Research Threads

Impossible Landscapes features a detailed timeline of its background: THE KING IN HISTORY,
beginning on page 32. Agents can progress through the enormity of the campaign touching on
those details only here and there, leaving those unfound as context for the Handler. But Agents
willing to research may put the pieces together if they follow the golden threads that connect the
victims and servants of the King in Yellow.
Reaching these poisonous depths of discovery is as simple as drowning:
●​ A player says what the Agent seeks and where and how they are looking.
●​ The Handler reviews subjects here to see what might be available. The Handler says
what skill or stat roll is required and how long may take.
●​ The player attempts the roll.
●​ The Handler reveals the consequences.

Research Rolls
Stat test- the information is available to anyone with enough work.
Skill test- the information is esoteric or restricted.

Research Skill & Time:

Source Suggested Stat Suggested Skill Time

Corporate records INT Accounting, Hours

Bureaucracy, or Law

Church records INT Bureaucracy/History Days

Government records INT Bureaucracy/Law Days

Personal CHA Persuade Hours

recollections

Private documents INT History Hours

Published Works INT Anthropology, Days

Archeology, History,
or Occult

Research Roll Results:

Critical success Find 1D4+1 pieces of information in minimal
time: a single hour or day.

Success Find 1D4+1 pieces of information.

Failure Find one piece of information and gain 1

Corruption.

Fumble As with a failure, but also triggers a

manifestation.
 The Macallistar Building
Looking into the history of the Macallistar Building can yield interesting results. Most of this
information can only be found by paying New York City Hall a visit. City Hall is a grand building
located in City Hall Park on Broadway & Chambers Street in Lower Manhattan, near the
Financial District and Chinatown. It is open on Weekdays from 9AM-5PM.
The Internet: Requires Computer Science at 20% or higher, or a successful roll. Searching
the nascent and sparse 1995 Internet, Agents can find recently digitized public records for the
building, including the date of its construction permit as the Lundine house (27 MAY 1921) and
of its completion (21 MAY 1924), as well as various sales and purchases. It was sold by the
Lundine estate on 3 FEB 1953 to the Star Corporation, and on 6 MAY 1967 to ARTLIFE, the
current owners. One website says the architect, Asa Daribondi, was famous for having been
involved in a scandalous murder case, but says nothing else about it.
City Records: Requires Bureaucracy or Art (Architecture) at 50% or higher, or a
successful roll. A search of city records at New York City Hall uncovers the original building
permit from 27 MAY 1921. The blueprints were not filed until 10 June 1921, and construction
was completed on May 21st, 1924. The architect is listed as A. Daribondi. The building began
as a private residence for Henry M. Lundine (28 MAY 1886–30 APR 1952), built in the classic
brownstone style.
On February 3rd 1953, the Star Corporation purchased the Lundine house and estate from
Agatha Lundine. An addendum to the permit on 2 MAR 1953 shows the Lundine house being
refitted from a three-story brownstone home to an 11-unit apartment building. Fire escapes and
fire doors were added. It was then renamed the Macallistar Building. The ARTLIFE corporation
purchased the Macallistar Building from the Star Corporation on May 6th, 1967.
Stamped on the side of the Macallistar file are three different sequences of numbers.
Criminology 40%+ notes them to be criminal case numbers; this means that three criminal
incidents occurred on the premises. An INT×5 test merely guesses that the numbers are codes
for something associated with the building.
Blueprints- Requires Bureaucracy at 20% or higher, or a successful roll, and spending $200.
A search of city records at New York City Hall reveals that they still have Macallistar blueprints,
originally the Lundine house, on file. A fee of $200 must be paid to get photostatic copies.
Paperwork comes along with them, almost all of it mundane. Only one item is odd: a single slip
of elegant cream-colored stationery for the HOTEL BROADALBIN in New York City, listing no
address, stapled to a city permit. The stationery has a handwritten note on it, scribbled in
long-faded ballpoint pen: “I saw the rooms tonight at dusk.” Searching for Hotel Broadalbin
leads nowhere. As far as New York City is concerned, there has never been such a hotel.
City Criminal Records: Requires Bureaucracy or Criminology at 50% or higher, or a
successful roll. Searching records at City Hall’s Criminal Records Department for crimes
related to the Macallistar Building finds that the architect, Asa Severin Daribondi (born on 28
MAY 1886, disappeared in 1950, declared dead on 2 SEP 1960), is suspected to have drowned
at least five (and possibly as many as 20) children between 1947 and 1950. Charles Lundine,
the son of the owner of the building and a talented musician, hanged himself in the second-floor
ballroom on 30 AUG 1950 (Macallistar Crime #1).
On 30 APR 1952, Henry M. Lundine, the owner of the building, was found in the staircase to
the roof, dressed in strange “plastic” silver robes, wearing a papier-mâché mask. A brief
investigation by the NYPD determined he had died of a massive stroke. Photographs show a fat
man in black and white sprawled on the third-floor landing wearing an expressionless white
mask (Macallistar Crime #2).
 On August 30th 1994, a tenant of the Macallistar named Abigail Wright reported a mugging on
the premises. She claimed to be accosted by an odd, older man in a silver robe and mask near
the roof door of the Macallistar Building. The man demanded that she “show him where the
tunnels are!”. He then knocked her down, rifled through her possessions, and ran off. The NYPD
investigation went nowhere (Macallistar Crime #3).

The Lundine Family

Government Records and Police Reports
A man named Henry M. Lundine was born in Chicago in 1886. He married Agatha Kreitz in
1921 and moved to New York City with his wife in 1924. He had two children with Agatha,
Charles (1930) and Eva (1942). Charles hanged himself in the ballroom of their Kip’s Bay home
and was found dead on August 30th, 1950.
On April 30th 1952, Henry Lundine was found dead on the uppermost staircase to the roof at
the Lundine house, having suffered a massive stroke. He was found dressed in strange “plastic”
silver robes and a papier-mâché mask. Photographs show a fat man in black and white
sprawled on the third-floor landing wearing an expressionless white mask.
Eva Lundine- There is only one surviving member of the Lundine family, Henry’s daughter
Eva. After Agatha died of cancer in 1963 at the age of 62, Eva was the sole heir to the Lundine
textile fortune. Accounting 30% (or a roll at +20%) notes she's worth about $30 million ($45
million in 2015). She is unmarried and lives in New York City, with an office on 160 West 58th
Street.

Newspaper and Magazine Archives

Searching for “Lundine” in the papers yields a few results. Henry Lundine was a millionaire born
into Chicago old money near the end of the 19th century. He was well-known for having an
interest in the occult, as he was an avid member of the Thoth-Hermes temple in his youth. He
married Agatha Kreitz in 1921 and moved to New York City with her in 1924 after his home’s
construction was completed. He and other Lundines are mentioned in a few articles.
●​ August 31st, 1950- “SUICIDE! CHARLES LUNDINE DEAD AT 20!” The article discusses
the late Charles Lundine, son of Henry M. Lundine, textile millionaire. Charles was a
talented young musician. He had been attending Juilliard to further his talents since
1948, but his mental state deteriorated over the last two years. Just a matter of days
before the fall semester of what would have been his Junior year, he hanged himself in
his family home and was found dead yesterday.
●​ September 1st, 1952- “HENRY LUNDINE FOUND DEAD!” On 30 AUG 1952, Henry M.
Lundine was found dead on the uppermost staircase to the roof of his home. A brief
investigation concluded he died of a massive stroke. Oddly, he was discovered dressed
in strange “plastic” silver robes and a white papier-mâché mask. He is survived by his
daughter Eva and wife Agatha.
●​ September 5th, 1963- Among the weekly obituaries, one “Agatha Lundine” is listed with
a brief box of text. Agatha Lundine, born Agatha Kreitz, died of lung cancer at the age of
62 last August 30th. She is survived by her loving daughter Eva.
 Asa Daribondi
Libraries
Researching Daribondi requires Art (Architecture), Bureaucracy, or History at 50% or higher,
or a successful roll. Researching Daribondi at the New York City Public Library finds
references to several books on him and his crimes: The Devil’s Craftsman by Cavett Monaghan,
1952; A Darkness at the Corners by Elizabeth Ortiz, 1957; Architecture, Genius, and Mental
Illness by Dr. Peter Johansson, 1961.
According to these books, during his early career Daribondi was called the “Picasso of
architecture”. He designed strange, misshapen constructions that he called “Thought Buildings''
between 1905 and 1921 in Chicago. After having what is sometimes called a “religious
revelation” and sometimes a “drug experience,” he moved to New York in 1921 and took up
residence at an unnamed midtown hotel. The nine buildings he erected in New York City all still
stand. They are, unlike his previous structures, mundane and of the age, with small, obsessive
flourishes.
Only after his disappearance in 1950 was Daribondi suspected of having drowned at least five
children, beginning in 1947. The books speculate he may be responsible for many more. He
vanished without a trace in 1950 after his office caught on fire, leaving behind the drowned body
of five-year-old Isabelle Sauer, huge debts, a journal which appears to track the deaths of
children dating back to 1921, and many, many questions. He was declared legally dead at the
request of his mother on September 2nd, 1960. His journal recovered on the scene of the fire is
still in the possession of the Municipal Library of the New York City Department of Records and
Information Services.
The Devil’s Craftsman: Finding a full copy of The Devil's Craftsman requires History at
50% or higher or a successful roll (or asking a librarian for help; even this takes an hour).
Written by Cavett Monaghan and published by Columbia Press in 1952, this book takes several
hours to read.
The Devil’s Craftsman breaks down the strange life of Asa Daribondi. Born on the 28th of May
in 1886, Asa was born to his mother Miriam and an unknown father in Paris. His family
immigrated to the United States the next year and he became a citizen; they settled in Chicago.
In October of 1896, Miriam’s sister Adriene Daribondi joined the rest of the family in Chicago; it
was only later that they realized she was wanted by the French police.
She cared for young Asa. Over the course of the next two years, Adriene filled her nephew’s
head with bizarre ideas, poems, and songs from an odd play she performed in Paris. It was
some time before Miriam realized her sister was quite mad. Once she realized that Adriene had
been filling Asa’s head with ideas that he is secret royalty from a fictional country and fleeing
assassins in Europe, she was thrown out of the home and put out on the streets.
As Asa pursued his career in architecture, he became a local celebrity. He built ten “Thought
Houses” between 1905 and 1921 for Chicago luminaries. The press called the youth “the
Picasso of architecture.” He even designed the Bellefleur House, home of the wealthy Fitzroy
family and eventual birthplace of child author Emeline F. Fitzroy.
On May 6th of 1921, Daribondi suddenly left Chicago for New York City and took up residence
at an unnamed mid-town hotel, answering, according to his mother, “an invitation.” On the 10th,
New York millionaire Henry Lundine hired Asa to build him a home. The Lundine House was
one of nine buildings he designed in New York, all mundane compared to his previous work.
After his journal and the body of Isabelle Sauer were found in the burnt remains of his office,
Daribondi was suspected of being responsible for at least five child disappearances since 1947.
If his journal is to be believed, as many as twenty may be dead by his hands.
A careful reading of The Devil’s Craftsman finds a photo of Daribondi standing in front of an art
deco hotel with a “B” emblazoned on each door. The caption reads, “DARIBONDI LIVED FOR A
TIME AT NYC HOTEL WHICH HE HELPED RESTORE IN LIEU OF PAYMENT (1928).” A park
is reflected in the hotel window, and in it is a huge flagpole with a distinctive stone base. Native
New Yorkers, or Agents who roll INT×5, recognize the reflection as the Eternal Light Flagstaff in
Madison Square Park. Going there, they find no such hotel where it should be.

Government Records and Police Reports

According to his death certificate, Asa Daribondi was born in Paris on 5/28/1886 to Miriam
Daribondi and an unknown father. He became an American citizen on 6/61887 when his family
was processed through Ellis Island. They soon settled in Chicago.
On August 30th, 1950 a fire ravaged Asa Daribondi’s office on Mott Street in New York. After it
was extinguished, the body of Isabelle Sauer (age 5) was found, dead from drowning, next to a
washtub filled with bloody water. A warrant was issued for Daribondi’s arrest. It was soon
discovered that Daribondi owed nearly $200,000 to the bank, and that he kept a log-book of
“accounts” which implied he killed perhaps 20 children since his arrival in New York in 1921. His
“journal” is still in the possession of the Municipal Library of the New York City Department of
Records and Information Services. At the behest of his 91-year old mother, Miriam Daribondi,
Asa Daribondi was declared legally dead by the state of New York on September 2nd, 1960.

Newspaper and Magazine Archives

●​ June 1st, 1903- an article in the Chicago Tribune is published about the young architect
Asa Daribondi, who excels beyond all expectations and is marked as “talent”. Rumor has
it that he is sponsored by the business tycoon Ian F. Decraig.
●​ 1905-1921- Asa Daribondi becomes a local celebrity. He built ten “Thought Houses”
between 1905 and 1921 for Chicago luminaries. The press calls the youth “the Picasso
of architecture.”
●​ December 3rd, 1911- The front page headline reads “DARIBONDI DOES IT
AGAIN-BELLEFLEUR HOUSE FINISHED”. The fourth Thought Building was a
commission from the wealthy Fitzroy family to build them a home in the Oak Park
neighborhood of Chicago. With interleaved, curving rooms and odd, sinuous lines
throughout, the Bellefleur House was topped by strange spires of glass and metal filigree
that made it an eyesore to some.
●​ September 1st, 1950- “FIRE ON MOTT STREET! WARRANT ISSUED FOR
DARIBONDI'S ARREST!” This New York Times article discusses a fire at Daribondi’s
office on Mott Street that occured on the 30th. After the fire was extinguished, the body
of a five-year old girl was found next to a washtub filled with bloody water, dead from
drowning. A “log-book” found on the scene details other missing children he may have
killed over the years. The papers warn to be on the lookout for the fugitive as he is at
large and wanted for questioning.

Asa Daribondi’s Journal

Agents can read the journal by paying the Municipal Library of the New York Department of
Records and Information Services a visit. They are closed on weekends and open from
9AM-4PM on weekdays. Since Daribondi has long since been declared dead, the journal is not
evidence, but it cannot be “checked out” from the archives. They will have to read it in a
designated station in the basement archives; it takes about an hour to thumb through.
The Journal- The journal begins in the spring of 1921 as Daribondi decides to move east on a
whim. He arrives in New York City and checks into the first hotel to catch his eye: Hotel
Broadalbin. He indicates that shortly after his arrival, New York millionaire Henry Lundine (an
admirer of Daribondi’s mentor Ian F. Decraig) approached and asked if he had a copy of Le Roi
en jaune. Daribondi never indicated that he possessed one. Though disheartened, Lundine
offered Daribondi a contract to build him a house in Kip’s Bay, and construction began.
In late May, Daribondi received a mysterious phone call at Hotel Broadalbin. The caller claimed
his name was “Bale” and that he “served the king.” He demanded that Asa track down and kill a
child, “a rival to the throne”. Four days later, the body of five-year old Peter Devoras is
discovered by police, but the killer was never found.
Daribondi is overcome with a monstrous depression and expresses a desire to kill himself. He
is consoled “by friends at the hotel,” including “Wilde, Gary T., and Roark.” Desperate and
terrified by his own actions, Asa surrenders his treasured copy of Libro Secretorum Manifesta to
an unknown bookshop in the hope that he can break free of the urge to kill. A copy of The King
in Yellow shows up outside his door at Broadalbin the next morning, delivered by a man dressed
in red. To his horror, the phone calls continue.
In April of 1922, Daribondi informed Henry Lundine that he is working on the hotel he made his
home in lieu of payment. The work on Lundine’s home was paused for a few months.The
Lundine House was finished in May of 1924. Entries are sparse from here, but most concern
these phone calls from “Bale” giving him targets and Daribondi’s grief over his actions. These
accounts imply that Daribondi has killed perhaps twenty children since 1921 (Peter Devoras,
Damien Lechance, and Isabelle Sauer being among the names).
●​ 1 SEPT 1934: “A fellow by the name of Jaycy Linz checked into the Broadalbin. He
wasn't here long though; he met Debra and they eloped. Within a day, the two went
beneath the hotel. He has yet to return, and neither has Miss Carver.”
●​ 20 JUL 1945: “Bale called again. He told me that one of my future targets had been
born. He told me her name…Isabelle Sauer. Damn it, damn my soul for what I've done.
And for what I must do to seize the throne.”
●​ 30 AUG 1950: “I’ve done it again. Little Isabelle is no more. But I fear I've attracted too
much attention, they're onto me. This office has served its purpose; the last of my work
is beneath the Broadalbin.”

Emeline F. Fitzroy
Child Prodigies of the 20th Century
Book by Earl Blayne, Summit Hill Press, 1961.
In this book detailing child prodigies, author Emeline F. Fitzroy (1924-1950) is one of the figures
featured.
Emeline F. Fitzroy was a child genius born to the Fitzroy pork fortune on May 21st, 1924. The
family controlled many of the slaughterhouses and shipping yards that made Chicago a hub for
meat production. They were so wealthy that the patriarch, Dr. Thomas Fitzroy, had a unique
house built for them in the Oak Park neighborhood by the “Picasso of architecture,” Asa
Daribondi. Fitzroy’s house, the bizarre Bellefleur House, was completed in 1911. With
interleaved, curving rooms and odd, sinuous lines throughout, it was topped by strange spires of
glass and metal filigree that made it an eyesore to some.
Emeline was born in the Bellefleur House late in the Fitzroys’ marriage. She proved more than
welcome. Emeline spoke in complete sentences at two, could read and write at four, and
completed her first poem at five. By ten, she had completed the equivalent of a college level
program with tutors, could speak six languages, and had written several complete manuscripts.
 Her first and only book was published on her 12th birthday. A World Without Doors proved to be
a hit (so much so, it is still printed in the modern era), and Emeline’s popularity and youth rode
the headlines for years. Soon, that star faded as it became known that Emeline refused to leave
the Bellefleur House and could often be heard speaking to herself in empty rooms. With the
death of her father in 1941, she remained the only one in the house.
At age 26, she vanished in the Bellefleur House. She left behind a note that read: “In an ending,
we find the world. The play is the only thing. All else orbits it as an afterthought. I go to him now
because there is no other path. And I know now, there never was.” After an extensive search of
the grounds, her brother Mark Fitzroy (1912–1966) had her declared dead in 1955. Her death is
listed officially as a suicide, though no body was ever recovered.

The STATIC Team: Eric K. Carter, Ronald Burbach, and Virgil

Griffth
Searching the Internet- Requires Computer Science at 20% or higher, or a successful roll
at +20%. An ancient, digitized copy of a legal brief of Antonia Sclara Carter (Widow) v. Eileen
Carter, from 12 FEB 1956, seems to indicate that Eric Kristos Carter was murdered in an
unnamed New York City hotel in 1955. His wife Antonia and his mother Eileen sued one another
to gain possession of his personal effects and his Army pension. The document is simply a
summary and does not cover the outcome of the case. Nothing else about this case is available
online or offline.
Searching City Criminal Records- Requires Criminology or Bureaucracy at 50% or
higher or a successful roll. Two files are of note. The first says Ronald James Burbach was
arrested on the evening of 1 JUN 1953 at the American Museum of Natural History for breaking
and entering (Arrest Handout). Burbach admitted nothing. He was locked up until he was
ordered released the following week by Francis William Holbrooke Adams, the New York police
commissioner. The only reason listed was “decorated veteran.” All charges were dropped.
The second file describes the 9 SEP 1955 murder of R. Burbach and E. Carter at an unnamed
hotel. This file contains a single typewritten page and is thin on details. A single black-and-white
crime scene photograph shows two men laid out in heavy military jackets with the skin of their
faces carefully removed, revealing blood and muscles, next to a pile of old gas masks and
shotguns. Merely seeing the photo costs 0/1 SAN from violence. A person of interest is listed
as: “Griffith, Virgil, U. (White Plains, NY).
Virgil Griffith- Little information can be found on Griffith. A successful Bureaucracy or
History roll finds records of one Virgil Ulyses Griffith being born in White Plains, NY in 1921. He
was a Captain in the U.S. Army and fought in both WWII and Korea. He was last seen in 1955
and is presumed dead.
Searching Military Records- Requires Bureaucracy or Military Science (Land) at 50% or
higher, or a successful roll. There is no indication that Carter or Burbach served together,
though they both were born and from New York City.
Eric Kristos Carter (1924–1955) was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943 at 19 and served in the
European Theater. During the last months of the war, his file becomes spotty. He moved all
around Germany as part of a special SS-hunting detachment and was granted “theater-wide”
clearance: a rare thing that meant he could move as desired throughout the entire ETO
(European Theater of Operations). He returned stateside in 1946 with the rank of first lieutenant.
He re-upped in 1950 for the Korean crisis, and fought there for a year before returning home
due to “battle fatigue.”
 Ronald James Burbach (1924–1955) volunteered for the Marines in 1944 at the age of 20. He
spent a year supporting the planned invasion of Japan on a small island called Itik Atoll. He
returned stateside in 1946 with the rank of corporal. He was reactivated in the 1st Marine
Division during the Korean crisis and landed at Incheon in 1950. He was injured in battle and
returned home to convalesce.
Virgil Ulyses Griffith (1921-1955) joined the U.S. Army in 1942 at the age of 20 and served in
the Pacific Theater. After the war ended, he continued to serve in the Army and attained the
rank of Captain. He served two years in Korea and was honorably discharged in late 1952.
Asking Delta Green- Asking Agent Marcus to ask the group about Carter, Griffith, or Burbach
requires a Persuade roll. If successful, a single printout is given to the Agents (Printout
Handout). No matter the questions asked or requests filed, the group has no records of
Operation BRISTOL.

Rouvin G. Labolas
Rouvin G. Labolas was the younger brother of Mark Labolas, doomed partner of Jaycy Linz. His
records can be discovered from the national census and obituaries. His full report is in U.S.
Army records.

Government Records
National, USA.
Private Rouvin G. Labolas was born on August 30th, 1923 in Jackson, Mississippi. He enlisted
in the U.S. Army in the spring of 1944 and fought in the U.S. 4th Armored Division. He was
killed in action at the Château des Portes in Reims, France, on 17 DEC 1944, during the Battle
of the Bulge.
Rouvin was the younger brother of Mark Labolas, a bank robber who was killed during his
fourth heist in the summer of 1931. Mark was twenty at the time and Rouvin was only eight.

U.S. Army Records

National Archives in Washington D.C.
According to the records, Rouvin G. Labolas enlisted on 3 MAR 1944 and was in France by
July. On 4 SEP 1944 a radio unit was issued to Pvt. Rouvin G. Labolas in the U.S. 4th Armored
Division. On 12 NOV 1944, a report of enemy transmissions in English was logged with U.S.
Army intelligence by Pvt. Rouvin G. Labolas. His radio picked up a two-minute transmission,
which he copied by hand, that contained a strange conversation about a play called “The Yellow
Emperor”.
On December 17th 1944, Pvt. Rouvin G. Labolas was killed in action at the Château des Portes
in Reims, France, during the Battle of the Bulge. The after-action report indicates a “circus
clown” was seen in the house during the fight.
 Jaycy Linz
Government Records
A man named Jaycy Linz was born in Memphis, Tennessee on August 23rd, 1905. Wanted in
three states for armed robbery since 1931, Linz was last seen in New York City in the summer
of 1934.

Southern Newspapers
In the summer of 1931, two criminals named Jaycy Linz and Mark Labolas committed five bank
robberies over the course of four days in Jackson (MS), Baton Rouge and New Orleans (LA),
and finally Memphis (TN). Labolas was killed in the Memphis robbery but Linz escaped. The
authorities believed he fled north.

A History of the New York Mafia

Book by Dr. William Gay; Delacroix Books, 1969.
Though this text concerns the vast history of organized crime in New York, in the chapters
detailing the Luciano crime family, a “Jaycy Linz” is briefly mentioned. A Luciano captain by the
name of Leonard “Lenny” Tietlebaum had a writer of weird fiction known as Jaycy Linz do
various crimes for him in exchange for heroin. It was believed that Linz committed a dozen
crimes including extortion, robbery, and even murder for the Luciano family throughout 1932 and
1933.

The Rise and Fall of the Pulp Magazine

Book by Jerome Vanfitz, 1983
This book largely concerns the history of pulp magazines and their authors. In 1896, publisher
Frank A. Munsey started what would become a revolution in the mass media of the first half of
the twentieth century. His retooling of the magazine The Argosy was ground-breaking; he
dropped the slick paper format prevalent in up-market magazines, eliminated run-of the-mill
articles and reproduced photographs, and gave his readership instead 192 pages of popular
fiction, all printed on rough, cheaply produced, wood pulp paper, and all for the price of a dime.
“Pulp Fiction”-often a misused and misunderstood term-refers not to a single genre but rather to
a low-cost publication format which caused an explosion in publishing. It was made possible
through a confluence of new press technology, along with better and cheaper distribution, and
most importantly a general public-particularly a working class-hungry for escapist entertainment.
This untapped market, for whom the price of the more upmarket magazines (the “slicks”) was
too high, but for whom the ten- and twenty-five cent pulps were affordable, would be pulps’
major readership. The true heyday of the pulps came in the twenties and the thirties, with
individual issues of some pulps selling a million copies each.
Among the many pulp writers of the period such as H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, Jaycy
Linz is mentioned. He wrote several short stories for Weird Tales throughout 1932-1934, all with
middling reviews. His stories were barred from the magazine in mid 1934 after publishers
realized that he was a wanted criminal. Most of his stories are now lost media, but the titles of
his “best-selling” works remain: “Ambrose”, "The Mask”, “The Repairer of Reputations”, and
“Broadalbin”, his last story before he was blacklisted. Included is a photograph of him taken in
1931. (Linz Portrait)
 Ian F. Decraig
Ian F. Decraig’s pivotal role in the looping whorls of Carcosan causality can be pieced together
from countless sources. Research into him inevitably finds his mugshot (Mugshot Handout).

Gangsters, Goons and Joliet: A History

Book by Steven Raab; Hartford Press, 1949.
This book concerns the various criminals and rogues that have been held in Joliet Prison, an
infamous penitentiary in Joliet, Illinois. Ian F. Decraig was imprisoned there from 1906-1925. On
August 30th, 1925, millionaire Ian F. Decraig disappeared from Joliet Prison. Decraig had been
bribing guards for decades. He created dozens of painted canvas backdrops, rolling set pieces,
and pieces of prop furniture in that time. One item, a huge, old-looking set door, was brought
into the prison at great expense in August 1925. Decraig disappeared from a locked room
during one of his days working on this “set” and is never seen again.
The book offhandedly mentions Decraig’s personal journals still being in the possession of the
Illinois Department of Corrections in Springfield, but Steven Raab didn't have time to consult
them. After all, Decraig is but one of dozens of criminals incarcerated in Joliet discussed in the
text.

Prison Escapes!
TV documentary, 1977.
On August 30th of 1925, Ian F. Decraig disappeared from Joliet Prison. It was discovered that
he had been bribing guards for decades. He created dozens of painted canvas backdrops,
rolling set pieces, and pieces of prop furniture in that time. One item, a huge, old-looking set
door, was brought in to the prison at great expense in August 1925. Decraig disappeared from a
locked room during one of his days working on this “set” and was never seen again.

Strange Religions and False Gods in America

Book by Brewster Ellis; Stranger Press, 1976.
This text concerns odd orders of faith and modern cults in the United States. Among the
Mormons, Freemasons, and Scientologists, Ian F. Decraig is mentioned in a section detailing
“The Brotherhood of Doors”.
On May 1st 1897, Ian F. Decraig founded a Chicago-based religious order called “The
Brotherhood of Doors.” The final performance of Le Roi en jaune was the most revelatory
experience of Decraig’s life, but he never saw the end. The three members of the Brotherhood
of Doors, all well-to-do witnesses to the Parisian play in 1895, are obsessed with piecing
together a complete script. It seems reconstructing the contents of the play with firsthand
accounts was the goal of their Brotherhood.
Starting in May of 1899, Decraig placed an ad in newspapers around the world. It ran for 10
years and read: “WANTED. Witnesses of the FULL performance of play, Le Roi en jaune, Paris,
Aug. 1895. Reward Offered. Decraig Corp. Ltd. Kemper and Whitehorse St., Chicago.” (Ad
Handout)
Cook County Jail Records
Cook County Jail, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
On September 2nd, 1905 Ian F. Decraig was arrested on suspicion of embezzlement from his
company, Decraig Corp. Ltd., as well as ordering the murder of bookkeeper Gabriele Duchese,
who was apparently blackmailing him for more than a year. Three people, including a priest,
were killed instead of Duchese when a bomb in her car detonated without her in it. Decraig’s
trial was in the headlines for 16 months while he was held in the Cook County Jail. He
eventually was sentenced to 50 years in Joliet Prison.

Joliet Prison Records

Illinois Department of Corrections, Springfield, Illinois, USA.
Ian F. Decraig disappeared from Joliet Prison On August 30th, 1925. He had been bribing
guards for decades. He created dozens of painted canvas backdrops, rolling set pieces, and
pieces of prop furniture in that time. One item, a huge, old-looking set door, was brought into the
prison at great expense in August 1925. Decraig disappeared from a locked room during one of
his days working on this “set” and was never seen again. He left his personal journals behind to
be archived by the prison.
Montgomery Blaiszewitz, the last Joliet guard to see Ian F. Decraig in the room from which
Decraig vanished, reports that he watched Decraig “step through the fake door and disappear.”
Research in the Illinois Department of Corrections inevitably uncovers that Decraig’s personal
journals are kept in the archives and are available for viewing.

Government Records
Chicago Police Department, Records Customer Service Section, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Millionaire Ian F. Decraig was born in Chicago on October 27th, 1865.
On September 2nd, 1905, Ian F. Decraig was arrested on suspicion of embezzlement from his
company, Decraig Corp. Ltd., as well as ordering the murder of bookkeeper Gabriele Duchese,
who was apparently blackmailing him for more than a year. Three people, including a priest,
were killed instead of Duchese when a bomb in her car detonated without her in it. Decraig’s
trial was in the headlines for 16 months while he was held in the Cook County Jail. He
eventually was sentenced to 50 years in Joliet Prison.
Decraig escaped from prison on August 30th, 1925. Montgomery Blaiszewitz, the last Joliet
guard to see Ian F. Decraig in the room from which he vanished, reported that he watched
Decraig “step through the fake door and disappear.”

Government Records
Municipal Library, New York Department of Records and Information Services, New York, New
York, USA.
On September 2nd, 1905, Ian F. Decraig was arrested on suspicion of embezzlement from his
company, Decraig Corp. Ltd., as well as ordering the murder of bookkeeper Gabriele Duchese,
who was apparently blackmailing him for more than a year. Three people, including a priest,
were killed instead of Duchese when a bomb in her car detonated without her in it. Decraig’s
trial was in the headlines for 16 months while he was held in the Cook County Jail. He
eventually was sentenced to 50 years in Joliet Prison.
Newspaper and Magazine Articles
Chicago, Illinois, USA.
On 23 AUG 1905, an article in the Chicago Tribune mentions Ian F. Decraig and the
Brotherhood of Doors. According to the press, after eight years of work Decraig and the
Brotherhood of Doors finally pieced together their complete version of a play they partially saw
in Paris near the turn of the century titled Le Roi en jaune. They printed eleven Latin copies of
their version of the play and titled it Libro Secretorum Manifesta (“The Book of Secrets”).
Decraig began preliminary work in securing a performance space in Chicago and placed notices
in papers looking for actors and singers.
A headline in less than two weeks later of that same year mentions Ian F. Decraig was arrested
on September 2nd under the suspicion of embezzlement from his company, Decraig Corp. Ltd.,
as well as ordering the murder of bookkeeper Gabriele Duchese, who was apparently
blackmailing him for more than a year. Three people, including a priest, were killed instead of
Duchese when a bomb in her car detonated without her in it. Decraig’s trial was in the headlines
for 16 months while he was held in the Cook County Jail. He eventually was sentenced to 50
years in Joliet Prison.
On 30 AUG 1925, Ian F. Decraig disappeared from Joliet Prison. He had been apparently
bribing guards for decades and created dozens of painted canvas backdrops, rolling set pieces,
and pieces of prop furniture in that time. One item, a huge, old-looking set door, was brought
into the prison at great expense in August 1925. Decraig disappeared from a locked room
during one of his days working on this “set” and was never seen again.

Newspaper and Magazine Articles

National, USA.
After his disappearance in 1925, Decraig made national headlines with his seemingly
impossible prison escape. The last person to see Decraig was Montgomery Blaiszewitz, a guard
at Joliet Prison. According to him, when he last saw Decraig on August 30th, he was working on
his set pieces in a locked room. Through the window to the room, Blaiszewitz saw Decraig “step
though the fake set door and close it behind him. I rushed inside to see where he went, but
when I opened the set door there was just a wall there.” Blaiszewitz ended up being fired for
allowing a prisoner to escape under his watch.

The Personal Journals of Ian F. Decraig (1892–1905)

In the archived records of the Illinois Department of Corrections, Springfield, Illinois, USA.
Viewing the personal journals of Ian F. Decraig is about as difficult as flying out to Illinois and
paying the Department of Corrections in Springfield a visit (an Unusual Expense for the plane
tickets there and back). The closest airport is in St. Louis, and from there it's about a 90-minute
drive. Chicago is three hours away by car.
The Department of Corrections is in downtown Springfield, open weekdays from 8:30AM-5PM.
The Agents can see Decraig’s personal journals as long as they give a good excuse and don't
mind an employee escort in the archives. The archives themselves are huge; shelves are
stuffed to the brim with boxes and records, filing cabinets are everywhere. Decades of dust coat
the antediluvian crates. Even with an employee’s help, it takes an hour to find Decraig's journals
(that time is halved with a Bureaucracy roll). See the Decraig Journal Handout for a summary
of their contents; it takes about two hours to skim the journals. They cannot be taken from the
archives and must be read here.
 The Castaigne/Chastaigne Family
From the Chastaignes to the Castaignes to Daribondi, the would-be heirs to the King in Yellow
draw far more of humanity than Delta Green to the horrors of Impossible Landscapes.

France’s Greatest Hauntings

Book by Avent Josseaume; Gautier-Languereau, 1936.
This book, as the title implies, concerns some of the most famous ghostly activities in France. A
chapter is dedicated to the Chastaigne family and their unusual home, the Château des Portes
(Chateau Handout). The reputation of the house, due to its striking construction and doors in
every wall (even those opening to the outside on upper floors), was of a place touched by dark
magic and madness.
Augustus Chastaigne, his wife Louise Chastaigne, and their son Gabriel Chastaigne took up
residence in the Château des Portes along with their staff in late August of 1402. That October,
Augustus’ wife, Louise, walked out of a door on the third floor and fell to her death. By
November, Chastaigne’s servants reported seeing odd people in the house at night: men in
masks and silver robes, a specter with its head on fire, and at least one sighting of Louise
Chastaigne, a month dead. Augustus Chastaigne began buying books on codes and ciphers
from Paris, Geneva, and Verdun at great expense, spending his inheritance. All knew him as
“haggard and ill-shadowed.”

Architectural Oddities of Medieval Europe

Book by Rupert Walters; Harcourt Brace, 1966.
The 15th-century Chastaigne house of Reims (France) is considered strange because its every
wall contains a door, even those opening to the outside on upper floors. It is called the Château
des Portes (“Castle of Doors). The man who built it, Michel Chastaigne, is rumored to have
disappeared inside after placing his affairs in careful order. Little is known about him. After his
disappearance in May of 1402, he left it to his second cousin Augustus Chastaigne in his will.
On August 28th of 1402, Augustus Chastaigne, his wife Louise Chastaigne, and their son
Gabriel Chastaigne took up residence in the Château des Portes along with their staff.
By January of 1403, Augustus announced that he had cracked the cypher of Michel
Chastaigne. He began to keep a book detailing his experiments in “operating” the codes. This
mostly appears to mean opening certain doors in the house while calling set phrases and
names into them. He claimed to have found secret doors to “a school, a hospital, a book seller,
catacombs, an inn, and a great metropolis, all within these walls.”
At some point thereafter, the Château fell out of the possession of the Chastaigne family. In
1425, Gabriel Chastaigne purchased the Château des Portes back from various intermediaries,
having somehow come into the possession of a new fortune.

The Dream of Perpetual Motion

Book by Elizabeth T. Calhoun; Solid Stars Publishers, 1988.
In 1423, Seigneur Gabriel Chastaigne turned 21 and was given a letter from his father and the
contents of a lockbox, as well as his papers as a journeyman clockmaker. He then vanished for
two years, returning with a fortune to purchase the Château des Portes in 1425. He changed his
surname to Castaigne and by 1435, the estate was reported to be filled with marvels of
clockwork. Castaigne spent years building automata, clocks, and small, spring based machines.
In 1446, Seigneur Gabriel Castaigne hosted a masquerade party for the nobility at the Château
des Portes. Attendees witness giant, dancing, mechanical marionettes controlled by “wires
descending from tracks in the ceiling.” Many are struck with wonder at the complexity of their
movements. Eventually rumors began to spread that Seigneur Gabriel Castaigne’s father had
discovered the secret to perpetual motion and passed it on to his son.

The Hidden History of the Occult Tradition

Book by Dr. James M. Hoey; Golden Hoard Press, 1922.
This book talks about classical demonology and claims to present a theory about the “hidden
history” of the subject. In October 1402, Augustus Chastaigne found a book addressed to him,
written by his second cousin Michel Chastaigne. The book urged him to continue the family’s
work. This strange book (“bound in wire”) is filled with codes and ciphers credited to “Solomon,”
with much of its writing in an “odd English.” By next January, all but two servants had left the
Chastaigne estate because “the lord there is quite mad.”
In February of 1403, Augustus Chastaigne, having gained new information which he claimed
came from “a bottle,” began a new book called Hygromanteia, signed by “Solomon.” His notes
indicated that he regularly talked to “demons in the doors that show signs, sigils and marks.”
The Hygromanteia is a listing of such names and seals, along with other spells and secrets.
Augustus finished Hygromanteia in March and is “shown the truth of the world,” by an entity
called Bael. Bael says the book is a livre rouge (“red book”) that will birth the “king of this world.”
Augustus writes this all in a letter to his son Gabriel, who receives it years later.
In 1441, rumors circulated that Seigneur Gabriel Castaigne published his father’s work
Hygromanteia under the name “Solomon” in Paris. The book is seen in many places across the
continent. On August 28th of 1460, Gabriel Castaigne vanished. He left behind a jumble of
strange papers outlining a ritual or process that later occultists call the Preliminary Invocation,
and a sigil for a demon called Purson scratched into the floor of the main hall. This is the first
recorded instance of this ritual in history.

L’Illuminisme en France
Book by Louis-Claude de Saint Martin; Librairie Générale des Sciences Occultes, 1902.
This French book translates to “Illuminism in France”. Illuminism is the belief in or claim to a
personal enlightenment not accessible to humankind in general. At one point, Augustus
Chastaigne is mentioned.
In February of 1403, Augustus Chastaigne, having gained new information which he claims
came from “a bottle,” began a new book called Hygromanteia. He signs it “Solomon.” His notes
indicate he is regularly talking to “demons in the doors that show signs, sigils and marks.” His
new book is a listing of such names and seals, along with other spells and secrets.
Augustus finished Hygromanteia in March and is “shown the truth of the world,” by an entity
called Bael. Bael says the book is a livre rouge (“red book”) that will birth the “king of this world.”
Augustus writes this all in a letter to his son. He hangs himself in Château des Portes and is
buried in the family crypt. Rumors abound that he confessed to pushing his wife to her death.

The Occult, Codes, and Cyphers in France

Book by Emil Braeton; G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1939.
In this book of French codes and ciphers, the Chastaigne family is briefly mentioned. In April of
1403, Édouard Allard, personal servant to Augustus Chastaigne, delivered a letter by lockbox to
clockmaker Dominic Antonin in Rouen, France. Gabriel Chastaigne leaves school to be
apprenticed with Antonin.
 In 1405 Édouard Allard was found dead with his throat cut in a Paris apartment. He had been
selling rare books on codes and ciphers from the apartment for more than a year, though stolen
from the collection of Augustus Chastaigne. The room is entirely empty (bar his corpse) when
he is found dead. His face is branded with a “foul mark like an eye or a dragon.”

The King in Yellow/Le Roi en Jaune (The Play)

The King in Yellow- Thanks to the efforts of Delta Green, very little information about The
King in Yellow can be found. Occult or History at 60% or more, or a successful roll finds an
interesting section in An Occult History of London-Town, a book by Dr. Patrick Messina released
in 1896. In late October of 1865, an unnamed book in Latin (sometimes called “the cursed
book”) briefly circulated in London. It contained a strange, two-act play with no name. It bore a
striking mark on its cover reported to resemble a “dragon or an eye.” Various crimes and
atrocities were linked to it. It was actively suppressed and, for the most part, vanished from
history.
If it is past November 2006, searching online finds a page on StrangeOdyssey.com advertising
an upcoming (?) short film. In November 2006, director Victor Correll began filming A Song
Before Travel, a short film based on The King in Yellow. The small blurb doesn't elaborate any
further. If it is past April 2007, there is a YouTube link in the ad for a trailer. Clicking it leads to a
delisted video (YouTube Handout). About a minute later, their internet browser crashes. The
link doesn't work again.
Le Roi en Jaune- There is no public information about this incident available in America until
2001 when a book concerning “dangerous” books was released in the spring, Accursed Books
by Teilhard Cheven. There is a chapter dedicated to Le Roi en Jaune, a French play.
In October of 1894, a two-act play called Le Roi en jaune (“The King in Yellow”) turned up in
bookshops across Paris in a slim black hardcover. People began to act strange, even
murderous after reading it and odd events begin to happen. Throughout May-July in 1895, more
than two hundred people are murdered, commit suicide, or vanish in some way related to or
associated with the play.
By August, a poster for Le Roi en jaune, depicting a woman holding a mask with a snake
crawling through its eyes, became a common sight on the streets of Paris (Poster Handout).
The French government actively suppressed the play, and by September many were arrested
and the performances were no more. Those known to possess a copy had it confiscated. The
book was soon out of circulation and banned.

Strange Tarot Readings

Some of the earliest recorded hints of the King in Yellow came not in theater but in card
readings. Researching odd tarot readings or the Yellow Emperor Tarot unearths some odd
leads. The most likely thing to interest them in uncovering this line of research is finding “The
Emperor” card (Tarot Card Handout).
Tarot- Decks of pictorial playing cards known as tarot decks have been around since the
fourteenth century, at least, and are believed to have originated in Europe. Traditionally
composed of seventy-eight cards, tarot decks are the forerunners of the modern playing-card
deck or poker deck, but tarot cards are often ascribed loftier purposes than mere
gamesmanship. They are used in fortune-telling, serving in a sort of symbolic psychoanalysis
that attempts to identify the forces at work in a person’s life across the past, present, and future.
While not intended as a detailed predictor (“You will meet a tall man named Angus with a
passion for pinball.”), tarot prognostication can stimulate thought and insight in a person about
their life that might not otherwise occur. Arguably, the real value of the tarot then is in the
revelatory, not the divinatory-its ability to illuminate life and choices and consequences and
possibilities.
The
The Wicked Deck of Cards- A History or Occult roll uncovers an ancient legend among
Europe's fortune-tellers that spoke of a wicked deck of cards. Tales of this deck have been told
since the early 1700s. They consist of a simple story: somewhere there was a fabulous deck of
hand-crafted cards that numbered seventy-seven, rather than seventy-eight. The missing card
was the Emperor and the story went that in readings done with this deck before times of great
crisis the non-existent Emperor card would nevertheless appear, bringing with it an
unmistakable warning of imminent disaster. (At times of truly dire consequence, all of the cards
would come up Emperors.) The deck was known as the King in Yellow tarot, though where the
name came from was not clear. This story would get trotted out sporadically, updated to the
latest disaster, and the deck would retroactively be claimed to have predicted said disaster mere
days before it transpired. The ownership of the deck was also a source of rumor-no one
verifiably claimed to have personally seen the fabled deck.

Mysteries of the 17th Century

Book by James L. Ivers; Hidden Doors Press, 1973.
This book covers many oddities and unsolved mysteries throughout the 1600s. In 1606, a
woman called Lady Trionfi spent two weeks on Towne Street in Cardiff, Wales, reading cards for
a penny. For two days she made dire warnings to all clients, saying that calamity and flood were
coming. The cards she used were finely made, French, and gilded. She called it “le tarot de
l’empereur jaune” (“the yellow emperor tarot”) and claimed she received them on an island
called Carcos from a king. After two weeks in town, she left and never returned to Wales.
On January 30th, 1607 a huge flood in the Bristol Channel killed 2,000 people and drowned
Cardiff. King James I declared Lady Trionfi a witch and a criminal. Despite being declared a
criminal by the unpopular king, in 1620 Lady Trionfi reappeared in London to make a reading
from her cards. She announced to a gathered crowd of more than a thousand that “seventy
years of drought, disease, and famine follow on the year.” James I died in 1625. In 1665, the
Bubonic plague struck England, killing hundreds of thousands. Droughts and famines ravaged
England until 1690.
In late August of 1666 Thomas Farriner, a baker, paid a penny to have his cards read by a
strange woman matching Lady Trionfi’s description on Pudding Lane in London. He later
claimed he was swindled. On September 2nd, the Great Fire of London destroyed the homes of
70,000 out of 80,000 residents of the city. It began at Thomas Farriner’s bakery at Pudding
Lane. Farriner somehow survived.

The Life and Times of Dr. Dee

Book by Bethany Bedwell; Mandrake, 1984.
John Dee (13 July 1527 – 1608 or 1609) was a famous occult philosopher and one-time advisor
to Queen Elizabeth I. He spent much of his time on alchemy, divination, and Hermetic
philosophy. As an antiquarian, he had one of the largest libraries in England at the time. Dee
eventually left Elizabeth's service and went on a quest for additional knowledge in the deeper
realms of the occult and supernatural. He eventually tried to return to the Queen's service, but
was turned away when she was succeeded by James I. He died in poverty in London and his
gravesite is unknown.
In 1608 (near the end of his life), Dr. Dee met a woman he called “S” from “Carcosa”, a fortune
teller similar to and likely the same woman who read the cards in Cardiff. He paid what little
money he could for a reading of her cards. Dee wrote a letter detailing this reading to Christ’s
College of Manchester, where he was warden (Dee’s Letter Handout). He mentioned the
special nature of the unnamed woman’s “le tarot de l’empereur jaune” (“the yellow emperor
tarot”), and warned of a “century of calamity, drought, famine, pestilence and fire for England.”
Dee died shortly thereafter. Plain text:
These Northern Iles and Parts lawfully appropriated to the Crown of this Brytish Impire faces a
most terrible and dyre threat. A century of calamity, drought, famine, pestilence and ruin the
likes of which not seen throughout the markers of time since afore the fall of the great tempyl.
The lady of the cards of Caracosa read to me a future unlike that I haft seen in my glass, but
one that I am certain is most true. That stand of cards of Le tarot empereur Jaune is unlike any I
have seen nor would care to. Mark it, mark the warning, and if you have ever found love for me,
mark the last words of a sickly man,

Your most excellent servynt in Chryst,

John Dee,
Warden

100 Years of Death: The 17th Century in England

Book by Mark Robbins; Brecourt Press, 1970.
This book offhandedly mentions a beggar clothed in yellow rags roaming the streets of London
in 1665. He wandered through areas completely abandoned to the bubonic plague and read
tarot cards for anyone obviously suffering from the plague. The cards appeared to tell, with great
accuracy, who will live and who will die. The man was never seen again.

Royalty and the Secret Arts

Book by Stuart Bloomberg; Milsat, 1964.
This book discusses the history of Royalty and their interest in magic and the occult. In 1615,
the Ottoman Sultan Ahmed I offered 5,000 golden ducats for anyone that could procure “le tarot
de l’empereur jaune” (“the yellow emperor tarot”). 5,000 ducats are worth approximately
$750,000 in 2020. There is no record of him ever acquiring a set.

Masks in Mythology
The legend of the Hobomack or Chepi is only one story of the unnatural power of masks.

Legends of the Great Lakes

David J. Cabrera; University of Michigan Press, 1970.
Among the many other legends in the book, one from the Mohegan Indians tells the tale of a
Hobomack, an evil creature which can replace a medicine man, tearing off his face and putting it
on as a mask to assume his appearance. When the Hobomack arrives, it is to announce the
end of the tribe in a great story and to bring about chaos, death, and destruction.

A Volume of Secret Faces

The following information is extremely unlikely and in some cases impossible for Agents to
research before Act 2 of Impossible Landscapes, with the exception of Demonology which is
here because of so many demons being present in this segment of the campaign.

Demonology
Those with 30% or more in Occult (or who succeed on a roll at +20%) know that demonology is
the science of demons and their actions. The word 'daimon' is Greek and simply means a
supernatural being, or a lesser divinity. In classical ancient Greece 'daimones' were perceived
as guardian spirits, or as either good or evil spirits who try to influence the human psyche (see
The Daimonion). Most of Western demonology is based on Christianity.
A History or Occult roll (or 50%+) notes that a number of authors throughout Christian history
have written about demons for a variety of purposes. Some texts such as The Lesser Key of
Solomon or The Grimoire of Pope Honorius are written with instructions on how to summon
demons in the name of God and often were claimed to have been written by individuals
respected within the Church. These latter texts were usually more detailed, giving names, ranks,
and descriptions of demons individually and categorically. Most Christians commonly reject
these texts as either diabolical or fictitious.
The Lesser Key of Solomon: The Lesser Key of Solomon, also known as Lemegeton
Clavicula Salomonis or simply Lemegeton, is an anonymously authored grimoire on sorcery. It
was compiled in the mid-17th century, mostly from materials several centuries older such as the
Hygromanteia. It is divided into five books: Ars Goetia, Ars Theurgia-Goetia, Ars Paulina, Ars
Almadel, and Ars Notoria. It is based on the supposed Testament of Solomon and the ring
mentioned within it that he used to seal demons.
Ars Goetia- The Latin term goetia refers to the evocation of demons or evil spirits. This book
lists the seventy-two demons and their sigils as well as the ritual to summon them, the
Preliminary Invocation to Primeumaton. Primeumaton is Greek for “Thou Who Art the First and
Last.” For information about a particular demon, see DemonWeb101.com.
The invocation begins with elaborate ceremonial preparations involving a “magic” sword,
vessels for divination and conjuration, wax figures, scrolls written in blood, a ring, a ceremonial
staff, special clothing, a garland, and careful timing according to arcane rules of astrology. The
operator prays to protective powers under the names of angels and Yahweh. The operator
draws a Solomonic Triangle marked with the words “ANAPHAXETON, ANAPHANETON,
PRIMEUMATON” in a protective circle, in an isolated, enclosed area. The operator remains in
this circle while reciting a long incantation:
“Thee I invoke, the Bornless one. Thee, that didst create the Earth and the Heavens: Thee, that
didst create the Night and the Day. Thee, that didst create the Darkness and the Light. Thou art
Osorronophris: Whom no man has seen at any time”, etc. The operator announces the 72
names of demons and inscribes the seal of the particular demon they wish to contact.
Hygromanteia- Hygromanteia is a 15th-century grimoire written by an unknown author to
whom the text refers as Solomon. The book is believed to be the origin for later magical texts
like Grimorium Verum, Ars Goetia, Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, De Praestigiis Daemonum,
and others. A successful Occult or History roll notes that some books on occult history hint that
it may have been written by a French noble named Augustus Chastaigne or his son, Gabriel
Castaigne. The book first began circulating in Paris in the 1440s and continued to spread across
Europe. Its actual provenance is unknown.

Dr. Elias Barbas

A Google search brings up Barbas on LinkedIn and lists his basic credentials: Dr. Elias Barbas
graduated with a Bachelor's in Criminology from Boston University in 1977 and was a state
police officer until he returned to Boston University in 1984 for their School of Medicine’s
forensic science graduate program. He then took the job of forensic examiner for the MSP
Crime Laboratory (1989) and spent nearly two decades working crime scenes until his
promotion to director of forensic science in 2007. He is still the current director; he also has
been the president of the local chapter of the National Association of Police Organizations for
the past four years.
His LinkedIn lists his personal and Massachusetts State Police email addresses
(DrMarbas@gmail.com and barbas@mass.gov) The photos match the individual seen at the
briefing. He has no other social media accounts. The following methods of research reveal
more:
Pull Law Enforcement Strings for Barbas’s File- Requires Bureaucracy at 30% or
higher or a roll at +20%. Going through official channels to get a copy of Barbas’s personnel file
is relatively easy for someone in federal law enforcement. The file is extensive, covering more
than 30 years of distinguished service (see above). Barbas is the director of forensic science
and a popular administrator at the Massachusetts State Police Crime Laboratory. He was
president of the local chapter of the National Association of Police Organizations (Police Union)
for the past four years. He was within five years of retirement before his sudden withdrawal from
his job beginning in early June of 2015.

The end of the file is a series of official complaints, reprimands, and calls for hearings and
psychological help filed throughout June. Of particular note is an incident that occurred on
6/8/2015, in which Dr. Barbas assaulted Boston Police Department Detective Emeline Skehan.
She entered Barbas’s office unannounced that night; a struggle ensued for no reason that’s
clear in the report, ending in Barbas being injured and Skehan reporting the incident. After a day
to cool off, charges were dropped.
Finally, there is a formal letter from the Massachusetts State Police dated 7/3/2015 indicating
Barbas was placed on administrative leave as proceedings were undertaken to fire him. His
good reputation within the union is the only reason he hasn't been fired yet. This file contains his
home address in Medford (919 4th Street, Medford, Massachusetts, 02153) and home phone
number. This number matches the number used to book the party room at the Gateway Bridges
Restaurant.
Bribing a State Police Employee for Barbas’s File- Requires HUMINT and Criminology
at 30% or greater, a successful roll of each at +20%, and paying for an Unusual Expense.
Going through unofficial and illegal channels to get a copy of Barbas’s personnel file is difficult
and expensive. Even if the Agent gets a copy of the file, the Agent must make a Luck roll. On a
fumble, the Agent is named in an indictment against their source in 1D6+2 months. They may
be prosecuted for bribery, and the investigation may reveal worse crimes they have committed.
Questioning State Police- Requires a Bureaucracy, HUMINT, or Persuade roll. Many
people in the Massachusetts State Police know Barbas. Most say he is a stickler for the rules, is
considered a perfectionist, and is a dedicated and respected public servant. Few of these
people have seen him in some time, however. It’s likely this information is several months out of
date and does not cover his dismissal.
Questioning Barbas’s Peers- Requires a Bureaucracy or Law roll. Barbas’s colleagues at
the State Police Crime Laboratory stonewall investigators unless they have law enforcement
clout. Agents in law enforcement can eventually meet Detective Emeline Skehan or Trooper
Michael Dawkin, who worked with the Crime Scene Services Section. They are worried about
Barbas and want to help. A critical success indicates that other law enforcement agents,
including a member of the DEA, were asking after Barbas and his strange behavior in
mid-to-late June.

India Moon
Suspicious Agents may investigate the name of Agent Exeter’s operation. Searching the
Internet reveals page after page about the Indian space program, which is a dead end.
Codes or Anagrams- Requires Computer Science or SIGINT at 30% or higher, or a roll at
+20%; or an INT×5 roll at −20%. “India Moon” is an anagram for “daimonion,” which Plato
described as an inner voice which deterred him from certain actions.
The Daimonion- Requires Anthropology or History at 30% or higher, or a roll at +20%. In
classical literature, a daimonion or daemon was a guiding spirit which incited action. It sent
heroes or villains upon quests and great acts and might represent a lesser god, the spirit of the
dead, or another, stranger force at work in the world of man. It is the origin of the word “demon.”
It is described in Plato’s Symposium as a being that “interprets and transports human things to
the gods and divine things to men; entreaties and sacrifices from below, and ordinances and
requitals from above.” This gains the Agent +1 Corruption.

The Dorchester House

Government Records
City Clerk’s Office, Archives and Records Management, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
The permit for the Dorchester House School was issued in 1909. Construction was completed
on August 30th, 1912. It was used as a boy’s orphanage and school by the Boston Catholic
Archdiocese until July 20th, 1945 when it was closed.
The building was maintained by the archdiocese but remained empty until 1955, when the
south wing was converted into the Clam Point Gymnasium. The gym operated for 10 years.
After it closed in 1966, the building was briefly run as a public recreation center called
‘Dorchester House School’. It again closed in 1969.
The building remained empty and fell into disrepair until 1986, when it was purchased by the
Dallan Company via the St. Dymphna Foundation. After three years of renovations, the
Dorchester House Psychiatric Facility opened on August 30th, 1989. It is a private mental
hospital.

Newspaper and Magazine Articles

Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
In late July of 1945, several Boston newspapers mentioned the Dorchester House orphanage
and school closing due to funding issues with the Boston Catholic church. Some lament that
there are no plans for the beautiful building.
In the fall of 1989, a handful of articles mention Dorchester House reopening as a mental
hospital. It was renovated and opened by a young doctor by the name of Dr. Richard Foras
Dallan, an expert in PTSD treatment.

Searching the Internet

A Google search brings up the Dorchester House homepage and mission statement (Website
Handout). Its mission is to study, assist, and treat those suffering from violence-related mental
illness. The Dorchester House is a fully accredited psychiatric facility that focuses on the
treatment of violent mental illness; it specializes in psychotic behavior stemming from
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It focuses on patients in high-risk groups, such as
military veterans, the medical field, law enforcement, and fire and rescue.
It was founded in 1989 by Dr. Richard F. Dallan with a grant from the St. Dymphna Foundation.
Dr. Dallan is a well-known expert in the field of PTSD. For 26 years the facility has operated
admirably, serving the growing population of combat veterans from the global war on terror.
They are open and treating patients 24/7, but visiting hours are only from 10AM to 6PM.
Dorchester House is self-funded and its reputation is sterling.
Agents that have dealt with Barbas or have a high Corruption score will see something
different (Alt. Website Handout). Those with Corruption 8+ notice a line on the home page
that says “Nothing is true except out is through!” Those with low Corruption see a line about
insurance; if they have dealt with Barbas, this line wasn't on the website before (0/1 SAN).

Medical Community
Boston, USA
Pulling strings in the medical community requires Bureaucracy, Medicine, or Psychotherapy
at 20% or higher, or a roll at +20%. This reveals the following about Dorchester House:
●​ It is state of the art.
●​ It is a boutique facility that admits only select patients.
●​ Treatment costs approximately $7,000 per week.
●​ It has a below-average incidence of complaints.
●​ It has a very low turnover rate for employees.
●​ Dr. Dallan is considered an expert in the field of treating violent psychiatric conditions as
well as law enforcement and military PTSD.

Dr. Richard F. Dallan

Searching the Internet
Dr. Dallan is easily found online and in psychiatric journals. Dallan got his PhD from Johns
Hopkins University in 1981 and has since published dozens of articles on PTSD in the military
and first responders. His social media accounts show a big, burly man in suspenders with an
uneven smile, enjoying life in Boston. He is a lifelong bachelor.

Government Records
Boston, USA.
Dr. Richard F. Dallan was born in Austin, Texas on February 3rd, 1953. He moved to Maryland
for graduate school in 1975 and then to Boston in 1981 to practice psychiatry after receiving his
PhD.
His full name is “Richard Foras Dallan”. Those with a 20% or higher in Foreign Language
(Latin) know that Foras means “out” or “outside”. Those with an Occult score of 50%+ (or a
successful roll) know that Foras is the name of a demon in Ars Goetia.
If searched for on its own, Foras is immediately revealed as the name of a demon in Ars Goetia
with the following characteristics:
“Foras is a powerful President of Hell, being obeyed by twenty nine legions of demons. He
teaches logic and ethics in all their branches, the virtues of all herbs and precious stones, can
make a man witty, eloquent and live long, and can discover treasures and recover lost things.
He is depicted as a strong man.”
This discovery grants the Agent +1 Corruption.

St. Dymphna Foundation

Government Records
City Clerk’s Office, Archives and Records Management, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
The St. Dymphna Foundation, a charity based out of Maryland, was founded in 1986 and
subsequently gave Dr. Richard F. Dallan a sizeable grant to buy and renovate the Dorchester
House. A successful Accounting or Bureaucracy roll (or 60%+) reveals that it has done
nothing since then and is otherwise just a paper entity. It was formed in January of 1986 in
Turks and Caicos with a single deposit of $175 million, wired from the Sun Trust Bank of
Panama.

Its directorship and all digital traces reveal nothing. The Sun Trust Bank of Panama is long
since closed. All names associated with filings are common names. All identifying tax numbers
or social security numbers collapse into fakes at the merest hint of investigation. Those that
have 70% or more in their appropriate skill (or succeed on another roll) conclude that the St.
Dymphna Foundation was clearly just a smokescreen to funnel money to Dr. Dallan so the
Dorchester House could be bought and renovated.
Agents who physically travel to Turks and Caicos or Panama (or get a critical success on the
previous roll) and have Bureaucracy at 30% or better, or who make a successful roll at +20%,
can find copies of the signatory sheets for the amounts in governmental files. The signature on
both the transfer and receipt of the fee are identical, one “John Green.”

Ed Miler Wist
Searching for the word “wist” on Google reveals that it is the past tense and past participle of
“wit.” Searching for Ed Wist finds his crimes. Agents who examine Wist’s medical files or
government records find that his birth name was originally Guison. His mother changed it when
she remarried.
Searching for “Guison” gains that Agent +1 Corruption and reveals that it is the name of a
demon from Ars Goetia (those with an Occult score of 50%+ or who succeed on a roll also
clock this):
“Guison is a strong Great Duke of Hell, and rules over forty legions of demons. He tells all past,
present and future things, shows the meaning of all questions that are asked to him, reconciles
friends, and gives honor and dignity.”

The Poor Little Rich Boy Murders

Book by Edgar Meadows, Scion Publishing, 2014.
28 MAY 2010: On his 16th birthday, Ed Miler Wist killed his father (Thomas J. Wist, age 61), his
mother (Wendy A. Wist née Guison, age 44) and his sister (Sandra Wist, age 18) with a
shotgun. He claims he did this because they were all “wearing masks” and mocking him. No
masks were ever found.
3 APR 2014: Ed Miler Wist (now age 20) was declared insane by the state of California. He is
committed to the Atascadero State Hospital. Shortly thereafter, he is moved to the Dorchester
House psychiatric facility for treatment at the expense of his trust.

Government Records
Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, County of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA.
28 MAY 1994: Ed Miler Guison (later Ed Miler Wist), is born in Los Angeles, California.
28 MAY 2010: On his 16th birthday, Ed Miler Wist killed his father (Thomas J. Wist, age 61), his
mother (Wendy A. Wist née Guison, age 44) and his sister (Sandra Wist, age 18) with a
shotgun. He claims he did this because they were all “wearing masks” and mocking him. No
masks were ever found.
3 APR 2014: Ed Miler Wist (now age 20) is declared insane by the state of California. He is
committed to the Atascadero State Hospital. Shortly thereafter, he is moved to the Dorchester
House psychiatric facility for treatment at the expense of his trust.

Michael Witwer
Michael Witwer still lives, after a fashion, in the Night Floors of the Dorchester House. He might
also be encountered in the Hotel Broadalbin or in other manifestations of the Night World.

Nevada News Cycle

Online articles and clips from Las Vegas news stations in early-mid July mention a Special
Agent Michael Witwer being suspected for fraud by the DEA. A years-long financial scheme that
involved double-charging airline tickets and pocketing the cash on returns, (obtained through a
frequent flyer membership) was uncovered after Witwer went on a sudden vacation in late
June.This fraud amounted to approximately $18,000. Witwer’s whereabouts are unknown and a
federal warrant has been issued for his arrest.

Government Records
Drug Enforcement Administration, Los Angeles Division, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Special Agent Michael Witwer was born on 5/23/1980. He graduated from the University of
Michigan in 2002 and went straight into training for the DEA. By the end of the year he was
hired. Witwer had a stellar record aside from taking a two-month vacation in May-June of 2007
due to “bad health”.
Just this last June, Witwer took another long vacation, filing for a whole month off on 6/25/2015.
His file was flagged on 7/9/2015 when his fiancé Ophelia Sitri called the DEA looking for him,
claiming he was traveling for a case. The agency has no record of him traveling for a case, only
that he was on vacation. The DEA began an official inquiry shortly thereafter when they noticed
financial irregularities in Michael Witwer’s accounts. His whereabouts are currently unknown.

Government Records
National, USA.
Michael Witwer was born in Lansing, Michigan on 5/23/1980. According to his tax returns, he
has been employed by the DEA as a Special Agent since late 2002. His listed address is at
1704 Williamsport Street in Henderson, Nevada. Henderson is a suburb on the southeastern
edge of Las Vegas.

Elmer Losette
A search in the national census finds records of an Elmer Losette in the 1920 census. Elmer
Losette was born on December 2nd, 1911 in Odurn, Louisiana. He was left in the care of St.
Mark’s Orphanage. Odurn is a tiny, unincorporated community in the Iberia Parish and has been
a ghost town since the 1950s; the 2010 Census lists 37 residents. There is also evidence that
Elmer Losette was arrested in New York City on 8/6/1929, but arrest records of that age are not
digitized.
Agents with History 50% or better (or who make a roll) or Bureaucracy at 70% or better (or
who make a roll at −20%) can make hours of phone calls and track down records in the Iberia
Parish Courthouse, the Iberia Parish Library, and/or New York City Department of Records. If an
attempt fails, an Agent can try again (with a +20% bonus) by visiting the location in person.

New York City Records

New York Department of Records and Information Services, New York, New York, USA.
Agents searching New York City records (with the same skills required, and the same bonus for
going in person) can find an arrest record of an Elmer Losette for petty theft (codeine tablets),
vagrancy, and incest with his mother Julie Losette on August 6th, 1929. Julie paid his $5,000
bail on August 30th and the two skipped town. The Losettes were never seen or heard from
again.

Government Records
Iberia Parish Clerk of Court, New Iberia, Louisiana, USA.
At the Iberia Parish courthouse, they find a moldy 1911 birth record that lists Losette’s mother as
Juliet Losette, father unknown. They find a stray 1920 census report that has Elmer living at St.
Mark's Orphanage in Odurn. The records indicate he left the orphanage in 1927 at the age of
15. He found employment with the Bluebonnet Carnival and left town with them.

Newspapers
Iberia Parish Library (Main Branch), New Iberia, Louisiana, USA.
At the library, they find Losette in a microfiche scan of a Daily Iberian newspaper article from
1928. It describes the murder of an employee of the roving Bluebonnet Carnival. An anonymous
carny listed Elmer Losette as a suspect, saying the victim got on “too well” with Elmer’s mother
Julie Losette, the carnival “fat lady.” The carny adds that Elmer “didn’t like it much, as I think he
maybe got on too well with Julie himself.” By the time of the report, both Losettes had fled the
state. Another carny says Elmer always talked about going to New York. Police lacked enough
evidence to pursue the case.

Local Rumors
Odurn, Louisiana, USA.
If the Agents actually visit the ghost town of Odurn (a 30 minute drive from New Iberia along the
coast), they find it to be derelict and nigh-abandoned. St. Mark’s Orphanage has been
abandoned for decades. A handful of families still live in the area and make ends meet by
fishing and subsistence farming. Most of the adults are aware of the stories about the Losette
family.
Elmer was an orphan, abandoned as a baby on the steps of St. Mark’s. He left the orphanage
in the summer 1927 and joined a traveling carnival. It turns out that his mother, Julie, was the
carnival “fat lady”, and Elmer got on well with his long-lost mother. They posed as man and wife
in the carnival. They left the carnival after Elmer was accused of murdering a fellow carny.
“According to my grandfather, Elmer always talked about going to New York. Wanted to visit
some place called the Broadalbin. Said they were hiring.”