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Chaosium Digest Volume 30 Number 05
Chaosium Digest Volume 30, Number 5
Date: Wednesday, February 9, 2000
Number: 1 of 1
Contents:
* Sickboy (ELRIC!)
by Alexandre Lanciani alex.lanciani@flashnet.it
* The Adventure of the Red Rose (PENDRAGON)
by Jorge Palinhos neonaeon@mailcity.com
Editor's Note:
The Cthulhu Hardcover Contest winner has been announced!
Congratulations go out to Jorge Palinhos for his "Sweet
Child of Mine" submission. I'm also happy to announce that
Chaosium is willing to offer a new contest each quarter!
These contests will be open to all article submissions of
current Chaosium game lines, namely: Call of Cthulhu, Elric!
and Nephilim. I'll still accept submissions for Pendragon,
Delta Green and Glorantha but they won't be eligible for the
Chaosium contests, sorry. Now if Green Knight, Pagan
Publishing and/or Issaries Inc. want to sponsor their own
contests I'd welcome them...
The deadline for the next contest will be March 31st. The
winner gets a copy of the upcoming Call of Cthulhu Keepers
Screen <http://www.chaosium.com/cthulhu/rpg/2387.shtml> for
their winning Cthulhu, Elric! or Nephilim submission. So,
keep those submissions coming!
ANNOUNCEMENTS
* From Pagan Publishing
Our book-publishing imprint, Armitage House, has two new
releases that have been a long time coming.
THE LURKER IN THE LOBBY, by Andrew Migliore and John
Strysik, is the definitive guide to Lovecraftian movies and
TV shows. Reviews of more than 30 films, exclusive new
interviews with film-makers like John Carpenter, Roger
Corman, and Stuart Gordon on their Lovecraft-inspired work,
and essays by 20 indie film-makers on how they made their
zero-budget short HPL adaptations. There are gobs and gobs
of movie stills, posters, lobby cards, and behind-the-scenes
images; this book is a visual feast and the most profusely
illustrated book we have EVER published! Just to top it off,
we proudly present a new interview with master horror
illustrator and comic-book artist Bernie Wrightson, plus a
lengthy portfolio of his drawings for the never-produced
SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH movie. You may have seen some of these
Wrightson drawings in magazines like FANGORIA, but the
majority have never seen print--and they're stunning. LURKER
is 208 pages of jaw-droppingly entertaining Lovecraftian
movie madness, all for $19.95--plus a great preface by HPL
scholar and biographer S.T. Joshi! It'll be in gaming stores
in the next week or two, and bookstores sometime after that.
You can also order it from our mail-order catalog, The
Outsider.
SOSOSTRIS, by John Tynes, is a bloody, bold, and resolute
tale of the King in Yellow. It's a follow-up to his stories
BROADALBIN and AMBROSE, both published in chapbook form by
Armitage House several years ago and long since out of
print. SOSOSTRIS tells the story of Madame Anna Sosostris, a
fortune-teller and mystic who comes to the Broadalbin Hotel
in depression-era New York City with a terrible plan. This
new novella is available only in a 100-copy limited-edition
chapbook, signed and numbered by the author, and is expected
to sell out quickly so order fast if you want it.
Our web site has been updated with lots of new info about
these and other titles, including sneak previews of both the
above books. Both titles are also available for ordering now
through our mail-order catalog, browsable online.
---
Lots of you have asked for updates on some other projects,
so here's the skinny.
THE KING IN YELLOW, a hardcover edition of Thomas Ryng's
never-before-published translation of this infamous play,
goes to press next week for release in mid-February.
MORE TALES OF TERROR is an all-new collection of short
scenario ideas for CALL OF CTHULHU. Our last ToT collection
was a great success, so here's another one! Editor Steve
Hatherley's newest volume goes to press this month for a
February release, by mail-order only.
DELTA GREEN EYES ONLY VOLUME THREE: PROJECT RAINBOW is still
getting the once-over from our staff, but we expect to have
a firm release date soon.
DELTA GREEN EYES ONLY VOLUME ONE: MACHINATIONS OF THE MI-GO
is still sold out. The revised and expanded second edition
will follow RAINBOW, and again, we'll pass along more
definite information when it's available.
THE UNSPEAKABLE OATH 16/17 is on track after many, many
months in limbo. We're plowing through the many submissions
folks have turned in and expect to have the contents
assembled shortly. We'll post more info as it becomes
available.
---
That's it! We'll keep you posted as the above projects (and
others) move forward.
For more info and lots of sneak previews, check out our web
site:
http://www.tccorp.com/
* Arg,
TENTACLES is slowly awakening from its deep slumber beneath
the Old Castle. Green blood is pumping back life into a Hell
of a Convention.
Sneak to the secret weblair to have a look at the
summoning - if you dare...
http://www.uni-weimar.de/~kuechle1/next.htm
You can even register yourself as Another Victim online!
Slurp
--
~~TENTACLES Convention~~
fabian.kuechler@medien.uni-weimar.de
We want YOU for - TENTACLES Millennium!
9th-12th June 2000; Castle Stahleck, Germany
Visit our weblair at:
http://www.uni-weimar.de/~kuechle1/next.htm
* ~SLURP,
green and slimy TENTACLES crawl slowly through halls and
chambers of the Old Castle. Green blood is pumping steaming
hot life into a Hell of a Convention.
~PLEASE note that you will not receive a snail mail
registration form, the only way for you to register is
ONLINE! If you already booked your place online and received
a confirmation just relax and read on...
Welcome to the 2nd TENTACLES News Post!
We checked our databases and found some additional email
addresses lost until now. We believe you to be a potential
victim for TENTACLES Millennium, our Glorantha and Cthulhu
Convention at the dawning of the new millennium.
TENTACLES Millennium takes place 9 - 12 June 2000, at Castle
Stahleck in Bacharach, Germany.
Residential membership will close at the 30th April 2000.
Sneak to the secret weblair to have a look at the
summoning - if you dare...
http://www.uni-weimar.de/~kuechle1/next.htm
You can even register yourself as Another Victim online!
Please note that you will not receive a snail mail
registration form, the only way for you to register is
ONLINE!
Naibaf
--
~~TENTACLES Convention~~
fabian.kuechler@medien.uni-weimar.de
We want YOU for - TENTACLES Millennium!
9th-12th June 2000; Castle Stahleck, Germany
Visit our weblair at:
http://www.uni-weimar.de/~kuechle1/next.htm
**RECENTLY RELEASED!**
>Call of Cthulhu RPG (Hardcover)
2386 $37.95 ISBN 1-56882-148-4
Call of Cthulhu Is Shipping Now!
The Great Old Ones ruled the Earth aeons before the
incidental rise of man. They came from the gulfs of space,
waged war upon one another, and then were cast down by even
greater beings. Remains of their cyclopean cities and
forbidden knowledge can still be found in the remote
extremes of our planet. Upon uncharted islands, within dark
ocean depths, under burning desert sands, locked within
polar ice, miles below the Earth's crust, they lay
imprisoned. But when the Stars are right they will awaken
and walk this
earth once more.
Call of Cthulhu is our classic role-playing game of
Lovecraftian horror in which ordinary people are confronted
by the terrifying and alien forces of the Cthulhu Mythos. A
bestseller with over 300,000 copies sold world-wide. Call of
Cthulhu has won dozens of game awards. In 1996 Call of
Cthulhu was elected to the Academy of Adventure Game
Designer's Hall of Fame. Call of Cthulhu is well supported
by an ever growing line of high quality game supplements. No
Gaming library is complete without a copy of this book!
This new hardback edition is completely compatible with all
our previous 5th edition supplements for Call of Cthulhu.
Some sections of the book have been revised and clarified,
and the book includes some new interior art. This book is a
complete role-playing game in one volume! All you need to
Play Call of Cthulhu is this book, some dice, and your
friends.
** UPCOMING CHAOSIUM RELEASES**
FEBRUARY
>Book Of Dyzan
6027 $13.95 ISBN 1-56882-114-X
Nonfiction. A discussion of Blavatsky's famous book, the
mysterious Book of Dyzan, the heart of the secret books of
Kie-Te, once known only to Tibetan mystics. Includes lengthy
quotes. Excerpts from the Society for Psychical Research's
1885 report on the eye-opening phenomena connected with the
Theosophical Society. Editor Maroney's biographical essay
for Madame Blavatsky starts off the volume with a
fascinating portrait of an amazing woman. Mention of Dzyan
in H.P. Lovecraft's writing is made.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
* Hello -
On Wed, 19 Jan 2000 you wrote [in part]:
>BOOKS OF NOTE from Shannon Appel
>
>* Call of Cthulhu - _The Last Continent: New Tales of
>Zothique_ (Shadowlands Press, 440 pgs., $60[!], ISBN
>0-9665662-4-6), edited by John Pelan, is a collection of
>brand new stories related to Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique.
>I haven't read this tome yet, but it has a story by my
>favorite writer, Gene Wolfe, as well as items by a few
other
>luminaries, such as Brian McNaughton, t. Winter-Damon, and
>Brian Stableford. The rather hefty price is for the
"Limited
>Edition", which is signed by all the authors and numbered
>(out of 500). There's also a $100 Deluxe edition, which I'd
>have to assume is slipcased, but I haven't seen it. Their
>website, http://www.bereshith.com/, doesn't list a cheaper
>edition, so if you're a CAS fan, you'll probably need to
get
>this one.
I recently picked up this book (copy #253 of 500). I'm
lucky enough to live near a shop that ordered a few copies
of the $60 edition signed by all the authors, the
illustrators, and CAS scholar Donald Sydney-Fryer, who wrote
the intro. The Deluxe Edition, also signed by all
contributors, is bound in leather, slipcased, with 4 limited
edition art prints.
Anyway, this is one beautiful book! Black cloth binding w/
silver lettering on cover and spine, great dust jacket art,
and 19 stories. Many authors I'm not familiar with (Gerard
Houarner, Rhys Hughes, David B. Silva, Mark McLaughlin,
Edward Lee, John Pelan, Jessica Amanda Salmonson, Don Webb,
Geoff Cooper, Polygaya Fine, Lucy Taylor, Mark Chadbourn,
and Charlee Jacob), and others whose works I have enjoyed
before (David Niall Wilson, Brian McNaughton, Dan Clore, t.
Winter-Damon, Gene Wolfe, Brian Stableford, and Henrik
Johnsson).
Beyond what I've already stated, this book is exceptional
for the fact that it is, to my memory at least, the only one
of it's kind; to paraphrase from Donald Sidney-Fryer's
introduction: unlike HPL, Smith's tales have spawned
relatively few sequels or imitations. The fact that a
recognized and respected Smith authority, such as Donald
Sidney-Fryer gave his endorsement to this project,
definitely helped tip the scales in my mind. He must be
included when discussing individuals who have established an
indisputable knowledge of the field, and earned the respect
of the Mythos/Weird Fiction "community." He first won my
respect for his work on another CAS project, the 1979 Arkham
House publication of _The Black Book of Clark Ashton Smith_.
The only problem that I've noticed, in this otherwise highly
enjoyable book, is *several* typographical errors. I do
hear that the publisher will soon be offering the book on
Amazon.com, but I don't know whether it will be this, or a
less expensive edition.
Now, what I'd really like to see is affordable new hardcover
editions of Smith's own work. Aside from Arkham House's _A
Rendezvous In Averoigne_, I only managed to acquire the
majority of his fiction about six years ago, in second hand
British paperbacks from the '70s.
Yrs. by the Black Litany of Thasaidon,
Timothy J. Stehle
"All human thought, all science, all religion, is the
holding of a candle to the night of the universe."
- Clark Ashton Smith, from his Black Book
* Hi John,
Found this article on CNN and thought it might make for a
good CoC adventure hook. Looks like computer simulations
show that the AIDS virus first occurred in the 1930s. The
connection to our favorite Cthulhu hunting era seems too
obvious to ignore. Maybe the stars were right after all.
The URL
is:
http://www.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/AIDS/02/01/aids.ancestor.ap/i
ndex.html
Best wishes,
Nils
-----------------------------
"Sickboy"
This is a character from my campaign. He was originally a
player character but when the player left he became a part
of the setting. Hope you enjoy and feel free to express your
opinions, whether positive or negative, about him.
Cheers,
Alex.
-----------------------------
SICKBOY, Cadsandrian former drug dealer, now a mysterious
benefactor and the Constable's physician, a.k.a Leon Dahr.
I have often told you about my childhood and The Brotherhood
Orphanage where I spent it, but I think I did never tell you
of its founder and benefactor, a mysterious guy the old
nurses there called Sickboy. They told weird stories about
this man. This is the one about his origins. They never told
it until we were about to leave, though.
You know those Cadsandrian suburbs of big tenements that
grow out of some Melnibonean villa, like mold out of a
rotten tree, where you can find between the marble and the
plaster floors of reed and thatched roofs, don't you? Well,
our hero grew up there. I said grew and not was born because
nobody knows where he came from. All that is known is that a
merciful prostitute found him on a street, packed in dirty
rags, maybe one year old and sick. Luckily, her trade
generated enough income to support them both until he was
old enough to support himself, so she kept him and took care
of him.
Well before fifteen, he begun to wander between the old
ruins, in secret passages under the ground. There he learnt,
the hard way, the effect some strange plants and fungi had
on his perceptions. An old man, something of an alchemist, a
physician and a drug dealer took him as his apprentice. The
old
man lusted after the boy's knowledge of a place close at
hand where the precious and rare Melnibonean herbs he had to
buy at high cost grew freely. The old man hoped to learn
Sickboy's secret, and then to make him disappear.But the boy
was smarter than his mentor. He never betrayed himself and
learnt how to refine into drugs the plants only he knew
where to find. Then, with the help of one of his foster
mother's most loyal client, he got rid of the old man and
became the alchemist, physician and drug dealer of the
neighborhood.
A few years later, a mysterious murder puzzled Cadsandria's
authorities. The body of Piotr, one of Cadsandria's most
skilled smiths, was found hanging from the roof of Lord
Marroy's city mansion's stable. Of course you've heard about
Lord Marroy, one of the most powerful merchant prince of the
Coast, so the city watch powerlessness shouldn't surprise
you. Sir Finn Gham, the Constable then, recruited a band
of... Well, freelances, to investigate on the matter.
Sickboy's reputation of being a shrewd and well connected
underground personality wasn't unknown to the Constable, as
his recent friction with a powerful organized band of
thieves who wanted to hire him not to produce dreams but
deaths. So Sickboy was convinced to join with the
investigators, in exchange of protection if he continued to
produce only - at worst - mildly harmful drugs.
To make it short, Piotr's death was linked to a new
revolutionary religious sect originated in Dharijor - the
Brotherhood. The sect was really just a cover for a coven of
Pyaray cultists who planned to sacrifice all the lesser
initiates to the Tentacled. As you know, the Church of Chaos
in itself is not illegal here in Argimiliar, but mass murder
is, and Piotr discovered his masters' plan and wanted to
turn them in to Sir Finn. Lord Marroy's implication in the
plan was never proved, though. Anyway, Sickboy and the other
investigators stopped the sacrifice and saved the two dozens
hypnotized believers. But rather than accept the bronzes and
the protection that Sir Finn offered him, he asked for the
building of the Brotherhood and the permission to turn it in
an orphanage. The Constable agreement was not unconditional:
Sickboy had to give up his addiction and become a
respectable member of society. And not respectable in King
Jiku's sense, mind you, but in Sir Finn's, maybe the most
stern and just old fashioned southerner cattle baron I can
think of.
Of course there are many other tales about Sickboy. What did
he found in the underground of the old Melnibonean villa?
Why nobody did ever went down there? What of the thieves'
band? And of Lord Marroy and the Pyaray cultists? And how
did he overcame ten years of addiction in a few months?
And what is he doing now? Well, all these questions are
answered in tales for another day. Now, let's toast to the
man who gave me the childhood he never knew. Let's toast to
Sickboy.
LEON DAHR ("SICKBOY"), 21 years old Argimilliaran Physician
(in the employ of Sir Finn Gham)
Chaos 9, Balance 24, Law 6
STR 15 CON 11 SIZ 10 INT 16
POW 12 DEX 15 APP 11 HP 11
Armor: Soft Leather (1d6-1)
Weapons: Cutlass 59%, Damage 1d6+2+1d4
Skills: Climb 60, Conceal Object 35, Dodge 50, Hide 40,
Insight 79, Move Quietly 44, Natural World 59, Physik 101,
Pick Lock 25, Potions 101, Scent/Taste 35, Search 40, Scribe
29, Swim 55, Trap 25. ¤
---------------------
The Adventure of the Red Rose
This is a very short solo adventure. Well, I personally
prefer considering it a something between an adventure and a
tale. Therefore I provide a short explanation for it. It was
designed for a single knight with a passion for a lady. It
can be run once instead of the Romance solo, if you have the
time to run it. You may consider it a mix of a Lost in the
Woods and a Romance solo.
THE ADVENTURE
Once, while one of the knights is wandering near or in the
woods, he will hear a woman singing. If he goes looking for
her, he will come across a small hut in a clearance. The hut
is made of shining wood, fresh hay and with a curtain in the
place of the door. If the knight calls, a beautiful young
woman, with about 17/18 years old, golden hair, green eyes
and voluptuous shapes will came out. (Player makes chaste
check, if he fails he will desire her madly).
She smiles and says she knows what he wants. And will offer
him a piece of soft red silk (Lustful check - if succeed the
character focus of the silk, if the player kills the young
girl he will get an automatic check in chaste and cruel and
the adventure will end). If the knight tries to catch the
silk, it will escape between his fingers and fly away
although there his no wind. The lady will scream and beg the
knight to catch the silk again. The knight may run after it
(DEX minus armor, if any, to run after it), if he doesn't
he will see the lady and the hut fade in front of his eyes
and the adventure will end. If he succeeds he will find an
old, dirty rag.
Either way while he stops, feeling lost in the middle of the
forest he will hear quiet steps and a red she-wolf with 3
little wolves will approach him, call him husband and beg
him to go save their house. The she-wolf will be impervious
to all logic: that they can't possibly be married since he
is a man and she is a wolf but instead will put her head
between her paws and emit sounds like she was crying and ask
the knight if will save their house or just do like every
knight does and kill her, cut off her head and take her fur.
(If player kills her will lose 1d6 of passion love (lady),
if just goes away will lose 1 point of the passion) if the
player follows the wolf he will find a small cave guarded by
a small giant. The knight must fight the giant alone. If he
wins, the giant's blood will start running into the cave but
the she-wolf will be oblivious to this and will force the
knight to get inside and will start licking his wounds.
Unless a successful Energetic check his made) the knight
will fall asleep.
Next he will be wandering through the forest with no
memories of having awakened and he will hear someone
shouting his name. If he heads for the origin of the sound
he will see a hut very similar to the previous one but old
and dirty with falling hay, half-eaten wood and a ragged
curtain full of holes. At the entrance a very old and ugly
woman is sitting calling his name. She is nearly blind. She
will recriminate him for leaving her alone and for not
caring for her anymore. Nearly crying she will ask him if he
still loves her and demand a kiss as proof. (If the player
just goes away or kills her he will get a check in cruel. If
he kisses her out of pity he will get a point for the
passion and a check in merciful and generous) If the player
kisses her he will realize he is actually kissing a red rose
blossoming on the ground. If he tries to pick it up (if the
player doesn't says specifically that he is careful about
the thorns) he will wound himself with the thorns and a
single drop of blood will flow and run down the rose leaving
a trail and fall to the ground. The knight will notice that
underneath the rose is written his name and the name of the
lady he loves (2 points of passion and checks in Lustful and
Generous.)
THE MEANING
Usually I don't like explaining the meaning of the things I
write. I believe that everyone has the right to place his or
her own meaning in it. But in this case I will open an
exception since this little tale/adventure will be
(hopefully) told by other people who probably will find
their work easier if they know what were my intentions
behind it and may even improve and enrich it considerably.
Someone told me this one was pretty much like a popular
fairy tale. I took that as a compliment.
The adventure symbolizes the three stages of marriage. In
the beginning, the knight falls in love with the lady when
she is in the prime of her beauty. Her beauty is symbolized
by the red silk that will always fly away. Just like beauty
fades with time. The knight may pursue it trying to fool
himself into having caught it. But it will always be
irrevocably lost.
The she-wolf represents the married woman in her middle age,
having to care for her children and house while the knight
is away adventuring. The knight must decide what comes
first, his own safety or protecting his house and family.
The giant, being similar to humans but living savagely,
represents the dangers that may attack the knight's home:
which may come from humans and/or Nature. The giant's blood
running into the cave means that every danger no matter how
successfully defeated always leaves its mark in the home of
the knight. The wolves licking his wounds symbolizes that
family and home are the places of safety and trust, where
the knight comes to heal and rest in peace.
The knight who finds himself wandering lost and without
remembrance of what has happened since, represents the old
age of the knight, trying to discover where all the time of
his life was spent.
The old woman outside the decaying hut symbolizes his wife
and his house, which suffered the ravages of time. If the
knight kisses the old woman, he shows he still loves her and
that their love has stood the tests of time, sense of lost
and danger. And therefore turns into a red rose.
The rose represents their mutual love and the drop of blood
represents the mark they have left on it. The blood also
symbolizes that their material selves will die and go to the
earth. But the rose (love), which is like every other rose
(love) except it is theirs and bears their mark, will live
forever.
--------------------------
--
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