What if we kicked Cthulhu's arse? - part 2

Part 2: The bad stuff.

Read part one of this article here.

Ithaqua

The world is freezing. Ithaqua is spreading his influence from the poles, extending great sheets of ice down across North America and up through Australia. The seas are beginning to ice over. Greenland and Siberia are uninhabitable. Scandinavia is gone. Maybe Ithaqua is taking revenge for Cthulhu, maybe he just sees an opportunity to take over now that we're enforcing Cthulhu's sleep.

It isn't normal cold. The UN has tried to reverse the cooling by launching giant orbital mirrors to collect more sunlight, and pumping heat-retaining chemicals into the atmosphere. They made no difference. Every year the ice walls eat away another hundred kilometres of arable land.

November

The most immediate threat to the world is the people given the job of protecting it. Stolid and unimaginative as they are, November agents get repeatedly exposed to influences the human mind isn't built to tolerate. Counselling, drugs, working in pairs and in some cases specialised forms of brain surgery aren't always enough to keep them stable. Some go independent, striking out on their own to fight the mythos without government backing or approved methods. Some go rogue and sell their skills to organised crime. Some go mad and turn cultist. Those are the most dangerous, using their knowledge and contacts to threaten the world instead of protecting it.

Cults

Despite November's suppression of mythos knowledge it leaks out, corroding human sanity wherever it comes in contact. Cults tend to fall into two distinct patterns. The first spring up when the right kind of mind reads the wrong kind of book and begins actively recruiting followers. Extremist, hysterical, violent, they burn out after a few months - destroyed by the authorities. The other sort of cult forms when someone with a plan begins searching out mythos knowledge. Patient and calculating, they often spread for years before November even becomes aware of them. These cults are more dangerous by far, because they're patient and work towards a goal without distraction. The leaders have made a cynical choice to gamble the fate of the whole species for personal gain.

Deep Ones/Shoggoths

With Cthulhu neutralised, the Deep Ones have broken into opposing factions. They worship Dagon, who is an avatar* of Cthulhu. One faction wants to restore Cthulhu, as their god's god. Another wants to elevate Dagon to take his place. The third (and currently largest) faction wants to keep the status quo, using human breeding stock to revitalise their race. The human hybrids make up the largest percentage of the zealot factions, and are far more active.

So far no one faction wants to break with the others and go it alone, so there's a veneer of unity. In secret, all three are taking action to further their own goals. Both zealot factions want access to the human accumulation of mythos knowledge, and with shoggoths at their command they're a formidable force. After losing several archive buildings, it became necessary to shift the others into low Earth orbit. The authorities don't want open war with the Deep Ones if it can be avoided, but the shifting balance of power between their factions makes negotiation difficult.

Ghroth

Ghroth has changed course and is now heading directly for Earth. What it intends to do when it gets  here is anyone's guess. Even if it does nothing and simply passes through the solar system, the results will be catastrophic. The passage of a planet-sized creature will disrupt planetary orbits and cause hurricanes, tidal waves and volcanic eruptions the likes of which the world has never seen before. Its speed isn't consistent, so estimates on its arrival vary between five and 20 years.

S'glhuo

The beings of the plain of sound need very precisely-modulated matching sounds on this side of the dimensional divide to cross over, but it turns out the cracking of splitting ice sheets is close enough. They've been able to cross over on their own in the colder regions, and travel south by sticking to the hospitable areas of Earth's sound-scape.

What they want from us is the human vocal apparatus. Jaw, teeth, tongue, lips, some of the throat lining, vocal cords and a lung. Their technology can remove the organs without killing the 'donor'. So far all the victims have been displaced refugees without much in the way of documentation or community, so November investigation has been hampered.

What to do with this?

My first idea would be to run a slightly more optimistic Call of Cthulhu game. You, the characters, are probably going to die horribly but the human race isn't necessarily doomed.

Or if grimdark is the mood for the game, it might be fun to say that the human race has been extraordinarily lucky for half a century but now it's over and the Great Old Ones are pissed at us.

* My personal interpretation. Your Mythos May Vary.