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.






Arkham Horror Fan Creation League Rules




 General Rules
This is intended for people who have all the sets from Arkham Horror to Innsmouth (Arkham Horror, Curse of the Dark Pharoah, Dunwich Horror, The King in Yellow, Kingsport Horror, Black Goat of the Woods, and Innsmouth Horror).  It is possible to play missing some components, particularly by using Arkham Horror Wiki to create proxies when necessary, but it will be difficult.  Ideally all components but the Banned Materials will be used each scenario.
http://www.arkhamhorrorwiki.com/Main_Page


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

Final Battles
Use the Clues per Seal rule (you can only use a number of clues during each round of final combat equal to the number of seals on the board) and the Remove Epic Battle Cards rule (remove 6 minus the number of seals on the board from the green Epic Battle card deck when the Ancient One awakens).  Custom Ancient Ones do not use the Epic Battles Deck.

Banned Material
Remove this from the decks or ignore it if it show up (treat it as if it weren't drawn): Call Ancient One.
Recommended Banning: Kingsport's board (except when stated otherwise for a few late scenarios), Mythos cards, Other World Encounters, and Kingsport's Kingsport encounters (Arkham Encounters are fine— if the train station encounter that causes movement to Kingsport is drawn, just treat it as a "Nothing happens" encounter).  If you do decide to use them, do *not* use the Thomas Olney Rope and Anchor exploit.

Bank Loans
If a team of investigators has more than four investigators (before counting expansion boards), investigators with bank loans can not trade away items or money even though they can still receive them.  They can however trade items or money freely with other investigators with bank loans.  Items held by investigators with bank loans also can be traded for by giving an item with equal or greater monetary value, or a spell for a spell. 

Nightgaunt &Find Gate
If an investigator goes to another world by failing combat with a nightgaunt, the investigator can NOT use find gate that turn.

Miscellaneous Comments
If you have any questions or comments about scenarios or strategy, visit the  FFG Arkham Horror forum:

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/28025-fan-creations-league-stories-and-comments/

Blogspot is a little glitchy, so please excuse occasional formatting problems.  

Scenarios 1-5
The investigator pool from which you may select investigators is:


Sister Mary.
Amanda Sharpe.
Gloria Goldberg.
Carolyn Fern.
Dexter Drake.
Jacqueline Fine.
Diana Stanley.
Wendy Adams.
Norman Withers.
William Yorrick.
Zoey Samaras.

Up to four investigators who survive a scenario can carry one item (or skill) in their possession (this means a spell, skill, common item, or a unique item) to the next scenario, except an Elder Sign. This item must be exchanged with either a random or fixed possession of the same sort during the start of the next scenario. All other items and skills are discarded and redrawn.  Fixed items are not considered an item carry-over and can be replaced by carried over items.  Record the items you intend your investigators to carry over (if any) after you beat a scenario (ideally before seeing the next scenario).  An item carried over must replace a fixed or random item (before drawing it) on the investigator carrying it over.

Investigators can not be removed from an investigator team at the beginning of a new scenario without losing all their items (if the same investigators are redrawn later).  However, you can expand or contract your team size between scenarios, if you want (this sentence applies to all 24 scenarios).

If an investigator is devoured or retired, he or she can be replaced by any other investigator remaining within the investigator pool. The investigator pool refreshes at the beginning of each scenario (new copies of all the investigators are available again).  Do not recycle devoured or retired investigators within a game.  If you have too many investigators devoured in one game, you will lose. This paragraph applies to all 24 scenarios.

If a team of investigators is devoured, the same team or a new team can restart the scenario it is on with the items it carried over from the previous scenario (or a previous scenario without any previously obtained items).


If Dexter Drake passes his Personal Story, it remains passed between the scenarios.















Scenarios 6-12
The investigator pool from which you may select investigators is:

Sister Mary.
Amanda Sharpe.
Marie Lambeau.
Jenny Barnes.
"Skids" O'Toole.
Joe Diamond.
Roland Banks.
Tony Morgan.
Michael McGlen.
Finn Edwards.
Charlie Kane.

A team of investigators can carry over a total of four monster trophies between scenarios on one or multiple investigators.  Charlie Kane can carry over an ally (except for Professor Rice) instead of one of the trophies [if using revised Curse of the Dark Pharoah, you may choose to have him start with two random allies instead of one of your carry overs].  Do not carry over items as in scenarios 1-5.















Scenarios 13-16
The investigator pool from which you may select investigators is:

Sister Mary.
Amanda Sharpe.
Monterey Jack
Harvey Walters.
Ursula Downs.
Mandy Thompson.
Minh Thi Phan.
Lily Chen.
Luke Robinson.
Darrell Simmons.
Ashcan Pete.


Ashcan Pete can not purchase The King in Yellow or Eltdown Shards if he draws from the bottom of the deck.

Up to four investigators may carry up to one exhibit item and one monster trophy between scenarios.  If a team has less than four exhibit items at the start of a scenario, one investigator without an exhibit item may randomly draw one.  Do not carry over other items.










Scenarios 17-24
The investigator pool from which you may select investigators is:

Sister Mary.
Amanda Sharpe.
Harvey Walters.
Ursula Downs.
Gloria Goldberg.
Michael McGlen.
Jenny Barnes.
Norman Withers.


Sister Mary may carry over a gate trophy and a non-Cultist monster trophy between scenarios if she has any.  

Up to four investigators may carry over one item (a common item, non-Elder Sign unique item, or spell) to replace one of their random items of the same item type.  NOTE: unlike in scenarios 1-5, skills can not be carried over, and fixed possessions can not be replaced with a carry over item.

These scenarios will have expanded investigator pools.  This means that they will list additional investigators not on this list that they will allow (or force) you to select.