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