Doctor Hunter Warren and twelve of his Archeology 101 students have disappeared. Before they disappeared, the students all sent emails or texts or social media texts to friends and loved ones saying that they were going on a mission of self-discovery.
The characters are all friends or roommates of some of the missing students. They are summoned to the dean’s office in an effort to determine what has happened. Afterwards, they work together to try to find the missing students.
CHARACTERS
- Jacob as Chad Newark, the drug dealer, lover of missing student Cypress Jones.
- Chandler as Andrew Rosco, college baseball player, who is enrolled in the Archeology 101 course but hasn’t been attending.
- Justin as Francois Fecheria, male model, friend of mssing student Zane Rogers.
- Aaron as Cobb, taxi driver, the last to see several students.
- Alex as Sensei Patrick Hardesty, Aikido Instructor, who taught two of the missing students, Hannah and Emily.
- Liz as Frankie Nelson, Engineering Student. Roommate of missing student Agnes Minors.
SUMMARY
From the dean they learn that Professor Warren led an expedition to Greece back in the Spring Semester, and that some students disappeared from that trip and others committed suicide shortly thereafter, which is why the dean is so concerned.
They ask the dean to search Dr. Warren’s office. Chad finds and steals an ornate dagger. They search his computer.
Dr. Warren had a reminder set for the previous night labelled “Mnar Trip.”
They see that Dr. Randy Carter recently contacted him by email, writing “Saw you in Celephais. Would like to meet in the daytime world.”
The students contact Dr. Randy Carter. Carter is the new director of the St. Damian’s Sleep Lab. He replaced Dr. Blodian, who exploded (see “The Subterranean Empire of K’n-yan, Episode 5 https://community.nerdlouisville.org/topic/153/the-subterranean-empire-of-k-n-yan-wolves-of-blood-honor/10). They meet him at the Sleep Center. He reveals that he saw Dr. Warren in Celephais in the dreamlands. But Warren flew away on a Byakee before he could speak to him. Carter heard that Warren had recovered the Greek Necronomicon and is interested in it.
Carter offers to bring the characters into the dreamlands via “Guided Dreaming” if they return to the Sleep Center at 11PM.
Carter tells them that St. Damian’s is the best place to study dreaming, because Yig lies beneath Pinebox.
While at the Sleep Center, Frankie gets a call from Michelle Minors, the mother of her missing roommate, Agnes. Mrs. Minors tells her that she had a terrible dream about Agnes the previous night. Michelle Rogers saw Agnes held captive in the Dreamlands. She saw the students manacled to a rock in a marshy wilderness on the shore of a lake, with the ruins of a great city in the distance. The walls of the city were marble and hundreds of feet high. Within the walls were towers even higher of multi-colored stone. Nearby there was a doorframe standing alone in the desert, and through the doorframe she saw stars and nebulae. A man stood nearby at an altar. He wore a robe covered with arcane symbols and he was reading a massive book at the altar. On the altar were knives and tools covered in blood, and the altar was stained with blood. There was a huge creature standing by the man. A four-armed creature with a fanged mouth at the top of its head.
Mrs. Minors says “Agnes said that she had hoped and prayed for me and that she had brought me there with his hopes and prayers. She begged me to save her, but how could I? Then the robed man at the altar turned and saw me. "Well, well, we have a guest." He commanded the four armed creature. "Seize her!" It came towards me. I ran through the marsh away from it. I stumbled and it caught me. And then I woke up.”
Randy Carter tells them that the marble city sounds like the ruins of Sarnath, which lies in the dreamlands realm of Mnar. He gives them a map of the dreamlands.
The investigators go to Dr. Warren’s house and break in. Chad breaks a basement window and peeks in. He sees a byakee and goes insane, acquiring a long-term fear of dark entrances.
They go down into the basement, where they fight the byakee and kill it. Once killed, it disappears.
Cobb drives a car through the basement door.
In the basement, they find a rack of medieval weapon in front of a gateway to the dreamlands. They outfit themselves with swords, maces, etc and step through the gateway.
Francois has seen enough and flees.
On the other side, they find themselves in the marshy wilderness outside of the ruins of Sarnath, as describes in Mrs. Minors’ dream.
Chad negotiates a deal with the wizard, Dr. Warren, to return his magical dagger if he will release Cypress and take Frankie instead. Dr. Warren sends his Dark Young of Shub Niggurath to take Frankie.
Dr. Warren reveals that he went to the dreamlands because it enabled him to read the book and expanded time. He took the students because real-world Earthlings make the best sacrifices. He is attempting to call Shub-Niggurath.
Cobb leaves through the gate and abandons the others.
Patrick Hardesty attempts to fight Dr. Warren, but is trampled by the Dark Young and killed.
Rosco charges Dr Warren. Warren casts a spell of withering, ruining Rosco’s leg. Rosco hops on and knocks Dr. Warren unconscious, but the Dark Young of Shub Niggurath fights on against Frankie. Frankie chops off her roommate’s hand to free her and they run, but the Dark Young pursues and grabs Frankie again. Frankie chops off two of the Dark Young’s tentacles. The Dark Young drains Frankie’s strength, reducing Frankie to 15 Strength before the fight is over.
Chad retreats through the gate and destroys it, then burns down the house. He has acquired an indefinite insanity: Fear of firearms.
Rosco looks at the Necronomicon. Even though it is in Greek, in the Dreamlands all languages are the same, so he can read it. He reads through it looking for a picture of the creature fighting Frankie. Eventually, he finds the spells to Summon, Bind, or Dispel Dark Young of Shub Niggurath. He reads the spell of binding and takes control of the creature, saving Frankie. He commands the Dark Young to free all of the students from their manacles.
They are trapped in the dreamlands, but Rosco and Frankie read the Necronomicon and find the spell to create a gateway. It requires a sacrifice of 20 POW, but they share the cost with the students, so that each loses only 2 POW. They re-establish the gate.
Rosco, Frankie, and the students pass through the gate into the burned out rubble of Dr. Warren’s house in the real world. It took them weeks of reading the Necronomicon in the dreamlands, but they discover that only three days have passed in the real world.
Rosco and Frankie have Dr. Warren’s Necronomicon, but in the waking world it is unintelligible because it is written in Greek.
CONSEQUENCES
Every character who went temporarily (or indefinitely) insane due to the byakee or during the visit to the Dreamlands will gain +5% Cthulhu Mythos. Rosco and Frankie gain an additional +12% Cthulhu Mythos from reading of the Necronomicon.
Andrew Rosco and Frankie Nelson have completed an initial reading of the Necronomicon and have learned the spell “Dream Gate” which is similar to the rulebook spell “Gate” but creates a gate to the Dreamlands for 20 POW. To cast it again, they will need the book as a reference. To learn Gate or any additional spell so that it can be cast from memory, they must spend 2d6 weeks and succeed in an INT check for each spell. Spells can be learned much more quickly if the book will be eferenced during the casting.
To learn from the Necronomicon in the real world, the reader must understand Greek. The Necronomicon has the following spells to learn: Call/Dismiss Azathoth, Call/Dismiss Cthugha, Call/Dismiss Hastur, Call/Dismiss Nyogtha, Call/Dismiss Shub-Niggurath, Call/Dismiss Yig, Call/Dismiss Yog-Sothoth, Contact Ghoul, Contact Deity/Nyarlathotep, Contact Sand Dweller, Dominate, Dread Curse of Azathoth, Dust of Suleiman, Dream Gate, Elder Sign, Powder of Ibn-Ghazi, Resurrection, Shrivelling, Summon/Bind Byakhee, Summon/Bind Fire Vampire, Summon/ Bind Servitor of the Outer Gods, Summon/Bind Swarm of Serpents, Voorish Sign.
The requirements of these spells may differ from the rulebook.
