Kingsport Mysteries: Kingsport, City of Dreams

Howard Phillips Lovecraft was from Providence, Rhode Island and many of his stories took place in and around New England, especially nearby Massachusetts. His stories gradually built up a mythos of ancient gods, alien intelligences, and supernatural mysteries that spanned the globe and the worlds beyond, but they also created a coherent setting out of several fictional New England towns. From Arkham’s gabled roofs, history, and university, to Dunwich’s rural traditions and Innsmouth’s sinister secret, every city and village in “Lovecraft country” has its own character. Its own threats.

Kingsport is no exception. First appearing in the 1920 short story “The Terrible Old Man,” then revisited in “The Festival,” “The Strange High House in the Mist,” and “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath,” Kingsport has a dreamlike quality to it. Its mists and seaside charm are almost idyllic—a far cry from the decay that lurks at the heart of its coastal neighbor, Innsmouth.

There’s No Place like Kingsport

In Kingsport Mysteries, the investigators will be immersed in Kingsport’s history and locales. Classic locations such as the Rope & Anchor tavern will be familiar to players of previous Arkham Horror games, along with proprietor Jonas Rigg. The Rope & Anchor is a favorite haunt of sailors and dockworkers, trades that are crucial to Kingsport’s history and economy. Players of the Arkham Horror board game (and its Kingsport expansion) will also be familiar with the Artists’ Colony, a freewheeling collective of artists, performers, and entertainers of all stripes. While the Rope & Anchor may represent the salt-of-the-earth (and -of-the-sea) of Kingsport’s denizens, the Artists’ Colony reflects its creative dreams and may hint at its future. Between these locations, and others such as the Fuller Animal Hospital & Aquarium or Li’s Noodle Shop, the investigators will see a broad cross-section of the people and places Kingsport has to offer, and see the effect their investigations have on the town residents first hand.

The investigators may also find themselves drawn to Kingsport Head, the mist-shrouded bluff above the town, where waves crash against the rocks far below. The natural beauty of the site cannot be denied, but there is something otherworldly to the place nonetheless.

Beyond Dreams

The mists that roll off of the sea and shroud the rocky bluffs may have a touch of the
supernatural to them. Kingsport lies close, perhaps too close, to the Dreamlands, a fantastical
world beyond this one.

Described across over a dozen stories, the Dreamlands is a rich and varied setting, apparently enormous, that can be accessed in the dreams of mortals. In the Dreamlands, magic is real, cats can talk, and strange beasts sail ships from the Moon. Some powerful mortals learn to control their own dreams and can wield great power in the Dreamlands, and may even raise themselves up as kings or queens. Others use foul magics for sinister purposes in servant of ancient and alien gods, with the dreams of mortals as both threat and plaything.

There are rumored to be places in Kingsport where the Dreamlands touch reality directly, where people can step into the dream and experience all the wonder and terror of the Dreamlands in person. Some may even cross this threshold accidentally, and there are rumors of people vanishing in their sleep when the mists lie heavy on the town.

In Kingsport Mysteries, the investigators will witness firsthand how the touch of the Dreamlands can lie heavy on the waking world, but also how vital these dreams are to the very humanity of the dreamers. They may find foes in their dreams can follow them into the waking world, and that just because something is just a dream, doesn’t mean that it’s not very, very real!

Who knows what else lies concealed beneath the mists of Kingsport? To unravel those mysteries, you’ll have to investigate for yourself!