Story

Setting
Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones takes place in the Lovecraftian setting of Arkham, a fictionalized New England set in the 1920s that, during the fateful events of the Black Day, was transported to an unknown sphere of the cosmos. The city and its outskirts is inhabited by a demoralized, poverty-stricken colony of survivors with few children among them. They contend with mobsters, cultists, and unknowable entities to keep what little they have left as the malignant forces that transported them to this desolate world seek to ensnare them.

Prologue
Initiated when the game is launched."Your former life was in a bliss of ignorance until you’ve awakened to the darkness waiting on the doorstep of our fragile dimension. Something terrible left its eons old slumber and reality as we knew it collapsed. The city of Arkham was pulled to somewhere not of this world and its residents are in the shadows of true terror. As a survivor of this catastrophe you should investigate the strange occurrences in the city and survive the rising darkness, physically and mentally if possible…"

- Launch Cinematic

Introduction
Initiated at the start of a new game."A year has passed since your encounter with that peculiar fellow known as the Dismal Man. When last you met, he instructed you: ‘Find me beyond Arkham, after the Black Day!’ At the time, these words did not mean much to you, but soon after you would come to understand. On what is now known as the Black Day, under the shadow of the Awakened, the world you knew vanished, and with it your hopes, future and loved ones. For reasons unknown, the city of Arkham was separated from the carcass of the Earth and exiled to an Other place under alien stars, a twilight realm between dimensions. Unlike many others, you survived, body and mind mostly intact… Ever since, you’ve existed day to day in the gray gloom of the Old Eel House, waiting for that enigmatic man to call… A man whose very existence you are now beginning to question. Until you wake into another layer of the nightmare… Until the visit at the old attic…"

- Introductory Cinematic

Plot Summary
One year from the events of the Black Day, the character is visited for the second time by the enigmatic figure known only as the Dismal Man. During a horrifying dream, the Dismal Man leads the character to the Western gates of Arkham, a clue that upon waking from the nightmare allows the character to find a key labelled ‘0’. On further investigation, the character learns that the key opens a hidden bank vault, wherein they discover a grotesque statuette and a riddling poem left by the Dismal Man.

The character risks a number of dangers to dissect the poem’s meaning, including the investigation of a supernatural series of homicides and a close shave with an extraterrestrial being desiring to harvest the character’s brain. After solving the first two lines of the Dismal Man’s poem, the character resolves to find the Necronomicon, a fabled artifact of the cult and the character’s last hope of escaping Arkham. Their search for the Necronomicon points them to Miskatonic University, the location where the tome is thought to be hidden.

Preventing passage to the University via Blasted Street is a lethal radiological phenomenon. On discovery of a journal from a victim of the radiation, the character learns that a prototype environmental suit may allow them to survive the harsh conditions long enough to reach the University. Alternatively, the character may be led to seek out an occult solution to surviving the radiation by a mysterious being known as the Dreaming Baroness. Both roads lead the character to the Theatre of Bones, located in the very heart of the cult’s power.

On arriving at the theatre, the character learns that they will only be permitted to enter on displaying proof of their faith known as the Mark of Cleansing. The character secures the mark at great personal cost with the aid of a former cult member, Krogh, allowing them to enter the theatre.

Once inside, the character views the Reel of Doom and is briefly transported back in time to the Black Day where they have a singular opportunity to investigate the prototype / Baroness’ spell. Within minutes the Dismal Man announces himself to the audience, inviting them to enjoy the premiere of ‘What Awaits Us’. The audience is faced with a bizarre, mirror image of themselves in the theatre. The image progresses into an outbreak of violence, inciting like-violence in the audience as part of a sickening, preordained ritual that the character is forced to endure before being returned to their timeline.

Solution in hand, the character faces the hazards of Blasted Street, making their way to Miskatonic University. An encounter with the Colour Out of Space, a deadly, spacefaring essence and source of the radiation, delivers the character to an unlooked-for house at the end of the way. As the last building between them and the University, the character, committed to their course, enters the decrepit building.

Immediately faced by a series of terrifying illusions, the character taps into the magic of the demonic Witch’s house as a means of journeying forward. Not long into the maze of illusions, they are confronted by an entity in the form of disembodied eyes and gleaming black lips. The entity forces the character to pay a blood toll using a sacrificial knife procured in the midst of the demonic illusions, granting passage beyond the house and warning of a second payment in blood to come.

Within the garret of the house, the character is ushered into a portal, transporting them through space and time to a new reality. They awaken to discover that they have been admitted into a psychiatric ward where they are due to be lobotomized. Taking a chance on their mental stability, the character concocts an experimental cocktail that will allow them to ‘wake up’, barely escaping the lobotomization only to find themselves within a xenological operating room at the mercy of alien beings.

A war breaks out between alien species, allowing the character to escape in the confusion into the unearthly fields of Nithon. During their survey of the unknown land, they come across Wilbur Hampton, who accompanies the character to a rotund, onyx-black obelisk. It is here, at the Black Pyramid, that the character is once again greeted by the black-lipped entity and forced to pay a second blood toll; the blood of another. Sacrificing their companion, the character is finally returned by the extra-dimensional being (revealed to be the Dismal Man in disguise) to Miskatonic University, where their search for the Necronomicon continues.

Epilogue
The concluding cinematic script varies dependent on which Companion is sacrificed at the end of the game."Unearthly wails shiver from the blade Maledicere as you jab it into your victim again and again [...] As you advance toward the alien pyramid and the voyage home, the Black Lips abruptly morph into a familiar visage, illuminating you, in a moment of maddening apprehension. When your extra-dimensional odyssey returns you to the ruins of Miskatonic University, there’s not much of sanity nor humanity left in you. Apparently, all the trials you’ve overcome and the hideous sacrifices you’ve made on your damned voyage are nothing compared to what you must endure if you are ever to lay your hands upon the damned tome called: Necronomicon."

- Concluding Cinematic