Scenario Ten

Seeds of Corruption

“Mary, Mary!  Believe me, you have to believe me!  We need to stop them, now!   Now now now!  They want to wake the Thing in Dunwich!”

            The nun hissed spitefully.  “You saw it Marie?  You saw it with your witch-spawn vision?  Your witch blood?  Devil blood?  You think that’s a gift of God?  I think it’s a gift of Satan!  I think you’re just another witch watching for Hecate!”

            “Not true!  Not true!  I swear by my soul it’s not true!  I’ve never lied to any of you.  I knew you’d do this if I told the truth, but I told it anyway.  You believe everything you read in your book.  Like there’s only one kind of witch.  Like there’s only one kind of anything!  I swear, I want to save our world, just like everyone else here!  I’m not risking my life for anything else...”

            Disgusted and distrusting, Mary spat and stalked out of the room. 

The others seemed to agree.  Marie felt hostile stares all around her.  But they had listened.  Hadn’t they? And that was the important part.  Joe, Joe could do it.  Joe could go and stop them.  He…  he had to.

***

            The nun seethed in feverish rage.  The obscenity…  The filth.  The creature which claimed to be a God, a pornographic monstrosity, trading unspeakable sex for death and the chance (as if it were a gift!) to be mother or father to an abomination.

And Marie.  Marie was a witch.  She…  Was.  The Bible said to slay them, but…  But…  Didn’t Saul deal with the witch of Endor?  And…  Her protests sounded sincere.  But couldn’t the Devil lie with the voice of an angel?  Could she really not understand that she was in the thrall of Satan?  Could she still be saved? 

Mary steeled her heart and prayed, readying to exterminate all of Arkham’s abominations.  This time the woods would be cleansed of the foul demon worshipping sinners.  Perhaps God would lift the curse from this town after she let loose His wrath.  How many more trials could He send at them?  For what sin did they atone?

She felt…  Strange…  As if the Witch’s soul was clutching at her heart again.  This fury…  It could not be hers, could it?  She had worked so hard to purge herself of anger.  A deadly sin…  She prayed to God for grace, that the sin may not be rooted deep in her heart, that she might be forgiven, that it might be uprooted.  She might have to ask Marie for forgiveness as well.  But…  She felt anger rising again.  Something was wrong.  Something was corrupting her spirit again.  She felt it.  She knew it.  She prayed for strength against the temptations of Satan.  Could it be that to hate even Satan was a sin and a pathway to Hell?  But, was not God a God of wrath as well as love?

Custom components can be found here:

http://s622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/

Ancient One: Shub Niggurath

Herald: The modified Black Goat of the Woods in the custom components album.

Required Investigators: Sister Mary, Marie Lambeau

Special Rules:

Start of Game: Investigators may begin the game at the Train Station instead of their normal locations.  Dark Young can not move during the first Mythos phase.  Regardless of the gate on the first Mythos card, it opens at Whatley Farm, and instead of the normal monsters that would emerge from it, place three crescent Cultists; this gate can never be closed or sealed.

Non-Dark Druid Cultists are now Dark Young, not Cultists.  They become exact copies of Dark Young except for retaining their movement symbols and Awareness. 

When the Doom track reaches six, place Dark Druid at the Woods.  It is an Endless Spawn monster and can not be removed from the board or taken as a trophy.  If it is defeated by a combat check, return it to the Woods.

Shub Niggurath gains magical resistance.

Clarifications:  

Always designate a location for monsters to place before they would go to the outskirts (if no gate is shown), if it is a Dark Young, place them there instead.  If a gate was shown, place them there.  Don’t take three corruptions for defeating Dark Young.

Scenario Nine

Worms Rising

            “Isabelle!  Oh God, Isabelle!”  Jenny wept.  Joe held her and tried to comfort her.  A cold comfort.  The Rat-things had gotten her.  Oh God…  They giggled as they gnawed, as she shrieked.  And she saw!  She saw from the cage....  Her sister dying again.  World after world.  Was there no respite?  How could the nun see such things and not doubt her faith?  Was she mad?  A fool?  A hypocrite?  What kind of God would allow such abominations to wreak such destruction?  The father of the things giggled as it died.  Far more sinister than that serpentine demon of ice.  Its perverse delight in malice chilled her bones though the world was finally warm again.  The witch…  Hecate.  Hecate was responsible for this.  She would have revenge.  Joe stroked her hair softly, but the hate did not leave her.  Her tears had dried as her heart burned with the warmth of rage.  And then the earth shook.

            Fire blazed in the streets.  Geysers of lava burnt rocket like through the sky.  Buildings began to burst into flame.  The ground shrieked and a deep fissure ran through the street, separating her and Joe.  A Cthonian like none she had ever seen seemed to grow into the sky.  She shouted to Joe to get his weapons— they’d need them— that they’d meet up later.  She half-heartedly prayed she was right.  Where God, where was the respite?

***

            Joe streaked to the station, wondering when he would find out the meaning of the strange tasks Carl Stanford was putting him to.  It was good money though.  Charlie told him he should stop.  But it was very good money.  The kind you don’t turn down.  It was definitely fishy though.  And Roland had told him some strange stories about fish.  Then there’s Tony, he’s also doing things for mysterious strangers.  Corpse collectors…  There was definitely another something going on in Arkham, but there wasn’t time to find out what. Not with the noises under his feet.  Not yet. 

The cases still weren’t coming together…  And something was following him beneath the ground, he was sure of it.  He needed to get back to the station.  What would it take to take out that thing looming over the town like a tower?  He hadn’t a clue, but he would.  He always got the answers.  Because he was Joe Diamond, he grinned, and he was that damn good.  And even if he wasn’t, he was sure he could find some dynamite somewhere.  The noises under his feet grew louder.  He ran faster.

Custom components can be found here:

http://s622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/

Ancient One: Shudde M’ell

Herald: The Great Dark Worm

Required Investigators: Jenny Barnes, Joe Diamond

Special Rules:


Start of Game: Investigators must discard Cthonian and Lloigor trophies.  Place a crescent Cultist at Merchant District, Rivertown, Miskatonic University, and French Hill streets.  The fissure they emerged from prevents movement between Merchant District and Rivertown, or Miskatonic University and French Hill streets. Monsters do not move during the first mythos phase.

Investigators with injuries can not retire.

When Cthonians and Lloigors move, a roll of 5-6 causes each investigator in Arkham to roll a die before taking damage, investigators who roll a failure are reduced to zero stamina instead and draw an extra injury in addition to normal penalties for being knocked unconscious.

Cultists have Weapons Immunity, and Magical Resistance; Chthonians have Physical and Magical Resistance; Lloigors have +1 toughness.  They are endless Spawn monsters; move them from the Outskirts to The Black Cave instead.


Shudde M’ell has Weapon Immunity instead of Physical and Magical Resistance.

Clarification: Cthonians and Lloigors appear from failed checks after all aspects of the encounter or combat are resolved, even at locations investigators are relocated to e.g. Lost in Time and Space.

 

Scenario Eight

The Unthawable Winter

“It’s still so cold,” whispered Mary.  She remembered the words of the serpent man.  His prophecy of doom.  A false prophecy, certainly.  But…  The Beasts kept coming.  Each was more savage than the last.  And a strange force seemed to drive them forth.  She felt as if a thousand invisible eyes were upon her.  Not like the omniscient sight of God, but something else, something of chill shadows and infinite malevolence.  Hecate’s malice.  It must be.  But…  It felt different somehow.  Something unimaginably horrid was hiding in the night sky’s darkness.  She felt it.  She knew it.

***

Joe thought of what he’d heard.  A ship is coming in the pier?  A ship?  A mountain of ice?  The cold comes from there as well…  And something.  Something skitters through the night.  The witch rats are gnawing, and breeding.  As the cold grows worse, their lust seems to thaw.  And beneath the earth great worms dig.  Terror makes the frost bite sharper in the bones.  Maybe he could find the missing children.  So many had gone missing when this new monstrosity came to town.  He’d heard of it too.  The piper.  If half of what he heard were true…  He shuddered and loaded his .45 automatic.  No matter how cold it became he would kill that creature in hot blood.  The things it did were unmentionable.  The inmates he had interviewed raving messes.  He hoped that Jenny’s sister had not been given over to those things.  Those hybrid monsters.  Poor Jenny…  Poor rich Jenny…

***

            The witch thing wanted.  The witch thing would get.  The witch thing thinks himself her pet!  Foolish little Goddess.  The Piper has his own debts.  Yes.  And the pets and children need feeding.  Yes.  He would do as she pleased.  As long as her pleasure was his.  His pleasure.  Sweet pleasure.  More children.  More family.  More pets.  The pleasure must come soon, soon, before the end of everything.  This town would be his until then.  Dear children make all things his.  Sweet children.  He shuddered in ecstasy at the scent of them.   All around him, deep underground, kept in cramped and rusty cages, children and adults screamed and wept.  They were all his children.  He heard the earth groan as the worms ripped through it.  He was not the only one who hungered.  Whatever the witch thing wanted, other Gods wanted this prey as well.  He could smell their hunger.

Custom components can be found here:

http://s622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/

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

Ancient One: Rlim Shaikorth

Herald: The Pied Piper

Required Investigators: Jenny Barnes

Special Rules:

Start of Game: Any Rat-thing monster trophies are discarded.

Rat-things can not be collected as trophies or returned to the cup; if they are defeated, or would be otherwise returned to the cup, they return to The Unnamable instead. Rat-Things do not count against the monster limit.

Whenever a non-Cultist Rat-thing is drawn for an encounter or placed on the board, Jenny must draw two Corruptions (this includes the Rat-thing that begins at The Unnamable). 

Whenever a Cultist Rat-thing is drawn for an encounter or placed on the board, the first player must roll a die and draw two Corruptions on a success or the top red Corruption on a failure.

Clarification: Defeating a Rat-thing and moving it to The Unnamable does not count as placing it on the board.

Drawing a Cultist Rat-Thing will trigger Rlim Shaikorth's ability.

Cultist Rat-things are identical to Rat-Things in all other ways (and are considered Rat-things, not Cultists).

Scenario Seven

City of Ice

            There’s no way none of that can be true.  That nut-case nun is stuffed with bunk and baloney.  But…  Some of it’s gotta be true…  Those damn maniacs in the woods.  That snakey thing.  Michael got them good!  But that’s it right?  We killed ‘em.  We’re done.  None of that bull about endless worlds.  Finn Edwards wasn’t born yesterday.  I ain’t nobody’s sucker, nobody’s fool.

Finn’s jaw dropped.

What the Hell?  A blizzard in a middle of a heat wave?  No way!  There’s no way…  It looks like it’s snowed for months.  I hope that bitch nun can’t read minds too.  …  Crap.

            It’s…  That’s not the wind, that’s somebody screaming.

            A towering white brute was dragging a person through the snow storm by the arms, leaving a trail of blood from his gnawed off legs.  It seemed to hear Finn.  Its ears twitched as it glared in his direction.  It bellowed out a challenge in a strange sounding tongue, then sat its massive bulk into the snow and continued to swallow down chunks of its victim from the bottom up as he screamingly begged and blubbered for mercy by death.

            Hmm…  I’m going to be smart…  Probably shouldn’t play the hero or somebody’s going to need to help me the same way that sucker wants help.  I want some real help.  None of that “please kill me” crap.  Where’s that damn nun when somebody actually wants her?

Custom components can be found here:

http://s622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/

Ancient One: Ithaqua

Herald: Wendigo

Required Investigators: Finn Edwards

Special Rules:

Start of Game: Any Cultist monster trophies are discarded. Place a normal Cultist on Downtown Streets, Merchant District Streets, Rivertown Streets, and the Train Station.  These four Cultists are treated as stationary monsters and are not endless; other Cultists move normally and are endless.

Cultists do not count against the monster limit.  If one would go to the outskirts, place it in The Woods instead.

If an investigator passes an evade check against a Cultist, they may immediately move to the nearest gate in the main board of Arkham.

Clarification: Investigators moving towards Cultists must end their movement when they reach a space next to a Cultist unless they started their movement there (in which case they only have one movement point).

Scenario Six

The Sight of Darkness

           

            Gagging as they dashed past the rotting flood of murderous flesh, they had scurried through the streets of Arkham like rats.   Finally, the six seal was placed, the vortex of darkness began to slowly swallow itself.  Like a great tongue, a tendril of darkness darted out of the blot that still consumed the bulk of the heavens, and the mount of Xzmundl vanished into what might have been its mouth. Raging, The Lich King screeched horrid curses as he plummeted from the sky.  The thud of Xzmundl as he hit the ground was deafening, but he did not die.

Hissing his hatred, he crawled and dragged his shattered frame towards Wendy as she shrieked and writhed in the throes of insanity, then Zoey dashed in front of the girl, swearing to protect her. 

The dying Lich King croaked laughter, “Now I see...  Now I see I was just a pawn in the game of the Gods...  Puny ant-ape, perched on the dung-hill of your arrogance, soon you shall learn your error, and that you too are but a tool…  The hands...  Are larger than the cosmos...”

Zoey stabbed her crosses through Xzmundl’s eyes.  The Lich King died and Zoey crowed triumphantly.  “God is with us!  Satan has fallen yet again!  It is the Second Coming!  At last, the wolf shall lie with the lamb!  Praise the Lord!”

            From the center of the abyss, boomed the laughter of Hecate, “Behold, little fool!  I am your Shepard, your wolf, your voice Divine!  Now perish, lamb, a sacrifice to your Lord’s hunger!”  

A hurricane of lightning and darkness whirled down at them.  For a moment, the darkness and lightning stole away Mary’s sight and when it returned, all were gone but Norman, Amanda, Gloria, and Jacqueline.

Those who survived fled with the Key, and yet, when they found a new Earth, their friends were found nowhere.  Their existence was purged from every world.

Mary sobbed.  How did they come to this disaster?  What sort of victory was this?  And Wendy, Wendy!  What had become of her?  Oblivion?  Obliteration through time and space?  Could it be true?  And what of the Afterlife?  That dear sweet child…  Gone forever?  Was it possible?  Could God allow such things?  What of the promise of immortal life?  Could it be that…  No.  It can not be!  It must not be…

            Norman said, “The battle was brutal and the costs grim, but we did it, we won.  We drove back the darkness.  We won.  Their sacrifice has saved us all.”

            Jacqueline trembled, “Hecate knows.  Hecate has seen it as well.  You are fools. I am blind, but I can see.  That was not the darkness.  That was not even its shadow.”  Jacqueline slid a gun in her mouth, fired, then slumped down dead.  The others stared in shock and horror, hardly able to process what they had just witnessed.

            They found another Jacqueline in another Earth, though she had hidden herself, foreseeing that they would seek her.  When they insisted that she must help them, she replied, “I have seen you before, and before, and before, and endless befores.  And though I am blind, I am far less blind than you.  I know.  I know!  I will not help you.  Leave me to my self in the End of Days.  I will not fight the dawning of the endless night.  I will never help your futile quest.”

            She attempted to kill herself yet again, and though they stopped her with speed and force, she repeatedly swore she would never help them.  And so they left, now but four in number.

            “Gloria, what does this mean?”  asked Mary.

            “Sometimes a person can see too much.”

 “We must not surrender to madness and despair though.  If we struggle and endure, we can still triumph.”

            “Do you really think so?”

            “Yes, we must have faith that we can overcome.”

            “Maybe.  Let us split up for a while.  We’ll meet again when the true darkness comes.  Mary, Amanda, you must continue the fight across the worlds.  Good luck my friends.  Don’t let our friends’ deaths be in vain.”

***

            “Marie,” said Mary, “I need to tell you something that might sound crazy, but I think you know enough of what’s going on in this town to know it’s not.  I need you to listen very carefully, to believe me, and I need you to help me find others who can help.”

            “I’m listening, Sister.”

***

            “Roland, I’ve heard peculiar reports about your behavior lately.”

            “Yes sir?  And what exactly was that?”

            “I’ve heard you’re cracking up.”

            “No sir, I’m swell.”

            Charlie grinned, “I’m sure you are, but you need to be more discreet discussing your case work.”

            “Sir?”

            “Never mind, it’s just as well.  If I hadn’t heard about your ‘crack-up’ I might be more hesitant trusting you.  You see, there’s something sinister going on in Arkham…  It’s not just these strange reports.  It’s something worse.  I think some kind of foreign cult is trying to infiltrate the town.  I need you to help me find out what is going on and how to stop it.”

            “Well sir, I don’t know much about that, but I met this nun, and she’s told me a weird tale.  I’m afraid it might actually be true...”

Custom components can be found here:

http://s622.photobucket.com/albums/tt307/avi_dreader/

Ancient One: Yig

Herald: Set

Required Investigators: None

Special Rules:

Check http://arkhamleague.blogspot.com/2010/03/arkham-horror-fan-creation-league.html for scenarios 6-12. 

When the first gate is opened, open another gate at the Woods (it can add a doom token, but instead of releasing a normal amount of monsters, it releases The Dark Druid and two Serpent People, if both gates were at the Woods, this counts as a monster surge i.e. the first gate opening at the Wood releases those two monsters). 

Whenever there is a monster surge at the Woods, immediately draw and resolve two more mythos cards.

Gates at the Woods cost 8 Clue tokens instead of 5 to seal.

Serpent People and The Dark Druid do not affect the monster limit.  The Dark Druid gains Weapons Immunity, immunity to Handcuffs, and can not be removed from the board except by a combat check.

During Final Combat, Yig curses investigators who fail a speed check against him.  Any investigator that already has a curse is devoured.

Clarification: For Dark Druid, “moving on a black path” means having a hexagon on a black background drawn, not moving along a black arrow.

Ignore Set's Start of Game ability.

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

Scenario Four

The Moonlight Plague

            Stabbed, shot, burnt, the Witch came back.  The Devil resurrected.  Her voice, the Tempter’s voice inside her head.  Forcing her to sin.  This time would be her death, they had her pinned to the ground, her spells exhausted.  Mary wanted to wretch at the sense of violation.

“No weapon can defeat me,” Hecate sneered.

            “No weapon?” asked Mary softly.  “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”  She grasped her throat and choked and choked until the witch’s spine snapped.  Silence.

            The dead jaw hung open and out dashed a rat with a human face, sinking its teeth into Mary’s flesh.  “I am not so easily banished, fleshdust,” it rasped and scurried away in the darkness.

            It seemed to grow to a monstrous size as it fled, but perhaps that was just a trick of he light on its shadow.  So many strange things had been seen, perhaps that was just one more.  Still, what might it portend?

***

            The fixed grin of Death was eager to bleed Arkham dry.  Eager to shred the flesh that dared to thwart his desires.  Death’s scythe slashed at the gate to Arkham, it widened.  Soon he could enter, and the dead would be heaped in the streets, in piles high like houses.  The Necronomicon sung to him, it bid him forth to destroy those who would try to bar the gates against The Darkness, its true master.

***

Mary opened her eyes, she had returned to the church.  Her skin burned.  “William!  William!  Stay away!”  Her body began twisting into deformity under the light of the moon and her mouth began to water.  Her shriek was met by howling.

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/

Ancient One: Death

Herald: Lycanthropic Infestation

Required Investigators: Sister Mary and Wendy Adams.

Special Rules: Sister Mary begins the game with a Lycanthropy token.

Werewolves also deal their damage when moving out of spaces they share with investigators, and, when they move on a black crescent, they move like stalkers.

If a Werewolf (this includes investigators moving like werewolves) is on the same space as an investigator and its movement symbol is shown, it deals 4 damage to non-werewolf investigators.

If a Cultist would be put in the Outskirts, put it in the Woods instead 

Investigators do not make rolls to discard curses.  During Upkeep, the first player chooses two additional investigators, each rolls a die and is cursed on a one.

Start of game: Place a regular Cultist in South Church, Witch House, Uptown, and French Hill.  Place the Werewolf in The Woods.  For the first mythos card, ignore normal mythos movement— treat it as if it only has a black crescent in the mythos movement box.

Clarification: Werewolves do not damage each other (i.e. an investigator moving as a Werewolf will not be damaged by a Werewolf or damage other Werewolf investigators).

The Werewolf may not be removed from the board (including being placed in the Outskirts) by any means.