Sample File Sample File Credits

Sample file Sample file Credits

Publisher: Simon Rogers Written by: Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan and Graham Walmsley Story design: Graham Walmsley Art direction: Cathriona Tobin Art: Alessandro Alaia Layout: Michael Chaney Playtesters: Hal Eccles, Catherine Eccles, Peter Meredith, and Toni Meredith

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3 Cthulhu Apocalypse Contents

Introduction 5 Andrew Somerset 28 Brichester Library 53 Necessary Evils 28 Into Goatswood 57 Three Years Gone… 5 Dead Pinkie? 29 Into the Pit 59 The Creatures 7 The Nation Set Free 30 Dropping the Bomb 60 Bright Futures 11 The Aeroplane 61 The Hook 30 Brighton 11 The Last Trump 30 The New World 62 Rumours of Safety 13 Things in the Laboratory 32 In Requiem 63 The Threat 13 Cavendish Laboratory 32 The Road 14 The Farm 34 Beasts of Men 65 Living in Brighton 15 Fort Halstead 37 Sneaking in? 15 Uncooperative Investigators 42 Cold Feet 67 What Happened TUBE ALLOYS 42 to Toby? 18 Sabotaging the Bomb 44 The Elder Patmos 70 A Mother’s Plea 18 The Shan Prisoners of The Horror in the Hotel 20 Temple-Ship 44 the Great Race 70 Alarms! 22 Beings from Xiclotl 45 The Journey 72 Ida Arnold 23 Slaves of the Mother 47 The Wedding Party 72 Hunting Garvey 23 The Lysenko 72 The Violent Option 26 The Blooming Land 48 Moving the Ship 73 The Abandoned Hospital 27 Optional Scene: Contamination 49 From Below 73 Recruiting The Changed World 50 Handout 1 75

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4 Cthulhu Apocalypse

Introduction

These three scenarios complete the • The refuge is a well-known landmark, Optionally, allow the players to destruction of England in the Cthulhu perhaps a former police station, each spend up to three points from Apocalypse campaign. The adventures country house or hotel Investigative Abilities of their choice, representing their characters’ activities pick up three years after the final part of Even if other people live at the • and efforts during these three years. The Dead White World. refuge, the player characters are Benefits for spending these points are the leaders and defenders of the noted below. If a skill is not listed, then It is now the summer of 1939. The settlement. decision that the characters made in the we couldn’t think of a suitable benefit – alien city of Shk’hrnwr continues to haunt maybe you or your players can, though! England (see The Creatures, page The refuge should not be Skills marked with a * give one Affliction 7). Horrors now stalk the empty and • Mobile overgrown streets of the civilisation that point if a character invests time in them, once existed here. The passage of three • Underground if you are using the Affliction rules from The Apocalypse Machine. long, strange years has transformed the • Impregnable world into an unrecognisable landscape Anthropology: You’ve studied how of horrors. There are a few survivors, or human society has changed under the living in the ruins of the past, but under pressure of the Mythos, and heard the unfathomable pressure of the Mythos, • Pleasant rumours about other settlements and their humanity is slipping away, cracking sanctuaries across England. A 1-point and moulting in the process of becoming Do not spend too much time detailing spend lets the character find out about something new. theSample refuge. It won’t lastfile long (and let the the ‘safe zone’ in Brighton; a 2-point players know that). spend picks up rumours about a secret Three Years Gone… military project preparing to fight back What has happened to the player characters Alternatively, it is possible that there is against the Creatures. A 3-point spend in the last three years? Presumably, they are no refuge. The characters might survive gets the characters a rumour about all still alive (though if any of the players wish for years as scavengers and nomads, criss- another settlement of your choice. to retire their previous characters and create crossing the wreck of England as they replacements, let them) and have found strive to avoid the ever-present Creatures. Agriculture: You were able to grow some place of refuge. This refuge must have food even under these harsh conditions. It is worth reviewing The Decaying For each point spent, one character may • A source of fresh water, untainted Earth section of The Apocalypse Machine permanently increase his Health by 1. by the Flowers for ideas on presenting the crumbling • Easy access to scavenged canned remains of human civilisation. Archaeology: You put your expertise in food (or some other food source) excavating ancient civilisations to work Downtime in recovering the remains of your own. • A place to hide from the Creatures. Ask the players what transpired in the For each point spent, the character gains last three years. Did they run from the a temporary 2-point pool of Scavenging. Optionally, rise of the Deep Ones at Blackpool and flee to higher ground in the Yorkshire Architecture: You have learned to find • Several other people beyond the Dales? Perhaps they wandered in hiding places and safe areas in the ruins player characters live there terror until they found a miraculous where the Creatures rarely go. For each place of safety, or were scattered and point spent, you may nominate a safe • The existence of the refuge is a travelled separately until they met up place in an urban area where you can mystery – there is no clear reason why again recently. rest and recuperate. the Creatures rarely come here

5 Cthulhu Apocalypse Introduction

Art: You’ve channelled your horrific Craft: You spent your time fortifying History: You have invested time and experiences into your art. You may your Refuge. For each point invested, energy in preserving the culture and increase your maximum Sanity by 1 you may describe an improvement to learning of a rapidly vanishing age. For for each point of Art spent. However, the Refuge’s defences or amenities. each point invested, you may gain 1 anyone who looks at your art must make point of Sanity. You also gain the Pillar of a Sanity test at a Difficulty of 2+the Cryptography*: You managed to Sanity “Preservation of Learning”. number of points of Art spent. salvage a working radio, and spent many sleepless nights listening to the Leadership: You became the leader of Assess Honesty: If you were part of a strange squeal of radio messages passing your little band of survivors. For each refuge, you were responsible for vetting through the ether. With a 1-point spend, point of Leadership invested, you allow newcomers. For each point spent, you the character hears horrible messages another character to invest an extra may describe a suitably reliable and of the destruction of Copenhagen from point in downtime activities. stalwart member of your refuge. a babbling madman in Vanløse; huge tentacles rose out of the ocean and Medicine: You have observed the Astronomy*: You’ve watched the stars pulled much of the city into the water. changes in humanity. A 1-point spend twist and change as the years passed by. A 2-point spend lets the character means the investigator noticed a sharp For each point spent, the character gains a detect and decode the ramblings of the rise in human and animal fertility. A temporary 1-point pool of Cthulhu Mythos. keeper of in a lighthouse off the coast 2-point spend means the investigator of Wales, whose fevered transmissions has studied the Flowers, and can treat Bargain: You traded with other speak of mysterious black ships, those infected by their seeds. A 3-point survivors and amassed a stockpile of possibly some sort of refugee transport, spend gives a temporary 2-point pool of useful items. For every point of Bargain travelling west. A 3-point spend means First Aid. invested, the character gains a temporary the character catches the tail end of a 2-point pool of Preparedness. transmission from HMS Hood, a British Navigation: You mapped the region warship that was in Portsmouth when around your Refuge. For each point Biology*: You’ve studied the Creatures, the apocalypse struck. Apparently, the invested, you gain a temporary pool of and know more than most about how ship survived and is communication 2 points in Stealth when moving around they kill – and how to kill them! For with someone called Cavendish. The the immediate area. each point spent, you gain a +2 bonus to radio transmissionSample confirms that file some one General Ability roll to avoid danger cargo from the ship was successfully Oral History: You’ve picked up or inflict damage. For example, you delivered to this Cavendish. various useful rumours. A 1-point spend could invoke your Biology studies when lets the character find out about the ‘safe making a Sense Trouble roll that involves Forensics*: You spent several years zone’ in Brighton; a 2-point spend picks the Flowers, or say that you know where studying the victims of the Creatures, up rumours about a secret military to shoot a Deep One with Shooting. This and now know a great deal about the project preparing to fight back against bonus applies only once, but if you’ve curious natures of their deaths. For each the Creatures. A 3-point spend gets got multiple bonuses, you can stack point spent, the character gains a 3-point the characters a rumour about another them or split them between rolls. pool in First Aid that can be applied only settlement of your choice. to injuries caused by the Creatures. Botany: You’ve made a study of the Outdoorsman*: You’ve learned how Flowers. This works just like Biology, Geology: You surveyed the land around to survive in this strange new world. For above, but only applies to the Flowers. The your Refuge, and identified useful each point invested, you may increase bonus per point spent is increased to +3. geographical features. A 1-point spend your Stealth, Preparedness or Fleeing allows the character to describe a cave rating by 1. Bureaucracy: You’ve collated records nearby to hide in; a 2-point spend discovers and made notes about places where an underground spring uninfected by the Pharmacy: You’ve stockpiled medical you are likely to find supplies, such as Flowers; a 3-point spend lets the character supplies and other useful drugs by old military bases, canning factories, find signs of a vast sigil drawn across the ransacking pharmacies. For each point warehouses and the like. For each point whole country in the folds of hills and invested, you gain a 2-point pool that spent, the character gains a temporary valleys. This troubling revelation is worth can be applied to Preparedness, First 2-point pool of Scavenging. a 3-point Sanity test. Aid or Scavenging rolls related to drugs.