Scenario Fifteen

 Hieroglyphic Harbinger

“That was really strange, wasn’t it Amanda?”

“Yes…  It was.”

Minh smiled, “Still, I think I was of some help, don’t you?”

“Sure.”

“I just can’t stand how everyone seems to ignore me though, except Lily sometimes.”

“That happens to me.  They’re all so damn patronizing, the men and the women, the men especially!  They think I can’t do anything, but I can fight!  I’ve seen things…  If I were a man—“

“Ursula’s not.”

“Ursula’s Ursula.  And then there’s that Mary, she sure is nuts!  Too bad she’s the leader of the rest of us nuts…  I just don’t understand why I’m being ignored by everyone.   On the other hand, it makes sense that the others would want to ignore a yellow person such as yourself.”

“Uh, excuse me?”

“Well, it’s only natural.  I’m one of them though, I don’t understand why they don’t appreciate me.  Oh, it’s nothing personal between you and me, I guess you’re alright for an Oriental type, but as a whole, there are good scientific reasons why White people shouldn’t associate with your kind of people.  You should spend more time with Lily.”

Minh rushed out of the room, slamming the door.

“No, wait, I didn’t mean it like that!  Damn it.  I’d say good riddance, but she was the only one who wanted to talk to me…”

***

“I believe that that creature was the cause of the biblical plague of Darkness!”

“Professor Walters, your leaps in logic are absurd!  There’s simply no evidence for any of your baseless speculations!”

“Absurd ,Ursula?  Do you archeologists only traffic in the glaringly obvious these days?  The great darkness of Egypt!  What else might have caused it if not this strange creature?”

“Volcanic ash!  Weather phenomena!  Anything!  Who knows?  For all we know it was a pure fairy tale, and here you are, insisting that the first plausible answer to pop into that mummified skull of yours must be the right one.”

“Of course it’s the right one you infantile little fool!”

“I’m fed up with your idiocy, you arrogant old dotard!  You know nothing of Egyptology or basic rules of logic!”

“Excuse me,” said Mary, “I’ve been listening to your conversation for some time now, and it occurred to me that there’s a far more obvious explanation for the origin of the story.”

“Which is what, pray tell,” said Ursula with weary sarcasm.

“God did it, as it says in the Bible.”

Ursula and Harvey glared furiously then began shouting.

***

“Duke…  Duke!  I need a…  No wait…  I need a drink, not a Duke…  And I’ve got just the thing. This whole world is Hell.  But I’ve got just the liquid to quench that fire.”  Hiccupping, Pete drained another hipflask dry and went to look for more liquid sanity to fill it with.

           

***

Darrell grimaced.  How the Hell did he get mixed up in this?  Conspiracies, cults, monstrous Gods?  He didn’t even really believe that Nun’s stories about the other things she’d fought.  It’s not like she even sketched a picture of them, and those stories were so far fetched.  It’s not like a gullible thing like her is even a credible witness.

Still…  There’s that black thing he’d seen striding the streets, ten feet tall, an obsidian creature with eyes of fire.  Asking questions, he’d heard from some of the survivors.  Watching and laughing as people unable to answer burned to ash. An Ancient Egyptian King!  A Sneering Human Sphinx!  Ozymandias Returned Rampages Through Arkham!

Darrell grinned.  The writers were loving it.  The best thing about this mess is it makes for some great headlines.  It might be the end of the world soon, but newspapers were selling like hotcakes.  And once he could get a great photo of what’s going on, he’d be world famous.  As long as the world lasted anyway.

Custom components can be found here:

http://s622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/Additional%20Components%20for%20the%20Fan%20Creation%20League/

Ancient One: Nyarlathotep
Heralds: The Black Man
Required Investigators: Amanda Sharpe, Monterey Jack, Sister Mary


Special Rules:

Start of game: Place no clues on the board.   Professor Rice can not be one of the 11 Allies.  Only use madnesses and injuries from Dunwich Horror

Investigators with a Doom Token may draw three madness cards at any time— if this does not cause devouring, remove all their Doom Tokens.  Investigators with madnesses can not retire.

Monsters in the French Hill Neighborhood move like stalkers.  The Black Man is never removed from Arkham (this includes to the outskirts) and can not be moved by Milk of Shub Niggurath, Migo Brain Case, Lure Monster, or Call the Beast.  If he devours an investigator without a doom token, raise the terror level by two.

A clue appears each upkeep on The Witch House.  Gaining clue tokens at The Witch House, except from The Black Man, does not cause an investigator to gain a doom token.

If Nyarlathotep awakens, his combat modifier is raised to –9, he loses his magical resistance, investigators can not use clues to add to their fight checks against him, and Join Me instead causes the first player to be devoured and all other investigators to discard two clues. 

Note: There are 20 doom tokens.