Chaosium Digest Volume 27, Number 11 Date: Sunday, March 14, 1999 Number: 3 of 3 Contents: MISKATONIC UNIVERSITY: Life at the World's Scariest School, 1999 by R. J. Christen (CTHULHU NOW) pt 3 of 3 ------------------------- MISKATONIC UNIVERSITY: LIFE AT THE WORLD'S SCARIEST SCHOOL -1998 Part 3 JUGGLING SCHOOL & INVESTIGATING THE MYTHOS Nothing would sound so ridiculous to a professor then a student claiming that he couldn't finish his paper on "Ecological Aspects of Thoreau's "Walden Pond" because he was being chased by ghouls the night before. So what do daring student-investigators do when the fate of humanity is in the balance? Well, they could either study real hard beforehand, cram, drop courses midway through the semester, or drop out entirely and go pro. But dropping courses can be expensive and there is not much of a market for professional investigators, so studying is the best way out. Keepers can tabulate their player's academic success by asking for an Idea or Luck roll each week of interrupted school. Cramming entails making up for an entire semester of investigating (or too much RPG playing) by cramming the entire semester into one night's orgy of study and coffee drinking. Cramming success is determined by this formulae: (KNOW+INT+CON x Percentile). If the result is 61 or better, they pass that course. Otherwise, it's off to work at the local First National Grocery store or "Dave's Donuts" to pay the bills. TWO GROOVY MINI-ADVENTURES FOR MISKATONIC STUDENTS CTHULHU ROCKS!: The leader of a campus punk band "Arkaan Noledge", Mark Alscot, discovers some really cool lyric ideas in the library; from the Necronomicon, no less! Unfortunately, during a wild practice session, the combination of amplified sonic thrashing and the "lyrics" turned loose a seething "thing", which promptly attacked the other three band members and sucked the life out of them. The police figured the musicians were accidentally electrocuted and had Alscot committed to the M.U. Psychiatric Hospital due to his wild rantings. Slightly calmed down a few days later, Alscot pleads with the investigators to destroy the creature. ) Alscot, under the influence of certain hallucinogenics, actually just saw his bandmates get accidentally electrocuted by a beer soaked amplifier. The poor guy mistook the electrical arcs as "monsters". 2) The band members were electrocuted, but on purpose by a oversensitive and insane neighbor who was fed up with both the noise and the mysterious lyrics from the Necronomicon. The Neighbor now believes the entire college is filled with "Satan worshipers and monsters" and must fight this unholy onslaught any way they can, namely with a high powered hunting rife. The players have to prevent this from happening. 3) The Creature is a Fire Vampire now getting it's fill with Arkham's homeless people down by the river. The investigators have to discover just what the "thing" is and devise a way to either dispel or destroy it. This Fire Vampire is a bit more powerful then most, having 15 HP, a 17 POW, at 85% Touch attack (doing 2d6 fire damage) and has spells: Call Cthugha, Create Gate, and Summon/Bind Star Vampire (even more trouble!). THE SORT OF UNNAMABLE: After old Widow Archer refused to sell her 175 year old family mansion to real estate developer Ronald Crump, mysterious sounds and bizarre sightings began spooking the neighborhood. Popular rumor has it that the ghost of a crazed wizard has risen from the grave and is now haunting the house and neighborhood. Mrs. Archer is just about at the edge of a nervous breakdown and possible commitment to a mental hospital. The cops are calling it all a case of mass hysteria. 1) Poor Mrs. Archer is just old and suffering from an over active imagination. The neighbor rumors are just local legend, but when the players prove there's no ghost, Mrs. Archer gives them milk & cookies and title to the house in her will. Pro Bono Student Lawyers will have battle Mr. Crump instead (Roll Average of Law & Persuade to succeed). 2) Yup, the house IS haunted! Back in the late 1600s, a follower of Goody Fowler named Zephram Curin lived in a house on the site of Mrs. Archer's house. Three Hundred years to the date of his execution by torch-wielding townsfolk, Curin is back and ready to exact his evil revenge against Arkham. (use Lich stats) 3) What Mrs Archer, and her terrified neighbors don't know and what the intrepid student investigators have to discover is that the "ghost" is really Mr Crump and his stooges and perfect chance for Keepers to recite that famous line, "...and I would have succeeded if not for you meddling kids!". Crump had three of his goons tunnel under the house to the basement and sneak around in luminous costumes making spooky sounds to frighten Widow Archer into selling the house (the fiends!). Spells will have no effect, but avoid letting the investigators use guns as this would scare Mrs Archer into having a coronary, and besides, Crump can't say the famous line with large holes in his body... MORE ADVENTURE NUGGETS FOR MISKATONIC STUDENTS SON OF REANIMATOR REVISITED: Well, it looks as if yet another wack-o young Med student has stumbled onto the twisted notes of Dr Herbert West and is once again trying to raise the dead with the mad doctor's weird reanimation serum. Naturally, the same grisly results occurs for stray animals and unlucky students & staff with the student investigators having to clean up the mess afterwards. I DON'T THINK WE'RE STILL IN ARKHAM, TOTO: One peaceful evening while playing a friendly game of "Myths & Monsters", some darn fantasy gamers dig up some supposedly harmless spells from the Armatage library and manage to get themselves teleported to the Dreamlands, Yuggoth, R'ylth, or some place much, much worse. The gamers must find their way back to earth or face eternity (or quick and messy deaths) trapped in a world they never made. CTHULHU IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS: Evil and crazed cultists are selling a new hallucinogenic drug called "Time Warp" which gives the users a LSD-type sensation of flying through time and space, making it big with those "party- types" tired of acid and Ecstasy. The problem is, aside from it being quite addictive, the drug causes their crazed thoughts & dreams to become a wake-up call for the Dreamer Beneath the Sea. After 3 or more uses, the user begins to dream of lost R'lyth and loses 1 POW and d10 SAN per night until insane. The investigators must reveal the cultist drug dealers to the authorities to prevent a Avatar of Great Cthulhu from materializing in Arkham. BEACH BLANKET BYHAKEE: While on a roadtrip up to Maine for skiing, camping, or hunting (preferable hunting), the student investigators get stuck in the quaint old town of Innsmouth just when the Deep Ones are having their annual "Spring Break" hunt for nubile human "dates". Fort Lauderdale, it ain't. THE GREEKS DON'T WANT NO MORE FREAKS: Some random Fraternity is taking their rituals a bit too far as they celebrate the semesterly Rush week and Finals by inviting homeless people to dinner, then sacrifice them to fill in the blank) and REALLY have them for dinner (it tends to solve the "where to put the body?" problem). Perhaps the sudden disappearance of a friendly homeless person or an unlucky student will attract the attention of the student investigators IT CAME FROM THE BIOLOGY BUILDING: Late one Friday evening, two unfortunate grad students made the mistake of defrosting a frozen specimen from the 1959 Miskatonic University-IGY Antarctic Expedition. The hideous blob of black goo ate one of the students, sending the other screaming maniacally to the student investigators. It is a 700,000 year old shoggoth and will destroy much of the campus unless the brave investigators can nullify it with spells, gates, elder signs, or a M1 tank. MISKATONIC UNIVERSITY ORGANIZATION COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS: School of Languages, Literature, & The Arts Departments of: Fine Arts, English, Philosophy, Modern & Classical Languages, and Communication Arts. School of History & Social Science Departments of: Anthropology & Archeology, History, Political Studies & Geography, and Sociology. COLLEGE OF SCIENCES School of Physical Sciences: Departments of: Physics & Astronomy, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, and Oceanography. School of Life Sciences: Departments of: Biology, Botany, Zoology, Microbiology, Ecology, Animal Science, and Psychology. Astor Division of Mathematics & Computer Science COLLEGE OF MEDICINE School of Medicine School of Nursing SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY Departments of: Mechanical, Industrial, Electrical, & Civil Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering Technology, Industrial Management, and Industrial Design. SCHOOL OF EDUCATION: Departments of: Early Childhood, Elementary School, Middle School, High School, and Adult Education. SCHOOL OF BUSINESS Departments of Accounting, Economics, Finance, and Management. SCHOOL OF LAW SCHOOL OF MEDIEVAL METAPHYSICS BIBLIOGRAPHY Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu 3rd ed. Chaosium's Arkham Unveiled Chaosium's Kingsport: The City in the Mist Chaosium's "Miskatonic University Graduate Kit" Arkham House's The Dunwich Horror & Others Georgia Southern University Graduate Catalog Georgia Southern University Student Activities Guide --