“The great storm broke just before midnight on August 8th. Lightning struck repeatedly in all parts of the city, and two remarkable fireballs were reported. [...] Nothing definite could be seen in the candleless night, though some upward-looking spectators thought they glimpsed a great spreading blur of denser blackness against the inky sky…”

- H.P. Lovecraft, The Haunter of the Dark

There had been so many signs. Why had none of them listened? You had tried to warn them that the prison of G’harne was failing in Africa. The media, the police, even the revered professors at Miskatonic University, all of them had treated you like some raving lunatic and thrown you out into the street. Even now, with acrid smoke and the stink of death thick in the air, no one actually looked back at the coiled horrors writhing amongst the city’s ruins. None of them wanted to believe that this level of devastation could be visited upon the world by forces so poorly understood by the minds of man.

Someone must face these horrors and try to drive them back. Someone has to try to keep Shudde M’ell from waking. No one had listened, and now you grimly march into the ruins of the city you tried to save, determined to find some clue to sealing away the ancient creature once and for all.

In the Cities in Ruin expansion for Eldritch Horror, Shudde M’ell, the progenitor of the dreaded chthonians, tosses and turns with the cycle of its dreams. Mankind’s fragile existence is threatened as this otherwordly being comes closer to waking than ever before. Cities fall and storms rage all over the globe as Shudde M’ell thrashes beneath the planet’s surface. Can a few brave investigators scattered across the globe truly hope to stand between this horrifying monstrosity and the utter devastation that heralds its coming?

Civilization Torn Asunder

Horrible disasters plague the entire world as Shudde M’ell thrashes deep under The Heart of Africa. The world must bear the brunt of this being’s assault as he struggles to wake. New for the Cities in Ruin expansion, disaster cards represent all the ways in which the Ancient One makes its mark upon the unsuspecting world. Sydney may explode in gouts of flame, leaving little but charred husks of buildings behind. Tokyo could flood beyond recovery, drowning the city beneath a tsunami of unheard of proportions.

The writhing mass of Shudde M’ell still slumbers in the ruins of G’harne, though its dreams are as dangerous as its movements beneath the ground. Gates to otherworldly realms may spring into being all over the world as the creature’s dreams rend the fabric of reality itself.

Disasters strike as Shudde M’ell’s awakening approaches, and some of the Prelude cards included in the Cities in Ruin expansion can bring ruin on the world with even greater frequency. Investigators who must contend with the Apocalypse Nigh Prelude will find even more Disasters ahead of them as the Doom track progresses to the Ancient One’s awakening. The Fall of Man Prelude adds additional Disasters using the Omen track, tying the Ancient One’s wrath to the cosmos themselves. Truly, there is nowhere to hide from the coming storm, in this world or any other!

While the disasters take many forms, none are so terrible as the events which devastate an entire city! When a city is devastated, it is no longer considered a city space, and all of that city’s Expedition Encounters are removed from the game. Any investigator in a city when it is devastated will suffer terrible consequences and the smoldering ruins of the city will never again be what they once were. If all nine cities are devastated by the chthonian monstrosity, then the game is over. After all, what is left to defend when the whole world is ruin and rubble? The investigators must race to prevent the creature’s waking at all costs!

Roland Banks Is On the Case

Roland Banks is as by-the-book as agents could be, and lately that book has been telling a story that won't end well. For the past few months, rumors have been spreading that small towns and villages have vanished without a trace. Eventually, here and there, a single mad survivor might eventually emerge, babbling about the creatures from below.

As time rolls on, the panic and the destruction has gotten worse. The whole world seems to be shaken up by disasters lately, and while some certainly seem natural, Roland Banks thinks that there’s something more than coincidence behind all these rumblings. Everyone he’s asked has a different idea about why all these things are happening at the same time, and none of them seem to add up. In Agent Banks’ experience, a neat coincidence could leave an awfully big mess, and he has no intention of letting this problem get out of hand.

Roland Banks knows how to make the most of his surroundings because he remembers everything he sees, and after years in the field, he’s seen quite a bit. Roland Banks can set aside Service Assets from the reserve that he and the other investigators can use. Agent Banks can also spawn a Clue if the leads on Shudde M’ell have started to dry up.

The investigators will need every bit of help they can get as Shudde M’ell struggles to wake and break free! In our next preview of Eldritch Horror: Cities in Ruin, we’ll take a closer look at what the investigators can salvage from ruined cities, and we’ll learn more about the ancient horrors soon to awaken...