Eldritch Horror

## Overview

Eldritch Horror is the very first Questest Friends campaign. It is the first D&D5e & Monster Of The Week campaign written by Mark for this group. Eldritch Horror started as a D&D5e campaign but after Part 1 was finished, the format was changed to the Monster Of The Week battle system with some players keeping the same characters, while others decided to make new characters.

## Characters

### Part 1: *Masquerade*

#### Player Characters

* Amber Grace
* Darius Jackson
* Jim Tobin
* Liza Tonberry
* Puddle Thirst
* Zimira Weis

#### NPC's & Allies

* Dr. Malcolm Bardell
* Fuilon
* Lily Chen
* Madison
* Patrick McYearny
* Shelly Harwin
* Tobias Grace

#### Enemies

* Frankie Ianotti
* Nyarlathotep: The Bleak Pharaoh

### Part 2: *The Conclave*

#### Player Characters

* Amber Grace
* Andy Wheeler
* Bobbie
* Jim Tobin
* Liza Tonberry
* Puddle Thirst

#### NPC's & Allies

* Fuilon
* Kasha Grace - Amber's aunt
* Tobias Grace - Amber's son
* Becky - The Motel Owner
* Lance - Sporting Good's Store employee
* ~~Sheriff Dirk~~ - Sheriff of Warrenton

### The Conclave

* ~~Blithe~~

* Selena Grace Caracol
* Oscar O'Toole
* Ulysses Hathaway
* Varduk Bihari
* Book Lady

## Plot

### Part 1: *Masquerade*

In the weeks preceding Chapter 1, five of the six investigators were each independently approached by Malcolm Bardell, a Professor at New York University. He gave them an offer to work together to help him examine odd events happening around New York City. Working with Professor Malcolm, they investigated a few instances of strange happenings.

#### *Chapter 1*

The five investigators follow up on a lead of Professor Bardell's, a bookie that Malcolm believe would give information on a strange instance. Malcolm believed that looking into the bookie's boss, a local criminal named Francis "Frankie" Ianotti, would yield some new leads.

The bookie had a collection of photographs, all of which depicted something out of the ordinary. The investigators went out to look into one of them, a mental hospital called St. Mary's. They met a strange man, one that seemed like his minds was out of sorts. After this, they went to look into a church in Brooklyn. There, they discovered a strange rune carved onto the altar that did not belong. ("O in Jail")

On the way back to Professor Malcolm's estate to study the other photos, the group was attacked by several of Frankie Ianotti's gangsters. After a battle, they returned to Malcolm's and decided to try and follow up on another photograph. It led them to a hospital. While Amber distracted (flirted with) a nurse, Jim took the guards' attention away from the rear of the hospital. On the other side of the building, Zimira, Puddle, and Liza snuck into the upper floors and found the room of Michelle "Shelly" Harwin. She quickly moved to defend herself with a magical gun and revealed that she had been injured by Frankie, her former flame, and his goons. Also, Shelly took the pictures.

Shelly told them she needed their help, and she sent them on a mission that she needed done. Opening a strange gateway, the investigators entered a misty world where a man was waiting for them, Darius Jackson.

#### *Chapter 2*

In this strange place, a tall tower in the middle of an empty wasteland, the investigators joined with Darius to find out what Shelly meant to look into. Darius and Shelly were a special kind of monster hunter called a 'Runner'. These Runners were able to pass between different worlds and used that power to keep people safe.

The first chamber of the tower was an open theater-like space. Here they found a strange yellow glow that told them of an ancient being called Hastur.

Next, the investigators found a series of traps that responded to Amber's ice magic. It revealed a blue flash of knowledge about a being called Ithaqua, a creature that brought a terrible storm.

Third, they found an altar to a chaotic entity called Azathoth and were attacked by a group of gremlin creatures. Other monsters pursued them and they hurried up the tower.

In the fourth chamber, they found a room with an amber glow that told them about the strength of the elder one Cthulhu. They were able to solve the mystery of the room and found a stone that had the amber glow.

On the fifth floor, the investigators discovered a small forest and examined the trees within to find another stone, along with a flash of a wild and monstrous being called Shub-Niggurath. (Or more affectionately, Shubz.)

On the final floor of the tower, the investigators fought their way toward a pedestal and a slab upon which a ritual was taking place. In a violet glowing room, a gross creature with tentacles along its back was working to make a white mask. The investigators forced the creature, a kind of servant to something called The Bleak Pharaoh, to flee from the tower through a magical portal.

Two more Runners, Lily Chen and Patrick McYearny, arrived to see what had happened. They told the group about what Runners were, examined the body on the slab (a mer-person), and they requested Darius' help with another lead. Darius tried to break the mask, while Jim moved to collect it instead. The two of them had a tussle and Jim and the others left with the mask through a portal, back to New York.

#### *Chapter 3*

In New York, the investigators gave the mask to Zimira to hold at her work office. They returned to their normal lives and awaited the weekend to continue their investigations. During the week, Amber had a dream in which, a tall dark-skinned man spoke to her in a plain room. This man called himself the Bleak Pharaoh and told her to stop interfering. Amber gave him only sass. Jim had a dream about a still, black ocean, while Liza had a dream about a wild hunt. And Zimira received tickets to a gala event from her cool thief siblings that gave her a proposition, to find a fancy necklace and steal it from Frankie's wife Leonora.

The team returned to Malcolm's on the weekend and looked into another lead, a horse with a decaying leg. This lead the group to a farm with a woman living alone. Puddle and Amber decided to talk to the woman first. Puddle tried to woo the woman with his signature move the snowglobe surprise singing telegram rendition of "Happy Birthday" while throwing confetti in the air. Meanwhile Amber faked having "feminine issues" as an excuse to explore more of the house. But instead of doing that, she tried to mage hand the woman's shotgun away from her and was caught. The woman then engaged in combat with the investigators and showed her necromantic magic by summoning a zombie goat, which Jim quickly disposed of with his fists. In the end the group killed the woman. After more searching, they discovered a barn filled with animals that had been raised from the dead. After reading their minds and realizing the horror in which these creatures existed, they decided it was best to burn the barn down to the ground, killing all the animals. And so the classic "Barnyard Burndown" was born.

After that sidequest, they made their way to the pier where a yacht was out in the New York Harbor. The five investigators invited Shelly to accompany them to the boat party, while Malcolm stayed ashore.

The six of them went to the yacht and split up into two teams. One, Amber, Puddle, and Jim, went to the top deck where the party was playing. The other, Zimira, Liza, and Shelly, took the lower deck to find clues. They found, in Frankie's cabin, a collection of notes that indicated he knew about the tower, and that the strange servant was working in tandem with Frankie to achieve something. There was also the same sigil from the church, which they discovered was actually called the Glyph of Bloodletting. (But which they kept calling "O in Jail".) Frankie had hidden several around the ship to cause the partygoers to begin bleeding out.

While the lower team searched the ships for several hidden Glyphs, the upper team entered the party. Puddle took command of the music and successfully turned the party. But that was ruined when Amber stumbled into Frankie, spilling a *dark* red wine onto Leonora's dress. This immediately infuriated him and his wife, and they began to fight. Frankie then revealed his own spellcasting ability. The investigators came back together to stop Frankie and his summoned creatures, along with his gangster backup. Zimira took the necklace. Frankie used a powerful magic to critically weaken the investigators. But in a move that can only be recounted as legendary, Liza, through an item that she had recently acquired, was able to replicate that same move back towards Frankie and his goons. This mortally injured Leonora. In a rage, Frankie blasted Liza off of the ship to which she then transformed into a shark mid-fall and landed safely in the water. Frankie was then defeated by the combined strength of the two teams. Shelly had Frankie at her mercy, but she hesitated, unsure of whether to shoot Frankie or the violet gemstone that he held in his hand. They decided that the stone was more dangerous, so Shelly destroyed the stone, giving Frankie a moment to escape, like his servant companion had. During the escape, Puddle threw himself off of the boat (Yuna in FFX style) and landed safely on Liza's shark form and they swam off into the sunrise.

They burned down the yacht, too.

#### *Chapter 3a*

Meanwhile, upon losing the mask to Jim in the strange tower, Darius was given the request to follow Lily and Patrick to the realm of R'lyeh. Darius followed the sense Lily left, called the Runner's Trace, to take the same path that Lily took. He stepped out into a knee deep water filled with corpses of merpeople that had been reanimated into zombies. Darius, Patrick, and Lily fought off the corpses, then Lily was able to confirm that they were on the path of the servant. She could sense it was weak from the fight, and that it couldn't cross between worlds again.

Darius, Lily, and Patrick tracked the servant to a R'lyean temple, and Darius cast a spell to determine what the creature had done next. His spell contacted his god, a disgusting elder entity of magical potential called Yog-Sothoth, and learned what direction to take to find the servant. The spell, however, also touched some other presence as well. A different god had some echoed presence remaining, and it conflicted with Darius's own instruction. The servant had cast a similar spell, using the entrails of the R'lyeans that had been in the temple. The other presence told Darius to do the opposite of Yog-Sothoth, confirming Darius's conviction that he was on the right path to catch the servant.

They continued on the trail, until Lily stopped them. She brought them to a place that she called the Drownyard, a small bay enclosed by cliffs that was full of wreckage, broken buildings and towers and other strange sites. Looking down at the bay, Lily said that they couldn't search the Drownyard alone. They were going to need help.

### Part 2: The Conclave

#### *Chapter 4: Prisoner Of Time*

Tobias is lying awake in his room. He wakes Amber and explains that he is unsure how he feels about not having powers like Amber. Amber coldly tells him that he reminds her of his father.

In the next room, Jim is having a dream where he is playing Checkers with Cthulu. Cthulu tempts Jim with a mysterious envelope but Jim refuses his offer. Cthulu reminds Jim that this is Cthulu's game and he owns the pieces and he will not play this game much longer.

At the same time, Puddle is dreaming that he is on a boat. The environment looks dreamlike and surreal; the sky looks painted, and there is an old pirate man on the shore that Puddle wants to kill. The old man ends up stabbing Puddle with a clay sword. It barely harms Puddle but he still took minimal damage. The dock then gives away and he falls down into the water. As he sinks further into the depths, he hears a murmuring feminine voice. He then falls through the water and lands on a stone floor. He's surrounded by darkness so he takes out his pen, crudely draws a horse in front of him, and then breathes life into it. That same feminine voice calls out to him. "Puddle Thirst is that you?" As Puddle moves forward, his horse becomes more and more lifelike until he is sitting on an actual horse. He gets to a set of stairs and at the top is Lily Chen. She is chained down and imprisoned. Puddle tries to use a sword to set her free, but is unsuccessful. Lily explains that she was following a vampire that she believed was the leader of a powerful mage cult. His name is Varduk and he has trapped Lily in the Dreamlands. Puddle learns that in the Dreamlands, anything you imagine becomes real. After an unsuccessful attempt at trying to sleep in the Dreamlands, he then imagines a freed Lily in a field of flowers. When he opens his eyes there is one flower next to her (our first step towards Big Magic). Puddle then wakes up in the same room as Jim and tries to explain what happened but Jim thinking this is typical Puddle behavior, walks away.

Liza and Fuilon are sitting in the rain on a hill outside of the motel. They're discussing the tentacle monster that they faced a few chapters ago. Fuilon resolves to investigate the tentacle and dissect it.

Andy and Tufty are also nearby watching Liza and Fuilon, listening to them. Tufty tells Andy that they need to stop the Conclave. Andy is confused because they don't know who or what the Conclave is. Ahead of them, they see a small patch of snow falling in the rain. Andy doesn't know what to do so he goes to wake up Amber. She gets frustrated because she's been woken up early twice today. Andy tries to get Tufty to tell Amber about the Conclave but she has never heard Tufty speak ever since she has known Andy. She believes this is Andy's overactive imagination.

Andy and Amber go outside to investigate the snow where they are joined by Liza and Fuilon. Upon investigating, Amber has a flash of a different world; a snowy world stretching out over an expansive tundra. She uses her magic to summon a creature from the other realm to get more information. Amber ends up summoning a super cute fox made out of rocks. Liza then transformed into a big cat and spoke to it. After calming the creature down, they learn that in the creature's world it was entirely snow but with one rain spot. The creature was walking into the rain spot hoping to find food and ended up in our world. The group named the creature Ignus and he is now another pet companion.

The group then splits up into #TeamLibrary, #TeamOffice, #TeamLowtown, and Andy went off to do their own thing.

Andy tries to tune in to Oscar's mind to find out what he is up to. But he is not powerful enough. Oscar ends up becoming aware of Andy's prying. Sensing the danger that they have possibly caused, they go and hide in the hotel room until the rest return.

Liza and Jim head to Oscar's office to investigate. They walk through the wall portal and end up in the Dreamlands version of Oscar's office. Upon their investigation they see lightning outside on the ocean. They find some of Oscar's teeth on the ground and Jim takes them in case of ritual needs. They pry open the desk and find a note,

> "Oscar, I'm terribly sorry but these office romances are a bad idea. You and your silly bloody play are just not my cup of tea. Also you're a bit of a drag. (heart) Blithe."
>
>

Inside the desk they also find a journal, which describes that he cannot interact with contaminated blood. It is poisonous to him.

Bobbie and Puddle head to the Library. At the direction of Puddle, the librarian, Dr. Pritchet, leads them to their oldest books. One of them was written by a Selena Caracol. Another town history document tells of a handsome stranger that comes to town once a year, beckoned by lazy men that have abandoned their duties. Suddenly Becky, the motel owner, walks into the library and overhears them talking about a seance that Puddle is insistent on performing in hopes of returning Lily's consciousness to her body. Becky flips out due to the town's fear of magical occurrences and tells them that they are kicked out of the motel for the night. Puddle and Bobbie diffuse the situation. Afterward Bobbie looks into the town public records and finds Selena's address in The Flats on the other side of town. They also find records for an Annabelle Caracol and a Frances Caracol. After a quick investigation, Annabelle's trail goes cold.

Amber heads to the bar with Tobias where they meet a man named Lance. Lance was supposed to be working but has decided to take the day off today for seemingly no reason. Amber, in her typical fashion, proceeds to thoroughly creep Lance out and he decides to leave the bar. She and Tobias follow him to Diane's Sporting Goods store where he is supposed to be working but he turns down an alley and disappears. Amber then sneaks into the open storage room of the store and steals a fishing rod, explaining to Tobias that they need this for their mission.

The group reconvenes at Crazy Ed's where the team shares their findings and plots their next move. Puddle continues to insist on a seance for Lily. The group agrees to the seance but before that happens some people want to search for contaminated blood in order to take down Oscar. And others want to follow the library trail and search the home of Selena Caracol. They again split up again into #TeamHospital and #TeamCaracol.

#TeamHospital consists of Andy, Amber and Liza. When they get to the humble medical facility, Andy causes a distraction by jinxing the coffee to make it fall out of the nurse's hands and crash to the ground. The three of them make their way to the morgue uninterrupted. They find the body of Sheriff Dirk in one of the cabinets and Amber uses some nearby syringes to extract his blood which they believe to be contaminated from Oscar's blood magic that killed him in the first place. But Amber's luck takes a turn when she accidentally stabs herself with the syringe contaminating her own blood.

#TeamCaracol, Jim, Puddle and Bobbie head to the address that Bobbie found back in the library. They find the house deserted and unlivable.

On the ship, Andy discovers a book that is not in any notable language.

## Notable Quotes

### Part 1: Masquerade

> "When I was very young I was always drinking out of the puddles and my mama would say, 'PUDDLE YOU STOP DRINKING OUT OF THEM PUDDLES!' but I wouldn't listen so everyone kept calling me Puddle." - Puddle Thirst
>
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> "SHELLY TOOK THE PICTURES!" - Denise
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> "Barnyard burndown." - Jim Tobin
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> "I'm following you two until one of you eventually fucks it up and I get to hit something." - Jim Tobin
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> "It was a ***dark*** red." - Denise
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> "Ma'am, you're not allowed to bring your cats in to the zoo." - Liza Tonberry
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> "The cream rises to the top." - Jordan
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> "Sometimes you gotta grab life and pull." - Amber Grace
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> “Did you know I loved you?” “My dear, you wear it right on your face.” - Puddle Thirst, Patricia Bardel
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> “I AIN’T DEAD.” - Shelly Harwin, to Frankie Ianotti
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>

### Part 2: The Conclave

> "Are you saying you left a ten year old child alone with the one person who turns into a tiger and eats people?" \**gives sarcastic thumbs up\* -* Jim Tobin
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> “Why did you do that, Mommy?” “Do what, baby?” “...You know what.” - Tobias Grace, Amber Grace
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> "Are we still on the boat?" - Jordan
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>