Things That Should Not Be...

“Men know him as the Dweller in Darkness, that brother of the Old Ones called Nyogtha, the Thing that should not be. He can be summoned to Earth’s surface through certain secret caverns and fissures, and sorcerers have seen him in Syria and below the black tower of Leng; from the Thrang Grotto of Tartary he has come ravening to bring terror and destruction among the pavilions of the great Khan. Only by the looped cross, by the Vach-Viraj incantation and by the Tikkoun elixir may he be driven back to the nighted caverns of hidden foulness where he dwelleth.”

-Henry Kuttner, “The Salem Horror”

Nyogtha is surrounded with an aura of mystery. Its origins are obscure, but it has certain inalienable associations which pertain to it and its activities. With all this in mind, here is a summation of all things “Nyogthic” for your delectation.

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Nyogtha is said to be a “Lesser Old One”, a worrying term since it implies that there are gradations with which operators approach these entities, whereas they should all be dealt with under conditions of extreme caution. It manifests as a gelatinous and malleable blob of darkness, displaying great plasticity and semi-impermanence. Legend has it that it was summoned at one point in the distant past by the Elder Race and used for uncertain ends: afraid of its growing size and power, the leaders of the ‘Race constructed a kind of “shield” which restricts the movements of Nyogtha, keeping it locked in a subterranean prison and only able to be accessed through a handful of connexions to the earth’s surface; some sources claim that this prison lies in red-litten Yoth, a series of caverns below K’n-yan. One of these entry-points connects to Earth’s Dreamlands, specifically to a point beneath the Plateau of Leng and this has a certain inalienable logic to it; other reports that Nyogtha is trapped upon a dark planet orbiting Arcturus are likely to be the exceptions rather than the rule.

Origins:

There are four main theories which attempt to explain the source of the Thing That Should Not Be, and they are as follows, in no particular order:

Tsathoggua

Some believe that the Sleeper of N’kai is the source of Nyogtha. This would seem to stem from the fact that Tsathoggua has created his Formless Spawn as servants and there are those who think that Nyogtha, therefore, is simply some kind of “über-Formless Spawn”, in much the same way that Dagon is thought of as a sort of “über-Deep One”. Investigators should be wary however, about structuring theories based simply upon appearances where the Mythos is concerned.

Those seeking further insight should re-examine the Book of Eibon, the Codex Dagonensis, the Cthaat Aquadingen, the Parchments of Pnom, and von Junzt’s Unaussprechlichen Kulten.

Cthulhu

This connexion would seem to be borne out of the spurious premise that all roads must lead eventually to Cthulhu. Cthulhu’s plasticity of form is quite different to that of Nyogtha and, despite its utter alien-ness, it is corporeal for the most part, while Nyogtha is not. It’s possible that Nyogtha may have existed for awhile in a kind of parasitic, or symbiotic, relationship with Cthulhu for a time, which may have led to this association.

Check the facts in “An Investigation into the Myth Patterns of Latter-Day Primitives”, the Black Tome of Alsophocus, the Book of Dzyan, the Book of Eibon (or its derivatives), the Codex Dagonensis, the Confessions of the Mad Monk Clithanus, the Cthaat Aquadingen, “Cthulhu Among the Victorians”, “Cthulhu in the Necronomicon”, Dwellers in the Depths, the Invocations to Dagon, the Johansen Narrative, Legends of the Olden Runes, the Necronomicon, Notes on Nessie, the Ponape Scriptures, the R’lyeh Text (aka., the Urilia Text), Unaussprechlichen Kulten, and the Zanthu Tablets.

Ubbo-Sathla

Another theory claims the Unbegotten Source is the sire of the Thing That Should Not Be. There are certain similarities between the two entities: both are formless and dark, lack organised cult worship, and dwell in deep, largely inaccessible caverns. It should be remembered though that Nyogtha is imprisoned below the earth while Ubbo-Sathla is not. Also, Ubbo-Sathla is mostly inert and its reasons for wanting, or needing, to generate such a thing as Nyogtha are unclear.

Other details may reside within the Book of Eibon; certainly the answer would lie within the Elder Keys but good luck accessing those!

Parastic Entities

There is a notion that the Great Old Ones have generated their own symbiotic and parasitic relationships with other beings of power - not of them, but with them. These demonic vectors include Bugg-Shash and Yibb Tstll, and these may well count Nyogtha amongst their ranks. This would help to rationalise the notion of Nyogtha being a “lesser” Great Old One and also account for its being referred to as a “brother of the Old Ones”.

Further research could be undertaken using the Broken Columns of Geph (or the Geph Transcriptions), the Cthaat Aquadingen, or the Chuma Scrolls.

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Now let’s take a look at Nyogtha itself:

“...An insidious odour began to penetrate the room. It was vaguely reptilian, musky and nauseating. The disk lifted inexorably, and a little finger of blackness crept out from beneath its edge ... a great wave of iridescent blackness, neither liquid nor solid, a frightful gelatinous mass...”

-Henry Kuttner, “The Salem Horror”

Nyogtha is a minor deity restricted to underground caverns on Earth (or possibly, Arcturus). It may be related to Cthulhu, amongst others, or it may be some kind of parasite (possibly symbiotic) which lives off the Old Ones in some fashion. Nyogtha resembles a blob of living darkness, which may throw out black tentacles or pseudopods at will.

Tomes which discuss Nyogtha explicitly include the Cultes des Goules, De Vermis Mysteriis, the Necronomicon, The Scriptures of Klek and Unaussprechlichen Kulten; It’s not unreasonable to expect that the Ghoul’s Manuscript would make reference to it also. Nyogtha also appears in a little-known and not widely-circulated novel entitled Black God of Madness.

Attacks and Special Effects:

Unless driven off by appropriate spells, Nyogtha grabs and drags its victim off to underground pits. If Nyogtha strikes for damage, each target within 10 metres takes 1D10 points of damage from numerous small wounds.

“The Thing That Should Not Be”

char.	value	char.	value	char.	value
STR	85	POW	28	Move	10
CON	40	DEX	20	HP	60
SIZ	80	APP	n/a	Magic Points	28
INT	20	EDU	n/a	SAN	n/a

Damage Bonus: +/-0

Weapon:       Tentacle 100%, 1D10 or Grapple

Armour:        Nyogtha ignores the first 10 points of damage received each round from all sources; at 0 HP, Nyogtha is dispelled

Spells             All Call and Contact spells; Create Gate

SAN Loss       It costs 1D6/1D20 SAN to see Nyogtha

Cult:

Nyogtha is not widely worshipped. At best it is summoned up by single warlocks, solitary witches, or lonely sorcerers, who want to do a bit of horse-trading with the Other Side. In this sense, Nyogtha is your “go to guy” because, as opposed to other Mythos entities, it appears to be easy to whistle up and to then send packing (an underestimation which we’ll examine shortly). The two main camps of Nyogtha worship are as follows:

The Prinn Family

Ludwig Prinn (died 1542), the wizard who wrote De Vermis Mysteriis, had a descendant in the form of Abigail Prinn (died 1692), who lived in Salem MA, and who died just prior to the start of the infamous witch trials there. Ludwig was a widely-travelled dabbler in black magic who made the black pilgrimage to Chorazin amongst many other abominable things. The knowledge which he accumulated was obviously passed along in his family line, because “Abbie” Prinn was a notorious witch whose activities were so vile that she was staked into her grave by concerned citizens of Salem, in order that the evil which she did stayed in the pit with her. Under her former house, a shrine and gateway to Nyogtha were discovered and some say that an attempt to summon the Great Old One was thwarted there in 1937.

Naggoob & the Ghouls

Lending further credence to the notion that Nyogtha is capable of emerging in Earth’s Dreamlands is the fact that certain ghouls there worship the Great Old One, and that this devotion is led by none other than Naggoob, the “master ghoul” of the species. The cult devotion to the Thing That Should Not Be is largely confined to those ghouls who dwell on, or around, the Plateau of Leng and it vies relentlessly with those ghoul factions who worship other entities, such as Mordiggian, the Charnel God. Naggoob, more pertinently, is said to have been the archetype of the ‘Black Man’, leader of witches’ revels during the Salem outbreak, and this tangible link between Nyogtha, Naggoob and Abigail Prinn is particularly telling.

The Spawn of Nyogtha

An obvious part of the Nyogthic cult structure are those Fosterlings of the Old Ones known as the Spawn of the Thing That Should Not Be. These beings are the result of unions between Humans, Ghouls, and Nyogtha, possibly through the intercession of Naggoob, during Witch Sabbats and Black Masses. Initially these creatures pass as human, with the exception that, instead of blood, a black ichor flows through their veins. Between three and six decades after their birth, they quickly degenerate into blobs of gelatinous horror, much like their Parent. Before then, they are strong, tough, and highly charismatic, bent upon seducing others into the dark worship of their progenitor.

Once a Spawn reaches puberty, they begin to receive dream sendings from Nyogtha. These increase in intensity until they start to lose Sanity with each dream at a rate of 1D3 points every night. When they are insane, they become an extension of the dark god and begin to enact its will. The final degeneration is terrible indeed: the skeleton of the Spawn warps and shifts, while their flesh erupts into black blobs before transmuting into wormlike tentacular flesh. Their eyes glow red and they develop fangs and claws. Distantly, if obscured by a heavy coat and a hat, they might still pass as human, but not for long.

The Spawn, are always immune to bullets and all other Impaling attacks; they take no damage from fire, acid, electricity or radiation. Once transformed, they become extremely photosensitive, feeling intense pain in open sunlight. They are able to see in extremely low light, but cannot see in total darkness.

Famous Spawn of Nyogtha were Nelson Klek, “The Rubber Man”, a sideshow contortionist known for his black ‘tattoos’ - he vanished without trace in 1902; and the Romanian gypsy child Nadia Savostyanov: she was locked into a crate by Nazis working under Josef Mengele and tossed into Lake Toplitz. And then there is this alarming image to consider:

Access:

As stated, Nyogtha is unable to fully emerge from its imprisonment; however, it can be summoned to appear at the entrances which lead to its underground abode. There are a finite number of these access points but they allow the Great Old One to range widely across the planet and into the Dreamlands of Earth. Known locations exist in the New England area of the USA, Syria, Tartary, Romania and in New Zealand; other points of access no doubt exist.

The most famous gateway to Nyogtha is beneath the Pharos of Leng, also known as the Black Tower of Leng. This dark spire dominates the centre of the Plateau and sends out a beam of bluish light on occasions which fills those who see it with dread. Whether the Pharos is connected to the black Monastery of Leng, wherein sits the High Priest “whose face is not good to look upon”, is unknown. Prophecy tells that the Pharos will burst into light, signalling the return of the Great Old Ones, but only after the Earth has been cleared in preparation.

Countermeasures:

As has already been indicated, Nyogtha is perceived as being relatively easy to deal with, although this perception may well be a faulty one. Traditionally, there are three effective means of thwarting the Thing That Should Not Be, and we shall take them one by one.

Ankh

The crux ansanta of Ancient Egypt is said to be very efficacious against Nyogtha, and indeed, of all the Old Ones, it would seem that it is the only one so affected. However, things are certainly not straightforward. Certainly, a strongly presented ankh will stop Nyogtha from advancing; however, the ankh must be an especially-prepared one – infused with POW just like an Elder Sign – and even then, it will only stop Nyogtha from moving towards the wielder, it won’t drive it off entirely. Happily, a cave entrance, or Gate, which is warded by such an ankh, will keep Nyogtha from being able to use that access point.

Tikkoun Elixir

For all that it has an unusual name, Tikkoun Elixir is said to be merely holy water. That being the case, some occultists have been known to say that it is “very hard to get”, but this could be an instance of misdirection on their part. The word “Tikkun”, in Hebrew, refers to cabbalistic processes designed to restore Creation from a shattered state, so perhaps this “holy water” derives from Jewish practises rather than Christian ones. Tikkoun Elixir is also said to be somewhat effective against Cthonians also, along with other “earth-based” Mythos creatures (however this is defined – thank you, I don’t think, August Derleth!). When infused with all the caster’s Magic Points, the ‘Elixir removes the target’s non-physical immunity to damage (that is, an immunity not based on purely physical qualities such as scales or tough hide), or its invulnerability to non-magical weapons, for a single round. Against Nyogtha alone, it does 2D10 points of damage, as well. Of course, a successful Throw roll is needed to employ this weapon.

Vach-Viraj Incantation

“Yan a kadishtu nilgh’ri stell-bsna Nyogtha; K’yarnak phlegethor l’ebumna syha’h n’ghft. Ya hai kadishtu ep r’luh-eeh Nyogtha eeh, S’uhn-ngh athg li’hee orr’e syha’h.”

-The Vach-Viraj Incantation in the Senzar tongue

Found within the pages of the dread Necronomicon, this incantation is the ultimate game changer for dealing with Nyogtha. Although it forms no part of her Book of Dzyan, Helena Blavatsky states that the Vach-Viraj Incantation represents a blending of male and female principles; what deleterious effect this might have on something like Nyogtha is beyond comprehension. The spell is also sometimes effective against Cyaegha and the cthonians, but nowhere near as efficacious as when used against Nyogtha.

A number of different versions of the spell exist in various languages but the one in Senzar, above, is the most often encountered. It should be pointed out that simply switching out Nyogtha’s name in favour of, say, Cyaegha’s, when dealing with that entity, should not be undertaken by someone without a high level of competency with the language in question (a skill level of at least 70%)! The spell is powered by the number of Magic Points which the caster, and their associates, choose to invest in the incantation; this number is compared against the target’s POW on the Resistance Table. When used against Nyogtha, the base chance to dispel it is 50%.

It is possible to say the Vach-Viraj Incantation backwards, to reverse or nullify the effects of the spell (again with a base 50% chance when used in relation to Nyogtha). If two bands of casters confront each other – one trying to dispel Nyogtha; the other coming to its assistance – then the Magic Points of both incantations should be compared against each other on the Resistance Table first, before being targeted against the Great Old One. If the friends of Nyogtha prevail, the Great Old One is not sent packing; if the enemies of Nyogtha win, the force of their magic is directed at Nyogtha and a check is required to see if it is de-manifested. If spoken at a location which is an access point to Nyogtha’s prison, then the reversed Vach-Viraj Incantation is simply a Summon Nyogtha spell. Using the Vach-Viraj Incantation causes a 0/1D2 San loss if used to banish; if used to summon, or thwart a banishment, the penalty is 1D2/1D6.

A final point: “Vach-Viraj” is said to be one of the many titles of the Daemon Sultan Azathoth. This might explain the spell’s efficacy against an entity of living darkness like Nyogtha, but it must also stand as a warning as to what might go wrong if the spell somehow backfires...