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The
Devil's PactAn adventure in the 1920s
by Keith Herber, translated by Frank Heller
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HP Lovecraft’s Cthulhu — the role-playing game The devil's pact

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The devil's pact HP Lovecraft’s Cthulhu — the role-playing game

Devil's Pact by
The
Keith Herber Translation and
additional text:
Frank Heller
In which the characters have to deal with a witch from the past and perhaps travel back in time
to the ancient city of the Elder Beings.

This scenario involves the characters in a The dead woman in the cemetery
strange death at the old Fairfax Cemetery in Salem, Massachusetts. The An article appears in the Boston Globe with a report

characters will about a body found at the Fairfax Cemetery in Sa-

must use his mind to avoid a dangerous confrontation with a powerful lem, Massachusetts. A young woman was found dead there by a passing
witch. milkman at around 4:45 a.m. The milkman told police that he had noticed
the body because he had seen a moving blue light in the cemetery. The
dead woman was Amy Hanover, a freelance writer from Boston.
Introduction to the scenario
In this scenario, the characters are tasked with investigating the death of
a young woman (Amy Hanover) in Salem's Fairfax Cemetery. There may
be more

There may be more reasons why the characters act. There is no evidence of a violent death. The forensic pathologist, Dr.
Here are some examples and suggestions: Sarnowski, believes the cause of death was simple heart failure. No
j The characters fi nd the corpse and are interested further information is available from the press.
therefore responsible for the crime.

j The characters are described as private detectives or

If known investigators of friends or relatives

Amy Hanover's investigators have been hired to investigate her

death because the police are not investigating the case any further.
j One or more of the characters were friends with Amy Hanover or were
at least roommates.

neighbors.
j One of the characters, who already has experience with the Mythos and
is in possession of Mythos artifacts or books, experiences a vision of
the dead woman lying in the cemetery at night, so that he becomes
aware of the case when he reads about it in the newspaper in the
morning. He decides to investigate the matter, which seems to have
a special significance due to the vision. It is up to the game master to
invent the background of the vision, i.e. why such a vision occurred.
He can tie this in particularly to the background of his own campaign.

j If the characters conduct a séance, read cards, or otherwise divine, the

Game Master may direct them to the death of Amy Hanover

to draw attention.

So young and already so dead: Amy Hanover.

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The milkman is not much help in clarifying the matter.
Background for the game master
In 1692, several people were killed in Salem, Massachusetts.
and hanged as witches. Most of these people were innocent and victims of mass
hysteria that was also raging in England and Western Europe at the time. What is
particularly perverse about the Salem witch trials is that those who confessed to the
witchcraft they were accused of (usually under torture) were pardoned, while those
who insisted on their innocence were executed. There was one major exception,
however, and that was the trial of Mercy Booth and the members of her coven.
Although they all confessed under torture, the judges considered the crimes they were
accused of so heinous that they were sentenced to death nonetheless, executed
immediately afterwards, and buried in unconsecrated ground. Later, all records of the
trial were either discarded or burned. Many years later, when the judges involved in
the Salem trials wrote a statement in which they publicly apologized for their mistakes,
there is said to have been an initial version of this statement in which the case of Mery
Booth was explicitly mentioned.
was taken.
In fact, Mercy Booth and her coven had worshiped Nyarlathotep in a secret room
beneath the basement of their house.
Here they held their secret rituals and sacrificed small children to Nyogtha. Without the
other members of the circle knowing, Nyarlathotep taught Mery in another secret room
how to build a gate that would take her through space and time to the City of the Elder
Beings in Antarctica, one hundred million years into the past.
As the witch craze spread throughout Salem, Mercy quickly realized that her life
was in danger and prepared to find a way to prevent her death. To do this, she made a
deal with the ghouls who lived under the Fairfax Cemetery. According to her belief,
they were to
She had to dig a tunnel from below to her coffin and take it to an underground room
half a mile north of the cemetery. And so it happened. In the room in question, the
Elder Beings waiting there separated her spirit from her body and brought it through
the gate. In Antarctica, her body then took on its normal form, and for two centuries
now,
they are now there, in the past.
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The devil's pact
Mercy still visits our world, but her body
takes on a ghostly form that cannot make any sound and cannot move objects. For
such purposes, however, she can temporarily take over her old mummified corpse.
Through this she can speak, move and cast spells.
The block containing Mercy's old house was demolished in 1892 to make way for a
cluster of apartment buildings. Work was temporarily halted after workmen broke
through the ceiling of Mercy's secret room. Professor Michael Hagerty of Boston
University was called in to examine the find.
Hagerty was a recognized expert on the colonial history of America and had been
commissioned by the Salem City Council to assess the historical value of the find.
While investigating the secret room, Hagerty was contacted by Mercy, who promised
to reveal incredible secrets if he could keep the room and her existence secret.
Hagerty announced shortly afterwards that the room had no significant historical
value, so that work could continue. However, Hagerty bribed the construction company
with a sum of US$2,000.00 and thus managed to keep the room, close it and simply
build the new building over it.
Ghoultunnel allowed Hagerty to regain access to the room, where he met with Mercy
repeatedly over the next few months.
Finally, Mercy convinced him to bring his wife to the next meeting. Secretly, she
planned to take over the woman's body. However, Hagerty's wife became ill before the
meeting and could not accompany him to Salem. When Hagerty appeared alone in the
secret room, Mercy went mad and ordered the ghouls to kill Hagerty. They dumped his
body outside the cemetery.
Mercy's next opportunity was a long time coming and only came in the form of Amy
Hanover when she was examining the old gravestones in the Fairfax Cemetery.
Using her telepathic abilities, she manipulated Amy into returning to the cemetery later
that night, where Mercy then tried to take over her body. Amy, however, had a weak
heart and was literally scared to death of Mercy's spirit. This forced Mercy to leave
Amy's body again. Mercy is still lurking under the cemetery, waiting for the next victim...
This fate also befell Mercy Booth in 1692.
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The devil's pact
The scenes of the adventure
This adventure is open-ended, meaning that players are free to choose
which locations they visit first.
Below you will find the places that the characters are likely to visit during
their investigations.
Amy Hanovers Appartment
The address of the apartment, if the characters don't already know it, can
easily be found in the Boston phone book. Amy shared her apartment
with Rita Carson, a model who is encountered when visiting the
apartment. Rita is still distraught and therefore not very talkative, but she
can at least convey the information that Amy was a dedicated writer with
a special interest in occult topics.
Rita may be persuaded to show the characters an old notebook of
Amy's that the police are unaware of. Among the scribbled pages is one
with the heading "Salem." The page has nothing more written on it than
"Mercy Booth" and "1412 L" (see Devil's Pact Handout #1). There is
nothing else of interest in the notebook, except for a folded letter that lies
between the pages of the book. It is a standardized letter of the time.
magazine “Occult Review” from New York, in which Amy is informed that
her article will be published.
The letter is dated five months ago.
A call to the publisher in New York reveals that Amy sold the magazine
an article about witchcraft.
The edition in question is already out of print at the publisher, but can still
be obtained with library use in well-stocked libraries, for example in Boston
(see Devil's Pact Handout #2).
The coroner
The only way to get Salem’s medical examiner, Dr. Sarnowski, to talk is
to take him to a specialist
Dr. Sarnowski examined the body.
The devil's pact
HP Lovecraft’s Cthulhu — the role-playing game
conversation and pretends to be a doctor (Medicine and
Disguise; the latter only if the character does not
cal doctor), or by persuading him. He then explains that in his opinion the
woman died of sheer fear. Incidentally, everyone in Salem knows that the
cemetery is said to be haunted.
The Fairfax Cemetery
This cemetery is one of the oldest
in the whole area. The ancient, twisted trees and the weathered
gravestones are evidence of this
This is a fact. The cemetery is in a good state of preservation, as many
of the long-established families of Salem have ancestors buried here,
even though the area as a whole has become rather run down. The
cemetery is surrounded by a two-meter-high iron fence.
but the gate is never locked. On the west side of the cemetery, just
beyond the fence, there is a small and overgrown grave. It is easy to spot
from any elevated point in the cemetery.
At night, the ghouls living under the cemetery occasionally leave their
tunnels and make the area
uncertain. There is a 20% chance of encountering a ghoul per night. The
chance of seeing the blue glowing ghost of Mercy Booth per night is 10%.
Anyone who investigates the Crawford Mausoleum and finds
genes, notices a muddy hole under a bush growing near the mausoleum
through which one can enter the underground ghoul tunnels.
Anyone who sees the overgrown grave outside the cemetery
A man who examines the farm grounds discovers 13 graves, each with
a flat headstone. The stones are too weathered to read their inscriptions,
but one has a small bronze plaque attached to it. It is tarnished with
verdigris, but is still legible. It reads: "Grave of Mercy Booth.
Daughters of Salem Historical Society. 1901"
The address of the Historical Society can be found
easily found in the local phone book.
Historical Society
The “Daughters of Salem Historical
Society” resides in a small
a two-story building with a storefront, located in
an older part of town. A cracked sign with the
company's name hangs above the front door,
and a sign on the door proclaims: "Opening
hours Monday-Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Admission 10 cents."
The museum is run by the sister
tern Henrietta and Olivia Thatcher
both old maids in their mid-60s. They live
above the
Museum on the upper floor.
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You wouldn't want to wander around here at night.
When you enter the museum, on the right hand side you will find a
Counter behind which the two sisters are sitting. Behind a souvenir
stand, a staircase leads to the upper floor. The museum also houses a
collection of books on the topics of Salem and witchcraft. Otherwise, there
are typical witch objects such as cauldrons and broomsticks, and old
prints and paintings hang on the walls. Everything is dusty.
covered. In some corners there are boxes full of old magazines and
newspapers, containing articles that the sisters wanted to keep but have
not yet cut out and catalogued. A locked door at the back leads to the
basement.
If you ask about Mercy Booth, Olivia tells the
Characters that her mother, when she was little,
showed her an old house on Lyle Street and told her that Mercy Booth
was said to have lived there. She also says that the whole area was
demolished about 30 years ago and that new buildings are now standing
there. She does not know exactly where the house stood at that time.
no longer.
When asked about strange, supernatural experiences, Henrietta tells
us that she once saw a ghost in the Fairfax Cemetery. That day, she and
Olivia were there to supervise the workers who were installing the bronze
plaque on Mercy Booth's grave. Suddenly, she saw a blue-shimmering
figure next to the Crawford Mausoleum.
see them floating. Olivia, on the other hand, does not believe that there is
anything to it, because ghosts do not appear during the day and
Henrietta's imagination has obviously run wild.
6 The devil's pact
The devil's pact
If a roll to detect hidden objects is successful,
the characters of a
of the prints on the walls. It is entitled “The
Execution of Mercy Booth” and shows an ugly
old witch being led to the gallows. This is an
authentic
Representation of the event so that the
characters can recognize Mercy Booth when
they
meet. If the characters
Anyway, all prints on the walls
If you look at it, the mentioned throw is of
course cancelled.
Anyone who rummages through the boxes
of newspapers will find a lucky
throw a report from July 1892, which deals with
the demolition of the old
Houses on Lyle Street (see Devil's Pact Handout
#3).
If the characters gain access
to the basement, they encounter
to a small room whose door is locked. With the
right key, locksmith work or rough
Force (ST against ST 12 on the resistance
table) they can enter it. Here you will find
numerous
che occult paraphernalia. There is also a magic
circle drawn on the floor in chalk. If you roll for
occultism, it becomes clear that amateurs are at work here. In fact, the
sisters regularly "play" witches here.
Henrietta and Olivia Thatcher
The two old maids are the founders and only members (!) of the
“Daughters of Salem Historical Society”. The society was founded in
1899
and has made it its mission to keep the knowledge of the witch trials
in Salem in the 17th century alive. Henrietta is the younger of the
two, is talkative and open. Olivia, her older sister, on the other hand,
is reserved and humorless and regularly criticizes Henrietta for her
inappropriate behavior. Even as little girls, the two sisters were
interested in
for the occult, ever since their mother had told them that they were
descendants of a family that was persecuted for witchcraft.
For years, the two women have been experimenting with spells and
potions in their basement, but so far without any real results. They
are absolutely harmless, but if the characters discover their
paraphernalia in the basement, they could be put on the wrong track
and suspect the women of
to be cultists.
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The devil's pact HP Lovecraft’s Cthulhu — the role-playing game

The construction company

The company that carried out the demolition work still exists today. It is
the "Da Chille Construction Company". If you manage to look at the
business books from 1892, which are still lying dusty in the basement,
you will come across an entry for July 1892 which states that a sum of
US$2,000.00 was paid to the company by a "M. Hagerty". The intended
purpose is stated as "special construction work". Hagerty's address in
Boston can then be easily found in the documents.
At the time, Mercy Booth's coven was accused of having committed
more than a dozen ritual murders. No bodies were ever found, however.
Mercy was also accused of having met with the devil. Several witnesses
said they had seen Mercy in the company of a large black man. An old
man of dubious mental health also claimed that he had once seen her at
night with her horrific familiar, her witch's beast. This was said to be a
barrel-shaped creature with a starfish-shaped head. The description
naturally fits the broken statue, as the characters will immediately notice.

Professor Hagerty

Professor Hagerty died in 1893. His wife is still alive and can tell the
characters that her husband was murdered in Salem that year. His

a body near the Fairfax Cemetery. The

Police assumed that he had been attacked by rabid dogs, as his body
had numerous bite marks that appeared to have been made by dogs.

reports that her husband was often in Salem on weekends to research a

book,
on which he wrote. She also mentions that she was on the
was actually supposed to have come along on the last, fatal trip to Salem,
but had fallen ill at short notice and therefore had to stay at home.

Old Mrs. Hagerty can be a great help if you handle her skillfully.

Lyle Street

Some photos in the widow's house show the professor.
Perhaps the characters can convince Mrs. Hagerty to give them the
professor's notes and an unusual metal statue. The statue is made of a
strange shiny metal and is broken off at the base. With a Cthulhu Mythos
roll , the characters know that the statue shows an Elder Being. The cover
image of Cthulhu Worlds #4 portrays such a being; it is also described
in the Game Master's Guide. Reading the notes takes several hours.
Then the result is the following:
In the early 1890s, the old buildings that stood here were replaced by two
three-storey apartment blocks. Originally, this was supposed to be
housing for the middle class, but the area is now quite run down and
rather suspicious characters live here. On their first visit to the street,
about a dozen people were seen on the sidewalks.
climb along the way, a fruit seller has set up his stall, a milk truck pulled
by a black horse drives past - and then there is a truck with a large pump
mounted on it, which is currently being operated by two men.
If you take a closer look at the truck with the pumping system, you will
notice a thick black hose that
from the pump to a basement window of the house with the address
“1412 Lyle St.” When asked,

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The men willingly say that they are here every few months to pump out
the basement of the house, because water regularly seeps into the house
from a defective sewage pipe. The tenants of the house always complain
about the smell, so they are called. The worker also notes that he thinks
the landlord is a pig because he is ignoring the problem.
does not accept and does not replace the sewer pipe
– but that would probably be too expensive for him.
When the characters take a closer look at the basement in question,
they immediately notice the disgusting
The smell of a sewer, mixed with the smell of something else, something
much more disgusting. The sewage pipe is quickly identified, which seems
to lead from the toilets in the house along the wall into the sewer system:
in any case, it disappears into the floor of the basement.
The floor itself is wet and appears brittle. You can break it up with a
sledgehammer. No tenant will mind, and then you will quickly see
that the sewer pipe actually has large cracks,
from which fecal fluid is leaking. But most importantly, the characters then
discover that under the floor
of the basement there is another room... that on the
Mosaic rooms marked on map.
Nobody knows what secret lies hidden beneath this house.
The Ghoul Tunnel
The tunnels are absolutely dark and damp. A smell
of decay hangs in the air, and the ground is covered with scattered bones
and debris. Old tree
Roots bore through the ceiling. Brackish water drips down them, forming
small puddles in which bloated, slightly luminescent mushrooms grow.
Directly beneath the cemetery, shattered coffins are seen protruding
through the earthy walls into the tunnels. This is also where most of the
bones lie in the corridors.
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The devil's pact
Somewhere here is the entrance to the tunnels.
The tunnel system stretches for miles and
forms a veritable labyrinth. It even has branches
as far as Boston. It is so
It is almost impossible for the characters to
map the corridors.
Only with orientation can the entrance be found
again if the characters walk more than a few
dozen meters through the corridors. If the roll
fails, the characters can only find it after 1d6
Hours try again, the
they wander through the labyrinth. The corridor
system, however, has more than one entrance.
Therefore, it can happen that the characters
suddenly find themselves in the basement of a
residential building.
house and get
have to put up with embarrassing questions
from the residents about how they got there.
In this adventure, the
Characters probably only up to
discover three of the entrances to the tunnel
system. Most likely
is the hole in the ground in the cemetery next to the mausoleum.
Alternatively, you can also get into the corridor system from Mercy's secret
room. Very desperate characters could also dig up Mercy Booth's grave
(which is empty). Then, at some point, their spade will unexpectedly hit
the void - they will then have the breakthrough into the ghoul
tunnel under the grave done!
It is assumed here that the characters are talking about the hole in
the bushes next to the mausoleum
You will then be confronted with a maze of corridors leading in all possible
directions. Mercy's cellar is a quarter mile away in an almost due north
direction. The tomb of the
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The devil's pact
There aren't just worms and cockroaches living down here!
Witch is located 200 meters to the west. If the characters want to go north,
there is an 80% chance that they will discover Mercy's secret room within
1d3 hours. Those who turn east or west have a 45% chance of passing
Mercy's cellar within 1d4 hours. If they are oriented south, there is a 10%
chance that they will come across the cellar within 1d6 hours.
For every hour that the characters spend in the tunnels
, there is a 35% (non-cumulative) chance that they will encounter 1d3 ghouls.
The information in the previous paragraph is primarily intended as a
guide for the game master. Of course, instead of rolling the dice, the game
master can simply devise an exciting walk through the dark tunnels, which
he designs as he sees fit. As further elements of suspense, the game
master could, for example, have the ghost of Mercy Booth appear as he
disappears around a bend, or they come across the half-eaten corpse of a
man who, as they remember, was reported missing a few days ago.
No matter what encounters the game master includes, the tunnels, which
are full of shadows and eerie noises, should scare the players.
The ghouls in the tunnels are afraid of Mercy Booth because she is so
magically powerful. If a character has mastered the Contact with Ghouls
spell , the
Characters communicate with the ghouls and
Although the ghouls will be able to
not help against Mercy, but at least the ghouls could agree to act as guides
for the characters through the labyrinth of corridors.
You can learn more about ghouls in the Game Master’s Guide.
The stats of a typical ghoul can also be found in the appendix.
The devil's pact
HP Lovecraft’s Cthulhu — the role-playing game
Special features in the Ghoul Tunnels
d In the area beneath the mausoleum , with the help of the Hidden
Objects skill, you will notice a small book that someone has stuck
between some roots that extend into the tunnel. The book is
already falling apart, the pages are largely rotten and the cover is
completely
moldy, but at least you can
Inside the book cover the name of the
owner: Michael Hagerty (and the address is also noted). The
following information can be obtained from the few pages that are
still legible:
d The mosaic writing on the wall of a (not further defined) secret room
is medieval Arabic and represents a prayer to a god.
unity with the name Nyogtha.
d Hagerty mentions that there is a "presence" in the room and reports
a voice that he hears in his head. The voice claims to be Mercy
Booth. Hagerty mentions that he paid the Da Chille Construction
Company the sum of $2,000.00 to seal the room again and to keep
it intact during construction. The
Diary then reports several meetings in the secret room between
Hagerty and what he believes to be the ghost of Mercy Booth. The
last entry then reports that Mercy wants him to bring his wife to the
next meeting.
d The area beneath the witches' burial site is reached via a relatively
straight branch tunnel that branches off from the main tunnels.
With the help of the Hidden Ones , it becomes clear that there are
12 shattered coffins here. The 13th
Mercy Booth's coffin is missing. Mercy's grave is accordingly empty.
d A quarter mile north of the cemetery is
There is a heavy oak door built directly into the tunnel wall. It leads
into Mercy's cellar, is locked and can only be opened with brute
force (ST against ST 14; two characters can also combine their
strengths).
Mercy Booths Keller
The secret room
This room is Mercy Booth's private chamber, which not even the members
of her circle knew about. It has a floor, walls and ceiling made of stone and
is barely furnished. Near the door to the Ghoultun
In the middle of the room lies an open, empty coffin of the cheapest quality.
A human figure, dressed in brown robes, sits with its back to the viewer at
a table in front of a wall covered with strange lines and arcane symbols.
The door that leads into the ghoul tunnels is locked and can
only be opened with a Strength check ST against ST 14.
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The door in the west wall opens without problems in
the neighboring mosaic room. If you look closely at the coffin, you will
find the inscription on the lid: “M. Booth
1692” which was burned into the wood.
When the characters walk around the table to take a closer look at the
figure at the table, which does not move or react to anything, they find
that it is the mummified corpse of an ancient
woman sitting on the chair. The face is
horribly distorted, the dried-up tongue protrudes from the mouth and the
head hangs at an unnatural angle due to the broken neck. The bony
hands rest on a small black book lying on the table.
Next to the book lies a rolled-up animal skin with writing on it. A
medicine roll reveals that it is human skin.
The scribble on the skin can be identified as that of Mercy Booth. A roll of
the English dice reveals that the scroll is a contract between Mercy Booth
and the ghouls, dated 1692. The ghouls agree to bring Mercy Booth's
body to the secret room immediately after her burial. In return, Mercy
Booth promises the ghouls to deliver certain people they desire for
themselves.
If the body is touched or moved (including the
Pulling the book away is enough), Mercy automatically notices this and
comes over to her old
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The devil's pact
to take over bodies and to drive away or eliminate the intruders with
magic. Their values are
can be found in the appendix.
The magical gate on the back wall can be identified as such by the
Cthulhu Mythos . It is automatically recognized by people who have
mastered the spell Create Gate . Anyone who steps through the gate
loses 3 magic points and 2 points of STA. They are transported to the
City of the Elder Beings in Antarctica, many millions of years into the past.
The cost of using it is only so low (illegally) because the gate was created
by Nyarlathotep himself for Mercy Booth. Hardly any mortal would
normally be in
able to set up such a gate.
The Mosaic Room
In 1892, workers discovered this room while they were demolishing Lyle
Street. The walls and ceiling of this room are covered with
covered in a mosaic that shows strange swirls of incomprehensible
colors. Rusted torch holders are attached to the walls. On one wall, the
sewer pipe comes through the ceiling, runs along the wall and disappears
into a corner. Sewage drips from several cracks in the pipe. The horribly
smelling liquid covers the floor to a height of about 10 cm. Anyone
entering the room must pass a CONx5 roll to avoid being incapacitated
by nausea with vomiting for 1d10 minutes.
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There aren't just worms and cockroaches living down here!

Mercy Booth's body rises...

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The little black book
If the characters manage to get hold of the book, they discover that
it is Mercy Booth's diary. The witch's scrawled handwriting is difficult
to read, so
successful reading requires a throw in English . The first section of
the book deals with
deals in detail with the disgusting worship of Nyogtha by her circle.
Children were also sacrificed during the rituals. The later the entries
in the diary, the more confused the witch's writing becomes. The last
entries are then just crazy scribbles from which one can guess
that the witch probably wanted to use the services of the Elder Beings,
although the purposes remain unclear. The book describes at least
understandable way two magical rituals, Contact with Elder Beings
and Create Gate, which can be learned with a roll of INx3 (each).
Reading the book takes two hours.
costs 1d6 STA and brings an increase of +2% to Cthulhu Mythos.
If you take a closer look at the mosaic walls, you will discover a red
inscription that runs around the entire room like a belt. It is Arabic
Arabic writing that can be deciphered as a magical ritual with a roll of
Arabic : Call/ Drive away Nyogtha.
The spell can be learned with a roll of INx5.
With Detect Hidden Things , the characters discover a secret door in
the east wall (assuming they haven't just come through it anyway). This
can be opened from this side with a roll of GEx5; behind it lies the secret
room.
When the sewage is removed, the characters discover that there is
an iron plate in the middle of the floor that has a diameter of 1.80 meters.
With a crowbar or other suitable object, it can be lifted with a Strength test
of ST against ST 24 of the plate (two people can combine their strength).
Beneath lies a shaft that leads into the earth's interior. A stench that is
much worse
than that of the sewer, rises from the depths.
At the foot of the shaft lies a gigantic cave complex that stretches for
kilometers and branches off into numerous slime-covered side caves. If
the characters explore the caves of Nyogtha (for this entity, see the Game
Master's Guide) , they leave the area described in this adventure and the
Game Master can improvise freely.
The City of the Elder Beings
The goal area
When the characters enter the gate into Mercy's secret room, they come
out through the gate on the north wall of the gate room in the City of the
Elder Ones. Of course, they do not know that they are entering through
the
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time traveled, nor where they are.
From the characters’ perspective, they find themselves in a
oppressive room made of enormous stones placed one on top of the
other without any joints, which at first might make you think of Inca
architecture. However, the stones are decorated with horizontal engraving
bands that are almost a meter high. One band always alternates with
geometric patterns, the next above engravings, the one above that with
patterns again, and so on. The room is about six meters high, but
otherwise measures only about 5x7 meters. The engravings show strange
barrel-shaped beings that are apparently at war with squid-fish-like
creatures.
The gate on this side is painted on the north wall, which leads back to
Mercy's secret room. On the opposite side of the room there is a passage
that is about two meters wide and 3.5 meters high. You can see that the
passage opens onto a balcony and dark spires loom in the distance in a
hazy sky. Next to the passage to the balcony there is a strange object
made of a silvery metal that looks like a gun.
With a Cthulhu Mythos roll, the characters know that the barrel-
shaped creatures on the engravings are Elder Beings; a second such roll
reveals that
that the other creatures are apparently Cthulhu’s star
Those who understand this and study the engravings receive 3% Cthulhu
Mythos and lose 1d3 STA points.
The metal object is a shoggoth driver, which is used by the Elder
Beings to keep the unruly creatures in check. With a roll of INx3, a
character recognizes that it is
a type of electrical weapon and how to use it
Unfortunately, this driver has been damaged and does not work.
However, it can be repaired with an hour of work and a successful roll for
Electrical Repairs and Mechanical Repairs .
The balcony
From here the characters can see for the first time
that they are in the middle of a gigantic city made of stone. They are
somewhere high up on
a balcony. Looking into the depths you can
You can't see the ground because it's covered by a grey veil of mist. But
somewhere down there there seem to be streets, from which strange
whistling noises can be heard. In the distance, other huge buildings rise
out of the mist, with towers connected by gigantic bridges. Here and there,
the tops of palm trees and huge ferns rise out of the mist on the ground.
The balcony is made of the same stone as the
Rest of the building. A low railing surrounds it.
There is a decorative metal railing on the railing. This is decorated with
small metal statues.
One of them is missing; it is obviously the copy that Professor Hagerty
had taken with him.
A second passage leads from the balcony into another room in the
building.
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The devil's pact HP Lovecraft’s Cthulhu — the role-playing game

The living space

This is Mercy's living room. It looks almost identical to the gate room, but

Schoggoth Driver there is a straw sleeping mat on the floor in one corner. There is also a small
stone table with a small box
This is a long, thin metal device. An indicator on the side shows that the weapon contains
20 charges. No technology known to the characters can recharge the device after the on it and a staircase leading down.
charges are used up. Inside the box is an Elder Sign carved into a small stone.

Shots per round: 1 Next to the table stands Mercy Booth in her human form (assuming she
Damage: 4d8 has not already been defeated) and three Elder Beings, one of whom is armed
Grundchance: 15% with a chocolate goth driver. They will not hesitate for a moment.
Range: 20 Meter

Hit points: 8 to overpower the intruders. Their stats can be found in the appendix. Mercy
Malfunction: -
may already know who she is dealing with and flees the room via the stairs
while the Elder Beings hold the characters back. No matter how the fight
ends, the Elder Beings will destroy the gate and thus prevent anyone from

At some point on the balcony, a huge pterodactyl-like creature with leathery escaping the city and especially this time. The trip back through the gate
wings suddenly comes flying around the corner of the building. As it flies past costs

the balcony, it lets out a piercing scream. Then it turns and disappears into the

again 3 magic points and 2 points STA.

Mist. The creature carried a huge block of stone in its claws.
This experience and the realization that they are probably in no known
place on earth cost the characters 1/1d6 STA. With a roll on Cthulhu Mythos,
the characters can at least guess that they
find themselves in a city of Elder Ones (but still don't know where or when),
and with a Natural History roll they know that, given the animal they saw, they
are probably somewhere in the distant past.
The Elder Beings are allies of Mercy Booth, but only by force because
Nyarlathotep wanted them to be. They are tired of her presence in the city and
are not very enthusiastic about the gate to their city. They will not turn against
Mercy, but will destroy the gate (which will then no longer work from the
other side either) if they fear that too many people will come into their world.
They hate people
not, but will fight all intruders into their city.

If the characters manage to leave the room via the stairs, they will enter
If the characters on the balcony are too loud, the fantastic and strange city of the Elder Beings. The further
you can hear them in the adjacent living room.

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HP Lovecraft’s Cthulhu — the role-playing game
The game master would have to improvise what happened in
the city. Find out more about the Elder Beings and their city
in the campaign “Mountains of Madness”, which is published
for the Cthulhu role-playing game by Pegasus Press .
Mercy Booth's goals and
method
Mercy has enough magic points to destroy one or more of the characters.
She fears
However, she is afraid of being discovered and therefore acts largely
passively. If her mummified body is destroyed, she can no longer cast
magic in our world, which also means that she cannot transfer her spirit
into a new body. The destruction of the gate to the City of the Elder
Beings would mean that she would either remain trapped in the city or
have to remain in our world as a spirit. She will therefore, under all
circumstances,
try to keep their secret room secret.
Her main goal is to find a new, suitable body that she can take
possession of and with which she can once again remain permanently in
our world.
She would prefer a young and healthy woman, but if she has to fear that
she could be destroyed,
she will also try to take over any body she wants. In the event that she
takes over someone,
Attachment
1. Data and values
Mercy Booth in human form
(in the City of the Elder Beings)
ST 8 OR 12 GR 9 IN 16 MA 25
GE 12 ER 3 gS 0 BI 28
Hit points: 11
Attack: - (fights only with magic)
Armor: No
Skills: Astronomy 85%, Cthulhu Mythos
45%, historical knowledge 40%, listening 50%,
Mother tongue (English) 65%, Natural Sciences 85%,
Occultism 90%, Recognizing the hidden 60%
Spells: Elder Sign, Summon/Bind By-akhee, Summon/Bind
Rushing Horror,
Create Gate, Consciousness Transfer*, Contact with Elder Beings,
Contact with Ghouls, Contact with Nyarlathotep, Call Nyogtha*,
Telepathy*, Wither, Voorian Sign.
*
= see separate description in the appendix
Description: Mercy can only take on her human form in the
distant past, namely on the other side of the gate. She appears
here as a hunchbacked old witch with long, twisted clawed
hands with disgusting,
dirty fingernails. Her voice is rough and
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who the characters know, for example one of them, the characters should
not initially notice what has happened. In her new body, Mercy acts as if
something had tried to take possession of her, but she had fended off
the attempt. She then acts as if she is exhausted and therefore cannot
answer any more questions. She has none of the knowledge of the person
who has taken over her, and
Of course, I don't know how to drive a car, etc.
If Mercy believes that everything is going to hell, she will summon
Nyogtha out of revenge and unleash her on the characters and Salem.
She only does this if she believes she is lost, because she knows that this
will most certainly lead to the discovery of her secret room and its
destruction. If Mercy actually succeeds in unleashing Nyogtha on Salem,
it costs the characters 1d10 points of STA, because they realize that it
It was their actions that caused this catastrophe.
Rewards
Eliminating Mercy Booth restores 1d10 points of sanity to each character.
If they just destroy the gate and trap her in the City of the Elder Ones,
they only restore 1d6 points of sanity.
fragile; she uses a walking stick to walk. Mercy only fights with her
magic and carries no weapons. Mercy has lived in the City of the
Elder Beings for a long time and is determined to
our world. For this purpose,
she is looking for a suitable body that she can take over. A young
and attractive woman with a low MA would be fine with her. She
is afraid that the takeover attempt could fail because in that case
her mind would be lost forever.
Therefore, she proceeds very slowly and carefully and waits for
the right opportunity.
Mercy Booth as blue mist
In our world, Mercy’s spirit appears as a slightly glowing blue mist
of GR 2. In this
In this form, she cannot communicate, cast spells, or affect
physical objects. She can only move around and listen. She can
slip through small openings, such as a crack in a door, but cannot
pass through solid matter. Stability loss for seeing Mercy as a blue
mist is 0/1d6 STA.
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The devil's pact HP Lovecraft’s Cthulhu — the role-playing game

Mercy Booths Zauber

Mercy Booth
as Undead Mercy Booth has some rituals and variations of rituals
ST 8 OR 20 GR 9 IN 16 MA 25 that are only known to her and that she learned from
GE 6 ER 0 gS 0 BI 28 Nyar-lathotep herself. These are presented below.
Hit points: 15
Attack: - (fights only with magic)
Armor: The mummified corpse has a natural armor of 4 points. All
critically striking weapons only cause minimal damage
Summon
Just singNyogtha:
Mercy for oneTo summon
minute and spendNyogtha,
one magic point.
Nyogtha will then crawl out of the shaft under the mosaic room with a

However, their body burns very well and takes double damage from fire 100% chance of success.

sources. In addition, the body continues to burn on its own, costing 1d6
points per round until it is destroyed.

Magic: As in her human form Consciousness transfer:

Game Master's Guide The
, but with the magic
following works
special like in
features:
Loss of stability: The sight of the animated corpse Observers of the fight between Mercy and her victim notice two clusters
nams costs 1/1d8 points STA. of bubble-like mist emerging from the twitching bodies and then re-

Description: Mercy can also take possession of her old, dead body in entering them. If Mercy wins, her spirit leaves her desiccated corpse and

order to perform magic or communicate through it in our world. occupies the new body, while the victim's spirit is transferred to the
mummified body. The victim is now in Mercy Booth's undead body, which
not only costs the usual 1d20 points of STA, but an additional 1d10 points
of STA for the particularly gruesome experience. Most victims go mad
after such an experience. Observers of the scene lose 0/1d6 STA.
Typical
Ghoul

ST 17 KO 14 GR 12
IN 11 MA 15 GE 14

Movement range: 9
Hit points: 13
Schadensbonus: +1W4

Attack:
Telepathy:
to be used Mercy spends
for a period one magic
of five minutes with a point,
– Claws 30% within a radius of 1.5 kilometers to contact
Damage 1d6+Sb The spell can be recast to repeat the contact. She cannot
– Only 30%, hear the thoughts of the person concerned, but she can
Damage 1d6 + bite speak to the person. She usually leaves cryptic clues or
Armor: Firearms and projectiles only do half (rounded up) damage. gives instructions.

Skills: Digging 75%, Listening 70%, Climbing 85%, Sneaking 80%,

Jumping 75%, Hiding 60%, Detecting Hidden Things 50%, Smelling
Decay 65%.

Loss of stability: The sight of a ghoul costs

0/1d6 stability points.

Typical older
being

ST 42 KO 23 GR 30

IN 15 MA 11 GE 17

Movement range: 8/10 flying

Hit points: 27
Damage bonus: +3d6

Attack:

– Tentacles 40%, damage half damage bonus

gen wrapping

– Schoggoth Driver (only one of the

Being) 40%
Damage 4d8

Armor: 7 points of skin.

Skills: Sneaking 30%, Tracking 25%.

Loss of stability: The sight of an Elder Being

costs 0/1d6 stability points.

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3. Handouts

Devil's Pact Handout #1: From Amy Hanover's

Hanover’s Notebook
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Devil's Pact Handout #2: Amy Hanover's Magazine Article on Witchcraft
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HP Lovecraft’s Cthulhu — the role-playing game The devil's pact

Devil's Pact Handout #3: Newspaper article from the Salem Globe from July 1892

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