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Chaosium Digest Volume 38 Number 07
Chaosium Digest Volume 38, Number 7
Date: Sunday, November 13, 2004
Number: 1 of 1
Contents:
* Family Snapshots (CTHULHU)
by Nick Middleton
* Turkey and Jaguar (CTHULHU FICTION)
by Prof. Richard Scott Nokes, Ph.D
Editor's Note:
We've got a couple of interesting submissions for you this time. One is a
cool little plot to pit your investigators against and another is a nice
short story of horror amidst a Mayan archaeological dig.
Enjoy!
ANNOUNCEMENTS
* The Worlds of Cthulhu website is now live.
http://www.worldsofcthulhu.com
Content will be added on an ongoing basis, and support material to each
issue can also be found there.
--
Adam Crossingham
Editor - Worlds of Cthulhu
* Transmitted by Dustin Wright of the Leng Embassy, from Silverton Colorado.
The Elder Party Won! No More Years!
This R'lyeh report contains all sorts of crunchy Chaosium info. For more
Chaosium news check out our website at http://www.chaosium.com
Howdy Folks
This week finds us anxiously awaiting Shadows of Yog Sothoth. We might have
it by the end of the week. That would have it hitting store shelves by
mid-month. The Stars Are Right is ready to go to the printer now. That may
also happen by the end of the week. Between these two books, we're likely to
end the year on a positive note.
CthulhuCon 2005
We're pleased to announce that we'll be co-hosting a CthulhuCon at
GhengisCon this coming February. The Denver Gamers Association has invited
us to attend their show February 17th-20th 2005. Charlie Krank and Dustin
Wright will both be there. We'll have a big Chaosium booth and plenty of COC
gaming. This is a great way for Chaosium to kick off our 30th anniversary.
We hope you'll join us. Everyone should see the Rocky Mountains covered with
snow at least once.
The event will take place at the Four Points Sheraton in Denver Colorado. If
you would like to run some Call of Cthulhu events there, please contact
dustin@chaosium.com. We'll need plenty of GM's!
For more information about GhengisCon check out
http://www.denvergamers.com/genghis/generalinfo.asp
Chaosium.com Update
Recent new items at Chaosium.com include Miskatonic University Lapel pins.
These swell little pins are available with gold or silver details. We've
also added a Basic Roleplaying Creatures monograph and some swell (hard to
find) books to our Grand Bazaar of Antiquities section.
Rumors, Rumors, Rumors.
Chaosium is working on some little items to bring you all sorts of holiday
cheer.
We're hard at work nailing down our 2005 schedule.
Several new monographs are in the works.
The Leng Embassy recently hosted a Halloween Party. Don't ask what was in
the fajitas.
Thank you for supporting the Chaosium!
The Chaosium dudes.
* Greetings All-
As Ithaqua begins his slow assault upon us, Chaosium remains steadfast
against him and his ilk. Warm yourself in the glow of some fabulous new toys
and trinkets.
Before we mention the new things we have, Chaosium would like to thank
everybody for all your support lately. We pride ourselves on quality
publications, and we look forward to bringing you great fun in 2005.
This holiday season, we're trying something new. For a limited time, we are
offering FREE SHIPPING on orders over $120.00. This offer is valid worldwide
as well, but only until the end of November! Order big and save some
hard-earned cash. Chaosium will of course ship using the cheapest method
available - generally by surface mail for our international fans and UPS or
USPS ground for our domestic buddies.
Chaosium is quite pleased to announce the release of SHADOWS OF YOG-SOTHOTH.
This is a classic scenario, with expanded scenarios and keeper aids. As the
first published adventure for Call of Cthulhu back in 1982, SHADOWS OF
YOG-SOTHOTH treats us to the first appearance of Mighty Cthulhu himself.
Don't let him slip away again!
SHADOWS OF YOG-SOTHOTH:
http://catalog.chaosium.com/product_info.php?products_id=360
Chaosium is also happy to see some cool dice bags in stock. Carry your dice
(or chips) in style with these cloth bags. Choose the black ELDER SIGN BAG,
or amaze your friends with the swell YELLOW SIGN BAG. Click the links if you
want to see them.
YELLOW SIGN BAG:
http://catalog.chaosium.com/product_info.php?products_id=574
ELDER SIGN BAG: http://catalog.chaosium.com/product_info.php?products_id=573
For fans of the Soviet Union, Chaosium has something special just for you.
Brand new and still shiny, we introduce a new Call of Cthulhu adventure
monograph, wherein soldiers in Stalin's Red Army find things not quite as
they appear. The year is 1931, and you must defend MACHINE TRACTOR STATION
KHARKOV-37 against an unknown threat. Do you have what it takes? The Soviet
Union needs another hero. Grab your rifle and fight!! Click the link below
to learn more.
MTSK-37: http://catalog.chaosium.com/product_info.php?products_id=603
To help the world celebrate Great Cthulhu's victory in the U.S. Presidential
election, Chaosium offers a special on our neat CTHULHU FOR PRESIDENT 2004
products. With Cthulhu wreaking havoc in the White House and around the
world, Chaosium is poised for global domination in 2005. Join our team and
show the world you care!! Please remember these shirts do NOT come to life
if left unwashed, despite those rude internet warnings!!
CTHULHU FOR PRESIDENT SPECIALS: http://catalog.chaosium.com/specials.php
As always, we try to find or build great stuff for our friends and fans
around the world. Chaosium does have lots of neat stuff under construction
at Santa's Workshop, so check back on our site early and often. You may be
delighted (or horrified) by what you see.
Thanks from the Chaosium guys.
Chaosium Inc.
895 B St # 423
Hayward CA 94541
fergie@chaosium.com
510 583 1000 phone
510 583 1101 fax
---------------
Family Snapshots
A Tale of Terror for Call of Cthulhu by Nick Middleton, ©2002
"The sense of isolation inspires
Inspires me"
Intruder, Peter Gabriel
Celia Anderson is an occultist of dubious reputation known to the
Investigators. Possibly, they have crossed paths with her on a previous
case. She is an independently educated orphan. Now in her mid thirties,
short brown hair sternly cut, always conservatively but durably attired,
with a steely gaze and brusque demeanor. She has never been convicted of any
wrongdoing and the investigators have no reason to believe she is a cultist,
although she certainly has a reputation for sharp practice and a lack of
concern over the fate of others. There are dark rumours regarding the
ultimate fate of some artifacts known to have come in to her possession and
questions have been raised amongst informed Occultists as to the sorts of
clients Miss Anderson works for.
Ideally, Miss Anderson should be introduced as a peripheral character some
sessions before the Keeper intends to run this Tale, and certainly, Miss
Anderson's formidable Occult knowledge and academic training might be of
some assistance to the Investigators in a preceding case. Even so, the
request to visit her at her family home should come as an intriguing
surprise, one they will be willing to take up.
The Investigators will no doubt wish to do some research before they visit
Miss Anderson at home and the invite should allow them a day or so for such
groundwork. What they discover depends on which option the Keeper has chosen
(see below), but with such limited time only the facts of public record will
be revealed before the Investigators have to make their way to the house. It
is an isolated aristocratic pile, clearly over a century old (at least in
origin) and some what isolated although sharp-eyed investigators will note
that a telephone line and electricity have been installed. A skeleton
domestic staff of three is retained but is obviously not capable of
maintaining the house and grounds.
Miss Anderson will be as genial a host as she knows how, although it is
clear that much of the house (and grounds) is out of use and she will freely
admit that she doesn't use the house much anymore, in fact she intends to
sell the place soon. Which brings her to the reason she invited the
Investigators: there is a collection of Occult material (books and
artifacts) that has accumulated in the house over the years, some her late
fathers, some her late brother's and some her own. Since the house is to be
sold, she intends to dispose of the collection but chose to consult
acknowledged experts (the Investigators) before approaching an auction
house; in the field of the Occult and Paranormal, there are risks to any
such disposal. Right on cue, the power (and phone) lines are cut, plunging
the house into darkness...
Miss Anderson has not been entirely frank with the Investigators. Her father
was a minor mythos Sorcerer who dabbled and taught his children a little
magic. She and her brother George found particular use for the spell,
Keenness of Two Alike, especially after their father disappeared and they
had to fend for themselves. Unfortunately, George had a particularly
gruesome set of experiences in the War and became more than a little
unhinged. Miss Anderson had him institutionalized and is selling the
collection and house to be rid of the memories and to generate enough
capital for a trust fund to pay for his care indefinitely.
1) She then intends to move away and change her name. Unfortunately, one of
the Occult items is a mirror made from Glass of Leng which the Anderson
children used as a focus for their spells and which George has used as a
target for the other spell he knows, Wandering Soul... George has thus
discovered his sisters callous plans and come to wreak revenge on her and
all those whom he perceives as helping her. He knows the house and grounds
intimately and has the ingenuity, agility, endurance and strength of the
insane. He will stalk the inhabitants of the house, beginning with servants,
then the investigators, then his Sister. He will also attempt to retrieve
the Mirror (which is part of the collection the Investigators were viewing)
and both the mirror and his sister are tokens for which George MIGHT
bargain.
2) Unfortunately for Miss Anderson and the Investigators, Anderson senior
has returned. Or rather, he never left, since his offspring caused his
disappearance. Whilst scrying through his magical Mirror of Leng, Anderson
Senior's body remained seated in his chair, apparently studying the mirror.
When George attempted to shoot his father he was horrified to see the
bullet, having passed through his father, smash the mirror, but rather than
scatter glass fragments it splashed like quicksilver over Anderson Senior
and George. George fled, irrevocably insane, and the quicksilver absorbed
Anderson Senior's body and was forced into the cellar by Miss Anderson where
it has remained, trapped by an electric barrier. Miss Anderson made the
mistake of telling Daddy her plans yesterday and "it" has been desperately
calling out for its missing part that was absorbed in to George. And now
George is home and has cut the power...
3) Unfortunately for the Investigators, Miss Anderson is a minor Sorcerer
and her staff are cultists. Driven mad by her father's experiments with
magic and estranged from her devoted brother George by his experiences in
the war, she has studied the Mythos too deeply. When George discovered what
she was up to he attempted to stop here but she managed to bribe the right
people and he was institutionalized. Fortunately, a pair of his friends
managed to intervene to ensure he was not badly treated and they have played
a watching game until word of Miss Anderson's intention to sell the house
reached them. Rightly assuming that she intends to disappear to pursue her
unspeakable interests elsewhere, George has been sprung from incarceration
and he and his two friends have decide to assault the house, capture Celia
and destroy as much as possible. George, although not entirely stable, will
not initially intend to kill his sister. She, on the other hand, will be
prepared to let everyone die (and will summon magical aid to achieve this)
if she gets the chance, although ideally a paranoid stand-off between George
and his companions and Celia and the Investigators should be arranged before
any violence. Ideally, capturing the Investigators and Celia, but after
Celia has managed to start the calling of a servitor...
-----------------
Turkey and Jaguar
by Prof. Richard Scott Nokes, Ph.D
Seeing the wild turkey on the hillside reminded Pete Byrd that he would miss
Thanksgiving with his family this year. Archeologists spent most of their
time in classrooms and at colleges, but when they had to go out into the
field they had to stay for long periods. Only seven months remained on Prof.
Sinclair's grant to study the ancient Maya city of Tikal in the Peten
rainforest of Guatemala, and he could not afford to lose any of that time.
No days off, no slack days. He'd rest when the grant money ran out. Of
course, Prof. Sinclair had flown out on Tuesday; No such luck for Pete, his
research assistant.
Pete lugged his laptop and machinery through the low brush on a small
hillside, the worst part of his job. He was mapping out the still-buried
structures of the city, which involved hauling three heavy trunks around
each hill in the stifling Peten heat and getting an "image" from sound waves
bounced off of about two dozen spots around the hill. The image was a fuzzy
jumble of lines and blurs, but in later months he would clean up the images
and construct a three dimensional image of each structure. The dirty,
sweaty, boring nature of the work, and the excess of turkey droppings on
this particular hillside did not make the job any more fun, Thanksgiving
fantasies aside.
At first he ignored the muffled sound of someone yelling up the path. The
main temple square and north acropolis were off a way, so tourists generally
did not get out to where he worked, but when they did they tended to be loud
and annoying. As the person on the path drew nearer, though, Pete thought he
could make out his name. Yes, it was his name. Sighing, he lumbered down the
hill, knees aching. Like many Maya archeologists, his knees were starting to
give out, the result of spending a career climbing up and down steep pyramid
steps. If they're aching at the beginning of my career, what'll they be like
by the time I retire? he wondered to himself.
Luis was running up the path, out of breath and drenched in sweat. Luis
qualified as the laziest assistant Prof. Sinclair had ever hired, so to see
him moving so quickly was a surprise. Something was wrong. Even though the
graduate student had good Spanish, Luis jabbered with such excitement that
he could not make out what was being said. After repeating himself three
times, Luis simply shook his head, gestured for Pete to follow, and sped
back up the path. Pete followed.
Soon he found the cause of all the excitement, and became excited himself.
Recent rainfall had knocked over a tree. Rain in the Peten region had only
two settings: On and off. The area saw no drizzles, showers or sprinklings.
Rain either thundered down like a waterfall, or not at all. In fact, atop a
pyramid you could see the rain coming in like a gray wall, a spot of
twilight moving across the sky. Earlier that morning a torrent had come down
for about forty minutes. That forty minutes had apparently been enough to
fell an old, rotten tree on a hillside near where he was working.
Luis's excitement did not come from a fallen tree, however. The root system
of the tree seemed to have burrowed into a buried wall of the city. From his
previous work, Prof. Sinclair believed this particular section of the city
had been an acropolis, but it had never been excavated before because of the
cost of labor, as well as the cost of preserving it from tourists and the
elements. Indeed, now that the tree had fallen, the professor's hypothesis
seemed correct, because the place that the tree had stood was now a gaping
hole in the earth. The fierce sunlight revealed stone walls below.
The excitement Luis had felt now infused Pete, and he recognized an
opportunity. With Prof. Sinclair gone for at least another two weeks, Pete
would have time to examine the interior on his own. If he moved quickly, he
might be able to submit the initial findings under his own name, rather than
as "second author" status under Sinclair. This find, Pete realized, could
mean the difference between getting his first job at Podunk College for the
Semi-Literate, or getting his first job at Ivy-Covered Research University.
He would have to cut corners, he would have to move fast, and he would have
to document his findings in some public way.
Pete ordered Luis to stay and guard the entrance from tourists, who might
disturb the site. He ran - yes, sprinted in the Peten heat - to get a
flashlight. Though he was flushed from the heat and the exertion, Pete didn'
t notice. His career was made, and next time it would be he who flew back to
the States for the holidays, while his own assistant stayed behind to do the
grunt work. The hotel in which they were staying was not, unfortunately, air
conditioned. Some of the nicer hotels were, but they were too far from the
site. Pete's shirt was dirty and heavy with sweat by the time he arrived at
the hotel. He fumbled for the flashlight, smearing it with sweat and dirt on
his hands.
Luis squatted with a friend outside the hole when Pete arrived. They were
munching some greasy chicken from "Pollito", sucking the taste off their
fingers. Pete panted and gasped. When he brushed back his matted hair, Pete'
s finger (which had somehow ended up in the dirt) smeared a filthy line
across his forehead. Luis looked at Pete with a little disgust, but kept it
to himself - it wasn't smart to disrespect the yankee archeologists, not if
you wanted to keep this cushy job for the next research grant. "Señor Byrd
..." he began, wiping his fingers clean. Luis pulled a video camera from his
bag. The camera belonged to Prof. Sinclair, and in his excitement, Pete had
forgotten about it. He snatched it from Luis.
Pete stripped off his sweat-drenched shirt, leaving him in just his ripped
shorts and worn sandals. Just as Pete started to climb down into the hole,
Luis heard him mutter something about "rats." The American then climbed back
out, picked up a large branch off the ground, presumably to use to club
rats, then descended into the cave-like hole.
When Prof. Sinclair returned from America, the police had already found
Luis and his friend, Enrique. Luis had refused to talk about what had
happened to Pete Byrd at all, but Enrique, being a more practical man, had
shown the police the hole, but refused to go near it, pointing from a
distance. Since Tikal was a UNESCO Cultural Heritage of Humanity Site, the
police had stayed out of the acropolis entrance, but insisted on sending an
officer down to accompany Prof. Sinclair. Once in the hole, they found that
only two rooms were connected. Another wall was completely obscured by ages
of dirt, which the professor assumed led in the direction of more acropolis.
The first room was simply stone, with two jaguar heads carved in relief on
either wall. A low doorway led to the second room, which was simply small
and cramped. On the ground was the flashlight, batteries dead, but in the
"off" position, and the video camera. The dirt on the ground was disturbed,
apparently from Pete walking around in the room, but there was no other sign
of him, and only the one exit.
The policeman apologized to Prof. Sinclair for the inconvenience, and he
promised that someone would be punished for the disappearance of Pete.
Obviously, he said, Luis and Enrique were involved in some conspiracy,
perhaps a ransom plot gone wrong, and they had waylaid poor Pete when he was
cornered in the second room. As Pete had been missing for two weeks and no
ransom notice had been given, the policeman did not offer Prof. Sinclair
much hope.
That evening, Sinclair watched the video recording in the camera. It was
rather short, less than four minutes long. It began from the base of the
hole, spent a minute or so panning close-ups along the stone jaguar heads,
then went into the next room. On the tape, Pete could be heard to laugh, as
the flashlight and camera light revealed that a wild turkey had gotten into
the second room and was staring up at the camera light rather indignantly.
The last brief, chaotic images did not reveal much, and were of little use
to the police; Pete's finger had come off the camcorder button before
anything of use was filmed. A low rumbling noise, almost like a growl, could
be heard. The camera swung wildly, randomly. A quick shot of Pete's dirty
knees, a few words from Pete, so garbled that they might be English, might
be Spanish, maybe neither, then static.
The police never found Pete's corpse. They charged Luis and Enrique, but
they knew they had no case, so after the grant expired and the professor
returned to Los Estados Unidos, they quietly dropped the charges. They had
found a pile of bones not very far away, but the bones were not human. They
looked like the bones of wild turkeys and other birds.
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