Dead Dreams - Search for Kadath

I thought it was all a freak occurrence, maybe something I ate or something I read.

Then the weird dreams continued . . .

Justin, Percy and I found ourselves wandering the docks of mysterious city.  We had no idea where we were going.  Our only clue was what has to be a far-off location, a single word:   Kadath.

We questioned several sailors, but most of them ignored us, until a slanty-eyed gentleman waved us over.

"You seek passage?"  he asked, watching us with both eyes, simultaneously.

"We're looking for a place called Kadath," I answered.

Nodding, his face never lost the toothy grin.  "I'l take you where you need to go."

He took us aboard his ship and we sailed for many days.  Looking out over the water, I could've sworn the ship was floating atop the clouds.  As night fell on the third day, we dozed in a corner of one of the cabins.

We awoke, still a night, but in a deserted train yard, with no water in sight.

"I thought he was taking us to Kadath," Justin said as we inspected our surroundings.

From above, a familiar voice crackled in the breeze.  "I said I would take you where you Need to go, and you now are."

Following the markings on the ground, we searched for any life in the area.  Unfortunately, we learned the railway wasn't quite as deserted as we thought.

From the darkness, several figures emerged into the moon-lit circle.  They wore robes, but their faces ended in long white tentacles.  As the moon fully escaped the clouds, they fell to all fours and howled into the wind before turning and stalking toward us.

Percy shot one, but this only seemed to anger the rest.

Suddenly, two of them leaped and before I could flinch, they were upon me, growling through hidden mouths, tentacles around my throat.  I choked and fought to free myself.

As my vision began to fade, I heard a gunshot, and the two released me, vanishing into the fog.  Percy raced forward to keep them from returning while Justin checked to make sure I was okay.

My senses returning, they helped me back to my feet.

"You okay?"  Justin asked.

Touching my fingers to my still-bruised neck, I nodded.  "Yeah, what were those thing?"

Percy shrugged.  "Beats me.  Hope that's the worst we see."

Funny he should say that because, moments later, we heard what we thought were wings flapping above.  Spinning to face the sound, we backed away as two creatures that looked like face-less men with leathery wings and long nails, dropped from the sky before us.


"The Thing in the Moonlight" is one of several story HP Lovecraft wrote for his Dreamlands settings, and the creature that attacked my group were prominent in that tale.  As for the two winged creatures at the end, well, you'll have to see for yourself.


Deadly Dreams, the first supplement to Lovecraft's Revenge is coming soon from Two Hour Wargames.  Keep an eye out at

www.twohourwargames.com

And also keep an eye focused above, for that howling you hear may be something much worse than a wolf!

Escaping the Underworld - Deadly Dreams AAR

In Deadly Dreams, the first supplement to Lovecraft's Revenge, you journey through the Dreamlands, where reality takes a backseat and the absurd is the norm.  This world, created by HP Lovecraft through such stories as The Cats of Ulthar, The Thing in the Moonlight, and The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, is filled with all new wonders of fantasy, and of course, horror.  with new locations, attributes, and creatures, Deadly Dreams brings new adventures to your games.

Let's continue to follow our heroes on their present journey.

The next night, my dream continued . . .


Percy, Justin, and I, along with two ghouls who accompanied us, traveled through the cave and toward the exit out of the Underworld.  Pickman, or rather the ghoul that had once been Pickman, tasked us with finding his missing masterpiece, and he feared the one who stole it was looking for a way out of the Dreamlands with it.

The tunnel opened into a large room with a pool in the center.  As we approached, bubbles reached the water's surface and we heard a groan in the distance.

Not trusting out chances, we sought another way out of the cave.  For several minutes, we explored the tunnel as our new friends strayed back a bit to watch our backs.  Then our fears turned to reality.

Having taken a wrong turn, we were now lost.  Fortunately, although I usually suffer from claustrophobia, I didn't feel nervous at all in the tunnel, not even as even our ghoul friends jumped slightly at the growls in the distance behind us.

Finally, the tunnel opened into a huge, multi-leveled cavern.  We stepped out of the tunnels mouth, when Justin froze, his eyes locked on the ground.  Shining my torch, I then realized what had startled him; we had stumbled upon a boneyard.  Something was using this cavern to feast.

And hearing growls, we looked up and saw exactly what that was.

One of the ghouls grumbled something, and my friend translated.  "They call them Wamps, huge creatures that feast on anything smaller that they find in these caves."

Sure enough, the creatures inched forward, no doubt eyeing us for their next meal.

The ghouls lunged forward, but within seconds, the Wamps reduced them to bloody stains on the cavern floor.

Justin and Percy attacked and somehow managed to drop two of the creatures.  Picking up a skull, I hurled it at another, but the Wamp barely acknowledged the hit, and the rest of the towering monsters lurched toward us.

Choosing discretion over anything resembling valor, we bolted into a random tunnel mouth, fleeing as fast as our legs would carry us.  We heard the thumps behind us as the Wamps gave chase, but after ducking into another tunnel, we eventually lost them.

And speaking of lost, here were are again, not having a clue where 'Here' is exactly.

But seeing a light ahead, we decided to investigate, hoping none of the monsters living in these caves knew how to work torches.

Instead we found an older man, wearing multi-colored robes, all alone in a small room.

"We're looking for the way out of the Underworld," I said, hoping against hope that this person could help us.

"Indeed," he said, smiling widely and revealing way too many teeth than we needed to see.  "Just follow the path behind me and then take the red-stoned tunnel to the surface."

"Thanks," I replied.  We started forward but the man remained.  "You're not coming?"

"Oh don't worry about me," the man answered, still with his creepy grin.  "I know my way around."

Entering this new tunnel we searched for our way out, but then we encountered a new problem.

"Two paths," Justin said as he inspected the ground, "and both are lined with red stones."

Percy looked back and forth.  "Which do we take?"

Returning through the tunnel, I decided to find that mysterious man and ask him again.  Maybe he had forgotten about there existing two paths.

 
However, when I returned to the room, the man was gone.  Of course, he could've found another way out, but as I stepped closer into the cavern, I noticed footsteps only entering from the far tunnel, none exiting.

It's as if he'd vanished into thin air.

But no man can do that, even in this world, right?


Lovecraft's Revenge:  Deadly Dreams is coming soon from Two Hour Wargames.  

What will occur in your dreams?

I had the weirdest dream . . .

I found myself walking down a long hallway toward a single door, and as I got close, it opened .

Passing through the door, I ran into my friends, Justin and Percy, who claimed to have passed through similar doorways, but as we all looked back, every door closed, and vanished.

Each friend claimed to feel . . . a little . . . different.

"I can hear the trees talking."

"There's something alive in that direction.."

"Strange, I'm not shuddering in terror like usual."

Noticing the cave around us, we set out, exploring the large tunnel with lighting from a source we couldn't see.  Even stranger, this light shone from above, though we were still in the cave.  Then, looking around, we found ourselves in a graveyard,

and we weren't alone!

Emerging from the shadows, they surrounded us.  We had no weapons.  This dream was about to end with my jolting awake in a cold sweat as the ghouls ate us, but I remained, and curiously I felt nothing, no terror, no trembling sensation, not even a shiver.

But instead of attacking, one of them spoke to us.

"They want us to follow them," Percy said.
"You can understand them?"  I asked.
Percy shrugged.  "I don't know how, but yes."

Leading us past the graves, we stopped before a hut, and a ghoul dressed in pants and a formal jacket emerged.  Stopping before us, he began to speak, and Percy translated for us.

"I am, I was Pickman, and I need you . . ."

Deadly Dreams, the first supplement for Lovecraft's Revenge, is coming soon from Two Hour Wargames.

You told your story; now tell us your dreams . . .

Lovecraft's Revenge - Player's Aid

I recently finished a Player's Aid for Lovecraft's Revenge, which includes several Opening Scenes for stories.  Since I wanted to make it easy for people to roll at random, I numbered them 2-12, which gives us 11 scenes.  However, I wanted one more, so here's # 13, along with my own results, playing through it.

I also found some more Rory Story Cubes to add to my collection, including Clues and Fright.

8 Legged Terror

A giant spider-like creature is reported to have attacked several people.  Reports also say the creature has a head that resembled an unidentified animal and people were identified to have been killed as if by a blunt object, rather than fangs as spiders usually bite.

Objective:  Research a Legend

Starting Location: University

Time of Day:  Day

Number of Clues: 8

Starting DL: 4

Special Rules:  None. 

My character, Theo, is a Rep 5 Academic, and has the Genius, Clumsy, and Strong Willed attributes.  Knowing he's in over his head, he picks up a shotgun before starting his investigation.

Theo starts off at the University, where he receives the information.  Exploring the college, he suddenly feels a rush of heat, like being surrounded by numerous people, yet the quad is empty this time of night.  Reaching the library, he asks the clerk for information, and the librarian directs him to the 4th floor, where the Exotic Studies sections are.

As he reaches the top, Theo meets a researcher, who sends him to an older bookstore across town.

So far so good.

Walking down the busy sidewalk, Theo thought he heard someone call his name, but when he turned, he didn't see anyone.  Strange.  Reaching the book store, he looked over the shelves and found a book detailing various folklore of the town.  One passage even mentions 'Spiders from the Sky.'  He also notices some symbols that resemble those carved into the rocks at the beach.

Arriving at the beach, Theo notices some soldiers watching a dancer as she entertains the public.  However, no one really pays Theo much attention.  Reaching the rocks, he realizes the markings were also seen in a cave in the older part of the city.

Entering the cave, Theo notices the ground feels crunchy, like walking on bones, not that he knows what walking on bones feels like.  He does find a dog, who follows him through the cave, and he names the animal Bones.  The cave leads him to an old mansion, and the two explore it before running into some cultists.

The cultists attack, but Bones attacks one, causing the others to take off.  With them gone, Theo finds papers left behind with the weird symbols, along with sketches of a spider with a weird-shaped head.

At this point, Theo and Bones reach the graveyard, only to find a bunch of ghouls participating in a weird dance.  The ghouls approach hungrily at first, but at Bones' barking, they turn and leave.  On a nearby gravestone, Theo sees more of the same designs as before, along with some trees.  He sets out for the woods to find out what's going on.

The two reach the woods and learn that the truth as they see piles of dead bodies.  Suddenly a mountain of dust rolls around the corner.

Theo fires his gun, but it does nothing, and he is crushed under the rolling pile of dirt and stones.  At least Bones escapes become another victim of the Crawling Chaos.

An unfortunate defeat for poor Theo, but at least he went believing the spider-like creature was probably just the Crawling Chaos . . . unless the spider creature is still out there!

The Player's Aid, which includes the other Opening Scenes, can be found here:

http://site.twohourwargames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3045


Have fun with your horrific games!

Lovecraft's Revenge - Four Frightening Tales

With Lovecraft's Revenge close to release, here are some more examples of game play.  While the main game remains, we did tweak some rules to make the game more accessible for those not familiar with Two Hour Wargames game play.  But don't worry, the terror is still there, and your chances of survival are just as slim.

For these games, I used the Battle Board and dice representing the characters.  Green dice represent my group.  Red dice represent the enemy.  Other colored dice represent no-player characters.  And finally, white dice represent the actual rolls I made.  In addition, the white board represent outdoor locations, while the blue is for indoors.

I ran four separate games and got four very different results.  Keep that in mind; each game will be your own unique horror story!


1. My group started at a university and we were called to search the nearby mountains.  Apparently, people reported seeing multi-colored lights in the distance, and some wondered if creatures from other worlds were involved.

After conducting research at the university and later questioning people in town who reported the sightings, my characters, a scientist, a student, and a cop, reached the mountains.  Seeing ruins in the distance, they trudged through the snow and up the hill.  At this point, the Darkness Level remained low, so I figured we had a fighting chance.

However, a PEF resolved, and it wasn't pretty.

Several bears leaped out and immediately charged my group.

Your Star, which is the main character you control, gains Star Power at the beginning of each story.  These dice allow you to survive potentially deadly injuries as long as you roll low enough.  Unfortunately, I rolled ALL 6's for my Star, which means he took FULL punishment!

Our group never learned the truth about the mysterious lights as the apparently hungry bears mauled us in a matter of minutes.

Final result:  No survivors.


2.  While searching for a book that was stolen from the university, my group, 3 cops and a professor, went through an abandoned mansion, fought a number of rat creatures, and eventually ended up at a museum.  

Although we hadn't faced too much adversity, the Darkness Rating rose extremely fast, and I was determined to finish the game as quickly as possible.  

Eventually we found that the museum's curator had stolen the book to learn how to summon one of the 'Old Ones.'  We managed to kill him, but before we could get the book, the final PEF resolved:

When the Darkness Level reaches its max, a deity appears.

Suddenly, the hideous, blob-like Ghatanothoa appeared and when rolling to see who got to act first, he got the advantage.

Final result:  Entire group literally petrified.


3.  This time only two of us started the story; a police officer and a detective.  We were searching for some teenagers who had vanished after a wild party the night before.  After speaking with a number of residents at the beach-front, we learned that some of the kids had dared each other to go to the Graveyard.  Apparently that was our next goal.

Entering the mortuary, we found one of the teens who told us her friends were eaten by monsters.  Then we met the monsters.

Several ghouls emerged from the shadows and attempted to surround us.  My Star and the teen escaped, but the detective became dinner.

Final Result:  Lost 1 character but still a success!


4.  Four this one, my group, two detectives and two Explorers, set out to locate the fabled Tsdeth Idol.  While we spent some time at the library, we ended up finding more information from a priest at small cliff-side church.  This led us to an older part of town and an abandoned mental hospital.

Almost immediately after entering, we encountered some ghosts.  We escaped unharmed and continued exploring.  The building lived (and I use that term loosely) up to its atmosphere as more ghosts tortured us, either with their presence or through sounds and tossing objects at us.  They also had learned to manipulate the environment (#%#@$% mirrors!) against us, but we made it through.

We then found a switch that led us to a large secret chamber.  After facing and just barely driving off a wraith (Picture a powerful and really ticked off ghost!), we found the idol and managed to escape the hospital, almost.

Just because you complete your objective doesn't mean your story is over!  The story 'Pickman's Model' ended with, "it was a photograph from life."  'The Picture in the House' ended with the narrator barely escaping only for a bolt of lightning to destroy the house.  We use the Aftermath table to represent how the story ends.  Usually, if you survive this far, you'll only come away with some scrapes.  But other times, you'll escape only to walk right into disaster.

In this game, we did find the idol and escape the hospital, but unfortunately, things weren't over yet.

As we walked outside and turned around, we realized the huge hospital was, on the outside, barely the size of a museum mural and as two-dimensional as a piece of paper.  My Star had nightmares for months while the others spent some time recovering in padded rooms and on couches.

Final Result:  Success and everyone survived, but three members suffered some form of Insanity.


Those were just a few games I ran over the course of a couple of days.  Each one went in its own direction and each had a very different ending.

How will your story go, and more importantly, how will it end?

Lovecraft's Revenge is coming soon from Two Hour Wargames.

Lovecraft's Revenge - When things don't go your way!

You've seen different aspects of game play and last time, you say how things go when the dice are pretty-much on your side.  Sure, one character suffered a startling revelation at the end, but everyone pretty much made it through the game in one piece.

This won't always happen.

Here's a game I recently ran where things went really bad, really fast!  This is one of the fun parts of Lovecraft's Revenge; seeing IF you can survive, because although you do have a chance, if you go by Lovecraft's stories themselves, the odds are not in your favor!

So let's see if my characters have a chance . . .

Kim Stevens and Harold Steps are detectives who discover that a boat-house has been ransacked and several boats have been sunk.  While residents reported seeing someone in the area, they never heard any sounds, even sounds of items getting destroyed.

After spending some time exploring the beach-side, they are attacked by mysterious, masked individuals wearing cloaks and attacking with clubs.  Drawing their guns, Steps and Stevens take them out, but upon removing the masks and opening the cloaks, they find not people, but millions of worms and maggots.  Steps is noticeably shaken by this revelation.

Searching the pockets, they find a note with the word; "Drouning."

Later, the duo find a dog, Rowlf, who follows them around.  After several hours, they encounter a group of cultists near the pier.

With crazed expressions, the cultists attack, but Stevens, Steps, and Rowlf take them out.  In the leader's pocket, they find another piece of paper, again with the word, "Drouning."

After questioning a local fisherman, they learn Captain Drouning died when his ship, caught in a horrible storm, crashed into the side of a cliff.  He was buried in a cemetery across the bridge.

(At this point, the Darkness Level has risen quickly; if it gets any higher, that could mean the appearance of something Very Very Bad!)


Deciding to play things safe, the three enter the cemetery in the morning, just as the sun is rising.  Safe enough, right?  Not quite.  almost immediately, two glowing figures appear; Wraiths.

One of them passes right through Steps, and the detective turns pale white, his eyes bulge, and he drops to the ground in a lifeless heap.  Seeing all of this, Rowlf vanishes into the woods.

Left on his own, Stevens takes off running.  Racing past the various tombstones, he trips and falls, landing in a recently dug-up grave.  Staring at the open coffin and the decayed corpse inside, Stevens also sees a torn-up diary detailing Captain Drouning's jealousy of other, more-successful fishermen.

All of a sudden, each page changes so the word, "Drouning," appears.  Climbing out of the grave, Stevens figures out what was going on.  Whoever robbed the grave found the diary and was possessed by the former captain to destroy as much as possible in the harbor.

Breaking any hold the ghost might have had on him, Stevens closed the coffin's lid, refilled the grave, and walked away, satisfied that he had solved the mystery and more-importantly, survived.

Not so fast!

(With the Darkness Level as high as it is, I roll on the Aftermath Table.  It's not pretty.)

Suddenly the ground opens up and a screaming Kim Stevens is dragged into the darkness, right before the hole closes again, leaving no sign of the hapless detective.

(Yep, everything went to hell, but at least the dog probably lived.)

Your own adventures could go one way or another.  And it all depends on what happens in the game.  In Lovecraft's Revenge, no two games will be the same, and not all will be pleasant.  Although your chances of survival to lie somewhat in your hands, your fate ultimately depends on the whim of the game itself, and whether it allows you a happy ending.

Lovecraft's Revenge is coming soon from Two Hour Wargames.

Once you start your first game, good luck.

You'll need it!