Chaosium Digest Volume 28, Number 10 Date: Sunday, October 3, 1999 Number: 1 of 1 Contents: * Cat's Eyes -- A Follow-up to Cat's Cradle (CTHULHU) by Andy Clements Editor's Note: Our first October issue features a Call of Cthulhu adventure by Andy Clements. It, like his previous submission Cat's Cradle, features one of H.P.L.'s favorite critters. October, of course, means Halloween, the favorite holiday of horror fans everywhere. As a result, I'd like to make the next two issues this month special ones but I can only do so with your help. I need you to send me your best Halloween themed adventures, creatures or whatever. Also, how about a Chaosium Digest Top 10 Favorite Halloween Movies list? If you are interested, send me a list of your 10 favorite movies to watch around Halloween and I'll tabulate the votes and have the results in the October 31st issue. Let me know people are still reading this thing! ** UPCOMING CHAOSIUM RELEASES** >>>OCTOBER Releases: For Call of Cthulhu "Fiction" >Book Of Dyzan 6027 $12.95 ISBN 1-56882-114-X Nonfiction. A discussion of Blavatsky's famous book, the mysterious Book of Dyzan, the heart of the secret books of Kie-Te, once known only to Tibetan mystics. Includes lengthy quotes. Excerpts from the Society for Psychical Research's 1885 report on the eye-opening phenomena connected with the Theosophical Society. Editor Maroney's biographical essay for Madame Blavatsky starts off the volume with a fascinating portrait of an amazing woman. Mention of Dzyan in H.P. Lovecraft's writing is made. >Cuddly Cthulhu 5200 $14.95 This is the first stuffed toy from Chaosium's new line of Mythos Monsters. These disturbing, yet adorable star spawn come from the Stars in a variety of colors. But rest assured they all have one whimsical purpose in mind: total world domination! Trust me folks, you don't want to be with out one of these once R'lyeh rises. Make friends with them fast, you never know when the Stars will come right! Disclaimer: Chaosium recommends not feeding your Cuddly Cthulhu after midnight. Keep this and all other Mythos Monsters away from small pets and salsa. >>>OCTOBER/NOVEMBER Release For Call of Cthulhu Fiction: >The Yellow Sign & Other Tales 6023 $19.95 ISBN 1-56882-126-3 by Robert W. Chambers This massive collection brings together, for the first time ever and with much of the material unprinted since the 1890s, the entire body of Robert W. Chambers' weird fiction work. Chambers is considered a landmark author in the horror field for his _King in Yellow_ collection, but that is just a small part of his weird fiction output. The Yellow Sign & Other Stories brings together tales from five different Chambers collections, and also includes the novel _In Search of the Unknown_ and an excerpt from the novel _The Tracer of Lost Persons_. These stories are also connected to the Cthulhu mythos, for they introduce concepts such as Hali, Hastur, and Carcosa. Selected and edited by S.T. Joshi. ----------------------------- =======Cat's Eyes============== -A follow up to Cat's Cradle- By Andy Clements --------------------------- Introduction: The home city of the investigators is being plagued by more bizarre and grisly deaths, similar to those occurring during the Cat's Cradle adventure. People are being found as mere piles of skeletons, the bones picked clean of all edible flesh, scratches on the bones. The strangest part is that evidence from witnesses suggest the 'murders' occurred within a time period of about ten minutes - surely not long enough for a serial killer to strip away the flesh and make his/her escape? This should be enough to draw most Investigators into the adventure, but it should be especially the case for any who played in the Cat's Cradle adventure. Keeper Information: These latest acts against humans are not the work of vengeful cats, as in Cat's Cradle. In this case, a priestess of Bast is sending the Holy Children [slightly more vicious and larger versions of modern cats] to kill people who have wronged her. There are three victims before the events come to the attention of the Investigators. The first is the ex-husband of the Priestess (unaware of her secret vocation) who divorced her after an affair with a co-worker. The second is the lawyer who helped the ex-husband gain custody of their children. The third was the co-worker. However, this will not be the last of the murders. The Priestess is slightly unhinged at losing everything that life had to offer, and is more than a little vindictive. Which is why she is now picking more random victims. Evidence: 1) Mortuary reports: These will reveal little information, other than the suggestion that the victims were eaten alive by fairly small animals, maybe cat or dog sized. 2) Personal effects of victims: These will also reveal very little, except who had the *motive*. The lawyer's writings will not reveal much - he did not bother to look into the Priestess's feelings. However, the diary will show that the ex-husband got custody of the kids. The mistress's diary will show that she thought the Priestess was jealous and vindictive - which she feels is justified, but still scares her. The ex-husband's diary will suggest he left her because he never knew what she was doing, and that she held people in contempt. 3) Occult writings: Investigators will more than likely run across nothing but the same works that appeared in Cat's Cradle, which suggest that cat's are sent to punish those who are cruel to Bast's children. 4) Mythos writings: Investigators who know where to look will find a Mythos book entitled 'The Book Of The Cats' [imaginative I know]. This book grants +3% to Cthulhu Mythos, but most importantly, tells of a prophecy, where the cats shall rise in times to come, to eat man, and to rule over the survivors. [It wouldn't be Cthulhu without an apocalyptic prophecy]. What Can The Investigators do? The only way to deal with the priestess is to kill her, although an especially good group of investigators may have the skill to talk sense into her. This, however, would have to be a remarkable feat of role-playing. The Priestess: I suggest that Keeper's give statistics to the Priestess as suits their own campaign. However, she should not be given an excessive level of spells: A spell to summon Bast, as well as that to send the Holy Children against people should be entirely sufficient. In campaigns where Investigators are gun happy, equip the Priestess with a shot-gun. --