Creeping Madness! Part IV

The House of the Black Fan

The House stands at the corner of two streets within the Hongkew maze; the walls are whitewashed brick render, featureless and white, without windows. The front door of the House is at the corner of the crossroads - a pair of heavy, iron-bound wooden valves atop two semi-circular steps and surmounted by an open black fan, perched on a small shelf above: at all times, there is a guard on duty here, vetting all those trying to enter. The party’s first objective is to distract and/or disable this thug.

Moving through the House requires that the party make an averaged Luck roll each time they enter a new numbered room: if they fail, they encounter 1d2 cultists armed with sickles who will proceed to attack them. This is in addition to any other cultists who are listed in the individual room descriptions.

Gaming Den

The room beyond these doors is a typical fan tan room. The walls are whitewashed and, in the centre of the floor, is a square made of strips of tin nailed to the wood; the numbers 1 to 4 in Chinese characters, are drawn around this square. The floor is littered by squares of red paper: these are kau li (‘dogs’ tongues’) used in betting in fan tan. There are two tables here: one bearing a long tapered rod and a covered bowl filled with coins and orange-peel strips, next to which is a stool; the other has a chair and carries a cash box (empty) and a pile of the kau li.

Disconcertingly, Hugolin stops here and suddenly asks if any of the party has any knowledge of sorcery. If anyone replies in the affirmative, he produces a Bible and draws from it a small slip of paper: he gives these to the character along with a thick chunk of chalk, taken from his pocket. He says that this is an incantation for a warding spell from the Sigsand Manuscript and the character needs to copy the diagram on the floor of the room and repeat the Celtic chant for the duration of their stay (along with the expenditure of all of their Magic Points): this will ensure that there is an island of relative security from spells in this nest to which the others can retreat in an emergency. The party may object to this procedure; if they are obdurate, Hugolin will stay behind and work the spell himself, stressing that they will be able to fall back to his location if anything goes wrong.

Spell: “The Sigsand Incantation”

By drawing this diagram on the ground and chanting the accompanying words, the caster creates a zone free of the influence of spells and other magical effects. Anyone inside the diagram while the chanting continues will be unable to be affected by a magical process crossing over the diagram; as well, any affected individuals who enter the compass of the diagram will suddenly be free of its effects. Additionally, any otherworldly creatures (such as the Bloated Woman) and their magical effects (including the power of the Black Fan) cannot enter the diagram.

As a mechanism for running this spell, have the player attempt to copy the diagram on a piece of paper; additionally, let them attempt to read the incantation (“Uath Straiph Ifin”). Then, as the Keeper, grade the player’s attempts on a scale of 1-10: the averaged mark of these two tasks is the strength on the Resistance Table (versus the POW of the casting agency) of holding magical effects at bay. In this way, you can simulate the effects of an untrained spell caster thrust into the situation of suddenly having to work real magic.

Anyone left here with this duty will have to repel the attentions of 1d2 entering cultists every 1d4 rounds. If they have a gun they can keep these foes at bay and keep chanting as long as they have bullets to spare...

Long Corridor

There is a single door out of this room (STR 12) and it will require some bashing or a Lockpick or Mechanical Repair roll to bypass it. The door leads to a long winding corridor: to the south is a heavy curtain; across the corridor is another door (again, STR 12); to the north the corridor turns to the east.

From the south, the curtain conceals a set of stairs and a locked door to the street outside (this can easily be unlocked from here); the door opposite, leads to area 3 and is locked, requiring specialised rolls or brute force to kick it in; to the north, the corridor turns to the east and leads past a shuttered and barred window (which will slam shut as the party appears) – beyond this is a door leading to another set of stairs and a small foyer leading to the outside: in this entry-way are many small, lidded buckets, forming a hazard to hastily progressing characters (DEX x 5 to avoiding tripping on them, if hurrying through here). These are full of human excrement and are representative of the standard toilet facilities of such an organisation in Shanghai: these “honey-pots” would normally be placed outside at close of business and would be emptied by the night-soil man the following morning.

Another hazard here is the loophole in the wall opposite the door: this allows the guard in the room beyond to see who is exiting via this door and to take steps to prevent them if necessary. The guard has a Spot Hidden roll of 45% and a Rifle skill of 35%; he will shoot at any of the party who appear here, should he see them. The door leading to the street outside is locked but can easily be disabled.

Opium Den

Beyond this door is a fully-functioning opium den. Several cots are arrayed along the northern wall while, to the south is a table with a chair, on which is an abacus, a candle, a box of matches, a collection of pipes and a box, which holds pellets of opium and a handful of pipe-cleaners; there is also a sizable amount of Mexican Silver Dollars inside. To the south, a beaded curtain obscures the kitchen beyond and a locked door (STR 12) bars progress to the west. There are several opium addicts here, oblivious to everything around them, lying on the cots.

Kitchen

Every fan tan joint worth its reputation has a fully equipped kitchen and the House of the Black Fan is no exception: this is a kitchen in full swing, with all the cleavers and woks full of hot oil you (the Keeper) could hope for. Here are a Head Cook and two Kitchenhands ready to defend themselves with their knives and pepper-pots and chilli-oil. Let the chips (as it were) fall where they may.

Enterprising players may notice (Spot Hidden roll) that the cooking range is powered by gas and they may well decide to use this in defeating the menace before them. Otherwise, there is a locked door here (easily disabled from within) which leads to the noisome alley outside and thence to the street.

Foyer of the Inner Sanctum

The next corridor is very different from the others: for starters, the walls are a dark red colour, instead of whitewashed white. At the northern end of this hall is a small table on top of which are a flower arrangement and a carved dragon-lion made of soapstone; there is also a three-legged brass urn full of sand, studded with joss-sticks, which emit a heavy perfume. From here the corridor kicks right: the northern wall is a barrier of wooden pierce-work – like a rood screen – behind which is a heavy brocade curtain hiding what lies beyond from sight; along the southern wall are two heavily-lacquered coffers and a large bronze Buddha on a teak stand: in the coffers can be found copies, in scroll form, of the Tale of Priest Kwan and the blasphemous Goddess of the Black Fan. Occasional chanting is heard from beyond the curtains.

At the eastern end of the corridor is a heavy door with a peephole: this door is locked (STR 20).

Strongroom

This room is the strongroom for the temple of the Black Fan Cult. If the party is attacked outside of this location, they will find the door locked and the inhabitants ready. There are (at least) two cult members defending the area: they are armed with sickles and are not shy about using them. Defeating the guardians will reveal that there are several bags of opium here (street value, S$5,000) along with two boxes of Mexican Silver Dollars (with the coins in the opium den, S$6,000). These are hidden behind a Chinese screen at the far end of the room. The players may also notice a 4-foot tall chimney in this room, blocked off by a metal grille: from below they can hear ghastly cries and sounds of inhuman savagery, emanating from a lower level within the building (ie. the Horrible Basement).

The Inner Sanctum

The first thing to be wary of with this room is characters rushing in: there is a trap-door just inside that will drop invaders down into the Horrible Basement, unless they make a DEX x 5 (or Dodge) roll to bypass this trap.

If the players avoid this peril, they will encounter a refined and beautiful Chinese woman who speaks their language and appears, to all intents and purposes, to be on their side. This is of course, the Bloated Woman herself, using the power of the Black Fan to manipulate the senses of her enemies. It is worth noting that all of her suggestions and instructions are voided by the diagram from the Sigsand Manuscript, as long as it has been erected in the fan tan room: those affected by her presence will be returned to normal, if only they are brought within the compass of the Sigsand diagram. As Hugolin said, the fan tan room is as good a place as any to build a beachhead against their enemy.

Otherwise, Nyarlathotep, in his form as the Bloated Woman, is the threat confronting the party here. ‘She’ feels the presence of the Sigsand diagram (if it is in play) and derides its capabilities, trying to convince party members of its inconsequence (despite the fact that it is actually a potent antidote for her pernicious influence). She is able to manipulate the minds of those who oppose her, using their weaknesses to induce them: Keepers should utilise the backgrounds of their teams’ characters to the fullest here, keeping in mind that the exposure of these personal issues is a potential source of friction within the party. Along with her here are the Red Pole and the White Paper Fan, executives in the Bloated Woman’s elite, who will eagerly die in her defence. NB: any of the delusory effects which she instils in the party members will be undone by the Sigsand diagram, should it still be in play and assuming that the affected party members can return to its protective zone.

The Bloated Woman is currently weak and in need of sustenance: she will await an opportunity to feast upon the first victim she can find. This will be either the Red Pole or the White Paper Fan if she cannot get any of the party members to submit to her hypnotic whims (NB: that she cannot feed without dropping her illusory disguise). Party members who see her fulfil her gruesome appetites will have to make Sanity Rolls to oppose her vile schemes.

This encounter should ideally devolve upon the issues developed by the alien entity; the party is up against an ancient deity with untold power: their strength should lie in their ability to stay the course towards their chosen ends, in this case freedom, clear of the Bloated Woman’s interference. In the next room are 10 cultists who will come to their goddess’s defence if requested; should they do so, the Demon Fog outside will quietly dissipate.

Room of Invocation

Beyond the pierce-work wooden barrier and curtain that conceals the horrible excrescence that is the Bloated Woman, is the area where her more mundane worshippers pray. 10 of these fellows have been, until recently, working to maintain the Demon Fog over Shanghai; but now they feel that they have to defend their Goddess. They will break, somewhat hesitantly at first, into her inner sanctum and attack the party. This is bad – 10 upset cultists are more than this party can endure...

Armoury

This is the Armoury of the Temple. In here are any number of sickles and three rifles which are used to guard the two loopholes monitoring the temple and its approaches. There are at least two cultists here at all times.

Further Keeper Wickedness!

Any characters who were captured prior to this will have been brought to the House and exposed to the Bloated Woman avatar. She will have devoured one of her prisoners before them and will have thrown them, naked, into the basement below. Experiencing the Horrible Basement will cost the victims 1d3/1d10 Sanity points.

The Horrible Basement

In the basement below are 20 degraded humans, bereft of Sanity and clothing, and wallowing in the ‘refuse of human occupation’ (SAN roll: 1d3/1d10). All of these captives mutter vaguely the words of various blasphemous poems and are incapable of identifying themselves; amongst them, the party will find Martin Beauchamp, waiting patiently for his opportunity to feed the dragon-toothed goddess, and completely out of his mind.

A Sudden Reprieve!

As the worst seems inevitable, a brigade of police officers enters the building, accompanied by a young Chinese woman in peasant garb. She points toward the cultists and the police officers swoop in to arrest them, rifles blazing. This is the young woman that the party may have rescued at the Door of Hope. The police officers will try to round up the cultists in short order and bring them in for questioning.

If the party chose not to help the young girl, there is not much point in having her here at this juncture. Instead, replace her with Dr Pelletier, coming to Hugolin’s rescue: this may help to redeem him slightly in the eyes of the party.

Sadly, the Bloated Woman is not so easy to corral: she will drop her disguise and launch her sickle-armed tentacles to attack her would-be suppressors. Fortunately for the riflemen, the Goddess is veiled by the screen and the curtains between them and herself, so little of her mind-blasting appearance penetrates through to them: three or four fusillades of rifle fire should be more than enough to deal with her. Nevertheless, this will be a full-on combat of an Elder God versus its opponents – a fight to the death!

Endgame

Once the party has found Martin, their quest is over. The police can deal with the cultists and the Bloated Woman while the party makes its escape. Poor Beauchamp is a complete mess, totally insane and not capable of much beyond gibbering and drooling. He will be taken to the Shanghai Hospital and, in subsequent weeks, Rodney will escort him home to his Aunt. In due course, with changed surroundings and medical care, he may even snap out of it.

Madeleine will make good on all her promises of reward and reimbursement and Mr Devizes will conduct the transfer of funds and the mailing of grateful letters of thanks with his usual discretion and finesse.

And what of The Cult of the Black Fan? In later months, characters will read shocking newspaper articles revealing the extent and power of the nefarious organization, its connexions to local law enforcement and to the insidious Blue Gang (which loses much face and a great measure of power in the mop-up). But the cult is not in fact destroyed: in twenty years’ time, the cabal will reform with a new name and a slightly different appearance. The Cult of the Bloated Woman will soon be terrorising Shanghai and its citizens once more...

Rewards:

Defeating the Bloated Woman and her horrid cult: +2d10 SAN points

Rescuing Martin Beauchamp: +1d8 SAN points

Finding, but not rescuing, Martin: +1d4 SAN points

Rescuing the girl at the Door of Hope: +1d3 SAN points

Maintaining the Sigsand Charm: +1d4 SAN points

Destroying The Tale of Priest Kwan: +2d6 SAN points

Destroying The Goddess of the Black Fan: +2d4 SAN points

If Fergus MacLean survives: +1d6 SAN points

If Pere Hugolin survives: +1d8 SAN points

Failing to find or rescue Martin: -1d12 SAN points

If Fergus dies: -1d6 SAN points

If Pere Hugolin dies: -1d8 SAN points

The Black Fan Cult bests the party: -2d10 SAN points

Statistics

Martin Beauchamp (pronounced “BEE-chum”)

Martin Beauchamp, the object of our party’s quest, is a typical British upper-class wastrel trying his luck in the Far East. Whilst dabbling in linguistics at University he heard the well-known chestnut about how a young man with a few trivial skills can make a fortune in Shanghai by simply getting out of bed in the morning. Martin has dreams but is easily led; his resistance to temptation is tissue-thin and he stands as an easy mark for any Shanghai-based predator...

Ill-starred Adventurer

char.	value	char.	value	char.	value
STR	6	POW	9	Age	28
CON	8	DEX	10	HP	11
SIZ	13	APP	18	Magic Points	9
INT	17	EDU	22	SAN	3

Damage Bonus: None

Weapon: None

Armour: None

Skills: Anthropology 50%; Chinese Calligraphy 57%; Art: Poetry 70%; Bargain 75%; Fast Talk 55%; Law 16%; Library Use 55%; Occult 25%; Chinese: Cantonese 85%, Mandarin 50%, Wu 60%; English 110%; Psychology 60%; Sneak 11%; Spot Hidden 40%

Spells: None

SAN Loss: It costs no SAN to see Martin Beauchamp

The Bloated Woman, Avatar of Nyarlathotep

This avatar of Nyarlathotep takes the form of a 600-pound, seven-foot-tall vaguely female horror. It has two ropey tentacles instead of arms and many lesser tentacles sprouting from its rolls of sickly yellow-grey flesh; another tentacle sprouts from below its eyes. The head has five lumpy chins each supporting a ruby-lipped, fanged mouth. This monstrous bulk is swathed in yellow and black silk, with a girdle from which hang several sickles and the infamous Black Fan.

If destroyed in this form, Nyarlathotep collapses into a heap of reflexively twitching tentacles which burrow quickly into the earth and disintegrate. The Bloated Woman rises once more from this wreckage in 1d6+2 months.

Cult

This avatar is worshipped almost exclusively in China with Shanghai as its major cult centre. Sacrifices to the Bloated Woman take the form of mutilations and dismemberments by a sacred cult sickle, in a process reminiscent of the ‘Death of A Thousand Cuts’.

The cult has been purged a number of times in the past but, given the ability of this creature to regenerate, it has re-emerged as many times. The cult has adopted many pseudonyms over the years –‘The Cult of the Bloated Woman’, ‘The Cult of the Black Fan’, ‘The Golden Crescent Tong’ – and has managed to survive most attempts at persecution. An attempt was made in the 1920s to establish a cult centre in Paris; however, this manifestation was successfully negated by persons unknown.

In ancient times the cult was generally small and secretive, occasionally emerging as part of the ritual practises of scattered chiu chao organisations, especially amongst the pirate tribes of Fukien province. Recently however, the cult has blossomed and is growing ever stronger with a centralised organisation emerging in Shanghai.

Members of the cult can be identified by the cognoscenti in a number of ways: firstly, they usually have the characters which identify their deity tattooed in their left armpit; secondly, they tend to arm themselves with sickles and, for preference, choose to hack off the limbs of their targets and retreat, watching their victims bleed to death; finally, they tend to pass messages amongst their ranks by means of black paper fans, upon which secret, encoded missives have been written. The priests of the Order all wear black and yellow silk robes in emulation of their deity.

Due to the coastal focus of the cult, it has forged strong links with the Deep One communities of the eastern seaboard of China. This has led to the fact that many cult members are Deep Ones, or Deep One hybrids themselves.

Attacks & Special Effects

The avatar can attack twice in each round with its major tentacles. When first grabbed by one of these appendages, the victim takes 3d3 points of damage. On subsequent rounds, the victim is gripped and mouthed by one of the revolting maws: this “Kiss of the Bloated Woman” drains INT at a rate of 1d6 permanently from the victim. As long as the victim has INT left, they can try to escape by pitting their STR against the ‘Woman’s on the Resistance Table. When the victim has no INT left, their skull bursts open and the avatar gulps down the still-living brains.

The Outer God has a number of smaller tentacles which can attack, wielding sickles. 1d6 of these limbs can attack opponents in a single round.

Goddess of the Black Fan

char.	value	char.	value	char.	value
STR	31	POW	100	Move	12
CON	44	DEX	19	HP	35
SIZ	26	APP	3	Magic Points	100
INT	86	EDU	n/a	SAN	0

Damage Bonus: +3d6

Weapon: Arm Tentacle: 85%, damage: 3d3+hold for “Kiss”; Sickle: 50%, damage: 1d4+3+db; “Kiss of the Bloated Woman”: automatic when Grappled, damage: destroys 1d6 INT

Armour: None

Skills: Any as the Keeper feels appropriate

Spells: The Bloated Woman knows all Mythos spells

SAN Loss: It costs 1d8/1d10 Sanity points to see the Bloated Woman

Black Fan Cultists

There are many of these villains at the House of the Black Fan and the party will have to deal with them as they see fit. Chief among them are the Hung Kwan (‘Red Pole’) who acts as the group’s consigliore or leader of the enforcers, and the Pak Tsz Sin (‘White Paper Fan’) who acts as the ritual advisor to the organisation‘s leader. While there are other, more powerful, leaders of the Cult, these are the only two with whom the party will have dealings at this time. Under them are a whole bevy of fanatical, sickle-wielding psychos who are prepared to give their all for their abominable Goddess.

The preferred weapon of the Black Fan Cult is the sickle. This is normally a farm implement and fairly common throughout much of China; however, in the hands of the Black Fan Cultists, it is a lethal and dangerous weapon. The Cultists have many superstitions regarding sickles: breaking a sickle is taken as an omen of the Goddess’ disfavour; a sickle lying in a roadway or on a doorstep is taken as a sign that the way is barred to the adherent; dreaming of a sickle is a sign of the Goddess’ blessing, while cutting oneself with one’s own sickle is a sign of one’s own imminent death. It is also considered bad luck to pick up a sickle, whose blade is pointing to the left, with the left hand; the reverse is also true.

The Cult operates ‘smoke and flower houses’ (opium dens and brothels) and fan-tan dens wherever it emerges, in order to raise capital; where the Cult succeeds most, however, is in its conduct of pirate activities along the coastline of China. This not only provides the cult with a means of income and of sacrifices to its blasphemous deity but also provides a cover for its presence: most authorities are prepared to acknowledge the existence of pirates but not the activities of a murderous cult with demonic fish creatures for allies.

Hung Kwan (“Red Pole”)

char.	value	char.	value	char.	value
STR	18	POW	14	Age	31
CON	16	DEX	12	HP	17
SIZ	18	APP	9	Magic Points	14
INT	12	EDU	3	SAN	02

Damage Bonus: +1d6

Weapon: Fist/Punch 80% (1d3+db); Head Butt 50% (1d4+db); Kick 75% (1d6+db); Grapple 50% (Special); Martial Arts 70%; Sickle 50% (1d4+3+db)

Armour: None

Skills: Climb 45%; Conceal 87%; First Aid 75%; Hide 81%; Listen 75%; Occult 50%; Chinese: Hokkien 24%, Mandarin 30%, Wu 32%, Cantonese 90%; Sneak 50%;

Spells None

SAN Loss It costs no SAN to see the Red Pole

Pak Tsz Sin (“White Paper Fan”)

char.	value	char.	value	char.	value
STR	9	POW	14	Age	58
CON	12	DEX	14	HP	13
SIZ	13	APP	12	Magic Points	14
INT	16	EDU	10	SAN	20

Damage Bonus: +0

Weapon: Fist/Punch 65% (1d3); Kick 50% (1d6); Grapple 40% (Special); Sickle 50% (1d4+3)

Armour: None

Skills: Climb 65%; Conceal 87%; Chinese: Hui 30%, Mandarin 60%, Wu 90%; Hide 40%; Listen 45%; Martial Arts 45%; Sneak 50%; Spot Hidden 60%

Spells: None

SAN Loss: It costs no SAN to see the White Paper Fan

Mythos Tomes

“Goddess of the Black Fan”

“Behind the Black Fan, the soul-twister simpers,

Snake-armed and slickened, inflated with blood fat.

The dragon-toothed feaster, gluts down grey lilies,

The gracious donation of children left twitching...”

-Liu Chan-fang, Goddess of the Black Fan

This collection of obscene verse is considered the most sacred text in the worship of Nyarlathotep in his avatar of the Bloated Woman. The work is usually encountered in the form of a scroll and contains 64 verses dedicated to the activities of the Bloated Woman. Needless to say, the content is bloodthirsty and rhapsodic, given to purple descriptions of the avatar’s most base activities.

Authorship of this work is attributed to Liu Chan-fang, but apart from his mention within the book’s context, nothing is known of this individual. The book is listed in the Shih-chi (“Chinese Historical Records”) as being purged during the Ch’in, Han, Tang and Sung Dynasties.

At first sight the scroll appears to conform to Taoist formulae, with the traditional 64 verses reminiscent of the I Ching and much of the less brutal imagery concerned with traditional Taoist tropes. This is where the reader must be on guard however: the suggestion of a hidden Taoist text within the poetry is a ruse devised to lead the student to discover a formula for summoning Nyarlathotep in his chosen Chinese form.

A comparative reading between this work and the Tale of Priest Kwan - another text associated with the worship of this deity - reveals that one is a commentary upon the other; the Tale however is disguised as a work unto itself and its explicatory function is not immediately obvious.

(Source: Masks of Nyarlathotep, Larry DiTillio, Lynn Willis, et al.)

Chinese; Liu Chan-fang; Warring States Period; Sanity Loss: 0/1d4; +5 percentiles to Cthulhu Mythos; average 14 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: (INTx5 on d100 roll to see if the spell is detectable) Contact Nyarlathotep (as the Bloated Woman avatar)

“The Tale of Priest Kwan”

“...A form most majestic appears before proud Hun Tao – the Goddess Herself comes to humble him! Her graceful tentacles embrace his mealy-fleshed followers. Her dragon fangs test the milksops’ shrieking throats. Her sickles reap frantic limbs wherever She will! Her five mouths chant victory, while Hun Tao weeps and shivers in his empty hall!”

-The Tale of Priest Kwan

This obscure work of poetry recounts the adventures of the priest Kwan, who receives the wisdom of the ‘Pearl Empress’ (Nyarlathotep, as the Bloated Woman avatar) and who then sets out to convert the world to her worship. There are rollicking sections detailing his encounter and conversion of pirates and a long middle section which relates his meeting with the rich nobleman Hun Tao whom he converts after a long and complex discourse, proving his devotion to the cause. Sections of the poetry discuss Deep Ones and their beliefs in regard to a ‘sleeping god’. For the most part though, the work details and gives a rationale for the various cult practises used by the Order of the Bloated Woman.

An infamous section (illustrated above) involves a betting match between Hun Tao and Kwan, where they wager on the sex of unborn babies brought before them. The pregnant mothers are tied to poles and disembowelled or thrown to the ground and cut open with axes to retrieve the foetuses. The outcome of the match sees the loser, Hun Tao, having to grant Priest Kwan another day in which to convince the nobleman of the potency of his Goddess.

A close reading of this text in conjunction with the Goddess of the Black Fan reveals that this work is actually a rigorous commentary on that other text, albeit encoded within the appearance of a picaresque novel form.

(Source: Masks of Nyarlathotep, Larry DiTillio, Lynn Willis, et al.)

Chinese: The Tale of Priest Kwan; Anonymous; China, no date but likely from the Yuan Dynasty; Sanity Loss: 1/1d6; +5 percentiles to Cthulhu Mythos; average 18 weeks to study & comprehend

Spells: (Roll INTx1 for each spell to see if its presence is detected within the convoluted verses) “Wisdom of the Pearl Empress” (Contact Deity: Nyarlathotep in his avatar of the Bloated Woman); any or all of the T’ai p’ing t’ao