Omnipresent

Part of the Side Missions. Listen on Acast: Act I and Act II.

Omnipresent was the 2026 Halloween Special, released on 31 October 2026 in two parts (Act I and Act II). It was recorded on location in Boston, Massachusetts, at the Omni Parker House, which is billed as the oldest continuously operating hotel in America and is said to be one of the most haunted. Peter Morrison wrote the scenario and ran it as Keeper. In Act II, for the first time on the Arkham Files, the players leave the gaming table and walk to real locations around downtown Boston to play out each scene.

The framing device is "Footsteps Through History", a cheerful pre-recorded audio tour of Boston's Freedom Trail. The tour keeps getting interrupted by the dead.

Summary:

It is 2026. Five investigators who run a struggling paranormal podcast check into the Omni Parker House, hoping the hotel's ghosts will finally make their name. A charm roll at the front desk gets them the famously haunted room 1058. The elevator stops at a floor marked "House", and the investigators follow the sound of a small bell to a room where they find the body of Dr. Abigail March, a Harvard academic whose eyes are missing. The door locks behind them, and they have to work out what she was doing before they can escape. The clues include an old rotary phone, a puzzle case with five symbol sliders, a tub of grave dirt, a cracked handbell and Dr. March's own notes. Her notes say the hotel's ghost is a "Warden". They also describe a ritual: "House begins, grave names, crier calls, witness answers, common condemns." Act I ends when the group breaks the mirror from inside the case and gets out of the room, and the Warden tells them to "check the map".

In Act II, the map from the mirror sends the group across Boston before the ritual can finish at Hangman's Hill on Boston Common. On the way they visit:

King's Chapel Burying Ground
Faneuil Hall (the "Hall of Witnesses")
the Bell in Hand Tavern
Paul Revere's grave in the Granary Burying Ground

At each stop, the outcome changes how the final scene on the Common plays out.

Characters:- Keeper: Peter Morrison; Able Morrison as Benjamin "Benji" Revere, the group's paramedic; Seth Morrison as Ruben Hargraves, a "building systems consultant" (an engineer, or a janitor according to the others); Alex Morrison as Ike Marnsarn, the main podcaster, who is jobless and on his last attempt to make the podcast work. He says his cousins out in Utah went to investigate the Bohemian Grove and he never heard back (see Grove of the Ever-Watching Eye); Donovan Bollard as Tony DeMarco, a boxer by choice and bartender by night; Sam Morrison as Charles "Chuck" Briggs, a 65-year-old public historian and archivist.

NPCs (all played by Peter Morrison):

Bridget Miller (also called Barbara), the old lady at the Omni Parker front desk
Dr. Abigail March, the dead Harvard academic in the haunted room
The Warden, the hotel ghost, a woman with long black hair, white eyes and a white dress
The "Footsteps Through History" tour guide

Notable moments:

In Act II, Benji Revere is in a madness when the group reaches Hangman's Hill, and the others have to snap him out of it.
Charles Briggs is dragged into the crevice and ripped in half as the final spike is driven home. Ike holds on to the end, and is left holding the right half of Charles. The rest of the group survives the night.
The group leaves coins on Paul Revere's grave. In return, a spectral guardian protects them for a round on the Common.
The group addresses the dead soldiers at Faneuil Hall, fails to win them over and is chased out. As a result, they have to fight their way through the dead at the end.