Process horror
The villain is corporate logic run past human limits, not a masked cultist.
The Palimpsest Trilogy
Three interconnected modern Pulp Cthulhu one-shots where corporate optimization logic eats buildings, rewrites cities, and audits reality.
In Deep Clean, a night crew cleans Kendrick Tower 14F while the Pattern Engine erases rooms, records, and coworkers for efficiency. In The Missing Playback, a documentary about gentrification starts overwriting the city every time it's watched. In The Last Customer, a graveyard-shift supermarket hosts a cosmic audit of every Palimpsest edit.
Each scenario runs standalone or chains into a trilogy where every ending visibly shapes the next. Six blue-collar pregens, NeonDyne process horror, and a city deciding whether it deserves to keep existing.
Interconnected
Each ending feeds forward. Destroy, weaponize, or crash the Engine, and the next scenario shows the scars.
Blue-collar pregens
Six ready-to-play night workers with Pulp talents, crew ties, and competence under pressure.
Flexible length
Each scenario 3.5-4 hours standalone. Chain for a three-session mini-campaign.
Three nights. Three shifts. One city on the edge of being optimized out of existence.
The trilogy arc
The Pattern Engine was NeonDyne's attempt to optimize reality like a spreadsheet. Deep Clean tests it on one floor. The Missing Playback scales it citywide through media. The Last Customer brings the audit. Every choice leaves marks.
The three scenarios
Night crew at Kendrick Tower
The Pattern Engine erases offices, staff records, and coworkers for efficiency. Investigators must destroy, redirect, or arrive too late to stop it.
Documentary footage rewrites the city
A rough cut about gentrification overlays a cleaner version of reality every time it's watched. Investigators find the studio interface and make a final edit.
Cosmic audit at SAVEMORE 347
A supermarket becomes the ledger for every Palimpsest change. Investigators argue for the city's life while the store tries to resolve them.
Trilogy connections
Deep Clean outcomes
Destroy: Overlay leaks from backups. Weaponize: Targeted edits appear. Abort late: City starts glitching.
Missing Playback outcomes
Restore: City haunted but intact. Targeted: Corporate assets erased. Crash: Patchwork reality flagged.
Last Customer outcomes
Rejection: Account open, interest accrues. Rebargain: Investigators become auditors. Redirection: NeonDyne pays.
Pregens
Sherry Cole, Ty Mendez, Ravi Patel, Lena Voss, Casey Navarro, Mo Alvarez—janitorial, stocker, cashier, security, videographer, paramedic.
Who this is for
- Pulp Cthulhu GMs who want modern corporate horror.
- Keepers running one-shots or tight mini-campaigns.
- Tables that like environment-as-monster and process dread.
- Anyone who wants investigators to punch back at inhuman systems.
Content note: Corporate coercion, erasure of people/places, reality distortion. Designed for mature players comfortable with surreal horror.
Three nights where the Investigators decide what kind of city survives the morning.
The Palimpsest Trilogy delivers three modern Pulp Cthulhu one-shots connected by NeonDyne's Pattern Engine logic—erasure, rewrite, audit—with choices that visibly shape the next shift.