Chaosium Digest Volume 14, Number 3 Date: Sunday, April 14, 1996 Number: 3 of 4 Contents: Nephilim Australis Incogito, Part 3 (Timothy Ferguson) NEPHILIM -------------------- From: Timothy Ferguson Subject: Nephilim Australis Incogito, Part 3 System: Nephilim DREAMING Dreaming is an Australian magical technique like summoning, but used backwards. In it, a summoner projects themself into the elemental fields, or the Subtle Plane of Alcheringa. It is very dangerous, as it is possible for the spirit to get lost and become one of the wandering dead on a fumbled spell-casting roll. Like the Western Techniques, it is divided into lesser disciplines which we might as well call Circles. These are Australia, Alcheringa and Abstract. The First Circle: Australia The Australian Circle is the first. It is divided into three rings. These are Geography, which is knowledge of sacred sites' positions and potentials within one's own land; Singing, which is summoning forth the guardians and spirits of places within one's own land, or the pacification of same; and People, which is awakening others and creating curses and blessings through subtle manipulations of tiny spirits. Note that these three really aren't "Magical" from a Nephilim perspective. They are based on knowledge and trickery, rahter than altering the elmental fields. As such, this is not considered a legitimate technique by most foriegn Nephilim. Also, as they are not based on real magic, even Awakened humans can perform them, without the assistance of a Nephilim. Almost all aborigines living traditionally have a score in Dreaming to reflect that knowledge of Geography that keeps them away from forbidden areas and will aid them to their final rest in Alcheringa. The Second Circle: Alcheringa The Alcheringa Circle has three rings. Travel, the first ring, is an extension of the Geography talent, as the two worlds paralell each other. The difference between them is that in Alcheringa the mountain which is the bones of an ancient Nephilim will be the bones of an ancient Nephilim to plain sight. The ancient Nephilim is probably hanging around here looking for a way back to Australia, so Travel includes the skill of bargaining with the various creatures who live in that section of Alcheringa that corresponds with your own country. It also give hints on the motivations of other people's spirits which can be useful if you plan to travel to another part of Alcheringa. Spirits in Alcheringa may alter their physical representations in Australia, so a snake asked to wiggle its til might shift the bed of a river backwards and forwards, creating floods. The second ring, trade-paths, is knowledge of the Alcheringan equivalent of the ancient barter routes through the various Aboriginal communities. This allows relatively safe passage through other Dreamings to those sites holy to transcendant beings, worshipped by many tribes, such as the first Rainbow Serpent and Biname. The third ring is called "Destinations" or "Devotions" and concerns the the profitable interpretation of the psyche of these beings. Transcendant creatures are terrible to behold, but have awesome powers in Australia. Although their interventions are rare, they are cataclysmic. Cyclone Tracy, which levelled much of the city of Darwin, is rumoured to have been created by Jambual, the Thunder spirit. -Terror Australis, p. 37. The Third Circle: Abstracts Abstracts are the odd dreams of the creatures who wish to stay in Alcheringa, having learned all that Australia has to offer. Wise Aboriginals say that it involves travel through time and into other Dreamings, but otherwise refuse to discuss it. GMs are on their own here, as these Dreamings will vary depending on the cosmology of tribe from which the Nephilim comes. As a suggestion, Alcheringans dream of Gondwana, the ancient supercontinent and attempt to go back there. What they wish to do when they arrive varies, but perhaps they are merely living and re-living an enormous circle of time, from the time of Mu until now, over and over, becoming more powerful on each change and distorting the history of the world as they do this. CREATURES OF AUSTRALIA AND ALCHERINGA (taken from "Terror Australis") Arkaroo These Snake people fought against one of the Aboriginal tribes during the Dreamtime. They are potent sorcerers. They have been banished to Alcheringa, but can be summoned forth by a Nephilim using either trade-paths or the more direct Summoning. Their statistics should be the same as "Serpent People" in _Dreamlands_ for _Call of Cthulhu_ but their power should be swapped for Moon Ka and they should be visciously misogynistic. Additionally, they hate all Nephilim save the Selenim, being descended in some fashion from the Saurians. If Summoned, the spell to call them forth is of the Second Circle and they seem to come from the Realm of Spiritual and Elemental Comprehension. Circle: Seals Ka-Element: Moon Threshold: 90% Contract: 21 Rupture: Capture Duration: Until next Tuesday Range: Unlimited Autonomy: Total The Dead Sometimes the dead get lost and want to hang around the living. Although they cannot be killed, a wirruwen with knowledge of travel can point out to them the right track to follow to their eventual home, which usually sends them on their way. Female Maneaters Female spirits who attack men to cannibalise them or rape them include Abuba, who turns men into beasts, Netto-Gurrk, a horrible hag and Bagini who is beautiful but has clawed paws instead of hands. Any of these could be indigenous versions of the Baba Yaga or Baen Sidhe, both of which are described in _Chronicle of Awakenings_. Jambuwal A potent transcendant diety, who creates thunder with his double-headed club and makes the sea rough by wading through it. He may be contacted with the Dreaming Skill, which is his preference, or he may be pulled into our world with Summoning. This last annoys him beyond all measure, as he refuses to be a slave to a Nephilim, to be called up and set away at whim. Circle: Keys Ka-Element: Air Threshold: 50% Contract: 80 Rupture: Obliterates the caster and much of their surroundings with a strike of his club. Duration: As short as possible. Usually one request. Range: Australia-wide, if Jambuwal desires. Autonomy: Total. The Summoning of Jambuwal is possible only during the middle of cyclone-force storms. If a Nephilim has created the storms themselves, Jambuwal sees this as an intrusion upon his perogatives and a challenge to his status, so he smites the Nephilim. A favour asked of Jambuwal will cost between 1 and 25 Ka and will usually involve the destruction of some area by tempests. Jumbuwal is remarkably throrough in his work. He may also be requested to undertake other tasks, such as the destruction of an enemy. This also he rapidly performs. The great power of Jabuwal is counter-balanced by the fact he will gladly crush the Summoner in any instant of annoyance that the caster creates, carrying the Nephilim back to the Dreaming with him to be punished for its presumption. Kurpannga: The Devil Dingo Kurpannga is found in Central Australia. He is hairless except for a line of fur that bristles along his spine and a tuft upon the end of his tail. His teeth are reminiscent of a crocodille, shark or carnivorous dinosaur, being wickedly sharp and multiforous. In ancient times a Nephilim was trapped in this frame by the Mulga Seed wirruwen, who filled him with malice enough to last until the end of time. The Strength Arcanum considers Kurapannga to be a Devil Nephilim who is utterly uncurable. Being within six yards of Kurrapanga costs everyone present one CON per round, although they may resist this magical effect with their Earth Ka or Solar Ka if Awakened. If instead of biting he barks, howls or whines, all within earshot must compare their Ch'awe with his on the Resistance Table or lose 1d6 Ch'awe. Kurapanga's death destroys this projection of him into Australia, but does not kill his true form in Alcheringa, which, after a time, can create a new projection. Statistics: STR: 65 CON: 40 INT: 12 DEX: 20 Ka-Element: Kurrapanga once had all five Ka elements, but now they are either locked oddly into his frame in a fashion similar to that of a homoculus or some are stored away like those of a Selenim. Possibly he contains something extremely odd, like Black Earth Ka. His Ka is only 28 in Australia. In Alcheringa it is 76. HP: 40 Move 30 Actions: 5 Weapons: Bite: 90% Presence: 1 CON unless resisted Bark: 1d6 Ch'awe unless resisted Properties: Kurapanga is not a sorcerer anymore, but the ground he treads is blighted by his arua and all vegetation nearby blackens. Creatures which eat the blackened plants die. Protection: 8 point hide Little People Australia hosts a small, hairy race of people who have claws instead of fingernails. In different places they have different names. Net-nets make nuisances of themselves, steal things and decieve hunters. They seem to be Khaiba favouring Nephilim, a little like leprachauns. Grimmacha (soft "ch") get annoyed if you sleep in their country and they make a ruckus in the rocks to warn you off. If you investigate, he pelts you with stones. Gulgaru is never seen, you only see the ripples in the water where he dived in, or the leaves and dust kicked up as he runs away. They lurk in waterholes and shadows and are friendly to Nephilim. Turongs are frail and wispy tree-dwellers. Wa-tha-guln-darl are a foot and a half high and are tough as ironwood. They are frightened of Alcheringan predators, so they have no fires and eat meat raw. They capture trespassers and pin them to bull-ant's nest to die. Many of these creatures are summonable. They tend to be Elemental Illusions of the Earth. Namarron: The Lightning Spirit Namarrkon is a creature who creates lightning by throwing the stone axes that are tied to his knees. When angered, he can command destructive electrical storms to wreak hovac over vast areas. He may not be summoned as he is a Transcendant Nephilim, beyond the beck and call of others of his kind. Dreamers with the Alcheringa talent may call on him, as he is part of the Destinations ring of the Alcheringa technique. Naghun: Monstrous Boulders The Narghun are huge rocks that eat men and animals. They erode, but do not die of age. They are created by division, so if a Narghun breaks into pieces each of those sections is itself a small Narghun. Generally they only travel at night. Narghun attack people by opening a crack or hollow on their body, then snapping it shut. Alternatively, they can just roll over or fall upon their victim. STR: 2 to 40d6 CON: Up to 20d6 INT: 2d6 DEX: 1d6 Ka-Element: Earth 4d6 HP = CON Move: 1d6 per round Actions: 1, or 2 if DEX = 6 Weapons: Bite 50%, Damage equals twice the Narghun's damage bonus, with 1d3 as a minimum. Roll: 75%, Damage equals damage bonus. Can attack a number of targets so long as all are within an area no larger than CON/10 yards across, rounding down. Propeties: It is a rock, with all the immunities that implies. Protection: No armour, save that that it is immune to weapons that do not affect large rocks. Blades and bullets are useless against a Narghun and explosives only work if jammed in a crack in the creature's exterior. Even if exploded the Naghun is only reduced into smaller Narghuns whose STR and CON are equal to that of the original. To kill a Narghun utterly requires it to be reduced to powder or dissolved in acid. Ninya: Ice Men of Mount Connor Ninya look like Aborigines, but their skin is coated in frost and their eyebrows are clusters of icicles. They have blue eyes and white blood. These creatures live under lakes in a cavern complex beneath Mount Connor in central Australia. A freezing gale blows continually through these caves. The Ninya leave them during the winter, travelling through the rocks. The invisible ice they take with them is scattered about and cuts the feet of the Aborigines who live nearby, warning them that Ninya are active. The men of the local tribe have a song they use when the Ninya are close by and have uprooted the trees and turned them upside-down. (A local mirage, where the landscape seems to float inverted in the air.) It puts the trees back in place and then hunts the creatures until they hide in their lairs under the mountain. The women of the village have an opposite ritual, that lets them call the Ninya forth in summer, to create a cooling breeze. NINYA STR: 4d6 CON: 4d6 INT: 2d6+6 DEX: 3d6 Ka-element: Water 4d6 H.P. = CON Move: 10 Actions: As apporpriate to DEX, see page 92 in the rulebook. Weapons: Icicle 50% 1d8+1+1d4+1d4 points of STR and CON. Properties: The Ninya exude an aura of cold to a distance of twenty yards per creature in the group met. This aura reduces the STR and CON of living things by one point per minute. Those within a distance of three yards per Ninya met lose a point each round instead, as the cold is more intense. These points return at the rate of one in each statistic per hour of warmth and rest. Protection: Only very hot weapons can harm a Ninya. A tracer bullet, for instance, does normal damage for its calibre. Ngarang: Tree-dwelling cannibals Ngarang are a little like the Greek Dryad, in terms of their metapysical niche. Physically, they have long, flowing hair and beards and thin arms jointed like the knobs of tree limbs. They live in the swellings found on the roots of ancient gum trees. They pull humans down into these homes to consume them. Although they rarely leave Alcheringa, when the Ngarang's tree is killed or harmed it seeks out the vandal to murder them bloodily. If their tree is dead they lose 1 Ka per day until they die. If the roots of the tree survive, the Ngarang is free to take as long as it likes taking its revenge. NGARANG STR: 8d6 CON: 4d6 INT: 3d6 DEX: 3d6 Ka Element: 4d6 H.P. = CON. Actions: As apporpriate to DEX, see page 92 in the rulebook. Move: 6 Weapons: Fist 50%, 1d6+2d6 damage Grapple 50%, Special Protection: 10 point armour-like skin. A Ngarang can hide within its tree, wherein it is invulnerable to attacks from outside Alcheringa. The tree, however, is defenseless. Quinkans: Guardians of Sacred Places Quinkans are the defenders of sacred sites, especially caves. They have enormous, staring eyes and attack by flying through the air and hitting the victim on the back with stone axes fixed to their elbows and knees. Quinkans are summoned to guard a place by wirruwen or greater creatures. They are invisible except when they are attacking and while incorporeal they are immune to physical forces. Their usual attack is to fly right through their target, preferably from an ambush. The stone axes affixed to the creature's knees and elbows are not made incorporeal of invisible by the Quinkans power and these dig deep into the flesh of victims. After this attack, the Quinkan may solidify, losing its ability to fly. It attacks with its claws and bite while material. The bite of a Quinka is tinged with Orichalka, making them one of the most fearsome creatures summonable. At the Quinka's choice, each bite removes either 1d6 of any characteristic, such as CON or CHA, or 2d6 from a statistic such as Ch'awe, Ka or a Metamorphosis, or 3d6 from any skill or magical technique. How it is that Quinka can carry this substance unharmed is not clear, but it may be that their essence cannot contact the Orichalka due to some trick of their physiology. The most frightening property of the Orichalka bite is its slowness. A character loses only 1 point per day per bite until the total damage has been inflicted. This means that the Nephilim may be bitten and fight on, believing the first point of damage to be the only effect. The next day, however, they may realize the injury will prove mortal and that they are wasting away. Several Nephilim suffered this fate as the white invasion pressed north into territories, mostly in Cape York Penninsula, where the spells to call up the Quinka were well-known. Certain members of the High Priestess Arcanum consider them an incarnation of radiation sickness. STR: 6d6 CON: 3d6+15 INT: 3d6 DEX: 2d6+12 Ka-Element: Black Earth? Earth 3d6+12 HP = CON Move 12/40 flying Weapons: Bite: 65%, Damage 1d8+1d4 + Orichalka poisoning. Claw: 75%, Damage 1d6+1d4 damage Four Axes: 50% each, 1d6+1+1d4 Damage each. Properties: Orichalka bite. Sense Intruders. Quinkans can sense the presence of intruders on their sites with a 95% degree of success. Protection: While incorporeal and invisible, the Quinkan is immune to physical harm. Spells: A pre-exisitng Quinkan may be given limited instructions by most Dreamers familiar with its site and the bindings placed upon it by its originnal summoning wirruwen, so long as they are not of a class of people that the Quinkan will exterminate out of hand. Those familiar with the Realm of Singing may have a easier time of things. Dreamers can call up new Quinkans with a complex ritual of the Realm of Destinations in the Alcheringa Technique of Dreaming. They go to the Lord of Quinkans and ask permission to lead a quinkan to a site, then Sing it up from Australia. Summoners have difficulty calling up Quinkans, due possibly to the touch of Orichalka upon them. It is theorized that a spell of the Realm of Violence may be sufficient to draw these creatures forth from the elemental fields. Certain Australian summoners are working on this problem, hoping to make their Anthors and libraries the sacred sites of these terrible guardians. Whowie: Great Lizards Imagine a gecko over twenty feet long with six legs and a head like that of a squat tryannosaurus. These creatures are amphibians that live in burrows in the banks of the rivers of Alcheringa, although they may be called into Australia by Wirruwen or Sorcerers. Bunyips are also quite keen on this practice. Once a Whowie begins to track a victim, it never, ever stops, unless they escape the Dreamtime. If the Whowie is in the mortal world, it will never, ever stop. Whowies seem to have a vauge idea of where their quarry has gone, which they follow if they lack other clues. Only three of these creatures have been seen by European Nephilim, as the Whowie is native to the Murry river, which the Europeans took early in the invasion, during that time that the indigenous Nephilim were reeling before the first use of Orichalka weaponry in this country. STR: 4d6 + 48 CON: 2d6 + 12 DEX: 2d6 Ka-Element: 3d6 + 6 H.P. = CON. Move: 4 Weapons: Bite 90%, 1d10+5d6 damage. Claw 90%, 1d6+5d6 damage. Properties: Tracking, as above. Protections: 10 point Armour from its leathery hide. Spells within Ka meters of the Whowie are distorted to aid the Whowie, unless the caster wins a Ka battle. Summoned creatures are sent back to the elemental fields unless they win a Ka battle. Spells cast directly at the Whowie are absorbed by it, adding to its Ka for a day or two, until they are digested. The benefit to the Whowie is usually equal to the Ch'awe lost by the caster. Dreamers may find and sing up Whowies, but generally they must be so frightening that the Whowie does not choose them as prey. Bunyips generally wrestle them into submission, or so they say. Summoners may, in theory, call them up, but the spell is not known to the world yet. They may, or may not, be Water Spirits of the Realm of Spiritual and Elemental Comprehension or possibly the Realm of Violence. Wulguru: Death Incarnate Wulguru is a huge human shape made of slabs of bark and logs of wood. Like Kurrapanga he is trapped, homoculus-like, in the the frame made for him by the wirruwen who called him forth. He roams the Dreamtime seeking the maker of his imprisoned body, slaying all humans on the off-chance he'll kill the right one and be set free. -------------------- The Chaosium Digest is an unofficial electronic 'zine about Chaosium's Games. In no way should it be considered representative of the views or beliefs of Chaosium Inc. To submit an article, subscribe or unsubscribe, mail to: appel@erzo.org.