More fun from Victorian Fiction: The Yellow Wallpaper

[Lady Ligeia]

This doesn't really fit in the "NPCs of fiction" thread we have down below.

This was inspired by the short story linked here: http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/hi ... paper.html

The Yellow Wallpaper
No one knows who procuded the infamous yellow wallpaper, but for some reason it sold very well when it first mysteriously appeared in stores several years ago. It has a strange pattern to it that appears to shift and move when viewed out of the corner of one's eye. It is a bilious, unappealing color, but for some reason certain folks can't seem to help themselves but to purchase it.

(The Forbidden Lore I have below is what I came up with on the spur of the moment. I am really not happy with the concept, though. Anyone got any better ideas?)


Forbidden Lore: The pattern of the yellow wallpaper is made from a alchemical mixture produced by a human servant of the Red Death.

This alchemical mixture puts out a pheromone to which certain people are very sensitive. Anyone who sees the yellow wallpaper must, on first sight, succeed on a DC 15 Fortitude save. On a successful save, the person is immune to the pheromones of the yellow wallpaper. A failed save means that they are susceptible to its mind-warping affects.

If a susceptible person sees the yellow wallpaper for sale in a store, she must succeed on a DC 15 Will save or she will be overcome with a desire to purchase it at once.

Once the yellow wallpaper is installed (or if a susceptible person takes up residence in a house where the wallpaper is already installed), the victim automatically suffers 1 point of Wisdom damage per day she remains within 50 feet of the wallpaper. The afflicted person begins to suffer delusions -- or what she thinks are delusions -- of a strange being somehow trapped in the patterns of the wallpaper.

The real threat of the yellow wallpaper is far more insidious, however. For every week the victim remains within 50 feet of the yellow wallpaper she must succeed on a DC 10 Willpower save or be possessed by a minor evil spirit. From thenceforth, the victim is a servant of the Red Death.

Only an exorcism or the death of the victim's body forces the evil spirit from its new home.

[Dr Bloodworth]

Nifty. 'f course, if you were doing Cthulhu, it'd HAVE to be connected with Hastur. I mean, it IS yellow after all...

[Lady Ligeia]

I was thinking that myself, being a Lovecraft buff. The inexplicable design could by the infamous yellow sign, repeated over and over.

[William Blackmoor]

I was thinking that myself, being a Lovecraft buff.

Dear Lady Ligeia, might I then turn your attention to this story and the book (Shadows over Baker Street) it's from:

http://www.neilgaiman.com/exclusive/StudyinEmerald.asp

William Blackmoor