"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents... some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new Dark Age." - HP Lovecraft
The Modern Age has come. Science and reason illuminate the shadowed corners of the world. From the shores of Antarctica to the deep reaches of the Amazon, even to the vast void beyond their own precious sphere, mankind takes its cautious first steps. The common man dreams of a future without fear. A future without doubt. A future of mankind ascendant. The foolish and the wise gather across the world, proclaiming the victory of understanding and knowledge.
They are wrong.
The age of Man is coming to an end. Unseen powers writhe in the shadows of the world. Nightmares from eons long past awaken once again. Cults and sorcerers ply their trade, serving masters they will never understand.
It is said, amongst those who have delved the deepest into the occult, that the world is changing. Secrets and prophecies long forgotten are unburied. Things that should not be are coming true. Across the world the madman and the seer dream of cities rising from the depths. They dream of worms at the core of the world. They dream of the vastness of the universe and the things that lie in the shadows between suns. They awake, and speak the truth none wish to hear:
The Stars will soon be right.
You, however, do not know this. Not yet.
You are dreaming of peaceful things. Of meadows and clouds and books and pleasant memories and a thousand other things. Your dreams, however, are interrupted.
Something has pulled them out of you.
PROLOGUE: THE HOLE IN YOUR HEAD
You awake to find that there is a hole in your head.
This is both artistically figurative, and bloodily literal.
You stumble out of bed and knock a lamp off a nearby table. A hand - yours, thankfully - raises up to touch at the pain in your temple and comes away warm and sticky with half-dried blood. The room swims around you and humid sickness threatens to overtake your body. The other hand reaches for stability, grasping at a bookshelf as you founder forwards. Volumes thud onto the floor as you blindly claw for leverage. A chair tips over. There is a door ahead of you, ajar enough that you can see porcelain tiling. A bathroom that greets you with a soothing chill as a breeze blows in from an open window. Moonlight casts dark shadows around the room as your hands rest on the counter, marking it with blood. Gasping, you force back a retch and look into the mirror above the sink.
The mirror only confirms what you realized before. There is a literal hole in your head. Above the left temple. Smaller than a penny. It is still bleeding, and from the stain across your face it has been for a while. The blood is drying and clotting but the work is not yet done. You grab for a towel and press it to the wound, wincing as you feel the pressure against your skull. The mix of the pain in your head, the smell of fresh blood slinking its way into your nostrils, and the warmth dripping down your cheek curdles your stomach. You choke back another heave and force yourself to breathe. To stop.
For a moment, you simply stand still. The sharp pain in your head begins to slow into an aching throb. You take that to be a good sign. Probably. Your attention shifts from the literal hole in your head to the figurative one.
You can't remember where you are. Or what you're doing here. Or, most disconcertingly, your own name. The face in the mirror is your own; you are sure of this. You recognize it, even though it is half covered in blood. The rest is buried beneath shock, confusion, and pain. It is gone.
No. Surely not gone. Your name is here. Isn't it?
Isn't it?
[] Your Name (Write in)
There, that's better.
You no longer feel like vomiting, and the pain in your skull has begun to subside. Pulling the towel away you can see the blood spread across monogrammed lettering: MU. The pounding in your head disgorges two words:
Miskatonic University.
You are a student. A scholar. This fact arrives with certainty. What - exactly - you are a student
of has yet to reveal itself. Perhaps in time.
There are other things to focus on.
The room behind you (your room?) is a mess of toppled furniture and scattered books. Your face and hair and clothes are a mess of drying blood. Glancing back through the open door you see the bed you crawled from is stained with streaks of crimson. The wound in your temple aches. The missing portions of your memory mock you. There is a hole in your head.
It's too much to take in all at once. You need to prioritize. Focus on one thing at a time. You place the towel onto the countertop and let instinct and muscle memory guide you.
What do you prioritize?
List the options below, placing them in order of importance to your character (First being most important, last being least). This will determine your starting stats.
[] Clean the room. Heft the furniture back into place. Replace the books on their shelves. (STR)
[] Clean the bed. It is a mess of blood. Replace sheets. Hide stains. (DEX)
[] Clean yourself. The sink has running water. You have towels. Make yourself presentable. (CHA)
[] Tend to the wound. There is a hole in your head. Find bandages. Disinfectant. Needle and thread, if necessary. (CON)
[] Tend to yourself. There is a hole in your mind. Memories missing. You are running off instinct. Sit. Calm yourself. Remember. (POW)
[] Inspect the room. There is a hole in you. Someone or something did this. There must be clues. Find them. (INT)
Hello all!
It has been many years since I attempted to run a quest, and lately I've been in a Lovecraftian Mood. Thus, like ol' Squidface himself, that is not dead which can eternal lie. This a reboot/redux of my previous quest of the
same name (Died due to Real Life issues, but I had a good time with it). It will not be a 1/1 recreation as I have different ideas in mind for this one (and also I lost all the notes for the original version). We will be using a very loose interpretation of the Call of Cthulhu RPG rules (and I do mean loose). This will not be an extremely serious delve into Eldritch Nightmares, but there will be horror, tentacles, and blood aplenty. It is still Lovecraft.
The quest is set in modern-ish times, at the famous Miskatonic University and nearby Arkham, Massachusetts. You, the players, will control a student at said university as you try to survive classes, monsters, evil cults, and your fellow students. Can you make it to graduation? Will the world even be there by the time you get your diploma? Who knows.
All you know is that you have a hole in your head. Not a great start to the year.
