The Pallid Mask: Extended Trailer

0:00Narrator Alternative Stories and Hawberk Productions presents *The Pallid Mask*, an audio drama by Jordan Acosta.

0:09Maggie Collins “The King in Yellow”. Are you a playwright, Eugene? Or an *actor*?

0:15Eugene Bardin Once, perhaps, in another life.

0:21Maggie Collins “Along the shore, the cloud waves break, the twin suns sink behind the lake, the shadows lengthen… in Carcosa.”

0:37Dr. Jane Archer “When from Carcosa, the Hyades, Hastur, and Aldebaran… where the black stars hang over the skies above the Lake of Hali. For time immemorial, the Yellow King, who even emperors have served, hides Ythill forever and preserves the mystery of the Hyades.”

1:05Hildred Castaigne “The Imperial family through Camilla and Cassilda runs thus, thus, heralding The Phantom of Truth and The Last King, The son of Hastur. If you follow this bloodline to… Castaigne. Louis de Calvados. Born December 19th, 1877.”

1:34Molly Bedrook Have you ever heard of *The King in Yellow*?

1:36Andrew Tolliver *The King in What*? Sounds like a lost Shakespeare.

1:39Molly Bedrook No one knows where it came from. It made the rounds across Europe in the 19th and early 20th century. Banned from “press to pulpit”, according to contemporaneous sources; from Budapest to Paris to London, then across the pond by the 1920s. Well, from all the accounts I’ve found, anyone who's read, or seen it in its entirety, has – well – *gone completely mad*.

2:07Molly Bedrook And here’s the thing; fragments appear in multiple languages, and yet there appears to be no complete surviving copy of it anywhere in the world. And the recorded deaths surrounding it are… *strange* to say the least.

2:26Mr. Wilde You will continue to collate his intelligence and bring it to me in person.

2:30Eugene Bardin Can he not do it himself?

2:31Mr. Wilde Fong is required elsewhere.

2:34Eugene Bardin Phone calls? Radio transmission?

2:36Mr. Wilde *Monitored* by the Bureau.

2:40Bureau Agent #2 *Move!* Get outta the way!

2:43Eugene Bardin Now see here–

2:45Flatnose Enjoy yourself, bindl– *Agh!* Bastard broke my nose!

2:52Bureau Agent #1 Don’t just stand there, you sapheads! After him!

2:56Bureau Agent #2 He’s heading up West 16th!

2:57Bureau Agent #3 I got him! I got him!

2:59Eugene Bardin No, you don't!

3:03Carl Phillips I’m a PhD student at St. Francis-Xavier’s College. You might know it? It’s next to Holborn station.

3:09The Guv'nor Right.

3:11Carl Phillips I tried emailing.

3:13The Guv'nor Right.

3:14Carl Phillips And calling. I’ve got some questions. I was wondering if you might be able to help me. This is the Trent-Fallowby Printing Co., isn’t it?

3:25The Guv'nor It is.

3:26Carl Phillips Oh, good. I thought I might have wasted a trip.

3:29Mr. Wilde We are now in communication with ten thousand through the Yellow Sign. We can count on one hundred thousand within the first twenty-four hours, and in forty-eight, the state will rise en masse. The country follows the state, and the portion that will not may as well be uninhabited.

3:52Hildred Castaigne A new broom sweeps clean.

3:54Mr. Wilde The ambition of Caesar and Napoleon pales before that which will not rest until it has seized the minds of all; controlling even their unborn thoughts.

4:08Hildred Castaigne You speak of the *King in Yellow*.

4:11Mr. Wilde He is a King whom Emperors have served.

4:32Narrator Listen to The Pallid Mask, wherever you get your podcasts from October 30, 2026. Full cast biographies, episode guides and more can be found at thepallidmask.online