The world of Nyarlathotep
The Black Pharaoh Nyarlathotep rules the world. You must find a way to defeat or banish it back to the void. Nyarlathotep is credited to H.P. Lovecraft. Yes, I know about his opinions. No, I will not tolarate any complaining about that fact.
We thought we found proof of black Egyptians. But we were wrong. What have we done? We have doomed the entire world. Only god can forgive us now. ~Found written on a scrap of paper by the dead bodies of 5 Afro-centrist archeologists in an abandoned ruin.
The year is 2024 and a new racial supremacy movement has gained a significant amount of influence. A movement that believed in the pesudohistory known as Afro-centrism as if it were a religion. Determined to prove one of their most deeply held theories, that the Ancient Egyptians were black, a group of 5 archeologists uncovered a set of ancient stone tablets that claimed a person known as the "Black Pharaoh" was imprisoned in a secret tomb after trying to take over the world.
Unable to contain their excitement at the possibility of finally proving their theory true, they set off for Egypt and searched for this secret tomb. After weeks of searching with assistence from an eccentric man, they found the entrance to the tomb.
You who reads this. We sacrificed much to seal this monster away. Honor our sacrifice, leave this place and never return. The Black Pharaoh must never be released. To do so is to doom us all. ~ A warning inscribed on the tomb entrance doors.
When they apprached the sealed doors, a voice started to speak to them. It was a voice only they could hear. It claimed to be the spirit of the Black Pharaoh and it persuaded them to open the tomb. To convince them that it was what they sought, it told them an emotionally loaded tale of how the Egyptians attempted to cover up its existence by inventing the tale of it being a monster. Although anyone who knew had advanced knowledge of Egyptian history would have immediately figured out this was all a poorly worded fabrication, the archeologists in their blind faith in afro-centrism, allowed the voice to guide them through the tomb and disable the traps that guarded the tomb from intruders.
I can provide you with the proof you seek. Release me from this prison and tell my tale to the world. Only then can I finally rest in peace. ~ Nyarlathotep tricking the 5 archeologists into releasing it.
As they blindly followed this voice's every instruction, they all failed to notice that the layout of the tomb was inverted. As if not to keep intruders out but rather to keep something in. Upon reaching the inner sanctum of the tomb, they broke the seals that kept the sarcophagus shut. However instead of finding a corpse, a creature that is impossible to describe emerged instead. And this one was very much alive.
You mortals were so stupidly easy to manipulate. In your eagerness
to prove your racist beliefs I was able order you around like slaves. I
honestly thought that you would have wised up before reaching my
prison. ~Nyarlathotep after being freed from his ancient prison and escaping into the world.
After taunting the archeologists and mocking them for being so easy to fool, it revealed its name "Nyarlathotep". Once it was done gloating, the creature revealed what it intended to do and then left the tomb sealing the 5 archeologists inside. Unable to bare the guilt of unleashing this eldrich abomination upon the world, they killed themselves after writing down their last words.
Fast forward to the year 2025, Nyarlathotep summoned billions of eldrich minions from the void and quickly overpowered the world's armies. As humanity fled underground to avoid the monsters, those that tried fighting back were killed. Those that didn't make it to an underground location found themselves enslaved and forced to build massive cities with many non-euclidian structures.
Many of the slaves died from being driven insane, from the harsh working conditions, and the cruel whips of their eldrich masters. By the year 2030, the earth transformed into a warped hellscape of monsters and eldrich structures.
The PCs are in the year 2035 and currently live in one of the many underground areas the now serve as humanity's new home. Their main quest is to ultimately find a way to defeat Nyarlathotep or at the very least, banish it back to the void where it belongs.
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? Responses (2)
I think your warning is unneeded and should probably remove it. Like the worst click bait with no payoff.
There is much hand waving and then BAM world's gone. Trying to decide what parts I would extract and use. Perhaps if I was doing an end of the world scenario, you could possibly use this....but not sure why you would.
I see you have the PCs finding the tomb sometime before 2035 and the zombie uprising, so if they don't figure it out we know the future.
I would want to read this as a novel, but split into three distinct time periods so that three overlapping stories are told. The initial dig and discovery of a previously unknown inverted pyramid, finding the tomb, and done in a suitable Indiana Jones/The Mummy-esque adventure of daring-do, pistols, and bi-plane gallantry. The second story is decades later, with a world on the cusp of madness, and open war against the forces of Nyarlathotep, though most of the world refuses to believe that the unrest is actually the risen cult of the Crawling Chaos. The last would be an after the war has been lost, heroes looking for item X that they need to seal Nyarlathotep away, and the magic dingus has been bouncing through the three time periods, passing from hand to hand, so that half of the finale is tracing records back to the first story, to find where things ended up as the modern world was ravaged. Sort of Terminator meets The Mummy meets Lovecraft Mythos.