The Lair of Dreams by Nick Edwards is a role playing game supplement published by Chaosium Inc. through the Miskatonic Repository Community Content Programme for use with Call of Cthulhu, the horror role playing game based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft. The scenario is set in 1890s Paris.
The supplement is available as a nine page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. One page is the front cover and one the front matter.
Background explains that a down on his luck sculptor, Henri Tableau, was approached by a wealthy client. Said client was actually an agent of Carcosa and making the sculpture resulted in his mind snapping and he attempted to destroy it, pawned his equipment and went to an opium den to be drugged for as long as he could afford. However, his dreams are linked to Carcosa and he’s corrupting the world around him.
Interview with Josephine has the characters approached by the sculptor’s sister, who discovered him gone and wants him found as she’s concerned. There is information she can volunteer and some she can share if asked.
Henri’s apartment in Montmartre describes the apartment and what’s found there.
Visiting David Sitie deals with visiting another, more successful, sculptor acquainted with Henri.
The pawnbroker in Montmartre is where Henri pawned his tools, and it’s there that the first true signs of weirdness can be found.
Le Fille Jaune is a cafe Henri visited.
Incidents, events and occurrences has a number of things that can happen during the adventure.
Le Repaire des Rêves is the opium den where Henri can be found.
Aftermath has Sanity rewards.
Statistics has stats, though for most it suggests using monster stats from the rulebook rather than creating new stat blocks.
The Lair of Dreams in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and, though short, has enough different sections that they would have been appreciated. Navigation is okay. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be mostly free of errors. There are no illustrations. Presentation is okay.
This is inspired by Robert W Chambers‘ King in Yellow mythos, which is stated, and the weirdness of that. As it stands, it might be best used as a one-shot, although it could be used as a Gaslight scenario on a trip to Paris. However, there is nothing to stop it from being converted to a 1920s-era scenario; there is little that would stop that. It would take more effort to convert it to a modern scenario, or set it outside of Paris, but neither is impossible. Though short, it can also be dangerous, certainly for Sanity. The Lair of Dreams can be found by clicking here.
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