Chaosium

Against the Mythos in the Down Darker Trails Setting

Shadows Over Stillwater is a collection of scenarios and locales for Down Darker Trails—the Wild West setting for Call of Cthulhu and Pulp Cthulhu. Contained within are further insights and challenges for those seeking bold adventure in the American Old West.

Featured is a three-part campaign—The Shadow Over Stillwater—set in the mountains of the New Mexico Territory. A hunt for a fugitive murderer leads the investigators into a mystery involving odd townsfolk, strange lights in the sky, walking corpses, and the machinations of a once-powerful and ancient race seeking to reclaim their lost glory.

The campaign is suitable for groups of any size, as the Keeper can easily scale the opposition to reflect the number of investigators. An apparently simple task, bringing a wanted man to justice, brings the investigators to a town suffering an epidemic of bizarre events, from crazed residents to the dead rising from their graves.

Part 1: Lazarus, in Spades, the first scenario in the campaign, sends the investigators to Stillwater, New Mexico. Stillwater’s sheriff has alerted the authorities that a wanted man, Hank Hanratty, has been spotted in the town. The investigators are hired to the outlaw but, on arrival in Stillwater, they are faced with a situation that threatens to plunge them into chaos and death.

Part 2: Trouble on Knife Cut Mesa immediately follows with the investigators heading to the mesa north of Stillwater to seek the source of recent strange events where a band of Mescalero Apache may aid or confuse their investigation. Tracing their quarry into mountains, the investigators come face to face with an ancient evil.

Part 3: Shattered Earth, Poisoned Sky brings the campaign to a potentially explosive finale. Santa Rosita has been wracked with earthquakes—the residents fear that their town will soon be destroyed. The investigators’ efforts to uncover the secret behind the situation may be hampered by the growing paranoia among the townsfolk. The investigators must delve deeply to thwart a plan designed to remake the Earth.