Scenario Twenty

Echoes of Apocalypse 

“I don’t know…” Mary said. “I don’t know if I am controlling it or if it is controlling me. I thought that the Key was our instrument, given to us by God, but, it is something… A power beyond my imagining. And…”

“It’s our strongest weapon,” shouted Harvey. “It’s our only chance! We would have been dead a hundred times over without it!”

“And perhaps better off dead,” said Norman. “In the heart of existence something lurks deep, corroding a way through space and time. That something that drove Jacqueline to despair. I saw just a fragment of the greater darkness. Just a fragment fills every moment of my waking with terror… And the thing within Mary? Has it occurred to you that this thing could be using us as a tool to trap or kill its rivals? It may just be using us to serve some mysterious purpose, and if it is as powerful as you think it is, when it is done with us, what horror will it wreak on all creation? Has it occurred to anyone else that this creature might just be using Mary as a host to feed through?”

“Yes, but if that were the case, it would make no sense that it should try to escape,” said Gloria. “Wait. Quiet, something’s wrong.”

*** 

Fire, flood, famine, war. Petty distractions compared to the coming horrors. Let them savor the taste of apocalypse. The Arbiter sneered as the next harbinger began to awaken. The ants still crawl toward their doom. He was privileged to work the will of the mightiest of Gods against the disgusting creatures.

He smashed his pen through his pages, helping Hastur’s madness enter his enemies’ brains.

*** 

Mark’s hands still dripped with blood. No, no they didn’t. He hadn’t killed so many in the war… But he had to… They tried to stop him. And the flamethrower stopped working… So he had to… Had he really punched through that girl’s skull? How could he have known that she was already dead? And why did he keep doing it? It’s not his fault the thing in the sky was in their heads. Like Sophie’s. She vanished into thin air. He hadn’t burnt her. He hadn’t. He still heard the screaming in his head. And it wouldn’t stop. And the burning people. Screaming. Screaming like Sophie. And the raining bodies exploding wet on the streets around him like shells in the trenches. The stench of decaying human meat invaded his nostrils.

No! No! Stop! He had to focus on doing what had to be done. He had to finish what he was doing so he could finish what he was doing. They hadn’t beaten it. Just drove it away. And what they faced now was even worse. This world… It’s like the war came to Arkham. The town’s mostly ash and mud now. Ashy half eaten corpses littering the streets and trapped in the rubble.

Was this the war still? Was that Sophie’s ghost he saw? Burning in the sky? He… Saw red. No… Yellow. Yellow like a smashed brain. No! No! No! Get out of my head!

Custom components can be found here: 

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

Expanded Investigator Pool: Lola Hayes, Mark Harrigan
Ancient One: Glath En’qun
Heralds: The Arbiter of Reality and The King in Yellow
Required Investigators: Lola Hayes, Mark Harrigan

Special Rules:

Start of Game: Lola and Mark begin with one madness card. The terror level begins at 2. The first mythos draw is Disturbing the Dead. It comes into play despite being a rumor.

When the terror level reaches 3 and 6, search for 2 rumors instead of one. After the terror level is at six, search for another rumor for each level the terror level is raised afterwards.


Purifying the Town cannot be passed if drawn.