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Chaosium Digest Volume 07 Number 02
Chaosium Digest Volume 7, Number 2
Date: Monday, August 8, 1994
Number: 1 of 1
Contents:
Human De-Evolution: A Mythos Tome (Paul Fritcshle) CALL OF CTHULHU
Tales from the Crypt (Shannon Appel) CALL OF CTHULHU
Editor's Note:
The Chaosium FTP site at Berkeley should now be back to normal, after
the disruptions of recent weeks. However, it would be a good idea to
start using the machine name 'ftp.csua.berkeley.edu' when retrieving
items from the archives, rather than the older name,
'soda.berkeley.edu'. In the future, the old name, soda, will utterly
disappear, and the archives will probably move to a different machine.
If you use the ftp.csua name, you won't need to worry about the
changes at all, and service should not be interrupted.
New out from Chaosium this week is _The Shub-Niggurath Cycle_
(Chaosium, 227pg., $9.95), fourth in the series of Cthulhu Cycle
books. This tome is all about Shub-Niggurath, the black goat of the
woods, and the tales of demonaic goats that came before her. There's
a list of the contents back in V5.3 of the digest. One story has been
added since then, _To Clear the Earth_, by Will Murray.
--------------------
From: Paul Fritcshle <pfritsch@skid.ps.uci.edu>
Subject: Degenerate Cannibalism and Human De-Evolution
System: Call of Cthulhu
I came up with the following tome while working on an adventure based
in Arkham, using a plot-hook described in Chaosium's _Arkham
Unveiled_. Later on, I'll probably send the adventure along. If
anyone is interested, the book/author information, and the adventure
itself are available as html documents.
=====
DEGENERATIVE CANNIBALISM AND HUMAN DE-EVOLUTION
Degenerative Cannibalism and Human De-Evolution by Robert Sawyer, PhD
1815-1880), 1890 Yale University Press
I saw before me a... well, it could only be called a creature. It
had a peculiarly canine cast to its face, though its body was
bipedal, and almost human. It made a piercing meeping noise, which,
to my horror was echoed by what must have been a horde of the things
behind it down the tunnel in the shadows!
--from the Foreward
Subtitled Sub-human Primitives in Urban Settings, this is a 700 page
text describing in detail a colony of what Sawyer referred to as a
degenerate offshoot of modern man. Sawyer claimed that this colony
lived in the catacombs beneath the Cemetary of the Innocents in Paris.
He apparently was able to make contact with this colony after reading
a book he only refers to as "The French Text". In his foreward, he
describes how he came to the realization that man had a shadowy twin,
while a youth growing up in Massachusettes. The book includes both
figures depicting ghouls in life, as well as anatomical diagrams,
detailing differences, and similarities between ghouls and man.
It is unclear whether Sawyer was ever able to actually speak with the
ghouls, as much of his description of their society is based strictly
on secret observations, and includes much erroneous information. In
any event, the regents of Yale halted the print run of the book after
recieving complaints from other members of the academic community
after they had recieved advance copies of the book. Still,
approximately 500 copies were produced, most for other universities.
Of those, many were later discarded as a work of shoddy scholarship,
if not as being an out and out hoax.
(-1/1d6 Sanity; +5 Mythos; no spells; 6 weeks.)
Other Benefits
Reading this book awards skill checks in both anthropology and occult.
====
ROBERT SAWYER (1815-1880)
Robert Sawyer was the youngest son of Makepeace Sawyer, of Arkham,
Mass. He was the black sheep of the family, uninterested in the
family textile business, and bouncing from school to school, before
finally being expelled from Kingsport's Hall School, after which his
father disowned him.
This didn't seem to faze Robert, who took the job of Arkham ratcatcher
in 1833. This seems in part to have been an effort to spite his
father, as the Sawyers were well-respected in Arkham. Robert
continued to serve as ratcatcher, until an incident in 1840 while
working in the catacombs beneath the old Unitarian Church on French
Hill. The incident (which he describes in the foreward to his book,
Degenerate Cannibalism and Human De-Evolution) apparently provided the
impetus he had up to that point been lacking.
He enrolled in Miskatonic College in 1841, and graduated only 2 years
later, in 1843. He went on to receive his PhD from Yale in 1848.
Over time, he became regarded as an expert on primitive tribes,n
particularly with respect to their interactions with more civilized
cultures. However, his close associates were disturbed by the turn
his personal researches were taking. Starting in 1859, he began
spending all his field time in Paris, although he refused to reveal
the exact nature of his researches other than to say that it was the
culmination of all his earlier work, and would turn all existing
theory on its ear.
His last trip to Paris was in 1880, during which time he disappeared.
His body was never recovered, so he was presumed dead. A protege of
his, James Wentworth, edited the early drafts of his book, and had the
book published in 1890.
Paul Fritschle pfritsch@skid.PS.UCI.EDU
--------------------
From: Shannon Appel <appel@erzo.berkeley.edu>
Subject: Tales from the Crypt
System: Call of Cthulhu
There are few places that evoke the feeling of horror as well as
graveyards. They are the haunts of vampires, the home of ghouls, the
last resting place of the eternally dead. Lovecraft recognised the
horror of graveyards, and he wrote of them in several stories,
including "In the Vault", "The Tomb" and "The Hound". Following in
this ancient tradition, I have developed a few new stories of
cemetaries. They are presented below as a set of vignettes for Call
of Cthulhu. They're all fairly rough ideas, but I hope they will get
you thinking of various grave tales that you might run.
ROOM FOR TWO: Many mobsters in the twenties developed a unique method
for dealing with their dead. When they had a body that they didn't
want the authorities to find, they would go to a graveyard, dig up a
grave, and then bury their new body beneath the coffin that already
lay interred. Even today, there are probably hundreds of the dead
sharing their graves with the unfortunate victims of the mob.
Investigators could become involved in this situation in many
different ways. If a keeper wants a short break from the mythos, he
could use the mobsters as a red herring. When the investigators learn
of strange persons digging up graves during the night, they of course
become involved, assuming that some mythos activity is afoot.
However, once they discover that the mob is the true cause of the
troubles, they may find it hard to extricate themselves from the mob's
grasp.
If the keeper wishes a more mythos oriented story, the investigators
could become involved when they hear of the terribly gruesome murders
of several people. In disturing the graves of the dead, the mobsters
have inadvertantly raised ancient revenants which now desire
vengeance. After learning of the true situation, the investigators
may try and help the (suspicious) mobsters to lay the dead once more
to rest, or, alternatively, they could simply let the corpses enjoy
their justice.
GRAVE TIDINGS: In a small town, in one of the darkest corners of New
England, a story is told of a ghostly gravedigger. When someone is
destined to die, he appears once more in the world, practicing his
profession. It is an extremely ominous event when a new grave appears
in the graveyard, dug during the night. At first, when it became
clear that the new graves portended death, the citizens of the town
hid away, each trying to ensure that they were not the doomed one.
Recently, though, things have taken a more violent turn. When a new
grave appears, the townsfolk have begun to murder each other, trying
to ensure that the grave has an occupant.
The investigators could either come to the town to investigate the
murders, or because they have heard rumors of the strange apparition.
In any case, they will shortly find themselves the subjects of very
unwelcome attention. When a new grave appears during the night, the
investigators will be the prime candidates for eternal sleep.
There are a number of possibilities for the true source of this
haunting. Perhaps the ghostly gravedigger is truly some restless
spirit. The investigators will need to find a way to lay him to rest,
likely with the help of a most unwilling town. It is possible that
the spirit has been purposefully raised. Cultists may be using his
dreaful portents as a cover to hide their own sacrifices.
Alternatively, the tale of the gravedigger and his prophetic graves
may simply be a ruse. Perhaps the Mi-Go have found valuable metal
deposits in the town, or cultists have found a tremendous juncture of
magical power, and they are trying to drive the town away through a
campaign of fear.
THE FAMILY PLOT: Although the horror of the mythos can be quite
terrible, sometimes the depths to which humans will sink to are even
worse. Such is the case of the Brownmarr family of New England. In
order to gain the family fortune while he was still young enough to
enjoy it, John Brownmarr injected his father with a supposedly lethal
compound. What he did not know was that while his father's metabolism
was slowled immensely, he still lives, buried alive in the family
crypt.
Investigators may be called in to investigate the death of the elder
Brownmarr, or, instead, they may be looking into strange disturbances
at the cemetary. For, the elder Brownmarr still lives, and now walks
the land again. Weeks after his "death", the elder Brownmarr awoke in
his tomb, and very shortly afterwards went mad. Now, he is a scarcely
human beast, who hides within his tomb at day, and searches for food
at night.
If the keeper wishes to spice up the adventure, John Brownmarr could
be a cultist, or perhaps even a magician in his own right. When the
investigators start looking about the graveyard, coming close to the
Brownmarr secret, John will do whatever he can to stop them. A
pitched battle with cultists and ancient horrors while searching for a
zombie in a graveyard can be quite a satisfying experience.
OTHER IDEAS: I've listed just a handful of possible graveyard
adventures here. There are hundreds more. So, here, in short, are a
number of other ideas. Clearly, Lovecraft's ghouls are closely
associated with graveyards. Likewise, graveyards are an excellent
place for cultists to find certain gruesome remains that they may need
in their rituals.
And, graveyards might be of any type. What might come from disturbing
the bodies of those killed in the great battles of the civil war?
Could curses still lie upon the burial places of witches slain in
Salem centuries ago? The graves of indians, who ruled America long
ago, lie beneath the civilized New England lands. Might those dead
one day rise to reclaim their ancestral lands?
Finally, graveyards might also be places of information.
Investigators could find themselves delving into tombs looking for
magical items buried with the dead decades before, or, instead, they
might be desperately reading the tombstones of New England, looking
for the keywords in a certain magic spell.
Shannon
--------------------
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