The blessing of the wind walker

Tonight, another playthrough of Alone Against the Frost, a solo adventure using the Call of Cthulhu ruleset.

My first few playthroughs, I only got about five pages in before something stole my entire party in cut scenes, or before I drowned in the first scene. I got to say, it was getting a little discouraging.

But this one, much more interesting.

After braving the rapids, we continue onward until it’s time to set up camp. In the night, Sylvia hears a noise and shoots her rifle at some small animals… that maybe are tiny people? It scares them off, but our guide Charlie is spooked by this whole encounter. She tells us that the little people steal children, and when they are returned (if ever) they’re not the same. What animal did Sylvia really see? Is it the kernel of some changeling myth? It’s just fascinating how myths repeat, isn’t it?

The next day, back on the river, I see a man watching us from the bushes on a small island. I pull us over to investigate, despite Charlie’s objections that this area is cursed and that we are chasing devils. I’m an anthropologist – chasing devils is why we are here.

I find a white man lying on the ground, coughing up blood but it’s not obvious how he’s been injured. He says that there’s a temple, with a large stone wheel, cursed and very bad and stay away save yourself just run away! Naturally, we do exactly the opposite and head towards that temple.

We’re all spooked when ducks fall out of the air for no obvious reason, as if suddenly dead without a shot. Then Charlie falls to her knees, lacerations opening on her arms and face from invisible claws. She screams and hollers, tells us to run away from the invisible demon. Then, as suddenly as it started, it stops – her body stands with a destroyed leg, blood still gushing, her eyes gone and replaced with red glows.

Oh fuck.

I ask the thing (because it’s clearly not Charlie) what it is, and why it is here. It refuses to answer, says I cannot compel it to speak – but I put on my best angry teacher voice, and it chuckles. It tells me the secret word to get into the temple, and if I want to learn what the demons know, I need to go where the demons go.

Hell yes.

As I walk into the temple, my mind is blasted with images and knowledge and memories from times long before humans existed. The people on this continent were the ones who destroyed Atlantis, who destroyed Mu, making sacrifices to terrible gods in exchange for magic, knowing that it would destroy them but it’s worth it because it destroys their enemies too. I stick it out for as long as I can, accumulating a whopping 28 Cthulhu Mythos (and therefore reducing my maximum sanity to 72 from 80) before I stagger away.

But I’m not the same, and I never can be. As I step outside, I see the truth – Ithaqua fills the sky, brings life beyond this pale imitation of life, brings the wind that carries us far and beyond. The other people in my party are whisked away in the wind, and I forget about them. I am transformed, with hooves instead of feet, claws on my hands, and hunger. So much hunger. The wind drops me back to the ground, and I revel in my new beauty, the truth and purity of a better life.

I smell food, and I hunt it. I kill the pink two-legged animals that wander into my land, and feed from them. And I will hunt and I will eat, and keep this land my own. Forever.

Holy shit, that was awesome! I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a successful end to the expedition, but I loved it.