In the old days…

NPCs who accompanied the party often perished.

One that survived was a bard named Rain.

I pulled out her record sheet decades later and (since she is Elven) have brought her back as a story-telling conduit, connecting those old adventures to new ones.

Rain reminds me of the necessity for hope and victory equal to the dark powers that assail the party.

Not all of Lovecraft's writings were terrors.  Many were of the splendid Dream Lands.