Scenario Introduction

The thought of actual mental contact with alien, outside entities was stupefying enough to my trained and somewhat prepared mind; and this being so, what might one think of its effect on the vast masses of uninformed laymen?
—H.P. Lovecraft, “The Whisperer In Darkness”

Introduction

Bible Black is a Call of Cthulhu scenario designed for 4-6 experienced players. It serves as an expansion, revision, and modernization of Kevin A. Ross’ 1992 scenario, “The Music of the Spheres.” Inspired by the more science fiction-oriented stories of H.P. Lovecraft and Ramsey Campbell, Bible Black takes a sci-fi spin on the Mythos, casting the Mi-Go as modern-day aliens and conflating an Outer God with a sentient, interstellar construct. The scenario is designed for players who value sophisticated roleplaying, enjoy challenging puzzles, and crave immersion in a unique environment.

Synopsis

Bible Black unfolds over ten days in March 2025. The setting is the fictional town of Hayden, Nebraska, the location of the Great Plains Cruciform Array (GPCA), a radio observatory patterned after the Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico. A team of GPCA scientists have discovered curious radio signals emanating from a brown dwarf located 1.5 light-years from Earth. Some believe this dwarf is Nemesis, a theoretical companion to the Sun responsible for periodic mass extinctions on Earth. Others believe the object is a SETI candidate, possibly a megastructure created by an extraterrestrial civilization (ETC).

In truth, the “brown dwarf” is Ghroth, the Harbinger of the Outer Gods. Tasked with monitoring the threat that human sentience poses to the galaxy, the Harbinger has recently been awoken by terrestrial advances in artificial intelligence and quantum computing. As the astronomers at the GPCA continue to develop and refine the emanations of this potential Doomsday machine, the Harbinger increases in power. The Song of Ghroth has already deranged the scientists, who continue their work with little understanding of the consequences. Soon the malevolent influence of the Harbinger will spread across the entire globe, triggering mass hysteria, mass murder, suicides, earthquakes, tsunamis, blizzards, tornadoes, floods—even the proverbial rain of frogs!

Unknown to the staff of the GPCA, the observatory has been closely monitored by the Mi-Go. Having witnessed entire worlds destroyed by Ghroth, the Mi-Go have no wish to be consumed by humanity’s reckless death wish. A group of Mi-Go “Heretics” have disobeyed a general order to evacuate the Solar System, and have remained behind in a misguided attempt to forestall the arrival of the Harbinger. The first step in their plan is to silence the Song of Ghroth, and that means gaining control of the scientists at the GPCA through a campaign of abduction, hypnosis, and implantation. Unfortunately, recent events have destabilized their efforts, and the Heretics are becoming desperate. If the humans cannot be coerced or convinced to abandon their work, the entire region must be purged with nuclear fire. The alternative is even worse. If the Song of Ghroth is not silenced, the Harbinger will form an “anchor point” and tether itself to Earth. This will accelerate the arrival of Ghroth from decades to months, resulting in an apocalyptic culling of the entire Solar System. And nobody wants that! Right…?

The player characters begin the scenario on March 15, only nine days before Ghroth forms an anchor point. During this time they must discover what’s been happening at the GPCA, decide to oppose or join the Mi-Go, and silence the Song of Ghroth before the Harbinger arrives or the Mi-Go detonate a nuclear bomb. (See “Scenario Background” for a more detailed history of the Ghroth Crisis.)

Source Material

Kevin A. Ross’ “The Music of the Spheres” was first published by Chaosium in The Stars Are Right in 1992 and reprinted in 2004. When referring directly to the original scenario in Bible Black, page numbers are given in pairs, with the first page numbers corresponding to the original 1992 book, and the [bracketed] page numbers referring to the 2004 reprint.

Mythos Inspirations
Ross’ original scenario draws from two Mythos stories: H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Whisperer In Darkness,” which contained the first appearance of the Mi-Go or “Outer Ones,” and Ramsey Cambell’s “The Tugging,” which introduced Ghroth to the Lovecraftian canon. I’ve made close readings of both stories, incorporating additional details into the narrative and including my own science-fiction twist on the Mi-Go.

Additional material for Bible Black is drawn from H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Colour Out of Space” and “The Shadow Out of Time,” as well as “Through the Gates of the Silver Key,” his awkward collaboration with E. Hoffmann Price. Other key resources include Ramsey Campbell’s “The Mine on Yuggoth” and Frank Belknap Long’s “The Hounds of Tindalos.” The scenario background includes material adapted from the Call of Cthulhu scenario “The Killer Out of Space,” written by William Barton and collected in Cthulhu Now!, first published by Chaosium in 1987 and reprinted in 1992.

Meta-Mythos
There are two types of Mythos tales: stories set in Lovecraft’s fictional milieu, and stories that take place in “our” world, a world which includes Lovecraft and his work. These latter “meta-Mythos” narratives were being written by Lovecraft’s protégés even when the Maestro was still alive, and range from semi-parodies such as Frank Belknap Long’s “The Space Eaters” to more earnest works like August Derleth’s “The Return of Hastur.” (Lovecraft himself even approved of his doppelgänger appearing in “Through the Gates of the Silver Key.”) In general, Call of Cthulhu scenarios are set in the former universe, one where the creator of the Mythos is entirely absent, “invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent, paring his fingernails.” Bible Black is not one of these scenarios! Not only did H.P. Lovecraft exist in this scenario, characters may even play Call of Cthulhu! Indeed, Bible Black pokes gentle fun at geeks, gamers, and normies alike, all of whom have different ideas about Lovecraft and his work.

There are numerous ways the Keeper may present this meta-reality. Perhaps Lovecraft was a prophet of sort, a dreamer who interpreted his visions of reality as weird fiction? Or maybe this world’s Lovecraft is not our world’s Lovecraft—maybe in this timeline, he never wrote “The Whisperer in Darkness,” and the Mi-Go are not part of the canon? Or—and this is the direction I took in my own game—maybe humans are simply mapping Lovecraftian ideas onto a plastic reality? So the aliens are a fungoid, crustacean race from Pluto who transport brains in metal cylinders; does that actually make them Mi-Go from Yuggoth? Perhaps Lovecraft heard about such tales and simply wrote a short story based on them, much as Spielberg based Close Encounters of the Third Kind on popular notions of UFOs and alien abductions. It’s all up to the Keeper!

Alien Influences
And speaking of little green men…there’s a lot of ufology in Bible Black, from glowing orbs to alien implants to the Ventla “flying saucer.” My two principle sources for UFO-related material are Luis Elizondo’s Imminent: Inside the Pentagon’s Hunt for UFOs and Greg Eghigian’s After the Flying Saucers Came: A Global History of the UFO Phenomenon. Additional inspiration comes from Steven Spielberg’s 1977 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the source of my lifelong fascination with those lost Navy Avengers. I am also deeply indebted to Carl Sagan’s Contact, as well as the 1997 Robert Zemeckis film adaptation, which provided my template for Ruth Swann and the Freqers.

Other Inspirations
Numerous other sources offered inspiration and background material for Bible Black, and all are included in the Bibliography. The name of the scenario was borrowed from my favorite King Crimson song, “Starless,” which appears on the 1974 album Red. (Confusingly, the song does not appear on the album entitled Starless and Bible Black.) The phrase itself originated from Dylan Thomas’ 1954 radio drama, Under Milk Wood:

It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black, the cobblestreets silent and the hunched, courters’-and-rabbits’ wood limping invisible down to the sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboatbobbing sea. The houses are blind as moles (though moles see fine to-night in the snouting, velvet dingles) or blind as Captain Cat there in the muffled middle by the pump and the town clock, the shops in mourning, the Welfare Hall in widows’ weeds. And all the people of the lulled and dumbfound town are sleeping now.

General Notes

Bible Black uses the Call of Cthulhu 7^th Edition rules, but takes some creative liberties with the system of bonus and penalty dice. I have tweaked and expanded Chaosium’s take on the Mi-Go and the Hounds of Tindalos, using their idea of a Tindalosian hybrid as a template for the Slayer Twins.

Names
The text of Bible Black refers to certain NPCs by their last names, and others by their first names. This marks two things: the characters’ prestige within the narrative, and the names they’re most commonly called by friends and associates. For instance, all the scientists are referred to by their surnames, like Dr. Neal and Dr. Swann; but operators and supporting staff are placed on a first-name basis, like Mason and Carrie. Because most of the player characters are male, generic players are usually referred to as “he.” The idealized Keeper is always “she.”

Casting Call
Bible Black uses images of real-life actors to portray many of its non-player characters. I think that “casting” actors into these roles helps bring NPCs to life. The Keeper has a ready reference point for roleplaying, while players intuitively connect with the NPCs through the parasocial magic of cinema—“Oh, Sheriff Kaufman is being played by Ed Harris? Say no more, I already know this guy!” Of course, Keepers are free to recast NPCs to better suit their own narratives. Except for Sam Neill. One should never recast Sam Neill! 

Notes on Sensitivity
Bible Black is intended for adult players. The campaign is dark and gritty, and includes frank depictions of sex, drug use, physical and mental abuse, trauma, violence, suicide, and murder. Several of the characters struggle with mental illness, disability, and neurodiversity, including bipolar disorder, autism, suicidal ideation, addiction, and schizophrenia. My intentions are not to trivialize these issues, but to create complex characters attempting to navigate an increasingly complex world. Indeed, many of these characters are based on people I know, and I’ve tried to create honest portrayals of a broad range of human beings. I’ve also made an effort not to patronize my characters. Having come from a rural background myself, I have a lot of respect for the citizens of Hayden no matter how they vote, where they worship, or what they say about fellow humans during moments of weakness and fear. Many of these characters express political views I do not share, and some use language that others—including myself—might find offensive. I have tried to keep my own judgments as far from the page as possible. 

AI Disclaimer
Being a Gen-X writer, I believe that AI is an abomination that’s corroding our collective appreciation of human creativity, aesthetics, and culture. Having said that, I’ve employed AI for assistance for two things in Bible Black. First and foremost, I’ve used Gemini 2.5 to generate images. I’m not an artist, nor do I have the funds to hire an illustrator. I’ve found that AI can produce half-decent images given the right prompts. I’ve marked all AI images as such, and I’ve taken the liberty to mock their various eccentricities whenever possible. Second, I used Microsoft Copilot to generate the newspaper articles used as player handouts. While laziness had something to do with this decision, there was also irony—AI is so prevalent in modern journalism, what these articles lose in elegance they gain in realism. With the exception of such “newspaper articles,” all the writing in Bible Black originates with human beings.

Bible Black > Introduction
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Author: A. Buell Ruch
Last Modified: 5 November 2025
Email: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
Bible Black PDF: [TBD]