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Sunday, June 29

Chapter 30: Cold Visitor - Introduction

This is a Devil’s Workshop adventure set in the Arcanis setting, written by Lee Hammock and Jason Walton. You can read more about Arcanis at http://www.onaraonline.org. Please note: This adventure contains spoilers!

Our cast of characters includes:

• Dungeon Master: Michael Tresca (http://michael.tresca.net)
• Beldin Soulforge (dwarf fighter) played by Joe Lalumia
• Ilmarė Galen (elf bard/fighter) played by Amber Tresca
• Kham Val’Abebi (val rogue/psychic warrior) played by Jeremy Ortiz (http://www.ninjarobotstudios.com)
• Nauris Drilian (human rogue/ranger) played by Mike Best
• Vlad Martell (human fighter) played by Matt Hammer

So I was a big meanie. Instead of letting the PCs get back home to Corinalous, I decided it’s high time the Unspeakable One let everyone know he hasn’t forgotten them. And he does it in a big way.

This adventure merges the monolith summoning sequence in Tatters of the King with the adventure Cold Visitor. This is a good thing too, because the scenario in Tatters of the King assumes that the PCs will find the monoliths but be powerless to move them. That may be true in a regular Call of Cthulhu campaign, but in a world where magic is commonplace, it’s just a matter of hiring the right wizard to cast the right spell and—voila!—Hastur’s return is completely foiled.

Since the summoning actually works (sort of) the first time in Tatters of the King, I decided there should be far-reaching consequences. Because Kadath is known as the “cold waste,” the return of the Old Ones is “after summer is winter,” the Herald of the King adventure took place in a terrible snowstorm, and this adventure requires a paraelemental plane of cold…it made sense to equate the Unspeakable One’s return with the cold. This is where it’s firmly established; whenever there’s a really bad snowstorm, it just might be a gate to Kadath.

This adventure is a complete rip-off of The Thing, one of my all time favorite horror movies. We had just the right mix of paranoia, tragedy, confusion, and terror. Unfortunately, the adventure itself is rather vague in how things should unfold; fortunately, the ad-libbing made for a much more interesting game.[MORE]

Labels: arcanis

posted by Mike Tresca at 4:39 PM

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