Chaosium Digest Volume 28, Number 3 Date: Monday, May 3, 1999 Number: 1 of 1 Contents: The Harvester of Dreams (CTHULHU) by Terhali ( Terhali@aol.com ) Editor's Note: We've had some problems with formatting recently. I think I've finally gotten things worked out so that issues should arrive in a much more readable form, so I'm resending 28.3. If any of you have problems with this one, let me know. I apologize to everyone for the trouble. Hopefully, this will clear things up. Lastly, Shannon Appel told me that _The Ithaqua Cycle_ shipped just last week, for real this time! There, now this resend won't be completely useless. Thanks go out to Terhali for the majority of this issue. We've got a good Cthulhu submission for you all this time around. Also, as you can see in the announcements section, a fan has set up an ftp archive for the back issues of the Digest that is being kept up-to-date. Something we desperately needed and I thank him for the effort. Lastly, as always, we need submissions! Continual submissions are necessary for the Digest to keep going. If you've got an idea, write it down and send it to me at gobackstage@prodigy.net and put Digest Submission in the subject line so I don't overlook it. ANNOUNCEMENTS: *From Pedro Arnal Puente: He's just completed an ftp Digest archive for us. This is likely to be your best bet for finding those issues that you might have missed. Check it out at the following address: ftp://etsiit.upna.es/misc/chaosium/digest/ *From Terhali: There is a new website featuring the Elric! RPG. I thought I'd put together a site since very few Elric sites dealt with the game. Great game system, and wonderful reading. here's the site: www.geocities.com/Area51/Capsule/7909/index.html _________Online Elric! Campaign Announcement_____________ I am seeking players for an online Elric! campaign. I am currently soliciting players with or without experience in RPGs or the Eternal Champion series. Anyone interested, please contact me at Terhali@aol.com ________Eternal Champions mailing list______ For those of you interested in Michael Moorcock and the Eternal Champion, I would like to invite you to join the Eternal Champion mailing list. This list is to discuss aspects of the Eternal Champion, fan fiction, Elric! RPG, and other associated material. If you're interested in joining please contact me at Terhali@aol.com and I'll forward you the commands to do so. I am willing to take the best fan fiction and put it up on my site located above. Thanks for your time! ----------------------------- ________THE HARVESTER OF DREAMS______ I decided to leave the opening pretty generic, for maximum use by other GMs/Keepers. You should be able to put this adventure into any suitable spot. I would recommend that the GM maintain the feel of the CHAMBER, by locating it in a suitably dark and forbidding place. This may include a cave of unknown origin, or an old abandoned building, etc. For my tastes I made the chamber part of a subterranean complex underneath a building the PCs were tearing down in order to make room for another building. The box in this scenario is very powerful and dangerous, but what artifact in Call of Cthulhu isn't? PC INFORMATION: THE BEGINNING: The PCs are placed in charge of a minor construction project. Jon Drum is a foreman in a local construction company and oversees the laborers in the construction effort. The first phases involve tearing down some old buildings and checking their foundations to accommodate the new building. During this phase, all goes well, until the laborers discover a formerly hidden chamber. (SEE BELOW) Fearing to enter, they recruit the foreman to look within the dark chamber. The chamber is completely dark, and no light source will be able to function for long within the chamber. On the ground in the chamber there can be found a rusted .38 revolver, and a skull with a large hole in it. Nothing else of value can be found, but a small black box. Jon Drum does not mention the box to anyone, and in the confusion after the discovery of the skull, takes the box with him. GM INFORMATION: THE CHAMBER: The chamber is a secret worship shrine to one of the dark gods of chaos. An investigation by one of the local priests will find this information out, but it will take quite some time, as the site was not used very often, and nothing really signifies the place's use as a shrine. However, you might want to give the place some creepy effects, like always being cold, damp, drafty, etc. As you see fit to convey the mood. A really good one to use is no light will function in the chamber. A strong draft at the entrance blows out all candles, torches and lanterns. Even electric lights will fail, batteries will die, light bulbs will burn out, etc. A presence can also be felt in the room, but nothing is there. However, feeling around in the dark in an enclosed space underground with SOMETHING there is probably a pretty creepy feeling. The only thing of note is that the walls on one side of the chamber are covered in soot. Since no fire will burn within the chamber, the soot must have been brought into the chamber and rubbed on the wall for some purpose. AFTER FINDING THE CHAMBER: The site is closed for a few days as the forgotten chamber is investigated, and the foundations are checked to ensure they are sound. The architect and the contractor will have much to discuss in this time, as they were not anticipating having a large empty space underneath one of the supporting columns. Locals may be interested in the site as well. The police will conduct a cursory investigation of the site. The skull will be the only bones located in the chamber, and the rusted .38 will be found with 5 bullets still in the gun. From the damage to the skull, police determine that the victim was an apparent suicide. The age of the gun and the lack of other bones prevents their discovering out more about the victim. AFTER THE BEGINNING, NOT QUITE THE END: At night, there will be many strange things going on in the town. There is a sudden upswing in disorder in the city, animals will bay incessantly at night, many people will report having nightmares, etc. People who are normally polite, are somewhat less courteous to others. Generally, everyone is very moody. But nothing to explain this will be readily found. Perhaps the weather is too hot/cold? This behavior is very odd, and even the characters will begin having restless sleep. Upon return to the jobsite to continue the project, Jon Drum will not be present. Work on the site can continue without him, but he must be found soon, or the project will surely fall behind. In fact, the union is threatening to close down the site, if there is no foreman present overseeing the laborer's work. Calling in another foreman will take time, and money. If the players visit Jon Drum's home, they will find him missing, whereabouts unknown. Several scraps of paper will be found at Jon Drum's home with disturbing images rubbed on them. Those who make a successful Cthulhu Mythos roll; or, if the GM believes the character would have knowledge of runes, will glean the glyphs for Dreams and Reeve (as in a harvester). Failure or no ability in this will mean the players will have to seek out assistance with these glyphs. At Keeper's option, these runes may or may not be contained in any Mythos tome. Jon Drum's wife, Salene, will remember him having a black box which he seemed obsessed with. None of the other inhabitants of the home will know the location of the black box if the PCs ask about it. A successful search of the house will find the box in the attic. Jon will be nowhere in the house. GM INFORMATION: THE BLACK BOX: A simple black box of ancient red wood, approximately 4"x6"x3". At one time it was carved with bas relief images or writing of some kind. Now it is worn from age and completely black. If looked at for a long period of time, the box will appear shiny and reddish. The box is cool to the touch and damp, similar to the chamber above. The faint images can be made out by rubbing the images on a piece of paper. Opening the box (SEE BELOW) reveals a rather plain interior, however in the upper lid of the box a small slip of parchment can be found underneath the box lining. This slip of paper contains the ravings of the boxes' last owner. It warns of dire consequences for opening the box, along with the dire fate that he knows himself to be doomed to. "Beware the dreams that come in the night. Sleep not. No sleep. No sleep for the Keeper." However this fragment will be of little value to the PCs and others will believe it to be the ravings of a mad man. Unfortunately for Jon Drum, he failed his test and became attuned to the box (SEE BELOW FOR DETAILS). Jon Drum could not stand the images and has fallen under the boxes spell. When the box is found it will be opened. It will be impossible for players to close the lid of the box. No amount of force will close the lid of the box. GAME EFFECTS: Opening the box causes the bearer to face a resistance test against Power 16* to avoid being "attuned" to the box. Attuned individuals are known by the term "Keeper." Once attuned to the box, the victim will receive disturbing images of dark rituals, suicide, murder, hatred, past and present conflicts, wars, etc, etc. He will also feel a "presence" with him at all times. Watching, waiting, making disquieting noises. He may even begin to speak to the "presence", although no one else will be able to hear or see the "presence". The Keeper is able to channel these images to others while sleeping. For some the images are too much, and suicide of the box owner has been a common ending. *this resistance test may be modified by the box sacrificing power points currently stored. For each stored power point used the box increases the active characteristic by one. For example, sacrificing one point of POW will make the opener test against the boxes Power 17 (16+1). If a victim under the boxes influence commits suicide, the box absorbs the victim's POW. Regardless of the distance between the box and the victim, it will increase its current "store" of POW. The box can store up to 175 POW points. The box currently contains 75 POW. Upon the suicide of the box owner, the box lid closes, and awaits another victim to open the box. THE BOX'S PURPOSE: Once the box stores enough psychic energy 50+ POW points, then the presence may compel the Keeper to take it to the secret chamber. The Keeper may make a test against power (as when he first opened the box) to resist this. The box may modify the base resistance of 16 by sacrificing stored POW as above. While the victim is sleeping, the box's willpower is modified by +5 (16+5=21) without using stored POW. Eventually, the box will control the keeper and force him to take it to the secret chamber. Once the box is in the secret chamber the keeper will be compelled to perform a one hour ritual to release the POW contained in the box to the entity within the chamber. However, the ritual is very demanding and the keeper must make a test against his CON every 10 minutes to avoid botching the ritual. THE ENTITY: The entity is also known as the Harvester (or Reeve) of Dreams. The Harvester of Dreams is an entity trapped between this world and another sphere. It can leave the chamber once it acquires enough POW through the ritual. The number of POW within the box is the percent chance the entity can break through the bounds holding it back. The entities maximum chance to leave the place it is trapped in is 95%. The Harvester of Dreams has no physical form, and is made of purely mental energy. To find his statistics use all POW points used to release him. The entity may use these as characteristic points on any statistic. Remember, the creature has no physical form, just Int, Pow and skills. The Harvester cannot be harmed by physical weapons, unless they are magical. The Harvester has no physical attack. When it means to do harm, it channels mental images to the target. A successful Sanity Roll is required to resist this attack. Failure means the victim loses 1D6 sanity points. Even a successful save loses the victim 1 sanity point. GM OPTIONS: The entity is what you'd like it to be. However, it is thoroughly malevolent, bent only on causing pain and suffering. A demon if you like, something like a malevolent specter if that is more to your liking. Whatever you'd like it to be. The box and the shrine are tied to the entity. Destroying the box will keep the entity trapped between the worlds. However, doing so will almost surely doom the keeper to suicide or insanity. It may be possible, if the players have found Mr. Drum of declaring him incompetent, and committing him to a mental institution. There he may not be rid of the dreams, but might be prevented from hurting himself. Releasing the creature will require the death of innocents and allow the creature to wander the world. The PCs might find a way to trap the creature in this world after releasing it, and then exorcising it, but it may be a difficult situation. Another option might be to exorcise the box and the keeper before the ritual is attempted. Exorcism on the box will cause the stored POW to dissipate, but the hold on the keeper will still be there. Exorcism on the keeper may or may not break the entities hold on him. There is no way to exorcise the entity from the space between the worlds. Perhaps a way to close off this side to him exists. An Elder Sign may or may not work against the entity depending on Keeper preference. However, placing an Elder Sign on the wall of the chamber will be difficult due to the chamber's properties. AFTERMATH: Whatever the Harvester is in your campaign, if the PCs do not act, Jon Drum will commit suicide due to the images in his head. It may be possible for the players to find him, he's hiding out in a seedy part of town, near the construction site. When players find him, he will not have slept in days and his disappearance will have suffered for it. He will be muttering about not being able to sleep, and the terrible dreams. He will also have a .38 revolver (unloaded) with six bullets in his pocket. If the PCs took the box from his house, he will attempt to find it. The box sends out a "homing signal" to its location, so the victim can find it easily. If the PCs don't come to him, Jon may come to them. Jon is not homicidal, and will not attempt to harm PCs, but will attempt to steal the box from them when they are not about. If he cannot retrieve the box or is caught by the PCs he may attempt suicide. The PCs may notice the boxes lid almost shutting on several occasions during the time of their investigation. The box is sensitive to the mood of the victim, and the closer to suicide, the closer the lid comes to shutting. Should the Keeper wish, Jon may commit suicide, allowing another PC to open the box and become the "keeper". --