Chaosium Digest Volume 7, Number 2 Date: Monday, August 8, 1994 Number: 1 of 1 Contents: Human De-Evolution: A Mythos Tome (Paul Fritcshle) CALL OF CTHULHU Tales from the Crypt (Shannon Appel) CALL OF CTHULHU Editor's Note: The Chaosium FTP site at Berkeley should now be back to normal, after the disruptions of recent weeks. However, it would be a good idea to start using the machine name 'ftp.csua.berkeley.edu' when retrieving items from the archives, rather than the older name, 'soda.berkeley.edu'. In the future, the old name, soda, will utterly disappear, and the archives will probably move to a different machine. If you use the ftp.csua name, you won't need to worry about the changes at all, and service should not be interrupted. New out from Chaosium this week is _The Shub-Niggurath Cycle_ (Chaosium, 227pg., $9.95), fourth in the series of Cthulhu Cycle books. This tome is all about Shub-Niggurath, the black goat of the woods, and the tales of demonaic goats that came before her. There's a list of the contents back in V5.3 of the digest. One story has been added since then, _To Clear the Earth_, by Will Murray. -------------------- From: Paul Fritcshle Subject: Degenerate Cannibalism and Human De-Evolution System: Call of Cthulhu I came up with the following tome while working on an adventure based in Arkham, using a plot-hook described in Chaosium's _Arkham Unveiled_. Later on, I'll probably send the adventure along. If anyone is interested, the book/author information, and the adventure itself are available as html documents. ===== DEGENERATIVE CANNIBALISM AND HUMAN DE-EVOLUTION Degenerative Cannibalism and Human De-Evolution by Robert Sawyer, PhD 1815-1880), 1890 Yale University Press I saw before me a... well, it could only be called a creature. It had a peculiarly canine cast to its face, though its body was bipedal, and almost human. It made a piercing meeping noise, which, to my horror was echoed by what must have been a horde of the things behind it down the tunnel in the shadows! --from the Foreward Subtitled Sub-human Primitives in Urban Settings, this is a 700 page text describing in detail a colony of what Sawyer referred to as a degenerate offshoot of modern man. Sawyer claimed that this colony lived in the catacombs beneath the Cemetary of the Innocents in Paris. He apparently was able to make contact with this colony after reading a book he only refers to as "The French Text". In his foreward, he describes how he came to the realization that man had a shadowy twin, while a youth growing up in Massachusettes. The book includes both figures depicting ghouls in life, as well as anatomical diagrams, detailing differences, and similarities between ghouls and man. It is unclear whether Sawyer was ever able to actually speak with the ghouls, as much of his description of their society is based strictly on secret observations, and includes much erroneous information. In any event, the regents of Yale halted the print run of the book after recieving complaints from other members of the academic community after they had recieved advance copies of the book. Still, approximately 500 copies were produced, most for other universities. Of those, many were later discarded as a work of shoddy scholarship, if not as being an out and out hoax. (-1/1d6 Sanity; +5 Mythos; no spells; 6 weeks.) Other Benefits Reading this book awards skill checks in both anthropology and occult. ==== ROBERT SAWYER (1815-1880) Robert Sawyer was the youngest son of Makepeace Sawyer, of Arkham, Mass. He was the black sheep of the family, uninterested in the family textile business, and bouncing from school to school, before finally being expelled from Kingsport's Hall School, after which his father disowned him. This didn't seem to faze Robert, who took the job of Arkham ratcatcher in 1833. This seems in part to have been an effort to spite his father, as the Sawyers were well-respected in Arkham. Robert continued to serve as ratcatcher, until an incident in 1840 while working in the catacombs beneath the old Unitarian Church on French Hill. The incident (which he describes in the foreward to his book, Degenerate Cannibalism and Human De-Evolution) apparently provided the impetus he had up to that point been lacking. He enrolled in Miskatonic College in 1841, and graduated only 2 years later, in 1843. He went on to receive his PhD from Yale in 1848. Over time, he became regarded as an expert on primitive tribes,n particularly with respect to their interactions with more civilized cultures. However, his close associates were disturbed by the turn his personal researches were taking. Starting in 1859, he began spending all his field time in Paris, although he refused to reveal the exact nature of his researches other than to say that it was the culmination of all his earlier work, and would turn all existing theory on its ear. His last trip to Paris was in 1880, during which time he disappeared. His body was never recovered, so he was presumed dead. A protege of his, James Wentworth, edited the early drafts of his book, and had the book published in 1890. Paul Fritschle pfritsch@skid.PS.UCI.EDU -------------------- From: Shannon Appel Subject: Tales from the Crypt System: Call of Cthulhu There are few places that evoke the feeling of horror as well as graveyards. They are the haunts of vampires, the home of ghouls, the last resting place of the eternally dead. Lovecraft recognised the horror of graveyards, and he wrote of them in several stories, including "In the Vault", "The Tomb" and "The Hound". Following in this ancient tradition, I have developed a few new stories of cemetaries. They are presented below as a set of vignettes for Call of Cthulhu. They're all fairly rough ideas, but I hope they will get you thinking of various grave tales that you might run. ROOM FOR TWO: Many mobsters in the twenties developed a unique method for dealing with their dead. When they had a body that they didn't want the authorities to find, they would go to a graveyard, dig up a grave, and then bury their new body beneath the coffin that already lay interred. Even today, there are probably hundreds of the dead sharing their graves with the unfortunate victims of the mob. Investigators could become involved in this situation in many different ways. If a keeper wants a short break from the mythos, he could use the mobsters as a red herring. When the investigators learn of strange persons digging up graves during the night, they of course become involved, assuming that some mythos activity is afoot. However, once they discover that the mob is the true cause of the troubles, they may find it hard to extricate themselves from the mob's grasp. If the keeper wishes a more mythos oriented story, the investigators could become involved when they hear of the terribly gruesome murders of several people. In disturing the graves of the dead, the mobsters have inadvertantly raised ancient revenants which now desire vengeance. After learning of the true situation, the investigators may try and help the (suspicious) mobsters to lay the dead once more to rest, or, alternatively, they could simply let the corpses enjoy their justice. GRAVE TIDINGS: In a small town, in one of the darkest corners of New England, a story is told of a ghostly gravedigger. When someone is destined to die, he appears once more in the world, practicing his profession. It is an extremely ominous event when a new grave appears in the graveyard, dug during the night. At first, when it became clear that the new graves portended death, the citizens of the town hid away, each trying to ensure that they were not the doomed one. Recently, though, things have taken a more violent turn. When a new grave appears, the townsfolk have begun to murder each other, trying to ensure that the grave has an occupant. The investigators could either come to the town to investigate the murders, or because they have heard rumors of the strange apparition. In any case, they will shortly find themselves the subjects of very unwelcome attention. When a new grave appears during the night, the investigators will be the prime candidates for eternal sleep. There are a number of possibilities for the true source of this haunting. Perhaps the ghostly gravedigger is truly some restless spirit. The investigators will need to find a way to lay him to rest, likely with the help of a most unwilling town. It is possible that the spirit has been purposefully raised. Cultists may be using his dreaful portents as a cover to hide their own sacrifices. Alternatively, the tale of the gravedigger and his prophetic graves may simply be a ruse. Perhaps the Mi-Go have found valuable metal deposits in the town, or cultists have found a tremendous juncture of magical power, and they are trying to drive the town away through a campaign of fear. THE FAMILY PLOT: Although the horror of the mythos can be quite terrible, sometimes the depths to which humans will sink to are even worse. Such is the case of the Brownmarr family of New England. In order to gain the family fortune while he was still young enough to enjoy it, John Brownmarr injected his father with a supposedly lethal compound. What he did not know was that while his father's metabolism was slowled immensely, he still lives, buried alive in the family crypt. Investigators may be called in to investigate the death of the elder Brownmarr, or, instead, they may be looking into strange disturbances at the cemetary. For, the elder Brownmarr still lives, and now walks the land again. Weeks after his "death", the elder Brownmarr awoke in his tomb, and very shortly afterwards went mad. Now, he is a scarcely human beast, who hides within his tomb at day, and searches for food at night. If the keeper wishes to spice up the adventure, John Brownmarr could be a cultist, or perhaps even a magician in his own right. When the investigators start looking about the graveyard, coming close to the Brownmarr secret, John will do whatever he can to stop them. A pitched battle with cultists and ancient horrors while searching for a zombie in a graveyard can be quite a satisfying experience. OTHER IDEAS: I've listed just a handful of possible graveyard adventures here. There are hundreds more. So, here, in short, are a number of other ideas. Clearly, Lovecraft's ghouls are closely associated with graveyards. Likewise, graveyards are an excellent place for cultists to find certain gruesome remains that they may need in their rituals. And, graveyards might be of any type. What might come from disturbing the bodies of those killed in the great battles of the civil war? Could curses still lie upon the burial places of witches slain in Salem centuries ago? The graves of indians, who ruled America long ago, lie beneath the civilized New England lands. Might those dead one day rise to reclaim their ancestral lands? Finally, graveyards might also be places of information. Investigators could find themselves delving into tombs looking for magical items buried with the dead decades before, or, instead, they might be desperately reading the tombstones of New England, looking for the keywords in a certain magic spell. Shannon -------------------- The Chaosium Digest is an unofficial discussion forum for Chaosium's Games. To submit an article, subscribe or unsubscribe, mail to: appel@erzo.berkeley.edu. The old digests are archived on soda.berkeley.edu in the directory /pub/chaosium, and may be retrieved via FTP.