Thursday, December 1, 2011

Scenario Seventeen



Indomitable or Doomed?

            Harvey Walters began to speak, “All our efforts have been in vain, still the creature oozes through the cracks in reality towards all worlds.  We defend some of the worlds, but the true menace comes closer and closer, and we do not even know its name.  It is quite possible that this task serves no purpose.  That our struggles and investigations will end in failure.  I think that any who choose to quit should be allowed to do so…  Gloria?”

            “I feel the same…  But I will not quit until the end.  If we are destined to fail, at least we will die fighting.”

            “Norman?”

            “It hasn’t been proven that we have no chance, not at all, and unless you can verify this ridiculous theory with some facts instead of speculation, I’ll stick around.  This old man is no coward either.”

            “Jenny?”

            “My sister is dead…  So horribly dead…  So many times…  Still, sometimes I see her alive…  And Joe is gone as well, except in memory…  I’ll fight for them.”

            “Ursula?  Are you going to finally prove that you’re a woman and back out?”

            “Did you really need to ask me this moronic question, you condescending dinosaur?”

            “Mary?”

            Mary was silent before responding, “God will bring us success in the end.  The demons of Hell can not prevail against him, no matter how horrid they seem.”

            “Michael?”

            “Are you saying I’m more chicken than the girls?”

            “Errr, no.”  Wisely, Harvey Walters ran out of the room.

            “Hello!  I’m still here!” Shouted Amanda.

***

The Arbiter’s lip curled.  They are like insects in a cage, fluttering against the glass, and they gasp to reach a candle on the other side…  Sickening creatures and their love of life.  Soon they shall be taught the value of oblivion.  But fools are too foolish to quit.  So few of them are capable of even realizing even an inkling of the true nature of the cosmos.  And that absurd nun, a fool among fools, still faithful to her silly dreams and hope.  Fate would crush her though.  It would crush them all.  Their doom was written in the stars.  The end draws near.  The Great Old Ones come.

***

Leo failed to protect the one he was so certain would save them all.  Patrice was so powerful.  So confident.  And one day she woke up and found her violin smashed.  The thing that hunted them…  It pulled her off the side of the ship soon after.  They heard her screaming throughout the night.  And then again and again in their nightmares.

            Ursula told him that he must forget, that in the worlds to come he would see worse, again and again.  But he could not forget, he would not forget.  No matter the pain of memory, he must keep it sharp, so that he could keep himself sharp and protect the others from such hideous fates.  The nun would not forget either.  She understood duty even if she called it faith.

***

Agnes hid in the darkness of the diner.  This little thing hunting her wasn’t nearly as bad. The thing that killed her before...  It sought her again.  This time, this thing, a mere minion, but enough to destroy her.  She remembered the beast itself, with its endless rows of teeth.    

No!  It saw her!  The creature rushed forward, tongue and teeth hanging from its once human face, and with desperate strength from the mists of her forgotten memories, Agnes opened a portal, pulling it through a gate to the other side of Arkham.  That noise?  Pain?  No…  Laughter…

I have been tricked to rip the gateways further… And now it comes. Now it will come in full… But we shall not be doomed today. Agnes slammed her smock to the floor, and her fist began to burn with a controlled flame. No, we shall not be doomed today, soon the hunter shall become the prey. 

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/?start=all

Expanded Investigator Pool: Leo Anderson, Agnes Baker
Ancient One: Nka'ji Ara
Heralds: The Arbiter of Reality
Required Investigators: Agnes Baker


Special Rules:

Start of Game: the first monster to emerge from a gate is randomly selected Cultist.


Cultists are spawn stalkers (despite being in the monster cup).  If one would go to the Outskirts, place it at Silver Twilight Lodge instead.  If one enters a vortex, it has its regular effects then is moved to The Silver Twilight Lodge.  They are physically and magically immune, have a +0 combat rating, are immune to handcuffs and can only be returned to the cup by successful combat.   Investigators who fail a combat check against them are devoured.

When the Doom track reaches four and eight, place two Cultists on Agnes Baker's location each time, unless she is in an Other World or Lost in Time and Space (in which case she is devoured).  If she is in jail, place them on the next space she is in when she leaves jail.

When Agnes defeats a Cultist, it goes to The Silver Twilight Lodge instead of the cup.  For all investigators other than Agnes, Cultists are Nightmarish 3, have 2 toughness, and force an investigator who returns one to the cup to draw one madness immediately (without restoring sanity).


If an investigator is devoured add two more doom tokens to the doom track. If Agnes is devoured,  raise the doom track by an additional 1 and the terror track by 5.


If investigators in Arkham fail a horror check, treat it as though they simultaneously failed the combat check, and they are delayed.

Intermission: Abandonment and Apotheosis

Intermission: Abandonment and Apotheosis

“So you see, Mandy, you can be one with me.  One forever when I become one with It.  Defeat is inevitable.  You know that.  Not like the rest of the chittering fools you associate with.  Kill them!  Kill them!  Then you may join with us and survive!”
           
***

            They were…  All dead…  And she was bleeding deep.  From where the Skinless One’s knife had stabbed.  Oh Mandy…  Oh Mandy…  How could you do its work…  Mary wept, hopelessly overwhelmed as Amanda, Ursula, and Harvey attempted to push more things in front of the door.

            Mandy shrieked and stabbed through the wood.  The mask of sanity gone.  Her mind devoured and replaced by Nyarlathotep.

            “It won’t hold!” screamed Ursula, “Use the key Mary, or she will kill us all!”

            “I can’t!  I can’t!” Mary sobbed.  “It won’t work.  We’re all going to die here!  God has abandoned us!”

            A deep disembodied voice spoke from the center of the room.  “I have not abandoned you.  I simply desire a little piece.  A little piece for a little peace.  You destroyed so many of my bodies, I required more flesh to weave them again.  But I am satisfied with your gifts to me.  I need no more death.  No more than I have already given you.  I am satisfied with your blood.  All I require now is a little piece.  Just some flesh.  And I will leave you to your futile struggle.”

            “F-flesh?”  whimpered Mary.

            “Yesss.  It needn’t be much.  Just a toe or a finger.  I too wish to live.  I too wish to escape.  And I must have some of the Key to do so.  Feed me of your flesh, and we both may live.  For a while.  Well, woman of God?  I too am a God, serve me of thy body.”

            Mary trembled uncontrollably, “D-do it…” she whispered from her strangled throat.  She stretched out her pinky and howled as Ursula hacked it off.  In excruciating pain, she regained control of herself.  In a firmer tone, she spoke to the voice, “It is done.  Now take it and leave us.”

            Tentacles began swirling down from the ceiling, a vast mouth opened up in one of them, Mary placed the pinky in her hand and lifted it up towards it, a great bloody tongue snaked down and grasped the finger, pulling it into the maw of Nyarlathotep.

            “Thank you for the gift.  Now it is time for me to wish you children goodbye.  I hope your deaths are pleasant ones.  I however, shall become one with It and endure.”

            Mandy began to laugh, then hacked through her own head so her face and half her skull slid off.  Her corpse thumped on the floor.  The Maskless shrieked in triumph.  And then again in horror.

            Mary and the three survivors left the world immediately.

            “No! No!”   The Maskless wailed, “You gave it to me at last!  I have her face now!  Don’t leave me!”  But Nyarlathotep was gone as well.

***

            “Don’t worry Mary,” said Ursula, “I’ll find more.  There are always more who are willing to fight.  I have contacts all over the world.   Besides, a few of the others still exist.  We’ll stop this thing.  Where there’s a will, there’s a way!”

***

            “My will.  My way.  And what an awful cliché.  Regardless, the story goes superbly.  Despite its actors insisting on improvising and altering my manuscript of flesh, we finally near the end.  The coming doom shall make a worthy conclusion to the tale of existence, but there shall be no encore.”