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Home , Dagon (short story), Deep One, Dunwich (Lovecraft), Elder Thing, Hastur, Innsmouth

TRAIL OF

Contents

CREDITS...... 3 Cop Talk (Interpersonal)...... 32 Piggybacking...... 57 Craft (Technical)...... 32 Cooperation...... 58 Credit Rating (Interpersonal) ...... 32 Contests, Chases, and Combat ...... 58 CONTENTS ...... 4 Cryptography (Academic)...... 34 Fighting...... 60 (Academic)...... 34 Other Dangers...... 68 Evidence Collection (Technical)...35 Stability, Sanity, and Madness...... 69 Flattery (Interpersonal)...... 35 Losing Stability...... 69 INTRODUCTION...... 6 Forensics (Technical) ...... 35 Losing Sanity...... 74 Why This Game Exists ...... 6 Geology (Academic) ...... 35 Mental Illness...... 77 Purist or Pulp or Both?...... 7 History (Academic)...... 37 Refreshing Stability During A Interrogation (Interpersonal) ...... 37 Session ...... 79 THE INVESTIGATOR ...... 9 Intimidation (Interpersonal)...... 37 Recovery...... 80 Occupations ...... 9 Languages (Academic)...... 37 Refreshing Investigative Ability Alienist...... 9 Law (Academic)...... 37 Pools...... 80 Antiquarian...... 10 Library Use (Academic)...... 38 Refreshing General Ability Pools80 Archaeologist...... 11 Locksmith (Technical)...... 38 Refreshing Health...... 81 Artist ...... 11 Medicine (Academic)...... 38 Refreshing Stability Between Author...... 12 Occult (Academic) ...... 38 Adventures...... 81 Clergy ...... 12 Oral History (Interpersonal)...... 39 Recovering Sanity...... 81 Criminal...... 13 Outdoorsman (Technical)...... 39 Improving Your Investigator...... 82 Dilettante...... 13 Pharmacy (Technical) ...... 39 Doctor...... 13 Photography (Technical) ...... 39 ...... 84 Hobo...... 14 Physics (Academic) ...... 39 THE CTHULHU MYTHOS Gods and Titans...... 84 Journalist...... 14 Reassurance (Interpersonal)...... 40 ...... 87 Military ...... 15 Streetwise (Interpersonal)...... 40 Chaugnar Faugn...... 89 Nurse ...... 15 Theology (Academic)...... 40 Cthugha...... 89 Parapsychologist ...... 17 General Abilities ...... 40 Cthulhu ...... 90 Pilot ...... 17 Athletics ...... 40 ...... 91 Police Detective...... 17 Conceal...... 40 Daoloth ...... 92 Private Investigator...... 17 Disguise...... 41 Ghatanothoa...... 93 Professor...... 18 Driving...... 41 Gol-Goroth...... 93 Scientist...... 18 Electrical Repair...... 41 ...... 94 Drives ...... 19 Explosives...... 41 Ithaqua ...... 94 Adventure ...... 19 Filch...... 42 Mordiggian...... 95 Antiquarianism...... 19 Firearms...... 42 Mormo...... 95 Arrogance...... 20 First Aid ...... 42 Nodens...... 96 Artistic Sensitivity ...... 20 Fleeing ...... 42 ...... 96 Bad Luck...... 20 Health...... 43 Quachil Uttaus...... 98 Curiosity ...... 21 Hypnosis...... 43 Shub-Niggurath...... 99 Duty...... 21 Mechanical Repair ...... 44 ...... 99 Ennui...... 21 Piloting ...... 44 Y’golonac...... 100 Follower...... 21 Preparedness ...... 45 Yig ...... 100 In the Blood ...... 22 Psychoanalysis ...... 45 Yog-Sothoth...... 101 Revenge...... 22 Riding...... 45 Tomes and Magic...... 104 Scholarship...... 22 Sanity ...... 46 Tomes ...... 104 Sudden Shock...... 22 Scuffling...... 47 Spells...... 109 Thirst for Knowledge...... 23 Sense Trouble ...... 47 Creatures...... 125 Buying Abilities...... 23 Shadowing...... 47 Health Loss for Creatures ...... 125 Occupational Abilities...... 23 Stability ...... 48 Ability Pool Refreshment for How Many Points Should I Buy? .26 Sources of Stability ...... 48 Creatures ...... 125 Ratings and Skill ...... 27 Stealth...... 48 Creature Statistics...... 125 Investigative Abilities...... 28 Weapons...... 48 As A Foulness Shall Ye Know Accounting (Academic)...... 28 Sample Character...... 49 Them...... 126 Anthropology (Academic)...... 28 Trail of Cthulhu Character Sheet49 Alien Races ...... 126 Archaeology (Academic) ...... 28 Byakhee...... 127 Architecture (Academic)...... 28 Colour Out of Space...... 128 Art (Technical)...... 30 CLUES, TESTS AND Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath...129 Art History (Academic)...... 30 CONTESTS...... 51 ...... 129 Assess Honesty (Interpersonal)....30 Clues...... 51 Dhole...... 130 Astronomy (Technical)...... 30 Gathering Clues ...... 52 Dimensional Shambler...... 131 Bargain (Interpersonal)...... 30 Spends and Benefits ...... 54 ...... 131 Biology (Academic)...... 31 Inconspicuous Clues...... 55 Flying Polyp...... 132 Bureaucracy (Interpersonal) ...... 31 Tests ...... 56 Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua..133 Chemistry (Technical) ...... 31 Simple Tests ...... 56

4 TRAIL OF CTHULHU

Introduction

In the mists of prehistory, alien gods and monsters fell to Earth and Why This Game Exists on investigation, on gathering warred over our planet, unleashing This game exists in order to adapt clues instead of treasure. We cosmic science and inconceivable the greatest RPG of all time, Call designed GUMSHOE to make powers until continents sank of Cthulhu, to a different rules that easier, clearer, and more and seas boiled. Exhausted or set, the GUMSHOE engine. Why direct. GUMSHOE exists to solve a defeated, They fell into an aeons- on Earth would we do a thing problem that many people found long slumber, and the human race like that? First of all, part of what with running Call of Cthulhu goes about its unknowing business makes Call of Cthulhu so great is – one bad die roll can derail an over Their graves and tombs. But its theme, taken from the cosmic adventure. You didn’t find the there are those who want to seek despair of the greatest horror diary, so you didn’t get the spell, so out the fragments of the lore They writer of the 20th century, HP either is destroyed or the left behind. Those who want to Lovecraft. We kept that. Second, Keeper has to scuttle ‘round and learn the secrets of the stars, and part of what makes Call of plant the diary somewhere else. the true names of the dimensions. Cthulhu so great is its deliberate In Trail of Cthulhu, the GUMSHOE Those who want the dead gods’ decision to make characters rules guarantee that you will find powers. Those want to wake Them increasingly vulnerable to the that diary. (We don’t promise not up. horrors they face, to give their to destroy Arkham.) This is not the bravery real meaning and force entirety of what GUMSHOE offers, You are among the few who real mechanical consequences in but it was the starting point for suspect the truth – about the mad the game. We kept that, too. GUMSHOE’s laser-like focus on gods at the center of the universe, investigation. about the Great Old Ones who So what did we change? Let me dream of clearing off the Earth, change the subject. The greatest Some Keepers, and even some about the extra-terrestrials who playwright ever is William players, enjoyed seeing everything use mankind in their experiments, Shakespeare. His greatest play go pear-shaped, and reveled about the ancient legends of is King Lear. Why would Akira in the creative destruction of undying evil that are all coming Kurosawa make that play into the adventure. Some didn’t, and true. You have to make sure nobody a movie? And why would set worked out their own ways else ever finds out — or the world that movie, Ran, in samurai-era around the problem, ways they will wake up screaming. Japan instead of quasi-ancient are perfectly happy with; their Britain? Because more people want own crib sheets to King Lear, if You have to keep the doors to the to – or can — see a movie than you will. We hope there is enough Outside from swinging open – no a play, and because transferring other good stuff in here for them, matter what the cost in life or the story to Japan makes its but Trail of Cthulhu is first and sanity. You have to piece together themes paradoxically clearer than foremost for the Keepers and the clues from books bound in leaving them in the “familiar” players who privilege investigation, human skin, from eviscerated world Shakespeare wrote. Did Ran and who want mechanics that do corpses covered in ichor, and from improve on King Lear, or make it likewise. It’s for fans of procedural inscriptions carved on walls built obsolete? Don’t be ridiculous. Did shows like House or CSI, in which before humanity evolved. You have it do something worth doing by the mystery isn’t “will the lab test to go wherever the answers are, changing King Lear? Absolutely. come back,” but “what do the and do what needs to be done. results mean”? That’s not to say To return to our topic, then: things won’t go wrong for the But do you dare to follow ... the trail Another part of what makes Call players, merely that the wrongness of Cthulhu? of Cthulhu so great is its emphasis won’t be caused by an absence of

6 TRAIL OF CTHULHU

Introduction

Core Concepts Dexter Ward, The Roleplaying Game: We assume you’ve already got this covered. If Horror, and The Shunned House not, see any other roleplaying game book for the mandatory “What is all feature more-or-less resolute Roleplaying” section, or ask your geek friends. monster-hunting Investigators Keeper: The Game Master, or GM. thwarting cosmic evil in Investigators: The Player Characters, or PCs. Howardian fashion. (Robert E Investigative Abilities: Include academic, interpersonal, and technical Howard also wrote at least one abilities. These abilities always work; they are designed to gather fine Purist Mythos tale, The Black clues. Stone.) Many of Lovecraft’s finest General Abilities: The rest of the abilities, including combat abilities tales, such as and “statistics” like Health, Sanity, and Stability. Using or testing them (which features both neurasthenic creates drama; they may fail. scholars uncovering the truth Stability: A short-term measure of your Investigator’s mental health. and police raids on vile cults) and It goes down rapidly during an adventure, but usually refreshes The Shadow Over afterward. (which features both a desperate Sanity: A long-term measure of your Investigator’s blissful ignorance chase through a ruined town of the horrible truths of the Mythos. It goes down slowly, and seldom and a narrative of psychological if ever goes up again. corruption) draw from both modes The Mythos: Short for Cthulhu Mythos, the body of lore created by HP for their power. While it is not our Lovecraft that underlies most, or all, of the horrific events in a Trail job to tell you how to run your of Cthulhu campaign or adventure. game (actually, it is, but we’ll get to HP Lovecraft: American horror writer (1890-1937). All quotes in this that in a later chapter), it seems to rulebook are from his stories and poetry. us that treating Cthulhoid horrors Clue: The point of each scene is to deliver a clue to the mystery, the way HP Lovecraft does would to the Investigator with the relevant investigative ability. When the be a good idea. clue has been delivered, the scene can end, unless there’s a really awesome fight going on. Clues are leads to other scenes; they don’t However, for those who wish to have to be “true.” emphasize one or another idiom, we have indicated those rules and game elements most suited for the Purist mode with the following clues, but how they use them. It’s model. It intends to recreate a symbol: for players who are curious about game of philosophical horror, in the Call, and who want to follow which the act of uncovering the the Trail all the way to the end. truth dooms both active seeker and unfortunate bystander alike.

The second is the Pulp idiom or and those most suited for the Pulp Purist or Pulp or Both? mode, which aims rather for the mode with this one: The game Trail of Cthulhu “desperate action” feel of Robert E is intended to tell stories of Howard’s Cthulhu Mythos stories uncovering the occult horror (The Thing on the Roof, The Fire mysteries of the Cthulhu Mythos. of Asshurbanipal, Skull-Face). It Traditionally, such games fall into intends to focus on the struggle one of two camps. (especially the physical struggle) The Keeper may rule that some against the Mythos, doomed or rules and elements are simply One is the Purist idiom or mode, noble as the case may be. It also not allowed in her games in which takes a subset of HP privileges character survival order to inculcate a specific Lovecraft’s later and starker somewhat more than does the flavor of horror, which is after all works (The Colour Out of Space, Purist idiom. the entire point. An index of Pulp At , and Purist rules can be found on The Shadow Out of Time, The HP Lovecraft, of course, wrote in p 243. Whisperer in Darkness) as its both idioms: The Case of Charles

7 TRAIL OF CTHULHU

The Investigator

Drives Nothing gets you going like the “Our motivation after that List of Drives promise of action, combat, and is something I will leave to strange new experiences. You’re psychologists. We knew now that an adrenaline junkie and if ichor Adventure is the cure, then so be it! Turning some terrible extension of the camp Antiquarianism down an adventure to “play it horrors must have crawled into this Arrogance safe” is like admitting that your nighted burial place of the aeons, whole life was meaningless Artistic Sensitivity hence could not doubt any longer before. the existence of nameless conditions Bad Luck Especially appropriate Curiosity — present or at least recent just for: Criminal, Military, ahead. Yet in the end we did let sheer Duty Parapsychologist, Pilot burning curiosity — or anxiety — or Ennui Example: Harry Houdini in autohypnotism — or vague thoughts Follower of responsibility toward Gedney — or Under the Pyramids. In the Blood what not — drive us on.” Revenge Antiquarianism — At the Mountains of Madness Scholarship “With the years his devotion to Sudden Shock ancient things increased; so that Thirst for Knowledge history, genealogy, and the study of What motivates an Investigator? colonial architecture, furniture, and Why uncover blasted ruins, craftsmanship at length crowded or delve into matters quite everything else from his sphere of obviously best left alone? Because you lose even this dubious benefit interests. These tastes are important some people – perhaps not the (see p. 76). to remember in considering his fortunate, or even the brave – are Driven to do so. Every Any Drive might impel any madness…” Investigator must have a Drive, sort of Investigator, but some — The Case of Charles Dexter Ward a core desire that impels him to Occupations seem more naturally seek strange, far truths at the cost suited to some Drives than others. of everything he once held dear. Such pairings are noted below. The dead past is the only place It is quite literally something more Some Drives, likewise, are better you feel truly alive. Discovering important to you than your life or suited to the Pulp or Purist games, some truth about it, or simply sanity. Although psychologically although any Drive might motivate experiencing old and beautiful an Investigator may be driven by any character in any idiom. houses or items, is the purpose many different forces, and the for living at all. Neglecting the player can roleplay her with such past merely because it seems complexity, mechanically each Adventure unsavory is for brutish, mayfly character should only have one “In all this planning there was much moderns. core Drive. that excited my interest. The fight itself promised to be unique and Especially appropriate for: Refusing to follow an Antiquarian, Archaeologist, Investigator’s Drive, therefore, spectacular, while the thought of the Clergy, Professor costs Stability. Succumbing to scene on that hoary pile overlooking your Drive can temporarily blind the antediluvian plateau of Gizeh … Examples: Charles Dexter Ward, you to the dangers of doing so, appealed to every fibre of imagination Elihu Whipple in The Shunned adding a thin veneer of Stability as in me.” House, and the narrator of He. with open but unseeing eyes you descend into the crypt (see p. 72) . If — Under the Pyramids your sanity is imperiled too much

19 TRAIL OF CTHULHU

Investigative Abilities

‡ coolly ply cops for confidential information

‡ get excused for minor infractions

‡ imply that you are a colleague, authorized to participate in their cases

‡ tell when a cop is lying to you or holding something back

‡ call in favors from law enforcement contacts

Craft (Technical) You can create useful physical objects, working with materials like wood, metal, jewelry, and so forth. Although the resulting cabinets, kettles, or rings may be beautiful, your focus is utility, not art. Like the Art ability, you may focus on one craft (blacksmithing, cabinetry, coopering, etc) or diversify into many; the same rules apply.

You may be able to use your Craft ability to specific investigative ends: discover a secret drawer in a desk if you are a cabinet-maker, and so forth.

Credit Rating (Interpersonal) You are able to operate easily within your economic class, make gunpowder analysis of purchases, mingle socially, cadge bullets or other residue Cop Talk (Interpersonal) invitations or introductions, pick You know how to speak the lingo up rumors or call in favors from ‡ match samples of dirt or of the police, and to make them professional or social contacts, or vegetation from a piece of feel confident and relaxed in your secure a loan. Investigators with evidence to a scene presence. You may be a current or no Credit Rating score might be former cop, or simply the kind of hoboes or drifters, they may just ‡ perform chemical document person they immediately identify distrust banks, or they may have analysis on ink or paper as a solid, trustworthy citizen. You no real ability to schmooze. What can: counts as “your economic class”

32 Player Name: Josh

Investigator Name: Martin Harvesson 1 Sanity Drive: Revenge (for dead partner) 0123 Occupation:2 Private Investigator 4567 Occupational benefits: Spend points 2-for-1 after 8 9 10 11 Rolling Disguise or Shadowing 12 13 14 15 Pillars of Sanity: Moral Code, Loves Chicago, Hit Threshold3 4 notion of human worth Stability Build Points: 0 -12 -11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 01 23 Academic Abilities Interpersonal Abilities General Abilities 45 67 Accounting 8 9 10 11 * Anthropology Assess Honesty 3 Athletics 8 12 13 14 15 * Archaeology Bargain Conceal Health Architecture Bureaucracy* Disguise(I) 10 -12 -11 -10 -9 Art History Cop Talk 3 *Driving 10 -8 -7 -6 -5 Biology Credit Rating 2 Electrical Repair(I) -4 -3 -2 -1 Cthulhu Mythos4 Flattery Explosives(I) 01 2 3 Cryptography Interrogation Filch 4567 Geology Intimidation 3 Firearms5 5 8 9 10 11 History Oral History First Aid 12 13 14 15 Languages6 * Reassurance 3 Fleeing7 Streetwise 3 Health9 6 Hypnosis8 Mechanical Repair(I) 1 In a Pulp game where Sanity 6 can be recovered, mark Sanity Technical Abilities Piloting pool loss with a line, Sanity Law 1 Preparedness rating loss with a cross. * Library Use Art Psychoanalysis 2 Occupational abilities are half price. Mark them with a * Medicine Astronomy Riding before assigning points. Occult Chemistry Sanity9 10 3 Hit Threshold is 3, 4 if your Physics Craft Stability9 8 Athletics is 8 or higher Theology Evidence Collection 2 Scuffling (I) These General abiltities * double up as Investigative Forensics 1 Sense Trouble 8 abilities *Locksmith 3 * Shadowing 10 4 Usually, you can’t start with Outdoorsman Stealth 8 Cthulhu Mythos. Sanity is limited to 10-Cthulhu Mythos. Pharmacy Weapons 2 5 In a Pulp game If your * Photography 2 Firearms rating is 5 you can fire two pistols at once (see p. 42) 6 Assign one language per point, during play. Record them here. 7 Any Fleeing rating above SOURCES OF STABILITY: CONTACTS AND NOTES twice your Athletics rating costs one point for two. Joan (Plucky, fast-talking 8 Only Alienists and Parapsycholigists can buy secretary) Hypnosis, and only in a Pulp game Lieutenant McAllen (former partner) 9 You start with 4 free Sanity points, 1 Health and 1 Stability point. TRAIL OF CTHULHU

Fighting

Creatures may choose to use their Horribly, Realistically, actions to deal additional damage Lethal Firearms to downed or helpless opponents You would be amazed, or perhaps you wouldn’t, at the number of rather than engage active playtesters who complained that a single gunshot would not reliably opponents. They automatically kill their character. Firearms are chancy things, even in expert hands deal once instance of damage per – there is a fully attested report of a gunfight involving three guns and action. Only the most crazed and thirty shots fired, that occurred entirely inside a police car, in which bestial human enemies engage in nobody was seriously injured. Every cop in the world has a story about this behavior. the guy who “just wouldn’t stay shot.” There is even an argument that until a character gets below 0 Health points, Health points have the Combatants who join an affray same abstract function as other pools. But that said, we plead guilty to in progress come last in order making gunfights sort of survivable in the name of continuing drama. of precedence. If more than two combatants join during the same After all, a .38 pistol will do only 4 points per shot on average, meaning round, the Keeper determines it will take two shots to knock a Health 6 target down to Hurt. Now, if their relative precedence using that’s two point-blank shots (6 points apiece), those two bullets will very the rules above. likely knock that Health 6 storm trooper down to Seriously Wounded and force a Consciousness roll. It would take two maxed-out (rolling a The fight continues until one 6 on each die) point-blank shots, 18 points total, to kill him. side capitulates or flees, or all of So, if you want a more realistic damage result from firearms, with its members are unconscious or a possible one-shot kill, the simplest way to do it is to treat all Hurt otherwise unable to continue. results to humans from firearms as Seriously Wounded results. Where bruising or even hacking damage might be “shaken off,” any gunshot that drops your Health pool to 0 or below does an additional +6 points Armor of damage. A single point-blank shot from a heavy firearm can now Armor may reduce the damage potentially kill your Investigator instantly, assuming her Health pool is 3 from certain weapon types. If or less. Even if her Health pool is 9 or less, it could potentially force her you’re wearing a form of armor to lose consciousness, which is probably just as bad, or even worse in effective against the weapon some circumstances. being used against you, you Monsters, especially Mythos monsters, don’t suffer any such extra subtract a number of points from damage from gunshots unless the Keeper explicitly rules that they do. each instance of damage dealt Making NPCs drop dead on a bullet wound is easy – just give them 0 to you before applying it to your or less Health points. This isn’t necessarily a measure of their actual Health pool. fortitude, it’s more likely to have narrative significance. For example, an NPC the PCs are talking to might be shot dead by a single bullet before In the 1930s, there is essentially revealing important information. no personal body armor available besides Great War surplus helmets. A “tin hat” reduces combatant taking an action, is within range, or concentrate all of damage from bullets and cutting called a round. When one round them on a single enemy. or slashing weapons by 2 points, ends, another begins. (For speed of and from clubs or blunt trauma play, however, ranking order stays Once the fight has begun, if a by 1 point. It is only effective where it was at the beginning of combatant wishes to do something against head shots, of course. the combat even if pool values else besides fight – run away, have changed.) When called upon jump up on the sideboard for At the Keeper’s discretion, tough to act, each combatant may strike a tactical advantage, throw a leather jackets, thick raccoon at any opponent within range of grenade – they move immediately coats, or other heavy outer his weapons. Some supernatural to the last position in the ranking garments might reduce damage creatures may strike more than order as they turn to expose their from small knives, improvised once per round. They make each vulnerable back to the foe, shake weapons, fists, or clubs by 1 point. attack in succession, and may off the adrenaline, fumble for the divide them up between opponents pin, or whatever.

62 TRAIL OF CTHULHU

Stability, Sanity and Madness

Why Two Abilities? GUMSHOE gets by just fine with Stability as a catch-all, while Call of Cthulhu uses Sanity to measure both Mythos-ignorance and mental health. Why separate the two? Fundamentally, it seems necessary to do it in order to model as many of Lovecraft’s characters and stories as possible. The Sanity rules in Call of Cthulhu superbly model a Lovecraft character like Francis Thurston in The Call of Cthulhu, who skirts the edge of madness merely after reading a few news clippings and diaries, or Professor Nathaniel Peaslee in The Shadow Out of Time, who goes mad after discovering that his nightmares are actually memories and seeing his own handwriting in the ancient Yithian city of Pnakotus. It likewise suitably models characters driven mad by the traumatic shock of encountering actual Mythos entities, such as Robert Blake in or the narrator of Dagon. But Lovecraft’s fiction also features folks like Dr Armitage in , who has read the at least twice and has a terrifying level of Cthulhu Mythos knowledge, but who remains outwardly completely stable and respectable even in the face of a Spawn of Yog-Sothoth. He has a very high Stability, even if his Sanity – his ability to believe in the pious legends of faith and science — is perilously low. A middle case is young Danforth from At the Mountains of Madness, who “comes unstrung” upon seeing an onrushing and retains a morbid fear of subways henceforth. But he is able to pull himself together to fly the plane out of Antarctica, and his “final breakdown” only comes after he reads the entire Necronomicon and makes horrible sense of his last sight of Kadath. The narrator of that novel, Dyer, also saw the shoggoth (though not the final glance), and is at least familiar with some of the Cthulhu Mythos, but remains stable enough to keep his academic post. However, Dyer apparently believes that even knowledge of the Elder Things’ city is almost as dangerous as the lurking therein. Examples from Lovecraft’s fiction can be endlessly multiplied, but we decided on this as the bottom line: Although Mythos knowledge can be dangerous to your mental health, it is only by applying it to the “piecing together of dissociated knowledge” – in game terms, by using your Cthulhu Mythos ability – that the truth begins to hurt. That said, being swarmed by an army of Deep Ones or seeing the rise of Great Cthulhu will mess you up big time, no matter how you interpret it to yourself.

incidents, using the examples the sand and then flow suffers a Stability loss of 3. provided as a benchmark. toward the mountains. Having spent 1 point on his Some especially overwhelming Since this is a djinn bonus and lost another 3 creatures, especially Mythos created by human to the failure, Martin’s new monsters, may impose higher sorcery, and not a Mythos Stability pool value is 4. than normal Stability losses when creature, Martin’s player seen from a distance, seen up Josh will be trying to The Keeper should cap total Stability close, or ripping your lungs out. beat a Difficulty of 4. loss for any given incident at the In adventures, when a Stability (If it had been a Sand- highest potential single Stability loss. test is called for, a Stability test Dweller, for instance, Josh with a potential loss of 4 points is would be trying to beat a Martin and his friend described as “a 4-point Stability Difficulty of 5.) Confident Daniel are in the North test.” that this mere glimpse End cemetery on a cloudy of a creature constitutes afternoon looking for Here’s a Stability test in action: only a minor brush with genealogical data on a destabilizing weirdness, suspected immortal wizard. Martin’s current Stability Josh elects to spend only Suddenly, a small pack of is 8. While staking out 1 point to bolster his roll. rat-things bursts from an a dismal warehouse on Alas, he rolls a 1, for a open grave and attacks the outskirts of Tangier, result of 2, two lower than them. (For dramatic he sees a jerky, grayish the Difficulty Number. purposes, the Keeper figure materialize out of Having failed, Martin chooses to call for a single

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Gods and Titans

star cluster and in primordial scaly, slug-like creature bloated Hastur Mongolia), and the mystical with fluid. Those who promise “There is a whole secret cult of evil Lake of Hali, as well as the themselves to Hastur become men (a man of your mystical erudition things that dwell therein. as such creatures over time as will understand me when I link them they gain in eldritch power and ‡+DVWXULVWKHOHDGHURIWKH*UHDW knowledge. with Hastur and the Yellow Sign) Old Ones associated with the devoted to the purpose of tracking Element of Air, and therefore ‡+DVWXULVDQ2XWHU*RGWKH them down and injuring them on behalf with flight through outer space. incarnation of (or a sentient of the monstrous powers from other His servitors, the byakhee, fly facet of) the weak nuclear force dimensions.” both astrally and physically of radioactive decay, one of the between Aldebaran and Earth, four fundamental forces within — The Whisperer in Darkness and to other locations where our space-time. As such, Hastur Hastur has made his presence is invisible and can only be ‡+DVWXUWKH8QVSHDNDEOHGZHOOV known. sensed psychically as a kind of near the star Aldebaran in the crumbling pressure. constellation Taurus, possibly ‡+DVWXULVDVHQWLHQW RUDWOHDVW trapped in the gravity well of self-willed) meme, or rather ‡7KH1RW7R%H1DPHGLVWKH a dark neutron star. He is an a viral complex of memes consort-god of Shub-Niggurath. octopoid Great Old One similar centered on alienation, ennui, These two deities, representing in form to Cthulhu, with an and despair. If, say, an artist decay and fecundity, entropy unbearably horrific face. He depicts futile conversations and gigantism, melancholy has an active cult on Earth, on the edge of reality, she and mania, are the historical especially among the Tcho-Tcho inculcates Hastur into the belief substrate of all human religion, people and experimental artists. systems of her susceptible the Dying God and the Earth viewers. “Seeing the Yellow Mother. Their true worship still ‡+DVWXULVWKHHPERGLPHQWRI Sign” is a kind of perceptual occurs in K’n-yan. entropy and decay. Just as stigmata that occurs as the intelligence is merely a local brain begins to become manifestation of higher order, convinced of Hastur’s centrality. Ithaqua Hastur is the mirror image of “And above the nighted screaming of that, a kind of localized anti- ‡+DVWXUWKH)HDVWHU)URP$IDU men and horses that dæmonic drumming intelligence that manifests is a black, shriveled, manta- rose to louder pitch, whilst an ice- as paranoia, despair, futility, shaped flying entity with unreason, and ennui. Whether extensible taloned feelers. Its cold wind of shocking sentience and Hastur has any “real” existence eyes and aura glow iridescently deliberateness swept down from those is impossible to say definitively. with no known color, and it forbidden heights and coiled about each liquefies and consumes its man separately, till all the cohort was ‡+DVWXULVQRWWKHJRGµVWUXH victim-worshippers’ brains, struggling and screaming in the dark…” name, but that of one of his cult draining them through its centers. He is better called the feelers and merging their — The Very Old Folk Magnum Innomiandum (“the consciousness with itself. Great Unnamable”) or He Who ‡7KH*UHDW2OG2QH,WKDTXD Is Not To Be Named. According ‡+DVWXUµVSRZHUVDUHJUHDWHVW the Wind-Walker, dwells in to occult legend, speaking the on high plateaus (such as Leng the Arctic wastes. It abducts name of the god three times or Tsang) and mountaintops. lone travelers or those who summons him, with gruesome His cult anciently included have attracted its unfavorable consequences. shepherds who feared his attention, carrying them off wrath but learned to placate into the auroral skies. They are ‡+DVWXUWKH.LQJLQ

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The Cthulhu Mythos

Time: Summoning takes 30 minutes of maniacal piping; binding takes five minutes (or 4 rounds with an Art spend to play very fast). Summon/Bind Star Vampire May be cast only at night under a cloudless sky; may be cast indoors if the room has open windows. The caster must read the incantation (it begins: “Tibi Magnum Innomiandum, signa stellarum nigrarum et bufaniformis Sadoquae sigillum …”) aloud from a book. (The Enchant Item spell for this spell is a book with ink containing star vampire ichor.) The summoned star vampire floats down from the stars invisibly. It can be sent after someone of whose blood the caster has a sample, or after the bearer of a certain rune inked in star vampire ichor. If the caster does not immediately present such a sample, or gesture toward such a rune, the star vampire feasts on him instead.

An unbound star vampire resists binding with an Inertia of 12.

6WDELOLW\7HVW'LI¿FXOW\ 4

Cost: 4 Stability

Time: Ten minutes Tikkoun Elixir This clear fluid damages beings not native to the planet Earth, acting as a very strong acid (see p. 68) to them. Its key ingredient is water from the four sacred In a game using the elemental Elixir. They are most likely sadly rivers (the Ganges, the Jordan, and conception of the Mythos, it is mistaken, but only the Keeper two others chosen by the Keeper doubly effective against Earth- knows for sure. for inaccessibility and symbolic aspected deities and their weight), but there are other rare creatures. Some occult texts 6WDELOLW\7HVW'LI¿FXOW\ 5 (4 with and mystical essences within it as written by devout Catholic Occult spend) well. It must be poured or thrown scholars claim that holy water onto (or through) the target entity has the same effect as, or is Cost: 2 Stability or 4 Occult (or or creature. another name for, the Tikkoun Theology, in some games) to

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