The Devil's Agents

Details

Pages: 17

Author(s): Shawn Proctor

Artist(s):

Setting: 1920s Lovecraft Country, Halloween

Appears in: Halloween Horror 2

Campaign:

Summary

"The Devil’s Agents" is intended either as a breath-of-fresh-air scenario, for players who have seen one cultist too many and begun to feel simply investigating evil repeatedly has become stale, or a tournament-style adventure. This is an unusual premise, one where the players’ characters will be cultists themselves.

Links

• Review: Reviews From R'lyeh, Pookie UK

Spoilers - Keepers Eyes Only

Players should not read any further.

Synopsis

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This scenario is based on an unusual set-up: rather than playing Investigators intent on stopping an evil cult from summoning a Mythos entity, the players take on the role of the cultists, against which a rather typical group of NPC Investigators are working.

Simon Dubas is the (rather insane) leader of a small cult. He worships Shub-Niggurath and is eagerly anticipating the cult's first big ritual, an attempt to summon a Dark Young. The players are members of Simon's cult, and are tasked with carrying out most of the leg-work in preparation for the ritual. First Simon sends them on a mission to break into Miskatonic University to steal a rare Mythos book which is on display as part of an exhibition currently visiting from England. In successfully perpetrating this crime, the cult piques the interest of a group of MU academics who begin looking into the theft.

The cultists are then instructed to steal a magical knife and cloak from an occult shop in Salem, and an amulet that is on display in a museum in Dunwich. As they carry out these crimes, the group of academic Investigators bumbles around and occasionally crosses paths with them, forcing confrontations. As the preparations for the Halloween ritual come to a completion, the cultist group is given its final mission -- to kidnap the leader of the Investigator group, for he is to become the sacrifice required by the ritual.

References

Player Handouts:

• Four pre-gen Player-Characters (plus a number of "NPC" cultists who can fill the ranks of the party should anyone meet an unfortunate accident in the course of the adventure)

Locations:

• Arkham in 1925 (from September 30),
• Salem,
• Dunwich

Creatures:

• Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath,
• Shub-Niggurath.

Tomes and Artifacts:

• Mysteries of the Worm (Leggett version),
• a magical knife and cloak,
• an amulet

Campaigns / Scenarios: (none)

Comments

Includes an alternative set of sanity rules for cultists, based on negative SAN scores.

Trivia: Some of the characters appear to be named after characters and actors from the film "Shaun of the Dead"

Keeper Comments

Comments to Keepers about this scenario; Possibly how to run it successfully. Keep general DISCUSSION on the talk page.

Setting: Nominally 1920s Arkham, easily reset

Special notes: best for a maximum of four investigators, and pre-gen characters and special sanity rules are included, as PCs are cultists for a change of pace. There are references in the keeper's notes to see "Keeper's Companion I" - the adventure seems to be usable without this resource, though.

Dependence on Halloween is minimal - it's merely the special occasion that the PCs use to perform a ritual on; Specific dates are listed in the adventure notes, and these would need to be adjusted in relation to any alternative date you choose, but with a few alterations of the dates pretty much any other date would work. One NPC that the PCs must contact is supposedly hard to reach because the local Halloween celebration is keeping her busy, and there are a couple brief references to Halloween decorations, but these seem to simply be narrative details that play no particularly important part in the story beyond setting the mood, and can be ignored.