Demon of the Assyrian underworld; winged bull of Anu;
creature of shadow and nightmare.
STR 85 CON 140 SIZ 145 INT 75 POW 110 DEX 55
HP 28 DB +2D6 Build 3 Move8/24 (gliding)
Attack per rounds: 2. It may only use its Trample attack once per round.
Fighting Attacks: The Avatar of Alû savagely gores its victims with its horns, attempting to knock them to floor. It then tramples them to death when they are on the ground.
Fighting 50%, damage 1D10 + 2D6, drains D3 POW per hit.
Trample 70%, damage 2D10 + 2D6 vs. downed foe.
Dodge 27% (13/5)
Armour: 2-point hide and muscle. It regenerates 3 hit points per round unless dead. Mundane weapons and attacks have no effect against the Avatar, although spells, iron blades and enchanted artefacts may damage it as normal.
Skills: Sense Foe 88%.
Spells: Send Dreams.
Special Powers
Creature of Shadow: The Avatar of Alû is a creature of shadow, and is instantly banished back to the horn when exposed to bright sunlight.
Power from Nightmares: The Avatar of Alû draws its power from nightmare. It may only appear if there is a sleeping human within 100 yards of the Horn of Alû. The Avatar conjures hideous nightmares within the sleepers, until its physical form is able to manifest from the Dreamlands. Once it appears, it no longer matters if the sleeping characters wake up or not!
The Avatar fixates on a single foe – this is the character within 100 yards of the horn who currently possesses the artefact, or who has committed the most vile blasphemy against the Temple of Nabu, at the Keeper’s discretion. Once summoned, it will use its Sense Foe skill to track its prey to the ends of the earth. It usually moves via galloping upon its great hooves, but once per turn it can make a gliding leap upon its shadowy wings. The Avatar is partially incorporeal, and thus no walls or locked doors will stop it. It is, however, affected by any warding spells, rituals or magical items that would ordinarily affect demons.
Sanity Cost: 1D3/1D20
1D10 Roll
Result
1 You seem trapped in an endless, near-dark labyrinth, with no way out. You feel yourself growing older and weaker as you walk the eternal tunnels. But there is no escape, and no waking up. Lose 0/1 Sanity.
2 A strange, scurrying and scratching noise wakes you – or so you think. You get out of bed to investigate the noise, and put your bare feet onto a floor that writhes beneath them. Looking down you see hundreds – no, thousands – of rats, crawling across the bedroom floor, their unnatural red eyes sparkling at you through the darkness. Then they start to bite. Lose 0/1D3 Sanity.
3 You can't move a muscle; you are completely paralysed, lying prone in the darkness. You can hear something just at the edge of earshot; you see flickers of movement in the shadows around you. Slowly the noises start to sound like the things that you are most afraid of, and the shadows take on the shapes of everything you most desperately try to keep hidden. They are getting closer, and you can't even scream… Lose 0/1D3 Sanity.
4 A hideous, misshapen dwarf appears to wake you, and you suddenly seem unable to move. The dwarf crawls over your prone body, getting close to your face, before reaching into his pocket and revealing a small hammer. Grinning insanely, and saying not a word, the dwarf proceeds to bash out your teeth. Lose 1/1D3 Sanity.
5 You dream of being a soldier in the Great War; of running through trenches and across mud-soaked fields, of killing the enemy with bayonet and knife. Then there is a sudden explosion, and you are badly wounded by shrapnel, and mistaken for dead. You are tipped into a mass grave, with a hundred other corpses of friends and foes alike. Your injuries make it impossible to cry out, or even to move, but you see everything as the mud and earth is piled upon you. You are buried alive with the dead. Lose 1/1D4 Sanity.
6 You wake up suddenly, dripping sweat. Everything looks normal, but you can’t shake the feeling that someone is watching you.
You head downstairs – if you can’t sleep, you may as well make some tea. As you enter the kitchen, you realise there’s someone already there. With horror, you see that it’s you, drinking a cup of tea… Both of you suddenly race for the kitchen knives. Your doppelganger gets there first, and plunges the knife into your heart, while you both scream. You wake up suddenly, dripping sweat. Everything looks normal… Lose 1/1D4+1 Sanity.
7 You are woken abruptly by a loud noise. Leaping out of bed, you race to the door and throw it open, only to be greeted by a hideous, malformed creature with pale skin and a ravening maw. You slam the door shut and look around the room – there are more doors than there were before. Lots more, all around the room; and behind each one, something growls, or scratches or pounds on the wood, wanting to be let in. Lose 1/1D6 Sanity.
8 The dreamer seems cursed to experience one nightmare after another, each time believing he has finally woken up to safety in his bed, but each time being plunged into a fresh delusion. Choose any three of entries 2, 3, 4, 6 or 7 from this table, and read them concurrently. The dreamer loses 1D3/1D6+1 Sanity.
9 You stir, looking around the bedroom in a half-awake state. The night silence is shattered as the door is kicked in, and a dozen tan-skinned, half-naked soldiers of a bygone age march in. They drag you bodily from your bed, and carry you from the room, whereupon you find yourself atop a vast temple in a far-off land. The soldiers hold you down, and a large crowd bays for blood.
A priest of Nabu steps forth, carrying a huge bronze sword, with which he begins to dismember you: first one leg, then the other;
then the arms; finally, he goes for the head… Lose 1D3/1D8 Sanity.
10 If the sleeper has a particular phobia, or has experienced some past trauma in a previous adventure, then the Keeper is encouraged to describe the most extreme instance of that event imaginable. For example, if the sleeper is an arachnophobe, then he is visited by a demonic spider – an avatar of Atlach-Nacha perhaps – that impregnates him with a million eggs. As they hatch, they spew forth from his nose and mouth, choking his screams, and his body physically convulses. Lose 1D3/1D10 Sanity.
11 You find yourself locked in a dark chamber. With growing horror, you realise that you are in a stone tomb. By flickering candlelight, you see cuneiform runes etched on the walls, and desiccated bodies standing all around you. The bodies suddenly jerk and creak into blasphemous life, grasping you and holding you down. It is all too real; you can smell their foetid breath and feel their sharp fingernails on your flesh. You look up just in time to see the shadows before you coalescing into the form of a monstrous bull, which charges forward and gores you with its massive horns. As your own entrails drop to your feet, you can only scream impotently. Lose 1D4/1D12 Sanity.
12 Your frenetic nightmare climaxes in the appearance of a dreadful, winged black bull, with no eyes, mouth or nose; and yet it seems to see, hear and sniff you out perfectly well. It grows from the shadows of the room, taking shape as an amorphous black monster. You realise with horror that you are no longer asleep, but in a waking nightmare. The Avatar of Alû appears before you – if you can keep hold of your sanity long enough, you may just be able to flee… Lose 1D4/1D20 Sanity.
The WATChers BeloW
• running this chapter •
This chapter forms the midway point in the campaign, as it resolves some plot threads and sets up several new ones. In this adventure, the investigators are introduced to the murky underworld of London’s occult circles, and finally cross swords with the shadowy figure who has lurked in the background during their exploits to date: Aloysius Delgado.
Additionally, this adventure sees Theodore Rayburn-Price, the investigators’ benevolent patron from the very start of the campaign, come to a sticky end. Finally, the investigators must identify and confront the mysterious Children of Tranquillity.
This ancient order has followed the temple and its artefacts halfway across the world, and will stop at nothing to reunite the casket that contains the very essence of Nabu with the other artefacts, in order to save the world from their former patron deity. However, they are strangers in a strange land, and their power is on the wane; as such, they view everyone as a potential enemy, and their actions often appear malicious to the casual observer.
These events combined should ramp up the paranoia of the party for the remainder of the campaign, as the investigators realise that they are on their own, with enemies on all sides.
Added to that the arrival of a very nasty spectral entity, the Avatar of Alû, and you have all the elements you need to keep the party on its toes.
It is recommended that, unless the investigators come to this adventure having made some unexpected decisions and allegiances already, the events are played out roughly in the order presented. Some events – notably the trip to Bethlem and the visit to Delgado’s house at Cheyne Walk – can be moved around as appropriate, or even left out altogether if required.
By the close of Ancient Echoes the investigators should, ideally, be aware of the following things:
• That the Children of Tranquillity are using the London Underground to get around.
• That the Children of Tranquillity are breaking into the British Museum’s vaults from beneath.
• That Aloysius Delgado is the other party interested in the artefacts.
involving the investigators
The Horn of Alû was one of the artefacts that went missing in transit from Nineveh, and found its way onto the black market.
In a short space of time, it has fallen into several hands as the Avatar of Alû has reaped a bloody toll on the men it views as thieves. The final owner was killed after listing the horn with Sotheby’s auction house, and his heirs decided to go ahead with the auction, not wishing any part of the item that they believe to be cursed.
The investigators most likely come to this adventure having been tipped off about the auction of the horn by Theodore Rayburn-Price. The auction is by invitation only, but as a noted collector of esoterica, Rayburn-Price can arrange for one or more investigators (of good social standing) to be placed on the guest list if they agree to purchase the item on his behalf (he will never attend such an auction himself, as the safety of his collection depends on his anonymity). If they are of independent means, and are trying to solve the mystery of the temple themselves, the investigators may wish to buy the horn for themselves. However, in this instance Rayburn-Price will recommend them to Sotheby’s if they at least agree to let him study the artefact as soon as they’ve purchased it.
The investigators may prefer to ‘go it alone’ – if so, they should be able to learn of the auction through their own occult contacts, and go to whatever lengths are required to get themselves on the invitation list. Of course, a crafty Keeper will make sure that these contacts are also acquaintances of Rayburn-Price, bringing the potential patron (or rival) into the equation early on. There is the slight possibility that the investigators have already gone ‘off the rails’ so to speak, and are working with Delgado to secure the horn. If that is the case, the Keeper may wish to invert some of the scenes in this adventure accordingly, so that Rayburn-Price is portrayed as a villain, while actually being one of the few men who could genuinely help the investigators.
Keeper’s Note: The ‘owners’ of the horn – the inheritors of a deceased occultist’s estate – are not detailed in this adventure.
Discovering their identities through the stringent discretionary records of Sotheby’s is virtually impossible, unless perhaps one of the investigators is a titled peer of some standing. If the players insist on trying, this could form an interesting side-plot for the Keeper to run with, as the family who are auctioning off the occult collection must be incredibly wealthy, and will almost certainly have criminal connections.
• threats •
aloysius delgado
This is the first chapter in which Delgado steps out of the shadows and into the light, although the investigators might not realise that he is the villain of the piece. He makes an overt play to acquire the Horn of Alû, via both his middlemen at the auction and in person to the investigators.
the children of tranquillity
During this adventure, the Children of Tranquillity should be an ever-present threat. Though they have neither the funds nor the influence of Delgado, they are fanatical in their beliefs, and skilled in the arts of stealth and assassination. In this adventure, the Children are directed by Ashur Raman, one of the cult’s sorcerers tasked with imprisoning Nabu in the temple should he ever escape.
Raman is not the most powerful priest in the cult, but he is the first to realise what is happening in London, and thus is setting plans in motion whilst he awaits the coming of his fellows. His profile and spells are provided on pg. 16, should the Keeper wish to introduce him at an earlier point in the scenario.
There are several points in the adventure when the Children of Tranquillity could strike at the investigators – after the auction; in the investigators’ homes or hotel; at Rayburn-Price’s house; or when they are leaving the Wentworth Club.
It is up to the Keeper (using the investigators’ actions as his guide) whether the Children are always hostile, or seek to talk to or even kidnap the investigators. Their sole mission in every instance is to secure the Horn of Alû, or learn its whereabouts.
It is important to note that, as described in the Going Underground section, the Children of Tranquillity use the London Underground to make their escape. Sometimes they simply flee into the tunnels and use their knowledge of deep-cut maintenance shafts and so on to seemingly disappear;
other times, they time their attacks to coincide with the train schedule – they have operatives posing as tube drivers. By boarding a train and signalling for the driver to slow down at the appropriate point, they are able to leap from the carriage unnoticed and make their escape.
• the auction •
Sotheby’s, New Bond Street (Central London)
Sotheby’s – the fourth oldest auction-house in the world – has been located at its exclusive premises on New Bond Street since 1917. Its international reputation rivals that of Christie’s in New York. Above the entrance to Sotheby’s is mounted a statue of Sekhmet, dating from around 1320 B.C. This basalt bust is the oldest outdoor statue in London (older even than Cleopatra’s Needle) – it was sold at auction in 1835, but never collected.