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Inspired by Robert W. Chambers’ influential cycle of short stories, YKRPG pits the characters against the reality-altering horror of The King in Yellow. This suppressed play, once read, invites madness. Or a visit from its titular character, an alien ruler intent on invading and remolding our world into a colony of their planet, Carcosa. The Yellow King uses a mildly altered version of the GUMSHOE system. GUMSHOE centers around the activities of investigations and mysteries, and is designed to both highlight these activities and also keep the story moving. One key mechanical highlight of GUMSHOE which is often discussed is the way Investigative Abilities are employed. The Yellow King Lyrics: When the sun has set and the day is long / And the heat is sweet tea thick and wet against your bones / The traffic lights they have a hum / Watching as we pass at night.

Kryptma arrived, and they strategized about how to reach the Upper House on the Plateau of Leng. They would have to pass through a swarm of nightgaunts, who could be safely repelled by a Distillate of Consciousness so no dream space gave them leave to approach. The easiest way to do this would be to go to The Market, where Kryptma happened to be a seller, so she had a way in. She warned them how strange the place could be.

The Market

She put a live crab in each of their mouths, and put a crab mask on her face, then they moved through the reflection of water and became the crab, emerging in The Market. She collected her crabs back, and threw away a lucky penny to summon a goblin guide to help them shop. They wended through The Market seeing many rare and wonderful things, then headed down the stairs to the Undermarket, seeing truths about them light up as symbols on the walls. At the bottom, they met the armored centipede centaur guards in heavy armor, who greeted the Oracle of Orcus as a powerful person, and acknowledged the others. A scent urchin gave them nose drops so they could smell whatever they liked instead of the hoary stench of the Undermarked. Then they went to a bridge across a pond, with a tower on an island in the center. By now Kinslton was manifesting physical signs of his formidable demon passenger, and he talked with the Oracle, shifting the manifestations to more of a bird-like appearance instead of something insectile.

They were served by a satyr there who gave them what they were after, in crystal form. The Chalice Bearer apparently had an account that had been accruing interest, so they could pay for it. They got special dispensation to leave through a gate in the pond instead of official channels, and once again used the crab ritual. Kryptma stopped them during the journey and pulled off all the parasites and other hitchhikers from The Market, then they returned, emerging on Prime from the fountain in the lobby of the hotel.

The Tower of Amepal

Back in their room, they said their goodbyes as seemed best for each. Genevieve telepathically contacted her husband, Adrian wrote letters to Mugsy and Emma, and told Snowfall they’d try to figure out her freedom if he returned. She gave him a feather he could burn once, to invoke their connection and bolster his magic. Lydia wrote letters to Amy and Indigo, Kinslton left some instructions for his butler, and Burr polished her boots.

Now ready for whatever may come, they followed Kryptma through the bathroom mirror onto the back of a majestic sky flap flap, a manta ray that could fly through the Umbra. They flew through many strange scenes, and they approached a screaming void of night. Kryptma embedded the crystal of Distillate of Consciousness in Adrian’s chest, and he shone to push back the night and the nightgaunts as they flew through that gulf. Then they reached a strange place full of monoliths, perhaps to the Sky Gods, where they leaked life essence just being in the place. They goaded the flap flap up to the highest tower, and dismounted, releasing the flap flap to go elsewhere.

From there, Genevieve unleashed the illumination in her bauble, and it lit up the fins at the top of the tower and released a brilliant light as it made her an eye far enough from the bustle of linear life that she could see forward and backward in time as never before. She resisted visions, staying focused on the moment, and a shantak flew up to investigate.

She made telepathic contact with it at great cost to her sanity, and it seemed to agree to take them to the Plateau of Leng. They climbed aboard, finding it generated its own gravity, and it lazily drifted away from the Tower of Amepal, through the dimensional barrier, and eventually on to the Plateau of Leng. It flew through the stars, which gathered all around them. Then the featureless gray expanse lay below, endless.

The Upper House

They approached the Upper House, which had pylons allowing it to connect to other dimensions, as in rituals to summon one dimension to touch another. They fell from the shantak, out of its gravity, and a combination of their powers got them to the ground safely. They saw the dust cloud of an approaching group, and quickly headed into the Upper House.

Inside it was designed with geomorph-like blocks of space that could shift and flicker around. A person could be lost inside forever, going from one kind of rooms to another; there were endless staircases, gardens, baths, banquet halls, and so on. They used their Umbra savvy to navigate a fairly direct path to the top, finding an open plaza under the burning constellation of the Hyades and Aldeberan burning red. There were two posts and a lectern, a setup to create a gate and dial in its location.

They felt the psychic pressure of the King in Yellow descending towards this place, and how it forced all the Upper House into alignment, providing a straight path to the entrance. Ralph Quarrie finally caught up with them. He was relaxed, in his white suit, smoking a cigarette, very excited about the coming entrance. He was the Stranger, the White Acolyte from the West. He would guide Hastur to earth.

That could not be allowed. Adrian burst him with a magical attack.

As the spray of Quarrie’s remains rained down, the King in Yellow appeared on the other side and asked them who would guide him to earth. Inside Kinslton, the Oracle of Orcus insisted that the King in Yellow was the angel he hunted, in one of his forms! He wanted to attack, and Kinslton refused, so the Oracle reformed Quarrie’s body, leaped out of Kinslton, and into Quarrie, rounding on the King to do battle.

Fearing that such a grudge match would destroy them all (whether it destroyed the Oracle or the King) Adrian used his fate to slay the infernal and once again burst Quarrie, this time depriving an arch-demon of a vessel in the process. The King generated a Yellow Sign, and for the first time they saw it as a hyperdimensional coordinate that was like a virus, putting a crack in every consciousness it met, where enough of them could be a sizable breach in an otherwise secure dimensional wall. The Yellow Sign gusted the arch demon to disperse without a host, at least for the moment. Again, the King asked for a guide.

Genevieve knew that could not happen. She shifted her bauble to a sword, and thrust it into the reflection of the Yellow King, relying on her fate to banish the entity. As the blade touched the King, the pylons outside that were charged and primed to allow dimensions to touch were deactivated, and the projection of the Yellow King was whisked back to the Hyades, far from earth.

Return to Prime

Kryptma used the gate in the Upper House to take the group back to Prime. They had been gone four days, but Olivia knew that Adrian was likely still alive until the he used the feather on the assault on possessed Quarrie, when the connection severed and she feared them truly dead. Before they had time to act on that change in plans, the adventurers returned.

Kinslton was now without the Arch Demon Oracle of Orcus, but some of the spawn the Oracle left behind whispered that they could be Legion, and serve him still as symbiotic allies; he found that pleasing. Lydia also found that the incredible sensory expansions she experienced through the whole weird ordeal climaxing in the presence of the Yellow King intensified her mutation, so new powers would soon be hers.

Home » Gemstones » Opal » Fire Opal

The Yellow King Cracked

Mexican Fire Opal: Cabochons cut from fire opal found in Mexico. They all have a bright red, orange or yellow background color.

Mexican Fire Opal: Some beautiful fire opals from Mexico that have been cut into faceted gems. The red stone measures 9 x 6 mm, the orange stone measures 7 x 6 mm, and the yellow stone measures 8 x 6 mm. Note the difference between these faceted fire opals and the cabochon-cut fire opals above. These faceted gems are transparent, while the cabochon-cut stones are semi-transparent to translucent.

What is Fire Opal?

Many people confuse “fire opal” with “precious opal”. So, here is a quick lesson on the three basic types of opal.

1. Fire Opal is a variety of opal that has a bright yellow, bright orange or bright red background color. The stones in the first photo on this page are fire opal. They receive their name from their fiery background color.


2. Precious Opal is a name given to any opal that exhibits “play-of-color”, a flashing display of spectral colors when the opal is “played” under a light source. The second photo on this page shows many varieties of precious opal.


3. Common Opal is a variety of opal that does not display “play-of-color” and does not have a background color that would make it a fire opal.

The name “fire opal” is all about the bodycolor - fiery yellow, fiery orange or fiery red. It's not about 'flash'.

Table of Contents

The Yellow King Cracker

Precious Fire Opal: This is a faceted transparent opal with a light orange bodycolor and a display of greenish and purplish play-of-color. Because of its play-of-color and its orange bodycolor, it could be called a 'precious fire opal.' It is a 12 x 8 millimeter oval that weighs about 2.2 carats, cut from material mined in Ethiopia.

Precious Fire Opal

A few specimens of fire opal exhibit “play-of-color”. These specimens have both the fiery background color of a fire opal and the play-of-color of a precious opal. Some people call these special stones “precious fire opal”.

The play-of-color can be tiny bright flashes of color when the opal is played under light, or a billowing glow contained within the stone. The accompanying photo is a precious fire opal cut from material found in Ethiopia. It exhibits a neon green play-of-color from one direction and a neon violet play-of-color from another direction. From a few directions you can see a little of both.

In the past decade, Ethiopia has become a steady producer of beautiful opal. Much of it is yellow to orange semitransparent opals with play-of-color. See our article about Ethiopian Opal.

Faceted Fire Opal: These three stones show the color range of 'fire opal,' a name given to specimens of opal with a fiery background color. The orange and yellow stones have a sleepy translucence, while the red stone is semitranslucent, almost opaque.
The orange stone is about 7 x 9 millimeters in size and was mined in Oregon. Fire opal of this color is sometimes called 'tangerine opal'.
The red stone is about 8 x 10 millimeters in size and was mined in Mexico. Fire opal of this color is often called 'cherry opal'.
The yellow stone is about 9 millimeters across and was mined in Nevada. Fire opal of this color is sometimes called 'lemon opal'.

How are Fire Opals Cut?

Fire opals are cut in a variety of ways. Some are cut as faceted stones, others are cut as cabochons. The cutter decides how he/she thinks the stone will be most attractive. There is no rule for cutting fire opal.

Transparent fire opals are most often faceted so that they can be illuminated by incident light. If they have a spectacular play-of-color, they might be cut into a cabochon like most precious opal. If the play-of-color is minor, it might be cut into a faceted stone with a little surprise of flash.

Translucent stones are often cut into cabochons, but it is not unusual to see a translucent to nearly opaque fire opal with an attractive color cut into a pretty faceted stone. The three faceted stones in the photo above are wonderful examples of translucent stones that have been faceted.

Cantera Opal: Much of the fire opal found in Mexico is in a rhyolite host rock. It is difficult to remove the opal from the rhyolite without damage. So, some cutters simply cut a cab of rhyolite with a fire opal window in the dome. Cabs with this style of cutting are known as 'cantera opal'. Many people enjoy them.

Fire Opal Value

The value of a fire opal is based upon the desirability and uniformity of its color, with yellow being on the low end of value and red being on the high end.

Transparent stones are preferred over translucent stones. The best fire opal typically sells for prices that are much lower than the best precious opal; however, fire opal specimens with exceptional color will sell for higher prices than some specimens of precious opal with less impressive play-of-color.

'The defining characteristic of fire opal is the fiery hue of yellow, orange, or red that serves as a background color throughout the stone.'

Durability of Fire Opal

Fire opal has a Mohs hardness of 5.5 to 6, which is soft enough that it can be scratched by many objects that it might encounter during everyday wear. Fire opal also has a low tenacity, which means that it can easily be chipped or broken.

Fire opal is best used in jewelry such as earrings, pins, and pendants that usually are not subjected to rough wear. If a fire opal is set into a ring, a setting especially designed to protect the stone from abrasion and impact is recommended.

Mexican and Other Fire Opal Localities

Mexico has been the world's primary source of fire opal for nearly 100 years. The Mexican fire opal deposits produce significant amounts of transparent to translucent, bright orange to orange-red material. Some of the transparent material is faceted, mounted in commercial jewelry, and described as 'tangerine opal' because of its color.

In the 1990s, Ethiopia became an important source of opal. Much of the Ethiopian opal is fire opal and precious fire opal. Much of the Ethiopian fire opal is yellow.

Smaller amounts of fire opal are produced in Australia, Brazil, Honduras, and Guatemala. In the United States, Nevada and Oregon produce some beautiful fire opal.

The Yellow King Carcosa