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Chaosium Digest Volume 16 Number 09
Chaosium Digest Volume 16, Number 9
Date: Sunday, October 12, 1996
Number: 1 of 2
Contents:
The Book of Drad (Eamon Honan) CALL OF CTHULHU
Building a Better Cult, Part 1 (John Goodrich) CALL OF CTHULHU
Editor's Note:
Welcome to another fear-filled issue of the Chaosium Digest. This
week, you'll find: The Book of Drad, a new Tome for Call of Cthulhu;
and a terrific article on Mythos Cults. Enjoy!
In the meantime, keep those submissions coming in! I note that
Pendragon, Nephilim and Elric! have been somewhat lacking lately, so
articles for those systems would be terrific. More Cthulhu is good
Cthulhu, too.
See you all next week.
Shannon
NEW ELECTRONIC RESOURCES
The Hyborean Age & The Cthulhu Mythos
http://www.clark.net/pub/papabear/Russ-tp.htm
A collection of pages which provide tons of information on Conan's
Hyborean Age, Pulp fiction writers, and the Cthulhu Mythos. There's
also stuff on Atlantis, the Bible and real-life mysteries which will
be of interest to Nephilim players.
--------------------
From: "Eamon Honan" <spire@indigo.ie>
Subject: The Book of Drad
System: Call of Cthulhu
[This article gives much expanded information on The Book of Drad,
first referred to in V13.8 of the Chaosium Digest.]
THE BOOK OF DRAD
(Original. The one in Carcosa [See V13.8] is a later Atlantean copy.)
Appearance: The book is made up of three scrolls. The scrolls are all
of uniform length (18 inches approximately) and are 14, 13, and 18
feet long, respectively. They are made of a type of papyrus that is
tough, but extremely thin. The scrolls are wrapped around a single
ebony rod (extreme age and an obscure chemical process peculiar to
Atlatean bookbinders have left the rod as hard and smooth as marble).
The scrolls are written in a neat bureaucratic hand which is friendly
to the eye. The end of the scroll that is not attached to the scroll
has a raw silk cord with a tassel at the end.
While the scroll is being read this rod is held in the right hand
while the left holds the undyed tassel that is attached to the left
edge of the scroll.
History: This book was copied as a text book for youngsters in the
years before the fall of Atlantis. Unfortunately, bar going to
Carcosa, time travel is the only method of acquiring a copy. The last
copy was destroyed by looters when Napolean's Army fled Spain in 1813.
I could go into more detail, but the Book of Drad is so pedestrian
that it hardly warrants the time required for research.
Length of Study required: Appoximately four days and one successful
Read Atlantean check.
Cthulhu Mythos gained: 2%
Sanity Loss: 1/1d4.
Spells Contained within:
Consume Likeness.
However there enough information within the book to allow a reader to
identify (but not cast) and know the effect of the following
spells: Voorish Sign, Grasp of Calumbra, Brew Space Mead, Create
Powder of Ibn-Ghazi. Recognising each of these spells requires an idea
roll once the book is read.
Knowledge Contained within:
A basic outline through description and various inferences, of
ordinary Atlantean life during the reign of King Kull (a reader who
assiduously studies this part of the manuscript for approximately a
week and a half will gain, Lore:Atlantis at his EDU+INT), and an
incomplete description of the Serpent People and their powers of
shapechanging and sorcery (a reader who studies this section of the
book for a week and a half will gain Lore:Serpent People at the
average of his EDU and INT).
That's about it, really. The book of Drad isn't a very interesting
book, it merely contains some unusual information. It was written by a
bureaucrat and is fairly readable. Should you get your hot little
hands on a copy, I would suggest skimming it and concentrating on the
sections on Atlantis and the Serpent People. The book might be used as
a method of introducing a new scholar to the Mythos as it is fairly
readable and (as Mythos Tomes go) pretty tame.
--------------------
From: "John Goodrich" <Olaughing@aol.com>
Subject: Building a Better Cult, Part 1
System: Call of Cthulhu
Building a Better Cult, Part 1
by John Goodrich
Professor Bombei pushed his thick glasses up his nose and ordered his
thoughts. Warding symbols and grotesque hieroglyphs were carved onto
every available surface on the walls and ceiling. Distorted,
monotonous chanting spilled from the open doorway not thirty yards
distant.
Russell took a periscope from his backpack and moved noiselessly to
the very lip of the door. He gently eased the end of the periscope
around the corner. After a few moments of observation, the big man
returned to the small group as silently as he had gone. His face was
ashen pale.
"There's about two hundred cultists in that room," the big man
whispered, "each one armed with an AK-47 and two grenades. The leader
is built like Chewbacca and is carrying a pair of M-60's. Her
assistants have 'blooper' grenade launchers and two bandoleers of
ammunition each. Oh, and it also looks like they've got a Sherman tank
placed under their statue of Yog-Sothoth."
"Bloody hell," hissed Dame Addams through her teeth. "Goshen has a
population of less than a hundred and twenty, and this is the third
cult we've uncovered in the last two weeks. Where do all these people
come from?"
Professor Bombei removed his glasses and wiped them on his sleeve.
"Well," he said as he replaced the familiar frames on his nose, "at
least they aren't as well armed as the Azathoth cult."
- * -
The cult is one of the most common and enduring features of the Call
of Cthulhu game. Unfortunately, many campaigns feature cults that are
just as bland and faceless as the orcs of fantasy games, and
investigators deserve more memorable opponents. Each cult in a
campaign should be a unique and memorable encounter, not just another
blazing gun battle. The Keeper must remember that a cult is made up of
individual humans. Insane they may be, but the cultists have their own
motivations, desires, and dreams, and the cult is often a means to
achieve them.
Organizations of humans influenced by the Mythos are called, for the
author's convenience, cults. This is a broad but inaccurate use of the
word, and it should not be inferred that all gatherings of
Mythos-influenced people are religious in nature. Most, in fact are
not. Mythos-influenced organizations come in all shapes and types, as
many as there are reasons for humans to gather together.
The Keeper should keep five factors in mind when creating a cult:
recruitment style, origin, size, Mythos influence, and goals. Those
who worship Great Cthulhu should act and react differently from a
death-cult who believe that a ghoul is their god. A large cult of
former mailmen is going to have very different goals from a small
inbred family that worships Y'golonac. It is also good for the Keeper
to realize that cults do not necessarily center around entities. The
Mythos is full of psychoactive inanimate objects that can twist and
pervert simply by their presence. Cults can spring up through the
influence of Yekubian cubes, certain terrible books, or the Black
Stone of Ixaxar. The Keeper should constantly try to come up with new
and different takes on cults and the objects of their corruption.
One thing to remember is to be careful about the number of cults in a
town. Unless the Keeper wants to make a very specific point, cult
membership should be a small but insidious presence. Investigators
should wonder who they can trust, not be sure that just about everyone
in town is involved in some nefarious activity. Even witch-haunted
Arkham has a very small cultist population. While cults can rule
towns, they very seldom are able to recruit everyone in perfect
safety. Even Innsmouth had a significant population that was free of
the Deep Ones' direct influence. However, a large city like Boston can
have a dozen minor cults tucked away, and few people would notice.
RECRUITMENT STYLE
Recruiting style reflects how the cult gains new members. Obviously,
cults very seldom advertise their presence, and most people cannot
simply ask to join the organization. A cult must use some sort of
covert means to screen and recruit its members. How the organization
gains members affects the personality of the group. Each of these
recruiting styles can access only a limited section of humanity. Of
course, certain people will find a group no matter how hard it tries
to be inconspicuous.
Hereditary
The hereditary cult is a club that the members' families belong to.
Hereditary cults need be neither wealthy nor posh, but they do have
the advantages of exclusivity and security. After all, who in is going
to argue with six generations of family tradition. Often, membership
in the hereditary cult isn't a choice. A number of Mythos stories
involve supposedly rebellious members of 'evil' families who find out
that resistance is useless, and are subsumed into an intergenerational
horror.
Members of the hereditary cult can be very difficult to track down,
simply because they can come from the entire spectrum of society. It
is a pretty safe bet, though, that the families have been in the area
for a long time. The longer the cult has been established, the more
divergent the fortunes of the respective families may be. Hereditary
cults also have the advantage of being old and well-established.
Traditions like these do not spring up over night, and there are often
centuries of research and knowledge to draw upon. They have probably
also dealt with a number of meddling groups like the investigators in
the past.
One disadvantage of the hereditary cult is that there are almost
always rumors of evil. Superstitious grandmothers tell their
grandchildren to stay away from certain strange people, and fathers
forbid their daughters to marry onto the "wrong" families without
knowing the reason why.
Members themselves vary widely in their devotion to the Cause. Some
will see it as a crashing bore that must be kept up for the family's
sake. Others will devote themselves wholeheartedly to their religion,
researching the family archives and digging up powerful ceremonies
that have been lost since their great-grandmother's time. Both ends
of this spectrum can spell trouble for the cult.
When creating a hereditary cult, the Keeper must decide how the secret
is passed down to successive generations. Is the entire family
involved in the hideous secret? Is the oldest son told on gaining his
majority? The old standby of the deathbed confession? Replacement
options must also be considered in this case. What if a member has
nothing but daughters? Will he then induct his daughter, or find a son
to adopt? And there is the question of whether the cult members see
each other socially. Are they friends? What about a cult that gets
together to celebrate the glory of worship, but in all other ways
cannot stand each other? Rivalries in hereditary cults can go back
centuries, starting with the grumblings of ancestors otherwise long
forgotten.
Common Interests
The common interest cult is a club of some sort. Members gather
together for some sort of mutually interesting activity or discussion,
which now includes exxtradimensional horrors. Organizations
particularly open to Mythos influence are secretive, and often have
some sort of occult trappings. A corrupted anti-government militia is
a scary thought, but members of an Alcoholics Anonymous group gone
wrong could be much more interesting.
Cults begun as common-interest groups are often fairly tightly-knit.
The members are unified by their secret, and their devotion to a
common interest. They also can have members from all walks of life,
making it hard for the investigators to track down members they have
not actually seen. However, like Operation Rescue, common interest
cults can be deadly dangerous, and just as fanatical as any religious
group.
Common interest groups also have the advantage of camouflage. They are
usually groups which have been corrupted, and whose goals have become
twisted under the influence of the Mythos. It is easy for these groups
to appear normal; they once were. Often, only a small number of
carefully culled members are aware of the Mythos direction of the
organization. Interrogating or quizzing members of the outer circle
will result in minimal information.
Common Interest groups tend to be a bit more disorganized than other
types of cults. They have a unifying interest, but often these groups
can be at odds as to how their goals should be accomplished. Without
a strong leader, these cults can splinter into factions, never gaining
enough power to do much damage.
In addition, common interest groups converted to cults are only as
inconspicuous as the original organization. Members of the Ku Klux
Klan who become devoted to Cthugha are still members of the Klan, and
will likely continue, if not increase, their activities as such.
Nearly any club or organization can serve as a basis for a
Mythos-based inner circle. Greek Fraternities often claim to have a
book that is not supposed to be shown to outsiders. Perhaps a
political activism group may stumble upon a new and exciting way to
influence the people around them. Or, a group of amateur astronomers
may bring home a fragment of the wrong asteroid.
Professional
Some people don't socialize much out of their own profession. A group
of doctors may try a new type of medicine, and fall under the
influence of an old, blasphemous text. A second season X-Files
episode, Our Town, involved a cult comprised entirely of the workers
in a chicken processing plant. But, the professional organization need
not be a group who normally work closely together. Perhaps they only
congregate for a conference once a year.
Professional organizations are as different from each other as any
profession can be. The Order of Pain, a professional organization of
insane dentists has a very different flavor than a Teamster's Union
that has a Serpent Man manipulating it. It is also possible that the
profession is the reason for the corruption. Astronomers who have
looked upon Ghroth may form a group who delve into the Mythos in order
to prevent His approach. An entire Archaeology department may becomee
enslaved to a certain artifact brought back from the Yucatan.
Obviously, erudite groups are far more vulnerable to this type of
corruption.
Cults that begin in the workplace have a number of advantages They can
be extremely close-knit if they work together on a daily basis. A cult
that comprises the team in a hospital's Emergency Division are used to
working together like a well-oiled machine, and it would be difficult
to catch them out. On the opposite end of the scale, it is possible
that each member works alone for the majority of the time, only
assembling once every five years to report on their researches to the
rest of the group. Such a group of independent activists would be
extremely difficult to track down, except for around meeting-time.
Professional cults also have the ability to influence a lot of people.
Other members of the profession can be easily isolated and subsumed
into the organization. And, they can utilize their influence to gain
access to innocent people, legal documents, or just about anything
else appropriate to their profession.
Once the investigators know what kind of cult they're dealing with,
finding people to fit the profile is not difficult, and the majority
of the cult can be deduced easily. Of course, the difficulty lies in
realizing that profile. If the cultists are seldom in contact with
each other, they may not even realize that they are under attack until
it is too late.
Professional groups must relate in some way to their occupation. Using
certain stereotypes here can produce a certain level of humor that can
lighten the campaign every now and then. For example, the local branch
of the Internal Revenue Service who will send Byakhee against anyone
who cheats on their income taxes. The archaeologists who will prove
once and for all that the magic of their specialty culture is true- by
summoning Azathoth at the next International Archaeologists
Association meeting.
Religious
This is the classic cult. The purpose of the religious cult is the
worship of some powerful entity. With the disaffection of the 1920'as
and 1990's, many people went searching for new and different religions
to believe in. With the emergence of many harmless religious come the
darker ones, camouflaged by their innocent fellows. The religious cult
worships, wholeheartedly, some malevolent Mythos entity. New members
are chosen for their whatever qualities the cult prizes: immorality,
weak will, great strength, blond hair, whatever. On rare occasions,
the cult's god itself will choose a new initiate.
The cult that is established wholly intending to worship the Great Old
Ones is the classic fanatic cult. Indoctrination and initiation
quickly weed out those whose faith is weak, leaving a hard core of
insanely loyal servants willing and able to do just about anything for
their god. Any goal is possible with these cultists, from snipping the
toes from two-month-old babies to an assault on a nuclear power plant.
When blind fanaticism replaces reason, the resultant can be extremely
potent. But weaknesses also exist. The Great Old Ones are able to
contact those who are psychically sensitive, who may not necessarily
be very bright. The goals of the religious cult therefore may not be
extremely practical. These fanatic cults may think that drinking
Crystal-Lite mixed with plutonium will make them undisputed masters of
the world, or pull out all their teeth to show devotion to their god.
The other problem is that conflicting visions, or interpretations of
the same vision may give rise to schisms. If the cult is busy fighting
among themselves, then they may not pay attention to the disappearance
of a few members. However, if a cult is directed by a single
individual, the elimination of that individual will result in profound
chaos until another leader emerges. Cults that follow a one
charismatic leader often disband after the loss of that individual.
No rules govern the religious cult. Mythos entities can be worshipped
in any way that the Keeper can imagine. The Keeper can make this group
as truly sick and vile as possible, and the players will swallow it.
All but the barest shreds of the cultists' humanity have been blasted
away through repeated exposure to the Mythos, and it is often
difficult for them to act in a sane and rational fashion in order to
conceal their nature.
ORIGIN
How a cult was founded is very important to its' general nature and
flavor. A group that slowly was subsumed into the worship of Azathoth
is going to differ significantly from those who collected around a
charismatic priest of the same entity. Also of some importance is how
long the Mythos influence has been present. Evil that has been around
for centuries may be entrenched very thoroughly, almost impossible to
dig out of an organization. On the other hand, those in power may be
overconfident, and one swift, well-aimed blow may destroy them
forever. Newer groups are often less powerful, and have fewer options
available to them.
Created
The created cult is one that was made specicifically for the worship
of some sort of Mythos entity. Its sole purpose is the furthering of
that patron's aims. Created cults are the most focused of all cults;
few distractions interfere with the group's higher purpose. These
cults never need to work around members' squeamishness, and the
created cult can often work very directly.
There can be no question as to the purpose of the created cult; their
goals are usually clear. These groups are often created with a
specific end in mind, a goal that they will work tirelessly for year
after year, possibly century after century. Created cults know who
they are, and never advertise themselves. Investigators will never run
across a "Children of Shub-Niggurath" convention. Created cults often
do not commit their organization's name to paper, and very seldom
mention their name or activities outside their circle.
Created cults often maintain a facade of a respectable organization,
with a hidden core of cultists. This allows them to pick and choose
those they want to include in the Elder Secrets. As a result, they are
often organized in rings: the outer circles almost completely unaware
of that the inner circles are doing. So while the investigators may
not be able to locate the "Children of Shub-Niggurath," the radical
feminist group "Daughters of Artemis" may be in convention at certain
suspicious times.
Fractiousness within the cult may arise without immortal guidance.
Later members may see the goal differently and possibly develop
alternate ways to achieve the goal, possibly misunderstanding the goal
itself. Created cults can often be unstable in the early stages; the
cult leaders have to be careful who they recruit, and may not chose
the right sort of people the first time.
If well-directed, created cults move in a fairly straightforward
fashion. The inner circle does nothing but further the aims of the
Mythos. All their moves result in some sort of Mythos activity, and by
this they can be traced.
The entire reason for this organization's existence is to do the
bidding of the Master. Any associations the group has are built
specifically to further that aim, or to cover up the cult's true
nature. The majority of the cults in published scenarios are created
cults, formed entirely for the purpose of worshipping some malevolent
entity.
[continued in V16.10]
--------------------
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