This scenario was taken from the Chaosium publication, The Great Old Ones. It's titled Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign? We played it using the 3rd edition rules for Call of Cthulhu.
With James's abduction, and our players' knowing that the ritual to transform Fowler into the King in Yellow is to take place that night on a small island in the swamp, they gear up and head out while managing to convince a few police officers to come with them.
As they make their way through the fetid swampy waters, there seems to be an abundance of snakes this time. Dockery is bitten by one but manages to extract most of the poison. The group eventually finds their way back to the island with the large ritual rocks. The swamp folk are here, as are Papa Screech and Fowler, who is wearing a white ceremonial robe. Four Byakhee stand by as well, their large wings flapping intermittently in anticipation. Papa Screech is casting a spell and finishes by anointing Fowler's forehead with blood.
The players and police stay hidden as they watch - outmatched and frozen with fear by the unearthly ceremony. The degenerate cultists continue to chant as a fog rolls in. The lake surrounding the island begins to bubble and swell while an enormous yellow sign throbs and pulses beneath the inky water. The ground quakes and the physical reality in the area begins to stretch and contract as if breathing with a life of its own. Then, overlapping the players' own physical reality materializes the alien world of Carcosa. The stars in the sky are no longer recognizable and the whole environment has changed to that of a nightmare.
The four byakhee take flight into the air and are quickly lost as they penetrate the alien sky above. Then, a few cultists emerge from Papa Screech's hut with a bound young woman. They bring her to the centre of the huge ritual rocks and tie her to a pole. Papa Screech pulls out an ornate ritual dagger and approaches the woman when suddenly, through the fog, the players see their friend, Clyde Arisona James, emerge. James staggers his way forward and makes this frightening declaration:
Astonished to see their friend still alive, the players rush forward from the bushes. Papa Screech sees the reunion and is amused:
Screech then raises the dagger over the bound woman's heart. At this point our heroes have seen enough and take action! Total chaos follows as muzzles flash from firearms into the night followed by screams of pain and terror. Crazed swamp folk leap toward the police but are stopped by a hail of bullets. The lead-ridden bodies fall to the ground, bleeding out.
The King in Yellow
Randall Fowler, who has now transformed into theKing in Yellow - an avatar of Hastur- shuffles forward. His appearance has already begun to mutate; his flesh jiggling and shaking as he becomes more jelly-like. The King grabs Dockery's head with tentacle-like hands and gazes into his eyes. Dockery shrieks as his sanity and life force are drained by the attack. Fighting through the pain through sheer force of will, Dockery manages to draw his revolver from its holster then shoves it into the King's mouth and pulls the trigger, sending its brain matter scattering out the back of its head.
Papa Screech begins chanting and catches Hillary's gaze, who freezes, lost in Screech's hypnotic trance. Gunner then steps forward, levels his shotgun and fires, blowing Screech's knee apart. Screech lets out a frenzied wail as he falls to the ground. Freed from the hypnosis, Hillary fans his revolver, ending the Voodoo priest and sending his diabolical soul to hell.
In the midst of the mayhem, the huge yellow sign now pulses and shines in the lake like a burning star, and from the watery depths an abnormally shaped planetoid begins to rise slowly. The gelatinous form is vaguely spherical in shape with massive wriggling tentacles. There are many vertical openings that cut into the formation which lead to blackness; and all over it is covered with uncounted flickering orbs. Hastur, He Who Must Not Be Named, has emerged from Lake Hali and now presides from above.
All present need to make sanity rolls. All fail in their saves with the exception of Arizona James whose mind has retreated into its own reality as a means of survival from being trapped in Carcosa.
The dice rolls are not kind and Hillary, Gunner and Dockery all lose most of their sanity. Luck rolls are made by one or two to prevent them from completely bottoming out.
Despite his mental collapse, Dockery runs screaming into Papa Screech's hut, travelling through the gate that leads to Fowler's home. Arizona James, in his wrecked psychological condition, manages to corral Gunner, who is laughing uncontrollably, and Hillary, who is screaming and pounding his fists on the ground, and brings them to Papa Screech's hut where they exit through the gate. Hastur and Carcosa soon dissipate as the fabric of space once again corrects itself. With the death of the King in Yellow and the disruption of the summoning spell, our heroes managed to save New Orleans and perhaps all of Louisiana but at a terrible price.
Epilogue
Our battered and tortured heroes are eventually transferred to Arkham asylum where they are locked away to prevent them from harming themselves and others.
Arizona James fairs a bit better, being an out-patient at the asylum and eventually going back to teaching at Miskatonic University after a few years.
Many swamp folk were killed, in addition to the police that were brought along that horrific night. The Louisiana authorities couldn't figure out all that happened and eventually sent a detective to Arkham Asylum to speak with our heroes, but his questions were answered with screams of terror or attempts to kill him.
The next years are ones of darkness for our players as they try to both face and forget their tortured memories, until finally, four year later they are released back into society.
Then one day, while sitting in his office at Miskatonic University, Arizona James opens a letter from an old friend asking if he is interested in locating an object called...The Shining Trapezohedron.
