See Page XX: Our Mythos Creature Problems Continue

See Page XX

a column on roleplaying by Robin D. Laws

Carrying on from last month, here are some more Problem cards to use with GUMSHOE One-2-One mythos creature encounters. For context, see the previous installment.

You can download the laid out Problem Cards here.

Great Race of Yith

Problem from Fighting Challenge:

Lightning Gun Hit

When you run into a conical clawed nightmare out of a surrealist painting, it comes as a surprise when it just pulls a gun and plugs you. Even if its piece did shoot electricity instead of bullets. False assumptions sure can burn you.

-2 to Fighting and -1 to other General / Physical tests. Discard when you get a Setback on any such test.

Problem from Stability Challenge:

The Suffocating Vastness

When the cone-shaped thing was whispering, it was in an alien language you couldn’t understand. But now its unspeakable words worm themselves into your knowledge of history. Suddenly you firmly believe in an incomprehensible time scale that throws all known archaeology into a cocked hat.

When anyone refers to conventional historical chronology, you must make a Difficulty 4 Cool quick test to stave off a self-destructive compulison to insist upon the unbelievable truth.

Discard by destroying a Yithian or banishing it from this time. If still in hand at end of scenario, becomes a Continuity card.

Hunting Horror

Problem from Fighting Challenge:

Dropped from a Height

It picked you up, carried you into the sky, and dropped you to the ground below. Now you know what a grass snake feels like when a falcon grabs it.

-2 to General / Physical tests until you Take Time to see a doctor. After that, -1 to Fighting and Fleeing. Then, when you next get a core clue, discard this card.

Problem from Stability Challenge:

The Croak of Ravens

As massive and impossible as that creature was, the sound it emitted was all too familiar. It sounded like the caw of a raven. Now you can’t see a black bird and not think of an unearthly winged worm.

Whenever you see a crow, raven, blackbird or anything like it—or hear its cry, or simply see an illustration of a dark-colored bird—make a Difficulty 4 Stability quick test. If you fail, take a -1 penalty to General / Mental tests until you gain your next core clue. If you succeed with a 6 or more, discard this card.

Hounds of Tindalos

Problem from Fighting Challenge:

Schrodinger’s Chest Wound

The strange emanations, or creatures, or whatever they were, slashed open your chest and explored around inside. Then the wound was gone. Until it came back again. It’s both there and not there, and you’re not sure which disturbs you more.

Take a penalty to General / Physical tests equal to the number of Problem cards you have in hand. Discard by destroying a Hound of Tindalos. Each time you get a core clue, roll a die. On an even result, discard this card.

Problem From Stability Challenge

The Angles are Against You

Before you saw these things, you thought geometry only worked one way. Now, if you squint wrong, you perceive it as a soothing illusion concealing a terrible reality of constant, writhing uncertainty.

While inside any man-made structure with angles and architecture more elaborate than a shack, take a penalty to Stability tests equal to the number of Problem cards you have in hand. Discard by destroying a Hound of Tindalos, or by spending a Push immediately after you get a core clue.

Nightgaunt

Problem from Fighting Challenge:

Barb Lash

It’s a good thing you’ve trained your doc not to ask questions. Because the last thing you want to explain about these lash marks is that you got them from a hornless, faceless flying being.

-1 to General / Manual tests. Discard by Taking Time for medical attention, or after discovering two core clues.

Problem from Stability Challenge (assumes physical contact)

Tickled

The creature tickled you. Tickled you! That’s preferable to ripping your head off, but the experience leaves you in the depths of a skin-crawling, existential humiliation.

-2 to Cool tests. After Taking Time to engage in a memory-repressing activity, like going on a bender, -1 to Cool tests.

Servitor of the Outer Gods

Problem from Fighting Challenge:

Tentacle Strike

When it lashed you with its tentacle, the flute-playing insect-mollusc-blob sure hurt you. Moments later, you can’t see any sign of injury. But you know you have one, and it’s not the kind that’s going to make sense down at the emergency ward.

Roll a die.

On a 1-2, -1 to General / Mental tests.

On a 3-4, -1 to General / Manual tests.

On a 5-6, -1 to General / Physical tests.

Discard the next time you score an Advance while in the presence of a mythos creature or manifestation.

Problem from Stability Challenge:

Infernal Piping

Continuity

Even afterward, the hideous anti-music emitted by their twisted flutes stays in your head, haunting you. Altering you.

-1 to Cool tests. Each time you score an Advance on a Cool test, penalty increases by 2. Each time you score a Hold, penalty increases by 1. When you get a Setback on a Cool test, roll a die. On an even result, discard this card.

Shoggoth

Problem from Fighting Challenge:

Wrenched Muscle

If it had succeeded in snaring you and pulling you toward it, that enormous tidal wave of goo would have crushed your bones to paste. So maybe you should be grateful that it merely contused your arm muscle.

-1 on General / Physical tests. When you score a Hold on a General / Physical test, roll a die. On an even result, discard this card. When you score a Setback on a General / Physical test, discard this card.

Problem from Stability Challenge:

A Terrible Enormity

Keep telling yourself, it was only a big blob of goo. It was only a big blob of goo. It was only an impossibly, stunningly, terrifyingly big blob of goo.

-1 to Cool and Stability tests. When you take a Setback on a Stability test, discard this card. After a Challenge in which you took on an Extra Problem, roll a die. On an even result, discard this card.