A Foe for The Yellow King Roleplaying Game: Paris
Monsieur Anguillerose, or Mr. Eelrose as he translates his name into English, is a singular Carcosan being who enjoys the Parisian nightlife, and killing the people who inhabit it. After spoiling a royal plan in the days before the city of Ys sank, the Pallid King forbade Anguillerose from choosing humans to kill. Ever since the gate to 1895 Paris opened, he has taken advantage of the prohibition by murdering on behalf of others. He circulates his calling card through the Parisian demimonde. It reads as follows:
Do those who live, but should not, obstruct your aims?
Dream three times of M. Anguillerose.
And he shall solve your human problems.
Most find it hard to dream on command, especially with nothing more to go on than an odd portmanteau name. Parisians sufficiently steeped in spite sometimes succeed, concentrating on this enigmatic card and its cruel promise.
They dream of a three meter tall, scruffy figure in ragged coat and rancid vest, with a moray-like face and enormous, gnarled claws. Rose blossoms emanate from his midsection. In each dream, M. Anguillerose asks if they really possess the hate, or at least the avarice, to sanction murders. When a dreamer says he only wants one person dead, Anguillerose disappears. He does not travel all the way from Carcosa for a single slaying. Should the dreamer persist, listing multiple targets and demonstrating fervent commitment, he agrees.
The dreamer then awakes, nostrils assailed by a powerful, contradictory smell. The room reeks of rotten fish and potent floral perfume. Beside their bed looms Anguillerose, having transported himself to the material realm.
Anguillerose listens intently as his contact describes the intended victims: names, appearance, frequented locations, routines. Not an inconspicuous figure, he may fill in the gaps by requiring the client to perform additional legwork in Paris. Or he relies on his animated construct, an animated, pallid-faced puppet called Utile (Useful.) Though also obviously inhuman, Utile can practice stealth and from a distance momentarily pass himself off as human.
Together Utile and Anguillerose stalk each victim. Anguillerose prefers to perform the actual act in solitude, but takes no care to hide the corpses afterwards. He kills by strangulation, crushing windpipes with his mighty claws.
The art students may initially think that this Carcosan monstrosity has chosen victims at random. But the grudge of his summoner ties them together. If the investigators identify the connection they can track down the person using Anguillerose as a murder weapon.
A proud being, Anguillerose grows more resentful of his client with each homicide. Really he would like to regain the full autonomy the king has taken from him. Though forbidden to slay victims of his own choosing, nothing the Pallid One said forbids him from maneuvering others into kill on his behalf. When he becomes aware of the investigators, he tries to engineer events so that they dispatch his client. He and Utile then travel through the most convenient gate to Carcosa until they are again summoned to Earth.
Unless the art students have other ideas, and stop him before he gets there.
Numbers: 1
Difficulty: Vastly Superior (Escape 3, Other 6, Kill 7)
Difficulty Adjustments: -1 if surprised at the site of a planned killing, -1 if you know who ordered the killing, -1 if you have taken precautions to keep his rancid perfume out of your nostrils
Toll: 1
Tags: Carcosan
Injuries, Minor and Major: Choked / Throttled
Illustration created with Stable Diffusion (lower half) and DALL-E from Open AI (top.)
The Yellow King Roleplaying Game takes you on a brain-bending spiral through multiple selves and timelines, pitting characters against the reality-altering horror of The King in Yellow. When read, this suppressed play invites madness, and remolds our world into a colony of the alien planet Carcosa. Four core books, served up together in a beautiful slipcase, confront layers with an epic journey into horror in four alternate-reality settings: Belle Epoque Paris, The Wars, Aftermath, and This Is Normal Now. Purchase The Yellow King Roleplaying Game in print and PDF at the Pelgrane Shop.