Part 2 of
Arkham on Fire

Playing The Midnight Masks by Fantasy Flight Games.

Tools and supplements used:

  • Cthulhu Dark
  • Arkham Horror LCG
  • Trophy Solo
  • UNE: The Universal NPC Emulator

8 minute read

The second part of Night of the Zealot expands in scope from a New England house to a New England town. It’s now dark, Carolyn Fern has just set her house on fire with the help of dabbling sorceress Lita Chantler, there are ghoulish monsters tunnelling beneath the town of Arkham — and in a few hours the followers of Umôrdhoth will enact some terrible rite.

First port of call is to flesh out Lita into a full player-character. I will also reset Carolyn’s “Insight” score so she can make it through the adventure. This follows the logic of the card game and the advice given for campaign play in Cthulhu Dark. I gave Lita an Insight of 2 because she knows more about this world and I think she might be a bit more unhinged accordingly.

  • Carolyn Fern, psychologist
    • Knowledge of medicine, caring attitude, scientific mindset
    • Insight: 1
  • Lita Chantler, sorceress
    • Knowledge of magic, forceful attitude, fanatical mindset
    • Insight: 2

By some strange coincidence the artwork for both of these women gives them flowing red hair, so I’ve now got a great mental image of them running into the night, past Carolyn’s burning house. It’s cold outside, but we’ll give Carolyn the benefit of the doubt and say she grabbed some outerwear before torching the house.

Carolyn is the scientist in this partnership, even if the science is 1920s mental health care. She is cooler and more rational than Lita, who will definitely jump into every encounter without fear or self-doubt.

The card game doesn’t explicitly lay out the facts of the case (Clues are abstract points which are gained and lost in play, finally to be spent to progress when you’ve amassed enough) but reading between the lines we’ve got enough leads to get started. The cultists are named and their motivations given, but I think I’ll let the dice rolls change that as required.

I had some recent success with a 2d6 oracle when play Trophy so I’ll reuse that. I’ll add a Doom count too, which increments when I get doubles on the oracle questions. When it hits 6 then something terrible will occur to shake things up. At the start of each scene if I roll under the current Doom then something will have to change. (We can ignore it until Doom increments once.)

Doom = 1

Scene 1. Planning the Hunt

“Cannibalism, in Arkham?” said Carolyn incredulously. Lita had laid out her theories connecting the ghouls, a death cult worshipping something unspeakable — and finally ritual cannibalism.

“There have been bodies found. It’s been kept quiet. These people are powerful within Arkham, their connections go deep. It’s taken me a long time to unpick the pieces.”

Does Carolyn seem affected by this? Do an Insight roll.

You learn disturbing knowledge with Insight of 1.
Your Insight increases to 2.

Carolyn remembered a patient at Arkham Asylum, who is believed to have committed cannibalism. “I think I have met one of the cultists.” She is uncertain whether they should but is instantly sure that they must track him down. “He is in Arkham Asylum. I can get us in. We must interview him.”

“You’ve met ‘Wolfman’ Drew?” says Lita with delight and excitement. “Yes I’m sure he’s involved, or was before he was caught. I will bet he knows who else is still working, if we can make him talk.”

“Where else have your researches pointed?” Carolyn was going to do this methodically. She pulled a note pad and pen from her coat pocket. A scientist is always prepared to make important observations — and she could tell Lita would be hard to constrain if they didn’t have an effective plan.

Scene 2. Arkham Asylum

Does Carolyn have authority to enter freely? (2, 4) Yes but
Nightwatchman: Sherman Wyndham
UNE conversation
 - mood: FORTHCOMING
 - bearing: INQUISITIVE - SKEPTICISM
 - focus: THE PC'S COMMUNITY

“Good evening Dr Fern, I don’t normally see you working the late shift. And you’ve brought a friend. How do you do ma’am. Sherman Wyndham at your service.” The night watchman tipped his cap but seemed unwilling to simply leave them be. The unstated question hung in the air.

Carolyn attempts to bluff her way with a little bit of truth. “Sherman, how are you? We got caught up in our researches and didn’t realise the time. I need to collect something from Dr Forster’s archives.”

Acting with 2 normal and 0 insight dice. Highest roll is 4:
You succeed competently.

“Of course. Dr Forster has left for the weekend or I’m sure you’d see him up there. Said his wife demanded he take a proper holiday from the office.” He tipped his cap and returned to his newspaper.

Scene 3. Dr Forster’s Archives

“I wasn’t being strictly untrue. Dr Forster’s case notes are legendary in their thoroughness. If anything about ghouls or cults was ever mentioned by Drew then it’ll be in there.”

Investigating with 2 normal and 0 insight dice. Highest roll is 5:
You learn everything there is. You may learn something more from a folk tale.

Is it all there? (1, 3) No

“I thought you said they were thorough and meticulous?”

“They normally are… this is really odd.” Obvious gaps in the record showed that notes had been removed. They pieced together what they could.

“Look at this,” said Lita, “this is the cannibalism story.”

“Isn’t that just Gruesome Jack? Did you not hear that one growing up? One of those urban legends about the monster man who lives in a cave and eats people. Is this the story they tell about Drew?”

“Yes this here is the rumour of Wolfman Drew — and you’re saying it’s just a folk tale but with the names changed? Maybe the story you’d invent if you quickly wanted to pretend it was just one person rather than a larger group?”

Both Lita and Carolyn realise the extent to which the cult are controlling the story.

Lita:
You learn disturbing knowledge with Insight of 2.
Your Insight remains at 2.

Carolyn:
You learn disturbing knowledge with Insight of 2.
Your Insight remains at 2.

Scene 4. A Parisian Wolfman in America

For the sake of the joke title I have decided that Drew is a Frenchman. I found this to be a satisfying change because I can imagine him a bit better now. Maybe some haggard Gérard Depardieu werewolf. For the sake of everyone’s sanity I will not attempt to lean into that with too much accent on the page.

“I ‘ear you out there, breathing. You have come for me then.”

Carolyn and Lita are standing outside a locked steel door. The voice coming from behind the door has made Carolyn stop short.

UNE converstion
 - mood: NEUTRAL
 - bearing: HOSTILE - SURRENDER
 - focus: THE PC'S POWER

“You ‘ave destroyed me. The time, it is come. I see the moon, the stars. You will take me.”

Lita steps towards the door, a cautioning hand on Carolyn’s arm. “Drew, we are not who you think we are. We believe you have been abandoned by some powerful people in this city.”

Suddenly the voice was urgent and whispering, right by the door.

“‘o are you? ‘Ow can you come to my cell and tell me this? On this night?”

Lita tried to seem as if she knew everything, while asking confirmation for many things which she only supposed, or guessed at. “You are right, tonight is the night. You have been abandoned by your former brotherhood. You owe them nothing, Drew.” She reached out with her mind to touch him, to find his humanity.

Acting with 1 normal and 1 insight dice. Highest roll is 6:
You succeed brilliantly, maybe getting more than you wanted.

She connects, and feels his anxiety and fear. Then suddenly these feelings are replaced with resolve.

“I owe my death to the Devourer Below. But nothing to the living.”

As Drew says these words, Lita sees that her mind is not just connected to Drew but something else that makes her dizzy with its scale and power.

You learn disturbing knowledge with Insight of 2.
Your Insight increases to 3.

She briefly feels like she is watching herself through the wrong end of a telescope, her most significant actions seeming small and meaningless. Lita sees herself as a clockwork automaton, every action predictable and leading only to her death. She utters the words “I owe my death to the Devourer Below” and doesn’t know why.

Carolyn asks what will be happening tonight.

Lita rolled a 6, so I think Drew will be forthcoming about the one thing which Lita is unlikely to have found out from her unraveling of the conspiracy: tonight’s ritual.

“There has been a desecration. Tonight the devout followers must call for forgiveness and the power to restore balance. In the Goat Thorn Caves in Arkham Woods my brothers and sisters will call — and Umôrdhoth will hear.”

Lita:
You learn disturbing knowledge with Insight of 3.
Your Insight remains at 3.

Carolyn:
You learn disturbing knowledge with Insight of 2.
Your Insight increases to 3.

Has Carolyn heard this name before? (6, 6) Yes!
Doom = 2

That’s quite a definite outcome, double-sixes for a clear yes, maybe a “yes and”. The doubles also mean the Doom counter finally comes into play. Some games I just make fewer oracle rolls so these clocks don’t do much. From now on it’s possible to roll under the Doom counter, so I need to remember my Altered Scene Checks.

Carolyn had spent the evening re-reading the notes of a man whose nightmares had come real and had been murdered with a knife he had previously described from these nightmares. Under hypnosis he had used the word umôrdhoth but neither she nor her colleagues had been able to identify its meaning. Here it finally was: pieces of the puzzle were connecting together into a terrible greater image.

Carolyn staggered from the asylum, unable to tell if they had moved closer to their goal. Lita was resolute: “We must stop the ritual in the woods tonight, at all costs. We should prepare.”

“We have a plan, Lita.” Carolyn had known this would happen. Lita was itching to delve into Arkham Woods immediately. “We should find out about these bodies. The head mortician at the hospital will have been consulted by the police, so we’ll ask there. And the university will have something on cults, I hear they have an extensive library.”