clubs, civic groups, or other
interesting, less publicised societies. He or
she may advance in class standing, graduate,
and proceed to graduate school or even a
professorship. As the game develops, you will
have the opportunity to play characters who
live and work in Arkham or nearby towns
such as Innsmouth, Dunwich, or Kingsport.
Of course, the loftiest achievements
come only to those willing to take risks. In
Arkham By Night, great power or success may
also separate a character from the rest of
humanity. Madness, disease, corruption, and
mutation are possible outcomes whenever a
character pursues forbidden knowledge. Your
character may choose a safer path instead,
defining success by more earthly, less inher-
ently perilous sorts of power.
Meeting Friends
Like other game offerings from Skotos,
Arkham By Night is designed for multiple
players over the Internet, and so it is com-
posed of a global community of players.
When you play, youll be doing more than just
telling stories, playing roles and seeking out
success. Youll also be meeting real people
who are interested in interactive fiction, role
playing, and gothic horror stories.
Playing the Game
Arkham By Night runs on your computer on
most Internet browsers and is text-based with
the exception of a small graphical window
that provides a map of your characters
immediate surroundings. Since the interface
is based on textual descriptions of everything,
the games success is based to a large degree
on the words you choose to describe your
actions, not on the power of your video card.
Lovecraft Country
Arkham By Night is about role playing in a
creepy setting, and the textual description
helps your imagination to play a large part in
ways that graphics could never manage.
Parsers and Imperatives
The parser is the part of the Arkham By Night
game that figures out what you mean when
you type in a command. It expects commands
to be delivered to it as imperatives (in real
life, words like Stop! or Wait!). Youre
telling your character what to do. Theres no
need to include a pronoun like you or I
because the system automatically adds it:
> stop
You stop.
When you type something like this, all of the
other players in the game who are nearby will
see a short sentence naming your character
and the action he or she performs:
Seth Fletcher stops.
Commands should be simple, singular
thoughts. A complex command might involve
a verb, an adverb, a preposition, an adjective,
and a noun (wave tiredly to a tall student), but
not much more. Arkham By Nights parser
system can understand simple commands like
these:
27
> go north
> smile happily at professor
> slyly wink to third police officer
Hundreds of commands can be used to say
things in Arkham By Night. For instance, you
can state, question, mumble, or shout. Use
the command that best conveys your
characters emotions. After the verb, put what
you want to say in quotation marks:
> say I think youll like it here
You say, I think youll like it here.
> whisper to pin Give me a tattoo?
You whisper to Pin Liou, Give me a tattoo?
Finally, you can attach spoken evocations to
many gestures, like frown, smile, or wink.
This allows you to speak while engaged in
another activity:
> smile broadly, Hello, my friend!
You smile broadly, Hello, my friend!
You can find more complete online tutorials
for getting acclimated to Arkham By Night and
its game systems at http://
www.lovecraftcountry.com/home/help/. You
can also find more detail about the game
setting, including in-game happenings,
history, and background, by registering for the
site and visiting its Community and Games
channels.

WELCOME TO ARKHAM BY NIGHT

You are in ancient, mouldering, witch-cursed,

legend-haunted Arkham, whose huddled, sagging
gambrel roofs and crumbling Georgian balustrades
brood out the centuries beside the darkly muttering
Miskatonic River.
Lovecraft Country: Arkham by Night
The year is 1935, at the height of the Great
uses a prose-oriented browser. A
Depression that has devastated the economy and
ravaged the spirit of the United States.
map of the nearby area eases
Act as if nothing is wrong.
navigation, while drop-down menus
You inhabit Seth Hansom Fletcher.
can be used to instantly access
Seth Hansom Fletcher enters the world.
common commands.
It is Tuesday, the 12nd of July, 1935, sometime at
night. [OOC - 4:54pm ET]

A dark section of lawn near the center of campus.

28 Return to Arkham

In this Comic:
Seth enters Arkham at the Train Station (across the
river). He visits with Professor Newland at Atwood Hall
(the Science building) and then checks in at the Hotel
Miskatonic, on the edge of campus. The Arkham
Sanitarium, where Professor Harding is staying, is on
the far side of town, past the River (explaining why Seth
decides to take a room first). Seths visit to a graveyard
takes him to the Hill Street Burying Ground. Blake
Street, named after author Robert Blake, is also off this
map.
Lovecraft Country 29
30 Return to Arkham
Lovecraft Country 31
32 Return to Arkham