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Chaosium Digest Volume 27 Number 11
Chaosium Digest Volume 27, Number 11
Date: Sunday, March 14, 1999
Number: 3 of 3
Contents:
MISKATONIC UNIVERSITY: Life at the World's Scariest School, 1999
by R. J. Christen (CTHULHU NOW) pt 3 of 3
-------------------------
MISKATONIC UNIVERSITY: LIFE AT THE WORLD'S SCARIEST SCHOOL -1998 Part
3
JUGGLING SCHOOL & INVESTIGATING THE MYTHOS
Nothing would sound so ridiculous to a professor then a student
claiming
that he couldn't finish his paper on "Ecological Aspects of Thoreau's
"Walden
Pond" because he was being chased by ghouls the night before. So what
do
daring student-investigators do when the fate of humanity is in the
balance?
Well, they could either study real hard beforehand, cram, drop courses
midway
through the
semester, or drop out entirely and go pro. But dropping courses can be
expensive and there is not much of a market for professional
investigators, so
studying is the best way out. Keepers can tabulate their player's
academic
success by asking for an Idea or Luck roll each week of interrupted
school.
Cramming entails making up for an entire semester of investigating (or
too
much RPG playing) by cramming the entire semester into one night's
orgy of
study and coffee drinking. Cramming success is determined by this
formulae:
(KNOW+INT+CON x Percentile). If the result is 61 or better, they pass
that
course. Otherwise, it's off to work at the local First National
Grocery store
or "Dave's Donuts" to pay the bills.
TWO GROOVY MINI-ADVENTURES FOR MISKATONIC STUDENTS
CTHULHU ROCKS!: The leader of a campus punk band "Arkaan Noledge",
Mark
Alscot, discovers some really cool lyric ideas in the library; from
the
Necronomicon, no less! Unfortunately, during a wild practice session,
the
combination of amplified sonic thrashing and the "lyrics" turned loose
a
seething "thing", which promptly attacked the other three band members
and
sucked the life out of them. The police figured the musicians were
accidentally electrocuted and had Alscot committed to the M.U.
Psychiatric
Hospital due to his wild rantings. Slightly calmed down a few days
later,
Alscot pleads with the investigators to destroy the creature.
) Alscot, under the influence of certain hallucinogenics, actually
just saw
his bandmates get accidentally electrocuted by a beer soaked
amplifier. The poor
guy mistook the electrical arcs as "monsters".
2) The band members were electrocuted, but on purpose by a
oversensitive and
insane neighbor who was fed up with both the noise and the mysterious
lyrics
from the Necronomicon. The Neighbor now believes the entire college is
filled
with "Satan worshipers and monsters" and must fight this unholy
onslaught any
way they can, namely with a high powered hunting rife. The players
have to
prevent this from happening.
3) The Creature is a Fire Vampire now getting it's fill with Arkham's
homeless
people down by the river. The investigators have to discover just what
the
"thing" is and devise a way to either dispel or destroy it. This Fire
Vampire
is a bit more powerful then most, having 15 HP, a 17 POW, at 85% Touch
attack
(doing 2d6 fire damage) and has spells: Call Cthugha, Create Gate, and
Summon/Bind Star Vampire (even more trouble!).
THE SORT OF UNNAMABLE: After old Widow Archer refused to sell her
175
year old family mansion to real estate developer Ronald Crump,
mysterious
sounds and bizarre sightings began spooking the neighborhood. Popular
rumor
has it that the ghost of a crazed wizard has risen from the grave and
is now
haunting the house and neighborhood. Mrs. Archer is just about at the
edge of a
nervous breakdown and possible commitment to a mental hospital. The
cops are
calling it all a case of mass hysteria.
1) Poor Mrs. Archer is just old and suffering from an over active
imagination.
The neighbor rumors are just local legend, but when the players prove
there's
no ghost, Mrs. Archer gives them milk & cookies and title to the house
in her
will. Pro Bono Student Lawyers will have battle Mr. Crump instead
(Roll Average
of Law & Persuade to succeed).
2) Yup, the house IS haunted! Back in the late 1600s, a follower of
Goody
Fowler named Zephram Curin lived in a house on the site of Mrs.
Archer's house.
Three Hundred years to the date of his execution by torch-wielding
townsfolk, Curin is back and ready to exact his evil revenge against
Arkham.
(use Lich stats)
3) What Mrs Archer, and her terrified neighbors don't know and what
the
intrepid student investigators have to discover is that the "ghost" is
really
Mr Crump and his stooges and perfect chance for Keepers to recite that
famous
line, "...and I would have succeeded if not for you meddling kids!".
Crump had
three of his goons tunnel under the house to the basement and sneak
around in
luminous costumes making spooky sounds to frighten Widow Archer into
selling
the house (the fiends!). Spells will have no effect, but avoid letting
the
investigators use guns as this would scare Mrs Archer into having a
coronary,
and besides, Crump can't say the famous line with large holes in his
body...
MORE ADVENTURE NUGGETS FOR MISKATONIC STUDENTS
SON OF REANIMATOR REVISITED: Well, it looks as if yet another
wack-o
young Med student has stumbled onto the twisted notes of Dr Herbert
West and
is once again trying to raise the dead with the mad doctor's weird
reanimation
serum. Naturally, the same grisly results occurs for stray animals and
unlucky
students & staff with the student investigators having to clean up the
mess
afterwards.
I DON'T THINK WE'RE STILL IN ARKHAM, TOTO: One peaceful evening
while
playing a friendly game of "Myths & Monsters", some darn fantasy
gamers dig up
some supposedly harmless spells from the Armatage library and manage
to get
themselves teleported to the Dreamlands, Yuggoth, R'ylth, or some
place much,
much worse. The gamers must find their way back to earth or face
eternity (or
quick and messy deaths) trapped in a world they never made.
CTHULHU IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS: Evil and crazed cultists are
selling a
new hallucinogenic drug called "Time Warp" which gives the users a
LSD-type
sensation of flying through time and space, making it big with those
"party-
types" tired of acid and Ecstasy. The problem is, aside from it being
quite
addictive, the drug causes their crazed thoughts & dreams to become a
wake-up
call for the Dreamer Beneath the Sea. After 3 or more uses, the user
begins to
dream of lost R'lyth and loses 1 POW and d10 SAN per night until
insane. The
investigators must reveal the cultist drug dealers to the authorities
to
prevent a Avatar of Great Cthulhu from materializing in Arkham.
BEACH BLANKET BYHAKEE: While on a roadtrip up to Maine for skiing,
camping, or hunting (preferable hunting), the student investigators
get stuck
in the quaint old town of Innsmouth just when the Deep Ones are having
their
annual "Spring Break" hunt for nubile human "dates". Fort Lauderdale,
it
ain't.
THE GREEKS DON'T WANT NO MORE FREAKS: Some random Fraternity is
taking
their rituals a bit too far as they celebrate the semesterly Rush week
and
Finals by inviting homeless people to dinner, then sacrifice them to
fill in
the blank) and REALLY have them for dinner (it tends to solve the
"where to
put the
body?" problem). Perhaps the sudden disappearance of a friendly
homeless
person or an unlucky student will attract the attention of the student
investigators
IT CAME FROM THE BIOLOGY BUILDING: Late one Friday evening, two
unfortunate
grad students made the mistake of defrosting a frozen specimen from
the 1959
Miskatonic University-IGY Antarctic Expedition. The hideous blob of
black goo
ate one of the students, sending the other screaming maniacally to the
student
investigators. It is a 700,000 year old shoggoth and will destroy much
of the
campus unless the brave investigators can nullify it with spells,
gates, elder
signs, or a M1 tank.
MISKATONIC UNIVERSITY ORGANIZATION
COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS:
School of Languages, Literature, & The Arts
Departments of: Fine Arts, English, Philosophy, Modern &
Classical
Languages, and Communication Arts.
School of History & Social Science
Departments of: Anthropology & Archeology, History, Political
Studies &
Geography, and Sociology.
COLLEGE OF SCIENCES
School of Physical Sciences:
Departments of: Physics & Astronomy, Chemistry, Earth Sciences,
and
Oceanography.
School of Life Sciences:
Departments of: Biology, Botany, Zoology, Microbiology,
Ecology,
Animal Science, and Psychology.
Astor Division of Mathematics & Computer Science
COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
School of Medicine
School of Nursing
SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY
Departments of: Mechanical, Industrial, Electrical, & Civil
Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering Technology, Industrial
Management, and Industrial Design.
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION:
Departments of: Early Childhood, Elementary School, Middle
School, High School, and Adult Education.
SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
Departments of Accounting, Economics, Finance, and Management.
SCHOOL OF LAW
SCHOOL OF MEDIEVAL METAPHYSICS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu 3rd ed.
Chaosium's Arkham Unveiled
Chaosium's Kingsport: The City in the Mist
Chaosium's "Miskatonic University Graduate Kit"
Arkham House's The Dunwich Horror & Others
Georgia Southern University Graduate Catalog
Georgia Southern University Student Activities Guide
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