Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
Chaosium Digest Volume 03 Number 06
Chaosium Digest Volume 3, Number 6
Date: Sunday, August 15, 1993
Number: 2 of 3
Contents:
Cthulhu vs. Stormbringer (Shirley & Brooks) CTHULHU/ELRIC!
A Story Idea for the Black Stone (Steve Gill) CALL OF CTHULHU
Using Children as Investigators (Renee Dekenah) CALL OF CTHULHU
The Cases of Titus Crow (Shannon Appel) CALL OF CTHULHU
--------------------
From: chaosium@netcom.com (Sam Shirley & Les Brooks)
Subject: Cthulhu vs. Stormbringer
System: Call of Cthulhu
System: Elric!
Recently, a player wanted to know whether Elric's demon blade could be
used to destroy great Cthulhu. Les and I discussed it, and determined
this ruling:
If you refer to pages 117 and 122 of the Elric rulebook, you see that
Stormbringer fights with an 880% skill, doing 17d10+1d6 damage per
blow. A large amount, one would think, except that the Call of
Cthulhu rulebook clearly says "At zero Hit Points, Cthulhu bursts and
dissolves into a disgusting, cloying greenish cloud, then immediately
starts to reform into his horrible form. He takes 1D10+10 minutes to
gain full solidity, and when he does, then he has a full 160 hit
points again." Physical damage, obviously, is not effective in
destroying Cthulhu.
This leaves us relying on Stormbringer's other great power, a 1D100
Drain Soul, which allows it to siphon off 1D100 POW points per combat
round. Cthulhu is listed in the rulebook with a mere POW of 42, but
then, he is listed as having only 160 Hit Points, and that is shown as
no real limit when he is able to reconstitute, fully formed. Hit
Points, though, are corporeal, while POW is clearly of the soul.
Philosophically, we must ask if Cthulhu is of one essential essence,
irreplaceable, or if as a deity, he represents an eternal, supernal
principle of a higher level than the sword Stormbringer.
Let us consider the origin of Stormbringer. Referring to the upcoming
Melnibone sourcebook, we learn that it and Mournblade were created by
the older ones," an ancient and inhumanly lawful race of
quasi-immortals. They were forged of the stuff of Chaos by Lawful
smiths, to aid them in their wars, and placed in the keeping of the
proto-Melniboneans.
Merely semi-deistic, Cthulhu is not a true god in the sense of
Azathoth or Yog-Sothoth, and exhibits only a small subset of their
transrational, hyperdimensional nature. He is the supreme example of
the race of Star-Spawn, and their high priest. Cthulhu's POW could be
drained by Stormbringer, but such an act would undoubtedly gain the
attention of Nyarlathotep, and through him Azathoth, "that last,
amorphous blight on nethermost confusion, which blasphemes and bubbles
at the center of all infinity." The outer gods would manifest,
jealous to protect their deistic prerogative, a maddened Azathoth
included. Cults would view this as a sign of the apocalypse,
snow-balling their summonings into this one. Stormbringer may destroy
Cthulhu, but in so doing end this world.
I say let them have the sword, and go to it!
Sam Shirley & Les Brooks
--------------------
From: Steve Gill <TUK865@MACCVM.CORP.MOT.COM>
Subject: A Story Idea for the Black Stone
System: Call of Cthulhu
In-Reply-To: V3.4 The Black Stone
Another Story Idea for the Black Stone:
One of the stones could be broken. Serpent Men and Deep Ones are
trying to get all the fragments to rebuild it. This would recreate
the magical symbol formed by the stones with the usual possibilities
of Earth shattering results. The investigators must, of course,
prevent this.
My personal choice of effect would be everyone on the planet suffering
nightmares of pain and death until the pattern is disrupted once more.
This would give lots of room for further play without the world coming
to a total end.
Steve Gill, internet: TUK865@maccvm.corp.mot.com
--------------------
From: Renee Dekenah <DKNREN01@Uctvax.UCT.AC.ZA>
Subject: Using Children as Investigators
System: Call of Cthulhu
I am a relative newcomer to CoC, but I had an idea that might be
interesting to play. I would appreciate comments from others.
My idea originated from a book by horror novelist Dan Simmons called
"Summer of Night". In his book, Simmons uses as protagonists a small
group of primary school boys and one girl of similar age. All the
children except one are about 11-12 years of age. The other is
younger (I think about 8 or 9). The fact that Simmons managed to
retain suspense and build some complex characterisation got me
thinking.
What if one used children as investigators? It has been stated that
"investigator" is a term used in place of player-character, so there
should be no great problems making the PCs children. It should be
quite a challenge to roleplay. Here follow some more specifics:
They have no secondary or tertiary education.
Any education outside of primary school will have to be gained from
extra reading. This is still very much the age of play, so most of
the PCs will not have the knowledge, let alone Cthulhu Mythos, to deal
with creatures from an intellectual angle.
That does not mean they cannot use their wits. Clues could be given
in a form that young PCs will be able to understand and act upon. In
the Simmons book, there was one child who was quite ahead of his age
in reading and he was the one who did book research. So, it is not
beyond children to do some reading. Most of the investigation would
necessitate physical actions (with preplanning of course). This would
require alterations to the character sheet.
They are physically small, and do not have much experience.
Their size, while making it more difficult to get out of situations
requiring strength, also allows them to squirm and wiggle through
holes and out of clutching rotting hands. Their acrobatic skills are
probably on the whole better than an adult's. In addition, they can
hide easily and look innocent and unknowing when required. Their lack
of experience is not really a problem, as most adults who investigate
Cthulhu mythos are either quite ignorant or insane.
* But what can children ever do?
Exactly! That is part of the horror. In the Dan Simmons book the
children more or less succeeded, but that need not always be so.
Being a child, a PC has less credibility in the adult world,
practically no money, and probably no access to a normal weapon
(unless it is a street kid). Whatever children do, it will have to be
planned by using their wits and what little resources they have and
can nick from their parents and others. In addition to the
supernatural, they also have local bullies to fend off and other
childhood denizens.
* How does Sanity work?
Well, my theory is that children start with a lower San, but lose it
at a slower rate than adults. Children tend to live only partly in
the adult world, and have very active imaginations and their own fears
(things under the bed, the dark...) which is the reason for the lower
San in the beginning. However, whereas an adult may realise the
futility of certain actions, and be more affected by things outside of
their normal world, children, although being extremely scared by slimy
dead things (for instance) may be more inclined to accept them as part
of the reality in which they live. To give background to the
character, one could add the category "Childhood Fears" to the
charcter sheet.
* What of the Horror?
True, the horror might well be different. But, if the players are
interested in roleplaying well, they can create their own brand of
horror for their characters. Suicides are most common between the
ages of 25 and 45 (I think) although teenage suicides are fairly
numerous. Before that, the rate of suicide is fairly low. These PCs
will most likely die as a result of their investigations instead of
committing suicide at some stage either during or after. It doesn't
really seem appropriate for children. There may well be impending
doom though; the horror of an increasing evil when you have meagre
resources and no one else (except your friends) will believe you.
This also means there will be little Treasure and Artifact grabbing.
Children will be more concerned with staying alive and keeping their
friends alive than picking up items. Greed should not really be a
factor. A Keeper could also increase suspense by using the fears of
the PCs to his/her advantage.
Although the above is fairly glib, I actually have a problem with the
horror. I don't think there is any way that it can be the same as
that for an adult. The question is IF this is a workable idea, how to
create horror. It will be a child's horror, which if you remember
being a child, is pretty damn terrifying. It is not something you can
shrug off. Maybe all adults become like children in the presence of
Lovecraftian horror...
* And the Future?
After a few scenarios with the children, a Keeper could time lapse to
the adult versions of these PCs, who possibly still have nightmares
and probably have some Mythos, and carry on from there. The strong
bonds formed between characters in childhood could be reforged and new
horrifying activities undertaken.
So, any comments?
Renee
--------------------
From: appel@erzo.berkeley.edu (Shannon Appel)
Subject: The Cases of Titus Crow
System: Call of Cthulhu
While it was Lovecraft who crafted the Mythos of Cthulhu and the Great
Old Ones, his world is somewhat different from the world of the Call
of Cthulhu game. The world of H.P. Lovecraft, full of death, suicide
and attempts to escape the horrors of the mythos, can't be fully
mapped into a Call of Cthulhu campaign, and thus the game is somewhat
different from the original sources [there is some discussion on this
in volume one of the Chaosium Digest].
In my recent readings, I've come across the works of Brian Lumley, one
of the many writers to continue the chronicling of the Great Old Ones.
The thing that struck me the most about his stories was how close in
theme they were to the game Call of Cthulhu. His "Titus Crow" stories
are about an occult investigator, able to survive his encounters with
the Mythos, and then to return, to delve into the deep mysteries
again. He seems nearly the archetypical CoC investigator.
In this article, I've given synopses of the first five of the Titus
Crow short stories, as well as provided some thoughts on how the
stories might be molded into good adventures for Call of Cthulhu. I
will warn you these synopses do contain spoilers for the Titus Crow
short stories. Notes on the last six stories will appear in a future
issue of the Digest.
If you're interested in reading Lumley's stories of Titus Crow, all of
the short stories were published in _The Compleat Crow_ (Ganley,
1987). There are also several Titus Crow novels including _The
Burrowers Beneath_, _The Transition of Titus Crow_, _The Clock of
Dreams_ and _Elysia_. In the US, Ganley published all of these around
1987 or 1988, while Grafton Books published at least the first two in
the UK in 1991. There are some older US printings by DAW, but they're
probably pretty rare now.
The Cases of Titus Crow:
INCEPTION: This story tells the tale of an unfortunate pursued to
England by a Priest of the Undying Dead. The pursuit is the result of
the theft of an Elixir from black Sanusi wizards, the exact nature of
which is an enigma, never revealed. The only hint which is given
about the Elixir is that it may only be used by the "utterly pure and
completely innocent." In the end, after the thief and the mummy have
both gone to their respective ends, the Elixir is mixed into a
baptismal font, the font which Titus Crow is christened in several
hours later.
The immediate applications of this story to CoC seem obvious. A quest
to discover the Elixir would make for a good CoC adventure and the
"corpse-laden catacombs under the desert" where the Elixir is hidden
seem an ideal setting. However, a lot of peripheral ideas could also
be drawn from this story. What precisely is the Cult of the Undying
Dead and what are its goals? What are the true powers of the Elixir
and why does the Priest of the Undying Dead guard it? One final
question is this: do any of the investigators have some event in their
past which irrevocably tied them to the world of the Mythos? Is it an
event that they know of, or some deep secret? How could this event of
the past rise to haunt them again in the modern day?
LORD OF THE WORMS: Like "Inception", this story too tells of a very
long lived villain. In it, Julian Carstairs employs Crow to catalog
his occult library. However, the job is a ruse. Carstairs has
examined Crow's numbers (his birthday, the letters of his name, etc),
and determined that he is the appropriate victim for a certain ritual.
On Candelmas Eve (Feb. 1), Julian Carstairs, a worm-wizard, plans to
take over the body of Titus Crow, replacing Crow's mind and will with
his own. The maggots that invest Carstair's body are to enter Crow's,
in a ritual that has been repeated many times in the last centuries.
A worm-wizard would seem to be an ideal villain for Call of Cthulhu.
A man whose body is filled with maggots is quite horrifying. What
will the investigators think when a grave-worm in occasionally found
in the fellow's wake? Carstairs himself exhibited a powerful
hypnosis. A worm-wizard in CoC might have this power or many others.
And then, there is the question of the power behind the worms
themselves. Were the maggots sentient, or empowered by the dark
magics or was Carstairs the avatar of some previously unknown Great
Old One? By reading De Vermiis Mysteriis (see CoC5, pg 59), an
investigator might learn the mysteries of the worm, and accidently
become embroiled in them. The most appealing story idea for "Lord of
the Worms" would involve an old associate of the players (perhaps a
patron, an old friend or a former investigator) being taken over by a
worm-wizard. What will happen as the investigators slowly realize
that their colleague is not as he once was?
THE CALLER OF THE BLACK: One of the Crow short stories most tightly
connected to the Mythos, this tells of Gedney, a master of the occult
who has learned the secret of calling the Black (see CoC5, pg 125).
He uses it to murder several who threaten to reveal his occult secrets
before he finally falls victim to it himself.
Victims dying of suffocations upon dry land, victims of the Black,
could prove a useful enigma to start off an adventure, ultimately
leading to an encounter with a sorcerer who controls the blood of
Yibb-Tstll. Also, there is the suggestion of a story where the
victims of some supernatural force are cultists themselves. How would
the investigators react to the task of saving evil occultists from the
occult?
THE VIKING'S STONE: In brief, this story tells of Benjamin Sorlson, an
archaelogist who plunders the tomb of Ragnor Gory-Axe, an ancient
Viking warrior. The ghost of Ragnor, still aboard his ancient Viking
dragonship slays Sorlson, and returns his lost treasures to his tomb.
I'm brief in my description in this story, mainly because I'm wary in
its actual application to the Cthulhu mythos. Well Lovecraft does
tell stories of the dead returning to regain their stolen treasures
(notably "The Hound), these are usually corporeal revenants, not
spectral shades. The item which best suggests a CoC adventure in "The
Viking's Stone" is the tomb itself. The tomb lies near Scarborough in
Allerston Forest. It is marked by a menhir (a several ton stone upon
which the spirit of the deceased was thought to perch). Nearby is a
cleft which contains the actual tomb, housing the bones, armor and
weapons of Ragnor. Perhaps the tomb might be a place of power,
meeting place of some modern cult. Another idea could involve the
recovering of some ancient item from Ragnor's Tomb. What might the
item be, and why must it be recovered? Who or what might try to
prevent the recovery of the item? What might the consequences of
stealing the item from the tomb of Ragnor Gory-Axe be?
THE MIRROR OF NITOCRIS: A story of Titus Crow's apprentice,
Henri-Laurent de Marigny, this tells of an auction of items of the
occult, and the mirror that de Marigny buys there. Nitocris' Mirror,
artifact of an ancient Egyptian queen, was said to provide glimpses of
realms where Shoggoths and other aberrant creatures lived. Shortly
after, de Marigny buys the mirror, he destroys it, when a creature
trys to crawl from its depths to drag him inside.
One of the most appealing CoC ideas from this story concerns the
possibility of an auction of the Occult. Not only is it an excellent
place to introduce new stories, as strange items fall into the hands
of the investigators, but it also a good locale for introducing NPCs.
These might be patrons (see V3.2 for two good ones), famous
occultists, cultists or even authorities looking into certain
suspicious persons (maybe even the investigators). Stories of
intrigue, involving the theft or recovery of occult objects, and
deceit, involving, perhaps, the sale of fraudulent items, might both
come from such an auction. These might have nothing to do with the
Cthulhu Mythos, and thus provide a good change of place. The Mirror
of Nitocris, described in this story, could also be the source of a
CoC adventure, if the investigators or some associate came into
possession of the item. Alternatively, cultists might gain the item,
and learn to focus its scrying powers.
I'll continue the stories of Titus Crow, detailing his cases, and
providing CoC adventure ideas concerning them in a future issue of the
digest.
Shannon
--------------------
The Chaosium Digest is a Discussion Forum for Chaosium Games which do
not have another specific area for discussion. To submit an article,
mail to: appel@erzo.berkeley.edu
