Headline: "Call Hastur, Maybe?"
Ancient One
Hastur
Investigators
Leo Anderson, the Expedition Leader - Susan
Zoey Samaras, the Chef - Robbi
Agnes Baker, the Waitress - Justin
Harvey Walters, the Professor - Rob
End of Game
Harvey used the "Call Ancient One" spell to awaken Hastur when he only had half of the doom track filled.
Then we kicked Hastur's ass.
House Rules/Game Setup
Justin randomly chose Hastur. Then we shuffled and dealt 3 investigators to every player. We discussed strategy, then selected 1 investigator each. Our strategy: control the # of monsters in Arkham (keep the terror track down), increase your luck with allies, spells, & unique items, gain many magical weapons, and fight him.
Expansions in play
Curse of the Dark Pharaoh
Dunwich Horror
The King in Yellow (we use the new cards from this, but we never have actually had the 'play' enter play)
Kingsport Horror (we left out Heralds and Guardians)
The Black Goat of the Woods
Innsmouth Horror
Highlights
* Robbi got rid of a rumor by discarding a Blessing and a Skill @ Misk U: the "World Torn Asunder" rumor
* Rob quote: "Susan makes more retroactive decisions than Romney."
* Harvey has a really slow speed and never really leaves the administrative building @ Misk U, except when he went to the Dreamlands and got a clue. (or just fell asleep?)
* Leo keeps hanging out at the newspaper (hoping to get a job and buy unique items). But he spills ink and gets annoyed that his book reading keeps getting interrupted.
* After kicking major ass, Harvey uses the spell "Call Ancient One."
Justin's storytelling of the game:
It was a warm September afternoon in late 1931. Professor Harvey Walters leaned back in his wooden rolling chair in the
great empty wooden lecture hall at Miskatonic University. He had been looking up references regarding the latest trend that
was enthralling the city: a new play known as the King in Yellow. Other than some uninformative but enthusiastic reviews, it seemed
that no one knew of who its author was nor even the publisher. Truly a curiousity.
It would be several hours before the first class of the semester. So Professor Walters decided to open the book and begin
reading. The first scene was almost entirely unremarkable except that it had a mesmerizing meter to it. Between that and the
warm stuffiness of the lecture hall, the professor felt his eyes getting heavy. The play took a turn toward the fantastic with
one of the characters singing,
"Along the shore the cloud waves break,
The twin suns sink behind the lake,
The shadows lengthen
In Carcosa"
The professor closed his eyes a moment, imagining such a place. He moved his glasses down his nose and pressed on his itchy eyes.
Sparks of green relief swirled around the image of a beach on a distant planet. He felt as though he were slowly sinking backward and smiled as the dream overtook him,
never noticing the glowing green portal that had formed in the floor beneath his chair, tipping him back into the great unknown.
--
"Hastur!," shouted Zoey Samras, her cleaver neatly slicing an onion. The rest of the kitchen staff stared at her.
She had occasionally had these outbursts since she was a little girl. She knew that it was God talking to her. Her
father insisted that it was just a way to scare away husbands. That's how she became a chef.
"What did I say?" she demanded of the line cook. "You said 'Hastur', ma'am."
She shoved an onion wedge in his mouth. "You watch your mouth!". She dried her hands on a towel. "Mind the stew, there's something I need to take care of."
--
"Are you sure?," growled the weather-beaten face of Leo Anderson as he stabbed the remains of some meatloaf.
"Quite sure," snapped Zoey, poking at her tuna melt. Her tone was irritated but her eyes were darting around the diner like some terrified woodland prey.
"Something horribly wicked is coming this way and we will need the very grace of God to stop it!"
Leo snarled. He wasn't a particularly religious man. Especially not since his last trip to the Yucatan, which he drank
heavily to forget. What he found there were portents that the end of the world was coming in September. Had it not been
for the ghastly things he saw, things that murdered his fellow expedition mates, he would have called Zoey crazy and have been
done with it. Instead he took her with the utmost seriousness.
"I'll let the others know. Stay out of trouble!" He grabbed his hat and headed out the door.
--
Agnes Baker collected the tip, such that it was, and watched Zoey leave out the door to Velma's Diner. Her sixth sense,
as she was coming to call it since reading up on her heritage, was informing her that this was not just some idle talk amongst townsfolk.
She jotted some notes on her order pad and glanced at the electric clock on the wall. Her shift would be over in an hour.
Agnes had recently discovered her heritage as a witch while changing a light bulb not long ago. She paid a week and a half's wages
for some moldy old book on the occult which supposedly told how to cast a spell of withering. It looked simple enough.
She caught a toad and tried the spell on it, mortally embarrassed to even be attempting it. When the creature shrivelled to the size of a prune she knew
she felt a burning need to know more about her past lives. She was sure that's what was calling her. It was herself from eons long ago.
Whatever Leo and Zoey were talking about was connected to something that killed her before. She knew she had to be careful though.
The last thing she needed was to alert the evil of her presence. Or worse, to burn at the stake if some zealot like Zoey found out about her powers.
As her shift ended, Agnes collected her time card and purse. Where would one even look for information about something like this, she wondered.
At a bar, she reasoned. She said good night to her coworkers and headed out to Hibbs Roadhouse.
--
Zoey made the sign of the cross on the altar at the South Church. Father Michael read aloud a prayer and blessed her.
Her visions worsened since coming over from the diner. Whatever it was came from beyond space and time. It thrived on terror.
She felt that's what its goal was, it was going to seduce the city into some maddening terror somehow. She wished she knew how she even knew that.
The priest finished his benediction and she clutched at her cross, reluctantly rising from the altar.
There was only one way to get these godless liberals of Massachusetts to listen and it was going to take drastic measures to get their attention.
--
Professor Walters stared at the magnificent terrain. Sheer plateaus of red rock towered above him with streams of almost purple
water streaming off its edges. An enormous ringed moon hung in the greenish afternoon sky. Some kind of winged reptile flew in the distance.
Despite the arid climate he felt comfortable and almost weightless. It was quite pleasant. He continued on a path through the wilderness until he
turned a corner and happened on a monstrous winged bug -- it looked almost like a crab with housefly wings made out of fungus. It was clawing at a book.
The Professor felt the urge to kill the horrible thing, and looked around for a weapon. He wished for a gun and was puzzled to feel a sudden weight inside his jacket.
He reached inside and pulled out a pistol. He took aim and fired at the creature, who shrieked in surprise. He fired again and it slumped over.
He picked up the book it was clawing at. It had a strange yellow symbol, like three question marks around a point. He flipped open to the first page but heard a tearing sound.
The bug's skin swelled and pulsed at a mound on its back. The professor stood horrified as the hump split open to reveal the hilt of a sword.
He carefully reached out and grabbed at it, using his foot to draw the blade out of the carcass. He shook his head at the sight and continued on the strange path.
--
