Scenario Sixteen

Divine Ambition 

The Black Man’s death scream stretched to the sky as a hideous shrieking creature emerged from its mouth. The screaming swirled around them. They ran as it tore them apart. They fled to a new Arkham and replaced the dead from that world, but the Wailing Writhers had followed them. Then the town descended into chaos. Even the asylum was no longer safe as one of the creatures hunted its halls, and it allowed none to leave, or so they’d heard. It came and went. It waited for them… Were they the hunters or the hunted? The skinless one still stalked them, and it seemed like all the gates were guarded. The masks were backed by an army of monstrosities. This world was a trap!

*** 

The stupid squirming things and their disgusting willfulness… She would pin them to the walls and lick them while her lover peeled off their faces. Her tongue would linger over their sweet blood. She would wear them all, but one above all else, the one that would win His love forever. That beautiful red haired bitch would cover her face, and she would smile like she once did. All would be well again… The stars were soon right. If they could triumph here, they would reign forever as Gods of the night… He would lift her to divinity with Him, reward her millennia of devotion, make her one with Him at last… All His power was pressed out now, and none shall stand against the great Nyarlathotep!

*** 

The pieces are set, now the game’s to be played… It’s been such a delight to dance with these hairless bags of limbs and meat and make them dance to my songs. The burning worlds seem most beautiful before being snuffed out. Let them be mine for a while though. And I shall dance laughing to their silly screams before It comes…

How I love to see them fail. Oh, their struggles and pain are as beautiful as a butterfly aflame. What a pity that not even I, a God, can make it last forever. My playthings will be lost… I see that now. But the game shall be played nevertheless. Time should be passed in pleasure before oblivion. Still, could I but possess a fragment of the Key, perhaps I could alter my destiny… If I play the game well, I shall endure beyond Its coming.

Nyarlathotep’s countless faces, stretched across the infinity of universes, all smiled, for he had won an eternity of games.

Custom components can be found here: 

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

Ancient One: Nyarlathotep
Heralds: Faceless One and The Maskless
Required Investigators: Mandy Thompson

Special Rules:

Start of Game: Place God of the Bloody Tongue on The Asylum.

It can not move or be moved, has +2 toughness and -1 awareness (its copies do not). If it is defeated and returns to the board later, immediately place it back on The Asylum; draw a different monster to place where it would have gone.

Activate Fetch Me My Faces on a roll of 1-2.

Begin placing non-Mask monsters in Arkham after all the Masks have been placed. Ignore the clause on The Faceless One that states “and the number of masks on that board is less than the monster limit.”

Mandy Thompson’s reroll ability can only be used for evade checks. Each time using it, she rolls a die and on a failure lowers her maximum sanity by 1.

Cultists in Arkham can not be collected as trophies, do not count against the monster limit, and go to The Silver Twilight Lodge instead of the Outskirts. If an investigator is retired or devoured, draw and place a Cultist in The Silver Twilight lodge.

A copy of Wailing Wither is on every gate. They can only be removed by combat.  If an investigator defeats one in combat, it reappears in the next investigator’s movement phase. If an investigator is devoured by any Wailing Wither, raise the terror level by 2.

Elder Signs can not be used. NOTE:Treat the Elder Sign Fragments as copies of Parchment of the Elder Sign.  http://www.arkhamhorrorwiki.com/Parchment_of_the_Elder_Sign

Join Me causes the first player to be devoured and all other investigators to discard two clues instead of its usual effect.

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.  

Scenario Fourteen

The Endless Shadow 

Mandy killed the chaos, again and again, but it was always a mask. Nothing real was ever underneath, and it laughed at her vain attempts. She wandered the city, seeking it, but the people she saw there were also hollow. Their faces melted together, bodies tearing apart and rejoining as they breathed, sometimes joining together as two people made a singular abomination, burbling skin, wheezing, hissing, sluggishly swirling, decaying teeth emerging from eyes emerging from nostrils, mouths vomiting fountains of blood, ears rotting on bodies covered with swelling sores of pus covered with swelling sores of pus covered with swelling sores of... Boiling out like bubbles bubbling on bubbles from their bodies, liquefying in cancerous growth and decay. The great buildings, towers of iron, twisted above, crushing their inhabitants, their windows ran red, death shrieks filled the swirling metal that melted and danced in the streets. Melted and danced. The molten city rained down on its inhabitants who screamed as they melted and danced. Melted and danced!

“Iä! Iä!” Mandy shrieked and woke.

Luke stared at her. “The Crawling Chaos is whispering to you. I heard it and came. It seeks to break us before the time of its power comes. We must not let it. Lily and I will help teach you how to defend your dreams. If this continues, one day you will wake up insane or its slave. Perhaps both.”

“You need to teach the others too.”

“Assuredly. It desires you first, for it knows you are the greatest threat, but attacks on the others are sure to follow...”

“Shall you teach us in the morning, or now?”

“Now. Soon. Perhaps both. Regardless, you must stay awake now, it is already past noon.”

“But it’s pitch black outside!”

“Yes, I’m afraid so… Have you also heard the creature giggling and fluttering its wings? Wings? It wears so many faces it is hard to see it well… Some of its faces have wings and can fly away from their bodies. We shall meet again soon, but now I must return to my dreams.. Here or there. It does not matter.”

***

Monterey Jack found no satisfaction. His face had frozen in an snarling rage. The Lodge had used his father. Used him and killed him. And they took pride in their work. They might as well have stuffed his head and mounted in on their damnable trophy wall. He had shattered their bones and spilled their blood. But he wanted more. He wanted them all dead. Saving the world could come second to vengeance. Pausing to reflect on the insane adventure he had found himself in, he speculated if his father’s artifacts would be the same on this world, or different.

And then he smiled through his hate. A cold satisfaction danced in his eyes. An infinity of worlds could mean infinite vengeance, but it was something. Something to replace the emptiness that had filled his life when the trail went cold. Something to fill his heart with joy when the cultists were all dead. There would be more, more to break, and burn, and kill! It was hot again, and this thing— this thing hinted at in the shadows of his research— it was no mere myth. Nyarlathotep was a living God that he might— must— somehow destroy. He was the one. The really responsible one. All the others. The manipulators. The murderers. They were just puppets. Shadows of their master. But he’d have revenge no matter how many times he’d have to die for it. They all would pay for taking away his father’s life… And in so many worlds… How many horrible deaths? Oh God…

Where was that stinky bum? He was only good for three things, fighting, rooting through garbage, and drinking. His booze was awful, but booze is booze, and Jack wanted to get stinking drunk. There’d be time for the rest later.

Jack looked forward to torching the Lodge again. He’d giggle at their screams. But not yet. Not before they were ready to leave again. And then he’d do it again. And again. And again. Where was that damn bum?

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 Bloated Woman, Haunter of the Dark
Required Investigators: Luke Robinson, Lily Chen


Special Rules:

The environment The Blackest Night never leaves play— if another environment is drawn, discard it after all its non-environmental effects.

The Bloated Woman is a fast stalker with magical and physical resistance.

A cursed investigator who defeats Haunter of the Dark may draw an exhibit item by passing a lore +0 check.

If an endless monster would go to the outskirts, put it in The South Church instead. They are not counted against the monster limit.

Barred investigators can still enter Arkham Asylum and Saint Mary's Hospital.

When final battle begins all investigators are cursed. Join Me causes the first player to be devoured and all other investigators to discard two clues instead of its normal effect. If Nyarlathotep is defeated, the first player rolls a die, on a failure, the ancient one is Azathoth, on a success, all investigators discard down to one clue and the second Ancient One is Nyarlathotep again (do not curse all investigators again or reshuffle the Epic Battle deck).


Clarifications: Haunter of the Dark and The Bloated Woman can only be removed from the board by combat checks.  If the placement of clues causes clues to be removed, The Bloated Woman returns to play.


NOTE: if you are using Revised Curse of the Dark Pharoah, make or use copies of the Barred from Neighborhood cards.

http://www.arkhamhorrorwiki.com/Barred_from_Neighborhood

Scenario Thirteen

 A Shadow Unmasked

            “Kneel to your Queen, witch!  Kneel!  Kneel!  Kneel!”  The voice in Marie’s head whispered, screeched, and chanted louder and louder.  On maimed legs, the spider’s body wildly staggered about, crushing its children’s corpses underfoot.  It spun about, spitting webs and acid, but its struggles grew weaker.  Marie’s friends continued to shoot, stab, and blast it with sorcery.  Inside her head Hecate’s voice screeched, “Submit to your master!  You must pay your dues for your magic!  Surrender to me!”  Marie fell to her knees and felt her soul being pressed out of her body.  Hecate sought a new form to possess.

            Mary saw the struggle and heard the words of the Witch God in her mind as well.  She stretched forth her hand, and power shot forth from her, pushing Hecate back within the dying shell of Atlach Nacha.

            “Ungrateful wretch!  Nothing can contain my glory!  I shall break your strength and take what is rightfully mine!”

            Marie, quickly slashed her knife across her throat.  “Thanks grande-mére…”

            “Traitor, traitor!  No escape through painless death!”  Hecate leaped over and swallowed her in one gulp.  “You fools shall all taste your graves in me!  I shall torment you there long after your flesh has been digested, as long as the cosmos lasts in me!”  Hecate began skittering around in renewed fury.

            Skids O’Toole met her maddened charge.  His axe hacked off her front two legs.  Hecate slid down in a spray of ichor and grasped him in her mandibles.  He screamed as her acid melted through his skin and liquefied his bones.  His screams were abruptly silenced as she slurped his melting body down down.  The witch’s face pressed itself out of the spider’s mouth, struggling to separate herself from the dying God with renewed strength.  Hecate's slimy shoulders slipped out of Atlach’s mouth.  She screamed as she continued pulling her way out of the great spider’s fatal convulsions.

            Mary walked over and lifted Skids’ fallen axe.  “Let’s see if you’ll survive this time.”  She split Hecate’s skull in two, then kicked her emerging body back into the spider’s gullet.  The mouth closed and the death spasms stopped.  The Spider God disintegrated into nothingness along with those trapped within it.

           

***

            The webs covering the town disappeared.  Rumors spoke of a shadowy figure harvesting them.  But no one could see his face, or understand how he could have been in so many places at once.  No one even knew if it was, in fact, one person, though the descriptions were the same, or, perhaps most importantly, why the webs were gathered. 

            After the battle, Joe, Roland, and Tony pooled their information about the strangeness underlying recent events in Arkham.  Their evidence suggested answers that horrified them.  A cult had come from overseas and infiltrated the town at its highest levels.  The takeover was far more thorough then they imagined possible.  They rushed to warn Charlie of the true nature of the threat.

            Settling down in Charlie’s office after they had bolted and barricaded the doors, they told him of the sinister name that appeared again and again, shrieked, muttered, carved in blood on the faces of his worshipers and their sacrifices, Nyarlathotep.  Charlie’s expression was one of severe concern.  Then he smiled.  Charlie’s hands had stabbed through Joe's face and abdomen before he could lift his gun.  Roland and Tony fired at him again and again, ripping the skin off his face, ripping the mask from his face, but it was too late; the Skinless One was too fast, there was no where to run.

            The Skinless One licked the bloody corpses, savoring their flavor and scents before flaying them.  Their souls would be trapped in the web forever. There would be no threat of their return.  Perhaps they would be the ones The Maskless desired.  By the time the nun realized they were gone, it would be too late, they would be stitched into the fabric of Nyarlathotep’s infinite forms and banished from all worlds.  The thread was theirs.  Soon all else.  The last great weaving would begin.

***

            It came for the others, slashing through Finn’s arm, but retreating when Michael's bullets peppered its raw flesh as he desperately let off round after round from his tommy gun.  Several of the bullets slammed into Finn as well. It retreated back into the shadows, too fast for them to follow.  Mary, Amanda, and Jenny stared after it in bewilderment, it was gone before they could even draw their weapons.  They sought to find their missing friends, but they were no where to be found, not even in other Arkhams.

            “That’s it, I quit, this is too dangerous!”

            “Finn, no, you mustn’t,” said Mary, “this is too important!  We have bandaged your wounds, you will heal in time.  You must help us fight through to the end.”

            “That thing was hiding behind your friend’s face!  Look at me, Sister, I’m cut, I’m bleeding!  I could have died! And for who? A bunch of suckers who don’t even give a damn about what’s going on!  And what happened to all the others?  They’re dead!  They’re really dead this time!  Or worse!  This isn’t a game, and if it was, it’d be time for me to cash out my chips now.  Yeah.  I take it back.  This is a game for fools and suckers!  I’m gone.  Find some other suckers for your crusade.”

What would they do, Mary wondered.  There are too few of us left.  But we must do something.  Surely someone still lives who can help.

***

Finn limped into the night, free of that damn bossy nun.  He was sick of being told what to do.  Sick of sticking his neck into other people’s business. And for what?  For who?  Nobody.  If the monsters ate some worlds, big deal.  They fought them off this one.  And here’s the world he’d stay on.

He shrieked.

Then silence.  Beneath its falsely frowning face, now splattered with blood, the Skinless One grinned again, beneath its masks, it always grinned when it worked.  It had hoped to get at least one more trophy, to return with one more face, before moving on.  And now it had achieved its desire.

***

            Time passed.  Arkham festered and rotted in world after world.  Then at last came a vision.  Mary saw a ship sailing in from Egypt, weird, white, and wondrous, and she knew they would not have to face the threat alone.

Custom components can be found here:

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

Ancient One: Nyarlathotep

Herald: The Crawling Chaos

Required Investigators: Monterey Jack

Special Rules:

Check http://arkhamleague.blogspot.com/2010/03/arkham-horror-fan-creation-league.html for scenarios 13-16. 

Monterey Jack begins the game with a Silver Twilight Membership.  Only investigators with Silver Twilight Membership may seal gates.

The Mask Pool is not random.  It is Shadowy Figure, The Skinless One, The Black Man, The Beast, and Shugeron.  Never return them to the box, return them to the Mask Pool.  Do not place Masks from the box in the Mask Pool.

The Black Man is a fast stalker.  If all Masks are in play, returning him to the Mask Pool immediately awakens Nyarlathotep.

During final combat, if a sinister plot is drawn, it can not be prevented and investigators immediately lose.


Clarification: The Masks are Spawn monsters.

Scenario Twelve

Web of Fate

            The monstrosity had corrupted Sadie’s body then malformed her minions in his monstrous image.  His infestation possessed the town, but they had driven it back by destroying its host.  How Sadie had gained access to the collection of exotic and obscene pornography that led to her possession remained a mystery save for one clue, the report of the masked stranger.

            Y’golonac had howled his rage as they pursued his bleeding body, endlessly shooting and stabbing it. One of his enormous hands toppled a wall of bookshelves, scattering the priceless volumes on the floor.  The books all opened and his massive bulk began tearing apart and being sucked into them.  His mouths sneered and snarled before they were gone entirely into the books, “I will not have this world, but she will.  Your struggles and deaths are in all vain.  And if not her, another.  You shall find no escape.  No victory.”

            Mary involuntarily shook at the memory of his words and the nightmare memory of his touch.  The Apocalypse again seemed at hand.  Another vortex had opened in the Heavens.  A dark blot that turned the sky around it blood red, through it could be seen another galaxy, strange stars, suns, moons, and one great planet that somehow hovered but a few hundred feet above the Earth.  With the amorphousness of a dream, the planet seemed to shift its shape and nature every moment. 

A speck fell from the planet, growing larger and larger, until it could be seen, a giant spider, hovering over the Earth, laughing with the voice of Hecate.   It sprayed its eggs like asteroids into the street.  They smashed through buildings, walls, trees, and anyone unfortunate to be beneath them.  Sticky steel strong strands fell down from the sky, Leng Spiders diving from them to the ground. They began to spread their webs through the city and springing and pouncing made its inhabitants their prey. 

***

            “You!”

            “Greetings Gloria.”  The tall gaunt man momentarily looked up from his desk, but continued writing. “Why are you so distant from your friends?  They might have found your assistance timely.  Certainly more timely than this intrusion on my work.”

            “Why are you doing this?  I know who you are!  You’re not a bad man!”

            “In an infinity of universes, is it unreasonable to think I might be in one of them?  And be realistic, as a modern woman, you ought to be educated enough to be beyond these superstitions of good and evil.  Besides, someone ought to write the last story.  Someone blessed with the vision of the Gods.  It is not for eternal glory, but certainly the activity has intrinsic aesthetic worth.  You should understand.  You have some vision yourself.”

            “You’re helping them!  You’re helping them!  And you’ll gain nothing from it.”

            “Nothing is to be gained, or lost.  Perhaps if you viewed human affairs with the proper perspective you’d find that the sooner the farce of existence ends, the better.  Your anthropocentric parochialism is really just egocentricity in the face of the inconceivable grandeur and magnitude of time and space.  True, I myself am an instrument, though this too is a fact of no significance.”

            “No!  Stop!  Stop!”

            “I will stop when it is time to stop.  You will stop when it is time to stop.  But the proper time has not yet commenced.  There is still some story to tell. You do not yet appreciate my work, work I really must attend to.  Perhaps your visions shall lead you to me again, and we can converse once more before the end.  Don’t attempt to reach for your firearm.  With the stroke of my pen, you shall leave and remember nothing of this little discussion.  More of a monologue actually.”

Custom components can be found here:

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

Ancient One: Atlach-Nacha

Herald: The Arbiter of Reality

Required Investigators: Sister Mary, Marie Lambeau

Start of Game: All investigators start with a random green corruption card.  Place a Leng Spider on the streets of Easttown, Miskatonic University, and two at Northside.  Upton Pickman can not be drawn as one of the 11 allies, but Professor Armitage must always be, place him on the bottom of the ally deck after it's shuffled.

Special Rules:

If Marie draws grapple, draw another skill and place it on the bottom of the deck.

Leng Spiders are not counted toward the monster limit and can not be taken as trophies or returned to the cup by any means other than combat.  If a Leng spider appears in the Outskirts, it goes to the investigator in Arkham with the lowest sneak (first player’s choice) instead.  If no one is in Arkham, it goes to The Woods.

Investigators moving into locations or streets adjacent to Leng spiders must fight or evade a Leng Spider copy (copies can not get extra toughness).

An investigator knocked unconscious or driven insane by a 4 toughness Leng Spider must draw a Red Corruption or be devoured.

Overwhelming and Nightmarish trigger The Arbiter of Reality’s Failed Combat Check or Failed Horror Check respectively (even if the damage is prevented).

Scenario Eleven

The Whispering Mouths

Rain pattered down on the library’s windows.  Mary’s face pressed against her palm, her eyes closed, her head throbbing from the task of translating the ancient tome on her desk.  Instead of deciphering the nearly forgotten language, she found herself recalling the desperation of…  How long ago was it?  It seemed like the day before.

The Dark Young skittered, slithered, and swarmed around them, rending and gorging in sprays of blood, bone, and inner organs.  Hecate’s power had grown so immense as had her offspring.  She bred with the Ancient One that had become her puppet vessel.  Her cultists shrieked with wild adulation, the blood of their victims, the blood of each other, smeared on their faces…  They copulated with her orgiastic children even as they, still living, were dismembered and devoured by them.  The memories— writhing in unholy frenzy as the tentacles enveloped and consumed them— haunted her eyes.

Had the Key itself not poured foreign knowledge into her mind, forcing her lips to move against her will, surely they would have all been doomed.  Her spell of banishment broke the link leashing Shub Niggurath to Hecate.  Hers indeed?  Torn asunder, the two demons began to battle between each other… For dominance, for vengeance, for?  Then they vanished, and peace descended on Arkham again.

The turmoil ceased.  Again.  For now.  Mary felt as if she had just been startled out of a nightmare.  Her head lurched up, had she been asleep?  Her memories had the vividness of a dream.  She looked around the room for answers, but all was silent.  Her memories and confusion still tormented her.  She knew it was no dream.  No ending.

A month of quiet had passed.  Then shadow garbed monsters in the shape of men stalked the town.  They were human once, but now…  Something else.  One of Tony’s spies told him that he’d seen someone in a strange mask bringing a book to Sadie’s place.  No one had seen her since, but ever since then, that’s where the monsters came and went.  Was she a prisoner?  Or something worse?

Mary listened to the rain and watched it oozing down the glass.  The tears of God? She nervously fingered her crucifix and tried to calm her suddenly agonized breathing.

 Her breathing?  Not hers alone.  It grew louder and louder.  It came from her book.  It came from all the books.  A lusty and sinister rasping.

“Mary,” it whispered with endless voices, “I am the answer to your prayers.”

It was not God, no more than the voice that spoke to poor deluded Zoey was.  Mary sprang from her seat to run, but she could not flee.

A hard yellow hand had reached out from the book and gripped her wrist with an unyielding grasp.  She struggled to tear herself away, but the book was too heavy from the bloated thing dwelling within it.

She felt the hand…  Licking her.  Gently nibbling, a passionate lover.  Pain!  The tips of rows of teeth pressed deep into her flesh.  Endless rows of stabbing pins.  The pain.  She screamed for help, but no one could hear.  The whispers chuckled at her futile cry.  The Whispers promised pleasures of the flesh, far greater than a non-existent Heaven, they spoke of her as having a wasted cloistered life, devoid of sensuality, devoid of significance, they promised a child for her blighted womb.  They called her a feast for their eyes, though they had none.  They pleaded, cajoled, and tore through her flesh as she denied them again and again.

Why did the Key not save her?  Pull her forth?  Send her elsewhere?  O, send her somewhere safe!  God’s judgment for questioning Him?  Job had wondered at His justice as well!  Yet…

“Oh God!  Oh God!”

“Is that pain or pleasure?  I can not tell,” said the mouth in the hand, tonguing around her meat, to talk in muffled tones, as its nails and teeth bit deep into her yet again.  Mary did not scream again.  Her voice began chanting.  The Key controlled her.  The hand released, the book slammed shut, the library was silent.

Mary fell to her knees in her pooling blood, weeping in pain and prayer.  She collapsed as a librarian entered the room shouting for help.

The next thing Mary knew, she was being carried to the hospital, burning with fevered thoughts.  Was God punishing her for violating His law with her own sorceries?  But…  She was a nun, not a witch, was she not?   A judgmental hypocrite perhaps...  Is this the lesson God wishes to teach?  The darkness of unconsciousness tore her from her speculations.

Custom components can be found here:

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

Ancient One: Y’golonac

Herald: The Sheldon Gang

Required Investigators: Sister Mary

Special Rules:

Gangster tokens are not drawn for being in stable locations during the first upkeep.


All stable locations except Ye Olde Magick Shoppe and Arkham Asylum are corrupted.  Whenever the terror level rises, draw two mythos cards and corrupt any locations shown on them; The Science Building can never be corrupted, but its special ability comes with the additional cost of two sanity.

Cultists are immune to handcuffs.


Investigators driven insane or knocked unconscious must lose half their clues in addition to normal penalties.

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.