The Snares of Yidhra!

“Yidhra, the Dream-Witch, clouding the minds of her followers;

Dream-Witch, hiding her shape in illusion,

Dream-Witch, cloaking her shape in strange beauty...”

-Walter C. DeBill, Jr., Where Yidhra Walks

There are two main reasons for which Yidhra is a Mythos presence in China: the first is the sheer size of the population and the second is the instilled reverence for ancestors which the Chinese display. Both of these aspects of the culture feed into the Outer God’s evolutionary and atavistic urges and provide it with an almost endless supply of worship and raw genetic matter. There are, most likely, many different avatars of Yidhra at work in China; however, the best known and most successful is Madam Yi, as its cult in the various treaty ports, such as Shanghai, provide it with a greater diversity of fresh material.

MADAM YI, Avatar of Yidhra

Madam Yi is one of the many avatars of the Outer God Yidhra. This being appears as a human female dressed in beautiful white and black robes which constantly billow on some unseen wind. She may hover or fly on the same phantom wind. Madam Yi’s beautifully delicate face is like the painted face of a porcelain doll. Its blood-red lips and closed, almond-shaped, black eyes are forever frozen on a smooth and bone-white face. Its long black hair is braided into a single plaited queue. The avatar’s hands both end in very long, razor-like black fingernails.

Cult

The “Mother of Woe’s” cultists are always led by women. Like all avatars of Yidhra, it requires regular infusions of fresh genetic material as well as a steady supply of young males with whom it mates. The products of these unions are, for the most part, simply re-absorbed by the avatar but, occasionally, the mutated, monstrous offspring are given to the cultists to raise or eat. The fathers of these creatures are always ripped to shreds by the avatar during the mating process. As with worshippers of Yidhra’s other avatars, Madam Yi’s followers take on aspects of the creature: their skin becomes white, like porcelain, and their nails grow to prodigious size and sharpness. Like all cultists associated with Yidhra, the avatar communicates with its followers by telepathy.

Attacks & Special Effects

Madam Yi’s initial attack is by means of a hypnotic song: a hauntingly-beautiful melody that entices its victims. The victim must beat the avatar’s POW on the Resistance Table or else walk calmly into its waiting arms to be shredded and absorbed.

If the song fails to subdue its attackers, Madam Yi has two other options. The first is by means of its long queue, which is actually an animate tentacle, able to strike up to ten feet away and tipped with a black spike. The avatar will generally deploy this weapon from a point above her attackers, hovering over them as it strikes. Occasionally (20% of the time), the avatar’s queue, will have a poisonous tip, much like that of a scorpion: the venom injected by this stinger is POT 13 and does 1D6 points of paralysing damage per round for 1D6 rounds if not successfully resisted. Its second and most deadly form of attack is by means of its razor-sharp claws, which deal punishing damage.

Madam Yi’s other attack is its ability to reform living matter and twist it to its own perverse will. By successfully striking an opponent and spending a minimum of 5 Magic Points (MPs), it can reform the base structures of living beings, distorting limbs, removing sensory organs or creating bizarre new growths. A favourite trick is to seal a creature’s mouth and nose, thereby leaving it to suffocate, but this mutative power is limited only by the Keeper’s imagination. As a general guide, it costs 5 MPs to affect a single organ (skin, heart, brain) or bodily system (skeletal, nervous, endocrine); 10 MPs to affect two individual creatures or to blend them together; 15 MPs to break down a creature into basic components and 30 MPs to alter a creature’s state from animal to vegetable or vice versa. The victim of such an attack must oppose their CON against the MPs in the attack on the Resistance Table to avoid the affects of the mutation. NB: that Madam Yi can use this effect upon herself or her followers at will, to create interesting features for use in combat; in such cases, no Resistance Roll is required.

MADAM YI, Mother of Woe

STR: 27

CON: 69

SIZ: 17

INT: 25

POW: 60

DEX: 36

Move: 10/15 Flying

HP: 43

Damage Bonus: +2D6

Weapons: Razor Claws, 90% (or Automatic when Hypnotised), 1D6+db; Spiked Tentacle, 85% (or Automatic when Hypnotised), 1D4+db(+possible Poison); Mutation – victim’s CON vs. the MPs in the attack to resist the specific effect

Armour: None; but Madam Yi cannot be harmed by normal weapons

Spells: Any, as desired by the Keeper

Sanity Loss: it costs 1/1D8 Sanity Points to see Madam Yi; more of she is significantly Mutated.

*****

Sing-song Girls of Madam Yi, Lesser Servitor Race

These cult leaders of Yidhra, like all of its devotees, take on aspects of the Elder God’s avatar. The Sing-song Girls develop long, razor-sharp fingernails and their faces take on a smooth, porcelain-like consistency. As well they develop individual retrogressive features giving them strange and unexpected capabilities.

The faces of the Sing-song Girls are their most alarming feature. They are mostly immobile and their eyes are shut; however when they snap open their eyes and mouths, the porcelain material of their faces cracks to expose black eyes maws filled with needle-sharp teeth. Blows to the heads of these creatures leave depressed fractures, like damage done to chinaware, which slowly repairs itself as they heal.

Yidhra’s Sing-song Girls pose as madams of courtesan establishments, engaging human women to work in their businesses but not conducting such business themselves (because their true natures would be quickly discovered). Amongst their normal duties is the pursuit of exceptional genetic material with which to gift Madame Yi: such individuals are drugged and brought before the Deity for assimilation. At other times the Sing-song Girls are set to protect and nurture the Children of Woe (q.v.) which Madame Yi bestows upon them. The Sing-song Girls are all linked by telepathic contact to Madame Yi and information is instantly shared between them all. This makes them deadly in combat and dangerous to engage in a long-term strategic battle.

The older a Sing-song Girl becomes, the more retrograde she becomes in her evolution. Such creatures develop wings, gills, poisonous fangs, armoured skin and a myriad other benefits. On average, for every ten years that a Sing-song Girl has served her particular avatar, she gains an extra feature. Keepers may roll randomly or choose from the following list:

1D10 Roll

1 - Sonic Attack: The Sing-song Girl has noise-making organs that can incapacitate her foes. Everyone within 20 feet of the ‘Girl must resist their CON with her POW or flee the area, taking 1d6 points of damage for each round that they stay in range of the attack.

2 - Reptilian Hide: The Sing-song Girl has a toughened epidermis that resists 10 points of damage from every strike by a weapon incapable of Impaling.

3 - Gills: These allow the Sing-song Girl to breathe underwater for as long as she needs.

4 - Venom: The Sing-song Girl gains toxic saliva with a POT equal to her CON. She may add this damage to her Bite attack or she can spit the toxin up 10 feet away with a base 30% chance of hitting her target.

5 - Wings: These are paired like a dragonfly’s and are easily burnt. They allow the Sing-song Girl to Move at a rate of 16.

6 - Nippers: The Sing-song Girl sacrifices her lacquered nails for an evil pair of pincers that inflict 1D8 points per strike; additionally, she gains two strikes per round (at 30% each) and, if both are successful, she immediately Grapples her foes.

7 - "Pheromones": With this attack the Sing-song Girl can subdue any males attempting to harm her. Any male in her vicinity must pit their POW against her CON: failure means that the victim becomes highly suggestible to the Sing-song girl’s demands (NB: that no-one can be made to harm themselves whilst subject to this effect).

8 - Quills: The Sing-song Girl’s back is covered in a mass of spines which she can fire in three volleys against her enemies. Each volley affects a 15’ radius directly behind the ‘Girl and inflicts 1D6+3 points of damage to everyone in the area of effect. Once fired, she will need to regenerate these spines over the next 24 hours.

9 - Electric Shock: The Sing-song Girl can shock her opponents like an Electric Eel. She needs to touch her foes for this attack to work: a successful strike inflicts an extra 1D8 points of damage.

10 - Sting: The ‘Girl has a wasp-like stinger attached to her lower abdomen. With a successful strike (30%) she inflicts paralysing poison with a 12-hour duration (CON vs. CON to Resist).

SING-SONG GIRLS OF MADAM YI, Unholy Acolytes of Yidhra

STR: 3D6+4 (Average 14+15)

CON: 3D6 (Average 10-11)

SIZ: 2D4+8 (Average 13)

INT: 2D6+8 (Average 15)

POW: 3D6+4 (Average 14-15)

DEX: 3D6+4 (Average 14-15)

APP: 4D6 (Average 14)

EDU: 2D6 (Average 7)

Move: 8

HP: 11-12

Average Damage Bonus: +0

Weapons: Claws, 60%, 1D6+db; Bite, 40%, 1D6

Armour: None; however, a Sing-song Girl recovers all lost HPs within 24 hours

Spells: Any, as the Keeper desires

Skills: As per normal humans

Sanity Loss: It costs nothing to see a Sing-song Girl mimicking a human; seeing one in Combat costs 1d2/1d8 Sanity Points

*****

Children of Woe, Lesser Servitor Race

The Children of Woe are the degenerate spawn of Madam Yi; they are generally human-shaped, but exhibit retrograde evolutionary features and present as atavistic reversions to earlier states of evolution. Further, this devolution is extended into ranges of possibility that would have been most likely selected against, expressing in features that should not be possible in any successful lifeform. The Children combine elements of fish, reptile and mammal, amphibian, bird and insect in the one body, providing them with unexpected and dangerous capabilities. Children are normally reabsorbed by Madam Yi, so only the most useful and successful combinations survive to be brought up by her followers. All Children of Woe share a telepathic link with Yidhra’s avatar and her servants.

Like Ghosts and the Spawn of Abhoth, keepers should craft these monsters individually according to the needs of their story. Ideas for attacks and basic forms can be gained from consulting the table appended to the entry for the Sing-song Girls of Madame Yi  and the spell Reversion (see below). Also check out the novel The Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child for ideas, although the 1997 movie of the same name is just as nice.

Whatever form the Child takes, it is always extremely monstrous, a blasphemy that should not have manifested. Keepers should keep in mind that these abominations are often held in reserve by the Cultists, to be used as a secret weapon or last line of defense, and they should be constructed accordingly.

CHILDREN OF WOE, Devolved Offspring of Madam Yi

STR: variable

CON: variable

SIZ: variable

INT: variable

POW: variable

DEX: variable

Move: variable

HP: variable

Average Damage Bonus: variable

Weapons: As outlined by the Keeper

Armour: As outlined by the Keeper

Spells: None

Skills: Any, as the Keeper desires

Sanity loss: It costs 1d4/1d10 points of sanity to see a Child of Woe

*****

Monks of Mlandoth, Lesser Independent Race

Not actually a ‘race’ per se, the Monks of Mlandoth are a sect of religious devotees who dedicate their lives to eradicating the blight of Yidhra from the Earth. The cult sprang up in the country just south of China called Annam, rising among the Annamese peasants who sought to drive an outbreak of the Outer God’s presence from their country. There are associated branches and sects of this cult in south China, Burma, and VietNam, but there may be more elsewhere in the region.

The cult preaches the philosophy of “Mlandoth” a strange mythic-cycle of teachings in which some commentators see a foreshadowing of the principles of Darwinian evolution. Mlandoth is not a benign operative force however; as far as the followers are concerned, it is a dynamic presence with will and consciousness. While it would be overly-simplistic to discuss this faith in terms of ‘good and evil’, on one level Yidhra could be understood as this religion’s Satan figure.

The Monks dress and superficially behave in much the same manner as Buddhist monks, begging alms, living in seclusion and spinning prayer wheels. They dress in similar robes, although of dark red instead of saffron, and they shave their heads. Things get a little strange from this point on:

Mlandoth Monks carry daggers, used in their rituals, and their magical practises rely heavily on the use of tattoos. Woven threads, worn around their wrists and ankles or knotted to their robes, are a regular feature. Most interestingly, is the tendency for members of this sect to develop telepathy, especially as they age within the faith. This ability allows the one so blessed to read minds but not to project their thoughts into the minds of others. Most frustratingly, it does not allow them to “hear” the thoughts of Yidhra or her Faithful, but that absence, in itself, can be telling.

*****

Yeti, Lesser Independent Race

The Yeti are devolved humanoids, victims of the magicks of Yidhra or its adherents, which have escaped capture and have formed hidden communities out of the sight of civilised eyes. As China became more and more Westernised over the Nineteenth- and Twentieth Centuries, these creatures were driven further and further into remote regions of the country to eke out a primitive living as best they could. Occasionally, they kidnap human individuals to assist in the procreation of their ‘species’; however these instances are increasingly rare in the Modern Age.

While mostly dark brown in colour there is a strong tendency in the ‘species’ towards albinism, resulting in white or blue grey variations. These individuals tend to move into the high plateaus where their colouring gives them a natural advantage in the snow. Some lamaseries in the Himalayas revere relics taken from these creatures, in one notable case, the scalp and severed hands and feet.

YETI, Devolved Humanoids

STR: 4D6+12 (Average: 26)

CON: 3D6 (Average: 10-11)

SIZ: 2D6+12 (Average: 19)

INT: 2D6 (Average: 7)

POW: 3D6 (Average: 10-11)

DEX: 2D6+6 (Average: 13)

Move: 8

HP: 15

Average Damage Bonus: +2D6

Weapon: Bite 50%, 1D6+db; Hand 45%, 1D6+db

Armour: 3 points of Skin and Fur

Skills: Hide 90%

Habitat: Remote Fastnesses in Western China and the Himalayas

Sanity loss: It costs no SAN to see a Yeti; understanding it for what it is costs 1D2/1D8

*****

A Yidhran Library

The Black Sutras

Written by U Pao, one of Burma’s greatest scholars, the Sutras contain an extended discussion of the creation of life on Earth and its subsequent development; this in no way correlates to Darwin’s Theory of Evolution but has a consistent internal logic of its own, touching upon Mlandoth, Ngyr-Khorath, ‘Ymnar and Yidhra. It is notable for being the only source concerning Yidhra which is unconnected to any process of gestalt mind transference and unreferenced by any of the other standard Yidhran texts. It is said to contain certain chants which are potent against Yidhran avatars and its cult followers.

(Source: Where Yidhra Walks, Walter C. DeBill)

Burmese; U Pao; 700 AD; 1d4/1d8 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +5 percentiles; 18 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: “Cutting the Web” (Close Minds); “Break the Touch of Evil” (Undo Reversion)

*****

Chhaya Rituals

A deeply esoteric and confronting work which proves challenging for even the most knowledgeable occultists. The ‘chhaya’ refers, apparently, to the astral, or psychic ‘shadow’ which must be overcome before the adept comes into the fullness of his power; an alternative reading of the term suggests that the chhaya is a malevolent, vaguely-formed nemesis which can seek out a sloppy metaphysical practitioner. As such, the work is deemed hugely disturbing on a personal level and must not be approached lightly by the investigator.

Thankfully, copies of this book are extremely rare: one copy is known to exist in the Buddhist libraries of Lhasa in Tibet, while a partial copy exists in a yogic lamasery in Rangoon, Burma. To date all western commentators on this work have been killed under strange circumstances.

(Source: Hydra, Henry Kuttner)

Tibetan (Lhasa / Ü-Tsang dialect), written in the phonetic Devanagari script; author unknown; date unknown; 1d8/2d8 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +12 percentiles; 60 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: “Call forth the Chhaya!” (Summon Dimensional Shambler); “The Rite of Preparation” (Voorish Sign); “A Ward Against Evil” (Pnakotic Pentagram); “Shed the Soul’s Impurities” (Undo Reversion); “The Lock of Nine Hells” (Elder Sign)

NB: Every week that a reader peruses this work, there is a percentage chance equal to their POW that a Dimensional Shambler will appear and attack them.

Partial copy: Tibetan (Lhasa / Ü-Tsang dialect), written in the phonetic Devanagari script; author unknown; date unknown; 1d2/1d4 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +5 percentiles; 40 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: as above, but roll under the reader’s POW as a percentage to see if the spells are understood

NB: Every month that a reader peruses the work, there is a percentage chance equal to their POW that a Dimensional Shambler will appear and attack them.

*****

Chronicles of Thrang

The Chronicles have not been seen in recorded history; however, they are mentioned in several ancient – and not so ancient – texts so their existence must be assumed, on this basis, to be real. No actual authentic copies have been verified and certainly no recorded copy is known to be held by any reputable library. It is said that the Chronicles were written before the accepted start of human history and that they were later amended in the land of Ngarathoë before being transcribed into the Sumerian idiom.

Several authenticated copies of the Yidhrani have quoted extensively from this work and that is mainly how the work is known to have existed. One copy dating from Cairo in the 1860s filled nineteen pages with the Sumerian cuneiform script, photographs of which are held in the British Museum; the original was destroyed in a fire later on. Another instance of the Yidhrani, known from associated correspondence to have incorporated quotes from the Chronicle, went down with the Titanic in 1912. All of these speculative copies have been said to discuss the nature of Mlandoth and especially Yidhra, but exactly in what fashion is currently unknown. The existence of the Chronicles is said to be discussed in Cthonic Revelations and is mentioned in the German work, Uralte Schrecken.

(Source: Where Yidhra Walks, Walter C. DeBill)

Sumerian, written in cuneiform; ‘Thrang’; late 6^th millennium BC; 1d4/1d8 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +10 percentiles; 40 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: Contact Yidhra; Summon Avatar of Yidhra; Reversion;

Sumerian, 19 pages of photographed cuneiform text; Author unknown; Cairo, 1860s; 1d2/1d3 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +4 percentiles; 10 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: Contact Yidhra

*****

Cthonic Revelations

The original text for this work is unnamed. The translation from the original fragments is the work of a Jesuit priest who used the title ‘Révélations hors de l'Abîme’ for his work. Despite the original print run of the text having been proscribed, hunted down and burnt where possible by agents of the Catholic Church, the original fragments are said to be housed within the Vatican.

The few remaining copies which survived the ban by the Catholics are heavily guarded: the British Library copy was stolen in the 1930s; the Bibliotheque Nationale copy in Paris was burnt (along with a wing of religious texts) in 1890; a copy purchased at auction in 1918 in New York by Miskatonic University was stolen from the body of the bidding agent en route to its new habitation. The only other copies – three in total – are in private collections. While it is possible that the Revelations are simply another incarnation of the Yidhrani this cannot be determined until the original fragments have been brought into the light. The text is also rumoured to reference the Chronicles of Thrang in its discussion.

(Source: Where Yidhra Walks, Walter C. DeBill)

Laotian; Original fragments on mulberry paper; Thanang Phram; 700 AD; 1d4/1d8 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +7 percentiles; 18 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: Contact Yidhra; Voorish Sign; Reversion

French; Révélations hors de l'Abîme; translator: Pere Alleau; 1798; 1d4/1d6 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +5 percentiles; 10 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: Contact Yidhra; Voorish Sign

English; Cthonic Revelations; translator and date unknown; 1d3/1d4 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +3 percentiles; 6 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: Contact Yidhra; Voorish Sign

*****

Poem to Yidhra

“Yidhra, the Lonely One, craving the life of all things;

Lonely One, needing the life of the Earth.

Yidhra,the Goddess, ruling her avatar races;

Goddess, of vulturine Y'hath of the sky,

Goddess, of Xothra who sleeps in the Earth and wakes to devour.

Goddess, of men in strange places who worship her.

Yidhra, the Hierophant, teaching her followers mysteries;

Hierophant, teaching strange tongues of the elder world.

Yidhra, the Bountiful, making the hills and the meadows green;

Bountiful, showing the way to the desert springs,

Bountiful, guarding the flocks and the harvest.

Yidhra, the Lover, needing the seed of her followers;

Lover, who must have the seed of all things,

Lover, who must have the seed of change or die,

Lover, whose consorts are changed, infused with the seed of the past and changed

to forms not of past, nor of present.

Yidhra, the Mother, bringing forth spawn of the past;

Mother, of all things that were,

Mother, of children of past and of present,

Mother, whose children remember all things of their fathers long dead.

Yidhra, the Life-Giver, bringing long life to her followers;

Life-Giver, giving the centuries endlessly

to her children and lovers and worshipers.

Yidhra, the Restless One, needing the sons of new fathers;

Restless One, sending her followers forth to seek new blood for her endless change,

Restless One, craving new lovers outside the blood of her worshipers,

lest she and her spawn and her followers shrivel and wither in living death.

Yidhra, the Dream-Witch, clouding the minds of her followers;

Dream-Witch, hiding her shape in illusion,

Dream-Witch, cloaking her shape in strange beauty.

Yidhra, the Shrouder, wreathing the faithless in shadow;

Shrouder, devouring the errant and hostile ones,

Shrouder, who hides men forever...”

-The Mad Lama of Prithom-Yang

The Poem is a longish fragment attributed to ‘the Mad Lama of Prithom-Yang’: who this personage is, or may have been, is a matter of conjecture. The fragment explicitly outlines the nature and attributes of Yidhra, including two of her more well-known avatars, Y’Hath and Xothra. The Poem has a shrouded history, appearing in low-circulation magazines such as Weird Tales, Whispers and Tales of Wonder, and various collections of poetry, including one put out by the Golden Goblin Press in 1911. The attribution is usually maintained, although, in some cases, various individuals have tried to assert their ownership of the work.

Given the Southeast Asian origin of most of the works on Yidhra, the authorship of the ‘Mad Lama’ is hard to ignore. More importantly, research has shown that, as far as can be ascertained, the material does not appear in the Yidhrani where that work has surfaced. It may well be another work concerning the goddess that is circulating in a similar, although limited, fashion.

(Source: Where Yidhra Walks, Walter C. DeBill)

English; ‘The Mad Lama of Prithom-Yang’; date unknown; 1/1d3 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +2 percentiles; 1 hour to study and comprehend

Spells: None

*****

Uralte Schrecken

“It is clear that the most ancient gods, the prototypes of all the gods of man, were known and worshipped before men existed; and it is further clear that the most ancient gods all proceed from the one source.

That source is sometimes called Mlandoth, and all gods are but varied manifestations and extensions of the One.

But whether Mlandoth is a place, or a conscious entity, or an inconceivable maelstrom of unknown forces and properties outside the perceptible cosmos is not known surely.

Certainly Ngyr-Khorath, the mad and monstrous thing which haunted this region of space before the solar system was formed and haunts it still, is but a local eddy of the vastness that is Mlandoth.

And is not fabled ‘ ‘Ymnar, the dark stalker and seducer of all Earthly intelligence’, merely the arm of Ngyr-Khorath, an organ created in the image of Earthly life and consciousness to corrupt that life and lead it to its own destruction?

And does not even great Yidhra, who was born of and with the life of Earth and who through the aeons intertwines endlessly with all Earthly life-forms, teach reverence for Mlandoth?

Before death was born, She was born; and for untold ages there was life without death, life without birth, life unchanging...

But at last death came; birth came; life became mortal and mutable, and thereafter fathers died, sons were born, and never was the son exactly as the father; and the slime became the worm and the worm the serpent, the serpent became the yeti of the mountain forests and the yeti became man.

Of all living things only She escaped death, escaped birth. But She could not escape change, for all living things must change as the trees of the north must shed their leaves to live in winter and put them on to live in spring.

And therefore She learned to devour the mortal and mutable creatures, and from their seed to change Herself , and to be as all mortal things as She willed, and to live forever without birth, without death.

Yidhra devoured the octopus and learned to put forth a tentacle; She devoured the bear and learned to clothe herself in fur against the creeping ice of the north; indeed can Yidhra take any shape known to living things.

Yet no shape can She take which is truly fair, for She partakes of all foul creatures as well as fair. To her followers She appears in many fair and comely forms, but this is because they see not her true form, but only such visions as She wills them to see.

For as the adepts can send their thoughts and visions to one another over great distances ... so can Yidhra send her thoughts to men and cause them to see only what She wills.

Indeed it is by sending her thoughts that Yidhra remains in one soul, for in body She is many, hidden in the jungles of the south, the icy wastes of the north, and the deserts beyond the western sea.

Thus it is that though her temples are many, She waits by all, combining bodily with her diverse followers, yet her consciousness is a vast unity.”

-Uralte Schrecken, Graf von Könnenberg

The Uralte Schrecken or ‘Ancient Fear’ is a monograph written by Graf von Könnenberg in the Nineteenth Century. In it he outlines his theory that the myth patterns of all cultures are merely projections of something which he refers to as ‘Mlandoth’; just exactly what Mlandoth is he fails to mention and this no doubt explains the work’s poor reception by the academic community. The work also mentions such entities as Ngyr-Khorath, ‘Ymnar and Yidhra. The work also mentions, briefly, the Chronicles of Thrang.

(Source: Where Yidhra Walks, Walter C. DeBill)

German; Graf von Könnenberg; 1800s; 1d3/1d6 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +6 percentiles; 22 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: Contact Yidhra; Summon Avatar of Yidhra; Reversion; Deflect Harm; Voorish Sign

*****

The Yidhrani

“A hundred April winds disperse her fragrance;

A thousand wet Octobers scour her footprints;

The ruthless years assail the ancient memory of her presence, yet

Where Yidhra walks, the hills do not forget.”

-Where Yidhra Walks, Walter C. DeBill

This book is not a written work per se; some followers of Yidhra in the form of any of its avatars feel compelled to write down their experiences: research has shown that this information is identical in each case, the product of some gestalt mind experience. Wherever there is a concentration of Yidhra worship, this body of knowledge will manifest itself, as a discrete text, a scribble of inanity from a madman, or an unrecognised artwork from some native artist. Wherever this text manifests, it is known that it can bring forth Yidhra in a new incarnation; the Bibliotheque Nationale de Paris had a copy in the 1920s but it was destroyed by thieves, possibly causing a new incarnation.

The regular emergence and promulgation of this text bears comparison the Revelations of Glaaki and its circulation amongst its worshippers.

Various languages; Various authors; Various dates; 1d8/1d10 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +8 percentiles; 10 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: Summon Avatar of Yidhra; Reversion; Deflect Harm; Consume Likeness

NB: Instances of this work have been known to attract individuals who have a sympathy with this work. Such individuals will travel great distances to obtain the text (by methods legal or otherwise) and will do anything to protect it. Such individuals have been known to have become the vessels or the means of new incarnations of Yidhra or its avatars

*****

Mythos Magic

For Yidhra’s faithful, her holy text the Yidhrani is possibly the most sacred relic of her worship. There are others items mentioned in connexion with it that are considered holy; the following is the best known of these.

The Mask of the Avatar

These visages are made from whatever material suits the local culture. The Mask is an important cult artefact in the worship of Yidhra. It allows a non-worshipper to tap into the telepathic communications of the nearest avatar and its followers, connecting them with the gestalt mind of that being.

Whenever the Mask is worn it allows the wearer to read the thoughts of the avatar and its minions: these thoughts will be random visions that can reveal the intents and activities of various of the cult entities. This makes the Mask a potent weapon against the avatar but it has rather significant drawbacks:

Each time that the Mask of the Avatar is worn it drains 1 Magic Point from the wearer; initially, the telepathic contact has no effect upon the wearer but soon the visions become hideous and revelatory, inflicting 1D6 points of Sanity Loss (upon a failed save) per wearing. Further, once worn, the Mask has a subtle connexion to the wearer, calling to them in dreams with tantalising visions that lure the victim back to the Mask and tempting them to wear it once more. These dreams soon become daydreams and visions, intruding upon their daylight activities as well. The only way to stop this effect is to leave the Mask of the Avatar and travel well away from its vicinity: after about six months the call of the Mask dwindles to nothing but a distant dread.

Finally, if the current avatar of Yidhra closest to the Mask is destroyed, the next person to wear the artefact is immediately consumed by it and their genetic material used to create a new incarnation of that being. The wearer is completely destroyed to be replaced with Yidhra’s avatar in all its gruesome glory.

*****

Yidhran Spells

Close Minds (Invocation to Mlandoth)

This spell requires the assistance of a second person: the caster weaves a cat’s cradle around their fingers using a red thread while chanting an invocation to Mlandoth and expending 5 Magic Points. Once the ‘cradle has been completed, the assistant must cut the thread with a pair of scissors or a small knife. The moment that the thread is cut, all telepathic communication between Yidhra’s closest avatar and its followers, human or otherwise, will completely stop for 60 minus 1d10 minutes; the effect covers a mile in radius.

Once completed, the caster then needs to make a Luck Roll: if they fail, all of Yidhra’s local followers as well as its avatar, become telepathically aware of the location from where the spell was cast, once the spell’s effect wears off. Sadly, the caster also knows that they know, and suffers a 1D4 point loss of SAN...

*****

Reversion

“...Damn him, whispering even as it is that I’m a sort of monster bound down the toboggan of reverse evolution...”

-H. P. Lovecraft, Pickman’s Model

This spell causes an entity to degenerate, from mammal, to reptile, to amphibian, to icthyoid, to arthropod, depending on the spell’s effect. The spell requires the sacrifice of 1 POW and a piece of Yidhra’s genetic material, from whatever avatar it is currently possessing. This substance must be smeared upon a knife or similar weapon and then used to attack the target. Once infected, the target must resist the effect of the spell with their CON on the Resistance Table. The spell has a base 18% chance of working plus 1% for every Magic Point used to power the spell.

If the target fails, determine the extent of failure and calculate the degree of Reversion on the following table (NB: these effects are non-cumulative):

Degree of Failure: 1-5%

The mind of the victim regresses to that of an infant: language, INT, EDU and social skills are all reduced to 1d10% and Physical skills are reduced by 50% to a minimum of 1%

Degree of Failure: 6-10%

The victim regresses to a ‘Cave Man’-like state: all physical Combat skills – Head Butt, Kick, Punch, Grapple – are at +20%; all EDU or INT based skills are reduced to 1d10%; STR, CON and DEX are all increased by 5; INT, EDU and APP are reduced to minimum: 8, 6 and 3; SIZ is increased by 1d6; POW and SAN remain the same

Degree of Failure: 11-20%

The victim has regressed to a vaguely-humanoid mammalian state: STR increases by 3d6; CON and DEX by 6 points; SIZ increases by 1d4+1; INT, EDU and APP are reduced to minimum: 8, 6 and 3 respectively; POW and SAN remain the same. The victim becomes furry and displays a variety of mammalian features alien to human physiology: fangs, claws, hoofs, etc. The following attack modes come into play: Bite 30% (1D8+db); Claw 50% (1D4+db); Horn Gore 30% (1d8+db); Kick 05% (1D8+db). The victim also enjoys 2 points of Armour from a combination of altered musculature and hide. All human skills are lost.

Degree of Failure: 21-30%

The victim regresses even further, beginning to express reptilian features: STR increases by 3d6; CON by 6 points; DEX increases by 2d6; SIZ increases by 1d4+1; INT, EDU and APP are reduced to minimum: 8, 6 and 3 respectively; POW and SAN remain the same. The following attack modes come into play: Bite 35% (1D8+Poison – POT equals CON); Claw 50% (1D6+db); Extreme forms are also able to Crush 40% (1D6+db/round). The victim also enjoys 2 points of Armour from scaly hide. All human skills are lost.

Degree of Failure: 31-40%

The victim has now regressed to an amphibian state: STR increases by 2d6; CON by 4 points; DEX increases by 3d6; SIZ decreases by 1d4+1; INT, EDU and APP are reduced to minimum: 8, 6 and 3 respectively; POW and SAN remain the same. The following attack modes come into play: Bite 35% (1D8+db); Claw 50% (1D6+db); Extreme forms are also able to Swallow (40%; 1D6/round) any human-sized object they successfully Grapple. They are also able to Hide 60%, Dodge at DEXx5% and Jump at 60% The victim also enjoys 1 point of Armour from leathery hide. All human skills are lost.

Degree of Failure: 41-50%

The victim becomes grotesquely fish-like: STR increases by 3d6; CON by 6 points; DEX increases by 2d6; SIZ increases by 1d4+1; INT, EDU and APP are reduced to minimum: 8, 6 and 3 respectively; POW and SAN remain the same. The following attack modes come into play: Bite 35% (1D8+db); Claw 50% (1D6+db); Extreme forms are also able to Swallow (40%; 1D6/round) any human-sized object they successfully Grapple. They are also able to Dodge at DEXx4%, Swim at 75% and Jump at 55%. The victim also enjoys 2 points of Armour from scaly hide. All human skills are lost.

Degree of Failure: 51-60%

The victim is now more arthropod than human, sprouting extra limbs, wings and an exoskeleton: STR increases by 2d6; CON by 6 points; DEX increases by 3d6; SIZ decreases by 1d4+1; INT, EDU and APP are reduced to minimum: 8, 6 and 3 respectively; POW and SAN remain the same. The following attack modes come into play: Nippers 30% (1D8+Grapple); Bite 35% (1d6); Extreme forms are also able to Sting 50% (1D4+Poison – POT=CON); They are also able to Dodge at DEXx5%, Fly with a Move of 9 and Jump at 75%. The victim also enjoys 3 points of Armour from chitin. All human skills are lost.

Degree of Failure: 61+%

The victim deliquesces into a twitching protoplasmic puddle which emits a reactive phosphorescent glow if disturbed. Contact with this substance has a mildly corrosive effect on unprotected skin causing 1 point of damage per round of contact. For all intents and purposes, the victim is dead.

The actual appearance of the victim is largely up to the Keeper, keeping in mind of course that the more dramatic the failure the more extreme the expression. The full transformation takes about 10 minutes. A victim struck by two or more instances of this magic may blend several regressive states in one transformation.

The Yidhran substance required by the spell breaks down quickly after casting so the attacker has only 1d2 attempts at successfully striking their intended target. Once the effect (if any) has been determined, the victim must make a Luck Roll: If successful, the effect is not permanent and will reverse itself in CON-1D6 days; if unsuccessful, the Investigator is stuck in their new form forever.

Anyone witnessing the transformation loses 1D2/1D6 SAN points; the victim, meanwhile, loses 1D6/1D10 points of Sanity.

*****

Summon Avatar of Yidhra

This is deadly and dangerous spell

There are no exact ritual components to this magic; rather it is enough simply call upon the Outer God with an appropriate degree of devotion and enthusiasm. For this reason, such ritual objects as the Yidhrani and the Mask of the Avatar contain the Summoning forces within their very substance, and casting this spell may be the unknowing action of an oblivious reader.

A basic requirement of this spell is that there be a quantity of raw material present which the Avatar can use to manifest itself. This material must be living. Needless to say, the Avatar will destroy and re-combine the caster if there is insufficient raw stuff nearby for it to create a vessel.

Nominally, the spell costs 15 MPs and causes a 1D8/1D12 Sanity loss.

*****

Undo Reversion (Invocation to Mlandoth)

“And does not even great Yidhra, who was born of and with the life of Earth and who through the aeons intertwines endlessly with all Earthly life-forms, teach reverence for Mlandoth?”

-Graf von Konnenberg, Uralte Schrecken

This spell requires the burning of several rare forms of incense found only in Southern China, Indochina and Burma. The caster makes a set of ritual gestures while performing a rigorous chant, making an invocation to Mlandoth. When cast in the presence of an individual who has been permanently affected by the Reversion spell (q.v.), it will undo the effects of that magic. Note that this spell will also remove the effects of lycanthropy and will purge a victim of the “Innsmouth Look”.

Due to the loss of human sensibilities the victim instinctively tries to resist the caster’s efforts and must be restrained. The victim and caster match CON and expended Magic Points respectively on the Resistance Table and the spell has a base 5% chance of success. The process takes several hours and the caster is left physically and mentally weakened, with a decrease in STR, CON and DEX by 1d6 each and a reduction in all skills by 20% for 1d4 days.

If the caster is successful, the victim must make a Luck Roll: if successful, the change back to their normal physiology is successful and lasting; if unsuccessful, the victim’s reinstatement is only partially effective and their APP is reduced by 3. Check the following list for other side effects:

Restoration from Subhuman state: subtract 1d20% off all the character’s restored INT and EDU based skills; SIZ is increased by 1. Amnesia: the character needs to make an Idea Roll to remember facts and skills which pre-date their Reversion.

Restoration from Animal state: Lycanthropy – under circumstances which reflect the initial Reversion, the character undergoes infrequent temporary transformations into a Werewolf; the character is more hirsute when in human form and is uncomfortable in restrictive garb or overly enclosed spaces.

Restoration from a Reptilian state: Ophidiophobia; the character dislikes intense cold and is quick to succumb to hypothermia, falling into a catatonic stupor in low temperature environments (<16°C / 60°F); the character is also plagued by recurrent chronic psoriasis

Restoration from an Amphibian state: The character dislikes dry environments and becomes distinctly cold and clammy to the touch; the character becomes plagued by nervous tics and strange compulsions to do with water – obsessive cleaning, bathing, etc (-20% to Credit Rating).

Restoration from an Icthyoid state: The character has developed the “Innsmouth Look” and will degenerate into a Deep One over the course of their life from this point onwards.

Restoration from an Arthropod state: Entomophobia; the victim experiences constant tinnitus which can require medication to control; such characters become withdrawn and isolated, sometimes literally ‘cocooning’ themselves away; characters are plagued with recurring aphasia, a random inability to produce or comprehend language while under stress.

*****