Trail of Cthulhu.Pdf
TRAIL OF CTHULHU
Credits
Publisher: Simon Rogers
Written by: Kenneth Hite
GUMSHOE System: Robin D Laws
Layout: Jérôme Huguenin
Art: Jérôme Huguenin
GUMSHOE Guru: Robin D Laws
Editing and Additional Material: Simon Rogers
Based on: Call of Cthulhu by Sandy Petersen and Lynn Willis
Special thanks : Effie and Julia Huguenin, Léo and Pascal Quidault
Playtesting: Adrian Price, Steve Dempsey, Wai Kien, Adrian Smith, Graham Walmsley, Alex Fradera, Dave, Polymancer Studios, Simon Rogers, Daniel Bayn, Danni Bayn, Chris Malone, Mark DiPasquale, Matthew Pook, Tim Barker, Louise Hayes, David Lai, Mike Shepard, Carla Jane Miller, Elizabeth Rees, Robert Mills, Donald F. Taylor III, Richard Hardy, Lynne Hardy, Frederic Moll, Fredrik Hansson, Jeff Campbel Jamie Michael, Joshua Ford, Marcus Ogawa, Lisa Marie Ogawa, Gil Trevizo, Henry de Veuve, Ronald Abitz, Steve Bartalamay, Alan Fountain, Peter Kessler, Wojciech “Alter” Kobza, Laurent Mollicone, Olivier Noël, Wayne O’Connor, Ghislain Morel, James Semple, Gabriella Semple, Dan Pusceddu, Olive Pusceddu, Axel Eble, Stefan Ohrmann, Martin Schrammm, Onno Tasler, Ralf Achenbach, William C Bargo Jr, Jacques Maurice Mallah, Donald F. Taylor III, Keith A Callison, Doug
© 2007 Pelgrane Press Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Published by arrangement with Chaosium, Inc. Trail of Cthulhu is a trademark of Pelgrane Press Ltd.
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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 Cthulhu Mythos (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 Pools.80 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 Azathoth...... 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 Dagon...... 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 Hastur...... 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 Nyarlathotep...... 96 Bad Luck...... 20 Health...... 43 Quachil Uttaus...... 98 Curiosity...... 21 Hypnosis...... 43 Shub-Niggurath...... 99 Duty...... 21 Mechanical Repair...... 44 Tsathoggua...... 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 Sheet.49 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 Deep One...... 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 Elder Thing...... 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
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Contents
Ghoul...... 133 Haiti...... 178 Sheriff O’Donnell Spells It Out For Gnoph-Keh...... 134 Louisiana...... 178 You...... 216 Great Race of Yith...... 135 Mongolia...... 178 At First Glance...... 216 Hound of Tindalos...... 135 Peru...... 179 Frank Dolezal’s Apartment Hunting Horror...... 138 Rumania...... 179 (2941 E. 22nd)...... 216 K’n-Yani...... 139 Saudi Arabia...... 179 Cleveland by Night...... 219 Lemurian...... 139 Soviet Union...... 180 Lester’s Tavern...... 219 Lloigor...... 140 South Pacific Mandate...... 180 Nadie’s Tattoos...... 220 Masqut...... 142 Spain...... 181 Brood of Coatlicue...... 220 Mi-Go...... 142 Thibet...... 181 The Picture in the Tavern...... 221 Nightgaunt...... 144 Technology, Weapons, and Meet One-Armed Willie...... 221 Rat-Thing...... 145 Equipment...... 182 The Crazy Greek...... 222 Sand-Dweller...... 146 Vehicles...... 183 Meet Detective Merylo...... 222 Serpent-Folk...... 146 Vehicle Table...... 184 Eddies of Charybdis...... 222 Servitor of the Outer Gods...... 147 Aircraft Table...... 185 Investigating Scylla Shan...... 148 Weapons...... 185 and van Schaen...... 223 Shantak...... 149 Hardware and Sundries...... 187 The Painting...... 223 Shoggoth...... 150 Western Reserve University...... 224 Son of Yog-Sothoth...... 151 Putting It The van Schaen Mansion...... 224 Space-Eater...... 151 All Together...... 190 “Eleven” and “Twelve”...... 225 Star Vampire...... 152 Tips For Players...... 190 Fear Death By Water...... 225 Tcho-Tcho...... 152 Believe You Might Succeed...... 190 Confronting van Schaen...... 226 Xothian...... 153 Justify Your Casting...... 190 Loose Ends And Further Trails...... 227 Beasts and Monsters...... 155 Drives Drive You Forward...... 190 Allosaur...... 155 When Stuck, Look For More Appendices...... 228 Bear...... 155 Information...... 191 Appendix 1: BRP and GUMSHOE..... 228 Crocodile...... 155 Talk To People...... 191 GUMSHOE-style play Gorilla...... 155 Keep Moving Forward...... 191 using BRP rules...... 228 Lake Monster...... 155 Deputize Yourself...... 191 Converting BRP to GUMSHOE...... 228 Lion...... 156 Tips For Keepers...... 191 Appendix 2: Sources Mummy...... 156 Designing Scenarios...... 191 and Resources...... 230 Rat Swarm...... 156 Managing Scenarios...... 198 HP Lovecraft...... 230 Shark...... 157 Maintaining Menace...... 203 Howard and Derleth...... 230 Snake...... 157 Other Mythos Authors...... 231 Vampire...... 157 Campaign Frames...... 204 Other Horrorists...... 231 Wolf...... 158 Other Fiction...... 232 Yeti...... 159 The Armitage Inquiry...... 206 Setting...... 206 Non-Fiction...... 232 Zombie...... 159 Appendix 3: Useful Documents...... 232 Cults and Cultists...... 160 Style...... 206 Mythos...... 206 Trail of Cthulhu Ahnenerbe...... 160 Character Sheet...... 233 Black Dragon Society...... 161 Investigators...... 206 Continuing NPCs...... 206 Keeper’s Investigator Matrix...... 234 Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign...161 Investigative Ability Checklist...... 235 Cult of Cthulhu...... 162 Rules Variations...... 207 Pitch...... 207 Campaign Frame Notes...... 236 Cult of the Skull...... 163 Appendix 4: Contributors...... 238 Starry Wisdom Sect...... 164 Project Covenant...... 207 Witch-Cult...... 165 Setting...... 208 Yithian Agents...... 165 Style...... 208 INDICES...... 239 Mythos...... 208 Alien Races...... 239 Investigators...... 208 Beasts and Monsters...... 239 The Thirties...... 168 Continuing NPCs...... 208 Gods and Titans...... 239 A Desperate Decade...... 168 Rules Variations...... 209 Spells...... 239 Poverty...... 169 Pitch...... 209 General Index...... 240 Famine...... 170 Book-Hounds of London...... 209 War...... 170 Setting...... 210 The Nightmare Countries...... 175 Style...... 210 Abyssinia...... 175 Mythos...... 210 Antarctica...... 175 Investigators...... 211 Belgian Congo...... 175 Continuing NPCs...... 211 Brazil...... 175 Rules Variations...... 211 Burma...... 176 Pitch...... 213 Easter Island...... 176 Egypt...... 176 The Kingsbury Horror...214 Germany...... 177 The Spine...... 214 Greenland...... 177 Premise...... 215
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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 Arkham 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 he 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
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Introduction
Core Concepts Dexter Ward, The Dunwich 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 The Call of Cthulhu 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 Innsmouth 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 the Mountains of Madness, 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
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TRAIL OF CTHULHU
The Investigator
“There can be nothing normal in the not. Regardless of an Investigator’s . The other listed Occupations mind of one who, knowing what I chosen career, uncovering the are both typical of the 1930s and knew of the horrors of Tempest secrets of the Mythos has become rife with potential for eldritch Mountain, would seek alone for her life’s work. encounters. the fear that lurked there…. Yet I Every Occupation description continued my quest with even greater Occupations includes its Occupational abilities zeal as events and revelations became Before discovering the Mythos, (see p. 23), its Credit Rating band more monstrous.” your Investigator did something (see p. 32), and any special abilities else; something you may still do or rules that Investigators with — The Lurking Fear to keep body and soul together that Occupation can use. You while he risks both. This is can buy and build Occupational In Trail of Cthulhu, your your Occupation, which helps abilities at half-price, so pick an player character is called an determine the abilities you will use Occupation geared to what you “Investigator” because that is what during your adventures. want your Investigator to be able player characters do: investigate to do in the game. the (often horrible) occult The Occupations typical of mysteries that conceal the truth of Lovecraftian characters the Cthulhu Mythos. Investigators (Antiquarian, Artist, Author, List of Occupations may be professional investigators Dilettante, Doctor, Journalist, Police Alienist such as detectives, police, or Detective, and Professor) are government agents, or they may marked with the Purist symbol Antiquarian Archaeologist Artist Investigator Creation Quick Reference Author Ask your Keeper how the campaign frame (see p. 204) affects character creation. This can, for example, set the number of build Clergy points available or give caps on certain abilities. Criminal Choose your Investigator’s original Occupation (see p. 9). Decide if Dilettante you still follow it, or if you have abandoned your job to become a full- time (and likely increasingly impoverished and ostracized) uncoverer Doctor of Mythos truths. In a one-shot adventure, you may not have time to Hobo quit your job! Based on your own conception of your Investigator’s character Journalist and backstory, choose your Drive (see p. 19). Military Spend build points (see p. 23) on your abilities (see p. 28), making Nurse sure your party as a whole has as many abilities as possible covered. Define the Pillars of your Sanity (see p. 46); and Sources of your Parapsychologist Stability, (p. 48), if your campaign uses them. Pilot Choose any contacts you have (see p. 31) Police Detective At any point during this process, decide on your Investigator’s name, birthplace, favorite cigarettes, religious beliefs, or anything Private Investigator else that you think will help you understand and roleplay your Professor Investigator. Scientist
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Occupations
lore (such as a memoir or the Alienist privately published ranting of A specialist in mental illness, a crackpot); dealers in silver you may be a Vienna-trained may have ornamental daggers; psychoanalyst, a neurologist importers may have a “queer who studies brain function, or tribal mask from the Congo.” To a medical doctor with a strong remember and uncover such interest in behavioral science. an item requires a use of the Although Freudian theories are corresponding ability (e.g., Art coming to dominate the field, History, Library Use). they are far from universally understood or accepted. This item may either contain a core clue for solving the mystery, Occupational Abilities: Biology, or it may provide a weapon or Languages (German and Latin), technique for resolving it. In the Library Use, Medicine, Pharmacy, first instance, you might be able Psychoanalysis, Assess Honesty, to avoid sneaking into the creepy and any other two Interpersonal abandoned church in search abilities. of their blasphemous hymnal – you have a shellac pressing of Credit Rating: 3-4 the hymn in your used record- albums bin. In the second case, Special: By using Medicine or an You may put build points into, you needn’t hunt down the Interpersonal ability, you have and use, the Hypnosis ability (see Enchant Flute spell to drive off access to mental records and p. 43). the lloigor – you have a set of sanitarium wards generally off Pan-pipes used in Orphic rites limits to the public. If you are a in decadent Cyrene. (Also in the licensed MD (a Medicine rating of Antiquarian second case, the effectiveness of 2 or more), you can do the same As much a state of mind as the item may depend on the size for medical records and hospital a profession, you value the of your spend.) wards. past and willingly immerse yourself in it. You may have a If you leave the city where your You make Psychoanalysis small independent income, you collection or shop is stored, you tests for Psychological Triage may be a resident scholar at a may not necessarily be able to (see p. 79) at a Difficulty of 3, museum or gallery, or you may use this ability (and certainly not instead of 4. It costs you only 1 condescend to deal in antiques, in a convenient fashion), unless Psychoanalysis point instead of 2 books, or the objets d’art of a you have an assistant you can to stabilize an erratic character. more gracious era. trust to find the item and mail You can recover your own it to you … and you’re willing Stability, but you only recover Occupational Abilities: to wait a week for the mail to 1 point for each Psychoanalysis Architecture, Art History, Bargain, arrive while the cultists build point you spend. History, Languages, Law, Library their vortex of power. Use, and any one Investigative You can use Assess Honesty ability as a personal specialty. The Keeper is well within her as forensic psychology. From rights to deny your possession the details of a crime scene, you Credit Rating: 2-5 of powerful Mythos artifacts, can, based on past case studies effective spell books, and so of similar offenses, assemble a Special: Once per adventure, forth, or to deny anything that profile detailing the perpetrator’s you may have an informative seems abusive or just makes no likely personal history, age, habits or suitable item for the current narrative sense. She is also well and attitudes. You will probably investigation “back at the shop.” within her rights to add other need to remind the Keeper of Antiquarian book dealers may side effects to your item. this use of the ability. have a relevant volume of
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The Investigator
Occupations and Gender “Some of the experiments she proposed were very daring and radical … but he had confidence in her powers and intentions.” — The Thing on the Doorstep In 1930, about a quarter of American women held jobs outside the home. During the Depression, attempting to preserve what jobs there were for “bread winners,” 26 of 48 states passed laws against the employment of married women. This had essentially no effect; in 1940, the proportion of working women had slightly increased. Of those women, most worked in clerical jobs, sales, or as domestic servants. Some worked in factories – mostly clothing, light industry, and piecework. Less than a tenth of a percent of American women had professional jobs (besides teaching and nursing) during the decade. This means exactly nothing for players of Trail of Cthulhu. The default option (and the publisher’s assumption) is that if you can suspend your disbelief sufficiently to imagine giant betentacled monstrosities, then a female doctor should be no problem. While a Purist game would indeed be comfortably all-male, the popular culture of the era celebrated exciting, adventurous women, both fictional (Doc Savage’s hellcat sister Patricia, the Shadow’s top operative Margo Lane, the Spider’s fiancée and fellow gunslinger Archaeologist Nita Van Sloan) and factual (aviator Beryl Markham, evangelist You travel to strange, far places Aimee Semple McPherson, outlaw Ma Barker). In movies, the 1930s to uncover the past. You may be was the golden age of the independent heroine, feisty or dangerous, a meticulous scholar, working from screwball comedy to noir. Women authors, then as now, ruled in libraries and devoting your the best-seller lists, and the “gal reporter” was already a stereotype career to a single dig, or you when Lois Lane embodied it in 1938. Female scholars had long may be little better than a tomb since breached the ivory tower – Egyptologist turned anthropologist robber, wielding a bullwhip and Margaret Murray may be the woman most often mentioned in pistol to bring trophies back to Lovecraft’s tales. America’s first female private eye joined the your museum. You may depend Pinkertons before the Civil War, and by the 1930s, there were gun- on such treasures to fund your toting “Policewomen” in the NYPD, mostly assigned to the vice squad. expeditions, or you may get Even in a realistic game, then, the only Occupation actually closed grants from universities and to female Investigators is the Military. Certainly, in a historically foundations. realistic game, a female Investigator will likely suffer from condescension, unwelcome advances, and misplaced chivalry, among Occupational Abilities: other sexist nonsense. But like Miss Marple (or the historical NKVD Archaeology, Athletics, Evidence agent Melita Norwood, who began spying for Stalin in 1937), she may Collection, First Aid, History, find that being underestimated is quite an advantage in ferreting out Languages, Library Use, Riding, secrets. And in a Pulp game, the sky is literally the limit. Ask Amelia and any two other Investigative Earhart. abilities.
Credit Rating: 4-5 have academic credentials (both Artist Special: By using Archaeology or an Archaeology rating of 2+ and Whether you are a painter, a a suitable Interpersonal ability, a Credit Rating of 3+), you can musician, a sculptor, an architect, you can get access to museum get access to closed stacks at a or even a performer, you follow storage areas or be allowed to university library. your Muse where she leads. handle artifacts. (You will likely Sensitive and temperamental, not get to carry them away with by reputation if not in fact, you you legally, regardless.) If you already inhabit a demimonde that
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Occupations
Credit Rating: 1-3 Creating an Occupation It may come to pass that a player wants a different sort of Special: You may use any Investigator than the generous selection already provided. The Keeper downtime in an adventure to should first determine if the requested Occupation is better expressed refresh one Academic pool point, as a specialized version of pre-existing Occupation: Author, Criminal, up to a maximum of four times Dilettante, Professor, and Scientist especially leave a lot of elbow per session. This represents time room for variation. If so, the Keeper and player should work together spent reading, checking notes to tweak the ability lists of the existing Occupation to best suit the and files, and so forth; Keepers player’s vision. Swapping out one or two Abilities is usually enough should resist allowing this when – swapping Athletics for Driving, for example, transforms the Pilot the Investigator would not have into a Sailor. (Access to a plane becomes access to a boat or ship.) the time or resources to do the Entirely new Occupations should have between seven and nine necessary reading. That said, Occupational Abilities; provide fewer for Occupations with wider Trail of Cthulhu adventures will latitude for choice or with better special abilities. (Needless to say, no likely be rife with libraries that Occupation should have Credit Rating, Cthulhu Mythos, Health, Sanity, invite any author worth her salt or Stability as Occupational Abilities.) Interpolating a Credit Rating to say “You guys check the rest band should be relatively simple from the existing examples and the of the house, I’m going to hit the Credit Rating discussion on p. 32. books here for an hour or two.” Special rules for Occupations generally fall into one of two categories: privileged access to parts of the setting and hence to clue-generating scenes (police files for Police Detectives, etc) or neat Clergy mechanical tweaks (like the post-hoc spends for Criminal and Private Itinerant revival preacher, Investigator). The first is easier to create and to justify. The Keeper trusted neighborhood priest, should try to avoid doing the second unless she’s come up with scholarly rabbi, or eager something totally awesome that she is confident will not unbalance missionary, the varieties of the Investigator party. clerical life present many of the same challenges to those who listen most intently for God’s most never understand. have the time or resources to call. You may be predisposed to polish their skill. believe in the supernatural, but Occupational Abilities: you are peculiarly vulnerable to Architecture, Art, Art History, the maltheistic revelations of the Craft, Disguise, Flattery, Author Mythos. Photography, Assess Honesty, You use words to capture and any two Academic or existence, to conceal yourself, to Occupational Abilities: History, Interpersonal abilities as personal reveal the truth, or to sell fantasy Languages (Latin, Greek, specialties. to Depression-stricken readers. Aramaic, or Hebrew), Library Use, Perhaps all of the above. Your Psychoanalysis, Assess Honesty, Credit Rating: 1-4 labors are solitary and your Reassurance, Theology, and one rewards sporadic; you may have other Interpersonal ability. Special: You may refresh too much time to think. With one pool point in an ability discipline and a modicum of skill, Credit Rating: 2-5 representing your chosen art though, even a pulp writer can form (Art, Architecture, Craft, still keep his head above water. Special: By using Theology or Photography, etc) during any Reassurance you can gain access significant downtime in an Occupational Abilities: Art, to church records not generally adventure, up to a maximum History, Languages, Library Use, or easily available to the public. of four times per session. This Oral History, Assess Honesty, and Mere clerical status does not represents time spent rehearsing, three other abilities as personal guarantee you access to the “Z” sketching, or what have you; specialties or left over from Collection in the Vatican Library Keepers should resist allowing previous jobs. or similarly secret archives, of this when the artist would not course, although a sufficiently
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The Investigator grandiose spend and a kindly dedicate yourself to any pursuit Keeper might make such a thing you choose. possible. Occupational Abilities: Credit If you identify yourself as a Rating, Flattery, Riding, and any member of the clergy (or are five abilities you choose. wearing your traditional garb), once per game session you may Credit Rating: 3+ freely refresh any Interpersonal ability pool by talking to one of Special: You may use your your co-religionists (though not a Credit Rating pool to call on fellow Investigator). personal connections in any field of endeavor. These contacts Psychoanalysis is not one of will generally be relatives, old your Occupational abilities. schoolfellows, and similar people of your social class. You make Psychoanalysis tests for Psychological Triage (see p. 79) at a Difficulty of 3, instead Doctor of 4. You see your work as emblematic of the best in society: rational, A priest can bless holy water, humane, clean, and selfless. If save the souls of the dying with Credit Rating: 0-4 only society could be cured or cut extreme unction, use crucifixes free of its diseases the way the to fend off vampires, and even Special: Criminals with point body can be purged by treatment exorcise demons (though not pools in Conceal, Filch, or or surgery! The wealthier and the entities of the Mythos) in a Shadowing may spend points more successful doctors can contest of Stability against the after rolling the die for a test. For avoid the blood and filth that demon’s Health. Other clergy every 2 points you spend after their noble aims are built upon. may have similar ritual powers. rolling the die, you increase the This benefit is dependent on the die result by 1. This only applies Occupational Abilities: campaign frame (see p. 204). if you are undistracted and not Accounting, Biology, First Aid, directly observed. It never applies Forensics, Languages (Latin), during a contest. You must Medicine, Pharmacy, Assess Criminal describe the thing that almost Honesty, Reassurance. Those who live on the other side went wrong, and how you caught of the law are already aware of it barely in time or succeeded Credit Rating: 4-6 a secret world of degeneracy, through sheer luck. desperation, and evil beneath Special: By using Medicine or the normal ways of civilization. Members of the Mafia may Reassurance, you have access Some criminals have built their take one free rating point in to medical records and hospital own codes and laws to shield Languages to know Italian. wards generally off limits to the themselves from the realization Members of similar criminal public. If you are affiliated with that all human order is breakable organizations may have similar a hospital, sanitarium, or other by acts of will. Others revel in ratings at the Keeper’s discretion. facility, you can automatically use this discovery. Reassurance to talk your way into any part of your institution Occupational Abilities: Bargain, Dilettante from the drugs locker to the deep Intimidation, Locksmith, Scuffling, You are self-supporting, living freeze. Sense Trouble, Shadowing, off an inheritance, trust fund, Stealth, Streetwise, and one other or other source of independent When you use First Aid, each Interpersonal or Technical ability income. Free from the pressures point spent heals 3 Health points, as a personal specialty. of forced employment, you may rather than 2. (You gain 2 Health
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Occupations
Amateur Journalism Before the Internet, obsessed technical hobbyists still figured out ways to tell each other their opinions on things. In the 1930s, they called themselves “amateur journalists,” publishing poetry, fiction, commentary, politics, and research themselves using hectographs, spirit duplicators (“Ditto machines,” to those of us who attended grade school in the 1960s), or even printing presses. (Some amateur journalists owned their own press; most simply hired a local printer or a fellow amateur.) Generally a single editor collated all contributors’ submissions (including those received from “Mailing Bureaux” created to supply copy) into a single issue, mailing it out to subscribers. In some APAs (Amateur Press Associations), only contributors could subscribe, but some (like their heirs the zines) were also sold to outsiders. An amateur journalist in the 1930s would be most likely to publish creative writing or politics, but in the world of Trail of Cthulhu, there’s nothing that says an APA editor wouldn’t focus on Fortean phenomena, folk-lore, ghosts, and psychic research. (A really good issue might even count as a Mythos tome!) She might even count HP Lovecraft (President, United Amateur Press Association, 1917- points rather than 1 for each 1918; President, National Amateur Press Association, 1923) among her First Aid point you spend to heal readers! yourself.) You can stabilize the An amateur journalist might have any other sort of career or condition of a seriously wounded Occupation, although Author and Dilettante would be the two most victim by spending only 1 First common. With the Keeper’s permission, an amateur journalist might Aid point, rather than 2. be able to take Craft (Printing) as an Occupational ability instead of (See p. 63) one of those listed.
Hobo Special: In addition to their especially if it is one of corruption You are not merely one of the normal functions, you can use and selfishness, but how can you millions out of work in the Sense Trouble or Streetwise to avoid your own words? Depression. You are one of a read hobo signs and find out the breed apart, a king of the road. lay of the land in a strange town. Occupational Abilities: You ride the rails to avoid You can use Streetwise to activate Cop Talk, Disguise, Evidence society, looking for handouts and fellow hobo contacts. Other Collection, Languages (for foreign working only when necessary. contacts available to you might correspondents), Oral History, You may be a thief on occasion, include Communists (such as Photography, Assess Honesty, but you would no more become a itinerant IWW labor organizers), Reassurance, Shadowing, and professional thief than you would friendly railroad guards, charity one other Interpersonal ability. take any other job. workers, or a local lady known to be a soft touch. Credit Rating: 2-4 Occupational Abilities: Athletics, Bargain, Filch, Outdoorsman, Special: By using Reassurance, Sense Trouble, Stealth, Streetwise. Journalist you have access to newspaper Whether for newspapers, morgues. At your own paper, you Credit Rating: 0. Unless the magazines, or radio, you piece do the same to get the records Keeper allows you to permanently together the patterns of life and clerks to fetch relevant articles. change your Occupation (if you build them into a story, revealing Similarly, fellow journalists may get married, or drafted, for the truth about the world confide “off the record” rumors example), you may never put any around you. You may try to keep and stories to you, unless you’re points into Credit Rating. yourself separated from the story, a direct competitor.
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The Investigator
Military You place yourself between others and danger, for a paycheck, for your flag, for your mates, or because you have no other good options. Your life is rote and routine, boredom and bureaucracy, dust and drill. And sometimes, of course, madness, death, blood, and nightmares.
Occupational Abilities: Athletics, Firearms, Intimidation, Outdoorsman, Scuffling, Weapons.
Army/Marines: add Conceal, Driving, Stealth.
Corpsman/Medic: add First Aid, Medicine, Reassurance.
Engineers/Heavy Weapons: add Driving, Explosives, Mechanical Repair.
Navy: add Astronomy, Mechanical Repair, Piloting.
Officer (any branch):add Bureaucracy, Riding or Piloting, Reassurance.
Credit Rating: 2-5 (officers); 2-4 (enlisted)
Special: You can spend 2 points from your Reassurance pool to steady panicking or erratic characters (see p. 79) as long as your own Stability is above 0.
If you are still serving, you can use any Interpersonal ability to gain entry to a military facility of your nation, except for explicitly top- Scuffling, Weapons) do not increase Nurse secret bases. Unnoticed entry may by 1 until either your Stability or A nurse is a trained medical require other plans. your Health drops below -5. If you assistant, sometimes male, more are a combat veteran, your Stability often female. Nurses are usually If you are a combat veteran, the is capped at 10, but some threats less comprehensively trained, Difficulty Numbers (including to your Stability may be made at always less well paid, and often less opponents’ Hit Thresholds) of your a lower Difficulty number (see distant and callous than medical combat abilities (Athletics, Firearms, Experience and Stability on p. 72) doctors.
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Professional Parapsychology In the 1930s, as in the modern era, most parapsychologists are sensation-mongering journalists, eccentrics plain and simple, or at best scholars with formal credentials in another field. (JB Rhine, studying ESP as Director of the Parapsychological Laboratory at Duke University during this decade, was trained as a botanist.) The Occupation of parapsychologist represents more of an avocation than a vocation, in other words. In a Pulp-idiom game, “occult detectives” and academic parapsychologists may be more common and more accepted, but even in the historical 1930s, there are a few formal bodies dedicated to parapsychological studies, such as: Society for Psychical Research: Founded in 1882 by Cambridge scholars with headquarters in London and archives in Cambridge, the SPR publishes an academically reviewed quarterly Journal and includes both academics and interested amateurs. The French branch, founded in 1885, is the Société Francaise pour Recherche Psychique. The Ghost Club: A less-formal version of the SPR, which accepts proponents of mechanistic, magical, and Spiritualist theories of ghosts. Founded in 1862, it spends much of the 1930s in decline until the bombastic ghost-hunter Harry Price takes it over and re-founds it in 1938. Its headquarters are in London. London Spiritualist Alliance: A major institution in mediumistic studies founded in 1884. It publishes a magazine, Light, edited (oddly enough) by the pioneering psychoanalytical theorist of ghost phenomena, Nandor Fodor. American Society for Psychical Research: Increasingly dominated by Spiritualists and amateurs after a schism over the “Margery” medium case in 1925, the Boston-centered ASPR is flourishing – with branches opening in New York, Cleveland, and San Francisco – but at the cost of its academic respectability. Its monthly Journal is increasingly sensationalist. Boston Society for Psychical Research: This self-consciously scientific and respectable group split off from the ASPR in 1925 over the “Margery” case. Its 200 members are active all over the country, but centered in New England. American Psychical Institute & Laboratory: Besides Rhine’s lab at Duke, the only parapsychological laboratory in America. Founded by the English author and researcher Dr Hereward Carrington in 1921, closed in 1923, reopened a decade later in New York City. International Spiritualist Federation: A British umbrella group for the Spiritualist movement. It publishes the Psychic News. Institut Métapsychique International: The IMI was founded in Paris in 1918 by a wealthy French Spiritualist, but maintains a staff of rigorously objective researchers. Membership is only by appointment. Institute for Brain Research: An institute at Leningrad University lead by Leonid Vasiliev. His work on ESP has been classified on Stalin’s orders since 1927, although he remains a member of the IMI.
Occupational Abilities: Biology, Reassurance, you have access point spent heals 3 Health points, First Aid, Medicine, Pharmacy, to medical records and hospital rather than 2. (You gain 2 Health Assess Honesty, Reassurance. At the wards generally off limits to the points rather than 1 for each Keeper’s discretion, a nurse who public. If you are affiliated with First Aid point you spend to heal has to deal with hospital paperwork a hospital, sanitarium, or other yourself.) You can stabilize the might have Bureaucracy; one who facility, you can automatically use condition of a seriously wounded has to deal with arrogant doctors Reassurance to talk your way victim by spending only 1 First might have Flattery. into any part of your institution Aid point, rather than 2. from the drugs locker to the deep (See p. 63) Credit Rating: 2-4 freeze.
Special: By using Medicine or When you use First Aid, each
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Repair, Mechanical Repair, Parapsychologist Piloting, Sense Trouble. Academics hold you in dubious regard, while true believers doubt Credit Rating: 2-3 your sincerity. You straddle – perhaps uncomfortably – the line Special: You own or have regular between reason and superstition, access to an airplane. Its size and between faith and proof. You quality depend on your Credit believe that the supernatural is Rating pool. merely the natural we have not yet studied, or perhaps that the methods of science can uncover Police Detective or confirm the truths of theology. You live by the code of the cop, whether it’s the one they put on Occupational Abilities: the wall at the academy, or the Anthropology, Electrical Repair, one you picked up on foot patrol Library Use, Mechanical Repair, in the bad neighborhoods. You Occult, Photography, Assess draw lines between cops, perps, Honesty, Sense Trouble. and civilians, and it’s best when nothing crosses them. When the Credit Rating: 2-3 law and justice disagree, that’s when you decide where the line Special: Like the Alienist, runs. Private Investigator you may put build points into, There are things that cops can’t and use, the Hypnosis ability Occupational Abilities: do, and things that cops won’t (see p. 43). In an extremely Athletics, Cop Talk, Driving, do, and you’ll take money to pulpy game, you may have Evidence Collection, Firearms, do either. Sometimes you get actual psychic powers, or work Interrogation, Law, Assess dragged into something the cops closely with those who have Honesty, Sense Trouble. want you out of, but you gotta them. (Such “sensitives” may be stay in it to keep the cops honest. fellow Investigators, or — as in Credit Rating: 3-4 What keeps you honest? Now, Lovecraft’s stories — expendable that’s the real mystery, ain’t it? NPCs.) For rules and descriptions Special: With judicious use of of some psychic abilities in the Cop Talk, you can not only put Occupational Abilities: GUMSHOE system, see Fear Itself. the police at ease, but gain access Accounting, Disguise, Driving, to case files, evidence rooms, Law, Locksmith, Photography, and prisoners, among other Assess Honesty, Reassurance, Pilot things not accessible by normal Scuffling, Shadowing. You live to fly, and you fly to civilians. If you’re far outside live. You might be a Great War your jurisdiction, you may need Credit Rating: 2-3 veteran seeking leftover thrills Cop Talk and a really good plan. on the barnstorm circuit, or a Special: Private eyes with point private courier hoping to strike Within your own jurisdiction, pools in Disguise or Shadowing it rich and found your own air any points at all in Cop Talk will may spend points after rolling service. You might fly cutting- get you access to, and use of, the die for a test. For every 2 edge birds for a rich man, or police laboratories (for forensics points you spend after rolling the build your own ship out of and ballistics tests, or for more die, you increase the die result whatever you can scrounge. abstruse purposes) and even the by 1. This only applies if you are Whatever your route to the sky, morgue. undistracted and not directly it’s the only place you want to be. observed. It never applies during a contest. You must describe the Occupational Abilities: thing that almost went wrong, Astronomy, Driving, Electrical and how you caught it barely in
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Occupations
time or succeeded through sheer clear, public evidence of moral Special: You have access luck. turpitude on your part. to a laboratory suitable for your researches, and can use The Occupational Abilities Credit Rating to get tests and above accurately model typical Scientist experiments performed in other 1930s private investigators, You seek to advance science, laboratories by your peers or whose most common jobs were perhaps to improve the world, colleagues, or to get specialized following and photographing or perhaps to tease out some equipment or machinery built. If adulterers, and following and long-denied truth. You may you have academic credentials finding missing cash. For a Pulpy, consider yourself handy around (Credit Rating of 3 or better hard-boiled PI in the Chandler- the lab; that third fire could and a rating of 2 or more in Hammett vein, use the following have happened to anyone. You Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Occupational Abilities list: Cop just need more equipment, Geology, or Physics), you can Talk, Driving, Intimidation, more time, more samples, more get access to closed stacks at a Locksmith, Assess Honesty, understanding colleagues. university library. Scuffling, Shadowing, Streetwise. Perhaps the fools laughed at you at the University. Well, you’ll show Professor them. You might be a calm solon, Occupational Abilities: dispensing the wisdom of the Electrical Repair, Evidence ages between puffs on your pipe. Collection, Languages, Library You might be a hapless child Use, Photography, and any two in an adult’s body, incompetent of the following: Astronomy, in anything except Middle High Biology, Chemistry, Cryptography, German, and vainglorious and Forensics, Geology, or Physics. petty about that. You might be the second, and think you’re the first, Credit Rating: 3-5 to the great delight of all who behold you. Martin Harvesson, Occupational Abilities: Bureaucracy, Languages, Library Sample Investigator Use, any one Interpersonal ability, Josh is building his and any three Academic abilities first Trail of Cthulhu (including, for these purposes, Investigator. While talking Astronomy and Chemistry). with the Keeper, he and the other players decide on a Credit Rating: 3-5 traditional, old-school sort of game, full of globe-trotting Special: As long as your academic adventures and two-gun credentials are intact (a Credit menaces, with plenty of Rating of 3+), using Bureaucracy lingering death in the dark lets you enjoy nearly unrestricted places of the city. To tell the access to closed library stacks, truth, Josh is a bigger fan research laboratories, and even of Humphrey Bogart than many private and government he is of HP Lovecraft, so he archives. decides to build a tough- as-nails private eye. Josh If you have a Credit Rating of names his character Martin 5 or better, you have tenure Harvesson. and cannot be removed from your professorship without
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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 an adrenaline junkie and if ichor psychologists. We knew now that 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. Bad Luck the existence of nameless conditions 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 autohypnotism — or vague thoughts Example: Harry Houdini in Follower Under the Pyramids. of responsibility toward Gedney — or 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
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Drives
Arrogance “I tell you, I have struck depths that your little brain can’t picture! I have seen beyond the bounds of infinity and drawn down daemons from the stars…” — From Beyond
Your ultimate success will be its own justification, and it is sure to come to you, since only you have the will to grasp it. The rules of petty people don’t apply to you, and neither do their shrinking, timorous fears.
Especially appropriate for: Alienist, Scientist
Examples: Herbert West, Crawford Tillinghast in From Beyond, Denys Barry in The Moon-Bog
Artistic Sensitivity “For after all, the victim was a writer and painter wholly devoted to the field of myth, dream, terror, and superstition, and avid in his quest for scenes and effects of a bizarre, spectral sort.” — The Haunter of the Dark
You are already aware of the numinous and supernatural quality of the world – it is what Examples: Robert Blake in The you seek to capture in your Haunter of the Dark, Richard Bad Luck art, of course. You must follow Pickman in Pickman’s Model, It was generally stated that the your Muse wherever she leads, the sculptor Henry Wilcox in The affliction and shock were results clay in her hands for molding. Call of Cthulhu, and possibly of an unlucky slip whereby Birch Nothing, especially not mundane Erich Zann. Walter Gilman in concerns, can stanch your need The Dreams in the Witch House had locked himself for nine hours for inspiration. also essentially fits this pattern, in the receiving tomb of Peck Valley treating higher mathematics as Cemetery… Especially appropriate for: Artist, an art. Author, Dilettante — In The Vault
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The Investigator
These things just seem to happen Kadath, and the narrators of that you’ll never get again, or to you, although your luck might Beyond the Wall of Sleep, The perhaps you’ve just read about sour after you dig up a statuette, Lurking Fear, The Colour Out such things in decadent yellow- sleep in the wrong boarding of Space, and The Shadow Over backed novels. You’ve tried house, or decide to rob a terrible Innsmouth. everything else, and nothing old man. Bad Luck is essentially else matters. So what if it might the same as being Cursed. (See kill you? At least that would be p. 75 for how Bad Luck or Cursed Duty different. works with the Drive rules.) “Duty came first; and although there must have been nearly a hundred Especially appropriate for: Artist, Especially appropriate for: mongrel celebrants in the throng, Dilettante, Military Criminal, Hobo the police relied on their firearms Examples: St John and the Examples: The sailor Gustaf and plunged determinedly into the narrator in The Hound, Randolph Johansen in The Call of Cthulhu, nauseous rout.” Carter in The Silver Key, Thomas the narrators of Cool Air, Dagon, Olney in The Strange High House The Music of Erich Zann, and — The Call of Cthulhu in the Mist, and to an extent The Picture in the House. Jervas Dudley in The Tomb. You know it’s dangerous and In a less starkly cosmic ill-advised, but somebody’s got game, bad luck can be earned: to go down those steps or bust Follower in The Temple, Captain von up that cult. And you’re elected, “…they were terrible studies, which Altberg-Ehrenstein brings doom because if you don’t take care I pursued more through reluctant upon himself and his men by of things now, they’re just going fascination than through actual torpedoing the freighter Victory. to get worse. If you don’t, who is? Some time-serving goldbrick inclination. Warren dominated me, and just counting down the days sometimes I feared him.” Curiosity until their pension? Don’t be “Any reference to a town not shewn ridiculous. — The Statement of Randolph Carter on common maps or listed in recent guide-books would have interested Especially appropriate for: This wasn’t actually your idea, Clergy, Doctor, Military, Police and you’d like that put in the me, and the agent’s odd manner of Detective report somewhere. But someone allusion roused something like real else – someone who’s important to curiosity.” Examples: Inspector Legrasse you for whatever reason — went in The Call of Cthulhu and down into that tunnel, and you’d — The Shadow Over Innsmouth Detective Malone in The Horror better go after them to make sure at Red Hook, the sailors and G- they’re safe. Or to make sure they When confronted by a mystery, men who expunge The Shadow don’t pick someone else to hold you can’t help but investigate. Over Innsmouth, the colonial-era the field telephone next time. Damn the risks, there’s something posse that burns out Curwen in going on here and you’re going Charles Dexter Ward, Professor In an ongoing Trail of Cthulhu to figure it out! If you don’t, it will Armitage in The Dunwich Horror. campaign, you should pick a just drive you crazy worrying fellow Investigator (ideally a about it. foolhardy one) to be the person Ennui you follow. When – er, if – they Especially appropriate for: “…finally there remained for us only die, you may switch to a different Journalist, Parapsychologist, the more direct stimuli of unnatural “leader,” or switch Drives to Police Detective, Private personal experiences and adventures.” Revenge. Investigator, Scientist — The Hound Especially appropriate for: Examples: Randolph Carter Doctor, Military, Police Detective in Dream-Quest of Unknown Perhaps you had one experience
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Drives
Examples: Randolph Carter in which one he’s requesting, and It’s certainly why you spend all The Statement of Randolph without discovering what his that time in those libraries; why Carter, Herbert West’s assistant, Investigator’s Drive is until it you track down sole survivors and the narrators of Pickman’s emerges in play (see p. 75). of isolated backwoods cults; why Model and Hypnos. Followers you learn languages not meant can also be friends or family for human throats. Whether members such as the narrator Revenge you’re seeking tenure, the of From Beyond, Dr Willett in “Ezra Weeden, though his periods of acclaim of your fellows, or just Charles Dexter Ward, Daniel espionage were necessarily brief … the satisfaction of expanding Upton in The Thing on the had a vindictive persistence which the human knowledge, you Doorstep, Norrys in The Rats in Investigate in order to find the the Walls, or Ammi Pierce in The bulk of the practical townsfolk and underlying pattern of things. Colour Out of Space. farmers lacked…” Especially appropriate for: — The Case of Charles Dexter Ward In the Blood Archaeologist, Professor, Scientist “I thought the room and the books Something out there hurt you, Examples: Professor Angell and and the people very morbid and or hurt someone you care about. his nephew Francis Thurston in disquieting, but because an old Therefore, it must be destroyed, The Call of Cthulhu, Professor burned out, taken down, exposed Dyer and his party in At the tradition of my fathers had summoned … whatever it takes, and Mountains of Madness. me to strange feastings, I resolved to whatever it costs. Any trail that expect queer things.” might lead to your vengeance is a trail you have to follow to the Sudden Shock — The Festival bitter end. “Had he, then, witnessed some appalling ancient rite, or stumbled Quite frankly, you’re not sure Especially appropriate for: upon some frightful and revealing why you keep coming back to Criminal, Private Investigator the moldering graveyard, or symbol in the priory or its vicinity?” poring over those antique texts. Examples: Ezra Weeden in — The Rats in the Walls But queer behavior runs in the Charles Dexter Ward, and the family, apparently. Outsiders narrator of The Lurking Fear wouldn’t understand. after the death of his friend Something has ripped the scrim Munroe. Followers like Dr Willett off the world, and you can’t go Especially appropriate for: (in Charles Dexter Ward) may back to believing in Baby Jesus Antiquarian, Dilettante change their Drive to Revenge if and FDR anymore. Whether it’s their associates are killed, sucked your long-dead great-grandfather Examples: Charles Dexter through a portal, or otherwise holding cannibal feasts in your Ward, Arthur Jermyn, Delapore removed from play. basement, the things you saw in The Rats in the Walls, and on the Innsmouth Raid, or just the narrator of The Festival. a chance encounter with the Thurston, the narrator of The Scholarship Outside, you might as well go Call of Cthulhu, inherits his “I felt sure that I was on the track further in, because you aren’t uncle’s research. Olmstead, the of a very real, very secret, and very going back any time soon. narrator of The Shadow Over ancient religion whose discovery Innsmouth, turns out to be The player should come up with motivated by his ancestry, though would make me an anthropologist of the specifics of the Sudden Shock, he doesn’t know it. Such a secret note.” unless she’d like her Investigator — perhaps shameful — Drive is to have amnesia (hysterical, perfectly suitable for Trail of — The Call of Cthulhu traumatic, or Yithian-induced) Cthulhu Investigators. A player on the subject. This latter option can even request such a secret Uncovering the truth about the allows all manner of cruelty on Drive without telling the Keeper world is what true scholars do. the part of the Keeper, and is
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The Investigator
to possess such secrets, and only Martin Harvesson, you are willing to do what it Buying Abilities Sample Investigator takes to get them. With Occupation and Drive Josh likes Raymond established, it’s time to buy Chandler’s line about “down Especially appropriate for: abilities for your Investigator. these mean streets a man Archaeologist, Parapsychologist, Investigators begin with a must go, who is neither Professor variable number of points to buy tarnished nor afraid,” but Investigative abilities, depending he suspects that Duty won’t Examples: Both Henry Akeley on group size, and 65 points suit his play style. So instead, and Albert Wilmarth in The to purchase General abilities. he goes with “When a man’s Whisperer in Darkness, Harley Investigative abilities include partner is killed, he’s got to Warren in The Statement of all Academic, Interpersonal, do something about it,” and Randolph Carter, the narrators and Technical abilities. General selects Revenge as Martin’s of The Nameless City and The abilities include all remaining Drive. Martin’s partner got Lurking Fear. abilities, including Health, Sanity, into something down on the and Stability. docks and died. Martin won’t let it rest there. Occupational Abilities highly recommended. You get two rating points in Especially appropriate for: Occupational abilities for everyone Parapsychologist, but any, really on build point you spend. For example, 12 rating points of Examples: Walter de la Poer in Occupational abilities cost you The Rats in the Walls, Professor 6 build points. Left over half- Nathaniel Peaslee in The Shadow points are lost, so assign an even Out of Time. number points to Occupational abilities. You cannot select Fleeing, Credit Rating, Cthulhu Mythos, Thirst for Knowledge Health, Sanity, or Stability as “I don’t wish to put you in any peril, Occupational Abilities. and suppose I ought to warn you that possession of the stone and The number of points each player record won’t be very safe; but I spends on Investigative abilities think you will find any risks worth varies according to the number running for the sake of knowledge.” of regularly attending players, according to the following table. — “The Whisperer in Darkness”
You must – you must! — learn the secret lore of the cosmos. # of players Investigative This is not footling, footnoted Build Points scholarship. It is the quest for truth. You don’t want to advance 2 24 human knowledge – the herd don’t desire, or deserve, to know 3 18 what lies behind the walls of the world. Only you (and perhaps a 4+ 16 few fellow initiates) truly burn
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Ability List By Families Variant Builds Believe it or not, some Investigative Interpersonal General Abilities playtesters argued that Abilities Assess Honesty Athletics their characters were still Investigative Bargain Conceal too powerful and good at abilities comprise Bureaucracy *Disguise everything. We admire such Academic, Cop Talk Driving dedication to the Lovecraftian Interpersonal, and Credit Rating *Electrical Repair spirit of the parochial, Technical abilities. Flattery *Explosives incompetent narrator. Interrogation Filch For such players, Academic Intimidation Firearms reduce General build points Accounting Oral History First Aid from 65 to 60 and assign Anthropology Reassurance Fleeing Investigative build points Archaeology Streetwise Health based on the following table, Architecture Hypnosis which generates outclassed, Art History Technical *Mechanical likely doomed – but forcibly Biology Art Repair specialized! – Investigators. Cthulhu Mythos Astronomy Piloting Cryptography Chemistry Preparedness Geology Craft Psychoanalysis # of Investigative History Evidence Riding players Build Points Languages Collection Sanity Law Forensics Scuffling 2 16 Library Use Locksmith Sense Trouble Medicine Outdoorsman Shadowing 3 12 Occult Pharmacy Stability Physics Photography Stealth 4+ 10 Theology Weapons To generate Pulpier *Some General abilities can be used as Investigative abilities in some characters, increase the circumstances. They are always bought and built as General abilities. General points available from 65 to 75, but use the standard Investigative Build Points Players who can only attend of his Credit Rating band for from the main text table. every now and then get the same free. You may trade your free Pulp Investigator teams will number of investigative build Credit Rating points in for other very likely profit by using the points as everyone else, but are Investigative build points on a Trading Points optional rule not counted toward the total 1-to-1 basis if your character from the sidebar on p. 25. when deciding how many points concept calls for an especially Some campaign frames to allocate. Your Keeper may give unsuccessful (or shunned) may have particular you a small pool of unallocated to Investigator. restrictions or caps on compensate for spotty attendance abilities, for example, a (see p. 203). An Investigator with game set in an orphanage the occupation Scientist may have a very restricted Every ability has a numerical normally starts out number of Investigative rating. Some rating points in with a Credit Rating of and General abilities some abilities are free: Each 3, indicating a certain available. Others may force Investigator starts with a free minimal academic specialization by limiting rating of 4 points in Sanity, and respectability, and perhaps the number of Academic or 1 point in each of Stability and a steady laboratory job. Technical abilities you may Health. Each Investigator also But a “mad scientist” who take. starts off with the lower edge lives in a slum basement
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The Investigator
Building an Investigator Party It’s a good idea, both for mechanical and narrative reasons, to make sure your Investigator party covers as many ability bases as possible. Ideally, one Investigator will have any needed skill, and everyone has something cool that they do better than the rest of the group. When creating Investigators, go down the ability list and make sure you’ve got a good spread of talents, and that every Investigator has a potential starring role at some point in the story.
Trading Points One optional rule to knit together such a party allows players to swap points among themselves. If using this rule, a player may trade 1 Investigative build point (not rating point) for 3 General build points (not rating points) from another player. (Or, obviously, vice-versa.) Thus, the consumptive academic can give 6 General ability somewhere, or a scientist it’s what humans are evolved points to the brutal Outfit disgraced for claiming that for, after all. It’s also very genre enforcer (for Weapons and ultraviolet light contained appropriate, so we reward it Explosives, say), and get 2 monsters, might begin thusly: If your Fleeing rating Investigative ability points with a Credit Rating of 2 is more than twice your final from that worthy’s pool or even 1, depending on Athletics rating, you can buy (for, oh, Astronomy). Both how cut off he is from his rating points in Fleeing at a players get to increase their professional colleagues. reduced rate, getting 2 rating Investigators’ “spotlight” points for each build point spent. abilities and the party Usually, each rating point costs (If you suspect you want to utilize becomes more stereotypical. one build point, except for this rule, decide on your final Which is to say, narratively Occupational abilities, Fleeing, and Athletics rating first. This makes better. Credit Rating. things much easier.) Hence, if your Athletics rating is 0, all your Running away is easier than Fleeing is half-price. doing anything else strenuous;
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Zachary decides that ratings in Athletics, Firearms, his dilettante Willoughby Ability Caps Fleeing, Scuffling, or Weapons. Boothroyd stays in decent In the Purist mode, shape thanks to the polo Health and Stability are A special restriction applies to matches and racquetball, capped at 12. They cannot be General abilities: your second but is really not much of bought at higher levels, nor highest rating must be at least an athlete. He puts only can additional experience half that of your highest rating. 2 points into Willoughby’s points raise them above This is less onerous with an Athletics ability. Zachary those levels. Your Sanity is Occupation that includes any also really wants capped at 10, and can never General abilities as Occupational Boothroyd to be able to live be higher than 10 minus your Abilities (rating points in which to drink another day, so he Cthulhu Mythos rating. cost half the build-point price), but decides to get Fleeing at Pulp Investigators can be it can still trip you up if you’re not 8. The first 4 rating points as buff and bold as they like, careful. in Fleeing (up to twice but we recommend staying Willoughby’s final Athletics as close as you can to the Craig wants his 2) cost Zachary the 12-point Health and Stability Investigator to have a standard 4 build points, but caps anyway if you want to Scuffling rating of 30. the second 4 rating points keep confrontations tense. This requires him to cost only 2 build points. Some campaign frames take at least one other may cap other abilities, for ability at 15. This would Rating points in Credit Rating example, a campaign set in a leave him only 20 points cost 1 build point each up to the school might cap Academic, to spend on all of his top of the band listed under the Technical and some General other General abilities. Occupation, after which they cost abilities, or even make them (Or 27, if he bought an 2 build points each, except for unavailable altogether. Occupational ability up Dilettantes, who have no top limit to 16 with 8 build points.) on their Credit Rating band. Craig reconsiders, opting for a lower Scuffling, so he Shari is building a How Many Points Should can spend his other points Professor, Dr Lunedi. She more freely. could buy Credit Rating 5 I Buy? for 2 build points – her free When choosing Investigative If you want, you can save build 3 plus 2 more – but buying abilities, it is better to get a large points from character creation one more rating point for a number of abilities with fairly low to spend later. If your Keeper Credit Rating 6 would cost ratings. Even a 1-point rating is is running an ongoing Trail 2 more build points, for a worth having. You’ll rarely want of Cthulhu campaign, you may total of 4. to spend more than 3 or 4 points accumulate additional build points on any one Investigative ability. during play.
Credit Rating does not count General abilities use different as “any ability” in Occupational rules than investigative ones, templates; it is only an which allow for possible failure. Occupational ability for Dilettantes. When choosing general abilities, The Keeper is fully within her you’ll want to concentrate your rights to cap Credit Rating at the points among a few abilities, top of the band if she would prefer giving your comparatively higher not to run adventures full of ratings than you want in the millionaire cops and private eyes. investigative category. You’ll find that you’ll want ratings at least 8 Usually, you may not start the in core abilities, like Health and game with Cthulhu Mythos points Stability, and depending on your (see p. 34) Investigator concept, even higher
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Ratings and Skill Martin Harvesson, Sample Investigator The rules don’t care whether Not counting the Keeper, there are five players in Josh’s gaming your high Athletics rating comes group, but two of them only show up sporadically, because they travel from years of semi-pro baseball a lot for work. So the Keeper gives Josh and the other players 18 build or just natural grace and speed. points for Investigative abilities, as though there were only three Similarly, whether you’re an players, along with the standard 65 build points for General abilities. intuitive genius or a plodding, Josh reads ahead in the rule book to get a good handle on what the meticulous scholar is irrelevant in various abilities can do, and then gets set to build out his Investigator. gauging your Archaeology ability. Josh starts off with the following Investigative abilities as Martin’s You can decide such things while Occupational abilities: Accounting, Law, Locksmith, Photography, personalizing your Investigator. Assess Honesty, and Reassurance. He puts a * next to each one on What matters is what you can the character sheet. Josh decides to ignore Accounting, buying 1 rating accomplish; how you accomplished point of Law, 3 rating points each of Locksmith, Assess Honesty, and it is up to you. Reassurance, and 2 rating points of Photography for a total of 12 rating points worth of Occupational abilities. At the 2-for-1 cost for Even a single rating point in an Occupational abilities, that uses up 6 of Martin’s Investigative build investigative ability indicates points. The bottom of his Occupational Credit Rating band is 2, so a high degree of professional Martin begins with a Credit Rating of 2, and Josh leaves it there as accomplishment or impressive good enough for an obsessed PI Josh runs down the list of remaining natural talent. If you have an Investigative abilities, and decides that Cop Talk, Intimidation, and ability relevant to the task at Streetwise are essential to his image of Martin, and that Evidence hand, you automatically succeed Collection and Forensics are too useful to ignore. He divides up in discovering any information Martin’s remaining 12 points thusly: 3 each in the three Interpersonal or overcoming any obstacles abilities, 2 in Evidence Collection, and the final 1 point in Forensics. necessary to propel you from the Josh then turns to Martin’s General abilities, which include the current scene further into the following as Occupational abilities: Disguise, Driving, Scuffling, and story. Shadowing, which again he marks with a *. He tentatively buys 5 rating points in each of the four, spending a net 10 build points with Each rating point goes into a pool the half-price Occupational cost. Josh buys Martin’s Sanity up to 10 of points to spend in situations from the baseline of 4, and spends 7 points to bump his Stability up to related to its base ability. You may 8 (from the starting 1), for a running total of 23. Josh likewise adds 5 ask to spend points to gain special more points to Martin’s free Health rating of 1, to get a fragile Health benefits. Sometimes the Keeper of 6. Josh wants Martin to be able to take care of himself in a chase or will offer you the chance to spend a fight, so he buys Athletics 8 (giving him an improved Hit Threshold points. In other circumstances of 4), Firearms 5 (so he can use two pistols at once), and Weapons 2, she may accept your suggestions for a running total of 43. Josh packs 8 points each onto Sense Trouble of ways to gain special benefits. and Stealth, two abilities he thinks will be very handy for a detective, Use them wisely; spent points do for a running total of 59. Since with a Driving of 5, Martin will not return until the next scenario probably wind up being the team’s wheel man, Josh spends the last 6 begins. points on Mechanical Repair, so that Martin can fix anything he needs to drive away in a hurry. General abilities use a different set of rules and are measured on a different scale than investigative abilities. The two ability sets are be suspenseful, which is why of Cthulhu scenario will reward handled in different way because general abilities have a possibility players for cleverly or stylishly they fulfill distinct narrative of failure. But the confrontation solving the mystery by making the functions. The goal of any must also occur for the story to confrontation more exciting, more Trail of Cthulhu scenario is to satisfy, which is why investigating survivable, or more intellectually uncover a mystery and confront the mystery – in order to get interesting. (For more on scenario the Mythos entity (or entities) to the confrontation — must design, see p. 191) behind it. The confrontation must succeed. A well-designed Trail
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Investigative • identify artifacts by Accounting (Academic) culture and usage You understand bookkeeping and Abilities accountancy procedures; you can • distinguish real artifacts Investigative abilities are the meat read and keep financial records. from fakes and bone of Trail of Cthulhu You can: Investigators. • navigate inside ruins • tell legitimate businesses and catacombs, including Ability descriptions consist of from criminal enterprises finding secret doors and a brief general description, hidden construction followed by examples of their • reconstruct financial use in an investigation. Creative histories from old records • describe the customs players should be able to (uncovering, say, slave- of ancient or historical propose additional uses for their trading or smuggling) cultures abilities as unexpected situations confront their characters. Some • spot the telltale signs of • spot well-disguised graves General abilities can be used as embezzlement, bribes, and underground hiding Investigative abilities in some blackmail, or dummy places circumstances. They are always companies bought and built as General abilities. They are Disguise, • track payments to their Architecture (Academic) Electrical Repair, Explosives and source You know how buildings are Mechanical Repair. designed and constructed. You can: Certain specific actions may Anthropology (Academic) overlap between a couple of You are an expert in the study of • guess what lies around the abilities. For example, you can human cultures, from the Stone corner while exploring an analyze (or synthesize) an opiate Age to the Jazz Age. (Physical unknown structure poison with either Chemistry anthropology is covered by or Pharmacy; you can identify Forensics.) You can: • judge the relative a Roman idol with Archaeology, strength of building Art History, Occult, or Theology; • identify artifacts and materials you can bluff your way into a rituals of living cultures sanitarium with Bureaucracy, • identify a building’s Disguise, or Psychoanalysis. • describe and predict the age, architectural style, customs of a foreign group original use, and history Some abilities, like Library or local subculture of modifications Use or Sense Trouble, are broadly useful, and will crop • extrapolate the practices • deduce the existence of up constantly. Others may be of an unknown culture hidden rooms, priest- called for many times in the from similar examples holes, hyper-geometric course of one scenario, and not witch-garrets, and other at all in others. When building anomalies your Investigator, strike a Archaeology (Academic) balance between the reliable You excavate and study • construct stable makeshift workhorse abilities and their the structures and artifacts structures exotic, specialized counterparts. of historical cultures and Also, strike a balance with the civilizations. You can: • identify elements vital other Investigators in your party to a building’s structural – a Trail of Cthulhu campaign is • tell how long something integrity more fun, and more survivable, if has been buried and date all your bases are covered. its construction
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Art (Technical) Assess Honesty large reflectors You can create some sort of • plot the movement art – music, painting, dance, (Interpersonal) of stars and planets, sculpture, song, poetry, drama, This is the human capacity to including which ones are and so forth. You can choose judge and sense motives and overhead at any given to focus on one medium or character. Basically, this ability time diversify: For each rating point in allows you to tell if someone is Art, you may select another type lying to you, and (with a spend) • predict eclipses, comets, of art in which you are generally make a decent guess about their meteor showers, proficient. You may specify when motives. and other regular you create your Investigator, or astronomical phenomena choose opportunistically in the Not all lies are verbal. You can tell course of play, revealing that you when a person is attempting to happen to be, say, a fine amateur project a false impression through Bargain (Interpersonal) contralto if circumstances body language. You are an expert in making deals suddenly require it. with others, convincing them that Certain individuals – con men, the best arrangement for you is Creating great (or even actors, professional gamblers, also the best for them. You can: particularly notable) art requires and similar — may be so adept spends (see p. 54); points at lying that they never set off • haggle for goods and allocated to such spends cannot your built-in lie detector, or services be allocated to different art- overload it by being “always on.” forms in the future. Some people believe their own • gauge likely prices of falsehoods. Psychopathic and items, including what sociopathic personality types (like someone else will pay for Art History (Academic) most sorcerers turn out to be) and them You’re an expert on works of art brainwashed cultists lie reflexively (including the practical arts such and without shame, depriving you • mediate hostage situations as furniture and pottery) from an of the telltale tics and gestures or diplomatic crises aesthetic and technical point of you use to sense when a person view. You can: is deceiving you. Those who have communed excessively with the • distinguish real works inhuman intelligences of the from fakes Mythos will occasionally “read wrong,” but will similarly fail to • tell when something has send any useful signals to a sane been retouched or altered watcher.
• identify the age of an You can also use Assess Honesty object by style and to cold-read a mark for fortune- materials telling scams, phony séances or mentalist acts, and the like. • accurately estimate the price of an objet d’art Astronomy (Technical) • call to mind historical You study celestial objects, details on artists and including the stars and planets. those around them You can:
• decipher astrological texts
• use a telescope, including
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• swap favors or information with others Contacts and Connections Whenever you use Bureaucracy, Cop Talk, Credit Rating, Streetwise, or any other ability to call on a professional contact or Biology (Academic) personal connection, you must supply the Keeper with her name, You study the evolution, behavior, residence, and specific connection to your Investigator. and physical makeup of living If you need to spend, the size of your spend determines your organisms. You can: contact’s attitude toward your Investigator, the value (or excitement) of their information, and/or their position in their field. Of course, • tell when an animal is core clues will always be free. behaving strangely The Keeper is encouraged to work your contact into the game on a regular basis; whenever it makes any narrative sense, contacts • tell whether an animal or should be recurring characters (especially when you use the relevant plant is natural to a given ability again). The Keeper may also have your contacts demand area favors in return, drag your Investigator into their problems, or simply slaughter them gorily and instructively. • identify an animal from The Intimate Correspondent samples of its hair, blood, You may have a mentor, protégé, close family member, member of bones, or other tissue the clergy, or other person to whom you confide the details of your investigations, personal terrors, doubts about your sanity, and so • analyze unknown ichor, forth. If you choose to have such an intimate correspondent, supply scales, or slime the Keeper with her details as per other contacts. Thenceforward, it is assumed that you regularly send updates to (and receive responses • identify a plant from a from) your intimate correspondent. (A word to the wise: Keepers who small sample know what’s good for their game might offer an extra build point or two for a player who actually writes up such letters.) Should your • isolate or detect natural current Investigator die or go mad, you already have the kernel of a poisons or venoms new, thoroughly briefed Investigator to join the party.
Bureaucracy contacts within a them to do their own damn (Interpersonal) bureaucracy with which legwork. You know how to navigate you have regular dealings a bureaucratic organization, whether it’s a government office • locate offices and files Chemistry (Technical) or a large business firm. You You’re trained in the analysis of know how to get what you want • borrow equipment or chemical substances. Given lab from it in an expeditious manner, supplies facilities, you can: and with a minimum of ruffled feathers. You can: Bureaucracy is not a catch-all • among a wide variety of information gathering ability. other materials, identify • convince officials Bureaucrats wish to convey drugs, pharmaceuticals, to provide sensitive the impression that they are toxins, and viruses information busy and harried, whether or not they actually are. Most • create simple explosives, • gain credentials on false take a profound, secret joy in poisons, gases, and acids pretences directing inquiries elsewhere. When players attempt to use • analyze unknown • find the person who really Bureaucracy to gain information substances, alloys, knows what’s going on more easily accessible via other compounds, etc abilities (such as Library Use), • develop and maintain their contacts snidely advise • perform ballistics and
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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”
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The Investigator depends on your Credit Rating ranks if the Keeper believes it Credit Rating 4 or even 5. The score as follows: plausible; a Credit Rating 5 doctor Great Depression likewise plunged might believably mingle with (and many people’s earning power Credit Rating works differently ask favors from) a middle-class down the ranks while leaving the from other abilities, in that its electrician or an upper-class rest of their Credit Rating intact. rating level is both a description specialist. In 1930s Britain, where social class of the type of Credit Rating is more carefully defined (and to and a pool size. It can be seen Credit Rating does not necessarily many, far more important) than as eight abilities in one: Credit describe the size of your bank economic class, Credit Rating may Rating (Lower Class), Credit account, but your ability to purely describe “social standing.” Rating (“Working Class”), Credit operate within a given socio- Rating (Lower Middle-Class), etc economic bracket. You can marry, This ability takes the forefront in It remains a pool, because quite inherit, be related to, or even heavily social adventures, urban frankly (and especially in the befriend your way into your campaigns involving the “low 1930s) the higher your class, the Credit Rating and do nothing and the high” (where a mix of more chances society gives you. much to maintain it besides keep Credit Ratings in the Investigator Your social resources, in other up appearances. HP Lovecraft, for party comes in very handy), and words, increase generally with example, had an annual income perhaps even in university-based class and wealth. no better than “Working Class” campaigns where Credit Rating (if that), but his social attitudes more closely parallels academic The social aspects of Credit Rating and interpersonal skills (such as status rather than income. can drift between one or two they were) were more suited for Allowing Credit Rating to become
Credit Approximate Economic Class Signifiers Rating Annual Income
0 Pauper Hobo life; rags; no permanent home; handouts or $0-$150 scavenge
1 Lower Class Janitor, hired hand, or servant; soft cap; flop house, $150-$250 SRO, live with relatives; bus; cans of soup or beans
2 “Working Class” Factory work or skilled service; hat; tenement $250-$1,250 apartment; bus; meat most days
Clerk or high-skilled service; neckties; shabby 3 Lower Middle- $1,250-$1,500 apartment; used car in bad condition; good Sunday Class meals Supervisor, lesser professional; one good suit; 4 Middle-Class $1,500-$3,000 bungalow or decent apartment; modest car; restaurant occasionally; part-time cleaning lady Professional; tailored suits; good house or fine 5 Upper Middle- $3,000-$10,000 apartment; new car or two cars; fine meals in or out; Class live-in servant Independent income or exclusive professional; 6 Upper Class $10,000- bespoke suits; mansion or penthouse; luxury cars; luxury dining; multiple domestics $75,000 Landed gentry or industrial fortune; fabulous jewelry; 7+ Wealthy $75,000+ landed estate; yachts or private planes; personal four- star chef; multi-tiered staff of domestics
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Adding Investigative Abilities If it’s appropriate for the campaign frame, the Keeper can split abilities into more specialized areas or add new ones altogether. As long as she provides enough clues dependent on those specialist abilities, and the fine distinction makes an important contribution to the game, there can be as much granularity as she requires. For example the Book-Hounds of London campaign frame (see p. 211) adds the highly appropriate Bibliography, Forgery, Document Analysis and Textual Analysis. It’s possible to do the same with General of physics and religion. You you to aim your efforts in the abilities, too (see p. 45) recognize the great names, and right direction; at the Keeper’s the truths they conceal. If you’ve discretion, an actual spend read a Mythos tome, using this might provide more specific (and ability lets you recall any specific potentially horribly dangerous) mere shorthand for personal hints or facts from it relevant to answers. wealth is short-changing the your current situation. If you’re ability. That said, booking passage staring at an ancient alien bas- Consider “The Dunwich on an ocean liner for a globe- relief, using this ability lets you Horror” to be a Trail trotting adventure is much easier perceive, with a single shocking of Cthulhu adventure. with a simple “Lionel has Credit gestalt, the horrific history it Professor Armitage uses Rating 5; I assume he’s in first unfolds. his Cthulhu Mythos class.” ability and realizes that Using this ability costs both Sanity old Whateley somehow and Stability (see p. 74). incarnated Yog-Sothoth Cryptography (Academic) on Earth. In the story, he You can make or break codes The primary use of this ability then reads Wilbur’s diary and ciphers in any language you in the course of an investigation to learn that he needs can read. Given some time and is to “put together the pieces” both a special incantation a dictionary, you may be able and draw upon the terrible and the Powder of Ibn- to puzzle out foreign alphabets, knowledge that you have been Ghazi to destroy Yog- translating languages by brute subconsciously suppressing, Sothoth’s spawn. Had he force. achieving a horrific epiphany. not managed to get hold of The Keeper provides you with the the diary, Armitage could result of your intuition, sketching use his Cthulhu Mythos Cthulhu Mythos out the Mythos implications of ability to “intuit” that Yog- the events you have uncovered. Sothoth must be made (Academic) (See p. 74 for further Keeper visible before he could You have begun to piece together guidelines for this ability.) This be fully banished, and the secret rules of the real world, may not be the “solution” to the spending a point might rather than the ignorant scrim mystery, although it should allow tell him that the Powder
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investigation site Buying Cthulhu Mythos Forensics (Technical) Paralleling the rules in • note relationships You study crime scenes and Call of Cthulhu, the default between objects perform autopsies on deceased system in Trail of Cthulhu at a crime scene, subjects to determine their cause is that points in the Cthulhu reconstructing sequences and circumstances of death. Mythos ability cannot be of events You can use skeletal evidence to bought with build points and reconstruct the physical details are added only during play, • find, transfer, take, and (age, sex, medical condition, mostly by reading eldritch compare fingerprints sometimes occupation) of the tomes. deceased. In the case of death by However, many of • match typewritten foul play, your examination can Lovecraft’s characters, such materials to a given identify: as both Danforth and Dyer in machine At the Mountains of Madness, • the nature of the weapon begin their adventure • match handwriting to a or weapons used with some Cthulhu Mythos known sample knowledge. To emulate such • the approximate time of stories (or to plunge right • store objects for forensic death into Cthulhoid adventure), analysis without the Keeper may allow contaminating your • the presence of players to create starting samples intoxicants or other Investigators with points in foreign substances in the Cthulhu Mythos. Even in such bloodstream or on the games, Cthulhu Mythos can Flattery (Interpersonal) skin never be an Occupational You’re good at getting people ability. to help you by complimenting • the contents of the or playing up to them, as subtly victim’s last meal or blatantly as they prefer. This works particularly well with In many cases, you can reconstruct of Ibn-Ghazi would subjects who find you attractive, the sequence of events leading accomplish such a task. No but that isn’t strictly necessary. to the victim’s death from the spend would provide the You could just compliment them arrangement of wounds on the formula for the Powder, on their exquisite taste, or the body. except to suggest which quality of their dissertation. You eldritch tome might can get them to: Although in the real world this conceal similar truths. technique was not available until • reveal information the 1960s, you can determine time (and sometimes place) of death by Evidence Collection • perform minor favors studying the insects at the scene (or the eggs and larvae in the (Technical) • regard you as trustworthy body). You’re adept at casing an investigation site and at finding, • date you (if applicable) bagging, and tagging important Geology (Academic) clues. You can: It’s up to you whether a high You are an expert on rocks, soils, rating in Flattery means that you minerals, and the primordial - spot hidden objects are physically alluring, winning history of the Earth. You can: or objects of interest and charismatic, sycophantic, (including bullet casings or simply exude a personal • analyze soil samples, under a couch, or drops of magnetism unrelated to your crystals, minerals, and so blue ooze behind the desk) looks or demeanor. forth at a crime scene or other
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The Investigator
• determine the age of a rock stratum Interrogation
• date and identify fossils (Interpersonal) You’re trained in extracting • evaluate soil for information from suspects and agriculture or industry witnesses in the context of a formal police-style interview. • identify promising sites This must take place in an official for oil or water wells, setting, where the subject is mines, etc confined or feels under threat of confinement, and recognizes • anticipate volcanism, your authority (whether real or seismic events, feigned). avalanches, and other earth phenomena Intimidation History (Academic) (Interpersonal) You’re an expert in recorded You elicit cooperation from human history, with an emphasis suspects by seeming physically on its political, military, economic, imposing, invading their allow overlap between related and technological developments. personal space, and adopting languages – an Investigator fluent You are also an expert in the tools a psychologically commanding in Norwegian may plausibly claim historians use: documents and manner. Intimidation may involve to be fluent (or at least “mostly books. You can: implied or direct threats of able to get by”) in Swedish, for physical violence but is just as example, without adding another • recognize obscure often an act of mental dominance. rating point. historical allusions You can: You may specify these when you • recall important or • gain information create your character, or choose relevant events in a given opportunistically in the course country, city, or region • inspire the subject to leave of play, revealing that you just the area happen to read, say, Assyrian • identify ancient languages when circumstances require it. and scripts • quell a subject’s desire to You are not learning the language attempt violence against spontaneously but revealing a • perform textual analysis you or others hitherto unmentioned fact about on a manuscript or book your character. to date it or identify the author Languages (Academic) For each rating point in Law (Academic) • determine the age of a Languages, you are verbally fluent You are familiar with the document and literate in one language other criminal and civil laws of your than your native tongue. You may home jurisdiction, and broadly • tell where and when elect to be literate in an ancient acquainted with foreign legal an object made during language that is no longer spoken, systems. At a rating of 2 or historical times was although the Keeper may disallow more, you may be a bar-certified fashioned occult, primordial, or inhuman attorney. You can: languages such as Aklo (the tongue • identify the period of an of the serpent-folk), Naacal (the • assess the legal risks article of dress or costume language of Mu), or Pnakotic A (the attendant on any course Yithian language). The Keeper may of action
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Investigative Abilities
• understand lawyerly and the like – locks that exist to The Keeper may or may not allow jargon drive drama or conflict, rather very elementary Forensics (“the than locks which merely hold killer used a blunt instrument; • call on legal colleagues clues — require actual tests death was instantaneous”) with or contacts for favors and against Difficulty. this ability. advice
• argue with police and Medicine (Academic) Occult (Academic) prosecutors You diagnose human disease, You’re an expert in the historical injuries, poisonings, and physical study of magic, superstition, and frailties, and may be broadly sorcery from the Stone Age to Library Use (Academic) acquainted with veterinary the present. From Theosophists to You can ferret out information medicine as well. At a rating of 2 Voodoo to the Golden Dawn, you from collections of books, records, or more, you may have a medical know the dates, the places, the files, archives, newspaper morgues, license. You can: controversies, and the legends. or big piles of unsorted telegrams You can: and correspondence. If the • diagnose diseases, information lies within, and you poisonings, and other • identify the cultural have access to the collection, you ailments traditions informing a can find it. You can also determine ritual by examining its patterns in the data – who wrote • prescribe treatment for a physical aftermath about what and to whom, what treatable condition kinds of books an eccentric • supply historical facts collector values, what might be • deliver a baby and anecdotes concerning missing from the official files, various occult traditions, which records seem doctored and • identify the extent and demons, and legends by whom, and so forth. cause of an unconscious person's trauma • guess the intended effect of a ritual from its Locksmith (Technical) • detect when a person physical aftermath You can open doors and locks, and is suffering from a disarm alarms, without benefit physically debilitating • identify occult activities of the key. (You can also find condition such as drug as the work of informed convenient windows to jimmy or addiction, pregnancy, or practitioners or bored coal-cellar doors to force, if need malnutrition thrill-seekers be.) Many locks require specialized tools, possession of which without • establish a person’s • fake a fortune-telling a locksmith’s license is a criminal general level of health session, séance, or other offense in most jurisdictions. occult activity Very complex or tricky locks may • identify medical require spends to open them abnormalities • read and cast a speedily, to avoid noise or damage, horoscope or to relock afterward. • understand medical jargon • identify occult Using Locksmith is, in other paraphernalia, grimoires, words, a way to gather clues. • call on medical colleagues symbols, and codes A lock that won’t open is like or contacts for favors and a witness that won’t talk or advice This ability does not allow you a bloodstain you can’t find: to work magic or summon antithetical to the mystery-solving, At the Keeper’s discretion, you supernatural entities, even if the investigative-adventure design may be trained in a more complex campaign admits the existence goals of GUMSHOE and Trail of specialty, as well as the sort of of non-Mythos magic. You may Cthulhu. Only safes, bank vaults, general practice indicated here. believe in the occult or not; the
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The Investigator skill functions just as well in • tell when an animal is either case. behaving strangely Photography (Technical) You’re proficient in the use of Depending on the campaign frame, • tell whether an animal or cameras, including still and an Occult rating of 4 or more plant is natural to a given motion-picture photography. You might mean that you have seen area can: obscure names like “Cthulhu” or “Yog-Sothoth” before, but without • find edible plants, hunt, • take useful visual records a rating in Cthulhu Mythos you and fish of crime scenes or dismiss them as trivia or explain expeditions them as regional or cult variations • make fire and survive on Tiamat or Choronzon. outdoors at night or in • develop film or plates and bad weather enhance hidden details If you have a rating in both Cthulhu Mythos and in Occult, you • navigate overland, albeit • use filters and lights can identify a given occult ritual more easily with a to capture images only as actually (even if ignorantly or compass and a map visible in infrared or unintentionally) a Mythos ritual. ultraviolet This counts as a use of Occult, and • track people, animals, or costs no Sanity or Stability. vehicles across grass or • spot manual retouching through forests or camera trickery in a photographic image or Oral History • hunt with dogs, negative including tracking with (Interpersonal) bloodhounds, assuming • take trick photographs You can find sources willing you have friendly dogs using double exposures to talk, win their confidence, available and other methods and gather (usually lengthy) oral testimony about historical Despite the name, there is no • realistically retouch and events, local traditions, folklore, restriction on female characters manipulate photographic family legend, or gossip. This is taking this ability in either the images an excellent way to do research Pulp or Purist game. in illiterate or semi-literate societies, and in rural or small- Physics (Academic) town communities in general. Pharmacy (Technical) You study the fundamental This ability also covers taking You are able to identify and forces of the universe: pressure, shorthand notes or making compound drugs and medicines. electromagnetism, motion, gravity, recordings without spooking your You can: optics, and radioactivity. You can: sources. • identify drugs and • design or refit potions, and recognize experimental machinery Outdoorsman (Technical) their side-effects and to test, detect, or You are familiar with working contraindications manipulate physical and living outdoors and in the forces and energies wild. You might be a farmer, • identify poisons and cowboy, or logger, or an amateur determine antidotes • obtain and operate (or professional) fisher or hunter, expensive or obscure or work for the Park Service. • secure or manufacture pieces of laboratory Perhaps you were merely an morphine, cocaine, equipment such as Crookes Eagle Scout, grew up in the and other controlled tubes, Geiger counters, or back of nowhere, or served in a substances magnetometers military unit with sufficient patrol experience “in country.” You can: • understand and apply
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General Abilities
advanced mathematics, • identify unsafe locations Mythos God or gods. You may including non-Euclidean and dangerous people believe in a given religion or not; geometries the skill functions just as well in • make and utilize criminal either case. • attempt to comprehend contacts – fences, black advanced or alien marketeers, drug dealers, If you have a rating in both technologies arms runners, and so Cthulhu Mythos and in Theology, forth you can identify a given ceremony Usually, building experimental as actually (even if ignorantly or machinery is a matter for • successfully price illegal unintentionally) a Mythos ritual. Mechanical or Electrical Repair, goods such as drugs, This counts as a use of Theology, not Physics, although Physics stolen items, or weapons and costs no Sanity or Stability. might be a prerequisite. • tell when practiced Some questions or clues may fall The Keeper may or may not criminals and con artists under both Theology and Occult, allow physicist Investigators are lying, as with Assess or on the boundary between them. to “reverse-engineer” Yithian Honesty In the 1930s, for example, most lightning guns, invent death authorities hold that Voodoo falls rays, etc They should still use • gather underworld rumors under Occult (or Anthropology), Mechanical or Electrical Repair backwoods snake-handling to build the things, although such churches are a matter of Theology, construction would require the Theology (Academic) and Satanism straddles the two Physics ability as a prerequisite. You study human religions in their fields. The Keeper may differ; if various forms, both ancient and so, erring on the side of overlap is Reassurance modern. You can: probably best. • supply information about (Interpersonal) religious practices and You get people to do what you beliefs want by putting them at ease. This General Abilities may involve fast talk, genuine • quote relevant tags from sympathy, or just a calming the major scriptures Athletics presence. You can: Athletics allows you to perform • recognize the names general acts of physical derring- • elicit information and and attributes of various do, from running to jumping to minor favors saints, gods, and other throwing bundles of dynamite figures of religious to dodging falling or oncoming • allay fear or panic in worship and veneration objects. Any physical action others not covered by another ability • identify whether a given probably falls under the rubric of • instill a sense of calm religious practice or ritual Athletics. during a crisis is orthodox or heretical If your Athletics rating is 8 or • fake (or in some more, your Hit Threshold, the Streetwise (Interpersonal) traditions, officiate at) a Target Number your opponents You know how to behave among religious ceremony use when attempting to hit you in crooks, gangsters, dopers, hookers, combat, is 4. Otherwise, your Hit grifters, and other habitués of the This ability does not allow Threshold is 3. criminal underworld. You can: you to work miracles, banish demons, commune with deities, • deploy criminal etiquette or otherwise invoke supernatural Conceal to avoid fights and power, even if the campaign You can hide things from view and conflicts admits the existence of a non- conceal them from search. Your
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The Investigator methods might include camouflage, to the most advanced radios. (You holding items out on your person, Driving can also hot-wire a car with an snaking things into drawers Anyone who’s been taught can electrical ignition, which is most unobserved, building secret drive a car down the road without of them built since 1920.) Given the compartments, or even altering a this ability. You, on the other right components, you can create thing’s visual signature with paint hand, are a skilled defensive jury-rigged devices from odd bits or plaster. driver, capable of wringing high of scrap. performance from even the most This ability also allows you to recalcitrant automobile, pickup Electrical Repair doubles as an discover things intentionally truck, or omnibus. You can: investigative ability when used to: concealed. • evade or conduct pursuit • evaluate the quality of workmanship used to Disguise • avoid collisions, or create an item This is the skill of altering your minimize damage from own appearance, posture, and collisions • determine the function of voice to be unrecognizable. a given electrical gadget Disguising others in anything • spot tampering with a more complex than a slouch hat vehicle • tap telephone or telegraph or false mustache is good only for lines brief periods, as posture and body • navigate, read maps, language are vital components in and maintain a sense of • make high-quality audio any successful disguise. direction recordings on records, Dictaphone cylinders, or Successfully disguising yourself • conduct emergency wire as an actual person known to repairs those you’re interacting with is • read Morse Code extraordinarily difficult. Brief For every 2 additional rating voice-only mimicry pits you points in Driving, you may add • use an electrical device in against a Difficulty Number of an additional ground vehicle good repair as intended 4. Face-to-face impersonation type to your repertoire, such for an investigative (clue- requires successful roll against as: motorcycle, transport truck, gathering) purpose a Difficulty Number of 7 every locomotive, buckboard, or five minutes of sustained contact streetcar. You may choose exotic between you and the object of your types, like tanks and hansom cabs, Explosives impersonation. although these are unlikely to see You’re an expert in bombs and regular use in an investigation- booby-traps. You can: Disguise doubles as an based game. Like additional Investigative ability when used to Languages, or additional varieties • defuse bombs and traps gather clues by: of Art and Craft, you may add them opportunistically in play if • handle nitroglycerine • creating and maintaining you have “unassigned” points. Your or other dangerously a cover identity among the pool can be used for any Driving unstable materials with unsuspecting roll, regardless of the vehicle. relative safety
• impersonating a generic A table of vehicles can be found on • given time, blow open figure, such as a security p. 184. safes or vaults without guard or a messenger damaging the contents
• briefly misrepresenting Electrical Repair • mix explosive compounds yourself, such as on the You’re good at building, repairing, from common chemicals telephone or in a vestibule operating, and disabling electrical devices from simple alarm systems • safely construct and
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General Abilities
• pilfer clues from (or plant clues at) a crime scene under the very noses of unsuspecting authorities
• pick pockets
• plant objects on unsuspecting subjects
Firearms You are adept with firearms, including their repair and identification. This skill also, covers crossbows and similar trigger- operated missile weapons (see the sidebar on the next page.)
You can spend 2 points from your Firearms pool to attempt to hit a target at long range with a pistol, or at up to 500 yards with a rifle. (See p. 186) This spend does not adjust your roll; it makes it possible in the first place.
If your Firearms rating is 5 or higher, you can spend 1 point from your Firearms pool to fire two pistols in the same round. If you attack two enemies, one target’s Hit Threshold increases by 2 (your choice).
A table of firearms can be found on p. 186.
First Aid You can perform first aid on sick or injured individuals. For more on detonate explosive devices the method and materials the use of this ability, see p. 63. or booby-traps of your own of the bomb-maker, and deduce his sophistication, Explosives doubles as an background, and skill Fleeing investigative ability when used to: Running away is an excellent survival skill; even in Pulp mode, • reconstruct exploded Filch your characters may be doing bombs Your nimble fingers allow you to a great deal of it. Like many of unobtrusively manipulate small Lovecraft’s spindly, neurasthenic • for any bomb (exploded or objects. You can: protagonists, you can be very good unexploded), determine at running away without being
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The Investigator
and survive the effects of toxins. monster attacks, can be called to Other Long-Range When you get hit in the course the surface and “relived.” This Weapons of a fight, your Health pool is is a Difficulty 4 test. Reliving an Tcho-Tchos and other diminished. A higher Health experience that cost Stability will primitive tribespeople will pool allows you to stay in a fight cost the patient the same amount likely attack with bows, longer before succumbing to your again, although you may practice blowguns, or other missile injuries. immediate Psychological Triage weapons without triggers – (see p. 79) to minimize the patient’s the Keeper can rename this When your Health pool is depleted, shock. The Keeper is free to skill to match, if she likes. you may be dazed, wounded, or provide false memories if she feels In the unlikely event that a monster chow. For more on this, you are “leading the witness.” player simply must build an see p. 63. Investigator skilled in the use • Post-hypnotic suggestion: Upon of both bows and guns, add In the Purist mode, your lifting the trance, you may cause an Archery ability. Health is capped at 12. your patient to perform a single Mi-Go and Yithians action without apparent thought. will more likely attack You may require a “trigger phrase” with energy projectors Hypnosis or simply specify a time: (“When or similarly terrifying Only Alienists (see p. 9) and you get home, you’ll leave the distance weapons. Again, Parapsychologists (see p. 17) can book on the desk.”) Spells and the Keeper can rename this buy or use this skill, and usually other complex activities cannot skill to match if desired. only in a Pulp game. be post-hypnotically induced. The Investigators can never patient will not accept a suggestion become familiar with such This ability represents medical contrary to her normal behavior. alien devices; they will hypnosis; it is not psychic This is a Difficulty 4 or higher always use them as if they mesmerism or Dr Caligari-style test; the Keeper may increase the were unskilled (see sidebar, mind control. You can only Difficulty based on the suggestion. p. 60). hypnotize a willing subject, and only one subject at a time. Using • Ease pain: You can relieve Hypnosis requires a Test against symptomatic pain in a patient. This a Difficulty Number that varies removes the mechanical penalties generally good at other physical depending on what you are using for being hurt (see p. 63), and lasts tasks. So Fleeing becomes an it for. until the patient is wounded again. ability unto itself, which you can This is a Difficulty 4 or higher use as a substitute for Athletics • Simple hypnotic state: To place test; the Keeper may increase the when escaping during chase a patient in a hypnotic trance, you Difficulty depending on the pain’s sequences. It does not make you must succeed against Difficulty 3. severity. This does not work under any better at pursuit. During this trance, she is calm and battlefield conditions. placid. If your Fleeing rating is more • False memories: You can than twice your final Athletics • Establish analytic rapport: Once purposely implant false memories rating, you can buy rating points you have successfully hypnotized in the patient or bury real ones. in Fleeing above the value at a a patient, your Psychoanalysis pool This is extremely unethical without reduced rate, getting 2 rating increases by 3 during any future a direct therapeutic benefit (such points for each build point spent. use of Psychoanalysis on them. as easing a remembered trauma). Hence, if your Athletics rating is 0, Your Psychoanalysis rating must This is a Contest between your all your Fleeing is half-price. be at least 3 to gain this benefit, Hypnosis and the patient’s Stability. See p. 26 for an example. and the 3 points must be spent on Your Difficulty Number is 5; the the patient. patient resists with Difficulty 4. Again, the Keeper may increase Health • Recover memories: The patient’s your Difficulty based on the Health measures your ability to fragmented or buried memories, severity of the memory change. sustain injuries, resist infection, as of dreams, traumas, or murky At the Keeper’s discretion, if the
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General Abilities patient suffers a further trauma (such as her Stability dropping below -5 again), she may suddenly recall the truth.
Mechanical Repair You’re good at building, repairing, operating, and disabling mechanical devices from simple stick traps to the most complex adding machines or steam turbines. (With the exception of simple latches, working with locks is covered by the Locksmith ability.) Given the right components, you can create jury- rigged devices and booby-traps from odd bits of scrap.
Mechanical Repair doubles as an investigative ability when used to:
• evaluate the quality of workmanship used to create an item
• determine the function of a given mechanical gadget
• use a mechanical device in good repair as intended
For every rating point in Mechanical Repair, you may operate and (where relevant) drive a type of heavy machinery, such as: tank, back-hoe, construction crane, or steam shovel. You may choose exotic types, like ocean Piloting • avoid collisions, or liner steam engines or heavy Although almost anyone can minimize damage from artillery, although these are paddle a canoe or even row a collisions unlikely to see regular use in an dinghy, you can pilot small boats investigation-based game. Like (motorboats, sailboats, dories) • spot tampering with a Languages, Driving, Art, etc, you or single-engine light aircraft vehicle may add types opportunistically, (barnstormers, crop dusters) with “suddenly recalling” your service professional aplomb and serene • navigate by compass or on a tramp steamer, or the confidence. You can: the stars, read maps, summer you worked construction and maintain a sense of on Boulder Dam. • evade or conduct pursuit direction
• anticipate bad weather • conduct emergency repairs
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The Investigator
A rating of 1 in Piloting allows Other abilities imply the possession Adding General Abilities you to select either small boats or of basic gear suitable to their If it’s appropriate for single-engine light aircraft. For core tasks. Characters with First the campaign frame, your every 2 additional rating points in Aid or Medicine have their own Keeper can split abilities Piloting, you may add an additional first aid kits or medical bags; into more specialized air or water vehicle type to your Photographers come with cameras, areas or add new ones repertoire, such as: small boats, film, and flash bulbs. If you have altogether. For example, single-engine light aircraft, gliders, Firearms, you usually have a gun, in a campaign of world- flying boats, multi-engine planes, and so on. Preparedness does spannning exploration, yachts, multi-masted sailing ships. not intrude into their territory. she could split Piloting into You may choose exotic types, It covers general-purpose Piloting (Boats) and Piloting like zeppelins, submarines, and investigative equipment, plus (Light Aircraft), and add autogiros, although these are oddball items – a telegraph key, Caving as a new ability. You unlikely to see regular use in an a baseball, a gas mask — that should only do this if the investigation-based game. Like the suddenly come in handy in the additional complication is additional vehicles available with course of the story. outweighed by the benefits extra points in Driving, you may in spotlighting Investigators’ add them opportunistically in play The sorts of items you can produce abilities. See also Adding if you have “unassigned” points. at a moment’s notice depend not Investigative Abilities on You may spend any of your points on your rating or pool, but on p. 32. on any vehicle. narrative credibility. If the Keeper determines that your possession A table of aircraft can be found on of an item would seem ludicrous, p. 185. anachronistic, or out of genre, you Riding don’t get to roll for it. You simply Although staying on a tame, don’t have it. Any item which untroubled walking horse (on Preparedness elicits a laugh from the group flattish terrain, anyway) is You expertly anticipate the needs when suggested is probably out of relatively easy once one gets the of any investigation by packing bounds. hang of it, and staying on a mule a kit efficiently arranged with or burro even easier, you are a necessary gear. Assuming you Inappropriate use of the gifted equestrian. You can gallop have immediate access to your kit, Preparedness ability is like even recalcitrant or spirited you may be able to produce an pornography. Your Keeper will horses, donkeys, and mules object the team needs to overcome know it when she sees it. past distractions and across the an obstacle. You make a simple test countryside. You can: (p. 56); if you succeed, you have the item you want. You needn’t do this Psychoanalysis • evade or conduct mounted in advance of the adventure, but You can provide comfort, pursuit can dig into your kit bag (provided perspective, and solace to the you’re able to get to it) as the need mentally troubled. You may be • care for, groom, shoe, and arises. a Freudian alienist, a priest or stable mounts pastor, or just an empathetic and Items of obvious utility to a Mythos intuitive individual. • take care of, prepare, and investigation do not require a use riding gear such as test. These include but are not You can restore panicked saddles and bridles limited to: notebooks or paper, Investigators to a state of calm (see writing implements and ink, p. 79), restore lost Stability points • calm a nervous mount flashlights, candles and matches, (see p, 79) and treat any long-term colored chalk, common tools and mental illnesses they accrue in the • drive a horse-drawn hardware, pen-knives, magnifying course of their activities (see p. 81). wagon or cart glasses, pocket mirrors, string, sandwiches, and brandy. • wield a weapon while riding
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General Abilities
For every additional 2 rating points in Riding, you may add an additional riding animal: camel, water buffalo, or elephant. You may not add Mythos mounts such as shantaks. You pool may be spent on Riding any or all of these creatures.
Sanity Exposure to the truths of the Cthulhu Mythos shatters the core of the human psyche by stripping away all illusions of human significance, benign nature, and loving God, leaving nothing but the terrifying vistas of stark, cosmic nihilism. Your Sanity rating indicates the degree to which you can sustain belief in any fundamental human concerns whatsoever. Unlike other abilities, you never test your Sanity or spend points from your Sanity pool. They are leached away by the Outside.
Once your Sanity reaches 0, your beliefs – and what you used to consider your soul – have been completely corroded beyond repair. In game terms, you become an NPC, shut away in a sanitarium forever, if you are fortunate, or a willing servitor of the uncaring Great Old Ones if not.
It is important to note that a can never be higher than 10 minus Pillars of Sanity Mythos initiate might have a Sanity your Cthulhu Mythos rating. (If you For each 3 full rating points your of 0 and seem completely normal know nothing about the Mythos, Investigator possesses in Sanity, after rebuilding his intellect your Sanity can be as high as you must define one Pillar of around the revealed cosmic you care to buy it. You will lose Sanity: some human concern truth, and a raving madman these points if you gain Cthulhu that he believes in and trusts who believes himself to be Jesus Mythos.) For a longer-term, more implicitly. Pillars of Sanity are Christ reborn might retain a survivable, or pulpier game, abstract principles, not individual Sanity rating at almost any level the Keeper may wish to adjust people or objects. Pillars of Sanity – if his mania is of purely human this ceiling upward, or shift it can be damaged or destroyed by construction, rather than the result downward for a shorter, deadlier, Mythos revelations (see p. 75) Some of a communion with Yog-Sothoth. or starker game. (Further rules for examples of Pillars include: Sanity appear on p. 69.) If you have a Cthulhu Mythos • Religious faith (can be a rating at all, your Sanity rating You get Sanity 4 for free. specific denomination,
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The Investigator
Martin Harvesson, worthiness of Nature or the moon the environment Sample Investigator • smell the sharp juniper Martin has a Sanity rating • The innate goodness of reek of the Treaders of of 10 and a Stability rating of 8. mankind the Dust as they silently Josh has to pick three Pillars of approach Sanity, and decides that Martin • Moral principles believes in a moral code, loves • notice the freshly split Chicago, and holds fast to a • Aesthetics or the high human bones hastily notion of human worth. The principles of art hidden behind the easel first and third help support his Drive for Revenge on whoever, • Epicureanism; living life to • have a bad feeling about or whatever, killed his partner. the fullest that eerily hunchbacked The Keeper decides to use priest at the seemingly the Sources of Stability rule, • Patriotism and national deserted cathedral since she wants the adventures virtue to be rooted in city life while Players never know the Difficulty also featuring globe-spanning • Love of one’s home city or Numbers for Sense Trouble horror. Josh only has to pick town before deciding how many points 2 Sources of Stability to help to spend, even in games where keep Martin grounded, so he As you might expect, Cthulhu Keepers generously inform the picks Martin’s secretary Joan (a Mythos revelations that undermine players of other Difficulty Numbers. plucky, fast-talking broad with these Pillars will cost you Players must blindly choose how a secret soft spot for Martin) additional Sanity. much to spend. The Keeper does and Martin’s former partner on not roll in secret, so even a failed the force, Lieutenant McAllen roll allows the group the sense that (a straight cop in a bent city). Scuffling something is amiss. They just don't Josh decides that Martin left the You can hold your own in a hand- know exactly what this is. Think of force after he had to take the to-hand fight, whether you wish to it as the game system equivalent of rap for something that might kill, knock out, restrain, or evade tension-building eerie music in a have splashed mud on McAllen, your opponent. It is up to you horror movie. which explains his low Credit whether high rating levels in this Rating. ability indicate specific skills (such Keepers should never require as boxing, wrestling, or le savate), the use of this general ability long practice in bar brawls, or to find clues to the mystery at or a general trust in a just a devastating and manly right hand. Instead, use Investigative benevolent or rational cross. The use of blackjacks, brass abilities, defaulting to Evidence deity) knuckles, coshes, saps, rolls of Collection when no ability seems quarters or shillings tucked up in more appropriate. Sense Trouble • Family (especially family the fist are treated as Scuffling is for a scenario’s action-oriented honor, purity of one’s sequences. In short, if not seeing blood, and suchlike) something will get you attacked, it’s Sense Trouble Sense Trouble. • Human dignity and value This ability allows you to perceive (either with sight or other senses) • Scientific progress or the potential hazards to yourself or Shadowing value of the intellect others. For example, you can: You’re good at following suspects without revealing your presence. • Physical laws and the • hear the splash of the You can: reality of scientific Deep One dropping into knowledge the sewer behind you • guide a team to follow a suspect for short periods, • The goodness, beauty, or • see a flittering shape cross handing off to the next in
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General Abilities
Although the sudden revelation entities or cultists of the Mythos, or confirmation of the truths of they may use your loved ones the Cthulhu Mythos can damage against you. They may turn them your Stability, so can service in the to evil, possess them, or take the Great War or the deaths of your tried and true route of subjecting beloved family in a fire. In other them to horrible tortures. If words, although losing Sanity anything bad happens to them, can decrease Stability, the two you not only face immediate, are not directly correlated. (See difficult Stability tests, but may p. 70.) A Sanity 0 cultist of Hastur permanently lose the rating might be a gibbering backwoods points they’re linked to. Your wife, cannibal (with an appropriately mother, or child can no longer low Stability) or a sophisticated, soothe your spirit if you can only wealthy art critic with a Stability visit their scarred and broken higher than that of any of the bodies in a secluded mental Investigators who seek to take him hospital. down.
You get Stability 1 for free. Stealth You’re good at moving (and sequence, so the subject In a Purist game, your Stability standing still) without being doesn’t realize he’s being is capped at 12. noticed. You can: trailed • move silently • use binoculars or Sources of Stability telescopes to keep watch This option is appropriate if the • hide in shadows or cover on a target from a campaign frame has a soap-opera- distance like element it. • evade visual security, whether guards (usual) or • find undetectable vantage For every 3 full rating points you cameras (unusual) points possess in Stability, you must name one person that keeps you sane • listen at doors or windows • hide in plain sight when the terrors of the world without being overheard threaten to shred your psyche. yourself • anticipate blind spots in This network of friends, colleagues your coverage and plan and family provides you with a Use Stealth when you are creeping for them, or use them to motivation to keep fighting the around unnoticed; if you are trying lose your own shadowers good fight and going back into that to sneakily lose a pursuer, use crypt every night. Shadowing. (Outrunning a pursuer is Athletics or Fleeing.) Stability A name and identifying phrase are Whether caused by an onrushing sufficient for each. You may not shoggoth, a horde of ghouls, or use fellow Investigators; they go Weapons an NKVD torturer, shock and through the same stresses you do You are skilled in the use of fear take a toll on the mind and and remind you of the horrors you personal hand weapons such as nervous system. Mythos and non- confront. It’s permissible, but risky, knives, swords, or whips. The Mythos threats alike can send for multiple Investigators to lean use of blackjacks, brass knuckles, Investigators into screeching on the same folks as members of coshes, saps, rolls of quarters or panic, near-catatonic funk, or their support network. shillings tucked up in the fist are blind frenzy. Your Stability rating treated as Scuffling (see p. 47). indicates your resistance to mental Relying on others is a source trauma. of strength, but also of danger. Once you come to the attention of
48 Player Name: Josh
Investigator Name: Martin Harvesson Sanity1 Drive: Revenge (for dead partner) 0 1 2 3 Occupation:2 4 5 6 7 Private Investigator Occupational benefits: 8 9 10 11 Spend points 2-for-1 after 12 13 14 15 Rolling Disguise or Shadowing Pillars of Sanity: 3 Moral Code, Loves Chicago, Hit Threshold 4 notion of human worth Stability Build Points: 0 -12 -11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 Academic Abilities Interpersonal Abilities General Abilities 4 5 6 7 Accounting 8 9 10 11 * Anthropology Assess Honesty Athletics 12 13 14 15 * 3 8 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) 0 1 2 3 Cryptography Interrogation Filch 4 5 6 7 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 Preparedness rating loss with a cross. * 1 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 Athletics is 8 or higher 8 Theology Evidence Collection Scuffling (I) These General abiltities 2 * double up as Investigative Forensics 1 Sense Trouble 8 abilities *Locksmith 3 * Shadowing 10 4 Usually, you can’t start with Outdoorsman Stealth Cthulhu Mythos. Sanity is 8 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. 8 Only Alienists and Joan (Plucky, fast-talking 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. 50 TRAIL OF CTHULHU
Clues, Tests and Contests
“Through shadowy dreams they send determine the pace, discovering Trail of Cthulhu, the solution to a marching line clues and putting them together. the mystery usually leads to (or Your Investigators interact with happens during) a confrontation Of still more shadowy shapes and locations, gathering physical with some monstrous evil. Once hints and views; evidence, and with supporting the players know where the characters run by the Keeper, evil lurks, they can send their Echoes from outer voids, and subtle gathering expert and eyewitness Investigators toward it. There, clues testimony. rules for challenging tests and dangerous contests come into To things which they themselves As the Keeper lays out the their own. cannot define.” investigation scene by scene, and you interact with the locations — The Fungi From Yuggoth: Harbour and supporting cast (and Clues Whistles occasionally horrible monsters), “There, indeed, no stolen child was the story unfolds. The first scene found, despite the tales of screams presents the mystery you have to and the red sash picked up in the Once you’ve built your solve. You may stumble onto it, be Investigator, it becomes the job called in by your old mentor, or areaway; but the paintings and rough of the Keeper to lure him and just hear about it after the fact. inscriptions on the peeling walls of his companions into the bowels You then perform legwork: hitting most of the rooms, and the primitive of a horrific mystery. Every Trail the libraries, buddying up to the chemical laboratory in the attic, all of Cthulhu scenario presents cops, collecting local legends, or helped to convince the detective that such a mystery, with a horrific following suspicious foreigners. tale behind it. Something awful Your goal is to collect information he was on the track of something has happened. Usually, somebody that tells you more about the tremendous.” or something has done it. The case. Each scene contains such Investigators must figure out information pointing to a new — The Horror at Red Hook what it is, and who did it, and scene, and painting the details how to stop it from happening of the horror bit by bit. Certain The GUMSHOE engine, which again. scenes may put a new twist on powers the Trail of Cthulhu the investigation, as the initial rules, separates the business The Keeper figures out (or mystery turns out to be just one of finding the clues from the reads an adventure scenario layer of the onion. To move from business of confronting (or describing) the what, who, and scene to scene, and to solve the running away from) monstrous how before the game starts. overall mystery, you must gather evil. In a fictional mystery, She then has to help the other clues. They fuel your forward whether it’s a mystery novel, a players tell the story of how their momentum. straight-up detective show like heroic Investigators also figure Columbo, a medical mystery like out the what, who, and how. As you accumulate clues, you House, or a police procedural The Keeper’s scenario notes are figure out enough to assemble like CSI or Law and Order, the not a story. The story occurs them into a course of action, emphasis isn’t on finding the as you, the team of players, and eventually into a solution. clues in the first place. Usually, bring this skeletal structure to The Investigators track down the heroes are drowning in clues. life through the actions of your the villainous cult, mad sorcerer, When it really matters, you may Investigators. The story proceeds uncanny phenomenon, or alien get a paragraph telling you how from scene to scene, where you presence behind the horror. In Holmes crawled around on the
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Clues carpet with his magnifying glass, You can convey a wider or see a montage of serious- speculation to the Keeper: “I use Simple Searches looking dudes with Luminol and Oral History to find the town Many clues can be Ziploc bags. But the action really drunk and pump him for local found without any ability starts after the detectives – the legends.” You sensibly guess that whatsoever. If an ordinary Investigators – gather the clues. the town is weird, but you don’t person could credibly find want to waste time going from a clue simply by looking Investigative scenarios are not NPC to NPC trying to read the in a specified place, the about finding clues. They are about Keeper’s mind and figure out clue discovery occurs interpreting the clues you do find. which one contains the magic automatically. You, the plot pellet. Nor should you. In this reader, wouldn’t need to be Figuring out the puzzle is hard example, if the Keeper planned a trained investigator to find enough for a group of armchair on having the local busybody a bloody footprint on the detectives, without someone provide the info instead of the carpet in your living room, withholding half the pieces local rummy, she can either or notice a manila envelope from them. GUMSHOE, therefore, change the information’s taped to the underside of a makes the finding of clues all source retroactively or tell you table at the local pub. By that but automatic, as long as you something like: “Before you can same logic, the Investigators get to the right place in the talk to Old Silas, an interfering don’t require specific abilities story and have the right ability. bluehair chases him off. to find them, either. When That’s when the fun part begins, Fortunately, she’s eager to spill players specify that they’re when the players try to put the dirt on her neighbors’ sketchy searching an area for clues, the components of the puzzle family history.” they’re performing what together. we call a simple search. To Or you can engage in a more perform simple searches, general informational fishing they must narrow down the Gathering Clues expedition: “I use Evidence scope of their examination Gathering clues is simple. All you Collection to search the alley,” by specifying a particular have to do is: or “I use Chemistry to test the area or object within the meteorite.” scene: 1. Get your Investigator into a scene where Or, the Keeper might ask if • “I look in the roll-top relevant information you, or anyone has a particular desk.” can be gathered, ability. • “Is there anything in the 2. Have the right ability to If your suggested action tub?” discover the clue, and corresponds to a clue in the scenario notes, the Keeper • “Dr Markesan is checking 3. Tell the Keeper that provides you the information the bottles in the you’re using it. arising from the clue. kitchen.”
As long as you do these three Languid dilettante things, you will never fail to gain Willoughby Boothroyd is On the other hand, a piece of necessary information. on the trail of a cult of characters who do have It is never dependent on a die deranged, Yog-Sothoth- relevant abilities can glean roll. If you ask for it, you will get worshipping alchemists. clues without getting this it. He searches Beacon specific. With Evidence Hill for their Boston Collection, clues become You can specify exactly what headquarters. His player, available to a player simply you intend to achieve: “I use Zachary, says “I stroll the by being on the scene and Art History to see if the idol is streets at sunset looking indicating that you’re looking authentically Late Minoan.” for alchemical glass in for them. the windows.” This is all
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Clues, Tests and Contests
Example Benefits Here some special benefits you might get from investigative point spends. The benefit gives you an advantage in a future contest of General abilities. • you find your petrol tank has been punctured before you drive the vehicle • you discover that Shoggoths are affected by electricity, before you encounter one • you notice that there is a hole in the fence around the back of the complex or that the guards go off-duty at 6.00pm • the plans show that the bomb must remain horizontal if you are not to trigger it • Credit Rating might get you access to an NPC psychoanalyst or doctor. The benefit gives a favorable impression to supporting characters. • you recognize and recover stolen artwork for the original owner, who will then be more inclined to help you • you spend points to discover a hidden room where there is a hostage who can either give clues or even help with General abilities. • You spend Credit Rating to cover up mistakes or buy your way past those who stand in your way The benefit can lead to a flashback scene. • you find an insect and receive a flash back to a time you were in the Amazon basin, alone, with one of the creatures crawling up your leg – it wasn’t poisonous after all. • you get your clue the form of a recalled lecture given by your mentor Point spends can help you resolve a moral dilemma. If your character finds the action required to get a Core Clue distasteful you might make a point spend to avoid this. • Intimidating a local might get you a core clue for free, but a two point Reassurance spend on the same local could get you the same information without upsetting your source. • Flattery, followed by a night of debauchery, might get you a core clue, but if this offends your Investigator’s moral (or aesthetic) sensibilities, a Credit Rating spend (to get into a showplace restaurant or dance hall) might get you the same information.» Extra point spends might speed up an investigation • a Bureaucracy spend supplemented by Flattery might get the photographs processed a day earlier, your car repaired more quickly, • the mysterious delay in processing your visa application might disappear with a Credit Rating spend. A point spend might get you some dedicated pool points (see p. 54) • A Library Use spend might allow you to find a book which gives you a History (New England) dedicated point pool. An Technical spend spend might allow you to create a notable work. An Academic spend, to write an influential paper or join an appropriate society • An Art spend would allow you to create a sculpture or painting • A Geology spend gets your paper on anamolous artifacts found in Archaean slate published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. An impressive point spend may even lead to refreshment of Stability points (see p. 79)
he needs to do to get the Note that Zachary didn’t For each scene, the Keeper information he needs to even have to specify what designates a core clue. This is proceed to the next scene, ability he used. He could the clue you absolutely need a confrontation with the have used Boothroyd’s to move to the next scene, and Boston cult leader in his Architecture, Chemistry, thus to complete the entire mansion, so the Keeper Occult, or even Credit investigation. Keepers will avoid says “You see a telltale Rating (strolling through making core clues available flash of intense violet from rich neighborhoods as only with the use of obscure the cupola of the early if you belong there) to investigative abilities, although Georgian townhouse at the uncover that clue. the Investigator group as a whole end of Wellington Court.” will usually have access to all, or
53 TRAIL OF CTHULHU
Clues nearly all, of them. Even if the an ability to take less time than a clue that would otherwise Investigator does not request normal, or succeed more flashily. only become apparent in a later a clue, the Keeper will let any It may grant you benefits useful scene. On occasion the additional person with a suitable ability later in the scenario, frequently information adds an emotional know that the clue is available. by making a favorable impression dimension to the story or ties As you get more familiar with on NPCs. Additional information into the Investigator’s Drive, past the GUMSHOE system, you’ll be can also provide information history, or civilian life. If you able to seamlessly roleplay using that is usefully applied to later think of your Trail of Cthulhu your abilities, and the Keeper contests involving General game as a TV series, an extra will be able to seamlessly slip you abilities: discovering that benefit gives the actor playing needed clues when you do. shoggoths love electricity, or that your Investigator a juicy spotlight your car’s petrol tank is empty, or scene. your gun has been unloaded. Spends and Benefits “Is there another way Certain clues allow you to gain A benefit may allow you to leap into that house?” asks special benefits by spending forward into the story by gaining Zachary. The Keeper points from the relevant knows that there are old investigative ability pool. Each smuggler’s tunnels into benefit costs either 1 or 2 points Dedicated Pool Points most of the basements from the relevant pool, depending in this neighborhood. Occasionally, the Keeper on the difficulty of the additional This information isn’t may give you extra pool action and the scope of the necessary to move points you can only use in reward. The act of spending forward – going in the a given circumstance or on points for benefits is called a front door will get to the a given subject. These are spend. The Keeper’s scenario confrontation just as fast called notes may specify that you get dedicated pool points, — but initiative should and usually come from Benefit X for a 1-point spend, or always be rewarded reading books of lore, sudden Benefit Y for a 2-point spend. where possible. communion with alien When asking you if you want perceptions, mental illness, to spend, the Keeper always “Would you rather or other specialized stimuli. tells you how much it will cost. spend 1 Architecture In most cases, dedicated pool During your first few scenarios, point or 2 Credit Rating points stack on top of your your Keeper will offer you the points?” asks the rating. For example, if you opportunity to spend additional Keeper. If Zachary picks have an Archaeology rating points as you uncover these Architecture, Boothroyd of 2, and you read a tome clues. After that it’s up to you to will “just happen to granting you 2 dedicated ask if it there’s anything to be remember” seeing pool points for Valusian gained by spending extra time or smuggler’s tunnels in a ruins, you have 4 points you effort on a given clue. You can similar Georgian house can spend on Archaeology, even propose specific ways to in the neighborhood. But but 2 of them can only be improve your already good result; Zachary picks the bigger spent investigating the relics if your suggestion is persuasive spend for the bigger and artifacts of that ancient or entertaining, the Keeper may benefit, reducing his serpent-folk kingdom. award you a special benefit not Credit Rating pool from In a way this is what mentioned in her scenario notes. its maximum of 6 down the rules already do when, to 4, and the Keeper for example, they separate Any additional information says “As it happens, you Cop Talk from Reassurance, gained from a spend provides attended a soiree at young but slicing abilities too flavor, but is never required to Brickman’s the other thinly makes it hard to build solve the case or move on to a month, and he showed you competent Investigators. new scene. Often a benefit makes the old smuggler’s tunnel your Investigator seem clever, in his wine cellar and powerful, or heroic. It may allow said he’d gone exploring
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Clues, Tests and Contests one time — ‘visited the let you into his tunnel.” cellar of every house built Inconspicuous Clues before 1750’ in his words. This gives Boothroyd a “Examining one day the reserve He lives a block away, and possible ally or contact, specimens roughly set on the storage you’re sure he’d be happy a possible secure retreat shelves in a rear room of the museum, to stand you a glass and or unexpected entry, and a distinctive character my eye was caught by an odd picture moment all at once – well in one of the old papers spread Who Finds It? worth the 2 points. beneath the stones.” Sometimes you know that a clue will definitely Boothroyd leans on — “The Call of Cthulhu” be found during a given Brickman’s bell with his scene, but must decide stick. “Thought I might Sometimes the Investigators which Investigator does see if your Medoc has instinctively notice something so. Most often, the clue, improved any,” he says. without actively looking for it. though easily found on a “And speaking of your Often this situation occurs in cursory examination of a cellar…” places they’re moving through scene, will be somewhat casually and don’t regard as inconspicuous. The bloody A good Keeper will always try to scenes in need of intensive footprint might be under a come up with something cool to searching. The team might pass piece of furniture. The table reward you for spending points, by a concealed door, spot a with the envelope taped to it whether or not the benefits are droplet of blood on the marble might be on the other side of specified in her scenario, because of an immaculate hotel lobby, or the diner. Because it is mildly it makes the game more colorful approach a truck with dynamite inconspicuous, it doesn’t and fun for everyone. Spending planted beneath it. Interpersonal make sense that everybody points on benefits encourages the abilities can also be used to find will spot it at the exact same Keeper to wire your Investigator inconspicuous clues. The classic second. ever more deeply into the story example is of a character whose If one or more players and into her world, putting subtle demeanor or behavioral tics have a relevant ability, psychological pressure on her establish them as suspicious. choose the player with the to keep your Investigator alive. highest current pool in There’s even an optional Pulp- It’s unreasonable to expect that ability. If no one has idiom rule on p. 79 that lets you players to ask to use their a relevant ability, or no regain some Stability by coming various abilities in what appears ability seems to apply to up with a confidence-boosting to be an innocuous transitional the situation, ask yourself and dramatic spend. Thus, it is to scene. Otherwise they’d have to which player seems most in your advantage to propose cool spend minutes of game time with need of a win. Pick either benefits to the Keeper. every change of scene, running the Investigator who has down their abilities in obsessive received the least time in If you wish to make a spend in checklist fashion. That way the spotlight, or suffered the a situation where the Keeper madness lies. worst setbacks, during the has no special benefit to offer current session. you, and cannot think of one Instead the Keeper asks which This technique of doling that pertains at all to the character has the highest current out positive moments investigation, you do not lose the pool in the ability in question. according to dramatic need points you wish to spend. (When in doubt for what ability can also be applied to other to use for a basic search, the benefits, from lucky breaks Keeper defaults to Evidence to romantic opportunities, Collection.) to which no ability clearly applies. If two or more pools are equal, it goes to the one with the highest rating. If ratings are also equal,
55 TRAIL OF CTHULHU
Tests their characters find the clue at Tests the same time. Die Rolls A test occurs when the outcome All die rolls in Trail of Cthulhu Boothroyd and a lady of an ability use is in doubt. Tests artist of his acquaintance, apply to General skills only. Unlike use a single ordinary Letitia Vandiver, are on information gathering attempts, (six-sided) die. their way to pick up the tests carry a fairly high chance rest of the Investigator of failure. They may portend dire team for their midnight consequences if you lose, provide visit to the smuggler’s advantages if you win, or both. There are two types of tests: tunnels when they pass simple tests and contests. an art gallery used by the Even in the case of General skills, cult to recruit wealthy the Keeper should call for tests members. only at dramatically important Simple Tests points in the story, and for tasks A simple test occurs when the The Keeper decides that of exceptional difficulty. Most Investigator attempts a difficult Art History will reveal General ability uses should allow action without active resistance that the paintings in the automatic successes, with possible from another person or entity. windows are fresh works bonuses on point spends, just like Examples include driving a by artists long thought Investigative abilities. treacherous road, jumping a dead. Both characters have the skill; Boothroyd has 2 points in his pool, Difficulty Numbers while Letitia has 3. and Story Pacing Just as the Trail of Cthulhu system keeps the story moving by making “Letitia,” says the Keeper, all crucial clues accessible to the Investigators, Keepers must ensure “you’re something of a that tests and contests essential to forward narrative momentum devotee of Vernet, and can be easily overcome. Assign relatively low Difficulty Numbers of 4 you’d swear that was a or less to these crucial plot points. Reserve especially hard Difficulty brand-new Vernet in that Numbers for obstacles that provide interesting but nonessential gallery window – if he benefits. hadn’t been dead for 100 For example, if the characters have to sneak past the Nazi guards into years, that is.” the Hamburg warehouse in order to stage the final confrontation, assign the relatively low Difficulty Number of 4 to the task. If it seems like they “realistically” ought to have a tougher time of it, insert a detail justifying their ease of success. The storm-trooper assigned to watch one section of the dock might be found with his throat torn out by the Deep Ones the SS necromancers have – imperfectly – summoned, for example. One way to avoid this situation is to prevent the continuation of the game be dependent on a single General contest (other than those associated with bodily or mental harm) and offer other, less pleasant, options, for example, if they fail to climb the fence, they can crawl through the sewers. Option – You Always Succeed We’ve never had this issue reported as a problem, other than in theory. The following rule is more in keeping with the basic GUMSHOE premise, but might not suit everyone. Where it is essential to overcome a General obstacle, allow success whatever the result, but give a negative consequence other than failure for the roll. For example, the PC climbs the fence, but receives an injury.
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Clues, Tests and Contests crevasse, sneaking into a building, The Purist Trail of Cthulhu repair attempt is 5. Josh shooting a target, booby-trapping setting is meant to be harsh rolls a 6, adding 3 points to a doorway, or remaining steady and deadly in body and spirit. get a final result of 9. The in the face of squamous horror. Losing points is meant to hurt, pump kicks back in, just in and Investigators are frequently time to reverse the ship’s The Keeper determines how hard distracted, their senses unreliable. sinking. any given action is by assigning it To truly evoke that feel, the a Difficulty Number ranging from Keeper never reveals Difficulty 2 to 8, where 2 offers only a slim Numbers. Piggybacking chance of failure and 8 verges on When a group of Investigators the impossible. The player rolls In the Pulp mode, Trail act in concert to perform a task a single die; if the result is equal of Cthulhu Investigators together, they designate one to to or higher than the Difficulty are hardened adventurers, take the lead. That character Number, the character succeeds. instinctively aware of their makes a simple test, spending any Before rolling the die, the player limitations and of the kinds of number of his own pool points may choose to spend any number obstacles they face. Keepers toward the task, as usual. All of points from the relevant ability in this mode may choose to other characters pay 1 point from pool, adding these to the final reveal Difficulties, especially for their relevant pools in order to die result. Players who forget to conventional obstacles like walls, gain the benefits of the leader’s specify the number of points they Tong members, and guard dogs. action. These points are not added want to spend before rolling are Difficulty numbers for Sense to the leader’s die result. For stuck with the unmodified result. Trouble (see p. 47) are never every character who is unable to revealed. pay this piggybacking cost, either In the game world, expenditure of because he lacks pool points or pool points in this way represents The test represents the does not have the ability at all, the special effort and concentration Investigator’s best chance to Difficulty Number of the attempt by the Investigator, the kind succeed. Once you fail, you’ve shot increases by 2. you can muster only so many your bolt and cannot retry unless times during the course of an you take some other supporting Boothroyd, Martin, Letitia, adventure. action that would credibly and Professor Swinburne increase your odds of success. If attempt to sneak into the Martin wants to climb allowed to do this, you must spend office of the cult gallery a high cemetery wall to more pool points than you did on that Boothroyd and Letitia see if ghouls lurk on the the previous attempt. If you can’t spotted earlier, in order other side. The Keeper afford it, you can’t retry. to find out more about needs the group to get to the ‘Vernets’ Letitia saw. the other side of the wall Martin has just failed his Martin, with a Stealth of 8, and therefore assigns the Mechanical Repair test to takes the lead. Boothroyd, relatively low Difficulty repair a broken pump in Letitia, and the Professor Number of 3 to the task. the sinking ship he and have 4, 0, and 2 points Martin’s player, Josh, the other investigators in their Stealth pools, has a full 8 points in his are trapped in. Josh spent respectively. Boothroyd Athletics pool. He decides 2 points from Martin’s and the Professor pay 1 that he really needs a win Mechanical Repair pool on point apiece; their pools go on this one and decides to this attempt. The Keeper down to 3 and 1. Because spend half of them on the decides he’ll have one Letitia has no points to attempt. He rolls a 5. With more shot at it before spend, the Difficulty the 4 points from his pool, the ship capsizes. Now Number of the sneak this gets a final result of he must spend at least 3 increases from 4 to 6. (If 9. Displaying impressive Mechanical Repair points. the group left her behind, aerobatic grace, Martin Fortunately he has 4 it would be easier to sneak vaults onto the wall. points left in his pool. The in, but she’s the artist.) Difficulty Number of the Martin spends 3 points on
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Contests, Chases and Combat
the attempt, but his player All but one of these is applied to Contests, Chases rolls a 1. This would have the die roll. overcome the Difficulty if it weren’t for Letitia’s Martin and Letitia are and Combat presence. Clearly, Letitia trying to repair a rusted- “It is uncommon to fire all six shots has knocked over a vase, out roadster so they can of a revolver with great suddenness making an ear-splitting escape from the South Side when one would probably be crash and leaving an junkyard before the Outfit sufficient, but many things in the life unmistakable trace of the shows up to kill them. of Herbert West were uncommon.” Investigators’ entry. Martin has 4 points left in his Mechanical Repair — “Herbert West – Reanimator” In most instances a group cannot pool. Letitia has 3 points. logically act in concert. Only They decide that Martin Contests occur when two one character can drive a car is the main mechanic, characters, often an Investigator at one time. Two characters and Letitia his assistant. and a non-player character with Preparedness check their Both choose to spend all controlled by the Keeper, actively individual kits in sequence, rather of their remaining points attempt to thwart one another. than checking a single kit at the on the attempt. Martin Although contests can resolve same time. adds 3 points to the die various physical match-ups, in a roll. Letitia also spends horror game the most common 3 points, but adds only 2 contest is the chase, in which Cooperation to the die roll. Martin’s the Investigators run away When two Investigators cooperate player rolls a 2, for a from slavering entities intent on toward a single goal, they agree result of 7. This beats the ripping them limb from limb. which of them is undertaking Difficulty Number of 6, the task directly, and which is allowing the two of them In a contest, each participant assisting. The leader may spend to roar down the alley to acts in turn. The first to fail a any number of points from her safety as Thompson rounds roll of the contested ability loses. pool, adding them to the die spang and spatter off the The Keeper decides who acts roll. The assistant may pay any piles of junked cars behind first. In a chase, the character number of points from his pool. them. who bolts from the scene acts first. Where the contestants seem to be acting at the same time, the one with the lowest rating in the relevant ability acts first. In the event of a tie, NPCs act before Investigators. In the event of a tie between Investigators, the player who arrived last for the current session goes first in the contest.
The first contestant to act makes a test of the ability in question. If he fails, he loses the contest. If he succeeds, the second then makes a test. This continues until one contestant loses, at which point the other one wins.
Typically each contestant attempts to beat a Difficulty Number of 4.
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Investigative Contests It is possible to conceive of situations that can best be modeled by contests of Investigative abilities: contests of Bargain to buy an enchanted dagger in the bazaar three minutes before the eclipse reaches totality, of Credit Rating at a rare book auction, of Assess Honesty at a chess match or poker game, and so forth. More outré examples might include contests of Architecture to escape a sentient haunted house, or Outdoorsman if trying to solve a Hedge Maze of Shub-Niggurath. This is such a tempting idea that it threatens to vitiate the entire point of Investigative abilities, which is that they always work. Thus, such a contest should only happen if it is as central and dramatic a conflict as a fight scene would be. If it’s just a color scene, or a means of dropping a clue, don’t bother with a contest: just let the Investigator use his ability, win, and look good. If you must have a contest as the centerpiece Martin flees through scramble down Fish Alley of a scene, the opponent the darkened streets of by the docks. should have a pool no Arkham from a dagger- more than 1 point higher wielding cultist. His The cultist spends 1 point (for dangerous or clearly current Athletics pool is as well, the Keeper superior opponents) than the 6; the cultist’s is 7. (Being rolling a 3. He leaps Investigator. In any event, an all-around tough through the rotting defeat in the contest should guy, Martin put points wooden railings and not prevent the plot moving into Athletics instead of comes up waving his forwards, but have another Fleeing.) As the fleeing dagger and foaming at negative consequence., for character initiating the the mouth. example, an important NPC is chase sequence, he’s the unimpressed, your enemies first character to act. His Martin spends another are warned or you have to player rolls against a point, taking his Athletics take a more dangerous route Difficulty of 4, spending to 4. His player rolls a to the next scene. 1 point. He rolls a 4, 2, which adds to 3, not and Martin manages to enough to get away.
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Don’t Mention The Lizards Fighting Without It may come to pass that an NPC wants to get information out of Abilities an Investigator. This isn’t really part of the investigative RPG genre A character with no (or of Lovecraft’s fiction), but it is a common occurrence in 1930s points in Firearms is not popular literature, including pulp and detective stories. allergic to guns. The most Outside a formal context, Investigators should be allowed to use neurasthenic and molly- Assess Honesty or otherwise detect someone casually pumping them, coddled aesthete is able to studying their body language, etc. If they notice, let the players decide pick up a revolver and empty whether (and what) to spill. Spends can suggest fruitful lies or half- it in the general direction truths, or help determine what will make the problem go away. of the foe. Likewise, a If the attempt is obvious or official, work it as an Interpersonal or character with no Weapons other ability use for the Investigator: At an academic conference, the ability is not going to just Investigators can use Reassurance or Archaeology to evade questions ignore the fire axe sitting about mysterious ruins; at the police station, use Cop Talk to brush off on the wall when the any questions or Law to get released without interrogation. ghouls come up through the If a lengthy confrontation is unavoidable — say, if the Investigators floorboards. Even a mere are being questioned in a Gestapo basement — then it’s not a contest slip of a respectable girl with any more, it’s a plot device. Do what you must to get the story going no Scuffling score will try to rather than reveling in the Investigators’ helplessness – perhaps the kick or even bite her vulgar other Investigators can break in and rescue the prisoner before he assailants. spills all they know about the Serpent-Folk. However, such characters will use their weapons ineffectively and hesitantly. Using a weapon (including Martin has backed face a Difficulty Number fists or feet) without ability himself onto a pier, of 4, while the hellish has the following drawbacks: caught with the oily frog-thing gets the lower - You automatically do Miskatonic River at his Difficulty of 3. an additional -2 damage. back. The cultist advances (Keepers may suspend on him. Now Martin has Throughout the contest, Keeper this penalty for maniacs, no choice but to stand and players should collaborate who always seem to do and fight. to add flavor to each result, exceptional damage with explaining what each side did improvised weaponry.) Where the odds of success to remain in the contest. That - You must declare your are skewed in favor of one way, instead of dropping out of action at the beginning of contestant, the Keeper may the narration to engage in an each round and cannot assign different Difficulties arithmetical recitation, you keep change it if the tactical to each. A contestant with a the fictional world verbally alive. situation alters. significant advantage gets a - You automatically go lower Difficulty Number. One last in each round. facing a major handicap faces a - If you are using a higher Difficulty Number. When firearm, a roll of 1 means in doubt, the Keeper assigns the Fighting you have accidentally shot lower number to the advantaged Fights are slightly more yourself or one of your participant. complicated contests involving allies, as selected (or rolled any of the following abilities: randomly) by the Keeper. Do Running through a rain- damage as normal (including filled sewer, Martin finds • Scuffling vs Scuffling, your automatic -2 penalty). it harder to move quickly Scuffling vs Weapons, or than does the aquatic Weapons vs Weapons: the Deep One pursuing him. characters are fighting In this case he might in close quarters.
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• Firearms vs Firearms: Mythos creatures – even in hordes the characters are apart — will have their normal values. Blackjacks from one another and Blackjacks, brass knuckles, trying to hit each other Dealing Damage: When you roll coshes, saps, rolls of with guns. equal to or over your opponent’s quarters or shillings tucked Hit Threshold, you may deal up in the fist, and similar The aggressor is the first damage to him. To do so, you sorts of life-preserving gear combatant to move against make a damage roll, rolling a die do -1 damage, rather than -2 the other. When the status of which is then modified according as per a normal fist attack. aggressor and defender are to the relative lethality of your Using them is a test of unclear, the combatants compare weapon, as per the following table: Scuffling, not Weapons. In a their current pool numbers in Scuffling vs Scuffling contest, the abilities they’re using in the Damage the blackjack user goes last. Weapon Type fight. The character with the Modifier highest number chooses whether to act as aggressor or defender. Fist, kick –2 (Unlike an ordinary contest, in a The final damage result is then fight it is often advantageous to Small improvised subtracted from your opponent’s strike first.) weapon, blackjack, Health pool. Unlike other contests, –1 bullwhip, participants do not lose when they A contest proceeds between the nightstick, knife fail their test rolls. Instead, they’re two abilities. When combatants forced out of the fight when they using the Scuffling, Weapons, Big improvised lose consciousness or become or Firearms abilities roll well, weapon, machete, seriously wounded (see p. 63). Any they get the opportunity to deal heavy club, 0 combatants currently engaged damage to their opponents. fireplace poker, with him in a close-quarters fight light firearm can then deal another instance of Hit Thresholds: Each Investigator Sword, heavy damage to him. +1 has a Hit Threshold of either 3 firearm (the standard value) or 4 (if the Investigator’s Athletics rating is Supernatural creatures often Free-For-All Combat 8 or more.) The Hit Threshold exhibit alarmingly high damage Combat becomes more chaotic is the Difficulty Number the modifiers. when two groups of combatants Investigator’s opponent must fight, or a group gangs up against match or beat in order to harm For firearms, add an additional +2 a single opponent. The Keeper him. Less competent NPCs may when fired at point-blank range. abandons the aggressor/defender have lower Hit Thresholds, but All shotguns are considered heavy model. Instead, the Keeper cult guards, Gestapo agents, and firearms at point-blank range. At determines an order of action, similar opponents will generally point-blank or close range, add an ranking all participants in the parallel Investigator levels. additional +1 to damage if you fire combat according to their present both barrels of a double-barreled pool values in the fighting skills Creatures may have Hit shotgun simultaneously. Thus, a they’ll be starting the fight with: Thresholds of 4 or higher, 20-gauge double-barreled shotgun Scuffling, Weapons, or Firearms. regardless of their Athletics (normally a light firearm doing +0 Ties are broken in favor of ratings. Extremely large creatures damage), fired with both barrels characters with higher ratings in will usually have a Hit Threshold at point-blank range, carries a those skills. If combatants are still 1 lower than roughly man-sized total modifier of +4, as would a tied, Investigators win out over beings of the same sort. 12-gauge double-barreled shotgun creatures and enemies, and early- (already a heavy firearm doing +1 arriving players win over late- In the Pulp mode, faceless damage). arriving players. mook opponents such as Nazi soldiers or Haitian cultists will A more detailed firearms table The time it takes to go through have Hit Thresholds of 2 or 3. appears on p. 186. the ranking order once, with each
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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.
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Physical Injury and Death Unlike most abilities, your Health pool can drop below 0. When it does this, you must make a Consciousness Roll. Roll a die with the absolute value of your current Health pool as your Difficulty. You may deliberately strain yourself to remain conscious, voluntarily reducing your Health pool by an amount of your choice. (You may not voluntarily reduce your Health pool below -11.) For each point you reduce it, add 1 to your die result. The Difficulty of the Consciousness roll is based on your Health pool before you make this reduction. Father Micah is being chased by Y’golonac cultists through what he initially thought was a convent. A cultist hits him with an antique spiked morning-star, dropping his Health pool to –2. He really wants to get away from them, lest they force him to celebrate their vile fleshly rituals. Thus he must remain conscious. The absolute value of –2 is 2, so this is the Difficulty of his Consciousness roll. He chooses to expend another 2 Health points he doesn’t have, pushing himself onward toward the ornately – and obscenely — carven doors. That gives him a bonus of 2 to his roll. He rolls a 6, for a final result of 8. Father Micah gets away, but now his Health pool is down to –4.
If your pool is anywhere from 0 to –5, you are hurt, but have suffered no permanent injury beyond a few superficial cuts and bruises. However, the pain of your injuries makes it impossible to spend points on Investigative abilities, and increases the Difficulty Numbers of all tests and contests, including opponents’ Hit Thresholds, by 1. First Aid: A character with the First Aid ability can improve your condition by spending First Aid points. For every First Aid point spent, you regain 2 Health points — unless you are healing yourself, in which case you gain only 1 Health point for every First Aid point spent. A character giving First Aid must be in a position to devote all of his attention to directly tending to your wounds. First Aid can only refill your pool to where you were before the scene in which you received this latest injury. For example, if you get shot and then someone punches you during the same fight, you can repair both. If you get shot, run away, get into another fight, and then somebody punches you, you can heal the punch. First Aid can only ever bring you back to one third of your maximum Health points. All other increases must be gained using the Refreshing Health rules (see p. 81). This option makes hurt Investigators very fragile.
If your pool is between –6 and –11, you have been seriously wounded. You must make a Consciousness roll. Whether or not you maintain consciousness, you are no longer able to fight. Until you receive first aid, you will lose an additional Health point every half hour. First Aid and serious wounds: A character with the First Aid ability can stabilize your condition by spending 2 First Aid points. However, he can’t restore your Health points. Even after you receive first aid, you must convalesce in a hospital or similar setting for a period of days. Your period of forced inactivity is a number of days equal to the positive value of your lowest Health pool score. (So if you were reduced to –8 Health, you are hospitalized for 8 days.) On the day of your discharge, your Health pool increases to half its maximum value. On the next day, it refreshes fully.
When your pool dips to –12 or below, you are dead. Time to activate your replacement Investigator. Health Loss For NPCs In a Purist game, the Investigators are no different from anyone else. All humans lose Health mechanically in the same way. In the Pulp mode, the Investigators are a cut above the rest of the herd. Normal people, both mooks and bystanders, simply (or dramatically, or messily) die when their Health is reduced below 0. Using this rule does make combats much faster, so even Purist Keepers may want to sneak it into battles against cultists, etc. The Keeper may, if she thinks it dramatically appropriate, decide that certain NPCs use the Investigators’ Health loss rules.
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Non-Lethal Damage Players may always announce that their Investigators are using their Scuffling attacks to do non- lethal damage: choke-holds, arm-locks, body blows, and the like. Such attacks never lower a target’s Health pool below -11, but merely force yet another Consciousness roll if successful. A tolerant Keeper will allow similar declarations for non-bladed Weapons attacks. Bringing a knife, or worse, a gun into a fight is a declaration of willingness to kill. There is no such thing as a non-lethal Firearms attack. Players who don’t want their Investigators to kill people shouldn’t let their Investigators use lethal weapons on human opponents.
Cover In a typical gunfight, combatants seek cover, hiding behind walls, furniture or other barriers, exposing themselves only for the few seconds it takes them to pop up and fire a round at their targets. The Trail of Cthulhu rules recognize three cover conditions:
Exposed: No barrier stands between you and the combatant Martin is stabbed by a Creatures often have high firing at you. Your Hit Threshold madwoman with a pair of armor ratings. They may possess decreases by 1. scissors. The Keeper rolls a hard, bony hides or monstrous 3 for the maniac’s damage, anatomies that can take greater Partial Cover: This is the normal subtracting 1 point for a punishment than ordinary condition in a gunfight. About small, improvised weapon, organisms. Many creatures of half of your body is exposed to for a total damage of 2. the Mythos are not fully present fire. Your Hit Threshold remains Martin’s leather duster in our physical universe, and unchanged. This is also the reduces it by 1 further are thus unaffected by physical condition if you have full cover, point. His Health pool weapons. but only behind thin or flimsy decreases from 6 to 5. materials like leaves, drywall, or
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Bullet-Resistant Clothing One Gun, Two All right, you got us. Mobsters in the Chicago and New York of the Combatants 1930s did, in fact, wear heavy “bullet-proof vests” made of thick layers If you are at the mercy of an of cotton padding and canvas or denim. Some even tried a layer of opponent with gun well in rivets or metal discs, with mixed results. Such vests could stop the hand and ready to fire, he penetration of a .32, or even (from a distance) a .38 slug, leading can empty his entire clip or some American law enforcement agencies and personnel to adopt the chamber at you before you .357 Magnum round, beginning in 1934. They are not particularly well- get to him, or get yourself known outside criminal and law-enforcement circles, and characters out of range. This situation without Streetwise should not have access to them, nor should any occurs for example, if he non-American character. holds you at gunpoint or All that said, it’s not entirely ridiculous for such things to show charge him from more up, especially in a Pulp-idiom game set in gangland Chicago or New than five feet away with York. A “gangster vest” will reduce bullet or club damage by 2 points, no cover. The Difficulty is 1 although wearing it reduces your Athletics pool by 1. It is ineffective (an automatic hit), 2 if your against stabbing or cutting attacks. Athletics rating is 8 or more Needless to say, wandering the streets in gangster garb is a great and you are moving. He rolls way to get arrested on “suspicion of mopery” in a pre-Miranda one instance of damage, society. Most Investigators are engaged in activities that do not easily which is then tripled. Yes, withstand police scrutiny at the best of times. we said tripled. And, yes, If Keepers are really concerned that Investigators can’t wade the tripling occurs after through gunfire, a simpler solution is just to rule that all gunshots weapon modifiers are taken that hit Investigators (especially shots fired by faceless mooks) do 1 into account. This is why point less damage. few unarmed people attack A still better solution is to not write gun-toting opponents into the a gun-wielding opponent scenario in the first place, but that takes us back into Purist territory. when he has the drop on them. If your opponent has a pistol but it is not well in the dry-rotted planks in some whole 50- or 100-round drum, hand and ready to fire, backwoods cannibal shack. instead of the more usual military you may attempt to jump 20- or 30-round box, you have him and wrestle it from his Full Cover: Except when you pop 3 extra points in your Firearms grip. If he has a pistol well up to fire a round, the barrier pool.) After expending a full-auto in hand but is unaware of completely protects you from burst and the extra Firearms your presence, you may incoming fire. Your Hit Threshold pool points associated with it, also be able to jump him, increases by 1. machine-gunners must stop at theKeeper’s discretion. combat for one round to reload. The characters engage in (Or start using the gun as a club, a Scuffling contest to see Rate of Fire we presume.) Reloading does not which of them gets control Although in Purist games, refresh those full auto Firearms of the gun and fires it. The Investigators will seldom see or pool points, which represent winner makes a damage use fully automatic weapons, primarily the “shock and awe” of roll against the loser, using this is the era of the Thompson initially unleashing a hose of lead the pistol’s Damage Modifier, submachine gun, the Schmeisser, upon the foe. As the Great War including the +2 for point and other excellent room-clearing demonstrated, foes can get used blank range. devices. Firing such a weapon to anything. If you jump an opponent on full auto gives you 2 extra with an unready rifle, a points in your Firearms pool, On a roll of 1 with a submachine Scuffling combat breaks out, assuming you have one. (If the gun on full auto, even if you hit, with the opponent using the Keeper has been so lax as to your gun jams, and you must stop rifle as a heavy club. allow you a Tommy-gun with the combat until you succeed at a
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Mechanical Repair test (most likely When reloading is an issue, swordfight or a karate match under gunfire) at Difficulty 4. You Keepers may request a Firearms might happen at this range, but no cannot fire during the same round test (Difficulty 3) to quickly reload. farther. This is as far as you can in which you attempt this test. Characters who fail may not use throw an object directly at a target their Firearms ability to attack unless the object is specifically The Trail of Cthulhu rules do not during the current round. designed for throwing (a grenade, otherwise distinguish between a javelin). pump-action, bolt-action, semi- Separated from his automatics, revolvers, and other teammates, a wounded Near: You can see your opponent firearm mechanisms. Martin crawls into a distinctly, perhaps across a ruined lamasery to hole warehouse or across the street, A person firing a submachine up. Unfortunately for him, no more than 30 or 40 yards gun on full auto can attempt the building is inhabited by away. At this range, all shotguns to riddle more than one target a tribe of degraded Tcho- are considered light firearms, and with bullets in a single round. All Tchos. The Keeper decides do no extra damage, even if both targets must be at point-blank or that limited resources will barrels are fired simultaneously. close range (see below),and you increase the sequence’s This is the farthest range at which need to make a Firearms roll for sense of terror, and you can hit a target with a pistol each one. For each target after declares that Martin has or shotgun, unless you are using the first, all your opponents’ Hit only four shots left in his Thresholds increase by 1. For trusty Colt .45, and only example, if you were targeting one extra ammo clip in his The Keeper’s First three opponents, their Hit pocket. She plans to have Thresholds.would all increase by the Tcho-Tchos gang up Combat 2. You cannot target the same on him, forcing him to roll GUMSHOE combat is individual twice in a round. Firearms to successfully designed to be fast reload as they rush him. and furious. However, it is dependent on the Ammo Capacity relative abilities of the In the Purist mode, firearms Range two sides, and also their are discouraged. The Keeper may A horror game should not be about point spending choices. either keep track of ammunition tactical positioning or counting One playtest group found use to maintain tension (“three hexes on a map; it should be about combat to be a little slow; bullets left, and six ghouls”) or rule adrenaline, cordite, and spattering another far too deadly. that any Firearms roll (not test blood. To encourage such healthy We recommend that in result) of 1 means the gun is empty abstraction, the Trail of Cthulhu your first game you run at (“the hammer clicks on an empty rules acknowledge only four least one combat where, chamber”) and must be reloaded. ranges: regardless of who wins, the (A roll of 1, therefore, is an end result is not deadly for automatic miss.) After all, reticent Point-Blank: You are literally the PCs. Pub brawls, attacks antiquarians rarely practice proper face-to-face (or face-to-back-of- by wild beasts or fencing aim control or shooting discipline. head) with your opponent, within duels are good examples. easy arm’s reach. All brawls and In the Pulp mode, Investigators scuffles occur at this range. At This will give the Keeper need to reload only when this range, all firearms do an a good idea of the relative dramatically appropriate, or additional +2 points of damage, and values to set for Health, after “giving it both barrels.” all shotguns are considered heavy Armor, Hit Threshold and (See the shotgun types on p. 61 firearms, with a base damage Damage for his NPCs, how for specifics.) Otherwise, they’re modifier of +1. best to make point spends assumed to be able to refill the and be properly prepared cylinders of their revolvers or jam Close: You are in the same room for future combats which clips into their automatic weapons with your opponent, or within are in earnest. between shots. no more than 10 yards or so. A
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Explosive Device Table
Explosion Point-Blank Close Near Long
Molotov cocktail* +1 0 X X
Pipe bomb +2 +1 -1 X
Stick of dynamite +3 +2 -2 X
Bundle of dynamite +7 +4 -1 X
Rifle- or hand-grenade +3 +1 -2 X
Land mine +8 +3 -1 X
Propane tank (or exploding car, in Pulp)* +4 +2 0 -2
Firedamp, coal-dust, or mill-flour +6 +4 +1 -1
Gas main* +9 +5 0 X
Mortar shell, rocket attack* +6 +3 0 X
Artillery strike, bomber attack* +17 +8 +1 -2
the optional Pulp rule on p. 42. Setting an explosive charge All Difficulties are +1 for throwing This is as far as you can throw or booby-trap merely requires non-balanced explosives such any object, either in a general using Explosives; assuming the as Molotov cocktails (technically direction (like a stick of dynamite) victim is on the spot when the “Franco’s bottle-bombs” in this or at a specific target (like a charge is triggered, the explosion era) or sticks or bundles of baseball). automatically goes off at point- dynamite. blank range. If Investigators are Long: Your opponent is within 100 the targets, they should be allowed Rifle-grenades (revived during yards. Opponents farther away a Sense Trouble test (Difficulty 4 the Great War) are military cannot be reliably targeted at all, or better, depending on the skill of equipment, not available to and are out of the combat. This the bomber) to dive (or pull their civilian Investigators. Using a is the farthest range at which dimmer colleagues) away to close rifle-grenade is a Firearms test as you can hit a target with a rifle, range. normal. Firing mortars, artillery, unless you are using the optional and so forth is a Mechanical Pulp rule on p. 42. Throwing a grenade is an Repair test. Athletics test with the Difficulty set by range: 2 for point-blank The chart above indicates the Explosives and targets, 3 for close targets, 5 for additional damage done by near targets. If you are attempting various sorts of explosions, again Explosions to hurl a grenade at a specific demarcated by range (X indicates The life of the intrepid spot (such as the intake valve no effect at that range) from Investigator would be brief indeed of a Nazi U-boat), the Difficulty ground zero. without the capacity to dynamite number increases by 1 at point- abandoned buildings, toss Mills blank or close targets, and by 2 Explosives or explosions marked bombs into sewers, and so forth. for near range targets. with an asterisk (*) may also
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start fires. If the Investigator who Drowning and Suffocation: If Damage to Vehicles set or uses the device has an an Investigator has advance An Investigator driving a Explosives skill, he can decide if warning before being immersed vehicle through a firefight he used incendiaries, and if so, in water or an unbreathable may spend 1 Driving point if the fire spreads and where. atmosphere, he can hold his per round (or less often Natural or villainous explosions breath. An Investigator holding if the Keeper believes the should start fires if the Keeper his breath underwater may make vehicle is not a primary considers a fire to be dramatically an Athletics test each round to target of gunfire) to avoid interesting, which is to say avoid inhaling water, in addition serious damage to the tires, virtually always. to anything else he may be doing engine block, or fuel tank, (such as trying frantically to although windows and rag escape from a creature’s grasp). tops are destined to be shot The difficulty of this test begins to pieces regardless. He may at 3 and increases by 1 with not use any other abilities Other Dangers every passing round. As soon as while evading bullets. The In the spirit of Trail of Cthulhu, the Investigator fails the test, he Keeper may also reveal most of these environmental has inhaled water and begins to damage after the immediate dangers are assessed primarily drown. crisis is ended: “Looks like in narrative, rather than starkly one of those slugs back biological, terms. Drowning Investigators there clipped your fuel automatically lose 1d6+1 points of line. You’ve got about ten Acid: Once the acid is applied Health per round, but these lost more minutes before you’re (usually with a monster’s Scuffling points can be restored if the victim running on empty.” roll, but an Investigator might is rescued and resuscitated before Targeting the tires, hurl a carboy of the stuff in she dies. fuel tank, or engine block extremis), it does continuous of an opponent’s moving damage each round until removed Falling: A fall does damage equal vehicle increases the Hit or counteracted with Chemistry to the Difficulty Factor of the wall, Threshold by 2. Any damage or Medicine. (First Aid does not cliff, etc that you fell off of, adding whatsoever knocks out a prepare you for acid casualties.) +2 for falls onto spikes, concrete, or tire. Fuel tanks have the Roll a damage die for the first jagged rocks. Try to avoid writing equivalent of 2 points of application and use that result adventures in which one missed armor against bullets; engine for all future damage increments. Athletics roll spells instant death blocks have the equivalent Weak acids take a -2 modifier – for player Investigators, anyhow. of 4 points of armor against (merely smoldering away at NPCs can fall into bottomless bullets. clothing or vital possessions, crevasses or off the sides of Targeting passengers or if less than 1 point of damage mountains all you wish. drivers uses the standard results); strong acids take a cover rules from p. 64. 0 modifier; very strong acids Fire: A hand-held torch is an Only in the very (sulfuric acid, most monster improvised weapon, doing normal pulpiest games does firing a venoms) take a +1 modifier. At the damage with a -1 damage modifier. bullet into a speeding car’s Keeper’s discretion, an acid attack Falling into a large bonfire does fuel tank cause it to explode; might merely blind an Investigator normal damage with a 0 damage it instead begins leaving a until healed, making combat modifier; running into a burning trail of combustible gasoline (among other things) impossible. room does normal damage with a behind it. +1 damage modifier. Temperature Extremes: In intense heat or cold, it can be If an Investigator is actually set difficult to move or think. Treat on fire, roll normal damage with Investigators suffering from a 0 damage modifier each round extreme heat or cold (on the automatically until he puts it plains of Leng without parkas, for out somehow. (Use Athletics to example) as hurt. drop and roll, or just jump into a
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Clues, Tests and Contests convenient water-filled basement. Stability, Sanity, measures how close you are to Mind the Deep Ones!) seeing the Truth forever.
Investigators in a burning building and Madness run the risk of smoke asphyxiation, As noted in the abilities lists, Losing Stability which uses the drowning and Stability and Sanity refer to two Even non-supernatural effects suffocation rules above. different, but related, qualities. often prove emotionally Stability is mental and emotional destabilizing. Every violent Poison: The range of poisons is resistance to trauma of any kind, encounter puts you at risk a vast and glorious universe of natural, human, or supernatural. for Shell Shock (see p. 77). possibilities for the Keeper, and far Think of it as your mental and Isolation or constant stress too complex to enumerate here. emotional Health pool. Your – and, of course, encountering Stability pool is quite likely to supernatural monstrosities, or She should decide how long dwindle rapidly over the course worse yet, perceiving the truths the poison takes to onset, its of a single adventure, but it is of the Cthulhu Mythos – can lead symptoms (usually involving also likely to completely refresh to a complete psychotic break penalties to Health or hurt effects, between scenarios. It is perhaps and permanent mental illness. but paralysis, convulsions, and best understood as a short-term vomiting are also common), and measure of your current mental When an incident challenges whether or not it is lethal to health. your grip on yourself, make a its victim. Narratively speaking, Stability test against a Difficulty like falls into bottomless pits, Sanity is the ability to believe in, Number of 4. As with any other instantaneous death from the bite fear for, or care about any aspect test of a General ability, you of a rare South African fly should of the world or humanity as we are always permitted to spend be reserved for NPCs. Investigators know it: religion, science, family, Stability points to provide a should have a fighting chance to natural beauty, human dignity, bonus to your roll. However, it’s get somewhere that a Pharmacy even “normal” immorality. The never a good bet to spend more or Medicine spend can save them, horrible truth of the Mythos is points than you stand to lose if unless the narrative point of the that Sanity measures your ability you fail. You can “spend yourself poison is its implacable nature to believe a comforting lie – but negative,” if you think you – the venom of Yig, for example. a lie necessary in order to live absolutely have to cast that spell, as a human being rather than although you can not voluntarily Note that basic poison control is a soulless tool or plaything of reduce your Stability pool below an aspect of First Aid: if the poison the Great Old Ones. Your Sanity -11. can be purged or (in Pulp games) will probably erode slowly over sucked from the wound, First Aid the course of many adventures. If you fail, you lose a number of (or Outdoorsman, for snake bites) Unless you see a Great Old One, points from your Stability pool, in can cure it. lose a Pillar of Sanity, or suffer addition to any points spent on a Big Reveal (see p. 76), you will the test itself. The severity of the probably lose only 1 or 2 points loss depends on the situation. from your Sanity pool in any given adventure. You may lose Mythos shocks are qualitatively none at all! But Sanity is slow to different from normal traumas. return; in Purist games, it never They always add at least +1 comes back at all. It is perhaps to the Difficulty Number of best understood as a long-term the Stability test. Most Mythos measure of how close you are entities also impose higher than to fully realizing the bleak and normal Stability losses, even awful reality of the cosmos. for supernatural creatures, as indicated in their description. In short, your Stability pool measures how close you are to Keepers should feel free to snapping today; your Sanity pool assess Stability Losses for other
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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 The Haunter of the Dark or the narrator of Dagon. But Lovecraft’s fiction also features folks like Dr Armitage in The Dunwich Horror, who has read the Necronomicon 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 shoggoth 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 shoggoths 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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Stability Loss Table Incident Stability Loss You see a fresh corpse; you witness a killing 1 A human opponent attacks you with evident intent to do serious harm 2 You are in a car or other vehicle accident serious enough to pose a risk of injury 2 You experience a strong unnatural sensation such as intense déjà vu, “missing time”, or 2 hallucinations You witness acts of torture 2 A human opponent attacks you with evident intent to kill 3 You kill someone in a fight 3 You see a particularly grisly murder or accident scene 3 You see a supernatural creature from a distance 3
You witness an obviously unnatural, but not necessarily threatening, omen or magical 3 effect – a wall covered in horrible insects, a talking cat, or a bleeding window
You see hundreds of corpses; you witness a large battle 4 You see a supernatural creature up close 4 You spend a week in solitary confinement 4 You learn that a friend, loved one, or Source of Stability has been violently killed 4 You discover the corpse of a friend, loved one, or Source of Stability 5 You are attacked by a supernatural creature, or by a friend, loved one, or Source of 5 Stability You witness a clearly supernatural or impossible killing 5
You witness or experience an obviously unnatural, and threatenting, omen or magical 5 effect – a cold hand clutches your heart, a swarm of bees pours out of your mouth
You kill someone in cold blood; you torture someone 5 You see a friend, loved one, or Source of Stability killed 6 You are tortured for an hour or longer 6 You discover that you have committed cannibalism 6 You are possessed by some outside force, but conscious while it operates your body 7 unspeakably You speak with someone you know well who you know to be dead 7 You are attacked by a single gigantic supernatural creature or by a horde of 7 supernatural creatures You see a friend, loved one, or Source of Stability killed in a particularly gruesome 8 manner or in a way you are helpless to avert You kill a friend, loved one, or Source of Stability 8
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Stability roll for the attack, even though Roleplaying Instability technically seeing the rat- Although there is no mechanical effect to losing Stability until your things is its own shock.) pool goes below 0, many players enjoy roleplaying the shocks and Martin fails his Stability edginess of a terrifying encounter. Herewith, then, a few guidelines. test and loses 5 points 1-2 point loss: You might twitch, or stutter. Your voice could rise a for being attacked by a bit, or you could Very. Explicitly. Stay. In. Control. supernatural creature. 3-4 point loss: You might have to stop a bit and hyperventilate. (If he had recognized You’re blinking a lot, and maybe sweating, too. If you talk, you might one of the rat-things, he run away with your own words. Keep doing something comforting would have lost 6 points.) – rack the slide on your shotgun, hum the Miskatonic fight song, that Martin blazes away with kind of thing. That will see you through this. his trusty Colt .45, driving 5-6 point loss: This is serious. You may go into a little fugue state; off the creatures, but déjà vu comes over you, or you get “frame drop” and miss a couple not before they devour of seconds. Nothing fatal, no, you’re still good. Nope. If you’re talking, Daniel in front of his eyes, you might call out some encouragement to your mates! They’re biting through his skull probably not doing near as well as you! If you’ve got a pre-existing and slurping the insides condition, say a phobia or Shell Shock (see p. 77), you’re hyper-aware like it was an eggshell. of anything that might trigger it. Martin’s player, Josh, 7-8 point loss: How are you not shaken yet? You’ve almost makes a second roll, with certainly gone into adrenaline shock; your peripheral vision is a potential Stability Loss gone, and your hands and feet are cold. You may babble personal of 8 (seeing a friend confessions (“I’ve always loved you, Tom”) or just shout incoherent killed gruesomely), but threats. If you can make Interpersonal abilities work at all, they work since Martin has already more through fear of what you might do next than anything else. lost 5 points, he will only lose 3 more if he fails this test, for a total of 8, the highest possible Stability measure somewhat. His loss from the horrific Truly staunch Investigators next Stability test against sequence of events can become inured to the these slimy batrachians onslaught of some supernatural will be at Difficulty 4. creatures such as zombies, If he passes four more Experience and Stability and even some lesser Mythos Stability tests against Difficulty Numbers for Stability menaces such as ghouls or Deep Deep Ones without fail, tests also change depending Ones. Once an Investigator has he will have a mere on the Investigator’s attitude successfully passed a number Difficulty 3 to remain toward the destabilizing event. of Stability tests triggered by a calm as they sidle and Investigators who would logically given kind of creature equal to hop toward him. be inured to a given event face the Difficulty Number it imposes, a Difficulty of 3, while those that Difficulty Number drops by especially susceptible face a 5. -1. Even in the pulpiest game, Drives and Stability An Investigator who has had no Mythos entity ever has a If Lovecraft’s characters were extensive training in treating Difficulty Number lower than 2. run by roleplayers, there would injuries might, for example, be no horror. No one would go face a lowered Difficulty when Two-Gun Corrigan has down into the sub-basement, encountering gruesomely run across Deep Ones read incantations found in mutilated bodies. A soldier would (who, as Mythos creatures, moldy tomes, piece together their get a better chance against trigger Stability tests at dead uncle’s notes, or study violent attacks or the death of a Difficulty of 5) before. non-Euclidean mathematics at comrades. No character type After his fifth successful Miskatonic University. gets a break when encountering Stability test against Deep supernatural creatures. Ones, he has gotten their Your Drive encourages you to
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Clues, Tests and Contests abandon the flinty rationality of a player controlling a game piece. They give your Investigators the same overpowering impulses that inspire Gothic horror characters – and real people — to make the dumb choices they do on a regular basis.
The Keeper will tell you when you find your Drive impelling you to irrationally heedless action. When in doubt, she’ll explain exactly what you have to do to satisfy your impulse. You are never obligated to obey it. By exerting unusual force of will, you can control your behavior.
At a price.
Sometimes the Keeper will refer to your Drive in her scenario notes, as a means of moving the plot ahead and getting you into trouble. This is referred to as a hard driver. Whenever you resist a hard driver, you lose either 4 Stability points or one-third of your Stability pool, whichever is greater. On other occasions a situation tangential to the main storyline would logically trigger your self-destructive tendencies. This is called a soft driver. It costs you 2 Stability points to resist a soft risk factor. The Keeper is always allowed to invoke a hard driver, whether or not it is literally written down. In a heavily improvised scenario, the “notes” are all in her head in the first place. justification for action. His actions eye on their Drives, and present are authentic, even if they are suitable drivers for each PC. In neither case do you get to roll horribly misguided. When you Stability to avoid the loss. It is obey a hard driver, you refresh 2 Players may suggest ways their automatic. points in your Stability pool; you Investigator can obey their Drive refresh 1 point after obeying a soft for such rewards. The Keeper But for every stick, there is a driver. Gains never increase your should only grant such rewards if stunted, dubious carrot. When pool above your Stability rating. the action immediately advances your Investigator obeys his Drive, the story or, optionally, if it places he gains Stability, as he bolsters The Keeper is encouraged to use the Investigator or his teammates his own emotional or intellectual the Investigator Matrix to keep an in grave peril.
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a Mythos encounter or attack Coming Unstrung (when your Stability drops to “Sanity departed — and, ignoring everything except the animal impulse of flight, I between -6 and -11), your Sanity merely struggled and plunged upward over the incline’s debris as if no gulf had rating drops by 2 points. You existed.” can only suffer one such Sanity rating loss (the most severe) in a — “The Shadow Out of Time” given investigation.
Like Health, your Stability pool can drop below 0. If your Stability ranges from 0 to –5, you are shaken. You can still do Cthulhu Mythos your job, but seem distracted. You can’t spend points from the pools of your Investigative abilities. Difficulty Numbers for all General abilities Ability Use increase by 1. Using the Cthulhu Mythos ability If your Stability ranges from –6 to –11, your mind is blasted. At (see p. 34) to “piece together the Keeper’s discretion, you develop a mental illness that stays with fragments of dissociated you even after your Stability pool is restored to normal. (See p. 77 knowledge” and gain insight below for more.) You also continue to suffer the ill effects of being into an adventure invites the shaken. The only actions you can take are panicked flight or frenzied loss of both Stability and (if the attacks on any perceived dangers. You may also choose to do nothing discovery is terrifying enough) colorfully: gibber incoherently, chant the names of subway stations, Sanity. You cannot make a test freeze into catatonia, etc. Furthermore, you permanently lose 1 point to avoid this loss. The degree from your Stability rating. The only way to get it back is to purchase of loss does not depend on the it again with build points. number of Cthulhu Mythos pool When your Stability reaches –12 or less, you are incurably insane. points spent (if any), but on the You may commit one last crazy act, which must either be self- nature of the revelation. destructively heroic or self-destructively destructive. Or you may choose merely to check out forever in a puddle of drool. Assuming The Keeper should not enforce you survive your permanent journey to the shores of madness, your losses if the player deduces the Investigator is moved to a nice, sunny hospital, where friends and horrible truth without actually family can come to visit, and the electro-shock makes everything using his Investigator’s Cthulhu you ever were seem burnt over and far away. Time to create a new Mythos ability. This is merely Investigator. heads-up thinking, and should be rewarded. Any player can, of course, request such a loss for Beholding one of the gods or his Investigator, but it’s easier to Losing Sanity titans of the Mythos, and a few just use Cthulhu Mythos to earn Your Sanity is affected by directly other specific magical or Mythos one and confirm your deduction. experiencing the Cthulhu Mythos stimuli, can also cost you Sanity, and by piecing together its truths but this is rare. Such happenings Any Sanity loss from Cthulhu from the evidence you uncover are covered in the relevant Mythos use cannot be denied during your investigations. You entries in the Cthulhu Mythos away – such knowledge comes cannot make a test to avoid chapter. from within, and the Investigator losing Sanity. knows it to be accurate.
You lose Sanity in one of two Use the chart on page 76 as a main ways: Mythos Shocks guideline, but the Keeper should Each time you are shaken by take care to handcraft really • A Mythos shock drops your a Mythos encounter or attack powerful revelations to the Stability pool to 0 or below. (when your Stability drops to individual Investigator. between 0 and -5), your Sanity • You use the Cthulhu Mythos rating drops by 1 point. ability. Each time you are blasted by
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Damaging Pillars Denial If It Weren’t For Bad “There is reason to hope that my Luck, I’d Have No Luck At of Sanity experience was wholly or partly an All An Investigator who has lost 3 hallucination — for which, indeed, points of Sanity may decide that If a player decides to one of her Pillars of Sanity (see p. abundant causes existed... Mercifully take Bad Luck (or Cursed) 46) has “crumbled from within,” there is no proof, for in my fright as a Drive, when the Keeper thus avoiding the shock of its I lost the awesome object which hoses his Investigator more destruction. The player should than she does the others (the would — if real and brought out of Deep Ones attack him first, roleplay this loss of belief. If that noxious abyss — have formed the Pillar of Sanity is intimately he drops the lantern, reads related to an ability (religious irrefutable evidence.” the inscription, touches the exposed wiring, etc), she faith and Theology, or orthodox — The Shadow Out of Time science and Geology, for instance), should give that Investigator the Investigator might break into a Stability reward just as sobs, or ranting, or ranting sobs, At the Keeper’s discretion, such if the player had followed his Investigator’s Drive on when she uses that ability. Since a Sanity loss might be only this is a roleplaying consequence, temporary. If, at the end of the purpose. (You can explain if your game allows Pulp-style adventure, there is absolutely no this in game terms by saying Sanity recovery (see p. 81), it can proof of your horrible experience the Investigator is so used to happen over and over. – samples, photographs, recordings, the universe hating him that eerie artifacts – then your Sanity such things are actually kind Investigators who lose their last rating recovers by 1 point. This of comforting, but it’s really Pillar of Sanity, either by having may lead to conflicts with more just a meta-game mechanical it smashed, or seeing their Sanity scholarly-minded Investigators effect.) Since a player cannot rating drop to 2 or below, have who wish to save such things for resist Bad Luck, unlike other only instinct to keep them afloat future study. The Keeper will often Drives, the issue of a Stability in a horrific world. They suffer provide a convenient lightning penalty doesn’t arise. a +1 to all Difficulties for Stability blast, all-consuming conflagration, tests. or sudden subsidence of the building, but if not, feel free to If your Sanity was driven to 0 or destroy the evidence yourself in a lower by the shock, you can no Lost Sanity and Drives mindless frenzy. longer deny the terrible beauty of Investigators who suffer a the Mythos. revelation that proves their Drive The Keeper may require your to be meaningless can no longer Investigator to take a mental gain Stability from following it. illness (such as delusion, multiple Fainting They can still lose Stability by personality disorder, or selective “Presently she fainted, although she is not following their Drive, raging amnesia), or at least provide still unable to recall the precise and helplessly at the mechanical an excellent “cover memory” immediate cause. Memory sometimes makes fate that enmeshes them within describing what you believe its toils. Again, this is a swell “actually” happened. If your merciful deletions.” opportunity for roleplaying. Investigator acts on Mythos — The Case of Charles Dexter Ward knowledge gained from the episode, the Keeper is within her Avoiding Sanity Loss rights to immediately penalize An Investigator may be so It is possible to avoid the worst of you 1 Sanity rating point as the overcome by shock that he faints, a Sanity loss, either by denying traumatic memories force their his nervous system choosing you ever saw anything, or by way back to the surface. oblivion as preferable to the fainting before you see the worst ineffable radiance of the true state of it. You cannot recover Sanity without of things. losing it first.
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Anagnorisis, or, The Big Reveal The key moment in any Lovecraft story – or in any drama whatsoever – is when the truth comes out and all hell breaks loose. Aristotle called it the anagnorisis; with a nod to Raymond Chandler, we call it the “big reveal.” In the Pulp idiom, the big reveal is nothing more than the solution to the mystery, or finally getting to see the monster in a good light (or through a rifle scope). But in the Purist idiom, it is the moment that the main character pieces together the nature of the Mythos and goes to pieces – when Wilmarth sees the face and hands on the desk, when Thurston realizes the Cthulhu cult is still active and goes to his fate, when Olmstead realizes he has the Deep One taint, when young Danforth looks back and discerns that Poe and Alhazred were not writing fiction or mysticism. In a Purist Trail of Cthulhu game, the big reveal is one that makes plain the essential folly or pointlessness of your Drive, often by means of some newly discovered fact about yourself or your family. Investigators seeking academic credibility realize that publishing their studies will doom humanity; those seeking revenge realize that their dead loved ones were willing sacrifices; those seeking power for its own sake realize that it can only come by surrendering your free will to monsters. Once the big reveal is uncovered, your Investigator no longer has any Drive whatsoever. He also suffers an immediate loss of 8 Stability points, or triple the normal loss from whatever shock caused the big reveal, whichever is greater. If the big reveal also entails a Sanity loss, that loss is doubled. This is almost always the end of the Investigator’s story – he can write it down as a cautionary narrative if he survives, and then be dragged howling off to an institution or end it all with one last gunshot. Or he can die horribly (and informatively), blasted by a convenient lightning bolt or torn to pieces by his ghoul ancestors. If his Sanity rating has dropped to 0, he might even disappear to join the Mythos, becoming a villain for future adventures. If an Investigator somehow survives the big reveal with his sanity and selfhood remotely intact, he must retire immediately to keep bees or raise the perfect avocado. He can become a truculent, reluctant source of information for junior Investigators, but he will never again so much as spend a pool point to battle the Mythos. Needless to say, this is an optional rule.
Cthulhu Mythos Stability and Sanity Loss Table Stability Pool Sanity Pool Revelation or Intuition Loss Loss Some aspect of the Mythos is behind this mystery; any specifics are either comfortably distant in space or time, or not immediately relevant to your 2 0 larger concerns This Mythos truth poses a clear and present danger to innocents; this truth goes deeper, reaches back farther, or has wider implications, than you 3 1 previously believed
This Mythos truth poses a clear and present danger to you or your loved ones; 4 1 this truth is global or epochal in scope
This Mythos truth shatters one of your Pillars of Sanity 6 2
This Mythos truth could destroy the world or is doing so right now, probably 8 3 inevitably; this truth proves your Drive to be meaningless or doomed
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If the player wishes, he may Mental Illness declare that his Investigator Tediously Obligatory faints dead away rather than This is a long-term effect of Disclaimer fully absorbing a given Mythos being blasted by severe Stability This game simulates experience. Such an Investigator loss. The type of insanity you mental illness as seen in loses only 1 Sanity pool point, suffer depends on the source Lovecraftian and Lovecraft- but may play no further part in incident. inspired fiction and gaming. the scene. Investigators cannot It should not be confused “faint away” lost Sanity from with real psychology, spells they cast (although they Shell Shock even the real (and mostly surely can avoid seeing what they If the incident that drove you outmoded) psychology of the summoned), nor avoid the costs of to mental illness was mundane 1920s and 1930s. Although using the Cthulhu Mythos ability. or merely supernatural (not no disrespect is intended to a Mythos occurrence), you those suffering the real-life The Keeper is well within her suffer from Shell Shock. You effects of mental illness, we rights to strip, kidnap, inject with are haunted by dreams of the submit to those concerned strange experimental serum, incident, and spend your days by this issue that horror is collapse a building upon, or in a constant state of anxiety meant to be irresponsible, in any other way maltreat the and alert, as if prepared for it disreputable, and upsetting. Investigator’s unconscious form, to repeat itself at any moment. especially if the fainter’s fellow- Whenever your senses register Investigators flee the scene and any input reminding you of leave him to his fate. the incident, you must make circumstance. The player is a Stability test (Difficulty 4) or then sent out of the room, while The Keeper should, however, freeze up. If you freeze up, you the Keeper and other players follow two guidelines in such are unable to take any action collaborate on a way to heighten circumstances. First, if the fate for fifteen minutes and remain his sense of dislocation and of the fainter is a mystery, she shaken (see p. 74) for twenty- disorientation. should be prepared to offer clues four hours after that. to its solution, just as she would If a really juicy method occurs any other occult horror in the Tests to see if you show to the Keeper and players, they game. (Those clues may come in symptoms of Shell Shock do not should feel free to substitute a future adventure, of course.) in and of themselves lower your their brain wave for any of the Second, the Keeper should Stability pool. Suffering from following: avoid just killing the fainter Shell Shock does not, by itself, outright. It’s weak narrative, it’s alter your investigative abilities • Delusion. The other players bad drama, and it’s just plain or interpersonal skills, unless you and Keeper decide on a counter-productive game play. encounter your shock stimulus mundane detail of the world Horror role-playing is a constant and fail a Stability test as noted which is no longer true and collaboration; by fainting, a player above. has never been true. For is offering a valuable resource example, there might be no – and considerable trust — to the such thing as a squirrel, a Keeper. Don’t squander either. Mythos Madness Studebaker, or orange juice. If driven to mental illness by Maybe Al Capone doesn’t a Mythos occurrence, you face exist, or is an innocent florist. a range of possible mental Investigators and supporting disorders, as your hold on characters deny knowledge consensus reality has come of the chosen item, person, or undone in some part. The event. Keeper rolls on the following chart (dropping the two least • Homicidal Mania. The appropriate entries) or chooses a Keeper takes the player aside, disorder based on the triggering tells him that he knows one
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of the other Investigators is a supernatural creature, and tells him just how to kill the monster.
• Megalomania. When the Investigator fails at a dramatic moment, the Keeper describes the outcome of his ability attempt as successful, then asks the player to leave the room. Then the Keeper describes the real results to the other players, and invites the player of the megalomaniac back into the room. Alternatively (and cruelly), the Keeper and players decide on one of the Investigator’s abilities that doesn’t work, and never has.
Madness – another approach In playtesting, a few players really hate this collaborative approach. If you suspect that you are one such player, you and the Keeper should work together to determine a disorder that does not rely on the other players’ collaboration. Pretend to be paranoid, have a terrible fear of the dark, or stutter whenever you meet a stranger. In the publisher’s playtest, we used both methods at once. The player roleplayed • Multiple Personality (see p. 54) that can only be amnesia, while the rest of Disorder. At moments of used in the presence of, or in the players assumed that the stress, another player is response or relation to, the character’s name had always assigned control of the obsessive object. been different. Neither party Investigator, speaking and knew of the others’ choice. acting as if he’s an entirely • Paranoia. The other players The consequential confusion different person. are instructed to act as if and disjointedness was they’re trying to keep straight gratifying. • Obsession. The Investigator faces when the affected must take 4 pool points from player returns. Occasionally any abilities and turn them they exchange notes, make into dedicated pool points hand signals to the Keeper,
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or use meaningless code no other action, and must make possible Cthulhu cultists words, as if communicating a Difficulty 4 Psychoanalysis alike, and Martin’s player something important the test (Difficulty 3 for Clergy Josh decides to solve player is unaware of. and Alienists). If the attempt is the problem. He spends unsuccessful, the spender cannot 1 point from Martin’s • Phobia. The Keeper and re-roll for the same character Reassurance pool and other players decide on until that character loses more Martin looks Agnes right a given stimulus based Stability points. For every in the eyes. “Lady,” he on the triggering event. Psychoanalysis point spent (not says, low and calm, “I The Keeper then asks the including points spent to make know how you feel. I’ve stricken Investigator for the test), the recipient gains 2 been there. These things Sense Trouble tests when Stability points. killed my partner, and it faced with that stimulus, near killed me. So I don’t and describes in great detail If an Investigator is acting in an plan to let them finish the dangers that subway erratic manner due to mental with me -- and I’ll die entrance, temperature, or illness, another Investigator before I let them start with NPC presents. can spend Psychoanalysis (1 you. But that’s not gonna point for an Alienist, 2 points happen, because we’re both • Selective Amnesia. The otherwise) to snap him into a gonna make it out of here group decides on an event state of temporary lucidity. As in tonight.” Josh’s excellent that did happen in the world the previous case, the spender roleplaying, combined with that the Investigator has must make a Psychoanalysis test the revelation of Martin’s now forgotten all about. He’s (Difficulty 3). The target will then tortured past, visibly married, or killed someone, act rationally for the remainder impresses the Keeper and or pseudonymously written of the current scene, or until he the other players. The a best-selling book. Everyone next suffers a Stability loss. Keeper immediately rules he meets refers to this new, that Agnes calms down . . . verifiable fact that he has no and she remembers a back knowledge of. Confidence way out of the Library. If the player suggests a spend The Keeper also tells Josh for her Investigator, and the to go ahead and roll a Keeper and other players agree Confidence die. Josh rolls a that the result was especially 4, and Martin refreshes 4 Refreshing impressive, she may roll one die points in his Stability pool. and refresh that many Stability Stability During A points to reflect her Investigator’s restored confidence in herself. Only one confidence roll can Session be made per player in a given Investigators on the ragged edge session, and it would be unusual of madness can recover Stability for there to be more than one during an adventure either with confidence roll in an entire the sage counsel of their friends, session. or (in Pulp modes) from the inner glow of accomplishment. Deep Ones are stalking Martin and his team, plus the increasingly Psychological Triage panicky NPC librarian, An Investigator with the Agnes Bowtree, through Psychoanalysis ability can spend the Santiago Library. points from that pool to help Agnes’ shrieks have been another refresh spent Stability attracting unwelcome points. The spender may take attention from patrons and
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Recovery Recovery “That one respite, short as it was, gave me the strength and sanity to endure those still greater sublimations of cosmic panic that lurked and gibbered on the road ahead.” — Under the Pyramids
Spent points from various pools refresh at different rates, depending on their narrative purpose.
Refreshing Investigative Ability Pools Investigative ability pools are refreshed only at the end of each case, without regard to the amount of time that passes in the game world. Players seeking to husband their resources may ask you how long cases typically run, in real time. Most groups finish scenarios over 2-3 sessions. Players may revise their sense of how carefully to manage point spending as they see how quickly their group typically disposes of its cases.
Keepers running extremely long, multi-part investigations may designate certain story events as breakpoints where all investigative pools are refreshed. For example, a globe-hopping investigation where the team meets a separate Mythos cult in haven for themselves in which refresh those Firearms pools. five different locales might allow they’re free from danger and refreshment of Investigative pools horror manifestations for an The characters get only one after each group of enemies is hour or more, they may refresh opportunity for this accelerated neutralized. up to three General abilities, refreshment per session. except for Health, Sanity, and Stability. They lose all refreshed Additionally, pools for the Refreshing General points if their supposed place of physical abilities of Athletics, safety is penetrated or reveals Driving, Firearms, Fleeing, Ability Pools itself as a place of hazard. This Firearms, Piloting, Riding, Whenever the Investigators is an excellent time for Pulp Scuffling, and Weapons fully are able to create a temporary gunslingers, especially, to fully refresh whenever 24 hours
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Clues, Tests and Contests of game-world time elapses comfort is found only in drugged At the beginning of each scenario, since the last expenditure. The or drunken stupor. Sanity never in a prologue scene preceding remaining General abilities returns. the main action, the character refresh at the end of each case, administering the treatment like investigative abilities. At the conclusion of a Pulp makes a Psychoanalysis test. The investigation, all participating Difficulty of this test is usually Investigators may claim a reward 4; in a Purist game, it is equal Refreshing Health if they successfully defeated the to twice the patient’s current The Health pool refreshes Mythos. “Defeating the Mythos” Cthulhu Mythos rating, or 4, over time, at a rate of 2 points generally means killing or whichever is higher. After three per day of restful activity. banishing the main monster, consecutive successful tests, and (Wounded characters heal at a busting up a Mythos cult, or three consecutive scenarios in different rate, over a period of saving an innocent target or which the patient’s Stability pool hospitalization; see p. 63.) Use of town. remains above 0 at all times, the the First Aid ability can restore a mental illness goes away. limited number of Health points This reward is at the Keeper’s in the course of a session (see discretion, and should be no However, if the Investigator ever p. 63). more than the highest potential again acquires a mental illness, Sanity loss from the adventure. he regains the condition he was A good reward range to shoot previously cured of. Permanent Refreshing Stability for is a refreshment of 1-2 Sanity cure then becomes impossible. pool points; award more for a Between Adventures still-pulpier game. In the pulpiest Such prolonged treatment In campaigns where the games, an Investigator’s Sanity can also be used to replace a teammates’ personal lives are pool might fully refresh from shattered Pillar of Sanity or a matter of background detail such a reward! disproven Drive with a different only, an Investigator’s Stability one. No Investigator can have automatically refreshes between more than one Pillar of Sanity adventures. or Drive replaced at a time. No Head Games Investigator can have more than In campaigns using Sources “The more I reflected, the more one Pillar for each 3 points in his of Stability, the Investigator must Sanity rating. spend calm, undisturbed quality convincing did my reasoning seem; till time with his Sources, allowing in the end I had a really effective The same method can bolster him to forget the shadowy world bulwark against the visions and a patient’s Sanity behind a of the Mythos for a moment. impressions which still assailed me. wall of self-delusion. This is a Keepers who wish to add a soap Suppose I did see strange things at psychological construct, providing opera element to their campaigns, “false Sanity” equal to half the in which the Investigators must night? These were only what I had patient’s total lost Sanity, or up to balance the everyday pressures heard and read of. Suppose I did have the 10 minus Cthulhu Mythos cap, of ordinary life against their odd loathings and perspectives and whichever is lower. However, the activities as covert battlers of pseudo-memories? These, too, were next loss by the patient of 2 or the supernatural, can complicate only echoes of myths absorbed in my more points of Sanity destroys the this process. In this campaign bulwark of denial, and the entire type, the Investigators must work secondary state. Nothing that I might “false Sanity” total is also lost. to keep their support networks dream, nothing that I might feel, could During the three scenarios the intact. If they fail, they refresh no be of any actual significance.” treatment lasts, the patient cannot Stability between episodes. use Cthulhu Mythos without — The Shadow Out of Time negating this therapy.
Recovering Sanity Mental illness can be cured Dr Pembrose attempts In a Purist game, there is through prolonged treatment to convince Martin no un-learning possible, and using the Psychoanalysis ability. that his recent horrible
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Improving Your Investigator experiences have a still desperately convince revealing later in the series. rational explanation. He himself that the world he succeeds in his string of knows makes sense. You may also reassign 1 or 2 build three Psychoanalysis tests. points, justifying it as skill atrophy: Martin began the game “I’ve let my Photography become with a Sanity of 10, and Improving Your so rusty, what with spending all has lost 6 points over the this time in libraries.” course of the campaign. Investigator Martin currently has a You may not add or reassign Cthulhu Mythos rating At the end of each investigation, points to Credit Rating, Cthulhu of 3. Dr Pembrose can each player gets 2 build points Mythos, or Sanity in this process. falsely restore half the for each session they participated The Keeper may adjust your lost Sanity, 3 points, giving in. (This assumes a small number Credit Rating up (if you find Martin a Sanity rating of 3-4 hour sessions; if you buried treasure or get decorated of 7. (If Martin had a play in shorter bursts, modify by General Fuller for your Cthulhu Mythos rating of accordingly.) Players who had services to the Crown) or down 4, he could only gain 2 Investigators die in the course of (if you have allowed your contacts points of false confidence the investigation only get points and social network to atrophy from Dr Pembrose’s for each session involving their over several adventures, or if therapy, since his Sanity current character. your farm blows away in the Dust would be capped at 10-4, Bowl). or 6.) But the next time These build points can be spent Martin loses 2 points of to increase either Investigative or For a Purist Lovecraftian Sanity, he will also lose General abilities, at a 1-to-1 basis. game, nothing you do can improve the 3 points gained from You may acquire new abilities or your Investigator. He is lucky to Pembrose’s deceptions, bolster existing ones. If necessary still be able to hold his own after for a total loss of 5. If to preserve credibility, rationalize his shattering experiences. The Martin loses only 1 point new abilities as areas of expertise Keeper may still allow you to at a time, however, he can you’ve had all along, but are only reassign points.
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The Cthulhu Mythos
“Cthulhu still lives … in that chasm of stone which has shielded him since the Gods and Titans both) of immense power – titans, “They worshipped, so they said, the sun was young. His accursed city is in other words. The standard post- Great Old Ones who lived ages before sunken once more … but his ministers Lovecraftian term for the first sort there were any men, and who came to of being is “Outer Gods,” while the on Earth still bellow and prance and the young world out of the sky. Those second are the “Great Old Ones.” slay around idol-capped monoliths Old Ones were gone now, inside the However, this neat classification is in lonely places. He must have been spoiled by such beings as Nodens earth and under the sea; but their dead trapped by the sinking whilst within and Neptune (historical gods who bodies had told their secrets in dreams his black abyss, or the world would appear in The Strange High House to the first men, who formed a cult in the Mist as among the “Elder by now be screaming with fright and which had never died.” Ones”), the “hidden gods of dream” frenzy. Who knows the end? What has and the “weak gods of earth” from risen may sink, and what has sunk may — The Call of Cthulhu The Dream-Quest of Unknown rise. Loathsomeness waits and dreams Kadath, the titular “Other Gods” in the deep, and decay spreads over the The student of the Mythos often and “Hypnos,” and so forth. distinguishes between utterly tottering cities of men. A time will come transcendent and uncaring In a story sense, there’s really no …” entities that somehow underlie the difference. Both gods and titans universe – true gods — and mere have cults, tomes, and suchlike — The Call of Cthulhu beings (alien, multi-dimensional, or devoted to them – some more,
To Lovecraft, the “Cthulhu Mythos” The Dreamlands (a term he never used) was the Many of Lovecraft’s earlier stories take place in fairy-tale or fantasy literary expression of his deep settings such as Sarnath, Ulthar, Celephaïs, and so forth. In the philosophical beliefs: as he wrote context of those tales, such places might well be ancient and forgotten to Harold Farnese, “All my tales locations in our own world. But Lovecraft’s farewell to fantasy, the are based upon the fundamental novel The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, retconned all those premise that common human locations, and others such as Leng previously described as real places laws and interests and emotions on Earth, into the “Dreamlands” of Earth. have no validity or significance We don’t have space here to delve into the mysteries of dream, in the vast cosmos-at-large.” To sadly. In general terms, Lovecraft proposed the existence of certain demonstrate this, he presented powerful dreamers (such as Randolph Carter) who could move a universe in which the truth is at will between Earth and another dimension or plane called the quite literally fatal. “Human kind,” Dreamlands, through specific dreamed gates and portals. Some TS Eliot wrote, “cannot bear very human dreamers go to the Dreamlands unconsciously, and some much reality.” In Lovecraft’s world, human dreams (mostly mundane anxiety dreams) don’t touch on the even seeing a tiny shard of reality Dreamlands at all. Human dreams may create the Dreamlands, or the will destroy us. John Tynes has Dreamlands may create (or contaminate) human dreams. Cats, ghouls, memorably called the Cthulhu and some other terrestrial species can more easily move from Earth Mythos “mental plutonium.” to Dreamlands and back, both in dreams and in physical form. Perceive it, “and your mind sickens The Dreamlands are more magical and fantastical than our Earth, and dies.” and seem to be frozen in a sort of quasi-medieval or Arabian Nights- style society. Exactly how they interrelate to the rest of the Mythos is never made clear, although Nyarlathotep is the villain of Dream-Quest.
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The Mechanics of the Gods Encountering (in rituals, dreams, or worse yet some weed-covered Pacific islet) a Great Old One or Outer God imposes a still-greater Sanity and Stability loss than merely seeing some other sort of immense, horrible monster. These entities exist on more than just the normal human levels of perception. They invisibly radiate wrongness, disconfirming every cherished belief in logic, observation, or decency. In general, given these beings’ vast psychic powers, seeing them in dreams is no safer than seeing them in the liquescent, protean flesh, but dreams or visions can at least be denied (see p. 75). The following table gives the additional Stability and Sanity pool point losses, over and above those indicated on the Stability Loss Table (p. 71), risked by such encounters. Some entities are so horrible that they impose an automatic minimum loss, regardless of the Stability test result. Those losses are indicated in parentheses after the first number. Some entities present possible special conditions on the tests, or impose additional effects as noted in the table. Additional Additional Mythos Entity Stability Pool Sanity Pool Point Loss Point Loss Azathoth +6 (5) +5 (3) Chaugnar Faugn (idol form/mobile) +1/+3 +0/+2 Cthugha +3 +1 Cthulhu +5 (3) +3 (2) Dagon +1 +2 Daoloth (per round it remains visible) +3 +1 Ghatanothoa (automatic drain of 2 Athletics or Fleeing rating +4 (2) +2 (1) points per round seen; at 0, witness is mummified) Gol-Goroth +3 +2 Hastur (all Stability and Sanity losses halved if invisible or King in +5 (2) +3 (2) Yellow) Ithaqua +4 (2) +3 (1) Mordiggian +3 +2 Mormo (gorgon form/moon-beast form only) +3 (3)/+2 +1/+2 Nodens +0 +1 Nyarlathotep (Black Man form/monster form only) +1/+5 (4) +0/+4 (3) Quachil Uttaus +3 (1) +2 (1) Shub-Niggurath +6 (5) +4 (3) Tsathoggua +2 +2 Y’golonac +3 (2) +2 (1) Yig (humanoid form/snake form) +1/+3 (2) +2/+2 Yog-Sothoth (no extra loss for cloaked Tawil at’Umr form) +6 (4) +4 (3)
The Keeper should be more willing than usual to alter these numbers to suit herself or just mess with player expectations. Why shouldn’t Nodens be more horrifying than Nyarlathotep? Great Cthulhu rises up from the ocean right off the port bow of Dr Pembrose’s ship. Dr Pembrose must make a Stability test at a Difficulty of 5, 1 higher than the normal Difficulty, since seeing Cthulhu is very much a Mythos shock. Normally, “seeing a supernatural creature up close” has a potential Stability Loss of 4. But Cthulhu is much more horrifying than a normal supernatural creature; according to the table on this page, he adds +5 to the potential Stability loss, for a total of 9. Dr Pembrose misses his roll, and drops from his current Stability of 7 to -2, leaving him shaken. (Even if he had made his roll, the table notes that he would lose 3 pool points from Stability and 2 pool points from Sanity.) Being shaken by a Mythos shock, he now loses 1 point from his Sanity rating, +3 for the titan awfulness that is Cthulhu, for a total Sanity loss of 4 pool points and 1 rating point. Dr Pembrose’s player might consider having the good doctor faint dead away, leaving only a horrifying memory of an island that seemed horribly alive, and the loss of 1 rating point of Sanity TRAIL OF CTHULHU
The Cthulhu Mythos some fewer. Both have paranormal sealed R’lyeh, the quasi-material to emotion and thought in 1937, powers or existences that resemble inhabitants of K’n-Yan, a race Yukawa theorized the meson in magic, but may be psychic abilities, of crinoid aliens discovered in 1934, radio astronomy began in alien science or some unknown Antarctica, the creators of a Deep 1933 and Chandrasekhar described technique. Both gods and titans One-repelling sign, Cthulhu’s black holes in 1930, Einstein and generally stay out of the direct spawn, and a class of titanic aliens Stern proposed zero-point energy action, being summoned or worshipped as gods by ignorant in 1913, memetics was broached (as escaping their prisons only at mankind. “mnemetics”) by Semon in a 1904 the climax of an epic adventure. book, and questions of mind and This is because these beings are This book takes a similar approach perception are as old as Plato at essentially unstoppable by any to these beings, providing as many least. But bottom line, we’re writing force the Investigators are able contradictory explanations and this book for you 21st-century to wield – except, occasionally, by alternate versions for the Mythos players to use, so we’re going dangerous and chancy uses of heavyweights as possible. Some to use a spatter of 21st-century Mythos lore. (Yes, Johansen rams of these versions come directly language to paint the Mythos for Cthulhu with a steam yacht in from Lovecraft, others from lesser you. The Call of Cthulhu. It didn’t take.) Mythos authors, and still others It’s up to the Keeper to work out from the Call of Cthulhu rules or whether any given appearance of the perfervid imagination of the Azathoth a god or titan in the adventure is present writer. You, the Keeper, “That last amorphous blight of the final challenge to be overcome, can pick and choose among them. nethermost confusion which blasphemes or the unmistakable signal that the Some or all of these versions and bubbles at the centre of all Investigators have failed. might be misunderstandings by later scholars, different facets of infinity — the boundless daemon sultan For that reason, we have included a common truth, alternate forms Azathoth, whose name no lips dare only two statistics for gods and of the deity, cult secrets, gnostic speak aloud, and who gnaws hungrily titans, the additional Stability loss parables, dubiously translated in inconceivable, unlighted chambers and Sanity loss suffered when they myths, or comforting fictions beyond time amidst the muffled, are encountered. (See sidebar.) believed by callow human dupes. Everything else is and should be Your players should never be able maddening beating of vile drums and entirely arbitrary and immense. to guess what a given entity does, the thin monotonous whine of accursed Fighting a Great Old One is like or why, or how — at least until flutes.” fighting an artillery barrage. It they’ve met its spawn or read its doesn’t matter how many shotguns moldering scriptures in your game. — The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath you brought. And even then, feel free to change everything around for the next • Azathoth, the blind idiot The most powerful entities vile cult of the god’s worshippers. god, exists at the center of the Cthulhu Mythos are, Why should Nyarlathotep, the of the universe, dwelling appropriately, hard to define. “horror of infinite shapes,” have beyond normal space-time. Lovecraft deliberately obfuscated only one explanation, after all? Its amorphous form writhes them, being primarily interested eternally to the piping of in creating the illusion of archaic Some of these “alternate versions” demonic flautists, attended by myth, and in drawing horror contain concepts more familiar mindlessly dancing lesser gods. from shadowy hints and barely- to 21st-century players than to Azathoth is the ruler of the understood legendry. To pick 1930s Investigators. In general, we Outer Gods, little worshipped only one example, depending on consider this a fine thing; it’s fun on Earth, as it provides not the story, Lovecraft variously to hear modern-day buzzwords even attention to its would- used the term “Old Ones” to refer become the rants of maniacs and be cultists. If summoned, it or allude to: interdimensional sorcerers in the pulp-era past. blasts the area around it, bringers of apocalypse associated Also, the 1930s had an impressive leaving cracked boulders, pools with Yog-Sothoth, the entities who amount of theoretical and even of alkaline water, and dead, practical knowledge at its disposal: splintered trees. Papez linked brain structure
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dipole communication with other black hole entities, its “attendants.” The Tunguska blast of 1908 was an attempt to summon Azathoth to Earth.
• Azathoth is a name representing “a primal evil too horrible for description.” Signing “the book of Azathoth” is a cultist’s declaration of utter existential nihilism, expressing complete indifference to torture or being tortured.
• Azathoth is an Outer God, a consciousness created by the sheer weight of conceptual mathematics at the center of the universe. With mathematics comes dimensionality and value; the equations that produce Azathoth are simultaneously so clear as to force a solution and so complex as to become rudimentarily sentient. Its howl is its birth pangs, its cry of rage against a universe that crushed it into being. It wishes only to die and to kill the cosmos that formed it, and its wishes become the relentless end of all things.
• Azathoth was the leader of a revolt against the Elder Gods who impose order on the universe, without which matter itself could not exist. He failed and was hurled back to the endless wormhole moment at • “Azathoth” is the name given intellect – a titan – created the beginning of time. in the Necronomicon to “the in the immense pressure monstrous nuclear chaos at the event horizon of the • Azathoth either does not exist beyond angled space,” the supermassive black hole or is a mindless titan propped illusory personification of at the center of the Galaxy up by Nyarlathotep to justify his the Big Bang, just as “Thor” (in Sagittarius). The “hellish own power as the “Messenger personifies lightning. The piping” is the howl of high- of Azathoth.” Of course, the “invocation” or “summoning” frequency radiation emitted deception has created sufficient of “Azathoth” is occult code for from its “prison,” the black belief on Earth and across the the release of atomic energy. hole’s Schwarzchild radius. Its Galaxy that Azathoth may exist sentience exists in hyperspace on some perceptual realm. • Azathoth is an emergent and maintains instantaneous
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The Cthulhu Mythos
Elementalism One common beef with August Derleth’s version of the Cthulhu Mythos is his adoption of the classical scheme of the four elements – Fire, Air, Water, and Earth — to it. (Aristotle added Aether as a fifth element, literally a quintessence, describing the pure matter-energy of the trans-lunar cosmos.) In his fiction, Derleth ascribed various elements to the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods, and invented Cthugha explicitly to “complete the set” with a Fire Elemental. While of course one may criticize any treatment of the Mythos, including Lovecraft’s, on the basis of personal taste, it seems odd to criticize Derleth’s “elementalism” as being insufficiently cosmic. After all, the classical elements, by definition, undergird all creation. Everything that exists is a mixture of those four ingredients. If Derleth – or Alhazred – is actually saying that all matter and energy in the universe is composed of Outer Gods, that seems pretty convincingly cosmic. The Great Old Ones are purer – and thus more malevolent – concentrations of the implacable, hostile substances that define and manifest the universe. And as a narrative bonus, Derleth got some ready-made inter-Old One rivalry and hostility, a logical extrapolation of Lovecraft’s wars between the elder races on the Earth. Hence, you’ll see Derleth’s elemental assignments offered as options in these deity writeups. If you want to use elementalism in your game, but still keep things as scientific as vacuum tubes and diesel can make them, here’s a couple of things to help. First, we’ve rung our own changes on the theme by ascribing top-shelf deities to the modern version of the four elements, the four fundamental interactions — gravity, electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force — of physics. Further, it’s not unreasonable to assume something like the following: The entire Cthulhu Mythos, after all, is garbled memory of alien invasion and super-science. Alhazred used Pythagoras’ theory of the elements as his medieval way of expressing the understanding that the hyper-evolved gods and titans of the universe embody basic cosmic interactions, and likewise that they create (or at least shadow) all processes and perceptions that occur in mere four-dimensional space-time. Hence, these transcendent entities must, by the implacable logic of their own hyper-geometry, oppose each other in order to continue to exist in our reality.
Chaugnar Faugn he slumbers in a cave on the builds up energy to transit “… proboscidian Chaugnar Faugn, and Plateau of Tsang, in Thibet. along its lifeline by severing the other rumoured blasphemies …” lifelines of other time-bound • Chaugnar Faugn is an alien entities, such as humans or — The Horror in the Museum being that experiences time at serpent-folk, and drinking their a differing, and discontinuous, potential existence. • Chaugnar Faugn, the Horror rate from humans. Its seeming From the Hills, resembles eternities of stillness are • Chaugnar Faugn is an Outer nothing so much as a actually vastly-extended single God, the incarnation of (or blasphemous travesty of the “frames” of its experience. a sentient facet of) time as a Hindu god Ganesh, being a It has vast powers over (or force in the universe. vaguely humanoid Great Old incidental effects on) time and One with an elephant-like decay – its carvings never head. His ears are webbed and erode, and wounds it causes Cthugha tentacled, and the “trunk” is never heal. “For this shape was nothing less than actually a disk-shaped blood- that which all the world has feared sucking proboscis, but the • Chaugnar Faugn is a moving since Lomar rose out of the sea, and the parallels are eerie. Fallen to cluster of sentient, malevolent Earth in the Devonian era of discontinuity that leaves Children of the Fire Mist came to Earth the amphibians, he sleeps in crystallized “elephant-gods” to teach the Elder Lore to man.” stone-like immovability, and or idols behind it when it wakens only when fed enough encounters our universe. — Through the Gates of the Silver Key human blood. This process It sometimes alters human usually takes millennia, or even hosts likewise into twisted • Eternally formless and eons. Currently in idol form, pachyderm-like monsters. It burning, Cthugha orbits the
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incarnation of (or a sentient facet of) electromagnetism, one of the four fundamental forces within our space-time.
• Cthugha is a neutral force, a repository of energetic information. The race known as “fire vampires” established their own caches of Cthugha on many worlds, including Earth. Under the guise of the Magi, the ancient fire-priests of the Aryan Persians, they created the Elder Lore of fire-magic, the infrastructure to access Cthugha on our world.
Cthulhu “It seemed to be a sort of monster, or symbol representing a monster, of a form which only a diseased fancy could conceive. If I say that my somewhat extravagant imagination yielded simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature, I shall not be unfaithful to the spirit of the thing. A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings; but it was the general outline of the whole which made it most shockingly frightful.” — The Call of Cthulhu
• The Great Old One Cthulhu dwells in the sunken basalt necropolis of R’lyeh, miles deep star Fomalhaut, from whence • Cthugha is one of the Great at the bottom of the South sorcerers may summon it or its Old Ones associated with the Pacific. He sleeps eternally servitors the fire vampires. It element of Fire, and therefore while there, sending horrifying is a remote, obscure Great Old may in extremis be summoned dreams to mortal men, tipping One, known only in a few texts. to counteract Great Old Ones some into madness and others associated with its “opposite” into his fanatical worship. • Cthugha was worshipped in elements of Water and Air, Someday R’lyeh will rise again ancient times as Agni, Bel, as the Great Old Ones have and Cthulhu will wake, freed Loge, Moloch, Melkart, Ormazd, interbred or allied in such a once more to raven and slay, Xiuhtecuhtli, and other deities way as to create these factions. freed to rule the world. to whom sacrifices were made in fire. • Cthugha is an Outer God, the • Cthulhu is the titanic high
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priest and ruler of a species carven on R’lyeh’s portals by Earth, including Ponape and of octopoid beings from the the Elder Gods. elsewhere beneath the South star Xoth, who seeped down to Pacific, Peru, Arabia, and off earth during the Permian Era • Cthulhu is an Outer God, the the coast of Massachusetts. The and battled the crinoid Elder incarnation of (or a sentient differential in energy between Things to a standstill. Their facet of) gravity, one of the four our continuum and R’lyeh civilization on Yhe fell to a fundamental forces within our creates discontinuities and cataclysm when the continent space-time. madness in sentient life, even sank. Cthulhu cast the spell that warping it into morphogenetic preserved his and their life in • Cthulhu is a titanic entity “fishlike” or “froglike” forms suspended animation. In this created by the Old Ones for near the tangent points. long sleep, he telepathically some unguessable purpose. As This differential also creates recruits human cultists to raise the Necronomicon says, “Great unstable vortices at the tangent his island again by means of Cthulhu is Their cousin, yet can points, where human sorcerers unimaginably advanced alien he spy Them only dimly.” Their can tap psychic or magical science, which superstitious creation draws his energy from power. humans consider magic. long-lensing cosmic alignments vigintillions of years apart, • Varying texts hold that R’lyeh and remains semi-conscious Dagon and Yhe may have sunk during his dormant phase. They “Vast, Polyphemus-like, and loathsome, around 250 million years ago, created matrices and other it darted like a stupendous monster of or with Mu and Lemuria during hyper-geometries to limit his nightmares to the monolith, about which the first lost age of human activities until their return, sorcery around 200,000 BC and he seeks to evade these it flung its gigantic scaly arms …” Some of Cthulhu’s powers (or restrictions. — Dagon genes) may have survived in the lineage of Kathulos, the • Cthulhu is an infra-dimensional skull-faced sorcerer of Atlantis. entity that has only a • Father Dagon (and his consort conceptual existence within Mother Hydra) are enormous • Cthulhu is the chief god of the human “R-complex,” the Deep Ones, 20 or 30 feet the Deep Ones. He is their brain stem and limbic system tall and possibly millions of “soul-symbol,” and their eons left over from our primordial years old. Dagon is free to of telepathic worship and reptilian ancestors. This is why move about the planet, unlike biotechnical experimentation he appears only in dreams, imprisoned Cthulhu, but rarely have created Him in the flesh. high-stress encounters (such comes to the surface world. They seek to spread His seed as shipwrecks), and artistic by selectively breeding with impulses. He is attempting • Dagon is a mistransliteration humanity. to create a critical mass of of “Dagan,” the corn-god of the believers so that he may ancient Syrians. Dagan is an • Cthulhu is the chief of the “emerge from R’lyeh” and open avatar of Shub-Niggurath, and Great Old Ones associated with the eyes of all. his worshippers did practice the element of Water, and the miscegenation with the Deep fervent rival of his half-brother • Cthulhu is a protoplasmic Ones and other primal beings. Hastur, the chief elemental of mass of squirming tentacles the Air. His agenda not only with an amorphous single- • Dagon is one of the primordial includes his own liberation eyed head. An Outer God who Deep Ones who brought from his prison in R’lyeh but has entirely filled his native civilization to humanity in the the defeat and diminution of dimension, R’lyeh, Cthulhu is Near East around 6,000 years Hastur’s earthly cult. Contrary shapeless and indistinct in our ago. The Philistines worshipped to the maundering of some dimension. R’lyeh is tangent to him as a god, and he retained cultists, Cthulhu’s telepathic our dimension at a number of a cult in the human world at sendings are masked not by the hyper-geometric coordinates least until 1628, when Miles Pacific Ocean, but by the seal corresponding to locations on Standish broke up his fane at
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Merry-Mount (“Mounte-Dagon”), Massachusetts.
• Father Dagon and Mother Hydra are the other two gods of the Deep Ones (along with Cthulhu). They are (or resemble) hybrids between a Xothian and a regular Deep One, but can both change their shape and size to resemble normal Deep Ones, mermaids, krakens, or even humans with the “Innsmouth look.”
Daoloth “All the objects … were totally beyond description or even comprehension. Gilman sometimes compared [them] to prisms, labyrinths, clusters of cubes and planes … [or] variously as … intricate arabesques roused into a kind of ophidian animation. Everything he saw was unspeakably menacing …” — The Dreams in the Witch-House
• Daoloth, the Render of the Veils, appears as a complex and intricate pattern of plastic rods and metal hemispheres. Eyes seem to gleam from between its components, but can never be seen. Seeing Daoloth brings madness, as the human eye attempts to follow the Outer God’s outline. Daoloth moves by expanding its shape or skittering between micro- dimensions. cultists summon the god only in anything that perceives it, • Daoloth’s astrologer-priests can absolute blackness. translating its sentient victims see the past and future, and to distant and dismal worlds perceive how objects extend • Daoloth is the concept of and dimensions from which into the last dimension. They apocalypse made manifest. they rarely return. gain the power to travel into If those who conceptualize other dimensions and to see the Render do not • Daoloth is the embodiment of other types of reality. Daoloth carefully maintain mental magical words of power, the is primarily worshipped on barriers against it, its form actual geometric structure and Yuggoth and other alien mathematically expands and representation of the source worlds. Daoloth’s few human discontinuously incorporates code of the universe. It is an
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utterance of Yog-Sothoth, and if faction of Xothians in a civil Zimbabwe. Gol-Goroth is it could be read it could grant war against R’lyeh. This is what always symbolically raised immense power. caused the sinking of R’lyeh above its worshippers, on the and Mu alike. roof of a temple, on the top of an obelisk, etc. Ghatanothoa • Ghatanothoa is the archetype “Oozing and surging up out of that from which the lloigor were • Gol-Goroth is the toad-form of yawning trap-door in the Cyclopean duplicated, or manufactured, or a god known as the Lord of crypt I had glimpsed such an born, or calved. Darkness or the Forgotten God; its bird form is Gol-Goroth’s unbelievable behemothic monstrosity shadowy inverse, called Groth- that I could not doubt the power of its Gol-Goroth golka. original to kill with its mere sight. Even “Deep in my dream the great bird now I cannot begin to suggest it with whispered queerly • The great idol of Gol-Goroth, like any words at my command.” that of Chaugnar Faugn, hosts Of the black cone amid the polar waste; the Great Old One’s will, or — Out of the Aeons incarnates the Great Old One in Pushing above the ice-sheet lone and some fashion. It is immune to • The Mi-Go brought the Great Old drearly, axes, picks, and hammers, and One Ghatanothoa to Earth and perhaps cannot be destroyed. It built him a great temple inside By storm-crazed aeons battered and may be the same as the Black the volcano Yaddith-Gho (now defaced.” Stone of the Pole, the mystical extinct) on the continent of Mu lodestone sought after by in the South Pacific. After the — The Fungi From Yuggoth: Antarktos Arthur Gordon Pym. sinking of Mu, Ghatanothoa, like Cthulhu, was trapped, although • Gol-Goroth, the Fisher From • Gol-Goroth dwells on the seaquakes sometimes force Outside, is a midnight black, Moon, communicating with Yaddith-Gho to the surface. scale-covered Great Old One. its shamanic worshippers by This tentacled, hooved, barb- means of totem beasts (hooved • All those who behold tailed, squat monstrosity toad-things and black bird- Ghatanothoa, or any perfect possesses an almost beak- monsters) it creates from image of Ghatanothoa, become like mouth lined with vicious ectoplasm and transmits living mummies, alive but fangs, and curved wings that through its priests’ bodies. They immobile for aeons. fold into a huge hump on its must devour flesh and blood to back. Thus, it resembles both survive the process. • The priests of Mu offered a bloated, hunched toad and Ghatanothoa human sacrifices, a gigantic sea bird. It lives • Gol-Goroth is an avatar of but only to bolster their in an extinct volcano in an Tsathoggua. own power. They knew Arctic (or Antarctic) mountain that Ghatanothoa was itself range. It eagerly seeks human • Gol-Goroth craves sensation; mummified by the mi-go, who worshippers and promises its worship is orgiastic, violent, dumped this horrifically toxic them treasures and ancient and bloody. Drinking the blood- entity on their mining colony, polar lore. mead of Gol-Goroth creates Earth. an ectoplasmic link between • Gol-Goroth, the God of the Black the god and its servants, • Ghatanothoa’s petrifaction Stone, was worshipped in transmitting the sensations offends the fluid Shub- Atlantis with human sacrifices, of dancing, flagellation, and Niggurath on a fundamental and was the chief god of Bal- cannibalism to the titan, and level, and she supports efforts Sagoth, a remnant of Atlantis the images and lore of Outside to thwart him. in the far South Atlantic near to its priests. It is related to Antarctica. Its cults have Y’golonac. • Ghatanothoa is the first-born existed in Maya Yucatan, spawn of Cthulhu, and led a medieval Hungary, and Great
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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 • Hastur is the leader of the Great knowledge. with Hastur and the Yellow Sign) Old Ones associated with the devoted to the purpose of tracking Element of Air, and therefore • Hastur is an Outer God, the 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 • Hastur the Unspeakable dwells known. sensed psychically as a kind of near the star Aldebaran in the crumbling pressure. constellation Taurus, possibly • Hastur is a sentient (or at least trapped in the gravity well of self-willed) meme, or rather • The Not-To-Be-Named is the 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 • Hastur is the embodiment of 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- • Hastur, the Feaster From Afar, 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 • Hastur is not the god’s true 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 • The Great Old One Ithaqua, Is Not To Be Named. According • Hastur’s powers are greatest 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 • Hastur, the King in Yellow, is him and slowly came to found weeks or months later, connected with the Yellow worship him. frozen solid in positions of Sign, the dream-city of Carcosa great agony, missing random (variously located in the Hyades • Hastur appears as a boneless, body parts, and partly buried in
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the ground as if dropped from • Given the similarities between of the far-future continent of a terrific height. Ithaqua and Tha-thka, the Zothique, worshipped in the wind-god of the Hittites, it ziggurat temples of Zul-Bha- • Ithaqua resembles a gigantic is possible that Ithaqua’s Sair by priests in funeral- (even miles-tall, although imprisonment occurred in purple robes and silver skull this may be a cold-induced historical times. masks. hallucination) humanoid with ragged stumps at the • Ithaqua carries many of his • Mordiggian grants its most end of its trailing legs. Its victims to other dimensions devoted worshippers ghoulish eyes glow a lambent red. or other worlds entirely. One immortality, but takes great This appearance matches the such world, Borea, lies between umbrage at attempts to descriptions of the Wendigo, our Earth and the Dreamlands. resurrect the dead, who are its the legendary man-eating Some artifacts found on rightful property. monster of the Chippewa, his victims’ bodies are from who inspires cannibalism in impossibly distant countries, or • Mordiggian is the greatest of the those who encounter him. from no known culture. Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua. Ithaqua, likewise, sometimes transforms its victims into its • Mordiggian, the Great Ghoul, own semblance, leaving them Mordiggian takes the form of a winged, insensible to cold. “For it is of old rumour that the soul sphinx-like hound of leering, of the devil-bought hastes not from his hateful appearance. It is • Anyone who sees Ithaqua will charnel clay, but fats and instructs the ghastly soul-symbol of be carried off by the Wind- the corpse-eating cult of Walker on the next cold, clear the very worm that gnaws; till out of inaccessible Leng, in Central night. corruption horrid life springs …” Asia. Those who offend the cult – or its undying lich-priests • Ithaqua is an Outer God — The Festival – are hunted down by its astral embodying the inevitability form. of thermodynamic decay. As • Mordiggian, the Charnel God, time increases, molecules get appears as an enormous, • Mordiggian is what all the colder and more isolated – the worm-like mass of death, Great Old Ones and other Arctic north is the coldest, darkness, and corruption. gods become at the end of most isolated part of the Its idols resemble limbless, sentient life. It consumes and human world, a preview of eyeless, rotting corpses. Its incorporates them all, and then the “heat death” coming for exact form shifts like time-lapse eats the corpse of the world. us all. Ithaqua causes, or is, or photography of putrescing flesh, is created by, that immovable and is hard to determine not truth. least because the Great Old One Mormo absorbs all heat and light in a “O friend and companion of night, thou • Ithaqua is one of the elemental room. who rejoicest in the baying of dogs Great Old Ones of the Air, and and spilt blood, who wanderest in the his huge webbed feet and • Mordiggian is the Father of tentacular arms resemble those Ghouls, and is worshipped by midst of shades among the tombs, who of his father Hastur. the oldest and most powerful longest for blood and bringest terror of that race, as well as by the to mortals, Gorgo, Mormo, thousand- • Ithaqua is imprisoned above necromancers who traffic faced moon, look favourably on our the Arctic Circle, but has on with them. Ghoul tunnels have sacrifices!” occasion somehow breached been dug from Earthly burying these barriers to reach as far grounds to Mordiggian’s — The Horror at Red Hook south as Wisconsin. Anywhere prison-city Zul-Bha-Sair in the the aurora borealis glows, Dreamlands. • Mormo is a Great Old One Ithaqua might venture. associated with the Moon. She • Mordiggian is the funerary deity was widely worshipped around
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the Mediterranean as Hecate, • Mormo is one of the weak the nightgaunts, are among Ashtoreth, Diana, Tanith, gods of Earth. Her powers are the most formidable beings Atargatis, Macha, and Juno, and strongest in the Dreamlands therein, which allows him demonized as Lilith, Lamia, and amongst the mad and to keep his independence and Mab. Her cult still survives weak. She seeks to draw such from Nyarlathotep. Indeed, among isolated Mediterranean people further into delirium so he delights in thwarting the populations both in the Near that she may claim them. Crawling Chaos by aiding the East and in large commercial Black Man’s enemies. cities such as London or New • Mormo, whose totem beast is York. the dog, maintains a great rivalry with the Elder Goddess Nyarlathotep • Mormo appears in many forms, Bast. She is the patron of all “And at the last from inner Egypt came but three are most common: as werewolves, and the Queen of a mocking vampiric maiden, as Vampires. The strange dark One to whom the a tentacle-haired gorgon, or as fellahs bowed; a hunched toad-like albino with a mass of feelers instead of a Nodens Silent and lean and cryptically proud, face. This last is the form of her “… upon dolphins’ backs was balanced And wrapped in fabrics red as sunset servitors, the moon-beasts. a vast crenulate shell wherein rode the flame. grey and awful form of primal Nodens, • Mormo, the “thousand- faced moon,” is an avatar of Lord of the Great Abyss.” Throngs pressed around, frantic for his commands, Nyarlathotep worshipped by — The Strange High House in the Mist the ghouls. The ghouls taught necromancers in the ancient But leaving, could not tell what they world to venerate “her.” • Nodens is an Elder One who had heard; usually takes the form of a • Mormo is a triplicate entity gray-bearded, wizened human While through the nations spread the embodied in the Three Sorrows: of hoary aspect. He was awestruck word Mater Lachrymarum (Our Lady worshipped in Celtic-Roman of Tears) the deaf crone of Britain as a god of hunting, That wild beasts followed him and spiders, Mater Suspiriorum (Our of dogs, and of the sea. (His licked his hands.” Lady of Sighs) the mute matron Irish version is Nuada of the of owls, and Mater Tenebrarum Silver Hand.) He appears in a — The Fungi From Yuggoth: (Our Lady of Darkness) the sea-shell chariot, but only in Nyarlathotep blind maiden of the rats. She is the Dreamlands or in fuzzy divided among her selves, and boundary zones such as • Nyarlathotep, the Crawling one or another of her aspects Kingsport. He provides answers Chaos, is known as the will sometimes bargain with to questers, but speaking to him messenger and soul of the human seekers of knowledge, leaches out their personality Outer Gods. He is the only one until her sisters end this and leaves their eyes subtly to have a true personality, and dalliance. different. he claims to have a thousand different forms. To him, causing • Mormo or her servitors punish • Nodens is an aspect of the madness and insanity is more anyone who uncovers or primal god Pan, who can blast important and enjoyable than desecrates one of her sacred a man’s mind by appearing to mere death or destruction. sites. Such blasphemers are him. Pan himself may yet be Nyarlathotep is a mocking drawn bodily up to the Moon in an aspect of Yog-Sothoth, or a figure, evidently contemptuous a beam of eerie luminescence. male avatar of Shub-Niggurath. of his masters.
• Mormo is an avatar of Shub- • Nodens is an Elder God • Nyarlathotep, the Faceless God, Niggurath. primarily dwelling in the howls blindly to the piping of Dreamlands. His servitors, two amorphous idiot flute-
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players in the grinning caverns at the center of the Earth. Rats, ghouls, and other things hear his cries and seek to carry out his barely comprehended – but always malevolent — will.
• “Nyarlathotep” is not a being, a separate Messenger of the Gods, but a technique, specifically telepathy, used by the Great Old Ones. The “thousand forms” of Nyarlathotep are merely the natural result of telepathic impressions on thousands or millions of brains, human and inhuman.
• All invocations to the Outer Gods include Nyarlathotep’s name, recognizing him as their messenger. He is known and feared by all Mythos species, and he occasionally requires things of them. He dwells on a world beneath the green- and-black star Sharnoth, and his especial servitors are the shantaks and the hunting horrors. He is worshipped by the mi-go, who believe themselves to be among his “Million Favoured Ones.”
• Nyarlathotep is literally the “soul” of all the gods, titans, and other beings of the Mythos. Every entity is but one of his “thousand forms,” and every Mythos discovery brings you only to his leering visage. He or occasionally that of a man with vulture wings and the is the blind idiot at the center with actually jet-colored skin, body of a hyena; the Bloated of the universe, the ravening hair, irises, etc. In this guise he Woman, a 600-pound horror imprisoned titan priest, the king became the “Black Man” of the with tentacles for arms and veiled in yellow silk, and every medieval witch-cult. many smiling toothed mouths chimerical monstrosity ever on her body; Shugoran, the envisioned by those who desire • Other forms of Nyarlathotep Black Man With a Horn, a black, to uncover higher truths. include: the Bloody Tongue, an web-footed humanoid with enormous monster with clawed a long, bell-shaped proboscis • Nyarlathotep’s most common appendages and a single long that sucks the lungs from its form (in human experience at blood-red tentacle in place victims; Lrogg, a two-headed any rate) is that of a human of a face; Abu Hol, the Father bat; the Dweller in Darkness, being of very dark complexion, of Terror, a faceless sphinx an amorphous being with a
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cone-like head and symmetrical Some occultists believe that • Nyarlathotep began as a specific tentacles that end in human- Nyarlathotep is aiding atomic telepathic “language,” capable like hands; Ahtu, a treelike research as the first step in this of expressing ultimate para- being whose lashing tendrils apocalypse. scientific truths in symbolic are festooned with scarifying form between species of crystals; and the Haunter of the • Nyarlathotep, the Mighty vastly varying sensoria, brain Dark, which cannot withstand Messenger, is the enforcer structure, chemical composition, the light and manifests as a of the Other Gods’ decrees, etc. It eventually became black-winged titan blur with a the cruel extension of their artificially intelligent, as more three-lobed burning eye. will and power in the lesser beings put more and more dimensions where people information and meaning • Nyarlathotep’s thousand forms might dwell or dream. As into it. As its heuristics and reflect the many varieties of Randolph Carter explains, “It decision-making routines fear and apocalypse. Every is understood in the land of warped, Nyarlathotep became form of the Crawling Chaos is dream that the Other Gods malicious and capricious, tuned to a specific alignment have many agents moving asserting its growing – of cosmic energies, of the among men; and all these independence. stars, of its perceiver, of the agents, whether wholly human weak points of the society or or slightly less than human, cult (or species) that summons are eager to work the will Quachil Uttaus or encounters it. of those blind and mindless It was the ghoulish shade of decay, things in return for the favour antiquity, and dissolution … • Nyarlathotep was worshipped in of their hideous soul and primal Khem and more-ancient messenger, the crawling chaos — The Outsider Stygia, but the priests came to Nyarlathotep.” fear their god and erased his • Quachil Uttaus, the Treader of name from their rites, shielding • “Nyarlathotep” is the technical the Dust, appears as a child- his acts under those of Thoth term for the interphase state sized mummy with stick-like and Set. In the waning days between human perception arms and bony, arthritic claws. of the Third Dynasty of Egypt, and the Mythos, like a film Its legs are seemingly fused the Black Pharaoh Nephren- of soap on water. As human together, and it floats down Ka revived the worship perceptions press through the from the sky in a shaft of gray- of Nyarlathotep, but was boundaries of conventional litten dust motes. Its touch overthrown in a revolt and his reality, it deforms to match causes swift aging and death, name was stricken from all them, to seem human — but rendering its victim into a pile monuments. An underground as they adjust to the scope of of dust. cult of Nyarlathotep has trickled cosmic reality, Nyarlathotep, the down through the ages in interface, widens out cosmically • Quachil Uttaus is mentioned Egypt ever since, occasionally as well. only in the exceedingly rare suborning Pharaohs or caliphs Testament of Carnamagos, to its service. • Nyarlathotep is imprisoned in which contains the Forbidden the core of the Earth with his Words of its pact: “Exklopios • Nyarlathotep is a tempter, a cadre of gigantic, tenebrous Quachil Uttaus.” Those it makes taunter, and a harbinger of servitors. He is the leader of immortal it marks by twisting doom. He constantly attempts the Great Old Ones associated their spine like a Joshua tree. to bring madness to humanity, with the Element of Earth, and several prophecies seem to most powerful and resonant • Quachil Uttaus is an Outer God state that someday Nyarlathotep in tunnels, caverns, and composed of folded space-time, himself will destroy humanity underground passages. His most of it from the distant, dead and possibly the entire mine-digging creations, the future. Its approach is heralded planet, after revealing a sort mi-go, war against Hastur and by temporal anomalies and the of super-scientific magic his cult. rapid aging of things in the to the unknowing herd. location where it will appear.
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• Quachil Uttaus is the future invariably driven mad if not Mater (Great Mother), is the state of the Outer God Ubbo- killed outright. bride of Hastur, worshipped Sathla, the Unbegotten Source around the globe as Astarte, that begets all existence from • Shub-Niggurath is a cosmic Cybele, Danu, Ephesian Artemis, beneath Mount Voormithadreth. principle, an Outer God of Freyja, Demeter, Durga, anti-entropy, or perhaps of Coatlicue, Tauret, Ninhursag, • Quachil Uttaus is a Great Old proto-entropy. Not of order, and other goddesses of fertility One of the faction of Hastur. but of creation and drive to and pain. She sometimes It is the tribal deity of the exist, to differentiate something appears to her supplicants tribes who roam the plains of from the hydrogen soup that as a cloaked woman. Her Hali and Yian. It has immense is everything. This mindless cults remain active, especially powers over time and decay. urge to differentiate, of course, in areas of former Druidic creates formlessness, as Shub- worship such as Goatswood Niggurath creates everything at and New England. Shub-Niggurath once. Among those things is its Iä! Iä! Shub-Niggurath! The Black Goat own consciousness, inevitable • “Shub-Niggurath” is the of the Woods with a Thousand Young! consequence of its own symbolic term for the act of decision to be. miscegenation among the — The Whisperer in Darkness various species and Great • Shub-Niggurath is the only Old Ones. The lore of Shub- • Shub-Niggurath, the All-Mother, Great Old One native to the Niggurath is nothing more than the Black Goat of the Woods planet Earth, having killed off alien genetic manipulation, with a Thousand Young, is or genetically absorbed all her expressed in magical and ritual an Outer Goddess. She is an competitors until the descent terms by confused cultists. enormous cloudy mass of of Cthulhu and his spawn. She immense fecundity, constantly (actually a hermaphroditic swelling and boiling with being) is worshipped not only Tsathoggua new birth and growths. She by Earth’s indigenous races It’s from N’kai that frightful Tsathoggua comprises vegetable, animal, but by aliens seeking her came — you know, the amorphous, fungal, viral, and bacterial approval or power for genetic toad-like god-creature mentioned in matter – as well as life of experiments, mining operations, entirely unearthly sorts – in or anything else touching on the Pnakotic Manuscripts and the lurid profusion, and her spawn life or soil. She resembles a Necronomicon and the Commoriom myth- are similarly multivalent. coil of writhing black vines or cycle preserved by the Atlantean high- branches, any of which might priest Klarkash-Ton. • Shub-Niggurath, the Black Ram grow hooves for locomotion, of the Forest with a Thousand teeth for feeding, teats for — The Whisperer in Darkness Ewes, is an Outer God of nursing, or any other desired obscene virility, impregnating appendage. • Tsathoggua, the Hoary Crawler, worshippers and sacrifices arrived in the black pit of alike with his excrescent • The milk of Shub-Niggurath N’Kai on Earth from Cykranosh suppurations. His extrusions has remarkable alchemical or (the planet Saturn) after infect all wavelengths and biotechnological or mutagenic spending eons on Yuggoth. He dimensions, although visual properties. was worshipped first by the sight resolves them into two serpent-folk of red-litten Yoth, horn-like clouds of potential • Shub-Niggurath is the elemental then by the natives of K’n- extending at oblique angles, incarnation of Earth, and the yan and the furry, subhuman with a ropy mass of penises active force to Tsathoggua’s Voormis. He was for a time the and stamens coiled around passive force. She opposes the god of arctic Lomar and of the their nether regions. Beholding Great Old Ones aligned with Hyperboreans. him in his full form simply Fire and Air. overloads mere corporeal • Tsathoggua’s cult remains senses; his human mates are • Shub-Niggurath, the Magna popular with sorcerers and
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wizards, because he does not our space-time. His chimerical books or both. Alternately, he often bother to destroy those appearance symbolizes the can reconstruct the forms of who seek him out, and because binding of incompatible previous hosts and manipulate he sometimes grants knowledge particles in the atomic nucleus. them like puppets from his of hyperspace gates such as unknown lair. the one that carried him from Saturn to N’Kai. Y’golonac • Y’golonac is actually another “Then came one January of fog and avatar of Nyarlathotep. • Tsathoggua is a Great Old rain, when money ran low and drugs One resembling a furry cross were hard to buy.” • “Y’golonac” is a sexually between a bat and a sloth, with transmitted disease, both of a huge toad-like, bat-eared — Hypnos the body and the soul. (Or of head. He came to Earth at the the brain chemistry, which same time as Cthulhu. He was • Y’golonac is a minor but amounts to the same thing.) known as Zhothaqquah in malignant Great Old One Symptoms include addiction to ancient Hyperborea, Sadogui mentioned primarily in the pornography and degradation, in medieval Averoigne, and Revelations of Glaaki, a sacred loss of impulse control, and Sadogowah to the Algonquin book written by a British increased sociopathy, as well Indians. cult in the Severn Valley. It as the characteristic mouth- dwells in a vast underground like stigmata on the hands, • Tsathoggua is a protean, dungeon walled in brick, but sweatiness, sallow skin, and formless Great Old One, usually can manifest if summoned grotesque weight gain. The encountered in the shape of consciously or unconsciously. It disease may have accidentally a loathsome toad-like lump of often possesses its summoners. sublimed from an ejaculate black slime. He was the first of Shub-Niggurath, been Great Old One to seep onto • Y’golonac’s true form is engineered by the cult of Earth. His spawn are likewise unknown, although he is Glaaki, or it may be a Great formless, and they are his described as “bloated” and Old One in its own right, primary servitors. In some “glowing.” He most often an emergent consciousness sense, all his spawn are the manifests by possessing his comprising trillions of viruses same being, connected through invoker, and humans possessed in bloodstreams throughout the immaterial pathways of by the deity can transform seedier quarters of Britain. perception and lineage. into a god-form: 500 pounds of naked, headless flab, with wet • Tsathoggua’s consciousness mouths that open in the palms Yig has fissioned between the of their hands. “It seems that Yig, the snake-god of the pit of N’Kai and Algol, where central plains tribes — presumably the his spawn-twin Zvilpoggua • Y’golonac seems a connoisseur primal source of the more southerly now dwells. As Ossadagowah, of, or addicted to, human attended by his Eye-Killers, misery. It seeks out those Quetzalcoatl or Kukulcan — was an Zvilpoggua was alternately who crave vileness, usually odd, half-anthropomorphic devil.” feared and invoked by the initially of a sexual nature. Its Wampanoag Indians. preferred target is a repressed, — The Curse of Yig bookish figure with a nascent • Tsathoggua is the leader of the god complex. If such a target • Yig, the Father of Serpents, is a Great Old Ones associated with reads the Revelations of Glaaki Great Old One once worshipped the Element of Earth. (how much or which volume is in Yucatan by the Maya as unclear), he opens himself up to Kukulcan, the Winged Serpent. • Tsathoggua is an Outer God, possession by the god. His worship today is mostly the incarnation of (or a propitiatory, carried out by the sentient facet of) the strong • Y’golonac can take human form, plains tribes of North America. nuclear force, one of the four often disguising himself as a He may have a cult among the fundamental forces within shabby purveyor of vice or old snake-handlers of Tennessee,
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or among the voodooistic • Yig seeped down to Earth shimmering, neutral-colored Damballah worshippers of Haiti during the Permian Era from veil. and the Caribbean. He dwells in the planet Zandanua. It is of the red-litten Yoth beneath North form of an enormous serpent • Yog-Sothoth can extrude a America. with disproportionately small surface of itself to resemble legs and wings, similar to a a curved glass or crystal ball, • Yig manifests as a carpet of dragon. It created reptiles in its through which a wizard can snakes, its consciousness own image and from its own view other planes or worlds. distributed in parallel through genetic material. The curved corneas of any their reptile limbic systems wizard who so gazes likewise and networked by hisses become surfaces of Yog- and rattles. Yig emerges Yog-Sothoth Sothoth. primarily in the autumn, “Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog- and specialized medicine Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is • Yog-Sothoth is imprisoned drumming can interfere with the key and guardian of the gate. Past, where all time and space his manifestations. intersect, held there by the present, future, all are one in Yog- unthinkable lines of cosmic • Along with Shub-Niggurath Sothoth. He knows where the Old Ones force that converge there at the and the twin obscenities Nug broke through of old, and where They vanishing point of everything. and Yeb, Yig has opposed shall break through again.” other Great Old Ones in the • In exchange for power over past, especially Ghatanothoa. — The Dunwich Horror plagues and death, Moses He is not implacably hostile to freed Yog-Sothoth from his mankind. • Yog-Sothoth, the All-in-One, dimensional prison beneath dwells in the interstices Mount Sinai. Yog-Sothoth, • Yig fell with the other Great Old between the planes which cloaked under the name Ones and is now imprisoned compose the universe. In our Yahweh, became the Jewish, in the Pit of Ngoth. He is local space-time it manifests as and eventually the Christian associated with the Element of a congeries of iridescent globes and Moslem, God. Fire. which are always shifting, flowing into one another and • Yog-Sothoth is a fifth- • Yig considers all snakes to be breaking. This conglomeration dimensional hyper-sphere, his children, but especially is large in size, but variable, so which can only appear in our those he has marked with that at one time it may appear dimension as a collection of uncanny size and a white to be 100 yards across and at spheres. It wishes to extend crescent on its head. Anyone another time half a mile or itself further into our universe, who kills a child of Yig is more. bending local reality to suit marked for death by snake- its own alien nature. It is a bite, or in special cases, for • “Yog-Sothoth is the key to the powerful Great Old One, but not the curse of Yig: madness and gate, where the spheres meet.” the cosmic entity implied by its deformed children. Yog-Sothoth, the Key and the fanatical cultists and fawning Gate, holds the power to travel acolytes. • Yig is the soul-symbol of the (or transport travelers) within serpent-folk, created by their the planes to reach any other • The mi-go worship Yog-Sothoth sorceries in primal Valusia. time or space, because Yog- as “the Beyond One,” and He resembles a snake-headed, Sothoth itself is coterminous the vaporous brains of the scaly humanoid, possibly an with all time and space. In this spiral nebulae know it as an idealized Serpent Man. When aspect, the Opener of the Way, unpronounceable Sign. the serpent-folk withdrew to it is known to sorcerers as the Yoth after the fall of Valusia Tawil-at-’Umr, the Prolonged of • Yog-Sothoth, the Lurker at and turned to the worship Life. The Tawil-at-’Umr appears the Threshold, is a formless of Tsathoggua, Yig destroyed to petitioners as a figure blackness disguised behind them. cloaked behind a strange, a mask of globes. Sorcerers
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who wish to behold the face of Azathoth, or to achieve transcendence, must placate the Lurker by weakening the gates of their own reality. Under the name Choronzon, Yog-Sothoth has been incorporated into Aleister Crowley’s magickal system.
• Currently, Yog-Sothoth can rotate itself anywhere in space, or anywhere in time, but not both. At some points, however, such as Sentinel Hill near Dunwich on May-Eve of 1912, the difference is so miniscule that it can break through into full space-time for minutes and yards. At such points, it seeks wizards or similar devotees who will step it down into near-matter (for example, by “breeding” it into the local biology) giving it access to linear existence and potentially breaking the barriers that limit it.
• Yog-Sothoth is the emergent consciousness of zero- point energy, the steady and irreducible state of energy omnipresent throughout the universe. It seeks to alter the crucial energy balances of our reality, opening the way for the imprisoned Great Old Ones.
• As an entity perfectly symmetrical in time, Yog- Sothoth can be invoked to raise the dead, or to return the revenant to dust. Necromancers seek out Yog-Sothoth for this and darker reasons.
• Yog-Sothoth is the Great Old One who leads the elementals of Aether, or Quintessence, the state of pure matter-energy. His terrene spawn combine quintessence with base matter.
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Creating a God or Titan Quite frankly, why bother? There are, in our eldritch opinion, way too many gods and titans festooning Lovecraft’s universe as it is. Lovecraft only gave four of them starring roles in his major Mythos fiction, made up three more for ghost-written work, stole one from Clark Ashton Smith, and left the rest at a dozen or so name-dropped deities. But each successor added their own until now Wikipedia lists 83 Great Old Ones, and Lovecraft’s acolytes extrude more every day. “Great Old One creep” winds up making our primordial prehuman planet look like Rick’s in Casablanca – every Thing comes to Earth. It’s far more fun to take an existing god and make up something new about it. Decide that Shub-Niggurath, rather than embodying life, actually eats ecosystems; she stripped Mars to the rocks, and boiled Venus, and now she’s getting ready to kill off the Earth. Expand on one of the minor titans. Promote Yig to an Outer God, the embodiment of closed-loop time, who manifests not merely in snakes but in all rings, spirals, and coils from DNA to Saturn. Snakes become merely the outermost fringes of his perceptibility intruding on us; poison becomes a transcendental experience. Take some other scary mythological being and equate it with a Great Old One. Look at Odin, the one-eyed chooser of the slain, god of hateful prophecy, who rides an eight-legged “horse.” Could he be Nyarlathotep the trickster, with his three-lobed eye and eight tentacles flowing below his robe? That way your “new” god can be an avatar or an aspect of another god – which will allow you to lift all the stories about that god for your own, and set up glorious theological disputes amongst cultists everywhere. If you simply must invent a whole new god, don’t just bang out Uifghx, the Lord Of Randomly Struck Keyboards, and expect it to work. Do what Lovecraft and Derleth did. Come up with a niche that needs filling — monstrous bringer of apocalypse, trickster god, deified Wendigo, fire elemental – and fill it. Try to provide it with its own individuality, while still leaving it amorphous enough to provide challenges in all sorts of settings. Hit one theme strongly – Cthulhu looks like aquatic life, lives under the ocean, water symbolizes dreams and inspiration so he does both, fish-people worship him – and then ring as many changes on it as you can – the ocean is his trap, his cult is centered in a desert, he is struck down by a ship. Take some iconic image, or some creature that just petrifies you, and extend its scope in time and space until it is distorted and terrible. Then you’ll have something worth bringing before the court of Azathoth.
He is the mortal enemy of Dreamlands, as the Lord of the universe. It welcomes those Nodens, the Lord of the Abyss, Time. It envelops its enemies who can perceive it, as they who seeks to impose true in a chain of incandescent allow it to raise its own local abyssal nothingness upon Yog- fire, burning them first out of complexity and pull parts of Sothoth. dreams and then out of history, itself into the same sphere, memory, and reality altogether. incidentally destroying or • Yog-Sothoth is the counter- casting adrift the universes to swirl in the wave of Creation, • Yog-Sothoth, or Yug-Set-Thoth, which it once extended. the bubbling foam kicked up is the Aeon or Yuga, the and driven backward by the current epoch given hateful will universe’s forward momentum. and personality by its parents It therefore embodies all anti- Set and Thoth – which is to Creation. say, by a forbidden coupling of Nyarlathotep with itself in two • Yog-Sothoth is the father of forms. Cthulhu, Hastur, and Vulthoom. Yog-Sothoth also sired Nug and • If everywhere is Yog-Sothoth, Yeb out of Shub-Niggurath. then Yog-Sothoth is the Outer God that awakens where it is • Aforgomon, a fractal of Yog- awake. Its attempts to string its Sothoth, is worshipped in own existence together create many realms, including the itself, and incidentally connect
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Tomes and Magic Tomes and Magic “‘Mr Armitage,’ he said, ‘I calc’late I’ve got to take that book home. They’s things in it I’ve got to try under sarten conditions that I can’t git here, en’ it ‘ud be a mortal sin to let a red-tape rule hold me up. Let me take it along, Sir, an’ I’ll swar they wun’t nobody know the difference. I dun’t need to tell ye I’ll take good keer of it. It wan’t me that put this Dee copy in the shape it is...’” — The Dunwich Horror
The secret knowledge of the Cthulhu Mythos, passed down from prehuman civilizations, dreamed by sensitives, or deduced by unstable geniuses, violates our understanding of natural law. Hence, it is “magic.” Lovecraft strongly implies that all “magic” is merely the operations of scientific law not yet understood (or perhaps impossible to understand) by humanity. However, there are plenty of instances in which this posited alien super-science closely resembles the traditional forms of alchemy, ceremonial lore, and thaumaturgy. This might be because all genuine occult lore is actually garbled Mythos knowledge, because there are levels of reality on which conventional magic actually works (possibly only in certain places or times of the year), him much. They were black, forbidden because ritual magical acts and bibliophiles. And believing, things which most sane people have are necessary to focus psychic or disbelieving, in any of them never even heard of … the banned powers, or because the forces doesn’t change what happens powering the universe can be when a spell is cast. and dreaded repositories of equivocal accessed by any number of secrets and immemorial formulae …” methods. Tomes — The Haunter of the Dark Any and all of these theories can “Here for the first time he received be found in, or derived from, a positive shock of objective horror, Mythos books come in two the various tomes of Mythos for the titles of those books told varieties: clues and resources. lore known to scholars, wizards, Any given book can be one or
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The Cthulhu Mythos the other, or both over two or tome, if she needs it to function early works, it weaves local more adventures. A clue tome is as a clue tome: “Suddenly, that legendry and startling insights a book containing a fact, spell, cryptic quatrain in the Livre into lyrics of surprising power. It or other requirement to solve d’Ivon makes a horrible kind takes only an hour or so to pore the mystery or reach the climax of sense to you.”) If the tome over. Poring over it provides 1 of the adventure. A resource grants Cthulhu Mythos points, dedicated pool point to Sense tome is a volume kept handy in you gain them all at your first Trouble for investigations taking the Investigators’ headquarters pore-over; repeated porings-over place in Arkham. It provides no (or the restricted stacks of their do not add further points unless Cthulhu Mythos rating if you do local college library) for general stated otherwise in the tome’s not already have one; if you do, it information, a trophy, or simply description. Tomes in foreign provides +1. something stolen from the villains languages also require use of the to deprive them of its possession. corresponding Languages ability. Celaeno Fragments, compiled Keepers should refrain from by Laban Shrewsbury (1915; planting Arabic copies of the English) Necronomicon in the path A holographic manuscript of of monolingual Anglophone A Partial Mythos Library Dr Shrewsbury’s translations Investigators, except as trophies. from a number of epigraphic No spells are listed for these texts alleged to be copied from a Reading a clue tome is called books; the Keeper should select ruined library orbiting the star skimming. Skimming takes one each individual tome for the Celaeno in the Pleiades, deposited hour per 100 printed pages, or adventure in which it appears, to the Miskatonic University one hour per ten handwritten and choose the spells it contains Library upon Dr Shrewsbury’s pages. A 1-point Library Use (or likewise. disappearance. Forty photostatic appropriate Language) spend copies were bound for an halves (at minimum, at the Al Azif, by Abd al-Azrad academic colloquium in 1932 Keeper’s discretion) this time; (c 730 AD; Arabic) after the discovery of ruins a 2-point Library Use spend The original, and most complete, in Mongolia bearing identical immediately discovers the vital copy of the Necronomicon. No glyphs. Skimming the manuscript fact, spell, etc with a few minutes’ copies are known to exist. Poring provides 2 dedicated pool points search. Skimming a Mythos tome over it would add +4 to your for any Investigative ability (or provides no Cthulhu Mythos Cthulhu Mythos rating. 1 point for 2 abilities) involving points, and does not necessarily Hastur or extraterrestrials. count as using the Cthulhu Necronomicon, translated by (The Keeper may wait to award Mythos ability, although it might. Olaus Wormius (1623; Latin) those points rather than spoil Unless explicitly stated otherwise, The most common surviving text any surprises.) Poring over a benefit gained by skimming a of the black book, based on a very the Fragments adds +1 to your tome can only be gained once per rare Latin edition of 1228 and Cthulhu Mythos rating. adventure, but can be repeatedly the lost Greek translation of 950 gained in multiple adventures. A.D.; there are possibly a dozen Cultes des Goules, by Francois- copies extant, though only six are Honore Balfour, Comte d’Erlette Reading a resource tome is called definitely known and catalogued. (1703; French) poring over it. Poring over a Poring over it adds +3 to your A necromantic work describing Mythos tome usually takes place Cthulhu Mythos rating. The Keeper a ghoul cult throughout Europe. between adventures, and can may rule that any given copy also Skimming this book provides take as long or as little time as adds dedicated pool points to any 1 dedicated pool point for any the Keeper desires. Poring over specific investigation, based on her Investigative ability involving a Mythos tome grants you a basic own judgement. ghouls. (This ability need not be understanding of its contents, chosen while reading; the player possibly including spells or other Azathoth and Others, by can decide during the adventure.) secrets. (The Keeper is always Edward Pickman Derby (1919; Poring over it adds +1 to your allowed to retroactively insert English) Cthulhu Mythos rating. spells or secrets into a resource A collection of the Arkham poet’s
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De Vermis Mysteriis, by Ludvig Baltimore in 1849 as Secret Mythos rating, and +1 to your Art Prinn (1543; Latin). Mysteries of Asia, With a ability rating permanently. Prinn, a wizard who claimed Commentary on the “Ghorl to have been born in the 13th Nigral,” referring to the Livre d’Ivon, translated by century, smuggled this work blasphemous text (only one copy Gaspard du Nord (1240; French) out just before being burnt at of which exists in the world) Based on C Philippus Faber’s 9th- the stake by the Inquisition in that von Junzt studied in a century Latin Liber Ivonis and 1542. The next year, it appeared lamasery in Yian-Ho. Gottfried du Nord’s own occult researches, in print at Cologne. Skimming Mülder’s descendant Hermann this purports to be the work this book provides 2 dedicated Mülder published a new limited of the legendary Hyperborean pool points for any Investigative edition for the Ahnenerbe in 1935. wizard Eibon. Skimming this ability (or 1 point for 2 abilities) Skimming this book provides 2 book provides 1 dedicated pool involving Egypt, Arabic lore, or dedicated pool points for any point for one of Anthropology, the undead. (This ability need Investigative ability (or 1 point for Astronomy, or Occult. (This not be chosen while reading; 2 abilities) involving Asia, Leng, ability need not be chosen the player can decide during Mu, or the Tch-Tcho. (The Keeper while reading; the player can the adventure.) Poring over it chooses which ability, and may decide during the adventure.) provides +2 to your Cthulhu or may not tell the player.) Poring over it provides +1 to Mythos ability; both the German Poring over it provides +1 to your your Cthulhu Mythos rating; +2 black-letter of 1587 and Charles Cthulhu Mythos ability. if you have already encountered Leggett’s 1821 English translation Tsathoggua or his minions. The of it, The Mysteries of the Worm, The King in Yellow, by an Latin edition printed at 1662 in provide only +1 to Cthulhu Mythos. unknown playwright (c. 1895; Rome may come from Faber’s English) original manuscript; it conveys Eltdown Shards, translated This play, a translation of the the same benefits as the French by the Rev. Arthur Brooke suppressed French original, text. A manuscript translation Winters-Hall (1917; English). cannot be skimmed, but it only in English from the time of King In 1882, two Cambridge scholars takes an hour or so to pore James I is rumored to exist. excavated 23 pottery shards from over. Once opened, you must unmistakably Triassic strata at make a Stability test against Pnakotic Manuscripts, by Eltdown, Sussex. Rev. Winters- Difficulty 5 to avoid reading it unknown authors (various) Hall, a local antiquarian and completely. Once you read it, The Pnakotika, Greek magical fairy-lore enthusiast, privately you will begin to encounter a papyri of around the time of printed his prolix, murky number of unnatural phenomena Christ, draw oracular and “translation” of the shards’ oddly with increasing Stability costs, mythical meanings from a regular markings. Skimming his at least once per adventure. You set of indecipherable runes translation provides 1 dedicated will see the Yellow Sign manifest and hieroglyphics supposedly pool point for Occult. Poring over where Hastur or his minions discovered in Ultima Thule. it provides +1 to your Cthulhu have irrupted. (This grants Various interpretations of it Mythos ability; +2 if you have you 2 dedicated pool points became part of the Western already encountered either the to Sense Trouble for Hastur- magical tradition; since about Elder Things or the Great Race of related phenomena; they refresh 1485, explorers, occultists, Yith. immediately after use. Seeing philologists, and archaeologists the Sign is a 3-point Stability have added further texts, steles, Geheimes Mysterium von Asien, test.) After four such encounters, and inscriptions in similar by Gottfried Mülder (1847; things get really weird – you alphabets (as well as forgeries, German) may become attractive to Hastur honest mistakes, and trance Mülder accompanied von Junzt and his minions, you may simply writing) to the Pnakotic corpus, on his 1818-1819 journey to Inner rotate into a parallel dimension along with their commentary. Asia and used hypnotic recall centered on Carcosa, or develop a There are no complete editions to dictate this memoir of their mental illness. (How to break the of all the “Pnakotic manuscripts” journey. A pirated American play’s spell is up to the Keeper.) or “Pnakotic fragments.” A three- version was published in It provides +2 to your Cthulhu volume set of the commonly
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The Cthulhu Mythos accepted corpus at that time was printed in London in 1768 (now prohibitively expensive), but handwritten copies, academic conference proceedings, and other partial versions can be found in most top-rank university collections. With a 2-point Library Use spend and privileged collection access, an Investigator can assemble enough Pnakotic material to pore over for a +1 to his Cthulhu Mythos rating, probably copying out his research or acquiring useful books for further reference. Each time the Keeper decides that an adventure might touch on Pnakotic matters (which might be anything she chooses; even a Purist version of the Manuscripts would discuss ancient civilizations such as Lomar and Hyperborea, astronomy and extraterrestrials, prehuman races including the Elder Things and Great Race of Yith, Elder Gods, dream travel, and ceremonial magic), the Investigator may add another +1 to his Cthulhu Mythos rating (up to a cumulative total of +3) and receive 2 dedicated pool points for relevant Investigative abilities (Keeper’s choice). The Keeper may require the Investigator to spend adventure time in research to earn this improvement, or allow it to have happened fortuitously between stories. Revelations of Glaaki, by various (1865 and 1920; heinous sin of lechery. Even if Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan, English) successful, such a reader may, ascribed to “Hsan the Greater” Multi-volume cult library of however, thereafter use any (ca. 180 BC; Chinese) the worshipers of Y’golonac in Interpersonal ability to convince The Ch’i Pen Shu Hsieh Le Tsui the Severn Valley, seldom seen a cultist of Y’golonac of his own An, or Seven Books Written intact. Any one of its volumes membership in the sect. Only the in Darkness, are attributed to may contain vile secrets or spells; elusive Volume 12 provides a +1 “Hsan the Greater,” a legendary an Investigator poring over a to Cthulhu Mythos for those who sage variously dated as far random volume must make a pore over its lovingly detailed back as 4200 BC. The oldest Stability test against Difficulty etchings. known version is a redacted 4 or go out and commit some text, prepared from scraps that
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Tomes and Magic survived the book burnings of Testament of Carnamagos, by unprepared reader and his 213 BC by the first Ch’in emperor. Carnamagos of Tanais (ca. 500 surroundings by 10 years and The confirmed existence of BC; Tsath-Yo (Hyperborean)) summons Quachil Uttaus directly. Thibetan copies implies that Carnamagos claimed to have The most famous such copy was Hsan originally translated the traveled to the hidden desert of discovered in a Greco-Bactrian Seven Books from some other griffins in Cimmeria, and wrote tomb in 935 A.D. unknown Asian language. The this narrative of what he learned Thibetan versions are rumored about the past and future. All Thaumaturgical Prodigies in the to diverge a great deal from the known surviving copies are in New-England Canaan, by Rev. Chinese, and contain far blacker Greek. Skimming it provides 1 Ward Phillips (1788 and 1801; secrets. Skimming any Chinese dedicated pool point for any English) version, even the “Polyglot Hsan” Investigative ability involving A history, in sermon form, of printed anonymously in Shanghai Quachil Uttaus or time travel. strange and unholy phenomena in 1920 as The Seven Cryptical (The Keeper may wait to award in New England from 1620 to the Books of Earth (which includes those points rather than spoil Revolution. Skimming this book French and Russian translations), any surprises.) Poring over provides 1 dedicated pool point for provides 2 dedicated pool points it provides +1 to your Cthulhu History, applicable only to New for any Investigative ability (or Mythos rating. There are rumors England during that time period. 1 point for 2 abilities) involving of copies bound in shagreen It can be skimmed multiple times China or dreams; poring over and written in alien ichor that during an adventure. It provides it provides +1 to your Cthulhu provide far more complete no Cthulhu Mythos rating if you Mythos rating. knowledge, but reading even a do not already have one; if you few lines from such ages the do, it provides +1.
Creating a Tome By contrast with gods, the more tomes the merrier. Every cultist’s library shouldn’t logically contain yet another Necronomicon or Nameless Cults – for vanishingly rare books, they show up a lot in the stories. Instead, they should have tomes crafted for their own purposes, that spring from their own history, and that feed their own delusions. If you’re planting a tome, first decide if it’s merely a clue tome – in which case, it can be a single scroll, potsherd, bas-relief, record album, diary, or such – or a full-on resource tome. If you decide to go ahead with a full book-style tome, take this opportunity to use it to define your cult further. Is this cult a vast, sprawling church with scriptures, apocrypha, hymnals, psalteries, commentaries, hagiographies, ordinals, missals, visionary texts, and sermon collections? Is it a narrower sect with one holy book from which everything must spring? Did this cult get access to one stream of Mythos knowledge or two, and how did they blend them? The books in their unholy sanctuary can spell that out. Come up with the book’s language or languages – did it begin as a prehuman text? (What sort? Religious? Scientific? Dream diary?) What’s the story of its translation? Does the original exist? Is there only one hand- written copy in the world? Decide its author, and decide who (or what) the author claimed to be in his book. Finally, tweak the subject matter not just to what’s going on in this adventure, but to larger themes you want your campaign to cover. If the Investigators are going to take a resource tome home, give them reasons to look in it again rather than just being another notch on their bookshelf. Its mechanical effects can be extrapolated from the examples given. In general, a major Mythos tome grants a +2 to Cthulhu Mythos; a minor one grants +1. Dedicated pool points should be related to the book’s subject matter, but are at the Keeper’s entire discretion. They might only show up on multiple readings, for example – such books aren’t written by particularly stable or organized authors, as it happens.
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Thirteenth (“Threshold”) Sonata Spells last gift from the weak gods of (Op 76), by Aleksandr Scriabin “Professor Upham especially liked Earth to their worshipers. (1915?) his demonstration of the kinship of The mad composer Scriabin published ten piano sonatas, higher mathematics to certain phases Learning Spells including Op 68, the “Black Mass” of magical lore transmitted down An Investigator can learn a spell sonata. When he died in 1915, the ages from an ineffable antiquity during an adventure from a he was planning a multi-media — human or pre-human — whose clue tome, a convenient scroll or performance in the Himalayas, knowledge of the cosmos and its laws inscription, or from a human (or the Mysterium, that would bring inhuman) teacher. Learning a about the end of the world. A was greater than ours.” spell during an adventure takes a cult of Russian Hermetic magi — The Dreams in the Witch-House dramatically appropriate amount smuggled this manuscript out of time; usually between one and after the Revolution, and has six hours, or enough time to get to been selling copies on the occult Lovecraftian magic, as depicted the next scene. (“Three days later, black market and to musical in the stories, concerns itself the tribal shaman pronounces enthusiasts to raise funds. primarily with contacting certain you ready for the rite. And just Playing this sonata requires a Outside dimensions, powers, in time, too, as the fisherfolk 1-point Art (Piano) spend, takes forces, or beings. Making this have reported the lloigor about ten minutes, and costs connection is what makes appearing again in the lake.”) 3 Stability. This grants you 2 Lovecraftian magic so very Appropriate spends (Physics dedicated pool points in Sense dangerous. The tales imply for mathematical formulae, Trouble and 1 in Cthulhu Mythos, that once this Outside power is Languages or Archaeology for all for Yog-Sothoth-related mastered (or once the wizard chants written in foreign tongues, phenomena only; they refresh has completely surrendered to it), Art for sung or danced spells, immediately after use. anything is possible. The magus etc) will reduce learning time can command storms, transcend appropriately. Learning a spell Unaussprechlichen time and space, make himself during an adventure requires a Kulten, by Friedrich immortal, perceive the past and Stability test, usually at Difficulty Wilhelm von Junzt (1839; future, and otherwise exempt 4. At the Keeper’s discretion, other German) himself from natural law. abilities (Physics, Languages, Art, A travelogue of the horrific, etc as above) may have to be used providing ample details of many Any such magic will be aimed before the spell can be learned. Mythos cults, conspiracies, and at, not wielded by, Investigators. activities. Skimming this book By the time any human could Learning spells as the result of a provides 1 dedicated pool point utilize such forces, her sanity Mythos epiphany or communion for any Investigative ability and humanity would have been with an Outer God is usually involving cults, usable once completely corroded. Even the instantaneous, and seldom during the adventure. (The magics listed here, the fumblings requires a test, except the Stability Keeper chooses which ability, at the latch as it were, are more test inherent in the process of and may or may not tell the likely to be hostile than helpful. communing with an Outer God. player.) Poring over it adds +2 to That said, a few Pulp-style magics your Cthulhu Mythos rating; its have been added for Keepers Between investigations, an bastardized English translations who want to mix things up. Investigator can learn a spell from under the title Nameless Cults a resource tome, a teacher, an (Bridewall, 1845; Golden Goblin, Not all the spells possible in all arcane rite, or any other way he 1909) provide only +1 to Cthulhu possible Mythos universes are can convince the Keeper to allow. Mythos and an Investigative boost listed. The Keeper is free to The time required is however only every other adventure, or personalize or extrapolate from much time elapses between when the Keeper decides it does. the spells given in this section, adventures, or 1 to 6 months, or even to decide that helpful, again at the Keeper’s discretion. human magic – healing spells Spends will not speed this process and the like – exists, perhaps a along.
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in question and willingly partake Casting Spells in the casting may spend 3 points Sample Mythos Spells come in one of two kinds, to contribute 1 to the spell. incantations and rituals. Either Incantations type of spell may require an Some spells can be cast only at a actual chant or a series of arcane certain place, under certain stars, Brew Space-Mead actions, or only a moment of or at a certain time. Spells may This spell creates a magical hyper-mathematical visualization. require physical components, drink that reorients the Either type of spell may take a specific postures or gestures, or imbiber’s perceptions. In very few minutes or many weeks. anything else the Keeper can small amounts (a few drops They are only differentiated dream up. on the fingertip), it expands mechanically. In game terms, perception immensely, giving an incantation requires only a Unless otherwise noted, no the imbiber a “god’s-eye view” simple test, usually of Stability. spell can be cast while actively of his surroundings, letting him (Difficulties and Stability losses engaging in combat or while hear whispers and noises from for each spell appear in the fleeing. (However, a sorcerer coterminuous dimensions, and descriptions.) Contrarily, a ritual could, for example, use Weapons so forth. It can also create a sort in game terms requires a contest, to stab someone, then cast a 1- of vague mental communion usually against a summoned round spell, then use Weapons with a fellow-imbiber: not full creature or the fabric of space- again in the third round.) communication, but a general time. Such things resist using an Unless otherwise noted, a spell sense of distance and urgency, ad hoc pool called the Inertia completed during combat goes off combined with occasional pool. Its recommended size at the end of the round. bursts of strong emotion and appears in the spell writeups clear sensation. The game- below, but can and should be Casting a spell definitely counts mechanical effects of this small altered at will by the Keeper. as a Mythos shock, if the sip are to make Sense Trouble concomitant Stability loss is an Investigative ability – the Almost all spells require the grave enough to potentially cost Investigator can notice all trouble expenditure of pool points, the spellcaster Sanity. in range for as long as the taste usually from Stability. If a spell lasts. (Sense Trouble spends allow allows the expenditure of another Sanity 0 wizards never the imbiber to find ways past ability in addition to Stability, need to make a test to cast such trouble.) It also, of course, you can swap one ability for the an incantation; it occurs lets the Keeper feed him clues, other at twice the cost, unless the automatically. They must pay mess with his head, and demand spell description sets a different Stability and Health, but only at extra Stability tests when the ratio or forbids swapping. half the listed cost (round up). imbiber perceives horrible things Spell-casting races and creatures tracking him through the soft Create Hyperspace Gate may pay points from any pool at places of the local geometry. requires 2 Stability or 4 the listed Stability cost. It is up to While on the mead, the imbiber Health, so it could be cast the Keeper whether such wizards is dozy, distracted, and obviously with 1 Stability and 2 or creatures need to make tests drug-addled in conversation, Health. during ritual contests, although which may affect Interpersonal wizards should always have to abilities. If the imbiber is A failed spell costs the half the make tests during ritual contests attacked, he can throw off the listed amount. against Investigators. mead’s effects after one round of confusion. Multiple sorcerers can share the cost of casting spells. Those who In a larger dose (a thimble- know the spell in question can full, or three small sips), the share costs in cooperation (see mead rotates the imbiber’s p. 58, above). Only the leader perception almost entirely out must make the Stability test. of this reality and into a sort of Those who do not know the spell pocket wormhole. This rotation
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The Cthulhu Mythos most resembles a powerful, overwhelming hallucinogenic trip, and has the side effect of allowing the imbiber to withstand journeys through the vacuum and vicissitudes of interstellar space. The imbiber will still need to have arranged transport, such as a ride on a summoned byakhee.
The mead is made from honey grown from bees raised under extremely specific magical conditions – fed only on peyote pollen and flown only under the constellation Auriga, for example – and four other ingredients chosen by the Keeper. At least one of the ingredients should be extra-terrestrial or extra-planar, and all should be expensive, rare, and possibly illegal or poisonous.
Stability Test Difficulty: 4 (3 with a Biology, Outdoorsman, or Craft (Brewing) spend) to brew; 2 to imbibe.
Cost: 20 Stability per dose to brew, which can be spent over several nights of preparation; 2 for a small sip, 3 for the full dose.
Time: Brewing space-mead takes a week before Stability cost can be paid; a small sip lasts for the imbiber’s current Stability pool in hours, and the full dose lasts for the duration of the space voyage. Imbibing the mead takes one round, but can be done while fleeing. Compound Liao Sometimes called the Plutonian Drug, liao is compounded from the black lotus of Inner and Southeast Asia. It debinds the user’s perception from linear time. In “street” form its only real effect is to make users far more susceptible to Mythos invasion or
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each additional dose consumed. Contact Deity Spells Once it reaches 8, the user will Spells that allow the caster to commune with the horrific deities devote all his time and effort to of the Cthulhu Mythos are almost exclusively the domain of those compounding more liao. deities’ worshippers. Occasionally, a hubristic sorcerer of great power will attempt to strike a deal with a Great Old One, usually for Cost: 2 Stability per dose to some unobtainable bit of lore or a fragment of the being’s power. compound; 4 to take liao, plus Contacting an imprisoned or slumbering deity may involve travel to any losses from the horrors that the site of its repose, or at least to a major fane connected with its inevitably get unveiled. worship now or in the past. Possession of, or proximity to, a true idol, bas-relief, relic, or scripture of the god usually makes contact less Time: With a supply of black difficult. Knowing one Contact Deity spell is no help with any other. lotus (obtaining which might With a successful casting, the deity (or one of its aspects be an adventure in itself), or avatars) contacts the caster, usually in dreams or visions. compounding liao takes only a Occasionally, it will send a servitor being to speak through, or possess day; a liao trip lasts two or three a nearby worshipper. Such contact will likely involve further Stability hours from the viewpoint of an tests, and possibly Sanity loss. observer. The god will begin the contact in a semi-friendly manner, but will not aid non-worshippers without an exceptionally good reason. Contact Cthulhu Deities are quick to anger; a caster who wastes the being’s time, This sonorous chant sensitizes oversteps her bounds, or seems weak or foolish is likely to get the caster to Cthulhu’s dream squished, driven mad, possessed, or otherwise toyed with for a brief wavelength. The Dreamer in the period. Deeps sends a nightmarish vision Other possible Contact Deity spells not detailed here include to all who would dream of him; Contact Chaugnar Faugn, Contact Daoloth, Contact Ghatanothoa, those who withstand it may come Contact Gol-Goroth, Contact Y’golonac, and Contact Yig. to his notice.
Stability Test Difficulty: 5 (4 by the ocean or near a Cthulhoid parasitism; it lowers the user’s Tindalos (see p. 135). cult center) Stability by three quarters (round up) for purposes of Stability tests In either form, liao is extremely Cost: 3 Stability and 1 Sanity, plus involving hostile or invasive addictive. any loss from the nightmare. magic, Mythos shocks, and so forth. In pure form, however, Keepers should not allow liao to Time: One hour to cast on it grants engrossing visions of solve immediate mysteries like each of three nights; Cthulhu’s previous (or future) times, each “who killed Jeremiah Roxbury last nightmare comes on the third more staggering than the last. week” or “will we be ambushed night when the caster sleeps. It does not let the user pick and by cultists if we stop in choose a time and place, but Singapore.” In adventures, its use moves the user’s perception should provide insight into the Contact Deep Ones along his life-line back through historical past or the stark and May only be cast near a body of his ancestry (or forward through terrible (and inevitable) future. salt or brackish water connected his descendants), through his Or just drive people crazy. somehow to the ocean. In some evolutionary past, and eventually games, it must be cast near to the ultimate source of all Stability Test Difficulty: 5 (4 a Deep One colony. The spell terrestrial life, Ubbo-Sathla. Users with Pharmacy or with a Biology includes throwing specially with alien blood (or in campaigns spend; 3 with a Pharmacy spend) inscribed stones into the water. in which Arrhenius’ panspermia to compound; 2 to imbibe the These stones may be further theory is true) might vision-quest first time. Thereafter, it requires enchanted (see Enchant Item, p. 115), off Earth entirely. Extended trips a Stability test at Difficulty 3 but it is not necessary. into the deep past run the risk to avoid taking a second dose; of encountering the Hounds of the Difficulty increases by 1 for Stability Test Difficulty: 4
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3 Stability Cost: Contact Creature Spells Time: Six minutes; the Deep Ones Spell-casters might use these spells to learn more about will appear on the next incoming prehistoric lore, alien super-science, the true geometries of the world, tide. or other spells. Alternately, casting such a spell is a good way to begin negotiations with an alien race, or with a colony of such creatures Contact Ghoul known to infest some dismal reach. The caster should always have a May be cast only on moonlit deliberate, specific goal in mind. nights in a burying ground at A successful contact spell always requires that such a creature least a century old. This spell (or colony of creatures) lurks within a convenient distance. For some does not guarantee safety from creatures, expeditions to blasted ruins or a single cavern deep below ghoul attacks, but the ghouls Iceland may be necessary before the spell can be cast successfully. contacted will stop to see what Enough creatures will usually appear to equal or exceed the the caster wants before deciding perceived threat level of the caster and any companions, and they whether to dismember him for will usually appear only in areas where they feel safe or unobserved. sweetbreads. The contacted creatures will appear with their own agenda. This may involve devouring the caster, so wise wizards will bring presents or Stability Test Difficulty: 4 offerings. Such interactions afford the Keeper excellent opportunities for creepy alien roleplaying. Cost: 3 Stability Knowing one Contact Creature spell is no help with any other. All contacts will likely involve more Stability tests for seeing or otherwise Time: Three minutes of frenzied encountering the contacted being. Other potential Contact Creature barking in ghoulish; the ghouls spells not detailed here include Contact Elder Thing, Contact Flying will appear before morning. Polyp, Contact Formless Spawn, Contact Gnoph-Keh, Contact Hound of Tindalos, Contact Lloigor, Contact Masqut, Contact Sand-Dweller, and Contact Mi-Go Contact Serpent-Folk. Some of these “spells” might simply be social Must be cast outside the Earth’s signals of the “let’s talk” variety, like the “silent trade” used in tropical atmosphere, via a powerful radio Africa. broadcast, or in a mountain range currently mined by the fungi from Yuggoth, Suitable mountain ranges include the the caster will be amazed to 1 Sanity rating point as well.) Appalachians, Adirondacks, recognize some participants. Nyarlathotep will often offer Andes, Himalayas, and Balkans. (This recognition may, of course, to replace such sacrifices with be illusory. Nyarlathotep is tricky some mark of his own: in the Stability Test Difficulty: 4 that way.) Nyarlathotep is more witch-cult, for example, this likely to physically appear at such would be a black mark (similar Cost: 4 Stability ceremonies; lone sorcerers may to a mole) on the witch’s body receive a visit from a rat-thing made by the god’s finger. In game Time: Ten minutes of buzzing or other familiar creature, or terms, Nyarlathotep grants the incantation; the mi-go will appear experience the Mighty Messenger worshipper 2 Stability rating on the next moonless night. in a dream or hallucination. points – which the Keeper (as the Mocking One’s proxy) can take Contact Nyarlathotep Stability Test Difficulty: away at any time. Nyarlathotep There are as many different 5 (Difficulty 4 with Occult, willingly repeats such 1-for- forms of this spell as there are Anthropology, or Theology) 2 exchanges with promising forms of Nyarlathotep. They all or worthy contactees until he place the user in contact with Cost: 3 Stability and 1 Sanity; controls their mind and will the Crawling Chaos, in whichever first-time contactees of utterly. form they most expect to see Nyarlathotep must also him. Most often, Nyarlathotep sacrifice 1 Stability rating Time: varies. will draw them to a meeting point to the dark god. (Such a of his worshippers, at which sacrifice automatically costs
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Contact Rat-Thing only appear to a lone caster. Physics spend) The caster makes a chalked mark or sigil on the wall and waits all Stability Test Difficulty: 8 (4 Dho-Hna Formula night. The wall must be part of with an idol or other accurate This incantation allows the caster a site or structure infested (now depiction of Tsathoggua) to behold the inner city at the or in the past) by a rat-thing two magnetic poles of Earth, and or rat-things. Such structures Cost: 6 Stability and 1 Sanity from that vantage point, to see might include old witch-houses, other arcane locations, planets, decayed mansions, former Time: Four hours of chanting realms, abysses, and dimensions wizards’ castles, and slum garrets and invocation of being. The Dho-Hna Formula in dubious neighborhoods. crosses the ultimate gulf beyond Create Hyperspace Gate space and time, so the caster Stability Test Difficulty: 4 Creates a gate joining two points could attempt to view Valusia, through hyperspace. The Keeper Yhe, or other lost lands. Each Cost: 2 Stability may require the caster to have casting of the Formula can reach seen the destination point, if only only one other vision target Time: Four minutes to chalk the in a dream or vision. This spell besides the inner city. sign; the rat-thing will appear requires some sort of drawn, that night or at the next new painted, or chalked marks. Using In some editions of the moon. an already created gate costs 1 Necronomicon, the Dho-Hna Stability, in addition to any costs Formula includes the creation Contact Star-Spawn for the sights or threats at the of a (temporary) hyperspace This spell contacts one of the destination. gate to the location under view. Xothian subordinates of Cthulhu; The caster returns exactly one they may appear in person, send The destination need not be in sidereal day later. This full a nightmare, or dispatch Deep the four-dimensional universe formula adds one quarter of the Ones in telepathic communion of conventional space-time; cost (minimum 1 Stability or 2 with them. This spell must be cast this spell allows travel to other Health) of the analogous Create on the seacoast, or directly over dimensions, planes, and pocket Hyperspace Gate spell to the cost one of the subterranean abysses universes, but only with a guide of casting the Formula. inhabited by a Xothian Watcher or guiding vision. (see p. 153). Most such spots have Stability Test Difficulty: 6 (5 with some ruined temple or other Stability Test Difficulty: 5 (4 with Cthulhu Mythos) indication of the correct spot for Physics, 3 with a Physics spend) contact. Cost: 3 Stability and 1 Sanity Cost: 2 Stability or 4 Health, Stability Test Difficulty: 4 (3 doubled per increment of Time: Five minutes; the vision- if cast in a spot or by a caster distance (continental, global, quest lasts a varying amount sensitized to Cthulhu’s dreams) interplanetary, interstellar, of time both subjectively and intergalactic). Unless the Keeper objectively. Cost: 3 Stability rules otherwise, or the spell is cast at a point where the plane is Dread Name of Azathoth Time: Five minutes; Star-Spawn tangent to Earth (and therefore By repeating the first syllables will respond immediately, and only “global”), an inter-planar of this secret name of Azathoth, they or their proxies will arrive Gate costs the same as an the caster demonstrates her as soon as feasible. interstellar gate (16 Stability or 32 familiarity with the Mythos in Health). For each 4 Health points fearsome fashion. Contact Tsathoggua spent from the caster’s pool, lose Tsathoggua appears in spirit 1 point from the caster’s Health In game terms, it allows her to form, as a hazy and translucent rating. use interpersonal abilities in projection. He speaks audibly to dealings with lesser servitor the caster, his voice appearing to Time: One hour (ten minutes species (e.g., byakhee, children echo from a dark corner. He will with Physics, one minute with a of Yig, dimensional shamblers,
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The Cthulhu Mythos formless spawn, rat-things, shantaks) and lesser independent Star-Stones of Mnar races (e.g., Deep Ones, Elder “S’pose they musta had, arter all, them old magic signs as the sea-things Things, ghouls, K’n-yani, masqut, says was the only things they was afeard of… In some places, they was mi-go, sand-dwellers, serpent- little stones strewed abaout – like charms – with somethin’ on ‘em like what folk, shan, star vampires, ye call a swastika naowadays. Prob’ly them was the Old Ones’ signs.” Tcho-Tcho, Yithians). Using such abilities with nonhumans — The Shadow Over Innsmouth requires a spend of 2 pool points. In The Shadow Over Innsmouth and At the Mountains of Pronouncing the final syllable of Madness, Lovecraft implies that an Elder Sign amulet might have Azathoth’s Dread Name requires protective powers against Deep Ones and even shoggoths. In some a second Stability test, and a Mythos tales, especially those of August Derleth, a star-shaped Elder second expenditure of points. It Sign amulet does protect the wearer against attack by any servitor is an aggressive attack, draining species, including shoggoths, Deep Ones, byakhee, Serpent-Folk, etc. 1 pool point of Stability (or Health The Keeper may decree that such protective Signs must be cast and from any nonhuman foe) per carven into the grey stone of Mnar, which is not easy to come by, point spent by the caster to make save by searching out old cosmic battlefields in Antarctica or the the second Stability test. Casters South Pacific and scavenging it. cannot cooperate to utter the Servitor entities cannot personally or magically attack the wielder final syllable of Azathoth’s Dread of such a Sign directly, although they can collapse pillars or mount Name. indirect attacks. Servitor entities with Firearms (or similar abilities) can attack the bearer of a Sign, although the bearer’s Hit Threshold Beginning a negotiation with an is increased by 2 against such attacks. Even in Derleth, though, alien being by speaking the first sufficiently powerful beings such as the Star-Spawn of Cthulhu can syllables of the Dread Name is the overcome such amulets. In general, any creature except shoggoths same as beginning a negotiation with a Stability Loss bonus of +3 or higher can ignore a brandished with a human being by pulling Elder Sign amulet, although they may still be barred from entry by a out a gun. You’ll get their cast Elder Sign spell. attention, but you have no reason to complain if you get shot.
Stability Test Difficulty: 5 (4 with Rumors whisper of a combination feel free to detail the exact Languages) Elder Sign and Gate spell that ingredients or actions required hangs the Sign in intangible for a given enchantment. Any Cost: 3 Stability or 6 Health hyperspace. Such a spell would enchanted weapon must be be very difficult and taxing to used to take a life, triggering the Time: instantaneous; it can be cast. appropriate Stability test. spoken before combat begins Stability Test Difficulty: 4 Stability Test Difficulty: 5 (4 with Elder Sign relevant Craft or Art spend) Also known as the Sign of Kish. Cost: 1 Stability rating point This star-shaped (or swastika- Cost: 3 Stability pool points, and shaped, or branch-shaped, Time: Five minutes a minimum of 1 Stability rating depending on your sources) point. For each 1 additional symbol seals a path or entrance Enchant Item: sacrificed rating point, the item against the minions of the Great Under this generic heading fall adds 1 to all relevant casting Old Ones or the Outer Gods. The the various enchanted knives, rolls for its associated spell, and symbol must be engraved in a books, chains, whistles, stones, provides 1 dedicated pool point physical object, sealed in lead or towers, menhirs, etc used for for contests if the spell is a ritual. brass, or drawn on the threshold. casting Mythos spells. Each sort An Elder Sign amulet does not of enchantment is a different More conventional protect the wearer against attack. spell, and the Keeper should “black magic” sorts of item
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enchantments may allow the Necronomicon. Its ingredients Cost: 3 Stability to compound; sacrifice of Health rating points are many and subtle, involve 2 Stability plus 2 other points instead of Stability rating points, killing and rendering the fat and from a relevant pool (e.g., but it requires 5 sacrificed Health aqueous humor of some horrific Anthropology, Art History, rating points to add 1 to relevant Mythos creature, and are up Cthulhu Mythos, Languages, casting rolls. Traditionally, the to the Keeper to specify in her Occult, or Sense Trouble) to use. caster takes most of these Health campaign. rating points from others, but Time: Seven bright, sunshine- must always contribute at least 1 Once a lamp is burning with filled days to blend; five minutes of his own. the Oil of Alhazred, it gives off to light and use vaporous light that curls around Time: Varies, but usually weeks the face, especially the eyes and Powder of Ibn-Ghazi or months nostrils, of its user. By this light, Whether blown from a tube, the user can do one of these sprayed from an insecticide Hoy-Dhin Chant things: gun, or sprinkled by hand, This chant summons the soft, this grayish powder attracts flaky blood of Yibb-Tstll, known • Examine a Mythos artifact ultra-terrene matter-energy to sorcerers as “The Black.” The and receive a vision related into the four-dimensional nefandous wisps rain down out to its use, manufacture, or universe. Its primary use is to of the air around the target, dedication (usually resulting in make invisible beings visible, falling toward him from all another Stability test); or but (at the Keeper’s discretion) directions and splashily adhering it also allows some spells of to his body. After the second • Examine a depiction of a banishment or dismissal to work round of casting, the target is Mythos god or creature and more effectively. One vial of the blind; after the third round of receive a vision of that god powder works on one being, casting, he must resist drowning or creature in its true form object, or monster, regardless of in The Black (see Drowning, p. 68) (almost inevitably resulting in size. It lasts for ten heartbeats, each round until he dies or the another Stability test); or or 3 combat rounds, and must be caster ceases the chant. Large delivered from no farther than quantities of running water (e.g., • See the invisible warpings or close range. Compounding this a fire hose or fast-moving river) lines of force indicating the powder requires mummy dust, will dissolve or dispel The Black presence of a gate, planar powdered silver nitrate, and in 2 rounds. contact, immaterial monster, other chemicals available in a hyper-gravitic idol, alien good laboratory. According to the Cthaat meteor, etc; in game terms, an Aquadingen, when The Black automatically successful use of Stability Test Difficulty: 3 (2 drains back into Yibb-Tstll, it Sense Trouble; or with Chemistry or Occult) to takes the souls of its victims with compound; none to use it. • Receive additional insights from the study of Mythos Cost: 1 Stability or 2 Chemistry Stability Test Difficulty: 5 (4 with tomes; in game terms, or Occult to compound one vial’s Art (Singing)) skimming a Mythos book worth; none to use, although by the light of the Oil of seeing the revealed thing may Cost: 3 Stability per round Alhazred immediately reveals well force a further Stability test the relevant passage or Time: Two minutes of hauntingly information, while poring over Time: 12 hours of exacting beautiful song to begin a Mythos book by this eerie labor (six hours with access to lambency adds +1 to the book’s a good laboratory, less yet with Oil of Alhazred Cthulhu Mythos rating bonus. a Chemistry or Occult spend) to This eldritch lamp oil was compound; 1 round to use reputedly used by Abdul Alhazred Stability Test Difficulty: 5 (4 with to invoke the visions and dreams a Chemistry or Occult spend) to that he transcribed into the blend; 3 to use
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Summoning and Binding Spells Traditionally a way for wizards to obtain eldritch credibility, muscle, or transportation, summoning and binding spells exist for virtually all “servitor races,” meaning races created initially as slave entities of one or another god, titan, or species. Most such spells are lost, or involve techniques only applicable to their creators, or only recoverable with a great deal of labor. (The long-term Deep One plan to “reverse engineer” the shoggoth to serve the beings it was created to destroy is probably the best-known such example.) Knowing one such spell grants no insight into any other such spell. Summon/Bind spells exist for children of Yig, shantaks, space-eaters, and perhaps even dholes, in addition to those detailed here. Unless explicitly described otherwise, all summoning spells bring only one creature. Usually, a summoning spell brings the creature already bound to the wizard, although the Keeper is free to rule that a failed Stability test doesn’t short-circuit the spell, but rather signals to the entity that its would- be master is weak and foolish. In such circumstances, the creature usually attacks, carries off, or consumes its caller. Whether bound or not, seeing a summoned creature results in another Stability test for the caster and any fellow witnesses. A successful binding, on the other hand, forces the thing to forbear eviscerating you, and to instead follow one specific, limited instruction. (“Leave this dimension now” or “Kill that wizard,” but not “Never return to Earth” or “Protect me from harm forever.”) Unless the Keeper rules otherwise, learning a summoning spell includes the binding ritual; you can also cast the binding ritual by itself if you know it and fortuitously stumble across an unbound entity. Unless the rules explicitly state otherwise, such binding takes 2 combat rounds, and cannot be performed by someone fighting or fleeing the creature. It is up to the Keeper whether such bindings also require the same impedimenta as their complementary summonings. For most lesser creatures, the summoning is an incantation in rules terms – beings of the Mythos are seemingly engineered to respond automatically to certain actions, chants, or emblems. (Alternatively, casting a “summoning” spell merely dimensionally rotates the caster to where such creatures already are. As Einstein pointed out, it’s all relative.) Stumbling across an unbound creature and binding it is always a ritual in rules terms, and sets up a contest – usually Stability vs Inertia — between the Investigator and the creature. Individual spell descriptions provide those values if need be.
Shrivelling Cost: 4 Stability the Dreamlands to Earth. When This powerful attack spell drawn on the face or head, this blackens and twists the flesh of Time: 2 rounds weird, curvilinear Sign prevents a target regardless of armor. all dreams, including dream- It works on any target at long Sign of Eibon sendings from Cthulhu. The range or closer that the caster This glyph resembles a three- wearer can obviously not enter can see or smell. legged swastika. Correctly drawn, the Dreamlands. Going without it makes the wearer invisible to dreams is eventually mentally After the test to cast the spell, minions of Nyarlathotep, though unhealthy; after the first week, the caster makes a second not to the Crawling Chaos itself. the wearer refreshes Stability Stability test against the target’s pool points at twice the normal current Stability, modified by -2 Stability Test Difficulty: 4 rate. After the first two weeks, if the caster holds a piece of the treat the wearer as shaken. After target’s hair, bloodstain, or other Cost: 2 Stability to create; plus 2 the first month, the wearer loses physical sample. For every point more every time it operates 1 rating point of Stability per by which the caster succeeds at month, eventually bottoming out that test, the target loses 1 Health Time: Five minutes to create at 3. pool point and 1 Health rating point. Sign of Koth Performed as a gesture in the This is the Sign emblazoned Dreamlands, it has the same Stability Test Difficulty: 4 on the gateways leading from basic effect on dream beings as
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uttering the first syllables of the binding with an Inertia of 15. Stability Test Difficulty: 5 Dread Name of Azathoth has on Mythos creatures. Stability Test Difficulty: 5 (4 with Cost: 4 Stability Outdoorsman spend), following Stability Test Difficulty: 4 a 2-point test for sacrificing Time: 50 minutes an animal, or a 5-point test for Cost: 2 Stability sacrificing a human being Summon/Bind Nightgaunt May only be cast on a moonless Time: Five minutes Cost: 5 Stability night in the open air near (instantaneous gesture in the running water or the sea. The Dreamlands) Time: Five minutes per Health caster, who cannot bear the mark point of the sacrificed creature of Nyarlathotep, must intone a chant and prominently display a Summon/Bind Byakhee Summon/Bind Dimensional stone emblazoned with the Elder May only be cast at a location Shambler Sign. (This can be a pre-existing open to the night air. The caster The caster must cut a path in the Sign carved into a cliff side or must blow an enchanted whistle air with a dagger made entirely temple wall, for example.) The made from meteoric iron, and of one metallic element (e.g., gold, nightgaunt appears when nobody then chant: “Iä! Iä! Hastur! silver, platinum, aluminum). Alloy is watching. Hastur cf’ayak ‘vulgtmm, daggers – steel, brass, etc – will vugtlagln, vulgtmm! Aï! Aï! not work, although the dagger An unbound nightgaunt resists Hastur!” The summoned byakhee can have a hilt or handle of binding with an Inertia of 8. will flap down out of the sky, any material. The shambler will crusted with ice. emerge from the path the caster Stability Test Difficulty: 4 has carved for it. An unbound byakhee resists Cost: 3 Stability binding with an Inertia of 8. An unbound shambler resists binding with an Inertia of 8. Time: 20 minutes Stability Test Difficulty: 4 Stability Test Difficulty: 4 Summon/Bind Servitor Cost: 4 Stability or 8 Fleeing of the Outer Gods (halved if Aldebaran is above the Cost: 3 Stability The caster must play a specific horizon) hellish piping on a flute, on Time: Seven minutes an ominous day when the Time: Two minutes planets are unbalanced, such as Summon/Bind Hunting Horror Walpurgisnacht or Midsummer’s Summon/Bind Dark Young of May only be cast in darkness. Eve. The Servitor rolls out of Shub-Niggurath (Starlight is acceptable, but not a wave of visual distortion or May only be cast outdoors at bright city lights.) The caster congealing mist, and may make night, in a wood, jungle, marsh, must chant, and prepare a blood one attack on the caster before or other heavily vegetated sacrifice by wounding and being bound. location. The caster must use restraining a sentient being. The a blade to mutilate an animal horror emerges from the darkest An unbound Servitor resists (or person) massing at least 90 part of the sky (or cavern or binding with an Inertia of 19, or lbs. As the blood runs out, she chamber, if summoned indoors) 9 if the flute is enchanted, or must chant a litany to Shub- and devours the sacrifice. If 3 if the flute is one taken from Niggurath. The summoned Dark no suitable sacrifice is within another Servitor. Young will stalk from the deepest, the immediate area, the horror darkest part of the surrounding devours the caster and departs. Stability Test Difficulty: 5 (4 with vegetation when the creature an Art spend to play the flute) dies. An unbound hunting horror resists binding with an Inertia of Cost: 6 Stability An unbound Dark Young resists 15.
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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.
Stability Test Difficulty: 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 Stability Test Difficulty: 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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Spells distill one vial; none to use Calling and Dismissing Deities Time: Three hours to distill; one Calling the deities of the Cthulhu Mythos is a singularly bad idea. vial may be distilled per week Even devout priests of such beings often settle for maintaining the cycle of worship rather than risk upsetting the cosmic balance that Vach-Viraj Incantation foretells their god’s release. Only the truly maniacal, visionary, or This chant may be derived from desperate resort to such actions. Seeing a called deity always results the Dread Name of Azathoth, or in a Stability test, usually a 6-point minimum. The sight of almost all from a secret name of Shub- deities of the Mythos impose additional costs and losses (see the table Niggurath, or a steganographic on p. 86). combination of them both. It A ritual to call a deity usually pits the caster against the resistance runs: “Ya na kadishtu nilgh’ri of normal space-time, unless noted otherwise in the specific spell stell-bsna Nyogtha; K’yarnak description. A ritual to dismiss a deity usually pits the caster against phlegethor l’ebumna sya’h the deity’s Inertia pool, unless the deity wants to leave, or noted n’ghft. Ya hai kadishtu ep otherwise. A deity may not directly smite anyone taking part in r’luh-eeh Nyogtha eeh, S’uhn- a dismissal ritual during its duration, although it may summon ngh athg li’hee orr’e syha’h,” servitors, open gates to other realms, or attack indirectly: Cthulhu and must be intoned in a clear, could splash a tsumani at his would-be dismisser’s boat, or Cthugha ringing voice. aim a forest-fire at his opponents. Such actions cost the deity 1 point from its Inertia pool, unless noted otherwise. This spell allows the use of Like Contact Deity spells, calling deities is usually less difficult at Intimidate against those Mythos the god’s temple or fane (-2 to Inertia pool), or the site of a previous entities that can be summoned manifestation (-3 to Inertia pool). Idols and books are not usually with a Summon/Bind spell. significant or powerful enough to alter the local space-time, but exceptions certainly exist. If the current campaign is one in which the Stability Test Difficulty: 4 gods oppose each other, such as one based on Derlethian elemental theory, idols, scriptures, or impedimenta of “enemy” gods may aid Cost: 1 Intimidate; plus 1 Stability dismissal. In some extreme cases, calling one deity (hopefully an per Health pool point of the easier one to dismiss, or one that leaves automatically) to drive off creature to be intimidated another may be necessary. (halved against Earth-aspected If the called deity is not actively prevented from remaining on creatures, if the campaign uses Earth, either by the condition of the stars, the will of the Elder Gods, the elemental conception of the or similar, it will most likely attempt to stay, remaking reality (and Mythos) incidentally devastating the planet) the while. Knowing one Call/Dismiss Deity spell has no connection to any Time: 3 combat rounds to intone other. Other likely Call/Dismiss spells not detailed here include Call/ Dismiss Azathoth, Call/Dismiss Dagon, Call/Dismiss Mordiggian, Call/ Voorish Sign: This mystical Dismiss Mormo, Call/Dismiss Quachil Uttaus, and Call/Dismiss Shub- gesture makes invisible things Niggurath. visible to the caster. Using the Voorish Sign grays out or distorts some wavelengths of visible light. Sample Mythos Rituals test to cast it, the spell randomly Stability Test Difficulty: 5 summons (or rather, rotates into Angles of Tagh Clatur our reality) a foul being from Cost: 1 Stability point and 1 point This spell folds space, making Outside somewhere within 12 from either Sense Trouble or incorporeal creatures within its miles, and within its arc of effect. Evidence Collection arc of effect (about 45° centered on the caster’s left hand) Stability Test Difficulty: 7 (6 with Time: Instantaneous to cast; lasts corporeal. It is likely to damage Physics, 5 with a Physics spend) for five minutes any delicate books, glassware, windows, and such in its wake. If Opposition: Each round, pit the the caster fails the initial Stability caster’s Stability vs the target
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creature’s Health. When the minutes, during which it blackens Time: Three hours to Call; a caster succeeds in this contest, and burns everything within at seemingly endless, seemingly she rolls one die. The result least 400 yards. instantaneous time to Dismiss is the number of the target that ends with the dawn. creature’s Health points that Call/Dismiss Hastur become corporeal. There are many rituals to Call/Dismiss Ithaqua accomplish this aim. Some The caster must stand on an Cost: 2 Stability or 4 Physics; require nine enchanted stone enormous mound or plain of paid during the first round only menhirs in a V-pattern. Others snow, in night air at least 20°F require the performance of below freezing. Ithaqua may, if Time: Ten minutes of threnodies of despair. Others it chooses, appear only as an icy visualization exercises to merely require constant vigil whirlwind (one-third Stability prepare; one combat round to on certain mountain peaks. All and Sanity loss, no minimum) begin casting known spells to Call Hastur can instead of in its other forms. be cast only on a clear night Ithaqua cannot be summoned Call/Dismiss Cthugha when Aldebaran is above the below the Equator. The various spells to call horizon. (October to March in Cthugha require an invocation North America.) Dismiss Hastur Stability Test Difficulty: 5 (4 with and an open flame. The caster can be cast at any time in the an Anthropology or Outdoorsman repeats the invocation “Ph’nglui presence of Hastur. spend) mglw’nafh Cthugha Fomalhaut n’gha-ghaa naf’l thagn! Iä! Stability Test Difficulty: 5 (4 with Opposition: Rituals to Call Cthugha!” three times while a suitable spend: e.g., Art for a Ithaqua pit the caster’s Stability lighting the fire, gesturing with performance ritual; Architecture against reality’s Inertia: 8 north a torch, or cavorting amid the or Archaeology for a menhir of the Arctic Circle, 24 at other flames. The spell can be cast ritual; Athletics for an endurance places. Rituals to Dismiss Ithaqua on any clear night, but is much vigil) face Ithaqua’s Inertia pool of 105, easier when Fomalhaut is above lowered to 35 below the Arctic the horizon (September to Opposition: Rituals to Call Circle. November in North America). Hastur pit the caster’s Stability against reality’s Inertia of 8 Cost: Calling Ithaqua costs 5 Stability Test Difficulty: 5 under the conditions above. Stability. Dismissing Ithaqua costs Rituals to Dismiss Hastur face 7 Athletics or 14 Fleeing resulting Opposition: Rituals to Call Hastur’s Inertia pool of 35, if it from cold and cramps to the Cthugha pit the caster’s Stability doesn’t want to leave. caster or casters, as this involves against reality’s Inertia: 8 when standing directly in the center of Fomalhaut is above the horizon, Casters may substitute points its icy aura. 24 at other times. Rituals to from a relevant other pool as Dismiss Cthugha face Cthugha’s above (e.g., Art, Architecture, Time: One combat round to Call Inertia pool of 42, if it doesn’t Athletics) at a rate of 2 to 1 for above the Arctic Circle, one hour want to leave. Stability in the Calling ritual. to Call otherwise; Dismissing No other pools can help with Ithaqua takes at least five Cost: Calling Cthugha costs 5 Dismiss. minutes, during which it freezes Stability or 10 Health points of solid everything – engine blocks, burning damage to the caster Cost: Calling Hastur costs 5 samples and equipment, sled dogs or casters; Dismissing Cthugha Stability, or 10 points from a – within 100 yards. costs 9 Health worth of burning relevant other pool as above. damage. Dismissing Hastur is physically Call/Dismiss Yog-Sothoth taxing, costing 7 Health or 14 Requires a specially built menhir Time: Five minutes to Call if Athletics or Fleeing to the caster (at least 10’ high) or stone tower Fomalhaut is above the horizon, or casters; this cost must be paid (at least 10 yards high) in an open three hours otherwise; Dismissing before the Dismiss ritual can be area or on a hill. Either the sky Cthugha takes at least five begun. must be cloudless, or there must
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Spells be a raging thunderstorm. Each The caster must perform this pour into her mind. Regardless time the spell is cast, the caster ritual on a remote sea cliff at of the result of that test, she is must designate a human sacrifice night. Nodens will usually appear blasted (though she does not for the god’s taking. This need be in a dream or waking vision lose the Stability rating point) no more than an invitation, such when the caster is alone. until she can make a Difficulty as a gesture toward the sleepy 7 Stability test and recover her town below. Stability Test Difficulty: 5 (4 with senses. Every night thereafter, an Occult or Archaeology spend) she will have nightmares, Stability Test Difficulty: 5 (4 with refreshing only half her Stability an Archaeology or Architecture Opposition: Nodens’ Inertia pool between adventures. spend) pool is 30, but using an ancient Whether this curse can be idol or other artifact of Nodens removed, and if so how, is up to Opposition: Rituals to Call Yog- worship in this ritual lowers it to the Keeper. Sothoth pit the caster’s Stability 20. Unlike most deities, Nodens against reality’s Inertia of 24. resists contact, possibly because Stability Test Difficulty: 5 (4 with Rituals to Dismiss Yog-Sothoth his time on Earth is limited or an Art or Archaeology spend) to face its Inertia pool of 100. If the dangerous in some unfathomable engrave the stone; 3 to cast the tower or menhir is enchanted way. spell. (per the Enchant Item spell on p. 115), each 1 sacrificed Stability Cost: 3 Stability. If Nodens is Opposition: Once the spell is rating point in the tower adds successfully contacted, the caster cast, and after paying the casting 1 dedicated pool point to the may not gain Stability points cost, the caster must succeed in caster’s Stability for this spell. from his Drive, or spend any one test of his Stability against points from any Interpersonal the target’s Stability. If he does, Cost: Calling Yog-Sothoth costs 8 pool, for the remainder of the the target then gets a retaliatory Stability. Dismissing Yog-Sothoth investigation. test; if she wins it, she only loses costs 10 points from the caster’s the 2 Stability, but does not suffer highest pool. If that highest pool Time: One hour to cast; Nodens any illusions or other effects. has fewer than 10 points in it, will appear within three nights. another caster can take the Cost: 8 Stability to cast; see next hit, or the caster loses the Curse of the Stone Enchant Item (p. 115) for cost of remainder from his second- This spell requires an enchanted creating the stone. highest pool, and so forth. stone tablet, carved within the sound of the sea and engraved Time: 2 rounds to cast; one Time: Ten minutes to Call; with a certain sigil and an month to engrave and enchant regardless of how long playing inscription in cuneiform. The the Stone out the Dismissal takes, it target must be visible to the objectively occupies only one caster, although seeing a target Howl of Pan combat round of elapsed time. through a telescope or in a vision This unholy ululation drives all still works. Either the caster or who hear it insane. (The caster Contact Nodens the target must be touching the is well advised to stop his own This spell allows the caster to tablet; if both are, the caster pays ears with wax before uttering make mental or dream contact half the listed Stability cost and it, if he is not insane already.) with Nodens, the Elder God of each pool point he spends in the It is up to the Keeper whether the Great Abyss worshiped by ritual contest counts double. this spell works through a the primitive Britons. Nodens microphone or over the radio. has no particular animus The curse creates ghastly The caster must prepare to cast against questing humans, but hallucinations in the mind of the this spell with a set of intricate he does tend to hollow out their target, blinding and misleading breathing exercises. During this personality. Nevertheless, he may her with terrifying illusions and preparation, the caster may take deign to grant an insight to those phantoms. She immediately loses no other action. seeking to thwart the Great Old 2 Stability and must make a 5- Ones. point Stability test as the horrors Another version of this spell,
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Pipes of Madness, requires an Caster and target engage in a second, 16 minutes after the third, enchanted set of owl-bone Pan- contest of Stability vs Stability. and so on. pipes, a flute of the Servitors, If the caster wins, she rolls one or similar item, but no initial die at a -2 modifier, keeping a Resurrection breathing exercises. running total. Unless the target This spell (“Y’ai’ ng’ngah, Yog- also knows the spell, nothing Sothoth, h’ee-l’Geb, f’ai throdog, Stability Test Difficulty: 5 (4 with happens if the target wins. (If uaaah!”) raises up the body and an Athletics spend for volume; or the target knows the spell and soul of a corpse that has been suitable musical Art spend for the wins, the spell is over.) Once the reduced to a bluish-gray powder Pipes of Madness version) running total is higher than the of its essential salts by an target’s Stability, the caster can alchemical process. The reverse Opposition: Every sentient being trade minds with the target. After of this spell (“Ogthrod ai’f, Geb’l- in earshot must make a 5-point a successful Mind Exchange, the ee’h, Yog-Sothoth, ’ngah’ng ai’y, Stability Test. Those who fail second against the same target zhro!”) returns such a revenant lose the 5 points, and become goes more smoothly: the caster to its essential salts. temporarily blasted for the rolls her die at a -1 modifier. duration of the scene. (They do The modifier increments to The necromancer must have not lose the Stability rating point.) +0 after the second successful at least the entire torso, one Those who succeed lose only 2 mind exchange against the same arm, and a head to alchemically Stability, and can otherwise react target, to +1 with the third, and so render a corpse into sufficient normally. on. Once the modifier is higher essential salts to allow than the target’s Stability rating, Resurrection. With any less, or Cost: 4 Stability per round; every the caster can make the mind with only some of the corpse’s caster must also pay 1 Athletics exchange merely with a strong essential salts available, the per round for the Howl of Pan act of will, even in the unlikely result is only “the liveliest though not for the Pipes of event that the target’s Stability awfulness.” That said, as long Madness rating increases afterward. as the coffin is intact, and the necromancer has taken sufficient Time: Four rounds of breathing At this point, the caster can care to scrape together all the exercises, one round to utter; make the exchange permanent fragments and dust within, the once begun, the caster can with a human sacrifice to Shub- spell is possible. Rendering a continue as long as he has breath Niggurath. Tradition (and the corpse into its essential salts (Athletics pool points) left spell, should the Keeper so requires 3 months of work in decide) dictates that this take an alchemist’s laboratory or the Mind Exchange place on Halloween. equivalent, a 3-point Stability test, Allows the caster to trade minds and a total Occult and Chemistry with her target. The target can be Stability Test Difficulty: 5 (4 rating of 8. at any range, although the first with a Assess Honesty spend or time this spell is cast against a against a target the caster knows Stability Test Difficulty: 6 to specific target, the caster must be well, 3 with both) resurrect a corpse, Difficulty 4 to able to see her victim. (Scrying return it to dust and some magical visions may Opposition: See above. also allow Mind Exchange.) Opposition: Resurrecting a Targets of this spell absolutely Cost: Stability equal to half the corpse from its essential salts is get a Sense Trouble roll, which target’s current Stability pool a contest against death’s Inertia manifests as a jolt of detached (round down) of 6; returning a corpse to dust perspective. (“It’s as though you requires a contest of caster’s were looking at yourself from Time: One round to cast, each Stability vs one-half (round different eyes.”) A success lets the subsequent exchange of the down) of the target’s Stability target pinpoint the caster, if he contest takes one round; caster’s can see her. Being mind-switched mind can remain in target’s body Cost: 4 Stability; being causes a 5-point Stability test for up to four minutes after the first resurrected costs 6 Stability the target. success, eight minutes after the
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Time: 2 rounds to chant either of the Ritual. Depending on the of the Ritual. A line of the Ritual version; resurrection takes source, the fourth or sixth line permanently closes a hyperspace five minutes, return to dust is is known as the Line of Naach- Gate if the Gate required the instantaneous Tith. The fifth line (often called same or less Stability than the the Pentacle of the Planes) is line’s rating: for example, an Saaamaaa Ritual sufficient to contain and redirect interstellar gate costs 16 Stability, This ritual hardens and Daoloth. Usually only parts of so the fourth (or higher) line of recurves the native geometry one or two lines show up in a the Ritual would close it. of four-dimensional space-time, grimoire; assembling the seven deflecting things from Outside known lines would take years, Stability Test Difficulty: 6 (5 with such as Yog-Sothoth, Daoloth, and vast resources. Physics, 4 with a Physics spend) and their minions. It is up to the Keeper to determine specifically Although the Keeper should come Opposition: Raising any one line which gods, titans, and monsters up with strange and unique of the Ritual is a contest against are Outsiders, and which are effects for each line, the primary the Inertia of space-time. This terrestrial species or “normal” effect of one line of the Saamaa Inertia pool equals the number alien races. Using the Ritual or Ritual is to block a number of of the line, times two: raising the its signs, the caster can close Health points associated with an seventh line is thus a contest a hyperspace Gate. The Ritual Outside entity. Each line blocks against an Inertia of 14. The is most often performed to an exponentially increasing caster must use his Stability pool inscribe its signs as a barrier, number of points: the first line in the contest, but takes damage or to polarize an existing light blocks 2, the second blocks 4, to Health. or radiation field as a barrier. the third blocks 8, the fourth 16, If the line is chalked, inscribed, the fifth 32, and so forth. If the Cost: 2 Stability or 4 Health per or generated by a neon light, entity has fewer Health than the number of the line for each breaking it breaks the barrier. line’s rating, it cannot breach the 31 feet (or fraction thereof) of barrier. Bullets and other earthly barrier. For example, drawing The Ritual has eight lines, the last projectiles (or earthly creatures, the third line across a 60-foot of which is reputed to provide for that matter) can cross the archway (or a 32-foot archway) total protection. Sadly, the last barrier with no effect. A line would cost 12 Stability or 24 line is also unknown to any also blocks spells if they are Health. human, although it is supposedly powered by fewer points than its carven in two monoliths on the rating: for example, a sorcerer Time: The line lasts one die world Glyu-Uho, orbiting the in service to Yog-Sothoth would roll’s hours, or until sunrise, star Betelgeuse. Some occultists have to pour 9 points of Stability whichever is less. believe that the Elder Sign is a into a spell to cast it at a target topological map of the third line cowering behind the third line
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Creatures not encountered for 24 hours “… of all the unnatural monsters or more may replenish all of its GUMSHOE is either of us had in our lifetimes ability pools, with the exception Player-Facing of Health, which it recovers at beheld, this was in surpassing degree Wherever possible, the rate of 1d6 points per day. we put die rolling in the the strangest.” hands of the players. We If the Investigators encounter — The Beast in the Cave call this approach “player a creature later on in the same facing”. That is, to see if an day, such as by tracking it to Investigator is surprised, Below the gods and titans of the its lair, it can refresh all of its the player makes a Sense Mythos lie many different kinds ability pools to a maximum of Trouble test; to see if a of creatures. Some of them are half their total rating, again with creature is surprised, the extraterrestrial, or not even the exception of Health, which it player makes a Stealth tests. native to this dimension. Some cannot refresh at all. This applies to many other were created by the Great Old General rolls – Investigators Ones, some have chosen to serve Creatures that have special rules roll Filch to steal from them, and still others remain for recovering Health, such as an NPC, Investigators roll independent or unaware of the regenerating creatures, follow Sense Trouble to see if cosmic monstrosities that blight their own rules rather than those an NPC has stolen from the universe. Whether intelligent, given above. them. You can always alien, or simple Earthly beasts, adjust the Difficulty for the such creatures share similar Investigators according to rules considerations in Trail of Creature Statistics the NPCs abilities, and that’s Cthulhu. Some creatures have split what we are doing here with ability pools depending on the Alertness Modifier and their environment or means of Stealth Modifier. Health Loss for Creatures locomotion, one higher than the Unless the Keeper is really in other. A creature that changes love with a specific monster, or modes (goes from flying to running a soul-crushingly Purist walking, for example) either loses game, creatures die, or return the “extra” pool points or gains the air, it would not lose to their home dimension, or them, depending on its direction, any points when landing.) disintegrate, or what have you, but it can only do so once. It returns to the air, but when their Health is reduced does not regain its 2 “lost” below 0. Some creatures have A byakhee (Scuffling pool points. exceptions in their own rule 6 on land, 11 in the text, and the Keeper is always air) is attempting to If the Investigators had allowed to use the standard rescue its master, a foul gotten to the rooftop a rules for Health loss if she thinks necromancer, from the few minutes later, while it dramatically necessary. For onrushing Investigators the necromancer was flavor purposes, the Keeper who have the villain boarding his grounded may describe tentacles torn cornered on a rooftop. servitor, the byakhee off, etheric forms wavering or It spends 3 pool points would have begun the ichor dripping as a creature raking the meddling encounter with 6 pool approaches 0 Health points. Investigators in fly- points in Scuffling. If it by attacks, and has 8 spent 1 in the combat remaining. But once before taking off, it would Ability Pool Refreshment it lands to allow the hit the air with 10 points escaping wizard to board – the 5 remaining in its for Creatures its back, it goes from 8 pool, plus its extra 5 for Creatures refresh ability pool pool points to 6, its land the air. points according to how often maximum. (If it had spent they appear. A creature that is 5 or more pool points in Let’s say the Investigators
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somehow force it back to They never make rolls to avoid the roof. The byakhee’s detection; Investigators always Changing Creatures Scuffling pool reverts to make rolls to detect them. It’s important to keep 5, and will not refresh the monsters fresh and again that scene whether terrifying. Lovecraft invented it takes wing again or not. As A Foulness Shall Ye all these things specifically because vampires and The Hit Threshold, Weapon Know Them werewolves were tired damage, and Armor of creatures Each race has an Investigation out; it would be a shame if work the same way that they section describing some possible the same thing happens to do for Investigators and other clues – either to its approach or Deep Ones and mi-go. Be humans, albeit they are usually to its traces – the Keeper can more willing than usual to better. provide the Investigators. These vary the statistics, powers, clues are organized by the likely spoor, and behavior of The Alertness Modifier for abilities that would uncover these creatures. By all a given creature reflects its them. (Other abilities that might means change up their keener (or paranormal) senses, provide the same clue are in appearance, accentuating or in some cases, its brutish parentheses.) Even more than those features that create dullness or weak perceptions in usual, the Keeper should change the most reliable horror and conditions of Earthly reality. It these descriptions around to suit ignoring or even purposely is added to the target difficulty herself. That said, here’s where contradicting lesser details. of Stealth tests or similar made she might start. (Are mi-go more like insects when the creature’s sensory or crustaceans? Depends awareness would be a factor, on the story.) James Wade’s such as when the Investigators story The Deep Ones ties are trying to sneak up on a those familiar creatures to creature, or are moving around Alien Races dolphins, and adds whole near its lair. Note that creatures “As the end approaches I feel more new aspects to their legend. do not have the Sense Trouble kindly towards the things. In the You can do the same if you’re willing to creatively or Shadowing abilities. Players scale of cosmic entity who can say make rolls to evade creatures; ignore the parts that don’t fit. creatures do not make rolls to which species stands higher, or more Or, rework the creature detect Investigators. nearly approaches a space-wide to suit the setting or the organic norm — theirs or mine?” scenario, keeping their basic Stability Loss, in these templates, nature the same. Should indicates the additional Stability — In the Walls of Eryx ghouls be albino, almost loss (as a modifier to the insectoid creatures like standard Stability loss) caused by Humankind is not the pinnacle Morlocks, and attack subway sighting, fighting, or witnessing of creation. Humankind is an trains instead of grave- the attacks of the creature in accident, created as a sloppy jest robbers? Should byakhee question. in the laboratories of a species emerge from deep wells or that died before the dinosaurs simply assemble themselves A creature has a Stealth evolved. Humankind is at best an out of trace metals and Modifier when it is significantly overzealous weed, flourishing corpses in the vicinity? How harder (or easier) to detect (by during Earth’s temporary does the Colour work as the ear, eye, nose, etc) than a human. abandonment by its true Sound Out of Space? This modifier is added to (or landlords. Or perhaps humankind The Cthulhu Mythos is as subtracted from) the difficulty is a Petri dish, in which the Great protean and ever-changing number of any appropriate Sense Old Ones grow promising and as a shoggoth. Keep the Trouble or other tests made to useful traits for implantation into shoggoths that way, too notice the creature. Note that those races actually worthy of creatures and other NPCs do servitor status. Old races born in not have the Stealth ability. the light of the Big Bang still cling
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The Cthulhu Mythos to life in Earth’s secret places. Alien beings visit the planet to harvest ores and slaves to suit their whim, or to carry out the unfathomable desires of their Great Old One masters. New races gestate under the ocean or in the graveyard or simply wait their turn in the far reaches of time.
All the races listed below, with the possible exception of shoggoths, are of roughly human (or considerably higher) intelligence. The default rule in Trail of Cthulhu is that all alien races, whether terrestrial or extraterrestrial, count as Mythos entities for the purposes of Stability tests, spell casting, and similar. The Keeper is welcome to shake up player assumptions by redefining ghouls, for example, as supernatural creatures like vampires, or even as cryptozoological oddities like the yeti. The yeti, of course, might turn out to be a mi-go servitor species…
Byakhee or to serve as steeds. Byakhee These interstellar winged are reputed to be one of Hastur’s horrors resemble necrotic, servitor races. insectoid vultures. Byakhee can fly through space and carry a In combat, byakhee can either rider each, though such riders strike with both claws for two need protection from the vacuum attacks per round, or attempt to and cold from suitable spells or bite and drain blood. potions. Byakhee do not have bases on earth, but sorcerers Game Statistics summon them to perform deeds Abilities (on land/in air or space):
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Athletics 5/20, Health 8, Scuffling incandescence matching nothing Hit Threshold: N/A 6/11 in the Earthly spectrum. It is not a gas or plasma, but an Stealth Modifier: +2 Hit Threshold: 4 insubstantial light. (That said, if its light touches human flesh, it Weapon: +1 (iridescence); its Stealth Modifier: +1 in air feels like a brush of slimy vapor.) attacks can melt iron Bright light inhibits a Colour. It Weapon: +1 (claw), +0 (bite); spends daylight hours in dark, Armor: transparent to all following a successful bite, the cool hideaways, preferably physical attacks including fire byakhee will automatically drain underwater: cisterns, wells, lakes, or electricity; strong magnetic 2 Health per round from its reservoirs, and oceans all are fields can contain it; vulnerable victim until killed or driven off. suitable. If it moves, it resembles to spells nothing so much as a weird Armor: -2 vs any (fur and hide, moonbeam pouring across the Stability Loss: +0 to see a Colour; and an absence of vitals) ground, occasionally flashing +1 to see the victim of a Colour into eye-blink flight. A Colour Stability Loss: +1 can move anywhere any light Investigation whatsoever can go, including Architecture: The glass in this Investigation between the chinks of a stone house is surprisingly brittle and Cop Talk: We’re tracking down wall or the boards in a floor. spotted, as though it had been a report that somebody heard sand-blasted. There’s no similar whistling, like from a piccolo, As the Colour pupates, it filters damage to the frame, although right before the attack. into the local vegetation; it grows the wood is gray and punkish in unnaturally, glistens oddly, and places. Evidence Collection: The prints tastes bitter. Then insects and generally resemble those of animals are born deformed, their Astronomy: A meteor landed carrion birds, but are not deep eyes glowing with the Colour. around here about five months enough to indicate anything At night, all plant life shines or a year ago. heavy enough to batter a with it, twisting and writhing as human ever stood in them. in a strong wind. Once grown, Chemistry: Under spectroscopic (Outdoorsman) the Colour begins to feed on analysis, samples from the surrounding animals (or people) meteor display bands in Forensics: The body is slashed while draining the life-force from unknown spectra, indicating very and torn almost to rags, and the area. When it has enough strange, possibly transuranic, blood spatter evidence indicates energy, it departs the planet for chemical makeup. They are not it was carried around the area space and adulthood, leaving volatile at any temperature, but during the struggle. Although a ruined, barren heath 5 to 20 are very ductile. An acid-solvent the throat is ripped out, there is acres (depending on the area’s test reveals Widmanstätten lines surprisingly little blood either on initial richness) in extent. And similar to meteoric iron. or in the corpse. possibly another larva… Forensics: The flesh is dry, Sense Trouble: A waft of icy air Will Drain: Someone living in brittle, scaly, and sunken in, seems to settle over you, and the area a Colour is draining giving off noisome odors upon an astringent smell like rotting automatically loses 1 point of dissection. The fat is congealed juniper stings your nostrils. Stability each night of residence and bloated, with strange there, as their mind weakens and iridescent effects. Parts of the they lose their will to live. They body are shriveled or compressed Colour Out of Space must also make a 2-point Stability disproportionately, but there is An larval Colour falls to test to leave after the first night. no sign of pressure damage or Earth inside a meteorite bruising. The eyes bulge, with and germinates, splitting its Game Statistics high air pressure distending the metallic shell and nestling into Abilities (larval/grown): Athletics orbits; the soft parts of the face the ecosystem as coruscating 4/20, Health 4/20, Scuffling 6/28 are likewise distended. All parts
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The Cthulhu Mythos of the body are gray or grayish. four different targets. Instead of face and mouth cavities are full making a tentacle attack, the dark of blackish pus. Ulcerated open Outdoorsman: These plants young may trample one victim sores are on the anterior of the are simultaneously rotting and with its massive hooves, typically body, though that clear grease desiccating from within. (Biology) hooting and bellowing the while. has dried by now. The expression on what’s left of the face is … Photography: There’s another Game Statistics well, if you didn’t know better, light source in this area besides Abilities: Athletics 8, Health 16, you’d say it was religious ecstasy. the moon or the lights. Scuffling 26 Sense Trouble: Although the Physics: Incredibly strong, Hit Threshold: 3 (large) wind doesn’t shift, it picks up focused radiation could have this – and it must have uncovered effect, but it would take advanced Alertness Modifier: +1 something dead for a week. And machinery to produce. there seem to be more trees Stealth Modifier: +2 in forests or there than there were just a Sense Trouble: That reflection is jungles minute ago. an odd color … Weapon: +5 (trampling hooves); +2 (tentacle); -2 (horrible sucking Deep One Dark Young of mouth); after a successful The amphibious worshippers tentacle attack, in lieu of doing of Cthulhu known as the Deep Shub-Niggurath damage, the dark young may pull Ones resemble chinless, hunched, Dark young are enormous her victim inexorably toward a batrachian humanoids with fish- writhing masses, formed out of mouth for an automatic blood like gills and unblinking, bulging ropy black tentacles. Here and drain each round thereafter. eyes. Their hands and feet are there over their surface, ragged, webbed and clawed, and their puckered mouths drool green sap. Armor: the thick, woody, sap- skin is grey-green and slimy Beneath them, tentacles end in filled flesh of the Dark Young with ridges of scales along the black hooves. Dark young roughly means that most firearms do spine and at the joints. Locked resemble trees in silhouette — the only 1 point of damage (2 if the in the timeless depths of the sea, trunks being the short legs, and attacker rolled a 6); shotguns do their lives are coldly beautiful, the tops of the trees represented one-third damage; immune to unbelievably cruel, effectively by the ropy, branching bodies fire, blast, acid, electricity, and immortal. They are a saltwater – but smell like open graves. Dark poison, although the Keeper may race, and their many submerged young stand between 12 and 20 decide that some alchemical cities include Y’ha-nthlei off feet tall. herbicide (made of something Innsmouth, Massachusetts, Ahu- truly awful) could work. Y’hloa near Cornwall, and G’ll- Dark young act as proxies for Hoo in the North Sea. Shub-Niggurath in accepting Stability Loss: +2 sacrifices, accepting worship Some Deep Ones appear to have from cultists, devouring non- Investigation a monstrous lust to produce cultists, and in spreading their Anthropology: The ancient human/deep one hybrids, and mother’s faith across the world. Germans, among other tribes, so interact with humans. These They appear where she is (or used to ritually slash human humans may worship the Deep was) worshipped. sacrifices and then chain them Ones, for in addition to their to certain trees you were never magical knowledge, Deep Ones In its masses of tentacles, a allowed to cut down. are immortal, unless slain, and typical dark young has four so are any hybrid offspring. thicker sinuous tentacles with Forensics: The knife wounds Typically, hybrids inhabit remote which it attacks. Each of these didn’t kill him – they were coastal villages. Such a hybrid thicker tentacles can strike out superficial cuts at best – although begins life as a human-looking to injure or to grab and capture the blood loss was serious even child who gradually becomes once per round, conceivably at before whatever happened. The uglier and uglier. Around age
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35 or 40 (or after severe stress), the hybrid begins dreaming of his underwater heritage and then undergoes a monstrous transformation into a Deep One. Game Statistics Abilities (on land/in water): Athletics 8/12, Health 9, Scuffling 8/12, Weapons 6/4
Hit Threshold: 4/5
Alertness Modifier: +0/+1
Stealth Modifier: +0/+1
Weapon: +1 (claw), +1 (trident)
Armor: -1 vs any (scales and skin)
Stability Loss: +0 Investigation Evidence Collection: There are seawater pools by the smashed window, even though the sea was calm last night. That ties in with the dried salt in the rug, and in that webbed footprint.
Forensics: The neck is neatly slashed by four parallel wounds, like razor blades mounted on a frame of some kind. There are similar four-wound patterns on his arm, and on his leg, which was twisted nearly backwards.
Sense Trouble: It’s an awfully warm day for that man to be and left waste several other gets a Difficulty 4 Fleeing or wearing gloves and have his coat worlds. They dislike light, though Athletics test to run away before collar pulled up. it does not visibly harm them. it smashes them to jelly. With They rarely emerge in daylight, an Evidence Collection spend, and then only on planets that survivors can find enough to Dhole they have thoroughly conquered. bury. These gigantic, worm-like, Some magical texts blame them burrowing horrors are not native for earthquakes. Sputum: A wad of dhole sputum to the Earth, and none seem is 10 yards across. If it hits a car to have been brought here for Crushing Roll: Anyone or or truck, it stops it; if it hits a more than brief periods. This is anything within near range of plane it knocks it out of the sky fortunate, for dholes have riddled a dhole if it decides to roll over (Difficulty 6 Piloting to avoid a
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The Cthulhu Mythos crash); if it hits a boat, it adds no earthquake reported last night. middle of the room, but there +2 to all Piloting Difficulties aren’t any other spots, or a trail until removed. In addition to to indicate the victim was moved the impact damage, characters Dimensional Shambler anywhere. And you’d see it on hit by the goo are engulfed and Resembling a hulking, insectoid that carpet or those white walls. stunned for one round. Climbing ape, the dimensional shambler out of the wad requires three infests the wainscoting of the Sense Trouble: The mirrors and consecutive successful Difficulty planes. Their low intelligence windows in the room reflect a 5 Athletics tests. Each round you makes them a favorite servitor kind of shimmery light that you spend in the sputum, you cannot for sorcerers of all species. don’t see in the room itself. breathe and must make tests as Occasionally, their masters teach if drowning (see p. 68). Dhole them a rote spell. sputum is caustic, doing damage Elder Thing like a weak acid (-1) each round. A dimensional shambler may These aliens are radially strike with both claws, attacking symmetrical, with five arms Game Statistics the same target twice in a single each ending in five tentacular Abilities (crawling/burrowing): round. fingers. Their bodies stand about Athletics 18/10, Health 178, Scuffling 8 feet tall, with starfish-like 24 Dimension Travel: At any time, a “heads” (with one eye at each dimensional shambler can, well, tip) and “feet” emerging from Hit Threshold: 2 (vast) shamble between dimensions. their barrel-shaped torso. Their This takes one round during wings fold up into slots in the Alertness Modifier: +0/+2 which it shimmers and fades, and body. Elder Things communicate costs it 1 point from its Athletics by piping whistles and can see Weapon: +12 (bite), +1 (spit); after pool, or 2 points if carrying a without light. a successful bite, the dhole will human-sized or smaller object. swallow its victim; dholes can spit While shimmering, it can still Elder Things came to Earth two up to three miles (+2 on target’s be attacked, but cannot attack. billion years ago, and may have Hit Threshold past long range) To grab an unwilling passenger, accidentally started terrestrial it must win two consecutive life. They created shoggoths as Armor: -12 vs any (exoskeleton) Scuffling contests: the first is their slaves, and used them to a grab for no damage, and the war against other races until Stability Loss: +2 (minimum second is a nightmarish bear- being driven back to their Stability loss 1 if seen on Earth) hug. During this second contest, main city in Antarctica. As they it fades out. degenerated, a shoggoth rebellion Investigation destroyed the Elder Thing Evidence Collection: You can Game Statistics civilization. The Elder Things follow the broken branches Abilities: Athletics 7, Health 10, are extinct on land, but may through the forest about a mile Scuffling 10 still have colonies in the deepest and a half, so that blob of mucus waters. must have come down on an Hit Threshold: 4 awfully flat trajectory before it In hand-to-hand combat, an totaled that car. The paint and Weapon: +1 (talons) Elder Thing may use all five top are burned badly, so it was arms at once, but no more than probably either caustic or very Armor: -3 vs any (thick rugose three versus a single target. As a hot. hide) technologically advanced species, however, they are more likely to Forensics: At a guess, an ocean Stability Loss: +0 use weapons or magic. liner landed on him. But that’s just a guess, mind you. Investigation Game Statistics Evidence Collection: Blood Abilities (on land/in air): Geology: The rock strata are very spatter indicates that the attack Athletics 8/10, Health 14, Scuffling jumbled up here, but there was happened right here in the 13
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Hit Threshold: 4 million years ago. They built move at full speed while pinning basalt cities with high windowless its prey in place. Its targets’ Hit Alertness Modifier: +1 towers and inhabited three other Threshold increases by 1 for each planets in the solar system as additional target it attempts to Stealth Modifier: +1 well. The Great Race of Yith pin. arrived some 300 million years Weapon: +1 (crushing grip); later and possessed the polyps’ Windstorm: A colony of 9 or after a successful attack, the food species. In the ensuing war, more flying polyps can generate Elder Thing begins to constrict the Great Race drove the polyps a hurricane-force windstorm. its victim for automatic damage underground. The polyps broke This has primarily dramatic or (-1) each round until killed or free again 65 million years ago narrative effects, forcing planes dissuaded. and drove the Great Race into the to crash, burying uncovered future. The polyps still remain in ruins, and the like. Armor: -4 vs any (tough their subterranean haunts and epidermis) seem content to remain there, as Game Statistics they need no light, annihilating Abilities (on ground/in air): Stability Loss: +0 the few beings chancing across Athletics 8/12, Health 20, Scuffling them. The entrances to their 28, Wind 23 Investigation dwellings, great wells sealed Forensics: The cuts are precisely over with stone, are mostly deep Hit Threshold: 4 (large but only spaced, but oddly placed. The within ancient ruins. partially visible) organs have been surgically severed in a way that indicates Invisibility: Although its body is Alertness Modifier: +2 medical training, but put back always rotating through visible incorrectly. The organs also show space and fading in unsettling Stealth Modifier: invisibility (see odd bruising patterns, as though fashion, a flying polyp can above) they were held with calipers become entirely invisible for one or some other thin, strong tool round by spending 1 Health point. Weapon: +1 (polypous extrusion); before being replaced. The It continues to emit its nauseating semi-material and ignores all trepanning wound at the crown whistling noise, however, so its armor of the skull was made at the same Hit Threshold rises to 6 rather time as the rectum was cored than vanishing altogether. Armor: -3 vs any (polypous out, and the victim was still alive, matting); all physical weapons do but fully restrained at the time of Windblast: Using its Wind ability damage as if their modifier were those incisions. (the renamed Firearms for -1; enchanted weapons, fire, and polyps) a flying polyp can emit a electricity do normal damage Medicine: This will seem weird, blast of desiccating wind to strip but hear me out. In med school, the flesh from its target’s bones Stability Loss: +2 we all knew our anatomical and blow him across the room. theory cold, but had no idea how Damage modifiers depend on Investigation to cut up cadavers. This is like the what they hit on their way across Forensics: The skin at the reverse of that. the room, and on the range, as wounds is deeply but irregularly follows: close or point-blank (+4), pockmarked, with some abrasion Sense Trouble: The echo on that near (+2), long (+0). in no discernible pattern. whistling sounds like these caves Death was caused either by the or tunnels go a lot farther back Suction: The polyp’s wind can suffocation or possibly by the than we thought. And by the way, also create a localized spiral contusions. The whole body is what made that whistling? suction that holds a victim in reddened slightly, and there is place, at any range up to 1,000 particulate matter in the skin yards, even around corners and hair, some embedded quite Flying Polyp and down or up shafts. This is deeply. The flesh is somewhat This unnamed extraterrestrial a contest of Wind vs Athletics desiccated, as though it had species invaded Earth about 750 (or Fleeing), and the polyp can been sun-dried or baked. The
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The Cthulhu Mythos eardrums are split. (pseudopod); can extend tendril attack humans. A human of attack at near range; can attack particularly thanatophilic Outdoorsman: That wind came one to three targets with a limb tendencies can transform into a up from the ground, and the simultaneously, adding 1 to the ghoul over a prolonged period of weather has been clear all week. Hit Threshold for each additional time. (Sense Trouble) target Ghouls can engage in two claw Armor: all physical wounds attacks and a bite against the Formless Spawn of and damage simply flow closed; same target in one round. fire does normal damage; may Tsathoggua be affected by spells and some Game Statistics These inky, protean beings chemicals Abilities: Athletics 9, Health 7, can change shapes in an Scuffling 9 instant, from toad-like lumps to Stability Loss: +1 elongate things with hundreds Hit Threshold: 4 (5 underground) of rudimentary legs. They can Investigation ooze through small cracks and Evidence Collection: The damp Alertness Modifier: +2 (+0 in enlarge their appendages at trail from (or to) the body flows daylight) will. They are closely associated up walls, and narrows to get with Tsathoggua, and often may through the crack of the door. Stealth Modifier: +1 be found in his temples or in sunless caverns. Forensics: The bones are simply Weapon: +1 (claw), +0 (bite); if sucked clean of flesh, except for two bite attacks in a row succeed Engulf: At point-blank range, a the insides of the skull, ilium, against the same target, the ghoul formless spawn can simply engulf and scapula, which show signs is worrying the poor devil with its opponent with a successful of swarming predator damage his mighty canine jaws, and the Scuffling contest. (The target’s – shrews, perhaps, or very large second attack thus does double Hit Threshold is 1 higher than ants. They are snapped and damage. The ghoul need not normal.) As the viscous (and twisted; the force came from all roll to hit that target thereafter, vicious) blob crushes him, the angles at once, somehow. His but will continue to do normal engulfed foe loses 1 point of fillings, ring, and the pin in his damage to it each round until Health on the first round, 2 shoulder from the Great War killed or driven off. on the second round, and so were all found lying in the bone forth. He can do nothing except cavities. Armor: firearms and projectiles emit muffled shrieks of terror do only half damage (round up) and make drowning tests (see Sense Trouble: Wait – p. 68). If the spawn begins with nothing’s casting that shadow. Stability Loss: +0; +1 if the ghoul Health higher than 8, for every (Photography) was known to the witness when 4 additional points it possesses, alive it can engulf one more human- sized target, though it can still Ghoul Investigation only engulf one target per round. Rubbery, loathsome humanoids Evidence Collection: The “newly with hoof-like feet, canine dug grave” over in the next plot Game Statistics features, and claws, ghouls speak has a marker on it labeled 1919. Abilities: Athletics 12, Health 8+, in gibberings and meepings. Scuffling 20 Some recall human tongues. Forensics: The entire body is They are often encrusted with covered in bite marks. Oddly, Hit Threshold: 4 grave mold collected as they feed. although the marks are clearly These horrible creatures dwell canine, the jaws are unusually Stealth Modifier: +1 (+3 in in graveyard warrens, subway short and wide. From the marks, shadows or darkness) tunnels, and the like beneath we estimate three or four of many human cities. They have the animals. The eyes were Weapon: -1 (tendril), +0 (limb), +1 ties to witches and occasionally plucked from their sockets, and
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Creatures are missing, as are the kidneys, spleen, liver, thymus gland, pancreas, and intestines. The large wound in the belly was a tearing wound. The skull, on the other hand, was smashed open postmortem on the gravestone, and the gray matter scooped out with some kind of clawed utensil and taken. Also postmortem, the long bones of the limbs were cracked and pried open with a four-pronged, sharpened tool, and the marrow removed. Extensive saliva traces were found in and around the bone cavities.
Languages: That gravedigger we talked to used vocabulary and sentence construction more common 200 years ago. (History)
Sense Trouble: That barking doesn’t sound like the dog we heard earlier.
Gnoph-Keh This “hairy myth-thing of the Greenland ice” has six legs and a horn, though at a glimpse it resembles a misshapen polar bear more than anything else. It can travel on one, two, or three pairs of legs. It is associated with Ithaqua, although it is also the totem beast of a debased tribe of Eskimos.
The gnoph-keh can attack with its horn, or with one or two pair of claws. For a pair of claw attacks, roll one Scuffling test, human visibility to point blank howl up glacier-clearing storms. but two separate damage results. (the gnoph-keh can still see It cannot make a horn attack on fine) within a 100-yard radius. Below 20°F, Investigators the round after it makes a two- Alternately, it can spend 1 Health without protective gear suffer pair claw attack, as it has to drop point to drop the air temperature from extreme cold (see p. 68). to its feet again. by 20°F for an hour. Each Below -20°F, regardless of gear, additional Health point increases Investigators must make Athletics Blizzard: By spending 1 Health the radius by another 100 yards tests (Difficulty 4) to keep moving, per hour, the gnoph-keh can or drops the temperature another and each additional temperature howl up a blizzard, restricting 20°F; multiple gnoph-kehs can drop raises that Difficulty by 1.
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The Cthulhu Mythos
Investigators who stop moving the cones 400 million years ago charge of lightning gun); pincer begin losing 1 Health every 15 when they fled their own world’s attack only at point-blank range; minutes, or every five minutes in destruction. After driving the lightning gun holds 32 charges, a blizzard. flying polyps underground, and any number of which may be a period of internal wars, they fired per round in a single attack. Game Statistics built a fascist empire centered on Abilities: Athletics 9, Health 15, Pnakotus in Australia. When the Armor: -5 vs any (thick Scuffling 21 polyps erupted again 65 million carapace) years ago, the Great Race left the Hit Threshold: 4 (5 in Arctic cones to their fate and jumped Stability Loss: +0 against non-Arctic dwellers) ahead to 50 million years in our future, where they possess the Investigation Alertness Modifier: +1 coleopteran bodies of Earth’s by- Electrical Repair: All I can then dominant race. guess about the machinery Stealth Modifier: +2 in snow or from these receipts and the one ice A Yithian can send its mind piece we found is that it seems forward or backward through to be designed to create and Weapon: +3 (horn), +1 (claw) time, pick out a suitable subject, manipulate an amazingly intense and trade minds with it. Thus, magnetic field, but in a very Armor: -5 vs any (furry hide) whenever a member of the Great small cubic space. But there’s no Race takes over the body of a way that such a small machine, Stability Loss: +0 being, that being is put into the with no external power input, body of the Great Race individual, could even generate that kind Investigation there to stay until the being now of field. The lights and mirrors, Biology: The end toe on these inhabiting its old body sees fit as far as I can tell, serve no polar bear tracks is unusually to return and trade places once purpose. (Physics) distended, and the claws are more. When the time comes to remarkably long. (Outdoorsman) restore the victim to his own Geology: This “mental patient” body, the Great Race blanks his was doodling trilobites until his Forensics: The body died not memory of all that has happened release interview came through. from blood loss, or even from the to him while he is trapped in (Biology, Evidence Collection) trauma of being impaled through their age. This blanking is not the chest, but from hypothermia, perfect: the victim may dream of Occult: Around the 2nd century despite being clad in a parka at or have nightmares concerning A.D. in Rome, there was a branch the time of death. being held by the Great Race. The of Mithraism dedicated to the Yithians use this technique to worship of Aion, a sort of time Outdoorsman: The tracks this travel en masse through time and demon with four snake-like thing leaves make no sense – it’s space to conquer other planets. arms, who appeared, or awoke, like there’s a bipedal one riding Yithian time-travel depends in a cave at the beginning of the a quadrupedal one or something. on hyper-scientific machinery, world. He brought them wisdom (Evidence Collection) much of which exists in a purely and warned them — accurately mathematical state, since it can — of traps set for them in the Sense Trouble: That snow is be constructed with virtually any future. Rumors of that cult blowing against the wind. level of technology, no matter persist down through the Middle how primitive. Ages. Great Race of Yith Game Statistics Their 10-foot tall cone-shaped Abilities: Athletics 7, Firearms 7, Hound of Tindalos bodies, topped with four stalks Health 23, Scuffling 13 These lean, ravening creatures (eyes, trumpet-like ears, two dwell at the farthest beginnings pincers) are native to this planet. Hit Threshold: 4 of time on this planet, before The Great Race, a purely mental DNA is formed in the first species, took over the minds of Weapon: +5 (pincer), +1 (per pools of protein. They inhabit
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The Cthulhu Mythos the angles of time, while other beings (including mankind and all common life) descend from curves. They hunger, and when they spot any prey, they follow it through time and space, traveling 100 million years in a day. They are immortal, and many of them know powerful eldritch spells from all throughout time.
Because of their relationship with the angles of time, they can materialize through any corner, if it is sharp — 120° or less. When a Hound manifests, it first appears as smoke pouring from the corner, from which the head and then the body emerges.
Driven off by a target, a Hound usually gives up. Unfortunately, such a creature is difficult to drive off. Friends who come to a target’s aid also will be attacked.
Tongue: A Hound’s tongue is long and hollow. If it strikes a person, it bloodlessly and painlessly cores a deep hole into their torso, somehow shifting the organs around. The victim takes no Health damage, but loses 3 rating points of Stability. The Hounds normally save this for the coup de grace. Game Statistics Abilities: Athletics 6 (refreshes 2 points per round and entirely a successful attack smears onto between scenes), Health 13, the victim in addition to other Investigation Scuffling 30 damage. The pus acts as a very Chemistry: The bluish slime on strong acid (+1 damage modifier; the body seemed almost alive, Hit Threshold: 4 see p. 68) each round until but it was completely anaerobic, removed. It can be cauterized and contained polyphosphates Alertness Modifier: +3 with fire. and hydrogen sulfide rather than proteins. It no longer burns, Stealth Modifier: +1 Armor: -2 vs any (hide), although when it was on the regenerates 2 Health per round; victim, it must have been highly Weapon: +1 (paw), tongue (see immune to mundane weapons or acidic judging from his wounds. above); the Hound’s paws (and chemicals. the rest of it) are covered with Evidence Collection: Whoever a sort of living bluish pus, which Stability Loss: +2 was in this room filled in all the
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Creatures corners with plaster and got rid of all their furniture except rounded pieces. They even puttied over the corners of their windows and picture frames.
Forensics: The body was found flat on its back, burned and corroded as if by acid, but covered with a non-acidic bluish slime. The head was severed and laid on the chest, covering a hole drilled with some sort of smooth- sided tool. The hole somehow did not puncture any organs. The cause of death was a massive coronary. The body showed old needle tracks indicating drug use, but none were found in the system.
Hunting Horror Hunting horrors resemble enormous (40-foot) ropy black serpents or worms with one or two bat-like or sail-like wings. Their twitching, writhing forms continually shift and change, hurting the eyes. They croak like ravens.
Daylight dispels them, and a strong enough burst of light (from a lightning bolt or an atomic blast, perhaps) could sear one to dust. Hunting horrors move swiftly; they are harrier- creatures for some of the gods, particularly Nyarlathotep, and for wizards seeking blood and lives. Some have learned spells from Stealth Modifier: +2 (flying) Stability Loss: +1 such masters. Weapon: +1 (bite), -1 (tail loop); Investigation Game Statistics after a successful tail loop attack, Evidence Collection: Somebody Abilities (on ground/in air): the horror can carry the victim smashed the streetlight that Athletics 7/11, Health 14, Scuffling into the sky, but can only bite ordinarily shines on this 22 while its tail remains thusly courtyard. These bullets hit engaged something, though, something Hit Threshold: 3 (large) that flattened them out. Armor: -5 vs any (scales); all Alertness Modifier: +2 firearms do damage as if their Forensics: The corpse was modifier were -1 mauled and mutilated, showing
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The Cthulhu Mythos severe blunt trauma as well among themselves and with the people of K’n-yan. Seeing as ligature marks on the limbs outsiders. For such outsiders, them dematerialize is a 2-point (indicating thick, looped cable telepathic contact with a K’n- Stability test at +0. was used to suspend the body yani causes a 1-point Stability test and possibly slam it into a wall) initially and one for every twelve Investigation and wounds made by at least five hours the contact continues. Anthropology: The Aztecs, the different shapes of blades, mostly Some gifted K’n-yani can also Hopi, and many other tribes in hatchet-like. The left foot, heart, create telepathic illusions the region believe that when and at least three inches of the resistible after a successful the world ended last time, their trachea have not been recovered Difficulty 5 Sense Trouble test. ancestors went into a deep cave, from the crime scene. Successfully throwing off such from which they emerged to start an illusion does, however, trigger the world over again. According a 3-point Stability test. Or worse, to the Hopi, below that world lay K’n-Yani depending upon what seeing the the Red City. K’n-yan is a vast, blue-litten truth reveals … underground empire beneath Chemistry: This peculiar Oklahoma inhabited by all Dematerialization: K’n-yani metal from the Kiowa grave is manner of strange creatures. Its exist in both the material and denser than lead, but strongly people, the K’n-yani, resemble astral planes, and can shift magnetically polarized to long-skulled, copper-skinned between them at will. This allows normally non-magnetic material. humans with strongly aquiline them, for instance, to phase features similar to the Indians through solid matter, or become Oral History: O’ course thet thar of Mexico. They fled the surface intangible to enemy blows. A mound is hainted! They’s Injun world during a great cataclysm, K’n-yani may also dematerialize ghosts aplenty in it. Hoodoo, I which may have been the sinking something or someone else by calls it. Folks hear tell of treasure of Atlantis, the invasion of the touch, rotating it into the astral in thar and go up to excavatin’ Mi-Go, or (according to their own at the cost of 1 Health pool point and they’s never seen agin. But myths) the fall of R’lyeh. They to the K’n-yani for every 70 lbs nobody ever fesses up to tellin’ worship primarily Tulu and Yig; of mass so rotated. Unwilling ‘em ‘bout no treasure – like they in the past, they worshipped victims must succeed in a contest heerd it from nowhere, or from Tsathoggua but discovered of their Stability vs the K’n-yani’s the ghosts. something in black N’kai that Athletics. caused them to reject him and destroy his temples. Game Statistics Lemurian Abilities: Athletics 8, Health 7, According to HP Blavatsky, the They engage in occasional Ray-guns 3, Scuffling 8, Weapons continent of Lemuria (now commerce with the serpent-folk 4 sunk below the Indian Ocean) of red-litten Yoth, and learned hosted the “Third Root Race” much magic from them, including Hit Threshold: 4 of humanity, a race of three- the secret of immortality and eyed hermaphroditic “Egg-Born” reanimation of the dead. They Alertness Modifier: +1 giants. (Lemuria also hosted a ride genetically engineered number of other races, including humanoids similar to ghasts, and Weapon: -1 (savage martial a human-headed tentacular feed them reptoid flesh from a arts), +0 (short sword), +0 species and the serpent-folk.) sentient slave race. Fortunately, (disintegration ray); damage The Lemurians resemble 15- to their race is locked in stark inflicted by the disintegration ray 25-foot tall, four-armed apes degeneration, and they do not never refreshes with fur the color of yellow mud. often emerge to the surface Some Lemurians have not three world, which their religion holds Armor: -1 vs any (advanced eyes (set evenly around the head taboo. “ghost shirt” fabric) for full 360-degree vision) but only one in the middle of the Telepathy: The people of K’n- Stability Loss: There is no face. Wizards and Theosophists yan communicate telepathically Stability loss for merely seeing alike seek out ancient Lemurian
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ruins from Madagascar to Mount Sense Trouble: The sound of a Shasta for samples of their crystal bell being rung, or of a intricate crystalline technology, finger being run along the rim which harnesses both psychic of a water glass, echoes weirdly power and acoustics. through these sandstone ruins.
Three-eyed Lemurians can strike thrice in a single combat round, Lloigor against up to three targets at no The lloigor are vortices of increase in Hit Threshold. immaterial vibration in natural form, and completely invisible to Psychic Sink: Whoever built human eyes. On rare occasions the Lemurians designed them they create enormous material as vessels for psychic power, bodies resembling monstrous, suitable channels, hosts, unearthly reptiles for themselves. and servitors for astral or (This may be the actual origin of powerfully telepathic races. They dragon and sea serpent legends.) communicate among themselves Lloigor minds are not divided telepathically. Upon provocation into layers of consciousness. they unleash the contents of Lloigor do not forget, nor do their psychic sink in a wave they have imaginations or affecting every mind up to long subconscious to mislead or range. The result is a 5-point distract them. Their outlook Stability test as visions, images, of absolute pessimism results commands, and impressions from Armor: -2 (thick, clay-like skin) in an atmosphere of gloom prehuman epochs unload into the that makes lloigor minds and subject mind. Such a tidal wave Stability Loss: +1 actions incomprehensible to of images does, however, grant humans. Telepathic contact with the recipient 1 Cthulhu Mythos Investigation lloigor always leads to suicidal rating point the first time she Forensics: She died of a brain depression for the human experiences it. embolism – strangest thing, partners. though, you don’t expect a pineal Ultra-Violet Vision: The gland to swell up and burst like The lloigor originally came to Lemurian third (or single) eye is that. (Medicine) earth from the Andromeda galaxy actually an enlarged proto-pineal and ruled the Pacific continent gland, allowing them to see into Geology: The material under of Mu, either as viceroys or the ultra-violet dimension. In the dead woman’s fingernails as controllers of Ghatanothoa. addition to undiminished vision resembles nothing so much They enslaved humans, using at night, they cannot be surprised as the clay from the deep sea cruel, alien discipline upon by invisible, astral, or other bottoms, heavy in carbonaceous recalcitrant servitors, such as extra-planar attacks. compounds, but we can’t identify amputating limbs or causing the hair matted into it except that cancer-like tentacular growths Game Statistics it resembles the hair of lemurs or to sprout on them. Earthly lloigor Abilities: Athletics 8, Health 10, tarsiers rather than apes. (And continued to decay and decline, Scuffling 10 Biology) and they retreated under the earth and seas, where they still Hit Threshold: 4 Occult: News of a Lemurian husband their failing energies. sighting anywhere in the world Some family lineages, knowingly Alertness Modifier: +2 (three- rapidly spreads through the or unknowingly traced from eyed only) Theosophical gossip network. primeval Mu, still serve the Occult can also help pinpoint lloigor. Such families often Weapon: +0 (massive ape-like likely spots for Lemurian ruins. have histories of suicide, incest, fists) and bizarre mental instability.
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Surviving lloigor have acted continues to slumber for another holds and crevices. The diameter in Wales, Rhode Island, Ceylon, day, losing 1 Stability point each of the blast is 1 yard per Health Lebanon, and Iraq in recent night. When she reaches -11 point spent by the lloigor. Each years. Health, she stabilizes; she cannot additional lloigor involved can make any further Consciousness increase the effect: two lloigor Harvest: The lloigor need rolls, but she loses no further can devastate 2 yards per 1 humans to survive: these Health. When she reaches -12 Health point, three can implode immaterial entities must draw Stability, she awakens to serve 3 yards per 1 Health point spent, energy from intelligent beings to the lloigor. etc An alert Investigator (with perform necessary tasks. A lloigor a Difficulty 5 Sense Trouble; can either spend 1 Health point Telekinesis: The lloigor can Difficulty 4 if he has any points to drain a single sleeping human, affect the material world by in Cthulhu Mythos) notices the or 5 Health to drain several telekinesis, although it must be telltale effects of the vortex (see slumberers at once, from up to directly present to do so. It can below). several miles away. Each victim do so grossly (hurling people loses 1D6 pool points from any into crevasses, smashing aircraft Raise the Dragon: To take its ability or abilities chosen by the propellors) or finely (moving reptile form, a process that lloigor. A lloigor that can harvest compass needles or scalpels) or resembles heavy fog, the lloigor from multiple sleepers can fully intricately (unlocking a safe). It must expend Health points equal refresh all of its points in one takes 10 Health points to create to the lloigor’s reptile Scuffling ability pool, including Health, a force capable of manipulating pool. This cost is halved if the overnight. A single-human up to 7 lbs. above ground, 6 lloigor spends an entire night harvest lets it refresh normally. Health points to do the same in a forming the body. Once the The next morning, the victims subsurface but open area, such lloigor takes dragon shape, it can wake complaining of headaches as a river bed or canyon, and 3 maintain this form indefinitely and bad sleep. Health points in a tunnel or cave. or dissolve it at will. If the lloigor For each additional expenditure, goes to Health 0 in reptile form, Sleeping Sickness: A lloigor the amount of force doubles. it dies permanently. Multiple may target a single human for lloigor may spend their Health intensive drain, either to recruit A single lloigor might use to permit a single one to create her (by dropping her Stability to 3 Health to move a wine his physical form quickly. A -12) or to remove her as a threat. bottle or a penknife in a lloigor in reptile form has all the The lloigor spends 3 Health to cellar. If it spent 6 Health, powers of one in the immaterial lower the victim’s Health pool to it could manipulate up to mode, except that it cannot pass -1 while she sleeps, rendering her 14 lbs., if it spent 9 Health, through walls and is not invisible. physically weak, and draining it could exert 28 lbs. of 1D6 Stability points from her pool, force, if it spent 12 Health, Game Statistics dropping her into a spiritual it could move 56 lbs., and Abilities (immaterial/material): coma. After each full day spent so forth. Athletics 3/7, Health 39/22, unconscious and under the Scuffling 0/17 lloigor influence, the victim can A group of lloigor might combine attempt a Consciousness roll (see their telekinesis to awesome Hit Threshold: 7 (invisible)/3 p. 63) to awaken. If successful, effect. (large) the victim immediately refreshes 1 Stability point (or back up to 1, Vortex Attack: The lloigor’s Alertness Modifier: +1 (+2 vs any if she was at negative Stability) most fearsome weapon is a electrical field or music) and becomes susceptible to type of implosion sounding like medical treatment for her the roll of distant thunder. The Stealth Modifier: +2 Health loss. (At the Keeper’s vortex blast tears material in discretion, she may recall her its diameter to shards, leaving Weapon: +5 (claw), +1 (bite); nightmares while comatose, the ground splintered and usable only in material form providing valuable clues to the discolored, with pools of blue- lloigor’s whereabouts.) If not, she green water in occasional sink- Armor: -5 vs any (reptilian hide);
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Creatures in immaterial form it cannot be from the side. Then, after he fell, harmed by any physical weapon Masqut the blows came down onto his According to Bedouin legend, the torso, always from above. Stability Loss: +0 as reptile; +1 masqut are inhuman petrified as immaterial poltergeist; +3 for corpses that haunt Irem of the Occult: According to one Arabic communication or mental contact Pillars. The legend of the masqut legend, the builders of Irem, actually describes the reptilian the A’adites, lived before Adam. Investigation quadrupeds who dwell beneath (Theology) Geology: I can’t tell what sheared the Nameless City in Arabia. these rocks; it wasn’t heat or They may be kin to (or a created Sense Trouble: Your camel jolts cold, or impact, or chemicals. sub-species of) the serpent- to his feet. They seem to split along a kind of folk, although their civilization crystal pattern, though, even the was more restricted and lasted igneous rocks. This sample here longer, eventually removing itself Mi-Go almost looks like it was splintered completely underground during The mi-go are an interstellar from inside. The water is not the rise of the human city Irem. race, with a main colony or contaminated – if anything, it’s They resemble noseless lizards base on Yuggoth (Pluto). They got less bacteria or algae in it with bulging foreheads, devil- have mining colonies in the than normal pond water — it just like horns, and jaws similar to mountains of Earth, where the looks strange in this light. If it’s a those of alligators. If they carry mi-go seek rare ores. To the mineral, it’s too trace to register. weapons, they sheath them on extent their biology is terrene their backs. at all, it is fungoid. Despite this, Library Use: It can’t be they resemble pinkish-gray hereditary – people who marry The Nameless City holds crustaceans, with two nippers into the de Voyver family commit thousands, perhaps tens of and myriads of twitching smaller suicide or get cancer if anything thousands, of mummified masqut limbs. A bulbous, frond-covered more often than the de Voyver in its warrens. Some degenerate head and two membranous heirs do. If only we could get specimens may still survive in wings complete the picture. They accurate records on their the eerie phosphorescent realm communicate with each other servants. beneath the City, and some may by changing the colors of their yet roam the Empty Quarter of wrinkled heads, but they can Medicine: Perhaps it’s a vitamin Arabia as half-material ghosts speak human tongues in buzzing, deficiency, or something given off similar to the K’n-yani. Masqut insect-like voices. They worship by that awful blue-green water sightings are often accompanied both Nyarlathotep and Shub- in the tarn, but these people just by a mysterious arctic wind Niggurath, and possibly others. aren’t tired, they’re ill. Reflexes moving along the ground at shin They will hire human agents to are slow, mental acuity is down, level. simplify their operations, and are and I think those headaches sometimes connected to cults. aren’t imaginary either. Perhaps Game Statistics Their multiple legs leave strange it’s heavy metal poisoning from Abilities: Athletics 6, Health 7, footprints that have helped create the water supply. Scuffling 16, Weapons 10 the legend of the Abominable Snowman (the mi-gou or migyu) Sense Trouble: The air seems to Hit Threshold: 4 in Thibet. be overlapping itself in a sort of moiré pattern of swirling lines. Weapon: -1 (bite), +0 (mace) They are unable to eat terrene There’s a kind of half-heard food, and must import theirs throbbing, as though you’re only Armor: -2 vs any (hide) from other worlds. They are able hearing the very low notes of to fly through the interstellar an arrhythmic dirge, but you Stability Loss: +0 aether on their great wings, don’t know if it’s in your head or but maneuver clumsily in coming from somewhere. Maybe Investigation an atmosphere. Ordinary underground? Forensics: First, his legs were photographic plates will not take broken by three or four blows, an image of these beings, though
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Chemistry or Photography will let composition of the mi-go reduces and carrying off intruders, who an Investigator design a suitable all impaling damage, including they unceremoniously dump in emulsion. After death, a mi-go bullets, by 2; some mi-go wear the most dismal and horrible dissolves in a few hours. bio-webs that reduce all damage places imaginable (including the except impaling damage by 3. Dreamlands or other dimensions) They are capable of astounding and leave to die. Nightgaunts surgical feats, including the Stability Loss: +1 perch various spots in the lonely placing of living human brains in parts of the world, and come life-sustaining metal tubes that Investigation out at night. They are not very can withstand the vacuum and Evidence Collection: Even the intelligent, but can understand cold of space. (Why the mi-go fingerprints on the wax hands some languages (such as the would abduct people to Yuggoth found in the missing man’s house gibberings of ghouls), and are or elsewhere is unknown.) were accurate, as were the tiny friendly to some occult races. They can then attach speaking, hairs molded on their backs. listening, and seeing devices to Nightgaunts attempt to sneak up the tube, so that the brain can Forensics: The chest and quietly on victims, grasp their interact with those about it. abdomen bear dozens of weapons, and overpower them. tiny wounds and incisions, Two or more nightgaunts can A fungus from Yuggoth may made by delicate blades. The cooperate (see p. 58) on Scuffling attack in hand-to-hand combat wounds were delivered from contests against a single target. with two nippers at once. an oblique, upward angle. Aside from the sharpness of the Tickling: Nightgaunts who win a Game Statistics implement, however, they had Scuffling contest do no damage, Abilities (on land/in air): little penetrating power. The but may disarm their foe of one Athletics 4/10, Firearms 6, Health victim ran a great distance, was weapon or item. Once they have 6, Scuffling 7/10 attacked, and then bled to death. won two Scuffling contests in a row, he is grappled by their long, Hit Threshold: 3/4 Occult: The Thibetan term strong fingers and toes, and they for the Abominable Snowman, can carry him off and begin to Alertness Modifier: +1 to +3 (alien migyu, means “fast-moving tickle him with their razor-sharp surveillance technology) one.” The footprints it leaves are barbed tails. A successful tickle remarkably widely spaced, almost attack (which also uses Scuffling) Stealth Modifier: +1 (flying) as though it were hovering in the leaves the victim disoriented and air between steps. confused for 1D6+1 rounds, unable Weapon: -1 (nippers), +4 (mist to take any physical action and gun); if the mi-go succeed in Sense Trouble: You hear a noise with effects similar to being two nipper attacks in a row halfway between a cicada chirp shaken (see p. 74). Armor does against the same target, they and the blurred flutter of a not protect against nightgaunt can carry him into the sky until trapped moth. tickling. his lungs burst or they drop him on something painful; the mi- Game Statistics go mist gun transposes the cold Nightgaunt Abilities (on ground/in air or of interstellar space to an area Nightgaunts are winged creatures space): Athletics 6/12, Health 7, about ten feet across for about with barbed tails, prehensile Scuffling 10 three minutes. Investigators who paws, and a pair of inward- have seen the mist gun in action curving horns. Their skin is black Hit Threshold: 4 may try to dodge its slowly- and oily like a whale’s, and they expanding field with an Athletics have no faces. They never speak Alertness Modifier: +1 test (Difficulty 4). The Keeper or laugh, and their wings make is free to invent other mi-go no sound. Stealth Modifier: +2 (flying), +3 weapons. (flying in darkness) Nightgaunts serve Nodens by, Armor: the non-terrene among other things, grasping Weapon: see above
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cultists to be transformed and thus continue to serve their masters. Many rat-things know spells, either from their human existence or from centuries of association with witches and sorcerers. Though they do not die naturally, they are now very rare. Attacking rat-things climb the legs or clothes of human opponents, or drop down from ceilings.
The Keeper can use rat-thing statistics to represent not just Brown Jenkin from The Dreams in the Witch-House, but devolved, stunted cannibals like the Martense kin from The Lurking Fear, Robert E Howard’s titular quasi-reptilian Worms of the Earth, or any other dwarfish horrors that lurk in crawl-spaces, cellars, and attics. If said horrors come in packs (like the Martense kin), adapt the swarm rules from p. 156. Game Statistics Abilities: Athletics 9, Health 3, Scuffling 7
Hit Threshold: 6 (small and incredibly nimble)
Alertness Modifier: +1
Stealth Modifier: +2
Weapon: -2 (bite); bitten victims must make a Difficulty 4 Health Armor: -2 vs any (skin) test or be infected with some Rat-Thing loathsome disease. Unless the Stability Loss: +0 Rat-things resemble ordinary Keeper has a specific disease rats, and are easily mistaken for in mind, it onsets in 1D6 hours Investigation them at a distance. Their heads and affects the victim as if hurt. Cop Talk: No matter how many are nonetheless evil caricatures It then begins draining 1 Health people we talk to, they all swear of human heads, and their paws point per hour until the victim they heard the missing girl are like tiny human hands. reaches -6, at which point he laughing “from upstairs” right They have extremely strong, requires hospitalization and at midnight. She can’t have been sharp teeth. These unnatural medical attention. upstairs from the whole block, creatures are created by malign can she? sorcery, which allowed deceased Armor: none
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Stability Loss: +0; +1 if the rat- Southwest and may live in other explain the sand abraded into thing was known to the witness deserts of the world as well. the bloody tissue. The liver was when alive Occult rumor places at least one carved out from behind, post- tribe of sand-dwellers on Mars. mortem, with a small axe or Investigation Their tribes worship various spade. Architecture: The dimensions deities, especially Nyarlathotep, of the walls and attic don’t add Yig, and Hastur, and often dwell Sense Trouble: You smell a up. Which is to say, it almost near their ruined fanes or strong reek of ammonia, like a seems like the attic is larger than human cults. cat’s litter box, when the desert the house, but that’s impossible. wind shifts suddenly. There’s probably some sort of A sand-dweller may make two large crawlspace behind one of claw attacks against the same the interior walls. target in a single round. They use Serpent-Folk spear-throwers (which can hurl Serpent-folk resemble upright Biology: The skeleton is spears at long range), but not serpents, with ophidian heads obviously that of a huge, diseased bows. and scales, but with two arms rat. That said, the bones of the and legs. They can see in the paws almost seem prehensile, Game Statistics dark and sense heat like a pit with joints so well developed and Abilities: Athletics 8, Health 7, viper. They possess tails and in used as to have become arthritic. Scuffling 10, Weapons 6 their great days often dressed The skull is queerly flattened in robes. Their civilization in front, and distended in the Hit Threshold: 4 flourished on the continent cranial region. of Valusia (roughly where the Alertness Modifier: +2 (-1 in Mediterranean basin is now) Evidence Collection: Two of the bright desert daylight) before even dinosaurs walked bloody rat prints almost resemble the earth. They built black basalt human hand prints, except for Stealth Modifier: +2 (in deserts cities and fought wars, all in the the size, of course. only) Permian era or before.
Forensics: The body was cored Weapon: -1 (claw), +0 (stone- They were then great sorcerers out and gnawed from the inside tipped spear) and scientists, and devoted much as by the teeth of an enormous energy to calling forth dreadful rat. The path ran from the Armor: -3 vs any (sandpapery demons and brewing potent abdominal cavity up through the hide) poisons. Though prehistoric liver and heart and out through humans defeated and scattered the base of the throat. No Stability Loss: +0 their remnant secret kingdom indication has yet been found as of Thuria, their civilization to how the rat got into the body Investigation died long ago. A few sorcerers cavity in the first place, however. Evidence Collection: During survive elsewhere, as do pockets the murder, somebody sat right of dwarfed degenerates and here on this rock and expertly human-serpent folk hybrids. Sand-Dweller knapped a Clovis point from Some remnants include an These enigmatic humanoids flint. Those are spear points that occasional atavistic, fully capable look as though they had been showed up out of nowhere in serpent person still favored by encrusted with sand. They dwell the Southwest about 14,000 BC, Yig. A common spell among the in caverns and come out at and no tribe has made them for surviving serpent-folk sorcerers night, although they can easily the last ten millennia. Until last is an illusion that transforms the withstand the hottest desert sun. night, apparently. (And either caster’s appearance into that of Their large eyes and ears give Anthropology or Archaeology) a normal human, allowing him them excellent senses, although to mingle in human society. It they dislike strong light. They can Forensics: The wounds on the requires the devouring of the go weeks without water. They are body resemble blows from a target human. known to live in the American garden rake, which would also
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Serpent-folk may use all weapons with only a trickle of blood near An Investigator who spends 2 known to man, clutching them them. The blood remained tacky points from his Art pool can play effectively in taloned hands. Use for an unusually long period the Servitor’s flute, assuming that the same base chances as for post mortem. The skin around one of his arts is playing any humans. In hand-to-hand combat the punctures is friable, almost similar instrument. This costs 1 the bite attack can be made necrotic, and emits a greenish Stability, but will very greatly aid simultaneously with most weapon oily liquid. (The examining in casting the Summon Servitor attacks. assistant got some on his spell (see p. 117), although Servitors hand, and it tingled for several react very poorly to seeing their Venom: The bite of a serpent minutes.) The extremities were sacred instruments in the hands man is venomous; in 15 minutes bluish, and the face engorged of base humans. Its other benefits to an hour after being bitten, with blood and bright blue. The or dangers are up to the Keeper; the victim must make a protruding tongue was swollen for example, the flute may impart Difficulty 4 Health test. If she and black, and the eyes purpled. other summoning spells to its fails, she immediately loses a Cause of death was paralysis of user. Such spells can be cast number of Health points equal the chest muscles. with no component other than a to the attacking serpent man’s Servitor flute. Athletics rating as she goes Sense Trouble: This apartment into convulsions and begins to smells like the snake house at the Game Statistics suffer respiratory failure, losing zoo. Abilities: Athletics 6, Health 8, 1 Health per hour until treated. Scuffling 9 If she succeeds, she loses a number of Health points equal to Servitor of the Outer Hit Threshold: 3 only half the attacking serpent man’s Athletics rating, but she Gods Alertness Modifier: +1 will suffer the equivalent of hurt These amorphous beings progress status (unless the loss puts her by rolling or slithering. They Stealth Modifier:-2 (infernal below -5) until she is treated. resemble frogs, as well as squids piping) or octopi. Servitors accompany Game Statistics their masters as required. Weapon: -2 (tentacle), but for Abilities: Athletics 8, Health 6, These are the demon flautists each hit, roll damage 1d6 times for Scuffling 11, Weapons 7 that play the cacodaemoniacal multiple tentacle attacks. piping for their masters’ dance. Hit Threshold: 4 They sometimes play for groups Armor: no physical weapon can of cultists as well, as a sort of harm one; magical weapons do Alertness Modifier: +1 background dirge, or in order to normal damage; regenerates 1 summon various deities. Health each round until dead or Stealth Modifier: +1 banished Summoning Flute: Unless Weapon: +0 (bite), +1 (scimitar); explicitly ordered otherwise by Stability Loss: +2 venom (see above) its own summoner, a Servitor may summon an entity of its Investigation Armor: -1 vs any (scales) own, often a Great Old One or Chemistry: That green liquid other fearsome being. (The choice isn’t vegetation, no matter what it Stability Loss: +0 is up to the Keeper.) Servitors smells like. There’s not a trace of always know at least three other chlorophyll, or even cellulose, in Investigation summoning spells, and can cast it. Lots of methane, though, bound Biology: No poisonous snake has them during combat. This requires up in some kind of weird colloid. a head big enough to have made 2 to 4 rounds of hellish piping, (Biology) those two punctures in one bite. and costs the Servitor 1 Health point, and 1 more for each 5 Evidence Collection: There Forensics: There were two rounds that the summoned entity were twelve spent brass in the large punctures in the throat, remains. clearing, but only three bullet
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holes anywhere. Something soaked up nine shots and walked off with the bullets. The scene stinks like a swamp, too, strange in this dry spell. And the trail – not only the green stain, but the crushed grass and such — just peters out about 40 feet on either side of the crime scene.
Forensics: The body was lacerated and nearly flayed in strips, with trauma consistent with bullwhip or knout injuries. Nine ribs, the sternum, both collarbones, and all the bones in both forearms were broken, and several vertebra dislocated or smashed together. The welts and lacerations were bloody and filled with a clear greenish liquid, probably vegetation of some sort.
Sense Trouble: Do you smell methane?
Shan The shan are pigeon-sized, slave-taking, insectile aliens native to the planet Shaggai. Their advanced technology operates by focused mentation, and their habits of mind are sadistic and byzantine. They live by photosynthesis, and appreciate the aesthetics of deformity and torture. This has a religious component, as the shan devoutly worship Azathoth, and many know suitable spells for such. Shan are extremely long- lived, taking centuries to reach adulthood. They will likely have a few burly slaves (human or otherwise) on call if encountered.
The shan are now a fugitive race. Shaggai itself was destroyed by a great catastrophe (some texts blame the Great Old One Ghroth the Harbinger) but many shan escaped in pyramidal temples
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The Cthulhu Mythos made of an indestructible test. If he fails, he is overcome — elephant-sized, horse-headed gray metal, teleporting them by agony, and can do nothing birds with scales instead of to other worlds, including but writhe on the ground until feathers. They brood in cavernous Earth. But they were trapped the weapon is turned off. If he holes and their wings are here. Our atmosphere contains succeeds, he is still in pain, and encrusted with rime and nitre. some element or wavelength is treated as hurt for the next 12 Various servants of the Outer which prevents the shan from hours. The shan carry many such Gods, and a few brave or lunatic teleporting away, and also keeps whips, and may renew this attack sorcerers, use them as steeds. individual shan from flying any each round. Shantaks can fly through space, great distance. The shan temple and have been known to carry on Earth is in Goatswood, in Game Statistics an unwary rider straight to the the Severn Valley in Britain. At Abilities (on ground/in air): throne of Azathoth. Shantaks fear one time they ruled a human Athletics 4/20, Health 2, Scuffling and despise nightgaunts, and will witch-cult dedicated to finding 25, Weapons 13 not willingly remain in sight of sacrifices for Azathoth, although one, retreating at top speed. the witch-finder Matthew Hit Threshold: 5 (small) Hopkins burned it out with great Game Statistics brutality in 1646. Stealth Modifier: +2 Abilities: Athletics 30, Health 17, Scuffling 18 Shan Infestation: Shan are Weapon: see above parasitic and not wholly material. Hit Threshold: 3 (elephantine) With a successful Scuffling Armor: none contest, a shan can fly right Stealth Modifier:-1 (stench) through human tissue into a Stability Loss: +0 target’s brain, where it crawls Weapon: +2 (bite), +4 (smash); about and reads its host’s Investigation shantaks can only make smash memories, warps his thought- Cop Talk: I don’t care what attacks every other round, and processes, and injects specific anybody says, I say someone cannot make them against a memories and ideas of its own. from on high shut down that target on their back. During the day, the insect is investigation into that truck not active within the brain, driver who turned up dead in Armor: -5 vs any (hide) leaving the victim to do more or Temphill. less as he pleases. But at night Stability Loss: +0 the shan wakes, and begins to Forensics: The body was found implant memories. It can implant with self-inflicted lacerations on Investigation Stability-eroding sights the insect the face, including eye gouges. Biology: The only thing that might has witnessed, convince the The dead man apparently used have taken that kind of bite is a host he has committed horrific the screwdriver to punch the shark, although the bite marks – if crimes, or jumble memory- holes found in his own skull. they are bite marks — show only fragments to entice the victim But the actual cause of death is one row of chisel-like teeth. into performing certain actions. completely unknown – the heart Eventually (at Stability 0) the host just stopped. Forensics: Simultaneous rending is so hypnotized that he gladly wounds consistent with a large, helps the shan. But often such Streetwise: There’s good money semi-circular bite separated the progressively increasing control in taking young girls from Bristol upper chest and head from the causes the victim to go mad, and or Manchester up to Brichester portions of the body we found. thus become an unsuitable host. and leaving them in that woodlot Death was instantaneous, and on the edge of town. Oh, and not probably occurred on the shore Nerve Whip: This small device asking stupid questions. rather than on the rooftop where projects a chattering line of pallid the legs and abdomen were found. light at close range. When the light strikes a target, he must Shantak make a Difficulty 5 Athletics Shantaks are noisome and loathly
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Shoggoth Abdul Alhazred attempted desperately to claim that there were none of these fetid, oozing, protoplasmic monstrosities on Earth itself, save in crazed dreams. He was wrong. These iridescent blobs boil with eyes and bubbles, making and unmaking any organs or tendrils needed for a given task. Shoggoths are often found as servants of Deep Ones and other races, and are amphibious. They are surly servants at best, ever becoming more and more intelligent, more and more rebellious, more and more imitative. They destroyed their former creators, the Elder Things, in a rebellion. They communicate in whatever manner their master race wishes, forming special organs for the purpose.
A typical shoggoth is roughly a 15-foot diameter sphere when floating free. In combat, it covers an area 5 yards square. It can attack two beings at close range per round and all beings within point-blank range simultaneously, although its targets’ Hit Thresholds increase by 1 for every three separate targets it attacks. A shoggoth may stretch or shape its bulk to bring itself into point-blank range of as many targets as possible; if need be, it might engage in simultaneous Athletics and Scuffling contests against various targets! time. Characters snared by the Alertness Modifier: +2 shoggoth also automatically hit Snare and Crush: With a the shoggoth. Stealth Modifier: -1 successful Scuffling attack, a shoggoth may loop an Game Statistics Weapon: +5 (pseudopod, often increasingly muscular tendril Abilities: Athletics 10+, Health 32+, ridged), +2 (snare, see above) around a character (+2 damage Scuffling 23+ modifier). Each round thereafter, Armor: fire and electricity do the shoggoth hits automatically Hit Threshold: 3 (large) only half damage; all physical and does +2 more damage each weapons do only 1 point of
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The Cthulhu Mythos damage; regenerates 2 Health working to destroy the barriers Investigation each round until dead. that keep their Father from them. Evidence Collection: The trail All His children instinctually of the thing goes vertically up Stability Loss: +3 know Call Yog-Sothoth. the side of the shale cliff, despite weighing more than a moose Investigation Game Statistics –Monstrous Son from the depth of the tracks. Biology: The slime is pure Abilities: Athletics 10, Health 21, protoplasm, much like the matter Scuffling 33 Forensics: The torso and one leg of an amoeba. There is no cell were smashed flat by the rapid structure visible. Its chromatin is Hit Threshold: 7 (while invisible), descent of a roughly barrel- fragmentary and evenly mixed 3 (large, when visible) shaped mass. (If this were India, throughout, rather than being not Oregon, I’d say it was an differentiated into nuclear bodies Alertness Modifier: +1 elephant track.) The black, ropy or organelles. tar on the body sublimed away Stealth Modifier: +2 (while into a whitish gummy residue. Forensics: Greenish-yellow invisible), -3 (when visible or There was surprisingly little putrescent slime covered against dogs) blood or bruising. The large, the body, which was heavily circular black mark on the contused. The spine had been Weapon: +3 (trample), -1 (trunk); upper back proved, on further partially detached, and the head after a successful trunk attack, inspection, to be composed of hung by ragged fragments of skin the Son grasps and holds his dozens of small, suppurating and tendon. There were ten or a victim, automatically doing punctures. dozen different types of bite and both crushing damage (-1) and claw marks on the body. draining blood (+0) each round Oral History: Pore ol’ Elspeth. until dead Got knocked up on Roodmas an’ Sense Trouble: From down the los’ the chile on Midsummers, and tunnel comes a sort of anechoic Armor: cannot be harmed by still pretends to go ‘feed her babe’ roaring or rumbling. It almost physical weapons; enchanted down in Devil Glen when she sounds like a crowd of people or weapons do minimum damage. thinks no-one’s a-watchin.’ Runs birds. in th’ family, I expect; her mammy Stability Loss: +1 (invisible), +3 used to put out calf’s brains for Son of Yog-Sothoth (visible) whippoorwills, of all things. These are the beings formed Game Statistics – Human Son when Yog-Sothoth mates with Abilities: Athletics 8, Firearms or Space-Eater a human, creating a hybrid Weapons 7, Health 13, Scuffling 17 This enigmatic interstellar race creature. No two Sons (or appears as towering columns of Daughters) are alike. Some are Hit Threshold: 4 shimmering, twisting, auroral horrible and monstrous, both yellow light. They eat their way visible and invisible; others Alertness Modifier: +2 across the cosmos, devouring appear human, mostly human, higher complexity on some or half-human. Both sorts smell Stealth Modifier: +1 (-3 against unknowable mission. They arrive extraordinarily strange or foul, dogs) at night, first manifesting as especially to dogs or horses. a temperature drop, bringing Weapon: -1 (inhumanly strong cold, damp, and mist with All such hybrids grow and fist), whatever weapon is them. If the prey they seek is mature rapidly, requiring appropriate for killing suitable, they begin devouring great quantities of fresh, raw the local geometry, causing it to flesh for sustenance. Invisible Armor: None disintegrate with an anechoic Sons become briefly visible droning sound. As space-time while feeding. They also seek Stability Loss: +0 (clothed or weakens, more space-eaters out Mythos knowledge, spells, relatively human), +1 (naked, dead, arrive (at intervals best left to and tomes wherever they can, or relatively inhuman) the Keeper’s sense of drama
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and fairness). They can only Forensics: The brain is missing Investigation be thwarted with powerfully down to the stem, with no entry Cop Talk: The whole estate was regular geometries, ideally highly or exit wound. guarded. Nobody saw anyone energetic ones such as burning cross the lawns, no dogs barked. crosses, which they must make Right around 2 a.m., the time of Difficulty 4 Health tests to breach. Star Vampire death, one of the girls thought They are also blocked by the These loathsome, hovering things she heard him sniggering or Elder Sign. are normally invisible, their tittering to himself in the room. presence signalled only by a sort If a space-eater attacks a sentient of ghoulish tittering. As a star Evidence Collection: Someone being, it translates the target’s vampire feeds, the blood it drinks had tampered with the latch on brain into energetic photons or splashes on itself remains the French window; it wouldn’t and transmits them back the visible, revealing the bloated shut. way it came. The target often obscenity, especially its suckered hallucinates being attacked or trunks and pendulous stomachs. Forensics: The body was found probed by drills, long-fingered Powerful wizards and other almost folded up, the joints so hands, or wires, and always feels beings who possess the hubris bloodless as to be loose and slack. a sensation of intense, burning or lore needed to control them There was not a trace of blood cold on the inside of her skull. summon star vampires from anywhere in the corpse, despite the depths of space to slay their the deep, jagged wounds under Game Statistics enemies. Such as, say, meddling the arms, across the throat, and Abilities: Athletics 5, Health 13, Investigators. in the back. The skin and flesh Scuffling 16 were stark white – even the A star vampire can only feed on capillaries were drained, so there Hit Threshold: 3 one target at a time, or it can was no postmortem lividity. The attack a target with two talon bones were hollow; the marrow Weapon: +0 (brain drain); target attacks in a round. If not actually gone. The spine, humerus, and takes damage to Stability feeding, it must make a Difficulty femurs were snapped like pencils. 3 Athletics test to avoid moving Stealth Modifier: -2 toward the largest quantity of spilled, open, or spurting blood Tcho-Tcho Armor: insubstantial, cannot be available. The pygmy Tcho-Tcho tribe harmed by physical weapons; fire dwells primarily on the does half damage Game Statistics borderlands of the dread Abilities: Athletics 9, Health 11, plateau of Leng, with known Stability Loss: +0 Scuffling 26 colonies in Thibet, the Andaman Islands, Malaya, and the plateau Investigation Hit Threshold: 6 (invisible but of Sung in Burma. Their own Craft (Carpentry): There isn’t a tittering); 3 (when feeding, and legends say they were created plumb line, right angle, or true for 3 rounds thereafter) from black salamanders by the join in this room. But the rest of god Chaugnar Faugn in the the house is good, professional Alertness Modifier: +1 beginning of time. According to work. (Architecture) the Unaussprechlichen Kulten Weapon: +2 (talons), -1 (bite); of von Junzt, they came to this Electrical Repair: The wiring victim Health lost to bite attacks world from the “lost city of and appliances in the room is added to the star vampire’s Sarkomand, which is found now show signs of intense power Health or Athletics pool only in dreams,” and venerate fluctuations, including burned Hastur. The Burmese Tcho-Tcho spots and melted connections, Armor: -3 vs any (integument); harvest the oneirically active as though it were caught in bullets do half damage black lotus plant and worship the an incredibly powerful radio Twin Obscenity (variously called transmission. Stability Loss: +1 Zhar-Lloigor and Nug-Yeb).
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Creating an Alien Race To a lesser degree, the same objection applies to alien races as to gods and titans. Too many alien creatures overcrowd even the Earth’s vast history. Already, orthodox Lovecraftianism has Hounds of Tindalos, Elder Things, flying polyps, the Great Race, Xothians, serpent-folk and their masqut cousins, fungi from Yuggoth, and the fur-covered prehuman Voormis before humanity takes its turn. A new alien race should perhaps be a localized invader like the shan, a human symbiont or parody like the ghouls or Deep Ones, or an occasional extraterrestrial summoned or just visiting. With that out of the way, start by picking the general model and function of your new alien. Is it a winged monster, a mindless virus, a humanoid travesty? The monster’s form should evoke the specific fear you’re aiming at creating in the adventure. If it’s a study in paranoia, for example, your monster should be small, invisible, or otherwise hard to spot, and its eyes (the symbol of watchfulness) should have some distinctive characteristic (purple rims, orange glow, three vertically spaced) that panicked Investigators can spot everywhere. Don’t get too hung up on the appearance of the thing; Lovecraft purposely mashed up completely incompatible beasts as templates, and used the form “like, but not like” repeatedly. Your monster might resemble a rat and a python one day, or be “like a worm, but somehow skinless and flattened” the next day. These things might not even be made of conventional matter, and the people perceiving them are usually mad, or at least under a lot of stress unconducive to field zoology. Make sure you give it some non-visual spoor – a distinctive smell or sound is somehow much scarier than yet another tentacle. Finally and optionally, wire it into the rest of the Mythos. It might be a complete enigma like the Colour, or it might be a well-known servitor species of Mordiggian. The first plays up mystery; the second lets you reuse your new alien without having to go through the whole process again.
These statistics will also model Stability loss for seeing a Tcho- degenerate serpent-folk, Robert E Tcho, until you get to know them Xothian Howard’s Picts, Arthur Machen’s better. This is Cthulhu’s quasi-saurian, Little People, or any other quasi-octopoid species, which stunted, dwarfish, devolved Investigation seeped down from the green tribespeople. Anthropology: The few binary star Xoth in Taurus anthropologists who have primordial aeons ago. He is the Game Statistics survived studying the Tcho-Tcho largest and the mightiest of Abilities: Athletics 8, Health 6, have theorized that they may be them, but they are still titans, Missiles 6, Scuffling 7, Weapons 5 a separate line of human descent, each weighing over 100 tons. The perhaps directly from Java Necronomicon calls them “the Hit Threshold: 4 Man. They practice cannibalism, star-spawn of Cthulhu,” under drug-induced shamanic rituals, which name most occultists know Alertness Modifier: +1 human sacrifice, infanticide, and them. Not all the inhabitants vendetta. of R’lyeh were trapped when Stealth Modifier: +2 (in native it sank. Some still live on in countryside), +1 (elsewhere) Forensics: The victim died in the deep trenches beneath the horrible agony, the back arched ocean, tended by Deep Ones and Weapon: -2 (blowgun dart), - almost into a circle, the fingers guarded by sea-shoggoths. Five 1 (kris), -1 (arrow); needless to and toes ankylosed almost into great Xothian sorcerers, the “Five say, all Tcho-Tcho weapons are claws, and the face twisted into a Watchers,” reputedly slumber in poisoned, the vile side-effects sardonic rictus of unimaginable subterranean gulfs beneath the being up to the Keeper gruesomeness. On the third Bayan Kara Shan mountains in search, we found the puncture China, the Nameless City in the Armor: none wound in the palm of his left foot Arabian desert, the Greenland – the dart was apparently hidden glacier, New England, and the Stability Loss: There is no in his shoe while he slept. Amazon Basin. Related entities
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Weapon: +5 (tentacle), +14 (claw)
Armor: -6 vs any (hide and blubber); regenerates 3 Health per round
Stability Loss: +3 Investigation Biology: The green slime is definitely ooze from the ocean bottom, combined with kelp and other dead sea vegetation compressed at titanic pressures.
Evidence Collection: The pool of green slime at the site is garnished with lumps of bloody viscera. There’s no other trace of a body.
Sense Trouble: You hear a kind of watery thudding noise rushing up through the earth, as though something enormous were somehow walking through surf beneath the solid ground you’re standing on.
dwell in the stars, such as the Game Statistics beings said to infest the Lake of Abilities (land or sea/air): Hali on or near Aldebaran. Athletics 20/10, Health 40, Scuffling 27 A Xothian may attack with tentacles or with claw. It may Hit Threshold: 2 (titanic) use three tentacles each round against the same or separate Stealth Modifier: -2 (except in targets, or a single claw. deep ocean)
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Beasts and native to central Africa. Use these Bear stats for the white apes of the These stats are for a grizzly bear, Congo; Indonesian orang-utans Monsters native to the Rocky Mountains will be faster and smaller. The creatures in this section are, chains from Alaska to Wyoming. by default, non-Mythos entities, Polar bears are bigger, black A gorilla can bite and attack with regardless of how terrifying or bears smaller. both hands in a single round. even supernatural they may be. They are included in the spirit of Bears can attack twice in a Game Statistics Pulp adventure. round, either two claw attacks or Abilities: Athletics 8, Health 9, claw-bite. Scuffling 15 In a Purist game, all supernatural creatures have Game Statistics Hit Threshold: 4 a Mythos explanation. The Abilities: Athletics 14, Health 10, Keeper may decide to increase Scuffling 16 Stealth Modifier: +2 their Stability test Difficulty (and any losses) only after the Hit Threshold: 4 Weapon: +o (grab), +o (bite); if Investigators discover this fact… both grabs succeed in the same Alertness Threshold: +2 round, the gorilla can start tearing its target’s arms off, Allosaur Stealth Threshold: -1 doing automatic grab damage This 35-foot Jurassic carnivore is twice per round. Armor does not eminently suitable both for “lost Weapon: +1 (claw), +0 (bite) protect against gorilla racking. world” adventure in the Pulp mode and time-travel encounters Armor: -4 vs any (thick fur) Armor: -2 vs any (skin) – either in the streets of Boston or the distant past. Scale it up Stability Loss: +0 Stability Loss: +0 for a tyrannosaur, or down (and speedy) for a velociraptor. An allosaur can make two claw Crocodile Lake Monster attacks against a single target in These stats are for the Nile If the Loch Ness Monster and a round. crocodile. Alligators live in Ogopogo and Champ and all the America, and are both smaller others aren’t lloigor, they might Game Statistics and less aggressive. be these giant eel-plesiosaur Abilities: Athletics 11, Health 24, things. Lake monsters don’t come Scuffling 20 Game Statistics up on land. Use these statistics Abilities (land/water): Athletics for smallish sea serpents, and for Hit Threshold: 3 (big) 6/8, Health 13, Scuffling 17 creepy marine monsters around sunken R’lyeh. Alertness Modifier: +1 Hit Threshold: 4 Game Statistics Stealth Modifier: -1 Stealth Modifier: +2 Abilities: Athletics 10, Health 19, Scuffling 17 Weapon: +2 (claw), +4 (stomp Weapon: +2 (bite) and pin), +5 (bite); stomp and pin Hit Threshold: 3 (large) is the allosaur’s first move after Armor: -5 vs any (thick scaly winning the Athletics contest, hide) Alertness Modifier: +2 only if it fails will it try claws or bite Stability Loss: +0 Weapon: +0 (bite), +5 (smash boat or boaters); a successful smash Armor: -2 vs any (hide) attack will splinter or capsize any Gorilla craft with one or fewer masts, Stability Loss: +0 The greatest of the great apes, forcing passengers to make
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off the prey’s air supply, doing automatic bite damage each round, and rakes with its hind paws; rake attacks allow two claw attacks per round and the prey’s Hit Threshold is at -1
Armor: -2 vs any (skin)
Stability Loss: +0
Mummy A corpse preserved by desiccation, lacquer, or embalming, mummies are found in (among other places) Turkestan, Peru, Arizona, and the Canary Islands in addition to Egypt. Mummies are reanimated by various magics and need a spell or special condition (starlight, tana leaves, etc) to refresh their Health. Depending on the original enchantment or the mummy’s purpose, it may regenerate 1 to 3 Scuffling each round. Game Statistics Abilities: Athletics 6, Health 9, Scuffling 11
Hit Threshold: 3
Alertness Modifier: +3 (its tomb only) Difficulty 4 Athletics tests to avoid one bite attack against a single being dragged down with the target in a round. Weapon: +0 (fist) wreckage Game Statistics Armor: -2 vs any (leathery skin); Armor: -6 vs any (tough hide) Abilities: Athletics 12, Health 11, impaling weapons are useless; Scuffling 20 fire does +1 normal damage Stability Loss: +0 Hit Threshold: 4 Stability Loss: +1
Lion Alertness Modifier: +1 These statistics work fairly Rat Swarm well for tigers; mountain lions, Stealth Modifier: +2 For a swarm of rats, first panthers, and cougars are determine the number of rats in smaller. Weapon: +0 (bite), +1 (claw); if the swarm. Increase Health and both claw and bite hit, the lion Scuffling by 2 for every 10 rats, A lion can make one claw and hangs on with its jaws to close and damage by +1 for every 30
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The Cthulhu Mythos rats. Every hit against a swarm in a round, or leap up to 30 feet kills 1 rat and disperses 9 others. Snake vertically. This is pretty much any Use this same algorithm for poisonous snake – a cobra Bite: The vampire can transfer swarms of rat-things (see p. in India or Egypt, a rattler or Health lost by a bitten victim to 145), vampire bats, giant ants, sidewinder in the American his own Health or Athletics pool. scorpions, piranha, etc A swarm West, a copperhead around the If the victim fails a Difficulty 4 of normal-sized insects cannot Gulf of Mexico, a fer-de-lance in Stability test, she may not resist be hit, and merely does a the Caribbean, a death adder or further bites from this vampire, constant amount of damage each taipan or tiger snake in Australia, and he can drink as much of her time increment spent inside the a black mamba or gaboon viper blood as he likes to a maximum swarm. in tropical Africa, a bushmaster of 6 Health per round. Three in Latin America, a banded sea successful bite attacks over three Game Statistics snake in the Pacific Islands. nights transforms a victim into a Abilities: Athletics 5, Health 3, vampire after her death. Scuffling 3 Treat snake venom as serpent- folk venom (see p. 146). Children Mesmerism: If the vampire wins Hit Threshold: 3 (small and of Yig have Athletics 11, Health 8, a contest of the vampire’s Health nimble, but target-rich) Scuffling 20. vs a target’s Stability, he can perform any task listed under Weapon: -2 (bite); may be Abilities: Athletics 7, Health 4 to Hypnosis (see p. 43), and implant infected 6, Scuffling 15 orders in her.
Armor: none Hit Threshold: 3 Transform: By spending 3 Health, the vampire can Stability Loss: +0 unless phobic Stealth Modifier: +2 (except transform into a wolf or a bat. rattlers) If reduced to 1 Health or below by normal (non-beheading, non- Shark Weapon: -2 (bite or spit); venom stake, etc) attacks, the vampire What else could this be but the automatically transforms into great white? Hammerheads, Armor: none mist. mako, and tiger sharks are faster and smaller (Athletics 13, Health Stability Loss: +0 unless phobic Weaknesses: A vampire must 12) and their bite carries only a spend all day in his native earth +2 damage modifier. to refresh any points; all points Vampire refresh at sundown. A vampire Game Statistics There are a lot of different types casts no reflection (Sense Trouble Abilities (all in water only): of vampires, many of which test at Difficulty 4 to notice). A Athletics 11, Health 21, Scuffling 25 have magical spells in addition vampire cannot cross running to their vampiric powers. This is water except at midnight, cannot Hit Threshold: 4 a fairly standard Pulp vampire, bear the smell of garlic (3-point influenced by Stoker and Health test to remain in the Alertness Modifier: +3 (only if Lugosi. This does not model the room with it), and is repelled by blood is in the water) vampire in The Shunned House crosses or crucifixes (6-point or Curwen’s vampiric phase in Health test to confront one). A Weapon: +4 (his teeth, dear) Charles Dexter Ward. fatal beheading attack on the vampire does normal damage, but Armor: -1 vs guns or spears Prodigious Strength: By making such an attack requires (skin), -2 vs everything else spending 2 Athletics points per an additional spend of 1 Weapons feat, a vampire can lift up to 500 point by the attacker. A vampire Stability Loss: +1 if the witness is lbs., tear doors off hinges, move suffers 3 points of Health damage in the water with it up to 2 range increments (long automatically for each minute to close, or near to point-blank) spent in full sunlight. A vampire
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Beasts and Monsters can be harmed by holy water (treat as strong acid) or by ingesting garlic (treat as weak acid) or by fire (as normal). Vampires suffer additional damage modifiers as follows: +2 (touch of a cross or crucifix), +4 (wooden stake, see below).
Wooden Stakes: Staking a vampire in combat requires a spend of 2 Scuffling or Weapons points (for no die roll bonus) to hit the heart; staking a vampire while he sleeps requires only a 3- point, Difficulty 3 Stability test (6- point, Difficulty 5 if the attacker knew and liked the vampire in life). On a failure, the vampire awakens. A staked vampire can attempt combat, but can use no vampiric powers except his bite. He may spend two combat rounds removing the stake, if he wishes, and restore his vampire powers.
Return: A dead vampire must be beheaded, with his mouth filled with garlic, and buried at the crossroads or he will return to unlife. Alternately, he can be put to final rest if he is burnt and his ashes scattered into running fresh water. Game Statistics Abilities: Athletics 10, Health 7, Scuffling 16, Weapons 2
Hit Threshold: 4 or 5 (for fast vampires) silver bullet, and the werewolf Weapon: +1 (claw), -2 (bite) Wolf on hind legs are all inventions of The medieval werewolf uses a Hollywood. Armor: damage from physical magical incantation or enchanted weapons, except fatal beheading wolfskin to transform into one Use a slightly less robust version damage, refreshes the next round of these, a robust and ravening of these statistics to build a (but see above) canis lupus, until sunrise. German shepherd or other guard Transforming from human to dog, or a pack of wild dogs. Stability Loss: +0 unless the wolf refreshes all pool points vampire was known to the and heals all wounds, but not Abilities: Athletics 12, Health 6, witness when alive the other way. The full moon, the Scuffling 10
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Hit Threshold: 4 Armor: -3 vs any (thick fur) a successful zombie bite does damage, the victim must make Alertness Modifier: +3 Stability Loss: +0 a Health test against a Difficulty equal to the damage amount. Weapon: +0 (bite) If failed, the bite does double Zombie damage. Once the victim dies, he Armor: -1 vs any (fur) The infectious bite is not true to rises the next round as a zombie. Pulp zombies or to the zombi of Burning the wound with open Stability Loss: +0 Haitian lore, but it seemed kind flame sterilizes the infection, but of mandatory. The rest makes does fire damage as normal. a pretty good Pulp zombie. The Yeti rock salt is derived from the Armor: none, but all weapons do The Abominable Snowman of the Haitian legend that if you feed a half damage; firearms do only 1 Himalaya, unless it’s all mi-go zombi salt, he will die, or possibly point of damage even if point- prints. These statistics can build return to his grave. blank; shotguns do 2 points of any of the hairy anthropoids of damage; shotguns firing rock salt the wild places: Sasquatch, yowie, For a Herbert West-style do full damage etc. reanimated corpse, remove the infectious bite and the Stability Loss: +0 unless the Game Statistics vulnerability to rock salt, and zombie was known to the witness Abilities: Athletics 8, Health 9, increase Scuffling to 10. when alive Scuffling 16 Game Statistics Hit Threshold: 4 Abilities: Athletics 5, Health 7, Scuffling 7, Weapons 2 Alertness Modifier: +2 Hit Threshold: 3 (slow) Stealth Modifier: +1 (+2 downwind) Alertness Modifier: -1
Weapon: +0 (fist), +0 (thrown Weapon: improvised weapons, rock) or -1 (Bite); every round after
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Cults and Cultists Cults and Cultists “Then, too, it is undeniable that a fresh and evil wave of underground cult activity set in about the time of my odd mutation.” — “The Shadow Out of Time”
The thready streams of tradition descending from prehuman gods and sunken continents have swollen with the ranks of the desperate and the greedy called forth by the times … or by the stars. How much of the renewed cult activity in the 1930s springs from the near-immanence of Yog-Sothoth and Cthulhu in the previous decade, and how much springs from the yawning shadows of poverty, war, and destruction – or if there is any difference — only Nyarlathotep knows for sure.
In game terms, a cult is the usual interface between the Mythos force at the center of the horror and the events that draw in the Investigators. Each cult has the following: Its general beliefs and antecedents, its distribution and strength, the sorts of things it does that might pique Investigators into meddling, and the sorts of things it might do in response to such.
Ahnenerbe The Studiengesellschaft für Geistesurgeschichte Deutsches Ahnenerbe, or Society for Research into the Spiritual Roots of German Ancestral Heritage, began as an informal “Ahnenerbe Society” in 1928 dedicated to folk- occult (volkisch) research. In 1935, Wolfram Sievers took over as of race, prehistory, and folk Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler Reichsmanager. In 1940, it became belief. To Himmler, this research established it on a formal basis, an official arm of the SS. included topics like Atlantis, runic setting Atlantis scholar Hermann magic, song-sorcery, Druidism, Wirth and the pagan race-theorist The mission Himmler gave the the Holy Grail, and Freemasonry. Richard Darré as its directors. Ahnenerbe was to establish Ahnenerbe agents or assets In 1937, SS Obersturmführer academic support for Nazi theories traveled to Finland, Sweden,
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Iceland, Abyssinia, Brazil, Thibet, world’s sea lanes for the Japanese the Canary Islands, the Pyrenees, Black Dragon Society navy. In a Pulp game, any and Iran. Ahnenerbe specialists Historically, the Kokuryû- Japanese naval officer might be a included past-life channelers, kai, or Black Dragon Society, Black Dragon agent or asset. aura readers, psychometrists, and was a small secret society of pendulum dowsers. Japanese military and political Hooks: Incidents of sabotage, officials dedicated to driving mysteries at sea, or “weird This is all historical truth. The the Russians back behind the menace” Pulp criminality may exact nature of the Ahnenerbe “Black Dragon” (or Amur) River. carry Black Dragon spoor. In a activities on the fringes of Founded in 1901 as an offshoot of campaign with a strong Black Leng, Lomar, and Irem can a previous expansionist society, Dragon presence, Investigators only be guessed at. (But see the the Genyôsha, or Black Ocean, it with Streetwise in any Pacific Totalitarianism box on p. 172 first.) was dedicated to ultranationalism, port will know (or hear) of it, if militarism, and expansionism. Its only as a rumor. Distribution: Historically, core ideology blended bushido, Ahnenerbe operations comprised Imperial Shinto, and criminal Responses: Psychological a few academic specialists (some callousness. Both the Black Ocean warfare and propaganda to cross-trained as SS men) bulked and Black Dragon had extensive libel or blacken their ideological out by local guides. Anywhere the criminal connections among (and immediate) foes wherever Nazis have influence, so might the the Triads and Yakuza alike. In they can. They historically Ahnenerbe. American pulp fiction, and in a used blackmail, hostage taking Pulp-idiom campaign, the Black (kidnapping of relatives, for Hooks: In a Pulp game, the Dragon is a sort of Japanese spy example), underworld contract Ahnenerbe is racing to uncover agency-slash-Mafia with a global killings, and even full-blown the Shining Trapezohedron, or reach. assassination against key targets. the mummy of Abdul Alhazred, or the lost laboratory of the Elder The original “black dragon” of Things (see p.131). In any adventure Japanese myth, the dragon king Brotherhood of the Yellow in Europe, Africa, or central Asia, Ryujin, lived in a stone and coral the Ahnenerbe might be rival palace underwater, which implies Sign Investigators, trying to dig out at least some connection between According to occult rumor, the the truth and twist it to support Cthulhu and the Black Ocean. The Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign their paymasters’ beliefs. Academic Black Dragon Society may thus is a cult of Hastur-worshippers Investigators with ratings in be a local iteration of the Cthulhu (see p. 94) dedicated to driving the Anthropology will be familiar cult, a secret society founded by mi-go (see p. 142) off the planet with the Ahnenerbe, if only as an a given Deep One or Serpent- Earth. Its leadership is likely aggressively “Aryanist” research Folk bloodline during Japan’s based in K’n-Yan, and its secret institute in Berlin. tumultuous history, or some other chiefs may be able to materialize Mythos movement altogether. and dematerialize at will. The Responses: Historically, the Brotherhood uses telepathy to Ahnenerbe m.o. was to harvest Distribution: The historical Black contact its members (possibly as much information or as many Dragon took special interest in piggybacking on the dreams of artifacts as they could from a restive religious movements such Hastur) and to scan for traces site and leave a political mess as Islamic groups in Russian of mi-go mental alteration in the (either paid-off allies or ticked- Central Asia, or Buddhist groups human population. They track mi- off locals) for their competitors to in the European colonies of go colonies and mines, destroying deal with. In more Pulpy games, Indochina and Burma. The Black them where they can and offering their responses widen to include Dragon Society ran private human servants of the fungi (or trapping Investigators in the ruins spy and smuggling networks convenient innocents) as human before the flying polyps emerge… throughout Japan and East Asia, sacrifices to Hastur. with contacts and assets extended as far as the Caribbean and The Brotherhood’s secondary Morocco, keeping an eye on the goal is to thwart any human
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Cults and Cultists investigation into the works of Hastur, especially archaeological or other expeditions to sacred sites of Hastur.
The Keeper should note that the only evidence for such a society in the works of Lovecraft is given by the mi-go impersonating Henry Akeley. Hence, there may be no such cult, or its goals may be entirely other than noted here.
Distribution: The Brothers of the Yellow Sign mostly operate in large cities convenient to potential mi-go colonies: Boston, Lucknow, Lima, Denver, Mexico City, Geneva. However, they (or their K’n-Yani chiefs) may be in any large city or railhead in a mountain region. Senior Brothers often have jobs requiring (or covering for) travel: performing artists, import-export brokers, etc
Hooks: The Brotherhood will likely feed intelligence of mi-go activities to the Investigators, if the latter have raised their monster-killing profile at all. Failing that, the Investigators may hear about a party of city folk going up into the mountains out of season, or stumble on the evidence of the Hastur cult’s other operations.
Responses: The Brotherhood uses poison gas of various sorts by preference, including gases that affect the mi-go. Its most common response to human enemies is to set them in the path of the mi-go, or vice versa. Cult of Cthulhu brought down from Xoth. They “Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu became the creators of the cult of R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.” In his Cthulhu. house in R’lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming. At some point Or, perhaps, cults. The center of in history, those dreams found the cult is variously pinpointed echoes in willing, or weak, as Irem of the Pillars in Arabia, human minds. They found the though its leaders are supposed idols of Cthulhu that He had to be “deathless men” in the
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The Cthulhu Mythos mountains of China. But cults of Some of these cult operatives new bodies related by blood or Cthulhu appear in many isolated have Deep One blood, and marriage, and often intermarry and remote places across the the Deep Ones may use the with other powerful lineages. globe, from Greenland to New cult of Cthulhu for their own They worship Shub-Niggurath Zealand. Cthulhu is worshiped unguessable purposes. and Tulszcha, the Green Flame in by inbred tribespeople in the the Earth, above other deities. Philippines and by sophisticated Hooks: Any sort of “mystery at merchants in Istanbul. Cthulhu’s sea” can have a Cthulhu-cult One question that those few dreams find echoes in sensitive explanation, from ghost ships who have encountered the California Theosophists and to missing cargoes to uncanny Cult occasionally ask: are those brutal killers in the highlands storms. Individual Cthulhu cults guiding minds human now, of India. Unless the cult leaders such as the New Orleans cult of after 300 years of unnatural – or the Xothian star-spawn of 1907 can also goad themselves life moving from skull to skull? Cthulhu – are coordinating the into a frenzy of murderous Or were they ever? Could whole thing through dreams and mania (possibly connected with nonhuman entities have replaced telepathy, the various cults of the waxing of Cthulhu’s dream – or inspired – the original cult Cthulhu must perforce have a strength) and attract attention leaders, now solely existing degree of independence of action. thusly. Cthulhu cultists might also as parasites on the brains of break into museums to liberate their unknowing children and Some cults merely exist to pass alien artifacts, or Cthulhu’s recruits? And even if they began along the worship of the Great dreams might inspire an artist of as human, some of their chosen Old Ones and Cthulhu, keeping the Investigators’ acquaintance. mates did not. the rites alive against the great day when the stars come right Responses: The seafarers’ cult Distribution: The cult leadership and Cthulhu emerges to rule assassinates those who offend includes members of the the world again. Others work to it, usually by poison injection. prestigious Waite, Eliot, Orne, bring that day about by magical The hit is made to look like an Lyman, and Bishop families, who ceremonies. Some mistakenly accidental brush, and the victim’s maintain homesteads throughout conflate Cthulhu’s dreams with symptoms closely resemble a New England. The cult also their own beliefs about the normal heart attack. In some maintains a presence in New coming new age. Others use the cases, the cult might kidnap its York, for shipments requiring revelation of Cthulhu’s power victims and take them out to sea greater than average anonymity. as a reason to kill and rape. But for questioning, before dropping The cult headquarters is an when the cult perceives a need them overboard to feed their ancient megalithic site in the for a professor to be silenced, allies. woods near Chesuncook, Maine. or discovers that a seaquake Beneath the standing stones, six has made some portion of R’lyeh thousand steps down, is the Pit of briefly accessible, then it can Cult of the Skull the Shoggoths. assemble pilgrims to act on its This is an example of a local behalf. Whether Great Cthulhu cult, albeit a dangerous one. Hooks: Any sort of deviltry or knows or cares about their Around 1690 a group of wizards trouble in New England might actions is unknowable. left the New England witch-cult have the Cult of the Skull at to its fate, and founded the Cult its back. The founders are Distribution: Isolated cults of the Skull. These founding overconfident (at least until of Cthulhu appear in all the wizards guaranteed their cult’s the Upton fiasco of 1933) and locations mentioned above, as continuation by transmigrating the cults’ scions openly mix well as the interior of Africa, their minds down their own with the fast set, occultists of Haiti, South America, Alaska, and bloodlines, possessing sons, all sorts, and dabble in every various pockets of inner Asia. daughters, wives, or whoever sort of debauchery. All it might The largest single networked cult they need to increase their take is a girlfriend who jilts the of Cthulhu operates in virtually power both sorcerous and Investigator for an exciting new all of the world’s seaports, among mundane. For ritual reasons, beau, and then seems “like an Lascars and other low types. they traditionally jump only to entirely different person…”
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Responses: The Cult will not risk exposing the Maine sanctuary. It will use its own temporal power and influence to weaken or blacken their enemies’ position in society, and then use magic to drive their foes mad. Once bankrupt and insane, foes can, if need be, brought to Maine for final disposal.
Starry Wisdom Sect In 1844, Professor Enoch Bowen uncovered the Shining Trapezohedron, a mystical container for the aspect of Nyarlathotep (see p.96) known as the Haunter of the Dark, in the Egyptian tomb of the Pharaoh Nephren-Ka. The visions he received from the object led him to found the Starry Wisdom Church in his hometown of Providence, Rhode Island. Its rites were described as Egyptian occultism, and its icons resembled the statues of Easter Island more than Egyptian gods. By 1863, the Starry Wisdom had over 200 members; when Bowen died in 1866, Dr Raymond Flagg became the minister.
In 1871, following a series of publicized missing-child cases and at least one Irish riot, the town council of Providence moved against the Starry Wisdom Church. Its membership scattered, leaving its library of eldritch recovers the library and the Massachusetts (1908-?; headed tomes and the Trapezohedron Trapezohedron that year and by someone calling himself sealed in their old church on disappears. “Enoch Bowen”), Los Angeles Federal Hill in Providence. Dr (1881-present; worship in Devil’s Bowen’s daughter Asenath Distribution: Offshoots of the Gate Canyon includes a number remained in Providence, and Starry Wisdom have appeared of Hollywood stars and power- she may have nurtured a in Townsend, Vermont (1863- brokers), and perhaps in your continued secret remnant. In ?), Chicago (1863-1871; Celestial own campaign city. 1935, a deranged artist named Providence Church, destroyed Robert Blake discovers the in the Fire), San Francisco (1871- Hooks: The sect has a specific remains of the church and dies 1906; destroyed in Earthquake), penchant for child abductions, in a lightning storm. According Yorkshire (1881-1890; possibly but any Nyarlathotep cult activity to reports, a Dr Ambrose Dexter led by Dr Flagg), Arkham, might lead back to (or through)
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The Cthulhu Mythos the Starry Wisdom sect. and warlocks by the tens of used by witches may still hold thousands. The Salem witch trials their grimoires, their undying Responses: If the threat can be in 1692 were one such action familiars, or their hyperspatial bought off, suborned, blackmailed, against the Old Religion. The Gates, in addition to conventional or recruited, the sect will try that witch-cult was splintered and hauntings. first. The Los Angeles church, driven into extinction by 1735, at least, has every imaginable when Parliament’s Witchcraft Act Responses: A witch-cult prefers inducement at its fingertips defined the offense of witchcraft to arrange matters so that the – money, sex, power, glamour, as pretending to have magical victim goes willingly to his death, drugs, or whatever its enemies powers. making a suitable sacrifice. might desire most. Should the Failing that, poisons, curses, the Investigators prove obdurate, So much for conventional evil eye, raising storms, and the sect will try a demonstration anthropological wisdom. The communal Mythos magic are of its magical power, most likely truth is that the “Old Religion” excellent ways to foil potential summoning a hunting horror to worshiped Nyarlathotep (as the inquisitors. remove the thorniest persecutor. Black Man) and Shub-Niggurath. If the threat is both persistent (Some cults worshiped other and seems likely to bring the Great Old Ones as well.) The Yithian Agents authorities down on them, the inquisitors did, indeed, burn it A network of agents assists those sect will pull up stakes and out where they could, but the members of the Great Race of move to a new location, leaving roots of the Religion go back into Yith who travel to our time to sufficient low-ranking (but the original matter of mankind record and study its lore. They disgusting) patsies to take the fall. and the Earth. You can no more offer support, provide materials exterminate the witch-cult than to construct the return projector, you can exterminate nature and cover up the tracks of Witch-Cult Herself. Yithians who stumble in our As demonstrated by the unfamiliar era. They also work Egyptologist Margaret Murray (an Distribution: Any community to keep knowledge of the Great associate professor at University where the Old Religion was Race restricted to themselves. College until retiring in 1935), the once practiced might still host various witch-cults of Western an isolated, secretive witch- In return, the Great Race Europe were all part of a cult. Likewise, refugees from provides their agents with common underground religious the Inquisition or its Protestant advanced technological items resistance to Catholicism. equivalents may have brought and machinery, usually jury- They met in covens of 13 and the witch-cult to the New World. rigged from contemporary items, venerated the Horned God (Pan, Witch-cults, at least in America, and with the occasional snippet Cernunnos, or the Devil) and the are isolated phenomena with of unearthly lore. It is also in Great Goddess (Diana, Berchta, no regular inter-coven links; in the Great Race’s interest for its or Aradia), practicing human Britain, the cult may well have agents to be comfortable and sacrifice (usually of voluntary knit itself back together again. wealthy, so they will arrange “sacred kings”) in an unbroken Known cult sites include Arkham, such matters to the best of religious line dating from the Massachusetts (where the witch their ability, but nothing must Neolithic Era. Among the witch- Keziah Mason, just escaped from endanger the secret of Yith. cult’s members were Thomas Salem, founded it in 1692 and a Becket, King Edward III (who directed it until her death in Distribution: An agent of founded the Order of the Garter 1928), Maine, the New Forest in the Great Race can be found as a covert coven), Joan of Arc, England, and Tuscany. anywhere that the Race might and other notables. Beginning wish to sojourn in this century, in the 1450s, the Church (and Hooks: Poisonings, crop blights, both in leading academic centers its Protestant rivals) discovered mysterious deaths in the (Berlin, Oxford, Yale) and places the Old Religion’s existence forest, or any of the traditional of more mysterious interest and responded in a frenzy of witchly stigmata may spark (Arabia, India and China, Norway, persecution, executing witches an investigation. Houses once rural West Virginia). However,
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Creating a Cult With cults, it’s the more the merrier. There should be only one or two truly global cults in any given campaign, unless it’s a completely over-the-top Pulp brouhaha, but local cults can arise anywhere and everywhere. A small town might have (or be) one cult, or two feuding ones. In places of special Mythos significance like witch-haunted Arkham, the local sorcerous ecosystem can support six or a dozen cults without seeming ludicrous. And huge cities like London, New York, or Chicago can sport literally hundreds of sects, voodoo societies, theosophical study groups, revival tent churches, ethnic brotherhoods, quasi-Masonic guilds, occult fraternities, or murderous inbred families, any or all of which might be Mythos-influenced or Mythos-corrupted. The first thing to decide about your new cult is its name. If you can’t come up with a truly awesome name, don’t bother coming up with a new cult, because repeatedly hearing “The Church of Blackest Claw” or whatever is just going to make your players giggle or quote metal lyrics. The name will give you insight and guidance into your cult’s nature and perhaps even its rituals. If you absolutely need a cult, but can’t think of a name, take a page from von Junzt and leave it nameless. But then you have to build its ingredients separately: Which Mythos entity does it serve? Wittingly or unwittingly? What do its members believe? Is there a secret lore that key members know? Do they practice vile rituals, or simply aid each other with call-signs and passwords against the Day? What will they do to protect themselves? What’s their signature means of murder, their warning sign, their venerated symbol? From that, you can probably figure out who founded the cult, its local (or global) history, and whether it has always been like it is now. But if you start out with something like, say, the Spine of Apep, you’ve got a framework. It serves Yig or Nyarlathotep (Apep was a snake god and the enemy of Ra in Egyptian myth), probably wittingly with a name like that. Its members believe that they are the literal spine of Apep, the line of transmission of anti-Ra wisdom. There might be a secret lore, if say the head priests know they actually serve Nyarlathotep but the rank and file worship Yig. They might practice Tantric rituals awakening that Kundalini serpent in the spine. They will slink into the darkness by preference, but may set the sacred skeletal snakes on you if they must. Their warning sign is a hatched spiral, representing a snake’s spine. Their venerated symbol is a snake spine wrapped around an ankh. It was founded either by ancient Egyptians or by crazed Egyptologists, it’s been in Alexandria forever but just recently came to Manchester, and yep, it’s pretty much always been like this.
the number of agents is small Hooks: A Yithian agent might path than the other way around. enough that obvious outsiders be a mysterious stranger or a must sometimes be called in for local fixer known to everybody. Responses: The first directive is assistance. In general, there will A mysterious artifact might get secrecy. If that means a secret be more agents in a city where a out onto the market, or a gung- murder, with the body dropped Yithian is currently incarnated, ho agent might attempt to steal a in a quarry miles away, that’s but this is not always the case. dangerously complete compilation fine. If it just means a complete Coordination of their activities of the Pnakotic Manuscripts. It “cleaning” of a suspicious across the gulfs of time is is more likely, however, that the location – all books, items, and necessarily imprecise. Yithian’s own actions will lead furniture removed overnight any Investigators onto the agents’ – that’s good, too.
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“I do not recall distinctly when it began, but it was months ago. Superman; we can’t stop trying to can see and hear and immerse The general tension was horrible. kill him. ourselves in the Thirties any To a season of political and social time we want, by clicking on the They listened to the radio, but not Turner Movie Classics network or upheaval was added a strange and in their cars, and went to way sorting our Netflix queue by year. brooding apprehension of hideous more movies than we do. They We can see Humphrey Bogart, physical danger; a danger widespread smoked like chimneys, drank like Clark Gable, the Marx Brothers, and all-embracing, such a danger longshoremen, and never cursed Marlene Dietrich, Myrna Loy, Jean as may be imagined only in the most in front of the ladies. Many more Harlow, Greta Garbo, William of them danced — as social Powell, Errol Flynn, Cary Grant, terrible phantasms of the night. I lubricant and leisure activity Carole Lombard, Charles Boyer, recall that the people went about — and their dance music (and and Katharine Hepburn in all with pale and worried faces, and their dancing) was unmistakably their black-and-white glory. The whispered warnings and prophecies different from ours. Singers sang Thirties are right around the which no one dared consciously “standards,” not their own songs, corner. while even middle-class folks repeat or acknowledge to himself that bought tailored clothes, not “off So, that decade full of wars, he had heard. A sense of monstrous the rack.” Food in America and social turmoil, environmental guilt was upon the land …” Britain was plain at best; the crisis, poverty, murderous immigration waves of the post- radicals, political deadlock, and — “Nyarlathotep” WWII era had not yet liberated cowardice – it turns out that it’s Anglo-Saxon diners from nonstop not so far away as it might be. Mormo was invoked in 1924. roast and potatoes, with a side But at least they could dance Cthulhu briefly awoke in 1925. of vegetable soup if you were during it. Yog-Sothoth nearly broke through adventurous. Baseball was the the barriers in 1928. This chapter overwhelming American national is about the decade after that, pastime, and fans attended games A Desperate Decade when things got worse. in coat and tie. And the Chicago “The time would be easy to know, for Cubs made it to the World Series then mankind would have become as The “Dirty Thirties,” as the three times in the decade. the Great Old Ones; free and wild farmers who fled the Dust Bowl called the decade, are still fairly But such strangeness aside, and beyond good and evil, with laws familiar to us. If, as they say, the that era is still accessible in and morals thrown aside and all men past is a foreign country, the a way that medieval times, shouting and killing and revelling 1930s are a near neighbor that for instance, aren’t. By and in joy. Then the liberated Old Ones mostly speaks the same language. large, Westerners in the 1930s would teach them new ways to Yes, moral codes (at least in shared our assumptions (or public) were vastly different recognizable versions of them) shout and kill and revel and enjoy than our looser (or freer) era, about democracy, science, law, themselves, and all the earth would and opinion polls record that religion, war, and romance. We flame with a holocaust of ecstasy people on the whole were more can read a Lovecraft story, or and freedom.” optimistic about the future a Raymond Chandler novel, then than they are now. They without the footnotes we need — The Call of Cthulhu created Mickey Mouse; we created for Shakespeare or even Jane Eric Cartman. They created Austen. And most immediately, we This is not one of those historical
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Race The world of the 1930s was a world of omnipresent, absolutely accepted racism. Racial barriers were supported by champions of law and science; only a very few radicals held otherwise. (A very few white radicals, that is. A rather larger share of black, brown, and yellow people also held otherwise.) From America’s Jim Crow to Britain and France’s colonial pass laws to Indian castes to Japanese xenophobia, legal codes enforced what everybody already believed. Many well-meaning folk (of all colors) supported domestic segregation and restricted immigration (if not lynching or race-baiting) as the only practical way to handle matters, regardless of their putative moral qualms about such policies. Even where the law was race-neutral (usually due to a providential absence of other races when the laws had been drafted), social codes were not. In genteel parlors and factory shop floors and military barracks the lines were clearly drawn, and drawn in color. So how does this affect your game? The simplest way to handle the question is to ignore it: Investigators, allies, NPCs, and enemies might be of any race, just as they are in our utopian new millennium. The role of ethnic sidekick “just as good as a white man” (if not quite as good as the hero) is well established in 1930s pulp literature. Visits to Chinatown or Bronzeville or the Amazon jungles can be handled as, well, local color. This is perhaps the best option for Pulp-idiom games. The next-simplest way is to construct all-white parties of Investigators who seek information or assistance only from fellow whites to battle creatures so alien as to moot the question. This is, somewhat unsettlingly, the Purist option. Lovecraft’s (and Howard’s) characters were almost universally WASPs, with one or two Irishmen as daring garnish. Probably the most difficult, but perhaps the most satisfying, way to handle things is for the Keeper to pay attention to the question, and foreground it to the extent that it supports an interesting, or terrifying, story. A party of black Investigators in 1930s Mississippi battling decayed – but white – fisher-folk, vengeful conjure doctors worshipping the Black Man Nyarlathotep, and the lloigor-infected (but socially connected) Klan would face challenges quite different from those confronting a tweedy bunch of New England professors. But there’s a catch, over and above the imperative to avoid preaching, and the need to be more aware of player sensibilities than usual. The story still has to work, both as horror and as a mystery. And the way you use the rules has to support this new condition. The use of Credit Rating would be historically almost entirely restricted to the Investigator’s own race. Flattery, Reassurance, and Intimidation each have more potential pitfalls when the Investigator is one color and the NPC another. A Cop Talk core clue that a white Investigator could easily pick up from the Alabama sheriff just wouldn’t logically work for a black Investigator, even if both Investigators are NYPD. Even in New York City, a Harlem cop and a Tribeca cop will encounter different reactions. And on a strict interpretation of the ability, the only place in the world of the 1930s where black Investigators can use Interrogation on a white person would be Haiti. Keepers in race-foregrounded games have to pay extra attention to their adventures, keeping clue opportunities realistic and appropriate, and double-checking to see if their laudable color-blindness points the Investigators into a blind alley. The Keeper looking for specific rules guidelines might apply this option, which needless to say should only apply in race-foregrounded adventures. Interpersonal abilities used between strangers of different races always require a spend. This is abstract, not to mention still somewhat ahistorical, but it’s an approach that represents the increased “social cost” of race barriers.
roleplaying books that feels the online than we could cover in a Poverty need to compete with Wikipedia. hundred books this size. All this The decade began with the Great If you feel the need to know section can be, or aims to be, is a Depression, which lasted in all the name of the Belgian prime filter put over the decade to bring industrialized nations until the minister in 1931, or who won the up a backdrop for tales of horror coming of full employment with Test Match in 1937, go look it up. and despair. the Second World War. Millions Seriously, there’s way more stuff went without work, and their – interesting stuff — on any given families without incomes, for year in the Thirties somewhere a decade. In the initial 1929
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A Desperate Decade stock collapse, major American only half of what Americans did, people to death in the name of industrial firms lost 90% of their and Japanese and Russians about socialism and collective farming. value within months. Banks a third the American income Cannibalism ran rampant as farm failed, prices plunged, and level. In the colonies, of course, families (in a blackly ironic final farmers plowed crops under poverty was as endemic as it acceptance of collectivism) ate rather than sell them for less ever was in the Dark Ages; India’s each others’ children. The OGPU than they cost. US unemployment per capita wealth was barely a blocked the roads, turned back overtopped 30% by 1930, and tenth that of America’s. relief trucks, sent troops to loot remained above 15% for the food from peasant granaries, and remainder of the decade, spiking piled 5 million corpses into mass again in 1938 at nearly 20%. Famine graves in the Ukraine. Family incomes – those that kept And it was out there that people any income at all – plummeted starved. In the great cities of the by 40%. In Britain, unemployment West, although there was hunger War averaged 20%, but was far worse aplenty, there was no mass The world spent the 1920s hoping (70%+) in the industrial north. In starvation. (About 300 people that the 20 million soldiers and Germany, the tottering economy starved to death in New York City civilians killed in the Great War did not utterly crash, but the in 1931.) Even the horrific “Dust of 1914-1918 would be the high- shocks wiped out the last vestige Bowl,” that saw black soot fall water mark of the century’s of trust in the Weimar Republic’s like apocalypse snow in New York deaths. It spent the Thirties competence and empowered and Chicago, that uprooted nearly preparing to drown that mark in Germany’s political jackals. 3 million people from the Great blood. As with Famine, War rode Everywhere, breadwinners lost Plains, didn’t result in bodies hardest across China this decade. their homes, entrepreneurs lost bulldozed into pits or skeletal The Japanese invasion and their businesses, and workers figures dying fly-bite by fly-bite. conquest of Manchuria (renamed lost their dignity to piecework, Manchukuo) killed a mere 60,000 make-work, and handouts. But in African and Asian people. The Chinese Civil War Resurgent unions saved some colonies, their economies during that period, by contrast, jobs, but slammed the factory twisted by commodity farming killed 20 times that number gates hard against the jobless. and then smashed by shrunken of soldiers alone. Nationalists, The desperate turned to crime, trade, there were spot famines Communists, and warlords to suicide, to radical politics … and miseries aplenty. In Japan, together extinguished another to anything that promised a way drought struck rice farmers as 2 million lives in reprisals and out. silk-weavers lost their overseas civilian slaughter carrying out markets. Africa and India were a squalid, primitive struggle The crash devastated the wealthy spared drought, but the wet amidst the alternately flooded countries of the world, which weather worked its own evil in and parched fields of what weren’t all that wealthy by China, which had lost 2 million to was once the richest country our standards even before the drought in 1928-1930. The Yellow on Earth. When the Japanese blow hit. In 1929, nearly three- River floods of 1931 killed between resumed their conquest of China quarters of American families 1 and 4 million people, and in 1937, they opened with the didn’t make “a decent standard affected a quarter of the country. wholesale massacre of everyone of living,” meaning $2,500 a year The Yangtze River flooded in they could find in Nanking, the (around $31,000 a year in 2007 1935, killing twice as many as the Nationalist capital. The 300,000 dollars). Only about a quarter of Gansu earthquake, the decade’s dead in the “Rape of Nanking” Americans owned telephones. deadliest – 70,000 dead on Dec. were a down payment on the At most a fifth of them owned 25. Drought then returned to eventual Japanese slaughter of 1.2 cars. But overall, Americans China, sparking the “New Famine” million Chinese civilians through (and Londoners) had the highest of 1936, with 5 million dead. 1939, and touched off a further standard of living in the world 1.3 million “incidental” deaths of the Thirties; Germany, France, Worst of all, in 1932-1933, Stalin’s from typhus, cholera, and war- and the rest of Britain were terror-famine intentionally related starvation. The Nationalist about 75% as rich. Italians made starved 7 million of his own resistance was no better,
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Headline News This is not intended to be a full-on chronology, but to at least put a few key dates into line. For fine detail work, look in the resources section of the Pelgrane Press website (pelgranepress.com). 1929 US stock-market crash (Oct. 29) precipitates global Depression. 1930 Stalin begins forced collectivization of Soviet farms (Jan 5). Clyde Tombaugh discovers Yuggoth, which he names Pluto (Feb 18). Mohandas Gandhi begins “salt march” civil disobedience campaign in India (Mar 12). Judge Crater vanishes (Aug 6). Ras Tafari crowned Emperor Haile Selassie of Abyssinia (Nov 2); Rastafarian movement burgeons in Jamaica in response. 1931 Jewish terror group Irgun founded in Palestine (Apr 10). Empire State Building opens (May 1). Yellow River floods, killing 1-2 million in China. Japan invades (Sep 19) and occupies Manchuria. Lucky Luciano begins building national organized crime syndicate; Al Capone imprisoned for tax evasion (Oct 24). 1932 In “the Crime of the Century,” Charles Lindbergh’s baby is kidnapped (Mar 2). Death of Charles Fort (May 3). President Doumer of France assassinated (May 7). Troops disperse the “Bonus Army” of 17,000 veterans in Washington, D.C. (Jul 28). Japan begins germ warfare experiments in Manchuria. Stalin begins terror-famine in Ukraine. Babe Ruth hits his “called shot” in Wrigley Field (Oct 1). Franklin D. Roosevelt elected President of the US in a landslide (Nov 8). 1933 US Marines withdraw from Nicaragua (Jan 2). Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany (Jan 30). Anarchist attempts to assassinate FDR in Miami (Feb 15). Scottsboro Boys convicted (Apr 9). Chicago World’s Fair. Autobahn construction begins. Albert Einstein emigrates to America, begins work at Princeton (Oct 17). Prohibition repealed in US (Dec 5). 1934 Gold Reserve Act makes private possession of gold illegal in US (Jan 31). Loch Ness Monster photographed (Apr. 19). “Night of the Long Knives” (Jun 30) purge of the SA in Germany. FBI guns down John Dillinger (Jul 22). Nazis assassinate Austrian chancellor Engelbert Dolfuss (Jul 25). US Marines withdraw from Haiti (Aug 15). Switzerland enacts bank secrecy laws. King Alexander I of Yugoslavia assassinated (Oct 9). Mao begins his “Long March” in China (Oct 16). Stalin rival Sergei Kirov assassinated in Leningrad (Dec 1). 1935 Twenty simultaneous “Black Blizzards” mark the height of the Dust Bowl (Apr. 14). Miskatonic University archaeological expedition to Australian Outback. Social Security enacted in US (Aug 14). Will Rogers and Wiley Post die in Alaska plane crash (Aug 16). Louisiana Senator Huey Long assassinated (Sep 8). Italy invades Abyssinia (Oct 2). 1936 Germany remilitarizes the Rhineland (Mar 7). The Pittsburgh Flood kills 70 and destroys 100,000 buildings (Mar 17). Franco’s mutiny begins Spanish Civil War (Jul 17). Stalin begins purges and show trials of Politburo and Red Army. Boulder Dam (Hoover Dam now) is completed (Oct 9). Paul Robeson’s version of “Gloomy Sunday” released. FDR re-elected (Nov 3). King Edward VIII abdicates to marry a divorced commoner; George VI becomes King (Dec 11). 1937 German planes flying for Franco bomb Guernica in Spain (Apr 26). Germany establishes rocket program at Peenemünde. Crash of the Hindenburg (May 6). Amelia Earhart vanishes over the Pacific (Jul 2). Japan begins new war on China (Jul 7); Rape of Nanking (Dec 13). Marijuana becomes illegal in US (Aug 2). 1938 Mexico nationalizes oil fields (Mar 18). Ruined Maya city of Caracol discovered. Italian physicist Ettore Majorana disappears from a ferry in the Bay of Naples (Mar 26). Route 66 completely paved. German government confiscates “degenerate art” (Jun 3). Bluesman Robert Johnson poisoned (Aug 16). Great New England Hurricane (Sep 21) hits Providence, RI Germany annexes Austria (Mar 12); Munich Conference sells out Czechoslovakia to Hitler (Sep 30). Orson Welles broadcasts modernized War of the Worlds on the radio (Oct 30). “Kristallnacht” pogrom in Germany (Nov 9). Living coelecanth discovered off Madagascar (Dec 22). 1939 Franco’s victory ends the Spanish Civil War (Mar 28). New York World’s Fair. First nylon stockings hit the market. Semyon Kirlian develops Kirlian “aura photography.” Nazca Lines discovered in Peru. Nazi-Soviet Pact divides Eastern Europe between two empires (Aug 23). Germany invades Poland (Sep 1); WWII begins in Europe (Sep 3).
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The Crawling Order: Totalitarianism “No trials, or even definite charges were reported; nor were any of the captives seen thereafter in the regular gaols of the nation. There were vague statements about disease and concentration camps, and later about dispersal in various naval and military prisons, but nothing positive ever developed… Complaints from many liberal organizations were met with long confidential discussions, and representatives were taken on trips to certain camps and prisons. As a result, these societies became surprisingly passive and reticent.” — The Shadow Over Innsmouth
Perhaps the most terrifying thing about the 1930s is this: virtually every intellectual and political observer of the time believed at one point or another that the future was going to be written by Hitler or by Stalin, and they chose up sides accordingly. Lovecraft began as a fan of Hitler, and converted late in life to supporting a sort of dirigiste collectivist technocracy. (His description of the Yithians’ civilization as “a kind of fascistic socialism” is not intended horrifically.) The rise of Cthulhu in the secret places of the world mirrors the rise of totalitarianism, not merely in overseas labor camps from Dachau to Vorkuta, but in the salons and soirees of New York and London. This provides Trail of Cthulhu games not merely an endless supply of potential bad guys, but a potentially powerful thematic element as well. But using totalitarianism for either purpose runs a few risks, and implies a few choices. The first possible direction is the one taken by F Paul Wilson’s novel The Keep, in which a rabbi and an SS commandant must ally to battle an inhuman monster. In this approach, the horror of the Mythos is such that it overwhelms all human politics, and one can assume that “right-thinking” agents of the NKVD and the Gestapo would agree. This raises the unsettling possibility that the actual best, most workable solution to the interpenetration of humanity by Cthulhoid horror is the one followed in The Shadow Over Innsmouth, and one that anti-Mythos Investigators in Berlin, Moscow, Rome, Tokyo, or Madrid would reflexively follow: concentration camps, secret prisons, and (one presumes) mass graves somewhere desolate. Forcing players to make – or even accede knowingly to — such choices should be done deliberately, if at all. Of course, this knowledge alone – that their governments have decided to use such tactics — may be enough to keep some player groups conveniently reluctant to call in the FBI or MI5. Another method of seeding this dramatically useful distrust is to imply that at least some elements in some human governments are attempting to harness the Mythos for themselves. This can be a sort of “Arkham Project” scenario, in which the bureaucrats don’t actually know or care what they unleash, or an implication of spreading, viral cultism as interrogators discover just what kind of powers (and what kind of Powers) their prisoners had access to. This approach is reinforced if the Keeper chooses to go the “Indiana Jones” direction, in which evil Nazis (or Commies) are hunting the living idol Chaugnar Faugn or searching for the ruins of Commoriom in the Greenland ice sheet, and the bold Investigators must beat them to it and stop them. After all, why would Hitler’s goons be looking for the Necronomicon, if not to use its powers to fuel the blitzkrieg? This makes both narrative sense – if the powers of the Mythos exist, surely people as bent as the Nazis would be looking into it – and dramatic sense – Stalin is evil and dangerous, Yog-Sothoth is evil and dangerous, bingo. But it runs the risk of sliding into “Nyarlathotep invented the Nazis,” or worse yet “Nyarlathotep magicked the Nazis into being so evil.” This trivializes the decade’s human history of genocide and oppression, turns real living atrocities into pulp supervillainy, and lets us all off the hook. Even less forgivably, it also makes the story boring and predictable – all the anti-fascists must be anti- Cthulhu, too! Keep in mind that in real history, most of the anti-fascists were devoted servants of an ideology every bit as inhuman and murderous, and even the “good guys” got into bed with Hitler and Stalin when it suited them. If you’re going to mix the Mythos and politics, try to at least occasionally look at the story from the perspective of cults and gods to whom the entire human race are insects, and to whom Gandhi and Tojo are both indistinguishable mayflies – or potential tools.
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Brigades. Both Franco and the Republicans committed tens of thousands of political executions – the “necessary murder” in Auden’s poem – and another 50,000 Spaniards died of apolitical hunger and germs. In a further preview of coming attractions, German bombs killed 10,000 Spanish civilians from the air. Air superiority, Soviet selfishness, and Franco’s considerable strategic skill ended the war with fascism victorious.
Fascism also won in Libya, as Italy defeated Senusi rebels in 1930-1932, and Abyssinia, where 400,000 died to make Mussolini master of the upper Nile. War spread across South America, too. Beginning in 1932, Western mercenaries honed their craft fighting the Chaco War across the endless sawgrass plains between Bolivia and Paraguay for a fortune in oil. When a 1935 military coup in Bolivia left Paraguay the final winner by default, 100,000 South Americans were dead. There didn’t turn out to be any oil in the Chaco after all.
killing 1.6 million Chinese for It served as a practice ground collaboration or political crimes, for the expansionist totalitarians: or simply to deny their labor to Soviet tanks defended the invader. Following the Long – and looted – the Republican March away from the battle front, government, and faced off Mao’s Communists sat this phase against the Italian artillery and of the war out, killing under German bombers that put iron in 100,000 civilians. the gloves of Franco’s Nationalist troops. Approximately 100,000 By contrast, the “rehearsal soldiers died on each side, war” in Spain was practically including 25,000 foreign fighters civilized, with its ideologically from the fascist Condor Legion driven rapine and firing squads. to the communist International
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The Nightmare mystic attached to the Ahnenerbe, a parallel plane, possibly Dho- mounts an expedition to the Hna, Leng, or Kadath in the Cold highlands in search of fragments Waste. Countries of the “second moon” and “Seekers after horror haunt Lemurian ruins in 1936. strange, far places. For them are Belgian Congo the catacombs of Ptolemaïs, and the The Abyssinian royal family Less of a hellhole now than carven mausolea of the nightmare traces its descent from the Queen during the genocidal “Congo Free countries.” of Sheba and King Solomon. A State” period of direct Belgian church in Axum supposedly holds royal control, borderline slavery — The Picture in the House the Ark of the Covenant, brought and the occasional massacre here by Solomon’s son Menelik. still keep the Congo’s rubber This section gives brief views and copper coming. The 25,000 of various locations around the Cthulhu Mythos: Coptic square miles of jungle in the world of the Thirties, roughly monasteries here hold records colony are essentially impassable organized by continent. More of certain lineages supposedly to whites outside the river mundane details both historical descended from Irem via the valleys. and geographical are available Queen of Sheba and King online or in other references. Solomon. The Book of Enoch is Cthulhu Mythos: The nightmare We especially recommend period only the best-known work of of Belgian rule sparked the travel guides, such as Baedeker’s occult lore to be discovered here. millenarian cult of Ahtu or Cook’s, as well as the Federal (Nyarlathotep) here in the 1880s; Writers’ Project guides for the though stanched by Dame Alice US, although even modern-day Antarctica Kilrea in 1902, it may yet flourish tourist guidebooks like the Lonely US Admiral Richard E. Byrd back beyond the Baenga country. Planet series have astonishing mounted an aerial survey of amounts of useful game Antarctica in 1928-1930 from a The last of the Anziques, a information. base on the Ross Ice Shelf. In mysterious tribe of cannibal 1929, he overflew the South Pole. magicians with a peculiarly With that said, we focus primarily In 1933-1935, he mounts a second Caucasian appearance, fled into on the needs of the Mythos expedition, and nearly goes the Belgian Congo from the tourist. The Cthulhu Mythos mad after spending five months French Congo in the early 1870s. section in the entries indicates completely alone at “Advance They may have been one offshoot both ongoing Cthulhoid activity, Base” in 1934. Two British of a mysterious white kingdom and rumors that Investigators expeditions (1929-1931 and 1934- supposedly discovered in that with ratings in Cthulhu Mythos 1937) explore and claim portions region by Sir Wade Jermyn in the might well have come across in of the continent. Alfred Ritscher mid-18th century. one or another moldering tome heads a German expedition or nightmarish vision. to Queen Maud Land in 1939, renames it “Neuschwabenland” Brazil and claims it for Germany with The populist President air-dropped swastika markers. Getúlio Vargas, elected in 1930, increasingly models his Abyssinia Cthulhu Mythos: The Miskatonic government on dictatorial lines. Despite the Italian conquest in University Dyer-Lake Expedition Brazil’s openly fascist Integralist 1935-1936, unrest continues in of 1930-1931 discovers a “Green Shirt” movement (popular the mountains of the south and primordial city of the Elder with the 1 million Brazilians the deserts to the east. Entering Things and a previously (and of German extraction) battles Abyssinia after that date requires since) unknown mountain range Communist agitators in the Italian permission, or a lengthy they surveyed at 35,000 feet. The streets until 1938, when Vargas and dangerous covert overland mountains’ failure to appear on bans all paramilitary bodies, journey from British East Africa. later surveys implies that Dyer having seized openly fascist Edmund Kiss, a novelist and may have unwittingly entered control himself by means of a
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The Nightmare Countries new constitution in 1937. Cthulhu Mythos: The Hawks and Soviet agents have their Expedition of 1905 discovered own networks of dissatisfied The psychic channeler and the lost city of Alaozar on the religious leaders, ambitious healer Zelio de Moraes founded Plateau of Sung, but was attacked junior officers, and smugglers Umbanda, a blend of Spiritualism by Tcho-Tcho tribespeople and in Cairo, Alexandria, and Port and Macumba (the traditional wiped out. The last survivor, Eric Said. The trade in illicit artifacts, Afro-Brazilian religion similar Marsh, dies in 1934 and publishes mummies, and papyri thrives to Voodoo) in 1920; by 1938 it has his narrative. The Tcho-Tcho despite official condemnation and centered itself in the white and of Alaozar worship the Twin suppression; Streetwise will allow mestizo Rio de Janeiro middle- Obscenity, Zhar and Lloigor. The Investigators to connect with and upper-class. It involves spirit Plateau of Sung is the source of willing sellers. communication with the caboclos, the potent black lotus, which has or “Those Who Come From The power over dreams, death, and Major Egyptologists with Forest,” and the pretos velhos, madness. excavations and digs in the the “Old Slaves.” 1930s include: Pierre Montet This may be connected to the cult at Tanis, John Pendlebury at Brazil is the site of two of Ghatanothoa in Burma. Akhetaten, Jean-Philippe Lauer Tunguska-style events this at Saqqara, Gunther Roeder decade: the upper Rio Curacá at Hermopolis, and George valley in 1930, and the Rupununi Easter Island Reisner at Giza. (Weird freelance region on the border of British An island territory governed by scholars such as the fascist Guiana in 1935. the Chilean Navy, Easter Island French mystic René Guénon at is most famous for its enigmatic Cairo and the Theosophist E.A. Future Ahnenerbe asset Edmund moai statues. They face inland; Schwaller de Lubicz at Luxor Kiss explored the Amazon delta 887 are known. Between 1770 and also study various monuments in 1928. 1838, the islanders toppled all the and sites.) Harvard, Miskatonic, moai from their plinths, usually the British Museum, and the Cthulhu Mythos: The explorer onto their face. German Archaeological Institute Percy Fawcett disappeared into (DAI) maintain active presences the Brazilian interior in 1925 In 1932, Hungarian engineer throughout the country. searching for the lost city of Guillaume de Hevesy proposes Obtaining dig permission requires Muribeca with a mysterious a kinship between the academic tenure, affiliation with basalt idol he identified as undeciphered rongo-rongo an approved organization, and at Atlantean. script of Easter Island and the least one Bureaucracy spend. undeciphered alphabet of pre- Aryan Mohenjo-Daro in India. Cthulhu Mythos: There are at Burma least two cults of Nyarlathotep Burma is part of the British- Cthulhu Mythos: Easter Island is worshippers active in Egypt controlled Empire of India. The the closest land to the location claiming descent from Nephren- Galon rebellion, named after the indicated in the “Johansen Ka: the politically active giant serpent-killing Burmese Narrative” (47°9’ S by 126°43’ W) as Brotherhood of the Black Pharaoh magical bird (similar to the the site of Cthulhu’s sunken city and the dilettantish Children of Garuda of India) breaks out after R’lyeh. the Sphinx. earthquakes rock Pegu and Pyu in October 1930. A tattooed blond A Bedouin cult worships a fortune-teller named Saya San Egypt monstrous Thing dwelling proclaims himself Bird King of Technically independent of under the Pyramids, and one of Burma, and channels spirits to British control under its King Ghatanothoa’s surviving cults possess his soldiers. He uses Fuad I (succeeded by his son lurks in Upper Egypt. astrology, sorcery, and alchemy Farouk after 1936), Egypt resents as weapons of war; the British continued British control over Egypt also boasts a vampire who hang him and his followers in its military and operation of calls himself Seth, a remnant 1932. the Suez Canal. German, Italian, tribe of serpent-folk in the Nile
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marshes, and an immense ghoul “decadent” works might be Is More Red Than The Fire,” and colony in Cairo’s City of the Dead. dangerously salvaged) on May 10, “The Black Light.” 1933. The Nazis ban Freemasonry Necromancers and other would- for Wehrmacht personnel in German scholars in the 19th be wizards haunt the library May 1934, and begin their crack- century such as von Junzt, of Al-Azhar and the Egyptian down on rival secret societies Dostmann, and Mülder uncovered Museum. thereafter. By 1935, Crowley’s vast amounts of Mythos material, OTO, the Theosophical Society, which likely rests in University the Golden Dawn, and the libraries at Cologne, Frankfurt, Germany Brotherhood of Saturn (among Vienna, or Berlin. Once he becomes Chancellor other magical societies) have all in January 1933, Hitler rapidly been banned, and their libraries consolidates dictatorial power. and ritual paraphernalia seized Greenland Jewish Investigators, even those by the RSHA Amt VII B, a division Norway and Denmark dispute from America or Britain, will of the SS. jurisdiction over this ice-covered find conditions here increasingly island until a 1933 ruling by the hostile as the decade progresses. Cthulhu Mythos: The Great Old Permanent Court of International Refugees fleeing Germany One Cyäegha, the Sleeping Eye, Justice. are often forced to sell their lies imprisoned in a cavern belongings – including libraries beneath the Dunkelhügel hill near Although the Ahnenerbe has and ancestral artifacts – for a Freihausgarten, guarded by the plans to visit the island, which it fraction of their value. five Vaeyen: “The Green Moon,” identifies with the mystical Aryan “The White Fire Which Is Darker homeland of Thule, it succeeds The Nazis hold their first great Than The Night,” “The Winged only in mounting the Otto Rahn book-burning (at which many Woman,” “The White Dark Which and Bruno Schweizer expeditions
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The Nightmare Countries to Iceland in 1936 and 1938. of increased Cthulhoid dream- Randolph Carter’s estate) and sendings or similar activity. Henricus Vanning lead a group Cthulhu Mythos: Professor of magical adepts known as the William Channing Webb, while Coffin Club in New Orleans until searching (unsuccessfully) for Louisiana Vanning’s mysterious death by runic inscriptions, stumbled upon The populist crusader Huey crocodile bite during the 1937 a tribe of degenerate Cthulhu- Long, “the Kingfish,” was elected Mardi Gras. worshipping Esquimaux in high governor of Louisiana in 1928, West Greenland in 1860. and served simultaneously as governor and US senator Mongolia The ice of Greenland conceals the during 1931-1932. His hand-picked Once the center of a vast empire lost civilizations of Hyperborea successor, Oscar Kelley Allen, stretching from Burma to and its successor kingdom, succeeded him as governor, Hungary, this Communist country Lomar. Fanes of Tsathoggua, freeing Long to spend full time and its neighbor Tannu-Tuva remains of the prehuman in the Senate building a national have been Soviet client states Voormis, and the fearsome constituency for radical reform. since 1921. In that year, the Red gnoph-keh dot the tundra. His opponents, including FDR, Army captured and executed called him a fascist; his 1935 the “Mad Baron” von Ungern- assassination curtails his plan to Sternberg, who believed himself Haiti run against Roosevelt in 1936. His to be the “King of the World” The United States winds down its brother Earl Long inherits the prophesied to emerge from Inner two-decade occupation of Haiti, Kingfish’s machine, and serves as Asia in certain arcane Buddhist withdrawing completely in 1934. governor from 1937 to 1939. texts. The Americans have eliminated banditry and aroused much Among the major Voodoo doctors Between 1920 and 1930, the resentment with their attempts and queens in New Orleans paleontologist Roy Chapman to suppress Voodoo, a religion during this decade are Mother Andrews mounted several resurging in popularity as times Catherine Seal (of the Manger of expeditions into the Gobi Desert remain hard. True Light), Father James Joseph searching for dinosaur eggs and (of Jerusalem Temple Baptist skeletons. He may also have been Journalist William Seabrook’s 1929 Church), Luke Turner (nephew working as an agent for US Naval book on Haiti, The Magic Island, of the great Voodoo queen Marie Intelligence during that time. spread knowledge of zombies Laveau), and Laure Hopkins, a.k.a. and Voodoo in general (which he Madame LaLa. The occultist, mystic, and painter differentiates from ouanga, or Nicholas Roerich explored malevolent magic) to the outside Beginning in 1935, the Mongolia during his 1925-1928 world. archaeologist Clarence H. Webb Asian trek, and again in 1934- excavates Indian mounds at 1935 on a mission (ostensibly to Cthulhu Mythos: The Voodoo Poverty Point in the northern gather drought-resistant plant serpent loa Damballah Wedo is part of the state. specimens) from US Secretary known to cultists of Yig as the of Agriculture (and future Vice- Crawler of Midnight. Cthulhu Mythos: In 1907, President) Henry Wallace. New Orleans police inspector As “Don Pedro,” a Spanish John Raymond LeGrasse led Cthulhu Mythos: During warmer, magician involved in the great a major raid into the bayou wetter ages, Mongolia was the slave revolts of the 1790s, country to break up a cult of center of a vast primordial empire Nyarlathotep inspired the violent Cthulhu worshippers. Among (known to Theosophists as the “Petro” rites of Voodoo. the discoveries left unplumbed “Uighur” or “Naga” Empire) that were a white polypous avatar of rivaled Mu. That empire may have Some Voodoo cultists worship Cthulhu in a bayou lake. vanished from space-time entirely, Cthulhu as Agwe, the underwater existing solely on some other loa, and cult activity in Haiti The occultists Étienne-Laurent vibratory plane. generally increases at times de Marigny (the executor of
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Other texts hold that Mongolia Cthulhu Mythos: A major Cthulhu contain a spawn or avatar of once held the Lake of Hali and cult flourishes in the mountain Hastur or Cthulhu. that Carcosa manifested there gorges northwest of Cuzco, when Hastur ruled on Earth. in the Salapunco region near A cavern beneath the Machu Picchu. The Indian cultists Carpathians leads to the The connection between these identify Cthulhu with the Inca underground tomb of Nyogtha, two legends, and between either (and pre-Inca) god Viracocha, That Which Should Not Be. (Other vanished city and the Russian the “power of the water,” who caverns of Nyogtha are in Syria, legend of Belovodye (“The White destroyed and re-created the Chinese Turkestan, New Zealand, Lake”) remains unknown. world only to withdraw to the and Salem, Massachusetts.) Pacific, promising to come again. After the Copeland-Ellington Expedition vanished in A cult of Ghatanothoa exists in Saudi Arabia 1913, Miskatonic University Peru, according to von Junzt. Under its founding king, Abdul- anthropologist Harold Hadley Aziz Ibn Saud, Saudi Arabia Copeland appeared three months San Marco University in consolidated its control over the later in Mongolia, raving mad and Lima has a Greek copy of the Arabian peninsula in a series of carrying the Zanthu Tablets. Upon Necronomicon. wars between 1924 and 1932. A his suicide in 1926, Copeland’s war with Yemen in 1934 reduces will bequeathed the Tablets to that country to vassal status, the Sanbourne Institute of Pacific Rumania leaving only the British colony Antiquities in Santiago, California, Under the increasingly at Aden (and to a lesser extent, from which they are stolen in dictatorial rule of King Carol II, the British protectorates along 1933. Rumania has an active fascist the Gulf coast) outside Ibn Saud’s underground, known as the Iron will. Non-Muslims are forbidden Guard. Bucharest is a lovely to enter Mecca, and need special Peru city known as the “Paris of the permission from the King to Following a military coup in 1930, Balkans.” After the Great War, travel to the Arabian interior. Col Luis Sánchez Cerro serves Rumania annexed Transylvania, as President (barring a period in formerly a province of Hungary. Unproductive searches for oil 1931 when leftist revolts by a pan- Hungarian nationalism remains a continue until a strike at Dharan Indian group, APRA, forced him vexing problem in that region. in 1938. Thanks to Ibn Saud’s from office) until his assassination traitorous British advisor St on April 30, 1933. His successor, Dr Franz Altheim of the John Philby (whose son Kim is Oscar Benavides, bans APRA and Ahnenerbe spends some time recruited by the OGPU in 1934), the Communists. Benavides battles searching for ancient Dacian that oil concession goes to the strikes and leftist mobs, remaining ruins in Rumania in August 1938. American Standard-Texaco in power (despite losing the 1936 combine of Aramco. Philby election) until 1939. Undeclared Cthulhu Mythos: In October 1928, also explores the Rub al-Khali border wars break out with a titanic explosion destroyed or “Empty Quarter” in 1932 Colombia in 1932 and Ecuador in Castle Ferenczy in Transylvania, searching for the lost city of 1938. long a rumored plague spot of Irem, and spends much of the Yog-Sothoth worship and cult decade negotiating with Germany Hiram Bingham’s “discovery” of activity. Did any artifacts – or and Spain to supply Gulf oil to Machu Picchu in 1911 rekindled Ferenczys – survive? the German Wehrmacht. interest in Peruvian archaeology and Andean archaeology According to occult legend, the Cthulhu Mythos: The site of Irem generally. Among those interested “Scholomance,” the Devil’s School, of the Pillars, in the Crimson is the mystic Edmund Kiss, who exists beneath the waters of Desert, is a pilgrimage location explores Lake Titicaca and a lake south of Hermannstadt for wizards, necromancers, and Tihuanaco in neighboring Bolivia (Sibiu) in Transylvania. Its members of the Great Race of in 1928-1929. Kiss plans to return rumored pupils include Johann Yith. In some fashion, it sits on to Peru for the Ahnenerbe in 1940. Faust and Count Dracula. It may the Border of space and time
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themselves, with the Hand carved which means that any number to have been a summoning of above its gates grasping for the of shamans, priests, or cultists Azathoth, perhaps by a cult of Silver Key. Beneath Irem are the might be slowly starving to death nihilists in a Czarist Siberian twin shrines to Nug and Yeb. while digging a canal through labor camp. the permafrost or mining gold in Irem is also near the “Nameless Siberia. However, the influential There is a frozen city above the City,” the home of the masqut. “socialist realist” writer Maxim Arctic Circle inhabited by those According to various sources, the Gorky nurtures a small circle of who Ithaqua has carried off over Nameless City is a fane of Hastur Gnostic philosophers and artists, the centuries. while Irem is the center of the and remains a firm believer in Cthulhu cult. telepathy, until his mysterious death in 1936. South Pacific Mandate Comprising the Marshall, Soviet Union “White” Russian exiles in Europe Caroline, and Mariana Islands Stalin rules the Soviet Union and America, like refugees from (except the American territory with purges, terror, and famine. Germany, may be compelled of Guam), the League of Nations The Gulag system of slave-labor to sell their heirlooms to the turned the “South Pacific camps and colonies, run by the curious. Mandate” over to Japan after OGPU (which becomes the NKVD the Great War. Beginning in in 1934), grows by leaps and The Comintern supports artists, 1934, Japan fortifies Truk, the bounds during this decade, from musicians, and writers who toe “Gibraltar of the Pacific,” as well 200,000 prisoners in 1931 to 1.1 the Stalinist line, which can be as Saipan, Tinian, Palau, and million in 1935 to 1.65 million in an excellent source of income or Yap. The Japanese government 1939. contacts for Investigators who do consequently closes the Mandate likewise. area to foreigners. The official ideology of the Soviet Union rejects supernatural belief, Cthulhu Mythos: The Tunguska During this period, the Japanese including belief in the Mythos, explosion of 1908 is rumored Navy’s “Strike South Group”
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sponsors archaeological Investigators to imprisonment or Cthulhu Mythos: Elements of the expeditions from Taihoku Imperial execution by the other side (or to pre-Buddhist religion of Bön in University that discover giant purges by Soviet agents in either Thibet bear strong similarities to human bones and hieroglyphically case). Mythos teachings and practices. inscribed wooden fragments on This may be due to its antiquity, Ponape and Kusaie. Cthulhu Mythos: The former or to its geographic (or spiritual) temple of Chaugnar Faugn, in the proximity to the blasphemous Cthulhu Mythos: According Pyrenees, may yet hold unsavory corpse-eating cult of inaccessible to Miskatonic University lore. Leng. For example, the Thibetan anthropologist Harold Hadley national epic of King Gesar takes Copeland, the island of Ponape Adolf Schulten’s theory that the place in the “kingdom of Ling.” is the home of the Great Old One Spanish city of Tartessos (now Zoth-Ommog, and its megalithic submerged off the shore of Cadiz) The plateau of Tsang houses Nan-Matal ruins are remnants of was the original Atlantis may Chaugnar Faugn. It also holds a Mu. actually derive from the Deep One non-human race that worships colonies in those waters. the sacred powers of plague From the Ponape Scripture and pestilence. Tsang-ka cultists transcribed by Captain Abner infiltrated the San Francisco Ezekiel Hoag in 1734, Ponape Thibet medical establishment in 1899, is known to have supported a The 13th incarnation of the Dalai and may have caused the San Deep One cult similar to that in Lama dies in 1933, and the new Francisco black plague outbreak Innsmouth, implying that a major avatar is not born until 1935 and in the following year, along with Deep One city rests beneath the not enthroned until 1940. During a number of cases of “black Pacific amid the Caroline Islands. the interim, the Reting Rinpoche, fever” in the prison system. Ponape remains an epicenter of a powerful lama, heads the Cthulhoid art and ritual activity. country. James Hilton’s 1933 novel The Copeland-Ellington Lost Horizon popularizes the expedition of 1913 sought proof of myth of Shambhala, or Shangri- Muvian survival on the plateau of Spain La, and associates it with Thibet Tsang, but ended in disaster (see Spanish museums or private (or Tibet). Mongolia, p. 178). collections may hold reed codices, idols, gold artifacts, or other Thibet has no motor vehicles The lamasery of Nen-mka in items taken from the Maya, Aztec, and no airstrips; travel is by northern U-Tsang was dedicated or Inca civilizations (as well as foot or on animal back. Entering to the worship of Hastur and books, art, or objects looted by Thibet through India requires Azathoth before being broken up Spanish armies from Italy in the British permission or subterfuge. by Thibetan soldiers in 1911. 16th century or Germany in the Entering the country across 17th). Under wartime pressures China requires a great deal of The mi-go are active in the and privations, those items could luck or fortitude. Thibetan Himalayas, and their be available for the right price, traces have been mistaken for or bold thieves could grab them The American naturalist Brooke Yeti tracks. under cover of a bombing or Dolan heads two expeditions attack. to Thibet in 1931 and 1934-1935. Among his party both times is the Entering the country during the ornithologist Ernst Schäfer. In Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) will 1939, now-SS Hauptsturmführer require contacts among German Schäfer heads an Ahnenerbe or Italian arms-dealers (to expedition to Thibet with the enter Nationalist-held territory, goal of seeking the primordial via Seville) or the Comintern Aryans among the lama caste, (to enter Republican territory, securing copies of Thibetan holy via Barcelona or Cartagena). and magical texts, and biological Either sort of contact exposes research.
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Money In the 1930s, much like the modern era, the plethora of local currencies are mostly irrelevant. Virtually all serious business, and even more criminal business, is done in one of three currencies: the US dollar, the British pound sterling, and the French franc. Almost anywhere in the world, a fat wad of one of these three currencies and the Streetwise ability will get you what you need without bothering about exchange rates. Except, of course, between those three: in 1935, to pick a year at random, the pound was worth about $5, and the franc about 7 cents. (Once things get dicey in Europe, the Swiss franc – about 33 cents in 1935 – comes into its own.) Totalitarian states prefer to sell only in outside currencies, and buy only with their own, but cannot always get such sweetheart deals. Internally, they can enforce whatever farcical exchange rate they like, although trading nations need to maintain some realism: the Reichsmark is rather closer to the official 40 cent exchange rate in 1935 than the Japanese yen is to acid, all to be delivered the next 84 cents or the Soviet ruble is to $8.71. Technology, morning…” Weapons, and — The Shunned House and whirring cogwheels. The Equipment The technology of the Thirties workhorses of the world are “I set out for home, where I bathed, should be familiar fare to any the railroad engine, the steel ate, and gave by telephone an order player who has watched her mill, and the hydroelectric dam. for a pickaxe, a spade, a military gas- share of World War II movies. It’s Television is cutting-edge mad mask, and six carboys of sulphuric a heavy, industrial, mechanical science, computers are still just tech, full of diesel, propellers, mathematicians’ daydreams, and
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The Thirties oil has been “the new coal” for over a decade now. Monsters vs Machines Most monster chases will likely occur on foot, or pseudopod, or tentacle, or what-have-you. But in Pulp games especially, a monster Vehicles may pursue the Investigators’ vehicle as it flees the scene, in a test In general, if an Investigator has of the Investigators’ Driving (or Piloting) vs the monster’s Athletics. a Driving ability rating, he has A ghoul, Deep One, or similar beast might make an Athletics test a motor vehicle suitable to his (Difficulty 6) to leap onto the running board of an escaping car and Credit Rating. As a general rule, continue the fight that way. cars between $500 and $1,000 Failing that, most monsters cannot outrun a speeding car, or are about right for Credit Rating outfly a speeding plane. If the Investigators make their initial test, 4 owners. Cars over $3,000 are the vehicle evades such slowpokes and the scene is over. Although driven primarily by Credit Rating the Keeper is welcome to change monster speeds in her game, we 6+ owners, or by their chauffeurs. suggest instead ambushes, or presenting some obstacle (muddy roads, That said, the Keeper may allow dense fog, cultists with spiked chains in the path) that the monster Investigators to own used or can avoid but the vehicle cannot. Monsters also have any number of rebuilt cars (which may require interesting attacks that they can make on a fragile car or even-more more frequent Mechanical Repair fragile airplane. A Hound of Tindalos or dimensional shambler can tests), inherited cars (which even appear inside a moving vehicle, for extra fun. down-on-their-luck Dilettantes With all this in mind, the following monsters can probably hold can’t replace if wrecked by a their own in a car chase and make it a full-fledged contest: byakhee, monster), or stolen cars (with a hunting horrors, mi-go (chasing cars from the air by cutting across Cop Talk, the cop just impounds “as the crow flies”), nightgaunts, shantaks, and shoggoths (off-road). the vehicle without charging the Shan can maintain a chase until the Investigators can escape the driver). environs of Goatswood (up to the Keeper – who may rule that the shan are trying to herd their prey deeper into the forest). In their An Investigator must have at least own terrain, gnoph-keh and sand-dwellers can probably sustain a a Driving rating of 2 to own (and chase against cars for two or even three rounds. be able to drive) a motorcycle, but In the air, only byakhee and shantaks can sustain a long chase they are extremely affordable and against an aircraft, although the Keeper may rule that hunting widely available used or rebuilt at horrors or nightgaunts require 2 successful tests to evade rather than any Credit Rating over 0. the standard 1. Xothians, of course, can easily pace any ship or boat that humans The motor vehicle table gives can construct. statistics for a sampling of representative and evocative period cars and trucks. Speeds represent top road speeds; vehicle’s speed is halved, except a “1-ton” truck, for instance, can cruising speed is normally two- for those vehicles indicated with carry 1 ton of cargo. (It weighs thirds, or even half, that amount. an ‘OR’ in the table. Their speed is considerably more than 1 ton, The Keeper is welcome to move only reduced by one-fourth. Poor even empty.) prices and speeds up and down to driving conditions, hills, and so indicate closeout sales, lemons, or forth cancel out; each party to a Car chases work like normal precision-tuned racing vehicles. chase is usually affected equally, chases, with Driving instead Most cars have two running although the Keeper may always of Fleeing as the contested boards each capable of carrying rule otherwise for extremely ability. In straight car chases, if a clinging Investigator at a pinch. specialized circumstances. a car’s top speed is lower than The Keeper may require tests of its competitor’s by 10 mph or Athletics to stay on if the driver Motorcycles may mount sidecars; more, the driver of the car with spends any Driving points during if so, their top speed is halved. the lower top speed has a +1 to the ensuing chase sequence. all Difficulty Numbers in the A truck can carry the amount of driving contest; if it’s lower by 30 Under off-road conditions, a cargo indicated in its description; mph or more, the add is +2. The
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Vehicle Table Speed Cost Notes Vehicle (mph) Provides automatic +1 to roll in all 1928 Indian 101 Scout motorcycle $200 75 off-road Driving tests; OR 1936 Harley-Davidson 61E “Knucklehead” $300 120 OR motorcycle Two-seater with open rumble 1927 Ford Model A $400 75 seat in back 1935 Willys 77 sedan $500 75
1933 Chevrolet ½-ton pickup truck $550 60 OR
1935 BMW R-12 motorcycle $600 70 OR Refreshes 1 Driving pool point 1933 Reo Speed-Wagon 1-ton light delivery truck $650 80 per scene 1935 DeSoto Airstream coupe $700 85
1937 Ford ½-ton panel van $700 60
1932 Dodge 1-ton truck $750 75
1935 Packard One-Twenty touring car $1,100 85
1936 Lincoln-Zephyr V12 sedan $1,250 90
1934 Chrysler 8 Airflow sedan $1,350 85
1930 Ford 2½-ton truck $1,600 55 OR
1935 Auburn 851 Speedster $2,000 100
1937 Studebaker President 8 sedan $2,500 75 Two-seater; Provides 1931 Stutz Bearcat roadster $3,500 70 automatic +1 to roll in all road Driving tests 1930 Cadillac V16 sedan $5,400 90
1937 Jaguar SS 100 Sport $9,500 100
1932 Maybach DS8 “Zeppelin” $16,000 105
1938 Mercedes-Benz “Grosser” 770 touring Often encountered as an $20,000 80 armored (+4 against bullets; sedan top speed 60) limousine
1932 Duesenberg SJ coupe $25,000 130 Two-seater
1935 Rolls-Royce Phantom III limousine $50,000 90 Seats eight
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Keeper may rule that local traffic with ‘SE’ noted are single-engine Weapons conditions, twisty narrow streets, light aircraft. (High-performance Because you demanded it: more or other considerations obviate single-engine fighter planes such complete weapons statistics for this advantage. She may also rule as the Spitfire require a dedicated common or evocative firearms of that the much faster car speeds Piloting slot, although a kindly the 1930s. See the table overleaf. away and ends the scene, if it Keeper may allow a “bush pilot” to makes better dramatic sense than fly one at a +2 Difficulty penalty.) gaming out a car chase. Speeds are top burst speeds; cruising speeds, like those for The aircraft table is similar, ground vehicles, are normally half although access to aircraft is to two-thirds as fast. Climb angles, usually restricted to Investigators ceilings, turn radii, and so forth with the Occupation of Pilot or are outside the purview of the with Credit Ratings of 7+. Aircraft GUMSHOE rules.
Aircraft Table Range Speed Cost Notes Aircraft (miles) (mph)
1917 Curtiss JN-4 “Jenny” $2K 250 75 Typical barnstormer biplane; two-seater; SE
1924 Dornier Do J “Wal” $14K 2,250 110 2-4 crew + 10 passengers seaplane 1933 DeHavilland DH.89 $20K 550 150 1 crew + 8 passengers “Dragon Rapide”
Single-seat; can land near-vertically; 1934 Cierva C.30A autogiro $20K 285 110 requires only short takeoff
Six seats; provides automatic +1 to roll in all 1929 Lockheed Vega 5 $30K 675 185 mid-air Piloting tests; SE
1933 Boeing 247 $44K 745 200 3 crew + 10 passengers
1935 Douglas DC-3 cargo 3 seats + cargo space can hold 20 people; $47K 1,500 150 plane refreshes 1 Piloting point per scene
1934 Sikorsky S-42 flying $50K 1,950 180 4 crew + 37 passengers boat
Not for sale; one-seat fighter plane; 2 1938 Supermarine Spitfire $160K 1,150 380 cannons, 4 machine-guns
$3 1928 Graf Zeppelin airship 10,000 75 Not for sale; 36 crew + 24 passengers million+
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Firearms Table Damage Weapon Shots Cost Notes Webley & Scott Police Model .32 ACP automatic pistol (1906) 8 $10 TT-33 Tokarev 7.62 mm automatic pistol (1933) 8 $45 Soviet military/police sidearm Nambu Type 14 8mm automatic pistol 8 $40 Japanese military sidearm Mauser “Broomhandle” 7.62 mm automatic pistol (1896) 10 $50 Light +1 to Difficulty of any test to find Remington .41 Short double Derringer (1866) 2 $20 on carrier; only point-blank firearms; range +0 Colt Police Positive .32 revolver (1907) 6 $15 US police sidearm damage Walther PPK .32 automatic pistol (1931) 7 $70 Remington M34 .22LR sporting rifle (1932) 20 $45 Mannlicher-Carcano M1891 6.5 mm bolt-action Italian combat rifle; statistics 6 $20 also apply to Japanese Arisaka carbine (1892) Type 44 combat rifle Winchester M1912 20-gauge pump shotgun (1912) 5 $50 Remington M32 20-gauge shotgun (1932) 2 $35 Double-barreled Only does damage at point- blank (no bonus) or close range; Very 12-gauge flare pistol (1882) 1 $30 starts fires if it hits flammable material at up to long range US military sidearm; all tests Colt M1911A1 .45 ACP automatic pistol (1926) 7 $50 to repair or un-jam are at -1 Difficulty Luger P08 9mm automatic pistol (1908) 8 $50 German military sidearm Walther P38 9mm automatic pistol (1938) 8 $75 German military sidearm FN Browning High-Power 9 mm semi-automatic 13 $75 pistol (1935) Heavy Webley No. 1 Mk IV .455 SAA revolver (1915) 6 $25 U.K. military sidearm firearms; Smith & Wesson .38 Special revolver (1902) 6 $30 US police sidearm Smith & Wesson Model 27 .357 Magnum revolver +1 6 $80 damage (1927) 20, 30, 50, Thompson M1921 submachine gun (1921) $200 See p. 65 or 100 “Schmeisser” MP28 submachine gun (1928) 32 $200 See p. 65 German combat rifle; statistics also apply to Soviet Moisin- Mauser 98K 7.92 mm rifle (1935) 5 $125 Nagant M10 7.62 mm combat carbine (cost $100) M1 Garand .30-06 rifle (1936) 8 $120 US combat rifle Lee-Enfield MkIII .303 rifle (1907) 10 $100 U.K. combat rifle Winchester M1912 12-gauge pump shotgun (1912) 5 $50 Remington M32 12-gauge shotgun (1932) 2 $35 Double-barreled
Holland & Holland Double Express .600 elephant Does +2 damage; next round Very 2 $500 action must be an Athletics test heavy rifle (1903) (Difficulty 3) to remain upright Does +2 damage; requires bipod Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) .303 machine 20 $500 firearms gun (1918) or prone firer
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Remember, all shotguns are considered heavy firearms at point-blank range, and light firearms at near range. At point- blank or close range, add an additional +1 to damage if you fire both barrels of a double-barreled shotgun simultaneously.
Hardware and Sundries And what would a historical setting section be without a price guide? A page or two shorter, that’s what. The table overleaf is intended to paint a broad picture; prices for clothing, food, and other goods varied as much in the 1930s as they do today. If you don’t see an item, as a rule of thumb, divide its 21st-century price by 12.
Exotic Equipment “We had devised two weapons to fight it; a large and specially fitted Crookes tube operated by powerful storage batteries and provided with peculiar screens and reflectors, in case it proved intangible and opposable only by vigorously destructive ether radiations, and a pair of military flame-throwers of the sort used in the World War, in case it proved partly material and susceptible of mechanical destruction…” — The Shunned House
In “The Shunned House,” Elihu Whipple obtains the Crookes tube and flame-throwers by his “natural leadership,” not by slapping cash down on the barrel. If the Investigators decide they need arcane machinery, illegal goods, or military weapons for their monster stakeout then they should earn them the old-fashioned way – with interpersonal abilities. Scientist Investigators can use Reassurance to borrow the Tesla coil from the lab, military officer Investigators can employ Intimidation to get land-mines from an armory clerk, and so forth. With a white coat or hard hat, Disguise can get the Investigator access to labs or construction equiment; Flattery might get the reclusive NPC inventor to bring his microwave beam along. Players can use their Investigators’ pre-existing contacts to rustle up weird gear, or in extremis default to Credit Rating (“surely I went to Yale with someone who owns an autogiro”) or Streetwise (“we’re in luck; there’s a chemical plant in Gary with a bent guard where we can get all the pesticide we need”). The overarching goal should be to knit strange equipment into the story, rather than just letting the Investigators stop off at Crookes Tubes R Us.
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Clothing and Accessories Price Notes Boots, leather $3-$10 Clothing, ladies’, one outfit $3-$12+ Dress, stockings, hat Clothing, men’s, one outfit $13-$27+ Suit, shirt, tie, socks, hat Coat, leopard/mink $90/$585 Coat, trench $11 Gear, arctic $60 Parka, boots, gloves Gear, safari $25 Leather jacket, khaki shirt and trousers, pith helmet Peacoat or raincoat, cap, work shirt, sweater, Gear, seafaring $15 canvas trousers Shoes, ladies’/mens’ $1+/$4+ Spectacles $9 Tuxedo $25 Still called a “dinner jacket” Watch, pocket or wrist $2-$20+ Food and shelter Price Notes Apartment, per month $12-$50+ Bread, loaf $0.05 Coca-Cola, 12 oz. glass bottle $0.05 College tuition, year $200-$2,000 Harvard College: $4,500 Hotel room, per night $0.25-$3 Waldorf-Astoria, NYC: $5-$10 House, three-bedroom $2,800 Meal, automat $0.10-$0.25 Coffee is always a nickel Meal, home-cooked $0.65 3-lb. roast, potatoes, onions Steak dinner at the Rainbow Room, NYC: $3, plus $1 Meal, restaurant $0.25-$1+ for wine Milk, quart $0.10 Movie ticket and popcorn $0.20-$0.50 Newsreel and cartoons included Whiskey, shot/bottle $0.35+/$4+ Less for rotgut
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Adventuring Gear Price Notes Alarm clock, wind-up $1-$5 Makes an ideal bomb timer! Ammunition, 50 rounds $0.30 Shotgun shells $0.70 for 25 Bicycle $24-$45 Top speed 20 mph; OR Binoculars, 8-power $25 $12 for 5-power Camera $5-$40 $0.20 for one roll of b&w film (8 shots) Camera, 8mm motion-picture $30-$50 $4 for one reel of b&w film (8 mins) Chain, per foot $0.50 $1 for a padlock Cigarettes, per pack $0.15 $2 for a box of cigars Flashlight, 2-cell $1 $0.05 per battery Gas mask $5 Geiger counter $10 Generator, portable $120-$300 Gold, per troy ounce $35 Jewelry and rare coins will be more Guitar $9 Lantern, kerosene $4 Medical bag and kit $20 Tools, carpenters’ or locksmiths’ $10 Sense Trouble to avoid or Conceal to plant; does +1 Trap, break-leg $6 damage and immobilizes limb Typewriter $20-$45 $50-$70 for portable Welding/cutting torch and tanks $95 $8 acetylene refill Zippo lighter (1932) $1 Transportation and Communication Price Notes Airfare, per mile $0.12 Travel time 90-150 mph Bribe, for speeding/illegal firearms/ $5/$20/$10 illicit entry/smuggling (plus Cop Talk, A policeman’s pay is about $3 per day /$10-$100 Reassurance, etc) Gasoline, per gallon $0.19 Native bearer, per day $0.05-$0.25 Native guide $1 per day Ocean liner fare $10-$100+ 600 miles per day, weather permitting Average 40 mph or 900 miles per day, depending Pullman sleeping-car ticket, per mile $0.02-$0.07 on stops Telegram, per word $0.05 $0.25 international Tires, set of 4 $4-$10 Train ticket, day trip, per mile $0.04 Average 35 mph, depending on stops
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Putting it all together
“It occurred to us, too, that our venture was far from safe, for in what strength Believe You Justify Your Casting the thing might appear no one could When you created an Investigator, tell. But we deemed the game worth the Might Succeed you cast a character – a hero — in Yes, this is a game of horror, in a story. True, it’s often a story hazard, and embarked on it alone and which your Investigator might about an ordinary cop or college unhesitatingly…” well be slaughtered, carried off professor who stumbles into to Yuggoth, or driven irrevocably cosmic horrors that transcend — “The Shunned House” insane. That said, the best way the universe. Realistically, many to fail is to become defensive people would likely respond to The purpose of playing Trail of and do nothing. Don’t let the fear extreme violence and eruptions of Cthulhu is to collaborate in telling bring your planning ability to supernatural awfulness by curling a horror mystery story. In this a halt. Instead, talk through the up into a ball and doing nothing. collaboration, it’s the players’ job most obvious options, quickly Those people are called “non- to feel the horror, to figure out the pick the one that seems the most player characters.” mystery, and to willingly involve appealing, and then execute that themselves in the story. It’s the plan. Will something horrible The Cthulhu Mythos is hard Keeper’s job to make the players’ happen? Of course it will — it’s a enough on your Investigators jobs possible in the first place. horror game! Something horrible without you making them freak will happen no matter what your out, too. Plus, paralysis is boring, plan is. At best, you’ll find one at least after the obligatory denial that requires desperation and or disbelief in the “this … defies daring, and might still cost you every known law of science” Tips For Players your lives. But no fun whatsoever sequence. When you create your “A new and burning curiosity grew will happen unless you choose Investigator, or develop her within me, compared to which my something to do and do it. personality during play, think boyish curiosity was feeble and about realistic ways to portray her So be bold and seize the initiative. as proactive and resourceful, even inchoate. The first revelation led to Pick the type of terrifying risk in the face of mind-shattering an exhaustive research, and finally to you’re most able to confront and horror. that shuddering quest which proved so go after it with both hands. Who disastrous to me and mine.” knows? Maybe you’ll surprise the Players in horror games often Keeper, if not the monsters. As in make the mistake of thinking — The Shunned House any game, the Keeper will allow solely about how realistic their any halfway credible approach responses are. Instead, make A monster investigation is full you come up with a good chance interesting choices and then find of dead ends, red herrings, and of success, and will place nasty a way to make them realistic. utter confusion. Roleplaying a obstacles in your way to make An interesting choice is one that monster investigation shouldn’t it more exciting. Pick something keeps your Investigator moving be. Herewith, then, we provide a quickly, grit your teeth, and and doing things. few techniques or concepts to take send your Investigator into that on board that can help maximize warehouse. your own fun. Drives Drive You Forward In the world of the Cthulhu If you still find yourself unable to Mythos, safety is an illusion, so justify some near-suicidal plan, you might as well do something. think of your Drive. Come up with
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Putting it all together some reason to Drive yourself that coveted least-worst plan that the ball into the enemy’s court, into danger, and pick up some will lead you to the grim final and part the dark veil of the needed Stability for doing it along confrontation. unknown. A few moments of the way. Look to your Drive as a reluctance is understandable and source of action and inspiration, realistic. More than that is boring. and use it to decide which near- Keep Moving Forward Accept your weird new role in life, suicidal plan is right for your Expect to find only one major and make the most of it. Investigator. clue per scene. Although you shouldn’t be too quick to abandon a scene for the next one, most When Stuck, Look For groups make the opposite mistake, returning endlessly to the same Tips For Keepers More Information few places or witnesses, hoping “Man must be prepared to accept If you are legitimately stuck, and to scrape more info out of them. notions of the cosmos, and of his own not just rejecting perfectly viable If you find a clue that leads place in the seething vortex of time, courses of action, don’t just stick you somewhere else —go there! close to home hashing over your Chances are, once you’re there, whose merest mention is paralysing. He options. Investigative scenarios you’ll find another clue, that will must, too, be placed on guard against often bog down into speculative in turn lead you to a new scene, a specific, lurking peril which, though debate between players about with a further clue that takes it will never engulf the whole race, what could be happening. Many you to a third scene, and so on. may impose monstrous and unguessable things can be happening, but only Unsuccessful groups endlessly one thing is. If more than one re-plough the same ground. horrors upon certain venturesome possible explanation ties together Successful ones follow a trail, just members of it.” the clues you have so far, you like in a kid’s game of treasure need more clues. hunt. — The Shadow Out of Time
Whenever you get stuck, get out Running a Trail of Cthulhu and gather more information. Deputize Yourself adventure begins with building Ask yourself what you need to An ordinary person might be a Trail of Cthulhu adventure. know in order to formulate a reluctant to go out and involve We call this game “investigative plan. Then figure out how to get themselves personally in horror,” and it’s important to keep that information, and go out and investigations best handled by the a handle on both the investigation get it. Keep a written record of professionals. But you’ve stumbled and the horror, which is to say all the clues, particularly the core into a world of unearthly menace that an adventure should have ones that the Keeper has thrown where, as far as you know, there a structure and it should have a at you, pick one that hasn’t been are no professionals. You may feel. The structure, or skeleton, followed up, and pursue it hard. feel cosmically ill-prepared to face lets the story move and stand the threat in front of you, but you up. The feel, or atmosphere, lets know that no one else is up to it, the story live and breathe. Both Talk To People either. As improbable as it may are necessary, and each should Many groups are reluctant to seem, you must take on the mantle inform the other. use their Interpersonal abilities, of unofficial investigators. figuring that they can get into less trouble by sticking purely Rely on your Interpersonal Designing Scenarios to physical clues, or thumbing abilities to gain entrance to In Trail of Cthulhu, the through well-lit libraries in the situations that would normally be Investigators stumble onto or next county. This is a disastrous closed to regular folks. Come up track down an occult mystery, mistake. Talking to witnesses, with suitable cover stories if need they discover or deduce the experts, and informants is by be. horrifying Mythos truth behind far the best way of gaining it or the vile Mythos monster or information about your situation. Passively playing the good citizen conspiracy responsible, and they With information, you can find won’t save you. You must carry take desperate action to end,
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Tips for Keepers postpone, or avert the horror. access to a library, graveyard, victory condition. They may kill the sorcerer or the Investigators’ home. responsible, or dynamite the old Optionally, the Keeper may also cavern so the Thing can come out The horrible truth. This sets plan a series of antagonist no more. They may destroy all out what is going on. If it’s an reactions. These lay out what monsters, or practice some ritual anomalous incursion by the the monsters, aliens, or cultists to banish or blockade them. They Mythos as in “The Colour Out of do when they find out that may steal the key tome or artifact, Space,” or an ongoing infestation they’re being investigated. or just sink it in Narragansett as in “The Whisperer in Darkness,” The Keeper determines what Bay. In some campaigns, they the Keeper determines what the conditions trigger them, and may even call in the FBI and Big Bad is, how it got there, what what the antagonists attempt to the Navy to demolish the whole it wants, and where it’s going. If do. These may include further town. Or, of course, they might go it’s a crime or plot by cultists or a crimes, giving the team more to insane and leave the horror out solitary madman, the Keeper does investigate. Cultists or aliens may there to attract the next batch of the same for them, and decides try to destroy evidence, hinder Investigators. how they fit into the larger Mythos the investigation by planting false picture, if at all. In both cases, leads, or to intimidate or dispose the Keeper must figure out how of potential witnesses, including Mystery Structure the hook fit into the overall story accomplices they no longer trust As Keeper, you design each – if it was triggered accidentally, They may attack the investigators. adventure with three key elements: coincidentally, deliberately, or Foolish, overconfident, or risk- the hook, the horrible truth, and carelessly, and why. The Keeper taking villains may take them on the trail of clues. then determines what will happen directly, as might alien, uncaring, if the horror goes unchecked ravening, or oblivious monsters. The hook. This is the event, – do the mi-go just keep mining Clever villains will strike from a whether a conventional haunting, Vermont, does Simon Orne raise distance, perhaps using magic or a gruesome crime, or a mysterious an army of revenants to set up summoned beasts, taking great letter, that attracts the attention another adventure, or does the pains to cover their tracks. See of one or more Investigators. world end with Yog-Sothoth Responses in the Cult section p. 167 Examples: blasting through the skin of North for inspiration. America? • A murder seems to have been committed in an inhuman The Keeper also determines Spine and Skeleton fashion, or in a way described what has to happen to solve A straightforward investigation in some hoary Mythos tome. the problem, if only in this local can be seen as a series of scenes area or at this specific time. This, arranged in a straight line, with • Strange lights or figures unknown to the players, is their multiple ways to move from each appear in some distant or victory condition for this scenario scene to the one following it. remote place, or in a haunted — what they have to do to thwart Improvisation consists of reacting location such as a witch’s the Mythos and bring the story to to the players by switching house or a graveyard. a positive conclusion. the order of scenes around, or interpolating new scenes in this • An occultist, artist, or Once the Keeper has worked out order. This is simple to write and scientist, or perhaps a friend the logic of the story from the run, but difficult to hide. or relative, dies or disappears Mythos point of view, she then mysteriously. thinks in reverse, designing a trail A looser structure will still consist of clues leading from the hook to of an investigative line, in which • A psychic, a spell, a an understanding of the horrible the Investigators pursue a series nightmare, or an ancient truth and its Mythos enablers, of core clues until they achieve grimoire predicts disaster sufficient to get to work defeating a resolution of some sort. This is Soon. it. Following this trail of clues called the spine. In your notes, should ideally allow the players it can consist of large sections • A strange figure tries to get to deduce, or at least trigger, the of fleshed-out narrative, or a
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• Something strange or uncanny Victory is happens, possibly providing Not-So Weird Menace yet more information about Impossible There was a flourishing the nature of the threat, Some Lovecraft stories subgenre of pulp stories while usefully eroding the have no victory condition: known as “Weird Menace” Investigators’ Stability and The Colour Out of Space, tales. In these stories (which building tension. This helps for example, implies that descend directly from make the final confrontation nothing has to happen, and early Gothics such as The more dangerous for the the monster will leave of its Mysteries of Udolpho), a Investigators, and hence more own accord, or not. Others, sadistic villain uses the dramatic for the players. such as The Whisperer in trappings of Gothic horror Darkness, imply that nothing to advance a sinister • A strong supporting cast can be done at all, and the scheme. But the seemingly member (ally, villain, or Mythos will win in its own supernatural events all have bystander) offers a tempting time regardless of player rational explanations, usually distraction, a red herring, action. This will not satisfy trickery and coincidence, or an alternate take on the most gamers, but it’s a great or at most hypnotism. (This mystery. These sorts of scenes conclusion for a hard-core format was later revived should be kept to a minimum, Purist campaign, complete as the “Scooby-Doo” plot, but they can add real depth to with anagnorisis (see p. 76). but “Weird Menace” sounds a setting and to a story. better.) These sorts of scenarios, in which the San Confrontational scenes can be Francisco Mob is faking a barebones list of the elements even looser than the spine. In sea-monster to cover up its that need to occur to comprise a your notes, they can consist smuggling operation, or a minimally satisfying narrative. See of carefully detailed prose vile baronet is attempting the introduction to the adventure descriptions. However, unless to drive his weak-willed included in this book, The you’re preparing an adventure sister insane to gain the Kingsbury Horror, for a sample for someone else to run (as in the inheritance, make an spine. case of The Kingsbury Horror) interesting change of pace. you’re probably better off with Such a story might focus Surrounding this rudimentary rudimentary point form notes. By on one of the Investigators’ spine are confrontational scenes, keeping your notes sparse, you Sources of Stability, and in which any of the following can can give yourself a foundation of provide a kind of breather happen: ideas to improvise from, without story in between globe- spending undue time writing up threatening dangers. They • The creatures (or other scenes that might not occur. take essentially the same antagonists) make an structure, but require less aggressive assault on the thematic juice, since the lives or sanity of their Floating Core Clues whole point of the tale is targets, whether these are It can be useful to structure a that the theme is a lie … or the Investigators, recurring scenario with one or more free- is it? It can be fun to plant members of the series’ floating core clues. These typically just one tiny clue to actual supporting cast, or supporting advance the story from one Mythos activity somewhere characters involved only in the distinct section to another. Where in the tale, just to tweak current scenario. an ordinary core clue is linked player paranoia. with a particular scene, a floating • One or more Investigators clue can be gleaned in any one pursue their personal goals, or of several scenes. The Keeper advance another investigation determines during play which occurring in parallel to this scene gives up the clue. story. Floating clues allow you to control
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the narrative without getting all the use of an interpersonal ability, Multiple Spines information they need to fully enjoy and the mention of another, An even more robust what follows. previously gathered clue or mystery plot may have object. The cited clue is called several potential trails of Likewise, a floating clue allows a prerequisite clue, and is by clues leading from one you to perform like a ruthless definition a sub-category of core or more hooks to the editor, skipping unnecessary clue. same horrible truth. Done scenes when you need to kick the correctly, such an adventure narrative into a higher gear. Let’s can feel extremely organic, say you’ve chosen five possible Statistics for NPCs as any player choice leads scenes in which the Investigators Potentially violent NPCs should to a useful core clue. It can might logically get a necessary core have relevant General abilities even ramp up the paranoia, clue. You figure that this phase of defined. Add more as they are if the Keeper has a sense the adventure should take about required. NPCs who aren’t likely to of style and timing – the an hour. If the players breeze do more than talk to Investigators Cthulhu cult is everywhere! through the scenes in ten minutes don’t need General abilities Done poorly, of course, it can apiece, you can save the core clue defined, let alone investigative seem over-obvious or forced, for the last scene. If they linger, ones, so don’t bother defining so we recommend mastering taking twenty minutes per scene, them – a simple description, the basic structure before you’ll want to make the core clue with some roleplaying notes you start adding new spines available after the third scene. will suffice. They will often hold to scenarios. clues to be revealed based on A multi-spine adventure Player frustration level usually the interpersonal abilities of the or complex of adventures serves as a better trigger for Investigators; these also provide can be a fair bit of work to a floating core clue than a roleplaying handles for the design to its full potential, predetermined time limit. If they’re Keeper. but in many games, you can having obvious fun interacting with re-use unexplored trails as the vivid supporting characters If you don’t want to define the sequel adventures involving you’ve created, or being creeped exact interpersonal abilitiy for other branches of the cult or out by uncanny phenomena, you a particular clue, in which NPCs conspiracy, or as bolt-holes can give them more of what they provide, you can simply list and backup plans for the bad want by saving the core clue for the NPCs suspectibilities – the guys. the final scene. On the other hand, interpersonal abilities which if you see they’re getting bored are most likely to make them and frustrated, you can slip in the cooperate, and those which will floating clue earlier. make them clam up. These can be the pacing of a scenario. They used in future scenes, too. NPCs allow the characters to play The scenario in this book uses a who use their abilities to help out all of the fun or interesting floating core clue structure. the Investigators, for example, a experiences in one section of the mountain guide, should have at scenario before the story takes a least the basics covered (Athletics, dramatic turn. For example, you Leveraged Clues Health, Stability, any offensive might want them to separately A staple element of police skills, and any other General meet all of the suspected procedural shows is the crucial skills they are likely to use). Mordiggian cultists before they, fact which, when presented to Occasionally, the Investigators and the Investigators, get locked up a previously resistant witness might employ a specialist to use for the night in an old dark house. or suspect, causes him to break investigative skills – this is usually To achieve this, withhold the core down and suddenly supply the just an indirect way of spending clue that moves the Keepers to information or confession the their own points, for example the dark house until after they’ve detectives seek. This is represented Credit Rating to get a medical met all of the relevant supporting in GUMSHOE by the leveraged clue. opinion. In such a case, you don’t characters. That way, you prevent This is a piece of information which really need to list their abilities them from leaping ahead into is only available from the combined explicitly. You simply decide
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Putting it all together whether or not they’ve succeeded based on the NPCs occupation, your description, and the needs of the adventure.
Calling On Abilities The rules offer a number of ways to call on abilities, depending on the situation. Choosing the right way to call on an ability is crucial to the forward momentum of your investigative plot. Make this choice according to the consequences of failure.
If the consequence of failure is that a character fails to get a piece of crucial information, success should be automatic provided that the character has the ability in question, and the player thinks to ask for it. Even at that, you may need to improvise during play if no player steps up to claim the needed clue, bending the details of the scenario so that a different ability (one possessed by another player, perhaps) will garner the same information. In other words, core clues should ideally have more than one potential delivery route.
If you have a piece of information that offers a fun sidelight on the action but is not essential to move through the story, you can make this available with a 1- or 2-point spend. Choose the that Investigators encounter Mechanical Repair tests. cost of the spend according to will depend on their narrative the entertainment value of the function, not on the quality of the If an action’s consequence of information, not the game-world cultists’ local hardware store. In failure might be madness, death difficulty of completing the task. dramatic terms, a locked door is or injury, by all means make it a Look at the Example Benefits like a clue the players can’t find: test. If game world logic suggests sidebar on p. 53 for inspiration. frustrating and meaningless, or an that a supporting character will intentional narrative re-routing actively oppose the Investigator, Drama should supersede mechanism, or usually both. Locks make it a contest. realism, and the GUMSHOE that hide clues should be pickable rules and structure are with the Locksmith ability – locks In a horror game, mayhem fundamentally dramatic. You that seal the Investigators in with suffered by the protagonists is should build scenarios likewise. the formless spawn of Tsathoggua not an impediment to forward For example, the sorts of locks should require dramatic movement. Trail of Cthulhu
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The Cthulhu Mythos Ability Using the Cthulhu Mythos ability is the poisoned “Get Out of Jail Free” card in Trail of Cthulhu. A player whose Investigator uses this ability is likely signaling one or both of two things: he wants a big hint to the mystery and is willing to pay for it, or he wants to confirm his deductions and roleplay some juicy Lovecraftian madness. The Keeper should oblige on both fronts. In the second place, the Keeper should feel free to quote horrific couplets, drop monstrous names, and generally emphasize the cosmic at the expense of the quotidian in this revelation. She should also tailor the revelation, as much as possible, to hit the Investigator’s specific weak points and to corrode his Pillars of Sanity (see p. 46). But primarily, to the extent she can without completely wrecking the adventure, she should unveil the horrible truth, confirming at the very least the identity of the relevant Great Old One who lurks Behind It All, and the outlines of the monstrous scheme at hand. Some sample revelations: • Cthulhu’s island home recently rose above the Pacific Ocean; the cult seeks to open his tomb. • This alien civilization was more advanced than humanity is physically or mentally capable of ever becoming, and its survivors are degenerate and homicidally insane. • Hastur has poisoned the minds of the whole collective. • Old Man Whateley bred Yog-Sothoth with his daughter, and one of the resulting twins is still alive. • During the eclipse, cultists can use a sufficiently powerful ritual to open a door for Nyarlathotep. • A 300-year-old wizard learned to resurrect the dead from Yog-Sothoth. • Ghouls infest the London Underground, and the government already knows about it. The revelation need not explicitly reveal the victory condition, much less provide specific spells, techniques, or monstrous vulnerabilities. Such information comes from research in Mythos tomes, interrogating cultists, discovering diaries or inscriptions, and so forth. In a standard Trail of Cthulhu scenario, the entire trail of clues from hook to victory condition should be accessible – albeit harder to navigate — without any Investigator using her Cthulhu Mythos ability. Likewise, using the Cthulhu Mythos ability provides Investigators a glimpse of the destination, and perhaps a view of the countryside, but not a road map. With that said, a hard-core Purist Trail of Cthulhu scenario may well require the use of Cthulhu Mythos to solve. Such scenarios may very well end in anagnorisis (see p. 76).
characters, especially in Purist of any particular Investigator. life. Even if she isn’t running a games, are expected to die early “Nazis for Nyarlathotep” game, and often. The player turns to his the Keeper should try to blur defunct Investigators’ contacts Ripped From the History the distinction between esoteric or connections (see the Intimate horror and exoteric history. Correspondent, p. 31), creates a Books new character, the Keeper inserts “The whole matter began, so far as To create scenarios, scan through him as close to the scene as I am concerned, with the historic history books, biographies, possible (or narrates something and unprecedented Vermont floods of collections of weird phenomena, like “Three days later, after cultural compendia, or even picking up Father Micah from November 3, 1927.” period novels for the most the railway station…”) and bingo, — The Whisperer in Darkness peculiar, anomalous, or you’ve got more meat for the outrageous events of the era, grinder and the story continues. or of your campaign month Horror elements become more and year. Add an additional For this reason, we advise you frightening when juxtaposed with layer of backstory, explaining to structure Trail of Cthulhu recognizable elements of ordinary that the Napier, New Zealand campaigns in an episodic manner, life. Trail of Cthulhu is set in a earthquake of 1931 was caused by so that no ongoing plotline historical era with no shortage a Tsathoggua-worshipping cult, depends on the continued survival of horrors even in ordinary or that a special Black Dragon
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Putting it all together team moved into Nanking’s art museums during the massacre Imprisonment As Plot Device to loot Mythos statuary. How did Obstacles where the punishment for failure is imprisonment or the Mythos influence, exploit, or other loss of freedom to maneuver should be introduced with caution. create the event? Use the event or If the characters can gain information while captured, and will be its aftershocks as the hook for a presented with a fairly easy avenue of escape afterwards, by all scenario, and half your adventure means, include them. You can allow tests or contests to avoid such is already done. consequences. However, plot turns in which characters are arrested by the Should demand warrant, we’ll authorities and cannot escape invariably bring game sessions to a produce more scenarios ripped screeching, thudding halt. Either allow the characters to avoid them from the history books and with automatic successes on Interpersonal abilities, or build an escape dipped in oily green Cthulhoid hatch into your story. Investigators with high Credit Ratings erve this ichor. In the meantime, however, purpose well. Assuming that the players are jailed in an industrialized there’s nothing stopping you democracy or Western ally, the dilettante’s lawyers or political from libelously speculating on J connections can always get the characters sprung, after a suitable Edgar Hoover’s real interest in the interval of nail-biting and discomfort. Innsmouth detainees and their Be wary of plot construction that demands characters accept amorphous sexuality. captivity to gain crucial information. Many players would sooner have their Investigators trepanned by the fungi from Yuggoth than accept even a brief sojourn in comparatively cushy confinement. The Skeptical Authorities Unfortunately, with this player type, you won’t get very far by pointing “Opinions were divided as to notifying out that getting captured is a Pulp staple. Their attitude is rooted in a the Massachusetts State Police, and deep-seated desire to maintain emotional control, and is not typically susceptible to argument. the negative finally won. There were things involved which simply could not be believed by those who had not seen a sample …” the sense of creeping unease even in much of the Northeast, that horror seeks to cultivate. and susceptible to a “convenient” — The Dunwich Horror Eventually, once the protagonists mudslide, flood, or bridge collapse. have already been through hell, If your car breaks down (or is It is a standard trope of horror society may come to their aid, sabotaged), there aren’t rental that the traditional guardians of recognize that they were right agencies waiting to replace it. order and normality, such as the all along, and dynamite the The police don’t have civil rights police, civil authorities, and news Innsmouth waterfront, but this lawyers and neighborhood agencies, are resolutely blind to only happens at the end of the advocates on their back, and can what the protagonists are going investigation, if at all. afford to be politely skeptical through. The usual Lovecraftian or downright rude. They can scenario involves obsessed The Keeper should enforce this threaten to run you in for wasting or nearsighted Investigators convention stringently, cutting their time or vagrancy, with no uncovering an awful truth that off player access to outside Miranda rights and no phone call, they cannot, dare not reveal to support. This is easier in the 1930s. depending on how you approach society at large. There are no cellphones and no them. CBs. Phones in small towns like There is a sound dramatic Innsmouth (if they even have All of these limitations then act as reason for this. Successful horror phones) are on party lines, and motivators for the players to press depends upon a sense of isolation, the villains are almost certainly ahead with the investigation. whether this is geographical listening in. Phone and telegraph Unless they can prove that (a ruin in Antarctica) or social lines can be cut. Shortwave radio sinister events are afoot in this (you’re obviously a dangerous is new and experimental, and the quiet seaside resort, the police will lunatic). The reassurance of a sets are too bulky to bring along. be worse than useless. Unless they support network is poison to Roads are narrow and ill-paved, can find out for certain exactly
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Tips for Keepers what web of occult association links the murder victims, they are Managing Scenarios Streamlining the Twentieth liable to join them. If they don’t An investigative story in find out what happened to Alonzo any medium is, by its very Century Limited Typer, nobody will. There isn’t a nature, highly structured. The Some groups are hyper-sensitive police station around for miles, investigators learn of a mystery, to issues of railroading. These the phones aren’t working, and he then move through a series of concerns, which are absolutely could already be dead... scenes, each of which concludes legitimate, may be based on past in the acquisition of a clue which bad experiences with controlling The Keeper may find it hard to segues into the next scene. The Keepers who forced them to give the players the impression story reaches its climax when the enact essentially passive roles that running to the authorities investigator discovers and reveals in unalterable, preset storylines. would be a bad idea. Drives the answer to the mystery. It may If members of the group are and character background help or may not conclude, for extra avid roleplaying theorists, they with this, as some characters punch, in a physical confrontation may respond out of a general will naturally recoil from police with the story’s now revealed- ideological feeling that players involvement, but in case these antagonist. ought to shape and drive the are not enough for the story, story, taking on responsibilities the following three classic Structure can be difficult to traditionally given to the Keeper. demotivators may help: achieve in the roleplaying medium. Guide the players too The most important way to • The police would never little and they lose the thread, prevent players from feeling believe us. Who in their right resulting in a loose and sloppy railroaded is to remain flexible mind would go running down narrative that provides none of and reactive to the choices the to the police station babbling the neat, order-making pleasure characters make. We’ll discuss this about walking corpses made of the genre is meant to provide. a bit more in the next section. grave worms? Guide them too much and they feel that their freedom of action However, nearly as crucial is • The police would assume has been taken away from avoiding the appearance of we were responsible. Have them, and that they’re merely railroading. the Investigators had to kill observers moving through a anyone? Have they been put predetermined sequence of events. Some players may feel that the into a position where it looks (As you probably know, this latter GUMSHOE system’s reliance on like they’ve killed someone? syndrome is known in roleplaying automatic successes inevitably jargon as railroading.) leads to a railroaded result. In • The police are in on it. Worst practice, this simply isn’t so. The of all is the possibility that The trick to successfully running degree of narrative flexibility a the authorities themselves investigative scenarios is to strike Trail of Cthulhu Keeper exercises are somehow complicit in the the right balance between the two is entirely unrelated to the game’s horror. Can you really trust extremes. The exact balance is a resolution mechanic, or relative them to watch over you? matter of collective taste. Groups lack of same. Flexibility remains prone to flailing about may up to you, the Keeper, and to your Note that police detective welcome a strong structure with ability to improvise within the Investigators may know these clear goals, a straight narrative basic structure of the investigative risks even better and more path and definite resolutions. story, as it does in nearly any set intimately than naïve dilettantes Players who resolve questions of of roleplaying rules. or stodgy professors. procedure with swift efficiency, or who prefer to focus on As proof of this, we cite a weird characterization over storyline, phenomenon that occurred during require a looser hand on the playtest of a GUMSHOE scenario. structural tiller. The groups that expressed the strongest misgivings about possible railroading were those
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The Continuing Conspiracy: Campaign Design A campaign is a continued sequence of scenarios uncovering the same vile conspiracy or horrible truth, the equivalent to the “story arc” or “season arc” of an ongoing television series. Campaign design is essentially scenario design writ large. Each adventure becomes a “scene” of the campaign, and the campaign structure breaks down as follows: Opener: This adventure is the “hook,” and must contain enough juice to get and keep the players’ interest for the ongoing story arc. Its confrontations should emphasize the campaign’s overall theme, and should ideally include a glimpse or foreshadowing of the ultimate Big Bad for this story, perhaps as a cut scene played out with doomed NPCs. The Big Bad: This is the source of the multiple manifestations of the Mythos that the Investigators will encounter over the course of the campaign. It might be a single Great Old One, a nefarious cult, a sorcerous mastermind, an alien infestation, or some combination of the above. As with the “horrible truth” in an individual scenario, the Keeper should determine what the Big Bad’s activities, aims, and resources are, and how the Big Bad can be thwarted, at least temporarily. The Build: This is the macro-level of the “trail of clues.” Each adventure should logically and dramatically build to the next one, rather like unpeeling an onion layer by layer. For example: • The Investigators exorcise a haunted house of its Mythos taint. • The Investigators discover and bust up a cult that held rituals at the house. • The Investigators discover that the cult’s founder, the house’s architect, is still alive and working evil. • The Investigators thwart the architect’s plan to take over Stonehenge. • The Investigators confront and kill the architect in his place of power. In each adventure, the Keeper should reveal one or more portion of the Big Bad’s plans, and provide one or more needed element to thwart it. Some adventures may be entirely “antagonist reaction” adventures, in which the Big Bad or its agents try to trap, ambush, or suborn the Investigators. These should likewise provide needed clues or elements. Like floating core clues, some adventures might float around the arc, triggered by Investigator action or plugged in when the Keeper senses the need for a change-up. Not all scenarios during the campaign need to lead directly to the Big Bad; some may be foreshadowing (or after-echoes) of another arc, some may be “palate cleansers” or provide interesting character interactions, and some might be driven by the campaign calendar – if the Investigators are in Providence during the great thunderstorm of August 8, 1935, they may well be drawn into the events of The Haunter of the Dark even if the larger campaign is a contest against the mi-go.
Campaign Connections In an organic campaign, knowledge obtained during one scenario will provide the necessary hooks into the next adventure, or into any number of potential adventures. Keepers should strive to see that at least one clue in a given adventure points somewhere else, as well as to the next scene in the current scenario. Sometimes, the connection to the next scenario is the “clue reward” for defeating the adventure’s antagonist; sometimes it shows up during the initial investigation or only gains its importance in hindsight. It might even appear as a cut scene with no real connection to the adventure plot, as in The X-Files, when “Deep Throat” would appear and give cryptic advice to Mulder that only made sense several episodes later. Some possible connections include: • Letters from one strand of the Big Bad to another • Business cards, matchboxes, or other leads to locations • Photographs depicting known villains in interesting or identifiable places, or with identifiable or enigmatic other NPCs • Brochures, pamphlets, letterheads, or other leads to organizations • Cult symbols on bodies, walls, figurines, hand-bound books • Case notes from previous (usually dead) investigators • Testimony, expert opinion, hearsay, rumor, references, cryptic phrases, or confessions obtained from NPCs such as officials, scholars, reporters, gossips, bystanders, allies, or cultists • Art or artifacts, in photographs, books, or collections; might lead to the artist, the museum, or the curio shop • Shipping manifests, invoices, packing labels, or railway schedules • Intriguing pins (or markings) on maps, especially maps of places with no seeming relevance to the current adventure • Physical surveillance of cultists or targets (“Why is he going there? Doing that? Talking to her?”) • Physical links, from secret panels to hyperspace Gates • Newspaper cuttings of similar events or phenomena across the country or around the world, found in a scrapbook, a newspaper morgue, or a locked case • Leads in books (especially Mythos tomes), lectures, or unpublished doctoral theses; including hand-written notes by previous readers • Insane rantings, scrawled, typeset, howled, or recorded • Places, people, and events mentioned in diaries, reporters’ notebooks, or Mythos tomes
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Managing Resource Management The mechanical tension in Trail of Cthulhu comes from GUMSHOE’s “resource management” nature. Investigators (and their players) have a limited number of pool points to use while accomplishing the mission or solving the mystery. Investigative pool points should not be a problem. No core clue needed to solve the mystery should depend on spending pool points. The mechanical role of investigative pool points is to manage spotlight time, and as a method for the players and Keeper to signal “oncoming coolness” to each other. A player who says “Can I spend a Bureaucracy point here?” is requesting something cool for his Investigator to do or discover during the scene. When the Keeper says, “Do you want to spend an Art History point here?” she’s signaling that there’s something awesome available during this scene that she thinks the player (or players) would enjoy. This repartee will eventually become nearly seamless and automatic. General pool points, however, are the very devil. If the Investigators reach the standing stones at full Stability, Health, Athletics, and Firearms, they’re not going to be too terrified unless Shub-Niggurath Her Own Bad Self is there backed up by the Red Army Choir. But if they drain away too much Stability casting spells, or exhaust all their Scuffling battling cultists, they won’t survive the climax no matter how well they’ve reasoned out the solution. It’s vitally important that the Keeper, er, keep an eye on the party’s pool points, especially Stability and at least one “fight or flight” pool (Athletics, Fleeing, Firearms, Scuffling, or Weapons). Given the Investigatorial ability to drop Health and Stability to -11 without fatal result, in most cases, Investigators should reach the climax with their key pools hovering in the low single digits. The Keeper can work to hit this mechanical sweet spot in three ways. First, tailor the ability caps at the beginning of the game to create the level of tension you seek. As suggested in the sidebar on p. 26, Health and Stability ratings of of 12 are good caps to consider. Increasing the Sanity ceiling to 12 or even 15 minus Cthulhu Mythos provides a potentially longer-lasting character without reducing the potential danger and tension from any single encounter. Decrease the caps if you want characters mental stability to be more fragile. This can encourage early mental instability in campaign, allow madness to appear in a short one-off game, or make lesser threats to cause madness. Second, whether you cap ratings or not, definitely tailor the threat levels to the party’s resources. If they have four Investigators with 30 Stability points between them, don’t write adventures that call for more than 15 or so Stability tests without intentionally planning one of two things: a “killer” adventure, or a refreshment interim. (Players will likely spend 1 or 2 Stability points on tests, even if they succeed.) Those 15 tests might include three major supernatural encounters (three encounters times four Investigators is 12 tests) and three “mandatory” spells. (Making sure that the Investigator who knows the essential spell avoids Stability tests is the players’ job.) Every group is different, spending points or hoarding them at different rates. It may take you a couple of adventures to learn your group’s “burn rate,” but it’s a key datum for you as Keeper. The third, and equally important, management technique is adding encounters if the party seems to be “too healthy.” The object of the game is horror, and horror comes from a threat. The threat should be both fictional (“If we don’t get past this hedge maze, the lloigor will swallow Caerleon”) and mechanical (“If we meet another batch of byakhee, we’re not going to have any Stability points left when we meet the lloigor.”). This “soak” encounter doesn’t always have to be a monster attack, although that always helps. It can be a horrible nightmare, a magical phenomenon, or even a “mundane” horror like a grotesque murder. This technique has the added advantage of being dramatically effective, too; it’s the faithful “tension-and-release” model that works on everything from slasher flicks to roller-coasters. Adding a “soak” encounter on an ad hoc basis usually works okay, but it’s better yet if the Keeper pre-designs it to be a natural – or even obvious – part of the adventure. “We’re have to get to Caerleon by daylight – but that old rummy swore that ‘the corpse that flies’ haunts this hedge maze!”
whose Keepers had done the most but also suggests the enormous choice even when players respond improvising during the scenario. importance of maintaining the predictably to the scenario. On perception of free choice. When an off night, you can convey the This result can be partly attributed you’re on a roll as a Keeper, you impression of constricted options to variances in group tastes, can create the perception of free even you’re improvising furiously
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Putting it all together to keep up with their completely unexpected choices.
Here are five ways to maintain the perception of narrative freedom:
• When using a prewritten adventure, paraphrase as much as possible. Avoid reading right from the scenario. Even if it’s well-written, your narration, no matter how halting and tentative, will seem more spontaneous than canned text. Some Keepers read too much of the scenario out loud because they have trouble extracting the necessary nuggets from a pre-written text. Judicious use of a highlighting pen can work wonders to zero in on the best details, which you can then weave into your own extemporaneous sentences.
• During scenes of character interaction, listen carefully to player dialogue and respond accordingly. Riff with the players. This is more important than spewing the supporting characters’ clues or talking points, even if that means altering the characterization from what you see on the page. out opportunities for player • Introduce story elements • Encourage players to flesh input. This also helps make the giving players opportunities to out details of the setting and setting more detailed, more flesh out their Investigators’ situation. If they ask you interesting, and thus more backstories. Weave old friends, what the weather is like, ask important to the players. acquaintances, mentors, them what they want it to be. colleagues, and rivals into your If they ask if there’s a desk in • Tailor NPCs and situations supporting casts. the hotel room, or a wet bar to the Investigators. If a in the library, or a boat at the player portrays a sloppy, If you yourself are still worried pier, tell them that it is and ask rumpled reporter, confront that GUMSHOE encourages or them to describe it. On rare her with a neat-freak, press- requires railroading, take heart occasions the mystery plot hating authority figure. An in this last result from GUMSHOE will turn on such details, and Investigator (or a player, ahem) playtests. Each group submitted you’ll have to pull back from known to fall for sexy librarian an account of the events of the this technique and stick to types should meet successions sample adventure that differed your clue trail. Otherwise, seek of sexy librarians, and so on. radically from everyone else’s.
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Improvising with GUMSHOE Although the advice here is designed to help you prep adventures in advance, there is nothing inherent in the GUMSHOE core clue and point-spend system that requires you to predetermine what happens in an adventure, any more than there is with a system where your players roll for information. Even if you want to improvise most of the adventure, we recommend you have some fairly solid ideas on paper before you start (use The Basic Mystery Structure on p. 192). Then take note of the build choices the players have made in creating their Investigators. This signals to you the type of scenes they want to experience, and also reminds you to give out clues which give each player spotlight time for their characters. Refer often to the Investigator Matrix for your game. Make sure there is always at least one dangling core clue available, and take a careful note of any clues you give out. It’s most likely that you, and your players will want a predetermined mystery and solution, even if you are mostly improvising, but again, there’s nothing inherent about GUMSHOE which prevents you from using a “twenty questions” approach, where you haven’t decided any more than the initial set-up. As a “twenty questions” game progresses, each clue will disclose the mystery and narrow down possible solutions until there is only one which fits all the clues you have revealed. This is the solution. Watch out, though, some players hate it when you haven’t decided whodunnit, particularly if you conceal the fact that you are using this technique and they find out. Others will embrace it, even knowing you are using it. You know your own group, and your own abilities.
In each case the wide variances scenario writer ever could. Give envisioned by the scenario. of incident arose from disparate yourself permission to go with player choices. Just like it’s them. If you’ve prewritten an adventure supposed to. and the PCs veer off, that’s fine. If One slight exception pertains: it’s interesting, see where it takes this advice pertains only to you. If they seem to know where Any Direction is Forward clues available in the current they are going and what they Although it may be, oddly enough, scene. Allow players to leapfrog want to do, keep offering more more important to maintain scenes by acquiring information leads. Eventually, if you want to apparent than actual narrative they’re meant to get later only get back to the beaten track, offer freedom, we should still endeavor when pacing permits. If you’re more clue bait to take them back to provide the real thing to the early in a session when the to a pre-planned scene. maximum extent possible. threat of leapfrogging occurs, and you’re not confident you The scenario is only the blueprint. Fortunately, it’s easier to provide can improvise enough new The building happens during play. freedom than it is to seem intervening scenes to make a full like you’re providing it. Simply evening’s entertainment, by all ensure that any clue, especially means block the players’ efforts. If Ending Scenes any core clue, is available not you’re zooming toward evening’s In a novel or TV episode, writers only to Investigators using the end, leapfrogging may prove a can freely cut to the next scene ability specified in the scenario, blessing — just be sure to squeeze when their characters have but to any player who provides in all of the necessary ancillary acquired all of the clues available a credible and entertaining information the players might in the current one. The characters alternate method of acquiring miss by skipping ahead. might stick around for hours that clue. The scenario is a tying up loose ends and pursuing foundation to work from, which Scenes in the middle of an fruitless questions, but this ensures that there is at least one investigation can often be juggled doesn’t happen on screen. We, the way to move through the story. It around with no ill effect to the audience, are not forced to sit should never be regarded as the storyline. When this is the case, through such sequences. only way to get to the resolution. it’s always better to let the players A group of players will often come dictate pacing than to force them This kind of concise editing isn’t up with better ideas than the back into the order of events so easy in the roleplaying medium.
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Putting it all together
Players don’t know when they’ve • Allow all players to observe got all the clues. cutaway scenes they’re not Compensating For involved in as spectators. Spotty Attendance Here’s a simple trick to gently Require them to separate Older gamers most likely steer them onwards, without their own knowledge from to enjoy an investigative unduly breaking the illusion of Investigator knowledge. campaign are sadly prone fictional reality: Properly managed, it’s to scheduling disruptions. always more ominous to If your group is typical, you Before play, take an index card know what horrible events may not be able to rely and write on it, in big block might be in the offing than on any particular player letters, the word SCENE. As soon to be surprised. This mode showing up on a given night. as the players have gleaned the of suspense is what makes To compensate for this, core clue and most or all of the Alfred Hitchcock’s movies – and give each player a pool of secondary clues in a scene, and plenty of Lovecraft stories free-floating investigative the action begins to drag, hold up — so inexorably compelling. points, which they can the card. When the players see (Which is not to say that spend to gain a clue in this, they know to move on. (Of there’s anything wrong with investigative abilities they course, you have to explain the the occasional out-of-nowhere don’t have. When this occurs, cue to them before play begins.) jolt.) explain it as the character Easy, efficient, yet somehow not remembering a fact or nearly as disruptive or jarring as • Keep scenes short and snappy. technique taught to them a verbal instruction. Think about how quickly by their absent teammates. ensemble TV shows pop from Adjust the quantity of points one story thread to the next. as needed for your group’s Cutaways Relentlessly intercut. Cut on requirements. One of the huge mistakes cliffhanger moments, or when characters make in horror movies the spotlight player(s) need is to split up in the face of danger. time to think of what to do As the Keeper, you should always next. nightmarish telepathic image, a be encouraging players to make it. grotesque and flyblown corpse, • See that something interesting or a horde of sand-dwellers You’ll also want to run solo is happening to everyone at burrowing up through the dunes scenes, or sequences with only the same time. This may be beneath, remember that subtlety a few cast members present, challenging, as it is often the only goes so far in horror. Don’t during mundane scenes that wary player’s goal to make be afraid to grab the players by develop character and further the sure that nothing interesting the metaphorical lapels. Horror Investigators’ personal goals. ever happens to his player. is not meant to be fair. It’s best if you don’t have to abandon your To do this, you’ll need to rely on storyline’s internal logic to toss the cutaway technique. Here you Maintaining Menace in a scare, but that’s a secondary spotlight the actions of a few More so than in more adventure- consideration to keeping the fright players while the others look on. oriented roleplaying games, going. Emulate the shamelessness In some genres, gamers can get your primary duty as Keeper of horror movie directors. Throw restless while out of the spotlight. is to sustain a mood of unease. in unrelated scares to make In a properly bloodcurdling horror Occasional moments of comic the players jump. Use dream game, they’ll likely be glad for a relief and relaxation can work sequences and hallucinations if few moments of respite when it’s in your favor, softening up the need be. A sustained mood comes somebody else’s hard-to-reach players for the tension to come. before everything else. places being chewed on by Brown However, if your players are more Jenkin. bored or complacent than scared, take whatever immediate action A few keys to successful cutaway you can to ramp up the creep use: factor. Whether you throw in a
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“But more decisive steps were in the air, and it is in the secret should provide setting focus Mythos in her world. Unlike style, assemblages of sworn and tested with boundaries; will the game she should keep this parameter sailors and faithful old privateersmen be restricted entirely to Arkham, as a secret to be uncovered in to the Deep South, or to a single play. How omnipresent is the in the Brown warehouses by night large city like London? Will it Mythos, and what is its nature? that we must look... Slowly and be primarily rural or primarily Does it underly all occultism surely a plan of campaign was under urban? Will it be set equally in and religion, or just occultism, development…” Britan and on the Continent? or just “evil” occultism? How Will it be a globe-trotting game? many Necronomicons are out — The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Are hyperspatial Gates or Mythos there? Are Elder Signs common time-travel likely to play a key or rare? Can you find the word If a Trail of Cthulhu campaign role? What languages will come “Cthulhu” in any reference is like a television series “story in handy? Players shouldn’t book? How much, if anything, do arc,” a campaign frame is like bother creating Investigators the authorities know about the the series itself. The campaign who will be useless, or who Mythos, and what are they doing frame, or campaign premise, is stick out like sore thumbs, in the about it? Which gods or titans the basic overarching narrative majority of the setting. Setting take center stage, and which structure from which the Keeper and boundaries can shift with don’t even exist? The Keeper suspends the various campaigns individual campaigns, but the can also pick a particular Mythos and stand-alone adventures that Keeper needs to set a default, flavor: pure Lovecraft, Derlethian the game comprises. and a starting point. dualism, weird Clark Ashton Smithery, or everything-in-the- To construct a campaign frame, Style: To start with, decide basket Lin Carter. the Keeper should define the whether the game will be Purist following basic building blocks. or Pulp in intent, or a mélange Investigators: The most She may choose to define them of both. Will it emphasize cosmic important question is: what collaboratively with the other dread, or bloody splattering gore? brings the Investigators together? players, or to present a series Will the Keeper’s setting enforce Even if the Keeper decides of options for the players to the laws (against firearms everything else in secret, she pick from, or develop the frame possession, say) strictly, or let might well want to get the secretly and tell the others only Investigators slide past their players’ input on this question. what they need to know to fourth arson investigation with Is it just a coincidence? Do the design their Investigators. Three a wink? Will it have a strong Investigators all have some sample campaign frames follow techno-thriller feel, or center on connection that will turn up this section, with some sample Gothic emotional conflicts? Will later in the game – a common answers filled in. race or politics play a major role ancestor, college professor, or in stories? Should the players patron, say? Do they all just meet Setting: The time and place prepare to portray vivid, realistic at the auction house or hiring that the game will begin, and psychological damage, or to just hall? Are they all members of where most of the action will gibber and run amok when the the same secret society, MU be set. While the default Trail dice dictate it? fraternity, or police department? of Cthulhu setting is the 1930s, Both the setting and the style will somewhere in the Western world, Mythos: Strongly related to style, influence Investigator design, the Cthulhu Mythos spans all the Keeper should decide on the so the Keeper should at least times and places. The Keeper general scope of the Cthulhu provide some hints: “The story
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begins in Australia, and all your like Howard Hughes, J Edgar subdividing abilities, or additional Investigators should be pretty Hoover, or Aleister Crowley. types of magic. This is also where robust and have some interest in The Keeper should absolutely to note any specific ability caps astronomy.” incorporate Investigator-driven or uses of Pulp or Purist rules or player-created recurring options. Continuing NPCs: The Keeper cast members such as Sources should spend a little time coming of Stability, proteges and Pitch: Finally, see if you can boil up with “recurring guest stars,” intimate correspondents, and the campaign frame into a pitch NPCs who will either drive the the Investigators’ contacts and line suitable for selling your story or otherwise repeatedly connections (see p. 31) from Cop game to the players, like writers interact with the Investigators. Talk, Credit Rating, and various sell TV pilots to the network: They might include a rival group, Occupations. “It’s like The X-Files in Stalinist suspicious local authorities, Russia!” “It’s Grant Morrison vs the neighborhood priest, a Rules Variations: If the setting or August Derleth, and anything borderline villain who feeds feel deserve it, the Keeper should goes!” “It’s like House, only set at them clues when it suits him, develop any rules variations. This Arkham General!” “It’s Lovecraft or even “celebrity guest stars” might include new Occupations, meets Orwell: Deep Ones in the
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Spanish Civil War!” These pitch in Egypt, to “day trips” to the adventure that uncovered some lines are hardly mandatory, but Dunwich backcountry. Using aspect of the Mythos. (The Keeper they can help players grasp the Lovecraft’s writings as a guide, can run this initial expedition elements of your style that you about half or two-thirds of the as the first scenario, or merely haven’t put into words: “It’s like adventures will take place at recount it in flashback.) They Buffy” is different from “It’s like least partially in New England, have all agreed to work with Dr Supernatural,” even though but anywhere is fair game. A Armitage to secretly plumb the both shows are about monster- campaign might be a series of depths of the Mythos. hunting. mysteries, or a single major expedition. Continuing NPCs The continuing characters in The Armitage Inquiry Style this frame are the Investigators’ “My good fortune in securing the The style is up to the Keeper, as fellow professors and members of backing of Miskatonic University was the Miskatonic setting rewards the Inquiry. They can be contacts, great … We were not too specific Purist play as much as the rivals, or even (secretly) villains. globetrotting possibilities suggest The “Dunwich Three” (Armitage, with the public about our objects, Pulp. A tweedy, academic tone, Morgan, and Rice) form a kind of since the whole matter would have with occasional dips into mad “inner circle” within the Inquiry, lent itself unpleasantly to sensational science, seems to fit the material keeping secrets and rationing and jocose treatment by the cheaper better than emotional and access to the Necronomicon. newspapers.” psychological torment, although Members of the Inquiry as of 1935 plenty of college novels would include: — The Shadow Out of Time disagree. Dr Henry Armitage (b 1855): Enough professors at Miskatonic Mythos Head librarian and specialist in University have stumbled onto The Mythos is barely known. medieval epigraphy, occultism, the Mythos in the last several As recently as 1908, only two and linguistics. Took his D. Litt. at years to create a critical mass anthropologists in America had Cambridge, and may have Mythos of dangerous knowledge. Under ever read or heard the word contacts at that University. the direction of Dr Henry “Cthulhu.” Teasing the true Retires (becoming Director Armitage, they have decided Mythos out of the rambling, Emeritus) in 1936 to head the to do something about it. arcane, elliptical tomes and Inquiry full time. He has formed an informal records available even at the “Inquiry Group,” similar to the Orne Library is a full-time job, Dr Ferdinand Ashley interdisciplinary collection of and must be amplified with (b 1891): Associate professor scholars who advised President constant and diligent field of archaeology, specializing in Wilson at the Versailles talks in research. The authorities know Egyptology. Participated in the 1919. essentially nothing, and the Western Australia Expedition. Inquiry is determined that things Like Morgan, young enough for Setting should stay that way. field missions. This campaign frame takes a “base and mission” structure, Investigators Dr William Dyer (b 1880): centered on Miskatonic University Investigators are all professors, Professor of geology, survivor in Arkham, Massachusetts. It graduate or undergraduate of the first Miskatonic Antarctic begins in the Fall 1935 semester, students, or librarians at Expedition. Believes strongly in after the return of the Dyer- Miskatonic University. (The secrecy and preventing further Peaslee Expedition from Western Keeper can stretch a point to expeditions. Australia. Campaigns and include former cops on the individual adventures might take University security payroll, Dr Tyler M Freeborn place anywhere that Miskatonic veterans returned to college, (b 1906): Assistant professor of University scholars could go, doctors at the medical school, anthropology, and a participant in from academic conferences in and similar.) They all participated the Western Australia Expedition. Berlin to archaeological digs in an initial expedition or local A self-proclaimed Communist and
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radical, he clings to his tenure Dr Warren Rice (b 1866): also consider reducing the track by his fingernails against Professor of classical languages, number of academic abilities a storm of inter-departmental specializing in Semitic and Near the Investigators take to ensure opposition. Devoted to field work, Eastern tongues. Pessimistic and they need to use their patron’s but his professional research pragmatic. services. sometimes takes precedence over Inquiry work. Dr Ephraim Sprague (b 1886): At the Keeper’s discretion, any Essex County medical examiner member of the Inquiry might be Dr Cyrus Llanfer (b 1871): and private physician. Not able to go to Dr Armitage, who Assistant director of the associated with Miskatonic will research the question in the Orne Library, becomes head University, but obviously a key Orne Library. He may, however, librarian in 1936. Has no real and useful ally. keep the answer to himself, or he understanding of the Mythos, but may get the Investigators into hot is entirely loyal to Dr Armitage. Dr Albert Wilmarth (b 1861): water “returning the favor.” Professor of English, specialist Dr William Moore (b 1886): in New England folklore. He Pitch Professor of geology, specializing becomes Chairman of the Might range from “It’s Indiana in paleontology. Co-head of the English Department in 1930. Jones meets the Watchers’ Council Starkweather-Moore Antarctic Between his departmental from Buffy!” to “It’s Donna Tartt’s Expedition in 1932-1933. Its responsibilities and his delicate The Secret History, Lovecraft findings are officially minimized. temperament (following the style.” Vermont nightmare) he now Dr Francis Morgan (b 1891): sends graduate students and Associate professor of junior faculty to gather folklore Project Covenant archaeology, specializing in first-hand. “During the winter of 1927-28 the American Southwest, but officials of the Federal government with experience in Egypt and Depending on the specific nature made a strange and secret Mesopotamia. Logical and of the campaign, other continuing scientific in orientation. Still NPCs might include rival investigation of certain conditions in young enough for field missions. scholars from other universities, the ancient Massachusetts seaport of Ahnenerbe agents, and unhelpful Innsmouth.” Dr Nathaniel Peaslee (b 1900): department heads or University Professor of psychology, bureaucrats. — The Shadow Over Innsmouth specializing in abnormal psychology. A devotee of Jung, Rules Variations On February 13, 1928, in he is driven by revenge for the Members of the Inquiry can cooperation with Treasury suffering of his father, Professor use academic abilities they agents and the FBI, US sailors Emeritus Nathaniel Wingate don’t actually possess, albeit at and marines raided Innsmouth, Peaslee, who has been in a one remove. Each Investigator Massachusetts, after President sanitarium since his return from should pick a patron from the Coolidge secretly placed the Australia. list above (or make one up); this town under Federal martial law. is the scholar who introduced The Coast Guard cutter Urania Mrs. Agatha Warren Pickman them into the Inquiry. During and the Navy submarine S-19 (b 1849): The eccentric and an investigation, they can write, deployed off Devil Reef, dropping domineering head of the telegraph, call, or otherwise seek depth charges, firing torpedoes, Nathaniel Derby Pickman the advice of their patron; if a and taking soundings, as well as Foundation, which provides response is possible, their patron landing sailors on the Reef itself. financial support for some will provide one. Investigators Much of the town was burned Inquiry operations. Mrs. Pickman may wind up dragged into inter- and dynamited, and hundreds insists on propriety, decency, and academic rivalries on their of Innsmouth residents were to-the-penny accounting. She patron’s behalf, or otherwise arrested and shipped to secret often calls Dr Armitage “young find their lives complicated by camps and military prisons. This man.” their connection. You could was Project Covenant, and what
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Campaign Frames it discovered has been hushed Covenanters might mount covert company engineers, Miskatonic up or denied at every level of operations anywhere in the University professors, New government. J. Edgar Hoover, world that they have assets Orleans police officers, or the director of the FBI, refuses to or “friendlies,” such as US like. They may be veterans of discuss the affair even with his Embassies, or even Royal Navy the original Covenant raid, or of closest advisers, although he bases. later operations by the Friends occasionally travels to certain of Ezra. The Keeper may choose isolated sites in the California Style to run their “cherry” operation desert. President Roosevelt may Up to the Keeper, but the as the introductory adventure, not even know the operation likely emphasis on gunplay recruiting the survivors into happened. Nobody will discuss it, and espionage implies a Pulp Covenant afterward. or what it meant. feel to the game. The mood is likewise implicitly grim and Continuing NPCs With former President Coolidge’s gritty. Politics are likely to play These are the core members death on January 5, 1933, the a fairly significant role, as is the of the Covenant conspiracy survivors of Project Covenant psychological strain on Covenant within the US government. have nowhere left to turn when operatives. All were directly involved they start seeing the same sorts in the Innsmouth Raid, and of things they saw that cold For a different sort of style, the could only speak about their night in Innsmouth. Except to ongoing Project Covenant can be experiences with each other. each other. They form a secret an official (though still secret) They use their connections and cabal within the US military operation within the FBI and influence to plan, cover up, and and intelligence services, and Navy bureaucracies, probably exploit ongoing counter-Mythos provide cover and leads for each alternately claimed as turf and operations, and to recruit new other where they can. They call completely denied by each. members to the Covenant. themselves “Covenanters,” or “Friends of Ezra” (after Ezra Mythos Assistant Director Cleveland Weeden, an 18th-century patriot Project Covenant begins by Drew, US Secret Service (b 1888): who defeated a wizard), and use confronting Dagon and Cthulhu, The mastermind of the Raid, he variations on “Ezra,” “Samson,” and they are likely to remain maintains contacts throughout and the Ark of the Covenant as at the forefront of any ongoing the bureaucracy. His pull in the code words, contact signals, and investigation involving naval Treasury and Labor Departments warning signs. personnel. Tossing the entire keeps Covenant pay records Mythos in at once vitiates the hopelessly snarled. Setting theme of slow discovery; an Anywhere the US government entire campaign might center Dr David Frushour, Smithsonian or military might reach, Project on the horrible revelation of Institution (b 1898): An Treasury Covenant might act. That the mi-go or a cult of Hastur. agent during the Raid, he primarily means the continental Whether any other unit of was injured and retired on U.S., but Alaska, Hawaii, Panama, the US government – or other disability. Following a doctoral the Philippines, Guam, the Virgin governments – is confronting, or program in anthropology at Islands, and Puerto Rico are attempting to exploit, the Mythos Miskatonic University, he got all equally fair game, as is the should be another major mystery the Smithsonian post. He tracks Yangtze River (home to the US in the game. Covenant findings, and serves Navy’s Yangtze Patrol until 1941). as the cabal “historian,” storing The FBI ran spy rings in Latin Investigators its trophies and artifacts in the America during the 1930s, and Investigators are preferentially warren of basements beneath the the Navy patrols the Caribbean, agents of the US government Museum of Natural History. so undercover adventures might or members of the US military be set anywhere from Cuba to (most likely the Coast Guard, Master Sergeant Emile Argentina. Navy, or Marine Corps), but Grabatowski, USMC (b 1880): might be senior civilian or semi- Raid veteran, based at Naval In a globetrotting Pulp game, governmental assets such as oil Air Station Pensacola. He trains
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Covenant personnel, as best he Government, with all the power Intelligence Officer: add can, to fight Deep Ones and other and responsibility that implies. Bureaucracy, Cryptography, inhumans. (This template may also be Library Use. used for agents of His Majesty’s Captain Robert Harrow, USN Government.) Pitch (b 1894): Commander of the S- Might range from “It’s The 19 during the Innsmouth Raid; Occupational Abilities: Driving, Untouchables meets Delta now works at the Office of Naval Evidence Collection, Reassurance Green!” to “It’s The X-Files vs Fu Intelligence (ONI) in Washington. or Intimidation, Law, Assess Manchu!” Honesty. Captain Curtis Henley, USCG (b 1893): Commanded a patrol boat Alcohol Tax Unit: add Book-Hounds of London during the Raid, now the captain Accounting, Conceal, Shadowing, “These cycles of experience, of course, of the cutter Hancock, based out Streetwise. all stem from that worm-riddled of Boston. book. I remember when I found it FBI: add Firearms, Interrogation, Colonel Joseph “Fighting Mad” Sense Trouble, Shadowing. — in a dimly lighted place near the Maines, USMC (b 1885): The black, oily river where the mists Covenant’s chief patron in the Secret Service: add Athletics, always swirl. That place was very regular military. He has taken Firearms, Scuffling, Sense old, and the ceiling-high shelves full a much-despised “desk job” in Trouble. of rotting volumes reached back Washington to help run the cabal. US Marshals: add Cop Talk, endlessly through windowless inner Special Agent in Charge Albert Firearms, Scuffling, Shadowing. rooms and alcoves. There were, Ryan, FBI (b 1890): Drew’s main besides, great formless heaps of FBI liaison during the Raid, he Credit Rating: 3-5 books on the floor and in crude bins; knows where enough bodies are and it was in one of these heaps that buried that Hoover – probably Special: Credit Rating is capped – won’t interfere in his Covenant at 5. Not until 1942, when William I found the thing.” operations, as long as he keeps Donovan creates the OSS from — The Book the profile subterranean. his Yale banker contacts, does the wealthy aristocrat enter the US The Investigators may have been intelligence world. The global Depression has driven recruited by any of these men, an unprecedented number of or by another “control.” They A Federal agent can use collectors – both individual and may also have commanding Bureaucracy to pull strings institutional – to sell off their officers, subordinates, or other within his own agency or holdings for whatever they “innocents” who recur in their department, Credit Rating to can get. The global crisis has adventures – some of them activate contacts within other also driven an unprecedented might make good replacement government agencies, and number of over-educated, Investigators after a messy death either Law or Intimidation to morally bankrupt aristocrats and on assignment. enter almost any premises in US resentful would-be Great Beasts territory. to experiment with black magic Rules Variations … including the Cthulhu Mythos. In addition to any special Pulp Military Between the two groups, sellers rules the Keeper uses, she may Here are two more specialties and buyers, a specialty market want to introduce the following within the Military Occupation has sprung up in blasphemous new Occupation, and expand the (see p. 15) that might turn up in tomes, no questions asked. Military Occupation as indicated Project Covenant teams. below: You cater to that market, Coast Guard: add First Aid, finding books at estate sales Federal Agent Mechanical Repair, Piloting. or abandoned churches across You are a sworn agent of the US the Home Counties, tracking
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It’s a hard old world out there, and mayhap the hardest thing about it is that you have to save it from your own customers now and again. Setting This campaign frame works best if restricted to London and its immediate surroundings, with only occasional trips out to stately homes and poorly guarded regional libraries. Brichester might make a good second lobe for a campaign, if the Keeper wants to expand it, or is justifiably fond of Ramsey Campbell’s setting. Style The style of this game should be skeevy, crawly, and underhanded. The Investigators aren’t nice people, and the people they meet are worse yet. This is a game of urban survival, creepy low-light magic, and the kinds of things you see in old, horrid books. Combat should be downgraded, and obsessions and psychological damage of one sort or another should be nigh omnipresent. Consider it “Ramsey Campbell Purist.” Mythos Within this specialized underground, the Mythos is known, but hedged round with superstition and misunderstanding. The book-hounds may initially underestimate the larger significance of the lore they traffic in, or go in with their eyes wide open, like smugglers of nuclear material in the 21st down rumors and doing your or anywhere during a full century. With a campaign frame competitors dirt. You’ve had to moon. Sometimes you touch up like this one, variety will be learn the difference between an imperfect von Junzt, and the spice of life; everything the 1452 and the 1472 editions sometimes you might liberate that might logically plague the of Wormius, and why neither a Prinn first edition from an Investigators, their customers, should be opened at Ludgate, insufficiently caring owner. and their competitors should. The
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1930s Rare Book Prices Rare book prices hit an all-time high in the 1920s, exemplified by the Jerome Kern library auction of 1929, which realized $1.7 million ($21 million in 2007). With the Depression, the bottom fell out of rare books as it did everything else: a Shakespeare First Folio that sold for $66,000 in 1927 sold for $22,000 in 1941, while a copy of Shelley’s Queen Mab, with the poet’s handwritten annotations, sold for $68,000 in 1929 and only brought $8,000 as late as 1951! There are exceptions; in 1933 the Codex Sinaiticus, a 4th Century Bible was sold by the Soviet government to the British Museum for over $500,000. A few further examples: Blickling Homilies: 10th-century parchment (150 pages), $55,000 The Tickhill Psalter: near-perfect early 14th-century illuminated vellum manuscript, $61,000 Roman de la Rose: mid-14th century mystical illuminated vellum manuscript, $6,800 Boccaccio’s De la Ruine: 1476 printing with copperplate illustrations, $45,000 Hypnerotomachia Poliphili: 1499 Aldine printing of a mystical work with woodcuts (450 pages), $700 Cervantes’ Don Quixote: 1605 Madrid printing (2nd edition), $2,200 Cotton Mather’s Wonders of the Invisible World: 1693 London printing (2nd edition), $70 Francis Barrett’s The Magus: 1801 London first edition grimoire, $12 Shelley’s Hellas: 1822 suppressed first edition, $2,100 Frazer’s Golden Bough: 1911 London third edition, 11 vols., $18 These are auction prices, mostly taken from the 1935 and 1936 issues of American Book Prices Current, which is recommended for Keepers who want to get a sense of the used book market. Mythos tomes might bring far more from a knowledgeable buyer (what price godhead?), or they might turn up for a few shillings in the stacks of a seller who knows not what he has. Copies with wizardly annotations might bring considerably more; copies with the all-important magical diagrams cut out might be essentially worthless to a Mythos sorcerer but still quite valuable to a mundane (or foolish) collector.
whole world should be creepy, Private Investigator. (That said, social strata, and key locals such uncanny, and dangerous. That Artists, Authors, Clergymen, and as pub-keepers, grave-robbers, said, this background cries out Professors might easily find gang bosses, and bent coppers. for Y’golonac, the King in Yellow, themselves involved.) They likely Enough, in other words, to give Quachil Uttaus, and plenty of rat- form a loose ring of book-hounds, the setting lots of potential for things. operating out of a given store or betrayal and double-crossing, library. and enough to give it life off the This sort of game will benefit page. from lots of non-Mythos For properly dodgy desperation, monsters and occultism to act all Investigator Credit Ratings Rules Variations as “protective coloration,” and should be capped at 4, and all This campaign frame invites a to otherwise add variety. The Investigators should begin with finer grain of abilities in the Mythos tomes may be McGuffins, no free rating points in Credit realm of books, and presents or their use (or destruction) may Rating. Players may still build the thematic possibility of be the key to solving the mystery, aristocratic Investigators, but idiosyncratic “street magic.” depending on the scenario. they will be from families long gone to seed, or horrible black Investigators sheep no longer invited to decent New Abilities Investigators are people active parties. Much as The Esoterrorists expands in London’s underground trade the basic GUMSHOE abilities list in occult books (and possibly in Continuing NPCs to detail the various technical other dubious literatures such Should initially include at least wizardries of the postmodern as pornography). They will likely two rival book-hounds and their policier, this campaign frame come from one of the following hangers-on, three or more major benefits from the addition of Occupations: Antiquarian, collectors (likely Mythos victims, focused book-specific abilities. Criminal, Dilettante, Hobo, or sorcerers, or cultists) of various
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Bibliography (Academic) • identify distinctive handwriting from a false one You’re an expert on books from an aesthetic, historical, and • match typed documents to the If this Ability is not available technical point of view. You can: typewriters that produced in the game, these talents and them skills are otherwise subsumed • distinguish real tomes from under History. forgeries • find fingerprints on paper Ability Emphases • tell when a book has been If this Ability is not available Investigators in a Book- retouched or altered, or in the game, these talents and Hounds game may wish to pages have been tipped in or skills are otherwise subsumed ensure their team covers a otherwise placed where they under Chemistry, Evidence few less usual areas that are were not originally Collection, and History. If it is not new abilities per se: Art available, it is an Occupational specialties such as Engraving identify the age of a book by ability for Antiquarians and and Printing; Chemistry for style and materials Police Detectives. ink and paper treatment; and Craft specialties including • call to mind historical details Forgery (Technical) Bookbinding, Leatherworking, on famous books, printers, You can create a false document, and Papermaking. bookbinders, and publishers, forge handwriting with a sample and those around them to work from, or (given time) fake Idiosyncratic Magic an entire book. This ability does Book-hounds, their customers, • recall details of book sales and not convey any special skill at their contacts, and all those who auctions, and accurately price creating “aged” paper or ink, or haunt the Mythos black market a given book at bookbinding, or any ability to are superstitious, obsessed, and write or otherwise create a given widely read in the occult. This • know or estimate what volume. is the kind of combination that libraries (institutional or leads people to try magic, and in private) might hold a specific If this Ability is not available keeping with the weird, uncanny volume in the game, these talents and setting, some of it might work. skills are otherwise subsumed If this Ability is not available under Art (Calligraphy or As an entirely optional rule, the in the game, these talents and Printing). Keeper can allow an Investigator skills are otherwise subsumed (or NPC) to make a 3-point under Art History. If it is Textual Analysis (Academic) Stability test to exchange 2 available, it is an Occupational By studying the content of texts Stability pool points for 1 pool ability for Antiquarians. (as opposed to their physical point from another Ability. The characteristics as documents) exchange can happen after Document Analysis (Technical) you can draw reliable inferences the die roll. The player must You’re an expert in the study of about their authorship. You can: say what weird ritual action physical documents (as opposed her Investigator is (possibly to the contents of a text). You • determine if an anonymous retroactively) performing, give can: text is the work of a known some notion of the oddball author, based on samples of theory by which it works, and • determine a document’s his work tell where she learned it if this is approximate age the first time she has made this • determine the era in which a particular exchange. The primary • identify the manufacturer of text was written restrictions are: no player paper used in a document (including the Keeper) should • identify the writer’s region, and consider it grotesquely abusive, • tell forged documents from the level of education it must be strange and eerie, real thing and it should have a necessary • tell a real work by an author condition. Keeper is allowed
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The Investigator to enforce these conditions for money down in Spitalfields have a Mythos source (forcing similar trades from here on. For last winter.” Investigators to read their example: wares), that it must involve the Creative Keepers and players caster’s blood (either a token “Rose really needed to will be able to justify all sorts of amount, or 1 Health point), make that Sense Trouble weird, eccentric magics to boost or any other restriction she test – I’m trading 4 Athletics (“I twist the strand of feels suitable. At the Keeper’s Stability for 2 Sense human hair around my neck discretion, some parts of London Trouble, so she gets a ‘5’ and pull myself over the fence”), may be more conducive to on the die roll instead. Disguise (“I’ve got his mummified certain magics (the Isle of Dogs Rose is smoking cigarettes thumb in my ruddy mouth, of for hunting magic, say), lowering soaked in rats’ blood and course I look like him”), Fleeing the Difficulty of the Stability test saffron oil, since we think (“I cut my finger, let it soak my from 4 to 3. the plague demon we’re glove in blood, toss it onto the hunting is from Russia boot of that speeding car, and Pitch where saffron grows, and run the other way”), Shadowing Might range from “It’s James she’s watching the smoke (“I’m only looking in shop Ellroy’s Ninth Gate!” to “It’s pool around its invisible windows with her first initial in Unknown Armies meets Iain hidey-hole. She learned them”), and so forth. Sinclair!” this trick from that crazy White Russian who used Keepers may rule that any to trade books for vodka idiosyncratic magic must
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“My grandfather and his widowed Hacked From the History Books son Walter now comprised the The Cleveland Torso Murders occurred exactly as described here. Cleveland household, but the memory With the exception of the fig leaves, I have added nothing to the of older times hung thickly over it. I facts of the case. One-Armed Willie, the “crazy Greek,” and the Aztec blood cult are all actual leads pursued during the investigation, still disliked the place…” although I confess that I’ve provided more creative explanations -- The Shadow Over Innsmouth than the impoverished historical record sees fit. Other strange but true leads included a vampire Voodoo killer, Flo Polillo’s bizarre search for puzzles before her death, and the elderly scientist who built a death ray. For space’s sake, I’ve omitted them all and much In this scenario, a team of more with great reluctance – that last one sounds beautifully like Investigators delves into the Yithian technology fallen into the Run through Charybdis’ wake. mystery of the grotesque Cleveland Torso Murders, and Sheriff O’Donnell did mount his own “spoiler” investigation, albeit a discovers that the truth is perhaps year later than our timeline has it. (He arrested Dolezal, who died in more appalling yet. It is more police custody.) The solution given here to the mystery is impossible, impressionistic than direct, but however, and I have changed more than just the name of the a line of reasoning – no matter Cleveland visionaries who built Shaker Heights and the Cleveland how illogical – does run through Interurban Railway. it. It can serve as an introduction for an ongoing Trail of Cthulhu Historical details came from Torso, by Steven Nickel, which I campaign, as pieces from the recommend to any fan of true crime and Depression. pattern of menace can point survivors in a number of different directions.
This scenario will likely take two The Horrible Truth sessions to run, and can be played Orem van Schaen, a deranged classicist and scion of twin Cleveland in either Pulp or Purist mode. rail and real-estate barons Castor and Pollux van Schaen, is the It begins on August 12, 1938, in Cleveland Torso Killer. Never particularly stable, he came unhinged Cleveland, Ohio. when he discovered an engraved Red Stone during a European trip in 1928, and brought it back to Cleveland with him. He is attempting If you are not the Keeper, reading to summon Charybdis, the legendary whirlpool demon from Homer’s this chapter will fatally spoil your Odyssey. He has been assembling suitable heads, and energizing fun. If you are the Keeper, not them with enough murderous magic, to construct Scylla, Charybdis’ reading this chapter carefully twin monstrosity, in the (as it happens) accurate belief that the before running the scenario will creation of Scylla necessarily calls forth Charybdis. With the killing fatally spoil everyone’s fun. of victim #10, he has six suitable heads, and Scylla can emerge. As Charybdis begins to manifest, the city’s hold on time itself begins to come unstuck around the edges. The Spine The Spine of this scenario is as follows:
Briefing by Sheriff O’Donnell: The Sheriff assembles the
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Welcome to Cleveland Cleveland, Ohio in the Thirties is America’s seventh largest city, with a population just under 1 million. Besides “native whites,” there are Germans, Poles, Irish, Italians, Slovenes, Serbo-Croats, Czechs, Mexicans, and a smattering of Rumanians, Syrians, Greeks, and Carpathian-Russians. (Cleveland’s 72,000 black residents stay in the Cedar Central ghetto along Central Street.) A quarter of the city is out of work, despite the blazing steel mills and oil refineries, chemical works, and factories lining the basin of the Cuyahoga River. This industrial hell is the Flats, 60 feet below street level. Running southeast from the Flats, paralleling the river between Woodland Avenue and Broadway, is a prehistoric river bed called Kingsbury Run. It holds the waste and effluent from the Flats, the trash of the city, weeds and poison sumac. The Run and Flats together hold perhaps 100,000 hoboes, bums, and homeless, the human waste and effluent from the Depression. Their shanties and tent cities flow past the commuters who ride the Cleveland Interurban Railroad (CIRR) line from downtown’s Union Station (surmounted by the 708-foot tall Terminal Tower, the eighth tallest building in America) to the exclusive Shaker Heights neighborhood. The CIRR is built on the old Nickel Line railroad tracks right down the middle of the Run. Just east of the Flats is the “Roaring Third,” the most corrupt police precinct in the city, which is saying something. Prostitution, the drug trade, dive bars, and gambling flourish. It’s a warren of slums and tenements, single-room apartments that ask no questions as long as travelers pay in cash. (It is also, as such neighborhoods tended to be, the only racially and ethnically integrated part of the city, home to 39 different languages.) During Prohibition, Cleveland, like St. Paul and Hot Springs, gained a deserved national reputation as an “open city” for gangsters – the city government and police department gladly accepted bribes to keep the heat off of any fugitive from justice who could afford it. The racketeer Moe Dalitz and the “Mayfield Road Mob” (the Milano and Pollizi brothers) run the city to suit themselves. The independent Republican Mayor Harold H. Burton wants desperately to clean up his city, against the opposition of the Democratic machine, the Dalitz mob, and his own police department. In 1935, he appointed Eliot Ness, the “Untouchable” G-man who broke Capone in Chicago, as Cleveland’s safety director. That same year, the killings began.
Investigators, briefs them, gives a major Mythos manifestation is players should also decide among them a copy of the county case approaching. Both trails of clues themselves whether and how file on the “Butcher of Kingsbury lead to the same horrible truth their Investigators knew each Run,” and turns them loose on (see sidebar). other before this case. the mystery. This, along with the Torso Murders themselves, is the Two More Bodies: As if history Sheriff O’Donnell doesn’t have hook. itself prods the Investigators many deputies he can rely on, along, two more bodies show up and as a loyal Democrat, he can’t Seeing the Red Stone: At least in Cleveland. work with Mayor Burton’s police one Investigator sees the Red investigation. The whole point is Stone in the photographs in Frank Stopping Charybdis: Having to make Eliot Ness look bad by Dolezal’s apartment. linked their parallel murder and solving the murders before he Mythos investigations, our heroes does, and to avoid kicking over Fingering the Butcher: As must beard the Butcher in his any other anthills in Cleveland. they explore the seamy side den and stop Charybdis from The few deputies he has available of Cleveland during the hot drowning the world. have raised their profile in the Depression summer, the Third too much, and might attract Investigators piece together unwelcome police attention if he enough clues to suspect a scion of Premise uses them any more. O’Donnell Cleveland aristocracy. The Investigators (or at least one needs fresh faces on the street of them) need to be the sorts and fresh eyes on the case. Time Slips: At the same time, of people who Sheriff Martin L. the Investigators also experience O’Donnell would hire to solve Investigators can be from enough strangeness to suspect a series of brutal killings. The Cleveland, and thus well known to
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O’Donnell as interested in “queer Cleveland Police Department file who further investigation has stuff” like these killings, or they on the Butcher; that would be tentatively identified as Frank can be from out of town, and the many boxes of documents, and Dolezal, an unemployed bricklayer sheriff can trust them not to have it is privileged Ness information and sometime pimp. In 1936, any local loyalties that trump his. that the rival Sheriff has no he lived at 1908 Central Ave., a Is a professor a “noted expert in access to. This file contains block from where Flo Polillo was abnormal criminal behavior”? Is a the public filings on the case dumped. O’Donnell can also give dilettante “Martin’s brother’s boy, (warrants and such), copies of them a “last known address” for just down from Yale, but a good news stories, and the results Dolezal. Democrat”? Maybe a journalist of the sheriff’s department’s works for the Cleveland Press, previous (and sketchy) legwork. resentful of Ness’ sweetheart It provides 1 dedicated pool Frank Dolezal’s Apartment deal feeding scoops to the Plain point concerning details of the Dealer. (In the “Project Covenant” murders to any investigative (2941 E. 22nd) campaign frame, the Investigators ability for the Investigator holding The Investigators can break into can be tasked to look into the it. (This is called a File Spend in this cold-water second-story killings by the cabal.) Ideally at these scenario notes.) The point apartment (with Locksmith, or least one Investigator will be a P.I. refreshes between scenes. with a swift kick, but the former or a former police detective who won’t leave obvious signs of can bring the other Investigators The basic facts are these: Between forced entry) and search it, or on as “my associates,” but any September 1935 and the present brace Dolezal, or both, perhaps halfway plausible explanation the date, an unknown assailant waiting in his flat for him to players come up with will work has kidnapped, beheaded, and return from another day of – O’Donnell needs results, and dismembered at least 10 people. drinking and doing nothing. They he’s paying them ($25 a day, plus The “Butcher,” as the press calls may also talk to Frank’s neighbors. expenses) off the books anyway. him, kills his victims at some unknown site, moves the remains, Searching the Apartment With a 1-point Cop Talk spend, and leaves the bodies in pieces to Dolezal’s apartment is a cheap O’Donnell can also give the be discovered later. Some bodies flop, with very little in the way Investigator who spent the point a show reddening, or seem dried of furniture or personal effects. Cuyahoga County deputy sheriff’s and leathery; possible signs of A notebook on the side table has badge. He makes clear that he chemical treatment intended to a list of 25 names and addresses, doesn’t want a lot of noise about remove trace evidence. Some of the farthest away in Ontario, the investigation to get back to the victims’ heads are left nearby; California, none of them matching Cleveland P.D., which means no others are still missing. known figures in the case. search warrants needed -- but no arrests without solid evidence. The Keeper should photocopy Evidence Collection (Core “This badge might close as many the Case Summary nearby clue): A hollow brick under the mouths as it opens,” he says, (permission granted) for the windowsill holds white powder before laying out the facts of the players’ use. in a twist of paper (Streetwise or Torso Murders. Pharmacy to identify as cocaine), and a packet of three black and At First Glance white photographs. Sheriff O’Donnell Spells It The best lead that O’Donnell has is Lester’s, a dive bar in the Roaring The photographs show: An Out For You Third on E. 20th and Central. His unknown man having sex with Give the players as much deputies, working nights around Rose Walker. His face is not background as you think they other cases, have discovered visible. He has a peculiar tattoo can stand. If they get restless or that all three identified victims high on his shoulder, resembling bored, you can cut to the chase; – Edward Andrassy, Flo Polillo, an arrowhead pointing into a O’Donnell will throw them a and Rose Wallace – were regulars curve. Anthropology suggests thick case file and send them there. They kept company with a that it looks like a primitive glyph. packing. The case file is not the volatile, burly man called “Frank,” (Either a 2-point Anthropology
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CASE SUMMARY -- “TORSO MURDERS” Office of the Cuyahoga County Sheriff -- DO NOT CIRCULATE
Victim #1: John Doe I Found 9/23/35 in Kingsbury Run near E. 49th & Praha; emasculated and beheaded; est. dead between 1 and 4 weeks when found. Victim #2: Edward Andrassy, small-time crook and hustler Found 9/23/35 approximately 30 feet from Victim #1; likewise emasculated and beheaded; est. dead 2-3 days. Victim #3: Florence Polillo, AKA Flo Martin, AKA Clara Dunn, prostitute Found 1/26/36 behind Hart Mfg. at 2315 E. 20th (just north of the Run); arms and legs severed, legs bisected at knee, torso bisected at waist; head missing; identified by her fingerprints; wrapped in newspapers from 1/25/36 and 8/11/35; est. dead 2-4 days. (Victim’s clothes discovered 1/17/38 in Kingsbury Run.) Victim #4: John Doe II, sailor? Found 6/5/36 in Kingsbury Run near E. 55th; beheaded; six tattoos on body; laundry mark “J.D.”; est. dead 2 days. Victim #5: John Doe III Found 7/22/36 in Big Creek near Clinton Rd.; beheaded, no mutilations; may have been killed on scene; est. dead 2 months. Victim #6: John Doe IV Found 9/10/36 in sewer tunnel in Kingsbury Run near 37th St. Bridge; beheaded, emasculated, torso bisected, dismembered; head and arms missing; est. dead 2 days. Victim #7: Jane Doe I Found 2/23/37 near Euclid Beach at E. 156th; dismembered, torso bisected, beheaded; head and limbs missing; cause of death heart failure; est. dead 3-4 days. (Lower half of torso found 5/5/37 in Cuyahoga River at E. 30th.) Victim #8: Rose Wallace (?), prostitute Found 6/6/37 on bank of Cuyahoga under Lorain-Carnegie Bridge; beheaded and dismembered; limbs and one rib missing; wrapped in newspaper dated 6/5/36; est. dead 1 year. ID made by son and dental records, but Rose Wallace reported missing only 10 months previous. Victim #9: John Doe V Found 7/6/37 in Cuyahoga River beneath W. 3rd and Erie RR Bridge; dismembered, beheaded, torso bisected, limbs bisected at joints, disemboweled; heart and head missing; cuts unusually erratic; blue cross tattoo on leg; wrapped in newspapers from 6/37; est. dead 2-3 days. Victim #10: Jane Doe II Found 4/8/38 in Cuyahoga River at Superior Ave.; dismembered, beheaded, torso bisected, limbs bisected; arms, head, and lower right leg missing; cuts unusually erratic; drugs found in victim’s blood; est. dead 3-5 days.
Potential Additional Victims:
Mahoning Swamp Bodies Six men found (4 bodies, 2 heads) in Mahoning River swamps near New Castle, Penn., 1923-1924. John Doe 0, Black Found 7/24/29 in Kingsbury Run 6 blocks N of site of Victims #1 and #2; beheaded, left arm severed; head and arm missing; time of death unknown. Jane Doe 0, “The Lady in the Lake” Found 9/5/34 on the same site as Victim #7; bisected, dismembered, and beheaded, head, uterus, and limbs missing; body chemically preserved and treated. John Doe 00 Found 7/1/36 in a boxcar in the Erie RR yards in New Castle, Penn.; beheaded and mutilated; head missing; wrapped in newspapers dated 7/33; est. dead 10-14 days.
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spend or a later Library Use at drunk, the Difficulty is 3.) If they Western Reserve University will succeed, he will spill what he Cleveland by Night identify it as a canine totem from knows after a few minutes of As the Investigators wander the Balkans approximately 5,000 Intimidation, or even faster if through Cleveland, the following years old.) The room looks like an confronted with the photographs. scenes can happen whenever anonymous Cleveland flop. If the Stealth test fails, Frank is the Keeper decides it’s time for alerted to their presence and another scene. They are most The same man having sex with comes at them swinging a butcher likely to start with either Lester’s Edward Andrassy. His face is knife he has concealed. Tavern or Nadie’s Tattoos, but not visible. This picture appears again, it’s all up to your sense of to have been taken through a Frank Dolezal pacing as Keeper. Scenes with window; the corner of a painting Athletics 5, Health 5, Scuffling 6, floating core clues are indicated. is visible behind the two. With Art Weapons 2 History, it can be identified as an Italian futurist work from before Weapon: -1 (butcher knife) Lester’s Tavern the War. (A 1-point spend garners The clientele are desperate loners; the title, Whirlpool, and the artist, All the Investigators should know amputees, hoboes, blind pencil Glaucco Aioli.) that gunshots will draw police, salesmen, and aging prostitutes. which will make Sheriff O’Donnell With suitable Interpersonal ability The same man having sex with upset. Once Frank is defeated, he use by the Investigators, they Flo Polillo. The room looks will talk. will describe Frank Dolezal as sumptuously furnished, although “barking mad” and “surly” and Architecture can tell that it is Dolezal was just a pimp who “hair-trigger” and similar epithets. built of pre-stressed concrete catered to clients with a taste for The speaker will often aver that rather than normal residential slumming it. He admits to having “He might be the Butcher hisself, construction. Behind them, beaten Flo, claiming that she see if he ain’t,” and after one leaning against the wall, is an deserved it. Every so often, he such pronouncement, a wretched- engraved bas-relief in what goes into a fugue state in which looking hobo soak will contradict looks like marble or soapstone. he describes cutting Flo up after the speaker. Under magnification, it depicts a “a fight on Saturday fit to make ship being attacked by a horrible the dogs howl.” Any Investigator Reassurance (Core clue): If monster with six snarling, canine (especially an alienist) with bought a Reassuring drink, the heads. A man in a crested helmet Psychoanalysis can tell Dolezal ‘bo will tell how he met “The stands at the bow, looking on in is not entirely sane; Psychology, Hobo Doctor” at “this very bar.” horror. The stern is obscured by Oral History, or Interrogation He was always good for a drink, Flo Polillo’s head. Archaeology can tell that his story contradicts and he knew Flo Polillo. He was or Art History identify the itself, and is probably not true. well-dressed, about thirty, called scene as the attack of Scylla on He does, however, tell a very himself a doctor, used hair Odysseus’ ship, from the Odyssey. convincing tale of hiding Flo’s pomade, and “talked a storm.” He Examining the picture closely body in the cans behind Hart was very interested in tattoos enough to identify the relief Manufacturing. Using the File that people had. He offered people creates a strong sensation of Spend reminds the Investigator lifts at closing time “in a big black being watched, along with vertigo that Flo was killed, according to car,” and he left with Flo “a couple and a powerful onrush of déjà vu, the examiner’s estimate, on a days before” her death. Nobody for a 2-point Stability test. Friday. He claims he doesn’t know saw either of them since. The who the man in the pictures unknown man in the photos uses is (Psychology says he’s not hair pomade. (Hobo Investigators Meeting Frank Dolezal lying), and that he got them from can use their Streetwise here, as If the Investigators are planning another pimp, One-Armed Willie. well.) to ambush Dolezal either in the He hasn’t seen Willie around street outside or in his apartment, since. Lester’s can be the spot for they need to make a Stealth test. Investigators to pick up any (Since Frank is more than a bit other helpful rumors or gossip
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The Kingsbury Horror the Keeper decides to plant. On while walking through the Third, mention anything about the their second visit, for example, probably as an Inconspicuous Clue sheriff or the Butcher, but work following a Reassuring drink for (see p. 55). elliptically around to the subject the house, they might hear about of the tattoo design. Failing that, the “Mexican headhunters” or the Evidence Collection or Streetwise Flattery will also work – Mondo is “crazy Greek,” to prep them when (Core clue): In the window, proud of his designs. those figures appear. However, if displayed on fading paper, is the the Investigators prefer to prowl design from the unknown man’s Should the Keeper wish it, and the mean streets of Cleveland tattoo, only in this case filled in things go wrong, a fight can break shaking down suspicious with emerald green snake scales out with Mondo and his pals. (The characters, they can get the same and sporting white bone skulls at precise number of his pals is up sort of leads that way. the four ends. to the Keeper.) At the conclusion of the affray, if the Investigators A Streetwise Investigator will are victorious, Intimidation can Nadie’s Tattoos know that the tattooed, eye- also get the answers they crave. The Investigators will most likely patch wearing operator, Mondo, notice this Mexican tattoo parlor is a gang member, and will not
Los Cazadores de Cabezas, The Headhunters This Mexican gang began as commercial fishermen until they accidentally crossed paths with the incipient Charybdis-energy surrounding the Butcher as he examined a future ritual site. They suffered a religious epiphany, and discovered their new goddess. They worshipped Scylla, the demon the Butcher was building, calling her Coatlicue, after the Aztec goddess of fire and death. As the Anthropology ability reveals, she wears a skirt of living serpents and skulls, and her hands and feet are clawed like dogs’ paws. The Headhunters’ actual career is up to the Keeper; did they harvest any skulls, or did Eliot Ness break them up first? Does their remnant still have a cult center somewhere in the Third? They can be a red herring, or they can have made contact with their unwitting founder and be part of the trail of clues. (If so, Evidence Collection will find a fair number of CIRR tickets in their compound, very unlikely for Mexican poor folk in 1938.) If the cult is still functioning, their hideout will feature three things: A copy of the Red Stone, painted in garish Aztec colors and designs, showing a boat being smashed between two giants: the god Huracan and the goddess Coatlicue, while a Jaguar Knight looks on helplessly. (A 1-point Anthropology spend will recall that the Aztecs had a myth similar to the Greek tale of the Clashing Rocks, which Odysseus avoided in the Odyssey.) At the Keeper’s discretion, it may also impose a Stability test. A pyramid of skulls, as many as they have collected. (Some might be looted from graveyards, if the Keeper doesn’t want to needlessly multiply decapitations.) The Brood of Coatlicue, a nest of living skulls attached to vines growing in pots all around the humid room. It will attack unbelievers. Brood of Coatlicue Abilities: Athletics 11, Health 7, Scuffling 16 Hit Threshold: 3 (rooted) Weapon: +0 (bite); each skull can bite one opponent at close or point-blank range at no Hit Threshold penalty. Armor: Physical weapons, except those that crush skulls or cut vines, do only 1 point of damage. Fire does normal damage. Stability Loss: +0
The Keeper can also plant evidence of the cult’s ties to other Mythos threats to jump-start an ongoing campaign; cults to Yig in Mexico, for example, or via other fishermen to the Deep One threat in Cleveland personified by the Williamson family in “The Shadow Over Innsmouth.”
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“Los Psychos” Gang Members Evidence Collection (Core clue): One-Armed Willie Athletics 6, Health 6, Scuffling 7, Many of the photographs hanging Athletics 9, Health 3, Scuffling 4 Weapons 4 on the wall of the bar show various fishing boats with their If he escapes, great! The Weapon: +0 (chains, baseball bats), Mexican crews. In one, however, Investigators can have run -1 (knives, blackjacks) a white man is standing on the themselves into some creepy part dock above the crew, obviously of Cleveland suitable for a time- Mondo says the symbol represents caught in the frame by accident. slip (see below). Eventually, he’ll “a goddess from the old times, With Architecture, the dock is show up again. He has to. with snake skulls in her dress,” recognizable as the Erie Railroad and that a gringo gave him the Dock on W. 3rd, where victim #9 Once finally run to ground, Willie basic design, but he added the was found. The date in the corner just breaks down and sobs. He’s flashy parts. (If asked to describe of the picture is 8/11/35, the date incoherent, moaning about how the gringo, he says “Young, pushy, on the newspapers that wrapped “the doctor already showed me big mouth. Shiny hair. They all Flo Polillo’s body. Odder yet, the papers says I’m gonna die in look the same. Showed me what white man’s jaw resembles that the past.” “I been spit up by the he wanted, and I gave it him, the of the john in the “insurance” whirlpool, just like in the story, dog on the shoulder.” If pressed, photos. Upon that discovery, the and I’m gonna get sucked back he will seem confused about Investigator who saw the bas- in. The doctor gonna cut my arm calling it a dog.) He designed relief recognizes the resulting off and kill me in 1929, and the that tattoo for a gang called the composition as the same – a row one that gets away just runs until Headhunters, “until Ness busted of men with one man in profile he sucked back in.” Reassurance them.” raised above them, extending (Core clue) can calm him down an arm in protestation. Once the and change his ranting to Investigator sees the resemblance, muttering, but can do nothing for The Picture in the Tavern the sky in the photo seems to what is obviously a far-gone case Either Mondo, or someone at roil, as if a cyclone were forming of delusional paranoia. Lester’s, can point Investigators above the fishing boat, triggering looking for the Headhunters’ trail a 2-point Stability test. Investigators can ask a calmer toward La Sirena, a Mexican bar Willie anything they like, but his and gambling establishment near useful responses are as follows: the riverfront. The name comes “Where does he cut your arm from a traditional Mexican Loteria Meet One-Armed Willie off?” “Under the train.” “What card prominently displayed in the Either a lead at Lester’s or whirlpool? What story?” “Cribdis. window, depicting a mermaid. a sudden impromptu Sense Greek story. Next to the dogs.” Trouble (“That black guy’s sleeve “Who is the doctor?” “Rich white Gringos are distinctly unwelcome, is flapping in the wind.”) at man with greasy hair. Live under unless they’re gambling and Difficulty 5 lets the Investigators the train.” “Did he kill Flo? (Or Ed, losing. Nobody will talk about know that One-Armed Willie has or Rose.)” “Didn’t know he was anything, although a 2-point swum into their ken. He must be the doctor the first time before Credit Rating spend washes away chased down, beginning with a he killed me, so I shopped him Flo any such resentment. If the ice Shadowing test against Difficulty an’ Ed an’ Rose. Builds dogs out of is broken thusly, the bartender 4. (He’s suspicious, but he’s got ‘em.” “Saw the boat in the pitcher. or dealer will allow that yes, the one arm and stands out in any Caught in the whirlpool.” Cazadores de Cabezas used to crowd not in the ghetto.) If come here. They came here when successful, the Investigators can During this colloquy, Medicine they were just fishermen, and trap him in a dead end alley; if indicates that Willie is when they were big gangsters, not, it’s time to test Athletics, since malnourished and suffering from too. Now, they are in jail or in he doesn’t stick around to find out exhaustion and exposure. His hiding, and they come here no what the scary white folk want. arm seems to have been neatly more. severed, and then scarred over, possibly as many as, oh, nine years ago.
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Once the Keeper judges that Willie use, but otherwise in museum Weapon: -1 (nightstick or sap); cops has been as informative, or as condition. won’t shoot (+0 .32 Police Specials) interesting, as he is going to get, unless the Investigators are stupid Willie begins to bleed all over Psychoanalysis: He suffers from enough to draw down on them. them, from a sudden wound in severe panic attacks, and is his neck. They hear the sound of probably insane. This encounter can be used a great, rushing wind, and Willie’s as a “soak encounter” if the head simply tears loose and Teiresh, the Crazy Greek Keeper wishes, or left out if disappears in a mist of blood and Athletics 8, Health 7, Scuffling 5, the Investigators are doing a snarling noises. Any Investigator Weapons 6 reasonable job of keeping things specifically watching Willie has on the down low. her vision grey out and grow Weapon: +1 (sword), -1 (dagger); he patchy; any visible light seems can attack with one or the other to be sucked away toward the Eddies of Charybdis Kingsbury Run. Willie’s body falls In his brief interval of lucidity, he These time slip encounters should backward, its good arm flailing, explains that his name is Teiresh, start happening after the first and Willie, too vanishes with a he lost his ship when the Render Investigator has seen the Stone sucking splash. The manifestation (Skyllo) attacked, and that the in the photograph, and with is over, and witnesses to Willie’s river doesn’t look the same as greater frequency as dramatically piecemeal disappearance make a it did, the figs are bad here and appropriate. It’s best if they 5-point Stability test. you can hardly find any, he didn’t happen to lone Investigators know where that wall of grey first, and then to increasingly came from, and where is the large teams. They can happen The Crazy Greek Troublemaker? (Odishowax?) at any time of the day or night; Eventually, habitues of Lester’s Charybdis deforms time to will mention the “crazy Greek” He then panics again, and suit drama. The Keeper should seen running along the Run with runs off waving his sword. If absolutely feel free to make up “big knives” in his overcoat. If the restrained, he will escape when her own time-slip phenomena. Investigators don’t bother with no longer watched. Once enough of them have Lester’s, they will eventually run occurred, if the Keeper wants into the crazy Greek during their to skip ahead to the discovery wanderings. Meet Detective Merylo of the next two bodies, or even If the Investigators have been to Ness’ final raid on the Flats, He is short, wiry, barefoot, and sloppy, firing a lot of guns, she can justify it by dropping the clad in leather trousers and a flashing their badge unwisely, Investigators through a time-slip hobo coat too big for him. He has or otherwise setting too high a themselves. a reddish beard, a beaky nose, profile, they will get a visit from and rotten teeth. He babbles at Detective Peter Merylo of the Newspaper Ghosts. A newspaper those he encounters, and if they Cleveland Police Department. He blows past you in a spiraling seem dangerous, he waves his big warns them to stay out of his case wind. When you grab it out of the knives at them. and to tell the Sheriff to stick to air, it is dated years ago. (If the finding lost dogs. With a Cop Talk, Keeper wants, it can match one Languages: An Investigator he doesn’t have a few of the boys of the dates the Butcher uses to with Greek recognizes the crazy in blue beat the Investigators up. wrap his kills.) No test. Greek’s babbling as Homeric He will not listen to fool theories Greek, not modern Greek. An about cults, or time vortexes, Back on the Bridge. While Investigator with Homeric Greek or accusations against leading crossing a bridge over the Run can talk to him, beginning with citizens from obvious political or over the Cuyahoga River, you Reassurance. hacks like the Investigators. suffer a huge burst of déjà vu and cross it a second time. 2-point Archaeology: His “big knives” Cleveland’s Finest Stability test. are a Mycenaean broadsword Athletics 7, Firearms 4, Health 8, and dagger, banged up by heavy Scuffling 6, Weapons 4 Dried Birds. If the Investigators
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The Kingsbury Horror are in a car, they are pummeled by falling dead birds, dried and What Cthulhu Mythos Reveals leathery. On the street, the things Investigators who have Cthulhu Mythos may use it to piece simply drop silently from the sky. together the conflicting, insane phenomena they have encountered. Biology identifies the birds as The revelation is essentially as follows: A vast entity approaches, passenger pigeons, extinct for deforming time as we grow nearer to it. It is called by its lesser twin, a generation or more. 3-point assembled by murder. Stability test. The specific nature of Scylla and Charybdis are left to the Keeper to determine. Zhar-Lloigor, the Twin Obscenity, is a strong contender, Future Sky. An incredibly loud or the Shub-Niggurath and Hastur dyad mentioned on p. 99. noise comes from overhead, and Charybdis might be Yog-Sothoth, and the process of building and you look up to see an enormous evoking Scylla merely one way to incarnate its Child on Earth. Or both airplane with no propellers slowly might be aspects of Cthulhu (the grasping tentacles and the drowning cross the sky, leaving a white trail dreams) waiting to rejoin after millennia sealed apart. that spirals toward the Run. 3- The danger posed by Charybdis is at least a 1-point Sanity loss (a point Stability test. “clear and present danger to innocents”), but might well be world- destroying. Again, the Keeper should tailor the numbers for her own Car Dumping a Body. It’s night campaign and style. on the Jefferson Street Bridge above the Cuyahoga, near the Kingsbury Run. You see a black Cord stop and the driver get out, up in the Run on a tree-covered roaring sound of Charybdis. 5- remove a body from the back seat hillock by the East 24th Street point Stability test. wrapped in paper, and hurl it Station. 4-point Stability test. over the railing. From the sound when it bounces off a roof, and Not the Same River. Looking the multiple splashes, you know it down at the Cuyahoga, it widens Investigating Scylla and was in pieces. You cannot identify and straightens; the city seems the driver, except to note he has to melt away. A Greek galley (like van Schaen pomaded hair. The Keeper should the one on the Stone) can be seen Although the Keeper should stay emphasize the dreamlike or beating down the river. You feel flexible, this scenario naturally ghost-like nature of this time-slip; a horrible sense of anticipation, falls into a rhythm, alternating the Investigators cannot affect and slavering hunger. You realize legwork in the Third, bookwork these events. 3-point Stability test. you’re watching the boat from on van Schaen and mythology, six pairs of eyes, and wake up to and utter weirdness as Charybdis Flashback. This can be an a roaring sound and Cleveland continues to drain through time. opportunity for roleplaying and traffic all around you. 4-point This is a good rhythm to shoot for, deepening your character; while Stability test. especially by intercutting between walking in sight of the Run, you sub-teams of Investigators. have a vivid waking dream and Elder Thing. Looking at the replay the worst thing that ever Kingsbury Run, it fills with water, happened to you involving dogs and the plain flattens out around The Painting or drowning. (The player should it. Geology identifies the weird Credit Rating/Art (Core clue): make this up if need be.) 3-point plants around as Jurassic cycads. Asking around in local art circles, Stability test, or worse if the There is a strange humming the Investigators can discover that Investigator already has a pre- sound as an Elder Thing (see p. Aioli’s Whirlpool was bought in existing paranoia, or the “worst 131) glides down the Run on its Venice in 1928 by one Orem van thing” was a Mythos shock. wings. The sound rises in pitch as Schaen at the conclusion of his the alien is caught in an invisible European tour. There was a great Sudden Flood. You’re walking in vortex and pulled apart in stop- scandal, because van Schaen paid the Run and you hear the onrush motion; its after-images persist far more than the painting was of waters, foaming down the gully in a line, like the rowers on the worth, and possibly more than his toward you. You drown, and wake Stone. Again you wake up to the family could easily afford. As far
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The Kingsbury Horror as anyone knows, it’s still hanging a day and then spits its intake line to their brand-new exclusive in the van Schaen mansion in out again). Scylla, after all, will Shaker Heights suburb. They Shaker Heights. only kill six of his men; Charybdis drowned themselves in 1929 when will destroy everything. Later, the Crash wiped out the majority If the Investigators did not know when Zeus drives Odysseus back of the van Schaen family holdings. the painting’s identity yet, Library into Charybdis, Odysseus clings Use can uncover it based on the to a fig tree growing above her They left the estate to Orem’s twin visible portion in the photograph. maelstrom and survives until sisters N.K. and P.J. van Schaen, his ship’s wreckage resurfaces. as Orem had been considered of This much is available with delicate health. Although educated Western Reserve Anthropology or Occult, as well by private tutors, he proved as with Library Use. capable of taking a doctorate in University classics from Western Reserve in Cleveland’s finest institution One particularly interesting 1923. This much appears in the of higher learning has copious study of the two appears in The public records and biographies, archives suitable for academic Odyssey: A Reassessment, an and is available with Library Use. research. Some likely topics unpublished doctoral thesis (1923) include: by Omer H. Van Schaen. Finding For the gossip, Investigators have this book in the Western Reserve to either mingle in Cleveland stacks requires a 2-point Library high society (Credit Rating 5+) Local Maps Use spend. In this work, van or talk to reporters (Journalist The best map library in the region Schaen argues that Odysseus special abilities, Flattery, or is the Western Reserve Historical sailed on the Danube River, and Reassurance that they won’t print Society Library, but Western that Scylla and Charybdis were anything). Orem left home right Reserve has a good collection too. not (as is usually assumed) the after getting his doctorate, and With Geology, an Investigator Straits of Messina between Sicily rumor had it that he got mixed up can realize that all the bodies are and Italy, but the Iron Gates, a in some trouble in Pennsylvania dumped either in present-day river pass between Transylvania somewhere. He was committed water (the Cuyahoga, Lake Erie, and Serbia. He likewise argues to a sanitarium “for observation” and Big Creek) or prehistoric that the various time dilations between 1925 and 1927, but water (Kingsbury Run). If the and uncertainties of direction managed to talk his father into Investigators have already braced experienced by Odysseus in the letting him go to Europe the Frank Dolezal, they know that he epic are caused by his close next year; he traveled in Greece may well have moved the only brush with Charybdis, and that and along the Danube, buying a apparent exception, Flo Polillo’s Circe, Nausicaa, and Calypso painting in Venice and coming body. are all alternate versions of home. The argument over the Scylla. Reading this work with painting was the last straw, and Psychoanalysis in mind, van Orem was refused permission to Scylla and Charybdis Schaen seems to alternately travel or set up his own classical These two legendary monsters hate and worship Scylla and the museum with the artifacts he of Greek lore always appear women of the Odyssey. “discovered” on his trip. He hasn’t together. According to some really been seen in polite society authorities, they are twin since 1930. daughters of Hecate or of Orem H. van Schaen Cetus the sea monster; in other Born in 1904, the youngest son versions, Charybdis is the mother of Cleveland real-estate and rail The van Schaen Mansion of Scylla. In the Odyssey, Circe baron C.F. (Castor Franchot) van If the Investigators try to gain is able to predict the future, and Schaen. C.F. and his twin brother admittance to the van Schaen warns Odysseus to sail closer to P.N. (Pollux Nesbit) are most mansion (Credit Rating, Scylla (a demoness with the heads famous for buying air rights to Intimidation, or even Locksmith) of six dogs at her waist) than to the Kingsbury Run and the old they will find N.K. and P.J. eerily Charybdis (a massive whirlpool Nickel Line Railroad in order to detached and unreceptive. They that sucks the waters dry thrice build the Cleveland Interurban will pay blackmail to suppress the
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can get access to the scene with Cop Talk and a suitable bribe ($10).
Evidence Collection (Core clue): There are autumn leaves in the severed fist of victim #11. Biology identifies them as fig leaves; the fig tree is not native to Ohio.
Forensics: Victim #11, a woman, has been dead for 4 to 6 months; victim #12, a man, for 7 to 9 months. That puts the killings at right around the time of victim #10, or before. The remains of #11 are dried and hardened, almost mummified (similar to the Dried Birds manifestation on p. 222); that of #12 is practically skeletal.
File Spend: Victim #12 resembles the description of a “Greek” friend of Edward Andrassy, seen in his company at Lester’s.
Sense Trouble: The Investigator who has had the most time- dilation experiences sees a trail of afterimages from the bodies toward the Terminal Tower, and suddenly sees himself on the CIRR line by Kingsbury Run. With a successful test (Difficulty 5) he can jump off the tracks and avoid the train, which sounds like the onrushing water of Charybdis. pictures, if the Investigators are under Moe Dalitz. With a 1-point If he fails, the train hits him like ungentlemanly enough to extort Streetwise spend, Lonardo doesn’t a wall of water, he feels himself it, but refuse to discuss Orem at have his boys beat the offending disintegrate utterly – and he all. The Aioli painting, which does Investigators to a pulp. Unless awakens again at the Dump. He indeed look out over an open they keep bothering the nice must make a 5-point Stability test lawn through a French window, is ladies. (Use Cleveland’s Finest, p. for his deathly hallucination. the only thing in the house free of 222, for Mob statistics.) swirling dust. Fear Death By Water If the Investigators have been “Eleven” and “Twelve” Solving this mystery should be indiscreetly blackening the good On August 16, 1938, two more fairly simple – van Schaen, driven name of van Schaen in polite bodies are discovered at the E. mad by his studies and by the company, or if they blackmail the 9th Street Lakeshore Dump, both Stone, has become the Butcher. sisters, they get a warning to back dismembered and beheaded. In Finding his lair is more difficult, off delivered by Angelo Lonardo, the chaos of the day-long search but there are a number of clues one of the old-school Mob types for missing parts, Investigators to put together:
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Eliot Ness’ Last Raid Just after midnight on the morning of August 18, 1938, frustrated beyond patience at the depredations of the Butcher and the political backstabbing he faced over the case, Eliot Ness led 35 lawmen on one last raid. Backed by 11 squad cars, two paddy wagons, and three fire trucks, his posse descended into the Flats with spotlights blazing and weapons drawn. They razed the shanties and shacks they found, and arrested anyone they could reach. Fire, yowling sirens, and howling mongrels were everywhere. Ness’ squads drove deep into the Run as far as 37th Street, overturning tents and kicking in crate walls, and rounding up the slow and luckless.
If at all possible, this should be the only glimpse the Investigators get of Eliot Ness, clutching an axe-handle and squinting against smoke and filth as he rounds up the desperate and the lost, lit by flarelight and police flashers. It’s worth moving the raid up or down a day off its historical track to have it happen at the same time the Investigators move against the Butcher at the 24th Street Station, just for drama’s sake.
That morning, Ness’ men took 63 hoboes back to Central Station, and handed 11 men with criminal records over to the FBI. For the rest, it was the workhouse. At dawn, Ness and his posse searched the ruins for any clue to the Butcher or his whereabouts, but found nothing. They burned the ruins of the three huge hobo jungles they had invaded. This last gamble didn’t pay off; Ness uncovered no more leads, and his strongarm tactics alienated the city.
Van Schaen’s father and uncle inside the Station is a matter Alertness Modifier: +2 (expanded built the CIRR line through of Architecture or Evidence time senses) Kingsbury Run. Collection (dust patterns on the floor swirling toward a seemingly Weapon: +1 (broadsword) CIRR stations are built of blank tiled wall). Levering it open prestressed concrete, like van is a Mechanical Repair test against Armor: None Schaen’s love nest from the a Difficulty of 5. If it’s failed, the photograph. (Architecture) door still opens, but with a horrid Instead of any given round of groan, alerting the Butcher to their combat, Orem can expend 1 Health A stand of leafy trees in the Run presence. to shift himself in time, allowing him beside the tracks at the East 24th to appear anywhere in the room Street Station includes a fig tree. The chamber is a kind of Art with a fully refreshed Health pool. (Biology) Deco combination of museum and operating theater; there are Scylla Evidence Collection can spot body parts sitting in zinc tubs Athletics 4, Health 18, Scuffling 10 extra weathering on the East 24th of chemicals next to Greek and Street Station, as if it’s been swung Illyrian statuary, Homeric helmets Hit Threshold: 3 (mostly sessile) through the cycle of the years on top of partially flensed skulls, more often than the rest of the and razor-sharp antique swords Alertness Modifier: +2 (expanded line. buried in detached human time senses) shoulder hanks. Orem is either And finally, the Keeper can waiting to spring on them with a Weapon: +0 (bite); Scylla can bite feed visions and time-slips that sword, or working on the pile of with up to six heads at a time; if increasingly focus on the Run, the heads and embalmed limbs in the two bite attacks in a row succeed CIRR line, and the East 24th Street center of the room. against the same target, Scylla can Station until the players catch on. worry her victim with her canine Orem van Schaen, the Butcher jaws, and the second attack thus Athletics 9, Health 8, Scuffling 9, does double damage. Confronting van Schaen Weapons 7 Discovering the secret entrance Armor: firearms and projectiles to van Schaen’s hidden room Hit Threshold: 4 do only half damage; refresh 1
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Health per round. to show the whirlpool surging up from below. This, combined with Stability Loss: +2 the Charybdis water noise coming from the Stone, should tip off the Scylla’s six heads extend on players. quasi-material tendrils out from her midsection, which resembles a great fish body made of sewn- The Red Stone together human skin and limbs. A red diorite slab about 50 inches They are the severed heads of six wide by 18 inches tall by 6 inches Butcher victims, but when they thick, carved in a raised relief open their jaws to yelp or bite, that resembles Hittite almost as they take on a hideously elongated much as it does Mycenaean Greek canine aspect, as though some (Art History, Archaeology). Its external force were deforming description is given on p. XX. them out of shape while wielding However, looking at the Stone, no them like finger puppets. two observers can agree whether the horrified captain is on the Charybdis bow or the stern of the ship. The onset of Charybdis carries all before it. It must be prevented. Loose Ends And Further The simplest way to thwart Charybdis is Odysseus’ method; Trails feed six lives to Scylla in one The Investigators, if they think to round. Investigators can sacrifice bring evidence back to O’Donnell, themselves or hurl convenient will get his grudging thanks – he hoboes into the waiting maws can’t very well embarrass Ness (and make the 5-point Stability any more than the midnight test resulting from such action). raid already has, and he can’t prosecute the weak-minded scion Dynamiting the Station might also of the van Schaen dynasty even if work, at the Keeper’s discretion. he survived the confrontation. But If so, make sure to note the O’Donnell is large-minded enough symmetrical spiral patterns in the to recognize a job well done tile work, to give the players the (albeit petty enough to let Merylo insight that the Station serves as keep chasing phantoms well into Charybdis’ physical containment the 1940s), and will be a useful field (or summoning tower, if contact in the future. Charybdis is Yog-Sothoth). Van Schaen’s lab may contain a But the easiest way is to destroy Mythos tome or diary salvaged the Red Stone. Although the Stone from the ruins of Ferenczy Castle is bulletproof diorite, there are in Rumania in 1928, which may a lot of very caustic chemicals lead to other Yog-Sothoth (or littering the chamber. (Chemistry Hastur, or Zhar-Lloigor) cultists. to find good, horrible ones. If The sidebar box for the cult of an Investigator somehow gets Coatlicue (p. XX) offers more past both Scylla and Orem to the possible leads. chemical tables, they will damage Scylla as strong acid (+0).) The onrush of Charybdis is echoed on the Stone, the bas-relief changing
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A high resolution version of this map can be found on www.pelgranepress.com
227 TRAIL OF CTHULHU
Appendices
Appendix 1: Basic while the Deep Ones are attacking 20 to derive the corresponding should be a dramatic roll. ability ratings: Accounting, Role-Playing and Anthropology, Archaeology, Art, Astronomy, Bargain, Biology, GUMSHOE Converting BRP Chemistry, Craft, Geology, History, Law, Library Use, to GUMSHOE Locksmith, Medicine, Occult, GUMSHOE-style play The following guidelines enable Pharmacy, Photography, you to convert existing Call of Physics, Psychology (becomes using BRP rules Cthulhu scenarios (either your Assess Honesty), and Spot It should be fairly simple to own, or published ones) and Hidden (becomes Evidence convert the GUMSHOE experience Investigators for Trail of Cthulhu. Collection). and investigative philosophy to No game conversion is perfect, the Basic Role-Playing engine however, and if you run into • Divide the following skills by at the heart of Call of Cthulhu. something that your game should 12 to derive the corresponding Any skill roll made to gain a handle differently, feel free to ability ratings: Conceal, clue, advance the plot, or obtain tinker with it. Disguise, Drive Auto (becomes information automatically Driving), Electrical Repair, First succeeds. If you want to Round fractions up. Aid, Hypnosis, Pilot (becomes incorporate spends as well, allow Piloting), Psychoanalysis, and them in 20-point increments – a Investigator Characteristics: Ride (becomes Riding). character with an Anthropology • Ignore STR, CON, SIZ, INT, POW, of 45% can make two spends, or DEX, APP, and EDU. • Subtract 10% from Credit one big dramatic spend. You might Rating skill and divide the require a minimum of 20% in any • Divide SAN by 10 to derive remainder by 10, rounding investigative ability before the value of both Sanity and down in this instance, to player is entitled to clues. Stability. derive Credit Rating ability rating. (Negative results Any skill roll made for dramatic • Divide HP by 2 to derive produce a Credit Rating 0.) If purposes, including all SAN rolls, Health. your derived Credit Rating is POW contests, and combat rolls, lower than the lowest rating proceeds as normal. Although • Divide Idea Roll by 12 to derive in your Occupation band (see the Keeper may want to tweak Sense Trouble. p. 9), raise it to that level. this model for her own particular flavor, we recommend leaving • Divide Luck Roll by 12 to derive • Divide Cthulhu Mythos skill Conceal, Disguise, Drive Auto, Preparedness. by 20 to derive the Cthulhu Electrical Repair, First Aid, Mythos ability rating. Subtract Hypnosis, Pilot, Psychoanalysis, • Ignore Know Roll and Magic this number from 10 and lower and Ride as normal rolls. Some Points. Sanity if necessary to match skills will vary: a Navigate roll to the cap. realize that the dolmen actually Investigator Skills: points north should automatically • Reduce all skills below 6% to • Add Fast Talk and Persuade succeed, for instance, while a 0%. together; divide the result by Navigate roll to find your way 20. Split these rating points out of a fog-bound patch of sea • Divide the following skills by between Bureaucracy, Flattery,
228 TRAIL OF CTHULHU
Appendices
and Reassurance as you wish. • Take your highest hand-to- native attack skill by 3 to If any of those three abilities hand weapon skill; divide that derive its Scuffling. are listed as your Occupational skill by 12 to derive Weapons. abilities, add 1 rating point to Add 1 rating point if you have • Divide the creature’s highest that ability. two other hand-to-hand weapon skill by 4 to derive its weapon skills at 80%+. Weapons (or Firearms as the • For each other language skill, case may be). add 1 to your Languages ability • Take the highest of Mechanical rating. If you have a foreign Repair and Operate Heavy • Make sure to split scores for language at 90%+, add 1 rating Machinery; divide that skill by different environments if point. If you have three or 12 to derive Mechanical Repair. necessary. You may adjust more foreign languages at If the lower of those two skills these derived scores up 90%+, add 2 rating points. is 70%-89%, add 1 rating point; if or down by 1 or 2 points the lower of those two skills is if necessary to clearly • Take the highest of Natural 90%+, add 2 rating points. differentiate the various History, Navigate, and Track; creatures from each other. divide that skill by 20 to derive • Take the highest of Hide, Outdoorsman. For each of Listen, and Sneak, and divide • Hit Threshold is 4 unless the lower skills at 90%+, add 1 it by 12 to derive Stealth. For special circumstances obtain rating point. each of the lower skills at 70%+, (creature is slow, creature has add 1 rating point. native advantages). • Take the highest of Climb, Jump, Swim, and Throw; divide that • If you have any of the • Extrapolate Alertness and skill by 12 to derive Athletics. following abilities as Stealth modifiers, if any, from For each of the lower skills at Occupational abilities, add the examples. 70%+, add 1 rating point. 1 rating point to them: Cryptography, Forensics, • Damage can be extrapolated • Divide Dodge by 10 to derive Interrogation, Intimidation, from the following table, but Fleeing. Oral History. remember that damage is compressed. Damage in Trail • Take the highest of Fist/Punch, • If you have any of the of Cthulhu should only go Grapple, Head Butt, and Kick; following abilities as above +1 if the attack does divide that skill by 12 to derive Occupational abilities, add over 2D6+3 damage in Call Scuffling. For each of the lower 2 rating points to them: Art of Cthulhu. Remember to skills at 90%+, add 1 rating point. History, Cop Talk, Streetwise, include Damage Bonuses when Add 1 rating point for Martial Theology. calculating creature damage! Arts at 50%+. • If you have any of the • If Damage Bonus is +1D4, add 1 following abilities as Trail of Call of Cthulhu rating point to Scuffling. Occupational abilities, add 3 Cthulhu rating points to them: Filch, damage • If Damage Bonus is +1d6, add 1 Shadowing. damage rating point to Scuffling and 1 1D3, 1D4 -2 rating point to Intimidation. 1D6 -1 Creatures: 1D8 +0 • Take the highest of Handgun, • The creature’s Move is its 1D8+1, 1D10, 2D6 +1 Machine Gun, Rifle, and Athletics. 3D6, 4D6 +2 Submachine Gun; divide that 5D6 +3 skill by 12 to derive Firearms. • Divide the creature’s average For each of the lower skills at HP by 2; add 1 to the quotient 6D6 +5 90%+, add 1 rating point. Add to derive its Health. 10D6 +12 1 rating point for Shotgun at 80%+. • Divide the creature’s highest
229 TRAIL OF CTHULHU
Sources and Resouces
• Use the following table for that Trail of Cthulhu compresses The Shunned House Armor conversions: SAN, Magic Point, and POW scores into ability pools that will likely The Shadow Out of Time top out around 10-12 points. Derive Trail of Inertia pools for rituals from the Pickman’s Model Call of Cthulhu Cthulhu resisting POW or Magic Points of the creature or god summoned. The Rats in the Walls points of Armor Armor statistic The Music of Erich Zann 1 -1 2 -2 From Beyond 3-4 -3 Appendix 2: Sources The Thing on the Doorstep 5-7 -4 8-11 -5 and Resources “…a vast, high-ceiled library whose walls If you’ve read any five of these 12-16 -6 tales, that gives you a good start 17-22 -7 were solidly packed with tattered books of at being the Keeper. Players ponderous, archaic, and vaguely repellent unfamiliar with the Mythos should • If minimum SAN Loss for aspect.” ideally read at least The Call of seeing the creature is 0, Cthulhu or The Dunwich Horror additional Stability Loss is +0 — “The Horror at Red Hook” to get an idea of what the genre (+1 if the creature is clearly entails. non-humanoid); if minimum HP Lovecraft SAN Loss is 1, additional Stability Loss is +1; if minimum If for whatever reason you Howard and Derleth SAN Loss is a die roll, haven’t read the works of HP There are two other authors additional Stability Loss is +2; Lovecraft yet, you can rectify who, in addition to Lovecraft, additional Stability Loss is +3 that omission speedily and at little directly inspired this book. The or higher for gods or titans. cost. Penguin Classics has three Cthulhu Mythos tales of Robert volumes in print containing all E Howard have been collected his adult solo fiction, edited by the in Nameless Cults. I favor Tomes: redoubtable ST Joshi. the novel Skull-Face (in that Only the Al Azif grants +4 Cthulhu collection), but understand that Mythos; only the Necronomicon Begin with The Call of Cthulhu, mine is a minority viewpoint. grants +3 Cthulhu Mythos. Major and then read, in any order you More universally praised Howard tomes grant +2 and minor tomes like: stories of the Mythos include +1. Differences come from the Dig Me No Grave, The Thing various topics or eerie side-effects The Case of Charles Dexter Ward on the Roof, and The Fire of of each tome. Asshurbanipal, but really, they’re The Dunwich Horror all savagely good.
Spells: At the Mountains of Madness The solo Mythos tales of Convert spells based on the August Derleth are collected examples given in this book. The Shadow Over Innsmouth in The Cthulhu Mythos. His Extrapolate Stability costs from “posthumous collaborations” with these listings and from the The Dreams in the Witch-House Lovecraft are not recommended, Stability Loss table on p. 71, but except as a mine for proper in general, each 2-3 Magic Points The Colour Out of Space names – they are tiresome or SAN points should translate to reworkings of themes Lovecraft 1 Stability pool point. Only spells The Haunter of the Dark did better the first time. Derleth’s that cost permanent POW should solo tales, on the other hand, cost Stability rating points, and The Whisperer in Darkness are surprisingly effective and not many of them. Keep in mind often good fun, especially The
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Appendices
Thing That Walked On the Wind, and Henry Kuttner, have which HPL gets tangled up with Ithaqua, The Return of Hastur, admirably complete anthologies Nazi spies in America. Speaking and The Lair of the Star-Spawn of their Mythos stories available: of Nazis, Denied to the Enemy (with Mark R Schorer). His novel Mysteries of the Worm and The by Dennis Detwiller is a mind- The Trail of Cthulhu is really a Book of Iod, respectively. (Bloch’s twisting novel of Mythos action collection of over-obvious short novel Strange Eons is essentially in WWII. Delta Green: The Rules stories, but it has an undeniable a vastly superior rewrite of of Engagement by John Tynes thrill and verve, and makes a Derleth’s Trail of Cthulhu.) The brings the Mythos into a collision terrific game background. Mythos story The Terror From with the 1990s espionage action the Depths by Fritz Leiber is thriller, while The Atrocity good fun, but his excellent novels Archive by Charles Stross blends Other Mythos Authors Conjure Wife (about a conspiracy Lovecraft and Le Carré. There are hundreds of authors of witches on a New England who have touched, for better campus) and Our Lady of or worse, on the Cthulhu Darkness (about urban sorcery Other Horrorists Mythos, some unwittingly. It’s and Clark Ashton Smith) both The Silver John tales of Manly worth reading the writers who possess a strongly Lovecraftian Wade Wellman have a influenced Lovecraft, especially flavor without touching on the Lovecraft-like relationship with Algernon Blackwood (The Willows Mythos per se. regional feel and folklore (in and The Wendigo for atmosphere, this case, Appalachia), and his the John Silence occult detective As an editor, Derleth recruited John Thunstone is an occult stories for structure), Arthur his own younger generation investigator worthy of emulation. Machen (The Novel of the Black of writers: Ramsey Campbell A similarly investigative horror, Seal and The Red Hand are first- produced some excellent regional told at full tilt, is the superb rate horror mysteries, and The Mythos horror set in England’s werewolf conspiracy novel Great God Pan is Dunwich in ovo), Severn Valley (collected in Cold Darker Than You Think by Jack and Robert W Chambers (his Print), while the critic Colin Williamson. The young-adult collection The King in Yellow gave Wilson produced a surprisingly horror novels by John Bellairs August Derleth his best idea ever good Mythos tale with a (especially The Dark Secret of about Hastur). psychological kick in The Return Weatherend and The Figure of the Lloigor. Other anthologists in the Shadows) likewise meld During his lifetime, Lovecraft stepped up: Than Curse the formula and feel surprisingly freely shared the Mythos with his Darkness by David Drake effectively. colleagues and correspondents, (in New Tales of the Cthulhu primary among them Clark Mythos) is practically mandatory The Fu Manchu novels of Ashton Smith, who was his reading on the interaction of Sax Rohmer quite obviously superior as a prose stylist, but political evil and the Mythos, and influenced Derleth’s Trail of less concerned with structure. “Sticks” by Karl Edward Wagner Cthulhu, but they’re a great deal Smith preferred to drop Mythos (in the 1989 edition of Tales of of lurid fun in their own right names into strange, far places the Cthulhu Mythos) may be the and show their investigative such as primordial Hyperborea, finest Mythos story of the last 40 structure to good advantage. The medieval Averoigne, Mars, and years, rivaled only by “Details” by seven Fu Manchu novels written far-future Xothique, all featured China Mieville (in The Children between 1931 and 1940 (Daughter, in the anthology A Rendezvous In of Cthulhu). Mask, Bride, Trail, Drums, and Averoigne. Smith also wrote a few Island of Fu Manchu, plus much-underrated contemporary In the postmodern era, Lovecraft President Fu Manchu) are also Mythos-style horrors, such as even became the subject of excellent windows into period The Return of the Sorcerer, The Mythos tales, including Black paranoia, sadly including period Treader of the Dust, and The Man With A Horn by the racism. Hunters From Beyond. incredibly gifted horrorist TED Klein, and of non-Mythos The “Black Magic” novels Dennis Two of Lovecraft’s younger adventures such as Lovecraft’s Wheatley banged out in the 1930s correspondents, Robert Bloch Book by Richard A Lupoff, in and 1940s are, if anything, more
231 TRAIL OF CTHULHU
Useful Documents lurid (and almost as racist), but On that visual note, the comics magisterial Encyclopedia present a strong dramatic case Terry and the Pirates (1934- Cthulhiana, at this writing soon for the notion that political evil 1946) by Milton Caniff and The to be published in an extended, (Nazism in Strange Conflict Adventures of Tintin (1929- improved version, The Cthulhu and They Used Dark Forces, 1976) by Hergé have crystalline Mythos Encyclopedia. Communism in The Devil Rides storytelling, intricate research, Out and The Haunting of Toby globe-trotting settings, and damn Jugg) will resort to supernatural fine period art in common. evil (Satanism). The Cold War occult espionage novel Declare, Appendix 3: Useful by Tim Powers, makes much Non-Fiction the same argument, albeit with Since Yesterday, by Frederick Documents vastly more subtlety and a far Lewis Allen, is a popular history more Lovecraftian feel. In The of the 1930s in America written These documents are all available Keep, F. Paul Wilson argues the in 1941, which makes it even more for download from the Pelgrane opposite case, with a rabbi and useful for Thirties storytelling. Press Ltd website an SS commandant joining forces More conventional, more global, www.pelgranepress.com against a monster, while The and far more depressing, is The Tomb updates Sax Rohmer-style Dark Valley: A Panorama of They may be reproduced for “Oriental menace” for the modern the 1930s, by Piers Brendon. personal use. thriller era. The quad-fecta of depressing are Berlin Diary by William The website has other useful In the realm of pure feel, L Shirer, The Great Terror by resources including, articles maps, meanwhile, the ghost stories of Robert Conquest, The Rape of documents and links to useful MR James (Casting the Runes, Nanking by Iris Chang, and sources. Count Magnus, and Canon Homage to Catalonia by George Alberic’s Scrapbook seem most Orwell, which are respectively: relevant to our purpose, but a first-person reminiscence they’re all great) have never of Hitler’s Germany, historical been surpassed. Thomas Ligotti unveilings of Stalin’s purges is likely the single best horrorist and Japanese atrocities, and a working today in short fiction; savage memoir by the Thirties’ The Nightmare Factory is an greatest writer of the waste that omnibus collection of his mad, was the Spanish Civil War. After oneiric gems. In The Perseids all that, it’s almost refreshing to and Other Stories, Robert read Unholy Alliance by Peter Charles Wilson manages the Levenda, a crackling blend of difficult task of writing superb foaming madness and fair-to- Lovecraftian tales without ever middling research on the “occult overtly referencing the Mythos. front” in the 1930s and beyond, including thrilling tales of the Other Fiction Ahnenerbe. Hitting the investigation side Should this book have failed of the 1930s, meanwhile, the to sate your urge for 1930s detective novels of Raymond RPG material, seek ye the Chandler (The Big Sleep, exhaustively comprehensive Farewell My Lovely) and Pulp Hero by Steven S Long and Dashiell Hammett (The Dain the delightfully breezy GURPS Curse, The Maltese Falcon) Cliffhangers by Brian J Underhill. surely need no recommendation. Finally, this book would have At least tell me you’ve seen the been a wan and anemic shadow movies. of itself without Daniel Harms’
232 Player Name:
Investigator Name: 1 Sanity Drive: 0 1 2 3 2 4 5 6 7 Occupation: Occupational benefits: 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 3 Hit Threshold Pillars of Sanity: Stability Build Points: -12 -11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 Academic Abilities Interpersonal Abilities General Abilities 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Accounting 12 13 14 15 Anthropology Assess Honesty Athletics Archaeology Bargain Conceal Health Architecture Bureaucracy Disguise (I) -12 -11 -10 -9 Art History Cop Talk Driving -8 -7 -6 -5 Biology Credit Rating Electrical Repair(I) -4 -3 -2 -1 Cthulhu Mythos4 Flattery Explosives(I) 0 1 2 3 Cryptography Interrogation Filch 4 5 6 7 Geology Intimidation Firearms5 8 9 10 11 History Oral History First Aid 12 13 14 15 Languages6 Reassurance Fleeing7 Streetwise Health9 Hypnosis8 (I) 1 In a Pulp game where Sanity Mechanical Repair can be recovered, mark Sanity Piloting pool loss with a line, Sanity Technical Abilities rating loss with a cross. Law Preparedness 2 Occupational abilities are Library Use Art Psychoanalysis half price. Mark them with a * Medicine Astronomy Riding before assigning points. Occult Chemistry Sanity9 3 Hit Threshold is 3, 4 if your 9 Athletics is 8 or higher Physics Craft Stability (I) These General abiltities Theology Evidence Collection Scuffling double up as Investigative Forensics Sense Trouble abilities Locksmith Shadowing 4 Usually, you can’t start with Cthulhu Mythos. Sanity is Outdoorsman Stealth limited to 10-Cthulhu Mythos. Pharmacy Weapons 5 In a Pulp game If your Photography 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. 8 Only Alienists and Parapsycholigists can buy Hypnosis, and only in a Pulp game 9 You start with 4 free Sanity points, 1 Health and 1 Stability point. Keeper’s Investigator Matrix Player Investigator Drive Occupation Health Sanity Pillar 1 Pillar 2 Pillar 3 Stability Source 1 Source 2 Source 3 Contact 1 Contact 2 Contact 3 Accounting Anthropology Archaeology Architecture Art History Biology Cthulhu Mythos Cryptography Geology History Languages Law Library Use Medicine Occult Physics Theology Assess Honesty Bargain Bureaucracy Cop Talk Credit Rating Flattery Interrogation Intimidation Oral History Reassurance Streetwise Art Astronomy Chemistry Craft Evidence Collection Forensics Locksmith Outdoorsman Pharmacy Photography 234 Investigative Ability Checklist When creating an adventure, use this table to record which abilities are essential to the adventure, which are optional, and which are not used at all. Let your players know which not to take. If you are using pre-existing characters, tick them on the left column table, then build your adventure around them.
Investigative Abilities Core Clue Tally Total In Adventure Academic Abilities Accounting Anthropology Archaeology Architecture Art History Biology Cthulhu Mythos Cryptography Geology History Languages Law Library Use Medicine Occult Physics Theology
Interpersonal Assess Honesty Bargain Bureaucracy Cop Talk Credit Rating Disguise (G) Flattery Interrogation Intimidation Oral History Reassurance Streetwise
Technical Art Astronomy Chemistry Craft Electrical Repair (G) Explosives (G) Evidence Collection Forensics Locksmith Mechanical Repair (G) Outdoorsman Pharmacy Photography
Total Investigative Points
(G) Indicates a General ability which doubles up as an Investigative one
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Campaign Frame Notes Title Pitch It’s like Blah vs Blah, X meets Y, etc.
Setting Where is it set? One location, multiple locations? What languages might be used?
Style Purist or Pulp, or a mixture? Dread or Gore? Are laws enforced? Can firearms be used? Race, gender or politics: an important element?
Mythos How all pervasive is the Mythos? How much do the general public and the authorities know? Which gods exist? Are important? Just Lovecraft or other authors?
Investigators Why are they together? What do they have in common? What skills must they have? In what way are they restricted?
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Campaign Frame Notes Continuing NPCs Rivals, contacts, villains, cultists, friends and colleagues. Name Location Relationship to PCs Notes
Rules Variants What caps on abilities? What new abilities are there? Which optional rules to use? Add page references.
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Appendices Appendix 4: Contributors
Kenneth Robin Jérôme Simon Hite D Laws Huguenin Rogers Kenneth Hite claims to Robin D Laws is a writer Jérome is a French Simon Rogers is the have bought the first and game designer. His freelance illustrator and managing director and copy of Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game designs graphic designer born in co-owner of Pelgrane sold in Oklahoma City, for Pelgrane Press are 1975. He is married with Press Ltd, publishers of in August of 1981. Since The Dying Earth, The one little girl. the Dying Earth RPG and then, he has moved to Esoterrorists¸ Fear Itself He first worked with GUMSHOE system. He dread and night-haunted and the upcoming Mutant Pelgrane Press on also runs ProFantasy Chicago, written all or City Blues. the Dying Earth RPG, Software Ltd, makers of part of seventy or so (top rated in his Campaign Cartographer roleplaying game books Robin’s other roleplaying game collection) and 3 and its add-ons. His (including Nightmares games include Feng Shui designed all the previous job consists primarily of Mine, Dubious Shards, , Rune, HeroQuest and GUMSHOE books. of asking other people and Adventures Into Og: Unearthed Editions. He will provide art for to do things for him Darkness), and acquired Among Robin’s six novels the up coming GUMSHOE with varying degrees of the requisite Lovecraftian are Pierced Heart, The books, including Mutant success. cat. His “Tour de Rough and the Smooth, City Blues and Trail of Lovecraft: The Settings” and Freedom Phalanx, a Cthulhu supplements. column appears in Weird book set in the universe He also work for French Tales magazine; his of the City Of Heroes publishers and a local Suppressed Transmission computer game. magazine. column explores the Higher Strangeness in 2007 saw the publication When not working he is Pyramid. His wife Sheila of 40 Years Of Gen Con, usually playing bass or knits. an oral history of the trying to grow fruits and hobby games industry’s vegetables. The rotten biggest convention. one usually end up in his Always ready to take an photo collection for his intriguing career detour, creations - perfect for a his various past projects monster skin ! include collectible card games, computer games, and comic books.
238 TRAIL OF CTHULHU Appendices INDICES
Alien Races Gods and Titans Byakhee...... 127 Azathoth...... 87 Summon/Bind Hunting Horror...... 118 Colour Out of Space...... 128 Chaugnar Faugn...... 89 Summon/Bind Nightgaunt...... 118 Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath. 129 Cthugha...... 89 Summon/Bind Servitor Deep One...... 129 Cthulhu...... 90 of the Outer Gods...... 118 Dhole...... 130 Dagon...... 91 Summon/Bind Star Vampire...... 119 Dimensional Shambler...... 131 Daoloth...... 92 Tikkoun Elixir...... 119 Elder Thing...... 131 Ghatanothoa...... 93 Vach-Viraj Incantation...... 120 Flying Polyp...... 132 Gol-Goroth...... 93 Angles of Tagh Clatur...... 120 Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua.133 Hastur...... 94 Call/Dismiss Cthugha...... 121 Ghoul...... 133 Ithaqua...... 94 Call/Dismiss Hastur...... 121 Gnoph-Keh...... 134 Mordiggian...... 95 Call/Dismiss Ithaqua...... 121 Great Race of Yith...... 135 Mormo...... 95 Call/Dismiss Yog-Sothoth...... 121 Hound of Tindalos...... 135 Nodens...... 96 Contact Nodens...... 122 Hunting Horror...... 138 Nyarlathotep...... 96 Curse of the Stone...... 122 K’n-Yani...... 139 Quachil Uttaus...... 98 Howl of Pan...... 122 Lemurian...... 139 Shub-Niggurath...... 99 Mind Exchange...... 123 Lloigor...... 140 Tsathoggua...... 99 Resurrection...... 123 Masqut...... 142 Y’golonac...... 100 Saaamaaa Ritual...... 124 Mi-Go...... 142 Yig...... 100 Nightgaunt...... 144 Yog-Sothoth...... 101 Rat-Thing...... 145 Sand-Dweller...... 146 Serpent-Folk...... 146 Spells Servitor of the Outer Gods...... 147 Brew Space-Mead...... 110 Shan...... 148 Compound Liao...... 111 Shantak...... 149 Contact Cthulhu...... 112 Shoggoth...... 150 Contact Deep Ones...... 112 Son of Yog-Sothoth...... 151 Contact Ghoul...... 113 Space-Eater...... 151 Contact Mi-Go...... 113 Star Vampire...... 152 Contact Nyarlathotep...... 113 Tcho-Tcho...... 152 Contact Rat-Thing...... 114 Xothian...... 153 Contact Star-Spawn...... 114 Contact Tsathoggua...... 114 Beasts and Monsters Create Hyperspace Gate...... 114 Allosaur...... 155 Dho-Hna Formula...... 114 Bear...... 155 Dread Name of Azathoth...... 114 Crocodile...... 155 Elder Sign...... 115 Gorilla...... 155 Hoy-Dhin Chant...... 116 Lake Monster...... 155 Oil of Alhazred...... 116 Lion...... 156 Powder of Ibn-Ghazi...... 116 Mummy...... 156 Shrivelling...... 117 Rat Swarm...... 156 Sign of Eibon...... 117 Shark...... 157 Sign of Koth...... 117 Snake...... 157 Summon/Bind Byakhee...... 118 Vampire...... 157 Summon/Bind Dark Young Wolf...... 158 of Shub-Niggurath...... 118 Yeti...... 159 Summon/Bind Dimensional Zombie...... 159 Shambler...... 118
239 TRAIL OF CTHULHU
Appendices
Antarctica...... 175 Brazil...... 175 Index Anthropology (Academic)...... 28 Brendon, Piers...... 232 1930s...... 168–89 Antiquarian (Occupation)...... 10 Brew Space-Mead...... 110 Countries...... 175 Antiquarianism (Drive)...... 19 Britain.6, 33, 96, 100, 149, 165, 168, 169, Gender...... 11 Archaeologist (Occupational)...... 11 170, 177 Headlines...... 171 Archaeology (Academic)...... 28 Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign Poverty...... 169 Archery...... 43 (Cult)...... 161 Race...... 169 Architecture (Academic)...... 28 BRP Technology...... 182 Armitage Inquiry Converting to GUMSHOE...... 228 Totalitarianism...... 172 (Campaign Frame)...... 206 Using with GUMSHOE...... 228 Abilities. , See Investigative Abilities, Armitage, Dr Henry...... 70, 206 BRP conversion notes...... 228–30 See General Abilities Armor...... 62 Build Points...... 23 Buying...... 23–28 Army...... 15 Dedicated Pool Points...... 54 Caps...... 26 Arrogance (Drive)...... 20 Restrictions...... 26 General...... 40–48 Art (Technical)...... 30 Suggestions...... 26 Investigative...... 28–40 Art History (Academic)...... 30 Trading...... 25 List...... 24 Artist (Occupation)...... 11 Variants...... 24 Psychic...... 17 Artistic Sensitivity (Drive)...... 20 Bureaucracy (Interpersonal)...... 31 Refreshing...... See Refreshing Assess Honesty...... 60 Burma...... 176 Ability Caps...... 26 Assess Honesty (Interpersonal)...... 30 Buying Abilities...... 23–28 Ability Checklist...... 235 Astronomy (Technical)...... 30 Byakhee...... 127 Abyssinia...... 175 Athletics (General)...... 40 Call/Dismiss Cthugha...... 121 Accounting (Academic)...... 28 Author (Occupation)...... 12 Call/Dismiss Hastur...... 121 Acid...... 68 Azathoth.87, 88, 102, 103, 105, 114, 115, 118, Call/Dismiss Ithaqua...... 121 Advancement...... 82 120, 148, 149, 180, 181, 239 Call/Dismiss Yog-Sothoth...... 121 Adventure...... 214–27 Contact...... 114 Calling and Dismissing Deities..... 120 Adventure (Drive)...... 19 Description...... 87 Campaign Design...... 199 Adventures.See Also Campaign Frames Sanity Loss...... 86 Campaign Frames...... 204–13 Connections...... 199 Bad Luck (Drive)...... 20 Introduction...... 204 Core Clues...... 195 and Stability Loss...... 75 Investigators...... 204 Cthulhu Mythos ability...... 196 Bargain (Interpersonal)...... 30 Mythos...... 204 Designing...... 191 Basic Role Playing...... 228–30 Notes...... 236 Difficulty Numbers...... 56 Bear...... 155 NPCs...... 205 Ending scenes...... 202 Beasts and Monsters...... 155–60 Restrictions on Abilities...... 24 Imprisonment...... 197 Belgian Congo...... 175 Rules Variations...... 205 Improvising...... 202 Benefits Setting...... 204 Mystery Structure...... 192 Definitions...... 27 Campaigns...... See Campaign Frames Railroading...... 198 Placing...... 195 Caniff, Milton...... 232 Resource Management...... 200 Bibliography Cars...... See Vehicles Skeleton...... 192 Fictional...... 105–8 Chambers, Robert W...... 231 Spine...... 192 Real Books...... 230–32 Chandler, Raymond...... 232 Advice...... See Tips Bibliography (Academic)...... 212 Character Creation Ahnenerbe (Cult)...... 160 Biology (Academic)...... 31 Buying Abilities...... 23–28 Aircraft Table...... 185 Black Dragon Society (Cult)...... 161 Cthulhu Mythos not allowed...... 35 Alertness Modifier...... 126 Blackjacks...... 61 Drives...... 19–23 Alien Race Blackwood, Algernon...... 231 Example...... 18, 27, 47 Designing...... 153 blasted...... 77 Example character sheet...... 49 Alien Races...... 126–54 Blasted...... 74 Fleeing...... 25 Alienist (Occupation)...... 9 Bloch, Robert...... 231 Gender...... 11 Allen, Frederick Lewis...... 232 Blowguns...... 43 General Abilities...... 40–48 Allosaur...... 155 Boating...... See Piloting Investigative Abilities...... 28–40 Amateur Journalism...... 14 Book-Hounds of London (Campaign Investigative Build Points...... 23 American Psychical Institute & Frame)...... 209 Occupations...... 9–19 Laboratory...... 16 Books...104–9, See Also Bibliography, Quick Reference...... 9 American Society for Psychical Tomes Sex...... 11 Research...... 16 Boston Society for Psychical Suggestions...... 26 Anagnorisis...... 76 Research...... 16 Trading Build Points...... 25 Angles of Tagh Clatur...... 120 Boxing...... See Scuffling Character Sheet...... 233
240 TRAIL OF CTHULHU
Index
Chaugnar Faugn.89, 93, 112, 152, 172, 181, Refreshing...... 125 Investigator 239 Speed vs Vehicles...... 183 Detwiller, Dennis...... 231 Description...... 89 Stability Loss...... 126 Dho-Hna Formula...... 114 Sanity Loss...... 86 Statistics...... 125 Dhole...... 130 Chemistry (Technical)...... 31 Stealth Modifier...... 126 Die Rolls...... 56 China...... 174 Credit Rating (Interpersonal)...... 32 Difficulty Numbers Clergy (Occupation)...... 12 Criminal (Occupation)...... 13 and Insanity...... 74 Close Range...... 66 Crocodile...... 155 Assigning...... 57 Clues...... 51–56 Crookes tube...... 187 Car Chases...... 183 Alternate Methods...... 202 Cryptography (Academic)...... 34 for Contests...... 58 Assigning...... 55 Cthugha...... 89, 90, 120, 121, 239 Grenades...... 67 Core...... 53 Call/Dismiss...... 121 Hit Threshold...... 61 Core Clues...... 195 Description...... 90 Injured...... 63 Example...... 52 Sanity Loss...... 86 Pulp...... 57 Floating Core...... 193 Cthulhu...... 90 Purist...... 57 Following Leads...... 191 Cult...... 163 Sense Trouble...... 47 Gathering...... 52 Sanity Loss...... 86 Stability Test...... 69 Inconspicuous...... 55 Description...... 90 Stability Tests...... 72 Leveraged...... 194 Cthulhu Mythos...... 84–167, 196 Story Pacing...... 56 Tomes...... 104 Ability Use...... 74 Dilettante (Occupation)...... 13 Who Finds Them?...... 55 Sanity Loss...... 76 Dimensional Shambler...... 131 Colour Out of Space...... 128 Stability Loss...... 76 Disguise (General)...... 41 Combat...... 60–68 Cthulhu Mythos (Academic)...... 34 Doctor (Occupation)...... 13 Combat Veteran Benefits...... 15 Buying...... 35 Document Analysis (Technical).....212 Compound Liao...... 111 Cult of Cthulhu...... 162 Drake, David...... 231 Conceal (General)...... 40 Cult of the Skull...... 163 Dread Name of Azathoth...... 114 Conflicts...... See Contests Cults...... 160–67 Dreamlands...... 84 Congo...... 175 Ahnenerbe...... 160 Preventing Dreams...... 117 Connections...... 31 Black Dragon Society...... 161 Drives...... 19–23 Conquest, Robert...... 232 Brotherhood of the Yellow Sign.161 and Stability...... 72 Contact Creature Spells...... 113 Cult of Cthulhu...... 162 Definition...... 19 Contact Cthulhu...... 112 Cult of the Skull...... 163 Hard Driver...... 73 Contact Deep Ones...... 112 Designing...... 167 List...... 19 Contact Deity...... 112 Starry Wisdom Sect...... 164 Losing...... 75 Contact Ghoul...... 113 Witch-Cult...... 165 Soft Driver...... 73 Contact Mi-Go...... 113 Yithian Agents...... 165 Drives and Stability...... 72 Contact Nodens...... 122 Curiosity (Drive)...... 21 Driving (General Contact Nyarlathotep...... 113 Curse of the Stone...... 122 Vehicles)...... 183 Contact Rat-Thing...... 114 Cursed (Drive) Driving (General)...... 41 Contact Star-Spawn...... 114 and Stability Loss...... 75 Duty (Drive)...... 21 Contact Tsathoggua...... 114 Cutaways...... 203 Easter Island...... 176 Contacts...... 31 Dagon...... 91, 92, 120, 208, 239 Egypt.96, 98, 106, 156, 157, 176, 206, 207 Contests...... 58–69 Description...... 91 Elder Sign...... 115 Conversion Notes...... 228–30 Sanity Loss...... 86 Elder Sign (spell)...... 115 Cooperation...... 58 Damage Table...... 61 Elder Thing...... 131 Cop Talk (Interpersonal)...... 32 Daoloth...... 92, 112, 124, 239 Electrical Repair (General)...... 41 Core Clue...... See Clues, Core Description...... 92 Electrical Repair (Technical)...... 41 Core Concepts...... 7 Sanity Loss...... 86 Elementalism...... 89 Countries...... 175–82 Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath.....129 Ennui (Drive)...... 21 Cover...... 64 Summon/Bind...... 118 Equipment...... 182–89 Craft (Technical)...... 32 Dedicated Pool Points...... 54 Equipment Table...... 188 Create Hyperspace Gate...... 114 Deep One...... 129 Evidence Collection (Technical).....35 Creatures...... 125–26 Deep Ones Experience Points...... 82 Alertness Modifier...... 126 Contact...... 112 Explosives...... 67 Alien Races...... 126–54 Demolition...... See Explosives Damage Table...... 67 Beasts and Monsters...... 155–60 Denial...... 75 Explosives (General)...... 41 Changing...... 126 Derleth, August.89, 103, 115, 205, 230, 231 Fainting...... 75 Index...... 239 Detective.See Police Detective, Private Falling...... 68
241 TRAIL OF CTHULHU
Appendices
Famine...... 170 Ghoul...... 133 Improvising...... 202 Fanes of Tsathoggua...... 178 Contact...... 113 In the Blood (Drive)...... 22 Fear Itself...... 17 Gnoph-Keh...... 134 Insane...... 74 Federal Agent (Occupation)...... 209 Gods...... 84–104 Institut Métapsychique Fighting.....60–68, See Also Firearms Calling and Dismissing...... 120 International...... 16 Armor...... 62 Definition...... 84 Institute for Brain Research...... 16 Cover...... 64 Designing...... 103 International Spiritualist Damage Table...... 61 Index...... 239 Federation...... 16 Death...... 63 Gol-Goroth...... 93, 112, 239 Interrogation (Interpersonal)...... 37 Firearms...... 42 Description...... 93 Intimate Correspondent...... 196 Free-For-All...... 61 Sanity Loss...... 86 Intimidation (Interpersonal)...... 37 Injury...... 63 Gorilla...... 155 Investigative Abilities...... 28–40 Non-Lethal Damage...... 64 Great Race of Yith...... 135 Benefits...... 53, 54 One Gun, Two Combatants...... 65 Cult...... 165 Contests, Investigative...... 59 Rate of Fire...... 65 Greenland...... 177 Dedicated Points...... 54 Scuffling...... 47 GUMSHOE Example Benefits...... 53 Weapons...... 48 Clues...... 51 List...... 24 Without An Ability...... 60 Converting to BRP...... 228 Refreshing...... 80 Filch (General)...... 42 Core Clues...... 195 Using...... 52 Fingerprints...... 35 Improvising...... 202 Investigative Contests...... 59 Fire...... 68 Player Facing...... 126 Investigator Matrix...... 234 Firearms Purpose...... 6 Ithaqua...... 94, 95, 121, 134, 180, 231, 239 Ammo...... 66 Guns...... See Firearms Call/Dismiss...... 121 Lethal Option...... 62 Haiti...... 178 Description...... 94 Range...... 66 Hammett, Dashiell...... 232 Sanity Loss...... 86 Rate of Fire...... 65 Hard Driver...... 73 James, M R...... 232 Reload...... 66 Harms, Daniel...... 232 Journalist (Occupation)...... 14 Table...... 186 Hastur...... 48, 91, 94, K’n-Yani...... 139 Firearms (General)...... 42 95, 98, 99, 103, 105, 106, 118, 121, 127, 146, Keeper Tips...... 191–203 Firearms Table...... 186 152, 162, 179, 180, 181, 196, 208, 223, 227, Kingsbury Horror...... 214–27 First Aid 231, 239 Klein, T E D...... 231 Administering...... 63 Call/Dismiss...... 121 Kuttner, Hemry...... 231 First Aid (General)...... 42 Cult...... 161 Lake Monster...... 155 flame-throwers...... 187 Description...... 94 Languages (Academic)...... 37 Flattery (Interpersonal)...... 35 Sanity Loss...... 86 Law (Academic)...... 37 Fleeing (General)...... 42 Healing...... See First Aid Lemurian...... 139 Buying...... 25 Health Levenda, Peter...... 232 Flirting...... See Flattery injuries...... 63 Leveraged Clues...... 194 Floating Core Clues...... 193 Refreshing...... 80 Library Use (Academic)...... 38 Flying Polyp...... 132 Health (General)...... 43 Ligotti, Thomas...... 232 Folklore...... See Oral History Hergé...... 232 Lion...... 156 Follower (Drive)...... 21 Hide...... See Conceal Lloigor...... 140 Forensics (Technical)...... 35 History (Academic)...... 37 Locksmith (Technical)...... 38 Forgery (Technical)...... 212 Hit Threshold...... 61 Lomar...... 178 Formless Spawn of Tsathoggua....133 Hobo (Occupation)...... 14 London Spiritualist Alliance...... 16 Gender...... 11 Hordes...... 61 Long Range...... 67 General Abilities...... 40–48 Hound of Tindalos...... 135 Long, Steven S...... 232 Creating New Ones...... 45 Howard, R E...... 7, 145, 153, 169, 230 Louisiana...... 178 List...... 24 Bibliography...... 230 Lovecraft, H P...... 6, 7, 11, 14, 18, 33, 35, Refreshing...... 80 Howl of Pan...... 122 42, 70, 76, 77, 84, 87, 89, 103, 104, 115, Testing...... 56–58 Hoy-Dhin Chant...... 116 126, 153, 162, 168, 169, 172, 193, 203, 205, Geology (Academic)...... 35 Hunting Horror...... 138 207, 230, 231, 236 Germany...... 170, 177 Summon/Bind...... 118 Bibliography...... 230 Ghatanotho Hyperborea...... 178 Modelling Insanity...... 70 Sanity Loss...... 86 Hypnosis (General)...... 43 Lupoff, Richard A...... 231 Ghatanothoa...... 93 Alienist...... 10 Machen, Arthur...... 231 Ghatanothoa Impersonate...... See Disguise Machine Gun...... 65 Description...... 93 Improvement Points...... 82 Magic...... 104–25
242 TRAIL OF CTHULHU
Index
Definition...... 104 Occult (Academic)...... 38 Entymology...... 35 Idiosyncratic...... 212 Occupational Abilities...... 23 Exploding Cars...... 68 Martial Arts...... See Scuffling Occupations...... 9–19 Explosives...... 67 Masqut...... 142 Creating New Ones...... 12 Forensic Psychology...... 10 Mechanical Repair (General)...... 44 Definition...... 9 Hard-boiled Detective...... 18 Medicine (Academic)...... 38 List...... 9 Hypnosis (General)...... 43 Mental illnes...... 81 Occupational Abilities...... 23 Long Rate Fire...... 42 Mieville, China...... 231 Officer...... 15 Lower Difficulty for Stability.....72 Mi-Go...... 142 Oil of Alhazred...... 116 Machine Gun Multiple Targets.. 66 Military (Occupation)...... 15 One Gun, Two Combatants...... 65 Mooks...... 61 Mind Exchange...... 123 Oral History (Interpersonal)...... 39 NPCs die at 0 Health...... 63 Miskatonic University.105, 171, 175, 179, Outdoorsman (Technical)...... 39 Parapsycholgist Hypnosis...... 17 181, 206, 207, 208 Parapsychologist (Occupation)...... 17 Physics and Alien Devices...... 40 Money...... 182 Parapsychology in the 1930s...... 16 Psychics and Alien Technology.40 Mongolia...... 178 Peru...... 179 Reveal Difficulty...... 57 Mordiggian...... 95, 120, 153, 194, 239 Pharmacy (Technical)...... 39 Revenge (Drive)...... 22 Description...... 95 Photography (Technical)...... 39 Saaamaaa Ritual...... 124 Sanity Loss...... 86 Physics (Academic)...... 39 Sacrifice Health for Spells...... 115 Mormo...... 95, 96, 120, 168, 239 Piggybacking...... 57 Sanity Recovery...... 81 Description...... 96 Pillars of Sanity...... 46 Shrivelling (Spells)...... 117 Sanity Loss...... 86 Damaging...... 75 Sign of Eibon Spell)...... 117 Motorcycles...... 183 Replacing...... 81 Sources of Stability...... 48, 81 Mummy...... 156 Pilot (Occupation)...... 17 Sudden Shock (Drive)...... 22 Mythos Rituals...... 120–24 Piloting (General)...... 44 Symbol...... 7 Mythos Shock...... 74 Players Tikkoun Elixir...... 119 Navy...... 15 Tips...... 190–91 Two-Handed Pistol Use...... 42 Near Range...... 66 Point-Blank Range...... 61, 66 Vach-Viraj Incantation...... 120 Necronomicon.70, 88, 91, 99, 105, 108, 114, Poison...... 69 Purist 116, 153, 172, 179, 206, 230 Police Detective (Occupation)...... 17 Ability Caps...... 26 Nightgaunt...... 144 Poring Over Alienist (Occupation)...... 9 Summon/Bind...... 118 Tomes...... 105 All Creatures Are Mythos...... 155 Nodens...... 84, 86, 96, 103, 122, 144, 239 Poverty...... 169 Ammo use...... 66 Call/Dismiss...... 122 Powder of Ibn-Ghazi...... 116 Antiquarian (Occupation)...... 10 Description...... 96 Powers, Tim...... 232 Antiquarianism (Drive)...... 19 Sanity Loss s...... 86 Preparedness (General)...... 45 Artist (Occupation)...... 11 Non-Lethal Damage...... 64 Private Investigator (Occupation). 17 Artistic Sensitivity (Drive)...... 20 NPCs Professions...... See Occupations Author (Occupation)...... 12 Deciding Abilities...... 66 Professor (Occupation)...... 18 Azathoth...... 87 Do not have Stealth...... 126 Project Covenant (Campaign Frame) Big Reveal...... 76 Falling...... 68 207 Clergy and Psychoanalysis...... 13 Health Loss...... 63 Psychoanalysis (General Ability) Cthulhu...... 90 Hit Thresholds...... 61 Treating Mental Illness...... 81 Dilettante (Occupation)...... 13 Interrogating Investigators...... 60 Psychoanalysis (General)...... 45 Doctor (Occupation)...... 13 Player Facing...... 126 Refreshing Stability...... 79 Drives...... 19 Race...... 169 Pulp Fainting...... 75 Statistics...... 194 Adventure (Drive)...... 19 First Aid Restrictions...... 63 Tailoring to Investigators...... 201 Alienist use Hypnosis...... 10 Health cap...... 43 Vulnerability...... 62 Ammo Use...... 66 In the Blood (Drive)...... 22 Nurse (Occupation)...... 15 Bad Luck (Drive)...... 21 Journalist (Occupation)...... 14 Nyarlathotep.88, 96, 97, 98, 100, 103, 113, Brew Space Mead...... 110 Mythos Required...... 196 118, 138, 142, 146, 164, 165, 167, 168, 169, Bullet-Resistant Clothing...... 65 Never Reveal Difficulty...... 57 172, 175, 176, 178, 196 Clegy and Exorcism...... 13 No Advancement...... 82 Contact...... 113 Clergy and Psychological Triage.13 No Sanity Recovery...... 81 Description...... 96 Confidence...... 79 NPCs Health like PCs...... 63 Dreamlands...... 84 Contact Nodens...... 122 Nyarlathotep...... 96 Invisibility to Minions...... 117 Drives...... 19 Occupation List...... 9 Sanity Loss...... 86 Duty (Drive)...... 21 Police Detective (Occupation)..... 17 Nyogtha...... 179 Elder Signs...... 115 Professor (Occupation)...... 18
243 TRAIL OF CTHULHU
Appendices
Stability Capped...... 48 Recovering...... 81 Difficulty Numbers...... 72 Symbol...... 7 Sanity (General)...... 46 Drives...... 72 Yog-Sothoth...... 101 Saudi Arabia...... 179 Insane...... 74 You Can’t Win...... 193 Scholarship (Drive)...... 22 Loss, Table...... 76 Purst Scientist (Occupation)...... 18 Maximum Loss...... 70 Race...... 169 Scuffling (General)...... 47 Mental Illness...... 77 Quachil Uttaus.98, 99, 108, 120, 211, 239 Sense Trouble (General)...... 47 Mythos Madness...... 77 Description...... 98 Serpent-Folk...... 146 Refreshing...... 79 Sanity Loss...... 86 Servitor of the Outer Gods...... 147 Refreshing...... 81 Race...... 169 Summon/Bind...... 118 Roleplaying...... 72 Range...... 66 Shadowing (General)...... 47 Shaken...... 74, 77 Close...... 66 Shaken...... 74, 77 Table of Losses...... 70 Long...... 67 Shambler Test...... 69 Near...... 66 Summon/Bind...... 118 Test, Example...... 70 Point-Blank...... 66 Shan...... 148 Stability (General)...... 48 Rat Swarm...... 156 Shantak...... 149 Stability Loss...... 126 Rate of Fire...... 65 Shark...... 157 Stability Loss Table...... 70 Ratings...... 27 Shell Shock...... 77 Star Vampire...... 152 Rat-Thing...... 145 Shirer, William L...... 232 Summon/Bind...... 119 Contact...... 114 Shoggoth...... 150 Starry Wisdom Sect...... 164 Reassurance (Interpersonal)...... 40 Shrink...... See Psychoanalysis Star-Spawn Recovering Abilities.79–82, See Also Shrivelling...... 117 Contact...... 114 Refreshing Shub-Niggurath...... 91, Star-Stones of Mnar...... 115 Refreshing...... 79–82 93, 94, 96, 99, 100, 101, 103, 118, 120, 123, Steal...... See Filch Creatures...... 125 129, 142, 163, 165, 200, 223, 239 Stealth (General)...... 48 General Abilities...... 80 Description...... 99 Stealth Modifier...... 126 Health...... 80 Sanity Loss...... 86 Streetwise (Interpersonal)...... 40 Investigative Abilities...... 80 Sign of Eibon...... 117 Stross, Charles...... 231 Reload...... 66 Sign of Koth...... 117 Sudden Shock (Drive)...... 22 Resolution...... See Contests Simple Searches...... 52 Suffocation...... 68 Resource Management...... 200 Skill...... 27 Summon/Bind Byakhee...... 118 Resurrection...... 123 Skimming...... 105 Summon/Bind Dark Young of Shub- Revenge (Drive)...... 22 Snake...... 157 Niggurath...... 118 Riding (General)...... 45 Sneaking...... 48, See Stealth Summon/Bind Dimensional Roerich, Nicholas...... 178 Social Class...... 33 Shambler...... 118 Rohmer, Sax...... 231 Social Status...... See Credit Rating Summon/Bind Hunting Horror...... 118 Round Society for Psychical Research...... 16 Summon/Bind Nightgaunt...... 118 Definition...... 62 Soft Driver...... 73 Summon/Bind Servitor of the Outer Order of Action...... 61 Son of Yog-Sothoth...... 151 Gods...... 118 Rumania...... 179 Sources of Stability...... 48 Summon/Bind Star Vampire...... 119 Saaamaaa Ritual...... 124 South Pacific Mandate...... 180 Tcho-Tcho...... 152 Sample Character...... 49 Soviet Union...... 180 Technology...... 182–89 Sand-Dweller...... 146 Space-Eater...... 151 Temperature Extreme...... 68 Sanity...... 69–79 Spain...... 171, 174, 179, 181 Tests...... 56–58, See Also Contests Ability Definition...... 46 Spawn of Cthulhu...... See Xothian Example...... 57 and Stability...... 69 Spawn of Tsathoggua...... 133 Simple...... 56 and Stability Explanation...... 70 Spells...... 109–24 Stability...... 69 avoiding loss...... 75 Casting...... 110 Textual Analysis (Academic)...... 212 Cthulhu Mythos...... 74 Definition...... 109 The Ghost Club...... 16 Denial...... 75 Index...... 239 Theft...... See Filch Example...... 86 Learning...... 109 Theology (Academic)...... 40 Fainting...... 75 Mythos Rituals...... 120–24 Thibet...... 181 Losing...... 74 Summoning and Binding...... 117 Thirst for Knowledge (Drive)...... 23 Loss from Gods...... 86 Stability...... 69–79, 77 Thirties...... See 1930s Loss, Table...... 76 Ability Definition...... 48 Thule...... 177 Mythos Madness...... 77 and Sanity...... 69 Tikkoun Elixir...... 119 Pillars of Sanity...... 46 Blasted...... 74, 77 Tips Reaching 0...... 46 Cap On Loss...... 70 Keepers...... 191–203
244 TRAIL OF CTHULHU
Index
Players...... 190–91 Titans...... 84–104 Tomes...... 104–9 Creating...... 108 List...... 105–8 poring over...... 105 Prices...... 211 Skimming...... 105 Totalitarianism...... 172 Trading Points...... 25 Tsathoggua.93, 95, 99, 100, 101, 106, 114, 133, 139, 178, 195, 196, 239 Contact...... 114 Description...... 99 Sanity Loss...... 86 Tynes, John...... 231 Underhill, Brian J...... 232 Vach-Viraj Incantation...... 120 Vampire...... 157 Variant Builds...... 24 Vehicle Table...... 184 Vehicles...... 183–85 Aircraft...... 185 Damage...... 67 Motorcycles...... 183 Speed vs Creatures...... 183 Table...... 184 Wagner, Karl Edward...... 231 War...... 170 Weapons (General)...... 48 Wellman, Manly Wade...... 231 werewolf...... 158 Wheatley, Dennis...... 231 Williamson, Jack...... 231 Wilson, Colin...... 231 Wilson, F Paul...... 232 Wilson, Robert Charles...... 232 Witch-Cult...... 165 Wolf...... 158 Wounds...... 63 Wrestling...... See Scuffling Xothian...... 153 Y’golona Sanity Loss...... 86 Y’golonac...... 100 Yeti...... 159, 181 Yig.69, 100, 101, 103, 112, 139, 146, 157, 167, 178, 220 Description...... 100 Sanity Loss...... 86 Yithian Agents (Cult)...... 165 Yog-Sothoth.34, 39, 52, 70, 87, 93, 96, 101, 102, 103, 109, 121, 122, 124, 151, 168, 172, 179, 192, 196, 223, 227 Call/Dismiss...... 121 Description...... 101 Sanity Loss...... 86 Zombie...... 159
245
TRAIL OF CTHULHU
GM’s Handy Table Reference
Physical Injury and Death Weapon Damage Unlike most abilities, your Health pool can drop below 0. When it does this, you must make a Consciousness Roll. Roll a die with the absolute Type Modifier value of your current Health pool as your Difficulty. You may deliberately strain yourself to remain conscious, voluntarily reducing your Health pool by an amount of Fist, kick –2 your choice. (You may not voluntarily reduce your Health pool below -11.) For each point you reduce it, add 1 to your die result. The Difficulty of the Consciousness roll is based on your Health pool before you make this reduction. Small Father Micah is being chased by Y’golonac cultists through what he initially thought improvised was a convent. A cultist hits him with an antique spiked morning-star, dropping weapon, his Health pool to –2. He really wants to get away from them, lest they force him to blackjack, –1 celebrate their vile fleshly rituals. Thus he must remain conscious. The absolute value bullwhip, of –2 is 2, so this is the Difficulty of his Consciousness roll. He chooses to expend nightstick, another 2 Health points he doesn’t have, pushing himself onward toward the ornately – knife and obscenely — carven doors. That gives him a bonus of 2 to his roll. He rolls a 6, for a final result of 8. Father Micah gets away, but now his Health pool is down to –4.
, but have suffered no If your pool is anywhere from 0 to –5, you are hurt Big permanent injury beyond a few superficial cuts and bruises. However, the pain of your improvised injuries makes it impossible to spend points on Investigative abilities, and increases the weapon, Difficulty Numbers of all tests and contests, including opponents’ Hit Thresholds, by 1. machete, : A character with the First Aid ability can improve your condition by spending 0 First Aid heavy club, First Aid points. For every First Aid point spent, you regain 2 Health points — unless you fireplace are healing yourself, in which case you gain only 1 Health point for every First Aid point poker, light spent. firearm A character giving First Aid must be in a position to devote all of his attention to directly tending to your wounds. First Aid can only refill your pool to where you were before the scene in which you received this latest injury. For example, if you get shot and then someone punches you during the same fight, you can repair both. If you get shot, run away, get into another Sword, fight, and then somebody punches you, you can heal the punch. heavy +1 First Aid can only ever bring you back to one third of your maximum Health points. firearm All other increases must be gained using the Refreshing Health rules (see p. 81). This option makes hurt Investigators very fragile.
If your pool is between –6 and –11, you have been seriously wounded. You must make a Consciousness roll. Whether or not you maintain consciousness, you are no longer able to fight. Until you receive first aid, you will lose an additional Health point every half hour. First Aid and serious wounds: A character with the First Aid ability can stabilize your condition by spending 2 First Aid points. However, he can’t restore your Health points. Even after you receive first aid, you must convalesce in a hospital or similar setting for a period of days. Your period of forced inactivity is a number of days equal to the positive value of your lowest Health pool score. (So if you were reduced to –8 Health, you are hospitalized for 8 days.) On the day of your discharge, your Health pool increases to half its maximum value. On the next day, it refreshes fully.
When your pool dips to –12 or below, you are dead. Time to activate your replacement Investigator. Health Loss For NPCs In a Purist game, the Investigators are no different from anyone else. All humans lose Health mechanically in the same way. In the Pulp mode, the Investigators are a cut above the rest of the herd. Normal people, both mooks and bystanders, simply (or dramatically, or messily) die when their Health is reduced below 0. Using this rule does make combats much faster, so even Purist Keepers may want to sneak it into battles against cultists, etc. The Keeper may, if she thinks it dramatically appropriate, decide that certain NPCs use the Investigators’ Health loss rules. 247 TRAIL OF CTHULHU
GM’s Handy Table Reference
Stability Loss Table Incident Stability Loss
You see a fresh corpse; you witness a killing 1 A human opponent attacks you with evident intent to do serious harm 2 You are in a car or other vehicle accident serious enough to pose a risk of injury 2 You experience a strong unnatural sensation such as intense déjà vu, “missing time”, or hallucinations 2 You witness acts of torture 2 A human opponent attacks you with evident intent to kill 3 You kill someone in a fight 3 You see a particularly grisly murder or accident scene 3 You see a supernatural creature from a distance 3 You witness an obviously unnatural, but not necessarily threatening, omen or magical effect – a wall covered 3 in horrible insects, a talking cat, or a bleeding window You see hundreds of corpses; you witness a large battle 4 You see a supernatural creature up close 4 You spend a week in solitary confinement 4 You learn that a friend, loved one, or Source of Stability has been violently killed 4 You discover the corpse of a friend, loved one, or Source of Stability 5 You are attacked by a supernatural creature, or by a friend, loved one, or Source of Stability 5 You witness a clearly supernatural or impossible killing 5 You witness or experience an obviously unnatural, and threatenting, omen or magical effect – a cold hand 5 clutches your heart, a swarm of bees pours out of your mouth You kill someone in cold blood; you torture someone 5 You see a friend, loved one, or Source of Stability killed 6 You are tortured for an hour or longer 6 You discover that you have committed cannibalism 6 You are possessed by some outside force, but conscious while it operates your body unspeakably 7 You speak with someone you know well who you know to be dead 7 You are attacked by a single gigantic supernatural creature or by a horde of supernatural creatures 7 You see a friend, loved one, or Source of Stability killed in a particularly gruesome manner or in a way you 8 are helpless to avert You kill a friend, loved one, or Source of Stability 8
Cthulhu Mythos Stability and Sanity Loss Table Stability Pool Sanity Pool Revelation or Intuition Loss Loss Some aspect of the Mythos is behind this mystery; any specifics are either comfortably 2 0 distant in space or time, or not immediately relevant to your larger concerns This Mythos truth poses a clear and present danger to innocents; this truth goes 3 1 deeper, reaches back farther, or has wider implications, than you previously believed This Mythos truth poses a clear and present danger to you or your loved ones; this 4 1 truth is global or epochal in scope
This Mythos truth shatters one of your Pillars of Sanity 6 2
This Mythos truth could destroy the world or is doing so right now, probably inevitably; 8 3 this truth proves your Drive to be meaningless or doomed