Up is Down, Left is Right
I decided to see if I could play the first scenario from the Arkham Horror card game using a rules-light RPG instead of the card game rules. I didn’t use any external oracles, just advancing the plot in good or bad directions according to what seemed “right” in the moment.
So, this is Carolyn Fern in ‘The Gathering’, which is part 1 of The Night of the Zealot campaign from the Arkham Horror core game.
Investigator: Carolyn Fern - Psychologist - Arkham Horror wiki
Carolyn is a first year resident at a sanitarium in Providence. Over the past six months, she has been studying the dreams of her patients using hypnosis. One patient in particular gave her vivid and disturbing descriptions of his dreams, right up until he was murdered with a strange knife that closely resembled something from one of his nightmares.
Disturbed and frightened by his murder, Carolyn dug back through her notes, poring over them late into the night…
Carolyn jolts back to wakefulness in her apartment. The lamp has burned low. Why aren’t these draughty old houses wired for electricity yet? Time to call it a night. She stands and stares at the wall where the door should be. Instead, a painting is hanging there on a wall that looks like it never had a door.
Your Insight has increased to 2
Carolyn jumps backwards. This isn’t right. Am I still asleep? She looks around the room, looking for the missing exit.
You learn the bare minimum to proceed.
There is no door. It looks as if there was never a door. Each wall looks as satisfyingly solid and time-worn as you’d expect. The floor is very different, however. Where once were floor boards is now packed earth. Carolyn kneels down to examine it, then grabs a letter opener from the desk to scrape the dirt away.
You learn the bare minimum to proceed.
The earth is packed as if from many feet, but gives under assault from the decorative letter opener. While kneeling down, Carolyn hears digging in the distance. She holds her breath to listen with her ear to the ground.
You learn what a competent investigator would discover.
With her face close to the ground Carolyn feels a gentle draught across her skin. Curious, if there’s a breeze then there’s a way through to… somewhere. Moving slowly and stopping to catch the draught again she carefully homes in on the dirt-spattered rug and pulls it back to reveal her missing door, set into the floor.
Your Insight has increased to 3.
Reaching across she awkwardly opens the dirt-spattered door and peeks through.
You learn the bare minimum to proceed.
The hallway beyond is her hallway, but altered in several ways. The dirt-covered floor continues throughout. One of the doors has a glowing orange halo around it. The digging noise she heard earlier is now louder. A human voice is shouting something.
The biggest difference is that the hallway continues down but that everything in the hallway remains unaffected by the fact that down is also sideways. Gravity has shifted through a right angle.
Your Insight has increased to 4.
Gripping her dirty letter opener, Carolyn sits down on the edge of the doorway. Her legs dangle through the doorway, feeling gravity in a different direction. Closing her eyes doesn’t help, but she does it anyway. Here we go!
You succeed well and may get something extra.
Carolyn tips over and then around the edge and lands on the ground through the door from where she was. Looking back she can see up into the study, see the underside of her desk.
She recalls her evening’s work. She thinks back over the textbooks she has studied, the case notes of outlandish claims. Aside from my dirty knees I’ve not got anything to tell me I’m not dreaming. Is this what some of my patients feel?
Advancing down the hallway with her letter opener held out in front of her, Carolyn approaches the glowing door.
You learn the bare minimum to proceed.
The parlour door looks as it always did but in front of it there is an intensely hot orange haze. She finds a vase of flowers which she throws at the heat haze.
You learn the bare minimum to proceed.
The scorched vase bounces off but the water seemed to briefly reduce the glow. But within seconds it has renewed. In that short time Carolyn realises the voice is still audible, and became louder as the water fizzed and steamed.
Carolyn shouts through the barrier to the barely-audible person beyond. “Hello! Who is there? Can you help me? I am trapped!”
You barely succeed.
The voice on the other side goes briefly silent. When it restarts it is much easier to understand. Was it previously speaking in another language? Carolyn can only make out some of what is said. It is a woman’s voice. She seems to say “barrier must…” and “sacrifice”. Then after a pause, the incomprehensible utterances return, like a chant.
Your Insight remains at 4.
Carolyn tries to shout again but receives no further responses. I’ve got to get through here. I’ll get more water and try again. With the same vase and another in her hand she opens the bathroom door to fill them with fresh water.
You barely succeed.
The squeaky taps spit rust-coloured water but she manages to fill them both eventually. Back at the barrier she hurls the contents of both at the orange heat haze to beat it back.
You succeed brilliantly, maybe getting more than you wanted.
The barrier fizzes and steams and the orange glow vanishes. In that moment the wall behind Carolyn splinters and peels back like a flower opening in sunlight. A giant red-robed figure stoops and pushes through the gap. Its face is covered by a mask made from the skull and antlers of a deer. It carries a twisted staff in one taloned hand.
Your Insight remains at 4.
Carolyn jumps for the door handle to escape this monstrosity.
You succeed brilliantly, maybe getting more than you wanted.
As she bursts through into the parlour, the robed figure tips its head back and screams.
Your Insight remains at 4.
Through the parlour door, Carolyn comes face to face with a red-haired woman wielding a torch threateningly. “What have you done with my barrier?” she screams as Carolyn slams the door shut behind her and shouts “Run!”.
The woman ignores her and orders Carolyn to hold the door. She picks up a dog-eared leather-bound book and starts to read aloud from it. Carolyn suddenly hears the full force of the words she heard indistinctly through the energy barrier.
Your Insight remains at 4.
She cannot tell what language the words are in but they seem to reach inside and make every part of her uncomfortable. Through the door Carolyn can hear a noise like a screaming goat. She puts her hand firmly on the handle and leans on the door, hoping that whatever it was on the other side wasn’t very strong.
You fail.
The door pushes open and then Carolyn slams it shut. The second push is unnaturally strong. Carolyn is pushed across the room, tumbling to a halt near the front door, her head and shoulders and knees aching.
A deep growl emanates from the darkened hallway and the skull-masked figure stoops and enters the parlour. Behind in the darkness other dog-like things run back and forward, howling and snapping.
The red-haired woman stops her chanting and starts to wave her flaming torch at the figure. Carolyn looks around for something to aid her, a weapon of some kind.
You learn everything to discover, plus something more: new scientific discovery.
Sitting by the door is a small crate of items Carolyn had been meaning to deal with. Poking out the top was a bottle of incredibly bad whiskey. On the top shelf by the hat rack is a book of matches. Carolyn assembles a makeshift incendiary device.
Finally, Carolyn shouts “get out the way!” and throws the whiskey bottle with a flaming rag stuffed into its neck.
You succeed well and may get something extra.
Your Insight has increased to 5.
The bottle smashes against the robed figure and bursts into flames with a sudden woosh. The figure gives a terrible scream and retreats back into the hallway and out of sight.
The other woman turns and runs past Carolyn to the door, then pulls her through. “You are right!” she said. “We have to burn the whole place down!” Outside she tries to put her torch to the wooden walls without success.
“Who are you? What was that? Why are you burning down my house?!”
You learn the bare minimum to proceed.
“I tried to trap them, but you broke the barrier. They’ll come for us. We have to burn them.”
Carolyn stares at her, her mind stalling on the facts but accepting the conclusion. “There’s a full jerry can in the shed.”
Your Insight has reduced to 4.
With the addition of accelerant it doesn’t take long for Carolyn’s house to burn hot and bright. The two women stand at a distance, smelling of petrol and burning textiles.
“Lita,” says the woman, introducing herself. “Lita Chantler.”
“Carolyn Fern.”
Your Insight remains at 4.
The fire consumed Carolyn’s new home. The surreality of what happened is fading and the reality of her home and possessions turning into smoke and ash begins to hit home.
“I’m sorry about your house, Carolyn.” She turns to look at Carolyn. “The creatures in your home are called ghouls. They live in the crypts and tunnels beneath Arkham, feeding on corpses.”
“What were they doing in my house?” cried Carolyn.
You learn the bare minimum to proceed.
“They have been more active lately, since… their lair was destroyed. Digging new passages. And the graveyard is not very far away.” She points through some nearby trees.
“That” says Carolyn, gesturing at the fire, “was everything that I owned.”
“But we beat them back! And we can do it again,” says Lita, suddenly excited. “Come with me! We have no time to lose!”