"It is with a considerable amount of apprehension that I so much as recall the story of Robert Phillips, even so many years after his disappearance..." From the papers of former Harvard Professor John A. Lewis

Robert Phillips was a promising student of Linguistics at the Miskatonic University in Arkham, Massachusetts. He was the pride of the institution--especially after its reputation was tarnished by incidents connected with Miskatonic Library's restricted collection.

It was in that very library that Robert first came upon the name Abdul Alhazred and The Mad Arab's dreaded work of eldritch knowledge, Al-Azif: The Necronomicon. Soon after, Robert became convinced that translations of the book were imperfect, yet the idea was frowned upon by the university's staff. But Robert would not be deterred, and so his close friend John could do nothing more than watch helplessly as the brilliant Robert Phillips deteriorated in his obsessive descent on a dark path into madness.