Box 13 — Campaign Index
Box 13
Campaign Overview
*Box 13* is a Call of Cthulhu campaign that **began in 2015**. Five players each play both an actor (off-screen) filming a supernatural procedural TV show, and the character they portray (on-screen). The seam between the two layers will not hold. **As of Session 6 the timeline has jumped ten years** (≈2025): the crew's descent into the night floors **aired as an unfinished episode**, and the show is **still in production** a decade later.
Investigators (PCs)
Keeper: Stewart
| Actor | Character | Player |
|---|---|---|
| Cory Vandermere | Elias Vance | Jeremy Magyar Groom |
| C.W. Patrick | Det. Jimmy Palmer | Jeremy Thomas |
| Daniel Boulton | Kip Fedora | Diana Wynn |
| Beckett Blank | Mordecai Mordant | Lazarus Fox |
| Wade Keegan | August "Gus" Vale | Rich Teachout |
Active Plot Threads
- Kyle Alexander Case — first case; Kyle is the only survivor (in hospital); Ryan, Jessica, and Clarence confirmed dead
- Amy Langon Case — second case; Amy found alive at museum; blood, a statue, and a beer bottle in a dusty basement
- The Actor-Character Seam — the seam is breaking; the Rooftop Symbol (the Yellow Sign, per The Red Book) crossed into the on-screen world; Marcus speaks scripted lines; Mr. Wild appears in script and person. Session 6 tore a third layer open: a book held the real player's dream (The Sleeping Man's Library); "Have you seen the Yellow Sign?" spoke through the whole party (The Daribondi Clipping); the entire night-floors descent was filmed — O'Nay called "cut, great episode." Mordant is named on the bottle (The Group Photograph)
- Sterling Horselover disappearance — missing from a locked roof with no exit; HBO's line was "on hiatus"; Session 6: he appeared in the night floors doorway doing the join-us gesture (only Cory saw him) — and is still gone ten years later
- Abigail Wright Case — Operation ALICE; Abigail Wright missing from her McAllistor Building apartment; Session 6: the crew entered the night floors (a dream-built structure of puppets, re-staged deaths, and trapped people), learned the ritual is "herbs, words, stones" (Hygromanteia), met the trapped David — then the descent was cut and aired as an unfinished episode. The aired finale removed the night floors entirely — on-screen, the team leaves empty-handed and Abigail is never found. Mr. M is angry it was never completed; the case is open, ten years cold. The Art Life Dossier gives the building a 65-year history — owner Henry Lundine died on the roof stairs in a white mask (1952), his musician son hanged in the ballroom (1950), and the architect was a suspected child-drowner
- The World Remade — the ten-year-gap handout: a 2015–2025 timeline that begins as real history and ends in an America of lethal chambers, a federal register of banned publications, "First Families," and serious dynastic talk — Chambers' Repairer of Reputations 1920, installed as the campaign's ≈2025 present
Key NPCs
- Mr. M (Alan Ladd) — Director, Box 13; soft-spoken; shark instincts
- Sterling Horselover — Showrunner
- Tara Orlando — Sterling's assistant; sees everything
- Amy O'Nay — HBO rep; does not leave
- Special Agent Marcus — CDT agent who retained Box 13; real name Dr. Marvin Bloom, head of NY's X-Files M-cell
Sessions
- Session 1 — Kessler — March 30, 2015
- Session 2 — Episode 7 — October 22, 2015
- Session 3 — Something Big — November 15, 2015
- Session 4 — Places, Please — November 2, 2015 (filming the Nov 28 finale)
- Session 5 — The Tenants Stir — Nov 29 off-screen / on-screen 10 PM in the Macallistar
- Session 6 — Great Episode — into the night floors; the descent airs as an episode, then the campaign jumps ten years