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Chaosium Digest Volume 14 Number 03
Chaosium Digest Volume 14, Number 3
Date: Sunday, April 14, 1996
Number: 3 of 4
Contents:
Nephilim Australis Incogito, Part 3 (Timothy Ferguson) NEPHILIM
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From: Timothy Ferguson <Timothy.Ferguson@jcu.edu.au>
Subject: Nephilim Australis Incogito, Part 3
System: Nephilim
DREAMING
Dreaming is an Australian magical technique like summoning, but used
backwards. In it, a summoner projects themself into the elemental
fields, or the Subtle Plane of Alcheringa. It is very dangerous, as it
is possible for the spirit to get lost and become one of the wandering
dead on a fumbled spell-casting roll.
Like the Western Techniques, it is divided into lesser disciplines
which we might as well call Circles. These are Australia, Alcheringa
and Abstract.
The First Circle: Australia
The Australian Circle is the first. It is divided into three rings.
These are Geography, which is knowledge of sacred sites' positions and
potentials within one's own land; Singing, which is summoning forth
the guardians and spirits of places within one's own land, or the
pacification of same; and People, which is awakening others and
creating curses and blessings through subtle manipulations of tiny
spirits.
Note that these three really aren't "Magical" from a Nephilim
perspective. They are based on knowledge and trickery, rahter than
altering the elmental fields. As such, this is not considered a
legitimate technique by most foriegn Nephilim. Also, as they are not
based on real magic, even Awakened humans can perform them, without
the assistance of a Nephilim. Almost all aborigines living
traditionally have a score in Dreaming to reflect that knowledge of
Geography that keeps them away from forbidden areas and will aid them
to their final rest in Alcheringa.
The Second Circle: Alcheringa
The Alcheringa Circle has three rings.
Travel, the first ring, is an extension of the Geography talent, as
the two worlds paralell each other. The difference between them is
that in Alcheringa the mountain which is the bones of an ancient
Nephilim will be the bones of an ancient Nephilim to plain sight. The
ancient Nephilim is probably hanging around here looking for a way
back to Australia, so Travel includes the skill of bargaining with the
various creatures who live in that section of Alcheringa that
corresponds with your own country. It also give hints on the
motivations of other people's spirits which can be useful if you plan
to travel to another part of Alcheringa. Spirits in Alcheringa may
alter their physical representations in Australia, so a snake asked to
wiggle its til might shift the bed of a river backwards and forwards,
creating floods.
The second ring, trade-paths, is knowledge of the Alcheringan
equivalent of the ancient barter routes through the various Aboriginal
communities. This allows relatively safe passage through other
Dreamings to those sites holy to transcendant beings, worshipped by
many tribes, such as the first Rainbow Serpent and Biname.
The third ring is called "Destinations" or "Devotions" and concerns
the the profitable interpretation of the psyche of these beings.
Transcendant creatures are terrible to behold, but have awesome powers
in Australia. Although their interventions are rare, they are
cataclysmic. Cyclone Tracy, which levelled much of the city of Darwin,
is rumoured to have been created by Jambual, the Thunder spirit.
-Terror Australis, p. 37.
The Third Circle: Abstracts
Abstracts are the odd dreams of the creatures who wish to stay in
Alcheringa, having learned all that Australia has to offer. Wise
Aboriginals say that it involves travel through time and into other
Dreamings, but otherwise refuse to discuss it. GMs are on their own
here, as these Dreamings will vary depending on the cosmology of tribe
from which the Nephilim comes. As a suggestion, Alcheringans dream of
Gondwana, the ancient supercontinent and attempt to go back there.
What they wish to do when they arrive varies, but perhaps they are
merely living and re-living an enormous circle of time, from the time
of Mu until now, over and over, becoming more powerful on each change
and distorting the history of the world as they do this.
CREATURES OF AUSTRALIA AND ALCHERINGA
(taken from "Terror Australis")
Arkaroo
These Snake people fought against one of the Aboriginal tribes during
the Dreamtime. They are potent sorcerers. They have been banished to
Alcheringa, but can be summoned forth by a Nephilim using either
trade-paths or the more direct Summoning.
Their statistics should be the same as "Serpent People" in
_Dreamlands_ for _Call of Cthulhu_ but their power should be swapped
for Moon Ka and they should be visciously misogynistic. Additionally,
they hate all Nephilim save the Selenim, being descended in some
fashion from the Saurians. If Summoned, the spell to call them forth
is of the Second Circle and they seem to come from the Realm of
Spiritual and Elemental Comprehension.
Circle: Seals
Ka-Element: Moon
Threshold: 90%
Contract: 21
Rupture: Capture
Duration: Until next Tuesday
Range: Unlimited
Autonomy: Total
The Dead
Sometimes the dead get lost and want to hang around the living.
Although they cannot be killed, a wirruwen with knowledge of travel
can point out to them the right track to follow to their eventual
home, which usually sends them on their way.
Female Maneaters
Female spirits who attack men to cannibalise them or rape them include
Abuba, who turns men into beasts, Netto-Gurrk, a horrible hag and
Bagini who is beautiful but has clawed paws instead of hands. Any of
these could be indigenous versions of the Baba Yaga or Baen Sidhe,
both of which are described in _Chronicle of Awakenings_.
Jambuwal
A potent transcendant diety, who creates thunder with his
double-headed club and makes the sea rough by wading through it. He
may be contacted with the Dreaming Skill, which is his preference, or
he may be pulled into our world with Summoning. This last annoys him
beyond all measure, as he refuses to be a slave to a Nephilim, to be
called up and set away at whim.
Circle: Keys
Ka-Element: Air
Threshold: 50%
Contract: 80
Rupture: Obliterates the caster and much of their surroundings with a
strike of his club.
Duration: As short as possible. Usually one request.
Range: Australia-wide, if Jambuwal desires.
Autonomy: Total.
The Summoning of Jambuwal is possible only during the middle of
cyclone-force storms. If a Nephilim has created the storms themselves,
Jambuwal sees this as an intrusion upon his perogatives and a
challenge to his status, so he smites the Nephilim.
A favour asked of Jambuwal will cost between 1 and 25 Ka and will
usually involve the destruction of some area by tempests. Jumbuwal is
remarkably throrough in his work. He may also be requested to
undertake other tasks, such as the destruction of an enemy. This also
he rapidly performs. The great power of Jabuwal is counter-balanced by
the fact he will gladly crush the Summoner in any instant of annoyance
that the caster creates, carrying the Nephilim back to the Dreaming
with him to be punished for its presumption.
Kurpannga: The Devil Dingo
Kurpannga is found in Central Australia. He is hairless except for a
line of fur that bristles along his spine and a tuft upon the end of
his tail. His teeth are reminiscent of a crocodille, shark or
carnivorous dinosaur, being wickedly sharp and multiforous. In ancient
times a Nephilim was trapped in this frame by the Mulga Seed wirruwen,
who filled him with malice enough to last until the end of time. The
Strength Arcanum considers Kurapannga to be a Devil Nephilim who is
utterly uncurable.
Being within six yards of Kurrapanga costs everyone present one CON
per round, although they may resist this magical effect with their
Earth Ka or Solar Ka if Awakened. If instead of biting he barks, howls
or whines, all within earshot must compare their Ch'awe with his on
the Resistance Table or lose 1d6 Ch'awe. Kurapanga's death destroys
this projection of him into Australia, but does not kill his true form
in Alcheringa, which, after a time, can create a new projection.
Statistics:
STR: 65
CON: 40
INT: 12
DEX: 20
Ka-Element: Kurrapanga once had all five Ka elements, but now they are
either locked oddly into his frame in a fashion similar to that of a
homoculus or some are stored away like those of a Selenim. Possibly
he contains something extremely odd, like Black Earth Ka. His Ka is
only 28 in Australia. In Alcheringa it is 76.
HP: 40
Move 30
Actions: 5
Weapons:
Bite: 90%
Presence: 1 CON unless resisted
Bark: 1d6 Ch'awe unless resisted
Properties: Kurapanga is not a sorcerer anymore, but the ground he
treads is blighted by his arua and all vegetation nearby blackens.
Creatures which eat the blackened plants die.
Protection: 8 point hide
Little People
Australia hosts a small, hairy race of people who have claws instead
of fingernails. In different places they have different names.
Net-nets make nuisances of themselves, steal things and decieve
hunters. They seem to be Khaiba favouring Nephilim, a little like
leprachauns.
Grimmacha (soft "ch") get annoyed if you sleep in their country and
they make a ruckus in the rocks to warn you off. If you investigate,
he pelts you with stones.
Gulgaru is never seen, you only see the ripples in the water where he
dived in, or the leaves and dust kicked up as he runs away. They lurk
in waterholes and shadows and are friendly to Nephilim.
Turongs are frail and wispy tree-dwellers.
Wa-tha-guln-darl are a foot and a half high and are tough as ironwood.
They are frightened of Alcheringan predators, so they have no fires
and eat meat raw. They capture trespassers and pin them to bull-ant's
nest to die.
Many of these creatures are summonable. They tend to be Elemental
Illusions of the Earth.
Namarron: The Lightning Spirit
Namarrkon is a creature who creates lightning by throwing the stone
axes that are tied to his knees. When angered, he can command
destructive electrical storms to wreak hovac over vast areas. He may
not be summoned as he is a Transcendant Nephilim, beyond the beck and
call of others of his kind. Dreamers with the Alcheringa talent may
call on him, as he is part of the Destinations ring of the Alcheringa
technique.
Naghun: Monstrous Boulders
The Narghun are huge rocks that eat men and animals. They erode, but
do not die of age. They are created by division, so if a Narghun
breaks into pieces each of those sections is itself a small Narghun.
Generally they only travel at night.
Narghun attack people by opening a crack or hollow on their body, then
snapping it shut. Alternatively, they can just roll over or fall upon
their victim.
STR: 2 to 40d6
CON: Up to 20d6
INT: 2d6
DEX: 1d6
Ka-Element: Earth 4d6
HP = CON
Move: 1d6 per round
Actions: 1, or 2 if DEX = 6
Weapons:
Bite 50%, Damage equals twice the Narghun's damage bonus, with
1d3 as a minimum.
Roll: 75%, Damage equals damage bonus. Can attack a number of
targets so long as all are within an area no larger than CON/10
yards across, rounding down.
Propeties: It is a rock, with all the immunities that implies.
Protection: No armour, save that that it is immune to weapons that do
not affect large rocks. Blades and bullets are useless against a
Narghun and explosives only work if jammed in a crack in the
creature's exterior. Even if exploded the Naghun is only reduced into
smaller Narghuns whose STR and CON are equal to that of the original.
To kill a Narghun utterly requires it to be reduced to powder or
dissolved in acid.
Ninya: Ice Men of Mount Connor
Ninya look like Aborigines, but their skin is coated in frost and
their eyebrows are clusters of icicles. They have blue eyes and white
blood.
These creatures live under lakes in a cavern complex beneath Mount
Connor in central Australia. A freezing gale blows continually through
these caves. The Ninya leave them during the winter, travelling
through the rocks. The invisible ice they take with them is scattered
about and cuts the feet of the Aborigines who live nearby, warning
them that Ninya are active. The men of the local tribe have a song
they use when the Ninya are close by and have uprooted the trees and
turned them upside-down. (A local mirage, where the landscape seems to
float inverted in the air.) It puts the trees back in place and then
hunts the creatures until they hide in their lairs under the mountain.
The women of the village have an opposite ritual, that lets them call
the Ninya forth in summer, to create a cooling breeze.
NINYA
STR: 4d6
CON: 4d6
INT: 2d6+6
DEX: 3d6
Ka-element: Water 4d6
H.P. = CON
Move: 10
Actions: As apporpriate to DEX, see page 92 in the rulebook.
Weapons: Icicle 50% 1d8+1+1d4+1d4 points of STR and CON.
Properties: The Ninya exude an aura of cold to a distance of twenty
yards per creature in the group met. This aura reduces the STR and CON
of living things by one point per minute. Those within a distance of
three yards per Ninya met lose a point each round instead, as the cold
is more intense. These points return at the rate of one in each
statistic per hour of warmth and rest.
Protection: Only very hot weapons can harm a Ninya. A tracer bullet,
for instance, does normal damage for its calibre.
Ngarang: Tree-dwelling cannibals
Ngarang are a little like the Greek Dryad, in terms of their
metapysical niche. Physically, they have long, flowing hair and beards
and thin arms jointed like the knobs of tree limbs. They live in the
swellings found on the roots of ancient gum trees. They pull humans
down into these homes to consume them. Although they rarely leave
Alcheringa, when the Ngarang's tree is killed or harmed it seeks out
the vandal to murder them bloodily. If their tree is dead they lose 1
Ka per day until they die. If the roots of the tree survive, the
Ngarang is free to take as long as it likes taking its revenge.
NGARANG
STR: 8d6
CON: 4d6
INT: 3d6
DEX: 3d6
Ka Element: 4d6
H.P. = CON.
Actions: As apporpriate to DEX, see page 92 in the rulebook.
Move: 6
Weapons:
Fist 50%, 1d6+2d6 damage
Grapple 50%, Special
Protection: 10 point armour-like skin. A Ngarang can hide within its
tree, wherein it is invulnerable to attacks from outside Alcheringa.
The tree, however, is defenseless.
Quinkans: Guardians of Sacred Places
Quinkans are the defenders of sacred sites, especially caves. They
have enormous, staring eyes and attack by flying through the air and
hitting the victim on the back with stone axes fixed to their elbows
and knees.
Quinkans are summoned to guard a place by wirruwen or greater
creatures. They are invisible except when they are attacking and while
incorporeal they are immune to physical forces. Their usual attack is
to fly right through their target, preferably from an ambush. The
stone axes affixed to the creature's knees and elbows are not made
incorporeal of invisible by the Quinkans power and these dig deep into
the flesh of victims. After this attack, the Quinkan may solidify,
losing its ability to fly. It attacks with its claws and bite while
material.
The bite of a Quinka is tinged with Orichalka, making them one of the
most fearsome creatures summonable. At the Quinka's choice, each bite
removes either 1d6 of any characteristic, such as CON or CHA, or 2d6
from a statistic such as Ch'awe, Ka or a Metamorphosis, or 3d6 from
any skill or magical technique. How it is that Quinka can carry this
substance unharmed is not clear, but it may be that their essence
cannot contact the Orichalka due to some trick of their physiology.
The most frightening property of the Orichalka bite is its slowness.
A character loses only 1 point per day per bite until the total damage
has been inflicted. This means that the Nephilim may be bitten and
fight on, believing the first point of damage to be the only effect.
The next day, however, they may realize the injury will prove mortal
and that they are wasting away. Several Nephilim suffered this fate as
the white invasion pressed north into territories, mostly in Cape York
Penninsula, where the spells to call up the Quinka were well-known.
Certain members of the High Priestess Arcanum consider them an
incarnation of radiation sickness.
STR: 6d6
CON: 3d6+15
INT: 3d6
DEX: 2d6+12
Ka-Element: Black Earth? Earth 3d6+12
HP = CON
Move 12/40 flying
Weapons:
Bite: 65%, Damage 1d8+1d4 + Orichalka poisoning.
Claw: 75%, Damage 1d6+1d4 damage
Four Axes: 50% each, 1d6+1+1d4 Damage each.
Properties: Orichalka bite.
Sense Intruders. Quinkans can sense the presence of intruders on their
sites with a 95% degree of success.
Protection: While incorporeal and invisible, the Quinkan is immune to
physical harm.
Spells: A pre-exisitng Quinkan may be given limited instructions by
most Dreamers familiar with its site and the bindings placed upon it
by its originnal summoning wirruwen, so long as they are not of a
class of people that the Quinkan will exterminate out of hand. Those
familiar with the Realm of Singing may have a easier time of things.
Dreamers can call up new Quinkans with a complex ritual of the Realm
of Destinations in the Alcheringa Technique of Dreaming. They go to
the Lord of Quinkans and ask permission to lead a quinkan to a site,
then Sing it up from Australia.
Summoners have difficulty calling up Quinkans, due possibly to the
touch of Orichalka upon them. It is theorized that a spell of the
Realm of Violence may be sufficient to draw these creatures forth from
the elemental fields. Certain Australian summoners are working on this
problem, hoping to make their Anthors and libraries the sacred sites
of these terrible guardians.
Whowie: Great Lizards
Imagine a gecko over twenty feet long with six legs and a head like
that of a squat tryannosaurus. These creatures are amphibians that
live in burrows in the banks of the rivers of Alcheringa, although
they may be called into Australia by Wirruwen or Sorcerers. Bunyips
are also quite keen on this practice.
Once a Whowie begins to track a victim, it never, ever stops, unless
they escape the Dreamtime. If the Whowie is in the mortal world, it
will never, ever stop. Whowies seem to have a vauge idea of where
their quarry has gone, which they follow if they lack other clues.
Only three of these creatures have been seen by European Nephilim, as
the Whowie is native to the Murry river, which the Europeans took
early in the invasion, during that time that the indigenous Nephilim
were reeling before the first use of Orichalka weaponry in this
country.
STR: 4d6 + 48
CON: 2d6 + 12
DEX: 2d6
Ka-Element: 3d6 + 6
H.P. = CON.
Move: 4
Weapons:
Bite 90%, 1d10+5d6 damage.
Claw 90%, 1d6+5d6 damage.
Properties: Tracking, as above.
Protections: 10 point Armour from its leathery hide.
Spells within Ka meters of the Whowie are distorted to aid the Whowie,
unless the caster wins a Ka battle. Summoned creatures are sent back
to the elemental fields unless they win a Ka battle. Spells cast
directly at the Whowie are absorbed by it, adding to its Ka for a day
or two, until they are digested. The benefit to the Whowie is usually
equal to the Ch'awe lost by the caster.
Dreamers may find and sing up Whowies, but generally they must be so
frightening that the Whowie does not choose them as prey. Bunyips
generally wrestle them into submission, or so they say. Summoners may,
in theory, call them up, but the spell is not known to the world yet.
They may, or may not, be Water Spirits of the Realm of Spiritual and
Elemental Comprehension or possibly the Realm of Violence.
Wulguru: Death Incarnate
Wulguru is a huge human shape made of slabs of bark and logs of wood.
Like Kurrapanga he is trapped, homoculus-like, in the the frame made
for him by the wirruwen who called him forth. He roams the Dreamtime
seeking the maker of his imprisoned body, slaying all humans on the
off-chance he'll kill the right one and be set free.
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