©1993 John Tynes
The Unspeakable Oath owes its existence to Jeff Carey, a Cthulhu keeper
of renown and stature (he even appears as a villain in the first scenario
in Chaosium’s ADVENTURES IN ARKHAM COUNTRY book!). At GenCon 1990 I played
in Jeff’s “Journey Into Darkness” adventure and afterwards received
a broadcast letter from him sent to everyone he’d met at conventions talking
about various things of interest to gamers. In this letter he suggested
that the folks he was writing to ought to get together a Call of Cthulhu
fanzine of some sort. Well, that didn’t go anywhere, at least as far as
the original suggestion. But I was so taken with the idea that I started
working on such a beast right away. A couple months later, with the assistance
of Scott Aniolowski, Jeff Barber, John H. Crowe III, Keith Herber, Blair
“Shea” Reynolds, Kevin Ross, and the University of Missouri Simulations
and Gaming Club, the 56-page debut issue of THE UNSPEAKABLE OATH became
a reality.
For those who may be wondering, the title is drawn from a spell created
by Keith Herber in a scenario from CTHULHU NOW (“The Evil Stars”)
about a Hastur-inspired rock group. The spell was “The Unspeakable
Promise,” but I kept calling it “The Unspeakable Oath” by
mistake in our games. The name just fit somehow, and off we went.
With the help and advice of a local game shop employee, THE UNSPEAKABLE
OATH found wholesale distribution and was carried by numerous game shops.
Pagan Publishing was launched.
This series contains the complete contents of TUO 1, lacking artwork and two
articles. The first, “Firearms in Call of Cthulhu” by John H.
Crowe, III, has been superceded by John’s massive reference work THE WEAPONS
COMPENDIUM, available through Pagan Publishing’s mail order catalog. The
second, “Within You Without You,” is a scenario by myself (John
Tynes) that re-appeared, in revised form, in THE RESURRECTED * VOLUME
TWO in early 1994.
All annotations by me are enclosed in brackets, and are ©1993 John Tynes.