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Chaosium Digest Volume 24 Number 03
Chaosium Digest Volume 24, Number 3
Date: Sunday, March 15, 1998
Number: 1 of 3
Contents:
In the Forests, the Shadows: A Tale of (Matt Cowger) CALL OF CTHULHU
Twilight: A Tale of Terror (Matt Cowger) CALL OF CTHULHU
The Drowned Girl's Story: A Tale of Ter (Matt Cowger) CALL OF CTHULHU
Introducing Call of Cthulhu Adventures (Oliver Schmidt) CALL OF CTHULHU
The Nature of Agartha... (Doyle Ramos-Tavener) NEPHILIM
Editor's Note:
This week, a digest in three parts. V24.3 begins with a set of
articles for Call of Cthulhu: three Tales of Terror and a piece on
introducing adventures. It ends with an article for Nephilim on
Agartha and the Subtle Planes, which continues in V24.4. V24.5
features a set of Mythos articles: two strategy articles by Guy Hail,
and a card file by Robin Wardle. Remember that old card files are
available on http://www.sirius.com/~chaosium/chaosium.html.
For the next digest, back on its biweekly schedule, I've still got on
tap: a few more Mythos card files, an NPC for the Dreamlands, and a
Call of Cthulhu adventure. Whew! Submissions have been great in recent
weeks... keep it up! I'd be especially happy to see any Elric! or
Pendragon articles.
Finally, a reminder that there will be a special chat on AOL this
coming March 24 (a week from Tuesday) hosted by Greg Stafford. It's at
7pm PT/10pm ET in AOL'S OGF (goto keyword OGF) and will be a rare
opportunity to talk with Greg in an online forum. Get those Gloranthan
queries ready and come on by. This chat is only open to AOL members,
but a transcript will be posted at the www.glorantha.com web site.
Shannon
RECENT MAGAZINE SIGHTINGS:
Metagame #1 ($2.95) is the first issue of a brand new magazine all
about Live Action Role Playing. This premiere issue centers on
Lovecraftian roleplaying, with articles on 1920s costuming, monster
construction, insanity, 1920s law enforcement, and eldritch food
props. Any player or keeper of Cthulhu Live will find something useful
in this mag, as will many Call of Cthulhu keepers. Also highly
suggested for all those Gloranthans who have considered running a LARP
at a con. Metagame should be available at your local game store. It's
distributed by Gold Rush Games, and can also be ordered direct by
calling 1-800-936-4GRG. Also, check out the ILF web site at
http://www.ilfinfo.org/
NEW ELECTRONIC RESOURCES:
Online Chat Transcript
http://wwbchat.com
Missed last week's Chaosium online conference? Stop by the wwbchat
address to pick up a transcript. Click on Archives, then scroll down
to the Gamezone.
--------------------
From: tenebrae@earthling.com
Subject: In the Forests, the Shadows: A Tale of Terror
System: Call of Cthulhu
In the Forests, the Shadows
Logging in a remote section of virgin forest has ground to a halt as
the logging company has been plagued by a bad string of murders and
bizaare deaths. The local Sheriffs are at a loss and the logging
company is desperate for answers. They have temporarily ceased logging
and have fallen back to a nearby small town while they plan their next
move.
Possibilities:
1.) Several of the trees in the area have been marked with blue spray
paint, which denotes spiking. A small group of radical
environmentalists have gone into this area and spiked (driven iron
spikes into trees below the bark where they are not easily detectable,
making logging in the area _very_ dangerous). The lumber company
ignored these warnings and while felling a tree a saw hit a spike and
kicked back, decapitating a logger. The following night, while
boobytrapping some more trees the spikers ran into a pair of loggers;
a fight ensued and one of the environmentalists produced a gun,
shooting and killing both of them. Four of the environmentalists fled
back to town, desperately trying to figure out how to get out of the
area without drawing attention to themselves, the fifth is hiding deep
in the woods, horrified by what he has done and not sure what to do
next. The Sheriffs are aware of the spiking but don't know what to do,
the environmentalists have been staying at a hotel outside of town.
2.) The loggers have chopped their way into the forest of the
degenerate Schlosswold family, a group of inbred, very mean spirited
people who also happen to be werewolves. They defend their territory
with a mix of animal cunning, evil traps and outright violence and
mayhem (think _Deliverance_ meets _The Howling_). There are 8 members
of the family and if their remote farm is discovered and attacked in
force they will flee into the woods and resort to guerilla tactics.
If reduced to three or less members they will flee the area entirely.
Breaking up this despicable clan will net the investigators 1d6 San.
3.)The loggers have started hacking up a forest sacred to
Shub-Niggurath. Her servants, the degenerate Schlosswold family and
their High Priest (the Sheriff), along with various cultists in the
nearby town have been trying to quietly drive off the loggers with
assorted acts of murder and sabotage. The Sheriff has adopted a sort
of "Aw shucks, don't rightly know what's going on here" attitude to
mask the fact that he is the mastermind behind it all. If the loggers
persist, they cultists plan to unleash two dark young of
shub-niggurath on the logging camp and any loggers they don't kill
they will use for human sacrifice to their dark goddess. Then the
logging gear and equipment will vanish, carried off into the deep
forest, destroyed and buried.
Copyright 1998 Matt Cowger
--------------------
From: tenebrae@earthling.net
Subject: Twilight: A Tale of Terror
System: Call of Cthulhu
Twilight
A string of child abductions leave a large suburban neighborhood
terrified. All of the children, male and female between the ages of 7
and 12, vanished after school and before nightfall. Many reportedly
dissappeared while making their way down well traveled thoroughfares,
having just been seen by classmates and others only minutes before.
The media has amplified this hysteria with shrieking newspaper banners
and grim stories on the 5 o'clock news. In spite of increased police
presence the abductions are still occuring, about once a week. No
bodies have been found.
Possibilities:
1.) The abductions are the work of an absolutely diabolical child
molester/murderer (think of the movie "M"). He has obsessed on the
number 21 and will cease his murders once he reaches that
number. (Although he will begin a new round in 10 years). He currently
has 13 victims. He has been burying the bodies in the soon to be paved
over basement area of a nearby, under construction, subdivision.
2.) One of the residents of (busy main street), is actually a
dedicated and somewhat mad student of the occult. During a recent
experiment in out of body travel he accidentally got more then he
bargained for. He had a vision of the shore of dread Lake Hali.
Unfortunately, when he snapped out of the trance he brought a fragment
of that place back with him, sort of. Now, every day, at exactly the
time the occultist surfaced from his original trance, at a spot of
land in his front yard, near an enticing gap between some shrubs, an
unusual event occurs. For exactly five minutes in this area reality
grows thin and a gateway between the quiet neighborhood and the bleak
shores of Lake Hali open.
The gate is neither visible nor obvious on either side, and
unfortunately lies right in the way of a favorite children's short
cut, the gap in the bushes. This phenomenon will continue for 4d10
days, after which it ceases, never to occur again. Of the 13 children
who have accidentally steped through the gate, 8 wait on the other
side, frightened and starving and 5 vanished or wandered too close to
the lake and were pulled beneath. It is possible to cross back from
Hali, but a person must step back through during the five minutes the
gate is open and find the exact spot, which is difficult to do in the
weird light and odd timelessness of the place. If the children are
brought back the investegators witll recieve 1 San per child returned
safely.
3.) Make it an oceanside community. There was an experiment almost ten
years back, by the Deep Ones, to enhance the genetic process by which
the deep one gene is triggered in humans. This rush production causes
the changes to occur far earlier then normal, and the transformation
of human to Deep One to occur at much more rapid pace. Deep One agents
have been monitoring the "experiment" for the last year and have noted
the signs of change in some of the subjects. They are gathering these
subjects to take to an off shore are for brief study and then to their
new homes beneath the waves. There are 21 of these 'subjects' and 5
Deep One (partially changed) observers.
Copyright 1998 Matt Cowger
--------------------
From: tenebrae@earthling.net
Subject: The Drowned Girl's Story: A Tale of Terror
System: Call of Cthulhu
The Drowned Girl's Story
The media reports the tragic death of a teenage girl in a local river.
Apparently a suicide, the girl fell from a little used, narrow two
lane bridge spanning the river just outside of the city. It is a sad
loss as the girl, Kathy Walsh, was an honors student and a very
likable member of her class. The obituary will show her to be an
attractive girl with dark hair and dark eyes.
Shortly thereafter, rumours begin to circulate that the bridge is
"haunted". Several motorists report seeing a haggard and pale figure
on the side of the road, beckoning for help. One motorist who
reportedly stopped to offer assistance, found no one on the side of
the bridge when he got out of his car. The spot where the girl
supposedly fell or jumped from, marked with a small cross and wreaths
of flowers, is becoming a macabre attraction for the depressed and
suicidal among the cities' teen population. It is only a matter of
time before someone else takes a leap.
Possibilities:
1.) The girl did in fact commit suicide. The pretty honor student had
a dark and depressive side to her that eventually caused her to take
her own life. The "ghost stories" are just urban legends to add to the
tragic ambiance of the place.
2.) The girl was murdered. Her father, an abusive psychotic, faked the
suicide to try and cover his tracks. The police are aware of the fact
that she was murdered, but are keeping silent about it in order to
lull the murderer into a false sense of security. The father, a
respected buisness man, is not currently a suspect. Anyone talking to
Kathy Walsh's friends though, will discover she had a history of
unexplained injuries and bruises. Mrs. Walsh, a submissive mousey
woman, will be of no help.
The bridge itself is haunted by the ghost of Kathy Walsh. There is a
30% chance of her appearing every Sunday night at 3:15 am (the time
when her body was dumped into the river). She will not appear if there
is a large crowd of people or recording devices present. If Mr. Walsh
is present, she will appear and seem to dive at him, vanishing as she
does so. Mr. Walsh will have a minor seziure and when it stops he will
break down, confessing everything. If that happens, the hauntings will
end (and if the investigators are the ones that brought him there
somehow, they will gain 1d6 sanity.).
3) The girl was sacrificed by cultists of Ithaqua. A high scool friend
of Kathy's, Todd Strickland, is a junior member of the cult. He lured
Walsh out into the country side and turned her over to the group. The
members enacted a long ceremony in praise to Ithaqua and tossed Wlash
over the bridge at the climax of the event. They are preparing to
summon a servitor of the wendigo to be their assistant in an even
larger celebration/summoning in the months to come. Sacrifice victims
should be easy to come by, considering the number of depressed youth
that make pilgramiges to the site of their first victim. To that end,
the cult has a few "recruiters" watching the place and looking for
likely candidates.
This is complicated by the fact that the ghost of Kathy Walsh appears
on the bridge, attempting to warn others away. There is a 30% chance
of her appearing every Sunday night at 3:15 am (the time when her body
was dumped into the river). She will not appear if there is a large
crowd of people or recording devices present. If she does appear, she
will seem to be trying to say something, a look of extreme urgency on
her face. Finally she will look straight ahead, her hands will seem to
be bound, and she will appear to be lifted by unseen people and tossed
off the side of the bridge, vanishing into the darkness below.
(Anyone seeing this event must roll, losing 1/1d4 san). The police
suspect foul play, but have no leads. If the cult is stopped, or
broken up somehow, the ghost will be laid to rest.
The Ghost of Kathy Walsh
STR 9 SIZ 9 INT 15 POW 14
DEX 11 SAN: * EDU 10 HP: -
* In #2, 33; in #3, 59
San Loss: 2/1d6
Powers:
Manifest. She can appear in the presence of an individual or small
group of people. It costs 1 MP to use this power, which can only be
used at the time of her death. She only has 5 minutes of free action
before being forced into a repeat performance of her demise.
Empathy. For 2 MP she can implant the idea of a specific emotion into
one subject. This emotion is fleeting, more of an impression of an
emotion really, ie "You feel sad for a moment." or "A chill of fear
runs through you." She does not need to be manifest to use this power.
Poltergeist. She can, at the cost of 2 MP per ounce, move non-living
material: hurling small rocks and so forth. Note that she does not
need to be manifest to do this.
Oracle. At the cost of 1 MP per two minutes she can communicate
through a ouija board or similar device. Note that said device must be
at the bridge for her to communicate in this fashion. She does not
need to be manifest to use this power.
Appearance: When manifest the ghost looks like a very pale, bedraggled
but lovely young girl. She is wearing a skirt and a loose shirt. Her
shoes seem to be missing. In ver. #2 above she will have ghostly
bruises around her neck and one eye, in version #3 she will have
abrasion marks around her wrists and ankles, which will drip spectral
blood.
Copyright 1998 Matt Cowger
+ | +
Matt Cowger -
Tenebrae@Earthling.net
ICQ UIN:5409084
Cam #:9607-020
http://home.gvi.net/~tenebrae
+ | +
--------------------
From: <OLIVER-BA_SCHMIDT@HP-Germany-om14.om.hp.com>
Subject: Introducing Call of Cthulhu Adventures
System: Call of Cthulhu
I think mood is very important in the Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying
Game. Most adventures have very tense climaxes, but the beginning is
something like "... you got a letter of a friend whom you have not
heard from nor seen anything for a long time. He begs you for help but
cannot say any more in this mail...". And so on!
The players act then with their usual "ok let's see what's going
on..." behaviour. To let the players act more realisticly a more
realistic introduction is required. Let me give you an example (if you
have read the adventures mentioned below you will have a better
understanding).
A year ago I wanted to introduce a Dreamlands adventures to my
players. I mixed "To Sleep, Perchance to Dream" (Dreamlands Ed.3) with
"The Devourer" (Lurking Fears from Triad Entertainment).
Brockleman is actually a dreamer. He is old and wants to share his
experiences with someone worth it. He has no more fear of death
because he knows he will live on in the Dreamlands. Enthusiastically
he invites the investigators - perhaps they don't know each other -
and a colleague, Prof. Draper.
Prof. Draper came home from an expedition to South America recently.
With him he brought a Geode. Trying to open the Geode, a thing within
awakend...
The Devourer! After "eating" poor Prof. Draper the thing looked like
his victim. Using the flesh of the former Prof. Draper, it knew what
Draper knew. Draper intended to visit Brockleman and so did the
Draper-Devourer-Thing. While Brockleman was wondering about the
behavior of Draper, the Devourer attacked him and took him over.
Fortunately Brockleman's spirit escaped to the Dreamlands.
The night the investigators arrive at Brockleman's house and a
somewhat odd Brockleman opens the door: a strange shape can be seen on
the wall behind him. If the investigators get suspicious, he-it will
attack them: one of them will be pulled into the house! This sudden
threat will shock the investigators since they're used to a slow
beginning. From now on they will take care...
In the night they will all have a strange dream: walking down the 70
steps of light slumber each of them alone enters the Cavern of Flame:
The two priests Kaman-Thah and Nasht greet them and introduce the
Dreamlands. Confused and curious the investigators begin their
journey...
At the roots of the tree all investigators stumble into each other.
Let them investigate the Dreamlands and describe what they see, feel,
hear, and sense.
In Ulthar they find Brockleman: he's shocked but capable of telling
them that he called them to the Dreamlands. If asked he says that he
had to pay a high price to have them called. He tells them of the
Devourer, says that they have to destroy it, warns them, and tells
them that he will wait for them in the Dreamlands.
This approach has another advantage: since Prof. Brockleman WAS the
thing for a short time (when being absorbed and dying) he may have
some hints about the nature of it for the players.
So far,
Oliver Schmidt
--------------------
From: tavener@swbell.net
Subject: The Nature of Agartha...
System: Nephilim
** THE NATURE OF AGARTHA AND THE SUBTLE PLANES, PART ONE **
AGARTHA
So, what do we know about the nature of Agartha, and the change that a
Nephilim undergoes when he becomes an Agarthan? The rulebook lists
these main points:
* The merging and assimilation of the Simulacrum's Solar-Ka, which
creates a whole being from two.
* The ability to enter the Subtle Planes.
There are various points of objection raised by those who find the
idea of the background of Nephilim suspect. The most important is:
What happens to the other past lives that the Nephilim has inhabited
over the ages? Are their lives just so many stepping stones to a
final goal? Do these ends truly justify the means?
The answer lies in the nature of the Subtle Planes.
The original French authors of Nephilim were fans of Chaosium before
they wrote the game. By their own admission, they were influenced by
the World of Glorantha, a Fantasy world that was the product of Greg
Stafford, President of the Chaosium, and the base campaign for the
Runequest RPG.
Most RPG critics acknowledge Glorantha as the most sophisticated
Fantasy background ever created, barring perhaps Middle Earth and
Tekumel. One of the ideas that made Glorantha so revolutionary was its
approach to the Otherworld. Simply put, the inhabitants of Glorantha
can enter the world of their own myths, interacting with mythic
figures like gods, heroes, and monsters of the ancient past, before
time existed, which they call Godtime. This process is known as
Heroquesting.
SOUND FAMILIAR?
It seems obvious to anyone familiar with both systems that the Subtle
Planes and Godtime are essentially the same. They are both realms of
myth, where mythic figures can be interacted with.
An example of this might be:
I find and perform a magic ritual that takes me, Doyle, to the Garden
of Eden, where I substitute for Adam. By making the right choices, I
could refuse to take the fruit of Knowledge. What would the effects be
when I return to the mundane world? Well, the whole human race would
not be suddenly Unfallen. Rather *I* personally would now be Unfallen,
with all the mystic benefits that would accrue to such a status. (I
would be immortal for one, and be without sin, or perhaps be incapable
of incurring further sin.) No one else would be affected.
I suspect these assumptions would also be true for Nephilim. The big
Agarthan Heroquest would be preventing the Saturn asteroid from
falling. Consequently, something like the KaIm form would be regained.
Again, this would not affect every Nephilim, just the Agarthan that
undertook the quest.
The essential questions becomes, what is the actual Agarthan Insight,
and how does it allow all these things to happen?
I believe that insight to be a specific, concrete insight, which has
been described by mystics and authors for many, many years. It is
called the Aleph. The Aleph state is the insight that all human
beings, indeed, all of existence is one thing. This is a difficult
concept to grasp, so let me use specific example from art, literature
and song to explain it better.
There is a Beatles song that expresses the insight so: "I am he and
you are she and we are all together..."
There is a short story by the famed author Jorge Luis Borges called
the "The Aleph" which also talks about the insight. By observing
through it, (for the Aleph is at a specific location in the story) the
narrator sees the totality of all perceptions of the Cosmos.
The primary Hermetic insight, which is contained on the Emerald Tablet
of Hermes Trismegistus, and reprinted on page 140 of the Nephilim
rulebook, is that "as above, so below". This refers to the
interconnectedness of all things. This is a shadow, I believe, of the
Agarthan Insight.
Finally, Sam Shirley (primary English author of the rulebook and line
editor for the first several years), on the Nephilim mailing list, has
spoken about how all creation is sundered from itself, that this was
the primal act of Creation (when nothing but the metaphysical
existence of the Godhead is presupposed) and that Nephilim, humanity,
and the rest of the Cosmos all contain shards of the Godhead.
The Nephilim, practitioners of the Hermetic insight par excellance,
understand that connections exist between themselves and their
Simulacrums, and that in many ways, they share the same soul. But not
many of them make the final leap, that their own selves and those of
their simulacrum are the same soul.
A fictional example:
Consider Harmenides, an Elf of the Magician Arcanum. For ten years he
has been Incarnate in the body of Richard Atheling, head of a small
publishing house. After he first became Incarnated, he severed all his
Simulacrum's family connections, not so much out of annoyance, but out
of fear for the safety of his Simulacrum's relations.
In that time, he has become a powerful (Earth-Ka of 90) and respected
(Arcanum Lore: Magician at 75%) member of his Arcanum, mastering the
Hermetic Arts (All three Circles of Sorcery at 90%, Hermetic Lore at
90%) and foiling the plans of many Secret Societies and Black Star
Sorcerers. He knows his own mind and character intimately, having no
doubts or illusions about whom and what he is (all Personality Traits
at 20).
He receives word that the daughter he abandoned a decade ago is in a
local hospital, dying of cancer. Out of respect, and because no
further harm can come to the woman now, he visits her.
When he arrives, he can feel the anger, the phlegmatic humors,
radiating from her soul. Her flame has almost died, and seems no more
than the embers of a dying fire. Expecting her to cry, to rage, he
prepares himself, and draws closer.
Instead of anger, or venting, she takes his hand, and says, "No matter
what we did, or what has happened in the past, please, please know
that I have always loved you."
He is stunned, for he was not expecting this. He feels the grip of
her hand, sees the emotions in her eyes and wishes, for a moment, that
he could be the object, the true object of her love. All the memories
of Richard Atheling's life fill him, and he remembers her birth, her
youth, the death of her mother, and all else the memories are heir to.
He reaches out, and using the Hermetic discipline he has mastered,
imagines that he is truly Richard Atheling, at his daughter's
deathbed.
And in that moment, he feels her love for him, and his love for her.
And he wonders, while holding his dying daughter in his arms, "I have
believed that I was Harmenides, imagining that I was Richard Atheling.
What if, all this time, I was actually Richard Atheling, imagining I
was Harmenides?
After he leaves the hospital, his mind is swimming with memories, not
just those of Atheling, but those of Akmeni, and La Tour, and Farbras,
and Jokannon as well. And not just the stolen memories and skills,
but the full measure of those lives, intermingled with his own. And
he thinks to himself, "All those lives, which I thought were lost,
have been with me all these years. Why?"
And then he looks up at the night sky, and the interminable stars, and
realizes he stands at the Center of the Earth, the Heart of the World,
that it was within him all the time, that his own soul is the
Omphalos, that he is in the center of Agartha, that he is Agartha,
that he is Agarthan.
[continued in V24.4]
--
