Fantasy Flight Games

Global Terror

Published 13 September 2016 | Eldritch Horror

Global Terror

A Spotlight on Eldritch Horror and Arkham Nights 2016

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.”
–H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

Our world spirals through the cosmos orbiting our star, so arrogantly and exclusively named The Sun. From the ground level, our existence may seem enormous, when we look at the hundreds of cultures and countries and worldviews and environments that populate the Earth. At the same time, we can gaze out into the blackness of space and feel our minds tremble as we utterly fail to comprehend the vastness of an expanse where light can travel for centuries and never reach us.

Little did we ever suspect that beyond the veils of our dimension, terrible and unseen beings might lurk, eager to crush our world and suck the marrow from its rocky bones. The entire world is in peril, and if these ancient monstrosities are to be stopped, it must be a global effort.

Eldritch Horror is a board game that sets you and up to seven of your friends in the roles of investigators, endowed with the monumental purpose of preventing the world’s imminent doom. In each game, you’ll be faced with the terror of an encroaching Ancient One, intent on destroying our world. If you’re going to turn this creature aside, you’ll need to seek forbidden knowledge and uncover that Ancient One’s mysteries—just be sure that the facts you learn don’t drive you mad!

Investigating the Unknown

At the beginning of a game of Eldritch Horror, you and your fellow investigators are scattered across the globe. A mystery is laid before you—one Mystery card from the chosen Ancient One’s unique Mystery deck. You may be tasked with hunting down a single monster that’s terrorizing Arkham. You may investigate a green meteorite that’s crashed down in Tunguska or venture into other worlds, making a dread sacrifice of magical power to close the gate and protect Earth for another day. To successfully forestall your coming doom, you and your friends must solve several of these mysteries, and you can be sure that none of them will be easily completed.

Each round begins with the investigators taking actions. Many of your actions are simply related to traveling the world. You can’t fight cosmic evil from just one city, and your journeys will take you from the jungles of deepest Africa and the heights of the Himalayas to bustling cities like San Francisco or Buenos Aires. Within these locations, you can attempt to purchase new equipment, weapons, or supplies, as well as trade with any investigators in the same location.

Of course, it’s not the journey that matters, but the encounters that you’ll find once you arrive in your destination. After every investigator has taken their turn, you’ll experience the encounter phase, as each of you locks eyes with the true face of mystery and horror. You may travel on an expedition into the Pyramids of Egypt, only to face the mummy that lies within. You may infiltrate a cult or fight a terrifying monster like a nightgaunt or a starspawn. You may even venture through a gate into another world, traveling between time and space to walk through the Plateau of Leng, Lost Carcosa, or the future of our own world. These encounters will test you to the utmost, and your skills will determine whether these encounters end happily… or decidedly not.

After the encounters have been resolved, you and your fellow investigators are mercilessly cast into the mythos phase. In this phase, the Ancient One draws even closer to Earth, and your imminent demise approaches. Terrifying events unfold around the globe—the stars draw into alignment, monsters crawl out of the darkness, and new gates are torn open between our worlds and those unnameable other dimensions. Only once you have weathered this eldritch storm will you and your fellow investigators be free to perform actions and move around the world once more. Still, you can’t take too much comfort from the passing of a mythos phase. You and your friends are weak mortals, and if enough rounds pass, you will inevitably lose the game.

You’re already able to travel across the entire globe with the Eldritch Horror Core Set, but with five currently released expansions, you can plunge even deeper into a terrifying ocean of Lovecraftian horror. Forsaken Lore pits you against the reptilian Yig, while Strange Remnants brings you into the most arcane ruins of human civilization. Mountains of Madness puts the focus squarely on the desolate wastes and inhospitable climate of Antarctica, while Under the Pyramids gives a similar treatment to ancient, lore-steeped Egypt. Most recently, you’ve been able to hear the madness that surrounds the Yellow Sign and the King in Yellow with Signs of Carcosa.

Come to Arkham Nights 2016

As the leaves shrivel and die on their branches and the days flee quickly into night, there’s never been a better time to play Eldritch Horror. You’ll have the chance to experience the game at Arkham Nights 2016, whether you participate in a demo for the first time or play in a massive eighteen-player scenario. Your doom is not yet upon you: there’s still time to preregister for Arkham Nights. Then, join us October 14-15 for a weekend of Lovecraftian horror and gaming!

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The copyrightable portions of Eldritch Horror are © 2013 Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc. Eldritch Horror and Fantasy Flight Supply are trademarks of Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc. Arkham Horror is a registered trademark of Fantasy Flight Publishing, Inc.

Abhoth Awakens

Published 17 December 2015 | Eldritch Horror

Abhoth Awakens

Under the Pyramids Is Now Available for Eldritch Horror

It was horrible—hideous beyond all articulate description… one moment I was plunging agonizingly down that narrow well of million-toothed torture, yet the next moment I was soaring on bat-wings in the gulfs of hell; swinging free and swoopingly through illimitable miles of boundless, musty space; rising dizzily to measureless pinnacles of chilling aether, then diving gaspingly to sucking nadirs of ravenous, nauseous lower vacua. . . .
–H.P. Lovecraft with Harry Houdini, Under the Pyramids

Under the Pyramids, an expansion for Eldritch Horror that's now available at local United States retailers and in our online store, opens up six new locations throughout Egypt for you to explore. Your adventures are not, however, limited to the timeworn temples and tombs of Egypt. Deep in the wilderness dwell the grotesque and malicious children of a creature far elder than the Dark Pharaoh: Abhoth, the chaotic source of all uncleanliness on Earth.

Our previews have so far delved into the mysteries of the Dark Pharaoh, visited the six locations of the expansion’s Egypt side board, and introduced some of the investigators who are now joining the struggle against the Ancient Ones. Today’s article lays the groundwork for your investigation of Abhoth, and your battle to keep this horrid, protean behemoth from awakening.

The Spawn of Abhoth

The source of uncleanliness, Abhoth itself , lurks in a dank cavern in the distant realm of Hyperborea. It is an amorphous, oozing grey mass from which disease and all other forms of abomination are birthed. Terrible monsters—creeping blobs, deformed animals, misshapen mutants, infectious slimes—constantly form within Abhoth’s body before emerging to inhabit caves deep in Earth’s wildernesses. They surface only to feed and to do their sire’s awful bidding.

No Cultists devote their lives to such an abomination. Instead, when Abhoth is the Ancient One, the Cultist tokens represent Abhoth’s incomprehensible spawn, whom you battle through a Special Encounter. These spawn each have a health of three, and while succeeding in the encounter you draw is often enough to defeat the spawn, you may use other means, such as spells, to kill it. However, in order to banish such a creature to the Abyss, you may have to test your will as you watch it digest its victims. You may try to fight one with bullet and blade, only to have its oozing substance easily absorb your attacks. With every reckoning, another one of Abhoth’s spawn appears in some savage, unpopulated place of the world. If six or more of them are active at once, Doom advances as Earth succumbs to their terrible foulness.

Dispelling the Filth

To defeat Abhoth itself, you must solve three of its mysteries. You may discover that the first step to subduing Abhoth is preventing his gruesome offspring from coming out of their subterranean holes by sealing the caverns deep in the wilderness. Traces of Abhoth’s influence and clues to fighting him may be found far out at sea or in old tunnels beneath bustling modern cities. The inhabitants of those cities may also have fallen prey to Abhoth’s influence. Even from wintry and distant Hyperborea, Abhoth can use its telepathic powers to cruelly twist human minds. By traveling to the Earth’s metropolises and freeing these psychic slaves to filth, you’ll solve one of the mysteries necessary to stop Abhoth’s restless activities.

Hopefully, you’ll meet some of the rare mortals whose minds can withstand Abhoth’s powers and gain their assistance. The renowned occultist and archeologist Enoch Bowen can strengthen your resolve and contribute to your understanding of arcane lore—which he can use to close one single Gate. The author and mystic Halpin Chalmers can ease your treks into the wilderness where Abhoth’s spawn tend to dwell. Wherever you travel, the magician, occultist, and escape artist Erich Weiss can keep you from becoming Delayed or Detained. His help also enhances your powers of observation and your knowledge of lore.

Fight the Future

If Abhoth awakens, he will unleash psychological corruption, ravenous monsters, and disfiguring diseases across the Earth. Under the Pyramids even offers you a glimpse of a dark future in which Abhoth has risen, and hordes of helpless plague victims suffer in wretched prison camps, kept away from the few healthy members of humanity left. If the Dark Pharaoh should return from the dead and regain power, a different misery awaits: global slavery to a tyrannical and sadistic ruler. The world is depending on you and your fellow investigators to prevent both futures from happening. Prepare explore Egypt’s ancient mysteries and battle Abhoth’s spawn in the trackless wild. Prepare to fight the future.

Download the rules from the Eldritch Horror minisite and pick up Under the Pyramids from your local retailer today!

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Stronger Together

Published 18 November 2015 | Eldritch Horror

Stronger Together

The Investigators of Under the Pyramids

“His worst fears concerned himself, and the kind of unholy rapport he felt to exist between his mind and that lurking horror…”
–H.P. Lovecraft, The Haunter of the Dark

In the far outskirts of Cairo, south of Giza but north of the temple complex at Memphis, lies a misshapen monument to evil: the Bent Pyramid, where the Dark Pharaoh has rested for millennia. Now, the Dark Pharaoh has begun to stir as thousands of Cultists engineer his return, and the Bent Pyramid is sending out an irresistible summons to all occultists and scholars of arcane arts, pulling them towards the Nile.

Under the Pyramids, the upcoming expansion for Eldritch Horror, immerses you in the deathless mysteries of a land preoccupied with the dead. However, to explore alone is to risk drowning in the sands or falling victim to countless monsters. In today’s preview you’ll meet four of the expansion’s eight new investigators. All of them are fearless and determined individuals, but when working together their abilities are profoundly better.

The Diplomat’s Daughter

East Asia in the 1920s was a place of tumult and cultural transformation. On the one hand, France used Indochina as a slave-run plantation and Japan was transforming Korea into a police state. On the other hand, westerners were pouring into China and Japan, importing Hollywood cinema and exporting ancient relics.

Minh Thi Phan is very much shaped by this multiculturalism. Her father left French-occupied Indochina to do business in Japanese-occupied Seoul. As an adult, she moved down to Tokyo, where she found work with an English importer/exporter named Mr. Thomas, who became as much mentor and friend as employer. One morning she arrived at work to find Mr. Thomas's lifeless body, murdered in cold blood, clutching a cryptic text . Now Minh is determined to find out why.

Minh is not only shrewd, she is educated in ancient lore and able to converse in five languages. Her greatest value is her extraordinary ability to help others. She can procure travel tickets for herself and another investigator, even in the Heart of Africa. Her presence also adds +1 to the skills of anyone traveling with her. If Minh is merely traveling in the company of an Ally, her own skills still receive a +1 boost, as she makes the maximum use of their abilities in her own endeavor.

The Monster Slayer

While Minh was growing up in Asia’s largest cities, Hank Samson knew nothing but wide open spaces. Having worked as a farmhand-for-hire since his teens, Hank’s life changed when he saw a giant avian creature ripping whole cattle apart in the Texas ranchlands. The other workers fled, but Hank walked up to the monster and used his sledgehammer to smash its skull.

Hank doesn’t wait around for monsters to attack him. As an action, rather than an encounter, he can test his strength and discard a monster whose toughness is less than or equal to the number of successes. Hank isn't afraid of anything, not Cultists, Mi-gos, Mummies, or even Giza’s infamous Sphinx-like Beast, unless it’s already done him harm. So, he never needs to resolve horror checks when fighting a monster unless he first loses health from the physical battle. That's why, although they’re from very distinct corners of the Earth, Hank and Minh make an excellent pair. He fights what she cannot, while she calmly facilitates travel, deciphers texts, converses with the locals, and enhances his skills.

The Cursed and the Blessed

Rex Murphy is a talented writer and acclaimed reporter. He is also cursed: bad luck and unlikely disasters have surrounded him all his life. Rex’s curse has also opened his eyes to the activities of the Ancient Ones and their minions, for whatever evils exist in the universe are never far from him. Rex has learned to keep a lucky talisman on hand as a weapon against his ill fortune, however, and when he manages to shake off the curse, Rex becomes capable of incredible deeds. He starts the game with a Cursed Condition, but the moment he can get rid of it, he immediately gains a clue, improves a skill, and then… gains another Cursed Condition. Even when Cursed, Rex can always utilize his press credentials to procure goods, allies, and services. As an Action, he can simply take any number of Assets from the reserve, as long as their total value is less than his influence.

Fortunately for Rex, there is one person able to help keep his curse at bay. Sister Mary may be young, but she has willingly dedicated her life to the Church and to the battle against darkness. Divine favor is evident in her innate radiance and strong will, and the fact that her mere presence benefits those around her, much as Minh Thi Phan’s does. Investigators on the same space as Sister Mary add 1 to the results of any tests made when dealing with Bane or Boon conditions, such as Haunted or Blessed . She can also aid others in recovering from Madness conditions, such as Despair. Finally, she carries with her a vial of holy water , which she can use to gain superhuman power in an emergency, or to render another investigator Blessed.

Trouble Shared

No matter how strong, oberservant, or schooled in arcane lore, no single investigator can withstand the maelstrom of horrors that herald the awakening of an Ancient One. Yet together, these investigators can not only resist the terrible draw of the Bent Pyramid or survive in the blazing sands of the Sahara, but stop the Dark Pharaoh—and even greater threats—from ravaging the known world.

The forces of evil are gathering. Pre-order Under the Pyramids from your local retailer today!

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Gifts of the Nile

Published 30 October 2015 | Eldritch Horror

Gifts of the Nile

The Egyptian Locations of Under the Pyramids

Far over the city towered the great Roman dome of the new museum; and beyond it—across the cryptic yellow Nile that is the mother of aeons and dynasties—lurked the menacing sands of the Libyan Desert, undulant and iridescent and evil with older arcana.
–H.P. Lovecraft, Under the Pyramids

Anyone who has ever explored Egypt, read about her, or merely looked at pictures of the Great Pyramids knows that the country has deep, dark, and ancient secrets. Greek historians, Islamic scholars, Hungarian noblemen, and Napoleon himself have all sought to solve the mysteries of Egypt’s massive tombs, ruined temples, and drifting sands. In the Under the Pyramids expansion for Eldritch Horror, solving those mysteries is more important than ever. The fate of the known world depends on it.

Herodotus christened Egypt the “Gift of the Nile,” for all living things in Egypt depend on that broad river’s waters. Cairo, Alexandria, Tel El-Amarna, and Giza are all within sight of the Nile. Even the timeless and secret trade routes across the Sahara reach toward it. In today’s preview, we explore the Gift of the Nile and unearth a scant few of the myriad ancient horrors that dwell throughout it.

The Land of Reeds

In Under the Pyramids you can enter Egypt as humans have since the dawn of our species: by traveling north from the Heart of Africa along the Nile. This southernmost region of Egypt was once known as the Land of Reeds: for millennia the Nile’s seasonal flooding created broad marshes. Now the Aswan Dam keeps the river in check, and wealthy tourists float upon the calm water in expensive barges.

A visit to the Nile may help you recover from any physical and mental wounds you’ve suffered. Helping an ill priest on your boat could both give you a free ship ticket and restore your sanity, even if you are suffering from a dire form of madness. You might, however, end up contracting his illness. Sleeping on the riverbank may draw the attention of Thoth, god of learning and writing, who will test your knowledge in your dreams and heal you if you pass.

Continuing up the Nile by steamer will bring you to Tel El-Amarna, the sandblasted ruins of Akhenaten’s capital city. Akhenaten was the only pharoah to abandon worship of traditional Egyptian deities like Isis, Osiris, Bastet and Thoth, in favor of worshipping only one god, Aten, the sun. Soon after his reign, however, both god and city were abandoned. Tel El-Amarna is now inhabited only by ghosts, mummies, ghouls , and Egyptologists , but they may provide you clues to your mysteries. Failing to win the favor of an Egyptologist impairs your influence; failing to win the favor of a ghoul endangers your health.

Ancient Cities

From Tel El-Amarna you can travel north, past Giza’s Great Pyramids and watchful sphinx, to both Cairo and Alexandra. Indeed, Giza is almost within Cairo's boundaries—Egypt's capital has been Egypt’s greatest, most cosmopolitan city since the earliest Pharaonic dynasties. That is no less true now in the 1920s. In this “city of a thousand minarets,” the streets are filled with not only Arabs and Egyptians, but Berber traders, German archeologists, Ethiopian businessmen, British imperial officers, and American tourists. Helping a member of the British Secret Service to fight off an assault could earn you improved influence and a Relic from a recent excavation, like a Pharaonic mask . Rescuing a group of Americans held in quarantine could gain you a grateful Ally to accompany you on your adventures.

Alexandria is at least two thousands years younger than Cairo, a cultural center bordered by the Sahara and Mediterranean. When Alexander the Great founded it he established an immense library to hold all the world’s books and a towering lighthouse to guide sailors to shore. The lighthouse has fallen, its stone assimilated into newer buildings or resting on the Mediterranean floor, and the library’s scrolls have been either concealed or burnt. You might still come upon a scrap of papyrus detailing arcane knowledge or a wandering magician schooled in mystical lore. Alexandria is the best place to acquire Glamour spells, which provide benefits that endure as long as you can maintain the spell. Shroud of Shadow , for instance, prevents monsters from detecting your presence. With the Forced Learning spell, popular long ago among Alexandria’s hardworking librarians, whenever you improve a skill, you automatically improve that skill again.

Infinite Sands

Alexandra also serves as a gateway to the vast, forbidding Sahara. Beyond the nomads who have spent their lives navigating from oasis to oasis, only the most determined travelers dare enter the desert. Yet, if you can survive the horrors within infinite sands, you will emerge from the Sahara with better skills than you had before. Willing yourself through the pain of a scorpion sting , for example, improves your strength.

There have always been rumors of mysterious wonders within the desert. Some say they have found ancient glyphs of swimming figures. Others speak of glass castles standing near bright blue oases. For centuries, stories have also been told of a lost white city, Zerzura, filled with lush gardens, ornate castles, delicious foods, and deep pools. There is a chance that you could find Zerzura , but no luxuries await you there, only a Relic to help you in your struggle against the Ancient Ones.

No less legendary or dangerous, but much closer to the Nile than Zerzura, is the Bent Pyramid where the Dark Pharaoh is said to rest. There you may find an Artifact, like the scales that Thoth used to weigh the hearts of the dead against feathers. The lightless sandstone corridors could possibly lead you far into the past, to the days of the Dark Pharaoh’s reign. He may offer you a bargain that could save humanity or cause you terrible pain. Or both.

The Land of the Dead

As much life as the Nile’s waters sustain, Egypt has always been the land of the dead, of corpses and curses, of funerals and tombs. But as you know very well, “that is not dead which can eternal lie.”

Discover what dead things are coming alive in Egypt. Pre-order Under the Pyramids from your local retailer today!

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The Dark Pharaoh

Published 23 October 2015 | Eldritch Horror

The Dark Pharaoh

Preview an Ancient One and the Mysteries of Under the Pyramids

The Great Sphinx! God!—that idle question I asked myself on that sun-blest morning before . . . what huge and loathsome abnormality was the Sphinx originally carven to represent?
–H.P. Lovecraft and Harry Houdini, Under the Pyramids

Under the Pyramids, an upcoming expansion for Eldritch Horror, invites you to travel throughout Egypt, to visit her haunted tombs, windswept deserts, and bustling yet ancient cities. The featured side board opens up six new locations, from the glittering, snaking Nile to cosmopolitan Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast. All of these locations are rich with prehistoric and preternatural mysteries, but one mystery is darker and more terrifying than all the rest: that of the Dark Pharoah, Nephren-Ka.

The time has now come to explore that darkness. Nephren-Ka is stirring once again in his tomb. Should he rise again, his tyranny will reach beyond Egypt, dooming all the Earth’s people to terrible slavery. Today’s preview reveals what you must do to combat the Dark Pharoah and warns you how the perils emanating from Egypt may affect the rest of the world.

The Legend

Some historians say that Nephren-Ka reigned twenty-eight hundred years ago, during the Old Kingdom’s Third Dynasty. Others claim that he dates even father back, that Nephren-Ka was the first king to unite all of Egypt under one crown. Still others allege that he lived in the Twentieth Dynasty, after Rameses II. The truth is impossible to know for almost all evidence of his life has been erased: all statues of him toppled, all hieroglyphic inscriptions carved over, and all papyri burnt. Only his cruelty is certain—he enslaved multitudes and sacrificed countless innocent people in order to grow his own power.

It is also believed that he possessed a powerful artifact created by the Ancient Ones, the Shining Trapezohedron , which could be used to summon Nyarlathotep's avatar. A few scholars even believe that Nephren-Ka was Nyarlathotep incarnate. Either way, the Shining Trapezohedron, if it ever existed, was buried with Nephren-Ka deep inside the strange, lightless Bent Pyramid, southeast of Cairo. Indeed, some awakening power within the Bent Pyramid is calling out, drawing not only Nephren-Ka’s Cultists, but all investigators of the arcane towards it. Resistance is possible, but may very well cost you your sanity.

Those Cultists, impassioned members of the Brotherhood of the Beast, seek to resurrect the Dark Pharaoh and place the Shining Trapezohedron back in his bloodless, bloodthirsty hands. They are your worst and most ubiquitous enemy in the quest to keep Nephren-Ka from rising. Their chief weapon is their black magic, and at every reckoning they use it to drain health or sanity from a nearby investigator. They must also be defeated by magic rather than overcome by physical strength.

To eradicate the chance that Nephren-Ka could reign again, you must solve three of his mysteries before time runs out—no easy task when so little evidence about him remains. Yet searching for knowledge and battling Cultists are not the sum of your quest. You will also face sinister, gargantuan monsters you thought were mythical and other destructive portents of the Dark Pharoah’s return.

The Beast

For centuries, travelers and Egyptians thought that the Great Sphinx of Giza was only a massive statue with a disquieting, disintegrating face. In fact, the Great Sphinx was merely lying dormant, waiting for the resurrection of its master. Now The Beast has reawakened. Its sandstone face has fallen away to reveal infinite horrors and it has stalked across the desert from Giza to the Bent Pyramid where it loyally patrols Nephren-Ka’s resting place.

You must defeat The Beast if you wish to keep its master asleep and entombed, but it is resistant to magical effects. It can only be harmed by someone possessing at least one Relic, such as a Canopic Jar holding a pharaoh’s brain, or the predynastic Twin Scepters that signify Upper and Lower Egypt. Even with such rare trophies, only investigators with strong wills and the utmost physical strength should attempt to fight The Beast, lest they become trapped under one of its great, living stone paws or lost in the cosmic abyss of its visage.

The Black Wind

Another portent heralding Nephren-Ka’s return is the horrifying tempest known as the Black Wind . It spreads a morbid cloud over Egypt from Alexandria to Tel El-Amarna. To quell this storm, you might appeal to ancient Egyptian gods. A feline avatar of the goddess Bast might appear and lead you through the blasting sands into the storm’s calm eye, where you may be able channel the goddess’s power against the forces of darkness. Or Isis herself may bless you and call upon you to combat the disease and death that the Black Wind leaves in its wake. If you succeed, you’ll both diminish the Black Wind’s strength and save the lives of afflicted Egyptians. If you fail, however, the goddess’s will turns against you and permanently impairs your ability to use lore.

Impairment tokens make their debut in Under the Pyramids. Like improvement tokens, they alter your strength in a single skill, removing one or two dice from your pool whenever you test that skill, down to a minimum of one. Only by improving the affected skill can you remove the impairment token and return that skill to its original strength.

The Litany of Secrets

Under the Pyramids brings six new preludes to Eldritch Horror. Each one creates different starting conditions for your games. The Under the Pyramids prelude focuses the battle against the Dark Pharoah even more intensely upon Egypt, spawning monsters at the Bent Pyramid and the Active Expedition space and causing gates to open in Egypt before the fabric of the rest of the world begins to rip apart. If you are fighting another Ancient One, this prelude offers another incentive to visit Egypt: a close friend, Erich Weiss, has been accused of theft and needs your help.

While Egypt will likely be the heart of your investigations, the battle against the Ancient Ones is always a global effort. Litany of Secrets offers you greater rewards for visiting the far corners and uninhabited wildernesses of the Earth. It creates two ever-shifting Active Expedition sites instead of one, so that investigators may more easily undertake expeditions and reap their immense rewards. Under the Pyramids also introduces new expedition sites, allowing you to discover shrines to Native American gods in the subways of Buenos Aires , or rescue a useful ally from the depths of the Bosphorous Strait .

The Bent Pyramid Calls

Few can resist the silent, persistent summons of the Bent Pyramid. Will you struggle against it in your quest to defeat Cthulhu, Azathoth, or Ithaqua? Will you lose your sanity exploring Tunguska as Nephren-Ka awakes? Or will you succumb to that irresistible lure and traverse the scorching desert sands in the hope of solving the Dark Pharaoh’s ancient mysteries?

Pre-order your copy of Under the Pyramids today!

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Under the Pyramids

Published 10 August 2015 | Eldritch Horror

Under the Pyramids

Discover Egypt's Dark Secrets in a New Expansion for Eldritch Horror

I saw the horror and unwholesome antiquity of Egypt, and the grisly alliance it has always had with the tombs and temples of the dead. I saw phantom processions of priests with the heads of bulls, falcons, cats, and ibises; phantom processions marching interminably through subterraneous labyrinths and offering unnamable sacrifices to indescribable gods… And behind it all I saw the ineffable malignity of primordial necromancy, black and amorphous, and fumbling greedily after me in the darkness…
–H.P. Lovecraft and Harry Houdini, Under the Pyramids

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the upcoming release of Under the Pyramids, a side board expansion for the cooperative Lovecraftian board game, Eldritch Horror.

In the chaotic streets of Cairo, saddled camels stand in front of parked roadsters. Arab merchants are bartering with British officers and Hungarian archeologists, while Bedouins find refreshment at cafes after spending months wandering in the Sahara. Just outside the city limits flows the wide, shimmering Nile River and only twenty miles away, the Great Sphinx patiently guards a famous trio of Old Kingdom pyramids. And only a few hundred feet from the entrance to the Cairo bazaar, a group of black-robed Cultists chants solemnly in a mysterious and archaic language, summoning back to life the cruelest Pharaoh of all time.

Under the Pyramids invites you to discover Egypt’s secrets as you battle against the Dark Pharoah’s return. A new side board opens up six Egyptian locations, from bustling cities to legendary archeological sites. Six preludes introduce challenging new horrors, including a lethal, unnatural epidemic and the ghostly return of a fallen investigator. Eight more investigators enter the international fight against evil, armed with mysterious Relics and powerful Glamour Spells that can actually alter fate . You’ll need a strong and well-equipped team to take on the terrible Ancient Ones who have slept silently for millennia in Egypt’s sands, but now threaten to awake.

Ancient Kingdom, Modern Conflicts

Everywhere in Egypt ancient and modern come together. Military speed boats dart back and forth over the massive stone ruins of the Alexandria lighthouse. Academics and tourists toting cigarettes and cameras throng around the pharaoh Akhenaten’s sandstone palace at Tel El-Amarna by the Nile. As the midday calls to prayer ring out over Cairo, Egyptian separatists clash with Imperial officers and bureaucrats feud over rightful ownership of the Rosetta Stone. Amidst all this, you and your fellow investigators are undertaking a secretive struggle against the Ancient Ones.

You may see the face of a cat goddess in the stars or foresee your own death in the misshapen shadow of the Bent Pyramid. Your search for clues will lead you down the length of the Nile to the Sudanese border and from the shores of the Mediterranean deep into the drifting Saharan sands. You may also discover that your friend Erich Weiss has been framed in the theft of a priceless pharaonic amulet. The Museum Heist Adventures launch you on a chase across Egypt to catch the actual thief, retrieve the amulet, and clear Mr. Weiss’s name.

Nomads and Scholars

Since long before the historical era, nomads have roamed across Egypt’s deserts, stopping at secret oases on the way to trade in Cairo or rest on the banks of the Nile. All eight investigators of Under the Pyramids are also nomads, each for their own individual reasons. Hank Samson, for instance, left his family farm in Texas in search of his long-lost father. Sister Mary found her calling in eradicating demonic presences throughout Africa.

Many of the new investigators are scholars as well. Mandy Thompson and Dr. Harvey Walters have traveled to Egypt to do first-hand research into psychic abnormalities and arcane texts. The archeologist Monterey Jack particularly unites research and restlessness. As a child he traveled the world alongside his father – but recently the aging man was found murdered. Jack has now undertaken a new investigation, seeking information about his father’s death in the ruins of ancient Egyptian temples and the labyrinthine Cairo streets. He carries with him a Treasure Map given to him by his father and has an uncanny ability to spot valuable Relics like Canopic Jars in the least likely places.

The Dark Pharoah’s Return

The mysteries surrounding the Dark Pharaoh may prove inscrutable even to an Egpytologist like Monterey Jack or a linguistic scholar like Mandy Thompson. Little is known about the ancient king known as Nephren-ka. He was a mighty sorcerer who worshipped Nyarlathotep and a bloodthirsty tyrant who enslaved thousands and sacrificed countless innocent people to his evil god. Some Egyptologists believe that his rule ended the Third Dynasty of the Old Kingdom; others say he lived during the Twentieth Dynasty. Some say he was buried beneath the Bent Pyramid and covered the walls of his tomb with prophecies; some say he was actually a flesh-and-blood avatar of Nyarlathotep and his remains vanished. His true believers say that his return is imminent. All the evidence that you can find supports their claim.

To keep the Dark Pharoah from enslaving Egypt once more, you and your fellow investigators will have to solve three mysteries. You may have to banish a tempestuous and lethal Black Wind from the Nile Delta, or even fight the reawakened Great Sphinx of Giza. Nephren-ka's history itself is a mystery much harder to solve than it may sound. After he was deposed in a democratic uprising and buried alive, the Egyptian people erased virtually all sculptural, pictorial, and hieroglyphic records about the Dark Pharaoh, striking him from recorded history . Such was their desire to purge his terrible and bloody reign from their memories.

The Horrors of the Gift of the Nile

In these times of deceptive international calm, archeologists and explorers from across the world are pouring into Egypt, scouring her temples, tombs, and pyramids for artifacts and mystical knowledge. Your search, however, is vastly more important than all their scholarly excavations, for yours alone can save humanity. The harsh Egyptian climate will challenge your strength, the hieroglpyhic inscriptions will challenge your knowledge of lore, and the chaos of urban bazaars will test your powers of observation. You’ll need lots of influence to navigate the local and Imperial bureaucracies and a streadfast will to gaze upon the Egypt's ancient horrors. Only by facing these challenges and solving the mysteries of this truly ancient civlization can you safeguard the future of humanity.

Under the Pyramids will be available in the fourth quarter of 2015. Meanwhile, the Strange Remnants expansion is now available at your local retailer and in our online store. Find more information about Eldritch Horror and its expansions here!

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