Alien RPG Starter Set & Chariots of the Gods Act I

Chris's art for our first game of Chariots of the Gods.

So, a while back I bought the Alien RPG rule book. 

Later on I picked up the Starter Set as it contains the adventure Chariots of the Gods as well as dice, map, cards and a rules-lite book. I think it's worth picking this up as all these things would cost more than the starter set.

Chariots of the Gods incorporates Prometheus and Covenant, which I don't mind on their own but I'm not a fan of them being part of the overall Alien universe. Engineers just aren't scary and turning Christ into an engineer whose mission is to set humanity on the right path is not interesting to me... at all. The first Alien movie left so many unanswered questions, which to me, is far scarier. Those frigid depths of endless space is also in our imaginations and getting people to tap into that is where horror waits.

Having said that, we played Chariots of the Gods, as written, and are having a good time with it. If we continue with Alien RPG, I'll have to rewrite some things to cut out what doesn't work for me.

Two fights have taken place outside on the ship's hull, which is a first for us. Lots of fear and paranoia as the crew searches the halls of the ship. The player who was the android was revealed when he got impaled through the gut by a neomorph's barbed tail and sprayed the corridor walls with white android goo. 

One player got killed, horribly, and an NPC scientist's head blew up when a head-burster made an appearance.

Will the players survive and get the USCSS Cronus back to the safety of the Frontier? Or, will they turn into abominations or get their throat ripped out by a neomorph? Maybe they'll be stranded on a derelict Cronus, drifting though endless space and eventually freeze to death? Fun stuff.

If you're looking for an alternative to your gaming, Alien is solid. Rules are straight-forward, it's well-edited and written in a very utilitarian style, which I find rare in games today.

Temple of Beelzebub

In the box set of the 1st ed World of Greyhawk, there is a short adventure idea called "The Jungle of Lost Ships."

I had this island inhabited by the evil Sahuagin, who worship devils. There was a temple dedicated to Beelzebub in the centre of the island. If the PC's were captured, they were taken to the temple and thrown into pits for gladiatorial fights and if they survived, would eventually be sacrificed.

The inspiration for this illustration was that adventure.

Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign? Part II

This scenario was taken from the Chaosium publication, The Great Old Ones. It's titled Tell Me, Have You Seen the Yellow Sign? We played it using the 3rd edition rules for Call of Cthulhu.

Be sure to read Part I of this adventure.

You can also check out Still Waters, from the same publication.

The players' character sheets can be found here. 

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With James's abduction, and our players' knowing that the ritual to transform Fowler into the King in Yellow is to take place that night on a small island in the swamp, they gear up and head out while managing to convince a few police officers to come with them. 

As they make their way through the fetid swampy waters, there seems to be an abundance of snakes this time. Dockery is bitten by one but manages to extract most of the poison. The group eventually finds their way back to the island with the large ritual rocks. The swamp folk are here, as are Papa Screech and Fowler, who is wearing a white ceremonial robe. Four Byakhee stand by as well, their large wings flapping intermittently in anticipation. Papa Screech is casting a spell and finishes by anointing Fowler's forehead with blood. 

The players and police stay hidden as they watch - outmatched and frozen with fear by the unearthly ceremony. The degenerate cultists continue to chant as a fog rolls in. The lake surrounding the island begins to bubble and swell while an enormous yellow sign throbs and pulses beneath the inky water. The ground quakes and the physical reality in the area begins to stretch and contract as if breathing with a life of its own. Then, overlapping the players' own physical reality materializes the alien world of Carcosa. The stars in the sky are no longer recognizable and the whole environment has changed to that of a nightmare. 

The four byakhee take flight into the air and are quickly lost as they penetrate the alien sky above. Then, a few cultists emerge from Papa Screech's hut with a bound young woman. They bring her to the centre of the huge ritual rocks and tie her to a pole. Papa Screech pulls out an ornate ritual dagger and approaches the woman when suddenly, through the fog, the players see their friend, Clyde Arisona James, emerge. James staggers his way forward and makes this frightening declaration:

Astonished to see their friend still alive, the players rush forward from the bushes. Papa Screech sees the reunion and is amused:

Screech then raises the dagger over the bound woman's heart. At this point our heroes have seen enough and take action! Total chaos follows as muzzles flash from firearms into the night followed by screams of pain and terror. Crazed swamp folk leap toward the police but are stopped by a hail of bullets. The lead-ridden bodies fall to the ground, bleeding out. 

The King in Yellow

Randall Fowler, who has now transformed into the King in Yellow - an avatar of Hastur - shuffles forward. His appearance has already begun to mutate; his flesh jiggling and shaking as he becomes more jelly-like. The King grabs Dockery's head with tentacle-like hands and gazes into his eyes. Dockery shrieks as his sanity and life force are drained by the attack. Fighting through the pain through sheer force of will, Dockery manages to draw his revolver from its holster then shoves it into the King's mouth and pulls the trigger, sending its brain matter scattering out the back of its head.

Papa Screech begins chanting and catches Hillary's gaze, who freezes, lost in Screech's hypnotic trance. Gunner then steps forward, levels his shotgun and fires, blowing Screech's knee apart. Screech lets out a frenzied wail as he falls to the ground. Freed from the hypnosis, Hillary fans his revolver, ending the Voodoo priest and sending his diabolical soul to hell.

In the midst of the mayhem, the huge yellow sign now pulses and shines in the lake like a burning star, and from the watery depths an abnormally shaped planetoid begins to rise slowly. The gelatinous form is vaguely spherical in shape with massive wriggling tentacles. There are many vertical openings that cut into the formation which lead to blackness; and all over it is covered with uncounted flickering orbs. Hastur, He Who Must Not Be Named, has emerged from Lake Hali and now presides from above. 

All present need to make sanity rolls. All fail in their saves with the exception of Arizona James whose mind has retreated into its own reality as a means of survival from being trapped in Carcosa.

The dice rolls are not kind and Hillary, Gunner and Dockery all lose most of their sanity. Luck rolls are made by one or two to prevent them from completely bottoming out. 

Despite his mental collapse, Dockery runs screaming into Papa Screech's hut, travelling through the gate that leads to Fowler's home. Arizona James, in his wrecked psychological condition, manages to corral Gunner, who is laughing uncontrollably, and Hillary, who is screaming and pounding his fists on the ground, and brings them to Papa Screech's hut where they exit through the gate. Hastur and Carcosa soon dissipate as the fabric of space once again corrects itself. With the death of the King in Yellow and the disruption of the summoning spell, our heroes managed to save New Orleans and perhaps all of Louisiana but at a terrible price.

Epilogue

Our battered and tortured heroes are eventually transferred to Arkham asylum where they are locked away to prevent them from harming themselves and others. 

Arizona James fairs a bit better, being an out-patient at the asylum and eventually going back to teaching at Miskatonic University after a few years.

Many swamp folk were killed, in addition to the police that were brought along that horrific night. The Louisiana authorities couldn't figure out all that happened and eventually sent a detective to Arkham Asylum to speak with our heroes, but his questions were answered with screams of terror or attempts to kill him. 

The next years are ones of darkness for our players as they try to both face and forget their tortured memories, until finally, four year later they are released back into society.

Then one day, while sitting in his office at Miskatonic University, Arizona James opens a letter from an old friend asking if he is interested in locating an object called...The Shining Trapezohedron.

Astonishing Swordsmem and Sorcerers of Hyperborea!

I'm doing some work for North Wind Adventures. I seem to recall having done some work for them in the past...

Origin: Kaalut Kuzulhu, Fathomless Warlock (D&D 5e)

 

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!

The words repeated over and over again. Gently at first, like calm waves washing ashore, but they continued to grow and build in strength. Until finally they crashed down upon him like a tidal wave, dragging him down to the oceans fathomless depths.

Here in the frigid abyss, through the darkness appeared a mountain with glowing yellow eyes, a mass of writhing tendrils for a maw and enormous bat-like-wings. 

And it looked at him. Spoke to him.  

Those dreams never stopped. 

Growing up, Kasamir Krowly was feared by his parents and other children. He would often sink into deep trances and speak in strange tongues from which he could not be woken. As he grew, his parents sent him to board with the clergy in the hopes that their influence would expel whatever evil forces they believed were inside him. Eventually, he was kicked out of the ecclesiastic order for wickedness but with the sudden death of his parents, Kasamir came into a large inheritance that secured him entrance to Waterdeep University where he gained extensive knowledge of astronomy and esoterica. Despite his growing reputation for the diabolic, his electric personality and knowledge of the arcane always won him acceptance into secret magical circles.

The reasons for Kazamir’s expulsion from the university were unknown but it was rumoured to have involved people at the highest administrative levels. With knowledge and resources Kazimir now travelled the land with a single purpose, to locate the tome he had seen in his dreams, the dread Book of Shadows. He soon discovered it was hidden away and guarded by the Clerics of Oghma, behind the stone walls of their oldest university. Using both charm and deception, Kazamir soon gained access to the ancient, unholy tome and then promptly stole it.

After learning the volumes blasphemous secrets, he then set out for the small coastal village of Aerilon. 

After arriving in the isolated community, he waited until twilight then walked to the shore and upon uttering the first words of the forbidden ritual, a storm rapidly gathered overhead. Immediately, gale force winds began battering and shaking the small wood framed homes. The inhabitants quickly boarded up their windows and doors, preparing for the worst.

Then from out at sea, a mountain emerged from the abyss. It had glowing yellow eyes, a mass of writhing tendrils for a maw and colossal bat-like wings. It was the Great Old One, Cthulhu, who aeons past had travelled to this world from the stars.

And it looked at him. Spoke to him.

With the utterance of the rituals final words, lightning struck from above and the Book of Shadows vanished from Kazamir's grasp. Suddenly, and with uncanny speed, a hurricane approached the shore and brought down a colossal tidal wave that crashed upon the small coastal village, quickly levelling it. Any attempts to scream by the inhabitants were silenced, by the frigid waters that had filled their lungs.

The morning landscape appeared painted with blood from the red morning sun, revealing the destruction left by the storm. There were no survivors. The horror of what happened soon spread throughout the land. The incident was recorded as a natural, albeit freak, occurrence, but the coastal towns near Aerilon still perform ceremonies of protection whenever a storm is expected.

The name Kasamir Krowly died that night but from the baptism of watery destruction emerged Kaalut Kuzulhu. In his dreams he now sees the great city of R'lyeh, that is preserved by the spells of mighty Cthulhu for a glorious resurrection, when the stars and the world might once more be ready for Them. This dark age would teach new ways to shout and kill and revel, and all the world would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom! 

In his dreams, Kaalut still sees those two yellow eyes, glowing in the black depths of the oceans fathomless abyss.

 

And they look at him and speak to him.

Paimon

Paimon, one of the Kings of Hell

Paimon is a Fallen Angel and ninth of the 72 Spirits of Solomon. Prior to his fall, Paimon was in the angelic order of dominations. He was conceited with his own knowledge and fell with Lucifer. In Hell, he rules as a king and has 200 Legions of Demons under his command. He appears as a crowned man seated on a camel, preceded by an army of musicians with trumpets, cymbals, and other instruments. He has a roaring voice. He teaches all arts, sciences, and secrets; subjugates people to the will of the magician; and gives good Familiars. He will give the answer to any question. He is observed in the northwest. If you call Paimon alone you must make him some offering or sacrifice. His preference is for his pathway to be paved with human heads.

This is his seal:

Return of the Faustian Son

Our “son” returns on bended knee, into the outstretched arms of Azmodeus, who has an eviscerated cow hanging behind him.