Chaosium Digest Volume 29, Number 7 Date: Friday, December 31, 1999 Number: 1 of 5 Contents: * Campaign Background: The Ultimate Conspiracy Theory HO HO HO (The Truth Behind Santa Claus) (CTHULHU) by Jorge Palinhos neonaeon@mailcity.com * A Night at the Gallery (CTHULHU) by Ricardo J. Méndez Castro rmendez@sheertalent.com * Children of the Night (CTHULHU) by James D. Collins (collwood@gte.net) * The Lighthouse (CTHULHU) by Shane Jackson liche@mindless.com * The Trail of Ysgar (CTHULHU -- DREAMLANDS) by Frank Sronce fsronce@myriad.net Editor's Note: Here it is folks, the last Chaosium Digest of 1999! It's hard to believe that it has already been a full year since I was picked by Shannon Appel to take over the Digest. I hope that it has been as fun for all of you as it has been for me and I hope that next year will be even better. This issue, we've got five excellent Call of Cthulhu articles that range from grim to lighthearted. These articles, plus one other that's long enough to merit its own issue, will be the last ones to qualify for the Call of Cthulhu Hardcover giveaway, from the good folks at Chaosium. I'd like to ask that those of you who appreciate Chaosium's support of the Digest, and the great submissions we've gotten as a result, send the folks at Chaosium an email and let them know what you think. Lastly, I'd like to thank Shannon Appel for choosing me for the job, the good folks at Chaosium without whom there wouldn't be a need for a Chaosium Digest, and everyone of you who reads the Digest and submits articles without which there wouldn't even be a Chaosium Digest. My deepest thanks to all of you. Have a joyous and prosperous 2000! John W. Thompson Editor Chaosium Digest ANNOUNCEMENTS * The RTF version of Woods Haven is at http://www.sheertalent.com/rmendez/scenarios/woodshavenrtf.z ip instead of the address that was included in the text last issue. Sorry for the mix-up. Cheers, Ricardo J. Méndez Castro ICQ 45996385 Sheer Talent Developments http://www.sheertalent.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------ "The problem with you hackers is you never stop working." "That's what a hacker is," Hiro says. Neal Stephenson, _Snow crash_ **RECENTLY RELEASED!** Happy Holidaze from Chaosium Inc! We've just shipped our latest release for Call of Cthulhu . Thanks for your support! Dustin Wright Chaosium SW LAST RITES [#2379, $14.95] Four challenging horrors for today. A book of wretched poetry, an incautious summoning, a Satanic coven, and a house with a suspicious history are the basic ingredients. Useful as stand-alone adventures, or for a change of pace when inserted into an ongoing campaign. Though suitable for beginning player characters, these adventures are dangerous, and incautious beginners will come to regret rash decisions. Written by Ian Winterton. ISBN 1-56882-137-9 Graphic available at: http://www.chaosium.com/cthulhu/rpg/2379.shtml Includes the following adventures: Last Rites - The death of retired professor Henry Ennis brings family and friends to the small town of Runville Massachusetts. New funerals and Mystery soon follow. Lethal Legacy - An ordinary mummy has been stolen from Miskatonic University in Arkham. Something stalks the snow covered countryside. The House on Mckinley Boulevard - Within an abandoned house, evil lurks awaiting the unwary. The Priestess - When a less than talented poet is ridiculed by his publishers, he seeks vengeance. But there is much more to this murder than meets the eyes, and who knows what horror may reach out across time and space when blood is spilled. >>> DECEMBER Releases For Call of Cthulhu > Call of Cthulhu RPG (Hardcover) 2386 $37.95 ISBN 1-56882-148-4 The Great Old Ones ruled the Earth aeons before the incidental rise of man. They came from the gulfs of space, waged war upon one another, and then were cast down by even greater beings. Remains of their cyclopean cities and forbidden knowledge can still be found in the remote extremes of our planet. Upon uncharted islands, within dark ocean depths, under burning desert sands, locked within polar ice, miles below the Earth's crust, they lay imprisoned. But when the Stars are right they will awaken and walk this earth once more. Call of Cthulhu is our classic role-playing game of Lovecraftian horror in which ordinary people are confronted by the terrifying and alien forces of the Cthulhu Mythos. A bestseller with over 300,000 copies sold world-wide. Call of Cthulhu has won dozens of game awards. In 1996 Call of Cthulhu was elected to the Academy of Adventure Game Designer's Hall of Fame. Call of Cthulhu is well supported by an ever growing line of high quality game supplements. No Gaming library is complete without a copy of this book! This new hardback edition is completely compatible with all our previous 5th edition supplements for Call of Cthulhu. Some sections of the book have been revised and clarified, and the book includes some new interior art. This book is a complete role-playing game in one volume! All you need to Play Call of Cthulhu is this book, some dice, and your friends. >>>JANUARY Release For Call of Cthulhu Fiction: >Book Of Dyzan 6027 $13.95 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. ----------------------------- Campaign Background: The Ultimate Conspiracy Theory HO HO HO (The Truth Behind Santa Claus) Listen carefully, I will write this only once, In the end of the last century a group of cultists of Nyarlathotep created a potion that when imbibed in large quantities turned its drinker in a mindless cultists of the Crawling Chaos. Experimenting further they discovered that instead of drinking a huge amount of the potion but just giving small doses regularly for a long time the effect would be pretty much the same. So Nyarlathotep came up with one of his most nefarious plots ever. He had a company set up to sell the potion as a medicine, but it wasn't very successful. Then mixing other ingredients like sugar and other sweeteners, he discovered that humans could be convinced to drink it as a regular drink. And hence one of the most successful soft drinks whose name we will not mention came to be. Refreshing and sweet (and with a massive ad campaign for good measure) has found its way to the heart and the stomach of humanity. It destroys the brain cells and turns humans into servants of the Messenger of the Gods. It has caused most of the misery and violence you witness around you and it his the harbinger of the end. Yep, that brown liquid in funny-shaped bottles is slowly turning you into a mindless servitor. And you thought that was just something to help you digest the burger and fries. All comes into place, doesn't it? Why they have the recipe a safely guarded secret, why they sponsor pretty much everything, why they bomb you with relentless ad campaigns... and you thought that it were just a few filthy rich who wanted to be filthy richer. Ah! If you still have doubts just find someone drinking a bottle of the soft drink whose name I will not mention and ask him/her if he/she is a servant of the Crawling Chaos. If he/she replies something like "I don't know what you mean." you can be pretty sure he/she indeed is and you better pack up your things and move to another planet since they already know you, like me, know their plot. But if that is not enough let me tell you the most horrid secret of all. The secret of Santa Claus. You think that Santa Claus doesn't exist? You think that he was just a holy man who became a folk lore personality that on Christmas eve brings presents for children? Ha! How wrong you are! Santa does exist. And is far worse than you can imagine. You see, usually during winter and especially Xmas people used to drink less soft drink I will not mention because of the cold. This disrupted the need to sustain a regular taking of the potion vital for it to accomplish the desired effect: turning the drinker into a Nyarlathotep-cultist. Well, a few strong ad campaigns took care of the cold in winter. Usually advertisements stated that if drank the potion you wouldn't be thirsty. But usually people aren't thirsty during winter. So the new ad campaigns focused on how cool and fashionable and bright and handsome people who drink the potion are. Thirst is on an all time low during the cold season but the desire to be cool and fashionable is always on top. That settled it. Well almost. On Christmas people had this bizarre concept of valuing family and tradition above status and coolness. And they drank more traditional beverages, so... The Crawling Chaos wouldn't be Crawling Chaos if he wasn't always coming with evil plots so created one of the most devious and horrid stratagems ever: he supported Christmas. The soft drink whose name I will not mention Christmas ads exalted family, happiness, tradition and love. And more they rehabilitated a mythic person who was long lost: Santa Claus. The ads started displaying a fat, white bearded, jolly happy, red-dressed man who loved children and was always giving them presents. The trucks that carried the aforementioned potion displayed portraits of Santa looking happy and drinking a bottle of the potion. Movie makers were paid to produce movies with Santa so that people started unconsciously believing in him. Thanks to Nyarlathotep and his followers Santa Claus become the greatest icon of Christmas. People forgot about Jesus, Christianity, about sharing and so forth. Christmas become just about buying expensive presents, giving expensive presents, receiving expensive presents and watching cheesy film and series on TV and hearing even cheesier music everywhere. Share became give and take, love became cheap drama, introspection became overall dumbness, a celebration of the birth of a child in a cave, in a cradle made of hay between a donkey and a cow became the exaltation of a big, fat, red-faced, all buying, all eating, all drinking man. Such a grand transformation and subversion could only be the work of him, the Messenger of the Thousand Faces and Shapes. But of course being Nyarlathotep involved, there must something else, there is always something else with him. He made Santa real. Yes, Santa is real. He is just quite different from what you think he is. First. It isn't him. It is they! There are several dozens. How do you think that they are able to cover the entire world in one night? Second. They aren't helped by elves nor reindeer. Elves are characters from children stories and who has ever heard of such nonsense has flying deer. Third. They aren't human. Precision, they don't even resemble humans. They are actually undeveloped Star-Spawn of Cthulhu dressed in huge red robes with bells on the tentacles. Using a spell that allows them to slide down chimneys to enter houses and do their duty. Fourth. Their duty isn't leaving presents for children. Are you nuts! We are talking about Mythos creatures. Mythos creatures eat children, they don't leave presents for them. No, their task is much worse. Their job is to drop small amounts of the potion whose name I still don't mention on the food and drinks of the house and therefore assure that humans keep receiving their regular amount of the potion. Well, sometimes they leave presents behind to keep up to the myth. And that explains all those loonies who appear boldly declaring to have seen Santa. Actually some see Santa doing their work. Some see them close enough to see want he truly is. Such witnesses usually appear dead on the next day either due to a terrible accident or suicide (with a brief note explaining how unhappy and lonely they felt on the joyful times). Other times the Star-Spawn just gets hungry and eats a member of the happy family who are asleep (breaking the strict orders of not harming humans unless to protect their disguise - Nyarlathotep thinks it's much more fun to see humans destroying themselves mutually). There, I have told you everything I know. Now you and me are the only two people alive who know this terrible secret about Santa Claus and we must... Wait! There is noise downstairs, let me see what it is...NOOOOOOO, I am being attacked by Star-Spawn with bells on the tentacles and holding giant bottles of C... I mean the potion.. Help! Help! Help! Ouch, ugh, that hurts... Captain P.R. Noid end of transmission Campaign Notes This is the background of what could be a playable, half-humorous full-fledged campaign. In case you want to play it (are you feeling all right?) I offer this advice. - You players should create a family. I don't mean being all cousins, I mean one of the players will be the father, other the mother, the remaining will be the children. There can be no childless couple nor single-parent since that is very un-Christmas-like. - The campaign should start during Christmas eve when one (or more) child hides awaken waiting to see Santa arrive and the shock when he/she sees what Santa really his. (Think how traumatized you would be if as a child you discovered that Santa was a black, tentacled - with bells on the tentacles - beast pouring Coke on the family turkey. - Afterwards, the family should try to find the truth about Santa, then its connection with a famous soft-drink company and then try to destroy the potion to prevent humanity from destroying itself. - The campaign should end with the players (I mean the players not the investigators) all engaged in a big hug of friendship, love and sharing. (Unless you are a sadistic GM like me and their characters end up at the asylum's Christmas party among a bunch of raving lunatics and a few asylum clerks with cold faces.) -.. And Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone (hysterical laughter) -------------------- -- To unsubscribe from the chaos-digest ML, send an "unsubscribe" command to chaos-digest-request@chaosium.com. Chaosium Inc., Call of Cthulhu, and Nephilim are Registered Trademarks of Chaosium Inc. 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