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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nebulous" data-source="post: 4169398" data-attributes="member: 31465">Adventure #24: The Spawn of Nyarlathotep Part 1:  An Unwelcome ArrivalSavage drums beat within the valley. Thousands of cultists from around the world have gathered for this vile celebration. The investigators watch from the tree line as a half mile away, a Kenyan woman (M'Weru) emerges from a hidden entrance above the valley floor. The chanting and drumming ceases, and rippling anticipation steals over the crowd. The party wants to kill her, (even though they barely know who M'Weru is, but she LOOKS important) but she is out of gun range. Plus, she is very difficult to see in the gloom, illuminated only by bulky torchbearers at her side. M'Weru begins to speak in Swahili, and her voice washes over the congregation with unnatural clarity and strength, as translated to the others by Okumo:"Hail, the son of the Dark One! Nyar Shagnath! Tonight is the night of his birth, and the world shall know FEAR!"And so on and so forth. Her lunatic ramblings agitate the crowd of thousands, and they begin chanting back at her as the fervor grows. The investigators need to get closer, so with Okumo, the twins, and two other (highly expendable) warriors, they descend the shallow ridge with their Gas Mule lumbering behind with 50 gallons of gasoline in 10 gallon containers. The only one that stays behind is ten-year old Ma'moud, shivering behind a yucca tree with increasing dread. (GM Note: he is a potential line of continuity if a TPK occurs here, along with Ali Kafour in Cairo).Their goal: use the mule and Kenyan mooks as cover, and begin tossing sticks of dynamite into the crowd, sowing mayhem, death and confusion until they can get closer to M'Weru. Unbelievably, this is the best idea they can come up with (aside from just blending quietly into the crowd?). The odds are overwhelming, the threat nearly insurmountable, and the clock is ticking down. Something very, very bad is soon to happen.[GM Note: I actually couldn’t believe they were trying to do this!]As they maneuver into position, pressing through throngs of bodies, they see miserable sacrificial victims chained to poles. There is no way to save them, and the investigators wonder if killing them first will somehow disrupt the ceremony. But M'Weru has not been idle up on her perch; she is now holding a baby in her arms. Its shrieks echo across the valley as she raises it above her head, and then she casts it from the ledge! The child falls and splatters on the jagged rocks below, and the ceremony begins!<img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/infant.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The child's death is the impetus for the ritual to commence, and cudgels, clubs and hammers begin to pummel the sacrifices. No man, woman or child is safe. The scene is one of unspeakable horror, and investigators are wallowing in the middle of it! Furthermore, clothes are shed, and aside from Chad Slambody who adores the nude body, the others are reluctant to take their clothing off to join the masses, especially Lester Cobblebottom. The ritual quickly becomes one of completely naked abominations.  The night erupts into an orgy of blood, and the very sight of these atrocities gnaws at the fragile Sanity of the heroes...They enact their plan at once. Chad lights a fuse that Chang has prepared with his demolitions expertise, and tosses it as far as he can. The explosion rocks the ground and a plume of fire and smoke shoots into the sky.  No one expected that. The group huddles tightly together, moving toward M'weru up on the ledge while hastily lighting more dynamite and trying to throw it from concealment. However, they finally draw attention to themselves, particularly when a madman attacks the still-clothed Father Salvatore, and bashes him across the forehead with a cudgel. The scene becomes one of complete anarchy.  Screams of the dead, dying and the utterly insane fill the valley. Three more cultists throw themselves at Father Salvatore, brutally bashing him, until they are dispatched with shotgun blasts. Even Lester begins throwing dynamite, but his actions are spotted, and Kenyan cultists launch toward him, but are intercepted by the warriors from Boyova. A frantic grappling match ensues as DOZENS of cultists jump into the fray, while the remaining frazzled investigators stumble into the crowd, hauling the mule and trying to distance themselves from their fallen (meatshield) companions who are pulled to pieces.  It is only through extreme luck and some Action Points that they get away. But their progress toward the mountain is slow, hampered by uneven ground and throngs of people. Clouds begin to swirl overhead as the combined deaths draw upon the dark power of the ritual. The moon glimmers evilly in the heavens, and thunder rumbles. The group finally reaches a sheer cliff of granite rising thousands of feet, and they see a narrow switchback trail that leads to the ledge where M'Weru was standing. But she is gone. They begin climbing up, but Who the Chameleon becomes increasingly manic, thrashing against the sides of her cage like a wounded animal, when a sudden HUSH falls across the entire valley.The investigators are too late.Something is coming.A rising wind extinguishes torches, bonfires, smoldering corpses and all sources of light, growing in intensity, until the clouds overhead unleash a terrific bolt of LIGHTNING so bright, so fearsome, it cowers everyone to their knees. <img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/lightning.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />At this point, MaMoud, the loyal Egyptian boy from Cairo, takes off into the jungle (which is quite dangerous in and of itself). Mist pours down from the mountaintop in thick, tenebrous coils, but this is no ordinary mist.  It spins and congeals into increasingly solid form, and as the investigators cling to the cliff face, shuddering in the Black Wind that whips across the valley like a sharp knife, the most horrible thing they have ever seen appears over them, straddling the mountain like an unholy giant--Nyarlathotep. God of the Bloody Tongue.<img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/nyar2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />A thousand feet high, with black flesh and a horrid red whip tongue, the very air and earth buckles from its evil presence. Flying beasts swoop around its head and torso, and then begin to dive-bomb the crowd of worshipers. The investigators are terrified by this development, but most manage to squeeze their eyes shut and shield their mind from the horror......except for Lester Cobblebottom Ph.D. Esquire M.D. The aging antiquarian cannot tears his gaze from the madness given form and substance, and part of his mind is shattered. He begins screaming non-stop, shaking and convulsing and is inflicted with temporary insanity. (GM Note: Lester gets reamed this adventure with madness penalties)The group keeps pushing up the narrow ledge, pressing themselves against the wall, trying to reach the safety (does that even exist here?) of a narrow cave entrance above them. Cultists swarm after them by the hundreds, but are forced to file up the narrow ledge. The whole time, Who the Chameleon is going nuts inside the cage, and Father Salvatore finally unleashes her and lets her drop down. The lizard scampers to the valley floor, growing in size even as the bewildered investigators watch, remembering Old Bundari's instructions for his pet: “She can only be used once!”<img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/who.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /><img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/who 2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Who is soon the size of a dog and throws herself onto a shocked cultist, tearing into his neck with vicious teeth. Moments later she attains the size of a cow, and soon after she is even larger, her scales gaining a reddish hue, her muscles bulging, her jaw elongating and extending, claws stretching into horribly long talons. She rears up on her hind legs and STOMPS a cultist into the ground, blood blooming around her foot. <img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/who 3.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The few cultists that have managed to follow the party are ripped from their precarious perches on the ledge, or scramble back down, screaming.  Who bites another victim, pulls him into the air and begins to swallow him. <img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/who 4.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /><img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/who 5.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The power of the Black Wind is pervasive, and even as she decimates the enemy, smoke begins billowing away from Who.  She is dissipating under the black magic of the god, but not before inflicting a terrible toll upon her foes.  The investigators use her diversion to good advantage and keep scrabbling toward higher ground, hoping they can outdistance anyone. Even as this is happening, the ground begins to bubble and froth in the center of the valley. Rocks and dust shoot up, and a stairwell magically unfolds from the earth itself, extending up, up and ever higher, between the legs of Nyarlathotep who watches his worshipers frolic below. Frenzies cultists begin to climb the stairs by the hundreds, heading ever closer to their Black Lord and ignoring any other diversions (such as the investigators). And in appreciation, Nyarlathotep scoops some of them up in his horrid hands, lifting them high and crushing them in his fist.  Blood, gore and viscera rain down from the heavens, showering the others on the stairs in a grisly baptism. Another hand scoops down, grabs a handful of screaming, mad, both lucky and unlucky cultists who are touched by their benefactor, and are tossed into the storm-ridden sky, hurtling miles away into the jungle. Despite this, only a few hundred are killed out of the thousands present. Shantaks swoop down and carry victims off into the sky, and the investigators consider using the magical headband they have, in hope that it might protect them from the creatures. <img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/running.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />They continue up the narrow trail, trying not to look at the horrible God above them, and in due time, they reach the cave entrance and stumble inside as the wind howls behind them...<img src="http://www.med.unc.edu/~saasha/Masks/cave.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /></blockquote>

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