Saturday, July 3, 2010

Scenario Six



The Sight of Darkness


           
            Gagging as they dashed past the rotting flood of murderous flesh, they had scurried through the streets of Arkham like rats.   Finally, the six seal was placed, the vortex of darkness began to slowly swallow itself.  Like a great tongue, a tendril of darkness darted out of the blot that still consumed the bulk of the heavens, and the mount of Xzmundl vanished into what might have been its mouth. Raging, The Lich King screeched horrid curses as he plummeted from the sky.  The thud of Xzmundl as he hit the ground was deafening, but he did not die.

Hissing his hatred, he crawled and dragged his shattered frame towards Wendy as she shrieked and writhed in the throes of insanity, then Zoey dashed in front of the girl, swearing to protect her. 

The dying Lich King croaked laughter, “Now I see...  Now I see I was just a pawn in the game of the Gods...  Puny ant-ape, perched on the dung-hill of your arrogance, soon you shall learn your error, and that you too are but a tool…  The hands...  Are larger than the cosmos...”

Zoey stabbed her crosses through Xzmundl’s eyes.  The Lich King died and Zoey crowed triumphantly.  “God is with us!  Satan has fallen yet again!  It is the Second Coming!  At last, the wolf shall lie with the lamb!  Praise the Lord!”

            From the center of the abyss, boomed the laughter of Hecate, “Behold, little fool!  I am your Shepard, your wolf, your voice Divine!  Now perish, lamb, a sacrifice to your Lord’s hunger!”  

A hurricane of lightning and darkness whirled down at them.  For a moment, the darkness and lightning stole away Mary’s sight and when it returned, all were gone but Norman, Amanda, Gloria, and Jacqueline.

Those who survived fled with the Key, and yet, when they found a new Earth, their friends were found nowhere.  Their existence was purged from every world.

Mary sobbed.  How did they come to this disaster?  What sort of victory was this?  And Wendy, Wendy!  What had become of her?  Oblivion?  Obliteration through time and space?  Could it be true?  And what of the Afterlife?  That dear sweet child…  Gone forever?  Was it possible?  Could God allow such things?  What of the promise of immortal life?  Could it be that…  No.  It can not be!  It must not be…

            Norman said, “The battle was brutal and the costs grim, but we did it, we won.  We drove back the darkness.  We won.  Their sacrifice has saved us all.”

            Jacqueline trembled, “Hecate knows.  Hecate has seen it as well.  You are fools. I am blind, but I can see.  That was not the darkness.  That was not even its shadow.”  Jacqueline slid a gun in her mouth, fired, then slumped down dead.  The others stared in shock and horror, hardly able to process what they had just witnessed.

            They found another Jacqueline in another Earth, though she had hidden herself, foreseeing that they would seek her.  When they insisted that she must help them, she replied, “I have seen you before, and before, and before, and endless befores.  And though I am blind, I am far less blind than you.  I know.  I know!  I will not help you.  Leave me to my self in the End of Days.  I will not fight the dawning of the endless night.  I will never help your futile quest.”

            She attempted to kill herself yet again, and though they stopped her with speed and force, she repeatedly swore she would never help them.  And so they left, now but four in number.

            “Gloria, what does this mean?”  asked Mary.

            “Sometimes a person can see too much.”

 “We must not surrender to madness and despair though.  If we struggle and endure, we can still triumph.”

            “Do you really think so?”

            “Yes, we must have faith that we can overcome.”

            “Maybe.  Let us split up for a while.  We’ll meet again when the true darkness comes.  Mary, Amanda, you must continue the fight across the worlds.  Good luck my friends.  Don’t let our friends’ deaths be in vain.”

***

            “Marie,” said Mary, “I need to tell you something that might sound crazy, but I think you know enough of what’s going on in this town to know it’s not.  I need you to listen very carefully, to believe me, and I need you to help me find others who can help.”

            “I’m listening, Sister.”

***

            “Roland, I’ve heard peculiar reports about your behavior lately.”

            “Yes sir?  And what exactly was that?”

            “I’ve heard you’re cracking up.”

            “No sir, I’m swell.”

            Charlie grinned, “I’m sure you are, but you need to be more discreet discussing your case work.”

            “Sir?”

            “Never mind, it’s just as well.  If I hadn’t heard about your ‘crack-up’ I might be more hesitant trusting you.  You see, there’s something sinister going on in Arkham…  It’s not just these strange reports.  It’s something worse.  I think some kind of foreign cult is trying to infiltrate the town.  I need you to help me find out what is going on and how to stop it.”

            “Well sir, I don’t know much about that, but I met this nun, and she’s told me a weird tale.  I’m afraid it might actually be true...”


Custom components can be found here:
http://s622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/

Ancient One: Yig
Herald: Set
Required Investigators: None

Special Rules:

Check http://arkhamleague.blogspot.com/2010/03/arkham-horror-fan-creation-league.html for scenarios 6-12. 

When the first gate is opened, open another gate at the Woods (it can add a doom token, but instead of releasing a normal amount of monsters, it releases The Dark Druid and two Serpent People, if both gates were at the Woods, this counts as a monster surge i.e. the first gate opening at the Wood releases those two monsters). 

Whenever there is a monster surge at the Woods, immediately draw and resolve two more mythos cards.

Gates at the Woods cost 8 Clue tokens instead of 5 to seal.

Serpent People and The Dark Druid do not affect the monster limit.  The Dark Druid gains Weapons Immunity, immunity to Handcuffs, and can not be removed from the board except by a combat check.

During Final Combat, Yig curses investigators who fail a speed check against him.  Any investigator that already has a curse is devoured.

Clarification: For Dark Druid, “moving on a black path” means having a hexagon on a black background drawn, not moving along a black arrow.

Ignore Set's Start of Game ability.



Sunday, June 6, 2010

Scenario Five

Darkness Dawning


The wolves were dead, their curse was lifted, Hecate’s foul taint gone, but Mary could not smile. Was Wendy lost? By some compulsion, she had lifted from Death’s shattered heap of bones West’s Annotated Necronomicon, that dreadest of books and dashed away, screaming words in an unknowable tongue.  An invocation was made as the Key twisted them forward through time and space to another doomed world.

Could the words be true? Now she understood them. She saw their meaning in her mind. By the Grace of God? Could this be the last world? No sun or moon was seen. The stars were blotted from the sky and fog like flame clogged in their throats.

Then Zoey shrieked, “God! GOD! God has given me a vision! Heaven smiles upon me and has shown me its sweet face. The Darkness comes, but I shall lead forth the forces of Light against it. The Evil One, shall be crushed beneath my heel, a daughter of Eve shall avenge the children of Adam against the Serpent’s head! Come forth my bretheren! Children of Arkham! Rally beside the Chosen of God, and drive back the endless night! I shall lead you forth to crusade against the demons, to cast them back to Hell!” A vortex began to open in the Heavens, a Dragon, surely the Beast spoken of in Revelations swooped through the sky.

And the sound of her shrieks echoed through all Arkham, and the eyes and ears of man, beast, and monster were upon her. Two coldly hateful eyes glared down from the sky where the moon should have been. Fangs gleamed all about her. The Hunt had begun.

***

The whispers burnt through her ears. Not Zoey’s.  Her crusader's cry was a buzzing muffled by a cocoon of oozing tar. Not the air, the book, oozing through her blood. The book. The book. The book. It crooned to her, rocking her mind back and forth, as it strangled her. It whispered. Whispered.  She mustn’t listen. She could not stop. Why would it not leave her? Like her parents. Like her father… She could not leave it. She must not leave it. She… Oh God, what was that sound? The wind? Please let it be the wind.

A voice like lightless thunder cracked through the sky, “Child! Give me the book! It is not fit for living flesh! Only I may command its power. I, once a mere mortal, I, Herbert West, I, who am the Lich King Xzmundl, Intermensional Conquerer, Conquerer of Elder Gods, Conquerer of Death, and soon to be Conquerer of The Darkness, I command you! Release the book. Its bite begins to break your brain. Soon your mind shall splinter and shatter. I already smell the sweet stink of its decay. Give it to me, and I will release you from its torment and pain.”

“No! Never!”  Wendy ran like wind through the blinding darkness, the Lord of the Dead in pursuit. Her Elder Sign returned to dust. The Darkness was coming. The power of the seals shattering. And the voices...  Horrible horrible!  How could she escape the voices? They were inside her now.

“Give me the book! Give me the book! I shall hunt you down, wretched girl! Though you should worm through every filthy alleyway of the cesspools of Arkham, I shall find you, catch you, break you!  You shall die, your friends shall die!  I shall delight in your shrieks for mercy— mercy I shall never grant! I shall torment your undying carcass for eternities after your death!” The deathlord hissed from the heavens, “I shall torture you forever, my toy.”



Custom components can be found here:
http://s622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/


Ancient One: The Darkness
Herald: The Lich King Xzmundl
Required Investigators: Sister Mary, Wendy Adams, and Zoey Samaras.

Special Rules: The Darkness begins the game with 2 doom tokens.

The number of gates that can be open increases by 1.

Investigators get +1 to sneak (in addition to night environments).

Elder Signs are discarded if drawn (including Wendy’s). Do not redraw.

Zoey Samaras begins with Visions and treats monsters as if they have three less toughness (only during combat).

Wendy Adams begins with The Necronomicon and each upkeep rolls a die, drawing a madness on a 1-2.

Each time the terror level rises, activate a random Servant of Glaaki ability and immediately reduce the first player's sanity to zero.

Clarification: Jacqueline can’t redraw day or night environments.


Note: If you are using Revised Curse of the Dark Pharoah, use a copy of the original Visions.


http://www.arkhamhorrorwiki.com/Visions



Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Scenario Four

The Moonlight Plague

            Stabbed, shot, burnt, the Witch came back.  The Devil resurrected.  Her voice, the Tempter’s voice inside her head.  Forcing her to sin.  This time would be her death, they had her pinned to the ground, her spells exhausted.  Mary wanted to wretch at the sense of violation.

“No weapon can defeat me,” Hecate sneered.

            “No weapon?” asked Mary softly.  “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”  She grasped her throat and choked and choked until the witch’s spine snapped.  Silence.

            The dead jaw hung open and out dashed a rat with a human face, sinking its teeth into Mary’s flesh.  “I am not so easily banished, fleshdust,” it rasped and scurried away in the darkness.

            It seemed to grow to a monstrous size as it fled, but perhaps that was just a trick of he light on its shadow.  So many strange things had been seen, perhaps that was just one more.  Still, what might it portend?

***

            The fixed grin of Death was eager to bleed Arkham dry.  Eager to shred the flesh that dared to thwart his desires.  Death’s scythe slashed at the gate to Arkham, it widened.  Soon he could enter, and the dead would be heaped in the streets, in piles high like houses.  The Necronomicon sung to him, it bid him forth to destroy those who would try to bar the gates against The Darkness, its true master.

***

Mary opened her eyes, she had returned to the church.  Her skin burned.  “William!  William!  Stay away!”  Her body began twisting into deformity under the light of the moon and her mouth began to water.  Her shriek was met by howling.



Custom components can be found here:
http://s622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/Additional%20Components%20for%20the%20Fan%20Creation%20League/
http://s622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/

Ancient One: Death
Herald: Lycanthropic Infestation
Required Investigators: Sister Mary and Wendy Adams.

Special Rules: Sister Mary begins the game with a Lycanthropy token.

Werewolves also deal their damage when moving out of spaces they share with investigators, and, when they move on a black crescent, they move like stalkers.

If a Werewolf (this includes investigators moving like werewolves) is on the same space as an investigator and its movement symbol is shown, it deals 4 damage to non-werewolf investigators.

If a Cultist would be put in the Outskirts, put it in the Woods instead 

Investigators do not make rolls to discard curses.  During Upkeep, the first player chooses two additional investigators, each rolls a die and is cursed on a one.

Start of game: Place a regular Cultist in South Church, Witch House, Uptown, and French Hill.  Place the Werewolf in The Woods.  For the first mythos card, ignore normal mythos movement— treat it as if it only has a black crescent in the mythos movement box.

Clarification: Werewolves do not damage each other (i.e. an investigator moving as a Werewolf will not be damaged by a Werewolf or damage other Werewolf investigators).

The Werewolf may not be removed from the board (including being placed in the Outskirts) by any means.



Thursday, April 22, 2010

Scenario Three



Rivalries of the Gods

Madness, it was madness. This time the town was aflame, not just the church.  No one dared to stop the fires as they spread.  The streets swarmed with the freshly risen dead and the humans who vainly tried to flee the doomed town. 

Mary now knew it was no mere nightmare.  The monstrosity, the monstrosities, and that man, that horrible horrible man with the burning eyes.  He said he would be made one with it through the Union of Janus, but he would be the master, and it the slave.  That if he could not bring it to him, he would go to it, to master the darkness of death.  That thing he called a God, Glaaki.  He swore to destroy them for interfering.  She did not understand the strange blasphemies he gloatingly shouted after her, as they fled.  This couldn’t be the resurrection, it was not meant to be like this.

They fled to a new world, promising to meet again, ready to battle whatever evil was emerging there.  Jacqueline blankly stared with her vacant eyes into the air, blind to all but her vision of despair.  Her terror was palpable.

            Norman tried to explain what she had seen, for he had seen the thing as well, the absence of a thing.  In his travels through the Other Worlds it loomed immensely above him, like a malevolent galaxy teeming with shadowy creatures draped in darkness.  The regions beyond life, oozing through the gateways between all dimensions.  Forcing them wider so the greater nightmares could pass through.  An infinite army spreading outwards.  Yet this darkness was a mere drop of something greater, a greater darkness.  A speck of dust fallen from the Abyss.  An intergalactic plague that had just began to fester.

Professor Withers trembled violently from the memory, though his sight of the darkness was infinitesimal compared to Jacqueline’s.  He wished he had brought some whiskey with him through their travels.  Prohibition be damned.

            Gloria Goldberg held her tongue.  She would be silent until she better understood her situation.  She had been asked for her opinions, but she would not give them.  Her visions were one thing, but her thoughts another.  She felt like powerful entities were tearing at them from so many directions, but her vision was too weak to penetrate the mystery of their identities.  However, it was not her gift, but her writer’s instincts— her professional training— that disturbed her the most.  She felt that despite all the chaos and obscurity of recent events, some unseen but malevolent force was controlling them all as pawns in some kind of twisted and convoluted cosmic game that it alone could win.

***

            Kate Winthrop was a hollowed out shell of a person.  Even as she and Dr. Herbert West were shaping the Key, something from the Key had molded her infinitude into a vessel for a greater being.

The creature known as Hecate stirred and sent her form forth to walk through the world.  The old haunt would do well, old rites and minions would serve.  The Crawling Chaos would cooperate, as ever, though the sinister majesty of Nyarlathotep had his own designs for the cosmos.

She knew of West’s plan to conquer the Gods, and laughed, knowing what he did not, knowing that the little spider would never spin a web capable of containing infinities.

Still, knowing what she knew, she was determined to grasp at the power of the cosmos, for even in the Gods— especially in the Gods— there lives madness.  She called to the Key, and the Key called to her.  West could not control it, no mortal bounded by time, space, and matter could, but a God might.

Custom components can be found here:
http://s622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/Additional%20Components%20for%20the%20Fan%20Creation%20League/

Ancient One: Hecate
Herald: Brown Jenkins
Required Investigators: Sister Mary, Jacqueline Fine, and Norman Withers

Special Rules: If you only get one success against The Black Man, you are not devoured, draw 3 corruption instead— gain no clues.

Witches are Endless, and have an extra toughness.  Investigators moving through spaces adjacent to them— or investigators they move adjacent to— must draw a corruption.  When investigators begin combat with them, they must draw the top red corruption.  They can not be removed from the board by closing a circle gate, and are not counted towards the monster limit— if they go to the outskirts, place them on The Witch House instead.

If Hecate awakens, she gains two additional doom tokens for every corruption investigators have.

Start of game: Jacqueline Fine may take Visions instead of a spell as her random possession.  The first mythos card drawn must have a gate on it— ignore the gate location and open a gate to Yuggoth at the Witch House regardless of the gate location shown.  Reshuffle the gate deck afterwards.

Clarification: Norman Wither’s ability can remove corruptions.


Note: If you are using Revised Curse of the Dark Pharoah, use a copy of he original Visions 


http://www.arkhamhorrorwiki.com/visions



Thursday, April 8, 2010

Scenario Two

Exodus Earth 

Mary was unsure what she had fought. Was it Death itself? Some accursed demon-bat in the form of a man? Satan himself? He had spoken of himself as a man, hundreds of years old, he said that he had come for her world, for her…

They beat back the bat-beast then tore it down from the sky. Its thirst for blood seemed unslakeable but in the end they brought it down, at dreadful cost...

They defeated the creature, and though it died whole, it seemed to tear in two when it was slain. A deathly shadow fled its corpse and the endless hordes of the living dead seemed to melt away.

They returned to South Church to plan their next move and try to decipher the strange mad text of Herbert West.

The next night fell. Darkness surrounded the church, then glowing eyes of red. They were all there, all the people of the town, Sheriff Engle, Oliver Thomas, Miriam Beecher, Ma Mathison, Doyle Jefferies, and, oh God, Father Michael… So many, she couldn’t count them, she had to look away... The ravenous hordes from the night before had not retreated, they had momentarily withdrawn for reinforcements.

Zoey held Wendy to her, and rocked her back and forth, the girl realized their predicament— that this time there would be no escape— and had begun wailing in terror.

Then through the pale horde walked Jacqueline, turned as well. The other demons let her pass.

She spoke in slow dead tones, “I bring a message from our master, open the door.”

After a few moments consultation, realizing the desperation of their plight, and seeing nothing worse than the mob of vampires in the night, the newly formed group agreed to open the door and listen— knowing that the vampires could not enter— if only for further clues or the slight hope of some unimaginable opportunity arising.

Once the door was opened, Jacqueline whispered hurriedly, “I have not fully turned, and you have but one chance to save your lives. I have found the Key. Take it and flee this world. There are infinite Arkhams, but this one is doomed, this whole world is doomed. I have foreseen it. Dream of the time you desire and the place, Arkham, always Arkham, imagine the people you need, concentrate your thoughts on your task, and it will take you from world to world, universe to universe, war to war, as you try to drive back the Darkness of cataclysm.”

A strange man in a lab coat with wild hair and eyes burning with green flame shoved his way into the mob, and screamed, “Kill her! Kill her, she betrays us!”

Jacqueline threw a tiny thing into the church a moment before the vampires surged up and tore her apart. Her screams were drowned out by the noise of the mob.

The man sneered, “Vampires can not enter, but fire needs no invitation.” Green flame shot from the strange man’s eyes into the walls of the church. The flames rapidly spread. The vampire mob stood guard outside, grinning as South Church burned.

Norman Withers shouted through the billowing smoke, “We can’t flee on foot, and if we stay here we’ll be cooked alive. Find the device, we’ve no other chance!”




*** 

Though they had escaped, for the moment, Dr. Herbert West smiled. They were insignificant fools. The Psychic had not warned them well enough before her death. For all her vision, she was weak. They had taken trinkets, but left behind the book in their panic, they could not read between its lines, believing it to be mere madness, but it would unlock the greatest of gates once deciphered. He walked into the inferno to retrieve it.

*** 
Mary opened her eyes, wondering if she was in Heaven. No, Arkham. The church seemed empty and it was quiet outside. It had all turned white, and here she was again. Again— the knock on the door. Could it have all been a dream? A horrible horrible nightmare triggered by a knocking on the door? Could she really have dreamt such a terrifying vision? What might it have meant? She opened the door.

“Jacqueline!”

“Yes. But of another dimension, not your own, I have seen what you escaped from, a world in fire, quickly hollowed out by the bringer of death once he fled his host form.”

“That’s not possible.”

“Believe what you wish, but I tell you, the world you were born on is dead, though this world is much like your own. In infinity there are countless redundancies.”

“God would not destroy the world save for on the day of his return on a throne of glory. I do not know what happened, but what you speak of is impossible heresy. I am certain that somehow those things were driven back.”

“Think what you like, but I have come to warn you that you have been followed by the man with the burning eyes, Dr. Herbert West, he has unleashed a new and sinister monstrosity into this world.”

“The man who wrote that mad book?”

“Yes and no, he is one of an infinite number, and one of the more accursed. He and a few others had sought to master the secrets of death, and pierce into the regions beyond life. One believes he has, and he has mastery over the others who serve him. He has traveled through many alien worlds, bringing legions under his command, and taken a new name for himself. He seeks to become a God. They have opened gateways between countless worlds in their experiments, and in their hunt for the Key they broke the wall that kept the Darkness back. One of their number invented the Key, half hoping to stop the calamity, half hoping to join with it. He has been slain, but he was an anomaly, unique in all the cosmos, for he was the only maker of the Key. And it can not be made again.”

“Infinite worlds, infinite dimensions, mad science— I find this all somewhat incredible.”

“One would expect a little more faith from one of the faithful.”

“ I have faith for plausible things, not for far-fetched absurdities.”

“The physics of reality are a strange and mysterious thing, not for you to wonder at, but to accept, the proof of truth is that you are here and not burned to a hideous death. I don’t care if you accept what I tell you as true, you must understand that we are short of time. I shall attempt to prepare before they come, but in a day, come they shall, far more horrid than before. Do not deny this at least. I shall warn the others, but you must lead them Mary, our beliefs are different, but I know you have the courage to go on when others think the end has already arrived. I know that you will never surrender.”

Mary wondered at the weird words she had heard, and which of them if any could be true. She thought of Herbert West’s book, and wondered what might have become of it, whether it was destroyed in the fire, and why the vampires had sought it so intently.

How could the world be dead? She looked around and it was the same as before. Only her memories showed any sign of the battles, and there— that… That device. And… Could it be?





Custom components can be found here:
http://s622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/Additional%20Components%20for%20the%20Fan%20Creation%20League/

Ancient One: Glaaki
Herald: Dr. Herbert West
Required Investigators: Sister Mary and Jacqueline Fine

Special Rules: If a mythos card has a gate open or a gate burst at Devil’s Reef or Y’ha Nethlei, it opens or bursts at Marsh Refinery instead.

When a terror level rise causes the placement of a cultist and a servant of Glaaki, place them at the same spot (the spot where the servant of Glaaki would appear, do not draw a second card to place the Cultist).

Start of game: In addition to Dr. Herbert West’s start of game ability, raise the terror an additional two, placing three pairs of Servants of Glaaki and Cultists. Place the clue servant at the Science building, the skills servant at Darke’s Carnival, and the spells servant at Ma’s Boarding House. Resolve the servants' abilities before drawing the game's first Mythos card.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Scenario One


 Sin and Death

Mary approached the church door, with William Yorick behind her. The vaulting chamber was dimly lit by the scattered candles flickering in the darkness. The horrid…. Indescribable…. Things! The things he had shown her destroyed her doubt. Some, at least. The story could not be entirely true. God would not allow it. The banging at the door grew louder. One of the dark garbed men from the night before slammed on the outside of the door and would not stop. She tore it open. He did not enter.

“Show some respect for a house of God!”

The man sneered for a moment before trying to hide his reaction, “We have not come to hear you preach, we have come for the book and to learn of whom you have received it. We are ready to offer much money for it and for information of its provenance. We can bequest much to your church. Much good can you do with it. Come walk with us, talk with us, the night air is fresh. We can discuss its price as we stroll together. Long will you be remembered for the legacy of good works this sale shall bring.”

Mary stood inside the Church, thinking. The words were persuasive, but the timing was absurd, and their earlier behavior suspicious and peculiar beyond reason. Then jumped slightly, startled as William grasped her shoulder, “Don’t go!”

“I had no intention to. Please remove your hand.”

“I saw those things skulking through the graveyard, rising from the ground. Those are no humans. Not any more. Look how it squints at the cross you wear and licks its lips, this creature. I saw one feed. Beware.”

The vampire stepped back and snarled.

“Foolish human! We could spare your life! Or grant you immortality and an escape from this meaningless world and the fairy tale dreams you live for. We shall soon suck this earth dry, but there are infinite lands for us to feast on. You know it to be true, for you too have read the book, one of its endless copies. All your wishes could be made real, if you but bring us the book. This book of truth, quite unlike the paper idol your church of fools worships. Join us and live forever in delight and triumph. Spurn us, and you shall regret it beyond your grave.”

“Demonspawn!” cried Mary, “Blasphemy! Get thee behind me Satan!”

The vampire laughed, “If only I could, so I could sup from your sweet neck. Yet that shall be my master’s privilege, yes, I sense he has marked you for his own, perhaps he shall keep you as a pet. How dare you stand against us! My master is just a mere general in the endless army of our great Lord, the slayer of worlds! It is futile for you to stand against us. Submit! Submit! Or suffer a fate of unthinkable horror.”

Mary slammed shut the door and barred it. The creature outside made no further sounds. And if the legends of such beasts were true (as its actions seemed to indicate), it did not seem to be able to enter. But they would wait and watch until morning, taking turns at guard, and then they would begin their quest. Perhaps father Michael would bless them before they departed.

William went to sleep first. As he lay on the uncomfortable pew, he heard the tick tick ticking that didn’t seem to stop. Was it the clock on the wall? The clock was dead. Strange that it should be so. So where did the sound come from? That awful ticking. William wondered how he would sleep. 

When he closed his eyes, it seemed as if he could see that dreadful skull which he had held in his hand just a while ago, grinning, grinning horribly at him, the face of the Vampire and the face of Death becoming one, one horrible being.
He slept restlessly, dreaming himself hitched to a cart, a beast of burden, an immortal slave, dragging an infinite faced abomination behind him as it cut down endless fields of wheat— wheat that bled like men.

Custom components are found at:
http://s622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/


Ancient Ones: Dracula and Death. 
Herald: Janus. 
Required Investigators: Sister Mary and William Yorrick.
Start of game: Place one Cultist in the Southside Streets.  It is stationary until both Mary and Yorrick leave the Church.


Clarifications: Dracula’s undead bonuses do not apply to the Cultist/Vampires or Maniac/Vampires (Cultist, Dark Druid, Maniac, and Child of the Goat are identical to ordinary unboosted Vampires— ignore their special text). Cultist/Maniac-Vampires do not go to the outskirts and are not counted towards the monster limit. If one would be placed in the outskirts, place it on the gate nearest The Graveyard instead (1st player's choice if a tie).  Denying the Ancient One will not change Cultist/Vampires and Maniac/Vampires into Cultists or Maniacs for a turn (they are Vampires instead of their normal monster type, but they are not the original vampire, Dracula).  Dracula treats unstable locations as if they were streets.

If an Ancient One has an ability that adds doom tokens to its doom track (e.g. Death, Eihort, etc.), Janus adds the doom tokens to the doom track of the active Ancient One doom track (whichever doom track is active before or during final combat).


Thank Julia for Making These Images

Preface




The Key to the Gate of the Worlds

Vision burned the light from her eyes. She had seen It. Now blind in her natural eyes, she could only see with her inborn sight. The great darkness that consumed all worlds, all galaxies, all dimensions. Jaqueline knew, she knew it was coming for her world too, but it would not end there. The Endless End. She would prepare, but she had already seen the darkness and despaired. Now, save for her vision, all she saw was darkness. Gloria, Gloria would know what to do, perhaps. She would have seen it too. Not so vivid. Not so horrid. Perhaps she still kept her eyes. Certainly the magician would.

Sister Mary could not believe what she had read. A strange and blood-soaked journal sent to her by someone claiming to be a student at Miskatonic University. Its tales were unbelievable. Blasphemous. And yet… She had seen unexplainable things since coming to Arkham. Just last night, as she looked up from the book, she saw out the window and saw strangely pale men in curious garb outside the Church, sniffing, sniffing at the Church like animals, but never entering. She moved the book, and they all moved as one. She moved it again, and they moved again. As if they could see or smell it. But that would be impossible. It terrified her.

Attached to the journal was a note, cosigned by Dr. Fern (an authority she knew), and Professor Withers (an authority she did not) begging her to come to the University, to bring what help she could.

Mary thought of the verse, “And the Lord God said, ‘It is not good for man to be alone.’” And thus she would go, God’s will would fortify her, and so would his grace. She would speak with several of her parishioners who she had heard weird tales from. And who was that? William Yorick kneeling in the Pews? Why was he in Church? And what of that fanatic chef, or that strangely ethereal waif with haunted eyes who seemed more interested in free soup than salvation? And of course, Diana Stanley, that woman who Father Michaels said had given the most ridiculous confession he had heard in all his life (though he would not, of course, say what).

Frowning, and trembling slightly, she began rereading the most disturbing passage of the journal yet again, the so-called “Last Will & Testament of Dr. Herbert West.”

“This is it! Professor Winthrop and I have found it! The Key to the Gate of the Worlds! I have seen… I have seen! I have seen myself in a thousand nightmare dreams, and I have warned myself how many thousand times more. When I survived. We came together. We died together. Beware of Dr. Herbert West. He hunts me. One of many. One of few. They kill each other too. Surely I am not the last, yet I know of no more, like me. He is in league with Death, even as it hunts him. Even as he hunts me. You must take the Key, defend it, travel to the end of worlds if you must. Perhaps only there is there hope to defeat it.

“That which comes comes, oozing death through the dimensions. I thought I could control it, he thought he could control it. Usurp its power? Was I a near-sighted fool in every world? And now, The Nightmare Crafter sends forth servants from the Abyss. Or is he their servant? Another abominable being born of an endless nightmare, or does he bear them? I do not know, but you must defend the Key! In all worlds, it is the only Key across all space and time. It is the true Resurrection and the Life! You must defend it! It is our only chance against the coming chaos and consumption! Use my device if you must. It is the Key to infinite life! Oh, God, oh Hell, I feel its sharpened quill, cold and ever tearing through my guts! Now I understand. It was not I who wrote this note, though I swear it to be Truth.”

Surely these words were the mere ravings of a madman. Mary prayed.