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Chaosium Digest Volume 12 Number 10
Chaosium Digest Volume 12, Number 10
Date: Sunday, January 21, 1996
Number: 1 of 1
Contents:
More X-Cthulhu Ideas (Marc Zender) CALL OF CTHULHU
The R'lyehan Palimpsests (Michael Tice) CALL OF CTHULHU
Secret Societies... for CoC (Shannon Appel) CALL OF CTHULHU
Editor's Notes:
Welcome to the newest issue of the Chaosium Digest. This week, a trio
of articles on Call of Cthulhu. Marc Zender provides a pair of ideas
for an X-Files/Call of Cthulhu campaign, following up on the X-Cthulhu
article in V12.7. Michael Tice offers a Cthulhoid poem, in the same
spirit as V9.4's "The Blight Before Christmas" and V7.7's "The
Ghastlycrumb Ickies". Finally, I've written some notes on using
Nephilim's Secret Societies in Call of Cthulhu games.
I'm always looking for new submissions for the Digest; just send them
to this address.
Shannon
(GERMAN) MAGAZINE SIGHTINGS:
Free INT #13 has recently been released in Germany. Besides the normal
Gloranthan material, it contains several scenerios for Call of
Cthulhu, a feature on Nephilim, including reviews of all Nephilim
products, and a few Nephilim short stories. You can order Free INT
from Ingo Tschinke (tschinke@nordwest.de).
NEW ELECTRONIC RESOURCES:
The Pendragon Mailing List
mailto: majordomo@ruby.telmaron.com
A mailing list now exists specifically for the discussion of
Chaosium's Pendragon game. You can subscribe by mailing to the
majordomo address above, providing the command "subscribe pendragon-l"
or "subscribe pendragon-l-digest" in the body of the message (not the
subject). Archives are also available from the majordomo server.
Tsathoggua Press Archives
ftp://ftp.csua.berkeley.edu:/pub/cthulhu/tsathoggua
Tsathoggua Press is another small press which publishes Mythos related
books. Their catalog is now available on-line.
--------------------
From: "Marc Zender" <MVZENDER@okuc02.okanagan.bc.ca>
Subject: More X-Cthulhu Ideas
System: Call of Cthulhu
I've been thinking about a cross-pollination of X-Files and COC for
some time. Included are a couple of comments/additions to the
X-Cthulhu article from V12.7 of the Chaosium Digest:
ON THE MULDER FAMILY
First, do you remember Gottfried Mulder? He was Von Junzt's right-hand
man in two of Robert E. Howard's mythos yarns: "The Black Stone" and
"The Thing on the Roof". He also shows up in Lin Carter's series of
Ythogtha/Zoth-Ommog tales. He travelled with Von Junzt to Mongolia,
inner Tibet, and to Yian-Ho--a lost city that few explorers (or living
explorers, at any rate) have ever seen.
Von Junzt went mad after his Mongolia trip, and it fell to Alexis
Ladeau, a Frenchmen, and Gottfried Mulder, a German, to make sense of
his remaining notes. Ladeau compiled Von Junzt's notes, went mad, and
slit his throat with a razor. Von Junzt, as we all know, was found
dead in a locked chamber with the marks of Talons on his throat.
Gottfried Mulder, however, used hypnosis to remember minutely his
travels with Von Junzt to Honduras, Mongolia, Tibet, and Yian-Ho
(which may or may not be in the Old World--for neither Lovecraft,
William Lumley, Brian Lumley or Lin Carter are clear on this in their
tales). He then wrote his masterpiece: THE SECRET MYSTERIES OF ASIA:
WITH A COMMENTARY ON THE GHORL NIGRAL, before he, too, succumbed to
the throes of insanity and died screaming...
The Ghorl Nigral, of course, was penned by the Yaddithian race HPL
wrote of in "Through the Gates of the Silver Key", and is as close as
the Mythos gets to discussing alien races, interplanetary explorers,
and alien visitation.
I do not think it at all unlikely that Gottfried Mulder is Fox
Mulder's Great-Great-Grandfather, having died in the 1840s. It is also
not unlikely that Gottfried's meddling in the mythos resulted in the
unfortunate disappearance of Mulder's sister -- by agents not only
alien, but perhaps mythos-related. If so, this would explain Mulder's
obsession with the X-Files (perhaps an obsession inherited from his
forebearer, who followed Von Junzt around the Globe in search of his
Nameless Cults?). Mulder may be unaware of the exploits of his
ancestor, which is not unlikely since families of the Old World were
notorious for failing to include the insane or diseased in their
genealogies. Finding this out, however, might prove an interesting
adventure for him. It is also too delicious a link to completely
ignore, don't you think?
ON THE RAID ON INNSMOUTH
Second, have you ever wondered just WHO in the Federal Government was
responsible for the Federal "raid" on Innsmouth in the Winter of
1928/29? Who knew the details of the Deep One threat? Who gave the
orders? How much does the government know?
Is it possible that the information on the Deep Ones and their grim
green god, Cthulhu, languishes in the X-Files? If so, and this seems a
likely possibility, Mulder and Scully could well find themselves
embroiled in Mythos escapades! It is also possible that a separate
detachment of the FBI exists: one that keeps abreast of Cthulhu-Mythos
threats to the Free World (the C-Files?). This detachment could meet
up with Mulder on a case that may belong to both departments (Fungi,
for instance, who might be seen flying to and from their mines, and
hence be interpreted as UFOs by the populace). Hearing Mulder's name
might give some of these Mythos agents quite a shudder. Seeing Mulder
in action, they might even offer him a job, or perhaps some clues to
the whereabouts of his sister. How this is handled in a Cthulhu
campaign, of course, would depend on whether the Keeper allowed the
invention of new Characters (young idealistic agents sent to keep
"watch" in the X-Files or C-Files departments), or had players assume
the roles of Mulder, Scully, or other extant X-Files characters.
I think it would be really spooky for Mulder to open an as-yet-unexamined
filing cabinet, in his darkened, up-too-late-and-still-working office,
and uncover a host of those books whose suggestive titles we just love
to see: the NECRONOMICON of the mad Arab of Damascus, Von Junzt's
frightening and hideous UNAUSSPRECHLICHEN KULTEN, the shocking X'NNTHA
TEXT, or the strangely convincing maunderings of Johann Negus' BOOK OF
IOD. But, perhaps most horrible of all, "spooky" Mulder might find yet
another worm-eaten tome, sandwiched between the rusty hasps of the
LIVRE D'IVON and the crumbling SSATHAAT SCRIPTURES, an old volume in
German black-letter, complete with an engraving of a man who looks
disturbingly like him, the GHORL NIGRAL, in a translation from the
Xothic, with woodcuts, by Gottfried Mulder!
Let me know what you think, and, if anyone is interested in adding
these ideas into a campaign: by all means, do so, but let me know how
they come out, okay?
Yours by the sign of Yggrr and the Nn'gao rituals,
Marc Zender
mvzender@okuc02.okanagan.bc.ca
--------------------
From: "TICE, MICHAEL" <tice@physics.ucla.edu>
Subject: The R'lyehan Palimpsests
System: Call of Cthulhu
The R'lyehan Palimpsests
by Michael Tice & Rebecca Strong
with apologies and well-deserved adulation directed to Edward Gorey,
whose "The Chinese Obelisks" provided the inspiration for the present
work.
A was an Artist who sketched many things:
B was a Blasphemy, fat and with wings
C was a Changeling all covered with hair
D was a Dilettante wracked with despair
E was an Eye that seldom would blink
F was a Fish with a palpable stink
G was a Goddess everted and horned
H was a Homicide nobody mourned
I was an Illusion of ineffable joys
J was a Judge who was too fond of boys
K was a Khan who collected old bones
L was a Liquid that uttered soft moans
M was a Mastiff consuming a child
N was a Network of angles gone wild
O was an Object that can't be discerned
P was a Paper that was partially burned
Q was a Quorum of thirteen magicians
R was a Recipe of carnal positions
S was a Statue of nothing at all
T was a Tome in an illegible scrawl
U was a Uvula cut from a snake
V was a Virus unleashed by mistake
W was a Warning that wasn't obeyed
X was a Xerophyte dying in shade
Y was Yog-Sothoth who pervades the whole plenum
Z was a Zombie with veins full of venom
--------------------
From: "Shannon Appel" <appel@erzo.org>
Subject: Secret Societies... for CoC
System: Call of Cthulhu
It has previously been suggested that the backgrounds for Call of
Cthulhu and Nephilim could be combined to form an interesting Occult
Horror game (see "Black Moon Rising" in V10.3 and "Black Moon Rising
Over Innsmouth" in V11.3).
However, keepers who wish to maintain a more traditional Lovecraftian
Background can still make good use of certain elements of the Nephilim
game: namely the Secret Societies detailed in _Nephilim_ and _Secret
Societies_. What follows is a listing of three of the best known
Nephilim secret societies, with ideas for how they may be used in a
traditional Call of Cthulhu game. For the complete information on the
secret societies, the aforementioned Nephilim books should be
referenced. Clearly, all mentions of Nephilim, Orichalka and other
elements of the _Nephilim_ game should be dropped, replaced with the
Mythos ideas contained here.
The Assassins
(see also _Nephilim_, pg. 196)
Hidden away in their mountain retreats, the Assassins of the CoC world
live much as they ever have. They are a powerful, and much-feared
religious group, which enforces its policies through violence and
terrorism. Through the centuries, the Assassins have become aware of
the Mythos threats to the world, but they have never thought them of
too great concern. Occasionally, when creatures of the Mythos have
overstepped their bounds, threatening the Assassins' power, the
Assassins have struck out against them, acting as quickly and harshly
as they would against human opponents.
Investigators might find themselves going to the Assassins for help if
they need information about a Mythos threat. The Assassins have great
vaults full of information, but are very suspicious of anyone who has
learned of them, and thus investigators might find their welcome to be
an unfriendly, perhaps even deadly one.
The Assassins could also be accidently encountered by the
investigators, in the middle of a major Mythos adventure. In such a
case, when the assassins felt their power being threatened, they could
be unlikely allies for the investigators. However, such an alliance
would be a tenuous one at best.
The Bavarian Illuminati
(see also _Nephilim_ pg. 199, _Secret Societies pg. 22-24)
For two centuries, the Bavarian Illuminati have been seen as the great
manipulators: conspirators determined to overthrow the governments of
the world, and replace them with their own puppets. Some sources
suggest that they have been at least partially successful in the USSR,
Britain and America. In the CoC universe, it is a great irony that the
Bavarian Illuminati is among the greatest of the manipulated, for they
are pawns of the Great Old Ones.
In the 18th century, the Bavarian Illuminati was formed by followers
of the unspeakable god Hastur, its goal being to replace the
governments of the world with organizations loyal to Hastur, so that
his unspeakable practices and sacrifices can spread across the whole
world. The Bavarian Illuminati has won many victories for Hastur, one
of the greatest being the publication and distribution of _The King in
Yellow_, despite the attempts of investigators of the time to prevent
it. Only the highest Councils of the Illuminati know the true goals of
the organization. Most followers believe that the Illuminati is trying
to spread certain political ideas throughout the governments of the
world, be it fascism, anarchy, communism or socialism.
Investigators will most likely encounter the Bavarian Illuminati in an
confrontational way. It is most likely that the Illuminati will be
working towards the overthrow of some government. As the investigators
work against them, slowly learning about the inner circles of the
Illuminati, they will begin to gain hints of the Mythos horrors which
are the true heart of the Illuminati.
Alternatively, if the investigators have already had many encounters
with the Mythos, they may encounter Illuminati agents who are working
for the good of Hastur in a much more direct way: distributing a new
book, ala _The King in Yellow_; trying to corrupt governmental
officials with the knowledge of Hastur; or replacing important persons
with blasphemous creations which look just like the public figures,
but serve only Hastur.
After many encounters with the Illuminati, the investigators could
find themselves in the middle of a civil war, with the lower tiers of
the Illuminati, fighting against their masters, who have used and
betrayed them.
The Mithradites
(see also _Secret Societies_ pg. 71-73)
The Mithradites are a rarity in the CoC universe: a mostly benevolent
secret society. For millenia, they have worked to expand humanity to
its full mystical potential. They dabble in magic, but it is the
cleansing magic of enlightenment, not the warping magic of the mythos.
The Mithradites have always known about the Mythos, and have done
everything they can to oppose it, realizing that the horrors of the
Mythos stand in the way of humanity's ultimate evolution. However,
because of their rather aggressive stand, the Mithradites have been
nearly destroyed several times, and even now are quite small. The
Mithradites may be the secret force behind such organizations as The
Theron Marks Society (see _Terror From the Stars_).
It is most likely that the investigators will meet the Mithradites as
fellow fighters against the Mythos horrors. The Mithradites may be
patrons of the investigators, join them in certain expeditions, or
help them out when the danger is great.
Alternatively, the Mithradites may accidently mistake investigators
for followers of the Mythos, due to their deep involvement with it.
The investigators might thus find themselves warring against the
Mithradites, until the tragic mistake is ultimately revealed.
Finally, it should be noted that the Mithradites are described as
"mostly benevolent". There is always the question of whether their
ideas of mystical evolution are truly to the benefit of the human
race. There is no question that their teachings are free of the
horrors of the Mythos, but could they perhaps be introducing something
even worse to the human psyche?
OTHER SOURCES
Some other sources of ideas for including Secret Societies in your
Call of Cthulhu game include: "Cults of the Dark Gods", White Dwarf
#71, "Cults of the Dark Gods II", White Dwarf #73, "The Heart of the
Dark", White Dwarf #75, "The Assassins", Different Worlds #37, "The
Rosicrucians", Different Worlds #38, "The African Leopard Men",
Different Worlds #39, "The Chinese Secret Societies", Different Worlds
#40, "The Druids", Different Worlds #41, "The Tongs of America",
Different Worlds #43 and "The Third Order", Chaosium Digest V10.11-12.
--------------------
The Chaosium Digest is an unofficial electronic 'zine about Chaosium's
Games. To submit an article, subscribe or unsubscribe, mail to:
appel@erzo.org. The old digests are archived on ftp.csua.berkeley.edu
in the directory /pub/chaosium. The X-Files is a trademark of the
Twentieth Century Fox Corporation.
