Curse of the Yellow Sign - Act 1 - Digging for a Dead God

Oct 6, 2026

A horror-focused Call of Cthulhu one-night scenario built around an ancient, malignant discovery in the African jungle during May 1939. “Digging for a Dead God” is intentionally not linear, operating like a sandbox with locations, NPCs, and key information provided while players drive events. The scenario emphasizes cosmic horror, bleak survival odds, and permanent physical or mental scars. Guidance is included for Keeper advice, props, and options, while removing reliance on monsters or spells.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryStory & Novel

FormatPDF

Pages26

Reading Time40 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

1 January 27, 1940 eKRAnterUS: The Captain ordered us to Q: What happened then? rKRemeAUSmbe:rI do not know. I cannot frQom: Thheubite markman teeths on your arm are iKRAUSnfected:uIts found us. It (pause) Q: What are KRAUS: The Q: What? you talking about? one trapped there. rKRemeAUSmbe:r!(scrDoeamnotingma)kDo ne meotremakemembmere! page 4 Curse of the Yellow Sign Act 1: Digging for a Dead God Written by John Wick Illustrations, Graphics and Layout by Aaron Acevedo Curse of the Yellow Sign and Digging for a Dead God are (C) 2009 by John Wick. Illustrations and graphics are (C) 2009 by Aaron Acevedo. All rights reserved. Published by permission of the author. No actual persons or events are portrayed in this work. Any resemblance to actual persons or events are coincidental. Except for the Yellow Sign. And now that you’ve seen it, you can never go back. Call of Cthulhu is the registered trademark of Chaosium Inc. and is used by permission. The Yellow Sign was created by Robert Chambers and designed by Kevin Ross. 1 Introduction In May of 1939, somewhere in the jungles of Africa, a small band of soldiers have stumbled across something ancient. Something terrible. And they are about to suffer the consequences. Digging for a Dead God is a one-night scenario for Call of Cthulhu. The actual bulk of the story is only a few pages long; most of this small booklet concerns Keeper advice, tricks, props and options. That’s because the whole experience rests on your players. There are no monsters, no moldy tomes, no spells, no magic items. Just a small group of soldiers and a malignant idea infesting their brains. And that’s enough. DfaDG is not a linear adventure. Instead, it is more like a sandbox game: you have characters and environments and certain events that occur, but there is no step-by-step, clue-by-clue progress. I’ll give you all the information you need to play in the sandbox (including Locations, NPCs, etc.), but once the scenario gets started, it’s really up to you and the players to move the plot forward. I should warn you: there is little chance for character survival. This is the bleak darkness of Lovecraft’s vision made manifest. Think of the two “survivors” of John Carpenter’s The Thing. Think of the “survivors” of Ridley Scott’s Alien or James Cameron’s Aliens. Think of the “survivors”of any truly horrific experience. They are, in fact, survivors in the plainest sense of the word: they lived through the experience. They didn’t win. They survived. I have this joke I always tell about making a set of CoC dice. Actually, you really only need one die; you don’t even need a set. And, it’s not really a die, but a weighted marble and on one side it says,“You’re dead” and on the other it says,“You’re insane.” That’s the legend of CoC. Either your character dies or goes insane. The mortality rate of characters is insanely high. Nobody expects to get out alive. Except…that’s not really the way it goes. Gamers are gamers and when you tell them “Nobody survives a CoC game,” they take that as a kind of challenge. Their characters stock up on TNT and machine guns and other equipment. They approach the adventure like they’d approach any fantasy adventure: with an eye at survival. Needless to say, many folks who write CoC adventures enable this behavior. They write adventures that can be “survived.” Lots of weapon stats and rules for explosives and vehicle speeds. Tactical design anticipating gamer tactical thinking. Well, I don’t design CoC adventures with this mentality. (Thus, my deliberate use of the words“story” and “scenario” rather than “adventure.”) I don’t expect the characters to survive. If they do, it has more to do with chance than any decisions the characters make. If they do survive, the characters are permanently scarred—both physically and mentally. I don’t run CoC as dark fantasy. I run it as horror. Let me explain. It really comes down to the difference between Alie

FAQs

What kind of scenario is Digging for a Dead God in Call of Cthulhu?

It is a one-night scenario designed around horror and cosmic dread. The bulk of the booklet provides Keeper guidance, tools, and options so play depends on the group.

Is Digging for a Dead God a linear adventure?

No. It functions like a sandbox: characters and environments exist, events occur, and the plot advances based on players’ actions rather than step-by-step progression.

How does the scenario frame survival and player expectations?

The creator warns that character survival is unlikely. Even if characters live, they are left permanently scarred physically and mentally, reinforcing the bleak Lovecraftian tone.

Oct 6, 2026

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