Eternal Lies - From the Keeper's perspective (Spoilers)

  

I posted a write up on my reflections on Pelgrane Press' excellent Trail of Cthulhu campaign Eternal Lies back in June. Rich, our Keeper for the campaign, shared his thoughts & reflections more recently in our discussion group and he's kindly agreed that I can share them here.

Clearly, there are spoilers below. 

Rich's Initial Post on Eternal Lies

You'd be surprised - or maybe not - at how many drafts I've compiled to summarise my thoughts on Eternal Lies; these were both written and corrections in my head, especially when out walking.

I think I've reached the point where I can't concisely do it. There is just too much to think about, to say or to recollect. I think your summary is also completely on point, Dom.

The main headline is that Eternal Lies is undoubtedly among my top RPG experiences of all time. It's also likely to be in the mix for the best cosmic horror campaign I've read or run. I've actually run out of praise for what it does and it was this which was holding me up because there are just so many things that it gets right. As an overview, the prevailing theme was a thing of great tension creation that rose above just the cosmic horror - the way it kept both the characters and the npcs guessing took it so far off the overly well trod Mythos path. The locations were well chosen and the antagonists were all very well rounded and memorable - even if some of the locations didn't necessarily have a particular antagonist or focus the locations and discoveries became central. It was a piece of cake to prepare for because there were logical steps that were built into each section but these were aligned superbly with player choice - there is a linearity to each section that includes certain possibilities but excludes others at specific points, making the whole thing easy to bite size in terms of notes and re-reading. Each location felt different both thematically and antagonistically - that each high ranking antagonist had their own motivations kept things flexible. One complaint I've read elsewhere is that NPC reactions weren't always clear in terms of what they knew and how they'd respond. Personally, I found this to be far from true if, and only if, you have a very good handle on the central plot, character motivations and, most importantly, player choices and preferences. Yes, some of the campaign's numbers were a bit whacky - like a lot of early Gumshoe - and there were a couple of invented sub-systems but all were easily fixed or incorporated.

The other thing I've had confirmed is how campaigns like this are, for me, the pinnacle of role playing. The comparison in my head is cricket, and if Eternal Lies were a game of cricket it would be a Test Match. The long form has everything, the rest just have some things. This has a downside - more on that in a minute.

Having two players in the campaign worked superbly well and it delivered a really personal and close up examination of character development without recourse to anyone immediately going insane - deterioration was gradual, observable and, whilst it was linked to numerics and system, the overwhelming manifestation was how it came out in character. That I was able to poke, prod and offer speculation rather than rolling on a table suited me to a tee. It was great that at all times things felt complicit in the game and that there was a wavelength of agreement of what the campaign was. I can't add much about the conclusion other than that it was surprising and entirely evidently a possibility despite the odds. Awful but appropriate. Wrong but right. Like it was always going to happen and the outcome was somehow pre-ordained or there was a synchronicity running that no-one could see. It was shocking still.

What an amazing campaign it was.

My challenge now is where to go next because I'm struggling a little, if not a lot with this.

The obvious thing to do following such a grand endeavour is to go for a palette cleanser type of game but I've looked into a couple of possibilities and the cleansing feels more like a vacancy than a possibility. On the other hand attempting to delve into something very deep, immersive and lengthy carries a risk of too much expectation. It's a little bit rock and hard place.

Follow up post

I need to add some things about Eternal Lies to my overview above; it’s mainly because they keep coming to mind with a nagging insistence. All to do with two of the main antagonists - namely Samson Trammel and Savitree Sirikhan.

There will be spoilers.

One of the questions I’ve seen asked about Trammel is why doesn’t he complete the ritual begun by Echevarria as he has the details in his library. I don’t want to label this a stupid question but I do think it thoroughly misunderstands the details of Trammel’s motivation and vastly oversimplifies things. Trammel is, quite simply a hedonist. He has at his disposal a seemingly bottomless well of drugs and a ready supply of willing partners with which to explore the sensual world that they enhance. On top of that he can now explore the world of power that comes with founding a drugs empire based on that supply. Why would you want to mess with that by bringing about an uncertain, cosmic outcome?

In addition to that, it’s not clear - I’ve not re-read the campaign to check the certainty of my assertions here - whether or not it is stated that he is even aware that the ritual is written down, or even the significance of The Gaze of Azathoth as a tome. If he is aware it’s not certain that he has read either. While some keepers may feel this lack of detailed certainty is a shortcoming I think the very opposite. What we do know is that Trammel secured Echevarria’s library and possessions but his motivations are opaque - was it to simply ensure that evidence was secured rather than any desire to amass knowledge or pursue cosmic outcomes?

As an aside here - while I didn’t prepare anything in detail I did have half an eye on a potential side game of how LA gangsters such as Mickey Cohen and Bugsy Siegel might get involved should the investigators take that slightly oblique angle towards the drugs side of things. What a glorious mess that could’ve turned into.

With Savitree, I’ve seen a couple of comments about how she is portrayed as a stereotypical, spear-chucking native and that this is a borderline offensive thing that people felt the need to change. This is bollocks. Savitree Sirikhan is the antagonist in the campaign that has the most knowledge about all things occult, historical, folkloric and Mythos. To the point where she has amassed a vast - almost credulity stretching - library of books and manuscripts in pursuit of knowledge. She has various employees tasked with globally finding, and bringing her, more items and books to fuel that pursuit and stock that collection.

That she is also a complete sociopath with a sideline hobby of bringing victims to her jungle island and hunting them for sport is an addition to her personality and purpose within the campaign not the whole of it. You could argue, although it’s not implicitly stated, that she hunts Western captives and it’s possible that this places her as a sociopath with a specific urge to satisfy, or even as a cultural revenge for colonialism. Like I say, it’s not stated. Either way, this is a long, long way from an offensive trope.

That she is also the single most dangerous antagonist in the campaign in terms of her physical statistics again mitigates against her being merely cultural fodder. Statistically, she was a huge challenge for a four member party never mind just a pair of investigators. Not to mention the fact that she’s has a “mouth” on her body. You play her smart, in control, insane and deadly dangerous.

Another aside - the brilliant plan enacted by the investigators was probably just about the only way she could have been dealt with and that scene with Benjamin as “tethered goat” was excruciatingly tense. It was also an amazing piece of foreshadowing for the campaign’s concluding scene: Here we have a sacrificial Ben only being able to be saved by Lotte enacting a plan that required pin point timing and accuracy with the one shot she could realistically expect to get off as well as the ability to stay hidden under intense pressure, right up until the perfect moment. And succeeding. The end of the campaign saw the need for Benjamin to enact pin point timing - and failing. Narrowly. Microscopically. Devastatingly.

Another aside (Part Two) - whenever I think of that scene in the island mansion I think of Edgar Jobs at his most lugubrious saying, “Well, Miss Lotte, they say set a thief to catch a thief. Surely now we see whose blood runs colder than even the delightful Miss Sirikhan. Deeelicious.”

To expand this further we can see huge questions over the relationships between these two antagonists. Given Trammel’s options does he know of the book and deny knowledge of it to Sirikhan to curtail any risk she may be driven to ruin his nirvana by attempting an enactment? Does Sirikhan suspect Trammel knows more or possesses more and she is not far off sending her investigative team to find out?

In short, these questions are incredible fodder for the campaign by being unanswered because it means you can see how things develop and, even more specifically, what sort of conclusions would best fit what it is the players seem to want. Whether the writers did this deliberately or they were simply plot holes it’s difficult to say - which feels appropriate. I give them the benefit of the doubt.

Thanks again to Rich for letting me share this.

20 August 2025