The Sassoon Files
Second Edition
Intrigue and Horror in the Pearl of the Orient! The Sassoon Files is a set of scenarios and campaign resources for Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition set in historical 1920s Shanghai; an international city of intrigue, espionage, style and violence. This is the first of our “Asian Horror” series.
About the Sassoon Files
This 375-page campaign book is modular in design; each of the 10 scenarios included can stand on its own, but each scenario is connected by the thread of common location, time, characters, threats and themes. Play the scenarios contained in this book as you see fit, but they can stand together as the basis of an entire campaign set in the Shanghai of the 20’s.
Included in this book is a brief description of the publicly known history of Shanghai and some of the primary factions that competed for influence control: the Communists and Nationalists who played a game of deadly cat and mouse; the Jewish tycoon who provided succor to refugees; the Triad societies (and other gangsters) who competed to provide vice for the cities wealthy residents; the Japanese who were moving closer invasion.
And then there is the not-publicly known history… the untold Mythos story of forces from beyond our three mundane dimensions, and the local factions which conspire to exploit that which could not be fully comprehended.
Reviews
This is Shanghai
Sun Yat-sen passed in March of 1925. China’s merchant-class fled the death of another dynasty for an uncertain future. America’s thrill-seekers fled Prohibition for better times. Shanghai offered an illusory refuge and the promise of big business. The Huang Pu River was dredged to accommodate steam powered luxury liners and military vessels, alike. The ports of Shanghai were arteries clogged with commerce. Transport ships carried raw materials and opium into the city, and finished goods and wealth out of the city.
At Shanghai’s Great World Amusement Park, across from the horse tracks, prostitutes sought out high-rollers, and politicians made deals with gangsters. One-armed bandits cranked and whirled, occasionally vomiting just enough coin to keep players hooked. Ghosts, Spiders and Phantoms lined up outside the casino in a makeshift parking lot.
This is Shanghai; Victor Sassoon’s Shanghai. Victor Sassoon, a preeminent bon vivant, has found himself trading correspondence with Doctor Henry Armitage. They share a common goal and common modus operandi. Victor fights to keep his empire safe, but he also fights for a Shanghai free from Mythos influence. Victor has gathered around him professors, detectives, debunkers, muscles, guns, criminals and other problem solvers to mount a defense against a rising tide. Victor is your hook.
The Scenarios
S1: Muddy the Water to Catch the Fish – 渾水摸魚
Investigators are called upon to investigate a strange fish-man carcass found on the banks of the Bund. The investigation leads them to Yu Garden and a Deep One slaughterhouse operated by monstrous Japanese military police.
S2: Strange Gates, Hidden Demons – 奇門遁甲
1925. Investigators looking into an alleged cholera outbreak follow a trail of unusual corpses to a local opium den.
S3: When in Rome, Do as the Romans – 入乡随俗
A Luxury steamship arrives in Shanghai; passengers include well-funded foreign investigators on the trail of Nyarlathotep and armed with Mythos magic.
S4: The Strong Feed Upon the Weak – 弱肉強食
A missing persons case in Shanghai leads to a terrifying triangle trade of human trafficking, mutilation, and hybridization by carnivorous alien creatures. Investigators must follow the trail from kidnappers to foreign conspirators, and to hungry monsters hiding in plain sight.
S5: In the Same Boat – 同舟共济
A government-sponsored archaeological team embarks on a journey up the Yangtze River to Nanjing, utilizing a gunboat. From there, they trek to a Daoist temple on Maoshan, where they discover a demonic water spirit in Chinese folklore.
S6: Ride a Crane West – 驾鹤西去
Investigators journey to the frontier town where they encounter “Bird Eaters” reveling in the Mongolian Naadam Festival. Daytime events feature wrestling bouts and archery contests, while nighttime festivities entail consuming space mead and summoning Byakhee.
S7: Let Sleeping Dogs Lie
General Sun Dianying pillages the tomb of the Empress Dowager Cixi. Months later, Sassoon calls upon his intrepid investigators to look into the theft of a relic once belonging to the Empress Dowager. The trail will lead them to a Shanghai triad being operated by someone claiming to be the deceased Empress Dowager Cixi. Is it a hoax or was Cixi resurrected? If it really is Cixi, who brought her back?
S8: Drowned We are Born
Investigators must, at all costs, prevent newspaper mogul Henry E. Morris Jr. from publishing the insidious book
Invocations to Dagon .
S9: There is this One Girl – 有一个姑娘
Sassoon’s agents investigate a scam at the horse track. The trail ends with a heartbroken triad gangster and the Bloated Woman.
S10: Curse of the Peacock’s Eye
Investigators on the trail of an evil sorcerer discover the fabled lost city of golden sands and stumble upon the Peacock’s Eye – a field of flowering black lotus plants, their pollen inducing a potent psychedelic response enabling time travel.
