Friday, March 23, 2012

Epilogue



The Blessed One 



“Mary,” said the Arbiter, “At last we meet. I have written so much about you, you could say I am your greatest fan. I merely wanted to leave you with a few parting words as a token of my appreciation for your work.

“Are you flushed with the greater victory of driving back Azathoth, though pained by the lesser defeats? You still pant with exertion and pain. You bite your lip and shudder in horror at the cost and the memories that will never leave you, but do you believe you have saved this world and in so doing have saved other worlds, other universes? That is incorrect.

Your sight, even enhanced by the being that infests you, is as blindness to the Gods. Beyond it was an infinity of pain and destruction. And this existence is the last survivor. The rest is death in the bowels of Azathoth. And you may think this story is over since you have won your trivial victory today in this last remaining speck of existence, but this is not the end. No story ever ends until the end.

“Know now that your long lasting luck was no coincidence, but that it truly was an act of God. Know now the truth, Pantheon, carrier of the Gods’ seed. In you they dwell. The Eldest of Gods shall soon break His banishment from this realm. Even now He gestates within you, making the God inside you one with It. Soon It shall devour this last sliver of light from the cosmos.

I bear you these good tidings, for I am the true Holy Spirit, the true voice of God. Blessed art thou among women. Blessed art thou, flesh in which the Gods have bred and fed. Thus have I written. Thus shall it be. Rejoice as you hear the mad piping of the idiot babe from your bloating womb before it bursts.”

She screamed and screamed at the sight of reality at last lay bare, and though she screamed that it would not be, her heart knew that she could not die while the seed of destruction swam in her, it would not let her.

*** 

Mary was alone. Her friends were all gone. They set the seals, but the darkness in the sky merely laughed, or roared, or was it something else, something thoughtless like an infant’s indifferent crushing of ants? It reached down with its infinite fingers, and smeared them out of existence in a single instant. And all around was screaming, screaming, even in the quiet, but she had survived… And… The Key did not take her to a new world. Just the ruined town of Arkham here. Her friends all gone. And she was left behind.

She was dirty… Dirty inside… Dirty all over. But dirtiest inside… It had taken her… To the place of no light...  Again and again and again and again and… She had… She had had to do it! The thing inside her could not live.

But… When the abortionist reached for it… It reached back... It pulled him in, bleeding and screaming.   She tried… She tried more drastic means, but she did not drown, or choke, although her neck was broken, or bleed to death. The thing inside her stirred.  But she would destroy it. Even if it were the one true God, she would destroy it.


Nine Months Later


The alley was dark. But he’d heard a woman’s moaning in it, and despite his fear went to help. What he saw there shattered his mind.

An obscenely pregnant nun blindly fumbled her bloody skinless nailless hands across the wall in an endless scrawl. “Kill me. Kill me. Kill me...” desperately smeared as far as his eye could see. Her face was gone, blown out by a shotgun blast, and blood incessantly flowed from the wound in her head. Brain matter and fragmented teeth stuck inside the gaping hole. She moaned and daubed her hands inside her skull, wetting them with her blood to paint the message she could no longer see over and over.

Inside her distended belly, he heard strange noises, and from beneath her robes dark slithering ropes dripped out, slick with slime and swelling every second. They seemed to twist around in impossible shapes, as if they somehow sought to consume themselves. But they desired to feed on other things first.

The madman fled. He knew there was no escape, he knew he could not outrun his doom. But he fled. Behind him he heard screaming. But it was not his own. No. Not his own.


































































Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Scenario Twenty Four



Entropy's End


“Mr. Withers—”


“Please Rex, we’ve fought past death and beyond, I think you can call me by my Christian name at this point.”


“Alright, Norman, how do you feel about being here since the beginning? Do you think that this really might be the end?”


“Of us…”


“What? You’ll need to speak up, I didn’t quite hear that.”


“Yes! Of us!”


“Now that’s too loud. Quiet down a little. Oh, and what do you think of this headline? ‘Nameless Evil Slumbers at the Center of the World!’”


“It is hardly accurate.”


“Yeah, but it’ll boost circulation, and besides, given our chances, I’m not so sure if anyone will be around to demand a correction after it prints.”


***

“Well, Ursula?”


“Well, Harvey?”


“Well, I still think you’re only a woman, but it’s been an honor fighting with you.”


“Well, I’m still convinced you’re a dinosaur or some sort of sentient prehistoric petrification, but the privilege has been mine as well.”


“And what do you think? Do you think we’ll win?”


“Of course not.”


***

Bob listened to the coins. He had lost them, but he still heard their voices in his head. They told him that he was going to die. That he should kill his friends then himself. He liked them better when he had them.


*** 

Rita and Michael ran the bloody streets through the waves of monsters. The King in Yellow had done its work. The town was in ruins.  The citizenry did not yet understand. Soon they would flee, but it would be too late. And there was no escape, there never was.
The crowd of monsters thickened, “I’ll hold ‘em back, you just get where you need to get, now go. Let’s see if these theatre guys are too sophisticated for my best friend Tommy here.  Hopefully they won’t need an encore, but I think I’ve got enough bullets on me for now.”


“We’ll meet again Michael, and I’m sorry about your jaw.”


“Yeah, and I’m sorry about your lip.”


“Actually, maybe I’m not sorry about your jaw.”


Michael grinned, “Get out of here you nut. We’ll be fine, we’re going to save the world.”


***

“You! I remember you!”


“Yes Gloria, at last I have allowed you to. I thought this way it would be more fun. Did you like our story? It is not over yet, but by now you should have some appreciation for—”


Gloria shot the Arbiter through the head.


“Now, Ms. Goldberg, surely you must admit that that was slightly amusing? And you, ‘you,’ really thought that might work. Not even a smile? And here I thought you were one with vision. Is my sense of humor so alien to you? Farewell, dear Gloria, I dedicate the final story to you, a minor character, a final farce before we leave the stage of life.”


***

Thus speaks the Phantom of Truth, “Hark you worms and dust! Carcosa, the gate to the omnipresent galaxy is opened. Thus, R’lyeh rises in all the worlds, and all the worlds are consumed by this revelation. The Elder Gods are the only reality, lesser realities of the one true reality. And all one can achieve in life is to reflect a fraction of their glory. Be remade in their image! Become one with the Yellow King, the master beneath the King of Kings! He or she, a king shall see the cosmos through true eyes. Only the shadow kings shall be privileged by the Gods’ delight in the pleasure of the taste of their flesh. All other flesh is bitter to them. Hark, O humans, and evolve! The living play comes to its maturity! The final act is at its final act! The play changes, but the truth stays the same. Mortals perish, but the God of Entropy lives on! The heart of existence is The Abyss, abode of almighty Azathoth!


“I wear no mask, but you do, now is the time to remove them! Shed your thoughtless innocence! Reveal yourselves and the truth of flesh!”


The playgoers, shrieking in frenzy at the final climax, grasped deep into their eyes, scooping them out of their sockets. Madly writhing tentacles emerged from their hollowed eyes and mouths, their fingers multiplied a hundredfold and lengthened, and thousands of mouth covered entrail-like-appendages exploded from their stomachs.


“The story continues to the end, the lake is still rising! Now you are the last kings. And your dominion soon comes to an end, but go forth! Be fruitful and multiply! Spread news of the last coming of God! Proselytize pain! Let the last living things know despair before the King of Kings, the true God comes!”
The playhouse was empty. The investigators had held off Hastur but were too late to stop the play of blasphemous truth, and in the final Union, The Phantom became one with the consumer of all.


“Galaxies of fire shiver dead at mere rumors of Its passing, the Prime Darkness everlasting. The sole rock from which founts the all-submerging sea, the deathless waves that rot forth entropy. The Great Serpent slithers unseen through the frost of space and all the stars in all the heavens pray they shall not see its face. Yet Suns are swallowed and light undone, new darkness is born, the Abyss once more won. Scraping Its undying bones through time from The Beginning, It has hissed Its hatred since, not consenting, disapproving, Slowly It devours the life that’s outward moving. In The End, the Cosmos wrapped within its coils, will again be drowned in an infinite sea of strangling oil.”


Thus begins my master’s final tale. At last, existence shall fall.


***

The world rotted and spawned into hideous impossibilities. Buildings, plants, and people twisting into things that could not sustain life, but somehow did, even as they did not, the last worlds randomly overlapping to make unfathomable shapes and creatures. Life and death and all things opposite were merging into one. And all things were filled with screaming, the true enemy revealed at last.


The Earth’s crust shook and cracked as the darkness slithered across the heavens, wrapping the contorting world of chaos in its ball of integrating and disintegrating torment. Eyes of instinctively malevolent flame burned within Azathoth, countless Hells dwelled within It. It had not emerged from the sky, but from within the Church itself, though it had only begun to emerge.


The building had become a nightmarish parody of what it once was. Mary clasped her hands together and prayed for mercy from God, no longer truly believing. Fragments of the King in Yellow which she had had the misfortune to overhear through plugged ears still flitting through her mind, and made her flesh feel as if it were crawling off her bones, but still, she felt slightly soothed by the comforting habit, and the oozing sensation in her skin stopped. Even if her God did not exist, she would be true to His ideals until the end.


But her courage failed her as she saw the gaze of Azathoth upon her flesh. “Oh God, what is that monstrosity in the Abyss, that horrifying thing moving in the shadows of heaven, watching me? Please God,” she sobbed like a child screaming in terror in the night, “please, save me though I doubt! Spare me from it!” A fragment of the dark and burning heavens descended for her, and inside her, she felt the Key stirring with anxiety? Anticipation? Hunger?


Custom components can be found here:

http://s622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/Additional%20Components%20for%20the%20Fan%20Creation%20League/ [Sorry, I don't know why these links are combining, it must be the influence of Janus] http://s622.photobucket.com/user/avi_dreader/library/?sort=6&page=1


Add the Kingsport board for the remaining scenarios: however, it is not recommended that you add Kingsport encounters in Arkham or Kingsport mythos cards.
Expanded Investigator Pool: Rex Murphy, Rita Young, Bob Jenkins (also, Amanda can no longer be used).
Ancient Ones: Azathoth and Cthulhu
Heralds: Janus, The Crevice of Chaos, The Arbiter of Reality, The King in Yellow, The Maskless
Required Investigators: Sister Mary, Gloria Goldberg


Special Rules:


Start of game: All investigators immediately fail their personal stories and come into play with a madness (this also happens if they come into play later). Mary and Gloria begin with a green corruption. An Abyss gate is open at South Church and Y'ha Nethlei. Gates at these locations do not count against the gate limit, but the gate limit is reduced by one while either gate to the Abyss is open (The White Ship and Find Gate can not be used in The Abyss). Servitor of the Outer Gods is in the sky, it has physical and magical resistance.

Investigators who fail a horror check against an aquatic monster are devoured. Cultists are aquatic monsters.

Gates at South Church can not be sealed, and can only be closed by spending an additional seven clues.

Investigators choosing to end their movement in stable locations lose one sanity.

Seven clues are required to seal gates. The game can only be won by sealing seven gates.

After the first mythos phase, at the beginning of each mythos phase roll a die, on a 1-2, 3 investigators must draw an injury, on a 5-6, 3 investigators must draw a madness.

Servitor of the Outer Gods does not count against the monster limit, and can not be removed from the board except by combat. Its awareness is -2.

If Sister Mary is devoured, this triggers devouring effects, but do not draw a new investigator, instead, treat her as if she had been knocked unconscious, but immediately place her on South Church and her maximum sanity and stamina are reduced to 1, effects that reduce them beyond 1 are now ignored.

The Arbiter of Reality causes investigators, except Harvey Walters, to draw their injury and madness for Bone Shattering Agony and Mind Shattering Horror on a roll of 1-3 instead of a 1.

Janus always uses the doom track of Azathoth, and Azathoth for final combat.

Fetch Me My Faces is triggered on a roll of 1-3. If at any time the Dark Pharoah or Haunter of the Dark is drawn, treat them as if Nyarlathotep is the Ancient One.

When the Doom Track reaches 2, fill up the Dunwich Horror track.  Whenever a monster enters a vortex from now on, roll a die for the Dunwich Horror's movement.

When the Doom Track reaches 3, all investigators draw an injury (not not restore their stamina).

When the Doom Track reaches 4, Father Dagon also enters play as a herald, trigger his start of game effects and remove all clue tokens from the board; however, if both gates to the Abyss are removed from the board, remove him from play.

When the Doom Track reaches 6, Servitor of the Outer Gods gains two toughness, Mary gains the white Vessel of the Mythos and her maximum sanity is reduced by 4. It can never be removed, and she is permanently Blessed (no effect can remove it). Whenever Vessel of the Mythos is Activated, take Servitor of the Outer Gods from wherever it is (if it is on an investigator, the investigator must first immediately evade or fight it), and place it in The Sky, then place Mary, if she is in Arkham, into the first area of The Abyss, if she is in an Other World, place her into the same area of The Abyss. While Sister Mary is in The Abyss, she is treated as if she has a Gate Box.

When the doom track reaches 7, at the beginning of each Mythos phase roll a die, on a 1, the first player is devoured.

When the doom track reaches 8, immediately raise the terror level to ten.

When the terror level reaches ten, the monster limit is removed, but Azathoth does not awaken from monsters being on the board. Draw and place 1 random monster on every street, and 1 random monster on each of the 11 unstable locations in Arkham (regardless of whether they are unstable at the time or not). From then on, roll a die at the end of each mythos phase, on a 1-3, open a gate on South Church (this does not add a doom token to the doom track if the gate there has been closed and now reopens).

Clarification: For The Crevice of Chaos, if both gates to The Abyss are on the board, only roll one die per mythos phase.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Scenario Twenty Three


The Last Act Begins

Ursula remembered Tommy’s brave but terrible death… And the loss of Amanda and Silas. Their faces and their semblance of humanity had washed away, shriveled peeling flesh, mere masks that they had worn so long they forgot they had worn them. But now they dwelt in the castle in the sea. But for how long? She wondered if she’d even be able to recognize them if she ever saw them again...  But Barnaby on the other hand, good riddance to him!



*** 

“Get off me Michael!” shouted Rita.

“Hey, what’s the matter?”


“I don’t want anything to do with your kind of people.”

“You're one to talk! Besides, I think we’d work good together.”

“Me work with a mobster? What kind of idiot do you think I am?”

“Well, you do have a big lip for a girl.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You know what it means.”

Rita hit him in the face.

“Wow… Nice sock. We definitely need you!”

“I already told you no. Now back off, slime!”

“No, not for my gang, to fight the monsters.”

“Wait, what? You know about them too?”

“Yeah, whadja think I was trying to tell you this whole time when you knocked my jaw off?”

“I’m sorry, I’m just a little tense. And I thought you were going to… It’s like the whole air has been buzzing ever since that play started. I know that whatever’s going on is coming from there.”


*** 

Those coins… They were so yellow… Bob had never seen anything like them. They still glowed in his memory. The mouths on them. They talked to him. They told him things… Strange things. And they told him there was something he had to see. He wasn’t really sure if he should trust talking coins though. Even if they were real gold.


*** 

Rex Murphy growled at his editor, “I can’t believe you’re making me write about this corn with all the other amazing stuff that’s happening all over these days.”

“I pay the bills, that means I give the assignments. And I’m telling you, you need to do a theatre review this week! Anyway, just listen to this snippet, it’s completely crazy!”


*** 

“The Clown turned his powdered face to the mirror. ‘If to be fair is to be beautiful," he said, ‘who can compare with me in my white mask?’

‘Who can compare with him in his white mask?’ I asked of Death beside me.

‘Who can compare with me?’ said Death, ‘for I am paler still.’

‘You are very beautiful,’ sighed the Clown, turning his powdered face from the mirror.”


*** 

Alone, Mary spasmed on the floor. As she thrashed around it seemed like everything was bending into countless things. Even her memories seemed to permute in endless variations. Had they negotiated with the creature, had it returned to its home in disgust or indifference, or had they fought it back? And now the yellow things come again, the monster resurrected... The Dragon, the Dragon flies, and the heavens do not expel it! Monstrosities and madness in the skies! And she died. O, she died, yet she lived, again and again! Which world was she on? Worlds? Was she really alive? Was she dead? Dying? Oh, the pain! The endless pain of infinite worlds in her head! 


The Arbiter smiled. She was nearly ripe. The last act had begun. And soon, as all things mortal perish, even the so-called immortals, death dies.

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

Add the Kingsport board for the remaining scenarios: however, it is not recommended that you add Kingsport encounters in Arkham or Kingsport mythos cards.
Expanded Investigator Pool
: Rex Murphy, Rita Young, Bob Jenkins (also, Amanda can no longer be used).
Ancient One: Hastur
Heralds: The Phantom of Truth and The King in Yellow
Required Investigators: Sister Mary

Special Rules:

Start of game: The first monster to emerge from a gate must be a random cultist, rather than any random monster.


Cultists are not affected by the monster limit, if they go to the outskirts, put them in the sky instead.  They are endless, nightmarish 2, immune to handcuffs, can only be removed from the board by combat, have 5 toughness, a horror modifier of -5, a combat modifier of -5, and do 5 sanity and 5 stamina damage.  If there are no investigators in the streets, one cultist in the sky will move to the street nearest the investigator with the lowest sneak (first player's choice if there is a tie) and remains stationary as long as an investigator is in an adjacent location (not street).  If there is already a cultist trapping the investigator with the lowest sneak, and one or more cultists are in the sky, another cultist flies down to a different investigator with the next lowest sneak in the same way as the cultist described earlier.

At the beginning of each mythos phase (include the start of game) roll two dice (separately), on the first, a 1-2 makes  investigators in Arkham lose 1 sanity, on the second die, a 1-2 makes each investigator must lose an additional two sanity or reduce their maximum sanity and stamina by one.

Once the doom track reaches 2, at the end of each mythos phase, the first player must battle Hastur as if drawn in a dual color card; however, while epic battle cards are not used, Hastur's first attack is always a random Sinister Plot, and if the Last Straw is drawn, investigators to whom it may apply must roll a die, and on a failure, it applies to them as well.  If defeated by Hastur in this combat, the investigator draws a madness (that does not restore sanity) in addition to whatever consequences would normally take place for going unconscious or insane.  You gain no benefit from defeating him other than ending combat with him for that phase.

Investigators with madnesses can not be retired.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Scenario Twenty Two



Abluvion 

“It’s impossible!” shouted Professor Walters. “The Science Building is floating over the town! We need to stop what ever is causing it!”

“Don’t worry old man,” chuckled Norman, “Let’s just say I researched our circumstances a little more than you did on my travels, and I brought back a few alien toys.”

“Well why is it floating now!”


“Because it knows the flood is coming.”

“It just flooded!”

“No… That was just drizzle.”

*** 

“Iä! Iä! Cthulhu Fhtagn!”

“Damn it,” said Jenny, “There’s a whole mob of them”

“I thought we killed them all,” said Ursula.

“Well, clearly not. And they’re in the middle of some sort of ritual. Oh!”

The ground beneath the Cultists rocketed into the air, and a great sea monster’s mouth arose from the pit and snapped them all down as they fell.

“At least they’re gone now. Wait, what’s that noise?”

“It sounds like water.” Jenny’s mouth dropped open in shock as it began exploding out of the earth as if it came from a fire hydrant the size of a skyscraper. The continually erupting geyser smashed down along with huge carapaced creatures that began scuttling through the streets in search of food. And something else emerged from the pit. If she could only get a little closer to describe it…

“Run, run!”

*** 

So much of the town was underwater now… Silas was comfortable with this

though. Water suited him well. As did the city beneath the waves. No. No. And how did that castle emerge from beneath the sea? Why did the names R’lyeh and Sarnath keep whispering in his ears? How were they related? And what were those strange unsatisfied hungers he began to feel in the sides of his throat? The voices kept telling him to return home, insisting that he must become king.

*** 

“Amanda,” murmured Mary from within her soaked habit, “I am cold.”

“So am I, sister.”

“No, I mean in my soul…”

“So am I, sister.”


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

Add the Kingsport board for the remaining scenarios: however, it is not recommended that you add Kingsport encounters in Arkham or Kingsport mythos cards.
Expanded Investigator Pool: Tommy Muldoon, George Barnaby, Silas Marsh
Ancient One: Bokrug
Herald: Basatan
Required Investigators: Amanda Sharpe, Silas Marsh

Special Rules:

Start of game: All streets and unstable locations, 
except for The Science Building, are aquatic (even if they are sealed later).  All investigators have their maximum sanity and stamina reduced by one.  Place Shugeron on Unvisited Isle.  A random Cultist is always the a monster to emerge from the first gate.

Cultists are aquatic, endless, gain weapon immunity, and have a combat modifier of -6

Aquatic monsters are treated as spawn monsters (and if defeated in combat, return them to the cup).  If one is placed in the Outskirts, place it on Unvisited Isle instead.

Whenever investigators fail a combat check against a monster (including failed evasion), they must discard a trophy; if they have no trophies, they are devoured, and a random Being of Ib returns to Bokrug if any have been removed.

Shugeron is a stalker that moves twice whenever it moves instead of being an aquatic monster.  It does not count against the monster limit and can not be moved from its location or the board by any means (if something other than its movement would move or remove it, ignore it).  If it is defeated in combat, the investigator doing so may immediately move one space away from it.

Tsunamis: when the doom track reaches four, investigators in aquatic locations and streets must pass luck -3 checks or lose 3 stamina (anyone knocked unconscious by this draws an extra injury (do not restore stamina from it) in addition to normal penalties.  Each time there is a monster surge after this, this happens again.

If Silas, Amanda, or Tommy are devoured, add three doom to the doom track.


If there is an investigator in the Science Building during the Mythos phase, at the end of the phase, all monsters in the sky move to the Science Building. If there were no monsters in the sky to move at the end of the phase, draw a random flying monster from the cup and move it there.  Flying monsters do not count against the monster limit and if they are placed in the outskirts, immediately move them to the sky instead.

The Sinister Plot The Departure causes instant defeat instead of victory.