Dagon Rises Part Two
over 9 years ago – Tue, Nov 01, 2016 at 07:58:16 AM

Previously we showed you the monsters in our new expansion, Rise of Dagon. (If you missed it, you can check it out Here) But there is one more Epic Monster to show you: Dagon himself.

DAGON

Your shadow pursues you mercilessly. You cannot avoid it. You cannot escape it. You have killed it over and over, but still it comes. You can’t fight it any longer. It’s too much. Looking down at your arm, you see that the scales have spread further over your skin –

You’re not looking where you’re going, and you fall into a pool of freezing cold salt water. Actually, pool might be wrong. This thing is deep. Very, very deep. You gasp in surprise, your lungs filling with fluid. You find yourself disoriented, unsure which direction is up. You flounder in the water, searching for the surface. You have no air. You need oxygen.

“Pray to Dagon.”

You freeze. You know you heard that voice, but that’s physically impossible.

“Pray to Dagon,” the voice says again, even more forcefully.

“Dagon, I don’t want to drown,” you think in your mind. And then you feel the flaps of skin separate from your neck as your gills open. You take a deep breath underwater, collect your wits, and find the surface at last. The filthy shadow is waiting for you, but it does not attack. You flop onto the land, and you see them all around you. Deep ones. Priestesses. How did you not notice them before?

One of the priestesses walks forward and sets an enormous book down on the ground before you. She begins to read from it in a dark, vile language. And you scream as unbelievable agony courses through your body. You see him when you close your eyes. Like an inhuman nightmare he rises from the murk of your subconscious, a mass of thrashing tentacles, a multitude of eyes, a gaping maw lined with teeth the size of fingers. He moves to swallow your consciousness whole. It would have been better for you to drown.

Now you can understand the priestess – as you can the deep ones. “Come, Lord Dagon!” the priestess cries. All of the deep ones scream, falling to their knees. You rake at your head with your increasingly claw-like fingernails, echoing the deep ones’ cries. You feel your sanity shatter as He pushes through it. All that made you who you are is devoured by the demon, and all that remains is the urge to free your master.

In this, at least, you succeed.

Dagon is the demon of the abyss, written of years ago in a novel by the author Ward Phillips. It was supposed to be a work of fiction. But sometimes fiction can contain strange truths and a power all its own. As people read the book, the idea of Dagon spread. And then, with the revealing of the sphere, those ideas were given life.

The idea of Dagon grew in the minds of the miners and others, and soon Hydras and Deep Ones were being born from the mangled bodies of the men and women most impacted by the book. They cherished the novel like a holy work, and at the same time sought to suppress it as it also made mention of how to kill their imagined lord. The Hydras discovered a way to spread the dark vision of Dagon by feeding people its vile essence. Eventually these tormented souls, hounded by their inner demons, would become Deep Ones themselves and help to give birth to the greatest demon of all. They finally have nearly enough minds to usher in the reign of their lord. Soon now it will happen. Very soon.

When Dagon finally breaks through into the material realm, the only way to wipe him out is by completing a ritual mentioned in the book Dagon came from. As you seek to do this, though, Dagon will torment investigators with terrifying visions of the abyss, flooding their minds with the dark ichor of oblivion. The matter is made even worse in that investigators will sometimes be near the point of drowning, and the only way to save themselves will be to pray to Dagon to sustain them. This furthers investigators down the path to becoming Deep Ones.

With an idea this powerful given flesh, who will be able to resist it?

WARD PHILLIPS – THE NOVELIST

Since his childhood, Ward had dreamed the most unspeakable dreams. Some were of fantastical lands with bizarre denizens. And some were of creatures so terrible that the mere sight of them would drive a man to madness. He had written his dreams down, turning them into stories. And then the stories took on a life of their own. Others began to add to the work he had done. Still others began to believe it as truth. And slowly the true nature of reality began to warp.

Ward did not see all of this, however, because one day he did not wake from his dreams. He was cursed to wander his dreamlands for what seemed lifetimes, searching for a way home. But when he finally did find one through the power of the sphere, he could not be entirely certain if this was his world of true, solid fact, or something else entirely.

Now Ward is forced to wonder: is he still dreaming? Or is this reality? And, if this is truly reality, how could one writer have done so much to break it?

THE DEEP ONE MECHANISM

As you might have inferred from what you read above, we are introducing a new mechanism for this expansion! In Rise of Dagon, investigators will have to fight against becoming Deep Ones. When an investigator is first forced to ingest the substance of Dagon she will receive a Deep One card, which will hinder some of her actions and completely incapacitate others. As the game progresses and certain events are triggered the investigator will slowly, implacably become more and more Deep One, until at last there is no investigator remaining.

Both Dagon and Hydra can imprint you with Dagon’s essence. When this happens a Shadow of Filth will be born, which will hound you and harry you until at last you completely succumb to the pull of the Deep One.

Investigators can find ways to save their mutating friends. In some scenarios this will be absolutely crucial, as these chapters require a certain number of ‘healthy’ investigators to win.

COMPONENTS

Here’s just a quick overview of some of the components in Rise of Dagon. First of all, we would like to remind everyone that common monsters in expansions, while having unique thematic elements in the expansion scenarios, can be used in any scenario. They include the cards and materials necessary for play in both the core game and the expansion.

People who purchase this expansion will also find a lot of Dagon-related items and abilities, such as the Necronomicon, weird statues, sacrificial daggers, the Eye of Dagon and so on. There will also be a number of madness cards and consciousness cards included to elucidate the terrible incidents and mental torture that the investigators are suffering from.

The included scenarios have multiple potential endings, and the outcomes of each scenario will impact the next one.

Ready to add this expansion to your pledge? Then just click on “Manage Your Pledge” on the Kickstarter page, click “Change your pledge”, and then add the total for this expansion (or any other add-ons) to your pledge before hitting “Continue”. We’ll figure out what your additional money was for when the pledge manager goes out after the campaign.

Let’s see just how much damage can be caused by a story becoming true!

Dagon Rises Part One
over 9 years ago – Mon, Oct 31, 2016 at 04:33:33 AM

Deep inside the mine, the investigators have stumbled across something sinister. They have previously encountered fear embodied. They have stared into the depths of madness. They have even fought against a madman who sought to dominate their psyches. But how will they be able to defeat a demon born out of the darkness infesting their own souls?

Dagon is coming. And he is not rising from the sea: he is rising from the filth inside your own mind. This is Rise of Dagon, a new expansion for Deep Madness.

DEEP ONE

“What is this?” Shining your flashlight around, you are struck by the immensity of the cavern.

“It was probably just a thoroughly mined chamber,” Roman says. “It looks chiseled. They were probably at work in here for quite some time.”

“This is different though,” you say. “Look at those markings. They’re like. . . symbols.”

Then you see the creatures shift in the dark.

They slink through the cavern’s shadows, their eyes flashing in the beams from your flashlights. “Roman,” you say. “We’re not alone.”

Roman sees them now, too. “What are these?” he murmurs, peering at them. “They almost look human.”

One shambles forward. Then another. Then another. They are wearing the tattered remnants of mining uniforms, but these are certainly not miners any longer. Their scales seem to be the warped transfiguring of skin; their gills pulse wetly.

“Roman,” you say, grabbing your friend’s shoulder. “We need to go. Now.”

Roman looks behind you. “They’ve fallen in behind us!” he says. “Our exit is blocked!”

The deep ones let out a gurgling shriek and lope forward. 

Deep Ones are trapped halfway between man and fish, their bodies a twisted amalgamation of sea and land. Because of their deformities they are relatively slow, and relatively weak when it comes to dealing damage. But that’s just fine. After all, they don’t want to kill you. They want to catch you. And, with swarms of them on the board at any given time, the odds of them doing just that can grow alarmingly high.

Deep Ones can take damage for other monsters on the same tile, and they are resistant to wounds. Their ongoing transformation is causing them excruciating pain already, so what could a little sting from a bullet actually do but give them something else to focus on? Eventually they will overwhelm you. And when they do, they will take you to her.

HYDRA

The fish men are slow, but they are relentless. And there are so many of them. You and Roman run, the army of mutant miners packing into the tunnel behind you.

“It’s like they’re driving us somewhere,” Roman says, looking back with panicked eyes. “I think we’re doing precisely what they wish.”

“It’s not like we’ve got a lot of options here!” you reply.

Roman’s only retort is a gasp.

You have just entered a small chamber. In the middle of it is a slab of rock slathered in dried blood and black ichor. And on the walls are crawling blue and green and white lights in the shapes of glyphs. The walls are so dizzying and disorienting that you almost miss the horror that is striding implacably toward you. But then you do see her. And you shout out in revulsion.

The abomination has many of the shapes of a woman, but its fins, tail and head do not allow you to hold onto that fallacy for long. Its tentacle hair sways behind it as its sharp teeth clack together and its tapered talon-fingers flex.

The deep ones grab you and force you to your knees. Their strength is inhuman, and you feel powerless to fight them. The sea monster is directly over you now. She hacks and gags, vomiting up a viscous black ooze that dangles from her lips. Then the fluid begins to move. It stretches and pulls and squirms towards your and Roman’s faces. Before you know it, the substance is seeping up your nose and pouring down your throat. And there is nothing you can do about it.

Hydra is a force to be reckoned with. Serving as the high priest, the lover, and the executioner for the horrid evil known as Dagon, she bends the wills of all those around her to meet her desires, making surrounding monsters stronger and investigators weaker. But what is even more horrifying is the dark substance that churns inside her guts. Deep Ones bring her investigators, at which point she gives them the precious gift living inside her. And once investigators have been graced with this gift, a horrifying process is set in motion. One you will likely be unable to stop.

SHADOW OF FILTH

You are trapped in a nightmare. Your deepest, darkest fears, hatreds, biases and desires grab you and hold you down, forcing you to heave up more and more of their brothers and sisters. You see that time you wanted to kill your coworker who stole your promotion. You feel the married woman brushing your skin as if it is happening to you again, right in the here and now. You feel dirty. So dirty. And then you wake up.

Roman groans beside you as you both slowly pull yourselves to your feet. You are back in the cavern again. And it is completely empty.

“What happened?” Roman asks. “Where did they go?”

“Was it all just a dream?” you say.

Roman shakes his head. “I don’t see how that’s --” He never finishes his sentence. Doubling over, he vomits out a steady stream of black bile. You hardly have time to recognize it as the same thing the woman forced down your throats before you fall to your knees and follow suit. The black substance pours from your mouth, your nose, the corners of your eyes, your ears. It pools on the cavern floor, and then it begins to whip and thrash about as it takes shape. Hideous four-foot-long worms form out of the liquid and squeal through mouths of churning teeth before receding into the ooze. Then an arm emerges. And another. The two arms plant themselves on the ground and push up, forcing a head out of the secretion, followed by a torso.

You stare in horror, your body quaking, as the dark terror solidifies before you. It looks down at you as its roiling purple eyes slide out from behind a wet membrane. You stop breathing as you meet that stare, because you know it. It is you, after all: every dark deed, every vile thought. It is your filth given form. As it reaches for you with gooey fingers, you realize you will never be free of it again.

Shadow of Filth was born from the darkest corners of the investigator’s mind, and it will haunt its creator relentlessly. It can only be hurt and killed by the investigator who gave it life, but even if itis killed it will shortly return to continue terrorizing its father or mother. It will not stop until its progenitor is dead, or even worse. The mind is a fragile thing, after all. And if it is completely consumed, what is to stop an investigator from giving in to the changes taking place inside his body and willingly becoming a Deep One?

Each Shadow of Filth comes with a color base to match that of the investigator who birthed it. Other investigators with a different colored base will not even be able to see the creature, much less attack it: it truly is your personal demon.

Note: These monsters can be used in any scenario that comes with the Core Game and other expansions.

Next we’re going to take a look at the vile demon of the abyss: Dagon himself. Stay tuned!

Cannibals and Quartermasters
over 9 years ago – Sun, Oct 30, 2016 at 02:43:26 AM

Plastic Token Pack

The Plastic Token Pack Optional Buy comes with 96 engraved and colored plastic tokens to use instead of the cardboard tokens that come in the Deep Madness core box.

The Plastic Token Pack comes with:

Note: These plastic tokens are still work in progress version, the final version may vary. And if needed, more types of tokens may be added into this pack.

If you're interested in purchasing any of these optional buys, please click the "Manage Your Pledge" button on this page and simply increase your pledge amount of the items you'd like to get. We'll sort out what your extra money is going towards via our Pledge Manage sent to you after the campaign ends.

CANNIBAL

They don’t see you.  

The two monsters wander listlessly below the walkway, and you crouch in trepidation, watching them. Perhaps they will go away. You’re running low on bullets, so that would be a wonderful turn of events.  

One of the monsters turns toward the other, each of its three tongues probing the air in its brother’s direction. The other one looks at it, cocking its head. Crouching down low, it growls. The first one barks, and then it strikes.  

You jump in surprise as the first one lunges at its comrade and starts ripping at its flesh with its hands and feet and teeth and tongues. As the second one screams, the first begins shoveling its friend down its throat, ripping tendons and gnawing on muscle.  

Eventually the screams stop, and only the greedy sounds of chewing and slurping and drinking remain. Collecting yourself, you take aim at the back of the monster’s head. But now something else happens. The remaining beast shudders. And then it begins to grow. Its arms and legs and body begin to swell and expand, muscles growing and stretching as new growths sprout out of its back. It’s taller now. And so much stronger.

The cannibal quivers as its growth spurt comes to an end. Then it whirls around and looks right at you. It roars before leaping straight up into the air, its talons searching for your face.

If Cannibal enters the game, it’s because a Ravenous grew too hungry. If two Ravenous are close to each other and not within range of any investigators, one of the two Ravenous will turn on its brother and devour it, taking its strength as well as its body into its own. It is then that a Cannibal is born. The two Ravenous figures are removed, and replaced by the one Cannibal figure.  

Cannibal is more brutal than Ravenous. It ruthlessly attacks the investigator with the lowest life, but its greatest threat lies in the fact that it can also force investigators to attack each other. Stay for a bite, won’t you?

AMANDA WEAVER – THE QUARTERMASTER

When Amanda was a young woman she rebelled against the silver spoon that had been shoved in her mouth and left home for the ocean. She got a job on a cargo tug called the Isabel and worked tirelessly until she had developed a reputation which commanded the utmost respect. It wasn’t long before she was the quartermaster for the ship, second only to the captain himself.  

The Isabel won a contract from the Leng Corporation, hauling ore from a hidden facility that the crew were not allowed to actually set foot in. Cargo was brought to them on small barges or submersibles and loaded aboard, while the crew maintained a strict “don’t ask/don’t tell” policy. But then one day there was more than just ore on the submersible: there was something else. Something dark and terrible. Something that killed her entire crew. Amanda was barely able to take the monstrosity down before it could get her, too.  

Massive damage was inflicted on the Isabel’s engines, and she was set drifting amidst the waves of the Pacific. Amanda survived through strict rationing, and through the companionship of her last remaining crewmate: her black cat, Jon. Then, one day, another ship came upon the Isabel. They found Amanda and Jon, rescuing them. However, it wasn’t long before Amanda learned where her saviors were headed. Now Amanda finds herself barreling straight back into the mouth of madness, into the belly of the Leng Corporation’s hidden facility.  

(Jon and Amanda are separate miniatures, and can act separately from each other.)

Oracles and Betrayals Part Two
over 9 years ago – Fri, Oct 28, 2016 at 07:02:51 AM

Here is part two of our look at The Oracle’s Betrayal, an expansion for Deep Madness. If you missed part one, you can find it Here.

WILLIAM

You carry what remains of your old friends in and lay them as an offering at your master’s feet. You realize two of them are still alive. Raising your saw arm, you prepare to solve that problem.  

Leave them be, the voice in your head says. I will make use of them as they are. You have done well, my child.  

A rush of positive endorphins flood you, making you feel happy and content.  

The two try to rise, to escape. They are losing so much blood. It’s funny, but you can’t seem to remember their names.  

“Where are the others?” your master asks.  

“Screw you,” the woman says.  

“Why on earth would we ever tell you that?” the man replies.  

“Oh, I can think of a number of reasons,” William chuckles. The massive mound of brain flesh before him begins to crackle with energy. The man and the woman moan, their hands shooting up to clutch the sides of their heads.  

“Get out,” the woman says. “Get out!”  

“I don’t have to be your enemy,” William says. “I can give you the deepest desires of your hearts. Clarence, old friend. Have you not striven to see the inner workings of the human mind? Do you not desire to be all-knowing, and to be worshipped as a god before other men? Are you not curious as to what a world driven by madness would be like?”  

The man – Clarence – falls to his knees, his eyes clamped tightly shut as his teeth clench. “I. . .”  

“There is so much we can learn,” William says, rolling his wheelchair forward. “So much we will do. All you have to do is tell me where the others are.”  

“The power,” Clarence whispers.  

“No,” the woman says. “Clarence, no --”  

“Doesn’t she prattle endlessly, Clarence?” William asks. “I think you would do us all an immense favor by silencing her.”  

With lightning speed Clarence turns toward the woman, a knife sliding into his hand. One quick motion, and the woman collapses with blood pulsing from her neck.  

“I will take you to them, Master,” Clarence says. “I look forward to ruling by your side.”  

When lesser men fled from the power of the sphere, William turned to it. He studied it. He exploited it. With a force this powerful, after all, what would he become if he mastered it? The answer seemed quite obvious: he would become a god. Or, if he failed to achieve godhood, perhaps he could at least become one cataclysmically powerful devil. Unfortunately, in their fight to destroy the sphere the investigators unintentionally aided William in his quest to harness its power. And now he has the ability to trap the investigators in their own vicious, mind-rending nightmares.  

In this distorted horror show of consciousness, the investigators must continually endure William’s presence pushing and prodding into their own minds. William will threaten you at every turn, forcing his twisted will upon your own. Then, when your mind becomes too overshadowed by William's, your own existence will be engulfed by his. Whether this comes through exploiting your innermost secret desires or sheer brute force, the end result is the same. You cease to exist, and all that remains is William.

JOHN MURDOCK – THE DETECTIVE

Mr. Murdock has been labelled as certifiably insane. The only problem is, his conspiracy theories are all true. There really is a madman out to wreak madness on the world. There really is a sinister corporation trying to cover up the truth. And there really is a hidden facility where unimaginable evils have been unleashed. It’s just too bad that no one believes him.  

John has the ability to completely submerge himself in his work. This is often a strength, and is one of the traits that made him such a good detective. But it also means he can have a hard time resurfacing into the real world. And it means he has a hard time letting go. So, when everyone around him told him to drop his case against the Leng Corporation (and one of their scientists named William West in particular), he couldn’t. Leng got wind of what was going on, and it only took a few well-placed whispers for them to destroy both John’s career and his life. John’s plight wasn’t helped by the fact that everything he had uncovered was so outlandish that no sane person could possibly believe him. Soon he was out of work, he had been blacklisted, and his wife had left him.  

These events would have been enough to crush most men. But John is not most men. Through vigilante investigations that became increasingly clandestine in nature he uncovered news of a Leng transport bound for an undisclosed facility – complete with a single mention of Dr. West. John didn’t hesitate. He packed a few sparse supplies and stowed aboard. Before he did, however, he also made sure to send a file of evidence to his successor at the PD, Dakota Jansen. Someone needs to blow the lid off of this thing. And John now has a sinking feeling he might not be coming back.

Detective is a Kickstarter Exclusive investigator comes with The Oracle's Betrayal Expansion.

EXPANSION MECHANISM

The three chapters of The Oracle’s Betrayal form a continuous plot, as do the chapters in the core game. However, in this expansion it goes a step farther: the results of the previous scenario(s) are preserved, and those results affect the following scenario. William can (and likely will) exist in all three chapters, but the way he manifests himself may be different each time. In one scenario he may control one specific type of monster on the field, or he may set in place unique rules for the scenario. Even if he does not physically appear on the map, the investigators will always feel his presence. In short, in this expansion the investigators will face a ruthless monster who will stop at nothing to dominate them and bend them to his will. It’s a bit like they are lines of code in a program, and he is the programmer.  

Facing such incredible, dauntless power, how can the investigators have any chance of winning? The only hope lies in you beating him at his own game. You must find the tools that William used to desecrate his body and liberate his mind. You must learn how he became the savage telepath that he is now. And then you must make him pay. After all, he invaded every corner of your memory. He stole your deepest secrets and mapped your every idiosyncrasy and weakness. So why not give him a taste of his own medicine?    

NEW STRETCH GOAL: SECRET OBJECTIVES!

We have another surprise for you, too! When we reach 730K, we’re going to add a new play mechanism to The Oracle’s Betrayal: secret objectives! This is an optional variant, but one that can give just one more layer of depth to the game.  

With Secret Objectives, you will add another type of card to the mix: secret objective cards. Each investigator will receive one card, and these cards will give investigators new and unique missions that they must fulfill over the course of the scenario. Some of these could be fairly benign. And some of them could have you siding with William while secretly working against your teammates. Some of them could even be completely megalomaniacal, where your goal becomes to usurp William’s place as the new master of mind!   

This expansion comes with five new room tiles that sport an evil-scientist lab theme. Remember too that all monsters, investigators, search cards, madness cards and consciousness cards from this expansion can be used in the core game and other expansions as well. (Unfortunately, right now this does not apply to the new secret objectives cards.)  

Can’t wait to add this expansion to your pledge? Then just click on “Manage Your Pledge” on the Kickstarter page, click “Change your pledge”, and then add the total for this expansion (or any other add-ons) to your pledge before hitting “Continue”. We’ll figure out what your additional money was for when the pledge manager goes out after the campaign.  

Thanks for being awesome!

3D Pack - Closed Hatches and Submerged Markers
over 9 years ago – Thu, Oct 27, 2016 at 08:44:46 PM

The 3D Closed Hatches and Submerged Markers Optional Buy brings you 3D sculpted plastic pieces to substitute the cardboard Closed Hatch Standee and Submerged Standee that come with the Deep Madness core box!   

Closed Hatches

During the game, investigators may perform an action to close the hatch to restrain the monsters. When a monster is about to move through a closed hatch, the nearest investigator must initiate a madness test to decide whether the hatch is going to be destroyed. For detailed rules related to closed hatches, please refer to page 23 to page 25 of the rule book Here.  

Submerged Markers

In the game, there will be flooded rooms. Before investigators perform actions underwater, they have to spin the drowning dial to exhaust oxygen. When the oxygen level is too low, they will receive massive internal damage, or even die instantly. For detailed rules related to submerged rooms, please refer to page 32 of the rule book Here. 

The plastic 3D Submerged Marker in this pack comes from the image of a moonpool.

At 555K, six 3D closed Hatches are unlocked, they are enough for most of the scenarios, but you can get more in this optional buy. 

Please just click the "Manage Your Pledge" button on the Deep Madness Kickstarter page and add the amount of the items you'd like to get. We'll sort out what your extra money is going towards after the campaign has closed and we've sent out our Pledge Manager.